that can turn stones into bread is it not as easie for him to turn hunger into satiety And had this been a good Angel as he was I believe the worst of the bad should he instruct Christ what to do Sus Minervam Who hath been the Counsellor of the Lord Says the Prophet Quid illi consilium tuum cui sua sufficit virtus What Spirit can teach him wisdom who giveth wisdom to the simple and hides these things from the wise and prudent Now argue if there be any thing but infidelity to ask such a sign for the Devils sake The working of a miracle is ever destinated to win some to the faith that were weak before or upon some other divine reason to promote Gods glory Where the Fathers glory could not be advanced by signs and wonders the Son kept his miracles to himself No sign was wrought before Herod though he did much desire it for his heart was set upon perverseness to withstand the power of God And Christ did not many mighty works in his own country because of their unbelief And so says St. Cyprian it had been against all rule and equity to have wrought a miracle in the Desart Coram inemandibili Diabolo before that Fiend of hell who is incorrigible and uncapable of faith He that can turn water into wine can turn stones into bread but the Devil is so obdurate in malice past all grace and repentance that the very stones in the street shall sooner confess that Jesus is the Christ than he will give glory to the Living God Chrysologus plays his part again upon this Point You that haunt the Wilderness to tempt the Son of God what would you do with a sign from heaven Cui nihil subvenit ad salutem cui totum restat ad paenam cui signa proficiunt ad ruinam Nothing will help thee nothing will resore thee All the good that is done in thy presence shall turn to thy punishment All the miracles that ever were wrought shall make for thine everlasting torment And so I have shewed whether the Tempter called for stones to be made bread for Christs sake or for his own sake every way it was unjust every way it was the note of Infidelity So far I have taught you from the first Point that the scope of this first temptation was the sin of Infidelity and from thence I have illustrated that above all other mischiefs Satan suggests deceitful perswasions that God careth not for us and labours to dissolve the confidence which we have in God Now this is the sum and head of the second general part of the Text that we must strive to take away the Devils I F this spirit of distrust and have affiance in Christ that we are the Sons of God And because this Doctrine comes all to one pass with that which is called certitude of Salvation a Doctrine which in my judgment is abused very often both by them which defend it too rigidly and by them that oppose it totally therefore I will institute a methodical tractate upon it in these five members 1. That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful touching the remission of their sins in this life 2. The Holy Ghost doth beget this assurance in them by causing them to examine what good fruits they have produced already from a lively faith and do resolve to produce thereafter 3. This comfortable assurance is not the formal act of justifying faith but an effect which follows it 4. This assurance is not alike in all that are regenerate nor at all times alike 5. No mortified humble Christian must despair or afflict his heart because scruples arise in his mind so that he cannot attain to a strong confidence or assurance in Christs mercies He that can attain but to a conjectural hope or some beginnings of gracious comfort shall be blessed before God who will not quench the smoaking flax And upon all these I will be very plain because it is a necessary Treatise for the weaker capacities You shall hear the first conclusion again and the proofs upon it That the Holy Ghost doth beget a true and an humble assurance in many of the faithful that their sins are remitted There are two degrees of justifying faith the one is a lively assent to the general promise of the Gospel that Christ came into the world to save all those that believe The other is the application of it to a mans self that he is thine and my Saviour By the former we are justified before God by the latter we are perswaded in our conscience and in some measure assured of our justification The former degree is the work of the Spirit regenerating us the latter is the Spirit of adoption sealing it to us after we have believed Every man is bound upon pain of damnation to have the first degree of faith to give assent to the Promise of the Gospel And the second degree may be attained unto out of the former and ought to be endeavoured for the great increase of our love and obedience to God and for our own most singular comfort yet it is not commanded to all the faithful upon pain of damnation Many times a true justifying faith but a weak and imperfect faith cannot get so far therefore I said the Holy Ghost did beget this assurance in some measure in many of the faithful I had said false if I had said in all And I called it you must mark an humble assurance for first it hath many quiverings and trepidations many symptomes of fear and trembling no rash and audacious presumption Secondly It grows out of the acknowledgment that for sundry iniquities we deserved the condemnation of the Law For they that feel not their misery will neglect their misery and never care to apply Christ unto themselves But the humble will seek the Lord and rejoyce in his saving health and then they have not only an intellectual but a fiducial assent to the Promises of the Gospel and that fiducia or assent doth arise out of the very nature of true faith yet I do not say that true faith in all that have it doth put forth this act as it ought and as it may but every faithful man hath such a foundation upon which he may build an actual assurance if he will rightly consider his own state to which God hath called him the Lords custody over him and the faithfulness of the divine Promises The efficient cause of this fiducial perswasion I said was the Holy Ghost and I am sure I have it from our Saviour Joh. 14.20 at that day that is after the sending of the Holy Ghost you shall know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you Can any thing be plainer Indeed general Promises are particularly applied by the Sacraments which seal unto us the bloud of Christ that it was shed for the sins of this and that
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
sufficient bigness to hold those three thousand that were converted ver 41. of this Chapter To that other Circumstance also that the men and women are said to be sitting in the house when this blessing came down upon them I have little to add I love reverence of gesture with all my soul yet I love not to be so nice as some that hold it so necessary for the Apostles to be humbled on their knees when the grace of God fell on them that they say the meaning of the Text is not sitting but kneeling howsoever the words go and that to sit signifies not the posture of their body but their habitation I confess and believe if they had lookt for the Comforter at that moment they would have cast themselves down upon the ground when the Majesty of God was in the place and I perswade my self they did instantly kneel and give thanks as soon as they perceived what mighty work God had wrought upon them But remember they were taken suddenly and unawares in some honest communication no doubt And being so unprovided why might not Christ begin this Miracle while they were sitting as well as Christ appear from heaven to Paul as he was riding or God appear unto Moses while he was keeping sheep Excellently Cajetan Non horreo sessionem corporalem cum nihil indecens inducat I am not scrupulous or troubled at their sitting as long as it was done with no obstinate irreverent disobedient affection O but the Roman Missal for this day hath this Hymn Orantibus Discipulis Deum venisse nunciat While they were at their prayers they mean kneeling the sound gave them warning that the Holy Ghost was come Well this case is quickly resolved their Hymn is mistaken and let them mend their Missal and not mend the Scripture Is there any thing more to be extracted out of this last Point One thing and that is all It is a remarkable note of a most acute Father of our own Church Thus This Wind filled not all the Country or all Jerusalem but that house where they sate Nay says he and very truly that Room only of the house where they were assembled One Room for an whole house is a frequent Synechdoche Natural Winds breath over many places at once but this Wind blew electivè by choise and discretion The Spirit blows upon certain places where it will and upon certain persons and they shall plainly feel it and others about them not a whit It is a peculiar wind appropriate to the place where the Apostles are that is the Church else where to seek it is but folly the place it bloweth in is Sion This is the Divinity of that great Scholar Bishop Andrews that the Spirit hath not cast an universal diffusion over all the world but it blows by election and choise that is at Gods good will and pleasure upon that place only where Christ hath his Church For what use can they make or have they ever made of the Spirit to whom the name of Christ and salvation in his bloud was never revealed The purpose of giving the Holy Ghost is to make the Seed of the Word fruitful in our hearts that we may believe the Gospel that we may live holily according to the profession of our Faith and that through faith which must work by love if it be true faith we may be saved AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE Descent of the Holy Ghost ACTS ii 3. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them OF all Mysteries of all Visions of all Revelations which the Church ever had this that is conteined in my Text hath one peculiar blessing that it is most easie to be understood I can give no reason for it but this that as natural light makes all colours visible to our eyes and it self most visible so the Holy Ghost causeth all celestial Doctrin that concerns eternal salvation to be revealed to the knowledg of faith and makes himself to be most apparent and intelligible Therefore I cannot but observe it unto you that some Angel or some Saint departed did always interpose their presence at the other mighty works of the Gospel only they forbore to shew themselves at this Feast of Pentecost upon the sending of the Holy Ghost I will spread this before you in a trice and my conjecture upon it At the Nativity of our Saviour many Angels were employed to divulge it At his Transfiguration Moses and Elias appeared to ratifie it At his Agony in the Garden an Angel waited there to strengthen him At his Resurrection two Angels in white appeared in his Sepulcher to glorifie him And lastly at his Ascension two others clad in as white apparel as they did testifie of him But upon the descending of the Holy Ghost the Angels did quite withdraw themselves I am sure they came not in any bodily shape into the place where the Apostles were gathered together for that were as the Proverb says facem soli praeferre to light a candle before the Sun at noon day and that illustrates all things can be illustrated by nothing but by himself This is the comfort then of my Text that we have light on every side to walk in this is the great latitude of the benefit conteined in it that it gives us vocem scientiam linguam ignem both tongue and fire both science and elocution sapere fari quae sentiat to conceive clearly that which is fit to be learnt and to utter distinctly that which is wisely conceiv'd And therefore in one word we owe unto this blessed day both completely to be made happy and completely to know our happiness No marvel if the Old Church many hundred years since which was most prudent in appointing Festivals did constitute that between Easter and Whitsuntide all the fifty dayes should be destinated to joy and gladness that all the people should sing haleluja with a loud voice so often as they met in their holy Assemblies that there should be no fasting days no mourning no not so much as the dejection of kneeling on the ground but to stand and pray all that space of time these Fathers were exceeding full of ceremony to express the gladness which they had for the gift of the Holy Ghost And therefore Bernard calls the Lenten strictness that goes before Easter Quadragesimam luctus paenitentiae the fourty days of godly sorrow and repentance but he calls the time following to Whitsuntide Quinquagesimam gaudii the fifty days of Exaltation for our joy doth surpass our sorrow At Easter we are assured by Christs Resurrection that the body shall rise from corruption at Whitsuntide these firy tongues do manifest that the Soul shall rise from darkness and ignorance and be partaker of the marvelous light And because this mighty miracle was communicated to the Apostles in most sensible objects therefore I told you the last year that the third person
disputation but to inward examination how you look to be freed from the fire of Hell when you shall stand before the Judgment Seat of God Will you trust to inherent righteousness and say it will be well for me this good I have done Or to the imputed justice of Christ which is true and perfect justice and pleaseth the eyes of God O there is no ground can be laid for peace and salvation but in his righteousness that justifieth a sinner They that carp at this take them from their sentences and quodlibets and search what they say in their Books of Devotions Manuals of Prayer Graduals of love and repentance Meditations of Death then nothing comes from them but O Lord deliver us O Saviour redeem us O Son of God remember not that which is past then they never fly to the bloudy Altar of the Law but to the Sanctuary of the Gospel In a word whosoever refers his justification in any part to a legal righteousness is yet in bondage but Jerusalem which is above is free It is this Covenant of Faith that turneth away the captivity of Jacob. Now under the Discipline of Faith the Spirit attracts us by love and meek perswasions it doth not threaten and bend the fist at us as the Law did and that 's the third part of bondage which our Jerusalem hath escaped it is not awed with compulsion and fear but it follows the direction of the Spirit with gladness which is the next step to the state of Angels It is not good for a Child to be too much scar'd by Praeceptors and Governours such nipping weather is an enemy to a flourishing Spring Then imagine what a shivering Ague it was to the Israelites Sons of God but not yet come to age as St. Paul describes them to struggle with so many austere Statutes as Moses gave them Scourgings loss of eyes loss of limbs burning stoning forfeiting the life of a man for the trespass of a beast losing the right hand for a casualty a moral man that knew not the strictness of Gods Judgments would say for a trifle Add unto these so many pollutions circumstantial natural that could not be helpt to be expiated with continual cost and labour add above all these that noise of Malediction louder than thunder Cursed is he that doth not continue in all the words of this Law to do them amidst these terrours that came so thick as they were good to bridle stubbornness so many generous resolutions of the mind that would have put forth must needs be suffocated The Angel of God when he came with a message from heaven and would have it intelligently received likely he began with this Preface Fear not Nay God did deliver this People from the fear of Pharaoh and his Host before ever he would give them a Law to serve him Men that are held to their Tasque by minacies Magis aguntur quà m agunt He that doth a thing out of love is carried to it by an internal complacency he is a self mover and the action is his own he that goes forward to his Tasque because the scourge is behind him the action is not his own raptatur ad obsequium his will rows against the stream but the Tide is so strong that it carries him with it by Coaction And that harvest of obedience which is reapt with the Sickle of stern dominion and threatning when all is done it is not worth the bringing into the barn For it keeps a man that he dares not break out into a scandalous transgression of the Law Is not that all The External Act is smooth and conformable to justice But what reformation is there all that while in the heart It is not fear but love which takes upon it to cure the concupiscence which is in the mind If there be no better School-master than fear the body may worship God alone and the mind remain an Idolater A longer declaration of this there needs not We all know that a Palsie of fear will shake Judgment out of the wit The Oratour that pleaded upon peril of his life Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram he would pronounce but badly and surely much of the imperfections of the Jews may be imputed to this that the Law did subject them to the Spirit of Bondage It is the Spirit of the New Testament which turns us about and sets us free from the superciliousness of the Law and it would have us please the Lord for his mercies sake and out of the sense of his goodness it exhorts us that our service should grow out of his favours and our duty out of his bounty and benefits so shall there be alacrity and readiness in the soul to all manner of vertue as well as passive obsequiousness in the body The Schoolmen observe it rightly that filial fear which is the freedom and ingenuity of obedience riseth out of the love of God but servile fear which is a plain captivity of Spirit riseth out of the love of our selves The Servant who goes through his Tasque that he may not suffer correction would do as much as may keep his skin whole that is for love of himself A Son that honoureth his Father and rejoyceth to hear his voice seeks his Fathers glory that he may receive of his glory and this is purely out of the love of God No wonder therefore if this hath redounded to far more fruits than ever the tree of the Law did bear which was pelted and beaten For as one hath noted it well Gods Church hath increased more by the love of God than by the terrour which he sent in the old time but when persecutions were rife it increased more by the terrours of men than by their love The use of it is that we serve God as those that are past the Spirit of bondage reverently with fear and chearfully without fear Faith is the great promoter of reverential fear and breeds in us an awe of Gods Majesty and a dread of his glory as the Cherubins do cover their faces with their wings before him This is clean and pure refined in the flame of love caused neither by sin nor punishment but it reflects upon the baseness of our own substance the Creature compares its own vileness with the infinite excellency of the Creator and so approacheth with all due distance of humility But Faith again cools the inflammation of servile fear with the water of Baptism wherein we were sprinkled with the bloud of Christ It teacheth us to decline offences with all care and study not to escape punishment but out of gratitude to him who hath done so great things for us It ingenders an ardent sollicitousness to be unblameable not because the wrath of the Lord is terrible when he is displeased but because his Mercy and Redemption deserve to be recompenced with all manner of obedience Labour for that integrity which is expected from one that is free from sin but a servant to
veritas displiceat seditiosa After his Majestie 's return and restauration of the Church of England he prayed for nothing more in this World than the downfal of Mahomet and the resurrection of the Greek Empire and Church again and would say he thought in his complexion and Religion both that he was the greatest Anti-Ottoman in Europe he was extremely afflicted for poor Hungary the Antimurale or Bulwark of Christendom in the last Invasion and consequently for the horrible division of Christians through the juglings of the Papacy for which reason he could not yet foresee which way possible they should unite under one General who might be able to put an Hook into the jaws of Mahomet and repulse the Grand Signior into Arabia again or to his Scythian Cottages and therefore he never hoped for this happy time till he saw the Papacy fall first which yet he hoped should never be brought to pass by those Infidels though he was very much affected with the words of Musculus spoken above a hundred years ago Ecclesia Sancti Petri sic aedificatur Romae ut ad plenum aedificata sit nunquam citiùsque destruenda sit a Turcis quà m ad finem structurae perducenda a Romanis He took the Pope to be an ill Member of Christendom yet would have no man desire the Devil should pull him down viz. the Turk or Goths and Vandals viz. German Anabaptists and Socinians for fear the change should be for the worse the Italians were a civil people and lovers of learning the Anabaptists of Germany more ignorant and bloudy far than they From this civility of his own temper he did not much love to fix the Title of Antichrist upon the Papacy yet believed that our learned Divines Mr. Mede and Dr. More especially had with that great learning in all kinds so charg'd this crime upon Him that he admired his Champions who daily scatter books of all other matters could permit their supreme Pontife to be so slander'd if it were not true and he thought it frivolous for them to write upon other controversies before they were able to clear themselves before all the world of this Capital one and which being true concluded all other crimes in it Though a reconciliation of all Christians were desireable yet he held it impossible to be effected as long as the Doctrines of their Churches Infallibility and the Popes Supremacy were so obstinately maintain'd The Pope was now become like a Blazing-star dreadful to all Potentates and Rulers and therefore whereas his two great Friends Bishop Vsher and Mr. Mede out of Apocalyptical Principles were of opinion that there would be a general Apostacy and Dagon set upon his feet again he could not believe it For he never feared Christian Princes would be so forsaken of their own understandings and other Counsellers as to resign their own Crowns to adorn a foreign Mitre especially when both Mr. Selden and Sir Robert Cotton had told him they could shew undoubted testimonies that all the Princes in Christendom envied Henry the Eighth's Act in this kind and would gladly have imitated him if they durst But this he imputed to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or want of Magnanimity in them who would not endeavour to recover their own rights in calling Councils presenting to Churches and other Flowers of their Crowns unjustly deteined from them by the See of Rome and therefore ever prayed the Kings of England might still retein their own just Supremacy without giving up their Regalia to any foreign Jurisdiction He thought the increase of Popery ought to be strictly watched not only for the perniciousness of the Tenents of their Heterodox Religion in themselves as being in his opinion Idolatrous and favouring of Rebellion but likewise for the cruelty and sanguinary minds of Papists themselves that whereas all Protestants express a charitable respect towards the souls and bodies of all Papists abhorring all bloudy Persecutions of them on the other side Designant nos oculis ad mortem Papists ever bear bloudy minds towards us and want nothing but power and opportunity to make as many Bonfires in England as they had done formerly and whereas in their excuse some say that the many late Treasons against their Princes were but the private Acts of some particular Papists then he wondred no Pope should ever think fit to send out his Bull to declare that he abhorred them or that none of their learned men should print books licensed by authority wherein they were renounced which he would have given a great deal of money to read The Bishop was an enemy to all separation from the Church of England of whatsoever Faction or Sect But their hypocrisie he thought superlative that allowed the Doctrine and yet would separate for mislike of the Discipline these mens impudence outwent all preceding Histories and he would challenge any to shew him in all Antiquity for 1500 years where any Christian withdrew from the Churches Communion much less rose up against lawful Governors for their imposition of indifferent matters or Ceremonies though in ancient times they imposed more than we do now All that were baptized were presented in White Garments which the Priest charged them to keep white and undefiled to the Coming of the Lord and they used not only the Sign of the Cross but praegustatio mellis lactis intimating that they were now brought to the Land of Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey Standing at Prayers was required upon all Lords-days between Easter and Whitsuntide and Prayer with their hands extended after the similitude of a Cross sometimes which must needs be very tedious and so many other things in St. Austin's time that his complaint is well known Tolerabilior erat Judaeorum conditio yet no Separate Churches were then set up for these things Truth is he thought the permission of Conventicles did shew great irresolution and unsatisfaction in the Truth administred great tentation to Shopkeepers and sedentary people to be tainted with errors and novelties of which the English temper is too receptive people being generally vain and whimsically sceptical and never to be satisfied like Him in the Talmud that would alwayes be questioning why the Sun rose in the East and set in the West to whom it was answered if it should do otherwise he would still complain to know the reason But above all he held we ought to become wise by former experience for Conventicles in Corporations were the Seminaries out of which the Warriours against the King and the Church came and therefore would much admire that if any man coin'd false money it was counted Treason if any man cheated a Pupil or an Orphan he was punisht or if he spread false News he was lyable to suffer for it but if any man publish'd false Divinity to the damnation of souls or perverting the minds of people from their obedience to their Governors there was little or no regard of it Beside he
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
brought with him lookt another way Titus ii 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Some few persons are culled out here for all that shall be shielded under the buckler of this Saviour unto you a Saviour is born says the Angel speaking only to the Shepherds that 's because no more were in the way But to as many as read these words and mark them the word speaks continually and is never silent the message is as properly brought to you as ever it was to the Shepherds to you a Saviour is born The Prophet Isaiah allows him to all the Sons of Adam that will lay claim unto him unto us a Child it born and unto us a Son is given Isa ix 6. 'T is a kind expression to rejoyce at the good news of another mans prosperity 't is incident to a sweet nature to do so And indeed if Angels were so enlightned with the gladsomness of our benefit that when they had said it over they could not choose but sing it also in the verses after my Text Cum de aliena gratia Angeli exultent quae nostra est stupiditas If the blessed Cherubims exult for the grace that we find in Gods eyes what stupidness is in us if our hearts do not triumph for gladness for the benefit flows unto us and not unto the Angels The Devils fretted and roared out against Christ because he came into the world for mans sake and not for their deliverance Quid nobis tibi What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God we renounce thee Mat. viii 29. The evil spirits rage that he is not theirs the good Spirits of God rejoyce that his Father hath made him all ours being secure of their own glorious estate they triumph that we shall be exalted to the fellowship of their happiness Well then to you he is born not only to the Shepherds but inclusive to all men so you have heard in the former verse his birth was gaudium omni populo joy to all people only they are excluded that exclude themselves by infidelity Facit multorum infidelitas ut non omnibus nasceretur qui omnibus natus est says St. Ambrose the infidelity of many now infidelity is properly imputed to those within the Church who had the means to believe and did not the infidelity of many is a bar that the Incarnation of Christ pertains not to all men although he was born for all men Every man therefore must strive so to love Christ and to keep his Commandements that he may feel the joy of this day particularly enter into his heart and the Spirit testifying to his spirit unto me a Saviour is born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Greeks it comes of the possessive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tuus a Saviour restoreth every man to himself for a sinner is lost not only to God and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven but he is lost to himself and to the comfort of a good conscience until Christ restore him again to joy and peace within his own heart that he may say to himself as Philip did to Nathanael I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth c. Oportet uti nostro in utilitatem nostram de servatore salutem operari says Bernard Let us make our profit from that which is our own and let every man collect his own salvation from his own Saviour To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings Mal. iv 2. The Sun enlightens half the world at once yet none discern colours by the light but they that open their eyes and a Saviour is born unto us all which is Christ the Lord but enclasp him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms and then thou mayst sing his Nunc Dimittis or Mary's Magnificat My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour The fourth thing to be consider'd is what early tidings the Shepherds had of our Saviours birth hodie natus I do not tell it to you says the Angel after a month or after a week go to Bethlehem and search and ye shall find this is the first day that his Mother bore him This day is born unto you in the City of David c. Before the blessed seed was promised for a long while ye have had a state in reversion that Christ should come in the flesh to save his people from their sins now the act is accomplished ye have a state in being enter upon your happiness and possess it reckon from henceforth that you have your joy in hand this day the great deliverer hath taken up a poor Palace in the City of David According to a natural computation of days we forget the nights though an Infant be brought forth in the still hours of darkness yet from thenceforth we call it the Birth-day and not the birth-night of such an Infant In such accompts I know not how we speak of nothing but day for that 's the Dialect of the Kingdom of Heaven where there is day for ever and no darkness So the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night and after the first hour the morning began as the general conjecture runs our Saviour was born yet since a natural day comprehends darkness as well as light the Angel was pleas'd to say This day he is born This is literal and to the plain meaning yet I refrain not their allusions altogether that say the darkness was remov'd away by that radiant glory which shone round about the Angels and that the night was as clear in those parts as if the Sun had risen upon the earth therefore upon the comfort of that miraculous illumination the messenger says This day is born unto you And David by some men is made to speak to this allusion Psal cxxxviii The night is as clear as the day which was true say they at our Saviours Incarnation Others take their liberty to guess that good tidings make the night be called day and sad tidings make the day be called night Heavy misfortunes indeed have fallen out in the night for the most part Sennacheribi great host slain in the night Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken from thee a threatning to the rich Epicure yet it holds not always But if Christ be the day-star and his Birth turns night into day it will become us as the Apostle says to walk as children of the light Curiosity hath gone too far in one question touching this part of my Text why this late day was esteemed most expedient in Gods wisdom to send his Son in the flesh four thousand years had almost expir'd since the seed of the Woman was promised to bruise the Serpents head and yet no sooner then hodie say they that will search in to all causes the Angel said to day but why he came punctually on that
for us and by imputation to bear our iniquities is part of those unknown torments of our Saviour which cannot be uttered Christo innocentissimo maxima fuit crux tradi iniquitati says one it was not such a sorrow to Christ to be delivered up to Caiaphas to Pilate to the Souldiers to the Cross as to be bound over to carry the mass of all our sins upon his shoulders Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the Cross 1 Pet. ii 17. Moriar prae amore amoris tui Domine O let me die for love of that great love of thine O Lord as one cries out upon it There are three things miserable and afflictive in the nature of man and that our Elder Brother Christ Jesus might be like unto his Brethren in all things he did in some manner undergo them all The first are taedia naturae the tedious and irksom difficulties of nature as hunger thirst weariness sharp punishments and fetters there was never any Martyr better acquainted with these than our blessed Lord. The second are languores naturae the diseases and defects of nature but these belong not to mankind in general but are personal mishaps for this and other reasons our Saviour was clear of them yet he did bear all those sicknesses and maladies for us in compassion as St. Paul says Bear ye one anothers burdens Gal. 6. that is by mutual pitty and affection so Christ did take our diseases upon him by compunction and commiseration for his brethren The third are deformitates naturae all manner of sins which are the ugly blots and deformities of nature and those he did bear for us not by being made a sinner but by representation when he stood before John in Jordan like one that was defiled He came to undergo infirmities and to confer strength to take injuries to bestow dignities to stand for a sick person and to bring health to represent a sinner but to act a Saviour That is the sum of the third reason Fourthly St. Austin imagined that Christ had another intention in his Baptism indirectly and by the by Vt Daemoni se occultaret for the device of a stratagem to mock the Devil that he might not be known of him but to draw Satan into the combat of a tentation which fell out in the beginning of the next Chapter The Figures out of the Old Testament were not unknown to this cunning Serpent that it must be only an Heifer without blemish and a Lamb without spot which was offered up unto the Lord to be a Sacrifice of attonement Therefore he must be holy and undefiled who should be sent from God to bruise the Serpents head and to save the people from their sins Then this projecting Satan makes no question to rank him for a defiled person that came to be baptized therefore he doth infer foolishly that upon advantage of fasting forty days he might tempt him to sin against the Lord. Because the Devil and his Angels make it their life and pleasure to delude us silly men God makes it his glory in our just revenge to mock and delude our enemy as the Priests of Baal abused the poor people with hypocritical false pretences therefore Elias turned those scoffs upon themselves and flouted the Priests of Baal It is strange that when as the Devil glories in the subtilty of a Serpent yet God should make his understanding so blind that he never perfectly understood how Christ was the eternal Son of God that came to destroy his grizzly kingdom untill he had suffered upon the Cross and died for the sins of the world First Satans eyes were dazled that he could not learn whether Christ was born of a pure Virgin because by Gods providence she was married to Joseph Besides like a meer man he was obedient to his Parents and for thirty years neither preacht nor wrought any miracle In the first issue he sees him baptized in the representation at least of a sinful man he sees him in a great peril upon the waters nigh to drowning observes he kept no austere life but eat and drank with sinners finally views him betrayed by a Disciple that was his own familiar friend then beaten and bruised by every cruel Officer All these badges of infirmity put together did drive those Fiends of darkness to surmise this was not He that should conquer death and the nethermost Pit At last the most refined of the ancient Authors do ingenuously collect that when Satan perceived him answering nothing before Pilate but willing to be offered up then he began to interpret this was the Lamb dumb before the shearer so opened he not his mouth and finally at the Passion of the Cross he might see plainly that God had darkned him not to find the truth and that his Dominion through his own malice was taken away for ever by the death of Jesus Therefore I return where I began the reason this wicked one was intrapt to think our blessed Lord was a sinner because he was baptized Says Origen upon the Passion Christ was visibly crucified in Mount Calvary but invisibly the Devil and the powers of Hell was nailed to the Cross so I may say Christ was visibly baptized but Satan and his Host were invisibly drowned in those waters because they were sanctified in this washing to save us from our sins And that is the sum of the fourth reason For brevity sake I will joyn our last reason and some meditations of Use together Our Saviour came to be baptized Vt per novum ritum homines ad novitatem introducerentur that by his example to undergo a new Rite and Ordinance men might be drawn from old customs to newness of life The new Ordinance had ratification and authority from the act of Christ as I have shewed before he was both circumcized and baptized but says Bernard Illud mihi tenendum tradidit quod ultimò suscepit He hath delivered to me to have and to hold for the perpetual Sacrament of the Church that which was last in being for the form of a new Covenant was established to evacuate the old But what 's a new form if the old corruptions be retained What an eye-sore is a new piece in an old garment As good be an unbelieving Jew after the ancient tincture of the Law as be a novel transformed Christian after the old leven of the Devil As St. Paul put the Romans in mind of their first rudiments so must I remember you Rom. vi 4. Therefore we are buried with Christ by Baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so also we should walk in newness of life Here are three things in order that have a pious connexion between them first a burial as it were in the water then a death and after that a rising again First I say the plunging or dipping in the water resembles a burial for although
that God is with us from the beginning to the end of our life in want and in abundance in liberty and captivity in evil report and good report and he will never forsake us The words of the Prophet Isaiah are sweeter than the dropping of an honey-comb Isa xlix 14. Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her womb Yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me St. Austin attributes so much to the power of faith against all the machinations of hell that he says the very Lesson of it being said by rote is able to defend us Ipsa recitatio symboli retundit inimicum The very repetition of the Creed doth beat off the enemy How much more mighty is the true feeling of faith when it lives within us If thou canst believe saith Christ all things are possible to him that believeth Mar. ix 23. Let Satan therefore keep his demur his hesitation his If thou be the Son of God unto himself Let him not take away your Garland by wavering for he that wavereth is as a wave of the sea sometimes rising aloft sometimes carried down to the Deep Let him not dry up the very fountain of grace So the Greek Fathers did always entitle faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mother the spring of all celestial gifts If any man say what faith what spring is this so much commended Briefly I will borrow this description to make it facile No man can have so much as an historical faith and well attend it but he must taste of some fiducial application that he is under the wings of the Almighty and looks for safety under his custody Nemo rectè potest credere Deo quin in Deum is no bad rule but I stand not upon that The faith of the Elect by which we shall be able to overcome our Ghostly enemies is not that which taketh all the holy Scriptures in the lump to be true but it is a willing a lively and an effectual assent to the Promise of the Gospel that Jesus the Son of the blessed Virgin Mary is the Son of God and is the Saviour of all those that repent and believe I say it is a willing and approving a rejoycing assent not forced like that of the Devils and wicked men who are convicted by the evidence of truth and with great horror and disdain confess it Moreover I said it was an effectual assent not a knowledge swimming in the brain informing the judgment but not reforming the heart such as hypocrites have But the understanding being enlightned by the Holy Ghost the will embraceth that which is good the heart is purified by it it works by love and transforms us into a new conversation answerable to that which we believe Now this belief in Christ which is the keeping the condition of Gods Promise doth imply three acts The first of assent that he is the Saviour of all those that believe in him which assent when it is lively and effectual is the proper act of that faith whereby we are justified before God The second act is of application when believing truly he is the Saviour of all that believe I therefore believe that he is my Saviour which is the act of that special faith by which we are justified in our own conscience The third act is of trust and assurance that because I do believe not only that he is the Saviour of the World but also my Saviour therefore I rest upon him for salvation So says our Saviour to his Disciples Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me Joh. xiv 1. But this is not the act of faith as it justifieth us before God nor yet the proper act of special faith which doth justifie us in our own conscience but a fruit and consequent thereof and such a fruit as the Devil would pluck from the tree with this scrupulous injection if thou be the Son of God Now I will let you see as in a Map by pointing at spots of ground for whole Countries how faith is the fountain of all divine graces and therefore when Satan can make us reel and totter in our opinion whether we are the Sons of God there is not one Christian function in us stands sure but all the parts of true Religion are out of frame For first how can a man hope and wait for the performance of the Promises that doth not believe that they belong unto him Faith being the substance of things hoped for How can a man have true peace of conscience who is not perswaded that God is reconciled to him How can a man rejoyce in God who is not assured of Gods favour towards him How can a man be thankful to God who is not perswaded of Gods love and bounty to him They that have sinned how shall they be perswaded to turn unto him if they be not perswaded that his mercy is ready to receive them No man can perform obedience who is not perswaded that his endeavours are accepted of him No man can pray fervently who doth not assure himself that he shall be heard For so the Apostle How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed Rom. x. 14. Who can patiently bear afflictions who is not perswaded that those fatherly chastisements proceed from Gods love and and tend to purge him as the Chaff is Winnowed from the Wheat Who can worship God with zeal and devotion who is not resolved and comforted that his service is accepted of him Hope Joy Peace Thankfulness Repentance Obedience Prayer Patience Worship all these will vanish away like a morningmist before the Sun if the Devil can make you distrust with such a tentation as this If thou c. And no marvel if in the first place and before all other parts of sin Satan labours to fill the World with little faith he can spare enough of that out of his own store to infect all the earth for who so great an Infidel as himself in this very tentation The words indeed come off very roundly and confidently that the Son of God with one word can command all the stones in the Wilderness to be made bread But to what end I pray you Whether you say for Christs sake or for the Devils sake every way it will chime Infidelity Argue in the first place why it should be done for Christs sake For if he were God what need he make bread of a stone that could make it of nothing Or though he were hungry what need he make bread at all Is not the bread of heaven able to live without material bread And Chrysologus revies it with his objection Nonne potest panem vertere in saturitatem qui potest in famem lapides immutare He
followed Remigius in this fancy for it delivers that the Devil took him up to a place which had been often infected with vain-glory In Cathedrâ doctorum multos deceperat inanis gloria many of the Pharisaical Doctors who sate in the Chair of Moses to teach the people loved the praise of men more than the praise of God and were infected with vain-glory But this opinion will quickly vanish when it is rationally opposed For the Pulpit out of which Solomon prayed and left it for the use of teaching was but five Cubits high above the people and it was within the outward part of the Temple and it was fit to be no higher that the voice of the Teacher might come clearly to the Auditory But surely the place from whence our Saviour was egg'd to take his leap was an exceeding Altitude And I find that the height of the Temple was one hundred and twenty Cubits 2 Chron. iii. 4. There is no probability that their Rabbins sate so far aloft above their Auditory to preach unto them I think the second Temple wanted sixty of that till Herod finished it with Altitude and Glory Others having look'd upon exact delineations of the Temple deliver that the Roof of the Temple was built flat after the manner of all the Jewish buildings and as all private houses were commanded by the Law to have a Battlement about them to keep them from danger that walk'd upon the top of the Tarras so the Temple had a Battlement about it adorned in several spaces which perhaps were made like Wings and call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Pinacles How those Battlements were capable for Christ to stand upon they describe not but I am sure according to Josephus no man could set his foot upon the flat Roof of the Temple Quod aureis verubus horrebat acutissimis ne ab insidentibus avibus pollueretur says he it was stuck thick with gilded Spires as sharp as Needles that the birds of the Air might not mewte upon it and defile it We Christians dare do all unseemliness against the Walls of our Churches no reverence of the place will deter us but the Jews were so careful that they would not endure the Fowls of the Air should lay their dung upon the top of the Sanctuary Thirdly others draw out Models of the Temple having at each corner lofty Spires higher than all the rest I know not whether David alludes to them when he speaks of Polished corners of the Temple Psal cxliv. 12. and upon one of these I think in best propriety of phrase and matter Jesus was placed as upon an Altitude conspicuous to all the City though as I told you before our Saviour declin'd that intention of Satans and made himself invisible The observations from hence shall be two First that the Devil chooseth the highest place he could find And secondly the most divine place of all where to pitch the ground of his tentation Upon the first I mean not so much the local elevation of the place to which I could add that Satan loves to ascend on high to build up a sin as high as Babel and that David was aloft walking on the house-top when he fell into unlawful love with Bathsheba let this pass for as great sins may be practised in the lowest corners of the earth but I mean after the figurative Exposition of the Fathers they that have clambered up to some high Pinacle of Fortune they whom God hath made eminent in any gifts of Art or Nature let them take heed that Satan stand not at their right hand to puff them up with Arrogancy If you despise those whom you see beneath you whether it be a Pinacle of the Kingdom or a Pinacle of the Temple upon which you stand remember by that mark that you must needs come thither of the Devils setting Many that have designs upon promotion think the bird is catcht when they are advanced they are as sure as a Ship in the Haven which need fear no tossing when if they understood their own condition well it concerns them to be more vigilant of themselves and of their affections than ever The wiliness of the Tempter hath made it as hard a thing to moderate a great fortune Servare modum rebus sublata secundis as it is to guide a Ship Royal under all the Sails Therefore St. Austin said upon my Text Non est laus stetisse in pinnaculo sed stetisse non cecidisse It is no such cunning thing to stand upon a Pinacle but to stand sure and not fall there is the cunning The Historian says true many were thought fit to govern till they were trusted with Government for this evil Angel hath such inveterate malice against all those that bear rule and title that it is very rare to find a man so well affected to Gods glory to the Church to the publick good when he sits at the Stern to govern as when he was a private man Divers that had true hearts to all good purposes when they stood upon the same level with the common people are quite metamorphosed by that time they get up to the top of a Pinacle Satan passed them over in the throng but he joyns close to them when they are exalted S. Pauls was a rare temper and to be found but among men of most divine graces that could stand safe any where and not pollute his conscience I know both how to be abased and how to abound Phil. iv 12. God is very abundant in his mercies to endue some with that spirit that they are as humble as just as conscionable upon a lofty Pinacle as upon the lowest Pavement But more usually those Potentates whom the Scripture records have fallen into the snares of destruction Joab was resolved he could not be great enough without the fall of Abner nor Naaman but by pretence of Idolatry nor Sanballat but by hindring the work of the Temple nor Felix but by Bribery no nor Nicodemus himself but by some dissimulation If every good Saint hath his Angel Guardian as certainly every honourable Magistrate hath an evil Angel of hostility to oppugn him every high Pinacle hath his Satan Lastly Observe how the wicked One would pollute no common place but the very house of God he setteth him on a Pinacle of the Temple Many times when a City is taken by the enemy some strong Castle or Fort holds out which is not won so easily The Church is Gods Castle his Tower of defence against all spiritual iniquities and Satan would not only take possession of the holy City but of the best Fortress which God held in it and brings Christ to be tempted upon the top of the Temple All places are pervious unto him he is shut out of none you shall find him says Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Exchange of Merchants upon the Bench of Judges in the Temple of the Priests And above all places on earth if he
rebellious terms ero similis altissimo I will be like the most high but this is more superlative a great deal let the Son of God fall down and worship me I will be a God above the Most High I do not wonder that some Expositors go about to mollifie the meaning of the words a little as it were impossible there could be a literal sense of such an horrid proposition But their endeavour me-thinks thrives not To adore Satan says one is any way to obey him and be subject unto him Adoratio Diaboli subjectionis est non devotionis He did not ask to be ador'd as if he were an eternal divine essence unto whose person the devotion of religion was to be directed but he would have Christ stoop and bow unto him and to acknowledge by that gesture that the honors and riches of the world depended on him or as another lays his meaning forth on this wise you are the Son of God that come to take my Kingdom from me do me homage for it and you shall have it without striving these are all the odds in the pretended interpretations these think he requir'd of Christ civil reverence and subjection such as great Emperors have from petty Princes that hold somewhat in homage and service under them Others much more congruously to the Scripture teach that he made a flat and plain demand to have religious adoration done unto him as to the God of this World whether he would have it done after St. Matthews phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his own person should be the object worshipt or whether in St. Lukes phrase word for word if thou wilt worship before me that is worship God above in me who am his Vicegerent to communicate riches and honor these two wayes drive at one aim and do not differ for certain he would have no less than religious service done unto him for our Saviours answer questionless was ad oppositum and He controuls the Devil for asking that religious honor which was due to God Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve He had stept thus high before the coming of Christ to be supplicated by the Heathen Romans in their Idol Vejovis that he should not hurt the fruits of the earth Before Christ dissolv'd the works of the Devil he was sought to and consulted with in the Oracles of the Greeks in those days too he was worshipt in all the Idols of the Nations the antient godly men of the Church say that the wicked fiend lurkt substantially in all graven Images which were set up and when Idolaters bowed to stocks and stones he had their homage done unto him Nay he had purchased sacrifice to himself and of the dearest and most beloved things They sacrificed their Sons and Daughters unto Devils Psal cvi 37. Satan having been puft up so long with the Devotions and Ceremonies of a bewitched people he would not go less but demands more than ever he had before when even now he was upon the time to lose all If thou therefore wilt worship me all shall be thine What though Satan be incorrigible And the labour is lost to review and reform that blasphemy which he hath spoken for he will never retract it and confess his fault Yet some things may fall to our profit out of this wicked saying and those things which are written for his condemnation are written for our instruction I will follow St. Ambrose for my Leader who hath noted two things remarkable from hence for our use First that the beginning of this tentation is Covetousness All these things will I give the and the end of it is Idolatry if thou wilt fall down and worship me Who would think that these two sins Covetousness and Idolatry had such great affinity between them Idolatry averts the heart of man more than any sin from the Creator The stain of Covetousness is that it converts the heart more than any other sin to the immoderate love of the creature Great sins both and yet it appears by this they differ toto genere in their formalities They do so and so many Rivers which rise not from the same Spring-head flow for many miles in several Channels and at last close into one stream Thus Idolatry which riseth out of the sins of the first Table and Covetousness which is opposite to the Commandments of the Second Table yet both these glue together after a while as if they were inseparable St. Paul binds them both like tares in one bundle Eph. v. 5. No covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ And as Pharaohs Dream was doubled twice because the thing was surely established So the Apostle doubles the same Lesson again because it was most true and most remarkable Col. iii. 5. mortifie your members upon earth Fornication Uncleanness c. and Covetousness which is Idolatry It is an Alchymy wherein Satan is skilful to turn Gold into Idolatry and Idolatry into Gold He put Nebuchadonosor to great cost and much expence of Gold to advance Idolatry But he is at fee with them that are poorer to give them Gold if they will turn Idolaters So the love of money begets the love of Idols and he laies his train in that order in my text to buy himself worship with his money All these things will I c. For Idolatry the Lord rooted out the Canaanites from the Land of their Fathers and when the Covetous shall know what affinity he hath with an Idolater it will reclaim him I hope lest he be rooted out like an accursed Canaanite from the Land of the Living Divine Expositors do sundry ways testifie to the truth of this Proposition that Covetousness is Idolatry several heads have their several opinions yet every opinion hath some sting and Acrimony in it Clemens of Alexandria begins Every mans last end he puts for is his happiness every mans happiness is his God And a money-scraper projects more for that than he doth for the grace of God Coelum apertum est Deum non quaerit aurum absconditum est terrae viscera recludit The heaven shuts not it self against them that call for grace that is easie he looks not after it the Ore is hidden in the dark veins of the earth and he will dig to Hell to find it St. Chrysostom says Id est cuique Deus quod maximè amat à quo vitam necessaria expectat He is an Idolater without an Hyperbole that will sin against Gods honour rather than offend his own heart in seeking profit from whom doth he expect relief help comfort in the time of trouble If he thinks the lining of his Purse is best able to administer these things he hath said unto his Riches you are my trust and my assurance he should have said so to God The same Father considering in another place that Christ admonisheth what a base Treasure
that is which Thieves may break in and steal breaks out that a covetous man so defrauded may cry out as Laban did Who hath stoln away my Gods Tales sunt Dii tui ut quis eos furari queat Are your Gods such trash that they cannot keep themselves from stealing Then let him be your God alone who is the watchman of Israel that keepeth all in safety I alledge St Hierom next and no man interprets St. Paul more literally that Covetousness is Idolatry Imaginem sive sculpturam nummi colit His eye is taken with the very Picture and Stamp upon the Coin and he shews it more reverence than becoms a Christian to do to a corruptible thing St. Austins suffrage is of moment with the best Fruitur nummo utitur Deo quoniam non nummum propter Deum impendit sed Deum propter nummum colit A covetous man makes use of God to set his stay upon his unrighteous Mammon for he doth not bestow his riches for Gods sake but he loves God for his riches sake I had rather troul over the rest than be tedious Gregory distinguisheth that the Covetous is an Idolater Non exhibitione ceremoniarum sed oblatione concupiscentiarum Which is thus worded in one of the School-men Non ex compacto sed obsequio Not by an outward ceremonious Adoration for which St. Hierom in some part accuseth him but by offering up his heart And perhaps Aquinas would be so understood in his distinction that the love of money is Idolatry Non secundum speciem sed similitudinem Not that it hath the very Essence of Idolatry but a great likeness and similitude As a Lover may be said to Idolize a Mistress to whom he is too obsequious So a man may be said to Idolize his Substance when he puts himself upon all servile baseness to obtain it And so Theophylact concludes it or rather inverts it from the words of David David says that the Idols of the Heathen are Silver and Gold Theophylact turns it that Silver and Gold are the Idols of those Christians that put their trust in uncertain riches I have almost panelled a Jury upon this Point yet if that will not serve he that is wiser than the wisest of men hath spoken enough to bewray that Covetousness is Idolatry Mat. vi 24. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon He serveth Mammon as he serveth God and parts stakes between them and that is gross Idolatry Or if it be true that Plutarch says Malice will teach a man more sometimes for nothing than a sweet Friend with all his good counsel learn it from our Adversary from the Devil that he makes one of these sins reach unto the other and to clasp fast in one he begins in Covetousness and ends in Idolatry All these c. I promised you two observations out of St. Ambrose upon the Point this makes the second that Satan indents to raise up our Saviour to all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them upon these Premises that he must fall down and worship Now this must make him bold to demand it that Pride will undergo any servile Office to win Promotion Ambitio ut dominetur servit curvatur obsequio ut honore donetur Machiavel may write his pleasure that Christian humility dejects the spirits and embaseth a good courage I cross his opinion utterly and say that the truly humble Christian hath the most generous and lofty stomach of all others which defies Flattery and fawning and Court-crowching and stands upon resolute terms to be beholding to none but to God and integrity for exaltation Is not his Spirit more dull and narrow that makes his Fortune out of bowing and scraping legs and diseasing themselves to be the shadows of great men to attend them at all times and hours Certainly so What bondman could put up more than Aristippus did He wiped off the spittle very patiently which a great man had thrown in his face and excused it that a Fisherman would endure to be wet all over to catch a few Smelts why not he then suffer so little moysture to catch a Whale Such scorns the Ambitious must suffer that are high Projectors Serviet aeternum qui parvo nesciet uti says the wise Poet. No servant shall drudge more or endure more than he that will not be contented with a little They that bear the proudest head you may perceive that they study to follow new observancies and new Vassallage throwing themselves down beneath the feet of them that will raise them up Their vote and suffrage must go with them of whom they have their dependencies be the matter never so imprudent and unequal as if they had chang'd not their consciences for there is nothing cheaper with them than that but even reason which makes a man that they may be in the rank of great and glorious yet baseness becomes them best 't is pitty their fortune should be mended Absolon when he aimed at no less than a Kingdom by treachery could perswade himself to complement to the ground with every Peasant to win the hearts of the people They that look to be advanced by Jezebel did stoop to Baal You see such as hunt for honour take it in good part to be thrown to the ground like Balls that they may rebound the higher Sixtus Quintus was the most crowching Frier in all his Cloyster the most yielding observant Cardinal in all the Conclave but the most imperious haughty Pope that ever governed The heat of the Sun lifts up a vapour from the Dunghil and in time it becomes Thunder This is enough to shew that the dignity which the ambitious attains unto is mixt with much baseness and servitude Satan did presuppose it when he called for so much homage and bowing down before he would part with all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them I will conclude it with this deduction from it Can you endure the waitings the comes again Superba fastidia the commands the disdains which a great man puts upon you in hope of his liberality at last O then take up the Cross of Christ suffer affliction for a season sit down a little in the lowest room worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord your Maker that he may say unto thee Friend sit up higher in the Kingdom of heaven I have handled before you the shameless lying of Satan that challenged unto himself power to give all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and then his horrid Blasphemy demanding that Christ would fall down and worship him Now follows our Saviours justice the repulse which he gave the Tempter and the vengeance which he took of his enemy Then saith Jesus unto him Get thee hence Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of anger and imprecation often in that language as you would say Abi in malam rem Get you gone with a mischief St. Luke puts more to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
But her tentation would not take he preferred to refuse this offer and return home to his own Country Pleasure is not a Goddess but a Sorceress which would offer us the like Bonum est esse hic this is a fair inheritance were it not a gay thing if this were heaven and you imparadised in this pleasant seat for ever O no says celestial love go out my soul go out take the wings of the morning fly away to thy Country above the heavenly Jerusalem and then rest for ever Philip that mighty Macedonian feasted many Wits at a Banquet and he propounded a question to be argued before him What was the greatest thing in Nature After many Opinions one collected all that had been said and concluded Neither was Philip himself the greatest of all things nor the Hill Olympus nor the Sea of waters nor the Sun in the Firmament Sed cor quod res maximas despiceret the greatest of all things was an heart that despised the greatest things which are in this world beneath Unclog your affections from all contents of this miserable life if Tabor it self transport you the best part of the Militant Church where Christs glory shines which by Gods mercy I am confident we enjoy yet forget that and yearn for the Church Triumphant Be willing to bequeath the earth to the succession that follows you and your body to the ground and your soul to God 5. I am ready to move the fifth question alas when I consider it how unfit is the natural man for spiritual things An bonum sit quod paucis solummodò est bonum Whether we should call that good which is appropriated to our selves and not communicated to many This is it for which Origen thinks that Satan stirred up Peter to utter these words to entreat him to bless that little company upon Mount Taber with his presence and to leave all mankind without redemption O too forgetful Nimiumque oblite tuorum both of the other nine Disciples and of all that people that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death It was the most Jewish maliciousness that the Jews had to challenge God that his mercies and blessings belonged to their Nation and to no other Kingdom but this contraction is far more unreasonable to beseech Christ to smother his glory in a private corner with Moses and Elias and three Apostles as if these were the five wise Virgins enough to enter into the Marriage Chamber of the Bridegroom If one member be honoured all the members shall rejoyce with it but when all the members of the body are honoured every member shall rejoyce much more Tolle invidiam tuum est quod habeo tolle invidiam meum est quod habes says St. Austin Be not you envious and that which I have is yours Let not me be envious and that which you have is mine A carnal man you see wisheth his own happiness with the consequent infelicity of all the world beside let me oppose unto this the stupendious example of a regenerate man that wished his own damnation for the salvation of a great people I could wish that my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh Rom. ix 3. Some have commented upon it that Paul was unadvised in those words and offended God Nay Beloved the Holy Ghost cannot be unadvised by whose instinct he wrote and he doth Preface in the beginning I say the truth in Christ I lie not St. Chrysostom cannot speak better than he did upon that verse Quia nos longè sumus ab hâc dilectione Pauli ideo intelligere ejus verba non possumus We want so much of that love to our brethren which Paul had to his that we are not able to make a good construction of his meaning Yet I will direct you in a few words Paul did not desire to be separated for his brethrens sake from the charity and friendship of Christ for then he should love man better than God but from the felicity and sweet fruit of that friendship He would perish for ever not as Christs enemy but as an offering for his Nation He doth not desire to be out of the love of Christ but out of the Vision of Christ The conversion of an whole people he thought was more for Gods glory than the salvation of one man therefore although Gods Election must stand and that was impossible which he desired yet so long as he loved his brethren in God and not against God it was no excessive love And that is the judgment of Calvin But to draw to the use of the Point you see that perfect charity squints not at its own benefit with the great detriment of others Bonum est nobis is bad divinity and bad civility it spoils Church and Commonwealth that which is good to one or to a few will never thrive if it be not good for many It is true he is one of the fools of the world that is not wise for himself but he is one of Gods Reprobates that is wise for none but for himself Nequicquam sapit qui non omnibus sapit When every man is his own end all things will come to a bad end Blessed were those days when every man thought himself rich and fortunate by the good success of the publick wealth and glory We want publick souls we want them I speak it with compassion there is no sin or abuse in the world that afflicts my thought so much Every man thinks that he is a whole Commonwealth in his private Family Omnes quae sua sunt quaerunt All seek their own Did St. Paul write it against us or against the Philippians Chap. ii 21. Can the Publick be neglected and any mans Private be secure It is all one whether the mischief light upon him or his Posterity There are some says Tully that think their own Gardens and Fish-ponds shall be safe when the Commonwealth is lost Doth he not call them fools by craft Away with this bonum nobis to intend our own good rather than the general it was the greatest error that St. Peter committed 6. To the last question briefly in a word An bonum consistit in aspectu humanitatis Christi Could it be the supreme good of man to behold the Humane Nature of Christ only beatified Surely the Humane Nature shining as light as the Sun was a rare object that Peter could have been contented with that and no more for his part for ever yet the resolution of the School holds certain that blessedness consists essentially in beholding the Divine Nature which is the fountain of all goodness and power and in the fruition thereof accidentally it consists in beholding Christs Humane Nature glorified and in the consequent delectation These things must not be enlarged now because I am prevented by the time To God the Father c. THE FIFTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration LUKE ix
faciem Because in this life we see darkly as in a glass but hereafter we shall see God face to face As concerning natural Causes and Effects says Aristotle we see into them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Owles eyes by day that discern nothing clearly but as concerning the Mysteries of Godliness we look upon them as Moses did upon the Land of Canaan when Jordan was between we are in one Country and see afar off indistinctly the prospect of another As Rebecca took away her vail when Isaac came toward her that she might see his face so this vail shall be taken from the Church which is the Spouse of God when he draws near unto it Now Lazarus his Napkin is about our face O that thou wouldst rent away this vail O Lord that we might see thy glory Behold as the eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us AMEN THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION JOHN XX. I. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the Sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher THis is the day which the Lord hath made and thus begins the Gospel appointed for this great day of the Lord. A Gospel of which I may say it is full even to the brims of Divine Meditations For here are those two Christian Pillars that uphold the Church of God such as shall never be removed Fides Fidelis the faith of the Elect and relatively an elect Vessel that receiv'd the faith a principal Article of our Creed that Christ rose again the third day from the dead and a very illustrious instance of Mary Magdalene who was brought to believe in that Article 1. The Faith which must be believ'd to sanctifie our contemplations 2. The Faithful that did believe to bring us to a godly practice So the Spirit of God hath led Mary Magdalene to the Sepulcher to see that Christ was risen from the dead and the self-same Spirit hath led us to see the love and piety of Mary Magdalene And as this devout woman hath obtained a place of memorial for her name among the blessed of the New Testament because the example of her zeal did shine before us So our names shall find a place among those that are recorded in the Book of Life such honor shall they have that follow after My Text begins a story concerning that first witness to whom our Lord and Saviour's Resurrection was revealed Now upon so much of the Story as is recorded in this verse five things shall be handled First the Condition of that Witness before whom our Lord did first appear after he came out of the Grave Mary Magdalene 2. You may note the Constancy of her love that she remembred him after death and came unto his Sepulcher 3. It is to be ascribed to her Faith that she chose the right season the first day of the week 4. The Expedition which she made is a token of restless diligence that she came early when it was yet dark 5. An Accident of admiration encounters her that she seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulcher No Witness more classical for Gods use than Mary Magdalene a repentant Sinner No love more expressive than to shew affection even after death no season so fit to be watcht as the same which Christ foretold how the third day he would rise which fell out on the first day of the week no fruit that doth better become Faith and Love than vigilant diligence without sloth Repentance Love Faith Diligence shall ever be thus requited that God will shew them a sign from Heaven beyond their expectation The condition of the person is the first thing that we encounter Mary Magdalene cometh unto the Sepulcher She came not alone but other Associates did bear her company such as were devout women and loved our Lord. But our Evangelist knew a reason that she alone was worth the mentioning instead of all besides and upon her name only his Narration runs that Mary Magdalen came unto the Sepulcher The Scripture hath not forgot some of those that were her Associates in other Gospels St. Matthew says Mary Magdalen went forth as it began to dawn and the other Mary St. Mark names three Mary Magdalen and Mary the Mother of James and Salome St. Luke speaks of an indefinite number but every Divine Writer begins with Mary Magdalen she and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James and other Women that were with them But this Woman in my Text was more fervent and passionate in the cause she incited all the rest to go with her to the Sepulcher wherefore she is remembred by our Evangelist in a kind of singularity above all the rest John himself was the Disciple of Love and was careful to eternize her name in this story which did abound in Love above all her Fellows Some antient Writers knew not how so good a Work could be done wherein many religious Women conspired together without the most Blessed Mary the mother of our Lord. Rather than it should turn to her disesteem to stay behind Sedulius Nyssen and Nicephorus were willing I think to mistake that the Woman whom St. Matthew calls the other Mary was the Holy Virgin The disadvantages which this Opinion brings with it were not thought upon that another name should stand before hers to be past over with such an easie mention as the other Mary and not the mother of our Lord a thing which especially St. Luke useth not to forget And what an instance of moment were this that among all others our Lord did first appear to Mary Magdalen after he was risen from the dead Surely his mother had been partaker of that sweet Vision as soon as any if she had been in place to behold him Bernard invents a reason to satisfie himself though perhaps it will not satisfie all men why the Blessed Virgin did willingly absent herself from coming to the Sepulcher the first day of the Week because her Faith abounded more than all the rest She was constantly persuaded that Christ was risen upon the third day even as he had spoken before and she would not go to the Sepulcher to seek the living among the dead But if any man should cast a doubt that the Holy Scriptures would not have concealed such a superexcellent strain of Faith in the Blessed Virgin if she had believed the Mystery of the Resurrection when the Disciples and all other were mistaken besides that none of the Church did perfectly understand the Scriptures until the Holy Ghost fell down upon them at the Feast of Pentecost I say if any should cast in such a doubt I know not how it would be resolved I have no Warrant to affirm any thing in this point neither doth the Scripture
Christ should rise the third day and all the World was benighted in the darkness of incredulity There is no need to strain the Text so mightily and yet Chrysologus hath invented a more forced Interpretation Thus he As the day was shortned at our Saviours Passion and the Sun did set in an Eclipse a long time before the natural Evening of that season so at his Resurrection the Sun rejoyced and was so officious to attend him that he rose certain hours before the natural season of the day Therefore according to the natural rising of the Sun it was very early when Mary Magdalen came but if you consider the extraordinary appearance of that glorious Lamp upon the Earth before the time so the Sun was risen and yet it was the time of darkness This is more subtil than solid my first interpretation was the sure resolution I will ask but one question more to clear a doubt and so conclude All the Evangelists no doubt do purpose to set out the diligence and watchfulness of Mary that none have omitted to describe what an early Pilgrim she was Had they no other end in it Yes surely to express the timely Resurrection of our Lord. As David sings it Exurgam diluculo Awake my glory awake Lute and Harp I my self will awake right early But how can you then inch out the time to say resolvedly that he lay three days in the belly of the Grave Beloved you must measure the days by a Synechdoche He was buried toward Evening upon the Jews day of preparation and so lay interred some part of the Afternoon and all the night Upon the Jews Sabbath he rested in the Sepulcher all day and night upon the first day of the week he continued in the state of death some hours of the Morning and very early he came forth an eternal Triumpher he fulfilled the Scriptures therefore and withal made haste to fulfil his Promise to rise the third day Euthymius expresseth it more elegantly than I can Quod citius quà m sit constitutum efficitur potentiae est quod tardius imbecillitatis Christus non solùm promissum explevit sed etiam gratiam velocitatis addidit To be eardier than our promise is a sign of some let and infirmity To be beforehand with a Promise is a sign of power and efficacy The Promise of the Son of God was that in three days he would build up the Temple of his body again He did so and more than so soon after the third day was begun Behold the prestation of his Promise and the acceleration of his favour joyned unto it so we have seen both his truth in the Promise and his love in the speediness doing even above his Promise To whom be honour praise and glory for ever AMEN THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 2. And behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it THE greatest matter which we preach unto you throughout all the year is that of this great Festival Christ is risen from the dead All that we preach beside holds of this in chief skore out this line and ye blot out the contents of all the Gospel St. Paul says it If Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain 1 Cor. xv 14. You hear of what great consequence it is to preach of the Resurrection and yet I cannot tell you from any part of holy Scripture at what moment of time or after what manner our Saviour rose from the dead Thou knowest it O Son of David who dost open and no man shutteth who dost shut and no man openeth He opened the Grave nor Death nor Hell nor Pilates Seal could shut it against him He shutteth up this mystery from us when he came out of the Grave and no man is able to open it Is this the reason because his Disciples and the very best of his Chosen were incredulous upon this day and it would not enter into their hearts how he was risen from the dead though he had often foretold it and therefore he did punish them to conceal the manner of his Resurrection from them though no doubt they did much desire to know it Or was it for this respect as another says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we know not the hour when he rose from the dead neither is it possible to know the time when we shall rise from the dead Now it was obscure when he came again to life and it will be as much obscure when he will come to judge the world at the general Resurrection Or was it rather to inform us that since we receive this principal Article of our Creed plainly and not examining many needless particulars so must we receive all the Tenets of Faith naked and uncloath'd from all questions of curiosity The secret things belong unto the Lord our God Yet thus far we may dare to incroach that the Resurrection of Christ fell out within the compass of the words which I have read unto you It came to pass very early in the morning on the third day I told you so the last year at large now I come nearer to the Point For all that say any thing to the incidency of time agree in this that about the time the earthquake shook the place or about the time the Angel descended or about the time the stone was rouled away among these Circumstances one or other he awoke out of a sleep and came forth of the Sepulcher Needs then must you hear from hence some good tidings of joy and triumph The last words of my Text are memorable to this purpose that the Angel sate upon the stone Quasi fidei doctor Magister resurrectionis says Chrysologus Upon these concurrencies presently the Angel sate down like a Doctor of faith in the Chair of Authority and like a Master to teach the Resurrection Where the Angel sits him down to teach the case you will presume is worth the hearing The two things generally in which I fix my thoughts are these motus and quies a motion and a quietness Of motions there are three 1. The foundations of the Earth opened and behold there was a great earthquake 2. The Heavens were opened for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven 3. The door of the Grave is opened He came and rouled away the stone But albeit these things are turbulent in the doing great tranquility shall follow Surely the earth presently was setled and stood still for the stone was steady the Angel composed himself at rest and sate upon it To these I will add such explication as God shall give me leave to utter An Earthquake was a royal trumpet to proclaim this victory the greatest that ever was obtained against an enemy The deep murmur and hollow sound which came from beneath the earth gave notice at one blast to Heaven and
not pity them that may foresee this and yet will be other mens instruments to facilitate their damnable projects I do not pity these Souldiers that would attend the High Priests service against the Lord and against his Christ and now are weary of their service they shook for fear and became as dead men Lastly to end all the wicked have fair warnings these fears and quiverings are good Tutors and admonitions when the house gives a crack before it falls the Inhabitants may shift for their lives and he that will not mend by terror and minacy let his end be misery A standing water that is never troubled hath no commotion in it must needs corrupt so an even fortune that is not acquainted with frowns and afrightments is most incommodious for a Christian but he that will make good use of fear though he shake and cannot stand he shall fall into the arms of mercy But these impious Watchmen were no longer mortified than the Angel lookt upon them There was no serious affection of sorrow in them Sicut mente alienati expavescunt ad momentum simul tamen obliviscuntur se timuisse As a phrentique is awed for a while with his Keeper but flies out into wild fits as soon as he turns his back so this Roman Garrison who may represent the whole condition of Reprobates a little terrified but never amended they had a qualm of guiltiness came over them but they did not search into the true cause and original and as soon as ever they had communicated with the High-Priests and Elders their impudence was encouraged their hands bribed and their tongues bought at a price to publish abroad the most wrongful the most sinful the most senseless forgery that ever was invented therefore since they were no better for that terror which a good Angel struck into them it is to be much presum'd that the Lord did turn them over to evil Angels to be tormented for ever Dearly beloved that which stands before us this day is not an Angel of the ordinary Hierarchy but the Angel of the Covenant Christ our Lord in the Sacrament of his blessed Body not cloathed gorgeously but in the poor Elements of Bread and Wine And let us come to these with joy and not with terror not as dead men unless it be unto sin and living unto God and yet bring store of fear and reverence with you The Greek Fathers call this Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mysteries of dreadfulness lest we should not receive them in a clean vessel and with all due preparation O I beseech you remember you come to receive Christ who is risen and sitteth at the right hand of God wherefore come out of the Grave of your sins from your long accustomed crimes wherein you have been buried not four days with Lazarus but many years and then we shall encompass Christ in his glory with Troops of Angels for evermore AMEN THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MARK xvi 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen out of whom he had cast seven Devils ALL that concerns this most Christian Festival may be referred to two words Christus resurrexit apparuit that Christ rose from the dead and that he appeared after he was risen That he rose from the dead on this day there were good tokens of it the earth trembled the Stone was rolled away the Monument was opened the Souldiers that kept watch upon the place were dismayed and fled away the body was not to be found in the Sepulcher and Angels of light heavenly Spirits that would consent to no fraud or sin ministred in the Grave where the body had lain Who were the Witnesses that could testifie to all this that it was very true A Catalogue of people some of one condition some of another The whole Corps du Guard of the Souldiers though they were corrupted to tell a lie the Women that brought sweet Odours and Spices to embalm him and lastly two of his own Disciples Peter and John who saw what God had done and returned from the Monument with some little faith but with great extasies of wonder and joy indeed with a concurrence of all these passions that no man can well tell what to call it See my Beloved here was the grand Article of Faith come now to the birth yet all this that was passed was not able to bring it forth It put Christ therefore I will not say to the trouble but to the exercise of five several Apparitions upon this day 1. He was seen of Mary Magdalen 2. Of Peter although we meet not with the manner how Peter saw him but the Apostle Paul says he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve it was his happiness by himself alone to behold him alive again upon this day Luk. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared unto Simon 3. He manifested himself to the cluster of those Women that came to anoint his body 4. He discovered himself to those two that were going to Emmaus 5. He came in the presence of all the Disciples at Evening when the doors were shut These were the Cinque Ports I may say of his sweet manifestation at this season And it falls out very well to my purpose that my Text says the first that saw him after his victory over death was Mary Magdalen For this will make even with Eve upon whose disobedience I have preach'd so often I have shewed unto you divers times how by a Woman came the first vengeance of death now I shall shew you if God please how by a woman came the first notice of the Resurrection from the dead and both hapned in a Garden In a Garden life was forfeited unto death And in a Garden life was recovered from death But death was threatned to Eve towards the darkness of the Evening he that conquered death made shew of his victory openly to this holy Woman early in the Morning And this is Davids Song accomplished Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the Morning The Text offers much to be spoken of I cannot reach at all but I will select so much only as will serve for the continuance of an hour First here are circumstances of time which shew a coherence between the Resurrection and Apparition of our Lord. The Apparition as well as the Resurrection was upon the same day On the first day of the Week and much about the same time of the day very early in the Morning Secondly The Apparition it self was made to Mary Magdalen who is described that she had the first fruits of Christs love for the present he appeared first c. And 2. she that was the object of his great mercy for the time past for it was she out of whom Christ had cast seven devils Unto these particulars are required your Attentiveness and my labour To begin then These great marvels hapned on
And with a little motion with a turning about he was just behind her and now first she got the sight of him She got the sight of him but loe here is another degree of his appearance before he was clearly revealed he was presented to her in such a fashion that as yet she knew not that her blessedness was so near her She mistook him it is hard to say how for the Gardener that dress'd those grounds But how came this ignorance upon her I do not believe that Christ carried a rake and spade in his hand like a Gardener as vulgar Pictures make bold to set him out He might offer himself in a poor habit and without any upper Garment like one that was not far from home and being so early in the ground these circumstances would suit so well to no man as to the Gardener Very well this conceit might have taken her if our Lord had been a stranger to her knowledge But this is marvellous she sought none but him she knew no mans person in the world so well as him and yet the first glimpse he is any body but himself he is a Gardener How comes this I have it for you I think out of two Texts of the Gospel In the 12. verse of this chapter it is said that after Mary had seen him he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another form to two of them by the way Yet concerning the same parties we read Luke xxiv 16. Their eyes were holden that they should not know him We may collect thus much out of both these put together that in those forty days wherein Christ walked upon the earth after he was risen he seemed by his Divine power to wear many sorts of Garments but he wore none for a glorified body needs not the coverture of Apparel and the eyes of those that saw him had not the power to perceive who he was until such time as he saw fit to disclose himself And take it for very truth that I say their outward senses had no power to judg of their object but when he pleased for as I will shew in good time by and by Mary talkt with him and did not know his voice till he opened her ears When he thought it due time and not before her eyes and ears recovered their faculties But I confess the question doth yet depend upon a little more resolution why Christ would let her continue a while deluded that she knew not who he was I answer she deserved not to partake of more favour she loved much indeed but we cannot say that she believed much She believed no more than the High-Priest would have all the world believe that his body was stoln out of the Sepulcher Since therefore she was more zealous in her love towards Christ than all others he appeared unto her but because she would not believe in his resurrection no not for the testimony of the holy Angels therefore for a little space he hid himself from her contriving that in his body now which he doth continually in the sending of his Holy Spirit a little love shall have some reward but he will come and dwell with them and be known of them that believe without wavering As yet he passeth with this woman for a Gardener and that was no unhappy error it was he that did sow the seeds of faith in her heart and planted repentance in her soul that it might grow up and prosper to amendment of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she supposed him to be a Gardener it is true in the allegory but not in the letter Take heed that our carnal affections do not impress Christ into our thoughts otherwise than he is When we are full of earthy low flat cogitations we frame a God of a strange fashion to our selves As Mary Magdalen giving no trust to the Angels that he was risen from the dead took him for no better than the Gardener But to strike up this point to the head whatsoever Christ seemed to her he was himself without all transformation he had now a glorified body he did not change the form and lineaments of his body it was the poison which the Manichaeans suckt out of this Text says St. Hierom that forasmuch as the Lord seemed to this woman diverse from himself he was diverse from himself and had a phantastique body not made of flesh and bone of the seed of the woman ridiculous he contiued very God and very man in the unity of one person the same man Jesus Christ that was born of the Virgin But his wisdom did contrive it so as to reveal himself to this party by degrees First by his Proxies the Angels Secondly by the shape of a Gardener now thirdly he threw the Veil aside and shewed himself clearly as he was unto her and she that desired but to find him dead found him living for ever The manner the manner of it I say is that which is well worthy of a godly eare to mark it for which I still refer you to the 20. of St. John Our Saviour when he came in presence gave her occasion of discourse on this sort woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou Good expressions both of a most passionate love weeping and seeking Yet to seek did befit her diligence but to weep was out of date at this time and convinced her of a reproveable weakness It was no day to spend tears upon which offered occasion of eternal joy and shall so continue a day of gladness every week while the world endures But says St. Austin she that wept for her Brother Lazarus and obteined his resurrection with tears she makes assay if by weeping she could obtein the resurrection of Christ But whatsoever may be thought her infirmity in weeping it was gracious in Gods eyes when it was joyned with seeking Doubtless says St. Paul God is not far from every one of us Act. xvii 27. yea but he is always near at hand to those that seek him not far from any but thou Lord never failest them that seek thee Psal ix 10. Mary had done as much as diligence could express she had wept as much as grief could express now Joseph could not choose but make himself known to his Brethren now Jesus would hold the woman in suspence no longer but he chang'd the accent of his voice and spake so tunably that she knew him at the first word he said no more but Mary as God said unto Moses Thee have I known by name and then she turned and said Rabboni as who should say I know the voice of my Master and I am thine Handmaid It sounded well in her mouth to call him Rabboni or Master now he was alive for she continued to call him Lord when she took him for lost and that he was no better than one of the dead When all ignominy had been cast upon him when none would own him for a Lord yet she reserves his title to him they
also thinks to elude the Scripture with a distinction that his holy Mother did first see him on this day non ad confirmationem dubii sed ad consolationem gaudii not to confirm her faith so he appeared first to Mary Magdalen who wavered and distrusted but no fill her with gladness If these things were so why did not the Book of God explain them if these things be not so why do they pretend Tradition without authority The truth is Gerardus a learned Lutheran hath taught us with more likelihood than ever any before how some unwary Clerks stumbled upon this error Epiphanius in his 68 Heres against the Marsalians lapsing in memory alleageth the words of Christ Touch me not to be spoken to his Mother when he first rose from the dead which indeed were spoken to Mary Magdalen and from hence came the misprision that he appeared first to his Mother when he rose from the dead Not out of desire to quarrel any thing that might justly concern the honour of the Blessed Virgin but for truths sake I have vindicated this Scripture that Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalen she saw his resurrection in the first bud and not only as others did in the blown flower You might have imagined this favour would have faln upon his Apostles or upon Joseph of Arimathea the Lord of the Soil where he first appeared but he was first found of her that first sought him especially he came first to her who gave greatest attendance to meet with him She brought a company of women with her to the Tomb before the Sun rose they were all vanisht but her self She fetcht Peter and John they came and lookt in and shrunk away Their going away commends her staying behind she held out to the last till at last her joy was fulfilled Reason good that those that run longest in the race should be first rewarded Our patience I fear is not so firm and stedfast as hers was if we have not every thing we ask for at the first we think our zeal is prejudiced and we utterly give over as if God were not our King on whom we waited but our Servant that must come at the first call Whereas you shall never speed with a twitch and be gon but with importunity and pertinacy The Kingdom of Heaven is gotten by violence and the violent take it by force But beside as all note it was her great love to Christ that made her partaker of the first-fruits of his glory a love that hath great perfection in it in contraries in the hardiness of her courage and in the softness of her mourning In the hardiness of her courage for do you know upon what pikes she run to stay so long at the Sepulcher of our Lord. As Thomas noted into what danger our Saviour embarked himself when he told his Disciples Lazarus is dead and we will go unto him Let us also go and die with him says Thomas So there were Souldiers abroad to watch the Sepulcher Spies in every corner from the High-Priests to mark who did confess and honour our Saviour to go to his Tomb much more to stay at it was in effect to say let us go and die with him we care not for our lives But true love esteems it sweet to suffer for his sake to whose memory their affection is constantly devoted And she that was thus magnanimous to die for him was a true woman in compassion and wept exceedingly because his body was lost They were tears mistaken as most tears are unless we weep for our sins As one says well our life is full of false sorrows and false joys we laugh when we have no cause to be merry and we weep when we have no cause to be sad So Mary laments that Christs body was not in the Sepulcher which truly known was the greatest cause of rejoycing that ever the world had No mans injury had brought that to pass but his own power and glory yet certainly her weeping was reputed as an office of love and zeal because she did it ignorantly out of a pious intention and we are all so addicted to profuse mirth that God doth seldom make a bad construction of mourning But alass how often do we lose God by sin through our own default which is the worst taking away of all and yet we afflict not our heart at the mischance we grieve not for it O weep for the light of that grace which we often lose and the day-spring of comfort will rise again in our consciences But it may be for all this Christ would not first have appeared to her after he was risen but that she was one out of whom in times past he had cast out seven Devils To the letter of the words be thus much said before I come to make application out of them the story runs concerning this Party that she had led a very wicked and a scandalous life for which she suffered this judgment from the Lord and very deservedly that she was made a prey to the Devil and seven evil spirits entred into her possest her wrackt her and tormented her But if seven evil spirits should take up their quarter in every Strumpet in these days wherein they abound I think their would not be Devils enough in Hell to furnish them I know that some who dip their Pen too much in allegories expound it not as if the very Devils themselves but as if the seven deadly sins had taken up their seat in her This is wrong for Luke viii 2. we find that there were with Christ certain women that had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities among whom was Mary Magdalen out of whom went seven devils Therefore it is not to be gainsaid but she was really dispossessed of seven infernal spirits that had entred into her Upon the account of this benefit she began to turn her heart to the fear of the Lord and grew up from grace to grace till no Disciple of her sex was more godly in her profession more servent in love more sincere in amendment of life Now out of all the Train that believed in the Name of the Lord he chose this convertita whom he had so mightily raised up to newness of life from the power of Satan I say he selected such an one to appear first unto her that the Church might know that such humble sinners as were partakers of his greatest mercy should also be partakers of his greatest glory And let every conscience which hath been opprest with the burden of iniquity refresh it self with this hope that our Redeemer liveth to gather those unto him whose iniquities have been many but they are washed clean in his bloud and are buried in his Grave As you have those comfortable words sounded in your ears before the receiving of the Lords Supper Come unto me all ye that are weary c. But thus Christ did as it were celebrate the resurrection of the body from
worship that which was base and despicable like Gods of Silver and Gold then cause might be shewn why flesh and bloud should disdain it O Beloved it is the King of Kings and the excellency of Jacob He sits upon a Throne that is circled about with a Rainbow Rev. 4. A Rainbow was his first Covenant which He made to spare the World and reason good that his Throne should be compassed about with Mercy Next unto the Rainbow sate Twenty four Elders that had Crowns of Gold upon their heads supposed to be Twelve Patriarchs and Twelve Apostles that propagated his glory unto all Nations both Jews and Gentiles as who should say All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall do him service To shut out all objections It is certain that Majesty and Dominion lose the hearts of men that should obey and purchase Envy and Hatred which cannot shift it self sometimes into Lowliness and Humility O see and be astonished at it if God have not submitted himself to the fashion of man For as the Ark of God when it was in the Wilderness had Pelles caprinas supra byssinum a Covering of Goats hair upon the silken Curtains which were costly and precious So the Lord Almighty who most properly is cloathed with light as with a garment hath also put on flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones that by all means He might allure us unto his Love sometime adoring him in Honour sometime admiring his Humility And I give them over as past all good that are as stubborn as Cato of whom it is said Dictatorem odit nec minùs Caesurem He neither lov'd the Dictator in his great Office nor Caesar in his private Calling that are not affected with the poor Nativity of the Son of man nor with the excellency of God in the highest heavens Love Jesus that was made man or where is thy thankfulness Honour and praise his name that ruleth over all or where is thy devotion I know it will be more profitable to my Hearers to instance in those particulars of Honour and Worship wherein God especially is delighted and I propound these four to your Christian practice 1. We must magnifie his Name 2. Obey his Word and Commandments and thus far the Angels go with Man and no farther but it is not enough for us Angelis dimidium mundi factum est sed nobis totum Heaven is but half the World which is made for Angels but Heaven and Earth the whole compass of the World is made for Man Therefore 3. in the third place we must give reverence to his Sacraments as to the Seals of his Love and Mercy And 4. obey his Magistrates Let us draw this division to some rule that you may be sure it is full and complete First you know God is to be considered in his own Essence bare and naked by it self next these three Attributes and properties are most inward unto it his Wisdom his Goodness and his Power Now the Essence of God is declared by his Names his Wisdom is revealed in his Word his Sacraments convey his goodness unto us and Kings and Princes bear the Image of his Power and Authority If any man can find out more ways to honour the Lord let him go on and prosper I had rather praise his name upon a ten-stringed Lute with David than with St. Peter set up three Tabernacles and no more and come short of one of those which I have propounded But first of the honour due unto his Name As the Sun is the cause of our knowledge to distinguish the hours of the day upon the Dial and yet we know not our time by the Sun it self immediately but by the shadow it casteth So the Essence of God is the cause of all things and yet we have not his Essence but his Name revealed unto us this is the Oracle of the inward Temple and the Star that leads unto holy Bethlem where Christ is laid Unto this Name we should lift up our hands in Prayer and for this Names sake stretch them out in Alms unto the poor And as David ask'd if there were any of the Race of Jonathan left to whom he might shew mercy and Mephibosheth was brought unto him an impotent Cripple but the Son of Jonathan So let us enquire if there be any thing of the Lord remaining among us if all be not lost by the Fall of Adam that we may do honour unto it alas it is but a small thing it is but the Name of our God but let us make much of it as he did of Mephibosheth let it be in great esteem and veneration When I speak of the honour due unto his Name I mean the honouring of God himself at the mention of his Name Our Mother-Church of England as careful that I may not enter into comparisons as any Church in the world to take away the yoke of superfluous Ceremonies and yet very provident to make the body of man submit it self to a decent outward worship of holiness hath prescribed unto us by a Canon that while we are in Gods House at the mention of the Name of Jesus we should do reverence with the Knee and uncover the Head I know not by what peevishness of some or by what presumption of others it is more neglected in many Congregations of this City than elsewhere throughout all the Realm Doth that Name which imports Salvation and Redemption from your sins no more affect you Or do you give no more obedience to the Church-Authority Are you not Fidelis in minimo faithful in a small matter How do you look that your heavenly Father should appoint you to be faithful over much I am not ignorant that some have made Sorcery rather than Religion and Blasphemy than Devotion of the holy Name of Jesus as among others that Frier that said when our Saviour did bend his head upon the Cross it was not as the Scripture says to give up the Ghost but he did bow it unto the Title Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews And Pope John the Twentieth gave an Indulgence to any body for the pardon of one enormous sin that should do reverence at the hearing of that Name yet on the other side me thinks they set light by their Salvation that neither will do reverence themselves nor love to see if in another at the mentioning of that holy name To make a difference between the names of God that one is more holy than another it is not my opinion and I think is scarce honesty in the Schoolmen to distinguish as they have done that when we call God the Just one Omnipotent Wise and the like they are Attributes belonging to the Divine Nature from everlasting and therefore to be respected with the highest Adoration but when we call him Lord Creator and Redeemer what 's that but Jesus they are Nomina in tempore à Deo sumpta relative names assumed since the beginning of the
not be avoided when his own familiar friend did lift up his heel against him Such friends as Achitophel was our unworthy Age is packt with great observers in the time of our dignity devoted to our good fortunes shadows of our prosperity but if Absalon the Usurper thrive then they shrink like Sheba we have no part in David they are gone like the fishes in the small Rivers that come up into the Brooks at full tide and return into the Sea at ebbing waters Fugiunt amici cum probari debuerint says Seneca 't is a hard case friendship is but a mere name before distress come to try it what it is and when you come to catch hold of the succour of faithless men you grasp water and the rule is infallible cui placet pretium in amicitiâ placebit pretium contra amicitiam they that love to taste some benefit in their friendship may be induc'd to like a benefit so well as to betray friendship to obtain it Aelian and some other such scatter-stories as himself do make more reports of Dogs and Elephants of Birds and Horses and some other unreasonable creatures that they did either compassionate or relieve if they were able the miseries of those Masters whom they had long attended than of reasonable men What have we lost both nature and good nurture and have the beasts found it This made the Prophet complain Psal xii They speak vanity to their neighbour and flatter with their double heart This made Obadiah tell Hierusalem that the men of her peace and those that eat of her bread deceived her This made Jeremy advise the Jews Jer. 9. Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour and trust not in a Brother for every Brother will utterly supplant This made our Saviour protest that a mans Enemies were those of his own House this made King David decipher Achitophel in my Text Yea mine own c. Secondly I proceed to consider in this complaint how hateful a thing it is to wrong the trust which is reposed in us My friend in whom I trusted I cannot but break out abruptly with the Psalmist I have hated the sins of unfaithfulness and as the old Patriarch said of his Sons Simeon and Levi that drew from the Sichemites the holy bloud of Circumcision that they might the sooner spill their lifes bloud upon the ground O my soul come not thou into their secret into their assembly mine honour be not thou united Let us instance in some points of trust To betray a secret is fit for none but Doeg the Edomite a Beast set to keep the Beasts of Saul The Lacedaemonians sitting in counsel had a Ceremony to charm their doors as if no secret should get out of that circle and Alexander says Plutarch was wont to set his Seal upon their lips to whom he had committed his affairs of trust Tertullian reports of the fidelity of an Athenian Woman who was made privy to the counsels of Harmodius and Aristogiton and being brought before a Tyrant that urged confession from her rather than she would do it she spat her tongue in his face In matters of greater trust if greater may be than silence the old Roman Laws urged men to perform such faithfulness that an orphan Child committed to the pupillage of a friend lay upon his charge to look unto it next to his own Parents next to the Orphan the Client that had committed his Cause to his Patrons protection was to be respected and both these before their own Brethren Gellius abounds with testimonies to prove it primum locum juxta parentes tenere pupillos proximum locum clientes says the Author And the Poet Virgil in the detestation of that wicked Guardian which slue young Polydor for his Portions sake makes the very trees to drop bloud that grew in the place where the child was buried Did I say before that Simeon and Levi broke fealty with the Sichemites Did they deal any better with their own Father Jacob put two things into their charge his Flocks and their Brother Joseph 't is true they did tend their Flocks but you know their usage to their Brother O ye fools says St. Basil if dreams be vain why do you vex him for a dreams sake if dreams be true and infallible why do you think to thwart and hinder the Divine Providence If infidelity did only breed an ill opinion in that one disloyal party which commits it the matter were not great but for one Achitophels sake jealousies evil suspicions wrong surmises are counted the wise mans character in this subtle generation Epicharmus his saying went current with Tully for a most sage dictate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is the very strength and sinews of prudence to distrust and be circumspectious Thus Sycophants and Impostors have changed the face of the world and the innocency of the Dove is nothing so much respected as the wiliness of the Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them that dare trust that man who is too much mistrustful Have you been deceived says St. Ambrose do not dislike your self for that So was our Saviour in his Apostle Judas ut nemo aegre ferat erasse judicium pertisse beneficium and I see no reason why he that is a wise man should seem a fool because he that seemed an honest man is proved a knave Simonides was conceited of the Thessalians that no man could over-reach them but did he commend them for this Take his reason with you and you will say no. Stolidiores esse quà m ut possint decipi They were such gross Idiots that no man knew their disposition how to practise upon them I did ever think meanly of the wits of Sycophants all the glory that they reap is this the Impostor had no faith and he that trusted in such men had too much charity If the portion of the Fatherless be made over to thy custody remember old Tobies friend Gabael of Media who delivered up to Tobias the Talents sealed In the cause of the distressed Client be as trusty as Solomon was to the Harlot and let her have her own If thou hast betroathed a Virgin remember what Jacob endured with what constancy he persevered in the love of Rachel Lastly There is not a greater trust in the world than to be deputed a shepherd over the flock of Christ O be faithful and vigilant break the bread of life which Christ hath bequeathed But if the Portions of Orphans cleave fast to your hands how can you hold them up to that Saviour who committed himself to Josephs trust when he was a Babe and was not deceived If the cause of an abused Client rattle in your mouth how can you plead for mercy to him who did plead so well for the woman taken in Adultery and she was acquitted If the faith of some poor betroathed Virgin whom you have wronged cry for vengeance how can Christ the faithful Spouse of the Church attend to your supplication If
residue the Lord will give victory to his chosen people But as Cyrus in Xenophon speaks of the manner of the Median hunting beasts in Gardens that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hunt beasts that were bound so to follow these turncoat Fugitives which have sheltred themselves in Cloisters and are sworn to do us mischief it were vincta venari to pursue that which was entangled therefore I leave them with Judas and this brand upon both their foreheads concluding the second part of my Text c. I am now descended in the third place to the stratagem of this day and am faln upon the haters of my Lord the King A King who is an uniter of Kingdoms into one body as David was of Judah and Israel none more zealous no not David himself for the prosperity of Jerusalem and the magnificence of the holy Temple Under Christ not only the Supreme Head but under Christ the most careful Watchman of our Churches and as Christ did tenderly affect his Apostles above all other men so the Successors of the Apostles the Reverend and most holy Bishops of our Church have found not the smallest place in the love of our gracious Soveraign Surely above all men if the Clergy be not careful to set forth the honour of this day with great joy and solemnity it is their ignorance or their negligence Ignorance is the very annihilating of a Scholar negligence the foulest fault in a Labourer Had these furious Sword-men that laid their weapons to his throat sound an austere Master nay a Tyrant they must have born with it and not touch the man that bears the character of the Lords Anointed But his Peers are verè parâ—s welcom as his equals his familiar friends Had they been out of the lists of counsel not acquainted with secret affairs what should they do but be thankful for the peace which they enjoy without trouble and pray for that Government which fills them with plenteousness without their labour but they were familiars in whom he trusted adventuring his Royal Person not only under their roof but under their locks and custody Lastly had his bounty no way flown into their Coffers and whose bounty among all the Kings of the earth hath replenished more yet their bodies are secure by the protection of his Laws their souls secure by his maintenance of true Religion their goods secure by his Courts of Justice and yet his own c. Did eat of his bread that is true But to feed upon the Kings hospitality is a curtesie every day common to thousands that visit the Court But for a mighty Monarch to grace his Subjects Table with his Royal Presence and to eat of his bread this is not the felicity of every one Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter it is a respect of high honour where it lights and the glory of an illustrious Family And out of doubt that mind must be very sordid and avaricious that esteems it not the more noble grace to make their service find acceptation that they may expend somewhat rather than receive somewhat of a mighty Potentate I can spare no more time to publish the black sin of the Authors of this treachery It was Dionysius his saying to Plato that if he should dismiss him and give him leave to depart for Greece Plato would make him the common talk of Athens Do not think O King says Plato that we have so little care of learned conference that we would chuse you for our discourse So I hope beloved that our hearts are so full charged with thankfulness to God for this days deliverance that in twenty years and more we have no leisure as yet to think of the Malefactors Let this day be spent and many days following only in Prayer and Supplication and Thanksgiving to that God who hath given victory to his Anointed and will do to his Seed for evermore Nay let me add one thing coronidis vice and I have quite done we have found this verse to tax Achitophel to condemn Judas and lastly to lie at their door who perished deservedly this day in their own fury Bonaventure hath yet smelt out another enemy and such a one as none more familiar none more intimate to any of us all Is not this fair warning beloved And will you know who it is O man it is thy self He that prays to God to bless him from his enimies is afraid of malice indeed it is a dreadful thing He that prays to God to bless him from his friends is afraid of treachery and indeed no mischief less avoidable But let me pray to God to bless me from my self no enemie so full of flattery so like to prevail so cunning in tentation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the Civil War which wastes the inward parts it is the carnal man against the spiritual Self-love is every mans disease Why You are your own familiar friend Confession of sins can hardly be extorted from us Why We trust to our selves too much Gluttony and Riot are within our Walls Why We feed our selves and are our own carvers From our enemies defend us O Christ from Forain Invasion from Domestical Conspiracy from the malice of Satan and from the corruption of this vile Flesh the body of death which we carry about Good Lord deliver us AMEN THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Fifth of November AMOS ix 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them WE have two sorts of Holy-days and Festivals to call Assemblies together into the Church of God Some in honour of the Saints who are our friends that their Piety may redound to our imitation Some occasioned by the malice of our enemies to sing praises for our preservation both are useful if we advise aright And who knows whether King David was instructed better from Hushai his Friend or from Shemei that reviled him He that would be safe says Plutarch and walk sure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must either have true Friends or bitter enemies And as God would have it the Church hath plenty of both sorts Saints of honour in heaven spiteful men to undermine it upon earth darkness beneath to complot treachery light above to reveal it There is both manus fodiens an hand digging into Hell against us and manus educens the eternal hand that fashioned all things on our side to take them out Beloved here are two chief instructions from two main ways to inform our faith blessed is every one that hath duly prepared one heart to receive them Which that we may the better do I pray observe what a lofty Hyperbole the whole verse doth consist of threatning the ungodly that they shall neither have advantage by Heaven nor Hell Though they dig c. They that go about to cast away themselves are not in their way except they wander And that you may know how sinners straggle whithersoever they go mark what several interpretations the words do bear Hugo the
appointed Which is the fountain of all discontent not to stay Gods leisure and to complain of his Providence as if he had broke his day Such will fall into a passion as if they wanted ease and that the ground was not soft enough under their feet though the way should lead them to the Kingdom of Heaven But a true faith expects Gods leisure from day to day will neither faint nor fret that his suit hangs long in the Court of Requests Many sores will never be well healed unless they be long dressing and many deliverances will never be throughly perfect unless they be long settling and many mercies are like seed in the ground and will be long growing A second Instance of grudging is in the 5. verse Our soul loatheth this light bread Is that a fault in bread to be light see how they commend it in dispraising it I am sure they came lightly by it It fell like a hoar frost about their Tents they neither ploughed nor sowed nor reaped they did but stoop and gather it they lived as easily as young birds in the nest when the Dam puts meat into their mouths They did not see how God did take away the curse of Adam from them to eat bread in the sweat of their brows Let them look to this and make use of it that are of the best rank that God do not lay this sin to their charge on this wise you labour not at all yet you want not you have store enough and ease enough into the bargain yet never content They that work hard for one dayes food depend upon God and call upon him more than they that have before hand for a year nay sufficient for an age Now put both the exceptions of the Israelites together for their bones and their belly for their journey and their bread and you see a little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery and a great benefit slighted for but a little favour But was there so much evil in this sin to cause a flight of Serpents to fall upon the Camp I believe so and I will prove it First there are two sins so scandalous to the Jewish Nation that Philo conceals them nay Josephus out of more love to his Country then fidelity in History never remembers them those be the worshipping of the Golden Calf and this serpentine sin of murmuring at Salmonah Therefore this artifice of Josephus tells you that murmuring was one of the two sins of the first magnitude Secondly it is a filthy crime to obscure great benefits under a black cloud of unthankfulness They murmured at Moses whom no praises could sufficiently extol for his rare deservings He brought them out of Egypt and made them all free men that were slaves What recompence could they make him for their liberty They were beholding to him for one thing more which was greater than all the rest to uphold them in true Religion and the right Worship of God so that it was said of them and of no other Nation in the Earth Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God Deut. xii 2. In all things he ruled them with a faithful hand yet they were ever at this key O that it were otherwise that it were better thus and thus which were no better than Nebuchadonosor's Dreams he knew not himself what he had dreamt of when he was awake The use of it from their error is that we should sit down and count how many blessings we have received and be thankful rather than fret at a few imaginary inconveniences which I can puff away with a little breath as easily as a downy blow-ball O all ye works of the Lord which he hath wrought in England in less than two years praise him and magnify him for ever We have cause to frame a ditty balsamed all over with a perfume of thanksgiving for all things that God hath done for us from the center of the Earth to the top of Heaven Thirdly God hath laid a great burden upon the shoulders of the Ruler to provide for the safety of so many millions and what reward hath he in this World but acceptance and encouragement from his Lieges This was the comfort of David 2 Sam. iii. 36. Whatsoever the King did pleased the People But if so much merit meet with frowardness then says Moses I cannot bear your cumbrance burden and strife Deut. i. 12. And if they weary the good spirit of Moses doubtless they shall receive the recompence of their own bitter spirit Nay if the Ruler be not the better for your good word let him not be the worse for your undutiful language A reasonable thing as can be askt If you will not honour him do not murmur at him that 's the least that can be required and too little in conscience But we must get what we can from bad debtors To be short in this point if you speak evil of that which you are bound to praise if you fall foul on the ways of God because you will not wait his leisure if you pick quarrels at good things for which you are bound to give thanks I appeal not as I might to mans judgment to dry up the filth that runs from faction with the spunge of the Laws I refer them to God and to the Host of his venemous creatures which he will send to correct their poisonous tongues The sin is like to nothing more than an Asp or Viper no serpent so much a serpent as a murmuring spirit therefore such a punishment was a fit cover to clap upon such a sin The Lord sent serpents among them A Judgment 1. vile 2. painful 3. strong 4. incurable First a vile one to die serpent-bitten was inglorious to the warlike stomach of that People their sword could not help them and if they kept not in their Tents like Prisoners one of these Sergeants of God would shoot through the air and clap upon them Let no man say a woman slew me says Abimelech Judg ix 54. Let not the uncircumcised thrust me through says Saul 1 Sam. xxxi 4. But this was far below them both and most opprobrious to humane nature For as the Devil could not choose a viler creature wherein to tempt us so there is not a meaner on earth to chastise us They might be for ought we know created on purpose for this office of wrath as the Frogs and Locusts in Egypt or gathered from all quarters to fall thick upon their Camp as Quails were brought from all places to feed them there might be store of them in the Wilderness before now but never stirred up till now to do execution I define it not but which way soever they came they were never a whit the better It is a reproach upon man who had the dominion of the Creatures and saw them all put under his feet that every paultry worm is able to turn against him and bring him to the dust Marvel not
are the words of Calvin To call a Publick Fast is to draw a solemn profession from the tongues of all men in the behalf of all men So do we for those who out of stubbornness and frivolous exceptions against our Liturgy will not joyn with us in this Church duty So we do for those who out of blindness in a superstitious breeding had rather mutter they know not what in an unknown Tongue than pray with us in that Language wherein they may be comforted and edified So we do for those who out of profaneness and Atheism think not of these things and have no affection to bear a part in common Supplications We fast for all these to day as for our selves desiring God as it is in our Litany that he will have mercy upon all men The sick that desire to joyn with us in Prayer and cannot come Infants and Sucklings whose tongues are not yet framed to magnifie the Lord we represent all these and include them in our faithful and charitable Supplications for our selves and for all these we pray to our heavenly Father that as we spread not our Table this Noon so he will fit us against Night to eat our meal with a good conscience with confidence and comfort that he hath restored us to all his blessings again And though we have been Prodigal Children yet we shall be brought into our Fathers house to eat the bread of life and the fatted Calf even Jesus Christ A Fast is commonly the Eve before some Holy-day and I pray to God that this Publick Fast may be such the Eve or forerunning day to joyful times to come and so it will be if as sure as this is a Fast the time to come be observed with all diligence as holy to the Lord. And now in the conclusion of all that you may know that Nebemiah fulfilled all righteousness for Jerusalems sake when so many exercises of humiliation had gone before in the upshot he prayed before the God of heaven Weeping and Mourning and Fasting are about Prayer like prickles about a Rose But as no sweet Rose is without prickles so no powerful Prayer is without these or some of these But this is the Rose this is the flower of Religion this is the Odour of sweet Incense that ascends up before the Lord. Ibi nuntius noster oratio mandatum per agit quò caro pervenire non potest says St. Austin It delivers our Message like an Embassadour in the Sanctuary of God whither corruptible flesh and bloud cannot enter For as the Winds and Air have free access unto those places which are immured and watcht that no foot of man can approach unto them So though a Cherubim brandish a flaming Sword before Paradise that the Seed of mortal man cannot come to it without destruction yet our Prayers are Spirits and Angels that fly upon the wings of the wind and come boldly to that place where God is wonderful in light inaccessible A poor whelp hath found out a way by nature to lick it self whole with its tongue when it is bitten or wounded So when we are oppressed with any evil of sin or of punishment our tongue is our instrument to lick the sore Call upon the Lord in the time of trouble and he will hear thee and help thee Yet very much goes to it to make Prayer speeding and effectual Go unto the House of the Lord as often as you can and joyn in humble Petition with the Spirit of the whole Church with the Congregation of Saints and bring your mind with you as well as your body your zeal as well as your voice Observe your constant times of private Prayer at least every Morning and every Evening if oftener the better Cast your self upon your knees with a resolved preparation to be a faithful a penitent an earnest Supplicant Intermit not this practice for any worldly avocation either to serve your self or to serve your friends and I can tell you this will bring such admirable effects to pass when you have got the habit and perseverance of that vertue as I durst not name but that the Spirit of God hath got assurance of it It will give you knowledge of divine things when you will wonder how you learnt them It will pick the thorns of Concupiscence out of your flesh when you will marvel how you were rid of them It will give you courage in dangers when there is small hope to escape And content when desire is not obtained And chearfulness when every thing that should procure joy is far from you It is grace and peace health and wealth and every good thing that concerns this life and a better Only ask seek and knock ask with confidence seek with diligence knocb with perseverance No Father if his Child ask him bread will give him a stone or if he ask a fish will give him a Scorpion If they that are evil give good things how much more will your heavenly Father If we ask him Victory he will not give us a Defeat If we ask him Peace he will not give us continuance of War If we ask him for Justice he will not give us Oppression If we ask him for the continuance of true Religion he will not give us Idolatry and Superstition But ask zealously faithfully devoutly with love unfeigned with a clean heart as becometh Saints For if you ask amiss you shall go without Look towards the pattern of Nehemiah he was one of great integrity and uprightness and therefore fit to carry the Petitions of all the people in his lips to God He prayed before God not like an Hypocrite to be seen of men He set God always before him assured that he was present to hear his words and to see his ways But they that have the itch of the Pharisees to draw the eyes of men upon them the Lord will turn away his face and reject their Prayers He prayed before the God of heaven he did not pray to the Saints in heaven No says Friar Walden we confess that none of the just men in the Old Testament did ever pray to any Saint departed partly because the souls of the righteous were not admitted unto the Vision of God in heaven before Christ by his Ascension did open the Kingdom of heaven to all believers Even as much then as now for ought he knows and how much or how little either then or now it is hard for him or us to know But his second reason is that the Jews were kept from the custom of praying to Saints least they should run into Idolatry I thank him for that caution for that mis led practice of praying to Saints is a symptome of Idolatry Let us direct our Petitions to the Lord alone in whom we have assurance that he doth hear us and will help us I have said unto the Lord thou art my God hear the voice of my Prayer O Lord Psal xl 6. Is there any Precept in Scripture
natural men began from Religion whensoever they feasted for before they tasted any thing they did offer or sequester a first fruits to their Gods as Plutarch says in his Symposiacks But as for Christians though it were no Feast though their Fare were most course and slender yet says Tertullian Non prius discumbitur quà m oratio ad Deum praegustetur aequè oratio convivium dirimit And Gregory tells us it is in his Dialogues indeed that a man that eat but a few herbs and blest not God before the eating was possessed with a Devil I will not say upon so poor a Repast but where there is a full Table I will say it with Origen that there is a kind of bewitching in meats and drinks a kind of luxurious devil that dances in the Dish Which made holy Job offer Sacrifice for his Sons and Daughters when they had spent some days in liberal entertainments For though I may charitably suppose that the Children of so Venerable a man were educated in Sobriety yet it is an hard thing to be confined within an unblameable temperance Quis est qui non aliquantulùm rapitur extrametas necessitatis Says St. Austin in his Confessions and yet a man of admirable abstinence Who is it that doth not pamper himself with more than that which is barely necessary And therefore all men had need to protect themselves with Prayer against excess and superfluity If Christ thought it meet when five thousand were to be fed with five Loaves and two Fishes what need have we to be munitioned against Luxury Where Quails and Manna are but homely fare in respect of our condited delicates Seria ludicra verba jocos trina superna regat pietas says a sacred Poet. You may be serious you may be frolick at Table and mirth is more beseeming than sadness at that season yet begin all in the name of God that seriousness may not turn into melancholy nor mirth into scurrility Fie on their corrupt ears that love to be tickled with lascivious Ballads while they are pampering their belly Penelopes Suitors were great Gluttons and Minstrils they had meal by meal but blind Homer says any new Song would please them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these were nebulones Alcinoique Now a days it must be obscene or it is nothing O these that abuse both the sustenance of the Body and the sweet delight of the Spirit they are neither worthy of Meat nor Musick but are reserved for howling and gnashing of teeth Now I shall come to an end for this time For I have done with that word of sacred and ghostly preparation which St. John useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he gave thanks the other Evangelists use the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be blessed That you may learn that to bless and to give thanks are words convertible says St. Cyril that signifie the same thing he makes no more of it And it is true that at some times they are Synonyma as 1 Cor. xiv 16. When thou shalt bless with the Spirit how shall he that supplies the place of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks There they must be the same but here they must be divers for Christ gave thanks unto his Father but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Luke he blessed the bread To give thanks was the Piety of his Humane Nature but this blessing came from the vertue of his Divine Nature He did infuse a new miraculous quality into the Loaves and imparted a seminal power unto them of increase and multiplication I know not what ailes some Interpreters I think they are afraid of Magick that they do so avoid this word and turn it from the right signification when our Saviour is said to bless any outward matter that was before him But saving their Criticisms wherein they are most laboriously impertinent to confound it with Prayer and giving of thanks I find a threefold blessing of the Creature in the Gospel Communis Miraculosa Sacramentalis First at a common Supper for so I conceive it Luk. xxiv 30. Our Saviour blessed bread Not as if there were any impurity in the Creature especially there could be none to him Deo artifici tam mundus est porcus quam agnus says St. Austin But it teacheth us to invocate Gods goodness that those things which we use may be salutiferous unto us And herein I cannot deride them that have a Ceremony to bless their Honey and Eggs on Easter day their Pastures on St. Stephens day their Wine on St. Johns day their Orchards and Gardens on the Assumption as they stile it of the blessed Virgin There is no vanity in these common Benedictions Secondly There is a blessing of the Creature with a mighty hand when a Miracle is wrought So these Barly Loaves were blessed exalted to an enlargement above their nature and this is to be adored and not to be imitated If you would have it inquired into whether this blessing was executed with any outward Ceremony I have no resolute answer for it Whether Christ did use some set form of Prayers or words or used the imposition of his hands or the gesture of his body in some remarkable Figure I cannot tell One of these are not unlikely because the Passengers that went to Emaus knew him by his blessing and breaking of bread It may be they had been at the spending of these five Loaves in the Wilderness and knew the form of his customary Benediction Cajetan puts it off with a trifling conjecture that he was used to break bread with that evenness as if it had been cut with a Knife and that discovered him It is more likely I take it that he was known by a decent and outward Ceremony of Benediction Lastly There is a Sacrament al Benediction of the outward Elements So the water of Baptism is sanctified to be the Pool of Regeneration So our Saviour did not only give thanks but he blessed and consecrated both the Bread and the Cup which he divided among his Disciples No doubt in the beginning of the Supper before they fed of the Lamb he had blessed the Table That he did as the Son of man But afterward he began an eximious and singular Benediction for a new work as the Son of God he exalted them thereby to be the lively Sacrament of his body and bloud Et non sunt quod natura formavit sed quod benedictio consecravit says St. Ambrose They are no more that which Nature hath made them but that for which then Christ and since we in our Priestly Benediction do consecrate them The hand of Jesus is with us in our work and the blessing c. THE SECOND SERMON UPON JOHN vi 11. He distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would THis is the second time I take leave to remember you of it that I have propounded