stripe give me but a crum and I shall fawn upon thee and depart satisfied O woman say I great is thine Humility great is thy Patience but O woman saith my Saviour great is thy Faith He sees the root we the stock Nothing but Faith could thus temper the heart thus strengthen the Soul thus charm the tongue O precious Faith O acceptable perseverance It is no marvel if that chiding end in favour Be it to thee even as thou wilt Never did such Grace goe away uncrowned The beneficence had been streight if thou hadst not carried away more then thou suedst for Lo thou that camest a dog goest away a child thou that wouldst but creep under the childrens feet art set at their elbow thou that wouldst have taken up a crum art feasted with full dishes The way to speed well at God's hand is to be humbled in his eyes and in our own It is quite otherwise with God and with men With men we are so accounted of as we account of our selves He shall be sure to be vile in the sight of others which is vile in his own With God nothing is got by vain ostentation nothing is lost by abasement O God when we look down to our own weaknesse and cast up our eyes to thine infiniteness thine omnipotence what poor things we are but when we look down upon our sins and wickedness how shall we expresse our shame None of all thy creatures except Devils are capable of so soul a quality As we have thus made our selves worse then beasts so let us in a sincere humblenesse of minde acknowledge it to thee who canst pity forgive redresse it So setting our selves down at the lower end of the table of thy creatures thou the great Master of the Feast mayst be pleased to advance us to the height of Glory The Deaf and Dumb man cured OUR Saviour's entrance into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon was not without a Miracle neither was his regresse as the Sun neither rises nor sets without light In his entrance he delivers the daughter of the faithfull Syrophoenician in his egresse he cures the deaf and dumb He can no more want work then that work can want successe Whether the Patient were naturally deaf and perfectly dumb or imperfectly dumb and accidentally deaf I labour not Sure I am that he was so deaf that he could not hear of Christ so dumb that he could not speak for himself Good neighbours supply his ears his tongue they bring him to Christ Behold a Miracle led in by charity acted by power led out by modesty It was a true office of Love to speak thus in the cause of the dumb to lend senses to him that wanted Poor man he had nothing to intreat for him but his impotence here was neither eare to inform nor tongue to crave His friends are sensible of his infirmity and unasked bring him to cure This spiritual service we owe to each other It is true we should be quick of hearing to the things of God and of our peace quick of tongue to call for our helps but alas we are naturally deaf and dumb to good We have ear and tongue enough for the world if that do but whisper we hear it if that do but draw back we crie after it we have neither for God ever since our eare was lent to the Serpent in Paradise it hath been spiritually deaf ever since we set our tooth in the forbidden fruit our tongue hath been speechlesse to God and that which was faulty in the Root is worse in the Branches Every Soul is more deafned and bedumbed by increasing corruptions by actual sins Some ears the infinite mercy of God hath bored some tongues he hath untied by the power of regeneration these are wanting to their holy faculties if they doe not improve themselves in bringing the deaf and dumb unto Christ There are some deaf and dumb upon necessity some others upon affectation Those such as live either out of the pale of the Church or under a spiritual tyranny within the Church we have no help for them but our prayers our pity can reach further then our aide These such as may hear of a Christ and sue to him but will not a condition so much more fearfull as it is more voluntary This kinde is full of wofull variety whiles some are deaf by an outward obturation whether by the prejudice of the Teacher or by secular occasions and distractions others by the inwardly-aposteming tumors of pride by the ill vapors of carnal affections of froward resolutions All of them like the deaf adder have their ears shut to the Divine charmer Oh miserable condition of foolish men so peevishly averse from their own Salvation so much more worthy of our commiseration as it is more incapable of their own These are the men whose cure we must labour whom we must bring to Christ by admonitions by threats by authority and if need be by wholsome compulsions They do not onely lend their hand to the deaf and dumb but their tongue also they say for him that which he could not wish to say for himself Doubtlesse they had made signs to him of what they intended and finding him forward in his desires now they speak to Christ for him Every man lightly hath a tongue to speak for himself happy is he that keeps a tongue for other men We are charged not with Supplications only but with Intercessions Herein is both the largest improvement of our love and most effectual No distance can hinder this fruit of our Devotion Thus we may oblige those that we shall never see those that can never thank us This beneficence cannot impoverish us the more we give we have still the more It is a safe and happy store that cannot be impaired by our bounty What was their suit but that Christ would put his hand upon the Patient Not that they would prescribe the means or imply a necessity of his touch but for that they saw this was the ordinary course both of Christ and his Disciples by touching to heal Our prayers must be directed to the usual proceedings of God His actions must be the rule of our prayers our payers may not prescribe his actions That gracious Saviour who is wont to exceed our desires does more then they sue for Not only doth he touch the party but takes him by the hand and leads him from the multitude He that would be healed of his spiritual infirmities must be sequestred from the throng of the world There is a good use in due times of Solitarinesse That Soul can never injoy God that is not sometimes retired The modest Bridegroom of the Church will not impart himself to his Spouse before company Or perhaps this secession was for our example of a willing and carefull avoidance of vain-glory in our actions Whence also it is that our Saviour gives an after-charge of secrecy He that could say He that doth evil hateth the
begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal minde slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with
say I am he that easie breath alone routed all your troups and cast them to the earth whom it might as easily have cast down into Hell What if he had said I will not be taken where had ye been or what could your swords and staves have done against Omnipotence Those Disciples that failed of their vigilance failed not of their courage they had heard their Master speak of providing swords and now they thought it was time to use them Shall we smite They were willing to fight for him with whom they were not carefull to watch but of all other Peter was most forward in stead of opening his lips he unsheaths his sword and in stead of Shall I smites He had noted Malchus a busie servant of the High priest too ready to second Judas and to lay his rude hands upon the Lord of Life against this man his heart rises and his hand is lift up That eare which had too-officiously listened to the unjust and cruell charge of his wicked Master is now severed from that worse head which it had mis-served I love and honour thy zeal O blessed Disciple Thou couldst not brook wrong done to thy Divine Master Had thy life been dearer to thee then his safety thou hadst not drawn thy sword upon a whole troup It was in earnest that thou saidst Though all men yet not I and Though I should die with thee yet I will not deny thee Lo thou art ready to die upon him that should touch that Sacred person what would thy life now have been in comparison of renouncing him Since thou wert so fervent why didst thou not rather fall upon that treachour that betrai'd him then that Sergeant that arrested him Surely the sin was so much greater as the plot of mischief is more then the execution as a Domestick is nearer then a Stranger as the treason of a Friend is worse then the forced enmity of an Hireling Was it that the guilty wretch upon the fact done subduced himself and shrouded his false head under the wings of darknesse Was it that thou couldst not so suddenly apprehend the odious depth of that Villany and instantly hate him that had been thy old companion Was it that thy amazednesse as yet conceived not the purposed issue of this seizure and astonishedly waited for the successe Was it that though Judas were more faulty yet Malchus was more imperiously cruell Howsoever thy Courage was awaked with thy self and thy heart was no lesse sincere then thine hand was rash Put up again thy sword into his place for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Good intentions are no warrant for our actions O Saviour thou canst at once accept of our meanings and censure our deeds Could there be an affection more worth incouragement then the love to such a Master Could there be a more just cause wherein to draw his sword then in thy quarrell Yet this love this quarrell cannot shield Peter from thy check thy meek tongue smites him gently who had furiously smote thine enemy Put up thy sword It was Peter's sword but to put up not to use there is a sword which Peter may use but it is of another metall Our weapons are as our warfare spiritual if he smite not with this he incurs no lesse blame then for smiting with the other as for this material sword what should he doe with it that is not allowed to strike When the Prince of Peace bade his Followers sell their coat and buy a sword he meant to insinuate the need of these arms not their improvement and to teach them the danger of the time not the manner of the repulse of danger When they therefore said Behold here are two swords he answered It is enough he said not Go buy more More had not been enow if a bodily defence had been intended David's tower had been too streight to yield sufficient furniture of this kinde When it comes to use Peter's one sword is too much Put up thy sword Indeed there is a temporal sword and that sword must be drawn else wherefore is it but drawn by him that bears it and he bears it that is ordained to be an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil for he bears not the sword in vain If another man draw it it cuts his fingers and draws so much blood of him that unwarrantably wields it as that he who takes the sword shall perish with the sword Can I chuse but wonder how Peter could thus strike unwounded how he whose first blow made the fray could escape hewing in pieces from that band of Ruffians This could not have been if thy power O Saviour had not restrained their rage if thy seasonable and sharp reproof had not prevented their revenge Now for ought I see Peter smarts no lesse then Malchus neither is Peter's eare lesse smitten by the milde tongue of his Master then Malchus his eare by the hand of Peter Weak Disciple thou hast zeal but not according to knowledge there is not more danger in this act of thine then inconsideration and ignorance The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Thou drawest thy sword to rescue me from suffering Alas if I suffer not what would become of thee what would become of mankinde where were that eternal and just Decree of my Father wherein I am a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Dost thou go about to hinder thine own and the whole worlds Redemption Did I not once before call thee Satan for suggesting to me this immunity from my Passion and dost thou now think to favour me with a reall opposition to this great and necessary work Canst thou be so weak as to imagine that this Suffering of mine is not free and voluntary Canst thou be so injurious to me as to think I yield because I want aid to resist Have I not given to thee and to the world many undeniable proofs of my Omnipotence Didst thou not see how easie it had been for me to have blown away these poor forces of my adversaries Dost thou not know that if I would require it all the glorious troups of the Angels of Heaven any one whereof is more then worlds of men would presently shew themselves ready to attend and rescue me Might this have stood with the Justice of my Decree with the Glory of my Mercy with the Benefit of mans Redemption it had been done my Power should have triumphed over the impotent malice of my enemies but now since that eternal Decree must be accomplished my Mercy must be approved mankinde must be ransomed and this cannot be done without my Suffering Thy wel-meant valour is no better then a wrong to thy self to the world to me to my Father O gracious Saviour whiles thou thus smitest thy Disciple thou healest him whom thy Disciple smote Many greater Miracles hadst thou done none that bewraied more mercy and meeknesse then this last Cure
so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Hierusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the mother City of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first only general to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry they were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the worlds that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithful That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the head City of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisdome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spiritual matters For God uses still to goe a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly truths as the profound Doctors of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethleem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaiess the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviours nativity If the Star had caried them directly to Bethleem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those prophesies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a further advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of losse Little did the Sages think this question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivalty Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this 〈…〉 if it had falne upon Herod's own loyns the more grievous it was to light upon a stranger If Herod had not over-much affected greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumor of a successor and that not of his own Setled greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forrainers could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is netled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no lesse full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Soveraignty yea such a King as by whom Kings doe hold their Scepters not lose them If the wise-men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he is heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetnesse there is in all Divine truth it could receive nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits have been still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Hierusalem troubled with him Hierusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recovery of her liberty and right Hierusalem which now onely had cause to lift up her drooping head in the joy and happiness of a Redeemer Yet not Herod's Court but even Hierusalem was troubled so had this miserable City been overtoiled with change that now they were setled in a condition quietly evil they are troubled with the news of better They had now got a habit of servility and now they are so acquainted with the yoke that the very noise of liberty which they supposed would not come with ease began to be unwelcome To turn the causes of joy into sorrow argues extreme dejectednesse and a distemper of judgment no lesse then desperate Fear puts on a visor of devotion Herod calls his learned counsel and as not doubting whether the Messiah should be born he asks where he shall be born In the disparition of that other light there is a perpetually-fixed Star shining in the writings of the Prophets that guides the chief Priests and Scribes directly unto Bethleem As yet envy and prejudice had not blinded the eyes and perverted the hearts of the Jewish teachers so as now they clearly justifie that Christ whom they afterwards condemne and by thus justifying him condemn themselves in rejecting him The water that is untroubled yields the visage perfectly If God had no more witnesse but from his enemies we have ground enough of our faith Herod feared but dissembled his fear as thinking it a shame that strangers should see there could any power arise under him worthy of his respect or awe Out of an unwillingnesse therefore to discover the impotency of his passion he makes little adoe of the matter but onely after a privy inquisition into the Time imployes the informers in the search of the Person Goe and search diligently for the Babe c. It was no great journy from Hierusalem to Bethleem how easily might Herod's cruelty have secretly suborned some of his bloody Courtiers to this inquiry and execution If God had not meant to mock him before he found himself mocked of the wise-men he had rather sent before their journey then after their disappointment But that God in whose hands all hearts are did purposely besot him that he might not finde the way to so horrible a mischief There is no Villan◠〈◊〉 but it will mask it self under a shew of Piety Herod will also worship 〈◊〉 Babe The courtesie of a false Tyrant is death A crafty hypocrite never means so ill as when he
the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is 〈◊〉 his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best tryal of our regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his Mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their Being and power both to take and give Yet no so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithful man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner powâ—ed on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithful by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but Divine from the entrance of such a Mediatour Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Tentation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan saies If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan they may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God This Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbear the weakest and remotest limme Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my Soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan do his worst All the time of our Saviours obscurity I do not finde him set upon now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endevour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the work is holy and the Agent faithful when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistance If we were not in a way to do good we should finde no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whiles they goe about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sinne but when we would turn our feet to Holinesse he blocks up the way with Tentations Who can wonder enough at the sawcinesse of that bold spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the ever-living God Who can wonder enough at thy meeknesse and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not Malice and Presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not Humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our Humane nature laies thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Tentations Thou wouldst not have put on flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of Innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the first Adam had not been tempted much lesse the second It is not the presenting of Tentations that can hurt us but their entertainment Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows we may shut our doors against their entrance It is no lesse our praise to have resisted then Satans blame to suggest evil Yea O blessed Saviour how glorious was it for thee how happy for us that thou wert tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldest thou have overcome Without blows there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power been manifested if no adversary had tried thee The first Adam was tempted and vanquished the second Adam to repay and repair that foile doth vanquish in being tempted Now have we not a Saviour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an once as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin How boldly therefore may we goe unto the Throne of grace that we may receive mercy and finde grace of help in time of need Yea this Duell was for us Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Adversary we have how he fights how he is resisted how overcome
At leastwise he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God Neither is it in this alone what one act ever passed the hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If we follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions we follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon As we see fashions when they are taken up of the unworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Devil even to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a stander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his Tentation He gilds over this false metall with Scripture that it may passe current Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and will seem godly for a mischief If Hypocrites make a fair shew to deceive with a glorious lustre of Holinesse we see whence they borrowed it How many thousand souls are betraied by the abuse of that Word whose use is soveraign and saving No Devil is so dangerous as the religious Devil If good meat turn to the nourishment not of Nature but of the Disease we may not forbear to feed but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours which cause the stomach to work against it self O God thou that hast given us light give us clear and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that Light thou hast given us Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and then shall they finde that Word not more true then cordial Let not this Divine Table of thine be made a snare to our souls What can be a better act then to speak Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maimed and perverted One piece is left all misapplied Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their own turn it is easie to see from what School they come Let us take the Word from the Author not from the Usurper David would not doubt to eat that sheep which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion He shall give his Angels charge over thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection God's children never goe unattended Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard though invisible yet true careful powerful What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of Heaven yet their Maker hath set them to serve us Our Adoption makes us at once great and safe We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God observe us the while and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions The Sun or the Light may we keep out of our houses the Aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immaterial No walls no bolts can sever them from our sides they accompany us in dungeons they goe with us into our exile How can we either fear danger or complain of solitarinesse whiles we have so unseparable so glorious Companions Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture because Satan mis-laies it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience it needs no light to clear it but that which it hath in it self All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and given this charge of his own he will have them kept not in their sins they may trust him they may not tempt him he meant to incourage their Faith not their Presumption To cast our selves upon any immediate Providence when means fail not is to disobey in stead of believing God We may challenge God on his Word we may not strain him beyond it we may make account of what he promised we may not subject his Promises to unjust examinations and where no need is make triall of his Power Justice Mercy by devices of our own All the Devils in Hell could not elude the force of this Divine answer and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet again for all this do I see him setting upon the Son of God Satan is not foiled when he is resisted Neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten upon Christ he shall be tried with Honour As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons so doth his great Enemy In vain shall we plead our skill in some if we fail in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kinde of assaults as those that hold Towns and Forts do not only defend themselves from incursions but from the Cannon and the Pionier Still doth that subtil Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage The Temple is not high enough for his next Tentation he therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high Mountain All enemies in pitcht fields strive for the benefit of the Hill or River or Wind or Sun That which his servant Balac did by his instigation himself doth now immediately change places in hope of prevailing If the obscure country will not move us he tries what the Court can do if not our home the Tavern if not the field our closer As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelesnesse and as we should alwaies watch over our selves so then most when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glory were only to be presented to his imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This shew was made to both divers Kingdomes lying round about Judea were represented to the eye the glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy no less then the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pomp majestie pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royal state these Satan laies out to the fairest shew But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends Greatnesse No Crown is without thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Soveraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may
at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designes of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of Cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creator What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisdome nor counsel against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviours Resurrection The earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whiles thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundst thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvel if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowels Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendance to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of her darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lye obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadful Majesty of the general Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the Ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angels hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou needst but because thou wouldst like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badst others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spiritual designes Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkned and all Creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy Creatures should testifie their joy and exsultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festival-dayes put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of mans Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of
God of Heaven Now they fill every mouth and beat every eare in a neglected familiarity What should I tell you of the overgrown frequence of Oppressions Extortions Injurious and fraudulent transactions malicious Suits The neighbour walls of this famous adjoyning Palace can too amply witness this truth whose roof if as they say it will admit of no Spiâ—ers I am sure the floor of it yields venome enough to poison a Kingdome What should I tell you of the sensible declination to our onceloathed Superstitions of the common trade of contemptuous disobediences to lawful Authority the scornful undervaluing of Gods Messengers the ordinary neglect of his Sacred Ordinances what speak I of these and thousands more There are Arithmeticians that have taken upon them to count how many corns of sand would make up the bulk of Heaven and earth but no Art can reckon up the multitude of our provoking sins Neither do they more exceed in number then Magnitude Can there be a greater sin then Idolatry Is not this besides all the rest the sin of the present Romish Generation One of their own confesses as he well may that were not the Bread transubstantiate their Idolatry were more gross then the heathenish Lo nothing excuses them but an impossible Figment Know O ye poor ignorant seduced Souls that the Bread can be no more turned into God then God can be turned into Bread into nothing The very Omnipotent Power of God barrs these impious contradictions My heart trembles therefore and bleeds to think of your highest your holiest Devotions Can there be a greater sin then robbing of God This is done by our Sacrilegious Patrons Can there be a greater sin then tearing God out of Heaven with our bloody and blasphemous Oathes then the famishing of Souls by a wilful or lazie silence then rending in pieces the bowels of our dear Mother the Church by our headstrong and frivolous dissentions then furious Murders then affronts of Authority These these are those huge mountains which our Giantlike presumption rolls upon each other to warre against Heaven Neither are the sins of men more great then Audacious yea it is their impudency that makes them hainous bashful offences rise not to extremity of evil The sins of excess as they are opera tenebrarum so they had wont to be night-works They that are drunken are drunk in the night saith the Apostle now they dare with Absolom's beastliness call the Sun to record Saint Bernard tells us of a Daemon meridianus a noon-Devil out of the Vulgar misâ—translation of the 90 Psalme Surely that ill spirit walks about busily and haunts the licentious conversation of inordinate men Unjust Exactions of griping Officers had wont to creep in under the modest cloak of voluntary courtesie or faire considerations of a befriended expedition now they come like Elie's sons Nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force 1 Sam. 2. 16. The legal Thefts of professed Usurers and the crafty compacts of slie Oppressors dare throw down the gantlet to Justice and insolent Disobediences doe so to Authority And when we denounce the fearful Judgments of God against all these abominable wickednesses the obdured sinner dares jeare us in the face and in a worse sense ask the Disciples question Domine quando fient haec Master when shall these things be Yea their self-flattering incredulity dares say to their Soul as Peter did to his Master Favour thy self for these things shall not happen to thee Neither lastly would sin dare to be so impudent if it were not for Impunity it cannot be but cowardly where it sees cause of fear Every hand is not to be laid upon evil If an Errour should arise in the Church it is not for every unlearned Tradesman to cast away his yard-wand and take up his pen. Wherefore serve Universities if every Blew apron may at his pleasure turn Licenciate of Divinity and talk of Theological questions which he understands not as if they were to be measured by the Ell O times Lord whether will this presumption grow Deus omen c. If folly if villany be committed in our Israel it is not for every man to be an Officer Who made thee a Judge was a good question though ill asked But I would to God we had more cause to complain of the presumption of them who meddle with what they should not then the neglect of them who meddle not with what they should Woe is me the flood-gates of evil are as it were lift open and the full stream gusheth upon us Not that I would cast any aspersion upon Sacred Soveraignty No blessed be God for his dear Anointed of whom we may truly and joyfully say that in imitation of him whom he represents he loves Justice and hates Iniquity It is the partiality or flackness of the subordinate inferiour executions that is guilty of this prevalence of sin What can the head doe where the hands are wanting to what use is the water derived from the cistern into the pipes if the cock be not turned What availes it if children are brought to the birth if they want a midwifty to deliver them Can there possibly be better Laws then have in our times been enacted against Drunkenness where or when are they executed Can there be a better Law made for the restraint of too-too common Oathes who urges who payes that just mulct Can there be better Laws against wilful Recusancy against Simony against Sacriledge how are they eluded by fraudulent evasions Against neglect of Divine Service yet how are they slighted Against the lawless wandring of lazie Vagabonds yet how full are our streets how empty our Correction-houses Lastly for it were easie to be endless can there be better Laws then are made for the punishment of Fornications Adulteries and all other fleshly inordinatenesses how doth bribery and corruption smother these offences as if the sins of men served only to inrich covetous Officers Now put all these together the Multitude the Magnitude the Boldness the Impunity of sin and tell me whether all these do not make this of ours generationem pravam a froward generation So as we may too well take up Esay's complaint Ab sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters Esa 1. 4. Honorable and beloved how should we be humbled under the hand of our God in the sense of our many great bold and lawless sins What sackcloth what ashes can be enough for us Oh that our faces could be covered with confusion that we could rend our hearts and not our garments Be afflicted and mourn and weep and thus Save your selves from this froward generation And so from St. Peter's Attestation to their wickedness we descend to his Obtestation of their redress Save your selves We must be so much shorter in the remedy as we have been longer in the disease The remedy is but of a short sound but of a long
more to the enemy of God of whom we say commonly As proud as the Devil For that once-glorious Angel looking upon his own excellency wherewith he was invested in his creation began to be lift up in himself made himself his own Alpha and Omega acknowledging no essential dependance upon God as his beginning no necessary reference to God as his end and therefore was tumbled down into that bottomless dungeon and reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day This is it which some think Saint Paul alludes to when he charges that a Bishop should not be a novice left he should be puffed up and fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. Now there are so many kinds of Pride as there are imaginary causes of self-exaltation and there are so many causes imagined hereof as there are things reputed more precious and excellent in the eyes of the world I might send you to Hugo's Chariot of Pride drawn with four horses that Age knew no more and the four wheels of it if I listed to mount Pride curiously but I will shew you her on foot To speak plainly therefore These five things are wont commonly to be the matter of our Pride Honour Riches Beauty Strength Knowledge Every of them shall have a word Those that are tainted with the first are State-proud Bladders puft up with the wind of Honour Thus Ninive Behold I sit as a Queen I am and there is none else Thus the insolent officer of Sennacherib Who art thou that thou despisest the least of my Masters servants Vicina potentibus superbia as that Father said Pride is an usual neighbour to greatness How hard is it for eminent Persons when they see all heads bare all knees bowed to them not to be raised up in their conceits not to applaud their own glory and to look overly upon the ignoble multitude as those which are Terrae filii mushroms worthy of nothing but contempt Hence it is that proud ones are incompatible with each other Look upon other Vices ye shall see one Drunkard hug another one debauch'd Wanton love another one Swearer one Profane beast delight in another but one Proud man cannot abide another as one twig cannot bear two Red-breasts Both would be best Caesar will not indure an equal nor Pompey a superiour The second are Purse-proud Vermis divitiarum superbia as St. Austin wittily Pride is in the Purse as the worm in the Apple Thus Nabal because he hath money in his bags and stock on his ground sends a scornful message to poor David though a better man then himself Many servants run away from their Masters now adaies How many examples meet us every where of this kind of them which having scrap'd together a little money more then their neighbours look big upon it and scorn the need of the better deserving and bluster like a tempest and think to bear down even good causes before them Secundas fortunas decent superbiae as the Comedian Pride becomes the wealthy Thus Solomon notes in his time that the rich speaks with commands the words weigh according to the Purse The third are the Skin-proud for Beauty goes no deeper such as with Jezebel lick themselves and with Narcissus dote upon their own Faces thinking it a wrong in any that sees them and admires them not spending all their thoughts and their time in fashions and complexion as if their Soul lay in their hide despising the ordinary forms of vulgar persons yea of the most beneficial nature Elatus erat animus tuus propter pulcritudinem Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty saith Ezekiel 28. 17. The fourth are the Sinew-proud which presume upon their own Strength and vigor Elatum cor robore saies the same Ezekiel 28. 5. As Goliah who dares in the confidence of his own arm challenge the whole hoast of God and scorns the dwarfs and shrimps of Israel The fifth is the Skill-proud puffed up with the conceit of Knowledge as Knowledge is indeed of a swelling nature There is much affinity betwixt Knowledge and Pride both came out of one Country for Pride is also natione coelestis as Hierom well and since she cannot climbe up thither again she will be mounting as high as she can towards it Every smatterer thinks all the Circle of Arts confined to the closet of his breast and as Job speaks of his haughty friends that all wisdome lives in him and dyes with him Hence is that curiosity of knowing vain querks of speculation hence singularity of opinion hating to go in the common track hence impatience of contradiction hence contempt of the mediocrity of others Out of this impatience Zidkijah could smite Michaiah on the eare and as buffeting him double say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to thee Out of this contempt the Scribes and Pharisees could say Turba haec this Laity that knows not the Law is accursed But besides these five a man may be proud of any thing yea of nothing yea of worse then nothing Evil. There may be as much Pride in rags as in tissues Diogenes tramples upon Plato's pride but with another pride And we commonly observe that none are so proud as the foulest In what kind soever it be the more a man reflects upon himself by seeking loving admiring the more proud he is the more damnable is his Pride But as in all other cases Pride is odious to God so most of all in point of Religion and in those matters wherein we have to doe with God A proud face or a proud back or a proud arm or a proud purse are hateful things but a proud Religion is so much worse as the subject should be better Let this then be the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of true or false Religion That which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depress our selves is the true that which doth most pranck up our selves and detract from God is the false It was the rule of Bonaventure whom the Romanists honour for a Saint Hoc piarum mentium est c. This is the part of pious Souls to ascribe nothing to themselves all to the Grace of God So as how much soever a man attributes to the Grace of God he shall not swerve from Piety in detracting from Nature but if he substract never so little from the Grace of God and give it to Nature he indangers himself and offends In the safety of this proof our Doctrine triumphs over the Romish in all those Points wherein it opposeth ours Ours stands ever on Gods side exalting his free Grace and mere Mercy as the causes of our Salvation theirs dividing this great work betwixt God and themselves Gods Grace and mans Free-will and ascribing that to Merit which we to Mercy Herein Popery is pure Pharisaisme and comes within the verge of Spiritual Pride Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insolent men
let thine enemies perish O Lord. These Bulls are seconded with their own brood the Calves of the people Who are they but those which follow and make up the herd the credulous seduced multitude which not out of choice but example join in opposition to God Silly calves they go whither their dams lead them to the field or to the slaughter-house Blinde obedience is their best guide Are they bidden to adore a God which they know the baker made they fall down upon their knees and thump their breasts as beating the heart that will not enough believe in that pastry-Deity Are they bidden to goe on pilgrimage to a Chappel that is a greater pilgrim then themselves that hath four several times removed it self and changed stations as Turselline considently they must goe and adore those wandring walls Are they bidden to forswear their Allegiance and to take armes against their Lawful and native Soveraign they rush into the battel without either fear or wit though for the aide of a sure enemy which would make them all as he threatned in Eighty eight alike good Protestants Very calves of the people whose simplicity were a fitter subject for pity then their fury can be of malice were it not that their power is wont to be imployed to the no small prejudice of the cause of God And would it boot ought to spend time in perswading these Calves that they are such to lay before them the shame of their ignorance and stupidity Hear now this O foolish people and without understanding which have eyes and see not which have eares and hear not Jer. 5. 20. How long will ye suffer your selves to be befooled and beslaved with the tyranny of Superstition God hath made you men why will ye abide men to make you vitulos populorum the calves of the people We must leave you as ye are but we will not leave praying for your happy change that God would consecrate you to himself as the calves of his altar that ye may be offered up to him an holy lively reasonable acceptable sacrifice in your blessed Conversion Amen The last and worst title of these enemies is The people that delight in warre Warre is to the State as Ignis and Ferrum the Knife and the Searing-iron to the body the last and most desperate remedy alwaies evill if sometimes necessary it is not for pleasure it is for need It must needs be a cruel heart that delights in warre He that well considers the fearful effects of warre the direption of goods the vastation of Countries the sacking and burning of Cities the murdering of men ravishing of women weltring of the horse and rider in their mingled blood the shrieks and horror of the dying the ghastly rage of the killing the hellish and tumultuous confusion of all things and shall see the streets and fields strewed with carkasses the chanels running with streams of blood the houses and Churches flaming and in a word all the woful tyrannies of death will think the heathen Poets had reason to devise Warre sent up from Hell ushered and heralded by the most pestilent of all the Furies every of whose haires were so many snakes and adders to affright and sting the world withall Little pleasure can there be in such a spectacle It is a true observation of St. Chrysostome that warre to any Nation is as a tempest to the Sea tossing and clashing of the waves together And fain would I hear of that Mariner that takes delight in a Storm The executioners of peaceable Justice are wont to be hateful no man abides to consort with a publick Headsman and what metal then shall we think those men made of who delight in cutting of throats and joy to be the furious executioners of a martial vengeance where besides the horror of the act the event is doubtful The dice of Warre run still upon hazard David could send this message to Joab The sword devoures at randome so and such 2 Sam. 11. 25. Victory is not more sweet then uncertain And what man can love to perish It is true that Warre is a thing that should not but must be neither is it other then an unavoidable act of vindicative Justice an useful enemy an harsh friend such an enemy as we cannot want such a friend as we entertain upon force not upon choice because we must not because we would It challenges admittance if it be just and it is never just but where it is necessary if it must it ought to be Where those three things which Aquinas requires to a lawful warre are met Supreme Authority a warrantable Cause a just Intention a Supreme Authority in commanding it a warrantable Cause in undertaking it a just Intention in executing it it is no other then Bellum Domini Gods warre God made it God owns it God blesses it What talk I of the good Centurion the very Angels of God are thus Heavenly souldiers The wise Lacedamonians had no other statues of their Deities but armed Yea what speak I of these Puppets the true God rejoyces in no title more then of the Lord of Hoasts In these cases say now Blessed be the Lord who teaches my hands to warre and my fingers to fight But if Ambition of enlarging the bounds of dominion Covetousness of rich booties emulation of a rival Greatness shall unsheath our swords now every blow is Murder Wo to those hands that are thus imbrued in blood Wo to those Tyrants that are the authors of this lavish effusion every drop whereof shall once be required of their guilty Souls God thinks he cannot give a worse Epithet to those whom he would brand for death then Wicked and blood-thirsty men David might not be allowed to build God an House because he had a bloody hand the cause was holy yet the colour offends How hateful must those needs be to the God of Mercies that delight in Blood the true brood of him that is the man-slayer from the beginning There are strange diets of men as of other creatures whereof there are some that naturally feed on poison and fatten with it and it may be there are Cannibals that finde mans blood sweet yet I think it would be hard to finde a man that will profess to place his felicity in a cruel hazard So doth he that delights in warre and if no man for shame will be known to doe simply and directly so yet in effect men bewray this disposition if they be first osores pacis haters of peace as the Psalmist calls them Ps 120. 7. stubbornly repelling the fair motions and meet conditions thereof if secondly they take up slight and unjust causes of warre as it is noted by Suetonius of Julius Caesar which this Iland had experience of that he would refrain from no occasion of warre if never so unjust contrary to the better temper and resolution of wiser Romans then himself who would rather save one Subject then kill a thousand Enemies if thirdly they
Drunkenness we must fly in the face of it with so much more fierceness as the eminence of the sin may make it more dangerously-exemplary quò grandius nomen eò grandius scandalum as Bernard Let the clearest water mix with the best earth it makes but mire If we be the true Sons of Thunder even the tallest Cedar-sins must be blasted with our Lightning and riven with our bolts Cato would not they say have a dumb souldier I am sure Christ will not Wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel yea wo be to us if we preach not the Law too if we do not lash the guilt of the Great with the scorpions of Judgement What stand we upon bulk if the Sin be an Elephant harnessed and carrying Castles upon his back we must with Eleazar creep under his belly and wound that vast enemy with the hazard of our own crushing It is the charge of God Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Es 58. 1. The words are Emphatical whereof the first signifies a straining of the throat with crying and the next the trumpet implies a sound of war This same belluÌ„ cum vitiis war with sins must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncapable of so much as a truce yea as a respiratió As that undaunted souldier therefore held first with his right hand and when that was cut off with his left and when both were cut off with his teeth so must we resolve to doe That which is the praise of the Mastives of our Nation must be ours to leave our life with our hold Profectò stabimus pugnabimus usque ad mortem We will stand and fight it out to the very death as Bernard speaks The manner of the Fight follows and that must needs vary according to the divers fashions of the onset For all beasts assail not alike one fights with his tusks another with his paws another with his horn another with his heel another with his sting one rampeth upon us another leaps in to us a third either rusheth us down or casts us upward a fourth galls us afarre a fifth wounds us unseen one kils by biting another by striking another by piercing another by envenoming According to these manifold changes of assaults must the expert champion dispose of himself To speak morally as these Men-beasts are either Beasts of Opinion or beasts of Practice and both of them maintain the fight either by close subtilty or by open violence so did S. Paul's opposition suit them so must ours whether for defence or for offence The beasts of Opinion were either Idolatrous Ethnicks or refractary Jews the one worshipping Diana for their Goddess the other refusing the true Messias for their Saviour The one he beats with the down-right blows of right Reason the other he hews with the two-edged sword of the Spirit the Word of God The beasts of Practice he smites through with the darts of the Law whereof Exod. 19. 13. If a beast touch the Mount he shall be shot through Their subtilty he declined by a wise evasion their violence he repelled with an irresistible force The particularities would be infinite neither do any of you exspect that I should turn the Pulpit into a Fence-school or a Paris-garden Onely let me reduce S. Paul's practice herein to some few useful rules as to express his beast-combat so to direct our own Whereof the first to begin with the beasts of Opinion was and shall be To fight still at the head When he comes to the Theatre of Ephesus he deals not with collateral matters of a secondary nature but flies upon the main heads of the highest contradiction whether one true God onely should be worshipped whether Christ should be acknowledged for the Messiah No doubt Ephesus was full of curious and nice scruples the wise Apostle waves all these and as some magnanimous Mastive that scorns to set upon every Curre that barks at him in the way he reserves himself for these Lions and Tigers of Errour Oh how happy were it for Christendome if we that profess to sit at S. Paul's feet as he at Gamaliel's could learn this wit of him It is true which Chromatius hath Non sunt parva quae Dei sunt None of Gods matters are slight but yet there is a difference and that would be observed The working brains of subtile man have been apt to mince Divinity into infinite Atomes of speculation and every one of those speculations breeds many questions and every question breeds troubles in the Church like as every corn of powder flies off and fires his fellow Hence are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. foolish and unlearned disquisitions 2 Tim. 2. 23. that have set the whole Christian world together by the ears Ex utraque parte sunt qui pugnare cupiunt as Tully said of his time There are enough on both sides that would fight The main Fort of Religion is worth not our sweat but our blood thus must we strive pro aris so even Heresie shall be found as Chrysostome observes not more dangerous then profitable But if it be onely matter of rite or of unimporting consequence de venis capillaribus as he said Oh what â—adness is it in us to draw the world into sides and to pour out the souls of Gods people like water what is this but as if some generous Bandog should leave the Bear or Lion primae formae feram which he comes to bait and run after a Mouse Melanchthon cites and approves that saying of Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius that Schisme is no less sin then idolatry And if the Fish be the better where the seas are most unquiet I am sure the Souls are worse where the Church is tumultuous I cannot skill of these Swans eggs that are never hatcht without thunder nor of that unnatural brood that eats through the dam to make passage into the light of reputation Oh for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Justly did Agesilaus lament the state of Greece that had lost as many souldiers in domestick wars as might have made them Masters of the world Let me say Had all our swords and pens been happily bent against the common enemy of Christendome long agoe had that Mahumetan Moon waned to nothing and given way to the glorious Sun of the Gospel Our second rule must be When we do smite to strike home It is S. Paul's I so fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not beating the aire 1 Cor. 9. 26. Here is not a blow lost non verberat ictibus auras How doth he cut the throat of the Ephesian beast Idolatry whiles he argues They are not Gods that are made with hands All the Silver-smiths of Diana cannot hammer out a reply to this charge It is no flourishing when we come to this combat Weak proofs betray good causes Demonstrations must have
one But since as Erasmus hath too truly observed there is nothing so happy in these humane things wherein there are not some intermixtures of distemper and Saint Paul hath told us there must be Heresies and the Spouse in Solomon's Song compares her blessed Husband to a yong Hart upon the Mountain of Bether that is Division yea rather as under Gensericus and his Vandals the Christian Temples flamed higher then the Towns so for the space of these last hundred years there hath been more combustion in the Church then in the Civil State my next wish is that if differences in Religion cannot be avoided yet that they might be rightly judged of and be but taken as they are Neither can I but mourn and bleed to see how miserably the World is abused on all hands with prejudice in this kind Whiles the adverse part brands us with unjust censures and with loud clamours cries us down for Hereticks on the other side some of ours do so slight the Errours of the Romane Church as if they were not worth our Contention as if our Martyrs had been rash and our quarrels trifling others again do so aggravate them as if we could never be at enough defiance with their Opinions nor at enough distance from their Communion All these three are dangerous extremities the two former whereof shall if my hopes fail me not in this whole Discourse be sufficiently convinced wherein as we shall fully clear our selves from that hateful slander of Heresie or Schisme so we shall leave upon the Church of Rome an unavoidable imputation of many no less foul and enormous then novel Errours to the stopping of the mouths of those Adiaphorists whereof Melanchthon seems to have long agoe prophesied Metuendum est c. It is to be feared saith he that in the last Age of the World this errour will reign amongst men that either Religions are nothing or differ onely in words The third comes now in our way That 〈◊〉 Laertius speaks of Menedemus that in disputing his very ears would sparkâ—â—â— is true of many of ours whose zeal transports them to such a detestation of the Romane Church as if it were all Errour no Church affecting nothing more then an utter opposition to their Doctrine and Ceremony because theirs like as Maldonat professeth to mislike and avoid many fair interpretations not as false but as Calvin's These men have not learned this in S. Augustine's School who tels us that it was the rule of the Fathers as well before Cyprian and Agrippinus as since that whatsoever they found in any Schism or Heresie warrantable and holy that they allowed for its own worth and did not refuse it for the abettors Neither for the chaff do we leave the floor of God neither for the bad Fishes do we break his nets Rather as the Priests of Mercurie had wont to say when they eat their Figs and Honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All truth is sweet it is indeed Gods not ours wheresoever it is found the Kings Coin is current though it be found in any impure Chanel For this particular they have not well heeded that charitable profession of zealous Luther Nos fatemur c. We profess saith he that under the Papacy there is much Christian good yea all c. I say moreover that under the Papacy is true Christianity yea the very kernel of Christianity c. No man I trust will fear that fervent spirits too much excess of indulgence under the Papacy may be as much good as it self is evil Neither do we censure that Church for what it hath not but for what it hath Fundamental truth is like that Maronaean wine which if it be mixed with twenty times so much water holds his strength The Sepulchre of Christ was overwhelmed by the Pagans with earth and rubbish and more then so over it they built a Temple to their impure Venus yet still in spight of malice there was the Sepulchre of Christ And it is a ruled case of Papinian that a Sacred place loseth not the Holiness with the demolished wals No more doth the Romane lose the claim of a true visible Church by her manifold and deplorable corruptions her unsoundness is not less apparent then her being If she were once the Spouse of Christ and her Adulteries are known yet the Divorce is not sued out CHAP. II. The Original of the Differences IT is too true that those two main Elements of evil as Timon called them Ambition and Covetousness which Bernard professes were the great Masters of that Clergie in his times having palpably corrupted the Christian World both in doctrine and manners gave just cause of scandal and complaint to godly mindes which though long smothered at last brake forth into publick contestation augmented by the fury of those guilty defendants which loved their reputation more then Peace But yet so as the Complainants ever professed a joynt allowance of those Fundamental Truths which descried themselves by their bright lustre in the worst of that confusion as not willing that God should lose any thing by the wrongs of men or that men should lose any thing by the envy of that evil spirit which had taken the advantage of the publick sleep for his Tares Shortly then according to the prayers and predictions of many Holy Christians God would have his Church reformed How shall it be done Licentious courses as Seneca wisely have sometimes been amended by correction and fear never of themselves As therefore their own President was stirred up in the Council of Trent to cry out of their corruption of Discipline so was the Spirit of Luther somewhat before that stirred up to tax their corruption of Doctrine But as all beginnings are timorous how calmly did he enter and with what submiss Supplications did he sue for redress I come to you saith he most holy Father and humbly prostrate before you beseech you that if it be possible you would be pleased to set your helping hand to the work Intreaties prevail nothing the whiles the importune insolence of Eckius and the undiscreet carriage of Cajetan as Luther there professes forced him to a publick opposition At last as sometimes even Poisons turn Medicinal the furious prosecution of abused Authority increased the Zeal of Truth like as the repercussion of the flame intends it more and as Zeal grew in the Plaintif so did Rage in the Defendant so as now that was verified of Tertullian A primordio c. From the beginning Righteousness suffers violence and no sooner did God begin to be worshipped but Religion was attended with Envie The masters of the Pythonisse are angry to part with a gainful though evil guest Am I become your enemy because I told you the truth saith Saint Paul yet that truth is not more unwelcome then successful For as the breath of
Devils and that which Dionysius said to Novatus Any thing must rather be born then that we should rend the Church of God Far far was it from our thoughts to teare the seamless coat or with this precious Oile of Truth to break the Churches head We found just faults else let us be guilty of this disturbance If now Choler unjustly exasperated with an wholesome reprehension have broken forth into a furious persecution of the gainsayers the sin is not ours if we have defended our innocence with blows the sin is not ours Let us never prosper in our good Cause if all the water of Tyber can wash off the blood of many thousand Christian Souls that hath been shed in this quarrel from the hands of the Romish Prelacie Surely as it was observed of olde that none of the Tribe of Levi were the professed followers of our Saviour so it is too easy to observe that of late times this Tribe hath exercised the bitterest enmity upon the followers of Christ Suppose we had offended in the undiscreet managing of a just reproof it is a true rule of Erasmus that generous spirits would be reclaimed by teaching not by compulsion and as Alipius wisely to his Augustine Heed must be taken lest whiles we labour to redress a doubtful complaint we make greater wounds then we find Oh how happy had it been for Gods Church if this care had found any place in the hearts of her Governours who regarding more the entire preservation of their own Honour then Truth and Peace were all in the harsh language of warre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smite kill burn persecute Had they been but half so charitable to their modern reprovers as they profess they are to the fore-going how had the Church florished in an uninterrupted Unity In the old Catholick Writers say they we bear with many Errours we extenuate and excuse them we finde shifts to put them off and devise some commodious senses for them Guiltiness which is the ground of this favour works the quite contrary courses against us Alas how are our Writings racked and wrested to envious senses how misconstrued how perverted and made to speak odiously on purpose to work distast to enlarge quarrel to draw on the deepest censures Wo is me this cruel uncharitableness is it that hath brought this miserable calamity upon distracted Christendome Surely as the ashes of the burning Mountain Vesuvius being dispersed far and wide bred a grievous Pestilence in the Regions round about so the ashes that flie from these unkindly flames of discord have bred a woful infection and death of Souls through the whole Christian world CHAP. IV. The Church of Rome guilty of this Schisme IT is confessed by the President of the Tridentine Council that the depravation of the discipline and manners of the Romane Church was the chief cause and original of these dissentions Let us cast our eyes upon the Doctrine and we shall no less finde the guilt of this fearful Schism to fall heavily upon the same heads For first to lay a sure ground Nothing can be more plain then that the Romane is a particular Church as the Fathers of Basil well distinguish it not the universal though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence This truth we might make good by authority if our very senses did not save us the labour Secondly No particular Church to say nothing of the universal since the Apostolick times can have power to make a Fundamental point of Faith It may explain or declare it cannot create Articles Thirdly Onely an errour against a point of Faith is Heresie Fourthly Those Points wherein we differ from the Romanists are they which onely the Church of Rome hath made Fundamental and of Faith Fifthly The Reformed therefore being by that Church illegally condemned for those Points are not Hereticks He is is properly an Heretick saith Hosius who being convicted in his own judgment doth of his own accord cast himself out of the Church For us we are neither convicted in our own judgment nor in the lawful judgment of others we have not willingly cast our selves out of the Church but however we are said to be violently ejected by the undue sentence of malice hold our selves close to the bosome of the true Spouse of Christ never to be removed as far therefore from Heresie as Charity is from our Censurers Only we stand convicted by the doom of good Pope Boniface or Sylvester Prierius Quicunque non c. Whosoever doth not rely himself upon the Doctrine of the Romane Church and of the Bishop of Rome as the infallible rule of Faith from which even the Scripture it self receives her force he is an Heretick Whence follows that the Church of Rome condemning and ejecting those for Hereticks which are not is the Authour of this woful breach in the Church of God I shall therefore I hope abundantly satisfie all wise and indifferent Readers if I shall shew that those Points which we refuse and oppose are no other then such as by the confessions of ingenuous Authors of the Roman part have been besides their inward falsities manifest upstarts lately obtruded upon the Church such as our ancient Progenitours in many hundreds of successions either knew not or received not into their Belief and yet both lived and dyed worthy Christians Surely it was but a just speech of S. Bernard and that which might become the mouth of any Pope or Council Ego si peregrinum c. If I shall offer to bring in any strange opinion it is my sin It was the wise Ordinance of the Thurians as Diodorus Siculus reports that he who would bring in any new Law amongst them to the prejudice of the old should come with an Halter about his neck into the assembly and there either make good his project or dy For however in humane constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the later orders are stronger then the former yet in Divinity Primum verum The first is true as Tertullian's rule is the old way is the good way according to the Prophet Here we hold us and because we dare not make more Articles then our Creeds nor more sins then our Ten Commandements we are indignely cast out Let us therefore address our selves roundly to our promised task and make good the Novelty and Unreasonableness of those Points we have rejected Out of too many Controversies disputed betwixt us we select only some principal and out of infinite varieties of evidence some few irrefragable testimonies CHAP. V. The Newness of the Article of Justification by inherent Righteousness TO begin with Justification The Tridentine Fathers in their seven moneths debating of this point have so cunningly set their words that the Errour which they would establish might seem to be either hid or shifted yet at the last they so far declare themselves as to
shall we say to those wofull Souls in whom the sensible presence of infinite torment shall meet with the torment of the perpetual absence of God O thou who art the true Light shine ever through all the blinde corners of my Soul and from these weak glimmerings of Grace bring me to the perfect brightness of thy Glory XXI Upon the same occasion AS well as we love the Light we are wont to salute it at the first coming in with winking or closed eyes as not abiding to see that without which we cannot see All sudden changes though to the better have a kinde of trouble attending them By how much more excellent any Object is by so much more is our weak sense mis-affected in the first apprehending of it O Lord if thou shouldest manifest thy glorious presence to us here we should be confounded in the sight of it How wisely how mercifully hast thou reserved that for our glorified estate where no infirmity shall dazle our eyes where perfect Righteousness shall give us perfect boldness both of sight and fruition XXII Upon the blowing of the Fire WE beat back the flame not with a purpose to suppresse it but to raise it higher and to diffuse it more Those Afflictions and repulses which seem to be discouragements are indeed the mercifull incitements of Grace If God did mean Judgment to my Soul he would either withdraw the fuell or powr water upon the fire or suffer it to languish for want of new motions but now that he continues to me the means and opportunities and desires of good I shall misconstrue the intentions of my God if I shall think his crosses sent rather to damp then to quicken his Spirit in me O God if thy bellows did not sometimes thus breath upon me in spiritual repercussions I should have just cause to suspect my estate those few weak gleeds of Grace that are in me might soon goe out if they were not thus refreshed Still blow upon them till they kindle still kindle them till they flame up to thee XXIII Upon the barking of a Dog WHat have I done to this Dog that he follows me with this angry clamour Had I rated him or shaken my staffe or stooped down for a stone I had justly drawn on this noise this snarling importunity But why do I wonder to finde this unquiet disposition in a brute creature when it is no news with the reasonable Have I not seen Innocence and Merit bayed at by the quarrelsome and envious Vulgar without any provocation save of good offices Have I not felt more then their tongue their teeth upon my heels when I know I have deserved nothing but fawning on Where is my Grace or spirits if I have not learned to contemn both O God let me rather die then willingly incur thy displeasure yea then justly offend thy godly-wise judicious conscionable servants but if humor or faction or causelesse prejudice fall upon me for my faithfull service to thee let these bawling cuts tire themselves and tear their throats with loud and false censures I goe on in a silent constancy and if my ear be beaten yet my heart shall be free XXIV Upon sight of a Cock-fight HOW fell these creatures out Whence grew this so bloody combate Here was neither old grudge nor present injurie What then is the quarrell Surely nothing but that which should rather unite and reconcile them one common nature they are both of one feather I do not see either of them flie upon creatures of different kindes but whiles they have peace with all others they are at war with themselves the very sight of each other was sufficient provocation If this be the offence why doth not each of them fall out with himself since he hates and revenges in another the being of that same which himself is Since Man's sin brought Debate into the World Nature is become a great quarreller The seeds of discord were scattered in every furrow of the Creation and came up in a numberlesse variety of Antipathies whereof yet none is mote odious and deplorable then those which are betwixt creatures of the same kinde What is this but an image of that wofull hostility which is exercised betwixt us Reasonables who are conjoyned in one common Humanity if not Religion We fight with and destroy each other more then those creatrures that want Reason to temper their Passions No Beast is so cruell to man as himself where one man is slain by a beast ten thousand are slain by man What is that War which we study and practise but the art of killing Whatever Turks and Pagans may doe O Lord how long shall this brutish fury arm Christians against each other whiles even Devils are not at enmity with themselves but accord in wickedness why do we men so mortally oppose each other in good O thou that art the God of Peace compose the unquiet hearts of men to an happy and universal Concord and at last refresh our Souls with the multitude of Peace XXV Upon his lying down to rest WHat a circle there is of humane actions and events We are never without some change and yet that change is without any great variety we sleep and wake and wake and sleep and eat and evacuate labour in a continual interchange yet hath the infinite Wisedome of God so ordered it that we are not weary of these perpetual iterations but with no lesse appetite enter into our daily courses then if we should passe them but once in our life When I am weary of my daies labour how willingly do I undresse my self and betake my self to my bed and ere morning when I have wearied my restlesse bed how glad am I to rise and renew my labour Why am I not more desirous to be unclothed of this body that I may be clothed upon with Immortality What is this but my closest garment which when it is once put off my Soul is at liberty and ease Many a time have I lyen down here in desire of rest and after some tedious changing of sides have risen sleeplesse disappointed languishing In my last uncasing my Body shall not fail of repose nor my Soul of joy and in my rising up neither of them shall fail of Glory What hinders me O God but my Infidelity from longing for this happy dissolution The world hath misery and toil enough and Heaven hath more then enough Blessedness to perfect my desires of that my last and glorious change I believe Lord help my unbelief XXVI Upon the kindling of a Charcole fire THere are not many Creatures but do naturally affect to diffuse and inlarge themselves Fire and Water will neither of them rest contented with their own bounds those little sparks that I see in those coals how they spread and enkindle their next brands It is thus morally both in good and evil either of them dilates it self to their Neighbourhood but especially this is so much more apparent in evil by