to the sincere and orthodox Christians which sir-name we take from our Mother the Catholique Church notified so for the single and onely Church of Christ by the Apostles Creed and in the sequence of ages as the tares grew up in the large field of Christianity the pure and sound part of the Church assigned this as a speciall and specificall difference between the Heretiques and the legitimate Christians and so it hath been accepted ever since as a notional discernment between them The word Catholike signifieth literally Universall and was meant to signifie that faith to be onely sincerely Christian which was universally and unanimously promulgated by the Apostles and conserved by the general conseat and fidelities of their disciples and so transmitted by all the concurrent testimonies of that age to the next succeeding it So as the Church is not called Catholike for the actuall extention of it into all nations but as the major part in respect of all Christian societies or in reference to the promise of this expansion over the whole world So that it hath alwaies been one of the visible markes of the Church the being the greatest society of Christians of any one communion And as all sects came out of the true Church she retaineth still the name of the whole as the body of the tree doth after many branches are torn off from it So as the Catholike Church neither is nor ever was a comprehender of all the sects of Christians but a compriser of a greater portion of them then any other profession which was separate from her and this majority the Catholike Church hath had in all Christian ages When we say then the Roman Catholicke Church we doe not meane to exclude all Churches from being Catholike besides the locall Church of Rome but as that is the head and spring of Catholike communion by way of dignity and preference above all other particular Churches we give Rome that single appellation as the head of all other Churches or by reason of the derivation of the Catholick faith from her to the rest of the Churches of the world as being the Chaire of S. Peter the Prince of the Apostles who was constituted head of the Universall Church and as the same authority and prerogative is descended upon his successors the Bishops of Rome in these respects in regard no Church is accounted nor is Catholicke that doth not adhere to her communion we stile the particular Roman the Catholike Church For if we speake formally and expresly the Catholike Church signifies the body of all particular Churches united in communion with the Vniversall and by way of participation any particular Church may be called Catholicke as it partakes with the intire body In this respect the Church of England before the separation was a Catholike Church and so are all Churches which remaine united to the Catholike Communion So as when you heare it objected that Roman and Catholike seem as incompatible as particular and Universall you may satisfy your selves that Rome doth not claime the title in that contradictory sense to say that the single and locall Church of Rome is the Universall Church but that Rome is the head of the Universall Church in which all particular ones are to be accounted Catholike in this sense of orthodox and true Churches as they are united to that head If the Protestants acknowledged any one particular Church to be the head of their communion that Church might be said to be the Universall Protestant Church by way of eminency and in this sense the Roman Church is stiled the Universall or Catholike Church I have said this as falling within the verge of the word Catholike without intending to passe further then the frontispice of the Church to read to you this inscription only of Catholike which is often misunderstood by those who will allow Universall Religion but no Catholike And I hope the signification of this your surname may minister great assurance to you when you consider that you suffer under that title and notion which hath alwaies been the discernment of true Christian Religion For S. Irenaeus one of the Primitive Fathers of the Church marketh that none of the sects of those ages did ever arogat this title of Catholikes Psal 90. With a shield his truth shall encompasse thee a thousand shall fall on thy side ten thousand on thy righthand but to thee it shall not approach It seems it hath been preserved miraculously among the insolences of all various errors which never durst lay violent hands upon this lovely intemerat virgin name of Catholicke the protection of the Psalmist hath been verifide upon this name Scuto circumdabit te veritas cadent à latere tuo mille decem mille à dextris tuis ad te autem non appropinquabit for of all the swarms of waspes and hornets which have flown out of the Church in all ages never any did so much as taint this name by their hiving themselves in it There hath alwaies descended upon the projectours of Babel this designe of Let us make to our selves a name Faciamus nobis nomen they have alwaies affected the celebration of their own name that have set up for themselves any new sect and their master hath payed them that vanity for labouring in his high way to allow the stamp of their owne names to be set upon the coine whereof he is the Prince and the Father This priviledge the divell hath allowed to all Arch-hereticks and hath communicated so much of his prerogative as to leave their names impressed as a signature upon their errors but none have been permitted to vitiate the name of Catholike by an imposition thereof upon any sophisticated Religion It is not my worke now to exhibit to you the proofes of the legitimate genealogy of your Religion from the true ancient Catholike stock I beleeve these very times may read to you the evidences of your antiquity by the aversion which all novelty declares against it I purpose only to convince the controversies of humane nature in the point of sufferings not to handle any contention in matter of faith beleeving you have more neede of helpe against the fingers of Pursivants then against the armes of Pulpits and this reflexion may serve you to confute the arguments of your flesh and blood against patience in all your persecutions in that you suffer under that notion which only can sanctifie the sufferings of any persecuted Christians Conclude then your selves happy in these times since you are in a capacity of making treasure of all your tribulations when others who it may be are under as heavy a temporall yoake as you drawing not in the same cariage of the Catholike faith will find the weight even in this world more intolerable They are much more to be lamented to whom we cannot apply S. Iohns comfort to the distressed Catholikes of his daies when he saith Apoc. 1.9 I your brother and partaker in
obedient to death even the death of the crosse for the which thing God hath exalted him So that here Christs power is referred to his purchase of it by his passions Therefore a Christian that repineth at any affliction in this life seemeth to forget what he oweth the Crosse for his redemption from misery and to what he was sealed by it when it was laid upon him in water to ingage him even before he could beare it in a heavyer matter and to oblige him to serve under all those crosses of fire or water this life should passe through for after this comes a stronger baptisme of fire in the tryals of a Christian Those who are not Christned with the signe of the Crosse may have some pretence not to understand the use or obligations of it but you on whose heads it hath been laid in Baptisme and pressed as it were into them by Confirmation can have no colour to mis-conceive the use of Crosses and since it is a defence against evill spirits the making but the signe or figure of the Crosse with our hand it must needs be of greater efficacie against both the world and the devill the having of them made upon us by the hand of God who chastiseth every child he receives and so crosseth his children alwayes either to expel some evill spirit or to mark a lodging for the better reception of his holy mission into it In this signe thou shalt overcome Look up therefore to heaven and you shall see In hoc signo vinces ingraven upon all your Crosses I will close up this proofe of your second covenant as Christians with this advise to you how in all the shipwracks of your lives or fortunes in this storme you may save your selves by a right use of the Crosse The Fathers doe usually call the Crosse Tabulam naufragii that plank whereon humane nature was saved when all her goods were cast away and you must take the manner of saving your selves by your crosses from that conception of making them planks to beare you up and you know the same piece of wood lying upon you will sink you which would carry you if you lay upon it In like manner if the weight of your present crosses lye upon the sensitive part of your soules and you consider them meerly as sensible oppressions and gravations in this world flesh and blood will be dejected and sunk by them when that feeleth all the charge upon it the mind may easily be cast downe by the heavinesse of the senses but if you lay your minds upon your crosses that is extend your thoughts orderly upon the meditation of the Crosse of Christ from which all yours derive a vertue and efficacie to work upon you the image of the Sonne of God laying your minds in this posture upon your crosses they will beare up your hearts instead of sinking them and thus this storme shall but drowne your worldly and earthly affections and your crosses in this posture under your minds shall carry and land you in the land of the living Wherefore I beseech you to cast your thoughts in this posture upon the Crosse of Christ 2 Cor. 13. For although he was crucified of infirmity yet he liveth by the power of God for we also are weake in him but we shall live with him by the power of God resting upon it with confidence that it will support you and rest your minds upon your owne crosses as conceiving them to be rather carriages of your soules to spirituall aspirings then materiall onerations upon your bodies and then you may easily apply to your selves this comfort of S. Paul out of the crucifixion of Christ Nam etsicrucifixus ex infirmitate sed vivit ex virtute Dei nam nos infirmi sumus in illo sed vivemus cum eo ex virtute Dei CHAP. III. Of the Covenant of suffering as Catholiques the Champions or true Church of Christ IN my preceding discourse having I hope in God sufficiently proved this your second bond of sufferance by the two irrecusable witnesses of Christs life and his death I shall proceed to put the third in suit against any reluctant and querulous humor which flesh and blood may breed in you to plead against your spirituall conformity to your temporall condition that in poverty of spirit you may be suited to the penury of your fortunes when you consider seriously your selves bound by this triple cord to crosses adversities in this life The third of your Covenants I proposed to you was the being Catholiques which notion seemeth to be like the wheele in the middle of a wheele in EZekiels Vision for the Catholique Church is contained within the greater circle of Christianity as a lesser sphere within a larger and we may properly say that the spirit of life is in this smaller wheele for the being a Christian in the large acception of it will admit many stations of Religions without the inclosure of the Catholike Church wherein the Symbol of the Apostles incircleth the true Christian Faith and because this terme Catholike is now the notionall distinction of your true Religion from all other whose sects are comprehended in the amplitude of the terme Christian it will not be impertinent to explain unto you in a few words the Churches sense of this denomination Catholike We know the first followers of Christ were called Disciples It seemeth Christs humility would not admit so much honour in his life as the faming of his name by this celebration of it which men affect especially to set upon the front of their intellectuall edifices for Christ all his life endured the meannesse of his earthly habitation to be branded upon his Disciples who were called Nazareans or Galileans rather then the gloriousnesse of his office to be charactered upon them For his sirname of Christ which is Anointed hath a reference to the highest dignities of the world so as it was long after his death before he admitted his followers to that honourable name of Christians for you know it was at Antioch that the Disciples began first to be named Christians and he who never sleepeth was early up sowing tares for Simon Magus Act. 11.26 who was his first seeds-man sowed even in the same furrows the Apostles were plowing and his followers wore the badge of his name and many other Heresies sprang presently up all which covered themselves with this large cloake of Christian in so much as the name of Christian was justly odious in that apprehension the Gentiles had of it For the Heresies that were clothed with that upper garment were in their owne nakednesse foule and execrable in all sorts of pollutions For those we call now Simoneans and Gnosticks and Ebionites and many other which by the Authors of their Sects are now stigmatized in those times were all involved in the latitude of Christians Whereupon before the death of all the Apostles this denomination of Catholique was peculiarly affected
pains as might produce this strange effect in our nature to make our root the lesse capable of bearing fruit by the excrescence and growth of these springs out of it For temporall affliction springeth cut of sinne as out of the root thereof and nothing drieth up and infecundateth so much the radicall fructifying vigor of this roote as the springing up of temporall miseries and distresses so as the fruit of sinne which is death is killed the soonest by the fertility of sufferings in this life Since Christ hath then by the vertue of his Crown of thornes imparted this faculty to the asperities of our life of taking off the growth as his did the guilt of sinne we need not wonder why he hath left all these temporall bitternesses upon our nature which he himselfe took expresly to taste of in our nature so as we may be said to become the more Christians the more we are called to be Patients Which Position we shall find the more cleerly demonstrated to us the farther we advance into the Principles of Christianity S. Paul when he wrote to the Romans in those times when in a parallel of your cases the Christians were partly immured up in prisons and partly expelled to the adjoyning fields thought it seemeth to sweeten their condition to them by representing that Mortification and Sufferance was their calling and profession For he asketh them as of a notorious thing Whether they knew not this to be the Constitution of Christianity saying Rom. 6.3 Are you ignorant that all we who are baptised in Christ Jesus in his death we are baptised An ignoratis quicunque baptizati sumus in Christo Jesu in morte ejus baptizati sumus Intimating that our first incorporation into the body of Christ is in effect an expiration to this world and a translation by the vertue of the death of Christ into such a sort of life as he had pattern'd to us by the inception progresse and consummation of his life And the Apostle presseth thus the proofe of this assertion Rom. 6.4 For we are buried together with him in baptisme into death Consepulti enim sumus cum illo per baptismum in mortem to evince this position that our mundanity is drowned and buryed in our Christening and that the life of Christ which was a continued part of mortification is to be as it were our breath and animation And while we are in this spirituall manner buryed in the life of Christ that is covered and inclosed with indignities oppressions we are acting that part we took upon us in Baptisme where we listed our selves into that Militia which was erected by him who killed death by dying and hath left the same Discipline to all his Souldiers to destroy death by dying to the world Mortifications therefore must needs be the proper duties of that service a Christian is upon and his pay is conditioned rather upon his suffering then his acting as the Apostle proceedeth to testifie For if we become complanted to the similitude of his death we shall be also of his resurrection Si enim complantati facti sumus similitudini mortis ejus simul resurrectionis erimus so as in a Christians case the wages of death is life for if he die here by a privation of the carnall life of this world he performeth the condition of his life everlasting For which reason S. Paul who was the great Commander of the Gentiles in this militancy where by this kind of dying death is swallowed up in victory hath left us his Discipline in Quotidie morior 1 Cor. 15. I die daily and he giveth us those orders to be the followers of him as he was of Christ whom he began not to follow untill he was overthrown in the command he had in this world was as it were resuscitated by the same hand that had killed him We may remember he was revived by what is distructive to this life by being almost famished and illuminated by this worlds darknes restored to corporall light only to see how much he was to suffer for that name for which all the sufferings he had in his head were to be imployed but in a manner farre differing from his designe for they were signed to be enjoyed by himselfe not to be dispensed to others by his hand so as this seemeth the gratification of his Christianity the having all that treasure of crosses he had prepared for other Christians appropriated to his owne use whereof he grew so sensible as in gratitude to this his preference he returned his Superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione But let us look upon his Master I doe exceedingly abound in joy in all our tribulation and ours Christ Jesus in his owne time of tribulation and we may represent him to our selves in the first instant of his conception accepting this order from his Father which he gave to his follower S. Paul of Ostendam illi quanta oporteat eum pro nomine meopati Act. 9.15 I wil shew him how great things he must suffer for my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel ut portet nomen meum coram gentibus regibus filiis Israel In which Commission he laboured three and thirty yeeres wherein all we are acquainted with of his life is either laborious or incommodious or in extremity dolorous and painfull It seemes the holy Ghost did not think any thing worthy to stand upon record for CHRIST that was not eminently suffering and therefore passed over in silence those parts of his life which we may suppose to have been the least distressefull If we look upon his way that is drawn out to us from his Cradle to his Crosse we shall finde that temporall honour and ease were so inconsistent with Gods designe upon him as he never had any proffers of them that did not speedily procure him some sharper vexation The Star that proclaimed him King at his birth presently proved his proscription to death and that the law of suffering might seem enacted in his first step into the world it was put in execution upon innocent babes whose blood as S. Augustine saith made the first tincture of Christian martyrdome so that the cryes of the mothers and the infants followed close the voyces of the Angells that glorified him When the people thought of making him King it put him presently to flye alone into the mountaines When the evill spirits proclaimed him the Son of God the Pharisees doubled their spies upon him to traduce him and sharpned their wits to ensnare him by captious questions His entring into Jerusalem with the acclamations of Hosanna hastned the persecutions of his enemies and within few dayes the voyces of the same Jerusalem strained higher in the Pharisees aire of Crucifige whereby we may conclude that hee had so entirely assigned himselfe to sufferances and passions in this life as he did not thinke it a sufficient discharge
medicine his minde And this is a ready refreshment which we have alwaies by us when we are upon our dunghill to wipe and cleanse the corruption of our sores with this recogitation of the vility of our nature which is as naturally liable to this breaking out into ulcers of miseries and tribulations as earthen pots are to be broken Therefore we may learn of Job to take off the putrefaction and ordure from our sores which is murmur and repining with this recollection that we suffer it in order to our nature and so reluctancy to this condition may in this respect seeme more unnaturall then resignation And for the other Covenant as Christians what can be more positive then S. Pauls exhorting distressed Christians not to be moved 2 Cor. 4.8 In all things we suffer tribulation but are not in distress alwayes bearing about the mortification of Jesus that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies as knowing they are appointed to tribulations And in order to a discharge of this obligation he exhibiteth to us the state of a Christian In omnibus tribulationem patimur sed non angustiamur semper mortificationem Jesu in corpore nostro circumferentes ut vita Jesu manifestetur in corporibus nostris So as we see a Christian is to coppy and manifest the life of Jesus and we cannot render it so easie to be known by any way as by having his most notorious markes visibly upon it which are Crosses for we cannot possibly draw the figure so resembling in sanctity as in suffering for our bodies are helps to us in this similitude as impediments in the other We must then seeke to finish this feature of Jesus as exactly as we can since in this respect we must be all Jesuites as well as Christians and thus these times may cōduce to the making you all Jesuites according to this order of S. Paul And if you enter piously into this society of Jesus you will not feare how you stay here or when you remove from the society of men for if you have the figure of Jesus stamped upon you in any pressure whatsoever or cut out in you by the sharpest violences you shall rise from the want of bread up to that nuptiall feast in which your present nakednesse shall passe for your Wedding garment and from the bar of men you shal be called up to the throne it selfe where the Crucified sits to condemne all that appeare not with that impression on them This beleefe of a Christian's being pressed to serve under the Crosse was so received in the Primitive times as S. Ignatius who lived in the age of the Apostles when he was first bound professed that then he began first to be a Christian and S. Augustine in conformity to this opinion telleth one That if he had not yet beene entred by any tribulation he had not begun to be a Christian and Saint Martin was so imbued with this Doctrine as when the Divell appeared to him in a glorious forme suggesting to him that it was an apparition of Christ Christ doth not appeare to his servants in this life but on the Crosse he answered Christus non nisi in cruce apparet suis in hac vitâ intimating that a Christian must not understand felicity in this life to be a proper image to represent Christ to his servants And it referreth to this what is recorded of Christs apparition to S. Peter when he was stying out of Prison in Rome by much perswasion of the Christians a little before his Mar tyrdome For Christ met him with a sad afflicted countenance and being asked by S. Peter whither he was going He answered To be crucified againe by which the Apostle understood his Masters order and obeyed it cheer fully returning back to the Prison and soon after to the Crosse which was annexed to his Commission of Pasce oves meas Feed my sheep Follow me in this Schedule of Sequere me So as Christs bequeathements to his dearest friends upon earth are but severall crosses in the procession of this life through our valley of teares The hatred of the people the malice of the Magistrates imprisonments and flagellations were the onely Legacies you know Christ left his Disciples and in this he made them his heires first in this world giving them all he dyed possessed of so as the more you share in this his temporall estate you are the truer heires of this his Testament which was writ in his martiall hand but signed and sealed by his eternall for the Hand of his Deity is set to all the Donations of Glory which he made in his Testament to the performers of his Will by a cheerfull acceptance of these his affignements in this world Whereupon S. Augustine adviseth us not to consider what paine we have under the rod but what part we have in the Will And for this cause the Apostles were not styled by Christ Mat. 5.10 blessed in their power over Devils or the grace to raise the dead but in their subjection to sufferings he annexeth a beatitude to this estate of their being cursed persecuted and vituperated with all sorts of injuries to this condition he assigneth joy and exultation expresly Be glad rejoyce for your reward is great in heaven Mat. 5. Gaudete exultate quia merces vestra copiosa est in coelis And we may note that of the eight states of Beatitude which Christ exhibiteth in the Gospel foure of them consist directly in suffering and that those also that are somewhat referred to action which are the being mercifull and the being peace makers are made half also of passive matter For there must be misery and troubles for the subjects of mercy and pacification And for that of spirituall hunger and thirst it is set after poverty and mournning as if they had got us this good appetite and the other of purity of heart comes in as it were after the soules having beene strained through those pressures as though this passing of it were requisite to bring the heart to this cleannesse and depuration and when we consider Christs life how he walked himselfe in this narrow way to this beatitude we cannot reply against this order of following him through many tribulations into his Kingdome for if Christ suffered so much that he might justly give us his glory what ought not we to doe and suffer that we may receive it It must needs be then a great folly to imagine we can attain this glory without pains when even God laboured and suffered so much that he might dispose of it For Christ himselfe telleth us Joh 5.23 27. That the Father hath given all judgement to the Sonne and produceth this as the reason Because he is the Sonne of man that is for having merited it by the labours and passions of this humane life and S. Paul explaineth this cleerly where he saith Ph l. 27. Christ humbled himselfe made
equanimity and patience the devill himselfe knew not how to calumniate his pride would not allow him to own such expressions of power and so that temper of passivenesse was accepted as divine often when the thunder and lightning of the other side of their Commission passed for diabolicall Patience then seemeth a property which God doth not allow the devill so much as to counterfeit the possession of He is permitted to transfigure himself into an Angel of light rather then into the forme of a resigned contented sufferer as being an unalienable prerogative of Christ and the most dangerous delusion whereby he could worke upon the spirits of men and therefore this is the speciall difference between the suggestions of good and evill spirits to us when they come both clothed in pious supervestures that the hand of the proud spirit leaves alwaies some elation disquiet or impatience in us to vent and divulge the virtues and graces he seemeth to dispense but the sincere inspiration of the holy spirit alwaies calmeth and stilleth any emotion or impatience in the possession of his graces and leaves no heat or glowing in our hearts that solliciteth us to evaporate that spirit of joy and peace by which they are solaced but humbly and patiently to enclose them within the humility of our own breasts And thus true Christians by the virtue of their Comforter cording to Christs advice possesse their soules in patience which giveth them so inviolable a possession of their mindes as the devill can neither distraine them by the power of his ministers injuries nor distract them by the paintings of his owne artifices Wherefore God doth punish the devill by allowing him the exercising of the patience of his Saints as S. Gregory saith Holy Job was more Sathans torturer then Sathan was the others tempter for Jobs felicity was not repealed by God but only translated out of prosperity into adversity which is the mother-tongue of the Saints Patience is so unintelligible even to the devils subtilty as if he could conceive it he might quench his flames with it but God in punishment of his first strange impatience in not resting quieted with his condition hath made eternall impatience the fuell of his tortures and on the contrary Patience which induceth an equality in the Saints in all their various vexations of this life is a kinde of image of the state of their beatitude while in all their externall commotions they retaine a smooth and even composure of mind which is a kind of image of eternity that is alwaies the same and in relation to this S. Paul states the highest virtue of the glory of Christ in this Coloss 1.2 of remaining in all patience and longanimity with joy so as that work which all the voluptuary arts are long about and after much labour make but a little joy and quickly looseth it again patience finisheth in a moment and converteth all into delight and satisfaction and treasureth it up as an eternal provision nay patience is so powerfull as it can turne into pleasure all those occurrences which sensuality must run away from to save her petty joyes All sorts of injuries of fortune or of time are presently translated by this vertue into nourishment and delectation for patience as Tertullian saith hath God answerable for all she layes up in his hand if she deposite an injury in his hand he is her revenger if a losse he is her reimburser if a sickness he is her mediciner if death he is her reviver What a freedome doth God allow Patience to make him her debtor of all she commits to his trust And thus we see unless we can finde somewhat that God cannot convert into joy there is nothing that doth not return that profit to Patience The Philosophers commended Patience highly because they accounted suffering an evill which that did asswage and mitigate but a Christian may in regard that it is good for him to suffer esteem Patience as the best of his virtues because it keeps him the longest in that which is so good for him Fortitude or active courage runs through difficulties with all the haste it can Patience goes on leisurely and enjoyes the good of suffering and on it begets mortification and humility which are the legitimate issue of a regenerate man and by this constant assuefaction inurement to sufferings some become by degrees as it were impassible and lovers of trialls for as fire doth no longer burn ashes the which receiving no hurt from it doe seeme to love the fire and to cherish and conserve it so one that is consummated in Patience comes often to a state of being no more diminished by afflictions then ashes are by fire and to desire rather to keepe alive the fire of his tribulations then to exstinguish it for perfect Patience doth not decline suffering but suppresses immoderate sorrow which is the best office for it is so provident as not to deduct at all from the matter of our meriting but only to mitigate the molesting part of our affliction and thus contriveth our advantages so well as we may enjoy the deserving portion of our troubles and not be desolated or oppressed by the sorrowfull property of them We see also Christs method in carrying them who were to convert the world through all sorts of tortures that their Patience might be a meritorious miracle which was a better quality then their powers of speaking all tongues casting out of devills or curing all diseases Their patience in their own wounds was a more advantageous grace then their gifts of cures upon all maladies for by that they improved their own soules and by this they did but repaire the bodies of others they were but organs to passe these miracles into the world but they were owners of the other divine quality And the residence of the Holy Ghost in them may be said to be express'd by their Patience and by their other miracles only a transition of him through them Whereupon S. Chrysostom saith that to suffer patiently is a greater gift then to raise the dead for indeed we are but debtors to God for this and we have Christ our debtor for the other and it may be there will be as many pearles even in number hanging upon the crownes of the Apostles and Martyrs depending on their Patience as on their powers S. Justin Martyr one of the greatest lights of the primitive times confesseth that the stupendious equality and constancy of the Christians in all their pressures convinced him of a divine inspiration thereof and Antiquity testifies infinite numbers of conversions upon the same perswasion Before Christ dignified Patience and rendred it so meritorious the Heathens were so disposed to honour it by the light of nature as this transcendency of it in Christians easily prevayled with them to seeke an author of it even above all that they had before accepted for their gods of whom they had no records but of their delights and volupties
much their eternall blessednesse Well then and fitly may I say unto you in this your state of tryall 2 Cor. 13.5 Know you not your selves that Christ Jesus is in you unlesse perhaps you be reprobate For now you have that work in hand of interpretation of the word of God the word of the Crosse wherein you your selves are best expositors whether you finde in your hearts an humble understanding of the will of God upon you in these siftings and cribrations unto which the enemy hath now subjected you If you find this humble and patient conformity you may rightly conclude you have the right sense of the word of the Crosse Me thinks I may say now to you that you have as a mercy afforded to your offences your book given you and if you can reade in it your present burnings in the hands are far from being brands of infamy The stigmats of Christ they are rather stigmata Christi which are the characters in which your names are written in the Book of Life Your chiefe study therefore now must be to reade currantly Gods hand in this your book which you are put unto and by a right understanding of Gods mercy in this volume of your crosses you make it such an one as was given to Ezechiel Ezek. 3.3 you may finde it even as honey in your mouth Upon this ground Saint Augustine was wont often to aske his heart this question Is the word of the Crosse foolishnesse to thee 1 Cor. 1.18 He knew that was the infallible tryall of this adherence to the will of God the accounting the Crosse the wisdome of God and consequently the best mark of his predestination There may be many glorious externall shews of piety and sanctity which may be like the gift of Tongues Saint Paul speaketh of 1 Cor. 14.14 where the Spirit prayeth but the understanding is without fruit that may draw the eyes of the world upon the appearancies but not the eyes of God upon the interiour disposition but a patient and vertuous exemplarity in suffering is like prophecying in a knowne tongue it both bettereth our selves and edifyeth the Church of God Wherefore I may properly desire you now you are Ver. 4. 1 Cor. 14.39 Therefore brethren be earnest to Prophecy as I may say prohibited to speak with Tongues as this answereth to a publick exhibition of your devotions Itaque fratres amulamini prophetare that is to endeavour to edifie the Church of God by your patience longanimity and suavity in the holy Ghost Gods mercies are so much above all his works that even all his justices in this life are mercies as we may perceive in many things which to us seem severities and are truly indulgencies in Gods Order as many times when he findeth a dumbe and a deafe soule so possessed by the world as he will neither heare nor answer to the ordinary voice of Gods Ministers then God in mercy layeth violent hands upon him and as I may say puts his fingers into his eares Mar. 7.33 as Christ did to the man in this case as it were to force them open by some stronger operation then the ordinary ministry of his Churches medicines and applications and in this case the fire God applyeth is not rigour but medicinall compassion Besides there is commonly a speciall divine authority in Tribulation wherein the holy Ghost breathes himself out more efficaciously then by the Prophets or by the holy Scriptures for we often resist the Word of God and slight the admonition of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church when afflictions though they speake in a sharper and more unpleasant stile to us yet take our eares and bring us to answer more promptly speak Lord for thy servant heareth Whereupon the Psalmist expresseth thus both the nature of man and the virtue of tribulation Psal 15.4 Their infirmities were multiplied afterward they made haste Multiplicatae sunt infirmitates corum postea acceler averunt So as God oftentimes lameth us to make us mend our pace towards him the maimes given us by Gods hand prove like Jacobs lamenesse which made him the fitter for his journey And as it hath beene aptly accommodated to the credit of affliction that Jacob was flying and sunk with labour to the earth with his head upon the stones when God first appeared unto him and set his soule upon that ladder which reached to heaven while his body lay prostrate upon the earth so wee may well adde this that as soone as we wake out of the sleepe which the pleasures of our senses cast us into we shall confesse concerning crosses and tribulations as Jacob did after his dreame Verè dominus est in loco isto Gen 28.16 Indeed our Lord is in this place I knew it not ego nesciebam For though wee tremble at first and finde the place terrible yet we may truly say Non est hic aliud nisi domus Dei porta coeli 17 This is no other but the house of God the gate of heaven for the holy spirit seemeth to set this inscription of the gate of heaven upon tribulation advising us that by many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdome of heaven I have presented you with this draught of your owne states that you may see you are now in the elements of the Saints of both Testaments Wherefore the Apostle telleth the Christians in your conditions Behold Act. 14.21 now is the time acceptable now is the day of salvation But you must remember also what Christ said to those that are in this day 2 Cor. 6.2 Work while you have light lest the night overtake you For the day it selfe will but give you light not legs to carry you on your journey You must not lye downe under your burthens as if afflictions were vessels you had under you which will carry you on though you walke backward and forward in them between murmur desire of revenge and some intervals of conformity and resignation to Gods pleasure This tossing and estuation of spirit is a leake may endanger you if it be not stopped Necessarily therefore I must often rememorate this unto you that if you have faith to beleeve crosses to be the treasures of Christ you must negotiat with the talents you are trusted with for if you bury them in enmities maledictions of your enemies repinings and diffidences of Gods providence you will give so ill an account as you may chance after all your sufferings to be remitted thither for your rewards where affliction produceth nothing but curses and desperations For it may be fitly said of Tribulations They are the good odour of Christ 2 Cor. 1. but to some the odour of death unto death but to others the odour of life unto life Of which party that you may prove you must act this lesson of Saint Paul Colos 1.11.2 to walk worthy of God in all patience and longanimity
received into the eternall Tabernacles as when you had more of the Mammon of iniquity to make a greater number of friends And thus while you are freed from all the temptations of riches you are possessed of their greatest advantages Old Tobyas saw this light in all his darknesse and poverty Toby 4.8 when hee counselled his sonne As thou shalt be able so be mercifull if thou have much give abundantly if thou have little study to impart also a little willingly for thou dost treasure up to thy selfe a good reward in the day of necessity And they who thinke seriously on that great day of necessity will thinke little of their momentany incommodities but in contemplation of providing their part in that day will easily offer with Saint Peter John 13. not only their feet but even their hands and their heads to the will of their master they will not onely disperse faithfully what they can spare conveniently but also deny their owne wants somewhat of their demands to supply greater necessities which call to them in the person of one much worthyer then themselves one from whom they have received themselves and from whom they expect himselfe for retribution O how blessed a thing is charity that hath no lesse then God for the subject it worketh upon in time and no lesse then the becoming like God for the salary in eternity CHAP. XI Of the dilection of enemies THis last tincture whereinto we have now infused the minde is very neere the colour of the more perfect dye of Charity ingrained in the love of enemies For this disposition exerciseth it selfe upon our friends in a respect wherein they have sometincture of enemies as thâ—irs when the acting of our charity requireth such a crossing and offending our selves as to strain our owne sufferings upon our selves Then our fellow sufferers who demand this selfe-distressing are in this regard adversaries to our nature that repugneth against incommodity whereby our friends in this case may be said to be proposed to our love with some colour of enemies upon them So that they who overcome their nature in this aversnesse to offend or incommodate themselves in preference of the ease of their fellowes are well advanced towards the loving of such direct enemies as doe violently impose sufferings and prejudices upon them For they are already half way being arrived at the loving them who are the occasion of some sufferings and inconveniences unto them and so the other moiety is the easilyer reached which is but the loving all that contribute to their injuries and offences And such who are thus rectified in the sense of the matter of sufferings are well prepared to advantage themselves by all the manners of them for having their senses exercised as the Apostle saith in the discernment of good and evill they will facilely accommodate themselves to the measure of evills whereby they are to be exercised being perswaded that the proportions of spirituall goods are raised to them by the same degrees that the difficulties of their performances are heightned against them so when they are to straine their charity up to the love of all enemies and maligners they doe not deliberate so much upon the pleadings and redargutions of their nature in this case but resolve upon the expresse precept of the author and Judge of nature who maketh this love of enemies a necessary concomitancy with all our good offices to friends to form that complete summe of Charity which we are to account to him wee owe our redemption paid in this species of Charity to enemies and if even when we were his enemies Christ reconciled us to God by his dying for us Rom. 5.10 we may well be reconciled to this kinde of love to which we owe our eternall life Considering then our obligation to this sort of love we may say our uncomplyance with the love of enemies falls under the same vice as our unworthinesse to friends for it must needs be an high ingratitude not to correspond with that quality whereunto we owe our redemption which is the love of enemies and it was not severity but even excessive charity to us that imposed this love upon us for it was ordained by Christ rather to assimilate us to himselfe then to sentence us to a penalty And to cleare this point to us he hath set this love under such a relation as may justly make it agreeable even to our nature our enemies being proposed to us as fellow-members of his body for it is under that notion he enjoyneth us the loving them not in the respect of their being enemies So that when our reason examineth this injunction we may finde that this excellent virtue hath not so much as an ill aspect to avert us from it For when we look upon Man as the image of God on the one side or as the copie of Christ on the other either of these sides of the medall are lovely objects in Christians who have this double signature of God upon them and so cannot be prospects of aversion on either of their sides for this colour of enemies is but as it were an over-lay of colly upon a statue which doth not alter the forme and this ill colouring is cast upon the figure of man by the hand of the enemy of his nature the which foule cover we are not required to love for as men offend and injure one another they are the devils engins in that respect not Gods images and therefore simply as enemies they are not presented to our love for so they are ills which God cannot recommend to us but the vitiating of our nature doth not efface the character of God in it and that is the object of our love in all men So what we are obliged to love hath the impression of good and amiable upon it if our passion doe not stay upon the superficiall deformity appearing in our enemies which exteriour supervesture is the devils artifice not the work of God therefore our minds looking upward to God pierce this veyle of private injuries and look through it either on the image of God or upon the figure of Jesus Christ in which they see the injuries they themselves have done him born with love and moreover they find this charity of suffering patiently the same provocations reflecting to them a new love from Christ And thus there remaines nothing unlovely in his view of enemies After all these considerations how deplorable is it that there are so many Christians of whom we may say in the point of this precept of loving enemies as the Apostle saith of the Jewes in respect of the Gospel unto this present day when this commandement is read 2 Cor. 3.14 a veile is put upon their hearts for a great part of Christians are as studious to find evasions out of the unpleasing sense of this precept as the Scribes and Doctors of the Law were unfaithfull in the explication of the commandement of loving our