not onely placeth us upon but as Solomon speaks makes us an everlasting foundation by raising up in us a good conscience And this it doth as necessarily as fire sendeth forth heat or the Sun light For it is impossible to love God sincerely and not to know it and it is as impossible to know it and not to speak it to our own heart and comfort our selves in it For Conscience follows Science A light it is which directs us in the course of our obedience and when we have finished our course by the Memory it is reflected back upon us It tells us what we are to do and what we have done We have a kind of short but useful Genealogy in S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned From Faith unfeigned ariseth a good Conscience from that the Purity of the inward man from that that Peace which maketh us draw near with confidence to the throne of Grace A golden chain where every link fits us in some degree for a dissolution nay where every link is unseparably annexed to each other and with it we cannot but tend naturally and cheerfully yea and hasten to our place of rest For our Conscience is our Judge our God upon earth And if it be of this royal extraction the product of our Faith and Obedience it will judge aright it will draw the Euge to us and tell us what sentence the Judge will pass at the last day and we even now hear in our ears Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy masters joy And when our Conscience hath past this sentence upon us we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boldness and confidence towards God This this is an everlasting foundation and upon it we build as high as Heaven Our thoughts and desires our longings and pantings soar up even to that which is within the vail which is yet hidden and we are earnest to look into Let us then exercise our selves to have alwaies a conscience void of offense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word intimates the clearness of a way where no spy can discover any thing amiss For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas is speculator explorator a Scout a Spy So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a conscience clear and free from offense The want of this makes Death a King of terrours and puts more horrour in the Grave then it hath When Death comes towards wicked men on his pale horse it comes as a Serjeant to arrest them to put them out of possession of that which they had taken up as their habitation for ever to banish them out of the world which they made their paradise and to let them into eternity of torment If we love the world how can the love of God abide in us We plead for titles saith a learned Gentleman of our own who had large experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the world and was exemplum utriusque fortunae an example of both fortunes good and evil We plead for titles till our breath fails us we dig for riches whilst strength enables us we exercise malice whilst we can revenge and then when Age hath beaten from us both youth and pleasure and health it s lf and Nature it self loatheth the House of old Age we then remember when our memory begins to fail that we must go the way from whence we must not return and that our bed is made ready for us in the grave At last looking too late into the bottom of our conscience which the Vanities of the world had lockt up from us all our lives we behold the fearful image of our actions past and withal this terrible inscription THAT GOD SHALL BRING EVERY WORK INTO JVDGMENT Thus he And this our vvay uttereth our foolishness in increasing the fear of Death and Judgment by striving to chase it away never thinking of Deaths sting till vve feel it putting by all sad and melancholy thoughts in our way till they meet us again vvith more horrour at our journeys end This is it which makes Death vvhich is but a messenger a King yea a King of terrours We can neither live nor are vvilling to dye vvith such a conscience vvhereas had vve learnt as Seneca speaks and studieâ— Death had vve not fed and supplyed this enemy with such vveapons a make him terrible had we cut from him now this now that desire an anon another for Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fights against us with our selves vvith our Wantonness and Luxury and Pride and Covetousness haâ— vve spoiled him of those things vvhich make Death terrible and the Dâ—â—vil our accuser vve might have boldly met him nay desired to meet him For vvhy should they fear Death vvho may present themselves vvith comâ—fort before God and shall meet Christ himself in all his glory coming iâ— the clouds To conclude Death shall be to them vvho love God and keep a good conscience a messenger of peace a gentle dismission into a better vvorld an Ostiary to let us in to the presence of God vvhere there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Our Apostle here calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a departing or dissolution To vvhich vve should lead you but vve cannot now so fully speak of it as vve vvould and as the matter requires vve will therefore reserve it for some other time The Seven and Thirtieth SERMON 1 COR. XI 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. THat which the Philosopher telleth us in the first of his Ethicks that we must not look for that certainty in Moral Philosophy which we do in the Mathematicks is most true And the reason is as plain For the Mathematician separateth and abstracteth the forms and essences of things from all sensible matter And these forms are of that nature for the most part that they admit not of the interposition of any thing Inter rectum curvum nihil est medium Between that which is straight and that which is crooked there is no medium at all for there is no line which is not either straight or crooked But in Morality and in the duties of our life the least circumstance varieth and altereth the matter and the forms there handled have something which cometh between so that there is an inclination which draweth us near sometimes to the right hand sometimes to the left sometimes to one extreme sometimes to another And in respect of this variety of circumstances it is that the Philosopher telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a hard matter many times to make our choice or in our judgment to prefer one thing before another Therefore they who have given us precepts of good life have also delivered us rules to guid us in this variety of circumstances that we swerve neither to the right hand nor to the left For as in artificial works the
according saith S. Paul to my Gospel This is the Lesson the Spirit teacheth Truth Let us now see the Extent of it It is large and universal The Spirit doth not teach us by halves teach some truths and conceal others but he teacheth all truth maketh his disciples and followers free from all errors that are dangerous and full of saving knowledge Saving knowledge is all indeed That truth which bringeth me to my end is all and there is nothing more to be known I determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 2.2 Here his desire hath a Non ultrá This truth is all this joyneth heaven and earth together God and Man mortality and immortality misery and happiness in one draweth us near unto God and maketh us one with him This is the Spirit 's Lesson Commentum Divinitatis the invention of the Divine Spirit Faith is called the gift of God Ephes 2.8 not onely because it is given to every believer and too many are too willing to stay till it be given but because this Spirit first found out the way to save us by so weak a means as Faith And as he first found it out so he teacheth it and leaveth out noâ—hing not a tittle not an Iota which may serve to compleat and perfect this divine Science Psal 139.16 In the book of God are all our members written All the members yea and all the faculties of our soul And in his Gospel his Spirit hath framed rules and precepts to order and regulate them all in every act in every motion and inclination which if the Eye offend pluck it out if the Hand cut it off Rules which limit the understanding to the knowledge of God bind the will to obedience moderate and confine our affections level our hope fix our joy stint our sorrow frame our speech compose our gesture fashion our apparel set and methodize our outward behaviour Instances in Scripture in every particular are many and obvious The time would fail me to mention them all In a word then this Truth which the Spirit teacheth is fitted to the whole man to every member of the body to every faculty of the soul fitted to us in every condition in every relation It will reign with thee it will serve with thee it will manage thy riches it will comfort thy poverty ascend the throne with thee and sit down with thee on the dunghill It will pray with thee it will fast with thee it will labour with thee it will rest and keep a Sabbath with thee it will govern a Church it will order thy Family it will raise a kingdome within thee it will be thy Angel to carry thee into Abraham's bosome and set a crown of glory upon thy head And is there yet any more Or what need more than that which is necessary There can be but one God one Heaven one Religion one way to blessedness and there is but one Truth and that is it which the Spirit teacheth And this runneth the whole compass of it directeth us not onely ad ultimum sed usque ad ultimum not onely to that which is the end but to the means to every step and passage and approach to every help and advantage towards it and so uniteth us to that one God giveth us right to that one Heaven and bringeth us home to that one end for which we were made And is there yet any more Yes particular cases may be so many and various that they cannot all come within the compass of this Truth which the Spirit hath plainly taught It is true but then for the most part they are cases of our own making cases which we need not make cases somtimes raised by weakness somtimes by wilfulness somtimes even by sin it self which reigneth in our mortal bodies and to such this Lesson of the Spirit is as an Ax to cut them off But be their original what it will if this Truth reach them not or if they bear no analogy or affinity with that which the Spirit hath taught nor depend upon it by any evident and necessary consequence they are not to be reckoned in the number of those which concern us because we are assured that he hath led us into all truth that is necessary Some things indeed there are which are indifferent in themselves quae lex nec vetat nec jubet which this Spirit neither commandeth nor forbiddeth but they are made necessary by reason of some circumstance of time or place or quality or persons for that which is necessary in it self is alwaies necessary and yet are in their own nature indifferent still Veritas ad omnia occurrit this Truth which is the Spirit 's Lesson reacheth even these and containeth a rule certain and infallible to guide us in them if we become not laws unto our selves and fling it by to wit the rules of Charity and Christian Prudence to which if we give heed it is impossible we should miscarry It is Love of our selves and Love of the world not Charity or spiritual Wisdome which make this noyse abroad rend the Church in pieces and work desolation on the earth It is want of conscience and neglect of conscience in the common and known wayes of our duty which have raised so many needless Cases of conscience which if men had not hearkened to their lusts had never shewn their head but had been what indeed they are nothing The acts of charity are manifest 1 Cor. 13. Charity suffereth long even injuries and errours but doth not rise up against that which was set up to enlarge and improve her Charity is not rash to beat down every thing that had its first rise and beginning from Charity Charity is not puffed up swelleth not against a harmless yea and an useful constitution though it be of man Charity doth not behave it self unseemly layeth not a necessity upon us of not doing that which lawful Authority even then styleth an indifferent thing when it commandeth it to be done Charity seeketh not her own treadeth not the publick peace under foot to procure her own Charity is not easily provoked checketh not at every feather nor startleth at that monster which is a creation of our own Charity thinketh no evil doth not see a serpent under every leaf nor Idolatry in every bow of Devotion If we were charitable we could not but be peaceable If that which is the main of the Spirit 's lesson did govern mens actions Psal 72.7 there would be abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth Multa facienda sunt non jubente lege sed liberâ charitate saith Augustine Charity is free to do and suffer many things which the Spirit doth not expresly command and yet it doth command them in general when it commandeth obedience to Authority Which hath no larger circuit to walk and shew it self in than in things in themselves indifferent which it may enjoyn for orders sake
which it is hard to number quocunque sub axe They are in every climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and in the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the business of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The others are not many for they are a part of that little Flock Luk. 11.32 And the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray Errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot believe we are removed far enough from the infection of it Therefore again Despair may have its original not onely from the acrasie and discomposedness of the outward man or from weakness in judgement and ignorance of our present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and intensive love For care and Diligence and Love are alwayes followed with Fears and Jealousies Love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeys end The liberal man is afraid of his almes the temperate mistrusteth his abstinence the Meek man is jealous of every heat Pietas etiam tuta pertimescit Piety is afraid even of Safety it self because it is Piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault for a man thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood Joh. 1.13 or the will of men not by Negligence and Wilfulness and the pollutions of the Flesh but by Care and Anxiety and an unsatisfied Love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a fair place Psal 16.6 and he have a goodly heritage a well-setled spiritual estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as bankrupts do upon their temporal worn out with debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in heaven who pretendeth a title to it nor is every man shut out who doubteth of his evidence This diffidence in ones self is commonly the mark and character of a good man who would be better Though he hath built up his assurance as strong as he can yet he thinketh himself not sure enough but seeketh for further assurance and fortifieth it with his Fear and assiduous Diligence that it may stand fast for ever Whereas we see too many draw out their own Assurance and seal it up with unclean hands with wicked hands with hands full of blood We have read of some in the dayes of our forefathers and have heard of others in our own and no doubt many there have been of whom we never heard Phil. 1.27 whose conversation was such as became the Gospel of Christ and yet they have felt that hell within themselves which they could not discover to others but by gastly looks out-cryes deep grones and loud complaints to them who were neer them that Hell it self could not be worse nor had more torments then they felt And these may seem to have been breathed forth not from a broken but a perishing heart to be the very dialect of Despair And indeed so they are For Despair in the worst acception cannot sink us lower then hell But yet we cannot we may not be of their opinion and think what they said that they are cast out of Gods sight No God seeth them looketh upon them with an eye full of compassion and most times sendeth an Angel to them in their agony Luke 22.43 as he did unto Christ a message of comfort to rowse them up But if their tenderness yet raise doubts and draw the cloud still over them we have reason to think and who dareth say the contrary that the hand of Mercy may even through this cloud receive them to that Sabbath and rest which remaineth for the people of God Hebr. 4.9 I speak of men who were severe to themselves watchful in their warfare full of good works and constant in them and yet many times when they were even at the gates of heaven and near unto happiness felt sore terrours and affrightments These being full of Charity could not be quite destitute of Hope although their own sad apprehensions and the breathings of a tender conscience made the operation of it less sensible Their Hope was not like Aaron's rod cut off dryed up and utterly dead but rather like a tree in winter in which there is life and faculty yet the absence of the Sun and the cold benumming it suffereth no force of life to work But when the Sun draweth near and yieldeth its warmth and influence it will bud again and blossom and bring forth leaf and fruit The case then of every man that despaireth is not desperate But we must consider Despair in its Causes which produce and work it If it be exhaled and drawn up out of our corrupt works and a polluted conscience the steam of it is poysonous and deleterial the very smoke of the bottomless pit But if it proceed from the distemper of the body which seiseth upon one as well as another or from weakness of judgement which befalleth many who may be weak and yet pious or from an excessive solicitude and tenderness of soul which is not so common we cannot think it can have that force and malignity as to pull him back who is now striving to enter in at the narrow gate or to cut him off from salvation who hath wrought it out with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 At the day of judgment the question will be not what was our opinion and conceit of our selves but what our conversation was not what we thought of our estate but what we did to raise it not of our phansied application of the promises but whether we have performed the condition For then the promises will apply themselves God hath promised and he will make it good We shall not be asked what we thought but what we did For how many have thought themselves sure who never came to the knowledge of their errour till it was too late how many have called themselves Saints who have now their portion with hypocrites how many have phansied themselves into heaven whose wilfull disobedience carried them another way On the other side how many have believed and yet doubted how many have been sincere in
the City And thus he went on his way full of temptations and troubles and full of honours even of those honours which he refused For you may remember how he bore that great office and you may remember how he refused it and gained as much honour in the hearts of men by the last as by the first as much honour by withdrawing himself and staying below as he did formerly in sitting in the highest place with the sword in his hand For the state and face of things may be such as may warrant Demosthenes wish and choice and make it more commendable in exilium ire quà m tribunal to go into banishment then to ascend the tribunal And he best deserveth honour who can in wisdome withdraw himself and he can best manage power who knoweth when to lay it down Bring him now from the publick stage of Honour to his private house and there you might have seen him walking as David speaketh Psal 101.2 in the midst of his house in innocency and with a perfect heart as an Angel or Intelligence moving in his own sphere and carrying on every thing in it with that order and decorum which is the glory of a stranger whose moving in it is but a going out of it to render an account of every act and motion You might have beheld him looking with a setled and unmoveable eye of love on his Wife walking hand in hand with her for fourty four years and walking with her as his fellow-traveller with that love which might bring both at last to the same place of rest You might behold him looking on his Children with an eye of care as well as of affection initiating them into the same fellowship of pilgrimes and on his Servants not as on slaves Quid servus Amicus humilis but as his humble and inferiour friends as Seneca calleth them and as his fellow-pilgrimes too And thus he was a domestick Magistrate a lover and example of that truth which Socrates taught That they who are good Fathers of their family will make the best and wisest Magistrates they who can manage their own cock-boat well may be fit at last to sit at the stern of the Common-wealth For a private family is a type and representation of it Vit. Constant nay saith Eusebius of the Church it self I confess I knew him but in his evening when he was near his journeys end and then too but at some distance But even then I could discover in him that sweetness of disposition and that courteous affability which by S. Paul are commended as virtues but have lost that name with Hypocrites with proud and supercilious men who make it a great part of their Religion to pardon none but themselves and then think that they have put off the Old man when they have put off all Humanity In these homiletick virtues I could discern a fair proficiency in this reverend Knight And what my knowledge could not reach was abundantly supplied and brought unto me by the joynt testimony of those who knew him and by a testimony which commendeth him to Heaven and God himself the mouthes of the poor which he so often filled Thus did he walk on as a stranger comforting and supporting his fellow-pilgrimes and reaching forth his charity to them as a staff Thus he exprest himself living and thus he hath exprest himself in his last Will which is voluntas ultra mortem the Will the Mandate the Language of a Dead man Speculum morum saith Pliny the Glass wherein you may see the Charity that is the Face the Image of a Pilgrime by which he hath bequeathed a Legacy of Comfort and Supply a plain acknowledgement that he was but a stranger on the earth to every Prison Hebr. 13.3 and to many Parishes within this City He remembred them who are in bonds as one who himself was in the body and somtimes a prisoner as they I know in this world it is a hard thing justum esse sine infamia to be good and not to hear ill expedit enim malis neminem esse bonum for evil men make it their work to deface every fair image of virtue then think well of themselves when they have made all as evil as themselves But it was this our honoured Brothers happiness to find no accuser but himself I may truly say I never yet heard any Report hath given him an honorable pass The voice of the Poor was He was full of good works the voice of the City He was a good Magistrate the voice of his equals He was a true friend the voice of all that I have heard He was a just man and then our Charity will soon conclude He was a good Christian for he lived and died a Son of the Church Acts 24.14 of the Reformed and according to the way which some call Heresie some Superstition so worshipped he the God of his fathers Eccl. 12.5 And now he is gone to his long home and the mourners go about the streets He is gone to the grave in a full age when that was well near expired which is but labour and sorrow Psal 90.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril speaketh grown in Wisdom and grace which is a fairer testimony of age then the Gray hairs or Fourscore years Eccl. 12.7 His body must return to the dust his soul is returned to God that gave it Hebr. 11.4 And being dead he yet speaketh speaketh by his Charity to the Poor speaketh by his fair example to his Brethren of the City to honour and reverence their Conscience more then their Purse vitámque impendere vero to be ready to resign all even life it self for the truth He speaketh to his Friends and he speaketh to his Relict his virtuous reverend Lady once partner of his cares and joyes his fellow-traveller and to his Children who are now on their way and following apace after him Weep not for me Why should you weep I have laid by my Staff my Scrip my provision and am at my journeys end at rest I have left you in a valley in a busie tumultuous world but the same hand the same provision the same obedience to Gods commands will guide you also and promote you to the same place where we shall rest and rejoyce together for ever more There let us leave him in his eternal rest with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob with all the Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles all his fellow Pilgrimes strangers in the Kingdom of Heaven The end of the First Volume Imprimatur Ut mortuus etiam loquatur qui tam piè eleganter loquutus est vivus M. FRANCK S. T. P. Ro. in X to Patri Do. Epo. Lond. à Sacr. Dom. XLVII SERMONS PREACHED At the Parish-CHURCH of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street LONDON The Second Volume By the late Eminent and Learned Divine ANTHONY FARINDON B. D. Divinity Reader of his MAJESTIES Chappel-Royal of Windsor The
he chideth without revenge he reproveth without anger when he is strong then is he weak and when he is rich then is he poor These are not such contradictions but we may compose and reconcile them by the mind which useth the body and outward things but as a disguise We see the eyes a fountain of tears but we see not the mind bathing it self with joy in those tears We see the forehead of Heraclitus but we see not the heart of Democritus We see a man crowned with Honour and Riches but we see not the mind which esteemeth all these as dung 2. That the mind may be rightly affected we must root out of it all love of Riches For if we set our hearts upon them the love of them will estrange us from Christ and make us Idolaters The Poet will tell us Deos qui colit ille facit Not he that nameth the name of God but he that adoreth and worshipeth him is he that maketh him a God And what is our worshiping of Riches but our confidence and trust in them Col. 3.5 Therefore S. Paul calleth Covetousness Idolatry because there is nothing that stealeth away our heart from God more then the love of Riches Think not that he onely is an Idolater that boweth his knees to an image He is an Idolater who hath secretly set up the World in his heart An putas tunc te primùm intrare meritorium cum domum meretricis intraveris saith Ambrose to the libidinous person Dost thou think that thou didst then first enter the stews when thou camest in at the harlot's doors Tunc intrasti cum cogitationes tuas meretrix intravit Then thou first entredst when the harlot first entred thy thoughts So dost thou think that Riches were then first thy Idol when thou didst travel and labour for them when thou offeredst up thy body thy soul thine ease thy credit thy religion to them Nay then thou wert an Idolater when first this Idol found a way into thy heart I must bring you yet further from not loving not desiring Riches to contemning of them For though I have emptied my store and cast it before the wind yet till I have made Riches the object of my fear till I can say within my self This Lordship may undo me These riches may begger me This money may destroy me till in this respect I make it the object of my contempt and look upon it as a bait of Satan I am not so far removed but that still the Wo hangeth over me The Philosopher will tell us that it was the custom of superstitious persons when they saw or met any ominous and ill-boding creature presently to destroy it If they saw a Raven they would kill him with stones if they met with a Cat they would cut off his head thinking by this to turn all the evil upon the creatures themselves which did portend evils Beloved Riches and Treasures are prodigies Prout accepta sunt ita valent They presage evil to our souls and we have no way to elude them but by contemning them If we do not slight them and fling disgrace on them they will have that force upon us which they threaten Whilest we neglect to place contempt upon Riches where we should Riches cause us to cast contempt upon our brethren where we should not We look big on them we will not change language with them we think we honour them when we bid them sit down at our footstool or under our table to pick up the câ—ums Nay further yet they draw contempt upon our selves and make us vile and base they make us bow and condescend to low offices even lower then his that sitteth with the dogs of our flock We lacquay it after them we toil and drudge we flatter and lie that we may obtain them we watch them and guard them and if they be divided from us by the same violence and fraud by which we first gathered them we fling our selves upon our beds and are sick for them we weep like Rachel for her children and will not be comforted because they are not Cyprian saith Multos patrimonia sua depresserunt in terram Great patrimonies and large revenues with their weight have pressed many men down to the earth and all by having them in too great esteem For as when a man taketh a wedge of lead upon his shoulders it presseth and boweth his body to the earth but if he put it under his feet it will lift and keep him from the ground So when we place Riches above us and look upon them as upon our heaven when we prefer them before salvation and make Gain our Godliness it must needs be that they will press us down to hell but if we keep them below as slaves and tread them under our feet and contemn them as dung in comparison of Christ they will then lift us up as high as heaven Aut humiliter servient aut superbè dominabuntur If we slight them they will be good servants to us and profitable for many uses but if we give them our respect they will command as Tyrants Let them not then take the throne in thy heart but draw them down under thy foot-stool under the lowest thought thou hast For how can thy thoughts fall so low as Riches when thy conversation is in heaven Therefore in the last place let me commend unto you a godly jealousie of your selves Suspicion in such a case as this is very useful where the least degree of love to them in respect of God is extremity and many times our providence and care for our selves and our families in which we please our selves and for which others praise us signifie the same thing and we embrace the world too close when we say we do not love it The lust of the eyes many times breaketh forth with rapine and deceit and oppression at its side yea and mingleth it self with the common businesses of our calling For we may love the World and yet do no man injury Nor have we quit our selves of the World when we have persuaded our selves that we are honest men How many millions love the World and Riches and neither know it nor will know it It is the Devil's Sophistry to deceive us into a belief that we are not what we are It is good wisdome therefore in a Christian etiam tutissima timere not onely to fear shipwreck in a storm and a tempest but even in a calm to fear sometimes though there be no cause of fear It is a safe conclusion of the Canonists In foro interiori praestat praesumere delictum ubi non est In Courts of penal justice we may not without breach of charity suspect more evil then we need but in the inward Court of Conscience we cannot be too jealous We must censure the secret passages and inclinations of our hearts and it will be safe for us at least to suspect our selves though there be no reason
calleth it is very likely I shall fall fast asleep at the voice of Christ The reason is plain and evident For it is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Understanding The Understanding can easily sever one thing from another and apprehend them both yea it hath power to abstract and separate things really the same and consider the one as different from the other but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to unite and collect themselves to make themselves one with the object so that our desires cannot be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time We may apprehend Christ as just and holy and the world and the riches of it as vanity it self but we cannot at once love Christ as just and holy and adhere and cleave to the world and the vanities thereof Our Saviour hath fully expressed it where he telleth us we shall hate the one and love the other or else lean to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other if a will to the one but a villeity and faint inclination to the other if a look on the one but a glance on the other And this glance this villeity this inclination are no better then hatred and contempt For these proceed from my Understanding but my love from my Will which is fixed not where I approve but where I chuse For what is it to say This is beauty and then spit upon it to say Righteousness is hominis optimum as Augustine calleth it the best thing that man can seek and yet chuse a clod of earth before it What is it to call Christ Lord and crucifie him For reason will tell us even when we most dote upon the world that Wisdom is better then rubies that Christ is to be preferred to Mammon that it is better cum Christo affligi quà m cum aliis deliciari to be afflicted with Christ then to enjoy the pleasures of this life and sport away our time with others but this will not make it Love which joyneth with the object which swalloweth it up is swallowed up by it What love is that to Righteousness which putteth it post principia in the second file behind the World and in this placeth all its hope of happiness seeing Righteousness if it be not sought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first place is lost for ever For last of all if we seek any thing before Righteousness that must needs be predominant and give laws to Righteousness square and fashion Religion as it pleaseth and so Religion being put behind will be put also to vile offices to swell our heaps to promote our lusts to feather our ambition to enrage our malice to countenance that which destroyeth her to follow that which driveth her out of the world And whereas Righteousness should be as the seal to be set upon all our intendments and upon all the actions of our life that they may go for warrantable being stamped and charactered as it were with the Image of the King of glory Christ Jesus Righteousness will be made as wax to receive the impression of the World and whatsoever may prove advantageous will go current for Righteousness and every thing will be Righteousness but that which is Whereas Righteousness should be fixed as a star in the firmament of the soul to cast its influence upon all we think or speak or do we shall draw up a meteor out of the foggy places of the earth a blazing and ill-boding comet and call it by that sacred name This this hath been the great corrupter of Religion in all the ages of the Church This was that falsary which did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adulterate the truth of the Gospel This hath made that desolation which we see upon the earth For if the eye be first fixed on the things of this world it will be so dazled as not to see Righteousness in her own shape nor discern her unless she be guilded over with vanity My Covetousness now looketh like Christian providence for my love of these things must Christen the Child My Ambition now is the Honour of God My malice cannot burn hot enough for I seek the Lord in the bowels of my brethren My Sacrilege is excessive piety for though it is true that I fill my coffers with the shekels of the Sanctuary yet I beat down Baal and Superstition But if we did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first seek Righteousness our Covetousness would not dig and drudge with such a fair gloss our ambition would flag and stoop to the ground our Malice would dye never to be raised again and our Sacrilege would find no hand to lay hold on the axe and the hammer the power of Righteousness and not her bare name would manifest it self in our actions and all excuses and pretences and false glosses would vanish as a mist before the Sun the World would be but a great dunghil Honour but air Malice a fury and the Houses of God would stand fast for ever But this misplacing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath put all out of order divided the Church shaken the Pillars of the earth ruined nations and left nothing of Righteousness but the name when that which indeed is Righteousness doth make and preserve a Church uphold the world and is the alone thing which can perpetuate a Government and continue a Commonwealth to last so long as the Moon endureth If this did prevail there could be no wars nor rumours of wars no violence in the form of a law no injury under pretence of conscience no beating of our fellow-servants no murthering of our brethren in the name of the Lord. I say the casting Religion behind and making it wait upon us in all our distempers is that which hath well-near cast all Religion out of the world This hath raised so many sects which swarm and buzze about us like flies in Summer This is the coyner of Heresies which are nothing else but the inventions of worldly-minded men working out of the elaboratory of their phansie some new Doctrine which may favour and keep pace with their humour and lift them up and make them great in the world This built a Throne for the Pope and a Consistory for the Disciplinarian This hath stated many Questions and been President at most Councils For be the man what he will private interest is commonly the Doctor and magisterially determineth and prescribeth all If a thing be advantageous it must also be orthodox and hath on the one side written RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO THE LORD on the other FROM HENCE WE HAVE OUR GAIN We cannot be too charitable yet you know charity may mistake Peradventure weakness of apprehension may leave some naked to errour conscience may sway and bow others in some things from the truth but let me tell you in