which is life it selfe this Way is Truth this Truth is the Way O the blindnesse a worm of the earth will make himself great when the Lord of glory in the world did willingly give up his own life Blush therefore faithfull soule and doe not thou when thy heavenly spouse celestiall Isaac cometh Humility is the way to Christ on foot to meet thee fit aloft on thy Cammel but like to Rebecca who beholding her Husband for bashfulnesse covered her face and comming down from her Camel went on foot with him so thou from the toylsome beast of thy proud heart descend lowly upon the ground and meet thy Spouse and he wil infold thee in his armes and bring thee into his heart Goe from thine own land and from thine acquaintance and from thy fathers house and come into the Land I will shew unto thee so said God unto Abraham Gen. 12. Goe thou likewise out of the house of thy selfe love and proper will for selfe-love corrupteth true judgement blindeth the understanding The evil fruits of selfe love disturbeth the reason seduceth the will corrupteth the conscience shutteth the gates of life and knoweth neither God nor his neighbour expelleth vertue hunteth after honours lyeth in wait for riches longeth after pleasures and lastly preferreth earth before heaven who so doth so love his life loseth it John 12. but whosoever hateth his own life that is doth deny his selfe-love this man shall keep it to eternall life selfe-love is the root of impenitence and eternal damnation with the which whosoever are bewitched they are without humility and acknowledgement of their sinnes the remission whereof can be obtained with no teares For they were not teares for God offended but for their own proper losse Mat. 13. the kingdome of heaven is compared to a pretious stone or pearle of great value which to obtain the Jeweller went and sold all that he had This Pearle is God himselfe or eternal life which to obtain all other things are to be left of which thing wee have a most absolute example Jesus Christ who descended from heaven not for his owne but for thy cause not to serve or profit himselfe but thee and shall we then doubt to seek him alone who did forget himselfe and for us gave himselfe unto death It is the part of a faithful Spouse to seek to please none but her husband and thou being spoused to Christ desirest still to please the world See then thou remember What soule is the virgin and spouse of Christ that thy soule is espoused to Christ yet not without a sacrifice with this condition annexed that thou mayst not love any but Christ rather perswade thy selfe thus that thou oughtest to contemne and put all things out of thy mind that thy Spouse might deem thee worthy of his loving imbracements for if thou darest divide thy love so that thou beholdest not Christ alone in all things now thou art no virgin but an adulterer for it behoveth the charity of Christians to be a chaste virgin and without spot Therefore as in the Law of Moses it was lawfull for the Priests onely to marry with virgins so Christ our true high Priest doth desire a virgin soule and which is taken with nothing besides his love and so knoweth not her own self in respect of Christ that which he professeth in expresse words saying If any come unto me and hateth not his own sâ—ule he cannot be my Disciple What it is so to doe to hate himselfe Why a man must hate himself let us shew in a word We all doe carry about with us the old man and are so the old man himselfe whose nature and property is to doe nothing but sinne to love himselfe to follow his profits and honors to pamper his own will and the flesh for the flesh and bloud is at all times like unto it self studieth it selfe giveth honour to it selfe doth applaud it selfe doth serve it selfe doth respect it selfe in all things it is easily grieved envious bitter covetous of revenge All which thou dost and art for seeing they arise and flow from thy heart this is thy life thine I say of the old man Wherefore thou must hate thy selfe if thou desirest to be Christs Disciple And he that loveth himselfe he that loveth his proper pride covetousnesse wrath hatred envie lying perfidiousnesse unrighteousnesse and wicked concupiscence which without doubt are not to beloved of any they are not to be excused and covered but followed with professed and open hatred mortified and utterly denied by him that will be Christs Disciple CHAP. XV. In a true Christian it behoveth the old man should daily die and the new man be renewed Also what it is to deny himself and what is the true Crosse of Christ Luke 9. If any will follow me let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me THese are the words of St. Paul Ephes 4. of the old man Lay aside according to your former conversation the old man which is corrupted according to the desires of error but be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put you on the new man wich is created according to God in justice and holinesse of truth And he expresseth the cause 1 Cor. 6. For yee are bought with a great price therefore glorifie and beare about with you God in your hearts What the old man is we said even now as What the old man is pride covetousnesse lust unrighteousnesse wrath enmity hatred and envie all which must die in a true Christian that the new man might spring up and be daily renewed The old man therefore dying the new man quickneth in opposit to it that is pride wasting humility succeedeth by the grace of the holy Ghost wrath dying lowlinesse shineth in the room covetousnesse being extinguished trust in God is increased the love of the world being taken away the love of God waxeth warm And What the new man is this then is the new man with his members these are the fruits of the Spirit this is the living and powerfull faith this is Christ in us and his most noble life this is new obedience this is the new commandement this is the fruits of regeneration in us in which whoso live these verily are the onely sonnes of God and therefore it is said that a man ought to deny himselfe as proper honour selfe-will and his own judgement privat profits and his own estimation yea to forgoe his own right and not onely all other things but to think himselfe unworthy to live his owne life What it is to deny himselfe Wherfore a true Christian and one that is indued with the humility of Christ doth willingly acknowledge that the man cannot All things are to â—e used with feare by his own right challenge or require any of those things which God bestoweth on him seeing that all things that are are the free gifts of Gods divine munificence wherupon he useth
judgement Rom. 2. The third is the Law of Nature or naturall justice by which honest and dishonest are commonly discerned whereby both joy and sorrow are discerned and reconciled For there was never The light of nature any Nation so barbarous and câ—â—ell which did not acknowledge some God to be nature arguing and convincing this by both inward and outward reasons most firmly yea they did acknowledge not only there was a God but taught by their owne conscience because therein somtimes they were cruciated with sharp and terrible things and sometimes they did find an inward pleasure and tranquillity thereby collecting that God was just and ought so to be and that he was the revenger of evâ—ll things and the rewarder of good things by which knowledge they went further to find the knowledge or doctrine of the immortality of the soule as appeareth by Plato who most gravely hath discussed and treated of this businesse Last of all by this law of Nature or inbred light they gathered that God was the author and cause of good according to whose nature the best and true worship was the study of vertue and a mind purged from vices wherefore they defined the summe or chiefe good by vertue vertue is the chiefe goodnesse and there were for that cause Schooles of Morall vertues founded and maintained by Socrates and other Philosophers which things doe serve us for instruction that God hath left in man a spark of the light of nature and as it were a certaine token of footstep of in-bred knowledge and understanding Sparks of naturall Theologie of God that thereby he might be admonished of his off-spring and by following these footsteps might so come to his Maker neither was many of the Ethnickes ignorant of this and amongst those Aratus the Poet spoken of by Saint Paul Acts 17. We are the off-spring of God And Munilius who thus saith Is there any doubt that God dwels in our hearts and that our souls return to heaven as they came from heaven Moreover because the Gentiles had this naturall testimony of God and a conscience besides which is a convincing argument that he is our maker and hereupon through their own fault and merit man shall be condemned and shall be altogether without excuse And St. Paul Ethnickes are inexcuseable to the Romans argueth thus Chap. 1. He who knoweth that God is and doth not study to know him aright and him to worship he shall be inexcusable at the day of judgement Seeing then that the Gentiles did know the justice of God that is to say taught by their natural conscience because they that do evill are worthy of death not only because they doe evill but because they are delighted therein and thereby have condemned themselves And in Chap. 2. hee speaketh of their consciences in themselves in like manner accusing or excusing themselves will be a testimony at the future day of judgement when God shall judge the hidden thoughts of men which if the Gentiles for that cause shal be inexcusable because being indued with the naturall knowledge of God against their consciences they have not sought God what shall they say for themselves to whom God hath manifested his Word and by Jesus Christ his onely begotten Sonne hath invited them to repentance that is that they should abstain from sinne and decline from the works of malice to participate by faith False Christians lesse excuseable then Ethnicks the merit of Christ and obtain thereby eternall salvstion Wherefore every halfe Christian in that day shall be condemned of two most grievous witnesses by their conscience I say the law of Nature and by Two witnesses shal coÌ„demn the wicked the revealed word of God Whereupon the terrible sentence will follow Christ saying In that day it shall be easier or better for Sodome and Gomorrah then for them and that the Queen of the South shall arise to the condemnation of the wicked generation The reason is because our great God made the Whereupon cometh the eternall vexatioÌ„ of the soul soule immortall and in that soul a conscience which can neither forget God nor come at God and hereupon followeth the terrible vexation and unrest of the soule and the everlasting pains of the damned which also will be so much more heavy hereafter by how much more by impenitency of heart they have heaped up the wrath of God against the day of judgement 2 Thess 2. for even as our great God Why amongst Christians be wickedness unknown to the heathen by a most just judgement hath given over the Gentiles into a reprobate sense because they contemned the inward Law of Nature and their conscience and the Law of God written in their hearts and contemptuously resisted it as God himself whereby they become blind in their understanding they fell violently into filthy and abominable heynous offences thereby heaping up the just wrath of God So false Christians because they have contemned both as well the inward as the outward testimony of God in not repenting doe resist the holy Ghost and blaspheme God For this cause God giveth them over to a reprobate sense worse then Ethnickes and Turkes And moreover suffereth them to fall into terrible errours to beleeve lies and that all those should be punished that are delighted in unrighteousnesse Whereupon it is that such filthy abominable offences do creep abroad among Christians and doe beare rule pompous and Satanicall pride unsatiable covetousnesse abominable intemperance beastly lust and every kind of most inhumane wickednesse all which doe arise from wilfull blindnesse hardnesse of heart and are in a reprobate sense and the reason is because Christians in their life and They that wil not follow Christ follow Satan conversation will not follow poore courteous meek lowly Christ and are scandalized in him thinking it a shame to them to lead his most holy life whom God hath given to the world that they might live after his example as in the light and walke in his steps Hereupon the the same most just God suffereth them to follow Satan taking the life of Satan upon them full of all abominable wickednesse lying and unmercifulnesse to execute all the workes of darknesse because they resolved in their minds not to walk in the light according to that of Christ Walk in the light while you Joh. 12. have the light that the darknesse doe not overtake you Lastly if God did punish the Ethnicks with such terrible blindnesse and reprobate sense because they contemned the Law of Nature being like unto the snuffe of a Lamp smoking and the remainder of the darknesse of the light of Nature and Conscience or as the words of Paul to the Romans Chap. 1. they did not approve it to have God in their knowledge so that by their own fault they went without their own salvation how much more true is it The new covenant written in our hearts that those doe not attain to salvation in
canst not live with him in this life It remaineth therefore whose life in this world is not in Christ he shall not have life in the other world Here I pray thee now examine thy life and see whether it be more like to Christs or the Vnion with Christ or the Devill Devils Certainly with one of them thou shalt be joyned eternally after death But who is dead to himselfe he is in love with no businesses yea is dead to the world what other thing is it to die unto the world then not to love the world and the things of this world according to that of John Epist 1. chap. 2. He who loveth the world is not of God For what should he doe in the world who inwardly and in his heart is dead to it Whom also whosover loveth he is no otherwise then Samson of Dalila overcome of it and condemned to all the torments and vexations which the He is overcom of the world that loveth it worldly life containeth or affordeth Moreover the love of the world belongeth to the old man not to the regeneration because the world hath nothing but honours The old man delighteth in the world the new man in Christ wealth concupiscence of the eyes and of tâ—e flesh with the pride of life in which the old Adam is conversant and delighteth it selfe And contrariwise to the new man he hath all things in Christ as joy honour wealth and pleasure for what can be more The Image of God the great est dignity of man honorable to a man or is more to be desired then the Image of God renewed by Christ Or if we seek pleasures what man in his wits can doubt that God doth give delight to his above all creatures and delight The man is made for greater things then this world them more as the words of Taulerus say Furthermore what think you of that which the Scripture teacheth Man was not made for the worlds sake but the world for mans sake nor to fill his belly with delicate meat pamper his own wit heap up riches spread his Empire abroad to get most ample possessions grounds and fruits of the earth to be gorgeously attired to abound in gold and silver to be Lord of the earth to put all his delight and joy therein as in his paradise to place it and know hope for nothing but what is before his eyes Or lastly for any terrene cause whatsoever or any thing that is fraile although of it selfe it be good pleasant and pretious No truly he must goe hence he is but a tenant and a life-renter of this great world into which we enter many at one instant as it were by heaps yet death calls for us also As it is not profitable for any of us to carry with us a grain of all the treasure we have heaped whereby it evidently appeareth that we were not created for this temporall life To what man was created neither this world to be the principall end of our creation seeing that we live therein as prilgrims and guests therefore another cause brought us into this world and for whom we were born which is God himselfe and the image of God which we bear in Christ and unto whom we are renewed In this we are convinced evidently to wit that we are especially created for the kingdome of God and life eternall which Christ hath recovered for us and to whom we are regenerate by the holy Ghost How preposterous then is it for one to fix his heart to the world and give his minde to earthly things when we know the other to be more noble then the whole word I say for a man to attend and spend his time on earthly things which is the most excellent of all creatures which carrieth about him the image of God in Christ and is renewed to this image Wherefore as I said before the man for the world was not created but the world was created for man and therefore carrleth about with him the image of God in Christ of which the excellency and nobility is so great that all men with all his workes and power could not repaire one soule or renew the Image of God But for this cause it was necessary that Christ should die that because the image of God was defaced and destroyed in man it should be renewed by the holy Ghost and he should become forthwith the habitation and house of God And this being known and called to mind if he be right minded he will never compare the riches of the world honours To preferre earthly things before heuvenly is great madnes and pleasures with the price of his soule which Christ hath redeemed at such a price for what is it to cast pearls in the mire and before swine if this should not be That which our Saviour saith Matth. 16. pertaineth to this place What profiteth it a man to get the whole world and lose his owne soule For seeing the world is mortall and the soul of man immortall the world with all his pomp cannot recover one soul CHAP. XIV A true Christian ought after the example of Christ to contemne the world and hate his life in this world John 12. He that loveth his soule loseth it and he that hateth his soule in this world doth preserve it to eternall life HE that will hate himselfe he must first not love himselfe so that he may daily die to sinne and therefore he must continually Selfe-love the chiefest enemy of the soul Idolatry wrastle with himselfe and his flesh for nothing is more hurtfull to a man that is desirous of his salvation and more hindereth him then selfe-love I say that carnall Philautia of which this following discourse in all this book is the subject I doe not say that care of preserving our selves but loving our selves is forbidden For seeing that God alone is to be loved it followeth that he who loveth himselfe is an Idolater and maketh himselfe God what every one loveth in that his heart is fixed neither can we be taken but with the love and servitude of something so as we become servants despoiling our selves of our proper liberties and consequently having so many Lords we are subject unto as we have objects to love but if thy love be sincerely and simply towards God then thou art subject to no object but it is manifest thou art at liberty wherefore thou must be very circumspect that thou follow nothing that may hinder the divine love in thee And if thou desirest to possesse God alone as much as thou art able so much in like The law of God brings forth tranquillity the world perturbation manner of thy all must thou consecrate to him But if thou love thy selfe and please thy selfe much pensivenesse sorrow feare and sadnesse will befall thee Contrariwise if thou love God and rejoycest in him onely and dost dedicate thy selfe onely to him then will he be thy
the pleasures of the world for the fear of God is the foundation and beginning of wisdome and devotion all which the concupiscence and delight of the world doth extinguish For even as by daily contrition or sorrow for sinne and mortification The renewing of the man with his soule of the flesh the man is daily renewed according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. Although our outward man be daily broken yet our inward man is daily renewed in bearing heavenly fruits and celestiall of unexplicable sweetnesse So contrariwise the pleasure of the world bringeth heavinesse vexation and wound of conscience yea so great The losse of the soul by worldly pleasure is the calamity of the mind and so heavie is the losse of heavenly gifts which flow from the pleasure of the flesh and worldly delights as he that calleth them to mind or would call them to mind he cannot overcome or detest any of the worldly joyes Two things there be which whosoever disputeth and seriously pondereth The fruit of the meditation of eternal ioy and misery with himselfe hee must be neither affected with worldly pleasures nor moved with calamities The one is the pain of the damned which whosoever shall bee willing to consider of deeply truly the more for that cause because it is eternal he is never heartily merry or joyous The other is life eternal which he cānot for that cause neither take out of his mind nor The impedimēt of spirituall ioy and sorrow mitigate do what he can neither whereof because we sometimes doe revolve them in our mind seriously can we revolve hereupon it is no wonder that wee are both without wholsome contrition and sorrow as also ignorant altogether and unexperienced of celestiall joyes and it is the property The true cause of ioy and sorrow of a true Christian to be equally minded who rejoyceth very sparingly in earthly things being full of divine pleasures and life eternall neither is he carried away immoderatly with calamities or dejected in adversity but against the losse of the soule only he beareth it so as for that cause all his life time he doth not refuse to account it a thing worthy of lamentation for a Christian loseth nothing that is never so little of these fragill things which perish but he shall receive a thousand fold in another world but if the soule once perish it cannot be repaired or recovered Blessed then is the man that findeth this divine sorrow and besides that celestiall and spiritual pleasure But oft times we perversly and crookedly doe laugh when we ought rather to weep seeing there is no true liberty or delight but in the feare of God and a right conscience which without faith and holy life can neither be had nor kept For faith accompanied with divine sorrow by the holy Ghost doth correct The hinderāces of the king dome of God the defects of man daily which daily means every man neglecteth and he loseth the best cause and part of living thereby he is adversary to the new life hindereth the kingdom of God in himselfe neither can Who is truly wise he be set free of the blindnesse of his heart Whereupon it followeth that he onely deserveth the name of a prudent and wise man who declines w th all study what he understandeth shall be an obstacle to amendment of life and proficience of heavenly gifts neither doth he determine to flie those things only whereby any calamities might arise to the body and the faculties thereof but much more those things which he understands to be grievous to the mind or any wayes burdensome Be of good cheare then and learn to warre like an enemy and so continue a valiant man can best resist a wicked custome according to that of Saint Paul Rom. 12. Be not overcome of evill but overcome the evill with goodnesse For there is no cause why thou shouldst think thy selfe sick of incurable evils if thou reflect thy thoughts upon thine own mind cogitations first view thine own proper defects and do not curiously first cast a rash censure of judging thy neighbour in admonishing him before thou hast controlled thy selfe first Wherefore if this daily sorrow and spirituall contrition beget reproach and reports and for that cause the good will of men grow cold towards thee take heed therefore that you grieve not at it but rather complain of thy selfe as becometh a Christian and live Christian-like as thy mind desireth and that thou mightest in good works equall the dignity of the name of a Christian For it is meet for thee to be afflicted by the world grieved at it that therefore in like maner God might delight in thee according to that of Isai 57. I doe The ioy of the world and of heaven are quite contrary dwell on high in the holy place and with a contrite and humble spirit that I might quicken the humble spirit contrite heart It is impossible that divine worldly joy at one time reside in the heart of man so contrary they are and so different in their off-spring when the pleasure of the world begetteth one in prosperity the other of heaven is begotten in adversity I acknowledge it indeed to be beside yea against nature to rejoyce in adversity according to that of Paul 2. Cor. 6. As heavy yet rejoycing as poor yet being rich as having nothing yet possessing all things But the grace of God doth mend and purifie change nature whereupon the Apostles rejoyced because they were accoūted worthy to suffer some things for Jesus Christ Act. 4. Neither do all true Christians otherwise who are made the new creature and become other men for they rejoyce and are glad in adversity and indeed those things that disturb the old man cānot disturb the new man who with S. Paul Rom. 8. glorieth in tribulation The joy that is from above is more noble then earthly pleasures which he perceiveth very well by the contumely and contempt of Christ who belongeth to him of whom if we be ignorant let us perswade our selves again and again that this happeneth by reason of the love of the True humility world A man truly humbled thinketh himselfe worthy of afflictions and tribulation and unworthy of divine consolations But by how much he thinketh himselfe unworthy so much more largely is he visited of God And by the more and the oftner he deploreth his sinne so much the lesse is he affected to the world yea it becometh more grievous and bitter to him thereby He who considereth himself as is meet findeth More causes of mourning then ioy more things wherein to mourn then wherein to rejoyce And he who examineth another mans life shall gather more things worthy pitie and compassion then arguments of envie thereby When Christ wept over Jerusalem which persecuted him and followed him to death even because he deplored the sinnes and blindnesse of it let us think the same
might doe good unto him which to perform if any contemn and refuse this man cannot bee the sonne of God because he loveth not his neighbour He that exerciseth not Christian Charity doth shew a man how to be a living member of Christ charity that man separateth himselfe from the spirituall body of Christ which is the Church and forfeiteth or loseth thereby all the merits of Christ according to that of the Ephesians chap. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme For even as the members pulled from the body doe not participate of the life and bountifull influence of the head but dieth every member even so as many as live not in charity these because they separate themselves from their head Christ doe not participate nor receive his life lively motions and fulnesse Prayer without charity is unprofitable according to that of Saint John Epist 1. chap. 3. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death Last of all because by prayer all good gifts are to be obtained of God and without it all helps consolation and freedóme wee may look for but in vain being without blessing and safety And God Almighty giveth hearing to no prayers but to those that are grounded on Faith and Charity according to that saying of Matthew chap. 18. If two of you upon the earth consent together whatsoever they shall desire it shall be granted unto them by my Father which is in Heaven Goe to therefore O mortall men let us live in charity wherein is peace Peace in charity and union and where peace is there is the God of peace where he is in that place the Lord hath commanded his blessing and life for evermore CHAP. XXVII Wherefore our enemies are to be loved Matth. 5. Love your enemies doe good to those that hate you and pray for them that persecute you and revile you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven THe first cause for which our enemies ought to be beloved of us is the commandement of God to which he giveth no other reason but that you may be the sonnes of your father of him that is to wit that loved us when we were his enemies Rom. 5. As if he should say Unlesse you love your enemies you cannot be the children of the heavenly Father And he that is not his sonne what father shall he have To which commandement when exceeding few of us doe obey it is manifest how farre wee are from the fruits of the children of God wherein we ought to use charity towards our enemies He that loveth not his brother saith blessed John Epist 1. chap. 3. abideth in death for hee hath not in him the true life which is of Christ which is spirituall and heavenly which consisteth in faith towards God and charity towards our neighbour according to that of blessed John We know that we are translated from death to life because we love the brethren Whereupon it is manifest that the fruit testimony of our quickning in Christ is brotherly charity and contrariwise the hatred of him is death so that whosoever dieth in hatred hee shall die an everlasting death And all his good works that hateth his neighbour his divine worship and observation of the commandements of God are in vain according to that of Paul to the Without charity all works are dead Corinthians Epist 1. chap. 13. If I give and distribute all that I have to feed the poore and give my body to be burned have not charity it profiteth me nothing Moreover it is the property of a noble great and divine mind to pardon injuries For let us behold God both how long suffering he is and consider how suddenly hee is reconciled Behold Christ how amongst his most heavie torments and most inhumane pains on the Crosse like unto a Lamb did not so much as open his mouth Isa 53. Let us contemplate the holy Ghost who for no other cause rather appeared in the form of a Dove then to teach unto us the meeknesse and lenity and simplicity of manners Behold Moses with what patience hee did bear the reproaches of the people whereby Numb 12. he deserved this praise Moses was a most meek man above all men which remained on the earth David also with what Ienity of mind he did heare Shimei cursing of him 2 Sam. 16. And one saith True charity knoweth none to be angry with but himselfe and true peace consisteth not in a great fortune but in humble bearing of adversity and his adversaries Publius said excellent well The free estate of an honest man receiveth no reproach And Seneca If thou be magnanimous thou wilt never judge thy selfe any reproach to be done to thee Even as the Sun if any mad man should reproach it and call it meere darknesse for that cause it would not nor doth it change the nature of it so neither a valiant mind or generous whose great generosity is also to pardon The Ethniks examâ—le of long-suffering revenge And many Ethnicks in their examples did expresse thâ—se golden sayings and admonitions As Pericles that was the most pleasant Orator of Greece who having heard a man upbraiding and reproaching him the spâ—ce of a whole day with his own eares â—â—ght comming on did command him to bee brought into his house lest he should take any harm this speech bâ—ing added It is an easier thing to speak evill of vertue then to possesse it Phocion the Prince of the Athenians when he had deserved exceeding well of his Countrey through the envie of some was adjudged to death which being about to undergoe when he was asked by one if hee would command him any thing to his sonne Nothing else said he but that he never take in hand or goe about to revenge this injury which I suffer of my countrey Titus the Emperour when it was told him that two brethren did affect the Empire of Rome and that they had conspired his death made no scruple to bid them to supper and about three dayes after set himselfe betwixt them to behold a Stage-play with which admirable clemency he overcame their improbity When it was told to Julius Cesar that Cato had laid violent hands on himselfe He hath bereaved me saith he of the greatest victory that ever I had for I had decreed with my selfe freely to pardon him all the injuries he had done unto me But most of all whom would not the extream patience and meeknesse of the Sonne of God himselfe move to love his enemies The great long-suffering of God neither this nor any of those of the Ethnicks which I mentioned nor any of the Saints in their examples did equall him For what greater injustice and dishonesty can be thought on then that the Sonne of God should bee so miserably handled of men to be made a laughing-stock to bee scourged with stripes to be crowned with thorns to be spit upon and lastly to be nailed on the Crosse
defiling the greatest and most excellent gifts 1 Corinth 13. If I should speak with the tongues of men and Angels and have not love I shall be as a tinckling Cymball or sounding brasse LEst any man should marvell that Saint Luther of the Church part 2. fol. 13. Paul doth adorn Charity with so many praises you must know that God himselfe is love and consequently like praise to belong to both neither greater or more ample vertue to be found in man or in God himselfe Now that which respecteth our neighbour is twofold one true living sincere and cleare the other hypocriticall and dissembled or cloaked The first St. True love false Paul describeth by a most ample catalogue and an account of the fruits and properties thereof added thereunto the latter with all his words gifts and workes abused as a Bawd to and for private gain and honour And howsoever in outward shew it seemeth to affect divine and humane good and profit yet inwardly and in his heart he respecteth nothing but his private profit and honour and wealth and whatsoever floweth from this fountain cometh not from God but from the Devill and it What ariseth not of charity ariseth not of God is poyson infecting all good workes and the most excellent gifts For as a flower in sight tast and smell most beautifull and sweet if it retain any venome is not approved by the beauty of the colour nor pleasantnesse of smell nor sweetnesse because it is deadly or hurtfull to man if it be not foreseen So man if he be adorned with the gifts of Angels and if he be full of avarice pride selfe-love and arrogancy then those gifts doe not onely faile in their fruits but become pernicious for that which is good indeed ought to have God in the beginning and ending who as he is the onely author of every good thing What is good so whatsoever he worketh in thee is truly that onely good But it is otherwise if arrogancy selfe-love the desire of honour or private profit shall have any designe in it for when it commeth not from God his impulsion and provocation it can never be good Therefore God alone is good also love it self by which all good is conveyed to our neighbour through love no otherwise then from God to our selves this necessarily cometh to passe It is said that a certain Saint of old should wish that he should be of no other use unto God then his own right hand was unto him which seeing it was nothing but an instrument aptly to give and receive what was fit and consequently arrogateth neither honour nor glory to it selfe And indeed it is meet we all should be such and because all things come from God to us freely in like manner we should render all things to our neighbour in single simplicity and without the desire of vainglory and praise out of pure love for unto God alone as to the author is honour and glory due but unto us nothing at all we are onely instruments created and made fit to receive and deliver which if any be without this sincere charity he with all his gifts is nothing So I say Although hee speake with the tongues of Angels can prophesie know all mysteries and all knowledge and had never so much faith even that it would remove mountaines and give all that he hath to the poore lastly give himselfe to be burned Selfe love and arrogance was the fall of the Devill 1 Cor. 13. For all selfe-love that is the desire of honour and praise and private profit is of the Devill and was his Apostasie by which hee fell from heaven and for which hee was worthily driven from thence For when God had created Lucifer the most beautifull Angell and adorned him with most excellent gifts of wisdome light glory and riches he began to admire himselfe in his gifts as a Peacock doth admire himselfe to love honour and praise himselfe which was the first step to his ruine even to give honour to himselfe not to God and to turne his love from God to himselfe whereupon he was worthily cast out of heaven with all his companions which his pride by contagion had infected neither was hee contented with his principality amongst Angels according to that of Saint Jude The Angels which kept not their principality And that of Saint Paul to the Colossians chap. 2. Spoyling Principalities and Powers traduced them confidently And of man and openly triumphing over them in himselfe Now by what sinne Lucifer procured his own ruine he was the cause and perswader by the same sinne of the losse of mankind turning him frō the love of the honor of God to himselfe whereby followed self-love and arrogancy such and so great even to affect the similitude of God whereby consequently hee was no otherwise cast out of Paradise then Lucifer out of Heaven leaving to us all the heritage of arrogancy and self-love And this is the fall and Apostasie of Adam which all men in like manner doe iterate and with flesh and bloud give and deliver every one to other the same the means of amendment and cure whereof can and ought no other wayes be sought and obtained but by the merit of Christ apprehended by faith whereby thenceforth wee are renewed in Christ and our flesh is crucified neither now doe we love our selves any more but Denying our selves necessary hate our selves Luke 9. that is all our own works doe begin to displease us we do not honour our selves or beare out our selves but deny our selves Luke 14. that is wee set nought by our selves lastly we do not now seek our singular praise and glory but by denying all things that we have place our pleasure and trust in no earthly thing and likewise doe fight and strive with flesh bloud our inward enemies which whosoever hath not nor doth not as abovesaid he neither is nor can be the Disciple of Christ seeing by this meanes in serious and true repentance the conversion of humane nature must be changed Moreover seeing that means is greater then the strength of man which of it selfe and by its nature can doe nothing but love it self favour it selfe and boast and cannot forbeare By the incarnation of Christ our nature is renewed to seek his own ends or to speak in a word to sinne therefore it behoveth God to be the beginning middle and end and prop the Sonne of God to take the forme of a man upon him and consequently to renew our nature that thereby every one of us being regenerate by him in him and from him we become a new creature for even as in Adam we were dead bodily and spiritually so it behoveth us in Christ to rise and be spiritually renewed Even as by carnall nativity we entred upon the sin of Adam as a certain heritage so in Christ by a spiritual birth and faith wee must bee justified Finally as radically we draw from Adam