all tender and favourable to our own sins and because they pleased us when we committed them we are unwilling to revile them now but wipe off as much of their filth as we can because we resolve to commit them again and those transgressions which our Lusts conceived and brought forth by the midwifery of our Will we remove as far as we can and lay them at the door of Necessity and are ready to complain of God and Nature it self Now this complaint against Nature when we have sinned is most unjust For God and Nature hath imprinted in our souls those common principles of goodness That good is to be embraced and evil to be abandoned That we must do to others as we would be done to those practick notions those anticipations Natura nos ad optimam mentem genuit Quint. l. 12. Inst as the Stoicks call them of the mind and preparations against Sin and Death which if we did not wilfully stifle and choke them might lift up our souls far above those depressions of Self-love and Covetousness and those evils which destroy us quae ratio semel in universum vincit which Reason with the help of Grace overcometh at once For Reason doth not onely arm and prepare us against these inrodes and incursions against these as we think so violent assaults but also when we are beat to the ground it checketh and upbraideth us for our fall Indeed to look down upon our selves and then lift up our eyes to him from whom cometh our salvation Psal 62.1 121.1 is both the duty and security of the sons of Adam And when we watch over our selves and keep our hearts with diligence when we strive with our inclination and weakness as well as we do with the temptation Psal 103.14 then if we fall God remembreth whereof we are made considereth our condition that we are but men and though we fail his mercy endureth for ever But to think of our weakness and then to fall and because we came infirm and diseased into the world to kill our selves Wisd 1.12 to seek out Death in the errour of our life to dally and play with danger to be willing to joyn with the temptation at the first shew and approch as if we were made for no other end and then to complain of weakness is to charge God and Nature foolishly and not onely to impute our sins to Adam but to God himself And thus we bankrupt our selves and complain we were born poor we criple our selves and then complain we are lame we deliver up our selves and fall willingly under the temptation and then pretend it was a son of Anak too strong for such grashoppers as we We delight in sin we trade in sin we were brought up in it and we continue in it and make it our companion our friend with which we most familiarly converse and then comfort our selves and cast all the fault on our temper and constitution and the corruption of our nature and we attribute our full growth in sin to that seed of sin which we should have choked which had never shot up into the blade and born such evil fruit but that we manured and watered it and were more then willing that it should grow and multiply And this though it be a great sin as being the mother of all those mishapen births and monsters which walk about the world we dress and deck up and give it a fair and glorious name and call it Humility Which is Humilitas maximum fidei opus Hil. in Psal 130. saith Hilary the hardest and greatest work of our faith to which it is so unlike that it is the greatest enemy it hath and every day weakneth and disenableth it that it doth not work by charity but leaveth us Captives to the world and sin which but for this conceit it would easily vanquish and tread down under our feet We may call it Humility but it is Pride a stubborn and insolent standing out with God that made us upon this foul and unjust pretense That he made us so humilitas sophistica saith Petrus Blesensis the humility of hypocrites which at once boweth and pusheth out the horn in which we disgrace and condemn our selves that we may do what we please and speak evil of our selves that we may be worse Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched men that we are we groan it out and there is musick in the sound which we hear and delight in and carry along in our mind and so become wretched indeed even those miserable sinners which will ever be so And shall we call this Humility If it be Col. 2.18 it is as the Apostle speaketh a voluntary humility but in a worse sense He is the humblest man that doth his duty For that Humility which is commended to us in Scripture letteth us up to heaven this which is so epidemical sinketh us into the lowest pit That Humility boweth us down with sorrow this bindeth our hands with sloth that looketh upon our imperfections past this maketh way for more to come that ventureth and condemneth it self condemneth it self and ventureth further this runneth out of the field and dare not look upon the enemy Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt And it is no marvel they should fall and perish whom their own so low and groundless opinion hath already overthrown For first though I deny not a derived Weakness and from Adam though I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self or bound to the centre of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with others yet it is easie to deceive our selves and to think it more contagious then it is more operative and more destructive then it would be if we would shake off this conceit and rowse our selves and stand up against it Ignaviâ nostrâ fortis est It may be it is our sloth and cowardise that maketh it strong Certainly there must be more force then this hath to make us so wicked as many times we are and there be more promoters of the kingdom of Darkness in us then that which we brought with us into the world Lord what a noise hath Original sin made amongst the sons of Adam and what ill use hath been made of it When this Lion roareth all the Beasts of the forrest tremble and yet are beasts still We hear of it and are astonished and become worse and worse and yet there are but few that exactly know what it is When we are Infants we do not know that we are so no more then the Tree doth that it grows Much less can we discover what poyson we brought with us into the world which as it is the nature of some kind of poyson though it have no visible operation for the present may some years after break forth from the head to the foot in swellings and sores full of corruption and not be fully purged out to our
Reproch then Misery and Affliction then Persecution and Death being compassed about with these terrours is a matter of difficulty in regard of our Weakness and Frailty which loveth not to look upon Beauty in such a dress and of that domestick war which is within us and that fight and contention which is between the Flesh and the Spirit And in this respect it is a narrow way and we must use a kind of violence upon our selves to work through it to our end But yet it is shewn and manifested and the knowledge of the way is not shut up and barricadoed except to those who are not willing to find it but run a contrary way by some false light which they had rather look upon and follow then that which leadeth them upon the pricks upon labour and sorrow and difficulty Whatsoever concerneth a Man is easie to be seen for it is as open as the Day In other passages and dispensations of himself in other effects of his power and wisdome God is a God afar off but in this which concerneth us he is near at hand Jer. 23.23 he is with us about us and within us In other things which will no whit advantage us to see he maketh darkness his pavilion round about him Psal 18.11 but in this he displayeth his beams His way is in the whirlwind Nah. 1.3 Psal 77.19 and his footsteps are not known Why he lifteth up one on high and layeth another in the dust Why he now shineth upon my tabernacle and anon beateth upon it with his tempest Why he placeth a man of Belial in the throne and setteth the poor innocent man to grind at the mill Why he passeth by a brothel-house and with his thunder beateth down his own temple Why he keepeth not a constant course in his works but to day passeth by us in a still voice and to morrow in an earthquake as it is far removed out of our ken and sight so to know it would not promote or forward us in our motion to happiness We are the wiser that we do not know these things For there is no greater folly in the world then for a mortal finite creature to discover such a mad ambition as to desire to know as much and be as wise as his Creatour This was my infirmity Psal 77.10 saith David I was even sick when I did think of it and he checketh himself for it Behold the world is my stage and here I must move by that light which God hath offered me and not be put out of my part to a full shame by a bold and unseasonable contemplation of his proceedings not run out of my own wayes by gazing too boldly on his My business is to embrace this Good Psal 91.11 12. and that will be my Angel to keep me in all my wayes that I dash not my foot against a stone against perplext and cross events which are those stones we so hardly digest I cannot know why God lifteth up one and pulleth down another but if I cleave to this Psal 75.7 this will lift up my head even when I am down It is not fit I should know why the wicked prosper Jer. 12.1 but by this light I see a Serpent in their Paradise which will deceive and sting them to death Why they prosper I cannot find out but he that seemeth to hide himself cometh so near me as to tell me that their prosperity shall slay them Prov. 1.32 that their greatest happiness is their greatest curse and if there be a hell on earth it is better then their heaven It is not convenient for me to know things to come quem mihi Horat. l. i. od 11. quem tibi Finem Dii dederint what will be my end and what will be theirs to know the number of their dayes how long they shall rage and I suffer These are like the secrets of great Princes and they may undo us and therefore they are lockt up from us in the prescience and bosome of God and he keepeth the key himself and will not shew them But cast thy burden upon him Psal 55.22 do thy duty exercise thy self in that which he hath shewn and then thou mayest lye down and rest upon this that their damnation sleepeth not 2 Pet. 2.3 that their rage shall not hurt thee and that thy patience shall crown thee In a word If it be evil and thou foreseest it it may cast thee down too low and if it be good it may lift thee up too high and thy exaltation may be more dangerous then thy fall Psal 34.14 1 Pet. 3.11 but eschew evil and follow that which is good and this will be a certain prophesie and presage of a good end be it what it will whether it come to meet thee in the midst of rayes or of a tempest These things God will not shew thee because thy eye is too weak to receive them Nor in the next place will he answer thy Curiosity and determin every question which thou art too ready to put up nor redeem thee from those doubts and perplexities which not Knowledge but Ignorance hath led thee into and so left thee in that maze and labyrinth out of which thou canst not get For it favoureth more of Ignorance then of Knowledge to venture in our search without light to conclude without premisses and to affect the knowledge of that which we must needs know was yet never discovered and therefore can never be known That Good which is good for us God bringeth out of the treasurie of his Wisedome Psal 34.8 and layeth it before us and biddeth us come and see how gracious he is But that which is curiosae disquisitionis as Tertullian speaketh of a more subtle nature he keepeth from our eyes For Religion may stand fast as mount Sion though it have not those deeper speculations to support it which many times supplant and undermine it and rob it of that precious time and those earnest endeavours which were due and consecrated to it alone What a fruitless dispute might that seem to be between S. Hierome and S. Augustine concerning the Original of the Soul when after long debate and some heat and frequent intercourse of letters S. Augustine himself confesseth in his Retractations De origine animae nec tunc sciebam nec adhuc scio Concerning the Soul's original I knew nothing then and know as little now What a needless controversie arose between the Eastern and the Western Bishops concerning the time of the keeping of the Feast of Easter when whensoever they kept it they gave some occasion to standers by of fear that they kept it both with the leaven of malice and uncharitableness And what a weakness is it to put that to the question which before inquiry made we may easily know we shall never find Many such questions have been in agitation many such inquiries made and some others of another
walk as if he were a near spectatour as if he were visible before us Not to shroud and mantle our selves Not to run into the thicket as if there he could not see us but so to behave our selves as if he were a stander by and eye-witness of all our actions to curb our phansie keep our tongue be afraid of every action upon this certain perswasion That God is at hand For as God is EMANVEL God with us when he blesseth us and doth us good so do we walk with God when we bless him and do our duties Josh 1.5 As I was with Moses so will I be with thee saith God to Joshua Then God is with us when he strengthneth our hands when he shadoweth us under his wing when he poureth forth his graces upon us and when we walk with him when we bowe before him use all the faculties of our souls and move every mâ—mber of our bodies as his and as in his sight when we devote our selves to him alone Psal 123.2 when our eye looketh upon him as the eye of the handmaid on the eye of her mistress and by a strict and sincere obedience we follow him in all those waies which he hath appointed for us This I take to be the meaning of the words We shall draw all within the compass of these considerations 1. That God hath an all-seeing eye that he seeth all ad nudum as the Schools speak naked as they are surveyeth our actions heareth our words and searcheth the very inwards of the heart 2. That truly to believe this is the best preservative of the other two the best means to establish Justice and uphold Mercy in us to keep us in an even and unerring course of obedience For will any man offend his God in his very eye And 3. we shall discover and point out those who do not thus walk with God but walk in the haughtiness and deceitfulness of their hearts as if God had neither eye to see nor ear to hear nor hand to punish them that we may mark and avoid them And this shall serve for use and application First that we may walk humbly with our God this must be laid as a foundation to build upon as the primum movens as that which first setteth us a walking and putteth us into this careful and humble posture That God is present every where and seeth and knoweth all things And here we must not make too curious and bold a disquisition concerning the manner how God is present every where and how he seeth all things It is enough for us to believe he doth so and not to seek to know that which he never told us and which indeed he cannot tell us because we cannot apprehend it For how can we receive knowledge of which we are not capable Jer 23.24 Isa 66.1 Job 11.8 9. We read that he filleth the earth and the heaven that heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool that he is higher then heaven and deeper then hell and longer then the earth and broader then the sea that he is not far from every one of us Acts 17.27 28 that in him we live and move and have our being Psal 147.5 Hebr. 4.13 that his understanding is infinite that there is no creature which is not manifest in his sight that all things are naked to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 open as the entrails of a beast cut down in the back for sacrifice that he looketh down from heaven on the children of men Psal 14.2 Job 34.21 Jer 16.17 that his eyes are upon all their waies that neither they nor their iniquity are hid from his face hoc satìs est dixisse Deo And this is enough for God to tell us and this is enough for us to know I dare be bold to say saith S. Augustine Forsitan nec ipse Johannes dicit de Deo ut est S. John was an Eagle and flew aloft to a higher pitch then the rest but could not soar so high as to bring us down a full relation and tell us what God is This is a message which no man can bring nor no man can hear He was a man inspired from God himself If he had not been inspired he could have said but little and being a man he could say no more They that walk in valleys and in low places see not much more ground then they tread they that are in deep wells see onely that part of the world which is over their heads but he that is on the top of some exceeding high mountain seeth all the level even the whole country which is about him So it standeth betwixt us mortals and our incomprehensible God We that live in this world are confined as it were into a valley or pit we see no more then the bounds which are set us will give us leave and that which our scant and narrow wisdome and providence foreseeth when the eye thereof is clearest is full of uncertainty as depending upon causes which may not work or if they do by the intervening of some cross accident may fail But God who is that supreme and sublime Light and by reason of his wonderful nature so high exalted as from some exceeding high mountain seeth all men at once all actions all casualties present and to come and with one cast of his eye measureth them all This we are told and it is enough for us that God hath told us so much that he is in heaven and yet not confined to that place that he is every where though we do not know how that he seeth all things knoweth all things that he is Just and Wise and Omnipotent And here we may walk with safety for the ground is firm under us Upon this we may build up our selves on our most holy faith Upon this we may build up our Love which alwaies eyeth him our Honour to him which ever boweth before him our Patience which beareth every burden as if we saw him laying it on our Fear to which every place is as mount Sinai where it trembleth before him our Hope which layeth hold on him as if he were present in all the hardship we undergo our Obedience which alwaies worketh as in his eye To venture further is to venture as Peter did upon the sea Matth. 14. where we are sure to sink Nor will Christ reach out his hand to help us but we shall be swallowed up in that depth which hath no bottom Rom. 11.33 and be lost in that which is past finding out For this is the just punishment of our bold and too forward Curiosity It worketh on busily and presseth forward with great earnestness to see it self defeated it loseth that which it might grasp and findeth nothing It is enough for us to see the back-parts of God that is Exod. 33.23 as much as he is pleased to shew us And the want of this moderation hath occasioned
Daniel and his fellows were among them I will give you one reason more and I borrow it from S. Augustine who in his first book of the City of God touching upon this question Why the righteous partake with the wicked in common calamities maketh one especial cause to be That they use not that liberty they ought in reprehending of sinners but by their silence do as it were consent and partake in their sin and therefore in justice ought to partake in their punishment For indeed a great error it is and of so great an allay that it taketh us out of the shadow and protection of the Almighty outlaweth us from his common favours to imagine that the duty of reprehension is impropriate ad pertaineth onely to the Minister It is true the right of publick reprehension is intrusted as it were upon his office alone For if every member were a Tongue where were the Ear If every man were a publick Teacher where were the Hearer We need not preach against this for put it once in practice and it will soon preach down it self For if every man will act the King the Play is at an end before it begins And if every man can teach in publick I see no reason why any man should learn Yet as Tertullian spake in another case in publicos Hostes omnis homo miles est against traytors and common enemies every man is a Souldier so is it true here Every one that is of strength to pull a soul out of the fire is for this business by counsel by advise by rebuke a Priest neither must thou let him lie there to expect better help Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother and not suffer sin upon him or Levit. 19.17 according to the Hebrew that thou bear not sin for him This is spoke not to the Priest but to the people And in this respect the Cure of Souls is committed to every man as well as to the Priest Every man thus hath a cure of souls either of his child or his servant or his friend or his neighbour And if any of these perish through our default their blood shall be required at our hands For if we be bound to bring home our brothers beast if we find him go astray much more are we bound to bring home our straying brother himself Common charity requireth thus much at our hands And to make question of it is as if thou shouldst ask with Cain Am I my brothers keeper Art thou his keeper Yes thou art and his keeper to keep him in all his wayes his Physician to heal him his Counsellor to advise him his Priest his Bishop to rebuke and exhort him with all long-suffering And the neglect of this duty though in it self a great sin yet in this respect is much greater because it interesteth us in other mens sins It maketh a chast man in some sort guilty of uncleanness an honest man accessary to theft a meek man a kind of second to the murderer it bringeth the innocent person at least under the temporal curse that followeth those sins which his soul hateth but hath not soul enough to reprehend and so falleth into the same fire which he should have striven to have pulled his brother out of Therefore to conclude this since the neglect of this duty doth as it were pull down the banks and open a wide gap to sin and wickedness we have no reason to be at a stand and amazed if we see the righteous person sometimes overwhelmed with those flouds to which himself hath opened the way or under those judgments which his intempestive silence as well as other mens open sins hath called down upon a Nation And this may suffice to clear God's Justice from all imputation in the execution of his general judgments 3. It may be we need not move any question at all about this matter For in those common calamities which befall a people it may be God doth provide for the Righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not Some examples in Scripture make this very probable The old World is not drowned till Noah be shipt and in the Ark the shower of fire falleth not on Sodome till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellows though they go away into captiviy with rebellious Judah yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respects in the Land into which they go and which was a kind of leading Captivity captive they had favour and were intreated as friends by their enemies who had invaded and spoiled them And may not God be the same still upon the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have been thus delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded Some things of no great worth are very famous in the world when many things of better worth lie altogether buried in obscurity Hor. l. 4. od 9. caruerunt quia vate sacro because they found none who could or would transmit them to posterity Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona No doubt but before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lieth raked up and buried in oblivion But suppose the righteous do tast of the same cup of bitterness with the wicked Calamitas non est poena militia est Min. Felix yet it hath not the same tast and relish to them both For Calamity is not alwaies a whip nor doth God alwaies punish them whom he delivereth over to the sword To lose my goods or life is one thing to be punisht another It is against the course of Gods providence and justice that Innocency should come under the lash Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.25 Yes he shall yet without any breach of justice he may take away that breath of life which he breathed into our nostrils Rom. 5.14 though we had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression For he may do what he will with his own Matth. 20.15 and take away our goods or lives from us when and how he pleaseth because he is Lord over them and we have nothing which we received not from his hands God is not alwaies angry when he striketh nor is every blow we feel given by God the avenger He may strike as a Father Therefore these evils change their complexions and very natures with the subject upon whom they are wrought They are as Devils and have the blackness of darkness to some but are as Angels and messengers of light to others They lead the righteous through the valley of death into the land of the living when the wicked are hewn down by the sword to be fuel for the fire What though they both be joyned together in the same punishment as a Martyr and a Thief in the same chain August De civitate Dei l. 1. c. 8. yet manet dissimilitudo passorum in similitudine passionum Though the penalties may seem alike yet the difference is great betwixt
the Devil Why should any mortal now fear to dye It is most true Christ dyed and by his death shook the powers of the Grave Consummatum est all is finished and he is returned victoriously with the spoils of his enemies and of this last enemy Death Job 18.14 But for all this his triumph Death may be still the King of terrours and as dreadful as before All is finisht on his part but a Covenant consisteth of two parts and something is required on ours He doth not turn Conditions into Promises as some have been willing to perswade themselves and others It must be done is not Thou shalt do it If thou wilt believe is not Thou shalt believe But every Promise every Act of grace of his implieth a Condition He delivereth those that are willing to be delivered who do not feed Death and supply this enemy with such weapons as make him terrible 1 Cor. 15.56 All the terrour Death hath is from our selves our Sin our Disobedience to the commands of God that is his sting And our part of the Covenant is by the power and virtue of Christs death every day to be plucking it off from him at last to take it quite away We we our selves must rise up against this King of terrours and in the Name and Power of Christ take the sceptre out of his hand and spoil him of his strength and terrour And this we may do by parts and degrees now cut from him this sin now that now this desire and anon another and so dye daily as S. Paul speaketh dye to Profit dye to Pleasure dye to Honour be as dead to every temptation which may beget sin in us and a sting in him and so leave him nothing to take from us not a desire not a hope not a thought nothing that can make us fear Death Then we shall not look upon it as a divorcement from those delights which we have cast off already or a passage into a worse condition from that we loved too well to that we never feared enough but we shall consider it as a Sleep as it is to all wearied pilgrimes as a Message sent from heaven to tell us our walk is at an end now we are to lay down our staff and scrip and rest in that Jerusalem which is above Tert. De patientia for which we vowed this pilgrimage Et quis non ad meliora festinat What stranger will be afraid to return to his Fathers house or lose that life quam sibi jam supervacuam fecit which by dying daily to the world he hath already made superfluous and unnecessary To conclude this He that truly feareth God can fear nothing else nor is Death terrible to any but to those who would build their tabernacle here who love to feed with swine on husks Luk. 15.16 Heb. 6.5 because they have not tasted of the powers of the world to come who wish immortality to this mortal before they put it on who are willing to converse and trade with Vanity for ever who desire not with David to be spared a little but would never go hence Psal 39.13 Last of all this will moderate our sorrow for those our friends who are dead or rather fallen asleep or rather at their journeys end For why should any man who knoweth the condition of a stranger how many dangers and how many cares and how many storms and tempests he is obnoxious to hang down the head and complain that his friend hath now passed through them all and is set down at his journeys end Why should he who looketh for a City to come Hebr. 13.14 be troubled that his fellow-pilgrime is come thither and entred before him It might be a matter of holy emulation perhaps but why it should afflict us with grief I cannot see unless it be because we have not made it our meat and drink to keep Gods commandements which might give us a tast of a better estate to come unless it be because we have not well learnt to act the part of a stranger Miserable men that we are that we will be that know not our own quality and condition that are strangers yet unwilling to draw near our selves or to see others come to their home but think them lost where they are made perfect We stand by the bed of our sick and dying friend as if he were now to be removed to a place of torment and not of rest and to be either nothing or more miserable then he was in a region of misery We send out shreeks and outcries to keep time with his gasps to call him back if it were possible from heaven and to keep him still under the yoke harrow when as the fainting of his spirits the failing of his eyes the trembling of his joynts are but as the motion of bodies to their center most violent when they are nearest to their end And then we close up his eyes and with them our hopes as if with his last gasp he had breathed out his soul into air when indeed there is no more then this One pilgrime is gone before his fellows one is gone hath left others in their way in trouble and more troubled that he is gone to rest Migrantem migrantes praemisimus saith S. Hierome We are passing forward apace and have sent one before us to his journeyes end his everlasting sabbath With this contemplation doth Religion comfort and uphold us in our way and keepeth us in that temper which the Philosopher commendeth as best in which we do sentine desiderium Sen. ad Marciam op primere She giveth Nature leave to draw tears but then she bringeth in Faith and Hope to wipe them off She suffereth us to mourn for our friends but not as men without hope Nature will vent and Love is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 4.13 saith the Oratour ever querulous and full of complaints when the object is removed out of sight and God remembreth whereof we are made Ps 103.14 is not angry with our Love and will suffer us to be Men But then we must silence one Love with another our natural Affection with the Love of God at least divide our language thus Alas my Father Alas my Husband Alas my Friend but then He was a stranger and now at his journeyes end And here we must raise our note and speak it more heartily Rev. 14 13. Blessed are such strangers Blessed are they that dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours For conclusion Let us fear God and keep his commandments Eccl. 12.13 This is the whole duty of a stranger to observe those Laws which came from that place to which he is going Let these Laws be in our heart and our heart will be an Elaboratory a Limbeck to work the water of life out of the vanities and very dregs of the world
bound to nourish a hope No man is so lost but he may be restored Whilest he is in this state of life he is in statu merendi or demerendi in the way to bliss or in the way to destruction And if he were at the very brink yet the hand of Mercy may pull him back No fatal decree no malignant aspect from heaven hath so blasted him as to make him uncapable of thy help If there be any such ostendat scriptum Hermogenis officina let the Predestinarian shew it As God once said by his Prophet Where is the bill of divorce so may we Where is the decree And if we cannot shew it it is to us as if there were none at all There is nothing can concern us but but what we may know and that is our duty writ in legible characters as with the sun-beams Thou shalt love thy brother as thy self It is a strange kind of Despair to despair of our brother when we should cure him a Despair flowing from the bitter fountain of Hypocrisie and Uncharitableness For Love looketh many times on unwelcome truths and is unwilling to read them as truths Are we told our friend is dead Amor noluit dictum Love would have it unsaid And can it then be musick in our ears to hear that some of our brethren are damned from all eternity that they were built up as men after the image of God on purpose to be made for hell Why should we love to hear this why should we delight to preach it It is almost a miracle that we can believe it We cannot think that all that Christ preached unto were saved yet he who knew what was in man preached unto them And therefore we must not look upon our brother in the volume of Eternity but in the leaves of Time and consider not what he was nor what he is but what he may be not what a crooked piece he is but what an image of Christ we may make him and by the example of our Saviour follow him with our care and find him out Despair will stay us Hope will send us after him Forsitan huic in sepulcro scelerum jacenti dicat Christus Lazare veni foràs How know we whether Christ may not call unto him lying and rotting in his sin as in a grave Come forth Or if he should yet after all this care perish yet thou shalt save thy self because thou wouldest have saved him Fac quod debes eveniat quod vult is an old plain Arabian proverb and will be good counsel to the world's end Do what thou shouldest and fall out what will Do thy duty and thou hast done all though nothing be done Coyn not suppositions pretend not difficulties or impossibilities presage not ill success How readest thou That is the rule and thou must walk by it Look not on Christ in the bosom of his Father but as he walked upon earth and follow him and by his example follow thy brother with thy counsel If he hearken to thee thou hast wone thy brother If not yet thou art doing Christs ' work which will sooner bring thee to him then thy gazing back and looking what God did from all eternity That may settle thee to dwell in him but this will strike thee with the spirit of giddiness S. Chrysostom bringeth in even Judas himself whom though he was called the child of perdition yet his Master ceased not by counsels and threatnings by admonitions and benefits to have either perswaded or deterred him by any means to have wone and kept him from betraying him And this saith he Christ did to teach us to perform our duty to our brother whether he will hear or whether he will forbear Whatsoever the success shall be blessed shall he be whom his Lord at his coming shall find so doing 2. It will concern us to do the same on our selves to find our selves and all our defects out Non emendabis te nisi te deprehenderis Till this we cannot mend and better our selves If we do not see how little ground we have gone over and how much still remaineth if we do not reach forth Phil. 3.13 as S. Paul speaketh to that which is before we shall make no progress Heb. 6.1 We are not to rest on the principles and beginnings of piety but to go on to perfection If we begin with a miracle with alacrity and cheerfulness in the profession of Christianity and then flag and fail and fall back if we rise up and walk and then be worse paralyticks then before the miracle is lost the first grace and favour will change countenance and stand up and accuse us and that which bespoke us to go and might have promoted us to happiness will appear to our condemnation It is a dangerous thing to be the worse for Christ's goodness more miserable by his favours more impotent when we are healed more bold and daring after a miracle to rest in beginnings as in the end to riot it on benefits and to be brought back on those wings which should carry us on to perfection Unto which we ought still to press forward as the Angels mounted to heaven on Jacob's ladder step by step rung by rung by degrees Luke 14.30 Commonly we are cured too soon We begin to build and are not able to finish We do not sit down and cast with our selves what will cost us We do not weigh the labour the dangers the inconveniencies which attend this Profession the loss of our goods the hazard of our lives the displeasure of friends the daily wrestlings and fightings not onely with principalities and the powers of darkness but with our selves These are not in our thoughts But to take the name of Christ to give up our names unto him to be called Christians that is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Zenith our perfection When Christ hath bid us rise and walk when he hath called us by his Gospel out of the world when we can reckon our selves as members of his Church we say as Esau did to his brother Jacob Christ hath dealt graciously with us and we have enough we walk on in a vain shadow in an imagination in a dream comfort our selves we bless our selves we assure our selves as if we were pressing forward in the wayes to happiness And the truth is we begin too soon we are perfect too soon comforted too soon assured too soon And we may justly fear that the greatest part of Christians are so soon in heaven that they will never come there For how are we taken and delighted with the most slender performances How doth the heart leap at the gift of a penny What musick is there in a sigh though breathed from an hallow heart what refreshment in a fast though it be to bloud and oppression What a heaven do we feel when have we made a good profession What a Sabbath day's journey have we taken when we have heard a Sermon How
at his descent yet the foundations of our souls are shaken No fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed No cloven tongues yet our hearts are cleft asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian should be the day of Pentecost the Feast of the holy Ghost We may now draw the lines by which we are to pass and take our Text into those material parts it will afford And they are but three 1. the Lesson we are to learn To say Jesus is the Lord 2. the Teacher the holy Ghost 3. his Prerogative he is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our chief Instructer but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our sole Instructer Not onely none to him but none but him Without him all other helps are obstacles all directions deceits all instructions but noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle None can say Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost Of these parts in their order In the first part we must consider first What the Lesson is secondly What it is to say it The Lesson is but short Jesus is the Lord but in it is comprised the sum of the whole Gospel Here is JESUS a Saviour and DOMINUS the Lord And as they are joyned together in one Christ so no man must put them asunder If we will have Christ our Saviour we must make him our Lord And if we make him our Lord he will then be our Saviour Now to hear of a Saviour is Gospel the best news we can hear Gospellers we all would be and when this trumpet soundeth then Hear O Israel is a good preface and we are willing to be attentive But the Lord is a word that startleth us that carrieth thunder with it calleth for our knee and subjection As if we were again at mount Sinai and the mountain smoking we remove our selves and stand afar off A Saviour is musick to every ear but a Lord is terrible In the first and best times of the Church the first and greatest labour was to win men from Idols to the living God to teach them to love that Name besides which there is no other name under heaven to be saved by No strife or variance then unless it were whose zele should be most fervent whose devotion most intensive who should most truly serve him as a Lord whom they believed to be their Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely Piety and Profaneness divided the world But when the Church had stretched the curtains of her habitation and peace had sheathed the sword which had hewen down thousands that professed the Gospel and sealed their Profession with their bloud then arose hot debates and contentions about the Person of Christ his Godhead and his Lordship were called into question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 DOMINUS DOMINICUS the Lord but half a Lord The word indeed S. Augustine himself had used but after retracted it Some would mak him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mere man adopted to the participation of Divine honour Some contracted him some divided him like men who had found a rich Diamond and then fell to quarrel what it was worth In all ages Christ hath suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 12.3 the contradictions of sinners For every sinner standeth in a contradiction to Christ not onely Judas who betrayed him to the Jews and the Jews which crucified him but the sinner who for less then thirty pieces of silver selleth and betrayeth him every day Not onely the Heretick who denieth him to be the Lord but the Hypocrite who calleth him Lord Lord and doeth not his will the Wanton who betrayeth him for a smile the Covetous that giveth him up for bread for that which is not bread the Ambitious that selleth him for breath for air and the Superstitious that selleth him for his picture for an Idol which is nothing For we know saith S. Paul that an Idol is nothing in the world Every sin every sinner is a contradiction to this Lord. Not onely Judas and Christ and Pilate and Christ are terms contradictory but the rich man and Christ the profane person and Christ Not onely they that persecute him but even they that fight for him not onely they who say he is not the Lord but they who cry Lord Lord may stand at as great a distance from him as that which is not doth from that which hath a being For in this respect they are not they have no Entity at all They have nothing of Christ nothing of his Innocency his Meekness his Goodness And as an Idol is nothing in the world so are they nothing in the Church All the being they have is to be without God in this world which is far worse then not to be How many give to themselves flattering titles They call themselves the Regenerate the Elect the Children Servants Friends of this Lord when they are but contradictions to him as contradictory to him as Nothing is to Eternity as that which is worse then Nothing is to Goodness and Happiness it self To this day there are that make his Honour not their practice but dispute and whilest they are busie to set the bounds of his Dominion let Jesus slip and lose him in controversie Nor did ever Christian Religion receive more wounds then from them who stood up as champions in her defence who let go the Law in the bold inquisition after the Law-giver and forget the service which they owe by putting it too often to the question How he is the Lord. For the greatest errour is in our practice and as it is more dangerous so it is more universal Salvian will tell us of the Arians in his time Errant sed bono animo errant non odio sed affectu Dei They erred indeed but with a good mind not out of hatred but affection to Christ And though they were injurious to his Divine Generation yet they loved him as a Saviour and honoured him as a Lord. But we are more puzzled in agendis quà m in credendis in our Practicks then in our Creed and are sick rather in the heart then in the head Preach the Gospel we are willing to hear it and we kiss the lips that bring it But let Christ speak to us as a Lord Keep my commandments we are deaf and place all Religion in bringing the very principles of Religion into question and make that our argument which should be our rule Or if we give him the hearing the Good news hath swallowed up the Law the Gospel our Duty and Jesus the Lord. The truth is our Religion for the most part wanteth a rudder or stern to guide and carry us in an even course between Love and Fear between God's Goodness and his Power As Tully said Totum Caesarem so we Totum Christum non novimus We know not all of Christ When we hear he is a Saviour we fetter our selves the more And when we are told he is a Lord
fitted for such a Lord such a Captain such a King For as one well sayeth the Sacraments are nothing else but protestationes fidei the publick protestations of our Faith They who come to the Lord's Table by their very coming do publickly profess that they believe not onely every Article of their Faith but also this Divine promise and institution by which Christ will renew and strengthen and establish his Covenant to every worthy receiver Leave then thy wavering thy inconstancy thy diffidence thy formality thy hypocrisie thy malice before thou approch For wilt thou come to the Feast of the Lamb with the teeth of a Lion Wilt thou come to him in whom there was no guile found with a deceitful heart Wilt thou come to a meek Saviour with a heart on fire Wilt thou come to him who forbiddeth a wandring look with a stews about thee Wilt thou bring the love of the world along with thee to him that overcame the world Wilt thou come to the Son of God with the subtilty and malice of a Devil Thy coming is thy protestation not onely of thy Faith but of thy Repentance and if thou thus defeat and contradict thy own protestation I will not say what manner of Protestant thou art but the world affordeth many such at this day And how darest thou meet thy Saviour in this ugly disguise carrying about with thee a world of wickedness under protestation The Canonist will tell us Sacramentum mortis articulus aequiparantur that we are considered at the Sacrament as on our Death-bed And on our death-bed we are likelier to be attempted with thoughts of dejection then of presumption Here we lay down our malice here we loath our lust here vve fall out with Mammon here vve look down upon Honour here vve go out of the vvorld here vve are meek and humble and tractable here vve are commonly vvhat we should be in our health Consider thy self then at this Table as on thy Death-bed and here lay aside every weight and every sin that doth beset us lay them down not as sick men sometimes do to take them up again in health but drown them in the bloud and nail them to the cross of thy Saviour never to look back upon them but vvith sorrow and disdain Here shake off all inclination to them as far as is possible and take up a firm resolution never to entertein them again and then thou art fit to come to Christ and feed at his Table then as he is brought into the vvorld and hath brought himself into the Sacrament and vvill be so far present as to exhibite himself and all his love and favour in them so he vvill bring himself into thy soul and fill it vvith all joy The One and Twentieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 12. As we forgive our debtors HEre we have the Condition or the Cause or the Manner or as St. Cyprian calleth it the Law by which we put up the foregoing Petition Forgive us our debts SICUT as we forgive our debtours If we perform the Condition then Remission of our sins as the promise of it is Yea and Amen But if we perform it not to us it is but a promise And though it be not kept it is not broke because we made not good the condition And these two the Promise of reward and the Duty or Condition mutually look upon each other the Reward upon the Duty to facilitate and make it easie and the Duty upon the Reward to draw it on And as we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Relatives they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's Mercy is operative â—n us and our forgiveness is operative upon God His is powerful to produce the like goodness in us and ours is powerful to sheath his sword as having the promise of Remission of sins God doth forgive our debts that we may forgive our debtors and we forgive our debtors that he may be reconciled to us Heaven speaketh to Earth and Earth to Heaven The influence of God's mercy melteth our hearts and they being melted are capable of mercy The lines by which we are to pass are these 1. We must see what these Debts are which we must forgive 2. The manner how we must forgive them or the Extent and Force of this SICUT In what the parity and similitude consisteth and how far our Forgiveness of our brother's debts must answer the Remission of our sins 3. The Dependance which is between these two God's forgiveness and ours What power and influence God's Mercy should have upon us to work in us the like tenderness and softness towards our brethren and what force our Forgiveness hath to make God merciful to us to draw his hand to seal us and to seal to us the Remission of our sins against the great day of our Redemption Of these we shall speak plainly and in their order As we forgive our debtours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our debtours saith S. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Luke every one that is indebted to us So that this duty is of large extent This royal and heavenly disposition which is required of a Christian hath no bounds no limits neither in respect of time nor place nor person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle Let your softness your tenderness your moderation be known unto all men to Jew and Pagan to good and evil Nemini malum pro malo Render to no man evil for evil For as the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men so must our Charity enlarge it self and like the Sun non uni aut alteri sed statim omnibus in commune proferri display its beams universally on all on every man that is a brother and a Neighbour And now under the Gospel every man is so He is my neighbour and brother who loveth me and he is my neighbour and brother who hateth me He is my neighbour who bindeth up my wounds and he is my neighbour who gave me those wounds He is my neighbour who taketh care of me and he is my neigbour who passeth by me on the other side And my goodness must open and manifest it self to all men must be as catholick as the Church nay as the World it self Whosoever maketh himself our debtour maketh himself also the object of our mercy and whatsoever the debt is Forgiveness must wipe it out and cancel it Every debtour then must be forgiven And that we may better understand the condition here required we must consider what the debts are For commonly we call those debts alone which are pecuniary and esteem them our debtours whose names are in tabulis kalendario in our Bonds and Obligations But the word is of larger extent and the Civilians will tell us that he is not a debtour alone who hath sealed a Bond and standeth engaged for a sum of money but Debitor est cum quo agi potest He is a debtour against whom I
and the service of God but even after the means which may bring us unto it with what joy do we embrace all opportunities how do we bless and magnifie every Ordinance how doth every occasion appear unto us as the cloud that covered the Tabernacle what a light is every glimmering what a Sun is every star how doth the least help raise us up and the smallest advantage fill us with joy Psal 119.60 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We no sooner say We will go but we are at our journeys end We make haste and delay not to keep God's commandments Alacrity is a sign that devotion is sincere and as it were natural Nature runneth her course chearfully without interruption and displayeth her self with a kind of triumph in every creature The Moon knoweth her appointed seasons Psal 104.19 and the Sun his going down And the Sphears are constantly wheeled about with a perpetual motion Iterum redeunt per quod ibant They still hast from the same point and back to it again Naturae animalium à nullo doctae sunt saith Hipprocrates The natures and qualities of living creatures are not conveyed into them by long instruction but what they do they do by nature and that with ease and alacrity Who taught Fire to burn or Trees to grow Who taught heavy bodies to descend or light ones to mount aloft We may say they were all taught by God by that Power which Philosophers call Nature And thus it is with those who being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God are well-affected unto and love his service they have as it were a second nature put into them Rom. 12.2 2 Cor. 5.17 The Apostle calleth it a renewing of the mind and a new creature They are carried with facility and chearfulness to their end and strive forward to the things which are above with as great propensity and readiness as light bodies move upwards Psal 42.1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God saith the Psamist As Nature is operative and forcible in the one so is the Spirit in the other And as Nature doth her work with ease so doth Grace All difficulty and slowness is from the earth earthy from the flesh from corruption An unclean heart maketh virtue an heavy task but a right spirit maketh it a delight Nihil difficile amanti There is nothing of difficulty in that which a man loveth The fool goeth to his duty as to the correction of the stocks Prov. 7.22 But he that is wise and loveth goodness is delighted with the very thought and contemplation thereof even when it is beset with terrour and difficulty A good man hath more reluctancy to evil then an evil man to good He falleth not from his duty but by some strong temptation which surprizeth him unawares but the other nè rectè quidem facere sine scelere potest as Tullie speaketh of Vatinius committeth an offence even when he doth that which is right and defileth a good deed in the doing The one loveth the work it felf the other is dragged to it as an ox to the slaughter Prov. 7.22 It was well said of Hilarie Minus est facere quam diligere To do a virtuous act is not so considerable as to love it For it may be done grudgingly and with an evil mind which is indeed not to do it but to turn bread into stones hony into gall and bitterness that which should feed and cherish into an offence But when Love hath wrought in us an alacrity to our duty then it is in a manner become natural to us We call it an Habit And it is a fair note of a virtuous habit if the acts of virtue be performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with oblectation of mind For if the soul be well disposed and qualified if it be fitted and shaped to that which is good joy maketh an effusion and flux there and letteth out the heart IBIMUS We will go into the house of the Lord We long to be there We will hasten our pace We will break through all difficulties in the way No chains shall keep us back but those of Necessity And though these lay hold on us yet if our will be free and have determined its act the duty is dispatched If we look toward the Temple with a longing eye we serve God there though we enter not into it For plus est diligere quà m facere If I love and will I have done my work before I begin Again chearfulness is a sign of perfection in our devotion Till a thing be perfect it is in a manner streightned and contracted in it self there is in it a kind of striving towards its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a journey though it is some pleasure to look back upon that part of the way which we have left behind us yet it troubleth us to look forward upon that which is yet before us and we are never merry indeed till we sit down at our journeys end Semivirtues dispositions faint inclinations to duty may warm perhaps but cannot enflame us they make us neither active nor chearful nor constant in our wayes Non facimus assiduè non aequaliter saith the Stoick We do our duty neither constantly nor equally We do it to day and leave it undone to morrow We do this thing to day and to morrow the quite contrary One day as St. Hierome saith in the Church another in the theatre one day devout another profane to day hang down the head like a bulrush to morrow lift up our heads on high and exalt our selves without measure This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this irregularity and inconstancy of behaviour as St. Basil calleth it is visible in the lives of those men whom the love of God hath not built up and rooted in that which is good For the seeming goodness of such is not natural but forced and artificial like the motions in water-works which while the water runneth in the trough present us with some delightful sight it may be some history of the Bible as the Faith of Abraham the Devotion of David the Humility of the Publicane but when the water is once run out all is done and there is no more to be seen Thus outward respects love of a good name profit and advantage may carry us about a while and present us to the view as men washed and cleansed as Prophets and holy persons but when those fail we suddenly fall to the mire where we first wallowed and are three times more polluted then before For that form of godliness did not proceed from a right principle from the love of that we did but from the love of something else which is contrary to it from the love of the Flesh which Religion crucifieth from the love of Profit which Piety casteth behind her from the love of Glory which Devotion blusheth at from the love of the World which Faith
give our selves in one Lent five and forty thousand stripes what though we should with the Euchite take S. Paul's words litterally and pray continually what though we hear the word every day and that from morning to night yet when all is done nothing is done unless all be drawn home to the end for which all were enjoyned which is sincere and universal obedience Without which we cannot think those services acceptable to God but as things which degenerate so much the worse by how much the better they had been if they had been carried and brought home to a right end What a sin is it that Prayer which was made to open the gates of heaven should devour widows houses that I should open my ears and greedily suck in the doctrine of truth and then as greedily confute the Preacher by my practice And what is a Fast if it be for oppression and bloud Fasting is no vertue saith S. Hierom who liked of Fasting well enough Adjumentum est non perfectio sanctitatis It is a good help and way to vertue but it is no part of the perfection and beauty of holiness And it will concern us to take heed how we flatter our selves when we fast as if we had performed some special part of God's service and to lose the benefit it might have brought with it Magìs hoc providendum est nè tibi hoc quòd licita contemnas securitatem quandam illicitorum faciat lest by Fasting or the rest we think we have highly merited at God's hands and that our abstinence from what is lawful encourage us not and countenance us in something that is most unlawful and thus make Fasting a stale and bawd for our sin Behold saith the people to God we have fasted and thou regardest it not They thought that to hang down the head for a day was religion when their lives were otherwise spotted with uncleanness And it is the nature of Ceremony to put a trick as it were upon Devotion and to assume that unto it self which is due to Religion And as it was sometimes said of Church mens wealth Religio peperit divitias sed filia devoravit matrem so standeth the case between Ceremony and Religion Religion was the first that brought it forth and the daughter with many men eateth up the mother Those duties which were ordained to promote Holiness of life undermine and supplant it and then stand in its place obtain not the end but are either taken for it or drawn to worse We fast as Saul made the people for a day and then as they did at night 1 Sam. 14. we eat with the bloud Therefore what S. Paul spake of Circumcision is true of Fasting They are in a manner both made of the same matter and upon the same mould Circumcision and so Fasting verily profitteth if thou keep the Law but if thou break the Law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision thy Fasting is turned into sin Again these duties which look further then themselves and are instrumental to others are of easier dispatch then those which they are ordained to advance It is far easier to fast to pray to hear to tithe mint and rue and anise and cumin then to do the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith These we must make our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or preparations the greatest difficulty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the work it self It is an harder matter to fight against lust then to fast for a day to be in the body and yet out of the body it is harder to crucifie the flesh then to punish it with the loss of a meal It is harder for the wanton to make himself an eunuch then to forbear his bread harder for the Mammonist to â—â—e rich in good works then to pay his tithes To sacrifice the oalves of our lips â—â—o open our ears to afflict our selves for a day many slender motives many by and earthy respects may persuade us How soon will war or famine or a plague bring us into the house of mourning and pull us on our knees when not all these judgments nor the terrour of the wrath to come can prevail with us to deny our selves can prevail with the covetous to scatter his bread with the sacrilegious to hold off his hand from that which is holy with the oppressour to beat out his teeth with the wanton to keep his feet from the house of the foolish woman Heaven it self hath not force enough to keep us out of hell nor hell terrour enough to drive us from it Here here is the agony and contention here is the strugling the labour the warfare of a Christian not in hearing but in doing not in abstaining from meat but from sin Here the mind is put to the utmost of its activity here it is put upon the rack here it is in labour and travel not to bring forth a hollow eye or an open ear a sigh or grone or many prayers but a new creature Hoc opus hic labor est This is a work indeed the work of a Christian Formalities and outward performances Hearing and Fasting and the like are set forth like those labourers in the parable early in the morning and begin the work but true Piety Obedience and Self-denial these bear the burthen and heat of the day Those may change nay may be turned into sin but these abide for ever and are as lasting as the heavens Thirdly the strict and severe observing of outward duties many times maketh us more slack and remiss in those which are more essential and necessary as Euphranor the painter having vvearied his phansie and art in drawing the pictures of the petty Gods failed and came short in setting out the Majesty of Jupiter Hovv often doth Sacrifice swallow up Obedience May not a man be more deceitful for his Prayers more wicked for the many Sermons he hath heard and more bloudy for a Fast May not a man cry out with Saul I have kept the commandment of God when he hath broke it sit down and rest in these types and shadows and deal with the substance as the Jews did with Christ revile and spit upon it and put it to open shame That of the Father is true Vbi quod non oportet adhibetur quod oportet negligitur Where we place our diligence in that which is less we withdraw and take it off from that which is more necessary are great fasters and greater sinners A Pharisee is never more a wolf or a viper then after a fast Last of all for I must hasten God is not so much glorified in a Fast as in the renewing of his image which is more visibly seen in a chaste just pious merciful man then in all the Anchorets or Fasters in the world For herein we are like him and resemble him We cannot say we hear as God doth hear or fast as God doth fast or pray as God doth pray but we are just as
There onely is blessedness to be found 986. Heaven-gate not so easie to be entred as some men dream 1070. 1078. Heaven will not be atteined by a phansie a thought a wish a bare profession 1067. The way to Heaven though rough haply at first smooth and pleasant afterwards 60. Hebr. xiii 21. 588. Hell no place for a true Christian 48. Sin an embleme of Hell 932. St. Basil's opinion of Hell-torments 380. Heresies Their original 263. Hertha 462. Hieroglyphicks of great use in Egypt of old and still in China 1017. St. Hierome 391. Hilarion 539. Holy Ghost v. Ghost Holiness It s large extent 196. Many mistakes about it 196. It pleaseth even them that oppose it 553. How Churches Dayes Means c. are holy 847. c. v. Churches Honest v Profitable It is a good way to make one an honest man to pretend we take him to be so 1002. Honours v. Riches That which the world counteth Honourable is quite contrary with God 210. Why and how we ought to honour our selves and how not 318. Honour a vain thing to satisfie the soul 648. Hope is a necessary companion of Faith 242. 736. It is best allayed with Fear 399. How a firm Hope is gained 669. Bad men oft hope too much and good men in a manner despair 344 c. 351. v. Assurance Presumtion We must hope well of every man endeavour his salvation 576 577. How Hope of Wealth or Honour enslaveth and deceiveth us 671. Nothing in this world worthy to place our Hope on 674. Humility Christ's H. the onely remedy for Man's Pride 6. Man's heart naturally averse from it 157 630. It is the door-keeper in Christ's School 159. 631. It appeareth in every action of a Christian 156. 638. VVherein it consisteth 159. 631. Many practice it by halves 160. 632. Humility of the Soul the cheif H. 160 c. 633. But that of the Body must not be wanting 162. 634. Many praise H. few practice it 630. It s proper vvork 631. Many look to have this grace vvrought in them vvithout striving for it but this is a dangerous errour 628 629. Humility twofold Forced and Voluntary 629. God's Power should move us to H. 642. but his Mercy is the most powerful motive 643. H. is the next step to Honour 644. Exceeding great advantages vve receive by it 644 645. Humbling our selves is a most Christian exercise 627. A blameworthy Humility 428. 459. That is bad H. that keepeth us from doing our duty 459 c. 609. Husband A Christian H. is soli uxori masculus 1078. Hypocrisy not dead vvith the Pharisees but alive at this day 1059. How to be discovered 64. v. Formality H. set-forth in its colours 1055. The Hypocrite set-forth 171. 777. 780. A character of the Hypocrites of this Age 1060. Hypocrites like the vvheels of a Clock or motions by Water-works 370. They deceive others and themselves 919. Let them not think to hide themselves from God's all-seeing ey 1059. Their portion in hell the saddest 372. What instruction may be received even from Hypocrites 373. H. is most odious 369 372. It is often witty and laborious but quickly at an end 370. It is most hateful to God as being most opposit to his Justice 1058. and to his Wisdome 1059. Hypocritical Fasting Hearing Praying v. Fasting c. I. IDleness is contrary to the dictate not onely of the Spirit but even of Nature 220. It is the mother and nurse of pragmatical Curiosity 218. It maketh more Monks then Religion 220. Idle Gallants reproved 222. Idle and unactive souls deserve not to be accounted peaceable 199. The Idle Sluggard is a thief robbing both the Common-wealth and himself 220. The Idle man's Texts vindicated 222. Ignorance v. Malice Nature hath annexed a shame to Lust and Ignorance 500. Ignorance by some accounted holiness 97. There were of old some who professed Ignorance 1095. We have some now that are Ignorant but would not be held so 1095. Many mens Ignorance is a wilfull and proud Ignorance 437 438. Some pretend knowledge but are grosly ignorant 97. Ignorance a slight excuse 437. 447. No Ign. is an excuse but what is irresistible 439. Ignorance in a Physician is a cheat 439. Ign. of our selves the worst Ign. 481. Ignorance of some things better then skill in them 131. Affected Ignorance is most fearful 688 689. Image of God defaced in Man renewed by Christ 13. Wherein it consisteth 647. Imitation of the Saints must be with caution and limitation 1025 c. v. Examples How foolishly some imitated Basil 1025. Impatience a sign of a worldly man 542. Impenitence after deliverances will pull down greater judgments 610 c. Impenitence and Infidelity the onely unpardonable sins 29 c. Impossibilities are not required of us by God 109 c. 602 c. If exact Obedience were indeed impossible whether it be fit the people should be told so 111. 605. Imputation v. Righteousness Many lay claim to Christ's Imputed Righteousness vvho have none of their own 993. Incarnation v. CHRIST Inclination v. Affections Thoughts No natural Inclination or Appetite is evil in it self 265. Good Inclinations are from God 361 362. Inconstancie in mens actions whence 317. To â—lter ones opinion upon clearer evidence is not Inconstancie 678. Indifferent things become necessary when commanded by lawful Autority 59. 1077. These are the onely sphere that Autority moveth in 60. In things Indifferent vve must follow the rules of Charity and Prudence 1077. We must abstein from things otherwise lawful if not expedient 639. 1102. Induration v. Hardning Industrie It s efficacie 1066. Industrie and Pains-taking often frustrate in temporal matters alwayes speed in search of the Truth 67. It is the way to Knowledge 96 97. v. Calling Labour Infidelity is in every sin 100. This sin onely maketh Christ's bloud ineffectual 29 c. The cause of it 41 42. Ingratitude a most odious vice 363. 799. Injustice Many talk of Honesty and Religion and live unjustly 134. Injustice is far worse then Poverty Grief Death 126. It can have no good pretense to excuse it 127. It is a most unmanly quality 135. It floweth from Distrust of God and Love of the World 136. v. Oppression The dismal doom of Injustice 136 137. Intention As is the Intention so is the action how to be understood 444. v. Meaning Sin Interest Private Interest of how great sway in the vvorld 1071. Irreverence in the house of God springeth from Covetousness 755. and from Pride 859. It offendeth God Angels and good Men and encourageth the Profane 858. Many are so Irreverent in the Church as if they thought God vvere not there 920. Their pretense vvho place Religion in Irreverence 757 v. Reverence Arguments of profane Irreverent men answered 859. Isa v. 3 4. 486. ¶ vi 9 10. 411. ¶ lv 8. 189. 703. ISRAEL The very name is a great motive to obedience and a sore aggravation of sin 402. 417. v. Jews The state of