33.11 Why will ye die Oh house of Israel 203 Serm. 11. EZEK 33.11 Why will ye die Oh house of Israel 225 Serm. 12. EZEK 33.11 Why will ye die c. 247 Serm. 13. GAL. 4.39 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so is it now 271 Serm. 14. MATTH 24.42 Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord will come 293 Serm. 15. MATTH 24.42 The Lord will come you know not what hour c. 311 Serm. 16. MATTH 24.42 Watch therefore c. 333 Serm. 17. GAL. 1.10 the last part of the ver For doe I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ 357 Serm. 18. A Preparation to the holy Communion 1 COR. 11.25 This do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me 391 Serm. 19. 1 THES 4.11 And that you study to be quiet and to do your own businesse and to work with your own hands as we have commanded you 416 Serm. 20. 1 THES 4.11 And to doe your own businesse and to work with your own hands as we have commanded you 437 Serm. 21. MICAH 6. v. 6 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bowe my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God 459 Serm. 22. MICAH 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good c. 479 Serm. 23. MICAH 6.8 What doth the Lord require of thee c. 503 Serm. 24. MICAH 6.8 But to do justly c. 527 Serm. 25. MICAH 6.8 To love mercy c. 553 Serm. 26. MICAH 6.8 And to walk humbly with thy God 577 A Sermon Preached at the Funerall of Sir George Whitmore Knight PSAL. 119.19 I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy commandments from me 601 HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE A SERMON Preached on Christmas-Day HEB. 2.17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren THis high Feast of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by Saint Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Metropolitane Feast For as to the chief City the whole Countrey resort Thither the tribes goe up saith David even the tribes of the Lord Psal 122. So all the Feast-dayes of the whole yeare all the passages and periods of our Saviours blessed oeconomy of that great work of our Redemption all the solemn commemorations of the blessed Saints and Martyrs meet and are concentred in the joy of this Feast If we will draw them into a perfect Circle we must set the foot of the Compasse upon this Deus similis factus God was made like unto man but if we remove the Compasse and deny this Assimilation the Incarnation of Christ there will be no roome then for the glorious company of the Apostles For the Noble Army of Martyrs the Circumcision is cut off the Epiphany disappears our Easter is buried and the Feast of the holy Ghosts Advent is past and gone from us as that mighty wind which brought it in Blot out these two words Puer natus a Child is born the Son of God made like unto us and you have wip'd the Saints all out of the Kalendar We will not now urge the solemn Celebration of it that hath been done already by many who have thought it a duty not onely of the Closet but the Church and a fit subject for Publique Devotion and upon this account Antiquity lookt upon it with joy and Gratitude as upon a Day which the Lord had made and Saint Austin commends this Anniversary Solemnity as delivered to after-Ages either from the Apostles themselves Vel ab ipsis Apostolis vel plenariis conciliis instituta c. Aug. p. 118. or decreed by Councells and devoutly retain'd in all the Churches of the world But we doe not now urge it for when power speaks every mouth must be stopped Logick hath no sinews an argument no strength Antiquity no Authority Councells may erre the Fathers were but children all Churches must yield to one and the first Age be taught by the last speech is taken from the faithfull Counsellors and judgement from the Aged Job 12,20 and but yesterday that monster was discovered which the Churches for so many Centuries of yeares heard not of and so made much of it and embraced it which they must have run from or abolisht if their eye had been as cleare and quick as theirs of after-Times I doe not stand up against Power I should then forget him whose memory we so much desire to celebrate who was the best teacher and the greatest example of Obedience what cannot be done cannot oblige and where the Church is shut up every mans Chamber every mans Breast may be a Temple and every day a Holy-day and he may offer up in it the Sacrifice of prayse and Thanksgiving to the blessed Son of God who came and dwelt amongst us and was made like unto us which is the onely End of the Celebration of this Feast Christ is made like unto us is as true when every man tells himself so and makes melody in his heart as when ti 's preached in the great Congregation but it sounds better and is heard further and is the sweeter Musique when all the people say Amen when with one heart and one soule and in one place they give glory to their Saviour who that he might be so factus est similis he was made like unto them Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren My Text is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a principle in Divinity and is laid down unto us in the forme of a Modall proposition which as we are taught in our Logick consists of two parts the Dictum and the Modus 1. the proposition Christ is made like unto us 2. the modification or qualification of it with an Oportuit or Debuit It behoved him so to be In the Dictum or proposition our meditations are directed to Christ and his Brethren and we consider quid Christus quid nos what Christ is and what we were God he was from all eternity in the fulnesse of time factus similis made like unto us Nos viles pulli nati infoelicibus ovis We miserable naked sinners Enemies to God at such a distance from him so farre from the least participation of the Divine Nature that we were fallen from the Integrity and first Honor of our own facti similes made like indeed but if a Prophet and a king if David draw our picture similes jumentis quae pereunt let our sorrow and shame interpret it like to the Beasts that perish but now facti filii Dei by Christs assimilation to
a Nation as Oppression Prophanenes Sacriledge uncleannesse which are as visible in the story of the Israelites as their punishment which you see carry a train which will enwrap our Posterity our Family our whole Country and like the Dragons tail in the Revelation draws down the stars from Heaven and brings good men even the Saints of God within the compasse and smart of them parce Carthagini si non tibi said Tent. to Capula if you well not be good to your self yet spare Carthage spare your Country spare the Charets of Israel and Horsemen thereof spare those Lots which keep your Sodom from burning who when a Nation is ready to sink and dissolve bear up the pillars of it know ye not that the Saints shall judge the world saith Saint Paul who being first acquitted by Christ shall sit with him as his friends and assessors and judge and condemn those sinnes which brought them within the reach of Gods temporal judgements and over-whelm'd them in the common Calamity and ruine of their Country 3. We passe now to the third particular and if Israel must fall yet let her not fall by the sword of a Philistine Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in Askelon was part of the Threnody and Lamentation of David on the like occasion and he gives his reason Lest the Daughters of the Philistines rejoyce and the uncircumcised triumph for besides the misery to have such an enemy rejoyce in their misery 2 Sam. 1.20 which will make that affliction which is but a whip a Scorpion this Defeat might seem to cast some disgrace even upon their Religion there being nothing more common in the world then to commend a false Religion by some fatal miscariage of the professors of the true to judge of Religion by its State and spreading to cry it up for Orthodox when the Church hath peace and to Anathematize it as Heretical when she is Militant and under the Crosse nothing more common with wavering and carnal men then to lull themselves asleep in most dangerous Errors by no other Musick then the cryes and lamentations of those who oppose them If Ophni and Phinehas fall in the battle if Eli the High Priest break his neck if the Ark be taken then Dagon is god any thing is god which is either the work of our hands or our Fancy And therefore this may seem not onely a rueful but a strange spectacle and as Diogenes said of Harpalus a notorious but prosperous Theef testimonium adversus Deum diâ—ere to stand up as a witnesse against God himself Tul. de Nat. Deer and the Government of the World Tertul. but the Father will tell us malus interpres Divinae providentiae humane infirmitas the weak and shallow considerations of men are but bad interpretations of the providence of God the wit of man a poor Jacobs staff to take the height and depth the true and full proportion of it For as we cannot judge of the Beauty of the Vniverse because that in regard of the condition of our Mortality we can be pleased but in part of it and so cannot at once at one cast of our eye see the whole in which those parts which offend us are at peace no more can the Soul of man which is confined within a clod of Earth judge of the course and Method of that Providence which is most like it self in those events which seem most disproportionable which is then most strait and even when sinners flourish and just men are opprest most equal when the honest man hath not a mite and the deceitful a Talent when the true Prophets are fed with the bread of affliction and every Balaam hath his wages when Israel falls and the Philistin prevailes because we cannot behold him but in this or that particular but can no more follow him in all his wayes then we can grasp the World in the palm of our hands And by this light we may discover first That true Religion cannot suffer with the professors of it but when they are slain with the sword and wander up and down destitute afflicted tormented is still the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil of the same hue and complexion and in true esteem more faire and radiant when her poor witnesses are under a cloud in disgrace nay I will be bold to say and whosoever rightly understands the nature of Religion will never gainsay it that if it had not one professor breathing on the Earth not one that did dare to name and own her as Eliah once thought there was but one yet Religion were still the same reserv'd in the surest Archives we can imagine even in sinu Dei in the Bosom of God the Law-giver Religion being nothing else but a Defluxion and emanation from him a beam of his eternal Law so that that which makes and Constitutes a true Israelite which is one inwardly as Saint Paul speaks Rom. 1.2 and in the spirit hath too much of Immortality of God in it to fall to the ground or expire and be lost with the Israelite Let not your hearts be troubled Religion can no more suffer then God himself 2. For secondly If Religion could suffer it suffered more by the Priests and peoples sin then the Philistines sword for by them the name of God and Religion was evil spoken of Isa 52.5 and that which cannot suffer was made the object of their malice and scorn as Nazianzen spake of Julians persecution that it was both a Comedy and Tragedy Invect secunda a Comedy full of scoffs and obtrectations and a Tragedy full of Horror and yet the Comedy was the most Tragical and bloody of the two And therefore God Jealous of his Honour awakes as one out of sleep returns the scoff upon the Philistine and makes up the last Act of this Tragedy in his blood first punisheth the guilty Israelite and then the Executioner the text sayes He smote them in the hinder parts and put them to perpetual shame Psal 78.66 forcing them to make the similitude of their Emrods in gold and to send them back with the Ark as an Oblation for their sin so that you see here Gods Method by which he ordinarily proceeds first he prepares a sacrifice as vve read Zeph. 1.7 that is appoints his people to slaughter then bids his Guests as it is in the same verse sanctificat vocatos suos as the vulgar read it sanctifies that is sets apart these Philistines that they may be as Priests to kill and offer them up and vvhen this is done God falls upon the Priests themselves and makes them a sacrifice Zeph. 2.4 Gaza shall be forsaken Askelon a desolation they shall drive out Ashdod at Noon-day and Ekron shall be rooted out and novv vve may wel conclude that God is just in all his wayes and righteous in all his judgements and fix up our inscription upon this particular also when Israel is
the remission of sins and last of all the end of this institution and of this celebration of the Lords Supper in the words of my Text This doe as oft as you do it in remembrance of me Which words I read to you as S. Pauls but indeed they are Christs delivered by him and received from Christ as he tells us v. 23. In which you may behold his love streaming forth as his blood did on the Crosse for not content once to dye for us he will appear unto us as a crucified Saviour to the end of the world and calls upon us to look upon him and remember him whom our sins have pierced presents himself unto us in these outward elements of Bread and Wine and in the breaking of the one and pouring out of the other is evidently set forth before our eyes and even crucified amongst us as S. Paul speaks Gal. 3.1 thus condescending and applying himself to our infirmities that he may heal us of our sins and make and keep us a peculiar people to himself And since the words are his we must in the first place look up and hearken to him who breaths forth this love secondly consider what task his love hath set us what we are to do thirdly ex praescripto agere since it is an injunction whose every accent is love doe it after that form which he hath set down after the manner which he hath prescribed So the parts are four First the Author of the Institution Secondly the duty enjoyned to do this Thirdly to do it often Lastly the end of the Institution or the manner how we must do it we must do it in remembrance of him i.e. of all those benefits and graces and promises which flowed with his blood from his very heart which was sick with love and with these we shall exercise your Christian devotion at this time And first we must look upon the Author of the Institution for in every action we do it is good to know by what authority we do it and this is the very order of nature saith S. Austin Aug. l. 1. de Morib Eccl. c. 2. ut rationem praecedat autoritas that Authority should go before and have the preheminence of Reason that where Reason is weak Authority may come in as a supply to strengthen and settle it For what can Reason see in Bread and Wine to quicken or raise a soul what is Bread to a wounded spirit or Wine to a sick soul 1 Cor. 8.8 For neither if we eat are we the better the more accepted nor if we eat not are we the worse saith S. Paul 'T is true the outward elements are indifferent in themselves but authority changes even transelements them gives them vertue efficacy a commanding power even the force of a Law He that put vertue into the clay spittle to cure a bodily eye may do the same to bread and wine to heal our spiritual blindness he that made them a staff to our body may make them also a prop to our souls when they droop and sink and then if he say this do ye though our reason should be at a stand and boggle at it as at a thing which holds no proportion with a soul yet we must do it because he sayes it It may be said Is not his word sufficient which is able to save our souls is it not enough for me to beat down my body to pour forth my prayers to crucifie my flesh No nothing is sufficient but what the authority of Christ hath made so nescit judicare quisquis didicit perfectè obedire is true in matters of this nature we have no judgement of our own our wisdome is to obey and let him alone to judge what is fit who alone hath power to command Authority must not be disputed with nor can it hear why should I do this for such a question denies it to be authority if it were possible that God to try our obedience should bid us sow the rocks or water a dry stick or teach a language which we do not know as the Jesuits do their Novices a necessity would lie upon us and woe unto us if we did it not how much rather then should we obey when he commands for our advantage gives us a law that he may give us more grace binds us to that which will raise us neerer to him when he spreads his table prepares his viands bids us eat and drink and then sayes grace bids a blessing himself unto it that we may grow up in his Favour and be placed amongst those great examples of eternall happinesse Look not then on the Minister howsoever qualified for a brasse seal makes the same impression which a ring of Gold doth and it is not materiall whether the seal be of baser or purer mettall so the image and character be authentique saith Nazianz. Look not on the outward elements for of themselves they have no power at all no more than the water of Jordan had to cure a Leper but their power and vertue is from above the force and vertue of a Sacrament lies in the institution all the power it hath is from the Author Before it was but Bread but common Bread now it is Manna the bread of strength the bread of Angels and this truth thou maist build upon nor doth the Church of Rome deny it and though they have added five Sacraments and may adde as many more as they please Quicquid arant homines navigant aedificant any thing we do may be made a Sacrament when the fancy is working she may spin out what she please yet they cannot deny that every Sacrament must have immediate institution from Christ himself from his own mouth or else it is of no validity and therefore are forced to pretend it though they cannot prove it in those which themselves have added for their own advantage Think then when thou hearest these words Take eat this is my body which was broken thou hearest thy Saviour himself speaking from heaven think not of the Minister or the meannesse of the Elements but think of him who took thee out of thy blood and sanctified thee with his and by the same power is able to sanctifie these outward Elements by the vertue of whose institution The cup of blessing which we blesse which he blessed first shall be to every one that comes worthily the Communion of the Blood and the Bread which we breake which he first brake the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And thus much of the Author Let us now consider what he enjoyns us to do and the command is to do this that is to do as he did though to another end to take Bread and to give Thanks and eat it and so of the Cup to take and drink it and if this be done with an eye to the Author and a lively faith in him this is all for this table was spread not for the