it self or whatsoever may be disadvantageous unto us or that of St. Augustine who forgetting that he had made seven Petitions in his second Book upon the Sermon on the Mount makes this clause the same with the former bring nothing contrary to truth or indeed to this interpretation Having therefore shut-up and concluded all evil in him who is the Father of Evil we will 1. consider him first as an enemy to Mankind 2. lay-down reasons why he is so and why we should make preparation against him and 3. discover some Stratagems which he useth to bring his enterprises to pass And first that the Devil is our enemy we need not doubt For the Apostle hath openly proclaimed him so We wrestle not with flesh and Ephes 6. 12. bloud against Men as weak and mortal as our selves but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world that is against the Devil and his Angels against spiritual wickedness in high places that is as himself speaks in the second Chapter against those spirits which rule in the air And therefore St. Basil gives us 1. his Name which is SATANAS an adversary and DIABOLUS a Devil because he is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow-worker with us in sin and when it is committed an accuser 2. his Nature He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorporeal 3. his Dignity It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a principality 4. the Place of his principality He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the air and is therefore called the Prince of this world His Anger is implacable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as immortal as himself not as Mans who is never angry but with particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as with Cleon and Socrates but not with man Satans Anger and Hatred is bent against the whole nature of Man Cùm sit ipse poenalis quaerit ad poenam comites Being even a punishment unto himself he would have all men with him come under the same lash And if he cannot win a Soul by invasion he attempts it by stratagem To this end as he makes use of Pleasure and Content so he doth of Affliction and Sorrow Operatio ejus est hominum eversio His very working and operation is nothing else but for the eversion and ruine of mankind Nec definit perditus perdere being fallen himself he would draw all men after him The bodies of men he plagueth with diseases and their souls with sudden and unusual distractions being able through the subtility and spirituality of his nature to work-upon both invisibilis in actu in effectu apparens invisible and insensible in the act but manifestly seen in the effect He cheated men with oracles struck them with diseases and pretended a cure desinens laedere curasse credebatur when he did not hurt them he was thought to have healed them By these arts he insinuated him self into the minds of ignorant men and at last was honoured with Temples and Altars and Sacrifices and gained a Principality and kind of Godhead in the world But now his Oracles are stilled his Altars beat down and he is driven out of his Temples But yet he is a Devil still and an Enemy and rules in the air and upon permission may make use of one creature to destroy another And his Power is just though his Will be malicious Quod ipse facere iniquè appetit hoc Deus fieri non nisi justè permittit What he wickedly desires to do that God may suffer justly to be done We will not not say that the evil Spirits visibly fight against us and try it out with fists as those foolish Monks in St. Hierom boasted of themselves that they had often tried this kind of hardiment with them to make themselves a miracle to the ignorant rout who are more taken with lies than with truth We are not apt to believe that story or rather fable in St. Hierome of Paul the Hermite who met the Devil first as a Hippocentaur next as a Satyr and last of all as a Shee-wolf or that of Hilarion to whom were presented many fearful things the roaring of Lions the noise of an Army and a chariot of fire coming upon him and Wolves and Foxes and Sword-players and wicked Women and I cannot tell what For it is scarce expressable what a creating faculty Melancholy and Solitariness and Phansie have ut non videant quae sunt videre se putent quae non sunt that when we do not see those things which are yet they make us believe we see those things which are not We will not speak of Spirits possessing the bodies of men Which power we cannot deny but they have Yet I am perswaded these after-ages have not frequently seen any such dismal effects The world hath been too much troubled with lies and many counterfeits have been discovered even in our times And for us Protestants we see no such signs no such wonders But these Devils are as common as Flies in Summer amongst them who boast of an art and skill they have in casting them out You would think they enterd men on purpose that these men might shew their activity in driving them away and so confirm and make good their Religion make themselves equal to those primitive Christians quorum verbis tanquam flagris verberati nomina aedebant who with their very words would make them roar as if they had been beaten with whips till they confest they were devils and did tell their names We may say of these in our daies as he doth of superstitious Dreams Ipsâ jam facilitate auctoritatem perdiderunt They are too common to be true And because so many of these strange relations have been manifestly false we may be pardoned if we detrect a little and believe not those few which are true For the mixture of fictions in many a good history hath many times made even Truth it self seem fabulous But yet though we suspend our belief and do not suddenly and hand over head subscribe unto these we are not like those Philosophers in Tully qui omnia ad sensus referebant who referred all to their senses and would believe no more than what they did see For these evil Spirits may be near us and we see them not they may be about our paths and we discern them not Many effects of theirs no doubt we may see and yet can have no assurance that they were theirs For that light of their intellectual nature is not put-out but they know how to apply active qualities to passive and diversly upon occasion to temper natural causes being well seen and versed in the book of Nature And this knowledge of theirs is enlarged and advanced by the experience of so many thousand years and their experience promoted and confirmed by an indefatigable and uncessant survey of the things of this world which is not stayed and held back by any pause or interval nor needs any repair or help by
Lamb to the slaughter and as a Sheep before her shearers is dumb so open'd be not his mouth And now having shewed you the nature of Meekness in the next place we will seat her in her proper subject and that is Every man as he is a Private man not as he bears the Sword of Justice For our Saviour when he commends Meekness doth not strike the Sword out of the hand of the Magistrate Nullum verbum hîc de magistratu ejus officio saith Luther Here is no mention made of the Magistrate and his Office It is far better that I loose my coat then revenge my self for by the Law of equity no man can be Judge in his own cause But let the Magistrate strike and the blow is not of Revenge but Justice Justice saith Plutarch accompanies God himself and breaths revenge against those which break his law which Men also by the very light of nature use against all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are citizens and members of a body politick Meekness is that virtue which sweetly ordereth and composes our mind in pardoning those injuries which are done to our private persons but it hath no room in the breast of a Judge who looks upon the Offender vultu legis with no other countenance then that of the Law In my own case licet mihi facere quod volo de meo it is lawful for me to do what I will with my own I may give it or I may suffer it to be torn from me and by this loss I may purchase the inheritance of the earth But when I sit on the Tribunal as a Judge the case is not my own It is Meekness to pardon wrongs done unto our selves but to deny the course of Justice to him that calls for it to sheath the Sword when it should cut off the wicked from the earth may peradventure commend it self by the name of inconsiderate pity but meekness it cannot be For the Magistrate as he is the Keeper of the Law so in his proceeding he must be like it Now the Law is surda res as the young men in Livy complain'd deaf and inexorable Though thou speak it fair it hears thee not and though thou speak in tears it regards thee not It is immoveable as a Rock and it stares the Offender in the face No complement can shake it no bribe move it no riches batter it If it seem to change countenance and turn face it is not its own face but the paint and visard of the Magistrate When the Magistrate is grown meek on the sudden by the operation of a bribe when Injustice beats upon this rock of the Law to mollifie and allay its rigor that falls out which Tertullian observes of Infidelity meeting with a convincing argument Injustice prevails and the Law is vanquisht and what is monstrous the Ship is safe and the Rock shipwrackt Therefore the Magistrate when he is to condemn an Offender may put on the passion of Anger and raise it up against his Compassion and then strike him saith Seneca with the same countenance he would strike a Serpent Histrionibus etsi non iratis tamen iram simulantibus conducit The very counterfeiting of this passion helpeth the Tragedian in his action And the judge may set it against those assaults which may move him to unnecessary compassion and which may turn him to the right hand or the left We need not here enlarge our selves in a case so plain That which the Private man may demand may be now more useful Whether it be lawful to implead our brother in any Court of Justice Questionless it is For to deny it were not only to pluck the Magistrate from the Bench but to cancel and disanul all the Laws of Christian Common-wealths Morality teacheth us To do no wrong That which Religion adds is no more but this To keep our mind in an habitual preparation of suffering And so the Casuists and St. Augustine interpret these Precepts of our Saviour That we must then retain the heart of a friend when we have taken upon us the name of an adversary and so compose our selves that we should choose rather to loose our right then our charity But Charity seeketh not her own A good Argument not only to keep me from the Tribunal but to drive me also from the Church For he that bids me cast my bread upon the waters hath also prescrib'd that form of Prayer Give us this day our daily bread It is true Regulae charitatis latiùs patent quà m juris the Rules of Charity are of a larger extent then those of the Law If thou owe a hundred measures of oyl Charity takes the Bill and sits down quickly and writeth fifty and if thy vessels be empty she cancels the bill and teareth the Indenture But it is as true too that Charity begins at home and that He that provides not for his family is worse then an Infidel To conclude this point It will concern every man to take heed quo animo quibus consiliis with what mind and upon what advise he brings his brother to the Barr. Necessitas humanae fragilitatis patrocinium Necessity is a good plea but where Necessity inforceth not I may say of it as St. Paul doth of Marriage He that impleadeth his brother may do well but he that impleadeth him not doth better And I cannot but commend that resolution of St. Hierom Mihi etiam vera accusatio adversus fratrem displicet Nec reprehendo alios sed dico quid ipse non facerem And happy is he who can take up this holy Father's Language It is troublesome to me to bring an accusation though never so true against a brother I censure not those who do it but only declare what I would not do my self Indeed our Saviour bids us agree with our adversary and forgive him but we do not read that any where he hath commanded us to implead him And this should make us suspect our selves in such a case For here are two parts Not to implead him and To implead him The one is most evidently lawful It is in our power The other doubtful When our judgment then is at a loss and cannot resolve on the one side the best wisdom it will be to cleave unto the side which is evident and plain unless we please to put it to the venture and harase our souls and try conclusions with God But most commonly so it is Praevalent dubia Things doubtful in themselves have more power over us then those things which are plain and certain and men are easie of belief in those things which they would have done What is wanting in the evidence we supply in our will and although our opinion point to the plainest side as safest yet we secretly wish that the more doubtful part were true and at last though we have small evidence yet we adhere and stick close unto it From hence those stabbings and digladiations
will our heavenly Father forgive us ours Et qui ad tam magnum tonitruum non expergiscitur non dormit sed mortuus est saith St. Augustine He that awakes not out of his pleasant dream of Revenge at this thunder is not asleep but dead For He will not forgive you is the same with this He will damn you with those malicious Spirits the Devil and his Angels and He will forgive you is equivalent to this He will receive you into his Kingdom to his seat of mercy and glory We may say then that Meekness is necessary as a cause to this effect as a virtue destined to this end at least causa sine qua non a cause so far as that without it there is no remission of sins For though I have faith to remove mountains and have all Knowledge yet if I have not Meekness there is no hope of heaven Or it is causa removens prohibens a cause in as much as it removes those hindrances which stand between us and the Mercy of God For how can I appear before the Father of compassion with a heart spotted and stained with the gall of bitterness How can I stand before the Mercy-seat with my hands full of blood And thus Meekness is a cause of Forgiveness and may be said to produce this effect because though it have no positive causality yet without it mercy will not be obteined Blessedness is joyned to Meekness as in a chain which hath more links and If you shall forgive your enemies my Father will forgive you doth not shew what is sufficient but what is necessarily required to the expiation of sin and the inheritance of heaven Again by Meekness we resemble him who is a God that blotteth out transgressions When we are angry we are like unto the beasts that perish yea we are as the raging waves of the Sea foming out our own shame But when we yield to our brother's infirmity and forgive him we are as Gods Thirdly This virtue is seldom I may say never alone but it supposeth Faith which is sigillum bonorum operum the seal to every good work to make it current and authentick yea and all that fair retinue of Virtues which as Handmaids wait upon Faith and make her known to the world For he whose mind is so subact as to bear another mans burthen and to lift himself up upon the ruins of himself and create virtue out of injury and contempt cannot be far from the Kingdom of heaven nor destitute of those sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased And this I say though it be not necessary yet is very probable For these to be Covetous to be Luxurious to be Wanton and to be Meek cannot lodge in the same breast For we see Prodigality as well as Covetousness is a whetstone to our Anger and makes it keen and sharp And the Wanton will as soon quarrel for his Whore as the Miser for his Purse But Meekness believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things and doth nothing unseemly For the mind of the Meek is like the Heavens above Semper illîc serenum est there is continual serenity and a perpetual day there It is as Wax fit to receive any impression or character of goodness and retein it a fit object for Gods benefits to work upon ready to melt at the light of his countenance and to yield at the lifting up of his hammer And therefore In the last place this Meekness and Readiness to forgive maketh us more capable of the Gospel of Christ and those other Precepts which it doth contain and so fits and prepareth and qualifieth us for this Blessedness for this great benefit of Remission of sins For he that is ready to forgive all injuries will be as ready to be poor very forward to go to the house of mourning merciful a peace-maker one that may be reviled and persecuted and so rightly qualified for those Beatitudes And he who can suffer an injury will hardly do one whereas they commonly are most impatient of wrongs who make least conscience of offering them qui irascuntur quia irascuntur who play the wantons and are angry with their brother for no other reason but because they are pleased to be angry Now the Oratour will tell us that Nullus rationi magìs obstat affectus there is no affection which is so great an enemy to Reason as Anger For Sorrow and Fear and Hope and the rest make an assault and lay hard at us but anger as a whirlwind overwhelms us at once I may be stricken with Fear and yet hearken to that counsel which will dispel it I may hang down my head with Sorrow and yet be capable of those comforts which may lift it up again for every one is not as Rahel that would not be comforted but we deal with Angry men as we do with men overcome with drink never give them counsel till the fit be over For fairly to be speak a man thus transported is to as much purpose as to bid the Sea go back or to chide the Winds And as the Reason and Judgment are dimmed and obscured with that mist which sudden Anger casts so are they also by that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lasting or abiding Anger which is the forge or alembick of Revenge and works it by degrees And till this be dispelled and scattered there is no room for the Doctrine of the Gospel which breaths nothing but meekness and forgiveness Disce sed ira cadat naso To be angry and To learn are at as great a distance as To be in motion and To stand still He that fills his thoughts with Revenge can leave no room for the Precepts of that Master who was led to the slaughter as a sheep But the Meek man is like him is a Sheep his Sheep and will soon hear his voice draw nearer and nearer unto him and by Meekness learn Purity and those other virtues which will bring him into the arms of his Saviour and the Kingdom of Heaven And thus you see how necessary a virtue Meekness is for the Church and for every part of it for every Christian to entitle him to the inheritance of the earth as the earth is taken for that new earth Rev. 21. 1. the Earth not of living dying men but that Earth where we shall live for ever that state of happiness which like the Earth shall stand fast for ever For what is Meekness but a pregustation and fore-taste of that quiet and peaceable estate which is no where to be found but at the right hand and in the presence of God That as God who is slow to anger and full of goodness and mercy is properly and naturally in a constant and immoveable state of bliss so Christians who by divine grace and assistance raise themselves up to this height and pitch as to look down from a quiet mind as from heaven upon all the injuries and reproaches which shall
who hath made himself to every good work reprobate It is not a feeble thought it is an active Charity that is the foundation of Hope Run to and fro through Jerusalem go about the streets thereof muster up together all that name the Lord Jesus and you shall find every man is full of Hope and then you may conclude that every man is charitable Whatsoever the premisses be whatsoever the actions of our life be most men make this the conclusion and dye in hope assure themselves of happiness by no better experience then that which Flesh and Bloud and the Love of our selves are ready to bring in They fill themselves with Hope when they are full of nothing but Malice and Envy and Uncleanness of which we are told that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven And what Hope what assurance is this An assurance without a warrant an Hope which only we our selves have subscribed to with hands full of bloud a Hope which is no hope but a cheat a delusion presenting us nothing but heaven when we are condemned already It is true that Hope is a fair tye and pledge of what we shall enjoy hereafter but it is not then the work of the Phansie but of the Heart to be wrought out with fear and trembling and not to be taken up as a thing granted as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we cannot set up a pillar of Hope where there is no basis no foundation for it but a weak and feeble thought I know it is put up by some as a question Whether we ought to be assured of our salvation but it is but an impertinent question and not well put up For will any man ask Whether we ought to be in health and not rather Whether we ought to feed on wholsome meats and keep a temperate diet Beloved let us have Charity and Hope will as certainly follow and as naturally as Growth and Health do a moderate diet Otherwise to hope is a sin it is not Hope but Presumption For what Hope is that which looks towards Liberty and leaves us in chains that which promiseth life when we are children appointed to dye Let us then possess our hearts with Charity and Hope will soon enter in for they love to dwell and breathe together But it will not enter a froward and perverse heart for that will not receive it nor the heart of a Nabal for that is stone and will beat it back nor a heart that is fat as grease for it slips through it nor a Pharisee's heart for that is hollow and doth nothing but sound every thought is a knell and proclaimeth the fall of some in Israel None have less hope of others then they who presume for themselves None condemn more to hell then they whose feet are swift to shed bloud and who delight in those wayes which lead unto death Their very mercies are cruelty To put on the New man with them is to put off all bowels Every word they speak is clothed with Death And if Malice and Deceit and Uncharitableness lead not thither I may be bold to say There is no Hell at all They who make God as cruel as themselves do destiny men to destruction only because he will and to build up men on purpose to ruin them for ever that make the Wickedness of men depend on the antecedent will of God absolutely and irresistibly efficacious They are their own words that say that God doth work all things in all men even in the reprobate that the Induration and Incredulity of men is from the Praedestination of God as the effect from the cause that God calls men to salvation who are condemn'd already that though the elect which are themselves fall into adultery murder treason and other crying sins yet they fall not from grace but still remain men after Gods own heart when they do the works of their father the Devil These are they whose words are as sharp swords to cut off their brethren from the land of the living These men breathe forth nothing but hailstones and coals of fire but death and destruction These make a bridge for themselves to Happiness but pluck it up to their brethren These are in heaven already and shut it up that none else may enter Certainly a new way to heaven never yet discovered by the King of Heaven who hath put the keys into the hand of Charity who may boldly enter her self and who also is very willing to let in others who brings forth a Hope a Hope for our selves and a Hope for others Whoso makes haste to perfection is very willing to forward others in the way he calls upon them he waits on them he expects when they will move forwards and though they move not yet he hopes still Charity which brought down Christ from heaven lifts us up unto that holy place and we are never carried with more delight then when we go with most company there to joyn with the quire of Angels and to sing praises to the God of Love for evermore We love God because he loved us first and for his loves sake we love every man And now what is our Hope but that together with others we may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his eternal and everlasting glory The Ninth SERMON PSALM LI. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation IN these words we have 1. an Act Restore 2. an Agent God Restore thou 3. the Person suing David unto me 4. the blessing sued for the joy of God's salvation Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation David as the Title sheweth us being awakened by Nathan out of the slumber wherein he had long layn after his foul fact with Bathsheba penned this Psalm and published it a truly Penitential Psalm full of humble and hearty acknowledgments of sin and of earnest petitions for mercy and for assurance of God's favour His great fall had so bruised him that he felt no ease or comfort all was discomposed and out of tune his soul cast down and disquieted within him his heart broken his spirit wounded And a wounded spirit who can bear Hence it is that he prayeth with such vehemence Prov. 18. 14. and fervencie that God would be pleased in great merey to blot out all his transgressions and to wash and cleanse him from his sins and iniquities that he would not cast him away from his presence nor take his holy spirit from him and here in my Text that he would restore unto him the joy of his salvation But however these last expressions may seem to be the breathings of a disconsolate spirit and of one even out of hope yet we must not think that this man after God's own heart this great Saint though grievously fallen was quite fallen from grace and that his faith had now utterly failed and was extinguished No Faith can never be lost Or rather if it
The Gods themselves have not strength enough to strive against Necessity but he is weaker than a man who yieldeth where there is no necessity The VVoman gave it me then is but a weak apology Further yet What was the gift was it of so rich a value as to countervail the loss of Paradise No it was DE FRUCTU ARBORIS the fruit of the tree We call it an Apple Some would have it to be an Indian Fig. The Holy Ghost vouchsafeth not once to name it or to tell us what it was Whatsoever it was it was but fruit and of that tree of which Man was forbidden to eat upon penalty of death Quasi vero rationis aliquid Gen. 2. 17. haberet haec defensio saith a Father As if this defense had any shew of reason in it when he confesseth that he preferred this apple this slight gift of the Woman before the command of God The Woman gave me of the tree and I did eat Here are two God and the Woman the Gift and the Command the Apple and Obedience To hearken to the Woman and to be deaf to God to forsake the command for the gift to fling off obedience at the sight of an apple is that which sheweth Adam's sin in its full magnitude and yet is taken-in here for an apologie But perhaps this fruit may be of high price this apple may be an apple of God with this glorious inscription upon it ERITIS SICUT DII if ye eat it ye shall be as Gods Who would not venture then to touch upon such hopes who would not eat an Apple to become a God It is true if this had not been the Devil's inscription whose every letter is a lie and whose greatest gift is not worth an apple whose kingdoms of the world and glorie of Mat. 4. 8. them are overbought with a thought Mala emtio saith the Oratour semper ingrata est quia semper exprobrare videtur domino stultitiam An evil bargain is an ey-sore because it alwayes upbraideth him with folly who made it And such a bargain here had our first father made He had bought gravel for bread wind for treasure spem pretio hope for a certainty a lie for truth an apple for paradise The Woman the Gift the gift of an Apple these are brought-in for an excuse but are indeed a libel Further still to aggrandize Adam's fault consider how the reason of his excuse doth render it most unreasonable Why doth he make so buisy a defense why doth he shift all the blame from himself upon the woman Here was no just detestation of the offence but only fear of punishment The fruit of the tree had been pleasant to the eyes and tast but MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt surely die was bitter as gall He would offend Gen. 3. 6. Gen. 2. 17. with the woman but with the woman he would not be punished For love of her he did eat but now he hath eaten see how he loveth her Behold the Lord cometh with a fiery sword to take vengeance for his sin Doth he oppose himself to the danger doth he stand between the sword and his wife doth he urge her weakness doth he plead for her doth he call for the blow on himself No She gave and let the blow light upon her Pernitiosè misericors pernitiosiùs crudelis saith Bernard He had been too pliant and kind to sin with his wife but now most cruel when he should be merciful It was too much mercy to joyn with her in the sin but cruelty without mercy to leave her in the Punishment And here is a sign that Adam is fallen indeed even fallen from the high degree of a Lord to the low condition of a Servant who feareth not to offend but to be punished would break the command at pleasure but that Death is the best reward that followeth To a good man Punishment appeareth not in so horrid a shape as sin for punishment is but the evil of passion inflicted for the evil of action and of the two the evil of action is far the worse The lips of an harlot are far worse then the biting of a cockatrice Theft is far worse then the whip Yea to sin as Anselm saith is far worse then to be damned For there is a kind of justice in punishment which is not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither God nor Man will deny but that it is most just that he who sinneth should suffer for his sin Omnis pana si justa est peccati paena est saith Augustine But for sin punishment were not just We may bespeak Adam in the stile of the imperial Law ipse te subdedisti paenae thou hast brought thy self under punishment and deservest to have it doubled for shifting it off to thy wife He had taken possession of Paradise upon condition and had made a contract with God And the Scholiast on the fifth of Aristotle's Ethicks will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in punishment a kind of giving and receiving in which the nature of all contracts doth consist He who receiveth by theft 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine phrase is dabit paenas he must give punishment Adam receiveth an apple and he must give paradise yea his life for it We have said enough to shew that Adam did but pavementare peccatum as St. Augustin speaketh parget and plaister ever his sin and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alleage that for a cause of his transgression which in truth was none But In the last place that which maketh his apologie worse than a lie and rendreth his excuse inexcusable is that he removeth the fault from the Woman on God himself Not the Woman alone is brought in but MULIER QUAM TU DEDISTI The Woman whom thou gavest me she gave me of the tree and I did eat Which indeed is a plain sophism non causae pro causa That is made a cause which is not a cause but an occasion only It is a common axiome Causa causae est causa causati That which produceth the cause produceth also the effect of that cause And it is true in Causes and effects essentially coordinate But here it is not so God indeed gave Adam the Woman but he gave him not the Woman to give him the Apple Dedit sociam non tentatricem He gave her for a companion not for a tempter He gave her not to do that which he had so plainly forbidden The true cause of Adam's sin was in himself and in his own will It was not the Woman which God gave him but the Woman which he gave himself who gave him the fruit God gave him a Woman to be obedient to him not to command him God gave him a Will to incline to his command but not to break it Whatsoever God gave him was good The Woman was good the Fruit was good his Will was good the Command was good but he gave himself a Woman who was
City of God Even this To preach by his statue Let him that looketh on me learn to fear God What did Herod get by casting of Peter into prison He was smitten by an Angel and eaten up of worms What did Pharaoh get by flinging the children of the Hebrews into the river He brought him into his Courts who deprived him of his Crown and life The wicked is snared in the work Psal 9. 16. of his own hands This saith St. Basil is not added as a punishment onely but it is the very nature of Sin to make a nett and to digg a pitt for it self The cruel man is his own just executioner nor is he taken so much in the hands of God as in his own What did ever any seditious and turbulent spirits gain in the work which should be as Hell it self There is nothing to affright no grudging of conscience no fear no soruple no sad reluctancy or dejection of spirit and this for a little while But look up anon and you shall see them lifted up indeed their heads lifted up on high so high that the ravens of the valley may pluck out their eyes A woful indeed but a useful spectacle It thus bespeaks every passer-by My son fear thou God and the King and meddle not with those who are given to change Prov. 24. 21 22. For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruin of them both Look upon those sons of Belial who are given to change who like Cleon in Athens wish for wars and civil tumults thereby to advantage themselves and to sodder up their estates broken by intemperance and prodigious lust who are never warm but when a Kingdom is in combustion Look upon them and mark them how horribly they are consumed and brought to desolation before the Sun and the people Behold Corah and his mutinous conspirators swallowed up alive of the earth and going down quick into Hell Behold Bigthan and Theresh hanging at the Court-gate Behold Absalom Numb 16. Est 2. Sam. 18. hanging on a tree with three darts through him Behold one in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye falling down with a shot from a Church who had devoured all the Churches in the land in his thoughts And in that less then a moment he and all his thoughts perisht Behold another Sheba receiving his death-swound in that very field where he first blew the trumpet A Northern army may break in upon the children of Israel but God tells them that he will remove this Northern army farr off and drive them into a land barren and desolate Nay but if Religion must whet their sword Joel 2. 20. for how little of the thing it self they have is but too manifest if they will by violence enter into a land which is none of theirs some of them shall possess it indeed yet but so much of it as shall make them a grave Others shall be captives in it to those whom they threatned to bring into captivity And for the rest no land can be too barren or dissolate for them I confess it is not safe to make too bold a descant upon those calamities which indifferently befall both good and bad but when they are so remarkable and so signal it is not good to neglect them This I dare commend unto you In whose hands soever you see the instruments of injustice and cruelty think you see that man digging a pit for himself When his anger is highest when the tempest is loudest his PAULULUM his little while is drawing to an end and be sure of it it will breath it self out whilst it seeks to destroy Why art thou then cast down O my soul why art thou so disquieted within me Disquieted to see wicked men in arms which being interpreted is to hasten to their destruction It is not their power but our ignorance of Gods wayes which casts us down and thus disquieteth us Nihil imperitiâ impatientius Nothing is more impatient then Ignorance To it every breath is a tempest every cloud an inundation every frown a desention ADHUC PAULULUM yet a little while a span of time is a kind of eternity Why hope in God wait on the Lord yet a little while who waiteth upon thee from thy mothers womb to thy gray hairs Possess thy soul with patience under that hand which in this little while is working thy Salvation For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be It is a sad theme we are faln upon the Downfall of the wicked We will therefore withdraw your eyes from Gods Sword to his Mercy-seat and lead you from the power of his Wrath under the wing of his Protection while we consider and examine the Priviledge of the Meek The wicked shall not be but they meek shall inherit the Earth My last is Servation And when all is done when we have wearied our selves and our imaginations in ploting for wealth and honour we shall find that we are as far to seek as when we first set out that we have labour'd for the wind for that which is not bread like those Spirits in Minerals which Cornelius Agrippa speaks of which dig and cleanse and sever metals but when men come they find nothing is done Let us therefore learn to seek the price of the world in our own breasts And when Policie and Power and all our busy endeavours fail our very silence and our Meekness shall purchase for us the inheritance of the earth Nor need we take this earth for that new earth discovered by St. Peter or with others for the land of 1 Cor. 4. 3. Caanan into which the meekest man on the earth was not suffered to enter But we may take it for ought I see and I have St. Augustine and St. Chrysostome on my side for this habitable earth which is divided amongst so many nations by the sword and violence And lend but your Patience and we shall take some pains to make it good in the very letter What is thy Beloved more than other Beloveds It is spoken to the Cant. 5. 9◠Spouse So what is Meekness more than other virtues We may say Here is Synecdoche speciei one particular taken for the General one Virtue for all the rest Or the Effect is put for the Cause because Meekness is one of the principal and cheifest parts of holiness But if you will give me leave to conjecture the holy Ghost may seem in this Promise at once to shew the condition of the Church and to comfort her and because being layd hard at on every side she stands in need of this virtue more than any other to fit and fashion the reward to the virtue to cherish and exalt it in us with the promise of something beyond our expectation even the inheritance of the earth And indeed what fitter reward can there be of Meekness What more fit and just than that they who have been made the anvil for injuries
Christum facimus saith Petrarch in another case It is not enough for us to set our hearts upon riches unless we make Christ himself Covetous also It is not enough for us to pursue honors and dignities unless we make Christ ambitious and so set up a temporal Monarchy in the Church We crown Christ but it is not with the crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his espousals when he made him the Head of the Church In the world we are born in the world we are bread and hence it comes to pass that when we divert our industry unto Christian study to the knowledge of Christ and his Kingdome we still phansie something like unto the World Riches and Honor and a universal Monarchy But suppose that Christ had the politick government of the world given him as man yet he never exercised his Regal power in this kind He built no castles raised no armies trod not upon the necks of Emperors Suppose he had exercised his Regal power yet all this would hardly fasten the triple Crown on the high Priests head But we see himself renounce all such claim He complains he hath not what the Foxes have a hole to hide his head Being desired to divide the inheritance between two brothers he answers sharply Man who made Luke 9. 56. me a judge or a divider over you When Pilate asketh him Art thou the King Luke 12. 14. of the Jews Christ answereth Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Dost thou object this crime or is it seigned to thy hands by others And at last he makes this plain confession before Pontius Pilate My kingdome is not of this world Which words like the Parthian horseman John 18. ride one way but look another are spoken to an Infidel to Pilate but are a lesson directed to the subjects of his spiritual Kingdome a Lesson teaching us not to dream of any honor in his kingdome but salvation nor any crown but the crown of life And therefore as Aristotle tells us of his moral Happiness that it is the chiefest good but not that which the Voluptuary phansieth the Epicures Good nor that which the Ambitious adoreth the Politicians Good nor that which the Contemplative man abstracteth a Universal notion and Idea of Good so may we say of this Kingdome that in respect of it all the Kingdoms of the earth are not worth a thought but it is not such a Kingdome as the Jews expect or the Chiliasts phansie or the Church of Rome dreams of And though commonly Negatives make nothing known yet we shall find that the nature of Christs Kingdome could not have been more lively and effectually exprest than by this plain negation My Kingdome is not of this world To come yet a little nearer to the light by which we may discover this Kingdome The School-men have raised up divers Kingdoms and built them all upon the same foundation the Word of God First his absolute Dominion over the creature in respect of which Christ is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords To this they have added Regnum Scripturae and Regnum Ecclesiae They call the Scripture and the Church Kingdoms Then they make Regnum Gratiae a Kingdom of Grace and Regnum Gloriae a Kingdome of Glory And by a figure they make the King Christ himself a Kingdome All these may be true and these appellations may have some warrant from Scripture it self and may have an ADVENIAT set to them When we rest upon that law of Providence by which in a wonderful manner God governeth the world we say ADVENIAT Let his absolute Kingdome come Let him dispose and order the actions of men and the events of things as he pleaseth When we make our selves Saints and strive to bring others into that fellowship and communion there is an ADVENIAT for we pray for the increase of the Church and the enlarging of her territories When we hunger and thirst after the water of life when we desire that wholsome doctrine may drop as the rain and saving truth distil as the dew there is an ADVENIAT a prayer which will open the windows of heaven Some are of opinion that by Kingdom come here Christ did mean the Gospel And this carries some probability in it For the Disciples and Apostles of Christ whose business it was to propagate the Gospel had this petition Thy Kingdom come so often in their mouths that they were accused affectati regni as Enemies to the State who did secretly undermine one Empire to set up another We cannot deny but that not only the manifestation of Gods will but the confirmation of it either by preaching or by miracle or by those gifts and effects which can proceed from no other cause but the power and efficacy of the Spirit are truly called the kingdome of Christ because they are instrumenta regni instruments and helps to advance his throne or Kingdome in our very hearts that as true Subjects we may obey his commands as true Souldiers fight under his banner that so we may suffer with him here and reign with him hereafter And in this sense we may call the Scripture a Kingdome and the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the outward Government of the Church whether Political by the Magistrate or Ecclesiastical by the Bishops and Priests a Kingdome because both Powers both Ecclesiastical and Civil are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great helps and furtherances to advance Gods Kingdome But Aquinas shall give you a full resolution 1 a 2 ae Qu. 104. Regnum Dei in interioribus consistit principaliter sed ex consequenti ad regnum Dei pertinent omnia illa sine quibus interiores actus esse non possunt The Kingdome of God is within us and principally consists in the subduing of the inward man in taking the citadel of the Heart but by a plain and easie consequence all those things without which these inward acts are not ordinarily performed may be taken in within its verge and compass And when we pray for the supply and continuance of these helps we truly say Thy Kingdome come For Christ is not truly and properly said to reign till we have surrendered up unto him our very souls and hearts and laid them at his feet For as Cassian saith of Fasting and Watching and Nakedness that they are not perfection it self but the instruments to work it So may we say of these outward helps the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the Watchfulness of Kings and Prelates and the like They are not the Kingdome of God but helps and instruments to set us up And his reason will hold here also In ipsis enim non consistit disciplinae finis sed per illa pervenitur ad finem For these are not the end but by these we are brought to the end to the Kingdome of Grace which will bring us to the Kingdome
for those actions which may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato speaks make us in some degree like unto God Therefore even Heathens themselves have acknowledged that Life and Reason are given to Men to this end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we may follow God Now so far as we follow him so near are we to him And though he be angry with that person who hath not sued out his pardon yet he loveth his virtues Though he will not know him not acknowledge him to be his yet he doth not frown upon those actions in which he resembles him He is not angry with his Patience his Fidelity his Truth but with those his sins which make him guilty of eternal death For suppose a Christian that believes be of a wicked and an Infidel of an honest conversation certainly of the two the Infidel is nearest to the kingdom of heaven No These actions of piety are not sins but they are not conducible to eternal life They have their reward but not that reward which is laid up for the righteous The Law is broken and all the works I do not say of all the virtuous Heathens but of all the Saints of all the Martyrs that have ever been cannot satisfie for the least breach of the Law no more than a Traytor can redeem his treason against the King by giving of alms or which is more by dying for his country For whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin to bear not only its heavy burden but the whip not only to be at its beck and when it says Do this to do it but to be punisht for sin to be lyable to those lashes of conscience and to be reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day He is captive sold under sin driven out from the face of God under the power of that Law which is a killing letter obnoxious to all the Woes which are denounced against sinners And thus he stands till he doth postliminio recipere recover and receive his liberty till he be redeemed and brought back again And by justification and free pardon quasi jure postliminii as by a law of recovery he is reinstaled into that liberty which he lost and doth omnia sua recipere receive all that might be his his Filiation his Adoption his Title to a Kingdome putatur semper fuisse in civitate he is graciously accepted as if he had never been lost as if he had alwayes been a free denizon of the City of God and never fled from thence as if he had never forfeited his right His sins are wiped out as if they had never been This we beg in the first place That we may be reconciled unto God That being justified we may have peace But then in the next place our Petition is NE INDUCAT That he will not lead us into temptation That we may sin no more Not that we approve of that error of Jovinian That after we are baptized after we are reconciled unto God we cannot be tempted by Satan and That those who sin were never truly baptized were baptizati aquâ non spiritu baptized with water only and not with the holy Ghost or That this Petition did belong only to the Catechument those novices in Christianity which were not yet admitted into the Church and not to believing Christians This error is at large confuted by St. Hierom. For why else those warnings those preparations those warlike oppositions against Satan Why should we say this Prayer at all if after reconcilement there were an impossibility of sinning But it is impossible only impossibilitate juris as the Civilians speak not that it cannot be done but that it should not be done For thus the Law supposeth obligations to be performances and that necessarily done which we are bound to do What should be done is done and it is impossible to be otherwise When we are iustified there is mors criminum and vita virtutum as St. Cyprian speaks or as the Apostle we are dead to sin and alive to righteousness Indeed Justification is nothing else but an action of God or a certain respect and relation by which we are acquitted of our sins And although it be done without any respect had to good works yet it is not done without them Although it be not a change from one term to another from Sin to Holiness yet is no man justified without this change Therefore not only Faith but Charity also is required as a condition at their hands who will be saved But it hath pleased God to justifie us freely by his grace and to impute Rom. 3. 24. not our Goodness but Faith to us for righteousness Christus justificat Rom. 4. 22. sed justificabiles Christ indeed justifies but not those who make themselves uncapable of his Grace As Fire burns but such matter as is combustible and the Soul animates a sick or crasie body perhaps but not a carkass So That Faith justifies a sinner and That Charity doth not justifie are both true but it is as true Faith cannot justifie him who loveth not the Eph. 6. 24. Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Christus justificat impium sed poenitentem Christ justifies a sinner but a sinner that repents It is true that the Schools tell us Justificatio non fit sine interna renovatione We cannot be justified without renewing and inward change But this change doth not justifie us Therefore where they enhaunce Good works and give them a share in our Justification they do veritatem tenere non per vera as Hilary speaks speak some truth but not truly apply it or rather as Tertullian speaks veritatem veritate concutere shake and overthrow one truth with another Good works are necessary they must abound in us God delights in them and rewards them But what concurrence have these with Remission of sins which is the free gift of God and proceeds from no other fountain but his own Will and infinite Mercy To bring this home to our present purpose Our victory over tentations is neither the cause of Remission of sins nor yet the necessary effect Not the cause For what power have the acts of Holiness to abolish the act of one sin which is past and for which we are condemned already Nor the necessary effect For then when Sin is once forgiven we could sin no more nor be lead into tentation Therefore when we read that the justified person is freed from sin we must understand that he is free from the guilt of former sins not from the danger of future and in the Fathers fides est genitrix bonae voluntatis that Faith is the mother of a good will we find not what Faith alwayes doth but what it should do and what it is ordeined for what it would produce if no cross action of ours did intervene to hinder it In a word let us not only in our Pater Noster but in the whole course