covered malice of Efau, with the diffembled falfehood of Gen.xxvii. Joab; dare ye prefume to come up to these facred and Sam. iii. fearful myfteries? O man, whither rufheft thou unadvifedly? It is a table of peace, and thou art ready to fight. It is a table of fingleness, and thou art imagining mischief. It is a table of quietnefs, and thou art given to debate. It is a table of pity, and thou art unmerciful. Doft thou neither fear God, the maker of this feaft; nor reverence his Chrift, the refection and meat; nor regardeft his fpoufe, his well-beloved gueft; nor weigheft thine own confcience, which is fometime thine inward accufer? Wherefore, O man, tender thine own falvation, examine and try thy good-will and love towards the children of God, the members of Chrift, the heirs of the heavenly heritage; yea, towards the image of God, the excellent creature thine own foul. If thou have offended, now be reconciled. If thou have caufed any to stumble in the way of God, now fet them up again. If thou have difquieted thy brother, now pacify him. If thou have wronged him, now relieve him. If thou have defrauded him, now restore to him. If thou have nourished fpite, now embrace friendship. If thou have foftered hatred and malice, now openly fhew thy love and charity, yea be preft and ready to procure thy neighbour's health of foul, wealth, commodity, and pleafure, as thine own. Deferve not the heavy and dreadful burden of God's difpleasure for thine evil will towards thy neighbour, fo unreverently to approach to this table of the Lord. Laft of all, as there is here the myf- Chryfoft. tery of peace, and the Sacrament of Chriftian fociety, ad Popul whereby we understand what fincere love ought to be mil. 60. betwixt the true communicants; fo here be the tokens of pureness and innocency of life, whereby we may perceive that we ought to purge our own fouls from all uncleannefs, iniquity, and wickedness, left, when we receive the myftical bread, as Origen faith, we eat it in an unclean In Levit. place, that is, in a foul defiled and polluted with fin. In cap. xxiii. Mofes's law, the man that did eat of the facrifice of thankf Luke xvii. giving, with his uncleannefs upon him, should be destroyed Homil. 14. from his people. And fhall we think that the wicked and finful perfon fhall be excufable at the table of the Lord? We both read in St. Paul, that the church of Corinth was 1 Cor. xi. fcourged of the Lord, for mifufing the Lord's Supper; and Luke xvii. we may plainly fee Chrift's church thefe many years mi- Homil. ferably vexed and oppreffed, for the horrible profanation of the fame. Wherefore let us all, universal and fingular, behold Ant. Ho 1 Cor. xi. 114. Ant. Homil. 6. behold our own manners and lives, to amend them. Yea, now at least let us call ourselves to an account, that it may grieve us of our former evil converfation, that we may hate fin, that we may forrow and mourn for our of fences, that we may with tears pour them out before God, that we may with fure truft defire and crave the falve of his mercy, bought and purchafed with the blood of his dearly beloved Son Jefus Chrift, to heal our deadly Chryfoft. wounds withal. For furely, if we do not with earnest read Popul. pentance cleanse the filthy ftomach of our foul, it must needs come to pafs, that as wholesome meat received into a raw ftomach corrupteth and marreth all, and is the cause of further ficknefs; fo fhall we eat this wholesome bread and drink this cup to our eternal deftruction. Thus we, and not other, must throughly examine, and not lightly look over ourselves, not other men; our own confcience, not other men's lives: which we ought to do uprightly, Ad Popul. truly, and with just correction. O, faith Chryfoftom, let no Judas refort to this table, let no covetous perfon approach. If any be a difciple, let him be prefent. For Matt. xxvi. Chrift faith, With my difciples I make my paffover. Why cried the deacon in the primitive church, If any be holy, let him draw near? Why did they celebrate these mysteries, the choir-door being fhut? Why were the public penitents and learners in religion commanded at this time to avoid? Was it not because this table received no unholy, unclean, or finful guefts? Wherefore if fervants dare not prefume to an earthly mafter's table whom they have offended, let us take heed we come not with our fins unexamined into this presence of our Lord and Judge. If they be worthy blame which kifs the prince's hand with a filthy and unclean mouth, fhalt thou be blameless which with a filthy ftinking foul, full of covetoufnefs, fornication, drunkennefs, pride, full of wretched cogitations and thoughts, doft breathe out iniquity and uncleannefs on the bread and cup of the Lord? Ant. Ho mil. 6. Epilog. Thus have you heard, how you fhould come reverently and decently to the table of the Lord, having the knowledge out of his word, of the thing itself, and the fruits thereof, bringing a true and constant faith, the root and well-fpring of all newness of life, as well in praifing God and loving our neighbour, as purging our own confcience from filthiness. So that neither the ignorance of the thing fhall caufe us to contemn it, nor unfaithfulness make us void of fruit, nor fin and iniquity procure us God's plagues: but fhall by faith, in knowledge and amend amendment of life in faith, be here fo united to Christ our head in his myfteries, to our comfort, that after we shall have full fruition of him indeed, to our everlasting joy and eternal life: to the which he bring us that died for us, and redeemed us, Jefus Chrift the righteous; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghoft, one true and eternal God, be all praise, honour, and dominion, for ever. Amen. AN HOMILY CONCERNING The coming down of the HOLY GHOST, and the manifold Gifts of the fame. FOR WHITSUNDAY. BEFORE we come to the declaration of the great and manifold gifts of the Holy Ghoft, wherewith the church of God hath been evermore replenished, it shall first be needful briefly to expound unto you, whereof this feaft of Pentecoft, or Whitfuntide, had his firft beginning. You fhall therefore understand, that the feaft of Pentecoft was always kept the fiftieth day after Eafter; a great and folemn feaft among the Jews, wherein they did celebrate the memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt, and alfo the memorial of the publishing of the Law, which was given unto them in the mount Sinai upon that day. It was firft ordained and commanded to be kept holy, not by any mortal man, but by the mouth of the Lord himself, as we read in Levit. xxiii. and Deut. xvi. The place appointed for the obfervation thereof was Jerufalem, where was great recourse of people from all parts of the world; as may well appear in the fecond chapter of the A&ts, wherein mention is made of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, inhabiters of Mefopotamia, inhabiters of Jewry, Cappadocia, Pontus, Afia, Phrygia, Pamphilia, and divers other fuch places, whereby we may also partly gather, what great and royal folemnity was commonly used in that feaft. Now as this was given in commandment to the Jews in the old Law, fo did our Saviour Chrift as it were confirm the fame in the time of the Gospel, ordaining, after a fort, a new Pentecoft for his Difciples: namely, when he fent down the Holy Ghost vifibly in form of cloven tongues like fire, and gave them power power to speak in fuch fort, that every one might hear them, and alfo understand them in his own language. Which miracle, that it might be had in perpetual remembrance, the church hath thought good to folemnize and keep holy this day, commonly called Whitfunday. And here is to be noted, that as the Law was given to the Jews in the mount Sinai, the fiftieth day after Eafter; fo was the preaching of the Gofpel, through the mighty power of the Holy Ghoft, given to the Apostles in the mount Sion, the fiftieth day after Eafter. And hereof this feaft hath his name, to be called Pentecoft, even of the number of the days. For, as St. Luke writeth in the Acts of the Apoftles, when fifty days were come to an end, the difciples being all together with one accord in one place, the Holy Ghoft came fuddenly among them, and fate upon each of them, like as it had been cloven tongues of fire. Which thing was undoubtedly done, to teach the Apostles, and all other men, that it is he which giveth eloquence and utterance in preaching the Gofpel, that it is he which openeth the mouth to declare the mighty works of God, that it is he which engendereth a burning zeal towards God's word, and giveth all men a tongue, yea, a fiery tongue, fo that they may boldly and cheerfully profefs the truth in the face of the whole world, as Ifaiah was endued with this fpirit. The Lord, faith Isaiah, Ifaiah 1. gave me a learned and a skilful tongue, fo that I might know to raife up them that are fallen with the word. The Prophet David crieth to have this gift, faying, Open thou my lips, Pfalm li, O Lord, and my mouth fhall fhew forth thy praife. For our Saviour Chrift alfo in the Gospel faith to his Difciples, It Matth. x. is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which is within you. All which teftimonies of holy Scripture do fufficiently declare, that the mystery in the tongues betokeneth the preaching of the Gofpel, and the open confeffion of the Chriftian faith, in all them that are poffeffed with the Holy Ghoft. So that if any man be a dumb Chriftian, not profeffing his faith openly, but cloaking and colouring himself for fear of danger in time to come, he giveth men occafion, juftly, and with good confcience, to doubt left he have not the grace of the Holy Ghost within him, because he is tongue-tied, and doth not fpeak. Thus then have ye heard the firft inftitution of this feaft of Pentecoft, or Whitfuntide, as well in the old Law among the Jews, as alfo in the time of the Gospel among the Chriftians. CC 2 Now |