will not say but it was very meet for an Israelite under the Law to know it but alass they did grope in the dark and it is hard to say whether ever they did find it for what Type or shadow did come home to demonstrate it You must not reply that it did appear in Jonas who came forth alive after he had been three days and three nights in the belly of the Whale for this was no Lesson for them that lived in eight or nine Ages from Moses unto the days of Jonas Neither must you urge that the first Temple was pluckt down to the ground and another reared up in the place which Temple did so prefigure Christs body that in that respect Haggai says The glory of the second house was greater than the first Hag. ii 10. This could never inform the peoples judgment all the while that the Tabernacle was under Tents Truly all that I can lead you to in this case is to the Ark which was but an Epitome of the Temple Nay nor to the Ark it self but to the three holy Reliques which were laid up in the Ark in them with a little curious observation you may find a rude draught of the Resurrection of our Saviour The two Tables of the Law which God gave first to Moses were broken but they were new hewn and written over again there was the reparation of the work of God which seemed to have been utterly lost The Pot of Mannah was in the Ark and this resembled Christ the Pot was like his Humane Nature of the earth earthy The Manna like his Godhead was above nature and came from heaven why this Manna would not keep above two days at the most after that it would putrifie but that which was put into the Pot did out-last the two days of putrefaction and for ought we know was never corrupted Finally Aarons Rod was a dead dry stick but it shot forth like a living Tree and brought forth Almonds Now if the Resurrection of Christ the very Pillar of faith was to be collected out of such dark obscure shadows what a gloomy night was the time of the Law And what an illustrious day is the Gospel which speaks this mystery so plainly to the capacity even of Children and Ideots Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him Yet I will confess that we are not yet come to broad day-light till the general Resurrection of all flesh is accomplished Very sweetly says one of the Moderns Tempus gratiae aurora est quae diet vicinior est quam nocti This time of grace is not complete day but a complete morning which hath little in it of the night and much of the day That is if you compare us with those of the Synagogue we are partakers of the day If you compare us with the life to come when our glory shall be revealed and Christ shall be all in all then we are yet in a dusky condition and have not hitherto shaken off the night St. Paul hath nickt it with most proper words Rom. xiii 12. says he The night is far spent the day is at hand Processit nox not Praecessit as the Vulgar Latin does misread it darkness is much abated not quite dispersed for as yet we see darkly as in a glass but the dawning of the day is risen in our Horizon for God hath given us the explicite knowledg of all Mysteries that conduce to our Salvation When the Church had first rest from persecution it had leisure to invent a splendour of Ceremonies in setting forth the Service of God among others I find that this was practised in the fourth Age that when the Deacon went up to some high place to read the Gospel there were certain attendants in the Church called Acolythi that carried two Torches lighted before him Ad demonstrandum quod de tenebris infidelitatis venimus ad lucem fidei to signifie that we have thrown aside darkness and infidelity and are come by the help of the Gospel into marvelous light So St. Hierom against Vigilantius in the day-time in the Eastern Countries when the Gospel is read Candles are lighted not ad fugandas tenebras sed ad sigum laetitiae demonstrandum not that such artificial light adds any thing to the light of the day but it is a token that light is come to us and we are glad of the illumination Give us leave then to say without boasting that wheresoever the name of Christ is professed and in no place else there is the acceptable time there is the day of salvation As there was light in Goshen when all the Land of Egypt was in darkness But especially we shall shew that we do believe that the day spring from on high hath visited us if we keep that one rule which St. Paul hath enforced upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us walk honestly and decently as in the day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either the energy of the word means that because many eyes are witnesses of our dressing in the day we will then habit our selves more comely than in the night when none or only those of our Family behold us So the Christian Church is like a City upon an Hill which cannot be hid the eyes of all Nations are bent upon it therefore let us walk soberly and justly that we give no scandal to the enemies of the Gospel Be as careful to apparel your souls handsomely with all grace and vertue in the sight of God as you are observant to dress your bodies decently in the day that nothing deformed may appear in you to the eyes of men Or it may thus concord with the Apostles intention such as are dissolute will forbear to riot it in the day they that are drunken are drunken in the night A Nation that is more civil in the night than in the day is hardly to be found unless it be true that some do tax us for such a Nation but all distempers of roaring and mischief for the most part break out in darkness Well then since the Gospel is a perpetual day not so little as a Lanthorn unto our feet that is but dim but a light from heaven above the light of the Sun Acts xxvi 13. Let us walk honestly as children of the light knowing we are made a spectacle to God and Angels and Men. So far I have entreated upon the Lords benignity he hath not only crowned David to be a mighty Potentate in the Land of Canaan but in the day of his Son Christ Jesus he hath crowned us all Kings and Priests of righteousness and hath given us a long day to rejoyce in even for ever and ever Now follows our acceptance and duty since this day hath appeared to the wish of our heart We will rejoyce and be glad in it as who should say as the faithful Israelites did keep one day for Davids Inauguration so in the day of the
great things for them Why because they obeyed not his word They knew it was not their Idol but the Lord who had deliver'd them yet they are said to have forgot the Lord because they worshipped him after their own inventions and did not obey him Next to this weigh but the actions of Micah of Mount Ephraim Jud. xvii he that can but spel words and put them together shall find his Mother dedicated her silver to the Lord for her Son to make a graven Image Micah had these Images for the honour of God and having those abominations still profest himself a Priest of the Lord therefore this must be his crime that he worshipped God in his Images Cajetan and Abulensis are of that judgment that where the Idol hath a peculiar name as Baal Ashteroth the people seduced served the very Idol but where the Idol had no peculiar name as in my instance of Micah's Images and the Calf that Aaron made there they served the true God in the Idol If this be not directly the Popish Doctrine the Sun hath no light in it To be even with their evasion every way the very Heathen as well as they could apprehend the eternal God by the light of nature worshipt him in their Idols and Penates few or none of them thought the matter of an Idol to be a God Seneca says says that by Jupiter standing in the Capitol with lightning in his hand they understood the Preserver and Governor of all things the Maker of the world Mark now nether the Jewish nor Heathenish Idolaters did any more than worship the true God in or before or with their Images Give them audience by the way how they profess both moral and natural Philosophy for their defence Moral first how he that honoureth the Image of the King honoreth the King himself this is called St. Athanasius and St. Basil's morality and so it is but Lord how little to the case The Arrians contended that glory was to be given to one eternal God but if one were the person of the Father another of the Son there were two Eternals to be glorified those Fathers answer the Son is the Image of the Father the express image of his person and the brightness of his glory and he that honour'd that Image of the King honour'd the King himself Is there not main difference between the carved Image which stands for Christ's manhood and between his personal filiation wherein He is the Image of his Father The outward Image stands for Christ by humane imagination it hath no eminent undeniable right to present him but Religious Adoration is founded upon that Union which is personal substantial relative by divine ordination And for the moral rule he that honours the King will honour his Image it holds only in negative honour a good Subject will not deface the Kings Picture in a despiteful spleen against the exemplar no more do we dishonour the Images of Christ and the Saints unless where flagrant Idolatry is committed to them then with good zeal they may be burnt or defaced to do God honour against the Creature Is their natural Philosophy any sounder 't is Aristotle's Idem est motus in imaginem exemplar his meaning is the abstractive understanding considers the abstracted notion of a material thing and the thing it self at once the verbum intellectus as it is called the intellective word and the real thing understood at once This is all he says but they have made a matter of it that when I see Christ's Image and rememorate Christ upon it and then worship him I must worship the Image together with him To deliver you quickly out of these thorny passages I say there cannot be the same motion of the mind towards this Image and the Exemplar for the mind is fixt upon the Image as upon a Sign and upon an Object much inferiour to the Exemplar The Image is a thing create Christ uncreate they confess a respective difference that Christ is adored simply and for himself the Image in regard of similitude and reference to the principal The Image is not the terminus of worship for it self but for Christs sake therefore the motion of mans heart toward Christ and the Image cannot be one but divers When I desire the means because of the end here are two distinct actions and motions of the will to wit election of means intention for the end But with them the worship of Christ and his Image is one and the same physical act of the body at once they talk that it is virtually twofold but if they hold there is the same motion of the mind too to both at once that will make it complete idolatry No marvail you see if you have quite lost the second Commandment out of some Portresses and Breviaries when they have found it again in their larger Missals they will not keep it When men have rampar'd witty shifts against truth it is in vain to tell them from S. John Babes beware of idols or from St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What agreement hath the Temple of the Lord with idols they will tush at it and say they mean the Idols of Pagans St. Pet. 1. Ep. c. iv v. 3. speaks against lusts excess of wines revellings abominable Idolatries Speaks he not against the lust and drunkenness and riot of Christians verily and as manifesty against Christian Idolatries But if they toy with the Scripture that is against them let them point to that Scripture that doth license their religious honour done to Images for faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God What not one Text to suit for them then belike it holds of Tradition nay Suarez says neither Scripture nor Tradition hath commended it but invaluit ex praxi consuetudine ecclesiae practise and custom hath allowed it How easily if time did not shorten me could I shew that for the first 500 years neither the Image of Christ or his Saints were set up in any Church so little was the practise of worshipping them on foot A little of antiquity will spend but a little time says Origen Who having his right wits after the Commandment of God will look upon Images to pray to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or by the sight thereof offer prayers thereby to him that is resembled St. Austin upon the 113. Psalm hath a full Sermon of it these few words are the pith quis adorat vel orat intuens simulacrum who is he that doth either pray or worship looking on an Image who is he marry an Idolater Procopius hath a memorable passage that from twenty Generations after Adam the Son did ever survive the Father which is most natural but Thare buried his Son Haran who was the first that made Images and God made him an example for doing a work so hateful to him I will confine my self to one instance more Serenus Bishop of Marseilles offended that some
neither thrive abroad nor at home Pyrrho haec Samnitibus I can wish our Enemies no greater harm than such corrupted minds That Pyrrhus it is in Plutarch was a rambling Warriour and cared not whom he oppressed Says Cyneas to him his best Counsellor Shall we live thus always No says Pyrrhus when we have vanquished the Romans Compotabimus in otio vivemus We will drink stoutly and live merrily His Horse would have said as much if he could have spoken that when his service was done he would stand in the Stable and eat his Provender But the end of War is Peace and the end of Peace is to die unto Sin and to live unto Righteousness These are the last words I have to say now In the justness of our Cause confidence of Faith fervour of Prayer amendment of our Lives United Hearts and in our Religious and Noble ends we commend our most serene and excellent Admiral the whole Royal and gallant Expedition which he manageth to God In whom alone is our help For there is none that fights for us powerfully and irresistably but only thou O God To which God c. A SERMON UPON PROV iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee THE Children of Israel were exhorted from their Prophet Moses to write the Law upon the Posts of their doors and to have Copies of it in the Fringes of their Garments as if the whole Land of Jury had been bound into one Sacred Volume to make a Bible for them This was Mandatum latissimum as David said a Commandment exceeding broad but a Proverb being by the very interpretation of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quaint speech used in every street of the City and every high way of the field it is more vulgar and common than the Law it self that thou maist be unexcusable O man when his words are gone forth into the ends of the world Now in this brief essay which I have read unto you as the Heathen were wont to set up the Image of Mercury in the turnings of high-ways to direct Passengers their journey which was called Mercurialis acervus so King Solomon in these words hath reared up a Pillar in the broad way to instruct our ignorance which is ready to turn aside and wander like the lost sheep that whithersoever we set our face we keep this Via Regia the Kings high way Let not c. Mercy and truth so excellent a workmanship that I reverse what I said before it is not like a Pillar set up for an heathen Idol but rather Solomon hath made a new Cherubin for a new Temple a Cherubin with two wings stretched out upon our soul The wings are Mercy and Truth which either bear up the body to heaven as David says My soul flieth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch Or if it grow laden with sin that so great a burden cannot be supported these wings can fly away alone these vertues will be gone like Elias in his firy Chariot for a wounded Conscience who can bear it But if it be true that Tertullian says Omnis spiritus ales est Every Spirit is winged to fly much more let the Spirit of every regenerate man be this Avis Paradisi that our soul may say as David the Sparrow hath found her a nest and the Swallow a place to lay her young ones even thine Altar O Lord of Hosts and being thus fledg'd Mercy and Truth shall not forsake us Out of which words I collect these parts in order The first wing of a Christian soul is Mercy He shall protect me under his wings and I shall be safe under his feathers so God was merciful unto David and mercy is a Wing Secondly The next that answers unto it is Truth For the word of the Lord is that flying roul which Ezekiel saw and the Word of the Lord is the truth it self so that Truth is a wing Thirdly Note their conjunction Mercy and Truth they are coupled together Mercy and Truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other they met long ago in Christ the head and we must not part them in his members Fourthly You must know that we may be so careless in our holy Profession that we may be stript of all the good endowments which we had Mercy and Truth may forsake us and then say we had them Lastly If we look to our part the gifts of God are without repentance ne deserant let them not depart there is a careful way whereby we may imp these wings from flying that they shall not forsake us else ne deserant were sounding brass and no true doctrine these are the five Lamps it remains I put oyl into them I begin at Mercy the fairest Omen that ever the World had in it The unmerciful brethren of Joseph consulted to put the blame of their cruelty upon the beasts we will say a cruel beast hath devoured him It is very well that they durst not profess themselves to be men who were so barbarous But neither is â—t in every beast of the field to be stony hearted The fouls of the air are gentle in their kind witness the Ravens that fed Elias and for the Cattel upon the hills the Ass forsook not his old Master the Prophet that was rent by the Lion The meanest of Creatures then have mercy by instinct of nature yea and the most glorious also dread not the Angels though they be called flaming spirits but rather consider what pity they have shewn in their Function towards the Sons of men To execute Gods wrath few do always come down as loath to be Ministers of indignation One destroying Angel appeared to punish Jerusalem one alone brought weeping news to Bochim Jud. ii Three appeared unto Abraham to bring him the joyful Message of a Son but their company grew less by one and but two of them brought tidings to Lot of the vengeance of Sodom But Elishas Servant saw Chariots and Horsemen and thousands in the Mountain to protect them To publish peace and joy heaven it self as I may so speak it was empty and there appeared a multitude of the heavenly Host to the Shepherds and sang praises unto God surely then one of their wings is Mercy But we must fetch our example further than the Angels let us go boldly to the throne of grace and fetch it from the third heavens Be you merciful with a sicut says our Saviour as your heavenly Father is merciful And if we cast our eye upon that pattern it blossoms like the rod of Aaron into these two buds condonationem and donationem First To forgive and remit sins Secondly To give liberally as God hath enabled us In the first I will thus proceed First that it is Gods nature and property to forgive secondly that man should rather forgive than God It did well deserve record