love Nay how canst thou not be perswaded sith hee himselfe hath said it I chasten as many as I love which words that thou maist take more hold of he hath often repeated them in holy Scripture Desirest thou greater assurance than his words which is all that heaven and earth have to shew for their continuance yet if thou desire more rather helpes of thine infirmity than confirmations of this truth observe who are oftenest longest under Gods afflicting hand who are fullest of his markes if they are deepest in sorrow who are highest in his favour if they mourne in Sion who sing Halelujah in the heavenly Jerusalem if they goe in blacke and sables here who are arrayed in long white robes there if they lay their heart a soake in teares who are men after Gods owne heart if Benjamins portion be greatest in afflictions assuredly manifold tribulations and Gods favour may stand together In the truth of which assertion all those Texts of Scripture may establish us which set before us the sweet fruits that are gathered from the crosse as 1. Knowledge It is good for mee that I have been k Psa 119.71 afflicted that I may learne thy statutes 2. Zeale I will l Hosea 5.15 goe and returne to my place till they acknowledge their offences and seeke my face in their affliction they will seeke mee diligently 3. Repentance I truly am m Psal 38.17 18. set in the plague and my heavinesse is ever in my sight I will confesse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sinnes When the people were stung with fiery serpents they came to Moses and said We have n Num. 21.7 sinned for wee have spoken against the Lord and against thee And againe In their o 2 Chro. 15.4 trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him and he was found of them When the Prodigall was pinched with famine he came to himselfe and said How many hired p Luke 15.16 17 18. servants in my fathers house have meat enough and I perish with hunger I will arise therefore and goe to my father c. 4. Patience Tribulation worketh q Rom. 5.3 4. patience and patience experience and experience hope 5. Joy in the Holy Ghost Receiving the Word with much affliction with r 1 Thes 1.6 joy in the Holy Ghost 6. Triall of our faith which like Å¿ 1 Pet. 1.7 gold is purged by the fire of afflictions Though he t Job 13.15 slay mee yet will I trust in him Our u Psal 44.18 19 20. heart is not turned backe nor our steps gone out of the way no not when thou hast smitten us into the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death 7. Righteousnesse No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but * Heb. 12.11 grievous neverthelesse yet afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse to them that are exercised thereby 8. Holinesse It x Heb. 2.10 became him for whom were all things in bringing many sonnes unto glory to consecrate the Captaine of our salvation through afflictions The y Heb. 12.10 fathers of our flesh for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure but hee for our profit that wee may bee partakers of his holinesse 9. Estranging our affections from the world and earthly desires Eliah requested that he might dye It is z 1 Kin. 19.4 enough Lord take away my life I am no better than my fathers We that are in this tabernacle doe * 2 Cor. 5.4 groane being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life 11. Humility The a 2 Cor. 12.7 messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet mee and that I should not be exalted above measure there was given mee a thorne in my flesh 11. Renovation and ghostly strength Therefore I b 2 Cor. 12.10 take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for when I am weake then am I strong and though our outward man decay yet our inward man is renewed day by day 12. Freedome from everlasting torments When c 1 Cor. 11.32 wee are judged wee are chastened of the Lord that wee should not bee condemned with the world 13. Encrease of celestiall glory For our d 2 Cor. 4.17 light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory The Heathen that never tasted the least part of these fruits yet feeling by experience that the mind cloyed with continuall felicity grew a burden to it selfe was deprived hereby of matter and occasion of excellent vertues and not so onely but infatuated and wholly corrupt thereby maintained this memorable Paradoxe e Demet. apud Sen. Nihil eo infelicius cui nihil intelix contigit That none was so unhappy as bee who knew no mishap nor adversity at any time Nay they went farther in that their conceit and thereby came nearer to my text affirming that store of wealth large possessions high places and great honours were not alwaies signes and tokens of the love of God God saith the wise Poet and the best Philosopher taketh it out of him f Aristot Rhet. l. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sendeth many men great prosperity not out of love and good will but to the end that they may bee capable of greater misery and that the calamities which they are after to endure may bee more g â—uven sit Numerosa parabat excelsae turris tabulata unde altior esset casus impulsae praeceps immane rumae eminent and signall Tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant Misery is alwayes querulous and even weake objections often ruine them who are already cast downe with griefe such as are these Doth not God threaten to powre out his plagues upon the wicked Doe wee not read in Saint h Rom. 2.9 Paul Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Are not losses infamy captivity banishment tortures and torments judgements of wrath how then can they bee arguments of love I answer that originally all the evils of this life came in with sinne and were punishments of it and they retaine their nature still in the wicked but in the godly by the mercy of God and merits of Christ they are changed from judgements of wrath into chastisements of love from stings of sinne to remedies against sinne from executions of vengeance to exercises of excellent vertues and the inflicting of them so little prejudiceth Gods love to his chosen that hee no way more sheweth it to them than by thus awaking them out of their sleepe and by this meanes pulling them out of hell fire And therefore the Prophets threaten it after all other judgements as the greatest of all that for their obstinacy and impenitency God would punish them no more
and godly in this present world Againe if any Spirit tell thee that thou art rich in spirituall graces and lackest nothing when thine owne Spirit testifieth within thee that thou art blinde and naked and miserable and poore beleeve not that Spirit For the Spirit of God is a contest with our spirit q Rom. 8.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the sonnes of God and when they both sweetly accord we may without presumption conclude with Saint r Tract 22. in Joh Veritas pollicetur qui credit habet vitam aeternam ego audivi verba Domini credidit infidelis cum essem factus sum fidelis sicut ipse monuit transii de morte ad vitam in judicium non venio non praesumptione meâ sed promissione ipsius Austine The truth promiseth whosoever beleeveth in mee hath eternall life I have heard the words of the Lord I have beleeved whereas I was before an Infidell I am now made faithfull and according to his promise have passed from death to life and shall come into no condemnation It is no presumption to ground assured confidence upon Christs promise Hereunto let us adde the testimony of the effects of saving grace As the testimony of the Spirit confirmeth the testimony of the Word so the effects of saving grace confirme both unto us These Saint Bernard reckoneth to bee Hatred of sinne Contempt of the world Desire of heaven Hatred of our unregenerate estate past contempt of present vanities desire of future felicity And doubtlesse if our hatred of sinne bee universall our contempt of worldly vanities constant and our desire of heavenly joyes fervent wee may build upon them a strong perswasion that we are in the favour of God because we hate all evill that we are espoused to Christ because wee are divorced from the world and that heaven belongeth unto us because wee long for it Howbeit these seeme to bee rather characters of christian perfection than common workes of an effectuall vocation Though wee arrive not to so high a degree of Angelicall rather than humane perfection yet through Gods mercy wee may bee assured of our election by other more easie and common workes of the Spirit in us I meane true faith sincere love of goodnesse in our selves and others hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse striving against our fleshly corruptions godly sorrow filiall feare comfortable patience and continuall growth in grace and godlinesse Tully writeth of l Cic. Verr. 5. Syracuse That there is no day through the whole yeere so stormy and tempestuous in which they have not some glympse of the sunne neither undoubtedly after the travels of our new birth are past is there any day so overcast with the clouds of temptation in the soule of a Christian in which the Sunne of righteousnesse doth not shine upon him and some of these graces appeare in him For if hee decay in one grace hee may increase in another if hee finde not in himselfe sensible growing in any grace hee may feele in himselfe an unfained desire of such growth and godly sorrow for want of it and though hee conquer not all sinne yet hee alloweth not himselfe in any sinne and though he may have lost the sense yet not the essence of faith and though hee bee not assured in his owne apprehension of remission of sinnes yet hee may bee sure of his adhesion to God and relying upon him for the forgivenesse of them with a resolution like that of Job Though he kill me yet will I put my trust in him And this is the summe and effect of what our Christian casuists answere to the second question Quid sit what is the white stone whereby as a certaine pledge grace and glory are secured unto us The third question yet remains Propter quid sit to what end this white stone is given In the maine point of difference betweene the reformed and the Romane Church concerning assurance of salvation that wee bee not mis-led wee must distinguish of a double certainty The one of the subject or of The person The other of the object or of The thing it selfe The certainty of the one never varieth because it dependeth upon Gods election the certainty of the other often varieth because it dependeth upon the vivacity of our faith Even as the apple in the eye of many creatures waxeth and waineth with the Moone and as t Solin Poly-hist c. 56. Uniones quoties excipiunt matutini aeris semen fit clarius margaritum quoties vespertini fit obscurius Solinus writeth that the Margarite is clearer or duskier according to the temper of the aire and face of the skie in which the shell-fish openeth it selfe so this latter assurance waxeth and waineth with our faith and is more evident or more obscure as our conscience is more or lesse purged from dead workes If our faith be lively our assurance is strong if our faith faile our assurance flagges and in some fearfull temptation is so farre lost that wee are brought to the very brinke of despaire partly to chasten us for our former presumption partly to abate our spirituall pride and humble us before God and in our owne spirits but especially to improve the value of this jewell of assurance and stirre us up to more diligence in using all possible meanes to regaine it and keep it more carefully after we have recovered it By the causes of Gods taking away of this white stone from us or at the least hiding it out of our sight for a while wee may ghesse at the reasons why hee imparteth it unto us 1. First to endeare his love unto us and enflame ours to him For how can wee but infinitely and eternally love him who hath assured us of infinite joyes eternall salvation an indefeizable inheritance everlasting habitations and an incorruptible crowne 2. Secondly to incourage us to finish our christian race through many afflictions and persecutions for the Gospels sake which we could never do if this crowne of glory were not hung out from heaven and manifestly exhibited to the eye of our faith with assurance to winne it by our patience 3. Thirdly but especially to kindle in us a most ardent desire and continuall longing to arrive at our heavenly countrey where wee shall possesse that inheritance of a kingdome which is as surely conveighed unto us by the Word and Sacraments as if Almighty God should presently cause a speciall deed to bee made or patent to bee drawne for it and set his hand and seale to it in our sight To knit up all that hath beene delivered that it may take up lesse roome in your memory and bee more easily borne away let mee entreat you to set before your eyes the custome of the Romanes in the entertainment of any great personage whom after they had feasted with rare dainties served in covered dishes at the end of the banquet they gave unto him an Apophoreton or
last of all by Antichrist and his adherents Yee see by this Epitomy of her story the reason of her complaints n Cant. 1.6 Regard mee not because I am blacke for the sunne hath looked upon mee the sonnes of my mother were angry against mee o Cant. 5.7 The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote mee and wounded mee and tooke away my vaile from me Stay me with flaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sick for love Hereby also you may give a fit motto to those emblemes in holy Scripture A lilly among thornes A dove whose note is mourning A vine spoyled by little foxes and partly rooted out by the wild bore of the forrest A woman great with childe and a fiery dragon pursuing her According to which patternes Saint Jerome frameth his p Rubus ardens est figura ecclesiae quae flammis persecutionum non consumitur sed viret magis Hier. in verb. Exod. 3.2 A bush burning yet not consuming and as fitly Saint Gregory draweth her with Christs crosse in her hand with her challenge there unto Ecclesia haeres crucis The Church is an inheretrix of the crosse And it appeareth by all records hitherto that she hath possessed it and if wee examine the matter well wee shall finde that Christ had nothing else to leave her at his death For goods and lands upon earth hee never had q Mat. 8.20 The foxes saith hee have holes and the birds nests but the sonne of man hath not where to lay his head His soule hee bequeathed to his father his body was begged by Joseph of Arimathea his garments the souldiers tooke for their fee and cast lots upon his vestments onely the crosse together with the nailes and gall and vinegar bestowed upon him at his death hee left her as a Heriot For these withall the appurtenances scourges cryes sighes groanes stripes and wounds hee bequeathed to her by his life time in those words r Joh. 16.33 Mat. 10.17 18. 24.9 10 11. Joh. 16.10 In the world yee shall have troubles they shall persecute you in their Synagogues and scourge you and yee shall bee hated of all men for my names sake insomuch that they that kill you shall thinke they doe God good service Yee shall weepe and mourne but the world shall rejoice Upon which words Å¿ Lib. de spectac c. 28. Vicibus res disposita est lugeamus ergò dum ethnici gaudeÌ„t ut cum lugere coeperint gaudeamus ne paritèr nunc gaudentes cum quoque paritèr lugeamus delicatus es Christiane si in seculo voluptatem concupiscis imò niâ—iâ—is stultus si hoc existimas voluptatem Tertullian inferreth God hath disposed of joyes and sorrowes by turnes let us mourne when worldlings rejoice that when they mourne wee may rejoice Thou art too dainty and choice O Christian if besides the joyes of heaven laid up for thee thou lookest for a liberall portion of delights and pleasures in this world nay thou art too foolish if thou countest there is any true pleasure in such things wherein they place their happinesse I need not presse many texts of Scripture which yeeld this sharp juice as t Psal 34.19 Many are the troubles of the righteous u 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution * 1 Pet. 4.17 Judgment begins at the house of God this verse alone which I now handle is sufficient to cleare Christs afflicted members from all note of heresie and imputation of reprobates For if afflictions are chastisements of Gods children and tokens of his love I rebuke and chasten as many as I love then are they not necessarily judgements for sinne messengers of wrath much lesse proper markes of heretickes and reprobates The kingdome of heaven is not necessarily annexed to earthly crownes nor is eternall glory any way an appendant to worldly pompe To conclude affluence of temporall blessings is no note of the true because store of afflictions is no note of the false Church Which truth is so apparent that many Papists of note have expresly delivered it in their annotations upon holy Scripture as u Stap. in verb Joh. In mundo pressuras habebitis Stapleton the Rhemists and x Mald. in Mat. 5. Facit solem orire supâ—r bonos malos unde perspicuum est hominum aut nationum prosperos successus nullum signum aut testimonium esse verioris aut purioris religionis Maldonate God causeth his Sunne to rise upon the just and upon the unjust whence saith the Jesuite it is evident that the prosperity of men or nations is no certaine signe or argument of the truth or purity of religion which they professe Howbeit as Praxiteles drew Venus after the picture of Cratina his Mistresse and all the Painters of Thebes after the similitude of Phryne a beautifull strumpet so Bellarmine being to paint and limme Christs Spouse took his notes from his own Mistresse the Romane Phryne the whore of Babylon and mother of fornications Looke upon the picture of that strumpet drawne to the life by Saint John Apoc. 17. and let your eyes bee Judges I saw saith hee a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast vers 3. full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten hornes vers 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and pretious stones and pearles what is this but Bellarmine his note of temporall felicity having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of which it seemeth the Cardinall dranke deepe when he tooke the pencill in his hand to pourtray the true Church else hee could not be so out in his draught nor so utterly forget not only what others but himselfe also had formerly set downe in this point For in his solution of an objection of Martin Luther who stood in the opposite extreme affirming afflictions to bee an inseparable note of the Church hee confesseth freely that the Church in the beginning and in the end was in great straights and for this purpose to shew that persecutions though they eclipse the glory of the Church yet can never utterly extinguish it hee alledges such remarkable passages out of the ancient Fathers as these y Justin Mart. in apolog Persecution is but the pruning of Christs vine and z Tertul. in Apologet the blood of Martyrs is as seed and * Leo Ser. 1. de Pet. Paul the graines that fall one by one and dye in the earth rise up againe in great numbers If the Church runne into superfluous stemmes without the pruning knife of afflictions if the blood of martyrs turneth into seed to generate new Martyrs if the Church in her nonage had many sore conflicts and shall have greater in her old age certainly abundance ease pleasure and glory which make up temporall felicity are no notes of her for a L. 1. de
but very soone fals from it For though no man take it from him death will quite strip him of it But the gifts of God are not such or like to the gifts of Princes For neither man nor time nor circumstances of actions nor reason of state nor the Divell himselfe nay nor death can deprive him of them or put him by them You see how the smoaking flaxe being blowne kindles the heat of our zeale and enflameth us on the purchasing the estate of grace by the price of Christs bloud Feele now I beseech you in the second place what warmth it yeeldeth to a benummed conscience and a soule frozen in the dregs of sinne That the bruised reed shall not bee broken nor smoaking flaxe be quenched is a doctrine of singular comfort and use yet must it be very discreetly handled and seasonably applyed to such and such onely as are heavie laden and bruised with the weight and sense of their sinne and through inward or outward affliction smoake for them and are as Arboreus speaketh extinctioni vicini neere to be utterly quenched through inundation of sorrow To tell a presumptuous sinner in the height of his pride and heat of his lust and top and top gallant of his vaine glory Rectus in Curiâ that he stands straight in the Court of heaven is in the state of grace and can never fall away from it or become a cast-away is to minister hot potions to a man in a burning fever which is the ready way to stifle him and as soone to rid him of his life as of his paine hot cordials and strong waters are to be given in a languishing fit and a cold sweat when the patient is in danger of swouning It is the part saith S. a Aug. de bono persev c. 22. Dolosi vel imperiti medici est etiam utile medicamentum sic alligare ut aut non prosit aut etiam obsit Austin of a deceitfull or unskilfull Physician or Chyrurgian to lay a wholsome salve or plaster so on that it doe no good nay rather that it doe hurt Having therefore made a most soveraign salve out of the words of my Text for the sores of a wounded conscience I am now to shew you how to use and when to apply it viz. in deliquio spiritus in a spirituall desertion or dereliction As wee sometimes feele in our bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deliquium animae a trance and utter failing of the vitall spirits so is there also in the soule of a faithfull Christian sometimes deliquium spiritus an utter fainting and failing in all the motions and operations of grace when God either to humble him that he be not proud of his favours or to make him more earnestly desire and highly esteeme the comforts of the Gospel withdraweth the spirit from him for a season during which time of spirituall desertion he lyeth as it were in a swoune feeling no motion of the spirit as it were the pulse-beating taking in no breath of life by hearing the Word nor letting it out by prayer and thanks-giving void of all sense of faith and life of hope ready every houre to give up the holy Ghost In this extremity we are to stay him with flagons comfort him with the apples in my Text and as his fit of despaire more more groweth on him in this sort and order to minister and give them unto him 1. When he lamenteth in the bitternesse of his soule after this manner There was a time when the face of God shined upon mee and I saw his blessing upon all that I set my hand unto but now he hath hid his face from mee and shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure hee bloweth upon all the fruits of my labours and nothing prospereth with mee my estate decayes and my friends faile mee and afflictions and calamities come thicke upon me like a S. Bas de patientia conc 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 1.14 16 17 18. waves of the sea riding one on the neck of the other or like Jobs messengers one treading on the heeles of the other and the latter bringing still worse tidings than the former Apply thou this remedy Many * Psal 34.18 19. Matth 9.12 1 Tim. 1.15 are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all he keepeth all his bones so that not one of them is broken 2. If hee goe on in his mournfull ditty saying I am farre from being righteous therefore this comfort belongeth not unto mee Apply thou this salve The whole need not the Physician but they that are sicke This is a faithfull saying and by all meanes worthy to bee received that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners Matth. 9.13 I am not come saith Christ to call the righteous but sinners to repentance 3. If hee reply Oh but I cannot repent for I am not able to master mine owne corruptions Vitiis meis impar sum I cannot shake off the sin that hangeth on so fast I am like one in the mudde who the more he struggleth with his feet to get out the deeper he sinketh and sticketh faster in the mire Apply this recipe Yet bee of good comfort because thou delightest in the Law of God touching the inward man thou strivest against all sinne and because thou canst not get the upper hand of some of thy bosome corruptions thy life is grievous unto thee Thou cryest with the holy Apostle Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Thou hungerest and thirstest after righteousnesse and Blessed are they which hunger and thirst for righteousnesse Matth. 5.6 for they shall be filled 4. If hee sinke deeper into the gulfe of desperation and say I feele no such hunger nor thirst in me Custome in sinne hath drawne a kall over my conscience and I am not now sensible of any incision Reach thy hand to him and support him with this comfort Bee of good cheare good brother for it is certaine thou hast some sense because thou art sensible of thy stupidity and mournest in thy prayers and art vexed for this thy dulnesse and blessed are they that mourne Matth. 5.4 for they shall be comforted 5. If he yet sinke deeper and lower crying Alas I cannot mourne my hard heart will not relent my flinty eyes will not yeeld a teare for my sins what hope then for me Answer him great as great as thy sorrow which is by so much the fuller because it hath no vent None grieveth more truly Hierom. Tom. 1. epist Mutus clinguis ne hoc quidem habens ut rogare possit hoc magis rogat quod rogare non potest than hee who grieveth because hee cannot grieve A man that is borne dumbe or hath his tongue cut out when hee maketh offer to speake moving his lips but is not able to bring forth a word beggeth
did his best to incline his will that way yet he could not keep it to that bent but that it slacked and bowed another way as Christs words imply Ducent te quo nolis They shall d John 21.18 lead thee whither thou wouldest not He saith not they shall draw thee but they shall lead thee Peter therefore was in some sort willing to goe with them that led him to the crosse yet hee somewhat shrinked at it though the spirit was strong in him yet the flesh was weake Who ever did or suffered more for the Gospel than Saint Paul yet he professeth that in regard of the law of sinne in his members the e Rom. 7.19 good which he would doe he did not and the evill which he would not doe that he did And being thus crossed in all his godly desires and endeavours hee cryeth out O * Rom. 7.24 wretched man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of death Yee see now the root of bitternesse set so deep in our hearts that it cannot be pluck't up till wee are transplanted there is no hope in this life to purge out this matter of continuall diseases it is so mingled with our radicall moisture the balsamum of our lives only wee may abate it by subtracting nourishment from it and allay the force of it by strengthening nature against it by prayers godly instructions and continuall exercises of religious duties A neerer cause of our so great distemper in afflictions wee owe to the delights of our prosperity which as the pleasures of Capua did Hannibals souldiers so weaken our mindes and make us so choice and tender that we cannot beare the weight of our owne armour much lesse the stroakes of an enraged enemy The f Hieron ad Heliod Corpus assuetum tunicis loricae onus non fert caput opertum linteo galeam recusat mollem otio manum durus exasperat capulus body used to soft raiment cannot beare the weight of an helmet the head wrapped in silke night-caps cannot endure an iron head-piece the hard hilt hurteth the soft hand It was wisely observed by the g Senec. sent Res adversae non frangunt quos prosperae non corruperunt Heathen Sage that none are broken with adversity but such as were weakened before and made crazie by ease and prosperity Sound trees are not blowne downe with the wind but the rootes rather fastened thereby but corrupt trees eaten with wormes engendered of superfluous moisture are therefore throwne downe by the least blast because they had no strength to resist Why do losses of goods so vexe us but because we trusted in uncertaine riches Why is disgrace a Courtiers hell but because he deemed the favour of the Prince places of honourable employment his heaven We are therefore astonished at our fall because sometimes with David in the height of our worldly felicity we said Wee shall never bee h Psal 30.6 moved If when we had the world at will we had used the things of this life as if wee used them not now in the change of our estate our not using them would be all one as if we used them The best meanes to asswage the paines of affliction when it shall befall us will be in the time of our wealth to abate the pleasures of prosperity if we sawce all our earthly joyes with godly sorrow all our worldly sorrow shall be mixed with much spirituall joy and comfort Let us not over-greedily seeke nor highly esteem nor immoderately take nor intemperately joy in the delights and comforts which wealth and prosperity afford and the rod of Gods afflicting hand shall fall but lightly upon us Let us not so fill our hearts with temporary pleasures but that wee leave some place for these and the like sad and sober thoughts What are riches honours pleasures and all the contentments of this life that because I enjoy them for the present I should take so much upon mee The Divell offereth them the wicked have them Gods dearest children often want them therefore they are not eagerly to be sought They are not good but in their use nor things but for a moment nor ours but upon trust therefore not greatly to be esteemed They without store of grace in our selves and good counsels from others strengthen the flesh weaken the spirit nourish carnall lusts choake all good motions cloy our bodily and wholly stupifie our ghostly senses cast us into a dead sleep of security but awake Gods judgements against us therefore they are sparingly to be tasted not greedily to be devoured These and the like meditations are not only good preservatives in prosperity but also lenitives in adversity as they helpe us to digest and i Pind. od 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concoct felicity so they strengthen us to beare misery All that wee now possesse and the world so much doteth upon what are they in their nature and condition but things indifferent therefore wee ought to bee indifferently affected to them and the contrary they are transitory what strange thing then is it if they passe from us they are farre inferiour to the immortall spirit that quickneth our bodies therefore cannot the want of them deprive it of happinesse they are not our inheritance for ever nor our donatives or legacies for life but talents for a while committed to us to employ them to our Masters best advantage therefore the restoring them back is no mulct but a surrender no losse but a discharge The more of this sort wee are trusted with the more liable we are to an account how then are wee hurt or endammaged by the diminution of that which lessens our accounts Finally they are often effects of Gods wrath and their effects usually are sensuality security and stupidity against which afflictions are a speciall remedy To extract then the quintessence of the herbes and flowers of Paradise and make of them a cordiall to comfort us in worldly losses Nothing is absolutely good but God all other things respectively only temporall blessings as they proceed from his love and may be imployed to his glory in this respect only to be desired and loved If then wee affect God in them and enjoy them in God and it be made apparent unto us that afflictions and losses are sometimes more certaine tokens of Gods love and that they minister unto us more matter and greater occasion of testifying our love to him and meanes of setting forth his glory we should be rather glad than sorrowfull when God seeth it best for us to exchange the former for the latter Yea but the forlorne Christian out of all heart because in his conceit out of Gods favour will reply Shew mee that the countenance of God is not changed towards mee nor his affections estranged from mee and it sufficeth surely kissings and embracings not blowes and stroakes are love complements how may I be perswaded that God layeth his heavie crosse upon mee in
for then they will cease to be blessings unto you nay they are already become curses because they withdraw you from God which is a kind of death of the soule How then may we know that they are undoubtedly blessings of God unto us that we may rejoyce and take comfort in them By this If we over-joy not in them if they diminish not but contrariwise increase our love of God if they serve as instruments and encouragements of vertue not nourishments of vices if our expence on the poore be some way answerable to our receits from God if we love them only for his sake that gave them and for his sake are willing to part with them x Lib. de mirab cuscuit Aristotle writeth of a parcell of ground in Sicilie that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields and leazes there-about that no Hound can hunt there the sent is so confounded with the sweet smell of those flowers Consider I beseech you this seriously with your selves whether the sweet pleasures of the world have not produced a like effect in your soules whether they have not taken away all sent and sense too of heavenly joyes whether they hinder you not in your spirituall chase if not ye may take the greater joy and comfort in them because it is an argument of rare happinesse not to be overcome of earthly delights not to be corrupted with temporall happinesse But if ye find that these transitory delights and sensuall pleasures have distempered your taste in such sort that ye cannot rellish heavenly comforts if they have made your hearts fat as the Prophet speaketh so that the spirits of your devotion are dull and grosse and ye are altogether insensible of Gods judgements then re-call your minds from those pleasant objects and represent to your conceits the loathsome deformity of your sins the fearfull ends of those that are rich and not in God the vanity of earthly comforts and the heavie judgements which ye have deserved by being not made better but worse by Gods benefits These very thoughts will be as rebukes and inward chastenings which if they worke in you godly sorrow and unfained humiliation God will spare further to afflict you who are already wounded at the heart or humble you whom he finds already humbled Now for those that are under Gods hand afflicting them outwardly with any scourge the Spirit layeth forth this exhortation It is God that rebuketh you justifie therefore not your selves acknowledge your sins that he y Psal 51.4 may be justified in his sayings and cleare when he is judged it is he that chasteneth you resist not but submit and amend hee rebuketh and chasteneth you in love repine not at it but be thankfull What folly is it to resist Gods will I. What profit to be nurtured chasten What honour to be admitted into Christs Schoole and ranked with Gods dearest children as many What comfort to be assured of Gods love as I love The wheat is purged by the flaile the gold tryed by the fire the vine pruned by the knife the diamonds valued by the stroake of the hammer the palm groweth up higher by pressing it downe the pomander becomes more fragrant by chasing If your afflictions be many and very grievous know that God maketh not choice of a weake champion be assured that he will lay no more upon you than he will enable you to beare Souldiers glory in their wounds which they receive in warre for their King and Country have not we much more cause to glory in them which we endure for the love of God What joy will it be at that day when the Son of man commeth with the clouds and layeth open his scarres before all the world to have in our bodies store of his sufferings and to be able to shew like stripes and wounds to his Possesse your soules therefore in patience for a while and on the sudden all prisons shall be opened all chaines loosened all stripes healed all wrongs revenged all your sufferings acknowledged all your miseries ended and your endlesse happinesse consummated I end in the phrase of the Psalmist Though in the great heat of affliction and persecution yee look as if yee had lien among the pots yet ye shall be as a z Psal 68.13 As a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold dove whose feathers are silver and wings of pure gold wherewith your soules shall flye into heaven and there abide and nest with Cherubins and Seraphins for ever Deo Pâ—â—â— Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE PATTERN OF OBEDIENCE THE LI. SERMON PHIL. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Right Honourable c. OPposita juxta se posita magis elucescunt contraries are illustrated by their contraries the darke shadow maketh the picture shew more lightsome the blacke vaile the face more beautifull a gloomy cloud the beames of the sunne breaking out of it more bright and conspicuous sicknesse health more gratefull paine pleasure more delightfull affliction and misery prosperity and happinesse more desirable in like manner the obscurity and infamy of Christs passion setteth off the glory of his resurrection Neither doth it illustrate it only but demonstrateth it also à priori for his humiliation was the meritorious cause of his exaltation his obedience of his rule his crosse of his crowne so saith the Apostle in the next verse therefore hath God highly exalted him As wee cannot certainly know how high the surface of the sea is above the earth but by sounding the depth with a plummet or diving to the bottome thereof so neither can wee take the height of our Lords exaltation but by measuring from the ground of his humiliation The crosse is the Jacobs staffe whereby to take the elevation of this morning starre and as Ezekiah was assured that fifteene yeeres were added forward to his life by the going backe of the sunne ten degrees in the Diall of Ahaz so wee know that 1500. yeares nay eternity of life and glory is added to our Saviour by the going backe so many degrees in the Dyall of his passion in the which the finger pointeth to these foure 1 Humility 2 Obedience 3 Death 4 Crosse These selfe same steps and staires by which hee descended in his passion he ascended in his exaltation upon these therefore my discourse shall run humility and the manner of his humilitie obedience his death and the manner of his death his crosse How low must the descent needs be where humility and lowlinesse it selfe is the uppermost greece Beneath it lyeth obedience for a man may bee humble in himselfe and yet not voluntarily bow his necke to another mans yoake Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient Obedient a man may bee and yet not ready to lay downe his life at his Masters pleasure hee became obedient unto death Obedient to death a man may bee and
humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse therefore they who desire to be affected and liked of him must be like affected to him and not exalt themselves above others in pride but rather abase themselves below them in humility not behave themselves as lords over the faith of others but rather demeane themselves as servants for Christs sake not pursue ambitiously the glory of this world but account it the greatest glory to partake with Christ in the infamy of the Crosse How unfit and incongruous a thing is it in contention to preach the Gospel of peace in rage and choler to treat of meeknesse in malice and hatred to exhort to Christian love and reconciliation in pride to commend humility in vaine glory to erect the Crosse of Christ that is to deny the power of it in so declaring it Yet if they will needs bee ambitious if their affections are so set upon glory and honour that nothing can take them off let them take the readiest course to compasse their desire which lyeth not in the higher way they have chosen by advancing themselves but in the lower way which Christ took by abasing himselfe For glory is of the nature of a Crocodile which flyeth from them that pursue it and pursueth them that flie it as S. b Hom. 7. ad Philip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysostome excellently declareth it Glory saith he cannot be attained but by eschuing it if thou makest after it it maketh away from thee if thou flyest from it it followeth thee if thou desirest to be glorious be not ambitious for all truly honour them who affect not honour as on the contrary they hold a base opinion of such as are ever aspiring to honour and that for the most part without desert Two weighty reasons wee have in this verse to incline all Christian minds to obedient humility or humble obedience a patterne of it and the reward thereof he humbled himseâ—fe so low therefore God exalted him so high Of the patterne most lively drawne in the life and especially the death of our Saviour I have said something already and shall more hereafter yet can never say all As Socrates spake of Philosophy that it was nothing but meditatio mortis a meditation upon death we may of Divinity that it is in a manner nothing else but meditatio mortis Christi a meditation on Christs death for the learnedest of all the Apostles would be knowne of no other knowledge that he had or much esteemed but this I c 1 Cor. 2.2 desire saith he to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified d Lib. 7. nat hist c. 2. Genâ— Astoma radices florum secum portat longâ—ore itinere ne desit olfactus Pliny describeth unto us a strange kind of people in Africa that had no mouthes but received all their nourishment at their nostrils which is nothing else but sweet smells and fragrant odours who if they are to take any long journey provide themselves of great store of flowers and sweet wood and aromaticall spices lest they starve by the way I will not warrant the narration because I know it is a case over-ruled in Aristotles philosophy that smells nourish not but the application I can make good out of the Apostle who calleth the Gospel and the Preachers thereof odorem vitae ad viâ—am a savour of e 2 Cor. 2.16 life unto life Though the naturall life be not yet the spirituall is nourished by odours savours And howsoever we are not in our bodies yet in our soules we are Astomi and like those people of Africa recâ—ive nourishment from sweet trees and roots The sweet root we are alwayes to carry about us is the root of the flower of Jesse the savoury wood we are to smell unto is the wood of the Crosse that is the tree of life in the midst of our Paradise It is the ladder of Jacob whereby we ascend into heaven it is the rod of Aaron that continually buddeth in the Church it is the Juniper tree whose shade killeth the Serpent it is the tree which was cast into the waters of Marah and made them sweet no water so bitter no affliction so brackish to which the Crosse of Christ giveth not a sweet rellish But to proceed from the effâ—ct of Christs passion in us our comfort and salvation to the effect of it in himselfe his glory and exâ—ltation expressed in the letter of my Text Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Wherefore Although there can be no cause given of Gods will which is the cause of all causes yet as Aquinas teacheth us to distinguish there may be ratio rei volitae a reason of the thing willed by God for God according to the counsell of his owne will setteth divers things in such an order that the former is the cause of the latter yet none of them a cause but an effect of his will For example in that golden chaine drawne by the Apostle Whom he hath f Rom. 8.29 predestinated those he hath called whom he hath called he hath justified whom he hath justified he hath glorified predestination is a cause of vocation vocation of justification justification of glorification yet all of these depend upon Gods will and his will upon none of them In like manner God hath so disposed the causes of our salvation that Christs incarnation and humiliation should goe before his glory and exaltation the one bee the meritorious cause of the other yet neither of them is causa voluntatis divinae exaltantis but ratio exaltationis volitae neither of them a cause of Gods will exalting but the former the reason of Christs exaltation as willed by God God Though Christ rose of himselfe and as himselfe speaketh reared up the temple of his body after it was destroyed ratione suppositi yet ratione principii it is most true God raised him up and therefore the Apostle saith else-where that he was g John 2.19 raised by the right hand of God that is divine power but because this divine power was his owne and essentiall to him as God he may be truly said also to have raised himselfe Hath highly exalted Above the grave in his resurrection above the earth in his ascension above the heaven in his session at the right hand of his Father In the words highly exalted there is no tautologie but an emphasis which is all one as if he had said Super omnem altitudinem exaltavit super omnem potestatem evexit he exalted him above all highnesse he gave him a power above all powers and a name above all names Him It is desputed among Divines whether this him hath reference to Christ considered as God or man that is to say whether he was exalted according to his humane nature only or according to the divine also Some later Expositors of good note and by name Mr. Perkins on the Creed resolve that Christ