fall out with the whole Profession of Chivalry for one Miscreants sake that pierced my Saviours side or for four at the most as some say that scourged him Quis requiescet super lonco quo perfossum est Christi latus for by that reason we should fall out with the Priests and High-Priests too who were deeper interested in the business than the Souldiers The Sons of Aaron were his first Enemies as you would say Hereticks and corrupt Teachers that sow Tares among the Wheat were the first Adversaries against the Church of Christ The Military men were his last Enemies they that wounded him in my Text and belyed the truth of his Resurrection afterward watching at the Sepulcher So the Battels of usurping Princes put on pestilently to be the last ruin of the Church Caesaris milites Caesar's Souldiers such as these were his Souldiers that would be an Universal Monarch the Caesar over all the Princes of the earth Some Expositors out of their respects to the honour of a Martial life would have this person to be ne unus militum no Souldier at all rightly called but by abuse and usurpation and I think you will say they speak reason when I tell you why When Hannibal was Master of the field against the Romans a People of Italy called Brutiani revolted to the Conquerors side But fortune turn'd and the time came that the Romans had clear'd the Coast of the Carthaginians and could take revenge of their Enemies at home then they neither would let those Brutiani live so happily as in Peace nor so honourably as to bear Arms in War but took them along with their Camp and made them Lictores Lorarii that is base Instruments for correction and execution of Malefactors so that by good conjecture this was but unus è Brutianis an Executioner and not a Souldier but as he lived in the Camp Now where villany was bred in the bone and the condition of the man was to be like Satanas emissus ad vexandum orbem appointed to vex all that came into his hands what could be expected but that he should thrust his Spear into the bowels of an Innocent As it was said of Maximinus the Tyrant who was born a Barbarian both by Father and Mother in quo fuit conscientia degeneris animi he did not apply himself to good because his conscience always told him that his original was base and degenerous Let him be as bad as we would have him or as good as the Text calls him he was as we are in one thing a Gentile and not a Jew a Gentile that did malice Christ The divisions of both those two great Houses did concur to these cruel and dolorous sufferings that both in their Posterity to the worlds end might think themselves indebted to expiate so great an offence both had an interest in these bloody passions prosecuting our Saviours death ut qui pro persecutoribus oraret Gentiles non excluderet says Origen That since he prayed for his Persecutors the Gentiles who were at one end of his Persecutions might be partakers of his Prayers And the counterfet Gospel of Nicodemus tells us what success this Gentile had upon our Saviours most potent Intercession and Prayer for his Enemies For this Longinus that name his new Godfathers have given him having lost the use of one eye long before a little sprinkling of this bloud did light upon it and restore it again The miracles and the grace of God made him a Christian and finally a constant profession of him that was crucified made him a glorious Martyr Whether the Story be true or false I dispute not this Author knew that there was a possibility we might believe it For 't is true that St. Hierom said upon the conversion of many Publicans and Harlots Christus est succinum ad congregandas sibi stipulas paleas many who had copious vices were drawn unto Christ as the Coral and the Jet draw chaff and straws and things of the least moment about them Men and Brethren to this day Christ is crucified to this day Armed men and Souldiers bend their fury against the Church of Christ are about his Cross For as the Philosopher said that an ill man was the worst of all Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he was arm'd with wit and reason to do injustice So every sinner is not so strong as a Souldier to hurt nor furnisht with ability to be so bad as he would be he wants a spear to thrust Christ into the side as Isaiah said of the Army of Senacharib which threatned sore against the Temple of the Lord but fell short of their purpose The Children are come to the birth and are not able to bring forth But when I see Power and Authority make the worst use of it to oppress when I see a pregnant Wit set it self to scoff and libel when I hear Eloquence whet her tongue to plead against the innocent alas say I this is robusta iniquitas this impiety is armed with a Spear the weapons of malice are girt about it my Saviour and his poor Members are sure to smart for it Says the Prophet Ezekiel chap. xxxii they shall go down to Hell with their Weapons of War that is with their violent and powerful sins Transgressors we may be Souldiers that fight against Heaven I hope we will never be Cast away the weapons of Satan and put on the armour of light I have done with the Person I come to the Violence offered lanceâ fodit he pierced him with a Spear The hand of Jereboam which was stretched out against the man of God dried up and withered the hand of the Emperor Valens shook with an extreme Palsie and could not subscribe to the Banishment of Basil the Great says Theodoret but the hand of the Persecutor which aimed at the Body of Christ himself that was stedfast no infirmity in it no sinew shrunk Let these go their way says Christ of his Disciples when they were all taken together in the Garden let not these be apprehended the Shepherd rather than the Sheep the Master than the Servants In me convertite ferrum whosoever escapes his own flesh shall never flinch at torment St. Austin asks why his dearest flesh was pierced and despitefully mangled but according to the Scriptures not a bone of him was broken quia ossa sunt electi eorum virtutes his flesh was the Sacrifice which must be offered upon the Altar of the Cross but his Elect and their Virtues are understood by his bones and whatsoever betides himself yet his Elect that is his bones must not be broken In the Similitude of the Vine whereunto our Saviour is compared more than once Bernard hath thus continued the Allegory that in Circumcision he was vitis praecisa a Vine that was pruned and though a little cut yet no substantial part was wounded In the captious questions of the Pharisees when
examination for they will not tell us what they mean It cannot be that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was banisht it cannot be that for the Floud prevailed above all the earth to waste and spoil it And for figurative significations of the word they are endless who can interpret them But will you know the truth upon Eccles xliv 16. The Vulgar Latine of such authentick credit with them hath cogg'd in the word Paradise Enoch pleased the Lord and was translated into Paradise The Arabick Version I hear upon the eleventh of the Hebrews hath used St. Pauls Text so and inserted the word Paradise into it Yet there is no such syllable in the 72 or in the Greek Text of the Son of Syrach that is all one to them where it serves their turn they make use of the Greek Copies before the Hebrew and of the Latine before the Greek the Roman Church can dignifie what Language it pleaseth But enough of this it is a meer Latine errour which first seduced the Schoolmen to write that Enoch was translated into Paradise Touching Limbus Patrum their Doctrine is more clear and explicite that it is a place below the earth called in large sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell a receptacle of the souls of those holy ones and good believers that died before Christ ascended into heaven where they were at rest and peace but enjoyed not the presence of God And this they expound to be that bosom of Abraham whither the Angels carried the soul of Lazarus The latter instance I suppose is enough to confute the former for the rich man looked up and saw Abraham and Lazarus in the high places above him a great gulf of exceeding distance being between them therefore it could be no such Limbus as they dream of in the Confines or Suburbs of hell And St. Austin dasht this opinion long since with an Argument not to be answered I have searched the Scriptures says he and could never find that Hades or Hell was taken in good part therefore to make a place of rest and joyful habitation to be the fourth and best degree of hell as all their Authors take it is beyond his understanding But why not Enoch assumed into some part of heaven Their reason for that The Scripture says plainly that Elias was carried up to heaven not because any quiet Habitation may be called Heaven in respect of this world of misery but forasmuch as verily he did change Earth for Heaven and therein is made a Type of Christs Ascension as Jonas the Prophet was a Type of his Resurrection So St. Ambrose I should have remembred it before upon the Funerals of Valentinian allows Abrahams bosom to be the house of God above the Firmament Certainly St. Paul would never have used that distinction Whether in the body or out of the body he knew not if it had been impossible for the body of man to be exalted into the third Heavens As Core and Dathan were swallowed quick into Hell body and soul for their great Rebellion so Enoch and Elias were carried quick into heaven body and soul for their great obedience The Greek Church keeps the Feast of Elias upon the twentieth of July says Metaphrastes in his Catalogue All that Lapide the Jesuit says unto it is that Elias his name is honoured upon that day by the Greek Church but he is not worshiped or invocated on that day because he is not in Heaven I know not whether the Jesuit say truth in that because I never saw the work of Metaphrastes but if the Greek Church neither make Prayers unto him nor give him religious honour I am sure they are the wiser and the farther from the Roman Superstition They have one question among the Schoolmen maintained pro and con with bitter contentions so God afflicts their wits that resist the truth upon their supposition that Enoch and Elias are not yet in Patriâ termino not yet come to the consummation of their days not yet in the receptacles of heaven but in some other place whither they be still in proficiency of holiness waxing better and better as when they lived upon earth for then say those Doctors this absurdity would follow they should exceed the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints their stock of good Works should run on in infinitum I think they are afraid they might prove such excellent servants that God should scarce be able to requite them Thus they entangle themselves in endless strifes to keep Enoch out of Heaven and with him all those souls that died in the Faith before our Saviour gave up the Ghost and upon affected misconstruction of those Texts that Christ was the first fruits of them that sleep that no man hath ascended into heaven but he that first descended the Son of man that is in heaven To explain my self and satisfie them remember our Saviours words that there are divers mansions in his Fathers house that is divers Stories of glory in his Fathers house built one above another there are outward Courts of glory and inward Chambers Now it is not to be denied but that Enoch and all the souls of all the just men of the Old Testament were in some quarterings of Heaven as in their proper place and in a state of happiness and salvation which is figuratively called heaven yet I do not say but Christ did open a door unto them to bring them nearer to the Vision of God in the highest heavens when himself did enter into glory The souls of good men deceased were ever in the hand of God but not ever in like distance to the joyes of God They were in Heaven before Christ ascended but not in such an Heaven as they possess now after he ascended Their Lot was Heaven from the beginning but their inheritance is augmented that Verse in our Morning Hymn looks this way I take it when thou hadst overcome c. But of St. Pauls meaning to jump with this Doctrine I am very confident Heb. ix 8. The way into the holiest of all was not yet mode manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing That I may leave no objections behind me to stumble you the main scruple is that the Scripture speaks as if Christ had made the first passage into Heaven in his own person which must be interpreted of the highest heavens where the blessed shall remain for ever no man was admitted there not the body nor the soul of man till he that was God and man in one person went in first and by his own merits and intercession gave access unto his brethren I settle in my own belief upon this answer not for want of two other answers and both of them probable The one that before ever Christ took flesh virtually and meritoriously he opened the Kingdom of heaven to all Believers Ab origine mundi operata est Christi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministry of
Tribes carried quite away by Salmanezar only Judah and Benjamin were left behind not able for their small number to fill the whole Land of Canaan whereupon that part wherein Nazareth and Capernaum did stand was called Galilee of the Gentiles Mark here the equity and indifferency of the Son of God both to Jew and to Barbarian He was conceived among the Gentiles at Nazareth brought forth into the world among the Jews at Bethlem Lived at Galilee of the Nations but died at Hierusalem So in this Gospel his Mother brought him forth within the Walls of the City that was proper to the Jew but the tydings were heard abroad without the Walls in the Country that was proper to the Gentiles The Collection is not violent but natural for so St. Paul argues that Christ belonged unto us aliens from the Covenant who were not of the Jews that served at the Tabernacle for Jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate The benefit of our Saviours life and death was communicated to all people not only to the Seed of David passus extra Hierusalem He suffered not within but without Jerusalem because the fruit of his death lay open to all Ascendens è monte Oliveti extra Bethaniam Ascended into Heaven upon the mount of Olives without the Town of Bethany because he opened the Kingdom of Heaven for all believers But hear what follows in the Jesuit Salmeron natus in Speluncâ extra Bethlem born in a Grote or Cave for so he calls the Manger without the Town of Bethlem because the benefit of his Incarnation was open and publick to all Here his observation sticks and is erroneous although he hath the judgment of Cajetan to favour him and the conjecture of Baronius almost concurring with him for he says the Stable was in Suburbiis Bethlem not within but without the Gates in the Suburbs of Bethlem And what more manifest to convince their fancy than the eleventh verse of this Chapter This day is born unto you a Saviour in the City of David The Moral therefore is more fitly made up as I told you before that He came first into the world in the City of Bethlem by which deed he doth intimate that He was made flesh for the Salvation of the Jew but the tidings were heard abroad at the first publication in the same Country whereby it appears he was made man also for the salvation of the Gentile Another circumstance of place is in the Text that the Angel chose the open fields to annunciate the Messias of the world and who can deem but that they were fitly chosen for the purpose The Priests of the Temple would not be glad to hear of him that cut off their Types and Ceremonies they that inhabit the City would not relish such a Prophet that will say unto them Sell all and give it to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven The pleading places of Justice would laugh at his prescription He that taketh away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also The Seas had heard of nothing but Neptune and Thetis and the titles of false Gods all their ships were called by the names of Idols but the plain Fields had no such prejudicate opinion against a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Upon their pleasant fruitfulness the happy news are showred down as if the dawning of this bright day should change all the Earth into another Paradise Mystically thus much may be collected as all increase and abundance wherewith we are fed is brought out of the field so the Incarnation of Christ should fill the world with the plenty and abundance of Salvation I will not say according to the Letter of the Miracle in the Gospel that the fishermen laboured hard all night and took nothing so in the darkness of the Law which may not unfitly be called the night nothing at all was taken yes there was a number of those that believed but a very small one here a berry and there a berry says the Prophet upon the top of a bow The Pharisees compassed Sea and Land to gain one Proselyte and scarce glean'd up one in all their travel but since the Church writes it self not Jew but Christian Since the day spring from on high hath visited us the number of the fishes is so great which the Apostles drew into the Ship that the nets were ready to break because of the multitude As the Widows oyl fill'd every vessel which she could borrow of her neighbours so the faith of our Redeemer hath fill'd all Nations in the world As Job said by Allegory Petra mihi effundit rivos olei Rivers of oyl trickled down from the rock and the rock was Christ During the time of Moses Law what a paucity there was of those that spent their industry to interpret the Canon of the Scriptures How few are reckoned that shed their bloud for the maintenance of the truth Not any almost that made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven many Ages yielded small store of Saints But see what the Gospel hath brought forth like a fruiful field many Penmen of holy Writings many Virgins unspotted touching the flesh thousand thousands of Martyrs They that have gone about to cast up the number think that as many have lost their lives for the profession of righteousness in the time of the Gospel as there were beasts in the old Law slain for Sacrifice before the Altar Et nunc omnis ager nunc omnis parturit arbor Now the trees of the Lord are full of sap now the Temples of the Lord are throng'd with those that believe as the fields stand thick with Corn in Harvest This is the good will of him that was born in Bethlem prefigured to give increase and abundance because the Angel did annunciate him in the fields where fruit grows up for the use of man The errors of men are captious and catch at any occasion to argue for their own defence and why may not this Text be distorted by some to prove that fields and desarts are fit receptacles for Congregations of Christians But for Churches and Chappels they may be demolished or else neglected It was an Heresie of the Massilians as Damascen oserved that God might be worshipt as well in the Woods or vast Mountains in any place unhallowed as in those Oratories that are dedicated to his honour I would they had left none of their brood behind them but the first broacher of that corrupt Doctrine as I have told you once before in my conceit was Jeroboam for he made a rent in the Kingdom of Israel alienating ten Tribes from their Allegiance due to their lawful Prince Rehoboam But one thing troubled him that according to the Law all the Tribes must go up once a year to worship at Hierusalem which was the imperial City of the King of Judah This was it that cut the very nerves of his conspiracy
passengers because he came into the world for a publick benefit The time most seasonable and accommodate the very fulness of time as the Apostle says Whereupon St. Ambrose Christus tanquam maturitas advenit ut nihil acerbum nihil immaturum nihil immite sit he came when all the fruits of comfort were mellow ripe and delicious that nothing might be sower or harsh or distasteful to us Tardius enascitur cupressus seris umbram factura nepotibus says Pliny the Cypress tree is long a growing yet when it is grown up to a tree the shade of it serves for an harbour to the child unborn So the long expectation of Christs coming is requited with those blessings that grow up more and more and spread wider and wider for all generations to come The company that came from heaven to congratulate this day most glorious and chearful a multitude of heavenly host and what a mighty army hath he levied to take our part in respect of those few scattered forces which are against us The manner of his birth most edifying and instructive in all abjectness and low estate in all poverty and humility A magnificent pompous Saviour would have been a scandalous example as we may well mistrust it to the high imaginations of our hearts and might sooner have destroyed this proud world than redeem'd it we did not want a Champion in arms but an Infant in swadling clouts We did not need a Prince guarded with his Peers but one in the form of a servant whose best companions that came about him were silly Shepherds It was not for our turn to have one that would keep state and ruffle Superbia non est magnitudo sed tumor Pride is not greatness verily and in truth nay but a tumor that is blown up with appearance It was for our profit to have one that did empty himself of his glory and make himself of low degree that man may blush away his own pride when he sees the Son of God invested with humility Finally the fruit of this Nativity O the fruit of it is passing delectable and unutterable grace illumination vacancy from fear of condemnation tranquility of conscience angelical protection here angelical society hereafter to know the rigor of the Law was the old lesson to know the Covenant of Grace the new to live and dye were vulgar things to rise from death and to live for ever came by him who being our head was made mortal that we might be immortal members of his body So I have pointed only to severals as in a map to the felicity of the Womb he chose of the place that received him of the time that exactly fitted him of the company that congratulated him of the humility that adorn'd him of the precious fruit that grew from him that the Sum might redound to make up this principal point of my Text everlasting blessing is the free gift of God to this whole world through the Incarnation c. The second Evangelical observation above that which the woman conceived that spake these words is thus Both the Womb and the Paps also of common Mothers are obnoxious to many miseries and to such great ones sometimes that they prove mortal The subtilty of the Serpent brought this curse upon the Womb of mothers Gen. iii. 16. I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children That calamity is a common wound to that tender sex not so apt to bear any sore affliction But the birth of Christ was without the pangs and hard travail of the Mother The malediction was not upon Mary but Blessed was the womb that bare him Ipsa genetrix fuit obstetrix says St. Cyprian Mary was both the Mother and the Midwife of the Child Far be it from us to think that the weak hand of any woman could facilitate that work which was guided only by the miraculous hand of God The Lord did do his own work so great so transcendent without all humane assistance And mark another reason of St. Austins if any should headily contradict it Quod sine voluptate carnis concepit sine dolore peperit The Virgin conceived our Lord without the lusts of the flesh and therefore she brought him forth without the dolour without the curse of the flesh And many other of the Fathers for it was their common tradition have these similitudes upon it As a Bee draws hony from the flower without offending it as Eve was taken out Adams side without any grief to him as a Sprig opens the bark of a tree to grow out of it as the light sparkles from the light of a Star such ease it was to Mary to bring forth her first born Son Gravida sed non gravabatur says Bernard Shee had a burden in her Womb before she was delivered yet she was not burdened that lies upon this proof that shee took a journey instantly before she was delivered from Nazareth to Bethlehem above forty miles and yet she suffered it without weariness or complaint For such was the power of the Babe that he did rather support the Mothers weakness than was supported And as he lightned his Mothers travail by t he way that it was not tedious to her tender age so he took away all dolour and imbecillity from her travail in Child-birth This was a benediction upon her Womb Blessed is the Womb c. Thirdly In this the woman prophesied more than shee understood that whereas nature is like Hagar that bringeth forth children unto bondage and all the off-springs which Mothers bring forth are in themselves accursed from the womb for we are all born and conceived in sin Prius reati quam nati only this child this Immanuel this holy of holies was a righteous branch that knew no sin that had no part in iniquity and therefore exempted from that malediction which lies upon our shoulders from the first hour wherein we are born According to the strictness of the Law by which no flesh is justified that sentence is most righteous against us all Deut. xxviii 18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body Therefore Job sell out with his birth-day and so did Jeremy for until the time that we are regenerate and born anew 't is most true which they perhaps disgusted in discontent Cursed be the day wherein I was born let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed St. Ambrose reduceth it very well to this moral application let the day of my first birth perish that I may be accounted to live from the day of my regeneration Pereat dies secularis ut dies spiritualis oriatur vanish those days of sin that none but spiritual days may shine upon me But all that bitter mourning came from hence that nothing but wrath and rejection belongs unto us as we are born in original depravation This is true in all one only excepted who in the similitude of sinful flesh took our nature upon him
sidepieces of the tree do resemble horns he might as well have said that the Metaphor was taken from the Altar in the Old Law upon which the Sacrifices were presented because the Psalmist says bind the Sacrifice with cords unto the horns or extremities of the Altar Into the number of these that are more elegant than litteral in their allusions let me cast in Lombard thus he an horn is an altitude above the flesh and because it grows higher than the flesh therefore Christ is called an horn rather than a buckler of salvation because our hope in him is not carnal but spiritual and it is he that gives us grace and power to overcome the flesh These and such like subtilties I think it fit rather to name than to prosecute But Theophylact hath collected the solid reasons of this Appellation into few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it betokens either the mighty power or the Kingdom of salvation An horn is the weapon and strength of that Creature out of which it brancheth and therefore it is usual almost in every book of Scripture to borrow a Metaphor from it as the Lord shall give strength to his King and exalt the horn that is the power of his Anointed 1 Sam. ii 10 and Psal lxxxviii In my name shall his horn that is his strength and fortitude be exalted and to break the horns of sinners is to pull down their pride and dominion Psal lxxiv. I spare to recite innumerous quotations which are extant every where in Scripture but in this phrase the Holy Ghost intends that according to the translation which is in our Morning Service God hath raised up a mighty salvation in the house of his servant David O puissant Lord and Saviour who is able to comprehend what infinite power did concur to this effect that the everlasting God should be incarnate and become man This birth may seem to the outward man to be nothing but a spectacle of weakness and misery Look upon an Infant laid in a Manger wrapt in swadling clouts the Son of a poor Maid espoused to a Carpenter and from these circumstances the question might be askt Where is this horn Where is this strength which Zachary hath laboured to express so emphatically I answer That the Nativity of Jesus was the greatest demonstration of the power of God that ever the world received The Virgin Mary hath commended it to be very true in her Song verse 49 of this Chapter He that is mighty hath done unto me great things And St. Basil says that the Incarnation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of the Divine Omnipotency It is a strange efficacy of nature to conjoyn repugnant Elements in the composition of our flesh as fire and water It is yet more strange to put an Elementary body and an immaterial soul into one composition but to joyn an increated and eternal God in one union of person with these things it exceeds all other marvels Neque Adami de limo terrae formatio neque Evae de viri carne plasmatio Iesu Christi potest ortui comparari says Leo the creation of Adam from the dust of the earth the efformation of Eve from the rib of Adam both are things to astonish our weak understanding but neither of these are comparable to his Nativity that was the Son of God and the Son of Mary this is the very firmitude of the horn whereof I am to speak there are other rights and branches of it For as Gods power doth astonish us that the Word should be made Flesh so it brings our admiration to more excess that he should become a Saviour he did overcome his own justice in that act and an Orator would say he grew mightier than himself if it were possible by sparing us Certainly there is good reason in that Axiom of the School that it was more to save a sinner than to create a world The heathen had their Saviours from wasteful diseases and pestilentious contagions as Pandion and Esculapius the Israelites had their Saviours from thraldom and the peril of the Sword as Moses and Joshuah But he that delivers us from the wrath of God and from the pit of hell he is the strong deliverer he is the horn of salvation Finally The Salvation which he hath brought us hath not only set us free but it hath put vigour and animosity in us to subdue our Adversaries that held us in thraldom What the Heathen spake of another thing I may fitly apply to Christ Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis viresque addis cornua pauperi such as were poor and in misery being fast bound in the fetters of their sins thou hast refresht them with joy and given them horns to push down their enemies The dominion of sin is abated the edge of infernal tentations is rebated Death is swallowed up in victory the Devil cries out in the Gospel that he is tormented the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church this is salvation obtained for us not by compounding with our Foes and asking their leave but by strong force and puissant victory Cornu salutare nobis sed impiis terrificum It is a soveraign horn to us but an instrument of offence against the wicked His horns are the horns of an Vnicorn with them shall he smite the heathen even the ends of the world Deut. xxxiii 17. the false flattering Prophet Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah put on horns to sooth up Ahab Antichrist is described with ten horns and seven heads Revel xvii 3. to denote that he is armed to bring destruction upon those that cleave in sincerity of truth unto the Lord. The Goat and the Ram which Daniel saw in his Vision chap. viii had terrible horns rising up between their eyes These were outragious tyrants whom God permitted to goar the innocent like mad Oxen but here 's an horn in my Text to break their malice as if it were but a slender reed The Judge that trieth the cause of the helpless against oppressors and casts them down for ever but our horn of salvation Indeed that 's his proper work to save and help his chosen it is by accident that for their sakes he wounds and offends their enemies he came not to destroy but to seek and to save that which is lost he would not the death of a sinner but that he should repent and be saved therefore it is due to be called not an horn of mischief but an horn of salvation Nor doth this word betoken his power only but his kingdom likewise as if Zachary had said God hath raised up a King of salvation to us in the house of his servant David So said St. Peter before the Council of the Scribes Acts v. 31. Him hath God lift up with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour The Chaldee Paraphrast who is very ancient agrees greatly with this for what the Psalm hath I will make the horn of David to flourish
time Therefore not St. Austin but some other forgetful Author said in 29 Serm. de Temp. that Christ was magnified for a fourth renowned work also upon that day namely for the first miracle of the loaves and fishes Concerning the first three I have authority enough in ancient Writers and three such miracles to be celebrated in the offices of one feast are enough to give it a principal reputation So gladsom a festival it was chiefly to sing praises to the Lord for the calling of the Gentiles that if either King or Potentate withdrew himself from Church on this day it was enough to tax him for a Pagan and that he did abhor the Gospel Therefore such as write of Julian the Emperour and his deep hypocrisie note in him that for many years he would come in all Princely pomp to Gods house at this feast lest he should have seemed openly and directly to have renounced all Christianity I have told you in what price and estimation this Festival was held of old because nothing was so precious to the Gentiles as their own salvation Therefore I hope you will do the day that common right to give diligent ear to some portion of the Scripture while I entreat upon it with what persons and miracles and other circumstances the preamble of our calling and illumination began In the Epistle for the day if you mark it we forget not Pauls kindness that he was a prisoner for us Gentiles Eph. 3.1 it is worth our thanks and remembrance much more is it worth the recitation in the Gospel what Christ became for our sakes a condition far meaner than for an Apostle to become a prisoner Paul from a sinful man became a diligent Apostle Christ being God came unto us in the shape of a sinful man of an impotent Babe and was bound though not in fetters yet in swadling clouts laid up in a Manger as contemptible a corner as a gaol and being all innocency reputed for our sakes worse than Barrabas the greatest scandal of the prison of him St. Paul did preach and the Prophets did preach and the Stars did preach and these Wise-men did preach that we Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of the same promise in Christ I have been copious upon the descent and stock and other qualities of these wise men upon their coming upon their journey so long and perilous from the East to Jerusalem Three things do equally divide my whole matter the doings and the sayings of these Pilgrims and the occasion of both For their doings and sayings to be equally regarded upon this Text I find that I concur with St. Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see the vertue of these Wise men both to come so far and to speak so far to come from home for Christs sake and to speak so home for Christs sake Where is he that is born c. The occasion of all is now to be handled Now when Jesus was born which is opened by two circumstances of the place that was in Bethlem and of the time In the days of Herod the King Now their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or boldness of speaking the truth is drawn to two heads by the Fathers Vnum quaerunt unum asserunt say they but here is one question and two assertions The confident question Where is he that is born King of the Jews The assertions first What God had wrought for them We have seen his Star in the East Secondly What God had wrought in them And are come to worship him And in the beginning I take the occasion in hand Now when Jesus was born Is that the Axel upon which all the business of these Eastern Travellers turns it self No wonder if that beget a great holy day for Christs birth is the occasion of all the holy days in the year If you keep some days festival for the Evangelists you know how they deserve it because they were his Penmen and Recorders if other times are celebrated for the Martyrdom of the Apostles because they were his Witnesses the Innocents of Bethlehem were slain in his quarrel and Michael and all the Angels fight for the Church because Christ is the head both of things in heaven and of things in earth All our joy all our triumphs all our glory move from hence and from this occasion Now when Jesus was born But to what end was all this hast Why should they make forward to see the Child as soon as ever he was born What could they report of him when they returned home but that they had seen an Infant His Tongue was not apt to speak as yet nor his hands to shew any proof of strength and mightiness They might have spared their labour one would think till he had been well grown to years of action and perfection nay but the Star calls them forth and will not let them loiter if they omit this opportunity God knows whether ever they have the benefit of a Star to usher them again The Lord above did know and the new Creature this strange Star did preach it and the hearts of the Wise-men were enlightened to understand it that there was occasion enough to call all the heathen or at least the wisest of the heathen or at least the Princes of the West I say to call them from the ends of the world to Judea to see this little Bethlemite lately born yet greater than all the Angels though they spring not from fleshly generation to see him suck at the breasts of Mary for a few drops of milk who feeds every living thing with plenteousness to see him supported in a Mothers arms who sustains the whole world by his power and founded the Elements upon nothing to see him cast his eyes about and newly peep out of those lidds of flesh to whom all things lie naked and discovered even the darkness of the pit and the secrets of the heart of man Nothing can be said nothing can be thought of this birth but is so mysterious and incomprehensible that the silly Shepherds who could not ponder those Magnalia Dei those Metaphysicks which the Angels told them made known abroad the things which they had heard concerning this Child but as for these Wise-men that could delve into a Mystery when they saw the young Child they fell down and worshipped him and presented him with their Treasures but we do not read of one word they spake either at Bethlem or when they returned home to their own Country the thing was ineffable and perhaps they praised God in silence and admiration that such a Child was born but could not utter it Such as would travel for wisdom had enough occasion for their journey were it never so far to behold the very Nativity though abstracted from the blessing that grows unto it Oritur origo rerum that he should have any kind of being in time who is Ens entium the cause and fountain of all
so notorious that all heathen Histories which toucht upon those times would have spoken of it Secondly At the ninth verse of this Chapter we read Lo the Star which they saw in the East not low the Star which ushered them through all their journey And thirdly When they came to Judea they took in at Jerusalem to seek Christ there but what probability is there that the light of God could carry them to a wrong place Thus far upon one opinion You shall now hair what some say and almost all of the best antiquity for the other conclusion Namely that the Star was their constant companion all their journey and that it rested over all places where they rested till they came to Jerusalem First As the manner of the Fathers is to illustrate the New Testament with the Old they consider that the Pillar of the cloud went along with the Children of Israel wheresoever they removed and rested in the place where they pitched their Camps but this Star attended the Gospel as thaâ— Cloud attended the Law and God was as constant in his favour to the one as to the other And some go further that an Angel of the Lord did always remove the Cloud with his motion when the Israelites marched away mine Angel shall go before thee and bring thee into the Land of the Amorites and Hittites Exod. xxiii So an Angel did move this Star from the East to Jerusalem for says St. Austin Mark how that light vanisht not away till they took in at Jerusalem Hoc non cogit motus sideris sed virtus plena rationis I will never say an inanimate Star could so guide it self but by Angelical vertue No bright Star did shine upon that City where the Scribes and stiff-necked Jews were congregated for their hearts were blind and their understanding did not see the Nativity of Christ So at his Passion there was thick darkness over all the Land of Judah for they resisted the truth and would neither know the mysteries of his Death nor of his Incarnation If this were portended it was an intelligent Star that went with the Magi all the way till they were housed in Jerusalem as the Cloud passed on before the Tribes of Israel from Mount Sinah till they came to Canaan Thus far upon collation between the Old Testament and New there are other reasons assayed to be drawn out of the Text that the Star kept way with them to their journeys end as at the ninth verse of this Chapter Loe the Star which they saw in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the Child was If it marshall'd them which way to go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem why not also from their own Country to Jerusalem At the next verse When they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Scribes had told them where they should find Christ why then should they rejoyce so much to see the Star again but because it was a new thing to have it vanish Moreover the Star vanishing when they went into Jerusalem they suspected Christ might be there and askt for him but if their Leader had forsaken them as soon as ever it first shined they would have askt in many other places And by what art could they collect that a Star glaring in their eyes in the East and wagging no further should notifie unto them the Land of Judea rather than any other neighbouring Country And what skills it that all Histories are silent and take no notice that there was such a wonder in the World Though many holy things were common in those days and well known yet the Lord chose not the heathen to be witnesses of his glory and so they over-pass'd them Or perhaps the Star was visible to these Wise-men and the eyes of others were held that they should not see it John Baptist saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove upon Christ He saw it says the Text Mat. iii. 16. it is uncertain if any beside did see it Paul heard a voice from heaven but they that were with him heard it not Acts xxii 9. Or be it so that many others might behold this Star yet they knew not to what end it was sent but made some constructions of humane reason upon it wide mistakes upon heavenly tokens as when God answered Christs Prayer from heaven that He had both glorified his name and would glorifie it the people said it thundred Not to be long in this point because faith is bound to neither opinion this is sure the Star hid it self away for a time but they recovered sight of it again before their journeys end so the Spirit may draw back his comfort and illumination for a time from those that are graciously called to come to Christ their sins deserve it and God will make them more careful to stand sure because they have stumbled but at last before their journey be done before they end their days the light shall be renewed again to guide their feet into the land of the living The third question of enquiry is what aptitude there was in such a sign or miracle to bring the Wise men unto Christ Outward aptitude is not always discerned in the means of a mans Conversion nay sometimes the means used seem most repugnant to bring that end to pass Who would have imagined that the way to make a Publican a Disciple had been to call him from the receipt of Custom and quite to give over his traffique yet this wrought well with St. Matthew or that the Woman of Samaria would the sooner have believed Christ to be the Messias because she was upbraided to be a Concubine He whom thou now hast is not thy Husband yet this way did take with her These are courses to pose natural reason in the work of Regeneration But with sundry other persons the Lord did descend in a familiar way to their capacity and drew them to heaven by things that were obvious to their notion Baptism or washing often was a thing most ordinary with the Jews the more ordinary the sooner did Christ use it to be the initial Sacrament that should bring them unto life Fishermen were put into admiration of Christs power by a mighty draught of fish and the Text whereupon St. Paul preach'd to the Athenians was their own Altar of the unknown God So the Eastern Philosophers who were skilful in the Sphere and in the course of the Stars are attracted by a wonderful Star to the first taste of Christianity Vt per Christum materia erroris fieret occasiâ— salutis says St. Austin That contemplation of Stars which lead them out of the way of truth doth now bring them to him who is the way the truth and the life You see what aptitude there was in a Star to be an instrument of the conversion of these Wise-men There are other apt proportions in it which Piety and good Meditation hath framed First to shew that God
the Feast Go and sit down in the lowest room but litterally descension is infallibly the motion of a body And otherwise the wonder had herein consisted not that such a Dove was seen but that such a strange spectacle appeared to John and to all the multitude which was not to be seen John did see the object it did not phantastically in a shadow deceive him as if he saw it And it is a touch worthy to be observed by the way that my Text says he saw the Spirit which is a clear Metonimy of the sign for the thing signified for in truth he saw no more than the outward sign of the Spirit To call the holy Spirit by the attribute of the Dove is a Sacramental signification not an essential mutation just such a form of speech as when Christ brake bread at his Last Supper and said unto his Disciples This is my body I proceed to that which follows how aptly the Spirit came in one figure at this time upon Christ in another of fire and cloven tongues at this day of Pentecost upon the Apostles If I would rake old Heresies out of their dead embers to refute them here I had occasion The Arians extorted from hence that Christ did receive the mighty gift of Sanctification at this Baptism and other admirable graces of the Spirit which he had not before If they were worth the refuting I could tell them Joh. i. 14. As soon as ever the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us he was full of grace and truth On the contrary the Macedonian Hereticks men of corrupt minds did make a difference of dignity between Christ and the Holy Ghost as the body of a man was more excellent which belonged to Christ than the body of a Dove wherin the Spirit sate upon him Then belike if an Angel should come in the shape of a man or of an Eagle which is more glorious than a Dove he should also have the preheminence But the blindness of the error came from hence that they did not distinguish how Christ took upon him the nature of a man but the Holy Ghost did not assume the nature of a Dove Let these blasphemies go let them rot and consume with the Authors which invented them the Father the Son and the Spirit are all one in Glory equal in Majesty coeternal Upon occasion of Baptism the Master sent forth his Disciples saying Go and baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Can I pass by the surpassing wit of St. Austin upon that place Non in nominibus sed in nomine patris ubi unum nomen est ibi unus Deus Not in the names but in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Where there is but one name and no more there is but one God and no more As in like argument St. Paul Gal. iii. 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the Promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Let me return into my own path which I am to beat that Christ had one sign of the Holy Ghost coming down upon him and the Apostles had another Upon which diversity thus I find the Fathers exercising their wits in several meditations First The Spirit sate upon our Saviours head in the shape of an whole entire creature in no other figure but a tongue upon the Apostles which is no more than a little part of the body for we receive the grace of God by scantlings and pittances and small measures the whole Spirit flowed into Christ in all abundance In like manner Gregory shews the odds between his fulness and ours in Analogy between the head and other members of the body A body hath the sense of touching only and no more the head is the continent of all the five senses Ita membra superni capitis in quibusdam virtutibus emicant ipsum caput in cunctis virtutibus flagret So the Saints have several gifts and ornaments divided among them some in one kind some in another but the head of the Church hath all flourisheth with all those vertues united in himself which are parted among his members Secondly The tongues of holy men and Prophets did often promise grace and reconciliation to the world and therefore a tongue did sit upon them as it were a Crest of Armory a Dove when time was did actually exhibit that God was pacified and appeased when he had been wroth I mean the Dove which returned to the Ark with a dry Olive branch in her mouth in token that the waters were dried up and that Noah and his Family might come forth with safety Therefore a Dove most properly did belong to Christ Most properly I say but more transcendently says St. Chrysostom now than ever The first Dove did comfort the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that punishment was taken away this Dove is a sacred pledge that grace and blessings shall be bestowed upon us Now it appeared not to bring one man and his family safe into the possession of the earth but to bring all Believers safe into the possession of heaven Thirdly The Spirit came not to Christ in fire for he was full of Zeal nor yet in the shape of a tongue for full of grace were his lips But discite quia mitis learn of me because I am meek and gentle therefore says Bernard the Dove came to testifie the placidness of the Lamb. Quod agnus in animalibus columba in avibus such as the Lamb is among the beasts of the field such is the Dove among the fouls of the air Fire is stern and formidable Christ would have none of that that which sorts with consolation to recreate a trembling conscience was his peculiar choice therefore the third Person descended like a Dove and sate upon him Fourthly The tongues wherein the Apostles received the grace of God were cloven and divided not to signifie a rent and a division Linguarum distantiae non sunt schismata but because there is a diversity and a dispreading about of the gifts of God Then comes down one single Dove to honour Unity Spiritus sanctus divisus in linguis unitus in columbâ says St. Austin it was pride which caused that diversity of tongues it was the Holy Ghost through the humility of Christ which sanctified that diversity Quod turris dissociaverat Ecclesia collegit Babel the Tower of pride scattered the world the Church which is the Tower of humility gathers the world together But the Dove was the Ensign of our Saviours Kingdom standing for the unity of the Spirit which is the bond of peace Fifthly The Holy Ghost was made manifest to the Chruch first in a Dove at the feast of Christs Baptism afterward in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide to betoken it is the same Spirit which requires innocency in the
So the Father is the Voice the Son is the Word the Spirit proceeding from them both is the Truth and these three are all one and undivided So you see why the Father is resembled in the signification of a voice I must adjoyn also how well this doth express the comforts of a Gospel The Law was a dead Letter litera occidit by the strength of sin it killed us all because we were not able to perform it The Gospel is viva vox a quickning living voice such a one as quickned Lazarus when he was four days in the Grave The Law was heard in Trumpet and Thunder upon Mount Sinai Now comes a still voice such a one as would not scare a Dove away now comes Musick from heaven now comes obsecro vos that fair spoken language of the Apostles I beseech ye brethren This is such a winning allicient voice that the words that proceed from it are rather kisses than words therefore the Church speaking to the praise of the Gospels sweetness begins the song on this wise Cant. i. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth The first time that ever we read of Gods voice in the Old Testament you shall hear what Adam says upon it Gen. iii. 10. I heard thy voice in the Garden and I was afraid But at the first time that you read of Gods voice in the New Testament it is made smooth and soft to our ear with This is my beloved and here I am well pleased What else to be concluded from hence But that an evidence and manifestation of faith shall be discovered to all men As when one telleth his mind to his Friend not by messengers or by Script but face to face Thou spakest sometimes in dreams and visions to thy people But says the Lord I will speak with my Servant Moses mouth to mouth Num. xii 8. So by the revelation of the Gospel we are all become as precious to God as Moses was and the Lord talketh with us as one doth with his friend face to face And with all succinctness that is the sum of the second Point Neither must I insist long upon the third thing noted which is the great Authority that this voice doth carry because it came from heaven and Loe a voice from heaven The Oracles of the Gentiles were wont to come out of hollow Caves and Rocks The Law of the Hebrews was delivered from the top of a smoaking hill but as Judges and great Magistrates were wont to publish their Laws from their Throne of State so doth God deliver the Law of Faith from Heaven and that Firmament above it is the Throne of God When the Earth opens it is to swallow Chore Dathan and Abiron When the Heaven opens it is to pour out consolation The Gospel reckons up three times that the Lord spake from heaven above and at each time it had the same Theme to magnifie the Saviour of the World The first time at his Baptism the second time at his Transfiguration the third time anon before his Passion when the Son begg'd earnestly Father glorifie thy name the Father answers him I have glorified it and I will glorifie it again Joh. xii 28. And that you may be assured how that celestial voice continues to speak unto us in the accent of comfort John tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord Rev. xiv 13. Bode no evil with your tongue to any since the Lord out of his habitation speaks nothing but love and benediction towards us The voice of God is an open heaven but as for the curser and reviler his throat is an open sepulchre Sursum corda The tidings of Salvation come not from beneath they hover above our head therefore lift up your heart lift up your understanding and you will easily perceive that every part of sacred Scripture is a voice from heaven I know unless the inward testimony of the Spirit prevail upon your soul and induce it to believe all external Arguments from the judgment of the Church in all Ages from harmony of truth from fulfilling of Prophesies and whatsoever else will be insufficient to perswade you Yet if any thing more than other will puzzle the refractory it is this that in every part and scope it sounds like a voice from heaven far otherwise than the books of humane learning That which drives our labours and studies only to the glory of God that which propounds no other reward but the fruition of God that which talks of no acts and monuments but such as belong to God this must be divine and from above Nec vox hominem sonat Surely it must be a voice from heaven But do the Heathen thus in any of those three parts of their Sciences either in their Moral Institutions or Natural Disquisitions or Historical Narrations In their Histories they write to honour men in their Philosophy to know the World in their Moral and Politick Axioms to make a just and a noble Patriot for his Country No Tract throughout all mans wit and learning but only in the sacred Scriptures like a voice from heaven Perhaps here and there a Sentence of theirs may soar aloft but as Kites flie high yet still look down to the Carion upon the Dunghil So the stile of the Heathen may rise up in some things as it were in the clouds but from thence they look down how they may be famous and popular And that is no better than a blast of vanity sure it is no voice from heaven Beloved this is a most illustrious opening of the Gospel that the heavens assumed a tongue and began to speak wherefore it is for good reason that our Saviour had that diction so often in his mouth He that hath ears to hear let him hear Let me be bold to add he that hath a tongue to confess let him praise the Lord. As we delight to have the Lord speak to us so it delighteth the Lord to have us speak to him And as the Father did vouchsafe to send his voice from heaven to earth so let our lips be full of Prayers that we may send our voice from earth to heaven God is not an Eccho nothing but empty voice we read of his face and his presence and his right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore And as Absalon though he were a disloyal Son yet he did wishly desire to stand before his Father Says he to Joab wherefore am I come from Gerar to Jerusalem if I may not see the Kings face So the rebounding of the voice from heaven is to enflame our affections that we may see his face in heaven So shall it be their fair lot and inheritance who are Fìlii dilecti complacentes Sons Beloved in whom he is well pleased These are the Testimonials due to Christ and flowing from Christ to us which now I come to handle The fourth annotation is the Person to whom
because he assumed such a frame such a natural body into the unity of his own Person Naturam nostram non solùm creando novit sed etiam assumendo He knows the condition of mans nature not only by Creation but also by Assumption Cyril of Alexandria did foresee an objection might rise from hence and thus prevents it What if the Word had not been made flesh Had not the Word notwithstanding perfectly known all the diseases and infirmities which hapned to that mass of flesh which it self created Yet it is answered that Christ had he never been incarnate had known the very secrets of our hearts and reins only he had not adjoyned this knowledge unto himself after the experimental manner This is the difference only which doth actuate our comfort much the more Scientiae divinae ea notitia quam effert experientia accessit That knowledge which is feeling and experimental was added to the divine omnisciency He knoweth whereof we are made he hath shared our mourning our sorrows and tentations he knows this dunghil metal of ours is full of putrefaction and he pities it To this one alluded ingenuously that Christ did anoint the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay Joh. ix 6. Vt seipsum excitaret magìs tali spectaculo ad commiserationem That he might behold that object to stir up his commiseration You see by all this I have built upon a sure ground that our Saviour knowing experimentally the conflict of tentations what a mighty Giant this Goliah is that defies the Israel of God and how weak we are to make resistance it takes away the edge of his severity and enables him to plead our pardon before his Father So we our selves ought not be iron Judges unrelenting Censors but to look upon delinquents with a passionate regard and to pass our sentence upon offenders with this dram of moderation at least in our judgments we our selves have been tempted and know how hard it is to resist the devices of the Devil Secondly The first Adam was disgracefully overthrown by the Serpent therefore the second Adam did redeem this disgrace by overthrowing the Serpent in his own Tentations for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. iii. 8. The Scripture accommodates a Parable to make us remember it Luk. xi 22. Satan is the strong man that kept his Palace in peace for he held a Princedom over the Sons of men but a stronger than he came upon him even our Lord and Saviour and overcame him and took away his Armour wherein he trusted and divided his spoiles Dignus vindice nodus a recovery fit for him that had the greatest power in heaven and earth that the Sons of men might sing Songs of triumph not David hath killed his ten thousand but Christ hath subdued that enemy that exalted himself above all that were made after the Image and likeness of God Alexander moved Calisthenes to tell him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how a man might purchase to himself a name to be the most famous of all men Calisthenes gave him a smart answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let him kill the most famous of all men I suppose he ment of his enemies and this our great Champion hath done for us by frustrating and retorting all the tentations of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils It was our nature which he so much contemned that made him contemn the Son of God and adventure upon the holiest of all with confidence to get the day all the Posterity of mankind were so baffled in Adam that when Christ walked about in the similitude of man Satan supposed it was but Veni vici Come and conquer This day therefore the reproach was taken away from us when our chief Captain shewed the way that even flesh yet not through the arm of flesh but by the Spirit should be able to subdue our Ghostly enemies Thirdly Not only our former stain and ignominy is repaired because Christ was tempted and overcame but since that time also tentations have not that irresistible force which they had before their malignity is much abated Some ancient Writers especially Origen have puzzled their wits to conjecture what loss the Devil incurs when he is foiled in a tentation One thought that the same Devil could never tempt again like a Captive that yields himself up to the Conquerour and is never suffered to bear Arms again Others had rather say that the same infernal spirit could never turn head against the same Person any more who had once got the Mastery Others thought but themselves knew no reason for it that the Devil once repelled cannot tempt to the same sin any more I wish no man to build his judgment upon such divinations Beelzebub is by interpretation the God of a Fly Chase away Flies and yet the sent which allured them before draws them back again to the corruption which they had suckt before so I take it for an allowed truth that the Devil retires not quite for any repulse but as we see it in men or beasts in any Duel the longer they are beaten the worse they fight So the more we quench the firy darts of the Devil the more we disable his despight and make him impotent If the Tempter could have foreseen that Heroick vertue in Job and in the holy Martyrs he would have recoiled away and not touch'd their person Now every man reaps the fruit and praise of his own labours but the valiant acts and victories of our Saviour are publick advantages for as his Death had a mortifying force against the Old man which is in us and a quickning force toward the New man so his Tentations had a dulling force against the Devil and a strengthening force for us to make our arms break a bow of steel Ideo tentatus est Christus ne vincatur à tentatore Christianus says St. Austin Christ did vanquish the Devil in his own tentations that we might be unvanquishable This is our confidite Joh xvi 33. Be of good chear I have overcome the world Si tu vicisti gaude quid ad nos The Father makes one return a churlish answer rejoyce your self if you have overcome what is that to us Yea Beloved this is our Interest that his skirmishing is our peace and his victory is our triumph O how he hath sanctified tentations and made them wholsom which before were rank poyson Those things which were the baits to draw us to damnation are now become the instruments of our happiness blessed is the man that endureth tentation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life Whosoever perceives his own concupiscence allure him to do evil let him call for a Second to aid him if he be not able himself to endure the brunt I mean for Jesus Christ he will be a party in all those quarrels if you call upon him faithfully ever
confirm delusions but to testifie to truth and innocency therefore if he did provoke him to turn stones into bread it would be for a true testimony that he was the very Son of God If he do this miracle and be not the Son of God the eternal truth should confirm a lie which is impossible This was Satans cunning Philosophy and now you see the very nerves of his Argument Let me draw out one Corollary for your Instruction The first part of Satans engine was ut cognosceret to prove God a liar if he could I heard a voice say you are the beloved Son of God but are you so indeed This desire to litigate and quarrel with Gods truth made him fall into a strange doting ignorance almost incredible in so intelligent a substance What he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a most vast capacity of understanding because of his spirituality and so many thousand years experience He that thought he could open the market of knowledge and sell what he pleased to our first Parents Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil that he should stagger and for a long time mistake the very foundation of all truth that Jesus was the Son of God Is not this passing wonderful Why this comes of it when any will bend their wits to object against the plain truth when it is manifest then God requites their iniquity with this dulness 2 Thes ii 1. For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie Strong delusion we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Paul and I had rather translate it the efficacy of errour Tentation is from the enemy the efficacy of Tentation is not from him but in the power of God So falshood is from the Devil but the efficacy of falshood that this error should prevail to seduce the Reprobate that is in the hand of God For if the efficacy and event of error were from the Tempter nothing would help us but that all men should be deluded The event and prevalency of errors comes from Gods permission upon them that would not obey the truth Let me put this now into your mind it is the fashion of the World to have mens persons in admiration some are carried away with the opinion of their learning and good life that walk not after the wholsom Injunctions of the Ceremonies and Discipline of our Church as Salvianus says very well Tantùm dicta existimant quantus est ipse qui dixit nec tam considerant quid legunt quà m cujus legunt They measure truth not in it self but by the opinion of him that defends it nor so much consider what it is they read as whose it is they read Purge out this leven I beseech you and remember when men would expound all things by their own private spirit God will turn their good gifts into vanity Likewise if some others stand upon it that there is no sort of Learning but abounds in the Church of Rome and why should not the most Learned wear the Garland Let them know this is as foolish an inference well considered as his in the Proverb that the Peacock must sing best of all birds because it had the fairest train Julian the most learned Emperour Galen the most learned Physician Porphyry one of the learnedst Philosophers all were Atheists and without God in the World The Novices of the Roman Colleges are sworn to particular opinions and to a particular belief and then study their course of Divinity to maintain it So it comes to pass They study to maintain a lye as Satan did against Christ and thereby they are catcht in strong delusions And let this suffice for the first general part of the Text That one end of these words which Satan cast forth was ut cognosceret to learn more perfectly that which he mistrusted before that Christ was the eternal Son of God And because he had more Hooks than one to his Angle remember that beside his curiosity to explore him his words likewise are full of malice to corrupt him Command that these stones be made bread The boldest and most flagitious attempt that ever was to make Christ sin Murdering of Sacred Princes devices to blow up the Majesty of an whole State conspiracy to root out whole Nations endeavouring to burn up an whole Empire with Nero betraying Christ himself to be crucified with Judas all these ugly sins not only single but put all together have less horror and impiety in them than this attempt to lie in wait to draw sin and impurity from the most pure God We cannot compare Satan so well as with himself therefore I go further the great rebellion of Lucifer for which he was first cast out of heaven made him not so guilty of high disobedience as this Proposition did to tempt Christ to Gluttony and Infidelity His first presumption is collected out of these words of Isaiah I will be like the most High but this presumption hath more rancor in it by far the most High shall fall into wickedness and be made like unto me Ero similis altissimo I will ascend as high as the glory of God so the evil Angel coveted his own perfection in excess but Altissimus erit similis mihi I will bring down the most High to trespass as I have done that is to covet Gods imperfection The very Angels are not pure in his sight says Job now this was the Devils practical gloss neither shall he be pure in the sight of the Angels But how foolish is the Serpent become the subtillest of all Creatures how foolish is he become because he will not understand the truth of God O Lord thou art purer than the heavens thou art Justice and Righteousness and Innocency it self and therefore the Church doth sing a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his honour Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts One Scripture says he cannot lie another Scripture that he cannot deny himself and another that he cannot be tempted Where was Satans prudence to make an impossible motion How had he forgot his cunning to pump for an iniquity out of the Well of everlasting purity Some pretension yet there was for this plot and some hope no question as the Jews cloak'd their own malice before Pilate with this excuse Had he not been a Sinner we had not brought him unto thee so there was some likelihood to make him offend as it appeared to Satan and surely thus he collected it If Joseph who was espoused to Mary be his Father I shall prevail whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh whatsoever is begotten by carnal generation is conceived in sin But if it be true that the Angel said unto Mary the Holy Ghost should over-shadow her yet the will of every man if he be true man is indifferent and apt of it self to turn to evil as well as good Now perhaps it was not
and efficacy therefore it is very ancient Canonical Law which forbad that any person endicted for a fault secretly committed and therefore accused either upon bare suspicion or upon the mouth of one witness should purge himself by dipping his arm in hot scalding water or by walking between plow-shares red hot unequally laid which was called the Ordeal Fire for these creatures thus imploy'd have no force by nature to manifest a truth and much less is any promise annex'd unto them to be the instruments of examinatory Justice by Divine Revelation If it be pretended that God appointed the woman suspected for Adultery to drink a draught of bitter waters which should discover whether she were innocent or no I answer That this one instance was peculiarly enacted by God who no doubt would assist such miraculous proceedings as were of his own institution but it is an unpardonable boldness to imitate him in his Omnipotent Ordinations and to ascribe unto other humane causes that they shall reveal hidden things which cannot be searcht by mans wit which is proper only to the Creator is to commit Idolatry obliquely and to seek that from a poor contemptible creature which is to be expected only from Almighty God Nor doth my Doctrine hold only in things that are common and profane but even things of the Divinest use are abused when we would wring out from them to detect Thefts or Murders or other Trespasses which cannot be discover'd by the ordinary way of Justice Therefore this Canon of a Provincial Council in Worms is dislik'd by grave Authors That if any things were stoln in a private Monastery where some Monk must needs be the Thief and all denied it every one of them should receive the Holy Sacrament with these words pronounc'd Corpus Domini nostri sit tibi ad probationem Let the Body of our Lord be thy trial or probation This was an insolent temptation for the Sacrament is taken to Commemorate Christs Death until he come not to detect such as were suspected of pilfering And however the sifting out of truth to discover the enemies of Gods Anointed and to lay open perilous talk against his Sacred Person may require such means and trials as are justly to be denied to all other cases yet we see the renowned Piety of his most Religious Majesty that would not have truth decided by the sharpness of the Sword no not in a matter that concern'd his own Royal Safety and when the Laws of the Realm did directly put that course into his hands and when his Royal Ancestors in this Island and sundry Princes in other Kingdoms have often us'd it for all this his excellently guided Conscience would not hazzard the blood of an Innocent as one party must needs be so where there is no certainty of assistance promis'd from God that the guiltless should be the Conquerour My Text hath directly led me to praise God that hath so guided the heart of his Majesty not to tempt the Lord. I did not strain to bring this note in by force for I wish no mercy if I do not vehemently abhor slattery But how ill is this noble example followed by the vulgar no toy can be lost no secret which we desire to know be kept in obscurity but being impatient to want their will an hundred sensless Charms and old Wives devices and casting Figures and casting Lots shall be sought after which God hath no more appointed to manifest hidden things then the wagging of a Feather or the shaking of a Leaf before the Wind. Beloved mark this Rule Si non potest sciri quare inquiritis secreta ad Dei tribunal spectant It may be the thing we inquire after concerns us deeply and would give us much quiet and content to find it out but where God hath denied you the ordinary means of discovery it is a sign that he means to reserve it in his own power and knowledge therefore to fly to these extraordinary ways ways after our own hearts but never allow'd in the word is to endeavour by force to pluck it out of Gods bosom If the Lord should offer you a miraculous or supernatural assistance to unrip any secret wickedness it were not to be refused as in a few examples the casting of Lots is granted in Scripture either to reveal some hidden truth or to foreknow somewhat to come but out of those cases such things are not to be medled with nor in no wise to be taken into your consultation For it is not in the power of those that use the Lot nor in the nature of the Lot to effect that necessarily whereunto it is employ'd therefore I damn it as an indirect means that is taken up against or beside the will of the Lord. Let me give you to see that one word of excuse which is very trivial is very erroneous and I will hasten to conclude Many do object that the Scripture hath no pregnant place in it which condemns the decision of truth or the finding out of hidden things by Duels by Ordeals by Lotteries by other Divinations I but can you shew me where the Scripture hath bid it to be done or else you have said nothing for where no Faith is the act which you undertake cannot be free from sin but where there is no warrant of the Word of God there can be no Faith Do you think it is possible to build Faith hereupon that such a course is not directly forbidden it cannot be for Faith without the Word and without promise is not Faith but presumption So I have delivered my mind how many ways it is offensive to tempt the Lord. I have prepared all things before to say little to the last point wherein the trespass consists to tempt the Lord. In two things first in Infidelity secondly in want of due reverence to the Divine honour 1. It is a token of little Faith yea of Infidelity to be uncertain or unskilful in any of the Divine Attributes but he that tries God it makes his action guilty that either some whole Attribute of the Divine Nature or some degree of excellency in it is unknown unto him as Ananias and Saphira put it to the trial if God had so much knowledge to discover their dissimulation Zachary tempted him whether the message which the Angel brought were verily the Divine Will The Israelites mis-doubted his power when they said Can he prepare a Table in the Wilderness Secondly He that tempts a thing upon no necessary cause esteems light of it and makes no reverential account of it as he ought but that he may toy with it at his pleasure as he that will pluck a Lion by the lip certainly he neither fears the anger nor the strength of the Beast So he that will assay what God can do only to satisfie his own curiosity it is evident he sets very little by the Divine Honour But we were not best to make sport with Sampson as the Philistines did
the second branch his associates are Peter John and James 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took them to see his glory it was his association St. Mark adds by way of emphasis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he took three only and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privatim he sequestred them apart from this world that they might see his glory Thirdly he prepar'd himself for this illustrious accident in great humility inter precandum he had prostrated himself before his Father in prayer And then fourthly this majestical glory came upon him two waies quoad vultum quoad vestitum in his person in his apparel in his flesh an astonishing radiancy the fashion of his countenance was altered in his cloaths an admirable purity his raiment was white and glistering I cannot be copious upon so many particulars of some more largely of the most succinctly In the first circumstance of all the Spirit of God hath noted out the Time and therefore I must not balk it no not in any of the three respects post dicta post dies post itâ—r First after those sayings says my Text inquiry shall be made what words those be and with whom he had that communication which went before the demonstrance of his glory in two preceding verses in this chapter Christ exhorted his Disciples and many others to the assurance of his Cross and that they might know he was able to recompence their sorrows who endured affliction for his name sake yea and would recompence it he speaks thus The Son of man shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers and of the holy Angels and I tell you of a truth there he some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God He refers the multitude to look for the last day of judgment when he would come in infinite Majesty to call the World before him but he refers certain nameless persons to expect after a while a pregustation of some heavenly apparition wherein they should see how he would be cloathed with power and excellencie when he came to sit upon his Throne and to call the Nations before him they should not taste of death till they saw a spectacle of the Kingdom of God in his transfiguration This was the occasion which made him exhibit his body with that glorious lustre in the Mount and yet some have ignorantly distorted those words to another purpose There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God what doth it mean say they but that John the Disciple whom Jesus loved should live till the last day of judgment as the report went among the Brethren how that disciple should not die Thus Theophylact and the counterfeit Hypolitus that error which hath run through so many Pens grew from hence that when Peter being told with what death he should glorifie God asked What should become of his fellow Disciple John Christ gave him no clear satisfaction because his question deserved it not but only thus If I will that he stay till I come what is that to thee follow thâ—â— me Let it be but probably discovered what coming Christ speaks of and there is no great perplexity in the saying Attend therefore this coming is nothing less than that great coming in personal Majesty at the last day but his coming in wrath and judgment against the Nation of the Jews to punish them and quite to extirpate their seed from Jerusalem Touching this coming by the fury of the Romans to execute his vengeance St. James speaketh to the faithful converted from Judaism and then sore afflicted by the Synagogue Be ye patient and stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Jam. v. 8. Whereas therefore antient stories have delivered unto us that all the other Apostles were swept away by Martyrdom before the final destruction of Jerusalem onely John outlived that time even till the reign of Trajan This then is a plain meaning of our Saviour's answer if I will that he live till that dismal day when I come to destroy this people which hath crucified me what is that to thee Peter thou shalt never see that day but prepare thy self before for a speedier Martyrdom And to what use should the Apostle live a mortal life upon earth unto the end of the world and yet never appear to any man he lived to see the coming of Gods judgments against the holy City and he together with Peter and James lived to see a mirror of celestial glory in the Transfiguration that 's the meaning of our Saviour's promise going before my Text There be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God It follows to be noted in the observation of the Time that after these sayings he fulfilled his word neither at the instant nor after a long distance but about an eight days after these sayings It was neither so quickly dispatcht before they had meditated upon it nor so long put off that they could forget it be it about an eight days or about eight thousand ages it is but a little while to God who measures all things by Eternity Now in these words which are the very front of the story there are two days odds in the relations of the Evangelists St. Luke you hear sayes about an eight days after St. Matthew and St. Mark after six days Doth not this account differ no not a whit six days complete did go between his sayings and his mighty work St. Matthew and the other speak of that time only but in a part of one day he had said there be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God in part of another day He took those three up into the mountain and so St. Luke computes exactly 't was about an eight dayes after those sayings So hath the Divine wisdom disposed that the same thing should be repeated in several Gospels with some alteration of phrase but with no difference or contradiction and that for two causes When outwardly there seems to be some disagreement between the Text of one Evangelist and another these difficulties do whet our industry to study the book of God there must be knots and mysteries hard to be understood ut homo semper discat Deus semper doceat that man may alwayes learn and God may always teach unto the end of the world 2. Says another si per omnia consentirent nemo putarent eos seorsim scripsisse if they had all jumpt in the same words quite throughout as some say of the 72 Interpreters in the Old Testament it might have been imagined that the Gospels were not writ at distinct times and in distinct places now the dissonancy of their phrase doth warrant us to say that the Evangelists did not cast their heads together when they committed the Scriptures to writing but wrote apart and yet the same spirit
fullonicant ingeniis suis says Origen Hereticks set a bright gloss upon their false opinions they in his construction are those Fullers upon earth that would make their doctrine if it were possible as white as truth but if you pattern it with the Scripture you shall see it colours not with that spiritual light which comes from Christ That Doctrine which hath the simplicity of the Spirit without the knotty entanglements of mans wit that which says let God have the glory but to us belongs shame and confusion of face That which impresseth humility into the thoughts zeal and devotion into the heart all manner of vertue into the practice This is that true light which comes from heaven no Fuller upon earth none that sit in the pestilent Chair of deceitful tongues can make a thing so white and every one that is of the truth loveth the light and hateth darkness And so far upon this admirable vision His countenance was altered and his rayment white and glistering These were res mirae strange and uncouth things the next general part of the Text doth handle personas miras strange persons whom a man would not expect in that place and at that time Behold there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias If any of the people had been by that took him to be Elias or Jeremias or one of the old Prophets they should have seen a difference in this Vision between the head and the feet between the Lord and his Servants For surely some of the old Prophets two for all and those whom the Jews did most admire came upon this Theater to be seen that Christs glory might appear the more Let the eyes of Peter look upon them together and see if Christs glory be not far exalted above all the Saints Quantùm lenta solent inter viburna cupressi Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord Psal lxxxvi 8. Non in Angelis coelestibus seu in altissimis says the Chaldee Paraphrase not among the Angels nor among any of the blessed souls that live in the highest places Was this such a business to be taught will some men say to bring the dead out of their graves Can any mistake that the honour of Christ is far exalted above all his Servants For to which of the Angels did the Father say at any time Sit thou on my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool Beloved are there none that keep the festival days of the Saints with more devotion and observance then the first day of the week for ever to be sanctified because Christ rose from the dead on that day Do they not make more Pilgrimages and Vows to some Patrons of their own invention who have been but men Are not there more Temples erected in their name More costly Ornaments bestowed upon their Images More Prayers poured out unto them than to Christ himself And had I not need to remember you that two men who were now glorified talked with Christ upon Mount Tabor that they might appear like little stars obscured before the greatest Planet Moses did but verifie in person what he had taught in a Song before Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Who is like unto thee Exod. xv 11. I adjudge it for another reason that two men beatified came to talk with him because he would not seem to ingross the light of glory to himself without derivation to others It is not a treasure to be reserved unto himself but a communicable donative The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Joh. xvii 22. As a seed-corn is fruitless unless it die and bring forth stalks of Wheat so Christ compares himself to such a grain of Wheat which must die to bring forth much fruit or else it abideth alone as if all were marred unless we were accommodated by his fruitfulness The Kings honour is in the multitude of his people the joy of the Father is in the Olive branches round about his Table The glory of the woman is for the children to grow up and call the mother blessed The felicity of these consists herein to have some that are partners of their felicity But God is all-sufficient to contemplate his own glory though he had never made the world he did not make man to praise him as if he wanted voices to magnifie his name and make him God Yet he is pleased to express his love so far that his honour should be alone unless the goodly fellowship of Saints and Prophets were round about him Except a seed-corn fall into the ground and die it abideth alone Joh. xii 24. Lord why dost thou esteem thy self alone and heaven to be solitary without us But O man how canst thou be without him in thy heart on earth that would not be alone without thee in heaven Behold when he brought down heaven upon earth in his own body two of the Elect brought down their glory to the Mountain to assist him His own Disciples were yet but earth and corruption and therefore incapable of such illuminated brightness till the time should come to be translated out of the prison of mortality And Angels were not fit to be his Compeers at this bout because he manifested the glorification of the flesh which pertains not to Angels but to Men. None of the living would serve the turn to appear with him in Majesty they were not supernaturalized to undergo it nor any of the Angelical Order they were not of the right Predicament two men came down unto him who had been exalted into Heaven and now I will shew with what great congruity these two men who were Moses and Elias But to omit nothing which is fit to be observ'd I will make three general heads of this matter 1. Whether all Elias and all Moses did appear both body and soul 2. From whence they came to be Parties at the celebration of this great Miracle And 3. If I can reach so far Why they became the representative persons for the whole Body of the Saints in Heaven To the first that these two Witnesses presented themselves in bodily shapes there is no wit so scrupulous I think that can make a question of it for S. Matthew says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these men were seen of Peter James and John Then they were heard talking and by their talk discover'd to be those grand Prophets as I will shew hereafter They talked as men to men vocally not in an intellectual fashion as spirits do And the Apostles in their extasie mentioned the making of Tabernacles to shrowd them in but a Tabernacle is a Coverture for a Body and not for a Spirit The controversie doth not consist in this therefore I pass it over That which hath caused diversities of judgments to arise is herein what manner of Bodies these were wherewith Moses and Elias were cloathed to attend the Transfiguration of Christ I will make bold to remove
away one opinion of St. Austins as quite out of the cancels of truth and then proceed He doth not deny but the dead through Gods concession may upon such occasions as the Lord directs them to appear unto the living he cites Samuel brought up by the Witch of Endor to speak with Saul What if that were not Samuel but an evil Spirit or an Imposter he cites Ecclesiasticus He objects what if that Book be refused because it is not in the Canon of the Hebrews Then he cites our present instance of Moses and Elias yet he falls off again and thinks the Saints themselves appear'd not but seem'd to appear by the Ministry of Angels Many times in the Old Testament when the Angel is sent from God as a Legate He speaks in the person of his King I am the Lord thy God therefore he presumes that Angels in this place might be called by the names of Moses and Elias for whom they appeared The same most excellent Author is more orthodox in other places upon this point This cannot well consist Christs glory was true and not ficticious it betokened a true estate of blessedness to us miserable men hereafter therefore it cannot piece well together that all this should be confirmed by ficticious and imaginary Witnesses Now I venture forward and first I will speak of Elias how he came in his own body then of Moses I have a reason for it and St. Mark 's words ly so there appeared unto them Elias with Moses In what body should Elias be an assistant to Christs glory now but in the same body wherein He was taken up in a whirlwind to Heaven Henoch and Elias were ever parallelled to be of the same condition in Gods favour that their Body was never dissolved from the Soul but in their whole substance assumed up on high Some Jewish Rabbins have presum'd to teach more than Scripture that the Bodies of Henoch and Elias were dissolved into Elements in their rapture and nothing but their Soul was received into Abrahams bosom I smell the leaven of the Sadduces in those Rabbies for certainly the origen of it came from such as they who resisted the truth that a Body could not be exalted to heavenly places Is not St. Paul enough to silence all tongues of that language Heb. xi 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death If Enoch did not see death in his translation and that 's the fair letter of the Scripture no more did Elias Says Epiphanius Henoch and Helias their Bodies and Souls were never parted but remain undivided for ever Henoch lived a married life Elias was a Virgin to shew that continency in Marriage and Virginity shall both be glorified in the great day of the Resurrection Thus Epiphanius and I could name a multitude of concurrents who are advowers of the same sentence They that list to be contentious gainsay this Doctrin touching Elias his Body that it never was corrupted from the common theme of mans mortality Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. v. 12. Death passed upon all men what 's that but a just Sentence and Decree and none can say Why am I born to dy But there is mercy and power in the Most High to spare and to execute his Decree upon whom he pleaseth Heb. ix 27. Statutum est that presseth home says the Antagonist it is appointed unto men once to dye that 's the Text indeed but not statutum est omnibus it is appointed unto all men once to die as some do read it The ordinary end of men is death but God hath his exemptions and priviledges to limit that Statute I tell you a mystery says St. Paul We shall not all die but we shall all be changed there 's one limitation They that are found upon the earth at the second coming of Christ shall not die but shall be snatcht up with Christ in glory non separatione formae sed immutatione qualitatum their Soul shall not be taken of the Body but corruptible qualities shall be taken from the Body So it was in Elias his Rapture the Body was not destroyed but only that corruption which was in his Body Again it is appointed unto men once to die semel once and no more Yet the Shunamites Son Jairus Daughter Lazarus and many others brought back from their Graves died twice there 's another limitation of the Statute Nothing concludes from thence but that Elias his Body was never dissolved in that Body wherein he talked with God at Mount Horeb in the same Body he heard God talk to his Son at Mount Tabor about the time of the Transfiguration But as for Moses after what manner he came to Christ in the shape of a Body I cannot speak with any certainty To hold that the elements were compacted into the figure of a Body that he might use it for that occasion and then disperse it into air when the mysterie was finished hath an ill relish in it because imaginary shapes like Pageants to be set up for a while and strait taken down again were not fit demonstrations of the truth of the Resurrection Damascen observes wittily that it is likely how the Promise which God did long before make to Moses was now fulfilled Exod. xxxiii 23. That thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seen meaning says he that the eye of man could not see his Divinity but he should have the honour to see Christ incarnate That is not unfitly called posteriora or exteriora Dei the out parts or the Veil of the Godhead Now was that desire of Moses fulfilled and the Son of Man in excellent beauty stood before him but had he not seen him with his own eyes all had not been according to his first desire and affection And me-seems that this conjecture is not weak if Elias had appeared in his own flesh Moses but in a phantastical shape this had derogated from the dignity of Moses who was the Prophet than whom none was greater from the Law to John the Baptist The Jews oppress us again with their figments in a second opinion saying that Moses was so beloved of God that he never saw death but continued in his Body for ever as Elias doth Josephus tells us his mind herein so plainly that I perceive the most did follow him that when Joshuah and Eleazar had parted with Moses upon Mount Nebo he was taken away from them in a Cloud and advanced to Heaven but to make the people quiet that they might not talk too much of his exaltation and attribute too much honour unto him he left it written that he died in the Land of Moab But this doth peremptorily contradict the Holy Word in divers places He died and was buried in a Valley in the Land of Moab Deut. xxxiv 6. according to the word of the Lord. That word is in the same book Deutr. xxxii 50. Thou
the dead continued forty days upon earth teaching the things of the life to come until the time even now at hand that he ascended into glory After that powerful Testimony which they have given what can be said more If all our dead Friends should be returned unto us they could add nothing to that which they have testified and to that which the faithful witness in heaven hath signified in holy Scripture I mean the Spirit of God This is the peevishness of our humane Wisdom yea rather of our humane folly to earn for tidings from the dead as if a Spirit departed could declare any thing more evidently than the Book of God which is the sure Oracle of life This was Sauls practise neglect Samuel when he was alive and seek after him when he was dead What says the Prophet Should not a people seek unto their God Should the living repair to the dead Nay rather to the Law and to the Testimony Isa viii 19. Among the works of Athanasius I find though he be not the Author of the questions to Antiochus a discourse full of reason why God would not permit the soul of any of those that departed from hence to return back unto us again and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us For what pestilent errors would arise from thence to seduce us Devils would transform themselves into the shapes of men that were deceased pretend that they were risen from the dead for what will not the Father of lies feign and so spread in any false Doctrines or incite us to many barbarous actions to our endless error and destruction And admit they be not Phantasms and delusions but the very men yet all men are liars but God is truth I told you what a Necâ—omancer Saul was in the Old Testament he would believe nothing unless a Prophet rose from the grave to teach him there is another as good as himself in the New Testament and not another Pattern in all the Scripture to my remembrance Luke xvi 27. The rich man in Hell urged Abraham to send Lazarus to admonish his Brethren of their wicked life Abraham refers him to Moses and the Prophets He that could not teach himself when he was alive would teach Abraham himself being in Hell Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent The mind is composed with quietness to hear the living the Apparitions of dead men beside the suspicion of delusion would fill us with gastly horror and it were impossible we should be fit Scholars to learn if such strong perturbations of fear should be upon us How much better hath God ordained for our security and tranquility that the Priests lips should preserve knowledge I know if God shall see it fit to have us disciplined by such means he can stir up the Spirits of the Faithful departed to come among us So after Christs Resurrection many dead bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves and went into the holy City and appeared unto many This was not upon a small matter but upon a brave and a renowned occasion But for the Spirits of damnation they are tied in chains of darkness there is no repassage for them and it makes more to strengthen our belief that never any did return from Hell to tell us their woeful tale than if any should return It is among the severe penalties of damnation that there is no indulgence for the smallest respite to come out of it The Heathen put that truth into this Fable The Lion asked the Fox why he never came to visit him when he was sick Says the Fox because I can trace many beasts by the print of their foot that have gone toward your Den Sir Lion but I cannot see the print of one foot that ever came back Quia me vestigia terrent omnia te advorsum spectantia nulla retrorsum So there is a beaten and a broad road that leads the Reprobate to Hell but you do not find the print of one hoof that ever came back When I have given you my judgment about Apparitions of the dead either descending from Heaven or ascending from Hell I must tell you in the third place I have met with a thousand stories in Pontifician Writings concerning some that have had repassage from Purgatory to their familiars upon earth Notwithstanding the reverence I bear to Gregory the Great I cannot refrain to say He was much to blame to begin such fictions upon his credulity others have been more to blame that have increased such Legends and they are most to be derided that believe them O miserable Theology if thy Tenents must be confirmed by sick mens dreams and dead mens phantastical apparitions To end this Point and the first general part of my Text together a thousand guiles and deceits may entrap them that build any thing upon dead mens news but this Apparition of Moses and Elias was warrantable from all delusion because they stood by Christ and because of their communication which was Prophetical I come to speak of that in the second place They spake of his decease c. Upon which subject these particulars shall be succinctly handled 1. That the Cross of Christ is all in all and before any thing in the world to be spoken of 2. It was spoken of even in the midst of this Apparition of glory 3. Moses and Elias came purposely to speak of it 4. They spake of it in no disconsolatory phrase but much to our comfort that it was a decease 5. They spake of it compleatly in all circumstances that it was to be accomplished 6. They designed out the place where all the Prophets had been slain before and where the Sacrifices were slain every day in the Temple And spake of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem To begin with that which is the leading Lesson whether Moses and Elias directed their words to Christ or to his Disciples is uncertain if they communed with Christ as with more probability they did yet their talk was so audible and distinct that the Disciples heard it a Lesson at which they were alwayes ready to stop their ears yet now it is beaten into them line after line with many repetitions that the Cross of Christ is all in all and before any thing else in the world to be spoken of These two Saints who were enlightned with all knowledge befitting their glorified estate could have uttered lofty discourses about the Trinity about the highest Heavens about the distinctions of Angelical Offices and the like but they understood themselves and us so well that this is the Epitome of all saving knowledg the Decease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem 't is that which will open Heaven 't is that which will glorifie us 't is that which will exalt us to the society of Angels and nothing else O let my heart dwel often upon the wounds of my Saviour
to heaven now yet it was the very same cloud which took him quite away from his Apostles upon the Ascension day Acts i. Non dubito quin ipsa est illa nubes quae suscepit eum ab oculis omnium Apostolorum The man is very confident of that opinion wheresoever he had it This he might say for certain Christ did ascend in a Cloud and we all shall ascend in the Clouds at the last day 1 Thes iv 17. We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air Once St. Peter was so weak in faith that upon a Miracle of a great draught of Fish he cried out Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man Now he was grown so strong in love that nothing was more bitter to him than departing In a while after this accident of the Transfiguration Christ prepared the Twelve with many reasons and consolations that he must go away for if he went not away the Comforter would not come but when he did go away he would send them the Comforter even the Spirit of truth Upon these terms it was fit they should be glad to have him ascend unto his Father but having not as yet bequeathed any such promise of the Comforter it made them agast to think he should enter into a Cloud and be no more seen Beloved if God take not away the influence of his Holy Spirit from us we know he is always at our right hand though in his humane body he sitteth at the right hand of God Live justly and chastely and soberly as if the Son of God were always before your face and though he be entred into the Clouds though he be entred into Heaven your Conscience shall be comforted I must make an end of the first general part of the Text because of the time and I have put my self into a narrow strait to speak of the second the succour which Christ did administer to his three Disciples to quit them out of fear which S. Matthew hath remembred he touched them and said Arise be not afraid Though he seemed before to be going far off and as it were quite forsake them yet now he draws so near as to touch them with his hand Perhaps no more was done by Christ than the bare Letter of my Text acknowledged he did but lay the ends of his fingers upon them and if he pleased there was as much vertue in his fingers ends to quicken the Spirit of these men that sunk down with fear as there was in all Elias when he stretch'd his whole body upon the Child to bring it to life again The Angel Gabriel did but touch Daniel when he was faln upon the ground and set him upon his feet again Dan. viii 18. But behold a greater than Gabriel whose touch is more comfortable and more significative Eâ manu recreantur ad fidem I think it is St. Hieroms saying quâ creati erant ad vitam Those hands which made them and fashioned them to receive natural life the same hand did work a supernatural effect upon them and did raise them up to a boldness and assurance of a good hope in Christ Yet I will not say but that which is here called a touch may import the giving of his whole hand to assist them Postquam altos tetigit fluctus says the Poet when he meant that the Ship did sail upon the Sea Therefore to touch here may be no less than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manum supponere to stay with the hand and arm which we use to do to a man that is ready to sound and sink The Lord upholds all such as fall and lifteth up all those that be down Psal cxlv 14. But David explains himself in another place that all sorts of men promiscuously good and bad do not attain this favour he restrains that universal Proposition Psal xxxvi 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand It is said of the evil Angel I saw Satan fall like lightning Luke x. 18. The Lightning is darted out of the Clouds and never ascends again but is lost in vapour so are all those that imagine wickedly and whose heart is not stedfast in the Lord. Nescit stare superbia si ceciderit non novit resurgere says St. Ambrose Pride will catch a fall and God will leave it to shame and confusion never to recover again But a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again Pro. xxiv 16. As the young birds fall out of the Nest sometimes but the old one takes them up and carries them where they shall be safe So trust in the Lord and you shall not be cast down but his hand will be ready to catch you that you shall not be bruized All parts of mans body which are made for defence are attributed unto him for our preservation from the arm to the hand from the hand to the finger from the finger to the least touch Against great oppressions God opposeth that his arm is stretched out When he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation as if a workman wrought it curiously with a Tool then the Prophets speak of the hand of God when he doth assist us suddenly and with great facility before we could think of help that is said to be done per contactum by a touch and away as in this case He touched them and said arise be not afraid These are his words who when the earth hath been fear'd with Winter makes all things to flourish again when he reneweth the year with his goodness so when the heart of man is frozen with fear by his word he makes it spring with joy His Countenance was fair and lightsome his tongue as comfortable as his face As St. Ambrose says of the Writings of St. Paul Quae Epistola Pauli non melle dulcior lacte candidior Every Epistle which he wrote was sweeter than honey whiter than milk So the beauty of Christ Transfigured was whiter than milk and his words were sweeter than the honey comb He can look frowningly and make his Foes fall down before him he can speak in Thunder and make the earth to quake the very voice which came from heaven in this next verse did confuse all that heard it This is my beloved Son hear him Vt conspectus vox Dei nos dejicit ita tactus vox Christi erigit says St. Hierom The Lord hath a voice to cast us down and a voice to raise us up again Especially Consolation shall succeed fear and that instantly when God did bring it upon us He never lead his Chosen into trouble for his sake but he brought them off again with comfort Christ had taken Peter and James and John into Mount Thabor whatsoever they suffered there it was by his conduct and for his sake it was the brightness of his
put this authority in execution for as they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man the things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead The usual stile of our Saviour to his Apostles was Ite praedicate Go and teach all Nations What you hear in secret go and preach on the house top What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light Mat. x. 27. At this miracle quite contrary what is here revealed He is marvelous light that you must conceal in darkness First Let us make use of it in thesi to illustrate that saying of Solomons Eccl. iii. 7. There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak There is a ripe season for every thing and if you slip that or anticipate it you dim the grace of the matter be it never so good as we say by way of Proverb That an hasty birth brings forth blind whelps so a good Tale tumbled out before the time is ripe for it is ungrateful to the hearer Where controversies about some difficile Points of Divinity have rather begot rage in the minds of men than obedience and devotion it hath been the religious care of godly Magistrates in all Ages to interdict those disputes on all sides that peace might ensue and dissentions by little and little be forgotten When there hath been cause to make use of this policy in our own Church would you think that some would exclaim against it under this colour that it is a tyranny if truth have not liberty to publish it self at all times in season and out of season And yet such late Writers whose judgments if I should name them few I think would refuse subscribe to this Maxim Intempestiva confessio veritatis plus nocet quà m adificat A confession of truth out of time and season doth rather hurt than edifie I will draw home to the instance of my Text anon to prove this when I have laid a stronger foundation out of another Text Matth. xvi 20. Then charged he his Disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ This was a temporary Precept like that about the Transfiguration to conceal it till after the resurrection Why the confession which Peter made for all his fellow Disciples was very right that 's undeniable to know that he was the Messias the Saviour of the World was necessary to salvation that 's indubitable what was in it then that this should be kept close and not be divulged to every creature the reason follows because he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the Elders and High Priests and be killed and rise again the third day I prove it that this was the reason Luke ix 21. even in this very Chapter he straitly charged and commanded them to tell no man that he was the Christ of God saying the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected and slain and rise again the third day yet I must drive on a question further Why should this Article of faith be supprest that he was Jesus Christ because of his ensuing Passion Why 1. you know many were scandalized to see him crucified who had been perswaded that he was the Son of God if he be the Son of God let him come down from the Cross Noluit ergo Christus quod se moriente paucis accidit omnibus accideret says St. Hierom therefore by concealing that doctrine Christ prevented that all should not fall from the faith through infirmity as some had done Before his glorification had made amends for the great humility of his Passion he knew it would rather lose him Disciples than gain him any to advance this Doctrine openly that he was the Eternal Son of God 2. Our Lord and Saviour did ever foresee and provide that he would commit nothing which might hinder his death and passion that his willingness to die for our sakes might appear the greater No doubt he could have manifested himself his Divinity his Innocency so openly that Pilat would have forborn to condemn him and the Jews to crucifie him But wo is us then where had been the ransom to redeem us from eternal damnation Therefore this mysterie was so attemper'd that some raies of his Divinity did appear sufficient to convert his Enemies if they would have learnt and therefore they are inexcusable but with that qualification and diminution that pestilent men were left in unbelief and did not assent that he was the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased For had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of life 1 Cor. ii 8. Thus I have sifted this Interdict of our Saviour that he bad his Disciples suppress that he was Jesus the Christ for a time that the light might break out more clearly after his Ascension when the clouds of his Humility and Passion were removed away I shall leave an Objection behind my back if I take not away one scruple what here Christ forbids Mat. x. 7. he commands for he sent his Apostles abroad and when ye go preach saying the Kingdom of God is at hand and what 's that but the Kingdom of the Son of God St. Hierom takes it away thus it seems to me not to be altogether the same thing to preach Christ and to preach Jesus Christ Christus commune dignitatis est nomen Jesus proprium nomen est Salvatoris as who should say Jesus our Saviour is the name of God Christ is his name of dignity as he is the great Prophet and the Messias of the World Therefore he sent his Disciples to preach the Kingdom of Grace which Christ had brought into the World but not evidently till after his Glorification that he was the Son of God coeternal with the Father therefore I have sufficiently ventilated this Cause how Truth is the rich Treasury which God hath given us it is not necessary to lay out all the stock at all times and occasions but as judgment and discretion will light the candle to let us see how much is fit to be brought forth to gain our Brother and to glorifie God Est fideli tuta silentio merces silence doth advantage more oftentimes for peace sake than free utterance Demosthenes and the other Orator Aeschines fell to boasting among themselves which of them had taken most at one time for a see to plead a Cause Aeschines named a great sum and too much perhaps for an honest man to take at once from a Client but Demosthenes slighted it and replied he had received twice as much at one time to hold his peace But from this variance of these large-bribed Orators I will give you this application When a discord is unfortunately raised between party and party among the Members of the same Church so that the factions grow stiff and rigid on both sides the best way is to command silence to all that the fire of strife and
emulation may go out for want of combustible matter and in this case not he that violates the peace by stickling much but he that obeys and holds his peace deserves the greater reward This power our Saviour exercised over his Apostles to tie their tongues for a time that they should not publish the glory of his Transfiguration till men were fit to receive it He charged them they should tell no man of the things which they had seen I would but so much humility might be marked from hence as would repress insolence and vain boasting Christ laid his command upon this matter rather than upon any other and imposed silence upon all the three Witnesses that they should not blab the Vision of his Excellency abroad How much unlike is this to them who had rather lose an ounce of their blood nay the sweet odour of virtue than an hour of fame and popularity And so much good as is done and not openly known and divulged is soon repented Where shall we find such a modest temper as that of St. Paul so much admired by Theophylact after fourteen years he tells the Corinthians of the Revelation which God granted him and of his Rapture into Paradise and in all that space he did never impart that celestial honour which was done him either to friend or stranger and then he was ashamed that he was put to it says he I am become a fool in glorying ye have compelled me but what fools are they then that will make such proud boasting without compulsion Jospeph being but a child he did as a child and having the inspiration of two several Dreams he could not hold but made all his Brethren acquainted with them to his own affliction He dreamt a dream and told it to his brethren and they hated him the more Therefore in his riper years though God had given him the spirit of Prophesy he would not divulge himself that he had the interpretation of Dreams He bad Pharaoh's Butler remember him when he was in place And according to the old Saw qui bene latuit bene vixit he conteined himself from manifesting the Gift of God which was in him till the Butler could not choose but call him to mind to put Pharaoh's heart in peace Elizabeth hid her self five months after the Lord had made her conceive a Child miraculously to the astonishment of all the World that great Prophet John the Baptist The Blessed Virgin was saluted by an Angel from Heaven conceived by the Holy Ghost visited by the Wisemen from the East she encountred every day many strange celestial Tokens and yet made no noise of these things to the World but kept all these sayings in her heart Luke ii 51. The mighty power of God will shine and shew it self at last be not ambitious to have it displayed for your own ostentation Christ refrained to have the Vision of the Transfiguration presently notified He charged them c. Generally the Fathers consider the Apostles but as Novices in sacred matters who were yet but in training up and as deficient in those abilities which were requisite to handle such a mysterie Sacred things saies the Greek Proverb must not be toucht 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with unwashen hands This made the ancient Fathers of the Church as fearful to come into a Pulpit as our raw Scholars now adays are forward You need not charge these hasty Predicants as our Saviour did his Disciples not to speak of that for a certain time which they know I would they could be admonished not to be so bold to speak of that which they know not I am not certain for the greater part of such that they have seal but I will bear them record with St. Paul it is not according to knowledg But will you know the spring head from whence this abuse ariseth How can they preach unless they be sent And why was Authority so overseen to send them licentiâ sumus omnes deteriores it is the licence which enables for those things wherein they have no ability Yet again another Text of St. Paul rubs my memory multa licent quae non expediunt there are too many such licences granted which are not expedient If men would let knowledg ripen in them before they speak and not blurt out any thing with extemporary barbarism the Word of God preached would not come so much in contempt for a Parable is an undecent thing in the mouth of a fool Prov. xxvi 9. Our Saviour destined a large space of time to have the cogitation of his great Works mellow in the thoughts of Peter James and John before they testified them to the World which is another reason why they must not speak of that which they had seen till the Son of man was risen from the dead Another reason shall stand in the last place of this point it is fit that they and none but they should preach of Christs Glory who are affrighted with nothing The Apostles were very timerous and would desert a good Cause if they were strongly opposed you know the infirmity of Peter that could not answer the challenge of a silly Damosel but denied his Master This was in diebus illis when the Holy Ghost had not yet come down upon him in the shape of a fire afterward he durst speak the truth though he had been in the midst of fire nay he could not repress the Gospel his will was overcom and could not revolt if the literal sense of the Text be right as sure it is We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Act. iv 20. Grace was as it were turned into nature in them now as in the Angels confirmed in grace says the ordinary Gloss Vino coelesti ebrit se continere non poterant says Lyra the Scoffers of Jerusalem said they were full of new wine it was indeed by a figure a celestial wine with which their spirit was inebriated and as a drunken mans tongue will not ly quiet so in this resemblance they were such that could not but speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ they were these times of courage which Christ had destin'd that in them his Transfiguration should be revealed openly Moses found not constancy in himself and therefore would have balked Gods Message says he Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh So the eleven Disciples were so fearful after out Saviours death that they shut the doors upon themselves where they were assembled for fear of the Jews and after the Resurrection we read that Christ did many times erect their courage which was dejected with these words Be not afraid and therefore he said unto them Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem until ye be indued with power from on high Luke xxiv 49. When that power had possessed them with spirit and resolution they had leave to unfold this mysterie and not before he charged them saying Tell the Vision to no man till the Son
a Lord as if his soul did divine there was a greater upon earth The Reed put into Christs hand the Crown upon his head the bowing of the Knee the Title upon the Cross these were calumnies and revilings on the Jews part but on Gods part secret mysteries of his Spirit to make his enemies afford him the Ensigns of a Kingdom Nay ipsa crux tribunal fiâ—it says Origen Upon his very Cross whereon he hanged he stood like a Judge between the nocent and the innocent All this was nothing to Caesar to challenge the chief place among malefactors One thing is worth your adnotation that because Pilate and the Roman Empire did give wrong sentence of death against Christ who did not make himself a King therefore the self same Roman Empire doth endure this malediction from God that it should endure the pride of a Bishop unto this day who calls himself the Vicar of Christ and sets himself in a Throne above their Emperour The fault was cast upon Christ but the Pope commits it To end this Point If the Jews thought him worthy of death who made himself a King they that have a Doctrine to unmake a King as they please to sport with their Crowns what do they deserve And let the Jews be Judge and not the Jesuits Callisthenes was asked how a man might be most famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him kill the most famous A fit answer for our Roman Parricides who above other Christians are rebaptized in baptismo sanguinis in the bloud of Princes Speak Pilate and you outragious murderers of the Jews do they not deserve to be crucified So now to recapitulate these false crimes objected the Temple was unviolate for any thing Christ had done the people unperverted Tribute granted Caesar honoured Venit Princeps mundi in me non habet quicquam let Pilate speak if he were not a just person How should a man be avenged of his enemies Plutarch answers by being so good that they cannot reproach his honest conversation So did our Saviour and surely it would pity any heart in the world that such a Saviour such an innocent Lamb should be slain But such a Sacrifice it behoved us to have which was holy unblameable and undefiled And to conclude this second general part of my Text be careful my brethren to keep a good conscience that when you shall crucifie this mortal body and the affections thereof as you must do daily you may endeavour to be a just person to walk in all the Statutes of the Lord that you may offer up a clean Sacrifice to God your Creator and Redeemer And so much for Pilat's true Testimony that Jesus was a just person I am innocent c. And now I betake my meditations to the last Point of all Vos videbitis you shall see to it The depravation of his own nature made him forge a lie in the first words I am innocent Conscience extorted truth in the second that his Prisoner was a just person A strange instinct brings forth this last part Vos videbitis you shall see to it Marvel no more at Caiaphas that he could Prophesie One man must die for all the people but rather marvel how Pilate should Prophesie that all the people must die for the bloud of one man As Salust said of the desperate times of Rome that men were so ill affected Vt intenta mala quasi fulmen optarent se quisque ne attingat That they wished mischiefs might fall down like a thunderbolt only every man was so careful as to pray for his own head So Pilate calls for a curse upon all Jury but first he shields his own head he is innocent You never knew a Fortune-teller skilful either in Palmistry curious Metaposcopie or of the Devils secret counsel in judicious Astrology that could read ought in his own destiny as Seneca said of the Soothsayers of Rome that undertook to tell Prodigies by the entrails of beasts Plus sapiunt in alieno jecore quam in suo That they had a better insight into the entrails of other things than into their own So we are all very cunning in vos videbitis to denounce those judgments which will befall other men but we ever misinterpret what will betide our selves Harsh judges we are of other mens faults for the most part but worse Prophets not so charitable as Elizaeus his bones to bring the dead unto life but like Micaiah unto Ahab always portending some disastrous thing to come to bring the living unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grecian General said to Chryses when will we leave this ominous Prediction to be chanting some deadly Prophesie against our brethren Like Pilate against the Jews Vos videbitis You shall see to it Many Jews had Prophesied against the Abominations and Idolatry of the Gentiles Pilate is the first Gentile in Scripture that Prophesied against the Jews Alas then if the wrath of God be kindled yea but a little what is it that can save us from indignation Vos videbitis shall Israel be lost Shall Judah the first-born of God be wiped out of his mercies Is there no title for the protection of a sinner Joab is fled to the Altar what shall become of him Ask Benaiah when he cuts his thred The Altar yet is an eternal refuge for others Shall it not stand for ever Ask the Prophet who made it shake with fear as with an Earthquake that it should be thrown down The Temple is an everlasting habitation shall it not last as long as the Sun and Moon endureth Ask our Saviour if one stone shall be left upon another The people of the Land are the Sons of Abraham and Isaac is not their Covenant to endure for ever Ask St. Paul if the natural branches be not cut off and withered The Land howsoever is that plentiful Canaan fruitful by the report of Caleb and Joshuah more fruitful than report could make it Shall it not always be the Lady of the earth Ask Titus and the Romans if it be not a nest for Screech-owls and an hissing to all that shall live in the world How is the destiny of all things turned about Neither security remaining to fly unto the Altar nor the Altar remaining in the Temple nor the Temple in the City nor Inhabitants remaining in the Country but City and Country defaced unto all Posterity See Beloved how no priviledge upon earth will keep conditions with us except we keep conditions with heaven As Tertullian said of the Devils Pluvias quas jam sentiunt repromittunt When they perceive much moisture in the Air by their natural sagacity then the Soothsayers tell us we shall have rain so Satan knowing that judgment was begun already in Judaea Pilate begins to Prophesie Vos c. The murder of our Saviour should be their endless calamity The Passions of Christ were so innumerous so spiteful that to draw them unto certain heads if all were reckoned up
holden of it A Resurrection Text out of the first Sermon that ever the Apostles Preached upon the Resurrection preached in their full vigour of sanctification immediately after they had received the Holy Ghost to let us know that Whitsunday was principally ordeined for this end to make Easter-day famous over all the world for when God filled Peter and all that were gathered together with that new wine of the Spirit which is mentioned in the begining of the Chapter what did it produce in the first instant what effect did immediately flow from it as an essential property read and mark from my Text onward to the end of ver 36. this is the nail altogether struck upon this is the Theme gone over and over that God had raised up Jesus the Book of the Psalms did prove it and the Disciples were witnesses of it O mystery of mysteries and wonder of Miracles the first lesson of faith the Corner-stone of the Building the most necessary Pillar of the Gospel indeed the bloudy passion of our Saviour which was delivered us in the former verse and the victory over death after that bloudy Passion which I shall instance upon in this verse these two are the supporters of all Christianity take away these two Pillars as Samson broke down those that held up the Theatre of the Philistins and you ruinate the whole Tower of Faith and demolish it to nothing Very fit it was therefore that all the tongues wherewith the Holy Ghost had endowed the Apostles with utterance to speak should concur in this one point and go no further in their first days labour namely that Christ was become the first fruits of them that slept that his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption And because this Sermon of St. Peters in the forenamed respects is such an illustrious testimony of our Lords resurrection therefore both Eastern and Western Churches have selected this Chapter of old to be the second Lesson for the Evening Prayer of this great Festival so our Liturgie reteins it which never recedes from good antiquity and where our Church hath gone before me in her judgment I thought it meet to follow her at this time in my duty and to parcel out my Text from that great variety which the Chapter affords upon this occasion in these words c. The division that I will give you upon this verse shall be easie to conceive and that will help out some things which are a little difficult in the handling of the parts First here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed whom God hath raised up Secondly the complement of it God loosed withall the pains of death Thirdly the necessity of it for it was not possible that He should be holden of death He humbled himself and became obedient to death therefore He was raised up He undertook the death of the Cross being fast bound in misery and iron but as fast as they bound him God loosed him from those pains neither were these things arbitrary accidental obnoxious to any human impediment but contrived and fixed by Gods inevitable Decree ought not Christ to suffer and so to enter into his glory says the mouth of truth and wisdom There is an oportuit upon both he must suffer and he must overcome those sufferings Oportuit the former must be and it was impossible he should fail of the latter Or you compose this Text with the Points of the former Text immediately connexed with it and see the amends made by Gods mercy for the Jews fury Ye have slain that holy one says the Apostle but what follows God hath raised him up Ye have taken and crucified him but see the alteration God hath loosened all the pains and pangs of death He must not escape your hands it was permitted unto you from above he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God And he must escape all his ghostly enemies sin and death and hell for it was impossible he should be holden of them Whom God hath raised up Since the world began there was never any thing opposed so much as this that Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures For what shall we think of others when the Apostles of our Lord did not only suspend their belief when tidings were brought of it but with some disdain rejected it For when Mary Magdalen and Joanna and Mary the Mother of James did tell the Eleven what the Angel had testified their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not Luc. xxiv 11. Nay when Christ had appeared to ten of that company Thomas only being out of the way they could not all perswade him that they had seen the Lord alive Was ever any Tenet of faith so difficultly received even into the hearts of the best men Then you may be sure that when this good seed fell into worse soil it was miserably choaked with thorns A sudden and a strong Faction combined against it instantly after it began to sound abroad Acts iv 2. The Priests and the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces were grieved at no other part of their doctrine but this That they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead Josephus says that as long as the Sadduces continued till they were all destroyed they became as horrid and savage as beasts in cruelty raging against those that affirmed the immortality of soul and body When that Doctrine spread it self abroad and came to the Philosophers of Athens Some censured Paul for a babler some for a setter forth of strange Gods Acts xvii 18. And St. Chrysostome says upon it that Anastasia which signifies the Resurrection was accounted a God which the Christians only worshipped The same Paul opening the knowledge of the Gospel before Festus and King Agrippa that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead Festus broke out in reviling at that passage Paul thou art beside thy self much learning doth make thee mad I would the opposition had gone no further but St. Austin and Epiphanius in their Catalogues of Hereticks rehearse more Adversaries against the Resurrection of Christ than any other doctrinal Point that concerns our Salvation Simon Magus wrote many books against it Basilides a venemous Dogmatist taught that Christ as he was led to be crucified vanished away by Art and Praestigiation and that Simon of Cyrene who bore his Cross some part of the way was put to death in his stead but that Jesus did never die and therefore was never raised from the dead The dross of so many Heresies was stained through these wicked wits that the Church might enjoy truth more triumphantly after such great resistance But let me go on with the Apostles question Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead He that created the soul and body
Howsoever it was charm'd by Gods protection that man should not meddle with it a celestial Minister turn'd it aside from the mouth of the Pit A Cherubin in the Old Testament shut up Paradice and stopt the way of joy against us An Angel in the New Testament opens the Graves of sorrow He came and rolled back the stone from the door 'T is certain that the Scripture gives no reason why the Angel did it but this was one end to declare the truth of the Resurrection for after the Stone was cast aside says he Come see the place where He was laid He is not here It is not from the power of man but from Angelical help from Divine grace that we are led into the knowledg of the mysterie of the Resurrection The Law of Moses says one was written in Tables of stone and therefore was likened unto a Stone a Milstone which if Christ did not bear off the weight would grind us to powder Now the comfort of Redemption in Christ his Passion Resurrection Ascention the Coming of the Holy Ghost are mystically delivered in the Old Testament but are covered over darkly with the Letter of the Law as with a Stone but after the resurrection from the dead was well believed the Stone was rolled away I assure you great knowledg of Divine things ensued never before that time was the substance of faith so perfectly apprehended Beatus lapis qui non minùs corda aperit quà m sepulchrum says that Father whom I have often cited upon this Text. Happie stones at whose opening and rolling away not only the Sepulchre was unclosed but our hearts were opened to believe Beloved if there be one among you that is dull to conceive and slow to believe it is a sign that the Stone is not yet rolled away to him all is shut up to that poor Soul and he sees nothing such a mans Key must be continual prayer it behoves him to cry out earnestly Lord take away this stony heart and give me an heart of flesh Lord shut not up thy loving kindness in displeasure send down thy Holy Spirit to remove away all carnal impediments open mine eyes that I may look into thy Sepulchre and believe thy Resurrection Now the Scriptures assigning no cause for the rolling away of the Stone but to manifest that he was risen not that he might rise in his body when the mouth of the Cave was open and further as Gregory Nyssen urgeth the Angel doth not preach that he rose even now since He came down from Heaven but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surrexit he hath risen he hath departed out of the Grave as if he spake of a thing that was past before his coming from whence you may observe what a perplexful question ariseth to be handled how the Body of Christ being now made alive again came out of the Sepulchre I do not find the several opinions collected together by any man some may escape me but as many as I have noted I will rehearse them all One opinion among the Antient Fathers and the most general if they be well understood is thus That He came forth by his own mighty power after what sort we cannot tell for God would not trouble us with those strange effefts which we are not able to apprehend So one of our late Writers after much ado concludes Divino nutu viam sibi aperuit mirando nobis inexplicabili modo he made way to come forth as he would himself in a miraculous and unspeakable manner These are Paraeus words And I put Calvin in this rank who goes no further but Christum ante surrexisse quà m ab Angelo sepulchrum aperiretur Christ rose before the Sepulcher was unbarred by the Angel but he determined not what way and it was a becoming modesty in him I could name a multitude more but divers have borrowed the words of Musculus Christ did use the external ministry of Angels to roll away the Stone for us not for himself He that rose to life though death were upon his Body could come forth into the Garden though the Stone were upon the Sepulchre But after what sort he came forth all these put their finger upon their mouth and say nothing To determine after what manner great mysteries are brought to pass when the Word of God is silent hath done more hurt to the Christian Church by procuring endless Controversies than all the Persecutions that ever were raised I concur therefore in mine own judgment with this first rank of Divines yet you shall hear the second That he issued out the Stone remaining on the mouth of the Grave creaturae mutatione non sui corporis by an alteration caused in the Stone not in the Body of Christ So Justin Martyr he came out by the Stone even as he made the Seas fit for his own feet and for Peters to tread upon No mutation can be said to be in Christs Body for the Father says it was corpus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a solid Elementary Body certainly Peters body also was heavy and earthy for after a little while he began to sink yet he at first walkt upon the Seas because Christ stiffned the waies to support him and Peter like a solid Pavement So the Stone might be attenuated and made thin as easie as air to transmit a body St. Austin reports of a Ring falln from a womans Girdle yet the Ring remaining and the Girlde whole and unbroken Admit it were true yet the Ring passed not through the substance of the Girdle but the one substance passed by while in a moment by Gods power the other gave place unto it So the place through which Christs Body passed admit no rarefaction of the Stone might be whole and shut by and by and streight after he passed by it not in the instant of his passing that 's contrary to the nature of a true body Some in credulous Jew when Malchus ear was cut off and presently on again might think the Sword had never gone between his ear and his head yet we are sure it did In such a starting while which could not be perceiv'd might the Stone yield to Christs Body and come together again or if not made thin parted of a sudden to let him pass by and in an instant come close together again Thirdly some antient Writers and divers moderns hold probably that Christ made his egress repagulorum cessione non penetrationum dimensione not as if one body had penetrated another but the Stone in the trembling of the earthquake started off from the mouth of the Cave and clos'd again till the Angel rolled it quite away This is made the more credible from Acts 5.23 the Apostles were shut up in the common Prison the Angel brings them forth the Officers being question'd confess The Prison truly found we shut with all safety the Keepers standing without before the doors but when we had opened it we found no
also thinks to elude the Scripture with a distinction that his holy Mother did first see him on this day non ad confirmationem dubii sed ad consolationem gaudii not to confirm her faith so he appeared first to Mary Magdalen who wavered and distrusted but no fill her with gladness If these things were so why did not the Book of God explain them if these things be not so why do they pretend Tradition without authority The truth is Gerardus a learned Lutheran hath taught us with more likelihood than ever any before how some unwary Clerks stumbled upon this error Epiphanius in his 68 Heres against the Marsalians lapsing in memory alleageth the words of Christ Touch me not to be spoken to his Mother when he first rose from the dead which indeed were spoken to Mary Magdalen and from hence came the misprision that he appeared first to his Mother when he rose from the dead Not out of desire to quarrel any thing that might justly concern the honour of the Blessed Virgin but for truths sake I have vindicated this Scripture that Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalen she saw his resurrection in the first bud and not only as others did in the blown flower You might have imagined this favour would have faln upon his Apostles or upon Joseph of Arimathea the Lord of the Soil where he first appeared but he was first found of her that first sought him especially he came first to her who gave greatest attendance to meet with him She brought a company of women with her to the Tomb before the Sun rose they were all vanisht but her self She fetcht Peter and John they came and lookt in and shrunk away Their going away commends her staying behind she held out to the last till at last her joy was fulfilled Reason good that those that run longest in the race should be first rewarded Our patience I fear is not so firm and stedfast as hers was if we have not every thing we ask for at the first we think our zeal is prejudiced and we utterly give over as if God were not our King on whom we waited but our Servant that must come at the first call Whereas you shall never speed with a twitch and be gon but with importunity and pertinacy The Kingdom of Heaven is gotten by violence and the violent take it by force But beside as all note it was her great love to Christ that made her partaker of the first-fruits of his glory a love that hath great perfection in it in contraries in the hardiness of her courage and in the softness of her mourning In the hardiness of her courage for do you know upon what pikes she run to stay so long at the Sepulcher of our Lord. As Thomas noted into what danger our Saviour embarked himself when he told his Disciples Lazarus is dead and we will go unto him Let us also go and die with him says Thomas So there were Souldiers abroad to watch the Sepulcher Spies in every corner from the High-Priests to mark who did confess and honour our Saviour to go to his Tomb much more to stay at it was in effect to say let us go and die with him we care not for our lives But true love esteems it sweet to suffer for his sake to whose memory their affection is constantly devoted And she that was thus magnanimous to die for him was a true woman in compassion and wept exceedingly because his body was lost They were tears mistaken as most tears are unless we weep for our sins As one says well our life is full of false sorrows and false joys we laugh when we have no cause to be merry and we weep when we have no cause to be sad So Mary laments that Christs body was not in the Sepulcher which truly known was the greatest cause of rejoycing that ever the world had No mans injury had brought that to pass but his own power and glory yet certainly her weeping was reputed as an office of love and zeal because she did it ignorantly out of a pious intention and we are all so addicted to profuse mirth that God doth seldom make a bad construction of mourning But alass how often do we lose God by sin through our own default which is the worst taking away of all and yet we afflict not our heart at the mischance we grieve not for it O weep for the light of that grace which we often lose and the day-spring of comfort will rise again in our consciences But it may be for all this Christ would not first have appeared to her after he was risen but that she was one out of whom in times past he had cast out seven Devils To the letter of the words be thus much said before I come to make application out of them the story runs concerning this Party that she had led a very wicked and a scandalous life for which she suffered this judgment from the Lord and very deservedly that she was made a prey to the Devil and seven evil spirits entred into her possest her wrackt her and tormented her But if seven evil spirits should take up their quarter in every Strumpet in these days wherein they abound I think their would not be Devils enough in Hell to furnish them I know that some who dip their Pen too much in allegories expound it not as if the very Devils themselves but as if the seven deadly sins had taken up their seat in her This is wrong for Luke viii 2. we find that there were with Christ certain women that had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities among whom was Mary Magdalen out of whom went seven devils Therefore it is not to be gainsaid but she was really dispossessed of seven infernal spirits that had entred into her Upon the account of this benefit she began to turn her heart to the fear of the Lord and grew up from grace to grace till no Disciple of her sex was more godly in her profession more servent in love more sincere in amendment of life Now out of all the Train that believed in the Name of the Lord he chose this convertita whom he had so mightily raised up to newness of life from the power of Satan I say he selected such an one to appear first unto her that the Church might know that such humble sinners as were partakers of his greatest mercy should also be partakers of his greatest glory And let every conscience which hath been opprest with the burden of iniquity refresh it self with this hope that our Redeemer liveth to gather those unto him whose iniquities have been many but they are washed clean in his bloud and are buried in his Grave As you have those comfortable words sounded in your ears before the receiving of the Lords Supper Come unto me all ye that are weary c. But thus Christ did as it were celebrate the resurrection of the body from
the dead and the resurrection of the soul from sin in this interview between himself and Mary Magdalen All men shall be restored to life good and bad for the Son of God redeemed the whole nature of man this day from the corruption of the Grave and the Devil did utterly loose jus mortis the dominion of death because our Saviour being an Innocent was put to death over whom he had no dominion But the glory of Christs victory was to conquer two at once Hell and Death So the Prophet Hosea cries out in form of triumph O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victory and from his own voice Revel i. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead behold I am alive for evermore and have the keys of Hell and of Death So in his own person he shewed that he had conquered Death in the person of Mary Magdalen that he had conquered Hell Beloved this great day is Christs Festival and it is the Holiday of every penitent sinner because first he appeared to such an one to Mary Magdalen For our sakes both the Keys are turn'd and for our sakes both the Gates are opened that our bodies may escape the curse of corruption and that our souls may be delivered from the judgment of Hell through Jesus Christ the first fruits of the dead and that first appeared to an humble Convert AMEN THE EIGHTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT xxviii 9 10. And as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them saying all hail and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me YOU may call to your remembrance that my subject upon Easter-day the last year was How Christ was first seen after he rose again from the dead of one whom he had raised before from the death of sin he appeared first to Mary Magdalen And in this Text other women have the next turn to see him appear in order of story That Sex it is apparent had the honour of the day in the first and second bout that the power of God might be seen in the weaker Vessels The women brought sweet Spices to embalm his body and they encounter that which was sweeter than all the Spices in the world the Vision of the Lord who came forth from the dark places of the dead to life again There is not the weakest capacity among you but must needs observe that the relations of these things are very diversly set down in the four Evangelists And there is not the learnedst capacity among men that can distinctly unfold how they should be reconciled I suppose the Primitive Church I mean the Disciples that were taught by the Apostles and other Scholars taught by them were informed of the true Exposition how every thing hapned in its order but the tradition is lost And they who boast they have kept the Traditions of the Church faithfully are not able to give us a clear rule how to refer these confusions to a certain order St. Paul 1 Cor. xv rehearseth sundry ways how Christ was seen of many after he rose from the dead yet he utterly omits how he was seen of these devout women St. John Chap. xx speaks of the famous interview between our Saviour and Mary Magdalen and no more Our Evangelist in the beginning of this Chapter mentions Mary Magdalen and the other Mary that is the Mother of Zebedees children he goes no further St. Mark quotes another woman that is Salome St. Luke names also one Joanna she was the Wife of Chusa Herods Steward and indefinitely he folds it up that there were other women whose particular cognisance is not revealed And divers things are related divers ways of these which may be reconciled as divers ways without jar or contradiction The stiffest knot in the dissention is that although St. Luke and St. Mark record how the Angels appeared to the women and spake unto them of Christs rising yet they do not say that Christ was seen of them St. Mark relates that he was seen of Mary Magdalen So doth St. John they go no further St. Matthew holds him to Mary Magdalen and to one other Mary that is all Yet he involves at large that as the women not those women only went to bring tidings to the Apostles of what they had seen and heard Christ did meet them by the way For the perplexity of these Narrations some do argue that none of the women saw him this day risen from the dead but Mary Magdalen and that when this Scripture says that he did appear to the women plurally yet it is a Synechdoche speaking that of many which was verified but in one for but one saw him instead of all her companions This is not so probable for it would work better if this truth were manifested by a multitude of Witnesses Others also consider that Mary Magdalen saw him alone and was controuled at that time not to touch him therefore it must be another Apparition when divers women did touch him and worship him Some say therefore that in a very little compass of time Mary Magdalen saw him twice this day unless there were two Mary Magdalens as St. Ambrose would have it first alone and then immediately with her Consorts Yet that seems not so congruous I can say no more against it that two Apparitions should be granted to her in a few moments Therefore without any pertinacy in rejecting the conjectures of others I conceive this second Apparition of Christ which we have in hand to be made to Mary the Mother of James Joanna and Salom with other devout women of Galilee when Mary Magdalen was lately departed from them to tell her errand to the Disciples Laying my ground upon that opinion I deduct these parts out of the Text First I will treat upon it what proceeded from the women Secondly what proceeded from Christ Touching the women again I will handle first what they did before they saw Christ secondly what they did after they had seen him Before they saw him they went to tell his Disciples somewhat After they had seen him 1. They came to him 2. They held him by the feet 3. They worshipped him That which belongs to Christ is contained in his Action and his Words His Action is thus expressed Behold Jesus met them His Words are first a Salutation All Hail 2. A Consolation Be not afraid 3. A Commission Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee 4. A Promise There they shall see me These are the several talents which God hath committed to me in this and now I will employ them for my Masters profit The women before they had seen our Saviour went to tell his Disciples that must be our beginning They went and went to and fro sundry times upon this occasion It could not choose but be observed by the eyes
Brethren Lastly as their Commission had dignity and sweetness in it so they were sent with profitable tydings to tell the Disciples they must go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord. What ailed them I may say that they were not already gone into Galilee for Christ had told them Mat. xxvi 22. When I am risen again I will go before you into Galilee Nay albeit the Women repeated this unto them they did not stir What though they would not go with him to his Cross would not they remove into Galilee when they were warned by Christ and now readmonished by the Women What might it be that hindred them shall I tell you what I think they had forgotten what Christ said and the tydings of the women made them keep closer to that place where they were Can it be that these women saw him in Jerusalem then surely say they the Lord will appear unto us in this City though we do not travel into Galilee But why did the Lord appoint the great intercourse between him and his Disciples in Galilee First it was remote from Jerusalem where much danger was there he might discourse with his Disciples with more privacy and security Secondly the Apostles were all Galileans and for their sakes he did this honour to their Country Thirdly to eject Satan out of his possession for it was a place of much sin called a place of darkness and the land of the shadow of death Isa ix 2. Fourthly there were many Disciples in Galilee and Christ had intended a famous meeting to appear to them all at once as some say on Mount Thabor where he was transfigur'd and that here it was where he was seen of more than five hundred Brethren at once Be it as it would be he promiseth they should see him there and he was better than his promise for upon this day at Even they saw him at Jerusalem Here is nothing that savours of any old grudg or displeasure no repealing of the former promise because they had forsaken him in the Garden but a confirmation of all loving kindness passed and an exceeding favour superadded that their souls might not be tortur'd with that long procrastination not to see him till they went into Galilee he prevented the time and appear'd to them in their own Chamber before they slept To this Christ who is faithful in promises and gracious in loving kindness be all glory AMEN THE NINTH SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION MAT. xxviii 13. Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept IN the Parable where the King made a Marriage for his Son and I may truly apply it this day was the glorious Nuptial of the Son of God but in that Parable the Servants went out for Guests into the high ways and gathered together all as many as they found good and bad So the Evangelists have filled up the story of our Saviours Resurrection with all kind of Circumstances of Saints and Reprobates truth and fictions good and bad It is agreed by them who have exactly wrote an harmony of the Gospels that Christ made five Apparitions and no fewer all of them upon this triumphant day after he was risen from the dead to the devoutest of all others men and women that loved the Lord. The first to Mary Magdalen The second to the other Women that were going from the Sepulchre to tell the Disciples what the Angels had said unto them The third to Peter Luc. xxiv 34. The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon 1 Cor. xv 5. Seen of Cephas then of the Twelve The fourth to Cleophas and the other Disciple toward the setting of the Sun to whom he was known in the breaking of bread The fifth to the Disciples late that night Whereas they had received a Message to go into Galilee and there they should see the Lord yet out of fear and incredulity they moved not out of doors Therefore on the same day at Evening being the first day of the Week when the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said Peace be unto you And howsoever some of those portions of Scripture are read for the Gospel to morrow some for next Sunday yet all those five Apparitions hapned upon this one day He appeared so often to the best of those that loved him but the relation of his Resurrection was made also on this day to the worst of those that hated him The Angels spake it to the Women in the hearing of the Souldiers that he was risen to life the news went from bad to worse the Souldiers tell the High Priests and Elders what they had heard and seen the High Priests again sophisticate the news and tell them fraudulently to Pilate for the Souldiers safety then Pilate and the High Priests agreeing together fill the whole Nation of the Jews by their cunning with incredulity Look not therefore to hear me speak at this time of those good Saints to whom the mystery of Christs Resurrection was the savour of life unto life but of those wicked Infidels who by their own impiety made it unto themselves the savour of death unto death There is not one good person within the compass of the story whereof my Text is a part It is Manipulus zizaniorum If ever according to the Parable God sent his Angel to gather the worst Tares in one bundle by themselves here they are The High Priests prevaricating with God and his Angels the Souldiers corrupted Pilate the Governour misperswaded the people wholly seduced bad is the best Yet St. Matthew and no other Evangelist hath interserted this piece of treachery among the other sweet Narrations of this most happy day And for these causes if St. Chrysostome hit it right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truth will have the better audience when it passeth through the mouths of most contrary Authors say not that his Disciples and such Women as had Christ in admiration spread these things abroad for the malignant Souldiers speak the same 2. That we may see that very hour when God did first smite the Jews with that vertiginous spirit to hearken to Cabalistical Legends to the doating dreams of the Rabbines as they do at this day that is in St. Pauls Phrase to profane and old Wives Fables For indeed this Text is a mere Romancy as arrant a Jewish Fable as ever was told A Conspiracy so full of rotten Fictions that nothing is true in it all but that it is a Conspiracy and that it is a Fiction 1. Then we must bolt out the Confederates Gebal and Ammon joyn together the High Priests the Elders and the Souldiers 2. The way of Confederacy is by putting a forged Tale in the Souldiers mouths they must avouch any thing that the Priests suborn Ye shall say 3. The Plot is collaterally against the Disciples for being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
breakers up of Graves and robbers of the dead Say ye his Disciples came by night 4. The main intended contrivance was to discredit the true Doctrine of our Saviours Resurrection Say ye his Disciples came by night and stole him away 5. In the last place I will handle the improbability of all of what contradictions the Plot consists never to be pieced together for all this if it like you must be done while they slept Say ye c. The Text being part of a Confabulation of some that laid their heads together to do mischief in the first place it will be most proper to speak of these Confederates On the one part to see that men of the best gifts and qualities are the most wicked Sons of Belial when they are left to themselves they are of no worse credit and calling than High Priests and Elders The selected Tribe of God to burn Incense to his name and offer Sacrifice continually the eyes of the people for counsel and their tongue to pray for them So blessed by Jacob and by Moses in the name of their Father Levi that nothing but such an horrid sin as a conspiracy against Christ could unbless them again Every house thought it self happy to receive one of that order so Micah of Mount Ephraim every Lot of Israel took them for innocent and unsuspected as it is 1 Mach. vii 14. One that is a Priest of the Seed of Aaron is come and he will do us no harm Marcus dixit ita est their word was Law and their righteousness unquestioned All this credit they had that now the Devil might use them the better to suppress a manifest truth When one did highly commend Julian the Cardinal the Popes Legate at the Council of Basil Sigismund the Emperour answers Tamen Romanus est for all your great commendation this man is a Roman So the High Priests sate in Moses Chair were zealous of the Law fasted look'd sowerly pretended much affection to the Temple of the Lord Tamen sunt Pharisaici for all this praise they tasted deeply of the Leaven of the Pharisees and envied it that God himself should send his own Son to have more authority among the people or to be greater in estimation than they such as loved the praise of men more than the praise of God That was a mild character of our Saviours but the meaning of it is they had rather conjure with Hell to maintain their Error than retract it with open repentance and incur a little shame for their former obstinacy When Lazarus was raised from the dead and all the people wondred at it presently the High Priests warn their Council to meet for upon every good deed they fell a conspiring and the matter propounded to the Council was What do we For this man doth many Miracles O fools and slow of heart If he do many Miracles what should ye do But confess him to be the Son of God and fall down and worship him Is Lazarus revived to their knowledge And doth it not say unto them why will ye perish and not believe Nay God invited them thus far that those mighty sinners the Authors that put Christ to death heard of his Resurrection on this day within a little while after he was risen and by their own Ministers such as were of their own Faction that watched the Sepulchre those told them very certain tidings that an Angel of God had said to certain devout women He is risen he is not here They saw it they heard it they quak'd for fear and felt it they could not be mistaken O God what abundant means were these to let them know the truth and be saved For all this they are at their old santez What do we This man is risen from the dead let us cast a mist before mens eyes that they may never believe it Thus that which should have begot Faith in them begot madness and that heart will never be well softened which is hardened with the very grace of God Was Pharaoh ever religiously mollified that wax'd stubborn after so many Messages which Moses brought after so many Plagues on Earth so many Wonders from Heaven He never had a true relenting heart that dodg'd the grace of God so often Beloved that Pharaoh and these High Priests let them be your examples what a fearful thing it is to make ill use of those good means which are ordained for your salvation But I am not yet off from the main Point the Priests are one part of this wicked combination and they invited the Souldiers to joyn with them in the Plot against Christs Resurrection and undertake for another Plot to make Pilate wink at all passages and be pleased Davos Davos omnia these are the wits that carry the whole stratagem before them For what Impostures will not pass for fair dealing when they are recommended upon the credit of the Chief Priests Iis qui occaecantur authoritate sacerdotali facilè pro veritate obtruditur mendacium When well meaning men have the persons of some great Clerks in reverence and think the Spirit of God is among them how easie it is to fall into great errors upon that trust That it is no wonder if many stick obstinately to Popish superstition whose eyes are dazled with Pontifical Authority Woe be to them who are rotten in their own foundation and yet inveigle others to build upon their conscience And mark who those others were whom the High Priests made their Confederates some of those Souldiers that watcht the Sepulchre So the Fox and the Lion are yoked together Vulpina pellis leomna force and policy wit and violence The Sword of Paul as Pope Julian the Second said with the Keys of Peter Some of the Watch came into the City and shewed the High Priests all things that were done ver 11. At first they told the certainty of Christs Resurrection and gave God the glory and made a just Apology for themselves that they were charged indeed to look to the Tomb that the body which was in it might be kept safe and unremoved but some dreadful Powers from above came down and broke open the Sepulchre who could blame them therefore that they did not fight against Heaven If they might have been let alone to themselves they had said no more and gone away well excused But the High Priests more unjust by far than these Heathen make them unsay every word which they had spoken true and scandalize Gods name among the Heathen by teaching them to blaspheme A very hard case that in all likelihood these had been far more honest and sincere if they had never consulted with those that by their Duty and Office were their Teachers But a little matter alas draws men into the high-way of iniquity and the Priests could no sooner propound treachery but the Souldiers are in the knot First they carry more reverence to man than unto God and conjoyned to betray the greatest
Article of truth in all the Gospel to do their friends a favour Secondly See how soon the wicked forget into what great fear they were put it was but even now that they quaked and became as dead men at the Apparition of an Angel their sin was before their eyes that they should watch his Sepulchre of whom the Prophet had said Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption the guiltiness of this took all their courage from them yet within two hours after at the most they are deeper in the same wickedness than ever they were before as if the terrible admonition they had early in the Morning had been seven years since or before mans remembrance So let the Plague or Famine or Sword of the Enemy be removed from a Nation in one year nay in one month you shall see the sins of wont and custom as high and as rise as if that People had never been beaten with such calamity When Moses had interceded to God to rid away some sore judgment from Pharaoh after a little pause he was never the better But when Pharaoh saw there was respite he hardened his heart Exod. viii 15. So the Souldiers seeing there was respite and that the revenging Angel did not follow them at the heels fall immediately in a little space into a fouler service than before Thirdly As the saying is very true Facinus quos inquinat aequat great men lose much of their superiority and power when they match themselves with their underlings in a bad deed the basest servants are their equals when they have made them consorts in their iniquity The High Priests lost all their veneration in the esteem of these Souldiers when they were guilty one to another of a mutual Confederacy They should and would have been as fearful to do any wicked thing in the presence of the High Priests as in the presence of an Angel but now they carry no awe at all to them who had forgot their reverence to their God Fourthly We read at verse 11. they were but some of the Watch that concurred in this devillish stratagem against Christ and his Disciples but the Chief Priests are indefinitely named not some of them but the whole Fraternity for none are excepted So divers Synods of Christian Priests and Bishops have with one mouth protested against the Faith with one Pen subscribed to Heresie so that the unity of Priests let some say what they will is not always a token of Gods Spirit upon them but sometimes of Satanical Confederacy Of the Souldiers who watch'd the Sepulchre but one part only came into the City and of that part it may be but a few of the chief sticklers consented to evil the rest perhaps were like those two hundred in Jerusalem who were called by Absolon to Hebron of whom the Scripture witnesseth That they went in their simplicity knowing nothing Among this Band of Souldiers and among those that were tempted to tell the forgery he that writes the Calendar of the Greek Saints Simeon Metaphrastes nominates one Longinus and brings him in for a Saint on the Fifteenth of March the next day after Christ was crucified Metaphrastes hath patched together this Legend of him that it was he who pierced our Saviours side with a Spear and that a drop of the bloud which streamed out fell upon the eye of Longinus whereof he had lost the sight before by some mischance and this drop of bloud restored him to the sight yea and to the eyes of his mind presently to confess Christ and believe How will the next story hang with this That for all his conversion and belief he was by appointment of Pilate one of them that watch'd the Sepulchre of Christ surely all those were evil instruments and the Angel handled them accordingly by striking a fear into them like dead men But proceed we for Metaphrastes says that Longinus and two more with him refused the evil ways of the High Priests stiffly avouched the truth of the Resurrection for which he incurred the great hatred of Pilate and the Jews and when they despited him for it he gave up his Souldiers Cassock and Belt would serve the Romans no more went into Cappadocia to preach the Gospel and became a Martyr But that you may know Metaphrastes is no sure Author for Canonizing of Saints Baronius at the end of this and another story I shall tell you anon bids the Reader beware says he As Paul admonisheth prove all things hold that which is good But before I leave this first Point of my Text mark that which is most apparent how the Chief Priests and Souldiers pieced together why the Elders and the Council gave large money to the Souldiers like Claudius his Witnesses of whom Tully says they knew him to be a man of no faith for they would not speak one word of his side till their hire was in their Pocket Emitur à custodibus argento resurrectionis silentium The Jews gave money to the Souldiers to keep the truth of the Resurrection in silence and by so much the more is the Resurrection of Christ grown so famous because this Bribery is so infamous they offer a little Silver to them that will conceal it God doth infinitely out-bid them and offers the Kingdom of Heaven to them that preach it and publish it For the Pharisees who no doubt were the principal in this action were most greedy of gain and loth to part with their substance especially by the lump wherefore they would never have given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 large money much more than they covenanted for when they hired a Cohort to watch the Sepulchre I say they would never have given so much to the Souldiers to stop their mouth if there had been any probability left to out-face the truth no certainly if it had been possible they would have brought them in for carelesness or treachery but the matter was clear it could not be answered so they must poyson the whole Band with money or the truth would come out to their shame and infamy O what folly there is in the wisdom of the wicked What prudent man would ever hope that a Multitude would keep counsel That among so many Witnesses none would blab it out in a corner That no Scoffer in the ranks would take their money and laugh at them for their impiety Or that God would not raise up some other faithful Witnesses though all these did continue in Perjury It was a Proverb once in the Christian Church that it had Golden Priests when it had Woodden Chalices that is a brave Clergy in the times of poverty and persecution but when Riches flowed in that they had Golden Chalices they had for a great part but Woodden Priests I find this most true in the Synagogue of the Jews that in this Age they had more wealth than they knew how to use well for in these three last Chapters of St. Matthew
resistency be never taken away in this life but is ever smothered and couchant in the bitter root of our corruption yet according to the efficacious and sweet motion of grace God disposeth that it shall not come out into act It is not therefore the power to resist which is taken away for then the will were violenced and nature quite transformed whereas grace is the perfection not the abolition or destruction of nature It is only the actual resistency which is stopt Most excellently Prosper Hanc abundantiorem gratiam ita credimus potentem ut negemus violentam There is a special abundant grace which is the Lot of that remnant which shall be saved and this we believe that it hath powerful success upon the will but makes no violent that is irresistible entrance But it carries all the affections with it with a most urgent undeniable perswasive force it ravisheth a man from himself he feels himself as it were compelled in spight of Tyrants in spight of death to confess the truth We cannot but speak the things which we have heard and seen Acts iv 20. Nihil imperiosius side The Spirit of God hath a most imperious authority over the soul where it will dwell a smooth tongue in an eloquent man will win much upon his hearers and draw them far but the Spirit of God is a commanding principle a rushing mighty wind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Oecumenius this is a sign of abundance of vehemence it is the breath of God whose might is invincible But thirdly there is another way that some conjecture at the vehemency of the Wind and that was to strike terrour Into whom you will say In some sort says Calvin into the Disciples themselves that received the Holy Ghost Thus he most judiciously Nunquam ad recipiendam Dei gratiam ritè sumus comparati nisi domitâ priùs carnis confidentiâ That is we are never fitly disposed to receive the grace of God untill our carnal pride and security be beaten down and humbled Some roaring terrible wind of judgment and the expectation of hell fire if we repent not must shake us soundly Or else we will fall asleep in our sins and wallow in wantonness with the slumbering soft noise of mercy As the Spring of the year wherein all things grow begins roughly with March and ends sweetly with May so Renovation and New-birth it begins austerely with the angry Pedagogie and Discipline of the Law with consternation in a troubled Spirit then begin the fruits of the Spirit to spring up but it proceeds to gladness and rejoycing and to peace in Christ First the strong Wind passed by Elias that rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces then an Earthquake and a fire and after the fire a still small voice The Angels coming to the Blessed Virgin had first fear and astonishment in it then greeting and salutation So the Wind that came at the Feast of Whitsontide did first roar and terrifie them that were gathered together afterwards it was as Oyl that comforted and as new Wine that maketh glad the heart So says Bernard upon the conclusion of it Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia quietum aspicere quiescere est God is peace and sets all at peace and to behold him in whom our soul rests is to rest for ever But others say for all the mightiness of the Wind it is not expressed that any fear did fall upon the Apostles the vehemency of the sound was to corroberate the Apostles and to let them know there were blasts in store to cast down their enemies Such as repelled the Darts of Maximinus the Tirant into his own face when he gave battel to the Christians Such as hath dispersed the invincible Navies of our Enemies Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti Christ descended gently as the rain into the Fleece of Wool in the days of his exinanition He shall not cry nor cause his voice to be heard in the street Isa xlii 2. But now he is exalted into glory and hath the rule put into his hand he will thunder and break forth in strong violence against his enemies Thus far you have heard that the Holy Ghost came sensibly and audibly to the Ear like a sound the similitude of that sound was the noise of the Wind the Attributes of it two sudden and mighty and yet these two Points are undispatcht the terminus à quo it came from heaven and the terminus ad quem it filled the house where they were sitting But briefly The first of these moves much to one thing that is handled before that there is vehement strength in the grace of God because it comes from heaven says the great Counsellor Gamaliel If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it The Winds naturally arise out of the Caves of the earth they steame from beneath and blow laterally from one Coast to another So are worldly graceless devices all unsanctified counsels they blow from beneath from the Forge of Satan the principles are drawn from Ambition Hatred Emulation Treachery and have an oblique collateral motion which is profound dissimulation But the root of grace is above in heaven and grows down to the earth it fetcheth all its drifts from Peace from Religion from Charity from the Sanctuary from the Glory of God Strip all your politick projects from their fair pretences and see the ground and foundation upon which they rest and you will find them to be hollow and putrified vapours Again slight not the harmless ways and simplicity of good men for if you could discover their conscience as God doth you would find their scope and aim to be celestial And nothing comes from heaven but with this purpose to convert our earthly inclinations into heavenly directions And let this superficial inspection satisfie for the term and place whence the sound came it came from heaven The end of our work is the consideration of the place where it staid and lighted It filled all the house where they were sitting If you expect to have it treated of how the blast of the Spirit did fill the house I must put you off to the fourth verse of this Chapter where it is recorded of the Apostles that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and better speak of it touching men than touching the Room of an house that Christ is the fulness of him that filleth all in all Moreover if you look for any touch upon the House it self remember I told you such Traditions for it last year as I found in Antiquity but with this modest conclusion that the Point was not material and all humane Records are uncertain This we may and must build upon that it was an upper Room of some dwelling in Jerusalem Acts i. 13. and of large capacity we are sure to contain at least one hundred and twenty persons ver 15. Perhaps also of
made him cry out These men came not in by Gods honorabo and therefore they went out with a mischief infelicity was the end of that honour which was not begun in humility Let my speech sink into the heart of all those whom God hath advanced to the rule of his People let the meanest find favour in their eyes as well as the greatest mercy and justice love and charity you owe them alike to all the world to Caius and Titius alike to Neighbour and Stranger An elegant Minstril if his Musick be delicious a sporting Stage-player and the like shall be admitted into the noblest Assemblies and I am sure it is better than sport and musick to a worthy Magistrate to hear a man oppressed with wrong relate his grievances and redress them Pudeat aspernari fratrem quem Deus non aspernatur filium says St. Austin Do not despise him for thy Brother whom God hath accepted for his Son This I have spoken for the first share of honour which God giveth in this life and that for these two ends in utilitatem humilitatem First to promote the publick good Secondly to be depress'd in humility But alas what do we speak of Promotions in great places this is small comfort to the poor man although it came from God A poor Philosopher told a rich man that invited him He was set at the lower end of the Table ut ultimum locum cohonestaret to bring the lowest room in credit So divers and very rare Personages are but underlings in this life ut ultimum locum cohonestarent but these may partake of honours in the second life from the voice of fame for the memorial of the just shall be blessed saith the Lord. Very briefly of this You have known loving Fathers bequeath somewhat to their Posthumi to their Babes which should be born after their decease in whom they could never take joy nor comfort so divers at the last gasp of their life have bequeathed Monuments and places of liberality to charitable uses to reap that glory after their decease which they should never hear of A question may be asked in this place if it be lawful to call Colleges or Free-Schools or Hospitals after the Founders names that posterity may know them and testifie their pious affection I must mollify the answer propter duritiam cordis vestri because of the hardness of mens hearts for I had rather allow it as good and give some indulgence to human infirmity which itcheth after praise than Structures of Charity should fail and the hands of the liberal should quite be dried up But this is truth without yielding one whit to mans frailty good works offend not because they are seen but when their upshot and scope is to be seen that their praise may be divulged Si times spectatores non habebis imitatores says Gregory as who should say it is good to have our light shine that men may behold and imitate it not that they may behold and applaud it as the Schoolmen express it ad profectum aliorum non ad ostentationem sui not for our own reputation but for our Brothers edification 'T is a sign of a generous and noble spirit to do good things among other scopes and intentions to purchase a good name contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes Certainly the propagation of a good name when it is not ambitiously coveted and affected it is a leaf of Gods own Chronicle and a blessing of many days wrought by his power who is the Ancient of days He that compared glory unto vertue as the shadow unto the body hit of a good similitude sometimes the shadow is cast before the body as when our glory is reported in our own ears Sometimes the shadow is cast behind the body as when the memory of our good deeds remains after us and this is from the Lord. Oblivion cast upon some is like the Plague of darkness cast upon Egypt Three Kings of Judah sprung from a wicked Race of whom our Saviour came touching the flesh are quite omitted in his Pedigree Mat. i. as if they had never been and who they were it shall not be named for me since the Holy Ghost despised to reckon them Tola judged Israel twenty three years and all that he did is not so much remembred as that Paul left his Cloak at Troas Joabs valour is forgotten among the Worthies of David because of his cruelty It is Alexander Hales his observation that the Scripture doth spend some Chapters to relate the Fall of Adam because Man recovered himself by the Promise made in Christ But not a word is spoken concerning the Fall of Lucifer and the Evil Angels neither in Moses nor the Prophets except it be under Parables and since it was their sin to rise against God they could not procure such an instance of their memory in Gods Books as to have the story of their Fall But a good name is a precious ointment an Ointment which is consecrated and made holy by the blessing of God Well let us proceed to the third and last portion of Gods Honour in tertio seculo aeterno in the life everlasting and here is comfort in the end For let the worst be made of the good mans fortune his calling is not honourable but private and his infamy perchance not private but publick Naboth dies for Cursing and Stephen for Blaspheming and both were innocent Now where is Honorabo What is become of the Honour that God promised And yet who deserved it better than such a man Nemo virtutem Sanctius coluit quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet No man loves Vertue more than he that had rather die with an ill name than with an ill conscience Where is such a mans Honour Where the Philosophers Country was when he pointed up to heaven Blessed are you says our Saviour when men revile you and speak all manner of evil falsly on you for my Names sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven There no Julian is an Emperour no Sanballat a Magistrate nor Caiphas an High Priest Si Honor diligitur illic quaeratur ubi nemo indignus honoratur says St. Austin Double my portion there O Lord and as Mephibosheth said Let Ziba take all and surely this Honour is best agreeable to the Text Honorabo I will honour him It is a blessing in future at such a time I may say when time shall be no more Not as the Gloss hath it Qui benè utitur dignitate conservabo eum in statu dignitatis suae He that manageth any promotion of Honour justly and faithfully I will keep him in it and not cast him down Nay admit that faithfulness and just dealing be an occasion to cast him down the sooner as it befel Aristides still Honorabo is a good promise when greatness is eclipsed upon Earth heaven stands sure and there the condition of this promise
neither thrive abroad nor at home Pyrrho haec Samnitibus I can wish our Enemies no greater harm than such corrupted minds That Pyrrhus it is in Plutarch was a rambling Warriour and cared not whom he oppressed Says Cyneas to him his best Counsellor Shall we live thus always No says Pyrrhus when we have vanquished the Romans Compotabimus in otio vivemus We will drink stoutly and live merrily His Horse would have said as much if he could have spoken that when his service was done he would stand in the Stable and eat his Provender But the end of War is Peace and the end of Peace is to die unto Sin and to live unto Righteousness These are the last words I have to say now In the justness of our Cause confidence of Faith fervour of Prayer amendment of our Lives United Hearts and in our Religious and Noble ends we commend our most serene and excellent Admiral the whole Royal and gallant Expedition which he manageth to God In whom alone is our help For there is none that fights for us powerfully and irresistably but only thou O God To which God c. A SERMON UPON PROV iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee THE Children of Israel were exhorted from their Prophet Moses to write the Law upon the Posts of their doors and to have Copies of it in the Fringes of their Garments as if the whole Land of Jury had been bound into one Sacred Volume to make a Bible for them This was Mandatum latissimum as David said a Commandment exceeding broad but a Proverb being by the very interpretation of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quaint speech used in every street of the City and every high way of the field it is more vulgar and common than the Law it self that thou maist be unexcusable O man when his words are gone forth into the ends of the world Now in this brief essay which I have read unto you as the Heathen were wont to set up the Image of Mercury in the turnings of high-ways to direct Passengers their journey which was called Mercurialis acervus so King Solomon in these words hath reared up a Pillar in the broad way to instruct our ignorance which is ready to turn aside and wander like the lost sheep that whithersoever we set our face we keep this Via Regia the Kings high way Let not c. Mercy and truth so excellent a workmanship that I reverse what I said before it is not like a Pillar set up for an heathen Idol but rather Solomon hath made a new Cherubin for a new Temple a Cherubin with two wings stretched out upon our soul The wings are Mercy and Truth which either bear up the body to heaven as David says My soul flieth unto the Lord before the morning watch I say before the morning watch Or if it grow laden with sin that so great a burden cannot be supported these wings can fly away alone these vertues will be gone like Elias in his firy Chariot for a wounded Conscience who can bear it But if it be true that Tertullian says Omnis spiritus ales est Every Spirit is winged to fly much more let the Spirit of every regenerate man be this Avis Paradisi that our soul may say as David the Sparrow hath found her a nest and the Swallow a place to lay her young ones even thine Altar O Lord of Hosts and being thus fledg'd Mercy and Truth shall not forsake us Out of which words I collect these parts in order The first wing of a Christian soul is Mercy He shall protect me under his wings and I shall be safe under his feathers so God was merciful unto David and mercy is a Wing Secondly The next that answers unto it is Truth For the word of the Lord is that flying roul which Ezekiel saw and the Word of the Lord is the truth it self so that Truth is a wing Thirdly Note their conjunction Mercy and Truth they are coupled together Mercy and Truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other they met long ago in Christ the head and we must not part them in his members Fourthly You must know that we may be so careless in our holy Profession that we may be stript of all the good endowments which we had Mercy and Truth may forsake us and then say we had them Lastly If we look to our part the gifts of God are without repentance ne deserant let them not depart there is a careful way whereby we may imp these wings from flying that they shall not forsake us else ne deserant were sounding brass and no true doctrine these are the five Lamps it remains I put oyl into them I begin at Mercy the fairest Omen that ever the World had in it The unmerciful brethren of Joseph consulted to put the blame of their cruelty upon the beasts we will say a cruel beast hath devoured him It is very well that they durst not profess themselves to be men who were so barbarous But neither is â—t in every beast of the field to be stony hearted The fouls of the air are gentle in their kind witness the Ravens that fed Elias and for the Cattel upon the hills the Ass forsook not his old Master the Prophet that was rent by the Lion The meanest of Creatures then have mercy by instinct of nature yea and the most glorious also dread not the Angels though they be called flaming spirits but rather consider what pity they have shewn in their Function towards the Sons of men To execute Gods wrath few do always come down as loath to be Ministers of indignation One destroying Angel appeared to punish Jerusalem one alone brought weeping news to Bochim Jud. ii Three appeared unto Abraham to bring him the joyful Message of a Son but their company grew less by one and but two of them brought tidings to Lot of the vengeance of Sodom But Elishas Servant saw Chariots and Horsemen and thousands in the Mountain to protect them To publish peace and joy heaven it self as I may so speak it was empty and there appeared a multitude of the heavenly Host to the Shepherds and sang praises unto God surely then one of their wings is Mercy But we must fetch our example further than the Angels let us go boldly to the throne of grace and fetch it from the third heavens Be you merciful with a sicut says our Saviour as your heavenly Father is merciful And if we cast our eye upon that pattern it blossoms like the rod of Aaron into these two buds condonationem and donationem First To forgive and remit sins Secondly To give liberally as God hath enabled us In the first I will thus proceed First that it is Gods nature and property to forgive secondly that man should rather forgive than God It did well deserve record
you must know that there is a threefold evidence of truth to be distinguished First there is the evidence of our outward senses Matt. xvi when it is Evening you say it will be fair weather for the Sky is red O ye hypocrites can you discern the face of heaven says our Saviour as who should say then there is more to be understood 2. There is the evidence of knowledg which will condemn the Heathen that know not God for the invisible things may be understood by the things which are made even his eternal Godhead Rom. i. both these truths you see are fruitless without a third and what is that but the evidence of faith Heb. xi As for other Truths every man is in the high way to get them capiat qui capere potest but as for this Truth it hath looked down from Heaven says David looked upon whom it listeth and all men have not faith Whether Faith be the evident Truth or not all the World almost upon a time stuck at that point but onely Abraham either because their eyes were dim or because it shined like the face of Moses that they could not behold it Yea we have sundry Traditions that some Philosophers cast an eye upon the first verse of the Scripture In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth but they started at it like the Host of Israel at the dead Corps of Amasa and went no further Alas poor Philosophy who knows not how to confound the wisdom of her Principles The fire hath been as temperate as the morning air Dan. 3. the waters have stood upon an heap like the strong ribs of a Mountain Exod. xiv the Sun hath hid his face at noon day when Astronomy could find no reason for it their Art was as blind as the Heaven in the Eclipse But every part of nature should be out of frame Heaven and Earth should pass away before one title of Gods book should perish that with the dissolution of the Heavens no Angels might remain and with the ruine of the Earth no men might be left to testify against it The holy Martyrs have forsaken their lives that this truth might not forsake them And as it is reported of our Philosopher that the ashes spread upon the high Mountains of Tenariffa retain for ever any letters drawn out upon them by reason of the tranquillity of the place So no wind or storm can scatter away those holy words of Gods Book since they have been written in the ashes of the Martyrs the Law cannot endure better in the Tables of Stone than the Gospel in that sacred dust If Faith be not a Truth how did Abraham see Christmas day and rejoyce and keep it a solemn Festival more than a thousand years before the name was entred into our Calender He knew the faithfulness of Gods Promise that made Jesus our Redemption so undoubtedly that he swore him a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech The Mother of our Lord might ask reverently quomodo How should these things be The best in the World have their doubts of infirmity but Domine non erit tibi this thing shall not be so when Christ had spoken it that was a mistake in St. Peter and yet behold the Evidence of Truth shewed it self more abundantly anon after in the faith of that Apostle than in all the skill of Greece and Egypt Tell me what Physician could promise recovery to the Cripple lying at the Beautiful Gate Durst all the Colledg of Galen say unto him confidently stand up and walk but the Apostle saw that one grane of faith could give him the use of his feet and ancle bones that he might leap and praise the Lord. Whatsoever is confirmed by the mouth of two or three Witnesses it passeth for truth by the Law of God and Man and good reason for it Now the Old Testament was confirmed under the name of three Patriarchs I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. In the New Covenant whether it were at the Transfiguration of Christ Peter James and John three Attendants did bear him company to Mount Tabor in like manner at the raising up of Jairus Daughter and in the Mount of Olives when he sweat and prayed so many were with him as before and the self same three Disciples all was confirmed under the mouth of three Witnesses But I will take no more pains in this point to prove Faith to be a Truth as I remember the great Orator reports of a good man Q. Metellus he was excused or rather forbidden to shew his proof unto the Senate in a Controversie to be debated lest the Bench should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen None but Julian the Apostate and such accursed as he hath left behind him would scoff at Faith whose cavil it was as Nazianzen reports that we had a starting hole for all objections in one silly word Believe These men knew not that Faith in a little Pearl was worth all the substance of a Merchant and he sold all he had to buy the Pearl Matt. xiii Surely if the Womb of Mary deserved a Blessing from all Generations that bore the Infant from everlasting if the Arms of Simeon deserved a Church Anthem every Evensong that enclasped him if the Tomb of Joseph was attended by Angels where his body lay then cut down Palms and spread your Garments in the way for Christ is rode in triumph into that heart into which faith is entred Now Truth is fruitful and brings forth Truth a Daughter not unlike her self Divine Truth is the cause of Human Truth of a true Conversation of a right Balance and a just Fphah Her Merchandise is such as Abraham's was with the Hittites Gen. 23. which I will ever commend when he bought a Tomb for Sarah such as the ancient Romans was aedes pestilentes vendo the Seller was not ashamed to confess that his House had the Pestilence Not as St. Hierom told the Trades of his time tanti vitrium quanti margaritam to chop away Glass for Rubies or as St. Basil says of Gordias the Martyr that his Soul was vexed with the City and he retired into the Wilderness leaving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he could not endure the Buyers and Sellers the forswearers and liars And what doth all come to when they cast up their Audit Prov. xxi 6. The getting of riches by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death Let our Merchants beware that they carry not that report which the Wits of St. Paul's time put upon the Cretians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwayes liars evil beasts and slow-bellies or as Plutarch spake of Demades the Pleader then grown past the best that there was nothing left in him but his Tongue and his Paunch his Tongue to tell lies and his Belly to surfeit the meer Reliques of an Ox sacrificed Nay I beseech you
as if our charity could be altogether inoffensive No the Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. viii but it doth not quite take away all infirmity we are not made of the substance of Angels while we travel in this mortal flesh Sanctification will leak out at certain crannies but all is made sure with cupio dissolvi take in sunder the soul and body by death and in the state of our Exaltation Mercy can never get away There is a molting time for these two Wings and the best Christian displumes certain feathers through tentation but O that I had wings like a Dove says David for then would I fly away and be at rest Now the last Point is that which troubles all the world especially our Western world which is in continual combat with our Romish Adversaries wherein the Art lies to preserve Truth that it may not forsake us But some there are clouds without water men unstable in their minds halting between God and Baal that think the whole Church is at a loss for truth and we can stedfastly trust to nothing For it will easily break prison out of the Syllogism of the old Philosophers witness so many busie disputations of late and the success so unprofitable it cannot be bound up in the laborious Tomes of Controversies no Age more industrious to write than ours hath been and none further from Peace To think that the limits of Truth are bound to St. Peters Chair so called is most childish and frivolous The two Testaments indeed are the touchstone of Truth but they are stained with presumptuous glosses and we do not ask now adays Quomodo scriptum est How is it written But Qomodo expositum est What is the intepretation of Expositors Lastly If we say that Truth is the Daughter of Time and that the reverend Antiquity of the Fathers must be her Register What if one say one thing and some another What if they be equally divided What if index expurgatorius spunge out all that should be justly alleadged And hear what Cyprian says Non dixit Christus ego sum consuetudo sed ego sum veritas Surely yet among these many conflicts there is a way to bind truth as a Crown unto us give me leave to unfold it without ornament of Language in a particular declaration In the midst of a froward Generation whose Wits sweat on both sides to win the day who would not take a sure course which cannot be reproved Now all the Law and the Prophets are comprised in these three things 1. In Prayer and Thanksgiving to God 2. In a sincere belief 3. In obedience to his Commandments The absolute form of Prayer is the same which Christ taught us Mat. vi The sum of our Belief is the Apostles Creed And the two Tables of the Law want nothing which should teach Religion and Justice towards God and men What Christianity can be more secure than this How can Truth forsake him that rules himself to the Letter of these holy Institutions and goes no further But whatsoever is more than this is tossed about with every blast of disputation it may be erroneous it may be Will-worship it cannot be the substance of things not seen it impeacheth Gods wisdom as if he would not reveal unto man the explicite way of his salvation When I come into the Temple and see a devout Monk running over the Hierarchy of heaven upon his Beads and filling the Saints with the noise of his complaints and when I see another Christian piercing the highest heavens with zeal and coming boldly to the Throne of Grace to God alone to which part shall he that is unlearned say Amen Beloved if Our Father would not serve the turn it may seem John Baptist did teach his Disciples to pray better than Christ Sweet Jesu they are thine own words therefore I cannot do amiss to turn me from the Angels when I have Christ for my Master but they that make the Elders about the Throne Partners with God in Invocation they cannot be so confident that truth doth not forsake them Again one Church entertains the craft of Demetrius and the Silversmiths even upon Gods own Shrine their eyes are filled with their molten Images when they look unto the hills from whence cometh their salvation But they distinguish that they keep their body to a lesser Religious Worship and not to the highest Adoration and they exalt the Image of the true God not the Idols of the heathen Our Church refuseth no Ornaments of Decency no Histories of Piety no remembrance of eternal Glory But the Law is not in our eye but in our heart and we pray as if it were our Saviour at midnight in the Garden when no resemblance could be before him What should a soul say here disquieted with the rents of Sion Why thus Lord thou hast forbidden all graven Similitudes thy Commandment did not comment upon a petty duty to the Saints a nice Hyperdulia to our Lady and an admirable Latria to thy self thou hast not made me so good a Lapidary to discern in stocks and stones between an Image and an Idol I may be an Idolater with the Inventions of the former I cannot err in the spiritual Worship of the latter Confounded then be all they that worship carved Images I will not let thy Truth forsake me Thirdly Concerning that inquinatissima purgatio that loathsom cleansing of sins after this life in torments which is a kind of Spanish Inquisition Why art thou so vexed O my soul And why do thoughts arise within thee So trust in God not as fearing the scorching Kitchin of Purgatory or the freezing of St. Patricks Lake for a season but as dreading an eternal death for ever not as if my punishment must be mitigated after my death by the Beads and Orizons and Bribery of my forgetful Executors but as if in my life they must be redeemed by the luke-warm bloud of Jesus Christ Then for the thing propounded I know my Saviour descended into Hell to triumph over Satan and bruize his head I know He ascended up into Heaven to make Intercession for us to God the Father this is my Creed I am sure and the third place is Apocrypha my belief is as broad as the holy Apostles made the pattern and if I stop mine ears at the rest I will not let thy truth forsake me Fourthly Concerning the material part of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper I take my Saviours words into the explication of my Faith This is my body this is my bloud But what have I to do to let men interpret Christs meaning when themselves confess it is such a mystery that cannot be comprehended Is it not enough for me to receive these precious gifts with thanksgiving but that I must argue how and after what manner Christ is present at that participation I am sure the outward Elements of Bread and Wine are there for as God gave me an heart to believe so he
novitate vel obscuritate vel parvitate either it hath no glorious beginning for it is new or it cannot shew it for it is obscure or it dare not shew it for it is course and mean Now the glory which we have by Christ is amplified through these Comparisons For first Our Society began not obscurely but at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria one of the most populous and fairest Seats of the World in those days 2. The Records of it are without all exception in this indubitable sacred History 3. Neither is it a Mushrome of the field lately sprung up but it began in that Age when the Apostles of our Lord were living 4. Neither did we purchase our appellation from base and unworthy offices as by adoring the fortunes of men or by worshipping vain Gods but from the unanimity and accord which both Gentiles and Jews that believed did profess in serving the true only God and his Son by whom he made the World Jesus Christ No more then can be said then to these three Points Here are our Progenitors of worthy memory the Disciples their Title of honor and distinction they were called Christians and the place where they received it Antioch to make more of that which is so full in three parts were to make it less But of these in their order To begin with the Disciples and a little searching into them and their condition will make them known to be a noble and a numerous Society I must premise that two things had gone before which filled the Church with infinite increase of Believers First the Martyrdom of St. Stephen whereupon all that addicted themselves that way fled from Jerusalem and were strangely scattered abroad in most remoted places St. James from thenceforth calls them the twelve Tribes of the Dispersion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Peter comes to some particularities and greets them by the name of Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bythinia yet these were but a few of them in one Walk as I may say for such as write of the Conversion of Nations give a probable demonstrance that some of those dispersed Jews had crept into evety Kingdom that was habitable under the Sun And I instance in one thing especially because Baronius quotes an old English Manuscript contained in the Vatican Library for his Author that the chief adherents to Christ namely Joseph of Arimathaea Lazarus with his Sisters Mary and Martha were despitefully committed to the Seas in a Barque which had neither Oar nor Sail but Gods providence and the winds brought it safe to Marseils in France where they all landed and Joseph the Apostle of this Kingdom made a further journey into our Island And do not marvel that there should be enow to replenish all the World upon this dispersion for before our Saviour's Ascension he was seen of five hundred Brethren St. Peter's first Sermon after the coming of the Holy Ghost gained three thousand souls more The number of five thousand more were added to them by the power of his next Sermon preached in Solomons Porch Acts iv And after this St. Luke never counts how many were converted they were past his reckoning he relates the Blessing thus in the gross The number of the Disciples multiplied greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Truth Acts vi 7. You see what store of laborers here were which were all cast out of Jerusalem upon the Persecution which was raised at the death of Stephen Non dispersi sed seminati non imbecillitate disjecti sed fidei gratiâ divisi says St. Athanasius they were not turned abroad at random but sown like seed in every quarter of the earth it was not fear and infirmity but the Grace of God which divided them Well the next thing that made the Spirit of God blow like the wind in all places where it listeth was the Conversion and Baptizing of Cornelius the Italian Captain about the seventh year after the Ascension of our Saviour The baptizing of the Eunuch by Philip though he were a more honourable person than Cornelius the great Treasurer to Queen Candace yet it made no noise at all for the Eunuch though an Aethiopian and so a Gentile yet he was a Proselyte of the Jewish Religion and so no Gentile Cornelius and his Houshold were the first of meer Gentiles that received the Holy Ghost and were baptized in the Name of the Lord. The tidings hereof did quickly arrive among the Brethren in all places and the Disciples knew by that token that they might spend their labours not upon the Jews only but upon the Gentiles also You see the means by which the Evangelical Truth was advanced so did Antioch grow to be a famous Church partly by their labours who fled from Jerusalem when St. Stephen was stoned ver 19. partly by attracting great numbers of Graecians to the faith of the Lord Jesus ver 20. and these now compounded together in one Body the faithful of the Circumcision and the faithful of the Uncircumcision these are Disciples recorded in my Text. This will put it likewise from your conceit that the twelve Apostles are not meant here by the attribute of Disciples they come far short of that exceeding number of Saints that were so entitled nor yet those seventy sent by two and two to preach and to cure diseases Luk. x. for distinction sake they began to be called old Disciples in these days as Mnason of Cyprus is called an old Disciple Act. xxi 16. But according to the largest courtesie of the word those that embraced the Doctrin of eternal life and this is done with our Saviour's good leave as it is Joh. viii 31. If you continue in my word then are you my Disciples indeed Sectaries and prophane Hereticks spread their errors abroad wo unto those that give ear unto them The great Dictators of natural Sciences ground their conclusions upon Principles of reason and would attain felicity not by faith but by arguments Miserable were all those that affected to be so wise that they could not be saved they are not these Disciples But leaving these pudled fountains blessed were the true Scholars of Grace that drew their waters from the Cisterns of Christ Truth went before them as a light and Sanctity did guide them by the hand these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God as the word is in St. Paul And this is consolation enough to sweeten all other misery so the Prophet cherisheth the distressed Church that it was her glory that her Children should be the Disciples of that Truth which came down from Heaven O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted I will lay thy foundations with Saphires c. and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord Isa liv 13. How much did the Pharisees honour the poor man that was born blind when they meant to spit defiance in his face saying Thou art his Disciple Was
from thence he assists his Sacraments sanctifieth his Ministry gives grace unto his Word And if they did not escape who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn from him that speaketh from Heaven Secondly Our Jerusalem is above not only in the Head but in the Members I do not say in all the Members for the Church is that great House in which are Vessels of honour and dishonour Terms of Excellency though indistinctly attributed to the whole are agreeing oftentimes only to the chiefer or more refined part Some there are in this Body whom though we salute not by the proud word of their Sublimity yet in true possession which shall never be taken from them they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are above Witness that the Angels make up one Church with us being the chief Citizens that are reckoned in the triumphant part fellow Servants with us under one Lord adopted Sons under one Father Elect under one Christ This is the language of the Scripture and surely Members of one Mystical Body for the same Jesus is the Head of all Principality and Power Colos ii 10. Of this Family also are the Saints departed even all those holy Spirits that obey God in heavenly places and do not imitate the Devil and his Angels This is that Church which hath neither spot nor wrinkle for when I speak of such a Church says St. Austin in his retractations I mean none but those in Heaven After these that make the front and first File of our March there are many among us I trust who have their part in this description Jerusalem which is above the Elect of God the Church invisible invisible I say not for their persons but for their qualites for who can see who hath an internal union with Christ the Head Who can tell whether this or that may be filled with his Grace and quickned with his Spirit Cusanus says very well that there is no certain judgment to be made by the outward fruits who are living Members of the Church but in Infants that are newly baptized With the mouth we confess the truth but with the heart man believes unto righteousness and only God can see the heart But these whose integrity their Master knows and loves no matter in what base condition they wander here they are greater by far than the ungodly that over-peer them in promotion they are above indeed for they are as high as the pinacle of blessedness and their names are written in the Book of Life for their sakes God hath dropt down the beautiful style of Jerusalem upon the Houshold of Christ but without these no name were so fit for it as Sodom or Samaria Such as will wrangle where no occasion is offered have carped at this as if we removed all from the Church but such as are Israel in occulto and have their sins forgiven in Christ It was never our meaning neither can we help it but that we must keep communion with all those that profess the common Faith But if the Church had known Hypocrites it had not admitted them into the Portion of the Lord or else it had excluded them Et quid prodest non ejici coetu piorum si mereris ejici says St. Cyprian What the better is it for an Hypocrite that he is not cast out of the Congregation since he deserves to be cast out he may abide with us in the outward Society of them that call upon Christ praesumptivè non veraciter as Spalatensis says because we presume he is faithful though indeed he is the Child of the Devil numero non merito he makes up one of the Multitude that go in the broad way he is none of the few that strive to enter in at the steight gate he keeps the formality of a Christian with others beneath he perteins not to Jerusalem which is above Thirdly We have obtained this dignity to be ranked as them that are above because our calling is very holy He hath saved us and called us with an holy calling 2 Tim. i. 9. called to Doctrin which is above which flesh and bloud did not reveal but the Father that giveth wisdom plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Theophilact upon my Text God did preach the Gospel from on high with his own voice for take a Breviary of it and it is no more but that which he said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We are called to obey the truth by illumination from above from thence is sent the spirit of them that are baptized the spirit of the Apostles and Martyrs the spirit of Bishops and Doctors the spirit of all those that have lived in the Truth and shed their bloud for the Truth 's sake We are called to that Religion which consists in celestial Functions in Faith and Hope in Prayer and Charity not in a Religion which presseth them down that observe it with an insupportable weight of Shadows and Ceremonies but the hour is come when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Beware of those of the Concision says St. Paul and among bad marks which they carry this is the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they mind earthly things that is they are pleased with carnal Ordinances with these low and beggerly Observations of the Levitical Priesthood but immediately turning himself to the Fundamentals of the Gospel and the practice thereof says he nostra politeia our way of serving God our manner of worship is in Heaven So Bernard says that the Synagogue moved in a low Orb. But Solomon speaking of the New Testament says Quae est ista quae ascendit Cant. iii. 3. Who is she that cometh up from the Wilderness perfumed with mirrh and frankincense with all the powders of the Merchant Above all we are called to holy actions which savour not of mans passions and purposes but are qualified from above Our fortitude is heavenly fortitude our temperance heavenly temperance our liberality to the poor heavenly liberality but the moral deeds of the Heathen living out of the Church that had the best gloss upon them were smutcht with some bad vapour below and every grane of vertue that grew out of their stalks did abound with the chaff of vanity And what exceeds all that I have said beside to make our calling heavenly and holy God is so gracious to those things which are done in the Church in the name of his Son that where an unfit instrument may seem to marr all by his extravagant profaneness by his impenitent conscience nay by his heretical pravity yet Christs presence and assistance are not wanting to his Word and Sacraments but their efficacy is free and current to the people though they be performed by a crooked and an adulterous Generation As the Posterity of Jacobs Handmaid had a Princedom among their Brethren in the Land of Canaan
trials of obedience Yet though their number was so great and cumbersom their weight had been more easie if they had been plain and perspicuous but the people underwent much geare and I think not one among an hundred did know the signification The substance of Religion was so darkly involved in the Types that happy was that Prophet or Prophets Son that could crack the shel to eat the kernel Who of the Vulgar rank could penetrate into the moral signification of those vices which were forbidden in the unclean Creatures Vt homines mundarentur pecora culpatu sunt says Tertullian The Law did seem to loath some beasts that we might know what God did love Was not the Salvation in Christ propounded to them in Signes And his death resembled in a Bullock slain at the Altar And what small comfort was there in that Pardon which was not intelligible to the poor Offendor Luther says well upon my Text that mans knowledge is unshackled it is at liberty when he discerns the naked truth in it self Cognitio est ancilla quando subjecta est velaminibus figurarum Our Wisdom is made a bondwoman subject to the captivity of Ignorance when it sees nothing but in the dark Glass of typical Obumbrations Thanks be to God that we are Scholars of the New Testament We are called to the manifestation of faith and love in Christ that we do not grope in darkness but walk in light for the Gospel is like a Glade which is cut through the grove of ancient Ceremonies Let me speak to this point once more Beside their excess in number and their cloudy obscurity there were unpleasing remembrances in them some that seemed to be mysteries of grace were likewise mystical Exprobrations and therefore referred by good Expositors to the hand-writing of Ordinances which is against us Col. ii 14. For Ceremonies take them not as Sacraments or Circumstances of Evangelical Service but as Yokes of the Law Nihil aliud erant quà m miseriae humanae publica professio They were imprints of humane misery not Expiations but Confessions of our iniquity Circumcision it accused the Israelites that they were born in sin Their frequent washings did testifie that there was filthiness in the Object The life of the Sacrifice spilt upon the ground pronounced him guilty of death that brought it to the Lord. I go no further because I would be compendious and I have said enough for this discovery that the Law of Ordinances was our Adversary But thanks be to that Saviour who blotted out the hand-writing payed the grand debt which we did owe and discharged the interest likewise when he evacuated the Levitical Ceremonies which is the first mark of the freedom of Jerusalem Yet be advised that we do not claim more immunity by this Chatter than is granted for that is ordinary to stretch out the name of liberty like cheveril Leather to what length we please some have assumed that they have good ground to blow up all our Modern Ceremonies with this Mine because Jerusalem is free from the yoke of Ordinances It is true our Jerusalem is free and therefore we are free for partus sequitur ventrem the Church appoints her own Orders of decency now and is not appointed nothing is imposed upon it with bond of necessary and perpetual observation the principality is upon her shoulders to make her Children submit to her prudent Constitutions But if particular men might challenge interest in this freedom as if they had scope to serve God with what order and comliness they pleased this were an uproar and not a freedom and a looseness like that of mad men when they have broke their Chains Certainly the liberty which God hath granted in setting our feet at large from these things with which the Priesthood of Aaron was charged it was to accommodate us with great grace and favour but if this should repel the bringing in of those Ceremonies which are means to beget the greater veneration of Religion the bounty of God which cannot be would turn to a prejudice his blessing to a cross and such as love the welfare of Sion might cry out O Lord we are oppressed with liberty Touching the substance of divine Worship it is written with Gods own finger in holy Scripture we must not add unto it Only God is pleased to try our judgment how we will administer it in the particular fashion His Worship is the Bread of Life sent down from heaven and not invented upon earth but for the manner of his Worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens says of humane Philosophy it is like the sauce in which the bread is dipt to make it savoury to this conditement Jerusalem is allowed to put her skil providing for comliness and honesty as a wise dispenser of the mysteries of God Was ever any thing of moment transacted without some graceful solemnity Or is man so governed by the Spirit that he can lift himself up to Heaven sufficiently by interiour Meditation I forget not that some will say yea the Body also serveth God by the tongue And I allow it for an excellent way to warm our zeal with the loud voice of prayer But this warmth will quickly cool unless some devout actions concur together and deeds are far more durable in the fancy than the memory of speech either to teach the understanding somewhat which it ought to consider or to move the heart to due reverence and regard which it ought to have in the performance of sacred matters Here let the new Jerusalem act her part this is her liberty to enjoyn such Ceremonies for the eye as may prepare the heart the better to feel the power of the grace of God and to prescribe such visible signs as will leave a deeper print behind them than bare exhortation I will add that by this power bequeathed to the Church some Jewish Ceremonies may be reteined as far as the state of the things will bear if they be followed only for outward order and not returning to that obstinately which must be disannulled because Christ is come in the flesh I confess that Spiritual Worship is best for it is most correspondent to his nature whom we worship God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit This is the reason that he says he hates Incense and effusion of bloud at his Altar such kind of service hath no assimilation with him who is incorporeal give him the Sacrifices of righteousness of prayers and mercy and thanksgiving qui corpus non est umbram non habet Approach not to him with shadows for he is a Spirit and not a Body yet in respect of us though not of himself he entertains the lowliness of bodily Worship as it hath a conveniency and conjunction with our nature The Lord is a Spirit and he even he alone gives law how he will be worshipped in spirit but we that worship him are bodily creatures and
Visions that he could take no notice for the present that he lived or had a body but his Spirit was quite abstracted from the senses and lifted up to converse with supernatural speculations Now to sum up this Point touching the modus how John saw the souls of the blessed you shall hear how St. Austin made no scruple of the like case The Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream How did Joseph see an Angel when his eyes were shut Nay rather says the Father how could he have seen an Angel if his eyes had been open So the more the senses of this Prophet were bound up the less communication he had with his mortal nature the more capable he was to see the secrets of God It were no digression at all to tell you at large in this place that St. John was not every body when he saw the Mysteries of the Ages to come in an holy trance Examine him from the time that he was the beloved Disciple while his Master Jesus Christ was upon the earth behold him in his other cognizances that he was an unspotted Virgin a patient Confessor An Evangelist that sored higher than his fellows an Eagle in his Gospel but a Dove in his Epistles where every line is enchased with Jewels of love the aged Patriarch who had long survived all the Apostles the Oracle that resolved all the Churches in their Controversies Finally that supereminent man that left not his like behind him and since his days his equal did never rise up after him Put all this together and mark what a sanctified Vessel this was to see the souls under the Altar and all those things which the Angel told him should come to pass in the days to come What wretch can think himself so prepared as he was to receive these Prophetical graces of God With how many favours of God is a Vision qualified to make it a perfect illumination Let it deter any one that is not possessed with the spirit of Arrogance to think that he is possessed with the spirit of Divination Quia videre non possumus audiamus says St. Austin There is no hope that we vile sinners should see such Visions it is our blessedness that we hear of them What laughter doth it give our Adversaries that this caution is not observed among us we had proof of it lately and almost year by year every hair-brain'd Schismatick that out of pride thinks himself more holy than others fancies that he is a Prophet These filthy dreamers presume they have learnt all that the Scriptures can teach them and therefore like apt Scholars they must be promoted to an higher Form to learn supernal Revelations As the Romanists are excessive in forging lies for their Saints sakes so these are excessive in forging lies for their own sakes both are liars both are Legendaries It was a gift which St. Austin says his Mother Monica had that she could distinguish inter Deum revelantem animam somniantem she knew when God gave her a supernatural inspiration in her sleep and when it was but a common dream By what mark or token could she do this Nay none at all Nescio quo sapore quem verbis explicare non poterat she could not express by what relish of the soul she made a difference between them Of whom have our modern Wizzards it is too good a name if I do not put frentique to it I say of whom have these phrentique persons learnt the trick of Divination Since they that were Prophets upon earth could not teach another how to be a Prophet If St. John knew how he saw this Theory in heaven it was his priviledge alone or with some very few more But God doth not carve a Prophet out of every Christian And so much de modo videndi which is the first Point Take the object now to your attention which he saw an object too subtil to be discerned by a bodily creature but disclosed to this Apostle in his Rapture in the excellency of Revelation he saw the souls of the blessed in heaven It could not out of Tertullians mind as I told you before but that he thought the soul when it was separated from the body had some bodily figure and dimension in it Those polite heathen men indeed whom he had perused did speak grosly in the point as if the Soul after it left this world did flit about the Elysian fields in the form of a thin cloud witness that fancy of the best Poets Infelix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creüsae And it is no injustice to excuse such Authors for though the substance of the Soul be incorporeal yet it is impossible for one of us to conceive a Spirit or an Angel but by the help of some corporeal Idea it is a true Metaphysical rule Nihil intelligimus in hôc statu sine verbo materiali in intellectu we understand every thing in this life by some material expression within our selves yet we are able by the undeniable proofs of Art to transcend the narrowness of our own fancy and to affirm that the soul cannot choose but be immaterial that it is not circumscriptive in any place though it have a determined and defined subsistence But this is no time to Philosophize and our Saviours words will carry it clear without the help of Humane Arguments Handle me and see a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have Luk. xxiv 39 which is thus in effect there is no corporeity in a Spirit And the Sixth general Council held against the Monothelites hath these weighty words Nascitur Deus humano corpore animam rationalem incorpoream habens The Son of God had an humane body with a reasonable and incorporeal soul I dismiss that Point it shall not hold you longer There are those that doubt it in their heart or at least they live as if they doubted it whether their soul hath a second state in reversion after this life Can there be any exception against such a Witness as St. John that was taken up into heaven to relate the truth to all Generations upon earth Why he saw the souls of the Saints in a triumphant and immortal condition after they were uncloathed of the body There cannot be an Apparition of that which had ceased to be that were a delusion Not one natural Writer that had a sound brain but maintained that the soul did survive the body and that it was at best liberty when it was released from the prison of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle that the Mind or Spirit can subsist by it self not mixt with any composition not affected with passions They could not search far enough why it should be so they never discovered that the dissolution of the soul from the body was brought into the world after Adam was created for the punishment of sin but their dim Candle gave them light to see that the soul was
but his illumination Wherefore the Church by way of external testimony was ever the best approved and most faithful witness of Christ yet this testimony so much beneath his Person were unauthorized and fruitless but that it is always governed by the inward Spirit of the Father Aquinas in a certain Sermon upon the Pentecost hath drawn up those things which bear witness of Christ into a certain number and that the verdict is given from twelve the most principal things in the world God the Father in this Proclamation God the Son in his own Confession God the Holy Ghost in the Dove-like Apparition the Angels at his Nativity the Saints that rose from the dead the Miracles which he wrought the Heaven which was darkned at his Passion the Fire when he sent the Comforter in that Element upon his Disciples the Air when he commanded the winds to be still the water when he made the Seas to be calm the Earth when it shook and quak'd at his Resurrection and lastly Hell it self when the Devils did acknowledge him calling him Jesus of Nazareth and saying We know thee who thou art But above all this testimony in my Text enforceth credence upon us more than any other as St. Ambrose thinks Si dubitatur de filio paterno non creditur testimonio If there be any spice of unbelief in your heart run hither to take it out for will you not take the Fathers word for the excellency of his Son that this is the Sacrifice in whom he is well pleased Shew us thy Father says Philip and it sufficeth Joh. xiv 8. Much more resolutely might the Church say Let us hear thy Father and it sufficeth We ask no surer warrant to confirm our faith For as Abraham answered the rich man concerning his brethren that did not believe If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one arose from the dead So I may say to all that receive not the faith If they will not believe the Father in whom all the treasures of knowledge are hidden then they may question if there be light in the Heavens perspicuity in the Air life in their own souls every thing that flesh and bloud can alledge must be dark and doubtful to their capacity God spoke from above through the air and it received his voice and when he speaks in our hearts shall not we receive his testimony Thus St. Ambrose in a sweet strain upon it Credidit mundus in Elementis credat in hominibus credidit in exanimis credat in viventibus credidit in mutis credat in loquentibus The rude Elements of the world were taught to admit the doctrine of Faith then much more let men embrace it inanimate things took the Symphony from the Fathers mouth let things which live much more receive it the dumb things of nature were taught to embrace the voice let those things which have tongues much more praise God for glorifying his Son To the upshot of the Point I add this and have done John Baptist did bear witness to our Saviour but his witness was too mean for so great a Person Quo ad nos in regard of our apprehension the testimony and approbation of holy men is a great matter but in regard of the honour of Christ it was fit that the Father who is coequal should testifie of the Son and so doth the Son of the Father which is excellently knit up in one Text Joh. v. 32. There is another that beareth witness of me and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true So by the voice of the Father we know the excellency of the Son and by the preaching of the Son we know the truth of the Father This is their mutual testimony In the second place the manner follows how the Father testified to the honour of his Son and that is by a voice Every Creature whether it live or whether it be inanimate every season of the year every blessing for our use that the earth brings forth though it be dumb yet I am not ashamed to say that it speaks aloud how there is a God that made us and preserved us To this purpose St. Paul spake to the Lycaonians Actc xiv 17. The living God left not himself without witness in that he gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Since therefore all the Elements continually are dumb witnesses of the glory of God how easie is it for the Father Almighty to put a tongue into the air and make it speak I will not argue upon the strict terms of Logick how this can be called a voice being not uttered by the Throat and Palate and other Instruments of a rational Creature God is a transcendent above all the Arts in the world and many things proceeding from him are not to be examined by such rules this I may definitively say it was sonus articulatus an articulate intelligible sound of words as if it had come from the tongue of man And I would pass by this Point but that two things come in my way 1. How properly the Father is known by a voice 2. How well it expresseth the comforts of the Gospel Upon the first the School doth distinguish Efficientia vocis erat à totâ Trinitate declaratio spectat ad solum patrem Every effect belongs equally to the whole Trinity therefore this voice was as well the work of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as it was of the Father For so St. Austin beat down the blasphemy of the Arians who taught that the Father gave some honour to the Son which he had not nay says he Ille transeuntium verborum sonus non sine filio factus est alioquin non omnia per ipsum facta sunt That transient voice which was intended to glorifie the Son was made by the Son otherwise the Scriptures had not said All things were made by him and without him nothing was made But though the efficiency of the voice be common to every Person of the Trinity yet the signification of it was appropriated to the Father for he said the word and by it he made the worlds he spake and all things were created The Lord said indeed let the Firmament be made let the light be made and all things else not by oral prolocution but by the Decree of his holy will and as one said Facilius est Deo facere quam nobis dicere God can sooner make all things visible and invisible than we speak of it therefore the Phrase runs as if all things were existent at the uttering of a word And I know not if any similitude do speak that ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity better than this from the manifest pronunciation of a speech wherein are these three things together which cannot be parted The voice begets a word spoken and there is truth in that word which was spoken by the voice