feed Jacob his people and Israel his Inheritance Psal 78. v. 70. Nor hath the name of Shepherd been accounted anciently an honorary adjunct only to the greatest Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to God himself as Philo hath observed in his Book of Husbandry An observation not so strange in Philo by birth a Jew and so acquainted with the Scripture as it may seem to be in Plato who was a meer stranger to the Covenant And yet in Plato do we finde it and that in termes no lesse expressive then in those of Philo for speaking of the peaceable and happy lives which men are said to lead in the first Ages he gives this reason for it in his Book de Regno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God saith he was their â—hepherd and he did lead them and conduct them as now Princes do whom therefore we are bound to honour in the next degree to the Gods immortal A Speech so excellent and divine that nothing but the written word can go beyond it But behold a greater then Plato is here also for God hath told us by the mouth of his Servant David that he is a Shepherd Dominus Pastor meus the Lord is my Shepherd Psal 23. and hear O thou Shepherd of Israel Psal 80. If therefore God may without diminution of his power and greatness assume unto himself the name of a Shepherd assuredly the Sonne of God will think it no disparagement to be called so too Or if it were what poor and low condition would not he gladly undergo for the sake of man whose bowels yerned so oft within him when as he saw his wretched and neglected people wandring like sheep without a Shepherd And certainly if we consult the Scriptures we shall there finde that God designed him to this Office long time before his incarnation the taking of our flesh upon him for in the 34. of Ezekiel thus saith the Lord about his flock I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall feed them ipse erit eis in Pastorem and shall be their Shepherd A Prophecie accomplished by our Lord and Saviouâ— in the whole work and business of his life amongst us for being appointed by Almighty God to be the Shepherd of his people he caused the first tidings of his Birth to be proclaimed to a company of shepherds chose a stable or a sheep-coat rather as most Fathers think to be the place of his Nativity Conversing here amongst us men he took unto himself the name of a Shepherd being styled so in this Chapter twice and talking of his Sheep throughout the whole After all this being to take his farewel of us for as much as did concern his bodily presence he left no greater charge unto his Disciples then Pascite oves meas to feed his sheep One further evidence to this purpose we will make bold to borrow out of Plutarchs works who tells a Story of one Thames that as he sailed towards Greece was by a strange voyce but from whence he knew not commanded to make known when he came on Land that Pan the Shepherds God was dead This Pan the Authour takes to be the sonne of Mercury and Penelope when the Gentiles worshipped But they which looked with more advice into the matter conceive it rather to be meant of the Sonne of God and the Virgin Mary who much about the time which that Authour speaks of did suffer death upon the Crosse for our redemption and was indeed the true God Pan chief Shepherd of the soul of man A Shepherd then our Saviour was there 's no doubt of that we might have took it absolutely on his Ipse dixit But how he doth discharge the office is in the next place to be considered And this we shall the better see by looking for a while on the Country-shepherd whose duty doth consist in three points especially 1. In the feeding 2. In the ordering And 3. In the guarding of the sheep committed to him For feeding first there is no question to be made but that it is a part of the shepherds office The very name doth intimate so much unto us for Pastor à pascendo a shepherd is so called from feeding and that not in the Language of the Latines only but in Greek and Hebrew This duty mentioned in the Georgicks Luciferi primo cum sydere frigida rura carpamus in which he doth advise his shepherd that at the dawning of the day he unfold his sheep and drive them out into their Pasture And this exemplified in Jacob and the sonnes of Jacob honest shepherds all it being said of Jacob in the Book of God that he did feed the Sheep of Laban of Jacob's sonnes that they did feed their Fathers flocks in Sichem And finally this took for granted in Almighty God in his expostulation with the Priests and Prophets of the House of Israâ—l nonne greges à Pastoribus pascuntur should not the Shepherds feed the Flocks That Christ doth punctually discharge this duty is past all controversie The Prophet hath foresignified that he should so do I will set up one Shepherd over them and the Evangelists declare that he did so do For what were all those heavenly Sermons those frequent exhortations unto faith and piety which he so often made unto them but a spirituall feeding of the inward man a sweet refection of the soul a celestiall nourishment His feeding of so many thousands by a few Loaves of Bread and two small fishes what was it though a signall miracle compared with those many millions which he doth feed continually with the bread of life We need not doubt of the success when he that fed them with the Word was the Word it self or of the spreading of the Gospel when he that was the Preacher was the Gospel too or of the nourishment of the Guests in the fruits of godliness when he that carved unto them the life of bread was of himself the bread of life For he indeed was magnus ille panis qui mentem replet non ventrem that holy bread which feedes the soul and not the body as the Father hath it the living bread as himself tells us of himself which came down from Heaven of which whosoever eateth he shall live for ever Which bread if it be meant of Christ who is God the Word we then partake it principally in the Sacraments but if we understand it of the Word of God as St. Hierome doth we must then look for it in the Scriptures By these two meanes the preaching of Gods holy Word and the administration of his Sacraments are we still fed and nourished unto life eternal if not by Christ himself the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief Shepherd as St. Peter calls him yet by those under-Officers those inferior Ministers to whom he hath intrusted that most weighty duty First for the preaching of the
consider of the fruits for by their fruits as Christ hath told us we shall know them Of us it is expected that we rest not satisfied with the outward shew that we esteem not of the seed because the Husbandman is painful at his Plough continually and seemes in face as was Nathaniel in his heart an Husbandman that had no guile Of us it is expected that we sift the grain to see if it be Wheat indeed or at best but tares This we shall easily discern if we reflect a little upon the nature of these tares and take a just view of the same both in the seminary and the seed zizania in medio tritici tares among the wheat my next Couplet Naturale est odisse quem laeseris It is a natural vice in man having once wronged another to resolve to hate him and being once resolved to hate him to seek occasions how to wrong him A vice derived originally from the Devil in whom my Author first observed it drawn into practise by them only whom the old enemy of God hath instructed in it for he by his aspiring sins having displeased his Lord and Maker conceived so deep an hate against him that now it is not possible he should desist from doing the effects of spight and fury In the expressing of which hate and fury he deales with God as Sampson with the Philistins when he could hurt him no way else he destroyes his Harvest So much the Text affirms for certain sevit zizania in medio tritici that he sowed tares among the Wheat And of the tares themselves what they should be and how the place must be expounded it resolves so clearly that if we will we may with ease compose that difference of opinion which seemes to be betwixt the Fathers Clemens of Alexander Origen Eusebius Athanasius St. Hierome and Theophylact conceive by tares the Devils Doctrine haereses mala dogmata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dogmata haereticorum Beda will have them to be generally vices faeditates vitiorum not to descend to later writers And on the other side St. Basil Chrysostome and Euthymius interpret it of Hereticks of the men themselves St. Austin makes a question whether the Schismatick should not be added to the other and leave it in a manner with a potest dubitari as a matter doubtful St. Cyprian conceives it generally of the wicked men and Justin Martyr seemes to me to lean more that way then the other And unto these these Fathers that do so expound it our Saviours glosse upon the Text gives most advantage who tells us that the Tares are the Children of the wicked one i. e. of the Devil To reconcile which difference or rather to interpret favourable of those other Fathers who seem to have departed from the letter of our Saviours Commentary we may thus resolve it that those whom first we named apply the Text as in the morall and that the others keep themselves unto the letter Or thus the tares are said to be the Children of the wicked one not properly but by a Metonymie ab effectu that is they are that seed by which the Children of the wicked one are all begotten A Protestant Writer of good note doth expound it thus Quid fecit inimicus Seminavit in agro Domini haereticam doctrinam ex eo autem semine nascuntur zizania i. e. filii nequam nor doth he stand alone herein without some to second him for Origen amongst the ancients comes up close unto him In toto mundo seminavit malus ille zizania quae sunt sermones pravi ex malitia orti mali filii Where plainly he makes wicked and malicious Sermons sermones pravos as he calls them to be these tares these children of the wicked one which must needes be because the children of the wicked one are many times begotten by them So then we draw to this atonement that we may understand these tares not only of the Hereticks and other children of the Devâ—l as in the letter but of their wicked Doctrine as in the morall yea and according to our Saviours garb of speech which was by Allegories Tropes and Parables in the true meaning of the figure Sevit zizania inimicus the enemy sowed tares And certainly the Devil could not more cunningly have express'd his malice then in this particular for in it self the tare is of a dangerous and malignant nature and in particular it is noted by the Herbalists of all times and ages lolium oculis officere that it hurts the eyes This Ovid also hath observed in his book de Fastis Et careant loliis oculos vittantibus agri as his words there run An observation so exact that lolio victitare to feed on tares was grown into a common Proverb applyed to those which were dim-sighted It is an excellent note of Aristotle that as the eye is to the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so the minde or understanding is to the soul it is that part thereof which doth illuminate and direct the rest the will and the affections and if that eye be single the whole body will be full of light but if we feed upon these tares tares of the Devils sowing and doctrines of the Devils raising how great a darkness will invade us what a perpetual night confound us For if the light be darkness ipsae tenebrae quantae how great then is that darkness saith Christ our Saviour shall we not then be like the Citizens of Sodom blind upon the sudden enquiring for the Sun at noone wearying our selves to finde that door that is shut against us or rather shall not that great misery befall us which we finde mentioned in this Chapter that seeing we shall see but shall not perceive Error and Heresie and Schisme how plausible soever they may seem in the outward shew are but unkind and treacherous guests We may compare them to those sparrowes in the Book of Tâ—bit which roosted in his walls and made their nests within his Courts but when he took his rest and did least expect it they muted warm dung in his eyes and a grosse whitenesse came upon them that he could not see nor knew his Doctors how to help him They are blinde leaders of the blinde saith Christ our Saviout i. e. as Lyra glosseth on it exaecant alios errore suo they make the people blind with errors There is another dangerous quality in the tare as great as this for being mixt in bread it procureth giddiness Aera saith Plinie cùm est in pane celerrimè vertigines facit Rovillius a late Herbalist observes that it is intoxicating also et temulentiam vini modo excitare and that it makes men drunk as it were with Wine So farre avowed by Theophrastus that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sluggish and dull and breedes Diseases in the head the capitall and
a malady which is confirmed and setled by a long delay And so t is also in this case with the Churches Doctors He that doth undertake the cure of a crazie Church must be instant in it not put it off until the morrow Hodie si vocem ejus To day if you will hear his voyce saith the Prophet David and operamini cùm vocatur â—odie Work whilest t is called to day saith the Sonne of David No tense so proper as the present for this weighty work If they intend to go and gather either by labouring in his Vineyard or by setting forth against the enemies it must be imus and colligimus in the present tense before their courage is grown cold and theiâ— zeal abated Sure I am so it was with my servants here and yet they were not so intent on the present service as not to take their Masters leave and instructions with them guiding their courage by his will and governing their zeal by his directions This shewes their temper and obedience as before I noted Vis imus colligimus eaâ— Wilt thou that we go and gather them up Turpe est in extremo actu deficere To fail in the last Act in the close of business is a foul reproch and derogates not only from the Agent but from the enterprise The servants had done all things well since they were awakened both in their coming and enquiry the resolute expressions of their zeal and courage their readiness and unanimity in the promoting of their Masters business There wanted nothing now to dispatch the work but a Commission from their Master And certainly it stood with reason that in a business wherein their Master was concerned in so high a manner they should do nothing rashly without his consent Had they gone otherwise to work they had not merited so much for their zeal and courage as they had forfeited and lost for want of wisdom Saepe honestas rerum causas ni judicium adhibeatur perniciosi exitus consequuntur as he in Tacitus Zeal without judgement and advice may be compared to a brush-Bavin-Faggot in a Country-Cottage more likely farre to fire the House then to warm the Chimney And zeal and courage destitute of consent and counsel is but like Sampson in the Story when as his hair was grown and his eyes put out and seldom serves to other purpose then to pull the House upon our heads But here zeal yielded to obedience and courage thought it no disparagement to submit to temper Here was both modus caritatis temperamentum fortitudinis This made them first consult their Master before they went to execute their own desires and it did well with them the bit of respect being oftentimes as useful as the spur of courage Discretion is a sure guide to zeal and only that which keeps it that it breaks not out into open fury If good directions do not hold the reins our good intentions many times may chance to break their own neck and the Riders too and which is yet most strange of all without such guidance and instruction our zeal to God may lead us from him Besides the business which they came about was their Masters chiefly the field of which they were so zealous did belong to him as the sole owner and Proprietary and therefore Ager suus his field v. 24. The enemy against whom they resolved to go was not theirs but his or their 's no otherwise then as they did retain to him and weare his Livery and therefore inimicus ejus his enemy v. 25. Men might have said they had bin desperately bold and perversely zealous if they had entred on his field and against his enemies without his liking and consent It had been little to the prayse of their discretion of their duty lesse how much soever they might have been admired by unknowing men for great undertakers And though they had returned with success and victory yet who can tell but that instead of being made welcom with an Euge Well done my good and faithful Servant they might have been reproved at their coming home with a quis haec quaesivit who required these things at your hands It is the approbation of Authority which makes courage usefull and zeal if it be publick warrantable Without that both become unprofitable in some cases dangerous We may affirm of them as we say commonly of fire and water that they are excellent Servants but ill Masters or as St. Ambrose of the Sun that it is melior in ministerio quà m imperio never more useful to us men then when the beames thereof are most meek and gentle and so the more applyable to our necessities In these regards the servants had too much neglected both themselves and him had they been all for imus colligimus and ascribed nothing unto vis to the Masters pleasure Solomon in the Book of Canticles compares the Church unto an Army an Army terrible with banners And t is indeed an Army most exactly ordered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never was Army better marshalled in the words of Chrysostom Now t is well known that an Army is a gallant sight when it hath all one motion and that so many thousand bodies seeme to be guided by one soul and every one observeth that rank and station in which he hath been placed by the chief Commander or other Officers of the field The poor Centurion in the Gospel was so far sensible of his own Authority as to appoint the Souldiers under his Command not only what they were to do but when it was fit to go and when fit to come Had they been doing of their own accord without his Fiat or going upon any action without his vade or appointment no question but they should have felt their error though they would not see it And he affirms it of himself that he was sub potestate constitutus a man under the Authority and command of others implying this that as he did expect obedience from the common Souldier so he did yield it to his Colonel or his Serjeant Major or whosoever else was in place above him The Discipline of Warre could not else be kept Ita se ducum autoritas sic rigor Disciplinae habet And if that be not kept as it ought to be confusi Equites pâ—ditesque in exitium ruunt the whole will soon run on to a swift destruction Thus is it also with the Church with the Camp of God that Acies castrorum ordinata as the Scripture calls it If there be no subordination in it if every one might do what he list himself as did Gods people in those dayes in which there was no King in Israel what a confusion would ensue how speedy a calamity must needs fall upon it The servants of my Text understood this rightly and therefore though they came provided and desired nothing more then to give the onset yet thought they â—it to hear how
have the hap or the seeming happiness to go down into the grave in peace yet God will finde them at the last and meet with these sowre grapes in his general vintage and tread them in the wine-presse of his indignation And to say truth there are as great and weighty reasons why some mens punishments should follow after them as that the rest should have a trial and essay of their future miseries by those which they endure in this present life for as St. Austin well observes should all mens sins be punished in this present life nihil ultimo judicio reservari putaretur it would occasion some to think that there were no necessity nor use of the generall judgement as on the other side if none nulla esse divina providentia crederetur others would be too apt to think that there were no God or at least rob him of his Providence and say with him in Davids Psalms Tush God doth not see it If therefore God permit the Tares to grow up together with the Wheat it is to shew his patience and longanimity in expectation of their conversion and amendment but that he brings them to the Harvest and moweth them down at last is to shew his justice And doubt we not but that the Lord in his just judgement will destroy those Tares which at this present threaten ruine to his blessed Field when they once be ripe and that we are sufficiently awakened out of that dull security which had seized upon us God dealing still with wicked and seditious men as heretofore with Haman Absâ—lom Achitophel and such other instruments when they have served his turn then he hangs them up But I must tell you this withall that if we do exexpect an Harvest of Gods temporall judgements upon the heads of those that lay wast his Church we must first put away those customary unrepented sins which have drawn them down upon our selves Si vis me flere dolendum est primùm ipsi tibi If we desire that God be pittiful to us in freeing us from those which do play the Tyrants over our bodies and estates we must be pittiful to our selves in labouring to free our souls from a greater tyranny that of sin and Satan We must first repent us of the punishment that is due unto them But I see little hopes of so great a change or indeed any hopes at all either great or little except it be unto the worse in the corrupting of those meanes which should work our peace For tell me I beseech you is not our fasting grown so formall and our humiliation mixt with so much hypocrisie that we are sicker of repentance then before of sin Is not our common talk so overgrown with oaths and prodigious cursings as if we meant to bid defiance to the Host of Heaven and our devotions in Gods House so cold and careless as if we thought as poorly of the Lord himself as of the Preacher or the Prayers And can we look for blessings from the hands of God when we send curses to his eares or that the Lord should work a double miracle upon us whether we will or not one in removing from us a deserved punishment the other in forgiving unrepented sins Assuredly unless we make our peace with God and wrest deliverance from him by our prayers and penitence the Lord in his just anger will afflict us further and give us over for a prey unto those that hate us God is not bound to bring upon the wicked and seditious person the Heretick and Schismatical man the Harvest of his temporal judgements though sometimes he do it sometimes he lets them passe till the general Harvest and calls them not unto account untill he bring them at the last to the finall reckoning But whether it be first or last it pleaseth him to give the Tares a longer Sinite then his servants did desire he should and suffered them to grow in his holy Field when meanes and opportunity was offered for their extirpation What might incline him thereunto and how farre we are bound by this present Sinite are the next enquiries Expertâ morbi molestiâ evidentior fit jucunditas sanitatis No man can judge so well of health as they that have been long afflicted with a wounded body or visited with some grievous sickness nor set so high a price on the light of Heaven as he who hath been lodged in a dolefull Dungeon Now that which darkness is in the Aire or Firmament and wounds and sickness in the body the same are errors and corruptions in life and Doctrine or scandala qui faciunt iniquitatem as our Saviour tells us of these tares v. 38. in the Church of Christ darkness best sets off light wounds and sickness health and so doth error truth and corruption purity God therefore doth sometimes permit the ungodly man to have his habitation with the just and righteous that so the justice of the righteous might be made more eminent of which we shall say more anon in the Simul crescere And sometimes he permits his People to walk in darkness wander in the crooked lanes of deceit error that when they come into the light and to the saving wayes of truth they may imbrace the same with the greater fervour were it not for this reason and in this respect it is not probable that God who is the God of truth and the Father of lights would suffer any Heresie or erroneous Tenet to be sowen or rooted in his field but either would discover them on the first appearing or cause them to be rooted up on the first discovery at least he would have harkened to the Proposition to the vis imus colligimus of the former verse were it not that the light of truth would appear more brightly after it had been long eclipsed with the Clouds of error Et sic deterrima comparatione gloriam sibi compararet For contraries when they are looked upon together do appear most visibly Besides Oportet esse haereses there is a farther use of Heresies which brings them in with an Oportet as we read of in the 18. of St. Matthew necesse est ut veniant scandala Scandala saith St. Matthew haereses saith S. Paul but in both Texts the same saith the Learned Scholiast and both attended or brought in by the same necesse Not a necessity simpliciter dicta an absolute necessity that so it must be as if truth could not stand without them but an Oportet a necessity secundum quid it being expedient that so it should be because truth stands the better by them How many excellent tractates grave discourses learned and pious writings had these Ages wanted had not the Primitive Church been exercised with so many Heresies In what an ignorance had we lived in matters which concern the glorious Trinity the powers of Grace the influences of the holy Spirit had not the Arians and Pelagians
Gothes and Vandalls in the declining times of the Christian purity Onely the Tyrant Maximus who usurped the Empire though otherwise an Orthodox Prince caused the Arch-Heretick Priscillian and some of his Associates to be put to death at the instigation of Ithacius a Catholick Bishop whom the impieties of the man had extremely stirred Concerning which Sulpitius Serverus tells us that though they were homines luce indignissimi men most unworthy of the light yet they were pessimo exemplo necati and that their execution was of dangerous consequence to succeeding Ages And as it seemes the French and German Prelates did conceive so of it by whom Ithacius was deprived of the Communion for no other reason then that he had been a chief Actor in that woful Tragedy Thus also when Alexius of Constantinople had caused Basilius and others of the Bongomili to be burnt to ashes Hereticks lewd enough of conscience if their Opinions have been transmitted to us by ingenious hands the Eastern Prelates generally disallowed the fact But what need further search be made in this particular when we have confitentem reum For even Baronius doth acknowledge though otherwise a professed Champion both of the customs and corruptions of the Church of Rome that anciently it was the usage of the Christian Bishops when they addressed themselves to the secular powers in matters of this present nature so to insist on the correction of the Heretick ut tamen à capitali supplicio inferendo dehortati sunt that they disswaded them by all meanes imaginable not to shed their bloods From which sweet moderation of the Primitive Prelates how miserably the Church hath deviated in these latter dayes the publick Martyrologies of both sides do declare too evidently What then may some men chance to say shall Theeves and Murderers die the death which onely rob us of our goods or destroy our bodies and shall the Heretick which robs us of our precious faith and damn both soul and body to the pit of hell either escape unpunished or be punished onely with some light pecuniary mulct or short imprisonment Is there no case in which the desperate Heretick may be rooted up and such vile tares be liable to an extirpation I say not so The Lord himself decreed in his holy Law and caused execution to be done upon it That whosoever did blaspheme the name of the Lord should be stoned to death and that if a Prophet did arise which did entice the people after other Gods they should also slay him without either pity or delay The Jewes though they transgressed in the second case were alwayes zealous in the first and howsoever they connived at some grosse Idolatries would not spare a blasphemy This made them when they sate in judgement on our Saviour Christ to balk all other Accusations and lay hold on this interpreting some words of his in which he called himself most truly the Sonne of God for blasphemous passages And then the high Priest said with great joy no question what need we any further witnesses we have heard his blasphemy and thereupon they all concluded he is guilty of death In which the ground was true and justifiable it was Gods own Rule but the judgement wicked and erroneous as being utterly perverted in the Application Now though these Lawes were given particularly to the Jewes for their square and measure by which they were to punish malefactors of that odious nature yet in the equity thereof they relate to us to whom the honour of Almighty God ought to be as precious as ever it was among the Jewes and all blasphemers of his name to be held as execrable as in the Commonwealth of Israel If therefore there arise an Heretick which belcheth his blasphemous follies against the Majesty of God or any person of the holy undivided Trinity or seeks to draw the people after other Gods or add the Jewish Ceremonies or the heathenish sacrifices to the pure worship of the Lord as did the Manichees of old and Anatolius in the close of the sixth Centurie let the Sword in Gods name passe upon him My eye shall neither pity him nor my house conceal him There are some Heresies as well as sins which if unretracted are neither pardoned in this World nor in that to come Such wretched miscreants as these in the body mystical are like a gangrened member in the body natural and must be cut off in due time or else will suddenly infect and destroy the whole so true a Rule is that in the Poet Ovid Namque immedicabile vulnus Ense rescindendumest ne pars sincera trahatur Next to the Majesty of God is that of Kings and Soveraign Princes to whom God hath not onely pleased to impart his name but delegated a great part of his royall power And therefore if an Heretick set on foot such Doctrines as tend to the destruction of the Princes person or the seducing of his Subjects from their due allegiance or otherwise grow practical and embroyl the State for the promoting of their dreams and dotages though of lower quality let them receive the wages due to their lewd attempts There are as well seditious Doctrines as seditious practises both dangerous alike and therefore to be punished with the like severity and this have the chief Priests of the Jewes understood full well when having brought our Saviour to the Judgement-hall and fearing Pilate would be little moved with the noyse of blasphemy they cast their accusation in another mould We found say they this fellow perverting our Nation forbidding to pay tribute unto Caesar and calling himself Christ a King then if Pilate will not hasten to his condemnation he shall be instantly proclaimed for no friend of Caesars In which although they shewed themselves to be false accusers yet they declared sufficiently that in their opinion and in the opinion of a vigilant and careful Magistrate all Doctrines which may tend to perturb the State or rather that all such whoever which have raised factions in the State to promote their Doctrines were worthy of a Crucifige And so farre we may take St. Paul along for Company who tells us of coitiones in Synagogis seditions raised in the Synagogues as well as in the streets or Citie Acts 24. Of either of the which if his malicious enemies could have proved him guilty he had deserved to die as himself doth intimate Acts 25. v. 11. And this no question was the reason why some Roman Emperors proceeded more severely against the Donatists then against many other Heresies of an higher nature because they were an active sect and cared not to distract or subvert a Province so they might settle their opinions and increase their Proselytes though to say truth in this and all such parallel cases it was their faction not their faith not their Religion but rebellion which was punished in them In these two cases and these onely dare I set any
meant to take The servants were hot upon the spur had not patience to defer the action till a fitter time but would have fallen upon it instantly with more hast then speed Vis imus colligimus in the present Tense without deliberation or delay at all And they intended to have gone in so sharp a way which in the heat and violence of ungoverned zeal must of necessity have been dangerous to the Lords good Seed and pulled up many a man for suspected Tares which either were right Wheat of the Lords own sowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in due time according to the course and seasons of the heavenly Husbandry might have been changed unto the better and become good grain How did the Lord approve this project What comfort did he give them to pursue their Counsels No saith the Lord as to the time there is no such hast Sinite utraque simul crescere let both grow together till the Harvest till their fruits be ripe until they may be gathered up in a safer way more to the glory of the Lord and lesse unto the hurt of his faithful people If they desired to have these Tares destroyed as no doubt they did and to destroy them in a way which should bring neither wrong nor danger to the Wheat it self as was fit they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they must expect a fitter and more proper time which the Lord had not yet bin pleased to make known unto them And No saith he as to themselves whom he intended not to use in so great a business knowing full well that if they did go on according to the proposition which they made unto him how much they would be biassed by their own affections what dammage might redound to his Church thereby We must saith he have care and patience towards these Tares of which you have complained in such sensible termes and let them grow until the Harvest in hope they may prove better then you are aware of But if this do no good upon them if they make no more use of this longanimity then to bring forth the fruits of customary unrepented sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vengeance and Hell shall overtake them at the last there 's no other remedy For then in the conjuncture of those circumstances in the time of Harvest I will cause the Ministers whom I mean to use to appear before me and say unto them being come My Reapers Colligite primum zizania Gather ye together first the Tares c. These words contain the full and finall resolution of the heavenly Husbandman in the disposing of the Tares so much so earnestly complained of In which we must behold him in the quality of a Judge or Magistrate pronouncing his determinate sentence in an open Court upon the pleadings and debate of the point before him And here we have two genenerall parts to be considered the Judgement and the Executioners The Executioners the Ministers rather of the Court are the Heavenly Angels though here represented to us by the name of Reapers to whom it appertaineth to bring forth the Prisoners and to see justice done upon them in the form pronounced The Judgement doth consist especially of these two Acts tâ—â— condemnation of the wicked the exaltation of the just The condemnation of the wicked the sentencing of the Tares to the fâ—re of Hell we finde delivered briefly in these three particulars Colligite colligate comburite Gather them first for they shall be no longer suffered in the field of God 2. Binde them and binde them in the chains of eternal darkness to let them know there is no hope no possibility to escape their punishment 3. And having bound then cast them presently into the everlasting flames to fire unquenchable This is the Judgement of the Tares of the wicked man In that which doth concern the Wheat we have these two parts an Action first and that is congregate gather Gather the several corns thereof in a Body or a Congregation next the Repository the place it self in which they are to be disposed of Horreum meum the Lords Barn the House or Habitation of his Heavenly glories There 's the condition of the Wheat of the righteous soul Of these I â—hall discourse in order as they lie before me beginning with the Executioners or the Ministers rather of the Court the Angels And in the time of Harvest I will say unto the Reapers Dicam messortbus that 's the first Eminentes viri magnis adjutoribus usi sunt The greatest persons have commonly the most able Ministers whether it is in point of Counsel or of execution And he that is well studied in the art of men will so imploy his Ministers and their abilities as may be fittest to advance the business which he hath in hand Every mans Talent lieth not in the Camp or Senate some are for the Ministerial or more servile Offices but yet as useful to the publick in their several places though not so honourable in themselves and these too have their proper and distinct Activities beyond the bounds whereof if they be commanded they become dull and sluggish and unprofitable and rather do incumber then promote the service Thus it is also in the Oeconomy of the Heavenly Husbandman The Lord hath several sorts of Ministers some for cultivating and manuring of his holy Field others for bringing in the harvest That the imployment of the Prelates and inferior Clergy this of the holy Angels of the Hosts of Heaven Messores autem Angeli sunt the Reapers are the Angels v. 39. And 't is an excellent Rule which St. Hierome gives us in this business Quae exposita sunt à Domino his debeo accommodare fidem That in those things which are expounded by our Saviour it were absurd to look for any clearer Commentary Which makes me wonder by the way that Hierome should so easily forget himself and his own good rule as to expound the Servants of the 27. of the Angels also Assuredly the Servants of the 27. with whom the Master doth discourse throughout this Parable must needs be different from the Reapers of this present Text of whom he speaks unto those Servants as distinct Ministers designed to their severall Offices So then the Reapers are the Angels there 's no doubt of that And they we know are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring spirits saith the Scripture imployed by God as often as he sees occasion in his affaires of greatest moment in none more frequently then such as do relate to the Sonnes of men either in point of punishment or preservation We told you not long since of a double Harvest within the compasse and intention of the present verse an Harvest of Gods temporal judgements upon particular men and Nations and collective bodies an Harvest of Gods general judgement when all flesh shall appear before him to receive their sentence And in both these the Angels are the Ministers of
the open Traytors another the Adulterers and Adulteresses shall make one Fagot and the Fornicators another the Hereticks shall make up one Fagot the Schismaticks and Sectaries shall be bound up in another the Idolaters shall make one Fagot they that commit sacriledge to pull down Idolatry shall make up another the Glutton whose belly is his God shall make one Fagot the Drunkard whose glory is his shame another The Thief that knowes no other Trade to maintain himself but by undoing of his Neighbour the cunning Hypocrite who makes a gain of godliness and puts his Religion unto usury and they who basely and perfidiously invert the publick money to their private profit shall each make up their several Fagots Pares cum paribus saith St. Austin every man shall be punished in the world to come according to the sin which he hath committed and in the company of those with whom he hath most offended And though it be an old said Saw Solamen miseris that it is a comfort to those in misery to have others bear a share in their griefs and sorrows a miserable comfort at the best there 's no doubt of that yet it is nothing so in the present case for of that nature are the punishments which attend this binding that the pains thereof are nothing lessened by being communicated but are then multiplied when divided Well being bound and bound in bundles what comes after next Ad comburendum saith the Text binde them in bundles for to burn them And here the case is somewhat altered as it relates unto the Ministers though still the same as it hath reference to the Malefactors It was before colligite alligate here not comburite but ad comburendum The holy Angels were the Ministers to attach the sinner to bring him before Gods Tribunal and after sentence was pronounced to lay hands upon him and make him ready for the punishment which he is condemn'd to but that being done they give him over to the fiends of Hell to the tormenters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Redeemer calls them in the 18 Chap. The Officers of the Court or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he speaks of in the 7 of Matth. differ from these tormenters from these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he tells us in the 18. as the Usher or Cryer of a Court from the Executioner or the Under-Sheriff from the Hangman The Angels then I mean the holy and good Angels they only do colligere alligare and having so gathered and bound them up deliver them ad comburendum assign them over by Indenture to the Executioners to see them punished and tormented according to the will and sentence of the dreadful Judge The holy Angels are the Ministers the Devil and his Angels are the Executioners who bearing an old grudge to man as being adopted by the Lord unto those felicities from which he miserably fell will doubtless execute his office on him with the most extremity Non desinunt perditi jam perdere said Minutius truly It hath been his chief work to tempt man to sin out of an hope to have him at his mercy one day and be we sure he will not spare him when he hath him there The Devills chief delight is in mans calamity And could we fancy such a thing as an Heaven in Hell the Devill would enjoy it in this opportunity of tyrannizing over those whom he hath seduced and brought into that pit of torments Ad comburendum to be burnt for that 's the punishment appointed to the wicked in the Book of God Here in the Exposition of this Parable it is said by Christ that the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things which offend and them that do iniquity and shall cast them in caminum ignis into a furnace of fire And in the Parable of the Net we have it in the very self-same words in caminum ignis Thus the rich Glutton in St. Luke is said to be tormented in the flames And in the 20th of the Revelation it is called expresly Stagnum ignis sulphuris a Lake of fire and brimston a most dreadful Lake A truth communicated to and by the Prophets of the former times who give us this description of Tophet or the Vallie of Gehinnon that the Pile thereof is fire and much wood that the breath of the Lord is like a stream of Brimstone to kindle it and that the stream thereof shall be turned to Pitch and the dust into Brimstone And Malachi speaking of the day of Judgement telleth us that it shall burn like an Oven and that all which do wickedly shall be as the stubble Et inflammabit eos dies veniens whom the day that commeth shall burn up A truth so known amongst the Gentiles whether by tradition from their Ancestors or conversation with the Jewes need not now be argued that by the verses of the Poets and the works of the most learned Philosophers illius ignei fluminis admonentur homines men were admonished to beware of that burning Lake And unto those it were impertinent to add the testimony of the ancient Fathers by some of which it is called Divinus ignis poenale incendium by another ardor poenarum by a third aeternus ignis by a fourth Et sic de caeteris And though a question hath been made as all things have been questioned in these captious times whether this fire be true and reall or only metaphorically called so in the Book of God yet by all sound Interpreters it is thus agreed on as a learned Jesuite hath observed metaphoram esse non posse quae sit tam perpetua that such a constancy of expression doth exclude a Metaphor Now as it is a fire a devouring fire so is it ignis inextinguibilis a fire unquenchable in the third ignis aeternus an everlasting fire in the 25. of St. Matthew the smoak whereof goeth up for ever in the Prophet Esay a fire which feeds both on the body and the soul yet shall never consume them and such a fire as breeds a kind of worm within it which shall never die but alwayes gnaw upon the conscience of the man condemned and create farre more anguish to him then all bodily torments And to this truth all the old Catholick Doctors do attest unanimously whether Greeks or Latines Tatianus one of the most ancient of the Greeks calls the estate of the damned in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a death which never dieth an immortal misery Tertullian the most ancient Latine cruciatum non diuturnum sed sempiternum not only a long and tedious torment but an everlasting one St. Austin answerably unto that of Tatianus doth call it mortem sine morte adding moreover of those fires punire non finire corpora that they torment the body but destroy it not he goeth further and saith that it burns the body but
and familiar friends like a Pellican in the desert Wilderness Shall not he presently be exposed unto the heats of persecution and colds of poverty and drowned in the Waves of cruel and unprosperous fortune Shall not the storms of trouble and affliction shew their fury on him till they have laid him flat on his very back and scattered his dispersed and mangled members over all the Earth yet shall this man this faithful and religious man that hath endured so great a measure of affliction such a sâ—oâ—m of tyranny be gathered at the last in horreum Domini into the Barn the safe Repository of the Heavenly Husbandman Not one of all those scattered limbs not a broken bone but shall be recollected by the Angels when they go a gathering made up into the same one body which before it was and laid up in the Lords Barn with joy and triumph that the body which fell in dishonour may be raised in honour and the bones which have been broken may rejoyce together Come then thou blessed Soul into the place of thy rest Thou hast been long a wearied Pilgrim on the face of the earth tossed from one station to another spent with continual travel and worn out with labours yet all this while couldst find no rest for the sole of thy foot Here is an everlasting rest provided for thee Enter thou good and faithful Servant into the joy of the Lord Thou hast been faithful in a little employed thy Masters Talent to the best advantage and for so doing hast been reviled and beaten by thy fellow-servants wounded and shamefully intreated by those Husbandmen to whom the Lord let forth his Vineyard and slain in fine in hope the Lords Inheritance would be shared among them Here is a joy a perfect everlasting joy made ready for thine entertainment Welcom thou glorious Citizen of the new Hierusalem to the continuing City thou hast so long looked for in which thou shalt enjoy after all thy troubles the Beatifical vision of Almighty God the goodly fellowship of Prophets the glorious company of the Apostles the noble Army of the Martyrs the dear society of those who have died before thee in and for the Lord. Mount mount victorious Soul into the Throne prepared for thee where thou shalt presently receive the immarcessible Crown of glory which Christ the righteous Judge shall give thee in that joyful day with great pomp and triumph millions of the celestial spirits attending on the solemnities of thy Coronation and the harmonious quire of Angels singing with thee and with the residue of the Saints departed Allelujah Gloria in excelsis Deo and all the holy Anthems extant in the Book of God And for our parts although we are not worthy in this humane frailty to sing in quire and consort with those blessed spirits yet let us bear the burden of those heavenly ditties which are chanted there singing with heart and voice all with one accord All honour praise and power and glory be unto him that sitteth in the highest Throne and to the Lamb and to the blessed and eternal Spirit now and evermore And let all the people say Amen SERMON I. At LAMBETH Jan. 13. 1638. ACTS 20. 30 31. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Watch therefore I Might here shut the Book and end and say as did our Saviour in another case Impleta in nostris haec est Scriptura diebus this day is this Scripture fulfilled in our eyes So many are there of our selves that rise up continually whose lips speak proud words and pervert good meanings that so they may be followed and cryed up and draw away much people after them St. Paul foresaw this mischief and forewarns us of it and of a Preacher instantly becomes a Prophet He doth begin his charge with an Attendite Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock and he concludes the same with a vigilate Watch therefore and remember that you have been warned Reason enough there was for both as well for the attendite as the vigilate Wolves grievous Wolves were entring in and such as would not spare the Flock that follows close on the attendite and perverse Fellows rising up to make a rupture in the Church and draw away Disciples after them that goes immediately before the Vigilate Attendite vigilate are two good Caveats and entred here by the Apostle in the name of Christ that so he might preserve that interest in the Church of God which he had purchased to himself with his own dear blood In one of these he arms his Prelates contra saevitiam persecutorum against the fury of the persecutors which assault without and in the other he prepares them contra fraudulentiam deceptorum against the fraud of the perverters and other secret sicknesses which infect within In both he layes before them the Churches dangers that so they may bethink themselves of convenient remedies As for the words now read unto you we may consider in them these two generals the sickness of the Church and the cure thereof The sickness is a swelling or a rising up of certain ill-affected humours in the body mystical which we shall first consider in the thing it self Exurgent viri then shall men arise Secondly in the unde from what part or place Ex vobis ipsis from our selves Thirdly in the effect what they do being risen loquuntur perversa speaking perverse things And lastly what it is they aim at ut abducant discipulos post se to draw away Disciples after them In the next general the Cure we have these particulars 1. The Physician that 's the Prelate to whom the charge promised is given And 2. The Medicine here prescribed which is the care and vigilancy of the Prelates Vigilate igitur Watch therefore Of these c. Exurgent viri that 's the first And sure it might be well supposed comparing these two dangers with one another that the poor Church were in no mean degree of safety having escaped those grievous Wolves to fall into the hands of men for homo homini fit Deus as the Proverb hath it But if considered as it ought the danger is no lesse then before it was for homo homini fit lupus is a Proverb too There we had men who for their rage and cruelty were entituled Wolves here Wolves who for their seeming gentleness and humanity are entituled men But here and there their purpose is the same to subvert the Church there openly by force and violence here secretly by fraud and cunning and therefore here the danger greater because lesse suspected as undermining is more dangerous to beleaguered Cities then an open battery As long as Satan had no other instruments to subvert the Church then those grievous Wolves he took great pains to lose his labour The Tyrants all from Nero down to Dioclesian when they made havock of the faithful what did they but confirm them
Scripture sustained the person of the Church Et cum ci dicitur ad omnes dicitur pasce oves meas And therefore when our Saviour said unto him feed my Sheep he said the same in him unto all the rest So then the rest of the Apostles have as much interest in this weighty charge as St. Pâ—ter had they being all equally invested pari consortio potestatis honoris with an equall measure both of power and honour as Cyprian and generally all the Fathers tell us The next enquiry will be this whether that all the Ministers of our Saviours Gospel be equally intrusted with a power of feeding and may all equally take upon themselves the name of Pastors Some would fain have it so indeed for seeing that the word of God is the food of the soul non video cur Pastor non dicatur qui pabulum hoc subministrat we see no cause say they that those who preach the Word of God should not be honoured also with the name of Pastors And Pastors let them be if the name will please them though ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning for anciently the Prelates only had the name of Pastors St. Austin knew no other Pastors in the Church of God then the Apostles and the Bishops in the 47. Tract on John Our learned Andrews is resolute upon the point neminem veterum sic locutum that the Antients never otherwise understood the word And Binius in his notes upon the Councils excepts against a fragment of the Council of Rhemes as being not of that Antiquity which is there pretended quod titulum Pastoris tribuat Parâ—cho because the name of Pastor is communicated to the Parishâ—Priest contrary to the usage of those elder times But Pastors let them be in Gods name if the name will please them so they usurp not on the power Pastors as Pasco is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to feed but not to govern For whereas there are divers acts of the Pastoral charge as viz. to beat down the body of sin to warn the unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak to infuse balm into the sick and wounded soul and with all care and industry to call the sinner to repentance all these do equally belong to those who are invested by the Church with holy Orders The Parish-Presbyter would very ill be called a Rector did we not grant him this authority And for the power corrective let him take that too so farre as he may do it with the sword of the spirit Et virga oris sui and with the rod of his mouth as the Prophet calls it But for the power of correction by the Rod of Dâ—scipline or the staffe of punishment or by the censures of the Church that pertains only to the Prelate the superior Pastor and it concerneth him highly that he use it well For many times it hapneth that the stragling sheep will not be brought into the Fold by fair perswasions or by the Ministery of the Word What then Ad diligentiam Pastoralem pertinet it then belongs unto the Pastor Flagellorum terroribus vel etiam doloribus revocare to fetch him back again by the stripes of Dâ—scipline by the coercions of the Church Which power were it committed to the hands of each several Minister would doubtless prove the greatest tyranny that ever the poor Church of Christ did suffer under This is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pertains solely to the Prelate as an act of Government Who therefore anciently was armed with his Crozier or Pastoral staffe and by the Law of England he may use it still that by the same he might reduce the stragler and correct the stubborn and rouze up the affections of the sluggish person According to the good old verse Attrahe per primum medio rege punge per imum A perfect Embleme of his duty for howsoever that of Nazianzen be exceeding true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the good Shepherd should oftner use his Pipe then his Shepherds-staffe yet the Sheep become unruly and will not hear the Shepherds-pipe pipe he never so sweetly he must needs take his staffe in hand there 's no other remedy But I touch onely on these Controversies and so passe them by The third and last duty which pertains unto the Shepherd is that he guard his sheep and keep them safe from the devouring malice of the enemy In which regard it is the Custom of those Countries which are plagued with Wolves to lodge their sheep at night in defossis specubus in some strong Caverns under ground and free from violence In which regard the Poet Virgil doth advise his shepherd to provide himself of some fierce Mastives acres molossos as he calls them by whom the flock may be defended during his own necessary absence And finally in this regard the faithful Shepherd doth expose his person unto much peril many inconveniences and several assaults of enemies Thus Jacob tells us of himself that when he kept the sheep of Laban the drought consumed him by day and the Frost by night and that sleep departed from his eyes And in the Story of Gods Book we are told of David that when he kept his Fathers sheep and that a Bear and a Lion had surprized a Lamb he set himself against the fury of those ravenous Beasts and delivered the poor Lamb out of their pawes and in a single combat slew them both So is it with our Saviour Christ in the protection of his Church in the defence of those who are the sheep of his Pasture It was his glory as it was his comfort that of all those whom God had given him he had lost not one And 't was his comfort as it was his care that he had lodged them in a place of such strength and safety even in his strongest hold his holy Tabernacle against the which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail A place in which if we continue we need not fear the violence of Satan that roaring Lion who walks about the Fold continually seeking out whom he may devoure And it is well said that he walks about for get into the Fold he cannot and therefore doth he walk about it that so if any of the flock do forsake the Fold him he may make his prey and ravish him into his Den. T is true that Christ hath sent us out like sheep among the Wolves as himself hath told us But then it is as true withall that he hath furnished us with doggs and placed them round about his Church in each corner of it that by their fierceness and their watchfulness and continual barking they may keep farre aloof the common enemy by whom the straglers are endangered Vigilant enim latrant boni Canes pro Pastore pro Grege as St. Austin
of Moses desiring in a pious fervency that he himself might be blotted out of the Book of God upon condition that the peoples sins might be forgiven them Here finde we God the Sonne actually laying down his most precious life not only for his own people and the sheep of his hands but even for those which were not of his Fold and did never know him Alias enim Oves habeo For other sheep I have which are not of this Fold as in the 16. of this Chapter An action beyond all example and such wherein our blessed Saviour went beyond himself Himself had given it for a Maxime that greater love could no man shew then this that a man lay down his life for his friend And yet behold how willingly he gave his life for those who either were false friends or apparent enemies Never did Sheepherd act such a part of goodness never were sheep so much obliged unto the goodness of their Sheepherd O the unsearchableness of Gods mercy the most unlimited extent of his grace and goodness to mortality It had been farre above the possibility either of our merit or requital had he but only bowed the Heavens and come down to visit us It had been such a prodigie as would have startled the most setled mindes of the sonnes of nature to have heard only this that for a good mans sake some peradventure would yet dare to die But God saith the Apostle commends his love to us in this in that whilest we were yet sinners Christ diâ—d for us The Lord and giver of life submits himself unto the death mortem autem Crucis to the reproachful death of the accursed Crosse He yields himself to the most shameful of all deaths the accursed Crosse for the most wretched and unworthy of all his Creatures rebellious man Rebellious man which had so often provoked his God to anger and crucified as it were the Lord of Glory before his comming in the flesh And whâ—ch doth add unto the miracle of his goodness to us divinitatem dat in proemium he died for us that we might live with him for ever and therefore put on our corruption that we might all be cloathed with his immortality Good God! how gladly could I wish unto my self the tongues of men and Angels at this present time that I might speak a little of thy Grace and mercy And yet O Lord the tongues of men and Angels would fall so short of true expression that they would seem no better then a sounding brasse or a tinckling Cymball Thou only hast ability to relate the history of thine own great mercies who hadst alone the power to do them The story of thy sufferings will be then best told when we shall see thee face to face and thou which wert the Argument art the Authour too Christ died then Animam suam posuit pro Ovibus suis and laid down his most precious life to preserve â—is flock Besides his gracious pleasure that so it should be there was in a manner a necessity that so it must be Without the shedding of blood saith the Apostle there is no remission and what blood else could have that efficacy but his that speaks farre better things unto us then the blood of Abel No saving of the sheep but by the blood of the Shepherd no raising of the sonnes of men to the life of righteousness but by subjecting the Sonne of God to the death of nature For our transgressions was he wounded for our iniquities was he bruised the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed saith the Prophet Esay Percutiam Pastorem is salvation here Besides the enemy against whom he fought had been else invincible For as upon some sodain exigents the surest way to conquer is to flee so here the readiest way for him to get the victory was to lose his life Novum ad victoriam iter sanguinis sui semita aperuit as the Historian said of Decius This was indeed a battel of a strange condition in which the Conqueror must first lose his life before he could obtain the victory and live again before he could enjoy it No other way to subjugate the powers of death and ransom his distressed sheep from the hands of Satan but by his death to overthrow him which had the power of death which is the Devil So the Apostle to the Hebrews A miracle saith the Glosse indeed that the Devil should be beaten at his own weapon and being the first that brought in death should be conquered by it Mors enim erat arma per quae vincebat diabolus per en victus est à Christo So the Glosse expounds it Thus punctually hath the Lord our Saviour discharged the duty of the good Sheepherd unto us and somewhat we must do reciprocally in the correspondence thereunto But what that is will be too long a business to be discoursed of at this present The 27. of this Chapter will be a more convenient Theme whereupon to build an Application of the present Doctrine as it relates unto the Pastoral charge of Christ our Saviour in feeding of our souls with the bread of life curing our wounded consciences with the Physick of the Word correcting out obliquities with the rod of Discipline and lodging us in a most safe and secure place whilest we are made partakers of his heavenly comforts But as our present Text relates to the Sheepherds goodness the Application will be here more proper then it can be there the hearing of his voyce and the requital of his goodness in a mutual suffering being of very different natures For questionleâ—s as Christ out of his infinite goodness did willâ—ngly lay down his life for us so may â—e well expect a mutual readiness in us not only to die with him but to die for himâ— also when our â—piritual necessities and the extremities of his Church shall so require The first of these two wayes is by dying with him crucâ—â—ying our sins upon his Crosse burying our corrupt affections in his Grave mortifyâ—ng our earthly members and killing in our selves the whole body of sin This to be done by chastising of our souls with watchings fastings labours patience afflictions sufferings Duties so throughly practised in the former times by many of the Primitive Christians that their very flesh was rarified into spirit and the whole man so fitted for eternal glories as if they did not look to die but to be translated Which duties as they are at all times to be practised by us so most especially on those dayes and times which are designed according to the pattern of pure Antiquity for fasting prayer and such like acts of Christian humiliation though now not only generally neglected by most sorts of men as if there were no difference between Christian libertie and antichristian licentiousness but branded and defamed as superstitious if not somewhat worse So that I
the affections of misguided men Nay it is noted by Aquinas in nomine Ovis innocentiam simplicitatem per totam scripturam designari that through the whole body of the Scripture innocency and simplicity are expressed unto us under the notion of the sheep Which though perhaps it be not universally true as perhaps it may be yet doth it very well agree with the condition of the sheep which is not only molle pecus a creature of a mild and tender nature but for the most part white of color quam dives nivei pecoris as he in Virgil which is the sign or robe of innocence Such also are the sheep of our Saviours Pasture walking in their vocation as St. Paul adviseth with all lowliness and meekness washing their hands in innocence with the Prophet David putting away high mindedness and pride and arrogance as things which are not competible with their Christian Calling Our Saviour Christ hath not only taught us to be wise as Serpents but to be innocent as Doves also Nor hath he called upon us only that we be holy as he is holy and perâ—ect as our Father in Heaven is perfect but he would have us learn of him how to be meek and lowly of heart ut requiem inveniamus animabus nostris that we may finde rest unto our souls Humility is the first step in that sacred ladder which reacheth up from Earth to Heaven and there we must begin our rise if ever we intend to attain the top And for the Gates of Heaven they are strait and narrow and can be entred only by the meek in heart by the poor in spirit It was the lowliness of the Virgin Mary that the Lord regarded the humble and the meek that he exalteth The wise man Chilo though an Heathen could have taught us this Who being asked what Jupiter did use to do returned this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the very same with that of the Magnificat Deposuit potentes de sede sua He doth put down the mighty from their Seat and doth exalt the humble and meek Exalt them then he will for himself hath said it and that not only in this world above their Brethren but in the world to come amongst the Angels That Christ who hath assured us this that blessed are the meek in heart for they shall inherit the Earth he also hath affirmed that blessed are the poor in spirit quoniam ipsorum est Regnum coelorum for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven These qualities of lowliness meekness and humility as they are at all times very necessary so most especially at that time when we come to hear to exercise that Office and perform that duty which is here required The proud man hates to be instructed and the impatient will not brook a reprehension The one thinks no man good enough to be his remembrancer the other storms and flies out into fury on the least reproof The one thinks scorn to come to Christ whâ—lest he is preaching in the Temple and such publick places They expect rather and King Herod did in the holy Gospel till he be brought unto their Houses and then too if they be not satisfied in their curiosities they set him at naught laugh at him to his very face veste albâ— indutum illudunt put the fools coat upon him and so send him going The other come about him like the Scribes and Pharisees and hearken greedily to his words But if he touch upon their vices if he denounce a woe against them for their pride and arrogance their covetousnâ—ss hypocrisie and desire of glory they then take counsel presently how they may destroy him Neither of these are in a fit condition to repair to Christ or if they do are like to get but little by their coming to him Dirigit mansuetos in judicio they are the meek only whom God guides in judgement the meek whom he instructeth in his holy wayes In vain do they resort unto him to hear his voyce who use to come with hardned not with humbled hearts But there 's another quality of the sheep as necessary to the work of hearing on the Postâ—fact as meekness and humility in the preparation or a parte ante which is the chewing of the Cud as we use to call it The Latines call it rumination Illice sub nigra pallentes ruminat herb as as the Poet hath it And they derive that terme from the old word rumen which signifies that little bag or ventricle into the which it is conveyed before the second chewing of it or else as Servius hath it in his notes on Virgil from the most prominent part of the throat called Ruma per quam demissus cibus revocatur by which they do recall that food into their mouthes which they had lodged within their stomacks The reason of this rumination I regard not here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It properly belongs to the Philosopher and to him we leave it All I shall note from hence is this that ruminare by a Metaphor is sometimes taken for in memoriam revocare to call again to our remembrance the recalling of such things into our memories which either have been lost out of them or mislaid in them being much of the same nature in a man as is the other in a Beast The sheep comes hastily to feed and in that hast doth not so thorowly chew and prepare their food and fit it for digestion as do other creatures but when the fury of their Appetite is a little slackned they bestow upon it as it were a second eating that it may be more perfectly concocted and made fit for nourishment Atque iterum pasto pascitur ante cibo as it is in Ovid. And this no question is required in every one who doth desire to be accounted for a sheep of our Saviours Pasture and comes with hast and hunger to hear his voyce It was the Precept given by David to the great Kings Daughter not to hear only but to consider hearken O Daughter and consider Psal 45. And ' â—was the greatest commendation of the Virgin Mary a Daughter of the great King also that she did keep the sayings of her Lord and Saviour conferens in corde suo and pondered them duly in her heart This is that commanded by the Lord to his people Israel that they should lay up his words in their hearts and meditate on the same both day and night commended by St. Luke in the Beroeans who did not only receive the Word with all readiness of mind but carefully compared it with the holy Scriptures and is indeed an excellent chewing of the cud a profitable art of benefiting by the word revealed For they who thus do chew the cud are of all others the most likely not only to preserve the word in their hearts and memories but to observe it also in their words and actions This is indeed the principal end both of
and come next in order to be handled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sense of hearing saith our Master Aristotle is the sense of Discipline that sense whereby we are made capable of learning and thereby gain unto our selves that knowledge which could not be begotten with us by our Parents We may upon the same grounds call it the sense of salvation For Fides ex auditu Faith comes by hearing saith St. Paul And without faith it is impossible we should be saved because it is impossible that without faith we should please the Lord. Now no man brings this knowledge of or this faith in Christ into the World along with him nor can a man believe in the Sonne of God into whose soul the Doctrine of belief is not distilled and infused through the outward senses Faith though an habit principally of the Lords infusing yet requires somewhat on our parts to be done and acted as hearing reading conference and such like preparatives whereby our understandings are informed and our mindes enlightned and so prepared to entertain it Besides it is the observation of an ancient Father that many faculties of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are likened and resembled to the outward members Upon which ground the eare may not improperly be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirituall mouth by which we do receive both food and Physick for the languishing soul It hath been noted of the sheep that it is naturally subject to the rot Ossa minutatim morbo collapsa trahebat as the Poet hath it Which as it naturally doth arise from the moyst and flegmatick constitution of their bodies so is it then most frequent and predominant in them when to the natural moysture of their bodies is added also the corrupt moysture of their Pastures No way to help it or prevent it but to change their Pastures to lead them up unto the Mountains to places of a sweet but more wholsom Herbage So is it also with us men with our Saviours sheep We are all rotten from the womb in sin our Mothers have conceived us saith the Royal Psalmist but then most dangerously affected with it when to the natural corruptness of our disposition are added also the diseases of our education Crederes nos naturâ non tam improbos esse nisi accederet etiam disciplina But being thus diseased and ill-affected what means is left us for the cure surely there is no other way to remedy the diseases of our conversation but by the physick of the Word nor other way to make that physick efficacious but by applying it to the ear That is the mouth wherewith we must take down those potions which the Physitians of our souls have prescribed unto us Next let us look upon the Word as it is our food man living not by bread alone but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God food fitted for all Ages and for all conditions Are we but Novices in the things of God but Babes of yesterday then it goes for milk As new-born babes desire ye the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby so St. Peter hath it Are ye of riper years and more setled judgments then it stands for meat Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age who have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil so St. Paul hath told us Are ye of curious tasts and affected palates then it is a banquet a banquet of all others the most rich and nourishing A banquet full of all Varieties in which there are both Sweet-meats to delight the Tast Salsado's to revive the Palate Tart stuff to set an edge upon the Appetite Lenitives to open and unknit Obstructions Cordials to heighten and advance our Spirits And by what means do we become partakers of those heavenly Viands but onely by the mouth of our Understanding auditu devorandus est hic panis Intellectu devorandus Fide digerendus This sacred and celestial food must be first swallowed with our Ears chewed with our Intellect or Understanding and finally digested by our Faith as Tertullian hath it so that in each of those respects and in all together Qui habet aures audire audiat He that hath ears to hear let him hear and yet that 's not all Not all assuredly there 's no thought of that the way to Heaven were very easie if it should be so There 's not a Scribe or Pharisee in all the Gospel but had been Sainted long before this time if hearing onely in it self ex opere operato as the Schoolmen phrase it could have brought them thither They heard the voice of Christ none oftner but they onely heard it and in this place audire goes a little further The hearing as it is the sense of discipline so was the ear the instrument of hearing of old times consecrated to the memory Physici dicunt singulas corporis partes Numinibus consecratas esse ut aurem Memoriae frontem Genio as Servius notes it upon Virgil We must so hear then that we do remember not make our ears a thorough-fare and no more then so and yet this is not all we must look to neither Audire est credere obedire as mine author tells me To hear is to believe and practise first to believe that what we heare delivered in the Word is true and then to practise it as fit and necessary to be done this is the hearing we must trust too if we look for Heaven 'T is not the shutting of our eyes and turning all the body into an ear that will save our soules there 's somewhat else which must be thought of First to commit to memory those saving Doctrines which we have heard delivered from the Word of God and next to express the power thereof in our lives and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Oecumenius with all alacrity of mind and spirit for not the hearers of the Word but the doers of it shall be justified so the Apostle to the Romans Nor is it strange that hearing in the Book of God should be interpreted Obedience It was the first quarrel which God had with Adam quia audiisti vocem uxoris tuae because he had hearkened to the voice of his wife What had God given her to him for a comfort and doth he now find fault that he heard her speak what comfort can there be in a sullen woman in a dumb woman none at all Not so 't was not the hearing of Eves voice that the Lord condemned but his obeying of the same his yielding to her wanton motions and attributing more unto her desires then to Gods Commandements Audisti i. e. adimplesti to hearken there is to obey because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife and willfully transgressed the precepts of the Lord thy God therefore the Lord shall curs◠the earth and make thee labour for thy living so in the 1