Rain upon the grass Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus We are water'd with this rain and we know not how We feel the drops are fallen but how they fell we could not discern And we are too ready to ask with the Virgin Mary How cometh this to pass But the Angel nay God himself telleth us The Holy Ghost doth come upon us and the power of the Most High overshadows us and that Holy thing which is born in us shall be called the Son of God Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought we shall find but the retired passages by which it hath wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration Res illic geritur nec videtur The Rain is fall'n and we know not how We saw not Christ when he came down but it is plain that he is come down And he comes down not into the Phansie alone That commonly is too washy and fluid of it self and brings forth no better a Christ then Marcions a Shadow or Phantasme Nor into the Understanding alone For thither he descends rather like Light then Water and he may be there and the grass not grow He may be there only as an absent Friend in his picture But he commeth down in totum vellus into the whole fleece into the Heart of man into the whole man that so he may at once conceive Christ and yet be presented a pure and undefiled Virgin unto Christ and be the purer by this new conception And he cometh down in totam terram upon all the ground upon the whole Little World of Man that so he may be like a well-water'd Garden even a Paradise of God A strange Jer. 31. 12. complaint the world hath taken up yea rather not a complaint but a pretense a very cloak of maliciousness to hide our sins from our eyes That Christ doth thus come down but at pleasure only sometimes and but upon some men some who like Mary are highly favour'd by God and call'd out of all the world nay chosen before the world was made And if the earth be barren it is because this Rain doth not fall As if the Grace of God were not like Rain but very Rainie indeed and came down by seasons and fits and as if the Souls of men were not like the Grass but were Grass indeed not voluntary but natural and necessary Agents Thus we deceive our selves but we cannot mock God His Grace comes not down as a Tempest of Hayl or as a destroying Storm or as a Floud of many Waters overflowing but as Rain or Drops He poureth it forth every day and renews it every morning And he would never question our barrenness and sterility if he did not come down nor punish our unfruitfulness if he did not send Rains If before he came into the world this Rain might fall as it were by coasts in Judaea alone yet now by the virtue of his comming down it drops in all places of his Dominion Omnibus aequalis omnibus Rex omnibus Judex omnibus Deus Dominus As he came to all so he is equal and indifferent to all a King to all a Judge to all and a God and a Lord to all And his Grace manat jugiter exuberat affluenter flows continually and falls down abundantly Nostrum tantùm sitiat pectus pateat Let our hearts lye alwaies open and the windows of Heaven are alwaies open let us continually thirst after righteousness and this Dew will fall continually Let us prepare our hearts let us make them soft as the Fleece let us be as Grass not Stubble as Earth not Brass and the Son of God will come down into our hearts like rain into the fleece of wooll or mowen grass and like showers that water the earth And now we have shewed you this threefold Descent We should in the next place contemplate the effect which this great Humility wrought the Fruit which sprung upon the fall of this gracious Rain upon Gods Inheritance the Spring of Righteousness and the Plenty of Peace and the Aeternity of them both But I see the time will not permit For conclusion therefore and as the present occasion bespeaks me I will acquaint you with another Descent of Christ into the blessed Sacrament I mean into the outward Elements of Bread and Wine Into these also he comes down insensibly spiritually ineffably yet really like Rain into a fleece of wooll Ask me not how he is there but there he is Eia fratres ubi voluit Dominus agnosci In fractione panis saith St. Augustine O my brethren where would our Saviour discover himself but in the breaking of bread In his Word he seems to keep a distance and to speak to us saith the Father by way of Letter or Epistle but in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud he communicates himself that we who could not see him in his flesh may yet eat that flesh we cannot see and be in some kind familiar with him I need not busie my self in making the resemblance Theodoret in one of his Dialogues hath made up the parallel between the Incarnation of Christ and the Holy Sacrament In Christ there are two Natures the Divine and the Humane and in the Sacrament there are two Substances the heavenly and the earthly 2. After the union the two Natures are but one Person and after the consecration the two Substances make but one Sacrament 3. Lastly as the two Natures are united without confusion or coalition of either in Christ so in the Sacrament are the Substances heavenly and earthly knit so together that each continueth what it was The Bread is bread still and the Body of Christ is the body of Christ and yet Christ is the Bread of Life and the Bread is the body and the Wine the bloud of Christ It is panis Domini the Bread of the Lord and panis Dominus the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from Heaven And to a believing John 6. 51. Virgin soul Christ comes nearer in these outward Elements then Superstition can bring him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation For as he by assuming our Nature was made one with us made flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones so we by worthily receiving his flesh and his bloud in the Sacrament are made one with him even partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Per hunc panem ad Dei consortium preparamur saith Hilary By this Bread we are united to him here and made fit to be with him for ever And to drink this Cup the Bloud of Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens to be made partakers of the incorruptibility of God And now to conclude This quiet and peaceable committing of Christ to us should teach us the like behaviour one to another For shall he come down like rain and shall we fall like
unto us and make it not Gods gift but our own conquest What suckling in Religion knows not to distinguish between perfection of Parts and perfection of Degrees We know our Sanctification is universal not total in every part but in part Our Understanding is enlightned yet there remains some darkness our Will rectified yet some perversness our Affections ordered and subdued yet prone to disobedience our whole man sanctified but not wholly We propose to our selves not this or that but every commandment to observe We compose and order our life to the rule and shun whatsoever is repugnant to it but we do but begin not finish We make Perfection our prayer not our boast and expect it not here but in heaven One while we have need of the cords of love to lead us another while of the thunderbolts of Gods judgments to terrifie us One while the thought of hell must beat us from sin another while the love of heaven must lead us in the paths of righteousness Now his promises now his threatnings must excite us Let Fulgentius conclude this point Perfecti sumus spe futurae glorificationis imperfectionere corruptionis It is in his Book ad Monimum We are perfect in respect of the hope of future Glory imperfect if we consider this body of death this burden of corruption perfect in expectation of the reward the crown of glory imperfect as we are in the battel in the race fighting and running to obtain this Crown And this was St. Pauls Perfection Let as many as be perfect that is in some degree and Phil. 3. 15. in respect of others For v. 12. he accounts not himself to have obtained or to be already perfect And v. 13. he professeth Brethren I account not my self that I have attained one thing I do I forget that which is behind and endeavour my self to that which is before Now then let not Frailty and Infirmity dispute with its Creator He that once was taken up into the third heaven had so much earth about him as to feel the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit He that was a chosen vessel had some cracks in him and had fallen to pieces and lost that heavenly treasure had not God preserved it Job's answer best fits a Christian's mouth Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee Job 40. 4. I will lay my hand upon my mouth Yet look up too Let not Desperation keep thee down but let the power of godly Sorrow lift thee up again Know that to confess thy sin and to repent is as it were to make the Angels a banquet and to send more joy to heaven Let Repentance reconcile thee with God then though the Devil strive to cover thee over in the grave of sin yet thou shalt come forth though thy bones be broken yet they shall rejoyce and to thee now as to David then the joy of thy salvation shall be restored The last part the Object Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Davids request is for Peace of conscience the joy of Gods salvation that which St. Paul calls joy in the holy Ghost The Septuagint render it by the Rom. 14. 17. Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies more then joy even exultation and rejoycing and triumphing for joy like that of the Church Psal 126. When the Lord brought again the captivity of Sion we were like them that dream Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with joy It is the highest degree almost excess and surfet of Joy God may let me feel it but express it I never can Tell me Christian or indeed canst thou tell me what joy thou conceivest at this spiritual banquet Doth doubt arise within thee because Christ is not present See here he hath left a pledge and pawn behind him his blessed Sacrament Take eat this is his body Thou shalt never hunger Take drink this is his bloud Thou shalt never thirst Dost thou believe Believe then he is nearer to thee in these outward elements then the Papists would make him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation When the Priest delivers to thee the sanctified Bread let thy meditation lead thy Saviour from his Cradle to his Cross His whole life was to lead thy captivity captive And now with the eyes of faith behold him stretcht out upon the Cross and think thy self unburdened and that heavy weight laid upon thy Saviours shoulders and then thou canst not chuse but suppose thou heardst him groan It was a heavy burden that fetcht that groan from him A strange thing thy sins which were not yet committed pierced him Yet let not despair take thee Anon thou shalt hear that triumphant and victorious noise It is finished A voice which rent the vail of the Temple in twain clove the stones made the earth to quake and was able to have changed not that place alone to what once it was if we may believe some Geographers but the whole world into a Paradise When the Priest offers thee the Cup think then thou seest Christ bleeding and pouring out non guttam sed undam sanguinis not drops but streams of bloud Think thou seest per vulnera viscera through his wounded side the bowels of Compassion And then think thou art partaker of his promise already and that now thou drinkest with him in his Fathers kingdome Tell me now Where art thou Is not this to be rapt into the third heaven Now thou canst call God Father now thou art sure of thy perseverance now thou canst think of hell without fear and horror Thou canst make thy bed of sickness look sorrowful only to thy friends and whilst they stand weeping and howling by thy bed side thou shalt have no other cause of lamentation but that they lament thee And then in the midst of shreeks and outcryes when with trembling hands they close up thy eyes as if they close up their hopes thy soul shall pass away and settle it self in Abrahams bosome If this be not joy indeed and exultation and triumphing for joy if this be not above an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tell me What Paradise shall we search for it where shall we find it When my cogitations settle upon this blessed object methinks I see a Christian in his white and triumphant robes walking upon the pavement of heaven laughing at and scorning the vanities of the world looking upon them as an aged man would on childrens toyes beginning with Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a fellow-citizen with the Angels and with Cyprian miserere saeculi to look down upon the world with pity and compassion being even now a type of a glorified Saint and the resemblance of an Angel I could loose my self in this Paradise I could build a Tabernacle upon this Mount Tabor for even but to speak of it is delight My Conclusion shall be in Prayer O thou who art the Father of this joy and God of all consolation whose
vent it not in language to imagine I may vent so I do not strike and when I strike to comfort my self because anothers little finger is greater than my Loyns to commend the Rod because it is not a Scorpion to say of those sins which surprise me because I do not fear them as Lot did of Zoar Are they not little ones may I not commit them and yet my soul live to make my Not doing of evil an apology for my Not doing of good my Not thrusting my Neighbour out of his own doors a sufficient warrant for my Not receiving him into mind to think that any degree of Meekness is enough is to forfeit all and loose my title to the inheritance of the earth It is I confess a sad observation but too manifestly true that if Meekness be a virtue so proper so essential to the Church then the Church is not so visible as we pretend but we must seek for the Church in the Church it self For if Meekness have yet a place it must be which is very strange in the hearts of men in the inward man For to the eye every hand is lifted up every mouth open and they who call themselves the Members of the Church are very active to bite and devour one another And it is not probable that their hearts should melt within them and their bowels yearn whose mouths are as open Sepulchres and whose feet are swift to shed bloud Is Meekness a note of the Church Certainly we may distinguish Christians from the World by nothing surer then by Malice in which they surpass both the Turk and the Jew And where most is required least is found ODIUM THE OLOGORUM The Malice of Divines was in Luther's time a Proverb but now the Proverb is enlarged and will take in the greatest part of Christendome The Papist breatheth nothing but curses and Anathema's and maketh his way with sire and sword where Reason and Religion shut him out Others who are no Papists yet are as malicious and bloudy as they and persecute their Brethren under that name call them Papists and spoil them as the Heathen did of old who put Christians into the skins of Beasts and with Dogs baited them to death If you think not if you act not if you look not if you move not as they do you are a child of perdition devoted to ruine and death If you preach any other Doctrine then that which they receive then you are accursed though you were an Angel from Heaven Forgive you that were a sin not to be forgiven Heaven and Earth shall pass away rather then one tittle and jot of what they have set up shall fail I have much wondred with my self how men could so assure themselves of Heaven and yet kindle such a Hell in their breasts how they could appropriate a meek Saviour to themselves and even claim him as their peculiar as the Heathen did their Deities and yet breathe nothing but hailstones and coles of fire how they should call themselves Evangelicos the only Gospellers and yet be such strangers such enemies to that virtue which is most commended in the Gospel how they should forgive none on earth and yet so boldly conclude that their pardon is sealed in Heaven that they should expect so much mercy from that God whom they proclaim so cruel as to damn men as they destroy their Brethren for no other reason but because he will I cannot here but wonder and lament and pray that this malice of their heart may be forgiven them for we cannot but perceive that they in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity And I bespeak you as our Saviour did his Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees For if a little leaven will leaven the whole lump what will such a lump of malice do Even infect the whole body of your Religion Your Hearing your Prayers your Fasts will taste of bloud Let us then mark and avoid them Let us devest our selves not of all power but of all will to hurt Let that alway sound in our ear which is as good Gospel as That Christ died for the World That if we forgive not we are in the number of Unbelievers and are condemned already Let us reserve nothing to our selves but that which is ours Meekness and Patience and leave to God that which is his Judgment and Retribution Commit all Jovi Vindici to the God of Revenge For he is the best Umpire for our patience If we put our injury into his hands he is our revenger if our loss he can restore it if our grief he is our Physician if our death he can raise us up again Quantum mansuetudini licet ut Deum habeat debitorem Lord what a power hath Meekness which maketh God our debtour for our losses for our contumelies for our reproaches for our death for all who hath bound himself to repay us with honour with riches with advantage with usury with the inheritance of the earth and with everlasting life The Fourth SERMON PART IV. MATTH V. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth I Have bestowed many words upon this Virtue of Meekness But I have not yet said enough neither indeed can I licèt toto modio dimensum darem as he speaketh though I should give it you out by the bushel full measure pressed down and running over Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satìs discitur We cannot repeat that Lesson too often which we can never be so perfect in as we should And he certainly is no friend to Meekness who is impatient at her name though it sound never so often in his ear For can he love Meekness that is afraid of her picture and description Or can he stand out the shock of those evils which wait upon and follow every motion of his life who cannot bring a few hours patience to hear of that virtue which is the only buckler to quench those darts I would I could give you her in a full and compleat piece the whole Signature every line all her Dimensions I would I could present her naked before your eyes in all her rayes with all her beauty and glory her power in conquering her wisdom in defeating those injuries which press hard upon yea overthrow and triumph over all the power and policy of the world that so you might fall in love with her and fasten her to your souls and make her a part of them For then indeed we should see concurrere bellum atque virum every man strong against a battaglia every man chasing his ten thousand we should see a meek soul in contention with the world and by doing nothing treading it under foot And this we have attempted formerly to do but we have not done it in so full and fair a draugh as we desired Yet though you have not had the one half told you you have heard enough to move you with the Queen
cast them behind him never to think of them so to forget them as if they never had been so must we He doth it too without respect of persons and so we ought to do We must forgive all for ever and so far must we be from respect of persons that we must acknowledge no title but that of Christian To conclude this point How slight soever we make of it there is no surer mark that we are not in the true Faith than Hatred of our brethren no stronger Argument that we are not Members of that Body whereof Christ is the Head then the I will not say Hatred but Not-loving of the weakest Member of it For he that loveth not his brother the love of God cannot dwell in him He may slatter himself with a vain opinion that he loveth God but the love of God is not really in him it abides not it dwells not it hath not residence in him And he that hateth his brother is in 1 John 2. 11. darkness He may think he enjoyes the light of the Gospel and that he is under the Covenant of Grace but there is no such matter He is Diaboli ludibrium the Devils laughing-stock nay the very forge of Satan wherein he hammereth and worketh all iniquity And he walketh in darkness saith S. John His Hatred hath blinded his eyes so that he walks on and thinks he is in the right way He labours in his vocation he goes to Church he receives the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ he can do any Christian office and so he thinks he is sound and healthful even when the poyson is at his very heart And therefore S. John addeth He knoweth not whither he goeth He falls into many sins whilst he thinks he doth well An opinion he hath he is in the right way to Heaven but no Christian knowledge thereof because that darkness hath blinded his eyes so blinded his eyes that he discerneth not any as he should If he be a Prophet he obeys him not if a just man he respects him not if otherwise a friend he knows him not For Malice hath as it were informed his soul and as she makes the Body her instrument so the Soul the place of her dominion and she reigns there as the Devils Tributary Custos peccatorum the keeper of the door of the soul that Sin fly not out And watchful she is too for she never sleeps If but a thought of repentance arise she will chain it up So that whilst Hatred possesseth thy heart thy heart is a stone Broken it may be but softned it cannot be And though thou flatterest thy self that thou hast repented of thy sins yet it hath no more reality then thy Eating or Running in a Dream Oh then Beloved let us put on brotherly love the certain sign and note that God in Christ hath begotten us his children Let us forgive our enemies that so we may resemble our Father Let us root out the bitter weed of Malice the strongest Argument of a true and serious Repentance Let us cloath our selves with Charity which will make our wayes otherwise rugged and uneven to be smooth and passable being the very barr and petard to break up each door and hinderance in our way Lastly in our Apostles words Let us be followers of God as dear children The Sixth SERMON PART II. EPHES. V. 1. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children WHEN my meditations first fastned themselves upon this parcel of Scripture I then thought that the space of an hour would have both quitted them and me But this holy Oyl like that of the Widows in the Book of Kings encreased under my hands and I could not then pour it out all unto you I therefore then became your debtor And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a holy and sacred debt and I am come now to quit my promise to pour out the remainder of the Oyl and to pay my debt even there where I obliged my self in the holy Sanctuary I then observed that these words contained in them a Duty Be yee followers of God and the Persons enjoyned this Duty the Ephesians who are stiled dear children Which title includes motives to win and enforce them to the Duty 1. because they were children a great prerogative 2. because dear children a gracious adjunct The Duty hath been handled The Motives remain Which I say include a high priviledge or prerogative For if as we are men we esteem it honourable to be of such a race and stock to be descended from this Potentate or that Prince surely then as we are Christians when we have put on our better and more heavenly thoughts we shall account it the greatest honour to derive our pedigree from Heaven to be called the Sons of God as St. John speaketh to be filii Divini beneficii as St. Augustine children of the Divine kindness to be children of God and heirs of a Kingdom and that a heavenly Kingdom to have title to a Crown and that a Crown of life But so it is Beloved that when we hear of charters and grants of priviledges and prerogatives our thoughts go no farther but stay themselves in the meer grant and priviledge The Gospel is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good news and we delight to hear of a Saviour of a Prince of peace of one that shall make our peace and take away the sins of the world But we think not of any allegiance or duty which we owe to this Prince Glad we are he is victorious and that he hath the Keyes of Hell and of Death And wear his colours too we would but we would not come under his banner we would not fight his battels Children we all would be but where is our Duty We desire to be endeared but where is our gratitude Nay further yet we would be accounted lovely and yet remain enemies to the Grace of God Our sins we would have cover'd but not blotted out We would have God forget them and yet still walk in them And here we mistake the nature of a Priviledge For the tye thereof is as strong as that of the Law and the greatest sins are those against the Gospel Our own Chronicles will tell us that riots and disorders in Cities in one Kings reign have weakned and disannulled Charters and Priviledges granted by a former King Beloved God is the King of Kings the same to day and yesterday and for ever and he grants not his priviledges or charters that we should let loose the rains to Impiety and make our strength the law of unrighteousness The trumpet of the Gospel sounds not that we should take up the weapons of Sin to prepare our selves to the Devils battel Neither did that Tree of life grow up that we should sin securely under the bough and shadow of it And therefore the Apostle here exhorting the Ephesians to Imitation of God uses this method He taketh not his argument ab inutili
we may impute to original Sin But yet Divines generally consent that this original Sin is alike in all only it works more or less according to the diversity of mens tempers as water runs swifter down a Hill then in a Plain Again even in children we see many good and gracious qualities which by good education come to excellent effect In pueri elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae cùm emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times there is a beam and hope of Goodness which if not cherisht by Discipline is dampt and darkned a sign that Nature was not wanting but our Care Now from whence this difference should come is not easie to discern but this we cannot but observe That be the strength of original Sin what it will yet there is no man but is more wicked then the strength of any natural Weakness or primitive Corruption can constrain For when evil Education bad Enamples long Custome and Continuance in sin have bred in us a habit of sinning cùm per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere naturae infirmitas accusatur when through sloth and idleness through luxury and distemper our time is lost our bodies decayed our wits dulled we cast all the fault upon the Weakness of our Nature and our full growth in sin we attribute to that Seed of sin which we should have choaked Behold the Signs in the heaven the Sun darkned the Moon turned into bloud See Poverty coming towards you as an armed man Famine riding upon a pale horse killing with Hunger and with Death Behold the Plague destroying Persecution raging I say Behold these for to this thou wert made for this thou wert sent into the world to behold and look up upon these to look up and be undaunted nay to look up and leap and rejoyce For thy whole life is but a preparation and Eve to this great Holiday of sights If the eye of Nature be too weak thou hast an unction from the Holy one the unction of the blessed Spirit For this end ◠John 2. 20. Christ came into the world for this end did he pour forth his grace that he might refresh thy spirits and clear thy eye-sight that thou mayest look up and lift up thy head For tell me Why were we baptized why are we Christians Is it not to mortifie our earthly members and lusts to dead in our selves the bitter root of Sin Is it not to spiritualize to angelifie I had almost said to deifie our Nature For we are no further Christians nisi in quantum caeperimus esse angeli but so far forth as we are like unto the Angels I may add and St. Peter doth warrant me so far forth as we are made partakers of the Divine Nature Were we not baptized into this faith I speak to Christians whose life should be a continual warfare not against Beasts but our Passions which if they be not tyed up and held in with bitt and bridle are as fierce and violent as they And a strange kind of weakness it is to talk of Weakness when we are to fight for this is to yield before we strike a stroke not to be put to flight but to run away Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt and it is no marvail if we fall by conquest who in our own opinion are already overcome Beloved are we weak in Adam Yet are we strong in Christ I can do all things saith Paul and suffer all things through Christ that strengthneth me Though many blemishes befall us by Adams sin in our understandings and in our wills yet what we lost in Adam that with infinite advantage is supplyed in Christ Are we truly Christians Then these things these fearful sights cannot hurt us If they hurt us it is because we are not Christians There is a fable that past amongst the Heathen that Vulcan offended with the men of Athens told them they should be all fools but Pallas who favoured them told them they should indeed be fools but withall that their folly should not hurt them Our case is not much unlike For though the Devil hath made us fools and weak yet Christ the Wisdome of the Father hath given us this gift that this Weakness shall never hurt us unless we will Fear not therefore why should we fear Christ hath subdued our enemies and taken from them every weapon that may hurt us He hath taken the sting not only from Sin but from those evils which are the natural issues and products of Sin He hath made Afflictions joyful Terrors lovely that thou mayest look up upon them and lift up thy head I have done with this pretense of natural Weakness and with my second part and I come now to the third and last the encouragement our Saviour giveth For your redemption draweth nigh And when these things come to pass when such terrible signs appear this news is very seasonable As cold waters to a thirsty soul so is the promise Prov. 25. 25. of liberty to those who have been in bondage all their life long under the fear Heb. 2. 15. of those evils which shew themselves unto us and lead us captive and keep us in prison so that we cannot look up When we are sold under Sin and by that sold under fears of Calamities of Death of Hell when the Heaven loures upon us and Hell opens its mouth then a message of Redemption is a word fitly spoken a word upon its wheels guided and directed by art and is as delightful as apples of Gold with pictures of silver It is that Peny in the evening which makes the Labourer bear the burden all the day How will that Souldier fight who heareth of a reserve and party at hand to aid him How will the Prisoner even sing in his chains when news is brought that his ransome is paid and his redemption near at hand It is a liberty to be told we shall be free And it is not easie to determine whither it more affect us when it is come or when it is but in the approach drawing nigh when we are free or when we are but told that shortly we shall be so And indeed our Redemption is actus individuus one entire act and we are redeemed at once from all though the full accomplishment of it be by degrees When we are redeemed from Sin we are redeemed from the Grave redeemed from the fear of Death redeemed from all fear of these fearful Signs and Apparitions redeemed by our Captain who besides the ransome he paid down hath taught us to handle the weapons of our warfare hath proposed a crown hath taught us to shake off our fetters and break our bonds asunder For to this end he paid down the ransome and if we do it not we are not redeemed no not when we are redeemed It is enough for him to open the prison-doors Certainly it is our
and pride and wantonness of that nation all which are our sins and our enemies weapons so non gladiis pugnamus sed orationibus non telis sed meritis saith Ambrose we fight against them not with sharp swords but with strong supplications not with weapons but with alms and fasting with sighs and groans And as when we sin we put deadly weapons into their hands so when we repent we shall disarm them And indeed it is Repentance which kindles this heat and makes our prayers fervent which otherwise will be but so many sins to help our enemies Without Repentance our Prayers are indeed but the sacrifice of fools For what more foolish and ridiculous quà m quod voto volumus actu nolle then to pray for that which we will not have to cry for help against our enemies by our continuance in sin to increase their number cry Help Lord how long shall the wicked prevail and yet to help them more by our transgression then we do God by our contribution to call upon God to fight for us when we fight against him to desire peace when we are the only incendiaries to fight it out and pray for a blessed Commonwealth and yet not be willing to reach forth so much as the little finger to uphold it Certainly this noise will never awake God nor can we think he will be raised up with words with empty flattering deceitful words with words as Job speaks without counsel No If we will have our prayers make a noise to awake God we must drop our tears upon our prayers which we drop out of our own substance as it were the bloud of Martyrs saith Anastasius And Bloud we know will cry and be loud Non sileat pupilla oculi tui Let not the apple of thine eye cease or be silent And then we must feed our prayers with fasting This doth nourish our Devotion as a woman doth her child with the teat God hath an ear to harken to our Fasting Ostendit se Mosi jejunii collegae saith Tertullian He shews himself presently to Moses his copartner in fasting And after this we must adorn them with our Alms our free-will offering our Contribution to the work For can we pray for that which we will not forward And then as our prayers are heard so shall our alms come up before God and with an holy importunity urge and provoke him to arise for in the midst of so many Prayers of so many Sighs and Groans of so many Tears and when our Charity speaks whose voyce is shriller than the tongues of Men and Angels God cannot rest but will hear from the Heavens our prayer and supplication and maintain our cause He will cloath us with Salvation and our enemies with shame that we may enter his House with joy and his Courts with Praise that we may sit every man under his own vine and under his own fig-tree and may make our lives a continual holyday singing praises to the God of our deliverance This duty let us so perform here that after we shall have finished our course we may be admitted unto the quire of Angels with them to praise God for evermore We will add but one word to bring it home to our present occasion And it will apply it self This is a day of Thanksgiving and here is a feast of Thanksgiving A day of Thanksgiving for our deliverance from our outward fraud A feast of Thansgiving for our redemption from our spiritual enemies Let us offer up therefore sacrificium eucharisticum a pay-offring or sacrifice of payment let us pay to God Confession and Thanks for our deliverance and for his mercies in both Let us as Jacob exhorts his Sons Gen. 43. 11. take of the best fruits of the land of the Musick and Melody of the land as the word signifieth let us bring with us the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith let us bring forth fruits meet for Repentance meet for these blessed mysteries which will be as Musicks even those songs of Sion which God is most delighted with For if there be a blessing even in a cluster of grapes what songs of praise are due to him who is the true Vine and hath given us Wine to make our hearts glad pressed bloud out of his very Heart that we might drink and be nourisht up unto everlasting Life Let us then praise him for our deliverance this day praise him and not be like them out of whose snare we have escaped not imitate their actions whose ruine we tremble at but praise him by our Meekness and Gentleness by our Patience and Obedience to lawful Authority For what praise is that which is breathed out of the mouth of a Traytor If we be as ready to spoyl others as our enemies were to devour us our Harp is but ill strung and our songs of Thanksgiving will be quite out of tune Let us double our praises and magnifie God for that which is presented to us in the Sacrament our deliverance out of Hell the destruction of our worst enemy Sin and our last enemy Death Here is that Red Sea in which that spiritual Pharaoh and his Host were overthrown And what is our Praise To speak good of his name This is not enough we may do this and crucify him We must prayse him by obedience by love by sincerity and by a lively faith This is indeed to eat of his Body which was broken for us and to drink of that Bloud which was shed for remission of Sins For he that truly believes and repents as he is sick of sin so he is sick of love even of that love which in this Sacrament is sealed and confirmed to us He is ever bowing to Christs sceptre he is sincere and like himself in all his wayes he makes his Faith appear in the outward man in Godly lips and in liberal Hands he breaths forth nothing but devotion but Hallelujahs Glory and Honour and Prayse for this great love And so he becoms Peniel Gen. 32. 30. as the face of God as the shape of Christ representing all his Favours and Graces back upon Him a pillar engraven with the bowels of Christ a memorial of his love Thankfully set up for ever It is usual with the Fathers to make the Ark a Type of Christ his Word as the two Tables his Discipline as Aarons Rod and the Sacrament of his Supper as the Pot of Manna EXSURG AT CHRISTUS Let Christ arise who is a brighter image of God then ever the Ark was Let us take him up but not upon prophane Shoulders lest we dy First let us be Priests unto the Lord without blemish not blinded by the Prince of this world not halting between God and the World but perfect men in Christ Jesus to offer up Sacrifices to the King of Heaven When we receive him by a lively Faith we may say he is risen To this end he lifted up himself upon
thy self what thou meanst when thou art to thy self a barbarian How can thy soul parley with thy God in such a Fayre and concourse of evil thoughts How canst thou ask a blessing from the Father which is now in heaven when thou hast so many companions about thee from the earth earthly Thou askest for bread but thou desirest a stone Thou askest for grace but thy mind is on riches Thou askest fish but thy hand is reached out to that Serpent which will sting thee to death It might be said unto thee as St. Hierome once said to his Friend when he found him in ill company What make you in such a troop What dost thou on thy knees when so many loose thoughts round thee about What should a beadsman do in such a throng But this miserable men that we are many times befalls us because we do not retire and call our thoughts out of the world It is true that Devotion may mingle it self with the common actions of our life Arator ad stivam HALLELUIAH cantat The plowman may sing an Halleluiah at the plow-tail He may collect some sacred colloquie SERERE NE METUAS If I miss this season I shall have no harvest If I remember not God in my youth he will forsake me in my age And God hears from heaven that prayer of his which he makes with his bow or hammer in his hand But yet many times in the affairs of our life there is a kind of dust gathered which soyls and darkens the brightness of our Devotion Which when we have brushed off by sequestring our thoughts from the world it will be more cleer Sometimes we must as St. Hierome speaks Intrinsecùs esse cum Deo be within in our hearts with God alone so busie in our colloquie with him so amazed at his Majesty so trembling at his Justice so ravisht at his Mercy so swallowed up in the contemplation of him that we even forget our selves that we lose our selves that we annihilate our selves that we have eyes and see not ears and hear not that when a covetous thought would steal in at the windows of our eyes we may be blind and if musick be loud we may not hear it Some have so wrought upon themselves that they have forgot to eat to taste to speak The Legend tells us of St. Agnes as I remember that in her devotion she was lifted three foot above the ground And he that wrote the life of St. Bernard reports it of him that he was so given to prayer and meditation that living a whole year in his cell or chamber in a Monastery when he came forth he knew not whether it were cieled or no and when there were several windows in it obvious to the eye he thought there had been but one In these whether fables or truths this truth is pointed to That when we tender our prayers to God we should abstract our selves from our selves and from the things of the world That we should not come to him till we have cast our cares our thoughts behind us The Beads-mans Motto is NON ALIUD NUNC CURO QUAM NE CUREM I have but one care in this world and that is that I may never have more When I call upon God God doth as it were put forth his hand and beckon to me to escape from the world not to be multiplex varium animal not to divide and distract my self and part my self out to variety of objects but be one in my self that I may be one with him The Psalmist prays unto God Psal 86. 11. Unite my heart to fear thy name The Vulgar rendereth it LAETETUR COR MEUM Let my heart rejoyce Hierome out of the Hebrew UNICUM FAC COR MEUM Make my heart one and alone And so Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the same Aquila SIT COR MEUM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let my heart be alone Let it be more retired and secluded from the world then any Monk that it may be free from the thought of things below that it may behold nothing but thee that it may be all thine that in respect of the world it may be like unto those who have been dead long ago Thus when the Mind is taken from the Sensual part it begins to reflect upon it self and then beholds its own wants its want of piety its want of sincerity then it beholds ictus laniatus those gashes and wounds which Sin hath made in it then it sees clearly to behold that receptacle which should have been a temple of the holy Ghost turned into a stews a place for Ohini and Ziim to dance in for the Devil to sport in And after this sad survey of it self it is restless and unquiet it strives to empty it self of sin to vent it self out in sighs and groans unspeakable to send it self gushing out of the eyes in rivers of tears and to breath it self forth at the mouth by an humble confession And now whether in the body or out of the body we cannot well tell but it makes haste to be at rest it presseth forward towards the Mercy-seat and is as restless in her importunity as she was in her sin never gives over till those wounds and gashes be cured by the bloud of her Saviour till his sighs and groans speak for ours never rests till the hand of Mercy wipe all tears from our eyes and treasure them up in a bottle This is the work of a devout soul And he that will be such a Beads-man must make his Senses follow his Mind and not his Mind his Senses which may be brought saith Pliny to have no other object then that which the Mind hath when they are taken from their own And thus I learn to be blind though I have light to be deaf though I have my hearing with our Saviour to go out of the world into the wilderness or by my Christian art make the world it self a desart And here to shut up what hath been said with a short application to our selves We of this Nation in the first place have great reason to be jealous over our selves with a godly jealousie and just cause to fear that we have not come so prepared to duty as we ought For what hath been the fruit and effect of these our many Fasts of these our many Prayers Certainly the cloud which hung over our heads is more thick and dark then before And as the Prophet speaks The Syrians before and the Philistines behind Isa 9. 12. and they both devour Israel with open mouth For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still What shall we say Hath God forgotten to be merciful or is that inexhausted fountain of Goodness drawn dry Or can the God of peace delight in those civil or uncivil broyls Can he that shed his bloud for us delight to see ours spilt as water on the ground No We must seek for the
must both smart together I went-out by thy Ears and Eyes and Hands and wandred abroad after forbidden objects and now being returned home I find my self naked It is evident then that the Senses of the Body are the Windows of the Soul and that through them Tentations make their entrance into the inward man Why do men disbelieve and impugn the word of God but because they measure Divine things by humane Sense and Experience Thus did Mahometism get a side presently and overflow the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of Lusts and such promises as flattered the Sense to blindfold the Reason that it might not see its absurdities For the Turk destitute of truth and so not able to judge aright of Gods favours in this life casting an eye on the worldly miseries of Christians and puffed-up with his own victories condemneth the faith of Christ as displeasing to God because by reason of afflictions it is so unto the Flesh and preferreth and magnifieth his own for no other reason but that it is more attempered to the Sense and answerable to the desires of the Flesh The Atheist who hath no Religion at all no God but his own right hand and his arm no Deity but Policy is carried with the same respects to deny and despise the Providence of God For being earthly minded and even buried alive in the contemplation of the things of this world and seeing the wicked flourish as a green bay-tree and Innocence clothed with shame brought to the stake and the rack concludeth there is no God and derides his Patience and Justice because his Providence waiteth not upon his desires governs not the world as he would have it and is wanting sometime to his expectation Nay beloved how many are there of us who draw-out our Religion by this model and if Religion will not condescend and meet with our sensual Desires draw them up and mix and temper them with our Religion and if we do not find Religion fit to our humor we make one Christianity of it self is a severe and simple Religion and doth so little favour our fleshly part that it commands us to mortifie and kill it and yet how by degrees hath it been brought to joyn and conform it self to our Sense which lets-in those tentations which are the very seed out of which many monstrous errors are ingendred Of a severe Religion we have made it a sportful Religion an easie Religion a gaudy and pompous Religion of a doing active Religion a heavy Religion of a bountiful Religion we have made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap and thriving Religion For from our Senses and fleshly desires have those corruptions and mixtures crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to them Ambition hath brought-in her addition or defalcation and Covetousness hers and Wantonness hers and the Love of pleasures hath cast-in her poyson and all these have left their very mark and character in the doctrines of men Nor can I attribute it to any thing more than to this that we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take our Senses from the world and sanctifie and consecrate them to God One would think indeed that Ambition and Covetousness and Sensuality were of a quite contrary strain and not competible with those more speculative errors For what can the Love of money or honor do to the stating of a question in Divinity But by the art and craft of the Devil these have been made tentations to error have been as the Popes claim runs infallible far more potent with us than an oecumenical Councel For these tentations of the World and the Flesh first strike the Sense with delight which by the help of the Phansie doth soon enflame the Affections and the Affections will soon build-up an opinion The Love of honor makes the Judgment follow it to that height and pitch which it hath markt-out My Love of money will gloss that Blessing which our Saviour hath annext to Poverty of spirit My Factions humor will strike at the very life and heart of Religion in the name of Religion and God himself and destroy Christianity for excessive love of Christ Every humor will venture upon any falshood which is like it There is nothing within the compass of our Sensual appetites which we are not ready to embrace and believe it to be true because we wish it so being advantageous and conducible to the end which we have proposed and set-up to our selves When Christians did revocare mentem à sensibus take and withdraw their Hand from those objects which were busie with the Sense when they were within themselves and framed their lives to the simplicity and plainness of the Gospel there was scarce the name of Heretick heard amongst them no contentions no exsecrations no thundring-out excommunications against one another But within a while this simplicity abated and the doctrine of Faith was made to give attendance on sensual humours that did pollute it Therefore the Heathen to make the Christians let go their hold and fall off from the acknowledgment of the truth did use the Devils method and laid before them temporal contentments and the sweetness of life Their common forms were CONSULE TIBI MISERERE TUI Have a care of your self Pity your self NOLI ANIMAM TUAM PERDERE Destroy not your own life They made large promises of honours riches and preferment And these Tertullian calls devillish suggestions But when they could not thus prevail when these shining and glorious tentations could not shake or move them then Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis larina Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors then torments were threatned the Hook and the Whip and the last of punishments Death it self And as Tentations inter ento the soul by the Senses so they look-out by the Eye Facies intentionum omnium speculum saith Tertullian The face is the glass wherein you may see the very intentions of the mind Anger Sorrow Joy Fear and Shame which are the affections of the heart appear in the countenance Why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance Gen. 4. 6. fallen saith God to Cain When Esau was well pleased with Jacob Jacob tells him I have seen thy face as the face of God Habitus mentis in corporis Gen. 33. 10. statu cernitur saith St. Ambrose You may view the state of the soul in the outward man and see how she changes and alters by those outward motions and impressions which she makes in the body When the Soul of man liketh the object and apprehendeth it under the shew of good she kindleth and moveth her self to attain her desire and withal incenseth the spirits which warm the bloud enlarge the heart and diffuse themselves to embrace that good which is either in the approach or present And when she seeth evil which she cannot decline she staggereth and sinketh for fear which