labour and not provide them honest fare to strengthen them when they follow their Masters negotiations Says Christ to the Seventy Disciples When I sent you forth without Scrip or Shooes or Money did you want any thing They answered not any thing for they went upon their Masters Message and they liv'd upon that word which proceeded out of the mouth of God The Priests indeed that serve at the Altar are to live by the Altar in their case it will be granted that they shall live by that word which proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ but it sorts as well to those that supply any other honest Vocation which God hath allotted if they will bound their desires to moderate sufficiency and not to supersluity Socrates an Heathen could cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he suffered extreme poverty for defending the Worship of God as well as he could against the Idolatry of the Heathen so much more the true Champions of Christs honour may take up the same complaint yet the Lord is innocent of the bloud of those just men he never failed to afford them a sufficient vital proportion if their enemies would let them enjoy it The Heathen Morals are like the base Court by which we have the next entrance to the glorious Courts of God and those Heathen conject their shot to the use of this Point in a Story or a Fable which you will Comates a young Shepherd tended the Flocks of a hard Master but the Stock increased exceedingly under his hand for Comates sacrificed one Ram every month to his God to preserve the Cattel which damage being known to the Owner the churlish man imprisoned him in a hollow tree with intention to starve him But his God provided for him that the weeping of the tree should quench his thirst and that Bees should swarm in the hollow trunk with the help of the Honey-Combs Comates kept life which being perceived the anger of his Master relented Godliness hath the promise of this life and of a better says St. Paul And this tradition of the Jews to which I am credulous doth confirm it You know in 2 King iv there is a Widow much in debt whose Sons should have been sold for bondmen but Elisha multiplied her Pot of Oyl into many Vessels which yielded sufficient moneys to satisfie her Creditors This woman says the Text ver 1. was a Wife to one of the Prophets and she tells Elisha he knew that her husband feared the Lord. The Jews say this woman was the Wife of Obadiah who at his own cost and peril kept the Prophets of the Lord in Caves and fed them at his own charge so long that all his means were wasted This may be for Obadiah could not choose but be at great expence and was not only a keeper of the Prophets but a Prophet himself and see how the Lord did ransom his Sons from slavery by a mighty Miracle it was Gods pleasure Obadiah should cherish his Servants and he would not suffer him or his Posterity to be losers by their Piety There are such that do not set themselves on work according to the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord and as for them need and wretchedness shall vex their souls There are runnagates says David that shall continue in scarceness Let me put you in mind of a runnagate bred in our Kingdom one upon whom God did let his anger fall for a thousand Lies Forgeries Rebellions Calumnies it was the Romish Priest Sanders whose brains beat at nothing but to dishonour a Royal Queen a true Religion and to set the whole Realm of Ireland in combustion This Cative says the most learned Historiographer of this Kingdom being disapointed and forsaken ran mad and wild into the fastnesses of the woods and there ended his life in most miserable famine So says he that Divine Justice closed up that mouth with Famine which was ever open to slanders and rebellions for Letters and Orations were found about him being dead to stir up treasons and seditions God can nourish by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth and they that walk not after his word but would root it out shall perish in their scarcity The hour passing away calls for the third Proposition which is Nothing can nourish unless God bless it for man liveth not by the bread only which he cheweth in his mouth but by that word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God to bless it and give it the vertue of sustenance As if Christ had said Though these stones miraculously be made bread yet hunger would continue if God were displeased at it All the sustenance in the world shall not nourish if he curse it When a fruitful Land becomes barren and a fat soyl well tilled and sowed doth not yield increase every man will be ready to take up Davids Psalm It is for the wickedness of them that dwell therein Like Sodom and Gomorrah like Abnah and Zeboim where not any grass groweth but the whole Land is Brimstone and Salt and Burning Deut. xxix 23. And why will you not mark as well how God chastiseth some for their secret sins so that their food gives them no strength but they pine away in the midst of plenty God gave bread to the Israelites but sent leanness withal into their soul So Haggai upbraided the people Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled It is the grace of God which gives meat in due season so that health and comfort go together with it And heretofore I have used this similitude to give it light Sometimes when we apply Physick for any disease we are bid to seeth such and such herbs in running water and then to drink the water If this help us we all know it was not the water which did the sick man good but the decoction of the infusion So it is not bread or drink considered barely in it self which doth nourish the body but the blessing of God infused into it Daniel and the three Children of the Captivity that were with him prospered better with Pulse and water than any of the Babylonians with the continual portion of the Kings meat What was Adam the better for eating the forbidden fruit Or were the Jews one whit the worse in health and good plight because many sorts of meats were interdicted them As the Land of Canaan was made double fruitful every sixth year and brought forth a double proportion by the blessing of heaven because in the seventh year it lay fallow So where Gods benediction is upon you though the poor have but a little yet every morsel shall have a double benediction The hungry shall be filled with good things and the rich shall be sent empty away Therefore look up to heaven and give thanks as the little birds do when they sip a drop of water If thou obeyest the Lord thou shalt be blessed in the City and blessed
double condition of our sinful nature homo nec fructum servat operationis nec statum rectitudinis the rectitude of innocency is turned crooked in us and then it is impossible we should bring forth the fruit of good works The Soul stands upright when it desires to be with Christ but it is bowed down with a spirit of infirmity when our treasure is upon earth You know how Gedeon's choice Souldiers did drink of the Brook putting water in their hands and lapping like a Dog but the rest bowed down to the River to drink upon their knees ver 6. Whereupon Gregory took occasion to shew symbolically what different postures our spiritual and our carnal appetite have in partaking those things they love mundi aqua bibitur facie pronâ in terram fons aquae viventis facie supinâ we drink the waters beneath with our face bowed down to the earth we drink the waters of life with our face and eyes turned up to Heaven To him that walks in a Valley every Shrub is tall that grows upon the top of a Mountain so perhaps our pleasures seem aloft to us and not to lie so low as the bottom of a Well because we our selves do walk in the shadow of death and in the valley of corruption An ambitious man will scarce believe his soul is bowed down when he seeks for honour but rather that aspiring to a grand Title doth lift up his thoughts O that you did stand upon a Pinacle of faith and from thence look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith and you would then acknowledg that all these empty clouds did fly below you Why do you not expect the grace of God and pray often unto him when wilt thou make good thy promise to me O Lord which thou hast spoken to me O Lord Es lviii 14. Thou shalt delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth Sustollam te super altitudines terrae O that I could be exalted above the earth then would I not bow down my soul to draw forth vanity from this deep Well and nothing but the waters of bitterness You see what these waters are there is no permanency in them they flit away and yet we draw them from the very depth of Hell with much toil and carefulness and it is disputable with St. Austin which of the two be more commodious to man labor in hauâ—iendo affligens aut sitis crucians but after the labour of our body to draw them forth follows the greediness of our heart to be filled with them we drink them down All things were made for man the pleasures of art and wit the abundance of the whole World the Myrrh and Frankincense of one India the Gold and Silver of the other Divinity must not deny you that which is your own The great God is as liberal to us as He was to his own People but he gave them the labours of the Heathen in possession that they might keep his Laws Carnalis populus si parva non acciperet magna non credoret says Gregorianus As Caleb and Joshua brought a bunch or two of Grapes to let the people see what a rich Land it was which the Lord had promised so a Modicum is allotted to us for our present use that we may look for a real and more substantial treasure in Heaven And indeed this is the purpose of my Text to commend the Grace of God above all things but not altogether to contemn his Creatures The Crime reproved is to swallow them down like drink that runs in all our veins and is presently incorporated into our bloud and spirits as a learned Author says that a greedy heart hath animam triticeam not an heavenly spirit but a wheaten soul altogether projecting for outward means it must have bread it must have store the Barn must be thwackt full the provision must be able to serve many years such wheaten cogitations make a wheaten soul By such another Catechresis I may say out of my Text that a greedy tipling desire makes a drunken soul an unsatiated mind is as brutish a Monster as Job's Behemoth He drinketh up a river he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth David would not drink of that water which was brought from the Well of Bethel with the jeopardy of his Servants bloud therefore he poured it out to the Lord but our desires fetch such things unto us which are brought with the hazard of that which is better than life David hath shewed us the way what is to be done pour them forth unto the Lord if they be sinful pleasures by repentance if they be riches by alms and charity By all means pour them forth lest they consume us like those waters in the Levitical Law which the Priest gave to the Woman suspected for Adultery if she were defiled the waters turn'd bitter and did rot her thigh and she became a curse among all the people It is a prefiguration I do verily think of that diseaseful rottenness which doth oftentimes in these days befall Adultery And as the rottenness goes before so be sure the curse will come behind it I might be copious from this Allegory in my Text that a wanton appetite is a drunken disease but I will contract it by shewing one dissimilitude he that pours any liquor into his body it is to cherish himself but the most men drink greedily of worldly things to make others swell and heap up riches that their children may gather them So the Son often times vomits up that wealth whereof the Father surseited for you shall never purchase so much as your Posterity would sell away in the third or fourth Generation The good Father thought he said enough to discipline an avaritious fool when he bad him number his days which were very short and therefore cut shorter his covetous desires which were very long Longa nostra desideria increpat vita brevis Alas says Nabal I measure not my necessities by the span of my own life but according to the breadth and length of all my Posterity who must enjoy these things after me I shall answer it with a Paradox yet it is such a rule as I never saw many exceptions against it If your children love gains as well as you have done they will thrive though you leave them but a little If they regard not Parsimony as you have done they will break and decay though you bequeath them a great treasure Lighten your self therefore of these superfluous burdens which you carry like a Camel for their sakes that will never bear them after you And if God have given you a large Issue be you more bountiful in Alms-deeds and Charity as St. Cyprian reasons Pro pluribus placandus est eleemosynis as Job offered Sacrifices to God according to the number of his Sons and Daughters So must you offer up gifts unto the Lord
she nor any Unbeliever can know till they have tasted the good gift of God Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Go now and ask our Saviour Art thou greater than our Father Jacob that gave us this Well The Well was Jacobs perhaps but not the water he digged the Cystern but God gave the Spring that flowed into it this might have been alleged But what profit had come to the winning of a Soul if Christ had made comparisons between himself and his Servant It was his purpose at this time not to wrestle with Jacob but with the Woman of Samaria he came not to diminish the honour of his Saints but to magnifie the power of the Holy Ghost Petit potum ut det potum He met with one that was backward in courtesie and would not draw a Pitcher of water to cool his thirst yet he is forward in mercy and profers living water to quench the flame of her sins He drops by little and little upon her stony heart until he opened that hard rock that waters of salvation might flow out And first his Doctrin bred admiration in this Woman then a desire to learn then a sudden spark of faith which confessed that Jesus was the Messias then confusion for her sins then repentance and surely then godly sorrow and then tears and so she drew those waters before she was aware after which our Saviour thirsts above all others the tears of unfeigned repentance She denied him to take the pains to draw a draught out of Jacobs Well but he enforced her to draw out more precious liquors than those were from the bottom of her heart These are the words now read unto you which wrought that great effect and did pierce into her soul And let me say of that weak Instrument by whose tongue the Lord at this time doth make an offer unto you of that immortal Fountain as sometimes Gregory did when he exhorted many great persons to the contempt of the World and invited them to eat and drink with Christ in his Kingdom Etsi ego ad invitandum indignus appareo sed tamen magnae sunt deliciae quas promitto I am most unworthy to bid you come unto these waters and drink but the delicious Fountain which I promise to them that thirst after righteousness is worthy to invite you To handle it succinctly and to your edification there are four Branches of the Text to be propounded 1. The Subject to which all is to be referred is a water of a most different condition from that which is mentioned in the former verse 2. Who is able to draw it none but Christ it is a water that he gives and none beside him 3. How it is to be taken even as a soveraign and a delightful Receipt for the health of the Soul and the very soul of health it must be drunk 4. The exceeding benefit and virtue which amounts to that value that the whole World hath not riches enough to purchase it if it were to be bought for whosoever drinketh of it he shall never thirst To begin with these and the Touchstone upon which all other parts of the Text shall be tried is this What this mystical water is which our Saviour prefers so much before Jacobs Well Christ calls it living water at the tenth verse of this Chapter that 's a sweet Epithet indeed and yet it hath a more amiable description in the words that follow my Text a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life These are names of much elegancy and much obscurity but that we find a clear explanation of them in the seventh Chapter of this Gospel ver 38. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive So the Scripture hath written upon this water what it is that you may know it from any other it is the gift of Grace that cometh from above that sanctifieth our hearts and cleanseth us from all our sins it is the working of the Spirit which knits us unto Jesus Christ and makes us Heirs of Salvation God the Holy Ghost doth abase himself to be resembled to many of these inferior things for our understanding No man can miss to remember how the Spirit did appear in cloven tongues as it were of fire Acts ii 2. In another place Jo. 3.8 he is likened to the air The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is born of the spirit And here his name passeth down a descension beneath that and is termed water only the earth is too base an Element whereunto the Holy Spirit should be compared leave that to man and to his corruptible constitution The Fire the Air and Water have some infinitude in them after a sort quod suis terminis non continentur says the Philosopher they are diffusive bodies which are not properly bounded or circumscribed in any Figure as the Earth is therefore all their names are borrowed to signify some disposition of the Divine Spirit toward us whose Vertue is most diffusive and whose Majesty incomprehensible But in each of the Testaments Old and New the first time that we read of the Holy Ghost he was joyned unto the Waters in the first day of the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Gen. i. 2. and upon the first manifestation of Christ that he shewed himself abroad to be the Messias of the World the Spirit sat upon his head when he was baptized at Jordan in the shape of a Dove And it is not vain to consider that when the Holy Ghost came down in fire at the Feast of Whitsontide yet St. Peter applies the place of the Prophet Joel to that occasion which speaks as if it had been water effundam spiritum In the last dayes I will pour out of my spirit to all flesh By that which is said already I have brought it to this the Scripture doth very much aim at this Comparison to be considered why the vertues and operations of the Holy Ghost are called Water and the choice of the Comparison I think are these particulars First as waters poured upon Hills will not stay upon their tops but runs down to the lowest places and fills the Valleys beneath so the Graces of God descend to the lowly and humble in heart and abide not with the proud Nay David says it will be the better for it if it be but a little Valley a diminitive thou makest fruitful the little Valleys thereof with the drops of rain Centurio quantò humilior tantò capacior says Bernard the Centurion lay very flat and low at our Saviour's feet and where was there a man that had a larger portion of the heavenly benediction for Christ said of him I have not found so great faith
moral just man may be carnal A moral chaste man may be covetous But if it be spiritual temperance or spiritual chastity coming from the grace of God it will be justice and peace and mercy and all the whole swarm of vertues that can be recited There is a difficult point in one of the Parables about a man that had not on a Wedding Garment What is this Wedding Garment One will have it to be Faith another to be Good Works a third to be spiritual Joy a fourth to be repentance Why Origen prevented all these controversies before they were moved if he had been mark'd Says he Vestis nuptialis est textura omnium virtutum The Wedding Garment is all these and more than these for it signifies that all vertue in the several threds should be woven into our heart Faith Hope and Charity are fruits that hang all upon a stalk three several divine graces yet they have but one soul Faith says there is a Kingdom prepared for the righteous Hope catcheth hold and says it is prepared for me Then Charity comes in for her part and says I will run to obtain it They are like the three principal vital parts in mans body the Heart the Brain and Liver One is as necessary as all three together for the decay of either is death without redemption No stragling single solitary vertue which hath no fellows comes from this coelestial watering The spiritual service of God says a learned Author may be measured three ways 1. Whether it come ex toto corde from all the heart from all the strength and from all the soul 2. Whether it be Cum totâ plenitudine with all the confluence of good works as it were in one fortunate conjunction 3. Whether it be in toto tempore continually and at all times alike Spiritus vivificat Joh. vi It is the Spirit that quickneth which makes a good man live and fructifie at one time as much as another It is no dead moisture which can do no good upon a Plant unless the Sun likewise be in a fit ascension to cherish it and make it spring This is living water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Chrysostome It impels the Conscience to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise The Son of God is called a living stone and the Spirit living water and man a living Sacrifice Righteousness is the savour of life unto life dead works are the savour of death unto death A tree that always bears is a Plant of Paradise Not a little Repentance or a little Charity once or twice a year at a Communion and then shake hands with Mortification till the next Christmass or Easter Among other reasons why the Holy Ghost assumed the shape of a Dove this is reckoned for one that it is a bird of a most teeming fecundity whether any bird that flies lay oftner I am not certain I believe not many such fecundity there is in a lively Faith it is never without some good Work either the Tongue is Praying or the Ear is Hearing or the Heart is Meditating or the Eye is Weeping or the Hand is Giving or the Soul is Thirsting for Remission of sins And this is enough to shew what fruitfulness is brought to pass by this heavenly moisture and for the first part of the Text. Yet it were an undervaluing and a diminution to so great a blessing to be called water unless the second part of my text did hold up the dignity let us come therefore to consider the rare vertue which is in it for it takes away the molestation of thirst for ever But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst Yet I will take in no more than the Text doth directly prove and leave that which some would draw in ex abundanti by the strength of their conjectures There are those that make this verse a convincing argument how a man that hath tasted the grace of God is never empty more but assuredly full and satisfied to the end of his life Which way soever the truth of that Controversie stands I wave it off but I think this Text is not to be charged with that meaning as if it proved it 'T is true he that drinks of this water shall never thirst but quousque bibendum how long must he drink let him drink all his days while his breath lasts and then he shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord as out of a River Again call to remembrance what is meant by this water every good and perfect gift which enricheth the Soul descending from the Father of lights but among all that heavenly Offspring perseverance is the fairest Nymphas supereminet omnes Perseverance must not be excluded from the Text. Then I have done with this rubb in a word he that drinks of this water and puts perseverance into the Cup he shall never thirst He shall never thirst Why then says the Son of Syrach concerning the wisdom which sanctifieth all things They that eat me shall yet be hungry and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty Ecclus xxiv 21. and very certain none so greedy to have more grace as he that hath some already none so instant to get ten Talents as he that hath received five Let Elisha be inspired with a competent measure for one of the Children of the Prophets and he will presume to ask that a double portion of Elias his spirit may rest upon him if it be possible Concerning all the fruits of the Spirit this judgment of Gregorie's is undoubted cum non habentur in falstidio sunt cum habentur in desiderio they that have them not think vilely of them they that have them do insatiably desire them Please you for the true explanation of the words to mark the Proposition must not be taken alone by it self but respectively to the Comparison that went before The water which the Woman of Samaria came for it consumes after you have tasted it and it is missed as if it never had been Therefore we call for Elementary drink every day for as much as drought is a torment to nature now when we are once made partakers of living waters we call for more and more not because want and driness doth afflict us but because desire doth please us So that distinction used by many will be clear to be understood sitis ariditati non desiderio opponitur he that drinks these waters of the Holy Spirit shall never after have a dry and a parched Soul but he shall ever have a thirsty affection to drink his fill The vertue therefore of the Spirit may be well drawn to these three heads First it moistens the Soul that it feels no driness like a barren Land which hath no natural humour in it there is no such thirst in him that hath a lively faith but it cannot choose but beget a thirsty affection and a longing to add more and more unto
before King James I. Vpon Amos ix 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall my hand take them p. 742 II. Vpon Acts xxviii 5. And he shook the beast into the fire and felt no harm p. 752 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. v. 24. And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him p. 762 Upon the same p. 771 III. Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. viii 20 21. And Noah builded an Altar to the Lord and took of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl and offered burnt offerings on the Altar And the Lord smelled a sweet savour p. 780 Upon the same p. 789 Upon the same p. 798 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gen. xix 26. But his Wife lookt back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt p. 896 Upon the same p. 815 A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Numb xxi 7. Pray unto the Lord that he take the Serpents from us p. 823 A Sermon upon Joshua xxii 20. And that man perished not alone in his iniquity p. 831 A Fast Sermon preached at Whitehall upon Nehem. i. 4. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven p. 849 A Sermon upon Prov. iii. 3. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee p. 862 II Sermons concerning the Rechabites upon Jer. xxxv 6. But they said we will drink no wine p. 873 II Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John iv 13 14. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst p. 483 Upon the same p. 902 III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon John vi 11. And Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would p. 911 Upon the same 921 Upon the same 931 A Sermon preached at Whitehall upon St. Lukes day upon Acts xi 26. And the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch p. 941 A Commencement Sermon preached at Cambridge upon Acts xii 23. And immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory p. 952 III Sermons preached at Whitehall upon Gal. iv 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all p. 964 Upon the same 973 Upon the same 983 II Sermons preached upon All Saints day in Holbourn I. Upon Rev. vi 9. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the Testimony which they held p. 992. II. Vpon Rev. vi 10. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judg and avenge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth p. 1003 AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE and DEATH OF THE AUTHOR THE Son of Sirach a renowned Preacher in his Generation has given us counsel to commend Famous Men and our Fathers of whom we are begotten and in the close of his excellent Book has presented us with a large Catalogue of them together with an Encomium of their Actions whose remembrance sayes he is sweet as Honey in all Mouths and pleasant as Musick at a Banquet of Wine St. Paul has directly imitated the Son of Sirach and enumerated many antient Heroes not without a due Commemoration and farther given us a Precept To remember our Governors or Guides in the Christian Faith holy Bishops and Martyrs after their death as appears plainly by the following words whose faith follow considering the end of their Conversation Accordingly in the Primitive times the Bishops of Rome took care that the lives and actions of all holy Men and Martyrs especially should be recorded For this purpose publick Notaries were appointed by S. Clement say some though Platina first ascribes their institution to Anterus whose Records were far more large than the present Roman Martyrology or that of Bede and Vsuardus or the Menologue of the Greeks which for the most part contain only the Names and Deaths of the Martyrs but those were a Narrative of their whole Lives and Doctrines and Speeches at large their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 famous Acts and Sufferings for the Christian Faith which were also read sometimes in their Religious Assemblies for the encouragement of others and are said to have converted many to the Christian Faith But these long since perished through the malice and cruelty of Dioclesian in those fires which consumed their Bodies and their Books together Afterwards when Christian Religion reflourished the Christian Church resumed these Studies again St Ambrose did right to the memory of Theodosius Paulinus of St. Ambrose Nazianzen to Athanasius St. Hierom to Nepotian Possidonius to St. Austin Amphilochius to St. Basil St. Hierom and Gennadius wrot of all Ecclesiastical Writers and illustrious men in the Christian Church from the beginning of it to their own times And after all these there wanted not Martyrologers and Writers of Lives but such as perhaps we had better have wanted than enjoyed their Writings insomuch that a great Lieutenant under the Papal Standard durst affirm that the Stories of the Heathen Captains and Philosophers were more excellently written then of Christs own Apostles and Martyrs For those were done so notably that they were like to live for ever whereas the lives of many Saints in the Christian Church were so corruptly and shamefully penn'd that they could no way advantage the Reader so that at this day we have two things to bewail not only that we have lost the true reports of the Primitive Christians but likewise that the lives of the Saints we have remaining have not been written by Saints and true men but by liars who have stufft their fastidious Writings with so many prodigious Tales as are more apt to beget infidelity than faith and all honest and judicious men are ashamed and grieved to read them For my own part I intend not in this tumultuary haste to write an absolute Life of the Author or recollect all his Actions praise-worthy but only for satisfaction of some importunate friends to represent quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some few Memoirs and Passages of his Life which I have received from his Lordships most intimate acquaintance and for the most part from his own reports Tecum etenim longos memini consumere Soles and in them am resolved to sacrifice to Truth and not to Affection to the glory of God and not to humane fame to write nothing false or fictitious nor things true in an hyperbolical and flaunting manner as in a Panegyrick but only a Breviary of his most active and industrious life where the truth shall be recited without false Idea's and representations and his Lordship made to appear what really he was both in his Divine vertues and humane passions
to hold with six places than with one some only say St. Matthew has that which others have not and he must expound them yea but one Evangelist is not false without the supplement of another and St. Mark 's Gospel was in some places where St. Matthew's was not 9. This would have given great scandal in the Heathen World who a long time used no Divorces the Romans none for 500 years Spurius Carbilius Gema was the first that broke the hedge a great shame for God's people to be more sensual than the Heathen that they should exceed them in chastity and integrity 10. We plight our faith in the face of the Church to hold till death us do part not till Adultery or any other scandalous cause which promise ought to be alter'd if we do not think meet to perform it Upon these and many like considerations which he would repeat but I cannot readily remember I know he held it more safe to bear with a private inconvenience than alter the antient strictness according to the looseness of our later times and since antient Writers tell us the Turtle is pudica univira would often wish God would please that the voice of the Turtle might be again heard in our Land Indeed he was a Prelate of venerable strictness and purity who would much bewail the unruly and horrid licentiousness of our times which he conceived grew great by the lessening of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction the Sword of Excommunication was lockt up in the Sheath and the Church had not the Key of it but men of vitious and lewd lives who formerly would have been thrust out for seven years were admitted without censure to the comfort of the Sacraments and so instead of godly sorrow too many exult in their sins jest and droll upon them in all Companies chant their Crimes to Musick and sing them sometimes in the high places of the Streets Our holy Bishop had a very chaste ear and would never permit the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tongue-fornications of any but would presently reprove them wheresoever he was and he was once at a publick Table where he could not presently allay that prophane merriment so that he put back his Chair and resolv'd like Cato to be gone till the Company became sorry and promised to preserve his Episcopal reverence and gravity At a Table no man more chearful and pleasant yet ever wisely and inoffensively facete and would often call upon the company as Plato to the rough Xenocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sacrifice to the Graces to obtain hilarity But according to his own Motto Inservi Deo laetare Serve God and be chearful His Salt was ever candid and white not bitter and biting without all Sarcasms or Ironies saying mirth was too good a creature to be abused with any affrontive jeasts scurrility or bawdry He loved innocuos sine dente sales so as to make every body smile and no body blush Impudence and drolling upon Divine things he would not allow to be wit but want of wit on the other side God Almighty never forbad lawful pleasures and they are not more religious and spiritual who are more austere and morose than others Christ Jesus refused not chearful meetings but condemn'd the sad countenances and sullenness of the Pharisees and melancholy of all humours he held was fit to make a Bath for the Devil Chearfulness and innocent pleasure preserves our Mind from rust and the Body from putrifying with dulness and distempers and therefore would sometimes chearfully say he did not love to look upon a sowre man at dinner and if his Guests were pleased and merry within would bid them hang out the white Flag in their countenance In his Entertainments he was ever very Hospitable and held where Divines wanted a competency of Means besides necessary provision for a Family to be hospitable to others it was the fault of the State but where Divines had good Livings and did not keep Hospitality the Governors of the Church were in fault if they did not exact it of them Yet if he found in his Visitation an evil Churchman that spent vainly and riotously upon himself he would tell him he was guilty of Sacrilege and bound to make restitution to the Poor But in all his own Entertainments his Lordship was as free and communicative of his Discourse as of his Chear the Mind had the principal share there for he gave ever such excellent Sawce with his Meat so many witty Apophthegms and other ingenious sallies of wit as made every body eat with a better appetite He loved to be a rational Feeder not as at a Manger but a Table not much caring what his Provender was for such was all kind of food without talk Prandium Boum Asinorum and his discourse was not only chearful and pleasant but most learned and profitable full of recondite and polite learning that whoever heard presently became all ear and was not only better the next day but for ever I have heard many affirm that they never heard more learning from any man than from him sometimes at the close of a Dinner at a Table or in his Arbour afterwards and though he was very splendid in the Entertainment of his Friends yet very sparing in the entertainment of himself for himself he chose rather to have a Table replenished from an Orchard or a Dairy than from the Butchers Shambles To eat flesh he thought lawful from the beginning of the World but never used by Seth's Posterity the Line of the Church before the Floud and still recommended to all Scholars a plain Diet to which as Socrates said hunger and thirst was the best sawce and for his own part whenever he dined with any other Haugoust he lost the afternoon and therefore drank so little wine as to be almost abstemious and always of a very small sort and diluted with water for fear of fumes that hindred his Studies and Prayers saying withal that whoever eats and drinks temperately sacrifices to his own bodily health and good temper of mind but whoever eats and drinks otherwise must needs have a gross body and a foggy brain After he was made Bishop it made no change of his former sweetness and affability still he knew us and we knew him like a Star in the Firmament quo altior eo minor he rather seemed less to himself for being raised higher Who ever once discover'd insolency in him or that he bore himself with a big carriage to any man Humility with honour and urbanity with high dignity were never more really conjoyned he would still instantly condescend to speak with any Scholar though never so poor or young Once when he lay in Channel-row during his Attendance upon Parliament he rose at midnight and baptized a dying Child at a Neighbour's house when the Curate of the Parish could not be found and ever deem'd humility was the infallible cognizance or mark to distinguish
Ordination shall be necessary for us for nothing is necessary in it self but as the Lord hath decreed and made it so Wherefore this is my first Proposition That the use of Baptism is simply necessary to a true Church and where it is not in use as among Jews and Mahometans that alone is enough to defie them that they are not members of that body whereof Christ is the head It is not to be opposed that the due administration of the Sacraments is an inseparable note of the Church For the Church being an outward company of Professors that depend upon the grace of God How can it outwardly be discerned that we depend upon him unless we accustom our selves to the outward means that seal and assure his blessings unto us Touching Baptism therefore it is necessary to a company of Believers who make a Church it is so necessary that they could give no evident token of their Christianity to men if that mark of our initiation into the visible Church were omitted Though Baptism as I will shew instantly is not simply necessary for the invisible incorporation of Infants in to Christ yet it is certain that the sprinkling of water gives them that visible incition whereby they are ingrafted into him That must be our ordinary practice or else we are none of his flock he is none of our Shepherd In the description of Paradise we read of two things that were in it Pleasant Rivers of waters and Trees which did abound with fruit for sustenance So the Church in whose blessings Paradise is restored unto us hath spiritual sustenance for life in the Lords Supper and water of Regeneration in the other Sacrament Without these two it is no more it self and therefore the Church of God in general may say I have need to be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a necessity laid upon me My next Proposition consists of these terms Suppose that there are some grown to years of knowledge able to discern between good and evil who from their birth were Paynims Mahometans altogether ignorant in the truth of Salvation but at last the light of heaven hath shined upon them and by the preaching of the Word hath wrought upon their hearts to believe such Converts must desire to be wash'd in the Sacrament of water and confess that they have need and that they would be baptized First I say they must desire it cordially and with all the affection of their mind If it be not the only Lesson of the Gospel yet I am sure it is the main drift of Christ and his Apostles to teach all men to attain to Salvation by humility Therefore to pluck down our high imaginations see the admirable wisdom of Gods Dispensations he hath made man subject to those creatures which are much beneath himself that they should be the sanctified instruments to make him partaker of everlasting life Naaman the Syrian thought great scorn at first to make use of an whole River to recover his Leprosie Now leâ—t any man should have such insolent thoughts that he would not be beholding to small things for his salvation they that will be heirs of heaven must come to a Font and be glad of a little sprinkling in token that Christs bloud will cleanse them from their sins They must kneel and fall down likewise at Gods Table to pick up the crumbs and to taste a little of his banquet of bread and wine And he that despiseth these Elements as poor rubbish for so great a purpose he despiseth God himself and his heart is not right with the Lord. It is an essential propriety of faith to long for the Sacraments even as the Hart thirsteth after the Rivers of waters And he that sets those Mysteries at a low price as if it were not material to his souls benefit whether he used them or no the Devil hath pust him up to destroy him he wants the true life of Faith and is given over to the captivity of Satan I say no more than God hath denounced against the uncircumcised Gen. xvii 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant the uncircumcised man-child shall be cut off from his people he hath broken my Covenant Beloved if an Israelites child died before the eighth day which the Lord appointed for Circumcision that did not offend the Lord neither was the child accounted out of the Covenant but if an Israelite of ripe years or a stranger within his gates did despise Circumcision that soul was cut off in the anger of the Lord. My third Proposition touching Converts of ripe age is this that if they desired Baptism and were prevented by the suddenness of death the Lord will accept the desire of their Faith and their soul shall not suffer for the want of Baptism Two Texts in the New Testament imply a strict command that we must all be baptized if we desire to be entred into the Covenant of grace yet I will draw from them that they are not altogether without limits and mitigation Mar. xvi 16. They are our Saviours words He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark with what wariness the words are repeated not thus he that is not baptized shall perish only the other member is taken into the threatning He that believeth not shall be damned To be an unbeliever to avoid the Sacrament out of disdain and not to be prevented by necessity that is the crime which according to our Saviours words shall not be unrevenged Hear in another place what he presseth more strictly upon Nicodemus Joh. iii. 5. Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Here is no time limited but it is spoken as if instantly the institution of Baptism were in force and that from thenceforth no man could plead his right to the Kingdom of heaven without it Yet we know the soonest that it took place was not till anon after his Resurrection when the Disciples had the word given Go and baptize all Nations c. For as he said elsewhere Joh. vi 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you the words run in the Present tense yet he did not perfectly declare what he meant nor put in force till he eat his last Supper with his Disciples So it appears that Text before cited Vnless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit is not without limitation and the next verse clears the matter on this sort That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit where we see the Spirit alone is able to regenerate a man and not always necessarily both water and the Spirit Bernard in his 77 Epistle to Hugo writes more diligently I think than any before him in this argument He proves from the confession of the
is but dust and ashes Christ did empty himself of his glory and fulfilled all the righteousness of humility The fifth word of consideration is the plurality of persons spoken of in the Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness It was fit indeed for our Lord Jesus to perform all obedience to the Law in every tittle and minim that is commanded because it lay upon his person to undo the curse of the Law Surely Johns name must stand for a cipher in that work for Christ alone trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath neither John nor any of the Saints were made co-partner with him in our redemption By his one Oblation of himself once offered he made a full perfect sufficient Sacrifice and Oblation for the sins of the world What means this saying therefore in the Plural Thus it behoveth us Take again what the Spirit hath supplied for exposition of this word in divers manners One way it is satisfied that Christ according to that excellent power which is in him speaks of himself regally as of many Joh. iii. 11. We speak that we know and we testifie what we have seen and yet Christ only spake to Nicodemus Again it is a sweet consolation that after the taking of any Sacrament we are no more one and one and so to be reckoned single by our selves but Baptism and the Lords Supper are the very bonds of perfection and make us all members of one mystical body the Scripture is admirably accurate in this particular as 1 Cor. xii 13. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one spirit Here it appears that we are become one spirit by drinking one cup of the Lord and one holy lump because we are sprinkled with one spirit in the water in the name of the Lord so our Saviour phraseth the sentence of my Text according to this mystical union Thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness One other Paraphrase is very plain and literal and perhaps therefore the more natural John was loth to put his hand unto the water to cast it upon the head of Christ his Master rectifies his error and tells him it must be done it is expedient for both Obedience is required in the Servant humility in the Lord thus it behoveth us on both sides to fulfil all righteousness Take the last conjecture of the word with you and as I approve it the most useful Christ was made righteousness and sanctification for us by shedding his innocent bloud which is testified in the water of this Sacrament He alone is the meritorious cause of our Salvation But the application of this justice is not to be expected to fall upon our heads without ordinary means and such instruments as God hath appointed Ye are Gods Husbandry says St. Paul to them of Corinth but we are labourers together with God 1 Cor. iii. 9. He regenerates by his word which is committed to the lips of sinful men he cleanseth and sanctifieth his Church by the washing of water whereof we are made dispensers therefore our Saviour hath joyned this Prophet to himself not by way of merit God forbid but by way of instrument and ministry in the work of our redemption thus it behoveth us to fulfil all righteousness Now I shall end this Text in a word that Christ did fulfil all righteousness at this time not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a strict necessary rigour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for decency sake because it did become him Thus it becometh us c. Many abasements our Saviour did endure and became obedient in many parts of humility which could not be exacted at his hands in strict justice as he took our nature upon him but they were certain voluntary strains of lowliness which were full measure pressed down and running over As for his dolourous Passion of the Cross that could not be escaped it was the cup which he must drink to satisfie for the sins of the world therefore he preacht to his Disciples in this unavoidable expression Nonne oportuit c. Ought not Christ to have suffered and thus to enter into his glory But to stoop like one of the multitude to the Baptism of John was not of absolute necessity but a decency which did well befit his humiliation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus it becometh us c. A comliness in every one is to be observed according to his Christian calling and decency though necessity were set apart will prevail much with tractable and honest dispositions Some will bend to nothing but to that which is clearly exprest in so many words out of the sacred Text. But what if decorum require it to be done though it be not in specialty contained in Scripture but in general Maxims why surely then it cannot be neglected if we will offer up to God a perfect Sacrifice Whatsoever is fitting for an outward sanctification of a sincere heart you cannot omit it without maiming that ingenuous comliness which is required at our hands This is not my own fancy for I observe it frequently in St. Paul that he argues from that which becometh a Christian 1 Cor. xi 13. Judge in your selves is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered 1 Tim. ii 10. Let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered hair But as becometh women professing godliness Eph. v. 3. Fornication uncleanness let it not once be named among you as becometh Saints Where is that wrangling excuse now for all your pride and bravery Will you be stiff in your opinion that you may paint and powder and crisp and clip hair and use all those Island dog tricks about your head because the Bible doth in no place by name condemn these things Beloved if the Spirit of God had penn'd a thousand Bibles more they could not have contain'd the Catalogue of all those Peacock fashions into which you transform your selves from time to time therefore one rule stands for all that you must do as becometh women professing godliness and remember that there is a decency to be attended in Christianity I will not say to you as St. Paul did to the women of Corinth Judge in your selves if this be comly We should have wise reformation for all faults if you were made the judges who are quite addicted to vanities Who shall tell you then what is decent for Christians Will you rather believe the handmaid that attires you Or the Waiting-woman that hath wages to flatter you Or those Gallants that call themselves your servants and would have you proud that they may idolize you Will you believe these rather than the Priest of God whose soul must answer for every word he teacheth you Learn from him what it is that becometh you to fulfil righteousness Much might be enforced from hence likewise to commend unto you all the Ceremonies so exactly
appointed by the best of Reformed Churches I mean this of England God be glorified for his grace towards us We do not urge them so peremptorily as to say thus it is necessary to be a Christian but thus it becometh us to serve the Lord and that which is decent in Gods house I say again will ever prevail with tractable and godly dispositions You cannot hear or meditate too much upon that of St. Paul Phil. iv 8. Whatsoever things are just or venerable whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report and let me add whatsoever things become us these things do and the God of peace shall be with you Amen THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE Baptism of our Saviour MAT. iii. 15 16. Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water AT these words John Baptist hath changed his mind you may perceive but not his humility It was his perswasion that it could not behove him to minister the Sacrament to his Saviour But since Christ would have his hand to do that duty he puts himself upon the office and performs it Whether did he refuse at first or come on at last with greater humility Nay the further we go in the actions of the Saints of God they will manifest unto us that they are better and better For is it not more lowliness to obey when he was taught a reason for it than to tremble and to start back at the presence of Christ because he was confounded at his coming to Baptism and was not taught a reason Every vertue is so much the better rooted when it knows the true cause of its own rectitude In this John said very well at verse 14. which I have handled lately I have need to be baptized of thee Though he were a most bright vessel of honour yet he did feel a defect in himself how far he wanted the grace of God to open his eyes a little clearer and his desire was secretly fulfilled the spirit of illumination did slide into his heart and made him to understand about what work of ignominy our Saviour came into the world and would begin from hence to do after the custom of a despicable sinner O glorious God that at the same instant did baptize him of whom he was baptized Quomodo creavit Mariam creatus est à Mariâ sic dedit baptismum Johanni baptizatus est à Johanne As he made the Virgin Mary his mother and was made man of the substance of the Virgin even so he baptized John with the Spirit and was baptized of John in water Nothing was ever done in the Church which was eminently noble and eximious but with an opinion that a Spirit from heaven was sent to reveal it So in old Legends they report that the Angels of God did whisper divine Oracles into St. Ambrose that Doves were sent from heaven to infuse holy wisdom into Basil and Gregory that the soul of Paul was sent to gild over the Writings of Chrysostom with Eloquence nil sine numine So the Spirit before he appeared in a bodily shape upon our Saviour entred by his invisible power into the heart of this great Prophet and he that before denied to baptize his Master because he was humble is now ready to baptize him because he is more humble for after Christ had spoken Then he suffered him And Jesus when he was baptized c. That which is here described in the Baptism of our Saviour comprehends three things 1. As the Naturallists call it here is removens prohibens that which did prohibit the effect is removed away John resists no more Then he suffered him 2. Here is the effect it self Jesus was baptized 3. That this beginning was but a preparatory to greater matters which should follow therefore he went up straightway out of the water First I must insist upon this consideration that the obstacle of Johns doubting is taken away then he suffred him The woman of Samaria because she knew not our Saviour gave him no water to drink John Baptist because he knew him to be God immortal gave him no water to be baptized An ignorance very inoffensive was in them both and so they were easily corrected with a word for they that wander for want of knowledge and not for want of obedience are easily brought into the way when they are taught the truth Moses did soon put off his shooes when he knew the place whereon he stood was holy ground Mary Magdalen took our Saviour for the Gardener when he was risen from the dead but she fell presently at his feet and worshipt him when she knew it was the Lord. Peter did demur and hesitate what to do when the sheet was let down before him with all manner of four footed beasts but straightway learnt that nothing was common or polluted which the Lord had cleansed John was loth to take the honour upon him to pour water upon our Saviours head but you see he need not be bidden twice when the Lord commanded he did wisely consider what was injoyned him by the divine authority rather than what did become his own unworthiness and did as he was bidden without any more repugnancy Vera est humilitas quam non deserit comes obedientia So I think St. Austin there dwells an humble mind you may be sure which is associated with tractable obedience Aristotle falling into the praise of that sententious judgment which in some men is very exhortative that weaker capacities should hearken to such mens opinions without any manner of contradiction for their eye is fixt upon a true ground and principle for whatsoever they deliver therefore where age and experience and prudence meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you ought to submit to their bare dictates and sayings no less than if they were the most forcible demonstrations This was most wholsom counsel for the ignorant for they will learn more a thousand times by believing their Teachers than by framing their wit to a captious inquisitive course admitting nothing for good unless their own line can fathom it John Baptist was a right Scholar to make a good proficient whose reason was confounded and knew not what Christ did mean yet because it was his Masters will he was obsequious against the grain of his own reason Then he suffered him The praise which S. Chrysostom gives to this holy man is thus in a negative expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he yielded quickly he was not immoderately contentious for the Holy Spirit makes us mild and apt to consent the adverse Spirit makes us unquiet and vexatious to our neighbours As God describes the refractory Israelites who did ever resist their Prophets Isa xlviii 4. I know that thou art obstinate and thy neck is an iron sinew and thy brow is brass This obstinacy you see in the Prophets phrase is a sign of an iron age and I pray God we be not
wherein so many run upon this Point I will give you my judgment in that method wherein I have always directed my self a method to give God the glory of all that which is good to make sinners humble because they have no good in themselves as of themselves and to make us all diligent in good works that we may not neglect the gift which is given us in Christ through sluggishness and security The grounds upon which I will insist are these 1. We must be led by the Spirit before we can work any thing which is good 2. I will unfold how we are led by initiating or preventing grace when we are first made partakers to taste of the hopes of a better life 3. I will shew how we are led by preparatory grace which goes before the complete act of our regeneration 4. With what great and mighty power the Spirit doth lead us in converting grace 5. How we are led by subsequent grace and sanctification which co-operates and assists us after our conversion To these heads I will briefly and peaceably reduce a volume of litigious disputation 1. I enter into all by this door before the Spirit come down upon us and lead us with his sweet motions our heart can produce nothing which is good The heathen are no competent witnesses in this cause how far nature is weakened in all vertue and how much it is prone to all evil they know no supernatural strength above nature and therefore could not acknowledge the efficacy of it In a word we must not believe man how far he is corrupted but God for man must not be judge in his own cause The Pharisees likewise shall not be heard to speak in this Point whose arrogancy made them enemies to grace You remember with what contempt they ask'd Christ are we blind Joh. ix 40. Alass of our selves we are all under that woe Vae vobis duces caeci Woe be to you blind guids Mat. xxiii 16. Whither will a blind mans feet carry him but into a pit or into a snare unless he have a leader By nature this dark blindness is upon us for else why have we a Leader Omne id naturae deesse intelligitur quod spiritus sancti operâ communicatur says St. Austin Whatsoever is put into us by the Holy Ghost manifests how much was wanting by nature The good Spirit may say of his direction as Job did of his charity I was eyes unto the blind and feet unto the lame Job xxix 15. The heathen erred from the truth through ignorance the Pharisees through arrogancy among Christians none offended more foully than the Pelagians partly through subtilty of wit partly through arrogance What shifts did they not invent rather than confess the truth Sometimes calling the endowments of mans nature even under this great blemish of depravation by the name of grace When that would not serve yet they would allow no grace to support mans free will but the external preaching of the Word and dispensation of the Sacraments 3. When this would not satisfie the Church they went thus far they did not hold there was grace of sanctification to prevent us from sin but grace of mercy to remit our sins Yet they stood under condemnation and at last this was all that could be wrung from them supernatural grace was necessary not simply to strengthen us to do good but only to do good with greater facility Whereas it behoved them to have accused nature in this present state of malignity so far that now it is become that accursed ground which of it self brings forth nothing but thorns and thistles There is not only a possibility in our will to sin as there was in Adam before the Fall but a violent and a precipitious inclination to transgress the Law The Saints and the heaven are not clean in Gods sight says Job How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water Job xv 16. The will of man is of that nature it cannot rest naked devested of all desires unfurnisht of an object and since in its own rebellion it hath forsaken God there is no relief but it will betake it self to the unlawful concupiscence of the Creature Mark how peremptorily St. Paul concludes against man as he is left to the will of his own flesh Rom. viii 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be In the state of this miserable captivity under sin for we are servants to that which we obey the will of man is partaker of its own freedom which grows with it and cannot be parted that it is not held under necessity to commit this or that sin naming any particular act what you will but under sin it is held so that the evil which we would not we shall do and the good which we would we shall not do But Christ is our Advocate and he will speak for us more than we could or durst say for our selves hear his testimony Joh. xv 4. The branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Because these words are parabolical he speaks roundly in the next verse Without me ye can do nothing It is not meant of natural or animal works as eating drinking walking indeed we can do none of these things unless his omnipresency and omnipotency support us but here it is meant of such things as are praise worthy before God without me that is without the divine assistance and help which I have merited by my obedience ye cannot bring forth the fruits of righteousness to eternal life Yet I pray you mark one thing to qualifie some mens severe opinions Christ did not say whatsoever ye do without me even with the best moral rectitude and justice shall plunge you further into damnation Every thing which comes from a meer natural man is so bad and defective that it shall do him no good toward the attaining of everlasting life but some things have a moral honesty according to the law of nature which do not deserve Hell fire but rather they are such things as shall make their damnation more tolerable The branch can bring forth no fruit unless it be in the tree Frugiferum opus est quod ad vitam aeternam refertur That is a frugiferous work which God rewards in his Kingdom No such fruits can grow from nature which wants the conduction of the Spirit St. Paul very cautiously 1 Cor. xiii mustering up the works of an unregenerate man which want Charity says he If I do all these things and want charity they profit me nothing not simply that the continence of Socrates the temperance of Scipio should hurt them but they profit me nothing a natural man brings forth nothing which can profit him to eternal life St. Austin doth so diligently ponder every word of the Text now cited that I must impart his sweet labours unto
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
in bloud and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord septies sanguis no less would serve the turn and think you that Christ did fail in this perfect number no not once if you will count it 1. He was circumcised and there was bloud 2. He sweat in the Garden not without drops of bloud 3. He was buffetted upon the mouth that must needs draw bloud Then the scourgings upon his back the thorns platted upon his head the nails driven into his feet and hands those three likewise could not be without great effusion of bloud At the seventh and last time a Souldier thrust a Spear into his side and then came forth a stream of bloud The heart of man hath entangled it self with seven deadly sins like the Woman of Samaria seven had taken her to wife according to the number of the capital sins seven times did Christ lay down the price of a Ransom seven times the bloud was sprinkled before the Lord but when I say seven I do not exclude many more it is numerus finitus pro infinito The rich man in the Gospel besought Father Abraham that he would send Lazarus with his finger dipt in water to cool his tongue There was a foul mistake in the Petition to ask for water why not rather for bloud 't is bloud that quencheth the fire which without it is unquenchable And yet there is some use of water O the use of it is excellent and unvaluable therefore water also came from the side of Jesus It is a wonder that this dolorous Passion of our Lord did not call for fire to rain upon Jerusalem as it fell down upon Sodom and Gomorrah which lest it should be here was a pipe of water opened to quench the wrath of God Four great Rivers were little enough to water the Garden of Eden this little Spout is enough to water all the World for when all other Interpretations fail us the Stream that bubbled out of the side of Christ is the water above the Heavens all Israel drank of the Rock in the Wilderness every Soul which was a thirst drank What a copious deflux was that So all the Israel of God may drink of the spiritual Rock his Spring is no less abundant and that spiritual Rock is Christ A spiritual Rock did Paul say he was used no better than if he had been a very Rock of Stone As Moses struck the Rock with his Staff so was the Body of Christ with a Spear and water gushed out apace Now at several times there was a threefold passage of water in our Saviour sudoris lacrymarum lateris the one when he sweat in the Garden the second was the distillation of tears and the third was this Fountain which was opened in his side Put the seven Issues of bloud and the three Issues of water together and here are ten Drink-offerings according to the number of the Ten Commandments which we have broken Divinity is nothing else but a Tractate of admiration and lo a Miracle the last of Christ's Miracles before he was buried as the first Miracle which he wrought was by the Element of Water at Cana in Galilee so his last Miracle was in Water which came out of his side for that this was no natural Issue they know full well that have tried Dissections and Anatomies And where did you ever read that an Apostle urged the truth of that which he recited so far that he knew his record was true and that the thing was done that we might believe I say where did you ever meet with such a Protestation in the Bible if the thing entreated of were not a Miracle The sweat was miraculous in the Garden the bloud was miraculous which streamed afresh from the dead body so was this gush of water from his side most supernatural whether some inward part of Christ was resolved into this Element of a sudden or whether it was newly created for the purpose let them dispute it who love to seek that which they can never find But I am sure the water was miraculous and far be it from us to think that it was not water as some have doubted but a spumeous phlegmatick humour As Christ himself is truth and not appearance so this humour had not the name and appearance only but the essence of water There are three that bear record on earth says St. John the Spirit the Water and Blood the Spirit which he gave up when he groan'd his last and that was a true Spirit the Bloud that drill'd down from him and that was true Bloud the Water that leakt out of his side and that was very Water So much of the two Streams severally considered now I come to the Conjunction Bloud and Water For his love could bring forth no less than Twins sanguis aqua if he would undergo the Law was it not sufficient that he was circumcised and wounded in the flesh but he was baptized also in Jordan there was satisfaction both by Bloud and Water When he suffered the sharp Agony in the Garden water alone had been a sign of a terrible conflict with his Father but there trickled from him bloud and water When the whip did tear his flesh and the thorns enter into the quick many do modestly suppose that He mingled tears with bloud and then at every passion there was bloud and water John Baptist was the Forerunner of the Bridegroom he came only in water the Martyrs were the friends of the Bridegroom they came in bloud Christ is the Bridegroom himself and he came in bloud and water When the Spouse was asked what a one her Well-beloved was Cantic 4. she answered he was white and ruddy white in water and ruddy in bloud not by water alone says our Apostle Ep. 1. chap. 5. that had made but half a Mediator but by water and bloud Sanguis ejus super nos was the cry of the miscreant people they condemned him in bloud Pilate pronounced the Sentence but washed his hands at it he condemned him in water Let them behold whom they have pierced says Zachary let his Judg and Accusers behold their fact in one in bloud and water I told you of the Miracle before now I will tell you of the Mystery of this work or rather of the Mysteries for they are more than one aperuit ostium miles unde Sacramenta Ecclesiae manârunt that 's St. Austins observation the door was opened and the Sacraments of the Church issued out What all of them it seems he knew of no more the Sacraments of the Church came forth with Bloud and Water For as the Romanists make Bread serve the people by a Synechdoche for the whole Supper of the Lord so Bloud by a Synechdoche in this place stands for all that Sacrament There was Divinity even in the cold stream that flow'd from the side of Christ and it speaks like the bloud of Abel as if he had said away with
upon the death of the Testator The Covenant of the old Testament was continued by Sacrifice renewed by Circumcision altogether confirmed by effusion of bloud Well the Covenant of the New Testament is established in Baptism in the Pool of water O what a comely thing is Order God kept it in his very death the Old Law was first drawn drie in the Bloud and the New Law succeeds it in the stream of Water and I like his Meditation well that said our Saviour had first uttered out every drop of bloud from his veins ut nos ad bibendum de aquâ aeternae vitae invitaret to invite us from thenceforth to drink of the water of everlasting life Our Romish Adversaries stand much upon that which I handle now for say they if the two Sacraments had been precisely out of Christs side then St. John would have made his Relation thus A Souldier pierced his side and there came out Water and Bloud for Baptism is our beginning in the Church our first milk and after that when we know how to examin our selves as St. Paul says then we come to the Supper of the Lord just so as they would have it Aquinas a sure man of their own side compares the Sacraments in this wise Baptism is a Sacrament of the greatest necessity of the twain the Supper of the Lord is of more perfection though not of so much necessity Well then since we must aim at perfection as the Apostle says why might not Christ give the first place to that which makes us perfect and the second place to that which is first in time but lag in perfection nay rather than we should make use of this Text for no more than a yoke of Sacraments they will allow it to be a Figure of none but of the Supper of the Lord for their wine is dash'd with water in their Chalice and this Text is the Authority for it bloud and water I am sure the letter of the Scripture is on our side that use pure wine in the Eucharist de fructu geniminis I do not read that Christ gave his Disciples ought but wine to drink I deny not but some of the ancient Fathers concur with them but it is apparent I can make no better excuse they forsake the Letter and build upon an Allegory He that feeds upon the Letter of the Text feeds upon Manna he that lives by the Allegorie feeds upon licious Quails Israel may desire such curious food but God was better pleased when they were contented with Manna I have done with the Order The period of all in a word is the readiness of the Fountain which could not be stopt for a moment Forthwith came thereout bloud and water Love is no delaier no protractor of time ready to do good speedy in execution good deeds did not hang in our Saviours fingers as they do with many of us our hands unclasp to part with any thing like a lock that 's rusty and goes hard you can scarce open it Abrahams forwardness in entertaining the Angels and the dispatch that he made is as much commended as his hospitality Gen. xviii Abraham says the Text hastened to the Tent to Sarah 2. Sarah made ready quickly three measures of fine meal 3. Abraham ran to the Herd for a tender Calf 4. Abrahams young man did hast to dress it nemo piger est in domo caritatis not a slothful person not a protractor of time in all the House of Charity Such expedition did our Saviour make to express his love to the World he yields up his body in the flower of his age not a wrinkle in his brow not a grey hair in his head he made haste to suffer Judas says he what thou doest do it quickly as who should say I know thy heart is against me and that thou wouldest sell me into mine enemies hand yet for old acquaintance sake do me the curtesie to protract no time what thou doest do it quickly There past but a little time from midnight to midday betwixt his Attachment his Arraignment and his Execution This was a Paschal Lamb eaten in haste as God gave Moses in charge for the Lord will hasten you out of Egypt And to come to the instance in my Text his joynts were stiff and cold the moisture of his body congealed long it would be I should have thought before a few drops of liquor could come forth with much violence and chafing the flesh O but the Testator was dead his Sacraments are the Seals of his mercy wherewith he assures his Promises unto us and he would not have the World stay one whit for their Legacies capiat qui capere potest out it gusheth like a torrent and forthwith came thereout bloud and water All you that thirst for the living God be as ready to drink as he was to give else we are magis mortui quà m mortuus as dead as death it self and past recovery Repent you but instantly make restitution of all things wrongfully gotten but instantly be reconciled to your enemies stick not at it but instantly instantly I say but continue those instants unto your lives end Our Saviour compared his love towards Jerusalem to a Hen that gathers her Chickens under her wings let this Comparison be the Pattern of our love to Christ You know the Hen must not sit for a spurt and be gone then her eggs addle and the Brood is spoiled Take the application unto your conscience nourish the good motions of Gods spirit in your heart sit upon them as the Hen doth upon her Brood that they may quicken in you by a lively faith We had need to do it for as Christ was sudden and made haste to express his love so he is sudden and will make haste to judgment Surely I come quickly they are the close of our Bible Even so come Lord Jesus and prepare us for thy second coming that we who drink at thy mystical Wound here may be satisfied with thy goodness as out of a River in thy Kingdom of glory AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE PASSION GEN. xxii 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a Ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the Ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his Son THe place where this memorable Sacrifice was offered up had a name given unto it by Abraham in the next verse to that which I have read Deus in monte videbatur or Deus in monte apparuit which is interpreted God is seen or God did appear in the Mount from which name Origen raiseth this Meditation Nihil hic corporeum sentias sed quae Scripta sunt in spiritu videas Do not think in the story of this Sacrifice that you see a Ram or that you see Isaac you must apprehend it in Spirit and believe that you see nothing but the Oblation of the Son of God upon the
hand justice and vengeance and above head he that walked on the tops of the Mulberry trees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God a mechanick and workman of our salvation The first part of the Text the Beast is like a place profaned but excussit he shook it off is like a Sanctuary And as the Rooms of the Temple were one within another and the inmost was the best so I may proceed in the degrees of this preservation Bare deliverance is but Atrium misericordiae the outward Porch of Solomon the Prince of peace but then we go on to the confusion of our enemies to excussit as unto the Altar whereon the beasts were slain but the holy of holies and the very Oracle of mercy is to escape the breaking of a bone with our Saviour not to lose the lap of our Garment with Saul or with our Apostle to feel no harm Upon these three let us divide St. Ambrose his Hymn Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath and meditate with St. Austin Quid non misericorditer à Deo hominibus praestatur a quo etiam tribulatio est beneficium Wherein is not our God a merciful Father if our chastisement be our glory if with St. Paul we shake beasts into the fire and feel no harm I must not separate the bark from the tree the bark is the danger of the Apostle and the first part of my Text and there want not causes to wonder at the strangeness of the enemy For though Adam gave names unto the Creatures and Noah lent them a place of rest to be saved from the waters yet the beasts are at enmity with Paul Alas our Warfare is not honourable but bellum servile Zimri riseth up against his Master We no longer Gods Servants the Creatures no longer ours And what Creature is it but a Serpent Hast thou found me out O mine enemy Yes from the Garden of trees wherin Eve was tempted to a handful of sticks which St. Paul gathered here and every where upon an old quarrel we are sure to find the Serpent an adversary While we live Wisdom is our glory and so the Serpent is wise When we die Resurrection is our glory and you know the Serpent renews his youth When we are buried our Tomb is our glory and even there say Philosophers Serpents are begotten of the marrow of our bones But if any venom be more hateful than other it is the Vipers it was company fit for none in the Roman Laws but murderers of Fathers and Mothers because says Aristotle when the brood is great and the Viper every day brings forth but one at once the latter of the brood eat through the womb of the Dam to be born the sooner Well to suffer these things it was no news to Paul and why should it seem strange to us All his Pilgrimage in this world was either fighting with men at Ephesus after the manner of beasts or with beasts in my Text after the manner of men As Cato being vanquished by Caesar and flying into Africa was troubled with noisom Vermine Pro Caesare pugnant dipsades peragunt civilia bella Cerastae That the Snakes fought out the Civil Wars on Caesars side So the Vipers take part with the Pharisees against St. Paul those Pharisees whom our Saviour called in his Gospel Generations of Vipers Pythagoras compared our life to the combats of the Olympick Games and so did our Apostle both met in the Comparison but not in the Application to the Olympick Games says Pythagoras some men come to wrestle some to make merry with their friends but for his part he was among those who did but gaze upon the Wrestlers O no says St. Paul only God and Angels are the lookers on that do not sweat and fight to win the mastery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plato in Phaedon which is all one with that of St. Paul Nos spectaculum facti sumus we are all combatants and made a spectacle for the eyes of heaven As Pelopidas said in Plutarch Tantum duces in bello laudantur qui sunt sinc cicatrice non milites A scar was a comly sight in an ordinary Souldier but not in a General So it agrees well with the blessed souls to be in peace but for us to be in warfare And happy are they thrice happy who make the bitterness of this life but a gaine of Wrestling and though a severe sport yet but a sport and recreation A most reverend Bishop of our own Church the first who saw some reformation of Religion altered the ancient Arms of his Family from three Cranes to three Pelicans his righteous soul divining before his Martyrdom that he should feed the Church with his bloud as a loving Pelican and so contentedly he died making his Coat of honour an Emblem of persecution If we will be any thing if we will be born at all it must be in tears and to be honestly born is to be a Son and not a bastard that is to be chastened and not neglected And to be nobly born is to give Arms such as Constantine and Theodosius did in their Military Ensigns the mourning Cross of Christ Quis enarrabit generationem Will you know how a Christian is begotten St. Matthew makes a Pedigree and fourteen Generations reach to King David David is zeal and devotion The next fourteen Generations reach to Captivity and the waters of Babilon and after Captivity the next fourteen Generations reach to Christ our Lord. It was a dastard mind not befitting Augustus of all things else to desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might steal out of the world and not feel the least gripe of a disease it did rather become the beastly Epicurus who when he felt his sickness desperate drowned his stomach with immoderate Wine and so knew not what it was to dye but went drunk to Hell If we Christians were only anointed with oyl Oleo laetitiae supra socios with the oyl of gladness above our fellows Satan might speak home to our shame Doth Job serve God for nought But we are first anointed with the Baptism of water unto the death of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen We are dipt like Iron into the water that our edge may be setled against all injuries And we are ready to be anointed with bloud every day is the eighth day with us to be wounded and circumcised Nay if it be our destiny to be anointed with Pitch and Tar In morem nocturni luminis to waste away like a Taper welcom glory Or if it be our danger to be lick'd with the poysonous tongue of the Viper Son of man says Ezekiel be not afraid though thorns and briers be with thee nay though thou live among Scorpions For who would not venture with such a Charm as this is against any Serpent Excussit ho shook off the beast into the fire it is the second part of my Text and St. Pauls deliverance The Apostle indeed did shake his
of obedience but as the way to eternal life As a sick man takes the potions that are prescribed him not out of duty to the Physitian but out of due regard to his own recovery The similitude sorts with our infirmity Obtemperet medico ut surgat qui noluit credere ne aegrotaret says St. Austin Man would not obey the Physitian to prevent his sickness therefore let him use his after-wit and take those Sacramental means that are appointed to make him whole But fourthly there is lex privata a Law imposed upon some particular person in whose transgression neither were justice infringed nor Gods glory violated if his Command were not laid upon it and there is no scope in this but to make the passive humility of our soul that is our obedience more illustrious What was there in it else that the Man of God that came from Judah unto Bethel was charg'd neither to eat nor drink water in that place nor to return by the same way that he came there is no colour of Religious Worship in these observations but God would have him submit to his unquestionable Authority and you know his misery ensued when he was unperswaded to obey it Dominus cur jusserit viderit what profit there is to keep such private Laws as seem to carry no great substance in them let God look to that says the Father but be you obsequious That peremptory denuntiation upon pain of death not to eat of the Tree of knowledg of good and evil called the forbidden fruit no Theological wits could ever pass a ripe mature judgment upon it why it was so laid but that they and all we in them are to stoop under that sweet yoke of the Divine Will with absolute indefinite undiscoursed obedience It was no robbery to eat of it wherein God was defrauded of any thing that He stood in need of then it had been hurtful to him the fruit was not diseaseful or poisonous then it had been hurtful to them it was a pure Edict of Authority to let the best of all bodily Creatures know to what service and homage they were born as the vulgar Latin reads that verse Psal ix ult Constitue legislatorem super eos not as we translate it put them in fear O Lord but set a Lawgiver over them that they may know themselves to be but men Quomodo eris sub Domino nisi fueris sub praecepto so St. Austin upon that very instance of the forbidden fruit How are you under the Lord unless you be under the Law and not that Law which leans upon apparent reason for that Law is within you and therein you obey your self but that Law which flows from absolute Authority that 's without you and therein you stoop lowest under the power of God And this is the very condition of that word which the Angel spoke to Lot and those that were with him Look not behind thee neither stay in all the plain Wherein could it tend to the honour of God that they should set their face one way more than another perhaps you will say it was meant to the greater detestation of the Sodomites whom the Lord would not permit to have commiseration or any respect from good men or to urge them to make haste away with a kind of hyperbolical celerity As our Saviour sent his Disciples to preach in every City of Judaea with this speedy or prefestinating Command Salute no man by the way Luke x. 4. And Elisha imposed that post haste upon Gehazi his servant Gird up thy loyns and go thy way if thou meet any man salute him not and if any man salute thee answer him not again Suppose this or that were the secret drift of this Interdiction look not behind thee yet a little casting of the head on one side had not made their expedition the slower What need we seek a knot in a rush what need we prove her faulty for reasons that are not alleaged this convinceth obliquity enough in her sin that she did not observe the precise command of God in every gesture of her body In a word the thing it self commanded did not in it self bind the conscience but with the Command it did The eye is free to view all the works of the Lord unless something upon which it glanceth doth scandalize it with concupiscence Who suspects the contrary but that the crackling of the fire and the out-cries of them that perisht in those Cities that were consumed did rowze many in the neighbour Villages to look upon those places and lament them Did not Abraham rise up early in the morning and look toward the Land of the Plain and see the smoak of the Country go up as the smoak of a Furnace 't is soon answered Where there was no restraint there was no transgression But above all other Laws those which we may rather call Canons and Constitutions that impose the prestation of adiaphorous duties and prohibit other things that have no moral obliquity in them are most generous ways to heap reward upon the willing and to discover the stiff stomach of rebellion In all Injunctions Ecclesiastical and Political set aside charity edification unity peace of the Church or any other moral respect Put it only upon this that meer authority enforceth them which is just authority derived from Gods Ordinance God forbid we should need any haling or towing to them for he that sees the finger of Authority held up sees reason enough to obey and to recoil as Lots Wife did because the Commandment seem'd not to be weighty and ponderous is blind disobedience O 't is a blessed thing not to have a licentious itch upon a man not to desire scope and random but to submit chearfully to a punctual Discipline in all our actions and every circumstance of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is the praise of an Holy Father as if his soul had been created without a will Alas into what precipices would our fancy carry us if we were left to our selves to be libertines in any thing there would be nothing but confusion Deus servitute nostrâ non eget nos autem sine ejus dominatione esse non possumus nothing truer it is St. Austins God stands in no need of our service but we could not live without his command and governance 'T is hard to confine this point to brevity but I must break off only let me put you in mind that whereas the Jesuits set forth themselves to be the only Obedientiaries in the World so that to neglect the Precept of their Superior in a trifle they brand it for a flagitious crime yet the Jesuit a Lapide says upon my Text that he would not discord with them that hold the trespass of Lots Wife to be no more than venial error for either some sudden clap of thunder might make her start and look back unawares or else she thought not that the Angel gave her that
Wound consists in five degrees of humiliation 1. He sat down 2. He wept 3. He mourned certain dayes 4. He fasted 5. He played before the God of Heaven That God that gives many Medicines to heal the sickness of the Body hath provided these sacred Remedies to heal the troubles of the Soul I rise up now from the first step Nehemiah was sore perplexed to hear what the Land had suffered Upon which I begin with this Observation that he was in great anguish not for any evil which he saw but with bad tidings and grievous reports as it is just before my Text The Remnant of Israel were in great affliction and reproach the Wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the Gates burnt with fire This is short and sowr yet far short of the total of their tribulation Howsoever Nehemiah saw none of this he was at Babylon when these Tragedies were acted at Jerusalem he heard of their distress but was not upon the place to behold it yet the noise that came to his ears did strike his heart that he sat down and wept So open your bowels and condole like Christians when you hear of one anothers miseries though they be far from you else God will draw them nearer I will name the remotest to you the mournful condition of the Servants of Christ in Hungary Dalmatia Greece and Candia under the Mahumetan cruelty though these are a thousand leagues from you yet joyn them close to you in your Prayers and Compassion Let me come home we are not upon the Seas to day with our illustrious Duke and valiant Country-men we are not in peril of Wracks and Storms and roaring Canons as they are but let our Prayers walk upon the Seas unto them as Peter assayed to go to Christ that as they hazard their lives for us we offer up our Souls to God for them To descend to lower Objects you do not see the hard food of the Poor his sorry Table his dry Morsels you do not see the comfortless Lodging and Dungeon of the Captive These are the Blessings of Wealth and Liberty Yea but do you not consider it sometimes and bewail and extend your hand to relieve it if not some of us may know what hunger and captivity mean if the report of those things in others do not cause you to melt in charity Nehemiah did not see much evil yet the report toucht him near and he sat down and wept My next Observation is that as he did not see the evil of the Land of Judah so he could not feel it If all Jerusalem had been burnt to ashes it had not broke him in his fortune nor eclipsed him in his honour He was a Courtier in the Palace of Artaxerxes his Cup-bearer a dignified Officer no weeping news could diminish his greatness Had he been a self-lover like too many of these dayes a cunning Courtier that had no end but to provide for himself then he would have measured all fortune by his own Last and unless his own person had been toucht the Shoo should not have wrung him But here was one reteining to the holy Court indeed to the Court of Heaven his own prosperity did disrelish with him because Gods anger was upon the Land to which he owed his life He did like a good man to involve himself in the publick fortune And what joy could he take in his Honours with Artaxerxes when reproach had spread upon the Country that bred him and upon the Church of God in which he lookt for salvation He that makes light of common danger with tush they are on the Seas I am on the Land I shall shift for one that man is the fairest mark at whom God will suddenly shoot with a swift arrow because he is in love with his own security Nehemiah could have shifted for one but that did not content him When it is best with our selves then it is safest to fear then to seek the Lord and to beseech him for the welfare of our selves and others Health and plenty and ease have not yet forsaken us yet the blasts of bad rumours and presages are about us When you hear such words it is time to mourn and fast and pray before the God of Heaven Hitherto I have treated that Nehemiah bewailed the sufferings past my next observation is upon another matter that when by Gods hand the repair was very hopeful it grieved him that the mischievous attempts of envious unlucky Neighbours did all that they could to stop the remedy which is just our case God sent this Tirshata this mighty man to build up the holy City again out of the ruines under which it was covered but it grieved their Neighbours over the next River Chap. ii 9. as ours are over the next Seas that there came a man to seek the welfare of Israel Ver. 10. Mark their conditions who they were Sanballat of Samaria and Samaria had long been the nest of Rebellion Tobiah the servant an Ammonite a man servile low born of base extraction Geshem the Arabian and the Arabians were great Thieves by Land as our Foes are Arabians upon the waters These Samaritans Ammonites Arabians Rebels and Thieves basely descended maligned the prosperity of Jerusalem when it began to flourish again under Nehemiah And note their shifts and half witted devices to oppose him First They fell to mocking and scoffing Chap. iv 1. Scurrility is to be expected from such as are bred up in the rudeness of a populacy Secondly At the eighth verse of the fourth Chapter they made ready to fight him but hearing his preparations shewed their teeth and never proceeded Thirdly Chap. vi 8. they raised scandalous reports against the Ruler and the People and how our Maligners would desame us with broaching lies Europe and all the world are witness Fourthly At the thirteenth verse of that Chapter they hired Prophets to Prophesie against Nehemiah to put him in fear and if we would be discouraged by such fictions they have not been wanting These were troubles which fell upon the noble heart of Nehemiah to see that blessing which God had begun by his industry cross'd and check'd by an ignoble and servile Generation So may our renowned Prince and General say in disdain at this upstart bog of men whose Noble Person is of more value than all their Provinces estimated at a rackt value Et mecum certasse ferentur Unless England had given them being and a power to resist they had not been able this day to have resisted the meanest of the Captains of my Lord the King To dispatch this Point though our Kingdom hath no resemblance to Pharaoh and the Egyptians God be praised yet our Plagues and those of Egypt have some parallel in their order Their first Plague was the Plague of bloud so was ours but God hath delivered us from the continual slaughters of a most impious and rebellious War Pass from the end of the seventh Chapter of Exodus to the beginning
right to go first and the Tail to come after but Officers were changed upon importunity the Body was scratcht the Head was bruised every thing was out of order and by consent of all parts the Head was restored to that dignity for ever after to lead the Body And when disobedience hath disjoynted the frame of any Polity it is obedience must set all together and unite the Fabrick Observation of Ceremonies and petty duties may seem perhaps to be maintained too severely and the peremptory keeping of Circumstances to be rather Rigour than Discipline But it was the answer of a wise Magistrate to this complaint that assault would quickly be made against greater matters if the lesser were despised For observe it in a Wine-vessel the small twigs bind about the hoops the hoops bind about the planchers the planchers alone seem to contein the liquor you would think yet cut the small twigs and the hoops fly asunder the planchers start and the wine is spilt So is it with Ceremonies to despise our Garments our Gestures our Canonical Ordinances may seem no damage to Religion but the very substance of our Christianity would lie open to the wild Boar out of the Wood to root it up if the Hedg were broken In some cases I will grant it to be very true that the Orator says generosus est animus hominis magisque ducitur quà m trahitur our mind is free and noble and would rather go alone than be forced to duty but what duty can be expected from them in greater cases who are headstrong against Ecclesiastical Government in the smallest Ceremonies They that zealously wish abundance of happiness in the Church will be so far from complaining that Ceremonies are a burden to their Liberty that they would wish I think that Canonical obedience did lie more strictly upon the Clergie in the whole course of their Profession Which if it did I am perswaded that the studies of the Learned and the painful industry of Scholars had been more renowned in this Island than over all the World It is the sweet lenity of our Pilots to give us sea room to sail at random 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we were compelled to knit our strength in clusters our prowess would be better tried in Gods Cause than when we come single and scattered one from another to write a Controversie For when every man follows the genius of his own disposition licence cannot choose but bring in confusion for though every one should do well for his own part yet the work must be out of order Some Monk will say perchance this is our Religion and just as we would have it Immane quantum c. great is the difference between my Doctrin and theirs and I fear we shall not part friends thus First I commend obedience where the thing commanded is feizable and may be done as to build no houses to drink no wine they call for obedience in things impossible as to water a dead stick and make it grow to pour water into a Siev and the like This is not obedience but pertinax inertia loss of good hours wasting of time and fruitless negotiation I commend obedience which turned the heart of the Children toward their Fathers and gives this praise to the Rechabites that they would not be enticed by Priest or Prophet but in all things hearkned to the voice of Jonadab they commend those unnatural Monks that take a Cloister over their heads to sleep and fatten though their Parents be most unwilling and curse them for it I commend the Rechabites obedience which is grounded upon the Scripture approved by the Spirit of God and his Prophet Jeremy they have no ground for their Canonical Orders but mans institution Votum obedientiae non directè colligitur è scripturâ says Gregory of Valentia nay temporibus Apostolicis non institutae sunt religiones says Aquinas our Religious Orders are later than the times of the Apostles Lastly the obedience which I praise is such where the things commanded are lawful and just Wine in those hot Countries might well be forborn and temperance the better mainteined in Tents they might dwell and shades of Tabernacles to acknowledg themselves but Strangers and Pilgrims in this World and Heaven to be their Country some say it was to forewarn the Israelites that the Captivity of Babylon was hard at hand and it was in vain to build Cities for a long habitation Finally having neither Barns nor Store-houses their Herds and their Flocks were their riches and they forbore to sow the ground and to gather in the fruits of the Harvest these things are lawful and honest and in them it was expedient to hearken to the voice of Jonadab But the Romanists commend obedience wherein fas and nefas are alike to complot Treasons and Massacres to dissemble and lie for Priests to leave off their Weed and ruffle it in other Countries like Gentlemen all this is obedience yea Maffaeus commends a Novice of the Jesuits Order who was consecrating the Host at the Communion his Superior Liola call'd him away for no other end but to try his duty he left his God Almighty half made and half unmade in the midst of Consecration and hasted to his Superior This is sweet obedience Men that have reason and will subject themselves to the power and dominion of their Rulers by the inclination of their own will natural agents are compelled to yield to forcible agents because the weaker qualities cannot resist the stronger Now the Underling that obeys his Praelate is exempted two ways from his Authority as natural things two ways do controul the vertue of a superior agent 1. Propter impedimentum ex virtute superioris moventis if a greater force oppose a lesser the greater must carry the sway Green wood resists the flame of a little fuel because the mixture of the wood is too hard for so small a fire so the supreme dominion and power belongeth unto God and that obedience which is performed to Man against God it is sacrificium de rapinâ not Obedience but Atheism not Obedience but Sacrilege not Obedience but Flattery The second resistance is when a natural body is subject in some qualities and in some free from subjection as wax subject to the fire to soften to the Seal to set a stamp upon it So an Handmaid is to yield all bodily service of labour to her Lord but quoad prolis generationem aut corporis sustentationem non ligatur To surfeit her body by excess of meats or to pine it away with fasting to commit uncleanness or to enthral her self to Virginity this is beyond the Sphear of Authority and she is not bound unto it Let us gather up this second part of my Text into one closure we commend the Rechabites for their Obedience and by their example we owe duty to our Parents natural and civil those that begot us those that govern us We owe duty to the dead after
our Rulers have left us in the way of a good life and changed their own for a better We owe duty to our Rulers in all things honest and lawful in obeying Rites and Ceremonies indifferent in Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical Illis imperii jus concessum est nobis relicta est obsequii gloria But where God controuls or wherein our liberty cannot be enthralled we are bound ad patiendum and happy if we suffer for righteousness sake Now that the obedience of the Rechabites was lawful and religious and a thing wherein they might profitably dispence with freedom and liberty the third part of my Text that is their Temperance will make it manifest for in this they obeyed Jonadab non bibemus c. To spare somewhat which God hath given us for our sustenance is to restore a part of the plenty back again if we lay hands upon all that is set before us it is suspicious that we expected more and accused nature of frugality And though the Vine did boast in Jothams Parable that it cheared up the heart of God and Man though it be so useful a Creature for our preservation that no Carthusian or Coelestine Monk of the strictest Order did put this into their Vow to drink no Wine yet the Rechabites are contented to be more sober than any and lap the water of the Brook like Gideons Souldiers Which moderation of diet though as I said in the beginning as it is an extreme and as it is a Vow for ever to drink no Wine I do not urge it to your imitation yet it did enable them to avoid Luxury and swinish drunkenness into which sin whosoever falls makes himself subject to a fourfold punishment First The heat of too liberal a proportion kindles the lust of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Poet calls it elegantly Wine is the milk of Venus Lot who was not consumed in Sodom with the fire of Brimstone drunkenness set him on fire with incestuous lust in Zoar. The Brimstone trickled down like rain but Luxury broke in upon him like a breach of the Sea And as Epaminondas said Modicum prandium non capit proditionem Treasons were never plotted at a frugal Table so Fornications and Adulteries were never hatcht in Cups of water but then they steal upon us where our Bowls are crowned with superfluity In jejuniis in castitate 2 Cor. vi What St. Paul hath coupled let us not divide fastings go first then follows pureness and chastity Secondly How many brawls and unmanly combates have we seen Nay how much bloud spilt under the Ensign of a Tavern Ivy bush Memento te sanguinem terrae bibere says Androcides in Pliny Wine is but the bloud of the earth and bloud toucheth bloud says the Prophet Hosea Antonius vino gravis sitiebat sanguinem says Seneca When Antonius his head turned round with drink he thirsted for the bloud of his enemies After Riot follows strife says St. Paul Rom. xiii I will fill them with wine and dash them one against another says the Prophet Jeremy Chap. xiii It is a sweet thing that men must fall at odds and stand nicely upon their terms of Honour in their drink when no man can disgrace them so much as their own intemperance which hath made them beasts Is that a time to strive for Mastery when they are the vilest servants upon earth to their own brutish appetite Thirdly Superfluity of drink it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the draught of foolishness Such a misery in my opinion that I would think men had rather lose their right arm than the government of their reason if they knew the Royalty thereof Wine and the foolishness of Idolatry were in the Feasts of Belshazzar And let St. Austin in his Epist 64. be well discussed and it will be found that quaffing which was used to be celebrated every year at the Tombs of the Martyrs was the first thing that brought in Offerings and Prayers for the dead a most erroneous Doctrine St. Basil calls Wine-bibbers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Idols of the Gentiles for as David describes Idols in the Psalms so they have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and understand not Lastly Whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sobriety is the sustentation of that which decays in man drunkenness is the utter decay of the body It was all the excuse that Callisthenes had for himself when he refused Alexanders drinking Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I had rather want your Feast than stand in need of Aesculapius And when I see new Taverns multiply the next thing I look to see is to have more Apothecaries set up and more Physicians practise among us That then which bereaves our bodies of health and our minds of reason that which puts fury into our hands and fire into our breasts is that it which is grown the mean mans Recreation and the great mans Solemnity O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you Satisfie me in one question and I will ask no more To rob a man of his Garment or his Purse would you not think it dishonourable for you to do And Theft to be punished by the Kings Laws But I pray you which is the greater robbery to force or flatter your Friend to kindness whereby he loseth his reason which is the Vessel of Gods grace or to bereave him of a little money which is the instrument of fortune Whosoever hath been guilty of this crime to seduce another into weakness if his heart do not burn within him for shame know that Foelix the corrupt Governour was more conscionable for Foelix trembled when Paul did preach of temperance Of all other sins surfeiting of meats and drinks is a transgression of private flattery for every costly junquet is to content nature to perfect nature to strengthen nature and poor nature is as innocent of these things as the Idol Bel that had the name indeed but tasted not the Kings Provision Cum corpus impinguo hostem adversus meipsum nutrio says St. Bernard To cram up our body too much is to maintain a civil Rebel within our own skin and bone Si contenti erimus naturâ tam supervacuus est coquus quà m miles says Seneca In Peace what use have we of Souldiers God forbid but their service should be rewarded nobly but then we have no imployment for their service So if we go no further than the sustenance of mere Nature we shall have no use of Cookery Beasts and Fishes and the Fowls of the Air find that at hand which is fit for their sustenance Non fuit noverca natura ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere was Nature a Stepdame to man only that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be furnished Adam went out of Paradise with a full stomach he sunk like a Ship over-laden with Traffick but Lazarus went fasting to heaven scarce fraught with the crums of
Dives Table Moses did fast upon Mount Sinai when he talked with God but in the Valley beneath the people sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Elias did not drink for forty days at length he did pray for rain and had drink from heaven But Luxury corrupts the Air and breeds sterility Tot curiis decuriis ructantibus acescit coelum says Tertullian by an excellent Hyperbole Daniel by his slender food of pulse and water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says St. Basil taught the Lions to hunger and want their prey all night when he was cast into their Den. Therefore foul shame it was for the Pharisees says the same Father to look sowerly and sickly when they wanted their repast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why did they not rejoyce rather for the healthfulness of their soul Wherefore when thou fastest anoint thy head and wash thy face says our Saviour You would think by this that a Fast were the celebration of some Bridal He was no Benefactor in Greece that did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mend their diet No Emperour for the people of Rome that did not enter into his Kingdom with a Congiary or Banquet But the Saints of God will not let us know when or what day they went to heaven without a Fast before it Let not this Doctrine give occasion to the Wealthy of this Kingdom to lessen their Magnificence and pinch their Table Charitable house-keeping hath been always the honour of this Realm and a blessing destined for the poor But whatsoever your eye beholds when you set before you plenteous provision will you think as the Epicure of Rome did that the Table is furnished for your own throat and boast that Lucullus sups with Lucullus No Beloved look upon it as the Father of a Family whose eyes wait upon your benevolence look upon it as the Steward of the poor whose mouths shall bless God that hath enlarged your heart to do good unto them And be not like the larded Epicure that eateth like Behemoth Job xl 16 whose force is in the navel of his belly What unfitness is in such a corps for speculation of knowledge What dulness to Prayer and Devotion Had we not need of a long Lent between our Shroving and our Easter And besides the sin of the gurmundizing Glutton I must not spare to tell you that there is luxuria in modico a riotous diet which longs after nothing but dainties and delicates As to be wanton stomacht after Mandrakes with Rachel to long after the fruits of Pontus and Asia with Lucullus To affect strange Cookery of France and Italy Why should you make more of your corruptible bodies than our Saviour did of his glorified body Ecquid habetis filioli Children have you any thing to eat Do but observe the prohibition of meats in the old Law neither herbs nor roots nor any homely food were forbidden but the curiosity of some delicious flesh was denied to the children of Israel They had their Quails indeed in the Wilderness when they lusted and they that fasted three days in the Desart with our Saviour had nothing but two fishes and five barly loaves among two thousand Chuse you with whether of these you would make your Table They with the Quails had the curse of God and these had the blessing of our Saviour It is a mystery methinks that Father Jacob sent away his Honey and Spices Nuts and Almonds for a Present unto Joseph to buy him coarser food I mean the Corn of Egypt Nos oleris coma nos siliqua foeta legumine paverit innocuis Epulis says the sweet Prudentius In Ethnick Rome a Senator was charged to keep so mean a Table by the Law called Centussis that a Mess of Friers now adays would rise an hungry from it Ignorance it is wilful ignorance that hath made the world so riotous both in Gluttony and Drunkenness because forsooth these are such sins as are not forbidden in the Ten Commandments Not to trouble you with many conjectures why God did so I will give you this answer for your utmost satisfaction Nothing is forbidden in the Ten Commandments Nisi directè deordinet hominem ad Deum aut ad proximum says Hales except it be a transgression directly against God or our Neighbour Gluttony and drunkenness are principally inordinate passions not against God and our Neighbour but against our own body But doth this diminish the guilt of these sins No Beloved but rather they do many ways dispose a man to disorder himself both to God and his Neighbour God is often blasphemed bloud spilt lust provoked the Lords day violated the Magistrate disobeyed and next to the pronity of original sin intemperance of meats and drinks is the fuel of all sins Wherefore be a Rechabite or the next to a Rechabite in surfeit and immoderation to drink no Wine There is but one thing remains to dispatch our exercise for this time I have made a large discourse how Fasting and Temperance are the third Encomium or praise of the Rechabites Indeed David doth wish it above all curses to the enemies of the Lord that their Table may be made a snare But for mensa laqueus that a prodigal Table is a snare to a good conscience it is no strange thing What say you to inedia laqueus To fast and subdue the body is made a greater snare as the Devil hath contrived it among our Romish Adversaries I knew the Devil could tempt an innocent to offend with eating but would you think he could take advantage upon an empty stomach Would you think that Lent and a few Ember Weeks should be called Lutrum peccatorum A satisfaction for sin To cross this error that it was not abstinence from meats and drinks simply taken which did commend us unto God therefore as we lost the knowledge of God by Gluttony and eating Gen. iii. So the Second Adam was known to his Disciples and Cleophas thrice after his Resurrection as they were at meat to shew that the Table of sobriety was sanctified in the Lord. Wherefore let the boast of the proud Pharisee I fast twice a week be made a Collect in the Roman Prayer-book We are tied to say grace unto God when we receive our meat but these men expect most impiously that God should say grace and give them thanks for fasting especially if it were a Vow as this was of the Rechabites Nunquam bibemus for ever we will drink no wine It is a blessed conspiracy when sundry souls confederate themselves together to serve the Lord. Glad was Davids heart to have company to go to the Altar I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. Indeed the Spouse of Christ is not one stick of Juniper or a single lump of Frankincense though never so sweet but Fasciculus Myrrhae a bundle of Myrrh Cant. i. Faith in unity it is the glory of Christianity I know not
before his fellows and so was sent of his Errand An old Wife in Greece was as crafty in this forgery as any Monk of them all She vowed to drink nothing but water until she saw an hundred Suns Centum soles de puro non nisi fonte bibam Well the reservation was that she lookt through the holes of a Sieve and therein saw a thousand representations of the body of the Sun Per crebra foramina cribrum inspicit soles callida mille videt But will cousenage and equivocation serve to excuse a Votary absit God is not mocked I will spend no more of your leisure but to give a brief answer to one question Is Christ so austere that he doth reclaim against all dispensation no says Aquinas you are loose again if the thing in vow be either simpliciter malum inutile aut majoris boni impeditivum if it be sinful nay if it be unuseful nay if it cross the accomplishment of a greater good This is good allowance and well spoken Hear then what another says There is no dispensation for any Vow as it is a Vow says Scotus but take him right and he means well For as it stands not with civil peace that any Law as it is a Law should be broken but it stands with wisdom to disannul pernicious Laws now no man ever after breaks the Law because it is a Law no longer when it is disannulled So the matter of an unlawful Vow being scanned it is held fit by prudent Governors and Teachers that it should be a Vow no longer then that which remains a Vow is always obligatory that which is pronounced no Vow is not violated but quite extinguished Whatsoever Covenant Bondmen or Idiots Children or Madmen cast themselves into it skills not what they say both for want of liberty to do what they would and for want of reason to know what they should But in a person both of liberty and reason if that which was undertaken to give advantage to Devotion turn to be a snare rather than an help magis est corrigenda temeritas quà m solvenda promissio says St. Austin For herein the things vary and not the will of the Votary and so ipso facto he is free before God The careful Pilot sets his Adventure to a certain Haven and would turn neither to the right hand nor to the left if the winds were as constant as the Loadstone but they blow contrary to his expectation Suppose ye how a Rechabite protesting non bibam è fructu geniminis to drink no wine had lived after the Institution of our Saviours Supper when He consecrated the fruit of the Grape and said drink ye all of this would it pass for an answer at the Holy Communion to say we will drink no wine No more than if he had sworn before not to eat a Paschal Lamb or any sower Herbs quite against the Institution of the Passover A most learned Bishop of our own Church resolves this Controversie thus potentius est Christi sacramentum quà m votum hominis There is enough in this Chapter to stride over this doubt if you mark it Jonadab indented with God that He and his Seed should live in Tabernacles for ever and in Tabernacles they did live for three hundred years Then comes the King of Babylon with an Army into the Country to invade the Land It was dangerous now to live in Tabernacles there was no High-Priest I assure you to absolve them no money given to the Publicans of the Church for a Dispensation but we said Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the Army of the Chaldaeans and Syrians and let us dwell at Jerusalem The Vow was unprofitable Tabernacles dangerous and so the Bond is cancelled Yet Beloved do not take all the liberty due unto you if I may advise you there are two things which you may chuse to unty the knot of a Vow dispensationem aut voti commutationem The peremptory rejecting of a bad Vow and that is lawful and the changing thereof into some other Vow and that is more expedient that God may have some service done unto him in eodem genere by way of a vow It is a satisfaction which is used in Civil Commerce between man and man Praeceptum non habeo consilium autem do I think it is the fittest to do so unto God And so much for the Obligation of Vows and the Dispensation both proved by the example of the Rechabites which by method propounded is the conclusion of this Text. THE FIRST SERMON UPON JOHN iv 13 14. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst THere is not a more superficial part of Science than an Emblem when a moral Lesson is delivered in the Riddle of a Picture yet in those shadows of invention if rules of wisdom be not better understood I am sure they are better remembred My Text well conceived is but an Emblem for your fancy must apprehend as if it saw two fountains the one a deep Lake salt and unsavoury which carries the transitory joys and riches of this world upon it and they that lap at it are never content The other a crystal stream running with heavenly blessings and those that taste of it their soul is satisfied Satan shewed our Saviour all this world and the glory of it in the twinkling of an eye our Saviour hath shewn the woman of Samaria all the vaninity that is the glory of this world and the happiness of a better as it were in two Pitchers of water The whole Scripture is a living fountain and this Text is fons in fonte a sweet spring running by it self out of that great fountain of life It is impossible to match it with a better similitude and I think as the case stands it would be hard to fit our selves with a more convenient For the Similitude it self it lays two contraries so fairly together that it makes the good part shine much the better and by setting the grace of God which is the immortal seed in our soul against the meat which perisheth it invites the appetite which is not altogether unrelishable to the better banquet To our selves it is thus proper for several exhortations belong to the miserable times of persecution and to the plentiful days of peace When dreadful calamities are rife men must be taught to be contented with their losses when peace brings in abundance take heed ye thirst not after too much then men must be taught to be contented with their gains I learn this difference from my Saviours mouth Mat. xvi 24. against the days of sorrow thus he prepares his Disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me In the next verse against the days of peace and riches What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul
Gregory frames this clear Meditation upon it Persecutionis tempore ponenda est anima pacis tempore frangenda sunt desideria In the time of persecution lose your life that you may gain Christ that Lesson God be praised is out of date with us in the time of peace lose your vast concupiscence that you may gain content Here comes in our part who have leisure to gather great store and peaceable security to enjoy and increase it for that we may lay our desires level with a moderate fortune it is fit above all things to know that you shall never measure these earthly things to the bottom and you cannot measure the joys of heaven to the top so said our Saviour to the Samaritan as I have read it unto you c. Now to bring on the division of the Text I lay this ground Man is a most desiring and a wishing creature his heart doth reach it self forth so much to get and gain that it resembles nothing better than an house with a deep Mote round about it but for the most part the mote is full of puddle water if that were cast out which is the first part to be handled a water which makes us always thirst there is a sluce to let in better which is contained in the second For these two shall be the general heads to which I will refer all that I shall speak the lading out of bad waters from our soul and the letting in of better I will not venture beyond the former of these two at this time Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again And St. Austin preaching upon those words did thus divide them Et verum est secundum hanc aquam verum est secundum quod significat haec aqua It is true being spoken upon those waters drawn out of Jacobs well and upon any other water and it is true being spoken upon that unto which the Element of water did allude that is the riches and glory of this world according to the very waters which our Saviour lookt upon when he preacht I will speak to these three points 1. That all the refection of our body is commended in the phrase of drinking waters 2. Heat consumes our moisture and makes us thirst which is the punishment of our nature 3. We thirst and thirst again which is the punishment of our sensual appetite According to the water unto which our Saviour alluded I have three things more to observe 1. That all these worldly things are compared to waters which slide away 2. Here is the greediness of our heart to be filled with them we would pour them in and drink them down 3. Here 's their emptiness they will never fill us for drink both much and often yet whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again And first a few words litterally of that outward Element which the Woman of Samaria came to draw in her Pitcher upon which this is the former observation that all the refection of our body especially that which cools our thirst is delivered in the phrase of drinking waters Indeed before temperance was perverted this phrase was well understood of all men to drink waters From the Creation to the Floud above sixteen hundred years it is affirmed by divers scarce denied by any that the World knew not what belonged to Wine or to any artificial liquor the great Rivers of the Earth were all their Sellarage and they filled their Cup from thence without cost or labour Therefore in the first of Genesis God stinted our first Parents and their Posterity what they should eat namely the fruits of several Trees all but one and the Herbs of the Field but they were not stinted what they should drink because their nature was inclined to nothing but to the Fountain Element And Noah having never perceived the malignity and headiness of too much Wine neither in himself nor any other person surely not out of intemperance we may well excuse him that but out of ignorance he became drunken It is too much perhaps to look back so far as before the Deluge now we are sure that every Creature of God is sanctified by Prayer and Thanksgiving to them that use it well it is the Lord that makes the Vine to swell with comfortable juyce that men may take it for infirmity of health and upon occasions of chearfulness yet the good Patriarchs would never lay down the primitive sobriety of the World I will go no further to shew it than the verse before my Text. Says the Woman Art thou greater than our Father Jacob who drank himself of this Well and his Children and his Cattle The Flocks and Herds quenched their thirst with no worse than their Master did according to which simplicity of diet God in the beginning allotted the same food for the Beasts that he made for Man Gen. i. 30. I have given you says He to Adam every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth c. and to every beast of the earth and to every foul of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat and it was so We and the Cattle you see had once the same allowance or there was very little to choose between our Pasture and theirs I will wind about no longer the scope is to let you see the difference between the frugal institutions of nature and the monstrous inventions of that luxury which at this time prevails among us Why doth the Scripture express all manner of Beverage in forty places by the name of water but to insinuate sobriety Why doth Gods word in an hundred places call the whole repast of the belly by the name of bread but to insinuate frugality The Scripture makes but two words of that whereof affected gluttony hath made twenty thousand The Apostles did break bread from house to house and eat their meat with gladness Acts 2.46 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alimentum non delicias says St. Chrysostom plain necessary nourishment is meant which nature earns for and cannot want not piled dishes one upon another to the intolerable scorn of God Almighty's first Laws as if you did not set but build a Banquet Our Saviour will condemn you out of your own mouth if you pray his Prayer as you ought Give us this day our daily bread if the word be a Synechdoche one part of sustenance for all Gods gifts I know it is so yet it circumscribes our desires to ask a little and no excess and if you pray with Christs words and not with Christs meaning God will not bless but curse your supplications As the Fable goes of Dido that she asked no more Land than an Ox Hide would compass but she cut that Hide into small thongs and took in as much ground as to build a City so it is a cheat to ask God for bread and water and to mean all
manner of superfluity The Morallists and Poets of the Heathen were wise men and when they character the best and happiest times of the World I am not presumptuous but confident of my knowledge that they all insist upon this that the men of that Age studied not for their Diet but took the voluntary Offerings of the Springs and Mountains Now we have left that praise and happiness to the Beasts and Fowls of the air who take the next thing they light upon to satisfie their thirst and hunger Non fuit noverca nobis natura ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere It is our own fault that we consume our Revenues and spend all our labour as the Wise-man says for the belly Nature is not so much a Stepdame to us alone that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be magnificently furnished This is the only conveniency of great sins which are very expenceful though not for the sin yet for the charge sake they use to vanish away by little and little I have the more hope my labour shall not be fruitless to exhort you to fall back to some laudable measure of ancient frugality Though it be a thing grown quite out of the constitution of your bodies to thirst for water as my Text says yet I would you would thirst less for wine and as one said though once our Saviour was so gracious to turn water into wine yet it were happy now on our part if he would infuse such temperance into us as to turn our wine into water See into what luxury we have sopt our Souls in the revolution of time see how we are metamorphosed in our appetite those Wines which were wont to be sold by the Apothecaries for a Drug are now become every Meals liquor at our Tables and Water which was the ordinary drink of man now it is never used but as a Potion and for some Medicinal operation So that which was our Physick is become our ordinary Drink and that which was our daily Drink is become our Physick Satis est populo fluviusque Ceresque though bread for hunger and water for thirst are but a bare enough yet such expressions from our Saviour who knows what is fittest for us will make the most of us I hope ashamed when we compare it with an Epicures too much But whether temperate or intemperate whether the poor Beggar that drinks of the running Brook or the rich Glutton that quaffs the bloud of the Grape at sundry times they feel a scarcity and want of moisture it is an affliction upon our nature that all men have their thirst The Schoolmen ask and which is more they contend among themselves whether hunger and thirst had befallen Mankind if they had never sinned against the Lord The Controversy comes to this issue This heavenly part of us which God breathed into the body it is both Anima and Spiritus a Soul and a Spirit and therefore it causeth both an animal life which consists in the faculties of nourishment augmentation of every part generation c. and it causeth by Gods gracious gift a spiritual life making this corruptible flesh of ours incorruptible and transfusing many more of its own excellencies into this gross substance and then it is a glorified Body These by the Divine ordination were appointed after a large space to be one after another so says St. Paul That was not first which was spiritual but that which was natural and afterward that which is spiritual It was necessary therefore while it was a natural body that sustenance must be taken and at such a time when man knew right well by his own constitution that it was fit to repair nature he could not err and be deceived in that in the state of innocency and at that time his appetite would call for it as a pleasant and wholesome thing to be taken for you know what a loathing thing it is to take meat and drink into the mouth without an appetite Here 's the scruple plainly laid down before you whether hunger and thirst did provoke such an appetite in man before he fell into disobedience I answer that this Controversy is but a bare mistaking of a word If hunger and thirst be largely taken for that sense which a man hath how the stomach must be replenisht for the maintenance of life so Adam before he fell had sensum indigentiae a far more exacting feeling than we have when nature was in indigency and must be supplied but strictly and properly hunger and thirst habent adjunctam molestiam cruciatum they come upon us with some molestiousness and torment and so they are only incident to wicked man where punishment is manifold ways inflicted upon transgression Where heat doth dry up moisture and parch the juyce of the veins there our thirsty soul doth gape like a barren and dry Land that is when one elementary quality doth feed upon another and consume it But before sin entred into the World there was such an orderly mixture of all parts in us that the Elements were at peace in our Body no quality did seek to over-master another and corrupt it but the pangs and girds of thirst did ensue upon just revenge Reason proved rebellious to the Law of God the sensual appetite grew rebellious to reason and the distemperature of the body grew rebellious to appetite Shall I need to tell you how the Israelites in a sore thirst were ready to renounce God in the Wilderness or how the strength of Sampson fainted till the Jaw bone besmeared with the bloud of his Enemies did run with water or how Darius in extremity of drought was glad to drink of a most putrified puddle Every man hath felt such anguish in himself at some time or other every little scarceness threatens death or is worse than death to them that want the friendship of God And as our appetite is never but sick of longing so the body troubles it with a perpetual craving that which it takes to day is forgot to morrow as if it never had been Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again That which nourisheth the Soul of man must be immortal like the Soul but that which nourisheth a corruptible Body it self is corruptible One lean Harvest in Egypt made seven rich ones be quite forgotten A short Fast will gnaw the bowels though Ahasuerus his long Feast had gone before it Whatsoever you taste the pleasure of it is not remembred in a minute the strength and virtue of it is gone in a few hours A man that is grown to the end of a full age if he would reckon by measure and proportion how much waste in threescore and ten years one Belly hath made it would make him wonder and say to himself am I run on the score so far for my daily sustenance is it not due that my Carkass should rot in the
Earth or in the Sea since my flesh hath been the consumption both of Sea and Land And again since we are born to that care and distress that every day must have his several necessity of hunger and thirst be not luxurious upon one entertainment as if at once you would spend all the brood of nature and leave nothing for to morrow To morrow must be cared for You cannot say to your appetite this is thy stint and hereafter thou shalt have no more It was but poor provision to send Hagar and her Child away with one Bottle of water into the desart Wilderness when the Bottle was spent her desire did come again upon her like an armed man for whosoever c. Yet this is not meant altogether to throw us into affliction that we must cater for the stomach every day It makes us often cast down our eyes upon the necessities of the Poor it makes us often lift up our eyes to the providence of our Heavenly Father it compels the Societies of men to seek out many industrious Vocations and to disrellish idleness In these regards it was an extravagant Prayer which the Woman of Samaria made in the next verse Sir give me such water to drink as I may not thirst neither come hither to draw But in some particular persons Gods vengeance is bent sore to vex their appetite where water nor wine nor any liquor hath vertue to satiate their thirst when that which they drink doth them no good but it is as if they had taken nothing As God gave bread to the Israelites but sent leanness withal into their souls So Haggai brought news of the Lords wrath unto the people c. i. v. 6. Ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled Some Heathen Lawgivers attempted to rate every private Family in their Cities what they should spend at their Board and at last one of the wisest of them concluded there could be no rule given in that case because an heavenly hunger sometimes lights upon some men which devours in excess and is not satisfied It is the grace of God which gives meat in due season so that health and comfort go together with it I will borrow this Similitude to give it light Sometimes when we go to Physick for any Disease we are bidden to seeth such and such herbs in running water and then to drink the water We know it is not the water helpeth the sick man but the decoction of the infusion So it is not bread or drink consider'd barely in it self which doth nourish the body but the blessing of God infused into it When the Lord is pleased not to bless your victuals with his goodness soak what you can into your skin you shall thirst as if you never drank and again if He will let his power be shewed in our weakness you shall have the gift to abstain from all manner of liquors as if you never thirsted Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi potus in corpore says St. Hierom the Holy Ghost is called our Food not only in a mystical sense but sometimes God makes his Spirit supply the place of bodily refection that we shall not need to ask for it He that corroborated Elias to eat nothing for fourty days could have continued that Miracle upon his Servant for ever I will not reach for an instance beyond that Story which was the occasion of my Text. Our Saviour came hungry and thirsty to Jacob's Well sent his Disciples into the Town to buy provision in the interim demands drink of a strange Woman yet falling into a Divine discourse with this Woman forgets his hunger and thirst and when food was come he did not regard it And I am not incredulous of such Stories which report of long continued Fasts in devout men who spent their time so earnestly in Prayer that they put their body to an agony if not to an exstasie in these the Spirit did support the Fabrick of Nature instead of corruptible things It is a good thing says St. Paul that the heart be established with grace and not with meats Heb. xiii 9. To conclude this Argument God shewed in his Prophet Elias that he can find out sundry ways to uphold the state of our flesh One way Elias was fed by a miraculous multiplication of Oil and Meal with the Widow of Sarephath 2. By the Ministry of the Ravens in the Wilderness 3. By putting strength into his bones and marrow forty days to need no reparation And fourthly by using the Creature with temperance and sobriety at his daily repast so he did feel the continual urging of the appetite as all men do upon the face of the earth For whosoever drinketh c. So far upon the Text litterally and upon no other waters but such as the Woman of Samaria drew out of Jacobs Well In the Allusion Interpreters make it extend to all kind of worldly pleasure wherein our heart rejoyceth This one piece of natures store which gives but imperfect content stands for all the rest qui unam noverit omnes noverit It is in every thing else under the Sun as it is in this one Creature our thoughts are not quiet when they have enjoyed them no not a day you cannot gulp so much down of these earthly delights but ye shall thirst again The first thing which must be noted hereupon is the ground of the Similitude that all these vanities which we affect are justly compared to waters that slide away Whatsoever those fancies be that ensweeten your affections towards them they come unto you like that young Prophet whom Elisha sent to Jehu to Ramoth Gilead says Elisha Thou shalt anoint him King over Israel then open the door and fly and tarry not Salute him with good luck and be gone Good fortune as we call it sends no body of her errand but they dispatch as suddenly and fly away If any man that loves this World expostulate with himself that his pleasures dodg him as thus When will my delights continue for a time when shall I have rest from thirsting after more and enjoy that which is past O says the Tempter it will come anon you shall see it by and by Alass what a sickness is expectation which is no better than a doting delusion As the Mother of Sisera looked out at a Window to see her Son come home in triumph and she speaks to her wise Ladies in Debora's Song Why are his Charriot wheels so long a coming Look not after transitory delights as if a thing which is always in fluxu could be made permanent the Devil and all his Alchymistry cannot fix this Mercury A River may be shut up by a Frost and when the Sun thaws the ice the stream runs his current again So if you can attain to mortifie your heart as I think old Barzillai did whose affections to all worldly alacrity were Ice and Marble he cared not he said to
David for the pomp of Jerusalem nor for the taste of Meats nor for the noise of Musick then your inward delights are a River shut up the waters of comfort flit not out of the channel But if you desire to have a Portion in this life if you desire to taste a little of this honey as Jonathan did which hangs in the Trees round about you plenus rimarum effluis then the River opens your earnings and your desires will break out in a thousand Sluces If a Chrystal Glass were durable and not obnoxious to breaking with a fall it would be as estimable perhaps as a Silver Plate though the substance be not so precious So the vanities of this World which are but water or rather froth that passeth away had they been stable and of long endurance which God forbid for then who almost could have withstood their temptation as base as they are in themselves I say if they had not been so transitory they had deceived many instead of that which our Saviour commends so highly the water of Eternal Life But there is not such a terminus diminuens in nature not any word of more rejectment than to say they consume as fast as they are born they perish in their making and come to a perpetual end If I see a Meteor make a fair shew in a bright Evening I may take it for a Star but if it once glide in a flake of fire like a swift arrow I contemn it for a putrid exhalation so Honors and Riches make a gay sight but because they are as transitory as dreams and shadows I despise them Shall I moil my self like the Grecian Champions at Olympus for no more than a Garland of leaves that will wither before I go to bed for a corruptible Crown as St. Paul calls it How little did the recompense answer the danger These men you will say were fit to be laught at As they lived in a silly Age so they sped accordingly But now the World 's grown wiser they do not aim at a few flowers but at the whole Garden as Ahab did not at leaves but at fruit I warrant you and the trees that bear the fruit and the Lands and Lordships that the trees grow upon both to them and to their Posterity This will come to some value and not to be slighted like the labour of the Heathen for a Garland or for a corruptible Crown Yet for all this I will and must maintain that worldlings deserve the application both of this and of a worse Similitude I confess that the Heathen in their emulatory Sports aimed at trifles scarce fit to hang on the Posts of their Doors and no way comely for their head yet trifles as they were they engaged but a trifle against them their limbs and body but you venture your soul the Divine part of Man for things that may stick as little by you as a flower of the Garden Aut habebunt finem sui aut finem tui either your pleasure or your life or the whole World may pass away in a moment What a rotten pillar we lean upon which is subject to the hazard of three imminent casualties where lies the wit now they hazard Grass for Grass their Body against a Garland you hazard Heaven against Earth your Soul for Honours and increase of Substance you stake the hope of Salvation to drink in a few pleasing relishes of this World which fall away like water that runneth apace Because time is as transitory as these fickle things of fortune which I speak of therefore my discourse shall pass from this point without any longer trouble to you Now St. Austin observes how the pleasures of our natural life are not simply resembled here to River waters which you may take up with your hand and are in every mans fight that passeth by Our Saviour was now at Jacobs Well and he that will drink of it must draw it out from a deep bottom Et voluptas seculi est aqua in puteo seu profunditate tenebrosâ so our terrestrial pleasures are waters in a deep pit with which if you desire to fill your Pitcher this Body I mean which is an earthen Vessel you must bestow your labour to fetch it up from a low Abyssus from a dark profundity They that plunge themselves into delights of all fashions and conditions are not able to tell you how deep their own concupiscence is nor how far it would descend into vanities Tiberius the Emperor I confess no common example the worst not of men but even of four-footed beasts When he had run over all kind of pleasure that was known and common then he puts down the Bucket into the Well to fetch up rarities of sensuality and was so witty in nothing as to find out new studied pleasures unheard of to all former impiety Novum instituit officium à voluptatibus says Suetonius he created an Officer to reward such as brought forth new invented stratagems Are you not afraid when you go so low into these vile earthly things from one sensuality to another deeper and deeper I say are you not afraid that the next step should be into the bottomless pit A fugitive Servant in Plutarch being well nigh overtaken ran out of the way to hide himself in a Mill and the Mill was in those days instead of an House of Correction to torment Runnagate Servants O says the Master ubi te occuparem nisi in pistrino This is the very place where I wisht to find you So shall the Lord speak to those Epicures that make a mystery of their pleasures you are in the right way for my vengeance to find you out when you run into the dark and secret corners of voluptuousness as if you digged into Hell The deeper we reach into the Well Satan knows we must stoop down the more David complains what a snare it is when a man is enticed to dive as it were into a large bottom for his vanity incurvaverunt animam meam they have pressed down my soul Psal lvii 7. like Corn that 's beaten flat to the earth with a violent storm and when it is laid the Fowls of the air devour it As the eye of Cain which looked down dejectedly upon the earth was a sign of desperation is it not worse when the will and desire of the Soul tends downward to this base Element and to these transitory joys So it was with Israel when the Lord had forsaken them and left them to the dregs of their own carnal mind Es li. 23. I will put thee into the hand of them that have said unto thy soul bow down that we may go over thee A certain Parable and a Story go together on this wise Luke xiii A woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift up her self And a Fig-tree was planted in a good soil which for three years together bore no fruit Here 's the
to bless your Olive branches according to the number of your Posterity Therefore to end this Point drink your waters for your own thirst and not for others for he that deviseth to leave an huge mass behind him is sure he shall take nothing at all away Aeneas Sylvius celebrates this Story among the actions of Saladine the Great he knew his end was at hand and therefore bad a Souldier carry a winding-sheet upon the top of a Spear through all his Army and proclaim with a loud voice Ex tantis opibus nihil aliud Saladinus secum tulit Saladine carried nothing away with him but that of all his magnificent fortune O bewitching vanity therefore to devour the Fatherless and the Widow to swallow down ill-gotten wealth to drink so greedily of these stoln waters and out of so many Lordships it is well at last if your Heirs will allow you an handful of herbs and flowers to carry you sweet to your grave I have shewed what a vanity it is in man to have a greedy desire to be filled with the vanities of this world If you will be mocked like Tantalus you may dap at these waters and always miss you may suck like an horse-leech and never be satisfied this I deduce from the last part of my Text terra inanis as I believe Moses means mystically Gen. i. 2. The earth is void and empty and all the joys upon earth have such an emptiness that they cannot fill for whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again Man disquieteth himself in vain so David begins and St. Chrysostom descants thus upon the complaint the Seas are rouled about with a storm and grow calm again within an hour the Air is driven violently by the winds and at last it is hush the earth sometimes quakes and moves and by and by it stands fast upon his Pillars only the heart of man is never at peace never but hunting for some new-nothing which it had not before So St. Chrysostom runs over three of the Elements shewing that their disquietness and troubles are composed again now I had rather instance in the Element of the fire which he omitted than in any of the rest a devouring fire though it be as great as Nebuchadnezzars Furnace goes out by little and little and every man knows how not by throwing wood upon the Pile but by drawing away the combustible stuff so that it shall have no matter to spend so the appetite of man hath an hot fume and a scaulding fire within will you go about to extinguish it as fools do by throwing heaps upon it Or rather by substraction of all superfluities and then it will go out of it self Will you attend to those reasons which the heathen hammered out why you shall never take the heart of man without a new and a changeable Wish One speaks Astronomically that the Planet of the Moon being the lowest doth most predominate over the composition of man and therefore her continual increasings and decreasings do lead our heart Luna rursus nascitur impletur sed impleta non permanet sed rursus minuitur If this cause hit the nail right we should ebb sometimes as well as flow in our wishes which is not incident to our continual thirstiness Rather says a second such things as we desire their substance doth not enter into our heart but simulacra umbra earum their colours and shadows and a shadow or a fancy takes no room the place is as empty for all them as ever it was before A third makes this ingenuous observation Nemo nostrûm se esse unum cogitat Every man reckons of himself to be more than one rather to be a great Troop than a single Creature And because he may be a Sire of many Generations he wearies himself with wishing much as if he would provide for a multitude that could not be numbred But take these two Reasons in a Theological way the greater part of men glut themselves with pleasures that stink in Gods nostrils they creep into the advancements of honour by undeserving means they grow rich by deceit and oppression wherefore the Lord sends a disturbance upon their Spirit that they take as little pleasure in that they have as in that they have not They drink the waters of bitterness therefore they shall thirst the more and be tormented But where there are moderate and lawful pleasures well merited honours just and godly gain I dare say no such vertiginous vexation shall fall upon them When God gives riches he gives quietness withal unto the heart The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he doth add no sorrows with it Prov. x. 22. Besides since we refuse the Lord for the chief and principal content his curse comes down upon all things else that they shall never content us When Julian did attempt to build up the Temple of Jerusalem again as many stones as were laid in the day were thrown down by God's vengeance in the night In the day time every man is building a Babel in his own heart and laying stone upon stone after he hath slept and is awake again his heart begins to meditate upon new crotchets and devices he vilifies all that he did intend before unless he can frame it better and thus every day brings new sorrows and imaginations to the Appetite The Prophet Hosea doth insinuate this similitude that the heart doth itch after this delight and the other but never resolve it self where it will stay As some Youngsters love to court and wooe their Mistris many years but never to consummate a Marriage So the Prophet Chap. ii 7. She shall follow after her Lovers but she shall not overtake them Alas how can we overtake what we would have when we set our selves no bounds but run after every thing that is before us It is like the Fable of the Hare and the Hedghog the Hedghog challenged the Hare to run And because the Hare was far the swifter a thousand Hedghogs laid themselves in several distances in the way and when the Hare had out-run an hundred there were nine hundred still before it So if our covetous affections do prick us on to over-take every Hedghog that runs before we shall put our selves to an endless labour and weary our souls with vanity Set your self this short Stage which I shall tell you and it is quickly run Whatsoever the Lord gives me in this life my heart shall be contented if he will give me himself I shall be satisfied with his goodness as out of a River and he that drinketh of those waters which Christ shall give him He shall never thirst AMEN THE SECOND SERMON UPON JOHN iv 14. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst IN my former Text Christ told the Woman of Samaria no more than she and every body knew whosoever drinketh of this Elementary water shall thirst again but here 's a Lesson which neither
it 2. It makes us leave to thirst after vain delights by little and little 3. He that satiates his spirit with it in this life shall be discharged from all manner of thirst hereafter when he changeth this life to live with God for ever The first of these Propositions begets this lesson where sanctification hath moistned the inward man to the bottom and to the root there the heart is restless till it obtain a larger abundance of the spirit After this manner a good Proficient gains upon Gods blessing step by step Thou hast given me to know thee O Lord but confirm my faith also to believe in thee nay give me not onely to believe but to suffer for thy Names sake so shalt thou try and examine if there be any way of wickedness in me or if thou hast not reserv'd me for the Cup of afflictions yet prove me throughly by obedience grant that my works may please thee that I may do thy will on earth as it is in heaven Make thy Laws sweet unto my mouth sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Such a one is Marcianus the Anchorite chronicled by Theodoret One of his ancient acquaintance being in chase after his Game found him alone in a Desart What make you so far from your friends says the Huntsman and what make you so far in the Woods says Marcianus I am hunting for a Beast says he and I will not leave till I have taken it and I am hunting for my God says Marcianus and I will not leave till I have found him Such a one by Procopius his description was Justinian the Emperor and such an Example was worth a thousand nulla honorandi Dei satietas cum cepit he was never cloyed to do God honor he never thought his duty was enough in Religious service The more we bend our affection to heavenly things we shall be enflamed with more devotion as devotion encreaseth the more help shall be added the more help the more diligence and the more diligence the more glory Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur says one of the Moderns No man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of Heaven unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man it is well if you can keep at this stay and prove no worse Yet I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to the love of the World that if it were possible to measure out to a dram what quantity of righteousness would serve them to attain to salvation they would reach so far if the Grace of God would assist them but they would seek no further I say if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint and no more they would spare a labour for seeking beyond that point and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security Certainly there can be no living water already where there is no thirsting for more Whatsoever you know or hear of that any Saint living or departed hath done for Gods sake it is a shame for you if you do not covet to do as much or more than that at least if you be not sorry that your frailties make you come short of the best Speak thus to your own heart Should any of thy Servants love thee better than I should any of thy Disciples be more obedient than I for none of thine Elect is so much indebted to thy Passion as I am because none had so many sins to be forgiven Thus your Soul must thirst to be the nearest that shall stand before the presence of the Lord and count your self extreme lag in perfection until you desire to come equal with the principal Saints Lord let me love thee as Peter did Lord let me love thee more than these Some cried Hosanna and shouted for ioy when our Saviour went to Jerusalem some cut down branches of Palms that was a more real expression of his welcome some spared their Garments from their back and laid them in his way These were the formost in affection and what a becoming thing it was to be the best of all those that ran forth to meet our Saviour but as if one should wish always to be a Child and never come to manly growth so is a lumpish Christian who perswades himself that a moderate competency of righteousness is best let others if they will strive to be those green Olive trees that flourish in the House of the Lord. The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures and Plutarch tells of a Fish of which to eat a little is hurtful to eat it up all is medicinal True or false be the Story it comes fit to be applied Christ promiseth no blessing to him that doth but wet his lips with this living water a little spattering holiness will turn to hypocrisy the vertue of it abides with those that drink deep for the preserving and cherishing of a spiritual life and the thirsty Soul the more it drinks up the more it will cry out give me ever of this water to drink The second Experiment is this the water which Christ gives turns the edg of the appetite quite from this world and makes us leave to thirst after all other delights he that drinketh of this water though concupiscence cannot quite be rooted out yet he shall never long greedily after carnal lusts He that doth not hate his own Soul cannot be my Disciple is not this a Paradox for what shall it profit me to love all things else if I hate it well love it as it is Christs Soul altogether ravished with the love of him hate it as it was thine own Soul altogether ravished with the love of the world Tunc animam nostram benè odimus cum ejus carnalibus desideriis non acquiescimus says Gregory as a man seems to be ill affected to another if he deny him that he sues for so such heavenly resolutions by a Catachresis are called the hate of the Soul when we deny it satisfaction in foolish and earthly inclinations He that hath called promotion to honour or the fatness of riches or luxury or any such thing the darling of his heart it was for want of this water in my Text to cool the inflammation of his fever but if ever he receive a dose of it the new Wine is put in a new Bottle and both shall be preserved The grace of God doth supply the place of a Cherubin that stood with a flaming sword to keep Adam out of Paradise so the Holy Spirit will give the watch-word and cry out in the time of tentation turn aside and enter not into the paths of these pleasures these are not the Paradise into which you should come if you do there is a Sword that will cut you in twain and give you your portion with Hypocrites St. Austin observs upon the
sixth verse of this Chapter that Jesus being weary sat upon the Well quasi non alius fons esset quà m ipse Christus as who should say O ye Samaritans what Well do ye come forth to draw at that Pit from which ye drew of old is vanished but here 's a better sitting in the place a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. How ugly those things will appear to a regenerate man which in the days of unhappiness when sin did reign in his mortal body were the pride of his eyes how contemptibly he looks upon himself remembring how he was ambitious how high he thinks himself above the reach of fortune when he thinks not of high places The World would teach him wisdom how he may save his own the Gospel will teach him better wisdom to lose all for Christ before he could not see another glister and shine like a bigger Planet but he felt a gripe of emulation and his heart said oh that I were him or him but when he can truly say Vnto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul my conversation is in heaven then he can see no man abroad with whom he would change conditions and why all this O but because the new Wine hath filled the Bottle the Ram is offered up for a Burnt-offering and Abraham hath his Isaac untoucht Isaac is spiritual joy which Abraham cannot lose if the Ram which is carnal concupiscence be consumed instead of it and burnt to ashes Then Matthew leaves all his wealth with more delight than ever he got it then Paul esteems all the dignity he had in the Synagogue to be but dross for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ And you cannot hear too often what the holy Father St. Austin says of his own conversion that his fancy was in a good dream as if it heard a voice saying take up the Book and read and he pitcht upon these words Rom. xiii 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in chambering and wantonness not in rioting in drunkenness At that instant he felt a refrigeration within himself to cool the fire of lust which is kindled from Hell at that instant he laid his mouth to the Well of water nectareum bibit ore fontem and found it tempered with that ingredient of the Holy Ghost that he did never thirst It is a parabolical but a pious application which St. Austin maks upon the 28. of this Chapter The Woman of Samaria came forth with her Pitcher to draw water by which are moralized the unstable vanities that are as common as an open River Well upon some conference our Saviour reveals unto her that he was the Christ What 's next after that in the story the Woman left her water pot and went away into the City Now comes in Justins Parable the Water pot is this Appetite of ours made of clay and dirt with it we pluck up pernicious things from the hidden and dark pits of pleasure but she that knows Christ must abhor this Appetite and cast away her Pitcher quae credit in Christo renunciabit seculo leave your filthy desires behind you take them up no more and then Christ will take you up into his glory The third Experiment and the principal which extols this soveraign water comes now to be handled and it will serve fitly to conclude all 't is thus he that drinks of it liberally and thirstily unto the end of his life shall not only asswage the malignity of evil concupiscence now but shall be discharged of all manner of thirst hereafter when he changeth this life to live with God for ever Burdens heat the spirits and waste the moisture of the body and parch the throat with driness more than any thing Help a man that is so overladen with a comfortable draught of wine and you fortify and enable his strength to make him bear his carriage easily that he shall not sink under it but yet the burden remains upon his shoulders So in this time of our Pilgrimage sin will ever be a sore burden upon us and unless the spirit did comfort us it could not be supported but we have a draught of wine mingled with mirrh given us now to undergo the cross with fortitude and patience And in the day of Gods last visitation when He shall take thy soul into his rest thy burden shall be quite cast off and the tediousness shall be no more remembred Among the manifold mercies of God for which we are to bless his holy Name the pleasantest of them all is this Psal ciii Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Surely there is much in joyning those two things together in that verse thy mouth shall be satisfied with good things when thy youth is renewed like the Eagles which is a Paraphrase of the resurrection of the life to come He that opens the door of his heart when Christ knocks to come in he shall sup with Christ Revel iii. 20. And Gregory notes that the grace which he will minister to us in the Kingdom of Glory is called a Supper quia post prandium coena restat post coenam nullum convivium for after Dinner the stomach may look for another Meal but having supt it looks for no more repast that day but is satisfied So in this life we dine with Gods grace and look for an other Banquet in the next life we sup with Gods grace that 's the hidden manna which is food for ever qui credit in me non sitiet in aeternum he that believeth in me shall not thirst for ever Then to drink of this water is to believe the reason is because faith swallows the hidden mysteries of salvation without chewing or biting upon them with the unsanctified tooth of humane reason fides sine difficultate intrat in animam it goes down like drink into our bowels with great facility Believe therefore that this water will suffer no thirst to possess your soul when you shall enjoy the presence of God and be it unto you according to your faith We ought not to trust so much to that which we see or feel as to be confident of the fulfilling of Gods Promises Lazarus shall no more thirst at the Rich mans Gate but the rich unmerciful man shall thirst for a drop of water to cool his tongue Therefore let him that is in misery say I take my turn to want for a little while I shall be full hereafter the hungry shall be fed with good things and the rich shall be sent empty away Fret not therefore at the prosperity of an unjust man Would you take his gains his honors his pleasures told ten times over with his losses and afflictions to boot which he shall sustein hereafter I am sure you like not the bargain The Silk-worm begins to live in silk at this time and continues but for two or three months the Ground-worm will not change conditions
glory Thirdly He distributed to the Disciples and assumed them into the same works which himself did save only in the work of our Redemption but when he was acting that part either they fell asleep or run away as when he was laid hold upon to be crucified it was an exploit above a mortal man to assist it and would admit of no associate I have trodden the Wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me Isa lxiii 3. But the power of doing Miracles was communicated unto them for the edifying of the body of the Saints and that before a great Congregation where there were many witnesses that there was such virtue given to men as if Christ had said before them all these are they that shall work signs and wonders in my Name when I am gone to Heaven These are they indeed but to do such mighty things was an Heritage which they could bequeath again to their Sons and to their Sons Sons in all descending Generations As a Conqueror enters it may be in triumph into a City which he hath taken but when the Solemnity of the triumph is over a plain working-day fashion serves for after so the Gospel entred with triumph into the World by the power and pomp of Miracles overtopping all false Religions and captivating all imaginations but would you have Christianity to hold on its triumph when it hath vanquished both Judaism and Idolatry 1600 years ago Not so but as there is a time to every purpose under Heaven so there was a time to glorify God by Signs and Wonders and a time to believe though Signs are ceased But now was the season to communicate some share of that mighty vertue to the Apostles as well to prepare them to know their office as to prepare the People to know that those were the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God Lastly the Disciples received the Blessing immediately from Christ and they went between Him and the People to feed them with bread to teach us that it is for his Saints sake that the earth hath plenty of all things It was not unto them which murmured that God gave water of the rock but unto Moses that cried unto him It was to Elias that God gave rain after three years drought and not unto Ahab Forget not therefore which way all temporal Blessings come about There are holy and mortified men among us that spend the greatest part of their life in penance and devotion these make intercession for you that your Table may be furnished and though they do not give it you with their hand as the Disciples did in our present business they give it you with their Prayers when others revel it and waste their stock in vanity these grovel upon the earth with their bended knees that the Lord would not be angry As St. Austin said to such a purpose Quando ipsi laetantur nos pro illis gemimus when others pamper their genius with marrow and fatness these do macerate themselves with abstinence to avert famine from the Land A devout man whose zeal is free from faction and his heart clear from malice that drives not his private prosperity but every day spends some Canonical hours most strictly for publick blessings it may be hath nothing himself and yet procures all as the Apostles took bread from Christ not for themselves but to give away to the multitude or if some little came to their share they enjoyed it not without the envy of those that were the better for their benefit For when they had distributed their Masters Maundy once and again to so many folk yet they grudged them that which a Nest of Sparrows would make bold with when they pluckt a few ears of corn and rub'd them in their hands Well the World will never reform this ingratitude and yet the Lord doth not repent him that his Saints are so precious in his sight that they obtein riches health and peace for those that hate them and persecute them Such a poor Widow as Anna that continued in Prayers and Fastings day and night in the Temple in part Cesar did owe the prosperity of his Crown unto her the People were beholding to her that they had their Traffick the Priests that they had the exercise of their Religion they of the City that they had their health they of the Country that they had their Harvest May be there were Blasphemers Extortioners Adulterers that were filled with this Feast which Christ made so it shall be while good and bad are intermingled every where But do you mark it Christ committed the bread at the first breaking to the hands of the Disciples for faithful and good men are the Conduit-pipes of all the Blessings which the earth receiveth from the Father of mercies to whom be glory for evermore AMEN THE THIRD SERMON UPON JOHN vi 11. He distributed to the Disciples and the Disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would IT will not be denied but if I share this Miracle between those that had their finger in it two parts to speak with the least must be given to Christ If therefore there be double as much in Christs act that be distributed to the Disciples as there is in their act who distributed to them that were set down it was as due required to put the Bucket twice into the Well to draw waters from the former and with half that labour uno pede stans that is at this once and no more to dispatch the latter And now I shall put it unto you that this Miracle is come down as low as it could descend The divine incomprehensible nature was the Origen of it and therefore Christ used that Ceremony when he took the Loaves into his hand to look up to heaven Our Saviours Humane Nature was the next Vessel into which the grace of the Almighty was poured for the Father had given all things into his hand Joh. xiii 3. The next and underneath his feet were the Apostles they had their Power and Commission from him As the Father sent me so send I you Joh. xx The last of all to whom the Apostles communicate their gift are the People and there the gift abides The Dove that is the Holy Spirit doth use to fetch this compass about before he lights O glorious Hierarchy O most beautiful degrees of strength and Majesty O golden Chain whose uppermost Link is fastned to the highest heaven and the nethermost part toucheth the lowest earth Thus doth our blessedness descend step by step from the Father to the Son from the Son to the Disciples and from the Disciples to all those that are nourished with the words of Truth and of good Doctrine 1 Tim. iv 6. So then we hold of God as the Author of all Grace of Christ as the head of the Body which is his Church of the Apostles and their Successors as his subordinate Ministers And