was an eternal nation, that had lasted many generations, and yet never born amongst them; Jam fæcunda illis aliorum vitæ pænitentia, for, every man that was crossed or wearied in his own course of life, applied himself to their sect and manner of living, as the only way to heaven. And Josephus writing his own life and forwardness, and pregnancy, (perchance a little too favourably or gloriously in his own behalf, to be thoroughly believed; for he saith, that when he was but fourteen years old, the greatest doctors of the law, came to him to learn penitiorem sensum juris, the secretest mysteries of the law; and their law, was divinity) thought himself unperfect till he had spent some time, in the strictness of all the three sects of the Jews; and after he had done all that, he spent three years more, with one Bannus an hermit, who lived in the wilderness, upon herbs and roots, John Baptist's austerity of life made him a competent and credible witness to them, who had such austerity in estimation. And truly, he that will any way be a witness for Christ, that is, glorify him, he must endeavour, even by this outward holiness of life, to be acceptable to good men. Vox populi, vox Dei, the general voice is seldom false; so also Oculi populi, oculi Dei, in this case God looketh upon man, as man doth; Singuli decipi et decipere possunt, one man may deceive another, and be deceived by another; Nemo omnes, neminem omnes fefellerunt, no man ever deceived all the world, nor did all the world ever join to deceive one man. The general opinion, the general voice, is for the most part, good evidence, with, or against a man. Every one of us is ashamed of the praise and attestation of one, whom all the world besides, taketh to be dishonest; so will Christ be ashamed of that witness, that seeketh not the good opinion of good men. When I see a Jesuit solicit the chastity of a daughter of the house, where he is harboured, and after knowledge taken by the parents, upon her complaint, excuse it with saying, that he did it but to try her, and to be the better assured of her religious constancy; when I see a Jesuit conceal and foment a powder treason, and say he had it but in confession, and then see these men to proclaim themselves to be martyrs, witnesses for Christ in the highest degree; I say still, the devil may be a witness, but I ground not my faith upon that testimony: a competent witness must be an honest man. This competency John Baptist had, the good opinion of good men; and then, he had the seal of all, Missus est, he had his commission, he was sent to bear witness of that light. Though this word missus est, he was sent, be not literally in the text here, yet it is necessarily implied, and therefore providently supplied by the translators in this verse, and before in the sixth verse, it is literally expressed, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The law saith, concerning witnesses, Qui se ingerunt et offerunt suspecti habentur, Those that offer their testimony before they be cited, are suspicious witnesses. Therefore they must have a mission, a sending. For, by St. Paul's rule, How can they preach except they be sent ? Preach they may; but how? with what success, what effect, what blessing? So that the good success of John Baptist's preaching, (for, the multitudes, The people came to him; and not light people carried about with every wind of rumour and noise, and novelty, but Pharisees, and Sadducees21, men of learning, of sadness and gravity; and not only scholars affected with subtleties, but, publicans too, men intent upon the world; and other men, whose very profession submits them to many occasions of departing from the strict rules, which regularly bind other men, and therefore may be in some things, (which taste of injustice) more excusable than other men; The soldiers likewise came to him, and said, What shall we do? This his working upon all sorts of men, the blessing that accompanied his labours, was a subsequent argument of his mission, that he was sent by God. God himself argues against them, that were not sent, so, They were not sent, for they have done no good. I have not sent those prophets, saith the Lord, yet they ran, I have not spoken to them, and yet they prophesied; but, if they had stood in my counsel, then they should hove turned the people from their evil ways, and from the wickedness of their intentions 3. This note God lays upon them, to whom he affords this vocation of his internal spirit, that though others which come without any calling, may gather men in corners, and in conventicles, and work upon their affections and 21 Matt. iii. 7. 23 Jer. xxiii. 21. 19 Rom. x. 15. 23 20 Luc. iii. 7. passions, to singularity, to schism, to sedition: and though others which come with an outward, and ordinary calling only, may advance their own fortunes, and increase their estimation, and draw their auditory to an outward reverence of their persons, and to a delight in hearing them rather than other men, yet, those only who have a true inward calling from the Spirit, shall turn the people from their evil ways, and from the wickedness of their inventions. To such men's planting and watering God gives an increase; when as others which come to declaim, and not to preach, and to vent their own gifts, or the purposes of great men for their gifts, have only a proportionable reward, wind for wind, acclamation for declamation, popular praise for popular eloquence for, if they do not truly believe themselves, why should they look that others should believe them? Qui loquitur ad cor, loquatur ex corde; He that will speak to the heart of another, must find that that he saith in his own heart first. When the mission of the church of Rome of priests and Jesuits hither, be sufficient to satisfy their consciences who are so sent, and sent (in intendment of the law) to inevitable loss of life here, hath been laboriously enough debated, and safely enough concluded that such a mission cannot satisfy a rectified conscience. What are they sent for? To defend the immunities of the church: that is, to take away the inherent right of the crown, the supremacy of the king: what seconds them? what assures them? That which is their general tenent 23, that into what place soever the pope may send priests, he may send armies for the security of those priests; and (as another expresses it") in all cases, where the pope may enjoin anything, he may lawfully proceed by way of war against any that hinder the execution thereof. That these missions from the bishop of Rome are unlawful, is safely enough concluded, à priori, in the very nature of the commandment and mission. For, it is to a place, in which he that sends hath no power, for it is into the dominions of another absolute king; and it is of persons, in whom he hath no interest, for they are the subjects of another prince; and my neighbour's setting his mark upon my sheep, doth not make my sheep his. Now, beloved, if that which they cannot make lawful à priori, in the nature of the thing, you will make lawful in their behalf, à posteriori, in the effect and working thereof; that is, if when these men are thus sent hither, you will run after them to their masses, though you pretend it be but to meet company, and to see who comes, and to hear a church-comedy; if, though you abstain yourself, you will lend them a wife, or a child, or a servant to be present there, à posteriori, by this effect, by this their working upon you, you justify their unjust mission, and make them think their sending and coming lawful. So also, (to return to our former consideration) If you depart not from your evil ways and from the wickedness of your own inventions: if for all our preaching you proceed in your sins, you will make us afraid, that our mission, our calling is not warrantable, for thereby you take away that consolation, which is one seal of our mission, when we see a good effect of our preaching in your lives. It lies much in you, to convince them, and to establish us, by that way, which is God's own way of arguing, à posteriori, by the effect, by our working upon you. If you say God is God, we are sent; if you say Baal is God, you justify their sending. Missus est, John Baptist was sent, it appeared by the effect of his preaching; but it appears too, by a divers and manifold citation, which he had received, upon some of which, there may be good use to insist a little. First, he was cited, called, before he was at all; and called again before he was born; called a third time, out of the desert, into the world; and called lastly out of this world into the next; and by all these callings, these citations, these missions, he was a competent witness. His first citation was before he was anything, before his conception. Out of the dead embers of Zachary's aged loins, and Elizabeth's double obstacle, age and barrenness, when it was almost as great a work as a creation, to produce a child out of the corners, and inwardest bowels of all possibility, and with so many degrees of improbability, as that Zachary, who is said to have been just before God, and to have walked in all his commandments without reproof, and had, without doubt, often considered the like promise of such a child, made and performed 27 Luke i. 6. to Abraham, was yet incredulous of it, and asked, how he should know it. Out of this nothing, or nothing naturally disposed to be such a thing, a child, did God excite, and cite this John Baptist to bear witness of this light, and so made the son of him, who, for his incredulity, was struck with dumbness, all voice. And, beloved, such a citation as this, when thou wast merely nothing, hast thou had too, to bear witness of this light, that is, to do something for the glory of God. When thy free will is as impotent and as dead as Zachary's loins, when thou art under Elizabeth's double obstacle of age and barrenness, (barrenness in good works, age in ill) then when thou thinkest not of God, then when thou art walking for air, or sitting at a feast, or slumbering in a bed, God opens these doors, he rings a bell, he shows thee an example in the concourse of people hither, and here he sets up a man, to present the prayer of the congregation to him, and to deliver his messages to them; and whether curiosity, or custom, or company, or a loathness to incur the penalties of laws, or the censures and observations of neighbours, bring thee hither, though thou hadst nothing to do with God, in coming hither, God hath something to do with thee, now thou art here, and even this is a citation, a calling, by being personally here at these exercises of religion, thou art some kind of witness of his light. For, in how many places of the world had Christ never yet opened such doors for his ordinary service, in all these 1600 years! And in how many places hath he shut up these doors of his true worship, within these three or four years! Quod citaris huc, That thou art brought hither, within distance of his voice, within reach of his food, intra sphæram activitatis, within the sphere and latitude of his ordinary working, that is, into his house, into his church, this is a citation, a calling, answerable to John Baptist's first calling, from his father's dead loins, and his mother's barren womb; and his second citation was before he was born, in his mother's womb. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, the child sprang in her belly, as soon as Mary's voice sounded in her ears 28. And though naturally, upon excess of joy in the mother, the child may spring in her; yet the evangelist means to tell an extraordinary and 28 Luke i. 41. |