the name of the whole Congregation to offer up two Lambs of the first year for a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings You will say that 's no strange matter to present a Peace-offering to the Lord true indeed particular persons did it often in their own behalf but Maimonides observes it that the publick Body the Vniversal Church of the Jews never offered any Peace-offering but at the Feast of Pentecost O who will work this work for the Militant Catholique Church that we may say of all the parts of it omnes unanimiter they conclude all for the Orthodox Faith with one accord Some strange salvation must drop out of the clouds we know not how to work this Attonement yet on both sides let every man take heed he make not the rent bigger with more obstinacy and greater separation sweetly did a meek Moses of our own Church write there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three thousand Volumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit It may seem a wonderful and unanswerable scruple that many in the former Ages of the Church did so much transcend us in these dayes for gifts of Miracles gifts of Devotion and Learning for Watchings and Fastings for Industry and assiduous diligence for most prosperous success in winning many Souls to the Kingdom of Heaven but the true cause is that their unanimity and pious agreement opened a wide gate to admit sanctification into their breast and our discords exclude it No spirit can give life to Members dismembred unless they be first united and compact together Ezekiel knew not how scattered bones could live but the bones came together bone to his bone and then the breath of the Lord came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet Ezekiel xxxvii 10. The Scribes and Elders of the Jews in few years after our Saviour was crucified were like broken bones scattered and divided like as one breaketh and heweth wood every year by bribery or calumniations the High Priest lost his dignity and a new one was substituted Josephus most impartially hath related that there was no care of Religion no zeal for the Law among them because there was nothing but bandings and factions in their Synagogues Here was no accord and therefore no Holy Spirit came down into their habitations Against the Congregation of the famous first Nicene Council the Fathers that met together it is not to be concealed forgat themselves so far that they put up innumerous Bills of complaints one against another before the Emperor Constantine The Emperor knew this was a most repugnant beginning to the good work they had in hand to enter into the consideration of Christs business with distracted enmities therefore he threw all their bills and brables into the fire and then bad them proceed in the name of Christ and in the grace of his Holy Spirit Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty says the Prophet Hosea chap. x. 2. A contentious stickler that loves to be the head of a Faction and to disjoynt things out of peace and quietness I wonder whether ever he thinks how the Apostles were composed and prepared when they received the Holy Ghost Fuerunt omnes eâdem animatione simul in unam so St. Austin reads they had one heart and one mind and one inclination to advance the Kingdom of Christ they were all with one accord in one place I enter now upon the last part of all that I may find the way out of my Text and conclude it is the other Preparation for the coming of the Holy Ghost as all the Disciples were knit in vinculo pacis in the bond of peace and concord so they were united together in vinculo spei in the bond of hope by patience and expectation they were ejusdem unanimitatis and ejusdem longanimitatis they kept together for the promise of the Holy Ghost till fifty days were fulfilled God made the Israelites number fifty days after their coming out of Egypt before the Law was delivered ut adventus sui desiderium accenderet to make their hearts burn within them with longing for his coming so he put off the coming of the Holy Ghost for the same space of time to make them think of his promise with eager expectation The Jews called it the Feast of fifty days and the Feast of weeks for whether we reckon by days or weeks or years we must wait the Lords leisure and say expectans expectavi Psal xl 1. I have waited patiently for the Lord and say with our Saviour not my will but thy will be done that is not my time but thy time be fulfilled Where is the faith where is the humility of those rash spirits that will not tarry the fulness of time but have all things at their whistle by and by or quarrel with God as if he had forgot them They received this blessing of wonderful grace that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long abiders in the 13. verse of the former chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perseverantes ver 14. such as continue till the day of promise was fully come He that believeth let him not make haste says the Prophet Isaiah God will do all things by his own leisure and maturity if he happen to stay stay for him Habak ii 3. for at last he that cometh will come and then he is no flitter his gifts are without repentance and he will abide with us for ever AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and filled all the house where they were sitting THE Feast of Christs Resurrection and the Feast of Whitsunday or coming of the Holy Ghost are distant one from another fifty days in space of time but are as near to themselves as the bark unto the tree in real substance and in spiritual conjunction In the Resurrection the strength of Hell was weakened for us In the descending of the Holy Ghost the vertue of Heaven was made powerful in us In the first the doors of the Grave were unlock'd that we might not be held in death In the other the windows of heaven were opened that we might be partakers of the life to come The Resurrection reduceth the soul into the body again which was dissolved by the sin of Adam The coming of the Holy Ghost doth again reduce grace into the Soul when original Justice had been taken from it by the same mans transgression These are parallell'd in primo gradu and the comparison may reach a little further to our present business that there was a great noise caused at Christs rising For behold there was an Earthquake Mat. xxviii 2. And loe as great a noise from above at the coming of the Holy Ghost for behold there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind These two honourable Feasts
integrity of our Saviour against scandalous accusations when his lips were closed but as a Rest in Musick is not the close of the Song but a seasonable stop to make the next relish more graceful and harmonious so after the pause of silence which our Saviour made you shall now see the better how false and malicious the crimes of enditement were Before Cajaphas the High-Priest as I told you this only was objected that he threatned to destroy the Temple Three other capital crimes are laid against him Luke xxiii 2. that he perverted the Nation that he denied Tribute unto Caesar that he made himself the King of the Jews Here are two great sins against the Ecclesiastical Weal to pluck down the Temple and to pervert the Religion and two outrages against civil peace to pay no Tribute and to encroach upon the Title of the Kingdom let him be crucified a Gods name that pleads guilty to such abominations but if no more can be said against Jesus and we can shew in every particular that all this was forgery then let Pilate wash his hands and protest before them all that the life which they would take away is the bloud of a just person We heard him say He would destroy the Temple Never was such a syllable spoken Is not this the Temple wherein He bestowed his first blould at Circumcision a pair of Turtle Doves for a Sacrifice at his Mothers Purification Did He not shed his tears over this House of God in that pathetical lamentation O Jerusalem Jerusalem did He not spend his disputations with the Doctors his Sermons among the People his Prayer unto the Father and all under that holy Roof And now is his zeal turned to his reproach that He would pluck down the Sanctuary a while before did He not scourge the prophane Merchants and clense the Temple and now is He suspected for laying waste the dwelling place of the Most high Nay let them offer Swines flesh there let them change money and sell Doves I would rather bear with Superstition with Prophanation than with extreme Sacrilege O beware Beloved to open the lead of the Roof or to rent the walls of that Habitation where Gods Altar was inclosed He shall offend less that throws down any Mansion House in the World than he that cuts up but the Bramble-bush if he knew it wherein the glory of the Lord appeared 'T is pity that the stony hearts of men should suffer holy Buildings to moulder and crumble away into desolation I see a compassionate example before mine eyes O ye rich men of the World who is your God that you do not repair it But those Sons of Belial who prevent these ruins which time would bring upon the Houses of God 't is more pitty they should see the grey hairs of age in peace Surely as the Heavens which are the upper Court of Gods House shall melt away and be dissolved only by the power of God so Churches and Oratories here below which are the nether Courts of his Sanctuary should never be defaced in this World by any arm of flesh till the whole earth shall pass away and Gods own finger deface these Monuments of glory See but the hypocrisie of these Jews and Herodians they that are so careful a Temple should not be destroyed are furious to destroy the body of a man which is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Like the Popish Inquisitors most bold and zealous to curse those hotspurrs in our Kingdom who threw down a Church in their wrath and broke down the walls in their blind affection yet they themselves made havock of holy Praelats and did persecute their lives unto death and this was called Justice and Catholigue Religion to conclude this Accusation And why do they impeach our Saviour that He would destroy a Temple no such matter God knows Solvite templum hoc what means that why the Temple of his Body Why then who but they themselves do destroy the Temple which He spake of meaning the Temple of his Body The crime then you may perceive as it was objected against our Saviour it was slanderous but take this to the advantage of your instruction what judgment will God pour upon them who rob the Altar and spoil the Patrimony of the Church since these unconscionable Jews do confess that whosoever would destroy a Temple deserves to be crucified Yet Pilate was a Gentile and perchance would not heed the eracing of Gods House therefore to make the Romans look about them they have a second Objection in store That He would pervert the Nation Not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some read it the Nation of the Romans but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Nation Forsooth they fain an Accusation that he taught contrary to the Law of Moses and if new Doctrine be publisht let the Rulers look to it for this is as apparent as the light of the day that new Religion is ever new Rebellion but I do not say so of old Doctrine renewed It is a strange stupidity which the Devil puts into some mens heads you cannot perswade them to change for the better Simonides would rather learn the art of Forgetfulness than the art of Memory Velleius the Epicuraean was afraid of nothing more than to have learned Problems cast into his head which might rouze him out of ignorance Gryllus was so well in a Hogsty that he was unwilling to leave his swinish life and turn man again Are there not a thousand examples of wanton Ladies that had rather be Girls and Younglings than grow into years of understanding and discretion So the Jews had rather be ever kept under the Paedagogie of the Law than be perfect men and cast off the yoke of Ceremonies and live in the liberties of the Gospel Nisi cessassent ceremoniae non discernere licuisset hodie quorsum essent institutae says our learned Calvin had not those Shadows and Figures ceased in their due time when Christ brought a body into the world they had seemed impertinent we had never known for what they were instituted The Levitical Ceremonies were so obnoxious to alteration that the Schoolmen have set down their state in no less than five Conclusions 1. They were ever mortales the Covenant of these Observations was to fade away and not to endure for ever 2. From the time of John Baptist to the Burial of our Saviour they were moriturae inclining to dissolution 3. Upon the Commission which the Apostles had to preach the Gospel at the Feast of Pentecost they were mortuae quite dead and expired 4. As the Corps of a great Personage is not interred but in a decent time after his departure so till the weakness of the Jews was well instructed they were sepeliendae laid out to be buried But lastly when the faith of Jesus Christ was preached unto all Nations they were mortiferae not only dead but deadly unto him who should distrust in Christ and make himself a debter
Pollinctores quia pollutos ungerent But among divine Writers all do embrace this as a strong conjecture and indeed not to be denied that the Servants of God embalmed and anointed the dead both in the Old and New Testament in honour of the Resurrection So Joseph commanded the Physicians to embalm his Father So certain devout Widows washed the body of Tabitha and laid her forth in an upper Chamber Acts ix 37. Let me not omit how Christ himself did approve of that Ceremony while he was living A woman broke a box of Oyntment of Spikenard very precious upon his head and when some had indignation at it he forbad his Disciples to trouble her saying She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying Mar. xiv 8. That woman spent her cost upon him when he was alive to give her thanks Mary came to pour her Spices upon his Grave when she thought he was dead true Love is munificent to them who are dear unto it when they live but more abundantly when they are deceased Now carry your attention with you to the third part of the Text that no season was so fit to be watch'd as this which the women laid hold of The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalen This coming was upon the third day after Christ had been laid in the Grave and it was upon the same day which from thenceforth was called the Lords day wherein our holy Assemblies every week do meet together these two things are fit to be examined before I leave the Treatise of this Point From the beginning of the world was there never any thing of so great expectation as the success of this day whether that which Christ had so often foretold should come to pass that he should die and the third day he would rise again How busie were the women to come abroad and try what they could learn And I verily think the waves of the Sea rowl not about so fast in a Tempest as the thoughts of the Disciples beat within their heart and earned within them between fear and hope whether the day were like to prove glorious or uncomfortable well God did rather go beyond his own word than come a whit behind it He made this third day the most memorable Feast that ever the Sun shined upon It was a third day when Joseph released his brethren out of Prison Gen. xlii 18. On the third day in the morning after the people had come to Mount Sinai the Law of God was delivered Exod. xix 16. On the third day Esther put on her Royal Apparel and stood before Ahasuerus and desired him to be good to her Nation Esther v. 1. On the third day Abraham came to the place where his faith was tried and Isaac was restored back again alive when the sacrificing knife had been at his throat Gen. xxii 4. To come near to the mark the third day Jonas was cast safe upon the Land out of the belly of the Whale and that was the sign which Christ gave to the Jews able to convince all infidelity as Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale and then came forth alive so Christ burst open the Monument the third day and appeared unto many Reason may be busie to enquire why the Son of God prefix'd such a space of time for his Resurrection before he would quicken his flesh rather than any other Certainly there is but one modest conjecture which is this he would lie no longer than some hours of a third day in the grave lest he should keep the weak faith of his Disciples too long in suspense yet sooner he would not open his monument lest his enemies the Jews should pretend he was but cast into a swoon by the sharpness of pain and not truly dead These following I will allow for ingenuous allusions and no more that our Redeemers body was bereaft of life unto the third day to appease the offended justice of every Person in Trinity God the Father Son and Holy Ghost to signifie that we were dead in sin by thought word and deed To bring unto eternal life them that believed either under the Law of nature under the Law of Moses or under the new Covenant of grace To restore the three parts of spiritual life unto us Faith hope and charity Tria sunt omnia says another three days are the sum of mans life both here and for ever A day of labour in this World a day of rest in the Grave a day of reward in the Resurrection If there be any Son of Adam that would have a fourth day Dies otii in hâc vitâ A day of ease and pleasure in this life such a one is Lazarus quatriduanus putet It may be said of him as the two Sisters said of Lazarus their Brother He hath lain four days in the ground and begins to smell Three days are all labour rest and reward these are allusions I said to the Resurrection of Christ upon the third day One thing is very observable to match this circumstance of the New Testament and an accident which fell out in the Old Even this very day wherein Christ arose and gate dominion over death the same day which was the third day after the eating of the Passeover Moses brought the Children of Israel through the Red Sea unto dry Land certainly intimating that they went through death to life and so did Christ St. Peter hath a Text 1 Epist 1.10 which doth authorize me yet to search further and more diligently about the time of this Resurrection Saies he The Prophets have enquired and searched diligently what manner of time the Spirit of Christ did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow And surely there is a great mystery coucht in the circumstance of time that the Evangelists have differently set down other observations that concurred upon the Resurrection but all of them in one phrase do agree in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this wonder was wrought upon the first day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vna Sabbati The Jews gave such honour to their Sabbath that every day following had the denomination from it the first second and the third day after the Sabbath and so unto the sixth The Latine Church in their Liturgies hath given the same honour to Easter Day for Easter day by principallity being called Feria the Holy Day The Latines from it call the days of the week primam secundam tertiam Feriam and so unto the sixth Our vulgar English calls the first day of the week Sunday and all other days following are denominated from some of the Planets we received such Language in this Island from our Forefathers who were Paynims and knew not God but we differ from them in the intention they did it out of Idolatry to the Sun and Moon c. we to signifie that God made the Host
the same end to make us magnifie God for his Wisdom Goodness and Justice Nay I add compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians and both of them are possible to be done For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him might have obeyed the Commandement given if he had not turned to disobedience and by the Divine help of the same grace we to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son are endewed with power to believe that we may be saved Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice but he gave the Gospel in Sion as a Father of Grace and Mercy according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito by debt and due say the Schoolmen but to him that believes the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting He that disobey'd that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice but perhaps it shall be temper'd with some moderation for Christs sake Finally this is the main disagreement the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenour to them that live by Faith your sins shall be blotted out and your iniquities forgotten After you have understood the first point how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endewed with original Justice you must now give ear to the next thing in order what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel and remember that I consider the Law deliver'd in the two Tables at Mount Sinai Seorsim and by it self separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David These then are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ First God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent yet God impos'd his Commandement upon us and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness because it is not able to bring one soul unto God likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath thunder and lightning and a dreadful noise to shew that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us On the contrary he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son Read this Doctrine Heb. xii from the 18. to the 24. verse Ye are not come to the Mount that might not be touched and that burnt with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more They could not endure that which was commanded And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake but ye are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God c. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love and benevolence Ecce Evangelizo behold I bring you good tidings 2. There 's a difference arising between the first Testament and the last from the several Mediators that came between God and the people Moses was a servant faithful in the Family and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament Christ is the Son and Heir of all he was the Mediator of the New The Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts but loe the New Covenant doth much surpass it which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament 4. The old Law in St. Paul's phrase contained poor and beggerly rudiments not able to bring to life It was a killing letter the ministry of death and condemnation it worketh wrath it entred that sin might abound it is like Hagar which gendreth children unto bondage Gal. iv 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to every one that believeth a quickening Spirit it purgeth us from our sins it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear but of the Gospel Christ saith his yoke is easie and his burden is light and in it you shall find rest for your souls Lastly the Old Testament endured unto Christ and no longer wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old the New Testament remaineth for ever so says St. Paul of our Blessed Saviour taking flesh who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment but after the power of an endless life No passage or comparison can be made between them but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh and most unwelcome injunction and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arriv'd at the ear of man Hitherto I have consider'd the Old Testament in no respect but as it contains the killing letter of the Law but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith and promises Evangelical almost every where in the Prophets and in the Psalms of David Nay the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law yet it was fit the rigour of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was that we could not live without it and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law we might more ardently fly to Grace for the end of the Moral Law is double to set us a rule what we should endeavour to do and to discover our own impotency unto us what we are not able to do that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightned with many excellent promises that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith and of everlasting life they had the same Gospel which we have the same Christ the same Faith the same Spirit sealing the truth of promise unto them Where is then the priviledge you will say that the tidings are better to us then unto them or far surpassing on our side every way Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir but under age
Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est Love did rule God himself love swayed all things in the world We know and admire the meaning that the love of the Son turn'd the enmity of the Father into peace it turn'd threatnings into forgiveness and death into life Poise every thing in a right scale and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings and the nature of man might stink in Gods nostrils which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent nay to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather then the lively Oracle of his own mouth Yet love took away that distastefulness which the whole Trinity had conceiv'd against sinful flesh and the second Person became flesh for our sakes and was made sin for our sakes by imputation that we might be made sons and righteous before God nay that we might be made the righteousness of God Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey's love that he would write his name a Citizen of their City for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven and be made a Citizen of this vile earth to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people 2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ for God is love and in himself and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands but this is the true and proper understanding of it that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Saviours humility he forgave us our sins therefore his love toward mankind and his love toward his justice went hand in hand and could not be parted He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin and to become our Mediator he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice and the hatred he hath against sin when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son not without shedding of blood Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all Adam and his posterity ought to dye or who will answer for them not an Angel or Spirit and therefore not the Son of God as he is God for God is a Spirit Meet it is every one should bear his own burden the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin Mans nature had sinned mans nature ought to suffer but that which our nature should bear our nature by a fit adequation of recompence could not bear Our sufferings were not enough to satisfie the wrath of God due to sin The Son of God is a most valuable person but not passible man is passible but not valuable the one nature ought to suffer but could not the other could suffer but ought not That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Saviour and made a child that he might be able to pay the price he was perfect God as well as perfect man a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. 3. Love and Justice are mightily declared that a Saviour was born and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified It is beyond our understanding to say nay but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfie his Justice to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption and so to have spared his Son yea but wisdom interpos'd it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other than to whom he owed his creation for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer better than our Creator So Bernard Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint better than himself the King of Glory The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds let him restore all things and the blessing of our Creation Redemption and all other good gifts shall meet in one center This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio say the Schoolmen a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom 4. The boundless power and infinite virtue of the Godhead I confidently pronounce it did never appear so much in any other work as when a Saviour was born He that knew no beginning but was from all eternity to begin to be a man he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle Verbum infans he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapt in swadling clouts he that opens his hand and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a womans breasts we are able to answer nothing to this but with the Angel to cry out Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore And so far of the second point The next word to be consider'd in the Text is like the flesh-hook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself To you a Saviour is born says the Angel Vobis natus the good turn shall be yours the blessing yours you ought to be affected with joy at this wonderous work for he is your Saviour Tell the Shepherds that a Saviour is born and they cannot but understand he is de nobis like unto us in nature but tell them unto you a Saviour is born that 's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption It is honourable to be made like us but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us Let us work upon this mine and here we shall find the precious mettal fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts First we learn from hence he was born to you and not unto himself to your glory to his own abasement and exinanition for his own part he was begotten of God before all times so noble a Nativity that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. i. 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable He took a body as it were sown in dishonour that we might reap the harvest and be magnified Likewise he is called a Saviour not in respect of his own person indeed he was his own destroyer and our Saviour when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden neither doth he go about to escape or to deny himself but whom seek ye I am he No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Saviour all the salvation that he
volume of thy book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy Law then said I loe I come 2. He fulfilled the Moral Law not only by giving it the right interpretation but by exact obedience whereupon he said Which of you can accuse me of sin 3. He gave life to the Ceremonies pointing to their true meaning as instead of the Circumcision of the flesh exhorting to the Circumcision of the heart 4. Whereas the judicial Law of the Jews did mention temporary and corporeal rewards and punishments Christ changed that stile of speech into spiritual and eternal No doubt but Christ did fulfil all righteousness for he came not to do his own will but the will of his Father his justice was multiformous in all the actions of his life from his Cratch to his Cross yet my Text says that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus by receiving Baptism by that one act fulfil all righteousness I know not one bad interpretation upon that Point which is rare among Expositors to be so divers in their judgments and yet all allowable One says it is meant quoad inchoationem justitiae that so it behoved him to begin the course of righteousness That was but one act of his humility but the first wherein he did manifest obedience So Baptism is the first step that we make into the Church of Christ therefore because light was the first thing that God made among his visible Creatures and Baptism is the first of his spiritual graces it hath ever been called in the Greek Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the illumination of a Christian it is the day of inauguration when we first claim right unto our title of the Kingdom because we are adopted the Sons of God Surely the ordinary gloss conceits the words otherwise but very profitably Righteousness is either Legal which consists in an exact obedience to all the Commandments of God Or else Evangelical which knows Salvation is not attained unto by the works of the Law but thus Repent and believe and thou shalt obtain remission of sins therefore Christ speaking in the person of us who are his members says to John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus must we fulfil all righteousness by calling upon men to repent and be baptized in the true faith and their sins shall be covered and blessed is that man or righteous is that man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin This was the Doctrine taught in the Church every where three hundred years past and more Omnis justitia impletur ex gratiâ All our righteousness is fulfilled through grace and not through works Ut nullus ex operibus neque ex arbitrio glorietur they are the words of the gloss to the end that none may boast of works or in the power of his own free will but acknowledge himself guilty of damnation and obnoxious to the dreadful justice of God let us fly to that grace which freely washeth away our sins Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Chemnitius makes this apprehension of the Text. Christ did omit no means to reconcile us to his Father that we might be justified before him and this he brought to pass two principal ways 1. When he gave himself an Oblation upon the Cross to take away our sins 2. When he did institute the means and instruments to apply that meritorious satisfaction unto us on this wise therefore he did fulfil righteousness by sanctifying the Sacrament unto us which is the especial medium to apply the righteousness of faith to every one that shall be saved Another and the last sense of this word that likes me also consists in these terms By receiving this Sacrament of Baptism we are tied as far as we are able to fulfil all righteousness It behoveth them that profess the true Faith to keep themselves undefiled from the world and to be holy unto the Lord. As Rachel cried out to Jacob Give me children or else I die so a sincere faith cries out unto the conscience Let me bring forth good works or else I shall be a dying faith and altogether unprofitable Do we make void the Law through faith Says St. Paul God forbid yea we establish the Law Rom. iii. 31. So it appears how righteousness buds forth from Baptism our conscience being watred with the heavenly dew of that Sacrament it makes us fruitful with good works Sed in istôc nequaquam sunt omnia will some man say Will that serve instead of all righteousness For our Saviour saith Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness God gave the word great was the company of Interpreters and his Spirit is in them all You shall hear the several consolations which they pick out from hence 1. To be a perfect teacher and a perfect doer of Gods will these are Tabor and Hermon the two fruitful hills upon which the blessing of the Lord descends To be a Teacher and not to do well is very bad like Hophni and Phinehas those dissolute Priests who polluted the holy Sacrifice To do well and not to teach is laudable and good but it is not excellent for to be an instructer and a doer is a degree of perfection beyond it Omne tulit punctum it is more blessed to give instruction than to receive therefore our Saviour was abundant in both Praeivit in exemplo quod verbo docuit He did lead the way of obedience by example and afterward did preach it to the people Blessed is he therefore that is not only a teacher but a doer of the word this is to fulfil all righteousness 2. Suum cuique there are but three heads from whence all justice is distributed and they may be drawn out of this Baptism for by receiving Baptism we are obedient to the institution of God we provide a salutiferous medicine for our own soul and by letting our light shine before men we do edifie our brother But to render that which is due to God to our own soul to our brother is to be perfect in every line of justice therefore in the universality Christ might say thus he did fulfil all righteousness 3. Says St. Austin Quid est impleatur omnis justitia Impleatur omnis humilitas The Son of God had this meaning how he fulfilled all righteousness because he condescended to the lowest step of humility for there are these three fallings as I may say one lower than another To be subject to a Superiour and not to prefer himself before an equal is justitia sufficiens sufficient humility and no want To be subject to an equal and not to prefer himself before an inferiour is justitia abundans that is not only justice enough but large and abundant humility but to be subject to an inferiour yea the most mighty God to be subject in Baptism to his Creature this is justitia perfectissima most perfect lowliness none can submit it self more and thus indeed to make the pride of base man to blush who
is but dust and ashes Christ did empty himself of his glory and fulfilled all the righteousness of humility The fifth word of consideration is the plurality of persons spoken of in the Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness It was fit indeed for our Lord Jesus to perform all obedience to the Law in every tittle and minim that is commanded because it lay upon his person to undo the curse of the Law Surely Johns name must stand for a cipher in that work for Christ alone trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath neither John nor any of the Saints were made co-partner with him in our redemption By his one Oblation of himself once offered he made a full perfect sufficient Sacrifice and Oblation for the sins of the world What means this saying therefore in the Plural Thus it behoveth us Take again what the Spirit hath supplied for exposition of this word in divers manners One way it is satisfied that Christ according to that excellent power which is in him speaks of himself regally as of many Joh. iii. 11. We speak that we know and we testifie what we have seen and yet Christ only spake to Nicodemus Again it is a sweet consolation that after the taking of any Sacrament we are no more one and one and so to be reckoned single by our selves but Baptism and the Lords Supper are the very bonds of perfection and make us all members of one mystical body the Scripture is admirably accurate in this particular as 1 Cor. xii 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one spirit Here it appears that we are become one spirit by drinking one cup of the Lord and one holy lump because we are sprinkled with one spirit in the water in the name of the Lord so our Saviour phraseth the sentence of my Text according to this mystical union Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness One other Paraphrase is very plain and literal and perhaps therefore the more natural John was loth to put his hand unto the water to cast it upon the head of Christ his Master rectifies his error and tells him it must be done it is expedient for both Obedience is required in the Servant humility in the Lord thus it behoveth us on both sides to fulfil all righteousness Take the last conjecture of the word with you and as I approve it the most useful Christ was made righteousness and sanctification for us by shedding his innocent bloud which is testified in the water of this Sacrament He alone is the meritorious cause of our Salvation But the application of this justice is not to be expected to fall upon our heads without ordinary means and such instruments as God hath appointed Ye are Gods Husbandry says St. Paul to them of Corinth but we are labourers together with God 1 Cor. iii. 9. He regenerates by his word which is committed to the lips of sinful men he cleanseth and sanctifieth his Church by the washing of water whereof we are made dispensers therefore our Saviour hath joyned this Prophet to himself not by way of merit God forbid but by way of instrument and ministry in the work of our redemption thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Now I shall end this Text in a word that Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict necessary rigour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for decency sake because it did become him Thus it becometh us c. Many abasements our Saviour did endure and became obedient in many parts of humility which could not be exacted at his hands in strict justice as he took our nature upon him but they were certain voluntary strains of lowliness which were full measure pressed down and running over As for his dolourous Passion of the Cross that could not be escaped it was the cup which he must drink to satisfie for the sins of the world therefore he preacht to his Disciples in this unavoidable expression Nonne oportuit c. Ought not Christ to have suffered and thus to enter into his glory But to stoop like one of the multitude to the Baptism of John was not of absolute necessity but a decency which did well befit his humiliation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus it becometh us c. A comliness in every one is to be observed according to his Christian calling and decency though necessity were set apart will prevail much with tractable and honest dispositions Some will bend to nothing but to that which is clearly exprest in so many words out of the sacred Text. But what if decorum require it to be done though it be not in specialty contained in Scripture but in general Maxims why surely then it cannot be neglected if we will offer up to God a perfect Sacrifice Whatsoever is fitting for an outward sanctification of a sincere heart you cannot omit it without maiming that ingenuous comliness which is required at our hands This is not my own fancy for I observe it frequently in St. Paul that he argues from that which becometh a Christian 1 Cor. xi 13. Judge in your selves is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered 1 Tim. ii 10. Let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered hair But as becometh women professing godliness Eph. v. 3. Fornication uncleanness let it not once be named among you as becometh Saints Where is that wrangling excuse now for all your pride and bravery Will you be stiff in your opinion that you may paint and powder and crisp and clip hair and use all those Island dog tricks about your head because the Bible doth in no place by name condemn these things Beloved if the Spirit of God had penn'd a thousand Bibles more they could not have contain'd the Catalogue of all those Peacock fashions into which you transform your selves from time to time therefore one rule stands for all that you must do as becometh women professing godliness and remember that there is a decency to be attended in Christianity I will not say to you as St. Paul did to the women of Corinth Judge in your selves if this be comly We should have wise reformation for all faults if you were made the judges who are quite addicted to vanities Who shall tell you then what is decent for Christians Will you rather believe the handmaid that attires you Or the Waiting-woman that hath wages to flatter you Or those Gallants that call themselves your servants and would have you proud that they may idolize you Will you believe these rather than the Priest of God whose soul must answer for every word he teacheth you Learn from him what it is that becometh you to fulfil righteousness Much might be enforced from hence likewise to commend unto you all the Ceremonies so exactly
may be referred to his glorie to deny all manner of sustenance to our selves for a time Beloved thus it stands that we acknowledge our selves in fact not in word only to be unworthy of all those good gifts with which he hath replenisht the earth that we deserve no longer to be fed with his liberality and so we humble our selves before Almighty God confessing we deserve not with the little Whelps to pick up the crums under his Table and desiring that they who deject themselves under his mighty power may not be trodden down by Satan and his Ministers of perdition Moreover take away Oyl from the Lamp and the flame will go out by little and little and surely hunger and thirst and afflicting the body joyned with prayer and repentance shall obtain this mercy that the violence of Voluptuousness and Luxury shall be abated in our sinful flesh Not that a Fast is acceptable to God of it self without other good offices of Religion but being well accompanied with Prayer and godly sorrow for as the Apostle speaketh Bodily exercise profiteth nothing of it self it disposeth and inclineth us to mortification and chastity In times of old abstinence and fasting more than ordinary were held a special part of their praise that did practice them It is the character of Anna the religious widow how she continued in prayers and fastings Luk. ii And our Saviour himself teacheth how to fast and proposeth a reward to them that did it well and not for ostentation and hypocrisie Mat. 6. There Christ taught it and here he did it this is the true demonstration of the Spirit Cum dixit quid faciendum sit probat faciendo As the old bird will fly forth sometimes not upon necessity but to teach her young ones to fly after So Christ fasted in the Wilderness not to gather strength by that means in his own person against the Devil but to teach his young ones as well as they could to fly or flutter after him and he tells us there is a kind of Devil which will not be cast out but by prayer and fasting Mar. ix 29. If any man put in a cross saying How can Fasting have a defensive force in it against temptation since almost all Writers say upon weighty considerations Christ had not been tempted but that he fasted I answer Our case and this are far unlike Satan durst not assail Christ so long as he doubted him to be the eternal Son of God but upon his fasting and hunger he took boldness to joyn issue with him because he falsly collected from those signs he was but the Son of man Neither do I deliver unto you that he will not tempt such as fast and pray for I have taught already how envy drives him on that where there is abundance of sanctity there will be abundance of tentation but I do deliver that Fasting and Prayer shall have prosperous success to overcome temptations So Aquinas Si non profuit jejunium ut non tenteris tamen profuit ut à tentationibus non vincaris I do not promise you peace from tentations though you fast often religiously before God but I promise you victory The second part of Christs will and pleasure in this Fast is ratione membrorum to do our humane nature honour by temperance for the reproach which it suffered by intemperance and to triumph over the Devil upon the same conditions that he overcame our first Parents There was the First Adam here was the Second there was a Paradise where the first man had store of all things here was a Wilderness where Christ had nothing that disobedient Son of God eat of that which was forbidden this most obedient Son of God refrained from those things which were lawful Adam did not eat for need but for his lust he was not an hungry Christ was so abstinent that he would not satisfie necessity for he was an hungry By gluttony we lost our honour and fell low to be compared to the beasts that perish But here is one that continued and maintained sharp hunger against all tentations who in the beginning of this story kept company with the beasts but in the end was ministred unto by Angels Uno tanto jejunio universam Johannis abstinentiam superavit says Cajetan This one fast and his constant continuance in it mauger the devises of the old Serpent did exceed all the abstinence of John the Baptist who for many years fed upon Locusts and wild honey For John was abstinent to himself Christ fasted to bring us out of the thraldom of Satan and for the expiation of our Gluttony Quaelibet actio Christi fuit nobis meritoria passio ejus meritoria satisfactoria it is commonly said of the School Divines The Death and Passion of Christ did both merit for us before Gods mercy and satisfie for us before his justice but every part of Christs obedience as this fasting among the rest was meritorious for his members Such wits as delighted in holy ingenuity have applied the several parts of Christs merit and sufferance and passion unto us in the notions of Physick and Chirurgery Curavit non per diaetam cum jejunavit per electuarium quando corpus sanguinem dedit in coenâ discipulis c. He took upon him to cure us by the prescription of a diet when he fasted By an Electuary when he gave his body and bloud to his Disciples in his last Supper By a Sweat when drops of bloud trickled from him in the Garden By an Emplaster when his face was smeared with Spittle By a bitter potion when he drank Vinegar upon the Cross By cutting and lancination when his feet and hands were pierced with nails and his side with a Spear There was no disease of sin whereof we were not sick there was no kind of cure to be invented which was not practised to restore us And so much for this exercise of fasting as he made use of it for the members of his body Thirdly As his will was always subject to his Father according to that Prayer in the Garden not my will but thy will be done so the Divine Nature did suggest a reason to his Humane Nature to fast to put a fallacy upon Satan that he might peremptorily conclude Christ was no more than a man who suffered hunger and sought for somewhat to eat in the Wilderness and was not replenished As if a Lion should put on the skin of a silly sheep to draw on a ravening Wolf to set upon him and thereupon devour the Wolf who came to be the devourer So our Saviour walked about the Desart in the person of a silly man half famish'd the Tempter was in great suspense and knew not what to think of him and stood ambiguously in this Dilemma says St. Chrysostome He hath fasted forty days and eat nothing I dare not meddle with him this is no man but after forty days ended he is hungry and wants food I will
thy self down Let me discover another property of the Tempters out of these words that it is his art to bring a man up by little and little to some high place that so he may send him at once with his head downward as the Eagle carried the shell-fish aloft into the air to let it fall upon a Rock and crack in pieces First He made Herods Flatterers canonize him like some Deity It is the voice of God and not of man immediately he see him abased so low as to be eaten up of worms First he lifts up Adam with a conceit to be made like unto a God knowing good and evil to the very top of perfection to the intent he may be made like unto the beasts that perish First Nebuchadonosor admires his own greatness and excellency Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my Power and for the honour of my Majesty Presently he was driven from men into the Wilderness to eat grass like an Oxe All Tyrants and Usurpers that have held their dignity by ill means and lost it with great shame are the amplification of this matter many of them set up for so short a time and so hastily pulled out that it may appear to all men Satan meant that nothing but their ruin should be remembred Dionysius the Tyrant fell very far from the height of the Pinacle upon which he stood his Princely condition being altered into the life of a poor School-Master but for Heathen Examples Valerian the Emperour is sufficient to stand for all a Monarch at the height of the Roman Empire his name venerable at home and terrible abroad so accounted of for some good parts Vt puderet virum altius extollere says the Historian that modesty would not permit to extol any man more Well the great Enemy of the Church had raised him thus high to persecute the poor Christians very furiously for all his good qualities and then he gave him up into the hands of Sopores the Persian to be his Vassal his footstool and at last the subject of the extremest cruelty If the meditation hereof will not prick the Conscience of them that get advancement by Bribery by flattery by offering themselves to be instruments of base designs I know not what will terrifie them It is an easie matter to get the Devil lend you his hand to help you up but take heed he will pluck you back with a mischief The Edomites pretended good will to the Israelites but in the day of their calamity they cried Down with them down with them unto the ground This is the Lords manner when he means to exalt a man he will first humble him and cast him down the Devils method is quite contrary first exalt the man whom he means to cast down first mount them up to the clouds that he may swing them off to the bottom of the nethermost Pit As it is happy to have been miserable since the Lord will recompence the low estate of them that feared him so it is miserable to have been happy by wicked means for Satan will bring those to shame that have been promoted by him It was but a small descent for Christ to come down from a Pinacle of the Temple into the outward Court in respect of that great abasement which he did undergo for out Redemption he stept from the highest Heaven from the glory of the Godhead to be inclosed in a Virgins womb he humbled himself to the death even to the death of the Cross but did his Father leave him there No therefore he was highly exalted therefore he had a name given him above all names And all those that are conformable to his Ignominy and Passion shall be conformable to his Glorification If you find Joseph in the Prison read on and you shall find him the chief Ruler over all the Officers of Pharaoh Job was not left upon the dunghil but raised up again to be the mightiest of all the Inhabitants of the East The latter end of David was not to follow the Ewes great with young but to be advanced above all the house of Israel Or if this World do not make the righteous amends for their humiliation trust unto him that cannot lie how for a momentary affliction they shall have a far abundant exceeding weight of glory This is Gods liberality many that are last shall be first But this is the inconstancy of the Devils favours many that are first shall be last The root of a tree the longer it grows it shoots deeper and deeper to the Center of the earth so misfortune puts a period quickly to the prosperity of all those that are the Sons of Belial the longer they stand the more they are in declension the faster they fall down But the righteous are like the young Plants the longer they grow the more they shoot up their branches toward Heaven Behold my Beloved here is a double fortune to be run and the election is yours Will you begin from the lowest foundation of humility and so rise up by the hand of God Or will you hoist up to the Battlements of the Temple to a Pinacle of Presumption Quando quis estimaverit se consistere in sanctimoniae summitate positus est super pinnam templi says Aquinas He that thinks he is as holy as holiness can make him he is on the top of all the Temple I beseech you make a wise choice No man can fall from humility to do himself hurt Non habet unde cadat A man may fall from a Pinacle of vain opinion and be dash'd in pieces This Point cannot be left before one Observation more close it up beware of leaping from the top of the Temple to the bottom go down by steps and fair degrees remember I pray that it is Satans motion Desilire non descendere to skip down from the Pinacle to the ground and not to come down by even paces in order God hath ordained means to bring every good end to pass he that thinks to jump into the end without using the leasure and use of the means flies upon the Devils wings he goes not in that line which the Word of God directs him The Apostle speaks of some that make hast to be rich they will not expect to thrive by honest labour and by competent gains but it must be had presently by any Art or Device This is quite to skip that course which Justice and a good Conscience prescribes The holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper is many times made ready for us but there are many preparations required that you should make your selves ready for it There must go before a due examination both of your Sins and your Repentance a remembrance of Christs Passion and a good spirit to apply his bloudshedding to your own benefit a charitable reconciliation of your self to God and man Now if you will take one of the Devils strides he will bid you pass over
these did foully err and hold that a man being conscious to himself of some sin that was worthy death might put himself to death that it was an act of justice yea and a Martyrdom and upon this ground whether shouId I say more foolish or more impious they Canonized Judas for a Martyr But St. Austin shews that their Argument jars against two common principles Nemo potest esse judex reus It is incompetible that the same man should be both the guilty person and the Judge 2. Nocentem hominem privata potestate occidere non licet It is murder for any private man not authorized by a lawful Magistrate to execute death upon a Malefactor Judam execramur quamvis sceleratum hominem occidit Judas was a Malefactor and could not kill a worse man than himself yet that sin alone without the rest was damnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slaying of himself Remember the Commandment Thou shalt not kill Whom not Neither your self nor your neighbour for you have no more power to hurt your self than another the body is Gods and the Temple of the Holy Ghost And who gave you leave to pluck down a Temple Nature inclines a man to the conservation of himself and what a detestable thing it is to violate the chief Maxime of Nature Which is this in St. Pauls words No man hates his own flesh but loves and cherisheth it No man indeed but he that makes hast to be no man that he might the sooner be a Devil The Heathen went thus far that a man is put into this world as a Souldier is put into some File or some place of the Watch from that station he must not stir till his General calls him Et majori supplicio afficiendus est desertor vitae quà m desertor militia And is not he more worthy of punishment that leaves the place where God did put him before he was summoned than he that comes off from the Watch before the General calls him If the love of your soul the dreadful expectation of Hell-fire will make you decline a sin take heed of this for Gods sake above all others All other sins when they are committed have yet some leasure to beg mercy and at what time soever a sinner c. but how can the Lord put such a sin out of his remembrance where it is impossible there should be time to repent Vt laqueo respiratio it a prohibetur desperatione spiritus sanctus as Bedae said of Judas they stop their own breath and with that desperate act exclude the Holy Ghost from inspiring any sanctified cogitation into them What can befal a man in this world to defie Heaven and Earth at once And to die the death of the damned without redemption Bethink your selves judiciously it cannot be want torture or calamity for though these be very sharp especially to those that are impatient yet they are not so smartful as the stinging of a Bee nor the biting of a Flea compared with the Lake of Brimstone into which they irrecoverably send their own soul that let out of the body with their own violent hand Nor should it irke a man to stay Gods leasure till he be dissolved for any reproach or ignominy that he hath incurred for so your former dishonour is not forgotten but ten times more divulged and increased See how publick shame which followed such desperate persons after their death did work with some of Miletum as Plutarch reports it Many of the Milesian Virgins through the perswasions of some Diabolical Philosophers hanged themselves To stop this unnatural fury when no reason would revoke them the Magistrates made a Law that the bodies of all such should be left naked in the open Market-place for ten days and the fear of that worldly shame did for ever after rectifie those who were living that they held their hands from violence But what other impulsive cause can be named Can the remorse of sins past breed such a destructive melancholy in any mans disposition God forbid This is to cast Mountains upon Mountains and to make all worse Sins are not covered by heaping one upon another but blessed is the man whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered There is another life given to expiate your iniquities and not your own even the bloud of Christ Repent you seriously and be merciful unto your self and then God will be merciful unto you Yet Achitophel with all his politick reach could not make use of these plain notions but confounded himself partly with the guiltiness of his rebellion partly with the fear of his reputation For it is very likely he shuffled his Game thus If Absalon overcome King David Hushai hath given the better counsel and so I shall live in disgrace If David prevail which is very likely he will take away my life because of the pernicious Plots which I have laid against him See how this witty Wretch could forget that David was a merciful Prince and did not execute one of his enemies in cold bloud But God lets the wits of the wisest turn addle who meditate to be Authors of their own ruine and to cast themselves down from a Pinacle upon the Devils suggestion But God keeps all those from this sin whom he means to have converted and be saved The Jaylor took out his Sword and was ready to have faln upon it but Paul cried out at the instant Do thy self no hurt and soon after he was baptized and believed he and his house Paul may loath this world and desire to be dissolved but he must wait the Lords leisure and not hasten his dissolution It was the blessing of the Lord upon mankind Increase and multiply To replenish the world is a Benediction to take one of Gods Servants away unless by the hand of justice and that the Magistrate doth in the person of God is a Malediction What spirit was in the Tridentine Fathers to make the second book of Machabees Canonical Wherein Razias is commended in most fluent phrases that killed himself I know St. Austin says Razii mors narratur non laudatur it is but a narration of the fact not an Encomium Let any child read Chap. xiv toward the end of it and judge if he be not extolled for it with most artificial commendation The same Father is more Orthodox in another place that pious reason is to be preferred before examples Quae tantò dig niora sunt imitatione quantò excellentiora pietate which are no further worthy of imitation than they excel in Piety And again I may say Why did the Roman Martyrology Canonize the Virgins of Aquileia Who drowned themselves to avoid certain barbarous Ravishers For as Aquinas treats upon the fact 1. Fornication were a less sin than violent murder 2. If they had not refused that carnal sin as much as they could yet Repentance might have wash'd away the spot of that crime in the other act of unnatural
of the Serpent and nothing can be truer than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or application that one sin is never hatcht alone especially if it be a great one but it hath a train to follow it God challeng'd his people that they had broken the bond of marriage between him and their soul not with one adultery and no more but the Prophet chargeth Jerusalem fornicata es cum multis amatoribus thou hast committed fornication with many lovers that is with many sensual pleasures Upon this consideration virtue is compared to salt have salt in our selves sayes Christ to his Disciples of which you cannot take up one corn alone upon your knifes point but many grains will cleave together and upon the same respect wickedness is compared to the sands of the sea one mote is very rarely severed by it self sand is a Noun Collective which supposeth many motes of dust for there is not any sin but respectively to divers parts of disobedience it may be call'd by divers names David emplung'd himself into many crimes what with Bathsheba what with Vriah what with Joab whom he made his evil instrument Peter fell into three denials one after another He that will praise the Lord as he ought in the uprightness of his life must honor him upon a ten-stringed Lute upon all the Commandments and he that wilfully fails in one instance will put every string out of tune for he that committeth one sin is guilty of the whole law These funiculi peccatorum cords of vanity sins entwisted one within another come into my mind from this third Tentation in my Text so that Tertullian is justified in his saying by this practice multiplicia spiritus incitamenta jaculantis the rebellious spirit hath more than one shaft for his bow a quiver full at least as it is Psal xi 2. For lo the ungodly bend their bow and make ready their arrows within their quiver For what sin hath not the Devil committed in these words All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me furtum perduellio mendacium blasphemia they are all here in the height of their offence Furtum the largest theft that ever was committed he would give all the substance in the world to Christ but then he must rob the right owners Perduellio a most foul attempt of treason he would give him all Kingdoms and honour but then he must depose all just and lawful Princes Mendacium not a plain lie but a very monster of untruth as St. Luke hath it in large for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it Lastly Blasphemia a blasphemy that vies beyond all the rest if thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine Now I have added to make up my Text at this time how easily God doth cut off all these heads of Hydra at once with his revenge and justice for this short rebuke of Christ is enough to controul the Devil with all his sins about him Get thee hence Satan or as St. Luke Get thee behind me Satan The words then which I have read amount to four parts the Gift which I have entirely dispatcht the Giver the Condition the Repulse The Gift furtum both to rob private men of their peculiar and Kings of their Royalty The Giver mendacium a lye without all shame that all the honors of the world were at his dispose The Condition blasphemia he bargains that Christ should earn all this by falling down to worship him But the Repulse is justitia Gods vindicative justice Get thee hence Satan words of anger and revenge as I will shew anon but first I will disclose what a great giver Satan would make himself All these things will I c. Twice as it appears in the two former Tentations the Devil used all his cunning to discover if Christ were the Son of God and since our Saviour would not reveal what He was Satan is the more bold to make himself the Son of God as if he were that holy one to whom the Father had committed all power in Heaven and in Earth All these things will I give thee This will be the easiest way to sift this saying wherein the wicked one usurps to himself that he advanceth to all honors to consider what likelihood of truth there is in those words by accident and secondly what great unlikelihood Marvel not that I give it for a conclusion granted that there is some colour and likelihood for Satan to say this is deliver'd to me and to whomsoever I will give it for he is the Prince of the power of the air that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience and whosoever is successful in promotion by iniquity the Devil did sway the event so far that he calls himself their Benefactor Abimelech and Zimri got Kingdoms by treachery Joab wrought himself into Abners honor to be Captain of King Davids Host by murder Jason and Menelaus in the book of Machabees strived one against another for the High Priest-hood by Simony there are not so many names of honour as there are sins crying sins sins died in scarlet that have purchast them The infelicity of it is so general of such long continuance and so desperate against all hope of redress that Satan speaks as if he had forgot that this power was ever out of his hand For upon the event we may lament it but cannot deny it he brings the basest instruments into private favour with mighty men he bestows offices he presents to Churches Difficile est Satyram non scribere no abuse in the world will provoke a suffering spirit sooner than this to be satyrical nostrâ miseriâ magnus factus es we may be asham'd and our ambition blush for it that the most hateful of all Gods creatures should have cause to boast that all manner of dignities and titles depend on his beneficence yet the world is not so bad but that he is a shameless slanderer in that saying far be it from us to number the righteous with the wicked to bestain all dignified persons with an evil reproach as he doth to condemn all the worthies of David that wickedness was their original because sometimes Satan hath a predominant faction among them He was a great Prince indeed in the Emperor Tiberius his Court scarce any advancement escapt him but went through his hands ad Consulatum non nisi per Sejanum aditus neque Sejani voluntas nisi scelere quaerebatur Every one that would be Consul us'd Sejanus for his preferment and every one that would have preferment Sejanus us'd him for some criminous villany Thus the eloquence of the Historian exaggerates the naughtiness of the times yet a little after when things grew much worse rather than mended in the reign of Nero Paul had many friends and Christ had many faithful servants even in Caesars Houshold The Spirit of God in the holy Scripture doth but very rarely amplifie
meditation I would resolve to be a true man where Pilat was an hypocrite and say in defiance of all the world c. The rather did this Deputy endeavour to clear himself of blood either because he had been taxed before for extreme severity The Galilaeans were rebellious and he mingled their own blood with their Sacrifice it was that as some conjecture which put enmity between him and Herod or rather he shun'd the imputation of blood because he was a Ruler and a Magistrate Ferrum adhibere nisi in extremis neque civile neque medicum As in the Body of man so in the Estate political that Member should be very corrupt which is cut off with the Sword Many Executions are no more honourable to the Judg than many Funerals to the Physician Mercy and Clemency are stronger than Lions to support the Crown of the King and that Throne shall be established says Synesius where the People are afraid of nothing so much as for the Kings safety It is said of Trajan the Emperor that he was both subtle and industrious to examin the crimes of Malefactors sed mallet non invenire quod quaerit quà m invenire quod puniat that it pleased him better not to find out that which he sought for than to find out any thing which must be punished The life of Jehu the Son of Nimshi is it not a strange Legend as ever was recorded no act or exploit of his memory remaining in all the Scripture but interfecit interfecit here he kill'd one there he murdered forty then he slew 400 but as soon as all the Enemies of God were cut off then says the Text he slept with his Fathers as if his work were done and he died for want of more employment But I need not enlarge my discourse in this point we having not so much cause to preach to man as to praise God for lenity And I have not so learnt Christ to think the Sword of vengeance doth not become the arm of the Civil Magistrate David had a good purpose to build a Temple unto God but it was not accepted because he was a man of war and had shed much blood 1 Chron. xxviii Why was the work then cast upon Solomon his Son had not he given sentence of death against Adonijah Joab and Shemei and is it not as lawful to cut off the Enemies in war as Malefactors in peace First the hearts of Warriours are not always bent upon justice as the heart of the Magistrate then it is the Word of the Judg that fetcheth blood but it is the Hand of the Battel therefore God himself hath thus distinguished that the blood of War did defile King David but the blood of Civil Justice did not cast a blemish upon Solomon They that cannot distinguish between vengeance and just authority are like the Moabites that lookt upon the waters and saw them ruddie and thought it was effusion of blood when it was the brightness of the Sun and the light of Heaven But was Pilat so tender of taking life away did it come so hardly from him to doom the Sentence of death against a Prisoner Lord what Dam did they suck into whose hands our Ancestors fell the Grey-head the Reverend Praelacy the fruitful Womb of Mothers all were sentenced unto one fiery Execution for Religion's sake Surely it had been a Premunire in the Court of Rome to have shewn mercy unto any man or to talk of clemency It was the disposition of the old Indian Philosophers says St. Hierom Eorum disciplina juvare non nisi justè novit nocere nec justè they would do good only when there was justice to do it but they would not hurt any man no not when they had reason for it The Papists are as far from this meekness as Dan from Beersheba that let out floulds of Christian blood to maintain their unbloody Sacrifice When Cyrus the younger would have slain his Brother Artaxerxes see the tender compassion of the Mother she bound him about her own neck with the hair of her head and it was a sufficient Sanctuary to save his life Our holy Martyrs and Professors were bound to the Church their Mother by Baptism by Truth by Faith by Charity by the Prerogative of Natural Branches and yet like a Perfume of Incense they were burnt to ashes It is enough and they cannot hate the false Church by the Canons and Confession of Trent may hate their parricidious and malicious minds by the fire in Smithfield It is a Saint-like indulgence that we do not mete the same measure into their own bosom an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth no it is canticum canticorum the Canticle of our Church and the Song of the Spouse of Christ I am innocent of blood Now I will bring Pilat upon his last Trial from innocens sanguinis to innocens hujus sanguinis to the trial of this man's blood and you shall see how he mocked his conscience that he was innocent of the blood of Christ those few things which he could say for himself are these In the first place He stood upon it before all the people that Christ was harmless and guilty of no crime or imputation Ecce priùs absolvit quam damnat if Christ was harmless why was he beaten here 's a Judg indeed fitter for Outlaws and Robbers than for a civil Corporation first he absolves and then condemns his Prisoner As St. Austin said to Lucretia Nocentior fuit quae seipsam interfecit quantò erat in causâ innocentior Lucretia was the greater Murderer of her self because Lucretia was innocent So it holds in the crucifying of our Saviour and nothing doth more aggravate the fact to make Pilat nocent than that he confesseth Christ was innocent When Sylla did send out his Guard to cut off the head of Antonius the Orator the well-spoken man did so bewitch the Souldiers with fair words who came to kill him that they hung down their heads wept and spared his life till he sent other Assassines more cruel than the former who did the deed Lo a greater wonder Christ making no declaration of his Cause in pathetical words cast such a look upon the Judg O what a sight it had been to have seen his face but for that moment that he could not but confess the heart was true where the countenance was so honest Thus according to the case of Antonius in the first assault the Ballance of Justice was held even till the Rulers inconstancy and the Peoples importunity weighed it down against the best alive therefore the clearing of Jesus from all faults by protestation is nothing to make Pilat innocent Secondly what can he say beside in his own justification marry like a tender-hearted Murderer he would not let his own hand be upon him but sent him as a Malifactor of Galilee unto Herod Call you this commiseration to be delivered from the Adversary to the Judg from the Judg to
knew not what to say but in admiration of his mercy lift up his eyes to heaven as if these thoughts did rise up in Abrahams fancy Sarah the Mother of my Son did muse how a Child could be born unto her in her old age but she did ill to laugh because the Lord had spoke it then give me leave to ponder how this Child can live any more when the mouth of God hath spoken that he must be sacrificed for a burnt offering Nay O Lord Non unum redimis sed unitatem In this act thou dost not so much redeem this one from death as the unity of all the faithful in this one all those Nations that shall be blessed in my name wilt thou spare them all as thou sparest Isaac What are our merits What justice is in us What is man that thou wilt not visit him with indignation Thus the soul of Abraham was in an extasie to consider the mercy of God wonder had possessed him we see it in this cast of his eye that he looked up to heaven When the Lord turned the Captivity of Sion then we were like unto them that dream says the Prophet The deliverance was so fortunate so much it did out-strip their hope that they did receive it at first not as that which was done indeed but as a delightful dream As Livie relating how the Graecians were strangly strucken with sudden joy upon the day when the Romans sent them unexpected liberty says he Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur they thought it was a pleasing vision in their sleep and not the happiness of them that were broad awake So when God did really make good that Promise which the Devil pretended that he would bring about Non moriemini You shall not die The faithful Patriarch knew not how to apprehend it at the first but his eye did testifie that his soul was ravished with the mercies of the Lord. The wicked shall not end half his days the seed of the ungodly shall be rooted out eternal fire is prepared hereafter for them that shall be turned over to the Devil and his Angels there shall be much wrath and vengeance every where among the dwelling places of the unrighteous but as for Isaac and they that are born according to the Spirit Noli tangere says the Angel the hand of violence shall not come near them as the Poet in his Eclogue brings in Melibaeus wondring at the clemency of Cesar to his fellow-shepherd when all the neighbour-Cottages were burnt and wasted Vndique totis usque adeò turbatur agris So when God shall work so much destruction in the world redemption is an admirable thing where it lights John Baptist as we read it in the vulgar Latine blazeth out with two notes of astonishment one upon another Ecce Agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi Behold the Lamb of God I and again Behold him that taketh away the sins of the world In two respects it is to be wondred at without any prejudice to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fulness of our faith as I will shew by the examples of two memorable women in holy Scripture Whence is it that the mother of my Lord comes unto me says Elizabeth Why did she marvel at it Quia non sui meriti sed divini fatetur esse muneris says Beda because it was a favour of mere grace and not a recompence of merit And again the blessed mother of our Saviour astonished at the Angels message that she should conceive and bear a Son Quomodo says she How shall these things come to pass Tanquam certa de facto querit de modo fiendi as it is the common answer She was sure it should be so she marvelled how it should be so and that was a blameless admiration Both these passions did Abraham suffer he knew there was no worth in man that God should release him from condemnation he knew not the manner what should be paid for his ransom his eye did fix it self upon the throne of God to find the mystery out and so you see it was Gestus admirantis the expression of wonder and astonishment that Abraham lifted up his eyes Thirdly It is Gestus inquirentis besides that he lifted up his eyes he look'd about him from the tops of Moriah it is the demeanour of him that did seek out for a Sacrifice to be offered up unto the Lord. Reges Parthes non potest quisquam salutare sine munere says he No man was admitted to salute the Parthian Kings unless he brought some Present in his hands so because Abraham came to this Mountain to worship before the Angel of the Lord he look'd and enquired for some Oblation that he might not turn back until he had laid a gift upon the Altar Many will lift up their eyes but they list not to seek an Offering for the Lord. Such are best pleased with devotion when it comes off with as little cost as may be Nay says David when Araunah would have born his charges I will not sacrifice to God of that which shall cost me nothing An Objection is framed in the School that the Piety of the Jews was more acceptable to God than the piety of Christians because they in their daily Service were at great expense to provide beasts for the Altar we are at no such charge in our Spiritual Worship it is enough if we offer up a broken heart in mortification a thankful heart in Praise and a devout heart in Prayer But this puts not our Purse to any trial like the Oblations of the Jews To cancel and wipe out this opposition it is answered that we supply that charge of the Sacrifice of beasts In Sacrificio Eleemosynarum in the Sacrifice of Alms to the poor The hand must look about it where to give as well as the eye look upward where to be thankful A distribution to the wants of the needy it is Pro sacrificio and prae sacrificio in place of sacrifice and to be preferred before all sacrifices Mercy is a better Oblation than a Beast that is slain this day you know how much was paid for the price of your redemption but not the price of corruptible things as Silver and Gold Spare O spare some portion of that which you spend profusely in the consumption of vanity at this solemn time of redemption to redeem the distressed in Prisons that are fast bound in misery and iron Look about you as Abraham did and you shall find I assure you Arietes prehensos in Vepribus Rams shall I say Nay they have scarce any fleece upon their back but they are catch'd fast poor Souls by the horns in the Thicket thence they cannot stir unlâ—ss Abraham will take them and offer them up for an Oblation to the Lord. Above all other casts of the eye this same Gestus inquirentis pleaseth me best to look about that we may present some gift upon the Altar
best luck then I have thee Affrica says he and I will hold thee What man is it whose feet have not slipt whose sins are not so burdensome as to cast him down the turning of the luck is where our hand lights God send our lot fall in a fair ground that we may say teneo te redemptor meus teneo te Domine I have laid hold on thee O Lord I caught thee fast my Redeemer So did the Father of the Faithful he went and took the Ram he took him and offered him for so it follows the same which he received the same he gave back again Quippe Dominum sui ipsius dono honorat says one he did as much as the best in the world can do that is to honor God with no other gift but with the same that God himself did give before but in this word Abraham acts another person than Abraham obtulit he offered up the Ram and who did ofâ—er up the Son but God the Father When Abraham went out of his own Country and grew rich in a strange place who was he then in the resemblance but Christ the second person of Trinity says St. Austin Qui relictâ Judaeâ ubi natus est apud gentes prevalet who leaving the faithless Countrey of Jury where he was born purchased to himself an Inheritance among the Gentiles but when his name was interpreted Pater multarum gentium a Father of many Nations and when this Priestly Office in my Text lay upon him obtulit that he offered up the Ram there we see the first Person in Trinity of him in this we see how God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who so believed in him should not perish but have life everlasting Deus liberalitatem cum hominibus certavit says Origen he makes God in this place to contend with Man in liberality Abraham spared not his Son whom he loved no more did God this was his only Son so was he Gods but his Son was mortal and must die once Gods Son was immortal and his Father made him that he might unmake him he made him flesh that he might bring him to the Grave his Son should die for his own sins Christ died for ours his Son had been chopt off at once without sense of dying Gods Son was tented and beaten and bruised and wounded from midnight that he was taken in the Garden to this hour of the day wherein we speak of it which was turned for sadness into the first hour of the night In the Levitical Law the Priest laid his hand upon the head of the Sacrifice when it was to be kill'd Quia patris voluntate suscepit nostra peccata filius says one because the Son was an Expiation for our sins by the will of the Father so Luke xv 23. Bring the fat Calf and kill him says the relenting Father that he might bid welcom home to his Prodigal Son But you will say how did the Father offer up the Son Let the blame lie upon Judas and Pilate and the Souldiers but what did God you shall hear the Schoolmen answer it appertinently 1. Praeordinando who but the Father preordain'd it before the foundation of the World 2. Voluntatem patiendi humanam naturam infundendo it was he that did infuse an obedient affection into the Soul of the Manhood and did perswade it to be willing to suffer 3. Non protegendo a persecutoribus he that did not deliver him out of the hands of his Persecutors when he might have sent an hundred Legions of Angels to scatter his Enemies it was his charity towards us to offer him up for a Burnt-offering At this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Burnt-offering there comes in Christs part a Burnt-offering is that where all the flesh of the Sacrifice is quite consumed with fire grant us therefore both the active and passive obedience of Christ for our justification grant us the merit of his humility with the merit of his death or else it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some part was sacrificed for us but it was not an whole Burnt-offering Consider that every vein of his body had evacuated bloud that every inch of his flesh was gashed with wounds as the Firmament stands thick with stars consider that every faculty of his Soul was sad and sick with agony and distress and then tell me if he was not a Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every part when Christ himself concluded with consummatum est as who should say all the bitterness of anguish is past upon me that can be imagined then the Sacrifice was quite burnt out and the Passion ended Yet listen to one word which our Saviour uttered and then we will not stick at a scruple that may be made how his death was shadowed in a Ram that was burnt when his body suffered no corruption nor incineration but was crucified upon the Cross We must weigh this doubt in the Balance of that heavy Speech My God my God why hast thou forsaken me it was not it could not be the out-cry of his own Soul that was in desperation because it self was forsaken it was the voice of him that susteined the punishment of those who were plunged into despair and condemnation Non suscepit opera sed stipendia peccatorum our sins did not properly lye upon him but the wages of our sins Now will you see a Burnt-offering indeed now will you see a fire of brimstone flaming more violently than if a Mountain did burn from the top to the bottom Flammae inferni in animo Christi insufflantur says Brentius let us speak warily the pains of Hell had not got hold upon him but he saw the fire of vengeance which was prepared for us it scorcht I may say the very compassion of his heart when he saw that his Fathers justice would kindle it for the sins of the world not a spark could take hold on him Sed tu quod facies hoc mihi Pete dolet it set him all on fire as if he were a Burnt-offering for fear that we should suffer it the darkness which was over the face of the earth non solum incurrerunt in oculos sed etiam in animam Christi says Brentius it did not only appear like night to the eye of his Body but his Soul for our sakes did see and dread the utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth A little before when he said in the Garden My soul is heavy unto death there he did grapple with the horror of death and conquer'd it but when he lifted up his voice upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me there he did struggle with infernal fire there he did grapple with the horror of Hell and conquer'd it Tell me I beseech you are you not affected with these things like Cleophas and the other Disciple do not your hearts burn within you to hear them if you feel
exhalation transpassant from man to man because the first sin was the biting of a Serpent Thirdly By the object of the Serpent we not only see the Author of all sin and the infectious venom of it but likewise a cunning craftiness which Satan hath entailed to the mystery of iniquity lying in wait whom he may deceive There is nothing that will lurk more subtilly to do an ill turn than some sort of Serpents or steal an opportunity more warily Then why should not all plots and mischievous arts of cunning be as hateful as an hissing Adder Nay why not as odious as Beelzebub himself the Prince of Devils Some such there are that have their sharpness of wit from no better founder than the old Dragon that have no measure in their dissimulation no trust in their word no fidelity in their oath no remorse no distinction in conscience whom they ruine and these are counted useful and fit for employment I do not altogether blame the Turks for reputing natural Ideots to be Saints I am sure they are Saints in comparison with such cunning Merchants But a true Christian is somewhat compounded out of the better part of them both as it is Rom. xvi 19. I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen inoffensiveness tempered with much intelligence The simplicity of the Dove mitigating the subtilty of the Serpent To say all in a little Sin is supported by Stratagems but Justice by grave knowledge Therefore love wisdom because it comes from God Practise innocency because it comes from Christ Hate subtilty because it is the badge of the Serpent abhor mischief it is the work of the Devil This is for the general we all see what sin is in the Image of the Serpent More particularly the Israelites saw their own sin in that spectacle wherewith they provoked the Lord Num. xxi 4. The people were not turned aside from the promised Land but were wearied with a long journey and in their bitterness they spake against God and Moses They that serve God for temporal things will quickly murmur when they want rest and ease If the ground be not soft under their feet they think it tedious though it should bring them to heaven Beside they loathed Manna it was too light for their hot stomachs and it did not satisfie Somewhat else they would have yet they could not tell what themselves As they that are not contented with the bread that comes down from heaven shall be gnawn with the worm of superstition that will never give them quiet but these are the hints that provoked them to speak against God A little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery and a great benefit was repined at as but a little favour Now they that whet their tongues like Serpents was it not meet they should be stung with Serpents They that spat Poison against their Maker did they not deserve a poisonous castigation Or will they dare to murmur any more when they see their punishment cast in brass and abiding for a durable monument If we murmur against him whom we are bound to praise and love is not that disloyalty So did the Israelites If we murmur at small evils that may be tolerated is not that impatiency So did the Israelites If we murmur at good things for which we should rather give thanks if we murmur at Manna the precious nourishment of the soul is not that abominable ingratitude So did the Israelites And what should this sin be likened to but an Aspe or a Viper No Serpent is so much a Serpent as a grumbling spirit that is ever murmuring at God and Moses And this is the first use of the Brazen Serpent to turn unto it as a book wherein we read our sins Peccatum peccati cognitione curatur For the first cure to be applied unto sin is to make a recognition of it with an humble and a contrite spirit so did the truest Penitent and the greatest sinner King David I know my transgressions and my sin is always against me The next contemplation upon this brazen Image is not immediately to step from sin unto the remedy for the vengeance due unto sin is to be considered between them both Behold the bitter pain which Christ endured upon the Cross and it accuseth us that the disobedience was monstrous which must be expiated with so much sorrow Quà m gravis sit peccati conditio prodit remedii magnitudo says St. Austin How great the guiltiness of sin was appears in the magnitude of the remedy And no less it is apparent how insufferable that wrath was which we escaped because he sustained so much wrath that bore it in our stead Note the malediction which we had merited in the maledictive death which our Saviour did undergo and then it will be a pleasant thing to go to heaven as it were by the gates of hell But there is nothing more dangerous than deliverance out of danger if we forget the jeopardy I will bring this clearly out of the matter we have in hand The Creatures that annoyed the Israelites were Serpents For a serpentine sin deserved a serpentine punishment I will send the teeth of beasts upon them with the poison of the Serpents of the dust Deut. xxxiii 24. The teeth of other beasts might have procured a dismal slaughter but because a Serpent was accursed above every beast of the field the wounds that they made did superadd unto death the meditation of a curse and that their judgment was compounded with malediction And this was prosecuted in the figure that the brazen Serpent was lifted upon a pole to keep in mind that sting of the Law Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Therefore you cannot deny that this is a looking-glass of Justice before we come to mercy As Christ crucified is a type of condemnation to unbelievers but a sacrifice of salvation to those that trust in his Redemption Oleaster says that the first Epithet that God gave to this Figure was to call it a Fiery Serpent Num. xxi 8. because a fire of Coals did continually burn within it that first it might strike dread and horror into all that saw it before it healed the impotent The fire of hell was annexed to that grace and blessing which came from heaven as if the sword of justice had been put up in the Scabbard of mercy but they were never asunder Lose not your self in applying mercy and nothing but mercy to your conscience lest it befall you as it doth with a Bee that is drowned in its own honey But correct presumption and confidence by converting to some remarkable objects of indignation When Achan that troubled the Land was executed They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day says the Holy Ghost Josh vii 26. God doth not suffer grievous punishments to vanish as shadows but he makes them
foreknowledg of God Now that the righteous God in whom such counsel and such foreknowledg do reside should deliver up his most innocent Son and our dear Saviour unto death that 's a mystery to be weighed with modesty the Text says positively God did deliver him yet we know there is no injustice in the Most High therefore this scruple is worth the scanning First of all it is an harsh and offensive speech that some use who perhaps mean well that God did appoint and preordain Judas to betray his Lord and the Jews to crucifie him and the reasons which they use to excuse the Phrase as if God thereby were not made the Author of sin seem to me to want sufficiency Zuinglius says justo non est lex posita you can set God no Law therefore whatsoever you attribute unto him is no sin because sin is the violation of a Law Beloved there are some things which cannot consist with Gods glory and that 's an eternal Law as we may call it observed by God to do nothing against his glory He cannot ly He cannot deny himself thus the scripture speaketh And Abraham talking face to face with God says he God forbid that the Judg of all the world should do unjustly Would thou punish the righteous with the wicked as who should say that were to thwart the eternal Law which must not be infringed This lays the opinion of Zwinglius flat There is another pretence from very venerable Authors that God purposeth and ordaineth the same act which man executeth but man hath an evil end in it so it becomes iniquity to him whereas God intends a pious end and therefore concurs not to mans iniquity and they give a fair instance of their meaning out of my Text. Christ was delivered of his Father to save the World that was the merciful and gracious work which was God's destination but he was delivered of the Devil to make the Jews guilty of his death of Judas for lucre sake of the Priests and Pharisees for envy of Pilate for fear the scope of Pilate of the Jews of Judas was extremely distorted so they became guilty of a mighty sin in the same work wherein God was righteous This will not down with me I confess for safe Divinity for first it favours that opinion of some Libertines too much that it is no crime but praise-worthy to do evil that good may come of it Secondly it cannot be shifted according to this opinion me-thinks but that God ordains man to fall into that act wherein he cannot choose but have a bad intention and most diverse from the good purpose of God And it is but a lame leg to hold up an halting cause to interpose that God can work good out of evil and bring light out of darkness therefore though He preordains evil He will wind it up well to his own glory for surely they do not think of God as they ought that He is all pure and holy that think sin must be referred to God either as an efficient cause of it or predestinately as a deficient cause to declare his honor Why God stands not in need of our good works to set forth his praise O my God my goods are nothing unto thee says the Psalmist much less doth he want our sins and our transgressions to make him glorious Thus I have premised that they have not my consent that say that God ordained or decreed that Judas should betray our Lord and that the Jews should blaspheme him and despitefully entreat him thus rather I would propound it to you in a far safer way as I conceive God did not decree those criminous actions of Judas Herod Pilate c. but He did decree the Passion of Christ and did settle it in his sixt and eternal counsel that he should shed his bloud as a Propitiation for the World actio displicuit passio grata suit I am led along with the judgment of Leo the Great in this point Thus he Did the iniquity of them that persecuted Christ arise out of Gods Counsel and Decree and that heinous treason worse than all villainy Did the hand of Divine preparation arm them to it this must not once be imagined of that supreme justice that governs all things Multum diversum multumque contrarium est id quod in Judaeorum malignitate est praecognitum quod in Christi passione est dispositum that is there is great dissimilitude between these two how God foresaw the malignancy of the Jews but it was his own disposing and ordination that Christ should suffer therefore it comes to this sense He was delivered to death simply without addition of a death procured by sin through the determinate counsel of his Father but the conspiracy and envy and bloudy outcries that concurr'd in his death the foreknowledg of God did apprehend it would be carried with that violence and decreed to suffer it Non inde processit voluntas interficiendi unde moriendi says the same Father God did not will after the same manner to have his Son die and to have him barbarously crucified To allot him unto death was very just because that Lamb of God did take upon him the iniquity of us all and Leo adds that God could have commanded some holy Prophet to have sacrificed Christ before him even as He commanded Abraham to offer up his only Son Isaac and the Lord of life and death might have permitted Abraham to strike the stroke without impiety but to allot him to such a death wherein factious Enemies delighted themselves in his pains that cannot consist with such a God as hates the least impurity But my Text you will say declines it not but that both his death and his deliverance into the hands of the Jews that is the manner of his death both of them were ordained of God and so they were but with this correction of the proposition omnia vel ordinata sunt à Deo ut fiunt vel ordinatum non impedire quò minus fiant all that is good is ordained of God that it shall be and all beside that is evil is ordained of God that it shall be suffered to be and in those things which are to be referred to permission I mean all the works of the Devil I do not exclude the determinate counsel of God nay it must necessarily be present at it Quicquid permittit Deus consultò volens permittit there is Justice and Wisdom and Counsel from above imployed about those things wherein God is highly displeased For first no sinner in the world can say he was so permitted to enter into sin that no impediments were cast in his way to avert him some illumination he had some instruction to draw him back some remorse of conscience though not in such measure as did infallibly prevail upon his crooked will Even Judas himself was deterred from his Satanical proceedings by the prediction of his Masters mouth one of you shall
or religious house for this saying Qualiscunque nunc sim talis ero qualem me Deus praescivit Whatsoever I am now at last I shall be no other than just as God foresaw I should be Whereas says the holy Father his saying had been better on this wise God foresaw I should be such a one either as I would make my self by sin or by his grace and piety If I can I will clear that which makes the Objection seem to be difficult No man can be condemned for actual sins unless he do commit them through his own wilfulness But nothing is wilfully done which is inevitably and necessarily done and freedom is quite taken away unless you take away all kind of necessity But Gods prevision from all eternity infers a necessity through the supposition of it that nothig can alter from the way wherein before all time he saw all things lie naked and open before him This is the Objection and the Answer is most solid and punctual though not so clear and easie to common understandings as the Objection But thus That which God foresees shall be but presupposing that God saw the effect in its causes that it would be Therefore it is all one to say that God sees it that it is and it is impossible but whatsoever is when it â—s must be even so as it is Yet a little nearer to perspicuity you may consider an action either in the putting forth and the doing or when it is past and done In the doing God foresaw man had power either to do or not to do and therein foresaw he was left to his freedom and the liberty of his own counsel thus God saw from all eternity that man was not put upon evil or destruction necessarily then consider that action as foreseen of God to be done and committed so it is necessary But no otherwise than as we know it was necessary that Lot was drunken because that which is past and gone cannot be recalled You see an Archer drawing his Bow you see he may choose whether he will let the Arrow fly from him or not but when it is gone out of the Bow it is not in his will and power to resume it So God did foresee the thoughts of the Jews and when they were shooting out their Arrows even bitter words yet after the liberty of their own will they might have stopped and refrained then he saw that they took to the worst and chose death rather than life so he let them walk in their own inventions which made them stumble and fall Perhaps you will yet plead against God and say the Lord knew the ways of wicked men and he is Almighty and could have stinted their iniquity that such hellish effects should never have been wrought I sweep away this cavil with a word God was not wanting to put impediments and very great ones in the ways of Christs enemies that they might have desisted and been wise but if these were made unsufficient know that he is not bound to use Omnipotent means to repress impiety It is his great pleasure to put his Creature to the trial of obedience therefore it had not stood with his wisdom either to have made such a Law as man could not break or to endue him with such abilities as he could not transgress He will hedge in the way of sin to some on whom he casts his best good liking he will remove the objects and occasions of lewdness far from them they shall not come within the grasp of fearful tentations He would not let Paul kick against the pricks nor hale men and women that acknowledge Christ before unrighteous Judges but all men are not Pauls in God's dearest love and purpose Some are given over as these Jews were to a reprobate sense but according to their own wish their bloud be upon their own heads for God was innocent Now it is time to draw this Point into a Conclusion and in this form and use Let no calamities or malignities of this world offend us though the Church of Saints goes by the worst oftentimes let it not provoke our soul to say in its bitterness is there any Providence above Is there any knowledge in the most High Quis putat esse Deos He that will cut a man off when he begins to narrate a matter and not hear his tale out will quite misconceive him and lose the sense of his Narration So it happens to them that look rashly upon some miserable events in the world and search no further the uppermost part of those things which they see is Satan reigning Sin increasing Justice declining Religion mourning But the bottom and the nethermost part of this tragical spectacle is Profundum justitiae sapientiae eternal Justice revenging these injuries coelestial and inscrutable wisdom drawing peace out of contention repentance out of sins content out of poverty and an innumerous increase of faithful men and women out of bonds and captivities and persecutions They have not the patience to hear God tell out his tale they will not lend their eyes so long to see him bring his work to consummation that do not discern into his holy counsels that at last he will wind up all those things that appear most disproportionable to his honour to the high advancement of his glory Was ever the name of God defied in any thing so much as in the shameful death of Christ Ah thou that buildest the Temple in three days come down from the Cross and save thy self And again He trusted in God let him deliver him if he will have him And yet this that seemed such a blur to Gods renown was converted into such a good use that all the blessings that ever we received in this world were not so fruitful so beneficial to us as the death of Jesus Look not upon the superficies of his sufferings as some do and no more a Picture in a glass-window will read you that Lesson but look into the inward sanctuary into the bosom of this mystery that he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God You have hitherto attended to the first part of my Text that the ordination of Christs death was from God and to a good end and purpose the latter part which I will but snatch at and away is that the execution of his death came from the Devil and his Instruments out of most malignant respects Him ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Ye have taken this is no backbiting no defiance at a distance where the Jews did not hear him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 withstanding them to their face as St. Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome O how boldly the man of God speaks being compassed about with those murderers Some are faln in our days into a most ridiculous way of reproof and exhortation if it be compared with this They will discourse very earnestly what obedience
of nothing doth it not appear much easier to him to joyn them together again in one substance when they are separated Finemque potentia coeli non habet superi quicquid voluere peractum est To expound that Heathen Poet by our Heavenly Poet Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven in earth in the sea and in all deep places He that will consider how every day is renewed after the night hath overcast it by the dawning of a new morning how every year is renewed after the cold and darkness of Winter by the return and advancement of the Sun how the naked Trees reflourish by the Vegetative vertue of the Spring how Flies and Moths and the brood of the Silk-worm have no motion no quickness no token of life in them for many months together and yet instantly quicken again when the warmth of the Sun beams do cherish them Finally to end in that chief instance for the Scripture hath made it so how the seed of Corn falls into the ground and dies and then revives again and brings forth much fruit he that puts all this together rationally will more easily consent that it is not improbable that God will shew more wonderful signs of his workmanship in man being next under the Angels the beauty of all his Creatures An unwise man doth not mark this as the Psalmist said and a fool doth not understand it St. Austin says that Tully in his 3. lib. de Repub. disputed against the reuniting of soul and body His Argument was To what end Where should they remain together For a body cannot be assumed into heaven I believe God caused those famous monuments of his Wit to perish because of such impious opinions wherewith they were farced But to his slender Argument the body raised up shall have shaken off all malignancy of flesh and bloud which made it unfit for heaven And when it is become a glorious body why not a body inhabit heaven as well as a spiritual coelestial soul converse upon earth But Plato was more Theological than Tully and he taught very truly that souls could not remain separated for ever without their bodies And though he put not a reason to his opinion there is a very sufficient one Posse perficere materiam est animae hominis essentiale It is the essential difference for ought we know between the Spirit of a man and an Angel who is a spiritual substance that mans soul hath an aptitude a desire a natural reference to inform and actuate a body and so hath not an Angel Therefore it cannot be that this natural aptitude to dwell in flesh should be in it unto all eternity when it is separated from the body and never be satisfied Perhaps some will think that this labour may be spared to shew the possibility of a body to be raised from the dead for here is that power in act it is done it is manifested in Christ it cannot be controuled Whom God hath raised up Some have wondred at our Saviour for his Birth his obedience to his Parents his Poverty his Passion that he should humble himself so far but no man can take hold of any occasion to wonder why he should be raised from the dead and glorified so far It was conformable to the eternal justice of his Father to exalt him that had humbled himself so much Lowliness shall not always be left in the dust to be despised Therefore some of the ancient Writers make those words by Analogy to suit with Christ Psal cxxxix 2. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising And that of Micah in the same Key Chap. vii 8. Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise Obedience and patience shall not be forgotten at last Every Valley that subjecteth it self under the mighty hand of God shall be exalted Jesus Christ though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God 2 Cor. xiii 4. Secondly Satan must make this restitution for the wrong that he had done to an innocent Death had dominion no further than sin did reign so that it was a most unjust usurpation in death to seize upon him who knew no sin the Devil set on his Instruments to kill our Lord and prevailed but Hell and the Grave must needs regorge that which they had so unjustly received That eternal Law which hath destined most several retributions to the pure and impure would not suffer that he should continue in death whose soul was pure and his body undefiled The Resurrection of us sinners is out of grace and mercy the Resurrection of Christ is out of merit and justice Both shall arise alike as St. Austin says Similiter surgent corpora quae dissimiliter orta sunt Christi Adami nostrum Bodies that were diversly framed and made as Christs and Adams and ours shall not rise after a divers manner but have the same kind of Resurrection Yet the excellency of the head is above the members for though the head and members are conformable in nature yet they are not in vertue Therefore I bring it home to my second reason that God is pleased in his loving kindness that we should overcome death but he consented to his own justice that Christ should overcome death for Satan must make restitution again because he had slain an innocent That is the second reason upon the main whom God hath raised up Thirdly As God hath turned the sting of death to our benefit so much more out of the Resurrection of his Son he hath given us a salve of consolation For if his humility and reproach were our blessing how much more his glory Death is two ways abolished first by the pardoning of our sins for it is now become the passage to heaven for all penitent sinners which before was the gate of hell for all transgressors Secondly It is much more abolished by the Resurrection evacuating all that mortality had caused by the restauration of soul and body into an integral composition We have three grand enemies combined together against us Sin and Death and Hell But through the happy victory of Christ of all these Enemies Death doth least harm and therefore of all our Enemies he is last destroyed Among the Heathen death was their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most amating terror that could be set before a man the reason for they knew neither how that loss should ever be repaired nor what entertainment their Spirit should find in another world when it was departed But God hath provided better things for us not to let us fluctuate in these fears and uncertainties Nay we are enlightened to know that the malediction which was in death is extinguished how that which was at first inflicted as an entrance into perpetual pain is now a rest from all our labours Rev. xiv Furthermore that it is a rest from sin for while we draw in our breath we suck in iniquity grace doth
Cardinal his Exposition is thus Si descendero in infernum hoc est si profundum malorum confiteri nolo If I keep close in my breast the secret of my sin yet God will reveal it to my confusion Si ascendero in coelum si de justitiâ meâ superbiero Though I extoll my own works as high as my Saviours merit yet my righteousness shall be found an abomination The Chaldee Paraphrase leads us to this interpretation when the Army of the King of Babylon shall come though you hide your selves in Vaults and Caves yet your flight shall be in vain Quamvis ad aras fugitis though you clime up to the Altar as Joab did yet the Sword of Benaiah shall cut you short Lyra's opinion is the third and divers from the others Si recurrerint ad consulendum Daemones pro suâ evasione sicut Saul fecit Though they dig into Hell and consult with Witches and Sorcerers as Saul did yet all shall come to nought and then Si ascenderint in coelum sanctos invocando though they call upon all the Saints in heaven yet shall not that superstition help their cause But had Lyra or Hugo lived in these our days or for eighteen years past had any wrote upon Amos but a Jesuit one interpretation beyond all these must needs have met them in the face they could not shun it For to dig into Hell and to climbe up into heaven they are all in all both root and branches of that most execrable Powder-plot Wherefore you may conceive as if the Prophet Amos had thus spoken Though they dig into Hell or though they undermine our Kingdom with vaults and Sellarage their impious labour shall come to nothing but to their own utter shame Yea though they climb up into Heaven though they canonize the enemies of God and the King and make Saints and Martyrs of them whom justice did execute yet their sin shall be revealed in this world and remembred to their condemnation in the world to come If thy body were equal to thy mind says one to Alexander Alterâ manu orientem alterâ occidentem tetigisses A short reach and nothing to this stratagem Never was any work composed of such contrarieties that had the Devil at one end and the Saints at the other Hell at the bottom and Heaven at the top They mount up to heaven they go down again to the deep says David Psa cvii. And in the next verse he concludes that Mariners upon such giddy motions stagger like drunken men and are at their wits end What Shall I not much more be bold to say of these men that dive into Hell and would be inthroned in Heaven are not they at their wits end Are they not drunk with the cup of abominations You see then I have two ways to seek out these Powder Conspiratours toward Hell and thither you may trace them by their digging toward Heaven but they never came thither for all their climbing Were there no more Garnets upon earth nay no more well-wishers to such treasons in this our Realm than there are in Heaven it were a blessing that would deserve the solemnity of another Holy-day wherefore I will turn me to the left hand only and seek them out where I am sure I shall not miss that is in the first part of the verse Though they dig c. Who they were whom the Prophet Amos speaks of it bears no great sway in our present occasion Who indeed but the Children of Israel Being now in Gods sight as Ethiopians in the seventh verse of this Chapter Idolaters that swore by the God of Dan and Beersheba and by the sin of Samaria in the latter verse of the former Chapter And you know now-adays who are like unto them that were once an elected Church and the Israel of God but now have almost overtaken the Heathen in a kind of mimical Idolatry But let them pass with that fault and God amend them it is not pertinent to the work of this day My provision upon these words shall be laid out in this rank and order 1. Here is the negotiation of the wicked that they dig there wants no pains there wants no secresie 2. Here is the object of their imployment and that is Hell 3. There is a twofold end implied why they undertake such a business either for their own refuge as I told you out of Hugo and the Chaldee Paraphrase Or rather to undermine others which is more agreeing to Lyra. 4. Here is the frustrating and the defeating of their work Thence my hand will take them out snatch them from their thievish corners and take his Chosen out of all their trouble Beloved to what toil iniquity puts men to 1. They dig and labour 2. To what secresie What dread of conscience They dig into Hell 3. How unprofitable is the event For when all is done they are apprehended by the hand of God not unlike St. Peters fishing Luk. v. 5. Master says he we have toyled hard and all the night and caught nothing Which is like St. Pauls gradation who calls them works unfruitful works and works of darkness Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness I begin with the Action wherein two things are to be observed the labour and the Secresie Digging it imports labour sin it self it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most burdensom it is to them who are servants to obey it Whatsoever we do as we are men it is an action under one of these three heads For it is either an action of Phansie and prevents the concurrence of the will and is neither good nor bad Or secondly it is an action of the will but rash and sudden and prevents advice and deliberation which impeacheth both the value of a good deed and diminisheth the malice of a bad for as touching sudden passions and temptations that take us unawares there hath always been some mitigation in the Laws of Man and pardon no question before the judgment of God Or lastly the will hath dwelt some time upon her object and consulted and delighted in it and then if the work be amiss this is that which as St. Paul says makes sin exceeding sinful And now beloved this is that which our great Adversary desires in us to make us lay the Cockatrice Egg and hatch it and bring it up to put us to fodere to dig and take pains to be sinful To make the Prodigal Son bind himself Prentice and feed Swine a strange homage and a most base attendance to plow up iniquity as the Prophet speaks and to reap ungodliness Egypt was the Type and Figure the very platform of Satans Kingdom There is nothing but gathering stubble and groaning under task-masters making brick and more brick if we flinch under the burden And the heathen when they would make us believe that they had peep'd into Hell and seen all make no relation but of toil and hard
confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him but it is spilt and consumed to nothing Unto these two blessings which the Jews did enjoy by his mercy long life and rich means to maintain it sanguis adeps we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire these are sanguis and adeps the best bloud and the best fat or unction in the world O let us not forget his honour and goodness to make continual mention of it and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us let us sacrifice our selves to the holy and individed Trinity both bloud and fat both life and fortunes both soul and substance Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his unworthiness and the guiltiness of his sins which made him deserve to be quite consumed by the anger of the Lord even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation Such a Ceremony in the Injunctions of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people which was a silent confessing that as the Taper wasted away with the flame so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful The old Manichaeans therefore and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses because he delivered a form of Religion which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle I am sure Christ allowed that old way while it was a way to be very laudable both by his Precept Luke v. 14. He bad the Leper whom he had cured Go thy self to the Priest and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb a Rememorative according to the present point in hand that the Children of Israel should confess how their first-born deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were and as well as that Lamb was whereof they eat if justice had been strictly executed upon them as it was upon the Egyptians Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice which made a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness wherein he compared himself with the Beast that perished And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary wherefore St. Paul says in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering which came often to the Altar according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way to convince their obstinacy that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest such a one for ought I can see in this opinion thinks himself to make a Church alone without the Communion of Saints yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God an the Priest had the other part ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum to prove symbolically that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests and therefore God had the main share and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering But alas though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures yet now we Christians have other principles stronger meat for what need we confess our unworthiness and what punishment we deserve over the Carkass of a Beast when we see much better what penalty remains unto us if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our transgressions And there 's the third reason which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices it was to prefigure the immolation the bloudshedding the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ those were the Parables of the Old Testament as I may call them and Christs Death was the intepretation of them all Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world says John the Baptist Agnus qui redemit oves the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world Revel xiii 8. says John the Divine slain personally under Pontius Pilate but slain representatively from the beginning of the world in the immolation of all those beasts whose blood by faith did embrew the Altar The bloud of Bulls and of Rams the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgment of the same reckoning which at last was fully discharg'd by the bloud of Christ those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time at last the Principal the whole Debt was discharg'd by that most Royal ransom of our Saviour In a word all those bloody Oblations were like John Baptist forerunners of Christ Indentures sealed with bloud that the Redeemer would come and die for his People Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing but might move our Saviour to say unto the Jews If yes believed in Moses ye would believe also in me Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the comming of Christ how fluent and facil are these meditations to us to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron with great difficulty did the Patriarchs pick out that construction When we read of a Sacrifice we see as much in it as if Christs Passion were represented on a Stage Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradation how faith gathered strength by degrees being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law then a candle under the Law lumen in laterna no more as David said in his daies thy word is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths then like a flaming Beacon in
that was snatcht away unpreparedly without all sense of death It is true she had no Will to make she had no Legacies to bequeath for all was lost She had no house to set in order with Hezekiah for her Habitation was consumed with fire and brimstone yet she had a Soul to set in order which was ten thousand times more than all beside And although I will define nothing rashly against her for this judgment sake for I have learnt that modesty to let God only judge his own servants yet this momentary destruction of Lots Wife I am sure is worth both this and many hours meditations Quod cuivis cuiquam that which hapned but once since the world began to this one person may happen in some kind every day to any man Saul was desperately driven to seek to raise Samuel from the dead and appear before him this instance in my Text is one that never went down to the grave among the dead that she might always be in the remembrance of the living how she looked back to Sodom and became a Pillar of Salt Which words I divided formerly into such terms as might both respect the Contents of the Text and be expedient places for your memory Therefore I called the two principal branches an Epitaph and a Tomb. The Epitaph thus But his Wife looked back from behind him The Tomb which this Epitaph respects in that which follows And she became a Pillar of Salt If God made Epitaphs the stones of the Church should not be guilty of such flattery as they are for none of the offences of Lots Wife are left out in these few words but she is accused and very justly of these particulars as I shewed before 1. Of disobedience that she would not observe the precise Commandment of God in every motion of her body 2. Of great folly and blindness of heart that she would reject God and the preservation of her own life upon such easie conditions as to hold still her head 3. Of a Spirit most unattentive to learn for Lot went before her constantly and stedfastly the example was in her eye every step from Sodom to Zoar yet she would go her own ways 4. Of incredulity an incredulous soul Wisd x. 7. Either she did not believe that Sodom should be consumed as God had sent word or else she thought it would not be the worse for her though she turn'd about and lookt upon it 5. She relapsed and fainted in well-doing and desired to live again among those wicked sinners from whom God had withdrawn her This was opened in the first part The second is as strange for a Tomb as this was for an Epitaph A Christian Poet wrote thus Enigmatically upon it Cadaver nec habet suum sepulchrum sepulchrum nec habet suum cadaver sepulchrum tamen cadaver intus That she was made a Carkass that had no Sepulchre nay that she was made a Sepulchre that had no Carkass or rather that she was both Carkass and Sepulchre And to conform my self to the resolution of this Riddle I will consider this punishment inflicted from God two ways in reference to her self as to the Carkass and in reference to that into which she was turned as to the Sepulchre She that was punisht 1. Was one of those very few that professed the name of God among thousands that were unrighteous 2. She was one of four that were brought out of Sodom and yet there wanted one of those four before they got into Zoar. 3. She was well nigh pass'd all danger and suffred shipwrack in the very Haven 4. She did wilfully cast her self away at the last cast therefore we read she was lost but not that she was ever bemoaned After this in reference to the Pillar of Salt 1. I consider it as a new punishment the like was never heard 2. As a sudden or momentaneous punishment 3. As a miraculous and most supernatural punishment 4. As a mortal punishment but not as a final destruction Of these in order The Lord told Abraham in the former Chap. that the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was very great and therefore He was come down to see how grievous their sin was That which called him down to execute vengeance was not the iniquity of Lots house that little Family was all the remnant He had there to call upon his name but the filthy sins of the other Canaanites that abounded with rank and unnatural pollutions And the Angel tells Lot in this Chapter they were come to spare him and his but the Lord had sent them to destroy that City because the cry of it was waxen great before the Lord. They confess their Commission was given them to punish none but those Children of perdition that were aliens from all fear of God And yet behold one that was in the Catalogue of them that professed the Worship of God she offended and the hand of Gods fury is stretched out upon her She became a pillar of Salt Says one upon it Par est ut judex priùs suam domum examinet quà m alienam A Magistrate that will reform abuses let him make his own house the first example of reformation and then his Justice may more confidently call any to account that are not so near unto him St. Paul grounding upon that equitable case deciphers a good Bishop to be one that ruleth his own house well for if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. iii. 5. This brings it to our apprehension directly why this person in my Text was chastised with no less than death because God would shew his justice upon his own Family where they sinned that unconverted Reprobates might expect nothing but the utmost of severity For if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in a dry Luk. xxiii 31. There is no sort of anguish no calamity of any name or magnitude Captivities Famines Diseases that doth not shew it self as soon within the bowels of the Church as in any part of the World beside For a small trespass is taken more unkindly at their hands where grace abounds than a great profanation from the Heathen who were left as forsaken as the Mountains of Gilboa in Davids curse upon whom no dew of heaven did fall A small sin in Judah is as bad as an Idol in Samaria A lukewarmness or faintness of Religion in Laodicaea as bad as Paganism in those Regions that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death Therefore the first stroke of indignation shall light upon their sins from whom the Lord did expect the least offence and the most obedience Slay utterly both young and old both Maids and Children and begin at my Sanctuary says God Ezek. ix 6. You hear that the sword of vengeance shall be drawn forth first against the Sanctuary that is the pollutions of the Sanctuary Christ will sooner take his scourge
Altar And what service of the King is so honourable as an Embassie And which attribute of God is more noble than his justice Now an Altar and an Embassage appertain to the occasion of this Text and the justice of God to the Exposition There was an Altar set up by Gad and Reuben and half Manasseh a great one to see to in the tenth verse a pattern of the Lords own Altar in the 28. which was as strange in those days when all the light of the Church moved but in one Sphere as to see a Parelius or a second Sun in the Firmament This new devotion of theirs kindled a jealousie in the Ten Tribes that possessed the Land of Canaan beyond the River Jordan and after some advice to reform the Church they stumble upon these two ways First to pluck down the Altar was the like done no where Never in our Land First pluck down the Churches and then reform the Religion Next that there might be hands enough to pluck it down all Israel meet at Shiloh to fight it out Another strange course I pray observe it to try the truth not in Moses chair but in the field and He should carry the day whose Sword was sharpest and brethren would sacrifice brethren upon their own Altar for Idolatry Yet this hath a fair shew and seems to be like the renouned justice of Timoleon that redeemed his Brother taken captive in his Country quarrel whom he slew soon after with his own hands for usurping tyranny But to be slow to wrath is to make haste to heaven and sometimes a soft word breaks not down Altars but the very bones says Solomon St. Peter cut off but one silly servants ear with Ecce duo gladii but when Jesus spake it overturned them to the ground every man and Miscreant So this holy Nation send Phinehas the Son of Eleazar and Ten Princes more the flower of the Nobility to play the Orators before it come to bloudshed and make this the close of the Message to leave the most moving affection behind it that the Idolatry of two Tribes and more would envenom all the children of Israel round about since the trespass of one man was the ruine of God knows how many Did not Achan the Son of Zerah trespass and wrath fell on all the Congregation of Israel and that man perished c. Beloved now we know the man that bears the burden of the Text and that Altar which was blameless and innocent one poor distinction broke up all the Army it was an Altar of Witness and not of Sacrifice And you have seen the Embassie presenting and prevailing for Peace and true Religion A word or two to shew what is meant by non solus he perished not alone There are divers stories of Gods vengeance in that word built one above another as may easily be discerned if I resolve all the Text into Achans Funerals First here is a grave digged and that is iniquity So speaks the Kingly Prophet effodit puteum he digged a Pit that is says another Prophet he plowed iniquity Secondly see the corps of Achan first oppressed with stones and then consumed to ashes for he was both stoned and burnt the one representing a Sepulchre and the other the dismal fire of Hell this is that man perishing But not alone his Children were the sad mourners that followed their Father and died with him both root and branches Nor these only but thirty six Israelites slain and offered up to the vengeance of God inferiae Achanis as I may term them after the heathen phrase And give me leave to go on to make a miserable pomp his Cattel went along to be sacrificed bellator equus even all he had as if his Oxen had jogged the Ark of God they are consumed in fire Lastly you are here beloved to look on and judge of such a spectacle to decline the trespass that for your part and God grant it be so He may perish alone in his iniquity Lego historiam ne fiam historia Where could I alledge Scripture so wonderful to shew the mystery of Gods justice least we speak unadvisedly with our lips why art thou so wrath with the sheep of thy Pasture Non nostrum onus our shoulders were not made to bear our Fathers sins As Lipsius embraced the reproof of Scaliger saying Te judice placebit paenè ipsum damnari so we must not only kiss the Son lest he be angry but even kiss the very anger of the Son He was figured to be the Serpent that stung the Israelites but it was a brazen Serpent Serpens sine veneno no poison no rancor of malice in him Judicia Dei occulta esse possunt injusta esse non possunt says St. Austin Strike once upon this rock of justice and I dare promise a fountain will issue out from thence of fear and reverence not to provoke the Lord by sins and trespasses for if He threaten shall He seem as one that mocks Shall the Infant put his finger upon the hole of the Cockatrice Wherefore to make this our use and fruit of hearing at this time First to adore the flaming Sword of justice Secondly to shun the stroak the wages of ungodliness First that the Tombs of sinners may be Altars of Gods righteousness and then that the zeal of God may be dreadful unto man let these be the parts of this discourse First We must put the cause formost the cause of all the wrath that follows and that both general it is iniquity and with an instance his iniquity Then follows the subject not only answering to each part of the cause man and that man but a subject it is ex abundanti you would think as if mischief had been kindled like piles of wild-fire for it spreads about to strangers and home-born to the reasonable and to the dumb nay to the quick and dead that man not alone is a troop of them which were consumed Thirdly here is an affection brought in by the cause you wot of before into this plentiful subject alas let us not call it an Affection let us use no Art it is perishing The Cause Iniquity the Subject Achan but not alone the Affection that he perished you see I have made a demonstration of the Text. Now let not any man make it a fallacy to deceive his own soul doth not the cause deserve severe arraignment Then blaspheme not as the wicked do He seeketh an occasion to punish Cruda est cicatrix criminum oletque ut antrum Tartari says the Divine Prudentius in the subject Did one hair of an innocent person fall to the ground Then murmur not against God turn thy wrath upon the sinners and the heathen which have not known his name But is it too much to perish for all this Was the chastisement beyond measure Then let us say we are vexed and sore smitten then indignation lieth hard upon us like Rehoboams Scorpions Remember how the
one in the Gospel so strong that none could hold him no not the Chains wherewith he was tied but he brake them asunder Now this unhappy person of whom I speak was possessed with a Devil Mar. v. 4. The same evil spirit is entred into those robustious men who esteem them dastards who quake at the threatnings of the Law and faint at the terrours of death and judgment to come No fetters of Religious fear will hold them Are not these Sons of Anack mighty Giants And we that tremble and weep at the guilt of our sins are we not as Grashoppers in their sight You cannot be of that mind if you consider that it is not strength in the wicked but madness to carry themselves stubbornly before an infinite and omnipotent Majesty Gregory the Great is copious in a whole Sermon upon this subject that there is no such weakness as the fortitude of Reprobates Says he out of the Prophet Isaiah they are strong to drink Wine and mighty to pour in strong drink Is not that a weakness Ad inanem gloriam cum discrimine vitae perveniunt They will uphold their reputation in frivolous quarrels with the hazard of their lives nay with the hazard of their salvation and is not that a weakness They will endure attendants scorns base Offices for favour They will travel by Sea and Land in perils of Thieves in perils of Waâ—ers for the hope of Riches That is more than I can do says Gregory for this worlds good Profectò ego non sum tam fortis in ejus desiderio I am not so hardy to suffer so much for these transitory things Lastly Says he Contra flagella conditoris insensibiliter perdurant God threatens them and they do not weep he corrects them and they do not feel it There is a num Palsie in their conscience I may truly say they are dust Nullus pulvis est tam pulvis There is no moysture in them no living sap in their root if there were any thing of the life of grace in them they could not be so stupid Gregory concludes this Doctrine with a good distinction Reprobi sunt debiliter fortes boni sunt valenter infirmi Reprobates have great infirmity in their fortitude the Children of God have great fortitude in their infirmity Therefore it is more than manly it is Saint-like Apostolical Prophetical to weep because we have grieved the holy Spirit of God with our iniquities It is Apostolical by the instance of St. Paul Phil. iii. 18. There are many that walk of whom I have told you before and now I tell you weeping they are enemies to the Cross of Christ Even those superstitious ones that fall down before the sign of the Cross they are enemies to the Cross Many of them walk among us too many God help it their Idols and Images I fear will bring a curse upon the Land If St. Paul were alive he would tell us weeping that they are enemies to the Redemption obtained by Christ And weeping for sin is Prophetical Jeremy was never satisfied with weeping for the deplorable state of the Jews O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears Chap. ix 1. Et quid nisi vota supersunt The most that we can do is to wish for such a tender and compassionate soul It is to be wish'd I say but few there be that can overcome themselves to perform it As Leo said of his days men are little touched with any thing that God doth to us in his Justice or his Mercy Nec de correctione compungimur nec de remissione laetamur We have neither spiritual joy when God forgives us our sins nor penitent compunction when he corrects us for our sins Whence comes this hardness of heart Hath Mary Magdalen left none of her generation behind her Says the Son of Syrach What is created more wicked than the eye Therefore it weeps upon every occasion Upon every occasion it is ready to shed moisture but not upon the best occasion for when will it weep for its own transgressions because it hath been wanton and full of lust As a Widow that did not love her Husband will follow his Coarse with dry eyes to his burial So Christ is the Husband of every soul which he hath espoused to him in Baptism If your sins grieve him and provoke him to depart from you either lament it with many tears or the case is plain that you never loved him But the Devil hath turned the River of our tears the wrong way A vain Interlude a Fable upon the Stage represented in due action will make the soft Spectator to wet his handkercher So the River is diverted from its natural channel for when we are put in mind of the damnableness of our sins our cheeks are as sear as the Mountains of Gilboa upon which no drop of dew did fall Do you wonder at your selves and ask the reason of this Philosophy will tell you that love is stronger than hatred and hath more command of our passions We have tears in readiness to bewail the death of our dear friends love hath such power over our tender affections but when we are upon mortification to deplore and hate our sins the drops of our eyes are not so easily commanded And this is marvelous in Nature that you shall sooner see fire sparke out of our eyes in hot desire of revenge than tears which are most proper to the eye for our grievous sins But will Philosophy assist us with no better reason Then hear Divinity which will tell you the truth It is presumption rank presumption that will not let our shallow repentance go on unto tears We are not altogether perswaded that God is in earnest when he threatens what manifold woes he will bring upon us for our rebellions That desperate courage which we assume to our selves upon great likelihood of impunity is that which mitigates our sorrow and suffers it not to break forth into any great measure of lamentation We dream that the bloud of Christ is medicinal even for impenitent sinners Thus Satan kills us with that Balm which is distilled out of his wounds to cure us But keep your faith from these impostures and fawnings of the evil one who would make you laugh your selves to death lik those that are bitten with the Tarantula The Stag when he is at the bay and knows there is no way but death for him falls a weeping And are we not surer that no tittle of Gods minacies shall fail than if we were at bay with the Stag and ready to be pluck'd down Believe that God is a severe Judge and that all his threatnings are true that there is a day to come when there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth And when you fear this indeed then you will practise my Doctrine without teaching If any great sickness hold you that you think death is at hand then your eyes will pay the tribute of sorrow to
Persecutors to be a Counsel and not a Precept Some would have all going to Law to be a repining against the will of God and impatiency against his scourge when he takes any thing from us by the same tenure a sickness being a scourge from God we must not seek to the Physician to cure it Finally The Anabaptists think that the Gospel hath so quite cut the Nerves of revenge that they abhor the Magistrate who is the conservator of peace and justice and repute him to be Gods instrument no otherwise than as Nebuchadonozor or the Devil This is a large field of Tares to be cut down and all with one Sickle revenge may be prosecuted for the correction of sin for the peace of the Church for the demonstration of Gods justice So doth our Church in the Collect used in the time of War Asswage the malice of our Enemies abate their pride confound their devices So do the Souls of the Martyrs in heaven Avenge our bloud c. I confess it is an hard matter to hit of this way which I speak of and among those that pray for revenge not one among a thousand I am perswaded but tread awry Howsoever the pure love to Justice may stir us up to those devotions yet our frailty can scarcely perform it without some vindicative passions It is a common error to miscall our Spleen by the name of Zeal and to take that hot affection to be a Coal from the Altar which is a firebrand from the infernal Pit But it is a second Conclusion that the Spirits of good men departed may cry out to have judgment pass upon Tyrants for the effusion of their bloud because they can ask nothing inordinately they that are confirmed in grace and cannot sin they cannot make a Petition that is over-ballanced with the least grain of rancor or partiality Beside as Rabshekah said to the men of Judah how untruly let him answer it Am I now come up without the Lord against this Land to destroy it Yea the Lord said unto me Go up against this Land and destroy it So may the Saints say without prevarication Do we pray for vengeance against our Persecutors without the Lord Yea the Lord hath said unto us Pray unto me for vengeance against your Enemies their Will moves by his inspiration and they can wish for nothing without it Ab ipso bibunt quodcunque sitiunt St. Austin speaks it upon my Text when they thirst for any thing they drink it first from the Fountain of his pleasure Wherefore there is this disparity in our case and theirs We are ignorant what may become of our Persecutors Stubborn sinners are often called to repentance Paul was converted in that minute when he imagined most mischief against the Faith O then let us overcome evil with good praying that they may turn unto the Lord and be saved This is a fair Christian revenge indeed to pray against their sins Hoc ipsum in illis vindicatur quod periit iniquitas Now the Saints in glory as many of the best Divines hold are not at such uncertainty as we are but it is revealed unto them that their Persecutors are in a lost condition that they will die in their impenitency therefore in conformity to that judgment which God hath reserved for them they pour out their Imprecations that destruction may take them unawares They that know how unalterable the Decrees of the Lord are and by special impartment are acquainted with the execution of his Decrees it is impossible that the Saints in Heaven should solicite him for the salvation of Reprobates they pray for nothing but for that which they obtain they pray for none but for whom they may be heard Some of us ask and have not St. James tells us why Because we ask amiss The drift of this Conclusion is we ask good things of God for our Enemies because for ought we know they may become his friends The Martyrs cry aloud against their Enemies because they know they shall be Fiends of Hell We are restrained from cursing our ill-willers because malice will inject it self into such Prayers the Citizens which dwell above are liable to no such prohibition because there can be no defect in their charity The third Conclusion is so cautious to give no scandal so circumspect not to open the least window to malice and hatred that it resents the word Revenge in this place to be of an improper signification and that which the Souls departed sue for is not revenge but deliverance Deliverance Of what Not of themselves who are out of harms-way in Abrahams bosom But of their Brethren afflicted and tormented here beneath As who should say How long O Lord wilt thou not deliver the bloud of our Brethren the poor Members of the Militant Church from them that rage upon the Earth They that are dead in the Lord have not only an existence after this life but a memory to call to mind what garboyls were in this world when they breathed in it as the Parabolical History of the Rich man and Lazarus may confirm it This being presupposed as the opinion of others I press it not as irrefragable it must go along with it that they have a most compassionate desire that the poor Sheep whom they left in the midst of Wolves may have an end of their misery And no marvel if their Communion which they had and shall have again make them clamour as if they petition for themselves How long O Lord c. For as young Scholars talk Proverbially of the breaking of Priscians head when a Solacism is committed though he be rotten in his grave so unmerciful proceedings against them that suffer under the Cross of Christ seem to fetch bloud from the Saints in Heaven You will think I suppose that this Interpretation sticks at a knot To deliver is a softer and a more innocent word than to revenge how will that stubborn word to revenge bear so mild a signification The Criticks will readily help us in that David pleading his integrity before Saul yet mistrusting that his displeasure was unreasonable and implacable says he Vlciscatur me de te Jehova The Lord avenge me of thee As the Letter sounds this had been most disloyal and most dangerous to have cursed Saul to his face therefore the Phrase must be understood in this manner The Lord deliver me from thy vengeance Again 1 Mach. xiii 6. I will avenge my Nation and the Sanctuary and our Wives and Children for the heathen are gathered to destroy us What is meant then by avenging the Sanctuary but delivering it from profanation To uphold it with another Authority the Widow invokes the unjust Judge to avenge her of her adversary Luk. xviii 3. Camerarius says it is jus exequere do me right against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juris consulti vocant defensores that is they that defend and maintain the cause of the poor are called
with his Granaries Christ was made poor that we might be made rich and for the good use of our riches he hath made many poor I did read you even now what Exposition might be made upon those words of David I never saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread some not unfitly do bend it to this sense The Psalmist commends liberality in the preceding verses and those that are prone to relieve the helpless Now lest any man might object yet I may cloath others so far that I may leave my self naked I may supply others till I be drawn dry No says he in that verse no misfortune shall come to such liberality I never saw the righteous forsaken meaning such righteous as he spake of before that are liberal and lend I never saw his seed beg their bread The charitable shall have his loan again sometimes corporally sometimes spiritually always certainly And thus you have heard my reasons to controul Satans rule that there are and have been divers opprest with necessity and want of bread and yet God doth not cease to be their Father and they must retain the comfort that they are his Sons Only take in this to the advantage of the Point As Satan is vigilant to espy who are in want and to suggest doubts and infidelity into their heart so there is no man shall think he is not in want if he will be ruled by his perswasion I told you before out of Theophylact what he propounded to our Saviour Cum panis unus sufficeret jubet lapides in panes converti When one loaf of bread might satisfie a mans hunger he required all the stones in the Wilderness which were near at hand to be turned into bread It is he that makes our prodigal Feasters wish their chear were better when they have already too much To have bare enough in his construction is to want and nothing is sufficient but an Epicures superfluity Perhaps the plenty which is present will evict the greatest murmurer and make him confess here is well and enough for the present occasion O but says the Tempter are you sure of large suppeditation for the time hereafter If you are not aforehand with the world you are in a bad case and want bread If your condition be not more comfortable than your Prayer Give us this day our dayly bread you may pray and perish Howsoever Beloved do you rely upon this that Gods providence will be the best interpreter of his own Prayer he that bids you pray for the sustenance of one day best knows how he will cherish and relieve you tomorrow Whereas in the former petitions we are taught to ask that the Kingdom of heaven might come it were unwise having so good a thing in our wish to ask much for the bread of this life One days dimensum is enough to ask for at once for who knows whether after a day he shall go from hence for ever and be no more seen If happily a worldly man be satisfied to say I have enough for one and enough for my time Soul thou hast much goods laid up in store for many years yet Satan will object that you want bread for you have not enough laid up for your Posterity and for many generations and because men know not how their stock may increase and fructifie therefore they dilate their appetite in infinitum and say after the words of that Disciple Whence shall I have bread for so many that come out of my Loyns that every one may have a little Gehazi did not say his Master had need of Naamans Rayments or his money but there were two children of the Prophets lately come to him and he would have two change of Rayments and a Talent of Silver for them So many will confess they have wherewithal to serve their own turn they cannot complain but their own necessities are liberally provided but they would have change of Rayments and Talent upon Talent for their children And if it were possible like Noah and those that came out of the Ark with him they would have the whole world to be distributed among their Sons and Daughters All these ways our Adversary the Devil doth shape discontent in our hearts to make us say we lack and have not enough then he objects Who is then your Father that should provide for you What Son is he that wanteth bread if he have a merciful Father And so far upon the first general part of the Text. And as this Satanical rule upon which I have spoken depraves our judgment in the most capital conclusion of true Religion the next rule which I now come to open bars and corrupts our practise in all manner of justice and righteousness it is thus whosoever wants bread let him get it by any stratagem or device by any unlawful slight which Proposition though it be not exprest in such plain terms in my Text yet the wit of Satan neither would nor could insinuate that bad meaning in any other Language to Christ than as we read it Command that these stones be made bread I know Christ hath extended his miracles to supply worldly blessings to his people especially at a push as Peter found ready pay for his Masters Tribute and for his own out of the head of a Fish and lest the people should faint that had continued fasting three days to hear Christ preach in the Wilderness a wonderful increase of food was multiplied to satisfie many thousands out of five loaves and two fishes God did get himself glory by these works in the sight of all Jury But the case is quite altered in this which Satan demands Christ was private by himself in the Desart when he had fasted forty days and forty nights and was afterwards an hungry the Devil had no colour in that place to bid him filch or cheat or do any base office to feed his belly The worst therefore he could say was altogether to omit he should call upon God nay rather since the Lord had destituted him of all provision without expectation of help from the Divine Providence do the best you can for your self Command that these stones c. This is that Maxim which those Heathens that had no Equity nor Philosophy in them did maintain Quocunque modo rem stand not upon the niceties of Truth and Law and Justice but get your living as you can Victum tibi confice quem Deus non suppeditat as our most literal Expositors do Paraphrase my Text God cares not for you but shift for your self as well as you can you must have bread Such are those irreligious and discontented words 2 Kings vi 33. The evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer There is no Commandment of the two Tables can be unviolated if you remove the bounds of justice and give your wit and conscience scope to make a fortune upon all jugling and devices Blasphemy Idolatry
forswearing unhallowing the Lords day Rebellion against the Magistrate Rapines murders Lying Dissimulation want of Remorse all these sins which we knew of old and all those new sins which mischeif can invent are incident to him that cares not to grow rich by Gods blessing alone but by any sort of Policy Judas had an impatient heart that he did not raise his fortunes by Christs service he got little or nothing under him How easie it was for Satan to enter in at this gap and to put it into his heart to accept of thirty pieces of Silver to betray him If Christ would have bid most and given him Gold for Silver Judas would have tried his cunning then to have betrayed the Devil Ad mercedem pii sumus ad mercedem impii Therefore the Devil brought him speedily to an untimely death lest he should revolt for a greater reward and retain to the contrary faction And as for the thirty pieces the wages which he took both to sell Christ and his own soul for the High Priests had so much more than they covenanted for Judas durst not keep them they durst not receive them the Pension of innocent bloud none durst finger it but as the holy man said He hath swallowed down riches he shall vomit them up again Job xx 15. Because the Lord doth sometimes alledge the Heathen against the disobedience of his own Servants to provoke them by a foolish people therefore I will give you an instance from the morals of an Heathen Philosopher whom he did condemn for such as were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as took where they had no right and heapt possessions and gain unto themselves by unjust dealing And very judiciously he premiseth that there are two sorts of men that pluck much to themselves by unjust rapine who are transcendent sinners above the usual stile of them that are noted for filthy lucre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyrants that invade whole Kingdoms that are not their own and sacrilegious persons that lay hands on Gods portion and to satisfie their own Avarice despoil that which is consecrated to holy uses The first of these Usurping Tirants do not repine that they want a little bread but like Ahab they are sick for vexation and cannot eat their bread with joy unless they may have Naboths Field nay unless they may have whole Regions that are not their own This was a Goatish barbarous Conclusion every Nation had a Title to that Kingdom which was better than their own Such as these will pretend not to satisfie their need but to feed their pride and luxury and care not how much bloud they sell to buy a wrong name a dignity which the Lord did never give them Take heed of the bread of violence and oppression says Solomon though in the beginning such bread be sweet to the Palate yet afterward their mouth is filled with gravel and then follows gnashing of teeth in which Christ deciphers one sting of torment belonging to eternal damnation The Amalekites spoil'd the Kingdom of Israel burnt Ziglag and took away the women Captives but while they were eating and drinking and dancing because of the great spoil David smote them from twilight even till the Evening of the next day 1 Sam. xxx 17. The other sort of transcendent unjust ones are they who if they be not prosperous in the abundance of wealth to joyn house to house and Land to Land God himself shall not keep his own from them these are the Sacrilegious they are not common stones that these men move to become rich but they will command that the stones of the Temple be made bread The Sons of Eli the High Priest for I will confess it to our shame that the very Priests themselves in all Ages have not been quit from Sacriledge would lurch from the Sacrifice it self the best part of the Sacrifice and the vengeance fell from heaven not only on their own persons to be slain in battel but the Ark of God being under the custody of such wicked Levites was taken by the Philistins and carried away in triumph Even mighty Princes have smarted for this sin for when Belshazzar called for the golden and silver Vessels which his Father had taken out of the Temple of Jerusalem that he his Princes his Wives and his Concubines might drink therein in the same hour was the hand seen which wrote upon the wall that his Kingdom was taken from him No Nation so Idolatrous but abandoned them which made private gain of that which was due to the Altar to the Priests or any way to the honour of their Gods It was strict and strange justice in the Athenians that put a little boy to death who had scrapt off a little Plate of Silver from some shrine in Dianaes Temple but the reason of that severe Sentence was Metuebant ne sacrilegus evaderet if he had liv'd to be a man they fear'd he would prove notoriously socrilegious These which I have spoken of Tyranny and Sacriledge a mere Naturalist could call the two transcendent tops of injustice There are others under these indeed yet of a most vile condition that eat their bread by wrongful dealing when it is grounded with the Devils Milstones and according to Aristotle my former director these may be ranged into three sorts Such as maintain themselves with no calling such as use a bad calling and such as cheat in a good Calling We must eat our bread by Prayer to God and good employment in the world that is by the duty of Invocation and by the fruits of our Vocation therefore he that fills up no place or part in a Common-wealth to earn his gains must needs take the Devils counsel to live by unjust means command that these stones be made bread I consider not so much in this censure Parasites and Flatterers that subsist by fauning upon those that will be gull'd with assentation nor Buffoons and Jesters upon whom the Philosopher toucheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as lead an apish ridiculous life a far greater curse than if they would undergo Gods curse to eat their bread with the sweat of their brows but I speak of them whose impious hands maintain them no otherwise but by pilfering and stealing what swarms of these are round about us in every corner of the streets yea sometimes in this very house of God More witty wicked inventions are excogitated I am perswaded in this City to cheat to filch to circumvent than all the Nations beside under the Sun are aware of If ever any sin grew a monster in a State this is improved to be so in ours And the good suffer this shame for their sakes who are bad that thievery in other Countries is accounted the National blot of this Island It is not imprisonment it is not branding it is not a fatal death that will deter them Nay it is not the fear of eternal fire hereafter it is not that denouncement
these things and come to that heavenly Banquet without these preparatory steps and so you shall eat and drink your own damnation It is fit likewise that all our life should be a meditation of our death to number our days one by one as we go down to the grave No says the Tempter jump down from the Pinacle to the bottom it is a melancholy cogitation never think of it till it comes do not go down fair and softly with fear and trembling but defer all your repentance to the last hour and then commend yourself to God And none are more in fault in this kind than they who begin at the top of the golden Chain at Election and Predestination and straight leap into the assurance of their Glorification they are Predestinated to his Kingdom therefore theirs is the Adoption of Sons theirs is the inheritance without more ado Soft and fair this is a jump from one end to another without steps there must be a ladder of practice to come to these things or your boasting may be in vain and you may fail of that Salvation wherein you falsly glory Examine your Love if it be sincere examine your Repentance if it be very mournful and make you most resolute to be a new Creature Examine your Faith if it be stedfast and immovable prove it by such fruits as will grow upon a living tree and then God hath given you leave to rise up upon these degrees to ascend in these effects from one to another till you lay hold of the highest Link and say with the Prophet I am thine O save me I am thy Child by Adoption and Grace and thou art my Father who hast elected me before the foundations of the World But beware of these desultory motions to fall down from aloft and not pass by such steps and stairs as God hath ordained And so much for this motion to which the Tempter perswaded Christ Jace teipsum deorsum Cast thy self down Next let us see how the Tempter would have Christ take his fall from the Pinacle of the Temple why he would have it to be his own voluntary act Cast thy self down And subtilly continued to palliate this horrid Vice as if it had been humility Humility must be home-born flow from our own willingness without the least compulsion or constraint Cast thy self down For they that are pressed down and would get higher if they could they are not humiles but humiliati it is their cross fortune not their mortified affections that they are not upon the top of a Pinacle But as I have said already you can taste no such thing as pious humility in the Devils counsel But first as St. Hierom shews he doth much betray his own weakness in this to commend the execution of this tentation to Christ himself and not to take it into his own hands He can perswade he cannot precipitate a man whether he will or no. Nemini potest nocere nisi ipse se deorsum miserit It is not in his power to throw you down if you will save your self No Sorcerer no worker with familiar spirits had ever the power to hurt the meanest Magistrate in the Commonwealth that examined them or any Officer of correction that did chastise them His Dominion is inhibited that he can take away no mans life by hostile violence It is one of the flowers of Gods own Royalty that life and death are before him only he giveth breath and he calls it away when he pleaseth And as Satan cannot hurt the body of man but by our own consent and by our own permission so he must ask us leave and work it by our own perverse will if he ensnare our soul in any iniquity He cannot break open the door no nor so much as draw the latch but if he find the door open and the room swept and garnished then he enters in Luk. xv Some ungodly ones think they have made a fine excuse when they cast their faults upon the Devil If you have blasphemed or reviled it was he I wiss that was the cause of it if you have spilt bloud it was he that did direct your hand to this hainous fact if you lived in malice it was he no doubt that crossed you from many purposes to be reconciled what cares he to let you run on in these excuses You deceive your selves your Debts increase and I am sure he will never pay the score for you I allow it unto you that he is as subtil to cast scandalous objects in your way as malice can make him as forward to excite you to all evil as diligence will suffer him as vigilant as a restless spirit can be to divert you from all good But what of all this If you will not lend him your own free-will to practise with he is quite excluded All those Antecedents are but invitations to evil not compulsions Malorum immissor non impulsor If you will not cast your self down head-long he cannot thrust you into wickedness In this Text he confesseth that the last and complete power is in our selves to hurt our selves and not in him all precipitations are his counsels but our own motions Cast thy self down Then the Tempter could not cast our Saviour down it is his restraint and weakness moreover he would not though he could For Nullum praecipitium nisi voluntarium est praesumptio No tumbling cast had born the guilt of presumption with it unless it had been voluntary and of his own doing And now I am come to the most horrid part of this second Tentation wherein Christ was provoked to destroy himself with his own will to be guilty of his own murder the most irremediable sin as much as I can perceive that can be committed Though he would not come down from the Cross and save himself but was led with all patience as a Lamb unto the slaughter yet his death was inflicted upon him by Pilates Souldiers he was not his own Executioner The Jews never spake more despightfully against him than when they asked Will he kill himself because he says whither I go ye cannot come Job viii 22. No let Satan put such desperate resolutions into the heart of Judas the Traytor to make himself away And some Historiographers would perswade us that the Devil obtained this very request of him which he moved to Christ to cast himself down from some lofty Pinacle St Matthews words must be true that he hanged himself and St. Lukes words must be true that falling down headlong he burst asunder in the midst Acts i. 18. Theophylact says the bough of the tree bended to the ground upon which he hung and since he could not dispatch his life that way he brake his neck down a steepy Mountain and burst in twain And now all Ages call him Reprobate as well for this desperate conclusion of his life as for betraying Christ There were some Hereticks of whom I think one Petileus was the Author
dead works were not quickned by grace better it might be for us that we had never been born therefore the life of Sanctification was begun in the Church as it were with a gentle gust of wind when Christ breathed on his own and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost So you see this outward sign of insufflation was constantly used at our Creation at our Resurrection at our Sanctification to shew how it is the same God that worketh all in all Yet St. Ambrose comes in with a third Meditation upon it Says he God did give man a living soul at first by breathing or inspiration to let him see he did not only give him a temporal or carnal vivification but grace and sanctity to live for ever But when man had lost this primitive grace and original righteousness it was fit to let us know that such losses could be repaired by none but Christ therefore Christ breathed again upon man to demonstrate that he was the restorer of those immortal blessings which exceed our merits and pass all understanding But when Christ was ascended up on high the Spirit could not be infused immediately from the breath of his mouth but in Analogy to it it came into the place where the Apostles were gathered together like the murmuring wind or the breath of heaven As Solomon fore-told it in his Poetical Ode Cant. iv 16. Awake O North wind and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out And here again I shall pass through some humane Comparisons to the illustration of most divine Mysteries First of all Elementary Creatures the Wind is the most active thing in the world nothing so quick and active as it Vsque adeo agit ut nisi agat non sit when it is not active it is not at all no stirring of the air no wind So it is with the Spirit of faith and love the very being of it consists in being operative What shall I do to inherit eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome it impels the heart to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise Either the Tongue is praying or the Ear is hearing or the Heart is meditating or the Hand is giving or the Soul is thirsting for remission of sins When the Spirit beats not in the Pulses there is no spirit in the body it is a dead Carkass and in whomsoever there is a cessation from all good works you may say it justly that there the Holy Ghost is extinguished there is no difference between a standing Puddle and a dead Sea And cozen not your selves with a vain confidence that albeit you be altogether barren and unprofitable no fruit of Sanctification budding from you yet Semen Dei manet the sap may be in the root the vertue in the Seed-corn though it do not put out These may-bees are pitiful Anchors of hope and miserable comforters Will you say the wind is up when there is a still Serena no puff of air moving Then think as little that God dwells in that brest where there are no tokens of Sanctification Secondly I have it from St. Austin Flatus ille à carnali palea corda mundabit The Wind is the advantage of the Husbandman to winnow Chaff from Wheat and where the Spirit blows upon the conscience it will purge it from all dead works The cares of this world the thought of getting Riches anxieties for honours and advancements these overspread the life of a natural man left to the ways of carnal reason but as soon as ever we begin to sift and discuss these cogitations by the doctrine of the Spirit they vanish and disperse Tradam protervis in mare Creticum portare ventis they are light and empty of true goodness and so are blown away to the Father of errors and delusions to the Devil himself from whence they came Thirdly Says St. Chrysostome Suppose a Ship be well appointed with Pilot Mariners Sails Cables Anchors and all convenient appurtenances to what use will all this serve if the winds stir not So let there be profound Judgment quick Invention neat Eloquence and all the graces of Art in a man these will not bring a man one whit onward in his Voyage to the haven of happiness to the kingdom of glory unless the sweet gales of the Spirit carry him forward those are the wings of the Dove upon which the Soul shall fly away and be at rest Another Author taken for St. Chrysostome writing upon St. Matthew composeth it thus As the ground doth not fructifie by rain alone but there is a prolificous vertue in the winds which blows upon the fields and makes the Spring to sprout So it is not our Doctrine alone which converts your Souls though it distill like the soft drops of rain upon the earth but benediction of inward grace that goes with the word breaths salvation upon our heart The Letter may kill but the Spirit quickneth and in our Evangelical Priesthood we are Ministers not of the Letter alone but of the Spirit also Qui instat praecepto praecurrit auxilio the words of Leo which I take to be solid truth in this Point when God presseth us with the outward instruction of his Word He impresseth the secret operation of his Spirit to make it fructifie And now to come to another portion of the Text it agrees very accurately with the nature of that supernal gift which God infuseth into his Saints that the Spirit came with a sudden flaw of wind And I am very willing to make that collection of it which divers have done before me Datur haec gratia ex improviso sine meritis Grace is a blessing that comes unlook'd for unawares nay it is impossible for an unconverted man to say now I am prepared for it now I expect it now my heart is ready to receive it for there is no good preparation for grace in the soul of man till some portion of it have entred before Natural dispositions cannot attain to bring in supernatural grace Therefore the first influx and admission of it must needs be sudden and unawares As you can make no rules for the Wind why it should blow South to day and North to morrow why from this Point of heaven at such a season rather than from another So there is no aim to be taken how this or that man was first partaker of the heavenly light which is thus couched in our Saviours words The kingdom of God cometh not with observation neither shall they say loe here or loe there for the Kingdom of God is within you Luk. xvii 20. For what observation can we make or through what tokens can we collect that God will begin to draw a sinner unto him Will you say he lives justly and chastely If they were Christian justice and chastity the seed of the Spirit was in his heart before If they be but moral conformities he is still the
Child of wrath and those laudable actions were but sins or imperfections with a good gloss Will you say they desire and pray for the holy Spirit and therefore this illumination comes not suddenly but with invitation O but says the Arausican Council which handled this Point of the grace of God more copiously and Orthodoxly than ever any Council did the utterance nay the very thought of every good Prayer it is instilled by the divine irradiation of Gods help and the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer and if any man say that the grace of God is bestowed upon our Prayer and Invocation and that grace did not first enable us to make that Prayer he contradicts the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul who both have these same words I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Thus that Council whereby you hear that we whose nature is rank corruption do not prepare and dispose the way to attract the blessing of heaven upon us by little and little upon congruity of Gods favour it comes suddenly and unawares when we least deserve it It must not be let alone without this addition to it which is S. Ambrose his descant on it Nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia the spirit of purity and renovation is quick and sudden in the work of conversion he doth not linger and mature his good effects by soft leisure he doth not creep like a snail or as a Father of our own Church says like a Serpent Serpentis est repere Commonly motions that come from the old Serpent the Devil creep upon us and men grow bold in iniquity by degrees Nemo repentè fit pessimus was the old Proverb but where the Lord loveth the man whom he chooseth he doth in an instant take away his stony heart and give him an heart of flesh And as the Resurrection of the dead shall be in an instant so in an instant he translates him from death to life It is done with such dispatch and celerity that the gift of Prophesie nay of Sanctification is called but the touch of the lips Says the Angel to Isaiah upon the living coal which he brought from the Altar This hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged Isa vi 7. The loyal Israelites that feared God and the King are called a band of men whose hearts God had touched 1 Sam. x. 26. O admirable workman says Gregory Mox ut tetigeret mentem docet solùmque tetigisse est docuisse He doth but touch and teach and the mind is reformed in a moment as soon as ever the finger of his Spirit is laid upon it An Apostolical Spirit came suddenly upon St. Matthew penitent restitution upon Zaccheus confession and grace upon the Thief on the Cross The Eunuch made haste to believe and as soon as he believed he would be baptized of Philip at the next water he came to and go no further Men must not neglect present motions of grace though suddenly rising in them Now the Lord moves my heart and now at the first touch I will obey the Spirit This is a brave and a pious resolution But if you let the grace of God knock at door once and twice and do not open it is to be feared that you will grow deaf after a while and never hear it Modo modò non habebant modum Anon and to morrow and hereafter at more leisure and as Festus said to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee these are not words of good manners to so great a King as the King of heaven Can Impenitancy or continuance in evil be good at any time Then break it off at the first pang and throw that the Conscience suffers for it The Spirit is a sudden wind he deceives his own soul that continues in a long consumption of any sin and thinks to be helpt out of it by a lingring remedy The description of the suddenness hath not been unuseful you see and we shall collect as much from that which follows that it was Flatus veniens vehemens a rushing mighty wind Methinks I see the Spirit of God set out here in his manifold strength and efficacy Is there any thing in it self so thin and poor as a puff of Air It is neither Iron nor Brass nor Bones and yet what strange effects it works Turns up Oaks and Cedars by the roots breaks the Ships of the Sea in pieces casts down Bulwarks and Fortresses so Epiphanius received it from some good hand that God overthrew the Tower of Babel with a violent wind So the principles of the Spirit seem to be very mean and foolishness to flesh and bloud the Instruments in which it wrought homely illiterate Fishermen yet the learning of five Synagogues putting their wits together was not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake Acts vi 10. It brings down strong Holds and high Imaginations it brings into Captivity every exalting thought to the obedience of Christ Wisdom Learning Might Majesty all have stoopt before it As the Scripture says often that the Spirit came mightily upon Samson and then his Foes were sure to fall before him so it rusheth upon some holy men with a gallant heroick zeal and then all the subtilties of Satan are not able to make a part against it No Fear can dismay them no Persecution can make them hide their head no Favour or Reward make them swerve from a good conscience no Discipline so strict that they will not undertake for the love of Christ The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Mat. xi 12. The Kingdom of heaven was among the Jews but Rapuit regnum coelorum Centurio The Centurion did as it were invade it and take it from them for upon his confession our Saviour said I have not found so great faith no not in Israel Neither is it only expedient to make it manifest that the Spirit is strong and mighty like a stiff vehement wind in actu exercito in the power of it which the Saints of God have to exercise to others but also in actu primo informante when it enters into the heart of them whom God converts it comes with a mighty force and will not be gainsaid with the opposition of our rebellious nature Neque resistere ultra potest cui velle resistere sublatum est says a Reverend Father of our own Church that is neither shall our vicious nature resist the mighty working of Gods converting grace since the first thing that such grace works is to conquer our perverseness in resisting I do not say but our will hath always a liberty and indifferency in it to do or not do To chuse or refuse but the act to resist is suspended for that time by the grace of God and though