is requisite that we should not rest in the opinion we have of our selves which is commonly biassed by selfe-conceit selfe-love selfe-interest all quite contrary to that great Dutie of Selfe-deniall but that we should be so true and just to our own Soules as like righteous Judges to keep one Ear for what others judge of us and impartially to give a sentence upon our selves accordingly and not slie to that base and bold subterfuge of nonplus'd and shamelesse persons I care not I care not For though Malice and ill-will may instigate some one or two and upon speciall occasion to false accusations and slanders yet if the opinion be of more and those not so prejudiced and constant and lasting in vain doe men proclaim their integrity and innocencie for such judgement of others is much more to be trusted than our own 7. Sixthly Appearance of Evill and Hypocrisie reverst as I may so speak when men seem by outward carriage to be worse than in trueth they are is allso carefully to be avoided not onely because of the sin of scandalizing our Brethren and causing an erroneous judgement and uncharitable to be entertained but because it very often happens that men fall really into that sin which they at first onely seemed to committ Therefore it is St. Pauls Rule Philip. 2. 4. Look not every man on his own things but every man allso on the things of others not by curiositie and censoriousnesse but Charitie and conscienti ous walking without offence to others and if possible to prevent sin in others as well as our selves 8. Lastly Every man should have Charitie towards his Brother but no man is to demean himselfe so as to stand in need of the charitable judgement of others For he that doth so is certainly uncharitable in the first place and being really guiltie within himselfe is most wickedly unjust in demanding that another should be so charitable as not to think so of him though there be use of Charitie even where Crimes are past defence or excuses but for men to live conscious to themselves of unrighteousness towards God and justice towards men and then because there may want notorious convictions to demand of Censurers to judge charitably is in effect to require that others should be religious and they may be wicked under the protection of others Pietie and Charitie A Prayer for Puritie of Spirit O Lord God who is like unto thee amongst the Gods Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders And what greater wonder is there than of sons of Men we should be called the Sons of God and of Children of wrath heirs of the Kingdome of God of lost sheep be brought back to the great Shepheard of our Soules of prodigall and fugitive Sons be brought home and embraced by thee our heavenly Father making us as well as requiring us to be holy as thou art holy raising us from the death of sin to the life of Righteousnesse given us by the Spirit of Grace which worketh in us by the meanes of Grace ordained by thee to that great end Let that Spirit be never wanting in me let that Grace never be received by me in vain whereby I may be sensible of my unworthinesse and insufficiencie to any thing that is good and at least to have an hunger and thirst after righteousnesse that I may in thy due time be satisfied and in the mean time grow and increase in this desire and this desire proceed to action and this action to such perfection as to overcome and mortifie all worldly lusts and Carnall affections purifying my selfe as he is pure and taking greater content and pleasure in casting off than ever I did in taking on me the burden of sin and in purging away all my old sin than ever I did in contracting those spots and blemishes which have too much and too long defiled that pure Spirit thou once gavest me and defaced that beautifull Image thou once stampedst on me And let the pleasure of Repenting be greater to me than that of offending ever was to me though alas it was too great Lord nothing is impossible to thee who canst bring light out of darknesse and strength out of weaknesse and out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham and to thy selfe and out of the ruines of Religion in me raise up a Temple fit for thy holy Spirit to dwell in Descend into possesse and dwell in my heart by faith and love of thee which may purge out the old leaven and make me a new lump and quench all fleshly Concupiscences which have or may raign over me or rage in me For this corruptible bodie presseth down my minde musing on high and heavenly things and the weight of sin so easily besetteth me that I cannot run the Race which is set before me and the stain of sin pollutes my best actions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death from this bondage of corruption Thy grace I know O Lord is sufficient for me and thy Son mighty to save and that his Office is to save his people from their sins from their sins I say as well as from the punishment of sin Let that Day-star at length arise in my heart and enlighten and warm my minde with love of thee and let that breath of new life be inspired into me enliven my dead bodie and re unite and animate my drie bones and excite me with new vigour to the perfourming thy holy will that so the life I now live may be by the faith of the Son of God and being poor in spirit as he was I may be pure in spirit as he allso was for theirs is the Kingdome of God even the Kingdome of Grace here and the Kingdome of Glory hereafter whither O mercifull God and Father in thy due time bring me for thy blessed Sons sake Jesus Christ my Saviour Amen The Third Part. Treating of the UNITIVE WAY OF THE Devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof 1. SUCH due preparation being made towards Spirituall Life in laying aside every sin so easily besetting us the remainder of our Christian Race towards God and our Union with him are more easily attained which Union is by Saint John called our fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 John 1. 3. And this is it which vulgarly is called allso Perfection Perfection being here used for Justification by faith in Christ and Christ dwelling in us and such a measure of assurance of Gods grace and favour which are competible to our Militant state in this life and incline God to the acceptation of us to a future inheritance of Immortalitie and Glorie And to this it is not absolutely necessarie that no blemish imperfection or infirmity should be incident but that none such should be found which either of it selfe should tend to corruption
the Earth the motions of the Air and temper differing from ours and the unusuall formes of Beasts and such like Rarities doe beget an inclination in the minde to be present on the place Likewise Relations of Battles wise Stratagems Valiant and bold Actions in others inflame the spirit to an imitation In like manner he who converses much with Religion its strange and preternaturall Notions the sublime Speeches and heroicall Actions of Saints and Martyrs and especially the admirable designe and Providence of God in Lost mans Redemption and Restitution perfourmed by Christ cannot choose but finde and feel a disposition in himselfe answering the impressions made in his minde of them where it is not notoriously pester'd with earthly and vitious Habits prepossessing it which by the foresaid prescriptions of the Purgative Exercise must be first discharged before any such transformation as we speake of can be hoped for For no man can attain to any savourinesse or complacencie in any faculty whatever untill by frequent practice he becomes a competent Master of such Science or Art. So that Saint Paul exceeding in these Exercises himselfe and thereupon experimenting the admirable effects of them in the vehement zeal for Gods glorie ending in Raptures and Visions Celestiall commends the same Methode to his Son Timothy 1 Epist 4. 8. in these words Till I come give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine which are easily applicable to such an attendance whereupon Christ with his blessed Spirit may enter into the Soule to its Illumination Purgation and Conjunction with him 5. And though all the Scriptures being given of God are profitable for Instruction and Edification yet as the glorie of the Celestiall Bodies differ in degrees so some Lights in Gods Word produce both greater light and heat in men than others doe Whereupon it is expedient that choice be there made allso of such as may be more effectuall upon a man not excluding inferiour points as uselesse but insisting upon such as are more honourable and weighty and fruitfull to be meditated on 6. And to give some assistance here to the weaker in directions and instances of subjects proper for Meditation not intending to limit any strictly to what I here offer What if we should distribute the Great Work of God in restoring and renewing or recreating the world brought into ruine and confusion by the fall of Man into as many dayes as it pleased him to take for creating and forming of the naturall and Visible world at the first And thus beginning on Munday to consider and meditate on the miserable Chaos of confusion into which all the world was reduced by Mans Apostacie from and the severall branches of the sinne committed thereby against God with the aggravations of guilt pertaining thereunto And how God entertained within himselfe thoughts of reconciliation with Man so undone and to determine or decree the same by his Sons becoming Man and undertaking the great Work of Mediation If on Tuesday a man should observe seriously and contemplate of the execution of this Decree by Covenanting a second time with Adam in behalfe of himselfe and Posteritie this true and proper Covenant of Grace and the foundation thereof in promising the Messias as a Mediatour and Redeemer and the exceeding love of God in giving his Onely Son to be Incarnate to that end Thirdly If on Wednesday we should meditate how upon this Day God created light out of darknesse and the light sprang up to the Righteous a Light of Hope and Life and of help by which we perfourme all spirituall Offices and workes as we doe our naturall workes by the light of the Sun dayly And if the observation be true and the reason of the Jew given to the Gentile Philosopher Why the Sun fails not to shine little or much every Wednesday viz. because it was made on that Day and so shining celebrates its own Nativitie much greater reason is there that we should celebrate the praise of Gods mercy shining in the face of Jesus Christ to us If on Thursday we should more particularly observe the severall Raies of the glorious Body of Grace falling upon us here on earth and how that he who hath given his Son thus to us will and doth with him give us all things so that the fat and the sweet and the plentie of the creatures ordained to mans use are derived to him by Christ through whome as he made the Worlds he administers and governs and disposes all things in an admirable order and Harmonie filling even the naturall mans heart with food and gladnesse which ought to appear and utter it selfe in outward acts of gratitude and service rising up from thence to the valuation more serious and high of the spirituall Blessings whereby he satisfieth the hungrie and thirstie Soule after Righteousnesse and the graces of the Gospell conducting to the glorie of God. And on Friday how ample noble and patheticall Meditations may be had on the sufferings and death of Christ for the sins of the whole world and the satisfying of Gods wrath due to man in extremitie by the tearing of his Flesh and the shedding his Blood even to the death of the Crosse for us so fullfilling all Righteousnesse And how reasonable just and righteous a thing it is for all true Christians to suffer for him and themselves all such hardships of Abstinences Continences Selfe-denialls and bodily punishments to be made like unto Christ and more capable of the fruits and effects of his Intercession and Redemption Sixthly On Saturday to consider the Rest of Christ in the Grave having finished the severall workes of our Redemption as God did that Day the workes of Creation resting from them And that we allso should rest from such workes of Nature corrupt which may be called properly Ours and so fit our selves to live and die as that the next Day which we call Sunday we may be fitted for a blessed and joyfull Resurrection And being then raised from the death of sin unto the life of Righteousnesse we may keep a perpetuall Jubilee of Holinesse and Happinesse elevating our mindes in the contemplation of the Power of God the glorie of Christ raised from the dead ascended up into Heaven ever to make intercession for us labouring here under severall conflicts untill we allso reign together with him Which future state may well deserve the best and highest of our thoughts as that where the imperfecter union of faith and love we can attain here shall receive its absolute and most perfect consummation hereafter 7. But untill that fullnesse of time or time of fullnesse shall come the minde of man is wonderfully helped and exalted by the exercise of the contemplation of God in his beautie and goodnesse which is oftentimes very effectuall upon men for the quietation and fixing of the unsetled minde in great peace and tranquillitie from the molestations of this world though at the same time there be found no small sollicitude how to
of the soule or spirit of man which was variously canvased by the wise men of this world without resolution satisfactorie and that he and not naturall generation was the true cause thereof and that Christ and his Father worketh hitherto and he worketh John 5. 17. 7. Seventhly we learne from holy Writ concerning the government of the World that God leadeth not such a sedentarie and carelesse life as some Philosophers imagined after the manner of many Great Men who build fair and stately Houses and furnish them richly but so leave them to fall to decay and the things therein to be lost and spoiled neither doth he trouble his head or vex his heart as some men doe about the management of their Houses and Lands but by a mean way of sufficient protection and providence disposes all things even Good and Evill so wisely and harmoniously that no molestation is given to himselfe nor any damage to the Universe it selfe though innumerable changes are constantly wrought to the detriment of some particulars there and the like advantage to other things not before noted So that what for its time lay hid and contemptible is raised as it were out of the dust and exalted to greatnesse and splendour and for a season having so continued by the same all-disposing hand relapses into its ancient obscurity and this by a perpetuall vicissitude which some times an Age or two declareth some times not many Centuries of years And by the same Faith we according to St. Peter's Doctrine 2 Ep. 3. 7. understand that as the heavens and earth were formed and stood out of the waters so the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement 8. By Faith likewise we know that the fine and admirable Masterpiece of God himselfe Man created in the foresaid perfection and being in great honour and happinesse through his own folly as did the Angels before him fell from his stedfastnesse into blindesse povertie and generall miserie of bodie and minde contracting thereby disorder of affections inward and diseases and death outward the seeds of all which he transmitted to his posterity and is that Originall sinne all are infected and infested with This the Learning of this world could hardly or not at all instruct us in but is the office of our faith to inform us From whence also we can only give account of the many and strange exorbitances of our minde and the severall infirmities distempers and pains of our bodie before our reason comes to that ripenesse as to entitle us to the guilt of erroneous actions or free election of Good and Evill 9. Neither could humane learning or books of the greatest Philosophers informe us how tied and bound in the chain of our sins and fallen into the depth of common destruction we should recover our losses and repair our breaches neither could we our selves devise any more than we could really desire to evade the evils we were surrounded with But that light from above which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world sheweth that God out of the Abysse of his Counsells and freenesse of his Grace and Love towards Mankinde first determined the redemption of him and when the fullnesse of time was come actually sent his Son into the world in the likenesse of sinfull flesh to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8. 3. Galat. 4. 4. 10. And this Salvation was ratified to man soon after his fall God entring then into a new Covenant with man to the re-enstating him into his favour and restoring him to the blessed hopes of salvation eternall upon Evangelicall faith and obedience answerable thereunto And that these termes of this Covenant may as well as ought be performed on mans part though not upon his own strength is a materiall point of our faith and a prime motive to our obedience For were it not that man bounden thus to God might come up to that degree of perfection as to be judged by God to have performed what is necessary to obtaining the promises made by God no wise man would trouble himselfe to begin such an impossible work and no faithfull man or true believer could be sure of his salvation as is often taught we may and ought to be but rather every man may be sure of his damnation knowing thar he can in no wayes doe that upon which his salvation depends 11. Furthermore It is necessary to salvation as the Athanasian Creed tells us that we believe rightly the Incarnation of out Lord Jesus Christ who by taking flesh of the Virgin Mary his Mother unto the divine nature became an apt and sufficient Mediatour between God and Man and Administratour of the New Covenant made between God and Man. 12. And this administration was wrought two wayes principally First by the divine doctrine and knowledge revealed unto the world delivered by himselfe and his elect servants to that end inspired extraordinarily and contained in the severall Books of the New Testament Secondly by his Passion and death upon the Crosse as a Lamb of God offered for the sins of the whole world in which God rested satisfied and became appeased and Believers had accesse to the throne of Grace and became accepted in the beloved 13. But to the effectuall application of so glorious a benifit as this is somewhat more required of all true Believers than a Faith passive it being necessarie that first we should use the meanes ordained by God to that great end before we can have any sound hope of attaining the same And supposing faith preceding the summe of what remains and to which other duties may be reduc'd may be three fold 1. The use of the Sacrament of Baptisme instituted as a laver of regeneration and a forme of initiation into the Covenant without which we are of the number of Infidells and aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and without hope of salvation and in our sins and naturall blindnesse which hereby was so cured that the newly baptised were said in Scripture to be illuminated or enlightened Heb. 6. 4. Hebr. 10. 32. 2. And unto this comes in as an Auxiliary improving and perfecting the low beginnings of those once initiated to an high degree of holinesse and comfort The Sacrament of the Lords Supper ordained by Christ to the ratification of our Covenant entered into with God and the memorie of Christs passion and death upon the Crosse for us and our being more strictly and intimately united to Christ as shall hereafter be more fullie declared 3. A third most necessary and effectuall meanes of applying Christs merits to us is that excellent gift of God as the Scripture termes it Acts 5. 31. Acts 11. 18. Repentance of which with the concomitants of it likewise we may speak farther hereafter 14. Of the Resurrection likewise of the bodie and the reuniting of the soule unto it and upon such restauration the receiving of the proper
the emptie and perishing vanities and fouling even in this life their Fingers in catching these worldly pleasures 8. And why should I adde the consequences of such evill infatuations and choice as is made here by such whom the God of this world hath blinded Doth not even Nature teach us that there is a reward of Good and Evill And doe not our senses or common observation teach us that that reward is not precisely or constantly dispenced in this life but very often all things as it is in Ecclesiastes befall all men alike him that sacrifices and him that sacrifices not which the Divine Wisdome hath so ordered that men might erect their mindes and direct their hearts to the state after Death and stead fastly believe and accurate remuneration both of good and evill and that sevenfold to what men suffer or enjoy of all the labour or pleasure taken in this life in pursuit of Good and Evill This our Christian Creeds would have us perfectly setled in This the Holy Scripture often inculcates unto true Believers And the Wise man saith Ecclesiasticus 7. 36. Whatsoever thou takest in hand remember thy latter end and thou shalt never doe amisse Know thy selfe and present frailties infirmities and vain inclinations exposing thee to sin and errours Remember the great end thou wert placed for in this world Remember the inevitable stroke of Death destroying this Body and the inevitable Resurrection restoring it again to never-dying joy or miserie Know and believe these things soundly and effectually and thy selfe thorowly by a spirituall Philosophie making thee wise to vertue and godlinesse here and to salvation hereafter To the attaining this Divine Knowledge of a mans selfe some of the wiser and soberer Philosophers and much more ancient and holy Fathers of the Church doe often exhort others and exercise themselves at the conclusion of the Day revolving in their mindes what they had done and what they had not the day passed and all this discerning themselves and judging their actions impartially they might adjust the accounts between God and their own souls and as the Tradesman desirous to thrive often turns over his Day book as he calls it and his Debt-book the better to understand whether he thrives or runs behind-hand in the world so every prudent and thrifty soule frequently reflects on its selfe and actions what he hath laid out and what he hath taken in to its advantage or prejudice If the good Emperour bewailed his hard hap when he upon reflexion upon what had passed one day said My Friends we have lost a day how much more reason of lamentation may inconsiderate and dissolute Christians ruminating upon ill-spent time say My Friends we have lost Eternitie we have lost our Souls or at least forfeited them so far as may not be regained without true and timely repentance and renovation neither of which can be obtained without discerning our selves nor that without search made into our selves nor this without reflexions made upon our selves nor this without Illumination nor Illumination of this nature without devout imploration of the Father of Lights from whom cometh every good and perfect gift SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations 1. BUT hitherto have we treated of such Light and Knowledge which God in the ordinary course of his Covenant with Man generally vouchsafes unto him Now we proceed briefly to consider the Extraordinary way of Illuminations and as Saint Paul speaks 2 Corin. 12. 1. come to Visions and Revelations in the Lord. For that such there have been and such there may be who ever believes the Holy Scriptures must not deny and whoever will allow any credit to Ecclesiasticall Histories and Traditions cannot denie I know God hath given us a sufficient Rule revealed in his Word and so sufficient that we ought not importunately to seek for such extraordinarie manifestations of himselfe yet hath he not so far tyed his own hands as he hath our luxuriant appetites after knowledge which transported our first Parents and darkened and degraded them but having distributed to every man according to the measure of his Faith he of his undeserved and unexpected liberality casts into our dimension the overplus of immediate Illuminations The gift of Prophesie before Christ and the frequent grant of Visions to the beloved and honoured Patriarchs before the Law of Moses manifestly prove this beyond doubt or exception Of which reasons are endeavoured to be render'd by the subtile and learned not belonging to this place But as for Prophets and Seers after the Law given they were not only the Life and vigour of the Law so delivered which otherwise might and too often did lie languishing and neglected but so many speciall intimations of the minde of God to his people which became a Law likewise to their Posterities And we upon whom the ends of the world are come as the Scripture speakes 1 Corinth 10. are entred into their labours and Lights of Revelations and that with the advantage and accessions of more cleer and plentifull Revelations than the world before had been acquainted with And with this Bodie of Divinity or Divine Revelations we may safely and ought thankfully and modestly to acquiesce not despising Prophecyings as the Apostle advises consonant to that known Rule given us And that these materiall Revelations as I may so call them are not so full and manifest as to make all Illuminations superfluous and fruitlesse even the precisest admirers of Scriptures will grant themselves laying speciall claim to accessorie Revelations or Inspirations And an eminent instance to this purpose is given in the two Disciples travailing to Emaus Luke 24. who understood the Scriptures we may suppose as well as others generally and to help them therein had acted before their eyes what was before prophesied of Christ and yet could they not understand nor believe the Scriptures untill Christ expounded unto them all the Prophesies from Moses and downward concerning himselfe And upon the same occasion of the other Disciple not believing Christ ver 45. is said to open their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures which gift of God as hath been touched before will never cease to be usefull to the same ends For the office and gift of the Spirit shall never cease untill the Saints and Servants of God come to contemplation of God face to face and Christ hath deliver'd up the Kingdome to the Father 2. A great instance whereof though perhaps a little digressive we have in one of the most fundamentall Articles of our Faith questioned by that wretch Socinus and his followers directed only by their private naturall wits Upon the words of St. Johns Gospell Chap 1. v. 1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God we believe that God became Man and the second Person in the Trinitie Incarnate And some naturall Philosophers as the
corrupt or sound principles of Reason and Faith and the sober affections of the heart purified by Faith. For untill the Spirit of Sanctification and mortification and renovation hath wrought our corrupt nature to a blessed and thorow change little may be expected from us outwardly either acceptable to God who looks more upon the manner and forme of the Deed than the Deed it selfe or profitable to our selves For to continue a little farther our similitude as we see men having bad Watches will with their Finger or Thumb place the Hand aright to give some credit to them which presently according to their ill frame returne to their wonted errour So Hypocrites to appear fair and good to men push themselves on sometimes to regular and laudable acts and sometimes restrain and set back their rank course of sin for some imperfect if not evill end but soon relapse to their accustomed excesses for want of the principle of holinesse and a constitution heavenly inclined the only true Spring of good and laudable actions 5. Again The inward man may well be compared to the Market-place of a strong Citie The Enemie may surprise or by some suddain violence may possesse himselfe of the out-workes and yet be repelled again and the Citie stand firme and safe and faithfull to its Soveraign but if the Enemie once possesses himselfe of the Market-place there is no hopes of standing true to the Owner or withstanding the Adversarie So is it with them who have suffered the Legions of foul Spirits to enter into their hearts and there to nestle and triumph All attempts are but feeble and insufficient to exhibit just and reasonable service to God. For no sooner doe some good inclinations arise no sooner doe we offer at good but a partie of vain thoughts dishonest motions are sent forth to suppresse all good but weak purposes of returning to our allegiance to God and the doing of his Will. Great circumspection therefore must be used strong resolutions must be taken and many difficulties of hunger thirst and hot service must first be passed through before our Redemption draweth nigh and we be restored to the Masterie of our selves and the ministrie we owe to God. 6. But adde hereunto fourthly a more intrinsick argument to the stirring us up to the cleansing our hearts the great benefit redounding to a mans selfe who shall so acquitt himselfe For however this conflict with the powers of flesh and blood and this Conquest is very difficult and tedious and therefore is called in Scripture Mortification and crucifying the Old man with the affections and lusts yet the work once done and the victory obtained brings wonderfull ease quiet satisfaction and cheerfulnesse unto the Spirit rendering it much more expedite and lightsome than it was before strugling against a contrarie Principle which evermore clogged it obstructed and either wholly impeded or grievously retarded the performance of Divine Services For men being scarce able to extinguish the cleer notice of a Deity in them and little lesse able to deny wholly such a service as is due to God doe with an unwilling will divers times submit to Religious acts but wearisome and tedious are they to them through the prevalencie of unsubdued lusts which by this necessary Discipline being master'd and expelled a great change is made in the Soule and then with lightnesse and readinesse is that done which before was irksome and grievous As David himselfe found it in himselfe when he said Psal 119. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou hast set my heart at liberty And then are our hearts at liberty when the Bond-servant Hagar with her off-spring which would domineer are cast out Then are we free indeed when the Son shall make us free then doth the Son make us free when he delivers us fo far as St. Peter speaks 2 Epist 1. 4. as by a Divine nature given unto us we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust Then shall we not fear the Law of the Land constraining us to Gods service more than God then shall we not shrinke and murmure at Fasting-dayes nor repine when on dayes of publique Thanksgiving to him that is glorious in all his Saints it is expected we should suspend and intermitt our lawfull labours and wholly cut off and denie our unlawfull pleasures We shall not need then as Beasts under the Leviticall Law one or more to drive us to the House of God nor drag us with violence to the Altar of God to offer an holy living and acceptable sacrifice to him which is our reasonable service But with Davids Spirit we shall say I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe up unto the House of the Lord. And how much better is it we should doe a thing with Alacritie and great content than with constraint But this we may doe if we can but free our selves from that load of corruption we are apt to lye under And what effect in this kinde and progresse a man hath made in himselfe may be competently discerned from the sense a man hath in himselfe of the fear of God and love to his service and worship which though the most pure and perfect in this life is not without some tepiditie of spirit sometimes yet the seed of God sown in the heart will generally spring up with gladnesse 7. This therefore should be our great and chiefe endeavour which is the Counsell of Solomon Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life And if as Solomon saith Prov. Chap. 18. 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue much more true is it that both of them are in the power of the Heart as it stands affected or disaffected to God seeing the Poison or Balsome which distilleth from the Tongue is originally owing to the Heart as the Heart doth comprehensively signifie the entire bodie of affections which must be dedicated to God. But given to God it cannot be without a mock or derision but as it is whole and sound clear and clean according to the ballance of the Sanctuarie of the Gospell which consists much of Christian Equitie We never heard of any that liv'd a life of nature with halfe an heart only neither of any that was sick on one side of his heart and well on the other no more is it possible to please God with one part of our heart and to please the world with the other or at the same time to live the life of this sinfull world and of Christ My son saith God give me thy heart and not a piece of it for that must needs be dead flesh odious to man and much more to God. SECT IV. Of the proper Means and Methode of cleansing the Soule and first of Baptisme 1. SUCH is the contagion of sin naturally infecting the very Soule as inheriting our Forefathers corruption that being in love with it as all men love
humane Will as he had of Davids Will when Saul was in the power of his hands when Shemei railed to purpose and when at the word given his head might have been taken off and the King revenged of a Petulant slanderer yet he committed his cause to God and seeing at some distance his Hand and Will humbly acquiesced 8. Fifthly Nature it selfe teaches us and upon that Abimelech bowed the men of Sichems heart to make him King to be subject to one rather than to many there being no personall disparity which may alter the Case how much more elegible then must it needs be for a man well advised to submitt to the Monarchie of God than to the Anarchie or tyrannicall Democracie of innumerable lusts whereof some vote one thing and some another One tugges us this way and another draggs us that way commanding many times inconsistencies and contradictions and worreying and wearing out the simple Soule by unreasonable sollicitations and vexations For most truely said Saint Paul 1 Corinth 6. 16. Know ye not that to whome ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whome ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse Every irregular Affection every inordinate Lust is a Tyrant and would needs subject us to it so miserable is that Soule which listens or leans to them being divided from God and it selfe For prodigality and covetousnesse Anger and desire of Revenge Envie and Malice Superstition and profanenesse Pusillanimitie and rashnesse Slothfulnesse and indefatigable drudgeing for the world Loving strange Faces and embraces Lothing lawfull and laudable excessive exaltation and exultation when matters proceed prosper and succeed according to our loose phansies and fondnesse and dejection of minde and spirit when we are worsted in our designes and crossed and frustrated of our hopes and expectations All these and more than these never cease molesting and disquieting a man untill they see him secured under the protection and in the service of Allmighty God resolving to obey him against all temptations and to look on all occurrences as sent chiefly to make proof of his obedience and patience And that this free and full submission doe not only bring admirable quiet and tranquillity to the minde but sanctitie and puritie the thing we at present pursue appeares by the Discourse of the Apostle to the Hebrewes Chap. 10. 9 10. where having propounded for an Example and our imitation the readie obedience of Christ of whome it was said Lo I come to doe thy will O God it followeth By which will we are sanctified That is by that readie conformation of our wills to the Will of God. SECT VIII Of the Custodie and Discipline to be had over the outward Man and especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue 1. BUT now let us passe to the other part of a true Christinas care and labour consisting in the Purging of the Outward man and regiment ought to be had of our Senses from whence lust having conceived inwardly proceeds outwardly deadly sins and through which outward temptations pressing in defile the Soule For our Senses are as Gates to a Cittie through which there is continuall passing to and fro and that of Good and Bad and are the weakest and easiliest surprised unlesse very strictly guarded I will but look I will not like nor love I will but taste I will not eat the forbidden fruit I will but touch I will not embrace saith the naturall and warie wisdome of this world But the wisdome of the Word of God teaches us otherwise when it saith Touch not tast not handle not which all shall perish with the flesh Coloss 2. 1. especially when such touches and light Essaies are of things unlawfull dangerous or wholly unprofitable Doe we not read how Death entreth in at the windowes that is deadly sins at the Eye Doe we not read in St. Peter 2 Epist 2. 14. of such Persons who have eyes full of Adulterie and cannot cease from sin Not that the visive facultie good in it selfe and a great gift of God can of it selfe be subject to such a crime but that through the communication and combination between the inward and outward Man such lustings are either bred or stirred up by such Aspects The Jacks or Keis in the Virginall Harpsicon or Organ being touched with the Finger doe not sound themselves but they strike the inward strings which render the sound So when the outward Senses themselves are struck by their particular objects they soon communicate that passion scarce felt by them to the inward Senses which make all the noise Saint Augustine delivers this as a trueth experimented in himselfe Confess Lib. 7. 1. when he said After what outward formes my minde wandered the same Images did my heart run after allso So that even the subtiller Heathens could not but see the coherence between Phansie and Senses and between the Appetites of the Soule and them both when they tell us By our Eyes we are Luxurious by our Eyes we are hurried into all manner of Vices by our Eyes we are wanton by our Eyes we look on the Wine when it shewes it selfe in the Glasse our eyes are cast upon the Riches of the world as Achan's upon the wedge of Gold and the Babylonish Garment and by orderly unhappie but allmost necessarie gradations and consequences we as he are led to see to covet to take them That subtile Serpent the Devill knew too well what power the temptations had entring into a man through the eye when by his artifice he presented to Christ all the glories of the world and with such a suddain surprise that scarce any but Christ could have withstood or rejected them Job therefore would not so much as cast a vain and idle glance upon a beautie which might delude him Job 31. having no occasion justly so to doe knowing assuredly that the conjunction of the minde with an unlawfull object without that bodilie conjunction adulterates the Soule And imagination with resolution and strong intention does that before God which men cannot censure and so according to the diversitie of the object is the pollution diversifyed allso So that if there be as naturall Philosophers tell us Coel. Rhodigin an hundered Diseases of the naturall Eye the morall distempers by ill use of them may be accounted many more 2. And if I should give some instances of the many waies of corrupting the sight the rest may more readily be made up by mens own observations Poring upon Faces prepared to catch fonder Spectatours Taking pleasure in beholding wanton Pictures under pretence it may be that it is but a dead object or that fowl things are finely drawn Viewing wanton postures and gestures by either Sex or of either Sex. Yea casting an eye upon the mutuall and naturall actions of Animalls doing according to their kinde a man would think it should put one to the blush but too often the contrarie is found by a sympathie to be abhorred
which the Masters of Jewish morality noted and wisely disswaded all to turne their Faces from Amorous Romances and Lascivious Poetrye are to be reduced to this caution And that eye cannot be accounted innocent which coming into a Shop of Rarities and great varieties looketh not so much nor demandeth what it doth want but seeketh for somewhat which when it beginneth first to see it beginneth allso to want and desire and to want it because it desireth it and not desire it because it wanteth it Excellent therefore is that counsell of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 9. v. 5. 7. against both these and their fellowes and that when there were no Monks nor Friers in the world upon whome we would cast such severe counsells as their prosession leads them to Gaze not on a Maid that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her Look not round about thee in the streets of the City neither wander thou in the solitarie places thereof But our Saviours Evangelicall counsell exceeds this Matth. 5. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out It is better for thee to c. Nature as Lactantius observes to preserve the eye a very tender and precious part hath fenced it with hairs on the lids as so many Speares which at the approach of the least Enemy to it being but lightly touched give notice to shut it presently for its securitye But it hath not provided such meanes to defend the eye from morall objects which are ever in readinesse to offend it but that is the speciall gift of God and should be the Christian prudence of every true Believer 3. And the like circumspection is necessary to be had about the Ear another most profitable yea necessarie Sense and no lesse passionate than the other 'T is incredible even to them that are overcome and captivated by dishonest Speeches lewd Books obscene Poetry what a change and that for the worst aptly tempered sounds and melodious Voices have upon a man. They deject him and make him moody and heavie they inflame and lighten him make him brisk and wanton make him full of talk and ridiculous motions and finally insnare and draw him to humour the notes in his actions good or bad Cease my Son therefore saith Solomon to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge whether Poeticall or Prosaicall For when the forme of words the eloquence of the Tongue and gracefulnesse of speaking are the gift of God the matter clothed and adorned and adapted to the eare by them may be of the Devills devising and sent before him to fowl the room of the Soule for him and his unclean Spirits to dwell there For as the Good Spirit of Wisdome will not enter into a body given to sin no more will or can the evill Spirit enter into a Soule or bodie not fitted for his turne by impure cogitations and devices Turne therefore saith Solomon Proverbs 14. 7. from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge Which knowledge is there used for wise and profitable talke opposed commonly to foolishnesse which in Scripture signifies as much as Sin. And in so advising he doth implye the next and right way to avoid not only certain single acts of corrupt communication but even the inclination and desire of impure matter imbibed by word or writing For it is true in morall things as well as naturall that the understanding is made all things according to the impression made by the object as Philosophers teach being formable into any shape So according to divinity is it true that according to the pure and chast subject we choose to meditate on and converse with or the light obscene and frothy is the inward Sense affected not only actually or transiently but habitually and permanently So that in accustoming a mans selfe to immodest and immorall acts or businesses the minde is so tainted that all Diviner things become unsavourie and irksome In like manner to the palate of the Soule accustomed to spirituall pure and chast Discourses and reading the pleasureablenesse of vain idle and foolish Subjects and especially obscene becomes alltogether extinguished an irksomenesse succeeding in its place 4. And there being such neer relation as we have partly seen between the Ear and the Tongue as there is between a Fiddle-stick and Fiddle to strike it as it pleaseth the same doctrine of Sanctitie reacheth unto the due regiment of the one as well as of the other but more especiall care and custodie seem to be due to this than that For as much as the Tongue is an active part and Organ to evill but the Ear passive chiefly And sometimes it so falls out that a man must whether he will or no hear what is leud vain riotous wanton unclean and prophane but no man is constrained to use his Tongue so indiscreetly and wickedly he hath it more in his power than he hath his Eares and therefore he is the more obliged to make a good use of the one than he can of the other And as some have observed Nature by fencing it double with Teeth and Lips least it should trespasse upon God and our Neighbours teaches us with what good advice and moderation we are to use it For in trueth generally it so demeaneth it selfe that few can give that a good word which is the great instrument of Speech And seldome is it better employed than when it accuses it selfe and commends taciturnity and silence What can be said of it or any thing else more bitterly or truely than what St. James writeth of it Chap. 3. The Tongue is an unruly evill full of deadly Poison Therewith blesse we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the Image of God. And Solomon saith Prov. 21. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue meaning that by a Lying slandering perjurious profane and unclean Tongue we hasten Death to others so that our own damnation at the same time lingreth not thereby Christ telling us Matth. 12. 36 38. that For every evill word that men speak they shall give an account at the day of judgement For By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned So that the Tongue or sting of the Adder is not so poisonous and pernicious as the evill tongue of Man. For that doth not sting or hurt the user but this doth verifying what is said of wicked men Pssalm 6. 4 8. They shall make their own tongues to fall on themselves All that see them shall flee away viz. as from the face and sting of a Viper And if we would judge of the ill Tongue as we doe of Persons of worth from their Extraction we shall find how low and base an originall it hath from St. James Chap. 3. The Tongue is a little member boasting great things the Tongue is a fire a world of iniquity it defileth the whole body
capable and many times sensible is the minde so erected to God separated from businesses of the world of the sweetnesse of abstractions of that nature And the Trances of Daniel Peter and most probably of Paul befell them in such retirements without the concurrence of a Congregation or the Mediation though not Ministration of Holy Spirits which we never read in Scripture to be Intercessours in any kinde to God in behalfe of the Saints here labouring but onely Ministers and Delegates of God to perfourme his pleasure to such as so wait for him and call upon him And as for Saints in Heaven we never so much as read in Holy Scripture that they were sent at any time by God to minister unto his Servants here on Earth as Angells have been neither are we directed by the Word of God to have any communication with them visible or sensible It must needs therefore be a third Oeconomie of God as yet unrevealed besides that of Moses or Christ which assignes us new intermediate Objects or Vehicles of our Prayers to God no wayes made known by God but devised by humane ratiocinations intruding into things not seen and founded on presumptions not known nor demonstrable but by such instances and examples of miraculous Apparitions which may more than suffice to turne the stomach from swallowing them 4. But presumption it is not to goe directly in Scripturall Road prescribed us to Allmighty God but to goe out of it neither is it modesty but rather a double impudence to alter the course of our Devotion to God in importuning them to sollicite for us who never gave us the least intimation or encouragement so to doe and in not following the direct Precept given by Christ as our Great Mediatour and by God himselfe as our heavenly Lord and Father Whence doth it appear that God is of more difficult accesse since the coming of Christ than he was before Or when and how became the priviledges of Gods faithfull Children under Christ inferiour to them under Moses Did the souls of the faithfull then make immediate approaches unto God and claspe him and may we not or in trueth ought we not much rather so to doe as well for the glorie of God some of which must needs fall short of God and stick to the hands that should so offer our worship to God and that whether those holy Spirits will or not we failing in the puritie of our intention and modestie and innocencie of our expressions so applying our selves as allso for our comfort and satisfaction which must needs be more full the more immediate and strict our conjunction is with God our fellowship as Saint John tells us being with the Father and the Son and that surely will bear us out in all immediate approaches to God but scarce allow application to others which are onely commendable where the bond of civill Charitie in this life the ground of the exercise of spirituall Offices to one another is not dissolved as it is when we are separated by Death So that we can onely in Christ exclusively come with that boldnesse and accesse with confidence by the faith of him as the Apostle speakes Ephes 3. 12. but with suspicions fears and doubtings untill customarinesse hath blinded the minde so far that it cannot see afar off And then if it fares with us as it happens to poor Suppliants suing to an earthly King surrounded with his Guards and Nobles that they cannot come at his Majestie no wonder unlesse it could appear that it was any ones appointed Office or Office of all to be Masters of request to God on our behalfe SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Prayer and their Remedies 1. AS there are Guards of Princes whose Office it is to push off with Pikes and Staffs such as would presse into their presence so Evill Spirits are allwayes at hand making it their Office to hinder devout Soules coming to God by their temptations and obstructions and either by wholly putting us off that we approach not at all or by pulling us off engaged so that we cease in spirit when we proceede in words and outward appearance so that we may be said to draw nigh unto him with our Lips while our Hearts are far from him a thing much disallowed by God yet not in all alike For the spirit and minde of Man are naturally fickle light vain various musing on many things and Dinah-like gadding abroad to see the Daughters of the Land and visiting strange Objects while they should keep home and minde their Fathers businesse And of the heart it may be said what was said of Ruben Vnstable as waters thou shalt not excell For what powerfullnesse may be expected in that Prayer which is prepared for God and designed but falls short of him as an Arrow shot from an unbent or halfe broken Bow. And how unreasonable as well as unlikely is it that God should heare us when we scarce heare our selves For as when the outward Eye seemes to be fixed stedfastly on an Object the minde in the mean time carried strongly after another Object doth not see what is before it many times so though in appearance outward a man seems wholly bent to Godward yet his heart being drawn off him to private Objects which it more phansies he speaketh in Prayer not to God but to men or the open Air. And it must needs be no small derogation from the greatnesse of God to be thus mocked by the world catching up that by the way which is passing towards him and the Sacrifice maimed or blemished by the fingring of Evill Spirits which was devoted wholly to God and at the same time that we have warme affections towards the world to set cold Meat before God. So that in this manner supinely and slothfully to request any thing at Gods hands must needs be a provocation to God to denie us rather than to gratifie us It is little better than an Idoll which is set up in the heart which drawes the current of Devotion to it selfe intended for God and such God threatens in Ezechiel to answere by himselfe but not in Mercie but in Justice And it was the opinion of an Auncient and devout Scholar in the School of Christ that if God should judge a man for no other thing but his wandring and vain thoughts in praying to him he were not able to stand before him 2. This in trueth is the Law of Prayer and this is the end of praying that we should have and keep our mindes erected unto God and to attain this should be the endeavour of all good Christians But if not onely God should be so extreme to mark what is thus done amisse but man should be so rigorous to himselfe to judge himselfe according to his demerits he might fear and despair to undertake this sacred Dutie For who can say on this side of Heaven I am clean from this common Contagion So vigilant and active is
perdition more than his coming For excepting some monstrous and notorious evills into which a man may fall and that when the Communion is instant so that no competent time nor meanes remain to discharge his part in due preparation though sudden accidents of that nature may admitt of sudden remorse and intense Repentance when time is denied of more full and thorow humiliation then perhaps such excuses may be tolerable as unpreparednesse but when men have timely advice of such ensuing Solemnitie and have no unavoidable impediments but wilfully and necessarily involve themselves in matters inconsistent with it and so absent themselves neglecting that competent preparation required then doe they shun the Curse of communicating unworthily and fall into the condemnation of not preparing themselves and contempt of such meanes of Salvation as he under the Law that refused to purge his House of Leaven and purifie himselfe to eat the Passe-over 4. For in this one Evill many more are contained such as are frustrating Gods invitation to Grace and Mercy a great provocation of men who are of the same nature with our selves though greater in Power and Honour A bereaving our selves of the benefits there tendered and an hazarding of the losse of the fruits of all other meanes ordained by God to our Salvation For God requires that we should put on the whole Armour of God Ephes 6. 11 13. And Saint Paul likewise Coloss 4. 12. exhorteth to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God. And Saint James assures us Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he shall be guilty of all James 2. 10. insinuating sufficiently unto us that the willfull neglect of one such materiall Dutie and violating one so soveraign Ordinance as this doth injury to all and provokes God to withdraw his Blessing upon those other Ordinances we are content to admitt of For he that contemns him in one contemns the Authour of all and so cannot reasosonably expect any benefit from Sermons or from Publique or private service of God. For no man must trust to his making compensation to God one way having wronged him in another where both may be perfourmed And experience teacheth this to be true that none are generally more rare and remisse in the other parts of Gods Worship than they who are carelesse in this 3. A manifold Scandall is offered to Fellow Christians who upon observing the neglect of some in this point entertain suppositions of the little use of it and consequently that the offence in omitting the same is very inconsiderable and light passing it over accordingly or perhaps that receiving that Sacrament belongs chiefly to the Greater or better sort and such as are more at leisure than are they and not to poor obscure and busie persons as they are Furthermore a Scandall is hereby given to the Brethren of the same Faith and profession as if a Member of the Church were fallen away from them and found some evill in the Actions sacred For God doth not onely require at our hands that we should truely believe and become lively Members of Christs mysticall Body and invisible but allso Visible and not onely so but that so far as lies in us we should be visible members allso of that Body Visible and that we should declare the same and doe nothing to give ground or occasion to believe otherwise of us which must necessarily be if we forbear such necessary and solemn proofs and indications as this is even the Greatest of all and that which as it is Unitive of us to Christ so is it very effectuall to produce and preserve that bond of Charitie which Christ commands to be kept up amongst Brethren in Christ 3. Thirdly The main pretence and Apologie of abstaining from the Communion taken from its Sacrednesse and formidablenesse are grounded upon the foresaid words of Saint Paul which therefore to give a faithfull and proper sense of will be very expedient which we may attain to two wayes chiefly First by rightly understanding the occasion given him to write so severely above others For we finde nothing of the like charge given by Christ to his Disciples at the first Institution of it all which came with no other preparation to it than was Legall or Leviticall Neither have we in holy Writ any thing afterward except the words of Saint Paul about it who upon grosse corruptions and scandalous invading openly that holy Sacrament opportunely bestirs himselfe for the vindication of it from such abuses brings them back to the first institution of Christ which was that they should understand that to eat this as their own Supper was to profane it For Christ at that time had two Suppers One Mosaicall which though it had sacred Rites belonging to it did serve to the use of the naturall Body and was to imprint in their memories a sense of their deliverance from slaughter with the First-born in Egypt and from bondage there allso The other was Evangelicall not given in such quantitie as the other to nourish the Bodie but ceremoniously rather in such sort as might give the receiver certain information and proportionable affection of the Passion and death of Christ whose Bodie was broken and Blood shed for the sinnes of the whole World much more of true Believers Which if they who received those Elements did not consider of so as in them to discern the Lords Bodie thereby signified and his Passion thereby called to remembrance and received by the faithfull to their edification in faith and love and comfort but prophanely ventured to take it as common bread yea to come to it first stuffed full with their own riotous Suppers and drunk with excesse of Wine before all the world would judge and condemne them for so doing and more especially would God be avenged of them for such affront put upon him and those divine Mysteries of his ordaining and that by sudden Deaths or grievous Sicknesses and weaknesses upon their bodies besides the evill upon their Soules Others forbearing to eat and drink at home in their Houses kept their stomachs for the good Cheer they were wont to make and plentifully to take in Gods House or the place and at the time they should have soberly modestly and devoutly partaken of these great Mysteries which worthily so incensed the Apostle as to demand if they had not Houses of their own to eat and to drink in but must come into the publique place of Worship the House of God and there gluttonize and revell not considering nor discerning the Lords Body to the shame of themselves and Religion And that this is the most plain and naturall sense of that whole passage of the Apostle will clearly appear to every attentive and judicious Reader taking in the Context And this St. Chrysostome than whome none of his time magnifies more the Mysteries of the Eucharist doth agree to in a second Homilie he hath upon the Passeover Tom. 5. pag. 921. telling