A Century of Sermons
So far we have seen what an unnecessary thing it was to propound the making of a Tabernacle at this time, for wheresoever God's glory doth appear there is protection and safety goes with it; it was to as little purpose as if he would have built an Ark like Noah, where there was no fear of a deluge. The children of men shall be safe under the shadow of thy wings, says the Psalmist; there's Tabernacle enough for all that fear him: but Peter is excessive, and would have a plurality of defences, faciamus tria tabernacula, let us make three Tabernacles. Why, shall Moses and Elias part one from another? or shall both be disjoined from Christ: Herein St. Peter was no good Harbinger, for these must lodge together, Evangelium, Lex, & Prophetae unum habent Tabernaculum Ecclesiam Dei; the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Commandments of the Law, the Histories and Predictions of the Prophets make up one Catholic Church dispersed through all places of the World, propagated through all the Ages of the World, unus Pastor, unum Ovile, there is but one Shepherd, and one Sheepfold; and whom God hath joined into one family let not man put asunder into three Tabernacles: Non quaerere debes quàm prudenter hortabatur, sed quàm fervens caritate Dei, says St. Ambrose. If you examine what the Apostle said by wisdom and sage judgment, you shall find a great defect; but if charity and zeal may cover a multitude of faults, here is much to answer for him; love is ready to commit faults by too much presumption, but it is a good argument to excuse them. Peters was an error of love, and so to be passed over with a light reprehension, but whosoever in these days shall set up three Tabernacles in the Church, one for Christ, one for Moses, and one for Elias is a Schismatik: As we have two eyes, and yet they see but one object, and two ears which hear but one sound; so the Law and the Prophets, and the Gospel are the eyes and the ears of a Christian (blessed are the eyes that see what they demonstrate, blessed are the ears that hear what they deliver, for faith cometh by hearing ) yet we see but one Redeemer; there is but one Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus. We hear but one truth, and our hearts and affections must all be of one mind; there is but one Faith, one Christ, one Baptism; there must be but one Church, and one Tabernacle: As Charles Duke of Burgundy said in a Scoff, for his part he loved the Kingdom of France so well, that where it had one King, he wished it had six; so where the Church is one entire Body, one Tabernacle and no more, Satan wisheth it were ten, that there might be strifes among us, I am of Christ, and I for Moses, and I for Elias: even as among the Corinthians, I am of Paul, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. This emulation and Schism comes of it, to make more Tabernacles than one; faciamus tria, &c.
From the Builders and the Fabric I proceed thirdly to the Possessors; one for Thee; one for Moses, and one for Elias: little Cottages, yet Peter considered, they would be somewhat for them that had nothing before. Foxes have holes, and the Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head, ipse faber domum non habuit, he had not an house to lodge in, though they called him the Carpenters Son. Moses was thrust into an Ark of bulrushes, Elias was turned out into the vast Wilderness; Marmoreo tumulo Licinus jacet, & Cato parvo, Pompeius nullo. The mighty men of the World took up all the room from Christ and the Prophets; all that the Apostle could make them were little Canopies of boughs, and glad he had that for them, that they might not want an Habitation. What a narrow thing is man's wit? though our will and desires are infinite, he would confine him that is unconfined, put all the light of the Sun into a Nutshel, take up the vast waters of the Sea into a spoon, that is, comprize all the glory of Christ in a wicker Tabernacle. How shall they praise his name from one end of the world unto the other? How shall he ascend up on high with Majesty and honor? Be thou exalted O God above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth, Psal. lvii. 11. Christ's Kingdom is more communicable than to be thrust into a corner. If they shall say unto you, Behold he is in the desert, go not forth, behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not, Mat. xxiv. 26. In like manner, if they shall say unto you he is in Mount Tabor, or in a Tabernacle, do not regard them; Numen ubique est, he is in heaven, and in earth, and in all deep places. Yet in this unadvised ejaculation it is true, he that will make any fabric for a sanctified end, and out of a religious respect, Faciamus tibi; Let us make it for thee O God was very right, if he had gone no further. Churches are only consecrated, and dedicated to the Almighty, our English name is proof, to go no further, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ say the Greeks, the Lord's house, from thence we say Kyrk or Church by adding words of aspiration. At the erection of the Tabernacle, Exod. xl. 31. At the consecration of the Temple, 2 Kings viii. 11. It pleased God to give a manifest sign from heaven that he possessed both. And because the Lord did so solemnly show his honor in those excellent places, therefore it is fit they should be appropriated to him by us with a most solemn dedication, both to make them public for sacred offices, and that the builders may surrender their right, and make God the owner forever, and to make it awful to every man, that they be not polluted with profane abuse. What, says St. Paul, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Where you see, even before Churches were erected, he gave an admonition Prophetically, that these two are things for several places, to eat and to drink customarily, and to pray and preach. Christ's Tabernacle indeed must be for our duty belonging to Christ, and for no other service.
And though Peter thought not himself and his fellow Disciples worthy of a Tabernacle, (he thought perhaps they should be quartered with Christ to be his Ministers there) yet he propounds as much for Moses and Elias as he did for our Lord, one for Moses, and one for Elias. It is is the fond and offensive love of superstition to dishonor the Saints when they would heap immoderate honor upon them. He spake far too much when he would exalt them to equal honor with their Maker, and yet he spake it much to their injury when he would deprive them of the beatifical Vision, and sweet Society of Christ. For to confine them to their own Tabernacles was to make them want the joy of their eyes, which the Angels desire to behold, and to see his sweetness these two great Prophets came down from heaven. I am glad Salmeron the Jesuit fell in with me in this Point, says he, they do all fall upon this rock on which Peter did, who are so addicted to some peculiar Saint, that they will equalize him with Christ himself. This is to advance them to equality with God to make Tabernacles and Churches to them as unto God. St. Austin liked not that, and therefore that none might mistake he distinguisheth, Nos Martyribus nostris non templa sicut Diis, sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis fabricamus; We do not erect To the Martys as unto God, but Tombs of remembrance as unto men, whose spirits live with God forever. And in another place we allow them Monuments of honor, but not Altars of divine Service, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says St. Basil; Divine Worship is due to God, an honorable memory to the Martyrs. Herod the Great was at great charge about the Temple of Jerusalem, the work was good, but his end was vain glorious and popular. So men of liberal zeal, but erroneous superstition, built some Sacred Houses, and did impatronize some Saints to be the Tutelary powers of those Churches and Oratories, the work is good, but the end is corrupt; not that the sacred buildings are called by the names of Martyrs and Apostles, as this is by St. Andrew, we use those names by way of mere distinction to know one sacred place from another which perchance they imposed upon superstition. Distinction of names is for variety sake, and to take away confusion. Sometimes by one Saint, sometimes by all the Saints, sometimes known only by the name of the Founder; sometimes some famous work denominates them, as Anastasia or the Resurrection, and St. Sophia or Wisdom, anciently the two most goodly Churches in the world, and both in Constantinople. Usually they are entitled by some renowned Martyr, whose acts are worthy to be had in remembrance. Nay, sometime for mere distinction sake the buildings retain the names of fabulous Saints, as Pope Gelasius himself condemned the Legend of St. George for Apocryphal, they may add St. Christopher, and divers more. Yet the holy Oratories are no more dishonored by those names, than the Days of the Week by the Idol Planets God's, than the Ship which carried St. Paul by the sign of Castor and Pollux, than Daniel who was called Bellishazzar from the Idol Belli! Names of distinction are arbitrary, and inoffensive to the judicious; but Sacraries or Churches, though they carry divers names, are only to be built to God, and consecrated to his Worship, not one for Christ, &c.
Herein as Peter knew not what he said, so he said somewhat which Expositors wonder how he should know, namely, he calls these men Moses and Elias; but how was it revealed to him? The Text intimates how they spake to Christ, but nowhere that Christ spake to them, and used their names to make them familiar and well known. And certainly he had never seen so much as their Pictures to make himself acquainted with the fashion of their countenance. The Jews did hold themselves so strictly to the Letter of the Second Commandment, that they made no Picture or Graven Image without God's especial Commandment. To resolve this doubt almost every Writer hath labored to make his own ingenuous conjecture most probable. Says Theophylact, Moses might say, Thou art the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the World, whose Passion I prefigured in the institution of the Paschal Lamb: And might Elias say, Thou art the Christ whom we believe shall rise again from the dead, and that thy power over death might be believed I raised up the Widows Son to life. Another way, says Christianus Druthmarus, Elias might say, ascend on high, and lead Captivity Captive, even as I mounted up to heaven before Elisha. Then Moses might vie with him, Do thou deliver thy Saints from Hell, even as I brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Did both express that they two had fasted forty days, and that they alone above all others had that symbolical mark with Christ? Might not the one bring the two Tables of the Law in his hand, as if they were his Escutchion, by which he would be known: And the other perhaps came in his Chariot of fire that bore him up to heaven, that is a fourth way. So wise an Author as Tolet might have taken any of these conjectures, rather than his own, forsooth, that Elias came as he is described, 2 Kings i. 8. An hairy man with a girdle of leather about his Loins; and Moses came, as their vulgar Latin most ridiculously sets him forth, Cum cornutâ facie, with Horns, for where we read his face shined according to the Hebrew, they read his face had horns. Indeed, this would well become some of their late Canonized Worthies, who do rather deserve horns to be fixed to their heads for Monsters than the irradiation of beams for glorified men. Zacharias Chrysopolitanus hath a Scholastique way by himself, Nec probo, nec improbo. That Peter and the other two Apostles were partakers of some heavenly glory, when they saw the Transfiguration, and therefore had that spark of happiness to know all persons whom they saw intuitive, as if they had been glorified. So he discerned these to be Moses and Elias whom he had never seen before, by that gift of grace, whereby every Saint shall know all the Society of Saints by name after the Resurrection. I will not enter upon that Theme to enlarge this opinion, whether we shall know one another perfectly in the life to come. Luther very judiciously held the affirmative part, the very same night that he gave up his Spirit to the Lord. But to Zacharias' opinion I give this dash, that Peter was no partaker of glorified qualities at this time, especially by way of knowledge, and the gift of discerning, For he knew not what he said.
There are reasons to be glanced at, before I leave this Point, why Peter would impale Moses and Elias in Mount Thabor in his Tabernacles to keep his Master company. First, he thought, says one, that none were more gracious with God, to be fed miraculously with corporal sustenance, so that for their sakes they should all have food enough. Moses obtained Manna to fall from heaven about the Tents of the Israelites for forty years; at his desire he brought Quails, and opened the hard Rock so that waters flowed out. And the very Ravens, that use to devour all they can get, they did spread a Table for Elias, and brought him bread and flesh. Secondly, Fain would Peter defend his Master, that he might not be delivered up to the high Priests to be crucified. Now he bethought how near Moses was to drowning, and his life was preserved; how near to be stoned by the people, and yet protected, Num. xiv. How violent was Jezebel against Elias, and yet he escaped? These had been very fortunate in their preservation, therefore he would make Tabernacles for these to dwell with Christ. Thirdly, If Mount Thabor should happen to be environed with enemies that came to hale them to judgment, why Peter may surmise let Moses have a Tabernacle here, and he can bring Plagues upon Plagues against them that will meddle with Christ, as he did upon Pharaoh, and all his Host: Let Elias have a Tabernacle here, and he will call for fire from heaven to devour their Captains. These are the glosses of ancient Writers, but I would not confidently say it that the Apostle had all, or any of these weak policies in his head when he spake these words. Surely he had not time to confer with John and James, no nor upon the sudden starting of fear any leisure to roll things in his own reason, much less to apply reason to Divine Faith. It was an extemporary Ejaculation, and a very infirm one, not knowing what he said.
All the first part of my Text was zeal to Christ's glory, the next part shows it was Zeal not according to knowledge, not knowing what he said. Upon these words some have quite mistaken the fault, some have aggravated it too much, some have excused it too far, some have delivered their mind, as I conceive, with reason and moderation. The Historiographers of Magdeburg in the first place conceived the case amiss, who thought that Peter would have three Tabernacles built upon that flour in memory of the Transfiguration, whereas he would have made his Fabric, not for the remembrance of the work, that was past, but for their cohabitation for the time present and to come. In the next place Origen lays so great a crime to the Apostles charge, that he says a Diabolical Spirit seduced him to say these words to impedite his Masters Passion; for in the sixteenth Chapter of St. Matthew when he dissuaded Christ from his sufferings, Christ said unto him, Get thee behind me Satan, therefore all such seducements, as this was, must be Satanical. St. Mark knew the reason of Peters transgression better than Origen, this is all that he says, Mar. vi. 9. He wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid. It was not the evil Spirit of darkness but the spirit of fear that misguided him. And as for the Passion of our Lord, who more ready than Satan to hasten it? Did he not put it into the heart of Judas, that he might procure the death of Christ? Did not Christ say to the Jews, You are of your father the Devil, and you would fulfil his desires, when they sought to kill him, Joh. viii. It was too much therefore in Origen to amplify an Error so far. There may be Perversus error in excusando, & perversa delectatio in accusando; A dangerous partiality in excusing a fault, and a dangerous delight in accusing. Pascasius Ratbertus doth very well to impute all to his amazement, yet he also conceives him more amazed than I can imagine, namely, that waking out of sleep, Putabat quod resurrectionis speciem solutus carne per extasin jam videret; He thought he was out of the body, and that in an Extatical fancy he beheld the Resurrection. I apprehend him not so much deluded.
Bellarmine is so dim sighted when he list, that he can find nothing in all St. Peters words to be called a sin, no not when he would have enjoyed Heaven upon Earth, and said, Master, it is good for us to be here. Licet in tali excessu mentis errate potuerit Petrus, certe peccare nullo modo potuit; Though Peter might err in this ecstacy, yet he could not sin, for he knew not what he said. Indeed Paul had been a blasphemer, and a persecutor, Yet he obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief, 1 Tim. i. 14. Though he did those things through ignorance, yet those things were sins, for why did he obtain mercy, but because he had been a sinner? So it betokens a sin that Peter said he knew not what. Our Savior told James and John they asked they knew not what, Mar. x. 38. Was there not a trespass for all their ignorance? They that crucified our Savior knew not what they did, Luke xxiii. 34. Was it not a bloody sin for all their Ignorance? St. Paul says of false Teachers, they understood not what they said, nor whereof they affirmed, 1 Tim. i. 7. God will pardon slips of ignorance that they shall not be judged with Hell fire, but we must not excuse them so far that they shall not be judged for sins. Therefore of all Opinions their moderation sounds to my ear most judicious, that make this error of Peters a small sin because it proceeded from vehement love, but yet a sin because it proceeded from precipitated ignorance. Excellently Optatus against Parmenian, touching some other slips of this Apostle, Ipsius Sancti Petri beatitudo veniam tribuat, si illud commemorare videar, quod factum constat, & legitur; Let not blessed Peter think amiss, if I show him offending, where the fact is manifest, and recorded in holy Scripture. The Gloss took the right estimation of Peters words upon this hint, that Christ gave him no answer again; it was frivolous and inordinate he spake, and Christ gave him no reply to approve it; yet it was no impious speech, therefore he gave him no sharp rebuke to condemn it. St. Ambrose descants upon it many ways, and gives this close, Proximum indulgentiae est quod de excessu venit pli amoris; That which comes from the excess of love is pardonable, and will obtain indulgence. As Poets and Orators make men speak strangely strong lines, as some odd brained men call them, so fear, admiration, joy, rapture drew these words not well weighed from the Apostle. And though we shall give account of every idle word, yet the word of God hath taught us that not only where sins are of small growth, but even where sin abounds, grace will abound much more, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
THE SIXTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.
LUKE ix. 34.
While he thus spake there came a Cloud and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the Cloud.
U Nruly passions can yield no cause why they are stirred up, but our own natural impotency, they surprise us of a sudden before we can meditate why we did admit them, and therefore are obnoxious to many questions why they should be so, but it is not easy to afford a reasonable answer. Says David, Psal. xxvii. 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength or protector of my life, of whom then shall I be afraid. He could pose himself to ask, why he should be fearful, yet he could not be rid of fear. It is apparent in his Psalm that there were two arms of comfort to embrace him, Light and Protection, and the Gloss doth branch them thus, illuminatio spectat ad animi consilia, salus ad removenda corporis pericula, that Light is to direct the counsels of the mind, that Protection is to remove away all hurt and offense from the body. Had not Peter all this before him that David speaks of? and after the most ample manner that ever was seen upon earth? and yet he was so weak in heart, that his fear was exceeding strong. Peter might truly say the Lord was his light, for here was a Cloud to illuminate him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a bright Cloud, says St. Matthew, it was God's Cloud above any other, and God was in the Cloud, as it is manifest in the next verse; then he might truly say the Lord was the protection of his life, for the Cloud overshadowed him, and so he was safe as a Bird under the feathers of the Almighty: but if you ask him with the Psalmist, Of whom then shall I be afraid? he is not able to reply.
In the compass of this accident of the Transfiguration I find him thrice exceeding fearful, every time upon a new object and occasion: but you must find out this by looking narrowly into the History, as all the three Evangelists have related it. Observe St. Mark, and he implies that Moses and Elias appeared, who preached of our Savior's Sufferings, as I have told you before, Peter and the other two Disciples heard it, and trembled at it so much that he spake distractedly, says St. Mark, He wist not what to say, for they were sore afraid. Then St. Luke, as I have read it before you in my Text, notes that they were perplexed at another bout, when the Cloud appeared, and that Christ, and Moses, and Elias entered into the Cloud. St. Matthew reveals another thing that troubled them, how a voice from Heaven was heard, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him. When the Disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. I have met with no Expositor, who hath observed these three distinct occasions, and eruptions of their fear, yet they are all apparent to him that will examine it. And I mark it, how every new passage of admiration in this Miracle took them with a quivering, till at the third time Christ encouraged them; therein St. Matthew hath helped us with a passage, which the others have omitted, Matth. xvii. 7. Jesus came, and touched them, and said, arise, be not afraid. Therefore piecing that addition in St. Matthew to this Text in St. Luke, which I must do to handle all occurrences in this Transfiguration faithfully, the parts will arise to these two, the Fear of the Disciples, and their Succor. In the first part I will handle the Passion itself, and the Object which stirred it up: the Passion was inwardly very great, They were afraid, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sore afraid, says St. Matthew, and outwardly it bewrayed itself; for the same Evangelist says, they fell on their face. The Object which put them into fear in the Text is a Cloud, described by two properties, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it was a bright one, says St. Matthew, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an overshadowing one, says St. Luke. Nor did these only afright them, but the Passion Sermon also which Moses and Elias made, and the Sermon which the Father made out of the Cloud, This is my beloved Son. In the second general part their Succor hath two tastes of mercy in it, contactum, he touched them, alloquium, and said arise, be not afraid. Thus I have made this part of the story complete by an harmony of all the three Evangelists which have wrote upon it, and to these I am now ready to apply my Doctrine and Exhortation.
The Disciples Passion is that which led us to handle all the other parts, and therefore I begin with it, They feared. As the Egyptian Priest upbraided Solon, because the Graecian Histories entreated of things but lately done, and of no antiquity, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , your Greeks are always Children: so I may say of Greeks and Egyptians, and all the dwellers upon earth, we are always Children; for our own distrustful nature, although no evil come nigh our dwelling, doth discipline us with fear, as if we were Boys that were always under correction. An hair brained fear is foolish, you will all confess, and Solomon says, that joy is madness: then between them both you may gather, that the wisest of all are not long in their wits: but as St. Paul said of the awful authority of the Magistrate, Rulers are not a terror to good workers, but to the evil, Rom. xiii. 3. So I may safely say, God is not a terror to the good Saints departed, but to the bad that remain, because our own heart is only evil continually. The very merciful works of the Lord are doubtful, every strange thing that he doth among us is terrible, every punishment a little begun by our own suspicions makes us more miserable. As the Spartans call their Country, because of their rigid Discipline, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a tamer of men, that would pluck down saucy boldness; so God hath put the hook of fear into our nostrils, the whole world hath so many Monsters to scare us, that it is in one part as well as in another 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it takes down high spirits, and dejects audacity.
And among all the instances of Sacred Writ, which show the instability and changeableness of high content upon earth, seek for such another as my Text affords, and I think you cannot match it. What felicity can be durable in this mortal life, if this could hold no longer, to see our Savior transfigur'd in glory, and Moses and Elias talking with him? even now the Disciples had a glance of celestial beatitude, their hearts entranced with that pleasant Vision; of a sudden comes a sad Catastrophe, their joy is snatched from them, and upon the same ground where they were so much delighted they are sore afraid. As the Historian says of Manlius Capitolinus, who had both triumphed in the Capitol, and been condemned in the Capitol; Eundem locum habuit & eximiae gloriae, & tristissimi exitus monumentum, the same place was both his honor and his ruin. So on the same Hill Mount Thabor, uno pede, upon the same standing, uno momento, even in the same moment, the Disciples were in a Trance of joy, and in a Trance of trouble. As when Moses was born, the Mother was glad for joy, that a man Child was born into the world, but instantly she droopt, when he was taken away to be exposed to drowning and destruction: So as soon as ever any earthly pleasure is begotten unto us, presently it is snatched a way to be drowned in tears upon some woeful occasion. Health is waited on by sickness, comfort by tribulation, mirth by fear, even as the heel of Esau was in the hand of Jacob. Even now Peter had set his rest upon this place forever, Master it is good for us to be here; but after this qualm you hear him say so no more, now he had as liev be gone as stay; so soon shall everything upon earth cloy us (so it hath pleased God ) that nothing but Heaven may content us. Thrice happy though we feel it not, when in the midst of full satisfaction, and all the help and countenance this World can give us, some cross point comes in our way, that we may be willing to forget our own People, and our Fathers House. As the Poet makes his Aeneas to be scared out of Carthage, where he was lulled in sensauity by divine menacies in a Dream, so the Lord is most gracious when he frights us out of the love of this World: as Absalom set a fire on Joab's Corn to make him leave Jerusalem, and come and speak with him: so the Lord must send the Sword, or Famin, Fire, or Water, some destroying Element, else we shall linger and delay before we come unto him, some bright Cloud or other must stare us in the face, that we may turn our back to these vanities, and look to thee O God.
And surely to shake out that ill expressed desire, Master it is good for us to be here, it was Christ's pleasure that Peter should be male-contented instantly upon the former motion, I say he was winnowed with this afrightment to drive away that chaff: For it was otherwise at his Baptism, when there were heavenly tokens came down upon earth, a Majestical voice did speak from the Clouds, the Holy Ghost came down like a Quarry in the shape of a Dove, yet no perturbation, for ought we read, among them that saw it: But I must tell you I do not praise them for that: there were God's favorable Kindness and his Majesty combined together; and we must not take hold of these with the loose rains of joy only, but likewise with an awful reverence, Exultatio summae bonitati, timor Majestati debetur; we lift ourselves up with joy to feel his merciful goodness, but it becomes us to cast ourselves down with fear to see his glorious Majesty; what say we to a stranger instance than this I have named? Joh. xii. 18. Christ prays unto the Father, Father glorify thy name: the Father answers, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it. The multitude said it thundered; a strange Thunder which should speak articulate words, and yet we do not find in that Chapter that the folk who heard it were amazed. What, are these three Disciples more white-livered than all others, to be scared with far less than Thunder? a strange comparison indeed says Rathertus, nisi quod ibi superbia tumet, hic autem humilitas pavet: there pride stood up stiff against the Lord, here humility quaked and fell down before him: a blessing is soon forgotten which is but tackt on with joy; when fear drives a nail in, it stays the faster in the memory. Wherefore though fear doth argue sin to be in man (for none would fear, but such as are liable to punishment) yet oftentimes it is a good work wrought upon a bad ground, and is rather a Gift, than a Scourge of God. Such as it was, and a great fear it was, yet Christ did bear with it in his Disciples, he would not break a bruised reed, he would not reject them for a little infirmity; for howsoever now they did both sleep, and were afraid at his Transfiguration, yet he ventures once more, and tries them again, calling none other but these same, Peter, and James, and John, when he prayed, and fell into an agony in the Garden. Beloved, do you bear with the weak, and the Lord will strengthen you.
Now this fear of the Apostles was not only in the perplexedness of their thoughts, or in the paleness of their face, but it cast them down to the ground; They fell on their face, Matth. xvii. 6. And here is another Moral worth the marking, The higher we reach, and know not what measure is fit for us, the sooner we catch a fall: even now Peter would have been exalted to the fellowship of Christ's glory forever, being but a sinful mortal man, and with this aspiring thought presently he sinks to the earth, Quanto quis ampliora quaesirit, tanto magis ad inferiora collabitur, says Aquinas, none so like to tumble to the lowest place, as they that seek things too much above them, too far from their comprehension. Babel was too lofty a Building, therefore the Builders were scattered abroad, and made most contemptible, by the confusion of tongues. Adonijah besought Solomon so proud a request, that he asked his own head off. Great things are gay, but small things are securest. Beside, this very posture of theirs is a dumb Sermon, enough to teach them wit, and therefore our Savior gave no answer to the motion, Master, it is good for us to be here; it sufficed that when they would have climbed up into glory without more trouble or alteration, they fell down flat, and measured their length upon the earth, as who should say, the Earth expects your body, the Grave requires your flesh, before you can be Resiants with your Master in glory to see his face forever: therefore when St. John saw Christ in his Majesty, he did not forget what he had done at Mount Thabor before, but, says he, Revel. i. 17. Cecidi ante pedes, quasi mortuus; When I saw him I fell at his feet as dead. It is not this life that is capable of enjoying such excellency, death must be the passage to let us see such happiness: only this was the difference, the usual manner of burial is for the face to look up towards Heaven, as expecting at the first moment of the resurrection to see God, now the Disciples grovell'd with their face upon the ground, as not being worthy to expect his glory so soon as those that are already laid in the dust.
Now because we read of the High Priests Servants, Joh. xviii. 6. that as soon as Christ had said unto them, whom seek ye? I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground; therefore Gregory from one instance makes a large note, Sancti in facie cadere solent, impii retrorsum, that the good Servants of God use to fall upon their face when they are afraid, wicked men are overturned backward when they are terrified; and yet we read 1 Sam. xvii. 49. that when David 's stone sunk into Goliath 's forehead, he fell upon his face to the earth. Indeed the falling upon the face is a gesture of adoration in the living. Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, Gen. xvii. 3. Joshua fell on his face, and did worship, saying, What saith my Lord unto his Servant? Jos. v. 14. So Ezekiel, When I saw an appearance of the likeness of the glory of God, I fell on my face, chap. i. 28. The Samaritan fell down on his face at our Savior's feet, Luke xvii. 16. nay the Devil when he would make himself a God put in this condition, si cadens adoraveris, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. We are so far from these gestures of reverence and humility now-a-days, that you would think that Christian half mad, or to be a great Hypocrite, that would hurl himself down to the ground to pray to God, that were sordid and dusty would some people say. If you refrain Adoration to save good Apparel, I pray you wear worse Cloaths, and put on better affections: To stand upright and pray, to sit and pray, to lean and pray these are more for your own ease than God's honor. I have heard some say that upright men and sitters were a kind of Canters, but I never heard they were a kind of Christians. I have left myself, says God, 7000 knees that have not bowed to Baal; as if every knee would bow either to God or Baal: that man that will not kneel to God worships his own perverseness and imaginations; and though he worship neither Stock nor Stone, yet because he stoops not to God as he ought, he stoops to his own fancies, and therein is an Idolater. To knit this to the Text, I doubt not but the three Disciples did do homage and reverence to God's glory before them, and therefore Beza says upon their falling on their face fortasse proni adorarunt, it may be they did bow themselves down in adoration, yet fear was more predominant in them at this time than reverence, and Christ said arise be not afraid, putting them two together. And so far upon the Passion of fear in the Disciples, both in the inward and in the outward consideration.
You must now expect to hear of the Object which put them into fear, and that's a Cloud, described by two proprieties, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it was a bright one says St. Matthew; and it was a Cloud of covering and protection, it overshadowed them; but that which made them sorrowful as well as fearful, was, that the Cloud appeared as if it would wrap away Christ, and Moses, and Elias, for they entered into it. After you have heard of so great a fear, will you not wonder I should begin with so small an occasion, as nubes venit, there came a Cloud? How many do we see racking in the Sky every day, which do never trouble us? Holy Athanasius made it a Proverb, that such vapors are no ways dreadful; for so he did cheer up his heart against his own persecution, nubecula est & cito transibit, it was a Cloud which would disperse away, and never hurt him. But there is nothing so devoid of harm which will not afrighten the stoutest stomach, if God direct it for a terror: A still voice beat strong upon Elias his ear; the whole Camp of the Aramites ran away when they did but think they heard a noise: the figure of a man's hand damped King Belshazzar: a Whip of small cords shaken in our Savior's hand made the Monychangers overturn their Tables for haste, and run out of the Temple. 2 Macch. iv. the Author of that History says, that the Lord made the Clouds in the air appear like a great Battail, and like horse-men fighting to the terror of Jerusalem; it is an easy thing therefore for him that dwells above to make a little Cloud seem a terrible spectacle: And this which shook the Disciples had some extraordinary qualities in it, to strike the outward senses with amazement; it had not the conditions of a natural Meteor; for it had much more brightness than any other part of the air, it was a Cloud that rid close upon the earth, and was not exalted as they use to be into the higher parts of the air, it was framed like some beauteous Chamber to receive the Son of God in Majesty, together with Moses and Elias, it was dissolved at an instant, as soon as ever this apparition was dispatched: This was enough then to cause astonishment, that the finger of God was in this Cloud above the ordinary course of nature.
Now there is not the least empty Cloud which the wind blows about, but the Lord appoints it for some end and service, much more you will allow there were manifold causes for the sending of this Cloud, and the judgments of the skillful conceit them to be these.
First, the Lord did show, that He could frame a better piece of Architecture of a sudden than Peter could imagine to build: he spake of three Tabernacles, which would be long in piecing together; God in a moment creates one Cloud to receive them all better than an hundred Tabernacles. Such a one as Moses and the Israelites had in the Wilderness to shadow them against all offense. Such things the Heathen did drive at in their Poetical Fictions: but I am sure the Lord is able to pitch a Cloud between his chosen and their enemies, that the hand of violence shall not touch them, neither shall any evil come nigh their dwelling. Trust in the Lord in the time of danger, if ever our foes should rise up against us, and say, though we are not within the fence of strong Walls and Bulwarks, yet if thou O God of Hosts will cast but a thin Cloud between us and our enemies, we shall be safe under thy wings until their tyranny be over-past.
Secondly, a Cloud did interpose itself to qualify the Object of the Transfiguration, and to make it fit for the Disciples to behold it: the Cloud indeed was very bright, yet it was dark and opacous in respect of Christ's body which did exceed the very light of the Sun: Which St. Chysostom proves, that I may add somewhat more than I have said before to this purpose, in these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his face was compared to shine as the Sun, yet says he, the Disciples bewray how it did exceed that example, for they never fell down for fear to see the light of the Sun, but they fell down to see the light of his body: Therefore this Cloud did cast itself between, as if Christ would put a Veil upon his face, that their weak sight might the better behold him. In this life we must look through a Cloud, we must expect to see him as in a Glass darkly, hereafter we shall see him face to face. Mark the infirmity of man's nature in this sinful corruptible condition, and let us learn humility; it was not enough that Peter, John, and James were not transformed in the Mount, as Christ was, no nor as Moses and Elias were, our vile flesh is not receptive of such celestial excellency, but to abase them and us further, a shady Cloud opposed itself before their eyes, because we are not fit, nor worthy to behold such pure happiness in these days of vanity: Such knowledge is too excellent for me, says David, I cannot attain unto it.
Thirdly, this Cloud was set up for a Land-mark to limit curiosity, and to drive men off from approaching too near to pry into the Divine secrets: where God sets up a Cloud it is a manifest sign that those are our bounds, and we must not break them. As when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinah it was full of smoke and vapor, that his Majesty might be concealed in those thick mists, and none of the people, no not so much as a Beast durst come nearer under pain of death. What a becoming thing it is to look no further into God's secrets, than he hath given us eyes to see; and when there is a mystery which the wisest God hath given no charge to search into it to say, I see a Cloud between me and this secret, and I must go no further. The Devil himself doth not envy us knowledge, but he doth envy us obedience. The ancient Apostolical Creed consists of twelve Articles to be believed, as they are commonly divided; Pope Pius the fourth made them twelve four and twenty, such as they are; and if we want more mysteries of faith and knowledge to work upon, I doubt not but Satan would allow us a thousand: But as the Romanists, who have twelve Articles of Creed more than we, yet have one Commandment less (for the second is quite left out of their Portresses and Breviaries, no nor the least mention of it made in the Expositions of the great Schoolman Aquinas ) so the restless wit of man runs presumptuously upon all uncouth paths of knowledge, which he should not tread: but he keeps off from the Law, and Good Works, as if there were a Cloud, say I, between them, nay as if there were a Lion in the way: and so there is, but it is that Lion which goes about night and day seeking whom he may devour. But as our Proverb is of speculative men, that dare inquire into anything, though it be never so much above their capacity, that they do 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sore aloft in the air, and talk in the clouds; so the Apostle intimates that they are not wise unto sobriety, and being drunk with curious knowledge, as the Jews very falsely said the Apostles were with new wine, they must needs stumble and fall.
Fourthly, and I am sure this reason searcheth the true cause of the Cloud as near as any. God the Father in the Old Testament was wont to utter his voice out of the thick clouds of the air, and so he continues his holy will in the Gospel, and therefore prepared this Cloud to preach from thence the words which follow, This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him. It was thus when he spake unto Moses himself, Exod. xxiv. 16. the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the Cloud covered it six days, and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the Cloud. Some more veneration certainly redounds to the Divine Majesty, by drawing a Veil before him, that his glory may be kept secret. The Mercy-seat from whence God promised the Children of Israel to tell them all things whatsoever they should do, it was covered with the wings of the Cherubims, that every rash eye might not behold it: But this was not all, that a shadowed darkness should beget veneration, there was another reason, that men might see no manner of shape or resemblance, to make them figure the Lord in any form, and commit Idolatry. I will take Salmeron the Jesuit at his word in this Notation, Ne si aliqua effigies videretur, Deus pingeretur, a Cloud did invelop the glory of the Father whensoever he spake, that men might not say they saw his likeness, and therefore paint, or carve an image like unto him. And since the Lord continues to speak out of a Cloud, as well in the New Testament, as in the Old, surely his purpose continues the same to bridle our inclinations to Idolatry. O that men knew what this Cloud meant, and they would never be so forward to make the Images of God; and they that will not learn that wholesome lesson from the Pillar of Cloud, shall be consumed by the Pillar of Fire.
Let us come from the substance of it to the qualities; and certainly St. Matthew hath left us matter to work upon, that he says it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a bright Cloud: it seems it looked like that part of Heaven which we see in a fair night, and is called via lactea, the Milky way, which is the concurrence of the light of many small Stars, as if it were a Lane made or paved with dimpling Stars. Such a Cloud must needs be more delectable than the clearest Summer day, which had no thickness in the air, but were all serenity: And such it must be in a great measure in Aquinas 's interpretation; for when Peter talked of Tabernacles, close shady Arbors to keep out the light of the Sun, he was thus confuted says Aquinas, that light did rather become the Saints, than shady darkness, Claritas mundi innovati erit sanctorum tabernaculum, when there shall be a new Heaven, and a new Earth bedeckt with infinite light, that's the Tabernacle of the Blessed which shall abide forever. But the chief reason was to fulfil that promise, which David knew should be performed, the Lord shall make my darkness to be light; here was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World, Jesus Christ, it is He that came to bring a Lantern to our feet, and a Light unto our paths, that we should not stumble and fall. In the Old Testament the Clouds where God appeared were densissima & tenebrosae, thick and dark Clouds, Exod. xix. 16. vapors and pillars of smoke; in the New Covenant the darkness is dispersed, and the Cloud remains white, and of a pure luster: For the first Testament is full of Ceremonies and Shadows of things to come; the Covenant of Faith in the Gospel exhibits the manifest and open truth: says Paschasius Ratbertus, it was neither a fiery Cloud, nor a dark Cloud, but a brightsom, quia non in igne terroris nunc venit, non in caligine caecitatis, sed in lumine veritatis; the terror of fire is overpast, the mistiness of Clouds is cleared, truth comes forth like the morning, and is ascended to the height like the Sun at noon day. Nay as the things to be believed are clear, so there are no mists and fogginess in their affections, where the spirit of grace will abide, Non calligat affectibus hominum, sed revelat occulta, says St. Ambrose; Our depraved imaginations shall not make the truth a lie, but God shall bring to light the hidden things before the eyes of all men.
What's the whole Gospel indeed but nubes lucida; a very Cloud in itself, but made lightsome and perspicuous by the gift of interpretation. For although the Veil of the Law is removed away, yet even among the Evangelical Writers, there are says St. Peter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , certain things hard to be understood, the Incarnation of our Lord, the Resurrection of the Dead, the ineffable mystery of the Holy Trinity; still we are in nubibus, these are thick Clouds, and it is impossible for the natural man with the dim eye of nature to see through them; without doubt great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh: Faith is a very mysterious thing, but that the cloud is illuminated by the revelation of the Holy Spirit; and as he that sees through the Water, or through a Cloud; suppose an Oar through the Water, or the Sun through a Cloud, will rather trust to his judgment, than to his outward sense, which would much deceive him; so because we do all see the secrets of God through a thick Cloud, let us rather trust to our faith, than to our reason, there are many strong delusions incident to reason, because it looks through the clouds of sin and infirmity. And Beloved, as for the Priests that should keep the Key of knowledge, what is their Office and Calling but to make Clouds appear bright? And therefore Christ said of his Apostles, Vos estis lux mundi; Ye are the light of the world. Though nowadays it is the fashion of many to make that which was lightsome before appear as duskie as a Cloud. Such as especially about God's unsearchable decrees tangle knots, and ravel Divinity, that you shall find no end: And after much is spoken or written you may say, Incertior sum multó quàm dudum, I was in a Cloud before that was dark, now I am in a smoke that puts out my eyes. All the light which some voluminous Compilers afford, which would teach men God's secret purpose in their Election, and the way of their own heart in their Conversion, both which are inscrutable; it is like a Candle in a Thieves Lanthorn, perhaps they see a little themselves, but I am sure nobody else shall be the better for their light. Finally, to end this Point, God, who can color a thick Cloud with whiteness, and make it transparent, is able to lay the dark conveyances of our hypocrisy conspicuous and naked before him: Laban could not find his Idols because Rachel had hid them in her Tent, but God can discover those sins which are our greatest Idols though we have set them up in the inmost corner of our heart. If the Spirit of Elisha went along with Gehazi, when Gehazi ran after Naaman to take a Bribe, then the Lord that gave that Spirit to Elisha traceth along all the Compacts of Simony, all the fine conveyances of Bribery, all manner of Corruption though it be dark as midnight. The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, 1 Cor. iii. 13. When it once catcheth fire it will be light enough for being secret anymore. The sootiest Coal when it flames is a very visible object, and when once Christ brings our works to the great Conflagration of the last day, then they shall no more lie hid, but be revealed both to our shame, and to our condemnation.
The next thing of observation in this cloud was, that it overshadowed them. So they saw a diminishment of that light which was in Christ's body transfigured by little and little, and it somewhat took off the amazement of the Apostles by abating the splendor which troubled them by little and little: but of that enough before. All that have taken pains to expound this miracle do generally accord herein, Obumbratio Dei est symbolum divinae protectionis; Where God doth cover anything with a miraculous shadow, it promiseth that the Divine Protection is round about it. Leonidas the Grecian was told that his enemies came marching in such full Troops against him, that their Darts when they threw them up would cover the light of the Sun: Leonidas puts it off with this stout courage, Tum in umbrâ pugnabimus; then will we fight in the shade. A courageous word, and made very fit for a Christians mouth. Believe in the Lord, and we are all under his custody and defense; beseech him to stretch his wings upon us, and the Holy Ghost will overshadow us, In umbrâ pugnabimus, to that shadow we betake ourselves to shun the fire of anger, and the heat of concupiscence; under that shadow will we fight against our Ghostly enemies. We have two Regenerations, or new births, a spiritual, an eternal. The spiritual Regeneration which begets us again to life, when by nature we were dead in sin, is Baptism. At that Sacrament the Holy Ghost came in the shape of a Dove to resemble innocence: The eternal Regeneration is the Resurrection of the body, and I have often told you, that the Transfiguration is a model of a body risen from the dead, and at that mysterious work the Holy Ghost came in a cloud that overshadowed them, to signify protection and safeguard in eternal security.
Beloved, the protection of the holy Spirit consists not in Walls and Bulwarks, but in a shadow, in a refrigerium that comforts the heart, and of all protections it is the strongest, and the surest. I do not say it is a resisting defense that we shall not be hurt, that we shall not be spoiled, that we shall not be killed, then let Peter have staid where he was still, and kept out of harms way forever; but the shadow of the Holy Ghost is an Antidote against the fury of the world, it possesseth a stout Christian Champion with patience that he cares not to be hurt. And what can trouble him who is strengthened in the inward man that he is above the malice of the world? He that can overcome his own weakness is a great deal too hard for his enemies strength. Gather us under thy grace O Lord, as the Hen doth gather her Chickens under her wings, and though heaven and earth should knock together our shadow would save us from destruction. Fond fear, the furthest from reason of all our passions, Why did not the Disciples know their own strength and assurance when this cloud did overshadow them? Did not the Lord declare that he took them into his protection? And yet they were afraid. But we are all so guilty now we deserve the effects of wrath that we distrust God to be angry when he takes upon him to save us. Like a man that chooseth a runagate Arabian to convoy him in the Desarts, wore afraid of his convoy than of his enemies. But we do ever deal with our gracious Father as if he were persona malae fidei, one that broke truce, and to be suspected. We are jealous of his love, jealous of his providence, jealous of his protection. The Proverb says, That a friend wrongfully suspected turns an enemy. And if we will not believe that God will be our Savior, we shall know he will be our Destroyer. Be not afraid as his Disciples were when his merciful cloud did overshadow them.
I must suppose, and I wish I may not be deceived, that you have not forgot how I entreated at large that Moses and Elias preached at large upon our Savior's decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, that put the Disciples which heard it into a passion, and no more of that again for brevity sake. Another wave of fear came upon the neck of that in this Miracle, when the Lord with his own voice spake in honor of his Son from heaven. You must expect to hear of that upon the handling of the next Verse, though after some pause of time perhaps, when God shall give a fitting opportunity; but that which occasioned them to fear in my Text was, that all that good company whose presence delighted them so much was entering into the cloud, and they were afraid they should part one from another. Our last English Translation, which I confess is a very accurate one, and I seldom disagree with it, yet in this place it is able to confound the Reader; thus we have the words, They feared as they entered into the cloud. Who would not think this were the meaning, that they feared as themselves entered into the cloud. Yet it is not so; for the Greek hath cleared it by using two several Pronouns in this verse the cloud, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 overshadowed them, the Apostles, Peter, John, and James, but they feared 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is plainly spoken of others, not of themselves, and we might thus have translated it to make all clear, They feared when those entered into the cloud. Euthymius refers those to be only Moses, and Elias, the common Exposition is that Christ also was one of those; and when Peter and the other two saw their Master and the two Prophets enter into the clouds, and themselves left apart they were afraid, perhaps, they should be quite separated from Christ, and those glorified Saints. I told you before how loath they were to part with Moses, and Elias, but it went a thousand times more against their mind to part with Christ.
A Cloud was a very suspicious thing that it was prepared to take him away forever, especially if the Cloud were advanced above the ground, above the top of the Mountain, as Clouds usually are, then if Christ had entered into it, those who were present would surmise, he is going up on high forever. Moses his body was taken away, God knows how, and till this day no man knows what became of it. Elias went away in a whirlwind, many sought for him, but he was not to be found: And why might not the Disciples, being in a great fear, have this Cloud in a jealousy that it came to take away their Lord? There is a certain Commentator of eight hundred years antiquity, by name Ratbertus Paschasius, who says, that although this Cloud did not take him up to heaven now, yet it was the very same cloud which took him quite away from his Apostles upon the Ascension day, Acts i. Non dubito quin ipsa est illa nubes quae suscepit eum ab oculis omnium Apostolorum. The man is very confident of that opinion, wheresoever he had it? This he might say for certain, Christ did ascend in a Cloud, and we all shall ascend in the Clouds at the last day, 1 Thes. iv. 17. We which are alive shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Once St. Peter was so weak in faith that upon a Miracle of a great draught of Fish he cried out. Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man. Now he was grown so strong in love, that nothing was more bitter to him than departing. In a while after this accident of the Transfiguration Christ prepared the Twelve with many reasons and consolations that he must go away, for if he went not away the Comforter would not come, but when he did go away he would send them the Comforter, even the Spirit of truth. Upon these terms it was fit they should be glad to have him ascend unto his Father, but having not as yet bequeathed any such promise of the Comforter, it made them agast to think he should enter into a Cloud, and be no more seen. Beloved, if God take not away the influence of his Holy Spirit from us, we know he is always at our right hand, though in his human body he sitteth at the right hand of God. Live justly, and chastely, and soberly as if the Son of God were always before your face, and though he be entered into the Clouds, though he be entered into Heaven your Conscience shall be comforted.
I must make an end of the first general part of the Text because of the time, and I have put myself into a narrow strait to speak of the second, the succor which Christ did administer to his three Disciples to quit them out of fear, which S. Matthew hath remembered, he touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid. Though he seemed before to be going far off, and as it were quite forsake them, yet now he draws so near as to touch them with his hand. Perhaps no more was done by Christ, than the bare Letter of my Text acknowledged, he did but lay the ends of his fingers upon them; and if he pleased there was as much virtue in his fingers ends to quicken the Spirit of these men that sunk down with fear as there was in all Elias when he stretched his whole body upon the Child to bring it to life again. The Angel Gabriel did but touch Daniel, when he was fallen upon the ground, and set him upon his feet again, Dan. viii. 18. But behold a greater than Gabriel, whose touch is more comfortable, and more significative, Eâ manu recreantur ad fidem, (I think it is St. Jerome's saying) quâ creati erant ad vitam; Those hands which made them and fashioned them to receive natural life, the same hand did work a supernatural effect upon them, and did raise them up to a boldness and assurance of a good hope in Christ. Yet I will not say but that which is here called a touch may import the giving of his whole hand to assist them, Postquam altos tetigit fluctus, says the Poet, when he meant that the Ship did sail upon the Sea. Therefore to touch here may be no less than 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Manum supponere, to stay with the hand and arm, which we use to do to a man that is ready to sound and sink, The Lord upholds all such as fall, and lifteth up all those that be down, Psal. cxlv. 14. But David explains himself in another place, that all sorts of men promiscuously good and bad do not attain this favor, he restrains that universal Proposition, Psal. xxxvi. 24. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. It is said of the evil Angel, I saw Satan fall like lightning, Luke x. 18. The Lightning is darted out of the Clouds, and never ascends again, but is lost in vapor; so are all those that imagine wickedly, and whose heart is not steadfast in the Lord. Nescit stare superbia, & si ceciderit non novit resurgere, says St. Ambrose. Pride will catch a fall, and God will leave it to shame and confusion, never to recover again. But a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again, Pro. xxiv. 16. As the young birds fall out of the Nest sometimes, but the old one takes them up, and carries them where they shall be safe: So trust in the Lord and you shall not be cast down, but his hand will be ready to catch you that you shall not be bruized. All parts of man's body, which are made for defense, are attributed unto him for our preservation, from the arm to the hand, from the hand to the finger, from the finger to the least touch. Against great oppressions God opposeth that his arm is stretched out: When he will fashion out deliverance with wonderful salvation, as if a workman wrought it curiously with a Tool, then the Prophets speak of the hand of God; when he doth assist us suddenly, and with great facility before we could think of help, that is said to be done per contactum, by a touch and away, as in this case, He touched them, and said, arise be not afraid.
These are his words, who when the earth hath been feared with Winter, makes all things to flourish again when he reneweth the year with his goodness, so when the heart of man is frozen with fear, by his word he makes it spring with joy. His Countenance was fair and lightsome, his tongue as comfortable as his face. As St. Ambrose says of the Writings of St. Paul, Quae Epistola Pauli non melle dulcior, lacte candidior? Every Epistle which he wrote was sweeter than honey, whiter than milk: So the beauty of Christ Transfigured was whiter than milk, and his words were sweeter than the honey comb. He can look frowningly, and make his Foes fall down before him; he can speak in Thunder, and make the earth to quake; the very voice which came from heaven in this next verse did confuse all that heard it, This is my beloved Son, hear him. Ut conspectus & vox Dei nos dejicit, ita tactus & vox Christi erigit, says St. Jerome; The Lord hath a voice to cast us down, and a voice to raise us up again. Especially, Consolation shall succeed fear, and that instantly, when God did bring it upon us: He never lead his Chosen into trouble for his sake, but he brought them off again with comfort. Christ had taken Peter, and James, and John into Mount Thabor, whatsoever they suffered there, it was by his conduct, and for his sake; it was the brightness of his glory, the luster of his clouds, the voice which came from Heaven to magnify him that made them afraid, in his behalf they suffer, and therefore they are sure to be raised up. His mercy doth so far engage him to relieve all those who find any oppressure for his cause, that a little trouble shall soon end in a great deal of joy, a little amazement shall soon be blown over with a great deal of satisfaction, a little fear shall soon be rid away with a great deal of loving kindness. For when the Disciples were dejected with the awfulness of his Majesty, presently he touched them, and said, arise, be not afraid.
THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON The Transfiguration.
LUKE ix. 35, 36.
And there came a voice out of the Cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear him.
And when the voice was past Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.
I N divers manners God spake in the old time to our Fathers by the Prophets, Heb. i. 1. and in as divers manners he hath spoken to us in the New Covenant by the Evangelists. Variety is delectable, when it doth not jar, but make up unity. I have gone along in this story of the Transfiguration upon the Text of St. Luke, but by the way I made advantage to insert every passage out of St. Matthew, and St. Mark, which is remembered in them over and above St. Luke's Relation; nor will I wrong the Subject which I have handled so much, to fail in that diligence at this time, because it is the last act in which I shall dispatch my Meditations upon this Miracle: Wherefore when I have inlaid the Story with those particulars which occur in all the holy Authors, it will be perfect thus. I gave you account upon the last occasion, what the Eternal Father uttered from above concerning his Eternal Son: the glory which he gives his Son riseth up in two tops, namely the honor which He finds with the Father, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, and that obedience which all the world must yield him, hear Him. Now as soon as this voice had ceased to speak, all the bravery of his Transfiguration vanished, and was seen no more; so says my Text, when the voice was past Jesus was found alone: hereupon the three Disciples wondered what was become of Moses and Elias, and the fair Cloud that overshadowed them, S. Matthew says they lifted up their eyes, and saw no man save Jesus only; nor did they only look up to Heaven for what they missed, St. Mark says, they looked round about, and saw no man anymore save Jesus only with themselves. Now touching the consequent of all, mark what followed, and all's done: my Text says, they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen; St. Matthew supplies why they told of nothing, and how long they concealed the matter. As they came down from the Mountain, Jesus charged them saying, tell the vision to no man till the Son of man be risen again from the dead. St. Matthew says the Disciples were enjoined secrecy, but he omits that they obeyed; St. Luke says they kept secrecy, but he omits that they were enjoined, therefore St. Mark hath compacted both into his Story thus. As they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead; and they kept that saying with themselves.
Having thus laid all the Narration close together, I do not strictly hold me to the narrow compass of my Text, but I will divide that which remains to be spoken of this Miracle, in the full amplitude, as I find it in all the Evangelists. And I will confine my discourse and your memory to be helped by four Particulars. First the Father did commit all Power and Authority to the Son, in this word, Hear him. Secondly, that the Church might the better admit his sole Authority, and none other, all other persons of excellency vanished, and Christ was left alone, the Disciples looked up, and looked about, but there was none left with them, save Jesus only. Thirdly, Christ did put his Authority in execution, as they came down from the Mountain, he charged them they should tell no man the things which they had seen, till himself was risen from the dead. Fourthly, the Disciples did as he commanded them; they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. Of these to God's glory, and with your patience.
Being now to enter upon the Exhortation to hear, I hope all my Auditors will be attentive. The Ear is that Omer wherein we must receive the Manna which coms down from Heaven, and the Heart is as the Ark of the Lord wherein we must lay it up. The Ear is the Tunnel through which the liquor, or new wine is poured, the Heart is the new Bottle that receives and keeps. Offer yourself pliantly and diligently to take in the words of wholesome doctrine at the brim of the Ear, and God will shake them down lower and lower, till they come into the Heart. All things in this World beneath are under the conditions of vanity and corruption, and therefore the Eye hath nothing to see which is worth the seeing; but the Word of God is pure and undefiled, and therefore the Ear hath somewhat to hear which is worth the hearing. Our Savior never provoked the Eye to circumspection, with he that hath eyes to see let him see, but he called upon the Ear for attention very often in the Gospel, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. By extraordinary dispensation the Lord hath converted some by inward motion, before they were appealed to God's service by outward calling: and his Spirit spake to their inward Heart, before they heard the sound of faith preached to the outward Ear. For we know not how the Wisemen of the East came to know, that the Star which went before them belonged to him that was born King of the Jews, but by a Divine inspiration, and so we must leave that strange work to the secret power of God that called them, for we read no more of them after that one place, how they lived or died in the true Religion of the Son of God. God did suggest to old Simeon that the Babe which came into the Temple with his Mother was the Christ. John the Baptist sprang in his Mothers womb at the Salutation: In like manner Cornelius found favor before God by an instinct from above, which spake to his inward conscience, before he was made a Scholar to hear the Church teach and instruct him: yet the love of him that called him to be an elect Saint staid not there, but commended him for his Souls instruction to be Peters Disciple; Send to Joppa for one Simon, whose surname is Peter, he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. The ordinary means of salvation is to lend an ear to them who bring the glad tidings of peace, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, Rom. x. 17.
The very Heathen could say, that the most barbarous Nations would be civilized and brought to good nurture, if they would but hear Philosophy taught among them, Nemo adeo ferus est qui non mitescere posset, si modo culturae patientem accommodet aurem: but far better effects must needs follow, where Christianity is publicly taught, and well observed in every man's private attention. There are three sorts of them whose ear is shut, when the Lord knocketh at the door to have them open. First, the Ignorant that doth not listen when he calls; I fear there are too many so ungrounded in the first rudiments of Faith, so unacquainted with the Text of Holy Screpture, that they conceive as little of that which is taught, as if we preached in an unknown Language, whose illiterate dullness makes plain English as unfruitful as Latin Popery. These I may liken to David's description of Idols, They have ears and hear not, noses but they smell not;
I am loath to find fault with them that will but seem to be diligent in these most negligent times. Yet that affectation which some have not only to spend, but even to waste their time in hearing, calls to mind the difference which Isocrates put between his two Scholars Ephorus, and Theopompus, the one by his good will would never take his Book in his hand, the other by his good will would never lay it out of his hand; the one (said their Master ) had need of a Spur, and the other of a Bridle. Let me not be interpreted as if in this place, in the sight of God, I durst blame them that love to hear, for blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; but where Religion is well planted, and we rather want obedience than knowledge, I would not have well-meaning people make Preaching an every days Tale (for too much familiarity breeds contempt) but, excepting some special occasions, to make it Sundays Religion. A stomach over-charged is more prone to crudities than good digestion. A seasonable rain enricheth the Earth with store, but when showers come too fast one after another, the fruits of the field are spoiled with must and rottenness. And I would have this long-ear'd Age consider, that six days practice in the Week are few enough to make use of one days instruction. The Horse-leech sucks full, and then drops off, and is good for nothing, take heed of that. Especially take heed you be not puffed up in your mind, that the number of Sermons which you hear shall be imputed to you for righteousness: For as the Superstitious count their Prayers upon their Beads, so some count their Religion by the multitude of godly exercises. As the woman with the bloody issue said within herself, If I can but touch the hem of his garment I shall be healed: So some seduced weak ones, If we do but hear, and hear often we shall be saved. You deceive yourselves, for still I inculcate, it is not audire, but obaudire, not the bare hearing, but the fruit which comes by hearing that is acceptable to him who gives the reward. This same simplex auditus, to afford God the bare courtesy to hear him, Turks and Pagans may do that, and yet never believe. To go further, this same simplex credulitas, to hear all, and to trust God so far, that all which he says is true, sinners and reprobates may do that, and yet never amend. But they that are obedient and dutiful take the charge right, who are not only hearers, but doers of the Word of God. This is that hearing which our Savior puts into one verse both in the right and the wrong use, Jo. viii. 47. He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
And as hearing is no virtue unless we obey, so obedience and hearing are not matched right together unless we intend them, and apply them unto Christ, the voice from heaven said, Hear him. When God the Father had spoken from above, This is my beloved Son, and when he had said it twice for the stronger confirmation, once at the solemnity of Baptism, another time at this miracle of the Transfiguration, who would have thought anymore needed to be added? It is much that we should put him to it to say this moreover, Hear him. What strange men are we that we should be taught to hear him, when we know he is the Son of God, in whom alone the Father is well pleased? But the beginning of this Point shall be to show, that this administers Consolation, and removs away some sadness which might have grown upon the Disciples. Moses and Elias did appear upon Mount Thabor before they were looked for, and were gone in a trice before their departure could be suspected, like Cato that came into the Theater at one door, and went out at another; Ideo tantum intrarunt ut exirent. Surely the Disciples thought if these would have staid they could have hung at their lips, and heard the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven from their mouth. No, says the voice, let them go, here is one that is the chief Master in Israel, far above Moses and Elias, hear him. Moses will stand dumb while he speaks, and this is Moses his own Doctrine concerning Christ, A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me, hear him, Deut. xviii. Moses confesseth of himself, O Lord I am not eloquent, I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue, therefore hear not him, Exod. iv. 10. Elias is rigid and severe, and will call down fire from heaven, hear not him. Peter knew not what he said in this very story. David said it in his haste, but it is very true upon deliberation all men are liars. Lying is not all that is naught in the mouth of man, filthiness and blasphemies issue from some uncircumcised lips, no ways fit to be heard, as Eliakim, the servant of Hezekiah, besought that odious tongued Rabshakeh to speak in such a language as few or none might understand him. The talk of him that sweareth much maketh the hair stand upright: and their brawls make one stop his ears, Ecclus. xxvii. 14. In a word, men may bewitch us with their fair words not to obey the truth, but we are sure how all that Christ speaketh is just and righteous, therefore let men vanish away, the truth of the Lord abideth forever, hear him. Again, the Disciples might be confused, not only for the departure of Moses and Elias, but because the form and fashion of Christ did return to his wonted humility, the fashion of his countenance did no more look like the Sun, neither was his raiment white and glistering; what amends can be made for this loss? But that God declares, our happiness consists not in seeing, but in hearing. His Person must ascend unto the Father, and his glory dwell there, but his Word abideth forever; if we keep his sayings we are Christ's. and Christ is one with us, hear him.
Be it the abrogation of Moses Law, be it the contempt of the world, the denying of ourselves, the sufferance of the Cross, the losing of our life, all is one; his roughest Precepts are to be obeyed, hear him indefinitely, without restriction or exception. As the Blessed Virgin his Mother said unto the Servants at Cana in Galilee, Whatsoever he saith unto you do it, Joh. ii. 5. Be the Commandment great or small it claims obedience, whosoever breaketh one of the least Commandments, and doth not repent him, shall be counted the least in the Kingdom of heaven. Some man, I know, hath framed this cavillation already in his own heart, if Jesus Christ were now upon the earth, as sometimes he was in the Land of Jury, who would not travel over Sea and Land to hear him? This Precept should be kept with all alacrity. Indeed the words which dropt from his own lips were most winning and pathetical Therefore this voice might justly challenge the Jews to give him fair audience, and hear him speak, and they could not refuse him. If Tertullian presumed in his Apologetic to the Emperor, that the Christian cause in his days had never been cried down if it might have been heard speak in the trial of judgment, much more must it hold in the person of Christ himself. Nolentes audire quod auditum damnare non possunt; The Judges would not hear our Plea, says Tertullian, for had they heard us with patience they knew they could not cast us, so the gracious words which fell from our Savior made those Officers relent at least, if not repent, that were sent to betray him. Never man spake like this man, Joh. vii. 46. They brake out into that passion before the Pharisees. They had heard but little from Christ, says St. Chysostome, yet enough to turn their hearts from that purpose which they were sent to execute. Cum men's fuerit incorrupta non longis sermonibus opus est. Few words will prevail where the mind brings no corrupt passions to hold off the truth. This is to show that the Oracles which the Son of God spake from his own mouth were most moving and gracious, that tongue was able to charm the very Devils to obey him. Why, Beloved, we do hear him speak continually in the Church, as verily as if he were now among us, and preached daily, as sometimes he did in the Temple at Jerusalem. So St. Paul commends the Thessalonians that his Doctrine took with them, as if they had heard Christ himself, Ye received it not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God. For whatsoever we believe, if you ask after the formal cause of faith, the answer is, neither because the Apostles writ it, or the Church delivered it, or such, to whom God hath committed the dispensation of the Word, do preach it, but because God reveals it, the formal cause of all faith is divine revelation, therefore hear Christ speaking among you to this day, not by the instrument of his own tongue, but by the revelation of his Spirit. I say, the formal cause of faith is divine revelation, but the Church is the mouth that utters it. And therefore because the Church is the Pipe which conveys those sacred mysteries which Christ reveals, our Lord's own sentence was, If he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Ethnic. The meaning is, while the Church directs you in a right line. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, observe and do. You hear what awful submission is due to them who are sent from God to teach you. Perhaps you will demur upon those words of our Savior. For in that same Chap. Mat. xxiii. 16. Christ calls the Pharisees blind guides, reproves their interpretation of Scripture for saying, If a man swore by the Temple it was nothing, if he swore by the Gold of the Temple he was a debtor. Generally he gave his Apostles a caveat, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, not meaning their Bread, but their false Traditions. But take our Savior's exhortation in a right construction, and thus it is, all that the Scribes and Pharisees recite out of Moses and the Law, observe and do. They are the mouth of God by their place and calling. When they speak the truth, all is one whether you hear them, or Christ, or God speak from heaven, it is the same Gospel, and all have but one intendment. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that heareth me heareth him that sent me; you know who spake it. This voice did not purpose the present Age should hear Christ only, but that the future Ages should hear his Priests, when they speak like Shepherds, and not like Wolves. That is the just Latitude of this Precept, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him.
The first part of the Text would require much more to be spoken, but here must be the end of that, because much more remains behind: Therefore in the second Point, that the Church might the better admit Christ's sole Authority, to hear him, and no other; all other persons of excellency vanished, and he was left alone. The Disciples looked up, says St. Matthew; and looked about, says St. Mark, and when the voice was past Jesus was found alone. Whether they that come back from the dead depart from us again, as did Moses and Elias in this place, or whether our living Friends, whom we tender dearly, go from hence forever unto the dead, let this comfort remain with you, that the best Friend of all sticks by you, Christ is with you, and stays behind. And much better it is to find him alone than all the world beside without him. Unus Jesus satis superque nobis est. So I think Gregory, It is an happy solitariness to be forsaken of all other, and to be left with him alone. St. Austin, enumerating the several Temples which the Romans built to their Deities, reckons up one for Virtue, another for Felicity, another for Fortune. Says the Father, If the Heathen had been wise men, at least they would have spared the Temple of Fortune, and made no use of that, Quid ei sufficit cui virtus felicitasque non sufficit? He that hath virtue and felicity hath enough, or he will never be contented: So he that can keep our Savior hath the fullness of joy abiding with him, and he cannot choose but be satisfied. What small hearts-ease had the Blessed Virgin to find all her Kindred at home and to miss him? And if his Room be empty, the house is in a pitiful case, though it be furnished with all manner of store beside. When the whole World was lost in the Deluge of waters, one Ark was unto Noah instead of all the world beside to save him; so when all things flit away, and consume by little, my Father and Mother forsake me, our friends, our means, our strength, our health, our life, Tu autem Domine non dereliquisti; one Redeemer is all, and more than all. As when the leaves drop off from the Tree, yet the Sun continues to comfort it, and make it spring again; so the reliefs and pleasures of this Age shall wax old with time, and be shaken off as the leaves before the wind; but nothing shall separate us from the love of God, and nothing shall separate God from the love of us.
And as Christ is enough for all, so this one reason is suficient why the Disciples found him alone; yet I have another to spare, which is this: Postquam legis & Prophetarum umbra decessit, omnia in Evangelio reperiuntur; When the Shadows and Types of the Law and Prophets are dispersed away, the Gospel abides forever, and is the true repertory of all things that belong to salvation. The Law of Moses is a killing Letter, no flesh living shall be justified by the works of the Law. The Spirit of Elias breaths nothing but fire, and perdition to them that sin against the Lord. O God, what will become of us, miserable offenders, if we meet with such as these? O remove these away, and let us find Jesus alone, who came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost. A poor Prisoner must needs suspect that he should have a bloody trial, when such angry Judges came from heaven as Moses and Elias; let them rise off from the Bench and depart, and leave our cause to be heard before a Savior so full of pity, who is all bowels, all compassion, An potior judex? Puerisve quis aptior orbis? He will not recompense us according to our misdeeds, but deliver us from the Tormentor. The poor woman taken in Adultery had a sweet taste of this Doctrine. Christ cast a scruple of conscience before her bitter Accusers, which made them slip away one after another, then the day began to go on the poor sinners side, When Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst, Joh. viii. 9.
Beside, I have repeated it to you very often, that the Transfiguration was an Idea or Model of the Resurrection; and therefore Christ was left alone, to let you see the condition of that period of time, when all things shall pass away at the end of the world, Ut Deus maneat omnia in omnibus, when Christ shall be our portion alone, and the glory of everything in earth shall vanish, and come to nothing. And he alone is an hundred fold those all things else which we enjoyed in this life, according to the reckoning of the Gospel; and yet that is but a modest comparison, a finite proportion for an infinite. In this course of life, which now we lead, every man acts his part in the mutual Communion of Saints and we have all need one of another. For as the members depend upon the head, so every member doth want his fellow member to support him; the hand cannot say it hath no need of the foot, nor can the eye say it hath no use of the ear; we must have the help of Moses and Elias, and all those bright shining stars that have gone before: And the Ages to come shall acknowledge that they were the better for the help of those good men which these times produce: But after the final consummation of all things we shall no more be put to these shifts to require the assistance one of another; though there were no Moses, no Elias, no Peter, no James and John, yet everyone shall be perfect in Christ, and shall be filled with the fullness of him that filleth all in all. St. Jerome, in a certain Epistle to Amandus, takes upon him to interpret the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 28. on this wise. All things shall be subject unto him, that God may be all in all. Says he, our Lord and Savior is not now all in all; but, according to the several distributions of his gifts, a part only in every several man. For example, Wisdom in Solomon, Zeal in David, Patience in Job, Interpretation of dreams in Daniel, Power of Miracles in Paul, Faith in Peter, Virginity in John, In caeteris caetera, but when the end of all things shall come, then he shall be all in all, Ut singuli sanctorum omnes vertutes habeant, ut sit Christus totus in cunctis; That every Saint may be filled with all virtue, and the fullness of Christ may be in all alike. And so far on the second part, that Jesus was found alone.
This is the Argument of the third part of the Text, that when God from heaven had commanded the Disciples to hear his Son, and left him alone to be heard instead of the Law and the Prophets Christ put this authority in execution, for as they came down from the Mountain he charged them they should tell no man the things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead. The usual style of our Savior to his Apostles was Ite, predicate, Go and teach all Nations: What you hear in secret go and preach on the house top. What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light, Mat. x. 27. At this miracle quite contrary, what is here revealed? He is marvelous light that you must conceal in darkness. First, Let us make use of it in thesi to illustrate that saying of Solomon's, Eccl. iii. 7. There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. There is a ripe season for everything, and if you slip that, or anticipate it, you dim the grace of the matter be it never so good, as we say by way of Proverb, That an hasty birth brings forth blind whelps; so a good Tale, tumbled out before the time is ripe for it, is ungrateful to the hearer. Where controversies about some difficile Points of Divinity have rather begot rage in the minds of men than obedience and devotion, it hath been the religious care of godly Magistrates in all Ages to interdict those disputes on all sides that peace might ensue, and dissensions by little and little be forgotten. When there hath been cause to make use of this policy in our own Church, would you think that some would exclaim against it under this color, that it is a tyranny, if truth have not liberty to publish itself at all times in season, and out of season? And yet such late Writers, (whose judgments, if I should name them, few, I think, would refuse) subscribe to this Maxim, Intempestiva confessio veritatis plus nocet quàm adificat; A confession of truth out of time and season doth rather hurt than edify.
I will draw home to the instance of my Text anon to prove this, when I have laid a stronger foundation out of another Text, Matth. xvi. 20. Then charged he his Disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. This was a temporary Precept, like that about the Transfiguration, to conceal it till after the resurrection. Why, the confession which Peter made for all his fellow Disciples was very right, that's undeniable; to know that he was the Messias the Savior of the World was necessary to salvation, that's indubitable: what was in it then, that this should be kept close, and not be divulged to every creature? the reason follows, because he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the Elders and High Priests, and be killed, and rise again the third day. I prove it that this was the reason, Luke ix. 21. even in this very Chapter, he straitly charged and commanded them to tell no man that he was the Christ of God, saying, the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected, and slain, and rise again the third day. yet I must drive on a question further; Why should this Article of faith be suppressed that he was Jesus Christ because of his ensuing Passion? Why, 1. you know many were scandalized to see him crucified, who had been persuaded that he was the Son of God; if he be the Son of God let him come down from the Cross: Noluit ergo Christus quod se moriente paucis accidit omnibus accideret, says St. Jerome: therefore by concealing that doctrine Christ prevented that all should not fall from the faith through infirmity, as some had done: Before his glorification had made amends for the great humility of his Passion, he knew it would rather lose him Disciples than gain him any, to advance this Doctrine openly, that he was the Eternal Son of God. 2. Our Lord and Savior did ever foresee and provide, that he would commit nothing which might hinder his death and passion, that his willingness to die for our sakes might appear the greater: No doubt he could have manifested himself, his Divinity, his Innocency so openly, that Pilate would have forborne to condemn him, and the Jews to crucify him: But woe is us then, where had been the ransom to redeem us from eternal damnation: Therefore this mystery was so attemper'd, that some rays of his Divinity did appear sufficient to convert his Enemies if they would have learnt, and therefore they are inexcusable; but with that qualification and diminution, that pestilent men were left in unbelief, and did not assent that he was the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased. For had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of life, 1 Cor. ii. 8.
Thus I have sifted this Interdict of our Savior, that he bad his Disciples suppress that he was Jesus the Christ for a time, that the light might break out more clearly after his Ascension, when the clouds of his Humility and Passion were removed away. I shall leave an Objection behind my back if I take not away one scruple: what here Christ forbids, Mat. x. 7. he commands, for he sent his Apostles abroad, and when ye go, preach saying the Kingdom of God is at hand: and what's that but the Kingdom of the Son of God? St. Jerome takes it away thus, it seems to me not to be altogether the same thing, to preach Christ, and to preach Jesus Christ, Christus commune dignitatis est nomen, Jesus proprium nomen est Salvatoris; as who should say, Jesus our Savior is the name of God, Christ is his name of dignity, as he is the great Prophet, and the Messias of the World: Therefore he sent his Disciples to preach the Kingdom of Grace which Christ had brought into the World, but not evidently till after his Glorification, that he was the Son of God coeternal with the Father; therefore I have sufficiently ventilated this Cause, how Truth is the rich Treasury which God hath given us, it is not necessary to lay out all the stock, at all times and occasions, but as judgment and discretion will light the candle, to let us see how much is fit to be brought forth to gain our Brother, and to glorify God. Est & fideli tuta silentio merces; silence doth advantage more oftentimes for peace sake than free utterance. Demosthenes and the other Orator Aeschines fell to boasting among themselves, which of them had taken most at one time for a see to plead a Cause. Aeschines named a great sum, and too much perhaps for an honest man to take at once from a Client; but Demosthenes slighted it, and replied, he had received twice as much at one time to hold his peace. But from this variance of these large-bribed Orators, I will give you this application; When a discord is unfortunately raised between party and party, among the Members of the same Church, so that the factions grow stiff and rigid on both sides, the best way is to command silence to all, that the fire of strife and emulation may go out for want of combustible matter, and in this case not he that violates the peace by stickling much, but he that obeys and holds his peace, deserves the greater reward. This power our Savior exercised over his Apostles, to tie their tongues for a time, that they should not publish the glory of his Transfiguration till men were fit to receive it.
He charged them they should tell no man of the things which they had seen. I would but so much humility might be marked from hence, as would repress insolence and vain boasting: Christ laid his command upon this matter rather than upon any other, and imposed silence upon all the three Witnesses, that they should not blab the Vision of his Excellency abroad. How much unlike is this to them who had rather lose an ounce of their blood, nay the sweet odour of virtue, than an hour of fame and popularity: And so much good as is done, and not openly known and divulged, is soon repented. Where shall we find such a modest temper as that of St. Paul, so much admired by Theophylact? after fourteen years he tells the Corinthians of the Revelation which God granted him, and of his Rapture into Paradise, and in all that space he did never impart that celestial honor which was done him either to friend or stranger; and then he was ashamed that he was put to it, says he, I am become a fool in glorying, ye have compelled me: but what fools are they then that will make such proud boasting without compulsion? Jospeph being but a child, he did as a child, and having the inspiration of two several Dreams, he could not hold, but made all his Brethren acquainted with them, to his own affliction; He dreamt a dream, and told it to his brethren, and they hated him the more. Therefore in his riper years, though God had given him the spirit of Prophesy, he would not divulge himself that he had the interpretation of Dreams. He bad Pharaoh 's Butler remember him when he was in place. And according to the old Saw, qui been latuit, been vixit, he contained himself from manifesting the Gift of God which was in him, till the Butler could not choose but call him to mind to put Pharaoh 's heart in peace. Elizabeth hid herself five months after the Lord had made her conceive a Child miraculously to the astonishment of all the World, that great Prophet John the Baptist. The Blessed Virgin was saluted by an Angel from Heaven, conceived by the Holy Ghost, visited by the Wisemen from the East, she encountered every day many strange celestial Tokens, and yet made no noise of these things to the World, but kept all these sayings in her heart, Luke ii. 51. The mighty power of God will shine and show itself at last, be not ambitious to have it displayed for your own ostentation. Christ refrained to have the Vision of the Transfiguration presently notified. He charged them, &c.
Generally the Fathers consider the Apostles but as Novices in sacred matters, who were yet but in training up, and as deficient in those abilities which were requisite to handle such a mystery. Sacred things, says the Greek Proverb must not be touched 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with unwashen hands. This made the ancient Fathers of the Church as fearful to come into a Pulpit, as our raw Scholars nowadays are forward. You need not charge these hasty Predicants, as our Savior did his Disciples, not to speak of that for a certain time which they know, I would they could be admonished not to be so bold to speak of that which they know not. I am not certain for the greater part of such that they have seal; but I will bear them record with St. Paul, it is not according to knowledge. But will you know the spring head from whence this abuse ariseth: How can they preach unless they be sent? And why was Authority so overseen to send them? licentiâ sumus omnes deteriores, it is the license which enables for those things wherein they have no ability. Yet again another Text of St. Paul rubs my memory, multa licent quae non expediunt, there are too many such licences granted which are not expedient. If men would let knowledge ripen in them before they speak, and not blurt out anything with extemporary barbarism, the Word of God preached would not come so much in contempt; for a Parable is an undecent thing in the mouth of a fool, Prov. xxvi. 9. Our Savior destined a large space of time to have the cogitation of his great Works mellow in the thoughts of Peter, James, and John, before they testified them to the World; which is another reason why they must not speak of that which they had seen, till the Son of man was risen from the dead.
Another reason shall stand in the last place of this point; it is fit that they, and none but they should preach of Christ's Glory, who are affrighted with nothing. The Apostles were very timorous, and would desert a good Cause, if they were strongly opposed: you know the infirmity of Peter that could not answer the challenge of a silly Damosel, but denied his Master. This was in diebus illis, when the Holy Ghost had not yet come down upon him in the shape of a fire: afterward he durst speak the truth, though he had been in the midst of fire: nay he could not repress the Gospel, his will was overcome, and could not revolt, if the literal sense of the Text be right, as sure it is, We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard, Act. iv. 20. Grace was as it were turned into nature in them now, as in the Angels confirmed in grace, says the ordinary Gloss. Vino coelesti ebrit se continere non poterant, says Lyra: the Scoffers of Jerusalem said they were full of new wine; it was indeed by a figure a celestial wine, with which their spirit was inebriated; and as a drunken man's tongue will not lie quiet, so in this resemblance they were such that could not but speak the Gospel of Jesus Christ: they were these times of courage which Christ had destined, that in them his Transfiguration should be revealed openly. Moses found not constancy in himself, and therefore would have balked God's Message, says he, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? So the eleven Disciples were so fearful after out Savior's death, that they shut the doors upon themselves, where they were assembled, for fear of the Jews: and after the Resurrection we read that Christ did many times erect their courage, which was dejected, with these words, Be not afraid: and therefore he said unto them, Tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high, Luke xxiv. 49. When that power had possessed them with spirit and resolution, they had leave to unfold this mystery, and not before, he charged them saying, Tell the Vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead.
In the fourth general member of the Text, as they were enjoin'd, so my Text says they kept secrecy, they told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen. When I first entered upon this part of the Gospel, I told you that the Latin Churches keep an annual Feast in memory of the Transfiguration upon the sixth day of August, for this reason; the Transfiguration itself fell out in the beginning of the Spring, a few weeks before our Savior's Passion. The three Disciples which saw it being admonished to be private in that which they had seen, till more convenient time, confessed it not in five months following unto their fellow Disciples, and then made a solemn publication of it upon the sixth of August; which day thereupon had some sacred honor done it. Obedience is a virture of great necessity even in the smallest things; and they that are subject to obey, must not examine with what little prejudice a small command may be broke, but rather consider with what great ease it may be kept. Things forbidden, says the School, are of two sorts, Quaedam prohibentur quia mala, quaedam sunt mala quia prohibentur; some things are absolutely evil in themselves, and therefore are prohibited, as Murder and Adultery; some things are prohibited by just authority, and therereupon respectively become evil, as the eating of the forbidden fruit in Paradise; if God had not expressly prohibited that Tree to man, it had been no sin to taste of it: So our Savior made that sinful by his command, which otherwise had been harmless to be spoken of, if he had not encharged his Disciples to obsequiousness; and they performed that secrecy which they undertook, not envying their Brethren the relation of the things which they had seen, but observing that time of restraint which their Master had prefixed: And thus they reap praise even out of their infirmity, that although they were unfit to speak of such transcendent miracles as yet, yet they knew their duty to hold their peace.
Dearly Beloved, the wonderful works of our Lord were never brought to pass to be hid like a Candle under a Bushel, and to remain always undiscover'd; no it was Paul's defense before Felix and Agrippa, that everything which belonged to Christ was advanced to the open view; These things, says he, were not done in a corner. The Heathen had their sacra Cereris Eleusinia non divulganda, the Ceremonies and Rituals of Ceres never to be divulged; the more shame for those Idolaters to have such filthy abominations in their Temples, which they durst not publish. Christ did only sequester his secrets for the most apt times of manifestation: Dies dici eructat verbum, one day certifieth another. Time is the most prudent Master in the world. In those days appointed for silence Peter, and John, and James did shut up the secret committed unto them, but only in those times, and now it is left to be preached to all Nations, as to you at this time, ever since the Resurrection of the Son of God. The Catechumen in the Primitive Church, that is the novice Christians instructed in the Rudiments of Faith, and not yet baptized, were not permitted to be present in the Church at the celebration of the Lord's Supper; such as are baptized have admittance to partake of all Mysteries, when they can examine themselves, because they are baptized into the Faith of his Resurrection: And yet there is a Veil drawn before our eyes till the times of great accomplishment, I mean the Resurrection of the body; then we shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, which shall enlighten us to behold all things that conduce to our eternal happiness. AMEN.
FOUR SERMONS UPON THE PASSION OF OUR SAVIOUR.
THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE PASSION.
MAT. xxvii. 24.
I am innocent of the blood of this just Person, see you to it.
A S Pilate sat in Judgment upon our Savior, so are we met together this day to sit in judgment upon Pilate. The Ruler marveled when his Prisoner stood before him, and said nothing for himself: But now is the time to speak, it was Christ's good pleasure to leave his cause to be defended by us who should live in after Ages, and wheresoever the Gospel is preached throughout the world the Word doth testify; now in every man's mouth Christ is pitied, and Pilate is censured. When they reached a Reed unto our Savior they put an Emblem in his hand, says St. Jerome, that their own infamy should be endited against them to after Ages, Calamum tenet in manu ut inimicorum sacrilegium scriberet; The Reed was in his hand to pen the sacrilege of his enemies.
But Pilate's crime shall be the least part of our Meditation, that, which I would require to be the fruit of your attention, is to beware of committing the same faults which we tax in another, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a reproach retorted upon ourselves is a double infamy. For as the Orator said of the Faction of Augustus and Antony, when Caesar was treacherously slain, Tyrannus occidit, tyrannis vivit, the Tyrant was suppressed, but not the Tyranny; so when Pilate shall have sentence against him, we must every man also arrain his own infidelity, which thinks itself innocent of the blood of Christ, or else I must tell you plainly, that you do condemn the Hypocrite, and acquit Hypocrisy. He that says he did not crucify Christ is his greatest crucifier; he that will confess that they were his blasphemies which spat upon his face, his Briberies that nailed his hands to the Cross, his gluttony and drunkenness that gave him Gall to drink, his wrath and malice that pierced him in the side, his disobedience against Magistrates that bruized him in the head, his wanton Apparel that stripped him of his Robe, he that will not only die with Christ in his arms, as old Simeon did, but acknowledge that Christ died by his arms, he shall find peace at the last, and righteousness with the God of his salvation. What became of our Savior's Reed, and of his Robe, we find in holy Scripture, they were taken from him by the Soldiers; but it is not written whether any man took up the Crown of thorns, as if that were our share, or any man's else who is goaded with true compunction. And to say truth, all the sins which we do commit, let us make the best of them, are but thorns and briers, but if we confess them in humility, and ask pardon in tears and contrition, then they are corona spinea, a crown of thorns.
Before I begin either to judge Pilate, or to examine ourselves, I must tell you of a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a figure of confusion which is most proper to the Devils Rhetoric. For in one and the same breath, nay, in the self-same period, he will do three divers things: Lie, and tell truth, and Prophesy. Lie like himself, tell truth like a believer, and Prophesy like an Angel of light. One most perspicuous instance is, Mar. i. 24. The unclean spirit exclaims against Christ, Jesus of Nazareth what have we to do with thee? No? Not with God that created them, that was a lie of malice. Art thou come to torment us? There was a touch of Prophesy. I know thou art the holy one of God; that was as true as Gospel. You shall have just these three parts now in Pilate's Apology, Mendacium de seipso, verum testimonium de Christo, Prophetiam de populo. 1. I am innocent of this blood, that was false. 2. He confesseth Christ to be a just person, that was true. 3. He threatens the people, that if that just person died, the vengeance should light upon their head, vos videbitis, that was a Prophesy. Every man is his own flatterer, else Pilate had not thought himself an innocent. God will be cleared by every man's conscience, else Pilate had not preached for our Savior's righteousness. But how easy a thing it is to discern, and protest against other men's faults? Else Pilate had not Prophesied. We take account of our own imperfections as it were at midnight, when there is no light to discover us, then we run into error, and plead, that we are innocent. We see God in his works, as by a dim candle, and confession of truth will be extorted from us, that He is a just person. But we behold the crimes of those men that walk about us, as at noon day, and in the clear Sunshine, and then we Prophesy, vos videbitis, you that are sinners shall be punished. Here is as very a Riddle as the old Sphinx, made of three divers forms, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the fore-part a Lyar, in the next a true one, in the third a Prophet; and all these three in my Text, I am innocent of the blood, &c.
I begin with Pilate in the first member of his speech, the untruth which he tells in his own behalf, I am innocent. A vice which had been fitter for the meanest of the people than for the Ruler of Jury, the supreme Deputy for the Roman Empire. For truth, as Synesius doth define it, it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as who should say, that a word truly spoken is a Gentleman born, falsehood and lying are but beggarly begotten. But this is the wisdom of the World, whatsoever we can coin for our own reputation, it is not falsehood, but the strain of an Orator. And as the Optiques do determine, that in the composition of all colors there is lucidum and opacum, one part which shines and makes a luster to the eye, another part dark and gross which casts a shadow; so there is such an ingredient of two qualities in the actions of men, lucidum and opacum, some black deformity which is concealed, somewhat that glisters and shows fair to the outward appearance. Alas, that is it which puts us into a good opinion of ourselves, that is it which prompted Pilate's tongue to say before the people, I am innocent. Every disease, says Hippocrates, is the more dangerous, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when our face is so much changed, that our friends cannot know us. But who is in so bad a case as that man, who is so desperately diseased that he doth not know himself? St. Austin hath marked out two examples especially for this purpose. First, the young man in the Gospel, that talked of keeping all the Commandments, was bad to follow Christ, and did not; Matthaeus peccator sequutus est vocantem; Matthew the Publican that sold and bought sin, and could not deny that it was a trade of iniquity, he left all to attend our Savior when he was called. Secondly, He doth compare St. Peter with himself; there was a Peter that thought his fellows might be faint hearted, and run away, but for his own part he knew his courage was stronger than all temptation; but there is another Peter, or the same Peter of another mind, who was ashamed to show his face, and went out and wept bitterly, and of the twain he was the true Apostle, Salubrius sibi displicuit Petrus quando flevit, quàm sibi placuit quando praesumsit; Wretched was that Peter who did presume upon himself, happy was that Peter who did dislike and bewail his own infirmities.
Are you well advised upon how many nice Points innocence doth stand that dare advouch your own integrity? First, I am guilty of all the sins which I do not hate in another. The Church of Pergamos did not deny the faith, but God took up this quarrel against them, That they did not hate the Doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans. Again, I am guilty of all those sins which I do not rebuke in another, Qui tacet consentire videtur; the judgment hereof fell upon Eli and his house forever. Again, I am guilty of every sin wherein I gave way to the lewdness of another, and did not restrain it. The Kings of Judah, when they did not cut down the Groves and demolish the Images, which they themselves did not worship, yet their memory is Taxed, that their heart was not perfect before the Lord, because they were not zealous to cut off iniquity. Now put all these together, these nice observations of an upright heart, and then let Pilate tell me who was innocent? Leucatius, a Roman well reputed of, would needs stand in defense against the City that all his actions had been unblameable in every circumstance: But I will never sit Judge in this cause, says Fimbria, whom he chose for the Umpire, Quia justitia innumerabilibus officiis continetur; For justice contains so many duties that it is hard to number them, but to observe them all impossible. Indeed the Heathen were so modest in this Point, that in all the Language of Greece, that rich and copious Tongue, there is not one word which is proper for Innocency. To say truth, says Tertullian, what should they do with the word in their mouth, and want the matter in their heart which it signifies? Quid si nos solum innocents sumus? Innocency, such as the world can afford, it is among Christians, or nowhere. Who is the man then that would put on the white Robe of a Saint, and cast it over his crimson sins? Let him first, as it useth to be, draw out his life with o Pencil in black colors, and confess his iniquities. What soul is that which, like a chaste Virgin, would become the Spouse of Christ? Nec magis alba velit quàm det natura videri; as the Poet speaks. Let her lay no complement to that beauty or deformity which God hath afforded her. And he that thinks himself less than the greatest sinner shall not be so great as the least Saint in the Kingdom of heaven.
But let no man deceive himself, as if a confession of course would serve the turn, such as we say by rote perchance at the beginning of our Morning and Evening Service. There is not such an hypocrite, I am persuaded, in the world, that thinks his soul blank, and to have no spot upon it. Every man must go a little further to try what opinion he hath of his own righteousness: Is the rumour of War, or the fear of Pestilence, or the calamity of a Famine in the Land? This is a case to prove an humble Consessionary: For if your heart smite you, as if you knew enough by yourself to provoke all that vengeance, it is well, you have made a strict examination: But if you look about you to see who should blush first, and take it to himself, you are not in good terms with God and a good Conscience. Behold what St. Peter preacheth, the Heavens and the Earth are reserved for fire against the day of judgment. Will an humble sinner lay his head upon his Pillow with the Prophet Jonas? And suffer the rest of the Passengers to cast lots upon the trial, and find him out that hath offended? A true Disciple hath learnt that his wantonness hath subjected every Creature to vanity, so that they must be purged by the fire of God. Such a one will strive to put out the flame with tears of contrition, which he and his Concupiscence have kindled in heaven and earth. Finally, you cannot be ignorant, that there was Copiosa redemptio, plenteous redemption in our Savior's Sufferings, enough and to spare a man would thinks. Suppose that fewer stripes had been laid upon his back, fewer buffetings given him on the face, fewer thorns platted upon his head, I say, had all this been spared, but his death upon the Cross, had not our ransom been sufficiently discharged? O but persuade your Consciences, every man in particular, I beseech you, that the overplus was paid for you, and that your Bond must be cancelled out of the superfluity of his sufferings. Bonarum mentium est ibi culpam agnoscere ubi culpa non est. There is no hurt in that. He that doth not look upon his own sins with that detestation that he would look upon those that multiplied ignominy upon Christ, he hath washed his hands in Pilate's Bason.
Now I proceed to show what crime it is which Pilate would so much abandon, it is the crying sin of Murder, Innocens sanguinis, I am innocent of blood, a fault which God would not pardon in Cain, though he were the first-born in the Generations of men. In the sin of blood Jehoiada the Priest would not spare Athaliah the Mother of the King. David would not spare it in Joab the Captain of his Host. Jacob would not forgive it in his own Sons Simeon and Levy, but did revile them in his blessing. A fault which St. Austin, looking upon the bare story, doth tax in Moses for killing the Egyptian, but St. Stephen defends him, Acts vii. that it was a courage inspired from God. The life of anything that bears God's Image is to be gently handled: For if the body be the Temple of the Holy Ghost, then our soul is the Priest, and to cast the Priest out of the Temple, it is not only violence, but profanation. But above all, the Heathen men were so tender to confess that blood-guiltiness could obtain pardon, that Socrates in Phaedon tells it upon his knowledge, Animam quae caede alicujus polluta est fugit quisque; though a murderous man upon better behavior were admitted to the Elysian joys, yet he lived solitary by himself, and was quite abandoned. The Philosopher Aristotle speaking what things those were which were not Enthymems for an Orator, that is, no fit subjects for a probable Argument, excepts nothing but committing of murder, for no Rhetoric can ever make so foul a sin to be plausible.
How God himself hath accustomed man for meekness, and not for cruelty, I will give you a short survey out of the holy Scripture: before the Flood we had no food but herbs and fruits, no blood was lawfully spilled that we read of for 1600 years, except it were for sacrifice. When flesh was allowed to our Table (for after the Flood the green herb and the trees afforded not such nourishment as they had done before): to eat with the blood from the Law until Christ was meat unhallowed: Nay, the Churches of the Gentiles were held unto that Ceremony by the Apostles, Acts xv. and long after the Apostles no man did eat either blood or strangled. Gregory could say in his time, Non diu est ex quo Christiani suffocatum aut sanguinem comederunt, it was but yesterday, in his time, since that strict observation was cancelled: and I hope we can all collect, that if it was unlawful for the mouth to taste blood, it was more execrable for the hand to spill it, or for the heart to thirst for it. When Lepers and blind men, when sick folks that had Fevers; nay, when such as had Devils came to Christ, he put forth his hand and touched them, and they were healed; but the woman that had the bloody Issue put her own finger upon his Garment, and our Savior laid not his hand upon her Disease alone, because it was an Issue of blood. Now shame be it unto Christians to fall into deadly quarrels upon terms of Honor, and count it reputation to shed blood, when Pilate had the conscience to shun the infamy: Surely he that thinks it a disparagement to receive the lie, did never scan what Honor was, unless he think it a far greater infamy to be a willful Murderer. Seneca gives it as a Character of the most pure and harmless Age of the World, that there was no single Combats fought in fury, no bloody Wars of seditious Princes, odium omne in feras verterant, all that they killed; it was in hunting, and having spent their anger upon their Game they were satisfied.
But no cruelty hath more offended the Church in all Seasons, than exposings of men's lives to death in Sports and Recreations: the adventuring of their young Champions to encounter wild Beasts, to propound reward unto their Sword-players to kill each other upon their Theatres, it could not but be a great eye-sore to all Christians that knew how precious every life was unto God, for which the Son of God did pay his life. Homo occiditur in hominis voluptatem, scelus non tantum geritur, sed docetur; quid potest inhumanius, quid acerbius dici? they are the words of St. Cyprian. A pleasure it is unto you barbarous Nations, to see a man's throat cut with skill and dexterity; you have Masters to teach it, Schools to practice it, and, which is worst of all, eyes which do not weep, but smile to behold it. But for your part, Beloved, enlarge your bowels with clemency and compassion; as I would love to do good offices in Christian burial, much the better for Josephs sake that took my Savior from the Cross, and laid him in his own Tomb, so I would hate a bloody mind much the more for their sakes who did scourge and pierce his body. Upon that meditation I would resolve to be a true man, where Pilate was an hypocrite, and say in defiance of all the world, &c.
The rather did this Deputy endeavor to clear himself of blood, either because he had been taxed before for extreme severity. The Galilaeans were rebellious, and he mingled their own blood with their Sacrifice: it was that, as some conjecture, which put enmity between him and Herod: or rather he shunned the imputation of blood, because he was a Ruler and a Magistrate. Ferrum adhibere nisi in extremis neque civile, neque medicum. As in the Body of man, so in the Estate political, that Member should be very corrupt which is cut off with the Sword. Many Executions are no more honorable to the Judge, than many Funerals to the Physician: Mercy and Clemency are stronger than Lions to support the Crown of the King; and that Throne shall be established, says Synesius, where the People are afraid of nothing so much as for the Kings safety. It is said of Trajan the Emperor, that he was both subtle and industrious to examine the crimes of Malefactors, sed mallet non invenire quod quaerit, quàm invenire quod puniat, that it pleased him better not to find out that which he sought for, than to find out anything which must be punished. The life of Jehu the Son of Nimshi, is it not a strange Legend as ever was recorded? no act or exploit of his memory remaining in all the Scripture but interfecit, interfecit, here he killed one, there he murdered forty, then he slew 400; but as soon as all the Enemies of God were cut off, then says the Text, he slept with his Fathers, as if his work were done, and he died for want of more employment. But I need not enlarge my discourse in this point, we having not so much cause to preach to man, as to praise God for lenity.
And I have not so learnt Christ, to think the Sword of vengeance doth not become the arm of the Civil Magistrate. David had a good purpose to build a Temple unto God, but it was not accepted, because he was a man of war, and had shed much blood, 1 Chron. xxviii. Why was the work then cast upon Solomon his Son? had not he given sentence of death against Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei? and is it not as lawful to cut off the Enemies in war, as Malefactors in peace? First, the hearts of Warriours are not always bent upon justice, as the heart of the Magistrate: then it is the Word of the Judge that fetcheth blood, but it is the Hand of the Battle; therefore God himself hath thus distinguished, that the blood of War did defile King David, but the blood of Civil Justice did not cast a blemish upon Solomon. They that cannot distinguish between vengeance and just authority, are like the Moabites that looked upon the waters, and saw them ruddy, and thought it was effusion of blood, when it was the brightness of the Sun, and the light of Heaven.
But was Pilate so tender of taking life away? did it come so hardly from him to doom the Sentence of death against a Prisoner? Lord, what Dam did they suck, into whose hands our Ancestors fell; the Grey-head, the Reverend Praelacy, the fruitful Womb of Mothers, all were sentenced unto one fiery Execution for Religion's sake. Surely it had been a Premunire in the Court of Rome to have shewn mercy unto any man, or to talk of clemency. It was the disposition of the old Indian Philosophers, says St. Jerome, Eorum disciplina juvare non nisi juste novit, nocere nec juste; they would do good only when there was justice to do it, but they would not hurt any man, no not when they had reason for it. The Papists are as far from this meekness, as Dan from Beersheba, that let out floulds of Christian blood to maintain their unbloody Sacrifice. When Cyrus the younger would have slain his Brother Artaxerxes, see the tender compassion of the Mother; she bound him about her own neck with the hair of her head, and it was a sufficient Sanctuary to save his life. Our holy Martyrs and Professors were bound to the Church their Mother by Baptism, by Truth, by Faith, by Charity, by the Prerogative of Natural Branches, and yet like a Perfume of Incense they were burnt to ashes. It is enough: and they cannot hate the false Church by the Canons and Confession of Trent; may hate their parricidious and malicious minds by the fire in Smithfield. It is a Saint-like indulgence, that we do not mete the same measure into their own bosom, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; no it is canticum canticorum, the Canticle of our Church, and the Song of the Spouse of Christ, I am innocent of blood.
Now I will bring Pilate upon his last Trial, from innocens sanguinis, to innocens hujus sanguinis, to the trial of this man's blood, and you shall see how he mocked his conscience, that he was innocent of the blood of Christ: those few things which he could say for himself are these. In the first place, He stood upon it before all the people, that Christ was harmless, and guilty of no crime or imputation. Ecce priùs absolvit quam damnat; if Christ was harmless why was he beaten? here's a Judge indeed, fitter for Outlaws and Robbers than for a civil Corporation; first he absolves, and then condemns his Prisoner: As St. Austin said to Lucretia, Nocentior fuit quae seipsam interfecit, quanto erat in causâ innocentior; Lucretia was the greater Murderer of herself, because Lucretia was innocent. So it holds in the crucifying of our Savior, and nothing doth more aggravate the fact to make Pilate nocent, than that he confesseth Christ was innocent. When Sylla did send out his Guard to cut off the head of Antonius the Orator, the well-spoken man did so bewitch the Soldiers with fair words, who came to kill him, that they hung down their heads, wept, and spared his life, till he sent other Assassins more cruel than the former, who did the deed. Lo a greater wonder; Christ making no declaration of his Cause in pathetical words, cast such a look upon the Judge (O what a sight it had been to have seen his face but for that moment) that he could not but confess the heart was true, where the countenance was so honest. Thus, according to the case of Antonius, in the first assault the Ballance of Justice was held even, till the Rulers inconstancy, and the Peoples importunity weighed it down against the best alive: therefore the clearing of Jesus from all faults by protestation is nothing to make Pilate innocent.
Secondly, what can he say beside in his own justification? marry like a tender-hearted Murderer, he would not let his own hand be upon him, but sent him as a Malifactor of Galilee unto Herod: Call you this commiseration, to be delivered from the Adversary to the Judge, from the Judge to the Torturer? Is John Baptists head so soon forgotten, that it could be suspected of this? Herod he would pity Christ! could it be imagined so chaste a person could find good usage before such a man, whose Marriage was incestuous? This was like the removing of the Prophet Jeremy from the Kings Prison to the Dungeon of Malchal, Jer. xxxviii. But thus it was fit to be, say the Fathers, to toss Christ between Annas and Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate, that he might be reviled by four slanderous Judges, as his glory should be revealed in the Gospel by four Evangelists: yea Pilate and Herod interchangeably made another mystery flat against themselves. For Herod clad our Savior 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in a white shining Robe, says St. Luke, as the Ancients read it: Pilate did alter the color, and made it purple, says St. Matthew, to express against their own corrupt proceedings, that he was candidus innocentiâ, rubicundus martyrio, that his Soul was white with innocence, and his Body died purple with passion: according to that which Solomon spoke mystically of Christ, I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valleys; the White Lily of the Valleys in his sanctified life, the Red Rose of Sharon in his bloody sufferings. There is a superstition in some men, and perchance it is all the Religion which they have, they will not put their own finger into an ill Cause, but they make no scruple to solicit and procure it by their Instruments. This was a piece of Statism which Saul observed against David, let not my hand do him hurt, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. Like our lascivious Gallants, who call them Bawds and Panders who deal for other men's sins, and are Officers for these voluptuous Markets, but to enjoy that sin, which their Instruments compounded for, as they think, it is no stain to their reputation. So Pilate in my Text shifts our Savior from his own Tribunal (Justice forbid that He should hurt him) but he removes him into Herod's Court, to receive his Sentence from a Tyrant. Alas then this was not enough to make Pilate innocent.
But thirdly, his Apology stands upon one point more: for perceiving the insatiate rancor of the Jews, that nothing would content them except they had revenge upon the Body of Christ, he stripped him naked, and scourged him, that his stripes might give satisfaction, and his life be saved: Debilem facito manu, debilem coxa pede, vita dum superest been est, says Mecaenas; a smart in the hand, or in the head, may be patiently taken to save our vitals. 'It is true, that such pity is in the wisdom of the Judge, when a lesser offense is compared with a greater; but it is more injustice to chastise an innocent like a petty malefactor, than to punish a petty Malefactor like a notorious Offendor. The Jews cried out, that if he spared his life, but I say if he race his skin, he is no Friend to Caesar: but as it happens unto some Beasts, that if they taste of blood, it puts a thirst into them to make them raven and devour every prey that they catch: So the drops that trickled from his shoulders put a ravenous appetite into the Jews, to thrust a Spear into his side as deep as to his heart, to make a passage for a greater effusion: the very nakedness of his body when he was stripped to be scourged, and to be crucified, says St. Austin, was irksome to a modest man. Obtenebratus est sol ut celaret pudicitiam creatoris in nudo corpore, says the Father: but to take such a scourging, that Pilate himself shook his head to behold the man, Et fuit in toto corpore sculptus amor, says a Christian Poet, that the testimony of his love was enameled, or engraven in every part of his body, to fall into the hands of such Executioners, that did over-do their Commission, and would gratify the People in their Function, as much as their Master had done in his Sentence before them; will this defense hold water to make Pilate innocent?
Then let us hear his fourth Allegation. When he had made a Protestation of Christ 's integrity, but it would not be believed: when he had tempted Herod to end the Trial, but the Cause was returned to his own Court; when scourges were applied to take off the edge of his Enemies cruelty, yet nothing was heard but crucify him in the voice of the Multitude, he casts about to save him by the privilege of the Passover; choose you who shall be released, Barabbas that seditious Murderer, or Jesus that is called Christ. Is it come to the choice, and the People made Arbiters? then no doubt Christ must prepare for the Altar, and Barabbas shall be hircus emissarius, the Scape-goat let to run away into the Wilderness: Et mecum certasse feretur may the Son of God say? shall the Joy of Heaven and Earth come in scrutiny with Barabbas? but we have no quarrel against him: Non reprehendimus O Judaei quod per Pascha liberastis nocentem, sed quod occidistis innocentem, says St. Austin; If you have a mind, O ye Israelites, to save a sinner at the Passover, spare not to show mercy, who can be offended at it? But if that be a business fit for the day, it cannot be a good work to kill an innocent. Upon what occasion the custom was grounded to acquit a Thief at the Passover it is not upon record. Some are confident that it was very ancient in memory of their own deliverance out of the Land of Egypt; some think it was later, begun after the Roman Conquest, upon this occasion; Their Cities of Refuge were quite taken from them, because the crimes of blood and death were translated from the Law of Moses to the Tribunal of Caesar; wherefore this courtesy was instead of a recompense, to release unto them one Prisoner at the Passover. Now I strike at Pilate's hypocrisy; for this custom, says Lyra, was not ex imperiali sanctione sed consuetudine, the surrender of one Malefactor was not strengthened by the Imperial Law, but by courtesy. Why did not Pilate then confine the Roman mercy to this just person, but leave it indifferent, as well for him, as for the benefit of a Murderer. There is no such Beast in the World as Demetrius and the City of Ephesus broke loose into a mutiny: what they choose, or what they refuse, the greater part are always ignorant: take the people in this wild frenzy, and they would like the company of Barabbas before any man, such an hair-brain would make a Ringleader fit to cry out 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , let him be crucified. Had Antiochus, the chief Enemy of their Nation, been living, and set up against our Savior, surely the voice had gone, not Him, but Antiochus; wherefore to propound Christ and Barabbas it was a delusion, and will not hold to make Pilate innocent.
Give him water now to wash his hands; manus lavet, sed facta non diluit, says St. Ambrose, he will never wash off his crimes: yet certainly it was a Ceremony which will rise up in judgment to the confusion of the Jews; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they could not but be pricked in conscience, says St. Chrysostom, for it was no Roman Custom, but the Ceremony of their own Law, Deut. xxi. that if a man were found slain in the Feild, and it was not known who had slain him, the Elders of the next City should behead an Heifer in the Valleys, and wash their hands upon it, saying, our hands have not shed this blood, neither our eyes seen it. And according to this Ordinance David did meditate, Psal. xxv. 6. I will wash my hands in innocence, and so will I go to thine Altar. And to this Statute Pilate did allude, but as one objected to Cicero, that his Accusations were powerful, and his Defences slender; so this was as sharp as the sting of a Cockatrice to wound the Jews, but as weak as paper proof to defend Pilate. Xanthe retro propera, never let water have the operation so much as to cleanse his hands, since he condemned Christ, who was the fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life.
Yet in every circumstance that I have laid open, I must confess he doth show some motion of a relenting heart, and I think he would have been constant, if the People had not took upon them to over-rule the Judge; qui me tradidit tibi majus peccatum habet, Pilate hath his share in the sin, but the death of Christ will be most burdensome to his own Nation. This is the preposterous course of the world, when the Tail must lead the Head, and the Head go backward; yet the inconsiderate many had rather wander, so they may go foremost, than keep the right way and let others go before them that know how to lead. In the multitude of counsel there is peace, and a good Senate is stronger than a wall of brass, but to be carried away as Moses was, with the murmuring of these people at Massah and Meribah; to save Amalech and the fattest of the Sacrifice, as Saul did, because it went by most voices, this is a dangerous popularity. The greatest sedition in the Roman State fell out in the Tribunship of the Gracchi, when they rather chose to give attentive ear to those that walked in the Market-place, than to the sage and prudent Body of the Senate-house: They both made an unfortunate end; and better cannot come of it, says Plutarch, when the same man will be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , both the Magistrate and the Servant of a multitude. There are two things which David wondered at in the power of God, to still the raging of the waves, and the madness of the people, Psal. lxv. 7. both will swell as high as the clouds in an hour, and grow calm in a minute. If there had not been a wiser Captain in Jerusalem, when Paul preached in the Temple, Act. xxi. that ruled his place with authority, Paul had been stoned to death for his Doctrine; but he commanded the multitude, and they obeyed. I would Pilate had learnt but one lesson from his own Master Tiberius, these are his words in Tacitus, I will endeavor, ut offensionum pro utilitate publicâ minime pavidum me credant; the Fathers of the Senate-house should know, he was not afraid in a good Cause to offend the multitude. This Precept had qualified Pilate, not to give up the Messias of the World unto the rage of the people; then not so much had troubled him, as his Wife suffered in a dream; as innocent had he been of the blood shed upon the Cross, as he was clear of the bloody sweat which our Savior cast himself into by a miraculous agony in the Garden.
Somewhat there was in it, beside the rude importunity of the people, why Pilate had but half an heart either to absolve or to crucify our Savior: Somewhat was in it indeed, for Satan was in it if we may believe Alexander Ales. It was the Devil that tempted Judas to betray his Lord, and there his temptation prevailed; but being suspicious upon some alteration that Christ was the Eternal Son of God, and ready to suffer death for the redemption of Man, collecting it, as we conjecture out of Isaiah's Prophecy, that this was the Lamb standing dumb before the Shearers; now he casts jealousies into Pilate's mind to save his life, as I have read concerning the Parthians, that although they hated the flourishing Common-wealth of Rome, yet nothing did displease them worse, than to hear of any great casualty of fire that had wasted the City, because the ruins were but an occasion to make the reparation more glorious: So the old Serpent bestirs himself that the sentence of death may not be denounced against our Savior, lest his ruin be an occasion to build up mankind with an everlasting reparation. Therefore horror is struck into Pilate's mind, but the suggestion prevails not; the Sacrifice is offered upon the Altar of the Cross, suggerendo vicit suggerendo vincitur; he suggests a motion into Judas his mind, and was a Conqueror, he suggests a motion into Pilate's mind, but himself is conquered.
This opinion of Ales glisters, but it is not gold; for the Revelation which Pilate's Wife did suffer in a dream to warn her Husband not to meddle with this just man, it came from God; it is St. Austin's opinion, in somniis patitur, ut ne ampliùs pateretur, she that suffered that good motion in a dream, shall not suffer anymore forever. Nay if the Devil were so forward to cast in hindrances that our Savior might not suffer, why did he not turn the stream among the vagabond multitude, that cried out Let him be crucified? I am sure they did rather run headlong, as if their heads did swim with such a spirit as was in the Swine of the Gergasens. Therefore I leave this opinion as fidei dubiae, if not as false, yet at least as suspected and apocryphal.
What need any other cause be given, why Pilate should halt between Justice and Popularity, why he should be half for Christ, half for Barabbas; but the modest answer of St. Paul, Deus quos vult indurat, he was a Vessel of dishonor, and therefore to be dashed and broken. To open the heart of a Thief upon the Cross, non minus suit quàm petras concutere, it was as great a wonder as to open the Graves of the dead: Pilate's heart was only rent in twain like the Veil of the Temple, but it was not opened. The Fathers have a subtle resolution of this case, and yet a profitable. Pilate bore the person of the Gentiles, and in their person his bowels did a little earn to pluck the Son of God out of the hand of his Enemies: but when he grew unstable, and was vanquished, he cast the curse upon the Jews, vos videbitis, you shall see to it. It was the providence of Heaven, ut gentilis deprecatione ultio sanguinis istius à nobis ablata sit, that the vengeance of his blood should be denounced against Israel, and the Nations excused: but yet Pilate was but mungril good, and therefore his hand was in this bloody passion, as well as the men of Jerusalem: both Jew and Gentile did concur to his sufferings, says Origen, ut pro persecutoribus qui oraret, gentiles non excluderet; that when he prayed for his Persecutors, the Gentiles might be at one end of his persecution, and be partakers of his Prayers. Had Pilate been as malicious as the Jews, we poor souls had been liable to the vengeance of his blood; had Pilate stopped his ears against the outcries, and never yielded to the passion, we had not been in the number of those Persecutors for whom he made intercession, therefore this luke warm Magistrate began with Jacob's voice, but ended with the hands of Esau; neither could he say he was innocent of the blood of this just man.
Nay then I must tell you (to forget Pilate a while) were you all in this Assembly, (dearly beloved) of none other but of the very choice and flower of the resurrection of the just, a Rank of Patriarchs, an Army of Martyrs, a Company of holy Prophets, yet Qui omnes conclusit sub peccato, omnes conlusit suh homicidio; he that doth lay sin to every man's soul doth lay the murder of our Lord and Savior to every man's charge for the redemption of sins. And then are you better than your forefathers? Are you more righteous than the Prophets, that you alone are innocent? No, you are also the crucifiers of your Redeemer, and if your consciences do not say so, bear witness of my words for an action of slander. Solum peccatum homicida est. Not Pilate but hypocrisy, not Caiaphas but Simony, not Herod but incestuous lust, not the Soldiers but Bands and Troupes of Rapines and Blasphemies were the murderers of Christ. When a Bullock was slain for a sin Offering to make an atonement for the whole Congregation. Lev. iv. 25. All the Elders of the City, says Moses, shall lay their hands upon the head of the Bullock, that they, being the representative body of all Israel, might testify that every soul in Israel was accessory to the death of the Sacrifice. This was a figurative expression, how the whole Generation of mankind did concur to be guilty of the bloody Oblation of the Son of God. As the trial hath been seen upon murderers when they have drawn near to the Carkass which hath been slain by their hands, either fresh blood from the wounds of the Carkass, or an issue of their own blood, hath betrayed them, as some say; so let me question you, when you stand before Christ, especially when he stands before you in the holy Sacrament, do not your hearts bleed within you to express your guiltiness of his Passion? O give the flux a passage to come out, I do not say in blood, but in tears, which are the blood of the soul. The bleeding of the Vine draws away the life of the tree, and leaves it barren of the Clusters which should hang upon it, but the flowing of tears makes us fruitful to bring forth many Bunches of good works, not the Clusters of an earthly, but of an heavenly Canaan.
And now let me ask you, as I would ask of men that shun those places out of horror wherein they have spilled another's blood; I say, Why do you love this world so much wherein you have killed Christ? Why are you not aweary of this place? What can please us in such a soil, which should be unto us all as Aceldema was to Judas, the Theater to act sins, and therefore the field of blood? Wherefore do we not rather say with Tertullian, Nihil nostri refert in hoc mundo, nisi de eo quàm cito excedere? We Christians have nothing to do in this earth, but to make haste to forsake it for a better, especially abandon the thoughts of deadly revenge, do not wish for more blood at any hand, we have all spilled enough already in the funerals of our Savior, were he not both a Sacrifice slain for us, as he is a Sacrifie slain by us, more than ever we could answer for. Make not your revengeful heart like Golgotha, where Christ was crucified, a place of dead men's sculls.
But least any man should be swallowed up with too much grief because he is endited for this heinous crime, the bitter death of his Savior, let him take this for his comfort, to put gladness in his heart; it is not one death that our Lord Jesus doth stand upon, Passus est quia voluit; he never shrinks for one death, but stretched out his arms upon the Cross to embrace it. Take heed only that you do not crucify him anew. Nay mistake me not here, though you sin ten thousand times over, yet he can die but once for you; but my meaning is, the Summa totalis of all men's sins did abase the Son of God to the ignominy of the Cross, yet this dolorous day was from God's preordination: But that we may not crucify him anew, first, Do not neglect his death as if it were some common and uncommiserated anguish. Secondly, Do not run into admiration of your own merits, as if, had there been all such as you in the world, his Passion had been spared. Lastly, Do not presume upon grace, as if Remission of sins were a safe Indulgence for sins to be multiplied. They that do commit such things are guilty, not once, but often, to crucify the Lord of life.
To conclude then against Pilate's falsehood and hypocrisy, three things do concur in the crucifying of our Savior, Destinatio passionis, executio passionis, iteratio passionis. In the Predestination of Christ's Passion God did look upon all mankind, the Elect especially, as lapsed into sin, and therein Pilate was not innocent. The execution of his Passion upon earth was committed by the envy of the Priests, the cruelty of the Soldiers, and the power of Pilate. What though his mind did not consent? Yet he lent them his authority. Herod was not willing, it seems, to have John Baptists head, but it comes all to one pass if Herodias must have her content; and therefore in the execution was not Pilate innocent. The iteration of his Passion lights upon those who make an impenitent end, and do not apply his sufferings to their sin-sick conscience; and since Pilate lived a Vagabond forever after, and died like a desperate cast-away, either by drowning at Vienna, or falling upon his own Sword at Lions (that is the difference of the History) neither in this respect, nor in any else could he say, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.
And so I pass to the second general part of my Text, from this lie which Pilate told, to his true testimony concerning Christ, that he was a just person. Yet I commend this disposition in Pilate, that when he found no cause of dislike, among all the slanderous tongues in Jerusalem he alone would speak well of Christ. It was a word better placed than that of Phocion, who praised a lewd person with this excuse, that good men did not need commendation. The Devil was a murderer from the beginning, for indeed in the beginning of time he was a Slanderer, Non qui ferro, sed qui verbo malefico interficit homicida est, says St. Austin. He that takes away a man's good name is a Man-slayer, as he that takes away my life. This same 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to bear true witness of all men's actions, I wonder it is no more in request; it is the thriftiest virtue that you can entertain. In rewards of Gold and Silver what we give away we want ourselves, but in giving good words, and in making good report of other men's deeds, we do not diminish our own fame, but increase it.
To come nearer to the cause in hand. How did our Savior's righteousness appear unto Pilate that such good words came out of the mouth of a Roman, who was a stranger to Christ? There is scarce any talk of him in the Gospel before this Chapter. Why surely, you will say, for a Prisoner to justify himself, the way is, to clear his Enditement and accusations before the Magistrate. Now the Adversary did cast in four Crimes against the life of Jesus: One before Caiaphas, Mar. xxvi. that he would destroy the Temple. 2. That they found him perverting the Nation. 3. That he forbad to give tribute unto Caesar. 4. That he said openly he was Christ a King. These three Allegations are together, Luk. xxiii. 2. and none but those three brought before Pilate. You know now the Bill of Enditement. What satisfaction did the Prisoner give I pray you? Did you ever read of his Answer? No, not a word came out of his lips, Silentium habuit pro advocato; Bare silence was his Advocate. Forte verebuntur filium, says the King in the Gospel. Forte, peradventure? What doth any such word of doubting make in the mouth of God? But the Lord would not seem to determine that any would be so malicious to kill filium complacentiae, the innocent Son in whom he was well pleased. His slanders were so notorious that he held his peace, and was pronounced innocent. Now you are not afraid, I am sure, that I should hold you too long with multiplying many words in our Savior's behalf; Christ thought it needless to say oft, and therefore I may spare much pains in that Point in so Christian an Auditory. For method sake and the direction of your memory thus I will proceed, first to lay down two reasons why our Savior would stand dumb in the question of his integrity. Secondly, I will draw a short defense against the four calumniations of the Jews, not that our Savior needs it. For I tell you he would not move his lips to make an Apology but for your use and instruction.
For the first of these: The silence of Christ in a matter that concerned his life, it was not well interpreted by any man for want of the illumination of the holy Spirit. Is he beside himself, thinks Peter, standing in the High Priests Hall? Can he say nothing to his Accusers? And because he spoke so little Peter would speak too much, thrice he denied him and forswore him. And is this the great Prophet of Galilee? Thinks Herod, who preacheth in every Synagogue, not like the Scribes and Pharisees, but with power and authority. Surely, he may teach Fishermen, but when he comes before Tetrachs and Princes he is quite daunted and out of countenance. But as the Fathers do Comment ingeniously upon the place, he dropt a word or two before Caiaphas and Pilate, but he did utterly seal up his lips before Herod, Quia vocem ejus abstulerat? How should he speak before him who had taken away his voice? For what was John the Baptist but the voice of Christ? Doth he despise my Authority thinks Pilate? Doth he esteem me not fit to command in the Seat of Justice that he doth reply to no Interrogatory but such as like him? Ubi respondet pastor est, ubi tacet agnus. When he did lift up his heavenly voice, then he took upon him the person of a Shepherd that fed his flock; when he held his peace, then he carried himself as that Ecce agnus, that remarkable Lamb of the Flock, which stood dumb before the Shearers: Thus Peter, and Herod, and Pilate, all were scandalized, therefore I come prepared to contest against the World by a double reason, how expedient it was for this just Person to hold his peace.
The first is this, Ambiunt defendi qui timent vinci; Let them defend themselves who can be convicted; his life could not be tainted with any suspicion, his works were clear from all imperfection: Then what need an Advocate? Susanna tacuit & vicit; Susanna stood impeached between the two lascivious Elders that had tempted her, she did not beat the Tribunal, and call to heaven and earth for witness of her innocence, this had not become her Virgin modesty, but standing dumb in her righteousness God did plead her cause by the mouth of Daniel. The very Romans gave that respect to an approved man Q. Metellus, that the whole Bench forbad him to take his oath in a controversy to be debated, lest they should seem to distrust so reverend a Citizen. So for these crimes wherewith our Savior was impleaded, Non confirmat tacendo, sed despicit non refellendo (says the Gloss;) His silence was not a sign of consent, but an argument of untainted integrity. And Pilate himself did peep into this mystery. For as it happened to a Client of Rhodes in Plutarch, that the Advocate of the contrary side spared not to defame him, and cast out his Cause as unworthy of the Court, but the Judge all the while sat still, and said nothing; Non refert quid ill loquatur, sed quid ill taceat, says the Rhodian; It makes not against my Cause that the Advocate rails, but it makes much for me that the Judge holds his peace: So Pilate did not weigh objections by the malicious out-cries of the Jews, but by the generous and inoffensive silence of the Son of God. Sophocles in his elder years was accused by his Sons for doting, and misspending his goods to the impoverishment of their Inheritance. What defense doth the Father make? Contest before the Areopagites with his own Children? Nothing less; he knew the awful authority of a Father, and would not stoop so low as to prove and send a cause with those whom he had begotten; but sends his Tragedy, called Oedipus Colinaeus, the work of his gray hairs, to be read over before the Judges; Hoc non est opus delirantis hominis, that was not the work of a doting man; there was but that one acclamation heard, and so he was absolved. In like manner our Lord and Savior was God from everlasting, and by him the worlds were created, his hands had made and fashioned everyone of these malicious Jews, when their substance was yet imperfect in their mothers womb, shall he not disdain then, as well as Sophocles, to contest in judgment with his own Creatures. Ask Job, if it be fit for God to come in judgment like the Son of Man. No, let his patience speak for his humility. His fasting forty days for his sobriety, his miracles and healing the sick for his charity, his cleansing of the Temple of buyers and sellers for his zeal to the House of God. Let Judas speak before he goes to his own execution, let the Wife of Pilate speak and her vision, let the Ruler himself speak his conscience, and if these be silent the stones shall speak, but let Jesus hold his peace, and taciturnity itself shall prove him a just person.
Indeed I have seen a great evil under the Sun, I do honor our Courts of Justice for my part, and the municipal Laws of the Realm, but I cry out shame upon this fault, that it is grown an art among pleaders to be a good Accuser. He that can aggravate a crime well, is in good hope to be a thriving Practiser. Alas, if Accusers were charitable, Innocents should not need to pay so dear for learned Counsel to defend them. That which might be dispatched by yea and nay is grown a volume, and if it be wyre-drawn by Statute upon Statute it will fill five hundred sheets of Paper. Brethren, this ought not to be so for pity sake, let it not be so costly a matter to be a just person. The truth of the Lord says David, Psal. xii. Is like Silver purified seven times in a furnace of fire. But this custom is grown so chargable, that the truth of an honest man must be purified seven times in Silver. If we had less eloquence among pleaders, and more plain dealing, a just person might come before Magistrates, either as our Savior prepared his Apostles, Care not what to say, The Holy Ghost shall direct you in an answer; or else the Judge might find the defendant to be innocent, as Pilate did esteem our Savior when he answered not to his Accusers, but stood dumb before him.
But hear a second reason more forcible than the former from the unanimous consent of all the Fathers. Christ held his peace when his just dealing was suspected before Pilate, Ne passionem suam impediret; Lest upon manifestation of his good life, his Passion had been hindered. And what would he not suffer, suspicions, infamies, imputations rather than the work of our Redemption should become void? Though he went leisurely on foot from one City to another to preach the Gospel, yet he would needs ride to Jerusalem to suffer: nay rather than his Cross should be left behind or come tardy after, he would carry it part of the way upon his own shoulders unto Golgotha. There passed but a little time, from midnight to midday, betwixt his Attachment, his Arraignment, and his Execution, as if his feet had stood upon thorns until his head was crowned with them. After the manner of men, who expect verily to be gathered to their Fathers, his Grave was provided before he was dead in Josephs Garden. Why did he not take Judas to Mount Olivet? Why did he not carry him with Peter, and James, and John, and cast him into a dead slumber in the Garden? nay mark the Commission which he had for his Enterprise, fac cito, do it quickly, as if he had been sent like Ahimaaz, to outrun the rest of the Servants, and to be the first that should betray him. I had like to have said Judas was not the only one that did betray him; let me speak it with reverence, did he not betray himself, when he gave up his life saying, Whom seek ye? I am he. Take all the lump together: so forward of his journey, so mindful of his Cross, so hasty to dismiss Judas, so well provided of a Grave, who would not presume that he would suffer his back-biters to revile him, and say nothing?
David made this Cause both a Psalm and a Prophesy, a Psalm of remembrance, and a Prophesy of wonder; I held my tongue, and spake nothing, I kept silence, yea even from good words, but it was pain and grief unto me. His heavenly tongue, should it have pleased him to touch the string of defense and apology, would have made the Judges to license his life, and to fall down and worship him; the Servants would have said to their Masters, as the High Priests did sometimes to their Servants, when they were astonished at his speech and words, What are you also taken? to say more than this, had he but shed a few tears when they smote him on the head, as Moses did in the Ark of Bulrushes, some mild spirit, as merciful as Pharaohs Daughter, would have rescued his life from the power of the Enemy. So I have given you two observations warrantable, why so just a person should neglect to purge himself of his accusation. First the Enditements were grossly slanderous, and therefore he would not speak. Secondly, he would endure such contradiction of sinners, as the Apostle speaks, rather than purchase deliverance from the Cross, to hinder our redemption.
The consideration hereof will bring forth two Sons more unto Jacob, a double speculation arising from the former: First that Jesus could have hindered these bloody passions: But secondly out of endless compassion he had set us as a Seal upon his hand, and as a Signet upon his right arm, and love was strong to death: Passus est quia voluit, He would not hinder them.
Posse & nolle noble. He could have hindered his death. The Jews were so far from thinking that such a feeble man in outward appearance could deliver himself, that they did not think when He was fast and nailed that God could deliver him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him if He will have him. Insultando quod non fieret, non credendo quod factum esset, says St. Austin; not supposing that God could rescue him, but braving him with that which was impossible. O fools and slow of heart! this was not the unruly Sacrifice impotent to help itself, bound with cords to the horns of the Altar, but such a Prisoner as St. Paul was Act. xvi. who might have sprung out of prison when the doors were opened by the Angel, but yet contented himself in bonds without liberty or enlargement. Give me leave to forespeak your attention, and I will discourse unto you briefly in the conclusions of the Schoolmen, how the humanity of our Savior might have been exempted from death and passion.
First, had it pleased him to discover his Glory, as he did at the Transfiguration in Mount Tabor: would He but charm the Jews from their furious outrage with one graceful word, what Devil durst have laid hands upon him? Tun' homo audes occidere Caium Marium? says the Consul Marius, and so daunted his Executioner. Thus then our Savior had escaped their hands, divinitatem publicando. 2. Where were the Legions of Angels that did attend him? That Host of Princes who solemnized his Nativity with peace on earth, and good will towards men, would have recanted and sung a song quite of another nature, to guard him from his passion. And thus our Savior had escaped, exercitum producendo. Durand tries his skill for a third reason thus, corpus in se mortal ad immortalitatem perducendo: If you ask what he means by it, I will enlarge his mind. Our bodies do decay and decline every day more and more unto corruption necessarily, because it is past the cunning of any mortal man, to know precisely to a crumb of bread, what nourishment is best to fulfil the place of that which decays daily in our body: but as for Christ, scivit in alimento quantum necesse fuit sumere ad restaurationem deperditi, He having the treasures of all wisdom hidden in him, needed not the advise of any man to instruct him, how the decays of nature being justly repaired, could preserve his mortal body in a sound constitution for everlasting. Scotus thinks this reason too weak, and so do I also: For although Christ had this inspection to discern wholesome from unwholesome in all the works of nature, yet consumption and dissolution would happen to his body from two things: The first prejudice to his health would be impuritas alimenti, the earth and all the fruits thereof yield not such strength and virtue as they did before the Flood of Noah. Si Adam habuisset alimentum nostrum mortuus fuisset senio, says the same Schoolman very boldly; if Adam in his best estate had been fed with such meats as we are, and none besides, age had brought him to his Grave. Again there is potentiae nutritivae debilitatio, that gentle heat which gives warmth to the faculty of concoction would have gone out like a candle in the socket; and therefore it stands for a conclusion in his Divinity, that a medicinal intelligence of herbs and fruits, and other viands had not drawn out our Savior's life unto immortality.
There is a fourth reason how Christ could have restrained all agony and passion from his body forever, and it is without exception. Death in a reasonable creature is the wages of sin: they are relatives secundum esse, so that a man may say, here is a sinner, and therefore a dead man; here is the Tomb of a dead man, and therefore the Grave of a sinner. The next conclusion cannot be parted from the former; for if Sin and Death be acus & filum, if one do draw the other after it, then there must be some miraculous disposition in that man's body, who is no sinner, but innocent as an Angel of light, and yet obnoxious to death as a vile transgressor. Where then lies the miracle in the substance of our Savior? why thus: the whole Manhood was united to the whole Godhead in the Union hypostatical, but the influence, the grace and privilege of the Divine nature was not diffused over the flesh, nay it cast not the celestial beams upon all the parts of his Soul till after the resurrection: but it shined only upon the superior faculties of the will and understanding. The strength then of our Samson did lie in capite, in the Divine nature, which he would not use to immortalize his Body before the Resurrection. Potuit relaxare influentiam divinae naturae, ut in inferiorem portionem redundar • t, says Biel. It was a miracle then, that He could confine the influence of his Godhead for a time to the superior faculties of the Soul; and I think you will confess, that there was no miracle done by necessity or compulsion: but upon this presumption, that the flesh was left unassisted of the Divinity, there follows a threefold necessity of his death and dissolution. The first is called necessitas naturae, nature would have dropt away when it grew mellow ripe according to the course of human constitution. The second is called necessitas coactionis; supposing the malice of the Jews, and his obedience to unjust Authority, he must have suffered by necessity of compulsion. The third is called necessitas finis, a necessity of death lay upon him from God's eternal Decree, to accompass the happy end preordeined, which is man's Redemption.
But what is the fruit of this Doctrine now? where are the sheaves to fill our bosom? you will say now, I doubt it not, that Christ had power to lay down his life, and to take it up. Then enlarge your hearts to receive St. Austin's Meditation: Amplius tenemur Christo quod libere voluit pati, quàm quod necessario; Our engagement had been less if Christ had suffered by absolute and imperious necessity, but we praise our God the more, we bless him, we magnify him, we give thanks unto him with the greater affection, because our Sacrifice is of choice and liberty.
But I pass from the consideration of the mighty power which was in our Savior: Had he rejoiced like a Giant to run his course, what death could have seized upon him; had our Samson awoke out of sleep, and shook himself, no fetters could have held him; But if you will lay your ear to the sweetest harmony that ever was tuned, ad aquae lene caput sacrae, if you will give attention to the soft and still bubbling, from whence sprung all our salvation, voluit, in a word, he would not plead his innocence before Pilate, he would be offered up, he would be crucified. It is a memorable accident which Plutarch doth report of a Sacrifice in Lacedaemon: The Priests were in great distress for an unspotted Beast to be slain; Satan, no doubt, desiring to supply them with fuel to kindle their Idolatry, an unspotted Heifer swam over the River, and laid itself down before the Altar. I know not the truth of this Story, but sure I am, that I know a Sacrifice which will fit the Parable. For when wrath had fallen upon Mankind throughout all Generations, and a burnt-Offering was wanting to appease the Lord, to the end that Isaac, and the Sons of Promise and Election might escape the blow of death, the chief Ram of the Flock, vir gregis, even Jesus Christ, thrust his horns into the Thicket, and entangled his strength in the guilt of our sins: so Isaac was saved, and the Ram was sacrificed. Voluit, would he suffer? was there no remedy but to cut off the Head to save the Body? had not Christ humbled himself so far as to the death of the Cross, yet had not our Redemption been finished by the ignominy of his poor Nativity; the lowliness of submission to his Parents; the pang of his Fastings; the horror of his Agony in the Garden; might not all other reproaches have ransomed his life? This curious Question the Schoolmen ask, therefore let them resolve it.
First, says Biel, consult with Nature, ask her if she do not sometime use superfluity for the greater elegancy of her workmanship: plura ad unum assumit, sicut duos oculos. Why might not man have been a Cyclops? why might not Nature have spared an eye? but if she will make pairs where a single instrument might serve, why should we limit God's grace? and scant it to just as much passion as would fit the turn? since there is plenteous redemption with our God.
Seconly, Per suavitatem peccavit homo, per asperitatem maximam satisfecit, it seems there was some delicious relish in the fruit forbidden, as it was very pleasant to the eye: The taste of Adam was of a most sapid and quick mixture; the Apple was of the most refined composition, being the food of Paradise, and God's own Plantation; these could not but leave a touch upon Adams lips sweeter than the Honeycomb, or Manna in the Wilderness. Now set the Scale of justice in an equal poise, the transgression was sweetness, the satisfaction must be bitterness: the transgression was pleasure in the highest degree, the satisfaction must be grief in the very gall of bitterness; but what so bitter as death? especially the Cross, that death of malediction.
Thirdly, this is the Master-piece among Lombards reasons, but a flower picked from St. Austin's Garden; Deus justitiâ voluit Diabolum vincere, non potestate: the Dragon and his Angels do plead against Michael and his Angels, that the Judgment might be proportioned to the Crime committed. But what did Satan accomplish by his impleadment? God doth not deal like Pilate and the corrupt Judges of the world, shift the Law out of their sight, when it doth not serve the turn, and stand a tip-toe upon their Power and Prerogative; He doth not deal with Justice as Festus did with Paul, Go thy ways, I will speak with thee at another time, Justitiâ' vincere voluit non autoritate, Satan is confounded by God's Justice, not by his Authority.
Fourthly and lastly, as Draco the rigid Magistrate wrote his Laws in blood, so Christ that innocent Lamb wrote the Instructions of patience in his own blood. Let the great Rabbies of Divinity dispute it, whether one drop of our Savior's blood could not save as many Worlds as there be sins in this World, that is infinite; yet he took his share of all sorts of persecution, ut nobis praeberet exemplum patientiae, that when we are persecuted and stung with fiery vermin, we might look upon the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness, and be comforted with patience. For now by the Examples of his Sufferings, when my Soul languisheth with any calamity, I will turn me to my Lord, and lay my wounds to his wounds, my tears to his tears, and my mouth dipt in gall to his mouth, and my disgrace to his reproaches. Finally in all my afflictions, I will seem as it were to read his Title upon the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.
I have drawn out my Clue very far, to enlarge the true testimony that Pilate gives of Christ, though he forbore to open the trial of his integrity, which had he undertaken, his arm was strong enough to disarm his Persecutors, and to delude his Enemies; but compassion of our misery made him draw out a long line of torments to stripes, to buffetings, to death, to consummatum est, till all was finished. We may well give his tender heart that honorable title which St. Chrysostom gave unto St. Paul, a volume of charity. Is there any weak conscience in this place that marvails at our Savior's proceedings, and makes it his own case, whether it be fit to plead innocence before the Magistrate, or whether wrongful accusation should be endured without an answer; for such a man I give this Doctrine for his resolution. As the Passover was divided into two Portions, part thereof was to be eaten, and that part which remained to be burnt with fire; so among the actions of Christ, some are to be eaten, that is, drawn into example, as his Prayers, his Purse of charity for the Poor, his converting of Publicans to the fear of God; some are to be consumed with fire, that is to be adored with faith and zeal, but not to be drawn into imitation, as his miraculous fasting, his walking upon the seas, and this compassionate silence before Pilate, he would not speak to shun death, that our hearts and tongues might be blessed through his name, to praise and magnify him forever. For as Caesar said of his Soldiers, when they were offered conditions to depart with safety, Caesaris milites salutem dare solent non accipere, that they used to give such benefits, not to receive them; so Christ came into the world, not to take his life as the gift of Pilate, but to give life to everyone that should repent, and believe in the Gospel.
I have one bough yet to prune off in this branch, and then I will proceed. Great bundles of Wast-paper are printed every month, and discharged against us by the busy-headed Jesuits, to disparage the integrity of our Reformed Religion: for the most part such slight and unlearned stuff, that we may say in another sense than Christ's Disciples did of Solomon's Building, Lord what manner of stones be these? yet if every Scribler be not answered, the Chalenger goes out of the field, and cries victoria. I think it was Crassus the Roman, that replied not one word to a foul-mouthed fellow, who railed on him by the way, till he came to his own doors: Light him home, says Crassus to his Servant, and bring him to his Lodging. Beloved, it doth become our patience to show the same contempt to these idle Pamphleters, and it becomes our Profession to show them as much courtesy, that is to light them home to the Kingdom of Heaven, if they will hear our Doctrine. When Israel fought with Amelech, but the victory was swayed by the hands of Moses held up by Aaron and Hur: It was not the hand which fought, says Nazianzen, but the hand which did not fight that conquered Amelech: And it is said of Scaevola, non retentis, sed amissis manibus, he put the Etruscans to flight, not by using his hand, but by burning it off; so though we give a Truce and respite to the Pen which should write, yet the patience which doth not write, and the mildness which neglects their bitter words shall confound our Adversaries. We dare launch into the Seas, as the learned Writings of this Kingdom can testify: our Ship, that is our Religion is sound, and will hold out water against all objections▪ It is our modesty to harbor sometimes in the Haven, to shun Pirates and stormy winds, lest we should encounter with ignominious Rabsheka 's: and be persuaded, it is no loss of reputation unto us, no gain unto our Enemies, that we stand dumb like Jesus before the