WHen Great Ones weare Blacks, and the Peeres of a Kingdome are seene in mourning, wee may (I hope) without the helpe of Di­vination, conclude, that the fu­nerall of their King, or of some great Prince amongst them is neere: And finding the Earth (here) apparelled in a mourning gar­ment, [Page 2] and the Sunne himselfe (who uses at other times, to appeare like a fresh Masker) now wea­ring a Suit of Blacks; and to these the Temple, which was was once the holiest Place, the glory and joy of the whole Earth, (like a loving Mo­ther robd of all her children at once, those deare pieces of her selfe) sitting alone disconsolate, wringing her hands, and for griefe rending her precious garments in sunder; wee cannot chuse but suppose presently, that these great and unusu­all signes of griefe (which the senslesse creatures, yet eminent in their kinde doe expresse) must needs point out the death of more then of an or­dinary man. Wee see that mighty Kings and Em­perours die, and yet the Sunne lookes upon them (even when they give up the ghost) without any alteration of countenance: Like a Heralds Coat, or the face of a Widow, who has buried three or foure Husbands, hee beholds diverse Funeralls without any change of colour. The Earth shee endures the slaughter of whole Armies, thou­sands and ten thousands fall together, the blood of great Commanders mixes with the blood of the common Souldier, so that the streames which issue from them following the course of all rivers which make hast to the ocean, doe seeme to threa­ten that with the name of the red Sea. And shee beholds all this without any changing of her live­ry: she does peradventure sometimes at the sight of a slaughtered Armie in a kinde of jollity and pride, die some of her greene into a scarlet: but that shee ever wore blacke at the death of any was never heard of before.

Xerxes the Persian indeed, who carried that nu­merous Army into Europe against the Grecians (consisting as some report, of a million of men) who drunk up whole rivers as they past, and made mountaines plaine before him; having at a cer­taine time got the advantage of a Hill, and by that meanes taking a survey of his great Host, is repor­ted by Historians to have sighed and wept, to think that all those multitudes of men which were then in his eye, should within lesse then an Age bee laid in the dust, not so much as their very names remembred: Yet afterwards when this mighty Prince joyned battell with the small Navy of the Grecians, and was discomfited, and the grea­test part of his men slaine, we doe not reade that the Sunne sighed or grieved at all, but went on his ordinary course, undisturbed and unmoved with the spectacle: nor doe wee heare that the Earth was at all troubled with the matter. Great Alex­ander dies, hee who conquered every thing, but his owne desire of still conquering more. Iulius Caesar dies, that learned and valiant Romane, that spirit of the world, whose Sword and Tongue, were alike victorious: and this man dies treacherously, betrayed in the Senate, amongst his gowned friends. And to come to sacred History: Abraham the Father of the faithfull, dies: Moses that great Law-giver, hee dies too, hee who had the honour to see God face to face, and yet lived: All the Prophets die, who were the Pen-men and Tem­ples of the holy Ghost: David, a man after Gods owne heart, hee dies too; Solomon, who was the [Page 4] wisest and the happiest King that ever lived, dies; and yet we doe not finde in any Story, either holy or profane, that either the Sunne or the Earth did put themselves to the expence of blacks for any of these: or else that any Church or Temple did rend her garments, in sorrow for their deaths. What shall wee say then? surely we must be constrained to take up our Saviours words in the 12. of St. Matthews Gospel,Mat. 12 42 ver. 42. Behold a greater then So­lomon is here. For wee see here in my Text, both Sunne, Earth, and Temple are mourners at his death.

I shall not neede (I hope) with Pilate, to set up a Title upon the Crosse, and tell ye that he whom they mourne for is Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iewes, because I suppose that this Title is written in Capitall letters in the heart of every true Chri­stian.

Here be in this Text (which does containe the solemnity or pompe which was at the death of Christ) these two parts.

• 1 Paratus fanebris Naturae, &
• 2 Paratus Dei.
  • 1 The funerall solemnity of Nature; Then was darknesse over all the Land, and the Sunne was darkned.
  • 2 The funerall solemnity of God; And the veyle of the Temple was rent in the midst.

And it was about the sixth houre (sayes our Evan­gelist.) The first thing I doe shall bee to make St. Luke, and St. Marke friends, who at the first sight [Page 5] may seeme to be at variance a little.Marke 15.25. For St. Mark tells us in the 15. Chapter that it was at the third houre of the day.

Wee are to understand therefore, that the arti­ficiall day amongst the Jewes, began at sixe a clock in the morning, and ended at sixe in the Evening, so that the compasse of their artificiall day was twelue houres. (Are there not twelue houres in the day? sayes our Saviour) So that calling our sixth in the morning, the first houre of the day, the sixth houre (according to their computation) must needs bee our Noone; and about or a little before this time was our Saviour crucified. But why doth St. Marke call it the third houre?

I will not give ye Cajetanes answere, who saith, that there may bee an errour in the Scribe, mista­king and writing the Greeke Character of one number for another, because there is some affinity betwixt them in the figure. (exemp. gr. [...]) St. Augustines is something better, who to excuse the matter hath these words. Linguis Iudaeorum, crucifixus est horâ tertia, manibus horâ sexta: The Jewes (saith hee) crucified with their tongues at the third houre (when they cryed out so una­nimously; Crucifie him, crucifie him, his blood be up­on us and upon our children) but they did not cruci­fie him with their hands untill the sixth. But if we observe St. Marks words well, wee shall finde that this interpretation cannot stand, for after he had said, that hee was crucified at the third houre, hee presently addes, and at the sixth houre there was darknesse over the face of the earth; which last [Page 6] words imply, that they crucified him not at the sixth houre, but at another houre. Wherefore I doe rather subscribe to the opinion of St. Ierome in his Epistle to Cyprian. As the Night (saith he) was divided into foure watches, so their Day in­to foure parts, or houres. Into the first houre, be­ginning at six in the morning, and lasting till nine, conteining in it three of our ordinary houres. Secondly, into the third houre, beginning at nine, and ending at twelue; and into the sixth, and ninth, conteining the other sixe Pomeridian houres. Erat quasi, or ferè hora sexta (saith our Text) it was about the sixth houre; he doth not say it was per­fectly the sixth houre, but it was about the sixth houre, meaning a little before Noone, and so the two Euangelists are reconciled. For it is true that St. Marke saith they did crucifie really at or in the third houre; and it is also true which St. Luke saith here, and it was about the sixth houre. About the sixth houre, that is, a little before mid-day, our twelue of the clocke; and it was in the third houre too, (i.) in the latter part of the third houre, a little before Noone. And so although he was fastned to the Crosse a little before noone, yet hee did not give up the ghost untill the ninth houre, which is our three of the clocke after mid­day, that hee might directly answere to the Pas­chall Lambe, which by the Lords command was to bee killed at the Evening,Exod. 12.6Exod. 12 6. Or as the Originall reades it, betwixt the two Evenings. And here there may a question bee raised, what part of the day should be meant, by these words.

The opinions I finde are two.

1 The first is Aben Ezras, and hee saith, That there is vespera Solis, and vespera luminis. An Eve­ning of the Sunne, when the body of the Sunne is removed from our eyes, when that sets: and an Evening of the light, when the beames or shining of the Sunne doe also forsake us. And betwixt these two Evenings (saith hee) was the Paschall Lambe slaine; which time by us is called the twilight, which by the opinion of Astronomers, doth ordinarily endure an houre and one third part.

2 The second from Rabbi David, and he is lar­ger in his interpretation, and understands a grea­ter latitude of Time. There is (saith he) vespera declinationis, and vespera occasus: An Evening of the Sunne declining, and an Evening of the Sunne setting. The Evening of the Sunne declining be­gins at twelue of the clock, when the Sunne is in his Altitude, in the Meridian, and so declines by degrees towards his fall. The Evening of the Sun setting what that is, wee all know: And betwixt these two Evenings, (i.) betwixt Noone and the Sunne setting, the Paschall Lambe (saith he) was to be killed. And certainely this second opinion is that which will endure the Touch-stone the best, for without question by this phrase, Betwixt the two Evenings, we are to understand such a par­cell of time, wherein the dayly Evening Sacrifice might bee slaine too as well as the Paschall Lambe, for even that was commanded to bee done, inter duas vesperas, betwixt the two Evenings as well as [Page 8] the other,Num. 28.4 Num 28.4. And as the Talmud reports (if wee reckon the houres according to our ordi­nary computation) the dayly Sacrifice of the Eve­ning Lambe was usually slaine betwixt two and three, and betwixt three and foure it was offered: but upon the Passeover Eve it was slaine betwixt one and two, and offered betwixt two and three; and the reason was, because they might have time afterwards for the slaying and offering of the Passeover: But if their Passeover Eve fell upon the Eve before their Sabbath, then their dayly Evening Sacrifice was slaine and offered an houre sooner then ordinary, that there might bee time enough both for the Passeover, and also for the preparation of their Sabbath after that. And Christ that hee might shew us that his death did comprehend all Sacrifices (which indeed were nothing else but shadowes and types of that one and perfect Sacrifice, which hee at this time made upon the Crosse, for the sins of the whole world) he began to be crucified in the third houre of the day, with the dayly Morning Sacrifice, and fini­shed it at the ninth houre with the dayly Evening Sacrifice and the Paschall Lambe. Hee was both the Sacrifice of the Morning, and of the Evening: Hee was sacrificed as well for those who lived in the Morning of the world, before the Incarnation, as for all us who have lived since in the Evening, in its declining Age. Hee was the Sacrifice of the Morning and Evening, both for Young and old. Of the Morning and Evening; for the East, and for the West, for the whole world. The Morning and the [Page 9] Evening Sacrifice hee was, and therefore observe how the Morning and Evening here doe meet to­gether (as if it had beene on purpose) to mourne for him: and perceiving (it seemes) that their owne Apparell was a great deale too light and glori­ous to appeare in so sad a businesse, they borrow mourning garments out of the wardrobe of the Night, to wait upon the Hearse. For at that very point of Time, wherein the Morning & the Eve­ning meet together (which is Noone) did the darknesse begin, which continued for three houres following: The Noone, the height and glory of the day, weares blacke at his Funerall.

Concerning this darknesse, wee are to enquire here;

1 Of the extent of this darknesse in regard of Place, it was over all the Land, [...]. And there was a darknesse over all the Earth.

2 The extent of this darkenesse in regard of Time, from the sixth untill the ninth houre, from our twelve to three.

3 Wee are to enquire d [...]asa tenebrarum, what was the reason or cause of this darknesse: and the physicall or neerest Cause of all will appeare to be the darkning of the Sunne. For certainely this [...] which joynes the two verses together, [...] and the Sunne was darkened, must of neces­sity be a conjunction causall, [...] pro [...] So among the Latin Poets, Virgill, who very frequently did use Graecismes (to give ye but one example)

for quia fama fuit. As if St. Luke had said here, [Page 10] There was darknesse over all the Earth, for the Sunne was darkned.

Of the first;

[...] There is a little diffe­rence a [...]i [...] here concerning the extent of place, for there want not some who would have this darknesse not to be universall, and therefore they under [...]d these words, overall the earth, thus, overall the [...] of Iudea: but I doe rather encline to the opinion of universality, and indeed mee thinks the very letter of the Text is plain enough for it, over all the Earth. And very fitly doth all the Earth weare blacke, when the Lord of all the Earth dies. Christ suffered for the whole Earth, and great reason that the whole Earth should suf­fer with him. When great men die, commonly (if they leave noble heires or executors behinde them, who will bury them like themselves) the whole Family, the whole Traine of servants mourne, and not onely three or foure who are neerest unto them. And can we suppose that our Saviour CHRIST would be so sparing and nigard­ly at his death, to give his Cloth to one Nation on [...]? To cloath none but the Land of Israel in mourning? Wee see that the Lord is infinite libe­rall even of his very light and grace, his best gar­ments: (Hee makes his Sunne to shine upon the bad as well as upon the good) Surely then hee might have afforded his darknesse, his blacks, which is a Cloth of a cou [...]r price, at an easier rate.

I doe acknowledge that the J [...]wes after a more especiall manner then any other Nation had deser­ved [Page 11] this darknesse, for they had the light of Gods word, (which the Heathen wanted) the light of the Law and the Prophets; nay they indeed of all other Nations might be truely called, the people of the East, for the Sunne of righteousnesse rose in their Land, the Day-spring from on high visited them in the first place; but yet for all this (as if too much light had made them blinde) they could never be at rest untill they had put out the light of Israel, and drawen a thicke darknesse upon themselves, not onely this darkenesse in the letter, but also a darknesse in the Allegory, in the morall sense; they brought a night upon their hearts, consciences, and understandings, of which that outward dark­nesse was but an Embleme.

But if wee take darknesse here in the last sense, in the figure, for the blinding of the eyes of the understanding, then both the opinions may very well stand together. This darknesse was over all the whole face of the Earth, and this darknesse was onely over the Land of Israel. There is not altoge­ther such a flat opposition betwixt these two Pro­positions, as yee may suppose there is. I will shew ye that it is possible to reconcile them. This dark­nesse was onely over the land of Iudea (i.) it [...]anne at that time onely to be over that Land, but it was then and long before too over the whole earth. For of all the multitudes of Kingdomes and Nations, there was light onely in the Land of Israel till now. They had the light of the true knowledge of God, whilst all the rest of the world lay mufled in dark­nesse, and therefore they having put out this [Page 12] light, the darknesse may bee said to be onely over them, (the Text passing by the darkenesse of o­ther places as a thing granted, and needing no mention) that is, the darknesse which was gene­rall over all the eyes of the Heathen, doth now begin onely to bee over them too; erant tenebrae, for incip [...]ebant. Alas! the Heathen (from all Ages) were onely guided by the weake glimmering twilight of naturall knowledge, and therefore could never find out the right way to the worship of the true God; but every one (according to his Fancie) or worshipped the Gods framed by the Poets, or framed a God of his owne. They had their cheating Oracles at Delphos, Delos, and other places, where the Devill entring into the Priests, and appearing in strange extasies and furious ex­pressions, did deliver ambiguous and deceitfull Answers to the people. They peeped many times into the entrayles of an Oxe, to see if they could finde their God there: An old weatherbeaten Oke, nor a River, nor a Spring, nor a Mountaine, nor a Wood, could scape their blind devotions; but every one of these they beleeved had his Deity, a God belonging to it. Nay, the Aegyptians had an easier and a quainter way then all these for the making of their Gods, they sowe their Gods of seeds. The Onyons and the Leeks were worshipped amongst them: but then did the time begin when the light was taken from the Iewes them selves too, and they were left in darknesse as well as the Heathen; Or rather, (as when the Sunne sets to the lower He­mispheare, to our Antipodes, it rises to us) the dark­ning [Page 13] of the Iewes was the enlightning of the Gen­tiles. So that this darknesse which was over all the earth for this 13 houres space, may seeme to be to the Gentiles nothing else but a fore-runner of the approaching Morning. As we observe many times how it growes darker upon a suddaine for a little space, when the morning drawes neere, as if the Night seeing no remedy but shee must depart, be­fore shee yeelds up her dominion, should in indig­nation call all her strengths together, and give a Bravo to the day her enemy) which darknesse ushers in the twy-light, and that the Sunne. For now began the Heathen to have their eyes opened, the Paynim Religion began to lose of her repute and credit, their lying Oracles ceased, and the name of Christ (like the glorious light) began to spread a­broad amongst the Gentiles.

The learned Plutarch (who liv'd in the raigne of the Emperour Trajane) observing that there were no Oracles delivered in his time, nor for a good while before (as was accustomed in former Ages) was much troubled to finde out the reason of their Cessation. Amongst much other dis­course, he falls into a disputation of the Nature of the Gods, and finding that there was a kinde of Gods which the Ancients called Demi gods, or halfe-gods, begotten of the Gods upon mortall wo­men, which was a received opinion amongst them, that the Gods many times fell in love with wo­men upon earth, and accompanied with them, I shall not neede to name any particulars, the wri­tings of the Poets are full of such scapes, and a fine [Page 14] device it was to preserve the honour of some of their great Ladies, who were not altogether so true to their Husbands, or their vowe of Virginity as they ought to have beene,) and finding moreover that these Dem [...]gods, although they liv'd long; yet at the last dyed, was brought to conjecture, that these Gods might be they who did informe the Oracles, and at their death, the Oracles ceas'd: but had Plutarch beene truely enlightened, hee might easily have found out in an other cause of the defect of Oracles.

The same Philosopher in his booke of the defect of Oracles, inserts a memorable History of one Epitherses a Grecian, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, who making for Italy, being imbark'd in a Mer­chants Ship, and sayling smoothly by the Ilands called E [...]h [...]les, the Sea upon a suddaine was be­calmed, so that they by little and little working themselves nigh unto Paxo, there was an high and intelligible voyce heard amongst them, calling Thamus, Thamus; they all heard the voyce, but knew not from whence it came, and therefore a suddaine affrightment invaded them; this Thamus (whose name was not knowne to the greater part of the passengers) was the Captaine of the Shipp, who hearing the voyce calling to him the third time, assumed so much courage as to answere it. Unto whom the voyce replyed (farre lowder then before) charging him, that as soone as hee came against the Palodes, hee should publish to the inha­bitants, that the great Pan was dead. The whole com­pany in the Ship being amazed at the strangenesse [Page 15] of the voyce & message, consulted amongst them­selves what was best to be done; and at the last agreed, that if the winde were faire and prospe­rous for their Voyage when they came against the place, they would then goe on without any stop: but if the Sea were smooth and calme, then they determined that Thamus should fulfill the com­mand or the voyce. Which hee did, for finding it a very quiet Sea when they came thither, get­ting into the Sterne of the Ship (against the Pa­lodes) with his face towards land, hee cryed with a loude voyce, The great Pan is dead. Which message was no sooner deliver'd, but all the com­pany in the Shippe heard upon the suddaine a strange and confused noyse, sounding like the out-cryes and lamentations of a distressed multi­tude. And this Ship afterwards arriving in Italy, the report of this strange matter was soone heard of at Rome, so that e're long it came to the eare of Tiberius the Emperor, who sending for the Master of the Ship, was certified of the Truth of the ru­mour, and calling his wise men together, demand­ing of them who that great god Pan should be, was answered by them, that hee was the sonne of god Mercurie and Penelope.

Yee see what an account Plutarch gives of the death of great Pan. But if wee weigh the circum­stances of the story well, wee shall finde that this voyce did signifie the death of Christ, which caus'd the Oracles to cease, and destroy'd the power of the devill. And it is not unlike but those cryes which were heard in the Palodes, were the lamentations [Page 16] of evill spirits, bewayling the downfall and destru­ction of their Kingdome. For first, this is reported to be done in Tiberius time, in whose raigne Christ was crucified, and why might it not be at the very time of his death, or immediatly after? besides this, certaine it was that Tiberius had enquir'd and heard of Christ, and of many of his miracles, for if the Senate would have agreed to it, he would have canoniz'd him, and put him into the roll of their gods. And it is very credible, that by reason of our Saviours calling himselfe by the name of the good and the great Shepheard, the Heathens under­standing it, might conclude, that it must needes be the god Pan, who was said to be the god of the Shepheards. And the great god Pan it was indeed who was dead (taken in Christian sense) the great Shepheard of our soules, who left those 99 above who had not err'd, and came downe to seeke and to save that One which had stray'd, poore mankinde. And from hence the silence of the Oracles, and the lamenta­tions of evill spirits. But the strangenesse of this History related by a Heathen Writer, hath carried me a little too farre. To returne to the Text, the opinion of the best Writers is, that this darknesse was not onely over the land of Iudea, but generall, overall the earth.

The second thing we are to enquire of, is of the extent of this darknesse in respect of time: and that was from the sixth to the ninth houre, from our 12. to 3.

It began at Noone, at that point which is the most opposite to darknesse, and lasted till our three of [Page 17] the clocke, which time doth include the chiefe glory, strength, and manhood (as I may call it) of the day: For the day after three, (like a man part­ing with 50.) begins to waxe ancient, and from thence declines into a weaknesse.

The darknesse began at Noone, (as wee may sup­pose) a little after Christ was nayl'd upon the Crosse; so that if the Spouse in the Canticles should not yet be satisfied concerning her earnest request, when shee cryed out in the first Chapter of that Song, Shew mee (O thou whom my soule loveth, Cant. 1.) where thou feedest, where thou lyest at Noone; we were able to instruct her here from my Text, to tell her where her beloved lay at Noone; Not onely at the Noone of the world, at the fulnesse of time, but also in the literall and nearer sense, at the Noone of the day. Nor is there any harshnesse in the phrase, to say, that Christ lay upon the Crosse at Noone, For Iacere situs est miserorum; To lye is accounted the posture of those who are miserable, and therefore we use to say that Pauper ubi (que) jacet; The poore man lyes every where. And let all who beheld that spectacle of Christs hanging upon the Crosse, or all who have but any fancies to apprehend the manner of it, judge whether the earth was able to produce a man more poore and more miserable then he was at that time. Hee lay at Noone, the Crosse was his bed of sorrow he lay upon, the darknesse was the Curtaines drawne about him. As David sayes,Psal 18. Psal. 18. (though in an other sense) Hee made dark­nesse his secret place, and his Pavilion round about him.

Christ was borne in the night, as we understand by the Gospell, Luke 2. And there were Shep­heards watching their Flocks by night. Yet when the Angell delivers the tydings of his birth to the Shepheards, hee doth not say this night, but, this day is borne to you a Saviour. It was naturally a night, but the birth of Christ miraculously made it a day: (and the glory of the Lord shone about them, sayes the Text.) Christ dyes wee see here in the day, in the mid day, but even that is turn'd into a Night: It was a day naturally, but the death of our Saviour made it a night miraculously. And the reason for it is good; for it was not altogether so fitting, that the earth should have worne one and the same Garment, both at the Birth and Funerall of her Lord. He was borne in the night, and that becomes day, hee dyed in the day, and that becomes night: See how Christ both in his Nativity and Passion, manifests himselfe to be the God of Nature, who to shew her allegiance to her Lord and Master, quite inverts her ordinary course, and doth not wayte upon him in that livery which pleases her best; but in that which he commands, and is the most agreeable to his fortunes. So that as the Dis­ciples cryed out in an admiration, when he quieted the Stormes and Tempests, Who is this whom the winde and the Sea obeyeth? So may wee say here, Who is this whom the Night and the Day o­beyeth?

It began at the sixth, and lasted till the ninth: so that the whole compasse or time of the dark­nesse was three of our ordinary houres. I might [Page 19] here observe a mysterie in the number of 3, being the first perfect number, that number which (as Geometricians say) doth make the first figure, the number which Aquinas calls Numerus omnis rei, the number of every thing, and certainly hee had that hinte from Aristotle, in his first booke de Caelo. Omne totum (sayes he) in tribus ponimus. To every whole & perfect thing is requir'd the number of 3. And why may not wee say, that as there went three dayes over his death, like three witnesses to beare record of the truth of his death; so there went three houres of darknesse over his Passion; to beare witnesse of the Truth of his Passion. The compleat number of 3 went over his sufferings, to manifest to the world that now his sufferings were whole, perfect, and compleat; and therefore no sooner are the three houres of darknesse over, but presently he cryes Consummatum est, it is finished, & gave up the ghost. But we have beene too long in searching out the cause of this darknesse, which was the third thing I propounded to be enquir'd for. The neerest cause (I told yee) was the darkning of the Sunne. But alas, this will not satisfie us. For as the Prophet David in the 114. Psalme (which is appointed by the Church to be read upon Easter day) doth not content himselfe with saying, The Sea saw it and fled, Iordan was driven back: But hee addes also the question, and sayes, What aylest thou O Sea that thou fieddest? and thou Jordan that thou was driven back? So neither must wee thinke it enough to say the Sunne was darkned, and goe no further; but wee must Causam causae [Page 20] investigare, Finde out the supreame cause of that subordinate cause, and say, What aylest thou (O Sunne) that thou wast darkened, and thou, Light, that thou wast driven back? The Sunne was dark­ned we confesse, but what was it that darkned the Sunne? This certainly will trouble us.

There are but three things (supposing that wee are Sub dio et in sterili prospectu, Under the open Heaven, and withall have our eyes perfect) which can any wayes take from us the sight of the Sun.

First, The interposition of Vapours or Clouds.

Secondly, The interposition of the Earth.

Thirdly, The interposition of the Moone.

As for Clouds, it is not likely that they should cause this darknesse; For Saint Luke (here) after hee hath made mention of the darknesse which was in the ayre (the place of Clouds and Vapours) hee presently addes, and the Sunne was darkned, making this the reason of the other darknesse be­low, so that wee may very safely beleeve, that the Sunne was not darkned onely to us, but even in it selfe too. Hee who sayes unto the proud billowes of the Sea, Be yee still, and thus farre yee shall goe and no farther; Hee is also able to say unto the Sunne, Thou shalt not shine. Hee who at the beginning was able to say, Let there be light, and there was light, sayes now, Let there be darknesse, and it was so.

It could not be the interposition of the Earth, for whensoever that is interposed, it makes it night, (being nothing else but the shadowe of the Earth, which is betwixt our eyes and the Sunne) but this was at noone-day, when the Sunne was [Page 21] in his height, over the heads of the people of Je­rusalem.

Nor yet was it possible it should bee the inter­posing of the Moone, for the Sunne never suffers an Eclipse by the darke body of the Moone, but one­ly when the Sunne and Moone are in a conjunction: but now they were in opposition, the Moone was at the full, or but newly past it, 180. degrees di­stant from the Sunne. Which is easily proved, for the Paschall Lambe was not (by Gods command) to be slaine nisi Luna quatuordecima, but upon the foureteenth day of the Moone, Exod. 12. and Levit. 23. and just the night before hee was cru­cified did Christ eate the Passeover with his Dis­ciples, so that this must needs be the fifteenth day of the Moone wherein he suffered; quando solenni­tai erat Azimorum, the first day of unleavened bread, which was the great and chiefe day of the Passeover, howsoever the Evangelist St. Matth. 26.17. may seeme to make the foureteenth day the first day of unleavened bread:Mat. 26.17 Now the first day of the Feast of unleavened bread the Disciples came to Iesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that wee pre­pare for thee to eate the Passeover? which must bee understood according to their Civill Account, their naturall day (according to that computation) be­ginning at Sun-rising, and ending with the rising of the next Sunne, and in this regard the foure­teenth day might be called the first of unleavened bread, because it comprehended in it part of the first day of unleavened bread, which day (in their religious account) began at the Sunne-setting, [Page 22] and ended at the setting of the next.

Wee have not yet found out the Cause of this darknesse. What should the Night make here, usur­ping the dominion of the Day? It is not such a hard question to answere. I will give it ye in three words. Christ, the scond Person in the sacred Trinity, united to our humane nature, the wise­dome of the Father, by whom the worlds were made; the Lambe without spot, who was free from all sinne, He hangs upon the Tree in torments, to satisfie for the sinnes of the world, a spectacle to men and Angels; All his friends and kinsfolkes stand a farre off, and they who passe by, in derisi­on wagge their heads at him. And can we suppose that the Sunne can looke upon such a sight as this, and not plucke backe his head againe, as confoun­ded with the spectacle? Or is it possible that the Light, which was Gods first Creature, his eldest sonne in the Creation, should endure that pitifull object and not flye? Alas! it stood and gazed upon him in that misery as long as it could, but being able no longer to looke upon his tortured Lord, it re­signed his Empire to the Night, and fled into the lower world. Or else, as at his Birth, the Day (whose proper place was then the lower Hemi­spheare, for he was borne in the night) did come round from below to view him as hee lay in the Cradle, so doth the Night now steale about from the Antipodes to have a sight of him, as hee hangs upon the Crosse: Peradventure the sonnes of dark­nesse, (wicked Spirits and men, who were the in­struments to procure his death) had by this time [Page 23] with great triumph proclaimed the newes of his crucify [...]ng in the gloomy Court of their mother Night, and she not easily crediting that which she much desired, lifts up her drowsie head to see if the report were true: and true shee findes it; and therefore as delighted and pleased with the sight, she forgets her selfe it seemes, and stands full three houres together to looke upon him. Or else is the Night imployed here upon an Ambassage by the Moone, (who is ordinarily called the Queene of the Night) and by her traine of Attendants, the Stars, to see what the matter was above, that the Sunne denied them that tribute of influence and light which he was accustomed to pay them? For wee must needs suppose that the Sunne was not the on­ly sufferer here; but also the Moone and the Stars below (where it was naturally a night) did par­take of the darknesse too. As when some great Peere falls by Treason, his whole blood, all his children and kindred are tainted, and his whole family usually suffers in his fall. For the Moone and Stars borrowing their light from the Sunne, when the Sunne is darkned must need, bee darke them­selves too: so that at this time there was a second night invaded even the night it selfe. And this is an other Argument to prove the Universality of the darknesse. It was darke in Ierusalems Horizon (which is called, umbilicus terrae, the Navell or the middle of the Earth) because the Sun to them, to the Inhabitants was darkned; and it was darke, a tergo terrae, in the other halfe, in the backe parts of the Earth, because the Sunne was darkened not [Page 24] onely to the Inhabitants, (for had hee remained in his glory at this time, he would have given prima­rily at the first hand, no light to them, because the Earth was interposed betwixt their sight and it) but also to the Moone and Starres, all whose light which they seeme many times to bee so libe­rall of, as if it were their owne peculiar, is nothing else but the reflection of his beames.

And there may bee three reasons given of this darkning of the Sunne.

First, That it might upbraid the hard-hearted­nesse of the Jewes and Souldiers who crucified him, seeing that nature even in her insensible, parts did suffer with Christ; and beget a compas­sion and fellow-feeling of his miseries even in sto­ny hearts, as we see it did in the Centurion, a Soul­dier, a man acquainted with cruelties, blood, and massacres, a generation of people which are not easily moved to pity by funeralls or slaughters: and yet this man in the next verse but one follow­ing my Text seeing what was done, is forced to give glory to God, and say, of a surety this man was just. And if it wrought so upon this Captaine, this Romane spirit, O how did it worke upon the tender heart of the blessed Virgin, the mother of our Saviour? upon Iohn the beloved Disciple of the Lord? and upon all those women who fol­lowed him from Galilee, and stood afarre off, loo­king upon him as well as the obscurity would give them leave? It wrought so bitterly with them, that it is the note of an Expositor; That not one of them who were present (I meane com­passionatly [Page 25] present) at this sight, did after suffer Martyrdome. Adeo enim vehemens (saith hee) fait ille crucis gladius, adeoque ptarum animarum te­neritudnem transverberavit, ut fuerit illis pro Mar­tyrio computatum: So vehement sharpe and bitter was that fight unto their wounded eyes, and (like a sword dividing the marrow and the bone) did so pierce through their softned hearts, that it ex­cused them from any after-Martyrdome, the Lord thought that enough for them. They were even Martyrs, in beholding the Martyrdome of Christ.

Secondly, That the taking away of this out­ward light might bee a signe of the subtraction of the true light out of the hearts of the Iewish Nation, which was the effect of that unanimous voice a­mongst them; His blood be upon us and upon our chil­dren. For we see that there hath beene a darknesse ever since over the hearts and understandings of that people, even unto this houre, denying Christ to be come in the flesh.

Thirdly, That the naked body of Christ, (dy­ing in that accursed manner, exposed to the con­tempt and scorne of all who passe by) might not bee looked upon with joy by his wicked Tormen­tors and blasphemours, therefore is this darkenesse sent to strike a terrour into their soules, even when they supposed to make themselves merry with the sight.

Wee have seene how Nature was affected at his death, for, for the state of his Funerall, shee hung Heaven and Earth with blacks: Wee are now to see how the God of Nature takes the matter, [Page 26] Et certe indignissimè: The veyle of the Temple was rent through the midst — But we must ex­pect the gracious returne of an other Good. Friday for this discourse. *⁎*

THis whole Psalme (which by the Institution of the Church, is ap­pointed as part of the Even-song for this blessed day of the resurre­ction of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ) is in the nearest and lite­rall sense, meant of the freedome of the children of Israel from the captivity Aegyp­tian, when the Lord by a mighty and stretched out [Page 28] arme redeemed them from the cruelty of Pharaoh, freed their weary hands from making the bricks, their wearied feete from travelling for straw, which was denied them (wee know) and yet the number of their bricks reserved. And this is as plaine as may bee, if wee reade the beginning of the Psalme ver. 1. When Israel came out of Egypt, and the house of Iacob from among the strange people. 2 Iuda was his Sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. 3 The Sea saw that and fled, Iordan was driven back. 4 The Mountaines skipped like rammes, and the little H [...]lls like young sheepe. And from thence hee proceeds unto the Question. What aileth thee, O thou Sea, that thou fleddest, &c.

And the Psalmist in the next verse seemes to ren­der an Answere to his owne Question. For al­though our English Translations give it in the Im­perative Mood, and say, Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord, yet the best Translations a­mongst the Latins, render it, The earth was moved, in the Indicative Mood, which positively sets downe a Thing or done or not done. A facie Do­mini mota est terra, a facie Dei Iacob.

The old Psalter, St. Augustine, and Prosper, reade it, Commotae, which signifies motus cum motu, a motion with a motion, (i.) violently, the Earth was violently or exceedingly moved. St. Ierome reades it contremiscit, the Earth trembled. And the reason of this diversity of Moods amongst Translators I doe conceive to be, the divers appre­hending of the letter Iod in the Hebrew word, for as they know who are growen to any proficiencie [Page 29] in the sacred Tongue, the word Chuli doth proper­ly command, Tremble thou, or be thou moved, or be thou moved in griefe: yet by reason that the letter Iod is sometimes added to a word meerely for Ornament, and the greater grace of the sound, therefore Saint Ierome, Saint Augustine, Prosper and others have rather chose the Indicative moode, and say. The Earth was moved, or did tremble. And so Lorinus the Iesuite. Quae vox (saith hee) proprie re­fert forma [...] imperativi modi, interdum tamen litera Jod additur ornatus tantum causâ.

Genebrardus will have this motion of the Earth here to be a Metaphor, taken or borrowed from the paines of a Woman while shee is in Travaile, Quae sese agitat prae dolore. And of this mind is Aqui­la, who therefore translates the Hebrew word Chul [...], Parturivit, the Earth was in tra­vaile, or did bring forth with griefe. And to coun­tenance this Exposition, that place of the Prophet Habacuck is very pregnant, 3.10. Viderunt te et do­luerunt montes, The mountaines saw thee, and they were in paine or feare. Some of our English reades it, The mountaines saw thee, and they trembled; and the difference is not great, for in the Latine it is presented to us in the inward cause, or perturba­tion, (which was paine or feare) and in the English according to the outward expression or effect of that feare, which is trembling.

But being that the slaverie of Israell in Egypt, under the cruell Taskmasters, was but a type of the servitude of man under sinne and the devill; and the freedome of them from that bondage, did but [Page 30] typifie out unto us our deliverance from the bon­dage of Sinne, Hell, and the Grave; which worke as upon this day was fully perfected, Christ having overcome Death, which was the last of his Ene­mies he had to subdue; this Text may be (nay it is) understood also in a sense farther off, and Spi­ritual, lof the resurrection of our Saviour, when as upon this day, having broke the bonds of death in sunder (as Samson the seaven greene cords where­with the Philistimes bound him) He triumphed o­ver the Grave.

And this second and allego­ricall sense, is either in the Figure, or in the mysterie.

In the Figure, and it is a kinde of Prosopopaeia, attri­buting the actions of joy, and leaping unto the mountaines and hills, which are onely proper to men and other living creatures, and least of all to the ponderous mountaines. This Figure is very fre­quent in holy Scripture, and not onely there, but also among the Heathen Poets, and Orators. So Tully in his Oration Pro Marcello. Ipsi Parietes curiae Caesari gratias agere gestiunt, The very walls (saith hee) of the Senate-house are ambitious to give thanks to Caesar. And Virgil in his 5. Eclog:

The unshorne Mountaines themselves doe lift up their voyces in joy: and if so, then the aime of Da­vid in this Scripture, is to set out unto us the great­nes of that joy which the resurrectiō of our Saviour did beget in the world, which made the weighty [Page 31] mountaines forget their nature, and for joy to skip about like Rammes: for I am not of their opinion who would understand this motion of the hills in tristiorem partem, to be ob terrorem faciei domini, for the feare and terrour of the presence of God, al­though they be no meane Authours, such as Ca­jetane, Iansenius, Genebrardus, Peregrinus, Herus, Phi­lippus de Portes, Bellarmine; but I doe rather en­cline unto that other sentence of Lorinus & others, who will have the cause to be nova laetitiae voluptas, and of this opinion are many, if not the whole current of the Greeke Authors, who interpret it to be [...], an hyperbole or excesse of joy: and to countenance this, I have no lesse witnesses then the testimony of the word exultandi in the Latine, then the word gestiendi in the Romane Psal­ter, Saint Augustine, and Prosper; the word subsi­liendi in St. Ieromes translation. Nor doe I stay here, but I am also able to produce the testimony of the Originall it selfe, and the Greeke, Rakad and [...] (as my Author tells mee) never signifying any thing else, quā saltare, subsilire, exilire prae laetitia, but to skip or leape about for joy. And so here, exultaverunt montes. The mountaines did leape out of them­selves (as it were) for joy, as the word signifies.

In the mysterie; and then it signifies the joy of Angells and men, covered under the names of Mountaines and Rams, Hills, and young Sheepe.— But give me leave to look back a little upon the literall meaning of the Text, as it points at the comming of Israell from Aegypt.

The Opinions are divers, I wil but touch them.

Titelman by these Mountaines and Hills, would faine understand those rockes, uneven places and precipices, which while the red Sea was in his na­turall course, were covered by the waters; but when the Children of Israell were in their passage through it, by the retiring of the waves, began to lift up their heads and appeare to the people.

Others understand it verbally of the Mount Si­nai, which was mightily shaken at the presence of the Lord when the Law was given, that Moun­taine being so bigge, that the greater parts of it might be called so many severall Mountaines.

Agellius would understand this figuratively, of the neighbouring Kings and Princes, who at the report of this new and strange passage of the He­brewes through the Sea, and the drowning of the Egyptians, were possest with trembling & amaze­ment, as Moses sings in the 15 of Exod. 15. Then the Dukes of Edom shall be afraid, and trembling shall come upon the great men of Moab.

Rabbi Isaack, and some other of the Hebrew Writers affirme this motion of the Mountaines to be reall and literall, and understand it of Mount Sinai (with the former opinion) but so as that this Mountaine should turne and spread it selfe over the Children of Israell like a Canopy, or cloath of state, —but this seemes to be fabulous.

Trevetus makes mention of some other of the Rabbines, who report, that when their fore-fathers removed their Tents from the river Zared, and pitch'd on the other side of Arnon, in their passage great multitudes of the Amorites did lye in ambush [Page 33] for them in the secret places of the vally and rocks of Arnon, which thing the Lord, (the Keeper of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps) perceiving, immediatly caused the rocks and hills of Arnon to fall upon them, and so destroy'd them.

Lyranus and Aiguanus would understand this leaping of the Mountaines Causaliter; The Moun­taines of Arnon leap'd for joy (i.) they caused the hearts of the Israelites to leape in them for joy, when at the Torrent or streame of Arnon, which divides the Moabites and the Amorites, the Hills which were on the other side of the banke of the river, Miraculosè inclinaverunt vs (que) ad partem in qua erat populus, ut liberè transire possent, Did mira­culously at the command of God, encline, and bow downe themselves to the people who were on the other side of the river, becomming (as it were) a bridge for them to passe over. And for this they quote Numb. 21.14.15.Num. 21.14.15. Wherefore it shall be spoken in the booke of the Battels of the Lord, what thing hee did in the red Sea, and in the rivers of Arnon, and at the streame of the river which goeth downe unto the dwel­lings of Ar, and lyeth upon the border of Moab. Wee see that the Text joynes the miracle of the red Sea, and the businesse of the rivers of Arnon together, and therefore (say they) there must needes be a miracle here, as well as at the red Sea.

Others of the Jewish Writers doe concurre with this last opinion, concerning the bowing downe of the Mountaines, to give an easie passage to the Israelites: but they deny it to be over the rivers of Arnon, and will have it to be done in the [Page 34] vallyes; and unpassable hollownesses lying betwixt the craggy rockes of Arnon. And even there is a disagreement betwixt those who are of this opi­nion too. For some of them have a great minde to have these rocks and hills after they had bowed downe themselves to fill up the vally, and make the way plaine for the passage of the people (like Izachar in the 49. of Genesis) to see that rest was good, and therefore to lye still, and couch downe under the burthen. Those rockes (say they) after they had lyen downe to give them way, were pleas'd with their new lodging, so that there they lye still till this day. And this place they will have to be where the mountaines of the Desert of Ar­non doe requiescere et inclinare Paulatim donec termi­nentur in Ar, doe lay downe their heads as weary, rest themselves, and end almost in a Plaine by the Citie of Ar. But others who are for the bowing down of them, are against the lying still of the rocks, saying, that as soone as they had bowed downe themselves, and done the businesse. Divina virtute ad locum suum reversos esse, By an other miracle did retire back againe to their former place, to their old hibitation, where they still remaine, unlesse some Earth-quake hath displac'd them since.

Amongst these, Cajetan also stands stiffe for the reall motion of these mountaines, and mee thinks his reason is good for it, which is drawne from the [...]ontext, for we see that this motion of the hills is reckoned, and reported in the same Story with the dividing of the red Sea, and the beating backe of Iordane. The Sea saw it and fled, Iordane was driven backe the mountaines skipped like Rammes &c. both [Page 35] which, first were realities, and therefore great pro­bability that this was reall too. But hee can by no meanes digest that interpretation of the rockes of Arnon. For (sayes he) first here is no mention made of rockes, but of mountaines: Secondly, not of mountaines bowing downe and stooping, but of moun­taines leaping and skipping. I wil trouble yee no far­ther with strange opinions: only this I'le say, if this Motion of the Mountaines be to be understood in the proper and literall sense (as without any incon­venience it very wel may) then I have reason (with a good approved Authour) to thinke that it is the likeliest to be meant of Mount Sinai, which having divers heads or tops within the vast compasse of it, might be called so many severall mountaines. And this was done when the Lord frō thence delivered the Law to the People, for there we read in the 20. of Exod. 18. And all the Mount trembled exceedingly. Exod. 20.18. Which trembling of that Mountaine I doe appre­hend, was not only caus'd by terrour & feare at the presence of the Lord but also that joy had a hand in causing that action too. Ioy & feare met together in the word reverence, and so the mountaine trembled. And thus wee are able to bring this trembling of the mountaine, into the compasse of the word in our Text, Exultaverunt montes, the mountaines leapt for joy, but their leaping proceeded from such a joy, as was accompanied with a reverent feare, there was trembling mixt with their joy.

Wee come now to the second Interpretation, which is a great deale higher, and quite remov'd from the letter, as this leaping and skipping of the [Page 36] mountaines and hills points at the joy which was at the resurrection of Christ.

And I told yee (as yee may re­member) that it was either in the the Figure, or in the mysterie.

In the Figure, which is a Prosopopaeta, which doth ascribe the actions of living creatures to creatures insensible. Psal. 98 8. So in the 98. Psalme. 8. Let the stouds clap their hands, and let the mountaines rejoyce together. Psal 96. [...]. Let the field be joyfull and all that is in it, let all the Trees of the Wood rejoyce. So that we need not, to make this place good, be driven to that strange opinion which some attribute to Origen, who ascrib'd a soule and sense to Mountaines, Woods, Trees, and other inanimate creatures.

In the mysterie, and so it doth depicture out un­to us the joy of Angels and men. But for our easier passage through the words, wee will observe in the Text these things.

1 Quid? What it is they doe. They leape or ship.

2 Qui? Who they be that leape? The Mountaines and the Hills.

3 Quomodo? After what manner? like Rammes and young Sheepe.

4 Quare? The cause or reason of this leaping. What ayle yee O yee mountaines? And that's ex­prest in the next verse, A facie domini m [...]ta est terra. a facie dei Iacob. The Earth was moved at the face or presence of the Lord, It was the face or presence of the Lord which caus'd this leaping. But I shall be constrained for brevities sake, to joyne the Quid? the Qui? and the Quomodo together, the [Page 37] action, the subject, and the manner of the action.

Richardus de Sancto Victore and others, who are for the mysticall sense of this Scripture, by the rammes and lambes, will understand two Hierar­chies of the Angels, conteining sixe of the Or­ders of the nine, so that (according to him) the rammes signifie the first Hierarchy, the Seraphius, the Cherubin, the Throni: the young sheepe the last; Powers, Arch-Angels, and Angels. (Sic parvis componere magna—) By the Mountaines and the Hills, must bee meant (saith hee) Contemplative and speculative men, and by the plaine fields (which are implied here) men of Action, Qui hu­jus vitae plana non deserunt, dum terrenis actibus in­serviunt, & in camporum morem ad hujus vitae usum in terrenis lucris quasi quosdam terrae fructus ferunt: Who by reason of their secular imployments are said never to forsake the Plaines of the Earth: but as the fertile fields, to bring forth fruit for the use and service of man. Whereas the Contemplative man (who is compared unto the Mountaine) is commonly barren to the Earth, brings no fruit to the Common wealth wherein he lives, except hee joynes action to his Contemplation, but yet (like the Mountaine) hee is a great deale nearer heaven, hath a nearer accesse and acquaintance with the Lord, and is more fruitfull to heaven and God, al­though the fields (active men) bee more fruitfull to the earth and man.

The leaping of the soules of these Contempla­tive and speculative men (meant by the mountaines and hills) is a metaphor borrowed from a bodily [Page 38] action. Now we know that to leape corporally is totum corpus a terra suspendere: to take the whole body, and for a while to remove it from the touch of the Earth, so that for a little space it hangs (as it were) in the aire. Et quid est aliud, (saith one) saltus spiritualis quam spiritum & totum quod spiri­tus est a terrenis altenare? and what else is it to leape in the spirit, but to remove the spirit and the soule from all earthly cogitations, and to climbe up to the contemplation of things invisible.

The minde of man while it hath before its eyes incorporeall substances, (whether of Angels, or the soules of men) and discourses within it selfe about the nature of them, is said, ad se vel ad sua redire, & per planum ire, to returne to it selfe, it is then in its owne proper place, and goes in a plaine course without either rises or falls, because the na­ture of that of which he discourses is in plaine or in rancke with himselfe: but when ever hee fixes a contemplative eye upon God, who is the crea­ting Nature of all things, and suffers his soule to be busie upon meditation of his power, his excel­lence, his wisedome, his eternity, his mercy, his justice, then is the mind said, quasi dato saltu supra semetipsam ire, as by a leape given to goe above it selfe. And these leapers are either the Mountaines or the Hills; or Contemplative (as I told ye) or spe­culative men. They are called Contemplative qui­bus datum facie ad faciem videre, to whom it is given to see God face to face, whose knowledge is not clouded in riddles, aenigmas, in shadowes, types, and allegories: but behold the glory of God [Page 39] in nuda sua simplicitate. The speculative are they qui per speculum in aenigmate vident, who see God and his power, and his wisedome, and his greatnesse as it were by reflection, presented in a glasse, which is the Creator of the whole world, and the preser­vation and governement of it. — But here is mention made of three things in that part of the Text which is the Coppy or Originall, of rammes, of sheepe, and of lambes, Sicut aerietes, & sicut agni ovium, like rammes, and like the lambes of the sheepe: and therefore in the other part of the Text which is the Transcript, we are to finde three things too, to poise in the comparison against the three other, and they I told yee were the moun­taines, the hills, and the plaine or even fields. (for although they be not mentioned, yet they are im­plied) But here will arise a doubt, seeing that in this comparison the rammes and the mountaines do hold the highest place, the sheepe and the hills the second, the lambes and the plaines the lowest degree of all: Why then, being that the mountaines are compared to rammes, are not the hills compared rather to the sheepe (which were to observe the true order in the comparison) then to the lambes?

We answere, that there is a great and excellent reason for this.

The mountaines and the rammes, contemplative men, and Angels of the first Hierarchy are compa­red together, to shew that there is a similitude be­twixt the leapes of the spirit of man, and the leapes of those sublime and intellectuall Essenses: but for feare lest any man should thinke that this [Page 40] might bee comparatio ad gradum, a comparison of equality, and from hence bee bold to affirme, that the first order of men (contemplatives) doth ex pari respondere primo gradui Angelorum, directly equall the first Hierarchy of Angells, the second order of men (which is the speculatives) the se­cond Hierarchy, and the third order of men (which are the men of Action and secular imployment) the third Hierarchy: therefore the Pen of David here (which was certainely guided by the holy Spirit) doth rather choose to in [...]ringe the order and method of the comparison, and compares the Hills which are the second in order amongst men, unto the lambes, which are the third and last a­mongst the Angels. And the same answere gives Richardus, although in other words: Quod ergo dictum non est tacuit Propheta (saith hee) pro remo­venda suspicione aequalitatis, ut & id quod dictum, intelligatur pro ratione similitudinis.

But before we can learne truely after what ma­ner the mountaines and the hills doe leape, we must first looke upon the patterne after which they doe leape.

By those forenamed living creatures (I told yee) wee might in a mysticall sense understand the three Hierarchies of Angels. The first three orders, Seraphim, Cherubin, Throni, (which are likened unto the mountaines) are they which are immediately joyned to God, who doe inlighten all the inferiour orders, but doe receive no illumi­nation from any save from God. The three second orders (which here lie in method in the simili­tude, [Page 41] although not observed by the Psalmist, a­gainst the Hills) are Dominations, Vertues, and Prin­cipalities, and these doe both receive illumination from the higher orders, and give to the inferiour. The three last orders are Powers, Arch-angels, and Angels, and these receive light or knowledge from the superiour Hierarchies, but have no orders be­low them to whom to communicate any illumina­tion. Now for every one of these orders to leape in his kinde, is supra semetipsos ire, to rise up in a Contemplation unto such things as are above their owne nature. For the first orders therefore to reade the greatnesse, the wisedome and providence of God in any of the inferiour orders, or in sub­jecta creatura, in the Fabrick of the world, hoe de­scendere potius quam saltus dare, this is rather to goe downe then to leape: To view the greatnesse and majestie of God in themselves, in looking into their owne pure nature, hoc illorum est per planum ire, this is their plaine way, they neither rise nor fall in doing thus. But they are said to leape when they ascend into a simple and naked Contemplation of the Power, the Wisedome, the Majesty of God as he is in himselfe, and so behold with admi­ration that Fountaine of beauty, of goodnesse, of order, of proportion. The second and third Hierar­chies they are onely said to leape when they doe rise in a speculation into the orders above them, and from thence are furnished with matter of ad­miration concerning the Divine power, and wise­dome. For although it be granted, that these infe­riour orders have also their simple contemplations, [Page 42] doe behold the face of God too, enjoy the bea­tificall vision as well as the other; yet this may be called, illorum volatus potius quam tripudium, rather their flight then their leaping: because wee know hee that leapes doth not multum elongere se à stationis suae loco, removes not himselfe farre from the place he was in before: which we finde contrary in a flight, when the thing that flies works it selfe (many times) into a vast distance. There­fore because those orders of Angels which are here set out unto us by the name of rammes in their leapes, doe never use but a simple Contemplation, and the other inferiour orders never but a specula­tion, most fitly hath the Psalmist laid his compa­rison together; Montes exultaverunt ut arietes, & colles sicut agni ovium. For the mountaines then to skip like rammes is, when Contemplative men in a kinde of sacred extasie and overflowing of the soule, doe climbe up into pure notions of the Deity, abstracted from speculations; doe behold the face of God not in the glasse of the creature, but as he is in himselfe, all splendor, all glory, all brightnesse, all goodnesse. And for the hills to skip like lambs, is when speculative men doe climbe up into an ad­miration of God, by beholding the works of his hand [...], as St. Paul to the Romans 1.20. For the in­visible things of him, that is, his eternall power and Godhead, are seene in the creation of the world, being considered in his workes. Pensemus ergo, &c. Let us therefore conceive (if we be able) what a mighty prerogative and grace it is for our humane and fraile natures, to be likened in the motions of our [Page 43] minds unto the glorious Angels: And let us ther­fore praise the GOD of Angels and men, who hath made us a little lower then the Angels, to crowne us with glory and worship. O blessed soule and truely happy, who can take such leapes as these; who leaving the dull senses asleepe, can secretly steale from the body, and mount up in a moment unto the familiarity of Angels, bee par­takers of their joyes, be present at their spirituall delicates, and with them leape from one degree of knowledge and illumination to another, and with infinite delight and admiration still bee knowing of that immensity which can never bee fully knowen.

Lord let my soule ever leape after this manner, and I shall not envie all the flattering courtship that the world can shew me. But I make haste to the Quare, the cause of this leaping: What aile yee, O yee mountaines, &c. reade but the next verse, and the Question is answered, A facie Do­mini mota est terra (for so good Translations as I told yee, reade it) The earth was moved at the Face of the Lord.

Hugo set downe foure severall faces of Christ.

Fac [...]m,

1 Viventis: The face of Christ living, or the face of his Poverty. And this face did he shew in his Nativity, and after, in his whole life, being made poore for our sakes, so that hee had not so much as whereon to lay his head.

2 Morientis: The face of Christ dying, or the face of his Griefe. And this face did hee shew us [Page 44] upon the Crosse, which seemed to becken to all Passengers, and to say in the Prophet Ieremies words, Lam. 1.12. Have yee no regard all yee that passe by this way? behold and see, if there bee any sor­row like unto my sorrow.

3 Iudicantis: The face of Christ Iudging, or the face of his Anger. And this face will he shew to the wicked ones in the day of judgement.

4 Regnantis: The face of Christ reigning, or the face of his Glory and pleasure. And this face will hee onely shew to the Saints in the Kingdome of Heaven.

But I must make bold in the midst of these foure, to insert one face more of Christs, which Hugo Cardinalis did not thinke of, and that is

Facies resurgentis: The face of Christ arising from the dead, subduing the grave, and leading Captivity captive. And this is the face of Christ meant here, at the sight of which the Earth was moved. The Mountaines skipped, &c. And what thing is there so heavy, that could sit still and be­hold this face? O let not us then be more insen­sible then the Mountaines and Hills to which wee are compared: for we must know that the strength of the comparison doth not lie in the ponderous­nesse of the Mountaines: No, wee ought not to imitate them in this: but it doth consist in the height, in their neernesse to heaven, and their di­stance from the common roades of men. Lift up your heads therefore, O yee gates, and be yee lift [Page 45] up yee everlasting doores, and the King of glory will come in.

First then, O yee mountaines of the earth, who doe enjoy a vicinity and kinde of familiarity with God and heaven; Yee men of contemplation, who by the advantage of your height, have a far clearer and neerer prospect of God, and of the wonders that are in him, then they who are upon the little Hills and Plaines of the earth below; O lift up your heads on high in a thankfull acknowledge­ment and admiration of the wisedome, the power, the mercy of our God, who sent his onely Sonne in whom he was well pleased into the world, that he by his poverty, his ignominie, his obedience, his death, might make an atonement for our sins. And this is the day wherein that gracious worke was perfectly finished; this is the day wherein our Saviour Christ having entred into the house of that strong man, Death, and bound him, like a Giant refreshed with wine, issued out of the Grave in triumph. Or once, This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us reioyce and be glad in it. For be sure that the Lord lookes for greater, higher, and more frequent leapes from you, for purer and more exalted notions approaching neere unto the contemplation of Angells, then he doth from the Hills and Plaines: For to whom much is given, of him shall much be required. So that as Saint Paul said of himselfe concerning preaching of the Gospell, Woe is me if I preach not the Gospell: so may I say of my self, and of all our whole Tribe the Tribe of Levi with me, of all the Priests of the Lord, the [Page 46] Sonnes of the Prophets, who are as it were a por­tion set apart for God himselfe, and like the moun­taines neerer heaven, are, or at the least should be farther removed from the plaines of the earth, worldly cares & imployments, to the end that be­ing freed from these outward destractions and disturbances, wee should the more intend the ho­nour of God, and the good of his people. Woe he unto us if wee above other men doe not leape for joy, doe not sing songs of deliverance unto the God of our redemption.

In the next place, O yee Hills praise yee the Lord. 'Tis Davids counsell, Psalme 148. Yee speculative men, who are not yet growne up to the altitude of mountaines, yee who are not able yet to climbe in­to a simple contemplation of God: but doe behold his wisedome and power in the Glasse of the crea­ture, in the Creation & Government of the world: O doe yee leape too; and although yee cannot yet fetch such Masculine leapes as the Rammes do, let not this discourage yee. Here is a degree of comparison for you too, doe it like the Lambes, or the young ones of the Flock. Nor must we exempt the Fields, the Plaines of the Earth from bearing a part in this joy, the men of action and secular businesse, they must come in for their share too: and although they cannot leape or skip like the mountaines or the hills, yet we will finde out an im­ployment for them too. Whilst the mountaines and the hills dance before the presence of the Lord, and trace it in comely figures together, the fruit­full vallyes shall sing unto them as they passe, and [Page 47] this I am sure they are able to doe: For David in one of his Psalmes brings them in in the very same action, and makes the moving cause of it to bee onely the fruitfulnesse of the Earth. The vallyes (saith he) stand so thick with corne, that they doe laugh and sing. But wee have a greater cause then the fruitfulnesse of the Earth to move us: the fruit­fulnesse of heaven is fallen upon us, and the Day-spring from on high hath visited us. Hee whom the other day wee left hanging upon the Crosse, the scorne and laughter of Passengers, and hath lyen as imprisoned in the house of death for three dayes and three nights, hath now broken from the prison of the Grave, and to our endlesse com­fort and eternall Salvation, loosed and shaken off the bands of death, not onely for himselfe, over whom death shall have no more dominion, but al­so for us too: For now since his conquest, Death hath lost his strength, nor shall the Grave be able now to hold any of us hereafter. The force of the Prison wall is decayed, and through the breach which his blessed Resurrection hath made therein, shall we finde a way unto eternity of living.

Let us therefore who are the Vallyes & Plaines of the Earth, though we are not able to leape and skip after the manner of the mountaines and hills, who have higher and purer revelations then our selves, although wee cannot sing unto the honour of our Saviour in so heavenly a straine, or in so wel penn'd Anthemes as they; yet let us not faile to doe our endeavours, though it bee in a more homely Musick, for the Lord doth not despise the [Page 48] Musick even of an oaten reede tuned to his Praise, and he can discover a sweetnesse, even in the harsh note of a sigh or a groane which is pointed to him.

Let us therefore for this present joyne our selves in Chorus with old Zachary, Luke 1. and say, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for hee hath visited and redeemed his people. Amen.

VPon the day dedicated to the memory of St. Peter, wee have made choyce of a Text where­in we finde St. Peter sorrowfull: and indeede wee should doe wrong to the holy Apostle, if we should at all remember him without his sorrow. Never feare, that sorrow for sinne will ever spoile the face of a good Christian: [Page 50] 'tis the comeliest thing about him, and he doth St. Peter the most honour who pictures him weeping. Alas! to call to minde onely the sinnes and im­perfections of this holy man, onely to mention how shamefully he denied his Master, and to leave out his bitter weeping, and his repentance (which is the best part of the story) were to bring him up­on the stage onely to disgrace him; but that man doth St. Peter right, who remembers his repentance as well as his sinne.

Wee have in this Scripture then these three things.

1. Peters sorrow. Hee was sory, saith the Text,

Secondly, The cause of his sorrow. And that is (we see) our Saviours saying unto him the third time, lovest thou me?

Thirdly, The effect of St. Peters sorrow. And this is double; Neerer, or, farther off.

The effect which I call the neerer, is St. Peters answer. Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.

The effect of his sorrow which I call the farther off, is the reply of Christ unto Peters answer. Iesus said unto him, Feede my Sheepe.

1. Peter was sory.

What Peter might this be? That Peter who in the Gospell read for this day, by reason of that cleare Confession, Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God, was pronounced blessed by the mouth of Christ? That Peter to whom were given the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven, so that whatso­ever he bindes on earth, shall be bound in heaven, [Page 51] and whatsoever he looses on earth, shall be loosed in heaven? Yes, Even the very same Peter, even the very same Simon the sonne of Ionas, whom our Saviour himselfe in that 16. of St. Mathew, pro­claimed blessed. He is sorrowfull.

First, Peter the blessed is sorrowfull. Certainly then it is not altogether such an accursed and hatefull thing, to endure affliction and troubles here upon earth, as it is supposed it is. Be comforted then thou who art in misery, art persecuted or afflicted, for thou seest that Saint Peter here, who was in the opinion of no lesse then Christ, a blessed man, hee was in sorrow, hee was griev'd: which did not a whit diminish his blessednesse, but rather en­crease it.

Secondly, Peter the holy is sorrowfull. O then it is in vaine to looke for true felicity here on earth. The greatest Saints of God (we see) are not with­out their rainie dayes and tempests: a perpetuall calme is onely to be found in heaven. Nay Peter who to his inward gifts and graces of the spirit, had also an outward competency of corporall goods; he was full, he wanted nothing, hee was newly risen from a Feast, he enjoy'd the company of his friends, and his companions were round about him (no small blessing.) Nay, hee had the bodily presence of Christ himselfe. Nor was hee furnished onely for the present, but hee had also provision for many dayes, no lesse then a Stock of an hundred fifty and three great fishes for hereafter; so that hee might have said with the rich Foole in the Gospell, Soule take thy rest, thou hast goods enough layd up for thee. [Page 52] No, all this cannot shut griefe out of the heart of Saint Peter. Peter for all this was sorie. Let us learne therefore from hence to know that true joy (which is without any mixture of griefe) is not to be found in any earthly good whatsoever: not in thy riches, not in thy dainties, not in thine honors, not in the multitude and greatnesse of thy friends. No; Seeke for that in any other place, except it be in heaven, and bee sure that thou shalt lose thy labour.

2 But why is Peter sory? because his Master asks him whether he loves him or no? What could there be in this which could grieve Saint Peter? One would have thought that this should rather have made him joyfull, to heare his Lord, and the Lord of the whole world, to talke so familiarly with him? to take such particular notice of him, and of his love? No, this is not all. For wee finde our Saviour say­ing the very same words unto him twice before, and yet he was not a whit mov'd at it then: but now he sayes unto him the third time: lovest thou mee? As if some secret influence had beene wrapt up in those words, and so convay'd into his soule, yee may discerne a suddaine alteration in the man. What should the meaning of this be? Shall wee say that there is any Magick or Witchcraft in the number of three? Wee must not say it. But this wee may say. A hidden vertue, or power there was in those words of our Saviour repeated thrice unto him. Alas! at the first and second speaking of them, Pe­ter did not know the meaning of our Saviour: but no sooner doth he come upon him with that questi­on [Page 53] the third time, but then hee begins to recollect himselfe, and verily beleeve that there is some­thing in it more then ordinary. As if Peter had dialogued thus with himselfe. What should this meane that my Lord and Master doth so often re­peat these words to mee? Lovest thou mee? lovest thou mee? lovest thou mee? Would not this once na­med have served the turne? Is it possible that Christ can affect empty repetitions, which are like clouds without water? Certainly, all his words are ponderous; nor doth a syllable fall from his blessed lips, but what is full of meaning and my­sterie. No lesse then thrice together, lovest thou me?

O my tormented conscience! I have it. One deepe calls upon another, because of the noyse of the water pipes. Now our Apostle begins to dive a lit­tle into the mystery of the number 3. and thinks with himselfe what he can call to mind within the compasse or intimation of that number which may concerne himselfe. And sure he shall not need to be long in meditation about it. If hee chance to bee forgetfull, wee'l bring the Cocke againe to waken his memory, and that shall crow but once, to tell him that hee hath denied his Master thrice. O, it was this which touched him to the quicke; his mind presently upon Christs third repetition, ran backe to his threefold deniall. Now Peter under­stands the intent of his Master; but yet (sure) not all his intent, for then hee would never have grieved for the matter. He fixes onely upon that part of it which did respect the hainousnesse of his former sinne, and called that backe to his memory: [Page 54] it is likely he never thought at that time upon the other part of Christs intention, which was the good and honour of St. Peter, that by this three­fold open confession of his Lord and Saviour, hee might (as much as in him lay) expiate his three­fold deniall of him. This was certainly the chie­fest reason why our Saviour urges this to Peter the third time, that hee might give him an occasion to redeeme the honour, which hee had lost before. Hee denied him thrice before, and now to make a­mends for that, he confesses him as often.

But it runnes in the Text, And Peter was sory because hee said unto him the third time, lovest thou mee: which implies that Peter was not so much grieved for the sinne of his deniall it selfe, as hee was at the unkindnesse (as hee supposed) of our Saviour: who first seemes to make it a great doubt whether Peter loved him or no, in asking him so often. And well hee might doubt of it, (although to speake properly, Christ could not doubt of any thing, because he knew all things) for Peter by his former denialls had given him sufficient cause to doubt. And secondly by this threefold Question seemes to upbraid Peter with the same businesse that the Cock told him of before. And this is the nature of us all, who commonly doe thinke so well of our selves that we account it a great disparage­ment to have our faith, or hope, our love, or our religion called in question. No; let us alone, wee are well, wee love God, and wee love Christ, wee hope for heaven, and wee know all shall bee well with us. To what purpose are all these questions? [Page 55] With Peter we are sory if any one asks us whether we love Christ or no? In the next place, wee are of the same nature with St. Peter too: by any meanes we doe not love to heare of our sinnes. We doe not reade here, that CHRIST was any whit plaine or open with Peter. Hee did not tell him of his sinne in a diameter, in a straight line, for wee finde not a word of any denials mentioned: but onely tacitely and insinuatingly, doth hee by his threefold confession, bring backe to his memory his threefold deniall, which hee knew could not chuse but do it. It is likely that the rest of the com­pany who were present with them at this dis­course, tooke no notice at all of his meaning: it was onely knowne to Peter himselfe, who had a vi­gilant monitor within him, his conscience, quick­ning his apprehension, and yet for all this, Peter is grieved. And it was well he was but grieved: hee was not angry as many of us will bee now adayes, when we heare our darling sinnes a little touched. O yee will hug us of the Clergy, so long as wee let yee alone; so long as wee doe not bring backe your sinnes to your memory, wee are quiet and ho­nest men, so long as wee will suffer ye to goe to Hell in a Horse litter, a fine easie pace, without any rubs or molestations in your way, we shall be accounted good and worthy men amongst yee: but let us come once to shake off that basenesse of spirit, and tell yee of the dangerous estate yee are in by reason of your sinnes (as it was with Belshaz­zar in the 5. of Daniel, at the sight of the hand­writing on the wall) the fashion of your counte­nance [Page 56] presently is changed, and your blood im­mediatly is up in armes, as if yee could finde in your hearts (were it in your power) to dash that blood in the face of him who reproves yee, al­though afterwards your cold hearts cried out for want of it. But thus did not St. Peter; we doe not reade that hee was angry, because Christ put him in minde of his past sinnes, we finde him sorrowfull indeed, Peter was sory, but the effect of his sorrow was excellent. That is a good sorrow which be­gets a confession of Gods omniscience, and such was St. Peters. And so we are come to the

3 Third thing I observed in the Text. The effect of Peters sorrow. Which is either nearer, and is the answer of St. Peter: Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee, Or else farther off, and that is Christs reply: Iesus said unto him, Feed my sheepe.

Lord thou knowest all things, &c. Doe men ga­ther grapes of thornes, or figges of thistles? who would ever have looked for so faire a fruit from so bitter a tree? If this be the fruit of sorrow, Lord give us enough of that sorrow, that we may con­fesse thy Wisedome, thy Omnipotence. But is it not every sorrow that will doe this? No, there is a sorrow unto vanity, and there is a sorrow unto death; from which, Lord of thy mercy deliver us: But it is the sorrow onely for our sinnes, which is the tree upon which that goodly fruit doth grow.

I make hast to the last words, which is the thing I chiefly aime at.

Iesus said unto him, Feed my sheepe. If thou dost [Page 57] love mee as thou professest thou dost, expresse it then in feeding of my sheepe.

These words are mightily tumbled and tossed up and downe betwixt us and our adversaries the Papists. For they of the Church of Rome doe sup­pose that this Text makes very strongly for the Popes supremacy, who is (as they boast) St. Peters Successor, sits in his Chaire, retaining still the same authority and jurisdiction, which Christ then gave to St. Peter.

Here be three branches in this Controversie.

1 Whether our Saviour by speaking these words to St. Peter, Feed my sheepe, did conferr up­on him any supreame or universall authority over the rest of the Apostles, and over the Church mi­litant?

2 If so, whether this Authority and Suprema­cie was onely personall, limited and confined to the person of St. Peter, with whom it died; or whe­ther successive, to all his Successours?

3 Or if both these, whether St. Peter was ever at Rome, and so the Bishops of Rome were his Suc­cessors? Or if this be granted, whether the Popes as they are now, may be called S. Peters successors? because, although wee grant a personall succession, yet wee deny a succession of Doctrine. The old Doctrine that St. Peter established at Rome is much impaired and corrupted.

And to begin with the last.

That Peter was never at Rome, or at least died not in the Bishopricke of Rome, (which is a thing they contend for strongly, for otherwise they of [Page 58] Antioch might also boast themselves to be St. Pe­ters successors, for hee was Bishop there seven yeeres) is a point mightily controverted and the Arguments which are brought for confirmation of the negative part (I doe acknowledge) doe make Bellarmine many times (as great a Scholler as he was) to awaken his best wits to answer them. But the narrow limits of a Sermon will not suffer me to name them, much lesse to urge them, nor will we quarrell much for this: For I confesse that I am much lead by the Authority of St. Ierom in his Booke of the famous men, notwithstanding all the arguments to the contrary of Velenus, Illyricus, Calvin, and the Centuries of the Magdeburgenses, drawen either from Chronology, and computation of yeares, and raignes of Emperours; Peter being as we finde in the fifth of the Acts, present at the Councel holden at Ierusalem amongst the Apostles and Elders of the Church, concerning the aboli­shing of Circumcision: which Councell was hol­den upon the eighteenth yeare after Christs re­surrection: or whether they bee taken from the Scripture (which I must needs acknowledge can bee at the best but confecturall and negative, which are no good witnesses (even in our Common-law) against a deposed affirmative;) either from those Epistles which St. Paul wrote from Rome, as to the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Phil [...]ppians, the Hebrews, in none of which doth St. Paul make any mention of St Peter. Hee saith indeed in the last to the Colossians, (which was one of those Epistles he wrote from Rome) that Ari­starchus [Page 59] his fellow prisoner saluted them, and Marcus sisters sonne to Barnabas, and Iesus which was called Iustus, and Epaphras, but not a word of St. Peters saluting them. Nor yet in that Epistle of his to the Romans (which hee wrote from Co­rinth) doth hee once remember St. Peter, or desire at all to bee commended to him, as yee may see in the last to the Romans. Greet Aquila, and Priscilla, greet Andronicus, greet Vrbanus, salute Herodian, and Rufus, and Patrobas, and Philologus, and a great number more: but not a word of saluting St. Peter. Now say they, it was not a likely thing, that St. Paul should amongst all these friends of his, so much neglect and sleight St. Peter, as not to remember him at all, if he had beene at Rome. I doe confesse, this reason hath some shew of pro­bability in it, but according to my apprehension, these things are answered well enough by Bellar­mine. The words of St. Ierome are (Englished) these:

Simon Peter, the sonne of Iohn, of the Province of Galilee, and village of Bethsaida, brother to An­drew, and chiefe of the Apostles, after his being Bi­shop at Antioch, and his preaching to the dispersed Iewes in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and B [...] ­thynia, in the second yeare of the Emperour Claudius, went to Rome to beate downe the heresie of Simon Ma­gus, where hee remained in the Chatre of Priesthood twenty five yeares, untill the last yeare of Nero, who crucified him with his head downeward toward the earth, which was it seemes his owne desire, adjudging himselfe unworthy to die after the same manner that his [Page 60] Lord and Master did. Thus farre St. Ierome.

And truely, Master Calvin and the Centuries shall pardon me, for I have great reason for many respects to beleeve St. Ierome before them. Nei­ther have the Papists got much by this grant, by yeelding that Peter lived and died at Rome, for be­fore they can bring their Argument to any head, they have two hard Provinces to runne through, two difficult businesses to prove. The first of which is (as I told yee when I branched the que [...]stion) that the authority of St. Peter above the other Apostles is hereditary, and derived to his Successors; and next (which will bee the hardest of all) to prove that St. Peter had any such Supre­macy given him. So that although wee yeeld that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome, and that all the Popes have beene, and are his lawfull Successours, and grant farther that these lawfull successours of St. Peter have the very same authority and supremacy derived upon them which their Predecessour had before given him by Christ. Yet for all this they have done nothing, for hee who is heire ex toto asse, of the whole inheritance of his father, can be but heire of his whole inheritance, hee can possesse no more then his father left him. Now we denie that St. Peter had any such Supremacy given him, and they can inherit no more Supremacy then hee had to bestow upon them.

But they will prove it (they say) out of this Text. Our Saviour saith here to Saint Peter alone, and that in the presence of other of the Apostles, Feede my Sheepe. He doth not say to Iohn, Feede my [Page 61] Sheepe, nor to Andrew, nor to Thomas, Feede my Sheepe: but onely to Peter. The whole charge is laid upon him. But did I call it a charge or burthen! O no (say they) this word Feede doth not onely signifie a charge or burthen, but it also implies a do­minion and soveraignty, and for this they runne to Homer, who calls King Agame [...]non [...], the Sheepheard, or the Ruler of the people. But it seemes they are hardly put to it, that they are forced to runne to a blinde Heathen Poet, for an interpreta­tion of Christs meaning. A man might suppose that Saint Augustine should tell them a great deale better, what kinde of feeding is here understood, who upon this very Text hath these words. What else is meant by this, Lovest thou mee? Feede my Sheepe, then if Christ had said, If thou lovest mee, thinke not of feeding thy selfe, but of feeding my Sheepe, and feede them as my Sheepe, not as thine owne; so feede them, that thou mayest seeke my ho­nour and profit in feeding them, and not thine owne. But let us say (as we cannot deny) that this word feede doth also expresse a kinde of rule and government over the Sheepe; yet this makes no more for Saint Peter, then for the rest of the Apo­stles, to whom our Saviour gives the same charge and office, though in other words, in the 16. of St. Marke. Goe into all the world, and Preach the Gospell to every creature. And this to whom? Not to Pe­ter onely, but to the eleven. He appeared to the eleven as they sate together (saith the Text) and said unto them, Goe into all the world, &c. And doe but ob­serve what Saint Augustine saith, not onely con­cerning [Page 62] this, but also of that other place, in which they have a greater confidence then in this, in the 16. of Saint Mathew. Wherein our Saviour (upon that confession of Saint Peter, Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God) tells him, that he will give to him the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven, so that what­soever he looses on earth, shall be loosed in heaven, and whatsoever he bindes on earth, shall be bound in heaven. O the Popes have a great minde to be the onely heires to Saint Peter of these words, but they are not so hasty to lay any claime to that other speech of our Saviours to Peter following in the same Chap­ter, Get thee behinde mee Satan, because thou under­standest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. St. Augustines words are these in his 118. Tractate upon Saint Iohns Gospell, writing upon the seamelesse coate of Christ, which the Souldiers cast lots for and did not divide. Omnes interrogati, solus Petrus respondet, &c. That question, Whom say yee that I am? was (saith the Father) propounded to them all, but onely Peter answered for them. Hee was the mouth of the rest of the Apostles, and there­fore Christ saith to Peter in the name of them all; To thee will I give the keyes of the Kingdom of heaven. And marke the words well. Tibi dabo claves regni coelorum, tanquam ligandi & solvendi solus acceperit potestatem, cū & illud unios pro omnibus dixerit, & hoc cum omnibus tanquam personam gerens ipsius unitatis, acceperit. As if (saith S. Aug.) Peter had received the power of binding and loosing alone, when as hee both answered for them all, and received the power for them all. The words are as cleare as the Sunne.

God forbid that I should goe about any way to disparage or under value this holy Apostle: No, wee will willingly give him the honour that is due to him. And indeed hee had a kinde of personall pre­heminence above the rest of his fellowes, and that by reason of his age, his faith, his valour, his love towards his Master. Concerning his faith, wee finde that so great, that he adventured himselfe to walke upon the face of the Sea to meete his Lord, when all his fellowes stood trembling in the Ship, and thought themselves scarcely secure there. And although hee had almost sunke in the action, yet this makes nothing against him, for it argued a great Faith, in that hee durst put himselfe within the danger of sinking. And to give yee an answer to our Saviours words in the 14. of Saint Mathew, when taking Peter by the hand, he saith unto him, [...]; O thou of little saith, wherefore doest thou feare? Our Saviour doth not call him here [...]. O thou of no faith. But [...]. O thou of little faith. And it is true his faith was but litle, if we make it looke towards the love & power of Christ who had the wind [...] and the Sea, and all creatures at his command, and whose love was as great as his power.

Peters faith indeed, if it regards this, was but a little faith. But if wee make it respect the no faith of his fellowes in this businesse, in comparison to them, it may be called a great saith. Then for his love and valour, we see that it was only he amongst them who durst draw his sword in his Masters quarrell. If yee object his deniall to mee: I an­swer, [Page 64] that that makes for the courage of St. Peter: For in that he denied his Lord he was more valiant then all his fellowes: nor is this my conceit alone, but St. Augustines in one of his Sermons de tempore, hee was not affraid to come so neere even to denie him. The Shepheard was smitten, and all the Sheepe were scattered, all the rest of the Disciples (as soone as Christ was apprehended) forsooke him pre­sently, as if they had never knowne any such man: but Peter, although it was afarre off, yet he followed him, & that even into the high Priests Hall. Where (it is true) hee told them he knew not the man; but this also is as true, that he did tell them so. The other Disciples knew not the man, and were so fearefull, that they durst not come neere to tell them so: but Peter is so couragious, that hee stands out a three­fold deniall. In his very deniall he was val [...]anter then all the rest.

Let us therefore ascribe unto St. Peters God, for St. Peters faith, for St. Peters love, for his valour, for his doctrine, for his life, for his repentance, for his death, and martyrdome, all which are set up as so many Sea-markes, to guide us into the Haven of eternall rest, (as due is) all praise, honour, power, majestie, &c. Amen.

I Cannot tell whether I should more commend the former Ages of the Church, or lament our owne: they in the Pri­mitive times were so carefull to take all possible occasions to glorifie God, in Himselfe, in his Sonne, [...]e his holy Spi­rit, in his Saints, that they did dedicate set dayes on purpose for his worship, as the day of the Na­tivity of our Saviour, the day of his Passion, of his Resurrection, which was indeed the great day of the yeare, which did quite abrogate the Jewish Sab­bath; [Page 66] the day also of the Ascension, and the Feast of Pentecost, wherein the Comforter was sent to the Disciples. Nor did their devotion stop here, but because they might let slip no occasion to praise the Lord, they also did set apart certaine dayes wherein God should be glorified in the anniversa­rie memory of his Saints. At ipsa sanctitas, & san­ctorum simul memoria frigidis his nostris temporibus exulant. But our times frozen with a certaine new upstart discipline blowne from Geneva, are so farre from affording any honourable mention of Gods Saints, that many of us quarrell the very name. And indeed to say the truth, what have they to doe with the word, when the thing which the word sig­nifies is banished from them.

I doe acknowledge, that the Church of Rome is something too ceremonious, too complementall in regard of the Saints, and doth bestow too much honour upon them, many times even to the pre­judice of Gods glory. But shall we therefore (like fooles or mad men) in a wilde desire of opposition erre farther on the other hand? because they ho­nour them a little too much, therefore shall wee dishonour them? God hath beene pleased to glo­rifie them in heaven, like the Starres in the Firma­ment. The just shall shine as the Sunne in the King­dome of their Father, saith our Saviour in the 13. of Saint Mathew ver. 43. And therefore certainely these are not fit objects of our scorne and neglect.

But to give (if it be possible) some satisfaction to the froward and ignorant concerning these dayes dedicated to the Saints. If Antiquity would [Page 67] satisfie them, I could send them to [...]ertullian, St. Ierome, St. Augustine, and of later times to Baronius Annales, to Bellarmine, who are not much branded for bearing false witnesse of the ancient times. For certaine it is, that this dedication of dayes unto the honour of the Saints, (or to the honour of God in the Saints, choose yee which) is of great Anti­quity. The Romanists have indeed abused this cu­stome, and have multiplied the number of their Saints beyond the number of their dayes, it may bee have put in some into the number of their Saints, when there hath beene neither such Saints nor such men. But it is no good argument from the abuse of a Thing to conclude against the law­full use. But I will leave Antiquity, which they care not for, and will deale with them by reason.

I was too blame to tell them so. I doubt my ar­guments will fare the worse for comming to them in that livery. Carnall reasoning (as they call it) they cannot abide. O that such people would but heare without prejudice. For what is he who hath not lost all that is man about him, when hee shall heare the reasons which are alleadged for the dedication of these dayes, but must needes (mee thinkes) retract his lunacie and folly, and call the former Ages wise, and our selves happy; them for first instituting, and us for enjoying those blessed occasi­ons and meanes to build us up in devotion?

The dayes therefore dedicated to the memory of the blessed Virgin St. Mary, the holy Apostles, and Martyrs, have many profitable and religious uses.

First, That upon those dayes wee might joyne our rejoycing with theirs, communicate together in our joy and praises of God. And for this it is that we beleeve and confesse in our Creed, A com­munion of Saints.

Secondly, that we might shew our thankfulnesse both unto God and to them, who are so solicitous for our good, and doe so thirst after, and rejoyce at our salvation and glory. There is joy in heaven for one sinner that repents.

Thirdly, That wee contemplating their vertues and graces, might be provoked to an imitation of their godly lives.

Fourthly, That our Faith and Hope might by the consideration of them be established, that, as we verely beleeve, that they are now glorified in Heaven, who were once mortall men here on Earth, subject to the same passions, to the same in­firmities with our selves: so wee following their steps in vertuous and religious living shall one day also be removed from this earth, and enjoy with them an everlasting vision of glory.

Fifthly, That God thereby might be honoured. For if we so honour the memory of the Saints, cer­tainly this very action of ours must needs acknow­ledge him to be more glorious, more honourable, who both made them men, and made them Saints.

Sixthly, That by meditating upon their happi­nesse, and the beauty which they are now possest of, we might be perswaded unto a hate of all earth­ly things, and onely let our thoughts bee taken up with Heaven, which while they lived here, was [Page 69] their study, now is their habitation.

And lastly, That by the celebration of these Feasts, meeting at Gods house (as we ought to do) praising, and raying unto the Lord, hearing his holy Word read, or preached, we might be buil­ded up to further degrees of knowledge and devo­tion. And were there no other reason but this, me thinkes it might move a good Christian.

But I shall make a monster of this Childe of mine, this discourse, in making the head too bigg for the body; so that I am afraid you will get to the Text before me, and say of my Sermon, as the people did here of St. Iohn the Baptist, What manner of Child shall this be? I therefore make haste to the Text. And all they that heard these things laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner, &c.

Our whole discourse at this time shall bee no­thing else but an answer to this question. And to whom is this question directed? I perceive there be many who are provided to make an Answer to it. If [...]ee aske the Child himselfe, stay but a while untill hee hath learned to speake, and hee shall quote yee a Prophet concerning himselfe and tell yee, that he is The voyce of a crt [...]r in the wildernesse, saying, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. If ye aske his father, if we will have but patience untill the Lord hath given him his speech againe, which was taken from him for his unbeleefe; or if ye will not stay so long, give him but Tables and he shall write it, that he shall bee cal­led the Prophet of the Highest. And thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt [Page 70] goe before the face of the Lord to prepare his wayes. If ye aske David this question, behold he stands rea­dy to give yee an answer in the 85. Psalme, and calls him by a high name indeed, no lesse then justice, or righteousnesse, in the last verse of that Psalme, Iustitia ante eum ambulabit: Justice or Righ­teousnesse shall walke before him. Or aske the Prophet Malachy what maner of Child this shall be, and in his 3. Chapter he shall tell yee of an An­gel, Behold, I will send my Angel, (or my messenger) before my face. Or if yee will not content your selves with the answeres of men, enquire of the Angel Gabriel, and he will instruct ye that he shall be great before God. Or if ye will goe to the Oracle it selfe, aske our Saviour, and heare what an ac­count hee gives of him, in the 11. Chapter of St. Matthew 11. verse: Verily I say unto ye, among them that are begotten of women, arose there not a greater then Iohn the Baptist.

If yee move a second question, and aske where­in Iohn was great, ye shall give me leave to spring a third, and to aske wherein hee was not great? Great he was in his conception, great in his nativity, great in his life, in his doctrine great, in his office great, great in his sanctity, in his dignity and au­thority great, great in his death, and great in his glory. In these so great, that there was a doubt a­mongst the Jews whether hee was not the Messias or no, Iohn 1. Certainly a great Majesty, a great beauty, a great holinesse did appeare in this man, when it was made a question (and that amongst the greatest and learnedest of the Jews) whe­ther [Page 71] hee were not the Messias, and consequently the Sonne of God or no. But this greatnesse yet is nothing, alas, it is no such thing to be great in the eyes of men: but heare what the Angel tells old Zachary in the 15. verse of this Chapter, Mag­nus erit coram Domino, he shall be great in the sight of God. This is a kind of greatnesse which should strike us all with admiration, that hee should bee great in the sight of Him, before whom all the creatures of the world, all Kings and Empe­rours of the earth are nothing? As it is in the Booke of Wisedome 11.19. For as the dust of the ballance, so is the world before thee, and as a drop of the morning dew which falleth downe upon the earth: And as the Prophet Esay Chap. 40. ver. 17. All Na­tions before him are nothing, and they are counted to him lesse then nothing and vanitie. What can bee lesse then nothing and vanity? and what can bee greater in our sight, then all Nations? Yet in Gods esteeme these two are laid in the ballance, one against the other, and all Nations proves the lighter. How comes it then to passe that one parti­cular man should bee so great in his account, when all Nations are nothing? We must know then that St. Iohn was not great by nature, but by estimation. Not by nature, for he was of the same compositi­on, cast in the same mold with us: but it pleased God to set a price upon him. He was of the same matter and composition with us, subject to the same infirmities, obnoxious (naturally) to the same sinnes, and therefore observe that forme of words well, which our Saviour speakes concer­ning [Page 72] him in the 11. of St. Matthew. [...]. Verily I say unto yee, that amongst them who are be­gotten of women, a greater then Iohn the Baptist hath not arose: by which word our Saviour doth inti­mate unto us the naturall corrupt estate in which St. Iohn himselfe was borne. Resurrectio enim praesup­ponit casum. For, to arise, doth presuppose a fall. As if Christ had said plainer; Amongst all the sonnes of men, which were conceived in Origi­nall sinne, and fell with Adam, a greater then Iohn the Baptist hath not arose from that fall. And there­fore it is plaine by this, that Christ was greater then hee, although he came of a woman too. For wee cannot say properly, that Christ did arise, because Christ never fell with Adam, was free both from originall and actuall sinne. And see what haste this blessed more then Prophet did make to arise from his corrupt estate of sinne? He did arise even before hee was borne: the Holy Ghost did baptize him, did sanctifie him while he was in the wombe of his mother, as yee reade in the 15 verse of this Chapter, Hee shall bee filled with the holy Ghost, even from his mothers wombe. And so he was great in his conception and nativity.

Next, he was great in his life and doctrine: so great, that wee finde St. Iohn the Euangelist in the first Chapter of his Gospel, having like an Eagle (the hieroglyphick of St. Iohn) for a while soared aloft, amongst the mysteries of the Trinity, dis­coursed of the divinity, the originall, the nativity of the Word, and having finished that high flight, [Page 73] and stooping for the earth, the very first thing he lights upon, is upon the Head of St. Iohn the Bap­tist. Tanquam in sublimiori vertice & cacumine toti­us mundi, as upon the very Top or Cape of all the lower world. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and that Word was God; and so he goes forward untill hee hath wrought himselfe out of our sight; whence descending towards us againe, the first thing (yee see) that hee perches upon, is upon the Man Iohn, 5. and 6. verses. [...]. 5 [...] And the light shineth in the darknesse, and the darknesse comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was Iohn, the same came to beare witnesse of the light, &c. And certainly had not the holy Baptist beene a great and eminent person, the eyes of the Euangelist, which could not chuse but bee dazeled by looking so long and so earnestly upon that bright Sun of Christs Divinity, turning his face downewards towards the earth, could not so suddenly have discerned him.

Great he was also in regard of his dignity, autho­rity, and office, which may bee thus illustrated by a similitude. Have any of yee seene a great King, or an Emperour, going upon a solemne Procession, accompanied and waited upon by his Princes, his Nobles, his servants? though yee have not, yet I hope yee have fancies to conceive it. And with­out all doubt wee shall account him the most ho­nourable amongst his Princes, whom wee behold the neerest to the person of the King, and whom the King peradventure admits to goe in rancke with himselfe. Now all the Fathers, the Patri­arches, [Page 74] and Prophets of the old Testament did walke before Christ our great and eternall King, who came in solemne Procession into the world, a spectacle to men and Angels: and all the rest of his Court, of his Traine, who have lived since his Incarnation have followed after him. And there­fore of Abraham (who was one of the Pracurfores, of the fore-runners of Christ) saith the Lord in the 17.Gen. 17.7. of Gen. 1. I am God all-sufficient, walke before me and be upright. And Hezekiah praies unto the Lord,Isay 38.3. and saith in the 38. of Isay ver. 3. Re­member I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth. But concerning those in the new Testa­ment we shall finde the phrase altered. Sequimini me, follow me. To Peter and Andrew in the 4. of St. Matthew, Follow me, and I will make [...]ee fish­ers of men. To Matthew sitting at the receipt of Custome in the 9. of his Gospel, Follow mee, and he arose and followed him; and to us all in the 9. of St. Luke ver. 23. If any man will come after mee, let him deny himselfe, and take up his Crosse and follow me. But the holy Baptist was neither of the company that went before, nor that followed. Hee was the end of the old Law, and the beginning of the new. All the Prophesies of Christ before his comming runne in this straine; Veniet Rex, ecce Dominus veniet, the King will come; behold the Lord will come. So Isay, David, and the rest. All they who have writ of him since, say, Venit Rex: misit Deus Filium suum; The King is already come; God hath sent his Sonne into the world. But St. Iohn the Baptist, who was à latere regio, waited up­on [Page 75] the body of his Prince, and was never found farre distant from him, to shew the greatnesse and the honour which Christ vouchsafed him, in per­mitting that neernesse to his owne Person: his voice is neither with the Prophets, hee will come, nor with the Apostles, hee is already come; but (like the Index in the margent of a booke) holding out his finger, hee points to him and saith; Ecce agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi: Behold the Lambe of GOD which taketh away the sinnes of the world.

Great hee was also in his death, being a Martyr, dying for the Testimony of the Truth: and after all these greatnesses on earth (for never was there man who had so many and so great Testimonies given him) wee cannot choose (surely) but be­leeve that he must needs be great also in his glory.

But I finde some small difference amongst Ex­positors concerning this greatnesse of Saint Iohn, which they will have to be not a greatnesse or ra­ther majority of Prophecy or revelation, but of ho­linesse. And it is occasioned by the doubtfulnesse of the exposition of those words of our Saviour in the 11. of St. Matthew, named to yee before;Mat. 11.11. I say unto yee, that amongst them who are begotten of women, arose there not a Greater then Iohn the Baptist.

The quarrell, although it bee of no great mo­ment, is betwixt no meane Authors, no lesse then St. Ierome and St. Chrysostome both ancient, learned and religious Fathers: and it is this;

St. Ierome, by these words, There hath not arose [Page 76] a greater then Iohn, will by no meanes have it to follow, that therefore Iohn was greater then all the sonnes of men: but that which naturally followes from hence (saith he) is, that none of the sonnes of men were greater then Iohn. And so by his rule, although none arose greater then Iohn, yet there might be some who were his equalls.

But Saint Chrysostome in his 27. Homily, in that which is called His imperfect worke upon Saint Matthew, contends (and mee thinks very subtlely and strongly) to prove from hence, that by natu­rall consequence St. Iohn the Baptist must needs be greater then all that were begotten of women. To give yee his owne words; Cum tanta sit Iustitiae altitudo, ut in illa nemo possit esse perfectus, nisi solus Deus, &c. Seeing that so great is the height of Justice, or righteousnesse, that it is a thing im­possible for any but God to be perfect in it, I thinke (saith our Father) that although according to the p [...]rblinde judgement of men wee may guesse at an equality in the sanctity of severall Saints, yet in the all-discerning Eye of God, in the Divine scru­tiny (and this is Gods censure of Iohn, and not the opinion of men) it is impossible but there should bee a difference in degrees of sanctity and righte­ousnesse. From whence it followes (saith Saint Chrysostome) that if none arose amongst the sonnes of men who were greater then Iohn, then Iohn must necessarily be the greatest of all the sonnes of men. For we are to consider of the way to Heaven as of a narrow passage, cut in the side of some steepe and rigid mountaine, to the Top of which we are [Page 77] to travaile, which passage is so strait,S [...] [...]n h [...] G [...]spel that it will not admit two a breast, and therefore there can be no equality in ranke or line. Narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and fewe there be that finde it. Say (then) of any one that travailes that strait way, that there is none before him, and this speech ne­cessarily implies, that he is before all, and all behinde him. And the reason is, Non datur alia linea, nisi sursum & deorsum; Because there is no right hand or left hand line given here; but onely the line of up­wards and downe-wards. As it is in the faces of men: Thou mayest travaile the whole world over, ere thou finde two faces which answer one another di­rectly in all parts. I will not deny but thou mayst pick out one who may have a lippe, or an eye, or a cheeke, or some particular grace of carriage, like to an other: but that two should agree so in all parts, that a judicious eye should not distinguish, was ne­ver yet heard of: So it is in the soules of men, they may in some graces, in some peeces of Sanctity, seeme to goe hand in hand; but it is impossible they should be equall in all things: And where there is a difference, there must, needes be degrees, majority, and minority. And this is the ordinary excuse which they of the Church of Rome doe make for that Cho­rus, which they commonly sing in their private Masses to any of their Saints: Non est inventus si­milis illi, qui conservaret legem Excelsi. His like is not found, who keepes the law of the most High. And this they sing to any of their meaner Saints. I will give yee the words of an Author of no small repute amongst them, speaking of the very same compa­rison [Page 78] of the difference of faces and mindes; Alii aliis non omnino assimulantur, ideo privatim de ano­quo (que) meminit Ecclesia, & sine aliquo mendacio, Non est (inquit) similis illi, &c. Therefore (saith hee) doth the Church (and that without any imputati­on of lying) say of every Saint, His like is not to be found.

Mat 22.30.Wee shall be in Heaven (saith our Saviour, Math. 22.) as the Angels of God: and the more holinesse there is in us, the neerer we approach to the nature of Angels, even while we live here upon earth. Now Aquinas tells us, that quilibet Angelus constituit spe­ciem; Every Angell doth make a severall species: So that there is no numericall distinction of the An­gels, but a specificall. And the reason of this is, be­cause those things which agree in the species, and differ onely in number, doe agree in the forme, and are distinguished onely in regard of the matter. But seeing the Angels are not compounded of matter and forme, but are without that principium & fun­damentum distinctionis, that beginning and founda­tion of numericall distinction, which is matter, therefore it is impossible that they should be di­stinguished any other way, but in the species. And the species are compared unto numbers: Yee can­not say that one number is equall to another num­ber, the number of 6 is greater then the number of 4, and lesse then the number of 8. For as well in the species as in numbers, there is no linea à latere, but only the upwards & the downward line, which im­plies greater and lesse. So it is in the Saints, no equa­lity: one must needs be greater, & another lesse. And [Page 79] therefore S. Chrisostome concludes substantially and subtilly, If no man be greater then Iohn the Baptist, & all Saints compared amongst themselves, are either greater or lesse, therefore he who hath none greater then himselfe, must needs be greater then all. But I have bin too long amongst these School delicacies.

Here is one thing remains to be explained con­cerning his last greatnesse, the greatnesse of his glory. For our Saviour addes in that 7. of S. Luke. Luk. 7.28. Neverthelesse, hee who is least in the Kingdome of God, is greater then he.

There be two answers given.

First, That this spoken in comparison of the Angels, who were onely yet the inhabitors of the Kingdome of God. For (say they) when Christ spoke these words, the Kingdome of Heaven was not open unto the soules and spirits of men; the Key of that was the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, till then there were no men in Heaven. As if our Saviour should have said, neverthelesse all this greatnesse of Iohn which I have made mention of, the least in the Kingdome of God (i.) the least amongst the Angels is greater then hee, because Iohn notwithstanding all these commendations is but a man, but the Angelicall nature is far greater then the nature of man. But this answer carries along with it a point in controversie, not yet de­termined amongst us, as granted, and therefore cannot fully satisfie.

Secondly, The answer is. That he who is the least in the Kingdome of God, is greater then Iohn the Baptist, meaning that hee is greater pro nunc, [Page 80] greater while Iohn lived upon the earth. And this greatnesse arises a securitate & fruitione, from se­curity and fruition. For hee who rides in his tri­umphant Chariot, must needs be said to be greater and happier then he who is yet in the heate of the Battell, although this last be farre the worthier and the valianter: because this is yet in dubio cer­tamine; but the other being freed from the ma­lice of his enemies, weares his Garland upon his head in security: and therefore it is not said here, that he who is least in the Kingdome of God, is holier or better then Iohn; but is greater then hee, which greatnesse proceedes from a present possession of happinesse.

Wee have hitherto Preached unto you of the greatnesse of this blessed Saint St. Iohn the Baptist. And what harme (I pray yee) is there in all this now? There be a Generation of People (whether it be out of envie, or ignorance, or pride, or from what other root it should proceede I know not) who cannot endure to have any of the Saints of of God spoken well of; No, the mention of the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary, who was the Mother of our Lord and Saviour (a rich Cabi­net, containing in it a farre richer Jewell) whom the Angell of the Lord accosts with this strange salutation; Haile Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women: This holy name (I say) if it comes in usherd by the word Saint, is distastfull to many of them, such is their madnesse, affording a more honourable mention of some of their new Saints in a Funerall Sermon, [Page 81] then of her who was the Mother of Him, who re­deemed the World. But these people certainly, if they knew my thing, must needs know that the greatnesse of the followers doth redound unto the greatnesse of their Lord, who is able to make and to keepe such followers. And when wee heare of the the greatnesse of St. Iohn the Baptist, me thinks we should all be carried up into a consideration of his greatnesse who made St Iohn. For if St. Iohn was so great, that by the Testimony of Christ himselfe, there was not a greater then hee amongst all who were begotten of Women; O how much greater then must he needs be, who was, and is the Lord and Master of St. Iohn! whose Herald, whose fore­runner, whose Minister he was, and (as he himselfe confesses) whose Shoo-latchet he was not worthy to unloose?

Let such of us therefore who have bin any whit faulty in this kind, learne hereafter to have a more honourable esteeme of Gods Saints: and of the holy dayes which are dedicated to their memory, and not suppose (with too many) that they are dayes set apart onely for licentiousnesse and drun­kennesse. No, the good intent of the Church was, that there might be preserved an Anniversary me­mory of the Saints, of their vertues and graces, of their lives and deaths, to the glory of God and our owne instruction, who following their good ex­amples, shall one day come to be Saints our selves amongst them. This was and is the religious use of holy dayes, not excluding the Civill, which is to permit honest and lawfull recreations, only with [Page 82] this caution: First, serve God, and then take thy honest and Christian liberty. Let us then make an end of this discourse with praise and thanks-giving to Almighty God, for all Patriarchs, Prophets, Apo­stles, Martyrs, Confessors, Fathers, whose lives and doctrine God hath set up as lights to guide us unto the Kingdome everlasting: but especially (as this day calls to our memory) for the blessed Saint, Saint Iohn the Baptist, who was great in his concep­tion, great in his nativity, great in his life, great in his doctrine, in his office great, great in his sanctity, in his dignity, and Authority; great in his death, and great in his glory, and yet for all these greatnesses, was, and is but the servant of thee who art the great God.

To thy greatnesse therefore O Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, we ascribe (as due is) all praise, power, majesty, dominion, from this time forth and for ever. Amen.

YEe must not thinke it strange, if in the midst of all your jollity, a­mongst so many straines of joy (the enlargers of the spirits and soule) to qualifie your mirth the better, and keepe it within the bounds of moderation, we shall interpose one sad note of mourning. Nor will it sound harsh to an eare that is truly Musicall; for to have nothing but Sun shine and faire weather, nothing but smooth and prosperous dayes, while wee live here on earth, (were it a thing possible) is the same Solaecisme in [Page 84] mans life, which good Musitians observe amongst those who are but Smatterers in the Science, who doe Nauseam creare nimia dulcedine, beget a kinde of loathing and tediousnesse even out of the too much sweetnesse of their Notes, and the frequen­cie of their [...]. Nor can I judge my selfe guilty of any Incivility, or want of good manners in that I have in such a time of rejoycing, in stead of sprightfull Ayres, presented yee with the argu­ment of a Tragaedie. For although I am not igno­rant, that it was the custome amongst the Anci­ents, whensoever they were to come to a Feast, Omnia tristia ad limen ponere, to leave all sad and heavy conceits behinde them, and bring nothing over the Threshold, which should cause griefe ei­ther in themselves, or in any who sate at meate with them. Yet I rather approve of the way of that King (or Philosopher shall I call him, or both?) who continually amidst the multitude of his dain­ties, had a deaths head served up in a Charger, to put him in minde of his mortality. It favoured of wise­dome and Philosophy this, although it was accounted no great point or Courtship.

And see if our Church doth not observe the ve­ry same way of service at this Festivall time. The standing dish (as I may call it) Caput & cardo festi, the head and the hinge of the Feast, is indeed the Birth-day of our blessed Saviour, a day of mirth, and of lifting up the heart, but no sooner is this past, but the next service is a head in a Charger, St. Steven the first Martyr. And although the day of St. Iohn the Euangelist bee the next in rancke, of [Page 85] whom our Saviour saith to St. Peter, If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? (and fitly hath the Church placed this day so neere, and leaning as it were in the bosome of Christs day, being celebra­ted in the honourable memory of that Disciple whom Jesus loved, and did often leane upon the bosome of his Master) yet no sooner is this gone, but the very next service againe, is not one but ma­ny deaths heads in a platter, the day of the blessed Innocents, and that is now. Verse 16. Then Herod seeing that he was mocked of the Wise men, was excee­ding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the male Chil­dren that were in Bethleem and in all the coasts thereof, from two yeares old and under, according to the time which hee had diligently searched out of the Wise men. Then was that fulfilled which was spoken by the Pro­phet Ieremiah saying, in Rama was a voyce heard, &c.

The place of the Prophet Ieremie which the Euangelist St. Matthew quotes for this Scripture, is the 31. Chap. verse 15. And this Prophecy was fulfilled in the literall sense (as Cajetane saith) in the Captivity of the children of Israel, or of those tenne Tribes, which were commonly called Ephra­im. And the reason why the Prophet Ieremie brings in Rachel here as weeping for her children, is because that Ephraim the sonne of Ioseph, whom hee begot of Potipheras daughter the prince of On, as ye may reade in the 41. of Genesis, was lineally descended from Rachel the mother of Ioseph. But this Prophecy in the mysticall sense was not ful­filled untill this cruell and bloody Massacre of these poore Innocent children, by the command of [Page 86] Herod, and therefore saith the Text, verse 17. Then was that fulfilled which was spoken by the Pro­phet Ieremie. And the reason why Rachel is here mystically called the mother of these slaine In­fants, is, because shee was buried neare unto this City of Bethleem, as yee may see in the 35. of Gen. from whence shee was called, Mater Bethlehemita­rum, the mother of the Bethlemites.

In Rama was a voyce, &c.

I shall not need to trouble either you or my selfe much, to lay open to yee so knowen a histo­ry: for to doubt that any (living especially as we doe, in a Church where there is such plenty of knowledge) should be ignorant of this, is as much as to thinke that there may bee a kinde of people who know not whether the Sunne shines or not without a teacher. But because it is possible that there may be such an ignorance amongst us, I will in a word or two relate that unto yee, which yee may finde set downe a great deale more fully and sweetly in the Chapter.

When our Saviour CHRIST, according to the decree of God the Father from all eternity, and according to all the predictions of the Pro­phets, in the fulnesse of time (being by the vulgar Computation in the 3949. yeare of the worlds creation, and withall the 42. of Augustus Cesars reigne, and of Herods about the 34.) was borne in Bethleham a City of Judah, there was a Starre sent by God to conduct certaine Wise men out of the East Countrey, (which is thought to be Persia, and the reason which leades us to thinke this Countrey [Page 87] Persia, is the very name Magi, which is a Persian word, and signifies as much as amongst the Ro­mans, Wisemen, amongst the Grecians, Philosophers, amongst the Indians, Gymnosophists) who comming to Jerusalem, and enquiring where hee was, who was borne King of the Jews, Herod presently and all the City with him, were startled at the question: and indeed, according to the policie of this world, and Herods principle he built upon, which was, that Christ was to bee an Earthly King, and a King of Israel, it was time for him to looke about him, and to seeke by all meanes to crush this infant King in his Cradle: and therefore immediately upon the arrivall of the Wise men there, hee calls all his Wise men together too, all the Priests and the Scribes of the people, and demanded of them where it was that Christ should be borne; and un­derstanding by them, that Bethlam in Iudea was the place which all their Prophecies pointed at, he craftily called unto him those Wise men of the East, and having told them the place, he sent them away, bidding them to search diligently for the Babe, and when they had found him, to bring him word▪ that hee might also come and worship him. Here were words faire enough, but he had a heart in the meane time full of poison and blacke inten­tions. The Magi having received this command from Herod, departed, and by the direction of the Starre, having found Christ, they offered to him their Presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrhe; but being warned by God in a dreame that they should not returne any more to Herod, they went [Page 88] into their owne Countrey another way. Where­upon Herod finding himselfe deluded, grew in­stantly into a rage, nor could any thing quench his fury but the blood of all the male children in Bethlam and the adjoyning Countrey, from two yeares old and downeward. O he had thought he had made sure worke with Christ now. Yee have the summe of the whole story.

Nor is this Truth set out to us onely in holy Writ, but also Heathen Writers make mention of it.

Macrobius in the second booke of his Saturnalls, brings in Augustus Cesar with these words in his mouth, having heard that Herod amongst those slaughtered innocent children, had slaine also one of his owne sonnes; Melius est (saith hee) Herodis porcum esse quam filium. It is better to bee Herods hogg then his sonne. For although Herod was by birth an Idumean, yet for the love of his wife hee suffered himselfe to be circumcised, and observed the rites of the Jews, in abstaining from the slaugh­ter of swine.

In Rama was a voyce heard, &c.

I was almost perswaded to have given yee no other division of these words, but what griefe, teares, and abrupt sobs should dictate to mee: but fearing if we had observed no method, nor order in handling them, we should likewise have observed no measure, but have wildred our selves in a wide Sea: I have made choice therefore to see vp some sea-marks, to guide us in our Course.

The griefe then which is described in this Text runs through the verse in these parts.

• [Page 89]1 Subjectum doloris. Rachel.
• 2 Vbt doloris. In Rama.
• 3 Qualitas doloris. A voyce, heard, mourning, weeping, and lamentation.
• 4 Quantitas doloris. Great, great lamentation, shee would not be comforted.
• 5 Objectum doloris. Her children, because they were not.

1 Rachel grieves. What was this Rachel? A woman certainly, for wee heare mention made of her children in the following words. A woman grieves, and no wonder; for it was shee who brought griefe first into the world: for had not Eue eaten of the forbidden fruit, there had beene no such things knowne as griefe and sorrow. And see if this off-spring of hers, this monster of her owne begetting, doth not (like a naturall and lo­ving issue) sticke close to her side. This child of the woman, griefe, hath never left her, but still gone along with her from its birth: nor is it a thing possible to worke a divorce betwixt them, for who can separate those whom God hath joy­ned together? Gen. 3.16. In dolore parturies▪ In sorrow shalt thou bring foorth children: It is the curse which God laid upon the woman for her offence.

But it is the woman Rachel that grieves. What? that beautifull daughter of Labans whose plea­sing lookes were of more force to binde Iacobs ser­vice to his Uncle, then a strickt Indenture, for hee served two Apprentiships for her? Is there such [Page 90] a grace and beauty in bleare eyes, that the incompa­rable Rachel by weeping strives to looke like her sister Leah? Or did shee perceive her father La­bans intent to give her sister first craftily into the embraces of Iacob, and therefore by weeping doth shee hope to get the eyes of her sister, and so to cozen the eyes of her father, as her husband Iacob had before gotten the hands of his brother, and by them the blessing?

But why stand I expostulating with departed Saints, as if they were living amongst us? Rachel long before the birth of Christ, the death of those Innocents, nay long before Ieremy wrote this Pro­phesie, dyed, and was buried (as yee may see in the 35. of Gen.) in the way of Ephraim, which is Bethleem. How then is shee said here to weepe? Can the soules of Gods deare children, who enjoy a blessed quietnesse, assume their bodies againe to undergoe griefe and misery? It is impossible. The resurrection of the righteous shall bee onely to glory and happinesse. No certainely, wee will finde out an interpretation which shall bee so courteous to suffer the body of that good woman to sleepe in quiet. Alas! shee had griefe and sorrow enough while she lived; we may very well spare her from any further teares. Shee had her husband taken from her, and in her roome her sister given into his bosome, even before her eyes (no small griefe) and when, after a tedious expectation of seven yeares more, shee had obtained him, her barren­nesse (having alwayes the fruitfulnesse of Leah be­fore her face upbraiding of her) was such an allay [Page 91] to her happinesse, that all her marriage joy was quickly out of minde, so that in the bitternesse of her soule shee cries out to her husband in the 30. of Gen. ver. 1. O give me children, or else I die. It was a strange and unwonted strait that Rachel was in, give her no children and shee dies; give her chil­dren and shee dies too, for they cause her death. In giving life to her sonne Benjamin, she lost her owne; for shee died in Child-birth. Let the griefe there­fore she hath already sustained, suffice: Shee must not be called up any more from her quiet bed, the grave, to grieve againe.

By Rachel then, who because shee was buried in Bethleem, was (as I told yee) called the mother of the Bethlemites, in a figurative speech is meant the women of Bethleem, and of the adjoyning Coun­trey. The women of Bethleem grieve. Of Bethleem? Can there bee any place for griefe to harbour in, in that City wherein CHRIST, the joy of the whole earth was borne? Not long since wee heard the Angels telling the Shepherds (and wee belee­ved it then) that there was tidings of great joy to all people. What meanes then this voyce of mour­ning in Ramah? The Prophet Elijah, 1. King. 17. for a little oyle and meale, for a poore entertain­ment which the widow of Zareptah gave him, was so courteous and gratefull to her, that hee recom­penced her with the restoring of her sonne to life: And doth Christ recompence the place of his birth, the place wherein his Eyes (as he was man) first saluted the light, no better then with a pay­ment of griefe? O how truely might the mothers [Page 92] of Bethleem have taken up that speech of Zarep­tahs widow to the Prophet; What have wee to doe with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto us to call our sinnes to remembrance, and to slay our sonnes? Did the Prophet Elijah shew his thankfulnesse so to the place where hee was for a while nourished, and shall Hee who is the God of all compassion, bee more ungratefull, more unkinde, more cruell to the place of his nativity? Flesh and blood would certainely interpret this to be ingratitude and cru­elty. For although he was not the efficient Cause of this massacre, yet hee was the procuring Cause, and withall had power if hee had pleased to have prevented it: and therefore by that Maxime of the Civilians may in some sort stand guilty of it. What shall wee thinke? Is there cruelty or injustice with God? God forbid that we should entertaine such a thought. No, the fault without all question is in our apprehension of this thing, wee doe not judge rightly of it. No? doe we not judge right­ly? let us therefore joyne all the rest of the parts behind together, and runne through them. And indeed I durst keepe them asunder no longer, for if I should have handled them all in order dis­ioyntedly, I should have beene forced to give yee to a great a potion of Wormwood in this time of Ro­ses. Let us see then whether wee doe not appre­hend it aright or no.

Wee have a griefe here, and the subject of this griefe, is Rachel, (that is) the women of Bethleem. The vbi, the place of this griefe, Ramah, or Bethleem, and the adjacent Countrey, the place of Christs Nativity, [Page 93] there the women grieve. The quality of this griefe, it is mourning, weeping, and lamentation; the quantity of this griefe it is great, great lamenta­tion, shee would not be comforted: the object or cause is the death of their children, they were not. Doe we not yet apprehend it aright? It seemes to me that we doe. The lamentation was great, and the cause was great it proceeded from, the slaughter of their children, and this was done in Bethleem, the Citie wherein Christ was borne, and it was done for his sake, for Christs sake, who had power to have pre­vented all this Doe we not yet apprehend it aright? We will for a while suspend our censures.

Mee thinks I have a perfect Picture of that la­mentable spectacle before mine eyes now, and be­hold those women of Bethleem full of amazement, mixing their lamentations with the churlish lan­guage of the Souldiers, death appearing to them in as many severall shapes, as there were Ministers or Instruments of death. Here one, whil'st her onely Sonne to innocent that yet it hath not lear­ned so much as to feare) is ravished from her breasts, and d [...] [...]t against the stones, crying to the Executioner in St. Augustines words, Quid seperas a me quem [...]en [...] ex me? Cruell and bloudy man, why doest thou seperate him from mee who was borne of me? and whilest the sterne Souldier char­ges her with a countenance of death, shee answers him as Androm [...]cha did Vl [...]ses in the Tragedy.

What doest thou tell me of death? if thou desirest [Page 94] to strike a feare into me, threaten me with life, for as for death, I number it amongst the greatest of blessings. There another with disheveld haire, cry­ing, Meme quae feci. What hath this poore Innocent done? The crime was mine, in bringing of a man-childe into the world: the crime was mine, I claime the punishment as my due. Or if he be guilty too for being born, junge mortem, we are both offenders, let us both dye. Thus doth the poore Mother court the bloudy Cut-throat for death, who shewes a new, kinde of cruelty to her in being mercifull. Then was the time (if ever) wherein a man might have said, it is a happinesse to be borne a Woman, for they are past by, and onely the male children are slaine. The Souldiers of Herod (like cunning Woodmen) pursue the best game, and let the Herde passe by untouched.

I must not dwell upon this sight; but these and a thousand other severall shapes of mourning, weepings and lamentation, were to be seene in Bethleem. In Bethleem, the Citie of Christs Nati­vity, and all this was done for his sake too, who had power and yet did not prevent it. Shall wee call Christ ingratefull for this? no: ‘Est quidem injustus, dolor, rerum aestimator.’ Griefe is but a false Judge of things. Certainly then we doe not apprehend this aright. For Saint Augustine is of another minde, accounting the slaughter of these children, a blessednesse. Beata es ò Bethlam terra Iuda (saith hee) quae Herodis regis immanitatem in puerorum extinctione perpessa, quae sub uno tempore candidatam plebem impellis infantiae [Page 95] deo offerre meruisti. Blessed art thou O Bethleem in the land of Iuda, for suffering the cruelty of the King. God was pleased to send a Present, a To­ken of his love unto the Sonnes of men, the Babe Iesus; and thou alone of all the Cities of the world wert found worthy to send back againe to heaven (as it were) in exchange, a Present, a Troupe of immaculate and candidate Infants. It was bles­sed also for the Mothers, who now are proved fruitfull to heaven, and are called the Mothers of Martyrs. Most blessed of all it was for the Infants themselves, for besides the courtesie the Souldiers did them, in taking them from a trouble­some and painfull life, they had hereby the neerest Cut to heaven that it was possible for them to have. Quam faeliciter nati (saith St. Augustine) in primo nascendi limine, aeterna vita obviam venit: vix dum gustaverant praesentem, statim transeunt ad futu­ram, nondum ingressi infantiae Cunas, & jam perve­niunt ad Coronas: rapiuntur quidem à complexibus ma­trum, sed redduntur gremiis Angelorum. O how blessed were these Children in their birth (saith that Father) who were scarcely stepd over the Threshold of this mortall life, but the life eternall met them at the doore: who had scarce time to tast what the Present was, before they were tra­lated to the future; who were crowned with eter­nity even in their Cradles; who were (indeed) snatched from the embraces of their Mothers, but in stead of that given into the bosome of Angells to be cherished. Had they lived, peradventure some of them (for ought we know) not to meddle with [Page 96] that media Scientia) might have proved murtherers themselves, some theeves, others riotous persons, and most of them having run a tedious and trou­blesome course in this life, at the last have gone downe with sorrow into the Grave: but Herod thinking utterly to undoe them by his cruelty, con­ferres the greatest benefit on them that mortality was capable of; sends them post unto Heaven.

For whom ▪ and all other thy Martyrs and Saints departed in thy feare, we praise thy holy name (O Lord) humbly entreating thee to give vs of thy grace so to frame our lives according to their good example, that when we depart this life, whether it be by a naturall death, or any other speedier way which thou hast appointed for us, wee may rest with them in everlasting glory. Grant this (O Fa­ther) for Jesus Christ his sake our only Mediatour and Advocate. Amen.

ANd when he. — I am already stopt, and arrested here by wonder, nor can I go any far­ther in repeating this verse, untill I have quieted my selfe by asking our Evangelist the same question which the Eu­nuch did Philip in the Acts, Of whom speakes he this? of himselfe? or of some other man? What Hee is this in my Text, who comes neere unto the Citie, beholds it, and then [Page 98] weepes? I should conjecture by the tenour of the precedent verses, that it was Christ who is here meant, for we reade there at the 35. verse, So they brought him to Iesus, and they cast their garments on the Colt, and set Iesus thereon; and as he went, in the next verse, and in the next to that, and when hee was come neere to the going downe of the mountain, and so the current of the same relatives runnes on in a faire and undisturbed Channell, un­till it falls into this Ocean here in my Text into this Sea of teares which are wept for the Citie. And when he was come neere, he beheld the Citie. And might I goe no farther, but stay here, it would prove a very easie matter to perswade mee, that this hee here hath relation to that Iesus there: but when I begin to sound the next word, and wept, I am againe at a stand. For what construction, what agreement (me thinks) is the best Gramma­rian in the world able to make betwixt those two words? Hee and wept may easily stand together, but Iesus and wept? Certainly they are tearmes incompatible; for can God, hee who is the Crea­tour of all the world, can he mourne? if griefe, and teares which are the effects of griefe, be nothing else but the fruits of sinne, how is it possible that he should either grieve or weepe then, who is free from all sinne?

But I must quietly subscribe unto this holy Truth, for St. Iohn (who was called the Divine a­mongst the Apostles) hath taught me not to sepe­rate those things which God hath joyned toge­ther; who in his 11. Chap. ver. 35. like a holy Priest, [Page 99] who knits the hands in Wedlock, hath married those two words together, without the interpo­sition, so much as of a syllable to forbid the Banes. [...]. Iesus wept. Wee are satisfied then now concerning this Hee in my Text, so that wee may goe on unto his Progresse, or the three steps, his compassion takes towards the Citie. And so the Text dividing it selfe to our hands: We have

• First, Christs Appropinguat or his venit. He came neere.
• Secondly, His videt. And beheld the City.
• Thirdly, His Lachrymatur super illam, and wept for it.

For as for the next verse, that belongs to this last part, being nothing else but those singultus & lachrymae, those teares and abrupt sobs which Christ did sigh out over the Citie. Or else if yee please thus.

The first of these verses doth containe in it a three-fold streame or river arising from the Mount of Olives, the place whence Christ did set forth upon his journey towards the Citie. The first of which is this, Hee came neere. Which running on calmly for a while in a smooth course, looses both it selfe and its name in a greater, which is the se­cond, And beheld the Citie: which doth not long enjoy its rougher Channell, but presently that is drowned too in a farre greater then it selfe, And wept for it: which third immediatly also (like a narrow Sea pent betweene two Mountaines) dis­burthens it selfe in a Cataract into this Ocean in the following verse, O, if thou hadst knowne, even [Page 100] thou, at the least in this thy day (see, what abruptions be here! One high comming wave following up­on the neck of another) those things which belong unto thy peace — I have lost my selfe againe. Prae­ruptus aquae Mons, a mountaine of Sea broke loose from the watry Continent, hath made one of Nep­tunes Quos ego's, an Aposiopesis in my Text, — But now are they hid from thine eyes. Which is the fluctus decumanus, the tenth and greatest wave, which seemes to threaten nothing but shipwrack and de­struction.

But I will leave this turbulent Shore, and walke a while by the pleasant and quieter banks of the Rivers.

And the first in order is Christs appropinquat, hee came neare. What Christ doth here to this sin­full City of Jerusalem, God doth daily unto the sonnes of men who remaine obstinate in their sinnes. Hee drawes neare unto them, in offering them mercy and forgivenesse. Hee drawes neare to them in his Word, read and preached: hee drawes neare to them in the administration of his Sacra­ments, whilest miserable and blinded Man neglects his visitations. Now, wee know that we cannot name this word appropinquat, hee came neare unto the City, but wee must presently imply, that there was once a distance betwixt this Hee, and that City: So in like manner was there once a distance betwixt God and us. Not on Gods part, for hee is every where, and with his glorious presence fills the whole world. If I ascend into Heaven, thou art there, (saith David) if I lie downe in Hell, thou art [Page 101] there also: let mee take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the Sea, yet thither shall thy hand leade mee, and thy right hand hold mee: No, the distance, the separation is on our parts, who like the Prodigall sonne, having received our Portion of our Father, doe goe in longinquam regi­onem, into a farre Countrey; not that any Coun­trey can bee farre to God, qui coelum tenet palmo, & terram pugillo, who holds the Heavens in his Palme, and the Earth in his Fist: but we are said, Peregrè proficisci, to goe a farre off, as Cain was said to goe out from the presence of the Lord. Upon which saith St. Ierome, Sciendum non locorum spatiis, sed affectu aut esse nos cum Deo, aut ab eo decedere. We are said to be present with God, or to depart from him, not in regard of place, but according to our affections. And that Conjunctive [...], (which St. Luke hath in this Parable, Cap. 15. ver. 13. [...], And there hee spent his goods living riotously.) amongst the Greekes doth sometimes carry with it the force of a reason: as if hee had said, [...], &c. Hee went into a farre Country, for there he spent his Goods living riotously: making the latter nothing but a reason or interpretation of the former. And indeed Sinne is nothing à posteriori, but an estranging of us from God. Depart from me, I know you not, saith Christ in the 7. of S. Math. 23. The reason followes in the very appellation, Yee workers of iniquity, it was the working of iniquity that wrought that separation. But yet such is the admirable mercy of the Lord, that hee doth not [Page 102] leave us (wee see) to our selves in this farre Coun­try, administring unto Swine, desiring in vaine to fill our bellies with the huskes, but he drawes neere unto us, but (as the Spouse in the Canticles) Hee standeth behinde our wall, looking forth of the win­dowes, shewing himselfe thorow the Grates. Ergo ap­propriavit Parieti cum adhaesit Carni, Caro Partes est, & appropiatio Sponsi verbi incarnatio, saith S. Bernard. The wall is our humane Nature, his comming neere, and standing behinde that wall, the incarnation of the Word. Tot in nostro ruinoso & pleno rimarum pariete invenit foramina, quot nostra infirmitatis in suo corpore sensit experimenta. Every infirmity which hee had experience of, and did suffer in our fraile nature was (as it were) a chinck or a breach in our Wall. And how truely may wee say here, that Christ did looke forth of our windowes, and shew himselfe through our grates, when for the sinnes, and neare approaching destruction of this City Jerusalem, hee broke forth into such abundance of teares; and well might Ierusalem (had they but knowen at the least in this their day the things which belonged unto their peace) hearing this bitter la­mentation which Christ wept out for them, have taken up those words of the Spouse; It is the voice of my welbeloved, for it was his great love which caused that flood of teares. They were able when they saw him weepe for Lazarus to prognosticate presently, and tell what planet it was which gover­ned that shower of teares, for they cried out, Be­hold how he loved him! But when he wept for them, their Astrology failed them.

And when he was come neere.

That Christ did come neare to Ierusalem, that God doth dayly come neare to us, we see here and perceive hourely: but what should move Christ to come neare to that City, what should move GOD to come neare to us, there is the wonder O Ieru­salem, Ierusalem, thou that stonest the Prophets, and killest those who are sent unto thee; In what part of thee did this attractive vertue lie, that thou wast able to draw the Creator and Redeemer of man­kind to a Visit? Was it thy faire buildings? thy Ivory Pallaces? thy proud aspiring Turrets? Alas, he had before contemned the glory of the whole world, which the Devill shewed him upon the mountaine. Was it the Temple? the house of the Lord, which brought him thither? that instead of being a House of Prayer, was become a denne of Thieves, 46. ver. of this Chapter. Was it his last kinde entertainement that called him backe a­gaine? If to be reviled, to be laid in wait for, to be blasphemed, and to be called a confederate with the prince of Devils, hath any perswasive force, any winning or inviting Rethorick in it, then per­adventure it might bee that. Was it the holinesse of thy Priests, or the strict purity of the sect of thy Pharisees, who cry, Touch me not, for I am holier then thou, that caused him to take this Pilgri­mage? Nil horum. No, the Loadstone was in himself, it was his owne goodnesse that brought him thither. For we finde him so farre from taking any delight in the spectacle, that viewing the City, as grieved to have seene so much as hee did, hee raises up a [Page 104] shower of teares, as a watry curtaine drawen be­fore those Organes that hee might see no more. And what I have said to Jerusalem, may bee said to all the sonnes of men; O yee sonnes of men, who seeke after lies, and pursue vanities; who leave the fountaine of living waters, to build yee Cisterns, even broken Cisterns which will hold no water. Where­in can yee suppose your excellence doth consist, that God himselfe is found to follow after yee, to draw neare unto yee? Is it in your righteousnesse, or workes? Is it in the matter whereof thou art compounded? Is it in the faire structure of thy body? or in that which informes thy body, the beauty of thy soule?

None of these. As for righteousnesse, thou hast none of thine owne. As for thy works, they are corrupt, there is none that doth good, no not one. The materialls of thy bodies frame, no better then a little red earth, from whence thy grandfather Adam had his name. Goe downe into the Potters house (as the Lord to the Prophet Ieremy) and there thou shalt learne wisedome. If thou beest proud, there thou shalt reade a lecture of humility, and behold that which will abate the haughtinesse of thy spirit; there thou shalt see thy poore kindred, the Potters vessells, and say unto the Pitcher, thou art my Brother, and unto the Potsheards, ye are my Sisters. No, we have no vertue in us to invite God to come neare us. The loade-stone too is in himselfe, it is his mercy that brings him to us: and it should be our wisedome and gratitude, as God is pleased to come neare to us, for us to draw neere to him, to [Page 105] meet him in the halfe way, to arise with the Pro­digall, forsake the farre Countrey wherein we live, the Tents of Kedar, and cry, I will goe unto my fa­ther, and say, Father, I have sinned before heaven and against thee, and am no more worthy to bee called thy sonne; which if wee doe, this streame shall then take an other course, and instead of falling into this dead Sea of teares it shall make pleasant Meanders, through the same fragrant vallies it came thorow at the first, creepe backe againe to the fountaines Head from whence it had its Origi­nall, the Mount of Olives, it shall become a navi­gable and safe river to cary us backe againe to God, and instead of husks the fatted Calfe shall be killed for us, and for weeping the minstrels shall be heard to play in the house, whilst our elder brother stands without, envying at the jollity. But alas, hee stands without still, (God of his mercy once bring him in) Ierusalem did not know in this her day, the things which belonged unto her peace, and there­fore wee must follow the naturall water-course of the Text, which now leades us to the place where it falls into the second.

And beheld the City: Christs vidit.

Foelix quidem illa Civitas (saith one writing up­on this place) si hac visione non fuisset abusa; non enim solet ex Dei intuitu sequi perditio, sed salus. O happy City, hadst thou made but a true use of this gracious Aspect: for salvation, not destructi­on uses to wait upon the Eyes of God. Thus Hee looked upon St. Peter, Luk. 22. ver. 61. Thus Hee looked upon Zacheus in the figtree, at the 5. verse [Page 106] of this Chapter. Thus did He looke upon St. Matth. in the 9. of his Gospel. Which looke, of a Pub­licane, of a receiver of Custome made him a Dis­ciple and Apostle of the Lord. And how truely may wee all call our God by the same name which Hagar Abrahams maid called him by the Well Beerlahairoi. Tu Deus qui vidisti me, Gen. 16.13. Then she called the Name of the Lord who spake unto her, Thou God lookest on mee. For all our happinesse, nay all that wee have is comprized in that Title of God given by Hagar, Thou God loo­kest upon us; and on the contrary all our misfor­tune, all our misery is comprehended in this, Tu Deus qui avertisti oculos. Thou God hast turned thy face from us, as David in the 104. Psalm. Hide but thy countenance, and they are troubled.

The whole World is but like this City of Ierusa­lem to which Christ here drawes neere and lookes upon. And how? Why, meeke, sitting upon an Asse, and a Colt, the foale of an Asse. God looking upon the world from above, and being filled with compassion towards it, that hee might redeeme it, descends (as it were) from his Throne in Heaven, and gets upon an Asse used to the yoake, (i.) joynes himselfe to our humane nature, and subjects himselfe to our infirmities. Nor is St. Augustine much differing from this, who in one of his Ser­mons de Tempore; Haec Asina est Ecclesia, quae prius portabat Balaam, nunc autem Christum. By this Asse (saith hee) is meant the Church, which first car­ried Balaam, the great Sorcerer, the Curser, the Devill, it was once oppressed by him, but now [Page 107] Christ himselfe rides upon it. He beheld the City. Christ sitting upon an Asse, (i.) God and man, united together in one Person. Hee beheld as God and man, hee wept as man onely. He beheld as God and man, and therefore a strange variety of actions and passages must needs be at this time in the Eye of Christ. I doe not meane concerning those na­turall vicissitudes, changes, diversities of orders and degrees, and the executions of them, which were, are, and alwayes must bee in the world: as that at the same instant, some should be borne and some die; the same moment of time, to produce both weddings and funerals, and a thousand other severall and diverse occurrences, being like the Monsters bred of the slime of Nilus, not one in shape like unto another: but taking onely the sins which were committed, which were the procu­rers of the teares which follow. An Age would not suffice to describe the spectacle. Once, Christ beheld the City, God beholds the world, not onely with the Eye of his compassion, but also with a searching and observing Eye. He markes every acti­on of thine, hee heares every word, though it bee spoken in thy secret closet; nay thy thoughts which like Embrios, imperfect births, lie smothe­red in thy breast, are not, nor cannot bee hid from him. How carefull therefore ought wee all to bee through the whole course of our lives. For if the woman in the 1. to the Corinths 11.10.1 Cor. 11.10. ought to have a covering upon her head because of the An­gels: and if wee are to doe nothing but comely things (in an other place) because of the Angels [Page 108] who see and observe us. O how much greater re­gard then ought we to have of our actions, know­ing that God himselfe is the surveyor of them, in whose sight the Angels themselves are not pure. O had we but this alwayes in our mindes, did wee but verily beleeve that the Eye of GOD was al­wayes upon us, certainly we should not then sinne against the Divine Majesty with such a high hand as we doe. Let us not deceive our selves. He who made the Eye, shall not he see? and can there be any thing hid from him who created the light? Hee sees many times and will not seeme to see, because hee would have thee to take notice of it, and see it thy selfe, and so repent: but if thou wilt not, the time shall come when thy eyes shall be opened (though too late) and thou shalt bee presented with no o­ther prospect, but that of thine owne misery, and the wretchednesse of thine estate.

And so we are fallen into the third river, which by the Tribute it receives from the two former, emptying themselves into it, is become a faire and navigable streame, and we will anchor here awhile.

We find Christ in the Gospel weeping thrice: At the Sepulchre of Lazarus, Iohn 11. Here in my Text, looking upon the City: and afterwards in the Garden, in that triplicated and vehement forme of prayer; Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from mee, as the Author to the Hebrews interprets [Page 109] that part of Gospel, Heb 5.7. Hee wept at the Mo­nument of Lazarus to see men buried in their sins: hee wept here for the obstinacy and hard heartednesse of the Iewes: hee wept in the Garden, to see how little men esteemed sinne, and that Sacrifice he was about to make for sinne: but that he ever laughed we cannot finde. Ingemuisse illum legimus, risisse non legimus: for indeed it was no part of his busi­nesse which he came about: he came not to enjoy the pleasures of the earth, but to expiate our sinnes, to make an Atonement for us. Wee had laught before, plus quam par fuit, a little more then our shares, and hee comes to weepe for that laughter of ours.

I cannot yet bee satisfied, the seeming palpable incongruity of this forme of speech doth so trou­ble me. For how is it possible (me thinks) that he should weepe?

There be foure Causes of griefe rendred in the Schooles, which we may call formes of Iden­tity. For there is not one of them but com­prehends all the rest.

1 The first is Amissum bonum, & malum conjun­ctum. A lost or absent good, and a present or ac­quired evill. I will not trouble yee with the dis­pute which of these two hath the precedency in causing this affection of Griefe, neither need they trouble themselves to make it a question amongst them, if privations were the same in the appre­hension of the soule, as they are in the things them­selves: For a present evill in it selfe being nothing [Page 110] else but the absence or privation of a good; certain­ly it must bee all one to grieve for the evill that is present and the good that is absent. But being that griefe is a motion of the appetite following the appre­hension of the soule, and that in the apprehension the privation of a good hath rationem cujusdam entis, the reason, shape, or outward appearance of a certaine thing that hath a being, under that shape, it may rather bee said to bee the object of griefe, then the good which is lost: because an evill that is felt and present, is nearer and more sensible, strikes a deeper impression into the apprehension then the good which is absent, although in them­selves they bee all one. As sicknesse, though it bee nothing but the privation of health, is nearer to the apprehension, and more felt under the name and reason of sicknesse, which is a present evill, then it is under the reason and name of the privation of good, which is health. But which of them soe­ver hath the preheminence in the first place of object, doth not much concerne us: Let it suffice us to know that neither of them both have any thing to doe with Christ. For how can hee who is Goodnesse it selfe, lose that which is good? and can any evill bee said to happen to him, who is the fountaine from whence is derived all that is good.

2 2 The second Cause of Griefe (they say) is Concupiscentia, concupiscence, or a desire of that absent good which wee are sensible of that wee want. And as the first Cause was Causa sicut finis, the object to which griefe doth tend, so this is Causa sicut unde, A Cause as from whence the be­ginning [Page 111] of the motion is. As in the naturall appe­tite of a stone or any other heavy body being to move downwards, the cause as the end is the place whither it tends, the center of gravity, having a kinde of Magnetique vertue in it, which drawes it thither: The cause as from whence is the natu­rall inclination of that body arising from the forme of it, which is heavinesse. So the cause of griefe as the end, is the evill which is present; but the cause as from whence this motion is, is the inward inclination of the appetite which doth encline chiefly, and in the first place to that which is good: and secondarily and by consequence to the shun­ning of evill. Now this concupiscence or desire longing after good, finding it absent, and in the roome of it its contrary which hee hates, is imme­diatly turned into a griefe: or rather not turned into a griefe, but it still remaines with the griefe, to make the griefe the greater, continually desi­ring that which cannot be had.

But neither is this cause able to lay any hold upon Christ: for can hee desire any absent good, who hath all that is good continually present with him.

3. The third Cause they will have to be Appeti­tus 3 unitatis, A desire of unity or union. And this is nothing else but the second reason cloathed in another phrase: Or if there be any, it is but a little Metaphysical difference, which doth not consist in the thing it selfe, but in the reason of maner of ap­prehending the thing. And so after the same man­ner that the desire of good was said there to cause [Page 112] griefe, so here the desire or appetite of Unity, which is nothing else but good apparelled in ano­ther kinde of dresse, for the good of every thing (wee know) doth consist in a certaine kinde of Unity. And therefore the Platonicks, who were altogether for Harmony, and said, That the whole frame of the world was nothing else but a Musicall Instrument, set in tune by the hand of that primum ens, and primum principium, which is God, doe as well make unum à Principium as bonum. Both which bonity and unity by the way of Participation, al­though comming infinitely short of that excellence which is in the fountaine of that bonity and unity, is communicated to the creatures, as conducing to their perfection. Now when any thing is cut off from this unity of the creature, or added which is superfluous, (although it be but in his apprehensi­on onely, and not really) finding his unity infrin­ged, (which is the perfection of the crearure) de­siring this unity which is absent, and finding a pre­sent impediment, immediatly this desire begets a griefe.

But neither can this cause come neere or once touch Christ, for hee is so farre from wanting or desiring this secondary unity, this unity of the creature, that hee is Vnus cum unitate prima, One with unity and bonity it selfe.

4. The fourth cause which they render is this. Potestas cui non potest resisti. A stronger power which cannot be resisted. For if a present or con­joyned evill be the proper object of sorrow, (as is already proved) then that must needs be a cause of [Page 113] that sorrow which makes or works the presence or conjunction of this evill, and that is a stronger power. For although many times wee suffer da­mage and hurt by a power which simply and in it selfe is lesse (as in our slumbers wee are often trou­bled and molested by a Gnat, so poore a creature that one fillip of a man is able to destroy a million of them) yet in that regard that it hurts, it must be called a greater. Si [...]n [...]nullo modo major esset, nullo modo posset nocere (saith Aquinas.) For if in some kinde it were not greater, it were impossible it should hurt us in any kinde.

But what power in the world can be greater then he, to whom all power in heaven and earth is given? We are not yet got out of the Labyrinth. Let us once more consult with the Text. And when he was come neere, he beheld the Citie, and wept for it.

The knot is untyed, the verse interprets it selfe. He wept for it. Not for himselfe. Hee doth agere personam alterius. Hee wept for the Citie. Delirant reges plectuntur Achivi, was the old saying. The Kings commit the offence, and their Subjects suffer for it. But here we may justly invert that speech, and say, Delirat populus, plectitur eorum Rex. The people, the Jewes have sinned, and their King, the King of the Jewes, hee beares the punishment of their sinne. And the Citie of Ier. might very op­portunely have used those words of David (with a little alteration) in the last Chapter of the second booke of Samuel. Behold I have sinned, yea I have done wickedly, but this Sheepe what hath he done? [Page 114] What hath he committed, that his eyes should send forth such plenty of teares as they doe? — And wept for it. The wonder ceases. For now wee are able to finde all those foure severall causes already mentioned, in this griefe of our blessed Saviour.

First, For in the first place, Ier. had lost, shee had quite deprived her selfe of all her good by her sinnes and obstinacie: and evill was also hard at her doore. Destruction did hang over her head, like the sword in the twine threed over the head of the Parasite in the Throne, wayting but when the breath of the Lord would breake it in sunder. And therefore he wept.

Secondly, There was concupiscentia, a desire of that absent good they were deprived of. Which desire should have beene in them, but because a kinde of Lethargy and Stupidity had seized them: he who bore the infirmities of us all, entertaines it into his owne bosome, into his owne affections. Hee desired the good of them, which they did not themselves, and therefore he wept.

Thirdly, he desired also their vnity, their perfecti­on, which doth consist in the concatenation, as it is tyed to, or derived from (as the beames from the Sunne) that primum unum & bonum, that first One, unity it selfe, God. Which chaine of parti­cipation being broken, and a separation made by reason of their sinnes, therefore he wept.

Fourthly, Hee perceived also that there was po­testas fortior, a power which was too strong for them, the power of hell, sin, and darknesse, which [Page 115] did beare rule over them, and therefore he wept.

He wept not for the dead Citie, for the walls which were shortly to be overthrowne, for her faire Towers and buildings which were shortly to be demolished, for her Temple which hee knew was afterwards to be defiled, and cast downe to the ground, not one stone left upon another. Hee did not weepe principally (I say) for this. (Although peradventure his griefe might cast an oblique eye thither too) but the chiefe cause of his mourning was the sinnes and blindnesse of the people. Which Action as it doth confute the Heresies of Valenti­nian, Cerdon, and others, who deny Christ to have had a naturall body, and affirme that hee was not borne of a woman, neither had flesh, nor suffered any Passion: but had a body meerely phantasticall, and did faine onely to suffer; and besides, shewes unto us his infinite mercy [...]. Which was touched with a fellow-feeling of our infirmities: So especially it teacheth us what the true use of teares is. They are not to be lavished out upon every slight occasion: but to be reserved to bee spent for sinne. That is their proper object.

I doe not goe about to make a mutilation in our affections, or to Preach the Doctrine of the Stoicks to yee, who would have no passions at all; There is a sorrow, there is a debt of teares which we owe (and Nature will exact the payment of us) to the Urne of our deceased Parents, Children, re­ligious Governours, Kinsfolks, and Friends. Ioseph weepes for his Father Iacob seaven dayes, Gen. 50. [Page 116] The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plaine of Moab 30. dayes. Deut. 34. But yet with Ioseph wee must weepe for our Father Iacob but seaven dayes, (i.) our mourning must be moderate: wee must not with the Egyptians bewaile him seventy dayes, as men without hope, as they did in the third verse of that Chapter of Genesis. We cannot weepe too much for our sinnes, for any thing else wee may.

There be other remedies which God hath pro­vided for our lesse dangerous maladies, and we are to use them. If thou beest deprived of thy goods, take Iobs confection, and try what good that will doe thee. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Naked I came out of my mothers wombe, and naked I shall returne againe. Which very consideration (we see) wrought a cure upon that good man. Doe not weepe for this, it is not worth thy teares. Vnicus raptus est filius? (as St. Ierome to Paula, comforting her for the death of her daughter Bresilla) Durum quidem, sed tole­rabile, quia sustulit ille qui dederat. Is thy onely sonne, or thine only daughter ravished from thine eyes by an untimely death? Tis hard, but yet to be endured, when thou considerest that it is that same gracious God who lent thee that sonne or that daughter that hath taken them from thee a­gaine, neither must thou weepe too much for this.

But I cannot follow any more particulars, and I have dwelt too long in this little Bay into w^ch I di­verted. We will now make out into the river again.

And wept for it, saying, (the force of the streame yee see carries mee downe into the next verse) O, if thou hadst knowne, even thou, at the least in this thy day.

Loquitur lachrymas. He doth not onely weepe teares, but he speakes teares. One word as it were) trickling downe after another, separated from its fellowes, as if there were no acquaintance be­twixt them — O, if thou hadst knowen — there he stops — even thou — there he makes another stop — at the least in this thy day — there hee stops againe — those things which belong unto thy Peace! — What now? Like a great Violl with a narrow mouth, hee is here quite stopt up with his owne fulnesse. Not a drop more yet. Those thoughts of sorrow which knock at his lips for passage, like a crowd at a little doore, while every one strives to be first, the passage is clogged up, and none of them can get through. But I disco­ver something else comming out, — But now are they hid from thine eyes. Quid hoc Domine Iesu? quid hic sibi vult verborum saltus? What should this meane? what dependance have these last words upon the former? Art not thou, who art the Word it selfe, able to make a congruity in thy words? Thou who wast able to create such a ravishing harmony in the world, one thing so sweetly in a comely subordination depending up­on another, canst not thou make musicke of a sentence? make that agree together? Yes. Here is agreement. Here is Musick. More, here is Rhe­torick. More then that, here is the height, the [Page 118] very iexcellence of all Rhetorick, in this broken speech of our Saviour. For if words bee nothing else but our thoughts apparelled in ayery syllables, but the expression of our thoughts; then of necessi­ty those must needs be the best words which come neerest to the true expression. (as that Picture is the best, not that hath the smoothest, or the most pleasingest countenance, but which most resem­bles the life it represents) Now wee would ac­count him but an ill describer of a Passion (whe­ther of joy, sorrow, anger, or any other) who makes his sense and words runne in a fine, smooth, oylie course, without any breaches or abruptions: as if the Soule in that troubled sea of Passion (like the King-fisher in the Halcion dayes) were at leasure to build a curious and well-ordered nest of words. No, Christ here doth so truely set forth to us the Image of a troubled Soule, as they may seeme not to bee words which hee speaks; but as if sorrow scorning to use the help or mediation of words, should speake it selfe in its owne proper language, — O, if thou hadst knowen, even thou, at the least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! What then? As in that speech of the Father, who being found weeping, and the cause of his sorrow demanded, answered, Filius, unicus, habilis, & pollens ingenio, Adole­scens, — My sonne, my onely sonne, a young man, of faire hopes — and being able to goe no farther had his imperfect speech made up by a stander by, relieving his halting sentence (though small re­liefe unto himselfe) by adding that word, Obiit di­em, [Page 119] is dead, which hee for the greatnesse of his griefe was not able to pronounce himselfe: So must we make up this imperfect speech of Christs, which the thought of the sinnes and neere-draw­ing confusion of the City would not suffer him to finish. Si cognovisses & tu. If thou hadst but knowne the danger thou art in, and me thy Savi­our, who am here at hand to deliver thee out of that danger, — What then? Thou wouldest have wept, as I doe now; thou wouldest have turned all thy jollity into mourning and repen­ting thee of thy sinnes in sackcloth and ashes, wouldst have sought for forgivenesse at mee thy Redeemer? But now they are hid from thine eyes. Which latter part of the verse, like the Ser­pent carries the sting in its Taile. For it was the consideration of that indeed which caused all these bitter teares; namely because their day was past, it was hid from their eyes.

But I am called backe by the words of an Expo­sitor. Domine (saith hee, entring into a Dialogue with Christ) te rogo, cur inquis quod illi te non nove­runt? Lord, what dost thou meane to say, they did not know thee? Did not the Multitude carry Palmes in their hands, (as ensignes of thy victory which thou shouldst obtaine over sinne, death, and hell) meet thee in the way? Did they not spread their garments before thee? Did they not call thee with an unanimous consent, The King of Israel? the sonne of David? crying, Hosanna, Ho­sanna, in the Highest, blessed be the King who commeth in the Name of the Lord.

What answer Christ himselfe would have given him, we doe not know; conjecture we may, and first thus. As for those people who met him in the way with Palmes in their hands (as upon this day, which from thence, by the institution of the Church, still retaines the name of Palme Sun­day) with Palmes I say in their hands, and excla­mations of great joy, which there are called a Multitude; Alas! what were they in comparison of the whole City, but as a drop to the Bucket? besides that multitude was but of the common ig­norant sort of the people; few of the Rulers, or Pharisees were there, and such as were there, were so farre from joyning with them in that joyfull confession, that they call to Christ to rebuke the multitude, ver. 39. Master rebuke thy Disciples. But Christ who bore the nature and infirmities of them all, did thirst after the salvation of them all.

Again, he who is the searcher of the reines and heart, did peradventure discover that however their outsides did flatter him, using a great deale of faire Ceremony and religious Complement, yet for all that many of their hearts were farre enough from him. Hee perceived, for ought wee know, some amongst that multitude (such is the levity and inconstancy of the people) who, for all their Hosannas now (drawen to it, it may be, for com­panies sake, or else for the novelty and strange­nesse of the thing) were afterwards as lowd in the other voice, Crucifige, crucifige, His blood be upon us and upon our children. And therefore well might he say, they did not know him. They doe not know [Page 121] Christ truely, neither will Christ know them at the last day, who are onely worshippers of him in outward Ceremony, and not in the Heart.

The outward Ceremonies of the Church, the carrying of Palmes in our hands, (i.) the ador­ning of the House of the Lord with comely orna­ments, is good, novimus, wee confesse it. The spreading of our garments in the way, our wor­shipping and crying Hosanna, bowing at the bles­sed Name of Jesus, is comely, holy, befitting and reverent. Quis enim potest negare? but as the Poet to proud Fabulla,

But should there bee too much stirre kept about these things as is objected to us, and the service of the inward man in the mean time neglected, they would be in the esteeme of God neither comely, reverent, nor holy. For hee is more pleased with the worship of the heart, then with all the out­ward pompe of their Feasts and new Moones.

But this discourse is not altogether so fitting for the times wee live in. Alas! there are not such multitudes of us now, who are found meeting our blessed Saviour with Palmes in our hands, wor­shipping and crying, Hosanna, spreading our gar­ments upon the Asse, and in the way: and yet for all this, although the number bee but small, com­pared unto the multitude of the mockers, but live the gleaning after a Vintage; yet see if our new Pharisies be not as busie now as ever the old ones were about Christ, crying, Master, rebuke thy [Page 122] Disciples; and saying with Judas, (who was a Thiefe and carried the Bag) Wherefore serves all this wast? To what purpose are all these Palmes and branches of Trees? all this worshipping, and crying, Hosanna in the Highest? These garments spread in the way? all this outward Ornament and Ceremony?

It followes in the verse:

Hadst thou but knowne, at the least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now are they hid from thine eyes.

Yee observe here that Jerusalem had her day of Peace, shee had her time of mercy and grace offe­red her. And ye may observe also, that Jerusalem did neglect this proffered grace, it was hid from her eyes. Who was it that hid it from her eyes? Why certainly our Saviour Christ will prove the best Interpreter of himselfe: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the Prophets,Mat. 23.37. and stonest them who are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathe­red thee together as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings: but yee would not. He doth not say, but yee could not, but yee would not. Surely the fault was their owne. They had a day, and the Sunne shone clearely over their heads, but they hoodwinkt themselves, shut out the light, and would not see.

But I perceive this sea of teares is now proved a depth of doctrine (wherein the Leviathan may sport himselfe) and all this while wee have but stood upon the shore and viewed onely the trou­bled surface of this deepe. Nor dare I adventure [Page 123] any farther into it. The Well is deepe (O Lord) and I have nothing wherewith to draw. Let those who have lines and plummets fit for the underta­king of such a worke, sound and dive to the bot­tome of this deepe. I will content my selfe with St. Peter, to take a journey to Christ upon the face of the Sea onely, to walke with him upon the waves, and if I chance to sinke, I will pray with him and say, Lord save me I perish.

THe Church, in her pious care and wisdome, hath instituted no great Feast through the whole yeere, but shee hath both appointed to it dayes of preparation, and dayes of at­tendance. The solemne time of Lent that prepares us for the great feast of Easter, which being come, wee see it accompanied (for the greater state) with two attendant Holy dayes: so likewise Whitsunday is prepared unto us by Rogation weeke, and wayted upon also, when it is come, by [Page 125] its two Holy dayes which follow it. And this great and high Festivall of the Nativity of our blessed Saviour (which now drawes neere upon us) as it hath its twelve dayes of Attendance, so it hath foure Sundayes of preparation, which are called the Sun­dayes in Advent, the ancient Christians styling the birth of Christ, or his comming in the flesh, by the name of Advent. And why there be foure Sun­dayes, or weekes preparative ushering in this Feast, some doe take upon them to affirme, that it is to signifie to us the foure Advents of our Saviour. The first, is Adventus ejus ad homines. Secondly, In ho­mines. The third, Contra homines. And the fourth, Super homines. The first, His comming to men, in the flesh. The second, His comming into men, in the spirit. The third, His comming against men, at the day of each particular mans death. And the fourth, His comming above men, in the day of judgement. Of all which Advents of Christ, this mysticall Text of ours may be understood.

Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountaines, and skipping over the hills.

There be some Interpreters who write upon this place, who accommodate this Text to the freedom of the children of Israel frō the 70. yeares captivity in Babylon, by Cyrus the Persian. The first and second verses of this Chapter, they will have to understand those times of deportation, when Nebuchadnezzar like a furious tempest, did sweepe and carrie before him all that was pretious in the land of Israel, Her King, her Princes, her strong men of warre, all her cunning workmen, all the trea­sures [Page 126] of the house of the Lord, all the treasures of the Kings house. 2. Kings 24. ver. 1. I am the Rose of the field, the Lilly of the vallyes. ver. 2. Like a Lilly among the thornes: so is my beloved amongst the daughters.

And this they will have to be a Propheticall com­plaint of the Church in those lamentable times, ex­posed to all depopulations, and conculcations of the barbarous enemie. Iuxta florem in agro sine muni­mento.

The third verse. Like the Apple Tree amongst the Trees of the Forrest: so is my beloved a­mongst the Sonnes of men.

This they will have to depicture out the quiet, though poore estate of those reliquiae populi, those reliques of the people, which were left behinde under the tuition of Gedaliah, who here (they say) is meant by the Apple tree, under whose shadow they had delight. Humilis hic erat ad proceritatem priorum regum, vel ad altissimos Cedros qui florebant in Babyloniis montibus: And hee indeed was but a shrub, the Thistle of Libanus, if wee compare him with their former Kings, or with the tallnesse of those Cedars, which (though in captivity, yet in some sort) did flourish upon the mountaines of Baby­lon. I might leade yee farther downe with me into the Wine-Cellar, and tell yee what they will have meant by that (the King had mee into his Wine-Cellar, and love was his banner over me) namely their enemies land, partly Babylon, partly Egypt, whither much of the people at the cutting off of Gedaliah, did undertake a voluntary exile. Introduxit me Rex [Page 127] in Cellam vinartam, non in domum convivii (as one notes) The King had me into his Wine-Cellar, not into his banqueting house, which you shall finde if you looke into the 7. of Ecclesiastes, rejoycing in another name. The heart of the foole is in the house of mirth: In domo comp [...]tationis. As if the Spouse had said here, The King had me into a melancholly and sorrowfull Cave, in locum subterraneum, into a Caverne of the earth, (as yee know most of our Wine-Cellars be) yet notwithstanding there shee found Wine: The Spirit and the Word, which be often compared to Wine, still bore them company. Nec Ecclesiae in his miseriis consolatium defuit, cui Car­cer vino refertus. It was impossible that the Church in these miseries, should want comfort, when her very prison was a Wine-Cellar.

But I come to this verse in the Chapter, which I have chosen for my Text: and this they will have to be (as I told yee) the comming of Cyrus to their deliverance. It is the voyce, &c. Shee falls into an abrupt mention of it, as if from a farre shee had heard the voyce of her welbeloved calling to her, and distracted (as it were) with joy at the un­expectednesse of the newes, she breakes forth in­to this suddaine extasie, It is the voyce of my wel­beloved. And this is nothing else (say they) but a Prophesie of that great joy which all those Cap­tive Jews did feele at the rumour of those war­like preparations of the Medes and Persians against Babylon; for now they knew that the time of their Manumission was at hand, which was prophesied by Ieremie in his 50. Chapter. The latter part of [Page 128] the verse sets out unto us the speedinesse of his com­ming. Behold hee comes leaping upon the mountaines, and skipping over the hills. As the Comick Poet saith, Cervum cursa vincit, & gallatorem gradu. Hee came leaping over Nations, and striding over Kingdomes, as if hee had had Stiles on. And as it is in the next verse, My welbeloved is like a Roe, or a young Hart. How quickly did hee leape over the Armenians? Lydia? Hyrcan [...]a? The Bactrians? Susians? Carians? Phrygians? Cappadocians? With that lightnesse that he scarce left any footsteps be­hinde him: so soone did be vanquish them.

But me thinks this interpretation is too dull and earthy, and farre below the dignity and majestie of this so divine a Song. So that wee may say of this Text, as Christ did once to the people concerning Solomon, A greater then Solomon is here: So may we say certainly, a greater then Cyrus is here, is meant, here, of whom Cyrus himselfe was but a Type. The comming of that true Cyrus in this place is meant that Conquerour, who made preparation for warre, who came into the world, assumed our flesh, by him sanctified, and made the weapons of his righteousnesse to redeeme his chosen Nation, whom Nebuchadnez­zar (the devill) had carried into Captivity (into Ba­bylon.)

This Text then may set forth unto us either the comming of our blessed Saviour in the flesh, when in the fulnesse of time hee was borne of the Virgin, suffered the frailties of humane Nature, and at the last, death for the sinnes of the world: Or else his cōming in the Spirit to each particular faithfull soule.

But before I fasten upon any of these, give mee leave to take up an Observation or two by the way, which cannot bee very well passed over in silence.

The first is, that hearing goes before seeing: The Church first heares the voyce of her Saviour, and afterwards shee sees him. This is the order which the holy Spirit observes in many places of sacred Scripture. Heare O daughter and see, as yee have it in Isay, and as it is in the last of Iob; I have heard of thee by the hearing of the eare; but now mine eye hath seene thee: And in the second of the Acts, when that Comforter which Christ had pro­mised, came unto them, yee shall reade that first upon a sudden there was a sound heard from Hea­ven, as of a mighty and rushing wind, and after the Cloven Tongues like fire appeared.

If ever we hope to bee made partakers of that beatificall vision hereafter in the heavens, which the blessed Angels so thirst after, and though they daily enjoy, yet can never bee filled with, One glimpse of which upon the mountain, was enough to make Peter cry out, Lord it is good for us to be here, let us build three Tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, one for Elias, hee never thought of building of one for himselfe: Hee could have beene content to have lien himselfe without a shelter, so bee might still have injoyed this blessed sight. If ever (I say) wee looke to see the face of God hereafter with joy, wee must first heare his voyce; heare him in his Prophets, heare him in his Apostles, heare him in his Priests, in the dispensers [Page 130] of his Word and Sacraments.

The second is, that the Church no sooner heares but presently shee knowes him by his voyce. It is the voyce of my Welbeloved (saith she.) Shee laies it downe peremptorily. My sheepe know my voyce, saith our Saviour.

If wee understand this Text, of the comming of Christ in the flesh, yee may be pleased to consider with me;

• 1 His motion. He is said to come.
• 2 The manner of his motion, which is double.
  • Of his dignation, hee leaps upon.
  • Of his repudiation, hee skips over.
• 3 The way, which is double too, according to the duplicity of the manner.
  • Of his dignation, or mer­cy, he leapes upon the mountaines.
  • Of his repudiation, or anger, hee skips over the hills.

In every motion (wee know) there bee two tearmes.

1 The place or tearme from which the motion is begunne.

2 The place or tearme where the motion cea­seth.

The place from whence Christ came, was heaven.

The place he came to, was the earth.

En quantum saltum dedit (saith St. Bernard upon this place) a summo coelo ad terras! and marke the propriety of the phrase well. Saltum dedit, hee gave a leape: this journey of his was voluntarie. [Page 131] And therefore to take that objection away, which might be made out of the seventh of St. Iohns Gos­pel, verse 28. Yet I am not come of my selfe, but he who sent mee is true; saith St. Augustine in the same place. Quod videtis me in carne, ipse me misit. In that ye see me made manifest in the flesh, in that relation, hee sent me. And immediatly after, Vbi audis, ipse me misit, noli intelligere naturae dissimili­tudinem, sed gerentis authoritatem. When thou readest this word, hee sent mee, doe not by that understand, or thereby gather, that there is any dissimilitude or disparity in the Nature in the Deity; but rather conclude the authority of him who was sent, who indeed himselfe was the sender. Victus es O Archangele, transiliit te, qui praemisit te (saith St. Bernard) quem modo in coelo reliquisti, in utero reperis. O Arch-Angel Gabriel, thou art overcome, he who sent thee, is arrived before thee, him whom but now thou leftest in Heaven, thou findest in the wombe. Observe therefore what our Saviour Christ saith himselfe in the third of St. Iohns Gospel, verse 13. when hee was upon earth, discoursing with Nicode­mus. For no man (saith he) ascendeth up to heaven, but hee who descended from heaven, the Sonne of Man, which is in heaven. Hee doth not say, which was in heaven, but which is in heaven. A miracle! In terra loquebatur, & in coelo se esse dicebat. That very instant wherein Christ spake those words up­on earth, hee was present in heaven. Semper enim ibi erat Christus, quo fuerat rediturus. For Christ was ever there, never departed from that place, to which he was to returne. Wherefore St. Augustine [Page 132] glosses upon this place thus; Sic venit ut inde non abscederet; sic redit ut nos non derelinqueret. Hee so comes from heaven, that still he remaines there: hee so returnes thither againe, that still wee have his presence here. Quid miramini? Deus hoc facit. Why doe ye wonder? it is God who doth all this, whose glorious presence fills the whole world.

And this may give some satisfaction to that ob­jection which may be made; How can God bee said to move? to come or to goe? to ascend or de­scend? when there is neither ubi nor quando in Deo, neither relation of place, nor time in God?

It is answered, That it is true that God is every where. If I ascend into heaven thou art there: If I lie downe in hell thou art there also, let mee take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the Sea, yet thither shall thy hand leade mee, and thy right hand hold mee, saith David. But yet the mani­festation of his presence is not every where. God is said to come to a place, when he is pleased there to manifest his presence. So CHRIST is said to descend, to come into the world, into this lower world, when hee out of the riches of his mercy, did vouchsafe to appeare in the flesh

And for the other branch of the objection, that God cannot be said to move, because his actions are not limitted or measured by time: it is true againe, For St. Augustine, In aeternitate sempiternus est dies, qui nec praeceditur hesterno, nec excluditur crastino. In eternity Time hath no place: for there is a day which hath neither a yesterday to goe be­fore it, nor a to morrow to thrust him out of his [Page 133] place. But yet in regard of us, God may bee said to doe many things in time I, that very graci­ous act of Gods in assuming our humane Nature, is said to be done in the fulnesse of time, Gal 4.4. When the fulnesse of time was come, God sent his Sonne made of a woman.

Now wee have seene how God may be said to move or to come, let us look upon the manner of his comming, & the way both together. Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountaines, and skipping over the hills.

Hee leaps upon, he skips over. The Spirit of God like the winde, moveth which way it listeth. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

But what should these mountaines signifie? If we take them for the mountaines, which St. Mathew in the Parable of the lost Sheepe speakes of Cap. 18. ver. 12. Wherein the ninety and nine were left: For St. Bernard makes the point there, [...], he left the ninety and nine in the mountaines, and not hee left the ninety and nine and went into the moun­taines: If (I say) we understand it thus, then with­out all question the blessed Angells are here meant, when that good Shepheard who layd downe his life for his Sheepe, did leave the ninety and nine (that infinite multitude which had not erred) in the coe­lestiall mountaines, in heaven, in rest, and safety, and came downe into the wildernesse upon earth, in pur­suite of that One which had strayed poore mankinde, which at the length he found, and with joy retur­ned to those heavenly habitations. What are these mountaines then but those glorious Citizens of [Page 134] heaven, which our Saviour calls there Sheepe? Vt ipsi sint montes, qui & oves (saith a Father) that these mountaines and the sheepe might be all one. But this may seeme very harsh, that mountaines should feede upon mountaines: and indeed if we take it ac­cording to the literall sense, it sounds very unplea­santly, but if according to the spirituall meaning, it is full of mystery and sweetnesse.

Christ the wisdome of his Father, who is the Shepheard of both those Flocks, (as well of those glorious and triumphant Angells and Saints, which feede securely upon the Mountaines, which are in heaven; as also of the poore remnant that is below in the vallyes, here on earth) doth feede both indeed with the same foode, but not after the same manner. We who are Pilgrimes here, in the course of our Peregrination, doe eate our bread, (our spi­rituall bread I meane) in the sweat of our browes, For is illum labore & aerumna mendicentes, begging it from doore to doore, for God will have us so to doe to exercise us. There is no grace which we re­ceive, but it costs us a great deale of toyle and vexa­tion. We get it either by turning over the writings or hearing the well-digested labours of godly and learned men, or in searching the holy Scriptures; or else we reade the invisible things of God, his eternall po­wer and Godhead, in the Creation of the world, in the things that are seene, 1. to the Romanes. But the An­gells they have a neerer and an easier cut to know­ledge then this. They neede not foradge abroad for it, they have their provision brought home to their hands. For although we cannot say that they [Page 135] have it of themselves; Yet in themselves they doe receive with no lesse facility then happinesse. They are not put to the trouble of discourse, to compose, to divide; but by one simple Act (as in a cleare and cristall glasse) they either behold all things in their proper nature, in their causes, which the Schoolemen call their knowledge of the evening: Or else they reade all things purely and clearely, in the word, in the beatificall vision, and this Knowledge is called their morning Knowledge; for as much difference as there is betwixt the glorious encreasing morning, and the duskie, gloomy, and declining evening; so much (nay a thousand times more) is there betwixt these two knowledges. So that these mountaines may in some sort be said to feede upon, or in the moun­taines, (i.) in themselves: because they have, and doe finde in themselves (without stirring abroad for the matter) continually viewing the face of God, continually looking into the word of life, meanes whereby still to perpetuate their happinesse.

But yee will aske me how did Christ leape upon these mountaines? St. Bernard shall tell yee. Saliebat in montibus (i.) in Angelis in quibus & loquebatur, & suam hominibus exhibebat presentiam. Hee leaped upon these mountaines, the Angels, when in their similitude he did speake, and vouchsafe his presence to the Patriarchs & Prophets in the old Testament. But hee doth not dwell here: for marke the Text well. Behold he comes leaping. Ita salit, ut transilit. Hee so leapes upon these mountaines, that at the last he leaves them too: For he tooke not upon him the nature of Angells; but the seede of Abraham, 2. Hebr. [Page 136] And if we looke into the verse immediatly follow­ing my Text, there yee shall finde him standing be­hinde our wall; Loe hee stands behinde our wall (saith the Spouse) looking forth of the windowes, shewing himselfe through the Grates. He stands behinde our wall, (i.) our humane nature.

These hills, or little mountaines which hee here will not vouchsafe so much as to touch in his journey, but leaves them without any footsteps of his mer­cy imprinted on them, may be understood of the Apostate Angells, those powers of darknesse which rule in the ayre, which are not to bee reckoned a­mongst the mountaines, those blessed and erect Spi­rits which stoode. For they through their pride have fallen from the height of their excellence wherein they were created: but yet they are not fallen so lowe, that they can deserve the name of vallyes, they are hills still, tumentes colles, hills through their pride, hills, through their barrennesse. And therefore wee may not without reason con­jecture that these are the hills here, (being placed inter montes perfectorum & valles paenitentium, In the midst betwixt the mountaines of the perfect and excelse Angells, and the vallyes of humble and peni­tent sinners upon earth) which our Saviour is said to skip over.

Surely that curse which David layd upon the mountaines of Gilboa. 2. Sam. 1. Where Saul, Ionathan, and the Worthies of Israel fell in the battell, had a further reach in it, then onely to those materiall mountaines (though not in the intent of griefe-sick [Page 137] David, at that time, yet in the intent of the holy Spirit, which then inspired David.) Yee mountains of Gilboa, upon you (saith hee) bee neither dew nor raine, for there the shield of the mighty is cast downe. What is this Gilboa here, but a Type of the Devill? That overthrow of Saul and the Worthies of Israel, but a figure of those many spirituall massacres, over­throwes, and cruelties which hee doth execute a­mongst the sonnes of men? How were the mighty slaine in the midst of the battle, (saith David there) O Ionathan, thou wast slaine in the high places! How are the mighty slaine here, in the midst of the bat­tle, (may we say too) How many thousand of the host of Israel have perished upon these accursed hills? and still doe perish daily? And therefore no won­der if he who is the dispenser of grace, doth passe by these hills without once sprinkling them with the dew of his mercy.

It was a strange conceit of Origen, who would have our blessed Saviour to leape upon these Hills too: nay more, to bee crucified againe the second time in the ayre, for the redemption of the Devils. This errour yee shall finde refuted by Epiphanius, in his Epistle to Iohn of Ierusalem. By St. Augustine, in his 21. booke de Civitate Dei, cap. 17. and 23. By St. Ierome, upon the 3. chap. of Ionas. By Gregory in the 9. booke of his Morals, 45. And by others, and by the same in other places.

And whereas we finde Ruffinus in his first inve­ctive against St. Ierome, to ascribe this heresie to St. Ierome, it is most injuriously done, and pro­ceeds (as may bee supposed) from the malice of [Page 138] his emulous Adversary. For St. Ierome was so farre from countenancing of this errour, that if wee trace him into other parts of his workes, we shall per­ceive him to bee one of the sharpest enemies that this Opinion had. Besides the place above quoted, it appeares by his 2. Apology against Ruffinus; out of his 1. booke against the Pelagians; out of his Epistle to Pammachius concerning the errours of Iohn of Ierusalem; out of his Commentaries upon the last words of Isaiah. The place of St. Ierome which Ruffinus traduces against him, endeavoring to fixe that as­persion upon that learned and devout Father, is out of his Commentaries upon the Epistle to the Ephe­sians: Where it plainely appeares that St. Ierome did not speake there ex propria sententia, but in the person of Origen. But for your better satisfaction I will name yee three or foure places, which shall be enough to put to silence for ever such a monstrous conceit. The first is, that which I named before in the second to the Hebrews: For hee tooke not upon him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham. And againe, Rom. 6.9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dyeth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. And againe Matth. 25.41. Depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire, prepa­red for the Devill and his Angels. If any should chance to answer these words, and say, That it is true, the fire here is called an everlasting fire, but it doth not therefore follow, that their mansion or abiding in that fire, must bee everlasting too. Our Saviour shall take away the answer presently, who concludes both the fire, and also their mansion [Page 139] or continuing in that fire to bee eternall, at the last verse of that Chapter of St. Matth. And these shall goe into everlasting paine, and the righteous into life eternall. Christ skips over these hills.

But let us (if yee please) stand still awhile and view the scituation of these hills: and wee may finde them placed (if wee doe but superficially be­hold them) most pleasantly for their prospect. They are not so low, but their eyes can climbe up in contemplation to behold those sublime mountains above them, the holy Angels: nor yet so high, but that they are able with ease to take a perfect sur­vey of the vallies; Of men on earth. Yet if we doe but with a serious and narrow eye consider them, we shall finde this place to bee assigned unto them by God, for their greater vexation. In poenam suam medium locum inter coelum & terram, de coelo cadens sortitus est, ut videat & invidiat. God hath allotted this middle place betwixt heaven and earth, to the devils who fell from heaven, to aggravate their tor­ments. For how miserable is hee when he lifts up his eyes to heaven, and there beholds the infinite number of mountaines, (of which hee himselfe was once a part) which like burnished gold with their divine radiance dazle the beholders eyes, sounding and resounding with Hymnes and heavenly Songs, (of which Quire hee himselfe was once a member) abounding in grace, tall in glory? But how much more miserable; when he looks downe upon the valleys, upon mankind below? and sees them rich in faith? flourishing in hope? beautified in charity? adorned with vertues, as with flowers? full [Page 140] of good works, as loden with pleasant fruit? the coole and chrystall Fountaines (Meander-like) gliding, playing, and making amorous knots upon their bosomes; and all this while himselfe (who was once a Lucifer, an Angel of light) neglected, contemned, hominum ludib [...]tum factum, & oppro­brium Angelorum, become a scorne and wonder, both of men and Angels?

O how this should set us all on fire mee thinks to send up praises and thanksgivings unto our mercifull God? to lay our selves downe a sacrifice at his feet? and (if it were possible) to send up our very soules in thankfull acknowledgements of his divine grace? For what were wee better then those beautifull Angels who fell? yet they are passed over; and wee are taken to mercy: Christ skips over those hills in indignation, but stayes us with fla­gons, and comforts us with Apples. Wee are the valleys which hee waters with his mercies; and what were the valleys more then the hills? O thou fairest amongst the sonnes of men, chiefest of ten thousand, What is thy welbeloved more then another welbeloved, that thou art so pleased with her beau­ty? What difference is there betwixt the hills and the valleys, save onely the fruitfulnesse, which is an adventitious thing, and the effect of thy good­nesse?

Let it bee our parts therefore, seeing that God hath beene so gracious to us, to skip over the hills, and to water and make us fruitfull, and pleasant, who are the valleys, to imitate them so farre, who (as David saith) doe stand so thick with corne, that [Page 141] they doe laugh and sing: let us sing therefore the praises of him who hath made us thus fruitfull, and with the holy Psalmist say alway, The Lord be prai­sed. Amen.

Or if yee please, wee may understand this Text thus. Hee leaped upon the mountaines, hee skipped over the hills: (.i.) hee passed, hee overcame all the difficulties and miseries of our nature, those craggie rockes, and thorny mountaines of our humanity: nay, he passed over that Mount Aetna of Gods wrath too, which had he not endured, without all question would have broke forth in fire and sulphure to the destruction of the whole world. And so his

1. Leape was A gremio Patris ad uterum Matris: From the bosome of his Father, into the wombe of his Mother.

2. De utero in Praesepe: Out of the wombe of his Mother into the Manger.

3. De praesepe ad Crucem: Out of the Manger to the Crosse.

4. De Cruce in Sepulchrum: From the Crosse in­to the Grave.

5. De Sepulchro ad Inferos: From the Grave in­to hell.

6. And sixthly, From hell, he leapes againe into Heaven.

De inferis Victor remeavit ad Coelos, saith Saint Ierome in his 26. Chapter of his rule of Monks, where yee may also finde all these leapes of our Saviour set downe. And this motion of Christ, had the [Page 142] Philosophers no arguments at all to prove it, is suffi­cient to evince, the circular motion of all others to be the most perfect: Hee came from heaven first, and he never leaves moving till he is got into heaven againe. And if wee doe but marke, we shall finde Christ in the five first leapes to follow us, who had leaped the same leapes before him. But wherefore did hee follow us? Ad sanandum & subveniendum. Wee out of the pride of our hearts, and the crafty suggestions of the devill, did undertake these leapes to our owne destruction: but hee out of the aboun­dance of his mercy, followes us in our owne tract, to seeke and to save that which was lost: but in the sixth he goes before us to prepare a Kingdome for all such who beleeve in him.

The first leape which wee tooke was from heaven, from Paradise, from the bosome of our Fa­ther, from the favour of God, into the wombe of our Mother, into the state of corruption, which is the common Mother of us all. I have said unto corruption thou art my mother, and to the wormes, yee are my sisters. But see; wee had no sooner taken this leape, (this fall rather, where wee might have lyen for ever, had God not bin as mercifull as hee is just) but pre­sently Christ adventures after us, for although hee was not exhibited untill the fulnesse of time; yet the vertue of his conception, nativity, passion, and re­surrection, was in efficacie to beleeving Adam. He who is immortall became mortall, hee who is the Sonne of God, and thinks it no robbery, to be called equal with the Father, became the Son of man took upon him the forme of a servant, that wee who are [Page 143] the Sonnes of men, might be made the Sonnes of God.

2. Our next leape was into the Manger. Wee became beast. Man being in honour, saith the Text, (that is, in the state of innocence) had no under­standing, but was likened unto the beast that perisheth. Iumenta (puto) dicerent, si loqui fas esset (saith Saint Bernard) Ecce, Adam factus est quasi unus ex nobis. Certainly (saith that Father) the very beasts them­selves) had God beene pleased to have bestowed upon them an articulate language (as he did once upon Balaams Asse,) would have spoken those words simply & without a figure, which God did at that time figuratively and in a Sarcasme, Behold, man is become like one of us. For indeed what was he else but Beast then, having lost his excellence, lost his understanding, lost his immortality, and (in one word) turned his glory, the image of God wherein he was created, into the similitude of a Calfe that eateth hay? But doth Christ leave us here? No. His mercy followes us hither too. Inde est (saith the same Father) quod panis Angelorum factum est faenum, positum in praesepio, appositum nobis tanquam jumentis; And therefore he that is the bread of Angells, was made grasse, became hay, (For the Word was made flesh, Iohn 1. And Isay shall tell us in the fourth Chapter what all flesh is, and yet not Isay neither, but the spirit, for a voyce said, Cry, and hee said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grasse, and the grace thereof as the flower of the field) hee was laid in a Manger to become foode for us, who had through our owne disobedience made our selves beasts. And therefore how well may we take up that holy rap­ture [Page 144] of St. Bernard immediatly following? Heu tristis & lachrymosa mutatio; ut homo, Paradise accola, terrae dominus, coeli civis, domesticus Domini Sa­baoth, &c. O sorrowfull and lamentable change! that man, the Inhabiter of Paradise, the Lord of the earth, a Citizen of heaven, a houshold-servant of the Lord of Hoasts, brother to the blessed Angells, and co-heire with the coelestiall powers, upon the sudden should finde himselfe for his infirmity ly­ing in a Stable, for the likenesse that hee holds with the Beast standing in neede of Fodder, of grasse! But much better, and with a farre greater reason may wee turne the streame of this extasie and cry; O grata stupenda, & lata mutatio! ut Paradisi domi­nus, coeli & terrae conditor, Dominus Sabaoth, Rex An­gelorum, &c. O happy change, blessed and ever to be wondred at! That the Governour and Maker of Paradise, the Creator of all the world, the Lord of Hoasts, the King of Angells, God blessed for ever, should lay aside his Majestie, come downe from heaven, leave the innumerable company of holy An­gells, and be content to become a poore, naked, and distressed Infant, whose best roome at his Nativity was a Stable, a Manger his Cradle? O the height and depth of the wisdome and mercy of God! He who was Lord of all the world, chooses no better roome then a Stable. Non quia non potuit, sed quia ho­mo noluit. Not because he was not able, but because Man would not suffer him. A Paradox! Would not man suffer him? How then was he God? Un­derstand aright. The sinne of man and his owne mercy would not suffer him. The end of his com­ming [Page 145] was to seeke and to save that which was lost, Mankind: And where should he seeke for him, but where he was? Et ecce nunc de grege facta est egregia creatura. For behold now, Man who was once a glo­rious creature, hath taken up his habitation with the beast.

Our third leape, — but stay, wee should bee worse then beasts if wee should thus lightly skip over this blessed leape of our Saviour, this time of preparation for that great approaching Feast (in­stituted by the Church) seeming to envite us to a further honourable mention.

O dies plena miraculorum (saith St. Augustine) Creator fit creatura; qui immensus est capitur; incor­poreus carne vestitur; videtur invisibilis, &c. O day full of wonders! The Creator is become a creature; he whom the heavens, and the heaven of heavens can­not containe, is this day comprehended: hee who is incorporeall, is cloathed with flesh; hee is handled now, who cannot be touched; hee who is the An­cient of dayes, is this day become an Infant; or if ye will have all in one word, Nascitur Deus, God him­selfe is borne. Qui natus est primò sine matre in coelis, bodie natus est sine patre in terris. Hee who was borne in the heavens from all eternity without a Mother, is this day borne on earth, without a Father.

Barbara Pyramidum sileat miracula Memphis.

Let Aegypt now cease to talke of her molehills of bricke, the Ephesians of their Temple, Babylon of her walls, Rhodes of his Colosse.

Vnum pro cun [...]is fama loquatur opus.

And let this fill the mouth of all the world.

Nor is this all. For then wee might indeed won­der, but without any comfort to our selves: now let us adde joy unto our wonder. For natus est nobis puer. There is borne to us a Child, borne to us a Saviour. This was that day, to see which the holy Patriarches and Prophets of the old Testament so thirsted after: Let him kisse me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better then wine, Cant. Chap. 1. Abraham saw this day, and that but in Landskip, a farre off, and yet for all that (saith our Saviour) he rejoyced. And well was it called a day, for then the Sunne of righteousnesse did rise to the world, which before lay steeped in darknesse. Blessed are the eyes (saith Christ to his Disciples, Luke 10.23.) which see those things which yee see; for I tell yee that many Kings and Prophets have desired to see the things that yee see, and have not seene them. Upon which words, St. Bernard descants thus; Quare nisi quia nox erat, & nondum venerat illud expectatum mane, cui fuerat repromissa misericordia? Why (saith hee) could they not see these things? Be­cause it was night as yet, and that longed for mor­ning was not broke which David so earnestly pray­ed for in his 143. Psalme; Let me heare thy loving kindnesse in the morning, for in thee is my trust. How truely may wee call Iohn the Baptist the Mor­ning-starre? for as that ushers out the beautifull Sunne, so did hee Christ. He was not that light, (saith St. Iohn in his 1. Chap.) but was sent to beare witnesse of that light; that was the true light which lighteth every man who commeth into the world. Iohn was but [Page 147] as a Torch-bearer before that Bridegroome, who came out of his Chamber, rejoycing like a mighty man to runne his race.

But to leave this sacred mysterie with admirati­on, being a Theame fitter for the pen or tongue of an Angel then of a weake man, let us come unto our selves.

And what shall wee render to the Lord againe for all this now? I will tell yee. Since it hath so pleased God so to love the world, as to give his on­ly begotten Sonne to us; let us thinke nothing too good, nothing too deare for him: let us so love him againe, as to dedicate our selves unto him. Since Christ hath vouchsafed to take such a leape for us, to come from heaven to earth: let us in all thankfulnesse leape from earth into heaven to him. But ye will aske me, how? Hic labor, hoc opus est. This is a thing indeed desired of all, (for who would not be in heaven?) but it is full of difficul­ties. I answer, therfore the more noble, the more to be desired. The way to honour is up hill, the pas­sage craggy and thorny, but bee not dismayed, for this journey which I speake of is not a corporall, but a spirituall journey. Take thou no care how thy body which must bee laid downe in the dust, nor how thy soule when it is separated from thy body shall bee carried into those heavenly habitations: trust thy Saviour with this, who will take custody of thy soule when thou layest downe thy Taber­nacle, and in his good time, raise up thy body too to immortalitie. If thou whilest thou art herein the body, canst take thy thoughts from the earth, and [Page 148] send them on a holy Ambassage to heaven, if thou canst raise up thy thankfull heart to a blessed ac­knowledgement of the mercy of God in thy Saviour Iesus Christ, who came downe thus to thee, I dare say in this thou hast leapt from earth to heaven: which moving and stirring of thy soule (like a troubled boxe of pretious Oyntment, whose vertu­ous odours slept, till they were awaked by stirring) shall make thee smell sweet in the nostrills of God. Thy lips, O my spouse, (saith Christ in the 4. Chapter of this Song) drops as honey combes, honey and milke are under thy tongue, the savour of thy garments, is as the savour of Lebanon, Camphyre, and Spikenard, and Saffron, and Calamus, and Cinamon, with all the Trees of incense. Which is nothing else but to shew us by the similitude of these earthly things, these odoriferous delicacies which are most acceptable to our sense, how pleasing and gratefull are the lips, (i.) the confessions, the prayers, the thankesgivings of his whole Church in generall, or of every faith­full soule in particular unto God.

Wee have a saying amongst us, and it is a true one, Ingratum si dixeris, omnia dixeris, Name but the ingratefull person, and thou namest every thing that is bad. But alas! how truely may wee quite invert this saying, and inverted apply it our selves. Omnia si dixeris, ingratum dixeris; Name all things, name all the benefits, all the bounties, all the mercies, which God with a liberall hand hath heaped upon mankinde, without weight, without measure, with­out number; Nay name this mercy of all mercies. So God loved the world, that hee gave us his onely be­gotten [Page 149] Sonne. Yet for all this thou mayest call man ingratefull: For where is our wedding apparell at the Celebration of these Nuptialls? Where is our faith? where is our charity? where is our new­nesse of life in these dayes of preparation? where are our praises? our Songs of deliverance?

Wee are Pythagoreans now, Harpocrates or the Woolfe hath seene us, such a heavie silence is fallen upon us. If yee aske mee how yee shall ho­nour this time truly, Saint Augustine shall tell yee, Cogita Deum Patrem mittentem, cogita Deum Filium venientem, cogita teipsum immerentem: Thinke up­on God the Father in mercy sending his Sonne; thinke upon God the Sonne in mercy come, being sent of the Father, and when thou hast done this, thinke upon thine owne unworthinesse, and doe this seriously, and it cannot choose but worke in thee a love towards God, a hating of thy selfe, and thy sinnes, a charity to thy poore brethren; and once, adorne thee with all the graces fitting the ce­lebration of so blessed a time.

Our third leape, was de Praesepe ad Crucem, from the Manger to the Crosse, from Beast to the curse due to sinne. Cursed is every one who hangs upon a tree. But doth Christ leave us here? No. Hee leapes after us hither too; No sooner are the two theeves upon the Crosse, but lift up thine eyes, and thou shalt finde him in the midst of them, crying to the penitent, This day thou shalt be with mee in Paradise. And doe but reade that speech of Christ to Iudas, [Page 150] in the 13. of Saint Iohns Gospell. And then tell me whether we may not truly call this a leape of his or no, a leape of joy, a leape of an earnest desire. The consideration of which (me thinks) cannot choose but make our hearts leape within us too, at the 27. verse. And after the sop, Sathan entred into him, That which thou doest, doe quickly.

What should this bee which Iudas was about, that we find our Saviour wooing him to such a speed in the execution of it? That which thou doest, doe quickly. Why, if yee will needs know, it was to betray him to the death of the Crosse. This was the action to the performance of which our blessed Sa­viour courts his betrayer. Of such a love as this can no Stories make mention. Had it beene to receive a Kingdome, to have had his browes begirt with some imperiall Diadem, to have mounted a triumphant Chariot, and from thence to have beheld all his enemies dragd in fetters after him, wee should not then have wondered that hee had leaped towards it, and murmured at the heavie paces of time: but when we consider that that which he made love to was death; more, an ignom [...]nious death, the death of the Crosse, the company be so longed to be with, no better then Theeves; (Hee was numbred with the transgressours) when we consider that the best wel­come he could expect, besides the pangs of death, would be the bitter taunts of his enemies, the ban­quet they entertained him with (composed by those two harsh and unequall-handed Confectionaries, Cruelty and Scorne) no better then gall and vineger, that he should leape towards this, and be so desirous [Page 151] to have this done quickly, here is the wonder.

I should here describe unto yee those thor­nie mountaines and craggy passages, which Christ overcame in this leape of his from the Manger to the Crosse, but this is an Antheme fitter for Good Friday; nor doe I thinke it honourable enough for this Argument to bee handled in a discourse that is onely passant, the greatnesse of the Theame duely chalenging a Tractate of its owne, wherein it may command, not serve as an Attendant. And indeede so doe all the other, but wee must not swell up Sermons into volumes, my intent now being onely to give you a glance in my passage, to leape onely upon these mountaines as I passe by, and not to fixe or dwell upon any of them: For should I affect largenesse here, yee see I might take occasion from this Text, to write the whole History of Christ.

Wee have brought him (yee see) to the Crosse, and there he remaines the scorne and laughter of the multitude. But shall we leave him so? Pilat then and the Iews have done as much for him as wee. Although wee are not able to help him in his mi­sery, and can onely with his acquaintance in 23. of S. Luke 49. Stand a farre off beholding those things, yet this wee may doe too, wee may joyne with those people in the 48. verse of that Chapter, who came together to that sight, and beholding the things that were done, smote their breasts and returned. O let us smite our breasts too, as acknowledging all those blowes and stripes which fell upon his sacred body, to be due to us.

That Speare which pierced his blessed side, ought to have beene pointed against our breasts: for wee have sinned, we have done wickedly, but that Lambe what hath he done?

I had here broken off this discourse for this time, but that I considered, to suffer him to hang a weeke upon the Crosse, had beene a greater cruelty then was showne by the Iews themselves, who be­cause it was the preparation of their Sabbath, took him downe. Let us therefore with the good and just Counseller Ioseph, goe to Pilat, and begge the body of Iesus, and ere wee depart, accompany him to the Grave, where, till we returne againe to draw the Curtaines, and bid good morrow to the rising Sunne, wee will wish his flumbers sweet and peaceable. And so we are come to his

4. Leape. De cruce in sepulchrum: From the Crosse into the grave.

Into the grave? O tell it not in Gath, nor pub­lish it in the streets of Askalon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountaines of Gilboa, upon you bee neither dew nor raine, for there the shield of the mighty is cast downe. Into the grave? What should the Lord of life doe in the lodgings of death? Sure hee hath no businesse of his owne there? Yes. Because his mercy is his owne, therefore the busi­nesse is his too. Hee was that good Shepherd, who leaving behind him the ninety and nine, came in pursuit of that one which had strayed, poore man­kind. And where should he seeke for man, but where hee was? In sepulchro positus. Death had carried [Page 153] him away captive, and Christ to redeeme him, breaks into the strong hold of this mighty man, and being mightier then he, overcomes him, binds him, and sets the prisoner at liberty. And this was all the busi­nesse hee had in the grave. Hee came not as owing any homage to the Lord of that darke mansion, nor yet was it any debt of his owne which brought him thither, but the end of his journey was to pay the ransome for captivated man, who had taken a leape thither before him. And as before he could not be at rest, but thought every houre an Ag [...] till hee was got upon the Crosse; so when hee was there, still hee hath a longing desire to goe forward on his journey, and now is as earnest to bee in the grave, as he was before to be upon the Crosse; and therefore he cries out, sitto, I thirst. Sitio, art Chri­stus, non doleo, saith St. Bernard: and a little before, the same Father, Bone Iesu, coronam spineam susti­nes de tua cruce & vulneribus taces, & prosola fiti clamas dicens, sitio. O blessed Iesu, thou hadst a crowne of Thornes upon thy Head, thy wounds were all fresh and bleeding; and yet not a word of them, thou makest no mention at all of the pangs and tor­ments thou enduredst, thou criest out onely for a little thirst; as if thou who wast able to suffer the piercing of the nayles, couldest not suffer a little drinesse in thy body? Say Lord, what was it thou diddest thirst for so? The same S. Bernard shal give you his answer. Certe solam redemptionem hominis, & gaudium humanae salutis. It was the salvation of man, the consummation of his redemption which he so longed for, and not the vinegar and the gall [Page 154] they gave him in the Crusa, there could be but lit­tle pleasure in that.

But see: Ioseph hath entreated Pilate for the bo­dy, he hath prepared the linnen cloathes to wrap him in, and a Tombe for him hewen out of a Rocke, wherein yet was never man laid: Here wee will leave him sleeping for a time, desiring God of his goodnesse to make us truely sensible of these his mercies, that as he leapt over these mountaines, dif­ficulties, and thorny passages to come to us, so wee may leape over all impediments of sinnes, of innate corruptions, of inward and outward temptations, that we may skippe over all those hills, barracadoes, bul­warks, and trenches which the world, the flesh, and the divell (our three grand enemies) doe cast up daily in our way, to hinder our journey towards him, that he may alter the speaking Person in this Drama­ticall song, and say of us, as the spouse here said of him:

It is the voyce of my welbeloved, behold [shee too] comes leaping upon the mountaines, and skipping over the hills.

WE left CHRIST (as ye may re­member) in the Grave, being the fourth leape hee tooke in his journey to Mans redemption, the Stone rolled before the mouth of the Sepulchre, the Souldiers watching him: O the Iewes verily beleeved that they had made sure worke with him now. And let them enjoy that conceit a while, it will not long continue with them.

But what sudden Calme dwells on the face of Hell? The Lord of Heaven hath taken a leape thi­ther too. Hee hath triumphed over death and the devill already in his Portall (as I may call it) his outward house, the grave: and now he pursues him even into his inward Pallace, his strongest hold of all, and there hee conquers him too. To use St. Au­gustines words in his Sermon De descensu Christi ad [Page 156] inferos. Me thinks I see those legions of darknesse, those multitudes of evill Spirits which fell, and all the Common people of that gloomy habitation, stand in a maze at the arrivall of Christ in that place, and calling to one another in that Fathers words, Quisnam est iste terribilis, & niveo splendore coruscus, invasor iste, non debitor, exactor non pecca­tor, judicem videmus, non supplicem, venit jubere, non succumbere, eripere non manere. What terrible armed man have wee here! Who is this, who is clothed with light and majesty as with a garment? and lookes more like an invader then a debtor? a punisher of sinners, then a sinner? who hath rather the face of a Iudge, then of a supplicant? the end of whose journey hither is not to obey but com­mand? not to stay here as a prisoner, but rather to carry along with him even Captivity it selfe cap­tive? O Princeps noster, hiccine est ille de cujus tibi semper futura morte plaudebas? O Lucifer our Prince, is this hee concerning whose future death thou hast so much comforted and applauded thy selfe? Is this hee in whose destruction thou hast pro­mised us so many and so ample spoiles? at whose death thou didst hope the whole world should bee added to thy Empyre? Ecce [...]am tot as tibi tenebras suo fulgore fugavit, & omnes tuos carceres fregit, captivos ejecit, ligatos solvit, luctus eorum in gaudium commutavit? Behold now, his presence hath let in the day into this place of darknesse, which never knew the Sunne till now. All thy prison walls are broken downe, thy captives set at liberty, and all their mourning and lamentations are turned into the [Page 157] voyce of joy and gladnesse. Quid est quod facere vo­luisti? What is it that you have done? in pricking Iudas and the Iews forward to hang this man upon a tree, thou hast wrought the destruction of thine owne Kingdome.—O yee mountaines fall on us! Hell it selfe is not deepe enough to hide us from his presence. What have wee to doe with thee, O thou Sonne of the most High? Art thou come to torment us before our time? How terrible is his voyce? Thunder doth but whisper to it; and an inraged Sea is lowe as the breath of Eunuches. Many other the like speeches doth Saint Augustine, at the sight of Christ in hell, bring in the devills uttering.

I am not ignorant that there be many who will by no meanes understand this Article of our Creed, concerning Christs descension into Hell, to be li­terall: but some of them by Hell will understand the Grave, because they doe finde the word Infer­num taken many times for the Grave in holy Scrip­ture. But Calvin himselfe (who was not very sound in this opinion, as wee will shew yee after) hath sufficiently confuted such as these from the very order of the Articles in the Creed, his descension into Hell being mentioned after his buriall. Inst. lib. cap. 16. sect. 8. Quantae enim oscitantiae fuisset rem minime difficilem, &c. For what a negligent oversight had that beene (saith he) in this compendium and briefe of our Christian faith, to have explained (or rather gone about to have explained) a sentence, which is plaine enough already, by another that is more dif­ficult? For when ever two Speeches expressing the same thing, doe follow one another, the latter [Page 158] of those ought to be the Exegesis, or Interpretation of the former. Thus much Mr. Calvin. But there be others (and amongst these Calvin himselfe) who by Hell in that Article of our Creed, doe meane those many torments (iratum Deum) and bitter pangs, such as they who bee in Hell doe feele, which Christ endured in his Agony, but especially on the Crosse, when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And Calvin excuses (for them) the infringing of the order of the Articles here in these words; Inst. lib. 2. cap. 16. sect. 10 Nimis frivola adeo (que) ridicula est eorum exceptio, qui dicunt hoc modo inverti ordinem, quia absurdum est Sepulturae subjici quod praecessit: ubi enim quae in hominum conspectu passus est Christus, ex­posita fuerunt, opportune subjicitur, invisibile illud, & incomprehensibile judicium quod coram deo sustinuit. There is something I acknowledge in this, but nei­ther doe I finde weight enough in this, nor in any thing that Calvin, or Beza, or Brentius can say for their opinion, to lye in ballance against all those great names in Antiquity, and learning, who are all strong for the contrary, such as Cyrill: Catech. 4. Ambrose lib. de mysterio Paschae. cap. 4. Hilary lib. 10. Trinit. August. 99. Epistle ad Evod. Chrysostome, Eu­sebius, and others. I will not trouble yee with any of their arguments, which yee shall finde fully an­swered by others. Onely there is one argument which that much admired Catechisme written by Master Vrsine, doth hugge as a pretious thing not to be answered, and of that a word. If Christ did descend into hell (saith hee) it must needs be by his [Page 159] humane soule, for as for his body, that was all this while in the Grave: and for his Godhead, in respect of that he could not be said to descend, because that was as well in Hell as in Heaven, filled all places before. It could not be by his humane soule, because he had before upon the Crosse committed that into the hands of his Father. Father into thy hands I com­mend my spirit. But this is nothing. As though Gods arme were shortned: Or to be in hell were to be out of his hands. Psal. 139. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there also. To this I confesse, that the Ca­techisme doth reply, that it is cavill. A very ea­sie way of Confutation they have, and it may sa­tisfie some, onely for my selfe, I crave leave to be out of that number. But these are but the opini­ons started by some of our new men; the ancient Fathers stand stiffe for a locall descension, and not onely for a vertuall.

It is to no great purpose for us to know the ex­act time when this Article of Christs descension into hell (which before was but implicitely there) was expresly interposed in our Creed; for by a generall consent of all sides, it is agreed that at the first it was not in all Churches. For Irenaeus who was a neighbour unto the Apostles times (who being a child, did heare Policarpus in Asia, which Policar­pus was a Disciple to Saint Iohn the Euangelist) in his first booke Adversus haereses, Cap. 2. repeating the Apostles Creed, makes no mention at all of this Article, but directly goes from the Passion to the Resurrection. No more doth Tertullian, in the beginning of his bookes Contra Praxeam, and in his [Page 160] booke De velandis virginibus, no more doth Origen in the beginning of his bookes De Principiis, no more doth S. Aug. in his book De fide & Symbolo, all which Fathers did both repeat & expound that rule of Faith, delivered to the Vniversall Church by the Apostles, and yet name not that Article at all, but passe immediatly from the Sepulture to the Resur­rection, so doth the Nicene Creed. But let not this trouble us, for although it was not there expressed, yet it was necessarily implied, it being convenient, that as the body of Christ did descend into the place of bodies; so the soule of Christ should also descend into the place of soules.

Moreover, St Cyrill in that fore-named place, Catech. 4. and 14. And St. Chrysostome in his 2. Homil. de Symbolo, both reade it, and expound it; and now it is generally received amongst Writers of all par­ties; The Catechismes of Luther, and Calvin, Pe­ter Martyr, the Centuries, and all with one consent entertaining it, though differing in the Exposition.

The Papists indeed undertake (and are very punctuall in it) to tell us what Christs imployment was there, which was to Preach to the Prisoners (they say) and to redeeme the Patriarchs, Prophets, Fathers, and holy men, who dyed under the law, from that Limbus they were before kept in.

And Saint Augustine seemes to come somthing neere this opinion, in one of his Sermons De Tem­pore, descanting upon that place of the Prophet Hosee. Cap. 13. Ero mors tua ô mors, ero morsus tuus Inferne, O death I will be thy death; O Hell I will be thy biting, (for so the word signifies, although [Page 161] our English Translations render it otherwise.)

Id nam (que) (saith he) quod occidimus, agimus ut pe­nitus non sit; ex eo quod mordemus partem abstrabimus, partem (que) relinquimus. From that which we kill wee take all, the whole being of it; of that which wee bite, we onely take a part and leave a part. So in re­gard of his owne Elect Christ hath killed death ut­terly; but in that respect that but part of the Sonnes of men are redeemed from Hell, and a part left be­hinde, therefore Christ is not said utterly to kill Hell, but onely to bite it: they be St. Augustines owne words, Quia vero ex inferno partem abstulit, & partem reliquit, non occidit funditus, fed momor dit infernum. Because at his going into Hell he tooke but part away with him, and left a part there, therefore hee is not said utterly to kill Hell, but onely to bite it.

But this place of St. Augustine may be answered with the same words that Bellarmine answers that argument of Calvins, drawen from that place in the second of the Acts, to prove that Christ did undergoe the paines of Hell, verse 24. Whom God hath raised up, and loosed the sorrowes of Hell: Now saith Calvin, No man can be said to be loosed from that to which he was never bound.

Bellarmine (letting slip the advantage he had of him by the Originall: the Greeke copy reading it, [...] the sorrows of death, and not of hell) doth answer him thus; Solutis doloribus, hoc est, irritis effectis, solvit enim Christus dolores inferni, non quibus tenebatur, sed ne teneretur. Christ did loose or unty the paines of Hell, (a metaphor ta­ken [Page 162] from the chaines of Captives, or the Nets or traps of Hunters, for so St. Augustine, to whom Bel­larmine indeed was beholden for his answer, Solvi possunt laquei venantium (saith hee) ne teneant, non quia tenuerunt) not because those paines had ever taken any hold of him, but because by the vertue of his perfect obedience and bitter sufferings hee had taken away the power from those Chaines of darknesse, so that they were not able once to touch him. So will wee be bold to borrow that sentence of St. Augustine to answer (or rather to interpret) his owne words. Christus momordit infernum, hoc est, partem hominum a potestate abstulit inferni, non quos infernum tenebat, sed ne teneret omnino. Christ did bite Hell, (that is) tooke a part from thence, not that ever that part (meant of the Patriarchs, Prophets, and holy men dying under the Law) was holden there in chaines; but because Christ did bite or destroy that power, which (had it not beene taken away) would have kept them there captives for ever. Thus dare not we upon meere presump­tions of our owne, goe so farre as the Papists: with more Christian modesty we may rest in this. That Christ really did descend into Hell, not to suffer any thing, onely to bee a greater terrour to the damned Spirits, and to triumph over the De­vill, even in his owne house.

But the face of the Daunce beginnes to alter. Christ is no longer the onely Masker now: The mountaines and the hills which he leaps upon, begin to joyne with him, and doe leape themselves. What ayle yee O yee mountaines that yee skip like rammes? [Page 163] and yee little hills like young sheepe? What ayles them? If ye will be pleased but to accompany me to the Sepulchre, there wee may peradventure learne the cause of this so great and sudden joy, discover what powerfull kinde of Musicke this is, which addes wings to the heeles of Mountaines, and against all Philosophy makes heavy things move up­wards. Certainely what ever it bee, it cannot bee lesse then the straine of an Angel, which carries such a vertue along with it. And it is the musicke of an Angel indeed. Resurrexit, non est hic. Hee is risen hee is not here: why seeke yee the living a­mongst the dead? O pleasant and most ravishing Song! Come hither all yee who excell in musicke, who have power to charme the soules of men, and can leade untamed Tygers by the eares after you, make the Lyons forget what creatures nature fra­med them, and follow you like Lambs in a flocke together; draw neere and bee confounded, hang your Harps upon the Trees, sit downe by the waters of Babylon and weepe, for yee are vanquished all. Let the memory of Orpheus die for ever, and let not Arion bee hereafter mentioned; for alas, all that they could doe (and invention was forced to play the wanton in expressions, and faine them miracles too) was but onely to make a poore Dolphin so kinde to carry him to shore, a creature which naturally is in love with Musicke, or else to gather a few scattered stones together to build the walls of a City: But behold, here a note which makes the ponderous Mountains trace it in a ring. And what straine should this be? Why only this, [Page 164] resurrexit, he is risen? What if he be risen? What doth this concerne the Hills and the Mountaines? Cannot hee rise, but they must needs rise out of their places too to expresse their joy?

At his death, the inanimate world had but two things in it that were precious, the Sunne and the Temple, and wee finde them both mourners at his Funerall. That great light of heaven seeing him die upon the Crosse, full of griefe and indignati­on mufled himselfe up in a dusky garment of cloudes, nor did he judge the sonnes of men wor­thy of any light from him who had put out the light of the world. The Temple which was the glory of the whole earth, rather then it will want a mouth to utter the sorrow it conceived at that spectacle rends in sunder to give it vent. But the dayes of wea­ring blacke are now past, the time of mourning is gone, else how comes it to passe that Mount Sion leapes like a young Hart, and Syrion like an Vni­corne? Hee is risen saith the Angel. But who is this that is risen, that the mountaines are so pleasant at the businesse? Why, it is the Lord and maker both of the mountaines and valleys, that same great Lord who tells us that all the beasts of the forrest are his, and the cattell upon ten thousand Hills: Hee who in the pursuit after us leapt out of heaven into a stable, indured the frailties and miseries of our Nature, hee who suffered the reproaches of his ene­mies, was scourged, reviled, spit upon, crowned with thornes; he whom but now we left in the grave, guarded with Souldiers, as if the fetters of death were not strong enough for him, Hee is now risen. [Page 165] The joyfullest newes that ever was heard upon earth. (This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoyce and be glad in it.) For if hee had risen no more, but that Death had had the victory over him, his miraculous conception, his stupendious birth, his cruell sufferings, his ignominious death, and all that hee hath endured for us, had not a whit availed us. But now wee see to our infinite com­fort, that the house of death was too weak a Prison for him, and the gates of Hell were not able to prevaile against him. Let not us therefore who have a greater interest in this blessed newes then all creatures whatsoever, bee more stupid then the heavy mountaines which in an extasie of joy, are found leaping and skipping, Psalm. 114. Not that the mountaines did really leape, but by a kinde of Prosopopaea, to intimate unto us that infinite joy, those glad tidings which now were come unto men, even the weighty mountaines themselves (which are the unlikeliest part of the world for any such motion) are brought in by the holy Spi­rit to trace it in a daunce. Which figure doth first accuse us men, both of ingratitude and stupiditie. Secondly, it doth incite us to shake off that drow­sinesse. It doth accuse us first; For how can wee at all bee accounted worthy of that great benefit, who suffer our selves to bee overcome even of senslesse creatures in expressions of joy. Or goe farther, and suppose that these mountaines were sensible, that they were able to move out of their places, yet what doth the rising of Christ concerne them? Had hee never died at all, or being dead, had hee [Page 166] never risen, wee may conjecture that their estate had beene all one; the Sunne had sent as gentle rayes upon them as hee doth now, they had had their vicissitudes of seasons and times as well as now; the Starres had looked upon them with the same Aspects, and the ayre which circumscribes them, had beene as courteous to them as now. The re­surrection of Christ, hath not purchased any bles­sednesse or immortality for them. For they shall smoake when the Lord toucheth them, and melt like waxe at the presence of God, when he comes to judge the whole earth. But let us looke into our selves, and wee shall finde multitudes of arguments indu­cing us, nay enforcing us to a thankfull acknow­ledgement of his mercies. Hee was borne, not for himselfe, but for us: hee endured misery not for himselfe, but for us: hee dyed for us, not for him­selfe: for us he was buried, for our sakes hee went downe into hell, and came from thence in triumph, and he rose againe for our justification. Wee were before children of darknesse and of the night: but now by his resurrection wee are made heires of the light and day. Before we were the cursed children of Adam, under the dominion of death and hell: but now by his resurrection wee are adopted the blessed sonnes of God, and made inheritours of life everlasting. And are these small favours (think yee) that we take no more notice of them, but sit still (like Solomons sluggard) with our hands in our bosomes, and suffer the very hills to take our of­fice from us? Let us at least joyne our selves with them in this rejoycing, for feare least hereafter for [Page 167] this neglect wee be glad to wooe those mountaines to fall on us, (and be denied,) and to cry unto the hills, Cover us from the presence of that an­gry and just God, whose loving kindnesse we have contemned. We have our Graves too, even while wee live here on earth, to arise out of, the graves of our sinnes. There is a two-fold resurrection, as well a resurrection from sinne, as from death: and let that man never hope to bee a partaker in the se­cond, (which is from death) unlesse hee have his part in the first, in the rising from sinne. And be­ing risen from the graves of our sinnes, let us leape upon the mountaines, grow on from strength to strength, from Altitude to Altitude, from one de­gree of perfection to another, untill at last wee come to leape upon those mountaines amongst which Ierusalem which is above is scituated.

Wee are now come to take our last farewell of Christs corporall presence, till wee shall enjoy it for ever. For harke what the Spouse saith in the last verse of this second Chapter of the Canticles. Vntill the day breake, and the shadowes flye away, returne my welbeloved, and be like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountaines of Bethel. Returne my welbeloved. He is now returned to the place from whence he came; he came from Heaven first, from Bethel, from the house of God, and (as I told yee before) to prove the circle of all figures to be the fullest of perfection, he doth not leave moving untill he comes into heaven againe, till hee leapes upon the mountaines of Be­thel. Lift up your heads O yee gates, and be yee lift up yee everlasting doores, and the King of glory shall [Page 168] come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battell. Quae vox uti (que) non propter divinitatis potentiam, (saith St. Jerom sed propter novitatem carnis ascendentis ad dextram Dei ferebatur. Which words were not spoken in regard of the power of the Deity; But in respect of that new thing which was about to be done, the placing of flesh at the right hand of the Father. And this is the sixth and last leape I told yee of, which Christ did take upon his journey towards mans redemption. In the five first hee traced our foot­steps, who had leaped the same leapes before him: but in this he leaves man behind him, and makes hast before to prepare his Mansions for him. In my Fathers house there be many Mansions.

This was that leape of which hee himselfe fore­told his Disciples, in the 16. of S. Iohn verse 16. Mo­dicū & non videbitis me, & ite [...]modicum & videbitis. A little while & yee shal not see me, & again a little while and yee shall see me; for I goe to my Father. O modicum & modicum (saith St. Bernard) O modicum longum pie Domine, modicum dicis quod non videmus te? A little while? and a little while? Gracious God and Saviour, doest thou call that but a little while wherein we are deprived of thy presence? Sal­vum sit verbum Domini mei, longum est, & multum valde nimis. This is a language Lord wee under­stand. Not to call him who is Truth it selfe into question for his words, this which thou callest but a little while, seemes to us almost as long-liv'd as eternity. Call it a thousand Ages (Lord) and not a little while. But the devout Father hath found a [Page 169] reconciliation. Veruntamen utrunque verum (saith he) & modicum meritis, & non modicum votis. It is but a little while indeed if wee respect our owne merits, our sinnes having deserved that we should be deprived of him for ever: but it is more then a little while, if we regard the fervent desires which all true and zealous Christians have of his comming againe, an earnest longing for the thing we love and want, spinning every moment of delay, into a yeare of dayes.

He is ascended into the heavens, his enemies here on earth are all subdued unto him, the warres which he came about are fully ended. Sinne, Hell, Death, and the Grave, doe all lie prostrate before his feet, and hee as Conquerour returnes into hea­ven, which is his native Countrey, In jubilatione & voce Tubae, as the Psalmist 47. Psalm. Hee hath subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet, God is gone up with Triumph, even the Lord with the sound of a Trumpet. In voce etenim Tubae mos est victorem redire de praelio, saith St. Ierome. For this is the musicke wherewith the Victor is ac­customed to returne from the spoyle of his enemies.

He is ascended into the heavens: What businesse then have wee here upon earth? Our head, our Captaine is above. O let our conversations be above too. Let us lift up our eyes unto the Hills from whence commeth our help; all our help commeth from the Lord. What have wee to doe with the earth any more, or earthly affections? Woe to us that we are constrained to remaine in Meshech, and to have our habitation in the Tents of Kedar. Our GOD, our [Page 170] Redeemer is in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father; let our hearts bee there too, for what is there now left upon earth worth the loving? Christs Ascension doth call for our Ascension. The journey (indeed) our soules have to Heaven is great, and wee want wings to carry us; but let us take comfort, for our Saviour hath promised us his aid. St. Iohn 12 32. And I when I am lift up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Wee have done with this Text, as it was inter­preted by some of the Fathers, of Christs comming in the flesh: We now intend (by Gods assistance) to give yee onely a Paraphrasticall Discourse of the second Interpretation, which points out this Scripture as meant of the comming of our Saviour in the Spirit, to the Church in generall, to each faithfull Christian soule in particular.

And the same divisions will serve us still: we have here.

• 1 His Motion. Behold he comes.
• 2 The manner of his Motion,
  • Of his dignation.
  • Of his repudiation.
• 3 The way. Double too, according to the manner.

Of the motion of God, how hee may bee said to come or goe, to ascend or descend, wee have al­ready in the beginning of this Discourse told yee, and therefore wee must come directly now to the manner. And first, of that manner of his motion in the Spirit which respects his mercy.

And this hath either an eye to the end of his journey, in this word he comes, venit, non abit, hee [Page 171] doth not turne his backe and fly from us, but hee comes towards us. For had he leapt, had he leapt ne­ver so joyfully, and not have come leaping, made his approaches toward us, but have leapt from us, wee had had but a small part in this joy; but now let our hearts leape within us, for he comes leaping: Or else the manner of his motion hath an eye unto himselfe, in this word leaping. Hee comes leaping, and so the meaning of it is; Laetus est ipse Spiritus, the holy Spirit it selfe leapes (that is) is joyfull; (for we know that the outward leaping is an effect of an inward joy) the holy Ghost is full of joy, and takes a great deale of delight in the journey which hee makes to men. Or else it hath an eye unto us, in the same word leaping, and so St. Bernard understands it. Salit (id est) dat ut saliat, saith hee. Hee leapes, that is, hee makes them leape, he fills them with joy and gladnesse, whose hearts are thought worthy to bee made Temples of the holy Ghost.

Hee comes.

Wee sit still, it is hee who comes. Certainly in all good manners and reason a man would thinke that it should belong to us rather to have gone to him, then to him to have come to us. Wee, who were the offending persons, wee who had so maliti­ously sinned against so gracious a Father, without whose reconciliation wee had for ever perished, wee sit still, and hee comes. The Cedar in Libanus comes to the Thistle in Libanus, — the expression is not full enough. — The Eagle of the mountaines makes a journey to the Gnat in the valley, — nor [Page 172] yet — but why should I hunt about for compari­sons betwixt things which are infinitely distant? If yee will have all in one word: The omnipotent everliving God comes to poore man, who indeed (as David said of himselfe) may be truely called a worme and no man. Here is therefore place both for our joy and thankfulnesse; the journey which the holy Spirit takes, it is towards us, it is not from us, he comes. Let us therefore take up the Harpe and Timbrel, tune our soules into a pleasant Key, rise up, and meete our Lord and Master, who out of his incomparable mercy doth vouchsafe to visite his poore servants; nor let us bee without a song in our mouthes to entertaine him with. Sing wee thereforee with holy Zachary; Blessed bee the Lord God of Israel, for hee hath visited and redeemed his people, and let our lives and conversations continu­ally sing this Antheme too. For God is pleased indeed to heare a voyce without an Instrument: but he is delighted more, when that voyce is joyned to the musick of a Harpe, when there is a consent betwixt the fingers, (the works of the hand) and the confession of the lips. And let us bee as merry as we can, wee shall finde the holy Spirit to bee as joyfull as wee; for hee doth not onely come, but hee comes leaping. That great God, who is so infinite­ly happy already, that nothing can be added to his blessednesse; he, who hath no need at all of any ser­vice of ours, nor of the beautifull Angels them­selves; hee, who if the whole hoste of heavenly spi­rits had fallen with Lucifer, and all mankind had perished eternally, had beene yet the same God he [Page 173] is now, infinitely good, infinitely perfect, infinitely happy; yet he comes rejoycing, he comes leaping to us, as though our happinesse were an addition to his owne. With what alacrity, with what cheerfulnesse, with what thanksgivings (O it is a string which cannot be touched too often) ought wee then to meete him? What preparations can be too great to bid him welcome? Deck up thy selfe then in all thy best ornaments, make cleane, and adorne the Temple of thy heart, that when the holy Spirit comes and beholds the sweetnesse of the lodging, he may fall in love with it, and to thy great joy say unto thee, I am pleased with the habitation, and in this house will I abide for ever, and so hee shall leape in thee according to St. Bernards meaning, that is, thy soule shall be filled with joy.

But this joy is not to all. En discretos & circumspe­ctos sponsi saltus, saith the same Father; Behold how the holy Spirit doth chuse out the places upon which he will leape; hee doth not leape every where, but onely upon the mountaines.

Hoc est, in perfectis in coelo vicinioribus, qui divina & coelestia meditantur, qui (que) in terram tanquam parvum aliquid & vile despiciunt ex alto.

He leapes in the mountaines, that is, in those who are perfect, in such as are neere unto heaven, whose meditations flye a higher pitch then earth, or earthly things, who being mounted and placed upon the top of divine contemplation, looke downe upon all things below them with a kinde of neglect, and be­held all the men upon earth, and all those glorious [Page 174] Cities and great Kingdomes of the world, as Cha­ron did in Lucian (when by the ayde of Mercury they had made that goodly pile of mountaines to take the better prospect of the earth) [...], who told Mercury that he saw men moving up and down like so many Pis­mires, and a few little nests wherein they cabened, which were the great Cities of the earth. Men who doe not over-prize the world, these are they upon whom the holy Spirit will leape. But hee will have nothing to doe with those men who look through their eyes upon the world, as through a multiplying Glasse, which presents every object to the sight farre bigger then indeed it is, whose thoughts are all taken up with earthly cares, who with the foole in the Gospell, dreame of nothing but of building bigger barnes, of enlarging their worldly possessi­ons, no matter how, although it bee by the ruine of all their neighbours round about them, the whole bent of whose studies and endevours is to multiply their earthly Mammon, never so much as thinking of the riches coelestiall; or if it fortune that such a religious thought at any time crowd into their hearts, it findes no long entertainment, but out it is thrust againe with this answer, I am not now at leisure to thinke of heaven, meete me at Master Doctors, when I am old, or when diseases and infirmities have made me fit to entertain such melancholy thoughts, (as it is in the Story of that poore old ignorant wo­man, who being sicke, and the Priest desiring her to thinke upon heaven, and call upon God for his mer­cie; answered him, That shee hoped it was not [Page 175] come to that yet.) No, the Spirit of God takes no delight to leape upon such places as these, this is too foule, too fenny a ground for him, he leapes only upon the mountaines, upon men whose meditations are high, and pointed to Heaven.

Or else Salit in montibus, hoc est, in seperatis à mundo, & à confluxu populi. He leapes in the moun­taines, that is, in such as are seperated from the world, and the great conflux of people. My Dove (saith Christ in the 14. verse of this Chapter) Thou art in the holes of the rocke, and in the secret places of the staires. The Spirit of God many times leaves populous Cities, great concourses of people, and vouch­safes his presence rather where two or three are gathered together, though it be in the Desart. The Shepheards who were in the field, watching their Flocks, (& that by night too, when all things were quiet, and silent) had a vision of Angells appeared to them, when Herod and all the Grandees in Ieru­salem, who were in a throng of people, knew of no such thing. Hagar so long as shee was in Abrahams great family, had no vision at all; but no sooner got into the Wildernesse of Beer-sheba Gen. 21. but pre­sently the Angell of the Lord appeares to her, and comforts her, saying, Hagar, feare not, for the Lord hath heard the voyce of the child. And the reason of this is, because these places are many times too full of tumult, noyse, and confusion, to admit of the quiet approaches and operations of the holy Spirit. Besides, where a multitude of men is, there must needs be a multitude of sinnes too. O si possemus in talem ascen­dere speculam, de qua universam terram sub pedibus [Page 176] nostris cerneremus! It is S. Ieromes wish. O (saith he) that we could but climbe up into such a mountain, from whence we might discover the whole earth under our feete, what a strange various spectacle would it afford us? Nay, were we but able at one time to behold the divers affaires of one Citie, it would astonish us, to see a company in this place ly­ing in wait for the blood of the innocent, in that place another knot combined together to defeat the Widow and the Fatherlesse of their possessions, here a troupe making hast to the Stewes, there others thundring out oathes and blasphemy in a Taverne, here a prophane crue laying their heads together, how they may cozen God of his Tithes. These and a thousand other affaires of the same nature though of divers faces, may a man betray where there is a multitude of people. And can the holy Ghost take any delight (thinke yee) to leape in such places as these? We have an olde saying, and it is a true one, Exeat Aula qui vult esse pius. Hee who desires to leade a devout and godly life, let him remove him­selfe as farre as he can possibly from the noyse and tumult of the people. If hee would pray, let him (with our Saviour) goe up into the mount of Olives; if he desires visions, if he hath a minde to set him­selfe apart for contemplation, let him (with the Prophet Daniel) retire himselfe to the quiet and pleasant banke of the river Tigris, for it is a very hard thing for a man to be conversant in the busi­nesse of the world, and not to have his heart ta­ken up too much with them; to touch Pitch, and to escape with cleane fingers. So difficult a thing [Page 177] hath it seemed in all Ages, that many godly men were afraid to stand the danger of it, but fled some into Monasteries, some into Caves, some into the Wildernesse, turning Anchorites, & muring up them­selves from the company of all men. Amongst which multitude I will onely name that worthy, learned, and devout Monk St. Ierome, who durst not abide the eyes of the Romane Ladies, but (being a man of a noble Parentage and Family) hid himselfe in the Wildernes frō the allurements of the world. Nor yet was his Solitude nor Hermitage able quite to protect him; for (as he confesses himself) many times when he was in his Cell, having no other company with him save his owne betraying thoughts, his fancy would present unto him the beauties of Rome dan­cing before him. And if this to him, and to him in the Wildernesse, how would his minde have beene carried away, had he beene actually present to be­hold their ravishing and bewitching motions?

Mistake me not, I know it is not for all men to live sequestred from the world; for as God hath made some for a contemplative life (who indeed of all men are the most happy, being voyde of cares, of strifes, of envyings, of backbitings, (things which such men as are any whit versed in the businesse of the world, doe finde too frequent and trouble­some) and hath no imployment, but onely to pray and send up praises unto his gracious Creator, and Redeemer) so hee hath framed some men also for Action: and it would be a very cruell and unjust sentence, if wee should exclude all such from any Commerce with the holy Spirit, and so shut off the [Page 178] unlimited goodnesse of God onely in a Cloyster.

Christ, who hath taught us indeed, that it is easier for a Camel (or rather a Cable rope, for the Greek word signifies both) to enter into the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter into the kingdome of God, hath withall told us, that there is nothing impossible with God. Cornelius although a man of service and imployment, for hee was Captaine of the Band called the Italian band, a devout man (a rare thing in a Souldier) hee had his vision of Angels we know: So Nicodemus amongst the multitude of his secular affaires, hee had his lucida intervalla too. But how? Why, Cornelius was not altogether ta­ken up with his warlike imployments, but had his times of retiring, and retreating to privacy and devotion: For wee reade in the 10. of the Acts, that hee prayed continually; (that is, often) and Nicodemus he had his sallies out too from his cares and worldly troubles. He did per posticum fallere clientem, he made his journeys privately to Christ by night. And herein is the greatnesse of a mans spirit, the goodnesse of his heart and devotion to­wards God, shewen, in that he is able in the midst of a crowde of Clients, and secular imployments, to set some houres apart for the service of his GOD. To live a retired life, and to turne ones backe up­on the world, is (I confesse) of the two the safer way, but yet savours the more of the Coward: and to runne the course of the active and imployed man, though it be more dangerous, yet withall it is more honourable, if he bee able to overcome all those pro­vocations, and in spite of businesse to bee religious. [Page 179] And they who can doe thus, may very well be rec­koned amongst the number of the quiet and solita­ry Mountaines, on which the holy Spirit comes leaping. For although sometimes they may bee called Plateae potius quam montes, Streets or high wayes rather then untroden mountaines, by reason of their imployments; yet so long as their secular cares do not make too deepe impressions in them, when they betake themselves againe to the meditation of heavenly things, all the other vanish away as if there had never beene any such footsteps to bee seene: but rather on the contrary the footsteps of the blessed Spirit appeare in all their actions. For what place soever the holy Ghost is pleased to leape upon, be sure that thou shalt finde the foot­steps of God left behinde there, so that hee who runnes may reade them, and bee bold to affirme, and say, The Lord hath travelled over this ground. And the footsteps which the Spirit of God leaves behind are these; Truth, mercy, love, peace, meeke­nesse, obedience, humility, and the other links of that sacred Chaine of vertues.

If thou wouldest not therefore cozen thy self (as many do now adaies, who are continually boasting that they have the spirit, that they know they are illuminated by the spirit, and I pray God it be not another kind of spirit then they suppose it is) but certainely know whether thou beest one of these Mountaines upon which the holy Spirit leapes, or no; enter into thine owne heart and there ob­serve what kinde of footsteps are imprinted in it. If thou findest truth there, a sincere heart, voyd of [Page 180] all hypocrisie, all dissembling, thy thoughts, thy words, and thy actions, all agreeing together, all of one and the same tincture; if thou findest there bowels of compassion towards thy poore brethren, thy fellow-members of Christs mysticall body, if thou discoverest there a gentle dove-like meeke­nesse and humility, an obedience to the higher Powers for conscience sake, take comfort to thy selfe, and praise thy gracious God, for bee confident there the holy Spirit hath leapt: and bee not afraid to say with waking Iacob, Gen. 28. after he had seene the vision of the Ladder, and was redeemed from sleepe, Certainly the Lord is in this place and I knew not of it. But if in the roome of these vertues, thou findest their contrary vices: if instead of Truth, thou findest hypocrisie; for mercy, cruelty and a hardned heart; if for obedience thou findest a proud, sullen, and surly refractorinesse to all authority; if in the roome of humility, thou findest nothing but pride, and a magnifying of thy selfe above thy brethren, (as commonly such people as doe boast so much of the spirit, are the proudest and dis­dainfullest generation under the Sun) if thou fin­dest these impressions upon thy heart, thou hast just cause then to feare that the holy Spirit never travelled over that place; for these doe not looke like the footsteps of God, these are the impressions and footsteps of the Devill rather, these are those Hills rather which the holy Spirit is said here in my Text to skip over; Transiliens colles: and so we are come to the last thing I observed,

The motion and way of his repudiation or anger.

Transiliens colles, hoc est, superbos:

Transiliens colles, hoc est, steriles, qui neque tam alti sunt ut divina meditentur, neque tam humiles ut poenitentiam agant, Tubera sunt quaedam terrae. Hee skips over the hills, (that is) barren men, solifidi­ans, who are enemies to good workes; Hee skips over the hils, that is, proud men, who are not so high that their thoughts and meditations doe reach heaven; nor yet so low that they can be reckoned among the valleys of the humble and penitent: they are onely certaine swellings of the earth.

But why doth God skip over these? Is there any respect of persons with him, that hee leapes upon some, takes some to his mercy, passing by, and skipping over others?

I will give you an Answer, which shall not have many words in it, but I suppose it will bee full enough to give satisfaction to any knowing man: Transilit colles, quia invenit tales, non quia fecit. Hee passes by the hils because hee findes them hils, and not because he makes them so; for God is not the Author of sinne. When we are tempted, let no man say, that hee is tempted of the Lord, for God tempteth no man, but wee are tempted of our owne lusts and corrup­tions.

I am the Rose of Sharon, the Lilly of the vallyes, saith our Saviour in the first verse of this Chapter, not of the hills, no; God resisteth the proud, and gives grace unto the humble and meeke. This was the sinne which cast the once blessed Angells from Heaven, and it is this which shall keepe all proud men both from glory hereafter, and from grace [Page 182] here. It is impossible for grace and pride to lodge together under one roofe. If there bee any of us here (as indeed we are all of us naturally) tainted with this swelling sinne of Pride, let us know that so long as wee are hills, puft up with high imagi­nations of our owne worth, the holy Ghost will have nothing to doe with us, but will passe by us; and to be passed by, and forsaken of God, we know what a terrible thing it is, drawing after it no lesse then eternall destruction both of body and soule. Si sic enim actum est de Angelo, quid de me fiet terrâ & cinere; (saith St. Bernard) ille in caelo intumuit, ego in sterquilinio. For if God dealt so with Angells, what wil become of me who am but dust and ashes? They sinned and grew proud in heaven, but I upon a dunghill; and who doth not account pride a more tollerable vice in a rich man then in a begger? If hee payd so deare for having his heart lifted up within him, who was a great and powerfull Prince under the King of Heaven, in that coelestiall Hierarchy, if hee was punished after that manner for his pride, who was a happy and beautifull creature, (Quid de me exi­gendum (saith the same Father) & misero & super­bo?) What torments will be exacted from me who am both miserable, both wretched, and proud too? Let this holy meditation therefore of St. Bernards sinke deepe into the heart of every one of us, that we may pluck downe our plumes againe, and with the holy and lowly Prophet David, in the humility of our hearts, cry unto the Lord, and say, Lord what is man that thou shouldst regard him? or the Son of man that thou shouldst be so mindfull of him? So [Page 183] shall the holy Spirit take pleasure in thee, and thy Saviour have delight in the beauty of thy soule. (For a broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, wilt thou not despise) and so shalt thou be able with a great deale of joy and comfort to repeate these words, and say, ‘It is the voyce of my welbeloved, behold hee comes leaping upon the mountaines, and skipping over the hills.’

NOt to disturbe the quiet Ashes of that great Phi­losopher Plato, nor to disparage the learning of him, whom his owne Age, and all Ages since have admir'd, I am con­strain'd to tell him (though unwillingly be­cause he is not now amongst the living to answer for himselfe) that, deepe however his reach was, and profound his judgement in other things, yet his learning failed him mightily in the Computa­tion of his great yeare, which he would have to containe some thirty and odde thousands of our vul­gar or solar yeares; which space of time (accor­ding to his opinion) did not onely terminate all the severall and diverse motions and Aspects of the Pla­nets and fixt Starres; but also did set a Period to the affaires of the World. For those yeares being ex­pir'd, euery thing was to returne unto the former estate it was in at the beginning, all things were to [Page 195] become new, and to runne round againe as in a ring, (from whence the yeare takes its name, An­nus from Annulus) the same men, were at the same time, after the same manner to be borne againe; and those men to doe the same things, speake the same words, at the same time they did before; and after the same manner, and at the same time to dye. The conceit is strange; but let him enjoy it peaceably for mee concerning the substance of it, not that I subscribe to his opinion, but because I can spend my time better then in opposing it. Onely for the time of the revolution of this great yeare I must make bold to confute him, for (by his favour) he has ascrib'd too great a length to it. Nor will wee travaile farre for this confutation, no farther then to the Text.

It can not be by the received Computation since CHRIST did take up this Parable, any more than 1603 yeares, for he was of the Age of thirty before he was baptiz'd, and began to preach, and at that time there were men living (sayes the Text) who trusted in themselves that they were [...]ust and desposed others. For wee finde [...]t the very occa [...]on why our Saviour speaks this Parable, and what were the [...] Why the Sect of the Pharisees people who cryed, Touch me not for I am holier then thou.

Plato's yeare is come about already, the same [...] men who liv'd in Christs time doe live now, and these same men doe speake the same words, doe the [Page 196] same actions which those men did then: For never was the world fuller of Pharisees then it is at this houre; Men who trust in themselves that they are just, and despise others: and therefore (according to the rule and Law of that great yeare) needs must Christ too, in his Priests, in the dispensors of his word (for he speakes in us) againe take up the same Parable against them.

I will not trouble yee with any curious or ela­borate division, but will strive to be as plaine as I can possible. In handling therefore this Parable, we will take it naturally as it lyes in the Verses.

And

• 1 First, We are to show yee what is meant by these two words Pharisee and Publicane.
• 2 Secondly, We must consider the actions and ge­stures of these two men, who went up into the Temple to pray, the manner how they compos'd themselves in that holy exercise.
• 3 Thirdly, The severall formes of the Prayers they made. And
• 4 Fourthly, and lastly, the censure or judgement which Christ gives upon them.

The one a Pharisee.

The Pharisees were a Sect amongst the Iewes, (for the very word Phares signifies Division, or a Sect) a sort of people who separated themselves from the prophaner multitude (as they cald them) highly esteemed amongst the people for theyr strict manner of living, professing Continence, Virginitie, Fasting, to keepe the body in subjection, [Page 197] the flesh from Rebellion, they us'd to sleepe upon boards, upon stones, or else upon Thornes, upon their fore-heads they wore scrooles of Parchments, wherein were written the ten Commandements; which Schedules were called by them Phylacteryes, [...], from a word which signifies to keepe, because by the use of them the Law was preserv'd and kept in memorie. Nay, to speake truly, they which the Pharis [...]es wore, were rather called [...], large Phylacteryes; for in a vain-glorious and proud humor they did enlarge their Phylacteryes farre above the ordinary bignesse, and therefore our Saviour, Math. 23.5. finds fault with them for this very thing.Mat. 23.5 All their workes (sayes he) they doe to be seene of men for they make theyr Phylacteryes broad, and make long the fringes of their Garments. The Iewes (as yee may reade in the 15. of Numb. 38.39.) were commanded by the Lord to make them fringes upon the borders of their Garments, throughout their generations, and to put upon the fringes of the borders, a Rib­band of Blew silke. The reason, the Lord ren­ders himselfe, in the next verse.Num. [...] And yee shall have the fringes, that when yee looke upon them, yee may remember the Commandements of the Lord, and doe them. And againe, in the 22. of Deut. 12. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the foure quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thy selfe. And the reason of this (sayes the Talmud) was to stirre them up to Prayer, which Garment was called Talith, a winged Coat, (our prayers being like the silver wings of a Dove wherewith we flye up to [Page 198] Heaven) and therefore the Prophet Elisha, who continually is sayd by them to weare this kinde of Garment, was called Elisha cum alis, ELISHA with wings: but these fringes of an ordinary length would not serve the Pharisees: No, they must have a new-fangled conceit of their owne, they must by all meanes seeme holyer then the peo­ple, and make long the fringes of their Garments. They ascribed much to the vertue of the Starres, and believed that all things happened by Constel­lation, and yet for all that ascribed Free-will to Man. They affirm'd the immortality of the Soul [...] (contrary to the Sadduces) and believed that God should come in Iudgement. And of this Sect were Nicodemus and Saint Paul before his Conversion. But all this while I have shewed yee their fairest countenances: will it please yee to see how our Saviour CHRIST paints them out in their owne proper colours. For as hee will not bestow any flattering lines upon them, to make the pictures of them seeme lovelyer then the life: So with­out all question, he who is truth it selfe, will be so just, that he will not wrong them a whit in the description: they are like to have their due from him, and no more. Looke into the 23. of Math. and there yee shall have them set out unto yee to the full.

Math. [...].5 Verse. All their workes they doe to be seene of m [...]n, they love the chiefe place at Feasts, and to have the chiefe seates in the Assemblies, they love greetings in the Markets, and to bee called of Men R [...]bl [...], Rab [...].

[Page 199]14 Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, Vers 14 Hypo­crites, for yee devoure widowes houses, even under a colour of long Prayers.

15. Woe, 15 &c. For yee compasse Sea and Land to make one of your profession: and when he is made, yee make him two-fold more the Childe of Hell and your selves.

24. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, 24 Hypo­crites, blinde guides, who straine at a Gnat, and swal­low a Camell.

25 Woe, 25 &c. For yee make cleane the out-side of the Cup and Platter, but within they are full of Bri­bery and excesse.

27. Woe, &c. For yee are like unto whited Tombes, 27 which appeare beautifull outward: but are within full of dead mens bones and all filthinesse.

Yee have had a plentifull Character of a Pha­risee, and me thinkes yee seeme to be full of him, and begin to loath him. But can it be possible, that there should be such men living now? Yes, Plato's yeare has made a speedy returne, 'tis come about already. We have at this houre a Sect of New Pharisees sprung up, in every branch of the de­scription answering the old ones; nay, in many points of Hypocrisie and vaine-glory, going be­yond them quite.

But before I goe any farther, give me leave to tell you how many kindes of Pharisees there were.

There were five sorts of Pharisees; for, as for the Pharisee for love, who obeyed the Comman­dements for the love of vertue, and respected espe­cially [Page 200] the commands affirmative, who was one­ly if any) the good Pharisee and the Pharisee for feare, who was subject to the Law onely in a ser­vile feare of punishment, and had a chiefe regard onely to the negative part of the law, I doe not count them, although the Talmud makes them two distinct kindes.

1 1 The Pharisee Sichemite, and this was he, whose onely end in turning Pharisee, was gaine; and hee had his name from Sichem, or Sechem the sonne of Ha [...]or, who defil'd Dinah the daughter of Iacob, and after for the love of her suffered himselfe and perswaded all his people to be Circumcized. Gen. [...]4.

2 The 2^d. was Phariseus truncatus, the Pharisee with­out feete, and the reason of his name, was; because when he walked, continually he was seene to goe a heavy leaden p [...]ce, scarcely lifting up his feete from the ground, as if hee had had no feete at all to use. And to what end tended this du [...] and earthly beha­viour of his, thinke yee? Onely to increase his [...]pute and opinion amongst the people, of his Me­ditation, he desir'd to be taken for a Contemplative man, and to seeme so carelesse of earthly things, that hee would walke (for [...]ooth) about in the would, as if he ca [...]'d not whether he walk'd [...]; [...]ll the faculties of his soule and bodie w [...] so pu [...] and taken up in heavenly meditations, that not [...] much as his very feete were at le [...]sure to car­ [...] him up and downe.

3 The third, was Phariseus impingens, the winking Pharisee, the Pharisee who us'd to breake his face, [Page 201] and tooke delight in it, it seems, & his fashion was, whenever he had occasion to walk abroad, to pre­vent these fleshly motions and provocations, w^ch might be darted into his soule by looking upon women, to shut his eyes continually, so that many times for want of sight, he would dash his head a­gainst a Pillar or a wall untill the bloud ranne a­bout his eares.

The fourth, was the Pharisee Dic, &c. the boasting 4 Pharisee, who had alwayes such words as these in's mouth, Tell me but what it is that I ought to doe, and I will doe it. And of this sort, the young man in this, 18. cap. of St. Luke, may seeme to be. Verse, 18. who came unto CHRIST, and said, Good Master, what shall I doe to inherit aeternall life? who, as soone as CHRIST had told him what he should doe, replyed presently, All this have I done from my youth. But observe here how our blessed Saviour meetes with this vaine-glorious Man, in his owne Element, beates him (as we use to say) at his owne weapon. He comes to CHRIST with a Master what shall I doe? intending to justifie him­selfe. And IESUS answered him, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poore, and follow mee, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. But whats his answer? not a word. When hee heard those things (saves the Text) he was very heavy, for he was mar­vailous rich. Where is his Et faciam now? his I will doe it? wee here not a word more of him, but out hee steales in private. And of this ve­ry Kinde, this Pharisee in the Parable may seeme to bee.

5 The fifth, was Pharisaeus Mortarius, the Phari­see with the Mortar upon his head: and his name was deriv'd from the fashion of the Hat he us'd to weare, being like unto a deepe Mortar wherein spi­ces are beaten. And this Hat when hee walk'd abroad, being so planted upon his head that hee was neyther able to see above him, nor of any side of him, but onely the ground, and the way before him, was pretended to prevent all vaine objects for having recourse unto his eyes, which might distract and scatter his thoughts, so that he could not be so intent upon the contemplation of Spirituall matters, as he desir'd to be.

I have dwelt something long upon this word Pharisee, and to show you any thing of him, I could not be shorter. But we must not yet leave him; I must needs borrow a little time of yee to insist upon the Paralell, in comparing the old Pharisees and our new ones together.

All these kindes of Pharisees is this Age of ours able to produce with ease. And

1 First, we have the Pharisee Sichemite amongst us, he who will suffer himselfe to be circumciz'd for the love of Dinah. And this is he who for gaine,

Though it be quite contrary to his Nature, cir­cumcizes every Thing about him. Circumcizes his Hayre, crops that as short as his Eye-browes, and places Religion in that shortnesse, (otherwise wee would not much blame him for it:) Circumcizes [Page 203] his Honestie, oh, he must not have too much of that by any meanes. He is in this a true observer of that Italian Proverbe, which tells us that hee who will thrive, must have ‘Poco di matto, è non molto d' honésto.’ A little of the Foole, and not too much of the honest So he be but able to talke yee an houre together in the phrase of the Scripture, to abuse and prophane the holy words of Gods book by his impertinent applying of them, then he's a sanctifi'd man, to whō a little dishonesty & cheating in his actions can do no harm. One of Gods Children he assures himself he is, and the greatest argument for this assurance, is because (like a Parrot) he can prattle a little of the Scripture, & understands just as much as the Parrot does her Ave-Caesar. But me thinks, if they did but a little understand, they might easily discover the weaknes of this argument: For it is not the having of Gods word in thy mouth only, that wil profit thee at the last day; but it is the squaring of thy life and actions according to the rule of this Word. Hee circumcizes his Vnderstanding too, mortifies that, 'tis a prophane thing to be learned; and therefore I thinke it is, that many of us of the Clergie (sighing I utter it) who are their Leaders, and the great Rabbines amongst this sort of people, doe so little regard our study, but all the Weeke long, doe run up and downe upon visits, trifling away our time in eating and carrying Newes from house to house: So that the day of the Lord, comes stealing upon us like a Thiefe in the night, and takes us unprepar'd, going many times into the Pulpet, (but circum­cizing [Page 204] the Common-Prayers too as we goe) with­out any, or at least without much praemeditation. Hence it is, that so many sencelesse Tantologies, so many dry impertinences proceed from us, even to the making cheape, and dishonour of Preaching, ma­ny of us never taking any paines, untill we are got into the Pulpet: there I acknowledge some of us are painefull enough, both to our selves and others. Whereas if we would but lay out that time, in visi­ting the Fathers, which we throw away in visiting the Daughters, the Mothers, and the Sisters; but buy the acquaintance of the subtle Schoolemen, the grave Councels, the Histories and Annals of the Church, (able to make us wise in Religion) the whol­some and learned Commentatours, with the expence of that time we spend in Currents and shallow Pam­phlets, we might then be furnish'd with ancient and true learning, which would not suffer us to call Antiquity, Noveltie; Nor doe they onely circum­cize their Vnderstandings, but also that other facul­ty of the Soule, their Wils too, taking away that Freedome which the Lord has bestowed upon them. And all this is for the love of Dinah; of Gaine, of Vaine-glory, in desire of Government al­though it be but over a Mole-hill: for the love of the Idols of their owne Imaginations.

2 The second Pharisee I told yee of, is the Pharisee without f [...], the Pharisee with the Leaden-pace, which behaviour of his did gaine him from the People, the Title of a Contemplative man. Nor are we without this kinde of Pharisee amongst us: a company which walke heavily about, and affect [Page 205] a kinde of sullen gravitie, as if it were a thing im­possible for a man to be Religious, unlesse he should tell his steps; and measure the distance betwixt his paces. 'Tis true the Wise man sayes, A man is knowne by his Gate, and that there is a levitie of car­riage to be avoyded is true too: but it is also true, that there is a mediocrity to be used: God has given us feet, and we are to use them soberly, but not affectedly and vaine-gloriously. There bee too many in the world, whose feet move sadly (in­deed) and slowly, catching at the good opinion of the multitude: but I could wish it were not so easily to be proved, that in the meane time theyr hearts are nimble enough in contriving of mischiefe against their Brother, their Tongue's too quicke to wound their Neighbours reputation; as if they meant to confute that Tenent of Philosophy, and proove that the Soule is not Tota in qualibet parte.

The third Pharisee was the winking Pharisee, who 3 durst not open his Eyes for feare of Tempting Ob­jects, but ever when he walk'd abroad was accusto­med to winke, and rather adventure the breaking of his Face against a Wall or Pillar, then to let in any vaine spectacle into his Soule, whereby to withdraw his meditations from Heavenly things. The pretended intent of this mans winking, I neither must nor dare accuse; for we ought (as much as in us lyes, and as much as the condition of our lives will permit us) to prevent even the occasions of evill: and therefore DAVID tells us, that Hee has made a Covenant with his Eyes that he looke not [Page 206] upon a woman: yet when our Saviour tels us, that all the workes which they did were to be seene of men, as it is in that afore-named place of St. Mathewes Gospell, Mat. [...] 5. 23.5. And that they shut up their Gates onely to cozen the world, when the Enemies which they pretended to barre theyr doore against, Lust & concupiscence, were too tenderly entertained with­in theyr bosomes before, which of us can see the bloud runne about the eares of such a man, and not be moved rather to laughter then to pitty? And have not we of this kinde of Pharisee too? who goe abroad continually with a narrow & demure coun­tenance, as if they were put into a suite of Wain­scot, and had noe use of any joynt about them? who might easier be perswaded (were it in theyr pow­er) to remove a Bishop out of his See, then by the least motion of their Necks, to bring a Set of theyr ruffes out of order. And yet the world knowes too well that many of these people, though theyr fa­ces be but narrow, and their sight limited (as it were) to the ground they tread on, are of spread, large, and vast intentions to doe mischiefe.

Wee have also the Pharisee Dic, &c. the boast­ing Pharisee with us, the Pharisee with the mortar on his head too — but I should enlarge this dis­course too farre, if I should follow every particu­lar to the full, the feild I have to walke in is so ample. And I perceive already that it begins to swell beyond the iust proportion of a preface; I will therefore briefly tell yee what is meant by the other word, Publicane, and so weele proceed in the Parable.

The other a Publicane.

The Iewes bring subject to the Empire of the Romanes, as all other Provinces belonging to that warlike and wise Nation did, did pay Tribute un­to the Senate and People of Rome; and the Publique officers who were appointed for the gathering to­gether of this money, were called by them Pub­licanes, Quia res publicas suâ curâ administrabant, because by them the publicke money was exacted from the People, and payed into the Common banke. A condition of men, who, by reason of the many open wrongs, oppressions, and injuries done by them, were as much hated and scorned by the multitude, as the Pharisees on the contrary were had in high repute and honour amongst them. Nay they were had in such abhomination amongst the Iewes, that it was accounted an uncleane thing to tate with one of them. And therefore, it is recko­ned amongst the great distastes which the Scribes and Pharisees tooke against our Savi­our, that hee did eate with Publicanes and Sinners. Why doth your Master eate with Publi­canes and Sinners.

Now CHRIST knowing well in what high e­steeme this Sect of the Pharisees were amongst the people, for the strictnesse and holinesse of their lives, who indeed were but cunning Maskers in Re­ligion, and under that veyle of counterfeit devotion did shrowd crueltie, oppression, lust, hatred, cove­tousnesse, &c. and seeing how much the Publicane was contemned, whose sinnes lay more open to the view of the World, then the others, and knowing [Page 208] besides that his Auditors about him, were people who trusted in themselves that they were iust and despised others (as the Character of them is given at the first verse of the Text) that hee might con­fute them concerning theyr owne seeming-righ­teousnesse, and make it appeare to them, that God sees not as mortall man sees, hee takes up this Pa­rable against them, saying. Two men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a Publicane.

The next thing wee have to doe is to examine the actions of them both. And wee see it is with them, as it is the life of men (set out unto us by Pythagoras in the Greeke letter Y, our y) who, while they are young and in theyr tender yeares, whether they be vertuously or vitiously inclined, all goe up in a straight line together, as it is in the lower part of that letter, and no difference is per­ceived; but when they come to the parting point, to yeares of knowledge, heate, and vigour, they who be vitious do go by the left hand way, which is plaine and broade: the vertuous take up towards the right hand line which is steepe and narrow. Soe here, the Pharisee and the Publicane (like that Letter of Pythagoras) for a while goe together in their actions; and (like that letter) part at the Top. One takes to the right hand, the other to the left.

The way they goe together is this. They both goe up into the Temple; and they both goe up into the Temple to pray: and they did both well in thus doing.

For, for the first, in going to the Temple, observe how the Holy Ghost does insinuatingly and stea­lingly, even before a man can be aware of it, in this very phrase of Scripture, set a price upon the Temple more then upon any other place. For hee cals the going into the Temple an Ascention.

Two men went up into the Temple. Esteeme then as meanely as thou wilt, of Gods House, the Church, it is the highest, the best place about the Towne or City thou liv'st in, how ever thou mayst thinke to the contrary. And I would to God there were not too many of a contrary beliefe: these places then would bee more fre­quented then they are, and more reverently thought on. It is true, God is indeed every where his blessed presence fils the world: yet hee is more especially present, in such places as these which are set apart onely for his Worship.

Before the Dedication neyther this House nor the ground it stands on, had any more Holinesse in them then other places: but as soone as the Dedi­cation of this House had stamp'd Gods Image or Su­perscription upon it, then it ceased to be Caesars, to be for any common or secular use. Give therefore, &c. This Holy ground we now stand upon, before the setting of it apart for Gods Worship, was like the Possessions of Ana [...]ias and Saphyra in the fifth of the Acts, which PETER tels them were theyr owne, whilst it remained (at the 4 verse) apper­tained it not unto thee? and after it was sold, was it not in thine owne power? The possession of that men was his owne, and he might have done what ever [Page 210] he had pleas'd with it before; but when he had se­parated it from a Common use, and intended it for God, it was no more his owne, neyther was it law­full for him then to doe what he pleas'd with it. So it is with our Churches; before they were built, or before they were dedicated, wee might have done what we would, or with the ground, or with the Houses, we might then have sitten heere with our Hats upon our heads, wee might have made them sleeping roomes, we might have come hither to have talked, or to have sate and mused upon se­cular affaires an houre or two; (as I feare some doe) thou might'st then have come hither (as many women doe) to see who weares the newest fashion'd lace, to discover who has the neatest dresse, or the best gowne in the Parish. All these things and more, whilst this place was thine own, thou might'st have done here, (supposing these things lawfull in themselves to bee done) thou might'st have sold Doves, or exchang'd money heere, while this place was thine owne: But the Dedication has set Gods marke upon it, so that now thou canst not doe these things in this place with­out manifest Sacriledge, and I dare bee bold to pronounce him a Church-robber, who shall dare to come into Gods house without reverence.

Let the Mathematicians dreame as they please, That all the Lines drawne from the Center to the Cir­cumference are of equall length: Divinitie has her Demonstrations as well as the Mathematicks and as true too; and shee tells us that the Temple stands [Page 211] upon the higher ground. This is one of her Apho­rismes, and I challenge all Geometry, or Ourano­metry to disapprove it, Thou art nearer Heaven when thou art in a Church, then when thou art in any other place. They went up into the Temple, and they went up to pray: and they did both well in doing this too: for my House (sayes the Lord) shall bee called the House of Prayer. We doe not reade in any place that it is called the House of Preaching, but the House of Prayer, for that is the chiefe use of these Houses, and we doe then honour God the most when wee pray to him. Preaching is a holy institution of the Lords, but there be de­grees in Holinesse. Prayer is a more holy institu­tion, wee must not then goe up into the Temple (as many doe) onely to preach, ot to heare Sermons, with a contempt and scorne of the Common-Prayers of the Church: but we must goe up also to Pray, Preaching now adayes is made an Idoll of amongst many, who are growne to be all Eare, no Heart, no Hand, no Lap; whilst Praying (and I sigh to thinke it which is the chiefest part of Gods Worship and Honour, is, if not altogether, yet too much neglected. In the Name of God although yee will not allow Prayer (as yee ought) the Preheminence, yet at the least let Praying and Preaching (like two T [...]in Sisters) lovingly goe hand in hand [...]. But I know I shall be answered that they doe not contemne Prayer, but that they pray (and that in the Church too) as much as any. There is indeed [...]t [...] [...]e thing, which they call Prayers, like the tw [...] halfe Moones in a Parenthesis, compassing in [...] [Page 212] Sermons at both ends, (the comparison I acknow­ledge is too unfortunate, for many of their Ser­mons doe too truely square with a Parenthesis, whose nature is such, that it may as well bee left out as put in, and no harme done.) And it is pos­sible I confesse, that they may in these their extem­porary and tedious discourses, before and after their Sermons, understand what they say themselves; but what profit shall the Congregation receive, who are downe upon their knees before God? How shall they understand, or how shall their Spirits joyne with thine when they know not what it is that thou art about to say? It is as much as if thou shouldst pray in an unknowne Language, and how shall Hee then who fills the roome of the ignorant, say Amen unto thy Prayers? Whereas if thou wouldst pray according to the command of the Rubricke and Canon, the people then might know what thou wouldst say, and so joyne in devotion with thee. But the Spirit must not be limited (they say) and therefore wee must not be bound to ob­serve a set forme when wee pray. No? Then downe with all Lawes and Discipline, for the Spirit must not bee limited. Does not our Saviour limit thy Spirit when hee bids thee pray thus. Our Fa­ther which art in Heaven, &c. For where there is an injunction to doe a thing thus, there must needs be a not thus, implyed: and where there is a thus, and a not thus, of necessity there must bee a limitation. But if this Argument were of any force at all, it would make against themselves. For they who will but marke the carriage of this sort of people, [Page 213] shall observe a kinde of coldnesse and fastidious way wardnesse hanging upon them while the Holy Prayers of the Church are in motion, but as soone as ever theyr Ministers begin to vent theyr owne bold presumptuous and confused Raptures (enough to strike a terrour into a Godly man, to behold how confidently unprepar'd they come to dis­course with theyr Maker) as if their Soules were taking leave of theyr bodies, and nothing but Hea­ven and it's joyes were in theyr eyes, each part of them seemes to be in contention which shall over­come in expressions of devotion: their hands are lifted up, their knees bended which before were stiffe, their eyes fixt upon them while they pray, all their members disposing themselves into po­stures of zeale. And let mee now aske them but one question. In this devout carriage of the body (which I durst not finde fault with were it chari­tas ordinata, a rectified zeale, doe they [...]oyne with theyr Minister (as they call him, and [...]ruly or else at that time has every one a particular Prayer of his owne? The latter sure they will not grant, for then they fall into grosse absurdities: but it will satisfie mee if they confesse the former, for then I am sure their Spirits are limited. Eyther they pray the same Prayer with their Minister, or else they pray another; that they pray [...]ther they will not acknowledge, if the same, then cer­tainly their Spirits are bounded in that, as well as if they pray'd with him in the Prayers of the Church. But this is but a Cavill. Alas! We know too well, both the Originall and into of these [Page 214] tedious, disorderly and unprofitable Prayers. They are not of such Antiquitie but there be some yet living, who can remember both how, when, from [...]ence, and by whom they were brought into our Church, in a meere opposition and contempt of the Booke of Common-Prayers. But why then brought in, and why still continued, in contempt of that, I acknowledge I understand not: for if we looke into the Order, Method, and Disposition of that Booke, we shall finde it sweet and harmonious; if into the sufficiencie of it, rich; and full: for what thing is it thou would'st name in thy Prayers (whether it bee by the way of Confession or thy sinnes, or of Thankesgiving for Benefits received, or of Petition for the future) but thou mayst furnish thy selfe with there, more perfectly, lively, and more compendiously exprest, then all thy wit can possibly contrive.

They went both to pray: And whether went they? Why, into the Temple.

Private Prayers are good, thy Closet-Devotions, when none are admitted into the Dialogue but onely God and thine owne Soule, are good and acceptable to the Lord, the Prayers of thy Family are pleasing to God too: but the publike Prayers of the Congregation, which are put up to God in the Temple, in the place dedicated to his Wor­ship, are more pleasing, more availeable: for we know that he has promised his presence in a more especiall manner, where two or three be gathered together; which place may bee most fitly interpreted of the gathering together of the Congre­gation [Page 215] in Gods House. For a Family cannot pro­properly be sayd to be gathered together, because they are but as one body which is compact and con­tiguous, which needs no gathering. A Gathe­ring does presuppose things that are scattered and separated.

But now the Pharisie and the Publicane must here shake hands: and it is to bee fear'd that they will never meet againe; no, not in Heaven.