divine Majesty is left unwounded unmaimed unbruised And as all the perfections of goodnesse and honour which are and are found in creatures by creatures as foot-steps of the Creatour are also originally and therefore most perfectly and therefore most eminently and infinitely in God So mark this my soule because sinne is Gods onely enemy and because there is a combination of evill the onely contrary to all kindes of goodnesse linked together in themselves because joyned together in God one sinne containeth and comprehendeth all kindes of filthinesse all kindes of deformity the filthinesse and deformity of all other sins Which is one of the reasons why it is said in Saint James Whosoever shall keepe the James 2. 10. whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Another cause is The sinner which breakes charity with God and offends him in one point the way being now open and the reasons why he ought not to offend God violated is ready of himselfe to offend him in another and in all and will if power or occasions be not wanting For he can never give a good reason either taken from something in God or from something concerning himselfe why he should offend God in one point and not in another because he can never give a good reason why he should offend him at all and every offence of God is most contrary to reason Sinne is the chiefest evill or rather all evill and therefore so contrary to God the chiefest good or rather all good that although it is permitted because directed to a good end by his Providence yet neither can it be so much as fathered by his Omnipotence nor suffered by his Justice nor yet approved by his wisedome And is it not a most wicked businesse to commit an act of that foule quality that Gods Providence must presently to worke and turn it to Good or he lies open to a reproach for having suffered evill and there must be that which wee name a thing in the world and God the Creator of all things must not be the cause of it nor have any hand in it and God must be forced to strike with his justice as if he delighted in our destruction And if he will know all and be God he must be compell'd to looke upon that which his wisedome cannot like because it hath no being in him as it is the folly of sinne nor any connexion with his wisdome I am certain I thinke not of all this when I sinne Sinne is the destruction of Grace I have said enough And Thomas Aquinas disputing Tho. Aqui. 1. 2. q. 113. art 9. ad 2. of the difference betwixt the justification of a sinner and the creation of the world in the worth of the Act saith Bonum gratiae unius majus est quam bonum naturae totius universi the good of grace in one man though not raised above one degree is a greater good then all the good of nature pertaining to the world then the Sunne Moone Starres Earth Sea then any thing I ever saw or naturally can see then the soule of man with Gods Image in it though of so pure a substance that it cannot bee seene And Grace in the soule may be fitly compared to the light of the Sunne in the world For as there are degrees and differences of this outward light suiting with the time of the day So there is the light of Nature that is of Reason in us the light of Learning the light of Experience the light of Grace This faire light of the Sunne the light of Grace we in the meane time crucifying and killing Christ is all darkened with sinne as the Sunne it selfe was darkened when Christ hung dying upon the Crosse Sinne is the Consumption of goodnesse the death of the soule mans beter part and that by which he resembles his Creatour and is allied to God One evill thought is a secret conspiracie against God and all the triumphant Court of Heaven By every bad word wee scornefully spet in our Saviours face And with every ill action we buffet him This to speake the best of it is Jewish cruelty What a Christian turn'd Jew Now my eyes shut your selves unworthy to behold Gods good light or his Creatures by it whose Maker I have abused and strived to disenthrone though all Creatures and my selfe should have fallen with him With sorrow of heart I will open my owne sinnes before him whether open or secret which must be the more grievous because I was ashamed to act them before men The desperation of Cain shal not come neere me Mentiris Caine saith Saint Austin major est Dei S. Aug. in Gen. 4. super major est iniquitas mea pietas quam omnis iniquitas Caine thou liest Gods mercie is greater then all sin CHAP. XIIII BUt doe not mine eyes runne all this while have not teares opened them True teares of repentance as Chrysologus Chrysol speaketh extinguunt gehennam put out and extinguish Hell-fire which all good men preach to be unquenchable Wee see that when darke clouds cover the Heavens they seeme as it were possessed with horrour and sadnes yet the winde hath no sooner beate upon them shakē them into little drops of Psal 126. 5. rain but the Heavens begin to grow cleare and by little and little to look with a most pleasant face upon the world For they that sow in teares shall reape in joy Because the seed-time was wet and troublesome it shall be faire weather and Sun-shine all the harvest The shedding of teares from the eyes of a true Penitent is a spirituall Baptisme by which the soule is renewed in Christ and when will the Sunne shine if not after so sweet a shower Could I behold such a sweet shower falling from another I hope I should learne to drop my Luke 7. 5. 37. 38. selfe Saint Luke hath an eminent example And behold Behold a watch-word some great matter the Scripture hath to say And behold a Woman in the City A Woman what Woman why she the woman so much talkt of the Sinner A Woman in the City which was a sinner she desires not to be knowne or call'd by any other name but sinner And if you call sinner where are you She is quick of hearing on that part and she knowes you meane her and is ready to answer that 's my name here I come And what with her now she is come Why this Woman the sinner when shee knew that Jesus sat at meate in the Pharisees house brought an Alablaster Box of oyntment Now take a view of her behaviour And stood at his feete She durst not looke higher then his feete and lower she could not looke and she was willing to be trod upon if he pleased Behinde him She did not thinke her selfe worthy that he should look upon her or that she so wretched a sinner and yet not a sinner but the sinner should behold his blessed face
of holy practise and heavenly contemplation The Devill standeth ready to dash out our braines to destroy the body and to devoure the soule to disturbe the peace of nature to confound the elements to mingle Heaven and Earth to trouble all wishing earnestly and earnestly entreating that God would turne away his milde face his gentle eyes and say Goe my Executioner revenge my cause upon the World And yet God will not O the delicacie of the Divine sweetnesse Learne the nature of the Devill In one thing especially the fall of the Angels was like the fall of man For as man was more weakened by his fall in his will and readinesse to doe good then in his understanding and knowledge of good so the Devill is farre more blunted in his will then blinded in his understanding As for his naturall knowledge it is rather dazled then darkned And by this notable signe you may know that his will is most malignant For although it is plaine to him that for every temptation he stirreth up in man the burden of punishment shall bee laid presently heape after heape upon his shoulders and though he knoweth exactly how many strong ties he breakes by offending perceives more throughly the quality of the offence and sees with a more cleare eye the greatnesse of the Divine majesty offended yet still the perversnesse and faction of his will carries him on through all to mischiefe And if the Devill remaineth yet so perfect in the intellectuall part by knowledge sans doubt he knowes and is versed in all the possible wayes how to invade us which way our inclinations leane which side is most weak and how he may plant his engine with returne of most profit to his owne cause and what will best follow the fashion of our fancie The enemy which we see before us in his owne and knowne shape sense teacheth us to feare and consequently to withstand or prevent him But the Devill we feare the lesse because we see him not because he has the art to goe invisible Thomas Aquinas is of opinion that every man being alwayes accompanied with a good Angel and a bad one some by reason of the foule enormity of their sinnes and desertion of God who never forsaketh before he is forsaken and left alone himselfe may be forsaken for a while or totally by their good Angel But I dare say that never any man was forsaken by his bad Angel the Devill If one of us were but a little while haunted with a Ghost how he would feare and tremble every one of us is haunted continually with a Devill and yet we feare not because we doe not see him No man goeth but the Devil goeth with him no man stayeth but the Devill stayeth with him no man sleepeth here his action changes but the Devill waketh by him And as he is alwayes with us so hee is also alwayes so vigilant about us that although he doth not know the thoughts of the heart in the heart and cannot reade them in that booke of Characters yet he doth oftentimes gather what they are by the language of outward signes and also by outward signes forestall and know even future occurrences depending upon the will of man He is a Tempter by his profession God also may be said to tempt us but how by scattering rubbs in our way to make vertue more bold and more laborious What made all the Conquerours famous but because they conquer'd what was not easily conquer'd But the Devill tempteth with a direct intention to sinne God tempteth with a strong desire of good and of our salvation the Devill with a furious desire of evill and of our damnation God tempteth us not above our strength the Devill would if God would suffer him And as the Roman Conquerour the Queene having escaped carried her image in triumph So because he cannot trample upon God who threw him downe from Heaven he labours to revenge himselfe upon his Image Suspect therefore all his proceedings Facilius illicita Tert. de cultu foeminarum timebit qui licita verebitur saith Tertullian He will more easily feare unlawfull things who will be afraid even of things lawfull Let this joy thy heart Nothing can happen or stirre or be in the world except sin without Gods approbation nor yet that without his permission Please God and you have him your friend that holds all chances all stirrings and the being of all things fast in his hands And lastly begge nothing of man before you first begge it of God Rule 2. DIsingage your selfe from the world mistake me not from the love of it Old Authors observe that the Apostles were all clad outwardly not with Friers coates but with mantles And the mantle is a loose garment which hangs to a man but by a loope If it prove troublesome if it hindereth in your journey put your finger to the loope and the mantle falleth away The Apostles taught even by their garments and the mantles served to demonstrate their neglect of worldly things and to give evidence by what tenure they held them If riches abound set not your heart upon them sayes he that was both Prince and Prophet If they creepe upon you keepe the infection from your heart if they breake in upon the heart they are mortall Except a man shall renounce all which Luke 14. 33. he possesseth he cannot be my Disciple sayes the Prince of Prophets Then O rich man either presently renounce all which thou possessest or else turne out-law and forbeare to thinke thy selfe the Disciple of Christ All. A tearme of universality shuts the doore against every particular This is heavy newes I feare the messenger will bee ill paid It is not My yoke is easie and my burden Matth. 11. 30. is light saith he under whose yoke we labour Renounce the will and affection to riches and thou hast fulfilled the Law The affection of a ragged poore creature may be more closely tyde to an old house and a pewter dish then the will of a great person to a Palace and the revenewes of a Prince And therefore our Saviour speaketh plainely Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven For poverty Matth. 5. 3. of spirit even rich may have in a rich manner And because they are poore upon earth they shall be rich in Heaven for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven And the Kingdome of Heaven is not promised to any kind of poverty but the poverty of spirit And to that it is promised wheresoever God finds it It is easier for a Cāel to go through Mat. 19. 24 the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of God that is for a rich man whose love and affection sit brooding upon his riches Some ancient expositors tell us upon this place that there was in Jerusalem a little gate which for its extraordinary straitnesse was called the Needle the passage through it being
continuance of the worke it pleased him to use the meane assistance of second causes as of Angels and intelligences that he might adde worth and honour to them by so great imployment So likewise in the workes of Grace and second diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures the great worke of enfranchizing the world by his Bloud himselfe alone would performe but in applying the merits and vertue of his Passion to the chosen vessels of honour and mercie he doth graciously call in a manner to his aide Apostles and Apostolicall men And as God being the Author of nature fals under himselfe and workes with every creature or second cause in a manner and measure agrreable to their naturall and ordinary way of working So likewise being the Author of Grace and having never yet for some great reasons best knowne to himselfe made two men with a perfect agreement either of face or nature sendeth Apostles and Preachers who have in their commands a speciall injunction of being like to him who saith I am made all things 1 Cor. 9. 22 to all men that I might by all meanes save some And God himselfe not onely in executing the generall Acts and Decrees of his Providence over his creatures but also and more especially in the more notable praxis and speciall exercise of his providence over his Church from the beginning of the world was all things to all men CHAP. VII GOD hath full power and absolute dominion over all his Creatures because he call'd yea catched them out of nothing and because to speake in the Apostles dialect in him they live move and have their being And therefore hee may lawfully give Lawes to them to the due and strict observation of which they are strongly bound under paine of his high displeasure seconded with most heavie punishment Wherefore giving a Law to the Jewes by the mediation of Moses he beginneth with an argument of his authority and dominion over them I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of Exod 20. 2. the land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage This laid for the corner-stone I thus proceed in the building In the infancie and childhood of the world when sinne was not as yet so active so quicke so cunning but dull and clownish and to foreshow the backwardnesse of nature in matters pertaining to Heaven yes to naturall knowledge and even humane society and also that it might fully and plentifully appeare to after-ages how nature is wrought and polished as in materiall things by Art so in spirituall matters by Grace The Law by which God for the most part guided man was onely borne with him was young as he was young and grew as he grew non scripta sed nata lex as the Orator saith being a Law not written and sent in a letter to us from Lycurgus Solon or Moses but borne with us or if written written onely in the soule of man where it continually remaineth in the shape of a light discovering to the view of the Soule the beauty of good and the deformity of evill For Good is faire and amiable and the cleare eye of reason beholdeth in it at the first sight a singular convenience with the will of man and a sympathy with Heaven And therefore they who were bound onely with the looser ties of the Law of nature and who now in strange Countries and in wilde and uncouth places dispense their actions by the light of reason beare a Preacher in their hearts Ill is blacke and deformed and reason in the first glance seeth a loathsomenesse a Toad in it and heareth presently as it were a jarring and disagreement with God and Heaven And therefore the drunkard the lascivious person and others of the same torne and ragged coate loath in deed not by any pious act of Christian vertue but by a deed of nature their owne beastlinesse and can by no meanes endure to be call'd what they are For as the Beast runneth the Bird flieth from danger as the one prepareth his den the other his nest as they looke abroad for daily nourishment provide carefully for their young know what will satisfie their cold of hunger what coole their heate of thirst what complyeth with their different appetites follow the leading of their admirable properties and by a secret instinct cheerefully performe the severall acts of their nature So man since he dealt with the Tree of Knowledge naturally knoweth good as opposed to evill as he naturally distinguisheth light from darknesse Againe some things are good in themselves and not good onely because God commands them to be loved and imbraced and these in the first place the light of nature sheweth to be good And some things are evill in themselves and not evill onely because markt and branded with a prohibition and these chiefely the light of nature showeth to be evill For if the light or law of nature in its owne nature did not make it cleare to Caine that he ought not to have killed his good brother Abel how did he sinne or what branch of law did he breake in killing him sinne being the violation of a law But certainly he trespassed upon that first principle of nature in morality Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri ne feceris what you would that men should not doe unto you doe not you unto them And hither Saint Paul pointeth For when the Gentiles which have not the law doe by nature the things Rom. 2. 14. contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves One step more and we are in the bottome Although the the Sage Aegyptians in Damascius cried out three times in every performance of their heathenish my steries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unknowne darknesse yet by the plaine and easie search of humane power the old Philosophers found that there was a God and that he was but one in Essence that he was every where that he was omnipotent and the like though verily their knowledge both of God and his workes was rather opinion then knowledge it did so hang waver For the Philosopher opening his minde occasionally concerning the birth of the world sometimes he was and sometimes againe he was not Aristotle In one Arist l. 1. de coelo 1. Top. c. 9. booke hee judgeth absolutely that the world stood in the same state in which now it is in all eternity In another he stops like a man come unawares to a place where the way is divided and doubts which path leads to the truth In a third booke discussing the generation of living things Lib. 3. de generatione animalium c. 11. he sayes a man shall not beleeve amisse who shall take it for certaine that the first man and beast upon supposition that they came of the earth were either produced out of a Worme or an Egge and at length breaking the Egge in long handling concludes it is the most consentaneous to