A century of sermons upon several remarkable subjects preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Hacket, late Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; published by Thomas Plume ...

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE PASSION. (Book 4)

JOHN iii. 14.

And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.

THough King Hezekiah destroyed the substance of the brazen Ser∣pent to avoid peril of Idolatry, yet Christ hath renewed the memory of it in this Text. Neither was it fit that the re∣membrance of it should die, because it represented the death of him by whom we live for ever. The Disciple to whom our Saviour directed these words was Nicodemus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a Ruler, a primary man, ver. 1. the best in quality of all the Jews that had yet come to Christ to be taught. The Text, I am sure, is not grown less than it was, but still it is fit to be preacht of before a Ruler. Rulers are illustrious in their outward splendor and Titles: Let them use them nobly, and he that is greater than they will make them greater. But Christ calls Nicodemus to a new way of honour, to be all glorious within, and tells him copiously that this is to be atchieved two ways. First, By regeneration of holiness, he must become a new man, he must be born again, he must be born of the Spirit, or he cannot see the Kingdom of God, ver. 4, 5. Secondly, By Justification, through Remission of sins in the bloud of a Saviour, and of this my Text speaks magnificently, as Mo∣ses, &c. So that Nicodemus the Ruler hath no readier way to amplifie his honour than to be acquainted with the Passion of our Lord: And no way more direct to understand that salutiferous Passion than to possess his imagination with the figure of the Serpent which was erected in the Wilderness.

Christ could have taught him the mystery of his death in another Type, and a little more ancient, the immolation of the Paschal Lamb. But first Nicodemus took good liking to our Saviour from his Miracles, No man can do these miracles that thou dost except God be with him, ver. 2. Now the mactation of the Paschal Lamb had nothing in it, but that which was ordinary in the external work; but the use of the brazen Serpent was a mighty miracle. Secondly, As many Lambs were killed as there were housholds to eat them, whereas there was but one Serpent made; which comes nearer to the just resemblance, that the Son of God by his one Oblati∣on of himself once offered up, made a sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the world. Thirdly, The Lamb was presented as other Viands are in a dish: The Serpent was set up aloft as an Ensign, a clearer pattern of the exaltation of the Cross. Fourthly, In the consumption of the Lamb God did embalm the memory of his great mercy, and keep it fresh how he passed over the houses of the Israelites, and did not kill them, as he killed the Egyptians: But the Serpent was set up for the cure of those that were bitten with Serpents. In the former Type the people were sound and whole, in the latter Type they were stung and sick, and they that

are whole do not perceive so well that they have need of the Physician as they that are sick. Lastly, He that did feed on the Paschal Lamb did eat by faith: And he that look'd on the Serpent did see by faith. But though faith is the evidence of things not seen, yet the eye is more of kin to faith than the ••aste, because it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a bodily mind, as the Heathen said, and our most heavenly sense. In a word, there were many other Figures of Christs sufferings, but not any so plain as this for the use and application of it, that none but true believers can be saved by his sufferings.

To the full satisfaction therefore of that which is concerned upon this day, here you have Christ upon his Cross two ways, both in the Old and in the New Testa∣ment: For the Old Testament, in the best and most exact Figure; for the New Te∣stament, in a direct and literal prediction. The figure contains these parts, first the symbolical thing, a Serpent. Secondly, The posture of it, it was lifted up. Third∣ly, The place, in the Wilderness. Fourthly, The end for which, Sicut Moses, as Moses lifted it up. The Prediction of the New Testament is to fulfil the Figure: And that denotes 1. The Person, the Son of Man. 2. His inglorious glory, must be lifted up. 3. Here is a sic for the former sicut, a correspondence with the manner and the end of the Figure, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

First, Here is Christ crucified in the Old Testament in a symbolical sign, which is a Serpent. When his body hung upon the Cross it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as St. Luke calls it, a sight for all the People to look upon that were present; for outwardly it was the deed of wicked men. But there was profundum crucis, as St. Austin observes, part of the accursed Tree was under ground for the stronger fastning; the end and use of it, which came from God, which is discovered to them that search by faith, is thus in a short sum, a remedy against that punishment which our sins had deserved; therefore to make a compleat survey of this Serpent, first we must look upon it for our sins sake; secondly, for our punishment; and thirdly, for our remedy. And first by the object of the Serpent we see sin in the Author: Satan is traduced open∣ly in this memorial for that Tempter that perswaded our first Parents to eat of the forbidden fruit. It is his contumely to see himself disguised in so base a creature; as God would not permit him to come in the form of a better creature, but in this vile shape to do the office of a murderer, so he is exposed to all Ages in the pour∣tract of that shape, that his pride may see it self in a vaste distance of declension: an Angel in Creation, a despicable worm in his own mischievous Assumption. But as St. Athanasius doth well observe, there was a Serpent the Instrument, and there was the Devil the Ingeneer, two several natures compacted in some sort into one person, and joyning in one stratagem to cast man out of Paradise; So God and man, two natures in one person, met together in our Redeemer to reduce us unto the favour of God, and to repossess us in a better Paradise. And as the Language of sin was first taught through the mouth of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden; so that it may never be forgotten, it is continued in the dumb shew of a Serpent that was set up in the Wilderness. Secondly, By the object of the Serpent we see sin in the infection and contagion of it. It is the biting of an Adder, not perilous only to that part which is wounded, but dispreading all over, even to the vital parts of the body. Every drop of bloud soaks in the malignity of that which is next unto it till there be no soundness remaining: So one part of our body being tainted with the poison of sin traduceth its corruption to another; if the ear be tickled with filthy talk, the loins will be unchaste: If the eye be wanton, the heart will suffer and wax impure: If the body pride it without, the soul cannot be humble within; every sense and faculty about us is a gangrene to another, and if you give up one member you give up all to be instruments of uncleanness. There is yet more contagion in the tooth of the Serpent, by committing one transgression you are at the brink of the pit to fall into another; the second offence makes the way smooth and slippery for the third. Peccatum quod per poenitentiam non deletur mox suo pondere ad aliud trahit, says Gregory; Every sin that meets not with the Antidote of Repentance hath an operative and a venemous nature to fetch in another evil spi∣rit like unto it self. An high mind carries us to wrath, and wrath to revenge, and revenge to malice, and malice to murder. Thus it runs on like a spark in the stub∣ble; and unless grace extinguisheth it, it is as unquenchable as the fire of hell. Beside, there is yet another Serpentine and pestilentious derivation in the works of darkness; one sinner is a thousand sinners more in the dangerousness of his Le∣prosie; one Absalom is an host of Rebels; one Ring-leader is a shole of Hereticks;

one Jeroboam is a Kingdom full of Idolaters; one incestuous person endangered the whole Church of Corinth with fornication, says St. Paul; and he was the occasion of his Proverb, That a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. A drop of Poison mars a glass of Nectar; Serpunt vitia, & in proximum quemque transiliunt, & contactu no∣cent, says Seneca. Stand far off from those that are impious, they have a catching disease about them, there is an infectious exhalation transpassant from man to man, because the first sin was the biting of a Serpent. Thirdly, By the object of the Serpent we not only see the Author of all sin, and the infectious venom of it, but likewise a cunning craftiness which Satan hath entailed to the mystery of ini∣quity, lying in wait whom he may deceive.* 1.1 There is nothing that will lurk more subtilly to do an ill turn than some sort of Serpents, or steal an opportunity more wa∣rily. Then why should not all plots and mischievous arts of cunning be as hateful as an hissing Adder? Nay, why not as odious as Beelzebub himself the Prince of Devils? Some such there are, that have their sharpness of wit from no better founder than the old Dragon, that have no measure in their dissimulation, no trust in their word, no fi∣delity in their oath, no remorse, no distinction in conscience whom they ruine; and these are counted useful, and fit for employment. I do not altogether blame the Turks for reputing natural Ideots to be Saints. I am sure they are Saints in compari∣son with such cunning Merchants: But a true Christian is somewhat compounded out of the better part of them both, as it is Rom. xvi. 19. I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. This is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, says Nazi∣anzen inoffensiveness tempered with much intelligence. The simplicity of the Dove mitigating the subtilty of the Serpent. To say all in a little, Sin is supported by Stratagems, but Justice by grave knowledge. Therefore love wisdom because it comes from God: Practise innocency because it comes from Christ: Hate subtilty because it is the badge of the Serpent, abhor mischief, it is the work of the Devil.

This is for the general, we all see what sin is in the Image of the Serpent. More particularly, the Israelites saw their own sin in that spectacle wherewith they pro∣voked the Lord, Num. xxi. 4. The people were not turned aside from the promised Land, but were wearied with a long journey, and in their bitterness they spake against God and Moses; They that serve God for temporal things will quickly mur∣mur when they want rest and ease: If the ground be not soft under their feet they think it tedious though it should bring them to heaven. Beside, they loathed Man∣na; it was too light for their hot stomachs, and it did not satisfie. Somewhat else they would have, yet they could not tell what themselves: As they that are not contented with the bread that comes down from heaven shall be gnawn with the worm of superstition, that will never give them quiet, but these are the hints that provoked them to speak against God. A little painfulness was repined at as a great deal of misery; and a great benefit was repined at as but a little favour. Now they that whet their tongues like Serpents, was it not meet they should be stung with Serpents? They that spat Poison against their Maker, did they not deserve a poisonous castigation? Or will they dare to murmur any more when they see their punishment cast in brass, and abiding for a durable monument? If we murmur against him whom we are bound to praise and love, is not that disloyalty? So did the Israelites. If we murmur at small evils that may be tolerated, is not that impa∣tiency? So did the Israelites. If we murmur at good things, for which we should rather give thanks, if we murmur at Manna, the precious nourishment of the soul, is not that abominable ingratitude? So did the Israelites. And what should this sin be likened to but an Aspe, or a Viper? No Serpent is so much a Serpent as a grum∣bling spirit, that is ever murmuring at God and Moses. And this is the first use of the Brazen Serpent, to turn unto it as a book wherein we read our sins. Peccatum peccati cognitione curatur. For the first cure to be applied unto sin is to make a recog∣nition of it with an humble and a contrite spirit, so did the truest Penitent and the greatest sinner King David, I know my transgressions,* 1.2 and my sin is always against me.

The next contemplation upon this brazen Image is not immediately to step from sin unto the remedy, for the vengeance due unto sin is to be considered between them both. Behold the bitter pain which Christ endured upon the Cross, and it accuseth us that the disobedience was monstrous, which must be expiated with so much sorrow. Quàm gravis sit peccati conditio prodit remedii magnitudo, says St. Austin; How great the guiltiness of sin was appears in the magnitude of the remedy. And

no less it is apparent how insufferable that wrath was which we escaped, because he sustained so much wrath that bore it in our stead. Note the malediction which we had merited in the maledictive death which our Saviour did undergo, and then it will be a pleasant thing to go to heaven as it were by the gates of hell: But there is nothing more dangerous than deliverance out of danger, if we forget the jeo∣pardy. I will bring this clearly out of the matter we have in hand. The Crea∣tures that annoyed the Israelites were Serpents: For a serpentine sin deserved a ser∣pentine punishment: I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of the Ser∣pents of the dust, Deut. xxxiii. 24. The teeth of other beasts might have procured a dismal slaughter, but because a Serpent was accursed above every beast of the field, the wounds that they made did superadd unto death the meditation of a curse, and that their judgment was compounded with malediction. And this was prose∣cuted in the figure, that the brazen Serpent was lifted upon a pole to keep in mind that sting of the Law, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Therefore you can∣not deny that this is a looking-glass of Justice before we come to mercy. As Christ crucified is a type of condemnation to unbelievers, but a sacrifice of salvati∣on to those that trust in his Redemption. Oleaster says that the first Epithet that God gave to this Figure was to call it a Fiery Serpent, Num. xxi. 8. because a fire of Coals did continually burn within it, that first it might strike dread and horror into all that saw it before it healed the impotent. The fire of hell was annexed to that grace and blessing which came from heaven, as if the sword of justice had been put up in the Scabbard of mercy, but they were never asunder. Lose not your self in applying mercy, and nothing but mercy to your conscience lest it befall you as it doth with a Bee that is drowned in its own honey: But correct presumption and confidence by converting to some remarkable objects of indignation. When Achan that troubled the Land was executed, They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day, says the Holy Ghost, Josh. vii. 26. God doth not suffer grievous punishments to vanish as shadows, but he makes them continue as Pillars for Ages to come. Burial did not abolish the memorial of his trespass, as it was engraven upon the Monument of an Egyptian King that went down with much sorrow to his grave, because of his sacriledge, In me quis intuens pius esto; He that looks upon my Sepulchre let him learn to be religious. You read of Lots Wife in the same Gospel where you read of Mary Magdalen, of her Pillar of salt as well as of the others box of Ointment. There she stood congealed in the open field, and never went down to the dead that she might be always in the remembrance of the living: So the Brazen Serpent did exhibit those mortal Serpents which annoyed Israel in their journey. Like to like. And this the Lords of the Philistines had heard of, and did imitate it, 1 Sam. vi. 4. For they sent home the Ark with a trespass-offering, five golden Emerods, the very figures of the diseases wherewith they were chastised. I know no pattern that could lead them into that fancy, but only this in my Text. The right use of it, whether the Philistines knew it or no I am uncertain, is this: That when a punishment is exemplified in a figure, and resembled to the life, it is a deprecation that God would with-hold it from us, and mitigate his wrath, but so that we cannot be ignorant that his Arrow is still in his Bow, and he hath not removed away his hand, but is ready to send his Army of Serpents again, if we return unto our sins.

And now according to the exact method of mortification, having done our du∣ty to set our sins and our punishment before us, we may look towards the Serpent as a remedy: And it shall come to pass that every one that looketh upon it shall live, Num. xxi. 8. A welcom sign to that poor People of the old Law; the delights of the Synagogue for which they lifted up their hands to Heaven were length of days, health, and sound habit of body, poor accessories of a transitory happiness; they rested in such favours more than in better things that concerned their Spirit and their Soul; wherein they succeed them that value the benefit of their Physician a∣bove the blessing of their Bishop. But God did time it with them according to their imperfection, and gave them a new Salve for a new Malady, that their flesh might rejoyce in the living God. The Land by which they passed was full of noxious Vermin; Who led thee through the Wilderness, wherein were firy Serpents and Scorpions, Deutr. viii. 15. If God had kept them from the teeth of this venemous brood, ••equid erit pretii, should he have gotten any thank for his protection? affliction unfelt is unregarded: It was better to have some sense of a wound, that they might know what a Deliverer was in the experience of a Cure. Or if Dictamnu••, and the secret vertue of other herbs had relieved them (as Moses was skilled in all

that Science) the work of Nature, and not the God of Nature had been magnified. But Discorides says, that an hot venom, namely that of the Dipsas and Causon, are incu∣rable, therefore in a desperate case, when all secondary causes were unprofitable, nothing but a Miracle made them whole that were diseased. And that which was most abhorr'd, a Serpent was hanged up, as if it were not enough to be cured, but they triumpht over that which annoyed them: Out of their mischief came the mitigation of their pain, as cunning Leaches confect Treakle out of Vipers, and Oil of Scorpions out of Scorpions: a Serpent was the Instrument both of death and life; for it is God that kills and makes alive again; as a Whale devoured Jonas, and a Whale cast him alive upon the shoar. Again here was no applica∣tion per contactum, to the green Sore, which is the ordinary course of Chirurgery, not so much as an Unguent besmeared upon the substance of the Serpent, the new device of Ʋnguentum armarium, not so much as the touch of Moses hand upon the part ill affected, as many of the Strumosi are toucht this day by God in the finger of the King: No more was requir'd of them that languisht, but to bestow the cast of their eye upon the Figure, that God only might have the glory in the Medicinal operation; For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing which he saw, but by thee O God the Saviour of all, Wisd. xvi. 6. Yet more strange, the Remedy ha∣ving no congruity with the relief of the Disease, God did supply the efficacy; but this was like spittle and clay upon the eyes of the blind man, fitter to make him blind than to make him see. Rabbi Joseph says (I say it upon his credit) that to look upon polisht Brass, is present death to him that is bitten with a firy Serpent. To reconcile these enmities in nature, to make antipathies afford friendship, to turn destruction to be preservative, to overcome one death by another, it doth not only lighten my thoughts to the incomprehensible power of our Creator, but it breaks me off from this object before I am aware, to consider Christ and his Pas∣sion, wherein these effects are gloriously conspicuous: he is the Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness.

A Similitude of great humiliation: Non solum per hominem, sed etiam per pecudem est figuratus, says St. Austin; the mighty one by whom the Worlds were made did not only take the form of a Man, but is disguised in the figure of a Beast; and among Beasts, if any be more filthy than another, we all know it is a Serpent: Yet thus much we must abate in him from the nature of that pestiferous brute, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, says Nazianzen, it had the shape, but not the poison of a Serpent: God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, but no more than in the likeness, and condemned sin in the flesh, because no iniquity was found in him: all that came out of his mouth was an antidote, and not a venom: His Ma∣ligners call'd him Carpenter in scorn, they could not call him Sinner; dicunt ha∣bet daemonium, non dicunt habet peccatum; they slandered him and said he had a De∣vil, but their tongues would not let them lie, nor permit them to say he was a Transgressor: a Dove was not more innocent than this Serpent. No Heresie me∣thinks is more incredible, if St. Austin had not faithfully reported it, than that of the Ophitae, who kept a Serpent under the Altar, to creep out, and lick their Oblations which they brought to God, as if a noxious Dragon were a seemly imi∣tation of this Image in my Text, that had no offence in it. What agreement was there between poison and no poison? Nay, between that which wounded, and that which healed? Between a Destroyer and a Saviour? It must be harmless at least which stood in his stead that came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And indeed, the best that we can say of the Figure is, That it was harmless, and no very Serpent: But it were dotage to suppose that the material thing had any secret vertue of restauration, no more than the Figure of the Cross upon the post-fact is operative, a superstition which our Church hath justly disclaimed. He sent forth his word and he healed them, says David; it was Gods Word and Promise that cured them, and not the brazen Element. But Christ conteined remedy in himself, and in his all-sufficient Sacrifice; For the Son of righteousness did arise with healing in his wings, Mal. iv. 2. What hath he not healed if we will lay the plaisters of his Passi∣on to our sins? By his Poverty he hath condemned Covetousness; by his chari∣table Prayers for his enemies implacable malice; by the price for which the holy One was bought and sold Sacriledge; by his Crown of thorns Ambition; by the humility of his Cross Pride; by his Gall and Vinegar Luxury; by his Patience Impatience; by his infinite Love, Envy; all his torments were preservatives against poison, every part of him is sanity. And that not only because this Figure

was unvenomed, but chiefly because it was a dead lump, and not a living Serpent, Mortuus serpens vivos superabat, says Macarius; The living Serpents were charmed by the dead one, that they had no power to kill. The bloud of Christ purgeth us from our sins, and his death was our victory against death that we might live for ever. It was well done of Nicodemus to spare no cost to imbalm his body: It was piously done of Mary Magdalen to pour her precious Ointment upon his head against the day of his burial; for therein we became the savour of life unto life, and his Fu∣neral was our immortality. As Samson found his honey comb in the Carkass of the Lion, so the Church finds sweetness in the bitterness of his Passion. Caiaphas did not feel the vigour of his own Prophesie, it slipt from his tongue, and not from his heart, That it was expedient that one man should die for the sins of the people. His Succes∣sors contradict it obstinately to this day, and controul it thus: How can he save us that is crucified? I return them an answer from my Text, How could a dead lump of Brass expel their poison that were wounded? If they depended upon a thing inanimate for the life of their body, wherefore do they not attend the my∣stery, that they must depend upon a Saviour put to death for the life of their Soul? Attenditur serpens ut nihil valeat serpens, attenditur mors ut nihil valeat mors, says St. Au∣stin. The Jews look'd upon a Serpent to be freed from Serpents; and Christians look upon death to be delivered from death. There is one analogy more to be col∣lected out of the unity of the Figure. One Serpent was lifted up for the general preservation of all the Camp of Israel. Not twelve distinct ones according to the number of their Tribes, and much less no uncertain multiplication according to the number of their Families. Nulla salus sine unitate; The hope of health and re∣medy is founded in unity. Our Gods are not Plural, our Redeemers are not many; they that have divers Saviours have never a Saviour. They that have tutelary Mar∣tyrs for almost every Church, and Patron Saints distinctly for every Kingdom, they have so many Serpents lifted up, and they look so many ways that their wounds stink, and are corrupt through their foolishness, and they prosper no way. We have one head to which the body is knit; one Shepherd to guide the Flock; one corner stone in the building; one Serpent in the Wilderness; One Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. An infinite vertue can admit of no co-partner∣ship. I tremble at their infidelity that frame Scholastical Cases out of their own brain, how others are subservient to the Son of God in the work of our Redempti∣on. But he says, I have trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, Isa. lxiii. 3. Whether an Israelite chanced to be stung in the head, or in the face; whether upon the breast, or in the lower parts of the body; one Serpent upon the Pole was enough to heal all. So we have sins original and actual; of commission and omission; of ignorance, infirmity, and presumption; of thought, word, and deed; Ʋndique morsus; we are stung from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot.* 1.3 But as all are dead, so one died for all, that they which live should not live unto them∣selves, but unto him that died for us, and rose again.

Now for the material part out of which this Figure was carved, it was not wrought in stone. The Law was written in Tables of stone, but grace and mercy are of another complexion. It was not Silver or Gold (though they in some sort are most correspondent in nature with Serpents, for they are the bane of godliness and ju∣stice) but we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as Silver and Gold, but with the precious bloud of Christ, as of a Lamb undefiled. It was erected in the strong and durable substance of Brass: For one Generation passeth away, and another cometh, but the vertue of Christs Cross is perpetual, and endures for ever. It is not my exco∣gitation, but Isidors, In serpente mortuus, in aere aeternus; Dead as the Serpent upon the Pole, but durable as the Brass, because the benefit of his death continues al∣ways. Therefore his bloud is called, The bloud of the everlasting Covenant, Heb. xiii. 20. Sooner shall all the brazen Pillars and Monuments upon earth be resolved into dust than one jot of this Covenant should be violated; the merit of his Passion makes intercession for us continually before his Father, and never ceaseth. Behold our Pardon is engraven in Brass, never to be blotted out, it is too strong to be dissolved. I look not upon that which is fluxive and changeable, but upon a propitiation in Brass: Yet not upon the Altar of Brass lest the Israelites should think that their own Sacrifices of Sheep and Oxen did help them, but upon the Serpent of Brass, to let them perceive that it was the Sacrifice of Christ that healed them. Beside, could a Statue of Brass endure more injuries than were laid upon the tender body of our Saviour? Could an Anvile sustain more stripes and blows? When Job began

to sink under the pressure of his afflictions, says he, Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? He was a man that had the courage to suffer much, yet he had not a brazen body; infirmity made him sink, and wish for death; but Christ endured for our sakes as a man of brass. I pray God we have not hearts of steel that do not consider it. Above all the Prophets Isidore doth well to call Je∣remy 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the most passive of them all; therefore God ordained him to be the dungeon of misery in these words, Behold I have made thee this day as an iron Pillar, and a brazen Wall, Jer. i. 18. So Christ endured the merciless wrath of his persecu∣tors, as if he had been scourged and crucified not in flesh and bloud, but in brass or iron. What a raging heat there is in a furnace of brass? So Christ complains in his Agony as if he had been a molten furnace, Lam. iii. 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. Therefore God appointed Moses to make a fiery Serpent, Num. xxi. 8. It seems the Serpent was like a Censor of brass, and the fire of Incense was put into it, that it might be a sweet savour unto the Lord, ascending up with the prayers of the Congregation. Or what is fitter to express the two natures of God and Man in one person than brass when it gloes with fire? The Humane body without, and the fire of the Divinity within, these are the Ingredients of that Mediatour who bruised the head of the old Serpent, took away our reproach, and abolished our Iniquities. Therefore the fire was as neces∣sary for our use as the Brass, the Brass that is the Manhood to suffer, but the Fire that is the Godhead to make the sufferings of infinite price and inestimable value. But that which we translate, as the seventy two have guided us, a fiery Serpent, is Saraph in the Original, which if it signifie fire it is Coelestial fire, for from thence comes the word Seraphim the highest order of Angels, who are inflamed with the zeal of charity. O how much of that fire was in the Serpent that healed us? What a Grove of love was in his heart, which no eye nor thought can penetrate? Who could have passed through so many thorns, and nails, so many scoffs and de∣risions but that his love was like fire that could not be quenched. Lord, if thou hadst not loved me, thou hadst not been born for me: But if thou hadst not loved me more than thy self, thou hadst not died for me, thy humility bore all; thy pa∣tience overcame all; but love sate at the Helm of the Ship, and that commands all. O thou sweet Tyrant, says Nazianzen, how strong are thy fetters with which thou tiest the Son of God? And so I have done with the Serpent for his own frame and composition, for the present use of it, and for the Mystery. I come to the Posture, it was exaltation, for Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness.

For else how could six hundred thousand men and more have recurrence unto it in their necessity to look upon it if it had not been lifted up? Justin Martyr, who had reason to be skilful in these things being a Samaritan by birth, says that Moses ha∣ving fastned the Serpent to along Pole, erected it upon the top of the Tabernacle, and then the remotest person might easily glance upon it; for every Tribe keeping the distance of two thousand Cubits, that is an English mile, from the Tabernacle, Josh. iii. 4. and the doors of all their Tents opening inwards towards the Taber∣nacle, their eye-lids could not open but they must see that object, which was the Mast of the Ship, or the Spire of the Steeple upon the Church of the Tabernacle. Others consider it as an Ensign, or Banner, as if God had prepared to fight for Israel against the spiritual wickednesses in high places. But if we fall into the slum∣ber of Metaphors we shall meet with nothing but dreams. It was disposed by the most High, that the remedy to which the people were bidden to look should be ex∣alted, that the interiour thoughts of the heart might fly to God for succour, after the president of the exteriour contemplation. Israel might stoop to the earth to ga∣ther Manna for the sustentation of their body; but they must look towards hea∣ven for their preservation, and to be delivered from death and hell. I see no∣thing but corruption under me; salvation and immortality are on high above me.

Translate our meditations from the sign to the thing signified, and a Serpent ele∣vated upon a Pole was Christ hanging upon the Cross. It is his own exposition, Joh. xii. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what death he should die. He calls not that most ruful death his ignomi∣ny, or his confusion, or his humiliation, but a lifting up, a promotion, an exalta∣tion. Can you devise a more chearful word for so sad a business? Three ways he was lifted up, Ʋt victima, ut victor, ut mediator. In the manner of his death as a Sacrifice; in the triumph over death, as a Conquerour; in his glorification, to

sit at the right hand of God as a Mediator. First, The manner of his death was ordained that he should hang upon a tree, wherein pain, and reproach, and male∣diction might fall together like so many bitter waters in one torrent. The magni∣tude of the pain refers unto numberless considerations. Begin from hence, that his body was weak and enfeebled with Agonies, with watchings, with scourgings, with bearing his Cross; then this torn and bruised body was stript naked, so that his raw wounds took air, and their smart was much augmented. After this began the execution, his feet and hands were pierced with nails, where the quickest sense of the body doth most resent offence; his Nerves and Arteries were crackt and di∣stended; his body hanging upon its own weight; his arms were pluckt out to his little ease, and great vexation, further than their natural longitude: But the fur∣ther they were stretcht the greater Emblem it was that he was ready to embrace us. His feet were pluckt down, and fastened to a Pedestal, to let us know he will not go from us till we depart from him. The concurrence of so much torment parch'd the roof of his mouth, and made him thirst, and that thirst of his cannot be quench∣ed but by our faith and repentance which is liquidated with tears: All these con∣curring forced his life from him that he gave up the Ghost. But tantò mirabilior re∣surrectio, quantò mors certior. Since his death was so certain, that none could choose but know; his Resurrection is more triumphant, that none can choose but admire it. And as the pain was excessive, so the ignominy of that death was superlative. Pone crucem servo; To hang on a Cross was a death for servants, not for Freemen and Citizens. Paul, a Citizen of Rome, was beheaded; Peter, one reputed a vile person, was crucified. It was the destiny of none but slaves, till Constantine in ho∣nour to our Saviour did utterly forbid it to all Malefactors. Yet he whose service is perfect freedom endured it, that he might abrogate the thraldom of sin by the chastisement of bondage, and lead captivity captive. Add unto all this the male∣diction of that death, for cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Yet Christ avoided to be slain among the Infants of Bethlem; he would not be cast down the steep Mountain in Galilee; nor be stoned by the Pharisees; but to expiate the first sin by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, he was exalted on a tree like the Serpent in the wilderness. And there is somewhat of observation in it, that he suffered in an elevation between heaven and earth, to purge the Region of the Air from the in∣festation of the Devil.* 1.4 Who was Damnatus ad acrem tanquam ad carcerem, says St. Austin, thrown out of heaven to remain in the air as in a prison, and there∣fore called by St. Paul, The Prince of the power of the air, Eph. ii. 2. Nay, Hesiod the Heathen Poet came to this knowledge (by what tradition I know not) that wicked spirits, enemies to mankind, were diffused over that Element. There∣fore Jesus dying upon the Cross gave up the Ghost in the air that he might cleanse the air from those flying Serpents, that is from Diabolical infestations, says St. Athanasius.* 1.5

Secondly, He was mounted upon his Cross as a Conquerour over that which was trodden down and trampled under feet; wherein he seemed to be condemned he condemned the world; wherein he took infirmity upon him, he shewed invincible fortitude; wherein he suffered death he overcame the power of Death; From that fatal Tree which the Jews prepared for an indelible ignominy, Potentia redemptoris secit gradum ad gloriam, says Leo; The puissance of the Redeemer made it a degree unto glory. The Devil stirred up all sorts of men against him, his Disciples to deny him, the Jews to accuse him, the Souldiers to crucifie him, the Passengers to blaspheme him. The more opposition the greater was the triumph. For the Psalmist makes it a Song of Jubilee, They came about me like bees, and are extinct as the fire among the thorns Let me give it a simile from another feast coincident this year upon the day of the Passion. The Patron entitled to the noble Order of the Garter sits victoriously on horse-back, and the Dragon is beaten under his feet, and cast upon his back: So our Champion rides in triumph upon the Cross, and his enemy fell before him: For Christ was visibly crucified, but the Devil invisibly, says Origen. When our Saviour was transfigured, and appeared in glory, then Moses and Elias spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem, Luk. ix. 31. As if there were no fitter time to speak of his death than in that clarification, because his death was the purchase of glory, in that abasement he was exalted, and did exalt us that believe in him in that machine, and craned us up by his Cross to heaven. And therefore he promised unto the penitent Thief when he was upon the Cross the joyes of Para∣dise, because his Cross did open Paradise to all believers. Two things are noto∣rious

marks, that this kind of death, so vile in appearance, was a constructive ex∣altation. First, that the imperial Ensign of the Roman Army in the days of Con∣stantine the Great was cast into the figure of a Cross, known in ancient Authors by that obsolete word laborum, it was a victorious auspice to have the flag of the Cross, which was never overcome, to fly before them. Then it came to be extol∣led even to the top of the Crown of Kings: A locis suppliciorum fecit transitum ad coro∣nas Imperatorum, says St. Austin. Once it was infamous for a sign of a servile death, now it is translated as it were from Golgotha unto the Crowns of Emperours. Fructus arborem exaltat, jam honor est non horror; The fruit that hung upon the tree hath ta∣ken away all ignominy from the tree, now the horror of it is changed into a Tro∣phee of honour. As the Serpent was lifted up, so there was power, and exaltation, and victory in the sacrifice of our Saviour.

Thirdly, As the Son of God was conquerant in death, so he was glorified after death. He humbled himself to death, even to the death of the Cross: wherefore God hath highly exalted him. By his Cross and Passion he hath entred into heaven, there to sit at the right hand of the Majesty for ever. Now he is exalted in his Resurrection death hath no more dominion over him; now his name is blessed and hallowed, as the balm from which our salvation distilleth; now his Kingdom is enlarged from Sea to Sea, and the uttermost parts of the earth are his possession. Now his peo∣ple are gathered unto him to magnifie and praise him; all Kings shall fall down before him, all Nations shall do him service. These are the success and the conse∣quents of his humiliation. Therefore as you would not envy his greatness in his Resurrection, so do not despise the meanness of his Passion.* 1.6 Non te pigeat videre ser∣pentem in ligno pendentem, si vis videre regem in solio regnantem, says St. Austin; be not troubled to see him lifted up upon a Pole like the brazen Serpent, if you desire to see him sit upon his Throne as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Ought not Christ to suffer these things, and so to enter into his glory? And let this confirm our faith, and make us willing to be conformable to his sufferings. The afflictive way, nay, the destructive way of persecution is the advancement of a Christian; to be pluckt down is to be lifted up; Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God, Acts xiv. 22. As some did swim to shore upon planks in that shipwrack where∣in St. Paul was a companion, Acts xxvii. so being all of us in the common naufrage of sin, none are more safe than they that swim out upon the Cross which God hath laid upon them. If we must bid farewel to temporal prosperity, let us see what Pearls of patience and repentance we can find, as Job did, in the dunghil of sor∣row and misery: If Tempests blow stronger and stronger let us strive, with Elias, to go up to heaven in the whirlwind, what we want in the Church Militant, continue stedfast in the truth and it will be supplied in the Church Triumphant. But in what estate soever you are, be lifted up from the earth, and let your affections be above. Let not Satan get the upper ground, and make advantage of it against us beneath. Is he in the air? Then shall my heart be in heaven. Is he upon an exceeding high mountain in his tentations? Then will I fly up to the Sanctuary of the Lord upon the wings of a Dove. For the Mountain of the Lords house is established in the top of the mountains, Isa. ii. 2. Would he have me look upon the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them? No, I will look upon him who despised glory, and hath purchased honour by his opprobry, upon him who was lifted up like the Serpent in the wilderness.

Draw near now, and come unto that place where this miracle was acted. It was a waste in the borders of Edom, a nameless and a barren piece of ground, unprofi∣table to bring store into the barn, but profitable to yield some pious meditations, it is the wilderness. There was no place that received Israel where some memory or monument of Gods mighty hand was not left behind, in Egypt, in the Red Sea, in Moab, in Basan, in the Wilderness. But this last put them to the greatest trial, it was ilium malorum; sorrows that met them single elsewhere, rusht all upon them in the Wilderness. There they suffered war and weariness; thirst and hunger; plagues and mortality. And though they called for redress they had none, only they had a cure for the biting of the fiery Serpents: So in this Pilgrimage upon earth all manner of offences and afflictions are familiar unto us; and though we fast and pray they shall not be taken from us. No man must look for comfort, or plenty, or pleasure in a Wilderness. Let it suffice for all, that we have a remedy against the venom of the Serpent, against the deadly sting of sin. For if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is our propitiation; not

that we should not be afflicted, but that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. I will make one question to the Point, that I may give many answers. Wherefore was so great a deliverance obscured in the Wilderness, where the world could take no notice of it? As the Disciples pressed our Saviour to go into Judea that men might see his works. If thou do these things shew thy self to the world, Joh. vii. 4. So had it not been better that the most frequented Cities had been spectators of this wonderful power of healing? And was not the Wilderness a little too secret for the fame and publication of it? I answer first, that is not the vogue and acclamation of the world that the God of sanctity aims at, but the faith of the Elect. The fewer that saw these wonders, the happier for them that believe and never saw them. Many works of the Lord are not necessary to be seen of all, but to be believed of all: and for the greatest mysteries all must believe though the eye did not, nay, though it cannot see them.

Secondly, Because the making of this Serpent by Moses had a typical drift in it to set forth Christ, we shall not see him more like himself than if we go forth to find him in the Wilderness, thither the Spirit led him forth to be tempted, and he fought against the Devil so strongly in those Lists, that he vanquished him by his innocency. Adam in horto superbus, Christus in deserto humilis; Adam was accommo∣dated with too much pleasure, where the Serpent enticed him, therefore the second Adam pitch'd his battel in a Desart of a contrary condition. It was a Land un∣comfortable for solitariness, neither fountains nor fruits in it, nothing but penury where Satan was overcome; but it was a garden drest and delicate, filled with all manner of store, where he got the victory. But is it not better to be humble with Christ in a barren Desart, than to be proud with Adam in a delicious Paradise? Fight against the Tempter upon the same advantage that our Captain chose. Meet him not where pleasures abound: meet him not in the Garden, but in the Wilder∣ness. Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the Villages, Cant. vii. 11. There is much contagion in the communication with the world, therefore the Be∣loved is invited rather to some harmless privacy. Fuge seculi mare, & naufragium non timebis, says St. Ambrose. Sail away into some little stream, leave the Ocean of un∣godliness, which is in the most frequented places, and you shall not fear ship∣wrack. Our Saviour made himself often a stranger unto this world, and retired into a Mountain alone, or into the Wilderness, Quasi in mundo extra mundum ageret; To teach us to live in this world as if we lived without it. When we find our selves infected with the conversation of Court or City, it is the Wilderness we must fly to, a retiring to a private reckoning between God and our selves, if we mean to be cu∣red of Serpents. We had need of longer Vacations than Terms; more rest to pray and repent than stirring days to get wealth; that we may ask God forgiveness at leisure for those sins which we did commit in our business. Come ye apart into a desart place, and rest awhile, says our Saviour to his Apostles, Mar. vi. 31. All cannot receive this saying, you will reply, all have not the opportunity to come out of the croud, some there are whose worth and dignity keeps them always in action. To these I say, as our Saviour prayed for his Disciples, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil, Joh. xvii. 15. Says St. Cypriaen, Et∣si omnes diversorium non capiat loci, animi tamen omnino necessaria est solitudo; All men cannot, must not cast off care, the Church and Republick cannot spare their company, that they should sequester themselves into remote places. O but let not the heart lose that happiness which is denied unto the body. I may be vacant to good medi∣tation in the midst of troubles. I may stand before men, as my Calling requires, and be alone with God. Pious Meditation, which will not mix with any secular thing, is like an hermitage to the soul: Like a Wilderness wherein I have leisure to look stedfastly upon that Serpent who is the cure of Serpents, and the Balm of Gilead.

Lastly, (for the time breaks me off that I must conclude) there is no place more open or common in the world than a Wilderness. There the Image of the Serpent was fixed, as a publick benefit, which was prohibited to none that would look up∣on it. They that stood nigh, they that were far off, it was indifferent to both if they beheld it stedfastly. So Christ crucified is alike unto all that believe, and call upon him; to Jew, and Gentile; to high and low; to Rich and Poor; to the gene∣rations that are passed, to us that are further off, and to the Generations that are yet to come. Let it not trouble you that the Brazen Serpent was lifted up in the midst of the Camp of Israel, as if it only served for the Latitude of that Meridian.

It fell not to their lot in Canaan, or in Jerusalem, but in the Wilderness, which was every mans soil, and every mans possession. Therefore the root of Jesse is called an Ensign of the people to which the Gentiles shall seek, Isa. xi. 12.* 1.7 All have their part in this Ensign, the banner of our Victory, Christ exalted, that will seek unto him. Crux Christi mundi est ara non templi, says Leo; The Cross of Christ was an Altar, yet not a private one belonging to the Temple: but publick blessing to the whole world. That is the reason that he suffered not within Jerusalem but without it, to the end that all men that purifie their hearts by faith may claim a property in his Oblation. Jesus that he might sanctifie the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate, Heb. xiii. 11. Therefore let us go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach. First, Let us go forth unto him, and seek him out as stranger that have no abiding City, but as Travellers that live in Tabernacles, and are passing to our own Country through a Wilderness. They that have set their rest upon earth, and say, here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein, they shall never find out the comfort of the Cross: but use this World as a Pilgrim, that would make haste with good speed out of it, and you shall find your Saviour by the way. He is not in the secret Chamber, or in the Closet, or in the Palace, in none of these permanent and enduring habitations, but in the trac of the wayfaring men, that is in the Wilderness. And then the Cross of Christ stands upon such ground, where there is neither gain nor pleasure, no more than is to be look'd for in a Wilderness: Therefore St. Paul makes this further use of it, let us go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his re∣proaching. Extra castra, & extra mundum ejusque splendida exeamus, says Theophylact; Leave the pomp, and beauty, and jingling of these vain things; if you stick to them you must perish with them, for they all shall perish. If you will remain in Sodom, you must be destroyed in Sodom. Is it not better to go into a Desart where there is nothing to eat, than to live among belly-gods where there is nothing but Gluttony? Is it not better to repent in Sackcloth than to be profane in Purple? Is it not better to want and seek God, than to abound and forget him? Serpens, sitis, ardor, arenae dulcia virtuti. A well disciplined Christian praiseth God for all imcum∣brances of adversity, for the Serpents that fly about him with the stings of malice and infamy, for sickness and languor, for pain and weariness; he did not look for kinder, or more placid entertainment in a Wilderness: But he that looks stedfastly to the Serpent that is lifted up in the Wilderness, to Christ Jesus that suffered for the mitigation of our sorrows, for the cure of our wounds, for the accomplishment of our joyes, for our victory over death, and for our entrance into life everlasting. AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Eph 4.14.
• * 1.2

  Psal. 1.3.
• * 1.3

  2 Cor. 5.15.
• * 1.4

  In Psal. 148.
• * 1.5

  Lib. de. In∣car. verbi.
• * 1.6

  Serm. 10. de Temp.
• * 1.7

  Serm. ••. de Pass.