and diligence much exercise and experience to attain unto it Those Arts that have in them many abstruse mysteries are long a learning Oh! the Art of godliness the Trade of piety the Skill of living holily 't is no small matter but very mysterious The Philosopher could say of his Art Ars longa Vita brevis a mans life was too short to attain to the perfection of it How much more is this high Art of Religion the mysterie of godliness It makes David for all his learning to cry out still Teach me Instruct me Make me to understand the way of godliness S. Paul that great Proficient yet professes he fell short Phil. iii. 11 12 13. Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended I have not already attained I am not already perfect but I follow after and press forward if by any means I might attain words of striving and contention How hard a thing is it to attain even to the knowledge of godliness Then how difficult must it be to mortifie thy lusts to subdue thine appetite 'T is call'd a Crucifying Consider it you who think seven years little enough to learn any Trade of life but any little time any poor pains sufficient to learn that which the Saints were practising all their dayes Try thy strength but with one Act but with one Duty of godliness and then tell me If slubbering over a few prayers or coming to Church and yawning out an Amen half asleep half awake be likely to make thee a skilful man in this Trade of piety That 's the first Religion is the mysterie of godliness 2. The second Truth is The Mysterie and the Piety of Religion must go both together We must take both to us not onely content our selves with the mysterie of Christianity but be sure we acquaint our selves with the piety True Religion joyns both together Thus S. Paul describes Christian Religion ' T is a Doctrine according to godliness 1 Tim. vi 3. And Tit. i. 1. it is called the Knowledge of the Truth according unto godliness We may as well separate light from heat in the fire as the mysterie and knowledge of it from the piety Indeed first we must get the mysterie then labour for the piety of it First God created light so it is in mans soul. A man is sooner enlightned then sanctified The Sun enlightens in an instant but it begets heat in the Ayr by length of time but they must never be a sunder Blind Devotion would have the piety without the mysterie Oh! Zealous it would be but not with knowledge Oh! A good heart to God-wards no matter for knowledge And prophane Curiosity that would have the mysterie without the piety understand all secrets and mysteries comprehend all Truths but for the holiness of Christianity they have no list to it True Christianity joyns both together True Religion is not like the tree of Knowledge onely pleasant to the eye and a tree to be desired to make one wise Gen. iii. 6. but it must be to us as the tree of Life for Devotion and Practice Religion is not placed in the upper region of the Brain but in the Heart the seat of affection the fountain of action 'T is a sanctifying Truth Holy Father sanctifie them through thy Truth not enlighten them onely Ioh. xvii 17. There is not any Truth so mystical and contemplative but must be drawn into practice There is no mysterie in Scripture but hath its piety As there is not any creature but it is for some use it is not onely beautiful but useful Non tantum visu delectat sed usu prodest so there 's no Truth in Religion but we may and must extract from it Piety Some Truths at first sight seem but dry as to this but as the Licorish stick at first looks like any weed but chew it and you suck sweetness so those mysteries that seem to be most remote from practice have a juice and sap of piety to be suck'd out of them If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Joh. xiii 17. This man shall be blessed in his deed Iam. i. 25. See how Christ checks Curiosity and turns all to Practice Lord are there few that be saved And he said unto them Strive to enter in at the strait gate Luk. xiii 23 24. 1. Piety 't is the end of Christianity 'T is mysterium practicum Not a Science in contemplation but an Art of doing not to make us the wiser but the holier 2. Piety 't is the best keeper of this mysterie The knowledge of Religion 't is a precious Jewel see the Cabinet S. Paul tells us of wherein it must be kept Holding the mysterie of Faith in a pure Conscience 1 Tim. iii. 9. Wouldst thou not erre concerning the Faith Take heed of making shipwrack of a good Conscience Knowledge in this vessel is like the Manna in the golden-pot it is kept sweet In a prophane heart it is like Manna in other vessels that stank and putrified God takes away natural knowledge if we abuse it and live not accordingly When they knew God and glorified him not as God God gave them over to errour and never would call them to the knowledge of the Gospel Rom. i. 21 c. As we try vessels first with water if they will hold and keep it sweet then we pour wine into them They who corrupt natural knowledge God will not trust them with this mysterie Take heed thou divide not the piety from the mysterie In all Truths labour to be better In any mysterie make S. Peter's collection If these things are so What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness We have seen the quality and condition of this mysterie It is a mysterie of godliness Now follows IV. The infallible undoubted certainty of this mysterie It is beyond without all controversie There is a double Certainty 1. A certainty in the thing it self 'T is a most grounded Truth Heaven and earth may sooner fail then the least particle of this Truth It hath the Power and the Truth and the Faithfulness of God nay his Oath to establish it 2. A certainty of perswasion at this the Text ayms See with what confidence and assurance S. Paul seals up this great Truth ' T is without controversie Observe True Faith embraceth these heavenly Truths with all assurance and strength of adhesion and fulness of perswasion 'T is the nature and office of true Faith in matters of God to breed all possible assurance 'T is a Seal He who receives God's testimony of his Son hath set to his Seal that God is true Ioh. iii. 33. Philip shews the assurance of Faith which he requires of the Eunuch Acts viii 37. If thou believest with all thine heart that Iesus is the Son of God Especially in this Truth Iesus God-Incarnate Faith breaks through all controversies and unquestionably must believe 1. This Truth is clearly revealed in Scripture And
to cry out I am a man of unclean lips Esai vi 5. And S. Paul to cry out Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. ii 16. 2. It urges soberness in the Partakers who are admitted to the fellowship of this Mysterie As all irreverence so all vain curiosity is forbidden We must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these mysteries we must be wise to Sobriety Rom. xii 3. Gravity and Sobriety they are the Handmayds of Piety the Ushers that always attend Religion The applying of any matter in Religion to an inferiour use 't is to debase it The holy Ointment was not to be appliable to common use no Confection to be made like unto it Is it a mysterie then 3. Fide percipiendum Religion and our Christian Doctrine it is a mysterie therefore to be apprehended by Faith not to be fathomed by Reason Reason will judge that to be a foolery which Faith reverences and adores as a mysterie 'T is called The mysterie of Faith 1 Tim. iii. 9. not the mysterie of Reason or Understanding And they who are initiated into these mysteries they are called Believers not men of Reason and Understanding We are called Credentes not Rationales saith S. Aug. 'T is not Intelligendi vivacitas but Credendi simplicitas that must converse in these mysteries Reason laughs at that in Sarah which Faith in Abraham embraces and rejoyces in Faith looks for a Revelation that God saith it is so searches not after Demonstration or Reason why it should be so Sufficit pro universis rationibus autor Deus The mysteries of Religion check and silence Reason as the Angel did Zacharias for asking Whereby shall I know this he would have Reason What saith the Angel Luk. i. 20. Behold thou shalt be dumb he stops his mouth Reason deduced from the principles of Faith and subordinate to the doctrine of Faith 't is lawful but when it opposes Faith then it is unlawful Hagar when she obeys Sarah may be entertain'd as a servant but if she wax malepert against Sarah Cast out the Bondwoman Abandon Reason if it contradicts Faith It is one excellency of Faith 't is quietativa Intellectûs it quiets and satisfies all enquiries with this answer It is a mysterie Reason that questions How can three Persons be one God-head Faith quiets Reason My soul keep thou silence unto God believe and adore it it is a mysterie Reason questions How can God be made man the Divinity and Humanity joyn'd in one Person Faith hears an Oracle of Scripture I must not enquire it is a mysterie Reason murmurs How can a man be born again and regenerate and dye anew and live anew How can water wash away sin Faith answers The work is Spiritual beyond Reason it is a mysterie Reason that cavils How can Christ give us his Flesh to eat and his Bloud to drink How can a piece of Bread and a tast of Wine convey Grace seal up Salvation How can our souls be nourished how united to Christ sitting in heaven Faith answers all 'T is a mysterie Magis sentio quam intelligo Tota ratio operis est potentia operantis No in these supernatural Truths Sapientia hominis it is Officina erroris exclude Reasoning make use of Believing Habet palatum Fides cui sapit mel Dei Aug. 'T is the tast of Faith that can rellish this hidden Manna Faith saith Parisiensis 1. It is Religio Intellectus the Religion of our Intellectual part 2. It is Adoratio Intellectus the Adoration of the Understanding Credendo incurvamus Intellectum ad adorandum Deum 3. It is Fortitudo Intellectus 't is the Strength of the Understanding Sicut molestias perferre 't is Fortitudo Voluntatis sic improbabilia credere 't is Fortitudo Intellectus We have seen the Nature of it 't is a Mysterie Now follows II. The quantity and just proportion of this mysterie it is no petty and inferiour Truth but a mysterie of the first magnitude A great Mysterie The Scripture advances it with all superlative terms magnifies the greatness of it Phil. iii. 8. S. Paul calls it an Excellent Knowledge I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Iesus Christ. Rom. xi 33. it is called a Rich Knowledge Solomon saith it furnishes a man with all precious and pleasant Riches Prov. xxiv 4. It enriches him that hath it It furnishes and enriches the noblest part of man his Soul the highest faculty of that his Spirit and Understanding Our Saviour accounts the seeking of this Knowledge the seeking of precious Pearls Mat. xiii 45. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a Merchant-man seeking goodly Pearls This of all other is a Pearl of great price They who are conversant in this mysterie they deal with the choysest Commodities with the â—…ichest Pearls The finding of this Knowledge is the finding 〈◊〉 hidden Treasure vers 44. It makes him for ever that is so 〈◊〉 as to meet with it All other knowledge is but poverty to this Treasure all other jewels but pebbles to this Pearl See how the Scripture extends and enlarges the greatness of this mysterie S. Paul ascribes to it all the dimensions of Magnitude Ephes. iii. 18. That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth of this mysterie And Iob thus magnifies the exceeding and incomprehensible largeness of this Knowledge Chap. xi 8 9. It is as high as heaven deeper then hell longer then the earth broader then the sea It exceeds the scantling of all created Perfections The greatness of all other creatures may be fathomed the height of heaven the depth of hell the length of the earth the breadth of the sea all limited and bounded and the understanding of man may reach them As David speaks I see an end of all other perfections but thy Word is exceeding large 1. This mysterie of God-Incarnate 't is a great mysterie because 't is multiplex Mysterium a comprehensive Truth including in it manifold mysteries 'T is a mysterie pregnant to the making up of which many deep mysteries concur God manifested in the Flesh. 1. Here is the mysterie of Christ's two Natures his Divinity and his Humanity A glorious mysterie Christ true and perfect God and true and perfect man too the glory of the Deity and the infirmity of his Manhood both concurring in him 2. Here is the mysterie of the Union and conjoyning both these in one A strange conjunction The circumference of his infinite Deity joyned to the lowest center of Humanity Eternity made subject to Time Infinity comprehended in a poor finite creature Omnipotency joyned with infirmity This is so great a mysterie that it made the Iews to imagine a double Messiah One a weak frail mortal man lyable to sufferings the other an Eternal Omnipotent Immortal God They could not reconcile the several predictions of his glorious Divinity and his infirm Humanity as this mysterie teaches us 3. Here is the
heaven and Angels nay did Christ himself offer up this Worship It deeply concerns us to perform it to him 2. Did Christ sollicit his Father for supply of Mercies Why he had right and title to all All was his due How then should we dare to usurp any of God's blessings and not beg them by Prayer at his holy hands Must the Son be a Petitioner and shall the servant intermeddle serve himself in his desires without craving by Prayer Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance Psal. ii 8. 3. Did Christ abound in this grace of Prayer though freed from all Infirmities out of the reach of temptations though full of all graces How then should we who are clogg'd with infirmities incumbred with temptations beset with corruptions How should we abound in this grace to draw supply and strength from heaven 4. Did Christ sue by Prayer He was most certain of the event of every thing knew that all things were set and purposed his own Glory his Churches Redemption yet he would Pray Then earnest Prayers may be made for those things whereof there may be fullest assurance We are told If men may be certain of Grace and Glory why do they pray for it Certainty on God's part doth not weaken but strengthen the force of Prayer Isaac had promise of a son yet he begged him Elijah was sure of rain yet he pray'd for it David was sure his house should be established yet he prayed for it Christ was sure of all yet he abounds in this service of Prayer Prayer it is serviceable to God's Appointments II. Consider our Saviour's Prayer here respectively to his glorious Transfiguration While he prayed he was Transfigured and so it imports an efficacy in his Prayers producing and effecting his Transfiguration Observe the admirable power and efficacy of devout Prayer It is able to transport the soul to ravish the spirit to lift up the heart into an heavenly rapture and to fill soul and body with unspeakable glory A strange doctrine to our drowzy Petitioners they never felt any such thing Well saith S. Chrysostom Sancti intelligunt quid dico They who abound in this Spiritual exercise give testimony to this Truth and find it by experience Thus David professes that Prayer and Praise was to him as marrow and fatness My mouth shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips Psal. lxiii 5. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears They looked unto him and were lightned and their faces were not ashamed Psal. xxxiv 4 5. Now Prayer hath this power 1. Because it raiseth the soul into heaven far above all earthly vanities or vexations The soul lying groveling upon the earth feels many incumbrances Prayer mounts it above the clouds And then like the woman in the Revelation if the Moon be under thy feet thou shalt be cloathed with the Sun These lower regions are dark and tempestuous get up into heaven by Prayer there is nothing but sereâ—…ity and tranquillity A devout and heavenly Prayer is like the Altar on Olympus no blast of wind blows upon it Say not in thine heart Who shall go up into heaven Prayer will bring thee thither 2. Prayer will breed those ravishing and glorious joys because it brings us into a communion with the fountain of joy and glory It opens heaven to us gives us approach unto that unaccessable glory See Moses being in the Mount in communion with God his face was shining and glorious As a man long conversant in some fragrant place his very cloaths will carry those perfumes with him 3. Prayer shews us the loving and smiling and gracious countenance of God and the sight of that is of a ravishing efficacy In his face is life it self The light of God's countenance gladded David more than oyl and wine Psal. iv If He be angry his frown is the message of death Prayer pacifies him and makes his countenance most amiable If he turn away his countenance we wither our faces droop if he shine upon us we are refreshed 2 Cor. iii. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 4. Prayer brings this rapture of joy because it brings with it a joyful assurance that our Prayers are accepted Though our Prayers are not always succesful for Impetration yet seldom but they seal up to us God's Acceptation and so bring the fruit of sweet Consolation It lays hold on the golden Scepter breeding in us an heavenly tranquillity peace of conscience joy in the Holy Ghost These secret cheerings are like the fire from heaven that consumed the Sacrifice and testifie God is graciously pleased with thy Petitions What joy like that of Cornelius to have Angels bring tidings of Gods Acceptation Dan. v. 10. Fear not Daniel thy words are heard Prayer encourages us like Manoah's wife The Lord hath received a Burnt-offering and a Meat-offering at our hand he will not kill us Judg. xiii 23. Want of this made Cain's countenance fall This honour'd and encouraged Abel Oh! those inward cheerings that a religious Prayer sheds into our souls they are not inferiour to the tydings of Angels 5. Prayer infuses these glorious joys because it disburthens our grievances all of them into the bosom of God If it be an ease to a troubled mind to communicate its sorrow to some faithful friend how much more comfortable is it by Prayer to unfold our sorrows into God's bosom who pities our griefs drys up our tears Thus David in his sorrows parleys with God and his soul is refresh'd See this in Hannah 1 Sam. i. 18. She was a woman of a sorrowful spirit Elkanah could not comfort her She prays in the bitterness of her soul pours out her soul before the Lord and see what comfort she finds in Prayer Her countenance was no more sad See it in David Psal. vi He was in much sickness and sorrow Lord rebuke me not in thine ire His soul was vexed he was weary with groaning beginning his Prayer with much anguish but vers 8. he breaks out into a sudden joy The Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping vers 9. The Lord hath heard my Supplications the Lord will receive my Prayer Phil. iv 6 7. In every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God And the Peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Iesus 6. This duty religiously performed even because it is an holy service yields presently a sweet satisfaction and contentment to the conscience That makes it ever applaud it self and secretly to say to it self I am glad I have done this holy duty 1 Chron. xxix 9. The people rejoyced when they offered willingly So at Solomon's Sacrifice the people went
extrinsecus by conferring with God as a Mudd-wall when the Sun shines upon it but Christ's glory came from within from his Deity to his Soul 2. Moses his shining was not in such glory that was concealed and hid by the covering of a Vail Christ's darts through his Garments His shinings were radii divinitatis Damasc. Moses had splendorem sub velamento Christ had velamen in splendore 3. Moses his shining was terrible Christ's was comfortble The Apostles were loth to lose the sight of it 2. Christ was Transfigured to prefigure the glory of his second comming at the day of Judgment Then he will have his Saints about him as Moses and Elias and his Apostles to be present with him and he Himself will be in his glory His first Coming was in infirmity but the Kingdom of God shall come with power Look upon Mount Tabor and then believe the glory of his second Appearance 3. Christ was Transfigured consignare Resurrectionem It shews the possibility nay the facility of his own and our resurrection He who can transform himself thus into glory how easily can he raise up himself and us also and translate us into glory Look upon Mount Tabor and then doubt not but Mount Golgotha shall give up her dead 4. Christ was Transfigured armare contra scandalum crucis He had told his Disciples of his Cross and sufferings It greived and troubled them Now to remove this scandal of his Cross he arrayes himself in glory This Face that shall be spitt upon I can make it as the Sun this Body that is to be tortured shall shine as the Light these Garments that are to be parted shall be made resplendent Look to Mount Tabor and be not offended at Mount Calvarie 5. He shews himself in glory to his Apostles gives them a glimpse of Heaven to quicken up their appetites to the longing for it These praeludia of Heaven will support any drooping spirit As Ionathan the tast of Hony revived him presently As Caleb cut down a bunch of Grapes from Eschol and by the presenting of that encouraged the people to desire Canaan Fix thy Meditations upon these glories behold by faith Christ in his glory not attended only with Moses and Elias but with innumerable Angels behold thy Throne thy Crown thy white Robes it will make thee couragious and desirous to be dissolved THE THIRD SERMON ON S. LUKE ix 30 31. And behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias Who appeared in Glory and spake of his Decease which he should accomplish at Ierusalem NOw follows Christ's honourable Attendance that accompanied him in his glorious Transfiguration And in it observe three particulars 1. The Persons who are present 2. The Manner of their presence They appeared in glory 3. Their Action and Employment An holy and heavenly Conference They spake of his decease First The Persons that attended and were present at his Transfiguration And they present themselves in three considerable notions 1. Their number Two 2. Their kind Two men 3. Their specialty Moses and Elias I. Their number Two Why so small a number of glorious Attendants He could have commanded twelve Legions All the assembly of the Saints were ambitious of this honour heaven would have emptied it self upon this Mountain to celebrate this glorious Transfiguration of Christ. Yet but two admitted 1. This Transfiguration of Christ was but a glimpse of his Glory no full manifestation He shews here but one beam of his Majesty not the full lustre and splendour of it When he comes in full Glory troops and millions of Saints and Angels shall wait upon him Now he more privately discovers himself in the view of a few and if he be now so glorious how resplendent will he be in all his Saints and holy Angels 2. These Saints present are not present for attendance only but as witnesses to give testimony to the Son of God And two witnesses of such choice and note of so great authority to seal and assure us of Christ's glorious Divinity are sufficient At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall a matter be established Deut. xix 15. There need no more Here therefore onely three from earth are assumed to this vision and two onely from heaven Hereafter Every eye shall see him Now the sight of him is more reserved and mystical and of a more reserved dispensation 3. Two Saints are assumed into attendance of this Glory others are omitted to shew and figure out a disparity and diversity of Glory in those blessed Spirits All the Saints have their portion of bliss but in their proportion not in a just equality As from earth he hath his favourites three choyse Apostles the rest stood at a more remote distance so in heaven though all are happy yet have they their measures and degrees of Glory These two in the Text are taken into a greater nearness admitted to a more full view of Christ others were waiting his coming into heaven longing for and expecting his glorious Ascension These had the favour of seeing him before in the dayes of their flesh Moses and Elias saw his back-parts These again are dignified with this glorious Apparition assumed with him into his triumphant Chariot as Iehu did assume Ionadab That 's the first their number two II. Their kind two men Why was he not attended with glorious Angels Why were not these commanded to wait upon him and worship him No he assumes not Angels but these holy men 1. They were magis idonei Testes more competent and convenient witnesses of his Deity and Mediatourship then the choicest Angels Moses and Elias should be of more prevailing Autherity then the Angels These had Authority of teaching in the Church And they bear record here in relation to what they were before with respect to the Scriptures of which they were the Pen-men and Teachers This is a great assurance of Truth that those Saints who first published the tidings of Salvation are now eye-witnesses feel and find the truth of what they Preached Remember them who have spoken to you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation Heb. xiii 7. That Doctrine which they taught brought them to Glory 2. Duo homines Two men they attend this Glory of Christ because they are more concerned in Christ's Incarnation and Mediatourship These are not onely Spectators but Partners Our Salvation and bliss is the main aym of Christ the glory of the Angels is less principal and accessory He took not upon him their nature fulfilled not their Covenant To us he was born to us he lived for us he died They are not the Spouse but the friends of the Spouse The Church is Christ's Spouse they like S. Iohn the Baptist rejoyce at the sight of it As when God led the Israelites into Canaan a mixed people followed them and entred in with them so we are the choise people who are
led into heaven Angels are but Inmates in heaven in respect of us And heaven is said to be prepared for us not for Angels Mat. xxv Hell is prepared for the Devil and his Angels but not so Heaven this is not prepared for the Angels but for you The joyes of heaven are called A sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob not with Angels in the kingdom of heaven They are but Pocillatores but Servitours and Attendants upon our Glory 3. It is more comfort to the Apostles to see Men in Glory with Christ rather then Angels Angels in heaven were ab origine there never excluded but to see Men assumed this shews that the virtue of our Mediatour hath opened Paradise again quenched the fiery Sword reconciled us and given entrance for our banished Nature into the state of Glory It was comfort for the captive-Jews to see Daniel and his fellows advanced by the king of Babel and made chief in the kingdom for to see Hester made Queen and Vashti neglected so to see flesh of our flesh Men in the same captivity and condemnation reconciled glorified it bids us hope well for a gracious admission That 's the second their kind Two Men. III. Their specialty their Persons Moses and Elias Why not some other Saints but these must be singled out What reasons are there for their appearance rather then for others Divers reasons may be given reduce them to these four heads 1. Some reasons of this choyce are in respect of Christ. 2. Some in respect of themselves 3. Some in respect of the Apostles 4. Some in respect of the people to whom it was to be published 1. Moses and Elias appear at this Transfiguration respectu Christi in respect of Christ 1. Famulantur ut Domino These chief eminent Saints must do homage to Christ as to their great Lord. It added to Mordecai's honour that Haman the chief Prince must attend his triumph See here the two grand Pillars of the Church the most renowned Prophets Saints high in heaven wait upon our Saviour He calls for Elias see if Elias will come said they scoffingly Behold Elias and Moses are present all their dignity must stoop to him Moses was faithful as a servant of the house but Christ was Lord of the house Kings and Prophets and eminent Saints fall down before him as Ioseph's brethren all honour him all Sheavs bow down to this Sheaf all the Stars worship this Sun of righteousness 2. Attestantur ut Messiae They come and give evidence and testimony that he is the anointed Messias that was promised to the Church He receives testimony and witness from Moses and the Prophets Thus Philip Ioh. i. 45. We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Iesus of Nazareth Thus S. Peter brings Moses to witness For Moses truly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you Act. iii. 22. To him give all the Prophets witness Act. x. 43. And Christ accounts that Moses wrote of him Search the Scriptures they are they which testifie of me Ioh. v. 39. This they foretold now being exhibited they set to their seals of this glorious performance 3. Sociantur ut Legis Prophetarum complementa Moses and Elias attend and behold him as the fulfilling and accomplishment of Law and Prophets to intimate that Law and Prophets all aym at him and all concurr and joyn in him all like lines run to this center All the Patriarchs were Types of him all the Priests and Prophets were representations of him all their Rites and Ceremonies prefigured him all their Saviours and Deliverers were his fore-runners They were but shadows He in coming gave truth and fulness to them It was sorrow to Ionas that his Prophesie was frustrate it was joy to the Prophets to see all their predictions made good in Him To prefigure thee saith Moses I instituted the Passeover and effusion of Blood all my Rites and Ceremonies look'd at thee To foretel thee saith Elias was my message and Ministry All the Prophets from Samuel and after pointed at him Till his coming all things were empty and imperfect now they all clasp and close about him as their drift and argument He is AMEN 4. Venerantur ut Servatorem They appear to adore him as their Saviour and Redeemer Though they are already in heaven and glory yet they know to whose bloud they owe it who gave them entrance and access Moses himself could not convey himself into Canaan the type of heaven much less into heaven it self All the Elders and Saints fling down their Crowns at his feet all worship and are tributary to his glory Elias his Chariot was of Christ's sending as Iacob's came from Ioseph 2. Moses and Elias appear in respect of Themselves for these reasons 1. Conceive them ut eminentes Sancti Moses and Elias were persons of admirable holiness yet they attend and adore our Saviour Not only wicked and prophane men stand in need of him and acknowledg him but the holiest men and most aboundant in righteousness own him for their Redeemer As S. Ambrose speaks For Publicans and Harlots to be justified by Faith is no such wonder but for Abraham so rich in good works yet to stand in need of Faith and Christ it highly advanceth the glory of Christ. The purest Robe must be washed in this bloud the choycest Saint must draw grace from Christ. Abraham the Father of the Faithful was a Son of this adoption of grace 2. Conceive them ut Sancti mortui translati They were Saints out of this life Moses is dead Elias translated yet they do homage to Christ. To teach us that he is Lord of quick and dead While he is upon earth yet is he Lord of the spirits in Heaven Now he is in heaven he is Lord of all on earth All live to him He is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Iacob No state of time or place or condition excludes his Soveraignty All Knees in heaven and earth and under the earth must bow and prostrate to him The Pope who enlargeth his power to the world of spirits yet claims not that authority He hath not jurisdictionem but per modum Suffragii Christ hath an homage of Saints that are dead and translated He is Lord of all quick and dead must do him service 3. Conceive them ut Sancti Veteris Testamenti They were not living under the Gospel but under the Old Testament yet they acknowledg they belong as dependants upon this Messias He had an influence backwards to those former Saints as well as forward to the times of Christians They who went before and they who came after all sing Hosanna to this Son of David The Church of the Patriarchs acknowledged him for their Head All of them were partakers of this common salvation Christ Iesus yesterday to day the same for ever It was a dangerous and blasphemous error of the Manichees and Marcionites
Gloriae and to foreshew us the happiness of heaven Then we shall see and know certainly all the Saints past and gone As Samuel lumine Prophetiae knew Saul antea non visum so shall we converse with all the Saints Adam knew his wife as soon as she was brought to him THE FIFTH SERMON ON S. LUKE ix 33. And it came to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Iesus Master it is good for us to be here and let us make three Tabernacles one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not knowing what he said WE have seen the Entertainment that the Apostles gave to this glorious Transfiguration First In their weakness and indisposition Secondly In their more attentive view and contemplation Now follows Thirdly Their manner of Entertainment in a sudden and passionate and affectionate Suit and Petition The Text then represents that Effect which this glorious Appearance wrought in the Apostles This ravishing joy stirs up in them a sudden passionate Suit and Request for a constant enjoying of this glorious Vision And it stands upon three particulars 1. Is the occasion of this Request that is the departing and withdrawing of Moses and Elias As they departed from him 2 Is the summ and substance of their Request specified 1. In the person who makes it Peter Peter said 2. In the person to whom it is tendred to Christ Iesus Master 3. The Request it self In it 1. A motion for continuance It is good for us to be here 2. A proffer of service to further this continuance And let us make three Tabernacles one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elias 3. The censure of this Request what judgement the Holy Ghost passes upon it it was unwarrantable unadvised Not knowing what he said First The occasion of this Request The departure of Moses and Elias These two Saints now withdraw themselves from this glorious Appearance and betake themselves to those Eternal Habitations from whence they were called to attend our Saviour The Reason and Purpose of this present departure and leaving Mount Tabor may be given in divers congruities 1. Respectively to themselves 2. Respectively to Christ. 3. Respectively to the Apostles I. Respectively to themselves They departed 1. Quia officio functi They have performed that service for which they were sent they had testified of Jesus his Deity and Mediatourship done homage to him as their God and Saviour Having performed this service they depart from him and leave the world It represents to us the date of the Saints continuance with us they have their employment and having finished that work they are removed and withdrawn from us Till Moses hath done his work no weakness nor decay appeared in him when that time is finish'd no strength can prolong him Elias must not be weary of his life till he hath finished his course when that is accomplished he is fetched away presently The Saints in this respect are like to Iacob's vision of Angels they were all Ascendentes descendentes non commorantes As S. Chrysostom comparing those two places in the Acts first S. Paul's escaping in a basket out of Damascus Acts ix 24. and his resolute going to Ierusalem Acts xxi 13. observes till S. Paul had done his work he shifts for his life when he had finished it he offers himself to death It is the condition of all the Saints Having served their generations according to the counsel of God they are withdrawn and no more converse with us As a faithful servant makes no lingring or delays but being sent and having dispatched his business as Elizaeus-servant salutes no man but returns back again We wish the continuance of the Saints with us No they have their work set them their time set them and having accomplished that they must not fix here but return to him whose Agents and Servants they are Moses and Elias discharging their Office of Attestation to Christ are called into heaven again They departed 2. Quia à visione removendi They have a view of Christ Incarnate but they must not yet fully and constantly enjoy him but transiently and so depart from him Their joy in heaven will not be full till Christ be there at his glorious Ascension Now they are graced with this temporary enterview and withdrawn from it Even the glory of the Saints in heaven is thus dispensatively and by degrees vouchsafed unto them They in heaven lived in expectation of this blessed Appearance and till then lissening and looking to see their Saviour they cry How long Lord how long As before his Descention the Saints on earth cried Oh that thou wouldst bow the heavens and come down So they in heaven were wishing Oh that the heavens might open to receive him back again Their full consummation will not be made perfect till we with Christ be caught up in the clouds They are Sub Altare non super Thronos They are cloathed in Whites Sed nondum Duplicibus induuntur they must wait for that accomplishment We are in Tabernaculis they in Atriis but not in Thronis 3. Quia ad statum redituri Because they were to return to their former state This their Appearance on earth was Extraordinary and Miraculous by special Dispensation but their Abode and Mansion that 's in heaven The presence of the Saints departed is not to be expected nor imagined but onely in these cases of Miraculous Employment There is not onely a gulph of Separation 'twixt hell and heaven but a distance of Separation also 'twixt heaven and us We have heard in Popery of the many Walkings and Appearances of the Saints departed But they are all of them dreams of deceived Men or lyes of deceiving Devils except this Appearance There is no conversation of dead men on earth Lazarus must not leave Abraham's bosome not to ease Dives not to convert his brethren What is said of Christ is true of the Saints Whom the heavens must contain They go from hence and are seen no more They departed II. Respectively to Christ. 1. They depart from Christ Gloriam deposituro This Attendance and Service done to Christ by these Saints it is but temporary and to cease and so these glorious Spirits having honoured him with their presence are sequestred from him As Christ assumed this Transfiguration so now he resumes his state of Abasement When he is invested with his full Glory then they follow the 〈◊〉 wheresoever he goes Now he leaves his glorious guard of Angels and Saints and sorts himself with mortal weak contemptible men This Transfiguration it was Actus Gloriae but not Status As to Moses and Elias he shews his Glory as he passeth by them they saw but his back-parts but till his full Consummatum est he puts himself into the exercise of his Humiliation 2. They depart from him In Ecclesia permansuro Moses and Elias they have their limited time but they must vanish Christ he abides in his Church and remains for
have of those unconceivable joyes are like our selves low and unproportionable Ask the piercingest judgement of those After-joyes How must they stammer and fumble and bewray Ignorance If it should be asked 1. What is that Eternity of Being which we look for in heaven We cannot comprehend it 2. What are those heavenly Speeches that souls and spirits use in Glory We cannot conceive them 3. What is that Impassibility and Agility of our bodies in heaven We cannot imagine it 4. What is that Beatifical Vision and sight of the Essence of God We cannot attain to it As Christ to Nicodemus If we cannot understand more earthly things as The work of Grace Union with Christ The manner of Regeneration How can we understand him when he speaks of heavenly O! Eye hath not seen and that sees far Ear hath not heard and that receives much nay Heart hath not ability to imagine or conceive those hidden things In this case we are no more able to conceive what that life of Glory is then a child in the womb can conceive what is the condition of this present life Our discourses of heaven are like theirs who talk of Countreys they never saw Nay S. Paul who was there yet found them unutterable All other knowledge hath some help and hint from nature but this is a Mysterie hid from Generations and Ages and lock'd up in that store-house of Eternity This inconsiderate unadvised Motion of Peter He knew not what he said 3. It arose from the surcharge and overwhelming of this great Glory The exceeding Glory of Christ hath overwhelmed the soul and mind and capacity of Peter and overcomes his understanding Excellens objectum corrumpit Our understanding is shallow limited finite proportionable to these lower things but God and the fulness of his Glory are too high for us As it is with our Brains be we on the ground then they are steddy but upon some high mountain or steeple they fail us Bonorum quorundam sicut malorum intolerabilis magnitudo est Tertull. Not onely the torments of hell would consume us but if God should not put strength into our souls the very joyes of heaven would swallow us up Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. ii 5. As we say of crazy bodies Too pure an ayr and too accurate a diet will overthrow them So our crazy souls are not able to undergo the eminency of that Glory Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it Psal. cxxxix 6. Hence they say we must have Lumen Gloriae confortans elevans intellectum Our understandings enlarged and raised and strengthened to undergo that weight of Glory The Sun puts out a Candle So the light of Glory will soon damp our poor glimmering Spark This makes the very Angels stand aloof and cover their faces He dwelleth in that light that cannot be approached unto that light is like the Sun-beams to sore eys The Queen of Sheba 1 Kings x. 5. was overcome with the sight of Solomons magnificence she was spent with admiration There was no more spirit in her We have seen the nature and condition of this Motion whence it arises Secondly Consider the particular conviction of this rashness in S. Peter in the many particularities of his erroneous Motion Formerly we have seen what commendable things were contained in this his suit but we see it here censured as unadvised and imprudent Let us review these Motions of S. Peter and see his failings I. In his Motion of Continuance Master it is good being here 1. The first Error 'T is good being here He would fain abide here always He errs in desiring a perpetuity of that condition which was but transient and momentany This Vision was but a taste of Glory but a drop from the Honey-comb not a full repast of Glory intended onely to strengthen their Faith incourage their Diligence correct their Error quicken their Hope all these purposes are omitted and he must not part with this Vision of Christ but must have it perpetual As Mary she embraceth the feet of Christ would never have left him Christ bids us leave off these were but extraordinary Appearances not to be dwelt upon Besides the vileness of noysom lusts which still would be craying even the spirit of man loves to glut it self in spiritual refreshments How loath were the Apostles to part with Christ's bodily presence So in many extraordinary Appearances which are not intended as perpetual yet there is Libido and Luxuria spiritualis we would fain enjoy those ravishing joyes which are but for a time No as the Angel that refresh'd Elias said to him Feed and be walking thou must live in the strength of it forty dayes it may be all thy life time No stick to Faith that 's our Ordnary As Dives who lived deliciously every day so some Christians if they be not caught up into heaven do not see Visions of Angels they are discontent 2. A second Error is in that he places the fulness of joy in the view of the Humanity of Christ but gloriously Transfigured and can be content never to see more or go further but to behold this Glory True it is a great accomplishment to our bliss to see that price of our Redemption the Body of our Saviour in Glory but yet it is not the main and original No created Glory can be the fountain and fulness of Glory to us Even the Manhood of Christ is blessed by derivation and participation from an higher Fountain The Society of the Saints is comfortable the view of that Lamb of God most ravishing but yet it is the blessed God-head the face of God himself the adoring and enjoying an heavenly communion with the Sacred Trinity that is our true prime original happiness Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Ioh. xiv 8. The increated Glory of Christ's Deity that is the matter and summ of our blessedness Ioh. xvii Our happiness is to behold the Glory which Christ had with God not on Mount Tabor but before the world was This is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is Light 1 Ioh. i. 5. that we may have fellowship with the Father and with the Son vers 4. Our hearts are restless till setled upon this All our affections are flowing and running till they are swallowed up in this Ocean The eyes of our body indeed shall have Christs Body as the most glorious Spectacle of all Comfort but the eye of our soul that goes higher As the eye of Faith rests not upon the Humanity of Christ but upon his Divinity and so on the whole Trinity so doth the eye of Beatifical Vision that succeeds Faith 3. A third Error 'T is good being here He would settle his rest upon Mount Tabor This was an error to bring down heaven upon earth To enjoy Tabor he can be content to part with heaven and resign
makes him look Death in the face undauntedly Alass we how doth any appearance of death affright us If we see but another man die the cold sweat and the pale face and the pangs of death upon him how doth it dismay us Iob finds all these in himself and speaks comfortably of them 'T is S. Augustin's pious counsel Si times mortem ama resurrectionem If thou beest afraid of death acquaint thy self with the hope of the resurrection If a man go to prison and be able to say I know I shall be bayled I have one who will quit my debt and enlarge me such an one fears not the Prison Let death arrest us Christ shall enlarge us We are prisoners of hope Zech. ix How cheerfully did Iacob take his journey when God spake to him Gen. xlvi Fear not to go down into Egypt I will go down with thee and I will surely bring thee up again This hope made Iob not onely not to fear death but even to desire it Chap. xiv Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the Grave then he asks this question If a man die shall he live again Yes saith he Thou shalt call and I will answer thee thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands That 's the second Alacritas fidei 3. There is yet another print of Piety Sancta expectatio Fidei What is the thing his Faith longs for at the resurrection It is the seeing of his Saviour the beholding of God the enjoying of his Redeemer In my flesh shall I see God and mine eyes shall behold him 'T is that that makes the resurrection comfortable not that we shall live ever but be ever with the Lord. It was small joy for Absalom to dwell at Ierusalem and not be admitted to see the Kings face 2 Sam. xiv Heaven is not Heaven but a place of confinement without this glorious and blessed Vision Though Moses and Elias vanish on Mount Tabor yet to see Christ in glory is abundant happiness Do occidere heliace the glory of the Sun swallows up the glory of the lesser Stars Whom have I in heaven but thee and whom do I desire in comparison of thee Psal. lxxiii The good women at the Sepulchre this Day saw a Vision of Angels but that contented them not till Christ himself appeared Iob knew he should enjoy the society of Saints and Angels sit down and feast it with Abraham and Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but here is the height of his happiness I shall see my Saviour Heaven as it is Coenaculum sponsi the Guest-chamber for the supper of the Lamb 't is a place of comfort but as it is Thaelamus sponsi the Bride-chamber of the Lamb where the Spouse enjoys him whom her soul loves it is the place of blessedness Thirdly the last thing remains that 's Beneficium fidei the use and benefit Iob makes to himself of this Meditation And the benefit is threefold suitable and seasonable to a threefold condition in which Iob now was 1. Iob was overlaid and opprest with affliction Suitable to this condition this Meditation affords Vim sustentaetivam it supports his spirits amidst all his afflictions Here is the patience of the Saints mockings and scourgings and bonds and imprisonments they endured them all because they expected a better resurrection Heb. xi That blessed day will make amends for all It was this hope that sustained S. Paul kept him from fainting 2 Cor. iv Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Iesus shall raise us up also with Iesus and for this cause we faint not Thus also he comforts and cheers up other Christians If in this life onely we had hope in Christ we were of all men most miserable But there is a Resurrection after this life we have hope in Christ and therefore of all men most happy This assurance will stand by us when all things else fail It was Esau's confession Behold I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birth-right do to me But to be Filius resurrectionis that Birth-right will relieve us at our last agony and support us comfortably Iob felt the good of this Meditation and he insists upon it Here is Masticatio fidei he chews it in his mouth and sucks out the sweetness of it 2. You may see Iob in another condition transported with passion and suitable to that this Meditation it had Vim quietativam a great virtue he found in it to settle and compose him In the Verses going before his spirit is stirred within him he is full of complainings and murmurings and quarrellings with God and expostulations See how he rebukes and allays these storms and tempests with this Meditation O my soul keep silence unto God for of him comes my salvation Thus David stills discontents Why art thou so troubled O my soul Why art thou so disquieted within me I shall yet praise him The day shall come that I shall see his countenance and for ever enjoy him Mortale mori is one ground of settlement against these perplexities and Iob makes use of it Chap. xiv but Mortuum reviviscere is satisfaction with advantage that will calm and quiet all his complainings 3. Lastly behold Iob in another condition he is charged by his friends with the sin of hypocrisie and then this Meditation it hath Vim apologeticam 't is his defence and apologie against that accusation Against all their surmises and suspicions of his integrity this he opposes for his justification It is God that justifies me who are ye that condemn me 'T is Christ that is dead and now risen again he shall judge and acquit me O! hypocrisie shrinks at the thought of death trembles to hear of a resurrection These painted Sepulchres till then make a goodly shew they are the beautifullest parts that are in the Church but when the Vault shall be open'd and all secrets disclosed nothing will appear then but horrour and confusion rottenness and corruption But truth and integrity appeals unto that great Trial knows that the Name that 's written in Heaven shall one day be cleared from slanders on earth My witness is in Heaven and my record is on high That 's the great avowment of Iobs truth and integrity till then it matters not much what the world says of us Lingua Petiliani non est ventilabrum Christi there lies an appeal of all mens censures to that days trial before the great Tribunal A joyfull appearance before which He grant unto us who as this Day overcame death for us and opened unto us the Gate of eternal life even Jesus that hath delivered us from the wrath to come To whom with the Father c. ON EASTER-DAY The Second Sermon ROM viii 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you IN this Context and passage
but Cain brought his Offering to the Lord And 2. It was Cultus legitimus such a worship as was prescribed no superstitious worship invented by themselves but taught by Revelation received by Prophetical Instruction such as we see God allowed by after-approbation These brethren were not like Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu they offer no strange fire to God but proceed by rule and direction This way of worship Abel learn'd it from Adam Adam he was taught it of God and taught it his children saith Pererius Inventions of Gods Worship are but Superstitions That God is to be worshipped even Nature teaches us but how he is to be worshipped He alone must direct us As Moses said to Pharaoh Exod. x. 26. We know not with what we must serve the Lord till we come thither and he teach us Indeed the times when Cain and Abel offered were Primitive Times the Form of Religion was not yet degenerate and corrupted Idolatry and the setting up of false Gods and false Worship were not yet crept into the Church It is the dignity of true Religion it hath the Precedency of all before Idolatry and Superstition Idolatry is a post-natus to Religion of an after-birth The Field was first sown with good Seed the envious man came afterwards and sowed his Tares Matth. xiii Idolatry it is a Super-semination Id verum quod prius id falsum adulterinum quod posterius Tertul. True Religion hath the Birth-right pleads Prescription before all false Worships Christ in his Reformation brings the Jews back to that which was first Abinitio non fuit sic checks all Superstitions with this Exception It was not so from the beginning It is our Plea Where was Invocation of Saints and Angels or Worship of Images Did Moses or Abraham or Abel so worship No it was the malice of Satan that sowed these Tares foisted in these Corruptions Purposely God kept Religion untainted in the beginning of the World Though a deluge of other sins brake early into the World Cruelty and Lust and Violent Oppression yet Idolatry was kept out that the very novelty of it might make it suspected 3. A third thing observable in this Worship of Cain and Abel is Unitas Cultus their joynt brotherly consent and unity in their worship of God As they were twins in their birth so as twins they joyn hand in hand to compass Gods Altar We read not of an Altar that Cain erected and another that Abel set up apart for himself but as they were of the same family and natural fraternity so they joyn as Members of the same Church as pertaining to the same Altar The Jews conceive it was all one place where Adam sacrificed and now his Sons and after Noah Though they go too far when they say it was where Abraham sacrificed Isaac and after David sacrificed and where after Solomon built the Temple and erected the Altar Surely Concord in the Worship of God 't is most necessary and comely Without these two Truth and Unity God accepts no service Truth and Peace are the Supports of Religion Thus S. Peter forbidding discord and commending to Christians domestick peace presses this reason for it That your prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. iii. 7. Discord breeds Distraction in holy duties Quarrelling and Contention it is the bane of Devotion See how uncomely was Aaron and Miriam's quarrelling with Moses Num. xii What Disturbance did it breed in the publick affairs of the people of Israel It hindred their Progress into the Land of Canaan and set it back 'T is said the people journied not till Miriam was brought in again and the breach made up again So on the contrary what a gracious promise doth Christ make to Prayers made in the spirit of Unity Matth. xviii 19. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven These two Brothers here they came in Unity They had one God one Altar one kind of Service by Sacrifice one Time too and no doubt they came in one Affection the grudge grew afterwards See with how many bonds S. Paul labours to continue Christians together in an holy Concord Eph. iv 5. There is one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father of all one body one spirit one hope of our calling therefore keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Christians must say We are all one mans children Our cognizance is Love and Unity and Concord The quarrels and contentions that did arise amongst Christians 't was a great hinderance to the Conversion of the Gentiles When they could not answer the Christians Arguments then they objected the Contentions of Christians that they could not agree amongst themselves Hoc est Opprobrium Gentium saith S. Augustine Non consentitis The Gentiles cast that in their teeth that there was not Concord and Unity amongst them That 's the third 4. A fourth thing observable in these two brethrens Worship of God it was Cultus cum sumptu They did not put off God with empty shews but they are at charge here in the worship of God they can be content to be at cost in honouring of him according to their state and condition Cain he is an husbandman he brings of the fruit of the ground to honour God with a Sacrifice of Corn. Abel he is a Shepherd he brings his Offering of the Herd and Flock Nature it self teacheth us this Truth If there be a God then sure he must be worshipped and that worship must be maintained though with cost and charges 'T is a spice of Atheism to say as Pharaoh did Go ye your selves and worship God but let your flocks alone as S. Augustine complains of the wealthy men in his time they would be rich at Home but poor at Church they would leave their purses at home that they might not be at charge for any Church-contribution Leave your flocks behind you No saith Moses we must have them with us Of them we must offer a sacrifice to our God This Solomon commands us Honour God with thy substance and the first-fruits of thine encrease Prov. iii. 9. And he learnt it of his father David he chose to be at cost in serving of God 2 Sam. xxiv 24. I will not serve the Lord with that which cost me nothing Thus doing we honour our God ey and we honour our selves and our substance too The Jews knew how to prevail with Christ for the good Centurion He loves our Nation nay he loves our Religion and hath built us a Synagogue As Origen discoursing of the liberal Contribution for the erecting of the Tabernacle Quam gloriosum erit saith he How great an honour is it that it shall be said This mans Gold made the Ark This mans Silver made the Pillars and Sockets for them This mans Wealth furnisht the Tabernacle And it is also an honour to our wealth to be thus employed
and yield to death But Paul is not here barely content to die but longs for that blessed hour judges it best of all to be dissolved and to be with Christ Verse 23. O when shall I appear before the presence of God 2 Cor. v. In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed with our house which is from heaven S. Aug. tells us of Christians of the weaker and more imperfect sort Such saith he desire and long to live but yet are content to die it God see it fit But other more grown and spiritual Christians and such an one was blessed Paul though they be content to live yet they wish and desire and long to die The former have mortem in patientia vitam in desiderio they die patiently but would live willingly the other as S. Paul here they have vitam in patientia mortem in desiderio this life it is the matter of their patience but a blessed death is the matter of their desire That 's the second 3. See here in Saint Paul an higher degree and growth of Piety 1. Having gained this great Confidence and assurance of Heaven And 2. His soul panting and longing for the enjoyment of it yet that he may do God more service and promote the spiritual estate and welfare of his Church he can be content to delay those enjoyments to forbear his salvation to keep out of Heaven to be serviceable to the Church Desiderat requiem sed non recusat laborem He could wish he were at rest but yet for all that he is willing to labour still and to travel in his Ministery And what that was ye may easily guess In those times to be a faithful Preacher of the Gospel was to be no less then a Martyr Well S. Paul hath counted the cost forecast the worst Pains Poverty Persecutions he can endure them all for the love of Christ and for the good of his Church He chooses to suffer all sorts of miseries and afflictions so he may be serviceable to Christ useful to his Church rather then to leave that holy Work undone and to enter into Heaven Saint Augustine makes it a tryal of our love to God if when God should put the offer to our choice Live as ye list satisfie every lust deny your self nothing I will never punish you for it Sed non videbis faciem meaâ—… onely you shall not see my face if we refuse that offer of outward enjoyments that we may be partakers of that blessed Vision 't is a good argument of our love to God Here is a greater tryal of S. Pauls love to Christ Wilt thou presently enjoy me in Heaven or still serve me on Earth Wilt thou for my sake keep out of Heaven Nay more then so undergo Pains suffer Persecutions for my Churches good Yes S. Paul accepts of this employment on Earth and will forbear his preferment in Heaven O Paul great is thy love to Christ and to his Church Thus S. Chrysostom and S. Bernard express this choice of S. Paul As if a poor Woman should stand at the door of some great Palace wherein are all kinds of Pleasures and Delights and being without cold and hungry should be offered her self to come in but to leave her Children without in the cold there to lie in want and misery though she would fain be within yet she refuses that offer chooses to stay still in the cold to tend her Children then to part with them and enter in So Paul here had rather stay out of Heaven then forsake those Babes in Christ whom he had begot to the Gospel Not onely as Moses he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin but rather then to enjoy the happiness of Heaven Nay see the fervency of his love to the people of God Rom. ix 3. He could wish himself Anathema separated and accursed from Christ for ever for his brethrens sake that he might gain them to God not onely forbear Heaven for a season but forgo it for ever that others may gain it 4. This he desires and this he hopes for still to be continued to them for the furtherance of their faith And yet that being liable to uncertainty Saint Paul not knowing how long God would hold him to this work imploy him in this service uncertainty of life that 's one hazard he was in deaths often and then many vexations and distractions intervening in his Apostolical Function the care of all the Churches lying upon him See here a fourth pitch of Piety his great care and solicitude he hath of their well-doing and growing in grace however God disposes of him by life or death yet his desires are that they should do well This would be his main comfort and crown of rejoycing to see being present to hear being absent that they grow in grace and that his labours amongst them might not prove in vain Onely let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel The Words then which I have read unto you are S. Paul's Apostolical and fatherly Charge and Caveat to the Philippians In it observe these three particulars 1. Is the weight and greatness of this Charge the Caveat he gives to them is very ponderous that 's implied in this emphatical word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely 2. Is the extent and largeness of that Charge it hath no stint or limitation it reaches to all seasons and occasions 1. His presence and abode with them 2. His absence or being from them Whether I come and see you or else be absent 3. Is the Charge it self and that 's manifold It consists of a threefold Injunction which he lays upon them 1. Is Sancta conversatio an holy and Christian-like conversation Let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ. 2. Is Sancta concordia unanimity and concord and the spirit of peace That in all their affairs they should stand in one spirit and in one mind 3. Is Sancta constantia an holy resolution and constancy and courage for the truth striving together for the faith of the Gospel 1. In themselves Holiness 2. Amongst themselves Peace 3. Against the enemies of the Gospel Courage and Resolution First Here is considerable the weight and greatness of this charge which he gives them Onely As if he should say 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he elsewhere speaks 't is the main and chief charge I lay upon you the upshot and summ of all my Exhortations let this saying sink deep into your hearts mind this and remember it above all things that your conversation be Christian-like suitable to the Gospel live in peace and concord contend earnestly for the faith which is committed to you And then the strength and Emphasis of this word
must be provided for with fruitfulness That 's the second Not Spirituali annexum That 's the Kind I come II. To the Parts of them 1. It is Spirituale donum Seek and labour for spiritual enablements The inclinations of nature must be strengthened and elevated with gifts of grace The weightiest employments require the greatest enablements Those three great Callings Kings Priests Prophets they were all anointed to signifie that large measure of grace that those Callings required Nay the High-Priest had all the holy oyl poured out upon him to signifie his Calling required plenty of grace the inferiour Servitors were but onely sprinkled in a sparing manner Indeed to be gifted and fitted by the holy Spirit 't is the only comfortable assurance to thy conscience of thine inward Calling Gods Seal set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without which the warrant of the Church 't is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ink and Paper as S. Paul distinguishes And yet how many run before they be sent suing like Ahimaaz to the Ioabs of Israel But what if I run though they have no tidings Who if they were questioned whether they have received the Holy Ghost in some competencie of gifts must return the answer of those uncatechiz'd Novices Act. xix We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost yea or no. No God never employs but he always enables as Saul did with David when he sent him to fight he put on his own Armour he will strengthen thee with his own Spirit to discharge His business That 's the first Spirituale donum 2. Is Spirituale ut officium Seek and labour for spiritual employments And indeed Donum obligat ad officium the conferring of a gift it is the exacting of a service 'T is like Press-money if once thou receivest it thou art bound to do service Thou art a servant and thou must and thou hast a Talent and thou mayst be profitable to thy Masters advantage To have the first Spirituale donum without this second it is to no advantage Donum in habitu 't is Talentum in sudario Donum in exercitio 't is Talentum in mensario it gains and increases Donum in habitu 't is a Candle in a bushel exercise and employ it 't is set on a Candlestick Without exercise and practice saith S. Bernard thou art Lux modii with it thou art Lux mundi Not onely the mispending but the neglecting of this gift condemns thee S. Paul bids Timothy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fire goes out for want of blowing as well as with quenching Mettal not onely wears out by use but is eaten with rust And what saith S. Iames The rust of your gold shall witness against you not onely the mispending The rust of our gifts as well as the mis-using shall rise up and condemn us To be able to preach and not to perform it S. Augustine counts it like the sin of Onan Maledictus qui non suscitat semen in Israel praedicando Christum generare Christianum Art thou invited to preach and yet refusest Art thou shod with this preparation of the Gospel and yet refusest when the Church calls for thine help thou shalt be discalceatus in Israel If thou wilt not raise up seed to thy elder brother Christ the Church may pull off thy shoes and spit in thy face Nè sis in eorum numero quorum pedes sunt speciosi 'T is S. Augustine's Allegory That 's the second Spirituale ut officium 3. Spiritualem potestatem Labour for and desire onely spiritual power and authority As in the first Donum obligat ad officium so here Officium disponit ad potestatem Our authority and power is onely spiritual The weapons of our warfare are divinitùs potentia Thus S. Chrysostom magnifying and preferring his spiritual power To a King are bodies committed to a Priest souls they fight with sensible armour we with spiritual They fight against Barbarians I fight against Devils as he speaks elswhere his doctrine is to him as fire and sword The censures are onely spiritual that the Church inflicts This thunder of the Church like that from Heaven melts the metal meddles not with the sheath works upon the soul. And yet what a stirr keeps that Priest of Rome for his temporal Power to be joyned with spiritual Joyning with his Pastoral Staff an Imperial Sword as we see some Rapiers sheathed up in Staves in censuring of the Church wishing as Balaam did in beating of his Ass I would my staff were a sword in my hand for then would I kill thee And yet we exclude not all temporal power as utterly unlawful 'T is not a consequent from our spiritual but yet it is compatible with it Christ doth not command it but the Prince may conferr it Onely of our selves 't is meerly spiritual That 's the third part Spiritualem potestatem a spiritual authority I come briefly to the Third Object propounded to them and that is Prophecy And by it I conceive with Expositors not any extraordinary miraculous Revelation but an ordinary set course of preaching and interpreting and opening the Mystery of the Gospel in S. Pauls description A speaking to men to edifying to exhortation and comfort And then take notice of the nature and honour of this holy function Preaching 't is Prophesying 1. It is loco Prophetiae 't is in the room and stead of Revelation and Prophecy As the Israelites were first fed with Mannah afterwards that ceasing they fed on the fruit of the Land Prophecy now ceasing we must wait for no more Visions but rest our selves on the set word of God See this observable in the closure of both the Testaments Malachi the last of the old Prophets shuts up the Old Testament with this Seal Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Iudgments till Elias comes there were no more Prophets till Iohn at Christs first Coming S. Iohn the last of the Apostles he seals up the New Testament with the same Closure no more additions to the New Testament till Christs second Coming We have Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles in stead of Revelation It is loco Prophetiae 2. It is aequale Prophetiae 't is as good as Prophecy of the same nature springing from the same Fountain and Original As the fire on the Altar though maintained and fed with ordinary fewel yet is counted heavenly because the first Original of it was from Heaven The Scriptures contain fully the marrow and pith of all former Prophecies in the Old Testament As at the first Creation the Lord made an extraordinary light but after conveyed it into the body of the Sun and Moon and all light now arises from them so in the beginnings of the Church God set up an extraordinary light of Prophecy now he conveys it all into the body of the Scripture comprehending all saving truths that they reveal It is aequale
the Mercy-Seat looking back upon the Ark and Mercy-Seat and they still desire it They cannot fully comprehend and 't is a ravishing sight to them Strange How dull are we Preach we of Christ made Man 't is milk for babes rudiments for children whereas Angels count it hidden Manna That 's the second it is Magnum Mysterium a great mysterie Now follows III. The quality and condition of this mysterie 't is a mysterie of godliness A short but yet full comprehension of Christian Religion 'T is the Art and mysterie of Godliness And this truth branches it self into two particulars 1. Piety and Godliness it is a mysterie 2. The piety of Religion and the mysterie of Religion must be joyned together We must possess our selves not onely with the mysterie of Religion but also with the piety 1. Piety it is a mysterie and therefore 1. The art of Godliness the skill to live holily it is an high hidden supernatural thing a skill far beyond the reach and possibility of nature 'T is no endowment of nature it is hidden and conceal'd to natural knowledge By nature we are utterly void of this gracious endowment Pharaoh's speech is the voyce of nature Exod. v. 2. Who is the Lord that I should obey him I know not the Lord. Thus S. Paul describes our natural condition We are alienated from the life of God Eph. iv 18. without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world Ephes. ii 12. This David describes Psal. xiv 2 3 4. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy and call not upon the Lord. We naturally know There is a God there is no man born an Atheist we have some sense of a Deity but we are all born prophane and irreligious without any sense of piety utterly ignorant how to worship and serve him in true holiness That knowledge of God which by nature we have it always breaks out into one of these two Extremes either 1. Into prophanation and so we never worship him or 2. Into superstition and so we misplace his worship in things abominable to him When we know God we worship him not as God Rom. i. His worship depends upon his own will and revelation We know not with what we must serve the Lord till we come thither Exod. x. 26. 2 Kings xvii 26. They know not the manner of the God of this land Holiness it is no invention of nature but a revelation of grace Nature may lead us to civility train us up to morality but spiritual piety and godliness is beyond the reach of nature This wisdom is from above Iam. iii. 17. Hast thou nothing but what thou broughtest with thee into the world thou art utterly destitute of the life of godliness Piety it is a mysterie it is a Secret to nature It gives us a reason why godliness is so scarce so few are acquainted with it That that is natural is usual and common but this is supernatural beyond the reach of nature It is more admirable that any are holy then that all are not Most men live short of the light of nature wonder not that so few are advanced beyond nature to the state of grace Piety is a mysterie therefore 2. To natural men it is and seems to be a reasonless uncouth unlikely thing a meer paradox Tell a vulgar unlearned man of the mysteries of any Art or Science he thinks you speak non-sense he can see nothing in them they seem unreasonable As many mysteries as you acquaint him with so many absurdities he laughs at them 'T is so with all the mysteries of godliness Propound them to a carnal man he will laugh at them perswade him to them he rejects them enforce them upon him he repels them 'T is that which S. Paul observes Our Gospel is hid to them that perish 2 Cor. iv 3. A natural man judges these spiritual truths stark foolishness 1 Cor. ii 14. Therefore the mysteries of the Gospel are called the foolishness of God 1 Cor. i. 25. God hath wrapt them all up in the vail of such mystical obscurity that at first sight they appear odd and unlikely to a carnal man As the Ark though it were within all of pure gold yet the coverings were plain and coorse of hair and goats-skins no outward beauty to be seen Thus Christ the great mysterie is God vail'd up in weak flesh How can this man save us The meanness of his outside scandalized the Jews Is not this the Carpenter They were offended at him Mark vi 3. And Christ knew it how easily men would stumble at the unlikeliness of this mysterie that he pronounceth him blessed that shall not be offended in him Matth. xi 6. Esay liii This is the reason the Prophet gives why so few believe in Christ vers 1. Who hath believed our report He is as a root vers 2. in a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him Yea the Doctrine of godliness how absurd seems it to natural reason Regeneration to be born again become a new man Nicodemus cannot conceive it Iohn iii. To be nourish'd to life by Christ's flesh How can this man give us his flesh 'T is an hard saying Joh. vi Self-denial and mortification to be crucified to the world to cross our own wils and wrastle with our selves and to beat down our own bodies a mysterie of piety a folly to nature To hate father mother life it self for Religion-sake how unreasonable Not to live by sense or reason but by faith nature abhorrs it To love our enemies to rejoyce in afflictions to know how to be in want poverty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul Phil. iv 12. 'T is more blessed to give then to receive to part with all in hope of gain at the resurrection in another world and above all to look for salvation in a crucified Saviour haec sunt stulta Dei sed decus fidei these are the mysteries of our piety the follies and paradoxes of natural reason No saith the Psalmist The King's daughter is all glorious within Psal. xlv All the glory of Piety and the Church 't is spiritual and heavenly Worldly wisdom that 's in worldly beauty As the Church of the wicked One is glorious with earthly beauty a Crown of gold a purple Robe beset with Precious Stones all earthly ornaments so the Spouse of Christ she is Beautiful but all Heavenly Cloath'd with the Sun Crown'd with the Stars Treading on the Moon all Heavenly and Mystical Piety it is a mysterie high and hidden therefore 3. The attaining of this heavenly Skill and Art of holiness is a matter of much difficulty it requires much search and study much learning
deserves longing and expectation and delay naturally sharpens desire Thus Christ delayed and denied the Canaanitish woman not to repel her but to provoke her to more importunity After the strong strivings of her Faith and Prayer then O woman be it unto thee as thou desirest Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal. lxxxi 10. Delay enlargeth and stretcheth out the desire and the larger our desires of Christ are the fuller shall we enjoy him This made the Church before Christ long and expect and be earnest for his Comming Abraham he longed to see this day Ioh. viii Iacob on his death-bed O Lord I wait for thy Salvation It made the Prophets enquire diligently and search into the Promises It is the honourable style and title of the Saints in the Old Testament They were waiters for the consolation of Israel The Church like Sisera's mother look'd out at the window Why stay the wheels of his Chariot O that thou wouldst break the heavens and come down The Fathers expound it of the longings of the Patriarks for the Comming of Christ. Many Kings and Prophets desired to see this day Luk. x. That is the reason saith Gregory why the Saints complain'd Their dayes were shortned because they could not live to see Christ in the flesh They onely saluted the Promise afar off and dyed in the faith of it 4. Christ came not presently deferr'd his appearance to teach us the more to prize him now he is come and to rejoyce in him Hope deferr'd makes the heart sick Prov. xiii 12. but when it is accomplished 't is a tree of Life Hath he cost the Church so much longing and searching and praying Sure then the Church will welcom him gladly embrace him firmly retain him constantly Those that have been long without children when God sends them a son he is double welcom to them Isaac and Iacob and Ioseph they were long sued for before they were obtained and accordingly beloved Quod diu quaeritur solet dulâ—…ias inveniri saith St. Aug. The Church before Christ was like barren Hannah weeping and sorrowing and begging of a son now that Christ is born it becomes us to be like fruitful Hannah rejoycing at his birth Hannah's song saith S. Aug. 't is not Canticum unius foeminae pro filio sed totius Ecclesiae pro Christo. It becomes the Church to sing Hannahs song for the birth of Christ. The Church after much search hath found out not the lost Groat but an invaluable Treasure not a stray Sheep but the holy Lamb of God not a forlorn Prodigal but the onely-Begotten and Beloved of the Father it becomes us to rejoyce That 's the first He came not in the beginning of Time 2. Neither did he stay till the last period and end of Time that so in all differences of time Faith might have an employment Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. xiii 8. The Patriarchs they believed in Christum futurum in Christ afterwards to be exhibited The Apostles and the Saints of that Age they believed in Christum praesentem they enjoyed his bodily presence they saw and believed on him present amongst them Christians now they believe in Christum praeteritum come and gone again into heaven They that came before and they that followed after they all sung Hosanna The Patriarchs they went before the Christian Church that follows after both sing Hosanna Blessed is he that comes to us in the name of the Lord. As Kings when they go in State have their Ushers before them and their Attendants after them both honour their appearance Christ in this fulness of time is as the Sun at noon-tide East and West are both enlightned by him It shews us the efficacy of Christ and of his bloud it was effectual not onely when it was shed but before it was shed and after it was shed It sanctified and saved the Primitive Saints and the last upon earth shall be saved by it That 's the first fulness of time in the natural consideration of it In the middle of Time when the world was at the Zenith then Christ came II. There is another fulness of time that 's Constituta plenitudo temporis that time that was set and decreed and appointed by God For not onely Christ's comming but all the circumstances of Time and Place were forelaid and determined and Christ's comming into the world gave a fulness and accomplishment unto that Time That we may conceive how our Saviour's Comming brought a fulness to Time we must know there were foregoing times in which Christ was made known to the Church but yet there was an emptiness in those times His Birth and Incarnation gave a fulness to them There were three Preparative foregoing Times which Christ's Comming fulfilled 1. Was Tempus Promissionis that Time and Age of the Church when the Promise of Christ was first made and publish'd that was the time from Adam to Moses The Church of God lived and supported it self with that Promise That afterwards in God's good time Christ should be born Now Promises are all for hereafter they bring nothing in present Indeed Faith knows how to make use of them but in themselves they are but empty they exhibit nothing They give good Assurance but put us not into Possession A man may be rich in Bills and Bonds and Specialties but yet be in actual want as men lay up Evidences among their Treasures But Christ's comming fulfill'd those Promises gave a Yea and Amen to them The prayer of David was the prayer of the whole Church Think upon thy Servant as concerning thy Word in which thou hast caused me to put my trust It spread these Evidences before God as Hezekiah did the Letter that was sent to him Ey but Promises turn'd into Performances is a true fulness That 's the first the time of Performance is a real fulness to the times of Promises 2. A second Time was Tempus Typorum the time and age of the Church furnish'd with Types and Prefigurations of him that was the time of the Church under Moses It added to the former time That had but a Promise of him these Types resembled him described him to them seal'd up and assured his comming to them They were to the Faith of the Church as Signs to represent him as Tokens and Pledges to assure him to them But yet this falls short of fulness Seals and Pledges are good Assurances but actual Possession is a great deal better Annulus iste nihil valet haereditas est quam reposco The Writing and Seal is not the thing we look for the Estate and Inheritance is that we wait for Now Christ's comming fill'd up the imperfections and emptiness of these Types They had the emptiness of a shadow He brings the substance and fulness of the Body Col. ii 17. They were but shadows of things to come but the Body is of Christ. His comming fill'd the Temple as the cloud fill'd the
Tabernacle He fill'd that house with glory when Christ came into it 3. A third Time was Tempus Prophetiarum the Age of the Prophets that was yet a fuller Time then there was a more clear and particular foretelling the very manner and circumstances of his Birth and Incarnation Esay calculates and foretels the time At such a year then the Messias shall come Micah foretels the City where he shall be born At Bethleem They bring it nearer and closer home but all of them fail and fall short of this fulness They were but as Heralds and Ushers forewarning and preparing the way before him The Testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of Prophesie His comming gives a being to all their Predictions They all sate like Ionas to see when their Prophesies should be fulfilled like Elijah on mount Carmel looking often and often for his blessed Appearance His presence accomplish'd them and gave them their fulness Thus God dealt with his Church as Boaz with Ruth first he affords her some gleanings then le ts fall handfuls to her then fills her vail with a measure of clean corn dressed and winnowed then at last marries himself to her in his Incarnation So then Is Christ's Comming the fulness of time What improvement shall we make of this point for practice 1. It should teach us to take notice of our happiness that were kept and reserved to live in those times that are fulfill'd by our Saviour's comming It is a great Blessing of God to be born in good times in dayes of Peace and Plenty We pity our forefathers who lived in those Swording times when all was in an uprore and after-ages will do the like for us And one bewail'd himself that he was born nec solo nec coelo nec seculo erudito in barbarous times How happy are Christians who have all the Mysteries of our Redemption accomplish'd in these dayes of the Gospel What saith our Saviour to his Disciples Luk. x. 23. Blessed are the eyes that see the things that ye see for I tell you many Kings and Prophets have desired to see those things that ye see and have not seen them David and Solomon and Iosiah how would they have thrown down their Crowns at his feet and adored him Those Truths concerning Christ which we count common and vulgar and sleight and neglect them how would they have ravished the spirits of those Saints that were before us The Mysterie of the Trinity what dark intimations of it to the Saints of old That Christ was both God and Man Davids Lord and Davids Son it posed all the Doctors in Israel how to conceive it Matth. xxii Our Saviours Incarnation Passion Resurrection Ascension we scorn to spend time to learn them our selves and teach them others and yet the Angels and Arch-angels stand astonished at them They before us received but the Promise God providing a better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Heb. xi 40. 1 Sam. xvi Samuel would not sit down to the Sacrifice till young David was bâ—…ught from tending the sheep Christ's Sacrifice was delayed till the fulness of the Gentiles might come in The Patriarchs were the eldest sons and they were put off with a Kid the fat Calf was kill'd for us the best wine was kept last till now to entertain us 2. This fulness on Gods part doth challenge and require fulness on our part 1. Fulness of knowledge On Gods part Christ is fully revealed all the Mysterie of Godliness laid open and unfolded t is our duty then fully to know him The dim dark imperfect knowledge of the Jewish Church will not suffice the vail is now taken off and we all with open face may see and behold him When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child that was the condition of those times Christians must be grown men of a ripe age in understanding The times of our former ignorance God regarded not saith S. Paul but now he warns every man Act. xvii 30. The times of Christianity are foretold to be knowing times Every man shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them Ier. xxxi 34. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea saith the Prophet Habakkuk a Spring-tide of knowledge Zachary foretels that the feeblest Christian shall be as David Iohn Baptist a great enlightned Prophet yet the least in the kingdom of heaven may be greater then he in the Mysteries of Religion This fulness on Gods part requires of us 2. Fulness of Faith and of stedfast Assurance We owe our Faith to Gods bare Promises Shall we not fully believe his reall Performances The Saints before Christ met with many difficulties in believing All of them are removed that they cannot hinder our perswasion There were four Difficulties that attended the Promise of Christ as it was propounded to the Patriarchs 1. Was Obscuritas They saw all in a dim light all things were made known in much obscurity they had but the light of a candle to discern by the light of the Sun shines out to us 2. Was Generalitas Christ was promised to them in more general terms not so distinctly and personally as he is to us They heard of a blessed Seed to be born that is all their Faith fastned on We know who he is Iesus the Son of Mary he is pointed out to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with special circumstances Hic Nunc breeds distinct knowledge 3. Was Improbabilitas The Promise was propounded to them with some Improbabilities A Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son How can this thing be Yes we know it is performed that holy Virgin hath conceived and born him Performances confute all improbabilities Can there come any good out of Nazareth Come and see 4. Was Longinquitas The Promise of Christ made to the Fathers was for a long time after many hundred years to be spent ere Christ should come Tell a man what shall happen a thousand years hence you can hardly perswade him The Prophesie is for many dayes to come said those mockers in Ezekiel We need not stretch our faith so far the Promise is before us With Thomas we may lay hold on him and say My Lord and my God 3. Hath Christ brought a fulness with him It must work in us fulness of content and satisfaction rest fully in him and in his plentiful Redemption The fulness of Christ is abundantly able to satisfie and fill up all our desires Fills the soul with marrow and fatness All other cravings of the soul may be quieted for a time but they return again as eager as ever 't is like a dream of meat saith the Prophet and when he awakes his soul is empty This heavenly Manna it breeds appetite and yet it pinches not it satisfies the soul and yet it cloys not Indeed Christ hath in him all that we need or can possibly wish
Heaven serve to support the infirmity of Faith Robusta fides strong Faith can hold out without sight cares not for present pay for any thing in hand but Infirma fides weak Faith would droop without some taste of future Glory See then Be not faithless but faithful As Ionathan fainting with one taste of Hony recovered sight and vigour so the least relish of that hidden Mannah revives faith and puts strength and alacrity into a believing Christian makes him as a Giant refresh'd with Wine As the bunch of Grapes from Eschol made Caleb encourage the people made them forget Egypt endure the Wilderness so this view of Heaven it puts spirit into us Otherwise we are hardly drawn with naked promises Spem periculo emere Therefore Hoc infirmitatis remedium ut praesentibus sustineatur infirmitas Ambros. 6. Is Post Regni mentionem v. 27. I tell you of a truth there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God After that saying he was transfigured So it is Erroris correctio They never heard of Christ's Kingdom but they imagined a terrestrial outward Kingdom Christ to make them understand the condition of his Kingdom sequesters their thoughts from outward things shews them the Spiritual Supernatural Celestial nature of his Kingdom Hierusalem comes down from Heaven It is above the Mother of us all All outward things are Bona Scabelli the good things of his Foot-stool not Bona Throni not the good things of his Throne Solatia miâ—… the comforts of the Miserable not Gaudia beatorum the joyes of the Blessed So much of the first Ordo successio The other is II. Mensura continuatio About an eight days after St. Matthew and St. Mark say Six days St. Luke here Eight 1. They say more exactly St. Luke not so precisely but about eight days 2. Even both say precisely true They speak Exclusively leaving out the day of this Prediction and of the Transfiguration and mention the six days intervening St. Luke speaks Comprehensively reckons both the day he spake it and the day he performed it and so makes up eight Now the exact setting down these days carries with it a double purpose 1. Is a Moral signification 2. Is a Mystical 1. Is a Moral signification It was after eight days He stayes and deferrs so long 1. To stirr up expectation and to quicken their desires to see that Glory Moderate delayes serve to set an edg and to quicken our hope and expectation Thus Elijah delayes and puts off Elisha from seeing his Rapture to enflame his desire the more to behold it The Lord is not slack as men count slackness but to enlarge our desires he seems to delay Thus he dealt with the Canaanitish woman 2. It was after eight days he stayd no longer Why he might have deferred longer It was in these terms that he promised before they die Time enough therefore hereafter Indeed for us if we promise any thing to God before we die we must do it presently because we know not the time of our death As the Rabins say If a man vowed to be a Nazarite one day before his death he was to be so presently because this day may be the last day But God knows these times and seasons and the number of our days What then yet after eight days he performs it In all his promises he is better and fuller and speedier then his word It is enough if thou hast comfort though it be at the day of death Oh! but nescit tarda â—…olimina He sends to his Disciples to meet him in Galile 2. Is a mystical signification Eight days Not only the Fathers Chrysostom Ambrose others who delight in allegories but even later Writers who are more sparing in those allegorical accommodations of Scripture they sweetly conceit a double mysterie 1. Is the Mysterie of Christ's Resurrection He was Transfigured on the eighth day raised in Glory on the eighth day afterwards This reason S. Aug. gives why the number of Eight is consecrated in Scripture The Circumcision it was Octavo die ut figuretur Dominica Resurrectio that was on the eighth day to figure Christ's Resurrection Many legal clensings and offerings were on the eighth day Thus St. Aug. descants upon some Titles of the Psalms in Octavis All prefigurations of Christ's Resurrection 2. Is the Mystery of our Transfiguration and Resurrerection Six ages of the world must pass first Post sex dies gloriae Dominicae habitus ostenditur Sex millium annorum temporibus evolutis Regni coelestis honos praefiguratur Hilarius Six ages the world's continuance the seventh day that 's the day of Judgment then the eighth is dies aeternitatis when we shall be taken up in glory So much of the first Circumstance the choyce of time About an eight days after these sayings Secondly an other Circumstance is the choice of Attendants he took Peter and Iohn and Iames. And herein observe these three Considerations 1. Discipuli comites 2. Tres discipuli 3. Hi tres I. His attendants are his Disciples why not the people the Priests and Pharises As Iudâ—… saith not Iscariot Lord How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world In likelyhood it would have convinced and converted many 1. It was a Revelation and revelations of mysteries are not for Infidels but for Believers To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome of heaven but to others it is not given Mat. xiii 11. For common Illumination he enlightens every man but special revelation it is the Childrens bread the â—…den Mannah He expounded all to his Disciples apart As every subject may know the Kings Laws but his choyse counsellers are only acquainted with his Secrets So the Law of God is exposed to all but the mysteries of his Kingdom are concealed from many and communicated only to his own 2. It was a revelation of his Glory and therefore not to all but only to his Disciples It was the Oeconomie of his Incarnation to carry secretly his Divinity in the dark-Lanthorn of his Humanity so to make way to his Death and Passion Had they known the Lord of life and glory they would not have Crucified him Hence he charges them not to publish it till after his Passion Thus the greatest Rabins never conceived how David's Son could be David's Lord and therefore the Iews to this day because in some places they finde predictions of Divinity sometimes of humanity not knowing how to accord them imagine two Christs Filium Ioseph he that shall suffer and die and Filium David that shall rule and reign 3. It was a revelation of the Saints after-glorification therefore to Saints only This is a name that none Knowes but he that receives it He gives the Earnest only where he will bestow the main Substance the first-fruits of glory where he intends the whole harvest As Christ after his Resurrection never shâ—…wed himself but
to the Saints Before he did to Priests Publicans Pharisees after never but to Saints So in this act of glory only to his Disciples Only St. Paul law Christ and heard him they who were in his company neither heard not saw Act. ix St. Gregory enquiring how Satan appeared before God among the Sons of God Oh saith he he was prâ—…sens absenti and so absens praesâ—…ti â—…e appeared because God observed him not that he 〈◊〉 God As of the appearances of the Old Testament it is said Nâ—…e shall see him and live so it is true Spiritually None shall sâ—…e him and die II. Tres Discipuli non omnes Three of his Disciples not all 1. Three is a sufficient number to testify this Miracle 2. Iudas a reprobate he was not to be admitted he was unworthy of it Therefore lest he should murmur and repine and grow worse by it others are left out 3. Ut sit locus ordini Even among his Disciples he observed an order and precedency Some were more eminent and of neerer admission Cabinet-Counsellers We see Peter durst not speak to Christ but beckens to Iohn to do it 4. Ut sit locus fidei These were taken to see and testify the rest were left to hear and believe As Moses sent Spies to view the Land of Canaan and they were to report what they saw to others 5. Ut sit locus modestiae Transfiguratus in monte corâ—… paucis Crucifixus in urbe coram omnibus III. Hi tres He singles out Peter Iohn and Iames. Why are these made choyce of and others passed by We see at other times he takes these neerer to him as at the raising of Iairus his daughter Marc. v. 37. He excludes all others admits these What reasons are there for it 1. There needs no reason Sufficient is it that it is his pleasure In matters of free favour it is no prosopolepsie to pass by some to admit others He can cross his hands as Iacob did give five portions to Benjamin deal more sparingly with others Shall I not do with mine owne as I please Etiam Pater quia sic complacuit 2. Quoad humanum affectum Christ had his Favourites those whom he made his darling Disciples Thus St. Iohn was his bosom-Favourite As it was said of David and Solomon Such an one was the Kings friend These Disciples were thus graced 3. These three were more eminent for Grace and Zeal and Love to Christ. St. Paul saith they were counted pillars The greatest proficients have a larger dignation these are let into the Secrets of Christ. As among David's Worthies there were the first three Others were valiant among thirty but they did not attain to the three first so among these holy colleagues these were of an high pitch in Grace and answerably were they honoured 4. These three were admitted to see his Transfiguration because these were appointed to assist his Passion Math. xxvi 37. when he underwent his Agonie therefore these are fore-strengthened and fore-armed by seeing his Glory This glorious Vision on Mount Tabor fitted them to abide the terrour of Mount Calvarie Those whom God will single out for the greatest tryals he will fit aforehand with the best enablements St. Paul was strengthned and encouraged in a Vision at Hierusalem before his going to Rome Be of good cheer Paul for as thou hast testified of me at Hierusalem so must thou also bear witness at Rome Act. xxiii 11. 5. These several men are singled out upon several reasons 1. Peter was the forward zealous Disciple who led the way to the rest in that noble confession of Christ therefore he is singled out to be partaker of this Vision Again Peter is now overtaken with an error is sorry to hear of Christ's death disswades him from it by this Vision therefore he is comforted reformed instructed in the mysterie of Christ's Death and Passion 2. Iames he was appointed to be the first Apostle that should die for Christ Herod suck'd his bloud first As they who must be in the front of the Battel have the choysest Armour because they are to undertake desperate services so because S. Iames was to be the first in the Army royal therefore he was admitted to view the glory of this Transfiguration Theophylact saith that this Theophania made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Iohn he was fore-appointed to be the publisher and pen-man of Christ's Divinity and so above all he soared highest into Heaven Therefore was this manifestation of Christ's Glory and Divinity made to him He urges it Iohn i. 14. he saw his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father So Peter makes use of this 2 Pet. i. 18. We heard a voice which came from Heaven when we were in the holy Mount Thus these Congruities shew why Hi tres why These three Now follows Thirdly another Circumstance which is the choyce of the place He led them up to a Mountan What Mountain was this Interpreters differ 1. Some say it was Mount Sinai where the Law was given 2. Others say it was Mount Libanus that is neer to Caesarea Philippi 3. Most say it was Mount Tabor But it was purposely concealed to avoyd those superstitions that after-Ages might imagine and frame S. Peter calls it The holy Mountain And hence Papists ground their permanent sanctity of places and pilgrimages But this holiness was not permanent but temporary respectively to this action as the Wilderness was holy ground while God was present in it Now for this recourse of Christ to Mountains it was very frequent He went up to a Mountain to Preach Mat. v. 1. He departed into a Mountain to Pray Marc. vi 46. He went out into a Mountain to Pray Luc. vi 12. He ascended to Heaven from a Mountain He appoints Abraham to offer up his Isaac on a Mountain The Law was given on a Mountain Moses saw God's glory on the Mountain Elijah he prays on Mount Carmel Moses dies on a Mountain So Aaron Why so Is God the God of the Mountains not of the Vallies or are the Prayers more acceptable that are there performed then in other places No surely No place now commends our Prayers to God In all places prayers are alike acceptable As naturally so spiritually all places are alike distant from Heaven Universam terram expiavit omnis locus oratorium est Aug. Elijah's Cave Daniel's Den David's Depths Ieremie's Dungeon Ionah's Whale all lye open unto him Illi pervium est omne solidum apertum omne secretum ei muta respondent ei silentium confitetur Aug. Indeed Before the Temple was the place of Prayer Prayers were more accepted there then else-where And so even our publick Church-services for the solemnity and joynt-Communion are most accepted Otherwise religious Prayers where ever they be are made in the Temple si in pace Ecclesiae unitate corporis Christi Aug. Why then doth Christ single out a Mountain for Prayer 1.
home with joy As every sin leaves a sting after it so the duties of Piety and Devotion calm the soul and fill it with much joy and glory even as if they heard an Euge from heaven Now that this glorious effect may follow our Prayers three conditions are required 1. They must be frequent To be strange with God to keep aloof from him and yet to think that our rare and disused Prayers shall find such success it is groundless Daniel who would not abstain thirty dayes but thrice every day prayed he had an Angel to assure him Knock Seek they are words of diligence Daniel's thrice David's seven times these find joy Thou who art strange to God canst thou wonder if he be strange to thee if he impart not those joyes that are for his Favourites 2. They must be cheerful We must delight in this communion God he delights to hear us pray Cant. ii 14. Let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voyce for sweet is thy voyce and thy countenance is comely If he delights to hear our Prayers how should we delight in offering them to him They who count it the burthen of their lives to pray irksome tedious can expect little sweetness in this communion No David is glad to put himself into this communion Psal. xxvii 8. My heart hath talked of thee Seek ye my face Thy face Lord will I seek 3. They must be fervent Our remiss feeble benummed suits what force have they to work upon God or upon our selves See here our Saviour prayes himself into heaven In the garden prayes himself into an Agony Paul praying was carried up into the third heaven S. Peter praying was cast into a trance S. Iohn was ravish'd in spirit Zeal it is the wing of Prayer the ladder of Heaven like Elijah's fiery Chariot Whereas our cold slumbering suits like Meteors in the Ayr vanish into nothing Nay so far are they from Intention and Zeal that they scarce have any Attention and Mind Can such cold formalities invite God home into their heart They at Emmaus were importunate with Christ constrain'd him to stay with them Lot urged the Angels to turn in to his house Use these violences and thou breakest open heaven David's heart panted for God Oh! When wilt thou come unto me Oh! keep this passage open 'twixt God and thee let no neglect stop or damm it up We have seen his disposition Oravit He prayed Now follows Secondly his glorious Transfiguration In it two things 1. The nature and condition of it 2. The reason and purpose of it First The nature and condition of it It is called here an Alteration S. Matthew calls it a Transfiguration or a Transformation In it three things 1. The Alteration it self 2. The Subject of it It was 1. In Vultu in his Countenance 2. In Vestitu in his Garments 3. The Manner Shining as the Sun that 's for his Countenance Exceeding white that 's for his Rayment 1. Ut Nix As the Snow 2. Ut Lux As the Light 3. Whiter then any Fuller on earth can white them I. For the Alteration it self He was Transfigured That implies two things 1. It was Passiva mutatio A passive Alteration Non Transfiguravit se sed Transfiguratus est He did not Transfigure himself but he was Transfigured 1. Because his Humanity was only patient and receptive in this glorious Alteration had no activity to infuse this glory That was but as a Lanthorn which gives not light of it self a Candle within it must shine and enlighten it 2. To intimate that it was the Action of God the Father putting Honour and Glory upon his Son and not so much the Action of the Son assuming Glory to himself Father Glorifie thy Son that thy Son may Glorifie thee The Merits were the Son 's the Rewards his Father's 2. It was Qualitativa mutatio A Transfiguration a glorious Alteration in the appearance and qualities of his Body not a substantial Alteration in the substance of it Assumpsit gloriam non deposuit naturam Hieron And from it gather these Corollaries 1. Haec fides nostra It is a rule for our Faith It was the same body of Christ in nature and substance before and in and after Glorification Ubiquitaries and so Papists make Christ's Glorification not to consist in investing of his body with glorious qualities but in the abolishing or turning his flesh into his Deity No Christ's body here and in heaven is not changed in the natural proportion but enriched and beautified with heavenly endowments His nature is not abolish'd but onely replenish'd with Glory Glory freed him from natural infirmities it doth not strip him of natural properties Still eadem quantitâ—…s Ubiquitaries say by virtue of Union and glorification it must be every where Papists say by virtue of glorification it may be any where in a thousand places at once Thus in the Sacrament they have built him a Tabernacle of accidents and shadowes No Glory as Grace perfects Nature it doth not destroy it It is a qualitative not a substantial alteration 2. Haec gloria nostra It was a qualitative alteration his body remaining the same this is our glory Our flesh is glorified in Christ and he communicates to it a glorious condition This is the advancement of our bodies He assumed our body not only for passion but for glorification Fond Hereticks say he left this body behind him No he hath united it undividedly to him dedicated it in himself to glory Securae estote caro sanguis occupâstis coelum in Christo Hieron 3. Haec spes nostra This is our hope that these our frail earthly bodies shall be in his good time transfigured and made like his glorious Body Anabaptists dream of new bodies to be made No what he hath shewed me in his own he can and will perform in ours Our vile bodies shall be made like his glorious body His glorified body was primitiae the First-fruits and they are pledges of the whole Crop So much for the first the kind or nature of this alteration Now II. For the Subject of it 1. It is Corpus not Anima his Body not his Soul this was not enriched with any new encrease of glory but his body only The Soul by virtue of the hypostatical Union was replenished with all grace and glory from his Conception Then he was annointed with the Oyl of gladness He was comprehensor quoad animam ab instanti but he was viator in corpore that was in a state of infirmity and so capable of increase of glory Addition of glory to his Soul 1. It was needless 2. It was useless This Transfiguration was purposed for the good and profit of the Apostles and so to be such as was observeable by them 2. It was vultus his Face or countenance No question all his Body was cloathed with Majesty but his Countenance was most Resplendent That is sedes majestatis What the natural beauty of our Saviour's countenance
was some curiously enquire and accordingly resolve it to be beyond all others even beyond Adams in Paradice But as Moses vayled his Face so the Scripture hath put a Vaile of silence and concealment upon this of Christ. It is best to resolve the habit of his Body as it was utterly free from the least blemish and deformity so was it also fitted and tempered to his state of humiliation and infirmity 3. It was vestitus his Garments that 's the other subject of this alteration And then follows III. The manner 1. His Countenance that was shining as the Sun Not but that Christ's glorified Body doth now surpass all created Glory all excellencies cannot equalize his Majesty But 1. This is the most glorious Creature to which we may resemble it 2. This Transfiguration was not a full representation of his Heavenly Glory but only a glimpse of it Non erat plenitudo gloriae sed similitudo Had this Sun of righteousness shined in his full glory the eyes of the Apostles could not have beheld it He dwells in that light that no eye can approach unto Now from this resemblance of Christ's glory as the Sun deduce it into these particulars 1. Sol it is origo lucis all light flows from the Sun and is derived from it The Starres shine by a borrowed light So Christ he is the original and Fons gloriae the Fountain of glory All his Saints and Angels are opace dark in themselves their light it is from him He is Fons gratiae gloriae as the King is Fons honoris From his fullness they receive all he cloaths them with light if he hide his face they are eclipsed 2. Solis splendor it is purissimus the light of the Sun it is most refulgent The Moon is waterish the Starres glimmering but the Sun is most pure So Christ he is not onely pure but purity it self No mixture or shadow of darkness or corruption is in him There are maculae in Luna sic in Ecclesia spots in the Moon and so there are in the Church The Starres are impure in his sight Cujus participatione sumus justi ejus comparatione sumus injusti 3. Solis splendor 't is vegetans the light of the Sun it enlivens and quickens and gives vivacity to all creatures Philosophers say without the influence of the Sun no creature can live This being eclipsed all things languish In its departure there is nothing but fading and dying in its return it gives vivacity So Christ he is the Fountain of spiritual and glorious life A gracious aspect from him enlivens us as it did S. Peter Malach. iv 2. The Sun of righteousness comes with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow as the Calves of the stall 4. Solis splendor it is laetificans the light of the Sun it is cheering and comforting It is a good thing to see the Sun darkness is sad and irksome So Christ refreshes and glads the Soul Ps. iv 7. the light of his countenance puts gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased The Church in persecution therefore prayes Ps. lxxx 7. Cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved We have seen his Countenance shining as the Sun See 2. His Garments these are shining and glorious And it is express'd three waies 1. White as the Light Matth. xvii 2. 2. Exceeding white as Snow Mark ix 3. 3. By a transcendency so as no Fuller upon earth can white them exceeding Art which is inferiour to Nature nay surpassing Nature Here are two Queries that may be put 1. Why are his garments glorious A gloryfied body shall have no other garments then the robes of immortality and glory True but Christ was 1. Not instatu gloriae but only in actu in a transeunt passage of glory 2. Not in the fullness of glory but in some resemblance In Heaven he cloaths himself with light as with a garment now he cloaths himself with garments as with light 3. Not inter glorificatos and so habituates his body to the decencie of humane conversation How irreligious are some of those disputes which the Jesuits have concerning the body of Christ 2. Whence arose this glory of his Garments From the glory and resplendency that was in his Body His Divinity that conveyed glory into his Soul and that transfused it into his Body and that transmits it into his Garments As his power of miracles was originally in his God-Head then in his Soul then in his Body then in his Garment The hemm of his Garment had virtue in it being instrumentum conjunctum Now from the glory of his Garments as Snow as Light 1. Gather what modell we must gather of Christ's glory and our glory with him Look upon all the Beauties that are in the world the most glorious and resplendent creatures and unite all their excellencies and raise up thy thoughts by them and from them to the contemplation of that glory which is in Heaven View the curious rarities of Art and Nature Is the Snow a vanishing Meteor so white The material Heavens so pure The Lilly so beautiful Oh! Our Solomon in his glory is cloath'd more richly then any of these Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard the Heart cannot conceive the Greatness of his glory 2. Consider Qualis sanctitas Christi Sanctorum How great is that glorious purity which is in Christ and which can stand before him It must be exact and pure without all stain and blemish Glory is nothing but Excellens Sanctitas Our white robes are the righteousness of the Saints David prayes to be whiter then Snow How should we buy of him fine Linnen and pure and wash our Robes in the bloud of the Lamb The Papist's they have their Fulling-Mills Purgatory Pennance No those are all polluted It must be Christ who must come with Fullers Sope Malach. 3. Consider are his Garments thus glorious How holy and glorious shall his Members be It is he that puts his own comeliness upon them See how he commends the several lineaments of his Church in the Canticles her Eyes her Lips her Nose c. If these outward applications of garments derive such beauty and glory from him how then shall not those neer intimate spiritual Unions As S. Paul speaks Upon our less honourable members we put more honour So much of the Nature and Condition of his Transfiguration See now Secondly the ground and reason why he was transfigured before them 1. Christ puts himself into this appearance of glory to testify and demonstrate the truth of his Divinity His Humanity did appear unto them now his glory gives evidence of his divine Nature Q. But how can this glory of his Face prove his Divinity seeing Moses his Face did shine A. Christ's glory came not from a gracious dispensation but from a substantial bodily inhabitation of the God-Head but Moses his shining was far inferiour 1. He had it
performances 4. It is not suitable to the Glory and Truth of Christ to delude men with shadows and empty Appearances He was most real as of himself handle me feel me All these are evidences for a real Appearance Now this reality of Appearance assures us of two Truths 1. Is Veritas Immortalitatis the truth of the Immortality of souls and spirits The spirits of these two holy men are living and immortal It is a wicked opinion of the Sadduces now raigning among the Jews that the souls are extinguished with the bodies Here is not onely Elias whom they rejected but Moses whom they believed is here really exhibited This is the assurance of our Faith Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect This is a foundation of Religion If no Immortality hereafter no Piety here How carnally drunk do many live as if there were no soul or no Immortality 2. Is Veritas the truth nay more facilitas Resurrectionis the easiness of the Resurrection Elias indeed in body was translated but Moses was dead and buried in the plain of Moab yet here his body is united to his soul and appears in Glory How easily can the Lord of our bodies and souls raise and place our bodies in Glory See he beckens Elias out of heaven Moses out of his grave Moses his body was not as Lazarus's four days but two thousand years in the grave yet at the nutus of Christ is it raised and united Our bodies and souls shall be in his hands not onely for safety and custody but for guidance and disposal Speak but the word Lord and thy servants shall revive That 's the first a real Appearance II. It is a glorious Appearance Appear'd in Glory Moses and Elias being attendants upon Christ appear in Glory as Noblemen appear in greatest Magnificence to attend the King 1. Here is the glory of the Saints to attend Christ in Glory The Jews thought if Christ were advanced Moses must down Whosoever preached Christ spake against Moses No Moses was never so glorious as in this Attendance It is otherwise with this Sun of righteousness and the Saints then with the body of the Sun and the Stars These do occidere heliace not appear when they come nearer to the Sun But our Sun of Glory makes these Stars the nearer they be to be the more glorious As in Ioseph's dream the Sun Moon and Stars were all shining together 2. Moses and Elias appear gloriously in Christ's presence Moses is then made manifest and clear when Christ comes Take Moses asunder and without Christ 1. He is obscure there is no luster no clearness he is under a vail but Christ he with his Coming if he appear with Moses he makes all gloriously clear and evident to us 2. He is imperfect nothing but emptiness and shadows Christ gives a fulness to Moses He is not so much the abolition as the consummation of the Law Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Paul calls them beggerly rudiments void of Christ. 3. Moses apart from Christ he is fearful and terrible The Law causeth wrath Ay but look upon Moses standing with Christ then he is comfortable Make Moses a servant to Christ the Law to Faith and never look upon Moses but see Christ with him and above him and that will rejoyce thee That 's the second the manner of their appearance in Glory Thirdly see their Action and Employment They talked with him In it three things 1. The Action Collocuti 2. The Person Cum Christo. 3. The Matter de Exitu I. The Action Collocuti They talked It was no dumb shew and representation to gaze upon but an holy and heavenly communication Moses and Elias if they appear they appear as Prophets speaking and conferring either speaking of God or to God It is the life of a Prophet in heaven day and night without ceasing there is nothing but speaking We have here too Moses and the Prophets let us conferr with them and Christ it is a glimpse of Glory In the Scriptures we find Moses and the Prophets conferring with Christ which S. Peter preferrs before this Vision and calls 2 Pet. i. 19. A more sure word of Prophecy Now this Colloquium this Speaking implyes two things 1. Consensum 2. Familiaritatem 1. Consensum It teaches us That there is a sweet agreement betwixt Moses and Elias with our Saviour Christ that there is no repugnancy or contradiction 'twixt the Old and New Testament but a sweet harmony and agreement Here the Law and the Prophets like the two Cherubs are both compassing and looking upon the Mercy-Seat This Christ taught his Disciples All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalmes concerning me Luk. xxiv 44. There were certain Hereticks in S. Aug. time who professed themselves enemies to the Law and the Prophets But Non potes segregare Legem ab Evangelio ut nec umbram à corpore The Lord thy God will raise unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me saith Moses Deut. xviii 15. Like unto me not contrary to me The same Religion the same substantial Truth the same Grace and Salvation is in both Testaments There is a variety of Ceremonies but the same Truth and Substance there is the same Authour of both Thus S. Iames answers this doubt Known to the Lord are all his works from the beginning it is no change in God As the prescripts of the Physician are some of one kind to day to morrow of another both ayming at the health of the Patient Aug. The Gospel was comprehended in the Law the Law is explained and cleared in the Gospel The Law shews Moses vailed the Gospel unvails him 2. Denotat familiaritatem Their talk and conference betokeneth a sweet and holy familiarity and communion with God on earth As of Moses it was said The Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend Exod. xxxiii 11. Observe Moses and Elias were men of much communion with God upon earth many heavenly entercourses passed between them and now they are admitted into a near and sweet and familiar communication Men of communion with God here shall be received with more free access and familiar conversation with Christ in heaven They who never maintain speech with God here how can they look to have access in heaven They who love to come into his presence delight in hearing him speak to them and they to him by Prayer and Meditation they shall have nearest and freest and sweetest communion hereafter That 's the first the Action Collocuti sunt They talked II. The Person Cum Christo With Christ Not with the Apostles nor the Apostles with them Here was a miraculous Apparition but no parley nor entercourse Observe Here is no shew or appearance of any entercourse 'twixt Christians on earth and the Saints in heaven no invocation or salutation on the Apostles part
up that place to enjoy this Like the two Tribes of Reuben and Gad because the land on this side Iordan was rich and commodious they beg to be settled there care not for the Land of Promise Like some vain Traveller who can be content to settle in some Inn on the road because he finds good usage there and never hasten on to his own Countrey to his own home Not onely wicked men would fain settle here but sometimes Gods children could be content with the life of grace here and think not sufficiently of heaven above No we must know Tabor is but a viaticum to heaven It is Manna indeed but not for our stay onely for our Journal in the Wilderness Heaven is the Countrey that is the Region and Land of Promise Grace never leaves us till it brings us thither As Waters will ascend as high as from whence they rise so Grace that comes from heaven and it will thither again Hierusalem is from above Tabor is but a Colony that belongs to it 4. A fourth Error 'T is good being here Peter would have Christ set up his rest here and never go down more from Mount Tabor What shall become then of Christs Death and Passion and the Redemption of Mankind by his being Crucified All our happiness this on Mount Tabor that in heaven depends all upon this He hath heard our Saviour forewarn it yet is he so transported with this passionate joy that Christ must not suffer now he must forget his message and the command of his Father and the Redemption of his Church to bear Peter company upon Mount Tabor Nay as some conceive purposely he moves it to Christ and proffers his assistance that so he may escape the death of the Cross. So carnally sometimes are our affections set that we think we love Christ and our selves when we cross him most No Christ must descend from Mount Tabor and ascend Mount Calvary Thus it is written that Christ must suffer and so enter into his Glory How else should the Scripture be fulfilled the Church redeemed Heaven purchased the Devil vanquished How dangerous are our carnal desires of what fearful consequence if God should give way to them 5. A fifth Error 'T is good being here He would never leave this place of Glory but enter upon the possession of it presently Ey but much labour is to be undergone many services to be performed to attain this rest No Peter would slip into heaven in an instant Oh! But 1. Laboranduni Peter should say Let us go down and perform those conditions of gaining heaven We must not so linger for heaven as not to be content to take pains for it The Spies that discovered Canaan came back and said Come let us fight for it it is a good Land 2. Prius patiendum There is a Cup to be tasted of and Baptisme to be baptized with first Through many afflictions we must enter into heaven Fain would we go to heaven without the Cross and pass A deliciis ad delicias No we must be made conformable to our Head who was consecrated by afflictions Crux scala Coeli the Cross is the ladder by which we must ascend to the Crown 3. Moriendum We must pass through Golgotha to come up to this Mount Peter indeed as well all are loth to be uncloathed but we would be cloathed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. v. 4. The valley of death leads to this Mountain That straight must be passed Peter after is content to lay down his Tabernacle here he forgets it It is the Supper of the Lamb the labour of the day and the evening of death must first come 6. A sixth Error Good being here Fain would he hold Christ ever upon Mount Tabor Why what shall become of all other Saints Peter will engross Christ here to himself Moses and Elias from heaven and three Apostles on earth shall enjoy Christ no matter for others he takes no thought of them He will deprive heaven of Christ those in heaven must go without him And for the Saints on earth he never thinks of them neither so he may have his full of Glory Whereas a more advised spirit would have provoked Peter to have been zealous to call in and invite others to the fellowship of these joyes Indeed other worldly blessings are diminished by many partakers but this is more encreased The Lepers 2 King vii said We do not do well we do not carry tidings into the City The spirit of Piety naturally provokes us to call in others to share in Christ with us The woman of Samaria Ioh. iv 29. calls out all her neighbours to enjoy Christ. Thus Cornelius brought in his kindred Acts x. 24. Had Andrew served Peter thus what share had he had in Christ He went and found out his brother Simon Ioh. i. 41. Peters Motion would have put this Light of the world under a bushel Whereas 1. Love to Christ that will enforce us to encrease his kingdome 2. Love to our brethren that will quicken us up to gain them Matthew calls his acquaintance to be in Christ's company Luke v. 29. 3. This will make our selves fuller partakers of Glory The more we gain the more we shall shine It is a sowing and that will end in bringing sheaves Peter should have been content to have parted with this Glory for a time for the conversion and good of others When God bids Moses go down from the Mount for the peoples cause Moses saith not 'T is good being here S. Paul knew what the joyes of heaven were yet for the Churches sake he was not onely content to be out of heauen some time but Anathema for ever Domine si adhuc populo tuo sum necessarius non recuso laborem fiat voluntas tua desidero requiem sed non recuso laborem So said S. Martin in S. Bernard We have seen Peters Errors in his Motion for continuance Now let us see what failings there were II. In his proffer of building Tabernacles In it He knew not what he said That proffer hath blemishes and imperfections 1. Being here as he supposes in Christs kingdom of Glory he forecasts an erection of three Tabernacles One for Christ one for Moses one for Elias Christ here hath his family and Moses his and Elias his Whereas Christs Tabernacle and Church being erected Moses and Elias must not persist All must be in Christs Tabernacle or utterly excluded Elias must have a distinct Tabernacle from Moses till Christ comes and pitches his Tabernacle among men but then they must resign and give place to him Unum ovile all must be under one Head all one Flock and one Shepherd No man must Ducere familiam be the Master of the house but onely Christ all must come in and hide themselves in Christs Pavilion Thus the Corinthians they would build many Tabernacles One sets up a Tabernacle for Cephas another for Paul another Tabernacle for Apollo Paul
2 Chron. ii 6. He hath said he will dwell in the thick cloud 1 King viii Tabernacles and such poor earthly helps suit with our frailty his Glory can erect a more wonderful Pavilion 2. To allay and moderate the lustre and resplendency of that great Glory This Transfiguration and Glory of Christ hath overcome S. Peter he is not able to stand before the brightness of it he was swallowed up with it See here God attempers himself to their weakness abates of that Majesty and spreads a Pavilion and Shade of Clouds to shelter them from the surcharge of Glory that was too great for them As Moses put a vail on his face that he might not amaze and terrifie his people As we cannot look upon the Sun in its full brightness but under a cloud by refraction or reflection so the Majesty of Christ is unsupportable till he vails himself and abates his Glory and condescends to our frail capacity 3. A cloud overcasts and overshadows them to hinder their further prying and looking into that Glory He gives them a glimpse of Glory but overcasts it presently We must not search too far look too much into that Majesty Our curiosity would still be gazing and prying till God darkens himself and closes our sight from further beholding When the men of Galilee stood gazing up into heaven after Christ when he was taken up into heaven A cloud received him out of their sight Acts i. 9. Thus God curbs our bold approaches to his presence Moses would see the Face of God God shews him his Back-parts but hides his countenance When he appear'd on Sinai he set bounds to the people Tutum est nescire quod non licet scire Thus the Temple was framed the people were restrain'd to the outermost Court the Priests to the inward but there was a vail before the Sanctum Sanctorum Psal. xviii 11. He made darkness his secret place his Pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies Thus he doth 1. To strike reverence and awe into us The unsearchableness of Gods mysteries and our inability to view and comprehend them are purposed to work admiration and adoration in us 2. Ut sit locus Fidei God suffers not our eyes to behold his full Majesty and those heavenly mysteries to exercise our Faith in believing what we see not In extraordinary cases he shines more clearly but in ordinary he holds us to the dim light of Faith The Israelites in the night had a pillar of Fire but in the day a pillar of Cloud Hence we are said to walk by Faith and not by Sight Christiani non rationales sed fideles It is the goodness of Faith Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed Ioh. xx 29. 3. Ut sit locus Expectationi We must not see that Glory now but expect it hereafter As in the Primitive Church the Catechumeni were not suffered to see Baptisme or the Eucharist the more to quicken their desires after them so God casts a cloud before his Glory to make us long for that time when these clouds shall vanish and we behold him Face to Face As David admitting Absolom to Ierusalem but forbidding his coming to his presence provoked him to long to see the King's face 4. To withdraw and separate Moses and Elias from them Peter lingred and sued for a stay no a cloud is cast 'twixt him and them It is our condition we may and naturally we do linger after the society of the Saints still to retain them with us no God withdraws them and casts a cloud of separation and concealment that they are not to be seen again all further conversation with them is denied to us Papists they keep the passage open betwixt us and the Departed they pray to them and for them and tell us of their frequent Apparitions No our Religion sees a cloud cast betwixt us God hides them in his Pavilion As Christ was caught out of sight with a cloud so are we hindred from any further conversation with Saints departed Happy they who are taken from us as Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor in Christ's presence and caught up in a bright cloud of comfort 5. A cloud appears and overshadows them as a Symbole and Token of God the Father's presence Usually Gods presence was represented by a Cloud Thus he filled the Temple with a Cloud 1 Kings viii So Exod. xix A Cloud appeared upon Mount Sinai Numb xii 5. He came down and a pillar of Cloud appeared on the Tabernacle Now this representation of the Father in a Cloud implyes two things 1. Patris Invisibilitatem He dwells in a thick Cloud that is his Nature and Substance it is hidden and invisible This is a glorious Attribute of God S. Paul calls him The Invisible God Col. i. 15. 1. He is Invisible to the eye of the Body That spiritual Nature cannot be look'd upon by the eye of any creature No man hath seen God at any time Ioh. i. 18. Exod. xxxiii 20. Thou canst not see my Face He dwells in the Light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. vi 16. 2. He is Invisible by the eye of Reason the eye of the Soul The reach of Reason and Understanding cannot comprehend him No Definition can express him No Notion resemble him No Understanding fathom him All the wayes that Reason hath to know him are but three and they all fall short 1. Via Causalitatis Yet that is unsufficient he not communicating his whole Being or Substance to any creatures They are Vestigia but not Plena adâ—…quata 2. Via Negationis Removing all imperfections from him yet that shews what he is not not what he is 3. Via eminentiae By ascribing all created Excellencies and reducing them to him yet these are but similitudes of him not really true of him Then these are finite and we are not able to conceive infinity 3. He is Invisible to the eye of Grace That 's the apprehension of Faith and goes beyond Sense or Reason apprehends great things but yet it cannot attain to the seeing of God Faith rather leans on him then looks on him It knows him in his Attributes Word Promises Inspirations Feelings of Grace but himself it sees not he is still in the Cloud 4. Invisible because God the Father never was Visible by any Apparition The Son he is God manifested in the Flesh the Holy Ghost he appeared in the shape of a Dove and Cloven Tongues but the first Person never made himself known by any visible Apparition Hence it is that the Fathers conclude That in the Old Testament whensoever it is said that God appeared as to Adam Abraham Iacob c. still it was the Son who appeared and those assumed bodies were Praeludia Incarnationis 2. It represents Possibilitatem Manifestationis Still he dwells in the Cloud A Cloud it is obscure but yet it is vanishing it
may be dispelled The Sun is able to clear the heaven of Clouds So that Invisibility of God it is but for this life a time shall come when we shall have all vails removed all obscurities lightned all Clouds dispelled The Sun of righteousness shining shall scatter this mist Then we shall see him as he is In Lumine tuo videbimus Lumen The Essence of blessedness is this beatifical Vision of God That 's the first a Cloud it was that overshadowed them II. It was Nubes lucida A bright Cloud That imports two things 1. Evangelii câ—…aritatem the light and clearness that is in the Gospel When the Law was given to Moses there were thick dark Clouds the Mount was all overcast with smoke Here on Mount Tabor there was a Cloud but bright and lightsome Oh! The Law and the means of Salvation in it were dark and obscure and very reserved in regard of the shining Light the Gospel brings The Law that is a Cloud dark and obscure but the Gospel that is a clear Cloud Still indeed the Gospel is a Cloud it gives no full evident view but yet it is a clear Cloud it hath many rayes and beams of light in it The Law had a dark Cloud we could not see through it their shadows were remote and obscure Their Circumcision was a dark Cloud immediately signifying Gods Covenant with Abraham Our Baptisme is a Cloud a bodily material Type an outward Element but 't is a clear Cloud representing distinctly the washing away the filth of the flesh by the bloud of Christ. Their Passover was a dark Cloud representing their delivery out of Egypt immediately but darkly the Messias Our Lords Supper is a Cloud a vail of Bread and Wine is over it but yet it is a clear Cloud immediately shewing Christ and all his benefits Their Covenant was a Cloud covered with temporary Promises with the Promise of Canaan Ours is a Cloud indeed we cannot see those things that it promises but yet a clear Cloud immediately presenting to us immediate Promises of heaven The light of the Law was like the light of a Candle Ours as the Day-Star 2. Pacis serenitatem A bright Cloud overshadowed them signifying Chearfulness and Serenity The Cloud of Sinai was not so much Nubes as Nimbus full of storms and tempests thundrings and lightnings That Cloud kindled coals of fire it was exceeding terrible But the Cloud on Mount Tabor 't is a bright Cloud the emblem of Calmness and Serenity Thus the Gospel it is all peace and comfort Mount Sinai denounced Cursings Christ on the Mount begins with Blessing Matth. v. You are not come to the Mountain that burned with fire but to the Mountain of Olives yielding peace and security Moses his Mountain was like to Mount Ebâ—…l nothing but Cursings but Christ is on Mount Gerazim nothing but Blessings 'T is called An overshadowing Cloud that is comforting refreshing sheltring Mons Legis tumens Mons Christi exultans full of exultations and rejoycings Now follows Secondly The solemn publication of this Testimony Two things in it 1. The Manner of Expression 't is Vox è Nube A Voyce out of the Cloud 2. The Matter and Summ of it Hic est Filius meus dilectus This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased First The Manner of Expression A Voyce came out of the Cloud I told you before the Cloud betoken'd the presence of the Father see now the manifestation of him it is Per Vocem è Nube 1. It is Vox è Nube A Voyce out of the Cloud 'T is the Observation that Moses makes of Gods speaking out of the Cloud Ye heard a Voyce A visis remittit ad audita First they had representations to their eyes They saw his Glory now he recalls them to the ear To hear a Voyce Thus he furnished both the disciplinable senses Eyes and Ears As we have Heard so have me seen Thus in the Church we have Verlum Audibile and Verbum Visibile helps for both Eyes and Ears What we have Heard and Seen and Felt saith S. Iohn 2. Vox à Nube à Visis ad Audita He recalls them from extraordinary Visions to the Hearing of the Ear. That is the saving sense The sense of greatest Discipline saith Reason the sense of Faith saith Religion Popery is a Religion for the Eye Ours for the Ear. A Christian is described In auditu Auris At the Hearing of the Ear they shall obey Hearing it is that breeds Faith It is a comfort to have these Visions Tastings Feelings but if all these fail us or be denied us yet if we can Hear and Believe it sufficeth We must stick to this In this sense All the Body must be an Ear. Miracula muta sine voce but Seals to a Blank 3. Vox è Nube This Testimony of Christ comes out of the Cloud from God the Father It implyes three Excellencies in this Revelation 1. 'T is Vox è Nube It is Supernaturalis Revelationis It is sent and discovered to us by extraordinary Revelation The knowledge of Christ and the mysteries of his Kingdome 't is not inbred or to be obtained here below by natural means but must come by Revelation and from above A Patre luminum from the Father of lights Lux à primo lucido The way of this wisdom is by natural reason past finding out 'T is a path which no Fowl knoweth and which the Vultures eye hath not seen Iob xxviii 7. The Sun cannot be seen but by its own light nor can Christ be known but by his own Revelation See how Christ poses and catechises his Apostles Whom do men say that I am Matth. xvi 13. See how distracted they are in their opinions Some say Elias some Iohn the Baptist some Ieremias or one of the Prophets roving and ghessing and all mistaking But whom say ye that I am Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Flesh and bloud hath not revealed it but my Father which is in heaven The knowledge of Christ it is an unsearchable mysterie secret and laid up in the bosome of Eternity Which if it be then 1. It is made known Ad placitum 2. It is dispensative As much as he pleaseth 3. It is out of special favour Secret things to secret ones 2. 'T is Vox è Nube It is Supremae Authoritatis It is a Testimony of the highest and most soveraign Authority It comes from the Excellent Glory as S. Peter speaks 2 Pet. i. 17. The Testimonies of men may be questioned but Gods warrant from heaven is past exception The Pharises demanded a Testimony from heaven and then they would yield All Religions would pretend their Original from heaven Ours is so without controversie 1. It is the confirmation of our Faith as S. Peter speaks 2 Pet. i. 16. We have not followed cunningly devised fables in preaching of Christ to you No This Voyce came from heaven to us Shew us the Father Lord and it
of God There was no guile found in his mouth There was in him exact Purity of Nature without stain or blemish The Prince of this world cometh and he hath nothing in me Ioh. xiv 30. that he can search out and accuse me for As the Son in the Gospel he can say truly to his Father I have served thee alwayes I never offended thee It was his meat and drink to obey him He was holy harmless separate from sinners Heb. vii 26. Secondly Consider this in respect of the Virtue of his Mediation In him he is well pleased with us also Conceive this point 1. By way of Negation In Christ God is well pleased with us therefore out of Christ he is offended and displeased with us 2. By way of Affirmation In Christ God is well pleased In him he is graciously appeased and reconciled with us First Conceive it by way of Negation Out of Christ God is offended and displeased with us Take a double measure and proportion of this Displeasure 1. Is Mensura Intensionis the depth of his Displeasure The Scripture sets it out in many gradual Expressions 1. Is Alienatio He is estranged from us we are cast out of his Covenant His favour is withdrawn we are cast away from his Countenance As Cain Gen. iv 14. He was driven away from the face of God We are strangers and afar off from him Ephes. ii He beholds us afar off as one that owns us not 2. Is Poenitentia The Scripture sets out his Displeasure at us by attributing to God a Repentance that ever he made us Gen. vi 6. It repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth and it grieved him at his heart Not that God really repenteth For he is not as man that he should repent 1 Sam. xv 29. but he hath no more content in us then a man hath in that which he repents of and wishes were undone 3. Is Ira In him are thoughts of wrath and Indignation against us a bent and purpose of will to punish and afflict and make us smart in his Displeasure In him is wrath and jealousie and fury and storms of Displeasure and we are children of wrath vessels of wrath into which he pours out his anger 4. Is Odiunt Hatred that is deeper Anger may be suddenly up and soon pacified but his Displeasure against us out of Christ it is Hatred that 's deep and deadly and lasting it looks at Destruction Every punishment doth not content Hatred but it ayms at Perdition 5. Is Abominatio That is more then hatred It carries with it a secret antipathy and loathing of us his Soul abhorrs us The wicked are an abomination to the Lord. His eyes cannot behold us he abhorrs to look upon iniquity 6. Is Gaudium in Perditione The Scripture goes thus high The Lord even rejoyceth in his Justice triumphing over sinners in their Perdition Ah! I will ease me of mine Adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies Isa. i. 24. Prov. i. 26. I will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh That 's the first Mensura Intensionis The other 2. Is Mensura Extensionis The Measure of Gods Extending this Displeasure It is observable in three Manifestations of it 1. It is Universal with our whole nature He is not displeased with some few onely but with root and branch stock and fruit The whole generation of Mankind is displeasing to him Not onely some few notorious wretches as Cain and Esau c. but even the most moderate restrained men if there be nothing but Nature in them they are all out of favour All of us are Children of wrath as well as others Ephes. ii 3. The best of them is a briar Micah vii 4. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one All have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. i. 23. Now antipathy is universal 't is to all of the same kind The Lamb hates every Wolf 2. It is respectively to all even our best services and performances Out of Christ God refuseth all counts them all abominable Nay our Incense the Odours of our Prayers if we are out of Christ they are all unhallowed breath The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. Our sacrifices are a burden to him he rejects all our attendances Why tread you in my Courts Their Vine is the Wine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrha their Grapes are Grapes of gall their clusters are bitter their Wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruel venome of Asps Deut. xxii 32. Our natural best fruits respectively to eternal life are odious and abominable 3. The Extent of this Displeasure reacheth even to the creatures that are about us Even for our sakes the whole Creation is involved in his Displeasure Sin hath blasted the beauty of all Gods workmanship God is out of love with the whole frame of the world in indignation to man's sin At our Fall Gen. iii. the earth was cursed and that curse none but Christ can take off Malachi closeth up the Old Testament with this same curse I will smite the earth with a curse The Law leaves the creatures under a curse In the Law the house the bed the seat of the Leper were all defiled so the whole frame of the creatures is defiled leprous by our contagion We have made Pardise a Pest-house The whole Creation groans being made subject to corruption and vanity Rom. viii As it was said of Ierusalem Why hath the Lord done thus to this City So of the whole world Why is it devoted to destruction 'T is because of God's Displeasure at sinners Conceive Secondly This point Affirmatively In Christ God is well pleased in him graciously appeased and reconciled with us Here we must make two enquiries 1. Quibus modis By what means 2. Quibus gradibus By what degrees Christ hath wrought it 1. Quibus modis By what means hath Christ gained us the love of his Father These four wayes 1. By his Intercession He is well pleased in him Praying and Interceding for us The Prayer of our Saviour is of Infinite power to prevail with God Ioh. xi 42. Father I know that thou hearest me alwayes It argues the love and power of friendship when we obtain not onely for our selves or those about us but can reconcile and pacifie offences towards others It argued great favour to Abraham that he could prevail so much for Sodom Thus God graced Iob when his friends were sent to beg his entreaties Much more do the Intercessions of Christ those strong cries and supplication by which he continually obtains mercy for us argue God's being highly pleased with him Moses his prayer for the people bound the hands of God Now therefore let me alone Exod. xxxii 10. Yet that is nothing so prevailing
we gain by Gods Presence is That it brings with it the Glory of a Nation It is the high dignity and renown and honour of a people that God abides with them as S. Paul speaks Rom. iii. 1. What advantage then hath the Iew What is the dignity of having God so near to them Much every way Thus Moses sets out the dignity of the Jews from this near reference 'twixt God and them Deut. xxvi 18. The Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people And vers 19. To make thee high above all Nations which he hath made in praise and in name and in honour This nearness of Gods Presence God compares in Ior. xiii 11. to a Girdle cleaving to his loyns As the girdlâ—… cleaves to the loyns of a man so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel that they might be unto me for a people and for a name and for a praise and for a glory So likewise Isa. xliii 4. Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee When God reckons up the dignities of his people this is the main Psal. lxxxvii 5. Of Zion it shall be said that he was born in her Thus Moses re-minds the Israelites wherein their dignity consists Deut. x. 21. He is thy praise and he is thy God There are many titles of Honour amongst men but this above all is the truly honourable Title that we have God near unto us Deut. iv 7. What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is to us While he vouchsafed his Presence to them how renowned were they When he withdrew himself and cast them off how became they a vile people the hatred and scorn and contempt of all Nations A 3 d. Advantage that Gods Presence brings 't is the Strength and Safety of a Nation I'sal xlvi 5. God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved He calls himself 1 Sam. xv 29. the Strength of Israel Balaam could not fasten a curse upon Israel while God was among them Num. xxiii 21. The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a King is among them It was this that encouraged the people of Israel against the Canaanites Numb xiv 9. Their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us fear them not Though there were Giants and their Cities be walled up to heaven yet fear them not So again Moses encourages them Deut. vii 21. Thou shalt not be affrighted at them for the Lord thy God is among you a mighty God and terrible And so on the contrary when the people being in a great sin would needs go up to fight Moses dislwades them God had then withdrawn himself Go not up for the Lord is not amongst you Sampson wist not that God was departed from him and the Philistines prevail'd over him How did Moses lament when God said He would not go with them So doth the Psalmist Thou goest not forth with our Armies His Presence it is our Palladium our Shield and Fortress The Shields of the earth belong unto God Psal. xlvii 9. It was said to Constantine In hoc vinces Well then If so much good comes to us by Gods Presence amongst us it is worth the enquiry Wherein doth this Presence of God consist How is he said and known to dwell in a Nation I mean not now his substantiall Presence so he is present in all places that Presence fills heaven and earth Ier. xxiii Nor do we now speak of his glorious Presence where his Majesty and Glory shines that is in the heavens Heaven is his Throne No nor yet do we mean his miraculous Presence where he manifests himself in some extraordinary work of his Power thus the Israelites when they were in want question'd his Presence Is the Lord amongst us yea or no No besides all these he hath a gracious Presence by which he dwells amongst us Yes that gracious and merciful and beneficial Presence is that we speak of How shall that appear to us 1. God dwells in a Nation which he chuses to be his Peculiar people the people of his Covenant amongst whom he fixes his Sanctuary and establishes his Worship As David speaks The Lord hath chosen Iacob to be his Inheritance Thus Hosea calls the Nation and Countrey of the Jews The Lords Land Hos. ix 3. All the world is his dominion but by special purchase and possession so the Church is his That is like the Lords Demeans which himself holds in his own hand 2. The place of Gods delight that is the residence of his special Presence Delight fixes a man to his abode When we are such a people that God takes pleasure in us then he saith Here will I dwell for I have a delight in it The Lord hath chosen Zion he hath desired it for his habitation here will I dwell and rest in it Psal. cxxxii 3. There are we to reckon of Gods special Presence where he sets his Family that is the usual place of presence and abode Where we see God gathers to himself a Church is daily collecting to himself a people to know him and worship him there we may conclude God vouchsafes his Presence Thus Christ is described to walk among the Churches Rev. i. When it may be said of a place as God saith of Corinth Acts xviii 10. I have much people in this City there resolve that God is present When they grow thinner and thinner it is to be feared God is then removing 4. There we conclude is a place of Presence and abode where a man bestows most cost A Land-lord will keep up all his possessions so doth God the World but his chiefest care is for his Mansion-house Do we see a people enriched with his choysest blessings His eyes are over them continually no favour is too dear for them Surely God dwells among such a people 5. A man is said to dwell where his abode is most constantly Sometimes God makes his Progress and Excursions into other places as he did to Niniveh by the preaching of Ionah He may be sometimes as a way-faring man that lodges for a night Ier. xiv 8. He may shew some rare tokens of his being amongst them But when he pitches his Tabernacle where his Ordinances are constantly and he fixes them there that is the place of his Presence We have done with the first God's presence it is the happiness of a Nation II. The second Consideration is T is the bitter fruit of sin that causeth God to withdraw his presence and to turn away from us 1. This is the malignant effect of sin that it parts God and us makes a separation moves him to withdraw and turn away from us He rejoyces in the habitable parts of the world and his delights are with the sons of men Prov. viii 31. But sin and wickedness causes an alienation in him and estrangeth him from
means of this life there is a Worm of Corruption that will breed in them This uncertainty and failing in the Creature will appear to us in these three Particulars 1. In their production and breeding there is a great deal of uncertainty In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening with-hold not thine hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that saith Salomon Ecclesiast xi 6. He who sowes sowes in hope upon adventure God gives it a body at his pleasure The dew of Heaven the influences of the Stars the lust and strength of the Soil all uncertainties to mans Providence Ye have sown much and bring in little saith God in Haggai chap. i. 6. Ye looked for twenty measure and there were but ten for fifty vessels and there were but twenty chap. 2. 16. A great uncertainty in their Production 2. There is a great deal of uncertainty and insufficiency in their use there may be a failing in that It is possible we may receive the fruits of the earth in plenty and abundance and yet come shoâ—…t of the comforts of them The Prophet tells us of Bread and of a Staff of Bread This Staff of Bread may be broken and then that supply of life is weak and impotent Levit. xxvi 26. When I have broken the Staff of your Bread then ye shall eat and not be satisfied There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread and the Foison and nourishing strength in Bread We may have the first and yet miss of the second and so that creature will prove empty and insufficient to us And the reason is because the vigour and nourishing power of the creatures are not originally in them but by a voluntary derivation from God into them He is the Authour and Fountain of Life Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are quickned Psal. civ 30. It is in him that we live and move and have our being This strength and helpfulness in the creature it is but as a beam from the Sun intercept the Sun and the beam vanisheth It is as a branch from the root divide it from the root and the branch withereth It is but as a stream from the fountain seal up the fountain and the stream dries up Our Saviviour tells us Matth. iv 4. Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God He must speak that word or our bread will not nourish us There is a threefold Word on which it doth depend 1. A Verbo ordinante He hath given an original Law and command to the creatures that they may nourish us 2. A Verbo sustentante These weak creatures must in their use be supported by the word of his Power or they cannot comfort us If he withdraws away his face they perish Psal. civ 29. 3. A Verbo benedicente That virtue that is in them will lye dead unable to put forth it self except his Blessing gives it an actual working to refresh and cherish us 'T is he who fills our hearts with food and gladness Acts xiv 17. Without which influence from God how poor and insufficient are all helps of nature As the Prophet Haggai expresses it Chap. i. 6. Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye cloath you but there is none warm Of themselves they are poor beggerly elements empty husks their goodness is not inclosed in them The comfort they convey unto us 't is from an higher fountain That 's the second they may fail in their use 3. The very being and substance of these natural helps carry with it this condition That they are vanishing and fading 1. As creatures so there is a seed of decay and fading in them The most excellent and permanent creature of it self tends to nothing if not supported with the word of Gods Power Heb. i. 6. There is a Pondus Naturae and there must be Manutenentia Divina that must sustain it As S. Augustine speaks of man He is Terraefilius Nihili nepos the Earth was his Mother Nothing was his Grandfather As all creatures came out of Nothing so thither would they sink again and return to nothing 2. As sublunary creatures so by their natural composition they are subject to fading and corruption All things under the Moon are fading and transitory The heavens have a frame of perpetuity but these creatures that are the means of our lives they are full of variety uncertainty contrariety all grounds of corruption 3. Consider the creatures as living under Gods curse for the sin of man and so they are subject to a greater weakness and vanity Gods displeasure doth blast them suck out the strength and vigour of them and it brings upon them not only Adam's punishment not to yield us fruit without our labour but often times Cain's curse they are barren fruitless though we do labour As his Blessing can put a strange virtue and vivacity into them Daniel's Pulse was more nourishing then the King 's Dainties It made a little Meal in the barrel and Oyl in the cruse to yield plenty So on the contrary his Indignation consumes the strength and vigour of nature Master the tree that thou cursedst is presently withered See this in the Israelites they must needs have Quails and Dainties the most nourishing food he sent it them to the full but what saith David He sent leanness withall into their soul Psal. cvi 15. It never thrives with them He sent among his fat ones leanness Isa. x. 16. This vanishing weakness of the creatures should make us think what to reckon of our lives Such as the fewel is such must needs be the fire Straw and stubble yield but a sudden blaze and soon out again And if these succours and supports of life be thus vanishing and fading sure then Life it self is but a transitory thing no matter of consistence Weak materials make no strong buildings and vanishing meats breed but a vanishing life Our Saviour calls them but perishing meats Labour not for the meat that perisheth Iohn vi 27. And S. Paul sets out this condition both of meat and life 1 Cor. vi 13. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again Iohn iv 13. These outward helps may for a time refresh but not alwayes preserve and support our lives All these outward things they are but Consolatiunculae temporales as S. Augustine calls them petty transient comforts like the refreshings of Ionah's gourd but the shade of a few leaves and there is a worm at the root of it that will consume it presently So much of the first Extraction The creatures are weak and may fail us II. A second Extraction from the Text is When Scarcity and Want comes as a judgement from God and from his wrath and heavy displeasure then it is extreme and extraordinary and
excess hath brought this judgment upon you God usually meets with men in their own ways Covetousness and earthly-mindedness luxury and excess all of them are abuses of these good gifts of God To punish us in the loss of these is a proper punishment 3. This calamity of dearth and scarcity the failing of the creatures that the earth doth not give her increase 't is a proportionable judgment The creatures are made to be our servants we are made to be Gods servants As long as we do perform our service to him the creatures shall yield their strength and increase and prove serviceable to us But if we fail God how just is it then that the creatures should fail us As S. Aug. sweetly observes our Reason would not obey God therefore our Sense shall not obey Reason As Hushi said to Absalom Whom all Israel makes King and serves him will I serve excusing his seeming revolt from David so when the creatures start aside and revolt from us prove unserviceable to us 't is their real profession They must serve their grand Lord if we revolt from him they revolt from us The Father's words are these Lib. 13. de Civit. 113. Qui superiorem Dominum deseruerunt inferiorem famulum ad suum arbitrium non tenebant And de Nupt. Conjug lib. 1. cap. 16. Injustum erat ut ei obtemperetur à servo suo qui non obediverat domino suo 4. God oft-times singles out dearth and famine to punish a Nation with it is a deep and evident and apparent judgment War and oppression and captivity many other calamities mans hand is seen in them they are agents and instruments in bringing them upon us And in such calamities we can be content not to see Gods hand in them but to charge our sufferings upon the malice of men as if God and we were in good terms God oft-times loses the glory of such afflictions As indeed the heart of man is exceeding desirous in all afflictions if it be possible to prove that God is not the authour but some other cause As Pharaoh laboured a long time to prove that God sent not those plagues upon him but that Moses wrought them some other way his Enchanters could do as much as that came to till at last they cried out It is the finger of God Now in such a judgment as want and famine to weaken the strength of nature to make that fruitfull womb of the earth barren to us none but God can do it He onely can make the heavens as brass and the earth as Iron and restrain the celestial influences Can man bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bonds of Orion Iob xxxviii 31. Can any but God forbid the clouds to drop fatness No these Judgments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must cry out God fights against us 5. Famine it is a Scourge wherewith he uses to chastise a people as being a comprehensive Judgment like a chain-shot that bears all before it Many other calamities that are brought upon us by humane means are most-what avoidable by humane helps Wisdom or riches or strength may exempt or secure from some other annoyances but scarcity and famine that strikes at the life of every man All must beg daily bread The profit of the earth is for all the King himself is served by the field Eccles. v. 9. No King can help against this Judgment If the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press said the King of Israel in the famine of Samaria 2 Kings vi 27. These extremities are unavoidable They will make us look up to heaven and say with Iehosaphat O Lord we have no might against this Judgment that comes upon us Neither know we what to do but our eyes are towards thee 2 Chron. xx 12. III. A third Extraction from the Text is Gods own children and servants are lyable to these extremities of want and scarcity which God brings upon the world as well as others The Prophet here in his own name and in the name of the Church hath a fearfull apprehension of them Indeed sometimes and in some Judgments God vouchsafes a special exemption to his Church and Children Instance in three cases 1. To preserve an holy portion of his People and a Nursery for his Church Isaiah acknowledges it Chap. i. 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left us a small remnant we should have been as Sodom and like unto Gomorrah Still a remnant shall be saved And S. Paul applies it to the preservation of his chosen People Rom. ix 29. Gods Church must remain to all Posterity no Judgment must sweep them all away In this case when common Judgments are sent upon the world he exempts his own When the deluge came upon the old world an Ark was provided to save Noah and the holy seed When he visits them he doth it in measure he makes not a full end of them 2. God exempts his own People from common Judgments when the Judgments are sent in the cause of his Church to manifest and maintain that they are his People and that their sufferings from the world are most unjust then usually he puts a difference and exempts his own from common calamities Thus in all the plagues of Egypt Gosben was priviledged he put a difference betwixt the Hebrews and the Egyptians he passed over them when he plagued their enemies Thus in the case of famine Isaiah tells the enemies of Gods People Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry Behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Isai. lxv 13. Malachi assures them of this exemption and that God will make it appear Who are his Chap. iii. 17. In that day when I make up my jewels I will spare them as a man spares his own Son that serves him and then shall ye diseevn between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serves him not 3. In the pùnishment of those sins which his children have withstood opposed protested against and mourned for usually in that case God exempts such Saints and Servants of his This obtained Lot's exemption out of Sodom's overthrow he mourned for the abominations that were done in Sodom and S. Peter makes it a ruling case and argues from it 2 Pet. ii 5. If God spared not the old world but saved Noah the eighth person a Preacher of Righteousness and in the overthrow of Sodom verf. 7. delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked thence he gathers this Conclusion vers 9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation This protected Ieremiah and kept him out of captivity This holy carriage exempted Baruch his life was given him for a prey Those that mourned for the abominations of the Land were marked out by God for escapal and deliverance
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bound in the Spirit carried by a strong guidance of the Holy-Ghost in all his conversation Hath he vouchsafed to dwell in thee Yield up thy self to his command and authority 4. Dwelling implies Care and Protection and Provision All that are within the Verge are under Protection The Master of the house is to see to all and to provide for them The good man of the house wakes soonest and watches longest Aristotle gives this rule in his Oeconomicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The care of his house belongs to him Nor is this Spirit of Christ wanting in this property A Christian possess'd by God hath a Patent of Protection a full supply of all comfortable provision He will safe-guard his house and protect it he withstands all assaults made upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he resists the assaults that Satan makes upon it He that destroyes the Temple of God him shall God destroy See the Patent of Provision that God grants to his houshold My servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Isai. lxv 13. For use 1. It should teach us gladly to yield up our selves as Mansions for him to dwell and abide in us not onely to receive him guest-wise or at some good time onely as at a Communion but resign up all to him give him the keys let no room be shut up against him Invite him to come in unto us to own and possess us Turn in my Lord turn in to me 2. When he hath taken up his dwelling offend him not by any thing that may make him mislike much less give over and forsake his dwelling Res delicata est Spiritus Dei Tertul. 'T is not every rude and homely entertainment that will content him Nobilem hospitem habes O anima O man thou lodgest a glorious Inhabitant study to please him We must not grieve him Ephes. iv 30. much less resist him Actâ—… vii least of all despise him Heb. x. 29. He will abide no longer than where he is observed As the spirit of man stayes no longer in the body then it is pliant to him hinder it from working and it forsakes us presently 3. This Inhabitation of the Spirit in us challenges a reverence of the souls and bodies of Gods Saints as of the Mansion-place where God himself abides Violence to a Temple 't is counted Sacriledge such a Prophanation is no less then an Abomination to God Neither scorn nor cruelty nor any unworthy usage to these Temples of the living God but strikes at the face of God himself Do you despise the house of God saith S. Paul As Christ saith He that swears by the Temple swears by it and him that dwells in it so he that violates the body of a Saint offers indignity to that God that dwells in it Take heed of profaning your selves being dedicated and devoted to the Holy Ghost Thus S. Paul dehorts them from uncleanness The body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body Portastis Dominum in corpore vestro as the old Translation hath it Possess them in Holinesse and Honour We have seen the particulars Now II. Briefly take notice of the summary intent and purpose of this Clause If the Spirit of him that raised Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies The Exigence and Illation from this Conditional is thus much That Sanctification is a necessary Requisite to a glorious Resurrection The expectation of future Glory it must be founded upon present Grace Thou will not give thine holy One to see corruption saith David Psal. xvi Solum Sanctum non videbit corruptionem saith S. Bern. 'T is holiness that embalmes our dead bodies and will keep them from corruption The many habitudes and references that Holiness hath to Happiness Grace to Glory will confirm this truth 1. Grace in reference to Glory it hath Rationem seminis Everlasting life it is called the fruit of holiness Rom. vi 22. and Galat. vi 8. He that sowes to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Sementis hodie â—…ras messis saith S. Chrysostom This life is the Seed-time the next life is the Harvest If there be no Seed-time of Grace never expect any Harvest of Glory 2. Grace unto Glory hath the respect of a First-fruits to the whole Crop Rom. viii 23. We that have the first-fruits of the Spirit wait for the redemption of our bodies The First-fruits dedicated the whole Harvest These ripe Ears of Grace are a blessed assurance of the full Sheaves of Glory to be reaped hereafter 3. Grace unto Glory hath the respect of a Fountain to a Stream or River Ioh. iv 14. The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life And what that Well of water is he tells us chap. vii 39. This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive Damm or dry up the Spring-head and the Streams flow not we must begin at the Fountain of Grace if ever we mean to attain to the Ocean of Glory 4. Grace unto Glory hath the respect of a pledge or earnest or seal unto a full actual Possession 2 Cor. i. 2. Who hath sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts And again Eph. i. 13. Ye are sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith S. Chrysost. It seals up all and is in stead of all Theodosius made it a Law That they who received not the Pledge of Matrimony should lose their Dowry Without this earnest of Grace we cannot expect the fruition of Glory 'T is like the red thread on Rahab's house if we part with that token we cannot escape 5. Indeed there is so near a Conjunction twixt Grace and Glory that the Scripture makes them both the same thing Saint Peter calls Grace The Spirit of Glory The Spirit of God and of Glory rests on you 1 Pet. iv 14. They differ but in degrees as the Morning-light doth to the light of the perfect-Day Prov. iv 18. Grace 't is the beginning and day-break and dawning of Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as there is some light before the Sun rises Glory 't is nothing but gratia consummata and the blessedness of Heaven 't is gloriosa sanctitas holiness in the brightest hue shining in its full lustre This makes the Scripture urge and enforce the necessity of Holiness Follow holiness without which none shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. c. We have done with the first Particular The Condition upon which our Resurrection is promised If the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you Now follows Secondly The efficient cause
wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us Observe saith the Father here upon earth we have Masters and Mistrisses but in heaven Non habemus Dominum Dominam but onely our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ that must have mercy upon us Now follows Elisha's desire I pray thee let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me He answers not Elijah as Ahaz to Isaiah when he bad him ask a Sign no I will not ask Isai. vii 11 12. Elijah no sooner maks proffer but he lays hold on it 'T is good making use of Elijah while we have him with us unfold our wants to him that he may supply them Elijah must not always continue among us The times may come when we shall wish to see one of the days of the Son of man and it shall not be Oh in this thy day now the Angel is stirring the water yet Elijah is among us do as Elisha he makes haste petitions him presently Of which Petition take a double Consideration 1. Quid Supponit 2. Quid Petit. I. Quid Supponit Here are four Supposals 1. The first Supposal is Identitas Spiritus He supposes the same Spirit shall be settled upon him that rested on Elijah Here is a continuation of the same Spirit in a succession of men Elijah is taken away Yes but his Spirit shall remain The means and instruments of grace may be removed but the gifts of the Spirit shall continue still It is worth the observing God ties not himself to any personal perfections Oh we think If such a Saint dies what will become of the Church 'T is a loss but yet in diversity of men here is the same Spirit When Moses died his spirit rested upon Ioshua Aaron died Eleazar was invested and clothed with the same Spirit It must comfort us when we see glorious Instruments taken from us Paul a Luther c. yet the same spirit remains and breathes in his Church As it was said to the evil servant Tolle talentum da so of the good The Lord needs no mans person or parts he can set his Spirit upon another 2. A second Supposal is Portio Spiritus The Spirit of Elijah is apportioned out in a limited dispensation It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We receive but in part no man hath all in kind or degrees To one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word Knowledge by the same Spirit to another the gifts of Healing to another Prophecie c. 1 Cor. xii 8 9. 10. The most enriched Saint hath but what he enjoys in measure they have indeed a fulness but then it is onely 1. A fulness of Capacity 2. A fulness of Sufficiency for their use but not of absolute Perfection Aaron had the Spirit poured on him others had it but sprinkled Quantum causa exigit propter quam datur Ambros. 3. A third Supposal is Inaequalitas portionum There is a single portion and a double portion Some have one talent some two another five There is not any Saint but hath one not any that have all but some more some less Benjamin's mess was five times as much as any of the rest of his brethrens 4. A fourth Supposal is Duplicatio in juniore Elisha the successour and junior may have a double Portion more then Elijah his predecessour God can cross his hands as Iacob did and lay his right hand upon Ephraims head who was the younger and his left hand upon Manassehs head who was the first-born Gen. xlviii 14. We cannot prescribe to God 'T is neither the age of men nor the precedency of times that is any thing but the Lord may be as bountifull to this Age as unto Antiquity It is no disparagement to Elijah that Elisha exceeds him After-ages may be furnished with more eminent men in some kinds then the more Primitive and Ancient times have been We worthily reverence Antiquity and rise up at the gray head but yet God may double some gifts on their successours Augustine Hierom the rest were most reverend yet Luther Calvin others more famous in their generation There is a double Use of a double Portion 1. For Founding 2. For Repairing and Reforming of Churches And as great a measure of the Spirit is as necessary for this as that Iohn must come in Spiritu Eliae to found the Gospel After-ages have the promise of the spirit of Elias too in reforming The one to preach Christ the other to resist Antichrist How do some slight our late Worthies These Novelists Modern Yester-day-Divines But Quis contempsit diem parvulorum And let no man despise thy youth As it is said of some good Kings none like David none like Hezekiah none like to Iosiah before or after Why because each excelled in some personal grace of zeal or piety or integrity So these late-ones were eminent in some things before all other that preceded Patres tum demum vincunt cum vincuntur à filiis Ancients would have gloried in their posterity and why enviest thou for their sakes That 's for the first Quid Supponit Now follows II. Quid Petit The summ of his Desire That a double portion of thy Spirit may be upon me In it observe two things 1. The Matter of his Desire that 's Elijah's Spirit 2. The Measure of it A double portion First The Matter of his Request Had many of us such a large Offer made us to ask what we would I fear we should not have pitched upon this request of Elisha for a spiritual blessing Elijah had a power of curing and raising from the dead health and long life some would have asked Elijah could cause plenty bring famine increase oyl others would have urged a supply of riches Elijah could bring down fire to consume his enemies others would have desired victory and safety The Lord implies that naturally these are our carnal desires in his reply to Solomon 1 Kings iii. 11. Because thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thy self long life neither hast asked riches for thy self nor hast asked the life of thine enemies c. See here is one who passes by all these and knows how to frame a Petition aright that he is sure shall speed the prayer for the Spirit Oh 't is a great advantage to know what to pray for Docet dare qui prudenter rogat The choosing of the better part prevails with God Herod offers to the Damosel to ask what she will and she asks the head of S. Iohn the Baptist the life of her enemy Piety will ask the spirk of the Baptist. But why doth Elisha pitch upon this request Why begs he the Spirit 1. He had Spirium vocantem now he begs the Spirit enabling He was called to a spiritual Function now he sues for a spiritual enablement for the discharge and execution of it If God puts us into a Calling we must beg and seek for gifts answerable to it See Moses
desperate once miscarried and lost for ever Oh then take heed the whole stock is at the stake if thou miscarriest here thou art undone for ever Such is the hazard and miscarriage of the day of Judgment Other days and duties may have a revolution if we fail at one time we may mend it afterwards an after-game may recover all again But the state and condition which Death and the day of Judgment will put us into it is fixed and unalterable As the tree falls so it lies As death leaves us so Judgment shall find us It is appointed for all men once to die and then after death comes judgment Heb. ix 27. Once to die and but once Had we a succession of lives and deaths as Origen and some others fondly â—…ancied then had we miscarried in one we might recover our selves in a second No we must die once for all and then comes Judgment The sentence that then shall be passed upon us it is not to be re-called it is not as the Civilians speak in their Law an Interlocutory Sentence but final and peremptory never to be reversed Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel In all Contracts and Bargains every man will take heed of that that must bind him for ever How much more should we take heed to our selves in this final and fatal business in our preparations to the day of Judgment Come we to the next Particular which is II. The Persons who are concerned in this Caveat to whom our Saviour directs this Caveat Attendite vobis Take heed to your selves Christ brings this Caveat home to them and lays it close to their hearts and consciences they must look about them it concerns them And then the strength and force of this Application to these persons will appear by these three expressions which will more fully set out the nature and necessity of the Caveat 1. Vobis sciscitantibus inquirentibus You that are questioning and enquiring about that day Take you heed to your selves In the seventh Verse we find the Disciples so S. Matthew terms them Chap. 24. asking of Christ 1. Concerning the time of his Coming 2. Enquiring of those signs that shall forego and usher in the day of his Appearing And Christ in part satisfies their Query acquaints them with his coming to judgment and the signs of it But withall takes occasion from their curious question to enforce upon them a profitable and usefull and necessary exhortion Take heed to your selves He doth not say Attendite signis you do well to be inquisitive about the signs of my Coming to be able to calculate the times to foresee and foretell the end of the world and my coming to judgment but this he urgeth Attendite Vobis look well to your selves to your own state and condition how that day shall find you Ask your selves Isaiah's question Chap. x. 3. What will ye do in the day of Visitation Aâ—…k also Ezekiel's question Chap. xxii 14. Can thine heart endâ—…re or â—…an thine hand be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee And yet again Isai. xxxiii 14. Who amongst us shall dwell with 〈◊〉 fire Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Our Saviour calls them off from musing upon these wonderfull prognostications as the Angel speaks Acts i. 11. Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into heaven The darkness of the Sun the falling of the Stars the roaring of the Sea the trembling of the Heavens he bids them call their thoughts homewards and fore-cast with themselves how they shall be able to abide that day and undergo the trial of it It gives plain check and reproof to the curious Enquiries that naturally we are prone to make into Gods secrets Our brains will be full of questions and speculations about many high Mysteries but our hearts remain void of those sad and serious thoughts to make good use of them to our selves A man may be very curious and yet withall extreme careless exceeding inquisitive in matters of knowledge and yet notoriously careless in the practick part The consideration of the day of Judgment 't is not a matter of contemplation as it were to see a blazing Star an Eclipse of the Sun or some wonder in Nature but it abodes some great thing to us-wards Meditate upon it as upon the day of thine account and of thy making or marring for ever Thus S. Paul brings this doctrine of the day of Judgment to practise 2 Cor. v. 10. We must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ. Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men So S. Peter 2 Pet. iii. 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night and the heavens shall pass away with a noise Seeing then these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation Thus Noah when he was warned of the Deluge he was moved with fear and prepared an Ark for the saving of himself he asked no question disputed not how it could be that all the world should be drowned but fell to building of an Ark for his preservation How many are ready to dispute How long it will be to the end of the world and yet live so as if it were but a meer dream and fable No Christ shews us the right use of these truths calls us to the moral and practick part As when one propounded a curious question to Christ Luke xiii 23. Lord Are there few that shall be saved A strange Querie How many Mark Christ's answer to him Strive to enter in at the strait gate Few or many what is that to thee strive thou to be one of them As S. Aug. piously silenced that intricate Question How originall Sin is conveyed Oh saith he Let us strive how to remove it It were strange when we see an house on fire to stand questioning how it kindled No let us bestir our selves and haste to quench it It is strange in this so serious a business of the day of Judgment which so nearly concerns us how mens wits will busie themselves in many nice Enquiries ye may meet with many such Questions in the School-men as 1. How long to it 2. In what place of the world the judgment shall be held 3. What kind of fire shall then be burning 4. Whether Christ shall come with a Cross carried before him As if Malefactors in the Jayl should fall a reasoning and debating what weather it would be at the day of Assizes or of the Judges habit and retinue and never bethink themselves how to answer their Indictment that they may escape condemnation Oh what David saith of his own days let us say of that day of Christ Teach us O Lord so to reckon and meditate of that day that we may apply our hearts to Wisdom That is the first Vobis sciscitantibus 2. Vobis vivis praesentibus Christ gives this Caveat to his Disciples then alive and present with
will then over-spread the world There are in Scripture two great Judgments which Christ and S. Peter make types and resemblances of the day of Judgment And Christ notes these sins as the symptoms and fore-runners of this Judgment 1. He instances in the Deluge and Flood that drowned the old World See what Christ saith of that Matth. xxiv 37. As the dayes of Noah were so shall the coming of the Son of Man be For as in the dayes that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage and knew not till the Flood came and took them all away so shall also the coming of the Son Man be 2. He instances in the Overthrow of Sodom Christ makes that a type of the day of Judgment What saith he of that Luke xvii 28. As it was in the dayes of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded and then it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all so shall it be in the day of Christ. See here the practises that Christ instances in In the old World eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage So in Sodom they ate and drank they bought and sold builded and planted Why the Scripture charges both those times and places with farr greater sins 1. The old World is charged with bloud and violence and heavy oppressions Men lived like Giants oppressing and devouring others That is a crying sin So 2. Sodom is charged with other kind of sins of unnatural abominations Yet observe Christ instanceth not in the oppressions and violence of the old World nor in the abominations of Sodom but in their eating and drinking and buying and selling and driving after the world to teach us That when the world comes to this state and condition to be voluptuous and covetous let their voluptuousness be natural eating and drinking and the enjoyment of marriage let their covetousness be without oppression they bought and they sold traded fairly paid for what they took yet a secure giving over our selves to these courses is a fore-runner of judgment As some sicknesses Morbi symptomatici are more fearful not in themselves but because they are fore-runners of plague and pestilence so are these sins dreadful When the World lyes in them in a careless security when men say Peace and Safety every man chears up his neighbour Be not afraid all shall be well then shall come upon them sudden destruction 1 Thes. v. 3. The Meteor called Malacia it is a certain sign of a storm and tempest 2. These sins they are Peccata accelerantia when these sins are overspreading come to a ripeness and predóminancy they do not onely foretel and prognosticate but they hasten the day of Judgment and bring it upon the world And so they are more considerable Bare signs are not to be neglected But these sins are not onely ominous signs but effectual provocations and speeders of judgment S. Paul tells Timothy that these sins will make the last times perilous times 2 Tim. iii. 1 2. This know also that in the last dayes perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God These and the like sins will be dangerous sins make perilous times expose the world to vengeance provoke judgment Should we see the Sun darkned the heavens to tremble the Stars to fall the Sea to roar it would make us to look about us Why to see the world drown'd in voluptuousness and security and greediness of gain loving pleasures and profits more then God to a spiritual man are indeed more fearful Those onely foretel these hasten and ripen and pull down vengeance and judgment 3. Christ bids us beware of these sins respectively to the day of Judgment because these sins they are Derisoria Iudicii they will beget a profane spirit of deriding and scoffing at the day of Judgment Voluptuousness that is a mocker Solomon tells us so Prov. xx And Covetousness that is a mocker too Luke xvi 14. All these things heard the Pharises which were covetous and they derided him And Security that is a mocker too They mocked Gods Messengers saying securely These things shall happen to themselves No doubt Noah had many a flout put upon him for talking of the Deluge and building his Ark. So Lots sons-in-law made but a jest of the tidings of destruction Lot seemed as one that mock'd And the threatnings of Captivity were but derided by the secure ones in Isaiah's time Let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it And answerably S. Peter tells us there will be mockers at the last day There will come at the last scoffers walking after their own lusts and say Where is the promise of his Coming 2 Pet. iii. 3. And mocking that is a most dismal provoker of judgment Trembling at threatnings even in Ahab did set back Gods judgments but mocking and deriding Gods threatnings that hastens judgments Take but two places for it 1. One place is 2 Chron. xxxvi 16. They mock'd the Messengers of God and despised his threatnings until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people till there was no remedy Salvation it self could not save such 2. Another place is Isai. xxii 12. In that day the Lord did call to weeping and mourning and behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall dye yes I warrant you that was their Song And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged till they dye He would not be merciful to such Voluptuous Sensual Secure Mockers A SERMON ON GEN. iv 3 4 5. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he brought also of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell THis Story which we have now entred upon is the first relation that the Scripture makes of any publick Worship that by man-kind was offered up to God And so it carries with it a Type and Representation of the Practice of Religion which in succession of times should be used and performed in the Church of Christ. And this solemn Service it is observable and exemplary in divers respects 1. In the Condition of the Persons that perform this Service Who were they Cain and Abel both Husbandmen Cain a Tiller of the ground Abel a Keeper of Sheep Vers. 2. 1. These two though the first-born Patriarchs of mankind though the Heirs of the world yet were they brought up in a plain honest laborious Calling 2. Though their Profession were secular yet they accounted the matters of God and duties of
Rom. iii. 13. c. Not that every man is guilty of these actual sins but because the spawn and original of them is inbred in every one That 's the fourth thing the Consequences V. Qui usus What are the Uses to be made hereof They are of three sorts 1. Of Conviction 2. Of Caution 3. Of Consolation 1. Of Conviction Is David thus troubled and perplexed upon examination and search into his heart 1. In what case are they Qui nunquam inquirunt who never so much as call their hearts to examination If David who hath so often reckoned with God and by frequent Repentance labour'd to make all even with him yet finds so many back-reckonings how fearful is their case who multiply their arrearages and run use upon use and never account with him 2. And worse In what case are they Qui peccata abscondunt If David searches and sorrows for unknown sins how desperate are they who when Conscience accuses and would ease it self by sorrow and confession do smother and silence it See the least grudgings of Conscience affect David how forlorn are they then who when their Sin like the Pox would break out they drive it in again as Felix did and strike it back to the heart 3. And worst of all are they Qui palam profitentur who are sinners and know themselves so and glory in it David mourns for secret sins and these boast themselves in manifest Impieties They who are Saints and Angels and already in Heaven in compare with thee mourn for suspicious sins and thou shewest thy sins like Sodom and triumphest in thine abominations 2. Of Caution Is this true no man understands his errours Then 1. Non sufficit Iudicium alienum What though no man can accuse thee of sin That will not acquit thee Many think to go to Heaven by the voice of the Country if no man can blame them No we must distinguish betwixt a good name and a good conscience Fama propter homines Conscientia propter Deum saith S. Augustine A good name will carry it amongst men but it is a good conscience only that can acquit us before God Quid prodest tibi neminem habere conscium habenti conscientiam saith Lactantius What though thy neighbours and brethren absolve thee yet God and thy conscience can condemn thee The good Centurion Luke vii carried it clear by the voice of his neighbours Dignus est vers 4. He is worthy that thou shouldst come to him Ey but his own conscience reproves him vers 7. Domine non sum dignus Lord I am not worthy to come unto thee 2. Is this true none can understand his errours Then non sufficit Iudicium proprium the absolutions of thine own conscience cannot fully discharge thee I know nothing by my self saith S. Paul 1 Cor. iv 4. Yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord who can find fault with those actions which we account unblameable and very commendable Aliter judicat peritus artifex aliter imperitus inspector saith S. Aug. A skilful workman will find great fault there where an unskilful smatterer can see no failing 3. Non sufficit Iudicium Satanae It is possible Satan may not be able to accuse us and yet notwithstanding his silence cannot acquit us As in his siftings of Iob he could find no matter of any just accusation In that Plea against Iob the Devil non-suited himself he had nothing to object against him As S. Chrysostom observs when God asked Satan the second time Whence comest thou Satan The Devil answered From compassing the earth he doth not say from tempting of Iob he had no complaint against him But though Satan could not yet God could and did lay many things against him Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth That 's the second sort 3. Of Consolation Art thou cast into this perplexity with David Cryest thou out with him Who can understand his errours Then ease and comfort thy self with these three relieving Considerations 1. Quis intelligit multitudinem misericordiarum Who can understand the multitude of Gods mercies and compassions They are not onely over all his good works but they are farr beyond and above and over all our evil works Thus S. Chrysostom discoursing upon that passage Psal. iii. 5 6. Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds Thy righteousness is like the great mountains thy judgments are a great deep See saith he the dimensions of his mercy are farr beyond the bounds of all his other Attributes The height of the Clouds the bigness of the Mountains the depth of the Sea they may be fathom'd but who knows the largeness of the Heavens or who can comprehend the multitudes of his mercies 2. Quis intelligit vim virtutem meriti Christi Doth thy heart cry out Who can understand his errours Quiet and comfort it with this Meditation Who can understand the virtue of Christ's bloud the price of his merits the plenty of his redemption He is able to abolish all kinds of sin His bloud is compared to the depth of the Sea I will cast all their sins into the depth of the Sea Micah vii 19. and that can drown Mountains as well as Mole-hills The strength of his mercies is like the strength of the Sun and that can dispel the thickest clouds as well as the thinnest vapours Isai. xliv 22. He will blot out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins 3. Quis intelligit vim poenitentiae Answer these doubtings of thine own heart with this Meditation Who understands the virtue of Repentance 1. Of general Repentance for sins known and unknown In this case if upon search thou canst not discover all thy sins deal as the Israelites were to do in finding out of a Murther Deut. xxi 1. They were to search into all their Cities and to measure round about them and if they could not find it out they were to pray Lord be merciful to thy people So measure thou and search thou into every corner of thine heart and say unto the Lord Forgive me mine unknown sins Look upon the whole Law of God and acknowledge the whole Indictment plead guilty to all With the Publican confess thy self a sinner with David confess thy self a great sinner Psal. xxv with S. Paul confess thy self the greatest of sinners This very general Repentance will much ease and comfort thee 2. Who understands the virtue of daily Repentance There is great use of that to ease thee of these anxieties For 1. It hath a virtue of Prevention of greater sins The daily pumping of a leaking Ship will keep it from sinking As they do who would prevent the Stone they will daily use helps to carry away the smaller gravel so labour thou by daily Repentance to purge away thy smaller sins and thou shalt never be troubled with the Stone
was the Pharisee's Religion he inquired after some one great Commandement No saith Christ The second is like unto it He who fails in one is guilty of all He who saith Thou shalt not miss a Sermon saith also Thou shalt not neglect Prayers and other Duties of Christianity Now if thou fail'st in any of these thou art a Transgresson These things ye ought to have done and not to leave other things undone is Christs rule for obedience Add to your knowledge other graces saith S. Peter 2 Pet. i. 5 6. Fear God and keep all his commandements Hoc est totum hominis that 's the whole Duty of man 2. Hearing it is but parâ—…s initialis as it is but one part of piety so it is but the first part and stop of piety It is inter principia As to life and growth is required nourishment to that concoction to that feeding and receiving meat Now as he who onely tastes meat and goes no further is far off from nourishment because he stays at the beginning 〈◊〉 nothing hearing is but feeding practising is concocting and nourishing or as he who travels must not onely set out but hold on or he will not finish his journey so in piety hearing is but the first step a progress must be made in all other Duties 3. Hearing it is not officium propter seeâ—… It is a religious Duty but not prescribed for it seâ—… but in reference and subordination to other Duties 't is propter aliud like those Arts that are called Instrumental Arts aâ—…d are onely to enable and fit us for other and higher Preformances their use is onely for Preparation so it is in hearing and knowing Gods word the knowledge of it is not onely that we should know it but to enable us for further Duties As in Husbandry ploughing and sowing is not for it self but it aims at 〈◊〉 and reaping 〈◊〉 so with Hearing that is but receiving of Seed fructifying in good works that 's the end and harvest of Hearing 4. Hearing it is levissimum officium In compare with the substantial parts of plety bare Hearing is but an easie Duty Indeed to hear as we should do attentively reverently devoutly is a Task of some Pains but yet of a great deal easier Discharge then other Duties are Hypocrisy and Formality will be very assiduous in lissening and attending Swift to hear but slow and dull to more weighty Performances Repentance and Mortification and the Trade of Godliness in Holiness and Righteousness Oh that is an hard saying How unworthy is it to put off God with such slight Services to mock him with such easie Performances tithe Mint and Annise but the great things of the Law are too heavy for us Thus we see that onely hearing of Gods word falls short of our main duty makes us no good Christians And not only bare hearing but take this hearing with all the advantages of it that are short of practice all make it but a defective duty such as will fail us and be unprofitable unto us It may be we will grant that the bare outward bodily hearing of the Word may be justly reproveable but yet we think to make it good if our hearing be qualified and attended with some commendable conditions which we hope will be accepted and stand us in some stead As 1. If it be a diligent Hearing constant and assiduous if we frequent the House of God miss not any opportunity of hearing the Word that we hope will go for good Service and stand us in some stead if we be such as S. Iames speaks of Verse 19. Celeres ad audiendum Swift to hear in season and out of season upon all occasions Indeed such as are backward to this duty seldom setting themselves to be instructed often estranging themselves from the Service of God such as make this duty to give place to every avocation or worldly business their hearing we grant is to little purpose Nay not onely such Backwardness is sinful but even a diligent frequenting of this Duty such as will miss no occasion but will wait daily at Wisdoms doors yet if they rest in that their Religion is Vain S. Paul tells of some that are always learning and so would be taken for devout Christians and yet he passeth an hard censure upon them And Christ telleth us of such who could affirm they were his constant Auditours heard him daily preach in their Synagogues and yet they come short of Heaven our Saviour tells them plainly He knows them not Will you see what Christ saith to a very forward and diligent Auditory that frequented his Preaching Luke xii 1. There were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people in so much that they trod one upon another Here was great Forwardness a full Congregation Well what is the lesson he commends to them He saith to them Beware of hypocrisy All this Diligence and Forwardness may be so farr from sound Piety that it may be no better then gross Hypocrisie So then bare Hearing though it be diligent and assiduous will not go for good Service 2. What if it be Hearing with some Proficiency when we so hear as that we understand and grow in knowledge and our mind is edified such as do as Christ bids them do Hear and understand Matth. xv 10. or as he speaks Mark xiii 14. Let him that readeth understand such an hearing we trust will serve the turn Indeed to be always learning and yet never to come to the knowledge of the truth as S. Paul complains of some Dullards 2 Tim. iii. 7. such as he reproves Heb. v. 11. that are Segnes auribus Dull of hearing still remaining unskilful in the word of righteousness have Line upon Line Precept upon Precept and yet no Proficiency such as the Psalmist complains of that after long teaching still err in their hearts that have not known Gods ways Psal. xcv that are wise to do evil but to do well have no knowledge Such Hearers we grant are unprofitable they can reap no good by it Nay not onely such but if thou beest an understanding and in that way a proficient Auditour attainest to a great measure of knowledge in the mysteries of Religion such as S. Paul describes Rom. ii 18 19 20. One who knowest Gods will and art instructed out of the Law that canst be a guide of the blind a light of them that are in darkness an instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes and hast the form of knowledge and of truth in the law yet even this great progress in knowledge if thou stoppest there will stand thee in no stead Wert thou able to understand all Mysteries to resolve all doubts to clear all difficulties in the Scripture dost thou understand all that 's preach'd remember all talk of it to others and instruct them in it 't is much but yet thou art but an unprofitable Hearer for all this Hell is full of such Auditours beware of it even this Hearing
of the Word is sufficient without out doing and practising they shew they utterly mistake the very nature and purpose of Gods Word the use and benefit whereof is all in practice 1. The Word of God 't is call'd a Law Give ear O Israel to my Law When the King proclaims a Law to be observed shall we think him a good Subject who listens to it or reads it over or copies it out or discourses and talks of it but never thinks or cares to observe and obey it 2. The Word of God is called Seed Were it not a gross errour for an Husbandman to buy Seed-corn and store it up and then let it lie and never go about to sowe his land with it 3. The Word it is called Meat and nourishment Is not he foulely deceived who when he comes to a Feast will look upon what is set before him commend it or taste it onely and then spit it out and never feed of it Is this to feast it onely to look upon it and never feed on it 4. Saint Iames calls the Word A Looking-glass A Looking-glass is to shew our spots and what is amiss in us Is not he deceived who thinketh it is onely to gaze into and never takes notice of any uncomeliness to amend and rectifie it 5. The Word it is the Physick of the Soul the Balm of Gilead Is not he deceived that shall take the prescript of a Physician and think all is well if he reads it and lays it up by him or puts it in his pocket and makes no other use of it 6. The Word it is called The Counsel of God What a vanity is it to listen to good counsel and never to follow it Such and more then such are the errours and deceits that empty and bare hearers incurr if they do not practise it And this miscarriage that they run into errour and are foulely mistaken is a just punishment proper and pertinent unto them who will be onely hearers and knowers of Religion on onely 1. They are punish'd In eo quod affectant They aim only at knowledge and rest in that it is just they should be punished in that which they so much affected that they should fail in that which they only aimed at In stead of knowledge they are fallen into errour What saith S. Paul of such Gnosticks who are all for knowing He tells them plainly they are mistaken They know nothing as they ought to know 1 Cor. viii 2. In stead of sound knowledge they get a knowledge falsly so called 1 Tim. vi 20. Take heed how ye hear saith Christ for from him that hath not that is no practice with his hearing shall be taken from him even that which he seems to have 't is but a seeming knowledge No saith Christ He that will do my Fathers will he shall know it and none but he For others Because they receive not the love of the truth and love is a practiser therefore they are given over to errours 2. They are punished In eo quod ostentant and that is a fit punishment These hearers they pride themselves in knowledge they boast of their skill in the Law they are the onely knowing Christians none but they As their forefathers the Pharisecs spake Are we also deceived and blind Iohn ix 40. They are justly gull'd and mistaken Saint Peter tells them such as are unfruitfull in their knowledge are blind and cannot see afarr off they have forgotten and mistaken themselves they are punished in that whereof they boasted 3. They are punished In eo quod imponunt aliis 'T is just such hearers should be deceived These hypocritical hearers aim at deceiving of others If they can make a shew of godliness blear other mens eyes that 's the upshot of their Religion not to be but to seem religious 'T is just that deceivers should be deceived Impostors in Religion should themselves be mistakers and so have St. Paul's speech fulfilled in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceiving and being deceived II. As they are deceived in their Opinion so they are deceived in their Expectation These Christians that are all ears and no hands hearers not doers they promise great matters to themselves Gods favour and Heaven it self and hope to do as well as the most laborious practisers Vain men how will they be deceived and disappointed of their hopes Their hope will make them ashamed as S. Paul speaks The hypocrites hope saith Solomon shall be like the house of a Spider they have been but Cop-web-Christians no solidity in their Religion and their expectation shall be as slight and slender swept away and come to nothing These weave the Spiders web but their webs shall not become garments Isai. lix 5 6. Our Saviour shews how they will plead for heaven upon their hearing-Religion Luke xii Lord Lord open to us we have eat and drunk in thy presence we have heard thee preach in our streets how will they be confounded when they shall see their great forwardness in hearing will do them no good and find that they lay claim to salvation upon unsufficient evidences that will stand them in no stead They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind Hos. viii 7. That 's the first evil Consequence They are deceived Secondly They are self-deceived that 's a second mischief and that is worse Malim errare quam fallere saith Tertullian 'T is ill to be deceived but to be authours of our own errours and disappointments to deceive our selves that 's a double misery These hypocritical Christians they deceive themselves They think to deceive others but upon the issue they will find they most of all deceive themselves 1. They think to deceive God to beguile him with their empty shows of devotion As Ananias and Sapphira meant to put him off with half they had promised him and to bear him in hand with a lye that they had paid him all No God found it out presently and it cost them dear What saith S. Paul to these Hearers that would serve God on free-cost Hear his Ministers but with-hold their maintenance Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap Gal. vi 7. Empty services shall have empty rewards Thou wouldst Hear him but not Obey him he will Hear thee too but he will not Answer thee 2. They think to deceive the Minister put him off with a bare Hearing and listening to what he says and they hope to be esteem'd by him for his best Auditours and the forwardest Christians As Gehazi thought to carry it cunningly and to delude Elisha but it will be found that they will cozen themselves Isaiah met with such Auditours complain'd he had labour'd in vain spent his strength to no purpose but my work is with my God he will reward him Though the sick Patient die yet the Physician hath his fee is paid for his pains The Minister is not deceived 3. They think to deceive their
neighbours and by their seeming-forwardness to delude them Well that Imposture holds not always There is never a counterfeit Creeple but is sometimes seen walking without his Crutches The hypocrites vizor will some time or other fall from his face and then he will appear in his true colours But suppose they be not discover'd yet the matter is not great the mistakes and errours of Charity are seldome culpable but most-what commendable The hypocrite in the long run will be found above all to have deceived himself And that 's the greatest deceit and most uncomfortable There is some excuse to be over-reached by others it makes the sin or errour more pardonable but who will pity him that cozens himself That 's one reason why the sin of the lapsed Angels was not pardonable as was the sin of Adam The Devils misguided themselves our first Parents were deceived by the Serpent Nay such self-deceivers they act a double part in sinning and so shall undergo a double portion in punishment The mis-leaders and mis-led saith Christ shall both fall into the ditch Here one man doth both evils and so shall suffer a double damnation That 's the second They are self-deceived Thirdly They deceive themselves in a matter of the greatest moment and consequence and that 's worst of all we over-reach our selves in the greatest business in the matter of our souls And such a deceit as this hath these three Aggravations 1. 'T is Maximè pudenda deceptio 't is a most shameful couzenage Slight over-sights are more excusable but to miss in the greatest business that 's most ridiculous Mala emptio semper ingrata est Every man laughs at him who is penny-wise and pound-foolish and twit him with his over-sights and upbraid him with them This is the man who is cunning in trifles but grosly deceiving himself in Soul-business How shameful is that S. Iames layes load on this folly chap. i. 26. This man deceives his own heart his Religion is vain O! vanity and deceit in our Religion to be mistaken in that weighty business 't is a most shameful deceit 2. 'T is Damnosissima deceptio he brings upon himself the most costly deceit the greatest loss the loss of Salvation that 's an inestimable loss Error circa ultimum finem The Prophet Esay cryes out of these deceits denounces a wo unto them Isai. iii. ix Wo be unto them they have rewarded evil unto their souls Oh the deceits of sin are deadly Sin deceived me and slew me Rom. vii 11. 3. 'T is Irreparabilis deceptio that adds to the Aggravation 't is an irrecoverable deceit Other mistakes may be rectified and regained but he who cheats himself of his own soul and his heavenly inheritance is undone for ever That 's the woful errour that will never be fetch'd about again 'T is like Esau's bad bargain when he cheated himself of his Birth-right for a mess of Pottage he could not recover it Though he sought it with tears To have all our thoughts to perish all our imaginations and hopes of going to heaven to be a meer delusion not to be mistaken in some particulars but in the end to be a fool Ier. xvii 15. Oh this is a bitter reproach when God calls us fools Sure heaven was never made for fools The foolish shall not stand in thy sight Psal. v. 4. A SERMON ON PHILIP i. 27. Onely let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel THE Context is an affectionate Protestation of S. Paul's love to the Philippians He assures them of his love to them and of his care for them The Apostle was even now in an holy ardency of spirit rapt up into Heaven longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ Verse 23. Yet see his charity and love to Christs Church when he thinks of them he checks and abates his former desire For the furtherance of Gods people and for the promoting of their salvation he is content yea willing and desirous to keep out of Heaven to forbear those joyes and preferrs their spiritual welfare before his own present happiness and salvation Verse 24. See what an high pitch of Piety and Grace S. Paul hath attained unto A little to insist upon the Context Ye may observe many remarkable evidences and degrees of his piety in this passage of Scripture 1. He hath attained to a strong assurance of his future happiness and bliss he knows his dissolution shall be a translation of him into a blessed condition death shall prove to him a great advantage Verse 21. To die is gain to him It is an high improvement of piety to attain to this Christian Confidence and Assurance No doubt it cost S. Paul much pains and labour to work his heart to this holy confidence to be perswaded that death which a worldly man accounts the utmost loss should bring to him the greatest gain There are who talk of their assurance of Salvation but it is to be feared In many 't is but imaginary a groundless presumption in others it is but intellectual and notional inferred and gathered haply by way of argument and discourse and so goes no further then a speculative Conclusion But this of Saint Paul 't is cordial and affectionate and experimental the fruit of many prayers and holy endeavours And such an Assurance is rare to be found 'T is that hidden Manna which few taste of Osculum Spiritus Sancti that Kiss of love and peace which God bestows on his devout and dearest Favourites It costs a great deal of searching and religious labouring e're we can find it Nesciunt quantis gemitibus lachrymis constet saith S. Aug. Happy are they who after long seeking can at length attain to it Ye see S. Paul hath found it That 's the first 2. A second pitch of Piety in S. Paul is not onely that he hath attained to a bare contentment but a great willingness yea more then so an earnest longing to die and to be dissolved Vers. 23. That 's a further and higher degree and growth of piety It argues much strength of faith a great prevailing of grace to sigh and groan in our selves till we be dissolved This S. Paul professes of himself and such as he was Rom. viii 23. We that have the first-fruits of the Spirit we groan within our selves waiting for the adoption the redemption of our bodies And so again 2 Cor. v. 8. We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. It is well with us we think if we can with much ado work our selves to any tolerable contentment to die and to leave the World We account it a great Mastery over our selves if after much strugling and resisting we at length submit to that necessity
will appear to you in these two expressions 1. Onely 't is Summum votum meum Of all my desires this is the chief of all my prayers and studies and requests this is the main and summ of them all That you live as Christians Observe the true spirit of Paul and such as he was the spiritual good and growth in grace of them that are committed to them is their main desire and care the height of their wishes S. Paul preferred their well-doing before the care and thoughts for himself He had even now spoken of his own life and death but he breaks off that discourse with this more serious exhortation As if he should say Let God dispose of me as he pleaseth that which goes nearest my heart and doth take up my thoughts is that you may prosper and grow in grace and this hath been the temper or rather the zeal of all Gods faithfull Prophets and servants Moses how did his spirit burn in him for his peoples good Blot me out of thy Book onely be gracious unto thy people do not cast them off He had rather God should destroy him then them S. Chrysostom saith That speech of Moses was a greater wonder then all the miracles he wrought in Egypt It was much in David to say Spare these Sheep and let thine hand be upon Me they were Innocents he was the Offender but in Moses his speech the people were the offenders he was most innocent and yet he prays Destroy me but spare them So Samuel though unkindly and ungratefully dealt withall by the people yet God forbid saith he that I should cease praying for you The Prophet Ieremiah was so earnest with God for the Jews that God is fain to forbid his importunity Pray not for this people The Apostle S. Iohn professeth it was his greatest comfort to see his Disciples thrive in grace I have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in the truth Epist. iii. 4. S. Peter how doth he make it his main care to further the salvation of the people of God 2 Pet. i. 12. I will not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these things Vers. 13. As long as I am in this Tabernacle I will stirr you up Nay I will endeavour that after my absence you may remember these things Like another Elias who prepared an Epistle before his departure out of this world to be sent to the King of Iudah who should reign afterwards 2 Chron. xxi 12. It adds to the joys of Gods servants in heaven that their people are proficient in the ways of piety And it seems by the Apostle it abates of their comfort if their people miscarry That they may give an account of you with joy and not with grief Heb. xiii 17. Why so If they have done their duties though the people miscarry yet they shall be rewarded the Physician hath his Fee though the sick man dies True true but yet sorry he is that he could not recover him Above all S. Paul is most abundant in these gracious expressions How earnestly doth he pray for the Churches to whom he writes Ephes. i. 16. I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers Again Ephes. iii. 14. For you I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Phil. i. 9. I pray that your love may abound more and more Coloss. i. 9. I cease not to pray for you and to desire that you may walk worthy of the Lord 1 Thes. iii. 12. The Lord increase you and make you to abound in love And again Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout Indeed this care for the Church took up Paul's heart and life he forgat all other things in respect of that 1. It was the aim and intendment of all his pains and labours We do all things for your edification 2 Cor. xii 19. 2. It was the summ of all his cares The care of all the Churches lay upon him 2 Cor. xi 3. It was the summ of all his desires Phil. i. 8. God is my record how greatly I long after you in the bowels of Iesus Christ. 4. It was the matter of all his joy Phil. iv 1. My brethren dearly beloved and longed for my joy and crown 5. It was the matter of all his sorrow The disorderly conversation of some Christians wrung tears from his eyes I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Phil. iii. 18. 6. It was the end of all his sufferings I endure all things for the Elects sake that they may obtain salvation with eternal glory 2 Tim. ii 10. 7. It was his very life to him to see them do well Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord 1 Thes. iii. 8. 8. It was the matter of all his thankfulness What thanks can we render unto God for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God Vers. 9. That 's the first expression of this Onely 't is Votum Apostoli 2. This Emphatical word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely admits of another expression it notes Summum officium populi the greatness of the duty which he charges upon them which is an holy and Gospel-like life and conversation Take it in these three Expressions 1. This duty it is Summè necessarium 't is a duty of the greatest necessity which he doth so earnestly call upon them for Men lay not this load and weight of intreaty upon perfunctory services that are but of slight concernment and more indifferent Thus we find this manner of speech used in the Scripture Be not afraid onely believe Mark v. And again Luke viii Believe onely and he shall be made whole So 1 Cor. vii Let her marry to whom she will onely in the Lord. All these speeches are strict provisoes and shew the duty enjoyned to be of great necessity Such is the duty of the Text. An holy and unblameable conversation 't is not slightly commended to us but strictly enjoyned and upon the most absolute necessity 1. Take it negatively without this duty there is no hopes of heaven Heb. xii 14. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord no salvation without it Then 2. Consider it positively as without it no salvation so upon it salvation is assured 'T is not a Sine quanon onely enough to hinder us from heaven if wanting but it is an effectual condition upon performance of which heaven is assured to us Psal. l. 23. To him that orders his conversation aright I will shew the salvation of God 2. As 't is Summè necessarium so this Onely imports another notion it shews the duty of the Text 't is Officium praecipuum 't is the onely One That 's a signification of the greatest excellency As David speaks of the Sword of Goliah There 's none to that such is this duty of an holy conversation As it is of greatest necessity so likewise it
is of greatest excellency 'T is both a fundamental and a finishing grace It lies low in the foundation there is the necessity of it and then it is chief in the head of the building that 's the excellency 'T is both a vital grace and then it is a beautifying and adorning grace It warms the heart and it makes the face to shine The Saints saith David They are the excellent of the earth Psal. xvi S. Augustine saith it of Charity which is one part of holiness Sure that 's a rare grace without which all other graces are nothing and by which all other graces are made of some value This grace 't is the assimilating grace which makes us like unto Christ. In this S. Peter places our conformity to Christ 1 Pet. i. 15. As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation This S. Iohn calls a walking as Christ walked 1 Iohn ii 16. Walk as he walked How is that not as he walked on the waters in a miraculous operation but as he walked in the ways of piety in all holy conversation So to assimilate him 3. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Onely carries another Emphasis with it it shews the thing he exhorts to is Summè desideratum the main thing which he desires of them 'T is a form of expressing our chief desires and requests we make it shews what above all is most acceptable to us As David One thing have I desired of the Lord which I will also require Unicus is put in Scripture for Summè dilectus the onely One for the dearly beloved Prov. iv 3. I was my fathers Son tender and onely beloved in the sight of my mother So Cant. vi 9. My Dove she is the onely one of her mother Here then is the main return that S. Paul requires of all his love to them his care for them his labours amongst them that their life be answerable to their holy Calling and Profession S. Paul's pains were great amongst them teaching exhorting warning every man What is the fruit of his labours that he expects from them That they should express the power of his preaching in the piety of their conversation What 's the fruit of the Husband-mans labours his ploughing his tilling manuring sowing but to see a fruitfull harvest the fields crown'd with plenty and the barns full with all manner of store How doth the Prophet Isaiah bewail the loss of this fruit Esai xlix 4. I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought And the Prophet Micah mourns for this want of fruit Chap. vii 1. Wo is me there is no cluster to cat my soul desired the first ripe fruit We have done with the first Particular the weight of this Charge Onely Now follows Secondly the Extent of this Charge the compass that it takes it reaches to all seasons and occasions Whether I come to see you or be absent 't is in his Presence and in his Absence It gives a scantling and dimension to a double Duty 1. Here is the dimension and scantling of S. Pauls care for them He is not onely studious of their good while he is among them but the necessary occasions of his absence are here supplied with an earnest desire to hear well of them Love and the spirit of doing good is full of care and forecast Those whom God hath committed to our charge should alwayes be in our thoughts As S. Paul speaks 2 Cor. vii 3. You are in our hearts to live and to dye with you The High-Priest was to have all the names of the children of Israel engraven on his shoulders and on his brest-plate Exod. xxviii Aaron must bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial and upon his brest-plate 1. Upon his shoulders never to cast off that burthen and 2. Upon his brest-plate that 's the seat of love and affection Thus S. Paul expresses his continual watchfulness over the Colossians chap. ii 5. Though I be absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. He had not onely a spirit of Revelation by which he was acquainted with all their affairs but he was present in spirit by his continual thoughts of them and care for them Thus was he alwayes deeply affected with the Care of all the Churches Is he present He labours amongst them Is he absent He prays for them thinks of them writes to them As S. Ambrose saith of Zachary Zacharias cum non potuit loqui scripsit when he could not speak he wrote So doth S. Paul to the Churches His care expressed it self in this way of putting them in remembrance by writing He wrote more Epistles then all the Apostles He seems to satisfie for what he had done against the Churches Before his Conversion he procured and carried letters against them for their Persecution Acts ix 2. Now he is Spiritui Sancto ab Epistolis The great Secretary of heaven the great conveyer of heavenly Epistles to them And as it is in the Ministerial Function so it should be in all our other imployments Love will be thus solicitous both present and absent As Iacob was for his sons being absent he sends to visit them Go I pray see whether it be well with thy brethren and bring me word again See he had a privy Monitor among them that should inform him of all their miscarriages Gen. xxxvii See this care of Iob over his children It may be my sons have sinned and blasphemed God in their hearts he presently Sacrifices for them Thus did Iob every day That 's the first dimension of S. Pauls care of them both present and absent 2. Here is the dimension and scantling of the Philippians duty and piety S. Paul puts them in mind of it that not onely in his presence when he is amongst them then they should walk piously and religiously but also when he is absent and remote from them then also he expects to hear of their holy and orderly conversation Gods Church must be like a well-order'd family every one in his proper station and doing his duty though the eye of government be not always upon them How doth God upbraid the failing in this point in the people of Israel Exod. xxxii 7. Moses was out of their sight but forty dayes and presently they fall away 1. How respectlessly do they speak of him As for Moses the man that brought us out of Egypt we wot not what is become of him That 's all they care for him gone he is and fare him well A poor requital for all his pains with them 2. How foulely do they revolt from that Truth which he had taught them Make us new gods to go before us A new Religion presently O what saith God to Moses Go get thee down thy people have turned aside quickly out of the way It was the
he seems to part with his own right in it and sets it over to his Church If God so loved us What then The inference we should think were more natural Then we must love him again But God parts with his interest bestows it on his children Then ought we to love one another 1 Ioh. iv 11. He requires us to exhibit it to his Church 1. In signum amoris then 't is best tryed Every man will love God it is best discovered in our love to his Church 2. In fructum amoris the fruit of our charity cannot reach to him As David desiring to shew love to Ionathan even after his death inquires out Mephibosheth or any of his children that they might enjoy what Ionathan could not Quod homini proficit Deo servit saith Tertullian Then charity is most serviceable to God when it is profitable to his Church The Church that is commended especially to our love and charity As S. Bernard observes of Christs provision for his Mother at his death he commended her to S. Iohn his loving disciple and in terms of love Behold thy Mother and Behold thy Son so in the disposition that 's the principal affection to which Christ commits it Art thou a Minister conceive Christs voice from his Cross to thee Behold thy Mother behold thy Son This was the Preface to S. Peter's charge Peter lovest thou me then feed my flock Of both which Speeches to S. Peter and S. Iohn Aquinas conceits that answerable to their affection so was their commission Saint Peter loved Christum mysticum in membris Christ in his members to him therefore the Church was by name commended Saint Iohn loved Christum personalem Christ in his person to him therefore he committed the care of his Mother Love is the affection that 's principally required This we see typified in Aarons brest-plate the names of the Israelites they were ingraven and set upon the holy Pectoral not upon his shoulders onely for care and burden but upon his breast the seat of love they must be dear and tender to him It is a sin in any man to be void of Charity but it is an hainous impiety in a Priest It had been cruelty in any Jew not to regard his brother's wounded and bleeding body but for a Levite and a Priest to pass by and neglect the body nay the soul of their brother without charity and compassion what sin more abominable Without this gift all other graces they are fruitless and unprofitable sine hac nihil sum saith the Apostle not minor or parvus but nihil sum Had I all Languages even to the tongues of Angles had I all Miracles to remove Mountains had I all Patience even to the enduring of Martyrdom Quale crimen saith Cyprian quod nè Mariyrio quidem potest expiari sine hac nihil sum And cum hac omnia sum Charity bears all believes all hopes all Strange The act of Charity is onely to love Elicit suum actum imperat omnem As a spring in a clock sets all the wheeles going or the Primum mobile in Heaven carries all the Spheres with it Art thou to Prophesy Charitâ—… cogit saith the Apostle The love of Christ constrains Hast thou Languages they are unprofitable in themselves divided from Charity Charity directs and unites them together Ex una lingua factae sunt multae hoc superbia fecit ex multis facta est una hoc charitas facit Aug. Saint Iames speaking of malicious tongues saith They are set on fire of Hell and they set on fire the whole course of nature in strife and confusion so these gifts of tongues being set on fire by charity as by fire from Heaven they set on fire the whole course of nature in grace and conversion Not as if Charity were absolutely necessary as if none but a Convert could convert others Tongues and Miracles as we see in Iudas they may do good but not so kindly as when love imployes them As S. Augustine observes of Christ's Miracles they prevailed the more with his Auditours because they were not onely signa potentiae but fructus amoris They were miracula salutaria helpful and beneficial Had they been nociva as Moses his were in Egypt they would have bred hatred and terrour driven men farther from him or had they been innocua to remove Mountains to fly in the air they would have wrought wonder and astonishment but they were salutaria healing and feeding and raising from the dead these were beneficial and provoked love and affection As the Prophet when he laid his staff upon the child which was signum potentiae it never fetch'd life but the embracing of his arms that was fructus amoris that warm'd and enliven'd him Miracles and languages they may do good but not so kindly Much more Prophesying though divided from Charity hath its use and profit for the conversion of others To this purpose S. Augustine alluding to that of S. Paul Some preach Christ of good will others on by-respects Quidam saith he non castè praedicant Christum tamen his auditis fideles nascuntur As in natural generation so likewise in spiritual Quidam ad concubitum ingrediuntur non voluntate generandi sed luxuriandi libidiâ—…e in lust not in love and desire of posterity and yet they beget children ex fâ—…cunditate seminum non ex turpitudine vitiorum The seed of the word it hath vim plasticam prolificam a power of regenerating though dispensed and applied by one not-converted Let the seed be good that is sown in the furrows it skils not what the hand be that scatters it abroad Pastores mali saith S. Augustine against the Donatists bad Shepherds may feed the flock in good Pastures Prophecy without Charity hath a power of converting but not so kindly As a Chirurgeon or Physician is more affectionately careful of his own body then of a stranger's life The one he doth Ex Arte to shew his skill the other In Affectu in Sympathy of affection The one preaches Ut lucretur famam for credit and ostentation the other Ut lucretur fratrem Thou hast gained thy brother saith our Saviour accounting every Christian as S. Paul did Onesiâ—…us his own bowels and esteeming S. Iames his reward the best encouragement Hast thou converted a sinner Know thou hast saved a soul from death and hast hid a multitude of sins That 's a second Inforcement Ut Ecclesiae habeat Charity improves all his gifts for the benefit of the Church 3. Ut Sibi habeat Charity makes them comfortable and profitable to his own soul. That 's the excellency of Charity above these other Graces Tongues without Prophecy edifie no man Prophecie without Charity edifies others helps not himself Charitas alios seipsum He saves himself and those that hear him Tongues without Prophecie like Nimrod they build a Babel they confound themselves and bring confusion to others Prophecie without Charity like Noah's workmen they
the hatred of the whole Kingdom was upon him he was a man whose life was imbitter'd with sorrows 'T is one blessed end and issue of afflictions they wean us from the desire of life Prosperity glues us to this life Afflictions loosen us O mors quà m amara How bitter is death when we are at ease O mors quà m jucunda How pleasant is it when we are in torments These minores mortes fit us for the great Death S. Paul's fightings with beasts at Ephesus made him willing to grapple with this When the soul of man finds no footing on outward things then it wishes it had the wings of a Dove that it might fly away and be at rest Happy afflictions that fit us for death 2. Grief for the miseries of the Church That goes nearer In private sufferings a Christian can be more contented when it goes well with the publick but if the Church lies under misery that makes an Elias to call for death Old Eli who digested well enough his private sorrow yet when the Ark was taken He fell off from the seat backward and he died The Saints are loth to see evil days to outlive the prosperity of Gods people The Lord shall make thee see Ierusalem in prosperity all thy days 3. Sensus impotentiae An apprehension of an inability to do any more good Elias was tired and wearied-out with the gain-sayings of Idolaters he had conflicted with their obstinacy Ahab is hardned Iezabel enraged Baal restored Gods Prophets are persecuted he sees no success of all his pains he is weary of his life As the soul in the body if it be hindred of action it forsakes the body presently so the spirit of Elias finding he could not prevail it desires to relinquish an ungrateful world and to retire to Heaven 4. Praegustus coeli The anticipation and feeling of those joyes of that rest and bliss whetts the appetite of Elias to desire possession and fruition of them If there be so much comfort in lumine Prophetiae how much more is there in lumine Gloriae If Mount Carmel and the Visions there be so ravishing what is Gods high and holy Mountain and those Revelations No question Saint Paul's rapture bred in him an high measure of heavenly-mindedness If the assistance of one Angel feeding the Prophet was so ravishing what will be the society of innumerable Angels If Communion with God upon Earth be so gladsome how unspeakable will Communion in Heaven be Si bonus es Domine animae quaerenti quanto magis invenienti These were the grounds and occasions of Elias his willingness to die But 3. What evidences of this willingness to die will appear in Gods children and what is the strength and power of it 1. It will appear in encouraging them against the forethoughts of death the thoughts of death are not ghastly to them Their frequent meditations and desires of it make them acquainted with it and familiar to them Nemo timet facere quod se novit benè didicisse Gerson 2. It will free them from dismayedness at the approach of death make them willing to entertain it Gods calling them to death they presently hear Non clamores tantum sed susurros divinos statim percipiunt The very beckning of Gods hand makes them hasten to him It was no more 'twixt Moses and God but Go up and die Thus Saint Paul tell him of bonds I care not for death saith he 3. It will bear them out in the conflict and onset of death Makes a Christian smile at the face of it How peaceably died Iacob Aaron Moses and Simeon As Saint Bernard of Christs yielding up the Ghost Quis tam facilè quando vult dormivit 4. It makes them triumph over the most tormenting and cruel deaths The three Nobles in Daniel slighted the furnace Martyrs kissed the stake they would not accept of deliverance like valiant Souldiers that are desirous to be put upon desperate Services That 's the first Optat Elias wishes to dye so willing is he to it II. Orat He makes his prayer that he may die That imports more 1. Prayer is a deliberate desire Sudden wishes vanish and die in us Many have some pangs of mortification and leaving the world as Balaam had but would be loth God should take them at their word like him in the Fable No Elias and a Saint goes further it is their deliberate wish All things considered they judg it best for them they exercise their hearts towards it waiting with Iob groaning with S. Paul begging with Simeon their dissolution 2. Prayer it is a religious desire a matter of devotion and holy supplication tendred to God framed into their prayer A natural man or a wicked man may have wishes to die and deliberations So had Achitophel and Iudas but they presented not these desires in prayers to God The Saints die like Ioab at the horns of the Altar by prayer sacrificing their lives to God like old Simeon brought by the Spirit into the Temple and there praying for death 3. Prayer it is a restrained desire Prayer extends the will but restrains the power He is willing to die Oh that I had wings like a Dove but is not the disposer of his life to part with it at pleasure Were our lives our own we need not beg leave of God to lay them aside His Petition 't is a real Confession that our time is in Gods hand not in our own We may be waiters and suiters and in desires hastners but not executioners of our own death As Gregory saith we must like Elias be in ore speluncae or in ostio Tabernaculi with Abraham ready to receive death not to hasten it to us In preparation we must hasten not in execution Our hastning must not prevent Gods coming Hastening to the coming of our Lord Iesus 2 Pet. iii. 12. not before his coming That 's the second Orat. III. Resignat Take away my life it is an act of resignation He directs and tenders and resigns it up to him and that upon divers Reasons 1. Ob jus dominii He yields up his life to God as the Lord of it No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself whether we live we live to the Lord whether we die we die to him whether therefore we live or die we are the Lords Rom. xiv 7. placed here in our stations The issues of life belong unto him We are not Masters of our time or life David served his time according to the counsel of God Old Simeon begs his dismission 2. Ob fidem depositi He commits his life to be kept in the hands of God The Saints in their death do not utterly relinquish and for ever depart with life but they depositate and intrust God with it Thus Tertullian Our life is in deposito apud Deum per fidelissimum sequestrem Dei hominum Iesum Christum Those things that I have committed to him he will keep Our lives