not seem a strange thing that men should refuse their meat which would satisfie them and so prodigally sell themselves all themselves for that which is not bread as the Prophet Isa 55. 2. speaketh May it not go for a wonder that men should debauch their Understanding which should be their counsellor for their advantage and satisfaction and make it their purveyor for their wealth their surveyor in the works of the flesh and no better then a pander to their lusts that they should bow their Will to that which it would have even when it doth embrace it but determines its act and demolisheth it again in the twinkling of an eye that they should make their Memory a Treasury of nothing but that which should be buried in the land of oblivion that their Affections those incorporeal heads as Basil calls them should catch and grasp nothing but ayr and emptiness and then that they should prostitute all the members of their Body to be instrumental to the Soul in these her excursions and wanton sallies upon vanity to fetch in that which brings leaness unto it the snow of Lebanon in stead of waters out of the river of the Lord But after all this when I have so long fed on husks to deceive my self into a perswasion that I have been all this while at my Fathers house and feasted at his table to supply my defects and emptiness out of the book of life and to conclude my name is written amongst the elect when my tongue is an open sepulchre and I am to every good work reprobate that I should feed my self with a groundless and irregular thought of Gods mercy which though it be over all his works yet is not over a stubborn and unrepentant sinner which is none of his works that I should lay me down in peace and sleep upon this pillow upon this hope That a sigh at last will go for mortification and a prayer at my death for the obedience of my life and a confession when I can scarce speak for that faith which worketh by charity Hear O Heavens and wonder nay rather why art not thou troubled O my Soul and astonished within me For what is this but to sleep at the gates of Hell and to pass unto torment in a dream of satisfaction to build our selves a pillar of assurance to lean upon and then to fall into pieces with it to stuff a hollow and false faith with vain and improfitable imaginations as the souldier did his head-piece which he felt hard under him with chaff and then thought he had made his pillow easier In a word what is it but to feed on poyson instead of meat to smile and flatter our selves to death to call in flesh and bloud with these deceitful thoughts to favour us and to breath nothing but false hopes till our breath departeth and these hopes and these thoughts perish with it O then as the Wiseman speaks if we be wise let us be wise to our selves wise to edification and not to ruine wise with that wisdome which is from above and not with that which is earthly sensual devilish as full of deceit as the Deceiver himself as full of falshood as the Father of lyes but let us hearken to the Lord God who will teach us to profit let us be wise unto salvation And this is our wisdome to chuse that which will satisfie To draw to a conclusion If this be the prerogative of Godliness to be alone in this work so that nothing else can work us satisfaction let her have prerogative also in our hearts and exercise full power and autority and dominion over our desires to chase away from them all heterogenious and deceitful appearances to banish all that are enemies unto her that so we may captivate our Wills unto her and not bring her into subjection to our Wills not first distaste and refuse her and then make use of her name first bid her depart from our coasts and then in her name not cast out devils but let them in or be as malicious and mischievous as they In the name of Religion and Piety why should that be Religion to day which in the dayes before us went under the name of Impiety Why should Religion pass away with the fashion of the world and change as often as that Why should we take away its prerogative and give it to the World to command our desires and to command Religion to attend and promote them in our hastning to wealth and to turn covetous in our grinding the face of the poor and to turn cruel in our pursuit of honor and so turn ambitious as if nothing of Piety and Religion were desirable but the name and the things of this world were the only object that could not fill our desires and satisfie them And so we make up a religious Mammonist a religious Oppressor a religious Tyrant a religious Atheist we joyn together God and the Devil the name of God and a Devil incarnate Thus it falls out when we invert the order of things It is too frequent and common a thing in the world to cry up Religion and Godliness as the Ephesians did their Diana Demesnius his Rhetorick From this craft we have our gain is that which moulds and fashions Religion It shall be no longer Religion then it brings on advantage if it prove dangerous it shall loose both its name and prerogative Hence it cometh to pass that as there are many that are called Gods and called Lords so there are many Religions 1 Cor. 8. 5. The Covetous hath his the Ambitious hath his the Wanton hath his and the Schismatick hath his many Religions and none at all none that can satisfie us Thus whilst we seek satisfaction in every object to which our lusts and affections lead us we find something which we call by that name but whilst we look upon it it slips from us and we see it no more it doth but smile upon us and leaves us If we seek it in Beauty that is but colour and it is changed whilst we look on it Who saw when that eye sunk which took so many hearts who observed when that face wrinkled which was so gazed on All we can say is this Star is shott this Heaven is shriveled as a scrowl If we look for it in Riches they have wings and fly away Satisfaction dwells not in a misers bagg Yet we rise up Prov. 23. 5. early and lye down late we labour and sweat we cheat and oppress we venture our bodies and we venture our souls we venture nay cast away that which would satisfie us indeed only to gain this satisfaction to dye rich and we had rather pass with that esteem then with the honor of a Saint And so we pass away we dye rich and our money and this miserable satisfaction perisheth with us The fool in the Gospel sung a Requiem to his soul at the sight of his barns and that
Faith not only like Fire purifying the heart but like Clothes warming Acts 15. 9. the affections to a temperate and active heat An unbeliever Lord what a frost there is at his heart how cold and chill and denumn'd he stands not able to pull his hand out of his bosom as Solomon speaketh Lay the whip upon the fools back yet he moves not in better case to suffer than to be up and doing But Faith strikes a heat through us It is active in the Hand vocal in the Tongue compassionate in the Heart It sets the brain a working seeking and pursuing opportunities of doing good It makes our Feet like hinds feet and enlargeth the soul that we may run the way of Gods commandments Again Garments as they are indumenta for covert and warmth so are ornamenta too for decencie and ornament And sure Faith and Holiness of life are a comely wear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Goodness is equally venerable to all men It is not so much that good men hold her in esteem Her very enemies praise her in the gate Qui tot argumentis scripserunt They who by their black deeds have prescribed her and sent her a bill of divorce will be ready enough to tell you that she is the horn of beauty fairer than the children of men Judge of her by her contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin is shy of the light and keeps least in sight She hath a foul face and her best friends fling durt at her Hoc habet sibi displicet saith Seneca They that put her on are ashamed to walk abroad with her but fling her off in the streets as ready to disgrace Sin as to commit it The Profane gallant thunders out an oath and the next breath is a prayer that God would forgive the villanie The Superstitious wanton watche◠her sins as she doth her beads but drops them faster Her first care is an opportunity to commit sin and then to deliver up the full tale to her ghostly Father The Adulterer and the Priest like the Sun and the Moon have their seasons in the night Uncleanness and when the Sun is up Confession Ashamed she is of this loose garment but unwilling to put it off nay put it off she does but not to fling it away An argument of some dislike she so often changes Tertullian saith well Omne malum aut timore aut pudore natura perfudit Nature hath either struck Vice pale or dyed it in a blush When we sin we either fear or are ashamed But Righteousness and Charity are of a good complexion and like a healthful body inde colorem sumunt unde vires from thence have their beauty from whence their strength Righteousness is amiable in her going The young men see her and hide themselves and the aged arise and stand up Job 29. 8. 11. The ear that hears her blesseth her and the eye that sees her gives witness to her If the whole world were a Sun and all the men in it one eye yet she dares come forth at noon-day before the sun and the people Ad medium properat lucémque nitescere poscit We see then this is not only a Garment to cover us but also an Ornament to deck us not for necessity alone but for decency also St. Paul goes further and tells us it is an Armour to defend us a complete armour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6. 11. Take the whole armour of God And he furnisheth the spiritual Souldier with Shooes Girdle Breast-plate Helmets and all necessary accoutrements from top to toe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take it non ad pompam sed ad pugnam not to make a glittering shew like Darius but to fight like Alexander to demolish strong holds to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against us in our way non ad resistendum sed ad proficiendum saith Augustine not only to beat back the enemies darts but to gain ground of him to take-in those places those corners of our souls which he hath beleaguerd to enlarge in us the kingdom of grace that so our passage may be free to the kingdom of Glory To these we may add a fourth Garments are not only for Necessity Decency and Security but also for Distinction So saith St. Augustine Charitas dividit inter filios regni filios perditionis Charity puts a distinction between true heirs and sons of perdition The character and mark of a Christian saith Nazianzene is the letter Tau in his forehead by which God doth know his and is known of his Bellarmine hath no less than fifteen marks of the true Church but this one here is worth them all We talk much of the book of life but we never read it and whose names are written therein we cannot tell All the light we have is from this fire of Charity He that hath her hath if not written his name in that book yet subscribed to it he that casts her off hath drawn out to himself those black lines of reprobation All the mark we know good Christians by here all the marks we shall know Saints by hereafter is Charity Rank and order Gods Decrees how we will and tell them at our fingers ends all the light our Saviour gives us is this They that have done well that have this mark shall enter into everlasting life and they that have done evil that have it not John 5. 29. into everlasting fire So then this is a Garment and doth cover us and not only cover but adorn not only adorn but defend not only defend but distinguish Take them together they are an antidote against Fear which doth so often stagger the best of us They wipe-out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phansie and conceit of some evil drawing near whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a destructive evil or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a troublesome evil Fear what should we fear A storm Here is a Covert Shame and contempt which David so feared and would Psal 119. 22. have removed Here is a rich Robe to adorn us The chill cold of Temptations This is the endromis the Winter-garment The violence of the Enemy Here is Armor of proof to defend us To be numbred with the transgressours Here is a Mantle with a badge upon it to distinguish us No Fear not saith the Angel when he delivered the Gospel And Faith makes it Gospel unto us We need not fear in the evil day in our worst dayes not let go our hold-fast not cast away our confidence Here is that Hebr. 10. 35. that confirms and radicates and establishes us and sets us not only upon but as the Wiseman speaketh makes us an everlasting foundation Or Prov. 10. 25. to keep us to the Metaphor a Garment it is for all uses If we have this on neither storm nor cold nor disgrace nor the enemy nor ill company shall hurt us But in the next place
and loathsome brain nor have any thing of Lot unless it be his incest It is a wonder to see what gifts of temperance of natural conscience of justice and moral uprightness did remain not only in the books but in the lives and conversation of many heathen men I know not how they had Honesty without Faith but we have Faith enough we talk of nothing else but little Honesty And indeed as many ungoverned men are the worse for the many helps they have and would love themselves better had they not so many friends so we Christians prodimur auxiliis are betrayed by our prerogatives and are sick of our own strength of Faith and the Hope of mercy in Christ This is I presume the cause why so many Christians out-go Barbarians Turks and Infidels in fraud and villany And therefore as the Honesty of the Heathen without Faith so our Faith without Honesty shall be but as the Rain-bow was to them before the Floud for shew but no use at all And indeed this is but to deceive our selves For neither Faith nor Hope especially as they are opera intellectûs phansied in the brain but Honesty and Integrity entitles us to the promises of this life and of that which is to come and maketh the good things we enjoy to be our Bread Though we mourn like doves and wash our beds with our tears though we wish our head a fountain of tears to bewail the sins of the people though we tread the courts of the Lord and nail our ears to the Pulpit yet after all this ceremonious piety a false measure at home a false weight in our bagg a deceitful heart and a heavy hand will wipe off our title to our Bread and our names too if we repent not out of the Book of Life It is a plain and undeniable proposition yet some venture on the contrary affirmative part He that lyes to his brother He that defrauds his brother is so far from being religious that he deserves not so much as the name of a Christian But we love to be deceived and deceive our selves We fall commonly into one of these two Fallacies Either A malè divisis We divide and sunder those things which are everlastingly united not only Profit and Honesty which Tullie abhorred but Honesty and Religion Truth and Faith and when both are commanded we rest in one Or else into A dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter We take any part any duty of Religion to be the sum and conclusion of the whole matter and comfort our selves with one seeming virtue if you will frequenting of Sermons against a world of vice and that detestable Injustice and Oppression which in this triumph of Godliness in this spiritual Jubilee will insensibly but certainly sink our souls to Hell To draw then towards a conclusion of this point All fraud all injustice and oppression proceed from infinite and importunate Ambition From this riot hath sprung forth both that huge mass of wealth which private men and that boundless compass of government which greatest Princes have attained to Nothing was ever more unjust than the raising of those great Kingdoms and if the Laws of common Equity had taken place they had never been St. Augustine I am sure saw no difference between the Roman Empire and Spartacus his conspiracy but only this that the one lasted a little longer Which indeed puts no difference at all in the thing it self And if we should look into some rich mens coffers we should find that this rust this canker of Oppression and Fraud hath so corrupted their treasure that they can hardly know it to be theirs To conclude Plots and tricks and devises many times thrive in the world But when God maketh inquisition for bloud when he riseth up to set at liberty those who are oppressed he will take a candle and find them out and singe them With us it is wisdom and discretion sometimes to play least in sight But when Gods Justice pursues and overtakes us we perish in those Meanders and Labyrinths which we made to hide our selves in All our reaches and tricks will prove but like Heliogabalus his ropes of silk to strangle us and as his daggers of gold to stab us Then shall we find that we have but fed and prankt up our selves with that Bread which was not ours ut cariùs pereamus only that our destruction might be more costly than others Et sola in rusticulis suis facunda justitia Then the best eloquence will be Innocence and they will plead best for themselves and make good their title quibus integritas solida tota as Tertullian speaketh whose solid integrity and entire simplicity whose rusticity and plainness hath brought a blessing both on their labour and basket even this blessing That what Bread their Industry hath brought in may truly and properly be called their own For these two Labor and Honesty do indeed make it PANEM NO STRUM our bread Now being entitled to the goods of this life by these two Labour and Honesty we presently account our selves possessores bonae fidei true and lawful possessors And our inward thought is as the Prophet David speaks Psal 49. 11. that they will continue for ever and that we may call our lands by our own names It is true what falls unto us by express covenant or by division what we gain by Honesty and Industry is wholly and entirely ours But NOSTER PANIS our Bread implies more and as it taketh not away the first so it addeth a second It taketh not away the Propriety of our Bread from us but it addeth a Readiness to distribute it and cast it upon the waters When we make it as an Evidence and Assurance we look upon it but upon one side and many times ex adverso situ on the wrong side and by too much gazing loose our sight but when we take the perspective of the Gospel and behold it with the eye of Faith and Christian Charity on the other side we shall find our poor distressed Brethrens title so legible that we may run and read it NOSTER gives us livery and seisin makes our Bread OURS jure Quiritium by the Law of man and jure Divino by the Law of God Nor doth the Evangelical Law come in to weaken our title or disinherit us or force us out of possession But as St. Hierom tells us aliud est judicium tribunalis Christi aliud anguli susurronum there is great difference in pleading before the Roman Rostra and the Tribunal Seat of Christ Nor must Christians make good their title only by the Common Law or Book of Statutes but by the Gospel and their PATER NOSTER Who ever brought an action against others for want of compassion But we find a sentence past upon them These shall go away into everlasting punishment Matth. 25. The Philosopher by the light of Reason could say Man by nature is a sociable creature and
themselves even in his Wisdom Power and Majesty For why did he create the Universe What moved him to make those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two lights as Nazianzene calls Angels and Man after his own image It was not that he needed the company of Cherubim and Seraphim or had any addition of joy by hearing of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not that he needed the ministery of Angels or the obedience of Men. But in mercy hath he made them all and his Goodness it was which did communicate it self to his creature to make him capable of happiness and in some degree a partaker of those glories and graces which are essential to him For having made Man he could not but love and favour the work of his own hands Therefore as in mercy he made him so in mercy he made him a Law the observation of which would have assimilated and drawn him neer unto God and at last have brought him to his presence there to live and reign with him for ever And when Man had broken this Law and so forfeited his title to bliss God calls after him not simplici modo interrogatorio sono as Tertullian speaks not in a soft and regardless way or by a gentle and drowsie interrogation Where art thou Adam but impresso incusso imputativo he presseth it home and drives it to the quick not by way of doubt but imputation and commination Adam where art thou that he might know where he was in what state and danger and so confess his sin and make himself capable of Gods mercy which presented and offer'd it self in this imputation and commination and was ready to embrace him Thus his Mercy prevents us It is first as being saith Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natural to him whereas Anger and Hostility to his creature are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite besides his nature Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam posterior severitas secundum causam illa edita haec adhibita saith Tertullian Lib. 2. adv Marcion Goodness and Mercy are natural to him Severity forced That is momentany and essential this accidental Mercy follows after us and is more willing to lift us up than we were to fall more willing to destroy Sin than we to commit it more forward to forgive us our sins than we are to put up the Petition REMITTUNTUR TIBI PECCATA Thy sins are forgiven thee is a standing sentence a general proclamation saith Father Latimer to all that will believe and repent The Scripture gives us the dimensions of this Mercy sometimes pointing out to the height of it It reacheth unto heaven sometimes to the depth of it It fetcheth men from the grave and hell it self sometimes to the length of it It hath been ever of old and sometimes to the breadth of it All the ends of the world have seen the salvation of God And all these meet and are at home in this act of Remission of sins Which makes us to understand with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God which passeth knowledge and fills Eph. 3. 18 19 us with the fulness of God But though the Lord's Mercy be infinite and he be most ready to forgive yet he will not remit our sins unless we repent A lesson never taught in the School of Nature or in the books of the Heathen Quid Cicero quid Seneca de poenitentia What have Tully or Seneca who have written most divinely of other duties and offices of life written of the duty of Repentance Non negamus philosophos juxta nostra sensisse saith Tertullian Many truths Philosophers have delivered of near alliance to those which God himself hath commended to us and in many vertues they may seem to have out-stript the most of Christians But of Repentance they knew no more than this that it was passio quaedam animi veniens de offensa sententiae prioris a certain passion of the mind which checkt men for that which was done amiss and caused them to alter their mind Here all reason and discourse is posed But when the earth was barren and could not yield this seed of Repentance Deus eam sevit God himself sowed it in the world aperuit salutis portam open'd an effectual door of salvation and made it known to all mankind That if men would leave off their sins he would forgive them and accept of true repentance as the only means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the creature to his Maker Now joyn these two together the Mercy of God and his Readiness to forgive and our Repentance which he hath chalkt out unto us as a way to his Mercy and they are a pretious antidote against Despair which so daunts us many times that we are afraid to put up this Petition For Despair is not begot by those sins we have committed but by those which we daily fall into nor so much from want of Faith that God is merciful and true and faithful in all his promises as for want of Hope which hangs down the head when Repentance and Amendment of life yield no juyce nor moisture to nourish it Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God or else he could not despair Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or else he denies him to be God He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our Redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised to all mankind But his perseverance in sin and the horror of his new offences hath weakned and infeebled his hope and forceth him to conclude against himself Ubi emendatio nulla poenitentia nulla Where there is no amendment there is no repentance And though Mercy stand at the door and knock yet if I leave not my sins there must needs follow a weakness and disability so that I shall not be able to let her in But if I forsake my sins the wing of Mercy is ready to shadow me from Despair Et si nudus rediero recipiet Deus quia redii Though I return naked to God he will receive me because I return And if I leave the swine and the husks he will meet me as a Father and bring forth his robe of Mercy to cover me And so I pass from the consideration of Gods Mercies in the Forgiveness of sin to the first particular enquiry What sins they are which we desire may be forgiven And this may seem to be but a needless enquiry For even Nature it self will suggest an answer Men in wants desire a full supply And they who are sick of many diseases do not make it their end to be cured of one malady but to be restored to perfect health In corporibus aegris nihil quod nociturum est medici relinquunt Physicians purge out all ill humors from those bodies which are distemper'd For when one disease is spent another may
teach us that all this may be done without malice or rancor to their persons whose error we strive against and that the Lords battles may be fought without shedding of bloud Surely Meekness is the best Director in these wars where he gains the greatest conquest who is overcome The Physician is not angry with him whom he intends to cure but he searcheth his books and useth his art and all diligence morbum tollere non hominem to remove the disease and not to kill the man How much more should we be careful how we handle our weak and erring brother lest we make him weaker by our rough and unskilful usage and cure him indeed but in the Tyrant's sense in Suetonius who boasted he had done a cure when he cut off a mans head or otherwise put him to death who had offended him We read that Paul and Barnabas were at some difference about the choice of their Acts 15. companion the one determined to take Mark with them the other thought it not good From whence sprung that paroxysme as the Evangelist terms it which divided them the one from the other Yet St. Hierom will tell us Quos navigatio separavit hoc Christi Evangelium copulavit Though they sailed to several Coasts yet they were both bound for the same negotiation even the preaching of the Gospel Paul withstood Peter to his face yet in Gal. 2. 11. the same Chapter he calls him a Pillar of the Truth A Father may differ from his Son and the Wife from the Husband in opinion yet this difference breaks not the bond of that relation which is betwixt them but the Father may nay must perform the office of love and the Son of duty And why may not Christians be diversly perswaded in some points of Religion in earth and yet the same Heaven hold them both That which deceives us are those glorious things which are spoken of Zeal We read of Phinehas who was blest for thrusting his Javelin through the adulterous couple of the austerity of Elijah the zeal of Simon the Canaanite the severity of Peter which struck Ananias and Sapphira dead the constancy of Paul who struck Elymas the Sorcerer blind And we are told Non est crudelitas pro Deo pietas That in God's cause the greatest piety is to be cruel But we willingly mistake our selves for neither here is the cause alike nor the person the same We know not of what Spirit we are Every man is not a Phinehas an Elijah a Paul a Peter Nor did Elymas loose his sight and Ananias his life for their errors but for their witchcraft and grand hypocrisie Nor are times the same We cannot but commend Zeal as an excellent quality in man but as Agarick or Stibium being prepared and castigated are soveraign Physick but crude and unprepared are dangerous so Zeal which so many boast of seasoned with discretion is of singular use and profit but taken crude and in the Mineral it oft-times proves deleterial and unfortunate Zeal is a light but by occasion it troubles the eye of the understanding and being by degrees enraged by our private ends and phansies at last it puts it quite out and leaves us fighting in the dark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unlearned Zeal and supine Negligence are both so bad that it is not easie to determine which is worst only Negligence lets inconveniencies slily steal into the Church but unguided Zeal much plies those errours which Negligence letteth in and as if error were indeed a Hydra it never strikes off the head of one error but two arise in the place And therefore St. Bernard in his forty ninth Sermon on the Canticles will tell us Semper zelus absque scientia minùs utilis invenitur plerumque etiam perniciosus sentitur Zeal without knowledge is alwaies unprofitable many times most dangerous And therefore the more hot and fervent it is and the more profuse our Charity with the more care and diligence should we set our Knowledge and Reason as a Sentinel quae Zelum supprimat spiritum temperet ordinet charitatem which may abate and cool our Zeal temper our spirit and compose and order our Charity For if we do not keep our souls with diligence and carry a strict and observant eye upon our Zeal our Meekness will be consumed in this fire and with it the whole crop and harvest of spiritual Wisdom lost We shall be heady and high-minded lovers of our selves unwilling to pardon one error to our brethren and to acknowledge any of our own This is it which hath been the mother and nurse too of all those outrages in the Church of Christ that Story hath transmitted to Posterity and those too which later and our present times have been too guilty of that men will neither subscribe to the opinion of others lest they may be thought not to have found the Truth but have borrowed it nor will yet retain so much meekness as to give their brother leave to erre but when they cannot convince him by Argument fall heavy upon him with Reproach A fault sometimes in him that errs and sometimes in him who holds the truth the one obstinate the other indiscreet both ready to maintain with violence what they cannot perswade by reason The Arians betook themselves to this guard and called in the temporal Sword to defend their Cause against the Orthodox and when they could not prevail by Argument they made use of outward force And so this faction saith the Father plainly shewed quà m non sit pia nec Dei cultrix how destitute it was of piety and the fear of God The Donatists stiled themselves filios Martyrum the off-spring of Martyrs and all other Christians progeniem traditorum the progeny of those who basely delivered up the sacred things They broke the Chalices demolisht the Altars ravisht Virgins and Matrons flung the holy Eucharist to the Dogs slew those who were not of their faction beat down the Bishop Maximinian with batts and clubs even as he stood at the Altar and did those outrages on Christians which Christian Meekness would have forbidden them to commit on a Jew or Infidel the Monks of Aegypt were indeed devout and religious men but for the most part Anthropomerphites holding that God had hands and feet and all the parts that a Man hath and was in outward shape and proportion like unto one of us That having got Theophilus a learned Bishop of Alexandria into their hands so roughly used him that he could not get out of their fingers till he made use of his wits and sophistry and told them in a kind of complement that he had seen their face as the face of God Nor did this evil rest here amongst the vulgar and discontented persons quibus opus erat bello civili as Caesar spake who could not subsist but in times of noise and hurry but it blasted the fairest plants in all the Church
But besides their open and professed adversaries they found enemies amongst those who were of their own houshold What was there which could make men miserable or move their impatience which did not break in upon them every day Could Contempt They were counted the off-scouring of the world Could Violence It was counted Religion to kill them Could Hatred Accusabantur vocabula the very name of CHRISTIAN was an accusation If there were any seeds of evil in them so much fire as is in the Flint there was outward violence enough to strike it out So that a Christian may seem to be as he spake of Palladius coagulum omnium aerumnarum the very compound of all calamities and the Centre wherein all miseries meet Now it is almost natural to Misery to breath it self out in complaints as Lovers use to do to complain to the Day and the Night to the Sun and the Moon Flesh and bloud draws it self in at the very sight and approach of any thing that distasts it and when it is touched it swells and evaporateth A hard thing it is for men in disgrace not to be impatient and a common thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for men who have struggled long with afflictions with injustice and injuries to grow fierce and revengeful and because they are contemned of all to hate all and to treasure up that wrath which if ever opportunity breath upon it will break forth and burn like fire Whence the Historian observes of Otho that he was longo exsilio efferatus grown fierce and cruel upon long exile Agrippam ignominiâ accensum that the disgrace which Agrippa received had much altered his disposition Therefore our Saviour here to prevent the like in his Disciples who but for the hope of that which is to come were of all men most miserable teacheth them a new method of Revenging injuries by forgiving them of Subduing misery by enduring it of Conquering an enemy by falling down at his feet to take up no other buckler then Meekness against the worst of those evils which he saw would befall them And thus he provided that though the Religion which he did set up might displease yet those whom he sent forth to publish it should offend no man and save themselves as it were by the fire of Persecution This is the Policy which Christ hath established in his Church and by which he establisheth the pillars of it For Meekness in the Sepulchre the Land of Oblivion in which all injuries are buried never to rise again nor see the light when I forgive I do by Injuries as God doth by my Sins forget them cast them behind my back and blot them out that no tittle of them appear to raise an angry thought But Anger and Revenge are an irrational and treacherous remedy They take not away the evil but double it invenom and inrage it make that a Scorpion which was but a whip and that a monster which to Meekness is nothing they perpetuate and transmit it from youth to age from age to the very hour of death nay from one generation to another The sting of an Injury is Impatience and the strength of Impatience is Revenge but to forgive an injury is to swallow it up in victory I call it therefore the Wisdom and Policy of Christ though the world call it by another name and count them but fools that practise it For lay open all the Books in the world which have been written of Republicks and Government yet we find not any directions which can propagate a Government and make it everlasting But now perhaps we see a State flourish but anon it will decline and at last have its fatal period and fall to pieces But this Christian Wisdom makes the Church and every Member of it as immovable as a Rock more glorious in adversity then in peace more happy in a tempest then in a calm victorious when ready to fall and most safe when forsaken Besides the Wisdom of this world how oft doth it meet with a check how often is it defeated and in a while changeth its name and is turn'd into folly How many digg a pit and fall into it How many hath their Wit brought almost home to their intendments and then left them looking after them with anger and grief How many hath it brought to the end of their desires and ruined them there How many have built up their hopes with one hand and demolished them with the other The Devil saith Basil is the great Politician of the world but yet he is deceived with his own Sophistry and taken in his own craft and in setting hard at the Church he falls himself to the ground or if he destroy a soul he doth but add torment to himself and with his own malice enrage the fire of Hell The Jews to keep out the Romans did banish themselves and taking counsel together against Christ they put him to death at whose death the Veil of the Temple rent in twain All the imaginations of men have been either faint and feeble at first or else making haste to that which they proposed they have lost that which they so eagerly pursued and overtook nothing but what they look't upon with horror All the wisdom in the world if you put it into the balance will be found but light but this necessary wisdom this wisdom which is from above never fails but though it be sowen in dishonour it riseth again in honour and through scorn and contempt through poverty and death it self it makes its way to that effect which it is as powerful to produce as it is weak in shew Oh that we were wise so wise as to rely on the wisdom of God which through uncouth and desolate paths through the wilderness through a sea of bloud will safely waft us over to the heaven where we would be and not trust to our own sensual vain and uncertain providence which though the way be smooth and pleasant yet reaps nothing but bitterness in the end which carries us on in a giddy staggering pleasing displeasing course but evermore into the pit which makes our feet like Hinds feet lifts us up on the wings of Hope and at last knocks out our brains against the mark we aimed at which brings us to the honey we long for and smothers us in the Hive Number up all the fatal miscarriages of the Sons of men and you shall find they were all from this and this alone That they took upon them to be wiser then God If we were content our wayes should be as Gods wayes and would walk in those wayes which he hath appointed and steer our course by his Compass we should then look upon Revenge as a fury and cleave to Meekness as our Angel-keeper we should soon see the weakness and folly of the one and the victories and trophies of the other we should find the one the most noxious thing in the world and the other most necessary For in
He shews them not Gods quiver nor points to the arrow which is now set to the very breast of them if they obey not He tells them not it will be disadvantageous unto them if they follow not God But he draws his argument à congruo He layes open and unfolds before them the riches of Gods Mercy He proposeth God in his full beauty his head as the most fine gold his locks curled his cheeks as a bed of spices and as sweet flowers and his lips like lilies dropping down pure myrrhe He brings him in as a Father not dropping only but ready to pour out his choicest blessings on his children Or rather he draws his argument à necessario They must needs be obedient and imitate their Father or else they cannot be children And he rises as it were by a Gradation 1. They are children and Children ought to learn of their Parents 2. They are dear children and here the tye is made stronger 3. They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligibiles filii Their sins are wiped out and they appear lovely through Christ And here is the fulness of Gods Grace and it will bring us with David to a Non plus to a Quid retribuam What shall I return to the Lord for this his kindness Thus these Waters of comfort issue forth like those in the vision Ezek. 47. and God leads all his through them 1. They are children and here the waters are as it were to the ancles 2. They are dear children and here they reach up to the loyns 3. In Christ they are worthy to be beloved and here the waters are risen they flow and cannot be passed over No line can measure them no cogitation fathom them no gratitude reach them our thoughts our words our actions all are too weak to express the depth of them Now each Christian must be as a fruitful tree planted by this river of waters whose seat faaes not and whose fruit fails not If he be a child he must be obedient if he be dear he must be the more grateful if he be made worthy of love his conversation must be as becometh the Gospel of Christ So we have heard beneficium and officium a Benefit and a Tye the Benefit telling us whose children we are the Tye pointing out to our obedience We will plainly and briefly view them both In the first place the Ephesians are Children A great prerogative if we consider their former estate what they were before They were Satani mancipia no otherwise servants and that servants and slaves to Satan under the Law and that a killing Law but now redeemed that they Gal. 4. 5. may receive the adoption of sons and having this adoption sealed too and that by the Spirit of God and their names written in a Book and that not only in libro vocationis amongst those who are outwardly called but in the Book of life which admits no blot no blur no defacing in which whosoever is written is one of Gods Children and is accounted so and shall be so to all eternity Now the Civilians define Adoption to be the Receiving of a stranger in alienam familiam inque jus familiae into another family and to have title and right to be of that family And strangers the Ephesians were even aliens from the Covenant of Grace sine spe sine operibus as he told his adopted Jugurtha without the least hope without any spiritual wealth or endowments naked and languishing and even panting under the terrors of the law and which was the complement of their misery and an addition to their contumelius condition not deserving a better estate And this Beloved raiseth the worth and dignity of the benefit and begets in us at once both comfort and wonder That Children we are and yet deserve not this adoption this filiation Amongst men it is otherwise Desert alwaies was the ground of Adoption The Emperour Nerva adopts Trajane and takes him to be his son h. e. unicum auxilium fessis rebus saith the Orator as a stay and prop to his declining estate Temerè fecerat si non adoptâsset He had done very unadvisedly if he had not done it And Galba adopts Piso quia eò necessitatis ventum erat because he was driven unto it by necessity He had a brother elder then he worthy of that fortune but that he was more worthy And Micipsa after divers attempts to take away Jugurtha's life at last adopts him quia gloria invidiam vicit because his Virtue now in its full splendor shone so bright that Envy could not dimme it But what worth was there in us below what spark what appearance what shew of desert in us All in us not extinct or in the embers but naturally darkness a night on our understanding stone at our hearts rebellion in our affections and we dead and that not in a dream as the Anabaptists foolishly conceive calling Originial sin the dream of Augustine but truly and really All in the loins of that one Adam when that one Adam by his rebellion shew us all and made us all slaves not worthy to be Gods hired servants But see here a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath set forth his love nay the exceeding riches of his grace Rom. 5. 8. Ephes 2. 7. And it is worth our observing that God is not rich as Man is to his own good and profit His Riches serve not himself but us And whereas Man gathers not wealth by giving God calls himself rich by making us so Man adopts because he is rich but God then terms himself rich when he doth adopt Thus with the eye of favour he looked upon us when we were deeply plunged in our deserved misery And by this favour navigamus spei velo In this deluge of Sin we hoyse up the sailes of Hope and make forward for the high prize and price of our calling In this great tempest He became our Pilote majorque dum exacerbatur erupit and even in his anger forgot his anger slumbered in the tempest becalmed the storm and when we were in the mouth of Danger even almost on the rocks of Despair the light of his countenance shone round about us and by that light we saw the haven where we would be So that now our Weakness became a strong argument of Gods Power and the seed of Corruption in us brought forth in him the sweet fruit of Forgiveness None thunder-struck or killed with a curse but the Serpent the Devil who was the procurer of it Though we were enemies though we were darkness though we were Rom. 5. 10. Ephes 5. 8. Tit. 3. 3. disobedient and rebellious in our affections yet even in this hostility God became our friend in this darkness He was our light in this rebellion He seal'd our pardon in this poverty He was our true wealth and of slaves He made us his children and brought us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And Sons only
for a truth They are not of the world even as I am not of the world saith Christ John 17. 16. of his Disciples A Christian is no more of the world then Christ himself I have chosen you out of the world which is in a manner a drawing them John 15. 19. out into the Wilderness I have chosen you out of the world to hate and contemn it to renew and reform it to fight against the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that is in the world 1 John 2. 16. St. John the beloved Disciple who leaned on Christs breast was nearest to him and learned this doctrine from him exhorts us not to love the 1 John 2. 15. world nor the things of this world And not to love it here is to hate it and Hatred is as a wing to carry us away in haste into some wilderness from that thing we hate If we hate the world we shall not endure to look upon it much less to stay and dwell in it or build a tabernacle here Love not the world Fly afar off and retire not only from those sins and vices which all men know and confess to be so which are branded with a mark and carry their shame in their forhead but even from those deviations and enormities which by the profit and advantage they bring have gained some credit and repute amongst men have not only scaped the stroke of reprehension but are crowned with praise and because they thwart not the statutes of Omri and may consist with the laws of men are new Christians as it were and have the names of those virtues given them which are perfect and consummate in that obedience alone which is due to the Gospel of Christ and to the Law of God Love not the world is a sequestring a kind of deportation a banishment of us not only out of the world but out of the confines and borders of it even from that which weak Christians and not yet perfect men in Christ judge to be no part of the World Love it not look down upon it crucifie it as St. Paul did By the virtue of Christs cross I am crucified to the world The World looks Gal. 6. 14. down upon me with scorn and contempt and indignation And the world is crucified unto me I look down upon it with the like scorn and contempt I pass by it and revile it and wag my head I look upon it as upon a dead corpse which I must not touch as upon a crucified thief who is expos'd to shame To conclude this As Christ withdrew himself from the City and multitude into the Wilderness so doth the Christian withdraw himself from the World He is not of the World he is chosen out of it he loves it not but looks upon it as upon a dead carrion and crucified carkase a loathed object an abomination which threatens not only the ruin of the Temple but even of Christianity it self And this will be more evident if we consider the nature either of Man that is led or of the Spirit that leadeth us Man being elemented and made up in this world to look towards another and the Spirit of God being a lover of Man a lover of the image of God and ready to lead him out For first as Man when he builds a house first sits down and consults what use he shall put it to so God the Creator of the world who made the world for mans sake made up Man also to be made an ensample of his Wisdome and Goodness made him to worship him chalked out his way beckon'd and called lowd after him to follow him in that way that so at last as it were by so many steps and degrees by the example of his Son and the conduct of his Spirit he might bring him out of the world unto himself I have made thee I have created thee I have formed thee for my Isa 43. 7. glory saith God by his Prophet to communicate my goodness and wisdome to make thee partaker of the Divine nature to make thee a kind of God upon earth by which according to thy measure and capacity thou mayest represent and express God In homine quicquid est sibi proficit There is nothing in Man which is not advantageous to him which may not help to carry him through this world to the region of Happiness We cannot doubt of his better part his Soul for that being heavenly and a spark as it were of the Divine nature cannot but look upward and look forward too upon its original must needs be ashamed and weary of its house of clay and be very jealous of the World which is but a prison and hath greater darkness and heavier chains to bind and fetter the Soul it self And therefore when it looks on the World and reflects and takes a full view of it self and considers that huge disproportion that is between the World and an immortal Soul you may find it panting to get out As the hart panteth after the rivers of water so panteth my soul after thee O God saith David and When shall I appear before the living Lord Now was David recollected and retired into himself now was he in his wilderness communing with his own heart We cannot doubt of the Soul whilst it is a soul and not made fleshy immersed and drowned in sensuality If it be not led by the Flesh but lead it self out of the world it will and return to its rest to its retirement But then even the body being thus animated with such a soul may help forward the work Glorifie God in your 1 Cor. 6. â—0 body saith St. Paul Not only withdraw your Souls but your Bodies also out of the world For as God breathed in the Soul so his hands have made and fashioned the Body and in his book are all our members written He made Psal 139. 16. the whole man both Soul and Body and built it up as a Temple of his blessed Spirit And if the Soul be the Sanctuary the Body is the Porch and his hand moves from the inward parts to the outward from the Sanctum sanctorum to the very door and entrance What is there almost in this our retirement from the World which is not done by the ministry of the body Our Fasting our Prayers our Alms haec de carnis substantia immolantur Deo these are all sacrificed to God of the substance of the flesh What is Martyrdome That certainly is a going out of the world And this advantage we have above the Angels themselves We can dye for Christ which the Angels cannot do because they have no bodies So that you see the end for which Man was made and sent into the world was to be ever going out of it His natural motion and that which becomes him as Man is to move forwards Which motion is
made easier every day by the word of the Spirit by the Gospel of Christ by the power of which the Eye that was open to vanity is pluckt out the Hand that was reaching at forbidden things is cut off the Ear which was open to Every Sirens song is stopped the Phansie checked the Appetite dulled the Affections bridled and the whole man sequestred and abstracted out of the world And now in the second place if we consider the nature of the Spirit what should he inspire Man with but with that which fits him and his condition Whither can he who made him lead him but to himself to his original To all that are in the world the voice of the Spirit is Come out of it escape for your lives Look not behind you neither stay in it Fly into the wilderness Rest your selves in the contemplation of the Goodness and Mercy of God This is the dialect of the Spirit nor can he speak otherwise For Heaven and Earth are not so opposite as the Prince of this world and the Spirit of God Who hates Mammon till we make it our friend reviles the things of this world till they help to promote us to things above forbids those things which are without till we make them useful to those things which are within Who convinceth reproveth condemneth and will judge the world If you are so greedy of the things of this world that you would have stones made bread if you go into the City and climb the pinacle of the Temple if from the mountain you take a survey of the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them you may know who hath you by the hand The Text doth intimate that the Devil doth then take us up The Spirit of God leads us in the wayes of Gods Providence unknown to the world he takes us into the wilderness far from the noyse and business of this world he leads us not to the mountain to view kingdoms but draws us down into the valley there by an humble dependance on God to learn to contemn the world The Flesh fighteth against the Spirit and so doth the world and these are contrary And as many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God saith St. Paul Which they cannot be till they renounce the World For what is our Filiation our Adoption but a receiving us out of the world into his family We must leave the world behind us before we can say Abba Father In a word the Spirit of God doth in a manner destroy the World before its dissolution makes that which men so run after so wooe so fight for as dung or at best it makes the world but a Prison which we must struggle to get out of but a Sodom out of the which we must haste to escape to the holy Hill to the mountain lest we be consumed or but a Stage to act our parts on where when we have reviled disgraced and trod it under foot we must take our Exit and go out Let us now draw down all this to our selves by use and application Here we may easily see what it is to which the Spirit leads us It leads us out of the world into the wilderness from the busie noyse and tumults there to the quiet and sweet repose we may find in the contemplation and working of a future estate He leads the carnal man to make him spiritual For what Ezek. 2. 6. is a Christian mans life but a going out of a world full of Scorpions a leaving it behind him by the Conduct of the Spirit The Spirit leads us not cannot lead us to the Flesh nor to the World which spreads a bed of roses for the Flesh to lye down and sport in For this is against the very nature of the Spirit as much as it is for light bodies to descend or heavy ones to move upwards Fire may descend the Earth may be removed out of its place the Sun may stand still or go back the sweet influences of the Pleiades may be bound and the bonds of Orion may be loosed Nature may change its course at the word and beck of the God of Nature But this is one thing which God cannot do He cannot change himself The Spirit of God is a lover of Man a hater of the World and from the World he leads Man to himself He led not Cain into the field it was a field of bloud He led not Dinah to see the daughters of the land she went out and was defiled He led not David to the roof of his house it was a fatal prospect it was but a look and it let in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life even all that is in the world at once into his heart But he leads thee to thy chamber there to commune with thy own heart He leads thee to the house of mourning to learn the end of all men He leads thee to the Temple to behold the beauty of the Lord. He leads thee from Bethaven to Bethel from the world to the place where his honor dwelleth These are the Spirits leadings His Dictons are Blessed are the poor Blessed are the meek Blessed are they that mourn This is no part of the musick of this World We find in our books of that Semiramis that famous Queen of Babylon caused this inscription to be written on her Tomb THAT HE THAT OPENED IT SHOULD FIND IN IT GREAT TREASURE which when Darius had read allured by this fair and promising inscription he brake it up but within found no treasure but a writing that told him that if he had not been a notorius wicked person he would not have broken-up the sepulchres of the dead to look for treasure We may indeed when we read of Riches and Pleasure and Glory in the Word of great Riches lasting Pleasures infinite Joy feed our selves with false hopes here but these are but as a fair inscription upon a Tomb when we have broken them up read them uncovered in their proper sense we shall find nothing but Poverty and Sorrow and Dishonor within and withal a sharp reproof for those who search the Gospel to find the World there or walk to Ophir to the hills of the robbers to a Mahumetical Paradise a Kingdome of Saints upon earth a Thousand years pleasure and perswade themselves the Spirit hath them by the hand and leads them to it Beloved Sensuality and Ambition are two the greatest enemies the Spirit hath and the Spirit fights against them If Diotrephes will have the highest seat the Spirit leads him not If the ground of our Religion be From hence have we our gain it is the Prince of this world and not the Spirit who leads us If we make Religion to Lackey it after us and accomplish our lusts we have left the Spirit behind us Mammon is our guide If the Bishop of Rome dream of Kingdoms of Universal power and Infallibile judgment
it may be for all these uses yet not a wedding-garment Every garment is not for a feast There are sack-cloth and sables and blacks but for mourners not for guests These are not for our turn We are going to a wedding not to a funeral Now we go to a wedding with joy And this is a garment of joy It maketh the face to shine and the heart to leap and the tongue to glory He that invites us joyes that we come and we come with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce with Luke 15. 6 9. me say they Let us eat and be merry saith he and he taketh in the Luke 15. 23. Angels to bear a part in that mirth And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes And lest we should forget it he addeth And again I say Rejoyce O aureas vices O happy interchange Phil. 4. 4. when the Bride-grooms voice is Joy and the guests Joy the eccho of that voice when he delights to call and we are forward to come when the feast is a feast of joy and we are merry at the feast To enter a triumph in blacks to come to a feast as if we were going to a charnel-house to sit down at table as if we were in gives to loath the bread of life to be afraid of the Sacraments to have our stomach turn at Christs Dinner as if we were to take down gall and aloes is but an ill sign a sign of one ill affected Vestis affectum indicat The Garment as it covereth the body so discovers the mind and affections He that hath a wedding-garment on goes with joy and triumph to the wedding Again as by our attire we express our Joy so do we our Gratitude The best thanks we can give the King the best amends we can make him is to come in our best clothes Gratè ad nos pervenisse indicamus effusis affectibus saith Seneca Then a benefit meets with a grateful heart when it is ready to pour forth it self in joy and respect when the affections cannot contain themselves but are dilated and break forth when they are visible in our eyes our hands our tongues our gesture our garments Will you think him grateful that takes a fish with the same countenance he would take a serpent that is no more affected with the gift of a pearl than of a peblestone What is his estimate of the feast think you that comes thither as if he cared not whither he came thither or no as if it were not worth the coming to that hears the Preacher as he would hear a song reads the Gospel and is no more affected than with Aesops Fables we receive the bread in the Sacrament as if it were no more but as the Papists scoff is Calvins loaf in a word counts the bloud of the Covenant a common an unholy thing Hebr. 10. 29. Away with such bold neglect A garment we must come in and in a wedding-garment Sanctity of life is our best retribution The best payment is when we pay God out of his own mint with his own coyn when we shew him his own image and superscription the price he values himself at is a QUOTQUOT RECEPERUNT only to receive him The price he puts upon Aeternity is but to prefer it before a span of time His blessings do but think them so you have purchased them All the thanks he expects for his great dinner is but a short grace a few dayes drawn out and spent in a thankful acknowledgment an open hand for a gift a minute for eternity a desire for a blessing a heart for himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Fear not upbraiding He thinks his great cost well spent if thou come but mannerly if thou bring with thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wedding-garment For by our having this garment on we are not only grateful but we also publish our gratitude We do it not in a corner remotis arbitris as if we were afraid or ashamed to be seen and to have some witness nigh Upon the sight of our garment all the country can tell we are going to a feast And this is it the King expects Gaudet beneficium suum latiùs patere His Benefits he would have as large as all the world his Graces increased in thee and diffused and spread abroad upon others thy Grain of mustard-seed grow up into a tree as high as heaven thy Talent become ten that thy growth thy thrift may be seen and taken notice of God hath not made us only vessels to contain water but conduits to convey it no brokers of his blessings to improve them for our selves but stewards to distribute them to others like beacons not only burning our selves but giving notice to the whole country one example of goodness being kindled by another and a third by that and so multiplying everlastingly Thy habit and attire may draw others to the feast and then thy welcome is doubled because thou bringest in company Good examples bear with them a command Therefore Philo the Jew in his Book which he writ De Abrahamo calls the lives and acts of the Patriarchs Leges jura Patriarcharum non scripta The unwritten Ordinances and Laws of the Patriarchs as if they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a compulsive power and were as forcible in their command as statute-law God loves these ocular Sermons and would have the Eye catechized as well as the Ear. Look upon the high Priest under the Law his gesture his motion his garments all were vocal Quicquid agebat quicquid loquebatur doctrina erat populi saith Hierom His Actions were didactical as well as his Doctrine his very Garments were instructions and the Priest himself was a Sermon Goodness is neither Anchorite nor Hermite neither for the closet nor the wilderness but she expoundeth and publisheth her self she cryeth in the streets so that he that hath ears to hear may hear her and he that hath eyes to see may see her the hungry taste her the naked feel her and the smell of her is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed If thou art not a very Idol thou must needs be the better for her To conclude She is a garment for use to our selves and a wedding-garment to be looked on by others The fashion and beauty of the work may chance to take a stander-by and win him to a liking She is a garment to defend us from fear and she is a wedding-garment to cloth us with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wrought garment a Covert a Wear a Defence these are in the cloth to Become to Separate and Distinguish these are in the making and the fashion Joy and Gratitude and Respect and the Reflexion of its glory and brightness upon others these are the colours and embroidery We have now made-up this wedding-garments and should proceed to the Party questioned for his not having it on
Civis non est suus sed civitatis A Citizen is not to consider himself a citizen only in that capacity as able to do well for himself and to fill his own coffers but in the latitude to be useful to the whole Body politick and to every part and member of it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou seest another thou seest thy self Shall not the light of the Gospel then shew us that Christianus non est suus sed Ecclesiae that a Christians Charity in respect of its diffusive operation must be as Catholick as the Church For it is in the Church as in Pythagoras his family which he shaped and framed out to his Lute There is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of the parts as it were a set number of strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composition and joyning them together For the members of the Church are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned and coupled together by every joynt saith the Apostle even by that bond of Charity which is copulatrix virtus as the Father calls it that virtue which couples all together And then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and every string being toucht in its right place and order begets a harmony And this word NOSTER our Bread comprehends all these For thus not only that bread which we buy with our labor but all the bread in the world is ours all the riches of the world are ours and withal all the miseries all the afflictions all the necessities of our brethren are ours Oh how heavenly an harmony is heard from that charity which joyneth high and low rich and poor in a sweet concord and concent This must needs delight the ears of the holy Angels and of God himself Caesarius in one of his Homilies giveth this reason why God made one rich and another poor That the poor might prove the rich mans faith and charity and the rich be enriched by the poor mans poverty and that when to prove the rich by the poor all the wealth in the world cannot purchase him that hath it one quiet thought his compassion and bounty to the poor might entitle him to the joyes of heaven Care and Industry without this Fellow-feeling bring in the things of the world upon us but the true profit of them is in enjoying using and bestowing them Those may be as servants to bring them in but Charity is as an instructer to teach us how to lay them out and makes them profitable It is a greater part of wisdom wisely to dispend them when we have them than to get them at first Many there are in the world like Lollius in Paterculus pecuniae quà m benefaciendi cupidiones many that know how to gather but few that know how to use many that make no end of heaping up wealth but never bethink themselves how to employ it As one told Annibal that he knew how to conquer but not how to use the victory Gold and silver by lying idly by us gather rust as St. James tells us chap. 5. 3. which rust eats out our soul But Charity abditae terris inimica lamnae washes off the rust of it and rubbeth it bright by using it The world I know makes it profit enough to have wealth but that other profit which comes by expense and laying out it can hardly be brought to learn Ours it is if we have it and like the Grave or the barren Womb we never say It is enough but when we have it we know no other language than this saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have it not I will not give it We can be content to hear that Christianity shall be profitable to us but that Christianity should make us profitable to others that it should cost us any thing to this we are as deaf as the Adder It was the same Fathers observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know many saith he that can with some ease be brought to fast to pray to lament and mourn for their sins to perform all parts of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that piety which will cost them nothing but hardly shall you draw them to that part of piety which doth require but the cost of a half-peny And this is a◠epidemical disease at this day We who have the oversight of you in Christ are witnesses of your labour of frequenting of prayers of hearing nay of thirsting after Sermons All this is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are very free of it because it costs you nothing But how would you be our glory and joy and crown of rejoycing if we might a little more understand that part of piety which holds all in capite and makes it yours by anointing the Head in his Members I know not how we keep our accounts but it is easie to observe that the Scripture seldom speaks of laying up For this is a thing which of our selves we are too ready to practise Dimittas licet paedagogum There needs no pains to teach where Scholars are so willing to learn But Scripture oft-times and earnestly deals with us concerning the laying our riches out as being a hard lesson and long we are a learning it Did I call it a hard lesson Nay it seems a Paradox to the most a meer speculation The Philosopher where he shews us the wayes of Alienation brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving as well as selling Not only when we make sale of our goods but traditione dominium rerum amittimus saith the Lawyer when we give them we lose all right and title to them As that which we sell so that which we give is not ours But Christs Law teacheth us that not Keeping so much as Giving maketh our goods ours And not only To take away but Not to give is furtum interpretativum saith Alexander of Hales When God comes to be the Interpreter it will be plain theft For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every covetous person is a thief because he lays up that which was given him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dispense and scatter abroad This is the end why Bread why Riches are given us that we may give to them that are in need And this is the way to make most of them For as Tertullian saith Christian Charity minuendo res auget recondit erogando dum amittit acquirit it lays up by laying out and gaineth by loosing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who ever became poor by giving saith the Apostate St. Ambrose Offic. Lib. 2. parallels that of Julian Scio plerosque sacerdotes quò plus obtulerunt plus abundasse I have known many Bishops who the more they did offer the more they did abound And if we read their Books who have written the Lives of the Fathers they will furnish us with many particulars and some perhaps which will not easily gain our belief No doubt God often rewardeth Charity with temporal blessings but what are these
place is full of snares full of dangers but as Palladius speaks of the Husbandman Villicus si nolit peccare non facit the spiritual husbandman doth nothing disorderly unless he will No man sinneth or can sin against his will If Sin were not permitted why have we a Will Cur permiserat si intercedat cur intercedat si permiserit saith Tertullian And if there were no tentations to sin how weak would our Obedience be how easie to obey where there is nothing to hinder or retard us The things which are in this world are the good creatures of God and by their first institution served to shew the bounty of God and to provoke Man to thankfulness and to the contemplation and exspectations of those better things which shall never perish Nae Mundus schola magna patet saith the Poet The World is a great School in which we may spend our time with profit and by visible things grow up to the knowledge of those things which are invisible The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his mighty Power Day unto day teacheth knowledge And by these Heavens I may be brought to a view of those new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness By this temporary Light which when time comes I shall see no more I may learn how to value that light which is everlasting by the Riches of this world what to think of the riches and glory of the Gospel by a span of Time to conceive more rightly of Eternity But then it is as true that this world as it is a School to teach us so is it officina tentationum a Shop full of tentations And we may make it so We may turn these good creatures of God and make the Beauty of the world a snare the Riches and Glory of the world as prickles and thorns and that which is very good a provocation to induce and intice to that which is very evil One said of Rome Talis est qualem quisque velit It is such a place as we will make it And as it is the commendation of our Obedience to stand out against those assaults against the Wine when it is red against Beauty when it smiles against the Pomp of the world when it glitters in our eyes so doth it aggravate our Disobedience if we entertain that as an occasion of sin which indeed in it self is an inducement to virtue if we chuse Gold before the Maker of it a Pearl before the Kingdom it represents and had rather have villam quà m coelum a farm here than a mansion in Heaven There is nothing in the world nothing in our selves which we may not make either good or bad use of a means to avoid and prevent sin or an occasion to commit it That by which we dishonour God by the very same we may glorifie him The Understanding may be as the Sun in the firmament to lead us in our way that we hurt not our foot against a stone and it may be as a Meteor to lead us into by-paths and dangerous precipices till we fall headlong into hell it self The Will may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shop and workhouse of virtuous actions and it may be a forge of all iniquity The Memory may be a book fairly written with all the characters of goodness and it may be a roul blotted and blurred with lust and uncleanness So then if we seek the true immediate and proper cause of Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must not turn our eyes outward to look abroad either on the Will of God for it is against his will nor on the Devils malice for he can but occasion and promote it nor on those many Tentations which daily assault us for to a resolved Christian they are but as so many atoms and cannot hurt him unless he drink them down But let us search the closet of our hearts and look upon our own Will This is the very womb which conceives that viper that eats it out and destroies it God hath no interest in our sins All he doth is that he permits them And as he permits us to commit them so he permits nay he commands us not to do them Et quid velit Deus non quid permitmittat considerandum saith Cyprian The rule of our Obedience must be this in all the course of our life To consider not what God doth suffer to be done but what he would have us do For as Augustine saith Deus bonitatem suam aliâ voluntate non praevaricatur God doth not prevaricate nor doth he bring in one will to destroy another his will to permit Sin doth not cross that will of his which doth forbid it Let us give God no further interest in our sins than this That as a just and wise Lawgiver he doth barely permit us to fall into those tentations to which when we yield we break that Law and become obnoxious to punishment who by a constant resisistance and withstanding of it Nay he may suffer us to be led into tentations though he call to us to avoid them And this leads me to that which I proposed in the next place That this Permission is not efficacious That it is not necessary for any man to be taken in the snare and to fall into tentation If it were not possible he might fall he could not merit he could do no good and if it were necessary he should fall he could do no evil And yet such an ungrounded position there is and it passeth current amongst many That upon the Permission of Sin it must necessarily follow that sin must be committed For indeed I find they make great use of this word Permission If we read their tractates we shall find that under this one word they cunningly wrap-up Excitation Compulsion and what not Nay they speak it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Sun and the people Deus vult fieri quod facere vetat Deus non semper vult quod se velle significat And again Ab aeterno reprobantur ut indurarentur Some they say there are who are reprobated and cast-away from all eternity that they may be led and shutup into temptation and be hardened And this with them is nothing but Permission We cannot be too wary in our approaches to God and his Majesty nor in our discourses of him De Deo vel seriò loqui periculosum It is dangerous after mature deliberation to speak of him saith the Philosopher But either directly or by way of deduction or consequence to entitle him to our Sins is blasphemy against his infinite Goodness To think that he leads any into tentation is to fashion him out to be like to our own Lusts and to our Adversary who though he be not alone in the work yet alone hath the name of Tempter But now some places of Scripture there are brought-forth which seem to favour this efficacious Permission and to speak no less than that God doth not only permit
Atheism by which we doubt of Gods approach because we cannot find-out his wayes and rely not upon his Power because we see not how it works but is many times as invisible as himself because this omnipotent and wise King never presents himself to the eye of mortal men nor doth so evidently manifest his power as to leave no place for doubting because he suffers fools to ride on horsback and wisemen to lacquey it by their sides because he thunders not upon the wicked but lets them rain-down hailstones and coals of fire upon the just And these are the complaints of weak and ignorant men who though they see miracles every day will not believe nor are content with those evident marks and impressions of Gods Power which are as legible in his works as if they had been written with the Sun-beams but must have him in a manner condescend to be incarnate again to become like unto themselves and perform his actions as a Man Now to these men qui contra se ingenio suo utuntur who use their wit and reason against themselves to destroy in themselves that Confidence without which they are worse than the beasts that perish we need say no more than this That in this dispute they do betray their ignorance of the nature of Faith upon which true Religion is builded For the force efficacie of Faith is seen where there be sufficient reasons to move us to believe but not such which will leave no room for doubting if men of a wicked stiff-neck do violently oppose the truth For that is true Religion which is freely and willingly enterteined by us not that which is forced upon us or extorted from us Therfore God doth not make himself visible to man For Majesty is no fit object for a mortal eye Nor doth he always follow the wicked with his rod that every man may see him strike nor fills he the righteous with good things before the Sun the people For thus to take away all occasion of doubting were in effect to take away Faith it self quae non nisi difficultate constat whose merit it is to believe more then can be seen or known by evidence of demonstration and by leaving no place for Infidelity leave no matter for our Faith Since God hath taught us more then the beasts of the field since that which may be known of God is manifest in the Creature since he hath made the World a book and each Creature a leaf wherein are written the lively characters of a Deity since he hath even shapen himself unto us as a God of mercy in his manifold blessings since many times he comes with a tempest and a fire before him that we may even see him in that tempest and that fire since he hath shewn himself in those effects of which we can give no reason but must cry out DIGITUS DEI EST HIC the finger of God is here since he hath given us so many strange deliverances from sins which we might have committed and from punishments which we might have suffered that we cannot but say MANUS DEI EST HIC the hand of God is here his right hand his powerful hand since he inspires us with so many good thoughts that enter into our souls invisibly insensibly that we must needs confess EST DEUS IN NOBIS God is even in us let us not make it a reason to doubt of his Power when our Reason is at a stand and cannot resolve every doubt or conceive he is not a powerful King because we do not touch and feel and handle him He is near unto us though we see him not he is about our paths when we perceive it not when we rove about the world he is our King and when we are in the dust he is as powerful as when he lifts us up into a throne It concerns not us to know how his Providence worketh It is enough for us to know that he is our King and our powerful God Which if we weigh it as we should will work in us that Assurance which is the stay and prop of our devotions Here we may rest and need seek no further This knowledge is sufficient for me when I know not the manner how he works to know that he worketh all in all and that wheresoever I am I am still under the protection of that King who governs the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the law of his Providence and of that God who is omnipotent Hence we may conclude with the Prophet Whatsoever we desire or request if it be marvellous in the eyes Zech. 8. 6. of the people yet there is no reason it should be marvellous in the eyes of the Lord of hosts And if those cursed Hereticks which Epiphanius calls the Satanicans who were almost the same with the Massalians were forward to worship the Devil upon no other motive than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they conceived he was great and powerful and the Romans did worship their Goddess Febris ut minùs noceret because they thought she had power to hurt them then much rather let us make our address to the God of heaven who hath the Devil in a chain and hath beat down his temples and destroyed his altars and laid his honor in the dust and let us commence our suits unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly Eph. 3. 20. above all we can ask or think and in full assurance present our wants unto him who is our King and powerful God that as the kingdom and power is his so he may have the glory And having thus acknowledged the Kingdom and Power to be his we cannot but end in GLORIA ALTISSIMO Glory be to God on high and take them all three together and make up the-Doxologie Thus we must conclude But I told you that this Conclusion was but the collection of so many reasons or motives to make Prayer it self a conclusion The Glory of God is Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End This is it which makes us cry ABBA Father And when He hears us and grants us our requests this is the end this is the first wheel and this is the last So that take the whole subsistence of a Christian in the state of Grace and the state of Glory and it is but one continued and constant motion of Glorifying God GLORIA DEO Glory and God these two you cannot separate them because He is our King and our Lord. If we take Glory to our selves we loose it and our glory is our shame And this is a lesson which we learn from God himself and the first lesson that ever he taught For no sooner had he made the Creatures but he says of them that they were good that is he saw his own glory in them And if we pray as he commands our Prayers are his creatures and he will say of them that they are good and behold his glory in