be the inculcation of Gods merciful promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou hast said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spight of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command Whatever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he lookt down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he exspects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to exspect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must goe together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarle at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whiles thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy Prayer Words express our hearts to men Thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-fameness of thy will with thy Fathers that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowst the grant to be of equal paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusual Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me alwaies but I said this for their sakes that they might believe Merciful Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is real in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whiles thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou art to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magical incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soule was called from farre the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgements the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whiles they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whiles they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottome of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tye the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whiles he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces no doubt
inconstant is a carnal heart to good resolutions How little trust is to be given to the good motions of unregenerate persons We have known when even mad dogs have fawned upon their master yet he hath been too wise to trust them but in chains As a true friend loves alwaies so a gracious heart alwaies affects good neither can be altered with change of occurrences But the carnal man like an hollow Parasite or a fawning Spaniel flatters onely for his own turn if that be once either served or crossed like a churlish curre he is ready to snatch us by the fingers Is there a worldly-minded man that lives in some known sin yet makes much of the Preacher frequents the Church talks godly looks demurely carries fair trust him not he will prove after his pious fits like some resty horse which goes on some paces readily and eagerly but anon either stands still or falls to flinging and plunging and never leaves till he have cast his rider What then might be the cause of John's bonds and Herod's displeasure For Herodias sake his brother Philips wife That woman was the subject of Herod's lust and the exciter of his revenge This light huswife ran away with her Husbands brother and now doting upon her incestuous lover and finding John to be a rub in the way of her licentious adultery is impatient of his liberty and will not rest till his restraint Resolved sinners are mad upon their leud courses and run furiously upon their gainsayers A Bear robbed of her whelps is less impetuous Indeed those that have determined to love their sins more then their Soules whom can they care for Though Herod was wicked enough yet had it not been upon Herodias's instigation he had never imprisoned John Importunity of leud solicitors may be of dangerous consequence and many times draws greatness into those waies which it either would not have thought of or abhorred In the remotion of the wicked is the establishment of the throne Yet still is this Dame called the wife of Philip. She had utterly left his bed and was solemnly coupled to Herod but all the ritual ceremonies of her new Nuptials cannot make her other then Philip's wife It is a sure rule That which is originally faulty can never be rectified The ordination of Marriage is one for one They twain shall be one flesh There cannot be two heads to one body nor two bodies to one head Herod was her Adulterer he was not her Husband she was Herod's Harlot Philip's Wife Yet how doth Herod dote on her that for her sake he loads John with irons Whither will not the fury of inordinate Lust transport a man Certainly John was of late in Herod's favour That rough-hewn Preacher was for a Wilderness not for a Court Herod's invitation drew him thither his reverence and respects incouraged him there Now the love of his Lust hath carried him into an hate of Gods Messenger That man can have no hold of himself or care of others who hath given the rains to his unruly concupiscence He that hath once fixed his heart upon the face of an Harlot and hath beslaved himself to a bewitching Beauty casts off at once all fear of God respect to Laws shame of the World regard of his estate care of wife children friends reputation patrimony body Soul So violent is this beastly passion where it takes neither ever leaves till it have hurried him into the chambers of death Herodias her self had first plotted to kill the Baptist her murderers were suborned her ambushes laid The success failed and now she works with Herod for his durance Oh marvellous hand of the Almighty John was a mean man for estate solitary guardless unarmed impotent Herodias a Queen so great that she swayed Herod himself and not more great then subtile and not more great or subtile then malicious yet Herodias laid to kill John and could not What an invisible and yet sure guard there is about the poor servants of God that seem helpless and despicable in themselves There is over them an hand of Divine protection which can be no more opposed then seen Malice is not so strong in the hand as in the heart The Devil is stronger then a world of men a legion of Devils stronger then fewer spirits yet a legion of Devils cannot hurt one swine without a permission What can bands of enemies or gates of Hell doe against Gods secret ones It is better to trust in the Lord then to trust in Princes It is not more clear who was the Author then what was the motive of this imprisonment the free reproof of Herod's Incest It is not lawful c. Both the offenders were netled with this bold reprehension Herod knew the reputation that John carried his Conscience could not but suggest the foulness of his own fact neither could he but see how odious it would seem to persecute a Prophet for so just a reproof For the colour therefore of so tyrannical an act he brands John with Sedition these presumptuous taxations are a disgrace and disparagement to Authority It is no news with wicked Tyrants to cloak their Cruelty with pretences of Justice Never was it other then the lot of Gods faithful servants to be loaded with unjust reproaches in the conscionable performance of their duties They should speed too well in the opinion of men if they might but appear in their true shape The fact of Herod was horrible and prodigious to rob his own Brother of the partner of his bed to teare away part of his flesh yea his body from his head So as here was at once in one act Adultery Incest Violence Adultery that he took anothers wife Incest that he took his Brother's Violence that he thus took her in spight of her Husband Justly therefore might John say It is not lawful for thee He balked not one of Herod's sins but reproved him of all the evils that he had done though more eminently of this as that which more filled the eye of the world It was not the Crown or awful Scepter of Herod that could daunt the homely but faithful messenger of God as one that came in the spirit of Elias he feares no faces spares no wickedness There must meet in Gods ministers Courage and Impartiality Impartiality not to make difference of persons Courage not to make spare of the sins of the greatest It is an hard condition that the necessity of our Calling casts upon us in some cases to run upon the pikes of displeasure Prophecies were no Burdens if they did not expose us to these dangers We must connive at no evil Every sin unreproved becomes ours Hatred is the daughter of Truth Herod is inwardly vexed with so peremptory a reprehension and now he seeks to kill the author And why did he not 〈◊〉 He feared the people The time was when he feared John no less then now 〈◊〉 hates him he once reverenced him as a just and holy man whom
be insensible of so great an evil Where death hath once seized who can but doubt he will keep his hold No lesse hard was it not to grieve for the losse of an only Childe then not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief In a perfect Faith there is no Fear by how much more we fear by so much lesse we believe Well are these two then coupled Fear not believe only O Saviour if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond Nature it were no thank to us to obey thee While the childe was alive to believe that it might recover it was no hard task but now that she was fully dead to believe she should live again was a work not easie for Jairus to apprehend though easie for thee to effect yet must that be believed else there is no capacity of so great a Mercy As Love so Faith is stronger then death making those bonds no other then as Sampson did his withes like threds of tow How much naturall impossibility is there in the return of these Bodies from the dust of their earth into which through many degrees of corruption they are at the last mouldred Fear not O my Soul believe onely it must it shall be done The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the Health not for the Resuscitation of his Daughter now that she was dead he would if he durst have been glad to have asked her Life And now behold our Saviour bids him expect both her Life and her Health Thy daughter shall be made whole alive from her death whole from her disease Thou didst not O Jairus thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest How glad wouldest thou have been since this last news to have had thy Daughter alive though weak and sickly Now thou shalt receive her not living only but sound and vigorous Thou dost not O Saviour measure thy gifts by our petitions but by our wants and thine own mercies This work might have been as easily done by an absent command the Power of Christ was there whiles himself was away but he will goe personally to the place that he might be confessed the Author of so great a Miracle O Saviour thou lovest to goe to the house of mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants crie out the people make lamentation the minstrels howl and strike dolefully so as the eare might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the limmes are stiffe and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compasse and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithlesse men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are only admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtlesse the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels think all his words and projects no better then foolishnesse But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but goe and come at his command When he saies Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly reassumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she findes her life and her feet at once at once she findes her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to goe the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary
without them The very heathen Poet could say A Jove principium and which of those verse-mongers ever durst write a ballad without imploring of some Deity which of the heathens durst attempt any great enterprise insalutato numine without invocation and sacrifice Saul himself would play the Priest and offer a burnt-offering to the Lord rather then the Philistins should fight with him unsupplicated as thinking any devotion better then none and thinking it more safe to sacrifice without a Priest then to fight without Prayers Ungirt unblest was the old word as not ready till they were girded so not till they had prayed And how dare we rush into the affaires of God or the State how dare we thrust our selves into actions either perilous or important without ever lifting up our eyes and hearts unto the God of Heaven Except we would say as the devilish malice of Surius slanders that zealous Luther Nec propter Deum haec res coepta est nec propter Deum finietur c. This business was neither begun for God nor shall be ended for him How can God bless us if we implore him not how can we prosper if he bless us not How can we hope ever to be transfigured from a lump of corrupt flesh if we do not ascend and pray As the Samaritane woman said weakly we may seriously The well of mercies is deep if thou hast nothing to draw with never look to taste of the waters of life I fear the worst of men Turks and the worst Turks the Moores shall rise up in Judgement against many Christians with whom it is a just exception against any witness by their Law that he hath not prayed six times in each natural day Before the day break they pray for day when it is day they give God thanks for day at noon they thank God for half the day past after that they pray for a good Sun-set after that they thank God for the day passed and lastly pray for a good night after their day And we Christians suffer so many Suns and Moons to rise and set upon our heads and never lift up our hearts to their Creatour and ours either to ask his blessing or to acknowledg it Of all men under Heaven none had so much need to pray as Courtiers That which was done but once to Christ is alwaies done to them They are set upon the hill and see the glory of the Kingdomes of the earth But I fear it is seen of them as it is with some of the mariners the more need the less devotion Ye have seen the Place see the Attendants He would not have many because he would not have it yet know to all hence was his intermination and sealing up their mouths with a Nemini dicite Tell no man Not none because he would not have it altogether unknown and afterwards would have it known to all Three were a legal number in ore duorum aut trium in the mouth of two or three witnesses He had eternally possessed the glory of his Father without any witnesses in time the Angels were blessed with that sight and after that two bodily yet Heavenly witnesses were allowed Enoch and Elias Now in his humanity he was invested with glory he takes but three witnesses and those earthly and weak Peter James John And why these We may be too curious Peter because the eldest John because the dearest James because next Peter the zealousest Peter because he loved Christ most John because Christ most loved him James because next to both he loved and was loved most I had rather to have no reason but quia complacuit because it so pleased him Why may we not as well ask why he chose these twelve from others as why he chose these three out of the twelve If any Romanists will raise from hence any priviledge to Peter which we could be well content to yield if that would make them ever the honester men they must remember that they must take company with them which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide As good no privilege as any partners And withall they must see him more taxed for his errour in this act then honored by his presence at the act whereas the Beloved Disciple saw and erred not These same three which were witnesses of his Transfiguration in the mount were witnesses of his Agonie in the garden all three and these three alone were present at both but both times sleeping These were arietes gregis the Bell-wethers of the flock as Austin calls them Oh weak devotion of three great Disciples These were Paul's three pillars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2. 9. Christ takes them up twice once to be witnesses of his greatest Glory once of his greatest extremity they sleep both times The other was in the night more tolerable this by day yea in a light above day Chrysostome would fain excuse it to be an amazedness not a sleep not considering that they slept both at that Glory and after in the Agonie To see that Master praying one would have thought should have fetcht them on their knees especially to see those Heavenly affections look out at his Eyes to see his Soul lifted up in his Hands in that transported fashion to Heaven But now the hill hath wearied their â—ims their body clogs their Soul and they fall asleep Whiles Christ saw Divine visions they dreamed dreams whiles he was in another world ravished with the sight of his Fathers Glory yea of his own they were in another world a world of fancies surprized with the cozen of death sleep Besides so Gracious an example their own necessity Bernard's reason might have moved them to pray rather then their Master and behold in stead of fixing their eyes upon Heaven they shut them in stead of lifting up their hearts their heads fall down upon their shoulders and shortly here was snorting in stead of sighs and prayers This was not Abraham's or Elihu's ecstatical sleep Job 33. not the sleep of the Church a waking sleep but the plain sleep of the eyes and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slumbring sleep which David denies to himself Psal 132. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound sleep which Salomon forbids Prov. 6. 4. yea rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead sleep of Adam or Jonas and as Bernard had wont to say when he heard a Monk snort they did carnaliter seu seculariter dormire Prayer is an ordinary receit for sleep How prone are we to it when we should minde Divine things Adam slept in Paradise and lost a Rib but this sleep was of God's giving and this Rib was of God's taking The good husband slept and found tares Eutychus slept and fell While Satan lulls us asleep as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our Devotions he ever takes some good from us or puts some evil in us or indangers us a deadly fall Away with this spiritual Lethargie Bernard had wont to
hath denied the faith and is worse then an Infidel We may we must care for many things so that our care be for good and well For good both in kinde and measure well so as our care be free from distraction from distrust From distraction that it hinder us not from the necessary duties of our general Calling from distrust that we misdoubt not Gods providence whiles we imploy our own We cannot care for thee unlesse we thus care for our selves for ours Alas how much care do I see every where but how few Martha's Her care was for her Saviours entertainment ours for our selves One findes perplexities in his Estate which he desires to extricate another beats his brains for the raising of his House One busies his thoughts about the doubtfull condition as he thinks of the Times and casts in his anxious head the imaginary events of all things opposing his hopes to his fears another studies how to avoid the cross blows of an Adversary Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things Foolish men why do we set our hearts upon the rack and need not why will we indure to bend under that burden which more able shoulders have offered to undertake for our ease Thou hast bidden us O God to cast our cares upon thee with promise to care for us We do gladly unload our selves upon thee O let our care be to depend on thee as thine is to provide for us Whether Martha be pitied or taxed for her sedulity I am sure Mary is praised for her devotion One thing is necessary Not by way of negation as if nothing were necessary but this but by way of comparison as that nothing is so necessary as this Earthly occasions must vaile to spiritual Of those three main grounds of all our actions Necessity Convenience Pleasure each transcends other Convenience carries it away from Pleasure Necessity from Convenience and one degree of Necessity from another The degrees are according to the conditions of the things necessary The condition of these earthly necessaries is that without them we cannot live temporally the condition of the spiritual that without them we cannot live eternally So much difference then as there is betwixt temporary and eternal so much there must needs be betwixt the necessity of these bodily actions and those spiritual Both are necessary in their kindes neither must here be an opposition but a subordination The body and Soul must be friends not rivals we may not so ply the Christian that we neglect the man Oh the vanity of those men who neglecting that one thing necessary affect many things superfluous Nothing is needlesse with worldly mindes but this one which is onely necessary the care of their Souls How justly do they lose that they cared not for whiles they over-care for that which is neither worthy nor possible to be kept Neither is Marie's businesse more allowed then her self She hath chosen the good part It was not forced upon her but taken up by her election Martha might have sate still as well as she She might have stir'd about as well as Marie's will made this choice not without the inclination of him who both gave this will and commends it That will was before renewed no marvell if it chose the good though this were not in a case of good and evil but of good and better We have still this holy freedome through the inoperation of him that hath freed us Happy are we if we can improve this liberty to the best advantage of our Souls The stability or perpetuity of good addes much to the praise of it Martha's part was soon gone the thank and use of a little outward Hospitality cannot long last but Mary's shall not be taken away from her The act of her hearing was transient the fruit permanent she now hears that which shall stick by her for ever What couldst thou hear O Holy Mary from those Sacred lips which we hear not still That Heavenly Doctrine is never but the same not more subject to change then the Author of it It is not impossible that the exercise of the Gospel should be taken from us but the benefit and virtue of it is as inseparable from our Souls as their Being In the hardest times that shall stick closest to us and till death in death after death shall make us happy The Begger that was born blinde cured THE man was born blinde This Cure requires not Art but Power a power no lesse then infinite and Divine Nature presupposeth a matter though formlesse Art looks for matter formed to our hands God stands not upon either Where there was not an Eye to be healed what could an Oculist doe It is only a God that can create Such are we O God to all spiritual things we want not sight but eyes it must be thou only that canst make us capable of illumination The blinde man sate begging Those that have eyes and hands and feet of their own may be able to help themselves those that want these helps must be beholden to the eyes hands feet of others The impotent are cast upon our mercy Happy are we if we can lend lims and senses to the needy Affected beggery is odious that which is of God's making justly challengeth relief Where should this blinde man sit begging but near the Temple At one gate sits a cripple a blinde man at another Well might these miserable souls suppose that Piety and Charity dwelt close together the two Tables were both of one quarry Then are we best disposed to mercy towards our brethren when we have either craved or acknowledged God's mercy towards our selves If we goe thither to beg of God how can we deny mites when we hope for talents Never did Jesus move one foot but to purpose He passed by but so as that his Virtue stayed so did he passe by that his eye was fixed The blinde man could not see him he sees the blinde man His goodness prevents us and yields better supplies to our wants He saw compassionately not shutting his eyes not turning them aside but bending them upon that dark and disconsolate Object That which was said of the Sun is much more true of him that made it Nothing is hid from his light but of all other things Miseries especially of his own are most intentively eyed of him Could we be miserable unseen we had reason to be heartlesse O Saviour why should we not imitate thee in this mercifull improvement of our Senses Wo be to those eyes that care onely to gaze upon their own beauty bravery wealth not abiding to glance upon the sores of Lazarus the sorrows of Joseph the dungeon of Jeremy the blinde Begger at the gate of the Temple The Disciples see the blinde man too but with different eyes our Saviour for pity and cure they for expostulation Master who did sin this man or his Parents that he is born blinde I like well that whatsoever doubt troubled them
be actors None can awake Lazarus out of this sleep but he that made Lazarus Every mouse or gnat can raise us up from that other sleep none but an Omnipotent power from this This sleep is not without a dissolution Who can command the Soul to come down and meet the body or command the body to piece with it self and rise up to the Soul but the God that created both It is our comfort and assurance O Lord against the terrors of death and tenacity of the grave that our Resurrection depends upon none but thine Omnipotence Who can blame the Disciples if they were loath to return to Judaea Their last entertainment was such as might justly dishearten them Were this as literally taken all the reason of our Saviours purpose of so perilous a voyage they argued not amiss If he sleep he shall doe well Sleep in sickness is a good sign of Recovery For extremity of pain barres our rest when Nature therefore finds so much respiration she justly hopes for better terms Yet it doth not alwaies follow If he sleep he shall doe well How many have dyed in Lethargies how many have lost in sleep what they would not have forgone waking Adam slept and lost his rib Sampson slept and lost 〈◊〉 strength Saul slept and lost his weapon Ishbosheth and Holofeâ—â—â— slept and lost their heads In ordinary course it holds well here they mistook and erred The misconstruction of the words of Christ led them into an unseasonable and erroneous suggestion Nothing can be more dangerous then to take the speeches of Christ according to the sound of the Letter one errour will be sure to draw on more and if the first be never so slight the last may be important Wherefore are words but to express meanings why do we speak but to be understood Since then our Saviour saw himself not rightly construed he delivers himself planly Lazarus is dead Such is thy manner O thou eternal Word of thy Father in all thy sacred expressions Thine own mouth is thy best commentary what thou hast more obscurely said in one passage thou interpretest more clearly in another Thou art the Sun which givest us that light whereby we see thy self But how modestly dost thou discover thy Deity to thy Disciples not upon the first mention of Lazarus his death instantly professing thy Power and will of his resuscitation but contenting thy self only to intimate thy Omniscience in that thou couldst in that absence and distance know and report his departure they shall gather the rest and cannot chuse but think We serve a Master that knows all things and he that knows all things can doe all things The absence of our Saviour from the death-bed of Lazarus was not casual but voluntary yea he is not only willing with it but glad of it I am glad for your sakes that I was not there How contrary may the affections of Christ and ours be and yet be both good The two worthy Sisters were much grieved at our Saviours absence as doubting it might savour of some neglect Christ was glad of it for the advantage of his Disciples Faith I cannot blame them that they were thus sorry I cannot but bless him that he was thus glad The gain of their Faith in so Divine a Miracle was more then could be countervailed by their momentany sorrow God and we are not alike affected with the same events He laughs where we mourn he is angry where we are pleased The difference of the affections arises from the difference of the Objects which Christ and they apprehend in the same occurrence Why are the Sisters sorrowful because upon Christ absence Lazarus died Why was Jesus glad he was not there for the benefit which he saw would accrew to their Faith There is much variety of prospect in every act according to the several intentions and issues thereof yea even in the very same eyes The father sees his son combating in a Duel for his Country he sees blows and wounds on the one side he sees renown and victory on the other he grieves at the wounds he rejoyces in the Honour Thus doth God in all our Afflictions he sees our teares and hears our groans and pities us but withall he looks upon our Patience our Faith our Crown and is glad that we are afflicted O God why should not we conform our diet unto thine When we ly in pain and extremity we cannot but droop under it but do we finde our selves increased in true Mortification in Patience in Hope in a constant relyance on thy Mercies Why are we not more joyed in this then dejected with the other since the least grain of the increase of Grace is more worth then can be equalled with whole pounds of bodily vexation O strange consequence Lazarus is dead nevertheless Let us goe unto him Must they not needs think What should we doe with a dead man What should separate if death cannot Even those whom we loved dearliest we avoid once dead now we lay them aside under the board and thence send them out of our houses to their grave Neither hath Death more horrour in it then noisomeness and if we could intreat our eyes to endure the horrid aspect of Death in the face we loved yet can we perswade our sent to like that smell 〈◊〉 arises up from their corruption Oh love stronger then Death Behold here a friend whom the very Grave cannot sever Even those that write the longest and most passionate dates of their amity subscribe but your friend till death and if the ordinary strain of humane friendship will stretch yet a little further it is but to the brim of the grave thither a friend may follow us and see us bestowed in this house of our Age but there he leaves us to our worms and dust But for thee O Saviour the grave-stone the earth the coffin are no bounders of thy dear respects even after death and burial and corruption thou art graciously affected to those thou lovest Besides the Soul whereof thou saiest not Let us goe to it but Let it come to us there is still a gracious regard to that dust which was and shall be a part of an undoubted member of that mystical body whereof thou art the Head Heaven and earth yields no such friend but thy self O make me ever ambitious of this Love of thine and ever unquiet till I feel my self possessed of thee In the mouth of a mere man this word had been incongruous Lazarus is dead yet let us goe to him in thine O almighty Saviour it was not more loving then seasonable since I may justly say of thee thou hast more to doe with the dead then with the living for both they are infinitely more and have more inward communion with thee and thou with them Death cannot hinder either our passage to thee or thy return to us I joy to think the time is coming when thou shalt come to every of our graves
should all see his comfortable Divine Magnanimity wherewith he entred into those sad lists only Three of them shall be allowed to be the witnesses of his Agonie only those three that had been the witnesses of his glorious Transfiguration That sight had well fore-arm'd and prepared them for this how could they be dismai'd to see his trouble who there saw his Majesty how could they be dismai'd to see his body now sweat which they had then seen to shine how could they be daunted to see him now accosted with Judas and his train whom they then saw attended with Moses and Elias how could they be discouraged to hear the reproaches of base men when they had heard the voice of God to him from that excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now before these eyes this Sun begins to be over-cast with clouds He began to be sorrowfull and very heavy Many sad thoughts for mankinde had he secretly hatched and yet smothered in his own breast now his grief is too great to keep in My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death O Saviour what must thou needs feel when thou saidst so Feeble mindes are apt to bemone themselves upon light occasions the grief must needs be violent that causeth a strong heart to break forth into a passionate complaint Woe is me what a word is this for the Son of God Where is that Comforter which thou promisedst to send to others where is that thy Father of all mercies and God of all comfort in whose presence is the fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore where are those constant and chearfull resolutions of a fearlesse walking through the valley of the shadow of death Alas if that face were not hid from thee whose essence could not be disunited these pangs could not have been The Sun was withdrawn awhile that there might be a cool though not a dark night as in the world so in thy breast withdrawn in respect of sight not of being It was the hardest piece of thy sufferings that thou must be disconsolate But to whom dost thou make this moan O thou Saviour of men Hard is that man driven that is fain to complain to his inferiours Had Peter or James or John thus bewailed himself to thee there had been ease to their Soul in venting it self thou hadst been both apt to pity them and able to relieve them but now in that thou lamentest thy case to them alas what issue couldst thou exspect They might be astonish'd with thy grief but there is neither power in their hands to free thee from those sorrows nor power in their compassion to mitigate them Nay in this condition what could all the Angels of Heaven as of themselves doe to succour thee What strength could they have but from thee What creature can help when thou complainest It must be only the stronger that can aid the weak Old and holy Simeon could fore-say to thy Blessed Mother that a sword should pierce through her Soul but alas how many swords at once pierce thine Every one of these words is both sharp and edged My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death What humane Soul is capable of the conceit of the least of those sorrows that oppressed thine It was not thy body that suffered now the pain of body is but as the body of pain the anguish of the Soul is as the Soul of anguish That and in that thou sufferedst where are they that dare so far disparage thy Sorrow as to say thy Soul suffered only in sympathy with thy body not immediately but by participation not in its self but in its partner Thou best knewest what thou feltest and thou that feltest thine own pain canst crie out of thy Soul Neither didst thou say My Soul is troubled so it often was even to tears but My Soul is sorrowfull as if it had been before assaulted now possessed with grief Nor yet this in any tolerable moderation changes of Passion are incident to every humane Soul but Exceeding sorrowfull Yet there are degrees in the very extremities of evils those that are most vehement may yet be capable of a remedy at least a relaxation thine was past these hopes Exceeding sorrowfull unto death What was it what could it be O Saviour that lay thus heavy upon thy Divine Soul Was it the fear of Death was it the fore-felt pain shame torment of thine ensuing Crucifixion Oh poor and base thoughts of the narrow hearts of cowardly and impotent mortality How many thousands of thy blessed Martyrs have welcomed no lesse tortures with smiles and gratulations and have made a sport of those exquisite cruelties which their very Tyrants thought unsufferable Whence had they this strength but from thee If their weakness were thus undaunted and prevalent what was thy power No no It was the sad weight of the sin of mankinde it was the heavy burden of thy Fathers wrath for our sin that thus pressed thy Soul and wrung from thee these bitter expressions What can it avail thee O Saviour to tell thy grief to men who can ease thee but he of whom thou saidst My Father is greater then I Lo to him thou turnest O Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me Was not this that prayer O dear Christ which in the daies of thy flesh thou offeredst up with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save thee from death Surely this was it Never was crie so strong never was God thus solicited How could Heaven chuse but shake at such a Prayer from the Power that made it How can my heart but tremble to hear this suit from the Captain of our Salvation O thou that saidst I and my Father are one dost thou suffer ought from thy Father but what thou wouldst what thou determinedst was this Cup of thine either casual or forced wouldst thou wish for what thou knewest thou wouldst not have possible Far far be these mis-raised thoughts of our ignorance and frailty Thou camest to suffer and thou wouldst doe what thou camest for yet since thou wouldst be a man thou wouldst take all of man save sin it is but humane and not sinfull to be loath to suffer what we may avoid In this velleity of thine thou wouldst shew what that Nature of ours which thou hadst assumed could incline to wish but in thy resolution thou wouldst shew us what thy victorious thoughts raised and assisted by thy Divine power had determinately pitched upon Neverthelesse not as I will but as thou wilt As man thou hadst a Will of thine own no humane Soul can be perfect without that main faculty That will which naturally could be content to incline towards an exemption from miseries gladly vails to that Divine will whereby thou art designed to the chastisements of our peace Those pains which in themselves were grievous thou embracest as decreed so as thy fear hath given
place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whiles thy Minde was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendants and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agonie am I in whiles I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipped thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankinde had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest blood If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious blood of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutors and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentors O that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agonie and have drawn blood of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agonie I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickednesse and admire and blesse thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon the Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whiles he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droupeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not passe yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Fathers face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maiest bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Author Peter and Malchus or Christ Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendant and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kinde of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whiles thou art sweating in thine Agonie they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own peril What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agonie they fell upon the ground for drouzinesse when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepinesse Doubtlesse even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The lesse comfort we finde on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtst thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whiles thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheeps fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likenesse He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitor dare yet still mix Hypocrisie with Villany his very salutations and kisses murder O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a shew of Godlinesse practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetcht thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitor why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but
suffered till now now thy bloody Passion begins a cruell expoliation begins that violence Again do these grim and mercilesse Souldiers lay their rude hands upon thee and strip thee naked again are those bleeding wales laid open to all eyes again must thy Sacred body undergoe the shame of an abhorred nakednesse Lo thou that clothest man with raiment beasts with hides fishes with scales and shells earth with flowers Heaven with Stars art despoiled of cloaths and standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders As the First Adam entred into his Paradise so dost thou the Second Adam into thine naked and as the First Adam was clothed with Innocence when he had no cloaths so wert thou the Second too and more then so thy nakednesse O Saviour cloaths our Souls not with Innocence only but with Beauty Hadst not thou been naked we had been cloathed with confusion O happy nakednesse whereby we are covered from shame O happy shame whereby we are invested with glory All the beholders stand wrapped with warm garments thou only art stripped to tread the wine-presse alone How did thy Blessed Mother now wish her veile upon thy shoulders and that Disciple who lately ran from thee naked wish'd in vain that his loving pity might doe that for thee which fear forced him to for himself Shame is succeeded with Pain Oh the torment of the Crosse Methinks I see and feel how having fastned the transverse to the body of that fatal Tree and lai'd it upon the ground they racked and strained thy tender and sacred Lims to fit the extent of their fore-appointed measure and having tentered out thine arms beyond their natural reach how they fastned them with cords till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of thy Blessed hands had not more firmly then painfully fixed thee to the Gibbet The tree is raised up and now not without a vehement concussion setled in the mortise Woe is me how are thy joynts and sinews torn and stretched till they crack again by this torturing distension how doth thine own weight torment thee whiles thy whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold till thy nailed feet bear their part in a no lesse afflictive supportation How did the rough iron pierce thy Soul whiles passing through those tender and sensible parts it carried thy flesh before it and as it were rivetted it to that shamefull Tree There now O dear Jesu there thou hangest between Heaven and earth naked bleeding forlorn despicable the spectacle of miseries the scorn of men Be abashed O ye Heavens and earth and all ye creatures wrap up your selves in horrour and confusion to see the shame and pain and curse of your most pure and Omnipotent Creator How could ye subsist whiles he thus suffers in whom ye are O Saviour didst thou take flesh for our Redemption to be thus indignely used thus mangled thus tortured Was this measure fit to be offered to that Sacred body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the pure substance of an immaculate Virgin Woe is me that which was unspotted with sin is all blemished with humane crueltie and so wofully disfigured that the Blessed Mother that bore thee could not now have known thee so bloody were thy Temples so swolne and discoloured was thy Face so was the skin of thy whole body streaked with red and blew stripes so did thy thornie diadem shade thine Heavenly countenance so did the streams of thy blood cover and deform all thy parts The eye of Sense could not distinguish thee O dear Saviour in the nearest proximity to thy Crosse the eye of Faith sees thee in all this distance and by how much more ignominy deformity pain it finds in thee so much more it admires the glory of thy mercy Alas is this the Head that is decked by thine eternall Father with a Crown of pure gold of immortall and incomprehensible Majesty which is now bushed with thorns Is this the Eye that saw the Heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon that head that saw such resplendence of Heavenly brightnesse on mount Tabor which now begins to be overclouded with death Are these the Eares that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of Heaven which now tingle with buffettings and glow with reproaches and bleed with thorns Are these the Lips that spake as never mans spake full of grace and power that called out dead Lazarus that ejected the stubbornest Devils that commanded the cure of all diseases which now are swoln with blows and discoloured with blewnesse and blood Is this the Face that should be fairer then the sons of men which the Angels of Heaven so desired to see and can never be satisfied with seeing that is thus foul with the nasty mixtures of sweat and blood and spittings on Are these the Hands that stretched out the Heavens as a curtain that by their touch healed the lame the deaf the blind which are now bleeding with the nailes Are these the Feet which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea before whose footstool all the Nations of the earth are bidden to worship that are now so painfully fixed to the Crosse O cruell and unthankfull mankind that offered such measure to the Lord of Life O infinitely mercifull Saviour that wouldst suffer all this for unthankfull mankind That fiends should doe these things to guilty souls it is though terrible yet just but that men should doe thus to the Blessed Son of God it is beyond the capacity of our horrour Even the most hostile dispositions have been only content to kill Death hath sated the most eager malice thine enemies O Saviour held not themselves satisfied unlesse they might injoy thy torment Two Thieves are appointed to be thy companions in death thou art designed to the midst as the chief malefactor on whether hand soever thou lookest thine eye meets with an hatefull partner But O Blessed Jesu how shall I enough admire and celebrate thy infinite Mercy who madest so happy an use of this Jewish despight as to improve it to the occasion of the Salvation of one and the comfort of millions Is not this as the last so the greatest specialty of thy wonderfull compassion to convert that dying Thief with those nailed hands to snatch a Soul out of the mouth of Hell Lord how I blesse thee for this work how doe I stand amazed at this above all other the demonstrations of thy Goodnesse and Power The Offender came to die nothing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment whiles he was yet in his blood thou saidst This Soul shall live Ere yet the intoxicating Potion could have time to work upon his brain thy Spirit infuses Faith into his heart He that before had nothing in his eye but present death and torture is now lifted up above his Crosse in a blessed ambition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome Is this the voice of a Thief
His eyes look to the Gentiles c. saith the Psalmist As Christ therefore on his Cross looked towards us sinners of the Gentiles so let us look up to him Let our eyes be lift up to this Brazen Serpent for the cure of the deadly stings of that old Serpent See him O all ye beholders see him hanging upon the Tree of shame of curse to rescue you from curse and confusion and to feoâ—â—e you in everlasting Blessednesse See him stretching out his arms to receive and embrace you hanging down his head to take view of your misery opening his precious side to receive you into his bosome opening his very heart to take you in thither pouring out thence water to wash you and blood to redeem you O all ye Nazarites that passe by out of this dead Lion seek and finde the true honey of unspeakable and endlesse comfort And ye great Masters of Israel whose lips professe to preserve knowledge leave all curious and needlesie disquisitions and with that Divine and extatical Doctor of the Gentiles care only to know to preach Christ and him crucified But this though the sum of the Gospel is not the main drift of my Text I may not dwell in it though I am loth to part with so sweet a meditation From Christ crucified turn your eyes to Paul crucified you have read him dying by the Sword hear him dying by the Cross and see his moral spiritual living Crucifixion Our Apostle is two men Saul and Paul the old man and the new in respect of the Old man he is crucified and dead to the law of sin so as that sin is dead in him neither is it otherwise with every regenerate Sin hath a body as well as the man hath Who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. 24. a body that hath lims and parts Mortifie your earthly members saith our Apostle Colos 3. 5. Not the lims of our humane body which are made of earth so should we be hosles naturae as Bernard but the sinfull lims that are made of corruption Fornication uncleanness inordinate affection c. The 〈◊〉 of sin is wicked devices the heart of sin wicked desires the hands and 〈◊〉 wicked executions the tongue of sin wicked words the eyes of sin 〈◊〉 apprehensions the forehead of sin impudent profession of evil the back of sin a strong supportation and maintenance of evil all this body of sin is not only put to death but to shame too so as it is dead with disgrace I am crucified S. Paul speaks not this singularly of himself but in the person of the Renewed sin doth not cannot live a vital and vigorous life in the Regenerate Wherefore then say you was the Apostles complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Mark I beseech you it was the body of sin not the life of sin a body of death not the life of that body or if this body had yet some life it was such a life as is left in the lims when the head is struck off some dying quiverings rather as the remainders of a life that was then any act of a life that is or if a further life such a one as in swowns and fits of Epilepsie which yields breath but not sense or if some kinde of sense yet no motion or if it have some kinde of motion in us yet no manner of dominion over us What power motion sense relicks of life are in a fully-crucified man Such a one may waft up and down with the winde but cannot move out of any internal principle Sin and Grace cannot more stand together in their strength then life and death In remisse degrees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof S. Paul swears that he dies daily yet he lives so the best man sins hourly even whiles he obeys but the powerfull and over-ruling sway of sin is incompatible with the truth of Regeneration Every Esau would be carrying away a Blessing no man is willing to sit out Ye shall have strong drinkers as Esay calls them Esay 5. 22. neighing stallions of lust as Jeremy calls them Jer. 5. 8. mighty hunters in oppression as Nimrod Gen. 10. 9. rotten talkers Ephes 4. 29. which yet will be challenging as deep a share in Grace as the conscionablest Alas how many millions do miserably delude themselves with a mere pretence of Christianity Aliter vivunt aliter loquuntur as he said of the Philosophers Vain Hypocrites they must know that every Christian is a crucified man How are they dead to their fins that walk in their sins how are their sins dead in them in whom they stir reign flourish Who doth not smile to hear of a dead man that walks Who derides not the solecism of that Actor which exprest himself fully dead by saying so What a mockery is this eyes full of lust itching ears scurrilous tongues bloody hands hearts full of wickedness and yet dead Deceive not your Souls dear Christians if ye love them This false death is the way to the true eternal incomprehensibly-wofull death of body and Soul If ye will needs doe so walk on ye falsly-dead in the waies of your old sins be sure these paths shall lead you down to the chambers of everlasting death If this be the hanging up of your corruptions fear to hang in hell Away with this hateful simulation God is not mocked Ye must either kill or die Kill your sins or else they will be sure to kill your Souls apprehend arraign condemn them fasten them to the tree of shame and if they be not dead already break their legs and arms disable them to all offensive actions as was done to the Thieves in the Gospel so shall you say with our Blessed Apostle I am crucified Neither is it thus onely in matter of notorious crime and grosse wickednesse but thus it must be in the universal carriage of our lives and the whole habitual frame of our dispositions in both these we are we must be crucified Be not deceived my Brethren it is a sad and austere thing to be a Christian This work is not frolick jovial plausible there is a certain thing call'd true Mortification required to this businesse and whoever heard but there was pain in death but among all deaths in crucifying What a torture must there needs be in this act of violence what a distention of the body whose weight is rack enough to it self what straining of the joynts what nailing of hands and feet Never make account to be Christians without the hard tasks of Penitence It will cost you tears sighs watchings self-restraints self-struglings self-denials This word is not more harsh then true Ye delicate Hypocrites what do you talk of Christian profession when ye will not abate a dish from your belly nor spare an hours sleep from your eyes nor cast off an offensive rag from your backs for your
Church cannot abide either Conventicles of Separation or pluralities of professions or appropriations of Catholicism Catholick Romane is an absurd Donatian Solecism This is to seek Orbem in urbe as that Council said well Happy were it for that Church if it were a sound lim though but the little toe of that mighty and precious body wherein no believing Jew or Indian may not challenge to be jointed Neither difference of time nor distance of place nor rigor of unjust censure nor any unessential errour can barre our interest in this blessed Unity As this flourishing Church of great Britain after all the spightfull calumniations of malicious men is one of the most conspicuous members of the Catholick upon earth so we in her Communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and faithfull Christians of all ages and times We succeed in their Faith we glory in their Succession we triumph in this Glory Whither go ye then ye weak ignorant seduced souls that run to seek this Dove in a forein cote She is here if she have any nest under Heaven Let me never have part in her or in Heaven if any Church in the world have more part in the Universal Why do we wrong our selves with the contradistinction of Protestant and Catholick We do only protest this that we are perfect Catholicks Let the pretensed look to themselves we are sure we are as Catholick as true Faith can make us as much one as the same Catholick Faith can make us and in this undoubted right we claim and injoy the sweet and inseparable communion with all the blessed members of that mystical body both in earth and Heaven and by virtue thereof with the glorious Head of that dear and happy body Jesus Christ the righteous the Husband to this one Wife the Mate to this one Dove to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD Laid forth in a SERMON at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By J. H. Rom. 12. 2. Fashion not your selves like to this World but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde c. THAT which was wont to be upbraided as a scorn to the English may be here conceived the Embleme of a Man whom ye may imagine standing naked before you with a paire of sheers in his hand ready to cut out his own fashion In this deliberation the World offers it self to him with many a gay misshapen fantasticall dresse God offers himself to him with one onely fashion but a new one but a good one The Apostle like a friendly monitor adviseth him where to pitch his choice Fashion not your selves like to this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde How much Christianity crosses Nature we need no other proof then my Text. There is nothing that Nature affects so much as the Fashion and no fashion so much as the worlds for our usuall word is Doe as the most And behold that is it which is here forbidden us Fashion not your selves like to this world All fashions are either in Device or Imitation There are vain heads that think it an honour to be the founders of Fashions there are servile fools that seek onely to follow the Fashion once devised In the first rank is the World which is nothing but a mint of Fashions yet which is strange all as old as mis-beseeming We are forbidden to be in the second If the World will be so vain as to mis-shape it self we may not be so foolish as to follow it Let us look a little if you please at the Pattern here damn'd in my Text The world As in extent so in expression the World hath a large scope yea there are more Worlds then one There is a world of creatures and within that there is a world of men and yet within that a world of believers and yet within all these a world of corruptions More plainly there is a good world an evil world an indifferent A good world as of the creatures in regard of their first birth so of men in regard of their second a world of renewed Souls in the first act of their renovation believing Joh. 17. 20. upon their belief reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19. upon their reconcilement saved Joh. 3. 16. An evil world yea set in evil 1 Joh. 5. 19. a world of corrupt unregeneration that hates Christ and his Joh. 15. 18. that is hated of Christ Jam. 4. 4. An indifferent world that is good or evil as it is used whereof St. Paul Let those that use the world be as not abusing it 1 Cor. 7. 31. This indifferent world is a world of commodities affections improvement of the creature which if we will be wise Christians we must fashion to us framing it to our own bent whether in want or abundance The good world is a world of Saints whose Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. To this world we may be fashioned The evil world is a world of mere men and their vicious conditions God hath made us the lords of the indifferent world himself is the Lord of the good Satan is lord of the evil Princeps hujus Seculi And that is most properly the world because it contains the most as it is but a chaffe-heap wherein some grains of wheat are scattered To this evil world then we may not fashion our selves in those things which are proper to it as such in natural in civil actions we may we must follow the world singularity in these things is justly odious herein the World is the true master of Ceremonies whom not to follow is no better then a Cynicall irregularity in things positively or morally evil we may not There is no material thing that hath not his form the outward form is the fashion the fashion of outward things is variable with the times so as every external thing cloaths building plate stuffe gesture is now in now out of fashion but the fashions of Morality whether in good or evil are fixed and perpetual The world passeth and the fashion of it but the evil of the fashions of the world is too constant and permanent and must be ever the matter of our detestation Fashion not your selves like to this world But because evils are infinite as wise Solomon hath observed it will be requisite to call them to their heads and to reduce these forbidden fashions to the several parts whereto they belong I cannot dream with Tertullian that the Soul hath a Body but I may well say that the Soul follows the body and as it hath parts ascribed to it according to the outward proportion so are these parts suited with severall fashions Let your patient attention follow me through them all Begin with the Head a part not more eminent in place then in power What is the
Justice is Peace Fore-prophesied to be the Prince of Peace Esay 9. 6. the government is upon his shoulder saith that Evangelical Seer yea which of the Prophets is silent of this Style Constituted Behold I have set my King upon Sion Psal 2. 6. Acknowledged by the Sages Where is be that is born King of the Jews We have seen his star Mat. 2. 2. Usher'd in by the Angel Gabriel The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David Luke 1. 32. Anointed he is Christus Domini and Christus Dominus anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows Proclaimed Behold thy King cometh to thee saith Zachary Hosanna Blessed be the Kingdome that comes in the name of the Lord said the Children in the streets Enthronized Thy throne O God is for ever and the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter Honoured with due homage The Kings of the earth shall bring presents to thee saith the Psalmist And yet this King thus Presigured Fore-prophesied Constituted Acknowledged Usher'd in Anointed Proclaimed Enthronized Adored is cast off with a Nolumus hunc No King but Caesar And were they not well served think we Did or could ever any eye pity them Because they say Christ is not our King but Caesar therefore Christ shall plague them by Caesar that very Roman Government which they honoured in a corrivality and opposition to Christ shall revenge the quarrel of Christ in the utter subversion of these unthankful Rebels Oh foolish people and unjust do ye thus requite the Lord Did he empty himself of his Celestial Glory and put on weak Manhood and all the symptoms of wretched Mortality and do ye despise him for this Mercy Is he so vile to you because he was so vile for you Did his Love make him humble that his Humility should make him contemptible Did he chuse you out of all the kingdomes of the earth and do ye wilfully reject him Hear therefore ye despisers and tremble hear the just doom of him who will be your Judge if he shall not be your Saviour Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room Do we think that Christ hath no Rebels but Jews Would to God we sinners of the Gentiles had not said Disrumpamus vincula Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us What are his bonds but his Laws his cords but Religious institutions These flie about mens ears like rotten tow binding none but the impotent The bounds of his Kingdome are the ends of the earth It is an hard word yet I must say it Oh that there were not more Traitors in the world then Subjects Tell not me what mens Tongues say their Lives say loud enough Nolumus hunc Christ is no King for us Obedience is the true touch-stone of Loyalty not Protestations not outward Cringes not disbursement of Tribute We have all solemnly sworn allegeance to the God of Heaven we are ready to bow at the dear name of Jesus we stick not perhaps to give obedientiam bursalem as Gerson cals it to God but when it comes once to the deniall of our selves to the mortifying of our corruptions to the strangling of the children of our own accursed wombs to the offering up our bodies and Souls as a reasonable and lively sacrifice hîc Rhodus hîc saltus Kings rule by their Laws Be not deceived if slips of weakness marre not our Fealty certainly continuance in wilful sins cannot stand with our Subjection Quomodo legis How readest thou then as our Saviour asks What saies thy Law-giver in Sinai Thou shalt have no other Gods but me If now thou rear up in thy bosome altars to the Astaroth of Honour to the Tammuz of Lust to the Mammon of Wealth thou hast defied Christ for thy King God saies Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain If now thine unhallowed tongue will not be beaten out of the hellish track of Oaths Blasphemies prophane Scoffs thou hast defied Christ God sayes Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day If now thou shalt spend it altogether upon thy self or else thinkest with that wise Heathen thou dost septimam oetatis partem perdere thou defiest Christ God saies Thou shalt not commit adultery If now like an enraged stallion thou neighest after every object of impure Lust thou hast defied Christ God saies Non in comessationibus ebrietate Not in surfeiting and drunkenness If now we shall pour our health and our reason down our throats and shall sacrifice our Souls to our bellies what do we say but Nolumus hunc But O foolish Rebels that we are do we think thus to shake off the yoak of Christ In spight of men and devils he will be their King who do most grin and gnash at his Soveraignty Feel O ye wilful sinners if ye will not learn that as he hath a golden Scepter Virgam directionis Psal 45. 6. so he hath also an iron Scepter Psal 2. 9. Virgam furoris Esay 10. 5. Beauty and Bands Zach. 11. 10 14. If ye will not bow under the first yea must break under the second He shall break you in pieces like a Potters vessel to mammocks to dust Ye shall find that the Prince of darkness can no more avoid his own torment then he can cease from yours and every knee not onely in Heaven and in earth but under the earth too shall mal-grè bow to the name of that Jesus whom they have scornfully rejected with Nolumus hunc Christ is no King to us But I perswade my self better things of you all that hear me this day There is none of you I hope but would be glad to strew his garments his olive-boughs yea his myrtles and lawrels yea crown and scepter under the feet of Christ and cry Hosanna altissimo Oh then if you be in earnest take the Psalmists counsel Osculamini filium Give him the kiss of Homage of Obedience Let me have leave to say that this charge is there given to the great Princes and Rulers of the earth they who honour others with a kiss of their hand must honour themselves with the humble kiss of his No Power can exempt from this sweet Subjection Ecce servus tuns Behold I am thy servant faith David yea and vilior ero I will be yet more vile for the Lord. Tremble before his footstool O ye Great ones that bindeth Kings with chains and Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149. 8. Your very Height inforces your Obedience the detrectation where of hath no other but Potentes potenter punientur Mighty ones shall be mightily tormented As an Angel of God so is my Lord the king as that wise Tekoan said Do ye not see how awful how submiss the Angels of Heaven are Before his throne they hide their faces with their wings and from his throne at his command
cometh Usurpation of others Rights violation of Oaths and Contracts and lastly erroneous Zeal are guilty of all these publick Murders Private mens injuries are washt off with tears but wrongs done to Princes and publick States are hardly wip'd off but with blood Doubtlesse that fearfull Comet did not more certainly portend these Wars then these Wars presage the approach of the end of the World The earth was never without some broils since it was peopled but with three men but so universal a combustion was never in the Christian world since it was O Saviour what can I think of this but that as thou wouldst have a generall Peace upon thy first coming into the World so upon thy second coming thou meanest there shall be a no lesse generall War upon earth That Peace made way for thy meek appearance this War for thy dreadfull and terrible XCVIII Upon a Childe crying IT was upon great reason that the Apostle charges us not to be children in Understanding What fools we all once are Even at first we crie and smile we know not wherefore we have not wit enough to make signs what hurts us or where we complain we can wry the mouth but not seek the breast and if we want help we can only lament and sprawl and die After when some months have taught us to distinguish a little betwixt things and persons we crie for every toy even that which may most hurt us and when there is no other cause we crie only to hear our own noise and are straight stilled with a greater and if it be but upon the breeding of a tooth we are so wayward that nothing will please us and if some formerly-liked knack be given to quiet us we cast away that which we have if we have not what we would seem to like We fear neither fire nor water nothing scares us but either a rod or a feigned bug-bear we mis-know our Parents not acknowledging any friend but the Taylor that brings us a fine Coat or the Nurse that dresses us gay The more that our riper years resemble these dispositions the more childish we are and more worthy both of our own and others censure But again it was upon no lesse reason that the Apostle charges us to be children in Maliciousness Those little Innocents bear no grudge they are sooner pleased then angry and if any man have wronged them let them but have given a stroke unto the Nurse to beat the offender it is enough at the same instant they put forth their hand for reconcilement and offer themselves unto those arms that trespassed And when they are most froward they are stilled with a pleasant Song The old word is that An old man is twice a childe but I say happy is he that is thus a childe alwaies It is a great imperfection to want Knowledge but of the two it is better to be a childe in Understanding then a man in Maliciousness XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sickness IT was my own fault if I look'd not for this All things must undergoe their changes I have enjoyed many fair daies there was no reason I should not at last make account of clouds and storms Could I have done well without any mixtures of sin I might have hoped for entire Health But since I have interspersed my Obedience with many sinfull failings and enormities why do I think much to interchange Health with Sickness What I now feel I know I am not worthy to know what I must feel As my times so my measures are in the hands of a wise and good God My comfort is he that sends these evils proportions them If they be sharp I am sure they are just the most that I am capable to endure is the least part of what I have deserved to suffer Nature would fain be at ease but Lord whatever become of this carkasse thou hast reason to have respect to thine own Glory I have sinned and must smart It is the glory of thy Mercy to beat my Body for the safety of my Soul The worst of Sickness is Pain and the worst of pain is but Death As for Pain if it be extreme it cannot be long and if it be long such is the difference of earthly and Hellish torments it cannot be extreme As for Death it is both unavoidable and beneficial there ends my Misery and begins my Glory a few groans are well bestowed for a preface to an immortal joy Howsoever O God thy messenger is worthy to be welcome It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will C. Upon the challenge of a Promise IT is true an Honest mans word must be his master when I have promised I am indebted and debts may be claimed must be payed but yet there is a great deal of difference in our ingagements some things we promise because they are due some things are onely due because they are promised These latter which are but the mere ingagements of Curtesie cannot so absolutely binde us that notwithstanding any intervention of unworthiness or misbehaviour in the person exspectant we are tied to make our word good though to the cutting of our own throats All favourable promises presuppose a capacity in the receiver where that palpably faileth common Equity sets us free I promised to send a fair Sword to my friend he is since that time turn'd frantick must I send it or be charged with unfaithfulness if I send it not O God thy Title is the God of Truth thou canst no more cease to be faithfull then to be How oft hast thou promised that no good thing shall be wanting to thine and yet we know thy dearest children have complained of want Is thy word therefore challengeable Far far be this wicked presumption from our thoughts No These thy promises of outward Favours are never but with a subintelligence of a condition of our capableness of our expedience Thou seest that Plenty or Ease would be our bane thy Love forbears to satisfie us with an harmfull Blessing We are worthy to be plagued with prejudicial kindnesses if we do not acknowledge thy Wisdome and care in our want It is enough for us that thy best Mercies are our dues because thy Promises we cannot too much claim that which thou hast absolutely ingaged thy self to give and in giving shalt make us eternally happy CI. Upon the sight of Flies WHen I look upon these Flies and gnats and worms I have reason to think What am I to my infinite Creator more then these And if these had my Reason why might they not expostulate with their Maker why they are but such why they live to so little purpose and die without either notice or use And if I had no more Reason then they I should be as they content with any condition That Reason which I have is not of my owne giving he that hath given me Reason might as well have given it to them or have made me as reason-lesse as
held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall succession How little were the Jewes better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whiles they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever become of the persons Never times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the world but he would have some faithful to entertain him He that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his own times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aarons blood and John Baptist of theirs whence should an holy seed spring if not of the Loyns of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children it is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the stock and the griffe be not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women then the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no lesse progress in vertue then in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews barrenness was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience she was barren of children As John which was miraculously conceived by man was a fit fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse then irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospel as to tie his service to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorised he authoriseth none but the worthy The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the Legal services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universal charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so he carefully observed it the favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we flacken those duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day the lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods own chusing In lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers then sweet perfume these God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations we make the Gospel lesse officious then the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends up his incense within the Temple the people must send up their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went up to heaven The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer up the incense of prayers unto God then Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews and themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prayes within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of accesse to God under the Gospel if we doe not make use of our priviledge Whiles they were praying to God he sees an Angel of GOD as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zacharie's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospel approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The presence of Angels
Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The message is well suited An Angel comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary He that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiving of him that was the God of strength to a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginity espoused for the honour of Marriage The marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an example but a miracle of women In this whole work God would have nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a married Virgin which should be a Virgin mother He that meant to take mans nature without mans corruption would be the Son of man without mans seed would be the seed of the woman without man and amongst all women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witness and a Guardian of her fruitful Virginity If the same God had not been the authour of Virginity and Marriage he had never countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whether doth this glorious Angel come to finde the Mother of him that was GOD but to obscure Galilee A part which even the Jewes themselves despised as forsaken of their priviledges Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angel comes to that Galilee out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to be conceived in that Galilee out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the person which gives honour and priviledge to the place not the place to the person as the presence of God makes the Heaven the Heaven doth not make the honour glorious No blinde corner of Nazareth can hide the blessed Virgin from the Angel The favours of God will finde out his children wheresoever they are withdrawn It is the fashion of God to seek out the most despised on whom to bestow his honours We cannot run away as from the judgements so not from the mercies of our God The cottages of Galilee are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Jerusalem he cares not how homely he converse with his own Why should we be transported with the outward glory of places whiles our God regards it not We are not of the Angels diet if we had not rather be with the blessed Virgin at Nazareth then with the proud Dames in the Court of Jerusalem It is a great vanity to respect any thing above goodness and to disesteem goodness for any want The Angel salutes the Virgin he prayes not to her he salutes her as a Saint he prayes not to her as a Goddess For us to salute her as he did were grosse presumption for neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a Spirit saluted her that was flesh and blood here on earth it is not for us that are flesh and blood to salute her which is a glorious Spirit in Heaven For us to pray to her in the Angels salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angel the salutation But how gladly doe we second the Angel in the praise of her which was more ours then his How justly doe we blesse her whom the Angel pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angel proclaimeth beloved of God O blessed Mary he cannot blesse thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy self we believe the Angel and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose womb all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angel much more the Virgin That very Sex had more disadvantage of fear If it had been but a man that had come to her in that secrecie and suddenness she could not but have been troubled how much more when the shining glory of the person doubled the astonishment The troubles of holy mindes end ever in comfort Joy was the errand of the Angel and not terrour Fear as all passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time unfit to receive the messages of God Soon hath the Angel cleared these troublesome mists of passions and sent out the beams of heavenly consolation in the remotest corner of her soul by the glad news of her Saviour How can joy but enter into her heart out of whose womb shall come salvation What room can fear finde in that breast that is assured of favour Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God Let those fear who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate calls for confidence and that confidence for joy What should what can they fear who are favoured of him at whom the Devils tremble Not the presence of the good Angels but the temptations of the evil strike many terrors into our weaknesse we could not be dismaied with them if we did not forget our condition We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witnesse with our spirits that we are thine how can we fear any of those spirituall wickednesses Give us assurance of thy favour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinary favour that the Virgin found in Heaven No mortall Creature was ever thus graced that he should take part of her nature that was the God of Nature that he which made all things should make his humane body of hers that her womb should yield that flesh which was personally united to the Godhead that she should bear him that upholds the world Loe thou shalt conceive and bear a Son and shalt call his name Jesus It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Jesus conceived Both are marvellous but the former doth not more exceed all other wonders then the latter exceedeth it For the childe of a Virgin is the reimprovement of that power which created the world but that God should be incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Majestie and an exaltation of the creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the wombe of her body the other of the soul If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall that was her priviledge this was her happinesse If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed heart wherein thou O Saviour art not formed again Blessed be thou that hast herein made us blessed For what womb can conceive thee and not partake of thee Who can partake of thee and not be happy Doubtlesse the Virgin understood the Angel as he meant of a present Conception which made her so much
A tyrannous guiltinesse never thinks it self safe but ever seeks to assure it self in the excesse of cruelty Doubtlesse he which so privily inquired for Christ did as secretly brew this massacre The mothers were set with their children on their laps feeding them with the breast or talking to them in the familiar language of their love when suddenly the Executioner rushes in and snatches them from their armes and at once pulling forth his Commission and his knife without regard to shrieks or teares murthers the innocent Babe and leaves the passionate mother in a mean between madnesse and death What cursing of Herod what wringing of hands what condoling what exclaiming was now in the streets of Bethleem O bloody Herod that couldst sacrifice so many harmlesse lives to thine ambition What could those Infants have done If it were thy person whereof thou wert afraid what likelihood was it thou couldst live till those sucklings might endanger thee This news might affect thy Successors it could not concern thee if the heat of an impotent and furious envy had not made thee thirsty of blood It is not long that thou shalt enjoy this cruelty After a few hatefull years thy soul shall feel the weight of so many Innocents of so many just curses He for whose sake thou killedst so many shall strike thee with death and then what wouldest thou have given to have been as one of those Infants whom thou murtheredst In the mean time when thine executioners returned and told thee of their unpartial dispatch thou smiledst to think how thou hadst defeated thy rivall and beguiled the Starre and deluded the Prophecies whiles God in Heaven and his Son on earth laugh thee to scorn and make thy rage an occasion of further glory to him whom thou meantest to suppresse He that could take away the lives of other cannot protract his own Herod is now sent home The coast is clear for the return of that holy Family now God calls them from their exile Christ and his Mother had not stayed so long out of the confines of the reputed visible Church but to teach us continuance under the Crosse Sometimes God sees it good for us not to sip of the cup of affliction but to make a diet-drink of it for constant and common use If he allow us no other liquor for many yeares we must take it off chearfully and know that it is but the measure of our betters Joseph and Mary stir not without a command their departure stay removall is ordered by the voice of God If Egypt had been more tedious unto them they durst not move their foot till they were bidden It is good in our own businesse to follow reason or custome but in God's businesse if we have any other guide but himself we presume and cannot expect a blessing O the wonderful dispensation of God in concealing 〈◊〉 himself from men Christ was now some five years old he bears 〈◊〉 as an infant and knowing all things neither takes nor gives notice of ought concerning his removall and disposing but appoints that to be done by his Angel which the Angel could not have done but by him Since he would take our nature he would be a perfect child suppressing the manifestation and exercise of that Godhead whereto that infant-nature was conjoyned Even so O Saviour the humility of thine infancy was answerable to that of thy birth The more thou hidest and abasest thy self for us the more should we magnifie thee the more should we deject our selves for thee Unto thee with the Father and the holy Ghost he all honour and glory now for ever Amen Contemplations THE SECOND BOOK Containing Christ among the Doctors Christ Baptized Christ Tempted Simon Called The Marriage in Cana. The good Centurion To the Honourable General Sir EDWARD CECILL Knight all Honour and Happiness Most Honoured Sir THE store of a good Scribe is according to our Saviour both old new I would if I durst be ambitious of this only honour Having therefore drawn forth those not frivolous thoughts out of the Old Testament I fetch these following from the New God is the same in both as the body differs not with the age of the sute with the change of robes The old and new wine of holy Truth came both out of one vineyard yet here may we safely say to the Word of his Father as was said to the Bridegroom of Cana Thou hast kept the best wine till the last The authority of both is equally sacred the use admits no lesse difference then is betwixt a Saviour fore shadowed and come The intermission of those military imployments which have wone you just honour both in forrain nations and at home is in this onely gainfull that it yields you leisure to these happy thoughts which shall more fully acquaint you with him that is at once the God of Hosts and the Prince of Peace To the furtherance whereof these my poor labours shall doe no thankless offices In lieu of your noble favours to me both at home and where you have merited command nothing can be returned but humble acknowledgments and hearty prayers for the increase of your Honour and all Happiness to your self and your thrice-worthy and vertuous Lady by him that is deeply obliged and truly devoted to you both JOS. HALL Christ among the Doctors EVen the Spring shews us what we may hope for of the tree in Summer In his nonage therefore would our Saviour give us a tast of his future proof lest if his perfection should have shewed it self without warning to the world it should have been entertained with more wonder then belief Now this act of his Childhood shall prepare the faith of men by fore-exspectation Notwithstanding all this early demonstration of his Divine graces the incredulous Jews could afterwards say Whence hath this man his wisdome and great works What would they have said if he had suddenly leapt forth into the clear light of the world The Sun would dazle all eyes if he should break forth at his first rising into his full strength now he hath both the day-star to goe before him and to bid men look for that glorious body and the lively colours of the day to publish his approach the eye is comforted not hurt by his appearance The Parents of Christ went up yearly to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passeover the Law was only for the males I do not finde the Blessed Virgin bound to this voiage the weaker sex received indulgence from God Yet she knowing the spiritual profit of that journey takes pains voluntarily to measure that long way every year Piety regards not any distinction of sexes or degrees neither yet doth God's acceptation rather doth it please the mercy of the Highest more to reward that service which though he like in all yet out of favour he will not impose upon all It could not be but that she whom the holy Ghost over-shadowed should be zealous of God's
should give place to the God of Spirits How well contented was holy Mary with so just an answer how doth she now again in her heart renew her answer to the Angel Behold the servant of the Lord be it according to thy word We are all the Sons of God in another kinde Nature and the World thinks we should attend them We are not worthy to say we have a Father in Heaven if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions and imploy our selves in the services of our God Christ's Baptism JOHN did every way forerun Christ not so much in the time of his Birth as in his office Neither was there more unlikeliness in their Disposition and carriage then similitude in their Function Both did preach and baptize only John baptized by himself our Saviour by his Disciples our Saviour wrought miracles by himself by his Disciples John wrought none by either Wherein Christ meant to shew himself a Lord and John a servant and John meant to approve himself a true servant to him whose harbinger he was He that leapt in the womb of his mother when his Saviour then newly conceived came in presence bestir'd himself when he was brought forth into the light of the Church to the honour and service of his Saviour he did the same before Christ which Christ charged his Disciples to do after him Preach and Baptize The Gospel ran alwaies in one tenor and was never but like it self So it became the Word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning and whose Word it is I am Jehova I change not It was fit that he which had the Prophets the Star the Angel to foretell his coming into the world should have his Usher to goe before him when he would notifie himself to the world John was the voice of a Cryer Christ was the Word of his Father it was fit this Voice should make a noise to the world ere the Word of the Father should speak to it John's note was still Repentance the Axe to the root the Fan to the floor the Chaffe to the fire as his raiment was rough so was his tongue and if his food were wilde Hony his speech was stinging Locusts Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart Plausibility is no fit preface to Regeneration If the heart of man had continued upright God might have been entertained without contradiction but now violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can have room for Grace If the great Way-maker do not cast down hills and raise up valleys in the bosomes of men there is no passage for Christ Never will Christ come into that Soul where the Herald of Repentance hath not been before him That Saviour of ours who from eternity lay hid in the Counsel of God who in the fulness of time so came that he lay hid in the womb of his mother for the space of forty weeks after he was come thought fit to lye hid 〈◊〉 Nazareth for the space of thirty years now at last begins to shew himself to the world and comes from Galilee to Jordan He that was God alwaies and might have been perfect man in an instant would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his Mediatorship to teach us the necessity of leasure in spiritual proceedings that many Suns and successions of seasons and means must be stayed for ere we can attain our maturity and that when we are ripe for the imployments of God we should no lesse willingly leave our obscurity then we took the benefit of it for our preparation He that was formerly circumcised would now be baptized What is Baptism but an Evangelical Circumcision What was Circumcision but a Legal Baptism One both supplied and succeeded the other yet the Authour of both will undergoe both He would be circumcised to sanctifie his Church that was and baptized to sanctifie his Church that should be that so in both Testaments he might open a way into Heaven There was in him neither filthiness nor foreskin of corruption that should need either knife or water He came not to be a Saviour for himself but for us we are all uncleanness and uncircumcision he would therefore have that done to his most pure body which should be of force to clear our impure Souls thus making himself sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him His Baptism gives virtue to ours His last action or rather passion was his baptizing with blood his first was his baptization with water both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not onely wash the souls of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both clean and holy and can both cleanse and hallow us And if the very handkerchief which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes far to seek his baptism to teach us for whose sake he was baptized to wait upon the Ordinances of God and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings They are worthlesse commodities that are not worth seeking for It is rarely seen that God is found of any man unsought for that desire which only makes us capable of good things cannot stand with neglect John durst not baptize unbidden his Master sent him to doe this service and behold the Master comes to his servant to call for the participation of that priviledge which he himself had instituted and injoyned How willingly should we come to our spiritual Superiours for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to that Christ who gives us these blessings who is given to us in them This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of John to receive If his mother could say when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater born of woman then thou yet thou couldest not be born of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour He baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the womb There can be no flesh without filthiness neither thy supernatural Conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of Baptism Even those that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that unless the second Adam cleanse them by his Baptism they are hopeless There is no less use of Baptism unto all then there is certainty of
Now our very Temptation affords us comfort in that we see the dearer we are unto God the more obnoxious we are to this triall neither can we be discouraged by the hainousnesse of those evils whereto we are moved since we see the Son of God solicited to Infidelity Covetousnesse Idolatry How glorious therefore was it for thee O Saviour how happy for us that thou wert tempted Where then wast thou tempted O Blessed Jesu or whither wentest thou to meet with our great Adversary I do not see thee led into the market-place or any other part of the City or thy home-stead of Nazareth but into the vast Wilderness the habitation of beasts a place that carrieth in it both horror and opportunity Why wouldst thou thus retire thy self from men But as confident Champions are wont to give advantage of ground or weapon to their Antagonist that the glory of their victory may be the greater so wouldest thou O Saviour in this conflict with our common Enemy yield him his own terms for circumstances that thine honour and his foile may be the more Solitariness is no small help to the speed of a Tentation Woe to him that is alone for if he fall there is not a second to lift him up Those that out of an affectation of Holiness seek for solitude in rocks and caves of the desarts do no other then run into the mouth of the danger of Tentation whiles they think to avoid it It was enough for thee to whose Divine power the gates of Hell were weakness thus to challenge the Prince of darkness Our care must be alwaies to eschew all occasions of spiritual danger and what we may to get us out of the reach of Tentations But O the depth of the Wisdome of God! How camest thou O Saviour to be thus tempted That Spirit whereby thou wast conceived as man and which was one with thee and the Father as God led thee into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan Whiles thou taughtest us to pray to thy Father Lead us not into temptation thou meantest to instruct us that if the same Spirit led us not into this perilous way we goe not into it We have still the same conduct Let the path be what it will how can we miscarry in the hand of a Father Now may we say to Satan as thou didst unto Pilate Thou couldst have no power over me except it were given thee from above The Spirit led thee it did not drive thee here was a sweet invitation no compulsion of violence So absolutely conformable was thy will to thy Deity as if both thy Natures had but one volition In this first draught of thy bitter potion thy Soul said in a reall subjection Not my will but thy will be done We imitate thee O Saviour though we cannot reach to thee All thine are led by thy Spirit Oh teach us to forget that we have wills of our own The Spirit led thee thine invincible strength did not animate thee into this combat uncalled What do we weaklings so far presume upon our abilities or success as that we dare thrust our selves upon Temptations unbidden unwarranted Who can pitty the shipwrack of those Marriners which will needs put forth and hoise fails in a Tempest Forty daies did our Saviour spend in the Wilderness fasting and solitary all which time was worn out in Temptation however the last brunt because it was most violent is only expressed Now could not the adversary complain of disadvantage whiles he had the full scope both of time and place to do his worst And why did it please thee O Saviour to fast forty daies and forty nights unless as Moses fasted forty daies at the delivery of the Law and Elias at the restitution of the Law so thou thoughtest fit at the accomplishment of the Law and the promulgation of the Gospel to fulfill the time of both these Types of thine wherein thou intendest our wonder not our imitation not our imitation of the time though of the act Here were no faulty desires of the flesh in thee to be tamed no possibility of a freer and more easie assent of the Soul to God that could be affected of thee who wast perfectly united unto God but as for us thou wouldst suffer death so for us thou wouldst suffer hunger that we might learn by fasting to prepare our selves for Tentations In fasting so long thou intendest the manifestation of thy power in fasting no longer the truth of thy manhood Moses and Elias through the miraculous sustentation of God fasted so long without any question made of the truth of their bodies So long therefore thou thoughtest good to fast as by the reason of these precedents might be without prejudice of thine Humanity which if it should have pleased thee to support as thou couldst without means thy very Power might have opened the mouth of cavils against the verity of thy Humane nature That thou mightest therefore well approve that there was no difference betwixt thee and us but sin thou that couldst have fasted without hunger and lived without meat wouldst both feed and fast and hunger Who can be discouraged with the scantnesse of friends or bodily provisions when he sees his Saviour thus long destitute of all earthly comforts both of society and sustenance Oh the policie and malice of that old Serpent when he sees Christ bewray some infirmity of nature in being hungry then he layes sorest at him by temptations His eye was never off from our Saviour all the time of his sequestration and now that he thinks he espies any one part to lye open he drives at it with all his might We have to do with an Adversary no lesse vigilant then malicious who will be sure to watch all opportunities of our mischief and where he sees any advantage of weaknesse will not neglect it How should we stand upon our guard for prevention that both we may not give him occasions of our hurt nor take hurt by those we have given When our Saviour was hungry Satan tempts him in matter of Food not then of Wealth or Glorie He well knows both what baits to fish withall and when and how to lay them How safe and happy shall we be if we shall bend our greatest care where we discern the most danger In every Temptation there is an appearance of good whether of the body of mind or estate The first is the lust of the flesh in any carnal desire the second the pride of heart and life the third the lust of the eyes To all these the first Adam is tempted and in all miscarried the second Adam is tempted to them all and overcometh The first man was tempted to Carnal appetite by the forbidden fruit to Pride by the suggestion of being as God to Covetousnesse in the ambitious desire of knowing good and evil Satan having found all the motions so successeful with the first Adam in his innocent estate will now tread the same
At leastwise he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God Neither is it in this alone what one act ever passed the hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If we follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions we follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon As we see fashions when they are taken up of the unworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Devil even to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a stander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his Tentation He gilds over this false metall with Scripture that it may passe current Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and will seem godly for a mischief If Hypocrites make a fair shew to deceive with a glorious lustre of Holinesse we see whence they borrowed it How many thousand souls are betraied by the abuse of that Word whose use is soveraign and saving No Devil is so dangerous as the religious Devil If good meat turn to the nourishment not of Nature but of the Disease we may not forbear to feed but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours which cause the stomach to work against it self O God thou that hast given us light give us clear and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that Light thou hast given us Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and then shall they finde that Word not more true then cordial Let not this Divine Table of thine be made a snare to our souls What can be a better act then to speak Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maimed and perverted One piece is left all misapplied Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their own turn it is easie to see from what School they come Let us take the Word from the Author not from the Usurper David would not doubt to eat that sheep which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion He shall give his Angels charge over thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection God's children never goe unattended Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard though invisible yet true careful powerful What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of Heaven yet their Maker hath set them to serve us Our Adoption makes us at once great and safe We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God observe us the while and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions The Sun or the Light may we keep out of our houses the Aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immaterial No walls no bolts can sever them from our sides they accompany us in dungeons they goe with us into our exile How can we either fear danger or complain of solitarinesse whiles we have so unseparable so glorious Companions Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture because Satan mis-laies it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience it needs no light to clear it but that which it hath in it self All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and given this charge of his own he will have them kept not in their sins they may trust him they may not tempt him he meant to incourage their Faith not their Presumption To cast our selves upon any immediate Providence when means fail not is to disobey in stead of believing God We may challenge God on his Word we may not strain him beyond it we may make account of what he promised we may not subject his Promises to unjust examinations and where no need is make triall of his Power Justice Mercy by devices of our own All the Devils in Hell could not elude the force of this Divine answer and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet again for all this do I see him setting upon the Son of God Satan is not foiled when he is resisted Neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten upon Christ he shall be tried with Honour As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons so doth his great Enemy In vain shall we plead our skill in some if we fail in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kinde of assaults as those that hold Towns and Forts do not only defend themselves from incursions but from the Cannon and the Pionier Still doth that subtil Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage The Temple is not high enough for his next Tentation he therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high Mountain All enemies in pitcht fields strive for the benefit of the Hill or River or Wind or Sun That which his servant Balac did by his instigation himself doth now immediately change places in hope of prevailing If the obscure country will not move us he tries what the Court can do if not our home the Tavern if not the field our closer As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelesnesse and as we should alwaies watch over our selves so then most when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glory were only to be presented to his imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This shew was made to both divers Kingdomes lying round about Judea were represented to the eye the glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy no less then the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pomp majestie pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royal state these Satan laies out to the fairest shew But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends Greatnesse No Crown is without thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Soveraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may
be seen but what may both please and allure Satan is still and ever like himself If Tentations might be but turn'd about and shewn on both sides the Kingdome of darkness would not be so populous Now whensoever the Tempter sets upon any poor soul all sting of conscience wrath judgment torment is concealed as if they were not nothing may appear to the eye but pleasure profit and a seeming happinesse in the enjoying our desires Those other woful objects are reserved for the farewell of sin that our misery may be seen and felt at once When we are once sure Satan is a Tyrant till then he is a Parasite There can be no safety if we do not view as well the back as the face of Tentations But oh presumption and impudence that Hell it self may be ashamed of The Devil dares say to Christ All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me That beggerly spirit that hath not an inch of earth can offer the whole world to the maker to the owner of it The slave of God would be adored of his Creator How can we hope he should be sparing of false boasts and of unreasonable promises unto us when he dares offer Kingdomes to him by whom Kings reign Tentations on the right hand are most dangerous How many that have been hardned with Fear have melted with Honour There is no doubt of that soul that will not bite at the golden hook False lyars and vain-glorious boasters see the top of their pedigree if I may not rather say that Satan doth borrow the use of their tongues for a time Whereas faithfull is he that hath promised who will also do it Fidelity and truth is the issue of Heaven If Idolatry were not a dear sin to Satan he would not be so importunate to compasse it It is miserable to see how he draws the world insensibly into this sin which they professe to detest Those that would rather hazard the fornace then worship Gold in a Statue yet do adore in it the stamp and finde no fault with themselves If our hearts be drawn to stoop unto an over-high respect of any creature we are Idolaters O God it is no marvel if thy jealousie be kindled at the admission of any of thine own works into a competition of honour with their Creator Never did our Saviour say Avoid Satan till now It is a just indignation that is conceived at the motion of a rivaltie with God Neither yet did Christ exercise his Divine power in this command but by the necessary force of Scripture drives away that impure Tempter It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The rest of our Saviours answers were more full and direct then that they could admit of a reply but this was so flat and absolute that it utterly daunted the courage of Satan and put him to a shameful flight and made him for the time weary of his trade The way to be rid of the troublesome solicitations of that Wicked one is continued resistance He that forcibly drove the Tempter from himself takes him off from us and will not abide his assaults perpetual It is our exercise and Triall that he intends not our Confusion Simon called AS the Sun in his first rising draws all eyes to it so did this Sun of Righteousness when he first shone forth into the world His miraculous cures drew Patients his Divine doctrine drew Auditors both together drew the admiring multitude by troops after him And why do we not still follow thee O Saviour through desarts and mountains over land and seas that we may be both healed and taught It was thy word that when thou wert lift up thou wouldst draw all men unto thee Behold thou art lift up long since both to the tree of shame and to the throne of heavenly glory Draw us and we shall run after thee Thy word is still the same though proclaimed by men thy virtue is still the same though exercised upon the spirits of men Oh give us to hunger after both that by both our souls may be satisfied I see the people not onely following Christ but pressing upon him even very unmannerliness findes here both excuse and acceptation They did not keep their distances in an awe to the Majesty of the Speaker whiles they were ravished with the power of the Speech yet did not our Saviour check their unreverent thronging but rather incourages their forwardness We cannot offend thee O God with the importunity of our desires It likes thee well that the Kingdome of Heaven should suffer violence Our slackness doth ever displease thee never our vehemency The throng of Auditors forced Christ to leave the shore and to make Peter's ship his pulpit Never were there such nets cast out of that fisher-boat before Whiles he was upon the Land he healed the sick bodies by his touch now that he was upon the Sea he cured the sick Souls by his doctrine and is purposely severed from the multitude that he may unite them to him He that made both Sea and Land causeth both of them to conspire to the opportunities of doing good Simon was busie washing his nets Even those nets that caught nothing must be washed no lesse then if they had sped well The nights toile doth not excuse his daies work Little did Simon think of leaving those nets which he so carefully washed and now Christ interrupts him with the favour and blessing of his gracious presence Labour in our calling how homely soever makes us capable of Divine benediction The honest fisher-man when he saw the people flock after Christ and heard him speak with such power could not but conceive a general and confuse apprehension of some excellent worth in such a Teacher and therefore is glad to honour his ship with such a Guest and is first Christ's Host by Sea ere he is his Disciple by land An humble and serviceable entertainment of a Prophet of God was a good foundation of his future honour He that would so easily lend Christ his hand and his ship was likely soon after to bestow himself upon his Saviour Simon hath no sooner done this service to Christ then Christ is preparing for his reward when the Sermon is ended the ship-room shall be paid for abundantly neither shall the Host exspect any other pay-master then himself Lanch forth into the deep and let down your Nets to make a draught That ship which lent Christ an opportunity of catching men upon the shore shall be requited with a plentiful draught of fish in the deep It had been as easie for our Saviour to have brought the fish to Peter's ship close to the shore yet as chusing rather to have the ship carried to the shole of fish he bids Lanch forth into the deep In his Miracles he loves ever to meet Nature in her bounds and when she hath done her best to supply the rest by his
coate would have thought well of it a Captain a man of good ability and command a founder of a Synagogue a Patron of Religion yet he overlooks all these and when he casts his eye upon the Divine worth of Christ and his own weaknesse he saies I am not worthy Alas Lord I am a Gentile an Alien a man of blood thou art holy thou art omnipotent True Humility will teach us to finde out the best of another and the worst piece of our selves Pride contrarily shews us nothing but matter of admiration in our selves in others of contempt Whiles he confest himself unworthy of any favour he approved himself worthy of all Had not Christ been before in his heart he could not have thought himself unworthy to entertain that Guest within his house Under the low roof of an humble breast doth God ever delight to dwell The state of his Palace may not be measured by the height but by the depth Brags and bold faces do oft-times carry it away with men nothing prevails with God but our voluntary dejections It is fit the foundations should be layd deep where the building is high The Centurion's Humility was not more low then his Faith was lofty that reaches up into Heaven and in the face of humane weaknesse descries Omnipotence Onely say the word and my Servant shall be whole Had the Centurion's roof been Heaven it self it could not have been worthy to be come under of him whose Word was Almighty and who was the Almighty Word of his Father Such is Christ confessed by him that saies Onely say the word None but a Divine Power is unlimited neither hath Faith any other bounds then God himself There needs no footing to remove Mountains or Devils but a word Do but say the word O Saviour my sin shall be remitted my Soul shall be healed my body shall be raised from dust both Soul and body shall be glorious Whereupon then was the steddy confidence of the good Centurion He saw how powerful his own word was with those that were under his command though himself were under the command of another the force whereof extended even to absent performances well therefore might he argue that a free and unbounded power might give infallible commands and that the most obstinate Disease must therefore needs yield to the beck of the God of Nature Weaknesse may shew us what is in strength by one drop of water we may see what is in the main Ocean I marvell not if the Centurion were kinde to his Servants for they were dutifull to him he can but say Doe this and it is done these mutuall respects draw on each other chearfull and diligent service in the one calls for a due and favourable care in the other they that neglect to please cannot complain to be neglected Oh that I could be but such a Servant to mine heavenly Master Alas every of his commands saies Doe this and I doe it not every of his inhibitions saies Doe it not and I doe it He saies Goe from the World I run to it he saies Come to me I run from him Woe is me this is not service but enmity How can I look for favour while I return Rebellion It is a gracious Master whom we serve there can be no duty of ours that he sees not that he acknowledges not that he crowns not We could not but be happy if we could be officious What can be more marvellous then to see Christ marvell All marvelling supposes an ignorance going before and a knowledge following some accident unexpected now who wrought this Faith in the Centurion but he that wondred at it He knew well what he wrought because he wrought what he would yet he wondred at what he both wrought and knew to teach us much more to admire that which he at once knows and holds admirable He wrought this Faith as God he wondred at it as man God wrought and man admired he that was both did both to teach us where to bestow our wonder I never finde Christ wondring at gold or silver at the costly and curious works of humane skill or industry yea when the Disciples wondred at the magnificence of the Temple he rebuked them rather I finde him not wondring at the frame of Heaven and earth nor at the orderly disposition of all creatures and events the familiarity of these things intercepts the admiration But when he sees the grace or acts of Faith he so approves them that he is ravished with wonder He that rejoyced in the view of his Creation to see that of Nothing he had made all things good rejoyces no lesse in the reformation of his Creature to see that he had made good of evil Behold thou art faire my Love behold thou art faire and there is no spot in thee My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded my heart thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes Our Wealth Beauty Wit Learning Honour may make us accepted of men but it is our Faith onely that shall make God in love with us And why are we of any other save God's Diet to be more affected with the least measure of Grace in any man then with all the outward glories of the World There are great men whom we justly pity we can admire none but the gracious Neither was that plant more worth of wonder in it self then that it grew in such a soile with so little help of Rain and Sun The weaknesse of means addes to the praise and acceptation of our proficiency To doe good upon a little is the commendation of thrist it is small thank to be full-handed in a large estate As contrarily the strength of means doubles the revenge of our neglect It is not more the shame of Israel then the glory of the Centurion that our Saviour saies I have not found so great faith in Israel Had Israel yielded any equall Faith it could not have been unespied of these All-seeing eyes yet were their helps so much greater as their Faith was lesse and God never gives more then he requires Where we have laid our Tillage and Compost and Seed who would not look for a Crop but if the uncultured fallow yield more how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself not whisper it to his Disciples but he turned him about to the people and spake it in their eares that he might at once work their shame and emulation In all other things except spirituall our self-love makes us impatient of equals much lesse can we endure to be out-stripped by those who are our professed inferiours It is well if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions Dull and base are the spirits of that man that can abide to see another overtake him in the way and out-run him to Heaven He that both wrought this Faith and wondred at it doth now reward it Goe thy waies and as thou
miserable and not feel it to feel and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealment doth not remedy but aggravate sorrow That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his Hand seconds his Tongue He arrests the Coffin and frees the Prisoner Young man I say unto thee Arise The Lord of life and death speaks with command No finite power could have said so without presumption or with success That is the voice that shall one day call up our vanished bodies from those Elements into which they are resolved and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detain their dead when he charges them to be delivered Incredulous nature what dost thou shrink at the possibility of a Resurrection when the God of Nature undertakes it It is no more hard for that almighty Word which gave being unto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I do not see our Saviour stretching himself upon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha upon the sons of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling down and praying by the Bier as Peter did to Dorcas but I hear him so speaking to the dead as if he were alive and so speaking to the dead that by the word he makes him alive I say unto thee Arise Death hath no power to bid that man lye still whom the Son of God bids Arise Immediatly he that was dead sate up So at the sound of the last Trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand up glorious This mortall shall put on immortality this corruptible incorruption This body shall not be buried but sown and at our day shall therefore spring up with a plentiful increase of glory How comfortless how desperate should be our lying down if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weak faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty he hath already by what he hath done given us tastes of what he will do The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no power can raise one man but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Under the Old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha living a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament he raised here the son of the Widow the daughter of Jairus Lazarus and in attendance of his own Resurrection he made a gaol-delivery of holy prisoners at Jerusalem He raises the daughter of Jairus from her bed this Widows son from his Coffin Lazarus from his grave the dead Saints of Jerusalem from their rottenness that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacie of his overruling command He that keeps the keys of Death cannot onely make way for himself through the common Hall and outer-rooms but through the inwardest and most reserved closets of darkness Methinks I see this young man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleep wiping and rubbing those eyes that had been shut up in death and descending from the Bier wrapping his winding-sheet about his loyns cast himself down in a passionate thankfulness at the feet of his Almighty restorer adoring that Divine power which had commanded his Soul back again to her forsaken lodging and though I hear not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise and wonder which his returned Soul first uttered It was the mother whom our Saviour pittied in this act not the son who now forced from his quiet rest must twice pass through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he delivered that she might acknowledge that soul given to her not to the possessor Who cannot feel the amazement and ecstasie of joy that was in this revived mother when her son now salutes her from out of another world and both receives and gives gratulations of his new life How suddenly were all the tears of that mournful train dried up with a joyful astonishment How soon is that funeral banquet turned into a new Birth-day feast What striving was here to salute the late carcase of their returned neighbour What awful and admiring looks were cast upon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approved Omnipotent How gladly did every tongue celebrate both the work and the Author A great Prophet is raised up amongst us and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the highest name they could find for him whom they saw like themselves in shape above themselves in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This Miracle might well have assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Bier would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the grave of Infidelity They shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised up to them was the God that now visited them and at last should doe as much for them as he had done for the young man raise them from death to life from dust to glory The Rulers Son cured THe bounty of God so exceedeth man's that there is a contrarietie in the exercise of it We shut our hands because we opened them God therefore opens his because he hath opened them God's mercies are as comfortable in their issue as in themselves Seldom ever do blessings go alone where our Saviour supplied the Bridegroom's wine there he heals the Rulers son He had not in all these coasts of Galilee done any Miracle but here To him that hath shall be given We do not finde Christ oft attended with Nobilitie here he is It was some great Peer or some noted Courtier that was now a suitor to him for his dying son Earthly Greatness is no defence against Afflictions We men forbear the Mightie Disease and Death know no faces of Lords or Monarchs Could these be bribed they would be too rich Why should we grudge not to be privileged when we see there is no spare of the greatest This Noble Ruler listens after Christ's return into Galilee The most eminent amongst men will be glad to hearken after Christ in their necessity Happy was it for him that his son was sick he had not else been acquainted with his Saviour his Soul had continued sick of ignorance and unbelief Why else doth our good God send us pain losses opposition but that he may be sought to Are we afflicted whither should we goe but to Cana to seek Christ whither but to the Cana of Heaven where our water of sorrow is turned to the wine of gladness to that omnipotent Physician who healeth all our infirmities that we may once say It is good for me that I was afflicted It was about a dayes journey from Capernaum to Cana Thence hither did this Courtier come for
the cure of his sons Fever What pains even the greatest can be content to take for bodily health No way is long no labour tedious to the desirous Our Souls are sick of a spiritual Fever labouring under the cold fit of Infidelity and the hot fit of Self-love and we sit still at home and see them languish unto death This Ruler was neither faithless nor faithful Had he been quite faithless he had not taken such pains to come to Christ Had he been faithful he had not made this suit to Christ when he was come Come down and heal my son ere he die Come down as if Christ could not have cured him absent Ere he die as if that power could not have raised him being dead How much difference was here betwixt the Centurion and the Ruler That came for his Servant this for his Son This son was not more above the servant then the Faith which sued for the servant surpassed that which sued for the son The one can say Master come not under my roof for I am not worthy onely speak the word and my servant shall be whole The other can say Master either come under my roof or my son cannot be whole Heal my son had been a good suit for Christ is the onely Physician for all diseases but Come down and heal him was to teach God how to work It is good reason that he should challenge the right of prescribing to us who are every way his own it is presumption in us to stint him unto our forms An expert workman cannot abide to be taught by a novice how much less shall the all-wise God endure to be directed by his creature This is more then if the Patient should take upon him to give a Recipe to the Physician That God would give us grace is a beseeming suit but to say Give it me by prosperitie is a sawcy motion As there is faithfulness in desiring the End so modesty and patience in referring the Means to the author In spiritual things God hath acquainted us with the means whereby he will work even his own Sacred Ordinances Upon these because they have his own promise we may call absolutely for a Blessing In all others there is no reason that beggers should be chusers He who doth whatsoever he will must doe it how he will It is for us to receive not to appoint He who came to complain of his son's sickness hears of his own Except ye see signes and wonders ye will not believe This Nobleman was as is like of Capernaum There had Christ often preached there was one of his chief residencies Either this man had heard our Saviour oft or might have done yet because Christ's Miracles came to him onely by hear-say for as yet we finde none at all wrought where he preached most therefore the man believes not enough but so speaks to Christ as to some ordinary Physician Come down and heal It was the common disease of the Jews Incredulity which no receit could heal but Wonders A wicked and adulterous generation seeks signes Had they not been wilfully graceless there was already proof enough of the Messias the miraculous conception and life of the Fore-runner Zacharie's dumbness the attestation of Angels the apparition of the Star the journey of the Sages the vision of the Shepherds the testimonies of Anna and Simeon the Prophecies fulfilled the Voice from Heaven at his Baptisme the Divine words that he spake and yet they must have all made up with Miracles which though he be not unwilling to give at his own times yet he thinks much to be tied unto at theirs Not to believe without signes was a signe of stubborn hearts It was a foul fault and a dangerous one Ye will not believe What is it that shall condemn the world but unbelief What can condemn us without it No sin can condemn the repentant Repentance is a fruit of Faith where true Faith is then there can be no condemnation as there can be nothing but condemnation without it How much more foul in a noble Capernaite that had heard the Sermons of so Divine a Teacher The greater light we have the more shame it is for us to stumble Oh what shall become of us that reel and fall in the clearest Sun-shine that ever looked forth upon any Church Be merciful to our sins O God and say any thing of us rather then Ye will not believe Our Saviour tels him of his unbelief He feels not himself sick of that disease All his minde is on his dying son As easily do we complain of bodily griefs as we are hardly affected with spiritual Oh the meekness and mercy of this Lamb of God! When we would have look'd that he should have punished this suitor for not believing he condescends to him that he may believe Go thy way thy son liveth If we should measure our hopes by our own worthiness there were no exspectation of blessings but if we shall measure them by his bounty and compassion there can be no doubt of prevailing As some tender mother that gives the breast to her unquiet childe in stead of the rod so deals he with our perversnesses How God differences men according to no other conditions then of their Faith The Centurion's servant was sick the Ruler's son The Centurion doth not sue unto Christ to come onely sayes My servant is sick of a Palsie Christ answers him I will come and heal him The Ruler sues unto Christ that he would come and heal his son Christ will not goe onely sayes Goe thy way thy Son lives Outward things carrie no respect with God The Image of that Divine Majesty shining inwardly in the Graces of the Soul is that which wins love from him in the meanest estate The Centurion's Faith therefore could doe more then the Ruler's Greatness and that faithful mans servant hath more regard then this great mans son The Ruler's request was Come and heale Christ's answer was Goe thy way thy Son lives Our merciful Saviour meets those in the end whom he crosses in the way How sweetly doth he correct our prayers and whiles he doth not give us what we ask gives us better then we asked Justly doth he forbear to goe down with this Ruler lest he should confirm him in an opinion of measuring his power by conceits of locality and distance but he doth that in absence for which his presence was required with a repulse Thy Son liveth giving a greater demonstration of his Omnipotencie then was craved How oft doth he not hear to our will that he may hear us to our advantage The chosen Vessel would be rid of Tentations he heares of a supply of Grace The sick man asks Release receives Patience Life and receives Glory Let us ask what we think best let him give what he knows best With one word doth Christ heal two Patients the son and the father the sons Fever the fathers Unbelief That operative word of our
us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design others then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for Confusion that call for Parity What should the Church doe with such a for me as is not exempliied in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Cut-purses one doth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a further spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a Soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhorre to be beholding to the powers of Hell for aid for advice Is is not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemie of their Souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not It is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jewes therefore they accuse him for a conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for on Arch-exorcist for the worst kinde of Magician Some professors of this black Art though their work be devilish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottome findes no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinful servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts findes it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envie never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Chirst For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coales yea those very coales of hell from which thou wert inkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid-way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a further proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those antient Miracles of the times of our fore-fathers Joshuah caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonish'd the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kinde of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews overlooked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from Heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitours in the desart that there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the Providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but Mercy nothing from them but Temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the
substance he made them richer in grace At whose board did he ever sit and left not his host a gainer The poor Bridegroom entertains him and hath his water-pots fill'd with Wine Simon the Pharisee entertains him and hath his table honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner with the heavenly doctrine of remission Zachaeus entertains him Salvation came that day to his house with the Author of it That presence made the Publican a Son of Abraham Matthew is recompensed for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertain him and besides Divine instruction receive their Brother from the dead O Saviour whether thou feast us or we feast thee in both of them is Blessedness Where a Publican is the Feast-master it is no marvel if the guests be Publicans and sinners Whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew invited them to be partners of that plentiful grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and sinners will flock together the one hateful for their trade the other for their vicious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an unanimity and sends them to seek mutual comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruel severity makes men desperate and drives them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many have gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table-full was here The Son of God beset with Publicans and sinners O happy Publicans and sinners that had found out their Saviour O merciful Saviour that disdained not Publicans and sinners What sinner can fear to kneel before thee when he sees Publicans and sinners sit with thee Who can fear to be despised of thy meekness and mercy which didst not abhorre to converse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thief confessing upon the Cross nor the sinner weeping upon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way nor the blushing Adulteress nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutor of Disciples nor thine own executioners how can we be unwelcome to thee if we come with tears in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands O Saviour our breasts are too oft shut upon thee thy bosome is ever open to us We are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should we despair of a room at thy Table The squint-eyed Pharisees look a-cross at all the actions of Christ where they should have admired his Mercy they cavil at his Holinesle They said to his Disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soon have convinced them This winde they hoped might shake the weak faith of the Disciples They speak where they may be most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanical instruments have learnt this craft of their old Tutor in Paradise We cannot reverence that man whom we think unholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspicion of his impurity which the murmure of these envious Pharisees would fain insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is unclean He cannot but be unclean that eateth with Publicans and sinners Proud and foolish Pharisees ye fast whiles Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whiles Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your own whiles Christ feasts with sinners but if ye fast in pride while Christ eats in humility if ye fast at home for merit or popularity while Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conversion your fast is unclean his feast is holy ye shall have your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speak not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they goe about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quick eye of our Saviour hath soon espied the pack of their fraud and therefore he takes the words out of the mouthes of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himself The whole need not the Physician but the sick According to the two qualities of pride scorn and over-weening these insolent Pharisees over-rated their own holinesse contemned the noted unholinesse of others As if themselves were not tainted with secret sins as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and findes those justiciaries sinfull those sinners just The spiritual Physician findes the sicknesse of those sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it calls for the help of the Physician this desperate because it needs not Every soul is sick those most that feel it not Those that feel it complain those that complain have cure those that feel it not shall finde themselves dying ere they can wish to recover O blessed Physician by Whose stripes we are healed by whose death we live happy are they that are under thy hands sick as of sin so of sorrow for sin It is as unpossible they should die as it is unpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sin hath made us sick unto death make thou us but as sick of our sins we are as safe as thou art gracious Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd I Do not any where finde so furious a Demoniack as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed over the lake then he was met with two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the evil spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence he caught him not It was no thank to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so unmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull over-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weakness of his poor creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortal enemy and takes off this Mastive whiles we may take breath He who in his justice gives way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restrains them so regarding our deservings that withall he regards our strength If way should be given to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure and if Satan might have his will we should
waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues Superiority He only is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tugge for the victory and without resistance yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of 〈◊〉 with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not Others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as Charmers and Figure-casters Others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is only the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou only O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of Hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee The interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whiles we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of His power or his will How can we professe him a God and doubt of his power How can we professe him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those Infernal powers We are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Devil saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack for the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I besecch thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the soul spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that milde face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of Grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devil when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the external homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoices in him with trembling What it doth is in way of service In service to his Lord whose Soveraignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is only an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their tormentor not as to their Lord in mere servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horror without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devil upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesu the Son of the most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Author we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name Jesus That awfull name whereat every knee shall bow in Heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Son of the most high God The good Syrophenician and blind Bartimaeus could say The Son of David It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens The Son of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a fiend None more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well heare this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carries away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else he knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in
this Jesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no whit the safer no whit the better only we are so much the wiser to understand who shall condemn us This piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Jesus the Son of the most high God the other piece like a Devil What have I to doe with thee If the disclamation were universall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles he confesses Jesus to be the Son of the most high God he withall confesses his own inevitable subjection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot he dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What have I to doe with thee Others indeed I have vexed thee I fear In respect then of any violence of any personal provocation What have I to doe with thee And dost thou ask O thou evil spirit what hast thou to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a servant of Christ Hast thou thy name from knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concerns his own person Hear that great and just Judge sentencing upon his dreadfull Tribunal Inasmuch as thou didst it unto one of these little ones thou didst it unto me It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the Members from the Head He that had humility enough to kneel to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment us before our time Whether it were that Satan who useth to enjoy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to hear our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny or whether the very presence of Christ were his rack for the guilty spirit projecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Judge or the executioner without a renovation of horrour or whether that as himself professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded down into the deep for a further degree of actual torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spiritual natures of evil Angels Men that are led by Sense have easily granted the body subject to torment who yet have not so readily conceived this incident to a spiritual substance The Holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint us with the particular manner of these invisible acts rather willing that we should herein fear then enquire But as all matters of Faith though they cannot be proved by Reason for that they are in a higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of all Reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it self so this of the sufferings of Spirits There is therefore both an intentional torment incident to Spirits and a reall For as in Blessedness the good Spirits finde themselves joyned unto the chief good and hereupon feel a perfect love of God and unspeakable joy in him and rest in themselves so contrarily the evil Spirits perceive themselves eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselves setled in a wofull darkness and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceived How many men have we known to torment themselves with their own thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their own heart And if some pains begin at the Body and from thence afflict the Soul in a copartnership of grief yet others arise immediately from the Soul and draw the Body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceive mere and separate Spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I hear the Judge of men and Angels say Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I hear the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with fear and without curiosity we may look upon those flames why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more then natural fire In the end of the world the Elements shall be dissolved by fire and if the pure quintessential matter of the skie and the element of fire it self shall be dissolved by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth What hinders then but that the Omnipotent God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature proportionable even to Spiritual essences Or why may we not distinguish of fire as it is it self a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods justice so working not by any material virtue or power of its own but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy to which it is exalted by the Omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Judge Or lastly why may we not conceive that though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon yet by the judgement of the Almighty Arbiter of the world justly willing their torment they may be made most sensible of pain and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined For if the incorporeal Spirits of living men may be held in a lothed or painful body and conceive sorrow to be so imprisoned why may we not as easily yield that the evil spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhor therein to continue for ever Tremble rather O my Soul at the thought of this wofull condition of the evil Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Majesty of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite Mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy severity of justice to the revolted Angels so graciously forbears our hainous iniquities and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedome from them for ever Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thine infirmities who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the evil spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they exspect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment us before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also understood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Judgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of Heaven yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Even the very evil spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set
the leg when they intend it at the head so doth this Devil whiles he drives at the Swine he aimes at the Souls of these Gadarens by this means he hoped well and his hope was not vain to work in these Gergesens a discontentment at Christ an unwillingnesse to entertain him a desire of his absence he meant to turn them into Swine by the losse of their Swine It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Job's children that he bore the grudge to but to the owners nor to the lives of the children so much as the Soul of their Father There is no Affliction wherein he doth not strike at the heart which whiles it holds free all other damages are light but a wounded spirit whether with sin or sorrow who can bear Whatever becomes of goods or limmes happy are we if like wise souldiers we guard the vital parts Whiles the Soul is kept sound from impatience from distrust our Enemy may afflict us he cannot hurt us They sue for a sufferance not daring other then to grant that without the permission of Christ they could not hurt a very Swine If it be fearfull to think how great things evil spirits can doe with permission it is comfortable to think how nothing they can doe without permission We know they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of God's work but of all man of all men Christians but if without leave they cannot set upon an Hog what can they doe to the living Images of their Creator They cannot offer us so much as a suggestion without the permission of our Saviour And can he that would give his own most precious blood for us to save us from evil wilfully give us over to evil It is no news that wicked spirits wish to do mischief it is news that they are allowed it If the owner of all things should stand upon his absolute command who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to doe with his creature The first Fole of the Asse is commanded under the Law to have his neck broken What is that to us The creatures doe that they were made for if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker But seldome ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons as our weaknesse may reach unto There were Sects amongst these Jews that denied Spirits They could not be more evidently more powerfully convinced then by this event Now shall the Gadarens see from what a multitude of Devils they were delivered and how easie it had been for the same power to have allowed these Spirits to seize upon their Persons as well as their Swine Neither did God this without a just purpose of their castigation His Judgements are righteous where they are most secret Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought yet he could and thought good thus to mulct them And if they had not wanted Grace to acknowledge it it was no small favour of God that he would punish them in their Swine for that which he might have avenged upon their Bodies and Souls Our Goods are furthest off us If but in these we smart we must confesse to finde mercy Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits in no favour to the suitors He grants an ill suit and withholds a good He grants an ill suit in Judgement and holds back a good one in Mercy The Israelites ask meat he gives Quailes to their mouths and leannesse to their Souls The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken off and hears only My grace is sufficient for thee We may not evermore measure favours by condescent These Devils doubtless receive more punishment for that harmfull act wherein they are heard If we ask what is either unfit to receive or unlawfull to beg it is a great favour of our God to be denied Those spirits which would go into the Swine by permission go out of the man by command they had staied long and are ejected suddenly The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant and do not require the aid of time for their maturation No sooner are they cast out of the man then they are in the Swine They will lose no time but passe without intermission from one mischief to another If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil why is it not our delight to be ever doing good The impetuousnesse was no lesse then the speed The Herd was carried with violence from a steep-down place into the lake and was choaked It is no small force that could doe this but if the Swine had been so many Mountains these spirits upon God's permission had thus transported them How easily can they carry those Souls which are under their power to destruction Unclean beasts that wallow in the mire of sensuality brutish Drunkards transforming themselves by excesse even they are the Swine whom the Legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition The wicked spirits have their wish the Swine are choked in the waves What ease is this to them Good God that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying in tormenting the good creatures of his Maker This is the diet of Hell Those Fiends feed upon spight towards man so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator towards all other living substances so much more as they may be more usefull to man The Swine ran down violently what marvell is it if their Keepers fled That miraculous work which should have drawn them to Christ drives them from him They run with the news the Country comes in with clamour The whole multitude of the Country about besought him to depart The multitude is a beast of many heads every head hath a several mouth and every mouth a several tongue and every tongue a several accent every head hath a several brain and every brain thoughts of their own so as it is hard to find a multitude without some division At least seldome ever hath a good motion found a perfect accordance it is not so infrequent for a multitude to conspire in evil Generality of assent is no warrant for any act Cōmon Errour carries away many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice The way to Hell is a beaten road through the many feet that tread it When Vice grows into fashion Singularity is a Vertue There was not a Gadarene found that either dehorted his fellows or opposed the motion It is a sign of people given up to judgment when no man makes head against projects of evil Alas what can one strong man do against a whole throng of wickednesse Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance that God forbears to plague where he findes but a sprinkling of Faith Happy are they who like unto the celestial bodies which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere yet creep on their own waies keep on the courses of their own Holiness against the
way of the Sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sate in darknesse saw great light The Sun is not scornfull but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth not onely the stately palaces and pleasant gardens are visited by his beams but mean cottages but neglected boggs and mores God's word is like himself no accepter of persons the wilde Kern the rude Scythian the savage Indian are alike to it The Mercy of God will be sure to finde out those that belong to his Election in the most secret corners of the world like as his Judgments will fetch his enemies from under the hills and rocks The good Shepherd walks the wildernesse to seek one sheep strayed from many If there be but one Syrophoenician soul to be gained to the Church Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to fetch her Why are we weary to doe good when our Saviour underwent this perpetuall toyle in healing bodies and winning Souls There is no life happy but that which is spent in a continuall drudging for edification It is long since we heard of the name or nation of Canaanites All the Country was once so styled that people was now forgotten yet because this woman was of the blood of those Phoenicians which were anciently ejected out of Canaan that title is revived to her God keeps account of pedigrees after our oblivion that he may magnifie his mercies by continuing them to thousands of the generations of the just and by renewing favours upon the unjust No Nation carried such brands and scars of a Curse as Canaan To the shame of those carelesse Jews even a faithfull Canaanite is a suppliant to Christ whiles they neglect so great Salvation She doth not speak but cry Need and desire have raised her voice to an importunate clamour The God of mercy is light of hearing yet he loves a loud and vehement solicitation not to make himself inclinable to graunt but to make us capable to receive blessings They are words and not prayers which fall from carelesse lips If we felt our want or wanted not desire we could speak to God in no tune but cries If we would prevail with God we must wrestle and if we would wrestle happily with God we must wrestle first with our own dulnesse Nothing but cries can pierce Heaven Neither doth her vehemence so much argue her Faith as doth her compellation O Lord thou Son of David What Proselyte what Disciple could have said more O blessed Syrophoenician who taught thee this abstract of Divinity What can we Christians confesse more then the Deity and the Humanity the Messiaship of our glorious Saviour His Deity as Lord his Humanity as a Son his Messiaship as the Son of David Of all the famous progenitors of Christ two are singled out by an eminence David and Abraham a King a Patriarch and though the Patriarch were first in time yet the King is first in place not so much for the dignity of the Person as the excellence of the Promise which as it was both later and fresher in memory so more honourable To Abraham was promised multitude and blessing of seed to Davidâ—â—rpetuity â—â—rpetuity of dominion So as when God promiseth not to destroy his people it is for Abraham's sake when not to extinguish the Kingdome it is for David's sake Had she said The Son of Abraham she had not come home to this acknowledgment Abraham is the Father of the faithfull David of the Kings of Juda and Israel There are many faithfull there is but one King so as in this title she doth proclaim him the perpetual King of his Church the rod or flower which should come from the root of Jesse the true and onely Saviour of the world Whoso would come unto Christ to purpose must come in the right style apprehending a true God a true Man a true God and Man any of these severed from other makes Christ an Idol and our prayers sin Being thus acknowledged what suit is so fit for him as mercy Have mercy on me It was her daughter that was tormented yet she saies Have mercy on me Perhaps her possessed childe was senseless of her misery the parent feels both her sorrow and her own As she was a good woman so a good mother Grace and good nature have taught her to appropriate the afflictions of this divided part of her own flesh It is not in the power of another skin to sever the interest of our own loyns or womb We finde some fouls that burn themselves whiles they endeavour to blow out the fire from their young And even Serpents can receive their brood into their mouth to shield them from danger No creature is so unnatural as the reasonable that hath put off affection On me therefore in mine for my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil It was this that sent her to Christ It was this that must incline Christ to her I doubt whether she had inquired after Christ if she had not been vexed with her daughters spirit Our Afflictions are as Benhadad's best counsellors that sent him with a cord about his neck to the mercifull King of Israel These are the files whetstones that set an edge on our Devotions without which they grow dull and ineffectual neither are they stronger motives to our suit then to Christ's mercy We cannot have a better spokes-man unto God then our own misery That alone sues and pleads and importunes for us This which sets off men whose compassion is finite attracts God to us Who can plead discouragements in his accesse to the throne of Grace when our wants are our forcible advocates All our worthiness is in a capable misery All Israel could not example the Faith of this Canaanite yet she was thus tormented in her daughter It is not the truth or strength of our Faith that can secure us from the outward and bodily vexations of Satan against the inward and spiritual that can and will prevail it is no more antidote against the other then against feavers and dropsies How should it whenas it may fall out that these sufferings may be profitable and why should we exspect that the love of our God shall yield to forelay any benefit to the Soul He is an ill patient that cannot distinguish betwixt an affliction and the evil of affliction When the messenger of Satan buffets us it is enough that God hath said My grace is sufficient for thee Millions were in Tyre and Sidon whose persons whose children were untouched with that tormenting hand I hear none but this faithfull Woman say My daughter is grievously vexed of the Devil The worst of bodily afflictions are an insufficient proof of Divine displeasure She that hath most Grace complains of most discomfort Who would now expect any other then a kinde answer to so pious and faithfull a petition And behold he answered her not a word O holy Saviour we have oft found cause to wonder at
thou art now in Heaven the smalness of our person or of our condition cannot lett us from beholding thee The Soul hath no stature neither is Heaven to be had with reaching onely clear thou the eyes of my Faith and I am high enough I regard not the Body the Soul is the man It is to small purpose that the body is a Giant if the Soul be a dwarf We have to doe with a God that measures us by our desires not by our statures All the streets of Jericho however he seemed to the eye had not so tall a man as Zacheus The witty Publican easily finds both his hindrances and the waies of their redress His remedy for the prease is to run before the multitude his remedy for his stature is to climb up into the Sycomore he imployes his feet in the one his hands and feet in the other In vain shall he hope to see Christ that doth not out-go the common throng of the world The multitude is clustred together and moves too close to move fast we must be nimbler then they if ever we desire or exspect to see Christ It is the charge of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evil we doe evil if we lagge in good It is held commonly both wit and state for a man to keep his pace and that man escapes not censure who would be forwarder then his fellows Indeed for a man to run alone in wayes of indifferency or to set an hypocritical face of out-running all others in a zealous profession when the heart lingers behinde both these are justly hateful but in an holy emulation to strive truly and really to out strip others in degrees of Grace and a conscionable care of obedience this is truly Christian and worthy of him that would hope to be blessed with the sight of a Saviour Tell me ye fashionable Christians that stand upon terms of equality and will not go a foot before your neighbours in holy zeal and aidful charity in conscionable sincerity tell me who hath made other mens progress a measure for yours Which of you saies I will be no richer no greater no fairer no wiser no happier then my fellows Why should you then say I will be no holier Our life is but a race every good End that a man proposes to himself is a several goal Did ever any man that ran for a prize say I will keep up with the rest Doth he not know that if he be not foremost he loseth We had as good to have sate still as not so to run that we may obtain We obtain not if we out-run not the multitude So farre did Zacheus over-run the stream of the people that he might have space to climb the Sycomore ere Jesus could pass by I examine not the kinde the nature the quality of this Plant what Tree soever it had been Zacheus would have tried to scale it for the advantage of this prospect He hath found out this help for his stature and takes pains to use it It is the best improvement of our wit to seek out the aptest furtherances for our Souls Do you see a weak and studious Christian that being unable to inform himself in the matters of God goes to the cabinet of Heaven the Priests lips which shall preserve knowledge there is Zacheus in the Sycomore It is the truest wisdome that helps forward our Salvation How witty we are to supply all the deficiencies of Nature If we be low we can adde cubits to our stature if ill-coloured we can borrow complexion if hairless perukes if dim-sighted glasses if lame crutches and shall we be conscious of our spiritual wants and be wilfully regardless of the remedy Surely had Zacheus stood still on the ground he had never seen Christ had he not climbed the Sycomore he had never climbed into Heaven O Saviour I have not height enough of my own to see thee give me what Sycomore thou wilt give me grace to use it give me an happy use of that grace The more I look at the mercy of Christ the more cause I see of astonishment Zacheus climbs up into the Sycomore to see Jesus Jesus first sees him preventing his eyes with a former view Little did Zacheus look that Jesus would have cast up his eyes to him Well might he think the boys in the street would spy him out and shout at his stature trade ambition but that Jesus should throw up his eyes into the Sycomore and take notice of that small despised morsel of flesh ere Zacheus could finde space to distinguish his face from the rest was utterly beyond his thought or exspectation All his hope is to see and now he is seen To be seen and acknowledged is much more then to see Upon any solemn occasion many thousands see the Prince whom he sees not and if he please to single out any one whether by his eye or by his tongue amongst the prease it passes for an high favour Zacheus would have thought it too much boldness to have asked what was given him As Jonathan did to David so doth God to us he shoots beyond us Did he not prevent us with mercy we might climb into the Sycomore in vain If he give Grace to him that doth his best it is the praise of the giver not the earning of the receiver How can we doe or will without him If he see us first we live and if we desire to see him we shall be seen of him Whoever took pains to climb the Sycomore and came down disappointed O Lord what was there in Zacheus that thou shouldst look up at him a Publican a sinner an arch-extortioner a dwarf in stature but a Giant in oppression a little man but a great Sycophant if rich in coin more rich in sins and treasures of wrath Yet it is enough that he desires to see thee all these disadvantages cannot hide him from thee Be we never so sinful if our desires towards thee be hearty and servent all the broad leaves of the Sycomore cannot keep off thine eye from us If we look at thee with the eye of Faith thou wilt look at us with the eye of mercy The eye of the Lord is upon the just and he is just that would be so if not in himself yet in thee O Saviour when Zacheus was above and thou wert below thou didst look up at him now thou art above and we below thou lookest down upon us thy mercy turns thine eyes every way towards our necessities Look down upon us that are not worthy to look up unto thee and finde us out that we may seek thee It was much to note Zacheus it was more to name him Methinks I see how Zacheus startled at this to hear the sound of his own name from the mouth of Christ neither can he but think Doth Jesus know me Is it his voice or some others in the throng Lo this is the first blink that ever I had of him
passes from the ship to the shore That which brought him from Heaven to earth brought him also from the sea to land his compassion on their Souls that he might teach them compassion on their Bodies that he might heal and feed them Judaea was not large but populous it could not be but there must be amongst so many men many diseased it is no marvel if the report of so miraculous and universal sanations drew customers They found three advantages of cure above the power and performance of any earthly Physician Certainty Bounty Ease Certainty in that all comers were cured without fail Bounty in that they were cured without charge Ease in that they were cured without pain Farre be it from us O Saviour to think that thy Glory hath abated of thy Mercy still and ever thou art our assured bountiful and perfect Physician who healest all our diseases and takest away all our infirmities Oh that we could have our faithful recourse to thee in all our spiritual maladies it were as impossible we should want help as that thou shouldest want power and mercy That our Saviour might approve himself every way beneficent he that had filled the Souls of his Auditors with spiritual repast will now fill their Bodies with temporal and he that had approved himself the universal Physician of his Church will now be known to be the great housholder of the world by whose liberal provision mankinde is maintained He did not more miraculously heal then he feeds miraculously The Disciples having well noted the diligent and importune attendance of the multitude now towards evening come to their Master in a care of their repast and discharge This is a desart place and the time is now past Send the multitude away that they may goe into the villages and buy themselves victuals How well it becomes even spiritual guides to regard the bodily necessities of God's people This is not directly in our charge neither may we leave our sacred ministration to serve Tables But yet as the bodily father must take care for the Soul of his childe so must the spiritual have respect to the Body This is all that the world commonly looks after measuring their Pastors more by their dishes then by their doctrine or conversation as if they had the charge of their Bellies not of their Souls if they have open Cellars it matters not whether their Mouths be open If they be sociable in their carriage favourable and indulgent to their recreations full in their chear how easily doth the world dispense with either their negligence or enormities As if the Souls of these men lay in their weasand in their gut But surely they have reason to exspect from their Teachers a due proportion of Hospitality An unmeet parsimony is here not more odious then sinful And where ability wants yet care may not be wanting Those Preachers which are so intent upon their spiritual work that in the mean time they over-strain the weaknesses of their people holding them in their Devotions longer then humane frailty will permit forget not themselves more then their pattern and must be sent to school to these compassionate Disciples who when evening was come sue to Christ for the peoples dismission The place was desart the time evening Doubtless our Saviour made choice of both these that there might be both more use and more note of his Miracle Had it been in the morning their stomack had not been up their feeding had been unnecessary Had it been in the Village provision either might have been made or at least would have seemed made by themselves But now that it was both desart and evening there was good ground for the Disciples to move and for Christ to work their sustentation Then onely may we exspect and crave help from God when we finde our need Superfluous aid can neither be heartily desired nor earnestly lookt for nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee If it be not a burden it is no casting it upon God Hence it is that Divine aid comes ever in the very upshot and exigence of our trials when we have been exercised and almost tired with long hopes yea with despairs of success that it may be both more longed for ere it come and when it comes more welcome Oh the Faith and Zeal of these clients of Christ They not only follow him from the City into the Desart from delicacy to want from frequence to solitude but forget their bodies in pursuit of the food of their Souls Nothing is more hard for an healthful man to forget then his belly within few hours this will be sure to solicit him and will take no denials Yet such sweetness did these hearers finde in the spiritual repast that they thought not on the bodily the Disciples pitied them they had no mercy on themselves By how much more a mans minde is taken up with Heavenly things so much less shall he care for earthly What shall earth be to us when we are all Spirit And in the mean time according to the degrees of our intellectual elevations shall be our neglect of bodily contentments The Disciples think they move well Send them away that they may buy victuals Here was a strong Charity but a weak Faith A strong Charity in that they would have the people relieved a weak Faith in that they supposed they could not otherwise be so well relieved As a man when he sees many wayes lie before him takes that which he thinks both fairest and nearest so doe they this way of relief lay openest to their view and promised most Well might they have thought It is as easie for our Master to feed them as to heal them there is an equal facility in all things to a supernatural power yet they say Send them away In all our projects and suits we are still ready to move for that which is most obvious most likely when sometimes that is less agreeable to the will of God The All-wise and Almighty arbiter of all things hath a thousand secret means to honour himself in his proceedings with us It is not for us to carve boldly for our selves but we must humbly depend on the disposal of his Wisdom and Mercy Our Saviours answer gives a strange check to their motion They need not depart Not need They had no victuals they must have there was none to be had What more need could be He knew the supply which he intended though they knew it not His command was therefore more strange then his assertion Give ye them to eat Nothing gives what it hath not Had they had victuals they had not called for a dismission and not having how should they give It was thy wisdom O Saviour thus to prepare thy Disciples for the intended Miracle Thou wouldst not doe it abruptly without an intimation both of the purpose of it and the necessity And how modestly dost thou
undertake it without noise without ostentation I hear thee not say I will give them to eate but Give ye as if it should be their act not thine Thus sometimes it pleaseth thee to require of us what we are not able to perform either that thou maiest shew us what we cannot doe and so humble us or that thou majest erect us to a dependence upon thee which canst doe it for us As when the Mother bids the Infant come to her which hath not yet the steddy use of his leggs it is that he may cling the faster to her hand or coat for supportation Thou bidst us impotent wretches to keep thy royal Law Alas what can we Sinners doe there is not one letter of those thy Ten words that we are able to keep This charge of thine intends to shew us not our strength but our weakness Thus thou wouldest turn our eyes both back to what we might have done to what we could have done and upwards to thee in whom we have done it in whom we can doe it He wrongs thy Goodness and Justice that misconstrues these thy commands as if they were of the same nature with those of the Egyptian task-masters requiring the brick and not giving the straw But in bidding us doe what we cannot thou inablest us to doe what thou biddest Thy Precepts under the Gospel have not onely an intimation of our duty but an habilitation of thy power as here when thou badest the Disciples to give to the multitude thou meantest to supply unto them what thou commandedst to give Our Saviour hath what he would an acknowledgement of their insufficiency We have here but five loaves and two fishes A poor provision for the family of the Lord of the whole earth Five loaves and those barley two fishes and those little ones We well know O Saviour that the beasts were thine on a thousand mountains all the corn thine that covered the whole surface of the earth all the fouls of the aire thine it was thou that providedst those drifts of Quails that fell among the tents of thy rebellious Israelites that rainedst down those showrs of Manna round about their camp and dost thou take up for thy self and thy meiny with five barly loaves and two little fishes Certainly this was thy will not thy need to teach us that this body must be fed not pampered Our belly may not be our master much less our God or if it be the next word is whose glory is their shame whose end damnation It is noted as the crime of the rich glutton that he fared deliciously every day I never finde that Christ entertained any guests but twice and that was onely with loaves and fishes I finde him sometimes feasted by others more liberally But his domestical fare how simple how homely it is The end of food is to sustain Nature Meat was ordained for the belly the belly for the body the body for the Soul the Soul for God we must still look through the subordinate Ends to the highest To rest in the pleasure of the meat is for those creatures which have no Soules Oh the extreme delicacy of these times What conquisition is here of all sorts of curious dishes from the furthest seas and lands to make up one hours meal what broken cookery what devised mixtures what nice sauces what feasting not of the tast only but of the sent Are we the Disciples of him that took up with the loaves and fishes or the Scholars of a Philoxenus or an Apitius or Vitellius or those other monsters of the palate the true sons of those first Parents that killed themselves with their teeth Neither was the quality of these victuals more course then the quantity small They make a But of five loaves and two fishes and well might in respect of so many thousand mouths A little food to an hungry stomack doth rather stir up appetite then satisfie it as a little rain upon a droughty soil doth rather help to scorch then refresh it When we look with the eye of Sense or Reason upon any Object we shall see an impossibility of those effects which Faith can easily apprehend and Divine power more easily produce Carnal mindes are ready to measure all our hopes by humane possibilities and when they fail to despair of success where true Faith measures them by Divine power and therefore can never be disheartned This Grace is for things not seen and whether beyond hope or against it The virtue is not in the means but in the agent Bring them hither to me How much more easie had it been for our Saviour to fetch the loaves to him then to multiply them The hands of the Disciples shall bring them that they might more fully witness both the Author and manner of the instant Miracle Had the loaves and fishes been multiplied without this bringing perhaps they might have seemed to have come by the secret provision of the guests now there can be no question either of the act or of the agent As God takes pleasure in doing wonders for men so he loves to be acknowledged in the great works that he doth He hath no reason to part with his own glory that is too pretious for him to lose or for his creature to embezel And how justly didst thou O Saviour in this mean to teach thy Disciples that it was thou only who feedest the world and upon whom both themselves and all their fellow-creatures must depend for their nourishment and provision and that if it came not through thy hands it could not come to theirs There need no more words I do not hear the Disciples stand upon the terms of their own necessity Alas Sir it is too little for our selves whence shall we then relieve our own hunger Give leave to our Charity to begin at home But they willingly yield to the command of their Master and put themselves upon his Providence for the sequel When we have a charge from God it is not for us to stand upon self-respects in this case there is no such sure liberty as in a self-contempt O God when thou callest to us for our five loaves we must forget our own interest otherwise if we be more thristy then obedient our good turns evil and much better had it been for us to have wanted that which we withhold from the owner He that is the Master of the Feast marshals the guests He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass They obey and exspect Oh marvelous Faith So many thousands sit down and address themselves to a meal when they saw nothing but five poor barly loaves and two small fishes None of them say Sit down to what Here are the mouths but where is the meat We can soon be set but whence shall we be served Ere we draw our knives let us see our chear But they meekly and obediently dispose themselves to their places and look up to Christ for a miraculous purveyance It
skin but in their cloths too those fringes and ribands upon the borders of their garments were for holy memorials of their duty and Gods Law But that hence she supposed to finde more virtue and sanctity in the touch of the hem then of the coat I neither dispute nor believe It was the site not the signification that she intimated not as of the best part but the utmost In all likelihood if there could have been virtue in the garment the nearer to the body the more Here was then the praise of this womans Faith that she promiseth her self cure by the touch of the utmost hem Whosoever would look to receive any benefit from Christ must come in Faith It is that only which makes us capable of any favour Satan the common ape of the Almighty imitates him also in this point All his charms and spells are ineffectual without the Faith of the user of the receiver Yea the endeavour and issue of all both humane and spiritual things depends upon our Faith Who would commit a plant or seed to the earth if he did not believe to have it nursed in that kindely bosome What Merchant would put himself upon the guard of an inch-board in a furious Sea if he did not trust to the faithfull custody of that planck Who would trade or travell or war or marry if he did not therein surely trust he should speed well What benefit can we look to carry from a Divine exhortation if we do not believe it will edifie us from a Sacramental banquet the food of Angels if we do not believe it will nourish our Souls from our best Devotions if we do not perswade our selves they will fetch down blessings Oh our vain and heartlesse services if we do not say May I drink but one drop of that heavenly Nectar may I taste but one crum of that bread of life may I hear but one word from the mouth of Christ may I send up but one hearty sigh or ejaculation of an holy desire to may God I shall be whole According to her resolution is her practice She touched but she came behind to touch whether for humility or her secrecy rather as desiring to steal a cure unseen unnoted She was a Jewesse and therefore well knew that her touch was in this case no better then a pollution as hers perhaps but not of him For on the one side Necessity is under no positive law on the other the Son of God was not capable of impurity Those may be defiled with a touch that cannot heal with a touch he that was above Law is not comprised in the Law Be we never so unclean he may heal us we cannot infect him O Saviour my Soul is sick and foul enough with the Spiritual impurities of sin let me by the hand of Faith lay hold but upon the hem of thy garment thy Righteousness is thy garment it shall be both-clean and whole Who would not think but a man might lade up a dish of water out of the Sea unmissed Yet that water though much is finite those drops are within number that Art which hath reckoned how many corns of sand would make up a World could more easily compute how many drops of water would make up an Ocean whereas the mercies of God are absolutely infinite and beyond all possibility of proportion And yet this bashfull soul cannot steal one drop of mercy from this endlesse boundlesse bottomlesse Sea of Divine bounty but it is felt and questioned And Jesus said Who touched me Who can now say that he is a poor man that reckons his store when that God who is rich in mercy doth so He knows all his own Blessings and keeps just tallies of our receits Delivered so much Honour to this man to that so much Wealth so much Knowledge to one to another so much Strength How carefully frugal should we be in the notice account usage of Gods several favours since his bounty sets all his gifts upon the file Even the worst servant in the Gospel confest his Talents though he imployed them not We are worse then the worst if either we mis-know or dissemble or forget them Who now can forbear the Disciples reply Who touched thee O Lord the multitude Dost thou ask of one when thou art preased by many In the midst of a throng dost thou ask Who touched me Yea but yet some one touched me All thronged me but one touched me How riddle-like soever it may seem to sound they that thronged me touch'd me not she onely touched me that thronged me not yea that touched me not Even so O Saviour others touch'd thy body with theirs she touched thy hem with her hand thy Divine power with her Soul Those two parts whereof we consist the bodily the spiritual do in a sort partake of each other The Soul is the man and hath those parts senses actions which are challenged as proper to the Body This spiritual part hath both an hand and a touch it is by the hand of Faith that the Soul toucheth yea this alone both is and acts all the spiritual senses of that immaterial and Divine part this sees hears tasteth toucheth God and without this the Soul doth none of these All the multitude then preased Christ he took not that for a touch since Faith was away onely she touched him that believed to receive virtue by his touch Outward fashionablenesse comes into no account with God that is onely done which the Soul doth It is no hoping that virtue should goe forth from Christ to us when no hearty desires go forth from us to him He that is a Spirit looks to the deportment of that part which resembleth himself as without it the body is dead so without the actions thereof bodily Devotions are but carcasses What reason had our Saviour to challenge this touch Some body touch'd me The multitude in one extreme denied any touch at all Peter in another extreme affirmed an over-touching of the multitude Betwixt both he who felt it can say Some body touched me Not all as Peter not none as the multitude but some body How then O Saviour how doth it appear that some body touched thee For I perceive virtue is gone out from me The effect proves the act virtue gone out evinces the touch These two are in thee convertible virtue cannot goe out of thee but by a touch and no touch can be of thee without virtue going out from thee That which is a Rule in Nature That every Agent works by a contact holds spiritually too Then dost thou O God work upon our Souls when thou touchest our hearts by thy Spirit then do we re-act upon thee when we touch thee by the hand of our Faith and confidence in thee and in both these virtue goes out from thee to us Yet goes not so out as that there is lesse in thee In all bodily emanations whose powers are but finite it must needs follow that the more
this abashed Patient I may come in and confesse my errour and implore thy mercy It is no unusall thing for kindnesse to look sternly for the time that it may indear it self more when it lists to be discovered With a severe countenance did our Saviour look about him and ask Who touched me When the woman comes in trembling and confessing both her act and successe he clears up his brows and speaks comfortably to her Daughter be of good chear thy faith hath made thee whole goe in peace O sweet and seasonable word fit for those mercifull and Divine lips able to secure any heart to dispell any fears Still O Saviour thou doest thus to us when we fall down before thee in an awfull dejectednesse thou rearest us up with a chearfull and compassionate incouragement when thou findest us bold and presumptuous thou lovest to take us down when humbled it is enough to have prostrated us Like as that Lion of Bethel worries the disobedient Prophet guards the poor Asse that stood quaking before him Or like some mighty winde that bears over a tall Elme or Cedar with the same breath that it raiseth a stooping Reed Or like some good Physician who finding the body obstructed and surcharged with ill humors evacuates it and when it is sufficiently pulled down raises it up with soveraign Cordials And still doe thou so to my Soul if at any time thou perceivest me stiffe and rebellious ready to face out my sin against thee spare me not let me smart till I relent But a broken and contrite heart thou wilt not O Lord O Lord do not reject It is only thy Word which gives what it requires comfort and confidence Had any other shaken her by the shoulder and cheared her up against those oppressive passions it had been but wast winde No voice but his who hath power to remit sin can secure the heart from the conscience of sin from the pangs of Conscience In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts O Lord thy comforts only have power to refresh my soul Her cure was Christs act yet he gives the praise of it to her Thy faith hath made thee whole He had said before Virtue is gone out from me now he acknowledges a virtue inherent in her It was his virtue that cured her yet he graciously casts this work upon her Faith Not that her Faith did it by way of merit by way of efficiency but by way of impetration So much did our Saviour regard that Faith which he had wrought in her that he will honour it with the successe of her Cure Such and the same is still the remedy of our spirituall diseases our sins By faith we are justified by faith we are saved Thou only O Saviour canst heal us thou wilt not heal us but by our Faith not as it issues from us but as it appropriates thee The sicknesse is ours the remedy is ours the sicknesse is our own by nature the remedy ours by thy grace both working and accepting it Our Faith is no lesse from thee then thy Cure is from our Faith Oh happy dismission Goe in peace How unquiet had this poor soul formerly been She had no outward peace with her Neighbours they shunned and abhorred her presence in this condition yea they must doe so She had no peace in Body that was pained and vexed with so long and foul a disease Much lesse had she peace in her Minde which was grievously disquieted with sorrow for her sicknesse with anger and discontentment at her torturing Physicians with fear of the continuance of so bad a guest Her Soul for the present had no peace from the sense of her guiltinesse in the carriage of this businesse from the conceived displeasure of him to whom she came for comfort and redresse At once now doth our Saviour calm all these storms and in one word and act restores to her peace with her Neighbours peace in her Self peace in Body in Minde in Soul Goe in peace Even so Lord it was for thee only who art the Prince of Peace to bestow thy peace where thou pleasest Our body minde Soul estate is thine whether to afflict or ease It is a wonder if all of us doe not aile somewhat In vain shall we speak peace to our selves in vain shall the world speak peace to us except thou say to us as thou didst to this distressed soul Goe in peace JAIRUS and his Daughter HOw troublesome did the peoples importunity seem to Jairus That great man came to sue unto Jesus for his dying Daughter the throng of the multitude intercepted him Every man is most sensible of his own necessity It is no straining courtesie in the challenge of our interest in Christ there is no unmannerlinesse in our strife for the greatest share in his presence and benediction That only Childe of this Ruler lay a dying when he came to solicite Christs aide and was dead whiles he solicited it There was hope in her sicknesse in her extremity there was fear in her death despair and impossibility as they thought of help Thy daughter is dead trouble not the Master When we have to doe with a mere finite power this word were but just He was a Prophet no lesse then a King that said Whiles the childe was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the childe may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall goe to him but he shall not return to me But since thou hast to doe with an Omnipotent agent know now O thou faithlesse messenger that death can be no bar to his power How well would it have become thee to have said Thy daughter is dead but who can tell whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee that the childe may revive Cannot he in whose hands are the issues of death bring her back again Here were more Manners then Faith Trouble not the Master Infidelity is all for ease and thinks every good work tedious That which Nature accounts troublesome is pleasing and delightfull to Grace Is it any pain for an hungry man to eate O Saviour it was thy meat and drink to doe thy Fathers will and his will was that thou shouldest bear our griefs and take away our sorrows It cannot be thy trouble which is our happinesse that we may still sue to thee The messenger could not so whisper his ill news but Jesus heard it Jairus hears that he feared and was now heartlesse with so sad tidings He that resolved not to trouble the Master meant to take so much more trouble to himself and would now yield to a hopelesse sorrow He whose work it is to comfort the afflicted rouzeth up the dejected heart of that pensive father Fear not believe only and she shall be made whole The word was not more chearfull then difficult Fear not Who can
Means out of office The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismai'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-exspectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to goe to Hierusalem Hierusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloody issue of those designs yet he will goe and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddennesse of a surprisal O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisdome to exspect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was he whose the earth was and the fulnesse thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet he who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritanes He that filled and comprehended Heaven sends for shelter in a Samaritane Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homelinesse when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritanes stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritane's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a denial the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificial engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were lesse then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the lesse where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Egypt could bring forth Frogs and Blood they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we finde our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or expresse command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave only and that might they be but let loose they could goe alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the lesse now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two several times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I finde it no more and tremble at these I finde But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddainnesse of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but
with private and solitary Devotions but must joyn our spiritual forces together and set upon God by troups Two are better then one because they have a good reward for their labour No faithfull Prayer goes away unrecompensed but where many good hearts meet the retribution must be needs answerable to the number of the petitioners Oh holy and happy violence that is thus offered to Heaven How can we want Blessings when so many cords draw them down upon our heads It was not the sound but the matter that carried it with Christ if the sound were shrill the matter was faithfull Jesu Master have mercy upon us No word can better become the mouth of the miserable I see not where we can meet with fitter patterns Surely they were not verier Lepers then we why do we not imitate them in their actions who are too like them in our condition Whither should we seek but to our Jesus How should we stand aloof in regard of our own wretchedness how should we lift up our voice in the fervour of our supplications what should we rather sue for then mercy Jesu Master have mercy upon us Oh gracious prevention of mercy both had and given ere it can be asked Jesus when he saw them said Goe shew your selves to the Priests Their disease is cured ere it can be complained of their shewing to the Priest presupposes them whole whole in his grant though not in their own apprehension That single Leper that came to Christ before Mat. 8. Luke 5. was first cured in his own sense and then was bid to goe to the Priest for approbation of the Cure It was not so with these who are sent to the Judges of Leprosie with an intention they shall in the way finde themselves healed There was a different purpose in both these In the one that the perfection of the Cure might be convinced and seconded with a due sacrifice in the other that the Faith of the Patients might be tried in the way which if it had not held as strong in the prosecution of their suit as in the beginning had I doubt failed of the effect How easily might these Lepers think Alas to what purpose is this Shew our selves to the Priests What can their eyes doe They can judge whether it be cured which we see yet it is not they cannot cure it This is not now to doe We have been seen enough and loathed What can their eyes see more then our own We had well hoped that Jesus would have vouchsafed to call us to him and to lay his hands upon us and to have healed us These thoughts had kept them Lepers still Now shall their Faith and Obedience be proved by their submission both to this suddain command and that Divine ordination That former Leper was charged to shew himself to the chief Priest these to the Priests either would serve the original command runs either to Aaron or to one of his Sons But why to them Leprosie was a bodily sickness what is this to spiritual persons Wherefore serve Physicians if the Priests must meddle with diseases We never shall finde those Sacred persons to passe their judgment upon Fevers Dropsies Palsies or any other bodily distemper neither should they on this were it not that this affection of the body is joyned with a Legal uncleanness Not as a sickness but as an impurity must it come under their cognisance neither this without a further implication Who but the successors of the Legal Priesthood are proper to judge of the uncleannesses of the Soul Whether an act be sinfull or in what degree it is such what grounds are sufficient for the comfortable assurance of Repentance of forgivenesse what courses are fittest to avoid the danger of relapses who is so like to know so meet to judge as our Teachers Would we in these cases consult ofter with our spiritual Guides and depend upon their faithfull advises and well-grounded absolutions it were safer it were happier for us Oh the dangerous extremity of our wisdome Our hood-wink'd Progenitors would have no eyes but in the heads of their ghostly Fathers We think our selves so quick-sighted that we pity the blindness of our able Teachers none but our selves are fit to judge of our own Leprosie Neither was it onely the peculiar judgment of the Priest that was here intended but the thankfulness of the Patient that by the sacrifice which he should bring with him he might give God the glory of his sanation O God whomsoever thou curest of this spiritual Leprosie it is reason he should present thee with the true Evangelical sacrifices not of his praises onely but of himself which are reasonable and living We are still leprous if we do not first see our selves foul and then finde our selves thankfully serviceable The Lepers did not would not goe of themselves but are sent by Christ Goe and shew your selves And why sent by him Was it in obedience to the Law was it out of respect to the Priesthood was it for prevention of cavils was it for conviction of gainsayers or was it for confirmation of the Miracle Christ that was above the Law would not transgresse it he knew this was his charge by Moses How justly might he have dispensed with his own but he will not though the Law doth not binde the Maker he will voluntarily binde himself He was within the ken of his Consummatum est yet would not anticipate that approaching end but holds the Law on foot till his last pace This was but a branch of the Ceremonial yet would he not slight it but in his own person gives example of a studious observation How carefully should we submit our selves to the Royal laws of our Creator to the wholsome lawes of our Superiours whiles the Son of God would not but be so punctuall in a Ceremony Whiles I look to the Persons of those Priests I see nothing but corruption nothing but professed hostility to the true Messiah All this cannot make thee O Saviour to remit any point of the observance due to their Places Their Function was sacred whatever their Persons were though they have not the grace to give thee thy due thou wilt not faile to give them theirs How justly dost thou expect all due regard to thine Evangelicall Priesthood who gavest so curious respect to the Legall It were shame the Synagogue should be above the Church or that Priesthood which thou meantest speedily to abrogate should have more honour then that which thou meantest to establish and perpetuate Had this duty been neglected what clamours had been raised by his emulous adversaries What scandalls though the fault had been the Patients not the Physicians But they that watched Christ so narrowly and were apt to take so poor exceptions at his Sabbath-cures at the unwashen hands of his Disciples how much more would they have calumniated him if by his neglect the Law of Leprosie had been palpably transgressed Not only evil must be
is worthy of stoning but who shall cast them How ill would they become hands as guilty as her own What doe they but smite themselves who punish their own offences in other men Nothing is more unjust or absurd then for the beam to censure the moat the oven to upbraid the kiln It is a false and vagrant zeal that begins not first at home Well did our Saviour know how bitter and strong a pill he had given to these false Justiciaries and now he will take leisure to see how it wrought Whiles therefore he gives time to them to swallow it and put it over he returns to his old gesture of a seeming inadvertencie How sped the receit I do no see any one of them stand out with Christ and plead his own innocency and yet these men which is very remarkable placed the fulfilling or violation of the Law only in the outward act Their hearts misgave them that if they should have stood out in contestation with Christ he would have utterly shamed them by displaying their old and secret sins and have so convinced them by undeniable circumstances that they should never have clawed of the reproach And therefore when they heard it being convicted by their own conscience they went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last There might seem to be some kinde of mannerly order in this guilty departure not all at once lest they should seem violently chased away by this charge of Christ now their slinking away one by one may seem to carry a shew of a deliberate and voluntary discession The eldest first The ancienter is fitter to give then take example and the yonger could think it no shame to follow the steps of a grave fore-man O wonderful power of Conscience Man can no more stand out against it then it can stand out against God The Almighty whose substitute is set in our bosome sets it on work to accuse It is no denying when that sayes we are guilty when that condemns us in vain are we acquitted by the world With what bravery did these Hypocrites come to set upon Christ with what triumph did they insult upon that guilty soul Now they are thunder-struck with their own Conscience and drop away confounded and well is he that can run away furthest from his own shame No wicked man needs to seek out of himself for a Judge Accuser Witness Tormentor No sooner do these Hypocrites hear of their sins from the mouth of Christ then they are gone Had they been sincerely touched with a true remorse they would have rather come to him upon their knees and have said Lord we know and finde that thou knowest our secret sins this argues thy Divine Omniscience Thou that art able to know our sins art able to remit them O pardon the iniquities of thy servants Thou that accusest us do thou also acquit us But now instead hereof they turn their back upon their Saviour and haste away An impenitent man cares not how little he hath either of the presence of God or of the mention of his sins O fools if ye could run away from God it were somewhat but whiles ye move in him what doe ye whither goe ye Ye may run from his Mercy ye cannot but run upon his Judgment Christ is left alone Alone in respect of these complainants not alone in respect of the multitude there yet stands the mournfull Adulteresse She might have gone forth with them no body constrained her to stay but that which sent them away stayed her Conscience She knew her guiltinesse was publickly accused and durst not be by her self denied as one that was therefore fastened there by her own guilty heart she stirs not till she may receive a dismission Our Saviour was not so busie in writing but that he read the while the guilt and absence of those accusers he that knew what they had done knew no less what they did what they would doe Yet as if the matter had been strange to him he lifts up himself and saies Woman where are thy accusers How well was this sinner to be left there Could she be in a safer place then before the Tribunal of a Saviour Might she have chosen her refuge whither should she rather have fled O happy we if when we are convinced in our selves of our sins we can set our selves before that Judge who is our surety our Advocate our Redeemer our ransome our peace Doubtlesse she stood doubtfull betwixt hope and fear Hope in that she saw her accusers gone Fear in that she knew what she had deserved and now whiles she trembles in exspectation of a sentence she hears Woman where are thy accusers Wherein our Saviour intends the satisfaction of all the hearers of all the beholders that they might apprehend the guiltiness and therefore the unfitness of the accusers and might well see there was no warrantable ground of his further proceeding against her Two things are necessary for the execution of a Malefactor Evidence Sentence the one from Witnesses the other from the Judge Our Saviour asks for both The accusation and proof must draw on the sentence the sentence must proceed upon the evidence of the proof Where are thy accusers hath no man condemned thee Had sentence passed legally upon the Adulteresse doubtlesse our Saviour would not have acquitted her For as he would not intrude upon others offices so he would not crosse or violate the justice done by others But now finding the coast clear he saies Neither do I condemn thee What Lord Dost thou then shew favour to foul offenders Art thou rather pleased that grosse sins should be blanched and sent away with a gentle connivency Far far be this from the perfection of thy Justice He that hence argues Adulteries not punishable by death let him argue the unlawfulness of dividing of inheritances because in the case of the two wrangling brethren thou saidst Who made me a divider of inheritances Thou declinedst the office thou didst not dislike the act either of parting lands or punishing offenders Neither was here any absolution of the woman from a sentence of death but a dismission of her from thy sentence which thou knewest not proper for thee to pronounce Herein hadst thou respect to thy calling and to the main purpose of thy coming into the world which was neither to be an arbiter of Civil Causes nor a judge of Criminal but a Saviour of mankinde not to destroy the Body but to save the Soul And this was thy care in this miserable Offender Goe and sin no more How much more doth it concern us to keep within the bounds of our vocation and not to dare to trench upon the functions of others How can we ever enough magnifie thy Mercy who takest no pleasure in the death of a sinner who so camest to save that thou challengest us of unkindness for being miserable Why will ye die O house of Israel But O Son of God though
victory Else it matters not what they were what I was O God thou whose title is I am regardest the present He befriends and honours us that saies Such ye were but ye are washed The place addes to the hainousness of the sin In the City The more publick the fact is the greater is the scandall Sin is sin though in a desart Others eyes do not make the act more vile in it self but the offence is multiplied by the number of beholders I hear no Name of either the City or the Woman she was too well known in her time How much better is it to be obscure then infamous Herein I doubt not God meant to spare the reputation of a penitent Convert He who hates not the person but the sin cares only to mention the sin not the person It is justice to prosecute the Vice it is mercy to spare the Offender How injurious a presumption is it for any man to name her whom God would have concealed and to cast this aspersion on those whom God hath noted for holiness The worst of this woman is past She was a sinner the best is to come She sought out Jesus where In the house of a Pharisee It was the most inconvenient place in the world for a noted sinner to seek Christ in No men stood so much upon the terms of their own Righteousness no men so scornfully disdained an infamous person The touch of an ordinary though honest Jew was their pollution how much more the presence of a Strumpet What a sight was a known sinner to him to whom his holiest neighbour was a sinner How doth he though a better Pharisee look awrie to see such a piece in his house whiles he dares think If this man were a Prophet he would surely know what manner of woman this is Neither could she fore-imagine lesse when she ventured to presse over the threshold of a Pharisee Yet not the known austerity of the man and her mis-welcome to the place could affright her from seeking her Saviour even there No disadvantage can defer the Penitent Soul from a speedy recourse to Christ She saies not If Jesus were in the street or in the field or in the house of some humble Publican or any where save with a Pharisee I would come to him now I will rather defer my accesse then seek him where I shall finde scorn and censure but as not fearing the frowns of that overlie Host she thrusts her self into Simon 's house to finde Jesus It is not for the distressed to be bashfull it is not for a believer to be timorous O Saviour if thy Spouse misse thee she will seek thee through the streets the blows of the watch shall not daunt her If thou be on the other side of the water a Peter will leap into the Sea and swim to thee if on the other side of the fire thy blessed Martyrs will run through those flames to thee We are not worthy of the comfort of thy presence if wheresoever we know thou art whether in prison or in exile or at the stake we do not hasten thither to injoy thee The Place was not more unfit then the Time a Pharisees house was not more unproper for a sinner then a Feast was for humiliation Tears at a Banquet are as Jigs at a Funeral There is a season for all things Musick had been more apt for a Feast then mourning The heart that hath once felt the sting of sin and the sweetness of remission hath no power to delay the expressions of what it feels and cannot be confined to terms of circumstance Whence then was this zeal of her accesse Doubtlesse she had heard from the mouth of Christ in those heavenly Sermons of his many gracious invitations of all troubled and labouring souls she had observed how he vouchsafed to come under the roofs of despised Publicans of professed enemies she had noted all the passages of his power and mercy and now deep remorse wrought upon her heart for her former viciousness The pool of her Conscience was troubled by the descending Angel and now she steps in for a cure The arrow stuck fast in her Soul which she could not shake out and now she comes to this soveraign Dittanie to expell it Had not the Spirit of God wrought upon her ere she came and wrought her to come she had never either sought or found Christ Now she comes in and findes that Saviour whom she sought she comes in but not empty-handed though debauched she was a Jewesse She could not but have heard that she ought not to appear before the Lord empty What then brings she It was not possible she could bring to Christ a better present then her own Penitent Soul yet to testifie that she brings another delicate both for the vessel and the contents A box of Alabaster a solid hard pure clear marble fit for the receit of so precious an ointment the ointment pleasant and costly a composition of many fragrant Odors not for medicine but delight The Soul that is truly touched with the sense of its own sin can think nothing too good too dear for Christ The remorsed sinner begins first with the tender of burnt-offerings and calves of a year old thence he ascends to Hecatombs thousands of rams and above that yet to ten thousand rivers of oyle and yet higher could be content to give the first-fruit of his body to expiate the sin of his Soul Any thing every thing is too small a price for peace O Saviour since we have tasted how sweet thou art lo we bring thee the daintiest and costliest perfumes of our humble Obediences yea if so much of our blood as this woman brought ointment may be usefull or pleasing to thy Name we do most chearfully consecrate it unto thee If we would not have thee think Heaven too good for us why should we stick at any earthly retribution to thee in lieu of thy great mercies Yet here I see more then the price This odoriferous persume was that wherewith she had wont to make her self pleasing to her wanton Lovers and now she comes purposely to offer it up to her Saviour As her love was turned another way from sensual to Divine so shall her Ointment also be altered in the use that which was abused to Luxury shall now be consecrated to Devotion There is no other effect in whatsoever true Conversion As we have given our members servants to iniquity to commit iniquity so shall we now give our members servants unto righteousnesse in holinesse If the dames of Israel that thought nothing more worth looking on then their own faces have spent too much time in their glasses now they shall cast in those metalls to make a Laver for the washing off their uncleannesses If I have spent the prime of my strength the strength of my wit upon my self and vanity I have bestowed my Alabaster-box amisse Oh now teach me my God and Saviour to
had been witnesses of this man's want of eyes He sate begging at one of the Temple gates not only all the City but all the Country must needs know him thrice a year did they come up to Jerusalem neither could they come to the Temple and not see him His very blindness made him noted Deformities and infirmities of body do more easily both draw and fix the eye then an ordinary symmetry of parts Besides his Blindness his Trade made him remarkable the importunity of his begging drew the eyes of the passengers But of all other the Place most notified him Had he sate in some obscure village of Judaea or in some blinde lane of Jerusalem perhaps he had not been heeded of many but now that he took up his seat in the heart in the head of the chief City whither all resorted from all parts what Jew can there be that knows not the blinde begger at the Temple gate Purposely did our Saviour make choice of such a Subject for his Miracle a man so poor so publick the glory of the work could not have reach'd so far if it had been done to the wealthiest Citizen of Jerusalem Neither was it for nothing that the act and the man is doubted of and inquired into by the beholders Is not this he that sat begging Some said It is he others said It is like him No truths have received so full proofs as those that have been questioned The want or the suddain presence of an eye much more of both must needs make a great change in the face those little balls of light which no doubt were more clear then Nature could have made them could not but give a new life to the countenance I marvell not it the neighbours which had wont to see this dark visage led by a guide and guided by a staffe seeing him now walking confidently alone out of his own inward light and looking them chearfully in the face doubted whether this were he The miraculous cures of God work a sensible alteration in men not more in their own apprehension then in the judgment of others Thus in the redresse of the Spiritual blindnesse the whole habit of the man is changed Where before his Face looked dull and earthly now there is a sprightful chearfulness in it through the comfortable knowledge of God and Heavenly things Whereas before his Heart was set upon worldly things now he uses them but injoyes them not and that use is because he must not because he would Where before his fears and griefs were only for pains of body or losse of estate or reputation now they are only spent upon the displeasure of his God and the peril of his Soul So as now the neighbours can say Is this the man others It is like him it is not he The late-blinde man hears and now sees himself questioned and soon resolves the doubt I am he He that now saw the light of the Sun would not hide the light of Truth from others It is an unthankfull silence to smother the works of God in an affected secrecy To make God a loser by his bounty to us were a shamefull injustice We our selves abide not those sponges that suck up good turns unknown O God we are not worthy of our spiritual eye-sight if we do not publish thy mercies on the house top and praise thee in the great congregation Man is naturally inquisitive we search studiously into the secret works of Nature we pry into the reasons of the witty inventions of Art but if there be any thing that transcends Art and Nature the more high and abstruse it is the more busie we are to seek into it This thirst after hidden yea forbidden Knowledge did once cost us dear but where it is good and lawful to know inquiry is commendable as here in these Jews How were thine eyes opened The first improvement of humane Reason is inquisition the next is information and resolution and if the meanest events passe us not without a question how much lesse those that carry in them wonder and advantage He that was so ready to professe himself the Subject of the Cure is no niggard of proclaiming the Author of it A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and sent me to Siloam to wash and now I see The blinde man knew no more then he said and he said what he apprehended A man He heard Jesus speak he felt his hand as yet he could look no further upon his next meeting he saw God in this man In matter of Knowledge we must be content to creep ere we can goe As that other recovered blinde man saw first men walk like trees after like men so no marvel if this man saw first this God only as man after this man as God also Onwards he thinks him a wonderfull man a mighty Prophet In vain shall we either exspect a suddain perfection in the understanding of Divine matters or censure those that want it How did this man know what Jesus did He was then stone-blinde what distinction could he yet make of persons of actions True but yet the blinde man never wanted the assistance of others eyes their relation hath assured him of the manner of his Cure besides the contribution of his other Senses his Eare might perceive the spittle to fall and hear the injoined command his Feeling perceived the cold moist clay upon his lids All these conjoined gave sufficient warrant thus to believe thus to report Our eare is our best guide to a full apprehension of the works of Christ The works of God the Father his Creation and Government are best known by the Eye The works of God the Son his Redemption and Mediation are best known by the Eare. O Saviour we cannot personally see what thou hast done here What are the monuments of thine Apostles and Evangelists but the relations of the blinde man's guide what and how thou hast wrought for us On these we strongly relie these we do no lesse confidently believe then if our very eyes had been witnesses of what thou didst and sufferedst upon earth There were no place for Faith if the Eare were not worthy of as much credit as the Eye How could the neighbours doe lesse then ask where he was that had done so strange a cure I doubt yet with what minde I fear not out of favour Had they been but indifferent they could not but have been full of silent wonder and inclined to believe in so Omnipotent an Agent Now as prejudiced to Christ and partial to the Pharisees they bring the late-blinde man before those professed enemies unto Christ It is the preposterous Religion of the Vulgar sort to claw and adore those which have tyrannically usurped upon their Souls though with neglect yea with contempt of God in his word in his works Even unjust authority will never want soothing up in whatsoever courses though with disgrace and opposition to the Truth Base mindes
how apt passionate mindes are to take all occasions to renew their sorrow every Object affects them When she saw but the Chamber of her dead Brother straight she thinks there Lazarus was wont to lye and then she wept afresh when the Table There Lazarus was wont to sit and then new teares arise when the Garden There Lazarus had wont to walk and now again she weeps How much more do these friends suppose the Passions would be stirred with the sight of the Grave when she must needs think There is Lazarus O Saviour if the place of the very dead corps of our friend have power to draw our hearts thither and to affect us more deeply how should our hearts be drawn to and affected with Heaven where thou sittest at the right hand of thy Father There O thou which wert dead and art alive is thy body and thy Soul present and united to thy glorious Deity Thither O thither let our access be not to mourn there where is no place for sorrow but to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious and more and more to long for that thy beatifical presence Their indulgent love mistook Marie's errand their thoughts how kind soever were much too low whiles they supposed she went to a dead Brother she went to a living Saviour The world hath other conceits of the actions and carriage of the regenerate then are truely intended setting such constructions upon them as their own carnal reason suggests they think them dying when behold they live sorrowful when they are alwaies rejoycing poor whiles they make many rich How justly do we appeal from them as incompetent Judges and pity those misinterpretations which we cannot avoid Both the Sisters met Christ not both in one posture Mary is still noted as for more Passion so for more Devotion she that before sate at the feet of Jesus now falls at his feet That presence had wont to be familiar to her and not without some outward homeliness now it fetches her upon her knees in an awful veneration whether out of a reverend acknowledgment of the secret excellency and power of Christ or out of a dumb intimation of that suit concerning her dead Brother which she was afraid to utter The very gesture it self was supplicatory What position of body can be so fit for us when we make our address to our Saviour It is an irreligious unmannerliness for us to goe less Where the heart is affected with an awful acknowledgement of Majesty the body cannot but bow Even before all her neighbours of Jerusalem doth Mary thus fall down at the feet of Jesus so many witnesses as she had so many spies she had of that forbidden observance It was no less then Excommunication for any body to confess him yet good Mary not fearing the informations that might be given by those Jewish Gossips adores him and in her silent gesture saies as much as her Sister had spoken before Thou art the Christ the Son of God Those that would give Christ his right must not stand upon scrupulous fears Are we naturally timorous Why do we not fear the denial the exclusion of the Almighty Without shall be the fearfull Her humble prostration is seconded by a lamentable complaint Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died The Sisters are both in one mind both in one speech and both of them in one speech bewray both strength and infirmity strength of Faith in ascribing so much power to Christ that his presence could preserve from death infirmity in supposing the necessity of a presence for this purpose Why Mary could not thine Omnipotent Saviour as well in absence have commanded Lazarus to live Is his hand so short that he can doe nothing but by contaction If his Power were finite how could he have forbidden the seizure of death if infinite how could it be limited to place or hindered by distance It is a weakness of Faith to measure success by means and means by presence and to tye effects to both when we deal with an Almighty agent Finite causes work within their own sphere all places are equally near and all effects equally easie to the infinite O Saviour whiles thou now sittest gloriously in Heaven thou dost no less impart thy self unto us then if thou stoodst visibly by us then if we stood locally by thee no place can make difference of thy virtue and aid This was Mary's moan no motion no request sounded from her to her Saviour Her silent suit is returned with a mute answer no notice is taken of her error Oh that marvellous mercy that connives at our faulty infirmities All the reply that I hear of is a compassionate groan within himself O blessed Jesu thou that wert free from all sin wouldst not be free from strong affections Wisdome and Holiness should want much work if even vehement passions might not be quitted from offence Mary wept her tears drew on tears from her friends all their tears united drew groans from thee Even in thine Heaven thou dost no less pity our sorrows thy glory is free from groans but abounds with compassion and mercy if we be not sparing of our tears thou canst not be insensible of our sorrows How shall we imitate thee if like our looking-glass we do not answer tears and weep on them that weep upon us Lord thou knewest in absence that Lazarus was dead and dost thou not know where he was buried Surely thou wert further off when thou sawst and reportedst his death then thou wert from the grave thou inquiredst of thou that knewest all things yet askest what thou knowest Where have ye laid him Not out of need but out of will that as in thy sorrow so in thy question thou mightest depress thy self in the opinion of the beholders for the time that the glory of thine instant Miracle might be the greater the less it was exspected It had been all one to thy Omnipotence to have made a new Lazarus out of nothing or in that remoteness to have commanded Lazarus wheresoever he was to come forth but thou wert neither willing to work more miracle then was requisite nor yet unwilling to fix the minds of the people upon the exspectation of some marvellous thing that thou meantest to work and therefore askest Where have you laid him They are not more glad of the question then ready for the answer Come and see It was the manner of the Jews as likewise of those Egyptians among whom they had sojourned to lay up the dead bodies of their friends with great respect more cost was wont to be bestowed on some of their graves then on their houses as neither ashamed then nor unwilling to shew the decency of their sepulture they say Come and see More was hoped for from Christ then a mere view they meant and exspected that his eye should draw him on to some further action O Saviour whiles we desire our spiritual resuscitation how should we labour to
I see both an Embleme and a Prophesie How didst thou herein mean to teach thy Disciples how much thou hatest an unfruitful profession and what judgements thou meantest to bring upon that barren generation Once before hadst thou compared the Jewish nation to a Fig-tree in the midst of thy vineyard which after three yeares exspectation and culture yielding no fruit was by thee the Owner doomed to a speedy excision now thou actest what thou then saidst No tree abounds more with leaf and shade no Nation abounded more with Ceremonial observations and semblances of Piety Outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice doth but help to draw on and aggravate judgment Had this Fig-tree been utterly bear and leafless it had perhaps escaped the Curse Hear this ye vain Hypocrites that care only to shew well never caring for the sincere truth of a Conscionable Obedience your fair outside shall be sure to help you to a Curse That which was the fault of this tree is the punishment of it fruitlesness Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever Had the boughs been appointed to be torn down and the body split in pieces the doom had been more easy and that juicy plant might yet have recovered and have lived to recompence this deficiency now it shall be what it was fruitless Woe be to that Church or Soul that is punished with her own Sin Outward plagues are but favour in comparison of Spiritual judgements That Curse might well have stood with a long continuance the Tree might have lived long though fruitless but no sooner is the word passed then the leaves flagg and turn yellow the branches wrinkle and shrink the bark discolours the root dries the plant withers O God what creature is able to abide the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure Even the most great and glorious Angels of Heaven could not stand one moment before thine anger but perish'd under thy wrath everlastingly How irresistible is thy Power how dreadful are thy Judgements Lord chastise my fruitlesness but punish it not at least punish it but curse it not lest I wither and be consumed Christ betraied SUCH an eye-sore was Christ that raised Lazarus and Lazarus whom Christ raised to the envious Priests Scribes Elders of the Jews that they consult to murder both Whiles either of them lives neither can the glory of that Miracle die nor the shame of the oppugners Those malicious heads are laid together in the Parlour of Caiaphas Happy had it been for them if they had spent but half those thoughts upon their own Salvation which they misimployed upon the destruction of the innocent At last this results that Force is not their way Subtilty and Treachery must doe that which should be vainly attempted by Power Who is so fit to work this feat against Christ as one of his own There can be no Treason where is not some Trust Who so fit among the domesticks as he that bare the bag and over-lov'd that which he bare That heart which hath once enslaved it self to red and white earth made be may any thing Who can trust to the power of good means when Judas who heard Christ daily whom others heard to preach Christ daily who daily saw Christ's Miracles and daily wrought Miracles in Christ's name is at his best a Thief and ere long a Traitor That crafty and malignant spirit which presided in that bloody counsel hath easily found out a fit instrument for this Hellish plot As God knows so Satan guesses who are his and will be sure to make use of his own If Judas were Christ's domestick yet he was Mammon's servant he could not but hate that Master whom he formally professed to serve whiles he really served that master which Christ professed to hate He is but in his trade whiles he is bartering even for his Master What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Saidst thou not well O Saviour I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Thou that knewest to distinguish betwixt men and spirits callest Judas by his right name Loe he is become a tempter to the worst of evils Wretched Judas whether shall I more abhor thy treachery or wonder at thy folly What will they what can they give thee valuable to that head which thou proferest to sale Were they able to pay or thou capable to receive all those precious metalls that are laid up in the secret cabins of the whole earth how were this price equivalent to the worth of him that made them Had they been able to have fetch'd down those rich and glittering spangles of Heaven and to have put them into thy fist what had this been to weigh with a God How basely therefore dost thou speak of chaffering for him whose the world was What will ye give me Alas what were they what had they miserable men to pay for such a purchase The time was when he that set thee on work could say All the kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them are mine and I give them to whom I please all these will I give thee Had he now made that offer to thee in this wofull bargain it might have carried some colour of a temptation and even thus it had been a match ill made But for thee to tender a trade of so invaluable a commodity to these pelting petty chapmen for thirty poor silverlings it was no lesse base then wicked How unequal is this rate Thou that valuedst Mary's ointment which she bestowed upon the feet of Christ at three hundred pieces of silver sellest thy Master on whom that precious odour was spent at thirty Worldly hearts are penny-wise and pound-foolish they know how to set high prizes upon the worthlesse trash of this world but for Heavenly things or the God that owns them these they shamefully undervalue And I will deliver him unto you False and presumptuous Judas it was more then thou couldst doe thy price was not more too low then thy undertaking was too high Had all the powers of Hell combined with thee they could not have delivered thy Master into the hands of men The act was none but his own all that he did all that he suffered was perfectly voluntary Had he pleased to resist how easily had he with one breath blown thee and thy complices down into their Hell It is no thank to thee that he would be delivered O Saviour all our safety all our comfort depends not so much upon thine act as upon thy will in vain should we have hoped for the benefit of a forced redemption The bargain is driven the price pai'd Judas returns and looks no lesse smoothly upon his Master and his fellows then as if he had done no differvice What cares he his heart tells him he is rich though it tell him he is false He was not now first an Hypocrite The Passeover is at hand no man is so busie
avoidedst it renouncedst it professedst to come to serve Oh the forehead of Malice Goe ye shamelesse traducers and swear that Truth is guilty of all Falshood Justice of all Wrong and that the Sun is the only cause of Darknesse Fire of Cold. Now Pilate startles at the Charge The name of Tribute the name of Caesar is in mention These potent spells can fetch him back to the common Hall and call Jesus to the Bar. There O Saviour standst thou meekly to be judged who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead Then shall he before whom thou stoodst guiltlesse and dejected stand before thy dreadfull Majesty guilty and trembling The name of a King of Caesar is justly tender and awfull the least whisper of an Usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound Art thou then the King of the Jews He felt his own free-hold now touched it was time for him to stir Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring Many arrogant and busie spirits as Judas of Galilee Theudas and that Egyptian Seducer taking that advantage had raised several Conspiracies set up new titles to the Crown gathered Forces to maintain their false claims Perhaps Pilate supposed some such businesse now on foot and therefore asks so curiously Art thou the King of the Jewes He that was no lesse Wisdome then Truth thought it not best either to affirm or deny at once Sometimes it may be extremely prejudicial to speak all truths To disclaim that Title suddenly which had been of old given him by the Prophets at his Birth by the Eastern Sages and now lately at his Procession by the acclaming multitude had been injurious to himself to professe and challenge it absolutely had been unsafe and needlesly provoking By wise and just degrees therefore doth he so affirm this truth that he both satisfies the inquirer and takes off all perill and prejudice from his assertion Pilate shall know him a King but such a King as no King needs to fear as all Kings ought to acknowledge and adore My Kingdome is not of this world It is your mistaking O ye earthly Potentates that is guilty of your fears Herod hears of a King born and is troubled Pilate hears of a King of the Jews and is incensed Were ye not ignorant ye could not be jealous Had ye learned to distinguish of Kingdomes these suspicions would vanish There are Secular Kingdomes there are Spirituall neither of these trenches upon other your Kingdome is Secular Christs is Spirituall both may both must stand together His Laws are Divine yours civil His Reign is eternall yours temporall the glory of his Rule is inward and stands in the Graces of Sanctification Love Peace Righteousness Joy in the Holy Ghost yours in outward pomp riches magnificence His Enemies are the Devil the World the Flesh yours are bodily usurpers and externall peace-breakers His Sword is the power of the Word and Spirit yours materiall His rule is over the Conscience yours over bodies and lives He punishes with Hell ye with temporal death or torture Yea so far is he from opposing your Government that by him ye Kings reign your Scepters are his but to maintain not to wield not to resist O the unjust fears of vain men He takes not away your earthly Kingdomes who gives you Heavenly he discrowns not the Body who crowns the Soul his intention is not to make you lesse great but more happy The charge is so fully answered that Pilate acquits the prisoner The Jewish Masters stand still without their very malice dares not venture their pollution in going in to prosecute their accusation Pilate hath examined him within and now comes forth to these eager complainants with a cold answer to their over-hot expectation I finde in him no fault at all O noble testimony of Christ's Innocence from that mouth which afterwards doomed him to death What a difference there is betwixt a man as he is himself and as he is the servant of others wills It is Pilate's tongue that saies I finde in him no fault at all It is the Jews tongue in Pilate's mouth that saies Let him be crucified That cruell sentence cannot blot him whom this attestation cleareth Neither doth he say I finde him not guilty in that whereof he is accused but gives an universal acquittance of the whole carriage of Christ I finde in him no fault at all In spight of Malice Innocence shall finde abettors Rather then Christ shall want witnesses the mouth of Pilate shall be opened to his justification How did these Jewish blood-suckers stand thunder-stricken with so unexspected a word His absolution was their death his acquital their conviction No fault when we have found Crimes no fault at all when we have condemned him for capital offences How palpably doth Pilate give us the lie How shamefully doth he affront our authority and disparage our justice So ingenuous a testimony doubtlesse exasperated the fury of these Jews the fire of their indignation was seven-fold more intended with the sense of their repulse I tremble to think how just Pilate as yet was and how soon after depraved yea how mercifull together with that Justice How sain would he have freed Jesus whom he found faultlesse Corrupt custome in memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage allowed to gratifie the Jews with the free delivery of some one prisoner Tradition would be incroaching the Paschal Lamb was monument enough of that happy rescue men affect to have something of their own Pilate was willing to take this advantage of dismissing Jesus That he might be the more likely to prevail he proposeth him with the choice and nomination of so notorious a Malefactor as he might justly think uncapable of all mercy Barabbas a Thief a Murderer a Seditionary infamous for all odious to all Had he propounded some other innocent prisoner he might have feared the election would be doubtfull he cannot misdoubt the competition of so prodigious a Malefactor Then they all cried again Not him but Barabbas O Malice beyond all example shamelesse and bloody Who can but blush to think that an Heathen should see Jews so impetuously unjust so savagely cruell He knew there was no fault to be found in Jesus he knew there was no Crime that was not to be found in Barabbas yet he hears and blushes to hear them say Not him but Barabbas Was not this think we out of similitude of condition Every thing affects the like to it self every thing affects the preservation of that it liketh What wonder is it then if ye Jews who prosesse your selves the murderers of that Just One favour a Barabbas O Saviour what a killing indignity was this for thee to hear from thine own Nation Hast thou refused all Glory to put on shame and misery for their sakes Hast thou disregarded thy Blessed self to save them and do they refuse thee for Barabbas Hast thou said
Not Heaven but Earth not Soveraignty but Service not the Gentile but the Jew and do they say Not him but Barabbas Do ye thus requite the Lord O ye foolish people and unjust Thus were thine ears and thine eyes first crucified and through them was thy Soul wounded even to death before thy death whiles thou sawest their rage and heardst their noise of Crucifie crucifie Pilate would have chastised thee Even that had been a cruell mercy from him for what evil hadst thou done But that cruelty had been true mercy to this of the Jews whom no blood would satisfie but that of thy heart He calls for thy Fault they call for thy Punishment as proclaiming thy Crucifixion is not intended to satisfie Justice but Malice They cried the more Crucifie him Crucifie him As their clamour grew so the Presidents Justice declined Those Graces that lie loose and ungrounded are easily washt away with the first tide of Popularity Thrice had that man proclaimed the Innocence of him whom he now inclines to condemn willing to content the people Oh the foolish aimes of Ambition Not God not his Conscience come into any regard but the People What a base Idol doth the proud man adore even the Vulgar which a base man despiseth What is their applause but an idle winde what is their anger but a painted fire O Pilate where now is thy self and thy people whereas a good conscience would have stuck by thee for ever and have given thee boldness before the face of that God which thou and thy people shall never have the Happiness to behold The Jews have plaid their first part the Gentiles must now act theirs Cruell Pilate who knew Jesus was delivered for envie accused falsly maliciously pursued hath turned his profered chastisement into scourging Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him Woe is me dear Saviour I feel thy lashes I shrink under thy painfull whippings thy nakedness covers me with shame and confusion That tender and precious body of thine is galled and torn with cords Thou that didst of late water the garden of Gethsemani with the drops of thy bloody sweat dost now bedew the pavement of Pilate's Hall with the showrs of thy blood How fully hast thou made good thy word I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting How can I be enough sensible of my own stripes these blows are mine both my sins have given them and they give remedies to my sins He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes are we healed O blessed Jesu why should I think strange to be scourged with tongue or hand when I see thee bleeding what lashes can I fear either from Heaven or earth since thy scourges have been born for me and have sanctified them to me Now dear Jesu what a world of insolent reproaches indignities tortures art thou entring into To an ingenuous and tender disposition scorns are torment enough but here pain helps to perfect thy misery their despight Who should be actors in this whole bloody execution but grim and barbarous Souldiers men inured to cruelty in whose faces were written the characters of Murder whose very trade was killing and whose looks were enough to prevent their hands These for the greater terrour of their concourse are called together and whether by the connivence or the command of their wicked Governour or by the instigation of the malicious Jews conspire to anticipate his death with scorns which they will after inflict with violence O my Blessed Saviour was it not enough that thy Sacred body was stripped of thy garments and waled with bloody stripes but that thy Person must be made the mocking-stock of thine insulting enemies thy Back disguised with purple robes thy Temples wounded with a thornie Crown thy Face spate upon thy Cheeks buffeted thy Head smitten thy Hand sceptred with a reed thy self derided with wrie mouths bended knees scoffing acclamations Insolent Souldiers whence is all this jeering and sport but to flout Majesty All these are the ornaments and ceremonies of a Royal Inauguration which now in scorn ye cast upon my despised Saviour Goe on make your selves merry with this jolly pastime Alas long agoe ye now feel whom ye scorned Is he a King think you whom ye thus plai'd upon Look upon him with gnashing and horrour whom ye look'd at with mockage and insultation Was not that Head fit for your Thorns which you now see crowned with Glory and Majesty Was not that Hand fit for a Reed whose iron Scepter crushes you to death Was not that Face fit to be spate upon from the dreadfull aspect whereof ye are ready to desire the mountains to cover you In the mean time whither O whither dost thou stoop O thou coeternal Son of thine eternal Father whither dost thou abase thy self for me I have sinned and thou art punished I have exalted my self and thou art dejected I have clad my self with shame and thou art stripped I have made my self naked and thou art clothed with robes of dishonour my head hath devised evil and thine is pierced with thorns I have smitten thee and thou art smitten for me I have dishonoured thee and thou for my sake art scorned Thou art made the sport of men for me that have deserved to be insulted on by Devils Thus disguised thus bleeding thus mangled thus deformed art thou brought forth whether for compassion or for a more universal derision to the furious multitude with an Ecce homo Behold the man look upon him O ye mercilesse Jews see him in his shame in his wounds and blood and now see whether ye think him miserable enough Ye see his Face blew and black with buffeting his Eyes swoln his Cheeks beslabbered with spittle his Skin torn with scourges his whole Body bathed in blood and would ye yet have more Behold the man the man whom ye envied for his greatnesse whom ye feared for his usurpation Doth he not look like a King is he not royally dressed See whether his magnificence do not command reverence from you Would ye wish a Finer King Are ye not afraid he will wrest the Scepter out of Caesar's hand Behold the man Yea and behold him well O thou proud Pilate O ye cruel Souldiers O ye insatiable Jews Ye see him base whom ye shall see glorious the time shall surely come wherein ye shall see him in another dresse he shall shine whom ye now see to bleed his Crown cannot be now so ignominious and painfull as it shall be once majestical and precious ye who now bend your knees to him in scorn shall see all knees both in Heaven and in earth and under the earth to bow before him in an awfull adoration ye that now see him with contempt shall behold him with horrour What an inward war do I yet finde in
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordial to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus powrest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so woful a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are One Are ye now severed Let this thought be as farre from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternal his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of Offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin aganst thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
corps such as if all the Powers of Darkness shall band against they shall finde themselves confounded In spight of all the gates of Hell that word shall stand Not a bone of him shall be broken Still the infallible Decree of the Almighty leads you on to his own ends through your own waies Ye saw him already dead whom ye came to dispatch those bones therefore shall be whole which ye had had no power to break But yet that no piece either of your cruelty or of Divine prediction may remain unsatisfied he whose bones may not be impaired shall be wounded in his flesh he whose Ghost was yielded up must yield his last blood One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out blood and water Malice is wont to end with life here it overlives it Cruel man what means this so late wound what commission hadst thou for this bloody act Pilate had given leave to break the bones of the living he gave no leave to gore the side of the dead what wicked supererogation is this what a superfluity of maliciousness To what purpose did thy spear pierce so many hearts in that one why wouldst thou kill a dead man Methinks the Blessed Virgin and those other passionate associates of hers and the Disciple whom Jesus loved together with the other of his fellows the friends and followers of Christ and especially he that was so ready to draw his sword upon the troup of his Masters apprehenders should have work enough to contain themselves within the bounds of patience at so savage a stroke their sorrow could not chuse but turn to indignation and their hearts could not but rise as even mine doth now at so impertinent a villany How easily could I rave at that rude hand But O God when I look up to theee and consider how thy holy and wise Providence so overrules the most barbarous actions of men that besides their will they turn beneficial I can at once hate them and bless thee This very wound hath a mouth to speak the Messiahship of my Saviour and the truth of thy Scripture They shall look at him whom they have pierced Behold now the Second Adam sleeping and out of his side formed the Mother of the living the Evangelical Church Behold the Rock which was smitten and the waters of life gushed forth Behold the fountain that is set open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness a fountain not of water only but of blood too O Saviour by thy water we are washed by thy blood we are redeemed Those two Sacraments which thou didst institute alive flow also from thee dead as the last memorials of thy Love to thy Church the water of Baptisme which is the laver of Regeneration the blood of the new Testament shed for remission of sins and these together with the Spirit that gives life to them both are the three Witnesses on earth whose attestation cannot fail us Oh precious and soveraign wound by which our Souls are healed Into this cleft of the rock let my Dove fly and enter and there safely hide her self from the talons of all the birds of prey It could not be but that the death of Christ contrived and acted at Jerusalem in so solemn a Festival must needs draw a world of beholders The Romans the Centurion and his band were there as actors as supervisors of the Execution Those strangers were no otherwise ingaged then as they that would hold fair correspondence with the Citizens where they were engarisoned their freedome from prejudice rendred them more capable of an ingenuous construction of all events Now when the Centurion and they that were with him that watched Jesus saw the Earthquake and the things that were done they feared greatly and glorified God and said Truely this was the Son God What a marvelous concurrence is here of strong and irrefragable convictions Meekness in suffering Prayer for his murderers a faithful resignation of his Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father the Sun eclipsed the Heavens darkned the earth trembling the graves open the rocks rent the veile of the Temple torn who could goe less then this Truly this was the Son of God He suffers patiently this is through the power of Grace many good men have done so through his enabling The frame of Nature suffers with him this is proper to the God of Nature the Son of God I wonder not that these men confessed thus I wonder that any Spectator confessed it not these proofs were enough to fetch all the world upon their knees and to have made all mankind a Convert But all hearts are not alike no means can work upon the wilfully-obdured Even after this the Souldier pierced that Blessed side and whiles Pagans relented Jews continued impenitent Yet even of that Nation those beholders whom envie and partiality had not interessed in this slaughter were stricken with just astonishment and smote their breasts and shook their heads and by passionate gesture spake what their tongues durst not How many must there needs be in this universal concourse of them whom he had healed of diseases or freed from Devils or miraculously fed or some way obliged in their persons or friends These as they were deeply affected with the mortal indignities which were offered to their acknowledged Messiah so they could not but be ravished with wonder at those powerful demonstrations of the Deity of him in whom they believed and strangely distracted in their thoughts whiles they compared those Sufferings with that Omnipotence As yet their Faith and Knowledge was but in the bud or in the blade How could they chuse but think Were he not the Son of God how could these things be and if he were the Son of God how could he die His Resurrection his Ascension should soon after perfect their belief but in the mean time their hearts could not but be conflicted with thoughts hard to be reconciled Howsoever they glorifie God and stand amazed at the expectation of the issue But above all other O thou Blessed Virgin the Holy Mother of our Lord how many swords pierced thy Soul whiles standing close by his Cross thou sawest thy dear Son and Saviour thus indignely used thus stripped thus stretched thus nailed thus bleeding thus dying thus pierced How did thy troubled heart now recount what the Angel Gabriel had reported to thee from God in the message of thy blessed Conception of that Son of God How didst thou think of the miraculous formation of that thy Divine burden by the power of the Holy Ghost How didst thou recal those prophecies of Anna and Simeon concerning him and all those supernatural works of his the irrefragable proofs of his Godhead and laying all these together with the miserable infirmities of his Passion how wert thou crucified with him The care that he took for thee in the extremity of his torments could not chuse but melt thy heart into sorrow But
oh when in the height of his pain and misery thou heardst him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me what a cold horrour possessed thy Soul I cannot now wonder at thy qualms and swoonings I could rather wonder that thou survivedst so sad an hour But when recollecting thy self thou sawest the Heavens to bear a part with thee in thy mourning and feltest the earth to tremble no less then thy self and foundst that the dreadful concussion of the whole frame of Nature proclaimed the Deity of him that would thus suffer and dye and remembredst his frequent predictions of drinking this bitter cup and of being baptized thus in blood thou beganst to take heart and to comfort thy self with the assured exspectation of the glorious issue More then once had he foretold thee his victorious Resurrection He who had openly professed Jonas for his type and had fore-promised in three daies to raise up the ruined Temple of his Body had doubtless given more full intimation unto thee who hadst so great a share in that sacred body of his The just shall live by Faith Lo that Faith of thine in his ensuing Resurrection and in his triumph over death gives thee life and chears up thy drouping Soul and bids it in an holy confidence to triumph over all thy fears and sorrows and him whom thou now seest dead and despised represents unto thee living immortal glorious The Resurrection GRace doth not ever make show where it is There is much secret riches both in the earth and sea which never eye saw I never heard any news till now of Joseph of Arimathea yet was he eminently both rich and wise and good a worthy though close Disciple of our Saviour True Faith may be wisely reserved but will not be cowardly Now he puts forth himself and dares beg the Body of Jesus Death is wont to end all quarrels Pilate's heart tells him he hath done too much already in sentencing an innocent to death no doubt that Centurion had related unto him the miraculous symptoms of that Passion He that so unwillingly condemned Innocence could rather have wished that just man alive then have denied him dead The body is yielded and taken down and now that which hung naked upon the Cross is wrapped in fine linen that which was soiled with sweat and blood is curiously washed and embalmed Now even Nicodemus comes in for a part and fears not the envie of a good profession Death hath let that man loose whom the Law formerly over-awed with restraint He hates to be a night-bird any longer but boldly flies forth and looks upon the face of the Sun and will be now as liberal in his Odors as he was before niggardly in his Confession O Saviour the earth was thine and the fulness of it yet as thou hadst not an house of thine own whiles thou livedst so thou hadst not a grave when thou wert dead Joseph that rich Councellor lent thee his lent it so as it should never be restored thou took'st it but for a while but that little touch of that Sacred Corps of thine made it too good for the owner O happy Joseph that hadst the honour to be Landlord of the Lord of life how well is thy house-room repai'd with a mansion not made with hands eternall in the heavens Thy Garden and thy Tombe were hard by Calvary where thou couldst not fail of many monitions of thy frailty How oft hadst thou seasoned that new Tombe with sad and savory meditations and hadst oft said within thy self Here I shall once lye down to my last rest and wait for my Resurrection Little didst thou then think to have been disappointed by so Blessed a guest or that thy grave should be again so soon empty and in that emptiness uncapable of any mortal in-dweller How gladly dost thou now resign thy grave to him in whom thou livest and who liveth for ever whose Soul is in Paradise whose Godhead every where Hadst thou not been rich before this gift had enriched thee alone and more ennobled thee then all thine earthly Honour Now great Princes envie thy bounty and have thought themselves happy to kiss the stones of that rock which thou thus hewedst thus bestowedst Thus purely wrapped and sweetly embalmed lyes the precious body of our Saviour in Joseph's new vault Are ye now also at rest O ye Jewish Rulers Is your malice dead and buried with him Hath Pilate enough served your envie and revenge Surely it is but a common hostility that can die yours surviveth death and puts you upon a further project The chief Priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying Sir we remember that this Deceiver said whiles he was yet alive After three daies I will rise again Command therefore that the Sepulcher be made sure till the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he is risen How full of terrors and inevitable perplexities is guiltiness These men were not more troubled with envie at Christ alive then now with fear of his Resurrection And what can now secure them Pilate had helpt to kill him but who shall keep him from rising Wicked and foolish Jewes how fain would ye fight against God and your own hearts How gladly would ye deceive your selves in believing him to be a Deceiver whom your consciences knew to be no less true then powerful Lazarus was still in your ey That man was no phantasme his death his reviving was undeniable the so fresh resuscitation of that dead body after four daies dissolution was a manifest conviction of Omnipotence How do ye vainly wish that he could deceive you in the fore-reporting of his own Resurrection Without a Divine power he could have raised neither Lazarus nor himself with and by it he could as well raise himself as Lazarus What need we other witnesses then your own mouths That which he would doe ye confess he foretold that the truth of his word might answer the power of this deed and both of them might argue him the God of Truth and Power and your selves enemies to both And now what must be done The Sepulcher must be secured and you with it An huge stone a strong guard must doe the deed and that stone must be sealed that guard of your own designing Methinks I hear the Souldiers and busy Officers when they were rolling that other weighty stone for such we probably conceive to the mouth of the vault with much toile and sweat and breathlesness how they brag'd of the sureness of the place and unremovableness of that load and when that so choice a Watch was set how they boasted of their valour and vigilance and said they would make him safe from either rising or stealing Oh the madness of impotent men that think by either wile or force to frustrate the will and designs of the Almighty How justly doth that wise and powerful Arbiter of the world laugh them to scorn in
one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the blood of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetual work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spiritual powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despight of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Summe is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defraied that quarrel is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerful Redeemer it cannot now hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderful Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfuls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvel not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendance of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equal but John is the yonger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behinde Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions whenas yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down
into that dear Sepulcher Holy desires never but speed well There she sees two glorious Angels the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain Their shining brightness shew'd them to be no mortal creatures besides that Peter and John had but newly come out of the Sepulcher and both found and left it empty in her sight which was now suddenly filled with those celestial guests That white linen wherewith Joseph had shrouded the Sacred body of Jesus was now shamed with a brighter whiteness Yet do I not find the good Woman ought appalled with that inexspected glory So was her heart taken up with the thought for her Saviour that she seemed not sensible of whatsoever other Objects Those tears which she did let drop into the Sepulcher send up back to her the voice of those Angels Woman why weepest thou God and his Angels take notice of every tear of our Devotion The sudden wonder hath not dried her eyes nor charmed her tongue She freely confesseth the cause of her grief to be the missing of her Saviour They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Alas good Mary how dost thou lose thy tears of whom dost thou complain but of thy best friend who hath removed thy Lord but himself who but his own Deity hath taken away that humane body out of that region of death Neither is he now laid any more he stands by thee whose removal thou complainest of Thus many a tender and humbled Soul afflicts it self with the want of that Saviour whom it hath and feeleth not Sense may be no judge of the bewailed absence of Christ Do but turn back thine eye O thou Religious Soul and see Jesus standing by thee though thou knewst not that it was Jesus His habit was not his own Sometimes it pleases our Saviour to appear unto his not like himself his holy disguises are our trials Sometimes he will seem a Stranger sometimes an Enemie sometimes he offers himself to us in the shape of a poor man sometimes of a distressed Captive Happy is he that can discern his Saviour in all forms Mary took him for a Gardener Devout Magdalene thou art not much mistaken As it was the trade of the First Adam to dress the Garden of Eden so was it the trade of the Second to tend the Garden of his Church He diggs up the soil by seasonable Afflictions he sows in it the seeds of Grace he plants it with gracious motions he waters it with his Word yea with his own blood he weeds it by wholsome censures O Blessed Saviour what is it that thou neglectest to doe for this selected inclosure of thy Church As in some respect thou art the true Vine and thy Father the Husbandman so also in some other we are the Vine and thou art the Husbandman Oh be thou such to me as thou appearedst unto Magdalene break up the fallows of my Nature implant me with Grace prune me with meet corrections bedew me with the former and latter rain doe what thou wilt to make me fruitful Still the good Woman weeps and still complains and passionately inquires of thee O Saviour for thy self How apt are we if thou dost never so little vary from our apprehensions to mis-know thee and to wrong our selves by our mis-opinions All this while hast thou concealed thy self from thine affectionate client thou sawest her teares and heardest her importunities and inquiries at last as it was with Joseph that he could no longer contain himself from the notice of his brethren thy compassion causes thee to break forth into a clear expression of thy self by expressing her name unto her self Mary She was used as to the name so to the sound to the accent Thou spakest to her before but in the tone of a stranger now of a friend of a Master Like a good Shepheard thou callest thy sheep by their name and they know thy voice What was thy call of her but a clear pattern of our Vocation As her so thou callest us first familiarly effectually She could not begin with thee otherwise then in the compellation of a stranger it was thy mercy to begin with her That correction of thy Spirit is sweet and useful Now after ye have known God or rather are known of him We do know thee O God but our active knowledge is after our passive first we are known of thee then we know thee that knewest us And as our Knowledge so is our Calling so is our Election thou beginnest to us in all and most justly sayest You have not chosen me but I have chosen you When thou wouldst speak to this Devout client as a stranger thou spakest aloof Woman whom seekest thou now when thou wouldst be known to her thou callest her by her name Mary General invitations and common mercies are for us as men but where thou givest Grace as to thine elect thou comest close to the Soul and winnest us with dear and particular intimations That very name did as much as say Know him of whom thou art known and beloved and turns her about to thy view and acknowledgment She turned her self and saith unto him Rabboni which is to say Master Before her face was towards the Angels this word fetches her about and turns her face to thee from whom her misprision had averted it We do not rightly apprehend thee O Saviour if any creature in Heaven or earth can keep our eyes and our hearts from thee The Angels were bright and glorious thy appearance was homely thy habit mean yet when she heard thy voice she turns her back upon the Angels and salutes thee with a Rabboni and falls down before thee in a desire of an humble amplexation of those Sacred feet which she now rejoyces to see past the use of her Odours Where there was such familiarity in the mutual compellation what means such strangeness in the charge Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father Thou wert not wont O Saviour to make so dainty of being touched It is not long since these very same hands touched thee in thine anointing the Bloody-fluxed woman touched thee the thankful Penitent in Simon 's house touched thee What speak I of these The multitude touch'd thee the Executioners touch'd thee and even after thy Resurrection thou didst not stick to say to thy Disciples Touch me and see and to invite Thomas to put his fingers into thy side neither is it long after this before thou sufferest the three Maries to touch and hold thy feet How then saist thou Touch me not Was it in a mild taxation of her mistaking as if thou hadst said Thou knowest not that I have now an Immortal body but so demeanest thy self towards me as if I were still in my wonted condition know now that the case is altered howsoever indeed I have not yet ascended to my Father yet this body of mine which
see thee whiles the doors were barred without any noise of thine entrance to stand in the midst well might they think thou couldst not thus be there if thou wert not the God of Spirits There might seem more scruple of thy realty then of thy power and therefore after thy wonted greeting thou shewest them thy hands and thy feet stamped with the impressions of thy late sufferings Thy respiration shall argue the truth of thy life Thou breathest on them as a man thou givest them thy Spirit as a God and as God and man thou sendest them on the great errand of thy Gospel All the mists of their doubts are now dispelled the Sun breaks out clear They were glad when they had seen the Lord. Had they known thee for no other then a mere man this re-appearance could not but have affrighted them since till now by thine Almighty power this was never done that the long-since dead rose out of their graves and appeared unto many But when they recounted the miraculous works that thou hadst done and thought of Lazarus so lately raised thine approved Deity gave them confidence and thy presence joy We cannot but be losers by our absence from holy Assemblies Where wert thou O Thomas when the rest of that Sacred Family were met together Had thy fear put thee to so long a flight that as yet thou wert not returned to thy fellows or didst thou suffer other occasions to detain thee from this happiness Now for the time thou missedst that Divine breath which so comfortably inspired the rest now thou art suffered to fall into that weak distrust which thy presence had prevented They told thee We have seen the Lord was not this enough would no eyes serve thee but thine own were thy eares to no use for thy Faith Except I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Suspicious man who is the worse for that Whose is the loss if thou believe not Is there no certainty but in thine own senses Why were not so many and so holy eyes and tongues as credible as thine own hands and eyes How little wert thou yet acquainted with the waies of Faith Faith comes by hearing These are the tongues that must win the whole world to an assent and dost thou the first man detrect to yield Why was that word so hard to pass Had not that thy Divine Master foretold thee with the rest that he must be crucified and the third day rise again Is any thing related to be done but that which was fore-promised any thing beyond the sphere of Divine Omnipotence Go then and please thy self in thine over-wise incredulity whiles thy fellows are happy in believing It is a whole week that Thomas rests in this sullen unbelief in all which time doubtless his eares were beaten with the many constant assertions of the holy Women the first witnesses of the Resurrection as also of the two Disciples walking to Emmaus whose hearts burning within them had set their tongues on fire in a zealous relation of those happy occurrences with the assured reports of the rising and re-appearance of many Saints in attendance of the Lord and giver of life yet still he struggles with his own distrust and stiffely suspends his belief to that truth whereof he cannot deny himself enough convinced As all bodies are not equally apt to be wrought upon by the same Medicine so are not all Souls by the same means of Faith one is refractory whiles others are pliable O Saviour how justly mightest thou have left this man to his own pertinacie whom could he have thank'd if he had perished in his unbelief But O thou good Shepherd of Israel that couldst be content to leave the ninety and nine to go fetch one stray in the wilderness how careful wert thou to reduce this stragler to his fellows Right so were thy Disciples re-assembled such was the season the place the same so were the doors shut up when that unbelieving Disciple being now present with the rest thou so camest in so stoodst in the midst so shewedst thy hands and feet and singling out thy incredulous client invitest his eyes to see and his fingers to handle thine hands and his hand to be thrust into thy side that he might not be faithless but faithful Blessed Jesu how thou pittiest the errors and infirmities of thy servants Even when we are froward in our misconceits and worthy of nothing but desertion how thou followest us and overtakest us with mercy and in thine abundant compassion wilt reclaim and save us when either we meant not or would not By how much more unworthy those eyes and hands were to see and touch that immortal and glorious body by so much more wonderful was thy Goodness in condescending to satisfie that curious Infidelity Neither do I hear thee so much as to chide that weak obstinacy It was not long since thou didst sharply take up the two Disciples that walk'd to Emmaus O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken but this was under the disguise of an unknown traveller upon the way when they were alone Now thou speakest with thine own tongue before all thy Disciples in stead of rebuking thou only exhortest Be not faithless but faithfull Behold thy Mercy no less then thy Power hath melted the congealed heart of thy unbelieving follower Then Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God I do not hear that when it came to the issue Thomas imployed his hands in this tryal his eyes were now sufficient assurance the sense of his Masters Omniscience in this particular challenge of him spared perhaps the labour of a further disquisition And now how happily was that doubt bestowed which brought forth so faithful a confession My Lord my God I hear not such a word from those that believed It was well for us it was well for thee O Thomas that thou distrustedst else neither had the world received so perfect an evidence of that Resurrection whereon all our Salvation dependeth neither hadst thou yielded so pregnant and divine an astipulation to thy Blessed Saviour Now thou dost not only profess his Resurrection but his Godhead too and thy happy interest in both And now if they be blessed that have not seen and yet believed blessed art thou also that having seen hast thus believed and blessed be thou O God who knowest how to make advantage of the infirmities of thy chosen for the promoting of their Salvation the confirmation of thy Church the glory of thine own Name Amen The Ascension IT stood not with thy purpose O Saviour to ascend immediately from thy grave into Heaven thou meantest to take the earth in thy way not for a suddain passage but for a leisurely conversation Upon thine Easter-day thou spakest of thine Ascension but thou wouldst have forty daies
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
of darknesse Heaven is high and hard to reach Hell is steep and slipperie our Flesh is earthy and impotent Satan strong rancorous Sin subtle the World alluring all these yet God is the God of our Salvation Let those infernal Lions roar and ramp upon us let the gates of Hell doe their worst let the World be a cheater our Flesh a traitor the Devil a tyrant Faithfull is he that hath promised who will also doe it God is the God of our Salvation How much more then in these outward temporal occasions when we have to doe with an arm of flesh Do the enemies of the Church rage and snuffe and breath nothing but threats and death Make sure of our God he shall be sure to make them lick our dust Great Benhadad of the Syrians shall come with his hempen collar to the King of Israel The very windes and waves shall undertake those Mahumetan or Marian powers that shall rise up against the inheritance of the God of Salvation Salvation is rateable according to the danger from which we are delivered Since Death therefore is the utmost of all terribles needs must it be the highest improvement of Salvation that to our God belong the issues from death Death hath here a double latitude of kinde of extent The kinde is either temporal or eternal the extent reaches not only to the last compleat act of dissolution but to all the passages that lead towards it Thus the issues from death belong to our God whether by way of preservation or by way of rescue How gladly do I meet in my Text with the dear and sweet name of our Jesus who conquered Death by dying and triumphed over Hell by suffering and carries the keyes both of death and hell Revel 1. 18 He is the God the Author and Finisher of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Look first at the temporary he keeps it from us he fetches us from it It is true there is a Statutum est upon it die we must Death knocks equally at the hatch of a Cottage and gate of a Palace but our times are in God's hand the Lord of life hath set us our period whose Omnipotence so contrives all events that neither enemy nor casualty nor disease can prevent his hour Were death suffered to run loose and wild what boot were it to live now it is tether'd up short by that Almighty hand what can we fear If envy repine and villany plot against Sacred Soveraignty God hath well proved upon all the Poisons and Pistols and Poniards and Gun-powders of the two late memorable successions that to him alone belong the issues from death Goe on then blessed Soveraign goe on couragiously in the waies of your God the invisible guard of Heaven shall secure your Royal head the God of our Salvation shall make you a third glorious instance to all posterities that unto him belong the issues from death Thus God keeps death from us it is more comfort yet that he fetches us from it Even the best head must at last lie down in the dust and sleep in death Oh vain cracks of valour thou bragst thy self able to kill a man a worm hath done it a flie hath done it Every thing can finde the way down unto death none but the Omnipotent can finde the way up out of it He findes he makes these issues for all his As it was with our Head so it is with the Members Death might seize it cannot hold Gustavit non deglutivit It may nibble at us it shall not devour us Behold the only Soveraign Antidote against the sorrows the frights of death Who can fear to lay himself down and take a nap in the bed of death when his heart is assured that he shall awake glorious in the morning of his resurrection Certainly it is only our infidelity that makes death fearfull Rejoice not over me O my last enemy though I fall I shall rise again O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Cast ye one glance of your eyes upon the second and eternal death the issues wherefrom belong to our God not by way of rescue as in the former but of preservation Ex inferno nulla redemptio is as true as if it were Canonical Father Abraham tells the damned Glutton in the Parable there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulf that bars all return Those black gates of Hell are barred without by the irreversible Decree of the Almighty Those bold Fabulists therefore whose impious Legends have devised Trajan fetcht thence by the prayers of Gregory and Falconella by Tecla's suspending the finall sentence upon a secundum praesentem injustitiam take a course to cast themselves into that pit whence they have presumptuously feigned the deliverance of others The rescue is not more hopelesse then the prevention is comfortable There is none of us but is naturally walking down to these chambers of death every sin is a pace thitherwards only the gracious hand of our God staies us In our selves in our sins we are already no better then brands of that Hell Blessed be the God of our Salvation that hath found happy issues from this death What issues Even those bloody issues that were made in the hands and feet and side of our Blessed Saviour that invaluably-precious blood of the Son of God is that whereby we are redeemed whereby we are justified whereby we are saved Oh that our Souls might have had leisure to dwell a while upon the meditation of those dreadfull torments we are freed from of that infinite goodnesse that hath freed us of that happy exchange of a glorious condition to which we are freed But the publick occasion of this day calls off my speech and invites me to the celebration of the sensible mercy of God in our late Temporal deliverance Wherein let me first blesse the God of our Salvation that hath put it into the heart of his chosen Servant to set up an Altar in this sacred threshing-floor and to offer up this daies Sacrifice to his name for the stay of our late mortal contagion How well it becomes our Gideon to be personally exemplary as in the beating of this Earthen pitcher in the first publick act of Humiliation so in the lighting of this Torch of publick joy and sounding the Trumpet of a thankfull jubilation and how well will it become us to follow so pious so gracious an example Come therefore all ye that fear the Lord and let us recount what he hath done for our Souls Come let us blesse the Lord the God of our Salvation that loadeth us daily with benefits the God to whom belong the issues of death Let us blesse him in his infinite Essence and Power blesse him in his unbounded and just Soveraignty blesse him in his marvellous Beneficence large continual undeserved blesse him in his Preservations blesse him in his Deliverances We may but touch at the two last How is
God In vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God Were it that the Kingdome of God did consist in eating and drinking in pampering and surfeits in chambering and wantonnesse in pranking and vanity in talk and ostentation O God how rich shouldst thou be of subjects of Saints But if it require abstinence humiliation contrition of heart subjugation of our flesh renunciation of our wills serious impositions of laboursome devotions O Lord what is become of true Christianity where shall we seek for a crucified man Look to our Tables there ye shall finde excesse and riot look to our Backs there ye shall finde proud disguises look to our Conversations there ye shall finde scurril and obscene jollity This liberty yea this licentiousnesse is that which opens the mouths of our adversaries to the censure of our reall impiety That slander which Julian could cast upon Constantine that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 led him to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delicacie to intemperance the very same do they cast upon us They tell us of their strict Lents frequent Fastings Canonical hours sharp Penances their bashfull shrists their painfull scourgings their solitary Cells their woolward and barefoot walks their hard and tedious pilgrimages whiles we they say deny nothing to back or belly fare full lie soft sit warm and make a wanton of the flesh whiles we professe to tend the spirit Brethren hear a little the words of exhortation The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us All this is blown away with a Baal's Priests did more then they yet were never the holier But for our selves in the fear of God see that we do not justifie their crimination Whiles they are in one extreme placing all Religion in the out-side in Touch not taste not handle not let us not be in the other not regarding the external acts of due Humiliation It is true that it is more ease to afflict the body then to humble the Soul a dram of remorse is more then an ounce of pain O God if whippings and hair-cloaths and watchings would satisfie thy displeasure who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassall his Body to expiate the sin of his Soul who would not scrub his skin to ease his Conscience who would not freez upon an hurdle that he might not frie in hell who would not hold his eyes open to avoid an eternall unrest and torment But such sacrifices and oblations O God thou desirest not The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Yet it is as true that it is more easie to counterfeit mortification of spirit then humiliation of body there is pain in the one none in the other He that cares not therefore to pull down his body will much lesse care to humble his Soul and he that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the Flesh gives more colour of the Souls humiliation Dear Christians it is not for us to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker he will have both he that made both will have us crucified in both The old man doth not lie in a lim or faculty but is diffused through the whole extent of Body and Soul and must be crucified in all that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the chosen vessel I beat down my body my body as well as my spirit Give me leave ye Courtiers and Citizens Lent is wont to be a penitential time If ye have soundly and effectually thriven your selves to your God let me enjoyn you an wholsome and saving Penance for the whole year for your whole life Ye must curb your appetites ye must fast ye must stint your selves to your painfull Devotions ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills ye must put your knife to your throat in Solomon's sense Think not that ye can climb up to Heaven with full panches reaking ever of Indian smoak and the surfeits of your gluttonous crammings and quaffings Oh easie and pleasant way to Glory from our bed to our glasse from our glasse to our boord from our dinner to our pipe from our pipe to a visit from a visit to a supper from a supper to a play from a play to a banquet from a banquet to our bed Oh remember the quarrel against damned Dives He fared sumptuously every day he made neither Lents nor Embers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said every day was gaudie and festival in rich sutes in dainty morsels and full draughts Intus mulso foris oleo Wine within oyle without as he said now all the world for a drop and it is too little Vae saturis woc to the full saith our Saviour but even Nature it self could abominate bis de die saturum one that is full twice a day One of the sins of our Sodom is fulnesse of bread What is the remedy It is an old word that Hunger cures the diseases of Gluttony Oh that my words could prevail so far with you Honourable and beloved Christians as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion The Court and City have led the way to excesse your example shall prescribe yea administer the remedy The Heathen man could say He is not worthy of the name of a man that would be a whole day in pleasure what and we alwaies In fasting often saith S. Paul what and we never I fast twice a week saith the Pharisee and we Christians when I speak not of Popish mock-fasts in change not in forbearance in change of courser cates of the land for the curious dainties of the water of the flesh of beasts for the flesh of fish of untoothsome morsels for sorbitiunculoe delicatoe as Hierome calls them Let me never feast if this be fasting I speak of a true and serious maceration of our bodies by an absolute and totall refraining from sustenance which howsoever in it self it be not an act pleasing unto God for well may I invert Saint Paul neither if we eat not are we the better neither if we eat are we the worse 1 Cor. 8. 8. yet in the effect it is singulare Sanctitatis aratrum as that Father terms it The plow bears no Corn but it makes way for it it opens the soil it tears up the briers and turns up the furrows Thus doth holy Abstinence it chastises the flesh it lightens the spirit it disheartens our vitious dispositions it quickens our Devotion Away with all factious Combinations Every man is master of his own maw Fast at home and spare not leave publick exercises of this kinde to the command of Soveraign powers Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctifie a Fast saith Joel 2. 15. Surely this trumpet is for none but Royal breath And now that what I meant for a suit may be turned to a just gratulation how do we blesse the God of Heaven that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this
deadly condition As ye love your Souls give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within you mortifying all your corrupt affections and sinful actions that ye may truly say with S. Paul I am crucified with Christ Six several times do we find that Christ shed blood in his Circumcision in his Agonie in his Crowning in his Scourging in his Affixion in his Transfixion The instrument of the first was the Knife of the second vehemence of Passion of the third the Thorns of the fourth the Whips of the fifth the Nails of the last the Spear In all these we are we must be Partners with our Saviour In his Circumcision when we draw blood of our selves by cutting off the foreskin of our filthy if pleasing Corruptions Col. 2. 11. In his Agony when we are deeply affected with the sense of God's displeasure for sin and terrified with the frowns of an angry Father In his Crowning with thorns when we smart and bleed with reproches for the name of Christ when that which the world counts Honour is a pain to us for his sake when our guilty thoughts punish us and wound our restless heads with the sad remembrance of our sins In his Scourging when we tame our wanton and rebellious flesh with wise rigor and holy severity In his Affixion when all the powers of our Souls and parts of our body are strictly hampered and unremovably fastened upon the Royal Commandements of our Maker and Redeemer In his Transfixion when our hearts are wounded with Divine love with the Spouse in the Canticles or our Consciences with deep sorrow In all these we bleed with Christ and all these save the first onely belong to his Crucifying Surely as it was in the Old Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without bloodshed there was no remission Heb. 9. 22. so it is still and ever in the New If Christ had not thus bled for us no remission if we do not thus bleed with Christ no remission There is no benefit where is no partnership If Christ therefore bled with his Agony with his Thorns with his Whips with his Nails with his Spear in so many thousand passages as Tradition is bold to define and we never bleed either with the Agony of our sorrow for sin or the Thorns of holy cares for displeasure or the Scourges of severe Christian rigour or the Nails of holy constraint or the Spear of deep remorse how do we how can we for shame say we are crucified with Christ Divine S. Austin in his Epistle or Book rather to Honoratus gives us all the dimensions of the Cross of Christ The Latitude he makes in the transverse this saith he pertains to good Works because on this his hands were stretched The Length was from the ground to the transverse this is attributed to his longanimity and persistance for on that his Body was stayed and fixed The Height was in the head of the Cross above the transverse signifying the exspectation of supernal things The Depth of it was in that part which was pitcht below within the earth importing the profoundness of his free Grace which is the ground of all his beneficence In all these must we have our part with Christ In the Transverse of his Cross by the ready extension of our hands to all good Works of Piety Justice Charity in the Arrectary or beam of his Cross by continuance and uninterrupted perseverance in good in the Head of his Cross by an high elevated hope and looking for of Glory in the Foot of his Cross by a lively and firm Faith fastening our Souls upon the affiance of his free Grace and Mercy And thus shall we be crucified with Christ upon his own Cross Yet lastly we must goe further then this from his Cross to his Person So did S. Paul and every Believer die with Christ that he died in Christ For as in the first Adam we all lived and sinned so in the second all Believers died that they might live The first Adam brought in death to all mankind but at last actually died for none but himself the second Adam died for mankind and brought life to all Believers Seest thou thy Saviour therefore hanging upon the Cross all mankind hangs there with him as a Knight or Burgess of Parliament voices his whole Burrough or Country What speak I of this The arms and legs take the same lot with the head Every Believer is a lim of that body how can he therefore but die with him and in him That real union then which is betwixt Christ and us makes the Cross and Passion of Christ ours so as the thorns pierced our heads the scourages blooded our backs the nails wounded our hands and feet and the spear gored our sides and hearts by virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins and true mortification of our corruptions Every Believer therefore is dead already for his sins in his Saviour he needs not fear that he shall die again God is too just to punish twice for one fault to recover the summe both of the surety principal All the score of our arrerages is fully struck off by the infinite satisfaction of our Blessed Redeemer Comfort thy self therefore thou penitent and faithful Soul in the confidence of thy safety thou shalt not die but live since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour he died for thee thou diedst in him Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and lives gloriously at the right hand of God making intercession for us To thee O Blessed Jesu together with thy Coeternal Father and Holy Spirit three Persons in one infinite and incomprehensible Deity be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen ONE OF THE SERMONS Preached to the LORDS OF THE High Court of Parliament In their solemn Fast held on Ashwednesday Feb. 18. And by their Appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Acts 2. 37 38 40. 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 38. Then said Peter unto them Repent and be baptized c. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort them saying Save your selves from this untoward generation WHO knows not that Simon Peter was a Fisher That was his trade both by Sea and Land if we may not rather say that as Simon he was a Fisher-man but as Peter he was a Fisher of men he that call'd him so made him so And surely his first draught of Fishes which as Simon he made at our Saviours Command might well be a trade Type of the first draught of men which as Peter he made in this place for as then the nets were ready to
crack and the ship to sink with store so here when he threw forth his first drag-net of Heavenly Doctrine and reproof three thousand Souls were drawn up at once This Text was as the sacred Cord that drew the Net together and pull'd up this wondrous shoal of Converts to God It is the summe of Saint Peter's Sermon if not at a Fast yet at a general Humiliation which is more and better for wherefore fast we but to be humbled and if we could be duely humbled without fasting it would please God a thousand times better then to fast formally without true Humiliation Indeed for the time this was a Feast the Feast of Pentecost but for the estate of these Jews it was dies cinerum a day of contrition a day of deep hunger and thirst after righteousness Men and Brethren what shall we doe Neither doubt I to say that the Festivity of the season added not a little to their Humiliation like as we are never so apt to take cold as upon a sweat and that winde is ever the keenest which blows cold out of a warm coast No day could be more afflictive then an Ashwednesday that should light upon a solemn Pentecost so it was here every thing answered well The Spirit came down upon them in a mighty wind and behold it hath ratled their hearts together the house shoo◠in the descent and behold here the foundations of the Soul were moved Fiery tongues appeared and here their breasts were inflamed Cloven tongues and here their hearts were cut in sunder The words were miraculous because in a supernatural and sudden variety of language the matter Divine laying before them both the truth of the Messiah and their bloody measure offered to that Lord of Life and now Compuncti cordibus they were pricked in their hearts Wise Solomon says The words of the wise are like goads and nails here they were so Goads for they were compuncti pricked yea but the goad could not goe so deep that passeth but the skin they were Nails driven into the very heart of the Auditors up to the head the great Master of the Assembly the divine Apostle had set them home they were pricked in their hearts Never were words better bestowed It is an happy blood-letting that saves the life this did so here We look to the figne commonly in Phlebotomy it is a signe of our idle and ignorant Superstition S. Peter here saw the signe to be in the Heart and he strikes happily Compuncti cordibus they were pricked in their hearts and said Men and brethren what shall we doe Oh what sweet Musick was this to the Apostles ear I dare say none but Heaven could afford better What a pleasing spectacle was this anguish of their wounded Souls To see men come in their zealous Devotions and lay down their moneys the price of their alienated possessions at those Apostolick feet was nothing to this that they came in a bleeding contrition and prostrated their penitent and humbled Souls at the beautiful feet of the Messengers of Peace with Men and Brethren what shall we doe Oh when when shall our eyes be blessed with so happy a prospect How long shall we thunder out God's fearful judgements against wilful sinners How long shall we threaten the flames of Hell to those impious wretches who crucifie again to themselves the Lord of life ere we can wring a sigh or a tear from the rocks of their hearts or eyes Woe is me that we may say too truely as this Peter did of his other fishing Master we have travailed all the night and have caught nothing Surely it may well goe for night with us whiles we labour and prevail not Nothing not a Soul caught Lord what is become of the success of thy Gospel Who hath believed our report or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed O God thou art ever thy self thy Truth is eternal Hell is where it was if we be less worthy then thy first Messengers yet what excuse is this to the besotted world that through obduredness and infidelity it will needs perish No man will so much as say with the Jews What have I done or with Saint Peter's Auditors What shall I doe Oh foolish sinners shall ye live here always care ye not for your Souls is there not an Hell that gapes for your stubborn impenitence Goe on if there be no remedy goe on and die for ever we are guiltless God is righteous your Damnation is just But if your life be fickle death unavoidable if an everlasting vengeance be the necessary reward of your momentany wickedness Oh turn turn from your evil waies and in an holy distraction of your remorsed Souls say with these Jews Men and Brethren what shall we doe This from the general view of the occasion we descend to a little more particularity Luke the beloved Physician describes Saint Peter's proceeding here much after his own trade as of a true spiritual Physician who finding his Country men the Jews in a desperate and deadly condition gasping for life struggling with death enters into a speedy and zealous course of their cure And first he begins with the Chirurgical part and finding them ranck of blood and that foul and putrified he lets it out compuncti cordibus Where we might shew you the incision the vein the lancet the orifice the anguish of the stroke The Incision compuncti they were pricked The Vein in their hearts Smile not now ye Physicians if any hear me this day as if I had passed a solecisme in telling you these men were pricked in the vein of the heart talk you of your Cephalica and the rest and tell us of another cistern from whence these tubuli sanguinis are derived I tell you again with an addition of more incongruities still that God and his Divine Physician do still let blood in the median vein of the heart The Lancet is the keen and cutting reproof of their late barbarous Crucifixion of their Holy and most innocent and benigne Saviour The Orifice is the ear when they heard this Whatever the local distance be of these parts spiritually the ear is the very surface of the heart and whosoever would give a medicinal stroke to the heart must pass it through the ear the sense of discipline and correction The Anguish bewrays it self in their passionate exclamation Men and brethren what shall we doe There is none of these which my speech might not well take up if not as an house to dwell in yet as an Inne to rest and lodge in But I will not so much as bait here onely we make this a through-fare to those other sacred prescriptions of saving remedies which are three in number The first is Evacuation of sins by a speedy repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second the soveraign Bath or Laver of Regeneration Baptisme The third dietetical and prophylactical receipts of wholesome Caution which I mean with a determinate preterition of
but dead in sin Colos 2. 13. yea with Lazarus quatriduani and ill-senting yea if that will adde any thing as St. Jude's trees or as they say of acute Scotus twice dead Would ye arise It is only Godliness that can doe it Ye are risen up through the faith in the operation of God Col. 2. 12. This only can call us out of the grave of our sins Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and christ shall give thee life Christ is the Author Godliness is the means All ye that hear me this day either ye are alive or would be Life is sweet every one challenges it Do ye live willingly in your sins Let me tell you ye are dead in your sins This life is a death If you wish to live comfortably here and gloriously hereafter it is Godliness that must mortifie this life in sin that must quicken you from this death in sin Flatter your selves how you please ye great Gallants of both Sexes ye think your selves goodly pieces without Godliness ye are the worst kinde of carkasses for as death or not-being is the worst condition that can befall a creature so death in sin is so much the worst kind of death by how much Grace is better then Nature A living Dog or Toad is better then a thus-dead sinner Would ye rise out of this loathsome and woful plight it is Godliness that must breath Grace into your dead lims and that must give you the motions of holy Obedience Is it not a wonder to cast out Devils I tell you the corporal possession of ill spirits is not so rare as the spiritual is rise No natural man is free One hath the spirit of errour 1 Tim. 4. 1. another the spirit of fornications Ose 4. 12. another the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. another the spirit of slumber another the spirit of giddiness another the spirit of pride all have spiritum mundi the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. Our story in Guliel Neubrigensis tells us of a Countryman of ours one Kettle of Farnham in King Henry the Second's time that had the faculty to see spirits by the same token that he saw the Devils spitting over the Drunkards shoulders into their pots the same faculty is recorded of Antony the Eremite and Sulpitius reports the same of Saint Martin Surely there need none of these eyes to discern every natural mans Soul haunted with these evil Angels Let me assure you all ye that have not yet felt the power of Godliness ye are as truely though spiritually carried by evil spirits into the deeps of your known wickedness as ever the Gadarene hogs were carried by them down the precipice into the Sea Would you be free from this hellish tyranny only the power of Godliness can doe it 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Is peradventure God will give them repentance that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil and Repentance is you know a main part of Godliness If ever therefore ye be dispossessed of that Evil one it is the power of Godliness that must doe it What speak I of power I had like to have ascribed to it the acts of Omnipotencie And if I had done so it had not been much amiss for what is Godliness but one of those rayes that beams forth from that Almighty Deity what but that same Dextra Excelsi whereby he works mightily upon the Soul Now when I say the man is strong is it any derogation to say his arme is strong Faith and Prayer are no small pieces of Godliness and what is it that God can doe which Prayer and Faith cannot doe Will ye see some instances of the further acts of Godliness Is it not an act of Omnipotence to change Nature Jannes and Jambres the Aegyptian Sorcerers may juggle away the Staffe and bring a Serpent into the room of it none but a Divine power which Moses wrought by could change the Rod into a Serpent or the Serpent into a Rod. Nothing is above Nature but the God of Nature nothing can change Nature but that which is above it for Nature is regular in her proceedings and will not be crost by a finite power since all finite Agents are within her command Is it not a manifest change of the nature of the Wolf to dwell quietly with the Lamb of the Leopard to dwell with the Kid of the Lion to eat straw with the Oxe of the Aspe to play with the child How shall this be It is an idle conceit of the Hebrews that savage beasts shall forgo their hurtful natures under the Messias No but rational beasts shall alter their dispositions The ravenous Oppressor is the Wolf the tyrannical Persecutor is the Leopard the venemous Heretick is the Aspe these shall turn innocent and useful by the power of Godliness for then the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord Esay 11. 6 c. Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Ethiopian to turn white for the Leopard to turn spotless This is done when those doe good which are accustomed to evil Jer. 13. 23. And this Godliness can doe Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Camel to pass through a needles eye this is done when through the power of Godliness ye Great and rich men get to Heaven Lastly it is an easie thing to turn men into beasts a cup too much can doe it but to turn beasts into men men into Saints Devils into Angels it is no less then a work of Omnipotencie And this Godliness can doe But to rise higher then a change Is it not an act of Omnipotencie to create Nature can go on in her track whether of continuing what she actually finds to be or of producing what she finds to be potentially in pre-existing Causes but to make new matter transcends her power This Godliness can doe here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. There is in Nature no predisposition to Grace the man must be no less new then when he was made first of the dust of the earth and that earth of nothing Novus homo Eph. 4. 24. How is this done by Creation and how is he created in righteousness and holiness Holiness to God Righteousness to men both make up Godliness A Regeneration is here a Creation Progenuit is expressed by Creavit Jam. 1. 18. and this by the word of truth Old things are passed saith the Apostle all must be new If we will have ought to doe with God our bodies must be renewed by a glorious Resurrection ere they can enjoy Heaven our Souls must be renewed by Grace ere we can enjoy God on earth Are there any of us pained with our heart of stone We may be well enough the stone of the reines or bladder is a woful pain but the stone of the heart is more deadly He can by this power take it out and give us an
of these Birds every where at home I appeal your eyes your ears would to God they would convince me of a slander But what of all this now The power of Godlinesse is denied by wicked men How then what is their case Surely inexplicably unconceivably fearfull The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodlinesse saith the Apostle How revealed say you wherein differ they from their neighbours unlesse it be perhaps in better fare no gripes in their Conscience no afflictions in their life no bands in their death Impunitas ausum ausus excessum parit as Bernard Their impunity makes them bold their boldness outragious Alas wretched Souls The world hath nothing more wofull then a Sinners welfare It is for slaughter that this Ox is fatned Ease slayeth the simple and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1. 32. This bracteata felicitas which they injoy here is but as Carpets spread over the mouth of Hell For if they deny the power of Godliness the God of power shall be sure to deny them Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not There cannot be a worse doom then Depart from me that is depart from peace from blessedness from life from hope from possibility of being any other then eternally exquisitely miserable Qui te non habet Domine Deus totum perdidit He who hath not thee O Lord God hath lost all as Bernard truly Dying is but departing but this departing is the worst dying dying in Soul ever dying so as if there be an Ite depart there must needs be a maledicti depart ye cursed cursed that ever they were born who live to die everlastingly For this departure this curse ends in that fire which can never never end Oh the deplorable condition of those damned Souls that have slighted the power of Godliness what tears can be enough to bewail their everlasting burnings what heart can bleed enough at the thought of those tortures which they can neither suffer nor avoid Hold but your finger for one minute in the weak flame of a farthing Candle can flesh and blood indure it With what horror then must we needs think of Body and Soul frying endlesly in that infernal Tophet Oh think of this ye that forget God and contemn Godlinesse with what confusion shall ye look upon the frowns of an angry God rejecting you the ugly and mercilesse Fiends snatching you to your torments the flames of Hell flashing up to meet you with what horror shall ye feel the gnawing of your guilty Consciences and hear that hellish shreeking and weeping and wailing and gnashing It is a pain to mention these woes it is more then death to feel them Perhorrescite minas formidate supplicia as Chrysostome Certainly my beloved if wicked sinners did truly apprehend an Hell there would be more danger of their despair and distraction then of their security It is the Devil's policy like a Raven first to pull out the eyes of those that are dead in their sins that they may not see their imminent damnation But for us tell me ye that hear me this day are ye Christians in earnest or are ye not If ye be not what doe ye here If ye be there is an hell in your Creed Ye do not lesse believe there is an Hell for the godlesse then an Earth for men a Firmament for Stars an Heaven for Saints a God in Heaven and if ye do thus firmly believe it cast but your eyes aside upon that fiery gulf and sin if ye dare Ye love your selves well enough to avoid a known pain we know there are Stocks and Bride-wells and Gaols and Dungeons and Racks and Gibbets for malefactors and our very feare keeps us innocent were your hearts equally assured of those Hellish torments ye could not ye durst not continue in those sins for which they are prepared But what an unpleasing and unseasonable subject am I fallen upon to speak of Hell in a Christian Court the embleme of Heaven Let me answer for my self with devout Bernard Sic mihi contingat semper be are amicos terrendo salubriter non adulando fallaciter Let me thus ever blesse my friends with wholesome frights rather then with plausible soothings Sumenda sunt amara salubria saith Saint Austin Bitter wholsome is a safe receipt for a Christian and what is more bitter or more wholsome then this thought The way not to feel an Hell is to see it to fear it I fear we are all generally defective this way we do not retire our selves enough into the Chamber of Meditation and think sadly of the things of another world Our Self-love puts off this torment notwithstanding our willing sins with David's plague non appropinquabit It shall not come nigh thee If we do not make a league with Hell and Death yet with our selves against them Fallit peccatum falsâ dulcedine as Saint Austin Sin deceives us with a false pleasure The pleasure of the world is like rhat Colchian honey whereof Xenophon's souldiers no sooner tasted then they were miserably distempered those that took little were drunk those that took more were mad those that took most were dead thus are we either intoxicated or infatuated or kil'd out-right with this deceitfull world that we are not sensible of our just fears at the best we are besotted with our stupid security that we are not affected with our danger Woe is me the impenitent resolved sinner is already faln into the mouth of Hell and hangs there but by a slender twig of his momentany life when that hold fails he falls down headlong into that pit of horrour and desolation Oh ye my dear brethren so many as love your Souls have mercy upon your selves Call aloud out of the deeps of your sins to that compassionate Saviour that he will give you the hand of Faith to lay hold upon the hand of his mercy and plenteous redemption and pull you out of that otherwise-irrecoverable destruction else ye are gone ye are gone for ever Two things as Bernard borrows of Saint Gregory make a man both good and safe To repent of evil To abstain from evil Would ye escape the wrath of God the fire of Hell Oh wash you clean and keep you so There is no Laver for you but your own teares and the blood of your Saviour Bathe your Souls in both of these and be secure Consider how many are dying now which would give a world for one hour to repent in Oh be ye carefull then to improve your free and quiet hours in a serious and hearty contrition for your sins say to God with the Psalmist Deliver me from the evilman that is from my self as that Father construes it And for the sequel in stead of the denying the power of Godlinesse resolve to deny your selves to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world that having felt and approved the power
Church then is a Dove Not an envious Partridge not a carelesse Ostridge not a stridulous Jay not a petulant Sparrow not a deluding Lapwing not an unclean-sed Duck not a noisome Crow not an unthankfull Swallow not a death-boding Schrich-owl but an harmlesse Dove that fowl in which alone envy it self can finde nothing to tax Hear this then ye violent spirits that think there can be no Piety that is not cruell the Church is a Dove not a Glead not a Vultur not a Falcon not an Eagle not any bird of prey or rapine Who ever saw the rough foot of the Dove armed with griping talons who ever saw the beak of the Dove bloody who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil and tiring upon bones Indeed we have seen the Church crimson-suited like her celestial Husband of whom the Prophet Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah and straight Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garment like him that treadeth in the wine-press Esay 63. 1 2. but it hath been with her own blood shed by others not with others blood shed by her hand She hath learned to suffer what she hateth to inflict Do ye see any Faction with knives in their hands stained with massacres with firebrands in their hands ready to kindle the unjust stakes yea woods of Martyrdome with pistols and poniards in their hands ambitiously affecting a canonization by the death of God's Anointed with matches in their hands ready to give fire unto that powder which shall blow up King Prince State Church with thunderbolts of censures ready to strike down into Hell whosoever refuses to receive novell opinions into the Articles of Faith If ye finde these dispositions and actions Dove-like applaud them as beseeming the true Spouse of Christ who is ever like her self Columba perfecta yea perfecta columba a true Dove for her quiet Innocence For us let our Dove-ship approve it self in meekness of Suffering not in actions of Cruelty We may we must delight in blood but the blood shed for us not shed by us Thus let us be Columba in foraminibus petrae Cant. 2. 14. a Dove in the clifts of the rock that is in vulneribus Christi as the Glosse in the gashes of him that is the true Rock of the Church This is the way to be innocent to be beautifull a Dove and undefiled The Propriety follows My Dove The Kite or the Crow or the Sparrow and such like are challenged by no owner but the Dove still hath a Master The World runs wilde it is ferae naturae but the Church is Christs domestically intirely his My Dove not the worlds not her own Not the worlds for If ye were of the world saith our Saviour the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Joh. 15. 19. Not her own so S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Justly then may he say My Dove Mine for I made her there is the right of Creation Mine for I made her again there is the right of Regeneration Mine for I bought her there is the right of Redemption Mine for I made her mine there is the right of spiritual and inseparable Union O God be we thine since we are thine we are thine by thy Merit let us be thine in our Affections in our Obedience It is our honour it is our happiness that we may be thine Have thou all thine own What should any piece of us be cast away upon the vain glory and trash of this transitory world Why should the powers of darkness run away with any of our services in the momentany pleasures of sin The great King of Heaven hath cast his love upon us and hath espoused us to himself in truth and righteousness oh then why will we cast roving and lustfull eyes upon adulterous rivals base drudges yea why will we run on madding after ugly Devils How justly shall he loath us if we be thus shamefully prostituted Away then with all our unchast glances of desires all unclean ribaldry of conversation let us say mutually with the blessed Spouse My beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2. 16. My Dove mine as to love so to defend That inference is natural I am thine save me Interest challenges protection The Hand saies It is my Head therefore I will guard it the Head saies It is my Hand therefore I will devise to arm it to withdraw it from violence The Soul saies It is my Body therefore I will cast to cherish it the Body saies It is my Soul therefore I would not part with it The Husband saies Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes much of her Ephes 5. 29. And as she is desiderium oculorum the delight of his eyes to him Ezec. 24. 16. so is he operimentum oculorum the shelter of her eyes to her Gen. 20. 16. In all cases it is thus So as if God say of the Church Columba mea my Dove she cannot but say of him Adjutor meus my helper Neither can it be otherwise save where is lack either of love or power Here can be no lack of either not of Love he saith Whoso toucheth Israel toucheth the apple of mine eye not of power Our God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and earth Band you your selves therefore ye bloody Tyrants of the world against the poor despised Church of God threaten to trample it to dust and when you have done to carry away that dust upon the soles of your shoes He that sits in Heaven laughs you to scorn the Lord hath you in derision O Virgin Daughter of Sion they have despised thee O daughter of Jerusalem they have shaken their heads at thee But whom have ye reproched and blasphemed and against whom have ye exalted your voice and lift up your eyes on high Even against the Holy one of Israel who hath said Columba mea my Dove Yea let all the spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places all the legions of Hell troup together they shall as soon be able to pluck God out of his throne of Heaven as to pull one feather from the wing of this Dove This Propriety secures her She is Columba mea my Dove From the Propriety turn your eyes to the best of her Properties Unity Let me leave Arithmeticians disputing whether Unity be a number I am sure it is both the beginning of all numbring numbers and the beginning and end of all numbers numbred All Perfection rises hence and runs hither and every thing the nearer it comes to perfection gathers up it self the more towards Unity as all the virtue of the Loadstone is recollected into one point Jehovah our God is one from him there is but one World one Heaven in that world one Sun
with Christians Let us speak truth every man to his neighbour Farre farre be it from any of you to have a mercenary tongue either sold or let out to speak for injury for oppression Where the justice of the cause seems to hang in an even poise there exercise the power of your wit and eloquence in pleadings but where the case is foul abhor the Patrocination discourage an unjust though wealthy Client and say rather Thy gold and thy silver perish with thee resolving that the richest fee is a good conscience and therefore with the Apostle that ye can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth Thus fashion not your Tongue to the falshood of the world 2. The world hath a tongue as Malicious as false he carries poisons arrows swords razors in his mouth whether in reviling the present or backbiting the absent What have our tongues to walk in but this round of detraction Barre this practice there would be silence at our bords silence at our fires-side silence in the Tavern silence in the way silence in the Barbers-shop in the Mill in the Market every where yea very Gossips would have nothing to whisper Lord what a wilde licentiousnesse are we grown to in this kinde Every mans mouth is open to the censures to the curses of their betters neither is it cared how true the word be but how sharp Every Fidler sings Libels openly and each man is ready to challenge the freedome of David's Ruffians Our tongues are our own who shall controll us This is not a fashion for Christians whose tongues must be ranged within the compasse as of Truth so of Charity and silent Obedience we know our charge Diis non detrahes Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the ruler of thy people Exod. 22. 28. No not in thy bed-chamber no not in thy thoughts Eccles 10. 20. And for our equalls God hath said it Whoso privily slandereth his Neighbour him will I cut off Psal 101. 5. The spightfull tongue as it is a fire and is kindled by the fire of hell Jam. 3. 6. so shall it be sure once to torment the Soul that moves it with flames unquenchable Thus fashion not your Tongue to the maliciousnesse of the world 3. As the world hath a spightfull tongue in his anger so a Beastly tongue in his mirth No word sounds well that is not unsavoury The onely minstrell to the world is ribaldry Modesty and sober Merriment is dulnesse There is no life but in those cantiones cinaedicae which are too bad even for the worst of red Lattices yea even those mouths which would hate to be palpably foul stick not to affect the witty jests of ambiguous obscenity Fye upon these impure brothelries Oh that ever those tongues which dare call God Father should suffer themselves thus to be possessed by that unclean spirit that ever those mouths which have received the Sacred body and blood of the Lord of Life should indure these dainty morsels of the Devil For us Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth but that which is edifying and gracious Ephes 4. 29. and such as may become those tongues which shall once sing Allelujahs in the Heavens Fashion not your Tongues to the obscenity of the world From the Tongue we passe to the Palate which together with the gulf whereto it serves the throat and the paunch is taken up with the beastly fashion of Gluttony and excesse whether wet or dry of meats or liquors surfeits in the one drunkennesse in the other insomuch as that the vice hath taken the name of the part Gula as if this piece were for no other service The Psalmist describes some wicked ones in his time by Sepulcrum patens guttur eorum Their throat is an open Sepulchre Psal 5. 9. How many have buried all their Grace in this tomb how many their Reputation how many their Wit how many their Humanity how many their Houses Lands Livings Wives Children Posterity Health Life Body and Soul Saint Paul tels his Philippians that their false teachers made their belly their God Oh God what a Deity is here what a nasty Idol and yet how adored every where The Kitchins and Taverns are his Temples the Tables his Altars What fat Sacrifices are here of all the beasts fouls fishes of all three Elements what pouring out yea what pouring in of drink-offerings what incense of Indian smoak what curiously-perfumed cates wherewith the nose is first feasted then the maw More then one of the Ancients as they have made Nebuzaradan principem Coquorum Jer. 52. 12. the chief Cook of Nebuchadnezzar so they have found a mysticall allusion in the story that the chief Cook should burn the Temple and Palace both Gods house and the Kings and should destroy the walls of Jerusalem Surely gluttonous excesse destroies that which should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and is enough to bring a fearfull vastation both upon Church and State I could even sink down with shame to see Christianity every where so discountenanced with beastly Epicurisme what street shall a man walk in and not meet with a Drunkard what rode shall he passe and not meet some or other hanging upon the stirrup waving over the pummel Saint Peter's argument from the third hour of the day and Saint Paul's from the night would be now a non sequitur Day is night night is day no hour is priviledged I cannot speak a more fearfull word then that of Saint Paul Whose belly is their God whose end is damnation Oh wofull wofull condition of that damned glutton in the Gospel Oh the flames of that delicious tongue which beg'd for a drop but should in vain have been quenched with rivers with Oceans As ye desire to be freed from those everlasting burnings Awake ye drunkards and howl ye drinkers of wine Joel 1. 5. Return your superfluous liquors into tears of repentance which onely can quench that fire and for the sequel put your knife to your throats Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overtaken with surfeiting and drunkennesse Luk. 21. 34. Thus fashion not your selves to the Excesse of the world From the pampered Belly we passe to the proud Back of the world whereon he is blind that sees not a world of fashions in all which the price of the stuffe strives with the vanity of the form There is a Luxury in very Cloaths which it is hard to look besides O God how is the world changed with us since our Breeches of fig-leaves and Coats of skin The Earth yields Gold Silver rich Stones the Sea Pearls the Aire feathers the Field his stalks the Sheep her Fleece the Worm her web and all too little for one back After necessity Cloaths were once for distinction as of Sexes so of Degrees How curious was God in these differences the violation whereof was no lesse then deadly Deut. 22. 5. What shall we say to the Dames yea to the Hermaphrodites of
our time whom it troubles that they may not be all man But if Sexes be known by cloaths what is become of Degrees Every base Terrivague wears Artaxerxes his coat soft raiments are not for Courts Peasants degenerate into Gallants and every Midianitish Camel must shine with gold Judg. 8. 26. But oh the mad disguises of the world especially in that weaker Sex which in too much variety is constant still to a prodigious deformity of attire to the scorn of other Nations to the dishonour of their Husbands to the shame of the Gospel to the forfeit of their modesty to the misshaping of their bodies to the prostitution of their Souls to the just damnation of both It is not for me to urge this here in a masculine assembly wherein I fear there cannot be want of faults enough in this kind Away with this absurd and apish vanity of the world They that glister in scarlet shall once embrace danghils Lam. 4. 5. Yea it were well if no worse Let us that are Christians affect that true bravery which may become the blessed Spouse of Christ The Kings Daughter is all glorious within and say with the Prophet My soul shall be joyfull in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousnesse Esay 61. 10. Thus fashion not your Back to the disguise of the world We had like to have forgotten the Neck and Shoulders of the world which have an ill fashion of stiffnesse and inflexible obstinatenesse stubbornly refusing to stoop to the yoke of the Law of the Gospel This is every where the complaint of God They have hardened their necks Exod. 32. 9. Amongst all fashions of the world this is the worst and that which gives an height to all other wickednesses Let all the other parts be never so faulty yet if there be a readinesse to relent at the Judgements of God and a meek pliablenesse to his Corrections there is life in our hopes But if our iron sinews will not bowe at all bearing up themselves with an obdured resolution of sinning the case is desperate what can we think other then that such a soul is branded for Hell He that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 29. 1. Fashion not your Neck therefore to the stiffnesse of the world But the Cyclopean furnace of all wicked fashions the Heart calls my speech to it which I could not have forborn thus long were it not that besides the importunity of these other parts I have heretofore at large out of this place displaied to you and the world the wicked fashions thereof Shortly yet for we may not utterly balk them all the corrupt desires and affections of the Soul are so many ill fashions of the Heart to be avoided These affections are well known inordinate Love uncharitable Hate immoderate Grief intemperate Joy unjust Fears unsound Hopes and whatsoever either distemper or misplacing of these Passions If we love the world more then God if we hate any enemy more then Sin if we grieve at any losse more then of the favour of God if we joy in any thing more then the writing of our names in Heaven if we fear any thing more then offence if we hope for any thing more then Salvation and much more if we change Objects loving what we should hate joying in what we should grieve at hoping for what we should feare and the contrary in one word if our desires and affections be earthly groveling sensuall not spirituall sublimed heavenly we fall into the damnable fashion of the world Away therefore with all evil concupiscence all ambitious affectations all spightfull emulations all worldly sorrows all cowardly fears all carnall heats of false joy Let the World dote upon vanity and follow after lyes let our Affections and conversation be above where Christ Jesus sitteth at the right hand of God Let the base earthworms of this world be taken up with the best of this vain trash the desires of us Christians must soar aloft and fix themselves upon those Objects which may make us perfectly and unchangeably blessed Thus fashion not your Hearts to the carnall desires and affections of the world Affections easily break forth into Actions and Actions perfect our Desires Let us from the heart look to the Hands and Feet the instruments of motion and execution of the world Fashion not your selves lastly therefore to the practice and carriage of the world The World makes a God of it self and would be serving any God but the true one Hate ye this cursed Idolatry and say with Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. The World would be framing Religion to Policy and serving God in his own forms Hate ye this Will-worship Superstition Temporizing and say with David I esteem all thy precepts to be right and all false waies I utterly abhorre Psal 119. 128. The World cares not how it rends and tears the Sacred Name of their Maker with Oaths and Curses and Blasphemies Oh hate ye this audacious Profanesse yea this profane Devilisme and tremble at the dreadfull Majesty of the name of the Lord our God The World cares not how it slights the Ordinances of God violates his Daies neglects his Assemblies Hate ye this common Impiety say with the Psalmist Oh how sweet is thy Law how amiable thy Tabernacles The Word is set to spurn at Authority to despise Gods Messengers to scorn the nakednesse of their spirituall Fathers Hate ye this lawlesse Insolency and say Quà m speciosi pedes How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Esa 52. 7. Rom. 10. 15. The World is set upon Cruelty Oppression Violence Rapine Revenge sieging sacking cutting of throats Hate ye this bloody Savagenesse Put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse meeknesse long suffering Colos 3. 12. The World is a very brothel given over to the prosecutions of noisome and abominable lusts Hate ye this Impurity and possesse your vessels in hoinesse and honour The World is a cheater yea to speak plain a thief every where abounding with the tricks of legall fraud and cozenage yea with sly stealths yea with open exortions Hate ye this Injustice and with quietnesse work and eate your own bread 2 Thes 3. 12. Thus fashion not your selves to the actuall Wickednesses of the world All these are the unfruitfull works of darknesse they are not for our fellowship they are for our abomination and reproof And now I have laid before you some patterns if not models of the ill fashions of the World in the thoughts dispositions affections actions thereof Like them if ye can O ye Christian Hearers and follow them I am sure from our outward fashions of Attire we need no other disswasive then their uglinesse and misbecoming And what shall I need to tell you how loathsomely deformed these fashions of the world
make us to appear in the sight of God The Toad or the Serpent are lovely objects to us in comparison of these disguises to the pure eyes of the Almighty yea so perfectly doth God hate them that he professes those hate him that like them Whosoever will be a friend to the world is an enemy to God Jam. 4. 4. Oh then if we love our Souls let us hate those fashions that may draw us into the detestation of the Almighty for our God is a consuming fire Besides misbeseeming it is a just plea against any Fashion that it is painfull For though there be some Pain allowed in all Pride yet too much we indure not and behold these Fashions shall pinch and torture us to death to an everlasting death of body and Soul The ill guest in the Parable was thus clad Mat. 22. 12. the King abhorres his suit and after expostulation gives the sentence Binde him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh fear and tremble at the exspectation of this dreadfull doom all ye that will needs be in the fashion of the world If ye be so foolish as to flatter your selves here in the conceit of your Liberty there shall be binding in the conceit of a lightsome and resplendent Magnificence there shall be darknesse in the conceit of Pleasure and Contentment there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Lastly commonnesse and age are the usuall disparagements of Fashions The best may not goe like every body where a Fashion is taken up of the basest it is disdained of the eminent Behold these are the fashions if not of all I am sure of the worst the very scum of the world is thus habited Let us that are Christians in an holy pride scorn to be suited like them As common so old fashions are in disgrace That man would be shouted at that should come forth in his great-grandfires suit though not rent not discoloured Behold these are the overworn and misshapen rags of the old man Away with them to the frippery of darknesse yea to the brokery of Hell Let us be for a change Old things are passed all things are become new As we look to have these bodies once changed from vile to glorious so let us now change the fashions of our bodies and Souls from corrupt and worldly to spirituall and heavenly and loathing all these misbelieving painfull common old fashions of the world let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ that being clad with the robes of his Righteousnesse here we may be cloathed upon with the robes of his Glory in the highest Heavens Amen THE ESTATE OF A CHRISTIAN Laid forth In a SERMON preached at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By Jos. HALL Rom. 12. 2. But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds c. THE true method of Christian practice is first destructive then astructive according to the Prophet Cease to doe evil learn to doe good This our Apostle observes who first unteacheth us ill fashions and then teacheth good We have done with the negative duty of a Christian what he must not doe hear now the affirmative what he must doe wherein our speech treading in the steps of the blessed Apostle shall passe through these four heads First that here must be a change secondly that this change must be by transformation thirdly that this transformation must be by renewing fourthly that this renewing must be of the minde But be ye changed or transformed by the renewing of your minds All of them points of high and singular importance and such as do therefore call for your best and carefullest attention Nothing is more changing then the fashion of the world Mundus transit The world passeth away saith S. John Yet here that we may not fashion our selves to the world we must be changed we must be changed from these changeable fashions of the world to a constant estate of Regeneration As there must be once a perfect change of this mortall to immortality so must there be onwards of this sinfull to gracious and as holy Job resolves to wait all the daies of his appointed time for that changing so this change contrarily waits for us and may not be put off one day What creature is there wherein God will not have a change They needed not as he made them nothing could fall from him but good we marr'd them and therefore they both are changed and must be Even of the very Heavens themselves it is said As a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed how much more these sublunary bodies that are never themselves We know the Elements are in a perpetual transmutation so are those bodies that are compounded of them as he said of the River we cannot step down twice into the same stream And every seven years as Philosophy hath observed our bodies are quite changed from what they were And as there is a natural change in our favours colour complexion temper so there is no lesse voluntary change in our diets in our dispositions in our delights With what scorn do we now look upon the Top which our Childhood was fond on how do we either smile or blush in our mature age to think of the humours and actions of our youth How much more must the depravedness of our spiritual condition call for a change It is a rule in Policy Not to alter a well-setled evil I am sure it holds not in the Oeconomy of the Soul wherein length of prescription pleads rather for a speedy removal no time can prejudice the King of Heaven In some cases indeed change is a sign of a weak unsetledness It is not for a wise man like Shel-fish to rise or fall with the Moon rather like unto the Heaven he must learn to move and be constant It was a good word of Basil to the Governour Utinam sempiterna sit hoec mea desipientia Let me dote thus alw aies It was not for nothing that Socrates had the reputation of Wisdome that famous Shrew of his Xantippe could say she never but saw him return with the countenance that he went out with Give me a man that in the changes of all conditions can frame himself to be like an Auditors counter and can stand either for a thousand or an hundred or if need be for one this man comes nearest to him in whom there is no shadow of turning But in case of present ill there can be no safety but in change I cannot blame the Angels and Saints in Heaven that they would not change I blesse them that they cannot because they are not capable of better and every motion is out of a kind of need I cannot wonder at the damned spirits that they would be any thing but what they are We that are naturally in the way to that damnation have reason to desire a change worse we cannot be upon
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Lo as impossible as it is for a dead man to come down from his gibbet or up from his coffin and to doe the works of his former life so impossible it is that a renewed man should doe the old works of his unregeneration If therefore you find your Hearts unclean your Hands idle and unprofitable your Ways crooked and unholy your Corruptions alive and lively never pretend any renewing you are the old men still and however ye may go for Christains yet ye have denied the power of Christianity in your lives and if ye so continue the fire of Hell shall have so much more power over you for that it finds the Baptismal water upon your faces Our last head is the subject of this Renewing The Minde There are that would have this Renovation proper to the inferiour which is the affective part of the Soul as if the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call it the supreme powers of that Divine part needed it no◠These are met with here by out-Apostle who placeth this renewing upon the Mind There are contrarily that so appropriate this renewing to the Mind which is the highest lost of the Soul as that they diffuse it not to the lower rooms nor to the our houses of the body as if onely the Soul were capable as of Sin so of Regeneration Both these shoot too short and must know that as the Mind so not the Mind only must be renewed That part is mentioned not by way of exclusion but of principality It is the man that must be renewed not one piece of him Except ye please to say according to that old Philosophical Adage The Mind is the man and the Body as the wisest Ethnick had wont to say nothing but the Case of that rich Jewel To say as it is the most Saint-like Philosophy was somewhat injurious in disparaging the outward man Whatever they thought this Body is not the hung-by but the partner of the Soul no less interessed in the man then that Spirit that animates it no less open to the inhabitation of God's Spirit no less free of Heaven Man therefore that is made of two parts must be renewed in both but as in the first birth whole man is born onely the Body is seen so in the second whole man is renewed onely the Soul is instanced in Our Apostle puts both together 1 Thes 5. 23. The God of peace sanctifie you wholly that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Why then is the Mind thus specified Because it is the best part because as it enlivens and moves so it leads the rest If the Mind therefore be renewed it boots not to urge the renovation of the body For as in Nature we are wont to say that the Soul follows the temperature of the Body so in Spiritual things we say rather more truly that the Body follows the temper and guidance of the Soul These two companions as they shall be once inseparable in their final condition so they are now in their present dispositions Be renewed therefore in your Minds and if you can hold off your earthly parts No more can the Body live without the Soul then the Soul can be renewed without the Body First then the Mind then the Body All defilement is by an extramission as our Saviour tels us That which goeth into the body defileth not the man so as the spring of corruption is within That must be first cleansed else in vain do we scour the channels Ye shall have some Hypocrites that pretend to begin their renewing from without On foul hands they will wear white Gloves on foul hearts clean hands and then all is well Away with these Pharisaical dishes filthy within clean without fit onely for the service of unclean Devils To what purpose is it to lick over the skin with precious oyle if the Liver be corrupted the Lungs rotten To what purpose is it to crop the top of the weeds when the root and stalk remains in the earth Pretend what you will all is old all is naught till the Mind be renewed Neither is the Body more renewed without the Mind then the renewing of the Mind can keep it self from appearing in the renewing of the Body The Soul lies close and takes advantage of the secrecy of that Cabinet whereof none but God keeps the Key and therefore may pretend anything we see the man the Soul we cannot see but by that we see we can judge of that we see not He is no Christian that is not renewed and he is worse then a beast that is no Christian Every man therefore lays claim to that renovation whereof he cannot be convinced yea there want not those who though they have a ribaldish tongue and a bloody hand yet will challenge as good a Soul as the best Hypocrite when the Conduit-head is walled in how shall we judge of the spring but by the water that comes out of the pipes Corrupt nature hath taught us so much craft as to set the best side outward If therefore thou have obscene lips if bribing and oppressing hands if a gluttonous tooth a drunken gullet a lewd conversation certainly the Soul can be no other then abominably filthy It may be worse then it appears better it cannot lightly be The Mind then leads the Body the Body descries the Mind both of them at once are old or both at once new For us as we bear the face of Christians and profess to have received both Souls and Bodies from the same hand and look that both Bodies and Souls shall once meet in the same Glory let it be the top of all our care that we may be transformed in the renewing of our minds and let the renewing of our Minds bewray it self in the renewing of our Bodies Wherefore have we had the powerful Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ so long amongst us if we be still our selves What hath it wrought upon us if we be not changed Never tell me of a Popish Transubstantiation of men of an invisible insensible unfeisible change of the person whiles the species of his outward life and carriage are still the same These are but false Hypocritical juglings to mock fools withall If we be transformed and renewed let it be so done that not onely our own eyes and hands may see and feel it but others too that the by-standers may say How is this man changed from himself He was a blasphemous Swearer a profane Scoffer at goodness now he speaks with an awful reverence of God and holy things He was a Luxurious wanton now he possesseth his vessel in Holiness and honour He was an unconscionable Briber and abettor of unjust causes now the world cannot see him to speak for wrong He was a wild roaring Swaggerer now he is a sober Student He was a Devil now he is
let thine enemies perish O Lord. These Bulls are seconded with their own brood the Calves of the people Who are they but those which follow and make up the herd the credulous seduced multitude which not out of choice but example join in opposition to God Silly calves they go whither their dams lead them to the field or to the slaughter-house Blinde obedience is their best guide Are they bidden to adore a God which they know the baker made they fall down upon their knees and thump their breasts as beating the heart that will not enough believe in that pastry-Deity Are they bidden to goe on pilgrimage to a Chappel that is a greater pilgrim then themselves that hath four several times removed it self and changed stations as Turselline considently they must goe and adore those wandring walls Are they bidden to forswear their Allegiance and to take armes against their Lawful and native Soveraign they rush into the battel without either fear or wit though for the aide of a sure enemy which would make them all as he threatned in Eighty eight alike good Protestants Very calves of the people whose simplicity were a fitter subject for pity then their fury can be of malice were it not that their power is wont to be imployed to the no small prejudice of the cause of God And would it boot ought to spend time in perswading these Calves that they are such to lay before them the shame of their ignorance and stupidity Hear now this O foolish people and without understanding which have eyes and see not which have eares and hear not Jer. 5. 20. How long will ye suffer your selves to be befooled and beslaved with the tyranny of Superstition God hath made you men why will ye abide men to make you vitulos populorum the calves of the people We must leave you as ye are but we will not leave praying for your happy change that God would consecrate you to himself as the calves of his altar that ye may be offered up to him an holy lively reasonable acceptable sacrifice in your blessed Conversion Amen The last and worst title of these enemies is The people that delight in warre Warre is to the State as Ignis and Ferrum the Knife and the Searing-iron to the body the last and most desperate remedy alwaies evill if sometimes necessary it is not for pleasure it is for need It must needs be a cruel heart that delights in warre He that well considers the fearful effects of warre the direption of goods the vastation of Countries the sacking and burning of Cities the murdering of men ravishing of women weltring of the horse and rider in their mingled blood the shrieks and horror of the dying the ghastly rage of the killing the hellish and tumultuous confusion of all things and shall see the streets and fields strewed with carkasses the chanels running with streams of blood the houses and Churches flaming and in a word all the woful tyrannies of death will think the heathen Poets had reason to devise Warre sent up from Hell ushered and heralded by the most pestilent of all the Furies every of whose haires were so many snakes and adders to affright and sting the world withall Little pleasure can there be in such a spectacle It is a true observation of St. Chrysostome that warre to any Nation is as a tempest to the Sea tossing and clashing of the waves together And fain would I hear of that Mariner that takes delight in a Storm The executioners of peaceable Justice are wont to be hateful no man abides to consort with a publick Headsman and what metal then shall we think those men made of who delight in cutting of throats and joy to be the furious executioners of a martial vengeance where besides the horror of the act the event is doubtful The dice of Warre run still upon hazard David could send this message to Joab The sword devoures at randome so and such 2 Sam. 11. 25. Victory is not more sweet then uncertain And what man can love to perish It is true that Warre is a thing that should not but must be neither is it other then an unavoidable act of vindicative Justice an useful enemy an harsh friend such an enemy as we cannot want such a friend as we entertain upon force not upon choice because we must not because we would It challenges admittance if it be just and it is never just but where it is necessary if it must it ought to be Where those three things which Aquinas requires to a lawful warre are met Supreme Authority a warrantable Cause a just Intention a Supreme Authority in commanding it a warrantable Cause in undertaking it a just Intention in executing it it is no other then Bellum Domini Gods warre God made it God owns it God blesses it What talk I of the good Centurion the very Angels of God are thus Heavenly souldiers The wise Lacedamonians had no other statues of their Deities but armed Yea what speak I of these Puppets the true God rejoyces in no title more then of the Lord of Hoasts In these cases say now Blessed be the Lord who teaches my hands to warre and my fingers to fight But if Ambition of enlarging the bounds of dominion Covetousness of rich booties emulation of a rival Greatness shall unsheath our swords now every blow is Murder Wo to those hands that are thus imbrued in blood Wo to those Tyrants that are the authors of this lavish effusion every drop whereof shall once be required of their guilty Souls God thinks he cannot give a worse Epithet to those whom he would brand for death then Wicked and blood-thirsty men David might not be allowed to build God an House because he had a bloody hand the cause was holy yet the colour offends How hateful must those needs be to the God of Mercies that delight in Blood the true brood of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning There are strange diets of men as of other creatures whereof there are some that naturally feed on poison and fatten with it and it may be there are Cannibals that finde mans blood sweet yet I think it would be hard to finde a man that will profess to place his felicity in a cruel hazard So doth he that delights in warre and if no man for shame will be known to doe simply and directly so yet in effect men bewray this disposition if they be first osores pacis haters of peace as the Psalmist calls them Ps 120. 7. stubbornly repelling the fair motions and meet conditions thereof if secondly they take up slight and unjust causes of warre as it is noted by Suetonius of Julius Caesar which this Iland had experience of that he would refrain from no occasion of warre if never so unjust contrary to the better temper and resolution of wiser Romans then himself who would rather save one Subject then kill a thousand Enemies if thirdly they
who is infinitely careful for the good of his Church above all possible reaches of our desires but that we may be raised up to a meet capacity of Mercy God cannot hate his enemies or love his own ever the more upon our intreaties yet he will be sued to for the particular effects of both if ever we look to tast of his Mercy in either If we have not a heart to pray God hath not an hand to help So did God hate Amalek that he commanded it to be rooted out of the earth so did he love Israel as the apple of his eye Yet unless Moses hold up his hand Amalek shall prevail against Israel These are our best our surest weapons even our Prayers and blessed be God that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to seek his face in these powerful Humiliations We sought him against the Pestilence and prevailed almost miraculously against that destroying Angel why should we not hope to find him against unseasonable Clouds against the opposite powers of flesh and blood Here is your safety here is your assurance of victory O ye great Princes and Potentates of the earth if ye trust to the arm of flesh it will fail you Let your Navies be never so well rigg'd and mann'd let your Forces be never so strong and numberless let them have not onely hands and feet that is horsemen and footmen but a bulk of body too that is full substance of wealthy provision as the word of Flaminius was let your counsel be vigilant your munition ready your troops trained and valiant yet if there be not Devotion enough in our bosome to make God ours in vain shall we hope to stand before our enemies This onely whatsoever the profane heart of Atheous men may imagine this is the great Ordnance which can batter down the wals of our enemies yea the very black gates of Hell it self in comparison whereof all humane powers are but paper-shot Yea this is that Petar which onely can blow open the gates of Heaven and fetch down victory upon our heads and make us another thundring Legion What is it that made us so happily successful in Eighty eight beyond all hope beyond all conceit but the fervency of our humble Devotions That Invincible Navie came on dreadfully floating like a moving wood in the sight of our coast those vast Vessels were as so many lofty Castles raised on those liquid foundations Then straight as if those huge bottoms had been stuft with Tempests there was nothing but thunder and lightning and smoak and all the terrible apparitions of death We what did we we fought upon our knees both Prince and people Straight God fought for us from Heaven Our Prayers were the gale yea the gust that tore those mis-consecrated flags and sails and scattered and drencht those presumptuous piles and sent them into the bottom of the deep to be a Parlour for Whales and Sea-monsters There lay the Pride of Spain the Terrour of England And is the hand of our God shortned Is he other then what he was We may be as we are weakned and effeminated by a long luxurious peace Our God is yesterday and to day and the same for ever If we be not wanting to him in our Prayers he cannot be wanting to our Protection Look up to him O dear Christians that is the God of our Salvation Behold the Lions out of their reeds the Buls out of their forests and these in banded multitudes conspire against us and the mis-led Calves of the people are apt enough to back their attempts Neither is this a fair hostility our enemies are those that hate peace and delight in war offering insolent provocations to our State in dis-inheriting part of the Royal Issue violating their faiths maintaining their unjust affronts ambitiously aspiring to undue Soveraignty What shall we then doe O put not your trust in Princes nor in the sons of men whose breath is in their nostrils O put not your trust ye Princes and Peers in your sword in your bow in your powers and confederacies Trust onely to the great God of hoasts who alone can but blow upon all the proudest preparations of your enemies and scatter them to the lowest Hell Come to him in your humble devotions with an Increpa and Dissipa he shall soon make your enemies to lick the dust But what shall I say Honorable and Beloved we have pray'd and have not been heard and thou O Lord hast not of late gone forth with our hoasts yea thou hast rebuked us in stead of our enemies Alas we can more grieve then wonder at this issue Israel in the hot chace of all their victory is foiled more then once by a Canaanite Whence was this There was a pad in the straw an Achan in the camp Theft and Sacriledge fought against Israel more then the men of Ai the wedge of Gold wounded them more then the enemies steel the Babylonish garment disarmed and stripped them Israel had sinned and must flee Alas my brethren what do we pray for victory over our enemies when our sins which are our deadliest enemies conquer us To what purpose are our Prayers loud when our sins are louder to what purpose are our Bodies this day empty if our Souls be full of wickedness whiles we provoke God to his face with our abominable licentiousness with our fearful profanations with our outragious lives how do we think to glaver with him in our formal Devotions What care he for our smooth tongues when our hearts are filthy what cares he for an elevated eye when our Souls are depressed to vile lusts what cares he for the calves of our lips when the iniquity of our heels compasses us about The very Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord his very Prayer is turned into sin even that whereby he hopes to expiate it Oh that my people had hearkned to me and Israel had walked in my waies faith God I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves to him but their time should have endured for ever Psal 81. 13 14 15. Oh then cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double-minded wash your hands in innocence and then compass the Altar of God Then shall the God of our righteousness hear in his holy Heavens and rise up mightily for our defence then shall he be a wall of brass about our Iland then shall he wound the head of our enemies and make the tongues of our dogs red with their bloud then shall he cover our heads in the day of battel and make this Nation of ours victoriously glorious to the ends of the world even to all ages and times then shall he be known to be our God and we shall be known to be his people for ever Which he of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to grant us for the sake of the Son of his Love
thou suffer the world to be deluded with these foul and pernicious impostures how long shall thy Church groan under the heavie yoke of their sinful impositions O thou that art the great Shepherd look down and visit thy wandring flock and at last let loose those silly sheep of thine that are fast intangled in the briars of Antichristian exaction And we why do not we as heartily labour to reclaim them as they to withdraw us why should they burn with zeal whiles we freeze with indifferency Oh let us spend our selves in prayers in tears in perswasions in unweariable endevours for the happy conversion of those ignorant mis-guided souls who having not our knowledge yet shame our affections Of Indignation lastly as on the one side at those practical revolters that having begun in the spirit will needs end in the flesh that having made a shew of godliness deny the power of it in their lives returning with that impure beast to their own vomit so on the other at those speculative relapsers that have out of policy or guiltiness abandoned a known and received truth Pity is for those silly creatures that could never be blessed with Divine Reason and upright formes but for a Gryllus that was once a man to quit his humanity and to be in love with four feet what stomack can but rise at so affected a transformation The Cameleon is for a time beautiful with all pleasing varieties of colours in the end no skin is more nasty Wo is me the swept house is repossessed with seven Devils This recidivation is desperate although indeed there would not be a revolt without an inward unsoundness Do ye see an apple fall untimely from the tree view it ye shall finde it worm-eaten else it had held Avolent quantum volent paleoe istae levis fidei as that Father said Let this light chaffe flie whither it will it shews it to be but chaffe God's heap shall be so much the purer and in the mean time what do they make themselves fit for but the fire What shall we say to these absurd changes Our fore-fathers thought themselves in Heaven when first the bright beams of the Gospel brake forth in their eyes and shall we like those fond subterraneous people that Rubruquis speaks of curse those glorious beams of the Sun now risen up to us and lay our eares close to the ground that we may not hear the harmony of that motion Our Fathers blessed themselves in this Angelical Manna and shall our mouths hang towards the onions and garlick of Aegypt Revertimini filii aversantes Return ye backsliding children return to the fountains of living waters which ye have exchanged for your broken cisternes Recordamini priorum as Esay speaks 46. 9. But if their will do lie still in their way it were happy for them if authority would deal with them as confident riders do with a startling horse spur them up and bring them back to the block they leap'd from But if still their obstinacy will needs in spight of contrary endeavours feoffe them in the style of filii desertores it is a fearfull word that God speaks to them Vae eis quoniam vagantur à me Wo to them for they have wandered from me Ose 7. 13. Now the God of Heaven reclaim them confirm us save both them and us in the day of the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen St. PAUL'S COMBAT THE SECOND PART 1 Cor. 15. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Have carried you into S. Paul's Theatre at Ephesus I have shew'd you his Beasts you must now see his Fight It was his charge to Timothy that he should be an example know then that what he bids he practises It is an exemplary combat which S. Paul fought and that wherein we must follow him as Teachers as Christians Here he saies I have fought afterwards in imitation of him that saw his own works and approved them he saies I have fought a good fight doubtless as with principalities and powers elsewhere so even with these beasts at Ephesus Let it please you to see first the person of the combatant then secondly the manner of the fight In the former ye may not look at S. Paul as a common souldier but as a selected Champion of God not merely as Paul but as an Apostle as a publick person as the spiritual Leader of God's people so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fought with beasts There is no trained man in the whole troup of God but must have his bout with the beasts of the Time Vita hominis militia super terram we are here in a militant Church As we have all received our press-money in Baptisme so we must every one according to our ingagement maintain this fight against the world But if a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul singled out to a publick calling now he must think himself made for combats because for victories for Bellum durius contra victores as Gregory speaketh It was the charge of the Apostle that a Bishop should be no striker and Clericus percussor is an old brand of irregularity But if in this kind he strike not I must say of him as S. Paul to Ananias God shall smite thee thou whited wall All his whole life must be spent in these blows he must be as Jeremy speaks of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of strife and contention there is no beast comes in his way but he must have a fling at him When Gregory Nazianzen speaks of Basil designed to the Bishoprick of Caesarea If any man saith he pretend his weakness non athletem sed doctorem creabitis But in this spiritual sense if he be a Doctor in the Chair he must be a Champion in the Theatre No S. Martin may plead here I am Christs Souldier I may not fight yea therefore must he fight because he is Christs Souldier Whosoever then would be a fit combatant for God to enter into these lists against the beasts of the world must be a S. Paul in proportion so must he be a follower of him as he is of Christ Will it please you to see him first qualified then armed Qualified first with Holiness Skill Courage Holiness For he must be a man of God and as the Apostle charges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irreprehensible otherwise he is a beast himself and had need of some body to bait him Wo be to those Champions of God that take upon them to wield the sword of the Spirit with unclean hands That divine weapon is not so fit to wound any as their own Souls Ex ore tuo serve nequam Let me say truly It were an happy and hopeful thing that even our external and secular Wars should be managed with pure and innocent hands I shall tell you that which perhaps few of you have either
it be possible it may rise up no more Why do not we spend the whole quiver of Gods threatned vengeance upon wilful sinners And thus must we bait the beast Is it a Drunken beast we are committed with Wo to them that rise up early to follow strong drink Esa 5. 11. Wo to him that giveth his neighbour drink to make him drunk Abac. 2. 15. The cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned to that man vomitus ignominiosus ad gloriam verse 16. Oh it is a bitter cup this of the Lords right hand whereof he shall wring out the dregs unto that soul so as in stead of quaffing the excessive healths of others he shall drink up his own death and eternal confusion Is it a Gluttonous beast Wo to him his God is his belly his glory shall be in his shame and his end damnation Phil. 3. 19. Whiles the flesh is yet between his teeth ere it be chewed the wrath of the Lord is kindled against him Numb 11. 33. Yea but it goes down sweetly Oh fool the meat in thy belly shall be turned into the gall of Asps within thee Job 20. 14. Vae saturis Wo be to the full for they shall hunger they shall famish to death and dye famishing and live dying and have enough of nothing but fire and brimstone Is it a Ravenous beast a Covetous oppressour His tooth like a mad dogs envenomes and emphrensies so saith Solomon that knew the nature of all beasts Oppression makes a wise man mad Eccles. 7. 7. Tabifici sunt Ps 79. 7. Wo be to you that joyn house to house Es 5. 8. Wo be to the mighty sins of them whose treadings are upon the poor that afflict the just that take bribes and turn away the poor in the gates Amos 5. 11 12. Therefore the Lord the God of Hoasts saith thus Wailing shall be in all their streets and they shall say in all high-waies Alas alas verse 16. They have robbed their poor Tenants and oppressed the afflicted in the gate therefore the Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them Is it an Unclean beast Whoso committeth adultery with a woman destroyeth his own soul Prov. 6. 32. A fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease till he have kindled a fire Ecclus. 23. 16. His fire of lust flames up into a fire of disease and burns down into the fire of Hell Is it a Foul-mouth'd beast that bellows out Blasphemies and bloody Oaths There is a word that is cloathed about with death God grant it be not found in the heritage of Jacob Ecclus. 23. 12. A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity and the plague shall never depart from his house verse 11. Thus must we lay about us spiritu or is yea gladio spiritûs and let drive at the Beast of what kind soever But if we shall still find that which blind Homer saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the worse hath the better and that this spiritual edge shall either turn again or through our weak wieldance not enter the stubborn and thick hide of obdured hearts give me leave most Gracious Soveraign and ye honorable Peers to whom is committed the sword of either supreme or subordinate Justice to say that both God and the world expects that this Beast of sin should be baited by you in another fashion It is not for nothing that God hath set you so conspicuously in this great Amphitheatre where the eyes of Angels and men are bent upon you and that he hath given into your hands the powerful instruments of death If this pernicious beast dare contest with our weakness and oft-times leave us gasping and bleeding on this pavement yet we know that it cannot but fall under the power of your mercy yea your vengeance Oh let it please you to rouze up your brave and Princely spirits and to give the fatal blow to presumptuous wickedness If that monster of impious Sacriledge of atheous Profaneness of outragious Inordinateness dares lift up his hated head in the sight of this Sun let him be straight crushed with the weight of that Royal Scepter let him be hewn in pieces with the sharp sword of your Sacred Authority As we abound with wholesome Laws for the repressing of vice so let it please you in an holy zeal to revive their hearty and effectual execution that the precious Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we profess may not be either shamed or braved by insolent wickedness that Justice and Peace may flourish in our Land and that your Crown may long and happily flourish upon that Royal head until it shall receive a late and blessed exchange for a Crown of Glory and Immortality in the highest Heavens Amen THE OLD RELIGION A TREATISE Wherein Is laid down the true State of the difference betwixt the REFORMED and ROMANE CHURCH and the blame of this Schism is cast upon the true Authors Serving for the Vindication of our Innocence for the setling of wavering mindes for a Preservative against Popish Insinuations With an ADVERTISEMENT for such Readers as formerly stumbled at some passages in the Book By JOS. HALL B. of Exon. LONDON Printed by James Flesher in the year M DC LXI TO My new and dearly-affected CHARGE the Diocese of EXCESTER All Grace and Benediction THE truth of my heart gives me boldness to profess before him who onely knows it that the same God who hath called me to the over-sight of your Souls hath wrought in me a zealous desire of your Salvation This desire cannot but incite me to a careful prevention of those dangers which might threaten the disappointment of so happy an end Those Dangers are either Sins of Practice or Errours of Doctrine Against both these I have faithfully vowed my utmost endeavours I shall labour against the first by Preaching Example Censures wherein it shall be your choice to expect either the Rod or the Spirit of meekness Against the latter my Pen hath risen up in this early assault It hath been assured me that in this time of late Vacancie false Teachers catching the fore-lock of Occasion have been busie in scattering the tares of Errours amongst you I easily believe it since I know it is not in the power of the greatest vigilancie to hinder their attempts of evil Even a full See is no sufficient barre to crafty Seducers their Suggestions we cannot prevent their Success we may This I have here assay'd to doe bending my style against Popish Doctrine with such Christian moderation as may argue zeal without malice desire to win Souls no will to gall them And since the commonest of all the grounds of Romish deceit is the pretence of their Age and our Novelty and nothing doth more dazle the eyes of the simple then the name of our Fore-fathers and the challenge of a particular recital of our Professours before Luther's revolt I have I hope fully cleared this coast so
future Errours in blowing up the very grounds of these humane devices The First and main ground of both is the remainders of some temporal punishments to be pay'd after the guilt and eternal punishment remitted the driblets of Venial sins to be reckon'd for when the Mortal are defraied Hear what God saith I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Loe can the Letter be read that is blotted out Can there be a back-reckoning for that which shall not be remembred I have done away thy transgressions as a Cloud What sins can be lesse then transgressions What can be more clearly dispersed then a Cloud Wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Who can tell where the spot was when the skin is rinsed If we confesse our sins he is faithfull to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Loe he cleanseth us from the guilt and forgives the punishment What are our sins but debts What is the infliction of punishment but an exaction of payment What is our remission but a striking off that score And when the score is struck off what remains to pay Remitte debita Forgive our debts is our daily Prayer Our Saviour tells the Paralitick Thy sins are forgiven thee in the same words implying the removing of his Disease If the sin be gone the punishment cannot stay behinde We may smart by way of chastisement after the freest remission not by way of revenge for our amendment not for God's satisfaction The Second ground is a middle condition betwixt the state of eternal life and death of no lesse torment for the time then Hell it self whose flames may burn off the rust of our remaining sins the issues wherefrom are in the power of the great Pastor of the Church How did this escape the notice of our Saviour Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and comes not into judgment as the Vulgar it self terms it but is passed from death unto life Behold a present possession and immediate passage no judgement intervening no torment How was this hid from the great Doctor of the Gentiles who putting himself into the common case of the believing Corinthians professes We know that if once our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands eternall in the Heavens The dissolution of the one is the possession of the other here is no interposition of time of estate The Wise man of old could say The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them Upon their very going from us they are in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. John heard from the heavenly voice From their very dying in the Lord is their blessedness Sect. 3. Indulgences against Reason IT is absurd in Reason to think that God should forgive our Talents and arrest us for the odde Farthings Neither is it lesse absurd to think that any living soul can have superfluities of Satisfaction whenas all that man is capable to suffer cannot be sufficient for one and that the least sin of his own the wages whereof is eternall death or that those superfluities of humane satisfaction should piece up the infinite and perfectly-meritorious superabundance of the Son of God or that this supposed treasure of Divine and humane satisfactions should be kept under the key of some one sinfull man or that this one man who cannot deliver his own Soul from Purgatory no not from Hell it self should have power to free what others he pleaseth from those fearfull flames to the full Gaol-delivery of that direfull prison which though his great power can doe yet his no lesse charity will not doth not or that the same Pardon which cannot acquit a man from one hours tooth-ach should be of force to give his Soul ease from the temporary pains of another world Lastly Guilt and Punishment are Relatives and can no more be severed then a perfect forgivenesse and a remaining compensation can stand together This Doctrine therefore of Papal Indulgences as it led the way to the further discovery of the corruptions of the degenerated Church of Rome so it still continues justly branded with Noveltie and Errour and may not be admitted into our belief and we for rejecting it are unjustly refused CHAP. XII The Newness of Divine Service in an unknown tongue THat Prayers and other Divine offices should be done in a known tongue understood of the people is not more available to edification as their Cajetan liberally confesseth then consonant to the practice of all Antiquity insomuch as Lyranus freely In the Primitive Church blessings and all other services were done in the vulgar tongue What need we look back so far when even the Lateran Council which was but in the year 1215. under Innocent the third makes this Decree Quoniam in plerisque Because in many parts within the same City and Diocese people are mixed of divers languages having under one Faith divers Rites and fashions we strictly command that the Bishops of the said Cities or Dioceses provide fit and able men who according to the diversities of their Rites and Languages may celebrate Divine Services and administer the Sacraments of the Church to them instructing them both in word and example Cardinall Bellarmine's evasion is very grosse That in that place Innocentius and the Council speak only of the Greek and Latine tongue For then saith he Constantinople was newly taken by the Romanes by reason whereof there was in Greece a mixture of Greeks and Latines insomuch as they desired that in such places of frequence two Bishops might be allowed for the ordering of those several Nations Whereupon it was concluded that since it were no other then monstrous to appoint two Bishops unto one See it should be the charge of that one Bishop to provide such under him as should administer all holy things to the Grecians in Greek and in Latine to the Latines For who sees not that the Constitution is general Plerisque partibus for very many parts of the Christian world and Populi diversarum linguarum People of sundry languages not as Bellarmine cunningly diversae linguae of a diverse language And if these two only Languages had been meant why had it not been as easie to specifie them as to intimate them by so large a circumlocution The Synod is said to be universal comprehending all the Patriarchs seventy seven Metropolitans and the most eminent Divines of both East and West Churches to the number of at least 2212 persons or as some others 2285. besides the Embassadors of all Christian Princes of several Languages Now shall we think that there were in all their Territories and Jurisdictions no mixtures of inhabitants but only of Grecians and Romans or
our remedies Thus that learned Spaniard in an honest confession of the degenerate courses of the late Popes from the simple integrity of their Predecessors What should I adde unto these the presumptuous Dispensations with Vows and Oaths with the Laws of God himself with the Law of Nature a priviledge ordinarily both yielded and defended by flattering Canonists and that which meets with us at every turn in Hostiensis Archidiaconus Felinus Capistranus Triumphus Angelus de Clavasio Petrus de Ancorano Panormitan as is largely particularized by our learned Bishop of Derry Sect. V. The new challenge of Popes domineering over Kings and Emperours I May well shut up the Scene with that notorious Innovation of the Popes subducing himself from the due Obedience of his once-acknowledged Lord and Soveraign and endeavouring to reduce all those Imperiall powers to his homage and obedience The time was when Pope Gregory could say to Mauritius Vobis obedientiam praebere desidero I desire to give you due obedience and when Pope Leo came with cap and knee to Theodosius for a Synod to be called with Clementia vestra concedat as Cardinall Cusanus cites it from the History The time was when Nemo Apostolicae c. No man did offer to take upon him the steering of the Apostolick Bark till the authority of the Emperour had designed him as their Balbus out of their own law That of Pope Gregory is plain enough Ecce serenissimus c. Behold saith he speaking of his own advancement to the Bishoprick of Rome our gracious Lord the Emperor hath commanded an Ape to be made a Lion and surely at his command it may be called a Lion but it cannot be one so as he must needs lay all my faults and negligences not upon me but upon his own piety which hath committed this Ministery of power to so weak an Agent The time was when the Popes of Rome dated their Apostolick letters with the style of the reign of their Lords the Emperours now ever since Pope Paschal they care only to note the year of their own Apostleship or Papacy The time was when the holy Bishops of that See professed to succeed Saint Peter in homely simplicity in humble obedience in piety in zeale in preaching in tears in sufferings now since the case is altered the world sees and blushes at the change for now Quanta inter Solem Lunam c. Look how much the Sun is bigger then the Moon so much is the Papall power greater then the Imperiall now Papa est Dominus Imperatoris The Pope is the Emperours Lord saith their Capistranus and the Emperour is subject to the Pope as his minister or servant saith Triumphus and lest this should seem the fashionable word of some clawing Canonist only hear what Pope Adrian himself saith Unde habet c. Whence hath the Emperour his Empire but from us all that he hath he hath wholly from us Behold it is in our power to give it to whom we list And to the same purpose is that of Pope Innocent the Fourth Imperator est advocatus c. The Emperour is the Popes Advocate and swears to him and holds his Empire of him But perhaps this place is yet too high for an Emperour a lower will serve fit Canonicus c. The Emperor is of course made a Canon and brother of the Church of Lateran Yet lower he shall be the Sewer of his Holiness Table and set on the first dish and hold the Bason for his hands Yet lower he shall be the Train-bearer to the Pope in his walking Processions he shall be the Quirie of his Stable and hold his stirrup in getting upon his horse he shall be lastly his very Porter to carry his Holinesse on his shoulder And all this not out of will but out of duty Where now is Augustus ab Augendo as Almain derives him when he suffers himself thus to be diminished Although there is more wonder in the others exaltation Papae Men are too base to enter into comparison with him His authority is more then of the Saints in Heaven saith one yet more he excelleth the Angels in his Jurisdiction saith another yet more once The Pope seems to make one and the same Consistory with God himself and which comprehends all the rest Tu es omnia super omnia Thou art all and above all as the Council of Lateran under Julius Oh strange alteration that the great Commanders of the World should be made the drudges of their subjects That Order and Soveraignty should lose themselves in a pretence of Piety That the professed Successour of him that said Gold and silver have I none should thus trample upon Crowns That a poor silly Worm of the Earth should raise up it self above all that is called God and offer to crawle into the glorious Throne of Heaven CHAP. XVIII The Epilogue both of Exhortation and Apologie NOT to wearie my Reader with more particularities of Innovation let now all Christians know and be assured that such change as they sensibly finde in the Head they may as truly though not so visibly note in the Body of the Roman Church yea rather in that Soul of Religion which informeth both And if thereupon all our endeavour as we protest before God and his holy Angels hath been and is only to reduce Rome to it self that is to recall it to that original Truth Piety Sincerity which made it long famous through the World and happy how unjustly are we ejected persecuted condemned But if that Antient Mistress of the World shall stand upon the terms of her Honour and will needs plead the disparagement of her retractions and the age and authority of these her impositions let me have leave to shut up all with that worthy and religious contestation of Saint Ambrose with his Symmachus That eloquent Patron of Idolatry had pleaded hard for the old Rites of Heathenism and brings in Antient Rome speaking thus for her self Optimi principes c. Excellent Princes the Fathers of your Country reverence ye my years into which my pious Rites have brought me I will use the Ceremonies of my Ancestors neither can I repent me I will live after mine own fashion because I am free This Religion hath brought the World under the subjection of the Laws these sacred Devotions have driven Hannibal from our walls from our Capitol Have I been preserved for this that in mine old age I should be reproved Say that I did see what were to be altered yet late and shamefull is the amendment of age To which that holy Father no lesse wittily and elegantly answers by way of retortion bringing in Rome to speak thus rather I am not ashamed in mine old age to be a Convert with all the rest of the World It is surely true that in no age it
is too late to learn Let that old age blush that cannot mend it self It is not the gravity of years but of manners that deserves praise It is no shame to goe to the better And when Symmachus urges Majorum servandus est ritus We must observe the Rites of our forefathers Dicant igitur saith Saint Ambrose Let them as well say that all things should remain in their own imperfect Principles that the World once overcovered with darknesse offends in being shined upon by the glorious brightnesse of the Sun And how much more happy is it to have dispelled the darknesse of the Soul then of the body to be shined upon by the beams of Faith then of the Sun Thus he most aptly to the present occasion whereto did that blessed Father now live he would doubtlesse no lesse readily apply it Nec erubescas mutare sententiam Never blush to change Ruffinus never blush to change your minde you are not of such authority as that you should be ashamed to confesse you have erred Oh that this meek ingenuity could have found place in that once-famous and Orthodox Church of Christ how had the whole Christian World been as a City at unity in it self and triumphed over all the proud hostilities of Paganism But since we may not be so happy we must sit down and mourn for our desolations for our divisions In the mean time we wash our hands in innocence There are none of all these instanced particulars besides many more wherein the Church of Rome hath not sensibly erred in corrupt additions to the Faith so as herein we may justly before Heaven and earth warrant our disagreement of judgment from her The rest is their act and not ours we are mere patients in this schism and therefore goe because we are driven That we hold not Communion with that Church the fault is theirs who both have deserved this strangenesse by their Errours and made it by their Violence Contrary to that rule which Cato in Tully gives of unpleasing Friendship they have not ript it in the seam but torn it in the whole cloth Perhaps I shall seem unto some to have spoken too mildly of the estate of that debauched Church There are that stand upon a mere nullity of her Being not resting in a bare depravation For me I dare not goe so far If she be foul if deadly diseased as she is these qualities cannot utterly take off her Essence or our relations Our Divines indeed call us out of Babylon and we run so as here is an actuall separation on our parts True but from the Corruptions wherein there is a true confusion not from the Church Their very charge implies their limitation as it is Babylon we must come out of it as it is an outward visible Church we neither did nor would This Dropsie that hath so swoln up the body doth not make it cease to be a true body but a sound one The true Principles of Christianity which it maintains maintain life in that Church the Errours which it holds together with those Principles struggle with that life and threaten an extinction As it is a visible Church then we have not detracted to hold Communion with it though the contemptuous repulse of so many admonitions have deserved our alienation as Babylon we can have nothing to doe with it Like as in the course of our life we freely converse with those men in civil affairs with whom we hate to partake in wickednesse But will not this seem to savour of too much indifferency What need we so vehemently labour to draw from either part and triumph in winning Proselytes and give them for lost on either side and brand them for Apostates that are won away if which way soever we fall we cannot light out of a true visible Church of Christ what such necessity was there of Martyrdome what such danger of relapses if the Church be with both Let these Sophisters know that true Charity needs not abate any thing of zeal If they be acquainted with the just value of Truth they shall not enquire so much into the Persons as into the Cause Whatever the Church be if the Errours be damnable our blood is happily spent in their impugnation and we must rather chuse to undergoe a thousand deaths then offend the Majesty of God in yielding to a known falshood in Religion neither doth the outward Visibility of the Church abate ought of the hainousnesse of mis-opinions or the vehemence of our oppositions Were it Saint Peter himself if he halt in Judaizing Saint Paul must resist him to his face neither is his fault lesse because an Apostles yea let me say more Were the Church of Rome and ours lay'd upon severall Foundations these Errours should not be altogether so detestable since the symbolizing in many Truths makes grosse Errours more intolerable as the Samaritan Idolatry was more odious to the Jewes then merely Paganish If the dearest daughter of God upon earth should commit spirituall whoredome her uncleannesse is so much more to be hated as her obligations were greater Oh the glorious crowns therefore of those blessed Martyrs of ours who rather gave their bodies to be burnt to ashes then they would betray any parceâ—l of Divine Truth Oh the wofull and dangerous condition of those Souls which shutting their eyes against so clear a light either willingly sit down in palpable darkness or fall back from the sincerity of the Gospel into these miserable enormities both of Practice and Doctrine It is not for me to judge them that I leave unto that high and awfull Tribunal before which I shall once appear with them But this I dare say that if that righteous Judge shall punish either their obstinacy or relapses with eternal damnation he cannot but be justified in his judgements whiles in the midst of their torments they shall be forced to say Thou O God art just in all that is befaln us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly For us as we would save our Souls let us carefully preserve them from the contagion of Romish Superstition let us never fear that our discretion can hate Errour too much let us awaken our holy zeal to a serious and servent opposition joyned with a charitable endeavour of reclamation shortly let us hate their Opinions strive against their Practice pity their mis-guiding neglect their censures labour their recovery pray for their Salvation AN APOLOGETICAL ADVERTISEMENT to the READER Reader Nothing can be so well said or done but may be ill taken Whiles I thus sincerely plead for Truth the well-meaning ignorance of some mistakers hath passed as deep as unjust censures upon me as if Preferment had changed my note and taught me to speak more plausible language concerning the Roman Church then I either did or ought Wherein as I pity their Uncharitablenesse so I earnestly desire to rectifie their Judgement lest their prejudice may turn more
better for themselves would to God they were theirs as well in true use as in possession It was an ill descant that a nimble Papist made upon those words of Luther which yield them the kernel of Christianity If we have the kernel saith he let them take the shell Soft friend you are too witty Luther did not give you the kernell and reserve us the shell He yielded you both kernell and shell such as it is but the shell rotten the kernell worm-eaten Make much of your kernell but as you have used it it is but a bitter morsel swallow that if you please and save the shell in your pocket Neither think to goe away with an idle misprision We are a true visible Church what need we more why should we wish to be other then we are Alas poor souls a true Visibility may and doth stand with a false Belief Ye may be of a true visible Church and yet never the nearer to Heaven It is your interest in the true mysticall body of Christ that must save your Souls not in the outwardly visible your Errours may be and are no less damnable for that ye are by outward profession Christians yea so much the more Woe is me your danger is more visible then your Church If ye persist wilfully in these gross Corruptions which do by consequent raze that foundation which ye profess to lay ye shall be no less visible spectacles of the wrath of that just God whose Truth and Spirit ye have so stubbornly resisted The God of Heaven open your eyes to see the glorious light of his Truth and draw your hearts to the love of it and make your Church as truely sound as it is truly visible Thus in a desire to stand but so right as I am in all honest judgements I have made this speedy and true Apologie beseeching all Readers in the fear of God before whose bar we shall once give an account of all our overlashings to judge wisely and uprightly of what I have written in a word to doe me but justice in their opinions and when I beg it favour Farewell Reader and God make us Wise and Charitable THE RECONCILER AN EPISTLE PACIFICATORY Of the seeming Differences of Opinion concerning the Trueness and Visibility of the Roman Church By JOS. EXON TO THE Right Honourable and Truly Religious My singular good Lord EDWARD Earl of NORWICH My ever Honoured Lord I Confess my Charity led me into an Errour Your Lordship well knows how apt I am to be overtaken with these better deceits of an over-kinde credulity I had thought that any dash of my Pen in a sudden and easie advertisement might have served to have quitted that ignorant Scandal which was cast upon my mistaken Assertion of the true Visibility of the Romane Church The issue proves all otherwise I finde to my grief that the misunderstanding tenacity of some zealous spirits hath made it a quarrel It cannot but trouble me to see that the Position which is so familiarly current with the best Reformed Divines and which hath been so oft and long since published by me without contradiction yea not without the approbation and applause of the whole representative body of the Clergy of this Kingdom should now be quarrelled and drawn into the detestation of those that know it not As one therefore that should think it corrosive enough that any occasion should be taken by ought of mine to ravell but one thred of that seamless Coat I do earnestly desire by a more full explication to give clear satisfaction to all Readers and by this seasonable Reconcilement to stop the flood-gates of contention I know it will not be unpleasing to your Lordship that through your Honourable and Pious hands these welcome Papers should be transmitted to many Wherein I shall first beseech yea adjure all Christians under whose eyes they shall fall by the dreadful Name of that God who shall judge both the quick and the dead to lay aside all unjust Prejudices and to allow the words of Truth and Peace I dare confidently say Let us be understood and we are agreed The Searcher of all hearts knows how far it was from my thoughts to speak ought in favour of the Romane Synagogue If I have not sufficiently branded that Strumpet I justly suffer Luther's broad word is by me already both safely construed and sufficiently vindicated But do you not say It is a true visible Church Do you not yield some kinde of Communion with these clients of Antichrist What is if this be not Favour Mark well Christian Reader and the Lord give thee understanding in all things To begin with the latter No man can say but the Church of Rome holds some Truths those Truths are God's and in his right ours why should not we challenge our own wheresoever we find it If a very Devil shall say of Christ Thou art the Son of the living God we will snatch this Truth out of his mouth as usurped and in spight of him proclaim it for our own Indeed there is no communion betwixt light and darkness but there is communion betwixt light and light Now all Truth is Light and therefore symbolizeth with it self With that light therefore whose glimmering yet remains in their darkness our clearer light will and must hold communion If they profess Three Persons in one Godhead Two Natures in one Person of Christ shall we detrect to joyn with them in this Christian Verity We abhor to have any Communion with them in their Errours in their Idolatrous or Superstitious practices these are their own not ours If we durst have taken their part in these this breach had not been Now who can but say that we must hate their evil and allow their good It is no countenance to their Errours that we imbrace our own Truths it is no disparagement to our Truths that they have blended them with their Errours Here can be no difference then if this Communion be not mistaken No man will say that we may sever from their common Truths no man will say that we may joyn with them in their hateful Errours For the former He that saith a Thief is truly a man doth he therein favour that Thief He that saith a diseased dropsied dying body is a true though corrupt body doth he favour that Disease or that living carkass It is no other no more that I say of the Church of Rome Trueness of Being and outward Visibility are no praise to her yea these are aggravations to her falshood The advantage that is both sought and found in this Assertion is onely ours as we shall see in the sequel without any danger of their gain I say then that she is a True Church but I say withall she is a false Church True in Existence but false in Belief Let not the homonymie of a word breed jarres where the sense is accorded If we do not yield her the true Being of a Church why do we
deliver thou my Soul from their crafty ambushes their poison is greater their webs both more strong and more insensibly woven Either teach me to avoid Tentation or make me to break through it by Repentance Oh let me not be a prey to those Fiends that lie in wait for my destruction XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine SUch is my best condition in this life If the Sun of Gods Countenance shine upon me I may well be content to be wet with some Rain of Affliction How oft have I seen the Heaven overcast with Clouds and Tempest no Sun appearing to comfort me yet even those gloomy and stormy seasons have I rid out patiently only with the help of the common light of the day at last those beams have broken forth happily and cheared my Soul It is well for my ordinary state if through the mists of mine own dulness and Satans Tentations I can descry some glimpse of Heavenly comfort let me never hope while I am in this Veile to see the clear face of that Sun without a showre such Happiness is reserved for above that upper Region of Glory is free from these doubtfull and miserable vicissitudes There O God we shall see as we are seen Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart XVII Upon the Length of the way HOW far off is yonder great mountain My very eye is weary with the foresight of so great a distance yet time and patience shall overcome it this night we shall hope to lodge beyond it Some things are more tedious in their exspectation then in their performance The comfort is that every step I take sets me nearer to my end When I once come there I shall both forget how long it now seems and please my self to look back upon the way that I have measured It is thus in our passage to Heaven My weak nature is ready to faint under the very conceit of the length and difficulty of this Journey my eye doth not more guide then discourage me Many steps of Grace and true Obedience shall bring me insensibly thither Only let me move and hope and God's good leisure shall perfect my Salvation O Lord give me to possesse my Soul with patience and not so much to regard speed as certainty When I come to the top of thine Holy hill all these weary paces and deep sloughs shall either be forgotten or contribute to my Happinesse in their remembrance XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters WHat a sensible interchange there is in Nature betwixt union and division Many Vapours rising from the Sea meet together in one Cloud that cloud falls down divided into several Drops those drops run together and in many rills of water meet in the same Chanels those chanels run into the Brook those brooks into the Rivers those rivers into the Sea one receptacle is for all though a large one and all make back to their first and main originall So it either is or should be with Spiritual Gifts O God thou distillest thy Graces upon us not for our reservation but conveyance those manifold Faculties thou lettest fall upon several men thou wouldst not have drenched up where they light but wouldst have derived through the chanels of their special vocations into the common streams of publick Use for Church or Common-wealth Take back O Lord those few drops thou hast rained upon my Soul and return them into that great Ocean of the Glory of thine own Bounty from whence they had their beginning XIX Upon the same Subject MAny Drops fill the Chanels and many chanels swell up the Brooks and many brooks raise the Rivers over the banks the Brooks are not out till the Chanels be empty the Rivers rise not whiles the small Brooks are full but when the little Rivulets have once voided themselves into the main streams then all is overflown Great matters arise from small beginnings many littles make up a large bulk Yea what is the World but a composition of atomes We have seen it thus in Civil Estates the empairing of the Commons hath oft been the raising of the Great their streams have run low till they have been heightned by the confluence of many private inlets Many a mean chanell hath been emptied to make up their inundation Neither is it otherwise in my whether outward or Spiritual condition O God thou hast multiplied my drops into streams As out of many Minutes thou hast made up my Age so out of many Lessons thou hast made up my competency of Knowledge thou hast drained many beneficient friends to make me competently Rich by many holy motions thou hast wrought me to some measure of Grace Oh teach me wisely and moderately to injoy thy Bounty and to reduce thy streams into thy drops and thy drops into thy clouds humbly and thankfully acknowledging whence and how I have all that I have all that I am XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in WHat a change there is in the room since the Light came in yea in our selves All things seem to have a new form a new life yea we are not the same we were How goodly a creature is Light how pleasing how agreeable to the spirits of man No visible thing comes so near to the resembling of the nature of the Soul yea of the God that made it As contrarily what an uncomfortable thing is Darknesse insomuch as we punish the greatest malefactors with obscurity of Dungeons as thinking they could not be miserable enough if they might have the priviledge of beholding the Light Yea Hell it self can be no more horribly described then by outward Darkness What is Darkness but absence of Light The pleasure or the horror of light or darkness is according to the quality and degree of the cause whence it ariseth And if the light of a poor Candle be so comfortable which is nothing but a little inflamed aire gathered about a moistened snuffe what is the light of the glorious Sun the great lamp of Heaven But much more what is the light of that infinitely-resplendent Sun of Righteousnesse who gave that light to the Sun that Sun to the world And if this partial and imperfect Darkness be so dolefull which is the privation of a natural or artificial Light how unconceivable dolorous and miserable shall that be which is caused through the utter absence of the all-glorious God who is the Father of lights O Lord how justly do we pity those wretched Souls that sit in darkness and the shadow of death shut up from the light of the saving knowledge of thee the only true God But how am I swallowed up with horror to think of the fearfull condition of those damned Souls that are for ever shut out from the presence of God and adjudged to exquisite everlasting darkness The Egyptians were weary of themselves in their three daies darkness yet we do not finde any pain that accompanied their continuing night What
shall we say to those wofull Souls in whom the sensible presence of infinite torment shall meet with the torment of the perpetual absence of God O thou who art the true Light shine ever through all the blinde corners of my Soul and from these weak glimmerings of Grace bring me to the perfect brightness of thy Glory XXI Upon the same occasion AS well as we love the Light we are wont to salute it at the first coming in with winking or closed eyes as not abiding to see that without which we cannot see All sudden changes though to the better have a kinde of trouble attending them By how much more excellent any Object is by so much more is our weak sense mis-affected in the first apprehending of it O Lord if thou shouldest manifest thy glorious presence to us here we should be confounded in the sight of it How wisely how mercifully hast thou reserved that for our glorified estate where no infirmity shall dazle our eyes where perfect Righteousness shall give us perfect boldness both of sight and fruition XXII Upon the blowing of the Fire WE beat back the flame not with a purpose to suppresse it but to raise it higher and to diffuse it more Those Afflictions and repulses which seem to be discouragements are indeed the mercifull incitements of Grace If God did mean Judgment to my Soul he would either withdraw the fuell or powr water upon the fire or suffer it to languish for want of new motions but now that he continues to me the means and opportunities and desires of good I shall misconstrue the intentions of my God if I shall think his crosses sent rather to damp then to quicken his Spirit in me O God if thy bellows did not sometimes thus breath upon me in spiritual repercussions I should have just cause to suspect my estate those few weak gleeds of Grace that are in me might soon goe out if they were not thus refreshed Still blow upon them till they kindle still kindle them till they flame up to thee XXIII Upon the barking of a Dog WHat have I done to this Dog that he follows me with this angry clamour Had I rated him or shaken my staffe or stooped down for a stone I had justly drawn on this noise this snarling importunity But why do I wonder to finde this unquiet disposition in a brute creature when it is no news with the reasonable Have I not seen Innocence and Merit bayed at by the quarrelsome and envious Vulgar without any provocation save of good offices Have I not felt more then their tongue their teeth upon my heels when I know I have deserved nothing but fawning on Where is my Grace or spirits if I have not learned to contemn both O God let me rather die then willingly incur thy displeasure yea then justly offend thy godly-wise judicious conscionable servants but if humor or faction or causelesse prejudice fall upon me for my faithfull service to thee let these bawling cuts tire themselves and tear their throats with loud and false censures I goe on in a silent constancy and if my ear be beaten yet my heart shall be free XXIV Upon sight of a Cock-fight HOW fell these creatures out Whence grew this so bloody combate Here was neither old grudge nor present injurie What then is the quarrell Surely nothing but that which should rather unite and reconcile them one common nature they are both of one feather I do not see either of them flie upon creatures of different kindes but whiles they have peace with all others they are at war with themselves the very sight of each other was sufficient provocation If this be the offence why doth not each of them fall out with himself since he hates and revenges in another the being of that same which himself is Since Man's sin brought Debate into the World Nature is become a great quarreller The seeds of discord were scattered in every furrow of the Creation and came up in a numberlesse variety of Antipathies whereof yet none is mote odious and deplorable then those which are betwixt creatures of the same kinde What is this but an image of that wofull hostility which is exercised betwixt us Reasonables who are conjoyned in one common Humanity if not Religion We fight with and destroy each other more then those creatrures that want Reason to temper their Passions No Beast is so cruell to man as himself where one man is slain by a beast ten thousand are slain by man What is that War which we study and practise but the art of killing Whatever Turks and Pagans may doe O Lord how long shall this brutish fury arm Christians against each other whiles even Devils are not at enmity with themselves but accord in wickedness why do we men so mortally oppose each other in good O thou that art the God of Peace compose the unquiet hearts of men to an happy and universal Concord and at last refresh our Souls with the multitude of Peace XXV Upon his lying down to rest WHat a circle there is of humane actions and events We are never without some change and yet that change is without any great variety we sleep and wake and wake and sleep and eat and evacuate labour in a continual interchange yet hath the infinite Wisedome of God so ordered it that we are not weary of these perpetual iterations but with no lesse appetite enter into our daily courses then if we should passe them but once in our life When I am weary of my daies labour how willingly do I undresse my self and betake my self to my bed and ere morning when I have wearied my restlesse bed how glad am I to rise and renew my labour Why am I not more desirous to be unclothed of this body that I may be clothed upon with Immortality What is this but my closest garment which when it is once put off my Soul is at liberty and ease Many a time have I lyen down here in desire of rest and after some tedious changing of sides have risen sleeplesse disappointed languishing In my last uncasing my Body shall not fail of repose nor my Soul of joy and in my rising up neither of them shall fail of Glory What hinders me O God but my Infidelity from longing for this happy dissolution The world hath misery and toil enough and Heaven hath more then enough Blessedness to perfect my desires of that my last and glorious change I believe Lord help my unbelief XXVI Upon the kindling of a Charcole fire THere are not many Creatures but do naturally affect to diffuse and inlarge themselves Fire and Water will neither of them rest contented with their own bounds those little sparks that I see in those coals how they spread and enkindle their next brands It is thus morally both in good and evil either of them dilates it self to their Neighbourhood but especially this is so much more apparent in evil by
and seek to my window in the hardest Frost There is no triall of Friendship but Adversity He that is not ashamed of my bonds not daunted with my checks not aliened with my disgrace is a Friend for me One dram of that mans Love is worth a world of false and inconstant formality XXXIV Upon the sight of a Flie burning it self in the Candle WIse Solomon sayes the Light is a pleasant thing and so certainly it is but there is no true outward Light which proceeds not from Fire The light of that fire then is not more pleasing then the fire of that light is dangerous and that pleasure doth not more draw on our sight then that danger forbids our approach How foolish is this Flie that in a love and admiration of this light will know no distance but puts it self heedlesly into that flame wherein it perishes How many bouts it fetcht every one nearer then other ere it made this last venture and now that mercilesse fire taking no notice of the affection of an over-fond Client hath suddenly consumed it Thus doe those bold busie Spirits who will needs draw too near unto that inaccessible light and look into things too wonderfull for them So long do they hover about the secret Counsels of the Almighty till the wings of their presumptuous conceits be scorched and their daring Curiosity hath paid them with everlasting destruction O Lord let me be blessed with the knowledge of what thou hast revealed let me content my self to adore thy Divine Wisdome in what thou hast not revealed so let me enjoy thy Light that I may avoid thy Fire XXXV Upon the â—ight of a Lark flying up HOw nimbly doth that little Lark mount up singing towards Heaven in a right line whereas the Hawk which is stronger of body swifter of wing towres up by many graduall compasses to his highest pitch That bulk of body and length of wing hinders a direct ascent and requires the help both of aire and scope to advance his flight whiles that small bird cuts the aire without resistance and needs no outward furtherance of her motion It is no otherwise with the Souls of men in flying up to their Heaven some are hindred by those powers which would seem helps to their soaring up thither great Wit deep Judgement quick Apprehension send men about with no small labour for the recovery of their own incumbrance whiles the good affections of plain and simple souls raise them up immediatly to the fruition of God Why should we be proud of that which may slacken our way to Glory why should we be disheartned with the small measure of that the very want whereof may as the heart may be affected facilitate our way to Happiness XXXVI Upon the singing of the Birds in a Spring morning HOw chearfully do these little Birds chirp and sing out of the naturall joy they conceive at the approach of the Sun and entrance of the Spring as if their life had departed and returned with those glorious and comfortable beams No otherwise is the penitent and faithfull Soul affected to the true Sun of Righteousnesse the Father of lights When he hides his face it is troubled and silently mourns away that sad Winter of Affliction when he returns in his presence is the fulnesse of joy no Song is chearfull enough to welcome him O thou who art the God of all consolation make my heart sensible of the sweet comforts of thy gracious presence and let my mouth ever shew forth thy praise XXXVII Upon a Coal covered with Ashes NOthing appears in this heap but dead Ashes here is neither light nor smoak nor heat and yet when I stir up these embers to the bottome there are found some living gleeds which do but contain fire and are apt to propagate it Many a Christians breast is like this hearth no life of Grace appears there for the time either to his owne sense or to the apprehension of others whiles the season of Temptation lasteth all seems cold and dead yet still at the worst there is a secret coal from the Altar of Heaven rak'd up in their bosome which upon the gracious motions of the Almighty doth both bewray some remainders of that Divine fire and is easily raised to a perfect flame Nothing is more dangerous then to judge by appearances Why should I deject my self or censure others for the utter extinction of that Spirit which doth but hide it self in the Soul for a glorious advantage XXXVIII Upon the sight of a Blackmore LOE there is a man whose hue shews him to be far from home his very skin bewrays his Climate it is night in his face whiles it is day in ours What a difference there is in men both in their fashion and colour and yet all Children of one Father Neither is there lesse variety in their insides their Dispositions Judgements Opinions differ as much as their Shapes and Complexions That which is Beauty to one is Deformity to another We should be look'd upon in this mans Country with no lesse wonder and strange coynesse then he is here our Whitenesse would passe there for an unpleasing indigestion of form Outward Beauty is more in the eye of the beholder then in the face that is seen in every Colour that is fair which pleaseth The very Spouse of Christ can say I am black but comely This is our colour Spiritually yet the eye of our gracious God and Saviour can see that Beauty in us wherewith he is delighted The true Moses marries a Black-more Christ his Church It is not for us to regard the skin but the Soul If that be innocent pure holy the blots of an out-side cannot set us off from the love of him who hath said Behold thou art fair my Sister my Spouse if that be foul and black it is not in the power of an Angelicall brightnesse of our hide to make us other then a loathsome eye-sore to the Almighty O God make my inside lovely to thee I know that beauty will hold whiles weather casualty age disease may deforme the outer man and marre both colour and feature XXXIX Upon the small Stars in the Galaxie or milkie Circle in the Firmament WHat a clear lightsomnesse there is in yonder Circle of the Heaven above the rest What can we suppose the reason of it but that the light of many smaller Stars is united there and causes that constant brightness And yet those small Stars are not discerned whiles the splendor which ariseth from them is so notably remarkable In this lower Heaven of ours many a man is made conspicuous by his good qualities and deserts but I most admire the Humility and Grace of those whose Vertues and Merits are usefully visible whiles their Persons are obscure It is secretly glorious for a man to shine unseen Doubtlesse it is the height that makes those Stars so small and invisible were they lower they would be seen more There is no true
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make
me thus imperfectly happy before my time that when my time shall be no more I may be perfectly happy with thee in all Eternity XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted WIth what noise and tumult and zeal of solemn Justice is this sin punished The Streets are not more full of beholders then clamors Every one strives to expresse his detestation of the fact by some token of revenge one casts Mire another Water another rotten Egges upon the miserable offender neither indeed is she worthy of lesse but in the mean time no man looks home to himself It is no uncharity to say that too many insult in this just Punishment who have deserved more Alas we men value sins by the outward Scandall but the Wise and Holy God against whom onely our sins are done esteems them according to the intrinsecal Iniquity of them and according to the secret violation of his Will and Justice thus those Sins which are slight to us are to him hainous We ignorants would have rung David's Adultery with Basons but as for his numbring of the people we should have past it over as venial the wise Justice of the Almighty found more wickedness in this which we should scarce have accused Doubtlesse there is more mischief in a secret Infidelity which the World either cannot know or cares not to censure then in the foulest Adultery Publick sins have more Shame private may have more Guilt If the world cannot charge me of those it is enough that I can charge my Soul of worse Let others rejoice in these publick Executions let me pity the sins of others and be humbled under the sense of my own XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose SMelling is one of the meanest and least usefull of the Senses yet there is none of the Five that receives or gives so exquisite a contentment as it Methinks there is no earthly thing that yields so perfect a pleasure to any Sense as the odour of the first Rose doth to the Sent. It is the Wisdome and Bounty of the Creator so to order it that those Senses which have more affinity with the body and with that earth whereof it is made should receive their delight and contentation by those things which are bred of the earth but those which are more sprightfull and have more affinity with the Soul should be reserved for the perfection of their pleasure to another world There and then only shall my Sight make my Soul eternally blessed XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. WHiles this Obligation was in force I was in servitude to my parchment my Bond was double to a Payment to a Penalty now that is discharged what is it better then a wast scroll regarded for nothing but the witness of its own voidance and nullity No otherwise is it with the severe Law of my Creator Out of Christ it stands in full force and bindes me over either to perfect Obedience which I cannot possibly perform or to exquisite torment and eternall Death which I am never able to indure but now that my Saviour hath fastened it cancelled to his Cross in respect of the rigour and malediction of it I look upon it as the monument of my past danger and bondage I know by it how much was owed by me how much was payed for me The direction of it is everlasting the obligation by it unto death is frustrate I am free from Curse who never can be free from Obedience O Saviour take thou Glory and give me Peace XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea THe Earth and the Water are both of them great givers and both great takers As they give matter and sustentation to all Sublunary creatures so they take all back again insatiably devouring at last the fruits of their own wombs Yet of the two the Earth is both more beneficial and lesse cruell for as that yields us the most generall maintenance and wealth and supportation so it doth not lightly take ought from us but that which we resign over to it and which naturally falls back unto it Whereas the Water as it affords but a small part of our livelihood and some few knacks of ornament so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours and to bereave that which it never gave it yields us no precious Metalls and yet in an instant fetches away millions And yet notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it how many do we daily see that might have firm ground under them who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the Sea Yea how many that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwrack will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty Element O God how venturous we are where we have reason to distrust how incredulously fearfull where we have cause to be confident Who ever relied upon thy gracious Providence and sure Promises O Lord and hath miscarried Yet here we pull in our Faith and make excuses for our Diffidence And if Peter have tried those waves to be no other then solid pavement under his feet whiles his Soul trod confidently yet when a billow and a winde agree to threaten him his Faith flags and he begins to sink O Lord teach me to doubt where I am sure to finde nothing but uncertainty and to be assuredly confident where there can be no possibility of any cause of doubting XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars I Cannot blame Empedocles if he professed a desire to live upon earth only that he might behold the face of the Heavens surely if there were no other this were a sufficient errand for a mans being here below to see and observe these goodly Spangles of Light above our heads their places their quantities their motions But the employment of a Christian is far more noble and excellent Heaven is open to him and he can look beyond the veil and see further above those Stars then it is thither and there discern those Glories that may answer so rich a pavement Upon the clear sight whereof I cannot but wonder if the chosen Vessel desired to leave the earth in so happy an exchange O God I blesse thine Infiniteness for what I see with these bodily eyes but if thou shalt but draw the curtain and let me by the eye of Faith see the inside of that thy Glorious frame I shall need no other Happiness here My Soul cannot be capable of more favour then Sight here and Fruition hereafter XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars GOod Lord what a shambles is Christendome become of late How are men killed like flies and blood poured out like water Surely the cruelty and ambition of the Great have an heavy reckoning to make for so many thousand Souls I condemn not just Arms those are as necessary as the unjust are hatefull even Michael and his Angels fight and the style of God is the Lord of Hoasts But wo be to the man by whom the offence
now nothing but a ball of pricks to wound his jaws and goes away crying from so untoothsome a prey He that sent the Sluggard to school to the Pismire sends also in effect the Carelesse and imprudent man to the Hedg-hog whiles he saith If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self The main care of any creature is self-preservation whatsoever doth that best is the wisest These creatures that are all body have well improved the instincts of Nature if they can provide for their bodily safety Man that is a reasonable Soul shall have done nothing if he make not sure work for the better part O God make me Soule-wise I shall never envy their craft that pity my simplicity CXXIV Upon the sight of a Goat THis creature is in an ill name it is not for any good qualities that God hath made choice of the Goat to resemble the wicked and reprobate Soul It is unruly and salacious and noisome I cannot see one of them but I presently recall to my thoughts the wofull condition of those on the left hand whom God hath set aside to so fearfull a Damnation They are here mixed with the Flock their colour differs nothing from the Sheep or if we do discern them by their rougher coat and odious sent we sever our selves from them but the time shall come when he shall sever them from us who hath appointed our innocency to the fold and their harmfulnesse to an everlasting slaughter Onwards if they climbe higher then we and feed upon those craggy clifts which we dare scarce reach to with our eyes their boldnesse is not greater then their danger neither is their ascent more perilous then their ruine deadly CXXV Upon the sight of the Blinde and the Lame HEre is a true naturall commerce of Senses The Blinde man hath Legs the Lame man hath Eyes the Lame man lends his Eyes to the Blinde the Blinde man lends his Legs to the Lame and now both of them move where otherwise both must sit still and perish It is hard to say whether is more beholden to other the one gives Strength the other Direction both of them equally necessary to motion Though it be not in other cases so sensible yet surely this very traffick of Faculties is that whereby we live neither could the world subsist without it one man lends a Brain another an Arme one a Tongue another an Hand He that knows wherefore he made all hath taken order to improve every part to the benefit of the whole What do I wish ought that is not usefull And if there be any thing in me that may serve to the good of others it is not mine but the Churches I cannot live but by others it were injurious if others should not likewise share with me CXXVI Upon the sight of a Map of the World WHat a poor little spot is a Countrey A man may hide with his thumb the great Territories of those that would be accounted Monarchs In vain should the great Cham or the great Mogul or Prester John seek here for his Court it is well if he can finde his Kingdome amongst these parcels And if we take all together these shreds of Islands and these patches of Continent what a mere indivisible point they are in comparison of that vast circle of Heaven wherewith they are incompassed It is not easie for a man to be known to that whole Land wherein he lives but if he could be so famous the next Countrey perhaps never hears of his Name and if he can attain to be talked of there yet the remoter parts cannot take notice that there is such a thing and if they did all speak of nothing else what were he the better Oh the narrow bounds of earthly Glory Oh the vain affectation of humane applause Only that man is happily famous who is known and recorded in Heaven CXXVII Upon the sight of Hemlock THere is no creature of it self evil misapplication may make the best so and there is a good use to be made of the worst This Weed which is too well proved to be poisonous yet to the Goat is medicinall as serving by the coldnesse of it to temper the feverous heat of that beast So we see the Marmoset eating of Spiders both for pleasure and cure Our ignorance may not bring a scandall upon Gods workmanship or if it do his Wisdome knows how to make a good use even of our injury I cannot say but the very venome of the creatures is to excellent purpose how much more their beneficiall qualities If ought hurt us the fault is ours in mistaking the evil for good in the mean time we owe praise to the Maker and to the creature a just and thankfull allowance CXXVIII Upon a Flower-de-luce THis Flower is but unpleasingly fulsome for sent but the root of it is so fragrant that the delicatest Ladies are glad to put it into their sweet bags contrarily the Rose-tree hath a sweet flower but a savourlesse root and the Saffron yields an odoriferous and cordiall spire whiles both the flower and the root are unpleasing It is with Vegetables as with Metalls God never meant to have his best alwayes in view neither meant he to have all eminences concealed He would have us to know him to be both secretly rich and openly bountifull If we do not use every Grace in its own kinde God loses the thanks and we the benefit CXXIX Upon the sight of two Trees one high the other broad THose Trees that shoot up in height are seldome broad as contrarily those Trees that are spreading are seldome tall it were too much ambition in that Plant which would be both wayes eminent Thus it is with men The Covetous man that effects to spread in Wealth seldome cares to aspire unto height of Honour the Proud man whose heart is set upon Preferment regards not in comparison thereof the growth of his Wealth there is a poor shrub in a valley that is neither tall nor broad nor cares to be either which speeds better then they both The tall tree is cut down for Timber the broad tree is lopped for Fire-wood besides that the Tempest hath power on them both whereas the low shrub is neither envied by the winde nor threatned by the axe but fostered rather for that little shelter which it affords the Shepheard If there be glory in Greatnesse Meannesse hath security Let me never envy their diet that had rather be unsafe then inglorious CXXX Upon the sight of a Drunken man REason is an excellent Faculty and indeed that which alone differenceth us from brute creatures without which what is Man but a two-legged Beast And as all precious things are tender and subject to miscarriage so is this above others the want of some little Sleep the violence of a Fever or one Cup too much puts it into utter distemper What can we make of this thing Man I cannot call him He hath Shape so hath a dead
Religion But alas poor souls we are mistaken all this while it is nothing else but pure Piety forsooth which we ignorantly condemn for Cruelty 't is the zeal of Gods house wherewith Good Prelate thou art so inflamed that thou hast hereupon both wished and importuned the utter extirpation of all those Hereticks stabling in the French Territories O forehead O bowels For us we call God Angels Saints to witness of this foul calumniation I wis those whom thou falsly brandest for Hereticks thou shalt one day hear when the Church shall imbrace them for her children Christ for the spiritual Members of his mystical body For what I beseech you do we hold which the Scriptures Councils Fathers Churches and Christian Professors have not in all Ages taught and published To say the truth All that which we professe your own most approved Authors have still maintained whence then is this quarrell Shall I tell you There are indeed certain new Patches of Opinion which you would needs adde to the ancient Faith these we most justly reject and do still constantly refuse They are humane they are your own briefly they are either doubtfull or impious And must we now be cast out of the bosome of the Church and be presently delivered up to fire and sword Must we for this be thunder-strucken to Hell by your Anathemas there to frie in perpetuall Torments Is it for this that a stall and shambles are thought good enough for such brutish animals Good God! See the justice and charity of these Popelings This is nothing but a mere injury of the Times it was not wont to be Heresie heretofore that is so now-a-daies If it had been our Happinesse to have lived in the Primitive times of the Churches Simplicity before ever that Romish Transcendency Image-worship Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory single or half-Communion Nundination of Pardons and the rest of this rabble were known to the Christian world surely Heaven had been as open to us as to other Devout Souls of that purer Age that took their happy flight from hence in the Orthodox Faith of Christ Jesus But now that we are reserved to that dotage of the world wherein a certain new brood of Articles are sprung up it is death to us forsooth and to be expiated by no lesse punishment then the perpetuall torments of Hell-fire Consider this O ye Christians wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole earth consider I say how far it is from all Justice and Charity that a new Faith should come dropping forth at mens pleasure which must adjudge Posterity to eternal death for Mis-believers whom the ancient Truth had willingly admitted into Heaven These new Points of a politick Religion are they indeed that have so much disturbed the peace of Christendome these are they that set at variance the mighty Potentates of the earth who otherwise perhaps would sit down in an happy Peace these are they that rend whole Kingdomes distract people dissolve Societies nourish Faction and Sedition lay wast the most flourishing Kingdomes and turn the richest Cities to dust and rubbish But should these things be so Do we think this will one day be allowed for a just warrant of so much war and bloodshed before the Tribunall of that supreme Judge of Heaven and earth Awake therefore now O ye Christian Princes and You especially King Lewis in whose eares these wicked counsels are so spightfully and bloodily whispered rouse up your self and see how cruell Tyranny seeks to impose upon your Majesty in a most mischievous manner under a fair pretence of Piety and Devotion They are your own native Subjects whom these malicious foreigners require to the slaughter yea they are Christs and will you imbrue your hand and sword in the blood of those for whom Christ hath shed his yea who have willingly lavished their own in the behalf of You and your great Father Hear I beseech thee O King who art wont amongst thine own to be instiled Lewis the Just If we did adore any other God any other Christ but thine if we aspired to any other Heaven embraced any other Creed any other Baptisme lastly if we made profession of a new Church built upon other foundations there were some cause indeed why thou shouldest condemn such Hereticks stabling in France to the revenging sury of thy flames If this thy people have wilfully violated any thing established by our common God or lawfully commanded by thee we crave no pardon for them let them smart that have deserved it is but just they should But do not in the mean time fall fiercely upon the fellow-servants of thy God upon thine own best Subjects whose very Religion must make them loyall suffer not those poor wretches to perish for some late upstart superfluous additions of humane invention and mere will-worship who were alwaies most forward to redeem Thine thy Great Fathers Safety and Honour with the continuall hazzard of their owne most precious lives Let them but live then by thy gracious sufferance by whose Valour and Fidelity thou now reignest But suppose they were not yours yet remember that they are Christians a title wherewith your style is wont most to be honored washed in the same Laver of Baptisme bought with the same price renewed by the same Spirit and whatsoever impotent malice bawle to the contrary the beloved Sons of the Celestiall Spouse yea the Brethren of that Spirituall Bride-groom Christ Jesus But they erre you will say from the Faith From what faith I beseech you Not the Christian surely but the Romish What a strange thing is this Christ doth not condemn them the Pope doth If that great Chancellour of Paris were now alive he would freely teach his Sorbon as he once did that it is not in the Popes power that I may use his owne word to hereticate any Proposition Yea but an Oecumenicall Council besides hath done it What Council That of Trent I am deceived if that were hitherto received in the Churches of France or deserved to be so hereafter Consult with your own late Authors of most undoubted credit they will tell you plainly how unjust that Council was yea how no Council at all It was only the Popes act whatsoever was decreed or established by that pack'd Conclave envassalled to the Seven hills Consider lastly I beseech you how the Reformed Christians stand in no other terms to the Papists then the Papists do to the Reformed Heresie is with equall vehemency upbraided on both sides But do we deale thus roughly with the followers of the Roman Religion Did we ever rage against the Popish Faith with fire and sword Was ever the crime of a poor misled conscience capitall to any soul You may finde perhaps but very seldome some audacious Masse-priest some firebrand of Sedition and contemner of our publick Laws to have suffered condign punishment But no Papist I dare boldly say ever suffered losse either of life or lim merely for his Religion
swinge of common corruptions they shall both deliver their own Souls and help to withhold judgment from others The Gadarenes sue to Christ for his departure It is too much favour to attribute this to their modesty as if they held themselves unworthy of so Divine a Guest Why then did they fall upon this suit in a time of their losse Why did they not taxe themselves and intimate a secret desire of that which they durst not beg It is too much rigour to attribute it to the love of their Hogs and an anger at their losse then they had not intreated but expelled him It was their fear that moved this harsh suit a servile fear of danger to their persons to their goods lest he that could so absolutely command the Devils should have set these tormentors upon them lest their other Demoniacks should be dispossessed with like losse I cannot blame these Gadarenes that they feared This power was worthy of trembling at Their fear was unjust They should have argued This man hath power over men beasts devils it is good having him to our friend his presence is our safety and protection Now they contrarily mis-infer Thus powerfull is he it is good he were further off What miserable and pernicious misconstructions do men make of God of Divine Attributes and actions God is omnipotent able to take infinite vengeance of sin Oh that he were not He is provident I may be carelesse He is merciful I may sin He is holy Let him depart from me for I am a sinful man How witty Sophisters are natural men to deceive their own Souls to rob themselves of a God O Saviour how worthy are they to want thee that wish to be rid of thee Thou hast just cause to be weary of us even whiles we sue to hold thee but when once our wretched unthankfulnesse grows weary of thee who can pity us to be punished with thy departure Who can say it is other then righteous that thou shouldst regest one day upon us Depart from me ye wicked Contemplations THE FOURTH BOOK Containing The faithfull Canaanite The deaf and dumb man cured Zacheus John Baptist beheaded The five loaves and two fishes The walk upon the waters The bloody issue healed Jairus and his daughter The motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled The ten Lepers The pool of Bethesda Christ transfigured The woman taken in adultery The thankfull Penitent Martha and Mary The begger that was born blinde cured The stubborn Devil ejected The Widows mites The ambition of the two sons of Zebedee The tribute-money payd Lazarus dead Lazarus raised Christ's procession to the Temple Christ betrayed The Agony Peter and Malchus or Christ apprehended Christ before Caiaphas Christ before Pilate The Crucifixion The Resurrection The Ascension To the onely honour and glory of God my Saviour and to the benefit and behoof of his blessed Spouse the Church I do in all humility devote my self and all my Meditations The weak and unworthy Servant of both J. E. To the READER THose few spare houres which I could either borrow or steale from the many imployments of my busie Diocese I have gladly bestowed upon these not more recreative then usefull Contemplations for which I have been some years a debter to the Church of God now in a care to satisfie the desires of many and my owne pre-ingagement I send them forth into the light My Reader shall finde the discourse in all these passages more large and in the latter as the occasion gives more fervent And if he shall misse some remarkable stories let him be pleased to know that I have purposely omitted those pieces which consist rather of speech then of act and those that are in respect of the matter coincident to these I have selected I have so done my task as fearing not affecting length and as carefull to avoid the cloying of my Reader with other mens thoughts Such as they are I wish them as I hope they shall be beneficiall to God's Church and in them intend to set up my rest beseeching my Reader that he will mutually exchange his prayers for and with me who am the unworthiest of the Servants of Christ J. E. The faithfull Canaanite IT was our Saviours trade to doe good Therefore he came down from Heaven to earth therefore he changed one station of earth for another Nothing more commends Goodnesse then generality and diffusion whereas reservednesse and close-handed restraint blemish the glory of it The Sun stands not still in one point of Heaven but walks his daily round that all the inferiour world may share of his influences both in heat and light Thy bounty O Saviour did not affect the praise of fixedness but motionâ— one while I finde thee at Jerusalem then at Capernaum soon after in the utmost verge of Galilee never but doing good But as the Sun though he daily compass the world yet never walks from under his line never goes beyond the turning points of the longest and shortest day so neither didst thou O Saviour passe the bounds of thine own peculiar people Thou wouldest move but not wildly not out of thine own sphear wherein thy glorified estate exceeds thine humbled as far as Heaven is above earth Now thou art lift up thou drawest all men unto thee there are now no lists no limits of thy gracious visitations but as the whole earth is equidistant from Heaven so all the motions of the world lie equally open to thy bounty Neither yet didst thou want outward occasions of thy removal perhaps the very importunity of the Scribes and Pharisees in obtruding their Traditions drave thee thence perhaps their unjust offence at thy Doctrine There is no readier way to lose Christ then to clog him with humane ordinances then to spurn at his heavenly instructions He doth not alwaies subduce his Spirit with his visible presence but his very outward withdrawing is worthy of our sighs worthy of our tears Many a one may say Lord if thou hadst been here my Soul had not died Thou art now with us O Saviour thou art with us in a free and plentifull fashion how long thou knowest we know our deservings and fear Oh teach us how happy we are in such a guest and give us grace to keep thee Hadst thou walked within the Phoenician borders we could have told how to have made glad constructions of thy mercy in turning to the Gentiles thou that couldest touch the Lepers without uncleannesse couldest not be defiled with aliens but we know the partition wall was not yet broken down and thou that didst charge thy Disciples not to walk into the way of the Gentiles wouldst not transgresse thine own rule Once we are sure thou camest to the utmost point of the bounds of Galilee as not ever confined to the heart of Jewry thou wouldest sometimes blesse the outer skirts with thy presence No angle is too obscure for the Gospel the land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthali by the
the same power slackned those swathing-bands of death that the feet might have some little scope to move though not with that freedome that followed after Thou didst not onely O Saviour raise the body of Lazarus but the Faith of the beholders They cannot deny him dead whom they saw rising they see the signes of death with the proofs of life Those very swathes convinced him to be the man that was raised Thy less Miracle confirms the greater both confirm the Faith of the beholders O clear and irrefragable example of our resuscitation Say now ye shameless Sadducees with what face can ye deny the Resurrection of the body when ye see Lazarus after four-days death rising up out of his grave And if Lazarus did thus start up at the bleating of this Lamb of God that was now every day preparing for the slaughter-house how shall the dead be rouzed up out of their graves by the roaring of that glorious and immortal Lion whose voice shall shake the powers of Heaven and move the very foundations of the earth With what strange amazedness do we think that Martha and Mary the Jews and the Disciples lookt to see Lazarus come forth in his winding-sheet shackled with his linen fetters and walk towards them Doubtless fear and horrour strove in them whether should be for the time more predominant We love our friends dearly but to see them again after their known death and that in the very robes of the grave must needs set up the hair in a kinde of uncouth rigour And now though it had been most easie for him that brake the adamantine fetters of death to have broke in pieces those linen ligaments wherewith his raised Lazarus was encumbred yet he will not doe it but by their hands He that said Remove the stone said Loose Lazarus He will not have us exspect his immediate help in that we can doe for our selves It is both a laziness and a presumptuous tempting of God to look for and extraordinary and supernatural help from God where he hath inabled us with common aid What strange salutations do we think there were betwixt Lazarus and Christ that had raised him betwixt Lazarus and his Sisters and neighbors and friends what amazed looks what unusual complements For Lazarus was himself at once here was no leisure of degrees to reduce him to his wonted perfection neither did he stay to rub his eyes and stretch his benummed lims nor take time to put off that dead sleep wherewith he had been seized but instantly he is both alive and fresh and vigorous if they do but let him goe he walks so as if he had ailed nothing and receives and gives mutual gratulations I leave them entertaining each other with glad embraces with discourses of reciprocal admiration with praises and adorations of that God and Saviour that had fetched him into life Christ's Procession to the Temple NEver did our Saviour take so much state upon him as now that he was going towards his Passion other journies he measured on foot without noise or train this with a Princely equipage and loud acclamation Wherein yet O Saviour whether shall I more wonder at thy Majesty or thine Humility that Divine Majesty which lay hid under so humble appearance or that sincere Humility which veiled so great a glory Thou O Lord whose chariots are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels wouldst make choice of the silliest of beasts to carry thee in thy last and Royal Progress How well is thy birth suited with thy triumph Even that very Ass whereon thou rodest was prophesied of neither couldst thou have made up those vaticall Predictions without this conveyance O glorious and yet homely pomp Thou wouldst not lose ought of thy right thou that wast a King wouldst be proclaimed so but that it might appear thy Kingdome was not of this world thou that couldst have commanded all worldly magnificence thoughtest fit to abandon it In stead of the Kings of the earth who reigning by thee might have been imployed in thine attendance the people are thine heralds their homely garments are thy foot-cloth and carpets their green boughs the strewings of thy way those Palms which were wont to be born in the hands of them that triumph are strewed under the feet of thy beast It was thy greatness and honour to contemn those glories which worldly hearts were wont to admire Justly did thy Followers hold the best ornaments of the earth worthy of no better then thy treading upon neither could they ever account their garments so rich as when they had been trampled upon by thy carriage How happily did they think their backs disrobed for thy way How gladly did they spend their breath in acclaming thee Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Where now are the great Masters of the Synagogue that had enacted the ejection of whosoever should confess Jesus to be the Christ Lo here bold and undaunted clients of the Messiah that dare proclaim him in the publick road in the open streets In vain shall the impotent enemies of Christ hope to suppress his glory as soon shall they with their hand hide the face of the Sun from shining to the world as withhold the beams of his Divine truth from the eyes of men by their envious opposition In spight of all Jewish malignity his Kingdome is confessed applauded blessed O thou fairer then the children of men in thy Majesty ride on prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things In this Princely and yet poor and despicable pomp doth our Saviour enter into the famous City of Jerusalem Jerusalem noted of old for the seat of Kings Priests Prophets of Kings for there was the throne of David of Priests for there was the Temple of Prophets for there they delivered their errands and left their blood Neither know I whether it were more wonder for a Prophet to perish out of Jerusalem or to be safe there Thither would Jesus come as a King as a Priest as a Prophet acclamed as a King teaching the people and foretelling the wofull vastation of it as a Prophet and as a Priest taking possession of his Temple and vindicating it from the foul profanations of Jewish Sacriledge Oft before had he come to Jerusalem without any remarkable change because without any semblance of State now that he gives some little glimpse of his Royalty the whole City was moved When the Sages of the East brought the first news of the King of the Jewes Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and now that the King of the Jews comes himself though in so mean a port there is a new commotion The silence and obscurity of Christ never troubles the world he may be an underling without any stir but if he do but put forth himself never so little to bear the least sway amongst men now their blood