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 FIRST SERMON UPON NOAH. (Book 1)

GEN. viii. 20, 21.

And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar.

And the Lord smelled a sweet savour.

IT is impossible to choose a better method than Elihu did to find out wisdom: Repetam scientiam meam à principio, Job xxxvi. 3. I will fetch my knowledge from far, or from the very beginning. But why do I call it Elihu's method? When behold a greater than Elihu, impugning the frivolous divorcements of mar∣riages among the Jews, which then had common passage, doth thus overthrow them, Ab initio non fuit sic; It was not so from the beginning. From which words I am bold to pro∣nounce, that this must be the leading rule of Divine Learn∣ing, that all Religion must be tried and allowed from the first, and most ancient Ordinations. Now we have four Ages to run through upon that examination. First for the Age before the Floud, whereof Almighty God hath left us a very short and confused memorial; I will not say, as some do, that the Church began when Enos was born to Seth, although we find it written, Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord, Gen. iv. ult. Nor from the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, for the tradition of the Hebrews hath reason in it, that Adam himself had often sacrificed before, but the first hint of Religion in that Age is at this mark, where the Lord made wo∣man, and brought her unto man, which was a mystery of Christ and his Church, Eph. v. 12. Secondly, if you will know how the fear of God was first professed after the Floud, it is written in my Text. Thirdly, If you will be acquainted with the first institution of the Mosaical Law, enquire for it at that time when God appeared in glory at Mount Sinai. And fourthly, If you will search to the bottom, when the Law was quite abrogated, and the Gospel was purely in force, reckon from the coming down of the Holy Ghost, at the Feast of Whitsontide.

Among these four I have wittingly light upon the second, that I may entreat before you, how Religion was first managed presently after the Deluge under the Law ot Nature. For this seems to me to borrow somewhat of all the rest; so that speaking of this one they will all be remembred. The Mystery of Christ and his Church knit together is not here forgotten, where the clean Beasts and the clean Fowls are laid upon the Altar. The Sacrifices of Moses Law certainly were pat∣terned by this example; and the inspiration of the holy Spirit must needs be in the Sacrifices work, from whence the Lord smelt a sweet savour. If your attention be now ready to receive the distribution of these words into their several parts, they

may thus be divided into two principal branches; here is the material part, and the formal part, the body and the soul of that Divine Worship which Noah performed unto the Lord. He builded an Altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar; that is the matter, the visi∣ble body of his good work: And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, there is the invisible part, or the Soul. The material outward work contains these three things: 1. That he offered burnt offerings. 2. Of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. 3. Ʋpon an Altar which he built. And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar. In the formal part there are two things to be spoken of, sensibile, and sen∣sus. The sensibile, that this Sacrifice had a sweet savour. 2. There was a quick sense that took it, and that is the Lords, the Lord smelled a sweet savour. And Noah builded an Altar, &c.

I take the material part first in hand, and this is the principal composition in the matter, that Noah offered burnt-offerings to the Lord. This was it, I perceive, why Noah thought it long till the Floud were asswaged, and sent one bird after another to learn if the waters were faln, that he might come forth, and worship him with an holy Worship that made both the Flouds and the dry Land. As a conscionable man recovering from a perilous sickness, which brought him even to deaths door, thinks every hour seven till he present himself in the Church before the Lord, that he may praise his name in the Congregation: So the heart of this Patriarch had been so long full of meditations, all those days that he was shut up in the Ark, how he and his Posterity alone were preserved from the common Deluge, that his desires grew restless, and he sent forth the Dove three several times and no less, to bring him better news, if he might come forth, and do his homage for the possessi∣on of the Earth upon an Altar of earth, and that the Incense of his devotion might smoke up to heaven in Sacrifice. Now I lift up this example before you, to let you behold why we are born, and for what use we have our Station in this Globe of Creatures. The Lord hath opened our Mothers Womb, to bring us forth into the light, as he opened the door of the Ark to set Noahs feet in a large room: We were shut up in a place which God had appointed for us, till our passage was made into the world, almost as long as he; now we have our egress, and the liberty of the Earth and Air. To what end all this? What is appointed for man? Which way should his business tend? To enjoy the pleasures of the Age? To extend our appetite over the abundance of all things which the earth affords? To build and plant? To be renowned, and leave a Posterity behind us? No, that account is ill cast up: for you may see in this condition of Noah, that he, and all that were with him, were let forth of the Ark as a people then born again into a new world, and the end was to offer up spiritual Sacrifices with a clean heart, and while we have any being to praise the Lord. When the Angel had delivered the Apostles out of the common-Prison into which they were cast, says he, Go, stand, and speak to the people in the Tem∣ple all the words of this life: So we are set at liberty from our Mothers Womb,* 1.1 from that Ark to which we were committed for a time, that we may go to the Courts of the house of our God, even as Noah came abroad, and took seisin of the earth imme∣diately to make an Altar thereof, and thereon to offer Sacrifice to the strength of his deliverance.

The question will be, what direction the holy man had to worship the Lord with this kind of Service? Lay it down for that which must be granted. He that makes his own brain the model of his Religion, shall have little thanks for his for∣wardness. Ascribe unto the Lord the honour due unto his name; honour of Duty and Pre∣cept is best, that which is redundant, and of mans excogitation is frivolous. In∣deed, Ceremonies, for the most part, are unprescribed, that particular Churches may be their own carvers in them; only let them beware that they use their liberty discreetly: But the offering of burnt Sacrifices is a matter of substance, how came this into Noahs heart to do it? By divine information certainly. At some time, about the beginning of time, God did appoint a form of Religion to Adam and his Posterity, which in the Breviary of the Book of Genesis is omitted, which Les∣son was read to Cain and Abel, from whom they undertook the solemnity of Sa∣crifice; and the Candle was lighted from hand to hand till the Tradition came safe to Noah: Or thus very briefly, Which God did deliver to Adam, which Adam did commit ro Jared, he to Methusalem, which Methusalem did commend to Noah. Never imagine that they were appointed precisely about the food of their body, that is in the Letter of the Book, and no instruction delivered for the food of their

Soul. That were such an omission that the worst Lawgiver would prevent, much more the wisest. The Lord did set his holy Patriarchs in order, from succession to succession (till the Law was written) to communicate true Religion. And it is St. Hieroms rule, Omne verum à quocunque dicitur à spiritu sancto est; Every mouth that speaks truth,* 1.2 speaks it from the Holy Ghost. From Abel downward all those, whose Oblations had a sweet savour, offered by Faith; if by Faith, then by Precept and Instruction; for Faith comes by hearing, Rom. x. 17. Sacrifice then was that Divine Worship which God revealed did please him: that was the general approbation. I do not say, that every time they kept that duty they had need of a new and a special Commission. St. Ambrose says, that Noah did this good work of his own genius,* 1.3 and not by any new particular Commandment: Qui debitum gratiae ut à se exigatur expectat ingratus est; A man must not stay after he hath received a benefit, till God say unto him, thank me now: for such thankfulness were ingratitude. Yet St. Ambrose hath far more voices against him than of his part, that this holy Father had special directions for the solemnizing this Sacrifice, and that expresly it was revealed unto him, upon the taking in of seven of the clean beasts into the Ark, Gen. vii. 2. Of clean beasts by sevens, that three Pairs were for propagation, and the single odd one, the seventh of clean Beasts and clean Fowls, the celebs animal, the pure Creature which mixt with no female, was to be dedicated in an whole burnt-offering to the Lord. And then this example will so little favour Will-worship, that it utterly beats it down, the invention of man had so little hand in it, that it was Scientia à Deo indita, an inspiration immediately put into the Prophet by the will of God.

The reason why the bloud of Beasts was poured out to the Lord, and well ac∣cepted of him, will be ripe to be rendred by and by, when I have first shewn in a word, that Religion did never discord from it self by mutation of times. The Saints in all Ages had the same Faith, the same Worship, the same Hope and ex∣pectation. Pietas ante legem, in lege, post legem piissime sibi concordat; Piety in the Law, before the Law, and since the Law is constantly the same, and did never vary. Mark therefore from this Text, that the Levitical Ordinances of Moses in many things are but a renovation and amplification of Ceremonial Customs before the Law. I said in many things, that I might not fall into the same error with them, who have overlasht, that all the Ceremonial Law was in use and practice with the Patriarchs, and that Moses did but compile and gather it up into a body. If these men had been askt, where they did read of the Levites, and all the ritual Orders of the Priesthood before Moses, where concerning the trial of Leprosie, of Jealousie, and an hundred things more, I know they must be gravell'd, and could not answer: Nay, in the next Chapter, and the third verse, says the Lord to Noah, Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; but many living things were prohibited to the Jews in the Law of Ordinances, that they should not eat them. But this ground, I know, cannot be shaken, that many parts of the Ceremonial Law had clear passage in the Church presently after the Floud, long before they came forth in Moses name. And the whole Moral Law was acknowledged to be just and righteous even from the beginning of the world. Sacrifices, Altars, distinction of clean from un∣clean, abstaining from bloud and things strangled, Vows, the Brother to raise up seed unto the Brother that died without Issue, these are all purely Ceremonial, and yet in practice before ever Jacob went down into Egypt, and that was 210 years, be∣fore ever the Levitical Institutions were enacted: And that all the Ten Command∣ments were ingrafted in the good seeds of nature, there are such evident examples for them in all the book of Genesis, that it will be less tedious for you to ruminate upon them, than for me to remember them. But as a Book which is ill set forth, or rare to be had, is sometimes reprinted again in a good Edition, by them that are careful to propagate Learning: So those things Moral and Ceremonial which were in use before, were revived again when the Law was committed to Writing, and cal∣led the Scripture; partly because the Age of man grew short, and the Tradition of Religion through the more hands it went was the more corrupted, and because the Devil did superseminare in corde, scatter so many Tares among the Wheat, that the pure Law was scarce to be found in mans heart; and partly men were grown so guilty of the Law, that they would not look into their own hearts, where they found thoughts accusing them; Facti sunt fugitivi à cordibus suis, says St. Austin, they shunned to look into their own knowledge and conscience, which did con∣demn them, therefore it was necessary to have the Law written, that it might

come unto men, since men did run from it. But the effects and grounds both of Ce∣remonial Sacrifices, and Moral Precepts were in force from the beginning. And we may say with Solomon, There is no new thing under the Sun, that which is called new hath been already of old time, which was before us, Eccles. i. 10.

And because all things which are written are written for our instruction, I will spare some time to shew, that it concerns us, even after the cessation of all Sacri∣fice, to learn, why the Lord would be honoured with the bloud of beasts, and with the fat of Sacrifices.* 1.4 One of the best and choicest of the Fathers thought it such a gross kind of serving of God, to kill Oxen and Sheep, and throw their flesh into the fire, such a tyrannizing over the Creature rather than a worshiping of the Creator, that he esteemed it was granted the Ceremonial Church, because it could not be shifted. For since it was to be feared that the Israelites had cast their eye upon those fond customs of the Gentiles, and did affect to imitate them, rather than they should sacrifice to false Gods, God did permit they should sacrifice to his name to prevent Idolatry. But I answer, The most ancient and primitive use of sacrificing, such as Noahs was in my Text, is not so to be slighted. For a bad thing by a toleration is not made half a vertue, nay, after toleration it still remains more than half a Vice. Moses did allow a Bill of divorce for the hardness of mens hearts, but that which is allowed for the hardness of the heart is yet a sin after the allow∣ance: the connivance of the Law cannot make any fashions of pride excusable: and the farming out of Stews for Pensions cannot make Fornication venial. But I pray you what Idolatry was suspicious in Abels time, or at this time when Noah came new out of the Ark? And yet even then Sacrifice was, and was a sweet sa∣vour. And the ground of the objection is mistaken; for who can ever prove, that the Children of Israel had learnt the formes of sacrificing in the Land of Egypt? It is impossible. For the Egyptians hated sacrificing, and killing of Cattel; wherefore Moses would not consent to Pharaoh to sacrifice to God in that Land: Says he,* 1.5 Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? And the Egyptians continued such long after Christ, when the Satyrist fell thus upon them, Nefas illic foetum jugulare capellae, carnibus humanis vesci licet, &c. This hath declared that the Ordinance of Sacrificing from the beginning was not a bare toleration, to divert men from laying their Offering upon the Altars of their Idols.

But to make all perspicuous, we are to harken to the judgment of Irenaeus;* 1.6 and St. Hierom, that Sacrificing was an holy Worship which God did like and allow from the beginning of the world; and for many Ages there was no prescription for the manner, all holy men had their freedom for quantùm and quomodo, for how much, for when it should be done; but when the seed of Abraham proved recreants, and fell in love with the superstition, and worse than superstition, then, and not before, was the Levitical Law drawn out at large, to command all the true Worshipers of God to follow that written prescription in all their Sacrifices; That is, when the Molten Calf was set up by Aaron and the People to provoke God, when they of∣fered burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings unto it, the Lord saw it was time no more to leave them to themselves to offer indefinitely, and indeterminately how they list; but after that he bound them to those Levitical rules, whereof Moses made an entire book. Says God, ye shall break down the Altars and Groves of the Gods of the heathen, but the Lord will chuse a place for you, and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, ye shall not do after all things that we do here this day,* 1.7 every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. That is their ancient liberty in sa∣crificing after what manner they pleased was restrained, after the adoration of the Calf, for fear of further Idolatry.

Sacrifice therefore was not barely a toleration for avoidance of Idolatry in the first institution, but properly had many parts of Religious Worship in it, which are these: First, the mind of him that brought the offering was bent to honour God, that he was the giver of all things, and the end to which all things were to be referred. Which reason the Schoolmen very well put into this Proposition, Emanant ex fide sacrificia, quae amplissimè de Deo sentit; The Religion of Sacrificing proceeds out of Faith, which esteems most devotionately of Gods excellent greatness, and in the act of Sacrificing it is carried up to worship God in his invisible glory. And surely some Litany or Collects of Prayers were said at the same time, with such like Ejaculations in them as these: We lay this gift on thy Altar, O Lord, to acknowledge that every living thing is thine; this is a Testimony that thine is the Power and the Do∣minion over all things; let every thing do thee service, for thou art the Saviour

both of Man and Beast;* 1.8 the life of every thing upon earth is in thy hand, but thou alone art immortal, thou art the same and endurest for ever: or such a form of supplication as came from Davids mouth, when he offered for the building of the Temple,* 1.9 Who am I, and what is my people, that we shall be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own hand have we given thee.

Now the rudeness of the old World, I may say, did require these lessons to be taught and repeated often in visible figures, in lessons that might be felt as well as heard, which were fit to be written not in ink alone, but even in the bloud of Sheep, and of Goats. A visible sign is a fair mark of remembrance for them that are slow to learn. They that distrust their memory will wear a gimmal ring, nay a thread or a rush about the finger to bring business into mind, which might have been forgotten. And God distrusting mans memory put him into the way of sacri∣ficing, a good shore or support for such a use; so by that object which did incur into all the senses the Divine honour was kept in an everlasting remembrance. Well then in this very service wherein they brought somewhat unto the Altar, yet it was the Lords purpose to give, and not to take. Nothing is left to him in an whole Burnt-offering, no more than a Prince gets when his Subjects make Bon∣fires at, or upon the memory of his Inauguration. Julian the Emperor scoffing at all the Royal Cesars that had been before him, gives Antoninus Pius the praise before them all, for this saying. He being askt by Silenus what was the end of his life, and of all his actions, he answered to imitate the Gods. And wherein consists that imitation, says Silenus. Antoninus rejoyns 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to stand in need of little, and to be beneficial to many; that's the true blazon in∣deed of the Divine dignity, to want nothing, and to do good to all. Gods honour was recognized in sacrifice, that was the end of it; but our Goods and Oblations were nothing to him, and therefore the elementary part of their gratitude was consum'd to nothing: It was a Law not to be broken for the bloud of every Sa∣crifice to be spilt before the Altar, and the fat to be burnt in the fire; the bloud stood for the life which we breath, the fat for the abundance of all increase which we enjoy; now we ought to confess that we owe both our life and our substance to the Eternal Majesty, yet our thankfulness could return nothing to him, but it is spilt and consumed to nothing. Unto these two blessings which the Jews did en∣joy by his mercy long life, and rich means to maintain it, sanguis & adeps, we have received two blessings ten thousand times richer; first that the Most High did offer up his Son on the Cross for our sakes, and then he did as it were sacrifice the Holy Ghost unto Man, sending him down in cloven tongues as it had been of fire; these are sanguis and adeps, the best bloud and the best fat or unction in the world. O let us not forget his honour and goodness to make continual mention of it, and since the Father hath sacrificed as it were the Son and the Holy Ghost to us, let us sacrifice our selves to the holy and individed Trinity both bloud and fat, both life and fortunes, both soul and substance.

Secondly by slaying a Beast in Sacrifice the humble Penitent did confess his un∣worthiness, and the guiltiness of his sins, which made him deserve to be quite con∣sumed by the anger of the Lord, even as the flesh of a Sheep or Goat was burnt in the fire. As the Ninevites in their humiliation cast ashes upon their heads, that such a spectacle of desolation might speak their mind, that they and their City did justly deserve to become ashes and desolation. Such a Ceremony in the Injuncti∣ons of Penance hath often been imposed upon infamous Delinquents, to hold a wax Candle lighted in their hand before the people, which was a silent confessing, that as the Taper wasted away with the flame, so their iniquities made them fit to be burnt in Hell fire, but that they hoped the Lord would be merciful. The old Mani∣chaeans therefore, and the modern Anabaptists had small reason to reject the Books of Moses, because he delivered a form of Religion, which consisted much in the slaughter of Birds and Cattle: I am sure Christ allowed that old way, while it was a way, to be very laudable, both by his Precept, Luke v. 14. He bad the Leper whom he had cured, Go thy self to the Priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded: and by partaking no doubt every year as well as at his last Supper of the Paschal Lamb, a Rememorative according to the present point in hand, that the Children of Israel should confess how their first-born deserved to have been slain as well as the first of the Egyptians were, and as well as that Lamb was where∣of they eat, if justice had been strictly executed upon them, as it was upon the Egyptians. Certainly this was no small profit arising out of Sacrifice, which made

a contrite man discern his own sins and unworthiness, wherein he compared him∣self with the Beast that perished; And this was wont to be done in the Law by one annual Ceremony more solemn than ordinary, wherefore St. Paul says, in those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, Heb. x. 3. and in the usual Sin-offering, which came often to the Altar, according as such as were laden with sins did unburden their conscience. And I will interpose one thing in a touch and a way, to convince their obstinacy, that hold it no way material for the peace of their mind, to have the absolution of their sins pronounced unto them by the lips of the Priest; such a one for ought I can see in this opinion, thinks himself to make a Church alone, without the Communion of Saints, yet as he is convinced by the power of the Keys committed to the Apostles and their Successors under the Gospel, so the Lord did refute him by the Ceremony of the Sin-offering under the Law; for one part of the Sin-offering was burnt to God, an the Priest had the other part, ad significandum quod expiatio peccatorum sit à Deo per ministerium Sacerdotum,* 1.10 to prove sym∣bolically, that God did remit sins by the ministry of his Priests, and therefore God had the main share, and the Priest the remaining portion of the Offering.

But alas, though this second reason were very useful to the Jews while they were like Elementary Children fed with Signs and Figures, yet now we Christians have other principles, stronger meat; for what need we confess our unworthiness, and what punishment we deserve, over the Carkass of a Beast, when we see much better what penalty remains unto us, if God would be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who spared not the life of his only Son when he bore the person of our trans∣gressions. And there's the third reason, which is the full and complete use of all the ancient Sacrifices, it was to prefigure the immolation, the bloudshedding, the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ: those were the Parables of the Old Testament, as I may call them, and Christs Death was the intepretation of them all: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, says John the Baptist, Agnus qui redemit oves, the Lamb that redeemed all the Sheep which hear his voice: Behold the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world (Revel. xiii. 8.) says John the Divine, slain personally under Pontius Pilate, but slain representatively from the beginning of the world, in the immolation of all those beasts, whose blood by faith did em∣brew the Altar: The bloud of Bulls and of Rams, the slaughter of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice did all belong to the acknowledgment of the same reckoning, which at last was fully discharg'd by the bloud of Christ: those were but like petty sums to pay the Interest in the mean time, at last the Principal, the whole Debt was discharg'd by that most Royal ransom of our Saviour. In a word, all those bloody Oblations were like John Baptist forerunners of Christ, Indentures sealed with bloud, that the Redeemer would come and die for his People. Not the least Sparrow which was offered for cleansing, but might move our Saviour to say unto the Jews, If yes believed in Moses, ye would believe also in me. Now for as much as the Holy Ghost hath made us able to interpret obscure things since the comming of Christ, how fluent and facil are these meditations to us, to discern our Lord in every clean offering which was offered up by Noah? in every Lamb which came to the office of the Sons of Aaron? with great difficulty did the Patriarchs pick out that construction. When we read of a Sacrifice, we see as much in it as if Christs Passion were represented on a Stage. Bernard made a pious and an eloquent gradati∣on, how faith gathered strength by degrees, being a little spark with those that were ordinary Believers before the Law, then a candle under the Law, lumen in laterna, no more, as David said in his daies, thy word is a Lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths; then like a flaming Beacon in the time of the Gospel, lumen super montem, nay super coelum, more than a candle upon a hill, even as the Sun it self in the firmament, Christus fuit in spicâ in fide patrum, in similâ in doctrinâ legis, post humanitatem assumptum panis formatus. Christ was in the faith of the Patri∣archs like corn in the ear, in the faith of the Law like corn ground into flower, but since the word took flesh, and dwelt among us, He is in our faith completely, as when corn is made into bread. The Patriarchs in their Burnt-offerings did hope for him, the Levites in their Sacrifices did look for him more near at hand, but we have him really exhibited in our Sacrifice, and if we have a Sacrifice left unto us likewise, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, according to St. Chrysostom, we do commemo∣rate the Sacrifice of the Cross, where we do not profess that then Christs Body is slain, or then his Bloud is shed, but we remember all his sufferings past, we look for his grace at that present, and we hope for his coming hereafter in glory. And so

much upon those three reasons, why God did institute Religion of old to be dis∣charged in sacrifice.

Noah had all these things in his heart, as I will shew, when I come to speak of the sweet savour. Now although the value of a gift consists not in the plenitude of the thing given, but in the good affection of the giver, yet the Sacrifice of Noah wanted not fulness and weight, it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Septuagint expressed, all that he brought to the Altar was burnt, and nothing reserved, as God bad A∣braham offer up Isaac for an whole burnt-offering. Under the Law of Moses those kind of Sacrifices were the principal in three regards. 1. It was an Offering com∣pletely burnt, and nothing must remain of it. 2. It burnt all night upon the Al∣tar until the morning,* 1.11 Levit. vi. 8. 3. As St. Austin truly adds, holocaustum est to∣tum incensum sed igne divino, at first of all that Sacrifice was lighted from heaven with fire that did consume them, there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the Altar the Burnt-offering. Levit. ix. 24. and when Nadab and A∣bihu brought other fire in their Censers to add it unto the fire of that Altar which came from heaven, a fire went out from the Lord and devoured them. Literally you see what an whole Burnt-offering was; mystically it imported such an exact yielding up of the Soul and Body to the Lord, wherein we dedicate all our facul∣ties unto his service from the bottom of our heart, reserving nothing unto our selves with Ananias and Saphira, but with the commendable Widow, casting our two mites, even all we have into the Corban, and whatsoever we do to please the Lord, it must be kindled in our breast by celestial motions, as it were with fire from heaven. A man may give all he hath unto the poor: is that an whole Burnt-offering simply by it self? no a man may give his body to be burnt: is not that enough? is not that all he can do? no, St. Paul says neither this nor that shall profit you, if you have not charity. Be perfect in the study of all good vertues, but have the fire of divine love with them, do all to the honor of God. The whole Burnt-offering which is first mentioned in Noah's piety, is then acceptable, when God doth inflame it with the fire of his holy Spirit from heaven.

I will hold you no longer upon the first point, the second consists herein, of what kind and species Noah did offer unto the Lord of every clean Beast, and of every clean Foul. God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good: it is no variation of sense to say, God saw every thing that He had made, and be∣hold it was very clean. All creatures are clean to him. Peter learnt it in a trance, that we might not doubt it waking, What God hath cleansed let no man call it common. Nothing is properly impure in his eyes but sin, and the works of the Devil. How comes this distinction then of clean and unclean Beasts in the Holy Scripture? two ways, ex Traditione, ex Lege: by Tradition before Moses, and then more amply and particularly by the Law of Moses. I will begin a notioribus, from the infor∣mation of the Law, which will direct us far better than the dark steps of Tradi∣tion. Twelve chapters, and no less, are spent in the Book of Leviticus to discri∣minate clean things from unclean, wherein some things are called unclean for two uses, quoad esum, quoad sacrificium: some things were impure, and not to be eaten; some things impure and not to be sacrificed; the 11. chapter of Leviticus doth enumerate both fouls and Fishes, and creeping things which were unhallowed meat: and for the Beasts which are permitted for food, they are summ'd up in two rules, if they divided the hoof and chewed the cud they might be eaten, and all the rest to be forborn. But God was far more strict in appointing himself sacrifice, than in appointing of us food: for first many sort of Fishes were clean food, yet none of them were clean Sacrifice, they are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, they have no bloud, or at least abound not with bloud, and so not fit for the Altar. 2. Many sort of Fouls might be serv'd up to the Table, yet none but Turtles and Pigeons were fit to be offered in the Temple, and Sparrows in the expiation of leprosie. 3. Among all Beasts that divided the hoof and chewed the cud none but Beeves, and Sheep, and Goats were to be slain in that religious service unto the Lord: the Hart and the Roe∣buck might be eaten, Levit. iv. so you see here is a great difference between clean meat in the Law, and clean sacrifice.

As the wits of men will expatiate upon all things, so from hence they take leave to ask, why the Lord did call one thing clean, and another unclean? But first I shall tell you, all Gods words are undisputable, and to argue why He did it, is rather to dishonour than to understand his commandment. Humility will sit down content∣ed with this answer: but I will go further to satisfie the itching inquisitions of

our heart: And first I will joyn another question to elucidate this. Why was Adam restrain'd eating of the Tree of knowledg of good and evil; for the same reason some living things were made unclean, and unlawful unto the Jews, to make them know the Earth is the Lords and the store thereof; and He gave Man Dominion over the Creatures, but with exception, that man was subject to Authority of touch not, taste not, where he laid his prohibition. 2. As Images are called by some, Laymens Books, so the mark of cleanness and uncleanness set upon some Creatures made them visible Sermons, what cleanness did become the Saints; a clean hand, that hath not taken reward against the innocent, a clean eye, that doth not look so far till it make the Soul commit fornication; undefiled lips, which have not defiled the holy name of the Most High; and above all an heart, that hath no savage in∣humane malice in it. Make clean the inside of the Platter, or the best meat that you eat will be so unclean unto you, that you will make the Table of the Lord be∣come the Table of Devils. Therefore as great persons in their Galleries keep the patterns of virtues in colours or in sculpture, so these Creatures were forbidden to the Jews, as the patterns and representments of inward uncleanness, and ghost∣ly pollution. 3. If God can find uncleanness in these dumb things, which follow their natural inclination, and do not violate it, what filthiness is in us, in whom the rebellion of concupiscence is always burning?* 1.12 We are all as an unclean thing says the Prophet, an original leprosie hath overspread us, but we must wash in the Be∣thesda of Christs bloud, and we shall be purified from our sins.

So I have tried the Law briefly what is clean and unclean both for Meats and Sacrifice. How stood it with Tradition before the Law? Now I come close to that. First as for Meats, when flesh began to be meat, all things were clean before the Law was given without restriction. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things, Gen. ix. 3. And for sacrifice Theodoret and Beda think that all things promiscuously might be sacrificed before the Law, there was nothing then disallowed as unclean, and that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis since the Law, and that some things were call'd unclean, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by anticipation. But all ancient Expositors beside make a part against them, that the Patriarchs received an institution from the beginning, by Divine revelation delivered to Adam of what kind only, and with exclusion of all things else they should sacrifice unto him. And the Lord God caused Noah to receive clean Beasts and clean Fowls by sevens, that the odd one might be allotted in due time for a Burnt-offering. Therefore Rabbi Eleezar paraphraseth my Text, that Noah brought out an Heifer, a Sheep and a Goat, a Turtle Dove and a Pigeon, and offered these five creatures, of every clean Beast, and of every clean foul upon the Altar. And to confirm it the more, those are the very particulars, and none other, which God caused Abraham to present unto him, Gen. xv. 9.

This Exposition yet, some man will say, had been much the clearer, if it had been written that Abel had brought an Offering of clean things unto the Lord.* 1.13 But require it not (beloved) because it needed not. Abel was a Keeper of sheep, and Abel brought of the firstlings de grege suo, says the Text, therefore it is all one to say, he presented a clean Sacrifice. As Noah, by due estimation of circumstan∣ces, cannot be said to come short of Abel, in that his Offering is not said to be de primitiis, of the first birth of the Flock, for he had no firstlings perhaps in the Ark: but since he had not primitias pecorum, yet he had primitias temporis, he conse∣crated the first minutes of time unto the Lord, as soon as ever he came out of the Ark, and the choicest things that were in the Ark, of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl. For this is a common Law in every thing, if it be for the name of the Good God, let it be of the goodliest and best. If one build an House of Prayer, let it be fairer than his own Dwelling: if he feed the hungry let it be of the wholsomest of the Table: if he sanctify any thing for the ornament of Gods House, let it be of the costliest: if he preach Gods Word, let it come from his studied and best industry, and not with extemporary sawci∣ness, which some do, they say, for conscience, I say for laziness, and therein imitate Gonzaga the Jesuit, of whom one of his own Fatherhood says, he would preach ridiculously on purpose that he might be scorn'd and laught at. Levit. iii. 16. all the fat is the Lords, that is, bring him none but the best, the purest, and choicest Oblations; of clean Beasts and of clean Fowls; to which I make but this short Appendix, that as there were unclean Cattel, as well as clean in the Ark, so the ungodly are mixt in the Church with the righteous, but the faithful only are

the sacrifice of good acceptation, and of sweet savour. Good and bad are in the Ark, but the pure and undefiled are received upon the Altar. Many of the coarsest sort belong to the outward Society of the Church, hypocrites, seducers, men empoi∣soned and empoisoning with malice, but they are not of that principal and high degree, that the blessings of the Church are made effectual in them, and their souls offered up to the Lord on the Golden Altar before the Throne, which is an Allegory of Christ,* 1.14 Revel. viii. 3. So St. Austin differenceth the two diverse Tribes of the Church, alii sunt in domo Dei, ut ipsi etiam sint domus Dei, &c. Some are in such sort in the House of God, that they also are the House of God: and some are so in the House of God, that they pertain not to the Frame and Fabrick of it. But here the similitude concurs not between the unclean Beasts in the Ark, and Hypocrites in the Church, between the clean ones and the elect; for once a clean beast and ever clean, once an unclean, and ever so accounted by the Law; but How many are there that now wallow in all impurity and filthiness, that hereafter, we hope, may be converted, prove chast and undefiled? How many, that either blaspheme, or know not Christ; who, we trust and expect, shall be illuminated and believe? These are sheep in Gods preordination, yet for the present are unclean, and follow the voice of a stranger. On the other side, How many have we known that have been chast for a while, and afterward plunged themselves in sensuality? How ma∣ny that have vowed to bear the Cross of Christ, and yet denied him? How many that have eaten of the Lords Table, and yet have resolv'd in their heart to betray their fellow Disciples, as Judas did to betray Christ. These had the seeds of righ∣teousness, and yet proved unclean, which says, let him that standeth take heed lest he fall; and take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart to depart from the Living God.

To be brief in the remainder. There is no separation now between clean and unclean things. Rabbi Moses is quoted by Lyra for this saying, nulla animalia erunt immunda tempore Messia, when the Messias comes no living things shall be accounted unclean by any legal imputation. So it is come to pass indeed, and we have wit∣ness out of the mouth of an Adversary. But why should the Messias do all the Crea∣tures that honour to be esteemed clean? Hath God care of Oxen? The Jewish Rabbi ventur'd not upon that question:* 1.15 but Irenaeus answers it, omnia purificata sunt per sanguinem Christi. Christ hath set the Church at liberty to be debarred from nothing which God hath made, and the uncleanness of the beasts is now accounted clean∣ness, because our filthiness is washed away, and made clean in his most precious bloud. That which was commonly usurped among the Gentiles throughout all the world was branded for unclean; and therefore Peter said, Lord I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean: but now the stile is chang'd, and that which is most common is most clean. Our riches are made clean by being scattered abroad, and communicated in charity, the Word of God is most clean and undefiled, whose sound is gone forth into all Worlds. Prayer and Preaching are best when they are performed in the Congregation, and are most publick. The holy Eucharist is cibus communis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Communion of the body of Christ, and yet it is so pure a food, that being eaten by faith it purifieth the heart and conscience above all things. To the clean all things are clean, but because we live in the contagi∣on of the evil World, and he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled; and because our own heart is an impure fountain from which the streams of bitterness do conti∣nually flow, Cleanse the thoughts of our heart O Lord by the inspiration of thy holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name by Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Acts v. 20.
• * 1.2

  Heb. 11.4.
• * 1.3

  Lib. de Noa, & areâ c. 12.
• * 1.4

  Chrysost.
• * 1.5

  Exod. 8 26.
• * 1.6

  Iren. lib. 4. Heres. Hie∣ron. in 7. cap. Hier.
• * 1.7

  Deut. 12.8.
• * 1.8

  Psal. 36 7.
• * 1.9

  1 Chron. 29.14.
• * 1.10

  Aquin. prius. 2. qu. 102. ar. 3.
• * 1.11

  In Psal. 75.
• * 1.12

  Isa. 64 6.
• * 1.13

  Gen. 4.4.
• * 1.14

  De baptis. lib. 7. c. 51.
• * 1.15

  Lib. 7. Heres. c. 12.