his wife wholly and solely to his own single use and by businesse is not here understood traffique bargaine sale law or the like but properly that businesse which is betweene man and wife their mutuall accompanying one another in the Act of wedlock because our Lord will in a particular way revenge and commonly he doth it by some curse upon the children of Adulterous parents this wrong for as much as it is a speciall abuse to God to violate the Faith of marriage bed since by the Sacrament of marriage is represented the union betweene Christ and his spouse the holy Church and consequently since for that reason men are bid to love their wives as Christ doth love his Church and wives their husbands as the Church loves Christ so to violate the signe of this holy union is to attempt an adultery even betweene Christ and his holy spouse since they who are disloyall to their marriage bed can no more be what they are appointed by God for representers of Christ his fidelity to holy Church and of the Churches loyalty to him 7. See how the Apostle closeth this subject with a generall addresse to all Christians that chastity is a vertue they all must practise more or lesse and since in particular the Gentiles were noted for huge licentiousnesse and liberty in their lustfull wayes he requires of Christians a speciall study of the vertue contrary thereunto namely of purity and chastity as a distinctive signe from Gentilisme and a peculiar badge of Christianity whence it is that as all Gentiles in the primitive Church before they were reconciled had particular instructions to forgoe their former uncleannesse and were made by Baptisme to renounce the world the Flesh and the Devill so we see it is still continued a rule in holy Church that all who are new converted from Infidelity to the true faith of Christ and all Infants as soone as they are borne are by the voices of their Godfathers and Godmothers to make the like renunciation and to enter a solemne Covenant with Almighty God of purity and Sanctification to shew they renounce the soule feind their former parent and adhere to Almighty God the fountaine of Purity and Chastity and that peculiar vertue of Sanctification is it the Apostle here sayes all Christians are called unto The Application 1. THe grand designe of finishing by good works the Purification we aime at by this Lenten fast is closely carried on to day by the recommended work of chastity from the very beginning to the end of this Epistle 2 Now because we are not onely unable of our selves to compasse this vertue but have further huge interiour and exteriour temptations against it and are for the most part more propense naturally to the sin of the flesh then to any other vice whatsoever 3. And lastly because the breach of Chastity exposeth us more to corporal adversities then the violating other vâ—â—â—ues do which violation we are yet often tempted unto by evil that is to say by unclean cogitations Therefore as least able of our selves to compass this Vertue of Chastity necessary for rendring our Fast compleat and our Souls purified thereby We pray for it most properly as above much as on S. Josephs day we pray That what our Possibility cannot obtain namely Chastity may be granted us by his Intercession The Gospel Matth. 17. v. 1 c. 1 And after six dayes Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James and John his brother and bringeth them into a high mountain apart 2 And he was transfigured before them And his face did shine as the Sun and his garments became white as snow 3 And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him 4 And Peter answering said to Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernales one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias 5 And as he was yet speaking behold a bright cloud overshadowed them And lo a voyce out of the cloud saying This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him 6 And the disciples hearing it fell upon their face and were sore afraid 7 And Jesus came ond touched them and he said to them Arise and fear not 8 And they lifting up their eyes saw no body but onely Jesus 9 And as they descended from the mount Jesus commanded them saying Tell the vision to no body till the Son of man be risen from the dead The Explieation 1. IT was six dayes after Christ had told his Apostles and the people that some of them who were then in his company should not dye before they had seen him in his Kingdom Thus ended the sixteenth Chapter of S. Matthew yet S. Luke recounting the story of Christs Transfiguration sayes it was eight dayes after our Saviour foretelling his passion told them That some there present should see him in his Kingdom before they dyed here seems a contradiction where one sayes eight the other six dayes after but both are true in their several senses for S. Luke includes the day in which this was spoken and that on which Christ was transfigured S. Matthew speaks onely of the six dayes between spent by Christ in teaching and preaching as he went that twenty leagues between Caesarea Philippi the place where he spake this and Mount Tabor whither he went to fulfil his saying So that although many conceive diversly in the true sense of what Christ meant by his Kingdom which some will have to be his Churâ—h others his Resurrection others his Ascension whereof many then present were witnesses yet the most probable opinion is that he meant by his Kingdom this very mystery of his Transfiguration wherein he shewed the Apostles in a transient passage a glimmering of that permanent glory he was to raign in for all Eternity in his Kingdom of Heaven for having before declared he was to dye it was fit he should give them a testimony he was nevertheless the Ever-living God and for this purpose he did in this glorious manner appear unto them so that they seeing him thought they were in heaven and consequently having seen him thus glorious once could not lose their Faith but that he would assuredly rise again from death to life which yet few could give credit unto when once they see him dead and buried The reason why he took these three Apostles onely was to shew he had special regard to each of them more then ordinary to Peter as the head of all the rest to James as honored with the Title of our Saviours Brother for being like him in person and so left his successor at Jerusalem where James was the first Bishop after Christ his death and first Martyr of the Apostles to John as his favourite being known by the title of that Disciple whom Jesus loved These three therefore Christ singles out and carries them into a high Mountain called Thabor near to Nazareth where Christ was
thing in our own names that is as good Christians for that name we take of Christ nor doe we aske otherwise then in his name if we goe to our Prayers and tell the heavenly Father we come as from his Sacred Sonne to prefer such a request as he bid us make much like the Embassage that is made by the Embassadors person but understood to be the business of the King that sends him so by this way of asking we can desire nothing but what Christ himselfe doth wish we had and consequently we aske it very properly in his name it being answerable to his will But the most genuine of all these is the second way by that of Christ his merits for what we aske thus is not given to us onely by way of grace but it is granted by way of Justice since it was merited unto us by Christ dying for us and wishing it unto us and for this reason we end all our Prayers with the close through our Lord Iesus Christ Amen The last remark we are to make is upon those words he shall grant unto you that is to say what e're we ask as above shall be granted how comes it then to pass we ask so often and so many things and goe without them for all this asking the reason is that affirmative promises are commonly conditionall so if we aske without performing the conditions required on our part we cannot wonder that we faile and the conditions requisite to Prayer on our part must be those five above enumerated humility reverence confidence fervour and perseverance whereunto if we adde resignation we doe but secure our Petition the more by making Gods will ours when ours is his where these are exactly performed and the name of Christ rightly used there we cannot feare to faile while it is said he shall give you what ere you thus ask imports as well he shall give it a third person for whom you ask it as if you did ask it for your selfe and indeed if the defect be not on the third persons part we shall sooner obtaine what we aske for others then what we aske for our selves because it is a greater charity to pray for others and especially for our enemies then for our selves since they may want our help but we can never lose our owne reward by helping them 24. Because hitherto you have relyed wholly upon me and have not asked any thing of my Father in my name and indeed having asked of me â—ather as of man then of God you have in a manner asked nothing because you asked not of him who was all things but when I am gone ask as above and you shall receive what ere you so do ask and ask that your joy may be compleat As who should say you will begin to be glad when I shall be risen but if you ask my Father any thing in my name after I am gone then you shall receive all things that you want and have your joys compleated here by Grace and in Heaven by Glory both which I have purchased for you 25. This Verse shews what he spake now was before his Passion and so it was Proverbial Parabolical or Enigmatical unto them but the time would come after his resurrection when he for fourty days together would speak plainly what now they heard of but obscurely and that when he was Ascended the Holy Ghost should come and by a purer language by the tongues of fire should speak all Love all Light all Clarity all Truth unto them and then they should be capable of much more then now they are yet there want not who think Christ by this place alludes to his displaying of his Fathers Glory in the kingdom of Heaven where they shall see all things cleerly as they are even God himself and shall therefore become like God because they shall see him face to face as he is 26. The day he means here is when he shall be gone from them and ascended up to Heaven and then saith he I do not tell you that I will pray to my Father in your behalf first because the holy Ghost shall come and by his Inspirations and holy Grace you shall make your own petitions so effectually in my name that I shall need no more to intercede for you or because I shall not need ask as I did when I was upon the Earth by way of suffering for you but by way of exhibition of what I have suffered Thus one of the Fathers will have it that Christ did onely pray for us on Earth and that now in Heaven he prays no more but onely shews his sacred Wounds to his heavenly Father though Cornelius a Lapide here concludes the better opinion is that really and truly he doth there pray for us as was explicated Rom. 8. v. 34. by the said Cornelius but after another manner then here he did where he both prayed and suffered too and there he praies without suffering So the true Sence of this place is that he doth not tell them he will pray for them though he means to do it and actually doth it too as often as desired but that if he did not pray they should not need his prayer both because he had sufficiently purchased to them the love of his heavenly Father for his voluntary vouchsafing towards them and because the holy Gbost was to finish the remainder of our salvation by his Supplies and Magazines of Holy Graces and in truth what Christ once obtained for us by his Passion we losing the benefit of it by our sin are to attribute the recovery thereof to the special act of the holy Ghost not coming once onely down as to the Apostles to confirm them in grace but millions of times descending upon us by the influence of his holy Gifts and so as often saving us by the recovery of grace as we make our selves guilty of damnation by relapse of sinne 27 See how this Verse in terms tells them his Father needs not now be prayed unto by him for them since he hath already purchased unto them abundantly his Fathers love and so made him soft to all they can desire by their own prayer and the reason why he so loves them is because they loved Jesus Christ and believed he was his heavenly Fathers Son and come out from him to them but if any ask why God loving us as here it is said he doth for his Sons sake doth not give us all we want without our asking but requires our humble and frequent Prayer The Reasons are many first because it is suitable to the Majesty of God that all his Creatures do adore him and Prayer is the best kinde of adoration next because it acknowledgeth our totall and necessary dependance on him and our Indigence and his Liberality Thirdly the Dignity of the things we ask requires on our parts a frequent expression of our esteem thereof namely Grace and Glory not so cheap as to be given gratis
honest ends not for lucre or unjust sordid gain the temptation whereof will cease if we make it the end of our labour to do works of charity to others such as is relieving them in their necessity And if to this end even Church-men labour they will not want the example of it given them by the Apostles who did practise the same as well as preach it The Application 1. St. Paul not knowing what better counsel to give his Ephesian Converts when he found some of them relapsing towards the old man then to bid them be renewed in the spirit of their minds and to put on the new man which according to God was created in Justice and Holinesse seemes in this to have left it as a rule of Christian perfection that the Ephesians should endeavour to be continually the Saints which first they were when God by holy baptisme snatcht them out of the bondage of the devil and made them free-born Citizens of the heavenly Hierusalem clad in the richest robes of Saintitie the purest Innocency 2. And surely holy Church can have no other aym by reading us this lesson to day then to mind our charity of walking in that saving path of Innocency by renewing her baptismal vow her holy covenant with Almighty God of loving him above all things and her neighbour as her self of renouncing the world the flesh and the devil with all their lying passion malice and injustice forbidden to all Christians in the holy Text above 3. Now because this is easier said by Preachers then done by the people and because it is impossible for men of themselves to do the least good at all the Royal Prophet saying there is not one that doth it therefore holy Church finding her children by S. Paul exhorted to no lesse perfection then the highest of Saintity and remembring that as when Adam was in Paradise God to ease his way to Saintity had shut out all Adversity both of mind and body from thence all disturbance and grief of soul all rebellion of sense against reason all disasters of the body in a word all mortality it self so the same God having pleased to bring us in to a Paradise of grace our prudent Mother hopes his divine goodnesse will also shut out all adversity from thence that we may not by disturbance either in mind or body be hindered from executing his commands better in this paradise of grace then Adam did in the paradise of Earth yet withall our holy Mother knowing the difficulty of this work to procure us this tranquillity useth all her best arts and for this end Prayes to God that it may be if not ours at least his own handy-work and if not feisible by his ordinary Power that yet it may be done by his Omnipotency or by that which yet to us is greater by his mercy and lest that mercy be mistaken she conjures him by the highâ—st of his mercies by his bitter death and passion by that mercy which doth not onely satisfie the rigour of his Justice but renders him Propitious also to us Say but the Prayer above and see if it be not home to all this purpose The Gospel Matt. 22. v. 1. 1 And Jesus answering spake again in parables to them saying 2 The Kingdome of heaven is likened to a man being a King which made a marriage to his son 3 And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage and they would not come 4 And again he sent other servants saying tell them that were invited behold I have prepared my dinner my beeves and fatlings are killed and all things are ready come you to the marriage 5 But they neglected and went their wayes one to his farme and another to his merchandize 6 And the rest laid hands upon his servants and spitefully entreating them murdred them 7 And when the King did hear of it he was wroth and sending his hosts destroyed those murtherers and burnt their City 8 Then he said to his servants the marriage indeed is ready but they that were invited were not worthy 9 Go ye therefore into the high wayes and whomsoever you shall find call to the marriage 10 And his servants going forth into the wayes gathered together all that they found bad and good and the marriage was filled with guests 11 And the King went in to see the guests and saw there a man not attired in a wedding garment 12 And he said to him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment but he was dumb 13 Then the King said to the wayters binde his hands and feet and cast him into the utter darknesse there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 14 For many are called but few elected The Explication 1. BY this way of parables Christ did often instruct and illuminate the Jewes who were very intentive to any parabolical sense and much pleased therewith 2. By the Kingdome of heaven is here understood the Church militant which is truly a Kingdome purchased by the blood of Christ and the time when this marriage was made was when Christ became man who being the second person of the blessed Trinity was espoused to his holy Church So the King here mentioned is God the Father sending down his Son to be married to his said Spouse the holy Church 3. The servants meant in this verse were the Patriarks and Prophets of the old Law who could not prevail with the Jews to come unto the wedding feast that God had by these his servants invited them unto 4. The servants in this verse were the Apostles their disciples and all missionary Priests of the new Law of Christ These were bid tell the people invited and with great reason the wedding feast was ready for so the word dinner here imports By the beeves and fatlings are understood the Sacrifices Sacraments Sermons Martyrdomes and all other spiritual food prepared for souls in holy Church 5. By these are understood men preferring the world before God and so refusing to be reconciled for fear of loosing their estates by the penal lawes of man made against the followers of the Law of Christ The farm and merchandize are here set down in lieu of all other worldly occupations withdrawing soules from the service of God 6. These are such as did not onely refuse themselves to become good but proceeded farther in their malice by opposing others in their way of vertue in a word by persecuting the people of God the true Church of Christ Such were those who put to death the Apostles such they who now execute the Priests that succeed the Apostles in the ministery of Gods holy Word 7. This verse tells us that God perceiving the wickednesse of those who persecuted his Saints as the Jewes had done his sacred Son sent in his wrath Titus and Vespasian to destroy the Jewes to sack Jerusalem and therein to pull down the Temple of Solomon the miracle in a manner of the world So
in Evang. upon these words of S. Luke Chap. 21. v. 9. When you hear of warrs and seditions be not troubled at such evils because sayes hee many evils must here fore-run that they may put us in minde of evills without end and so make us avoid Temporary lest we plunge our selves into eternall evils confiding in his that wee serve a God who alâ—ne is able to cull good out of evill 30. Hence therefore the Master bids his men let the weeds grow up with the corn untill harvest let the bad men live together with the good till the day of judgement which is the true harvest indeed that brings home the whole crop of nature rectified by grace into the barn of glorie We are here to note that though formerly the word of God were called the seed or good wheat yet here the just are called by the same name as if the cause weâ—e â—xpressed by the effect for Saints are indeed the fruitfull effects of the Gospel the holy word of God On the other side sinners are the ill seed or cockle in this place specified and by the Reapers we may account are here meant the Angels that are to summon all the world to Judgement and in that summons to sever the cockle from the corn the wicked from the just binding up these in bundles as so many piles of fuell for hell-fire and ranging those as stacks of corn fit to be made bread of life for the heavenly Table of Almighty God The Application 1. SInce it is by his protecting Grace wee must hope whilst we are asleep to bee defended from the enemie who then doth machinate our mischief let it be our parts while we are awake not to sow any cockle our selves of ill manners if not of false doctrine in the field of our soules for then no marvell if while we sleep this ill seed sown by us grow up and choak the good corn sowed in our hearts by the seeds-men of holy Church the Pastors of our souls 2. Since wee are not able to avoid the alternate rest of night after a toylesome day let us at least in the day time stand upon a close guard and be sure not to sleep that is not to loose the presence of Almighty God and fall into the trance of transitory pleasures such as pash us in pieces against the Rocks of sin and under pretence of yeelding us a present momentary dâ—light purchase us eternall torments 3. Since we cannot tell even when we doe best whether we deserve love or hatred we have great reason to fear lest we may be separated at the latter day from the blessed as Cockle sit for nothing but hell fire and out of that religious fear let us work out our salvation with trembling by planting in our souls the roots and seeds of vertues and for better doing it Let us pray to day with Holy Church as above to be secured from the danger of damnation by our sole hope in the protecting and saving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. On the sixth Sunday after the EPIPHANY The Antiphon MAT. 13. ver 33. THE kingdome of heaven is like to leaven which a woman tooke and hid in three measures of meale untill the whole was leavened Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer GRant we beseech thee Almighty God that alwaies meditating those things which are reasonable we may both in our words and deeds doe what is pleasing unto Thee The Illustration I Have met with some prodigious wits of both sexes who conferring with me about this my designe when it was in hand would laughing say I might perhaps as well adjust this Prayer to the Epistle and Gospel of the day as I should be able to perswade them it was other than a meere paradox and if it were possible for men alwaies to meditate upon reasonable things considering how irrationally all the world was commonly distracted so as friends they advised me if I would goe on to change at least this Prayer and put some other in the place of it lesse paradoxicall in it self and more suiteable than this could be either to the Epistle or Gospel of the day which they read over and over before they spent this judgement upon me and my designe To these I answered pleasantly as me thought they spake to me though I perceived they were serious too That if they observed the Gospel it was all Parabolicall and therefore admit that were true they said it was not unsuiteable on this day to have a Prayer Paradoxicall since Parables and Paradoxes were of near allyance but further let me now ask all the world if it be not reasonable the Church should pray most fervently for that which is most hard to doe as it seemes men account it the hardest thing in the world alwaies to meditate on reasonable things and yet the harder this is to doe the more necessary it is to pray for grace at least to enable us thereunto since even â—hese prodigious wits would think a man unmannerly that should tell them th y were irrationall soules at any time and yet what difference there is between being irrationall and thinking and doing for the most part unreasonable things I doe not well know sure I am reason alwaies dictates to doe well and as sure I am that a sinne is an irrationall act as it is certainely a thing ill done nay if I had said every sinne were so farre forth against nature as it is against reason I think I should not exceed verity in that assertion and since all that men doe like men they premeditate therefore with reason we pray this day least our actions should prove unnaturall that our meditations or thoughts should be rational for none other are connaturall to men as men though often they creep upon us and so render our actions more bestiall than rationall more unnaturall than naturall To conclude though many of our actions passe among men as rationall which yet are not so indeed therefore we pray to day that really they may be so since God is not deceiveable as man is and since no unreasonable thought or deed can passe with him for reason or be pleasing to him see then if it be not very fitting to pray that corrupted Nature may by Grace be elevated to the operations suiting Nature in her best rectitude when even so she is crooked enough in the sight of God who is Rectitude Essentiall But least while we condescend to satisfie curiosity we forget our maine designe let us see how this Prayer suits indeed with the other parts of this daies service which with the Epistle it seemes to doe whilest petitioning Reason to be the guide of all our actions it puts us in mind of a rationall persisting to doe well since by Gods grace we are called with the Thessalonians to the profession of the same faith which this daies Epistle from first to last exhorts them to continue in maugre
these are in number many in regard of the blessed that are saved but in the other opinion making both first and last saved soules it is hard to solve how all that are called are not also chosen since every saved soule is elected to salvation But Malâ—onat solves it thus saying out of the precedent particular assertion that the first shall be last and the last first he now makes a generall conclusion affirming many are called but not many chosen as in such a kind of way he spake in the precedent Chapter ver 23. how hard it was for all rich men to be saved because once a wealthy young man refused the counsell of holy poverty given unto him others say by many called are included all because all are many though few onely are saved others will have it that all are called to observance of the Commandements but not all to the observance of evangelical Counsels or all to grace but few to glory The Application HOw ever S. Paul in his Epistle to day seems to set us all a running over the Race of this life each upon his uttermost speed for the gaining of his own soul onely yet S. Matthew in this Gospel gives us hope we may gaine heaven for others as well as for our selves while he sets us all on work in the Vineyard of our Lord where the fruits of our labours are common though our reward be but particular 2. Hence it is this days Gospel points directly at the Pastors of Gods Church and at the missionary Priests set on work in the Vineyard of Christ for gaining soules by converting of the whole world yet indirectly it alludes to every soules particular indeavours in cultivating of their own special land in hope of gaining heaven by the sweat of their browes 3. So still we see toyle and labour is to be the life of man upon earth who forfeited all his temporall rest by Adams sinne and though our Saviour purchas 't againe an eternall rest for us in the next world yet that future rest must be gained â—y a perpetuall present labour here most justly inflicted one us for the punishment of sinne Hence we fitly pray to day as above On SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY The Antiphon LUKE 8. ver 10. TO you it is given to know the mysterie of the Kingdome of God but to others in parables said Jesus to his disciples Vers Let my prayer c. Resp Even as Incense c. The Prayer O God who seest we confide not in any of our own Actions grant us propitiously that against all adversities we may be armed by the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles The Illustration I Have known hundreds even Priests themselves much admire at this prayer wherein Saint Paul with his best attribute is so unexpectedly brought in when not the least mention of any feast to him sacred is made by holy Church either in the office or service of the day and though I might in so hard a condition as I am now plunged into for making my designe good to day pretend it were sufficient for all the whole Church to be commanded to pray as now the mother Church of Rome doth this day unto Saint Paul whose Station is now kept in that holy City with great concourse of people thereunto yet this were to runne my selfe upon the rock of why not other Saints to be brought as unexpectedly into the prayers of the Church by this account as well as two onely are in all the year Saint Paul to day Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian upon Midlent-Thursday though we shall find every day in the year made sacred to some Saint or other by the frequentation of their stations in the City of Rome besides if this might satisfie others it must not be satisfaction to me because it comes not home to my designe of adjusting the Prayer to the Epistle and Gospel of the day unlesse we can find it as suitable to the latter as it is indeed to the former relating from first to last the whole story in a manner of Saint Pauls life though truely in the Gospel there is not one syllable of him wherefore if meditation had not helped us out this concordant designe had been very discordantly broken off but upon a day or two spent in prayer to find out some report between these parts of holy Churches services and upon remembring it was but last Sunday we were taught our life was a mere labour here upon earth and that we were all hired as labourers to work in the Vineyard of Christ me thought it was not strange this next Gospell should bring us in labouring indeed and like so many husband men sowing with corne the Vineyard we had lately ploughed up nor was it then so strange to heare us call upon the chiefe labourer now in eternall rest Saint Paul to help us with his intercession that our labours might be if not as great or as profitable at least as incessant as his were who by the common suffrages of all the Church will easily be granted to have been the chiefe Seeds-man thereof though Saint Peter were the chiefe pastor or governour and if so then it will be a most proper prayer on that day when the Gospell runns all upon sowing seed in severall grounds as to day it doth that the principall Seeds-man be called upon to help us the chiefe Preacher he that is stiled the Doctor of Gentiles or Nations for his eminence in preaching that is to say in sowing the word of God in the hearts of men and that this word is the seed to day made mention off we have our Saviours own authority to avouch it so we cannot be said to have strained this sense out of the prayer to day because it is as genuine to it as the Word of God in the parable is to the seed our Saviour doth compare it unto and look how many waies Expositors make Analogies between the Word and Seed so many waies at least shall we find this a proper prayer both to the Epistle and Gospel of the day and we may hope for the same answer from heaven whilest we complaining like S. Paul do look up thither and say we cannot confide in any of our own actions and therefore begge Almighty God will propitiously grant us in all our adversities that we may be armed with the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles that is to say not onely by his prayer for our perseverance who were with Adam last Sunday sent to gaine our bread with the sweat of our browes but further by his protection namely by the same protection which was S. Pauls in all his temptations and difficulties the grace of God for this is that answer which was given to him in the height of his complaints Saul Saul My Grace sufficeth thee and truly the same Grace is more than an abundant protection for all the world nor can any man in the whole vniverse ask this protection with more
will protect us as it did S. Paul The Gospel LUKE 8. vers 4. c. 4 AND when a very great multitude assembled and hastened out of the Cities unto him he said by a similitude 5. The sower went forth to sow his seed and whiles he soweth some fell by the way side and was trodden upon and the fowles of the ayre did eat it 6. And other some fell upon the rock and being shot up it withered because it had not moysture 7. And other some fell among thornes and the thornes growing up withall choaked it 8. And other some fell upon good ground and being shot up yeelded fruit an hundred fold Saying these things he cryed he that hath eares to hear let him heare 9. And his disciples asked him what this parable was 10 To whom he said to you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdome of God but to the rest in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand 11. And the Parable is this The seed is the word of God 12. And they besides the way are those that heare then the devill cometh and taketh the word out of their heart least believing they may be saved 13. For they upon the rock such as when they heare with joy receive the word and these have no roots because for a time they believe and in time of temptation they revolt 14. And that which fell into thornes are they that have heard and going their way are choaked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and render not fruit 15. And that upon good ground are they which in a good and very good heart hearing the word do retaine it and yeeld fruit in patience The Explication 4. SAint Matthew tells us this parable was delivered out of a Bark or little Ship which our Saviour went into and set off from the shoare as in a pulpit removed from the people and as giving him advantage of height above them so that he might be seen by all his Auditory which was great the people flocking after him out of the Cityes and villages which way soever he went such was the fame of his miracles and preaching so this Gospell we may looke upon as a sermon to the people delivered first in a parable and afterwards at his disciples entreaty explicated by our Saviour himselfe whence it will need the lesse help of any other Expositors for the the fifth verse is explicated by the eleventh and twelfth the sixth by the thirteenth the seaventh by the fourteenth and the eighth by the fifteenth so there will remaine to expound apart and by it selfe the ninth and tenth verses which I shall rather choose to doe before I begin the rest because they may not interrupt the connexion of those that must be brought together in the exposition though delivered asunder by the Preacher as also because these two verses being cleared first will give an open gate to the understanding or introspection into the rest let us therefore begin with the ninth verse 9 10. Though S. Luke doe here seeme to tell us the Apostles themselves did ask the meaning of this Parable expressed in the four verses above as if they being in the Ship with Christ were wholly ignorant thereof and had no regard unto the people on the shoar yet Saint Matthew in his thirteenth Chapter recounting the same passage makes the Discipâ—es ask our Saviour the meaning of this Parable for the peoples sakes saying Why do ye speak in Parables unto the people as if they had told him it was lost labour in regard they on snoar did not understand him which may import the Disciples themselves were not altogethâ—r ignorant of his meaning delivered in this dark parabolicall sense and yet to these Disciples after he had left the people lost as it were in their understandings our Saviour fully explicates the meaning of the Parable and this seemes the reason why the interjection of these Verses the ninth and the tenth doe interrupt this Sermon of our Saviour because the parabolicall sense thereof was onely delivered to the people and his clearest meaning was afterwards declared to the Apostles But we must here solve a difficulty before we proceed further and that is to give the reason why our Saviour who did nothing in vain should upon designe loose his labour that is to say Preach to a people who did not understand one word of his Sermon nay why he should so couch his speeches as to make them not intelligible by the people as if he were resolved to take away the little understanding they had before by this present parabolicall expression of his minde unto them and indeed Saint Matthew in relating this Story tells us as much in plain termes saying our Saviour answered his Disciples to this question in these termes chap. 13. ver 12. He that hath to him shall be given and he shall abound but he that hath not even that whiâ—h he hath shall be taken from him This was his answer being asked why he spake to the ignorant people in this Parable and his meaning in this was as followes To you my beloved disciples that have some Faith in me I shall give more and you shall thereby abound not onely in belief but in all knowledge that followes the singular gift of Faith But since these people notwithstanding all I have said to them of my being the Messias all what my life tells them was foretold by the Prophets concerning me nay all the Miracles I have wrought in Capernaum amongst them and elsewhere will not believe in me and since I know they come now most of them out of curiosity rather than zeal many out of malice to laugh and scorn at my Doctrine to these therefore that have not the gift of Faith which you have I shall by my speeches take away from them what they have in a greater measure than you their naturall abilities their learning their so much vaunted understandings in the Scriptures for they shall be blinded so as not to see what is cleerly set before their eyes nor understand what is as plain as their Alphabet unto them for so were the works of the Messias to the Doctors Scribes and Pharisees when Christ appeared and yet none of them would believe him to be the expected Redeemer of the World in a word to these what they have shall be taken from them namely their being the Elect of God the Synagogue the Masters of a Law these Prerogatives I will take from them they shall be cast out of all favour both of God and Man their Synagogue shall be effaced and their Law abolished abrogated antiquated and in testimony of all this I speak now to them purposely to prevent their designes of scoffing at what I say because I will not speak to be understood by them yet withall in regard there are some few amongst them who have a little zeal therefore I speak in parables at least
times ease them of these Plagues the Flyes caused amongst them though in the Greek Beelzebub signifies the god of Muck or Dung and yet that is not inconsistent with the sense as above because where Dung is there are alwayes Flyes and so the Devil is by this name called both God of Flyes and of Dung too since the ordure of Sin is far more nasty then that of any dung can be 16. This Verse will in effect be explicated on the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost where the Doctor of the Law tempting our Saviour asked him c. so here needs no more to be said of it then that it was an impertinent demand to ask a sign of his Deity after such a Miracle as this 17. Here he shews them he knew their mindes by confounding them in what they thought although they spake it not with the applying this Simile unto them that follows which is as clear as that Civil Wars destroy a Kingdom and Faction in particular Families ruines both parties of the Faction for that is understood by house upon house family against family 8. For if I undertake to cast out a devil in the devils name or power and so by your consequence am my self a devil do you not see it were to make a faction against the devil who had Seated himself there from whence I cast him out and so I should rather make a new then end the old strife therefore to end the matter I must use another power 19. By the former Verse he had shewed them his power was from another source then from the devil and consequently if they will yet hold that Doctrine and say that one Devil is cast out by another he leaves them as men so desperate that are past all cure of reason and so to be left unto the guide of that Devil who had so strangely blinded them Thus the close of this Verse argues he concluded of them whom he found so maliciously so perversly obstinate in an Error Or if we take it literally that he casting out devils in the devils name if their children would undertake to cast out the devil in another name since he that was God knew they did it not in Gods Name he leaves them to be guided by their children that is he calls them fools who would have children for their guides and especially children of Infidelity for such were all theirs 20. By the finger of God he in this place understands the Spirit or power of God for so S. Matthew speaks relating the same story cap. 12. v. 28. by the Kingdom of God he means the grace which doth here begin to reign and shall perfectly rule in Glory when it hath brought those to Heaven whom it governed upon Earth And certainly Grace deserves the Title of the Kingdom of God when it is manifestly made appear to be destructive to the Kingdom of the Devil as by overcoming Sin it is and as here actually it was by casting out the devil from that place where he had seated himself for though God be the principal yet Grace is the instrumental agent in all Sanctity and works that are above Nature 21 22. These two Verses argue from Similitude very strongly and yet so clearly that they need no other Exposition then their own words literally understood onely that we note the Devil was meant by the strong man his Court was this World all wholly in his possession by the sin of Adam and that as fully as a fortified Town is in that Governors hands against whom none dares lay a Siege but leave all in peace in and about the Town not that the children of Adam were in peace by being the Devils Captives but that no power was such as durst undertake to force them out of Captivity until that happened which Christ aymed at namely that God came who alone is able to lead Captivity captive to overthrow the Devil and all his works 23. By this Verse our Saviour told the Pharisees they were his enemies because they took the Devils part against him or which was all one because they did not take his part against the Devil for as in a Town besieged all that will not if call'd upon fight to keep out the Enemy scaling the Walls are held as much friends to the Enemy as if they did actually fight for them so they now that Christ came to take this City of the World these Pharisees who would not being called upon by him fight for him were esteemed as if they did actually fight against him since as God he was their lawful Commander and might command them to fight for him by believing in him as one that had power to quell the Devil 24. By the unclean Spirit is here meant the Devil so called because he is not onely defiled by the malice of his own rebellious Sin but is like a Sow ever wallowing in the mire of all sinful actions as if his whole delight were to rowl in the filthy soul sink of sin Christ here alludes to the former casting out this unclean Spirit from the Jews when God chose that stiff necked people to be his Favorites above all the Nations of the earth and in the persons of his holy Patriarchs and Prophets declared he had cast the Devil out of all the Jews who departing from them wandereth up and down among the Gentiles not unfitly called places without water first as to God affording no drop of penitential Tears to expiate their sins next as to the Devil being people he could not rest in because he had not content in the easie conquest he made of them who were not worthy to be esteemed the Favorites of God And therefore the Devil out of pride esteemed them even unworthy to be his accursed lacqueys and so could not rest in such a conquest but returned again to that earth which had at least some wholesome water to compact it into a body of people worthy to be called a Nation which the Gentiles were unworthy of while God angry with the Jews said by the mouth of David I will provoke them in a people which is no Nation meaning the Gentiles that destroyed Jerusalem The Devil therefore cast out of the Jews into the Gentiles when God made the Jews his chosen people sayes with himself he will return again into his house whence he departed for indeed he was master of all mens Souls till God snatched the Jews out of his hands 25. The besome that had swept this house was the Law of Moses which did indeed purifie the house of clay the body of the Jews but brought no Grace into their Souls So hither the Devil returns again when he set all those people a murmuring in their way from Egypt to the land of Promise 26 27. And remembring he was before cast out when he had taken but single possession he now comes armed in with many guurds brings seven devils more along with him that is to say all the devils in
Saint Mark Saint Luke and Saint Paul Now the reason why Sinai is said to ingender unto bondage is because the Law which Moses brought the people from Sinai was a Law of terrour punishment and servitude as menacing temporal punishments and corporal death to the infringers thereof and giving onely temporal rewards to the observers of it namely prosperity and plenty in the land of Canaan and this Law is therefore represented by Agar the woman of servitude and bondage whose children could not hope for better condition then that of their parent Agar Hence we may figuratively say that as Abraham Noah Moses and the rest of the Prophets of the old Law were Christians because they served God filially and freely in hope of Christs coming to redeem them so all wicked Christians are Jews serving God onely servilely that is for fear of Hell 25. This vicinity is of Similitude not of Site or Place for between Sinai and Jerusalem lyes a great distance and that tedious by the interposition of the Idumean Mountains so that this vicinity consists in the sterility of Jerusalem producing no fruits of vertue but the meer ceremonial servitude of the Synagogue as Sinai was a very barren ground again as in Sinai this steril law was given so in Jerusalem it was principally kept and as Sinai was out of the land of Promise so this legal or earthly Jerusalem was out of the Church of Christ Militant and triumphant which is the heavenly Jerusalem but lastly and perhaps most appositely to the Apostles Sense as the people who received the law in Sinai were Parents to the Jews of Ierusalem which is a natural vicinity in blood and consequently begets in the Jews the same dispositions of fear and servitude as was in their parents so Ierusalem with her children is by the Apostle called a servant here of fear and not a childe of love 26. whereas the heavenly Ierusalem the mother of Christians is free and bringeth forth children of love not of fear according to that of the Apostle c. Love banisheth or shutteth fear out of doors for in heaven there is no fear at all but a continual and fervent love which rules in that blessed kingdom The Etymology of this word Ierusalem is worthy our remark not that it is derived as Erasmus would have it of Jebus and Salem by both which names it was formerly called but rather of the Hebrew Jire which signifies videbit or shall see and of the old name it had Salem alluding to the mystery which reports unto this change of the name for example the passage between Abrabam and Isaac on the mount Sion when Isaac seeing the fire burn asked his Father Abraham where the victime was that should be sacrificed and Abraham answered God will see to that or provide it whence the mount Sion is called Moria that is to say visio Dei the sight of God as we read Gen. 22. or his provision for that which shall please his Divine Majesty and hence the city which was neer this mountain was called Ierusalem more exactly after the Hebrew written Ierusalem beginning with Iod then with He though the other be as usual as this thorough a common errour in Orthography Now hence it is easie to apply the reason why Heaven is called Ierusalem or Sion since there God hath provided most abundantly for his own glory where he hath made a glory by vertue whereof all the Saints and Angels see his most glorious face and so the Prophets words are verified saying in thy light we shall see light that is in thy light of glory we shall see thy light of Deity an inaccessible however by thy mercy it is become a visible light of comfort to all the blessed court of heaven whose bliss consisteth in the Majesty and Glory of that blissful Sight and is therefore called the beatifical Vision and it is most literally called Ierusalem because as the old Law was given upon mount Sinai so the new was given upon Sion a mount neer to Ierusalem though figuratively it hath this name from being the place of blessed vision or provision as above It is called Free for four respects it hath to freedom First Civil which is opposite to slavish Second Moral which is opposite to the servitude of sin Third Spiritual which is opposite to temporal or corporal and so serves in the freedom of the true Spirit not in the servitude of the binding Letter Fourth Heavenly which is opposite to earthly or transitory She is called fecund or fertil because out of steril Souls bred up in Gentilism she bringeth forth fruitful Christians such as abound in all vertues whatsoever 27. Whence the next verse bids her rejoyce even for this cause of her fecundity joyned to her freedom and though Isai 54. v. 1. bid her rejoyce in her sterility because out of it as out of nothing to be expected from her own barren Gentilism God by his holy Grace brought forth a plentiful Issue of the Church of Christ when the Synagogue of the Jews was antiquated or taken quite away so though she of her self be steril yet she is to rejoyce that out of her sterility springs Christianity as out of barren Sara sprung fruitful Isaac though she travail not with any Homogeneal fruit of her own barren womb yet she is in travail with the Heterogeneal the spiritual fruit of grace so her cry is to be of joy not of sorrow and why because many more are the children of the Church that was desolate when she did first fructifie then were those of the Synagogue that had a husband that was actually and long married unto God but under the notion of a punisher rather then of a rewarder whereas when Christ was espoused to this desolate Church of the Gentiles then God became husband to his Spouse under the notion of a redeemer a rewarder and a Saviour of his people again more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath an husband might be understood comparatively spoken to the time of the primitive Church unto that time of the Synagogue as who should say God hath more servants in the very first days of the primitive Church then he had in all the time that the Synagogue of the Jews did last so fruitfull was the child of the Spirit so barren that of the letter so abundant the child of grace so sparing that of flesh and bloud the reason was because Moses being but a man of flesh and blood was the first-born of the Synagogue but Christ who was both God and Man was the first-born of the Church not that therefore he was not the head and founder thereof but that in the order of Gods decree the first thought was to serve himselfe of his creatures or people regulated in the old Law by a Synagogue in the new by a Church and so by priority of nature as the Schoolemen speake the Jdaea's of Synagogue and Church were first in Gods decree
though there were no priority of time wherein the Synagogue was existent before Moses the first-borne thereof nor of the Church before Christ the first-borne of her So here we see it is not inconsistent that Christ be both the Father and the childe of the Church the childe as the first borne of it in the sight of God the Father as the first erector of it in the sight of man 28. And from hence floweth the genuine sence of this next verse wherein the Apostle doth not onely meane that we Christians are Brothers to each other but that we have yet an honour farre transcending this namely to be even the Brethren of Christ Jesus so that he is a child as as well as we are the children of promise and consequently he and we are brethren being borne both of one promising parent Almighty God out of the barren wombe of Sara he only having this prerogative to be the first-borne of Sara and so Abrahams heire but we as being his brethren by vertue of the same promise are his coheires 29. This verse alludes to what we read Gen. 21. v. 8. of the jesting or playing of Jsmael so familiarly with Jsaac at the banquet which Abraham made when Isaac the younger brother was weaned that Sara knowing it was her Sonne Jsaac who must be heir to his Father Abraham complained to him not onely of the boldnesse of Ismael and of his sawcy familiarity with Jsaac which was a figure of the Jewes mocking of Christ and of false Churches scoffing at the true one but also of Agar his Mothers impudence not to reprehend her Slave-borne Son for his boldnesse with his Free-borne Brother whereupon Agar and Ismael were turned out of doores by Abraham as the Synagogue and Jewes were out of Christs Church for by Son of the flesh is here meant Ismael and by the Son of the Spirit the Apostle in this place meanes Israel as was said before adding that this quarrel betweene those two brothers continues stil in us so long as the flesh rebels against the spirit in man or so long as false Churches arise and persecute the true one 30. Then and not tiil then shall the Son of the Bond-woman be cast out by Christians as well as the Synagogue was by Christ himselfe according to Saint Pauls meaning here when there shall be in the worlds end but one stock and one shepheard though even now we that are children of the true Church must cast out of our communion in spirituals at least those that are of false Churches for they cannot with us inherit the kingdome of heaven what claime soever they lay unto it by feigned Sanctity or pretended legitimacy of birth unto that inheritance 31. Note though here the Apostle tels us for our comfoâ—t that we true Christians whereby is understood onely Catholikes who are of the true Christian religion are Sons of Sara the Free-woman that is of the remaining Church of Christ and not of Agar the abrogated Synagogue of the Jewes yet withall he mindes that we have not this Freedome this honour by right of inheritance as from our earthly or spirituall parents either but meerly as from the gratuite gift of Jesus Christ since by his holy grace it is we are adopted Children of Heaven and not by our Fathers in nature or in Spirit the Priests of the Church for as the first are no way able to beget us unto God so the last doe it but instrumentally as they are Vicars of Christ or dispensers of the mysteries of God and of his holy grace by meanes of the Sacraments The Application 1. THe Illustration upon this Sundayes Prayer and the explication upon this Epistle are so full and so home to the purpose of the Lenton Fast and to the end thereof our Purification that nothing will remaine now but to finde what good works now are by this Epistle taught to adde unto the Holy Fast which is not perfected without them 2. Now in regard we see this Parabolicall Epistle windes off with an Application to the Catholike Christian Redeemed from the Bondage of the Jewish Synagogue and from the slavery of sin by the merits of Christ and consequently giveth us cause of huge comfort for this redemption therefore we shall do well to joyn an Alacrity of soule unto the Lenten Fast because God loves a merry giver as a proper integrative part thereof especially on this Sunday which is called the Sunday of joy and not unfitly so when the whole Epistle runs upon the joyful Allegory between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant by the abolition of the Jewish Synagogue 3. And yet because the motive of our joy is ever extrinsecal coming from Heaven to us out of the infinite mercy of God and no way proceeding from our selves whose every action so far forth as it is our own is demeriting and drawing punishment upon us for the sin it is in us unlesse by Gods assisting grace it be made vertuous therefore we are justly bid in our greatest comforts to acknowledge the punishments we deserve if God should ever give us our own due and consequently to mix with our Ioyes our Tears or rather never to look for any joy that we doe not first beg with sorrow for our sins to the end it may be with us as Holy David said according to the multitude of my griefes thy consolations have joy'd my soule whence it is we are taught to mix contrition with Alacrity this holy time of Lent to make our Fast compleat And that we may do this we fitly pray when this is preached to us as above The Gospel Joh. 6. v. 1 c. 1 After these things Iesus went beyond the Sea of Galilee which is of Tiberias 2 And a great multitude followed because they saw the signes which he did upon those that were sick 3 Iesus therefore went up into the mountaine and there he sate with his Disciples 4 And the Pasche was at hand the Festivall day of the Iewes 5 When Iesus therefore had lifted up his eyes and saw that a very great multitude cometh to him he saith to Philip whence shal we buy bread that these may eat 6 And this he said tempting him For himselfe knew what he would doe 7 Philip answered him two hundred peny-worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every man may take a little piece 8 One of his disciples Andrew the Brother of Simon Peter saith to him 9 There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves and two fishes but what are these among so many 10 Jesus therefore saith make the men sit down And there was much grasse in the place The men therefore sat downe in number about five thousand 11 Iesus therefore took the Loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to them that sate in like manner also of the fishes as much as they would 12 And after they were filled he saith to his Disciples gather the fragments that are remaining
Tables of the Law and the Cherubins of Glory above this overshadowing the propitiatory and the Apostle told them this way of Sacrificing should last till the time of correction that is untill the first comming of Christ into this world who should correct this manner of proceeding and take away those legall rites and ceremonies by putting in their place a spiritual Sacrifice and worshipping of God not that it is to be understood the old being corrected should stand but be abrogated by command of Christ as we say ill manners are corrected in youth not by remaining in the young man but by being taken away by good behavior and by vertue correcting his former vices so the Apostle having told the Hebrewes thus much of the old way of Sacrificing begins in this verse to shew how Christ assisting taking upon him the office of High Priest of the new law and of the good things to come thereby distinguished the fruits of his Sacrifice from those of the High Priest in the old Law who by assisting officiating at the Tabernacle obtained onely present and temporall benefits but Christ was an High Priest obtaining the good things to come Spirituall and Heavenly things as here remission of sins graces and vertues and in the next world glory blisse and everlasting life and this by entering to keep the Analogy between the old way of officiating and the new first a more ample and perfect Tabernacle that is as some say by his Divinity entering our humanity as others by his entering his Virgin Mothers wombe but the most genuine sence is by his entering into his Church Militant becoming the first member of it as it was framed in the Idaea of his Heavenly Father For so it was not a work of humane hands of flesh and blood or of this creation of creatures making but was indeed the Tabernacle of God the first Sanctum Holy through which he was to passe by the vale of the Crosse into the second Tabernacle Sancta Sanctorum the holy of Holies his Church triumphant the Kingdome of Heaven nor was it necessary for Christ to prepare his way from his outward Tabernacle his Church Militant to his inward his Church triumphant by the bloud of Goates for his own sins since he had none and the blood of a Calfe for the sins of the people as in the old Law the High Priests did once a yeare that by Sprinkling the Sancta Sanctorum with this blood they might render God more propitious to themselves and the people no he shed once for all mankinde his own most sacred bloud and dying on the Crosse he entered the holy of holies the kingdome of heaven whereby he found for us eternal redemption so copious an one indeed as needed not be repeated by his dying any more for us then once though in the old Law the bloody Sacrifice of the High Priests were annuall because the power of that bloud they shed was weak and could not plead for long mercy whereas Christs blood prevaileth for eternall and that by being shed but once 13. It was the ceremony of the old Law Num. 19. first to shed the blood of Goats Oxen and Heifers and then burning the Beasts to keep the ashes and putting them into living so they called fountaine water and Sprinkling the people with them to declare they should by that aspersion after Sun-set not before be reputed sanctifyed corporally cleane and be admitted into the company of the faithfull as formerly which was a figure of the blood of Christ issuing out of his earthly body to be a reall purgation of sin out of our Souls and not onely of our corporal impurity it was also the ground whence holy Church useth aspersion with holy water wherin is mixed Salt insteed of those burnt-ashes Note it is well said here this ceremony was but to the cleansing of the flâ—sh for it only did declare their bodies who were thus sprinkled should be esteemed cleane and pure though before polluted by the touch of a dead carcasse a leper or otherwise and this cleansing was then called sanctifying as in this text it is 14. It is indeed great reason the blood of Christ who was God as well as man inspired by the instinct of his own Deity and by the speciall instigation of the Holy Ghost to offer up his life as an unspotted Sacrifice to God the Father for our sins should have much more force to purge our Soules from sins that is from dead works then the blood of beasts had to cleanse mens bodies and Sin is not unfitly called a dead work because it not onely defileth our Soule worse then the touch of a dead carcasse did their bodies of the old Law but even kils them too and yet by the blood of Christ they are both purged and revived so as to be able to waite upon the living God before whom no dead Soul that is to say no Soule in deadly Sin can give any attendance at all it being unfit that the Fountaine of life should be attended on by the ougly countenance of death 15. He is therefore truly the Mediator because he did partake of the nature of both extreames that is of God offended and of man offending and so death being a mean which is to say man dying in Christ God was satisfied not onely for the Sins of those who live under the Law of grace but as is specially noted here in this verse for the Sins of those under the former Law of Moses which was the former Testament here specified and of those also under the Law of nature quoniam copiosa erat apud eum redemptio because redemption with him is plentifull and since he took humane nature it was not out of the Spheare of his activity to satisfie for all mankind to whom that nature is common by those called are understood here the elected for those onely are effectually called to the participation of the promise of eternal inheritance of being eternally heirs of God and coheires of Christ and this inheritance is called a promise because it was the pact of God the Father with his Sacred Son that if he would once dye to satisfie divine justice for mans Sins those whom he should call that is effectually single out or elect for eternall salvation should receive the same by vertue of promise from God the Father to his Sacred Sonne whence their salvation is called the promise of eternal inheritance and in this regard Saint Paul speaking of himselfe as of one thus effectually called or elected said that he having done what was required of him had reposed for him in heaven a Crown of Justice not as due to his work but as due to the promises God the Father in Pauls behalfe made to his Sacred Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the like promise we account is made in the behalfe of all those whom Christ hath elected to his eternal inheritance not that it is a thing man can
alone damning without redemption for he that beleeveth not shall be condemned Mar. c. 16. v. 16. 10. Againe he shall argue them of Iustice that is hee shall accuse them of injustice shewing to the Jewes all their ceremoniall rites and Lawes did not render them just nor would all the morall vertues of the Gentiles that were infidels justifie them in the sight of God because none could render them just there but Jesus Christ who for that purpose went to his Father to tell him these onely shalt thou justifie who beleeve aright in me who renounce the ceremoniall Law of the Jewes the humane Law of the Gentiles and follow the divine Law that I have left them who alone have redeemed them and can alone save those that keep my Law that can make them truly just in the sight of men and Angels and of God himselfe it is very pretty what Saint Bernard saith of these words Ser. 12. The Holy Ghost doth argue the world of sinne because it dissembles of Justice which it doth not rightly order while it attributes the same to man not to God of Judgement which it usurpes while it judgeth rashly not onely of it selfe but of others too 11. Lastly he shal argue the world of Judgement is diversely understood by some that the Holy Ghost shal shew the world made a false judgement of Christ his Miracles holding them to be witchcrafts or workes of the devil by others that he shal argue men of sloath to be overcome by the wounded and conquered devil for want of diligence to resist him by others of cousenage to put their hopes in the devil who himselfe is damned and can save no man by others and those best of all that the Holy Ghost shal argue men of Judgement in shewing them how justly they deserve damnation who follow for their guides the damned devil and all his wayes and workes and this when he shal make the Apostles cast out devils out of the visible Temples where they were as Idols adored for God and out of the invisible Temples the soules of men whom they had possessed both by their foule persons presence and by the guilt of enormious sinne cast out by Sacramental grace of holy pennance 12. Christ here alludes to the mysteries of Faith the conversion of the Gentiles the foundation of the Churches and Government thereof by his Vicar by the Bishops and Priests in a Hierarchical way all which he left to be the product of the holy Ghost and things deeper then for novices to be able at first to dive into in whose eyes the carnal and ceremonial Rights of the Jewish Churches or Synagogues rather were too fresh as yet and their souls were not sufficiently illuminated to attend to higher matters and those altogether spiritual whence we may gather that even the Apostles had by the coming of the holy Ghost new lights and did daily increase in the knowledge of the mysteries of Faith and Religion according to that of the Proverbs Cap. 4. v. 18. The ways of the just are like light shining and increasing to high noon day whence the Primitive Church is compared to be quasi aurora consurgens like the dawning of the day Cant. 6.9 and proceeding brighter and brighter daily till she come to the brightness of the latter day when all her Saints shall enter like so many noon-time Suns into the kingdom of Heaven 13. When for the reasons above he shall come who is the spirit of Truth he shall teach you all Truth that you are capable off and that is fit you should know to guide your own and others souls to Heaven For he shall not speak of himself but what he shall hear since t is not what he alone says but what my Father and I say too that he shall tell you so all he says shall be as we all three determine nor shall he speak as men do out of their fancy no but just as I have taught you before and as my Father and I will have him tell you hereafter not as fables but as undoubted Truths which are of eternal Verity so look how Christ said his doctrine was not his own but his Fathers that sent him in like manner the truth which the holy Ghost shall teach is not his own onely but joyntly the Fathers and the Sons from whom he doth proceed and from whom he was sent And he shall tell you things to come by this is understood the Apostles were to have the Spirit of Prophesie as Actor 11. v. 18 20. v. 19 21. v. 11. we may read nor is St. Johns Apocalypse other then a continued Prophesie from one end to the other Nor was it requisite Christ his Apostles should be inferiourly gifted to any of the Ministers of God in the old Law and this gave great comfort and encouragement to the Apostles since naturally men desire to know future things by future things also venerable Bede understandeth things of Heaven of Grace and of Glory as who should say the Apostles shall not be onely able to guide you here but to set you safe into a blessed Eternity and future Kingdom that shall never end 14. He shall glorifie me when he shall confirm the world in the belief of my being the Messias expected God and man the Saviour of the World He shall receive of mine for he shall proceed from my Father and me and receive the Divine Essence one and the same in all the three Persons of the Trinity and consequently his Will shall be mine his Science mine his Doctrine mine where note the Text doth not say he shall receive me but of mine because he is a distinct Person from the Son and though he receive not the filiation by his procession he receives the Essence of the Son so that is to receive of him and yet not him nor to be him And thus he gave compleat content to the Apostles seeing they did passionately love him to tell them the Comforter he was to send them should supply his absence by teaching them as he had done by loving them as he did since he received his doctrine from him and his affection too The Application 1. THe whole scource of this Gospel is to beget belief in the Apostles that our Saviours departure from them was for their good and that the Primary effect of the coming of the holy Ghost was to beat down the sin of Infidelity as who should say it were the sin of sins not to believe in Jesus Christ and not to obey all his commands in vertue of that belief 2. What should then be the Practice of us Christians at this time but to use all means possible to fortifie our Faith as the greatest Bulwork against all sin whatsoever and indeed what is it else but a kinde of Infidelity not to do according as we are taught by the rules of Faith that is not to make all our actions tend to the sole will and pleasure of Almighty God since if
resignation as a meanes to our exaltation in the time of visitation which is to be understood when God shall think fit to look upon us with the eye of mercy 7. It were an injury to Gods goodnesse for us to cast about for that which God himself takes care for that is our soules good the care of that is his and our rule of that is by him laid unto us so in that affayre we have rather to do what is commanded already then to be solicitous about it as if it were not done And to be solicitous of Temporals is an unchristian care and therefore often forbidden in point of perfection however tolerated in regard of humane infirmity but moderate care is alwayes allowed Christians in order to Temporals when anxious solicitude is forbidden them by many texts of holy writ 8. Sobriety is the best companion of watchfulnesse and therefore both are recommended And because our watchfulnesse is to be perpetual therefore our sobriety must be so too but especially towards night when our hearts onely are to keep the watch whilest our senses are asleep and this because the devil is then most busie in temptations when men are least able to resist having as it were but their wish awake and their will asleep hence all spiritual men recommend temperance towards bed-time both in meat and drink hence the Completory begins alwayes with this very verse to put us in mind with what purity we ought to go to bed having our profest enemy alwayes awake and ready to devour us if he find us off our sober guard 9. Happy we that by the least resistance are sure of victory against this ravenous devil for maugre all his malice and all his power he cannot hurt us unlesse we yeeld our consents to his Temptations Here is added that we must stoutly resist him and believing too because so we get compleat victory for by resistance we overcome him by fortitude we bind him captive by Faith we take away all his armes and power that is by firm stout and constant Faith And again our resistance will have the more force because of what followes in this verse we never are left alone but have alwayes our fellow Souldiers to help us in this Fight against our enemy who never tempts us alone but all other good men at the same time and we have share in their greater resistance by adding what our weaknesse is able to do 10. This next verse comes yet more home to our comfort and assistance telling us besides the help of our fellow creatures we have the help of our omnipotent Creatour against this enemy of mankind the God of all grace who having called us to everlasting glory will not if we help our selves permit the devill to snatch us away into his kingdom of darknesse so that being designed for glory we cannot fear the want of grace for that is the seed and glory the fruit of Gods goodnesse in us O who seeing how much Christ suffered to purchase us patience would not gladly suffer this little we are told must be indured if we will hope for victory Let us therefore with the same zeal begin to suffer as we would desire the happy end of it which is assured victory and glory 11. This last verse minds us that the victory is Gods and the honour of it his though the reward by his mercy be our eternall glory too The Application WE have had hitherto the holy Ghost the sacred Trinity and the blessed Sacrament to help us on in our long journey between Pentecost and Advent which we are to march all upon the feet of Charity but now we must expect no more such speciall helps suffice it we have had last Sunday the corroborating repast whereof Elias his refreshment under the Tree in the desert was but a type or figure when yet he was told that little bread should inable him to his journeyes end although he had a great wâ—y to go after that before he came to the mount Horeb so beloved must our charity from this day forward march upon the late refreshment of the blessed Sacrament till we come in our annuall journey to the mount of Advent the mount of expectation the mount that leaves us on the top of the highest mystery of our redemption the Incarnation of our Lord God where his first stoop to earth was our first step to heaven 2. Now for as much as we shall in this march find charity sometimes handed on by other vertues as last Sunday most properly by holy fear sutable to her in so long a journey and through the many dangers which she was to meet withall in the desert of this world and because at other times she will be in a manner out of sight and carried on with the crowd of other vertues thronging about her to secure themselves by her and to be her guard as they are bound she being sovereign to them all we must not therefore think our design is ill laid and that our obligation ceaseth as to the practise of charity when in the holy Text other vertues are more visible then she for there want not good Divines who grounded on S. Paul his definition or description at least of this majestick vertue affirm there is indeed no other vertue but charity both because God himself is called charity and because in heaven all other vertues are refunded into her so that in these Divines opinions even Faith Hope Humility Patience Obedience and all other vertues whatsoever are but charity believing hoping submitting suffering obeying or the like as one and the self same man by the severall faculties of his soul by his severall senses and members of his body is doing those exercises that such faculties such senses and such members are necessary for Be these Divines right or wrong it boots not to our purpose more then thus to let us see all our actions are good or bad according as they partake or want of charity to give them life or to declare them dead 3. This premised see how humility resignation to Gods holy will sobriety vigilance and a strong faith bring charity along this first-dayes journey after the repast she had last Sunday as above And though the Text tell her she is to carry us through the ravenous Lions walk yet we see the close of this Epistle is that the God of all Grace the God of charity will secure us through these dangers for his own glory if we but love him and will cast our cares on him and will rely upon his multiplied mercies whereof we have dayly and hourely huge experience if we will make him our Ruler him our Guide and if we do not loose our charity to him our Creatour by wasting it away upon creatures unworthy of our love because we cannot grasp temporall felicities without hazard of loosing eternall happinesse Yes yes assuredly this ought to be our duty now Whilest to this very purpose holy Church prayes to day