prompt him with this remembrance be not a blemish to the glory of thy Father in Heaven So much for that part of the Testimony Christ is the eternal Son of God and by him we are called to adoption of Sons Now the Spirit could not stay here but proceeds to glorifie him further This is my beloved Son This is my beloved and thou art my beloved we read it both ways in several Evangelists Ne uno modo dictum minùs intelligatur says St. Austin that the words expressed two manner of ways might be more clearly intelligible Thou art my beloved Son and this is my beloved Son do admonish us two things out of this diversity both that the Father is highly pleased in his Son and that in him he is well pleased with us for his Sons sake For he hath accepted us in the beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. i. 6. This title of beloved is three ways agreeable to Christ 1. Super omnes dilectus est à patre That above all things he is beloved of the Father an infinite love must needs result upon the begetting of an infinite wisdom Amor Deum gubernat amoris omne regnum est the heathen were wont to sing it and knew no reason for it but we know why that God himself was ruled by love love swayed all things in the world God himself is ruled by love that is the Father is intreated by the merits of his Son to break the yoak of his own justice from off our necks and hath put the dominion of life and death into his hands that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow as if he chiefly delighted in the honour of his Son The Schoolmen acutely assign him the preheminence of the Father above all things with this distinction that he was Dilectus quia filius not Filius quia dilectus Beloved because he was a Son and not made a Son because he was beloved which is the condition of them that are adopted Secondly Christ is Paterni amoris erga nos argumentum the proof of Gods exceeding love to us for so God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who so believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting so he loved it that there is no measure or similitude to compare it The gradations of Bernard by which he draws up our soul higher and higher to meditate upon the divine love are these 1. Prius nos dilexit it were fit the Lord should be sought unto by such underlings as we are yet he began in way of affection and prevented us well contented if we would correspond and answer his offer 2. Tantillos dilexit he loved us and ordained to make us a people when as yet we were not 3. Tales he loved us again in his best beloved when we had defiled our creation 4. Tantus O the immenseness of his love he that is greater than the Heavens said unto us poor dust and ashes let me be your Saviour 5. Tantum dilexit so constant was the passion of his love that it brought him to the Passion of the Cross 6. Tam gratis of his own free love without merits foreseen in us to deserve it he bequeathed unto us an immortal inheritance this is the purchase of that well-beloved in whom he cannot but be well pleased As in the brestplate of Aaron there was holiness written to the Lord that the people might be accepted when he offered incense for them so the love of God is written with the pen of a Diamond in his Son never to be blotted out that looking upon him we might find grace and favour to be received into glory Thirdly Christ is beloved because he was obedient in all things we are all children of wrath that have rebelled against our Father God looked down from heaven to see if any would seek after him and we are all gone out of the way they were all become abominable usque ad unum and that one was Christ This voice prevents that infidelity which some might imagine upon his Passion for they that lookt with fleshly eyes might think he was one rejected and forsaken of God they might think him under the frown and malediction of his Father for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree but howsoever in the representation of our sins the Sun may discolour him and make him look black yet he is fair O daughters of Jerusalem and though we be prodigals that have wasted our Fathers goods and mis-imployed the portion of his grace yet the voice from heaven shall never be proved a liar concerning Christ This is my beloved Son Behold my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased Mat. xii 18. God is love and if the Son take the name from the Father may he not rightly be called the Beloved If I be a Master says our God where is my fear If I be a Father where is my honour And may he not add If I be the love of the Church where is the love to requite it For without love we may keep all the rest to our selves If we fear him without love it is abject and servil if we honour him without love it is flattery Love made the world of visible creatures and it must make the new world of Saints and Angels Truly did one say that the Emblem of a pious heart was Carbo ignitus divini amoris flammâ absorptus A firy coal wasting away all the gross and earthy parts of it with the flame of divine love Were never any tears better bestowed than one I read of in ancient times whose eyes did shed drops to see Gods glory scandalously abused by those that lived about him and being asked What ailed him to grieve so much for other mens sins It was his wonted answer Quia amor non amatur because love it self was not beloved again For if you loved me says Christ yo wo ld keep my Commandments Intimate love thinks nothing too much and too tedious to be done for the beloved yea it thinks nothing too bitter to be suffered no more did Christ for his Church The Spouse doth interlace it among her love-delights that she should suffer for the Lord so it is figuratively couched Cant. i. 13. My love is a bundle of Myrrh to me Says Bernard Myrrha amara aspera c. Myrrh is rugged and bitter yet of sweet fragrancy So tribulation is harsh but sweet for Christs sake And again Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus mihi My Beloved is fasciculus but a little bundle of Myrrh but a little corrasive of affliction whatsoever we suffer Quia leve prae amore ipsius ducat quicquid asperi immineat If our affection be strong and entire to God a great deal of sorrow is nothing it is but a little bundle for I reckon that the sorrows of this life are not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Give me a resolute will ready to
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
two observations 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born yea before he was conceived Luke i. 31. it was Gabriels message to Mary Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Men called him so after he was born and circumcised Idem quippe Angeli salvator hominis hominis ab incarnatione Angeli ab initio creaturae for the same Lord is the Saviour both of Angels and Men of Angels before he was born from the beginning of the world of Men in the fulness of time after he was born That is the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father did confirm the good Angels in grace that they should never fall and the same person incarnate being the Mediator of God and Man did redeem the Elect that they should rise again from their sins and reign with him in glory 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision when he first shed his Blood as if his Death had been foretold as soon as he was born it would cost him blood not a few drops of the foreskin but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus In Circumcision he was called a Saviour at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross then his enemies confest he was a Saviour In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto sed destinatione salvator in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be and incompleatly and by inchoation what he was It was a sign of servitude and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised it was a sign of ignominy and reproach to be Crucified but this name exalted him and defended him against the bad opinion of the world when he was called at the one time in the Temple and entitled on the Cross at the other Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews To drive this point no longer about the honour of the imposition of the name this is the sum Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy and in his office of reconciliation therefore God alone could give him this name Innatum est ei nomen hoc non inditum ab humana aut Angelica natura says Bernard the name was bred with him and not imposed by men or Angels A name so royally impos'd must include a great deal of excellency that 's the next point Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion and because Paul magnified Christ and the Jews blasphemed him Gallio said it was a controversie of words and names and he would not meddle with it it was not worth the while The name of Christ was beyond Gallio's reach to judge upon it David makes a great account of that which he did villifie Thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things Psal cxxxvii The names of God Jehovah are his names as a Creator and yet to be magnified above all things but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation his goodness of saving and redemption Nihil nasci profuit nisi redimi profuisset it had been unbeneficial to be created unless we had been happily redeemed His Words his Actions his Miracles his Prayers his Sacraments his Sufferings all did smell of the Saviour Take him from his Infancy to his Death among his Disciples and among the Publicans among the Jews or among the Gentiles he was all Saviour The Jews were under the condition of thraldom at this time when Christ was born under the thraldom of their enemies and the tidings of a Saviour was sweet news at such a season yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies No person upon earth hath such need of a Saviour as a sinner whether it be peace or war Pandora's box of mischiefs all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner therefore the Angel doth not specifie to the Shepherds from what calamities he should redeem them and be called a Saviour indefinitely and absolutely from all A few particulars would but derogate from the honour of his salvation he sweeps away all evil at once like a Spiders web ab omni malo he saves us from the whole mass of evil a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Jer. xxiii 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country the land of Chaldaea Alas both these are easie redemptions to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins there begins his mercy at that point to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit to take away earthly desires from our will and affections in a word to clear us in Gods Court that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Revel i. 5. 2. He is a Saviour that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin which is death He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection 3. He is a Saviour that delivereth us from the power of Satan that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently yet he should not overcome his Saints Now is the judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth John xii 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again For through death Chrst did destroy him that had the power of death the Devil Heb. ii 14. 4. He is a Saviour that frees us from the wrath of God and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. v. From sin from death from Satan from the wrath of God These are the four heads of our Redemption and these are the excellencies included in the name of Saviour After these things thus declared methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction Methinks of our selves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word a Jesus a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have nor of the wrath of God for if we had we would hear this name with greater joyfulness but the destruction is not near enough to affect us Hell and damnation are not represented before our face if those things were so nigh that we did feel their horror we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church to vail the head and bend the knee and to
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
be to God on high because he hath made peace on earth Lord let me not be at war with my own heart though all the world should defie me and set themselves against me As a continual dripping of humors upon the lungs consumes the body so a continual disquieting of mind as if viols of anger from heaven were ready to be poured upon it breeds such an anxiety in the whole man that he will wish his whole substance were dissolved into nothing O thrice happy when God sends that serenity of favour into our thoughts and cogitations to make us truly say with David Turn again unto thy rest O my soul Psal cxvi 7. This is that peace which the world cannot give This is St. Paul's confidence against all opposers Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that justifieth When the Wise men askt Where is he that is born King of the Jews Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him So sore troubled that he would not spare poor inoffensive babes who could not offend him no not his own babes as some say who were the pillars of his family when he thrust his sword into them he digged into his own bowels No man is able to express what a discomfortable mutiny this wretch had within himself No plague like a wounded disturbed spirit whereas old Simeon that saw death at the door that felt one foot in the Grave was exhilerated for all that through the joy which he had in Christ and warbled that Swan-like Dirge over his own Grave Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Wherefore if there be any of you which have a conscience sorely wounded with horror and even tempted to despair which God forbid chide it with David out of that dreadful moode Why art thou so sad O my soul and why art thou so disquieted within me Hath not Christ said there is peace between God and thee and dost thou say there is enmity foolish heart shall I not rather believe the tidings which an Angel brings than that which thou dost suggest and doth not he say Peace on earth Whosoever will not be cheared up will not be comforted will not be established with hope from this sweet proclamation which the Ministers of Heaven sang unto the Shepherds it had been better for him that he had never been born nay I speak it with reverence to God and condemnation to such a one it had been better for him that Christ had never been born because he receives not the Son of God into his heart neither believes in his Redemption Many flagitious sins do make men as execrable before God as the devil himself but he that despairs of Gods mercies as if Christ would not keep his Covenant of peace with him I may truly pronounce it against him that he is even possessed with a devil O cast forth that evil Spirit and be resolved the Lord would never have sent his Angel to sing the Hymn of peace unto men but to revive our souls and to raise them up from dust and despair because he is gracious and favourable to all penitent sinners And thus you have heard that upon the occasion of this blessed Nativity of Christs the Angels have congratulated both heaven and earth as David foretold it Psal xcvi 11. Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad The congratulation to men on earth hath been unfolded in two members that there is peace above us which passeth all understanding and peace within us such as the world cannot give Thirdly It follows they sing and rejoyce for our sakes that there is peace without us and on every side a good way laid open to take away all Schisms strifes divisions debates and as Solomon says in his mystical Song the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land What a hurly burly was in the world before Christ made his Church one body out of all Languages and Nations They that professed the Law of Moses you know had no communication with those millions of millions that knew no Schoolmaster to teach them but the law of nature Among those few that were zealous of the Law the Jew forsook them of Israel of the ten Tribes for Rebels and Idolaters Among the Jews the Pharisee condemned the Sadducce for an Heretick Then the Samaritan had an antipathy both against Jew and Israelite and all these accounted of the Gentiles no other ways than as bond-slaves of the Devil Here was nothing but hate and defiance between one Sect and another over all the world until Christ broke down the wall of separation made of two one invited them all to embrace and to greet one another with an holy kiss Thus the Prophet Isaiah upon it Chap. xix 23. in his stately but dark eloquence In that day shall there be a high-way out of Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria and in that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria that is there shall be traffique and friendship and conversation together from one Nation to another over all the earth And indeed National feuds are the more odious and unchristian by how much Christ hath called all people to the sprinkling of the same water and to alike participation of his Body and Blood at the same table And it was well apprehended of one that God hath given unto men more excellent gifts in the skill of Navigation since his Son is born than ever they had before that he might shew the way how all the Kingdoms of the earth should be sociable together for Christ hath breathed his peace upon all the Kingdoms of the world Then I descend from generals to specials The Angels did not only see that our Saviour had built a wall of Charity as it were about the whole earth and made it one but that his Gospel is the love knot and band of agreement between one member and another in all particular persons It turns the hearts of the Fathers unto the Children and of the Children unto the Fathers it makes peace conjugal between man and wife for Marriage is a Mystery of Christ and his Church and the instance which the Apostle lays before us is how Christ loved his Church and laid down his life for it It attones variances between Neighbour and Neighbour for it calls upon us to forgive and put up injuries it non-suits many actions of trespass between man and man with St. Pauls sweet proposition to the Corinthians Why do ye not rather suffer wrong That jangling fellow in the Gospel that came to Jesus to give him authority for his contention Dic fratri ut mecum dividat Master bid my brother that he divide the inheritance with me our Lord put him off and would hear of no division Such motions did jar in the ear of him that was the God of reconciliation The Law of Moses either was or did seem to be vindicative an eye for an eye
Receiver Also we apply general Promises to our selves by the word of absolution For although God only pardons sins yet he hath promised to his Priests if our hearts be well disposed to admit their work Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis What they loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven but the special motive is the inward testimony of the Holy Ghost speaking in the conscience of true believers by the effects of grace This last is it which is opposed by some namely that there is no assurance ordinarily begot by the Testimony of the Spirit to a mans private spirit that he is the child of God But this I will prove This is not denied that this is the faith of the Gospel on which we lay hold for eternal life whosoever truly believeth on Christ he shall be saved and cannot a man infallibly infer but I do through Gods grace truly believe in Christ Cannot a man search into his own heart that he doth receive Christ not only in his judgment by a firm willing and unfained assent but also by an earnest desire to be made partaker of him and by a setled resolution to acknowledge him to be his Saviour Surely the mind is not ignorant of its own actions when it understandeth when it assenteth it knoweth it self to assent when it desireth it knoweth it self to desire when it resolveth it knoweth it self to resolve Much more is it able to examine it self being holpen by the Spirit of God I may boldly say the Letter of the Scripture is not more plain for any point of Divinity than for this Rom. viii 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Either we can feel this witness and make use of it or to what end is it given And why else are we bidden to feel and try that good work of the Spirit if it be in our selves Examine your selves whether you be in the faith 2 Cor. xiii 5. The true sorrowful penitent hath not less comfort now than if Christ were still upon the earth But to some of them while he lived in Jury it was graciously spoken Daughter be of good chear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be confident thy sins are forgiven thee And again I have prayed Peter that thy faith may not fail he let Peter know so much that he might enjoy that comfortable perswasion They that oppose frame this retorsion Some of the most excellent Saints as Peter and Paul knew that Christ did live in them and that they were living members of his body for whom God had received the Crown of life yet this they attained unto not by the ordinary strength of faith but by extraordinary revelation No such matter for says St. Peter Give deligence to make your Calling and Election sure This exhortation were frustrate to stir up our diligence for that work if certitude of salvation come only by extraordinary revelation and St. Paul protesting that neither life nor death could separate not himself only but us many more of the Elect from the love of God draws his perswasion from such reasons as were common to him with all the Saints Rom. viii 32. to the end of the Chapter Because God hath not spared his own Son for our sakes because with him he would freely give us all things because Christ is risen from the dead because he sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us And now I will draw up my meaning in this first conclusion 1. Nothing but true faith can breed this particular application that any regenerate person should have affiance for his own salvation 2. That true faith doth not attain it in all but is kept back in many by tentations afflictions weakness want of instruction 3. Every good Christian ought to endeavour to get this assurance 4. Many without presumption have that stedfast and infallible comfort of Christs mercies applied unto themselves 5. In all that are truly justified it hath a sure foundation to beget it if they would well examine it Let no man therefore cavil upon any of these Points single unless he remember them all together The second conclusion follows the Holy Ghost doth beget this certitude of salvation in some measure in the faithful by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do firmly resolve to produce hereafter Let a well-guided conscience search how contritely we have repented us of those sins which we have committed What good works we have brought forth I mean good in their kind according to the manifold imperfections of our frailty examine whether they were done to be praised of men for fear of the Magistrate for fear of infamy or for Gods glory Whether we would not willingly leave all we have life and all rather than lose our integrity Examine all these things after Gods Word and not after the fashion of the world and what strong and serious resolutions you have for the time to come and upon strict inquiry if you find a good account then conclude I feel the Lord dwell in me by his holy Spirit I feel by these good effects he will not forsake me If any look for Enthusiasms as if God should whisper this to them in their ear they are much deceived Mark by what Index St. Paul directs us by the marks of sanctification There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And St. John clean throughout his first Epistle Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments And by this we know we are translated from death to life if we love the brethren St. Austin thus upon it for an interpreter Let every man enter into his own heart and if he find there brotherly charity let him be secure for he is passed from death to life I confess it and I admonish you upon it it is no such easie thing as the most imagine to try and find out whether our charity be rooted in a lively faith And in examination of particular actions from whence it must be manifested there may be much deceit much mistaking this causeth doubtings and fears and suppositions and intermissions of confidence Yet this is a possibility to sound the depth of a mans own heart and so St. Austin pleads on my side again A man may know the charity wherewith he loveth his brother better then he knoweth his brother Some there are and not a few who would cloy the Doctrine of special faith with this absurdity That many are encouraged thereby to run on in all manner of iniquity as if it were no matter how many and how grievous sins they committed so long as they were assured by this special application of Christ that all their sins were remitted But mark this second conclusion and it is abundantly enough to put to silence this cavillation
using no labour cashiring all providence and yet expecting to live and thrive as well as they that eat the bread of carefulness by the sweat of their brows They look to be Gods Sparrows that lay up nothing neither sow nor reap and yet hope to be fed But Solomon's Pismire is so little that they cannot see the similitude that the sluggard should lay up for Winter and tred after the providence of that forecasting creature When Christ was in the Wilderness far from any provision he made use of his transcendent power to multiply many portions of food out of five loaves and two fishes but when he was near a Town he sent his Disciples to buy some food John 4. There is a way to use this world as if we us'd it not these tanquam non utentes God loves exceedingly such as seek for necessary means of life as if they sought it not such as possess that portion of riches which they have freely charitably being willing to communicate as if they possest it not Finally such as use the delights of the world yet sparingly in offensively as if they us'd it not These I say are tanquam non utentes but wretchless regardless humours such as are absolutely non utentes that will not seek after the natural benefits which God hath given but let his benefits drop down in their mouths like Manna and come to them these contemn Art and Nature and industry these are one rank of them that tempt the Lord. Then they shall stand for the fourth that make holy vows and bind themselves in a perpetual obligation where God hath given no promise of assistance that they shall be able to perform them The Apostles were offended with them that injoyned Christians to observe Judaical Ceremonies after Christs Ascension into Heaven not meerly because the Levitical Law was not only dead and buried but even become mortiferous to them that used it but because there was no promise any longer that the grace of Christ would assist them that undertook that kind of Worship which was discharg'd and abrogated The words of Peter are plain to this sense Acts xv 10. Why tempt ye God to lay a yoke upon the necks of the Disciples God is tempted when ye expect his Grace to bless you in those inventions of Will-worship where he never engaged himself to be present with his holy Spirit I step into this observation some have the gift to be Virgins without any dangerous reluctancy against the rebellion of the flesh all the days of their life but there is no express and punctual promise made that such as will endeavour it pray for it be earnest to attend it should be able to lead a vowed single life without the remedy of Matrimony therefore it is a gross presumption and no modest assurance for any one to bind himself by Vow to perpetual Virginity for such a man or woman will seem to engage God to give them victory over all Concupiscence that they may not be beholding to his holy institution of Matrimony But we see it by woful experience and they are too impudent that deny it how such presumption and tempting of God instead of unspotted Virginity falls very often into most gross carnality Fifthly to use such things again which either always or for the most part have been unto us an occasion of sinning is to tempt the Lord whether he will let those things prevail against our souls which so often have proved unto us an occasion of falling Look not on the wine while it is red in the glass says Solomon and that 's a proverb too which the Prophet useth Put not your finger upon the hole of the asp listen not to a smooth enticing tongue though you think your self and your constancy as impenetrable as flint yet a little rain wears out the hardest stone insensibly we know not how falling drop by drop upon it We do not read what became of Naaman after he craved leave to bow down sometimes in the house of Rimmon I fear his integrity suffered some detriment but I am sure both he and all men else are guilty of those sins towards which they drew near and approach'd when they might have kept further off I am sure we do read of Amnon what an hell of iniquity he brought upon himself when he entreated that his Sister Tamar might stand before him a conscionable man that feared to do evil would have turn'd away his eyes as from a Basilisk a moral man could do it barely to be renowned and spoken of and for no further end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Alexander he would not look upon those eye-sores the fairest of the Persian women for fear of incontinence Shall not Religion make us as cautelous as popularity made the heathen he that dares sail near the Syrens within hearing hath forfeited himself to unlawful pleasure he that dares come close to the threshold of sin shall be pluck'd into the doors for he hath tempted the Lord his God And sixthly this smells of a most audacious spirit provoking wrath and urging the patient God to indignation when you make slight of all the terrors and minacies in the Law as if they were high words but do what you will they shall never fall upon you this was the first imposture that Satan put upon our first Parents The threatning of the Lord is very strict indeed but nequaquam moriemini do you not regard it you shall not dye O how it exasperates the Divine Justice and draws down severity when any one deludes himself that the vengeance denounced against him is but as one said of the Popes Bull vacui murmur culici◠the humming of a poor empty gnat Some dispute it with Originists that at the end of certain years the damned shall be released from Hell As for the sentence of eternal fire Magis minaciter quam veraciter dictum Those words have more terror in them then verity Some would make it good by their wit that the souls of Reprobates shall have no sense of rosting and burning in fire but only be damnified and deprived of eternal happiness not to stand before the face of God at least that nothing but the loss of the beatifical presence was threatned against the disobedience of our first Parents And some mens hearts are hardned against all the thundering of Judgments which shall be discovered at the last day as if they were Chimera's or poetical fictions Such as these do most strongly tempt the terrible Judge to open the earth immediately and swallow them up quick into Hell like Dathan and Abiron that their bodies and souls may feel the pains of Hell sooner then all other men because they provokt him with their infidelity I have reserved to speak of one strong temptation in the seventh and last place To ascribe some notable effect unto a thing unto which it was not enabled or appointed by nature or by the Divine Ordinance revealed for such power
will The Tongue of man the Knee the Heart nay Body and Soul together are to be purchased As you bring with one hand you shall carry away Favour and Justice in the other The access of profit carries the main stroke in every thing The Heads judge for reward and the Prophets divine for money Mich. iii. 11. They that should be most clear from this fault you see are chiefly in the reprehension No man knows with what stint he would spend or how much he would lay up therefore unless where the conscience is much refined from greediness it is a pleasure to sacrifice to our net and above all things to catch at that which comes in with so much easiness as Dabo I will give thee Hazael King of Syria must have a present even all the hallowed things that were dedicated to the Lord that he might not come up against Jerusalem Felix the Governour without a feeling would not set Paul at liberty The corruption of the times was such in Israel that men thought the Prophets as greedy as themselves and would not ask them counsel of the Lord without a gift in their hand Benhadad sent a Present of all the good things in Damascus even forty Camels burdens to Elisha to enquire if he should recover of his sickness And Saul more apparently being counselled to go to Samuel to ask which way he should return home made a stand at it saying What shall we give to the man of God There is not a present left This polling Covetousness was very ordinary no doubt in that Land when the People knew nothing but the Prophets were devourers of gifts and would not open the Oracles of God unto them without Satans complement Dabo I will give thee The giver that would corrupt another such as the High Priests that delivered Judas thirty pieces of Silver to betray his Master such a one you see by the instance of my Text doth supply the place of the Devil I am sure God gave no man wealth to this end to buy another out of his honesty the eternal Law says that vertue only should be rewarded and he that keeps the Commandments therefore to give a Pension to man or woman to be vicious is to cross that supreme fundamental Law by which heaven and earth are governed Fie that so good a vertue as Liberality should be so scornfully imitated No vertue is more often commended by God than bounty and giving but above all moral qualities it is most plausible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle hit the reason in a word it redounds to the common benefit of others more than any other vertue which begets it favour and affections Now to cast dirt in the face of this vertue Satan sets up a liberality which is of a most different condition and nothing of kin to it when the great Patrons of sin care not what they bestow upon them that serve their turn for flattery for injustice for lust for sensuality When poor Lazarus wants a draught of cold water a shower of Gold shall rain down into the Lap of Danae the wages of an Harlot are far greater for the most part than the recompence of most faithful and honest service The Egyptian Rhodope out of the gifts of her Lovers was able to dispend enough to build a Pyramis an expence so great that few Kings in Egypt could accomplish it If the Daughter of Herodias shew her self lascivious and immodest Herod will cast away half his Kingdom upon her or if that be too little he leaves her to be her own carver she may ask any thing Dabo quodcunque volueris I will give thee whatsoever thou wilt ask O that noble qualities were as sure of Patronage as Instruments of wickedness are sure of means and maintenance As Suetonius said of his Nero Pecuniae fructum non alium putabat quà m profusionem He thought there was no use of riches but waste and profusion So in the Line that Satan draws out there is no use of giving but to procure Idolatry to fall down and worship him Cursed be those hands that open themselves wide to any one man or woman to make them the child of perdition Judah gave his Ring to Thamar to hire her unto Fornication I believe he repented him with many tears of bitterness because old Jacob did so abundantly bless him but let me propound unto him that is prone to do the like will you abuse those blessings those temporary blessings which God hath given you to buy Souls for the Devil Christ hath given a ransom out of his bloud to redeem that soul from Hell and will you give Gold and Silver to buy it into Hell again Was there no poor Member of Christ whose body you might save with that money wherewith you destroy a soul He that giveth to the needy lendeth to the Lord but he that purchaseth any one to be sinful by his bounty he lendeth to the Devil This that I have spoken of was the sin of Balaac to barter and be at a price with Balaam to do an evil act to curse them whom the Lord had blessed and it is the Chapman that makes the Market woe be to the giver that tempts the weakness of man with such a forcible provocation Aureo pugillo ferreus murus frangitur says the Heathen A Hammer of Gold will beat down a Wall of Iron Yet is there nothing to be said to the receiver Shall his hand be clear that hath taken when he is called to answer Nay none more accused by the Spirit of God none more criminous They are companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after reward Isa i. 23. Neither is robbery their alone enditement but the worst of sins against the Second Table Bloud and Murder Shut not up my life with the bloud-thirsty in whose hands is wickedness and their right hand is full of gifts Psal xxvi 9. He that takes reward to do evil takes a fee to lose his own salvation Nay what toil and drudgery some will undergo to earn the wages of iniquity Minori labore margarita Christi emi poterat says St. Hierom You might accompass that invaluable Pearl in the Gospel whereof the Parable speaks that the Merchant sold all he had to buy it I say that Pearl might have been gained with less danger and industry the whole treasure of the Kingdom of heaven Espencaeus being a Romish Doctor and a most learned may be bold with his own friends who hath revealed more corruption and bribery in the Roman Court than a modest Protestant could almost believe As Pensions taken not only for the punishment of incontinence past but to lay down somewhat before-hand for the time to come What if the Visitors met with such as resolved to be chaste yet the common Levy was exacted of such a one Habeat si velit O shameless word he may use the sin if he will Then the Taxa Camerae as they call it
Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart falleth into mischief Prov. xxviii 14. Now there is a fear of a finer thread which is timor filiorum this ariseth out of the love of God when we take care not to displease because He hath made us and poured all his benefits upon us because it is the best of all things to enjoy his favour Nothing so much to be loved as God therefore nothing so much to be feared that He be not offended they that love most abound with it This is a joyful fear which outlasts all the fears of this life The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever Psal xix 9. This reverential fear is in the Angels the Cherubins standing before God cover their faces with their wings awing his glorious Majesty the Elders before the throne fall down prostrate and cover their faces with their wings As the New Testament calls God charity God is love saith St. John so the Old Testament calls him fear Jacob swears by the fear of his father Isaac that is by God himself Gen. xxxi 43. Fear therefore is a vein that runs through all Religion and whatsoever buds out of Religion may be called fear it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all piety the first and the last The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledg Prov. i. 7. and the end of all is fear God and keep his Commandments Eccl. xxi 13. The Lord threatens to the end we should be dejected that 's worship annexed to servile fear and the Lord multiplies his blessings upon us to the end we should bow down and be thankful that 's worship annexed to filial fear True fear doth continually worship our Redeemer desperate fear like the impenitent Thief doth blaspheme him and these two differ as much as sharp sawce that gives an appetite to the stomach and poison that destroys the vitals So far that the word fear in the Law is chang'd into worship in the Gospel for so it was fit to refute the Devil who said all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me And the worship of God is that Theme which without more circumstance now it befals me to handle What is it to worship God what is requir'd unto it every man knows that's the first question to be askt and I will make you a very satisfactory answer out of a devout example which is thus St. Matthew sayes there came a Leper and worshipped Christ saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. viâ—i 2. that 's the word of my Text. You shall meet with this party again Mark i. 40. What find we there there came a Leper to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beseeching him and kneeling down to him yet another Evangelist says more to make it clearer Luke v. 12. Behold a man full of leprosie fell on his face and besought him saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean The collection from hence is this when these scatter'd members are put together that to worship the Lord is to kneel down unto him to fall down on our face before him and to beseech him by earnest prayer Be advertised in one thing that to worship to kneel before to bow down unto in reverence are media vocabula as we say terms for civil respects between man and man as well as for religious offices between God and Man a great confusion falls out thereby in the handling of this doctrine and it cannot be avoided Saies St. Austin in linguâ latinâ non habemus ullum vocabulum quod solùm dicatur de cultu Dei there is not any word betokening the worship of God in the latin tongue so proper to it that it may not be communicated to man all tongues are alike in that poverty of expression In the New Testament the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constantly kept for the outward worship of God saving that Matth. xviii the Servant who feared to be sold away he and all he had is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Parable speaks of an earthly Master though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Epiparabola come home to God in the English tongue the nearest word that is meant only of divine honour and a little too high for civil reverence is adoration If you say you adore an earthly man in our language we almost esteem it flattery But they are not words or outward gestures which can decide what it is which properly constitutes the essence of that worship which God claims The word adore I said might have a religious meaning with us but in no tongue else Saies Valla very well adorare includit orare supplicare voce uti plicare genu the word adore doth import the humble petition of the tongue and the supplication of the knee but these are things common and promiscuous to civil and holy uses All the reverent deportments of the body which piety ascribes to God civility without offence performs sometimes to Magistrates and Superiours It may be some Nations had their Customs to keep certain peculiar venerations of the body for God alone as the Athenians put Timagoras their Embassador to death quòd Regem Persarum tanquam Deum salutasset because he did obeisance to the King of Persia as to a God I know not what peculiar bendings of the body they appropriated to their Gods it was a national custom of their own and for my part I will not say a bad one but nature hath no such ground to limit the most humble gestures of the body to God alone Prophets in holy Scripture have faln on their face before Kings and great men have faln on their face before Prophets Though this doctrine be most true yet Cardinal Bellarmin did not pick out Abraham so luckily to make him the example of it He says that Abraham prostrated himself alike to God to Angels and to the Honourable men of the Sons of Heth. I say and will manifest it that the Scripture says he made a difference in his congees to them all Abram fell on his face and God talked with him Gen. xvii 3. When he went to meet the Angels he bowed himself toward the ground Gen. xviii 2. When he spake to the children of Heth Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people Gen. xxiii 7. You hear he fell on his face to God he bowed himself to the ground to the Angels and he bowed himself without more addition to the people of Heth. But this distinction is not kept by other holy men who walked perfectly before the Lord therefore I stand upon my former ground that neither by simple terms nor by postures and bowings of the body can it be resolv'd what worship is proper to the Lord for my part I could never make an intelligible interpretation of that
he is made a greater vassal than the poorest of his Subjects themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same he is brought in bondage 2 Pet. ii 19. What appearance of soveraignty was in the voluptuous Licinius Of whom Tacitus says Tanta torpedo invaserat animum ut si principem eum fuisse caeteri non meminissent ipse oblivisceretur Such a stupidness had possessed his mind that unless others had been mindful towards him that he was a Prince himself would have forgot it You see then there is no freedom but by killing the strength of sin and living unto God in new obedience if by one offence death reigned by one they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Rom. v. 17. Sin holds the sinner under tyranny grace makes the righteous man reign in this life it is the Apostles phrase Therefore Christ who gives us freedom despised not to be called a servant to his Father Thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified Isa xlix 3. Thirdly That fawning heathen did humour his Patron for this reason Et habet quod det dat nemo largius So the Lord hath all manner of riches in store and he withholdeth no good thing from those that serve him No Master in the world is so munificent to reward his Ministers Let me borrow it from the Queen of Sheba's mouth what she said of Solomons attendants to apply it to those of Gods houshold that perform the task he sets them Happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee being now made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Rom. vi 22. The poor bondman among the heathen had no more wages than food for all his drudgery the more hard-hearted they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle give a bond-slave provender like a beast and he is paid for his labour Did God ever use any of his retinue that serve him so hardly They have all their meat in due season and plenteously says he in the Parable How many hired servants are there in my Fathers house that have meat enough Yet this is nothing I may say to the remainder this is but the Alms-basket of his liberality What say you to this That he gave his only Son to redeem his servant and that the Servant might be spared even that most beloved Son did undergo the most bitter death of the Cross and all this that such servants as forgot the Lord who had done so great things for them and rebelled against him might be co-heirs with Christ in his Kingdom Who would not serve such a Master If he say go who would not make speed to follow If he say do this who would not do it He hath given us such hire more than all the world beside can lay down that we will worship the Lord our God and he only shall be served I should wrong the matter I handle if this question were not moved How we should feel the comfort in our selves that we serve the Lord I answer by a Negative by an Affirmative examination Negatively when we think that we have never laboured enough in our Lords Vineyard to earn our peny Or as it is elsewhere very clearly set down to take away all boasting from our works when we have done all we can say we are unprofitable servants The Affirmative Collection may be best drawn from a saying of Christs Mat. vi 24. No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will cleave to the one and despise the other Here I gather that the two notes of a good servant are deligere adhaerere to love and to cleave fast to his Master Those Servants that loved King David such as Hushai and Ittai and Ahimaaz would take part with him to the death in Absolons rebellion those were good Servants It was love that made Jacob such a diligent Shepherd under Laban to suffer heat and frost Laban never had the like to tend his flocks A servant that takes a delight to please you may trust him with any thing both for Faith and Diligence Nemo meliùs obtemperat quà m qui ex caritate obsequitur says St. Ambrose no man will obey God better or go further to discharge his Law then he that is rouzed up by the zeal of love and charity But he that doth the Lords work without pleasure and delight doth it with unwillingness unwillingness breeds sloath and between these all their service is left-handedly performed as if it were never intended Si quid invitus facis fit de te magis quà m id facis says Prosper Whatsoever you did grudgingly without love it was drawn from you but never done by you and as if you had not been the doer you shall never be rewarded Beside deligere I said there was adhaerere a good servant was no flincher but stuck close not a Fugitive as Jonas was not an Apostate as Demas was not one that began in the Spirit and ended in the Flesh the Galatians were thought to be bewitched that did so The Bond-man in the Old Law that loved his Master though the time of his releasement was come about would be bored through the ear for a ceremony that he would never part from him St. Paul was the fast man above all we read of that was glued unto the service of the Gospel Neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet I will end this Point in the words of one of our own Prelates a faithful Minister of God bestirs himself with respect to that one Master to whom he cleaves in all the works of his Vocation Ac si nihil aliud esset in hôc mundo praeter illum ac Deum As if there was none in the world but himself and God himself to obey and God to be served with all possible diligence This cleaving fast unto one Master doth link it self in with the next Point that the Lord God is only to be worshipped and served Let it not start your patience that I name it now the time is past I am not about to huddle it up at this time being the most copious subject and of the choicest variety in my judgment in all Divine Learning But this Doctrine you shall carry away with you at this time It is no impediment for Servants to shew all diligent duty to their Masters on earth because one verse of the Gospel says No man can serve two Masters and because my Text says of our Lord in heaven him only shalt thou serve Him only indeed in Religious Service in Divine Worship and Adoration he
off and abandon their Society and he shall find heavenly comforters in his soul as if Angels ministred unto him Qui expellit à se Satanam allicit ad se Angelos Bid Satan get him hence and the Angels take it for an invitation that they should pitch their Pavilions round about you Lot lived like a stranger in his own City and conversed not with the men of Sodom they called him a stranger he shut himself up and barr'd his doors against those filthy people What could he do more to keep the ungodly from his very sight as David said Thus estranging himself from the conversation of pernicious sinners he made himself sit to give hospitality to Angels A good Lesson for these times wherein ribbald roaring company is rather sought for than declined A strange thing that a Christian who feels some comfort in Christ and desires salvation in his bloud should with so much affection and longing thrust himself among them whose desperate behaviour is easily perceived if repentance help not to tend to utter damnation St. Paul was weary of his own body called it a body of death and groaned to be delivered from it because the Flesh rebelled against the Spirit Did he loath himself that he might love Christ the more And will you invite those into your friendship and fellowship that blaspheme Christ Shake off this dust from your feet all prophane intemperate lascivious persons from your familiarity if either you expect that God should give his Angels charge of you in this life or make you partakers of their fellowship of heavenly glory in the life to come The next thing towards which we turn our eyes at this word behold is the alteration of rest and quietness before there were assaults and troubles and molestations all this is changed in a moment into peace and tranquillity which shall be the certain issue of all those that fight a good fight with patience Semper asperiora laetiorum vicissitudine mitigantur Rough beginnings have joyful events by the temperature and vicissitude of Gods gracious mercy Such as were called prosperous among the heathen most usually the best share of their fortune was in the forepart of their life and their end was lamentable the seven first years in Pharaohs dream did betoken plenty but the seven last years famine and scarcity the head of Nebuchadonosors Image was of Gold and the toes of Clay the rich man had a great time of gathering more than he knew where to bestow it but in one night lost his soul and all This is an unkind and an unnatural method to taste the sweetest at the top of the Cup and after a little sipping to have our teeth set on edge with Aloes Doth it not taste better when the gracious providence turns the lot thus First a Deluge and then a Rainbow First a Captivity and then a joyful return First a Dioclesian and then a Constantine First the impugnation of the Devil and then the Congratulation of Angels Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour untill the evening says the Psalmist There is a time to give the body a cessation from toil and do you think the Lord doth not measure out when he will give the soul and spirit relaxation from misery As a stranger is received at night and bids God b'you in the morning so indignation and the severity of chastisement are stangers unto the Lords clemency he calls vengeance Peregrinum opus his strange work Isa xxviii Therefore it shall be dismissed from him like a stranger after it hath staid a while Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal xxx 6. Tentations have their bout and the storms of hell their period but the good Angels know their qu when to enter and to turn the scene Behold the Angels came and ministred unto him And once more this note of admiration Behold bids us regard to what alteration of dignity the truly humble are called Recusavit dominatum in homines habet imperium in Angelos Our Saviour turn'd away from that ambitious suggestion All this power will I give thee and the glory of them He desired not to have a Kingdom in this world or to have the pre-eminence of men and loe the pre-eminence over Angels is given unto him And it is more dignity to have two Angels minister unto him than to have ten thousand Kingdoms Every part of Christs humility was inlaid with honour to recompence it To be laid in a Manger was not so vile as it was most magnificent to be adored of the Wisemen of the East to be visited by Shepherds was not so contemptible as it was most glorious to be proclaimed of Angels To ride upon an Ass was not of such debasement but the cry of the children made amends Hosanna blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. It savoured not so much of infirmity to be tempted of the Devil but it is supplied as much with Majesty to be attended by the Cherubins No part of his humility went without a reward from the first to the last nay the last part had amends made for all He humbled himself unto the death even unto the death of the Cross propter quod wherefore God hath highly exalted him c. Humility was his direct way to glory but we think we are out of the way to promotion unless we shift and shuffle for the highest place and the chiefest room in the Synagogues The first shall be last and the last shall be first This is a riddle to them that love to set their feet upon a rising ground Yet David hath laid a curse upon preposterous ambition that it shall decline That which should have been for their wealth says he let it be unto them an occasion of falling The holy Father Basil lost no honour in this life by shunning the dignity which was intended him and flying away into obscurity when he was called to be a Bishop The Apostle Bartholomew is reported in some histories to have been of the bloud royal of the Kings of Egypt Was it any diminution to him to have left all to be a poor Disciple Is there any Christian King that doth not wish he had rather born his Office of Apostleship than have swayed a Scepter When Princes die their honour shall not follow after them but those twelve humble ones of our Saviours train shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel If spiritual thoughts will lift a man up to heaven an humble man is mounted above the earth all the while he seeks those things which are above Themislius an holy man put this Lesson in so pure a verse as it is beyond translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his heart sunk down when ambition puft him up but he felt his feet upon the Angels Ladder going up when humility cast him down Our Saviour despised all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory
could be suspected like Cato that came into the Theater at one door and went out at another Ideo tantum intrarunt ut exirent Surely the Disciples thought if these would have staid they could have hung at their lips and heard the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven from their mouth No says the voice let them go here is one that is the chief Master in Israel far above Moses and Elias hear him Moses will stand dumb while he speaks and this is Moses his own Doctrine concerning Christ A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me hear him Deut. xviii Moses confesseth of himself O Lord I am not eloquent I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue therefore hear not him Exod. iv 10. Elias is rigid and severe and will call down fire from heaven hear not him Peter knew not what he said in this very story David said it in his haste but it is very true upon deliberation all men are liars Lying is not all that is naught in the mouth of man filthiness and blasphemies issue from some uncircumcised lips no ways fit to be heard as Eliakim the servant of Hezekiah besought that odious tongued Rabshekah to speak in such a language as few or none might understand him The talk of him that sweareth much maketh the hair stand upright and their brawls make one stop his ears Ecclus. xxvii 14. In a word men may bewitch us with their fair words not to obey the truth but we are sure how all that Christ speaketh is just and righteous therefore let men vanish away the truth of the Lord abideth for ever hear him Again the Disciples might be confused not only for the departure of Moses and Elias but because the form and fashion of Christ did return to his wonted humility the fashion of his countenance did no more look like the Sun neither was his rayment white and glistering what amends can be made for this loss But that God declares our happiness consists not in seeing but in hearing His Person must ascend unto the Father and his glory dwell there but his Word abideth for ever if we keep his sayings we are Christs and Christ is one with us hear him Be it the abrogation of Moses Law be it the contempt of the world the denying of our selves the sufferance of the Cross the losing of our life all is one his roughest Precepts are to be obeyed hear him indefinitely without restriction or exception As the Blessed Virgin his Mother said unto the Servants at Cana in Galilee Whatsoever he saith unto you do it Joh. ii 5. Be the Commandment great or small it claims obedience whosoever breaketh one of the least Commandments and doth not repent him shall be counted the least in the Kingdom of heaven Some man I know hath framed this cavillation already in his own heart if Jesus Christ were now upon the earth as sometimes he was in the Land of Jury who would not travel over Sea and Land to hear him This Precept should be kept with all alacrity Indeed the words which dropt from his own lips were most winning and pathetical Therefore this voice might justly challenge the Jews to give him fair audience and hear him speak and they could not refuse him If Tertullian presumed in his Apologetick to the Emperor that the Christian cause in his days had never been cried down if it might have been heard speak in the trial of judgment much more must it hold in the person of Christ himself Nolentes audire quod auditum damnare non possunt The Judges would not hear our Plea says Tertullian for had they heard us with patience they knew they could not cast us so the gracious words which fell from our Saviour made those Officers relent at least if not repent that were sent to betray him Never man spake like this man Joh. vii 46. They brake out into that passion before the Pharisees They had heard but little from Christ says St. Chysostome yet enough to turn their hearts from that purpose which they were sent to execute Cum mens fuerit incorrupta non longis sermonibus opus est Few words will prevail where the mind brings no corrupt passions to hold off the truth This is to shew that the Oracles which the Son of God spake from his own mouth were most moving and gracious that tongue was able to charm the very Devils to obey him Why Beloved we do hear him speak continually in the Church as verily as if he were now among us and preach'd daily as sometimes he did in the Temple at Jerusalem So St. Paul commends the Thessalonians that his Doctrine took with them as if they had heard Christ himself Ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the Word of God For whatsoever we believe if you ask after the formal cause of faith the answer is neither because the Apostles writ it or the Church delivered it or such to whom God hath commited the dispensation of the Word do preach it but because God reveals it the formal cause of all faith is divine revelation therefore hear Christ speaking among you to this day not by the instrument of his own tongue but by the revelation of his Spirit I say the formal cause of faith is divine revelation but the Church is the mouth that utters it And therefore because the Church is the Pipe which conveys those sacred mysteries which Christ reveals our Lords own sentence was If he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Ethnick The meaning is while the Church directs you in a right line The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe observe and do You hear what awful submission is due to them who are sent from God to teach you Perhaps you will demur upon those words of our Saviour For in that same Chap. Mat. xxiii 16. Christ calls the Pharisees blind guides reproves their interpretation of Scripture for saying If a man swore by the Temple it was nothing if he swore by the Gold of the Temple he was a debtor Generally he gave his Apostles a caveat Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees not meaning their Bread but their false Traditions But take our Saviours exhortation in a right construction and thus it is all that the Scribes and Pharisees recite out of Moses and the Law observe and do They are the mouth of God by their place and calling When they speak the truth all is one whether you hear them or Christ or God speak from heaven it is the same Gospel and all have but one intendment He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that heareth me heareth him that sent me you know who spake it This voice did not purpose the present Age should hear Christ only but that the future Ages should hear his Priests when they speak like
Brethren Lastly as their Commission had dignity and sweetness in it so they were sent with profitable tydings to tell the Disciples they must go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord. What ailed them I may say that they were not already gone into Galilee for Christ had told them Mat. xxvi 22. When I am risen again I will go before you into Galilee Nay albeit the Women repeated this unto them they did not stir What though they would not go with him to his Cross would not they remove into Galilee when they were warned by Christ and now readmonished by the Women What might it be that hindred them shall I tell you what I think they had forgotten what Christ said and the tydings of the women made them keep closer to that place where they were Can it be that these women saw him in Jerusalem then surely say they the Lord will appear unto us in this City though we do not travel into Galilee But why did the Lord appoint the great intercourse between him and his Disciples in Galilee First it was remote from Jerusalem where much danger was there he might discourse with his Disciples with more privacy and security Secondly the Apostles were all Galileans and for their sakes he did this honour to their Country Thirdly to eject Satan out of his possession for it was a place of much sin called a place of darkness and the land of the shadow of death Isa ix 2. Fourthly there were many Disciples in Galilee and Christ had intended a famous meeting to appear to them all at once as some say on Mount Thabor where he was transfigur'd and that here it was where he was seen of more than five hundred Brethren at once Be it as it would be he promiseth they should see him there and he was better than his promise for upon this day at Even they saw him at Jerusalem Here is nothing that savours of any old grudg or displeasure no repealing of the former promise because they had forsaken him in the Garden but a confirmation of all loving kindness passed and an exceeding favour superadded that their souls might not be tortur'd with that long procrastination not to see him till they went into Galilee he prevented the time and appear'd to them in their own Chamber before they slept To this Christ who is faithful in promises and gracious in loving kindness be all glory AMEN THE NINTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 13. Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept IN the Parable where the King made a Marriage for his Son and I may truly apply it this day was the glorious Nuptial of the Son of God but in that Parable the Servants went out for Guests into the high ways and gathered together all as many as they found good and bad So the Evangelists have filled up the story of our Saviours Resurrection with all kind of Circumstances of Saints and Reprobates truth and fictions good and bad It is agreed by them who have exactly wrote an harmony of the Gospels that Christ made five Apparitions and no fewer all of them upon this triumphant day after he was risen from the dead to the devoutest of all others men and women that loved the Lord. The first to Mary Magdalen The second to the other Women that were going from the Sepulchre to tell the Disciples what the Angels had said unto them The third to Peter Luc. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon 1 Cor. xv 5. Seen of Cephas then of the Twelve The fourth to Cleophas and the other Disciple toward the setting of the Sun to whom he was known in the breaking of bread The fifth to the Disciples late that night Whereas they had received a Message to go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord yet out of fear and incredulity they moved not out of doors Therefore on the same day at Evening being the first day of the Week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said Peace be unto you And howsoever some of those portions of Scripture are read for the Gospel to morrow some for next Sunday yet all those five Apparitions hapned upon this one day He appeared so often to the best of those that loved him but the relation of his Resurrection was made also on this day to the worst of those that hated him The Angels spake it to the Women in the hearing of the Souldiers that he was risen to life the news went from bad to worse the Souldiers tell the High Priests and Elders what they had heard and seen the High Priests again sophisticate the news and tell them fraudulently to Pilate for the Souldiers safety then Pilate and the High Priests agreeing together fill the whole Nation of the Jews by their cunning with incredulity Look not therefore to hear me speak at this time of those good Saints to whom the mystery of Christs Resurrection was the savour of life unto life but of those wicked Infidels who by their own impiety made it unto themselves the savour of death unto death There is not one good person within the compass of the story whereof my Text is a part It is Manipulus zizaniorum If ever according to the Parable God sent his Angel to gather the worst Tares in one bundle by themselves here they are The High Priests prevaricating with God and his Angels the Souldiers corrupted Pilate the Governour misperswaded the people wholly seduced bad is the best Yet St. Matthew and no other Evangelist hath interserted this piece of treachery among the other sweet Narrations of this most happy day And for these causes if St. Chrysostome hit it right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth will have the better audience when it passeth through the mouths of most contrary Authors say not that his Disciples and such Women as had Christ in admiration spread these things abroad for the malignant Souldiers speak the same 2. That we may see that very hour when God did first smite the Jews with that vertiginous spirit to hearken to Cabalistical Legends to the doating dreams of the Rabbines as they do at this day that is in St. Pauls Phrase to profane and old Wives Fables For indeed this Text is a mere Romancy as arrant a Jewish Fable as ever was told A Conspiracy so full of rotten Fictions that nothing is true in it all but that it is a Conspiracy and that it is a Fiction 1. Then we must bolt out the Confederates Gebal and Ammon joyn together the High Priests the Elders and the Souldiers 2. The way of Confederacy is by putting a forged Tale in the Souldiers mouths they must avouch any thing that the Priests suborn Ye shall say 3. The Plot is collaterally against the Disciples for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
world and therefore Dulia a petty Worship will serve for them to cross this absurdity I confess that God is honourable alike as in one Appellation so in another but our eternal happiness is granted unto us by this Appellation more than any other But when as Samuel came to anoint one of the Sons of Jessai for a King Eliab was beautiful in his eyes and so was Abinadab and so was Shammah but God would have the Horn of Oyl poured only upon the head of David So let every tongue confess that the names of Jehovah Elohim Immanuel and Christ are reverend and glorious and worthy that our knees should stoop unto them as low as Earth and our lips carry them as high as Heaven But Peter hath wrought Miracles by the Name of Jesus and Paul hath preach'd glorious things of the Name of Jesus therefore my Soul and Body shall be prostrate to that Name especially which is wonderful and holy The neglect of this is an undutiful omission yet I reckon it not in the place of the greatest sins But the greatest reproach and dishonour which the Name of God doth suffer is in the mouth of the Swearer and Blasphemer that is the Tongue whereof St. James speaks that is set on fire from Hell Yea and Nay the trial of all truth is accounted in this dissolute Age precise and simple communication What God is he that you swear by so often Is it not he that gave you breath and can stop your breath at a moment Whose Bloud is that you swear by Even that Bloud which should wash away your sins is unto you an occasion of more pollution Whose Wounds are these you swear by Even those Wounds wherein you should bury your sins make them live unto condemnation as St. Hierom said Ipse aer constupratur scelestis vocibus that ribald obscene talk did adulterate the air So I may say of Oaths that are vomited up from the superfluity of sin Ipse aer profanatur scelestis vocibus the Air is prophaned and unhallowed by abusing the Name of God Lord to what an excess this windy airy sin of Swearing is come to I think for one reason the Devil may be called the Prince of the Air because he is the Prince of such blasphemous language And so much for the Honour due to the Name of God But secondly to Honour his Name and to disobey his Word is to imitate those disloyal Subjects of the Emperour Maximilian they called Maximilian scornfully Regem Regum a King of Kings it was because the Nobles that were under him lived like Kings without subjection or obedience Or it is to make such a God to our selves as the Church of Rome makes Bishops in the East the one is called Bishop of Antioch another called Bishop of Jerusalem and Title enough they have if that would maintain them but nothing else Keep your Masters Commandments and love his Ordinances to do them and then God is Honoured Concerning Obedience read and observe the life and death of Saul he would sacrifice to God and that of the fattest Cattel among all the Flocks of the Amalekites Why this was Honour one would think No it was not juxta Verbum Domini according to the word which was brought unto him by the mouth of Samuel and God prefers Obedience before Sacrifice This is the reason says Aquine in Sacrifice we offer up the flesh of a beast but in Obedience we offer up our own will unto God The Jews did so much esteem the killing Letter of the Law that they wore it as the chief ornament of their Vesture in the Fringe of their Garments as Frontlets before their eyes and about the wrists of their hands mark but that before their eyes for meditation about their arms for practise and execution There is a rule in Physick says a learned Bishop Per brachium fit judicium de corde The Veins come from the heart to the hand and there Physicians take their Crisis by their Pulse and motion So it is in Divinity you must make conscience of your knowledge by your practice and obey the word David held the word of God super mille pondo auri argenti above thousands of Gold and Silver Solomon esteemed the Law to be as bright as the Sun in the Firmament Praeceptum Domini lucidum illuminans oculos You have heard of Idolaters that have worshipped the Sun and Moon Much more let true Believers reverence the Law of God which is brighter than the Sun in the Firmament for so Elias thought and he covered his face with a Mantle as soon as ever the Lord spake as if the voice of the Lord were eyes sufficient to see by and he needed not the eyes of this body But far above Kings and Prophets and all the Sons of men the holy Angels are so ready to do Gods will that you shall scarce once read in Scripture that they were bid to go of Gods Errand but before you could say Do this they were gone to dispatch the Lords Employment Surely as it was a great abasement for the Word which was God to be united to the flesh of man so it is a great Honour for man who is but flesh to be united in obedience to the Word of God To contract my self in this Point Remember what manner of Law it is that we should obey St. Paul says it is sancta justa bona holy in respect of God that gave it just toward all men in civil commerce good for our selves to live in peace and safety What yoke then is more easie than the yoke of that Law which is holy and just and good Now in the third place as the Air which we hear sounding in our ears by concretion says Philosophy becomes clear water and may be seen so the Word of God which we hear preached unto the Ear in the holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper becomes verbum visibile a visible word in wine and water Honour one and honour the other for though they be twain in the administration yet in effect they are but one and the same one in application of our Saviours merits and the mercies of God one in fruit and efficacy to wash away our sins and to cleanse our Soul For as the bright Constellation which we call the Morning and Evening Star is one and the same So Christ in Baptism is the Morning light which illuminates Infants anon after they peep into the world and Christ in his Last Supper is the Evening Star Vltimum viaticum a light to shew every man the right way out of the world that is going to Heaven As one said of Prayer that it was due unto God when we rise and when we go to bed as a Morning and an Evening Sacrifice and therefore it might be called Clavis diei sera noctis the Key to open the day and the Bolt to lock in the night So I may say of the two Sacraments that they
made him cry out These men came not in by Gods honorabo and therefore they went out with a mischief infelicity was the end of that honour which was not begun in humility Let my speech sink into the heart of all those whom God hath advanced to the rule of his People let the meanest find favour in their eyes as well as the greatest mercy and justice love and charity you owe them alike to all the world to Caius and Titius alike to Neighbour and Stranger An elegant Minstril if his Musick be delicious a sporting Stage-player and the like shall be admitted into the noblest Assemblies and I am sure it is better than sport and musick to a worthy Magistrate to hear a man oppressed with wrong relate his grievances and redress them Pudeat aspernari fratrem quem Deus non aspernatur filium says St. Austin Do not despise him for thy Brother whom God hath accepted for his Son This I have spoken for the first share of honour which God giveth in this life and that for these two ends in utilitatem humilitatem First to promote the publick good Secondly to be depress'd in humility But alas what do we speak of Promotions in great places this is small comfort to the poor man although it came from God A poor Philosopher told a rich man that invited him He was set at the lower end of the Table ut ultimum locum cohonestaret to bring the lowest room in credit So divers and very rare Personages are but underlings in this life ut ultimum locum cohonestarent but these may partake of honours in the second life from the voice of fame for the memorial of the just shall be blessed saith the Lord. Very briefly of this You have known loving Fathers bequeath somewhat to their Posthumi to their Babes which should be born after their decease in whom they could never take joy nor comfort so divers at the last gasp of their life have bequeathed Monuments and places of liberality to charitable uses to reap that glory after their decease which they should never hear of A question may be asked in this place if it be lawful to call Colleges or Free-Schools or Hospitals after the Founders names that posterity may know them and testifie their pious affection I must mollify the answer propter duritiam cordis vestri because of the hardness of mens hearts for I had rather allow it as good and give some indulgence to human infirmity which itcheth after praise than Structures of Charity should fail and the hands of the liberal should quite be dried up But this is truth without yielding one whit to mans frailty good works offend not because they are seen but when their upshot and scope is to be seen that their praise may be divulged Si times spectatores non habebis imitatores says Gregory as who should say it is good to have our light shine that men may behold and imitate it not that they may behold and applaud it as the Schoolmen express it ad profectum aliorum non ad ostentationem sui not for our own reputation but for our Brothers edification 'T is a sign of a generous and noble spirit to do good things among other scopes and intentions to purchase a good name contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes Certainly the propagation of a good name when it is not ambitiously coveted and affected it is a leaf of Gods own Chronicle and a blessing of many days wrought by his power who is the Ancient of days He that compared glory unto vertue as the shadow unto the body hit of a good similitude sometimes the shadow is cast before the body as when our glory is reported in our own ears Sometimes the shadow is cast behind the body as when the memory of our good deeds remains after us and this is from the Lord. Oblivion cast upon some is like the Plague of darkness cast upon Egypt Three Kings of Judah sprung from a wicked Race of whom our Saviour came touching the flesh are quite omitted in his Pedigree Mat. i. as if they had never been and who they were it shall not be named for me since the Holy Ghost despised to reckon them Tola judged Israel twenty three years and all that he did is not so much remembred as that Paul left his Cloak at Troas Joabs valour is forgotten among the Worthies of David because of his cruelty It is Alexander Hales his observation that the Scripture doth spend some Chapters to relate the Fall of Adam because Man recovered himself by the Promise made in Christ But not a word is spoken concerning the Fall of Lucifer and the Evil Angels neither in Moses nor the Prophets except it be under Parables and since it was their sin to rise against God they could not procure such an instance of their memory in Gods Books as to have the story of their Fall But a good name is a precious ointment an Ointment which is consecrated and made holy by the blessing of God Well let us proceed to the third and last portion of Gods Honour in tertio seculo aeterno in the life everlasting and here is comfort in the end For let the worst be made of the good mans fortune his calling is not honourable but private and his infamy perchance not private but publick Naboth dies for Cursing and Stephen for Blaspheming and both were innocent Now where is Honorabo What is become of the Honour that God promised And yet who deserved it better than such a man Nemo virtutem Sanctius coluit quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet No man loves Vertue more than he that had rather die with an ill name than with an ill conscience Where is such a mans Honour Where the Philosophers Country was when he pointed up to heaven Blessed are you says our Saviour when men revile you and speak all manner of evil falsly on you for my Names sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven There no Julian is an Emperour no Sanballat a Magistrate nor Caiphas an High Priest Si Honor diligitur illic quaeratur ubi nemo indignus honoratur says St. Austin Double my portion there O Lord and as Mephibosheth said Let Ziba take all and surely this Honour is best agreeable to the Text Honorabo I will honour him It is a blessing in future at such a time I may say when time shall be no more Not as the Gloss hath it Qui benè utitur dignitate conservabo eum in statu dignitatis suae He that manageth any promotion of Honour justly and faithfully I will keep him in it and not cast him down Nay admit that faithfulness and just dealing be an occasion to cast him down the sooner as it befel Aristides still Honorabo is a good promise when greatness is eclipsed upon Earth heaven stands sure and there the condition of this promise
non in domo sed in viâ nascitur Our Saviour himself was born but in an Inn as if he took up his lodging for a night in this world and were but a Passenger They that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine aris focisque without an hearth to kindle a fire says Aristotle of all men they were the most poor and wretched That is no good Divinity says St. Austin writing concerning the tears of Judah by the waters of Babylon Mirum hoc esset si aliquò duci poterant ubi Deus eorum non esset If they that were hurried into Babylon could be carried away where God was not with them then and not till then their translation were a misery But as the Israelites removed from one journey to another according as the Pillar of smoke did remove by day and the Pillar of fire by night so I tell you of such men in my Text that turned their station every where as Gods Glory and his Worship did direct them Whether it be affliction or whether it be fear to give offence when we are in a strange Land sure I am somewhat is in it that makes such men most careful of their Religious Conversation Deborah found the Kenites those sojourners most ready to pursue that Tyrant Sisera Jehu could find no man to cleave unto him against the Idolatry of Baal but even this Jonadab the Founder of this order of the Rechabites who renounce all Mansion dwelling and vow for ever to live in Tents And as Abigail said to David Let thine Handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the Servants of my Lord the King So Jonadab puts his Children in a way to think themselves not worthy of Cities and Possessions among the Royal Nation whom God had chosen but Shepherds they must be and underlings to tend the Flocks of the Servants of the Lord. Foelix illud saeculum fuit ante architectonas says one Fair buildings and curious houses had they been unreared the Kitchins had not been plied so much to provide Banqueting and Luxury It was a scoff cast upon the Rhodians that they built as if they would live three Ages and they fed as if they would die in three days As if their fair Palaces moved them to make Feasts and their Feasts were occasions to make them surfeit and to sleep out their days in a Lethargy You shall not wag your heads another day at these mens Tenements and cry woe unto the houses that were built by Extortion The stone out of the Wall and the Beam of the Roof cannot condemn the Master You shall not censure them as Seneca did his own Country-men the Romans Vnicuique suum si restituerent ad casas reducerentur If every Nation whom they have robb'd and spoiled had their own they would have nothing left them but that which they began with their Shepherds Cottages And when you have erected such a place that you may set your name upon it says the Psalmist yet what have you done but pay'd Tribute where ye needed not says Plutarch Quare homines in auratis lectis dormiant c. Why should men put themselves to such cost to pay for their sleep when if they will chuse the open fields with Vriah or chuse a Tent with the Rechabites it will cost them little or nothing Nay some are so curious that they will not only have their houses for their lives but set up Tombs for their dead Carkasses before they die Nay they dare endite Hic jacet upon their Monument when they are yet alive when God knows whether their dust shall be scattered into all the quarters of the earth This that hath been spoken may serve to let you know how plausible it did seem to Jonadab to institute such a Vow because his Brethren were strangers in the Land of Jury And secondly it was well considered because their fortune might turn worse and worse they might be greater strangers For who is he that had not heard the threatning of the Babylonish Captivity Nay There are Psalms of Thanksgiving for their joyful return in the Prophet David Did not Solomons heart misgive him in this matter Observe but one passage in his heavenly Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple 1 Kings ix 46. If they carry us away captive into the Land of the enemies far or near and thy people repent then hear our supplication in heaven and maintain our cause The time drew so near that Jeremy and many Prophets spoke of it as if the Calamity were already begun in the borders of the Country Now when Captivity did ring in their ears who would only live as if one day would be every day and never provide for the Evening sorrow which might fall upon them Who would not exercise his mind to know what it was to lose Who would not cast away his burden against the flight of persecution So did the Rechabites For when the Chaldaeans should sweep away the people as an Ox licketh the grass they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Wain could carry them their Tent and their Family Tectumque laremque armaque it was but a progress to pass over Euphrates but great was the sorrow of all the Tribes leaving their Houses and Vineyards it made Jeremy endite a book of Lamentation Noah left all he had unto the world seven days before the Floud began and what got they who thought him foolish and themselves happy to divide the spoils Lot forsook his house and the Sodomites did not enjoy it an hour who succeeded him A good Christian is indifferent to be cast into any mould by the hand of God He that is prepared to die but one kind of death is not yet fit to be a Martyr And he that is prepared to live but one kind of life is not yet fit to be a Confessor for the name of Christ A good Actor says Synesius can represent either Creon or Telephus and all is one in his skil to play the Prince or the Bondslave Hence ariseth all the misery of mankind says Athenagoras in Plutarch Quod quippiam nobis inexpectato accidit That something befals us which we did not expect nor were provided for it Foolish men who love nothing but their present life are like bad roots that grow sullen if you remove them from the earth that feeds them There is no life to Shemei if he may not run at random and rail and backbite in every corner As good it were to hang him out of the way as to confine him to one City though it were Jerusalem Such as can look no further into the world than that they may retire to their own home if need be are comprized under the Emblem of the Snail that goes a very little space from her Shell with this word Si pluit ingrediar a dash of rain drives them back again Your constant setled man is made for every fortune that is cast upon him his Emblem is Corpus quadratum
double condition of our sinful nature homo nec fructum servat operationis nec statum rectitudinis the rectitude of innocency is turned crooked in us and then it is impossible we should bring forth the fruit of good works The Soul stands upright when it desires to be with Christ but it is bowed down with a spirit of infirmity when our treasure is upon earth You know how Gedeon's choice Souldiers did drink of the Brook putting water in their hands and lapping like a Dog but the rest bowed down to the River to drink upon their knees ver 6. Whereupon Gregory took occasion to shew symbolically what different postures our spiritual and our carnal appetite have in partaking those things they love mundi aqua bibitur facie pronâ in terram fons aquae viventis facie supinâ we drink the waters beneath with our face bowed down to the earth we drink the waters of life with our face and eyes turned up to Heaven To him that walks in a Valley every Shrub is tall that grows upon the top of a Mountain so perhaps our pleasures seem aloft to us and not to lie so low as the bottom of a Well because we our selves do walk in the shadow of death and in the valley of corruption An ambitious man will scarce believe his soul is bowed down when he seeks for honour but rather that aspiring to a grand Title doth lift up his thoughts O that you did stand upon a Pinacle of faith and from thence look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith and you would then acknowledg that all these empty clouds did fly below you Why do you not expect the grace of God and pray often unto him when wilt thou make good thy promise to me O Lord which thou hast spoken to me O Lord Es lviii 14. Thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth Sustollam te super altitudines terrae O that I could be exalted above the earth then would I not bow down my soul to draw forth vanity from this deep Well and nothing but the waters of bitterness You see what these waters are there is no permanency in them they flit away and yet we draw them from the very depth of Hell with much toil and carefulness and it is disputable with St. Austin which of the two be more commodious to man labor in hauâ—iendo affligens aut sitis crucians but after the labour of our body to draw them forth follows the greediness of our heart to be filled with them we drink them down All things were made for man the pleasures of art and wit the abundance of the whole World the Myrrh and Frankincense of one India the Gold and Silver of the other Divinity must not deny you that which is your own The great God is as liberal to us as He was to his own People but he gave them the labours of the Heathen in possession that they might keep his Laws Carnalis populus si parva non acciperet magna non credoret says Gregorianus As Caleb and Joshua brought a bunch or two of Grapes to let the people see what a rich Land it was which the Lord had promised so a Modicum is allotted to us for our present use that we may look for a real and more substantial treasure in Heaven And indeed this is the purpose of my Text to commend the Grace of God above all things but not altogether to contemn his Creatures The Crime reproved is to swallow them down like drink that runs in all our veins and is presently incorporated into our bloud and spirits as a learned Author says that a greedy heart hath animam triticeam not an heavenly spirit but a wheaten soul altogether projecting for outward means it must have bread it must have store the Barn must be thwackt full the provision must be able to serve many years such wheaten cogitations make a wheaten soul By such another Catechresis I may say out of my Text that a greedy tipling desire makes a drunken soul an unsatiated mind is as brutish a Monster as Job's Behemoth He drinketh up a river he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth David would not drink of that water which was brought from the Well of Bethel with the jeopardy of his Servants bloud therefore he poured it out to the Lord but our desires fetch such things unto us which are brought with the hazard of that which is better than life David hath shewed us the way what is to be done pour them forth unto the Lord if they be sinful pleasures by repentance if they be riches by alms and charity By all means pour them forth lest they consume us like those waters in the Levitical Law which the Priest gave to the Woman suspected for Adultery if she were defiled the waters turn'd bitter and did rot her thigh and she became a curse among all the people It is a prefiguration I do verily think of that diseaseful rottenness which doth oftentimes in these days befall Adultery And as the rottenness goes before so be sure the curse will come behind it I might be copious from this Allegory in my Text that a wanton appetite is a drunken disease but I will contract it by shewing one dissimilitude he that pours any liquor into his body it is to cherish himself but the most men drink greedily of worldly things to make others swell and heap up riches that their children may gather them So the Son often times vomits up that wealth whereof the Father surseited for you shall never purchase so much as your Posterity would sell away in the third or fourth Generation The good Father thought he said enough to discipline an avaritious fool when he bad him number his days which were very short and therefore cut shorter his covetous desires which were very long Longa nostra desideria increpat vita brevis Alas says Nabal I measure not my necessities by the span of my own life but according to the breadth and length of all my Posterity who must enjoy these things after me I shall answer it with a Paradox yet it is such a rule as I never saw many exceptions against it If your children love gains as well as you have done they will thrive though you leave them but a little If they regard not Parsimony as you have done they will break and decay though you bequeath them a great treasure Lighten your self therefore of these superfluous burdens which you carry like a Camel for their sakes that will never bear them after you And if God have given you a large Issue be you more bountiful in Alms-deeds and Charity as St. Cyprian reasons Pro pluribus placandus est eleemosynis as Job offered Sacrifices to God according to the number of his Sons and Daughters So must you offer up gifts unto the Lord
from thence he assists his Sacraments sanctifieth his Ministry gives grace unto his Word And if they did not escape who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven Secondly Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head but in the Members I do not say in all the Members for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part Some there are in this Body whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity yet in true possession which shall never be taken from them they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are above Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part fellow Servants with us under one Lord adopted Sons under one Father Elect under one Christ This is the language of the Scripture and surely Members of one Mystical Body for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos ii 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle for when I speak of such a Church says St. Austin in his retractations I mean none but those in Heaven After these that make the front and first File of our March there are many among us I trust who have their part in this description Jerusalem which is above the Elect of God the Church invisible invisible I say not for their persons but for their qualites for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit Cusanus says very well that there is no certain judgment to be made by the outward fruits who are living Members of the Church but in Infants that are newly baptized With the mouth we confess the truth but with the heart man believes unto righteousness and only God can see the heart But these whose integrity their Master knows and loves no matter in what base condition they wander here they are greater by far than the ungodly that over-peer them in promotion they are above indeed for they are as high as the pinacle of blessedness and their names are written in the Book of Life for their sakes God hath dropt down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Houshold of Christ but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered have carped at this as if we removed all from the Church but such as are Israel in occulto and have their sins forgiven in Christ It was never our meaning neither can we help it but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord or else it had excluded them Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici says St. Cyprian What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation since he deserves to be cast out he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ praesumptivè non veraciter as Spalatensis says because we presume he is faithful though indeed he is the Child of the Devil numero non merito he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the steight gate he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above Thirdly We have obtained this dignity to be ranked as them that are above because our calling is very holy He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. i. 9. called to Doctrin which is above which flesh and bloud did not reveal but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Theophilact upon my Text God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice for take a Breviary of it and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptized the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs the spirit of Bishops and Doctors the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth and shed their bloud for the Truth 's sake We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions in Faith and Hope in Prayer and Charity not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Beware of those of the Concision says St. Paul and among bad marks which they carry this is the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mind earthly things that is they are pleased with carnal Ordinances with these low and beggerly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel and the practice thereof says he nostra politeia our way of serving God our manner of worship is in Heaven So Bernard says that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon speaking of the New Testament says Quae est ista quae ascendit Cant. iii. 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness perfumed with mirrh and frankincense with all the powders of the Merchant Above all we are called to holy actions which savour not of mans passions and purposes but are qualified from above Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude our temperance heavenly temperance our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality but the moral deeds of the Heathen living out of the Church that had the best gloss upon them were smutcht with some bad vapour below and every grane of vertue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity And what exceeds all that I have said beside to make our calling heavenly and holy God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son that where an unfit instrument may seem to marr all by his extravagant profaneness by his impenitent conscience nay by his heretical pravity yet Christs presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments but their efficacy is free and current to the people though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation As the Posterity of Jacobs Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan