decree for raine and a way for lightning and thunder Thus their owne Art is their owne labyrinth much more will the transcendent truth of the Gospell amaze them Pauls Lecture at Athens was a new Doctrine neuer heard of there the Inscription vpon their altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a record of their ignorance Acts 17. Wee speake the wisedome of God hidden in a Mysterie Where is the wise 1 Cor. 1. Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world Hath not God made foolish the wisedome of this world I will destroy the wisedome of the wise and bring to nothing the vnderstanding of the Prudent The ladder of humaine wisedome is too short to scale the Crosse of Christ Wee preach Christ crucified vnto the Iewes a stumbling blocke vnto the Greekes foolishnesse the mysterie whereof was wisedome beyond their vnderstanding knowledge beyond their learning and a worke beyond their time were the Iewes as wise as the wisest Philosophers yet non cognouerunt that knowledge will not lend them Spectacles to see the Lord of Glory But the Iewes were the Secretaries of Heauen they haue Moses and the Prophets to them were these diuine Oracles committed The Lord was knowne in Iury and his Name great in Israel this Sunne was in that Ecliptike this light in that Goshen If all other lights be an Ignis fatuus falie and dimnie here 's a Starre from Heauen that will neuer faile them man to the attainment of a supernaturall end needs a supernaturall meane the naturall vnderstanding Non sufficit viatori will neuer shine bright enough to be our safe conduct to these celestiall truthes In Prolog sent Percipit per naturalem potentiam non per naturalem agentem saith Scotus It may be the Caske to reserue neuer the light without a greater light to descry them Hee keeps his Chaire in Heauen that dictates these lessons Illiterate Apostles in whom the Creator to qualifie them with gifts wrought a new creation that suddenly from all simple they became all wise the Iewes therefore hauing the Key of Scriptures what mysteries will not that vnlocke Come then le ts see what light the Scripture giues to Christ here are contained a cloud of Prophesies the day would faile me to suruay them Gen. 3. Semen mulicris c. t was but young dayes when God first ingaged himselfe to mercy that a Childe should repaire those breaches the mother occasioned The promise is renewed to Abraham vpon his seede the blessed one is entailed but the blessednesse is inlarged vnto all nations in the miraculous birth and vnbloudy facrifice of Isaak was a vision of the birth and death of the worlds redeemer Abraham saw my day and reioyced What will the Iewes say to Iacobs Shilo The Scepter shall not depart from Israel c. Ge◠49. When in Christs time the Scepter was wrested out of the Iewes hands Their King a beneficiary and precarious King With all their hearts they wished for the Messias though their conceits could no otherwise imploy him then to quit them of the Romane yoke Dauid was the root out of which this branch did flourish What Ditties did Israels chiefe Chanter warble vpon his Sonne his Lord. The manner of his death the cry vpon the Crosse his Passion and his skorne are the contents of that Euangelicall 22. Psalme I am powred out like water a worme and no man I may tell all my bones they part my Garments in sunder c. So plaine that the wicked Iewes had no way to put out the eyes of that Prophesie then by offering violence to the sacred Text. And had rather posterity should finde non-sense then their cruelty recorded Esay the flower of speech and Prophesie who seemes to contex a History not write a Prophesie Surely Esay 53. hee hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes hee was wounded for our transgressions hee opened not his mouth he is brought like a Lambe to the slaughter the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of vs all And to giue the Scribes and Priests their due they could by this light blazen the Tribe Family Mat. 2. and place of his birth For when the Starre dispeared the Prophesies by them applyed to the Sages of the East were Starres to conduce their feet to worship there as swift as Herods to goe shed bloud there How then could the Iewes be ignorant Very well for Prophesies are but empty sounds Volant auolant the flye and dye beate the eare not the heart if the Holy Ghost bee not present to pierce it No breaking open these Seales no vnlocking of these mysteries without Dauids Key The right honourable Eunuch Treasurer to the Queen of Aethiopia sought for a better treasure at that time to be found at Hierusalem nec Sanctior sum hoc Eunucho nec studiosior Can our diligence cōpare with his who vnderwent a tedious iourney and in that deuout Pilgrimage made the Scripture his companion Hieron ad Paulin Et cum verba Domini lingua volueret labijs personaret ignorabat cum quem in libro nesciens venerabatur saith Heirom He read the Prophet without diuine Spectacles and with an implicite deuotion adored whom he knew not Philip layeth open Iesus that lay hid in the letter for the common place of his Meditations was the very Passion of Iesus But the Iewes had no sacred Spirit no Philip to expound these Mysteries their proud conceits cheating their vnderstanding as some foolish Mountebankes were ignorant of what they professed and which I cannot speake without stomake were ignorant of their ignorance for all this to them Moses is vailed I know who hath said it 1 Cor. 3.14 15. When Moses is read the vaile is vpon their hearts VVHat of this 3 They know not the Messias in our Sauiours person will the Iew reply wee are versed in the Scripture the Prophesies flye not out of our sight the Messias we expect and hope he is not long a comming then a rush for this Roman dominion but is it possible Iesus should bee the man borne of meane parentage his education obscure himselfe followed by the meanest we must be conuinced by better euidence our Rulers vpon such slender proofes are too wise to trust him But no reason to distrust him a threefold cord of witnesses is not easily broken Christ besides the written had the liuing Word of his mouth supported by his famous Acts to speake for him Scrutamini Scripturas saith our Sauiour Search these Volumes and if I am not recorded there neuer credit me more his astonishing words and conuincing workes what mettall were the Iewes composed off that these would not soften What was Christs life but a Commentary and reflection of the fore-running Prophesies The Law was but a shadow Christ the substance the good thing to come In the volume of thy Law it is written of me c. not a line therein but tends vnto Christ the Center
my soule so happy a felon as to steale Paradise at the last I would not feare any temporall arraignment to dye such a sinner or to be condemned for such a thiefe The witnesse of all this and chiefe mourner was the Blessed virgin Nature Grace are the welsprings whence flow such riuers of teares for her innocent sonne now Simeons Prophesie is made good A sword of compassion doth pierce her heart Can such a mother forget such a sonne by a reflect act her hands and feet with his are pierced her side wounded and head bruised with thornes as if but one soule in two bodies Oh my Lord thy griefe was the greatest that euer was in man and mine as great as euer happened to woman The very dumbe Creatures cry out of these paines the renting of his body rends the vaile of the Temple the digging into his side opens the Monuments the cry of him dying awakes the dead the immouable earth doth quake for feare of those feares the Sun is ashamed to shew his brightnesse when the Father of lights was darkned with such disgrace the Heauens discolour their beauties and suiting themselues to their makers fortune are in mourning robes when the lampe of heauen is extinguished Ingratefull Nation the Sunne will not shine vpon them but is immantled with a miraculous eclipse and Sympathizing with the Sunne of Righteousnesse will not appeare in Glory when the Lord of Glory is thus disgraced Bonau Solus homo non compatitur pro quo solo Christus patitur Onely man is bereft of compassion for whom onely Christ vnderwent this Passion I except the Centurion Bernard qui vitam agnouit in morte who in the shadow of death espied the substance of the Deitie Surely this man was the Sonne of God Thus Christ hauing out-cryed his torments prayed for reliefe and at his death for forgiuenesse to his enemies emisit spiritum non amisit willingly yeelds to nature and offers vp a broken heart and a troubled spirit to his Father for the worlds redemption O strange Physicke where the Physitian must bleed and a stranger Conquest where the Conquerour must dye and God would take no other satisfaction The wit of Heathen Religion pacified their Gods with sacrifices and of greater price of greater efficacie Sanguine placastis ventos c. The Childrens passage through the fire to Molech was thought a holy procession but here is a mystery God to offer himselfe and men to kill him Noua hostia nouo imponitur altari crux Christi non templi fit ara sed mundi saith Leo this Catholike Sacrifice is offred vpon Mount Caluary the altar of the world O the Miracle of mercy to quicken vs The Lord is view his worth in the end of my Text. The Lord of Glory Shall that Deity Lord of glory which principally resides in heauen be fastned to a crosse on earth truely though the Deitie be impatible yet by Hypostaticall vnion it constituted and made vp that Person which was qualified to passion and that so well compacted and put together that death could not diuorce that vnion The godhead hath not flesh and bloud yet God he bled for vs Qui redemit nos sanguine suo our sinnes were at so high a rate that nothing but the blood of the Lord of glory could purchase vs. This vnion consisteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vndiuided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inseperable and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without locall distance saith Damascene as a branch in the stocke as light in the Sunne as an accident in a subiect is the humanitie sustained by the Deitie The Catholike Faith goeth vpright betwixt Eutiches and Nestorius bending neither to the right hand of naturall confusion or to the left of personall diuorce Now Quaecunque in vno supposito vniuntur illa dese inuicem possunt praedicari Our Sauiours person is inuested with the properties of either nature hence flow the concrete predication of natures God is man and the abstract communication of properties to the subiect Christ is infinitenesse In this marriage the humane nature is in the person enstated with all the diuine Royalties and that is so indulgent as to assume her infirmities that we may say Christ-God-Man made the world Christ-Man-God redeemed it Here is the root of the infinitenesse of his merits Principium quo the subiect wherein he suffered was the humane nature but the principium quod the soule which did enable and informe it was the Deity Sent. 3. d. 19. Christ did elicere actiones ex supposito saith Scotus performe his taske in proper person So by that meanes reconciled infinitenesse to all his actions Infinite not in respect of the act but Person The Lord of glory Gabriel 3.5.19 d. q. 19. d. q. vnica The Lord of glory and yet crucified Neuer was glory so eclipsed here is Honour ashamed Maiesty afflicted Innocence guilty health sicke the Sunne in the night a vailed Deity In mount Tabor Christ was apparelled like himselfe a man might reade Maiesty in his countenance but in Mount Caluary all is obtenebrated Christ like his Spouse the Church is blacke but comely The Crosse nigredo est sed forma similitudo Domini Goe vnto Esay Hee hath no forme nor comlinesse there is no beauty in him The sable Curtaines by that Prophet are drawne vpon him Haue recourse vnto Dauid Thou art fairer then the children of men grace is powred into thy lips Bernard Intuere sane pannis sordidum plagis liuidum illitum sputis pallidum morte nigrum vel tunc profecto fatebere to see him thus conspuicated thy wit will serue thee to confesse his blacknesse but aske the Apostles whom they saw in the Mount or the Angels whom they desire to see thou wilt soone recognize him to be the Lord of glory Ergo formosus in se niger propter te so comely in himselfe so blacke for thee thus crucified he was without disparagement to his glory Non est fastidita humilitas Leo. quia nec imminuta Maiestâ—s nihil nocuit naturae inuiolabili quod passibili oportehat inferri All these passions truly vndergone by him did no whit impeach his Deity So Consummatum est it is finished and with it my Meditations there is remaining a short conclusion which desires to finde and leaue you attentiue YOu haue heard me relate the greatest crime that euer was committed wherein I know not if the Art of Tyranny were greater to inuent or Christs patience to endure The Heire is slaine but the Iewes haue lost the inheritance This is the medulla and blessednesse of Christianity that God set more by vs then his Sonne and Christ lost his life in seeking vs. Nos tanto redimimur pretio Leo. nos tanto curamur impendio so dearely did he ransome vs. Is it nothing vnto you all ye that passe by Behold and see if there bee any sorrow like to my sorrow which is done vnto me
THE PASSION SERMON AT PAVLS-CROSSE vpon GOOD-FRIDAY last Aprill 7. 1626. By Thomas Ailesbury Sanguis Christi est Clauis Paradisi Tertullian LONDON Printed by G. M. for Richard Moore and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Church-yard 1626. THE PASSION SERMON at Pauls-Crosse vpon Good-Friday last Aprill 7. 1626. 1 Cor. 2.8 Had they knowne they would not haue crucified the Lord of glory SAint Paul the Trumpe and solemne Proclaimer of the Gospell who on earth sate at Gamaliels feet and in a diuine rapture was assumed into a higher Schoole in Heauen where hee gained the audience of vnspeakable mysteries The deputed deligated Doctor and Apostle of the Gentiles 1 Cor. 1. made Christ crucified his preaching his learning and his glory The subiect of his preaching We preach Christ crucified Gal. 6 14. the obiect of his glory God forbid I should glory saue in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ The Sap of his learning I determined not to know any thing saue Iesus Christ and him crucified Very well may the death of life the end of eternity and the Obsequies of him that could not dye make worke for this great Apostle T is learning enough to sit at the Crosse by the feete of Christ no Schoole to Caluary no Chaire to the Crosse no Doctor vnto Christ no Lesson to him crucified This is Iacobs Ladder Moses Chaire Dauids Key and Solomons Throne wherein I know not if the loue of God the Father was more ardent to exhibit or the Will of God the Sonne more prompt to this propitiatory expedition Oblatus est quia voluit And Christ would neuer haue beene so willing but he knew it to be of soueraigne vse for mankinde misit redemptionem Hee sent redemption to his people profitable for vs but it cost him deare redemit sanguine it was the price of bloud Were euery Starre a world here is plenteous redemption for them all of great extent which reacheth vnto all Omnia trahit ad seipsum In this good all our felicity doth consent the effusion of his Bloud not without paine that paine without paralell Was there euer sorrow like to my sorrow Paine concomitated with shame Cum iniquis reputatus est he makes vp the number of the wicked as vniust as could be Sicut ouis ad occisionem as vnkind as might be massacred by his owne Nation A people whom God had sequestred to himselfe yet when we view the record of their liues they make it good that their Election was not of workes but of grace They had Abraham to their Father could God to that Patriarke vpon the exercise of his omnipotency forge or raise a more flinty Ceneration The Messias the perfume of their Offrings the bloud of their Sacrifices the fire of their Holocausts shadowed in their Ceremonies fore-spoken by their Prophets all this could not dispell that mist of darknesse which setled vpon their hearts Si enim cognouissent for had they knowne they would not haue crucified the Lord of Glory The parts and persons of this Text are two fold First the persons nocent the Iewes Secondly the party Innocent The Lord of glory Of them the Apostle speaketh first by way of supposition Si cognoâ—issent Had they knowne Secondly by way of position the sequel inferreth non cognouerunt they haue not knowne him In the second part there are two branches 1. The Indignitie of the Passion the worst that might be They crucified 2. The dignitie of the Patient the best that could be the Lord of glory These pillars must carrie my meditations and your attentions I begin with the Iewes ignorance and shall end with their malice to the Lord of glory THE Iewes proceed against their Messias out of errour Ignorance was that cloud The first part of their ignorance in which all the stormes that fell vpon our Sauiours head were ingendred so the due punishments which hung ouer their heads and by the tradition of iust reuenge vpon their children to them were vailed Ierusalem si cognouisses haec a Citie in this miserable in that she did not vnderstand her approaching misery COuld the Iewes bee ignorant of their Messias The Iewes could not see Christ by the light of Nature They were men and vpon the first Man God stampt his Image as the Sunne is guilded with light so the Soule was engrauen with knowledge but Adam and his wife ambitious to enlarge their Science would steale it forth of the sides of an Apple that all was cancelled and obliterated by their fall and a penance due to their pride to know as Gods was to bee as ignorant as beasts Thus man an Egregious creature was yoaked with beasts who may say truly what God Ironically Gen. 3. Ecce Adam factus est quasi vnus e nobis see man is become as one of vs here 's little light left for the Iewes to see their Messias Man naturally endeuours to repaire these losses to set downe some thing in the naked tables of his soule the corporall organs no sooner giue leaue to the soule to vnfold it selfe but it readily makes loue to knowledge Dame natures best scholler makes vs no lesse desirous then happy in the enioying Yet without supernall reuelation Philosophie begetteth not Theologie Hierom. Hoc doctus Plato nesciuit hoc eloquens Demostenes ignorauit Platoes learning could neuer towre so high nor Demosthenes eloquence expresse it Were euery Iew as Moses well read in Aegyptian learning and Aegypt was then the worlds Academy Greece and Palestine had not yet spoiled her of that Iewell such Herbalists as Salomon whose skill reacheth from the Cedar to the Thistle such Secretaries to Nature that the earth should not quake nor the Sea passe her bounds except their Art should impale the one confirme the other or that the voice of thunder could not be heard in our Land but they so well acquainted with it as if they had made that Canon and charged it with that Bullet or the Clouds not set on fire by lightning without the sparkes of their inuention to kindle them or those Christall bottles of the aire thin as the liquor they containe could not emptie their moist burthens vpon the earth without their prognostication or the power of some domineering planet to vnstop them could they number the Starres read their meaning in their faces I load your patience what of all this This is a wise madnesse saith Iustin Martyr a busie vanitie saith Basil and a curious fansie Ioh 38 4. These men darken counsell by words without knowledge Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth declare Iob 38.25.26 If thou hast vnderstanding who laid the corner stone who shut vp the Sea within doores when I made a cloud the garment thereof and the thicke darkenesse a swadling-band and said hitherto shalt thou come here shall thy proud waues be staied The Lord weigheth the winds and waters by measure maketh a
them But the Diuine decree for slaying of the Lambe was out which nailed him surer to the Crosse then the Iewish nailes and thereby sealed to an infallible necessity how then can the determinate counsell of God be set vpon the contingent knowledge of the Iewes The Iesuites piece all with a Scientâ—a media whereby God holds his hands from decreeing till either in se or in re he obserueth the voluminous foldings and pleating of the Will of man and passeth his decree accordingly So he knew Conditionately what the Iewes would haue done vpon better knowledge The Schoolemen content themselues with Scientta simplicis Intelligentiae whose obiect is Ens possibile but not futurum goes as farre as possibility can goe and Scientia visionis whereby God perceiueth all things that are and shall be Betwixt them crouds in Scientia media and participates of both as it precedeth the Diuine decree hath relatioÌ„ to the former but as the effect may come to passe if the condition were fulfilled commeth neerer to that of Vision a spiders web a curious fansie and Iesuites darling pretended by Fonseca to be found in Aristotles Metaphysicks which to establish a freedome of will in man destroyes it in God for God may not decree till he seeth what man will doe and what man will doe God is bound to determine accordingly But without this groundlesse subtilty truth will shew it selfe Necessary euents as they flow from the first cause in respect of the second causes may admit contingency both in the effect may concurre with no dissonant harmony for 1. Many effects are immutable in the second causes which in respect of the first cause are mutable the Sunne is a fixed Planet vnto Ioshuah stands still to behold his conquests flyes backward at the sight of Ahaz dyall yet ex necessitate naturae constantly circleth about the heauens in the Orbe his Chariot and is neuer tyred with that diurnall progresse 2. Many Effects mutable in the second causes but immutable in the first cause the confirmed Angels by nature subiect to change by grace determined in goodnesse collapsed Adam in respect of the diuine Prescience his fall was necessary but in himselfe most contingent so for Christ his Father from all eternitie markt him to the slaughter by his decree yet our Sauiour offred himselfe as willingly as the Iewes did kill him although non inde volunt as interficien divnde moriendi the Iewes had not the same end in killing as Christ in dying Our Redeemer then did suffer necessarily necessitate finis in three respects saith Aquinas 1. for vs to procure our freedome Aquin. part 3. q. 40. Oportet exaltari The sonne of man must bee lifted vp that whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish Secondly for himselfe to make way for Glory Opertet Christum pati ought not Christ to suffer these things and so to enter into his glory Thirdly to answer his Fathers Decree filius hominis sicut definitum est vadit The Sonne of man truely goeth as it is written of him Thus the Iewes were as free as ignorant euery way guilty neither Gods all seeing decree nor their blinded ignorance shall excuse them from that which followeth They crucified the Lord of glory which is the second part THE Iewes for long were as I may say The first branch the persons They. the fauourites of heauen if deliuerances miracles and blessings are pledges of mercy neuer was people so endeared or God more exuberant to any Nation non taliter secit c. yet they were an ill complexioned people of a rebellious and churlish temper Pharaoh is hardned and scourged to tame them neuer was any Prince so subdued with wonders yet they ascribe their deliuerance to a Calfe and though those Miracles were Emblems of a Diuiner power and did speake a supreame Deitie they prostrate themselues vnto an Idol beholding for its Godhead to the curious Artizan God sent his Prophets which sealed their Prophesies with their bloud long had Christ been slaine in them now they kill him in himselfe Those to this were tolerable Assasinates for flesht in their bloud they conspire against the Lord of glory It must needs augment his torments that his owne people should degenerate into Traitors not a Gentile but a Iew not a Iew alone but Iudas his Apostle The Gentiles were Idolaters the Iewes like themselues cruell Iudas was a man and homo Deo lupus no maruell these doe like themselues God his father and Christ most deare vnto himselfe are priuie to the carriage of all this conspiracy and danger on all hands Treason treason neuer the like of Iew and Gentile Souldiers and Apostle father and sonne heauen and earth Singuli non perdunt per dunt omnes all coniure against this lambe to lead him to the slaughter The Father I haue smitten him The Sonne I lay downe my life for my sheepe the Iew crucifie him the Gentile in Pilate condemning him the Earth gaping for saluation the heauens waiting for restitution Thus a sonne deliuered of his father yeelding himselfe a Prince slaine of his people the Nations coniure against the Blessed one of Nations heauens dispoyle him of his throne the earth of his footstoole but in what had Christ offended himselfe to lay hands vpon his owne person abnegauit seipsum non quod debuit peâ—câ—tis plenus sed quod voluit plenus charitatis saith Cyprian no need to deny himselfe for sin but chose rather to hate himselfe then desist from louing vs. All Christs life a continuall passion banished before he had the vse of his legges in preachings often in fastings and temptations often restlesse harbourlesse in vita passiuam habuit actionem Bernard in morte passionem actiuam sustinuit and though the Iewes could not lay hold on him till the houre was come yet before-hand they crucifie his reputation but all these to that which followed were but the beginning of sorrowes Let vs trace his footsteps though with Peter we follow him a farre off and in the Gospell there is such a liuing Commentary of his death and passion that we doe not read but see him crucified Many houres of consultation had the Iewes spent in complotting his death but all their designes were frustrated for nondum venit hora and when that time calculated by heauens appointment was come Iudas is suborned an Apostle that was his Treasurer and his Almner thou wast deceiued Iudas Vertue was his treasure Mercy was his dole who to augment his pay resolues at once to sell his place and Master and vnder-values him at so cheape a rate that he sets no price vpon the price of the world but entertaines their owne proffer of thirty-peeces to become a mercinary Traitor Whilest they strike hands to betray him the Lord remembers vs institutes the sacrament of Grace breaths forth diuine admonitions makes his will bequeathes to his Disciples his peace for a legacie patience and pressures for an inheritance against