heare not because God speaks not loud enough but because we stop our eares nor that neyther for wee doe hear but because we do not hearken then nor consider no nor that neyther but because we doe not answere nor cooperate nor assist God in doing that which he hath made us able to doe by his grace towards our own Salvation For not to judge De iis qui foris sunt of those whom God hath left fot any thing we know in the darke and without meanes of Salvation because without manifestation of Christ we are Christians incorporated in Christ in his Church and thereby by that Title we have a new Creation and are new creatures and as wee shall have a new Jerusalem hereafter so we have a new Paradise already which is the Christian Church In this Paradise saith St. Augustine Quatuor Evangelia ligna fructifera In the books of the Gospell as they grow and as they are suplicated in the Church growes every Tree pleasant for the sight and good for meat And there sayes that Father lignum vitae Christus Christ Jesus himself as he is taught hee that gives life to all our actions and even so our faith it self which faith qualifies and dignifies those actions And then sayes from the Scriptures in the Church is the Tree of Life for it is he As Christ alone in this Paradise that is the christian Church is this Tree of life so lignum scientiae boni mali The Tree of knowledg of Good and Evill is Proprium voluntatis arbitrium the good use of our own Will after God hath enlightned us in this Paradise in the Christian Church and so restor'd our dead will again by his Grace precedent and subsequent and concommitant for without such Grace and such succession of Grace our Will is so far unable to pre-dispose it selfe to any good as that nec scipso homo nisi perniciose uti potest sayes he still we have no interest in our selves no power to doe any thing of or with our selves but to our destruction Miserable man a Toad is a bag of Poyson and a Spider is a blister of Poyson and yet a Toad and a Spider cannot poyson themselves Man hath a dram of poyson originall-Sin in an invisible corner we know not where and he cannot choose but poyson himselfe and all his actions with that we are so far from being able to begin without Grace as then where we have the first Grace we cannot proceed to the use of that without more But yet sayes Saint Augustine The Will of a Christian so rectified and so assisted the lignum scientiae the Tree of knowledge and he shall be the worse for knowing if he live not according to that knowledg we were all wrapped up in the first Adam all Mankind and we are wrapped up in the second Adam in Christ all Mankinde too but not in both alike for we are so in the first Adam as that we inherit death from him and incurre death whether we will or no before any consent of ours be actually given to any Sin we are the children of wrath and of death but we are not so in the second Adam as that we are made possessors of eternall life without the concurrence of our own Will not that our will payes one penny towards this purchase but our own will may forfeit it it cannot adopt us but it may disinherit us Now by being planted in this Paradise and received into the Christian Church we are the adopted sons of God and therefore as it is in Christ who is the naturall Son of God Qui non nascitur desinit as Origen expresses it He was not born once and no more but hath a continual because an eternall generation and is as much begotten to day as he was 100. 1000. 1000 millions of generations passed so since we are the generation and of-spring of God since Grace is our Father that Parent that begets all goodness in us In similitudine ejus sayes Origen conformable to the Pattern Christ himself Qui non nascitur desinit who hath a continuall generation Generemur Domino per singulos intellectus singula opera in all the acts of our understanding and in a ready concurrence of our Will let us every day every minute feele this new generation of spirituall children for it is a miserable short life to have been borne when the glasse was turned and dyed before it was run out to have conceived some good Motions at the beginning and to have given over all purpose of practise at the end of a Sermon Let us present our own will as a mother to the father of light and the father of life and the father of love that we may be willing to conceive by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and not resist his working upon our Soules but with the obedience of the blessed Virgin may say Ecce ancilla Behold the seruant of the Lord fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum Be it done unto me according to thy Word I will not stop mine eares to thy Word my heart shall not doubt of thy word my life shall expresse my having heard and harkened to thy word that word which is the Gospell that Gospell which is peace to my Conscience and reconciliation to my God and Salvation to my Soul for hearing is but the conception meditation is but the quickning purposing is but the byrth but practising is the growth of this blessed childe Fidelis The Gospell then that which is the Gospell to thee that is the assurance of the peace of Conscience is grounded in sermone upon the word not upon imaginations of thine owne not upon fancies of others nor pretended inspirations nor obtruded Miracles but upon the word and not upon a suspicious and questionable not upon an uncertain or variable word but upon this that is fidelis sermo This is a faithfull saying It is true that this Apostle seemes to use this phrase of speech as an earnest asseveration and a band for divers truths in other places He saies sometimes This is a true saying and This is a faithfull saying when he does not meane that it is the word of God but only intends to induce a morall certitude when he would have good credit to be given to that which followes he uses to say so fidelis sermo it is a true it is a faithfull saying But in all those other places where he uses this phrase he speaks only of some particular duties or of some particular point of Religion but here he speaks of the whole body of Divinity of the whol Gospell That Christ is come to save Sinners and therefore more may be intended by this phrase here then in other places When hee speaks of that particular point The Resurrection he uses this phrase It is a true saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him 2 Tim. 2.11 when he would invite men to godlinesse
the people there was none with me The Angels then knew not this not all this not all the particulars of this The mystery of Christs Incarnation for the Redemption of Man the Angels knew it in generall for it was commune quoddam principium it was the generall mark to which all their service as they were ministring spirits was directed But for particulars as amongst the Prophets some of the later understood more then the former I understand more then the ancients Psal 119.100 sayes David and the Apostles understood more then the Prophets even of those things which they had prophesied Ephes 3.6 this Mystery in other ages was not made known as it is now revealed unto the holy Apostles so the Angels are come to know some things of Christ since Christ came in another manner then before Ephes 3.10 And this may be that which S. Paul intends when he sayes that he was made a Minister of the Gospel To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdome of God And S. Peter also speaking of the administration of the Church 1 Pet. 1.12 expresses it so That the Angels desire to look into it Which is not onely that which S. Augustine sayes Aug. Innotuit a seculis per Ecclesiam Angelis That the Angels saw the mystery of the Christian Religion from before all beginnings and that by the Church Quia ipsa Ecclesia illis in Deo apparuit Because they saw in God the future Church from before all beginnings but even in the propagation and administration of the Church they see many things now which distinctly effectually experimentally as they do now they could not see before And so to this purpose Visus in nobis Christ is seen by the Angels in us and our conversation now Spectaculum sumus sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.9 We are made a spectacle to men and angels The word is there Theatrum and so S. Hierom reads it Hierom. And therefore let us be careful to play those parts well which even the Angels desire to see well acted Let him that finds himself to be the honester man by thinking so think in the name of God that he hath a particular tutelar Angel that will do him no harm to think so And let him that thinks not so yet think that so far as conduces to the support of Gods children and to the joy of the Angels themselves and to the glory of God the Angels do see mens particular actions and then if thou wouldst not sollicite a womans chastity if her servant were by to testifie it nor calumniate an absent person in the Kings ear if his friends were by to testifie it if thou canst slumber in thy self that main consideration That the eye of God is always open and always upon thee yet have a little religious civility and holy respect even to those Angels that see thee That those Angels which see Christ Jesus now sate down in glory at the right hand of his Father all sweat wip'd from his Browes and all teares from his Eyes all his Stripes heal'd all his Blood stanch'd all his Wounds shut up and all his Beauty returned there when they look down hither to see the same Christ in thee may not see him scourged again wounded torn and mangled again in thy blasphemings nor crucified again in thy irreligious conversation Visus ab Angelis he was seen of the Angels in himself whilest he was here and he is seen in his Saints upon earth by Angels now and shall be so to the end of the world Which Saints he hath gathered from the Gentiles which is the next branch Praedicat Gentib Psal 85.10 Predicatus gentibus he was preached to the Gentiles Mercy and truth meet together says David every where in Gods proceedings they meet together but no where closer then in calling the Gentiles Jesus Christ was made a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God Rom. 15.8 wherein consisted that truth to confirm the promises made unto the fathers says the Apostle there and that 's to the Jews but was Christ a Minister of the Circumcision onely for that onely for the truth No Truth and Mercy meet together as it followes there and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy The Jewes were a holy Nation Gal. 2.15 that was their addition Gens Sancta but the addition of the Gentiles was peccatores sinners we are Jewes by nature and not of the Gentiles sinners sayes S. Paul He that touch'd the Jewes touch'd the apple of Gods eye And for their sakes God rebuk'd Kings and said Touch not mine Anoynted but upon the Gentiles not onely dereliction but indignation and consternation and devastation and extermination every where interminated inflicted every where and every where multiplied The Jewes had all kinde of assurance and ties upon God both Law and Custome they both prescribed in God and God had bound himself to them by particular conveyance by a conveyance written in their flesh Isa 49. in Circumcision and the counterpane written in his flesh I have graven thy name in the palmes of my hands Eph. 2.12 But for the Gentiles they had none of this assurance When they were without Christ sayes the Apostle having no hope that is no covenant to ground a hope upon ye were without God in this world To contemplate God himself and not in Christ is to be without God And then for Christ to be preached to such as these to make this Sun to set at noon to the Jewes rise at midnight to the Antipodes to the Gentiles this was such an abundant such a superabundant mercy as might seem almost to be above the bargain above the contract between Christ and his Father more then was conditioned and decreed for the price of his Blood and the reward of his Death for when God said I will declare my decree That is what I intended to give him which is expressed thus Psal 2. I will set him my King upon my holy hill of Sion which seemes to concern the Jewes onely God addes then Postula a me petition to me make a new suit to me dabo tibi gentes I will give thee not onely the Jewes but the Gentiles for thine inheritatnce And therefore laetentur gentes Psal 97.1 sayes David Let the Gentiles rejoyce and we in them that Christ hath asked us at his Fathers hand and received us And Laetentur insulae sayes that Prophet too Let the Islands rejoyce and we in them that he hath raised us out of the Sea out of the ocean sea that over-flowed all the world with ignorance and out of the Mediterranean Sea that hath flowed into so many other lands the sea of Rome the sea of Superstition There was then a great mercy in that Predicatus gentibus Creditus Mundo that he was preached to the Gentiles
know any thing The soul say they of men so purified understands no longer per phantasmata rerum corporalium not by having any thing presented by the fantasie to the senses and so to the understanding but altogether by a familiar conversation with God and an immediate revelation from God whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way He was hungry Mat. 21.20 and a fig-tree presented it self to him upon the way and he went to it to eat This is that Pureness in the Romane Church by which the founder of the last Order amongst them Philip Nerius had not onely utterly emptied his heart of the world but had fill'd it too full of God for Congrega Orator so say they he was fain to cry sometimes Recede ame Domine O Lord go farther from me and let me have a less portion of thee But who would be loath to sink by being over-fraited with God or loath to over-set by having so much of that winde the breath of the Spirit of God Privation of the presence of God is Hell a diminution of it is a step toward it Fruition of his presence is Heaven and shall any Man be afraid of having too much Heaven too much God There are many among them that are over laden oppressed with Bishropricks and Abbeys and yet they can bear it and never cry Retrahe domine domine Resume O Lord withdraw from me Resume to thy self some of these superabundancies and shall we think any of them to be so over-fraited and surcharg'd with the presence and with the grace of God as to be put to his Recede domine O Lord withdraw thy self and lessen thy grace towards me This Pureness is not in their heart but in their fantasie We read in the Ecclesiastick story of such a kinde of affectation of singularity very early in the primitive Church Catharsitae We finde two sorts of false Puritans then The Catharists and The Cathari The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those Creatures In which error they of the Romane Church succeed them in a great part in their Exorcismes and Consecrations Particularly in the greatest matter of all in the Sacraments For the Catharists in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour thought not the bread pure except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man not fit to be nam'd here And so in the Romane Church they induc'd a use of another Excrement in the other Sacrament They must have spittle in the Sacrament of Baptisme For in those words of Tertullian Tertul. In Baptismo Daemones respuimus In Baptism we Renounce the Devil they will admit no other interpretation of the Respuimus but that Respuere is sputo detestari Durantius de citib l. 1.19 n. 30. That we can drive the Devil away no way but by spitting at him Their predecessors in this the Catharists thought no Creatures pure and therefore purified them by abhominable and detestable ways The second sort of primitive Puritans the Cathari Cathari They thought no men pure but themselves and themselves they thought so pure as to have no sin and that therefore they might and so did leave out as an impertinent clause in the Lords prayer that petition Dimitte nobis debita nostra for they thought they ought God nothing In natural things Monsters have no propagation A Monster does not beget a Monster In spiritual excesses it is otherwise for for this second kinde of Puritans that attribute all purity to themselves and spend all their thoughts upon considering others that weed hath grown so far that whereas those Puritans of the Primitive Church did but refuse to say Dimitte nobis Forgive us our trespasses because they had no sin the Puritan Papist is come to say Recede a nobis O Lord stand farther off for I have too much of thee And whereas the Puritan of the primitive Church did but refuse one Petition of the Lords prayer the later puritan amongst our selves hath refused the whole Prayer Towards both these sorts of false puritans Catharists and Cathari derived down to our time we acknowledge those words of the Apostle to belong 2 Tim. 4.2 Reprove Rebuke Exhort that is leave no such means untryed as may work upon their Understandings and remove their just scruples Preach write confer But when that labor hath been bestow'd and they fear up their Understanding against it so that the fault lies not then in the darkness of their Understanding but meerly in the perversness of the will over which faculty other men have no power towards both these sorts we acknowledge those other words of the Apostle to belong too Gal. 5.12 Utinam abscindantur Would to God they were even cut off that disquiet you Cut off that is removed from means by which and from places in which they might disquiet you These two kinds of false Puritans we finde in the Primitive Church And Satan who lasts still makes them last still too But if we shall imagine a third sort of Puritans and make men afraid of the zeal of the glory of God make men hard and insensible of those wounds that are inflicted upon Christ Jesus in blasphemous oaths and execrations make men ashamed to put a difference between the Sabbath and an ordinary day and so at last make sin an indifferent matter If any man list to be contentious we have no such custome 1 Cor. 11.16 neither the Chuch of God The Church of God encourages them and assists them in that sanctity that purity with all those means wherewith Christ Jesus hath trusted her for the advancement of that purity and professes that she prefers in her recommendations to God in her prayers one Christian truly fervent and zealous before millions of Lukewarme Onely she says in the voice of Christ Jesus her head Wo be unto you Mat. 23 25. if you make clean the outside of cups and platters but leave them full of extortion and excess within Christ calls them to whom he says that blinde Pharisees if they have done so If they think to blinde others Christ calls them blinde But if their purity consist in studying practising the most available means to sanctification and in obedience to lawful authority established according to Gods Ordinance and in acquiescence in fundamental doctrines believed in the ancient Church to be necessary to salvation If they love the peace of conscience and the peace of Sion as Balaam said Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end he like his So I say let me live the life of a Puritan Num. 23.10 let the zeal of the house of God consume me let a holy life and an humble obedience to the Law testifie my reverence to God in his Church and in his Magistrate For this is Saint Pauls Puritan To have a pure heart