originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may beare without any strayning Now the better to gather the meaning wee are to consider that a Vid. Pelbart Ros. Theolog. lib. 3. Altenstaig ver Advētus Hospinianum de Orig. Festorum Christia pa. 131. Divines doe mention a fourefold comming of Christ the first in the flesh And the Word was made flesh Iohn 1.14 The second into the hearts of the faithfull Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and suppe with him Revel 3.20 The third at the houre of every mans death Watch yee therefore for yee know not when the Master of the house cōmeth Mar. 13.35 The fourth at the vniversall and dreadfull day of Iudgement For then shall yee see the Sonne of man come in a cloud with power and great glory Legenda aurea in principio Luk. 21.27 In reference to these foure commings of Christ the Church by a laudable custome hath anciently celebrated the foure Sundayes immediatly going before the feast of the Nativity by the name of Advent Sundayes that prepared before-hand with the due meditation of so inestimable a benefit wee might solemnize the Nativity with the greater triumph Which here to bee meant certainely though not onely by the day of power The Church read it for one of the Psalms appointed for Evening praier for this day may be easily gathered by the former verse For when began the root of Iesse apparantly to sprout or the rod of power to be sent from Sion among the middest of the Gentiles Christs enemies but at the breaking downe of the partition wall published first in Ierusalem and from thence to all the world by the Apostles preaching All which notwithstanding saith Lumbard had grounde and beginning from the comming of our Saviour in the flesh 3. Sent. d. 1. Whence wee are to conceaue somewhat more to bee meant by the day of Christs power then by power in it selfe considered without this adjunct of day His power indeed from the beginning was ever sufficiently manifested by the Creation of the world preserving of the Church conversing with the Patriarkes entring into league with Abraham and Isaac wrestling with Iacob leading his people through the Wildernesse hee being a Gen. 14. Moseses b Deut. 18. great Prophet c Iosh 5.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iosua's Captain of the Host of the Lord Iob's d Iob. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Chap. 7. Esayes Immanuel f Chap. 3. Zacharie's Ioshua g Dan. 8.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daniels Palmoni as here Davids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom all the Types and Sacrifices of the Law had reference and therefore in Iury must needs be wel knowne whose name was so great in Israel Yet to vs to vs I say the Gentiles that sate in darkenesse and in the shadowe of death the manifestation of this power never appeared before this fulnesse of time this acceptable yeere this day of Christs power springing from on high had visited vs as it is fully Plenè brevitèr de Incarnatione though shortly here set downe saith Cassiodore in the doctrine of the Incarnation 3. Jn which for the farther enlarging of our meditations as this time occasioneth wee may obserue first the conception secondly the nativity of our Saviour his conception shewes him to bee the Sonne of God his Nativity the Sonne of man another manner of conceiuing could not haue beene voyd of sinne another kinde of birth had called his Manhood in question In this conception wee shall most profitably enquire First who tooke our nature vpon him Secondly how Thirdly by what efficient it was immediately brought to passe Who the second person in the Trinity Iohn 1.14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among vs. That the Incarnation was most agreeable to the second person in the Trinity the h In 3. Sent. d. 1. Schoolemen labour to shew First out of the properties attributed to him in Scripture and if I may so translate their terme appropriata Secondly out of his approprieties The properties are foure First hee is called the Sonne and who so fit as the Heire to fetch home the lost Prodigals and make them coheires with him Secondly he is termed the Word as readiest at all assayes to declare his Fathers will preach his Law Psalm 2. manifest his name Ioh. 17. Thirdly in that hee is the expresse image of his Fathers person Heb. 1. who could more conveniently restore the image of God which was decayed in vs. Lastly the Mediatourship best sorted with the middle person in the Trinity to take our nature and to become a meane for reconciling vs with God The Approprieties which are also foure Wisedome Strength Equality Pulchritude obserued by Saint Augustine and Hilary to bee attributed to the Sonne doe further cleare the conveniency of his Incarnation The Wisedome of God was firtest to restore the things that were made in Wisedome Psalm 104. The strength of his arme to triumph over Hell and Death Turre-trema Dom. 1. Aduent q. 3. True Equality to rectifie them who ambitiously had lost themselues by affecting to bee as Gods and beauty to couer their deformities whose gayest flourish is but as a menstruous garment The Father could not so conveniently haue assumed mans nature by reason of his internall attribute of innascibility and least there should haue beene two Sonnes in the Trinitie Neither could this haue beene performed by the Holy Ghost without the communicating of the name of the Sonne saith Lumbard to moe persons then one Thus the Schoolemen had leasure to contract that which the Fathers by subtill search in this point had hammered out against the old Heretiques who now beginning to reviue againe in our new Arrians and Samosatenians it stands vs vpon to bee catechized in these otherwise needlesse subtilties that some may alwayes stand in the gappe and the truth bee not wronged by our slight and negligent maintaining of it 4. It appeareth by that which hath beene briefly touched who tooke our nature vpon him It will be harder to expresse that which followeth the manner how for who shall declare his generation Esay 53. In vigiliâ Natalis Domini In the assumption of our flesh saith Bernard three mixtures the omnipotent Majestie of God made so admirably singular and singularly admirable that the like were neuer done or ever shall bee vpon the earth For there were married as it were and linked together Deus homo Virgo Mater Fides cor humanum God and Man a Mayde and a Mother Faith and mans heart every word in this point involving a mystery and noveltie or misplacing of a phrase in the jealousie of carefull Antiquitie hath beene censured for an heresie For they ever warily affirmed the humane nature to be assumed but the Divine to bee vnited They constantly maintained the distinction and integrity of both natures against Eutyches confusion vnited notwithstanding in one and the same person against
sheepe and cattle on this side the River but are loath to venture before our brethren to conduct them ouer to the land of Promise Wee thinke by our Policy to escape better then our forefathers and make bridges or hyre vs boats or skiffes or wherries though thousands before our eyes that haue ventured in them haue miscarried But thou that resoluest to tread in thy Masters steps howsoeuer the way be crossed thou that art content and confident to venture by his example fare as he fared drinke as he began the health endure as he prescribeth as farre as by his grace and ready assistance thou shalt bee put to and enabled Take this comfort by the way which S. Hierome affordeth on this passage concerning this way It is but a brooke that crosseth thee not a spring of water for perpetuity it is collected by a sudden storme without any other head and therefore cannot be of any long continuance it alwaies rowleth and roareth along the valley and in reason cannot harme thee as soone as thou hast recouered any footing on the higher ground Let not then a momentary distast for the present divert thee from the pursuit of an everlasting content Thy Pilot hath swamme before thee thou must keepe stroke to follow Hee standeth to lift vp thy head neuer to bee indangered againe on the farther shore Which is the hauen and heaven in the second place wee haue struggled all this while to attaine vnto 7. Therefore shall he lift vp the head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heavinesse may endure for a night but ioy commeth in the morning and to him that overcommeth saith hee Psal 30. that walketh among the Candlesticks will I giue to sit with me in my Throne Revel 3.21 even as I also overcame and am set with my Father in his throne All Antiquity generally paralleleth this place with that of the second to the Philippians He humbled himselfe and became obedient vnto death even the death of the Crosse wherefore God also hath highly exalted him This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostome the fruit and gaine of humility and a strict conversation Wee haue here then Beloued not only Christ's Exaltation in generall which was first manifested in the Resurrection but also the cause of it in the word Therefore and Manner expressed in the lifting vp the head The originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore rendred in Greeke by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and amongst all the Latines by proptereà is a note either of necessary connection or causality and therefore justly casteth vs vpon the consideration of that controverted difficulty Whether the glory or lifting vp of the head here attained by our Saviour vpon his precedent sufferings or drinking of the brooke were conferred on him only as a right belonging to the person or as wages by way of merit proportionable to the sufferings of the humane nature The Schoolemen make a great pudder herein on the third of the Sentences and 18th distinction As also on the third part of Aquinas the 9. quest 4. Art whose exorbitances because Calvin hath somwhat freely displaied in the seuenteenth of the second of his Institutions Bellarmine takes their part and flyes vpon him in his 5. booke and 9. Chapter de Christo Mediatore And Gretser his second him againe to fetch off the Cardinall from the judicious replies of Daneus and Iunius Valentia also and Suarez come in with their supplies in their Comments vpon their Master Aquinas but with much confusion and perplexed prolixities and obscurity The truth is the difference vpon the maine seemes not to be of that consequence to keepe men at ods who otherwise are willing to agree as Iunius and the most of our side ingeniously acknowledge In regard whereof Zanchius herein takes liberty to vary from our common tenent and being thereof admonished to defend it in the preface afterward prefixed to his confession of faith and in a private Epistle to William Stuckius of Zurick wherein he affirmes that Christ not only merited for vs but also for himselfe as the Schoolemen would inferre out of the Fathers For the taking vp of this difference not to trouble you with more then may concerne the point or beseeme this place It is first agreed on on all hands that in the question of Christs merit the Divine nature being priviledged from the least touch of disparagement the taske will wholy lye on the shoulders of the man-hood Now that this in the second place should be of that worth to merit the hypostaticall vnion or the graces following therefrom none of the Adversaries for ought I finde euer affirmed or whatsoeuer he did or suffered in the humane nature became not meritorious for vs through the infinite dignity of that vnion none of our men on the other side ever denyed Palud in 3. sent d. 18. The Ieswits therefore wrong Calvin when they misconstrue that he spake aright yet themselues cleere not the point like Schoolemen as in their voluminous disputes they vndertake 8. That Christ merited for vs by satisfying at full his Fathers iustice how earnestly doth Calvin maintaine in the 17. Chap. of the 2d of his Institutions aboue cited He termes them perperam arguti perverse and wayward wranglers that in this case make scruple to admit of the word merit But that the Manhood should be assumed and imployed to merit that for it selfe which was due as a consequent to the personall vnion this he reiects as a subtility which the scripture no where countenanceth Vega saith the same by Zuarez own confession Hugo de S. Victore was maine in the point long before Scotus with Biell and their followers who vrge so precisely Gods acceptance and the duty of the vndertcker to make satisfaction meritorious that Zuarez perceaues intimates it may marre their mart of merits if it be not seene too the better and by him and his fellowes fitted to their present negotiations Hale's accelaratiue and interpretatiue will as little steed them who exact the hyre they wrought for as merited due-debt and will be loath to stand to Gods curtesie either for acceptance or dispatch For in strict termes Beloued how can any Creature merit of his Creator seeing the vtmost of endeavours comes vnder the title of duty For to a merit we all knowe there belong these foure conditions 1. That the worke bee entirely the vndertakers 2. That it be altogether free not of due-debt 3. That it be a benefit or kindnesse to him of whom the Worker contends to meritt 4. And last of all that it be proportionable to the reward in cōmutatiue Iustice. In all which the humane nature in the abstract wil fall short of infinite reward And therefore our men rightly ascribe all the merit to the person consisting of both natures where the humane is advanced to that pitch of dignity by vnion with the God-head which makes the merit infinite This Propterea therefore in this place and
Nestorius distraction Alex. ab Hales Sum. Theol part 3. q. 7. m. 1. art 1. This person the Schoolemen more nicely pronounce to bee one not by that incomprehensible vnitie which excludeth all multitude or multiplicitie for that belongeth onely to the persons in the Deity but by an vnion which requires a composition In 3. Sent. d. 6. q. 3. not huius ex his as Durand speaketh but huius ad hoc not a framing of a third thing out of divers parts vnited for so the Godhead and the manhood must not bee said to concurre as parts for the making vp of this person but such an adjoyning of the things vnited the one vnto the other that the natures remayning distinct as a Lib. 3. ca. 10. Agatho rightly teacheth and all their properties and operations the subsistence notwithstanding is but one and in this case according to Athanasius one not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking the manhood into God The Fathers haue much laboured to expresse this popularly b Lib. de recta fidei Confess Iustine Martyr and c In Symbol Athanasius bring the similitude of the Soule and body Saint d Ep. 99. Augustine and e In 3. sen d. 1. Scotus of two accidentall formes in one subiect as of the sameman who is both a Lawyer and Physitian f Peri Archon lib. 2. cap. 6. Origen g Orat. in Nativit Basil and h Ortho. fid lib. 3. cap. 11. Damascene of a piece of glowing Iron to which the fire is incorporated and this is best approued by Brentius and Kemnitius i Ibid. l. 3. c. 5. Damascene againe and k In vigil Natal serm 3. Bernard compare the mystery of the Incarnation with that of the Trinitie that as there we beleeue three persons in one nature so here we should acknowledge three natures of flesh Soule and Dcitie as Saint l De Trinitat l. 13. cap. 17. Augustine speaketh in one person But the most expressiue is that of a tree and a Siens ingraffed to it which becommeth one with the stocke yet retaineth it's owne nature and fruite Thus m In 3. sent dist 1. Lib. 3. de Incarnat cap. 8. Aquinas Bonaventure and with them most of our orthodoxe writers all which notwithstanding as Bellarmine in this point truly sheweth come short of the thing Wherein our Lutherans are farthest out by grounding the hypostaticall Vnion on the transfusion of the proprieties from one nature into another and not as they ought to doe on the communication of the subsistence from the Deity to the Manhood This only is sufficient to make good these harder speeches in appearance God hath purchased the Church with his owne blood Acts 20.21 And where the Sonne of man being vpon earth is affirmed to be in Heaven Ioh. 3.13 for subiects of a looser composition afford in a manner the like Synechdochicall praedications in the concrete to speake with Logicians not the abstract So a Philosopher dyeth saith Saint Augustine but not Philosophy in his 89. Epistle The Man Christ is every where but not the manhood and with these generalities wee rest informed of the manner of this conception The efficient succeedeth which is the Holy Ghost Matthew 1.20 Much remaineth to be spoken and the time weareth I can but touch therefore at matters and so away The action of the Incarnation being opus ad extra or externall Vid. Turrecrem in vigil Nat. Dom. q. 4. belongeth as you know by a receiued rule in Divinity to all the three persons in the Trinity though it bee terminatiuely in the Sonne as the Schooles speake and appropriated here to the Holy Ghost To the Holy Ghost saith Saint Augustine by reason he is the conveier and distributer of all the boundlesse graces and mercies that flow to vs from the Deity among which a greater then this of the Incarnation cannot be conceiued Some haue laboured to open this more plainely by this obvious comparison Three sisters say they concurre to the weauing of one seamlesse coat which the Second onely weareth and the third immediatly setteth on So mans nature was assumed onely by the Sonne vnited by the Holy Ghost though wrought by all three But in such profundities it is dangerous ventring farther then the text inlightens vs. This we haue expressed by an Angell concerning the secret of this conception Luke 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come vpon thee as for a worke that goeth beyond all substitution of any created Excellency And the power of the most high shall overshadow thee either as a shelter to free the sacred Embrio from originall infection to which Adam's flesh was liable and actuate it in the wombe by an vnconceiveable operation or as a cloud to overshadow it from our ambitious prying as Calvin and Stella take it who neglecting and loathing that wee are bound to learne 1 Sam. 6. will endanger our selues with the Bethshemites to looke too farre into the Arke 5. Thus farre of the Conception of our Saviour being the dawning as it were of the day of his power which hath brought vs to the Nativity wherein this Sunne of Righteousnesse appeares aboue the Horrizon Here the natiuity must bee said to be with Damascene and Aquinas of the person Lib. 3. part 3. q. 35. art 1. Actiones sunt suppofitorum non naturarum and not of the humane nature as some will speake vnadvisedly For the humane nature is onely the terme of this action the Person the subiect who was borne of a Virgin that yet ever remained a Virgin Maria virgo ante partum in partu post partum erat porta clausa Augu. ex Ezech 44. vid. Turrecrem in vigil nat Dom. q. 3. howsoever Helvidius dream't the contrary and that by opening the wombe not vtero clauso as the Papists imagine to make way for their poeticall transubstantiation for not the bearing of a childe but the knowing before of a man is opposite onely to virginity as true philosophy and sence might teach them Now in this blessed Nativity of this Virgins sonne wee are briefly to take notice of these foure circumstances the time the place the manner the manifestation For the time we need not trouble our selues with the differences of Chronologers Hebrew and Greek Vid. Sleidan de 4. Imper. lib. 1. Genebrard l. 1. Chronolog Greeke and Latine old and new wherein two scarce meet in one reckoning either for the yeere or moneth much lesse for the day as divers haue laboriously shewed but rest our selues on the generall certainties which the Scripture affords vs. When the Scepter therefore was departed from Iudah according to Iacobs prophecie Gen. 49. when the first Temple was destroyed and the second was yet standing foretold by zacharie and Aggai Hâ—g 2.7 vnder the last Monarch in the last of Daniel's weekes which
in the variable ficklenesse of a wauering multitude and teach him to depend wholly on him and none other As on the other side who seeth not that Sheba's inveterate malice was ordred to be dis-vizord and punished by such a publike attempt and shame Howsoeuer this we may build vpon by the connection of these words with the latter end of the former Chapter that the heate betweene Israel and Iuda who should seeme most officious to their King gaue the hint to a false-hearted traytour to rayse a new rebellion Whence I inferre That hypocriticall traytours watch their times and are readie to vent their villanie vpon the least advantage 4. So Cain sets vpon his brother Abel when hee had seuered him from his parents and they two were alone in the field together Genesis 4.8 Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquitie take their time to murder the Sichemites when they were sore of their Circumcision Gen. 34. Dalilah knewe well enough that there was no shauing of Sampson till he was througly lulled asleepe Iudg. 24. But the most vnnaturall treason that a man in this kinde shall ever light on was that of Adramelech and Sharezar Senachribs sonnes who tooke the vantage of their father at his Devotions in the house of Nisroch his God the story is set downe 2. Kings 19.37 Where in stead of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his sonnes in the originall we finde the vowels set in the Text which is somewhat strange in that tongue without their consonants Perchance to intimate closely that so many circumstances concurring otherwise for the aggravating of the offence as subiects to lay violent hands on a King and that in the Temple and that at his devotions to adde further that it was done by his owne sonnes howsoeuer it bee more vocall then the bloud of Abel yet the manner of setting it downe should shew it also to bee scelus infandum a wickednesse too monstrous to be fully exprest And yet wee neede not goe farre to find the like among the people of God so farre doth Satan prevaile with the ambitious humours of irreligious miscreants Two sonnes there were that Dauid had whom hee especially as it were doted vpon aboue the rest of his children beautifull Absalom and gallant Adoniah and both of these take their vantages as farre as in them lay to tumble their aged Father downe from his throne and bury him aliue to make way for their prodigious and preposterous purposes The former by the peoples favour which he had gotten by his hypocritical popularitie the latter by his fathers feeblenesse backing himselfe by the countenance of violent Ioab and disloyall Abiathar This hard measure receaued good King David at the hands of those of whom he best deserued He saw the law of nature violated conscience of so hainous a fact contemned his indulgence repaid with monstrous ingratitude his tryed valour outbraued by his owne subject who could not bee ignorant of it But that which touched him neerest was that in his person and through his sides Religion and the name of God was blasp hemed among the heathen in comparison of which he held the virulent raylings of damned Shimei too slight to bee take any notice of Behold Chap. 16.11 saith hee to Abishai and the rest of his servants my sonne which came forth of my bowels seeketh my life how much more now may this Beniamite doe it Let him alone let him curse for the Lord hath bidden him Thus a broken and contrite heart standing at the barre of Gods Iustice and daunted at the multitude of it's owne inditements is willing to put vp any thing in lieu of his owne satisfaction Hee will speake for the diuellish traytour persisting in the height of his villany Intreat the young man Absalom gently for my sake He will lament his death as vntimely and vndeserued O my sonne Absalom my sonne my sonne Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my sonne But the Iudge of all the World is not subject to such passions nor satisfyed most commonly in such a sort without exemplary punishment none shall touch his Anointed for evill but evill shall hunt those wicked persons to destroy them The traytour here in my Text could not be ignorant of this For if hee had never taken notice of Corah's conspiracy and the punishment thereof Chap. 4. Baanah's and Rechab's betraying of Ishbosheth and the end of it Yet Absalom's fact and judgement could not bee vnknowne vnto him Every one of the people could haue told him how miraculously his huge army was defeated by a small number with the losse of twenty thousand how strangely the Wood devoured more people that day then the sword It must needs then be in the mouth of every one that a senselesse thicke bough'd Oake performed the part of a good subiect to apprehend the traytour that his Mule left him to the gallowes who had renounced his allegiance to his King and Father that the earth refused to reccaue him Heauen was shut against him none of all his troupe left to guard him who had in so high a nature wronged the Creatour of all in his Anointed Vicegerent Last of all I make no doubt but divers also obserued and spake of the extraordinary hand of God expressed in Ioab's violence in the speedy dispatching him notwithstanding the Kings expresse charge to the contrary accompanied with his infamous buriall in a great ditch or pit like a carrion vnder a heape of stones whereas formerly hee had ambitiously provided a stately monument for that purpose to wit a Piramis or pillar in the Kings dale Some of which expresse tokens of Gods vengeance against such Rebels at the least all joyned together so lately acted so freshly bleeding so notoriously spread abroad and knowne might haue amated this traytour in my text from ventring againe so soone if hee had had the least sparke of grace or common humanity or policie in him But malice is blind desperatnesse admits not of discourse he must needs on whom the divell violently pusheth an opportunity was giuē Sheba's false heart was tender and must needs take fire Seing he hapned to be there when such an oceasion hapned to fall out he would take advantage to vent his malice whatsoeuer became of it 5. A lesson first for Kings and Magistrats not to rely too much vpon those that are of none or a suspected religion For howsoeuer they kisse cry Master with Iudas or professe they haue somewhat to say from God as Ehud told Eglon yet they carry a two-edged dagger vnder their rayment Iudg. 3. as there he did which is too loose in the scabberd as Ioabs was and will bee the readier to strike you vpon any advantage giuen them Gedaliah was too confident on his owne innocencie and the loyalty of those that spake him fayre wherevpon when hee was truely informed by Iohanan and others that Ismael the sonne of Nethaniah was suborned by Baalis