A Century of Sermons
The words both 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , both 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , either of them stand for all sort of worship confusedly, of religion, of moral reverence, and of civil subjection. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , each word in Eustathius denote a Servant, if there be any odds 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is the more enthralled and captivated Servant: for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is the hired Servant a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifies the wages of an hired one. But an hirling is at his own choice, whether he will do a man's work or no: but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is a Bond servant, part of his Masters possession, he mustgirt him to his work and cannot avoid it: therefore we are God's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his Servants that must do his will, his Bond-servants, we ought to obey him in all things, though He had covenanted to give us no wages. 'It is the greater subjection, if you stand upon words, and therefore due to the greatest. I press further, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Scripture stands not only for holy service, but for civil observance, Matth. xviii. that Servant that owed his Master more than he could pay, fell down and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he worshipped him: but evidently, Levite. xxiii. 3. The Seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, an holy Convocation, ye shall do no work therein, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , so it is in the 72. which must not stand for Religious, that is the day proper, but for secular tasks and businesses. Once again let me strike upon the same Pin, How often do both these words present unto us the same thing? Even God's holy service, Rom. i. 9. God is my witness, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Whom I serve in the Spirit. In the same Epistle, Cha. xvi. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ. And nothing more fairly marked out, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in a Religious relation is only due to God, then that Text, Gal. iv. 8. St. Paul tells the Galatians, that while they were Gentiles, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Ye served them that by nature were not God's. The Argument is fixed on this, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 religiously belongs to the true God, and not to Angels, Saints, or any nuncupative God's. So the Arians were accused of Idolatry by Athanasius, because they professed to worship Christ, and yet confessed him not to be God eternal, coequal with his Father. They had no such distinction as latria and dulia to shift the Objection.
I have been compelled to fight with words, I know with little profit to the ordinary hearer, but the skillful will bear me witness, these things could not well be omitted upon this Theme. Now I come to ponder the meaning of the distinction, yet no Pontifician whom I have read hath made a clear meaning of it. Yes, some will say, they hold latria is a supreme religious Adoration to be given to God alone; Dulia is an inferior religious worship aptly given to persons or things of some supernatural graces, or divine relations. That is, God hath his due reserved, the Angels, the Saints, and their Images, and Relics are worshipped Absque latria; which is to say in strictness of Grammar, they worship them without worship. For latria put in English is Worship. But I leave that, and demand, here are two Religious Worships in their Church, the one to God, the other to some of his Creatures, what belongs to the one that doth not to the other, if both be religious? Do they differ in degrees only? That the intention of the heart is bent more earnestly to honor the one, and with less zeal and ardour the other. That is no real difference, for so the same man praiseth God with more vehemency of spirit at one time than at another. Or is it diversified to be another species of Religious Worship, by performing the same external garb, and the like internal honor to the Creator, and to the Creature; but with this odds, that the Devotee doth apprehend God as an infinite essence, but the created substances as fellow Servants, and therefore no way to be worshipped above Servants with God-like honor? This I think is all that can be said, I have read no more said for it; yet this is nothing, for so the understanding only conceives a different object, but it is not demonstrated, that the will or the body brings forth several acts of Worship. And it is enough to overthrow their error, if they would mark it, that they say, how they consider it is but a Creature which they adore with dulie, or secondary religious Worship, for the foundation of all religious Worship is Excellentia infinita apprehensa sub ration primi principii, & summi boni nostri; An infinite perfection of excellency, on which all things do depend for their first being, and for their last happiness. So St. Austin, Haec est religio Christiana, ut non colatur nisi unus Deus, quia non fecit animam beatam nisi unus Deus; Religious prostration seeks out no object, but such as can make the soul blessed forever, and that is the only Lord. St. Hilary, In maledicto est religio creaturae; All Religion done to a Creature is accursed. That Weather-cock Spalatensis, after much search in antiquity, confesseth, that Nazianzen in the Greek Church, Gregory the Great in the Latin Church, knew of no other Religious Worship but that which is called Latria, the veneration of God. Nay, their great Schoolman Aquinas, I will make him the Judge against himself, Religio est virtus exhibens famulatum Deo, in iis quae specialiter pertinent ad Deum; Religion is a virtue which doth perform all Ministry to God in those duties which peculiarly belong to God. Go now and say against all these reasons and testimonies, there is some kind of Religious Worship pertaining to a Creature. I have heard some interpret it thus, it is not denied but we are to give honor to the blessed Angels and Saints, yes verily, God forbid else. Then they encroach, that we are taught by our Religion to give them that honor; therefore that honor which we do give them is Religious. A most unlearned Assumption. Religion teacheth the Children to honor the Parents, yet it is not Religious honor, but Civil, that is given to our Parents. Religion teacheth a Mariner or Plowman to follow his Calling diligently, yet those are not religious, but worldly businesses. Religious Worship is the actus elicitus, the immediate act which flows from Religion, but all other honest, civil Offices are actus imperati à latria; Actions wherein Religion governs us, and teacheth us, but they are not properly called religious. In a word, no such excellency can be apprehended in a Creature to have religious honor done unto it, for Religion binds the soul forever to that it worships, and that is only to God. Therefore I conclude the first Dogmatical part of my Text, that Christ included all kind of religious honors, exempted none, when he said, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And when the Pontificians profess to ascribe a Religious Dulia, but no Latria to a Creature, their Practice and their Doctrine cannot agree if they yield Religious Worship, of what kind soever, to anything save unto the Lord our God; if it be not Idolatry, it is gross Superstition; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The glory of a pious heart be given to God alone, and not to God and the ever blessed Virgin joined together; as the Jesuits generally conclude all their Books with that Blasphemy.
There is more of my task behind, though but little of it can be spent in this hour, to demolish the errors of them that have offended against this Imperial Law, Thou shalt worship, &c. Sundry false opinions have beaten upon these words as upon an Anvil; open enemies, and deceitful friends have risen up against it. Some are totally, some in half, some are quarter Idolaters, but the least corn of that sin is as heavy as a Milstone to plunge them without repentance into damnation. In many of the Errors to be refuted I will be at a word, and dispatch; in some I will insist the longer, where I find them worth my labor. Those transgressors that worship not God alone are of three sorts: The first are such as make another God than the Lord of heaven and earth in their own heart, and worship that invention. The second are they that kneel unto the true God, and yet reserve some part of Religious Worship for his glorified Creatures, as the Blessed Virgin, the Angels, the Saints both living and departed, both themselves, and their very Relics shall have some part of their Adoration. Thirdly, Beside the honor which they give to the invisible God, they find out a way to worship him in visible works of their own hands, in Images, in the figure of the Cross, in the Elements of the Lord's Supper. All these are Aberrations, for there is but one truth against them all, Thou shalt worship the Lord, &c.
First, God loseth all his honor at their hands that frame a new God in their own heart, and do all their service to it, like the Ephesians, that hallowed no other power in heaven and earth but a Goddess of their own acceptation, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. This is the most gross Idolatry of all other which professeth not the true God one whit, and professeth that to be a God which hath no subsistence, but the Metal of Gold or Silver, or any other stuff upon which the Artist exercised his invention. This is the foul and apparent transgression of the first Commandment, but to worship the true God in a manner contrary to that he hath commanded, in a piece of bread, or in an Image is Idolatry by reduction, and against the Second Commandment. But the transgression of the Heathen was most vicious that knew no God but the works of their own hands. The Scripture says, they sinned more grievously that worshipped Baalim than they that worshipped the true God in Jeroboams Calves: For Jehu called the Israelites that worshipped God in those Calves the worshippers of the Lord. But when Ahab was not content with that sin, but was seduced by his Wife Jezebel, who came of the Idolatrous Zidonians, says the Lord, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat, he went and served Baal, and worshipped him, 1 Kings xvi. 23. It is more pestilentious, you see, to worship a stark Idol than to worship the true God in an Idol, though both are abominable. But I will not speak of that stupid Idolatry of the Heathen, whose own folly hath laughed it out of the world, if the workman could have put life into his work, the Statue would have worshipped him for making it. All those puppit God's are fallen down like Dagon of the Philistines; and the Jewish Writers observe well, that Dagons feet and hands were broken off from his body, Partes adorationis abscissae sunt. The Philistines worshipped that stock with their bended knee, and their hands lifted up, therefore the Idol lost his hands and knees. Furthermore Dagon fell down upon his face, Non tantum jacens, sed super os jacens, ut videretur adorare arcam Domini; He was laid in a posture as if prostrate before the Ark of God; as if the Heathen, and all their vain inventions should be turned into the praise of the true God, Worship him all ye God's. I will close this Point with a Paradox, They which most abhor all Pictures and Images at this day, they which hate them more than they should do, even in relation to civil use, commit great Idolatry in this first conclusion; for Jews and Turks, those I mean, worship not the true God, but a Figment of their own mind, I avouch it, what they adore is a mere Figment of their own; it is not a Creature, that they deny, and very truly; neither is it the Creator and Lord of all things, for they do not worship Three Persons in Trinity, and one God in Unity. This is the most subtle and pernicious kind of Idolatry of all others; the more pernicious because so hardly discerned. But thus I have made good by Paradox, They that hate all Images are the greatest Idolaters.
I proceed to the second Tribe of them whom I endited of Idolatry, even those that know the true God, and serve him, but yet allow a modification of Religious Worship to some of his Creatures. In the censure of this Crime I will begin with that sin which is most to be detested. Satan had an eye upon Idolaters that some worshipped the Elements, and built Temples to the Fire, to the Water, and Earth, and made themselves Priests for those abuses: Some kneeled unto the Sun and Moon; the Children gathered sticks, the Fathers made the fire, and the Women made Cakes to the Queen of heaven, that is, to the Sun, which was a Feminine Idol, and is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in St. Paul. Nay, Satan had traced out that Angels were adored by some superstitious, therefore being puffed that he was a most excellent Creature in his Essence, and none of the least Angels, he demands worship of our Savior, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. This Idolatry which, he would have, is so rank above all other, that it smells of the very fire and brimstone of Hell. Because St. Paul says what the Gentiles sacrifice to Idols they sacrifice to Devils, some of the Fathers expound it, that the Devils lurkt invisibly in Idols that were worshipped, so they themselves at the second hand were worshipped in Idols. He may lurch homage by those slights, but I do almost doubt whether it be possible for any man to be so intoxicated and seduced as directly to honor the Devil. For my part I give no credit to such stories as are written of the Indians in Calicut. They that write Cosmography or Navigations leaze up such reports from Seamen and Mariners, and may be fit to be read in a sleepy day, but never to be believed. Those Indians they write of are a most ingenuous witty people in all Manufacture that comes from them, and I cannot think them of such a dark capacity in Religion, to worship that odious Fiend of Hell. Mary if there be such among them as are Witches and Sorcerers, though Satan croucheth to such, and is commanded by them, yet they be Idolaters in a most high delinquency, because they compact with the Devil, yea, and are sealed to him by certain Characters.
For the Children of God are received into Covenant with God, first by Circumcision, then by Baptism, therefore obliquely they take the Devil for a God, who enter Covenant with him by marks in the flesh, or any other sign, as it were in imitation of a Sacrament. And it makes it worship according to the true properties of Worship, when they take his promises for some benefits to be received, and reciprocally return him promises of obedience. This is to attribute verity to Satan, that he will do what he says, and power that he can bring extraordinary effects to pass, and so they worship him both by faith and confederation. These are they against whom Moses speaks so often in the Law, that they must not be suffered to live if they be detected; he had been brought up in all the learning of the Egyptians, and knew the ways of their most accursed Sorcerers. And because everyone baptized unto Christ doth detest this sin from the bottom of his heart to give honor to the Devil, therefore look to it that you do not touch the skirts of it before you are aware by Ignorance, Perversness, or Curiosity. It is idolizing of the Devil to consult with those for any satisfaction, whom we suspect to have confederacy with the Devil, whether they have or no. There shall not be found among you a Consulter with familiar Spirits, or with a Wizard, or a Necromancer, Deut. xviii. 11. It is Idolizing of him to use divinations by dreams, by calling on the dead, by the tunes of birds, by Lots, and generally by all such means as are not directly natural, or appointed by God to find out the truth. Many things are Diabolical where there hath not passed any Diabolical communication: And in such things where you offer no service to Satan, yet you busy yourself, before you take heed, with the Art and Spirit of Satan. You would think it were rigid Divinity to say, that it was in some wise an Idolizing of the Devil to expel Aches and Diseases by Charms, and strange words which you understood not? What do you know but that Satan may be secretly called upon in those words, when you think you do nothing less than call upon him? That great Divine Zanchius confesseth of himself, that he rid himself of the Toothach by muttering certain strange Lines which he was taught in Italy: But he repented him for the fact, because, for ought he knew, it was the Devils receipt, for God and Nature never appointed such remedies to cure diseases. And so much be spoken against the idolizing the worst of all God's Creatures the Devil.
Nor are the best of his Creatures to be honored with Religious Worship, no not good Angels, nor Saints, living or departed. I must not spare any that wander from my Text; for God himself is the complete and entire Object of all Religious Worship, Him only shalt thou serve. Shew me where the Church is bidden to adore Angels with divine Adoration. What so much writing and zeal to maintain that, so much fury to bid Anathema to them that dislike it, and yet no exhortation in all the Bible to commend it. Was ever any punished by God for default that way? Any one so much as checked or quarrelled for it? The Letter of the Scripture presseth upon all things else to the least scruple if they be forgotten. If God's House be not honored, if his Tithes be not paid, if his Prophets be evil entreated; yet for the religious reverencing of Angels not one word of expostulation to advance it in the Law or Gospel. Nay, St. Paul says, they that teach the worshipping of Angels do but beguile you with voluntary humility, Col. ii. 18. O, say the Rhemists, if any should attribute such pious culture to the Angels as Simon Magus did, making them equal with God, then he is within the reprehension of that Text. A frothy evasion, for who regards what Simon Magus did? The Apostle gives us a general caution, That we be not beguiled by worshipping of Angels. Is there no trespass unless they be equalized with God? Then the Platonics taught good divinity, for they worshipped their Daemones or Angels, not as the first causes of all things, but as Spirits employed by the first Principle of the world. If an Angel from heaven teach the same doctrine in his own case which Paul did, surely two such Witnesses both in one tale cannot be refused. The instance is more beaten than any high way, Rev. xix. 10. St. John certainly being even beside himself with the excellency of Revelation, fell at an Angels feet to worship him, who said unto him, See thou do it not. I leave it to your judgments if this be not a monstrous prevarication of Bellarmine's, That the Angel might have accepted that dutiful homage, if he had pleased, and did not make shy of it before Christ was incarnate, but in honor of our Lord's incarnation, who took our nature upon him, Angels from thenceforth will not be religiously worshipped by men. Therefore we do what becomes us when we fall down to worship Angels, and Angels do what becomes them when they refuse it; thus He. But, I beseech you, if learned men may take such leave to interpret Scripture, they may turn it to anything. Doth the Angel say any such thing to John, that the times were altered, human nature was now more precious than before, and grown too good for such servile observance: No, but very plainly in the Text, See thou do it not to me, I am thy fellow-servant, worship God.
Mark both his reasons, first, I am thy fellow-servant. Fellow servants are to worship one Master together, not one to worship the other. Yes, says the Adversary, hereafter we shall worship together in the Church Triumphant, and be styled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Why, we have the same excellency and beatitude which then shall be revealed in a lively faith, and a steadfast hope. And if they shall be less honored of us hereafter than now, the Angels should lose honor by our being exalted into heaven. Nay, rather their glory shall be increased to requite that sedulous care which they had over us here against the tyranny of the world and the devil. I will wish no other Author but St. Austin to speak on my side, says he, Let us believe that the best Angels, and most excellent ministering spirits do desire that we may worship one God together with them. Honoramus eos charitate non servitute; That is, we love them for their good will, we do not serve them, Nec eis templa construimus, they would not be so honored of us, for they know, none better, if we be holy, we ourselves are the Temples of the Holy Ghost. This we have learnt out of the first reason, what the Angel meant, Fall not down before me, I am thy fellow-servant. Beside it is added, Worship God. Can any question be made but St. John would worship God? Surely he was not to be taught that: No, but he was to be roused out of an ecstacy, that God only is to be adored with a sanctified fear, and no Creature. It is easy to cast a scruple in any man's way, so the Pontificians give us an objection to pick, Josh. v. 14. A man stood over against Joshua with a drawn Sword; Joshua demands, Art thou for us, or for our Adversaries? The supposed man replies, Nay, but a Captain of the Host of the Lord am I now come. Then Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship. First, the Antagonist presumes, without all suspicion of denial, that Joshua did worship the Angel. But the Text says no more than as soon as he knew God had sent him a Captain from heaven he did worship: But if it were Religious Worship it was done not to the Angel, but unto God's upon the coming of the Angel. When such things come before us as are signs of God's presence and grace, of his mission and institution (not of our own invention, ware that) it is good pious devotion to fall down and worship God when those things are before us. As it is most laudable in us to kneel, not to the outward Elements upon the Lord's Table, but unto God at the receiving of Christ in those Elements. So Moses probably fell down at or before the burning bush where God spake. When the fire came down from heaven to consume the Sacrafice, it was a sign of the Lord's special presence, and the people fell down and worshipped, 2. Chron. vii. 3. Thus Joshua seeing the Captain of God's Host come to succor him fell down and praised the Lord. This answer I dare build upon; yet if it were extorted, that either Joshua worshipped this Angel, or Balaam that other Angel, who bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face, Num. xxii. 31. It is not, or ever will be proved, that these were religious Adorations, but very great moral reverence done unto them, more than to any men on earth, according to their Celestial and Supernatural excellency. But Angels are not to be religiously worshipped in heaven, why then on earth? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that is in this precept, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Yet a few words before I end. To adore the Eucharist, the Relics of Saints, the Figure of the Cross, or Images of Christ and his Servants departed is to commit Idolatry with inanimate things; those being all alike in that, I will keep that bundle of Tares for another occasion. But the superstitious worshipping of Saints is so near of kin to that of Angels, against which I concluded before, that the same Notions I used before, and a little added, will clearly condemn it. We must not think more divinely of a Creature than a Creature is capable. And even in this we have cause to bless God that our Religion is repurged from most strong defilements, that our common Prayers have none of those blasphemies, which some chant over to the most glorious Virgin the Mother of our Lord. And all this happens that they impute more Divinity unto her, then is competent to a Creature. So the Heathenish Lycaonians saw that Paul and Barnabas were men, but they thought some Divinity did inhabit them such as is in God. Certainly, so the good Centurion Cornelius was mistaken, for he gave unto Peter both civil observance as unto a man: But because the Lord did bid him send for Peter for his souls Salvation, he thought there was a genious in him above a Creature. Otherwise Peter had not corrected the reverence he did him, with those words, Stand up, I myself also am a man, Acts x. 26. His cogitation had apprehended some divineness in Peter, which made him commit a religious prostration for which he was rebuked. And indeed an opinion is bread in the superstitious touching the Saints departed, that there is more Divineness in them than they can receive, else they would not bow down themselves to the mention of their names, and make supplications unto them. When I commend myself to the Prayers of any man upon earth, I attribute nothing unto him falsely as divine, he hath ears to hear me, he hath memory, faith, and chariry to commend his brethren to God: But when I do the like to the Saints (granting the distinction that they call upon them to intercede, not to perform their request) but when I do the like to them, I make them stand in the place of God, to hear all men everywhere at once perhaps lifting up their voice, nay, perchance no more than the thought of their heart unto them. Solius Dei proprium est ubique omnes audire & exandire; It is the excellency of God alone to hear, and attend to all men in all places at once. Therefore he makes an Idol of that Saint, in whom he supposeth as much virtue and excellency to hear him (how much soever distant) as is in God himself. I omit burning Incense to their Shrines, making Pilgrimages to their Sepulchers. Building Churches, wherein their memory may be worshipped and invoked; And making Vows in their names, which is one of the flowers of God's eternal royalty. They that are such earnest Devotees to Creatures, and think there is not work enough for a Christian to worship God alone, deserve that gross delusion, which hath started from some of their own Confessions that many names are enrolled for glorified Saints, and great Patrons of the Church, whose souls are tormented in Hell. Let God be worshipped for the holy Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs departed, so shall we ourselves, we trust, one day have a place in that Celestial Choir, where the Lord our God is only worshipped, and he only served day and night without ceasing. AMEN.
THE TWENTIETH SERMON UPON Our Savior's Tentation.
MAT. iv. 10.
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
I Am come to this Text again in the zeal of Elias, to let no kind of Idolater be unrebuked, that doth not worship the Lord, and serve him only, according to these words, which were Law at first, and our Savior by reciting them hath made them Gospel: Take the Priests of Baal, says that holy man, and let not one of them escape, 1 King. xviii. 40. I will trace his steps in this cause, and will rather be a man of contention, as Jeremy became, by taking the Lord's part, then suffer Rags and Relics, Stocks and Stones to have an attractive virtue more than magnetical, to draw religious honor and adoration unto them. If men would hold their peace, these things which I now proceed to arraign and condemn for having holy worship done unto them, have no tongues to defend themselves. They are not Angels or Saints departed, they have neither life nor motion in them, neither the Cedar that grows in Libanus, nor the Hisop that grows on the top of the wall; but the Trunck of the Cedar, and such other things as Art hath made unfit for any further benefit of nature. 'It is strange that sharp-witted men will take pains to extol such dull inanimate things as can never thank them. And concerning inanimate lifeless things, how superstitiously such glory, as belongeth to God alone, hath been imparted unto them, I shall spend my labors at this time: for concerning rank Heathen Idol God's, imaginaries Deities, and concerning the Host of Heaven above, and the Spirits of darkness beneath, how they are idolized by some, I have maintained the judgment of our Church before. But our quarrel against the Pontificians to vindicate all religious worship latrical and dulical to the Lord of Heaven alone, is, like a Suit in Law that holds many Terms, as long a quarrel as upon any other common place in all Divinity. I am in hand at this time with the same Controversy again, to protest against four things; namely 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Religious adoration of the Relics of Saints; 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Religious adoration of the Elements in the Lord's Supper; 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Religious adoration of the Sign of the Cross, and that most stiffly and impudently maintained; 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Worship of Pictures and Images, whether resembling Christ or his Saints. Woe is it for the Church of Christ, that we must spend an hour in these dissensions: but what peace can there be while these Idolatries are maintained under the name of great devotion, and anathema denounced against them that cry out for the Lord, and for his Christ, to them glory and worship, and to none but them. And now I have sounded the trumpet to this battle, I betake me to the particulars propounded: First that Religious adoration of Relics confronts the verity of my Text, &c.
But in the Exordium if any one shall ask how do our Opposites worship or serve Relics, or any of the aforenamed? I will satisfy him, that for the intentions of their heart in their inward reverence towards these things we could not accuse them but that they profess and teach, it is religious and holy honor; for if it were no more than precious estimation to some of those things, we would not disfavour their practice, but consent unto it: and for their outward behavior which expresseth the affections within, judge if this be not to worship; to kneel unto, to kiss those things, to prostrate the body, to hold up the hands and eyes, and uncover the head before them; judge also if this be not serving of them, censing of perfumes in those places, lighting candles to honor them, adorning with the richest cost of jewels and gold, Circumgestation, Procession, Supplication, Festival days appointed for their service; and, as much as all these, Guilds and Religious Orders appointed to attend them: This is square and open dealing, that I impute Idolatry and Will-worship unto them upon grounds of practice and confession. Nay, I have not said all, no not by half, touching that over respect which is done to the Relics of Christ and his Saints: They exalt them above the Altar: St. Ambrose thought it a great honor for himself, or any deceased Bishop, to lie under the Altar: they call that adoration which is given to them meritorious. The Priests teach the people, that there is a kind of grace communicated to those Relics, they take Pilgrimages to them, swear by them, carry parts about as Prophylacticks against bodily and ghostly evil, and pronounce indulgence for venial sins to them that fall down and worship them. Beside the main sin, see the uncertainty of all this: Of Saints they have mightily multiplied the number, and of their Relics far more than is possible to belong unto them. Yet it is impossible to know by faith who are Saints deceased, but those whose memorial is recorded in Scripture; and for their Relics it is not denied, they are conjectur'd at by mere human credulity: The bones of a Varlet may be carried in procession for the bones of a Martyr; decem millia talium rerum Romae fiunt, says L. Valla, Ten thousand such cheats are done at Rome, yet he a Romanist that said it. But these Impostures are maintained, as Demetrius busled for the silver Shrines of Diana, because the custody of Relics brings in more gain than the Revenue of a rich Archbishopric to places much frequented.
These Trinkets that we speak of are of two sorts: First some external things of apparel, habitation, or some other civil use belonging (as they spread the rumour) to Christ, to his Apostles, or some glorious Martyrs or Confessors: Far be it from us to gainsay, but such things, if they be right, are very venerable, both for those that once possessed them, and for their very antiquity: whatsoever thing hath belonged to a person of noted worth deserves a valuable esteem for the owners sake. The story is in Aelian, that some studious Scholars bad great sums of money for an earthen Candlestick that had been Epictetus the Philosopher 's: the victorious Sword of Edward the Third is a monument among us; how much more preciously and charily would we preserve such parcels as could be derived from Christ, and his most holy Saints? at least this negative honor should be done, not to dishonor them, to burn them, and sport ourselves with the ashes, as we are often slandered. But at this point we make a stand, and detest it, where Religious worship is offered to them. For what should win us to the other opinion? I know not; O there is sanctity in all such things which those admired Worthies of God did wear or use! what in all them? I know, when Christ pleased, virtue did go out of him to the very hemm of his Garment: it was not a natural or physical virtue which went necessarily from him, as fire heats the air, or a man's body the garments upon him: whatsoever Christ assumed for ordinary uses and conveniencies as He was man, it had not holiness imprinted in it: not the Beast He rode on, or the Ship He preached in, or the ground He trod, or a thousand things more: He sanctified only where it was his express pleasure to sanctify. But grant all things about him to be sanctified, yet nothing but himself to be adored. For sanctification is either essential, and that is only in God, or rather God himself; God is holiness, and that is to be worshipped: or it is created sanctity, and then it is either that infused and inherent holiness which is in the hearts of good men; or it is that relative sanctity by which some things are called holy as applied to holy uses, the Church, the Lord's Table, the Font, and many things beside are called holy in that low respect. Do any of these deserve adoration for that use? I trow not; but the garments or other utensils of holy men were never called holy for that relation, which is merely civil and secular. The Handkerchiefs and Aprons which were brought from Paul 's body, and cured diseases, is only urged for this purpose out of of Scripture, Acts xix. 2. 'It is true that the Vestments of Paul did cure diseases by miracle where he was absent, that they which were absent might admire his doctrine, though they did not hear it from his mouth: Here's a miracle, that's apparent, but here is no adoration, that's falsely presumed. Every thing which God made the instrument of a miracle, He made it not for an object to be worshipped. I will clear that upon the next instance
Which concerns the bones, or other parts of the body of Martyrs deceased. Baronius reckons up in his Annals many Legends, what miracles came to pass at the Sepulchers of the dead that died in the Lord: the very Oil that burnt in the lamps before their Sepulture cured sundry sicknesses: The very flowers that touched the Coffin of St. Stephen restored many weak persons in the very age of St. Ambrose and St. Austin; both of them testify, that a blind man received his sight coming to the Burial-place of Gervasius and Protasius. Well, it shall not be denied that God wrought these mighty signs and wonders at their Sepulchers, to commend that faith which they maintained so constantly to the death; not as if there were any celestial virtue in their dust and ashes, much less to point them out thereby to be glorified with religious worship. Surely if God meant any such branch of holy service unto them, their living bodies had deserved it, rather than their dead, when they carried the Image and similitude of their Maker: and still I retort, that miracles are no warrants for adoration: else the Waters of Jordan that cured Naaman of his leprosy, the Waters in the Law that discovered to the jealous Husband whether his Wife were false or loyal, the Clay that was daubed upon the Blind-man's eyes, all these should be adored. And I step in upon them further, that the Reformed Churches do more honor the dead bodies of the Saints than they: we carry them to the Grave with Christian reverence, and decently interr them in assured hope of the Resurrection. They do that to the Saints which God said he would do to his Enemies, dig up their bones from their Sepulchers: Thou art cast out of the grave like an abominable branch, Isa. xiv. 19. Elisha 's bones lay quiet, unremoved, not taken out for adoration, for pomp or lucre, albeit a dead corps was raised to life that touched them. Moses carried Joseph 's bones out of Egypt into the Land of promise; they were preserved 300 years unburied in the Coffin by prophetical instinct, to confirm the faith of the Children of Israel, that they should return out of bondage into the land from whence their Fathers came: Now these bones were never taken out of their Grave, but carried to their Grave by that divine Moses, and all the Princes of the people. And what says St. Austin of Moses himself? Deus ipse Mosis corpus honoravit, dum illud propriis manibus sepelivit, God did honor the body of Moses, because He buried it with his own hands. If the people might have honored Moses bones, why were they hid out of the way, that no man knoweth of his burial place to this day? The devotion of good times (yet I know not whether it were too far) took up the Carcasses of Martyrs which were interred in meaner places, to carry them to the Cathedral Churches of Imperial Cities. So Constantine the Great caused the bones of St. Andrew, Luke, and Timothy to be conveyed, and that in solemn Procession from their first obscure Burial-places to his own City▪ (I believe this was it which moved Vigilantius first to contest against the Relics of Saints ) yet these were enclosed in the earth again, and not denied a quiet Grave, that they might be kist and worshipped. What need more testimony than St. Jerome, who spake as ho • lie for the due respect to be had to Saints Relics, as ever any did, yet he states the controversy against Vigilantius thus, Nos martyrum reliquias nec colimus, nec adoramus, sed honoramus; We neither worship nor adore the Relics of Martyrs, but honor them. Now decent burial is the honor of their bones, as I proved before; and so much for that point.
In the next place, as Christ urged my Text against Satan, so I do allege it against them that profess a superstitious adoration of the Cross: for the very Cross on which Christ suffered hangs so near to the former Treatise, that it is accounted the very Flower of Relics: Prima crux non modo inter imagines, sed etiam inter reliquias habenda est, says Aquinas, the first Cross of all stands both for an Image, and for a Relique to be adored. The Pontifician Authors have emulated one another, who should say most for the Worship of the Cross: deterior qui vicerit, he that hath gone farthest hath wrote foulest. Aquinas speaks all at a breath, that it behooves to give it latriam, the highest religious service which is given to God, cum habitudine & relatione ad prototypum, with importance and relation to the Prototype that suffered upon it. Turrecremata finds out three ways to worship the Cross, either as it represents Christ's arms stretched out, and himself suffering, or as it was honor'd by touching his very body, or as in some places his blood was sprinkled upon it. So Turrecremata leaves it, but one Salesius (quoted truly by Chamierus I make no question) thus disposeth it: Ordinary Crosses, exemplified by the first, are to be adored as all Images. The very first Cross, as it is a Relique of Christ, is to be worshipped with the adoration of hyperdulia, but as it represents Christ crucified, and is sprinkled with his blood, it deserves latria, the same worship that Christ himself hath: thus that Salesius. Costerus hath a crotchet by himself: 1. That every Cross must have more veneration given it than the Images of the Saints. 2. That which had Christ nailed upon it must have a more precious religious veneration than all Creatures: but where a drop of Christ's blood shall appear to have coloured it, there not the wood of the Cross, but Christ in that drop of blood is to be adored. Thus they all study, as it seems to me, which of them by the acuteness of his learning should run furthest into Idolatry.
Here is zeal, as it seems, but not according to Scripture, that's not once thought of in all these conclusions: That one word is enough to dash all their sophistry; but to tear all their devices piece-meal, listen briefly. First, the Figure of the Cross represents our Lord as He died for our sins. I deny that, it represents not him in the matter or in the figure; it may represent the sufferings of sundry others, yet if by use and often remembrance it doth more especially recall his passion to our mind, it is no more to be adored than the word which is preached upon the same occasion: But if I should swallow that, how it exemplifies unto us Christ crucified, that comes not home to the mark, that it is fit to be adored. The Brazen Serpent prefigured how Christ should be lifted up, and die upon a tree, yet when the people fell down before it Hezekiah made it away, and would not suffer it. And how hath it necessarily merited religious honor because our Savior's body touched it? happy were they that saw him, and touched him by faith; but it was no happiness to Judas lips, to the Executioners arms that lifted him, to the thorns that sat close upon his brows, or to the wood that bore his body. And whereas they make great reckoning that some of that blood which saved us was to be seen where it had run down upon his Cross, I answer with reverence, that if mine eyes were so happy to see any true tokens of my dear Redeemers blood, I would bless God with all humility of heart and body to behold a drop of that stream which flowed from my Savior, that my poor eyes should see part of the richest ransom that ever the world had; but I must not give it divine worship. For ancient Councils tell me, the Humanity of Christ ought to have divine honor done unto it, as united personally to the Godhead; therefore those drops of blood divided from the unity of his person were not religiously to be honored.
It is easy to multiply fluent phrases on their side, as that the Cross was the Chariot in which our Lord triumphed over death, the Ladder upon which he chose to go up to heaven: that wood once accursed, in which He took away all malediction from us. Well, all this is as if you had said, that the Cross by accident was an instrument of his glory and our salvation, as much as the nails were, and no more. It was not the Cross that made him triumph, but the Death He sustained on the Cross: for by death he overcame death, I said they did not once quote Scripture in all this Argument, but a few of their loose rovers, venture at the xxiv. of Matth 30. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. It is worth the sifting to answer it: What if that be an Hebraism, as some say it is, that the sign of the Son of man is the Son of man himself, signanter & perspicue venturus, most evidently and expressly coming in the Heavens to judge the world; or if with more likelihood the Sign of Christ is not Christ himself, yet whether the Apostle means the wounds in his Body or his Cross; or it may be a strange Star, such as appeared at his Birth, who knows? but here's no hint of Adoration; no matter for the rest, be it what you will. But the last refuge is to betake them to Legends and strange stories, especially in two instances, I will not cloy you with them at large: but first we are told how Helen, the renown of our Britany in her age, and the Mother of Constantine, had a divine admonishment how to find the Cross which had been lost above three hundred years: And long after when the Pagans had taken it by violence from the Christians, that Heraclius the Emperor fought with Chosroes and his Persians to recover it, and that stones from heaven fell upon the Persians; never the like seen but once in the days of Joshua. Touching the Invention of the Cross by Helena, though St. Ambrose speaks of it, yet it sticks hard with me to believe it, because Eusebius omits it, who spake of other renowned works of Helens, and how Constantine her Son found out the Holy Sepulcher; but let it have credit, and that of Heraclius too, though both deservedly suspected. What will it come to? the Book of the Law was as strangely found out by Josiah, and more certainly, yet never adored. Elisha his bones were found by casting a dead man into his Grave, and nothing followed: Yea, Saul found out his Fathers Asses by divine admonition. And for the miraculous and victorious recovery of it from the Persians, remember how powerful and wonderfully God made the Philistines restore the Ark again, but far from any purpose to have it religiously worshipped. The material Figure of the Cross was never in common use till Constantine 's days, then it was reared up as the Trophy of Christ, who had subdued all things to himself. Indeed the transient Sign of the Cross, stricking their hand or finger thwart through the air was in great use in very ancient times: (that you know being a transient whiffing of the hand could not be adored) but they used it to keep safeguard over every member of their body, and to drive away Devils. They had some cause I suppose to make an operative sign of it in those days, when God was present with them by miracles. Our reason and experience tells us that now they are ceased, so that we step not after them in that imitation. And being but an adiaphorus Ceremony, they are too blame that affect it in our Church, further then where it is commanded in Baptism: for I do ever guide myself in this case by that rule which St. Austin says St. Ambrose taught him, use such Ceremonies, and no other, as that particular Church hath appointed wherein you are: there are no banks to keep us in order, if that be contradicted.
This may suffice to be spoken against them that deceive themselves in voluntary humility, and worship toward the Cross of Christ; to maintain which superstition the Pontificians contend sharply with words: to uphold the next Idolatrous Tenet they have fought against us cruelly with fire and sword; 'tis their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their adoring the Bread or Wafer-cake consecrated, but they say transubstantiated in the Lord's Supper. This opinion is their Basilisk that hath murdered so many holy Martyrs, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that set their hearts against it. To make their Divinity seem devout and plausible, it walks upon two crutches. First it claims right from the new Philosophy of Transubstantiation, saying that Christ in his whole manhood is carnally and corporeally there under the species of the Elements. Secondly, that the Lord's Supper is not only a Sacrament, wherein Christ gave himself in bread and wine to his Disciples, but also a Sacrifice, offering himself under those Elements, or their species to his Father at that time, upon which far-rooted error the Priest doth offer Christ every day to God in the Mass, and having it in his belief, that it is an Expiatory Sacrifice both for quick and dead, all that are present fall down at the Elevation, and worship the Hostia: But if there be neither Transubstantiation, nor any such external Expiatory Sacrifice in the Lord's Supper, their practice without more question is confessed Idolatry.
I will not take a large swing to dispute upon such copious matters, but briefly by what conjecture or divination can the wit of man make a Sacrifice of it? Did Christ do anymore than give thanks and bless the Elements, and then brake and gave to his Disciples to eat, and bad them do the like forever in remembrance of him? upon which of these clauses can a Sacrifice be grounded? St. Paul says it is appointed unto men once to die, so (that is by death) Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Attend, says the Adversary, He offered himself but once, the Priest may offer him oftener; nay, but if he offered himself to his Father in his last Supper, and again at his death upon the Cross, He must offer himself twice, and that's repugnant to Scripture: But we are told the Paschal Lamb was both Sacrament and Sacrifice; it is not denied; yet thus it is truly resolved. As the Paschal Lamb was ordained to be eaten in remembrance of Deliverance and Redemption, so it answers to the Lord's Supper: but as the Beast was a bloody Sacrifice slain to God, so it answers to Christ on the Cross: the Scripture confirms it; for when Christ was dead before the Soldiers came to break his legs, the Type of the Paschal Lamb is called to mind, not a bone of him shall be broken. But were it a Sacrifice, as it is but the Commemoration of a Sacrifice, yet it proves not adoration; it hangs all upon the slender thread of Transubstantiation, which will quickly break, as when a spark of fire lights upon a thread of Flax. For St. Paul calls it bread five times in one Chapter after Consecratian: This doth not evince us, say the Romanists; for there are examples to match this, that many things converted into new substances carry their former names. Aaron's rod, which became a serpent is yet called a rod. Adam saith of Eve, she was bone of his bone. The Governor is said to taste of the water which was made wine: so St. Paul calls the Host bread, because it had been bread, yet after consecration it is not. Well, I say these instances are not matches. First, Eve was made out of the bone, the serpent of the substance of the rod, the wine of the substance of water; and therefore propter materiam ex quâ they are called Synecdochically, what they had been: but is Christ's body made of the bread productive? (so they were wont to speak indeed) then it is not that Christ who was made of the substance of the blessed Virgin, for their Christ is made out of bread. No, now they philosophize that it is adductive, all the substance of bread is annihilated, and Christ's body fills that place which it had. Secondly, in the rod, in that bone, in the water when the substances were changed new accidents resulted from the new form, but here are the accidents of bread and wine palpable to all the senses. Surely if God by his omnipotency would cause the color, and taste, and scent, and moisture, and thickness of bread and wine to be there without their substances, He would have given that gift to the faithful receivers, that they should have tasted none of those creatures to contradict his mighty work; which were a far less miracle than the other.
And how can they so abstract, but they shall terminate religious worship to the external species of bread! if they look upon it, and thereby remember Christ's Passion, and fall down to glorify him for his benefits, so will we: but they profess Christ's body to be in the Priests hand, and there they worship him; then the accidents of the Elements which remain are part of the Object which they adore: a man may idolize mere colors, I am sure, where there is no substance; as a Rainbow which is nothing but shadows of colors by reflection, may be idolized. The word which we hear preached is to be reverently received, yet not adored: now the Sacrament is but verbum visible, the Gospel of faith, as well made visible to the eye, as audible to the ear; and God forbid but we should receive it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as St. Paul says, worthily, with due expression of outward, as well as zealous intention of inward reverence. Behold the creatures of bread and wine, non quà sunt, sed quà significant; not as they are elementary food, but as they are significant of greater things. And for that significancy we bend our knees in the receiving to our Lord Jesus Christ; not to do honor to the Elements; let none be so simple or so uncharitable to say it, nor to any visible thing present; but to the Immortal God who hath saved us by the blood of his Son, as of a lamb undefiled. Now upon the taking of the bread and wine not absolute necessity, but decency and order call for the duty of our knee. The visible Sacrament is objectum adorationis à quo, non ad quod: upon occasion of seeing those things we do worship, but the worship is not terminated to those things. The people of Israel for certain worshipped before the Ark: was the Ark any better sign of God's presence, than the Bread and Wine are of the Body and Blood of Christ? The Ark was called Jehovah, so those Elements are called his Body and Blood for the representation and Sacramental relation. Throughout all the Old Testament wheresoever the people of God had notice of the divine presence and grace in signs ordinary and extraordinary they have with free conscience bowed down and worshipped. Moses fell down to God when he saw the fire in the Bush. Joshua worshipped not the Angel, but Jehovah at the sight of the Angel, Josh. v. The people fell down and worshipped when they saw the fire from heaven fall on the Sacrifice, 2 Chron. vii. 3. Nay, Ezra cast himself down before the House of God, when there was no House standing, but the remembrance of the place. What if a devout man walking through goodly Fields of standing corn, and marking those plentiful blessings should uncover his head, yea and kneel to give God thanks? were not this well done? much more (though not any worship is done to the bread) when he sees that bread, in which by faith he receives Christ and all his benefits. I will follow this point no further: happy is he that believes, and doth neither commit Idolatry to the outward Elements, nor grudge at due and devout reverence to be done at the most Holy Supper of the Lord.
Me-thinks now our last business of all touching the worshipping of Images should be but sport to skirmish with Babies and Puppies, like the fray that is spoken of between the Cranes and the Pigmies. O strong delusions in the hearts of men, that there should be any cause to contest with Christians in such a Controversy! Blasphemy, Witchcraft, Murder are not more plainly condemned in Scripture, than to set up an Image for adoration: and if God's own words uttered with his own mouth from Mount Sinai in thunder and lightning will not serve the turn, to what end is it to dispute or preach against it? but for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. The worshipping of Images is accounted no slender Ceremony among the Romanists, but a branch of Religion wherein they show great zeal to God and the Saints. The Tridentine Catechism provides that the catechized in their childhood should learn this (for Catechisms are principally for youth) that it is not only lawful to have Pictures and Images in Churches, (wherein they see we assent so far) but to exhibit honor and worship unto them. Parochus sanctorum imagines in templis positas demonstrabit ut colantur, left the people should think the Images stand in the wall for a cypher, or for bare ornament, the Parish Priest shall admonish his Flock that they stand there to be worshipped. So Cajetan: those stand not for fashion sake only in the Church, like the Cherubims in Solomon's Temple, merely to be looked upon, but to be adored: and this is upheld with so much vehemency, that they accurse all such as oppose it, and with so much cruelty that we learn out of their own story, that Balthasar Hin • marus was burnt at Vienna, and Aegidius Hispanus at Sevil, for denying that Religious Adoration was due to Images. Beside what Panegyrics, Praises, and Poems have been made in honor of those Statues, before which many miracles have been wrought? though nothing truly done but by imposture and delusion: What injunctions given to Penitentiaries to creep unto them? What offerings of Plate, and Coin, and Jewels bestowed upon them? and by the bounty of fools they are made richer than the givers; and the living are defrauded of the works of mercy, to deck an Idol with sumptuous bravery. And after all this madness and cost to uphold the credit of their golden God's, Cardinal Bellarmine 's voluntary confession is worthy to be noted, nihil periret de fide aut religione si nulla ficta vel picta esset imago; Faith and Religion should suffer no loss, though there were no Image in the world. This is even such another lightning as came from him in his Controversies upon Justification: for after all his arguments to make the good works of the faithful have a merit of condignity, he concludes, tutissimum est, yet it is the safest way to hope to be saved by Christ alone: so after all his sophistry for Images this is plain dealing, nihil periret de fide & religione, it were not the worse for Faith and Religion if there were no Images at all.
Lend your ear now to the stir that is made among their Writers, what portion of Religious Worship is allowed to their Pictures and Statues that stand for Christ especially, and likewise for the Saints. That infamous second Nicene Synod, whose Canons are precious in the eye of the Church of Rome to this day, that pack of Idol-mongers condemned all such as said their use went no further than to put us in mind of Christ: nay Tharasius, the busiest man in that ill work, said, all that confessed they did esteem venerably of sacred Images, and would not adore them, were hypocrites. It was there defined they should have Religious Salutation and Adoration, but not latriam, the most Religious Worship which is proper only to God. The Triden • ine Council leaves men to pick what they can out of indefinite words, and says only such Images are to have Veneration made to them, and Holy Worship. There are three Sects of opinions among their learned men, who differently state the case. Durand says, that Images are not adored but improperly, and by abuse of the word, quia ad praesentiam earum fit rememoratio exemplarium, tunc adorantur in praesentia imaginum, they being at hand do make men remind Christ, and think upon him; and then Christ is adored in the presence of the Image, but not the Image at all. Such remembrances sometimes might be spared, because of the danger and scandal; yet this opinion is moderate. I only dislike that he says he would not have the people so taught: for Christ bad his doctrine should be preached upon the house top to all the world. Secondly, the Jesuit Valentia commends the doctrine of Aquinas, that the Image and the Semplar is to be worshipped with the same act of adoration is most true, most pious, and very consonant to the decrees of faith: and Azorius the Jesuit says, that's constant Theologorum sententia, the most constant opinion of their Divines: I am sure worse can hardly be. Vasques the Jesuit thinks he hath cast on water to cool this hot opinion by saying, that the Image of Christ and Christ himself are worshipped with the same worship together, as Thomas says, but the intention of the worship is meant not at all to the Image, but to the Prototypon. Suarez is of a third opinion, and says, to oppose Durand, that the act of worship is intended and directed to the Object before them, that is to the Image; yet to oppose Vasquez, that it is homage inferior to that they do to Christ, but some worship rests even in the very Image propter prototypon for Christ's sake: it is suppositum quod adoratur, non ratio adorationis, sed quoddam adjunctum. Bellarmine is of this last opinion, but involves his mind most intricately to avoid all opposition. Says he, we are indebted to some Images in a Religious Worship, which is an imperfect form of worship, and is reduced to that worship which is due to the substance for which they stand: As Christ's Image must have an honor reduced to latria, but inferior to it. The Images of the Saints not such worship as pertains to a Saint, sed cultus inferior qui dici potest dulia secundum quid, vel dulia anologice & reductive: dulia after a sort, reductively, and by proportion. The best understanding of these quidlibets are, that they were meant not to be understood. We may profess ignorance of such minced meat without blushing, when Vasquez says, Mille modis difficultatem illius doctores explicare conantur; their Doctors have tried a thousand ways to untie these knots, and still questions start up to puzzle them. I remember what Eutropeus says, that when Irene the Empress had maintained the Worship of Images with horrid unnatural cruelty and murders, for seventeen days together the wether was most unusually dark certainly to notify the blindess that was come into the world by the Doctrine of Images.
Let them varnish their cause with what art they will, let us hear what they can say that their doctrine falls not foul upon the second Commandment; marry that they have nothing to do with Idols, which were the shapes of imaginary God's, such as never were extant: how prove they that, that an Idol is a resemblance of that which never had any true being, because St. Paul says an Idol is nothing. I am sure this shift is as good as nothing; for properly in the Greek tongue 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is any artificial resemblance of a bodily thing, answering part by part unto it, so that it hath a right in nature to stand for it: but according to Scripture, and the phrase of ancient holy Writers, Idola fiunt ex simulacris quando adorantur, any graven similitude or image, when it is once adored, it becomes an Idol. The fashions of all things in all places are rehearsed in the second Commandment, in heaven above, in earth beneath, in the water under the earth; and yet if you make a Figure or Statue of any of these to worship it, that's an Idol, and you an Idolater. As Lucullus was ashamed to fight with the Asiatiques, whom he vanquished so easily; so I am ashamed to toss an objection about which hath no tang of probability in it. An Idol is nothing, says the Scripture, that is it hath nothing of divine Majesty in it to be adored. As Euripides says elegantly of lazy men, they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a very nullety nothing. Says St. Chrysostom upon it, an Idol is nothing, because there is but one God, and none beside him: The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, those are those nothings when they are idolized: and St. Austin, the Pagans worship those things which are, but they are nothing to make God's of; they cannot help us, they cannot save us. St. Paul therefore adds 1 Cor. viii. 4 an Idol is nothing in the world, and there is none other God's but one.
Our Adversaries must nock another arrow, this was headless: why, it is pretended they do not leave God, to worship Idols of wood or metals, which the Law condemns, but they worship God in the Image, or the Image with God, or the Image for God's sake; let them vary it as they will, 'tis naught every way: for where hath the Almighty condescended that such Concomitancies should be co-worshipped with him, or for him? never, never, there are no ligaments for such a conjunction. Our Divines have often rubbed the salt of some instances in their sores, and yet they do not feel them. The Children of Israel when they worshipped the similitude of an Ox that eateth hay, do you think they cast away all thought of the Lord their God, and went to it down right with that molten Effigies? I believe the weaker capacities among them might do so, as the Pontificians confess that the ruder and simpler among them fall down and worship the very substance of the Image that is before them; but Aaron and the Princes of the people bowed not to the golden lump of their own Bracelets and Earerings, but to God in that similitude of an Ox. The Lord had given them manna or food from heaven, and an Ox among all the customs of the Heathen which they had seen, was the Emblem of plenty; so Joseph, who was the Granary of Egypt by his providence, Moses calls him the firstling of a Bullock; and T. Livy says, when Minutius had supplied Rome with corn in time of great necessity a golden Ox was set up in the Market-place to honor his memory; that beast you know plows up the surrows of the earth to receive the seed which yields the increase of the year: from this superstition a Calf or Ox (for a Calf, remember it, is not the name of the age) was the Object wherein they worshipped God. Ferus a Roman Writer, confesseth, that the Israelites did honor God himself in their molten Image: He had reason to say so, for Aaron, who best knew the meaning of it, proclaimed against the morrow a Feast unto the Lord Jehovah. And though the people were mad with their own inventions, make them not so bad, that when they cried out, These are thy God's which brought thee out of Egypt, Exod. xxxii. 4. they meant their Baby which they had made but yesterday: That plural number is in the singular, Nehem, ix. 18. They made them a molten Calf,and said, this is thy God that brought thee out of Egypt, attributing that power to the sign for the thing signified. Indeed the Psalmist says, they forgot God who had done so great things for them. Why? because they obeyed not his word: They knew it was not their Idol, but the Lord who had delivered them, yet they are said to have forgot the Lord, because they worshipped him after their own inventions, and did not obey him. Next to this, weigh but the actions of Micah of Mount Ephraim, Jud. xvii. he that can but spel words and put them together, shall find his Mother dedicated her silver to the Lord for her Son, to make a graven Image. Micah had these Images for the honor of God, and having those abominations, still professed himself a Priest of the Lord; therefore this must be his crime, that he worshipped God in his Images. Cajetan and Abulensis are of that judgment, that where the Idol hath a peculiar name, as Baal, Ashteroth, the people seduced served the very Idol; but where the Idol had no peculiar name, as in my instance of Micah 's Images, and the Calf that Aaron made, there they served the true God in the Idol. If this be not directly the Popish Doctrine, the Sun hath no light in it. To be even with their evasion every way, the very Heathen as well as they could apprehend the eternal God by the light of nature, worshipped him in their Idols and Penates; few or none of them thought the matter of an Idol to be a God. Seneca says, says, that by Jupiter standing in the Capitol with lightning in his hand, they understood the Preserver and Governor of all things, the Maker of the world. Mark now, nether the Jewish, nor Heathenish Idolaters did anymore than worship the true God, in, or before, or with their Images.
Give them audience by the way how they profess both moral and natural Philosophy for their defense. Moral first, how he that honoreth the Image of the King honoreth the King himself: this is called St. Athanasius and St. Basil 's morality, and so it is; but Lord how little to the case? The Arians contended that glory was to be given to one eternal God, but if one were the person of the Father, another of the Son, there were two Eternals to be glorified; those Fathers answer,the Son is the Image of the Father, the express image of his person, and the brightness of his glory; and he that honor'd that Image of the King, honor'd the King himself. Is there not main difference between the carved Image which stands for Christ's manhood, and between his personal filliation, wherein He is the Image of his Father? The outward Image stands for Christ by human imagination, it hath no eminent undeniable right to present him; but Religious Adoration is founded upon that Union which is personal, substantial, relative, by divine ordination. And for the moral rule, he that honors the King will honor his Image, it holds only in negative honor, a good Subject will not deface the Kings Picture in a despiteful spleen against the exemplar, no more do we dishonor the Images of Christ and the Saints, unless where flagrant Idolatry is committed to them; then with good zeal they may be burnt or defaced, to do God honor against the Creature. Is their natural Philosophy any sounder? 'tis Aristotle 's Idem est motus in imaginem, & exemplar; his meaning is the abstractive understanding considers the abstracted notion of a material thing, and the thing itself at once: the verbum intellectus, as it is called, the intellective word and the real thing understood at once. This is all he says; but they have made a matter of it, that when I see Christ's Image, and rememorate Christ upon it, and then worship him, I must worship the Image together with him. To deliver you quickly out of these thorny passages, I say there cannot be the same motion of the mind towards this Image and the Exemplar, for the mind is fixed upon the Image as upon a Sign, and upon an Object much inferior to the Exemplar, The Image is a thing create, Christ uncreate: they confess a respective difference, that Christ is adored simply and for himself, the Image in regard of similitude and reference to the principal. The Image is not the terminus of worship for itself, but for Christ's sake; therefore the motion of man's heart toward Christ and the Image cannot be one, but divers. When I desire the means because of the end, here are two distinct actions and motions of the will, to wit election of means, intention for the end. But with them the worship of Christ and his Image is one and the same physical act of the body at once; they talk that it is virtually twofold; but if they hold there is the same motion of the mind too to both at once, that will make it complete idolatry.
No marvel, you see, if you have quite lost the second Commandment out of some Portresses and Breviaries, when they have found it again in their larger Missals they will not keep it. When men have rampar'd witty shifts against truth, it is in vain to tell them from S. John, Babes, beware of idols; or from St. Paul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , What agreement hath the Temple of the Lord with idols? they will tush at it, and say they mean the Idols of Pagans. St. Pet. 1. Ep. c. iv. v. 3. speaks against lusts, excess of wines, revellings, abominable Idolatries. Speaks he not against the lust and drunkenness and riot of Christians? verily and as manifesty against Christian Idolatries. But if they toy with the Scripture that is against them, let them point to that Scripture that doth license their religious honor done to Images? for faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. What not one Text to suit for them? then belike it holds of Tradition: nay, Suarez says neither Scripture nor Tradition hath commended it, but invaluit ex praxi & consuetudine ecclesiae, practice and custom hath allowed it. How easily, if time did not shorten me, could I show that for the first 500 years neither the Image of Christ or his Saints were set up in any Church: so little was the practice of worshipping them on foot. A little of antiquity will spend but a little time, says Origen, Who, having his right wits, after the Commandment of God, will look upon Images to pray to them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Or by the sight thereof offer prayers thereby to him that is resembled? St. Austin upon the 113. Psalm hath a full Sermon of it, these few words are the pith, quis adorat vel orat intuens simulacrum? who is he that doth either pray or worship looking on an Image? who is he? marry an Idolater. Procopius hath a memorable passage, that from twenty Generations after Adam the Son did ever survive the Father, which is most natural, but There buried his Son Haran, who was the first that made Images, and God made him an example for doing a work so hateful to him. I will confine myself to one instance more; Serenus Bishop of Marseilles offended that some fell down to Images in Churches, whereupon he took them down and brake them to pieces about the year 600: He writes to Gregory the first to know how he liked it; Gregory answers, you do very well to teach your people not to worship those Images, but you might have let them remain for Ornament. Thus Pope Gregory the first; but before 160 years after, Pope Gregory the third maintained tooth and nail against the Eastern Bishops they were to be worshipped. What's answered to all these authorites? why, the Fathers condemned the using Images after an unlawful manner: they might even distinguish as well of lawful lying, and lawful treason and adultery, as to tell us a tale of lawful idolatry.
No Scripture, no Tradition, no Antiquity stands for them, and verily no Reason: for why is not every man adored for being the true Image of God, as well as a Statue? hear a subtlety; man is capable of some civil reverence in himself, if he were worshipped, it would fall out the worship would be terminated unto him for himself, but a portable God of metal or stone deserves no honor for itself, therefore it cannot likely be mistaken, how all the veneration done to it is done for God's sake: what will they say then to such Images and Crucifixes as have moved their head and eyes miraculously? such as have sweat like men, spoke like men? such things are often done by tricks and juggling; is not that a scandal to the ignorant, to make them bend the whole act of worship to the very Image; as the Gentiles were often deluded by the Devil, when he made his Idols and Oracles speak? Thus they lay baits to destroy the soul of their weak brother, to advance their own inventions. And for the credit of all Miracles wrought before Image-worshipping, let Biel speak: sometimes such things are effected by the working of Satan, to delude superstitious Devotaries: Deo permittente, exigent • talium infidelitate; God permits it for their destruction, and their own infidelity deserves it. I am almost concluding: mark what honor God hath peculiarly called for to himself, and that's to worship a thing religiously to impart it unto it. He bad his Church of Israel kneel toward the Ark of his glory, and worship him. The people did not see the Ark, for it was within the Veil, but they were bidden to worship the Lord before his Footstool, or before the Ark. Now to translate this manner of adoration to their own Will-worship, to worship God before Images, as He willed that himself in the Old Law should be worshipped, looking towards the Ark, is all one as if they had sacrificed to their Images, which is confessed idolatry. But I pray you what satisfaction shall be made to my Text (it satisfied the Devil and put him to silence) Thou shalt worship, &c. Thus they shuffle with it, when Christ says exclusively God only is to be worshipped, all persons are excluded that claim latria, but not appertinences or concomitances, such as Images, that are adored for the example sake. Belike by this answer it must be so, his Devilship must not be served or cringed; but if he can turn himself into the shape of an Image of Christ, or one of the Saints, he might have his asking. You see into how many shapes he turned himself in these Tentations: he can change himself into an Angel of light, and why not as easily into as fine an Image as ever Nebuchadonoser 's was. Thus their own wit may bring them to do the foulest act in the world, to fall down and worship the Devil. How much better are our souls, and our Religion in safety, when we ascribe all praise, glory, service, and worship to him only that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for evermore? AMEN.
THE TWENTY FIRST SERMON UPON Our Savior's Tentation.
MAT. iv. 11.
Then the Devil leaveth him, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him.
T Hat Conqueror, that had given his Enemy a great overthrow, was wont to set up a signal of his Conquest in the same place, for every Passenger to look upon, and it bore the name of a Trophy. Therefore I will call this Text the Trophy of our Savior's Victory which he got of the Devil: A Trophy advanced by the Holy Ghost, to let us see the Adversary whom we chiefly fear is vanquishable, and may be put to flight. Never was such an Enemy subdued, never were the weapons of holy Scripture used so skillfully before, never did such fruit and benefit redound to the whole world from any victory; and yet with what little ostentation is this great enterprize concluded? Then the Devil leaveth him, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him. This is the way of God to do famous acts, and not to noise it to men with all circumstances of exaggeration, as we do nowadays. They are praised in these times that are Animalia gloriae, that desire to do things worthy of renown, that they may be praised; And better let them spunge up fame than things famous should be omitted. Yet there is a more Christian way than this: For that divine learning, which we gather from the Gospel, leaves such impressions of modesty upon all worthy actions of Christ, or of the Saints, that their good works are never set out with the trappings of eloquence to adorn them; barely related to be imitated, and never garnish'd to be applauded.
This Text, and every story which the Evangelists have recorded touching the miracles of Christ shall justify this saying of his, Joh. viii. 50. I seek not mine own glory, as Ennius said of Scipio Affricanus, quantam columnam faciet populus Romanus quae res tuas loquatur? What a great Pillar must the people of Rome make, if all thy noble exploits were engraven upon it? So I may say, What a great Volume must the Holy Ghost have written, if every Miracle of our Savior's had been amplified with a due compensation of glory? That labor, as I said, is spared, to teach us to be prodigal in doing good, and thrifty in seeking praise. Let a man do things laudable for virtue's sake, and no other respect; and honor will follow him when his carcass is rotting; as hair, and nails, and excrementitious parts of the body will grow when that body is dead and consuming. So this Trophy of the great victory against Satan, so I called my Text is as plain and modest terms as could be endited: But as I doubt not but the Angels glorified our Savior for it then, so we will speak of the might of those marvelous acts now, as the four and twenty Elders do, Rev. xi. 17. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee great power, and hast reigned; and let us add, because thou hast subdued our grievous enemy in all his temptations. And according to that great humility and modesty, which I said was very notable in this report of our Savior's triumph, I will break the words into these two even parts: The Decession of Satan, and the succession of the good Angels. As there is but one Comma in the Grammatical reading, so there is but one part divided from the other. Then the Devil leaveth him, there is the decession of the evil Spirit: And behold Angels came and ministered unto him; there is the succession of the good. To these somewhat now directly and distinctly.
Then the Devil leaveth him. I will propound four Questions to it, and answer them in their order: When Satan left Christ? Why he left him? To what place he went upon the leaving? And if ever he returned again after he had left him? All these have reference to this Text, and to the Antecedents of this temptation, as I will declare in their severals. The first question, When he left him? Is answered by St. Luke, Chap. iv. 13. when the Devil had ended all the temptation. He had run out his line, and tried all his strength, our Savior stood it out till his Enemy tilted the very dregs of his Gall, and drew them out. He that undertakes an ill cause cannot except, but the hearing of it was very fair, if he may plead out his matter till he can say no more; so the Tempter cannot say he was cut off before he came to a period, he was provided of better Arguments, but he was stopped from proceeding, he could not make these cavils for shame, for his departure was not commanded until he ended all his temptation. Like the Martyrs of old, who lived and died in the best times of grace, it is recorded in their Diptychs, that their patience did weary their very tormentors: So the innocence of Christ did weary the malice of the Devil to assault it, his constancy to God's honor did nonplus the Blasphemer, that he knew not which way to turn him, or upon what occasion to ground another temptation. St. Ambrose says, that Satan had run over all manner of wickedness in those three motions which go before my Text: And that the Scripture would not have said he had ended all his mischief, Nisi in his tribus esset omnium materia delictorum; unless all naughtiness were couched in the triple mystery of iniquity which preceded. And to make this interpretation good out of the mouth of two Witnesses, St. Austin concurs in these, In Diaboli tribus propositionibus tota iniquitas, in Christi tribus responsionibus tota justitia; All kind of sin is thrust together in the Devils threefold Propositions, and all kind of justice is comprehended in our Savior's threefold answers. St. John says, that there are three roots which supply matter to all the fruits of impiety, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. I know it may be fetched about, and some wits have tried it, that the three former devises of Satan do belong to this division; Gluttony, or commanding stones to be made bread, is that which is otherwise called the lust of the flesh; Ambition, or vaulting from the Pinacle of the Temple to be gazed upon, stands for the pride of life; Covetousness, which would be owner and possessor of all things in the world, is ascribed to the third general sin, which is the lust of the eye; thus some of the Fathers have fitted these three particulars of temptations, and the three seed plots of sin in St. John one to one, I will not say how properly, a searching wit may compass in anything. But all the three ways of Tentation are exactly to be observed from hence, from no part of Scripture more exactly, and so he may be said to have ended all his temptation: For some are tempted through infirmity, some through ignorance, some are emboldened in open and profane malice to defy the Lord. When it was motioned, that he should make stones of bread, he laid siege, as he thought, to his hunger and infirmity, which could not well withstand it: when he incited our Lord to fall down from a Pinacle of the Temple, it was to make him destroy himself through ignorance, expecting in vain that Angels should come between him and harm to succor him. Lastly, when he urged Christ to fall down and worship him he required a sin of most obstinate malice, and flat Idolatry. By Infirmity, by Ignorance, by Malice, these are all the ways that the Tempter works, therefore having run through all these, it may pass for current that he had ended all his temptation.
I infer but one thing from hence, that those Spirits are become merely diabolical, and poisoned all over with hell, that spare no kind of sin that they can commit, but defy the Lord as far as the Devil can thrust them on; such as swear all kind of Oaths in their wrath, commit all kind of extorsions in their Covetousness, defile themselves with all kind of lust and drunkenness in their intemperance. Herod's cruelty had no stint, he slew omnes infantes, all the Infants of two years old in Bethlehem. Israel went a whoring after strange God's, till they had committed all kind of Idolatry, and made them high places upon every Mountain, says the Prophet: Thou hast spoken all manner of lies that may do hurt. O thou false tongue, says David▪ Though the Character which I shall give was Nero's, it agrees to all them who sin as much as life, and strength, and means, and opportunity will suffer them. He grew by degrees so infinitely wicked, that nothing can be fathered so horrible upon him, which his suitable manners would not render credible. Nothing can be pleaded for such, but that they deserve an infinite punishment, who would sin in infinitum, if they could. When they have ended all the sins they can commit, they shall be commanded to their own place of eternal woe, as Satan was, when he had ended all his temptation.
The question why he left Christ is the next in order, to which I will answer many ways: First, quia jussus; he was bidden depart, and therefore there was no staying for him, Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, let them also that hate him fly before him. The Lord hath set everything in its place and order, and what is there which he cannot root up and displant again? If he say unto this Mountain, be thou cast into the Sea, it shall be carried away with the breath of his mouth; Or unto Adam, get thee hence out of Paradise; or unto any Nation, be thou carried away into a strange Land; or unto the whole heaven and earth pass away and be gone, they shall pass away, and be rolled up as a garment. And to come to the likeness of this very case in my Text, when Christ threw out sundry evil Spirits with a word, the Jews were amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this? For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean Spirits, and they come out. The Magicians and Sorcerers can cast out Devils, Non ex authoritate sed pacto; Not by any power and virtue which they have, but by compacts, and infernal Sacraments between them and Satan. The Apostles and Evangelists did cast out Devils, Non ex authoritate sed ministerio; not by their own authority and strength, but as ministerial instruments which God appointed over the evil Angels. But Christ with absolute and independent authority lays his charge upon the Prince of Devils, and he could not keep his ground against him. Now let me ask you (Beloved) whether will you be led gently by the word of Exhortation? Or be compelled violently as stubborn and stiff-necked, whither you would not by the dreadful and irresistible word of indignity? Let me invert those words for this motive, which Christ used to Peter, When thou wert young thou walked whither thou wouldst riotously, intemperately, profanely: But when Christ comes to judge thee for these things, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. Draw near to God in Prayer, and in the works of mercy, then Faith and Sanctification will pluck you a little nearer and nearer; if your iniquities separate between the Lord and you, you shall be cast afar off. O who is able to endure that word, Decede, Depart from me ye wicked? Lord, whither should we go? For in thy presence there is life, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore.
Another reason why he fled from the presence of Christ is, Quia victus; he was so beaten out of all falsehoods and inventions by the evidence of truth, that he was ashamed to appear any longer before the face of the Conqueror. So St. Ambrose, Etsi invidere non desinat, tamen instare reformidat, quia frequentiùs refugit triumphari. Satan's envy to hurt the Saints is never mitigated, yet he loves not to deal with those that foil him often, lest men should triumph over him for his fruitless endeavors. If a penitent sinners humility breed joy in heaven, an innocent man's stedfastness against temptations must breed envy and amazement in hell. The frustrating of bad attempts against our soul will add honor to the reward which we shall have in heaven, and Satan will be loath to make any man too much a Conqueror, lest he get too much glory in the Kingdom of heaven for his victories. If he could have foreseen that heroic virtue in Job, and in the rest of the Martyrs, certainly he would have recoiled away, and never have touched their persons. As it was said of M. Anthony, that Augustus, his fellow Triumvir, had been so fortunate against him in all Games and Recreations, that in the end he durst encounter him in nothing, Formidavit genium Augusti genius Antonii; There was a Genius in Augustus which did over-awe the Genius of Anthony: So the Ghostly Adversary is afraid of such devout persons as Zacharias and Elizabeth, who walk blameless in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God; if he do but see their lips move in Prayer he is suspicious of his own weakness, and their fortitude, that they will bruise his head. Therefore St. Chrysostom likens him to a Dog that waits at Table, while you feed him he stirs no • from you, show him no kindness, but kick him, and spurn him from the Table, and he runs away from your severity; which is thus Morallized in an Apostolical rule, Resist the Devil, and he will fly from you, Jam. iv. 7. Or if he do not fly because he is overcome by you do you fly first, and that is an undeniable means to overthrow him; walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, abhor their ways, abandon the occasions which entrap your frailty; fly Fornication. 1 Cor. vi. 18. My dearly beloved fly from Idolatry. 1 Cor. x. 14. And in another passion, The love of money is the root of all evil, O man af God fly these things. 1 Tim. vi. 11. Joseph fled from his Mistresses importunity, and so overcame the Devil of lust. Upon which St. Austin speaks, Non verendum fugere, castitatis palmam desideranti obtinere; It is no cowardice in him to fly away that would wear the palm of chastity. Antigonus being put to disadvantage gave ground to his enemies, what says an hot-spur that was near him, Do you fly? Not fly, says Antigonus, but Utilitatem à tergo sitam persequor; I only prosecute that profit or advantage which is behind me: So if it be useful to avoid the baits of sin, make away as fast as your feet can carry you where such evil occasions cannot overtake you. For this cause some are said to leave the world, and to retire unto their Prayers; not that any man can go out of the world till God receive his Spirit at the last hour; but because they are sequestered into a strict course of life, as into another world, where the old man and his concupiscence cannot find them out. And so much for the second reason, why the Tempter did leave Christ, Quia victus, he was beaten and deluded, the sting of the Dragon would not enter into Christ, and yet he had ended all his temptation.
Put the last reason to the former, why he left our Savior, and the Point is done, Quia idololatriae convictus, because he was both guilty, and convicted of Idolatry for the Antecedent suggestion, If therefore thou wilt fall down and worship me all shall be thine. No disputation is to be held about such blasphemy as this, but take that which is thine own, and be gone, without any longer parly. There is no Society, no Communion in Christ to be held with Idolaters; they must leave us, or we must leave them. Whether the Idolatry be Error personae, a quite mistake in the person, taking those things for God which by nature are no God's, (this was Idolatry indeed at the worst, and in the most loathed deformity) or though it be but error in modo colendi, an idolatrous manner of worshipping the true God, whosoever are infected with either of these crimes are to be shunned much more than those in the Old Law that had the infection of Leprosy in the flesh. The Children of Israel worshipped the true God in the Calf that Aaron made (I have said enough of that before) there was no error in the person whose honor they propounded, they meant all to God; but it was a misbegotten invention of their own, which could not consist with the pure and sincere worship of the divine glory; the superstitious manner was enough to cut them off from the Congregation of their Brethren. For Moses charged the Sons of Levi not to excommunicate them, but to be their Executioners (a particular severity for that fault, and for no other) put every man his Sword by his side, and go in and out from Gate to Gate throughout the Camp, and slay every man his Brother, and every man his Neighbor, and every man his Companion, and they did so. All Neighbourhood, Companionship, and Brotherhood was to be dissolved with Idolaters. Elias fled into the Wilderness, or took up a private Mansion in Sarepta, and such secret places, rather than abide in the face of Israel, where the filthy worship of Baal was professed: And though he had shewn himself to Obadiah, yet he would not go down with Ahab to Jezreel till the whole Fry of the Priests of Baal was destroyed. And which is more remarkable in God's Judgments against that capitol sin, for three years and a half no Rain had fallen upon the earth in all that Land; but as soon as ever those that sacrificed to Baal were slain, in the very next verse says Elias to Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. You see that the Heavens did deny sustenance to the earth even until the very hour that Idolatry was abandoned. I ground my Doctrine but very seldom upon Prophesies which are not fulfilled, or whose interpretation is not very evident, yet for once I will be bold to cite another man's judicious conjecture, that the Spirit of God in the Revelation, Chap. vii. doth so bury Idolatry in oblivion, that he would not have it named in that Catalogue, where the true servants of God are rehearsed. For those holy ones, who had the Seal of the living God, are reckoned in the Apostolical number, because they lived and died in the Faith of the Apostolical Doctrine, twelve thousand out of each of twelve Tribes, and the Tribes are named from the Kindreds of Israel, even the Sons of Jacob, yet none are said to be sealed of the Tribe of Dan; and though Manasseh be mentioned, yet his brother Ephraim is not spoken of, but Joseph, the Father of them both in his place. I approve that Interpreters way, that says the names of Ephraim and Dan are not in this List, because they were the first that let in Idolatry into the Church of God after Moses died. The certainty of that is to be found in xvii and xviii Chap. of Judges. Micah, a man of Mount Ephraim, was the first we read of that had an house of God's, and a molten, and a graven Image (he kept these in honor of the true God, you may see that in the Chapter as clearly as your hand at noon-day, that is no excuse) in Chap. xviii. The Da • tes rob this man of his God's, and the children of Dan set up Micah's graven Image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh; for these Idolatries the names of Dan and Ephraim are not in the blessing of that book of life. Then what agreement can be made with them, or what unity in the outward profession of the faith, who will worship God in Pictures and Statues, and give religious honor to Creatures? Moses incited Levi that such should not live; Elias would not converse with men, till the whole ging of those that served Baal was destroyed: the Angel of God omits the names of Dan and Ephraim in the recitation of the Faithful; our Savior forbore to send the Devil packing for the two former Tentations, but utterly casts him off, and as one says upon my Text, excommunicates him from his blessed company, as soon as ever his mouth formed Idolatry, Then the Devil leaveth him.
We use to send Spials after our enemies in battle, to mark where they take up their lodging, whether they march fairly from us, or whether they are put to flight. After the rule of this policy it may concern us, you see, to note whither the Adversary betook himself when he departed from Christ. So that the next question is not unnecessary to be answered, to what place he went upon the leaving our Savior. Some do so interpret it, as if this mighty Fury before these temptations were cast out of heaven into the earth, but from that time that Christ rebuked him, and bad him avant further, he went away from the earth to the lowest darkness: And that Beelzebub was bound he should hurt the earth no more in his own person, but only by his Instruments. Binding is metaphorically taken to be bridled from doing mischief, if not altogether, yet at least in some restraint: So our Lord speaks in a Parable, Mat. xii. 29. that in casting out Devils, he entered into the strong man's house, and bound that strong man, and spoiled his house. Bound him from tormenting those whom Christ would spare. But as yet he was not bound in chains of eternal darkness. No less than three of the Fathers, Irenaeus, Hilary, and Jerome expound that in the xii of St. Matth. by this place of my Text, that the strong man was bound when Christ retorted all his temptations. As yet he is loose to do hurt, and shall be loose for the trial of the Elect, and for the punishment of ungodly doers, till Christ have gathered all his Saints about him in the Kingdom of heaven. The evil Angels are reserved unto judgment, it is St. Peters phrase, they shall find the worst at last, and that they know well enough; for when our Savior dealt roughly with them, and even afflicted them with some pain, as it is supposed, when he cast them out of men possessed, they expostulate it as an injury, Art thou come to torment us before the time? As who should say, What? Tormented before the day of Judgment? I like it not therefore to have it so expounded, that the Tempter went from Christ to take up his lodging in Hell forever? Surely, against the Passion of our Lord, the Prince of darkness, and all his Litter, had their free exercise to stir up enemies against him more than ever. Says he, This is your hour, and the power of darkness, Luke xxii. 53. And if that were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If they might use the Master so, what exemption can the Servants expect? They may rove about, and hurt the world till the day of Judgment: They thought they asked but their due when a Legion of them petitioned not to be sent in Abyssum, into the bottomless pit of Hell at that time, and not to be committed to that woe sooner than the last and dreadful day of the Lord.
He had his license then, when he went from Christ, to go to and fro in any place of the earth, and to walk up and down in it; as he once answered God in the history of Job, Quocunque eunt sua secum supplicia circum ferunt; Wheresoever they go they carry torments about with them, Envy, Desperation, the terror of endless Wrath to come, and unspeakable vexedness to be deprived of the vision of God's glory. These are the Plagues that cleave unto them who depart from Christ. But how is it intelligible that this banished Spirit could leave our Savior? Adam when he was new fallen was no wiser than a new-born babe, that hid himself from God: And as Adam had lost the spirit of Innocency, so Jonas had lost the spirit of Prophesy when he fled away by shipping from him, whose dominion is in the Sea, and his right hand in the Flouds From him therefore Satan could not go, from the light of his countenance, from the comfort of his face he might go. Nemo loco, sed iniquitate à Deo elongatur; No distance of place is remote from him, who is with everything, and about all things, and in all things; He is as much in that place which every Creature takes up as the Creature itself, yet without any impediment to the locality of it; but our iniquities separate between God and us, and where there is the most sin, there is the greatest separation. But to come to the plainest, and most textual answer, Christ's Manhood is not receptive of Omnipresency, so the Devil left his Human Nature for a season, and was not near it; he went away to seek out those with whom he might more probably skirmish to get a victory. If I should say, the Tempter went not far from thence, but hovered somewhere about Judea, the conjecture were not altogether without a foundation; reason leads me to think he was very inquisitive about our Savior's ways, and watchful to espy what miracles he wrought, what he said, how he might stir up enemies, and unbelievers against him, and some, worse than Parricide, to betray him. St. Luke says, He left him but for a season, after these temptations, as if he were ever in harmsway to offend him. But above all, I perceive by another of the Evangelists, that the brood of Hell frequented the Land of Jury, in the days of our Savior, more than all other places in the earth, a Legion of them in one man, many Regiments of them in others that were possessed. There was their Theater to play their wicked part, where the Gospel might be most offended, rather than in all the world beside. Therefore St. Mark says, one of the Devils, which he cast out, besought him that he would not send him out of that Country, Mar. v. 10. They should want work in unfrequented places: Idolatrous Cities, though most populous, were their own already; their quickest trade lay in Judea at this time, here grew the unwillingness to leave that Country: But now it is time to leave that question, to what place Satan shifted when he was commanded to leave our Savior. Give ear to the next question, Whether ever he returned again?
It is St. Luke's meaning, that we should take notice he returned again, and infested our Savior after this bout, for he says his departure was but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , for a season, and no more. It was but for a short truce indeed, till he had cast about to rise up against Christ in another fashion, not by tempting him to sin, but by exercising his patience under rebukes and misery; and finally, to work his death by treachery. He knew him by this time to be his own Lord against whom he had rebelled, in whom it was impossible to imprint any blot or blemish of iniquity: But because that Human Nature which Christ had assumed into his Person was of the Seed of Abraham, and therefore obnoxious to death; the Devil plotted his destruction from time to time, and wrought his purpose at last by putting it into the heart of Judas to betray him, being not advised out of the Scripture (as he might have been by reason if God had not blinded him) that our Savior by death would overcome death, and pull down the mighty one from his seat by triumphing on the Cross. An ordinary curse ever since upon malicious persons, the ruin of those, against whom they are bent, falls upon their own head, and crusheth them to pieces. But this was the service for which Satan returned again, to vex his body after a season, because his soul was spotless, to oppose his prosperity because he could not hurt his virtue. Thus Bonaventure compriseth it, Tentavit emollire per blanditias, sed modicum tempus tentabit frangere per miserias. Now he tried our Savior with fair offers, after a while he will thrust at him with foul calamities: Now his own hand is in the work, but then his Instruments.
The use of it shall come home to ourselves thus: The Lord sometimes takes off our foe from us, and gives us breathing time after temptations, it is but for a season, not to flatter ourselves with quietness and security, but to repair our ruins to keep out the batteries that will ensue. It is but a refreshing after the fit of an Ague, the sick day is coming again: Like a calm upon the Sea, while a sweet gale blows, what; sensible man will not have all things ready for a tempest? Remember the Parable, Luke xi. And what the unclean Spirit said, I will return into my house from whence I came. Like the Assyrian Soldiers, when they had once found the way into the Land of Judea they could never be dealt withal to forget it; Hezekiah, or whosoever might hire them to go home again for one year, but the next Summer following they were sure to make a new invasion. And do not stand too much upon affiance, I have conquered these and these temptations often, I dare trust myself now upon the brink of these sins, and shall never be thrust in; to make such security more doubtful and suspicious Cassianus hath a fit similitude; says he, A Fox will stretch himself for dead that Poultry may come into his reach and never fear him; yet if they do stalk towards him, they shall find to their cost he is not past doing mischief: So the Tempter will give back, as if he were fled forever, but he departs only for a more seasonable opportunity, and will return again with seven spirits worse than himself, when you are worst prepared. The holiest Fathers of the Church had flesh and frailty in them, and can speak in this point as well by Experience as by Art and Meditation, and this is their common verdict, Quo valentius vincitur, eo ardentius ad insidias instigatur. If he be vanquished by him that is strong in faith, it sharpens his edge the more to make his part good again by Art and subtlety. And so much for this last Point upon the first general part, Satan departed from Christ but for a season.
But now he is gone, though like a Wolf regardant, looking back upon the Flock from which he was beaten: And Christ had such company in exchange, that my Text bids us mark and see the succession that followed, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him. This Particle of wonder, Behold, is a Dial or Index to three things: First, To note a moral alteration, a lewd one is dismissed to receive an holy train in his room; here was an accursed Spirit parleying with Christ, instead of him here is a volly of Angels. Whosoever he be that hath taken delight in the company of wicked men, and sorted himself with those that have not the fear of God before their eyes, let him cast them off, and abandon their Society, and he shall find heavenly comforters in his soul, as if Angels ministered unto him. Qui expellit à se Satanam, allicit ad se Angelos; Bid Satan get him hence, and the Angels take it for an invitation that they should pitch their Pavilions round about you. Lot lived like a stranger in his own City, and conversed not with the men of Sodom, they called him a stranger, he shut himself up, and bar'd his doors against those filthy people: What could he do more to keep the ungodly from his very sight, as David said? Thus estranging himself from the conversation of pernicious sinners he made himself sit to give hospitality to Angels. A good Lesson for these times, wherein ribbald roaring company is rather sought for than declined. A strange thing, that a Christian, who feels some comfort in Christ, and desires salvation in his blood, should, with so much affection and longing, thrust himself among them, whose desperate behavior is easily perceived, if repentance help not, to tend to utter damnation. St. Paul was weary of his own body, called it a body of death, and groaned to be delivered from it because the Flesh rebelled against the Spirit. Did he loath himself that he might love Christ the more? And will you invite those into your friendship and fellowship that blaspheme Christ? Shake off this dust from your feet, all profane, intemperate, lascivious persons from your familiarity, if either you expect that God should give his Angels charge of you in this life, or make you partakers of their fellowship of heavenly glory in the life to come.
The next thing towards which we turn our eyes at this word behold, is the alteration of rest and quietness; before, there were assaults, and troubles, and molestations, all this is changed in a moment into peace and tranquility, which shall be the certain issue of all those that fight a good fight with patience, Semper asperiora laetiorum vicissitudine mitigantur; Rough beginnings have joyful events, by the temperature and vicissitude of God's gracious mercy. Such as were called prosperous among the heathen, most usually the best share of their fortune was in the forepart of their life, and their end was lamentable; the seven first years in Pharaohs dream did betoken plenty, but the seven last years famine and scarcity; the head of Nebuchadonosors Image was of Gold, and the toes of Clay; the rich man had a great time of gathering, more than he knew where to bestow it, but in one night lost his soul and all. This is an unkind, and an unnatural method to taste the sweetest at the top of the Cup, and after a little sipping to have our teeth set on edge with Aloes. Doth it not taste better when the gracious providence turns the lot thus? First, a Deluge, and then a Rainbow: First, a Captivity, and then a joyful return: First, a Dioclesian, and then a Constantine: First, the impugnation of the Devil, and then the Congratulation of Angels. Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labor until the evening, says the Psalmist: There is a time to give the body a cessation from toil; and do you think the Lord doth not measure out, when he will give the soul and spirit relaxation from misery? As a stranger is received at night, and bids God b'you in the morning; so indignation, and the severity of chastisement are stangers unto the Lord's clemency, he calls vengeance Peregrinum opus, his strange work, Isa. xxviii. Therefore it shall be dismissed from him like a stranger, after it hath staid a while. Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, Psal. xxx. 6. Tentations have their bout, and the storms of hell their period, but the good Angels know their qu when to enter, and to turn the scene, Behold the Angels came and ministered unto him.
And once more this note of admiration, Behold, bids us regard to what alteration of dignity the truly humble are called, Recusavit dominatum in homines, & habet imperium in Angelos. Our Savior turned away from that ambitious suggestion, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: He desired not to have a Kingdom in this world, or to have the pre-eminence of men, and loe the pre-eminence over Angels is given unto him: And it is more dignity to have two Angels minister unto him than to have ten thousand Kingdoms. Every part of Christ's humility was inlaid with honor to recompense it. To be laid in a Manger was not so vile as it was most magnificent to be adored of the Wisemen of the East; to be visited by Shepherds was not so contemptible, as it was most glorious to be proclaimed of Angels. To ride upon an Ass was not of such debasement, but the cry of the children made amends, Hosanna, blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. It savoured not so much of infirmity to be tempted of the Devil, but it is supplied as much with Majesty to be attended by the Cherubims. No part of his humility went without a reward from the first to the last; nay, the last part had amends made for all. He humbled himself unto the death, even unto the death of the Cross, propter quod, wherefore God hath highly exalted him, &c. Humility was his direct way to glory; but we think we are out of the way to promotion unless we shift and shuffle for the highest place, and the chiefest room in the Synagogues. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first; This is a riddle to them that love to set their feet upon a rising ground. Yet David hath laid a curse upon preposterous ambition that it shall decline, That which should have been for their wealth, says he, let it be unto them an occasion of falling. The holy Father Basil lost no honor in this life by shunning the dignity which was intended him, and flying away into obscurity, when he was called to be a Bishop. The Apostle Bartholomew is reported in some histories to have been of the blood royal of the Kings of Egypt. Was it any diminution to him to have left all to be a poor Disciple? Is there any Christian King that doth not wish he had rather born his Office of Apostleship than have swayed a Scepter? When Princes die their honor shall not follow after them, but those twelve humble ones of our Savior's train shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel. If spiritual thoughts will lift a man up to heaven; an humble man is mounted above the earth all the while he seeks those things which are above. Themislius, an holy man, put this Lesson in so pure a verse, as it is beyond translation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his heart sunk down when ambition puffed him up: but he felt his feet upon the Angels Ladder going up when humility cast him down. Our Savior despised all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and behold Angels came and ministered unto him.
From this note or preface of attention I pass on to their person that came to minister unto Christ, and they are Angels. As the Philistines stood on a Mountain on the one side, and Israel on a Mountain on the other side, and there was a Valley between them from whence both the Armies might behold their two Champions David and Goliath fight it out: So I dispute not against their conjecture that say, the good Angels stood gazing from one prospect, and the bad Angels from another, to mark which way the Victory of this Duel would incline between Christ and Satan. On the good Angels part this is certain, we are put to no trial by our enemies visible or invisible, but they come gladly to the speed of it, and look upon us both with compassion and admiration. We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to Angels, and to men, says St. Paul. As the Heathen did flock in multitudes to the Theaters to see the Christians cast unto wild beasts to be eaten, which was no little part of their persecution, that their enemies fed their eyes in sport with their misery: So the blessed powers of heaven came to behold the same spectacle, to compassionate that cruelty, and to fortify the sufferance of the Saints. And if they can be content to be present at the skirmishes of the Scholars; can it be supposed they would be away at this time, when the Master of the fence was to play his Prize? Beloved, to put this further, sometimes the Angels gave attendance to Moses Law, and the Law itself was delivered by a Mediator in the hands of Angels. But their study and delight was such in the Gospel of Christ, that they gave all diligence to learn and understand it in all the mysteries. St. Paul says that he was a Minister to preach the grace of God, and to teach the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, says he, To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. iii. 10. A most observable Text of Scripture, that the Angels of heaven are the learneder for noting those passages which are taught touching the Mysteries of our salvation in this Church on earth. And St. Chrysostom, the loudest Trumpet of that Apostles glory among all the Fathers, cries out, See if Paul be not an Evangelist as well unto Angels as unto men. This is marvelous, and not to be admitted as if the good Angels knew not the Incarnation of Christ before, and the calling of the Gentiles. For how could they be ignorant of those divine Lessons which were so obvious and common in all the Prophets? Admitting then that the whole substance of that Doctrine was known unto them long before, yet many circumstances were revealed unto them by the actions and passions of the Church in after-time. What then? Was Paul, or are we able to explain anything for the better capacity of Angels? No certainly. Non addiscunt per Ecclesiam docentem, sed per ea quae geruntur in Ecclesiâ. Those principal intellectual spirits do not profit by the preaching of our Ministry, but by things managed experimentally in the Church, which were not so clear in Prophesy, or speculation, as when time revealed them. They knew that Christ should bruise the Serpents head, but when they saw it actually performed in repelling the three antecedent temptations, then the mystery of God was made known unto them experimentally by the Church. Those significations of the Gospel which the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, even those things the Angels desire to look into; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to stoop down and look into, as Peter and John stooped to look into the Sepulcher, that is, bowed down in humility to look into the great mystery of the Resurrection. They are not inanes speculatores, fond and curious gazers, but most observant and most humble learners, they will stoop unto the knowledge of the wisdom of God. And that the Angels did note and pry into all things which our Savior did in the dispensation of his Mediatorship, the posture of the Cherubims upon the Ark is no unsignificant Figure: Says God, The faces of the Cherubims shall be toward the mercy seat, Exod. xxv. 20. As if the Angels did never cast their eye off from Christ our Propitiator from the Mercy Seat; but did continually desire him in the fullness of time to have mercy upon Zion. So I have made it known, that such diligent attendants, who listened faithfully to all the occurrencies of the Gospel, must needs be at hand when Christ had ended his combat with the Devil.
And so ready at hand, that it is noted, these Angels are not said to descend from heaven, as if they had been far off in another world, but to come and minister, which betokens a near attendance, They came and ministered unto him. And now Satan sees more by the event, by this officious service of the Angels, than he could extort by all his temptations. Homo est quem ipse tentat, Deus cui ab Angels ministratur; He must be a man that suffered such temptations, but he must be a God that had such Ministers. Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, Mat. xx. 28. That is, in St. Paul's words, He took upon him the form of a servant, Phil. ii. 7. For the very form of a man is the form of a servant. Yet this servant thinks it no robbery to be equal with that God to whom all the powers in heaven and in earth do bow and obey. But wherefore came the Angels now? Do they come to bring assistance when the Devil was vanquished, and had left our Savior? This were as the Adagie goes, Post bellum auxilium; Choraebus brought succors to the Siege of Troy when the fray was ended. They miss of the right intention that think the Angels came for this end: It was not to strengthen him against his enemy that was beaten and vanquished, but to minister and stand before him for these reasons: First, possibly to spread a Table for him in the Wilderness, and bring him meat, because he had now fasted forty days and forty nights without intermission. Not as if he could not be supplied without their provision, but it was his pleasure they should attend upon his diet, to let his enemy see there was another way to feed his body than to make stones of bread. And this was it, it may be, that plurally many Angels came to minister unto him. Had they been required barely to provide him necessaries, one Angel could have brought enough of sustenance to give one man a meal, but because this was intended not for any necessary relief towards his person, but to show his excellency above those heavenly hosts, Behold a multitude stood round about him, and Angels came and ministered unto him. Secondly, they might come to comfort him after these many Agonies he had with the powers of darkness. Ad solatium refero, so Calvin on my Text. When he prayed earnestly in the Garden to have the Cup pass from him, there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven strengthening him, Luke xxii. 43. This was their promptness to do all dutious offices to the Son of God, Non ex necessitate, sed ex officio, not for necessity, as if he wanted such as they, but out of bounden obsequiousness. Toward us their care and charity is truly necessary, and their friendship to succor us in our conflicts is the mercy of God; as the Angels took up Lazarus to heaven after much want and poverty into Abraham's bosom. Thirdly, they ministered unto him, may be well interpreted, they worshipped and adored him; For when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the Angels of God worship him.
Their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Heb. i. ult. that is, their Ministry is for the praise and glory of God, whether it be that they sing Alleluja to him in heaven, or help his Saints upon earth all is one, the one work or the other are both of them their Liturgies: For they minister only to Christ, or for their sakes that shall be heirs of the Promise; as St. Paul said, He sustained all things for the El • ct, 2 Tim. ii. Therefore it is an over-curious, yea, and false distinction to put degrees between Angels, that some laud the Lord continually before his Throne some minister to his Church; and nothing for the foundation of it but this Prophetical place, Dan. vii. 10. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand thousands stood before him. There they stood indeed, only to be sent away of the Lord's Errand when he should dispatch them. For what Scripture can be clearer than the foresaid place? Are they not all ministering Spirits? Let the Sectaries of Thomas limit it, and distinguish upon it an hundred ways, but the Context of the Chapter will never bear it. For first, the manner of the Apostles bringing it out, nonne omnes? Are they not all so? An Interrogation, as if that were a common notion, and never doubted. Secondly, in the precedents it cannot be shifted but that he speaks of them all, excepts none, To whom of the Angels did God say, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Thirdly, if he did compare Christ but with one part, and not with all the Angels, the Hebr • ws would have excepted against the main scope of his Epistle, that Christ was not more excellent than all creatures above all comparison. Let it be grounded then for the conclusion of all against the fancies of the Pseudo-Dionysius, all are ministering Spirits, In ministerium Christi propter homines, lent unto us out of pity and charity, but attending Christ out of homage and duty. His they are, so we call them now by faith, and such we shall perceive them to be by Vision at the last day, Mat. xvi. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of the Father with his Angels. AMEN.
VII SERMONS UPON The Transfiguration OF OUR SAVIOUR.
THE FIRST SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.
LUKE ix. 28, 29.
And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white, and glistering.
B ECAUSE St. Luke doth more completely narrate all the circumstances of our Savior's Transfiguration than the other Evangelists; therefore I have chosen to entreat out of his words upon that glorious miracle. I confess he that reacheth this mystery, must ascend with Peter, and James, and John, he must climb up to an exceeding high mountain of speculation, which toucheth the very heavens. But why should that confuse you, (Dearly beloved) when there is so much pure glittering, and illumination upon the mountain? our Savior's face shined with glory, for his Gospel is perspicuous: Moses ane Elias, the Law and Prophets were clear and lightsome, and the cloud which overshadowed the place, I mean the virtue of the Holy Ghost will embrighten all obscurity. There is hope then out of the explication of this story, that you shall all be transfigured from darkness into light, and from ignorance perhaps in some part into the knowledge of the truth.
And whereas I have purposely destined this work apart for this time of the year, I think I have begun it in the ripest opportunity. I find among ancient Liturgies, that the miracle of the Transfiguration was the Gospel appointed for the second Sunday in Lent: the reasons were two, partly to exhort all Christians in strictest times of penitence to be transformed into new men, partly because it is certain this strange accident fell out in the beginning of the Spring, not long before our Savior's Passion: for Moses and Elias came to tell him a short while before his death what he should suffer at Jerusalem. Yet again I find in the old Latin Calender, that some Churches kept a Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixth day of August. But this was done upon a fancy, they call it a Tradition, that when Christ bad his Disciples not to tell as yet of those things they saw upon the mountain, till a more convenient time, they obeyed, and revealed it not in five months following till the sixth of August; and upon the publication of these things at that season, they did consent to honor the memorial of the day with the celebration of a Feast. Without prejudice to those ancient customs be it spoken, I have a surer ground to stand upon, that this is the proper time to preach upon it, soon after the great Feast of our Savior's Resurrection is accomplished. My authority is Matth. 17.9. As the three disciples came down from the mountain, Christ charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead. And beside it shall appear in due order, that the principal scope of the Transfiguration was to learn us, what the excellency and glorification of a body shall be that is raised from the dead.
But because it is fit to work in the Lord's Vineyard at any hour of the day, and to dress this Tree of Life, the holy Scripture, in every bough and branch at any instant and occasion of time; therefore cutting off that Preface, I will mark out those things which are fit to be handled severally in the words now read unto you, and they be four, quando; quibuscum; quâ humilitate; quâ gloriâ: at what time Christ was transfigured; what associates he took with him; with what humility he prepared himself; with what glory he was dignified. The Time is noted by three circumstances, dicta, dies, iter. 1. After some sayings he had uttered. 2. About an eight days after those sayings. 3. When he had gone up to a mountain. In the second branch, his associates are Peter, John, and James: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he took them to see his glory, it was his association. St. Mark adds by way of emphasis, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he took three only, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , privatim, he sequestered them apart from this world, that they might see his glory. Thirdly, he prepared himself for this illustrious accident in great humility, inter precandum, he had prostrated himself before his Father in prayer. And then fourthly, this majestical glory came upon him two ways; quoad vultum, quoad vestitum, in his person, in his apparel, in his flesh an astonishing radiancy, the fashion of his countenance was altered; in his clothes an admirable purity, his raiment was white and glistering. I cannot be copious upon so many particulars; of some more largely, of the most succinctly.
In the first circumstance of all, the Spirit of God hath noted out the Time, and therefore I must not balk it, no not in any of the three respects, post dicta, post dies, post it • r. First, after those sayings, says my Text: inquiry shall be made what words those be, and with whom he had that communication, which went before the demonstrance of his glory in two preceding verses in this chapter. Christ exhorted his Disciples and many others to the assurance of his Cross, and that they might know he was able to recompense their sorrows, who endured affliction for his name sake; yea, and would recompense it, he speaks thus, The Son of man shall come in his own glory, and in his Fathers, and of the holy Angels; and I tell you of a truth, there he some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God. He refers the multitude to look for the last day of judgment, when he would come in infinite Majesty to call the World before him; but he refers certain nameless persons to expect after a while a pregustation of some heavenly apparition, wherein they should see how he would be clothed with power and excellency, when he came to sit upon his Throne, and to call the Nations before him, they should not taste of death, till they saw a spectacle of the Kingdom of God in his transfiguration: This was the occasion which made him exhibit his body with that glorious luster in the Mount: and yet some have ignorantly distorted those words to another purpose: There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God: what doth it mean say they, but that John the Disciple, whom Jesus loved, should live till the last day of judgment, as the report went among the Brethren, how that disciple should not die. Thus Theophylact, and the counterfeit Hypolitus: that error which hath run through so many Pens grew from hence, that when Peter being told with what death he should glorify God; asked, What should become of his fellow Disciple John? Christ gave him no clear satisfaction (because his question deserved it not) but only thus, If I will that he stay till I come, what is that to thee, follow th •• me. Let it be but probably discovered what coming Christ speaks of, and there is no great perplexity in the saying. Attend therefore; this coming is nothing less than that great coming in personal Majesty at the last day, but his coming in wrath and judgment against the Nation of the Jews to punish them, and quite to extirpate their seed from Jerusalem. Touching this coming by the fury of the Romans to execute his vengeance, St. James speaketh to the faithful converted from Judaism, and then sore afflicted by the Synagogue; Be ye patient, and stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, Jam. v. 8. Whereas therefore ancient stories have delivered unto us, that all the other Apostles were swept away by Martyrdom before the final destruction of Jerusalem, only John outlived that time, even till the reign of Trajan. This then is a plain meaning of our Savior's answer, if I will that he live till that dismal day, when I come to destroy this people which hath crucified me, what is that to thee Peter, thou shalt never see that day; but prepare thyself before for a speedier Martyrdom. And to what use should the Apostle live a mortal life upon earth unto the end of the world, and yet never appear to any man? he lived to see the coming of God's judgments against the holy City, and he, together with Peter and James, lived to see a mirror of celestial glory in the Transfiguration, that's the meaning of our Savior's promise going before my Text; There be some standing here, who shall not taste of death, until they see the Kingdom of God.
It follows to be noted in the observation of the Time, that after these sayings he fulfilled his word, neither at the instant, nor after a long distance, but about an eight days after these sayings: It was neither so quickly dispatched, before they had meditated upon it, nor so long put off, that they could forget it: be it about an eight days, or about eight thousand ages, it is but a little while to God, who measures all things by Eternity. Now in these words, which are the very front of the story, there are two days odds in the relations of the Evangelists: St. Luke, you hear, says about an eight days after; St. Matthew and St. Mark, after six days. Doth not this account differ? no, not a whit: six days complete did go between his sayings and his mighty work; St. Matthew and the other speak of that time only: but in a part of one day, he had said, there be some standing here who shall not taste of death until they see the Kingdom of God: in part of another day He took those three up into the mountain, and so St. Luke computes exactly, 'twas about an eight days after those sayings. So hath the Divine wisdom disposed, that the same thing should be repeated in several Gospels with some alteration of phrase, but with no difference or contradiction, and that for two causes. When outwardly there seems to be some disagreement between the Text of one Evangelist and another, these difficulties do whet our industry to study the book of God: there must be knots and mysteries hard to be understood, ut homo semper discat, Deus semper doceat, that man may always learn, and God may always teach unto the end of the world. 2. Says another, si per omnia consentirent, nemo putarent eos seorsim scripsisse, if they had all jumpt in the same words quite throughout, (as some say of the 72 Interpreters in the Old Testament ) it might have been imagined that the Gospels were not writ at distinct times, and in distinct places; now the dissonancy of their phrase doth warrant us to say, that the Evangelists did not cast their heads together, when they committed the Scriptures to writing, but wrote apart; and yet the same spirit which was in them all brought out an harmony of the same truth from several Authors; apprehend it if you will by this vulgar similitude: A Gardener curious in devices, had taught four several learners to draw the same artificial knot upon the ground, and every of the four laid out his knot as he was instructed upon several beds, but each set it with several kinds of herbs; you will not say I hope but the knot is the same, albeit the herbs planted upon it are different. So all the four Evangelists were taught by one Holy Ghost to draw out the same model of our Savior's life, his Transfiguration, his Passion, his Resurrection: the herbs indeed with which every Gospel is planted are divers, the narrations differ in words; but that's the excellency of the truth of our Gospel, that in several phrases everyone of those holy Scribes sets down the same Lord Jesus Christ. This I have added to the illustration of this seeming difference, after six days Christ was transfigured, 'tis true; and as true, it was about an eight days after these sayings.
The last respect unto the time is joined with the place, this Transfiguration fell out after he was gone up into a mountain to pray. A valley is as capable of God's glory as a mountain, for God is God of the valleys as well as of the hills, whatsoever Benhadad the King of Syria said to the contrary: but Christ chose this high hill as well for the exercise of Prayer, as for the mystery of his Transformation: there may seem to be two intentions that he desired such a place for prayer, quia coeli conspectus liberior, quia solitudo major: First upon the higher ground there is the more free contemplation of Heaven, the place to which we lift up our eyes and our hearts in prayer; for though our Lord is everywhere, both in heaven and earth, and under the earth, yet thither we advance our devotions as to the chief Throne of his Majesty. Next our Savior left a concourse of people beneath, and went to the mountain to pour out his devotions there as in a solitary sequestration, where he should not be troubled. Into such unfrequented hills he did often retire alone, as if he would teach us to bid all the world adieu, and all earthy thoughts, when we utter our supplications before our heavenly Father: neither doth it seem expedient to act the miracle of the Transfiguration upon a meaner Theater than an exceeding high mountain, to show what ascensions must be in their soul who have a desire to be exalted to God's glory. Our heart, according to its own evil inclination, cleavs unto the dust like a serpent, our thoughts are of low stature like Zachaeus, if they will climb up, let it be for no other end, or errand, but, as he did, to see Christ. There are two mountains, says Bernard, which we must ascend, but not both at once. First, there is the mountain where the Son of God did preach, Mat. v. and after that go up to the mountain where he was transfigured, Mat. 17. Non solum meditemur in praemiis, sed etiam in mandatis Domini: I beseech you first meditate upon the Sayings and Commandments of God, and afterward upon his Transfiguration, upon the reward of glory: and not, as it is the vain custom of the world, run on presumptuously upon assurance of glorification, and to forget the true order, first to ascend upon the mountain of obedience.
If you think it material to my expositions, to know what mountain this was on which the dignity of this great work did befall, you shall be informed in that also; I know none but Ephrem the Syrian, that says it was Mount Sinah: He had his fetch, oportebat in eo suggeftu consignari novum testamantum, in quo conscriptum fuit vetus: it behooved, he speaks as if he would appoint God, it behooved the New Testament to be chiefly honored in that place where the old Law was delivered: But God is not bound to man's witty divinations; for this Mountain, as it appears in our Savior's journeys, was in Galilee, and Sinai is in Arabia, Galat. iv. 25. St. Jerome did long dwell and study in the Region of Judea, and he says in his Epitaph or Funeral farewell to Paula, that it was Mount Tabor: And Euthymius interserts as much, Psa. lxxxix. 13. upon those words, Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. This was so constantly believed, that Helen the Mother of Constantine built a Church upon that ground, to celebrate the place where Christ had been wonderfully dignified: and if relations deceive us not, there are the ruins of two little Chapels more upon Mount Tabor at this day, erected by some superstitious conceit, because St. Peter said, Master, let us build here three Tabernacles. All that I read beside is in Josephus, that it was the most craggy and steepy high place in all Galilee, in some parts inaccessible, the fitter to resemble the Kingdom of Heaven, to which we cannot ascend but in one rugged path, repentance and faith: And the Historian, who was a famous Captain, also adds, that he built a wall about it in 40 days, that the Jews might defend themselves there, as in a strong Castle, from the incursion of the Romans. It is more than all these have said, that S. Peter calls it the Holy Mount: This voice we heard when we were with him in the holy mount: Holy because the Sacred Trinity did open itself in that place, as I will show hereafter: holy, because Jesus the Holy of Holies did shine there in the bright luster of beatitude: not as if there were any holiness in the soil, and all other earth profane: God did not mean so, when he said to Moses, Put off thy shoos from thy feet, for the place on which thou standest is holy ground; but because it puts an holy reverence into a man that approacheth either in body or mind, and thinketh seriously what wonders were done upon that holy Mountain. So I have done with the first part of my Text, the circumstance of time and place, which is the entrance into this Miracle: It cannot be unpleasant to examine the smallest parcels of such divine works to them that love the History of Christ.
In the next general part we read, as there was choice of time and place, so there was choice of persons, He took Peter, and John, and James. What a-do should we have had with some men if none but Peter had followed his Master into the Mountain upon this glorious occasion? as it is Leo caught hold of it to speak strange words, and such as may amuse the Reader. The Lord did take Peter into the fellowship of the indivisible Trinity. When the Wolf in the Fable peept into the Shepherds house, and saw him and his servants dress a Lamb to be eaten; says the Wolf, what a stir would have been made if I had done as much? So I dare be bold to say, what quarrels and exclamations there would have been if Luther or Calvin had said as much: But Leo had tenter'd St. Peters praise to the height, because he claimed himself to have a Prerogative by his succession. Yet it is well to take off all claim of supremacy by this instance, that John and James were in the company. Non infra Charites, said the Latin Proverb, a good meeting was spoiled if there were less than the number of three, the number of the Graces: but Christ did not choose so many, because it was the fittest number, but we must believe it was the fittest number, because He chose so many; neither was his force united by their company to do anything the better, as it useth to be among men, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; but being destinated to be witnesses of this same Miracle, the Law had said it was a complete testimony to confirm anything by the mouth of three; and Christ was punctual, that the Jews might not cavil, as if He were defective in any circumstance of the Law. St. Ambrose is very elegant in a mystical acuteness, he says thus; the glory of the Resurrection is that we hope for, the way to that glory is to believe in the holy Trinity, and to ground them in the belief of that Trinity, Christ did not exceed that mystical number, but assumed three Disciples to be present with him in Mount Tabor, when Christ in visible splendor, the Father in the voice, the Holy Ghost in the bright cloud, did manifest themselves upon the Mountain.
And when our Lord had chosen twelve Disciples out of all the people in Judea, it seems these three were the choice of that choice, and the flower of that company, selected for great matters: If it be an honorable thing, as St. Chrysostom rightly holds it, to be in the List of those friends whom Paul saluted, Rom. xvi. then it cannot but be more renowned, to be those egregii assumpti e grege, those egregious servants whom Christ employed above all the rest, all the Apostles, Judas excepted were David's Worthies, but they attained not unto the first three. Somewhat was in it, that whereas it was usual for our Savior to be followed with three attendants at least, wheresoever He went to work a Miracle, that we never find him vary, but constantly to accept these same three, and no other: as when He raised up the Maiden to life, Mark v. 37. and when He prayed, and fell into his agony in the Garden before his Passion, Matth. xxvi. 37. and at this Miracle in my Text, when He made his glory to appear. That excellency paramount which some have observed in these three above their fellows is this: In signis primus corruscavit Petrus, sanguinem primus fudit Jacobus, doctrinâ illustris fuit Johannes. Peter is more noted in the book of the Acts than any of the Twelve for working Miracles: James was the first among the Twelve that suffered Martyrdom: and John was the Eagle that fored highest of them all in his Doctrine and Divinity. What aptness there was in these three more than others I know not, I leave it to God to give the grace of dispensation to one more than another, who alone knoweth the heart, and sees what is fittest for his own glory. We see no outward sign to discover that they were better prepared to see this Vision than the rest of their fellows: they slept when they should have watched, and they spake most ignorantly when they awoke, as if they bad been still asleep: therefore modesty will give no conjecture why they were preferred before their Brethren, but the bare will of Christ, who will exalt those more conspicuously than others whom He is pleased to honor. As God said, that He gave the Law to the Israelites, not that they were better than their Neighbors, but because the Lord had a pleasure in them, and in their forefathers. It is not obscurely taught in the verb assumpsit, He assumed and took to him Peter, and John, and James, what indisposition they had of themselves to receive such heavenly things: and in all supernatural works we rather draw back, than help on: we had need to pray for God's assumpsit, to take us up unto it: this corruptible body, and corrupt affections press down the soul. Nemo venit ad me nisi Pater traherit eum, saith Christ, no man cometh unto me unless the Father draw him. There is a preparatory, grace wherewith God invites us to salvation; but his mercy stays not there, for there is a special grace over and above that wherewith He draws us. Draw me and I will run after thee, says the Spouse. Hale us un to thee, O Lord, and pluck us on with the cords of love; our heart is heavy unto death, and cannot follow unless the Father draw us unto him. Coge nos intrare cum Coecis & claudis: We are those blind and lame in the Gospel, I beseech thee, O Father, compel us to come unto thy Feast. These three famous Apostles were not forward of themselves to ascend up to the holy Mountain, but assumpsit, their Lord and Savior took them with him.
It were impertinent to observe some men's needless labor in their questions, why Andrew was none of this Coram, none of the three prime, being the first of them all that followed Christ, Joh. i. 40. and the instrument that brought Simon Peter his brother to see the Messias? Why should it trouble us that he was omitted? For we never read in the Gospel that it troubled him; his eye was not evil because his Masters was good, since the Holy Ghost fell down upon them all at the Feast of Whitsuntide, it bred neither repining, nor emulation, that these three were partakers of some private mysteries. St. Chrysostom commends the ingenuity of St. Matthew above all, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . He did not conceal the honor and privilege of those Apostles that were preferred before him. A brave Athenian offering himself in competition with divers, to be one of their grand Council of 50, then newly to be chosen to govern that State, and being left out of the number, used this saying, He was glad there were fifty more sufficient than himself to govern the Commonwealth. So Matthew repin'd not that himself was not in the company, but was glad that Christ had three more eximious than himself to be witnesses of the Transfiguration.
Yet there is a good crop to be reaped out of this question, and no offense shall be committed through curiosity, why the whole Company of the Apostles went not up into the Mountain with our Savior: they had all seen him work many miracles; they had all seen him walk on the sea, to let them know when he pleased his body was not gross and heavy: they did all see him pass through the midst of the Jews untouched, when they sought to stone him, to let them know his body had greater agility than ours, when He pleased, and could pass away undiscerned. But all might not behold in Mount Tabor, what manner of splendor a glorified body should have. What was the reason of the impediment? Damascene thinks the greater part did stay behind, that Judas might not see the beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven, who was reserved for chains of endless darkness. This answer is personal; the next is very plain and literal: Ut mysterium secretius ageretur, many witnesses are not fit to keep a secret, and Christ called out a paucity to stand by at this Solemnization, because he would have it concealed till he was risen from the dead, He bad them tell no man in those days what they had seen, for what reasons it seemed fit unto him to have it carried so privily for a while, I promise to unfold when I come to treat of the 36. verse of this chapter. The third reason is very pat, though it be figurative: though there were very good men left below the Mountain, yet this partition of three in one consort, that did see his glory, nine in another knot who were left out, doth betoken, multi vocati, pauci electi, that many are called, and few be chosen. Moses took up no more than Aaron and Hur when he went up to Mount Horeb to talk with God; Christ took no more than the fourth part of the Apostles when He went up to Mount Tabor that God the Father might talk to him, Major pars remanet terrae adhaerens; the more numerous part of men cleave to the earth below: Elias sits alone upon Mount Carmel like a Sparrow sitting alone upon the house-top. The valleys are too full of them that mind earthly things. Two men went up into the Temple to pray, vel duo, vel nemo, when there is a throng abroad without the Temple. O curvae in terris animae! so much heaven to receive us, (for it is of an incomprehensible capacity) so little earth to possess (for it is but a drop of water, and a crumb of dust) in respect of the world above: yet we strive to enlarge our possessions upon earth, which will not hold many rich inheritors at once, and neglect Heaven, which would contain us all, and afford everyone a Kingdom to reign with God. So far I have collected what I knew fit to be observed upon the three Disciples who did associate our Savior.
It followeth in the third part of the Text, Christ prepared himself for his Glorification with great humility; facta est inter precandum species ejus vultus altera, &c. as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered. Christ need not pray to his Father, as if He that was God and Man in one person could not bring all things to pass without a prayer. That was Martha's error the Sister of Lazarus, Joh. 11. I know now whatsoever thou askest of God He will give it thee; but Christ doth intimate in the same chapter, that without asking, the Father did always hear him; yet, through the whole course of his being abased upon earth, He did make requests unto God upon all occasions, that the Head might fulfil all that righteousness which his Members should perform. The matter of his prayer who is able to recite it what it was, since either He prayed in spirit, and did not lift up his voice; or else prayed a part, that the Disciples did not hear? Or if they did hear, yet they have not imparted the relation of it in the Gospel. This I may safely say, there is a Prayer which would make a very convenient Collect at such a time, Joh. xvii. 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. Surely it sounds well to reason, that he prayed for that which He obtained before He stirred from that place, namely that his Divinity might cast a splendor through his body in a most amiable and visible form, and that a type of the glory of the life to come might be revealed to these three Apostles: even so the same thing must be continually in our supplications, that the glory of Christ may be spread far and wide from Nation to Nation, which is the large of that Petition which himself taught us, Thy Kingdom come.
And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered. O the wise God, that would have the glory of transfiguration fall upon himself at no other time but in the fervor of prayer. Miserable men are those that desire not to be transfigured, and to cast off the old man; but more miserable that think to be transfigured without continual prayer. An Hypocrite would seem to be a transformed man; Satan would appear to have transformed himself into an Angel of light; Hypocrites and Devils all love to make a show of transfiguration, but they did never pray to God to change their inside, which is nothing but filthiness, and to be renewed in the spirit of their mind: or if Hypocrites do pray, it is with such a faint desire, as if they had rather be denied than speed: they are not instant with God, they are not constant, or if you will have a good thing impressed in a rough word, they are not pertinacious: tamdiu orandum, quamdiu transformemur in viros alios; hold on, and cease not to pray, till you be changed into new men. As a Distiller keeps his extractions at the Furnace, till he see them flower and color as he could wish; so, as long as we feel the relics of the old Adam remaining, especially while we feel them reign, and get the dominion over us, we must ply our Savior day and night with a restless devotion, and a flagrant importunity, and I am sure while we pray, not the fashion of our countenance, but the fashion of our heart shall be altered. What a molesting Suitor would Gorgonia the Sister of Nazianzen have been to any Prince upon earth? She was not troublesome to God: yet says Nazienzen she should protest 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , she would make him ashamed to deny her, and never rise up from her knees, till the light of his countenance shined upon her. S. Jerome loved his Nebridius, of whose perseverance in Prayer he testifies, certe sic semper erat orans Deum, ut illi quod optimum esset eveniret; he was an uncessant Petitioner to God, so that nothing befell him, but that which was fittest for him. I opened my mouth and drew in my breath, for my delight was in thy Commandments, says David, Psal. cxix. 131. in which verse is to be understood, that Prayer is the very breath of the spirit, without which the spiritual man can no more live, than the natural man can live without the breath of air: The lungs must be always cooled with the Element of air, and faith must always be enflamed with the breath of supplication. Will you hear the ample commendation of a true Prayer comprised in two words? In quâ tanta sit fides ut speret omnia, tanta devotio ut Deum videatur cogere; let it be strong in faith to hope all things, strong in patience to persist at all times, and I know not what it is not able to effect; to cast mountains into the sea, says Christ, to be transfigured, says my Text, into the glory of God; to bring Peter out of Prison when Herod had locked him up within a brazen Gate, yet then at the dead hour of the night did the Angel bring him forth, and at the same time of midnight Peter found the Church at prayer for his deliverance, Acts xii. 5.
Well, I pray you remember, that when our Savior went up into the Mountain, as well to be transfigured as to pray, yet the Text names this only, that he went up into the mountain to pray; that name stands in chief, and drowns the mention of the other business, as if Prayer were a greater work than that resplendent Transfiguration. And what needed he to pray, but to bring us upon our knees humbly and frequently before his Father, and our Father. As Solomon's Temple had three especial Ornaments, the Golden Candlestick, the Table of Shewbread, and the Altar of Incense; so three things of principal use do correspond to these in the Church of Christ; the Word Preached, which doth enlighten our darkness, is the Golden Candlestick, which is dearer, says David than much fine gold. Instead of the Table of Shewbread we have the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood, the Table of the Lord. And instead of the Altar of Incense we have that which is much sweeter in