worldly and seek him who is supernaturall happinesse then is conversion wrought and not before Faith converts the minde to God but it is love and charitie that converts the heart and will to God which is the greatest and last conversion because we never seek any thing untill we desire it Our conversion therefore is begun in the minde by faith but this conversion is but half a conversion yea it is no conversion of the whole man except the love of the heart where lieth the greatest apprehension do second and follow it We see salvation by faith but we never obtain it untill we desire and seek it by charities desire Wherefore I conclude that for so much as charitie is the nearest and immediate cause of our conversion of our seeking and finding God therefore this is the most precious grace of God for our good and is the greatest mean and instrument of our justification because justification and conversion to God is all one for God is our righteousnesse but the greatest mean of our apprehending of him is by charitie which layes hold of him in the will and reasonable affection therefore this must be the greatest mean of our justification signified by the Apostle where he speaks of the severall means Now abideth faith hope and charitie but the greatest of these is charity Which demonstration he that preferreth faith before charitie would elude by urging this absurd consequence Ergò rex meliùs terram arabit quà m agricola meliùs calceum faciet quà m sutor quia nobilior est utroque Ergò homo celeriùs curret quà m equus plus oneris portabit quà m elephas quia dignitate superat Ergò angeli meliùs terram illuminabunt quà m sol luna quia praestantiores Then saith he the king should plough better then the husbandman should make shoes better then the shoemaker because he is more noble then them both Then a man should run swifter then a horse should carry a greater burden then an elephant because he excells them in dignitie Then angels should illuminate the earth better then the sunne and moon because they are more excellent But this is nothing but a running from the state of the question because every thing that is greatest and best to his proper object and in proper comparison is not greatest and best to every object and in every comparison But the Apostle here compareth charitie with justifying faith and hope absolutely and in the most excellent way as appeareth in the 31 verse of the 12 chapter beforegoing and it is manifest that the most excellent way is the way of our justification and conversion to God and here he affirmeth this to be the greatest and chiefest and therefore absolutely so it is Again he preferreth faith before charitie because faith is the cause of charitie If he could shew faith to be the efficient cause of it he should say something but when he can prove it to be no more but the disposing and instrumentall cause then by the same argument the ax should be greater and better then the house because it is an instrument used in the preparing of it which argument is absurd But to prove the truth for this noble vertue which none shall be able to overturn because it is founded upon the rock of Gods word I have these arguments 1. God justifieth Rom. 8. 33. God is charitie John 4. 8. Therefore charitie justifieth 2. The fulnesse of God in man is that which justifieth him Charitie is the fulnesse of God in man Ephes. 3. 19. Therefore charitie justifieth him 3. The fulfilling of the law justifieth Rom. 10. 4. Charitie is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13. 10. Therefore charitie justifieth In the assumption let not the reader understand the power of nature or naturall love but charitie the principall grace of Christ united to faith and hope In the preferring of this vertue S. Gregorie in his 38 homilie upon the Gospel calleth charitie the wedding garment which he that wanted at the great marriage was thrown into utter darknesse His words are these Quid debemus intelligere nuptialem vestem nisi charitatem Intrat enim ad nuptias sed cum nuptiali veste non intrat qui in sancta Ecclesia assistens fidem habet sed charitatem non habet What are we to understand by the wedding garment but charitie For he goeth in to the wedding but not with the wedding garment who being in the holy Church hath faith but hath not charitie He addeth further to this purpose Omnis ergò vestrûm qui in Ecclesia positus Deo credidit jam ad nuptias intravit sed cum nuptiali veste non venit si charitatis gratiam non custodit Therefore every one of you which being placed in the Church hath beleeved in God hath alreadie entred into the marriage but he cometh not with the wedding garment if he doth not preserve the grace of charitie There are many which come into Gods house which is his Church because they have faith to beleeve for this is that which first brings a man to God according to that Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must beleeve that God is yet though they be in Gods house and at his Sonnes wedding for a time when he comes to lift up their heads in his house as it is said Gen. 40. that is to reckon with them they must be thrown out again because as S. Augustine saith Expos. in Epist. Joh. Tract 5. Dilectio sola discernit inter filios Dei filios diaboli Signent se omnes signo crucis Christi respondeant omnes Amen cantent omnes Alleluia baptizentur omnes intrent omnes ecclesias faciant parietes basilicarum non discernuntur filii Dei à filiis diaboli nisi in charitate Onely charitie maketh a difference between the sonnes of God and the sonnes of the devil Let all signe themselves with the signe of Christs crosse let all answer Amen let all sing Alleluia let all be baptized let all go to church let all build churches the sonnes of God are not distinguished from the sonnes of the devil but by charitie They are none of Gods sonnes because they want charitie the robe of Christs righteousnesse and therefore they have no right to the place Further that must be the most excellent grace which joyneth the soul to God but this doth charitie because the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 6. 17. He that cleaveth to the Lord as S. Hierome translateth or he that is joyned to the Lord as our translation hath it which in meaning is all one is one spirit But charitie above all vertues causeth a man to cleave to God because as S. Bernard saith by charitie the soul is as it were married to God and in marriage a man forsakes all other to cleave to his wife and the wife forsakes all other to cleave to her husband according to that rule for marriage in Gen. 2. 24. Therefore shall a man leave
nothing but winde in them the one lifteth up in nature the other lifteth up in God But here it may be objected What meaneth the Apostle thus to disable knowledge seeing by it we depart from evil and are informed to good and the prophet Isaiah saith in his 53 chapter vers 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many where knowledge is made the cause of our justification I answer that wheresoever knowledge in holy scripture is taken in a good sense there it is vox complexa as sapientia is by S. Bernard called sapida scientia savourie knowledge for in this knowledge charitie which is the extern form of knowledge is comprehended But here in this text of scripture Knowledge is vox incomplexa standing alone by it self and in opposition to Charitie and therefore here it produceth no good effect but onely pride which is enemie to goodnesse But charitie is the substance of Christianitie and therefore is called of the School Divines grace it self And this in the building of a Christian toward heaven is the master-builder for the more it worketh in us the better and bigger Christians we grow according to that of S. Augustine Charitas inchoata inchoata justitia est charitas provecta provecta justitia est charitas magna magna justitia est charitas perfecta perfecta justitia est Charitie begunne is righteousnesse begunne charitie increased is righteousnesse increased great charitie is great righteousnesse and perfect charitie is perfect righteousnesse And when this is come then there is no difference between God and man it is conformitie between God and man it is as S. Paul saith the fulfilling of the law further then this we cannot go Yea that which is the most comfortable and remarkable point in all Christianitie is the law of the Spirit of life which freeth from the law of sinne and of death and this is the main refuge to the distressed conscience There are in the best two laws ruling in them because the best are compounded of two the flesh and the spirit The law of the flesh is concupiscence which gives precepts onely for the flesh whose end is sinne and death and therefore it is called the law of sinne of death and the law of the spirit is charitie which gives precepts onely for holinesse and righteousnes and this is called the law of life because the end of it is life These two laws are ex diametro opposite one to the other in the regenerate because they be both of force in this life therefore the regenerate are carried both wayes sometimes to sinne and sometimes to holines and vertue But because charitie which is the root of all good desires is the more noble law as being the law of the spirit and is in all evil actions first or last or both opposite to them and never yeeldeth but during the violence of the passion which being over it immediately returneth to his former strength and vertue therefore this freeth from the other so that condemnation is never liable to them in whom this law is found Therefore when the blessed Apostle besought God that the prick in the flesh that is to say concupiscence the law of sinne and death might be removed from him he would not grant it but told him My grace shall be sufficient for thee and this is nothing else but charitie which freeth the compound from sinne and death because as S. Peter saith it covereth the multitude of sinnes it will not suffer them to appeare And the reason why God would not have the law of the flesh and of sinne to be outed from this holy man and from the regenerate was because he would have his grace to conflict with the flesh that after the conflict his grace might be victour For my power saith God is made perfect through weaknesse But there is no greater weaknesse in man then concupiscence the lust of the flesh which being overcome by charities desire Gods grace and power is advanced and perfected And this law of the spirit S. Paul opposeth to the law of the letter which is knowledge when it is separate from the spirit and this killeth as well in the ministerie of the Gospel as in the ministerie of the Law of Moses as S. Augustine teacheth lib. de spiritu litera because the more knowledge we have the greater shall be our condemnation if we want the spirit of charitie to put it in practise Will you know then what charitie is which is thus advanced above knowledge It is the most noble above all vertues as our Apostle teacheth 1. Cor. 13. 13. Now abideth faith hope and charitie but the greatest of these is charitie He saith not shall be as Calvin and Beza offer to evacuate the Apostles comparison commendation but is now Now abideth faith hope and charitie but the greatest of these is charitie This is the lust and desire of the spirit as concupiscence is the lust and desire of the flesh the one sanctifieth and justifieth the other damnifieth and condemneth Gal. 5. 17. As concupiscence is the root of all vices so this is the root of all vertues it is the souls sanctified appetite Every man that hath wit and discretion will make choice of the best and the fairest but charitie is the best of all Gods gifts above faith and hope and knowledge and therefore above all things I wish you to seek and follow that In the twelfth chapter before the Apostle sets down all the better sort of Gods gifts among which he placeth wisdome knowledge faith working of miracles and the rest and then willeth them to make choice of the best But saith he desire you the best gifts and when he had so said then he said further I will yet shew you a more excellent way as if he had said Now I will shew you of a gift that is above all gifts yea better then the best before-named such a gift that without it all other are worth nothing Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charitie I am as sounding brasse or a tinkling cymball And though I had the gift of prophesie and knew all secrets and all knowledge yea if I had all faith so that I could remove mountains and had not charitie I were nothing And though I feed the poore with all my goods and though I give my bodie that I be burned and have not charitie it profiteth me nothing Now if all be nothing without this then get this and get all But what is the reason why all other graces without this are worth nothing Because without charitie they are as a bodie without a soul. Hadst thou a bodie as well framed as Leanders and Hero's was yet if thou hadst not a spirit to move in it thou shouldest have but a dead bodie worth nothing as S. James teacheth of faith without charitie by the effect
from the prophesie in Dan. 7. where he is compared to a little horn But it is known that the Jews are a vile kinde of people disperst like vagabonds amongst all nations having no kingdome nor kingly honour but are subject to the laws of other countreys among whom they dwell and among us Christians whom we detest we call a Jew Wherefore S. Hierome upon this place after he had first applied it to Antiochus saith thus But our men better and righter interpret that in the end of the world Antichrist shall do these things who is to rise from a small nation that is from the people of the Jews and he shall be so vile and despised that the kingly honour shall not be given him but by fraud and deceit he shall get the principalitie Again upon the 11 of Daniel he writeth No Jew without Antichrist shall at any time reigne over all the world These despised Jews when they shall get the day shall rage more terribly then any other according to the proverb Asperius nihil est humili cùm surgit in altum The basest ever is the most severe Once having gotten power to domineer Vers. 10. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved In that the Apostle joyneth love with the truth in the way to salvation this shews that none can either attain the truth or stand long in it without love which is the most sanctifying grace of the holy Ghost For so high are the mysteries of godlinesse and so contrarie to mans reason that none can apprehend them except divine love do bend his wits that way This appeareth from the scoffing anthem of the Arians in Socrates Scholasticus Where be these fellows who affirm three to be one Therefore then is mans understanding capable of divine truth when the holy Ghost who is Love goeth before Before love come we will dispute of the truth and with Pilate ask what is the truth though the truth stand before us as Christ stood before Pilate This is the reason why babes and fools of the world perceive that which the Scribe and the disputer cannot see And though they see it yet without love it is unsavourie to them they are not the better for it This S. Paul sheweth in 1. Cor. 13. 2. Though I had the gift of prophesie and knew all secrets and all knowledge and had all faith so that I could remove mountains and had not love I were nothing Wherefore where love and truth go hand in hand there is right faith and good life the two complements of our salvation But the principall of these two is love because love makes use of truth but truth without love is idle Vers. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve a lie Here S. Paul sets down the just judgement of God against the receivers of Antichrist which is effascination or strong delusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of errours working which the creature of it self is not able to resist Such was the working of Pharaohs inchanters that when he saw them to throw rods out of their hand and they turned into serpents therefore he would not beleeve Moses and his miracle though his rod devoured their rods before his eyes And so strong was the old prophets lie to the man of God that prophesied against the altar in Bethel that because he would not obey the revealed word of the Lord therefore the lie prevailed upon him to his destruction So will the devil fat men in a plerophorie of Antichrists false doctrine that they shall be so farre from doubting of it that they will exult and triumph in it But here may be demanded how God should be cleared from sinne when he sendeth such strong delusion which is the cause of sinne To this I answer that this is not here spoken of God properly but tropically Mittit non physicé sed permittendo deserendo He sendeth not delusion naturally but privatively by way of forsaking and suffering For when God upon just desert withdraws his grace from any then he gives the devil leave to go in and thus Gods forsaking is in place of sending because God knows that when he is departed the strong seducer will not be long absent And herein is God justified in that he never forsakes any untill he be forsaken of them according to the School-axiom Deus non deserit nisi priùs deseritur If the Jews would not have forsaken the true Christ they should not have been left to the lies of Antichrist God for his mercy sake grant to us Christians that we trust not so much to the strength of our own new phansies that we utterly abolish the ancient truth Antichrists doctrine Vers. 11. That they should beleeve a lie This is the summe of Antichrists doctrine it is a sermon yea a volume of lies A capite ad calcem from the head to the heel all is but a lie The Fathers have expressed some particulars as that he should command circumcision the Jews sabbath for our Sunday the temple at Jerusalem to be reedified the ceremonial rites to be observed and that he himself is to be worshiped above all gods Though Antichrists doctrine have many branches yet all is but a lie As a tree though it hath many arms and boughs yet it is but a tree and a body though it hath many members yet it is but a body so is Antichrists doctrine in all his parts and members but one main and continued lie Or els there shall be one masterlie which is that Christ is not Christ and all his other lies shall be of the familie of this And in regard of this his false doctrine he is called the false prophet in the 16 19 and 20 chapters of the Revelation as Christ is said to be the true Prophet in John 6. 14. This is of a truth the same Prophet that should come into the world Vers. 12. That all they might be damned which beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse Here is the end of false faith and bad life which is to swimme in infidelity and the pleasures of sinne for a time and then in the end to reap eternall damnation For when the sinnes of Antichrist shall be ripe when his followers have suckt in all the delights of unrighteousnesse when they have fatted themselves to the day of slaughter when they have played their pageants and are in their full ruffe then of a sudden as our Apostle saith to these Thessalonians when they shall say Peace and safetie the skie shall alter and the weather shall change and then the signes and prodigies of the worlds end and Christs coming to judgement shall act their parts The signes and prodigies of the worlds end The first is the rising from death to life of the two witnesses after they have been dead three dayes and a half and their ascending up
world that we will stand up in the defence of it according to that of S. Paul Stand fast in the faith play the men and be strong The man that standeth is alwayes readie to resist his enemie but he that sitteth or lieth is a vantage to him according to the verse made of the devil Est leo si sedeat si stet quasi muscarecedit If man doth sit the devil will Lion be But if he stand the devil a Lion's he Standing therefore is the fittest and comeliest of all gestures for the professing of our faith and putting us in minde of being constant in it For as we stand in the faith so without the faith we cannot stand therefore the Apostle saith By faith ye stand Take away from man his faith and presently he falls Faith is a mans rock and as long as he stands upon it fall he cannot For this cause our Saviour called Simon Peter quasi Petra because his faith was his rock and against this he told him the gates of hell should not prevail Wherefore seeing our faith is so pleasing to God and so profitable to us we ought often to offer it to him in profession Next we shall do more reverently to stand up at the reading of the Psalmes before after and between the holy lessons and at Gloria Patri because in these we speak unto God and it is not good manners in a publick assembly to speak unto God sitting as if we were his fellows Lastly we are to stand up at the reading of the Gospel in regard of the authour of the speech which is our Lord Christ As also because they do alwaies historically declare something that our Saviour either spake did or suffered in his own person for us most miserable and wretched sinners Whereupon in token of greater reverence to our ever-blessed Redeemer it hath been the custome of Christian men and women to stand up and at the rehearsall of the Gospel to utter certain words of acclamation as Glorie be to thee O Lord and at the end thereof to say Thanks be to God for his glorious Gospel or the like But you will say You teach us to bowe to kneel and to stand up yet these are but outward ceremonies and humane civilities fitter for men then for Gods high holinesse of which you treat I answer that ceremonies and civilities to men when they are applied to God change their nature and become holinesse The reason whereof is because all actions are specified ab objecto fine as the School teacheth but in these acts of religion the object is God and his glorie their highest end next to which consequently follows mans reward Therefore it cannot be that these actions of the bodie accompanying those of the minde should from their end be otherwise then spirituall duties As S. Thomas of Aquine hath it Adoratio corporalis in spiritu fit in quantum à spirituali devotione procedit ad eam ordinatur quia per sensum Deum attingere non possumus per sensibilia tamen signa mens nostra provocatur in Deum ut tendat Bodily worship is performed in spirit inasmuch as it proceeds from spirituall devotion and is ordered to it And because by our sense we cannot attain unto God yet by sensible signes our minde is incited to tend towards him Thus you see these expressions be not onely outward but inward too For what makes thee to bowe to God in his Sanctuarie doth not thy soul set thy knee on work and what sets thy soul on work is it not faith and charitie the two principall graces of Gods Spirit How then should not this be holinesse which proceedeth from such holy roots The sixth office of holinesse is To come to the Sacrament with due preparation First in reconciling our selves to our neighbours where is cause of offence Secondly by coming in right faith with true understanding of the thing in discerning the Lords bodie Thirdly by coming in charitie because charitie is the life of our souls and the thing to be fed Fourthly to come fasting where men are able because S. Augustine saith Placet Spiritui sancto ut in honorem tanti Sacramenti priùs intret in os Christiani corpus Dominicum It pleaseth the holy Ghost that in honour of so great a Sacrament the Lords body should first enter into the mouth of a Christian. And S. Paul faulteth this among the Corinthians For every man when they should eat taketh his supper before and one is hungry and another is drunken He that was hungry was in good case but he that was drunken was not fit for the place Fifthly to receive it kneeling because to receive it sitting is to receive it as we receive our bodies supper yet is there a great difference between the one and the other the one being the food of our souls and received in the sanctuary and the other being the food of our bodies and eaten in private houses The 7 office of holinesse is To keep all the holy feasts of the Church and they which neglect this cut off a great part of Gods worship and lose all the holy lives and examples of the saints and divers mysteries of our salvation besides The lives of the saints are our looking glasses and the reason why we come so short of them in good life is because we do not see our sinnes in their lives and partake not of their holinesse For he which honoureth God with the saint is partaker of the saints holinesse So likewise they which come to Gods house upon the day of Christs nativity coming in faith and love as they ought are partakers of Christs birth they which come upon the day of his circumcision are with him circumcised from the dominion of the flesh they which come upon the day of purification are presented with him to his Father they which come upon Goodfriday are partakers of his precious death they which come upon Easter day are partakers of his glorious resurrection they which come upon Ascension day ascend with him in holy desires in present and hereafter shall ascend in person they which come upon Whitsunday shall partake of those white gifts that God bestowed upon his Church upon that day and they which come upon Trinity sunday shall enjoy the blessed Trinity of Father Sonne and holy Ghost So again they which come upon S. Stephens day are in affection partakers of his martyrdome and prepared for holy suffering they which come upon S. Johns day partake of S. Johns love and charity they which come upon Innocents day partake with them in their deaths for Christs cause they which come upon S. Michaels day shall enjoy the blessed Angels in their administration and they which come upon the day of All Saints shall be of that blessed number to stand with them on Christs right hand in the day of judgement and so of all the rest Thus in observing saints daies and in