faults of Parents and Kings and relatives do bring evil upon their Children and subjects and correlatives it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and 〈◊〉 But concerning making an agreement for them we find that God was confident concerning Abraham that he would teach his children and there is no doubt but Parents have great power by strict education and prudent discipline to efform the minds of their children to Vertue 〈◊〉 did expresly undertake for his houshold I and my house will serve the Lord and for children we may better do it because till they are of perfect choice no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children in that which can concern the parts of this Question for they rule over their Understandings and children know nothing but what they are told and they believe it infinitely And it is a rare art of the Spirit to engage Parents to bring them up well in the 〈◊〉 and admonition of the Lord and they are persons obliged by a superinduced band they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat And it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their Children than the Church can for men and women For they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites as the Church story tells of some and consequently are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not really converted and ineffectively baptized and the next day they may change their resolution and grow weary of their Vow and that is the most that Children can do when they come to age and it is very much in the Parents whether the Children shall do any such thing or no. purus insons Ut me collandem si vivo charus amicis Causa fuit Pater his Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat quid multa pudicum Qui primus virtutis honos servavit ab omni Non solùm facto verùm opprobrio quoque turpi ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur à me gratia major For education can introduce a habit and a second nature against which Children cannot kick unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations And although it fails too 〈◊〉 when-ever it fails yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event than in the present case and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate and less reason in the thing it self and therefore have not so much reason to be confident Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing 〈◊〉 events and guessing at the designs of their enemies concerning which they have less reason to be confident than Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed To which I add this consideration That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise that their Children shall be of the Christian Faith because we not only see millions of men and women who not only believe the whole Creed only upon the stock of their education but there are none that ever do renounce the Faith of their Country and breeding unless they be violently tempted by 〈◊〉 or weakness antecedent or consequent He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the Children for whom they answer 29. And however the matter be for Godfathers yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of 〈◊〉 Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similitudinem Omnes 〈◊〉 venit per semetipsum salvare omnes inquam qui per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Deum infantes parvulos 〈◊〉 juvenes seniores Ideo per 〈◊〉 venit 〈◊〉 infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes in parvulis 〈◊〉 c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it and similitude to it For he came to save all men by himself I say all who by him are born again unto God infants and children and boys and young men and old men He was made an Infant to Infants sanctifying Infants a little one to the little ones c. And Origen is express 〈◊〉 traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit 〈◊〉 parvulis dare Baptismum The Church hath received a Tradition from the 〈◊〉 to give Baptism to Children And S. 〈◊〉 in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 gives account of this Article for being questioned by some less 〈◊〉 persons whether it were lawful to baptize Children before the eighth day he gives account of the whole Question And a whole Council of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed that their Baptism should at no hand be deferred though whether six or eight or ten days was no matter so there be no danger or present necessity The whole Epistle is worth the reading 30. But besides these Authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions it will not be useless to bring the discourses of them and others I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after 31. 〈◊〉 his Argument was this Christ took upon him our Nature to sanctific and to save it and passed through the several periods of it even unto death which is the symbol and effect of old age and therefore it is certain he did sanctifie all the periods of it and why should he be an Infant but that Infants should receive the crown of their age the 〈◊〉 of their stained nature the sanctification of their persons and the saving of their 〈◊〉 by their Infant Lord and elder Brother 32. Omnis 〈◊〉 anima 〈◊〉 in Adam censetur 〈◊〉 in Christo recenseatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ and so long as it is accounted in Adam so long it is unclean and we know no unclean thing 〈◊〉 enter into Heaven and therefore our Lord hath desined it Unless 〈◊〉 be born of Water and the Spirit ye cannot 〈◊〉 into the Kingdom of Heaven that is ye cannot be holy It was the argument of 〈◊〉 which the rather is to be received because he was one less favourable to the Custom of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants which Custom he noted and acknowledged and hath also in the preceding discourse fairly proved And indeed that S. Cyprian may superadd his symbol God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages For if to the greatest delinquents 〈◊〉 long before against God remission of sins be given when afterwards they believe and from Baptism and from Grace no man is forbidden how much more ought not an 〈◊〉 be forbidden who being new born hath 〈◊〉 nothing save only that being in the 〈◊〉 born of Adam in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death who therefore comes the easier to obtain 〈◊〉 of sins because
holy and the scene of representing Prayers which in type intimates the same thing which is involved in the expression of the next words My House shall be called the House of Prayer to all Nations now and for ever to the Jews and to the Gentiles in all circumstances and variety of Time and Nation God's Houses are holy in order to holy uses the time as unlimited as the Nations were indefinite and universal Which is the more observable because it was of the outward Courts not whither Moses's Rites alone were admitted but the natural Devotion of Jews and Gentile-Proselytes that Christ affirmed it to be holy to be the House of God and the place of Prayer So that the Religion of publick places of Prayer is not a Rite of Levi but a natural and prudent circumstance and advantage of Religion in which all wise men agree who therefore must have some common principle with influence upon all the World which must be the univocal cause of the consent of all men which common principle must either be a dictate of natural or prime Reason or else some Tradition from the first Parents of mankind which because it had order in it beauty Religion and confirmation from Heaven and no reason to contest against it it hath surprised the understanding and practices of all Nations And indeed we find that even in Paradise God had that which is analogical to a Church a distinct place where he manifested himself present in proper manner For Adam and Eve when they had sinned hid themselves from the Presence of the Lord and this was the word in all descent of the Church for the being of God in holy places the Presence of the Lord was there And probably when Adam from this intimation or a greater direction had taught Cain and Abel to offer sacrifice to God in a certain place where they were observed of each in their several Offerings it became one of the rules of Religion which was derived to their posterity by tradition the only way they had to communicate the dictates of Divine commandment 8. There is no more necessary to be added in behalf of Holy Places and to assert them into the family and relatives of Religion our estimate and deportment towards them is matter of practice and therefore of proper consideration To which purpose I consider that Holy Places being the residence of God's Name upon earth there where he hath put it that by fiction of Law it may be the sanctuary and the last resort in all calamities and need God hath sent his Agents to possess them in person for him Churches and Oratories are regions and courts of Angels and they are there not only to minister to the Saints but also they possess them in the right of God There they are so the greatest and Prince of Spirits tells us the Holy Ghost I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne and his train filled the Temple Above it stood the Seraphim that was God's train and therefore holy David knew that his addresses to God were in the presence of Angels I will praise thee with my whole heart before the gods will i sing praise unto thee before the Angels so it is in the Septuagint And that we might know where or how the Kingly worshipper would pay this adoration he adds I will worship towards thy holy 〈◊〉 And this was so known by him that it became expressive of God's manner of presence in Heaven The Chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels and the Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place God in the midst of Angels and the Angels in the midst of the 〈◊〉 place and God in Heaven in the midst of that holy circle as 〈◊〉 as he is amongst Angels in the recesses of his Sanctuary Were the rudiments of the Law worthy of an attendance of Angels and are the memorials of the Gospel destitute of so brave a retinue Did the beatisied Spirits wait upon the Types and do 〈◊〉 decline the office at the ministration of the Substance Is the nature of Man made worse since the Incarnation of the Son of God and have the Angels purchased an exemption from their ministery since Christ became our brother We have little reason to think so And therefore S. Paul still makes use of the argument to press women to modesty and humility in Churches because of the Angels And upon the same stock S. Chrysostome chides the people of his Diocese for walking and laughing and prating in Churches The Church is not a shop of manufactures or merchandise but the place of Angels and of Archangels the Court of God and the image or representment of Heaven it self 9. For if we consider that Christianity is something more than ordinary that there are Mysteries in our Religion and in none else that God's Angels are ministring spirits for 〈◊〉 good and especially about the conveyances of our Prayers either we must think very low of Christianity or that greater things are in it than the presence of Angels in our Churches and yet if there were no more we should do well to behave our selves there with the thoughts and apprehensions of Heaven about us always remembring that our business there is an errand of Religion and God is the object of our Worshippings and therefore although by our weakness we are fixt in the lowness of men yet because God's infinity is our object it were very happy if our actions did bear some few degrees of a proportionable and commensurate address 10. Now that the Angels are there in the right of God and are a manner and an exhibition of the Divine Presence is therefore certain because when-ever it is said in the Old Testament that God appeared it was by an Angel and the Law it self in the midst of all the glorious terrors of its manisestation was ordained by Angels and a word spoken by Angels and yet God is said to have descended upon the Mount and in the greatest glory that ever shall be revealed till the consummation of all things the instrument of the Divine splendour is the apparition of Angels for when the Holy Jesus shall come in the glory of his Father it is added by way of explication that is with an 〈◊〉 of Angels 11. The result is those words of God to his people Reverence my 〈◊〉 For what God loves in an especial manner it is most fit we should esteem accordingly God loves the gates of Sion more than all the 〈◊〉 of Jacob. The least turf of hallowed glebe is with God himself of more value than all the Champain of common possession it is better in all sences The Temple is better than gold said our Blessed Saviour and therefore it were well we should do that which is expressed in the command of giving reverence to it for we are too apt to pay undue devotions to gold Which precept the holiest of
a great calamity within a little while after the Spirit of God had sent them two Epistles by the ministery of S. Paul their Cities were buried in an Earthquake and yet we have reason to think they were Churches beloved of God and Congregations of holy People The PRAYER OEternal and powerful God thou just and righteous Governour of the world who callest all orders of men by Precepts Promises and Threatnings by Mercies and by Judgments teach us to admire and adore all the Wisdome the effects and infinite varieties of thy Providence and make us to dispose our selves so by Obedience by Repentance by all the manners of Holy living that we may never provoke thee to jealousie much less to wrath and indignation against us Keep far from us the Sword of the destroying Angel and let us never perish in the publick expresses of thy wrath in diseases Epidemical with the furies of War with calamitous sudden and horrid Accidents with unusual Diseases unless that our so strange fall be more for thy glory and our eternal benefit and then thy will be done We beg thy grace that we may chearfully conform to thy holy will and pleasure Lord open our understandings that we may know the meaning of thy voice and the signification of thy language when thou speakest 〈◊〉 Heaven in signs and Judgments and let a holy fear so soften our spirits and an intense love so 〈◊〉 and sanctifie our desires that we may apprehend every intimation of thy pleasure at its first and remotest and most obscure representment that so we may with Repentance go out to meet thee and prevent the expresses of thine anger Let thy restraining grace and the observation of the issues of thy Justice so allay our spirits that we be not severe and forward in condemning others nor backward in passing sentence upon our selves Make us to obey thy voice described in holy Scripture to tremble at thy voice expressed in wonders and great effects of Providence to condemn none but our selves nor to enter into the recesses of thy Sanctuary and search the forbidden records of Predestination but that we may read our duty in the pages of Revelation not in the labels of accidental effects that thy Judgments may confirm thy Word and thy Word teach us our Duty and we by such excellent instruments may enter in and grow up in the ways of Godliness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen SECT XV. Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus untill the Death and Burial of JESVS Bartimeus healed of blindnesse Mark 10. 46. And as he went out of Iericho with his Disciples and a great number of people blind Bartimeus sate by the high way begging 47. And when he heard that it was Iesus of Nazareth he began to cry out and say Iesus thou son of David have mercy on me Lazarus raysed from death Ioh. 11. 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with gravecloths and his face was bound about with a napkin Iesus saith unto them Loose him and let him go 45. Then Many of the Iewes which came to Mary and had seen the things which Iesus did believed on him 1. VVHile Jesus was in Galilee messengers came to him from Martha and her Sister Mary that he would hasten into Judaea to Bethany to relieve the sickness and imminent dangers of their Brother Lazarus But he deferred his going till Lazarus was dead purposing to give a great probation of his Divinity Power and Mission by a glorious Miracle and to give God glory and to receive reflexions of the glory upon himself For after he had stayed two days he called his Disciples to go with him into Judaea telling them that Lazarus was dead but he would raise him out of that sleep of death But by that time Jesus was arrived at Bethany he found that Lazarus had been dead four days and now near to putrefaction But when Martha and Mary met him weeping their pious tears for their dead Brother Jesus suffered the passions of piety and humanity and wept distilling that precious liquor into the grave of Lazarus watering the dead plant that it might spring into a new life and raise his head above the ground 2. When Jesus had by his words of comfort and institution strengthened the Faith of the two mourning Sisters and commanded the stone to be removed from the grave he made an address of Adoration and Eucharist to his Father confessing his perpetual propensity to hear him and then cried out Lazarus come forth And he that was dead came forth from his bed of darkness with his night-cloaths on him whom when the Apostles had unloosed at the command of Jesus he went to Bethany and many that were present believed on him but others wondring and malicious went and told the Pharisees the story of the Miracle who upon that advice called their great Council whose great and solemn cognisance was of the greater causes of Prophets of Kings and of the holy Law At this great Assembly it was that Caiaphas the High Priest prophesied that it was expedient one should die for the people And thence they determined the death of Jesus But he knowing they had passed a decretory sentence against him retired to the City 〈◊〉 in the Tribe of Judah near the desart where he stayed a few days till the approximation of the Feast of Easter 3. Against which Feast when Jesus with his Disciples was going to Jerusalem he told them the event of the journey would be that the Jews should deliver him to the Gentiles that they should scourge him and mock him and crucifie him and the third day he should rise again After which discourse the Mother of 〈◊〉 's Children begg'd of Jesus for her two Sons that one of them might sit at his right hand the other at the left in his Kingdom For no discourses of his Passion or intimations of the mysteriousness of his Kingdom could yet put them into right understandings of their condition But Jesus whose heart and thoughts were full of phancy and apprehensions of the neighbour Passion gave them answer in proportion to his present conceptions and their future condition For if they desired the honours of his Kingdom such as they were they should have them unless themselves did decline them they should drink of his Cup and dip in his Lavatory and be washed with his baptism and sit in his Kingdom if the heavenly Father had prepared it for them but the donation of that immediately was an issue of Divine election and predestination and was only competent to them who by holy living and patient suffering put themselves into a disposition of becoming vessels of Election 4. But as Jesus in this journey came near Jericho he cures a blind man who sate begging by the way-side and espying Zaccheus the chief of the Publicans upon a tree that he being low of stature might upon that advantage of station see Jesus passing by he invited
first-fruits of her Thanks and Joy and to lay all her glory at his feet whose humble hand maid she was in the greatest honour of being his blessed Mother Having worshipped she went on her journey and entred into the house of Zasharias and saluted 〈◊〉 4. It is not easiè to imagine what a collision of joys was at this blessed Meeting two Mothers of two great Princes the one the greatest that was born of woman and the other was his Lord and these made Mothers by two Miracles met together with joy and mysteriousness where the Mother of our Lord went to visit the Mother of his Servant and the Holy Ghost made the meeting festival and descended upon Elizabeth and she prophesied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Heaven was there more joy and ecstásie The persons who were Women whose fancies and affections were not only hallowed but made pregnant and big with Religion meeting together to compare and unite their joys and their Eucharist and then made prophetical and inspired must needs have discoursed like 〈◊〉 and the most ecstasied order of Intelligences for all the faculties of Nature were turned into Grace and expressed in their way the excellent Solemnity For it came to pass when Elizabeth heard the Salutation of Mary the 〈◊〉 leaped in her Womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost 5. After they had both prophesied and sang their Hymns and re-saluted each other with the religion of Saints and the joys of Angels Mary abode with her cousin Elizabeth about three mouths and then returned to her own house Where when she appeared with her holy burthen to her Husband Joseph and that he perceived her to be with child and knew that he had never unsealed that holy fountain of virginal purity he was troubled For although her deportment had been pious and chaste to a miracle her carriage reserved and so grave that she drave away temptations and impure visits and all unclean purposes from the neighbourhood of her holy person yet when he saw she was with child and had not yet been taught a lesson higher than the principles of Nature he was minded to put her away for he knew she was with child but yet privily because he was a good man and knew her Piety to have been such that it had a most done violence to his sense and made him disbelieve what was visible and notorious and therefore he would do it privately But while he thought on these things the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a Dream saying Joseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy 〈◊〉 for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his Wife Ad SECT II. Considerations concerning the circumstances of the Interval between the Conception and Nativity 1. WHen the Blessed Virgin was ascertained of the manner of her becoming a Mother and that her tremblings were over upon the security she should preserve her Virgin purity as a clean oblation to the honour of God then she expressed her consent to the Angelical message and instantly she conceived the Holy Jesus in her Womb by the supernatural and divine influence of the Holy Ghost For she was highly zealous to reconcile her being Mother to the 〈◊〉 with those Purities and holy Coelibate which she had designed to keep as advantages to the interests of Religion and his honour who chose her from all the daughters of Adam to be instrumental of the restitution of grace and innocence to all her Father's family And we shall receive benefit from so excellent example if we be not so desirous of a Priviledge as of a Vertue of Honour as of Piety and as we submit to the weight and pressure of sadnesses and infelicities that God's will may be accomplished so we must be also ready to renounce an exteriour grace or favour rather than it should not be consistent with exemplar and rare Piety 2. When the Son of God was incarnate in the Womb of his Virgin-Mother the Holy Maid arose and though she was superexalted by an honour greater than the world yet ever saw she still dwelt upon the foundation of Humility and to make that vertue more signal and eminent she arose and went hastily to visit her Cousin Elizabeth who also had conceived a son in her old age for so we all should be curious and watchful against vanities and transportations when we are advanced to the gayeties of prosperous accidents and in the greatest priviledges descend to the lowest to exercise a greater measure of Vertue against the danger of those tentations which are planted against our heart to ruine our hopes and glories 3. But the Joys that the Virgin-Mother had were such as concerned all the world and that part of them which was her peculiar she would not conceal from persons apt to their entertainment but go to publish God's mercy toward her to another holy person that they might joyn in the praises of God as knowing that though it may be convenient to represent our personal necessities in private yet God's gracious returns and the blessings he makes to descend on us are more fit when there is no personal danger collaterally appendent to be published in the Communion of Saints that the Hopes of others may receive increase that their Faith may have confirmation that their Charity and Eucharist may grow up to become excellent and great and the praises of God may be sung aloud till the sound strike at Heaven and joyn with the Hallelujahs which the Morning-stars in their Orbs pay to their great Creator 4. When the Holy Virgin had begun her journey she made haste over the Mountains that she might not only satisfie the desires of her joy by a speedy gratulation but lest she should be too long abroad under the dispersion and discomposing of her retirements And therefore she hastens to an inclosure to her Cousin's house as knowing that all vertuous women like Tortoises carry their house on their heads and their Chappel in their heart and their danger in their eye and their Souls in their hands and God in all their actions And indeed her very little burthen which she bare hindred her not but she might make haste enough and as her spirit was full of chearfulness and alacrity so even her body was made aiery and vegete for there was no Sin in her burthen to fill it with natural inconveniences and there is this excellency in all spiritual things that they do no disadvantage to our persons nor retard our just temporal interests And the Religion by which we carry Christ within us is neither so peevish as to disturb our health nor so sad as to discompose our just and modest chearfulness nor so prodigal as to force us to needs and ignoble trades but recreates our body by the medicine of holy Fastings and Temperance fills us full of serenities
to be quitted But it is S. Chrysostom's Simile As a Lamb sucking the breast of its dam and Mother moves the head from one part to another till it hath found a distilling fontinel and then it fixes till it be satisfied or the 〈◊〉 cease dropping so should we in Meditation reject such materials as are barren like the tops of hills and six upon such thoughts which nourish and refresh and there dwell till the nourishment be drawn forth or so much of it as we can then temperately digest 14. Fifthly In Meditation strive rather for Graces than for Gifts for affections in the way of Vertue more than the overslowings of sensible Devotion and therefore if thou findest any thing by which thou mayest be better though thy spirit do not actually rejoyce or find any gust or relish in the manducation yet chuse it greedily For although the chief end of Meditation be Affection and not Determinations intellectual yet there is choice to be had of the Affections and care must be taken that the affections be desires of Vertue or repudiations and aversions from something criminal not joys and transportations spiritual comforts and complacencies for they are no part of our duty sometimes they are encouragements and sometimes rewards sometimes they depend upon habitude and disposition of body and seem great matters when they have little in them and are more bodily than spiritual like the gift of tears and yerning of the bowels and sometimes they are illusions and temptations at which if the Soul stoops and be greedy after they may prove like Hippomenes's golden Apples to Atalanta retard our course and possibly do some hazard to the whole race And this will be nearer reduced to practice if we consider the variety of matter which is fitted to the Meditation in several states of men travelling towards Heaven 15. For the first beginners in Religion are imployed in the mastering of their first Appetites casting out their Devils exterminating all evil customs lessening the proclivity of habits and countermanding the too-great forwardness of vicious inclinations and this which Divines call the Purgative way is wholly spent in actions of Repentance Mortification and Self-denial and therefore if a penitent person snatches at Comforts or the tastes of sensible Devotion his Repentance is too delicate it is but a rod of Roses and Jessamine If God sees the spirit broken all in pieces and that it needs a little of the oyl of gladness for its support and restitution to the capacities of its duty he will give it but this is not to be designed nor snatched at in the Meditation Tears of joy are not good expressions nor instruments of Repentance we must not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles no refreshments to be looked for here but such only as are necessary for support and when God sees they are let not us trouble our selves he will provide them But the Meditations which are prompt to this Purgative way and practice of first beginners are not apt to produce delicacies but in the sequel and consequent of it Afterwards it brings forth the pleasant fruit of righteousness but for the present it hath no joy in it no joy of sense though much satisfaction to Reason And such are Meditations of the Fall of Angels and Man the Ejection of them from Heaven of our Parents from Paradise the Horrour and obliquity of Sin the Wrath of God the severity of his Anger Mortification of our body and spirit Self-denial the Cross of Christ Death and Hell and Judgment the terrours of an evil Conscience the insecurities of a Sinner the unreasonableness of Sin the troubles of Repentance the Worm and sting of a burthened spirit the difficulties of rooting out evil Habits and the utter abolition of Sin if these nettles bear honey we may fill our selves but such sweetnesses spoil the operations of these bitter potions Here therefore let your addresses to God and your mental prayers be affectionate desires of Pardon humble considerations of our selves thoughts of revenge against our Crimes designs of Mortification indefatigable solicitations for Mercy expresses of shame and confusion of face and he meditates best in the purgative way that makes these affections most operative and high 16. After our first step is taken and the punitive part of Repentance is resolved on and begun and put forward into good degrees of progress we then enter into the Illuminative way of Religion and set upon the acquist of Vertues and the purchase of spiritual Graces and therefore our Meditations are to be proportioned to the design of that imployment such as are considerations of the Life of Jesus Examples of Saints reasons of Vertue means of acquiring them designations of proper exercises to every pious habit the Eight Beatitudes the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost the Promises of the Gospel the Attributes of God as they are revealed to represent God to be infinite and to make us Religious the Rewards of Heaven excellent and select Sentences of holy persons to be as incentives of Piety These are the proper matter for Proficients in Religion But then the affections producible from these are love of vertue desires to imitate the Holy Jesus affections to Saints and holy persons conformity of choice subordination to God's will election of the ways of Vertue satisfaction of the Understanding in the ways of Religion and resolutions to pursue them in the midst of all discomforts and persecutions and our mental prayers or entercourse with God which are the present emanations of our Meditations must be in order to these affections and productions from those and in all these yet there is safety and piety and no seeking of our selves but designs of Vertue in just reason and duty to God and for his sake that is for his commandment And in all these particulars if there be such a sterility of spirit that there be no end served but of spiritual profit we are never the worse all that God requires of us is that we will live well and repent in just measure and right manner and he that doth so hath meditated well 17. From hence if a pious Soul passes to affections of greater sublimity and intimate and more immediate abstracted and immaterial love it is well only remember that the love God requires of us is an operative material and communicative love If ye love me keep my Commandments so that still a good life is the effect of the sublimest Meditation and if we make our duty sure behind us ascend up as high into the Mountain as you can so your ascent may consist with the securities of your person the condition of infirmity and the interests of your duty According to the saying of 〈◊〉 Our empty saying of 〈◊〉 and reciting verses in honour of his Name please not God so well as the imitation of him does advantage to us and a devout 〈◊〉 pleases the Spouse better than an idle Panegyrick Let your work
a voice from Heaven saying Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased This was the inauguration and proclamation of the Messias when he began to be the great Prophet of the new Covenant And this was the greatest meeting that ever was upon earth where the whole Cabinet of the mysterious Trinity was opened and shewn as much as the capacities of our present imperfections will permit the Second Person in the veil of Humanity the Third in the shape or with the motion of a Dove but the First kept his primitive state and as to the Israelites he gave notice by way of caution Ye saw no shape but ye heard a voice so now also God the Father gave testimony to his Holy Son and appeared only in a voice without any visible representment 4. When the Rite and the Solemnity was over Christ ascended up out of the waters and left so much vertue behind him that as Gregorius Turonensis reports that creek of the River where his holy body had been baptized was indued with a healing quality and a power of curing Lepers that bathed themselves in those waters in the faith and with invocation of the holy Name of Jesus But the manifestation of this power was not till afterwards for as yet Jesus did no Miracles 5. As soon as ever the Saviour of the World was baptized had opened the Heavens which yet never had been opened to Man and was declared the Son of God Jesus was by the Spirit driven into the Wilderness not by an unnatural violence but by the efficacies of Inspiration and a supernatural inclination and activity of resolution for it was the Holy Spirit that bare him thither he was led by the good Spirit to be tempted by the evil whither also he was pleased to retire to make demonstration that even in an active life such as he was designed to and intended some recesses and temporary dimissions of the world are most expedient for such persons especially whose office is Prophetical and for institution of others that by such vacancies in prayer and contemplation they may be better enabled to teach others when they have in such retirements conversed with God 6. In the Desart which was four miles 〈◊〉 the place of his Baptism and about twenty miles from Jerusalem as the common computations are he did abide forty days and forty nights where he was perpetually disturbed and assaulted with evil spirits in the midst of wild beasts in a continual fast without eating bread or drinking water And the Angels ministred to him being Messengers of comfort and sustentation sent from his Father for the support and service of his Humanity and imployed in resisting and discountenancing the assaults and temporal hostilities of the spirits of darkness 7. Whether the Devils 〈◊〉 in any horrid and affrighting shapes is not certain but it is more likely to a person of so great Sanctity and high designation they would appear more Angelical and immaterial in representments intellectual in words and Idea's temptations and inticements because Jesus was not a person of those low weaknesses to be affrighted or troubled with an ugly 〈◊〉 which can do nothing but abuse the weak and imperfect conceptions of persons nothing extraordinary And this was the way which Satan or the Prince of the Devils took whose Temptations were reserved for the last assault and the great day of trial for at the expiration of his forty days Jesus being hungry the Tempter invited him only to eat bread of his own providing which might refresh his Humanity and prove his Divinity hoping that his hunger and the desire of convincing the Devil might tempt him to eat before the time appointed But Jesus answered It is written Man shall not live by Bread alone but by every word that 〈◊〉 out of the mouth of God meaning that in every word of God whether the Commandment be general or special a promise is either expressed or implied of the supply of all provisions necessary for him that is doing the work of God and that was the present case of Jesus who was then doing his Father's work and promoting our interest and 〈◊〉 was sure to be provided for and therefore so are we 8. The Devil having failed in this assault tries him again requiring but a demonstration of his being the Son of God He sets him upon the battlement of the Temple and invites him to throw himself down upon a pretence that God would send his Angels to keep his Son and quotes Scripture for it But Jesus understood it well and though he was secured of God's protection yet he would not tempt God nor solicite his Providence to a dereliction by tempting him to an unnecessary conservation This assault was silly and weak But at last he unites all his power of stratagem and places the Holy Jesus upon an exceeding high mountain and by an Angelical power draws into one Centre Species and Idea's from all the Kingdoms and glories of the World and makes an admirable Map of beauties and represents it to the eyes of Jesus saying that all that was put into his power to give and he would give it him if he would fall down and worship him But then the Holy Lamb was angry as a provoked Lion and commanded him away when his temptations were violent and his demands impudent and blasphemous Then the Devil leaveth him and the Angels came and ministred unto him bringing such things as his necessities required after he had by a forty days Fast done penance for our sins and consigned to his Church the Doctrine and Discipline of Fasting in order to a Contemplative life and the resisting and overcoming all the Temptations and allurements of the Devil and all our ghostly enemies Ad SECT IX Considerations upon the Baptizing Fasting and Temptation of the Holy JESVS by the Devil 1. WHen the day did break and the Baptist was busie in his Offices the Sun of Righteousness soon entred upon our Hemisphere and after he had lived a life of darkness and silence for thirty years together yet now that he came to do the greatest work in the World and to minister in the most honourable Embassie he would do nothing of singularity but fulfil all righteousness and satisfie all Commands and joyn in the common Rites and Sacraments which all people innocent or penitent did undergo either as deleteries of 〈◊〉 or instruments of Grace For so he would needs be baptized by his servant and though he was of Purity sufficient to do it and did actually by his Baptism purifie the Purifier and sanctifie that and all other streams to a holy ministery and effect yet he went in bowing his head like a sinner uncloathing himself like an imperfect person and craving to be washed as if he had been crusted with an impure Leprosie thereby teaching us to submit our selves to all those Rites which he would institute and although 〈◊〉 of them be like the
proof of their earnest and need an earnest of the earnest For all that have the Spirit of God cannot in all instants prove it or certainly know it neither is it defined by how many indices the Spirit 's presence can be proved or figâ—â—ed And they limit the Spirit too much and understand it too little who take acâ—â—unts of his secret workings and measure them by the material lines and methods of natural and animal effects And yet because whatsoever is holy is made so by the Holy Spirit we are certain that the Children of believing that is of Christian Parents are holy S. Paul affirmed it and by it hath distinguished ours from the Children of unbelievers and our Marriages from theirs And because the Children of the Heathen when they come to choice and Reason may enter into Baptism and the Covenant if they will our Children have no priviledge beyond the Children of Turks or Heathens unless it be in the present capacity that is either by receiving the Holy Ghost immediately and the Promises or at least having a title to the Sacrament and entring by that door If they have the Spirit nothing can hinder them from a title to the 〈◊〉 ater and if they have only a title to the water of the Sacrament then they shall receive the promise of the Holy Spirit the benefits of the Sacrament else their priviledge is none at all but a dish of cold water which every Village-Nurse can provide for her new-born babe 20. But it is in our case as it was with the Jews Children Our Children are a holy seed for if it were not so with Christianity how could S. Peter move the Jews to Christianity by telling them the Promise was to them and their Children For if our Children be not capable of the Spirit of Promise and Holiness and yet their Children were holy it had been a better Argument to have kept them in the Synagogue than to have called them to the Christian Church Either therefore 1. there is some Holiness in a reasonable nature which is not from the Spirit of Holiness or else 2. our Children do receive the Holy Spirit because they are holy or if they be not holy they are in worse condition under Christ than under Moses or if none of all this be true then our Children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of Promise and consequently nothing can hinder them from being baptized 21. And indeed if the Christian 〈◊〉 whose Children are circumcised and made partakers of the same Promises and Title and Inheritance and Sacraments which themselves had at their Conversion to the Faith of Christ had seen their Children now shut out from these new Sacraments it is not to be doubted but they would have raised a strom greater than could easily have been suppressed since about their Circumcisions they 〈◊〉 raised such Tragedies and implacable disputations And there had been great reason to look for a storm for their Children were circumcised and if not baptized then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of for S. Paul said Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law These Children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Law of Ceremonies to be presented into the Temple to pay their price to be redeemed with silver and gold to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal Ordinances and therefore if they had been thus left it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult they used to do it for less matters 22. To which let this be added That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christ's Ascension and S. Mark' s Gospel twelve years In the mean time to what Scriptures did they appeal By the Analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions Whence did they prove their Articles They only appealed to the Old Testament and only added what their Lord superadded Now either it must be said that our Blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized which is no-where pretended and if it were cannot at all be proved or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God and preach the Religion it is plain that by the Analogy of the Old Testament that is of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered they also approved the Baptism of Infants or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews of which also the Church did then principally consist 23. Seventhly That Baptism which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection doth also equally consign Infants to it hath nothing that I know of pretended against it there being the same signature and the same grace and in this thing all being alike passive and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of Grace and Infants have an equal necessity as being liable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents and dying sooner than men and women and less able to complain and more apt to be pitied and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death infelicitate priscorum hominum with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents and therefore have as great need as any and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another 24. Eightly And after all this if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace we have nothing to relie upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of Salvation save only we are to add this that because of this law since Infants are not personally capable but the Church for them as for all others indefinitely we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplied but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability This we may be certain of that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation for by nature we are children of wrath and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature either therefore Children must be put into the state of Grace or they shall dwell for ever where God's face does never shine Now there are but two ways of being put into the state of Grace and Salvation the inward by the Spirit and the outward by Water which regularly are together If they be renewed by the Spirit what hinders them to be baptized who receive the Holy Ghost as well as we If they are not capable of the Spirit they are capable of Water and if of neither where is their title to Heaven which is neither internal nor external neither spiritual nor sacramental neither secret nor manifest neither
that there is the same conformity of spirit and fortune by complying with my fortune as if my fortune did comply with my spirit And therefore in the order of Beatitudes Meekness is set between Mourning and Desire that it might balance and attemper those actions by indifferency which by reason of their abode are apt to the transportation of passion The reward expressed is a possission of the earth that is a possession of all which is excellent here below to consign him to a future glory as Canaan was a type of Heaven For Meekness is the best cement and combining of friendships it is a great endearment of us to our company It is an ornament to have a meek and quiet spirit a prevention of quarrels and pacifier of wrath it purchaseth peace and is it self a quietness of spirit it is the greatest affront to all injuries in the world for it returns them upon the injurious and makes them useless ineffective and innocent and is an antidote against all the evil consequents of anger and adversity and tramples upon the usurping passions of the irascible faculty 9. But the greatest part of this Paisage and Landtschap is Sky and as a man in all countreys can see more of Heaven than of the earth he dwells on so also he may in this Promise For although the Christian hears the promise of the inheritance of the Earth yet he must place his eye and fix his heart upon Heaven which by looking downward also upon this Promise as in a vessel of limpid water he may see by reflexion without looking upwards by a direct intuition It is Heaven that is designed by this Promise as well as by any of the rest though this Grace takes in also the refreshments of the earth by equivalence and a suppletory 〈◊〉 But here we have no abiding city and therefore no inheritance this is not our Countrey and therefore here cannot be our portion unless we chuse as did the Prodigal to go into a strange Countrey and spend our portion with riotous and beastly living and forfeit our Father's blessing The Devil carrying our Blessed Saviour to a high mountain shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world but besides that they were offered upon ill conditions they were not eligible by him upon any And neither are they to be chosen by us for our inheritance and portion Evangelical for the Gospel is founded upon better promises and therefore the hopes of a Christian ought not to determine upon any thing less than Heaven Indeed our Blessed Saviour chose to describe this Beatitude in the words of the Psalmist so inviting his Disciples to an excellent precept by the insinuation of those Scriptures which themselves admitted But as the earth which was promised to the meek man in David's Psalm was no other earth but the terra 〈◊〉 the Land of Canaan if we shall remember that this Land of promise was but a transition and an allegory to a greater and more noble that it was but a type of Heaven we shall not see cause to wonder why the Holy Jesus intending Heaven for the reward of this Grace also together with the rest did call it the inheritance of the earth For now is revealed to us a new heaven and a new earth an habitation made without hands 〈◊〉 in the heavens And he understands nothing of the excellency of Christian Religion whose affections dwell below and are satisfied with a portion of dirt and corruption If we be risen with Christ let us seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God But if a Christian desires to take possession of this earth in his way as his inheritance or portion he hath reason to fear it will be his All. We have but one inheritance one countrey and here we are strangers and Pilgrims Abraham told Dives that he had enjoyed his good things here he had the inheritance of the earth in the crass material sense and therefore he had no other portion but what the Devils have And when we remember that Persecution is the lot of the Church and that Poverty is her portion and her quantum is but food and raiment at the best and that Patience is her support and Hope her refreshment and Self-denial her security and Meekness is all her possession and title to a subsistence it will appear certain that as Christ's Kingdom was not of this world so neither shall his Saints have their portion in that which is not his Kingdom They are miserable if they do not reign with him and he never reigned here but if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him hereafter True it is Christ promised to him that should lose any interest for his sake the restitution of a hundred fold in this world But as the sense of that cannot be literal for he cannot receive a hundred Mothers or a hundred Wives so whatsoever that be it is to be enjoyed with persecution And then such a portion of the Earth as Christ hath expressed in figure and shall by way of recompence restore us and such a recompence as we can enjoy with Persecution and such an enjoyment as is consistent with our having lost all our temporals and such an acquist and purchace of it as is not destructive of the grace of Meekness all that we may enter into our accounts as part of our lot and the emanation from the holy Promise But in the foot of this account we shall not find any great affluence of temporal accruements However it be although when a meek man hath earthly possessions by this Grace he is taught how to use them and how to part with them yet if he hath them not by the vertue here commanded he is not suffered to use any thing violent towards the acquiring them not so much as a violent passion or a stormy imagination for then he loses his Meekness and what ever he gets can be none of the reward of this Grace He that sights for temporals unless by some other appendent duty he be obliged loses his title by striving incompetently for the reward he cuts off that hand by which alone he can receive it For unless he be indeed meek he hath no right to what he calls the inheritance of the earth and he that is not content to want the inheritance of the earth when God requires him is not meek So that if this Beatitude be understood in a temporal sense it is an offer of a reward upon a condition we shall be without it and be content too For in every sense of the word Meekness implies a just satisfaction of the spirit and acquiescence in every estate or contingency whatsoever though we have no possessions but of a good Conscience no bread but that of carefulness no support but from the Holy Spirit and a providence ministring to our natural necessities by an extemporary provision And certain it is the meekest
of Christ's servants the Apostles and the Primitive Christians had no other verification of this Promise but this that rejoycing in tribulation and knowing how to want as well as how to abound through many tribulations they entered into the Kingdom of Heaven For that is the Countrey in which they are co-heirs with Jesus But if we will certainly understand what this reward is we may best know it by understanding the duty and this we may best learn from him that gave it in commandment Learn of me for I am meek said the Holy Jesus and to him was promised that the uttermost ends of the earth should be his inheritance and yet he died first and went to Heaven before it was verified to him in any sense but only of content and desire and joy in suffering and in all variety of accident And thus also if we be meek we may receive the inheritance of the Earth 10. The acts of this Grace are 1. To submit to all the instances of Divine Providence not repining at any accident which God hath chosen for us and given us as part of our lot or a punishment of our deserving or an instrument of vertue not envying the gifts graces or prosperities of our neighbours 2. To pursue the interest and imployment of our calling in which we are placed not despising the meanness of any work though never so disproportionable to our abilities 3. To correct all malice wrath evil-speaking and inordinations of anger whether in respect of the object or the degree 4. At no hand to entertain any thoughts of revenge or retaliation of evil 5. To be affable and courteous in our deportment towards all persons of our society and entercourse 6. Not to censure or reproach the weakness of our neighbour but support his burthen cover and cure his infirmities 7. To excuse what may be excused lessening severity and being gentle in reprehension 8. To be patient in afflictions and thankful under the Cross. 9. To endure reproof with shame at our selves for deserving it and thankfulness to the charitable Physician that offers the remedy 10. To be modest and fairly-mannered toward our Superiours obeying reverencing speaking honourably of and doing honour to aged persons and all whom God hath set over us according to their several capacities 11. To be ashamed and very apprehensive of the unworthiness of a crime at no hand losing our fear of the invisible God and our reverence to visible societies or single persons 12. To be humble in our exteriour addresses and behaviour in Churches and all Holy places 13. To be temperate in government not imperious unreasonable insolent or oppressive lest we provoke to wrath those whose interest of person of Religion we are to defend or promote 14. To do our endeavour to expiate any injury we did by confessing the fact offering satisfaction asking forgiveness 11. Fourthly Blessed are they that Hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled This Grace is the greatest indication of spiritual health when our appetite is right strong and regular when we are desirous of spiritual nourishment when we long for Manna and follow Christ for loaves not of a low and terrestrial gust but of that bread which came down from heaven Now there are two sorts of holy repast which are the proper objects of our desires The bread of Heaven which is proportioned to our hunger that is all those immediate emanations from Christ's pardon of our sins and redemption from our former conversation holy Laws and Commandments To this Food there is also a spiritual Beverage to quench our thirst and this is the effects of the Holy Spirit who first moved upon the waters of Baptism and afterwards became to us the breath of life giving us holy inspirations and assistences refreshing our wearinesses cooling our fevers and allaying all our intemperate passions making us holy humble resigned and pure according to the pattern in the mount even as our Father is pure So that the first Redemption and Pardon of us by Christ's Merits is the Bread of Life for which we must hunger and the refreshments and daily emanations of the Spirit who is the spring of comforts and purity is that drink which we must thirst after A being first reconciled to God by Jesus and a being sanctisied and preserved in purity by the Holy Spirit is the adequate object of our desires Some to hunger and thirst best fancy the analogy and proportion of the two Sacraments the Waters of Baptism and the Food of the Eucharist some the Bread of the Patin and the Wine of the Chalice But it is certain they signifie one desire expressed by the most impatient and necessary of our appetites hungring and thirsting And the object is whatsoever is the principle or the effect the beginning or the way or the end of righteousness that is the Mercies of God the Pardon of Jesus the Graces of the Spirit a holy life and a holy death and a blessed Eternity 12. The blessing and reward of this Grace is fulness or satisfaction which relates immediately to Heaven because nothing here below can satisfie us The Grace of God is our Viaticum and entertains us by the way its nature is to increase not to satisfie the appetites not because the Grace is empty and unprofitable as are the things of the world but because it is excellent but yet in order to a greater perfection it invites the appetite by its present goodness but it leaves it unsatisfied because it is not yet arrived at glory and yet the present imperfection in respect of all the good of this World's possession is rest and satisfaction and is imperfect only in respect of its own future complement and perfection and our hunger continues and our needs return because all we have is but an antepast But the glories of Eternity are also the proper object of our desires that 's the reward of God's Grace this is the crown of righteousness As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness and when I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it The acts of this Vertue are multiplied according to its object for they are only 1. to desire and 2. pray for and 3. labour for all that which is Righteousness in any sense 1. For the Pardon of our sins 2. for the Graces and Sanctification of the Spirit 3. for the advancement of Christ's Kingdome 4. for the reception of the holy Sacrament and all the instruments ordinances and ministeries of Grace 5. for the grace of Perseverance 6. and finally for the crown of Righteousness 13. Fisthly Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain mercy Mercy is the greatest mark and token of the 〈◊〉 elect and predestinate persons in the world Put ye on my beloved as the elect of God the bowels of mercy holy and precious For Mercy is an attribute in the manifestation of which
and therefore less likely to deceive for which reason it is said that he shall deceive if it were possible the very elect that is therefore not possible because that by which he insinuates himself to others is by the elect the Church and chosen of God understood to be his sign and mark of discovery and a warning And therefore as the Prophecies of Jesus were an infinite verification of his Miracles so also this Prophecy of Christ concerning Antichrist disgraces the reputation and faith of the Miracles he shall act The old Prophets foretold of the Messias and of his Miracles of power and mercy to prepare for his reception and entertainment Christ alone and his Apostles from him foretold of Antichrist and that he should come in all Miracles of deception and lying that is with true or false Miracles to perswade a lie and this was to prejudice his being accepted according to the Law of Moses So that as all that spake of Christ bade us believe him for the Miracles so all that foretold of Antichrist bade us disbelieve him the rather for his and the reason of both is the same because the mighty and surer word of Prophecy as S. Peter calls it being the greatest testimony in the world of a Divine principle gives authority or reprobates with the same power They who are the predestinate of God and they that are the praesciti the foreknown and marked people must needs stand or fall to the Divine sentence and such must this be acknowledged for no enemy of the Cross not the Devil himself ever foretold such a contingency or so rare so personal so voluntary so unnatural an event as this of the great Antichrist 12. And thus the Holy Jesus having shewed forth the treasures of his Father's Wisdom in Revelations and holy Precepts and upon the stock of his Father's greatness having dispended and demonstrated great power in Miracles and these being instanced in acts of Mercy he mingled the glories of Heaven to transmit them to earth to raise us up to the participations of Heaven he was pleased by healing the bodies of infirm persons to invite their spirits to his Discipline and by his power to convey healing and by that mercy to lead us into the treasures of revelation that both Bodies and Souls our Wills and Understandings by Divine instruments might be brought to Divine perfections in the participations of a Divine nature It was a miraculous mercy that God should look upon us in our bloud and a miraculous condescension that his Son should take our nature and even this favour we could not believe without many Miracles and so contrary was our condition to all possibilities of happiness that if Salvation had not marched to us all the way in Miracle we had perished in the ruines of a sad eternity And now it would be but reasonable that since God for our sakes hath rescinded so many laws of natural establishment we also for his and for our own would be content to do violence to those natural inclinations which are also criminal when they derive into action Every man living in the state of Grace is a perpetual Miracle and his Passions are made reasonable as his Reason is turned to Faith and his Soul to Spirit and his Body to a Temple and Earth to Heaven and less than this will not dispose us to such glories which being the portion of Saints and Angels and the nearest communications with God are infinitely above what we see or hear or understand The PRAYER O Eternal Jesu who didst receive great power that by it thou mightest convey thy Father's mercies to us impotent and wretched people give me grace to believe that heavenly Doctrine which thou didst ratifie with arguments from above that I may fully assent to all those mysterious Truths which integrate that Doctrine and Discipline in which the obligations of my duty and the hopes of my felicity are deposited And to all those glorious verifications of thy Goodness and thy Power add also this Miracle that I who am stained with Leprosie of sin may be cleansed and my eyes may be opened that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law and raise thou me up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that I may for ever walk in the land of the living abhorring the works of death and darkness that as I am by thy miraculous mercy partaker of the first so also I may be accounted worthy of the second Resurrection and as by Faith Hope Charity and Obedience I receive the fruit of thy Miracles in this life so in the other I may partake of thy Glories which is a mercy above all Miracles Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Lord I believe help mine unbelief and grant that no 〈◊〉 or incapacity of mine may hinder the wonderful operations of thy Grace but let it be thy first Miracle to turn my water into wine my barrenness into fruitfulness my aversations from thee into unions and intimate adhesions to thy infinity which is the fountain of mercy and power Grant this for thy mercie 's sake and for the honour of those glorious Attributes in which thou hast revealed thy self and thy Father's excellencies to the world O Holy and Eternal Jesu Amen The End of the Second Part. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS BEGINNING At the Second Year of his PREACHING until his ASCENSION WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES THE THIRD PART Seneca apud Lactant. lib. 6. c. 17. Hic est ille homo qui sive toto corpore tormenta patienda sunt sive flamma ore recipienda est sive extendenda per patibulum manus non quaerit quid patiatur sed quà m bene LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston 1675 TO The Right Honourable and Vertuous Lady The LADY FRANCES Countess of CARBERY MADAM SInce the Divine Providence hath been pleased to bind up the great breaches of my little fortune by your Charity and Nobleness of a religious tenderness I account it an excellent circumstance and handsomeness of condition that I have the fortune of S. Athanasius to have my Persecution relieved and comforted by an Honourable and Excellent Lady and I have nothing to return for this honour done to me but to do as the poor Paralyticks and infirm people in the Gospel did when our Blessed Saviour cured them they went and told it to all the Countrey and made the Vicinage full of the report as themselves were of health and joy And although I know the modesty of your person and Religion had rather do favours than own them yet give me leave to draw aside the curtain and retirement of your Charity for I had rather your vertue should blush than my unthankfulness make me ashamed Madam I intended by this Address not onely to return you spirituals for
that is to come That is plain And although Christ revealed his Father's mercies to us in new expresses and great abundance yet he took nothing from the world which ever did in any sense invite Piety or indear Obedience or cooperate towards Felicity And 〈◊〉 the Promises which were made of old are also presupposed in the new and mentioned by intimation and implication within the greater When our Blessed Saviour in seven of the Eight Beatitudes had instanced in new Promises and Rewards as Heaven Seeing of God Life eternal in one of them to which Heaven is as certainly consequent as to any of the rest he did chuse to instance in a temporal blessing and in the very words of the Old Testament to shew that that part of the old Covenant which concerns Morality and the rewards of Obedience remains firm and included within the conditions of the Gospel 16. To this purpose is that saying of our Blessed Saviour Man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God meaning that besides natural means ordained for the preservation of our lives there are means supernatural and divine God's Blessing does as much as bread nay it is Every word proceeding out of the 〈◊〉 of God that is every Precept and Commandment of God is so for our good that it is intended as food and Physick to us a means to make us live long And therefore God hath done in this as in other graces and issues Evangelical which he purposed to continue in his Church for ever He first gave it in miraculous and extraordinary manner and then gave it by way of perpetual ministery The Holy Ghost appeared at first like a prodigy and with Miracle he descended in visible representments expressing himself in revelations and powers extraordinary but it being a Promise intended to descend upon all Ages of the Church there was appointed a perpetual ministery for its conveyance and still though without a sign or miraculous representment it is ministred in Confirmation by imposition of the Bishop's hands And thus also health and long life which by way of ordinary benediction is consequent to Piety Faith and Obedience Evangelical was at first given in a miraculous manner that so the ordinary effects being at first confirmed by miraculous and extraordinary instances and manners of operation might for ever after be confidently expected without any dubitation since it was in the same manner consigned by which all the whole Religion was by a voice from Heaven and a verification of Miracles and extraordinary supernatural effects That the gift of healing and preservation and restitution of life was at first miraculous needs no particular probation All the story of the Gospel is one entire argument to prove it and amongst the fruits of the Spirit S. Paul reckons gifts of healing and government and helps or exteriour assistences and advantages to represent that it was intended the life of Christian people should be happy and healthful for ever Now that this grace also descended afterwards in an ordinary ministery is recorded by S. James Is any man sick amongst you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord that was then the ceremony and the blessing and effect is still for the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up For it is observable that the blessing of healing and recovery is not appendent to the Anealing but to the Prayer of the Church to manifest that the ceremony went with the first miraculous and extraordinary manner yet that there was an ordinary ministery appointed for the daily conveyance of the blessing the faithful prayers offices of holy Priests shall obtain life and health to such persons who are receptive of it and in spiritual and apt dispositions And when we see by a continual flux of extraordinary benediction that even some Christian Princes are instruments of the Spirit not only in the government but in the gifts of healing too as a reward for their promoting the just interests of Christianity we may acknowledge our selves convinced that a holy life in the faith and obedience of Jesus Christ may be of great advantage for our health and life by that instance to entertain our present desires and to establish our hopes of life eternal 17. For I consider that the fear of God is therefore the best antidote in the World against sickness and death because it is the direct enemy to sin which brought in sickness and death and besides this that God by spiritual means should produce alterations natural is not hard to be understood by a Christian Philosopher take him in either of the two capacities 2. For there is a rule of proportion and analogy of effects that if sin destroys not only the Soul but the Body also then may Piety preserve both and that much rather for if sin that is the effects and consequents of sin hath abounded then shall grace superabound that is Christ hath done us more benefit than the Fall of Adam hath done us injury and therefore the effects of sin are not greater upon the body than either are to be restored or prevented by a pious life 3. There is so near a conjunction between Soul and Body that it is no wonder if God meaning to glorifie both by the means of a spiritual life suffers spirit and matter to communicate in effects and mutual impresses Thus the waters of Baptism purifie the Soul and the Holy Eucharist not the symbolical but the mysterious and spiritual part of it makes the Body also partaker of the death 〈◊〉 Christ and a holy union The flames of Hell whatsoever they are torment accursed Souls and the stings of Conscience vex and disquiet the Body 4. And if we consider that in the glories of Heaven when we shall live a life purely spiritual our Bodies also are so clarified and made spiritual that they also become immortal that state of Glory being nothing else but a perfection of the state of Grace it is not unimaginable but that the Soul may have some proportion of the same operation upon the Body as to conduce to its prolongation as to an antepast of immortality 5. For since the Body hath all its life from its conjunction with the Soul why not also the perfection of life according to its present capacity that is health and duration from the perfection of the Soul I mean from the ornaments of Grace And as the blessedness of the Soul saith the Philosopher consists in the speculation of honest and just things so the perfection of the Body and of the whole Man consists in the practick the exercise and operations of Vertue 18. But this Problem in Christian Philosophy is yet more intelligible and will be reduced to certain experience if we consider good life in union and concretion with particular
else Faith and Hope are not two distinct Graces God's 〈◊〉 and vocation are without repentance meaning on God's part but the very people concerning whom S. Paul used the expression were reprobate and cut off and in good time shall be called again in the mean time many single persons perish There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus God will look to that and it will never fail but then they must secure the following period and not walk after the Flesh but after the Spirit Behold the goodness of God towards thee saith S. Paul if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off And if this be true concerning the whole Church of the Gentiles to whom the Apostle then made the address and concerning whose election the decree was publick and manifest that they might be cut off and their abode in God's favour was upon condition of their perseverance in the Faith much more is it true in single persons 〈◊〉 election in particular is shut up in the abyss and permitted to the condition of our Faith and Obedience and the revelations of Dooms-day 7. Certain it is that God hath given to holy persons the Spirit of adoption enabling them to cry Abba Father and to account themselves for sons and by this Spirit we know we dwell in him and therefore it is called in Scripture the earnest of the Spirit though at its first mission and when the Apostle wrote and used this appellative the Holy Ghost was of greater signification and a more visible earnest and endearment of their hopes than it is to most of us since For the visible sending of the Holy Ghost upon many Believers in gifts signs and prodigies was infinite argument to make them expect events as great beyond that as that was beyond the common gifts of men just as Miracles and Prophecy which are gifts of the Holy Ghost were arguments of probation for the whole Doctrine of Christianity And this being a mighty verification of the great Promise the promise of the Father was an apt instrument to raise their hopes and confidences concerning those other Promises which Jesus made the promises of Immortality and eternal life of which the present miraculous Graces of the Holy Spirit were an earnest and in the nature of a contracting peny and still also the Holy Ghost though in another manner is an earnest of the great price of the heavenly calling the rewards of Heaven though not so visible and apparent as at first yet as certain and demonstrative where it is discerned or where it is believed as it is and ought to be in every person who does any part of his duty because by the Spirit we do it and without him we cannot And since we either feel or believe the presence and gifts of the Holy Ghost to holy purposes for whom we receive voluntarily we cannot casily receive without a knowledge of his reception we cannot but entertain him as an argument of greater good hereafter and an earnest-peny of the perfection of the present Grace that is of the rewards of Glory Glory and Grace differing no otherwise than as an earnest in part of payment does from the whole price the price of our high calling So that the Spirit is an earnest not because he always signifies to us that we are actually in the state of Grace but by way of argument or reflexion we know we do belong to God when we receive his Spirit and all Christian people have received him if they were rightly baptized and confirmed I say we know by that testimony that we belong to God that is we are the people with whom God hath made a Covenant to whom he hath promised and intends greater blessings to which the present gifts of the Spirit are in order But all this is conditional and is not an immediate testimony of the certainty and future event but of the event as it is possibly future and may without our fault be reduced to act as certainly as it is promised or as the earnest is given in hand And this the Spirit of God oftentimes tells us in secret visitations and publick testimonies and this is that which S. Paul calls tasting of the heavenly gift and partaking of the Holy Ghost and tasting of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come But yet some that have done so have fallen away and have quenched the Spirit and have given back the earnest of the Spirit and contracted new relations and God hath been their Father no longer for they have done the works of the Devil So that if new Converts be uncertain of their present state old Christians are not absolutely certain they shall persevere They are as sure of it as they can be of future acts of theirs which God hath permitted to their own power But this certainty cannot exclude all fear till their Charity be perfect only according to the strength of their habits so is the confidence of their abodes in Grace 8. Beyond this some holy persons have degrees of perswasion superadded as Largesses and acts of grace God loving to bless one degree of Grace with another till it comes to a Confirmation in Grace which is a state of Salvation directly opposite to Obduration and as this is irremediable and irrecoverable so is the other inamissible as God never saves a person obdurate and obstinately impenitent so he never loses a man whom he hath confirmed in grace whom he so loves he loves unto the end and to others indeed he offers his persevering love but they will not entertain it with a persevering duty they will not be beloved unto the end But I insert this caution that every man that is in this condition of a confirmed Grace does not always know it but sometimes God draws aside the curtains of peace and shews him his throne and visits him with irradiations of glory and sends him a little star to stand over his dwelling and then again covers it with a cloud It is certain concerning some persons that they shall never fall and that God will not permit them to the danger or probability of it to such it is morally impossible but these are but few and themselves know it not as they know a demonstrative proposition but as they see the Sun sometimes breaking from a cloud very brightly but all day long giving necessary and sufficient light 9. Concerning the multitude of Believers this discourse is not pertinent for they only take their own accounts by the imperfections of their own duty blended with the mercies of God the cloud gives light on one side and is dark upon the other and sometimes a bright ray peeps through the fringes of a shower and immediately hides it self that we might be humble and diligent striving forwards and looking upwards endeavouring our duty and longing after Heaven working out our Salvation with fear and trembling and
a quarrel unto them for that punishment is never sent upon pure designs of emendation or for direct and immediate purposes of the Divine glory but ever makes reflexion upon the past sin but when we descend to a judgment of the particulars God walks so in the dark to us that it is not discerned upon what ground he smote them Some say it was because they dishonoured the eternal Jesus in denying the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son And in this some thought themselves sufficiently assured by a sign from Heaven because the Greeks lost Constantinople upon Whitsunday the day of the Festival of the Holy Spirit The Church of Rome calls the Churches of the Greek Communion Schismatical and thinks God righted the Roman quarrel when he revenged his own Some think they were cut off for being Breakers of Images others think that their zeal against Images was a means they were cut off no sooner and yet he that shall observe what innumerable Sects Heresies and Factions were commenced amongst them and how they were wanton with Religion making it serve ambitious and unworthy ends will see that besides the ordinary conjectures of interested persons they had such causes of their ruine which we also now feel heavily incumbent upon our selves To see God adding eighteen years to the life of Hezekiah upon his Prayer and yet cutting off the young Son of David begotten in adulterous embraces to see him rejecting Adonijah and receiving Solomon to the Kingdom begotten of the same Mother whose Son God in anger formerly slew to observe his mercies to Manasses in accepting him to favour and continuing the Kingdom to him and his severity to Zedekiah in causing his eyes to be put out to see him rewarding Nebuchadnezzar with the spoils of Egypt for destroying Tyre and executing God's severe anger against it and yet punishing others for being executioners of his wrath upon Jerusalem even then when he purposed to chastise it to see 〈◊〉 raised from a Peasant to a Throne and Pompey from a great Prince reduced to that condition that a Pupil and an Eunuch passed sentence of death upon him to see great fortunes fall into the hand of a Fool and Honourable old persons and Learned men descend to unequal Beggery to see him strike a stroke with his own hand in the Conversion of Saul and another quite contrary in the cutting off of Judas must needs be some restraint to our judgments concerning the general state of those men who lie under the rod but it proclaims an infinite uncertainty in the particulars since we see contrary accidents happening to persons guilty of the same crime or put in the same indispositions God hath marked all great sins with some signal and express Judgments and hath transmitted the records of them or represented them before our eyes that is hath done so in our Age or it hath been noted to have been done before and that being sufficient to affright us from those crimes God hath not thought it expedient to do the same things to all persons in the same cases having to all persons produced instances and examples of fear by fewer accidents sufficient to restrain us but not enough to pass sentence upon the changes of Divine Providence 5. But sometimes God speaks plainer and gives us notice what crimes he punishes in others that we may the rather decline such rocks of offence If the Crime and the Punishment be symbolical and have proportion and correspondence of parts the hand of God strikes the Man but holds up one finger to point at the Sin The death of the child of Bathsheba was a plain declaration that the anger of God was upon David for the Adulterous mixture That Blasphemer whose Tongue was presently struck with an ulcerous tumour with his tongue declared the glories of God and his own shame And it was not doubted but God when he smote the Lady of Dominicus Silvius the Duke of Venice with a loathsome and unsavory disease did intend to chastise a remarkable vanity of hers in various and costly Perfumes which she affected in an unreasonable manner and to very evil purposes And that famous person and of excellent learning Giacchettus of Geneva being by his Wife found dead in the unlawful embraces of a stranger woman who also died at the same instant left an excellent example of God's anger upon the crime and an evidence that he was then judged for his intemperate Lust. Such are all those punishments which are natural consequents to a Crime as Dropsies Redness of eyes Dissolution of nerves Apoplexies to continual Drunkenness to intemperate Eating Short lives and Sudden deaths to Lust a Caitive slavish disposition and a Foul diseased body Fire and Sword and Depopulation of Towns and Villages the consequents of Ambition and unjust Wars Poverty to Prodigality and all those Judgments which happen upon Cursings and horrid Imprecations when God is under a Curse called to attest a Lie and to connive at impudence or when the Oppressed persons in the bitterness of their souls wish evil and pray for vengeance on their Oppressors or that the Church upon just cause inflicts Spiritual censures and delivers unto Satan or curses and declares the Divine sentence against sinners as S. Peter against Ananias and Sapphira and S. Paul against Elymas and of old Moses against Pharaoh and his Egypt of this nature also was the plague of a withered hand inflicted upon 〈◊〉 for stretching forth his hand to strike the Prophet In these and all such instances the off-spring is so like the parent that it cannot easily be concealed Sometime the crime is of that nature that it cries aloud for vengeance or is threatned with a special kind of punishment which by the observation and experience of the World hath regularly happened to a certain sort of persons such as are dissolutions of Estates the punishment of Sacrilege a descending curse upon posterity for four generations specially threatned to the crime of Idolatry any plague whatsoever to Oppression untimely death to Murther an unthriving estate to the detention of Tithes or whatsoever is God's portion allotted for the services of Religion untimely and strange deaths to the Persecutors of Christian Religion Nero killed himself Domitian was killed by his servants Maximinus and Decius were murthered together with their children Valerianus imprisoned flay'd and slain with tortures by Sapor King of Persia Diocletian perished by his own hand and his House was burnt with the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from above Antiochus the President under Aurelian while Agapetus was in his agony and sufferance of Martyrdom cried out of a flame within him and died Flaccus vomited out his entrails presently after he had caused Gregory Bishop of Spoleto to be slain and Dioscorus the father of S. Barbara accused and betrayed his Daughter to the Hangman's cruelty for being a Christian and he died by the hand of God by fire from Heaven These
think the infelicities of our nature and the calamities of our temporal condition to become criminal so long as they make us not omit a duty or dispose us to the election of a crime or force us to swallow a temptation nor yet to exceed the value of their impulsive cause He that grieves for the loss of friends and yet had rather lose all the friends he hath than lose the love of God hath the sorrow of our Lord for his precedent And he that fears death and trembles at its approximation and yet had rather die again than sin once hath not sinned in his fear Christ hath hallowed it and the necessitous condition of his nature is his excuse But it were highly to be wished that in the midst of our caresses and levities of society in our festivities and triumphal merriments when we laugh at folly and rejoyce in sin we would remember that for those very merriments our Blessed Lord felt a bitter sorrow and not one vain and sinful laughter but cost the Holy Jesus a sharp pang and throe of Passion 4. Now that the Holy Jesus began to taste the bitter Cup he betook him to his great Antidote which himself the great Physician of our Souls prescribed to all the world to cure their calamities and to make them pass from miseries into vertue that so they may arrive at glory he prays to his heavenly Father he kneels down and not only so but falls flat upon the earth and would in humility and fervent adoration have descended low as the centre he prays with an intension great as his sorrow and yet with a dereliction so great and a conformity to the Divine will so ready as if it had been the most indifferent thing in the world for him to be delivered to death or from it for though his nature did decline death as that which hath a natural horrour and contradiction to the present interest of its preservation yet when he looked upon it as his heavenly Father had put it into the order of Redemption of the World it was that Baptism which he was straitned till he had accomplished And now there is not in the world any condition of prayer which is essential to the duty or any circumstances of advantage to its performance but were concentred in this one instance Humility of spirit lowliness of deportment importunity of desire a fervent spirit a lawful matter resignation to the will of God great love the love of a Son to his Father which appellative was the form of his address perseverance he went thrice and prayed the same prayer It was not long and it was so retired as to have the advantages of a sufficient solitude and opportune recollection for he was withdrawn from the most of his Disciples and yet not so alone as to lose the benefit of communion for Peter and the two Boanerges were near him Christ in this prayer which was the most fervent that he ever made on earth intending to transmit to all the world a precedent of Devotion to be transcribed and imitated that we should cast all our cares and empty them in the bosom of God being content to receive such a portion of our trouble back again which he assigns us for our spiritual emolument 5. The Holy Jesus having in a few words poured out torrents of innocent desires was pleased still to interrupt his Prayer that he might visit his charge that little flock which was presently after to be scattered he was careful of them in the midst of his Agonies they in his sufferings were fast asleep He awakens them gives them command to watch and pray that is to be vigilant in the custody of their senses and obervant of all accidents and to pray that they may be strengthened against all incursions of enemies and temptations and then returns to prayer and so a third time his Devotion still encreasing with his sorrow And when his Prayer was full and his sorrow come to a great measure after the third God sent his Angel to comfort him and by that act of grace then only expressed hath taught us to continue our Devotions so long as our needs last It may be God will not send a Comsorter till the third time that is after a long expectation and a patient 〈◊〉 and a lasting hope in the interim God supports us with a secret hand and in his own time will refresh the spirit with the visitations of his Angels with the emissions of comfort from the Spirit the Comforter And know this also that the holy Angel and the Lord of all the Angels stands by every holy person when he prays and although he draws before his glories the curtain of a cloud yet in every instant he takes care we shall not perish and in a just season dissolves the cloud and makes it to distill in holy dew and drops sweet as Manna pleasant as Nard and wholsome as the breath of Heaven And such was the consolation which the Holy Jesus received by the ministery of the Angel representing to Christ the Lord of the Angels how necessary it was that he should die for the glory of God that in his Passion his Justice Wisdom Goodness Power and Mercy should shine that unless he died all the World should perish but his bloud should obtain their pardon and that it should open the gates of Heaven repair the ruine of Angels establish a holy Church be 〈◊〉 of innumerable adoptive children to his Father whom himself should make heirs of glory and that his Passion should soon pass away his Father hearing and granting his Prayer that the Cup should pass speedily though indeed it should pass through him that it should be attended and followed with a glorious Resurrection with eternal rest and glory of his Humanity with the exaltation of his Name with a supreme dominion over all the world and that his Father should make him King of Kings and Prince of the Catholick Church These or whatsoever other comforts the Angel ministred were such considerations which the Holy Jesus knew and the Angel knew not but by communication from that God to whose assumed Humanity the Angel spake yet he was pleased to receive comfort from his servant just as God receives glory from his creatures and as he rejoyces in his own works even because he is good and gracious and is pleased so to do and because himself had caused a voluntary sadness to be interposed between the habitual knowledge and the actual consideration of these discourses and we feel a pleasure when a friendly hand lays upon our wound the plaister which our selves have made and applies such instruments and considerations of comfort which we have in notion and an ineffective habit but cannot reduce them to act because no man is so apt to be his own comforter which God hath therefore permitted that our needs should be the occasion of a mutual Charity 6. It was a great season for
to be contracted into the span of Humanity and dwell forty days in his body upon earth But that he should return from Paradise that is from the common receptacle of departed Spirits who died in the love of God to earth again had in it no lessening of his condition since himself in mercy called back Lazarus from thence and some others also returned to live a life of grace which in all senses is less than the least of glories Sufficient it is to us that all holy Souls departing go into the hands that is into the custody of our Lord that they rest from their labours that their works shall follow them and overtake them too at the day of Judgment that they are happy presently that they are visited by Angels that God sends as he pleases excellent irradiations and types of glory to entertain them in their mansions that their condition is secured but the crown of 〈◊〉 is laid up against the great day of Judgment and then to be produced and given to S. Paul and to all that love the coming of our Lord that is to all who either here in duty or in their receptacles with joy and certain hope long for the revelation of that day At the day of Judgment Christ will send the Angels and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds and all the refuse of men evil persons they shall throw into everlasting burning Then our Blessed Lord shall call to the elect to enter into the Kingdom and reject the cursed into the portion of Devils for whom the fire is but now prepared in the intervall For we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ saith S. Paul that every man may receive in his body according as he hath done whether it be good or evil Out of the body the reception of the reward is not And therefore S. Peter affirms that God hath delivered the evil Angels into chains of darkness to be reserved unto Judgment And S. Jude saith that the Angels which kept not their first faith but left their first habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day And therefore the Devils expostulated with our Blessed Saviour Art thou come to torment us before the time And the same also he does to evil men reserving the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished For since the actions which are to be judg'd are the actions of the whole man so also must be the Judicature And our Blessed Saviour intimated this to his Apostles In my Father's house are many mansions but I go to prepare a place for you And if I go away I will come again and take you unto me that where I am there ye may be also At Christ's Second coming this is to be performed Many Outer courts many different places or different states there may be and yet there is a place whither holy Souls shall arrive at last which was not then ready for us and was not to be entred into until the entrance of our Lord had made the preparation and that is certainly the highest Heaven called by S. Paul the third Heaven because the other receptacles were ready and full of holy Souls Patriarchs and Prophets and holy men of God concerning whom S. Paul affirms expresly that the Fathers received not the Promises God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Therefore certain it is that their condition was a state of imperfection and yet they were placed in Paradise in Abraham's bosom and thither Christ went and the blessed Thief attended him And then it was that Christ made their condition better for though still it be a place of relation in order to something beyond it yet the term and object of their hope is changed they sate in the regions of darkness expecting that great Promise made to Adam and the Patriarchs the Promise of the Messias but when he that was promised came he preached to the spirits in Prison he communicated to them the Mysteries of the Gospel the Secrets of the Kingdom the things hidden from eternal Ages and taught them to look up to the glories purchased by his Passion and made the term of their expectation be his Second coming and the objects of their hope the glories of the beatifick vision And although the state of Separation is sometimes in Scripture called 〈◊〉 and sometimes 〈◊〉 for these words in Scripture are of large significations yet it is never called the third 〈◊〉 nor the Hell of the damned for although concerning it nothing is clearly revealed or what is their portion till the day of Judgment yet it is intimated in a Parable that between good and evil spirits even in the state of Separation there is distance of place certain it is there is great distance of condition and as the holy Souls in their regions of light are full of love joy hope and longing for the coming of the great Day so the accursed do expect it with an insupportable amazement and are presently tormented with apprehensions of the future Happy are they that through Paradise pass into the Kingdom who from their highest hope pass to the 〈◊〉 Charity from the state of a blessed Separation to the Mercies and gentle Sentence of the day of Judgment which S. Paul prayed to God to grant 〈◊〉 and more explicitely for the Thessalonians that their whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus And I pray God to grant the same to me and all faithful people whatsoever 2. As soon as the Lord had given up his spirit into the hands of God the veil of the Temple was rent the Angels Guardians of the place deserted it the Rites of Moses were laid open and the inclosures of the Tabernacle were dispark'd the earth trembled the graves were opened and all the old world and the old Religion were so shaken towards their first Chaos that if God had not supported the one and reserved the other for an honourable burial the earth had left to support her children and the Synagogue had been thrown out to an inglorious exposition and contempt But yet in these symbols these were changed from their first condition and passed into a new dominion all old things passed away and all things became new the Earth and the Heavens were reckoned as a new creation they passed into another kingdom under Christ their Lord and as before the creatures were servants of humane necessities they now become servants of election and in order to the ends of Grace as before of Nature Christ having now the power to dispose of them in order to his Kingdom and by the administration of his own Wisdom And at the instant of these accidents God so determined the perswasions of men that they referred these Prodigies of the honour to
parent of as great Religion as the good women make their fancy their softness and their passion 12. Our Blessed Lord appeared next to Simon and though he and John ran forthtogether and S. John outran Simon although Simon Peter had denied and forsworn his Lord and S. John never did and followed him to his Passion and his death yet Peter had the savour of seeing Jesus first Which some Spiritual persons understand as a testimony that penitent 〈◊〉 have accidental eminences and priviledges sometimes 〈◊〉 to them beyond the temporal graces of the just and innocent as being such who not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the remanent and inherent evils even of repented sins and their aptnesses to relapse but also because those who are true Penitents who understand the infiniteness of the Divine mercy and that for a sinner to pass from death to 〈◊〉 from the state of sin into pardon and the state of Grace is a greater gift and a more excellent and improbable mutation than for a just man to be taken into glory out of gratitude to God and indearment 〈◊〉 so great a change added to a fear of returning to such danger and misery will re-enforce all their industry and double their study and 〈◊〉 more diligently and watch more carefully and redeem the 〈◊〉 and make amends for their omissions and oppose a good to the former evils beside the duties of the 〈◊〉 imployment and then commonly the life of a holy Penitent is more holy active zealous and impatient of Vice and more rapacious of Vertue and holy actions and arises to greater 〈◊〉 of Sanctity than the even and moderate affections of just persons who as our Blessed Saviour's expression is 〈◊〉 no Repentance that is no change of state nothing but a perseverance and an improvement of degrees There is more joy in heaven before the Angels of God over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 ninety nine just persons that need it not for where sin hath abounded there doth grace super abound and that makes joy in Heaven 13. The Holy Jesus having received the affections of his most passionate Disciples the women and S. 〈◊〉 puts himself upon the way into the company of two good men going to Emmaus with troubled spirits and a reeling faith shaking all its upper building but leaving some of its foundation firm To them the Lord discourses of the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of the 〈◊〉 and taught them not to take estimate of the counsels of God by the designs and proportions of man for God by ways contrary to humane judgment brings to pass the purposes of his eternal Providence The glories of Christ were not made pompous by humane circumstances his Kingdom was spiritual he was to enter into Felicities through the gates of Death he refused to do Miracles before 〈◊〉 and yet did them before the people he confuted his accusers by silence and did not descend from the Cross when they offered to believe in him if he would but 〈◊〉 them to be perswaded by greater arguments of his power the miraculous circumstances of his Death and the glories of his Resurrection and by walking in the secret paths of Divine election hath commanded us to adore his footsteps to admire and revere his Wisdom to be satisfied with all the events of Providence and to rejoyce in him if by Afflictions he makes us holy if by Persecutions he supports and enlarges his Church if by Death he brings us to life so we arrive at the communion of his Felicities we must let him chuse the way it being sufficient that he is our guide and our support and our exceeding great reward For therefore Christ preached to the two Disciples going to 〈◊〉 the way of the Cross and the necessity of that passage that the wisdom of God might be glorified and the conjectures of man ashamed But whilest his discourse lasted they knew him not but in the breaking of bread he discovered himself For he turned their meal into a Sacrament and their darkness to light and having to his Sermon added the Sacrament opened all their discerning faculties the eyes of their body and their understanding too to represent to us that when we are blessed with the opportunities of both those instruments we want no exteriour assistence to guide us in the way to the knowing and enjoying of our Lord. 14. But the Apparitions which Jesus made were all upon the design of laying the foundation of all Christian Graces for the begetting and establishing Faith and an active Confidence in their persons and building them up on the great fundamentals of the Religion And therefore he appointed a general meeting upon a mountain in Galilee that the number of witnesses might not only disseminate the same but establish the Article of the Resurrection for upon that are built all the hopes of a Christian and if the dead rise not then are we of all men most miserable in quitting the present possessions and entertaining injuries and affronts without hopes of reparation But we lay two gages in several repositories the Body in the bosome of the earth the Soul in the 〈◊〉 of God and as we here live by Faith and lay them down with hope so the 〈◊〉 is a restitution of them both and a state of re-union And therefore although the glory of our spirits without the body were joy great enough to make compensation for mere than the troubles of all the world yet because one shall not be glorified without the other they being of themselves incomplete substances and God having revealed nothing clearly concerning actual and complete felicities till the day of Judgment when it is promised our bodies shall rise therefore it is that the Resurrection is the great Article upon which we rely and which Christ took so much care to prove and ascertain to so many persons because if that should be disbelieved with which all our felicities are to be received we have nothing to establish our Faith or entertain our Hope or satisfie our desires or make retribution for that state of secular inconveniences in which by the necessities of our nature and the humility and patience of our Religion we are engaged 15. But I consider that holy Scripture onely instructs us concerning the life of this world and the life of the Resurrection the life of Grace and the life of Glory both in the body that is a life of the whole man and whatsoever is spoken of the Soul considers it as an essential part of man relating to his whole constitution not as it is of it self an intellectual and separate substance for all its actions which are separate and removed from the body are relative and incomplete Now because the Soul is an incomplete substance and created in relation to the Body and is but a part of the whole man if the Body were as eternal and incorruptible as the Soul yet the separation of the one from the other would be
as now it is that which we call natural death and supposing that God should preserve the Body for ever or restore it at the day of Judgment to its full substance and perfect organs yet the man would be dead for ever if the Soul for ever should continue separate from the Body So that the other life that is the state of Resurrection is a re-uniting Soul and Body And although in a Philosophical sence the Resurrection is of the Body that is a restitution of our flesh and bloud and bones and is called Resurrection as the entrance into the state of Resurrection may have the denomination of the whole yet in the sence of Scripture the Resurrection is the restitution of our life the renovation of the whole man the state of Re-union and untill that be the man is not but he is dead and onely his essential parts are deposited and laid up in trust and therefore whatsoever the Soul does or perceives in its incomplete condition is but to it as embalming and honourable funerals to the Body and a safe monument to preserve it in order to a living again and the felicities of the intervall are wholly in order to the next life And therefore if there were to be no Resurrection as these intermedial joys should not be at all so as they are they are but relative and incomplete and therefore all our hopes all our felicities depend upon the Resurrection without it we should never be persons men or women and then the state of Separation could be nothing but a phantasm trees ever in blossome never bearing fruit corn for ever in the blade eggs always in the shell a hope eternal never to pass into fruition that is for ever to be deluded for ever to be miserable And therefore it was an elegant expression of S. Paul Our life is hid with Christ in God that is our life is passed into custody the dust of our body is numbred and the Spirit is refreshed visited and preserved in celestial mansions but it is not properly called a Life for all this while the man is dead and shall then live when Christ produces this hidden life at the great day of restitution But our faith of all this Article is well wrapt up in the words of S. John Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The middle state is not it which Scripture hath propounded to our Faith or to our Hope the reward is then when Christ shall appear but in the mean time the Soul can converse with God and with Angels just as the holy Prophets did in their Dreams in which they received great degrees of favour and revelation But this is not to be reckoned any more than an entrance or a waiting for the state of our Felicity And since the glories of Heaven is the great fruit of Election we may consider that the Body is not predestinate nor the Soul alone but the whole Man and until the parts embrace again in an essential complexion it cannot be expected either of them should receive the portion of the predestinate But the article and the event of future things is rarely set in order by Saint Paul But ye are come into the mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and then follows after this general assembly after the Judge of all appears to the spirits of just men made perfect that is re-united to their bodies and entring into glory The beginning of the contrary Opinion brought some new practices and appendent perswasions into the Church or at least promoted them much For those Doctors who receding from the Primitive belief of this Article taught that the glories of Heaven are fully communicated to the Souls before the day of Judgment did also upon that stock teach the Invocation of Saints whom they believed to be received into glory and insensibly also brought in the opinion of Purgatory that the less perfect Souls might be glorified in the time that they assigned them But the safer opinion and more agreeable to Piety is that which I have now described from Scripture and the purest Ages of the Church 16. When Jesus appeared to the Apostles he gave them his Peace for a Benediction and when he departed he left them Peace for a Legacy and gave them according to two former promises the power of making Peace and reconciling Souls to God by a ministerial act so conveying his Father's mercy which himself procured by his Passion and actuates by his Intercession and the giving of his Grace that he might comply with our infirmities and minister to our needs by instruments even and proportionate to our selves making our brethren the conduits of his Grace that the excellent effect of the Spirit might not descend upon us as the Law upon Mount Sinai in expresses of greatness and terrour but in earthen vessels and images of infirmity so God manifesting his power in the smalness of the instrument and descending to our needs not only in giving the grace of Pardon but also in the manner of its ministration And I meditate upon the greatness of this Mercy by comparing this Grace of God and the blessing of the Judgment and Sentence we receive at the hand of the Church with the Judgment which God makes at the hour of death upon them who have despised this mercy and neglected all the other parts of their duty The one is a Judgment of mercy the other of vengeance In the one the Devil is the Accuser and Heaven and earth bear witness in the other the penitent sinner accuses himself In that the sinner gets a pardon in the other he finds no remedy In that all his good deeds are remembred and returned and his sins are blotted out in the other all his evil deeds are represented with horrour and a sting and remain for ever In the first the sinner changes his state for a state of Grace and only smarts in some temporal austerities and acts of exteriour mortification in the second his temporal estate is changed to an eternity of pain In the first the sinner suffers the shame of one man or one society which is sweetned by consolation and homilies of mercy and health in the latter all his sins are laid open before all the world and himself confounded in eternal amazement and confusions In the judgment of the Church the sinner is honoured by all for returning to the bosome of his Mother and the embraces of his heavenly Father in the judgment of vengeance he is laughed at by God and mocked by accursed spirits and perishes without pity In this he is prayed for by none
lances Baron Martyrolog Dec. 21 St. Thomas his Martyrdom Joh. 11. 16. Thomas which is called Didunus said unto his fellow-desciples Let us also goe that we may die with him The custom of the Jews to have both an Hebrew and a Roman name S. Thomas his name the same in Syriack and Greek His Country and Trade His call to the Apostleship His great affection to our Saviour Christ's discourse with him concerning the way to Eternal life His obstinate refusal to believe our Lord's Resurrection and the unreasonableness of his Infidelity Our Lord's convincing him by sensible demonstrations S. Thomas his deputing Thaddaeus to Abgarus of Edessa His Travels into Parthia Media Persia c. AEthiopia what and where situate His coming into India and the success of his Preaching there An account of his Acts in India from the relation of the Portugals at their first coming thither His converting the King of Malipur The manner of his Martyrdom by the Brachmans The Miracles said to be done at his Tomb. His Bones dug up by the Portugals A Cross and several Brass Tables with Inscriptions found there An account of the Indian or S. Thomas Christians their Number State Rites and way of life 1. IT was customary with the Jews when travelling into foreign Countries or familiarly conversing with the Greeks and Romans to assume to themselves a Greek or a Latin name of great affinity and sometimes of the very same signification with that of their own Country Thus our Lord was called Christ answering to his Hebrew title Mashiach or the 〈◊〉 Simon stiled Peter according to that of Cephas which our Lord put upon him Tabitha called 〈◊〉 both signifying a Goat Thus our S. Thomas according to the Syriack importance of his name had the title of Didymus which signifies a Twin Thomas which is called Didymus Accordingly the Syriack Version renders it 〈◊〉 which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thama that is a Twin The not understanding whereof imposed upon Nonnus the Greek Paraphrast who makes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have had two distinct names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being but the same name expressed in different Languages The History of the Gospel takes no particular notice either of the Country or Kindred of this Apostle That he was a Jew is certain and in all probability a Galilean He was born if we may believe Symeon Metaphrastes of very mean Parents who brought him up to the trade of Fishing but withall took care to give him a more useful education instructing him in the knowledge of the Scriptures whereby he learnt wisely to govern his life and manners He was together with the rest called to the Apostleship and not long after gave an eminent instance of his hearty willingness to undergo the saddest fate that might attend them For when the rest of the Apostles disswaded our Saviour from going into Judaea whither he was now resolved for the raising his dear Lazarus lately dead left the Jews should stone him as but a little before they had attempted it S. Thomas desires them not to hinder Christ's journey thither though it might cost their lives Let us also go that we may die with him probably concluding that instead of raising Lazarus from the dead they themselves should be sent with him to their own Graves So that he made up in pious affections what he seemed to want in the quickness and acumen of his understanding not readily apprehending some of our Lord's discourses nor over-forward to believe more than himself had seen When the holy Jesus a little before his fatal sufferings had been speaking to them of the joys of Heaven and had told them that he was going to prepare that they might follow him that they knew both the place whither he was going and the way thither Our Apostle replied that they knew not whither he went and much less the way that led to it To which our Lord returns this short but satisfactory answer That he was the true living way the person whom the Father had sent into the World to shew men the paths of Eternal life and that they could not miss of Heaven if they did but keep to that way which he had prescribed and chalked out before them 2. OUR Lord being dead 't is evident how much the Apostles were distracted between hopes and fears concerning his Resurrection not yet fully satisfied about it Which engaged him the sooner to hasten his appearance that by the sensible manifestations of himself he might put the case beyond all possibilities of dispute The very day whereon he arose he came into the house where they were while for fear of the Jews the doors were yet fast shut about them and gave them sufficient assurance that he was really risen from the dead At this meeting S. Thomas was absent having probably never recovered their company since their last dispersion in the Garden when every ones fears prompted him to consult his own safety At his return they told him that their Lord had appeared to them but he obstinately refused to give credit to what they said or to believe that it was he presuming it rather a phantasm or mere apparition unless he might see the very prints of the Nails and feel the wounds in his hands and sides A strange piece of infidelity Was this any more than what Moses and the Prophets had long since foretold had not our Lord frequently told them in plain terms that he must rise again the third day could he question the possibility of it who had so often seen him do the greatest miracles was it reasonable to reject the testimony of so many eye-witnesses ten to one against himself and of whose fidelity he was assured or could he think that either themselves should be deceived or that they would jest and trifle with him in so solemn and serious a matter A stubbornness that might have betrayed him into an eternal infidelity But our compassionate Saviour would not take the advantage of the mans refractory unbelief but on that day seven-night again came to them as they were solemnly met at their devotions and calling to Thomas bad him look upon his hands put his fingers into the prints of the Nails and thrust his hand into the hole of his side and satisfie his faith by a demonstration from sense The man was quickly convinced of his error and obstinacy confessing that he now acknowledged him to be his very Lord and Master a God omnipotent that was thus able to rescue himself from the powers of death Our Lord replied no more than that it was well he believed his own senses but that it was a more noble and commendable act of Faith to acquiesce in a rational evidence and to entertain the doctrines and relations of the Gospel upon such testimonies and assurances of the truth of things as will satisfie a wise and sober man though he did not
veneration for the holiness and purity of their lives When Seth came to lie upon his death-bed he summoned his Children their Wives and Families together blessed them and as his last Will commanded them to worship God adjuring them by the bloud of Abel their usual and solemn oath that they should not descend from the holy Mount to hold any correspondence or commerce with Cain or his wicked faction And then breathed his last A command say my Authors which they observed for seven generations and then came in the promiscuous mixtures 13. To Seth succeeded his Son Enos who kept up the glory and purity of Religion and the honour of the holy Line Of his time it is particularly recorded then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying sometimes to prophane sometimes to begin hath begotten various apprehensions among learned men concerning this place and led them not only into different but quite contrary sences The words are by some rendred thus Then men prophaned in calling upon the name of the Lord which they thus explain that at that time when Enos was born the true worship and service of God began to sink and fail corruption and idolatry mightily prevailing by reason of Cains wicked and apostate Family and that as a sad memorial of this corrupt and degenerate Age holy Seth called his son's name Enosh which not only simply signifies a man but a poor calamitous miserable man And this way go many of the Jews and some Christian writers of great name and note Nay Maimonides one of the wisest and soberest of all the Jewish writers begins his Tract about Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the times of Enosh referring to this very passage he tells us that men did then grievously erre and that the minds of the wise men of those days were grown gross and stupid yea that Enos himself was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among those that erred and that their Idolatry consisted in this That they worshipped the Stars and the Host of Heaven Others there are who expresly assert that 〈◊〉 was the first that invented Images to excite the Spirit of the Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by their mediation men might invocate and call upon God But how infirm a foundation this Text is to build all this upon is evident For besides what some have observed that the Hebrew phrase is not tolerably reconcileable with such a sence if it were yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one of the Rabbins has well noted that there wants a foundation for any such exposition no mention being made in Moses his story of any such false Gods as were then worshipped no footsteps of Idolatry appearing in the World till after the Flood Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose that the Creation of the World being yet fresh in memory and Divine Traditions so lately received from Adam and God frequently communicating himself to men that the case being thus men could in so short a time be fallen under so great an apostasie as wholly to forget and renounce the true God and give Divine honours to senseless and inanimate creatures I can hardly think that the Cainites themselves should be guilty of this much less Enosh and his Children The meaning of the words then is plainly this That in Enosh his time the holy Line being greatly multiplied they applied themselves to the worship of God in a more publick and remarkable manner either by framing themselves into more distinct societies for the exercise of publick worship or by meeting at more fixed and stated times or by invocating God under more solemn and peculiar rites than they had done before And this probably they did the rather to obviate that torrent of prophaneness and impiety which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing in upon the World This will be further confirmed if we take the words as by some they are rendred then men began to be called by the name of the Lord that is the difference and separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every day ripening into a wider distance the posterity of Seth began to take to themselves a distinctive title that the World might the better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God and those who threw off Religion and let loose the reins to disorder and impiety And hereof we meet with clear intimation in the story of those times when we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of God who doubtless were the pious and devout posterity of Seth calling themselves after the name of the Lord whom they constantly and sincerely worshipped notwithstanding the fancy of Josephus and the Fathers that they were Angels or that of the Jewish Paraphrasts that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of great men and Princes in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of men the impure and debauched posterity of Cain who made light of Religion and were wholly governed by 〈◊〉 and sensual inclinations And the matching of these sons of God with the daughters of men that is those of the Family of Cain and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages was that which provoked God to destroy the World I have no more to add concerning Enosh than that we are told that dying he gave the same commands to his Children which he had received of his Father that they should make Religion their great care and business and keep themselves pure from society and converse with the Line of Cain 14. AFTER Enosh was his son Kenan who as the Arabian Historian informs us ruled the people committed to him by a wise and excellent government and gave the same charge at his death that had been given to him Next Kenan comes Mahalcleel who carries devotion and piety in his very name signifying one that praises God of whom they say that he trained up the people in ways of justice and piety blessed his Children at his death and having charged them to separate from the Cainites appointed his son Jared to be his successor whose name denotes a descent probably either because of the notable decrease and declension of piety in his time or because in his days some of the Sethites descended from the holy Mountain to mix with the posterity of Cain For so the Oriental writers inform us that a great noise and shout coming up from the Valley an hundred of the holy Mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and perswasion But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course down they went and being ravished with the beauty of the Cainite-women promiscuously committed folly and lewdness with them from whence sprang a race of Giants men of vast and robust bodies but of more vicious and ungovernable
tempers who made their Will their Law and Might the standard and rule of Equity Attempting to return back to the holy Mount Heaven had shut up their way the stones of the Mountain burning like fire when they came upon them which whether the Reader will have faith enough to believe I know not Jared being near his death advised his Children to be wise by the folly of their Brethren and to have nothing to do with that prophane generation His son Enoch followed in his steps a man of admirable strictness and piety and peculiarly exemplary for his innocent and holy conversation it being particularly noted of him that he walked with God He set the Divine Majesty before him as the guide and pattern the spectator and rewarder of his actions in all his ways endeavoured to approve himself to his All-seeing eye by doing nothing but what was grateful and acceptable to him he was the great instance of vertue and goodness in an evil Age and by the even tenor and constancy of a holy and a religious life shewed his firm belief and expectation of a future state and his hearty dependence upon the Divine goodness for the rewards of a better life And God who is never behind-hand with his servants crowned his extraordinary obedience with an uncommon reward By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God And what that faith was is plain by what follows after a belief of God's Being and his Bounty Without faith it is impossible to please him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 of them that diligently seek him What this translation was and whether it was made whither into that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was expelled and banished and whereunto Enoch had desired of God he might be translated as some fancy or whether placed among the Stars as others or carried into the highest Heavens as others will have it were nice and useless speculations 'T is certain he was taken out of these mutable Regions and set beyond the reach of those miseries and misfortunes to which a present state of sin and mortality does betray us translated probably both Soul and Body that he might be a type and specimen of a future Resurrection and a sensible demonstration to the World that there is a reward for the righteous and another state after this wherein good Men shall be happy sor ever I pass by the fancy of the Jewes as vain and frivolous that though Enoch was a good Man yet was he very mutable and inconstant and apt to be led aside and that this was the reason why God translated him so soon lest he should have been debauched by the charms and allurements of a wicked World He was an eminent Prophet and a fragment of his Prophecy is yet extant in S. Jude's Epistle by which it appears that wickedness was then grown rampant and the manners of men very corrupt and vicious and that he as plainly told them of their faults and that Divine vengeance that would certainly overtake them Of Methuselah his Son nothing considerable is upon Record but his great Age living full DCCCCLXIX Years the longest proportion which any of the Patriarchs arrived to and died in that very Year wherein the Flood came upon the World 15. FROM his Son Lamech concerning whom we find nothing memorable we proceed to his Grand child Noah by the very imposition of whose Name his Parents presaged that he would be a refreshment and comfort to the World and highly instrumental to remove that curse which God by an Universal Deluge was bringing upon the Earth he 〈◊〉 his Name Noah saying This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed he was one in whom his Parents did acquiesce and rest satisfied that he would be eminently 〈◊〉 and serviceable to the World Indeed he proved a person of incomparable sanctity and integrity a Preacher of righteousness to others and who as carefully practised it himself He was a just man and perfect in his generation and he walked with God He did not warp and decline with the humour of the Age he lived in but maintained his station and kept his Line He was upright in his Generation 'T is no thanks to be religious when it is the humour and fashion of the Times the great trial is when we live in the midst of a corrupt generation It is the crown of vertue to be good when there are all manner of temptations to the contrary when the greatest part of Men goe the other way when vertue and honesty are laughed and drolled on and censured as an over-wise and affected singularity when lust and debauchery are accounted the modes of Gallantry and pride and oppression suffered to ride in prosperous triumphs without controll Thus it was with Noah he contended with the Vices of the Age and dared to own God and Religion when almost all Mankind besides himself had rejected and thrown them off For in his time wickedness openly appeared with a brazen Forehead and violence had covered the face of the Earth the promiscuous mixtures of the Children of Seth and Cain had produced Giants and mighty Men men strong to do evil and who had as much will as power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus describes them a race of men insolent and ungovernable scornful and injurious and who bearing up themselves in the confidence of their own strength despised all justice and equity and made every thing truckle under their 〈◊〉 lusts and appetites The very same character does Lucian give of the Men of this Age speaking of the times of Deucalion their Noah and the Flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Men exceedingly scornful and contumelious and guilty of the most unrighteous and enormous actions violating all Oaths and Covenants throwing off kindness and hospitality and rejecting all addresses and supplications made to them For which cause great miseries overtook them for Heaven and Earth Seas and Rivers conspired together to pour out mighty Floods upon the World which swept all away but Deucalion only who for his prudence and piety was left to repair Mankind And so he goes on with the relation consonant to the account of the Sacred story This infection had spread it self over all parts and was become so general and Epidemical that all Flesh had corrupted their ways and scarce any besides Noah left to keep up the face of a Church and the profession of Religion Things being come to this pass quickly alarm'd the Divine Justice and made the World ripe for vengeance the patience of God was now tired out and he resolved to make Mankind feel the just effects of his incensed severity But
subtillest Councils and in a moment subvert the firmest projects on a sudden he confounded the Language of these foolish Builders so that they were forced to desist from their vain and ambitious design as not being able to understand and converse with one another To Peleg succeeded his son Rehu to 〈◊〉 Serug to him 〈◊〉 to Nachor Terah who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldaeans where conversing with those Idolatrous Nations he laps'd himself into the most gross Idolatry So apt are men to follow a multitude to do evil so fatally mischievous is ill company and a bad example But the best way to avoid the plague is to remove out of the house of infection Away goes Terah to Haran where by repentance he is said to have recovered himself out of the snare of the Devil 17. ABRAHAM the second son of Terah succeeds in the Patriarchal Line In his minority he was educated in the Idolatries of his Father's house who they say was a maker of Statues and Images And the Jews tells us many pleasant stories of Abraham's going into the shop in the absence of his Father his breaking the Images and jeering those that came to buy or worship them of his Father's carrying him to Nimrod to be punished his witty answers and miraculous escapes But God who had designed him for higher and nobler purposes called him at length out of his Father's house fully discoverd himself to him and by many solemn promises and federal compacts peculiarly engaged him to himself He was a man intirely devoted to the honour of God and had consecrated all his services to the interests of Religion scarce any duty either towards God or men for which he is not eminent upon record Towards God how great was his zeal and care to promote his worship erecting Altars almost in every place whereon he publickly offered his prayers and sacrifice His love to God wholly swallowed up the love and regard that he had to his dearest interests witness his intire resignation of himself his chearful renouncing all the concernments of his Estate and Family and especially his readiness to sacrifice his only son the son of his old age and which is above all the son of the promise when God by way of trial required it of him How vigorous and triumpant was his faith especially in the great promise of a son which he firmly embraced against all humane probabilities to the contrary Against hope he believed in hope and being strong in faith gave glory to God How hearty was his dependence upon the Divine Providence when called to leave his Father's house and to go into a strange Country how chearfully did he obey and go out though he knew not whither he went How unconquerable was his patience how even the composure of his mind in all conditions in fifteen several journeys that he undertook and ten difficult temptations which he underwent he never betrayed the least murmuring or hard thought of God Towards others he shewed the greatest tenderness and respect the most meek and unpassionate temper a mind inflamed with a desire of peace and concord Admirable his justice and equity in all his dealings his great hospitality and bounty towards strangers and for that end say the Jews he got him an house near the entring into Haran that he might entertain strangers as they went in or came out of the City at his own table as indeed he seems to have had that most excellent and Divine temper of mind an universal love and charity towards all men But his greatest charity appeared in the care that he took of the Souls of men Maimonides tells us that he kept a publick School of institution whither he gathered men together and instructed them in that truth which he himself had embraced and he gives us an account by what methods of reasoning and information he used to convince and perswade them But whatever he did towards others we are sure he did it towards those that were under his own charge He had a numerous family and a vast retinue and he was as careful to inform them in the knowledge of the true God and to instruct them in all the duties of Religion 'T is the character which God himself gave of him I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment And so he did his house being a School of piety wherein Religion was both taught and practised many reclaimed from the errors and idolatries of the times and all his domesticks and dependants solemnly dedicated to God by Circumcision Therefore when 't is said that he brought with him all the Souls which they had gotten in Haran the Paraphrase of Onkelos renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Souls which they had subjected to the Law in Haran Jonathans Targum and much at the same rate that of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Souls which they had made proselytes in Haran or as Solomon Jarchi expresses it a little more after the Hebrew mode the Souls which they had gathered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the wings of the Divine Majesty and he further adds that Abraham proselyted the men and Sarah the women So when elsewhere we read of his trained servants some of the Jewish Masters expound it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that were initiated and trained up in the knowledge of the Law Such being the temper of this holy man God was pleased frequently to converse with him and to impart his mind to him acquainting him with the secret counsels and purposes of his Providence whence he is stiled the friend of God But that which shewed him to be most dear to Heaven was the Covenant which God solemnly made with him wherein binding Abraham and his seed to a sincere and universal obedience he obliged himself to become their God to be his shield and his exceeding great reward to take his posterity for his peculiar people to encrease their number and to inlarge their power to settle them in a rich and a pleasant Country a type of that Heavenly and better Country that is above and which was the crown of all that in his seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed that is the promised Messiah should proceed out of his loins who should be a common blessing to mankind in whom both Jew and Gentile should be justified and saved and he by that means become spiritually the Father of many Nations This Covenant was ratified and ensured on God's part by a solemn oath For when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he sware by himself saying Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee On Abraham's part it was sealed with the Sacrament of Circumcision which God instituted as a peculiar federal rite to distinguish Abraham's posterity from all other people Abraham died
Hell that follows it It was to be celebrated with a Male-lamb without blemish taken out of the Flock to note the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World who was taken from among men a Lamb without blemish and without spot holy harmless and separate from sinners The Door-posts of the House were to be sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb to signifie our security from the Divine vengeance by the blood of sprinkling The Lamb was to be roasted and eaten whole typifying the great sufferings of our blessed Saviour who was to pass through the fire of Divine wrath and to be wholly embrac'd and entertain'd by us in all his Offices as King Priest and Prophet None but those that were clean and circumcised might eat of it to shew that only true believers holy and good men can be partakers of Christ and the merits of his Death It was to be eaten standing with their Loins girt and their staff in their hand to put them in mind what haste they made out of the house of bondage and to intimate to us what present diligence we should use to get from under the empire and tiranny of sin and Satan under the conduct and assistance of the Captain of our Salvation The eating of it was to be mixed with bitter herbs partly as a memorial of that bitter servitude which they underwent in the Land of Egypt partly as a type of that repentance and bearing of the cross duties difficult and unpleasant which all true Christians must undergo Lastly it was to be eaten with unleavened Bread all manner of leaven being at that time to be banished out of their Houses with the most critical diligence and curiosity to represent what infinite care we should take to cleanse and purifie our hearts to purge 〈◊〉 the old leaven that we may be a new lump and that since Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore we should keep the Feast the Festival commemoration of his Death not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 6. THE Places of their Publick Worship were either the Tabernacle made in the Wilderness or the Temple built by Solomon between which in the main there was no other difference than that the Tabernacle was an ambulatory Temple as the Temple was a standing Tabernacle together with all the rich costly Furniture that was in them The parts of it were three the Holiest of all whither none entred but the High-Priest and that but once a Year this was a type of Heaven the holy place whither the Priests entred every Day to perform their Sacred Ministrations and the outward Court whither the People came to offer up their Prayers and Sacrifices In the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holiest of all there was the Golden Censer typifying the Merits and Intercession of Christ the Ark of the Covenant as a representation of him who is the Mediator of the Covenant between God and man the Golden Pot of Manna a type of our Lord the true Manna the Bread that came down from Heaven the Rod of Aaron that budded signifying the Branch of the Root of Jesse that though our Saviour's Family should be reduced to a state of so much meanness and obscurity as to appear but like the trunk or stump of a Tree yet there should come forth a rod out of this stem of Jesse and a branch grow out of his roots which should stand for an Ensign of the People and in him should the Gentiles trust And within the Ark were the two Tables of the Covenant to denote him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and who is the end and perfection of the Law Over it were the Cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-seat who looking towards each other and both to the Mercy-seat denoted the two Testaments or Dispensations of the Church which admirably agree and both direct to Christ the Mediator of the Covenant The Propitiatory or Mercy-seat was the Golden covering to the Ark where God vailing his Majesty was wont to manifest his Presence to give Answers and shew Himself reconciled to the People herein eminently 〈◊〉 our Blessed Saviour who interposes between us and the Divine Majesty whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood for the remission of sins so that now we may come boldly to the Throne of Grace and find mercy to help us Within the Sanctuary or the Holy Place was the Golden 〈◊〉 with Seven Branches representing Christ who is the Light of the World and who enlightens every one that comes into the World and before whose Throne there are said to be seven Lamps of Fire which are the seven spirits of God The Table compassed about with a Border and a Crown of Gold denoting the Ministry and the Shew-bread set upon it shadowing out Christ the Bread of Life who by the Ministry of the Gospel is offered to the World here also was the Golden Altar of Incense whereon they burnt the sweet 〈◊〉 Morning and Evening to signifie to us that our Lord is the true Altar by whom all our Prayers and Services are rendred the odour of a sweet smell acceptable unto God to this the Psalmist refers Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the 〈◊〉 up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice The third part of the Tabernacle as also of the Temple was the Court of Israel wherein stood the Brazen Altar upon which the Holy Fire was continually preserved by which the Sacrifices were consumed one of the Five great Prerogatives that were wanting in the second Temple Here was the Brazen Laver with its Basis made of the brazen Looking-glasses of the Women that assembled at the Door of the Tabernacle wherein the Priests washed their Hands and their Feet when going into the Sanctuary and both they and the People when about to offer Sacrifice to teach us to purifie our hearts and to cleanse our selves 〈◊〉 all filthiness of flesh and spirit especially when we approach to offer up our services to Heaven hereunto David alludes I will wash mine hands in innocency so will I compass thine Altar O Lord. Solomon in building the Temple made an addition of a fourth Court the Court of the Gentiles whereinto the unclean Jewes and Gentiles might enter and in this was the Corban or Treasury and it is sometimes in the New Testament called the Temple To these Laws concerning 〈◊〉 Place of Worship we may reduce those that relate to the holy Vessels and Utensils of the Tabernacle and the Temple Candlesticks Snuffers Dishes c. which also had their proper mysteries and significations 7. THE stated times and seasons of their worship are next to be considered and they were either Daily Weekly Monthly or Yearly Their Daily worship was at the time of the Morning and the Evening Sacrifice their Weekly solemnity
was the Sabbath which was to be kept with all imaginable care and strictness they being commanded to rest in it from all servile labours and to attend the Duties and Offices of Religion a type of that rest that remains for the People of God Their monthly Festivals were the New-moons wherein they were to blow the Trumpets over their Sacrifices and Oblations and to observe them with great expressions of joy and triumph in a thankful resentment of the blessings which all that Month had been conferred upon them Their Annual Solemnities were either ordinary or extraordinary Ordinary were those that returned every Year whereof the first was the Passover to be celebrated upon the Fourteenth day of the first Month as a Memorial of their great deliverance out of Egypt The second Pentecost called also the Feast of Weeks because just seven Weeks or fifty days after the Passover Instituted it was partly in memory of the promulgation of the Law published at Mount Sinai fifty days after their celebration of the Passover in Egypt partly as a thanksgiving for the in gathering of their Harvest which usually was fully brought in about this time The third was the Feast of Tabernacles kept upon the Fifteenth day of the Seventh Month for the space of Seven days together at which time they dwelt in Booths made of green Boughs as a memento of that time when they sojourn'd in Tents and Tabernacles in the Wilderness and a sensible demonstration of the transitory duration of the present life that the Earthly house of our Tabernacle must be dissolved and that therefore we should secure a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens These were the three great solemnities wherein all the Males were obliged to appear at Jerusalem and to present themselves and their offerings in testimony of their homage and devotion unto God Besides which they had some of lesser moment such as their Feast of Trumpets and that of Expiation The Annual Festivals extraordinary were those that recurr'd but once in the periodical return of several years such was the Sabbatical year wherein the Land was to lye fallow and to rest from ploughing and sowing and all manner of cultivation and this was to be every seventh year typifying the Eternal Sabbatism in Heaven where good men shall rest from their labours and their works shall follow them But the great Sabbatical year of all was that of Jubilee which returned at the end of seven ordinary Sabbatick years that is every fiftieth year the approach whereof was proclaimed by the sound of Trumpets in it servants were released all debts discharged and mortgaged Estates reverted to their proper heirs And how evidently did this shadow out the state of the Gospel and our Lord 's being sent to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken hearted to preach liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord that they might lift up their heads because their redemption drew nigh 8. LASTLY They had Laws concerning the persons by whom their publick worship was administred and here there was appointed an High Priest who had his proper offices and rules of duty his peculiar attire and consecration ordinary Priests whose business was to instruct the people to Pray and offer sacrifice to bless the Congregation and judge in cases of Leprosie and such like at their Ordination they were to be chosen before all the people to be sprinkled with the water of Expiation their Hair shaved and their Bodies washed afterwards anointed and sacrifices to be offered for them and then they might enter upon their Priestly ministrations Next to these were the Levites who were to assist the Priests in preparing the Sacrifices to bear the Tabernacle while it lasted and lay up its Vessels and Utensils to purifie and cleanse the Vessels and Instruments to guard the Courts and Chambers of the Temple to watch weekly in the Temple by their turns to sing and celebrate the praises of God with Hymns and Musical Instruments and to joyn with the Priests in judging and determining Ceremonial causes they were not to be taken into the full discharge of their Function till the thirtieth nor to be kept at it beyond the fiftieth year of their age God mercifully thinking it fit to give them then a Writ of Ease whose strength might be presumed sufficiently impaired by truckling for so many years under such toilsom and laborious ministrations Though the Levitical Priests were types of Christ yet it was the High Priest who did eminently typifie him and that in the unity and singularity of his office for though many Orders and Courses of inferior Priests and Ministers yet was there but one High Priest There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus in the qualifications necessary to his election as to place he was to be taken out of the Tribe of Levi as to his person which was to be every ways perfect and comely and the manner of his Consecration in his singular capacity that he alone might enter into the holy of holies which he did once every year upon the great day of Expiation with a mighty pomp and train of Ceremonies killing Sacrifices burning Incense sprinkling the bloud of the Sacrifice before and upon the Mercy-seat going within the veil and making an attonement within the holy place All which immediately referred to Christ who by the sacrifice of himself and through the veil of his own flesh entred not into the holy place made with hands but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us All which might be represented more at large but that I intend not a discourse about these matters 9. BESIDES the Laws which we have hitherto enumerated there were several other particular Commands Ritual Constitutions about Meats and Drinks and other parts of humane life Such was the difference they were to make between the Creatures some to be clean and others unclean such were several sorts of pollution and uncleanness which were not in their own nature sins but Ceremonial defilements of this kind were several provisions about Apparel Diet and the ordering Family-affairs all evidently of a Ceremonial aspect but too long to be insisted on in this place The main design of this Ceremonial Law was to point out to us the Evangelical state The Law had only a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things themselves the body was Christ and therefore though the Law came by Moses yet grace and truth the truth of all those types and figures came by Christ. It was time for Moses to resign the Chair when once this great Prophet was come into the World Ceremonies could no longer be of use when once the substance was at hand well may the Stars disappear at the rising of the Sun the Messiah being cut off
manner that they might be able to apprehend the will of God which they presently did upon their awaking out of sleep These Divine Dreams the Jews distinguish into two sorts Monitory such as were sent only by way of instruction and admonition to give Men notice of what they were to do or warning of what they should avoid such were the Dreams of Pharaoh Abimelech Laban c. or else they were Prophetical when God by such a powerful energy acted upon the mind and imagination of the Prophet as carried the strength and force of a Divine evidence along with it This was sometimes done by a clear and distinct impression of the thing upon the mind without any dark or aenigmatical representation of it such as God made to Samuel when he first revealed himself to him in the Temple sometimes by apparition yet so as the Man though a-sleep was able to discern an Angel conversing with him By Visions God usually communicated himself two ways First when something really appeared to the sight thus Moses beheld the Bush burning and stood there while God conversed with him Manoah and his 〈◊〉 saw the Angel while he took his leave and in a flaming Pyramid went up to Heaven the three Angels appeared to Abraham a little before the fatal ruine of Sodom all which apparitions were unquestionably true and real the Angel assuming an humane shape that he might the freelier converse with and deliver his message to those to whom he was sent Secondly by powerful impressions upon the imagination usually done while the Prophet was awake and had the free and uninterrupted exercise of his reason though the Vision oft over-powered and cast him into a trance that the Soul being more retired from sensible objects might the closer intend those Divine notices that were represented to it Thus all the Prophets had the Ideas of those things that they were to deliver to the People the more strongly impressed upon their fancies and this commonly when they were in the greatest solitude and privacy and their powers most called in that the Prophetical influx might have the greater force upon them In some such way S. Paul was caught up into the third Heaven probably not so much by any real separation of his Soul from his Body or local translation of his Spirit thither as by a profound abstraction of it from his corporeal Senses God during the time of the trance entertaining it with an internal and admirable 〈◊〉 of the glory and happiness of that state as truly and effectually as if his Soul had been really conveyed thither 14. THIRDLY God was wont to communicate his mind by immediate Inspirations whereby he immediately transacted with the understandings of Men without any relation to their sancy or their senses It was the most pacate and serene way of Prophecy God imparting his mind to the Prophet not by Dreams or Visions but while they were awake their powers active and their minds calm and undisturbed This the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Spirit or that kind of Revelation that was directly conveyed into the mind by the most efficacious irradiation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit God by these Divine illapses enabling the Prophet clearly and immediately to 〈◊〉 the things delivered to him And in this way the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or holy Writings 〈◊〉 dictated and conveyed to the World in which respect the Apostle says that all 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by divine inspiration The highest pitch of this Prophetical revelation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gradus Mosaicus or that way of Prophecy that God used towards Moses of whom it is particularly said that the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a Man speaketh unto his friend and elsewhere it is evidently distinguished from all inferiour ways of Prophecy If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision and will speak unto him in a Dream 〈◊〉 Servant Moses is not so with him I will speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold Clearly implying a mighty 〈◊〉 in God's way of revelation to Moses above that of other Prophets which the Jewish Writers make to have lyen in four things First that in all God's communications to Moses 〈◊〉 immediately spake to his understanding without any impressions upon fancy any visible appearances any Dreams or Visions of the Night Secondly that Moses had prophecies conveyed to him without any fears or consternations whereas the other Prophets were astonished and weakned at the sight of God Thirdly that Moses had no previous dispositions or preparations to make him capable of the Divine revelation but could directly go to God and consult him as a man speaketh with his friend other Prophets being forced many times by some preparatory arts to invite the Prophetick spirit to come upon them Fourthly that Moses had a freedom and liberty of spirit to prophecy at all times and could when he pleased have recourse to the Sacred Oracle But as to this the Scripture intimates no such thing the spirit of Prophecy retiring from him at some times as well as from the rest of the Prophets And indeed the Prophetick spirit did not reside in the holy men by way of habit but occasionally as God saw fitting to pour it out upon them it was not in them as light is in the Sun but as light in the Air and consequently depended upon the immediate irradiations of the Spirit of God 15. THESE Divine Communications were so conveyed to the minds of the Prophets and inspired 〈◊〉 that they always knew them to be Divine revelations so mighty and 〈◊〉 was the evidence that came along with them that there could be no doubt but they were the birth of Heaven It 's true when the Prophetick spirit at any time seised upon wicked men they understood not its effect upon them nor were in the least improved and bettered by it the revelation passed through them as a sound through a Trunk or water through a Leaden-pipe without any particular and distinct apprehension of the thing or useful impression made upon their minds as is evident besides others in the case of Caiaphas and Balaam of which last the Jews say expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he prophesied according to the will of God but understood not what he prophesied But it was otherwise with the true Prophets they always knew who 't was that acted them what was the meaning of that intelligence that was communicated to them In the Gentile world when the Daemon entred into the inspired person he was usually carried out to the furious transports of rage and madness But in the Prophets of God although the impulse might sometimes be very strong and violent whence the Prophet Jeremy complains Mine heart within me is broken all my bones shake I am like a
drunken man like a man whom wine hath overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness so as a little to ruffle their imagination yet never so as to discompose their reason or hinder them from a clear perception of the notices conveyed upon their minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Epiphanius the Prophet had his Oracles dictated by the Holy Spirit which he delivered strenuously and with the most firm and unshaken consistency of his rational powers and afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Prophets were often in a bodily ecstasie but never in an ecstasie of mind their understandings never being rendred useless and unserviceable to them Indeed it was absolutely necessary that the Prophet should have a full satisfaction of mind concerning the truth and Divinity of his message for how else should they perswade others that the thing was from God if they were not first sufficiently assured themselves and therefore even in those methods that were most liable to doubts and questions such as communications by dreams we cannot think but that the same Spirit that moved and impressed the thing upon them did also by some secret and inward operations settle their minds in the firmest belief and perswasion of what was revealed and suggested to them All these ways of immediate revelation ceased some hundreds of years before the final period of the Jewish Church A thing confessed not only by Christians but by Jews themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was no Prophet in the second Temple indeed they universally acknowledge that there were five things wanting in the second Temple built after their return from the Babylonish Captivity which had been in that of Solomon viz. the Ark of the Covenant the fire from Heaven that lay upon the Altar the Schekinah or presence of the Divine Majesty the 〈◊〉 and Thummim and the spirit of Prophecy which ceased as they tell us about the second year of Darius to be sure at the death of Malachy the last of that order after whom there arose no Prophet in Israel whom therefore the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seal of the Prophets Indeed it is no wonder that Prophecy should cease at that time if we consider that one of the prime ends of it did then cease which was to be a seal and an assurance of the Divine inspiration of the holy Volumes now the Canon of the Old Testament being consigned and completed by Ezra with the assistance of Malachy and some of the last Prophets God did not think good any longer to continue this Divine and Miraculous gift among them But especially if we consider the great degeneracy into which that Church was falling their horrid and crying sins having made God resolve to reject them the departure of the Prophetick spirit shewed that God had written them a bill of divorce and would utterly cast them off that by this means they might be awakened to a more lively expectation of that new state of things which the Messiah was coming to establish in the World wherein the Prophetick spirit should revive and be again restored to the Church which accordingly came to pass as we shall elsewhere observe 16. THE third thing propounded was to consider the state of Religion and the Church under the successive periods of this 〈◊〉 And here we shall only make some general remarks a particular survey of those matters not consisting with the design of this discourse Ecclesiastical Constitutions being made in the Wilderness and the place for publick worship fram'd and erected no sooner did they come into the promised Land but the Tabernacle was set down at Gilgal where if the Jewish Chronology say true it continued fourteen years till they had subdued and divided the Land Then fixed at Shiloh and the Priests and Levites had Cities and Territories assigned to them where it is not to be doubted but there were Synagogues or places equivalent for prayer and the ordinary solemnities of Religion and Courts for the decision of Ecclesiastical causes Prosperity and a plentiful Country had greatly contributed to the depravation of mens manners and the corruption of Religion till the times of Samuel the great Reformer of that Church who erected Colledges and instituted Schools of the Prophets reduced the Societies of the Levites to their Primitive order and purity forced the Priests to do their duty diligently to minister in the affairs of God's worship and carefully to teach and instruct the people A piece of reformation no more than necessay For the word of the Lord was precious in those days there was no open vision CCCLXIX years say the Jews the Tabernacle abode at Shiloh from whence it was translated to Nob a City in the Tribe of Benjamin probably about the time that the Ark was taken thence after thirteen years to Gibeon where it remained fifty years and lastly by Solomon to Jerusalem The Ark being taken out to carry along with them for their more prosperous success in their War against the Philistines was ever after exposed to an ambulatory and unsetled course For being taken captive by the Philistines it was by them kept prisoner seven months thence removed to 〈◊〉 and thence to Kirtath-jearim where it remained in the house of Abinadab twenty years thence solemnly 〈◊〉 by David and after three months rest by the way in the house of Obed-Edom brought triumphantly to Jerusalem and placed under the covert of a Tent which he had purposely erected for it David being setled in the Throne like a pious Prince took especial care of the affairs of Religion he fixed the High Priest and his second augmented the courses of the Priests from eight to four and twenty appointed the Levites and Singers and their several turns and times of waiting assigned them their proper duties and ministeries setled the Nethinim or Porters the posterity of the 〈◊〉 made Treasurers of the revenues belonging to holy uses and of the vast summs contributed towards the building of a Temple as a more solemn and stately place for Divine worship which he was fully resolved to have erected but that God commanded it to be reserved for the peaceable and prosperous Reign of Solomon who succeeding in his Father's Throne accomplished it building so stately and magnificent a Temple that it became one of the greatest wonders of the World Under his son Rehoboam hapned the fatal division of the Kingdom when ten parts of twelve were rent off at once and brought under the Empire of Jeroboam who knew no better way to secure his new-gotten Soveraignty than to take off the people from hankering after the Temple and the worship at Jerusalem and therefore out of a cursed policy erected two Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel perswading the people there to pay their publick adorations appointing Chaplains like himself Priests of the lowest of the people and from this time Religion began visibly to ebb and decline in that Kingdom and
History of CHRIST and his Apostles And if we cast our eyes upon it at this time How was the Gold become dim and the most fine Gold changed How miserably deformed was the face of the Church how strangely degenerated from its Primitive Institution whereof we shall observe some particular instances Their Temple though lately repaired and rebuilt by Herod and that with so much pomp and grandeur that Josephus who may justly be presumed partial to the honour of his own Nation says of it that it was the most admirable structure that was ever seen or heard of both for the preparation made for it the greatness and magnificence of the thing it self and the infinite expence and cost bestowed upon it as well as for the glory of that Divine worship that was performed in it yet was it infinitely short of that of Solomon besides that it had been often exposed to rudeness and violence Not to mention the horrible prophanations of Antiochus it had been of late invaded by Pompey who boldly ventured into the Sanctum Sanctorum and without any scruple curiously contemplated the mysteries of that place but suffered no injury to be offered to it After him came Crassus who to the others boldness added Sacrilege seizing what the others piety and modesty had spared plundering the Temple of its vast wealth and treasure Herod having procured the Kingdom besieged and took the City and the Temple and though to ingratiate himself with the People he endeavoured what in him lay to secure it from rapine and impicty and afterwards expended incredible Summes in its reparation yet did he not stick to make it truckle under his wicked policies and designs The more to indear himself to his Patrons at Rome he set up a Golden Eagle of a vast dimension the Arms of the Roman Empire over the great Gate of the Temple a thing so expresly contrary to the Law of Moses which forbids all Images and accounted so monstrous a prophanation of that holy place that while Herod lay a dying the People in a great tumult and uproar gathered together and pull'd it down A great part of it was become an Exchange and a Market the place where Men were to meet with God and to trade with Heaven was now turned into a Ware-house for Merchants and a Shop for Usurers and the House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves The worship formerly wont to be performed there with pious and devout affections was now shrunk into a meer shell and out-side they drew near to God with their mouths and honoured him with their lips but their hearts were 〈◊〉 from him Rites of humane invention had justled out those of Divine Institution and their very Prayers were made traps to catch the unwary People and to devour the Widow and the Fatherless Their Priesthood was so changed and altered that it retain'd little but its ancient Name the High-priests who by their Original Charter were lineally to succeed and to hold their place for life were become almost annual scarce a Year passing over wherein one was not thrust out and another put in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 notes out of their own Historian Nay which was far worse it was become not only annual but venal Herod exposing it to sale and scarce admitting any to the Sacerdotal Office who had not first sufficiently paid for his Patent and which was the natural consequence of that the place was filled with the resuse of the People Men of mean abilities and debauched manners who had neither parts nor piety to recommend them he being the best and the fittest man that offered most Nay into so strange a degeneracy were they fallen in this matter that Josephus reports that one Phannias was elected High-priest not only a rustick and illiterate fellow not only not of the Sacerdotal Line but so intolerably stupid and ignorant that when they came to acquaint him he knew not what the High-Priesthood meant And not content to be imposed upon and tyrannized over by a Forreign Power they fell a quarrelling among themselves and mutually prey'd upon one another the High-priests falling out with the inferiour Orders and both Parties going with an armed retinue after them ready to clash and fight where-ever they met the High-priest sending his Servants to fetch away the Tithes due to the inferiour Priests insomuch that many of the poorest of them were famished for want of necessary food 19. THEIR Law which had been delivered with so much majesty and magnificence and for which they themselves pretended so great a reverence they had miserably corrupted and depraved the moral part of it especially and that two ways First by gross and absurd interpretations which the Teachers of those times had put upon it The Scribes and Pharisees who ruled the Chair in the Jewish Church had by false and corrupt glosses debased the majesty and purity of the Law and made it to serve the purposes of an evil life they had taught the People that the Law required no more than external righteousness that if there was but a visible conformity of the life they needed not be sollicitous about the government of their minds or the regular conduct of their thoughts or passions that so Men did but carry themselves fair to the eye of the World it was no great matter how things went in the secret and unseen retirements of the Soul nay that a punctual observance of some external Precepts of the Law would compensate and quit scores with God for the neglect or violation of the rest They told Men that when the Law forbad murder so they did not actually kill another and sheath their Sword in their Brother's bowels it was well enough Men were not restrained from furious and intemperate passions they might be angry yea though by peevish and uncomely speeches they betray'd the rancor and malice of their minds They confessed the Law made it adultery actually to embrace the bosom of a stranger but would not have it extend to wanton thoughts and unchast desires or that it was adultery for a man to lust after a Woman and to commit folly with her in his heart they told them that in all oaths and vows if they did but perform what they had sworn to God the Law took no further notice of it when as every vain and unnecessary oath all customary and trifling use of the name of God was forbidden by it They made them believe that it was lawful for them to proceed by the rigorous Law of retaliation to exact their own to the utmost and to right and revenge themselves when as the Law requires a tender compassionate and benevolent temper of mind and is so far from owning the rigorous punctilio's of revenge that it obliges to meekness and patience to forgiveness and charity and which is the very height of charity not only to pardon but to love and befriend our greatest enemies quite contrary to
Birth His austere Education and way of Life His Preaching what His initiating proselytes by Baptism Baptism in use in the Jewish Church It s Original whence His resolution and impartiality His Martyrdom The character given him by Josephus and the Jews The Evangelical Dispensation wherein it exceeds that of Moses It s 〈◊〉 and perfection It s agreeableness to humane nature The Evangelical promises better than those of the Law and in what respects The aids of the Spirit plentifully assorded under the Gospel The admirable confirmation of this Occonomy The great extent and latitude of it Judaism not capable of being communicated to all mankind The comprehensiveness of the Gospel The Duration of the Evangelical Covenant The Mosaical Statutes in what sence said to be for ever The Typical and transient nature of that State The great happiness of Christians under the Occonomy of the Gospel 1. GOD having from the very infancy of the World promised the Messiah as the great Redeemer of Mankind was accordingly pleased in all Ages to make gradual discoveries and manifestations of him the revelations concerning him in every Dispensation of the Church still shining with a bigger and more particular light the nearer this Sun of Righteousness was to his rising The first Gospel and glad tidings of him commenced with the fall of Adam God out of infinite tenderness and commiseration promising to send a person who should triumphantly vindicate and rescue mankind from the power and tyranny of their Enemies and that he should do this by taking the humane nature upon him and being born of the seed of the Woman No further account is given of him till the times of Abraham to whom it was revealed that he should proceed out of his loins and arise out of the Jewish Nation though both Jew and Gentile should be made happy by him To his Grandchild Jacob God made known out of what Tribe of that Nation he should rise the Tribe of Judah and what would be the time of his appearing viz. the departure of the Scepter from Judah the abrogation of the Civil and Legislative power of that Tribe and People accomplished in Herod the Idumaean set over them by the Roman power And this is all we find concerning him under that Oeconomy Under the Legal Dispensation we find Moses foretelling one main 〈◊〉 of his coming which was to be the great Prophet of the Church to whom all were to hearken as an extraordinary person sent from God to acquaint the World with the Councils and the Laws of Heaven The next news we hear of him is from David who was told that he should spring out of his house and family and who frequently speaks of his sufferings and the particular manner of his death by piercing his hands and his feet of his powerful Resurrection that God would not leave his Soul in Hell nor suffer his holy one to see corruption of his triumphant Ascension into Heaven and glorious session at God's right hand From the Prophet Isaiah we have an account of the extraordinary and miraculous manner of his Birth that he should be born of a Virgin and his name be Immanuel of his incomparable furniture of gifts and graces for the execution of his office of the entertainment he was to meet with in the World and of the nature and design of those sufferings which he was to undergo The place of his Birth was foretold by Micah which was to be 〈◊〉 the least of the Cities of Judah but honoured above all the rest with the nativity of a Prince who was to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth had been from everlasting Lastly the Prophet Daniel 〈◊〉 the particular period of his coming expresly affirming that the Messiah should appear in the World and be cut off as a Victim and Expiation for the sins of the people at the expiration of LXX prophetical weeks or CCCCXC years which accordingly punctually came to pass 2. FOR the date of the prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of the 〈◊〉 's coming being now run out In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to 〈◊〉 them that were under the Law This being the truth of which God spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets which have been since the World began But because it was not sit that so great a Person should come into the World without an eminent Harbinger to introduce and usher in his Arrival God had promised that he would send his Messenger who should prepare his way before him even 〈◊〉 the Prophet whom he would send before the coming of that great day of the Lord who should turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children c. This was particularly accomplished in John the Baptist who came in the power and spirit of Elias He was the Morning-star to the Son of Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Cyril says of him the great and eminent Fore-runner a Person remarkable upon several accounts First for the extraordinary circumstances of his Nativity his Birth foretold by an Angel sent on purpose to deliver this joyful Message a sign God intended him for great undertakings this being never done but where God designed the Person for some uncommon services his Parents aged and though both righteous before God yet hitherto Childless Heaven does not dispence all its bounty to the same Person Children though great and desirable blessings are yet often denied to those for whom God has otherwise very dear regards Elizabeth was barren and they were both well stricken in years But is any thing too hard for the Lord said God to Abraham in the same case God has the Key of the Womb in his own keeping it is one of the Divine Prerogatives that he makes the barren Woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children A Son is promised and mighty things said of him a promise which old Zachary had scarce faith enough to digest and therefore had the assurance of it sealed to him by a miraculous dumbness imposed upon him till it was made good the same Miracle at once confirming his faith and punishing his infidelity Accordingly his Mother conceived with Child and as if he would do part of his errand before he was born he leaped in her Womb at her salutation of the Virgin Mary then newly conceived with Child of our Blessed Saviour a piece of homage paid by one to one yet unborn 3. THESE presages were not vain and fallible but produced a Person no less memorable for the admirable strictness and austerity of his 〈◊〉 For having escaped Herod's butcherly and merciless Executioners the Divine providence being a shelter and a covert to him and been educated among the rudenesses and solitudes of the Wilderness his manners and way of life were very 〈◊〉 to his Education His Garments borrowed from no other Wardrobe than the backs
of his Neighbour-creatures the skins of Beasts 〈◊〉 hair and a Leathern girdle and herein he literally made good the character of Elias who is described as an hairy man girt with a Leathern girdle about his Loins His Diet suitable to his Garb his Meat was Locusts and wild Honey Locusts accounted by all Nations amongst the meanest and vilest sorts of food wild honey such as the natural artifice and labour of the Bees had stored up in caverns and hollow Trees without any elaborate curiosity to prepare and dress it up Indeed his abstinence was so great and his food so unlike other Mens that the Evangelist says of him that he came neither eating nor drinking as if he had eaten nothing or at least what was worth nothing But Meat commends us not to God it is the devout mind and the honest life that makes us valuable in the eye of Heaven The place of his abode was not in Kings houses in stately and delicate Palaces but where he was born and bred the Wilderness of Judaea he was in the Desarts until the time of his shewing unto Israel Divine grace is not consined to particular places it is not the holy City or the Temple at Mount Sion makes us nearer unto Heaven God can when he please consecrate a Desart into a Church make us gather Grapes among Thorns and Religion become fruitful in a barren Wilderness 4. PREPARED by so singular an Education and furnished with an immediate Commission from God he entred upon the actual administration of his Office In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness of Judaea and saying Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justin Martyr calls him the Herald to Proclaim the first approach of the Holy Jesus his whole Ministry tending to prepare the way to his entertainment accomplishing herein what was of old foretold concerning him For this is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias saying The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight He told the 〈◊〉 that the Messiah whom they had so long expected was now at hand and his Kingdom ready to appear that the Son of God was come down from Heaven a Person as far beyond him in dignity as in time and existence to whom he was not worthy to minister in the meanest Offices that he came to introduce a new and better state of things to enlighten the World with the clearest Revelations of the Divine will and to acquaint them with counsels brought from the bosom of the Father to put a period to all the types and umbrages of the Mosaic Dispensation and bring in the truth and substance of all those shadows and to open a Fountain of grace and fulness to Mankind to remove that state of guilt into which humane nature was so deeply sunk and as the Lamb of God by the expiatory Sacrifice of 〈◊〉 to take away the sin of the World not like the continual Burnt-offering the Lamb offered Morning and Evening only for the sins of the House of Israel but for Jew and Gentile Barbarian and Scythian bond and free he told them that God had a long time born with the sins of Men and would now bring things to a quicker issue and that therefore they should do well to break off their sins by repentance and by a serious amendment and reformation of life dispose themselves for the glad tidings of the Gospel that they should no longer bear up themselves upon their external priviledges the Fatherhood of Abraham and their being God's select and peculiar People that God would raise up to himself another Generation a Posterity of Abraham from among the Gentiles who should walk in his steps in the way of his unshaken faith and sincere obedience and that if all this did not move them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance the Axe was laid to the root of the Tree to extirpate their Church and to hew them down as fuel for the unquenchable Fire His free and resolute preaching together with the great severity of his life procured him a vast Auditory and numerous Proselytes for there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea and the Region round about Jordan Persons of all ranks and orders of all Sects and Opinions 〈◊〉 and Sadducees Souldiers and Publicans whose Vices he impartially censured and condemned and pressed upon them the duties of their particular places and relations Those whom he gained over to be Proselytes to his Doctrine he entred into this new Institution of life by Baptism and hence he derived his Title of the Baptist a solemn and usual way of initiating Proselytes no less than Circumcision and of great antiquity in the Jewish Church In all times says Maimonides if any Gentile would enter into Covenant remain under the wings of the Schechina or Divine Majesty and take upon him the yoke of the Law he is bound to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision Baptism and a Peace-offering and if a Woman Baptism and an Oblation because it is said As ye are so shall the stranger be as ye your selves 〈◊〉 into Covenant by Circumcision Baptism and a Peace-offering so ought the Proselyte also in all Ages to enter in Though this last he confesses is to be omitted during their present state of desolation and to be made when their Temple shall be rebuilt This Rite they generally make contemporary with the giving of the Law So Maimonides By three things says he the Israelites entred into Covenant he means the National Covenant at Mount Sinai by Circumcision Baptism and an Oblation Baptism being used some little time before the Law which he proves from that place 〈◊〉 the People to day and to morrow and let them wash their Clothes This the Rabbines unanimously expound concerning Baptism and expresly affirm that where-ever we read of the Washing of Clothes there an obligation to Baptism is intended Thus they entred into the first Covenant upon the frequent violations whereof God having promised to make a new and solemn Covenant with them in the times of the Messiah they expected a second Baptism as that which should be the Rite of their Initiation into it And this probably is the reason why the Apostle writing to the Hebrews speaks of the Doctrin of Baptisms in the plural number as one of the primary and elementary Principles of the faith wherein the Catechumens were to be instructed meaning that besides the Baptism whereby they had been initiated into the Mosaic Covenant there was another by which they were to enter into this new 〈◊〉 that was come upon the World Hence the Sanhedrim to whom the cognizance of such cases did peculiarly appertain when told of John's Baptism never expressed any wonder at it as a new upstart Ceremony it being a thing daily practised in their Church nor found fault
with the thing it self which they supposed would be a federal Rite under the dispensation of the Messiah but only quarrelled with him for taking upon him to administer it when yet he denied himself to be one of the prime Ministers of this new state They said unto him why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ nor 〈◊〉 neither that 〈◊〉 Either of which had he owned himself they had not questioned his right to enter Proselytes by this way of Baptism It is called the Baptism of Repentance this being the main qualification that he required of those who took it upon them as the fittest means to dispose them to receive the Doctrine and Discipline of the Messiah and to intitle them to that pardon of sin which the Gospel brought along with it whence he is said to baptize in the Wilderness and to preach the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins And the success was answerable infinite Multitudes flocking to it and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins Nor is it the least part of his happiness that he had the honour to baptize his Saviour which though modestly declined our Lord put upon him and was accompanied with the most signal and miraculous attestations which Heaven could bestow upon it 5. AFTER his Preparatory Preachings in the Wilderness he was called to Court by Herod at least he was his frequent Auditor was much delighted with his plain and impartial Sermons and had a mighty reverence for him the gravity of his Person the strictness of his Manners the freedom of his Preaching commanding an awe and veneration from his Conscience and making him willing in many things to reform But the bluntness of the holy Man came nearer and touched the King in the tenderest part smartly reproving his adultery and incestuous embraces for that Prince kept Herodias his Brother Philip's Wife And now all corrupt interests were awakened to conspire his ruine Extravagant Lusts love not to be controll'd and check'd Herodias resents the asfront cannot brook disturbance in the pleasures of her Bed or the open challenging of her honour and therefore by all the arts of Feminine subtlety meditates revenge The issue was the Baptist is cast into Prison as the praeludium to a sadder fate For among other pleasures and scenes of mirth performed upon the King's Birth-day Herod being infinitely pleased with the Dancing of a young Lady Daughter of this Herodias promised to give her Her request and solemnly ratified his promise with an Oath She prompted by her Mother asks the Head of John the Baptist which the King partly out of a pretended reverence to his Oath partly out of a desire not to be interrupted in his unlawful pleasures presently granted and it was as quickly accomplished Thus died the Holy man a man strict in his conversation beyond the ordinary measures of an Anchoret bold and resolute faithful and impartial in his Office indued with the power and spirit of Elias a burning and a shining light under whose light the Jews rejoyced to sit exceedingly taken with his temper and principles He was the happy Messenger of the Evangelical tidings and in that respect more than a Prophet a greater not arising among them that were born of Women In short he was a Man loved of his Friends revered and honoured by his Enemies Josephus gives this character of him that he was a good man and pressed the Jews to the study of vertue to the practice of picty towards God and justice and righteousness towards men and to joyn themselves to his Baptism which he told them would then become effectual and acceptable to God when they did not only cleanse the body but purifie the mind by goodness and vertue And though he gives somewhat a different account of Herod's condemning him to dic from what is assigned in the Sacred History yet he confesses that the Jews universally looked upon the putting him to death as the cause of the miscarriage of Herod's Army and an evident effect of the Divine vengeance and displeasure The Jews in their Writings make honourable mention of his being put to death by Herod because reproving him for the company of his Brother Philip's Wife stiling him Rabbi Johanan the High-Priest and reckoning him one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the wise men of Israel Where he is called High-Priest probably with respect to his being the Son of Zachariah Head or Chief of one of the XXIV Families or courses of the Priests who are many times called Chief or High-Priests in Scripture 6. THE Evangelical state being thus proclaimed and ushered in by the Preaching and Ministry of the Baptist our Lord himself appeared next more fully to publish and confirm it concerning whose Birth Life Death and Resurrection the Doctrine he delivered the Persons he deputed to Preach and convey it to the World and its success by the Ministry of the Apostles large particular accounts are given in the following work That which may be proper and material to observe in this place is what the Scripture so frequently takes notice of the excellency of this above the preceding dispensations especially that brought in by Moses so much magnified in the Old Testament and so passionately admired and adhered to by the Jews at this day Jesus is the Mediator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it of a better Covenant And better it is in several regards besides the infinite difference between the Persons who were imployed to introduce and settle them Moses and our Lord. The preheminence eminently appears in many instances whereof we shall remark the most considerable And first the Mosaick dispensation was almost wholly made up of types and shadows the Evangelical has brought in the truth and substance The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Their Ordinances were but shadows of good things to come sensible representations of what was to follow after the Body is Christ the perfection and accomplishment of their whole ritual Ministration Their Ceremonies were Figures of those things that are true the Land of Canaan typified Heaven Moses and Joshua were types of the Blessed Jesus and the Israelites after the flesh of the true Israel which is after the Spirit and all their Expiatory Sacrifices did but represent that Great Sacrifice whereby Christ offered up himself and by his own bloud purged away the sins of mankind indeed the most minute and inconsiderable circumstances of the Legal Oeconomy were intended as little lights that might gradually usher in the state of the Gospel A curious Artist that designs a famous and excellent piece is not wont to complete and finish it all at once but first with his Pencil draws some rude lines and rough draughts before he puts his last hand to it By such a method the wise God seems to have delivered the first draughts and Images of those things by Moses to the Church the substance
said Tacitus out of Plato whose words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is naturally certain that the Cruelty of Tyrants torments themselves and is a hook in their nostrils and a scourge to their spirit and the pungency of forbidden Lust is truly a thorn in the flesh full of anguish and secret vexation Quid demens manifesta negas En pectus inustae Deformant maculae vitiisque inolevit imago said Claudian of Rusinus And it is certain to us and verified by the experience and observation of all wise Nations though not naturally demonstrable that this secret punishment is sharpned and promoted in degrees by the hand of Heaven the finger of the same hand that writ the Law in our Understandings 17. But the prevarications of the natural Law have also their portion of a special punishment besides the scourge of an unquiet spirit The man that disturbs his neighbour's rest meets with disturbances himself and since I have naturally no more power over my neighbour than he hath over me unless he descended naturally from me he hath an equal priviledge to defend himself and to secure his quiet by disturbing the order of my happy living as I do his And this equal permission is certainly so great a sanction and signature of the law of Justice that in the just proportion of my receding from the reasonable prosecution of my End in the same proportion and degree my own Infelicity is become certain and this in several degrees up to the loss of all that is of Life it self for where no farther duration or differing state is known there Death is ordinarily esteemed the greatest infelicity where something beyond it is known there also it is known that such prevarication makes that farther duration to be unhappy So that an affront is naturally punished by an affront the loss of a tooth with the loss of a tooth of an eye with an eye the violent taking away of another man's goods by the losing my own For I am liable to as great an evil as I infer and naturally he is not unjust that inflicts it And he that is drunk is a fool or a mad-man for the time and that is his punishment and declares the law and the sin and so in proportions to the transgressions of sobriety But when the first of the natural laws is violated that is God is disobeyed or dishonoured or when the greatest of natural evils is done to our Neighbour then Death became the penalty to the first in the first period of the World to the second at the restitution of the World that is at the beginning of the second period He that did attempt to kill from the beginning of Ages might have been resisted and killed if the assaulted could not else be safe but he that killed actually as Cain did could not be killed himself till the Law was made in Noah's time because there was no person living that had equal power on him and had been naturally injured while the thing was doing the assailant and the assailed had equal power but when it was done and one was killed he that had the power or right of killing his murtherer is now dead and his power is extinguished with the man But after the Floud the power was put into the hand of some trusted person who was to take the forfeiture And thus I conceive these natural reasons in order to their proper end became Laws and bound fast by the band of annexed and consequent penalties Metum prorsus noxam conscientiae pro foedere haberi said Tacitus And that fully explains my sence 18. And thus Death was brought into the world not by every prevarication of any of the Laws by any instance of unreasonableness 〈◊〉 in proportion to the evil of the action would be the evil of the suffering which in all cases would not arrive at death as every injury every intemperance should not have been capital But some things were made evil by a superinduced prohibition as eating one kinde of fruit some things were evil by inordination the first was morally evil the second was evil naturally Now the first sort brought in death by a prime sanction the second by degrees and variety of accident For every disobedience and transgression of that Law which God made as the instance of our doing him honour and obedience is an integral violation of all the band between him and us it does not grow in degrees according to the instance and subject matter for it is as great a disobedience to eat when he hath forbidden us as to offer to climb to Heaven with an ambitious Tower And therefore it is but reasonable for us to fear and just in him to make us at once suffer Death which is the greatest of natural evils for disobeying him To which Death we may arrive by degrees in doing actions against the reasonableness of Sobriety and Justice but cannot arrive by degrees of Disobedience to God or Irreligion because every such act deserves the worst of things but the other naturally deserves no greater evil than the proportion of their own inordination till God by a superinduced Law hath made them also to become acts of Disobedience as well as Inordination that is morally evil as well as naturally For by the Law saith S. Paul sin became exceeding sinful that is had a new degree of obliquity added to it But this was not at first For therefore saith S. Paul Before or until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no Law meaning that those sins which were forbidden by Moses's Law were actually in the manners of men and the customs of the world but they were not imputed that is to such personal punishments and consequent evils which afterwards those sins did introduce because those sins which were only evil by inordination and discomposure of the order of man's end of living happily were made unlawful upon no other stock but that God would have man to live happily and therefore gave him Reason to effect that end and if a man became unreasonable and did things contrary to his end it was impossible for him to be happy that is he should be miserable in proportion But in that degree and manner of evil they were imputed and that was sanction enough to raise natural Reason up to the constitution of a Law 19. Thirdly The Law of Nature being thus decreed and made obligatory was a sufficient instrument of making man happy that is in producing the end of his Creation But as Adam had evil discourses and irregular appetites before he fell for they made him fall and as the Angels who had no Original sin yet they chose evil at the first when it was wholly arbitrary in them to do so or otherwise so did Man God made man upright and he sought out many inventions Some men were Ambitious and by incompetent means would make their brethren to be their
Scepter from Judah and the Law-giver from between his feet when the number of Daniel's Years was accomplished and the Egyptian and Syrian Kingdoms had their period God having great compassion towards mankind remembring his Promises and our great Necessities sent his Son into the world to take upon him our Nature and all that guilt of Sin which stuck close to our Nature and all that Punishment which was consequent to our Sin which came to pass after this manner 2. In the days of Herod the King the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a City of Galilce named Nazareth to a holy Maid called Mary espoused to Joseph and found her in a capacity and excellent disposition to receive the greatest Honour that ever was done to the daughters of men Her imployment was holy and pious her person young her years florid and springing her Body chaste her Mind humble and a rare repository of divine Graces She was full of grace and excellencies And God poured upon her a full measure of Honour in making her the Mother of the 〈◊〉 For the Angel came to her and said 〈◊〉 thou that art highly 〈◊〉 the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women 3. We cannot but imagine the great mixture of innocent disturbances and holy passions that in the first address of the Angel did rather discompose her settledness and interrupt the silence of her spirits than dispossess her dominion which she ever kept over those subjects which never had been taught to rebel beyond the mere possibilities of natural imperfection But if the Angel appeared in the shape of a Man it was an unusual arrest to the Blessed Virgin who was accustomed to retirements and solitariness and had not known an experience of admitting a comely person but a stranger to her closet and privacies But if the Heavenly Messenger did retain a Diviner form more symbolical to Angelical nature and more proportionable to his glorious Message although her daily imployment was a conversation with Angels who in their daily ministring to the Saints did behold her chaste conversation coupled with 〈◊〉 yet they used not any affrighting glories in the offices of their daily attendances but were seen only by spiritual discernings However so it happened that when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and cast in her mind what manner of Salutation this should be 4. But the Angel who came with designs of honour and comfort to her not willing that the inequality and glory of the Messenger should like too glorious a light to a weaker eye rather confound the Faculty than enlighten the Organ did before her thoughts could find a tongue invite her to a more familiar confidence than possibly a tender Virgin though of the greatest serenity and composure could have put on in the presence of such a Beauty and such a Holiness And the Angel said unto her Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name JESUS 5. The Holy Virgin knew her self a person very unlikely to be a Mother For although the desires of becoming a Mother to the MESSIAS were great in every of the Daughters of Jacob and about that time the expectation of his Revelation was high and pregnant and therefore she was espoused to an honest and a just person of her kindred and family and so might not despair to become a Mother yet she was a person of a rare Sanctity and so mortified a spirit that for all this Desponsation of her according to the desire of her Parents and the custom of the Nation she had not set one step toward the consummation of her Marriage so much as in thought and possibly had set her self back from it by a vow of Chastity and holy Coelibate For Mary said unto the Angel How shall this be seeing I know not a man 6. But the Angel who was a person of that nature which knows no conjunctions but those of love and duty knew that the Piety of her Soul and the Religion of her chaste purposes was a great imitator of 〈◊〉 Purity and therefore perceived where the Philosophy of her question did consist and being taught of God declared that the manner should be as miraculous as the Message it self was glorious For the Angel told her that this should not be done by any way which our sin and the shame of Adam had unhallowed by turning Nature into a blush and forcing her to a retirement from a publick attesting the means of her own preservation but the whole matter was from God and so should the manner be For the Angel said unto her The Holy Ghost shall come upon 〈◊〉 and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God 7. When the Blessed Virgin was so ascertain'd that she should be a Mother and a Maid and that two Glories like the two Luminaries of Heaven should meet in her that she might in such a way become the Mother of her Lord that she might with better advantages be his Servant then all her hopes and all her desires received such satisfaction and filled all the corners of her Heart so much as indeed it was fain to make room for its reception But she to whom the greatest things of Religion and the transportations of Devotion were made familiar by the assiduity and piety of her daily practices however she was full of joy yet she was carried like a full vessel without the violent tossings of a tempestuous passion or the wrecks of a stormy imagination And as the power of the Holy Ghost did descend upon her like rain into a fleece of wool without any obstreperous noises or violences to nature but only the extraordinariness of an exaltation so her spirit received it with the gentleness and tranquillity fitted for the entertainment of the spirit of love and a quietness symbolical to the holy Guest of her spotless womb the Lamb of God for she meekly replied Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according unto thy word And the Angel departed from her having done his message And at the same time the holy Spirit of God did make her to conceive in her womb the immaculate Son of God the Saviour of the World Ad SECT I. Considerations upon the Annunciation of the Blessed MARY and the Conception of the Holy JESVS 1. THat which shines brightest presents it self first to the eye and the devout Soul in the chain of excellent and precious things which are represented in the counsel design and first beginnings of the work of our Redemption hath not 〈◊〉 to attend the twinkling of the lesser Stars till it hath stood and admired the glory and eminencies of the Divine Love manifested in the Incarnation of the Word eternal God had no necessity in order to the conservation or
the heightning his own Felicity but out of mere and perfect charity and the bowels of compassion sent into the world his only Son for remedy to humane miseries to ennoble our Nature by an union with Divinity to sanctifie it with his Justice to inrich it with his Grace to instruct it with his Doctrine to fortifie it with his Example to rescue it from servitude to assert it into the liberty of the sons of God and at last to make it partaker of a beatifical Resurrection 2. God who in the infinite treasures of his wisdom and providence could have found out many other ways for our Redemption than the Incarnation of his eternal Son was pleased to chuse this not only that the Remedy by Man might have proportion to the causes of our Ruine whose introduction and intromission was by the prevarication of Man but also that we might with freer dispensation receive the influences of a Saviour with whom we communicate in Nature although Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were of greater name and current yet they were not so salutary as the waters of Jordan to cure Naaman's Leprosie And if God had made the remedy of humane nature to have come all the way clothed in prodigy and every instant of its execution had been as terrible affrighting and as full of Majesty as the apparitions upon Mount Sinai yet it had not been so useful and complying to humane necessities as was the descent of God to the susception of Humane Nature whereby as in all Medicaments the cure is best wrought by those instruments which have the fewest dissonancies to our temper and are the nearest to our constitution For thus the Saviour of the world became humane alluring full of invitation and the sweetnesses of love exemplary humble and medicinal 3. And if we consider the reasonableness of the thing what can be given more excellent for the Redemption of Man than the Bloud of the Son of God And what can more ennoble our Nature than that by the means of his holy Humanity it was taken up into the Cabinet of the mysterious Trinity What better Advocate could we have for us than he that is appointed to be our Judge And what greater hopes of Reconciliation can be imagined than that God in whose power it is to give an absolute Pardon hath taken a new Nature entertained an Office and undergone a life of Poverty with a purpose to procure our Pardon For now though as the righteous Judge he will judge the Nations righteously yet by the susception of our Nature and its appendant crimes he is become a party and having obliged himself as Man as he is God he will satisfie by putting the value of an infinite Merit to the actions and sufferings of his Humanity And if he had not been God he could not have given us remedy if he had not been Man we should have wanted the excellency of Example 4. And till now Humane nature was less than that of Angels but by the Incarnation of the Word was to be exalted above the Cherubims yet the Archangel Gabriel being dispatched in embassie to represent the joy and exaltation of his inferiour instantly trims his wings with love and obedience and hastens with this Narrative to the Holy Virgin And if we should reduce our prayers to action and do God's Will on earth as the Angels in Heaven do it we should promptly 〈◊〉 every part of the Divine Will though it were to be instrumental to the exaltation of a Brother above our selves knowing no end but conformity to the Divine Will and making simplicity of intention to be the 〈◊〉 and exterior borders of our garments 5. When the eternal God meant to stoop so low as to be fixt to our centre he chose for his Mother a Holy person and a Maid but yet 〈◊〉 to a Just man that he might not only be secure in the Innocency but also provided sor in the Reputation of his holy Mother teaching us That we must not only satisfie our selves in the purity of our purposes and hearty Innocence but that we must provide also things honest in the 〈◊〉 of all men being free from the suspicion and semblances of evil so making provision for private Innocence and publick Honesty it being necessary in order to Charity and edification of our Brethren that we hold forth no impure flames or smoaking firebrands but pure and trimmed lamps in the eyes of all the world 6. And yet her Marriage was more mysterious for as besides the Miracle it was an eternal honour and advancement to the glory of Virginity that he chose a Virgin for his Mother so it was in that manner 〈◊〉 that the Virgin was betrothed lest honourable Marriage might be disreputed and seem inglorious by a positive rejection from any participation of the honour Divers of the old Doctors from the authority of 〈◊〉 add another reason saying That the Blessed Jesus was therefore born of a woman betrothed and under the pretence of Marriage that the Devil who knew the 〈◊〉 was to be born of a Virgin might not expect him there but so be ignorant of the person till God had serv'd many ends of Providence upon him 7. The Angel in his address needed not to go in inquisition after a wandring fire but knew she was a Star fixt in her own Orb he found her at home and 〈◊〉 that also might be too large a Circuit she was yet confined to a more intimate retirement she was in her Oratory private and devout There are some Curiosities so bold and determinate as to tell the very matter of her Prayer and that she was praying for the Salvation of all the World and the Revelation of the 〈◊〉 desiring she might be so happy as to kiss the feet of her who should have the glory to be his Mother We have no security of the particular but there is no piety so diffident as to require a sign to create a belief that her imployment at the instant was holy and religious but in that disposition she received a grace which the greatest Queens would have purchased with the quitting of their Diadems and hath consigned an excellent Document to all women that they accustom themselves often to those Retirements where none but God and his Angels can have admittance For the Holy Jesus can come to them too and dwell with them hallowing their Souls and consigning their bodies to a participation of all his glories But recollecting of all our scattered thoughts and exteriour extravagances and a receding from the inconveniences of a too free conversation is the best circumstance to dispose us to a heavenly visitation 8. The holy Virgin when she saw an Angel and heard a testimony from Heaven of her Grace and Piety was troubled within her self at the Salutation and the manner of it For she had learn'd that the affluence of Divine comforts and prosperous successes should not exempt us from fear
his thoughts determinate but stood long in deliberation and longer before he acted it because it was an invidious matter and a rigour He was first to have defam'd and accus'd her publickly and being convicted by the Law she was to die if he had gone the ordinary way but he who was a just man that is according to the style of Scripture and other wise Writers a good a charitable man found that it was more agreeable to Justice to treat an offending person with the easiest sentence than to put things to extremity and render the person desperate and without remedy and provoked by the suffering of the worst of what she could fear No obligation to Justice does force a man to be cruel or to use the sharpest sentence A just man does Justice to every man and to every thing and then if he be also wise he knows there is a debt of mercy and compassion due to the infirmities of a man's nature and that debt is to be paid and he that is cruel and ungentle to a sinning person and does the worst thing to him dies in his debt and is unjust Pity and forbearance and long-suffering and fair interpretation and excusing our brother and taking things in the best sence and passing the gentlest sentence are as certainly our duty and owing to every person that does offend and can repent as calling men to account can be owing to the Law and are first to be paid and he that does not so is an unjust person which because Joseph was not he did not call furiously for Justice or pretend that God required it at his hands presently to undo a suspected person but waved the killing letter of the Law and secured his own interest and his Justice too by intending to dismiss her privately But before the thing was irremediable God ended his Question by a heavenly demonstration and sent an Angel to reveal to him the Innocence of his Spouse and the Divinity of her Son and that he was an immediate derivative from Heaven and the Heir of all the World And in all our doubts we shall have a resolution from Heaven or some of its Ministers if we have recourse thither for a Guide and be not hasty in our discourses or inconsiderate in our purposes or rash in judgment For God loves to give assistances to us when we most fairly and prudently endeavour that Grace be not put to do all our work but to facilitate our labour not creating new faculties but improving those of Nature If we consider warily God will guide us in the determination But a hasty person out-runs his guide prevaricates his rule and very often engages upon error The PRAYER O Holy Jesu Son of the Eternal God thy Glory is far above all Heavens and yet thou didst descend to Earth that thy Descent might be the more gracious by how much thy Glories were admirable and natural and inseparable I adore thy holy Humanity with humble veneration and the thankful addresses of religious joy because thou hast personally united Humane nature to the Eternal Word carrying it above the seats of the highest Cherubim This great and glorious Mystery is the honour and glory of man it was the expectation of our Fathers who saw the mysteriousness of thy Incarnation at great and obscure distances And blessed be thy Name that thou hast caused me to be born after the fulfilling of thy Prophecies and the consummation and exhibition of so great a love so great mysteriousness Holy Jesu though I admire and adore the immensity of thy love and condescension who wert pleased to undergo our burthens and infirmities for us yet I abhor my self and detest my own impurities which were so great and contradictory to the excellency of God that to destroy Sia and save us it became necessary that thou shouldest be sent into the World to die our death for us and to give us of thy Life 2. DEarest Jesu thou didst not breath one sigh nor shed one drop of bloud nor weep one tear nor suffer one stripe nor preach one Sermon for the salvation of the Devils and what sadness and shame is it then that I should cause so many insufferable loads of sorrows to fall upon thy sacred head Thou art wholly given for me wholly spent upon my uses and wholly for every one of the Elect. Thou in the beginning of the work of our Redemption didst suffer nine months imprisonment in the pure Womb of thy Holy Mother to redeem me from the eternal servitude of Sin and its miserable consequents Holy Jesu let me be born anew receive a new birth and a new life imitating thy Graces and Excellencies by which thou art beloved of thy Father and hast obtained for us a favour and atonement Let thy holy will be done by me let all thy will be wrought in me let thy will be wrought concerning me that I may do thy pleasure and submit to the dispensation of thy Providence and conform to thy holy will and may for ever serve thee in the Communion of Saints in the society of thy redeemed ones now and in the glories of Eternity Amen SECT III. The Nativity of our Blessed Saviour JESVS The Birth of LESUS And she brought forth her first borne son and wrapped him in swadling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no roome sor them in the Inne Luk. 2. 7. The Virgin MOTHER S LUKE 11. 27 Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the paps which thou hast Sucked v. 28. Yea rather Blessed are they that heare the word of God and keep it 1. THE Holy Maid longed to be a glad Mother and she who carried a burthen whose proper commensuration is the days of Eternity counted the tedious minutes expecting when the Sun of Righteousness should break forth from his bed where nine months he hid himself as behind a fruitful cloud About the same time God who in his infinite wisdom does concentre and tie together in one end things of disparate and disproportionate natures making things improbable to cooperate to what wonder or to what truth he pleases brought the Holy Virgin to Bethlehem the City of David to be taxed with her Husband Joseph according to a Decree upon all the World issuing from Augustus Caesar. But this happened in this conjunction of time that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Micah And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the Princes of Judah for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel This rare act of Providence was highly remarkable because this Taxing seems wholly to have been ordered by God to serve and minister to the circumstances of this Birth For this Taxing was not in order to Tribute Herod was now King and received all the Revenues of the Fiscus and paid to Augustus an appointed Tribute after the manner of other Kings Friends and
his leisure either we disrepute the infinity of his Wisdom or give clear demonstration of our own vanity 2. When God descended to earth he chose to be born in the Suburbs and retirement of a small Town but he was pleased to die at Jerusalem the Metropolis of Judaea Which chides our shame and pride who are willing to publish our gayeties in Piazza's and the corners of the streets of most populous places but our defects and the instruments of our humiliation we carry into desarts and cover with the night and hide them under ground thinking no secrecy dark enough to hide our shame nor any theatre large enough to behold our pompous vanities for so we make provisions for Pride and take great care to exclude Humility 3. When the Holy Virgin now perceived that the expectation of the Nations was arrived at the very doors of revelation and entrance into the World she brought forth the Holy Jesus who like Light through transparent glass past through or a ripe Pomegranate from a fruitful tree fell to the earth without doing violence to its Nurse and Parent She had no ministers to attend but Angels and neither her Poverty nor her Piety would permit her to provide other Nurses but her self did the offices of a tender and pious Parent She kissed him and worshipped him and thanked him that he would be born of her and she suckled him and bound him in her arms and swadling-bands and when she had 〈◊〉 to God her first scene of joy and Eucharist she softly laid him in the manger till her desires and his own necessities called her to take him and to rock him softly in her arms and from this deportment she read a lecture of Piety and maternal care which Mothers should perform toward their children when they are born not to neglect any of that duty which nature and maternal piety requires 4. Jesus was pleased to be born of a poor Mother in a poor place in a cold winter's night far from home amongst strangers with all the circumstances of humility and poverty And no man will have cause to complain of his course Robe if he remembers the swadling-clothes of this Holy Child nor to be disquieted at his hard Bed when he considers Jesus laid in a manger nor to be discontented at his thin Table when he calls to mind the King of Heaven and Earth was fed with a little breast-milk But since the eternal wisdom of the Father who knew to chuse the good and refuse the evil did chuse a life of Poverty it gives us demonstration that Riches and Honors those idols of the World's esteem are so far from creating true felicities that they are not of themselves eligible in the number of good things however no man is to be ashamed of innocent Poverty of which many wise men make Vows and of which the Holy Jesus made election and his Apostles after him made publick profession And if any man will chuse and delight in the affluence of temporal good things suffering himself to be transported with caitive affections in the pleasures of every day he may well make a question whether he shall speed as well hereafter since God's usual method is that they only who follow Christ here shall be with him for ever 5. The Condition of the person 〈◊〉 was born is here of greatest consideration For he that cried in the Manger that suck'd the paps of a Woman that hath exposed himself to Poverty and a world of inconveniences is the Son of the living God of the same substance with his Father begotten before all Ages before the Morning-stars he is GOD eternal He is also by reason of the personal Union of the Divinity with his Humane nature the Son of God not by Adoption as good Men and beatified Angels are but by an extraordinary and miraculous Generation He is the Heir of his Father's glories and possessions not by succession for his Father cannot die but by an equality of communication He is the express image of his Father's person according to both Natures the miracle and excess of his Godhead being as upon wax imprinted upon all the capacities of his Humanity And after all this he is our Saviour that to our duties of wonder and adoration we may add the affections of love and union as himself besides his being admirable in himself is become profitable to us Verè Verbum hoc est abbreviatum saith the Prophet The eternal Word of the Father is shortned to the dimensions of an infant 6. Here then are concentred the prodigles of Greatness and Goodness of Wisdom and Charity of Meekness and Humility and march all the way in mysterie and incomprehensible mixtures if we consider him in the bosome of his Father where he is seated by the postures of Love and essential Felicity and in the Manger where Love also placed him and an infinite desire to communicate his Felicities to us As he is God his Throne is in the Heaven and he fills all things by his immensity as he is Man he is circumscribed by an uneasie Cradle and cries in a Stable As he is God he is seated upon a super-exalted Throne as Man exposed to the lowest estate of uneasiness and need As God clothed in a robe of Glory at the same instant when you may behold and wonder at his Humanity wrapped in cheap and unworthy Cradle-bands As God he is incircled with millions of Angels as Man in the company of Beasts As God he is the eternal Word of the Father Eternal sustained by himself all-sufficient and without need and yet he submitted himself to a condition imperfect inglorious indigent and necessitous And this consideration is apt and natural to produce great affections of love duty and obedience desires of union and conformity to his sacred Person Life Actions and Laws that we resolve all our thoughts and finally determine all our reason and our passions and capacities upon that saying of St. Paul He that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed 7. Upon the consideration of these Glories if a pious soul shall upon the supports of Faith and Love enter into the Stable where this great King was born and with affections behold every member of the Holy Body and thence pass into the Soul of Jesus we may see a scheme of holy Meditations enough to entertain all the degrees of our love and of our understanding and make the mysterie of the Nativity as fruitful of holy thoughts as it was of Blessings to us And it may serve instead of a description of the Person of Jesus conveyed to us in imperfect and Apocryphal schemes If we could behold his sacred Feet with those affections which the Holy Virgin did we have transmitted to us those Mysteries in story which she had first in part by spiritual and divine infused light and afterwards by observation Those holy Feet tender and unable to support his sacred Body should bear him over
and to bring him word pretending that he would come and worship him also 11. The Wise men prosecuted the business of their journey and having heard the King they departed and the Star which as it seems attended their motion went before them until it came and stood over where the young Child was where when they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding great joy Such a Joy as is usual to wearied Travellers when they are entring into their Inne such a joy as when our hopes and greatest longings are laying hold upon the proper objects of their desires a joy of certainty immediately before the possession for that is the greatest Joy which possesses before it is satisfied and rejoyces with a joy not abated by the surfeits of possession but heightned with all the apprehensions and fancies of hope and the neighbourhood of fruition a joy of Nature of Wonder and of Religion And now their hearts laboured with a throng of spirits and passions and ran into the house to the embracement of Jesus even before their feet But when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his mother And possibly their expectation was something lessened and their wonder heightned when they saw their hope empty of pomp and gayety the great King's Throne to be a Manger a Stable to his Chamber of presence a thin Court and no Ministers and the King himself a pretty Babe and but that he had a Star over his head nothing to distinguish him from the common condition of children or to excuse him from the miseries of a poor and empty fortune 12. This did not scandalize those wise persons but being convinced by that Testimony from Heaven and the union of all Circumstances they fell down and worshipped him after the manner of the Easterlings when they do veneration to their Kings not with an empty Ave and gay blessing of fine words but they bring presents and come into his Courts for when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold Frankincense and Myrrh And if these Gifts were mysterious beyond the acknowledgment of him to be the King of the Jews and Christ that should come into the world Frankincense might signifie him to be acknowledged a God Myrrh to be a Man and Gold to be a King Unless we chuse by Gold to signifie the acts of Mercy by Myrrh the Chastity of minds and Purity of our bodies to the incorruption of which Myrrh is especially instrumental and by 〈◊〉 we intend our Prayers as the most apt presents and oblations to the honour and service of this young King But however the fancies of Religion may represent variety of Idea's the act of Adoration was direct and religious and the Myrrh was medicinal to his tender body the Incense possibly no more than was necessary in a Stable the first throne of his Humility and the Gold was a good Antidote against the present indigencies of his Poverty Presents such as were used in all the Levant especially in Arabia and Saba to which the growth of Myrrh and Frankincense were proper in their addresses to their God and to their King and were instruments with which under the veil of Flesh they worshipped the Eternal Word the Wisdom of God under infant Innocency the Almighty Power in so great Weakness and under the lowness of Humane nature the altitude of Majesty and the infinity of Divine Glory And so was verified the prediction of the Prophet Esay under the type of the son of the Prophetess Before a child shall have knowledge to cry My Father and my Mother he shall take the spoil of Damascus and Samaria from before the King of Assyria 13. When they had paid the tribute of their Offerings and Adoration Being warned in their sleep by an Angel not to return to Herod they returned into their own countrey another way where having been satisfied with the pleasures of Religion and taught by that rare demonstration which was made by Christ how Man's Happiness did nothing at all consist in the affluence of worldly Possessions or the tumours of Honour having seen the Eternal Son of God poor and weak and unclothed of all exteriour Ornaments they renounced the World and retired empty into the recesses of Religion and the delights of Philosophy Ad SECT IV. Considerations upon the Apparition of the Angels to the Shepherds 1. WHen the Angels saw that come to pass which Gabriel the great Embassador of God had declared that which had been prayed for and expected four thousand years and that by the merits of this new-born Prince their younger brethren and inferiours in the order of Intelligent creatures were now to be redeemed that Men should partake the glories of their secret habitations and should fill up those void places which the fall of Lucifer and the third part of the Stars had made their joy was great as their understanding and these mountains did leap with joy because the valleys were filled with benediction and a fruitful shower from Heaven And if at the Conversion of one sinner there is jubilation and a festival kept among the Angels how great shall we imagine this rejoycing to be when Salvation and Redemption was sent to all the World But we also to whom the joy did more personally relate for they rejoyced for our sakes should learn to estimate the grace done us and believe there is something very extraordinary in the Piety and Salvation of a man when the Angels who in respect of us are unconcern'd in the communications rejoyce with the joy of Conquerors or persons suddenly 〈◊〉 from tortures and death 2. But the Angels also had other motions for besides the pleasures of that joy which they had in beholding Humane nature so highly exalted and that God was Man and Man was God they were transported with admiration at the ineffable Counsel of God's Predestination prostrating themselves with adoration and modesty seeing God so humbled and Man so changed and so full of charity that God stooped to the condition of Man and Man was inflam'd beyond the love of Seraphims and was made more knowing than Cherubims more established than Thrones more happy than all the orders of Angels The issue of this consideration teaches us to learn their Charity and to exterminate all the intimations and beginnings of Envy that we may as much rejoyce at the good of others as of our selves for then we love good for God's sake when we love good whereever God hath placed it and that joy is charitable which overflows our neighbours fields when our selves are unconcerned in the personal accruements for so we are made partakers of all that fear God when Charity unites their joy to ours as it makes us partakers of their common sufferings 3. And now the Angels who had adored the Holy Jesus in Heaven come also to pay their homage to him upon Earth and laying aside their flaming swords they
the whole body of Sin and to destroy every Province of Satan's Kingdom for these are direct antinomies to the Lusts of the flesh the Last of the eyes and the Pride of life Against the first Christ opposed his hard and uneasie Lodging against the second the poorness of his Swadling-bands and Mantle and the third is combated by the great dignation and descent of Christ from a Throne of Majesty to the state of a sucking Babe And these are the first Lessons he hath taught us for our imitation which that we may the better do as we must take him for our pattern so also for our helper and pray to the Holy Child and he will not only teach us but also give us power and ability The PRAYER O Blessed and Eternal Jesu at whose Birth the Quires of Angels sang praises to God and proclaimed peace to Men sanctifie my Will and inferiour Affections make me to be within the conditions of Peace that I be holy and mortified a despiser of the world and exteriour vanities humble and charitable that by thy eminent example I may be so fixed in the designs and prosecution of the Ends of God and a blissful Eternity that I be unmoved with the terrors of the world unaltered with its allurements and seductions not ambitious of its honour not desirous of its fulness and plenty but make me diligent in the imployment thou givest me faithful in discharge of my trust modest in my desires content in the issues of thy Providence that in such dispositions I may receive and entertain visitations from Heaven and Revelations of the Mysteries and blisses Evangelical that by such directions I may be brought into thy presence there to see thy Beauties and admire thy Graces and imitate all thy imitable Excellencies and rest in thee for ever in this world by the perseverance of a holy and comfortable life and in the world to come in the participation of thy essential Glories and Felicities O Blessed and Eternal Jesus Considerations of the Epiphany of the B. Jesus by a Star and the Adoration of Jesus by the Eastern Magi. 1. GOD who is the universal Father of all Men at the Nativity of the Messias gave notice of it to all the World as they were represented by the grand Division of Jews and Gentiles to the Jewish Shepherds by an Angel to the Eastern Magi by a Star For the Gospel is of universal dissemination not confined within the limits of a national Prerogative but Catholick and diffused As God's Love was so was the dispensation of it without respect of persons for all being included under the curse of Sin were to him equal and indifferent undistinguishable objects of Mercy And Jesus descended of the Jews was also the expectation of the Gentiles and therefore communicated to all the Grace of God being like the air we breathe and it hath appeared to all men saith S. Paul but the conveyances and communications of it were different in the degrees of clarity and illustration The Angel told the Shepherds the story of the Nativity plainly and literally The Star invited the Wise men by its rareness and preternatural apparition to which also as by a foot-path they had been led by the Prophecy of Balaam 2. But here first the Grace of God prevents us without him we can do nothing he lays the first Stone in every Spiritual Building and then expects by that strength he first gave us that we make the Superstructures But as a Stone thrown into a River first moves the water and disturbs its surface into a Circle and then its own force wafts the neighbouring drops into a larger figure by its proper weight so is the Grace of God the first principle of our spiritual motion and when it moves us into its own figure and hath actuated and ennobled our natural Powers by the influence of that first incentive we continue the motion and enlarge the progress But as the Circle on the face of the waters grows weaker till it hath smoothed it self into a natural and even current unless the force be renewed or continued so does all our natural endeavour when first set a-work by God's preventing Grace decline to the imperfection of its own kind unless the same force be made energetical and operative by the continuation and renewing of the same supernatural influence 3. And therefore the Eastern Magi being first raised up into wonder and curiosity by the apparition of the Star were very far from finding Jesus by such general and indefinite significations but then the goodness of God's Grace increased its own influence for an inspiration from the Spirit of God admonished them to observe the Star shewed the Star that they might find it taught them to acknowledge it instructed them to understand its purpose and invited them to follow it and never left them till they had found the Holy Jesus Thus also God deals with us He gives us the first Grace and adds the second he enlightens our Understandings and actuates our Faculties and sweetly allures us by the proposition of Rewards and wounds us with the arrows of his Love and inflames us with fire from Heaven ever giving us new assistances or increasing the old refreshing us with comforts or arming us with patience sometimes stirring our affections by the lights held out to our Understanding sometimes bringing confirmation to our understanding by the motion of our Affections till by variety of means we at last arrive at Lethlehem in the service and entertainments of the Holy Jesus Which we shall certainly do if we follow the invitations of Grace and exteriour assistances which are given us to instruct us to help us and to invite us but not to force our endeavours and cooperations 4. As it was an unsearchable wisdom so it was an unmeasurable grace of Providence and dispensation which God did exhibit to the Wise men to them as to all men disposing the Ministeries of his Grace sweetly and by proportion to the capacities of the person suscipient For God called the Gentiles by such means which their Customs and Learning had made prompt and easie For these Magi were great Philosophers and Astronomers and therefore God sent a miraculous Star to invite and lead them to a new and more glorious light the lights of Grace and Glory And God so blessed them in following the Star to which their innocent Curiosity and national Customs were apt to lead them that their Custom was changed to Grace and their Learning heightned with Inspiration and God crowned all with a spiritual and glorious event It was not much unlike which God did to the Princes and Diviners among the Philistines who sent the Ark back with five golden Emrods and five golden Mice an act proportionable to the Custom and sense of their Nation and Religion yet God accepted their opinion and divination to the utmost end they designed it and took the plagues of Emrods and Mice from them For
adore thy glorious Name whereby thou hast shut up the abysses and opened the gates of Heaven restraining the power of Hell and discovering and communicating the treasures of thy Father's mercies O Jesu be thou a JESUS unto me and save me from the precipices and ruines of sin from the expresses of thy Father's wrath from the miseries and unsufferable torments of accursed spirits by the power of thy Majesty by the sweetnesses of thy Mercy and sacred influences and miraculous glories of thy Name I adore and worship thee in thy excellent Obedience and Humility who hast submitted thy Innocent and spotless flesh to the bloudy Covenant of Circumcision Teach me to practise so blessed and holy a precedent that I may be humble and obedient to thy sacred Laws severe and regular in my Religion mortified in my body and spirit of circumcised heart and tongue that what thou didst represent in symbol and mysterie I may really express in the exhibition of an exemplar pious and mortified life cutting off all excrescences of my spirit and whatsoever may minister to the flesh or any of its ungodly desires that now thy holy Name is called upon me I may do no dishonour to the Name nor scandal to the Institution but may do thee honour and worship and adorations of a pure Religion O most Holy and ever-Blessed JESU Amen DISCOURSE II. Of the Vertue of Obedience 1. THere are certain Excellencies either of habit or consideration which Spiritual persons use to call General ways being a dispersed influence into all the parts of good life either directing the single actions to the right end or managing them with right instruments and adding special excellencies and formalities to them or morally inviting to the repetition of them but they are like the general medicaments in Physick or the prime instruments in Mathematical Disciplines such as are the consideration of the Divine presence the Example of JESUS right Intention and such also is the vertue of Obedience which perfectly unites our actions to God and conforms us to the Divine will which is the original of goodness and sanctifies and makes a man an holocaust to God which contains in it eminently all other Graces but especially those Graces whose essence consists in a conformity of a part or the whole such are Faith Humility Patience and Charity which gives quietness and tranquillity to the spirit and is an Antepast of Paradise where their Jubilee is the perpetual joys of Obedience and their doing is the enjoying the Divine pleasure which adds an excellency and lustre to pious actions and hallows them which are indifferent and lifts up some actions from their unhallowed nature to circumstances of good and of acceptation If a man says his prayers or communicates out of custome or without intuition of the Precept and divine Commandment the act is like a Ship returning from her voyage without her venture and her burthen as unprofitable as without stowage But if God commands us either to eat or to abstain to sleep or to be waking to work or to keep a Sabbath these actions which are naturally neither good nor evil are sanctified by the Obedience and rank'd amongst actions of the greatest excellency And this also was it which made Abraham's offer to kill his Son and the Israelites spoiling the Egyptians to become acts laudable and not unjust they were acts of Obedience and therefore had the same formality and essence with actions of the most spiritual Devotions God's command is all our rule for practice and our Obedience united to the Obedience of Jesus is all our title to acceptance 2. But by Obedience I do not here mean the exteriour execution of the work for so Obedience is no Grace distinct from the acting any or all the Commandments but besides the doing of the thing for that also must be presupposed it is a sacrifice of our proper Will to God a chusing the duty because God commands it For beasts also carry burthens and do our commands by compulsion and the fear of slaves and the rigour of task-masters made the number of bricks to be compleated when Israel groaned and cried to God for help But sons that labour under the sweet paternal regiment of their Fathers and the influence of love they love the precept and do the imposition with the same purposes and compliant affections with which the Fathers made it When Christ commanded us to renounce the World there were some that did think it was a hard saying and do so still and the young rich man forsook him upon it but Ananias and Sapphira upon whom some violences were done by custome or the excellent Sermons of the Apostles sold their possessions too but it was so against their will that they retain'd part of it but St. Paul did not only forsake all his secular fortunes but counted all to be dross that he might gain Christ he gave his Will made an offertory of that as well as of his goods chusing the act which was enjoyned This was the Obedience the Holy Jesus paid to his heavenly Father so voluntary that it was meat to him to do his Father's will 3. And this was intended always by God My son give me thy heart and particularly by the Holy Jesus for in the saddest instance of all his Precepts even that of suffering persecution we are commanded to rejoyce and to be exceeding glad And so did those holy Martyrs in the primitive Ages who upon just grounds when God's glory or the 〈◊〉 of the Church had interest in it they offered themselves to Tyrants and dared the violence of the most cruel and bowelless hang-men And this is the best oblation we can present to God To offer Gold is a present fit to be made by young beginners in Religion not by men in Christianity yea Crates the Theban threw his gold away and so did Antisthenes but to offer our Will to God to give our selves is the act of an Apostle the proper act of Christians And therefore when the Apostles made challenge of a reward for leaving all their possessions Christ makes no reply to the instance nor says You who have left all but You who have followed me in the regeneration shall sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel meaning that the quitting the goods was nothing but the obedience to Christ that they followed Jesus in the Regeneration going themselves in pursuit of him and giving themselves to him that was it which intitled them to a Throne 4. And this therefore God enjoyns that our offerings to him may be intire and complete that we pay him a holocaust that we do his work without murmuring and that his burthen may become easie when it is born up by the wings of love and alacrity of spirit For in effect this obedience of the Will is in true speaking and strict Theology nothing else but that Charity which gives excellency to Alms and energy to Faith and
these impurities and vanities Jesus hath redeemed all his Disciples and not only thrown out of his Temples all the impure rites of Flora and Cybele but also the trifling and unprofitable ceremonies of the more sober Deities not only Vices but useless and unprofitable Speculations and hath consecrated our Head into a Temple our Understanding to Spirit our Reason to Religion our Study to Meditation and this is the first part of the Sanctification of our Spirit 6. And this was the cause Holy Scripture commands the duty of Meditation in proportion still to the excellencies of Piety and a holy life to which it is highly and aptly instrumental Blessed is the man that meditates in the Law of the Lord day and night And the reason of the Proposition and the use of the Duty is expressed to this purpose Thy words have I hid in my heart that I should not sin against thee The placing and fixing those divine Considerations in our understandings and hiding them there are designs of high Christian prudence that they with advantage may come forth in the expresses of a holy life For what in the world is more apt and natural to produce Humility than to meditate upon the low stoopings and descents of the Holy Jesus to the nature of a Man to the weaknesses of a Child to the poverties of a Stable to the ignobleness of a Servant to the shame of the Cross to the pains of Cruelty to the dust of Death to the title of a Sinner and to the wrath of God By this instance Poverty is made honourable and Humility is sanctified and made noble and the contradictions of nature are amiable and 〈◊〉 for a wise election Thus hatred of sin shame of our selves confusion at the sense of humane misery the love of God confidence in his Promises desires of Heaven holy resolutions resignation of our own appetites 〈◊〉 to Divine will oblations of our selves Repentance and mortification are the proper emanations from Meditation of the sordidness of sin our proneness to it our daily miseries as issues of Divine vengeance the glories of God his infinite unalterable Veracity the satisfactions in the vision of God the rewards of Piety the rectitude of the Laws of God and perfection of his Sanctions God's supreme and paternal Dominion and his certain malediction of sinners and when any one of these Considerations is taken to pieces and so placed in the rooms of application that a piece of duty is conjoyned to a piece of the mystery and the whole office to the purchase of a grace or the extermination of a vice it is like opening our windows to let in the Sun and the Wind and Holiness is as proportioned an effect to this practice as Glory is to a persevering Holiness by way of reward and moral causality 7. For all the Affections that are in Man are either natural or by chance or by the incitation of Reason and discourse Our natural affections are not worthy the entertainments of a Christian they must be supernatural and divine that put us into the hopes of Perfection and Felicities and these other that are good unless they come by Meditation they are but accidental and set with the evening Sun But if they be produced upon the strengths of pious Meditation they are as perpetual as they are reasonable and excellent in proportion to the Piety of the principle A Garden that is watered with short and sudden showrs is more uncertain in its fruits and beauties than if a Rivulet waters it with a perpetual distilling and constant humectation And just such are the short emissions and unpremeditated resolutions of Piety begotten by a dash of holy rain from Heaven whereby God sometimes uses to call the careless but to taste what excellencies of Piety they neglect but if they be not produced by the Reason of Religion and the Philosophy of Meditation they have but the life of a Fly or a tall Gourd they come into the World only to say they had a Being you could scarce know their length but by measuring the ground they cover in their fall 8. For since we are more moved by material and sensible objects than by things merely speculative and intellectual and generals even in spiritual things are less perceived and less motive than particulars Meditation frames the understanding part of Religion to the proportions of our nature and our weakness by making some things more circumstantiate and material and the more spiritual to be particular and therefore the more applicable and the mystery is made like the Gospel to the Apostles Our eyes do see and our ears do hear and our hands do handle thus much of the word of life as is prepared for us in the Meditation 9. First And therefore every wise person that intends to furnish himself with affections of Religion or detestation against a Vice or glorifications of a Mystery still will proportion the Mystery and fit it with such circumstances of fancy and application as by observation of himself he knows aptest to make impression It was a wise design of Mark Antony when he would stir up the people to revenge the death of Caesar he brought his body to the pleading-place he shewed his wounds held up the rent mantle and shewed them the garment that he put on that night in which he beat the Nervii that is in which he won a victory for which his memory was dear to them he shewed them that wound which pierced his heart in which they were placed by so dear a love that he made them his heirs and left to their publick use places of delight and pleasure and then it was natural when he had made those things present to them which had once moved their love and his honour that grief at the loss of so honourable and so lov'd a person should succeed and then they were Lords of all their sorrow and revenge seldom slept in two beds And thus holy Meditation produces the passions and desires it intends it makes the object present and almost sensible it renews the first passions by a fiction of imagination it passes from the Paschal Parlour to Cedron it tells the drops of sweat and measures them and finds them as big as drops of bloud and then conjectures at the greatness of our sins it fears in the midst of Christ's Agonies it hears his groans it spies Judas his Lantern afar off it follows Jesus to Gabbatha and wonders at his innocence and their malice and feels the strokes of the Whip and shrinks the head when the Crown of Thorns is thrust hard upon his holy brows and at last goes step by step with Jesus and carries part of the Cross and is nailed fast with sorrow and compassion and dies with love For if the Soul be principle of its own actions it can produce the same effects by reflex acts of the Understanding when it is assisted by the Imaginative part as when it sees the thing
with a private meal as Habakkuk came to Daniel yet he fills their hearts when the year of Jubilee returns and the people sing In convertendo the Song of joy for their redemption For as of all sorrows the deprivations and eclipses of Religion are the saddest and of the worst and most inconvenient consequence so in proportion are the joys of spiritual plenty and religious returns the Communion of Saints being like the Primitive Corban a 〈◊〉 to feed all the needs of the Church or like a Taper joyned to a Torch it self is kindled and increases the other's flames 2. They failed not to go to Jerusalem for all those holy prayers and ravishments of love those excellent meditations and entercourses with God their private readings and discourses were but entertainments and satisfaction of their necessities they lived with them during their retirements but it was a Feast when they went to Jerusalem and the freer and more indulgent resection of the Spirit for in publick Solemnities God opens his treasures and pours out his grace more abundantly Private Devotions and secret Offices of Religion are like refreshing of a Garden with the distilling and petty drops of a Water-pot but addresses to the Temple and serving God in the publick communion of Saints is like rain from Heaven where the Offices are described by a publick spirit heightned by the greater portions of assistance and receive advantages by the adunations and symbols of Charity and increment by their distinct title to Promises appropriate even to their assembling and mutual support by the piety of Example by the communication of Counsels by the awfulness of publick Observation and the engagements of holy Customs For Religion is a publick vertue it is the ligature of Souls and the great instrument of the conservation of Bodies politick and is united in a common object the God of all the World and is managed by publick ministeries by Sacrifice Adoration and Prayer in which with variety of circumstances indeed but with infinite consent and union of design all the sons of Adam are taught to worship God and it is a publication of God's honour its very purpose being to declare to all the World how great things God hath done for us whether in publick Donatives or private Missives so that the very design temper and constitution of Religion is to be a publick address to God and although God is present in Closets and there also distills his blessings in small rain yet to the Societies of Religion and publication of Worship as we are invited by the great blessings and advantages of Communion so also we are in some proportions more straitly limited by the analogy and exigence of the Duty It is a Persecution when we are forced from publick Worshippings no man can hinder our private addresses to God every man can build a Chappel in his breast and himself be the Priest and his heart the Sacrifice and every foot of glebe he treads on be the Altar and this no Tyrant can prevent If then there can be Persecution in the offices of Religion it is the prohibition of publick profession and Communions and therefore he that denies to himself the opportunities of publick rites and conventions is his own Persecutor 3. But when Jesus was twelve years old and his Parents had finished their Offices and returned filled with the pleasures of Religion they missed the Child and sought him amongst their kindred but there they found him not for whoever seeks Jesus must seek him in the Offices of Religion in the Temple not amongst the engagements and pursuit of worldly interests I forgat also mine own Father's house said 〈◊〉 the Father of this Holy Child and so must we when we run in an enquiry after the Son of David But our relinquishing must not be a dereliction of duty but of engagement our affections toward kindred must always be with charity and according to the endearments of our relation but without immersion and such adherencies as either contradict or lessen our duty towards God 4. It was a sad effect of their pious journey to lose the joy of their Family and the hopes of all the World but it often happens that after spiritual imployments God seems to absent himself and withdraw the sensible effects of his presence that we may seek him with the same diligence and care and holy fears with which the Holy Virgin-Mother sought the Blessed Jesus And it is a design of great mercy in God to take off the light from the eyes of a holy person that he may not be abused with complacencies and too confident opinions and reflexions upon his fair performances For we usually judge of the well or ill of our Devotions and services by what we feel and we think God rewards every thing in the present and by proportion to our own expectations and if we feel a present rejoycing of Spirit all is well with us the smoak of the Sacrifice ascended right in a holy Cloud but if we feel nothing of comfort then we count it a prodigy and ominous and we suspect our selves and most commonly we have reason Such irradiations of chearfulness are always welcom but it is not always anger that takes them away the Cloud removed from before the camp of Israel and stood before the host of Pharaoh but this was a design of ruine to the Egyptians and of security to Israel and if those bright Angels that go with us to direct our journeys remove out of our sight and stand behind us it is not always an argument that the anger of the Lord is gone out against us but such decays of sense and clouds of spirit are excellent conservators of Humility and restrain those intemperances and vainer thoughts which we are prompted to in the gayety of our spirits 5. But we often give God cause to remove and for a while to absent himself and his doing of it sometimes upon the just provocations of our demerits makes us at other times with good reason to suspect our selves even in our best actions But sometimes we are vain or remiss or pride invades us in the darkness and incuriousness of our spirits and we have a secret sin which God would have us to enquire after and when we suspect every thing and condemn our selves with strictest and most angry sentence then it may be God will with a ray of light break through the cloud if not it is nothing the worse for us for although the visible remonstrance and face of things in all the absences and withdrawings of Jesus be the same yet if a sin be the cause of it the withdrawing is a taking away his Favour and his love but if God does it to secure thy Piety and to enflame thy desires or to prevent a crime then he withdraws a Gift only nothing of his Love and yet the darkness of the spirit and sadness seem equal It is hard in these cases to discover the cause as
of impenitents even abscission and fire unquenchable And from this time forward viz. From the days of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence and the violent take it by force For now the Gospel began to dawn and John was like the Morning-star or the blushings springing from the windows of the East foretelling the approach of the Sun of Righteousness and as S. John Baptist laid the first rough hard and unhewen stone of this building in Mortification Self denial and doing violence to our natural affections so it was continued by the Master-builder himself who propounded the glories of the Crown of the heavenly Kingdom to them only who should climb the Cross to reach it Now it was that Multitudes should throng and croud to enter in at the strait gate and press into the Kingdom and the younger brothers should snatch the inheritance from the elder the unlikely from the more likely the Gentiles from the Jews the strangers from the natives the Publicans and Harlots from the Scribes and Pharisees who like violent persons shall by their importunity obedience watchfulness and diligence snatch the Kingdom from them to whom it was first offered and Jacob shall be loved and Esau rejected Ad SECT VIII Considerations upon the Preaching of John the Baptist. 1. FRom the Disputation of Jesus with the Doctors to the time of his Manifestation to Israel which was eighteen years the Holy Child dwelt in Nazareth in great obedience to his Parents in exemplar Modesty singular Humility working with his hands in his supposed Father's trade for the support of his own and his Mother's necessities and that he might bear the Curse of Adam that in the sweat of his brows he should eat his bread all the while he increased in favour with God and man sending forth excellent testimonies of a rare Spirit and a wise Understanding in the temperate instances of such a conversation to which his Humility and great Obedience had engaged him But all this while the stream ran under ground and though little bublings were discerned in all the course and all the way men looked upon him as upon an excellent person diligent in his calling wise and humble temperate and just pious and rarely temper'd yet at the manifestation of John the Baptist he brake forth like the stream from the bowels of the earth or the Sun from a cloud and gave us a precedent that we should not shew our lights to minister to vanity but then only when God and publick order and just dispositions of men call for a manifestation and yet the Ages of men have been so forward in prophetical Ministeries and to undertake Ecclesiastical imployment that the viciousness and indiscretions and scandals the Church of God feels as great burthens upon the tenderness of her spirit are in great part owing to the neglect of this instance of the Prudence and Modesty of the Holy Jesus 2. But now the time appointed was come the Baptist comes forth upon the Theatre of Palestine a fore-runner of the Office and publication of Jesus and by the great reputation of his Sanctity prevailed upon the affections and judgment of the people who with much case believed his Doctrine when they had reason to approve his Life for the good Example of the Preacher is always the most prevailing Homily his Life is his best Sermon He that will raise affections in his Auditory must affect their eyes for we seldom see the people weep if the Orator laughs loud and loosely and there is no reason to think that his discourse should work more with me than himself If his arguments be fair and specious I shall think them fallacies while they have not faith with him and what necessity for me to be temperate when he that tells me so sees no such need but hopes to go to Heaven without it or if the duty be necessary I shall learn the definition of Temperance and the latitudes of my permission and the bounds of lawful and unlawful by the exposition of his practice if he binds a burthen upon my shoulders it is but reason I should look for him to bear his portion too Good works convince more than Miracles and the power of ejecting Devils is not so great probation that Christian Religion came from God as is the holiness of the Doctrine and its efficacy and productions upon the hearty Professors of the Institution S. Pachomius when he wore the military girdle under Constantine the Emperor came to a City of Christians who having heard that the Army in which he then marched was almost starved for want of necessary provisions of their own charity relieved them speedily and freely He wondring at their so free and chearful dispensation inquired what kind of people these were whom he saw so bountiful It was answered they were Christians whose Profession it is to hurt no man and to do good to every man The pleased Souldier was convinced of the excellency of that Religion which brought forth men so good and so pious and loved the Mother for the Children's sake threw away his girdle and became Christian and Religious and a Saint And it was Tertullian's great argument in behalf of Christians See how they love one another how every man is ready to die for his brother it was a living argument and a sensible demonstration of the purity of the Fountain from whence such lympid waters did derive But so John the Baptist made himself a fit instrument of preparation and so must all the Christian Clergy be fitted for the dissemination of the Gospel of Jesus 3. The Baptist had till this time that is about thirty years lived in the Wilderness under the Discipline of the Holy Ghost under the tuition of Angels in conversation with God in great mortification and disaffections to the World his garments rugged and uneasie his meat plain necessary and without variety his imployment prayers and devotion his company wilde beasts in ordinary in extraordinary messengers from Heaven and all this not undertaken of necessity to subdue a bold lust or to punish a loud crime but to become more holy and pure from the lesser stains and insinuations of too free infirmities and to prepare himself for the great ministery of serving the Holy Jesus in his Publication Thirty years he lived in great austerity and it was a rare Patience and exemplar Mortification we use not to be so pertinacious in any pious resolutions but our purposes disband upon the sense of the first violence we are free and confident of resolving to fast when our bellies are full but when we are called upon by the first necessities of nature our zeal is cool and dissoluble into air upon the first temptation and we are not upheld in the violences of a short Austerity without faintings and repentances to be repented of and enquirings after the vow is past and searching for excuses and desires to reconcile our nature and our Conscience unless
of Discipline and Society opportunities of Perfection Privacy is the best for Devotion and the Publick for Charity In both God hath many Saints and Servants and from both the Devil hath had some 8. His Sermon was an Exhortation to Repentance and an Holy life He gave particular schedules of Duty to several states of persons sharply reproved the 〈◊〉 for their Hypocrisie and Impiety it being worse in them because contrary to their rule their profession and institution gently guided others into the ways of Righteousness calling them the streight ways of the Lord that is the direct and shortest way to the Kingdom for of all Lines the streight is the shortest and as every Angle is a turning out of the way so every Sin is an obliquity and interrupts the journey By such 〈◊〉 and a Baptism he disposed the spirits of men for the entertaining the 〈◊〉 and the Homilies of the Gospel For John's Doctrine was to the Sermons of Jesus as a Preface to a Discourse and his Baptism was to the new Institution and Discipline of the Kingdom as the Vigils to a Holy-day of the same kind in a less degree But the whole Oeconomy of it represents to us that Repentance is the first intromission into the Sanctities of Christian Religion The Lord treads upon no paths that are not hallowed and made smooth by the sorrows and cares of Contrition and the impediments of sin cleared by dereliction and the succeeding fruits of emendation But as it related to the Jews his Baptism did signifie by a cognation to their usual Rites and Ceremonies of Ablution and washing Gentile Proselytes that the Jews had so far receded from their duty and that Holiness which God required of them by the Law that they were in the state of strangers no better than Heathens and therefore were to be treated as themselves received Gentile Proselytes by a Baptism and a new state of life before they could be fit for the reception of the 〈◊〉 or be admitted to his Kingdom 9. It was an excellent sweetness of Religion that had entirely 〈◊〉 the Soul of the Baptist that in so great reputation of Sanctity so mighty concourse of people such great multitudes of Disciples and confidents and such throngs of admirers he was humble without mixtures of vanity and confirmed in his temper and Piety against the strength of the most impetuous temptation And he was tried to some purpose for when he was tempted to confess himself to be the CHRIST he refused it or to be Elias or to be accounted that Prophet he refused all such great appellatives and confessed himself only to be a Voice the lowest of Entities whose being depends upon the Speaker just as himself did upon the pleasure of God receiving form and publication and imployment wholly by the will of his Lord in order to the manifestation of the Word eternal It were 〈◊〉 that the spirits of men would not arrogate more than their own though they did not lessen their own just dues It may concern some end of Piety or Prudence that our reputation be preserved by all just means but never that we assume the dues of others or grow vain by the spoils of an undeserved dignity Honours are the rewards of Vertue or engagement upon Offices of trouble and publick use but then they must suppose a preceding worth or a fair imployment But he that is a Plagiary of others titles or offices and dresses himself with their beauties hath no more solid worth or reputation than he should have nutriment if he ate only with their mouth and slept their slumbers himself being open and unbound in all the Regions of his Senses The PRAYER O Holy and most glorious God who before the publication of thy eternal Son the Prince of Peace didst send thy Servant John Baptist by the examples of Mortification and the rude Austerities of a penitential life and by the Sermons of Penance to remove all the impediments of sin that the ways of his Lord and ours might be made clear ready and expedite be pleased to let thy Holy Spirit lead me in the streight paths of Sanctity without deslections to either hand and without the interruption of deadly sin that I may with facility Zeal 〈◊〉 and a persevering diligence walk in the ways of the Lord. Be pleased that the Axe may be laid to the root of Sin that the whole body of it may be cut down in me that no fruit of Sodom may grow up to thy displeasure Throughly purge the floor and 〈◊〉 of my heart with thy Fan with the breath of thy Diviner Spirit that it may be a holy repository of Graces and full of benediction and Sanctity that when our Lord shall come I may at all times be prepared for the entertainment of so Divine a Guest apt to lodge him and to feast him that he may for ever delight to dwell with me And make me also to dwell with him sometimes retiring into his recesses and private rooms by Contemplation and admiring of his Beauties and beholding the Secrets of his Kingdom and at all other times walking in the Courts of the Lord's House by the diligences and labours of Repentance and an Holy life till thou shalt please to call me to a nearer communication of thy Excellencies which then grant when by thy gracious assistances I shall have done thy works and glorified thy holy Name by the strict and never-failing purposes and proportionable endeavours of Religion and Holiness through the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ. Amen DISCOURSE IV. Of Mortification and corporal Austerities 1. FRom the days of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force said our Blessed Saviour For now that the new Covenant was to be made with Man Repentance which is so great a part of it being in very many actions a punitive duty afflictive and vindicative from the days of the Baptist who first by office and solemnity of design published this Doctrine violence was done to the inclinations and dispositions of Man and by such violences we were to be possessed of the Kingdom And his Example was the best 〈◊〉 upon his Text he did violence to himself he lived a life in which the rudenesses of Camel's hair and the lowest nutriment of Flies and Honey of the Desart his life of singularity his retirement from the sweetnesses of Society his resisting the greatest of Tentations and despising to assume false honours were instances of that violence and explications of the Doctrine of Self-denial and Mortification which are the Pedestal of the Cross and the Supporters of Christianity as it distinguishes from all Laws Religions and Institutions of the World 2. Mortification is the one half of Christianity it is a dying to the World it is a denying of the Will and all its natural desires An abstinence from pleasure and sensual complacencies that the 〈◊〉 being subdued to the spirit both may joyn in the
service of God and in the offices of holy Religion It consists in actions of Severity and Renunciation it refuses to give entertainment to any vanity nor uses a freer licence in things lawful lest it be tempted to things unlawful it kills the lusts of the flesh by taking away its fewel and incentives and by using to contradict its appetite does inure it with more facility to obey the superiour Faculties and in effect it is nothing but a great care we sin not and a prudent and severe using such remedies and instruments which in Nature and Grace are made apt for the production of our purposes And it consists in interiour and exteriour offices these being but instruments of the interiour as the Body is organical or instrumental to the Soul and no part of the Duty it self but as they are advantages to the End the mortification of the Spirit which by whatsoever means we have once acquired and do continue we are disobliged from all other exteriour 〈◊〉 unless by accident they come to be obligatory and from some other cause 3. Mortification of the Will or the Spirit of Man that 's the Duty that the Will of Man may humbly obey God and absolutely rule its inferiour Faculties that the inordinations of our natural desires begun by Adam's sin and continued and increased by our continuing evil customs may be again placed in the right order that since many of the Divine Precepts are restraints upon our natural desires we should so deny 〈◊〉 Appetites that covet after natural satisfactions that they may not serve themselves by disserving God For therefore our own Wills are our greatest dangers and our greatest enemies because they tend to courses contradictory to God God commands us to be humble our own desires are to be great considerable and high and we are never secure enough from contempt unless we can place our neighbours at our feet Here therefore we must deny our Will and appetites of Greatness for the purchase of Humility God commands Temperance and Chastity our desires and natural promptness breaks the bands asunder and entertains dissolutions to the licentiousness of Apicius or the wantonness of a Mahumetan Paradise sacrificing meat and drink-offerings to our appetites as if our stomachs were the Temples of 〈◊〉 and making Women and the opportunities of Lust to be our dwelling and our imployment even beyond the common loosenesses of entertainment Here therefore we must deny our own Wills our appetites of Gluttony and Drunkenness and our prurient beastly inclinations for the purchase of Temperance and Chastity And every other Vertue is either directly or by accident a certain instance of this great Duty which is like a Catholicon purgative of all distemperatures and is the best preparative and disposition to Prayer in the world 4. For it is a sad consideration and of secret reason that since Prayer of all Duties is certainly the sweetest and the 〈◊〉 it having in it no difficulty or 〈◊〉 labour no weariness of bones no dimness of eyes or hollow 〈◊〉 is directly consequent to it no natural desires of contradictory quality nothing of disease but much of comfort and more of hope in it yet we are infinitely averse from it weary of its length glad of an occasion to pretermit our offices and yet there is no visible cause of such 〈◊〉 nothing in the nature of the thing nor in the circumstances necessarily appendent to the duty Something is amiss in us and it wanted a name till the Spirit of God by enjoyning us the duty of Mortification hath taught us to know that Immortification of spirit is the cause of all our secret and spiritual indispositions we are so incorporated to the desires of sensual objects that we feel no relish or gust of the spiritual It is as if a Lion should eat hay or an Oxe venison there is no proportion between the object and the appetite till by mortification of our first desires our Wills are made spiritual and our Apprehensions supernatural and clarified For as a Cook told Dionysius the Tyrant the black Broth of Lacedaemon would not do well at Syracusa unless it be tasted by a Spartan's palate so neither can the Excellencies of Heaven be discerned but by a spirit disrelishing the sottish appetites of the world and accustomed to diviner banquets And this was mystically signified by the two Altars in Solomon's Temple in the outer Court whereof Beasts were sacrificed in the inner Court an Altar of incense the first representing Mortification or slaying of our beastly appetites the 〈◊〉 the offering up our Prayers which are not likely to become a pleasant offertory unless our impurities be removed by the attonement made by the first Sacrifices without 〈◊〉 spirit be mortified we neither can love to pray nor God love to hear us 5. But there are three steps to ascend to this Altar The first is to abstain from satisfying our carnal desires in the instances of sin and although the furnace flames with vehement emissions at some times yet to walk in the midst of the burning without being consumed like the Children of the Captivity that is the duty even of the most imperfect and is commonly the condition of those good persons whose interest in secular imployments speaks fair and solicits often and tempts highly yet they manage their affairs with habitual Justice and a Constant Charity and are temperate in their daily meals chast in the solaces of marriage and pure in their spirits unmingled with sordid affections in the midst of their possessions and enjoyments These men are in the world but they are strangers here They have a City but not an abiding one they are Proselytes of the House but have made no Covenant with the world 〈◊〉 though they desire with secular desires yet it is but for necessaries and then they are content they use the creatures with freedom and modesty but never to intemperance and transgression so that their hands are below tied there by the necessities of their life but their hearts are above lifted up by the abstractions of this first degree of Mortification And this is the first and nicest distinction between a man of the world and a man of God for this state is a denying our affections nothing but the sin it enjoys as much of the World as may be consistent with the possibilities of Heaven a little less than this is the state of Immortification and a being in the 〈◊〉 which 〈◊〉 the Apostle cannot inherit the Kingdom of God The flesh must first be separated and the adherences pared off from the skin before the parchment be fit to make a schedule for use or to transmit a Record whatsoever in the sence of the Scripture is 〈◊〉 or an enemy to the spirit if it be not rescinded and mortified makes that the Laws of God cannot be written in our hearts This is the Doctrine S. Paul taught the Church For if ye live after the flesh ye shall
poison to make experiment of the antidote and at the best it is but a running back to come just to the same place again for he that is not tempted does not sin but he that invites a Temptation that he might overcome it or provokes a Passion that he may allay it is then but in the same condition after his pains and his 〈◊〉 He was not sure he should come so far The PRAYER O Dearest God who hast framed Man of Soul and Body and fitted him with Faculties and proportionable instruments to serve thee according to all our capacities let thy holy Spirit rule and sanctifie every power and member both of Soul and Body that they may keep that beautious order which in our creation thou didst intend and to which thou dost restore thy people in the renovations of Grace that our Affections may be guided by Reason our Understanding may be enlightned with thy Word and then may guide and perswade our Will that we suffer no violent transportation of Passions nor be overcome by a Temptation nor consent to the impure solicitations of Lust that Sin may not reign in our mortal bodies but that both Bodies and Souls may be conformable to the Sufferings of the Holy Jesus that in our Body we may bear the marks and dying of our Lord and in our spirits we may be humble and mortified and like him in all his imitable perfections that we may die to sin and live to righteousness and after our suffering together with him in this world we may reign together with him hereafter to whom in the unity of the most mysterious Trinity be all glory and dominion and praise for ever and ever Amen SECT IX Of JESVS being Baptized and going into the Wilderness to be Tempted The Baptisme of Iesus S. MAT. 3. 17. And lo a voice from heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Luc. 3 23. And Iesus himselfe began to be about thirty yeares of age The Temqtation of Iesus S. MAT. 4 10 Get thee behind me Satan For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou sarue 1. NOW the full time was come Jesus took leave of his Mother and his Trade to begin his Father's work and the Office Prophetical in order to the Redemption of the World and when John was baptizing in Jordan Jesus came to John to be baptized of him The Baptist had never seen his face because they had been from their infancy driven to several places designed to several imployments and never met till now But immediately the Holy Ghost inspired S. John with a discerning and knowing spirit and at his first arrival he knew him and did him worship And when Jesus desired to be baptized John forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me For the Baptism of John although it was not a direct instrument of the Spirit for the collation of Grace neither find we it administred in any form of words not so much as in the name of Christ to come as many dream because even after John had baptized the Pharisees still doubted if he were the Messias which they would not if in his form of Ministration he had published Christ to come after him and also because it had not been proper for Christ himself to have received that Baptism whose form had specified himself to come hereafter neither could it consist with the Revelation which John had and the confession which he made to baptize in the name of Christ to come whom the Spirit marked out to him to be come already and himself pointed at him with his 〈◊〉 yet it was a ceremonious consignation of the Doctrine of Repentance which was one great part of the Covenant Evangelical and was a Divine Institution the susception of it was in order to the fulfilling all righteousness it was a sign of Humility the persons baptized confessed their sins it was a sacramental disposing to the Baptism and Faith of Christ but therefore John wondred why the Messias the Lamb of God pure and without spot who needed not the abstersions of Repentance or the washings of Baptism should demand it and of him a sinner and his servant And in the Hebrew Gospel of S. Matthew which the 〈◊〉 used at 〈◊〉 as S. Hierom reports these words are added The Mother of the Lord and his brethren said unto him John Baptist baptizeth to the Remission of sins let us go and be baptized of him He said to them 〈◊〉 have I sinned that I should go and be baptized of him And this part of the Story is also told by Justin Martyr But Jesus wanted not a proposition to consign by his Baptism proportionable enough to the analogy of its institution for as others professed their return towards Innocence so he avowed his perseverance in it and though he was never called in Scripture a Sinner yet he was made Sin for us that is he did undergo the shame and the punishment and therefore it was proper enough for him to perform the Sacrament of Sinners 2. But the Holy Jesus who came as himself in answer to the Baptist's question professed to sulfil all rightcousness would receive that Rite which his Father had instituted in order to the manifestation of his Son For although the Baptist had a glimpse of him by the first irradiations of the Spirit yet John professed That he therefore came baptizing with water that Jesus might be manifested to Israel and it was also a sign given to the Baptist himself that on whomsoever he saw the Spirit descending and remaining he is the person that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And God chose to actuate the sign at the waters of Jordan in great and religious assemblies convened there at John's Baptism and therefore Jesus came to be baptized and by this Baptism became known to John who as before he gave to him an indiscriminate testimony so now he pointed out the person in his Sermons and Discourses and by calling him the Lamb of God prophesied of his Passion and preached him to be the World's Redeemer and the Sacrifice for mankind He was now manifest to Israel he confirmed the Baptism of John he 〈◊〉 the water to become sacramental and ministerial in the remission of sins he by a real event declared that to them who should rightly be baptized the Kingdom of Heaven should certainly be opened he inserted himself by that Ceremony into the society and participation of holy people of which communion himself was Head and Prince and he did in a symbol purifie Humane nature whose stains and guilt he had undertaken 3. As soon as John had performed his Ministery and Jesus was baptized he prayed and the heavens were opened and the air clarified by a new and glorious light and the holy Ghost in the manner of a Dove alighted upon his sacred head and God the Father gave
imitation of the whole action and the rite of Institution And the purpose of it is that we might secure the excellency and holiness of such predispositions and concomitant Graces which are necessary to the worthy and effectual susception of the external Rites of Christianity 4. After the Holy Jesus was baptized and had prayed the Heavens opened the holy Ghost descended and a voice from Heaven proclaimed him to be the Son of God and one in whom the Father was well pleased and the same 〈◊〉 that was cast upon the head of our High Priest went unto his 〈◊〉 and thence sell to the borders of his garment for as Christ our Head felt these effects in manifestation so the Church believes God does to her and to her meanest children in the susception of the holy Rite of Baptism in right apt and holy dispositions For the Heavens open too upon us and the Holy Ghost descends to 〈◊〉 the waters and to hallow the Catechumen and to pardon the passed and repented sins and to consign him to the inheritance of 〈◊〉 and to put on his military girdle and give him the Sacrament and oath of fidelity for all this is understood to be meant by those frequent expressions of Scripture calling Baptism the Laver of Regeneration Illumination a washing away the filth of the flesh and the Answer of a good conscience a being buried with Christ and many others of the like purpose and signification But we may also learn hence sacredly to esteem the Rites of Religion which he first sanctified by his own personal susception and then made necessary by his own institution and command and God hath made to be conveyances of blessing and ministeries of the Holy Spirit 5. The Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus in the manner or visible representment of a Dove either in similitude of figure which he was pleased to assume as the Church more generally hath believed or at least he did descend like a Dove and in his robe of fire hovered over the Baptist's head and then sate upon him as the Dove uses to sit upon the house of her dwelling whose proprieties of nature are pretty and modest Hieroglyphicks of the duty of spiritual persons which are thus observed in both Philosophies The Dove sings not but mourns it hath no gall strikes not with its bill hath no crooked talons and forgets its young ones soonest of any the inhabitants of the air And the effects of the Holy Spirit are symbolical in all the sons of Sanctification For the voice of the Church is sad in those accents which express her own condition but as the Dove is not so sad in her breast as in her note so neither is the interiour condition of the Church wretched and miserable but indeed her Song is most of it Elegy within her own walls and her condition looks sad and her joys are not pleasures in the publick estimate but they that afflict her think her miserable because they know not the sweetnesses of a holy peace and serenity which supports her spirit and plains the heart under a rugged brow making the Soul festival under the noise of a Threne and sadder groanings But the Sons of consolation are also taught their Duty by this Apparition for upon whomsoever the Spirit descends he teaches him to be meek and charitable neither offending by the violence of hands or looser language For the Dove is inoffensive in beak and foot and feels no disturbance and violence of passions when its dearest interests are destroyed that we also may be of an even spirit in the saddest accidents which usually discompose our peace and however such symbolical intimations receive their efficacy from the fancy of the contriver yet here whether this Apparition did intend any such moral representment or no it is certain that where-ever the holy Spirit does dwell there also Peace and Sanctity Meekness and Charity a mortisied will and an active dereliction of our desires do inhabit But besides this hieroglyphical representment this Dove like that which Noah sent out from the Ark did aptly signifie the World to be renewed and all to be turned to a new creation and God hath made a new Covenant with us that unless we provoke him he will never destroy us any more 6. No sooner had the voice of God pronounced Jesus to be the well-beloved Son of God but the Devil thought it of great concernment to attempt him with all his malice and his art and that is the condition of all those whom God's grace hath separated from the common expectations and societies of the world and therefore the Son of Sirach gave good advice My son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soul for temptation for not only the Spirits of darkness are exasperated at the declension of their own Kingdom but also the nature and constitution of vertues and eminent graces which holy persons exercise in their lives is such as to be easily assailable by their contraries apt to be lessened by time to be interrupted by weariness to grow flat and insipid by tediousness of labour to be omitted and grow infrequent by the impertinent diversions of society and secular occasions so that to rescind the 〈◊〉 of Vice made firm by nature and evil habits to acquire every new degree 〈◊〉 Vertue to continue the holy fires of zeal in their just proportion to 〈◊〉 the Devil and to reject the invitations of the World and the 〈◊〉 embraces of the Flesh which are the proper employment of the sons of God is a perpetual difficulty and every possibility of 〈◊〉 the strictness of a Duty is a Temptation and an insecurity to them who have begun to serve God in hard battels 7. The Holy Spirit did drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil And 〈◊〉 we are bound to pray instantly that we fall into no Temptation yet if by Divine permission or by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit we be engaged in an action or course of life that is full of Temptation and empty of comfort let us apprehend it as an issue of Divine Providence as an occasion of the rewards of Diligence and Patience as an instrument of Vertue as a designation of that way in which we must glorifie God but no argument of disfavour since our dearest Lord the most Holy Jesus who could have driven the Devil away by the Breath of his mouth yet was by the Spirit of his Father permitted to a trial and molestation by the spirits of Darkness And this is S. James's counsel My brethren count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations knowing that the trial of your Faith worketh Patience So far is a Blessing when the Spirit is the instrument of our motion and brings us to the trial of our Faith but if the Spirit leaves us and delivers us over to the Devil not to be tempted but to be abused and ruined it is a sad
prepare the way to the coming of our Blessed Lord he preached Repentance and baptized all that professed they did repent He taught the Jews to live good lives and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion Whether 〈◊〉 's Baptism was from heaven or os men Christ asked the Pharisees That it was from heaven the people therefore believed because he was a Prophet and a holy person but it implies also that such Baptisms are sometimes from men that is used by 〈◊〉 of an eminent Religion or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes and the Disciples of Christ did so too even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles 10. And now we are come to the gates of Baptism All these till John were but Types and preparatory Baptisms and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ. The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies John's Baptism called them to 〈◊〉 in the Messias now appearing and to repent of their sins to enter into the Kingdom which was now at 〈◊〉 and preached that Repentance which should be for the 〈◊〉 os 〈◊〉 His Baptism remitted no sins but preached and consigned Repentance which in the belief of the 〈◊〉 whom he pointed to should pardon sins But because he was taken from his Office before the work was completed the Disciples of Christ 〈◊〉 it They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Disciples as John did only they as it is probable baptized in the Name of Jesus which it is not so likely John did And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms of Baptism recorded in the Acts of baptizing in the Name of 〈◊〉 and at other times In the 〈◊〉 of the Father Son and 〈◊〉 Ghost the sormer being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism and the latter the form of Institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church appointed after his Resurrection the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same Authority though with some difference of Mystery 11. The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the Preaching of 〈◊〉 and by his Baptism and the 〈◊〉 manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate Disciples into his Religion took what was so prepared and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament He kept the Ceremony that they who were led only by outward things might be the better called in and easier enticed into the Religion when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation always used in the like cases and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy he sublimed it to higher ends and adorned it with Stars of Heaven he made it to signific greater Mysteries to convey greater Blessings to consign the bigger Promises to cleanse deeper than the skin and to carry Proselytes farther than the gates of the Institution For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews where the Major-domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family he changed nothing of it without but transferred the Rite to greater Mysteries and put his own Spirit to their Sign and it became a Sacrament Evangelical It was so also in the matter of Excommunication where the Jewish practice was made to pass into Christian discipline without violence and noise old things became new while he fulfilled the Law making it up in full measures of the Spirit 12. By these steps Baptism passed on to a Divine Evangelical institution which we find to be consigned by three Evangelists Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It was one of the last Commandments the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his Kingdom For he that believes and is baptized shall be saved but 〈◊〉 a man be born of Water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises The uncircumcised child whose flesh is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant The Manichees Selencas Hermias and their followers people of a day's abode and small interest but of malicious doctrine taught Baptism not to be necessary not to be used upon this ground because they supposed that it was proper to John to baptize with water and reserved for Christ as his peculiar to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise he sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire the Spirit appearing like a flame but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water and they did so and their successors after them every-where and for ever not expounding but obeying the preceptive words of their Lord which were almost the last that he spake upon earth And I cannot think it needful to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments for the words are so plain that they need no exposition and yet if they had been obscure the universal practice of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandment No Tradition is more universal no not of Scripture it self no words are plainer no not the Ten Commandments and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jealous or less discerning person it will need no other refutation but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself fees Scripture to be the Word of God and the Commandments to be the declaration of his Will 13. But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacrament for this will highly conclude that the Precept was 〈◊〉 ever which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings and the susception of it necessary because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the Graces of the Sacrament 14. First The first fruit is That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdom of Christ presented unto him consigned with his Sacrament enter into his Militia give up our Understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ and in all senses that we can become his Disciples witnessing a good
confession and undertaking a holy life and therefore in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are conjoyned in the significations as they are in the mystery it is a giving up our names to Christ and it is part of the foundation or the first Principles of the Religion as appears in S. Paul's Catechism it is so the first thing that it is for babes and Neophytes in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father and taken into the hands of their Mother Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 janua porta Gratiae primus introitus Sanctorum adaeternam Dei Ecclesiae consuetudinem The gate of the Church the door of Grace the first entrance of the Saints to an eternal conversation with God and the Church Sacramentum initiationis intrantium Christianismum investituram S. Bernard calls it The Sacrament of initiation and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion And the person so entring is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Religion or a Proselyte and Convert and one added to the number of the Church in imitation of that of S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God added to the Church those that should be saved just as the Church does to this day and for ever baptizing Infants and Catechuments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are added to the Church that they may be added to the Lord and the number of the Inhabitants of Heaven 15. Secondly The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Convenant which is an immediate consequent of the first Presentation this being the first act of man that the first act of God And this is called by S. Paul a being baptized in one spirit into one body that is we are made capable of the Communion of Saints the blessings of the faithful the priviledges of the Church by this we are as S. Luke calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained or disposed put into the order of Eternal Life being made members of the mystical Body under Christ our Head 16. Thirdly And therefore Baptism is a new birth by which we enter into the new world the new Creation the blessings and spiritualities of the Kingdom and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used Nicodemus Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit and it is by S. Paul called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laver of Regeneration for now we begin to be reckoned in new Census or account God is become our Father Christ our elder Brother the Spirit the earnest of our Inheritance the Church our Mother our food is the body and bloud of our Lord Faith is our learning Religion our employment and our whole life is spiritual and Heaven the object of our Hopes and the mighty price of our high Calling And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us the Spirit of Grace which besides our Soul and body is a principle of action of one nature and shall with them enter into the portion of our Inheritance And therefore the Primitive Christians who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord usually writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour made it an abbreviature by writing only the Capitals thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Heathens in mockery and derision made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Fish and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach but the Christians owned the name and turned it into a pious Metaphor and were content that they should enjoy their pleasure in the Acrostich but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article Nos pisciculi sccundùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur Christ whom you call a Fish we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour and we if you please are the little fishes for we are born in water thence we derive our spiritual life And because from henceforward we are a new Creation the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors and at their entrance into Baptism the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives Nec quicquam priùs 〈◊〉 quà m contemnere Deos exuere patriam parentes liberos fratres vilia habere said Tacitus of the Christians which was true in the sence only that Christ said He that doth not hate father or mother for my sake is not worthy of me that is he that doth not hate them praeme rather than forsake me forsake them is unworthy of me 17. Fourthly In Baptism all our sins are pardoned according to the words of a Prophet I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness The Catechumen descends into the Font a Sinner he arises purified he goes down the son of Death he comes up the son of the Resurrection he enters in the son of Folly and prevarication he returns the son of Reconciliation he stoops down the child of Wrath and ascends the heir of Mercy he was the child of the Devil and now he is the servant and the son of God They are the words of Venerable Bede concerning this Mystery And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font which is so prettily contriv'd that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner and be exactly the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord wash my sin and not my face only And so it is intended and promised Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord said Ananias to Saul for Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the washing of water in the word that is Baptism in the Christian Religion and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum a compendious Laver that is an intire cleansing the Soul in that one action justly and rightly performed In the rehearsal of which Doctrine it was not an unpleasant Etymology that 〈◊〉 Sinaita gave of Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which our sins are thrown off and they fall like leeches when they are full of bloud and water or like the chains from S. Peter's hands at the presence of the Angel Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an intire full forgiveness of sins so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny Omnia Daemonis armae His merguntur aquis quibus ille renascitur Infans Qui captivus erat The captivity of the Soul is taken away by the bloud of Redemption and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters and what the flames of Hell are expiating or punishing to eternal
pursuance of this the same Apostle declares that the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of Baptismal grace and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism we are then unpardonable because we are fallen from our state of Pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews This is the Covenant I will make in those days I will put my Laws in their hearts And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin that is our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation we are then made partakers of the death of Christ which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment But the great work is done in Baptism for so it follows Having boldness to 〈◊〉 into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way that is by the veil of his flesh his Incarnation But how do we enter into this Baptism is the door and the ground of this confidence for ever for so he adds Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the consignation of this blessed state and the gate to all this mercy Let us hold fast the profession of our faith that is the Religion of a Christian the Faith into which we were baptized for that is the Faith that justifies and saves us Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this Faith and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints the use of the Word and Sacrament is included in the Precept mutual Exhortation good Example and the like For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is if we sin against the profession of this Faith and hold it not fast but let the Faith and the profession go wilfully which afterwards he calls a treading under foot the Son of God accounting the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and a doing despite to the spirit of grace viz. which moved upon those waters and did illuminate him in Baptism if we do this there is no more sacrifice for sins no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized that is you are fallen from the state of Pardon and Repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted your baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our Calling and Election sure that is a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant And between these two states of absolute Apostasie from and intirely adhering to and securing this state of Calling and Election are all the intermedial sins and being overtaken in single faults or declining towards vicious habits which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins And in this sence are those words The just shall live by Faith that is by that profession which they made in Baptism from which if they swerve not they shall be supported in their spiritual life It is a Grace which by virtue of the Covenant consigned in Baptism does like a centre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the periods and portions of our life our whole life all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this This consideration is of great use besides many other things to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferred their Baptism till their death-bed because Baptism is a Laver of Sanctification and drowns all our sins and buries them in the grave of our Lord they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism for unless they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much less in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the days of our folly and infirmity and so long as we have not been baptized so long we are out of the state of Pardon and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins if we have taken it in the beginning of our days 20. Fifthly The next benefit of Baptism which is also a verification of this is a Sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit Spiritus amnem Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas Concipit unda Deum sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The Holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolifical apt to produce children unto God and therefore S. Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the Blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the Holy Spirit And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord his Ministers baptize with Water our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the Holy Spirit They are joyned together by S. Paul We are by one Spirit baptized into one body that is admitted into the Church by baptism of Water and the Spirit This is that which our Blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scripture high and secret in spiritual significations therefore that we may understand what these things signifie we must consider it by its real effects and what it produces upon the Soul of a man 21. First It is the suppletory of original Righteousness by which Adam was at first gracious with God and which he lost by his prevarication It was in him a principle of Wisdom and Obedience a relation between God and himself a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of Friendship When he fell he was discomposed in all the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken and it so continued in the whole life of Man which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs and therefore when we began the world again entring into the Articles of a new life God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural End which
as many persons and in as many capacities and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applied and did relate in Circumcision to the same they do belong and may be applied in Baptism And let it be remembred That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign was a Covenant of Grace and 〈◊〉 the Promises were of the Spirit or spiritual it was made before the Law and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant nothing could be added to it or taken from it and we that are partakers of this grace are therefore partakers of it by being Christ's servants united to Christ and so are become Abraham's seed as the Apostle at large and prosessedly proves in divers places but especially in the fourth to the 〈◊〉 and the third to the Galatians And therefore if Infants were then admitted to it and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more than ours do there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of grace as well as they Their Children were circumcised the eighth day but were instructed afterwards when they could enquire what these things meant Indeed their Proselytes were first taught then circumcised so are ours baptized but their Infants were consigned first and so must ours 16. Thirdly In Baptism we are born again and this Infants need in the present circumstances and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do For our natural birth is either of it self insufficient or is made so by the Fall of Adam and the consequent evils that Nature alone or our first birth cannot bring us to Heaven which is a supernatural end that is an end above all the power of our Nature as now it is So that if Nature cannot bring us to Heaven Grace must or we can never get thither if the first birth cannot a second must but the second birth spoken of in Scripture is Baptism A man must be born of 〈◊〉 and the Spirit And therefore Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the laver of a new birth Either then Infants cannot go to Heaven any way that we know of or they must be baptized To say they are to be left to God is an excuse and no answer for when God hath opened the door and calls that the entrance into Heaven we do not leave them to God when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described and at the door which himself hath opened we leave them indeed but it is but helpless and destitute and though God is better than man yet that is no warrant to us what it will be to the children that we cannot warrant or conjecture And if it be objected that to the New birth are required dispositions of our own which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of Reason Besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a New birth in which the person to be born is wholly a passive and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper actions it is certain that they that can receive the new birth are capable of it The effect of it is a possibility of being saved and arriving to a supernatural felicity If Infants can receive this effect then also the New birth without which they cannot receive the effect And if they can receive Salvation the effect of the New birth what hinders them but they may receive that that is in order to that effect and ordained only for it and which is nothing of it self but in its institution and relation and which may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created that is a passivity or a capacity obediential 17. Fourthly Concerning pardon of sins which is one great effect of Baptism it is certain that 〈◊〉 have not that benefit which men of sin and age may receive He that hath a sickly stomach drinks wine and it not only refreshes his spirits but cures his stomach He that drinks wine and hath not that disease receives good by his wine though it does not minister to so many needs it refreshes though it does not cure him and when oyl is poured upon a man's head it does not always heal a wound but sometimes makes him a chearful countenance sometimes it consigns him to be a King or a Priest So it is in Baptism it does not heal the wounds of actual sins because they have not committed them but it takes off the evil of Original sin whatsoever is imputed to us by Adam's prevarication is washed off by the death of the second Adam into which we are baptized But concerning original sin because there are so many disputes which may intricate the Question I shall make use only of that which is confessed on both sides and material to our purpose Death came upon all men by Adam's sin and the necessity of it remains upon us as an evil consequent of the Disobedience For though death is natural yet it was kept off from man by God's favour which when he lost the banks were broken and the water reverted to its natural course and our nature became a curse and death a punishment Now that this also relates to Infants so far is certain because they are sick and die This the Pelagians denied not But to whomsoever this evil descended for them also a remedy is provided by the second Adam That as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is at the day of Judgment then death shall be destroyed In the mean time Death hath a sting and a bitterness a curse it is and an express of the Divine anger and if this sting be not taken away here we shall have no participation of the final victory over death Either therefore Infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their Father's sin or they must be adopted into the participation of Christ's death which is the remedy Now how can they partake of Christ's death but by Baptism into his death For if there be any spiritual way 〈◊〉 it will by a stronger argument admit them to Baptism for if they can receive spiritual effects they can also receive the outward Sacrament this being denied only upon pretence they cannot have the other If there be no spiritual way extraordinary then the ordinary way is only left for them If there be an extraordinary let it be shewn and Christians will be at rest concerning their Children One thing only I desire to be observed That Pelagius denied Original Sin but yet denied not the necessity of Infants Baptism and being accused of it in an Epistle to Pope Innocent the First he purged himself of the suspicion and allowed the practice but denied the inducement of it which shews that their arts are weak that think Baptism to be useless to Infants if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam
natural nor gracious neither original nor derivative And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter Heaven without any difference expressed or case reserved we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children but may weep as they that have no hope We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand and then it cannot miscarry and though we know nothing of the Children yet we know much of God's goodness but when God hath permitted it to us that is offered and permitted Children to our ministery what-ever happens to the Innocents we may well fear 〈◊〉 God will require the Souls at our hands and we cannot be otherwise secure but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this Anima illa potuit salva fieri si habuisset purgationem This Soul might have gone to God if it had been purified and washed We know God is good infinitely good but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness and he tempts him that leaves the usual way and pretends it is not made for him and yet hopes to be at his journey's end or expects to meet his Child in Heaven when himself shuts the door against him which for ought he knows is the only one that stands open S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants therefore he is called durus Pater Infantum though I know not why the original of that Opinion should be attributed to him since S. Ambrose said the same before him as appears in his words before quoted in the margent 25. And now that I have enumerated the Blessings which are consequent to Baptism and have also made apparent that Infants can receive these Blessings I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring Children to Baptism If it be certain they may receive these good things by it it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world Nay if it be only probable that they receive these Blessings or if it be but possible they may nay unless it be impossible they should and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty Innocents to let their crying be unpitied and their natural misery eternally irremediable and their sorrows without remedy and their Souls no more capable of relief than their bodies of Physick and their death left with the sting in and their Souls without Spirits to go to God and no Angel-guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and God's Church All these are sad stories 26. There are in Scripture very many other probabilities to perswade the Baptism of Infants but because the places admit of divers interpretations the Arguments have so many diminutions and the certainty that is in them is too fine for 〈◊〉 understandings I have chosen to build the ancient Doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary This only I shall observe That the words of our Blessed Lord Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be expounded to the exclusion of Children but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men for if they be both necessary ingredients Water and the Spirit then let us provide water and God will provide the Spirit if we bring wood to the Sacrifice he will provide a Lamb. And if they signifie distinctly one is ordinarily as necessary as the other and then Infants must be baptized or not be saved But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other and by Water and the Spirit is meant only the purification of the Spirit then where is the necessity of Baptism 〈◊〉 men It will be as the other Sacrament at most but highly convenient not simply necessary and all the other places will easily be answered if this be avoided But however these words being spoken in so 〈◊〉 a manner are to be used with fear and reverence and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments that 〈◊〉 ought not to be baptized or we ought to fear concerning the 〈◊〉 of these decretery words I shall only add two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse 27. That the Church of God ever since her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath for very many Ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been 〈◊〉 in their Infancy and although in the 〈◊〉 callings of the Gentiles the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and 〈◊〉 persons and believers yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents according to the Prophecy of Isaiah Behold I will list up my hands to the Gentiles and set up a standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders Concerning which I shall not only bring the testimonies of the matter of 〈◊〉 but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition or some Argument from the Fathers which will make their testimony more effectual in all that shall relate to the Question 28. The Author of the Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy attributed to S. Denis the 〈◊〉 takes notice that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion think it a ridiculous thing that Infants who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries should be partakers of the Sacraments and that Professions and Abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names He answers that Holy men Governours of Churches have so taught having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ. By which answer of his as it appears that he himself was later than the Areopagite so it is so early by him affirmed that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament Concerning which it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe than like scorners deride it in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty For what 〈◊〉 or incongruity is it that our Parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us when it is agreeable to the practice of all the laws and transactions of the world an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we All were included in the stipulation made with Adam he made a losing bargain for himself and we smarted for his folly and if the
to him are forgiven not his own but the 〈◊〉 of another man None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle and pious unto all and therefore much less Infants who more 〈◊〉 our aid and more need the Divine mercy because in the first beginning of their birth crying and 〈◊〉 they can do nothing but call for mercy and relief 〈◊〉 this reason it was saith 〈◊〉 that they to whom the secrets of the Divine 〈◊〉 were committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 because there was born with them the impurities of sin which did need material Ablution as a Sacrament of spiritual purification For that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament the Body it self is called the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and therefore the washing of the Body is not ineffectual towards the great work of Pardon and abolition Indeed after this Ablution there remains 〈◊〉 or the material part of our misery and sin For Christ by his death only took away that which when he did die for us he bare in his own body upon the tree Now Christ only bare the punishment of our sin and therefore we shall not die for it but the material part of the sin Christ bare not Sin could not come so near him it might make him sick and die but not disordered and stained He was pure from Original and Actual sins and therefore that remains in the body though the guilt and 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 off and changed into advantages and grace and the Actual are 〈◊〉 by the Spirit of Grace descending afterwards upon the Church and sent by our Lord to the same purpose 33. But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose says Quia omnis peccato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most 〈◊〉 persons and that they only should be left without a Sacrament and an instrument of expiation And although they cannot consent to the present susception yet neither do they refuse and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament as to the prevarication of Adam and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under this it were but reason they should be relieved by that And it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge than to die without their being sanctified for so it happened to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Israel and if the conspersion and washing the door-posts with the bloud of a Lamb did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen it cannot 〈◊〉 thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understanding in Children should hinder them from the blessing of a Sacrament and from being redeemed and washed with the bloud of the Holy Lamb who was 〈◊〉 for all from the beginning of the world 34. After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments which is observable in many instances She appointed what persons she pleased and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery The Apostles first dispensed all things and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the Word of God and Prayer and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to Baptize when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of Preaching and greater ministeries and accounted that act of the Church the act of Christ saying Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel They used various forms in the ministration of Baptism sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ sometimes expresly invocating the Holy and ever-Blessed Trinity one while 〈◊〉 baptize 〈◊〉 as in the Latine Church but in the Greek Let the servant of Christ be baptized And in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms and in most things hath often changed them as in Absolution Excommunication And sometimes they baptized people under their profession of Repentance and then taught them as it happened to the Goaler and his family in whose case there was no explicit Faith 〈◊〉 in the mysteries of Religion so far as appears and yet he and not only he but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the Earthquake was terrible and the 〈◊〉 was pregnant upon them and this upon their Master's account as it is likely but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous Faith and a new-begun Repentance They baptized in Rivers or in Lavatories by dipping or by sprinkling for so we find that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries according to the Prophecy of 〈◊〉 So shall 〈◊〉 sprinkle many Nations according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling And it is fairly relative to the mystery to the sprinkling with the 〈◊〉 of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our Souls with the dew of Heaven to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto Holiness The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times sometimes but once Some Churches use Fire in their Baptisms so do the Ethiopians and the custom was ancient in 〈◊〉 places And so in the other Sacrament sometimes they stood and sometimes kneeled and sometimes received it in the mouth and sometimes in the hand one while in 〈◊〉 another while in unlevened bread sometimes the wine and water were mingled sometimes they were pure and they admitted some persons to it sometimes which at other times they rejected sometimes the Consecration was made by one form sometimes by another and to conclude sometimes it was given to Infants sometimes not And she had power so to do for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or implied in the nature and in the end of the Institution the Church had power to alter the particulars as was most expedient or conducing to edification And although the after-Ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants have 〈◊〉 some little things against the lawfulness and those Ages that used it found out some pretences for its 〈◊〉 yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities so in all things they followed Christ. Certainly there is 〈◊〉 more reason why Insants may be Communicated than why they may not be Baptized And that this discourse may 〈◊〉 to its first intention although there is no record extant of any Church in the world and from the Apostles days inclusively to this very day ever refused to Baptize their Children yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change 〈◊〉 practice when the reason should be 〈◊〉 and therefore if there were nothing else in it yet the universal practice of all Churches in all Ages is abundantly sufficient to determine us and to
legitimate the practice since Christ hath not forbidden it It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul We have no such custom nor the Churches of God to suffer Children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise till they shall enter into it as 〈◊〉 or Turks may enter that is by choice and disputation But although this 〈◊〉 to modest and obedient that is to Christian Spirits be sufficient yet this is more than the question did need It can stand upon its proper foundation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat anathema 〈◊〉 He that refuseth to baptize his Infants shall be in danger of the Council The PRAYER OHoly and Eternal Jesus who in thine own person wert pleased to sanctifie the waters of Baptism and by thy Institution and Commandment didst make them effectual to excellent purposes of grace and remedy be pleased to verifie the holy effects of Baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation and enable us with thy grace to verifie all our promises by which we are bound then when thou didst first make us thy own proportion and 〈◊〉 in the consummation of a holy Covenant O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace and admit us by the gates of Baptism and let that Spirit which moved upon 〈◊〉 holy Waters never be absent from us but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holiness that we may never return to the 〈◊〉 of sin but by the answer of a good Conscience may please thee and glorifie thy name and do honour to thy Religion and Institution in this world and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come being presented to thee pure and spotless in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdom and endless glories Amen Appendix ad Sect. 9. numb 3. of JESUS being Baptized c. Christ ' s Prayer at his Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Father according to the good pleasure of thy will I am made a Man and from the time in which I was born of a Virgin unto this day I have finished those things which are agreeing to the nature of Man and with due observance have perform'd all thy Commandments the mysteries and types of the Law and now truly I am baptized and so have I ordain'd Baptism that from thence as from the place of spiritual birth the Regeneration of men may be accomplish'd and as John was the last of the Legal Priests so am I the first of the Evangelical Thou therefore O Father by the mediation of my Prayer open the Heavens and from thence send thy Holy Spirit upon this womb of Baptism that as he did untie the womb of the Virgin and thence form me so also he would loose this Baptismal womb and so sanctifie it unto men that from thence new men may be begotten who may become thy Sons and my Brethren and Heirs of thy Kingdom And what the Priests under the Law until John could not do grant unto the Priests of the New Testament whose chief I am in the oblation of this Prayer that whensoever they shall celebrate Baptism or pour forth Prayers unto thee as the Holy Spirit is seen with me in open vision so also it may be made manifest that the same Spirit will adjoyn himself in their society a more secret way and will by them persorm the ministeries of the New Testament for which I am made a Man and as the High Priest I do offer these Prayers in thy sight This Prayer was transcrib'd out of the Syriack Catena upon the third Chapter of S. Luke's Gospel and is by the Author of that Catena reported to have been made by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the opening of the Heavens at his Baptism and that the Holy Spirit did 〈◊〉 upon him while he was thus praying and for it he cites the Authority of S. Philoxenus I cannot but foresee that there is one clause in it which will be us'd as an objection against the authority of this Prayer viz. as John was the last of Legal Priests For he was no Priest at all nor ever officiated in the Temple or at the Mosaick Rites But this is nothing because that the Baptist was of the family of the Priests his Father Zachary is a demonstration that he did not 〈◊〉 his being imployed in another Ministery is a sufficient answer that he was the last of the Priests is to be understood in this sence that he was the period of the Law the common term between the Law and the Gospel by him the Gospel was first preached solemnly and therefore in him the Law first ended And as he was the last of the Prophets so he was the last of the Priests not but that after him many had the gift of Prophecy and some did officiate in the Mosaical Priesthood but that his Office put the first period to the solemnity of Moses's Law that is at him the Dispensation Evangelical did first enter That the Ministers of the Gospel are here called Priests ought not to be a prejudice against this Prayer in the perswasions of any men because it was usual with our Blessed Saviour to retain the words of the Jews his Country-men before whom he spake that they might by words to which they were used be instructed in the notice of persons and things offices and ministeries Evangelical which afterwards were to be represented under other that is under their proper names And now all that I shall say of it is this 1. That it is not unlikely but our Blessed Saviour prayed when he was baptized and when the Holy Ghost descended upon him not only because it was an imployment symbolical to the Grace he was to receive but also to become to us a precedent by what means we are to receive the Holy Spirit of God 2. That it is very likely our Blessed Lord would consecrate the Waters of Baptism to those mysterious ends whither he design'd them as well as the Bread and Chalice of the Holy Supper 3. That it is most likely the Easterlings did preserve a record of many words and actions of the Holy Jesus which are not transmitted to us 4. It is certain that our Blessed Lord did do and say many more things than are in the Holy Scriptures and that this was one of them we have the credit of this ancient Author and the Authority of S. Philoxenus However it is much better to make such good use of it as the matter and piety of the Prayer will minister than to quarrel at it by the imperfection of uncertain conjectures The End of the First Part. THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS BEGINNING At
the time of his first MIRACLE until the Second Year of his PREACHING WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES THE SECOND PART Chrysost. ad Demet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston 1675. TO The Right Honourable and Excellent Lady THE LADY MARY Countess Dowager of NORTHAMPTON I AM now to present to your Honour part of that Production of which your great love to Sanctity was Parent and which was partly designed to satisfie those great appetites to Vertue which have made you hugely apprehensive and forward to entertain any Instrument whereby you may grow and encrease in the Service of God and the Communion and Charities of holy people Your Honour best knows in what Soil the first Design of these Papers grew and but that the Excellent Personage who was their first Root is transplanted for a time that he may not have his righteous Soul vexed with the impurer Conversation of ill-minded men I am confident you would have received the fruits of his abode to more excellent purposes But because he was pleased to leave the managing of this to me I hope your Honour will for his sake entertain what that rare Person conceived though I was left to the pains and danger of bringing forth and that it may dwell with you for its first relation rather than be rejected for its appendent imperfections which it contracted not in the fountain but in the chanels of its progress and emanation Madam I shall beg of God that your Honour may receive as great increment of Piety and ghostly strength in the reading this Book as I receive honour if you shall be pleased to accept and own this as a confession of your great Worthiness and a testimony of the Service which ought to be payed to your Honour by Madam Your Honour 's most humble and most obliged Servant JER TAYLOR SECT X. Of the first Manifestation of JESVS by the Testimony of John and a Miracle Iohn points to Iesus The next day Iohn seeth Iesus coming unto him and saith Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world This is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preserred before me for he was before me And I knew him not but that he should be made manifest to Israel Ioh. 1. 29 30 31. Christ turns water into wine There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee And there were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Iewes containing two or three firkins a peice Iesus saith unto them fill the water pots with water and they filled them to the brim Iesus saith unto them draw out now c. This begin̄ing of miracles did Iesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory Ioh. 2 6 7 8-11 1. AFTER that the Baptist by a sign from Heaven was confirmed in spirit and understanding that Jesus was the Messias he immediately published to the Jews what God had manifested to him and first to the Priests and 〈◊〉 sent in legation from the Sanhedrim he professed indefinitely in answer to their question that himself was not the CHRIST nor Elias nor that Prophet whom they by a special Tradition did expect to be revealed they knew not when And concerning himself definitely he said nothing but that he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness Make straight the way of the Lord. He it was who was then amongst them but not known a person of great dignity to whom the Baptist was not worthy to do the office of the lowest Ministery who coming after John was preferred far before him who was to increase and the Baptist was to decrease who did baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire 2. This was the Character of his personal Prerogatives but as yet no demonstration was made of his Person till after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus and then when-ever the Baptist saw Jesus he points him out with his finger Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World This is he Then he shews him to Andrew Simon Peter's brother with the same designation and to another Disciple with him who both followed Jesus and abode with him all night Andrew brings his brother Simon with him and then Christ changes his name from Simon to Peter or Cephas which signifies a Stone Then Jesus himself finds out Philip of Bethsaida and bad him follow him and Philip finds out Nathanael and calls him to see Thus persons bred in a dark cell upon their first ascent up to the chambers of light all run staring upon the beauties of the Sun and call the partners of their darkness to communicate in their new and stranger revelation 3. When Nathanael was come to Jesus Christ saw his heart and gave him a testimony to be truly honest and full of holy simplicity a true Israelite without guile And Nathanael being overjoyed that he had found the Messias believing out of love and loving by reason of his joy and no suspicion took that for a proof and verification of his person which was very insufficient to 〈◊〉 a doubt or ratifie a probability But so we believe a story which we love taking probabilities for demonstrations and casual accidents for probabilities and any thing creates vehement presumptions in which cases our guides are not our knowing faculties but our 〈◊〉 and if they be holy God guides them into the right perswasions as he does little birds to make rare nests though they understand not the mystery of operation nor the design and purpose of the action 4. But Jesus took his will and forwardness of affections in so good part that he promised him greater things and this gave occasion to the first Prophecy which was made by Jesus For Jesus said 〈◊〉 him 〈◊〉 I said I saw thee under the Fig-tree believest thou Thou shalt see greater things than these and then he prophesied that he should see Heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man But being a Doctor of the Law Christ chose him not at all to the Colledge of Apostles 5. Much about the same time there happened to be a Marriage in Cana 〈◊〉 Galilee in the vicinage of his dwelling where John the Evangelist is by some supposed to have been the Bridegroom but of this there is no certainty and thither Jesus being with his 〈◊〉 invited he went to do civility to the persons espoused and to do honour to the holy rite of Marriage The persons then married were but of indifferent fortunes richer in love of neighbours than in the 〈◊〉 of rich possessions they had more company than wine For the Master of the Feast whom according to the order and piety of the Nation they chose 〈◊〉 the order of Priests to be the president of the Feast
Faith And although in the natural or philosophical sence Faith and Charity are distinct habits yet in the sence of a Christian and the signification of duty they are the same for we cannot believe aright as Believing is in the Commandment unless we live aright for our Faith is put upon the account just as it is made precious by Charity according to that rare saying of S. 〈◊〉 recorded by the supposed S. Denis Charity is the greatest and the least Theologie all our Faith that is all our Religion is compleated in the duties of universal Charity as our Charity or our manner of living is so is our Faith If our life be unholy it may be the faith of Devils but not the Faith of Christians For this is the difference 10. The faith of the Devils hath more of the Understanding in it the Faith of Christians more of the Will The Devils in their saith have better Discourse the Christians better affections They in their faith have better Arguments we more Charity So that Charity or a good life is so necessary an ingredient into the definition of a Christian's Faith that we have nothing else to distinguish it from the faith of Devils and we need no trial os our Faith but the examination of our lives If you keep the Commandments of God then have you the Faith of Jesus they are immediate in S. John's expression but if you be 〈◊〉 and ungodly you are in S. Paul's list amongst them that have no saith Every Vice that rules amongst us and sullies the fair beauty of our Souls is a conviction of Infidelity 11. For it was the Faith of Moses that made him despise the riches of Egypt the Faith of 〈◊〉 that made him valiant the Faith of Joseph that made him chast Abraham's Faith made him obedient S. Mary Magdalen's Faith made her penitent and the Faith of S. Paul made him travel so far and suffer so much till he became a prodigy both of zeal and patience Faith is a Catholicon and cures all the distemperatures of the Soul it 〈◊〉 the World saith S. John it works rightcousness saith S. Paul it purifies the heart saith S. Peter it works Miracles saith our Blessed Saviour Miracles in Grace always as it did Miracles in nature at its first publication and whatsoever is good if it be a Grace it is an act of Faith if it be a reward it is the fruit of Faith So that as all the actions of man are but the productions of the Soul so are all the actions of the new man the effects of Faith For Faith is the life of Christianity and a good life is the life of Faith 12. Upon the grounds of this discourse we may understand the sence of that Question of our Blessed Saviour When the son of man comes shall he find Faith on earth Truly just so much as he finds Charity and holy living and no more For then only we can be confident that Faith is not failed from among the children of men when we seel the heats of the primitive Charity return and the calentures of the first old Devotion are renewed when it shall be accounted honourable to be a servant of Christ and a shame to commit a sin then and then only our Churches shall be Assemblies of the faithful and the Kingdoms of the world Christian Countries But so long as it is notorious that we have made Christian Religion another thing than what the Holy Jesus designed it to be when it does not make us live good lives but it self is made a pretence to all manner of impiety a stratagem to serve ends the ends of covetousness of ambition and revenge when the Christian Charity ends in killing one another for Conscience sake so that Faith is made to cut the throat of Charity and our Faith kills more than our Charity preserves when the Humility of a Christian hath indeed a name amongst us but it is like a mute person talk'd of only while Ambition and Rebellion Pride and Scorn Self-seeking and proud undertakings transact most of the great affairs of Christendom when the custody of our Senses is to no other purposes but that no opportunity of pleasing them pass away when our Oaths are like the fringes of our discourses going round about them as if they were ornaments and trimmings when our Blasphemies Prophanation Sacriledge and Irreligion are become scandalous to the very Turks and Jews while our Lusts are always habitual sometimes unnatural will any wise man think that we believe those Doctrines of Humility and Obedience of Chastity and Charity of Temperance and Justice which the Saviour of the World made sacred by his Sermon and example or indeed any thing he either said or did promised or threatned For is it possible a man with his wits about him and believing that he should certainly be damned that is be eternally tormented in body and Soul with terments greater than can be in this world if he be a Swearer or Lier or Drunkard or cheats his neighbour that this man should dare to do these things to which the temptations are so small in which the delight is so inconsiderable and the satisfaction so none at all 13. We see by the experience of the whole world that the belief of an honest man in a matter of temporal advantage makes us do actions of such danger and difficulty that half so much industry and 〈◊〉 would ascertain us into a possession of all the Promises Evangelical Now let any man be asked whether he had rather be rich or be saved he will tell you without all doubt Heaven is the better option by infinite degrees for it cannot be that Riches or Revenge or Lust should be directly preferred that is be thought more eligible than the glories of Immortality That therefore men neglect so great Salvation and so greedily run after the satisfaction of their baser appetites can be attributed to nothing but want of Faith they do not heartily believe that Heaven is worth so much there is upon them a stupidity of spirit and their Faith is dull and its actions suspended most commonly and often interrupted and it never enters into the Will so that the Propositions are considered nakedly and precisely in themselves but not as referring to us or our interests there is nothing of Faith in it but so much as is the first and direct act of Understanding there is no consideration nor reflexion upon the act or upon the person or upon the subject So that even as it is seated in the Understanding our Faith is commonly lame mutilous and imperfect and therefore much more is it culpable because it is destitute of all cooperation of the rational appetite 14. But let us consider the power and efficacy of worldly Belief If a man believes that there is gold to be had in Peru for fetching or Pearls and rich Jewels in India for the exchange of trifles he
distinction And as in Princes Courts the reverence to Princes is quickened and encreased by an outward state and glory so also it is in the service of God although the Understandings of men are no more satisfied by a pompous magnificence than by a cheap plainness yet the Eye is and the Fancy and the Affections and the Senses that is many of our Faculties are more pleased with Religion when Religion by such instruments and conveyances pleases them And it was noted by Sozomen concerning Valens the Arrian Emperor that when he came to Caesarea in Cappadocia he praised S. Basil their Bishop and upon more easie terms revoked his Banishment because he was a grave person and did his holy Offices with reverent and decent addresses and kept his Church-assemblies with much ornament and solemnity 14. But when I consider that saying of S. Gregory that the Church is Heaven within the Tabernacle Heaven dwelling among the sons of men and remember that God hath studded all the Firmament and paved it with stars because he loves to have his House beauteous and highly representative of his glory I see no reason we should not do as Apollinaris says God does In earth do the works of Heaven For he is the God of beauties and perfections and every excellency in the Creature is a portion of influence from the Divinity and therefore is the best instrument of conveying honour to him who made them for no other end but for his own honour as the last resort of all other ends for which they were created 15. But the best manner to reverence the Sanctuary is by the continuation of such actions which gave it the first title of Holiness Holiness becometh thine House for ever said David Sancta sanc̄tis Holy persons and holy rites in holy places that as it had the first relation of Sanctity by the consecration of a holy and reverend Minister and President of Religion so it may be perpetuated in holy Offices and receive the daily consecration by the assistance of sanctified and religious persons Foris canes dogs and criminal persons are unfit for Churches the best ornament and beauty of a Church is a holy Priest and a sanctified people For since Angels dwell in Churches and God hath made his Name to dwell there too if there also be a holy people that there be Saints as well as Angels it is a holy fellowship and a blessed communion But to see a Devil there would scare the most confident and bold fancy and disturb the good meeting and such is every wicked and graceless person Have I not chosen twelve of you and one of you is a Devil An evil Soul is an evil spirit and such are no good ornaments for Temples and it is a shame that a goodly Christian Church should be like an Egyptian Temple without goodly buildings within a Dog or a Cat for the Deity they adore It is worse if in our addresses to Holy Places and Offices we bear our Lusts under our garments For Dogs and Cats are of God's making but our Lusts are not but are God's enemies and therefore besides the Unholiness it is an affront to God to bring them along and it defiles the place in a great degree 16. For there is a defiling of a Temple by insinuation of impurities and another by direct and positive profanation and a third by express Sacriledge This defiles a Temple to the ground Every small sin is an unwelcome guest and is a spot in those Feasts of Charity which entertain us often in God's Houses but there are some and all great crimes are such which desecrate the place unhallow the ground as to our particulars stop the ascent of our Prayers obstruct the current of God's blessing turn Religion into bitterness and Devotion into gall such as are marked in Scripture with a distinguishing character as enemies to the peculiar dispositions of Religion And such are Unchastity which defiles the Temples of our Bodies Covetousness which sets up an Idol in stead of God and Unmercifulness which is a direct enemy to the Mercies of God and the fair return of our Prayers He that shews not the mercies of Alms of Forgiveness and Comfort is forbid to hope for comfort relief or forgiveness from the hands of God A pure Mind is the best manner of worship and the impurity of a crime is the greatest contradiction to the honour and religion of Holy Places And therefore let us imitate the Precedent of the most religious of Kings a I will wash my hands in innocency O Lord and so will I go to thine Altar always remembring those decretory and final words of b S. Paul He that defiles a Temple him will God destroy The PRAYER O Eternal God who dwellest not in Temples made with hands the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain thee and yet thou art pleased to manifest thy presence amongst the sons of men by special issues of thy favour and benediction make my Body and Soul to be a Temple pure and holy apt for the entertainments of the Holy Jesus and for the habitation of the Holy Spirit Lord be pleased with thy rod of paternal discipline to cast out all impure Lusts all worldly affections all covetous desires from this thy Temple that it may be a place of Prayer and Meditation of holy appetites and chaste thoughts of pure intentions and zealous desires of pleasing thee that I may become also a Sacrifice as well as a Temple eaten up with the zeal of thy glory and consumed with the fire of love that not one thought may be entertained by me but such as may be like perfume breathing from the Altar of Incense and not a word may pass from me but may have the accent of Heaven upon it and sound pleasantly in thy ears O dearest God fill every Faculty of my Soul with impresses dispositions capacities and aptnesses of Religion and do thou hallow my Soul that I may be possest with zeal and religious affections loving thee above all things in the world worshipping thee with the humblest adorations and frequent addresses continually feeding upon the apprehensions of thy divine sweetness and consideration of thy infinite excellencies and observations of thy righteous Commandments and the feast of a holy Conscience as an antepast of Eternity and consignation to the joys of Heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen SECT XII Of JESVS's departure into Galilee his manner of Life Miracles and Preaching his calling of Disciples and what happened until the Second Passeover Jesus and the Woman of Samaria Joh. 4. 5 6. 7. He cometh to a City of Samaria called Sychar now Iacob's well was there There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Iesus saith etc. For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meat V. 27. His disciples came marvelled y t he talked with the woman yet no man said what seekest thou or why talkest thou with her
intanglings of ten thousand thoughts and the impertinences of a disturbed fancy and the great hindrances of a sick body and a sad and weary spirit All these represent a Death-bed to be but an ill station for a Penitent If the person be suddenly snatched away he is not left so much as to dispute if he be permitted to languish in his sickness he is either stupid and apprehends nothing or else miserable and hath reason to apprehend too much However all these difficulties are to be passed and overcome before the man be put into a saveable condition From this consideration though perhaps it may infer more yet we cannot but conclude this difficulty to be as great as the former danger that is vast and ponderous and insupportable 45. Thirdly Suppose the Clinick or death-bed Penitent to be as forward in these employments and as successfull in the mastering many of the Objections as reasonably can be thought yet it is considerable that there is a Repentance which is to be repented of and that is a Repentance which is not productive of fruits of amendment of life that there is a period set down by God in his Judgment and that many who have been profane as Esau was are reduced into the condition of Esau and there is no place left for their Repentance though they seek it carefully with tears that they who have long refused to hear God calling them to Repentance God will refuse to hear them calling for grace and mercy that he will laugh at some men when their calamity comes that the five foolish Virgins addressed themselves at the noise of the Bridegroom 's coming and begg'd oil and went out to buy oil and yet for want of some more time and an early diligence came too late and were shut out for ever that it is no-where revealed that such late endeavours and imperfect practices shall be accepted that God hath made but one Covenant with us in Jesus Christ which is Faith and Repentance consigned in 〈◊〉 and the signification of them and the purpose of Christ is that we should henceforth no more serve sin but mortifie and kill him perpetually and destroy his kingdom and extinguish as much as in us lies his very title that we should live holily justly and soberly in this present world in all holy conversation and godliness and that either we must be continued or reduced to this state of holy living and habitual sanctity or we have no title to the Promises that every degree of recession from the state Christ first put us in is a recession from our hopes and an insecuring our condition and we add to our 〈◊〉 only as our Obedience is restored All this is but a sad story to a dying person who sold himself to work wickedness in an habitual iniquity and aversation from the conditions of the holy Covenant in which he was sanctified 46. And certainly it is unreasonable to plant all our hopes of Heaven upon a Doctrine that is destructive of all Piety which supposes us in such a condition that God hath been offended at us all our life long and yet that we can never return our duties to him unless he will unravel the purposes of his Predestination or call back time again and begin a new computation of years for us and if he did it would be still as uncertain For what hope is there to that man who hath fulfilled all iniquity and hath not fulfilled righteousness Can a man live to the Devil and die to God sow to the flesh and reap to the Spirit hope God will in mercy reward him who hath served his enemy Sure it is the Doctrine of the avail of a death-bed Repentance cannot easily be reconciled with God's purposes and intentions to have us live a good life for it would reconcile us to the hopes of Heaven for a few thoughts or words or single actions when our life is done it takes away the benefit of many Graces and the use of more and the necessity of all 47. For let it be seriously weighed To what purpose is the variety of God's Grace what use is there of preventing restraining concomitant subsequent and persevering Grace unless it be in order to a religious conversation And by deferring Repentance to the last we despoil our Souls and rob the Holy Ghost of the glory of many rays and holy influences with which the Church is watered and refreshed that it may grow from grace to grace till it be consummate in glory It takes away the very being of Chastity and Temperance no such Vertues according to this Doctrine need to be named among Christians For the dying person is not in capacity to exercise these and then either they are troublesome without which we may do well enough or else the condition of the unchaste and intemperate Clinick is sad and deplorable For how can he eject those Devils of Lust and Drunkenness and Gluttony from whom the disease hath taken all powers of election and variety of choice unless it be possible to root out long-contracted habits in a moment or acquire the habits of Chastity Sobriety and Temperance those self-denying and laborious Graces without doing a single act of the respective vertues in order to obtaining of habits unless it be so that God will infuse habits into us more immediately than he creates our reasonable Souls in an instant and without the cooperation of the suscipient without the working out our Salvation with fear and without giving all diligence and running with patience and resisting unto bloud and striving to the last and enduring unto the end in a long fight and a long race If God infuses such habits why have we laws given us and are commanded to work and to do our duty with such a succession and lasting diligence as if the habits were to be acquired to which indeed God promises and ministers his aids still leaving us the persons obliged to the law and the labour as we are capable of the reward I need not instance any more But this doctrine of a death-bed Repentance is inconsistent with the duties of Mortification with all the vindictive and punitive parts of Repentance in exteriour instances with the precepts of waiting and watchfulness and preparation and standing in a readiness against the coming of the Bridegroom with the patience of well-doing with exemplary living with the imitation of the Life of Christ and conformities to his Passion with the kingdom and dominion and growth of Grace And lastly it goes about to defeat one of God's great purposes for Cod therefore concealed the time of our death that we might always stand upon our guard the Holy Jesus told us so Watch for ye know not what hour the Lord will come but this makes men seem more crafty in their late-begun Piety than God was provident and mysterious in concealing the time of our dissolution 48. And now if
spirit c. Blessed are they that mourn c. Blessed are the meek c. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst c. Blessed are the merciful c. Math. 5. 1 2 3 4 1. THe Holy Jesus being entred upon his Prophetical Office in the first solemn Sermon gave testimony that he was not only an Interpreter of Laws then in being but also a Law-giver and an Angel of the new and everlasting Covenant which because God meant to establish with mankind by the mediation of his Son by his Son also he now began to publish the conditions of it and that the publication of the Christian Law might retain some proportion at least and analogy of circumstance with the promulgation of the Law of Moses Christ went up into a Mountain and from thence gave the Oracle And here he taught all the Disciples for what he was now to speak was to become a Law a part of the condition on which he established the Covenant and founded our hopes of Heaven Our excellent and gracious Law-giver knowing that the great argument in all practical disciplines is the proposal of the end which is their crown and their reward begins his Sermon as David began his most divine collection of Hymns with Blessedness And having enumerated Eight Duties which are the rule of the spirits of Christians he begins every Duty with a Beatitude and concludes it with a Reward to manifest the reasonableness and to invite and determine our choice to such Graces which are circumscribed with Felicities which have blessedness in present possession and glory in the consequence which in the midst of the most passive and afflictive of them tells us that we are blessed which is indeed a felicity as a hope is good or as a rich heir is rich who in the midst of his Discipline and the severity of Tutors and Governours knows he is designed to and certain of a great inheritance 2. The Eight Beatitudes which are the duty of a Christian and the rule of our spirit and the special discipline of Christ seem like so many paradoxes and impossibilities reduced to Reason and are indeed Vertues made excellent by rewards by the sublimity of Grace and the mercies of God hallowing and crowning those habits which are despised by the world and are esteemed the conditions of lower and less considerable people But God sees not as man sees and his rules of estimate and judgment are not borrowed from the exteriour splendour which is apt to seduce children and cousen fools and please the appetites of sense and abused fancy but they are such as he makes himself excellencies which by abstractions and separations from things below land us upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they are states of suffering rather than states of life for the great imployment of a Christian being to bear the Cross Christ laid the Pedestal so low that the rewards were like rich mines interred in the deeps and inaccessible retirements and did chuse to build our 〈◊〉 upon the torrents and violences of affliction and sorrow Without these Graces we 〈◊〉 get Heaven and without sorrow and sad accidents we cannot exercise these Graces Such are 3. First Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Poverty of spirit is in respect of secular affluence and abundance or in respect of great opinion and high thoughts either of which have divers acts and offices That the first is one of the meanings of this Text is certain because S. Luke repeating this Beatitude delivers it plainly Blessed are the poor and to it he opposes riches And our Blessed Saviour speaks so suspiciously of riches and rich men that he represents the condition to be full of danger and temptation and S. James calls it full of sin describing rich men to be oppressors litigious proud spightful and contentious which sayings like all others of that nature are to be understood in common and most frequent accidents not regularly but very improbable to be otherwise For if we consider our Vocation S. Paul informs us That not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith And how hard it is for a rich man to enter into Heaven our great Master hath taught us by saying it is more easie for a Camel to pass through a needle's eye And the reason is because of the infinite temptation which Riches minister to our spirits it being such an opportunity of vices that nothing remains to countermand the act but a strong resolute unaltered and habitual purpose and pure love of 〈◊〉 Riches in the mean time offering to us occasions of Lust fuel for Revenge instruments of Pride entertainment of our desires engaging them in low worldly and sottish appetites inviting us to shew our power in oppression our greatness in vanities our wealth in prodigal expences and to answer the importunity of our Lusts not by a denial but by a correspondence and satisfaction till they become our mistresses imperious arrogant tyrannical and vain But Poverty is the sister of a good mind it ministers aid to wisdome industry to our spirit severity to our thoughts soberness to counsels modesty to our desires it restrains extravagancy and dissolution of appetites the next thing above our present condition which is commonly the object of our wishes being temperate and little proportionable enough to nature not wandring beyond the limits of necessity or a moderate conveniency or at 〈◊〉 but to a free 〈◊〉 and recreation And the 〈◊〉 of Poverty are single and mean rather a sit imploiment to correct our levities than a business to impede our better thoughts since a little thing supplies the needs of nature and the earth and the fountain with little trouble minister food to us and God's common providence and daily dispensation cases the cares and makes them portable But the cares and businesses of rich men are violences to our whole man they are loads of memory business for the understanding work for two or three arts and sciences imployment for many servants to assist in increase the appetite and heighten the thirst and by making their dropsie bigger and their capacities large they destroy all those opportunities and possibilities of Charity in which only Riches can be useful 4. But it is not a 〈◊〉 poverty of possession which intitles us to the blessing but a poverty of spirit that is a contentedness in every state an aptness to renounce all when we are obliged in duty a refusing to continue a possession when we for it must quit a vertue or a noble action a divorce of our affections from those gilded vanities a generous contempt of the world and at no hand heaping riches either with injustice or with avarice either with wrong or impotency of action or affection Not like Laberius described by the Poet who thought nothing so criminal as Poverty and every spending of
a sesterce was the loss of a moral 〈◊〉 and every gaining of a talent was an action glorious and heroical But Poverty of spirit accounts Riches to be the servants of God first and then of our selves being sent by God and to return when he pleases and all the while they are with us to do his business It is a looking upon riches and things of the earth as they do who look upon it from Heaven to whom it appears little and unprofitable And because the residence of this blessed Poverty is in the mind it follows that it be here understood that all that exinanition and renunciation abjection and humility of mind which depauperates the spirit making it less worldly and more spiritual is the duty here enjoyned For if a man throws away his gold as did Crates the Theban or the proud Philosopher Diogenes and yet leaves a spirit high aiery phantastical and vain pleasing himself and with complacency reflecting upon his own act his Poverty is but a circumstance of Pride and the opportunity of an imaginary and a secular greatness Ananias and Sapphira renounced the world by selling their possessions but because they were not poor in spirit but still retained the affections to the world therefore they kept back part of the price and lost their hopes The Church of Laodicea was possessed with a spirit of Pride and flattered themselves in imaginary riches they were not poor in spirit but they were poor in possession and condition These wanted Humility the other wanted a generous contempt of worldly things and both were destitute of this Grace 5. The acts of this Grace are 1. To cast off all inordinate affection to Riches 2. In heart and spirit that is preparation of mind to quit the possession of all Riches and actually so to do when God requires it that is when the retaining Riches loses a Vertue 3. To be well pleased with the whole oeconomy of God his providence and dispensation of all things being contented in all estates 4. To imploy that wealth God hath given us in actions of Justice and Religion 5. To be thankful to God in all temporal losses 6. Not to distrust God or to be solicitous and fearful of want in the future 7. To put off the spirit of vanity pride and phantastick complacency in our selves thinking lowly or meanly of whatsoever we are or do 8. To prefer others before our selves doing honour and prelation to them and either contentedly receiving affronts done to us or modestly undervaluing our selves 9. Not to praise our selves but when God's glory and the edification of our neighbour is concerned in it nor willingly to hear others praise us 10. To despoil our selves of all interiour propriety denying our own will in all instances of subordination to our Superiours and our own judgment in matters of difficulty and question permitting our selves and our affairs to the advice of wiser men and the decision of those who are trusted with the cure of our Souls 11. Emptying our selves of our selves and throwing our selves wholly upon God relying upon his Providence trusting his Promises craving his Grace and depending upon his strength for all our actions and deliverances and duties 6. The reward promised is the Kingdome of Heaven Fear not little Flock it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom To be little in our own eyes is to be great in God's the Poverty of the spirit shall be rewarded with the Riches of the Kingdoms of both Kingdoms that of Heaven is expressed Poverty is the high-way of Eternity But therefore the Kingdom of Grace is taken in the way the way to our Countrey and it being the forerunner of glory and nothing else but an antedated Eternity is part of the reward as well as of our duty And therefore whatsoever is signified by Kingdome in the appropriate Evangelical sense is there intended as a recompence For the Kingdom of the Gospel is a congregation and society of Christ's poor of his little ones they are the Communion of Saints and their present entertainment is knowledge of the truth remission of sins the gift of the Holy Ghost and what else in Scripture is signified to be a part or grace or condition of the Kingdom For to the poor the Gospel is preached that is to the poor the Kingdome is promised and ministred 7. Secondly Blessed are they that Mourn for they shall be comforted This duty of Christian mourning is commanded not for it self but in order to many good ends It is in order to Patience Tribulation worketh Patience and therefore we glory in them saith S. Paul and S. James My brethren count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations Knowing that the trial of your faith viz. by afflictions worketh Patience 2. It is in order to Repentance Godly sorrow worketh Repentance By consequence it is in order to Pardon for a contrite heart God will not reject And after all this it leads to Joy And therefore S. James preached a Homily of Sorrow Be afflicted and mourn and weep that is in penitential mourning for he adds Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up The acts of this duty are 1. To bewail our own sins 2. To lament our infirmities as they are principles of sin and recessions from our first state 3. To weep for our own evils and sad accidents as they are issues of the Divine anger 4. To be sad for the miseries and calamities of the Church or of any member of it and indeed to weep with every one that weeps that is not to rejoyce in his evil but to be compassionate and pitiful and apt to bear another's burthen 5. To avoid all loose and immoderate laughter all dissolution of spirit and manners uncomely jestings free revellings carnivals and balls which are the perdition of precious hours allowed us for Repentance and possibilities of Heaven which are the instruments of infinite vanity idle talking impertinency and lust and very much below the severity and retiredness of a Christian spirit Of this Christ became to us the great example for S. Basil reports a tradition of him that he never laughed but wept often And if we mourn with him we also shall rejoyce in the joys of eternity 8. Thirdly Blessed are the Meek for they shall possess the earth That is the gentle and softer spirits persons not turbulent or unquiet not clamorous or impatient not over-bold or impudent not querulous or discontented not brawlers or contentious not nice or curious but men who submit to God and know no choice of fortune or imployment or success but what God chuses for them having peace at home because nothing from without does discompose their spirit In summe Meekness is an indifferency to any exteriour accident a being reconciled to all conditions and instances of Providence a reducing our selves to such an evenness and interiour satisfaction
Churches living under Persecution commenced many pretty opinions concerning the state and special dignity of Martyrs apportioning to them one of the three Coronets which themselves did knit and supposed as pendants to the great Crown of righteousness They made it suppletory of Baptism expiatory of sin satisfactory of publick 〈◊〉 they placed them in bliss immediately declared them to need no after-Prayer such as the Devotion of those times used to pour upon the graves of the faithful with great prudence they did endeavour to alleviate this burthen and sweeten the bitter chalice and they did it by such doctrines which did only remonstrate this great truth That since no love was greater than to lay down our lives nothing could be so great but God would indulge to them And indeed whatsoever they said in this had no inconvenience nor would it now unless men should think mere suffering to be sufficient to excuse a wicked life or that they be invited to dishonour an excellent patience with the mixture of an impure action There are many who would die for Christ if they were put to it and yet will not quit a Lust for him those are hardly to be esteemed Christ's Martyrs unless they be dead unto sin their dying for an Article or a good action will not pass the great scrutiny And it may be boldness of spirit or sullenness or an honourable gallantry of mind or something that is excellent in civil and political estimate moves the person and endears the suffering but that love only which keeps the Commandments will teach us to 〈◊〉 for love and from love to pass to blessedness through the red Sea of bloud And indeed it is more easie to die for Chastity than to live with it and many women have been found who suffered death under the violence of Tyrants for defence of their holy vows and purity who had they long continued amongst pleasures courtships curiosities and importunities of men might perchance have yielded that to a Lover which they denied to an Executioner S. Cyprian observes that our Blessed Lord in admitting the innocent Babes of Bethlehem first to die for him did to all generations of Christendom consign this Lesson That only persons holy and innocent were fit to be Christ's Martyrs And I remember that the Prince of the Latine Poets over against the region and seats of Infants places in the Shades below persons that suffered death wrongfully but adds that this their death was not enough to place them in such blessed mansions but the Judge first made inquiry into their lives and accordingly designed their station It is certain that such dyings or great sufferings are Heroical actions and of power to make great compensations and redemptions of time and of omissions and imperfections but if the Man be unholy so also are his Sufferings for Hereticks have died and vicious persons have suffered in a good cause and a dog's neck may be cut off in sacrifice and Swine's bloud may 〈◊〉 the trench about the Altar but God only accepts the Sacrifice which is pure and spotless first seasoned with salt then seasoned with fire The true Martyr must have all the preceding Graces and then he shall receive all the Beatitudes 19. The acts of this Duty are 1. Boldly to confess the Faith nobly to exercise publick vertues not to be ashamed of any thing that is honest and rather to quit our goods our liberty our health and life it self than to deny what we are bound to affirm or to omit what we are bound to do or to pretend contrary to our present perswasion 2. To rejoyce in Afflictions counting it honourable to be conformable to Christ and to wear the cognizance of Christianity whose certain lot it is to suffer the hostility and violence of enemies visible and invisible 3. Not to revile our Persecutors but to bear the Cross with evenness tranquillity patience and charity 4. To offer our sufferings to the glory of God and to joyn them with the Passions of Christ by doing it in love to God and obedience to his Sanctions and testimony of some part of his Religion and designing it as a part of duty The reward is the Kingdom of Heaven which can be no other but eternal Salvation in case the Martyrdom be consummate and they also shall be made perfect so the words of the reward were read in Clement's time If it be less it keeps its proportion all suffering persons are the combination of Saints they make the Church they are the people of the Kingdom and heirs of the Covenant For if they be but Confessors and confess Christ in prison though they never preach upon the rack or under the axe yet Christ will confess them before his heavenly Father and they shall have a portion where they shall never be persecuted any more The PRAYER O Blessed Jesus who art become to us the Fountain of Peace and Sanctity of Righteousness and Charity of Life and perpetual Benediction imprint in our spirits these glorious characterisms of Christianity that we by such excellent dispositions may be consigned to the infinity of Blessedness which thou camest to reveal and minister and exhibit to mankind Give us great Humility of spirit and deny us not when we beg Sorrow of thee the mourning and sadness of true Penitents that we may imitate thy excellencies and conform to thy sufferings Make us Meek patient indifferent and resigned in all accidents changes and issues of Divine Providence Mortifie all inordinate Anger in us all Wrath Strife Contention Murmurings Malice and Envy and interrupt and then blot out all peevish dispositions and morosities all disturbances and unevenness of spirit 〈◊〉 of habit that may hinder us in our duty Oh teach me so to hunger and thirst after the ways of Righteousness that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy Father's will Raise my affections to Heaven and heavenly things fix my heart there and prepare a treasure for me which I may receive in the great diffusions and communications of thy glory And in this sad interval of infirmity and temptations strengthen my hopes and 〈◊〉 my Faith by such emissions of light and grace from thy Spirit that I may relish those Blessings which thou preparest for thy Saints with so great appetite that I may despise the world and all its gilded vanities and may desire nothing but the crown of righteousness and the paths that lead thither 〈◊〉 graces of thy Kingdom and the glories of it that when I have served thee in holiness and strict obedience I may reign with thee in the glories of Eternity for thou O Holy Jesus art our hope and our life and glory our 〈◊〉 great reward Amen II. 〈◊〉 Jesu who art infinitely pleased in demonstrations of thy Mercy and didst descend into a state of misery suffering persecution and 〈◊〉 that thou mightest give us thy mercy and reconcile us to thy Father and make us
partakers of thy Purities give unto us tender bowels that we may suffer together with our calamitous and necessitous Brethren that we having a fellow-feeling of their miseries may use all our powers to help them and ease our selves of our common sufferings But do thou O Holy Jesu take from us also all our great calamities the Carnality of our affections our Sensualities and Impurities that we may first be pure then peaceable living in peace with all men and preserving the peace which thou hast made for us with our God that we may never commit a sin which may interrupt so blessed an atonement Let neither hope nor fear tribulation nor anguish pleasure nor pain make us to relinquish our interest in thee and our portion of the everlasting Covenant But give us hearts constant bold and valiant to confess thee before all the world in the midst of all disadvantages and contradictory circumstances chusing rather to beg or to be disgraced or 〈◊〉 or to die than quit a holy Conscience or renounce an Article of Christianity that we either in act when thou shalt call us or always in preparation of mind suffering with thee may also reign with thee in the Church Triumphant O Holy and most merciful Saviour Jesu Amen DISCOURSE X. A Discourse upon that part of the Decalogue which the Holy JESVS adopted into the Institution and obligation of Christianity 1. WHen the Holy Jesus had described the Characterisms of Christianity in these Eight Graces and Beatitudes he adds his Injunctions that in these Vertues they should be eminent and exemplar that they might adorn the Doctrine of God for he intended that the Gospel should be as Leven in a lump of dough to season the whole mass and that Christians should be the instruments of communicating the excellency and reputation of this holy Institution to all the world Therefore Christ calls them Salt and Light and the societies of Christians a City set upon a hill and a 〈◊〉 set in a candlestick whose office and energy is to illuminate all the vicinage which is also expressed in these preceptive words Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven which I consider not only as a Circumstance of other parts but as a precise Duty it self and one of the Sanctions of Christianity which hath so confederated the Souls of the Disciples of the Institution that it hath in some proportion obliged every man to take care of his Brother's Soul And since Reverence to God and Charity to our Brother are the two 〈◊〉 Ends which the best Laws can have this precept of exemplary living is enjoyned in order to them both We must shine as lights in the world that God may be glorified and our Brother edified that the excellency of the act may 〈◊〉 the reputation of the Religion and invite men to confess God according to the sanctions of so holy an Institution And if we be curious that vanity do not mingle in the intention and that the intention do not spoil the action and that we suffer not our lights to shine that men may magnifie us and not glorifie God this duty is soon performed by way of adherence to our other actions and hath no other difficulty in it but that it will require our prudence and care to preserve the simplicity of our purposes and humility of our spirit in the midst of that excellent reputation which will certainly be consequent to a holy and exemplary life 2. But since the Holy Jesus had set us up to be lights in the world he took care we should not be stars of the least magnitude but eminent and such as might by their great emissions of light give evidence of their being immediately derivative from the Sun of Righteousness He was now giving his Law and meant to retain so much of Moses as Moses had of natural and essential Justice and Charity and superadd many degrees of his own that as far as Moses was exceeded by Christ in the capacity of a Law-giver so far Christianity might be more excellent and holy than the Mosaical Sanctions And therefore as a Preface to the Christian Law the Holy Jesus declares that unless our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees that is of the stricter sects of the Mosaical Institution we shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven Which not only relates to the prevaricating Practices of the Pharisees but even to their Doctrines and Commentaries upon the Law of Moses as appears evidently in the following instances For if all the excellency of Christianity had consisted in the mere command of Sincerity and prohibition of Hypocrisie it had nothing in it proportionable to those excellent promises and clearest revelations of Eternity there expressed nor of a fit imployment for the designation of a special and a new Law-giver whose Laws were to last forever and were established upon foundations stronger than the pillars of Heaven and Earth 3. But S. Paul calling the Law of Moses a Law of Works did well insinuate what the Doctrine of the Jews was concerning the degrees and obligations of Justice for besides that it was a Law of Works in opposition to the Law of Faith and so the sence of it is formerly explicated it is also a Law of Works in opposition to the Law of the Spirit and it is understood to be such a Law which required the exteriour Obedience such a Law according to which S. Paul so lived that no man could reprove him that is the Judges could not tax him with prevarication such a Law which being in very many degrees carnal and material did not with much severity exact the intention and purposes spiritual But the Gospel is the Law of the spirit If they failed in the exteriour work it was accounted to them for sin but to Christians nothing becomes a sin but a failing and prevaricating spirit For the outward act is such an emanation of the interiour that it enters into the account for the relation sake and for its parent When God hath put a duty into our hands if our spirits be right the work will certainly follow but the following work receives its acceptation not from the value the Christian Law hath precisely put upon it but because the spirit from whence it came hath observed its rule the Law of Charity is acted and expressed in works but hath its estimate from the spirit Which discourse is to be understood in a limited and qualified signification For then also God required the Heart and interdicted the very concupiscences of our irregular passions at least in some instances but because much of their Law consisted in the exteriour and the Law appointed not nor yet intimated any penalty to evil thoughts and because the expiation of such interiour irregularities was easie implicite and involved in their daily Sacrifices without special trouble therefore the old Law
fall into hypocrisie or deceit or if a Christian Asseveration were not of value equal with an Oath And therefore Christ forbidding promissory Oaths and commanding so great simplicity of spirit and honesty did consonantly to the design and perfection of his Institution intending to make us so just and sincere that our Religion being infinite obligation to us our own Promises should pass for bond enough to others the Religion receive great honour by being esteemed a sufficient security and instrument of publick entercourse And this was intimated by our Lord himself in that reason he is pleased to give of the prohibition of swearing Let your communication be Yea yea Nay nay for whatsoever is more cometh of evil that is As good Laws come from ill manners the modesty of cloathing from the shame of sin Antidotes and Physick by occasion of poisons and diseases so is Swearing an effect of distrust and want of faith or honesty on one or both sides Men dare not trust the word of a Christian or a Christian is not just and punctual to his Promises and this calls for confirmation by an Oath So that Oaths suppose a fault though they are not faults always themselves whatsoever is more than Yea or Nay is not always evil but it always cometh of evil And therefore the Essenes esteemed every man that was put to his Oath no better than an infamous person a perjurer or at least suspected not esteemed a just man and the Heathens would not suffer the Priest of Jupiter to swear because all men had great opinion of his sanctity and authority and the Scythians derided Alexander's caution and timorous provision when he required an Oath of them Nos religionem in ipsa side novimus Our faith is our bond and they who are willing to deceive men will not stick to deceive God when they have called God to witness But I have a caution to insert for each which I propound as an humble advice to persons eminent and publickly interested 22. First That Princes and such as have power of decreeing the injunction of promissory Oaths be very curious and reserved not lightly enjoyning such Promises neither in respect of the matter trivial nor yet frequently nor without great reason enforcing The matter of such Promises must be only what is already matter of Duty or Religion for else the matter is not grave enough sor the calling of God to testimony but when it is a matter of Duty then the Oath is no other than a Vow or Promise made to God in the presence of men And because Christians are otherwise very much obliged to do all which is their duty in matters both civil and religious of Obedience and Piety therefore it must be an instant necessity and a great cause to superinduce such a confirmation as derives from the so sacredly invocating the Name of God it must be when there is great necessity that the duty be actually performed and when the Supreme power either hath not power sufficient to punish the delinquent or may miss to have notice of the delict For in these cases it is reasonable to bind the faith of the obliged persons by the fear of God after a more special manner but else there is no reason sufficient to demand of the subject any farther security than their own faith and contract The reason of this advice relies upon the strictness of the words of this Precept against promissory Oaths and the reverence we owe to the name of God Oaths of Allegiance are fit to be imposed in a troubled State or to a mutinous People But it is not so fit to tie the People by Oath to abstain from transportations of Metal or Grain or Leather from which by Penalties they are with as much security and less suspicion of iniquity restrained 23. Secondly Concerning assertory Oaths and Depositions in Judgment although a greater liberty may be taken in the subject matter of the Oath and we may being required to it swear in Judgment though the cause be a question of money or our interest or the rights of a Society and S. Athanasius purged himself by Oath before the Emperour Constantius yet it were a great pursuance and security of this part of Christian Religion if in no case contrary Oaths might be admitted in which it is certain one part is perjured to the ruine of their Souls to the intricating of the Judgment to the dishonour of Religion but that such rules of prudence and reasonable presumption be established that upon the Oath of that party which the Law shall chuse and upon probable grounds shall presume for the sentence may be established For by a small probability there may a surer Judgment be given than upon the confidence of contradictory Oaths and after the sin the Judge is left to the uncertainty of conjectures as much as if but one part had sworn and to much more because such an Oath is by the consent of all men accepted as a rule to determine in Judgment By these discourses we understand the intention of our Blessed Master in this Precept and I wish by this or any thing else men would be restrained 〈◊〉 that low cheap unreasonable and unexcusable vice of customary Swearing to which we have nothing to invite us that may lessen the iniquity for which we cannot pretend temptation nor alledge infirmity but it begins by wretchlesness and a malicious carelesness and is continued by the strength of habit and the greatest immensity of folly And I consider that Christian Religion being so holy an Institution to which we are invited by so great promises in which we are instructed by so clear revelations and to the performance of our duties compelled by the threatnings of a sad and insupportable eternity should more than sufficiently endear the performance of this Duty to us The name of a Christian is a high and potent antidote against all sin if we consider aright the honour of the name the undertaking of our Covenant and the reward of our duty The Jews eat no Swines flesh because they are of Moses and the Turks drink no Wine because they are Mahumetans and yet we swear for all we are Christians than which there is not in the world a greater conviction of our baseness and irreligion Is the authority of the Holy Jesus so despicable are his Laws so unreasonable his rewards so little his threatnings so small that we must needs in contempt of all this profane the great Name of God and trample under foot the Laws of Jesus and cast away the hopes of Heaven and enter into security to be possessed by Hell-torments for Swearing that is for speaking like a fool without reason without pleasure without reputation much to our disesteem much to the trouble of civil and wise persons with whom we joyn in society and entercourse Certainly Hell will be heat seven times hotter for a customary Swearer and every degree of
insert in pursuance of that caution given to the Church of Thessalonica by S. Paul If any one will not work neither let him eat for we must be careful that our Charity which is intended to minister to poor mens needs do not minister to idleness and the love of beggery and a wandring useless unprofitable life But abating this there is no other consideration that can exempt any needy person from participation of your Charity not though he be your Enemy for that is it which our Blessed Saviour means in the appendix of this Precept Love your Enemies that is according to the exposition of the Apostle If thine enemy hunger 〈◊〉 him if he thirst give him drink not though he be an Unbeliever not though he be a vicious person provided only that the vice be such to which your relief ministers no fuel and adds no flame and if the mere necessities of his nature be supplied it will be a fair security against the danger but if the vice be in the scene of the body all freer comforts are to be denied him because they are but incentives of sin and Angels of darkness This I the rather insert that the pride and supercilious austerities of some persons become not to them an instrument of excuse from ministring to needy persons upon pretence their own sins brought them into that condition For though the causes of our calamities are many times great secrets of Providence yet suppose the poverty of the man was the effect of his Prodigality or other baseness it matters not as to our duty how he came into it but where he is lest we also be denied a visit in our sicknesses and a comfort in our sorrow or a counsel in our doubts or aid in any distress upon pretence that such sadness was procured by our sins and ten to one but it was so Do good to all faith the Apostle but especially to the family of faith for to them our Charity is most proper and proportioned to all viz. who are in need and cannot relieve themselves in which number persons that can work are not to be accounted So that if it be necessary to observe an order in our Charity that is when we cannot supply and suffice for all our opportunities of mercy then let not the Brethren of our Lord go away ashamed and in other things observe the order and propriety of your own relations and where there is otherwise no difference the degree of the necessity is first to be considered This also if the necessity be 〈◊〉 and extreme what-ever the man be he is first to be relieved before the lesser necessities of the best persons or most holy poor But the proper objects of our Charity are old persons sick or impotent laborious and poor Housekeepers Widows and Orphans people oppressed or persecuted for the cause of Righteousness distressed Strangers Captives and abused Slaves prisoners of Debt To these we must be liberal whether they be holy or unholy remembring that we are sons of that Father who makes the dew of Heaven to drop upon the dwellings of the righteous and the fields of sinners 4. Thirdly The Manner of giving Alms is an office of Christian prudence for in what instances we are to exemplifie our Charity we must be determined by our own powers and others needs The Scripture reckons entertaining strangers visiting the sick going to prisons feeding and cloathing the hungry and naked to which by the exigence of the poor and the analogy of Charity many other are to be added The Holy Jesus in the very Precept instanced in lending money to them that need to borrow and he adds looking for nothing again that is if they be unable to pay it Forgiving Debts is a great instance of mercy and a particular of excellent relief but to imprison men for Debt when it is certain they are not able to pay it and by that prison will be far more disabled is an uncharitableness next to the cruelties of salvages and at infinite distance from the mercies of the Holy Jesus Of not Judging PART III. ANother instance of Charity our great Master inserted in this Sermon not to judge our Brother and this is a Charity so cheap and so reasonable that it requires nothing of us but silence in our spirits We may perform this duty at the charge of a negative if we meddle not with other mens affairs we shall do them no wrong and purchase to our selves a peace and be secured the rather from the 〈◊〉 sentence of a severer Judge But this interdict forbids only such judging as is ungentle and uncharitable in criminal causes let us find all the ways to alleviate the burthen of the man by just excuses by extenuating or lessening accidents by abatement of incident circumstances by gentle sentences and whatsoever can do relief to the person that his spirit be not exasperated that the crime be not the parent of impudence that he be not insulted on that he be invited to repentance and by such sweetnesses he be led to his restitution This also in questions of doubts obliges us to determine to the more favourable sence and we also do need the same mercies and therefore should do well by our own rigour not to disintitle our selves to such possibilities and reserves of Charity But it is foul and base by detraction and iniquity to blast the reputation of an honourable action and the fair name of vertue with a calumny But this duty is also a part of the grace of Justice and of Humility and by its relation and kindred to so many vertues is furnished with so many arguments of amability and endearment The PRAYER HOly and merciful Jesus who art the great principle and the instrument of conveying to us the charity and mercies of Eternity who didst love us when we were enemies forgive us when we were debtors recover us when we were dead ransom us when we were slaves relieve us when we were poor and naked and wandring and full of sadness and necessities give us the grace of Charity that we may be pitiful and compassionate of the needs of our necessitous Brethren that we may be apt to relieve them and that according to our duty and possibilities we may rescue them from their calamities Give us courteous affable and liberal souls let us by thy example forgive our debtors and love our enemies and do to them offices of civility and tenderness and relief always propounding thee for our pattern and thy mercies for our precedent and thy Precepts for our rule and thy Spirit for our guide that we shewing mercy here may receive the mercies of Eternity by thy merits and by thy charities and dispensation O Holy and merciful Jesus Amen DISCOURSE XII Of the Second additional Precept of Christ viz. Of PRAYER Non magna loquimur sed vivimus Cum clamore valido et lachrymas prâ—ces offerens exauditus â—â—â—
Thy Name being called upon us let us walk worthy of that calling that our light may shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven In order also to the sanctification of thy Name grant that all our praises hymns Eucharistical remembrances and representments of thy glories may be useful blessed and esfectual for the dispersing thy fame and advancing thy honour over all the world This is a direct and formal act of worshipping and adoration The Name of God is representative of God himself and it signifies Be thou worshipped and adored be thou thanked and celebrated with honour and Eucharist 5. Thy Kingdom come That is As thou hast caused to be preached and published the coming of thy Kingdom the peace and truth the revelation and glories of the Gospel so let it come verily and esfectually to us and all the world that thou mayest truly reign in our spirits exercising absolute dominion subduing all thine Enemies ruling in our Faculties in the Understanding by Faith in the Will by Charity in the Passions by Mortification in the Members by a chaste and right use of the parts And as it was more particularly and in the letter proper at the beginning of Christ's Preaching when he also taught the Prayer that God would hasten the coming of the Gospel to all the world so 〈◊〉 also and ever it will be in its proportion necessary and pious to pray that it may come still making greater progress in the world extending it self where yet it is not and intending it where it is already that the Kingdom of Christ may not only be in us in name and form and honourable appellatives but in effect and power This Petition in the first Ages of Christianity was not expounded to signifie a prayer for Christ's second coming because the Gospel not being preached to all the world they prayed for the delay of the day of Judgment that Christ's Kingdom upon earth might have its proper increment but since then every Age as it is more forward in time so it is more earnest in desire to accomplish the intermedial Prophecies that the Kingdom of God the Father might come in glories infinite And indeed the Kingdom of Grace being in order to the Kingdom of Glory this as it is principally to be desired so may possibly be intended chiefly which also is the more probable because the address of this Prayer being to God the Father it is proper to observe that the Kingdom of Grace or of the Gospel is called the Kingdom of the Son and that of Glory in the style of the Scripture is the Kingdom of the Father S. German Patriarch of Constantinople expounds it with some little difference but not ill Thy Kingdom come that is Let thy Holy Spirit come into us for the Kingdom of Heaven is within us saith the Holy Scripture and so it intimates our desires that the promise of the Father and the Prophecies of old and the Holy Ghost the Comforter may come upon us Let that anointing from above descend upon us whereby we may be anointed Kings and Priests in a spiritual Kingdom and Priesthood by a holy Chrism 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That is The whole Oeconomy and dispensation of thy Providence be the guide of the world and the measure of our desire that we be patient in all accidents conformable to God's will both in doing and in suffering submitting to changes and even to persecutions and doing all God's will which because without God's aid we cannot do therefore we beg it of him by prayer but by his aid we are 〈◊〉 we may do it in the manner of Angelical obedience that is promptly readily chearfully and with all our faculties Or thus As the Angels in Heaven serve thee with harmony concord and peace so let us all joyn in the service of thy Majesty with peace and purity and love unfeigned that as all the Angels are in peace and amongst them there is no persecutor and none persecuted there is none afflicting or afflicted none assaulting or assaulted but all in sweetness and peaceable serenity glorifying thee so let thy will be done on earth by all the world in peace and unity in charity and tranquillity that with one heart and one voice we may glorifie thee our universal Father having in us nothing that may displease thee having quitted all our own desires and pretensions living in Angelick conformity our Souls subject to thee and our Passions to our Souls that in earth also thy will may be done as in the spirit and Soul which is a portion of the heavenly substance These three Petitions are addressed to God by way of adoration In the first the Soul puts on the affections of a Child and devests it self of its own interest offering it self up wholly to the designs and glorifications of God In the second it puts on the relation and duty of a Subject to her legitimate Prince seeking the promotion of his Regal Interest In the third she puts on the affection of a Spouse loving the same love and chusing the same object and delighting in unions and conformities The next part descends lower and makes addresses to God in relation to our own necessities 7. Give us this day our daily bread That is Give unto us all that is necessary for the support of our lives the bread of our necessity so the Syriack Interpreter reads it This day give us the portion of bread which is day by day necessary Give us the bread or support which we shall need all our lives only this day minister our present part For we pray for the necessary bread or maintenance which God knows we shall need all our days but that we be not careful for to morrow we are taught to pray not that it be all at once represented or deposited but that God would minister it as we need it how he pleases but our needs are to be the measure of our desires our desires must not make our needs that we may be consident of the Divine Providence and not at all covetous for therefore God feeds his people with extemporary provisions that by needing always they may learn to pray to him and by being still supplied may learn to trust him for the future and thank him for that is past and rejoyce in the present So God rained down Manna giving them their daily portion and so all Fathers and Masters minister to their children and servants giving them their proportion as they eat it not the meat of a year at once and yet no child or servant fears want if his Parent or Lord were good and wise and rich And it is necessary for all to pray this Prayer the Poor because they want the bread and have it not deposited but in the hands of God mercy ploughing the 〈◊〉 of Heaven as Job's expression is brings them corn
in the same mystical Head is an adunation nearer to identity than those distances between Parents and Children which are only cemented by the actions of Nature as it is of distinct consideration from the spirit For Jesus pointing to his Disciples said Behold my Mother and my Brethren for whosoever doth the will of my Father which is in heaven he is my Brother and Sister and Mother 14. But the Pharisees upon the occasion of the Miracles renewed the old quarrel He casteth out Devils by Beelzebub Which senseless and illiterate objection Christ having confuted charged them highly upon the guilt of an unpardonable crime telling them that the so charging those actions of his done in the virtue of the Divine Spirit is a sin against the Holy Ghost and however they might be bold with the Son of Man and prevarications against his words or injuries to his person might upon Repentance and Baptism find a pardon yet it was a matter of greater consideration to sin against the Holy Ghost that would find no pardon here nor hereafter But taking occasion upon this discourse he by an ingenious and mysterious Parable gives the world great caution of recidivation and backsliding after Repentance For if the Devil returns into a house once swept and garnished he bringeth seven spirits more impure than himself and the last estate of that man is worse than the first 15. After this Jesus went from the house of the Pharisee and coming to the Sea of Tiberias or Genezareth for it was called the Sea of Tiberias from a Town on the banks of the Lake taught the people upon the shore himself sitting in the ship but he taught them by Parables under which were hid mysterious senses which shined through their veil like a bright Sun through an eye closed with a thin eye-lid it being light enough to shew their infidelity but not to dispell those thick Egyptian darknesses which they had contracted by their habitual indispositions and pertinacious aversations By the Parable of the Sower scattering his seed by the way side and some on stony some on thorny some on good ground he intimated the several capacities or indispositions of mens hearts the carelesness of some the frowardness and levity of others the easiness and softness of a third and how they are spoiled with worldliness and cares and how many ways there are to miscarry and that but one sort of men receive the word and bring forth the fruits of a holy life By the Parable of Tares permitted to grow amongst the Wheat he intimated the toleration of dissenting Opinions not destructive of Piety or civil societies By the three Parables of the Seed growing insensibly of the grain of Mustard-seed swelling up to a tree of a little Leven qualifying the whole lump he signified the increment of the Gospel and the blessings upon the Apostolical Sermons 16. Which Parables when he had privately to his Apostles rendred into their proper senses he added to them two Parables concerning the dignity of the Gospel comparing it to Treasure hid in a field and a Jewel of great price for the purchace of which every good Merchant must quit all that he hath rather than miss it telling them withall that however purity and spiritual perfections were intended by the Gospel yet it would not be acquired by every person but the publick Professors of Christianity should be a mixt multitude like a net inclosing fishes good and bad After which discourses he retired from the Sea side and went to his own City of Nazareth where he preached so excellently upon certain words of the Prophet 〈◊〉 that all the people wondred at the wisdom which he expressed in his Divine discourses But the men of Nazareth did not do honour to the Prophet that was their Countryman because they knew him in all the disadvantages of youth and kindred and trade and poverty still retaining in their minds the infirmities and humilities of his first years and keeping the same apprehensions of him a man and a glorious Prophet which they had to him a child in the shop of a Carpenter But when Jesus in his Sermon had reproved their infidelity at which he wondred and therefore did but few Miracles there in respect of what he had done at Capernaum and intimated the prelation of that City before 〈◊〉 they thrust him out of the City and led him to the brow of the hill on which the City was built intending to throw him down headlong But his work was not yet finished therefore he passing through the midst of them went his way 17. Jesus therefore departing from Nazareth went up and down to all the Towns and Castles of Galilce attended by his Disciples and certain women out of whom he had cast unclean spirits such as were Mary Magdalen Johanna wife to Chuza Herod's Steward Susanna and some others who did for him offices of provision and ministred to him out of their own substance and became parts of that holy Colledge which about this time began to be 〈◊〉 because now the Apostles were returned from their Preaching full of joy that the Devils were made subject to the word of their mouth and the Empire of their Prayers and invocation of the holy Name of Jesus But their Master gave them a lenitive to asswage the tumour and excrescency intimating that such priviledges are not solid foundations of a holy joy but so far as they cooperate toward the great end of God's glory and their own Salvation to which when they are consigned and their names written in Heaven in the book of Election and Registers of Predestination then their joy is reasonable holy true and perpetual 18. But when Herod had heard these things of Jesus presently his apprehensions were such as derived from his guilt he thought it was John the Baptist who was risen from the dead and that these mighty works were demonstrations of his power increased by the superadditions of immortality and diviner influences made proportionable to the honour of a Martyr and the state of separation For a little before this time Herod had sent to the Castle of Macheruns where John was prisoner and caused him to be beheaded His head Herodias buried in her own Palace thinking to secure it against a re-union lest it should again disturb her unlawful Lusts and disquiet Herod's conscience But the body the Disciples of John gathered up and carried it with honour and sorrow and buried it in Sebaste in the confines of Samaria making his grave between the bodies of 〈◊〉 and Abdias the Prophets And about this time was the Passeover of the Jews DISCOURSE XV. Of the Excellency Ease Reasonableness and Advantages of bearing Christ ' s Yoke and living according to his Institution Ecce agnus Dei gui toâ—lit peccata Mundi Iohn 1. 29. Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World The Christian's Work and Reward Matth. 11. 29 30. Take my yoke upon
her in the midst of her journey Against this David prayed O my God cut me 〈◊〉 off in the midst of my days But in this there is some variety For God does it sometimes in mercy sometimes in judgment The righteous die and no man regardeth not considering that they are taken away from the evil to come God takes the righteous man hastily to his Crown lest temptation snatch it from him by interrupting his hopes and sanctity And this was the case of the old World For from Adam to the Floud by the Patriarchs were eleven generations but by Cain's line there were but eight so that Cain's posterity were longer liv'd because God intending to bring the Floud upon the World took delight to rescue his elect from the dangers of the present impurity and the future Deluge Abraham lived five years less than his son Isaac it being say the Doctors of the Jews intended for mercy to him that he might not see the iniquity of his Grandchild 〈◊〉 And this the Church for many Ages hath believed in the case of baptized Infants dying before the use of Reason For besides other causes in the order of Divine Providence one kind of mercy is done to them too for although their condition be of a lower form yet it is secured by that timely shall I call it or untimely death But these are cases extraregular ordinarily and by rule God hath revealed his purposes of interruption of the lives of sinners to be in anger and judgment for when men commit any signal and grand impiety God suffers not Nature to take her course but strikes a stroke with his own hand To which purpose I think it a remarkable instance which is reported by 〈◊〉 that for 3332 years even to the twentieth Age there was not one example of a Son that died before his Father but the course of Nature was kept that he who was first born in the descending line did die first I speak of natural death and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to this observation till that Terah the father of Abraham taught the People to make Images of clay and worship them and concerning him it was first remarked that Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity God by an unheard-of Judgment and a rare accident punishing his newly-invented crime And when-ever such 〈◊〉 of a life happens to a vicious person let all the world acknowledge it for a Judgment and when any man is guilty of evil habits or unrepented sins he may therefore expect it because it is threatned and designed for the lot and curse of such persons This is threatned to Covetousness Injustice and Oppression As a Partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days and at his end shall be a Fool. The same is threatned to Voluptuous persons in the highest caresses of delight and Christ told a parable with the same design The rich man said Soul take thy ease but God answered O fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee Zimri and Cozbi were slain in the trophies of their Lust and it was a sad story which was told by Thomas Cantipratanus Two Religious persons tempted by each other in the vigour of their youth in their very first pleasures and opportunities of sin were both struck dead in their embraces and posture of entertainment God smote Jeroboam for his Usurpation and Tyranny and he died Saul died for Disobedience against God and asking counsel of a Pythonisse God smote 〈◊〉 with a Leprosie for his profaneness and distressed 〈◊〉 sorely for his Sacrilege and sent a horrid disease upon Jehoram for his Idolatry These instances represent Voluptuousness and Covetousness Rapine and Injustice Idolatry and Lust Profaneness and Sacrilege as remarked by the signature of exemplary Judgments to be the means of shortening the days of man God himself proving the Executioner of his own fierce wrath I instance no more but in the singular case of Hananiah the false Prophet Thus saith the LORD Behold I will cut thee from off the face of the earth this year thou shalt die because thou hast taught Rebellion against the LORD That is the curse and portion of a false Prophet a short life and a suddén death of God's own particular and more immediate 〈◊〉 23. And thus also the sentence of the Divine anger went forth upon criminal persons in the New Testament Witness the Disease of Herod Judas's Hanging himself the Blindness of 〈◊〉 the Sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira the Buffetings with which Satan 〈◊〉 the bodies of persons excommunicate Yea the blessed Sacrament of CHRIST's Body and Bloud which is intended for our spiritual life if it be unworthily received proves the cause of a natural death For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many are fallen asleep saith S. Paul to the 〈◊〉 Church 24. Thirdly But there is yet another manner of ending man's life by way of Chance or Contingency meaning thereby the manner of God's Providence and event of things which is not produced by the disposition of natural causes nor yet by any particular and special act of God but the event which depends upon accidental causes not so certain and regular as Nature not so conclusive and determined as the acts of decretory Providence but comes by disposition of causes irregular to events rare and accidental This David expresses by entring into battel and in this as in the other we must separate cases extraordinary and rare from the ordinary and common Extraregularly and upon extraordinary reasons and permissions we find that holy persons have miscarried in battel So the 〈◊〉 fell before Benjamin and Jonathan and 〈◊〉 and many of the Lord's champions fighting against the Philistines but in these deaths as God served other ends of Providence so he kept to the good men that fell all the mercies of the Promise by giving them a greater blessing of event and compensation In the more ordinary course of Divine dispensation they that prevaricate the Laws of God are put out of protection God withdraws his special Providence or their tutelar Angel and leaves them exposed to the influences of Heaven to the power of a Constellation to the accidents of humanity to the chances of a Battel which are so many and various that it is ten thousand to one a man in that case never escapes and in such variety of contingencies there is no probable way to assure our safety but by a holy life to endear the Providence of God to be our Guardian It was a remarkable saying of Deborah The Stars sought in their courses 〈◊〉 in their orbs against Sisera Sisera fought when there was an evil Aspect or malignant influence of Heaven upon him For even the smallest thing that is in opposition to us is enough to turn the
more fallible in the application whether we have not mingled some little minutes of malice in the body of infirmities and how much will bear excuse and in what time and to what persons and to what degrees and upon what endeavours we shall be pardoned So that all the interval between our losing baptismal grace and the day of our death we walk in a cloud having lost the certain knowledge of our present condition by our prevarications And indeed it is a very hard thing for a man to know his own heart And he that shall observe how often himself hath been abused by confidences and secret imperfections and how the greatest part of Christians in name only do think themselves in a very good condition when God knows they are infinitely removed from it and yet if they did not think themselves well and sure it is unimaginable they should sleep so quietly and walk securely and consider negligently and yet proceed 〈◊〉 he that considers this and upon what weak and false principles of Divinity men have raised their strengths and perswasions will easily consent to this that it is very easie for men to be deceived in taking estimate of their present condition of their being in the state of Grace 5. But there is great variety of men and difference of degrees and every step of returning to God may reasonably add one degree of hope till at last it comes to the certainty and top of hope Many men believe themselves to be in the state of Grace and are not many are in the state of Grace and are infinitely fearful they are out of it and many that are in God's favour do think they are so and they are not deceived And all this is certain For some sin that sin of Presumption and Flattery of themselves and some good persons are vexed with violent fears and temptations to despair and all are not and when their hopes are right yet some are strong and some are weak for they that are well perswaded of their present condition have perswasions as different as are the degrees of their approach to innocence and he that is at the highest hath also such abatements which are apt and proper for the conservation of humility and godly 〈◊〉 I am guilty of nothing saith S. Paul but I am not hereby justified meaning thus Though I be innocent for ought I know yet God who judges otherwise than we judge may find something to reprove in me It is God that judges that is concerning my degrees of acceptance and hopes of glory If the person be newly recovering from a state of sin because his state is imperfect and his sin not dead and his lust active and his habit not quite extinct it is easie for a man to be too hasty in pronouncing well He is wrapt up in a cloak of clouds hidden and encumbred and his brightest day is but twilight and his discernings dark conjectural and imperfect and his heart is like a cold hand newly applied to the fire full of pain and whether the heat or the cold be strongest is not easie to determine or like middle colours which no man can tell to which of the extremes they are to be accounted But according as persons grow in Grace so they may grow in confidence of their present condition It is not certain they will do so for sometimes the beauty of the tabernacle is covered with goats hair and skins of beasts and holy people do infinitely deplore the want of such Graces which God observes in them with great complacency and acceptance Both these cases say that to be certainly perswaded of our present condition is not a Duty Sometimes it is not possible and sometimes it is better to be otherwise But if we consider of this Certainty as a Blessing and a Reward there is no question but in a great and an eminent Sanctity of life there may also be a great confidence and fulness of perswasion that our present being is well and gracious and then it is certain that such persons are not deceived For the thing it self being sure if the perswasion answers to it it is needless to dispute of the degree of certainty and the manner of it Some persons are heartily perswaded of their being reconciled and of these some are deceived and some are not deceived and there is no sign to distinguish them but by that which is the thing signified a holy life according to the strict rules of Christian Discipline tells what persons are confident and who are presumptuous But the certainty is reasonable in none but in old Christians habitually holy persons not in new Converts or in lately lapsed people for concerning them we find the Spirit of God speaking with clauses of restraint and ambiguity a perhaps and who knoweth and peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee God may have mercy on 〈◊〉 And that God hath done so they only have reason to be confident whom God hath blessed with a lasting continuing Piety and who have wrought out the habits of their precontracted vices 6. But we find in Scripture many precepts given to holy persons being in the state of Grace to secure their standing and perpetuate their present condition For He that endureth unto the end he only shall be saved said our Blessed Saviour and He that standeth let him take heed lest he fall and Thou standest by Faith be not high-minded but fear and Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Hold fast that 〈◊〉 hast and let no man take the crown from thee And it was excellent advice for one Church had lost their first love and was likely also to lose their crown And S. Paul himself who had once entred within the veil and seen unutterable glories yet was forced to endure hardship and to fight against his own disobedient appetite and to do violence to his inclinations for fear that whilest he preached to others himself should become a cast-away And since we observe in holy story that Adam and Eve fell in Paradise and the Angels fell in Heaven it self stumbling at the very jewels which pave the streets of the celestial Jerusalem and in Christ's family one man for whom his Lord had prepared a throne turned Devil and that in the number of the Deacons it is said that one turned Apostate who yet had been a man full of the Holy Ghost it will lessen our train and discompose the gayeties of our present confidence to think that our securities cannot be really distinguished from danger and uncertainties For every man walks upon two legs one is firm invariable constant and eternal but the other is his own God's Promises are the objects of our Faith but the events and final conditions of our Souls which is consequent to our duty can at the best be but the objects of our Hope And either there must in this be a less certainty or
upon whom no such visible signatures have been imprinted The purpose of such chances is that we should repent lest we perish in the like judgment 28. About this time a certain Ruler of a Synagogue renewed the old Question about the observation of the Sabbath repining at Jesus that he cured a woman that was crooked loosing her from her infirmity with which she had been afflicted eighteen years But Jesus made the man ashamed by an argument from their own practice who themselves loose an oxe from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him to watering And by the same argument he also stopt the mouths of the Scribes and Pharisees which were open upon him for curing an Hydropick person upon the Sabbath For Jesus that he might draw off and separate Christianity from the yoke of Ceremonies by abolishing and taking off the strictest Mosaical Rites chose to do very many of his Miracles upon the Sabbath that he might do the work of abrogation and institution both at once not much unlike the Sabbatical Pool in Judaea which was dry six days but gushed out in a full stream upon the Sabbath For though upon all days Christ was operative and miraculous yet many reasons did concur and determine him to a more frequent working upon those days of publick ceremony and convention But going forth from thence he went up and down the Cities of Galilee re-enforcing the same Doctrine he had formerly taught them and daily adding new Precepts and cautions and prudent insinuations advertising of the multitudes of them that perish and the paucity of them that shall be saved and that we should strive to enter in at the strait gate that the way to destruction is broad and plausible the way to Heaven nice and austere and few there be that find it teaches them modesty at Feasts and entertainments of the poor discourses of the many excuses and unwillingnesses of persons who were invited to the feast of the Kingdom the refreshments of the Gospel and tacitly insinuates the rejection of the Jews who were the first invited and the calling of the Gentiles who were the persons called in from the high ways and hedges He reprehends Herod for his subtilty and design to kill him prophesies that he should die at Jerusalem and intimates great sadnesses future to them for neglecting this their day of visitation and for killing the Prophets and the Messengers sent from God 29. It now grew towards Winter and the Jews feast of Dedication was at hand therefore Jesus went up to Jerusalem to the Feast where he preached in Solomon's Porch which part of the Temple stood intire from the first ruines and the end of his Sermon was that the Jews had like to have stoned him But retiring from thence he went beyond Jordan where he taught the people in a most elegant and perswasive Parable concerning the mercy of God in accepting Penitents in the Parable of the Prodigal son returning discourses of the design of the Messias coming into the world to recover erring persons from their sin and danger in the Apologues of the Lost sheep and Goat and under the representment of an Unjust but prudent Steward he taught us so to employ our present opportunities and estates by laying them out in acts of Mercy and Religion that when our Souls shall be dismissed from the stewardship and custody of our body we may be entertained in everlasting habitations He instructeth the Pharisees in the question of Divorces limiting the permissions of Separations to the only cause of Fornication preferreth holy Coelibate before the estate of Marriage in them to whom the gift of Continency is given in order to the Kingdom of Heaven He telleth a Story or a Parable for which is uncertain of a Rich man whom Euthymius out of the tradition of the Hebrews nameth Nymensis and Lazarus the first a voluptuous person and uncharitable the other pious afflicted sick and a begger the first died and went to Hell the second to Abraham's bosome God so ordering the dispensation of good things that we cannot easily enjoy two Heavens nor shall the infelicities of our lives if we be pious end otherwise than in a beatified condition The Epilogue of which story discovered this truth also That the ordinary means of Salvation are the express revelations of Scripture and the ministeries of God's appointment and whosoever neglects these shall not be supplied with means extraordinary or if he were they would be totally ineffectual 30. And still the people drew water from the fountains of our Saviour which streamed out in a full and continual emanation For adding wave to wave line to line precept upon precept he reproved the Fastidiousness of the Pharisee that came with Eucharist to God and contempt to his brother and commended the Humility of the Publican's address who came deploring his sins and with modesty and penance and importunity begged and obtained a mercy Then he laid hands upon certain young children and gave them benediction charging his Apostles to admit infants to him because to them in person and to such in embleme and signification the Kingdom of Heaven does appertain He instructs a young man in the ways and counsels of perfection besides the observation of Precepts by heroical Renunciations and acts of munificent Charity Which discourse because it alighted upon an indisposed and an unfortunate subject for the young man was very rich Jesus discourses how hard it is for a rich man to be saved but he expounds himself to mean they that trust in riches and however it is a matter of so great temptation that it is almost impossible to escape yet with God nothing is impossible But when the Apostles heard the Master bidding the young man sell all and give to the poor and follow him and for his reward promised him a heavenly treasure Peter in the name of the rest began to think that this was their case and the promise also might concern them but they asked the Question What shall we have who have forsaken all and followed thee Jesus answered that they should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel 31. And Jesus extended this mercy to every Disciple that should forsake either house or wife or children or any thing for his sake and the Gospel's and that they should receive a hundred fold in this life by way of comfort and equivalency and in the world to come thousands of glories and possessions in fruition and redundancy For they that are last shall be first and the first shall be last and the despised people of this world shall reign like Kings and contempt it self shall swell up into glory and poverty into an eternal satisfaction And these rewards shall not be accounted according to the priviledges of Nations or priority of vocation but readiness of mind and obedience and sedulity of operation after calling which Jesus taught his Disciples in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard to whom the
served their present design and his own great intendment The Devil never fails to promote every evil purpose and except where God's restaining grace does intervene and interrupt the opportunity by interposition of different and cross accidents to serve other ends of Providence no man easily is fond of wickedness but he shall receive enough to ruine him Indeed Nero and Julian both witty men and powerfull desired to have been Magicians and could not and although possibly the Devil would have corresponded with them who yet were already his own in all degrees of security yet God permitted not that lest they might have understood new ways of doing despight to Martyrs and 〈◊〉 Christians And it concerns us not to tempt God or invite a forward enemy for as we are sure the Devil is ready to promote all vicious desires and bring them out to execution so we are not sure that God will not permit him and he that desires to be undone and cares not to be prevented by God's restraining grace shall finde his ruine in the folly of his own desires and become wretched by his own election Judas hearing of this Congregation of the Priests went and offered to betray his Lord and made a Covenant the Price of which was Thirty Pieces of Silver and he returned 11. It is not intimated in the History of the Life of Jesus that Judas had any Malice against the Person of Christ for when afterwards he saw the matter was to end in the death of his Lord he repented but a base and unworthy spirit of Covetousness possessed him and the reliques of 〈◊〉 for missing the Price of the Ointment which the holy Magdalen had poured upon his feet burnt in his bowels with a secret dark melancholick 〈◊〉 and made an eruption into an act which all ages of the world could never parallel They appointed him for hire thirty pieces and some say that every piece did in value equal ten ordinary current Deniers and so Judas was satisfied by receiving the worth of the three hundred pence at which he valued the Nard pistick But hereafter let no Christian be ashamed to be despised and undervalued for he will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have so disproportioned a price set upon his life as was upon the Holy Jesus S. Mary 〈◊〉 thought it not good enough to aneal his sacred feet Judas thought it a sufficient price for his head for Covetousness aims at base and low purchaces whilest holy Love is great and comprehensive as the bosome of Heaven and aims at nothing that is less than infinite The love of God is a holy fountain limpid and pure sweet and salutary lasting and eternal the love of Mony is a vertiginous pool sucking all into it to destroy it it is troubled and uneven giddy and unsafe serving no end but its own and that also in a restless and uneasie motion The love of God spends it self upon him to receive again the reflexions of grace and benediction the love of Money spends all its desires upon it sell to purchase nothing but unsatisfying instruments of exchange or supernumerary provisions and ends in dissatisfaction and emptiness of spirit and a bitter curse S. Mary Magdalen was defended by her Lord against calumny and rewarded with an honourable mention to all Ages of the Church besides the unction from above which she shortly after received to consign her to crowns and sceptres but Judas was described in the Scripture the Book of life with the black character of death he was disgraced to eternal Ages and presently after acted his own tragedy with a sad and ignoble death 12. Now all things being fitted our Blessed Lord sends two Disciples to prepare the Passeover that he might fulfill the Law of Moses and pass from thence to institutions Evangelical and then fulfill his Sufferings Christ gave them a sign to guide them to the house a man bearing a pitcher of water by which some that delight in mystical significations say was typified the Sacrament of Baptism meaning that although by occasion of the Paschal solemnity the holy Eucharist was first instituted yet it was afterwards to be applied to practice according to the sence of this accident only baptized persons were apt suscipients of the other more perfective Rite as the taking nutriment supposes persons born into the world and within the common conditions of humane nature But in the letter it was an instance of the Divine omniscience who could pronounce concerning accidents at distance as if they were present and yet also like the provision of the Colt to ride on it was an instance of Providence and security of all God's sons for their portion of temporals Jesus had not a Lamb of his own and possibly no money in the bags to buy one and yet Providence was his guide and the charity of a good man was his Proveditore and he found excellent conveniences in the entertainments of a hospitable good man as if he had dwelt in Ahab's Ivory-house and had had the riches of Solomon and the meat of his houshold The PRAYER O Holy King of Sion Eternal Jesus who with great Humility and infinite Love didst enter into the Holy City riding upon an Asse that thou mightest verisie the Predictions of the Prophets and give example of Meekness and of the gentle and paternal government which the eternal Father laid upon thy shoulders be pleased deares̄t Lord to enter into my Soul with triumph trampling over all thine enemies and give me grace to entertain thee with joy and adoration with abjection of my own desires with lopping off all my supersluous branches of a temporal condition and spending them in the offices of Charity and Religion and devesting my self of all my desires laying them at thy holy feet that I may bear the yoke and burthen of the Lord with alacrity with love and the wonders of a satisfied and triumphant spirit Lord enter in and take possession and thou to whose honour the very stones would give testimony make my stony heart an instrument of thy praises let me strew thy way with flowers of Vertue and the holy Rosary of Christian Graces and by thy aid and example let us also triumph over all our infirmities and hostilities and then lay our victories at thy feet and at last follow thee into thy heavenly Jerusalem with palms in our hands and joy in our hearts and eternal acclamations on our lips rejoycing in thee and singing Hallelujahs in a happy Eternity to thee O holy King of Sion eternal Jesus Amen 2. O Blessed and dear Lord who wert pleased to permit thy self to be sold to the assemblies of evil persons for a vile price by one of thy own servants for whom thou hadst done so great favours and hadst designed a crown and a throne to him and he turned himself into a sooty coal and entred into the portion of evil Angels teach us to value thee above all the joys of men to prize
thee at an estimate beyond all the wealth of nature to buy wisdome and not to sell it to part with all that we may enjoy thee and let no temptation abuse our understandings no loss vex us into impatience no frustration of hope fill us with indignation no pressure of calamitous accidents make us angry at thee the fountain of love and blessing no Covetousness transport us into the suburbs of Hell and the regions of sin but make us to love thee as well as ever any creature loved thee that we may never burn in any fires but of a holy love nor sink in any inundation but what proceeds from penitential showrs and suffer no violence but of implacable desires to live with thee and when thou callest us to suffer with thee and for thee 3. LOrd let me never be betrayed by my self or any violent accident and 〈◊〉 temptation let me never be sold for the vile price of temporal gain or transient pleasure or a pleasant dream but since thou hast bought me with a price even then when thou wert sold thy self let me never be separated from thy possession I am thine bought with a price Lord save me and in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels remember Lord that I cost thee as dear as any and therefore cast me not into the portion of Judas but let me walk and dwell and bathe in the field of thy bloud and pass from hence pure and sanctified into the society of the elect Apostles receiving my part with them and my lot in the communications of thy inheritance O gracious Lord and dearest Saviour Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Washing of the Disciples Feet by JESUS and his Sermon of Humility He washeth his Disciples feet Iohn 13. 5. After that he powreth water into a baso◠and began to wash the Disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded 6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter Peter saith unto him Lord doest thou wash my feet The Institution of his last Supper Mark 14. 22. And as they did eat Lesus took bread blessed brake it gaue to them said Take eat this is my body And he took y e Cup when he had given thanks he gave it to them they all dranke of it In the 〈◊〉 of the Communion 1. THE Holy JESUS went now to eat his last Paschal Supper and to finish the work of his Legation and to fulfill that part of the Law of Moses in every of its smallest and most minute particularities in which also the actions were significant of spiritual duties which we may transfer from the letter to the spirit in our own instances That as JESUS ate the Paschal Lamb with a staff in his Hand with his Loins girt with sandals on his Feet in great haste with unlevened Bread and with bitter Herbs so we also should do all our services according to the signification of these symbols leaning upon the Cross of JESUS for a staff and bearing the rod of his Government with Loins girt with Angelical Chastity with shoes on our Feet that so we may guard and have custody over our affections and be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace eating in haste as becomes persons hungring and thirsting after Righteousness doing the work of the Lord zealously and fervently without the leven of Malice and secular interest with bitter herbs of Self-denial and Mortification of our sensual and inordinate desires The sence and mystery of the whole act with all its circumstances is That we obey all the Sanctions of the Divine Law and that every part of our Religion be pure and peaceable chaste and obedient confident in God and diffident in our selves frequent and zealous humble and resigned just and charitable and there will not easily be wanting any just circumstance to hallow and consecrate the action 2. When the Holy Jesus had finished his last Mosaic Rite he descends to give example of the first fruit of Evangelical Graces he rises from Supper lays aside his garment like a servant and with all the circumstances of an humble ministery washes the feet of his Disciples beginning at the first S. Peter until he came to Judas the Traitor that we might in one scheme see a rare conjunction of Charity and Humility of Self-denial and indifferency represented by a person glorious and great their Lord and Master sad and troubled And he chose to wash their feet rather than their head that he might have the opportunity of a more humble posture and a more apt signification of his Charity Thus God lays every thing aside that he may serve his servants Heaven stoops to earth and one abyss calls upon another and the Miseries of man which were next to infinite are excelled by a Mercy equal to the immensity of God And this washing of their feet which was an accustomed civility and entertainment of honoured strangers at the beginning of their meal Christ deferred to the end of the Paschal Supper that it might be the preparatory to the second which he intended should be festival to all the world S. Peter was troubled that the hands of his Lord should wash his servants feet those hands which had opened the eyes of the blind and cured lepers and healed all diseases and when lift up to Heaven were omnipotent and could restore life to dead and buried persons he counted it a great indecency for him to suffer it but it was no more than was necessary for they had but lately been earnest in dispute for Precedency and it was of it self so apt to swell into tumour and inconvenience that it was not to be cured but by some Prodigy of Example and Miracle of Humility which the Holy Jesus offered to them in this express calling them to learn some great Lesson a Lesson which God descended from Heaven to earth from riches to poverty from essential innocence to the disreputation of a sinner from a Master to a Servant to learn us that is that we should esteem our selves but just as we are low sinful miserable needy and unworthy It seems it is a great thing that man should come to have just and equal thoughts of himself that God used such powerful arts to transmit this Lesson and engrave it in the spirits of men and if the Receipt fails we are eternally lost in the mists of vanity and enter into the condition of those Angels whom Pride transformed and spoiled into the condition of Devils and upon consideration of this great example Guericus a good man cried out Thou hast overcome O Lord thou hast overcome my Pride this Example hath mastered me I deliver my self up into thy hands never to receive liberty or exaltation but in the condition of thy humblest servant 3. And to this purpose S. Bernard hath an affectionate and devout consideration saying That some of the Angels as soon as they were created had an ambition to
praise so when it is presented to him he takes no contentment in it and if it be easie to want Praise when it is denied yet it is harder not to be delighted with it when it is offered But there is much reason that we should put restraints upon our selves lest if we be praised without desert we find a greater Judgment of God or if we have done well and received praise for it we 〈◊〉 all our reward which God hath deposited for them that receive not their good things in this life For as silver is tried in the melter and gold in the Crucible so is a man tried by the mouth of him that praises him that is he is either clarified from his dross by looking upon the praise as a homily to teach and an instrument to invite his duty or else if he be already pure he is consolidated strengthned in the sobriety of his spirit and retires himself closer into the strengths and securities of Humility Nay this step of Humility uses in very holy persons to be enlarged to a delight in affronts and disreputation in the world Now I begin to be Christ ' s Disciple said 〈◊〉 the Martyr when in his journey to Rome he suffered perpetual revilings and abuse S. Paul rejoyced in his infirmities and reproach and all the Apostles at Jerusalem went from the tribunal rejoycing that they were esteemed worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus This is an excellent condition and degree of Humility But I chuse to add one that is less but in all persons necessary 9. Fourthly Christ's Humble man is careful never to speak any thing that may redound to his own praise unless it be with a design of Charity or Duty that either God's glory or the profit of his neighbour be concerned in it but never speaking with a design to be esteemed learned or honourable S. Arsenius had been Tutor to three Caesars Theodosius Arcadius and Honorius but afterwards when he became Religious no word escaped him that might represent and tell of his former greatness and it is observable concerning S. Jerome that although he was of noble extraction yet in all his own Writings there is not the smallest intimation of it This I desire to be understood only to the sence and purposes of Humility and that we have no designs of vanity and phancy in speaking learnedly or recounting our exteriour advantages but if either the 〈◊〉 of our brother or the glory of God if either there be Piety or Charity in the design it is lawful to publish all those excellencies with which God hath distinguished us from others The young Marquess of Castilion being to do publick exercise in his course of Philosophy made it a case of Conscience whether he were bound to dispute his best fearing lest vanity might transport him in the midst of those praises which his Collegiates might give him It was an excellent consideration in the young Gentleman but in actions civil and humane since the danger is not so immediate and a little complacency becoming the instrument of vertue and encouragement of studies may with like care be referred to God as the giver and 〈◊〉 his praises he might with more safety have done his utmost it being in some sense a duty to encourage others to give account of our Graces and our labours and all the appendent vanity may quickly be suppressed A good name may give us opportunity of perswading others to their duty especially in an Age in which men chuse their Doctrines by the men that preach them and S. Paul used his liberty when he was zealous for his Corinthian Disciples but restrained himself when it began to make reflexions upon his own spirit But although a good name be necessary and in order to such good ends whither it may serve it is lawful to desire it yet a great name and a pompous honour and secular greatness hath more danger in it to our selves than ordinarily it can have of benefit to others and although a man may use the greatest honours to the greatest purposes yet ordinary persons may not safely desire them because it will be found very hard to have such mysterious and abstracted considerations as to separate all our proper interest from the publick end To which I add this consideration That the contempt of Honour and the instant pursuit of Humility is more effective of the ghostly benefit of others than Honours and great Dignities can be unless it be rarely and very accidentally 10. If we need any new incentives to the practice of this Grace I can say no more but that Humility is Truth and Pride is a Lie that the one glorifies God the other dishonours him Humility makes men like Angels Pride makes Angels to become Devils that Pride is Folly Humility is the temper of a holy spirit and excellent Wisdom that Humility is the way to glory Pride to ruine and confusion Humility makes Saints on Earth Pride undoes them Humility beatifies the Saints in Heaven and the Elders throw their Crowns at the foot of the Throne Pride disgraces a man among all the Societies of Earth God loves one and Satan solicits the cause of the other and promotes his own interest in it most of all And there is no one Grace in which Christ propounded himself imitable so signally as in this of Meekness and Humility for the enforcing of which he undertook the condition of a Servant and a life of Poverty and a death of Disgrace and washed the feet of his Disciples and even of Judas himself that his action might be turned into a Sermon to preach this Duty and to make it as eternal as his own Story The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Jesus who wert pleased to lay aside the Glories and incomprehensible Majesty which clothed thy Infinity from before the beginning of Creatures and didst put on a cloud upon thy Brightness and wert invested with the impure and imperfect broken robe of Humane nature and didst abate those Splendors which broke through the veil commanding Devils not to publish thee and men not to proclaim thy Excellencies and the Apostles not to reveal those Glories of thine which they discovered incircling thee upon mount Tabor in thy transfiguration and didst by perpetual Homilies and symbolical mysterious actions as with deep characters engrave Humility into the spirits of thy Disciples and the Discipline of Christianity teach us to approach near to these thy Glories which thou hast so covered with a cloud that we might without amazement behold thy Excellencies make us to imitate thy gracious Condescensions take from us all vanity and phantastick complacencies in our own persons or actions and when there arises a reputation consequent to the performance of any part of our Duty make us to 〈◊〉 the glory upon thee suffering nothing to adhere to our own spirits but shame at our own imperfection and thankfulness to thee for all thy assistences let us never seek the
which we shall no more be at war with Reason nor so much with Sense and not at all with Faith And for persons of the contradictory perswasion who to avoid the natural sence affirm it only to be figurative since their design is only to make this Sacrament to be Christ's Body in the sence of Faith and not of Philosophy they may remember that its being really present does not hinder but that all that reality may be spiritual and if it be Christ's Body so it be not affirmed such in a natural sence and manner it is still only the object of Faith and spirit and if it be affirmed only to be spiritual there is then no danger to Faith in admitting the words of Christ's institution This is my Body I suppose it to be a mistake to think what soever is real must be natural and it is no less to think spiritual to be only figurative that 's too much and this is too little Philosophy and Faith may well be reconciled and whatsoever objection can invade this union may be cured by modesty And if we profess we understand not the manner of this Mystery we say no more but that it is a Mystery and if it had been necessary we should have construed it into the most latent sence Christ himself would have given a Clavis and taught the Church to unlock so great a Secret Christ said This is my Body this is my 〈◊〉 S. Paul said The bread of blessing that we break is the communication of the body of Christ and the Chalice which we bless is the communication of the bloud of Christ and We are all one body because we eat of one bread One proposition as well as the other is the matter of Faith and the latter of them is also of Sense one is as literal as the other and he that distinguishes in his belief as he may place the impropriety upon which part he please and either say it is improperly called Bread or improperly called Christ's Body so he can have nothing to secure his proposition from errour or himself from boldness in decreeing concerning Mysteries against the testimonies of Sense or beyond the modesty and simplicity of Christian Faith Let us love and adore the abyss of Divine Wisdom and Goodness and entertain the Sacrament with just and holy receptions and then we shall receive all those fruits of it which an earnest disputer or a peremptory dogmatizer whether he happen right or wrong hath no warrant to expect upon the interest of his Opinion 4. In the Institution of this Sacrament Christ manifested first his Almighty Power secondly his infinite Wisdome and thirdly his unspeakable Charity First his Power is manifest in making the Symbols to be the instruments of conveying himself to the spirit of the Receiver He nourishes the Soul with Bread and feeds the Body with a Sacrament he makes the Body spiritual by his Graces there ministred and makes the Spirit to be united to his Body by a participation of the Divine nature In the Sacrament that Body which is reigning in Heaven is exposed upon the Table of blessing and his Body which was broken for us is now broken again and yet remains impassible Every consecrated portion of bread and wine does exhibit Christ intirely to the faithful Receiver and yet Christ remains one while he is wholly ministred in 10000 portions So long as we call these mysterious and make them intricate to exercise our Faith and to represent the wonder of the Mystery and to encrease our Charity our being inquisitive into the abyss can have no evil purposes God hath instituted the Rite in visible Symbols to make the secret Grace as presential and discernible as it might that by an instrument of Sense our spirits might be accommodated as with an exteriour object to produce an internal act But it is the prodigy of a miraculous power by instruments so easie to produce effects so glorious This then is the object of Wonder and Adoration 5. Secondly And this effect of Power does also remark the Divine Wisdome who hath ordained such Symbols which not only like spittle and clay toward the curing blind eyes proclaim an Almighty Power but they are apposite and proper to signifie a Duty and become to us like the Word of Life and from Bread they turn into a Homily For therefore our wisest Master hath appointed Bread and Wine that we may be corporally united to him that as the Symbols becoming nutriment are turned into the substance of our bodies so Christ being the food of our Souls should assimilate us making us partakers of the Divine Nature It also tells us that from hence we derive life and holy motion for in him we live and move and have our being He is the staff of our life and the light of our eyes and the strength of our spirit He is the Viand for our journey and the antepast of Heaven And because this holy Mystery was intended to be a Sacrament of Union that Lesson is morally represented in the Symbols That as the salutary juice is expressed from many clusters running into one 〈◊〉 and the Bread is a mass made of many grains of Wheat so we also as the Apostie infers from hence himself observing the analogy should be one bread and one bodr because we partake of that one bread And it were to be wished that from hence also all Christians would understand a signification of another Duty and that they would 〈◊〉 communicate as remembring that the Soul may need a frequent ministration as well as the Body its daily proportion This consideration of the Divine Wisdome is apt to produce Reverence Humility and Submission of our understanding to the immensity of God's unsearchable abysses 6. Thirdly But the story of the Love of our dearest Lord is written in largest characters who not only was at that instant busie in doing Man the greatest good even then when man was contriving his death and his dishonour but contrived to represent his bitter Passion to us without any circumstances of horror in symbols of pleasure and delight that we may taste and see how gracious our LORD is who would not transmit the record of his Passion to us in any thing that might trouble us No Love can be greater than that which is so beatifical as to bestow the greatest good and no Love can be better expressed than that which although it is productive of the greatest blessings yet is curious also to observe the smallest circumstances And not only both these but many other circumstances and arguments of Love concur in the Holy Sacrament 1. It is a tenderness of affection that ministers wholsome Physick with arts and instruments of pleasure And such was the Charity of our Lord who brings health to us in a golden Chalice life not in the bitter drugs of Egypt but in spirits and quintessences giving us apples of Paradise at the same time yielding food and health
and pleasure 2. Love desires to do all good to its beloved object and that is the greatest love which gives us the greatest blessings And the Sacrament therefore is the argument of his greatest love for in it we receive the honey and the honey-comb the Paschal Lamb with his bitter herbs Christ with all his griefs and his Passion with all the salutary effects of it 3. Love desires to be remembred and to have his object in perpetual representment And this Sacrament Christ designed to that purpose that he who is not present to our eyes might always be present to our spirits 4. Love demands love again and to desire to be beloved is of it self a great argument of love And as God cannot give us a greater blessing than his Love which is himself with an excellency of relation to us superadded so what greater demonstration of it can he make to us than to desire us to love him with as much earnestness and vehemency of desire as if we were that to him which he is essentially to us the author of our being and our blessing 5. And yet to consummate this Love and represent it to be the greatest and most excellent the Holy Jesus hath in this Sacrament designed that we should be united in our spirits with him incorporated to his body partake of his Divine nature and communicate in all his Graces and Love hath no expression beyond this that it desires to be united unto its object So that what Moses said to the men of Israel What nation is so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things for which we call upon him we can enlarge in the meditation of this Holy Sacrament for now the Lord our God calls upon us not only to be nigh unto him but to be all one with him not only as he was in the Incarnation flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone but also to communicate in spirit in grace in nature in Divinity it self 7. Upon the strength of the premisses we may sooner take an estimate of the Graces which are conveyed to us in the reception and celebration of this Holy Sacrament and Sacrifice For as it is a Commemoration and representment of Christ's Death so it is a commemorative Sacrifice as we receive the symbols and the mystery so it is a Sacrament In both capacities the benefit is next to infinite First For whatsoever Christ did at the Institution the same he commanded the Church to do in remembrance and repeated rites and himself also does the same thing in Heaven for us making perpetual Intercession for his Church the body of his redeemed ones by representing to his Father his death and sacrifice there he sits a high Priest continually and offers still the same one perfect sacrifice that is still represents it as having been once finished and consummate in order to perpetual and never-failing events And this also his Ministers do on earth they offer up the same Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of the Cross by prayers and a commemorating rite and representment according to his holy Institution And as all the effects of Grace and the titles of glory were purchased for us on the Cross and the actual mysteries of Redemption perfected on earth but are applied to us and made effectual to single persons and communities of men by Christ's Intercession in Heaven so also they are promoted by acts of Duty and Religion here on earth that we may be workers together with God as S. Paul expresses it and in virtue of the eternal and all-sufficient Sacrifice may offer up our prayers and our duty and by representing that sacrifice may send up together with our prayers an instrument of their graciousness and acceptation The Funerals of a deceased friend are not only performed at his first interring but in the monthly minds and anniversary commemorations and our grief returns upon the fight of a picture or upon any instance which our dead friend desired us to preserve as his memorial we celebrate and exhibite the Lora's death in sacrament and symbol and this is that great express which when the Church offers to God the Father it obtains all those blessings which that sacrifice purchased Themistocles snatch'd up the son of King Admetus and held him between himself and death to mitigate the rage of the King and prevailed accordingly Our very holding up the Son of God and representing him to his Father is the doing an act of mediation 〈◊〉 advantage to our selves in the virtue and efficacy of the Mediatour As Christ is a Priest in Heaven for ever and yet does not sacrifice himself afresh nor yet without a sacrifice could he be a Priest but by a daily ministration and intercession represents his sacrifice to God and offers himself as sacrificed so he does upon earth by the ministery of his servants he is offered to God that is he is by Prayers and the Sacrament represented or offered up to God as sacrificed which in effect is a celebration of his death and the applying it to the present and future necessities of the Church as we are capable by a ministery like to his in Heaven It follows then that the celebration of this Sacrifice be in its proportion an instrument of applying the proper Sacrifice to all the purposes which it first designed It is ministerially and by application an instrument propitiatory it is Eucharistical it is an homage and an act of adoration and it is impetratory and obtains for us and for the whole Church all the benefits of the sacrifice which is now celebrated and applied that is As this Rite is the remembrance and ministerial celebration of Christ's sacrifice so it is destined to do honour to God to express the homage and duty of his servants to acknowledge his supreme dominion to give him thanks and worship to beg pardon blessings and supply of all our needs And its profit is enlarged not only to the persons celebrating but to all to whom they design it according to the nature of Sacrifices and Prayers and all such solemn actions of Religion 8. Secondly If we consider this not as the act and ministery of Ecclesiastical persons but as the duty of the whole Church communicating that is as it is a 〈◊〉 so it is like the Springs of Eden from whence issue many Rivers or the Trees of celestial Jerusalem bearing various kinds of Fruit. For whatsoever was offered in the Sacrifice is given in the Sacrament and whatsoever the Testament bequeaths the holy Mysteries dispense 1. He that 〈◊〉 my 〈◊〉 and drinketh my bloud abideth in me and 〈◊〉 in him Christ in his Temple and his resting-place and the worthy Communicant is in Sanctuary and a place of protection and every holy Soul having feasted at his Table may say as S. Paul 〈◊〉 live yet not I but Christ liveth in me So that to live is Christ Christ is
our life and he dwells in the body and the spirit of every one that eats Christ's flesh and drinks his bloud Happy is that man that sits at the Table of Angels that puts his hand into the dish with the King of all the Creatures and feeds upon the eternal Son of God joyning things below with things above Heaven with Earth Life with Death that mortality might be swallowed up of life and Sin be destroyed by the inhabitation of its greatest Conqueror And now I need not enumerate any particulars since the Spirit of God hath ascertained us that Christ enters into our hearts and takes possession and abides there that we are made Temples and celestial mansions that we are all one with our Judge and with our Redeemer that our Creator is bound unto his Creature with bonds of charity which nothing can dissolve unless our own hands break them that Man is united with God and our weakness is fortified by his strength and our miseries wrapped up in the golden leaves of glory 2. Hence it follows that the Sacrament is an instrument of reconciling us to God and taking off the remanent guilt and stain and obligations of our sins This is the 〈◊〉 that was shed for you for the remission of sins For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And such are all they who worthily eat the flesh of Christ by receiving him they more and more receive remission of sins redemption sanctification wisdom and certain hopes of glory 〈◊〉 as the Soul touching and united to the flesh of Adam contracts the stain of original misery and imperfection so much the 〈◊〉 shall the Soul united to the flesh of Christ receive pardon and purity and all those blessed emanations from our union with the Second Adam But this is not to be understood as if the first beginnings of our pardon were in the holy Communion for then a man might come with his impurities along with him and lay them on the holy Table to stain and pollute so bright a presence No first Repentance must 〈◊〉 the ways of the Lord and in this holy Rite those words of our Lord are verified He that is justified let him be justified 〈◊〉 that is here he may receive the increase of Grace and as it grows so sin dies and we are reconciled by nearer unions and approximations to God 9. Thirdly The holy Sacrament is the pledge of Glory and the earnest of Immortality for when we have received him who hath overcome Death and henceforth dies no more he becomes to us like the Tree of life in Paradise and the consecrated Symbols are like the seeds of an eternal duration springing up in us to eternal life nourishing our spirits with Grace which is but the prologue and the infancy of Glory and differs from it only as a Child from a Man But God first raised up his Son to life and by giving him to us hath also consigned us to the same state for our life is hid with Christ in God When we lay down and cast aside the impurer robes of flesh they are then but preparing for glory and if by the only touch of Christ bodies were redintegrate and restored to natural perfections how shall not we live for ever who eat his flesh and drink his bloud It is the discourse of S. Cyril Whatsoever the Spirit can convey to the body of the Church we may expect 〈◊〉 this Sacrament for as the Spirit is the instrument of life and action so the bloud of Christ is the conveyance of his Spirit And let all the mysterious places of holy Scripture concerning the effects of Christ communicated in the blessed Sacrament be drawn together in one Scheme we cannot but observe that although they are so expressed as 〈◊〉 their meaning may seem intricate and involved yet they cannot be drawn to any meaning at all but it is as glorious in its sense as it is mysterious in the expression and the more intricate they are the greater is their purpose no words being apt and proportionate to signifie this spiritual secret and excellent effects of the Spirit A veil is drawn before all these testimonies because the people were not able to behold the glory which they cover with their curtain and Christ dwelling in us and giving us his flesh to 〈◊〉 and his bloud to drink and the hiding of our life with God and the communication of the body of Christ and Christ being our life are such secret glories that as the fruition of them is the portion of the other world so also is the full perception and understanding of them for therefore God appears to us in a cloud and his glories in a veil that we understanding more of it by its concealment than we can by its open face which is too bright 〈◊〉 our weak eyes may with more piety also entertain the greatness by these indefinite and mysterious significations than we can by plain and direct intuitions which like the Sun in a direct ray enlightens the object but confounds the organ 10. I should but in other words describe the same glories if I should add That this holy Sacrament does enlighten the spirit of Man and clarifie it with spiritual discernings and as he was to the two Disciples at 〈◊〉 so also to other faithful people Christ is known in the breaking of bread That it is a great defence against the hostilities of our ghostly enemies this Holy Bread being like the Cake in 〈◊〉 's Camp overturning the tents of 〈◊〉 That it is the relief of our sorrows the antidote and preservative of Souls the viand of our journey the guard and passe-port of our death the wine of Angels That it is more healthful than Rhubarb more pleasant than Cassia That the Betele and 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 the Moly or Nepenthe of Pliny the Lirinon of the 〈◊〉 the Balsam of 〈◊〉 the Manna of Israel the Honey of Jonathan are but weak expressions to tell us that this is excellent above Art and Nature and that nothing is good enough in Philosophy to become its 〈◊〉 All these must needs fall very short of those plain words of Christ This is my Body The other may become the ecstasies of Piety the transportation of joy and wonder and are like the discourse of S. 〈◊〉 upon mount Tabor he was resolved to say some great thing but he knew not what but when we remember that the Body of our Lord and his Bloud is communicated to us in the Bread and the Chalice of blessing we must sit down and rest our selves for this is the mountain of the Lord and we can go no farther 11. In the next place it will 〈◊〉 our enquiry to consider how we are to prepare our selves For at the gate of life a man may meet with death and although this holy Sacrament be like Manna in which the obedient find the relishes of Obedience the chaste of
he bearing them upon his tender body with an even and excellent and dispassionate spirit offered up these beginnings of sufferings to his Father to obtain pardon even for them that injured him and for all the World 6. Judas now seeing that this matter went farther than he intended it repented of his fact For although evil persons are in the progress of their iniquity invited on by new arguments and supported by confidence and a careless spirit yet when iniquity is come to the height or so great a proportion that it is apt to produce Despair or an intolerable condition then the Devil suffers the Conscience to thaw and grow tender but it is the tenderness of a Bile it is soreness rather and a new disease and either it comes when the time of Repentance is past or leads to some act which shall make the pardon to be impossible and so it happened here For Judas either impatient of the shame or of the sting was thrust on to despair of pardon with a violence as hasty and as great as were his needs And Despair is very often used like the bolts and bars of Hell-gates it 〈◊〉 upon them that had entred into the suburbs of eternal death by an habitual sin and it secures them against all retreat And the Devil is forward enough to bring a man to Repentance provided it be too late and Esau wept bitterly and repented him and the five foolish Virgins lift up their voice aloud when the gates were shut and in Hell men shall repent to all eternity But I consider the very great folly and infelicity of Judas it was at midnight he received his money in the house of Annas betimes in that morning he repented his bargain he threw the money back again but his sin stuck close and it is thought to a 〈◊〉 eternity Such is the purchace of Treason and the reward of Covetousness it is cheap in its offers momentany in its possession unsatisfying in the fruition uncertain in the stay sudden in its 〈◊〉 horrid in the remembrance and a ruine a certain and miserable ruine is in the event When Judas came in that sad condition and told his miserable story to them that set him on work they 〈◊〉 him go away unpitied he had served their ends in betraying his Lord and those that hire such servants use to leave them in the disaster to shame and to sorrow and so did the Priests but took the money and 〈◊〉 to put it into the treasury because it was the price of bloud but they made no scruple to take it from the treasury to buy that bloud Any thing seems lawful that serves the ends of ambitious and bloudy persons and then they are scrupulous in their cases of Conscience when nothing of Interest does intervene for evil men make Religion the servant of Interest and sometimes weak men think that it is the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Religion and suspect that all of it is a design because many great Politicks make it so The end of the Tragedy was that Judas died with an ignoble death marked with the circumstances of a horrid Judgment and perished by the most infamous hands in the world that is by his own Which if it be confronted against the excellent spirit of S. Peter who did an act as contradictory to his honour and the grace of God as could be easily imagined yet taking sanctuary in the arms of his Lord he lodged in his heart for ever and became an example to all the world of the excellency of the Divine Mercy and the efficacy of a holy Hope and a hearty timely and an operative Repentance 7. 〈◊〉 now all things were ready for the purpose the High Priest and all his Council go along with the Holy Jesus to the house of Pilate hoping he would verifie their Sentence and bring it to execution that they might 〈◊〉 be rid of their fears and enjoy their sin and their reputation quietly S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the High Priest caused the Holy Jesus to be led with a cord about his neck and in memory of that the Priests for many Ages 〈◊〉 a stole about theirs But the Jews did it according to the custom of the Nation to signifie he was condemned to death they desired Pilate that he would crucifie him they having 〈◊〉 him worthy And when Pilate enquired into the particulars they gave him a general and an indefinite answer If he were not guilty we would not have brought him 〈◊〉 thee they intended not to make Pilate Judge of the cause but 〈◊〉 of their cruelty But Pilate had not learned to be guided by an implicite faith of such persons which he knew to be malicious and violent and therefore still called for instances and arguments of their Accusation And that all the world might see with how great unworthiness they prosecuted the 〈◊〉 they chiefly there accused him of such crimes upon which themselves condemned him not and which they knew to be false but yet likely to move Pilate if he had been passionate or inconsiderate in his sentences He offered to make himself a King This 〈◊〉 happened at the entry of the Praetorium for the 〈◊〉 who made no conscience of killing the King of Heaven made a conscience of the external customs and ceremonies of their Law which had in them no interiour sanctity which were apt to separate them 〈◊〉 the Nations and remark them with characters of Religion and abstraction it would defile them to go to a Roman Forum 〈◊〉 a capital action was to be judged and yet the effusion of the best bloud in the world was not esteemed against their 〈◊〉 so violent and blind is the spirit of malice which turns humanity into 〈◊〉 wisdom into craft diligence into subornation and Religion into Superstition 8. Two other articles they alledged against him but the first concerned not Pilate and the second was involved in the third and therefore he chose to examine him upon this only of his being a King To which the Holy Jesus answered that it is true he was 〈◊〉 King indeed but not of this world his Throne is Heaven the Angels are his Courtiers and the 〈◊〉 Creation are his Subjects His Regiment is spiritual his 〈◊〉 are the Courts of Conscience and Church-tribunals and at Dooms-day the Clouds The Tribute which he demands are conformity to his Laws Faith 〈◊〉 and Charity no other Gabels but the duties of a holy Spirit and the expresses of a religious Worship and obedient Will and a consenting Understanding And in all this Pilate thought the interest of 〈◊〉 was not invaded For certain it is the Discipline of Jesus confirmed it much and supported it by the strongest pillars And here Pilate saw how impertinent and malicious their Accusation was And we who declaim against the unjust proceedings of the Jews against our dearest Lord should do well to take care that we in accusing any of our Brethren either with malicious purpose or with
of the West now use being indicative and declaratory of a present Pardon is for the very form sake not to be used to Death bed Penitents after a vicious life because if any thing more be intended in the form than a Prayer the truth of the affirmation may be questioned and an Ecclesiastical person hath no authority to say to such a man I absolve thee but if no more be intended but a Prayer it is better to use a mere Prayer and common form of address than such words which may countenance unsecure confidences evil purposes and worse lives 14. Thirdly If the Devil tempts a sick person who hath lived well to Presumption and that he seems full of Confidence and without trouble the care that is then to be taken is to consider the Disease and to state the Question right For at some instants and periods God visits the spirit of a man and sends the immission of a bright ray into him and some good men have been so used to apprehensions of the Divine mercy that they have an habitual chearfulness of spirit and hopes of Salvation Saint Hierome reports that Hilarion in a Death-bed agony felt some tremblings of heart till reflecting upon his course of life he found comforts springing from thence by a proper emanation and departed chearfully and Hezekiah represented to God in Prayer the integrity of his life and made it the instrument of his hope And nothing of this is to be calied Presumption provided it be in persons of eminent Sanctity and great experience old Disciples and the more perfect Christians But because such persons are but seldome and rare if the same Confidence be observed in persons of common imperfection and an ordinary life it is to be corrected and allayed with consideration of the Divine Severity and Justice and with the strict requisites of a holy life with the deceit of a man 's own heart with consideration and general remembrances of secret sins and that the most perfect state of life hath very great needs of mercy and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear And the spirit of the man is to be promoted and helped in the encrease of Contrition as being the proper deletery to cure the extravagancies of a forward and intemperate spirit 15. But there is a Presumption commenced upon opinion relying either upon a perswasion of single Predestination or else which is worse upon imaginary securities that Heaven is to be purchased upon conditions easier than a Day 's labour and that an evil life may be reconciled to Heaven by the intervening of little or single acts of Piety or Repentance If either of them both have actually produced ill life to which they are apt or apt to be abused the persons are miserable in their condition and cannot be absolutely remedied by going about to cure the Presumption that was the cause of all but now it is the least thing to be considered his whole state is corrupted and men will not by any discourses or spiritual arts used on their Death-beds be put into a state of Grace because then is no time to change the state and there is no mutation then but by single actions from good to better a dying man may proceed but not from the state of Reprobation to the life of Grace And yet it is good charity to unloose the bonds of Satan whereby the man is bound and led captive at his will to take off the Presumption by destroying the cause and then let the work of Grace be set as forward as it can and leave the event to God for nothing else is left possible to be done But if the sick man be of a good life and yet have a degree of Confidence beyond his Vertue upon the phancie of Predestination it is not then a time to rescind his opinion by a direct opposition but let him be drawn off from the consideration of it by such discourses as are apt to make him humble and penitent for they are the most apt instruments to secure the condition of the man and attemper his spirit These are the great Temptations incident to the last scene of our lives and are therefore more particularly suggested by the Tempter because they have in them something contrary to the universal effect of a holy life and are designs to interpose between the end of the journey and the reception of the crown and therefore it concerns every man who is in a capacity of receiving the end of his Faith the Salvation of his Soul to lay up in the course of his life something against this great day of expence that he may be better fortified with the armour of the Spirit against these last assaults of the Devil that he may not shipwreck in the haven 16. Eschewing evil is but the one half of our work we must also do good And now in the few remanent days or hours of our life there are certain exercises of Religion which have a special relation to this state and are therefore of great concernment to be done that we may make our condition as certain as we can and our portion of Glory greater and our Pardon surer and our Love to increase and that our former omissions and breaches be repaired with a condition in some measure proportionable to those great hopes which we then are going to possess And first Let the sick person in the beginning of his sickness and in every change and great accident of it make acts of Resignation to God and intirely submit himself to the Divine will remembring that Sickness may to men properly disposed do the work of God and produce the effect of the Spirit and promote the interest of his Soul as well as Health and oftentimes better as being in it self and by the grace of God apt to make us confess our own impotency and dependencies and to understand our needs of mercy and the continual influences and supports of Heaven to withdraw our appetites from things below to correct the vanities and insolencies of an impertinent spirit to abate the extravagancies of the flesh to put our carnal lusts into fetters and disability to remember us of our state of pilgrimage that this is our way and our stage of trouble and banishment and that Heaven is our Countrey for so Sickness is the trial of our Patience a fire to purge us an instructer to teach us a bridle to restrain us and a state inferring great necessities of union and adhesions unto God And as upon these grounds we have the same reason to accept sickness at the hands of God as to receive Physick from a Physician so it is argument of excellent Grace to give God hearty thanks in our Disease and to accept it chearfully and with spiritual joy 17. Some persons create to themselves excuses of discontent and quarrel not with the pain but the ill consequents of Sickness It makes them troublesome to
though less perfectly it ought not to be denied and they less ought to neglect it 25. But as every man must put himself so also he must put his house in order make his Will if he have an Estate to dispose of and in that he must be careful to do Justice to every man and Charity to the poor according as God hath enabled him and though Charity is then very late if it begins not earlier yet if this be but an act of an ancient habit it is still more perfect as it succeeds in time and superadds to the former stock And among other acts of Duty let it be remembred that it is excellent Charity to leave our Will and desires clear plain and determinate that contention and Law-suits may be prevented by the explicate declaration of the Legacies At last and in all instances and periods of our following days let the former good acts be renewed let God be praised for all his Graces and Blessings of our life let him be intreated for Pardon of our sins let acts of Love and Contrition of Hope of Joy of Humility be the work of every day which God still permits us always remembring to ask remission for those sins we remember not And if the condition of our sickness permits it let our last breath expire with an act of Love that it may begin the Charities of Eternity and like a Taper burnt to its lowest base it may go out with a great emission of light leaving a sweet smell behind us to perfume our Coffin and that these lights newly made brighter or trimmed up in our sickness may shine about our Herse that they may become arguments of a pious sadness to our friends as the charitable Coats which Dorcas made were to the widows and exemplar to all those who observed or shall hear of our holy life and religious death But if it shall happen that the disease be productive of evil accidents as a disturbed phancy a weakned understanding wild discoursings or any deprivation of the use of Reason it concerns the sick persons in the happy intervalls of a quiet untroubled spirit to pray earnestly to God that nothing may pass from him in the rages of a Fever or worse distemper which may less become his duty or give scandal or cause trouble to the persons in attendance and if he shall also renounce and disclaim all such evil words which his disease may speak not himself he shall do the duty of a Christian and a prudent person And after these 〈◊〉 he may with Piety and confidence resign his Soul into the hands of God to be deposited in holy receptacles till the day of restitution of all things and in the mean time with a quiet spirit descend into that state which is the lot of Caesars and where all Kings and Conquerours have laid aside their glories The PRAYER O Eternal and Holy Jesus who by Death hast overcome Death and by thy Passion hast taken out its sting and made it to become one of the gates of Heaven and an entrance to Felicity have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death let thy Grace accompany me all the days of my life that I may by a holy Conversation and an habitual performance of my Duty wait for the coming of our Lord and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come Lord let not my death be in any sence unprovided nor untimely nor hasty but after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary Piety and the manifestation of a great and miraculous Mercy Let my Senses and Understanding be preserved intire till the last of my days and grant that I may die the death of the righteous having first discharged all my obligations of justice leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives and let thy blessing descend upon their heads and abide there till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church and bless my Death bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide with the assistence and guard of Angels with the perception of the holy Sacrament with Patience and dereliction of my own 〈◊〉 with a strong Faith and a firm and humble Hope with just measures of Repentance and great treasures of Charity to thee my God and to all the world that my Soul in the arms of the Holy Jesus may be deposited with safety and joy there to expect the revelation of thy Day and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdom O Eternal and Holy Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS He beareth his Cross Ioh 19. 16. 17. And they took Iesus and lead him away 17. And he bearing his Cross went forth into a place called the place of a Scult which is called in y e Hebrew Golgotha They Erect the Crucifixe Ioh 3. 14. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in y e wilderness even so must y e Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but haue eternall life 1. WHen the Sentence of Death pronounced against the Lord was to be put in execution the Souldiers pulled off the Robe of mockery the scarlet Mantle which in jest they put upon him and put on his own garments But as Origen observes the Evangelist mentioned not that they took off the Crown of thorns what might serve their interest they pursue but nothing of remission or mercy to the afflicted Son of man but so it became the King of Sufferings not to lay aside his Imperial thorns till they were changed into Diadems of Glory But now Abel is led forth by his brother to be slain A gay spectacle to satisfie impious eyes who would not stay behind but attended and waited upon the hangman to see the Catastrophe of this bloudy Tragedy But when Piety looks on she beholds a glorious mystery Sin laughed to see the King of Heaven and Earth and the great lover of Souls in stead of the Scepter of his Kingdom to bear a Tree of 〈◊〉 and shame But Plety wept tears of pity and knew they would melt into joy when she should behold that Cross which loaded the shoulders of her Lord afterward sit upon the Scepters and be engraved and signed upon the Foreheads of Kings 2. It cannot be thought but the Ministers of Jewish malice used all the circumstances of affliction which in any case were accustomed towards malefactors and persons to be crucified and therefore it was that in some old Figures we see our Blessed Lord described with a Table appendent to the fringe of his garment set full of nails and pointed iron for so sometimes they afflicted persons condemned to that kind of Death and S. Cyprian affirms that Christ did stick to the wood that he carried being
shame and unworthiness he submitted to the death of the Cross and by his voluntary acceptation and tacite volition of it made it equivalent to as great a punishment of his own susception he shewed an incomparable modesty begging but for a remembrance only he knew himself so sinful he durst ask no more he reproved the other Thief for Blasphemy he confessed the world to come and owned Christ publickly he prayed to him he hoped in him and pitied him shewing an excellent Patience in this sad condition And in this I consider that besides the excellency of some of these acts and the goodness of all the like occasion for so exemplar Faith never can occur and until all these things shall in these circumstances meet in any one man he must not hope for so safe an Exit after an evil life 〈◊〉 the confidence of this example But now Christ had the key of Paradise in his hand and God blessed the good Thief with this opportunity of letting him in who at another time might have waited longer and been tied to harder conditions And indeed it is very probable that he was much advantaged by the intervening accident of dying at the same time with Christ there being a natural compassion produced in us towards the partners of our miseries For Christ was not void of humane passions though he had in them no imperfection or irregularity and therefore might be invited by the society of misery the rather to admit him to participate his joys and S. Paul proves him to be a merciful high Priest because he was touched with a feeling of our infirmities the first expression of which was to this blessed Thief Christ and he together sate at the Supper of bitter herbs and Christ payed his symbol promising that he should that day be together with him in Paradise 12. By the Cross of Christ stood the Holy Virgin Mother upon whom old Simeon's Prophecy was now verified for now she felt a sword passing through her very soul she stood without clamour and womanish noises sad silent and with a modest grief deep as the waters of the abysse but smooth as the face of a pool full of Love and Patience and Sorrow and Hope Now she was put to it to make use of all those excellent discourses her Holy Son had used to build up her spirit and fortifie it against this day Now she felt the blessings and strengths of Faith and she passed from the griefs of the Passion to the expectation of the Resurrection and she rested in this Death as in a sad remedy for she knew it reconciled God with all the World But her Hope drew a veil before her Sorrow and though her Grief was great enough to swallow her up yet her Love was greater and did swallow up her grief But the Sun also had a veil upon his face and taught us to draw a curtain before the Passion which would be the most artificial expression of its greatness whilest by silence and wonder we confess it great beyond our expression or which is all one great as the burthen and baseness of our sins And with this veil drawn before the face of Jesus let us suppose him at the gates of Paradise calling with his last words in a loud voice to have them opened that the King of glory might come in The PRAYER O Holy Jesus who for our sakes didst suffer incomparable anguish and pains commensurate to thy Love and our Miseries which were infinite that thou mightest purchase for 〈◊〉 blessings upon Earth and an inheritance in Heaven dispose us by Love Thankfulness Humility and Obedience to receive all the benefit of thy Passion granting unto us and thy whole Church remission of all our sins integrity of mind health of body competent maintenance peace in our days a temperate air fruitfulness of the earth unity and integrity of Faith extirpation of Heresies reconcilements of Schisms destruction of all wicked counsels intended against us and bind the hands of Rapine and Sacriledge that they may not destroy the vintage and root up the Vine it self Multiply thy Blessings upon us sweetest Jesus increase in us true Religion sincere and actual devotion in our Prayers Patience in troubles and whatsoever is necessary to our Soul's health or conducing to thy Glory Amen II. O Dearest Saviour I adore thy mercies and thy incomparable love expressed in thy so voluntary susception and affectionate suffering such horrid and sad Tortures which cannot be remembred without a sad compassion the waters of bitterness entred into thy Soul and the storms of Death and thy Father's anger broke thee all in pieces and what shall I do who by my sins have so tormented my dearest Lord what Contrition can be great enough what tears sufficiently expressive what hatred and detestation of my crimes can be equal and commensurate to those sad accidents which they have produced Pity me O Lord pity me dearest God turn those thy merciful eyes towards me O most merciful Redeemer for my sins are great like unto thy Passion full of sorrow and shame and a burthen too great for me to bear Lord who hast done so much for me now only speak the word and thy servant shall be whole Let thy Wounds heal me thy Vertues amend me thy Death quicken me that I in this life suffering the cross of a sad and salutary Repentance in the union and merits of thy 〈◊〉 and Passion may die with thee and rest with thee and rise again with thee and live with thee for ever in the possession of thy Glories O dearest Saviour Jesus Amen SECT XVI Of the Resurrection and Ascension of JESUS The Burial of Iesus Mat 27 57 When the even was come there came a rich man of Arimathea named Jo seph who also himself was Jesus Disciple he went to Pilate beggd the body of Jesus Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered And when Ioseph had taken the body he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth layd it in his own new tomb which he had hewen out in y e rock The Resurrection of Iesus Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven came rolled back y e stone from the doore and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake became as dead men And the Angel sayd unto the woman Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus that was crucified He is not here for he is Risen as he sayd 1. WHile it was yet early in the morning upon the first day of the week Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome brought sweet spices to the Sepulchre that they might again embalm the Holy Body for the rites of Embalming among the Hebrews used to last forty days and their love was not satisfied with what Joseph had done They therefore hastned to the grave and after they had expended their money and bought the
of prepared torments he died a natural death in a good old age 5. After this Jesus having appointed a solemn meeting for all the Brethren that could be collected from the dispersion and named a certain mountain in 〈◊〉 appeared to five hundred Brethren at once and this was his most publick and solemn manifestation and while some doubted Jesus came according to the designation and spake to the eleven sent them to preach to all the world Repentance and Remission of sins in his Name promising to be with them to the end of the world He appeared also unto James but at what time is uncertain save that there is something concerning it in the Gospel of S. Matthew which the Nazarens of 〈◊〉 used and which it is likely themselves added out of report for there is nothing of it in our Greek Copies The words are these When the Lord had given the linen in which he was wrapped to the servant of the High Priest he went and appeared unto James For James had vowed after he received the Lord's Supper that he would eat no bread till he saw the Lord risen from the grave Then the Lord called for bread he blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said My Brother eat bread for the Son of man is risen from the sleep of death So that by this it should seem to be done upon the day of the Resurrection But the relation of it by S. Paul puts it between the appearance which he made to the five hundred and that last to the Apostles when he was to ascend into Heaven Last of all when the Apostles were at dinner he appeared to them upbraiding their incredulity and then he opened their understanding that they might discern the sence of Scripture and again commanded them to preach the Gospel to all the world giving them power to do Miracles to cast out Devils to cure 〈◊〉 and instituted the Sacrament of Baptism which he commanded should together with the Sermons of the Gospel be administred to all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Then he led them into Judaea and they came to Bethany and from thence to the mount Olivet and he commanded them to stay in Jerusalem till the Holy Ghost the promise of the Father should descend upon them which should be accomplished in few days and then they should know the times and the seasons and all things necessary for their ministration and service and propagation of the Gospel And while he discoursed many things concerning the Kingdom behold a Cloud came and parted Jesus from them and carried him in their sight up into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of God blessed for ever Amen 6. While his Apostles stood gazing up to Heaven two Angels appeared to them and told them that Jesus should come in like manner as he was taken away viz. with glory and majesty and in the clouds and with the ministry of Angels Amen Come Lord JESUS come quickly Ad SECT XVI Considerations upon the Accidents happening in the intervall after the Death of the Holy JESUS untill his Resurrection Jesus and Mary in the Garden Joh. 20. 14. 15. 16. Mary turning about saw Jesus standing knew not y t it was Jesus Jesus saith woman whom seekest thou Shee supposing him to be the garidner saith sir if thou have born him hence tell me etc. Jesus saith unto her Mary she turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is Master Jesus saith unto her touch me not for etc. Mary Magdalen came and told the desciples that she had seen the Lord. Our Lords Ascension Acts. 1. 9. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up a Cloud received him out of their sight 10. And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparell 11. Which also said this same Iesus shall so come as you have seen him go into heaven 1. THE Holy Jesus promised to the blessed Thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise which therefore was certainly a place or state of Blessedness because it was a promise and in the society of Jesus whose penal and afflictive part of his work of Redemption was finished upon the Cross. Our Blessed Lord did not promise he should that day be with him in his Kingdom for that day it was not opened and the everlasting doors of those interiour recesses were to be shut till after the Resurrection that himself was to ascend thither and make way for all his servants to enter in the same method in which he went before us Our Blessed Lord descended into Hell saith the Creed of the Apostles from the Sermon of Saint Peter as he from the words of David that is into the state of Separation and common receptacle of Spirits according to the style of Scripture But the name of Hell is no-where in Scripture an appellative of the Kingdom of Christ of the place of final and supreme Glory But concerning the verification of our Lord's promise to the beatified Thief and his own state of Separation we must take what light we can from Scripture and what we can from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church S. Paul had two great Revelations he was rapt up into Paradise and he was rapt up into the third Heaven and these he calls visions revelations not one but divers for Paradise is distinguished from the Heaven of the blessed being it self a receptacle of holy Souls made illustrious with visitation of Angels and happy by being a repository for such spirits who at the day of Judgment shall go forth into eternal glory In the interim Christ hath trod all the paths before us and this also we must pass through to arrive at the Courts of Heaven Justin Martyr said it was the doctrine of heretical persons to say that the Souls of the Blessed instantly upon the separation from their Bodies enter into the highest Heaven And Irenaeus makes Heaven and the intermediate receptacle of Souls to be distinct places both blessed but hugely differing in degrees Tertullian is dogmatical in the assertion that till the voice of the great Archangel be heard and as long as Christ sits at the right hand of his Father making intercession for the Church so long blessed Souls must expect the assembling of their brethren the great Congregation of the Church that they may all pass from their outer courts into the inward tabernacle the Holy of Holies to the Throne of God And as it is certain that no Soul could enter into glory before our Lord 〈◊〉 by whom we hope to have access so it is most agreeable to the proportion 〈◊〉 the mysteries of our Redemption that we believe the entrance into Glory to have been made by our Lord at his glorious Ascension and that his Soul went not thither before 〈◊〉 to come back again
his Disciples to verifie his Promise to make demonstration of his Divinity to lay some superstructures of his Church upon the foundation of his former Sermons to instruct them in the mysteries of his Kingdom to prepare them for the reception of the Holy Ghost and as he had in his state of Separation triumphed over Hell so in his Resurrection he set his foot upon Death and brought it under his dominion so that although it was not yet destroyed yet it is made his subject it hath as yet the condition of the Gibeonites who were not banished out of the land but they were made drawers of water and bewers of wood so is Death made instrumental to Christ's Kingdom but it abides still and shall till the day of Judgment but shall serve the ends of our Lord and promote the interests of Eternity and do benefit to the Church 8. And it is considerable that our Blessed Lord having told them that after three days he would rise again yet he shortened the time as much as was possible that he might verifie his own prediction and yet make his absence the less troublesome he rises early in the morning the first day of the week for so our dearest Lord abbreviates the days of our sorrow and lengthens the years of our consolation for he knows that a day of sorrow seems a year and a year of joy passes like a day and therefore God lessens the one and 〈◊〉 the other to make this perceived and that supportable Now the Temple which the Jews destroyed God raised up in six and thirty hours but this second Temple was more glorious than the first for now it was clothed with robes of glory with clarity agility and immortality and though like Moses descending from the mount he wore a veil that the greatness of his splendor might not render him unapt for conversation with his servants yet the holy Scripture affirms that he was now no more to see corruption meaning that now he was separate from the passibility and affections of humane bodies and could suffer S. Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound of his side and his singer into the holes of his hands without any grief or smart 9. But although the graciousness and care of the Lord had prevented all diligence and satisfied all desires returning to life before the most forward faith could expect him yet there were three Maries went to the grave so early that they prevented the rising of the Sun and though with great obedience they stayed till the end of the Sabbath yet as soon as that was done they had other parts of duty and affection which called with greatest importunity to be speedily satisfied And if Obedience had not bound the feet of Love they had gone the day before but they became to us admirable patterns of Obedience to the Divine Commandments For though Love were stronger than death yet Obedience was stronger than Love and made a rare dispute in the spirits of those holy Women in which the flesh and the spirit were not the litigants but the spirit and the spirit and they resisted each other as the Angel-guardian of the Jews resisted the tutelar Angel of Persia each striving who should with most love and zeal perform their charge and God determined And so he did here too For the Law of the Sabbath was then a Divine Commandment and although piety to the dead and to such a dead was ready to force their choice to do violence to their will bearing them up on wings of desire to the grave of the LORD yet at last they reconciled Love with Obedience For they had been taught that Love is best expressed in keeping of the Divine Commandments But now they were at liberty and sure enough they made use of its first minute and going so early to seek Christ they were sure they should find him 10. The Angels descended Guardians of the Sepulchre for God sent his guards too and they affrighted the Watch appointed by Pilate and the Priests but when the women came they spake like comforters full of sweetness and consolation laying aside their affrighting glories as knowing it is the will of their Lord that they should minister good to them that love him But a conversation with Angels could not satisfie them who came to look for the Lord of the Angels and found him not and when the Lord was pleased to appear to Mary Magdalen she was so swallowed up with love and sorrow that she entred into her joy and perceived it not she saw the Lord and knew him not For so from the closets of darkness they that immediately stare upon the Sun perceive not the beauties of the light and feel nothing but amazement But the voice of the Lord opened her eyes and she knew him and worshipped him but was denied to touch him and commanded to tell the Apostles for therefore God ministers to us comforts and revelations not that we may dwell in the sensible fruition of them our selves alone but that we communicate the grace to others But when the other women were returned and saw the Lord then they were all together admitted to the embracement and to kiss the feet of Jesus For God hath his opportunities and periods which at another time he denies and we must then rejoyce in it when he vouchsafes it and submit to his Divine will when he denies it 11. These good women had the first fruits of the apparition for their forward love and the passion of their Religion made greater haste to entertain a Grace and was a greater endearment of their persons to our Lord than a more sober reserved and less active spirit This is more safe but that is religious this goes to God by the way of understanding that by the will this is supported by discourse that by passions this is the sobriety of the Apostles the other was the zeal of the holy women and because a strong fancy and an earnest passion sixed upon holy objects are the most active and forward instruments of Devotion as Devotion is of Love therefore we find God hath made great expressions of his acceptance of such dispositions And women and less knowing persons and tender dispositions and pliant natures will make up a greater number in Heaven than the severe and wary and enquiring people who sometimes love because they believe and believe because they can demonstrate but never believe because they love When a great Understanding and a great Affection meet together it makes a Saint great like an Apostle but they do not well who make abatement of their religious passions by the severity of their Understanding It is no matter by which we are brought to Christ so we love him and obey him but if the production admit of 〈◊〉 that instrument is the most excellent which produces the greatest love and 〈◊〉 discourse and a sober spirit be in it self the best yet we do not always suffer that to be a
helped by none comforted by none and he makes himself a companion of Devils to everlasting ages but in the judgment of Repentance and Tribunal of the Church the penitent sinner is prayed for by a whole army of militant Saints and causes joy to all the Church triumphant And to establish this Tribunal in the Church and to transmit pardon to penitent sinners and a salutary judgment upon the person and the crime and to appoint Physicians and Guardians of the Soul was one of the designs and mercies of the Resurrection of Jesus And let not any Christian man either by false opinion or an unbelieving spirit or an incurious apprehension undervalue or neglect this ministery which Christ hath so sacredly and solemnly established Happy is he that dashes his sins against the rock upon which the Church is built that the Church gathering up the planks and fragments of the shipwreck and the shivers of the broken heart may re-unite them pouring Oil into the wounds made by the blows of sin and restoring with meekness gentleness care counsel and authority persons overtaken in a fault For that act of Ministery is not ineffectual which God hath promised shall be ratified in Heaven and that Authority is not contemptible which the Holy Jesus conveyed by breathing upon his Church the Holy Ghost But Christ intended that those whom he had made Guides of our Souls and Judges of our Consciences in order to counsel and ministerial pardon should also be used by us in all cases of our Souls and that we go to Heaven the way he hath appointed that is by offices and ministeries Ecclesiastical 17. When our Blessed Lord had so confirmed the Faith of the Church and appointed an Ecclesiastical Ministery he had but one work more to do upon earth and that was the Institution of the holy Sacrament of Baptism which he ordained as a solemn Initiation and mysterious Profession of the Faith upon which the Church is built making it a solemn Publication of our Profession the rite of Stipulation or entring Covenant with our Lord the solemnity of the Paction Evangelical in which we undertake to be Disciples to the Holy Jesus that is to believe his Doctrine to fear his Threatnings to rely upon his Promises and to obey his Commandments all the days of our life and he for his part actually performs much and promises more he takes off all the guilt of our preceding days purging our Souls and making them clean as in the day of innocence promising withall that if we perform our undertaking and remain in the state in which he now puts us he will continually assist us with his Spirit prevent and attend us with his Grace he will deliver us from the power of the Devil he will keep our Souls in merciful joyful and safe custody till the great Day of the Lord he will then raise our Bodies from the Grave he will make them to be spiritual and immortal he will re-unite them to our Souls and beatifie both Bodies and Souls in his own Kingdom admitting them into eternal and unspeakable glories All which that he might verifie and prepare respectively in the presence of his Disciples he ascended into the bosome of God and the eternal comprehensions of celestial Glory The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast overcome Death and triumphed over all the powers of Hell Darkness Sin and the Grave manifesting the truth of thy Promises the power of thy Divinity the majesty of thy Person the rewards of thy Glory and the mercies and excellent designs of thy Evangelical Kingdom by thy glorious and powerful Resurrection preserve my Soul from eternal death and make me to rise from the death of Sin and to live the life of Grace loving thy Perfections adoring thy Mercy pursuing the interest of thy Kingdom being united to the Church under thee our Head conforming to thy holy Laws established in Faith entertained and confirmed with a modest humble and certain Hope and sanctified by Charity that I engraving thee in my heart and submitting to thee in my spirit and imitating thee in thy glorious example may be partaker of thy Resurrection which is my hope and my desire the support of my Faith the object of my Joy and the strength of my Confidence In thee Holy Jesus do I trust I confess thy Faith I believe all that thou hast taught I desire to perform all thy injunctions and my own undertaking my Soul is in thy hand do thou support and guide it and pity my infirmities and when thou shalt reveal thy great Day shew to me the mercies and effects of thy Advocation and Intercession and Redemption Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God for in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Thou art just thou 〈◊〉 merciful thou art gracious and compassionate thou hast done miracles and prodigies of favour to me and all the world Let not those great actions and sufferings be ineffective but make me capable and receptive of thy Mercies and then I am certain to receive them I am thine O save me thou art mine O Holy Jesus O dwell with me for ever and let me dwell with thee adoring and praising the eternal glories of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen THE END 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE TABLE OF The Life of CHRIST Where are more Numbers than one the first Number denotes the Page the latter the Number of the Section A. ABsolution of dying Persons of what benefit 407. 23. Whether to be given to all that desire it 408. 24. Acceptable Year of the Lord what it means 186. 22. Actions of Jesus confuted his Accusers 390. 2. Acts of Vertue to be done by sick and dying Persons 405 406. 19 20. Accusation of Criminals not to be aggravated odiously 393. 8. It ought to be onely for purposes of Charity ibid. Accusation of innocent persons ought to be born patiently by the innocent 393. 9. Accusation of Jesus 352. 24. Adam buried in Golgotha 354. 31. Adoption of Sons 316. 7. Advent of our Lord must be entertained with joy 156. 3. Adultery made more criminal under the Gospel than under the Law 249. 37 c. Adultery of the eyes 250. 36. Adrian the Emperour built a Temple to Venus and Adonis in the place of Christ's Birth 14. 6. Agony of Jesus in the Garden 350. 20. Agesilaus was more commended for his modesty and obedience than for his prosperous good Conduct 50. 25. Albes or white garments wore by the Church and why 393. 9 10. Alms intended for a defensative against Covetousness 258. 1. Ordinarily to be according to our ability ibid. Sometimes beyond in what cases ibid. Necessities of all indigent people are the object of our Alms 259. 3. Manner of Alms an office of Christian prudence ibid. The two Altars in Solomon's Temple what they did represent 83. 4. Ambitious seeking Ecclesiastical Dignities very criminal 96. 2. Ambition is
no Miracles before 30 years of age 154. 6 8. He entertains five Disciples ibid. He is to be sought for in his Ordinances 156. 4. He ejected the Merchants out of the Temple 169. 2. He mingled no Injury with his Zeal 170. 4. He Baptized Peter onely 181. 1. He ends the Samaritan's Qu. about the place of Worship 182. 4. He made a Covenant of Faith and Repentance 200. 9. This Covenant is consigned in Baptism ibid. His Miracles were greater than any man did before him 277. 2. His Passion cured our Miseries 411. 2. He was viator not comprehensor in his Passion 413. 5. His Prayer for his Enemies was effectual 416. 10. He first ascended into Heaven 419. 1. His side streamed forth two Sacraments 426. 4. He raised the Widow's son to life 291. 7. He shewed the power of a God with the infirmities of a Man 387. 9. Crowned with thorns 395. 11. His Commission to Peter 419. 4. 420. 4. He is our Advocate for actions relative to him 360. 8 9. A King 28. 13. A Star was his evidence ibid. Christians ought to be exemplary in their Lives 231. 1. Their Righteousness to exceed the Pharisaical 232 233. Christian prudence 157. 6. Christian simplicity 157. 6. They for the most part chuse not their Religion 160. 1. They are to be like Children 325. 15. Christian Liberty not to be betrayed 331. 8. Christianity an easie Yoak 295. 1. More pleasant than Sin ibid. More natural ibid. vide Praes Not so troublesome as sin 297. It is the way of peace 299. 7. Of Content ibid. 300. Of Riches and of long life 302. 13 14. seq Of Health ibid. Of Wisdom 308. 27. Children of God exposed to Temptations 98. 7 8. Church deserves great Revenues but needs them not 70. 8 9. Her endowments are of advantage to the People ibid. Dangerous for the Church to be Rich in Temporal possessions ibid. Church ought to be more apt to remit of Temporal rights than others ibid. Church-Tribunal to be of great mercy 430. 16. Compared with God's Tribunal ibid. It is impregnable against Hell-gates 321. 9. Built upon the Confession of Peter ibid. Churches built upon Mount Tabor 322. 11. They are Holy Places to what sence and to what purposes 172. How to be used 176. 11. Church in Paradise called the presence of God 175. 7. The residence of Angels ibid. 8. Their best ornament is the holiness of worshippers 178. 14. They are desecrated by Vice ibid. Circumcision an earnest of the Passion 36. 1. Not declared to be remissive of original sin ibid. Circumcision of Christ served many purposes 37. 2. It was an act of Obedience ibid. Complying with customes of civility sometimes a Temptation 108. 16. Company-keeping to be avoided as it can ibid. Communion of Saints profitable and pleasant 75. Comforts more necessary to 〈◊〉 Converts 33. 9. Clergie's duty under the Parable of a Steward 326. 26. Covetousness its fruits 361. 10. 390. Confession to a Minister of Religion 218. 51. Contrition alone not sufficient for Pardon ibid. Consecration of the Eucharist mysterious 369. 2. Cure of Souls a dangerous and grave Imployment 96. 2. D. DEscription of Jesus by way of Meditation and Mystery 16. 5 6. Decalogue expounded 231. Death happening untimely doth not always consign to Damnation 336. Preparation to Death 397. seq It comes by all accidents ibid. Deaths sudden and rare ibid. Death-bed Repentance too late 339. 5. Vide Repentance It is desirable 405. 19. How far it may be prayed against ibid. To be submitted to in all cases ibid. Death of Man sanctified and conquered by Christ's Death 426. 7. 405. 19. Dying persons how to be treated and assisted 400. 6. Devils confessed Christ 290. 4. That the Devil had the managing of the Roman Empire was the Opinion of some Wise-men 100. 14. One deaf and dumb ejected 321. 7. He furnishes evil persons with apt instruments 361. 10. How they did appear to Jesus in the Desart 95. 7. They are impotent in their malice 100. Can hurt no Soul without its consent ibid. 13. The Tribute of the Didrachm 322. 13. Diligence in our Calling accepted though our Calling be mean 32. Dispensations not to be accepted too freely 37. Disobedience to God in great and small instances compared 44. 12 13. Disobedience to GOD and Man compared 46. A deliberate choice of the smallest disobedience in its formality is destructive though in the matter it be otherwise pardonable 44. 12. Defence of our selves permitted 252. 2. Not against our Prince ibid. Defence of our innocence in Judgment permitted 252. Dove descending on Christ was mysterious 97. 5. Doubting the issue of our Prayers in what sense lawful 267. 15. Duels unlawful 253. 5. seq Doubting in an Article how to be cured 400. 8. Despair how to be cured 401. 10. E. EGyptian Idols fell to the Ground at Christ's coming thither 67. 9. In AEgypt Christ dwelt in a Garden of Balsam ibid. Egyptians worshipped an Infant in a Cradle and a Virgin in a Bed ibid. Envy reproved by the example of Angels 29. 2. Envy spiritual 360. 9. Eat for necessity not delight 87. 15. Eli's Family short-lived 308. 24. Cured by Repentance ibid. Election what it signifies in Scripture 313. 2. It depends upon Duty 314. uncertain to us ibid. Ecclesiastical Regiment how differing from Secular 323. 14. Ecclesiastical power verified in Heaven 323. 16. Ecclesiastical persons bound to communicate often 379. 18. Ecclesiastical Persons are to imitate Christ in Meekness Innocence Suffering 393. 8 9. Ecclesiastical Judicatories compared with the Divine 430. Earnest of the Spirit what it signifies 316. 7. Eclipse of the Sun at the Passion was miraculous 355. 34. Enemies occasion to us of much good 386. 8. Erring persons how to be treated 188. 2. 10. 7. Evil counsels come to nought 85. 2. Though they succeed it is not Prosperity ibid. Elizabeth carried her Son the Baptist into the Wilderness 77. 1. She died after 40 days ibid. Example of Preachers is the best Sermon 78. 5. 364. 4. Examples of Divine Judgments 338. 5. Esau's Repentance 391. 7. Excuses from frequent communion not valid 379. 20. Evenness and moderation of a religious state most necessary for young beginners and safest for all men 407 408. Expences unnecessary to be cut off and spent in Alms. 252. 2. F. FAlse witness highly criminal 250. 40. Familiarity with God what it should signifie 33. 26. Faith described 160. 2. Charity is part of its constitution ibid. However it be produced whether it be proved or not it is sufficient 157. 7. 162. 1. Pref. 28. Faith of ignorant and knowing men compared 160. 1 2. Faith of Christians how it differs from that of Devils 163. 7. Excellencies and effects of Faith 163. 9. seq The marks of a truly Christian Faith ibid. Vide Disc. of Faith per tot Fasting before the Sacrament 272. 1. Degrees Manner and Rules of Fasting 274. 275. It is no duty of
acted herein by a Divine warrant and authority That therefore it might plainly appear to the World that they did not falsify in what they said or deliver any more than God had given them in commission he enabled them to do strange and miraculous operations bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost This was a power put into the first draught of their commission when confined only to the Cities of Israel As ye go preach saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out Devils freely you have received freely give but more fully confirmed upon them when our Lord went to Heaven then he told them that these signs should follow them that believe that in his Name they should cast out Devils and speak with new tongues that they should take up serpents and if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt them that they should lay hands on the sick and they should recover And the event was accordingly for they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following When Paul and Barnabas came up to the Council at Jerusalem this was one of the first things they gave an account of all the multitude keeping silence while they declared what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them Thus the very shadow of Peter as he passed by cured the sick thus God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them So that besides the innate characters of Divinity which the Christian religion brought along with it containing nothing but what was highly reasonable and very becoming God to reveal it had the highest external evidence that any Religion was capable of the attestation of great and unquestionable Miracles done not once or twice not privately and in corners not before a few simple and credulous persons but frequently and at every turn publickly and in places of the most solemn concourse before the wisest and most judicious enquirers and this power of miracles continued not only during the Apostles time but for some Ages after X. But because besides Miracles in general the Scripture takes particular notice of many gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost conferred upon the Apostles and first Preachers of the Gospel it may not be amiss to consider some of the chiefest and most material of them as we find them enumerated by the Apostle only premising this observation that though these gifts were distinctly distributed to persons of an inferiour order so that one had this and another that yet were they all conferr'd upon the Apostles and doubtless in larger proportions than upon the rest First we take notice of the gift of Prophecy a clear evidence of divine inspiration and an extraordinary mission the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy It had been for many Ages the signal and honourable priviledge of the Jewish Church and that the Christian Oeconomy might challenge as sacred regards from men and that it might appear that God had not withdrawn his Spirit from his Church in this new state of things it was revived under the dispensation of the Gospel according to that famous prophecy of Joel exactly accomplished as Peter told the Jews upon the day of 〈◊〉 when the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were so plentifully shed upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall 〈◊〉 and your young Men shall see 〈◊〉 and your old Men shall dream Dreams and on my servants and on my Hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesie It lay in general in revealing and making known to others the mind of God but discovered it self in particular instances partly in forctelling things to come and what should certainly happen in after-times a thing set beyond the reach of any finite understanding for though such effects as depend upon natural agents or moral and political causes may be foreseen by studious and considering persons yet the knowledge of futurities things purely contingent that meerly depend upon mens choice and their mutable and uncertain wills can only fall under his view who at once beholds things past present and to come Now this was conferred upon the Apostles and some of the first Christians as appears from many instances in the History of the Apostolick Acts and we find the Apostles writings frequently interspersed with prophetical predictions concerning the great apostasie from the 〈◊〉 the universal corruption and degeneracy of manners the rise of particular heresies the coming of Antichrist and several other things which the spirit said 〈◊〉 should come to pass in the latter times besides that S. John's whole Book of Revelation is almost intirely made up of prophecies concerning the future state and condition of the Church Sometimes by this spirit of prophecy God declared things that were of present concernment to the exigences of the Church as when he signified to them that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas for the conversion of the Gentiles and many times immediately designed particular persons to be Pastors and Governours of the Church Thus we read of the gift that was given to Timothy by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery that is his Ordination to which he was particularly pointed out by some prophetick designation But the main use of this prophetick gift in those times was to explain some of the more difficult and particular parts of the Christian doctrine especially to expound and apply the ancient prophecies concerning the 〈◊〉 and his Kingdom in their publick Assemblies whence the gift of prophecy is explained by understanding all mysteries and all knowledge that is the most dark and difficult places of Scripture the types and figures the ceremonies and prophecies of the Old Testament And thus we are commonly to understand those words Prophets and prophecying that so familiarly occur in the New Testament Having 〈◊〉 differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophesie let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith that is expound Scripture according to the generally-received principles of Faith and Life So the Apostle elsewhere prescribing Rules for the decent and orderly managing of Divine worship in their publick Assemblies let the Prophets says he speak two or three that is at the same Assembly and let the other judge and if while any is thus expounding another has a Divine 〈◊〉 whereby he is more particularly enabled to explain some difficult and emergent
was given him in Heaven and in Earth by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations and preach the Gospel to every Creature That they should feed God's slock Rule well inspect and watch ever those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule Words of as large and more express signification than those which were here spoken to S. Peter 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him telling him that though when he was young he girt himself lived at his own pleasure and went whither he pleased yet when he was old he should stretch forth his hands and another should gird and bind him and lead him whither he had no mind to go intimating as the Evangelist tells us by what death he should glorifie God that is by Crucifixion the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent And then rising up commanded him to follow him by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel It was not long after that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them when leading them out unto Bethany a little Village upon the Mount of Olives he briefly told them That they were the persons whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had hitherto received that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and sury wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them His discourse being ended laying his hands upon them he gave them his solemn blessing which done he was immediately taken from them and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels was received up into Heaven Antiquity tells us that in the place where he last trod upon the rock the impression of his feet did remain which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired over which Helena mother of the Great Constantine afterwards built a little Chappel called the Chappel of the Ascension in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone modern Travellers tell us that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day but 't is that of his right foot only the other being taken away by the Turks and as 't is said kept in the Temple at Jerusalem Our Lord being thus taken from them the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them and having performed their solemn adorations to him returned back to Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost which was shortly after conferred upon them They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them entertained it now with joy and triumph being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion of the Church The Apostles return to Jerusalem The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room where they assembled what Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost The Spirit descended in the likeness of siery cloven tongues and why The greatness of the Miracle Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the standers of the Jews and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah Great numbers converted by his Sermon His going up to the Temple What their stated hours of Prayer His curing the impotent Cripple there and discourse to the Jews upon it What numbers converted by him Peter and John seised and cast into Prison Brought before the Sanhedrim and their resolute carriage there Their refusing to obey when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides sor subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience The great severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphira The great Miracles wrought by him Again cast into Prison and delivered by an Angel Their appearing before the Sanhedrim and deliverance by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them In order whereunto the first thing they did after his Ascension was to fill up the vacancy in their Colledge lately made by the unhappy fall and Apostasie of Judas To which end no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem but they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper-room Where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was whether in the house of S. John or of Mary John-Mark's mother or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the Temple for the Temple had over the Cloisters several Chambers for the service of the Priests and Levites and as Repositories where the consecrated Vessels and Utensils of the Temple were laid up though it be not probable that the Jews and especially the Priests would suffer the Apostles and their company to be so near the Temple I stand not to enquire 'T is certain that the Jews usually had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 private Oratories in the upper parts of their houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the more private exercises of their devotions Thus Daniel had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his upper-Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX render it whither he was wont to retire to pray to his God and Benjamin the Jew tells us that in his time Ann. Chr. 1172. the Jews at Babylon were wont to pray both in their Synagogues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in that ancient upper-room of Daniel which the Prophet himself built Such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-Chamber was that wherein S. Paul preached at Troas and such probably this where the Apostles were now met together and in all likelihood the same where our Lord had lately kept the Passeover where the Apostles and the Church were assembled on the day of Pentecost and which was then the usual place of their Religious Assemblies as we have elsewhere observed more at large Here the Church being met to the number of about CXX Peter as President of the Assembly put them in mind that Judas one of
wickedness as by keeping back part of his estate to think to deceive the Holy Ghost That before it was sold it was wholly at his own disposure and after it was perfectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow So that it was capable of no other interpretation than that herein he had not only abused and injured men but mocked God and what in him lay lyed to and cheated the Holy Ghost who he knew was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his heart This vvas no sooner said but suddenly to the great terror and amazement of all that vvere present Ananias vvas arrested vvith a stroke from Heaven and fell dovvn dead to the ground Not long after his Wife came in vvhom Peter entertained vvith the same severe reproofs vvherevvith he had done her Husband adding that the like sad fate and doom should immediately seize upon her who thereupon dropt down dead As she had been Copartner with him in the Sin becoming sharer with him in the punishment An Instance of great severity filling all that heard of it with fear and terror and became a seasonable prevention of that hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith many might possibly think to have imposed upon the Church 9. THIS severe Case being extraordinary the Apostles usually exerted their power in such Miracles as were more useful and beneficial to the World Curing all manner of Diseases and dispossessing Devils In so much that they brought the Sick into the Streets and laid them upon Beds and Couches that at least Peter's shadow as he passed by might come upon them These astonishing Miracles could not but mightily contribute to the propagation of the Gospel and convince the World that the Apostles were more considerable Persons than they took them for poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness And methinks Erasmus his reflection here is not unseasonable that no honour or soveraignty no power or dignity was comparable to this glory of the Apostle that the things of Christ though in another way were more noble and excellent than any thing that this World could afford And therefore he tells us that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith Pope Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia and then at Rome equalling the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar he could not but think how much all this was below the greatness and majesty of S. Peter who converted the World not by Power or Armies not by Engines or 〈◊〉 of pomp and grandeur but by faith in the power of Christ and drew it to the admiration of himself and the same state says he would no doubt attend the Apostles Successours were they Men of the same temper and holiness of life The Jewish Rulers alarm'd with this News and awakened with the growing numbers of the Church sent to apprehend the Apostles and cast them into Prison But God who is never wanting to his own cause sent that Night an Angel from Heaven to open the Prison doors commanding them to repair to the Temple and to the exercise of their Ministery Which they did early in the Morning and there taught the People How unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest Statesmen when God frowns upon them how little do any counsels against Heaven prosper In vain is it to shut the doors where God is resolved to open them the firmest Bars the strongest Chains cannot hold where once God has designed and decreed our liberty The Officers returning the next Morning found the Prison shut and guarded but the Prisoners gone Wherewith they acquainted the Council who much wondred at it but being told where the Apostles were they sent to bring them withóut any noise or violence before the Sanhedrim where the High Priest asked them how they durst go on to propagate that Doctrine which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach Peter in the name of the rest told them That they must in this case obey God rather than men That though they had so barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus yet that God had raised him up and exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give both repentance and remission of sins That they were witnesses of these things and so were those Miraculous Powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Christians Vexed was the Council with this Answer and began to consider how to cut them off But Gamaliel a grave and learned Senator having commanded the Apostles to withdraw bad the Council take heed what they did to them putting them in mind that several persons had heretofore raised parties and factions and drawn vast Numbers after them but that they had miscarried and they and their designs come to nought that therefore they should do well to let these men alone that if their doctrines and designs were meerly humane they would in time of themselves fall to the ground but if they were of God it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat and overturn them and that they themselves would herein appear to oppose the counsels and designs of Heaven With this prudent and rational advice they were satisfied and having commanded the Apostles to be scourged and charged them no more to preach this doctrine restored them to their liberty Who notwithstanding this charge and threatning returned home in a kind of triumph that they were accounted worthy to suffer in so good a cause and to undergo shame and reproach for the sake of so good a Master Nor could all the hard usage they met with from men discourage them in their duty to God or make them less zealous and diligent both publickly and privately to preach Christ in every place SECT VIII Of S. Peter's Acts from the Dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch The great care of the Divine Providence over the Church Peter dispatched by the Apostles to confirm the Church newly planted at Samaria His 〈◊〉 and silencing Simon Magus there His going to Lydda and curing AEneas His raising Dorcas at Joppa The 〈◊〉 of all sorts of Creatures presented to him to prepare him for the conversion of the Gentiles His going to Cornelius and declaring God's readiness to receive the Gentiles into the Church The Baptizing Cornelius and his Family Peter censured by the Jews for conversing with the Gentiles The mighty prejudices of the Jews against the Gentiles noted out of Heathen Writers Peter cast into prison by Herod Agrippa miraculously delivered by an Angel His discourse in the Synod at Jerusalem that the Gentiles might be received without being put under the obligation of the Law of Moses His unworthy compliance with the Jews at Antioch in opposition to the Gentiles Severely checked and resisted by S. Paul The ill use Porphyry makes of this difference The conceit of some that it was not Peter the Apostle but one of the Seventy 1. THE Church had been
hitherto tossed with gentle storms but now a more violent tempest overtook it which began in the Proto-Martyr Stephen and was more vigorously carried on afterwards by occasion whereof the Disciples were dispersed And God who always brings good out of evil hereby provided that the Gospel should not be confin'd only to Jerusalem Hitherto the Church had been crowded up within the City-walls and the Religion had crept up and down in private corners but the professors of it being now dispersed abroad by the malice and cruelty of their enemies carried Christianity along with them and propagated it into the neighbour-Countries accomplishing hereby an ancient prophecy That out of Sion should go forth the Law and the 〈◊〉 of the Lord from Jerusalem Thus God over-rules the malice of men and makes intended poison to become food or physick That Divine Providence that governs the World more particularly superintends the affairs and interests of his Church so that no weapon 〈◊〉 against Israel shall prosper curses shall be turned into blessings and that become an eminent means to enlarge and propagate the Gospel which they designed as the only way to suppress and stifle it Amongst those that were scattered Philip the Deacon was driven down unto Samaria where he preached the Gospel and confirmed his preaching by many miraculous cures and dispossessing Devils In this City there was one Simon who by Magick Arts and Diabolical Sorceries sought to advance himself into a great fame and reputation with the people insomuch that they generally beheld him as the great power of God for so the Ancients tell us he used to style himself giving out himself to be the first and chiefest Deity the Father who is God over all that is that he was that which in every Nation was accounted the supreme Deity This man hearing the Sermons and beholding the Miracles that were done by Philip gave up himself amongst the number of believers and was baptized with them The Apostles who yet remained at Jerusalem having heard of the great success of Philip's ministery at Samaria thought good to send some of their number to his assistance And accordingly deputed Peter and John who came thither Where having prayed for and laid their hands upon these new converts they presently received the Holy Ghost Simon the Magician observing that by laying on of the Apostle's hands miraculous gifts were conferred upon men offered them a considerable summ of money to invest him with this power that on whom he laid his hands they might receive the Holy Ghost Peter perceiving his rotten and insincere intentions rejected his impious motion with scorn and detestation Thy money perish with thee He told him that his heart was naught and hypocritical that he could have no share nor portion in so great a priviledge that it more concerned him to repent of so great a wickedness and sincerely seek to God that so the thought of his heart might be forgiven him for that he perceived that he had a very vicious and corrupt temper and constitution of mind and was as yet bound up under a very wretched and miserable state displeasing to God and dangerous to himself The Conscience of the man was a little startled with this and he prayed the Apostles to intercede with Heaven that God would pardon his sin and that none of these things might fall upon him But how little cure this wrought upon him we shall find elsewhere when we shall again meet with him afterwards The Apostles having thus confirmed the Church at Samaria and preached up and down in the Villages thereabouts returned back to Jerusalem to joyn their counsel and assistance to the rest of the Apostles 2. THE storm though violent being at length blown over the Church injoyed a time of great calmness and serenity during which Peter went out to visit the Churches lately planted in those parts by those Disciples who had been dispersed by the persecution at Jerusalem Coming down to Lydda the first thing he did was to work a cure upon one AEneas who being crippl'd with the Palsie had layn bed-rid for eight years together Peter coming to him bad him in the name of Christ to arise and the man was immediately restored to perfect health A miracle that was not confined only to his person for being known abroad generally brought over the inhabitants of that place The fame of this miracle having flown to Joppa a Sea-port Town some six miles thence the Christians there presently sent for Peter upon this occasion Tabitha whose Greek name was Dorcas a woman venerable for her piety and diffusive charity was newly dead to the great lamentation of all good men and much more to the loss of the poor that had been relieved by her Peter coming to the house found her dressed up for her Funeral solemnity and compassed about with the sorrowful Widows who shewed the Coats and Garments wherewith she had clothed them the badges of her charitable liberality Peter shutting all out kneeled down and prayed and then turning him to the body commanded her to arise and lifting her up by the hand presented her in 〈◊〉 health to her friends and those that were about her by which he confirmed many and converted more to the Faith After which he staid some considerable time at Joppa lodging in the house of Simon a Tanner 3. WHILE he abode in this City retiring one morning to the house-top to pray as the Jews frequently did having thence a free and open prospect towards Jerusalem and the Temple it being now near Noon which was the conclusion of one of their stated times of Prayer he found himself hungry and called for meat but while it was preparing he himself fell into a Trance wherein were presented to him a large sheet let down from Heaven containing all sorts of Creatures clean and unclean a voice at the same time calling to him that he should rise kill freely and indifferently 〈◊〉 upon them Peter tenacious as yet of the Rites and Institutions of the Mosaick Law rejoyn'd That he could not do it having never eaten any thing that was common or unclean To which the voice replied That what God had cleansed he should not account or call common Which being done thrice the vessel was again taken up into Heaven and the Vision presently disappeared By this symbolick representment though Peter at present knew not what to make of it God was teaching him a new lesson and preparing him to go upon an Errand and Embassy which the Spirit at the same time expresly commanded him to undertake While he was in this doubtful posture of mind three messengers knock'd at the door enquiring for him from whom he received this account That Cornelius a Roman Captain of a Band of Italian Souldiers at Caesarea a person of great Piety and Religion being a Proselyte of the Gate who though not observing an exact conformity to the Rites of the Mosaick Law did yet maintain some
theirs earnestly pressing and perswading the Pastors and Governours of it To feed the flock of God To take upon them the Rule and Inspection of it freely and willingly not out of a sinister end merely of gaining advantages to themselves but out of a sincere design of doing good to Souls that they would treat them mildly and gently and be themselves examples of Piety and Religion to them as the best way to make their Ministery successful and effectual And because he could not be always present to teach and warn men he ceased not by Letters to stir up their minds to the remembrance and practice of what they had been taught A course he tells them which he was resolved to hold as long as he lived as thinking it meet while he was in this Tabernacle to stir them up by putting them in mind of these things that so they might be able after his decease to have them always in remembrance And this may lead us to the consideration of those Writings which he left behind him for the benefit of the Church 5. NOW the Writings that entitle themselves to this Apostle were either genuine or supposititious The genuine Writings are his two Epistles which make up part of the Sacred Canon For the first of them no certain account can be had when it was written Though Baronius and most Writers commonly assign it to the year of Christ Forty Four But this cannot be Peter not being at Rome from whence it is supposed to have been written at that time as we shall see anon He wrote it to the Jewish Converts dispersed through Pontus Galatia and the Countries thereabouts chiefly upon the occasion of that persecution which had been raised at Jerusalem And accordingly the main design of it is to confirm and comfort them under their present sufferings and persecutions and to direct and instruct them how to carry themselves in the several states and relations both of the Civil and the Christian life For the place whence it was written 't is expresly dated from Babylon But what or where this Babylon is is not so easie to determine Some think it was Babylon in Egypt and probably 〈◊〉 and that there Peter preached the Gospel Others will have it to have been Babylon the Ancient Metropolis of Assyria and where great numbers of Jews dwelt ever since the times of their Captivities But we need not send Peter on so long an Errand if we embrace the Notion of a Learned man who by Babylon will figuratively understand Jerusalem no longer now the holy City but a kind of spiritual Babylon in which the Church of God did at this time groan under great servitude and captivity And this Notion of the Word he endeavours to make good by calling in to his assistance two of the Ancient Fathers who so understand that of the Prophet We have healed Babylon but she was not healed Where the Prophet say they by Babylon means Jerusalem as differing nothing from the wickedness of the Nations nor conforming it self to the Law of God But generally the Writers of the Romish Church and the more moderate of the Reformed party acquiescing herein in the Judgment of Antiquity by Babylon understand Rome And so 't is plain S. John calls it in his Revelation either from its conformity in power and greatness to that ancient City or from that great Idolatry which at this time reign'd in Rome And so we may suppose S. Peter to have written it from Rome not long after his coming thither though the precise time be not exactly known 6. AS for the Second Epistle it was not accounted of old of equal value and authority with the First and therefore for some Ages not taken into the Sacred Canon as is expresly affirmed by 〈◊〉 and many of the Ancients before him The Ancient Syriack Church did not receive it and accordingly it is not to be found in their ancient Copies of the New Testament Yea those of that Church at this day do not own it as Canonical but only read it privately as we do the Apocryphal Books The greatest exception that I can find against it was the difference of its style from the other Epistle and therefore it was presumed that they were not both written by the same hand But S. 〈◊〉 who tells us the objection does elsewhere himself return the answer That the difference in the style and manner of writing might very well arise from hence that S. Peter according to his different circumstances and the necessity of affairs was forced to use several Amanuenses and Interpreters sometimes S. Mark and after his departure some other person which might justly occasion a difference in the style and character of these 〈◊〉 Not to say that the same person may vastly alter and vary his style according to the times when or the persons to whom or the subjects about which he writes or the temper and disposition he is in at the time of writing or the care that is used in doing it Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremie's writing in his Prophecy and in his Book of Lamentations between S. John's in his Gospel his 〈◊〉 and Apocalypse How oft does S. Paul alter his style in several of his Epistles in some more lofty and elegant in others more rough and harsh Besides hundreds of instances that might be given both in Ecclesiastical and Foreign Writers too obvious to need insisting on in this place The Learned Grotius will have this Epistle to have been written by Symeon S. James his immediate Successor in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem and that the word Peter was inserted into the Title by another hand But as a Judicious person of our own observes these were but his Posthume Annotations published by others and no doubt never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's Judgment especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges that all Copies extant at this day read the Title and Inscription as it is in our Books And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances to prove S. Peter to be the Author of it It bears his name in the Front and Title yea somewhat more expresly than the former which has only one this both his Names There 's a passage in it that cannot well relate to any but him When he tells us that he was present with Christ in the holy Mount When he received from God the Father honour and glory Where he heard the voice which came from Heaven from the excellent glory This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased This evidently refers to Christs Tranfiguration where none were present but Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee neither of which were ever thought of to be the Author of this Epistle Besides that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many passages between these two Epistles as it were easie to show in particular instances Add to this that
exceedingly troubled publickly rebuked him for it and that as the case required with great sharpness and severity It was not long after that S. Paul and 〈◊〉 resolved upon visiting the Churches which they had lately planted among the Gentiles To which end Barnabas determined to take his cousin Mark along with them This Paul would by no means agree to he having deserted them in their former journey A little spark which yet kindled a great feud and dissention between these two good men and arose to that height that in some discontent they parted from each other So natural is it for the best of men sometimes to indulge an unwarrantable passion and so far to espouse the interest of a private and particular humour as rather to hazard the great Law of Charity and violate the bands of friendship than to recede from it The effect was Barnabas taking his Nephew went for Cyprus his native Country S. Paul made choice of Silas and the success of his undertaking being first recommended to the Divine care and goodness they set forwards on their journey 2. THEIR first passage was into Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches as they went along And to that end 〈◊〉 with them Copies of the Synodical Decrees lately ordained in the Council at Jerusalem Hence we may suppose it was that he set 〈◊〉 for Crete where he preached and propagated Christianity and constituted Titus to be the first Bishop and Pastor of that Island whom he left there to settle and dispose those affairs which the shortness of his own stay in those parts would not suffer him to do Hence he returned back unto Cilicia and came to Lystra where he found Timothy whose Father was a Greek his Mother a Jewish convert by whom he had been brought up under all the advantages of a pious and religious education and especially an incomparable skill and dexterity in the holy Scriptures S. Paul designing him for the companion of his travels and a special instrument in the Ministery of the Gospel and knowing that his being uncircumcised would be a mighty prejudice in the opinion and estimation of the Jews caused him to be circumcised being willing in lawful and indifferent matters such was Circumcision now become to accommodate himself to mens humors and apprehensions for the saving of their Souls 3. FROM hence with his company he passed through Phrygia and the Country of Galatia where he was entertained by them with as mighty a kindness and veneration as if he had been an Angel immediately sent from Heaven And being by Revelation forbidden to go into Asia by a second Vision he was commanded to direct his journey for Macedonia And here it was that S. Luke joyned himself to his company and became ever after his inseparable companion Sailing from Troas they arrived at the Island Samothracia and thence to 〈◊〉 from whence they went to Philippi the chief City of that part of Macedonia and a Roman Colony where he staid some considerable time to plant the Christian Faith and where his Ministery had more particular success on Lydia a Purple-seller born at 〈◊〉 baptized together with her whole Family and with her the Apostle sojourned during his residence in that place A little without this City there was a Proseucha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Syriac renders it an Oratory or house of Prayer whereto the Apostle and his company used frequently to retire for the exercise of their Religion and for preaching the Gospel to 〈◊〉 that resorted thither The Jews had 〈◊〉 sorts of places for their publick worship The Temple at Jerusalem which was like the Cathedral or Mother-Church where all Sacrifices and Oblations were 〈◊〉 and where all Males were bound three times a-year personally to pay their devotions Their Synagogues many whereof they had almost in every place not unlike our Parochial Churches where the Scriptures were read and expounded and the people taught their duty Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day And then they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo sometimes calls them or 〈◊〉 which were like Chappels of Ease to the Temple and the 〈◊〉 whither the people were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven They were built as 〈◊〉 informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the City in the open Air and uncovered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being large spacious places after the manner of Fora or Market-places and these they called 〈◊〉 And that the Jews and Samaritans had such places of Devotion he proves from this very place at Philippi where S. Paul preached For they had them not in Judaea only but even at Rome it self where Tiberius as Philo tells 〈◊〉 the Emperor suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberin Region and undisturbedly to 〈◊〉 according to the Rites of their Institutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to have their Proseucha's and to meet in them especially upon their holy Sabbaths that they might be familiarly instructed in the Laws and Religion of their Country Such they had also in other places especially where they had not or were not suffered to have Synagogues for their publick worship But to return 4. AS they were going to this Oratory they were often followed by a Pythonesse a Maid-servant acted by a spirit of Divination who openly cried out That these men were the servants of the most high God who came to shew the way of Salvation to the World So easily can Heaven extort a Testimony from the mouth of Hell But S. Paul to shew how little he needed Satan to be his witness commanded the Daemon to come out which immediately left her The evil Spirit thus thrown out of possession presently raised a storm against the Apostles for the Masters of the Damsel who used by her Diabolical arts to raise great advantages to themselves being sensible that now their gainful Trade was spoil'd resolved to be revenged on them that had spoiled it Accordingly they laid hold upon them and drag'd them before the Seat of Judicature insinuating to the Governours that these men were Jews and sought to introduce different customs and ways of worship contrary to the Laws of the Roman Empire The Magistrates and People were soon agreed the one to give Sentence the other to set upon the Execution In fine they were stript beaten and then commanded to be thrown into Prison and the Jaylor charged to keep them with all possible care and strictness Who to make sure of his charge thrust them into the Inner-Dungeon and made their feet fast in the Stocks But a good man can turn a Prison into a Chappel and make a den of Thieves to be an house of Prayer Our feet cannot be bound so fast to the Earth but that still our hearts may mount up to Heaven At midnight the Apostles were over-heard by their fellow-prisoners praying and singing
Four Thousand debauched and profligate wretches The Apostle replied that he was a Jew of Tarsus a Free-man of a rich and honourable City and therefore begg'd of him that he might have leave to speak to the People Which the Captain readily granted and standing near the Door of the Castle and making signs that they would hold their peace he began to address himself to them in the Hebrew Language which when they heard they became a little more calm and quiet while he discoursed to them to this effect 7. HE gave them an account of himself from his Birth of his education in his youth of the mighty zeal which he had for the Rites and Customes of their Religion and with what a passionate earnestness he persecuted and put to death all the Christians that he met with whereof the High Priest and the Sanhedrim could be sufficient witnesses He next gave them an intire and punctual relation of the way and manner of his conversion and how that he had received an immediate command from God himself to depart Jerusalem and preach unto the Gentiles At this word the patience of the Jews could hold no longer but they unanimously cried out to have him put to death it not being fit that such a Villain should live upon the Earth And the more to express their fury they threw off their Clothes and cast dust into the Air as if they immediately designed to stone him To avoid which the Captain of the Guard commanded him to be brought within the Castle and that he should be examined by whipping till he confessed the reason of so much rage against him While the Lictor was binding him in order to it he asked the Centurion that stood by whether they could justifie the scourging a Citizen of Rome and that before any sentence legally passed upon him This the Centurion presently intimated to the Governor of the Castle bidding him have a care what he did for the Prisoner was a Roman Whereat the Governor himself came and asked him whether he was a free Denizon of Rome and being told that he was he replied that it was a great priviledge a priviledge which he himself had purchased at a considerable rate To whom S. Paul answered that it was his Birth right and the priviledge of the place where he was born and bred Hereupon they gave over their design of whipping him the Commander himself being a little startled that he had bound and chained a Denizon of Rome 8. THE next Day the Governor commanded his Chains to be knock'd off and that he might throughly satisfie himself in the matter commanded the Sanhedrim to meet and brought down Paul before them where being set before the Council he told them that in all passages of his life he had been careful to act according to the severest rules and conscience of his duty Men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day Behold here the great security of a good man and what invisible supports innocency affords under the greatest danger With how generous a confidence does vertue and honesty guard the breast of a good man as indeed nothing else can lay a firm basis and foundation for satisfaction and tranquillity when any misery or calamity does overtake us Religion and a good conscience beget peace and a Heaven in the Man's bosome beyond the power of the little accidents of this World to ruffle and discompose Whence Seneca compares the mind of a wise and a good man to the state of the upper Region which is always serene and calm The High-Priest Ananias being offended at the holy and ingenuous freedom of our Apostle as if by asserting his own innocency he had reproached the justice of their Tribunal commanded those that stood next him to strike him in the Face whereto the Apostle tartly replied That GOD would smite him Hypocrite as he was who under a pretence of doing Justice had illegally commanded him to be punished before the Law condemned him for a Malefactor Whereupon they that stood by asked him how he durst thus affront so sacred and venerable a Person as Gods High Priest He calmly returned That he did not know or own Ananias to be an High Priest of God's appointment However being a Person in Authority it was not lawful to revile him God himself having commanded that no man should speak evil of the Ruler of the People The Apostle who as he never laid aside the innocency of the Dove so knew how when occasion was to make use of the wisdom of the Serpent perceiving the Council to consist partly of Sadduces and partly of Pharisees openly told them that he was a Pharisee and the Son of a Pharisee and that the main thing he was questioned for was his belief of a future Resurrection This quickly divided the Council the Pharisees being zealous Patrons of that Article and the Sadducees as stifly denying that there is either Angel that is of a spiritual and immortal nature really subsisting of it self for otherwise they cannot be supposed to have utterly denied all sorts of Angels seeing they own'd the Pentateuch wherein there is frequent mention of them or Spirit or that humane Souls do exist in a separate state and consequently that there is no Resurrection Presently the Doctors of the Law who were Pharisees stood up to acquit him affirming he had done nothing amiss that it was possible he had received some intimation from Heaven by an Angel or the revelation of the H. Spirit and if so then in opposing his Doctrine they might fight against God himself 9. GREAT were the dissentions in the Council about this matter in so much that the Governor fearing S. Paul would be torn in pieces commanded the Souldiers to take him from the Bar and return him back into the Castle That night to comfort him after all his frights and fears God was pleased to appear to him in a vision incouraging him to constancy and resolution assuring him that as he had born witness to his cause at Jerusalem so in despite of all his enemies he should live to bear his testimony even at Rome it self The next Morning the Jews who could as well cease to be as to be mischievous and malicious finding that these dilatory proceedings were not like to do the work resolved upon a quicker dispatch To which end above Forty of them entred into a wicked confederacy which they ratified by Oath and Execration never to eat or drink till they had killed him and having acquainted the Sanhedrim with their design they intreated them to importune the Governor that he might again the next day be brought down before them under pretence of a more strict trial of his case and that they themselves would lye in ambush by the way and not fail to dispatch him But that Divine providence that peculiarly superintends the safety of good men disappoints the devices of the crafty
justified upon terms of perfect and intire obedience there is now no other way but this That the promise by the Faith of Christ be given to all them that believe i. e. this Evangelical method of justifying sincere believers Besides the Jewish Oeconomy was deficient in pardoning sin and procuring the grace and favour of God it could only awaken the knowledge of sin not remove the guilt of it It was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin all the 〈◊〉 of the Mosaick Law were no further available for the pardon of sin than merely as they were founded in and had respect to that great sacrifice and expiation which was to be made for the sins of mankind by the death of the Son of God The Priests though they daily ministred and oftentimes offered the same sacrifices yet could they never take away sins No that was reserved for a better and a higher sacrifice even that of our Lord himself who after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God having completed that which the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never effect So that all men being under guilt and no justification where there was no remission the Jewish Oeconomy being in it self unable to pardon was incapable to justifie This S. Paul elsewhere declared in an open Assembly before Jews and Gentiles Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this man Christ Jesus is preached unto you forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses 13. FOURTHLY He proves that Justification by the Mosaick Law could not stand with the death of Christ the necessity of whose death and sufferings it did plainly evacuate and take away For if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain If the Mosaical performances be still necessary to our Justification then certainly it was to very little purpose and altogether unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God to send his own Son into the World to do so much for us and to suffer such exquisite pains and tortures Nay he tells them that while they persisted in this fond obstinate opinion all that Christ had done and suffered could be of no advantage to them Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage the bondage and servitude of the Mosaick rites Behold 〈◊〉 Paul solemnly say unto you That if you be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing For I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace The summ of which argument is That whoever lay the stress of their Justification upon Circumcision and the observances of the Law do thereby declare themselves to be under an obligation of perfect obedience to all that the Law requires of them and accordingly supersede the vertue and efficacy of Christ's death and disclaim all right and title to the grace and favour of the Gospel For since Christ's death is abundantly sufficient to attain its ends whoever takes in another plainly renounces that and rests upon that of his own chusing By these ways of reasoning 't is evident what the Apostle drives at in all his discourses about this matter More might have been observed had I not thought that these are sufficient to render his design especially to the unprejudiced and impartial obvious and plain enough 14. LASTLY That S. Paul's discourses about Justification and Salvation do immediately refer to the controversie between the Orthodox and Judaizing Christians appears hence that there was no other controversie then on foot but concerning the way of Justification whether it was by the observation of the Law of Moses or only of the Gospel and the Law of Christ. For we must needs suppose that the Apostle wrote with a primary respect to the present state of things and so as they whom he had to deal with might and could not but understand him Which yet would have been impossible for them to have done had he intended them for the controversies which have since been bandied with so much zeal and fierceness and to give countenance to those many nice and subtil propositions those curious and elaborate schemes which some men in these later Ages have drawn of these matters 15. FROM the whole discourse two Consectaries especially plainly follow I. Consect That works of Evangelical obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification By works of Evangelical obedience I mean such Christian duties as are the fruits not of our own power and strength but God's Spirit done by the assistance of his grace And that these are not opposed to Faith is undeniably evident in that as we observed before Faith as including the new nature and the keeping God's commands is made the usual condition of Justification Nor can it be otherwise when other graces and vertues of the Christian life are made the terms of pardon and acceptance with Heaven and of our title to the merits of Christ's death and the great promise of eternal life Thus Repentance which is not so much a single Act as a complex body of Christian duties Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out So Charity and forgiveness of others Forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father also will forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive yours Sometimes Evangelical obedience in general God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him If we walk in the light as God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin What priviledge then has Faith above other graces in this matter are we justified by Faith We are pardoned and accepted with God upon our repentance charity and other acts of Evangelical obedience Is Faith opposed to the works of the Mosaick Law in Justification so are works of Evangelical obedience Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Does Faith give glory to God and set the crown upon his head Works of Evangelical obedience are equally the effects of Divine grace both preventing and assisting of us and indeed are not so much our works as his So that the glory of all must needs be intirely resolved into the grace of God nor can any
A circumstance the more considerable because spoken at the same time when Peter was in Council who produced no such intimation of his Authority Had the Champions of the Church of Rome but such a passage for Peter's judiciary Authority and Power it would no doubt have made a louder noise in the World than Thou art Peter or Feed my sheep 5. HE administred his Province with all possible care and industry omitting no part of a diligent and faithful Guide of Souls strengthning the weak informing the ignorant reducing the erroneous reproving the obstinate and by the constancy of his Preaching conquering the stubbornness of that perverse and refractory Generation that he had to deal with many of the nobler and the better sort being brought over to a compliance with the Christian Faith So careful so successful in his charge that he awakened the spite and malice of his Enemies to conspire his ruine a sort of Men of whom the Apostle has given too true a character that they please not God and are contrary to all men Vexed they were to see that S. Paul by appealing to Caesar had escaped their hands Malice is as greedy and insatiable as Hell it self and therefore now turn their revenge upon S. James which not being able to effect under Festus his Government they more effectually attempted under the Procuratorship of Albinus his Successor Ananus the Younger then High-Priest and of the Sect of the Sadducees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Josephus speaking of this very passage of all others the most merciless and implacable Justicers resolving to dispatch him before the new Governor could arrive To this end a Council is hastily summoned and the Apostle with some others arraigned and condemned as Violators of the Law But that the thing might be carried in a more plausible and popular way they set the Scribes and Pharisees Crafts-masters in the arts of dissimulation at work to ensnare him who coming to him began by flattering insinuatious to set upon him They tell him that they all had a mighty confidence in him and that the whole Nation as well as they gave him the testimony of a most just man and one that was no respecter of Persons that therefore they desired he would correct the error and false Opinion which the People had of Jesus whom they looked upon as the Messiah and would take this opportunity of the universal confluence to the Paschal solemnity to set them right in their notions about these things and would to that end go up with them to the top of the Temple where he might be seen and heard by all Being advantageously placed upon a Pinnacle or Wing of the Temple they made this address to him Tell us O Justus whom we have all the reason in the World to believe that seeing the People are thus generally led away with the Doctrine of Jesus that was crucified tell us What is this Institution of the crucified Jesus To which the Apostle answered with an audible Voice Why do ye enquire of Jesus the Son of man he sits in Heaven on the right hand of the Majesty on high and will come again in the Clouds of Heaven The People below hearing it glorified the blessed Jesus and openly proclaimed Hosanna to the Son of David The Scribes and Pharisees perceived now that they had over-shot themselves and that instead of reclaiming they had confirmed the People in their Error that there was no way left but presently to dispatch him that by his sad fate others might be warned not to believe him Whereupon suddenly crying out that Justus himself was seduced and become an Impostor they threw him down from the Place where he stood Though bruised he was not killed by the fall but recovered so much strength as to get upon his Knees and Pray to Heaven for them Malice is of too bad a nature either to be pacified with kindness or satisfied with cruelty Jealousie is not more the rage of a Man than Malice is the rage of the Devil the very soul and spirit of the Apostate nature Little portions of revenge do but inflame it and serve to flesh it up into a fiercer violence Vexed that they had not done his work they fall afresh upon the poor remainders of his life and while he was yet at Prayer and that a Rechabite who stood by which says Epiphanius was Symeon his Kinsman and Successor stept in and intreated them to spare him a just and a righteous Man and who was then praying for them they began to load him with a showre of stones till one more mercifully cruel than the rest with a Fullers Club beat out his Brains Thus died this good Man in the XCVI Year of his Age and about XXIV Years after Christ's Ascension into Heaven as Epiphanius tells us being taken away to the great grief and regret of all good Men yea of all sober and just Persons even amongst the Jews themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus himself confesses speaking of this matter He was buried says Gregory Bishop of Tours upon Mount Olivet in a Tomb which he had built for himself and wherein he had buried Zacharias and old Simeon which I am rather inclinable to believe than what Hegesippus reports that he was buried near the Temple in the place of his Martyrdom and that a Monument was there erected for him which remained a long time after For the Jews were not ordinarily wont to bury within the City much less so near the Temple and least of all would they suffer him whom as a Blasphemer and Impostor they had so lately put to death 6. HE was a Man of exemplary and extraordinary Piety and Devotion educated under the strictest Rules and Institutions of Religion a Priest as we may probably guess of the ancient Order of the Rechabites or rather as Epiphanius conjectures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the most ancient order and form of Priesthood when the Sacerdotal Office was the Prerogative of the first-born and such was S. James the Eldest Son of Joseph and thereby sanctified and set apart for it Though whether this way of Priesthood at any time held under the Mosaick dispensation we have no intimations in the holy story But however he came by it upon some such account it must be that he had a priviledge which the Ancicnts say was peculiar to him probably because more frequently made use of by him than by any others to enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not into the Sancta Sanstorum or most holy of all but the Sanctuary or holy place whither the Priests of the Aaronical Order might come Prayer was his constant business and delight he seemed to live upon it and to trade in nothing but the frequent returns of converse with Heayen and was therefore wont to retire alone into the Temple to pray which he always performed kneeling and with the greatest reverence till by
his daily Devotions his knees were become as hard and brawny as a Camels And he who has told us that the effectual servent prayer of a righteous man availeth much himself found it true by his own experience Heaven lending a more immediate Ear to his Petitions so that when in a time of great drought he prayed for Rain the Heavens presently melted into fruitful showres Nor was his Charity towards Men less than his Piety towards God he did good to all watched over Men's souls and studied to advance thelr eternal interests his daily errand into the Temple was to pray for the happiness of the People and that God would not severely reckon with them he could forgive his fiercest enemies and overcome evil with good when thrown from the top of the Temple he made use of all the breath he had left in him only to send up this Petition to Heaven for the pardon of his Murderers I beseech thee O Lord God Heavenly Father forgive them for they know not what they do 7. HE was of a most meek humble temper honouring what was excellent in others concealing what was valuable in himself the eminency of his relation and the dignity of his place did not exalt him in lofty thoughts above the measures of his Brethren industriously hiding whatever might set him up above the rest Though he was our Lora's Brother yet in the Inscription of his Epistle he stiles himself but the Servant of the Lord Jesus not so much as giving himself the Title of an Apostle His temperance was admirable he wholly abstained from Flesh and drank neither Wine nor strong Drink nor ever used the Bath His holy and mortified mind was content with the meanest accommodations he went bare-foot and never wore other than Linnen-garments Indeed he lived after the strictest rules of the Nazarite-Order and as the Miter or Sacerdotal Plate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ancients call it which he wore upon his Head evinced his Priesthood which was rather after Melchisedeck's or the Priesthood of the first-born than the Aaronical Order so his never shaving his Head nor using Unguents his Habit and Diet and the great severity of his Life shewed him to appertain to the NaZarite-Institution to which he was holy says Hegesippus or consecrated from his Mother 's Womb. A Man of that Divine temper that he was the love and wonder of his Age and for the reputation of his holy and religious Life was universally stiled 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Indced the safety and happiness of the Nation was reckoned to depend upon his Prayers and interest in Heaven which gained him the honourable Title of Oblias or 〈◊〉 the defence and fortress of the People as if when he was gone their Garrisons would be dismantled and their strength laid level with the ground And so we find it was when some few Years after his Death the Roman Army broke in upon them and turned all into bloud and ruine As what wonder if the judgments of God like a Flood come rowling in upon a Nation when the Sluces are plucked up and the Moses taken away that before stood in the Gap to keep them out Elisha died and a Band of the Moabites invaded the Land In short he was the delight of all good Men in so much favour and estimation with the People that they used to flock after him and strive who should touch though it were but the hem of his Garment his very Episcopal Chair wherein he used to sit being as Eusebius informs us carefully preserved and having a kind of veneration paid to it even unto his time loved and honoured not by his friends only but by his enemies the Jews in their Talmud mentioning James as a worker of Miracles in the Name of Jesus his Master yea the wisest of them looked upon his Martyrdom as the inlet to all those miseries and calamities that soon after flowed in upon them Sure I am that Josephus particularly reckons the Death of this S. James as that which more immediately alarm'd the Divine vengeance and hastned the universal ruine and destruction of that Nation 8. HE wrote only one Epistle probably not long before his Martyrdom as appears by some passages in it relating to the near approaching ruine of the Jewish Nation He directed it to the Jewish Converts dispersed up and down those Eastern Countries to comfort them under sufferings and confirm them against Error He saw a great degeneracy and declension of manners coming on and that the purity of the Christian Faith began to be undermined by the loose doctrines and practices of the Gnosticks who under a pretence of zeal for the legal rites generally mixed themselves with the Jews he beheld Libertinism marching on a-pace and the way to Heaven made soft and easie Men declaiming against good works as useless and unnecessary and asserted a naked belief of the Christian doctrine to be sufficient to salvation Against these the Apostle opposes himself presses Purity Patience and Charity and all the Vertues of a good Life and by undeniable Arguments evinces that that faith only that carries along with it obedience and an holy life can justifie us before God and intitle us to eternal Life Besides this Epistle there is a kind of preparatory Gospel ascribed to him published under the Name of 〈◊〉 still extant at this Day containing the descent birth and first Originals of Christ and the Virgin Mary at the end whereof the Author pretends to have written it at a time when Herod having raised a great tumult in Jerusalem he was forced to retire into the Wilderness But though in many things consistent enough with the History of the Gospels yet has it ever been rejected as spurious and Apochryphal forged in that licentious Age when Men took the boldness to stamp any Writing with the Name of an Apostle The End of the Life of S. James the Less THE LIFE OF S. SIMON the Zealot S SIMON S. Simon Zelotes preached in AEgypt Africa and Britaine and at length was crucified Nicâ—ph l. 2. c. 40. Baron Oct. 28. St. Simon 's Martyrdom Mauh 10. 16. Behold I send you forth as sheep in y e midst of wolâ—es 1. Cor. 4. 9. God hath set forth US y e Apostles last as it were men appointed to death For we are made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men His kindred Whence stiled the Cananite and the Zealot An enquiry into the nature and temper and original of the Sect of the Zealots among the Jews An account of their wild and licentious practises This no reflection upon our Apostle In what parts of the World he Preached the Gospel His planting Christianity in Africk His removal into the West and Preaching in Britain His Martyrdom there By whom said to have preached and suffered in Persia. The difference between him and Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem 1. SAINT Simon the Apostle was as some think
repentance Guilt is naturally troublesome and uneasie it disturbs the peace and serenity of the mind and fills the Soul with storms and thunder Did ever any harden himself against God and prosper And indeed how should he when God has such a powerful and invisible executioner in his own bosom Whoever rebels against the Laws of his duty and plainly affronts the dictates of his Conscience does that moment bid adieu to all true repose and quiet and expose himself to the severe resentments of a self-tormenting mind And though by secret arts of wickedness he may be able possibly to drown and stifle the voice of it for a while yet every little affliction or petty accident will be apt to awaken it into horror and to let in terror like an armed man upon him A torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants could ever contrive Nothing so effectually invades our ease as the reproaches of our own minds The wrath of man may be endured but the irruptions of Conscience are irresistible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom very elegantly stiles it to be choaked or strangled with an evil Conscience which oft reduces the man to such distresses as to make him chuse death rather than life A sad instance of all which we have in this unhappy man who being wearied with furious and melancholy reflexions upon what was past threw back the wages of iniquity in open Court and dispatched himself by a violent death Vainly hoping to take sanctuary in the Grave and that he should meet with that ease in another World which he could not find in this He departed and went and hanged himself and falling down burst asunder and his bowels gushed out Leaving a memorable warning to all treacherous and ingrateful to all greedy and covetous persons not to let the World insinuate it self too far into them and indeed to all to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation Our present state is slippery and insecure Let him that thinketh he 〈◊〉 take heed lest he fall What priviledges can be a sufficient fence a foundation firm enough to rely upon when the Miracles Sermons favours and familiar converses of Christ himself could not secure one of the Apostles from so fatal an Apostasie 3. A VACANCY being thus made in the Colledge of Apostles the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet where our Lord took his leave of them to S. John's house in Mount Sion the place if we may believe Nicephorus where the Church met together was to fill up their number with a fit proper person To which purpose Peter acqualnted them that Judas according to the prophetical prediction being fallen from his ministry it was necessary that another should be substituted in his room one that had been a constant companion and disciple of the holy Jesus and consequently capable of bearing witness to his life death and resurrection Two were propounded in order to the choice Joseph called Barsabas and Justus whom some make the same with Joses one of the brothers of our Lord and Matthias both duly qualified for the place The way of election was by Lots a way frequently used both among Jews and Gentiles for the determination of doubtful and difficult cases and especially the chusing Judges and Magistrates And this course the Apostles the rather took because the Holy Ghost was not yet given by whose immediate dictates and inspirations they were chiefly guided afterwards And that the business might proceed with the greater regularity and success they first solemnly make their address to Heaven that the Omniscient Being that governed the World and perfectly understood the tempers and dispositions of men would immediately guide and direct the choice and shew which of these two he would appoint to take that part of the Apostolick charge from which Judas was so lately fallen The Lots being put into the Urn Matthias his name was drawn out and thereby the Apostolate devolved upon him 4. NOT long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the Apostles to fit them for that great and difficult imployment upon which they were sent And among the rest S. Matthias betook himself to his Charge and Province The first-fruits of his Ministry he spent in 〈◊〉 where having reaped a considerable harvest he betook himself to other Provinces An Author I confess of no great credit in these matters tells us that he preached the Gospel in Macedonia where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity gave him a poisonous and intoxicating potion which he chearfully drunk off in the name of Christ without the least prejudice to himself and that when the same potion had deprived above two hundred and fifty of their sight he laying his hands upon them restored them to their sight with a great deal more of the same stamp which I have neither faith enough to believe nor leisure enough to relate The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward he came says Nicephorus into the first says Sophronius into the second AEthiopia and in both I believe it is a mistake either of the Authors or Transcribers for Cappadocia his residence being principally near the irruption of the River Apsarus and the Haven Hyssus both places in Cappadocia Nor is there any AEthiopia nearer those places than that conterminous to Chaldaea whereof before And as for those that tell us that he might well enough preach both in the Asian and African AEthiopia and that both might be comprehended under that general name as the Eastern and Western parts of the World were heretofore contained under the general title of the India's it's a fancy without any other ground to stand on 〈◊〉 their own bare conjecture The place whither he came was very barbarous and his usage was accordingly For here meeting with a people of a fierce and intractable temper he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhumanity from whom after all his labours and sufferings and a numerous conversion of men to Christianity he obtained at last the crown of Martyrdom Ann. Chr. LXI or as others LXIV Little certainty can be retrieved concerning the manner of his death Dorotheus will have him to die at Sebastople and to be buried there near the Temple of the Sun An ancient Martyrologic reports him to have been seised by the Jews and as a blasphemer to have been first stoned and then beheaded But the Greek Offices seconded herein by several ancient Breviaries tell us that he was crucified and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree so Matthias suffered upon a Cross. His Body is said to have been kept a long time at Jerusalem thence thought by Helen the Mother of the Great Constantine to have been translated to Rome where some parts of it are shewed with great veneration at this day Though others with as great eagerness and probably as much truth
and the sons of Israel never murmured when God bad them borrow jewels and ear-rings and spoil the Egyptians But because God restrained these desires our duties are the harder because they are fetters to our Liberty and contradictions to those natural inclinations which also are made more active by evil custom and unhandsome educations From which Premisses we shall observe in order to practice That sin creeps upon us in our education so tacitely and undiscernibly that we mistake the cause of it and yet so prevalently and effectually that we judge it to be our very nature and charge it upon Adam to lessen the imputation upon us or to increase the licence or the confidence when every one of us is the Adam the man of sin and the parent of our own impurities For it is notorious that our own iniquities do so discompose our naturals and evil customs and examples do so incourage impiety and the Law of God enjoyns such Vertues which do violence to Nature that our proclivity to sin is occasioned by the accident and is caused by our selves what-ever mischief Adam did to us we do more to our selves We are taught to be revengeful in our Cradles and are taught to strike our Neighbour as a means to still our frowardness and to satisfie our wranglings Our Nurses teach us to know the greatness of our Birth or the riches of our Inheritance or they learn us to be proud or to be impatient before they learn us to know God or to say our Prayers And then because the use of Reason comes at no definite time but insensibly and divisibly we are permitted such acts with impunity too long deferring to repute them to be sins till the habit is grown strong natural and masculine and because from the infancy it began in inolinations and tender overtures and slighter actions Adam is laid in the fault and Original sin did all and this clearly we therefore confess that our faults may seem the less and the misery be pretended natural that it may be thought to be irremediable and therefore we not engaged to endeavour a cure so that the confession of our original sin is no imitation of Christ's Humility in suffering Circumcision but too often an act of Pride Carelesness Ignorance and Security 8. At the Circumcision his Parents imposed the Holy Name told to the Virgin by the Angel his Name was called JESUS a Name above every name For in old times God was known by names of Power of Nature of Majesty But his name of Mercy was reserved till now when God did purpose to pour out the whole treasure of his Mercy by the mediation and ministry of his Holy Son And because God gave to the Holy Babe the name in which the treasures of Mercy were deposited and exalted this name above all names we are taught that the purpose of his Counsel was to exalt and magnifie his Mercy above all his other works he being delighted with this excellent demonstration of it in the Mission and Manifestation and Crucifixion of his Son he hath changed the ineffable Name into a name utterable by man and desirable by all the world the Majesty is all arrayed in robes of Mercy the Tetragrammation or adorable Mystery of the Patriarchs is made fit for pronunciation and expression when it becometh the name of the Lord 's CHRIST And if JEHOVAH be full of majesty and terrour the name JESUS is full of sweetness and mercy It is GOD clothed with circumstances of facility and opportunities of approximation The great and highest name of GOD could not be pronounced truly till it came to be sinished with a Guttural that made up the name given by this Angel to the Holy Child nor God received or entertained by men till he was made humane and sensible by the adoption of a sensitive nature like Vowels pronunciable by the intertexture of a Consonant Thus was his Person made tangible and his Name utterable and his Mercy brought home to our necessities and the Mystery made explicate at the Circumcision of this Holy Babe 9. But now God's mercy was at full Sea now was the time when God made no reserves to the effusion of his mercy For to the Patriarchs and persons of eminent Sanctity and imployment in the elder Ages of the World God according to the degrees of his manifestation or present purpose would give them one letter of this ineffable Name For the reward that Abraham had in the change of his name was that he had the honour done him to have one of the letters of Jehovah put into it and so had Joshua when he was a type of Christ and the Prince of the Israelitish Armies and when God took away one of these letters it was a curse But now he communicated all the whole Name to this Holy Child and put a letter more to it to signifie that he was the glory of God the express image of his Father's person God Eternal and then manifested to the World in his Humanity that all the intelligent world who expected Beatitude and had treasured all their hopes in the ineffable Name of GOD might find them all with ample returns in this Name of JESUS which God hath exalted above every name even above that by which God in the Old Testament did represent the greatest awfulness of his Majesty This miraculous Name is above all the powers of Magical Inchantments the nightly rites of Sorcerers the Secrets of Memphis the Drugs of Thessaly the silent and mysterious Murmurs of the wise Chaldees and the Spells of Zoroastres This is the Name at which the Devils did tremble and pay their inforced and involuntary adorations by confessing the Divinity and quitting their possessions and usurped habitations If our prayers be made in this Name God opens the windows of Heaven and rains down benediction at the mention of this Name the blessed Apostles and Hermione the daughter of St. Philip and Philotheus the son of Theophila and St. Hilarion and St. Paul the Eremite and innumerable other Lights who followed hard after the Sun of Righteousness wrought great and prodigious Miracles Signs and wonders and healings were done by the Name of the Holy Child JESUS This is the Name which we should ingrave in our hearts and write upon our fore-heads and pronounce with our most harmonious accents and rest our faith upon and place our hopes in and love with the overflowings of charity and joy and adoration And as the revelation of this Name satisfied the hopes of all the World so it must determine our worshippings and the addresses of our exteriour and interiour Religion it being that Name whereby God and God's mercies are made presential to us and proportionate objects of our Religion and affections The PRAYER MOst Holy and ever-Blessed Jesu who art infinite in Essence glorious in Mercy mysterious in thy Communications affable and presential in the descents of thy Humanity I
it is nice to judge the condition of the effect and therefore it is prudent to ascertain our condition by improving our care and our Religion and in all accidents to make no judgment concerning God's Favour by what we feel but by what we do 6. When the Holy Virgin with much Religion and sadness had sought her joy at last she found him disputing among the Doctors hearing them and asking them questions and besides that he now first opened a fontinel and there sprang out an excellent rivulet from his abyss of Wisdom he consigned this Truth to his Disciples That they who mean to be Doctors and teach others must in their first accesses and degrees of discipline learn of those whom God and publick Order hath set over us in the Mysteries of Religion The PRAYER BLessed and most Holy Jesus Fountain of Grace and comfort Treasure of Wisdom and spiritual emanations be pleased to abide with me for ever by the inhabitation of thy interiour assistances and refreshments and give me a corresponding love acceptable and unstained purity care and watchfulness over my ways that I may never by provoking thee to anger cause thee to remove thy dwelling or draw a cloud before thy holy face but if thou art pleased upon a design of charity or trial to cover my eyes that I may not behold the bright rays of thy Favour nor be refreshed with spiritual comforts let thy Love support my spirit by ways insensible and in all my needs give me such a portion as may be instrumental and incentive to performance of my duty and in all accidents let me continue to seek thee by Prayers and Humiliation and frequent desires and the strictness of a Holy life that I may follow thy example pursue thy foot-steps be supported by thy strength guided by thy hand enlightned by thy favour and may at last after a persevering holiness and an unwearied industry dwell with thee in the Regions of Light and eternal glory where there shall be no fears of parting from the habitations of Felicity and the union and fruition of thy Presence O Blessed and most Holy Jesus Amen SECT VIII Of the Preaching of John the Baptist preparative to the Manifestation of JESVS ELIAS Luke 1 17. And he shall goe before him in the spirit and power of Elias S t IOHN the Baptist Luk 1 15 And as the people were in expectation ve 16 Iohn answered saying unto them all I indeed baptize you with water but one mightier then I cometh y e latchet of whose shooes I am not worthy to unloose he shall baptize you with y e Holy Ghost and with fire WHen Herod had drunk so great a draught of bloud at Bethlehem and sought for more from the Hill-country Elizabeth carried her Son into the Wilderness there in the desert places and recesses to hide him from the fury of that Beast where she attended him with as much care and tenderness as the affections and fears of a Mother could express in the permission of those fruitless Solitudes The Child was about eighteen months old when he first sled to Sanctuary but after forty days his Mother died and his Father Zachary at the time of his ministration which happened about this time was killed in the Court of the Temple so that the Child was exposed to all the dangers and infelicities of an Orphan in a place of solitariness and discomfort in a time when a bloudy King endeavoured his destruction But when his Father and Mother were taken from him the Lord took him up For according to the tradition of the Greeks God deputed an Angel to be his nourisher and Guardian as he had formerly done to Ishmael who dwelt in the Wilderness and to Elias when he fled from the rage of Ahab so to this Child who came in the spirit of Elias to make demonstration that there can be no want where God undertakes the care and provision 2. The entertainment that S. John's Proveditóre the Angel gave him was such as the Wilderness did afford and such as might dispose him to a life of Austerity for there he continued spending his time in Meditations Contemplation Prayer Affections and Colloquies with God eating Flies and wild Honey not clothed in soft but a hairy garment and a leathern girdle till he was thirty years of age And then being the fifteenth year of Tiberius Pontius Pilate being Governour of Judaea the Word of God came unto John in the Wilderness And he came into all the countrey about Jordan preaching and baptizing 3. This John according to the Prophecies of him and designation of his person by the Holy Ghost was the fore-runner of Christ sent to dispose the people for his entertainment and prepare his ways and therefore it was necessary his person should be so extraordinary and full of Sanctity and so clarified by great concurrences and wonder in the circumstances of his life as might gain credit and reputation to the testimony he was to give concerning his LORD the Saviour of the World And so it happened 4. For as the Baptist while he was in the Wilderness became the pattern of solitary and contemplative life a School of Vertue and Example of Sanctity and singular Austerity so at his emigration from the places of his Retirement he seemed what indeed he was a rare and excellent Personage and the Wonders which were great at his Birth the prediction of his Conception by an Angel which never had before happened but in the persons of Isaac and Sampson the contempt of the world which he bore about him his mortified countenance and deportment his austere and eremitical life his vehement spirit and excellent zeal in Preaching created so great opinions of him among the people that all held him for a Prophet in his Office for a heavenly person in his own particular and a rare example of Sanctity and holy life to all others and all this being made solemn and ceremonious by his Baptism he prevailed so that he made excellent and apt preparations for the LORD 's appearing for there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea and all the regions round about Jordan and were baptized of him confessing their sins 5. The Baptist having by so heavenly means won upon the affections of all men his Sermons and his testimony concerning Christ were the more likely to be prevalent and accepted and the summ of them was Repentance and dereliction of sins and bringing forth the fruits of good life in the promoting of which Doctrine he was a severe reprehender of the Pharisees and Sadducees he exhorted the people to works of mercy the Publicans to do justice and to decline oppression the Souldiers to abstain from plundering and doing violence or rapine and publishing that he was not the CHRIST that he only baptized with water but the Messias should baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire he finally denounced judgment and great severities to all the World
parts concurring to his integral constitution Body and Soul and Spirit and all these have their proper activities and times but every one in his own order first that which is natural then that which is spiritual And what Aristotle said A man first lives the life of a Plant then of a Beast and lastly of a Man is true in this sence and the more spiritual the principle is the longer it is before it operates because more things concur to spiritual actions than to natural and these are necessary and therefore first the other are perfect and therefore last And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christian's life the Spirit as to know how or when it is infused and how it operates in all its periods and what it is in its being and proper nature and whether it be like the Soul or like the faculty or like a habit or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispence it These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree and build propositions upon their own dreams That which is certain is * That the Spirit is the principle of a new life or a new birth * That Baptism is the Laver of this new birth * That it is the seed of God and may lie long in the furrows before it springs up * That from the faculty to the act the passage is not always sudden and quick * That the Spirit is the earnest of our Inheritance that is of Resurrection to eternal life which inheritance because Children we hope shall have they cannot be denied to have its Seal and earnest that is if they shall have all they are not to be denied a part * That Children have some effects of the Spirit and therefore do receive it and are baptized with the Spirit and therefore may with Water which thing is therefore true and evident because some Children are sanctified as Jeremy and the Baptist and therefore all may And because all Sanctification of persons is an effect of the Holy Ghost there is no peradventure but they that can be 〈◊〉 by God can in that capacity receive the Holy Ghost and all the ground of dissenting here is only upon a mistake because Infants do no act of Holiness they suppose them incapable of the grace of 〈◊〉 Now 〈◊〉 of Children is their Adoption to the Inheritance of sons their Presentation to Christ their Consignation to Christ's service and to Resurrection their being put into a possibility of being saved their restitution to God's favour which naturally that is as our Nature is depraved and punished they could not have And in short the case is this * Original righteousness was in Adam 〈◊〉 the manner of Nature but it was an act or effect of Grace and by it men were not made but born Righteous the inferiour Faculties obeyed the superiour the Mind was whole and right and conformable to the Divine Image the Reason and the Will always concurring the Will followed Reason and Reason followed the Laws of God and so long as a man had not lost this he was pleasing to God and should have passed to a more perfect state Now because this if Adam had stood should have been born with every child there was in Infants a principle which was the seed of holy life here and a blessed hereafter and yet the children should have gone in the road of Nature then as well as now and the Spirit should have operated at Nature's leisure God being the giver of both would have made them instrumental to and perfective of each other but not destructive Now what was lost by Adam is restored by Christ the same Righteousness only it is not born but superinduced not integral but interrupted but such as it is there is no difference but that the same or the like principle may be derived to us from Christ as there should have been from Adam that is a principle of Obedience a regularity of 〈◊〉 a beauty in the Soul and a state of acceptation with God And we see also in men of understanding and reason the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 in them which Tatianus describing uses these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul is possessed with sparks or materials of the power of the Spirit and yet it is sometimes ineffective and unactive sometimes more sometimes less and does no more do its work at all times than the Soul does at all times understand Add to this that if there be in 〈◊〉 naturally an evil principle a proclivity to sin an ignorance and pravity of mind a disorder of affections as experience teacheth us there is and the perpetual Doctrine of the Church and the universal mischiefs issuing from mankind and the sin of every man does witness too much why cannot Infants have a good principle in them though it works not till its own season as well as an evil principle If there were not by nature some evil principle it is not possible that all the world should chuse sin In free Agents it was never heard that all individuals loved and chose the same thing to which they were not naturally inclined Neither do all men chuse to marry neither do all chuse to abstain and in this instance there is a natural inclination to one part But of all the men and women in the world there is no one that hath never sinned If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us said an Apostle If therefore Nature hath in Infants an evil principle which operates when the child can chuse but is all the while within the Soul either Infants have by Grace a principle put into them or else Sin abounds where Grace does not superabound expresly against the doctrine of the Apostle The event of this discourse is That if Infants be capable of the Spirit of Grace there is no reason but they may and ought to be baptized as well as men and women unless God had expresly forbidden them which cannot be pretended and that Infants are capable of the Spirit of Grace I think is made very credible Christus infantibus infans 〈◊〉 sanctificans 〈◊〉 said Irenaeus Christ became an Infant among the Infants and does sanctifie Infants and S. Cyprian affirms Esse apud omnes 〈◊〉 Infantes 〈◊〉 majores 〈◊〉 unam divini muneris aequitatem There is the same dispensation of the Divine grace to all alike to Infants as well as to men And in this Royal Priesthood as it is in the secular Kings may be anointed in their Cradles Dat Deus sui Spiritûs 〈◊〉 gratiam quam etiam latenter infundit in parvulis God gives the most secret Grace of his Spirit which he also secretly infuses into Infants And if a secret infusion be rejected because it cannot be proved at the place and at the instant many men that hope for Heaven will be very much to 〈◊〉 for a