present things and lastly to crucifie the flesh that the spirit may live in him Truly in this is both the foredeck and the poop of Christianity to imitate our Saviour or as Augustine saith The chiefest Christ is the rule of our life of religion is to imitate him whom thou lovest from which opinion differeth not much that saying of Plato drawn from the law of Nature The perfection of men consisteth in the imitation of God whereupon nothing else is left unto us then that Christ ought to be the example and square of our life and that all our counsels studies and cogitations should respect that one thing how we should come to him by him be saved and live with him eternally All things are to be done in faith expecting with joy the dissolution of our prison And that we shall attain if we direct all our labours actions businesse and vocations by faith and goe on with desire and hope of eternall life or to speak more significantly if we never lay aside the memory The love of the world is extinguished by faith of eternall happinesse in all our actions because through this feare of God is begotten in man a certain holy desire of eternal things and withall the desire coveting of earthly things insatiable in its own nature is restrained according to that saying of St Paul to the Coloss 3. Whatsoever you doe in word or deed doe all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thankes to God the Father through him And the name of God is nothing but the honour praise and glory of God According to thy Name let it be O God and thy praise to the ends of the world saith David Psal 48. Which Whâ—â— the name of God iâ— scope if all our works and life doe chiefly respect then we think of eternity and our works are done in God and consequently our selves are in God Briefly God our chiefe good and the eternall life of all our thoughts works and words should be the first mover if we will not faile of eternall salvation That which Paul most elegantly expresseth to 1 Tim. chap. 6 But thou O man Who iâ— the man of God or the man of the world of God flie these things to wit covetousnes He calleth a Christian a man of God because borne of God and living in God hee is the sonne and heir of God Even as contrariwise a man of the world is he who liveth after a worldly life whose inheritance is the world and whose belly is filled with the goods of the earth as it is in Psalm 17. Which way the Christian is farre from seeking after faith and love and unsatiably covetous of eternall life to which he was created alone which if it come not to passe then the man linketh himselfe to enormous sins which our just God doth punish with eternall fire prefigured by the burning of the Tents sent from heaven and from an angry God to punish and revenge the excesses of the Israelites The wrath of God from whence Wherefore so often as such like plagues are sent upon the wicked as inundation fire warre hunger pestilence let us alwayes call to mind and remember that these are the most just punishments of a moved and angry God because the people of Israel unmindfull of heavenly things did follow after transitory things did prefer present things before future and had more care of the body then of the soule which things let us not erre in It is an extream point of ingratitude and contempt A great contempt ingratitude to God of God both here and hereafter to be punished to wit to contemne God for whom we beare about both body and soule and from whom we received them and instead thereof to worship Idols of the creatures the work of mens hands to esteem eternall things after transitory For these creatures Why creatures are given to us are given to us for necessity and not to set our hearts and minds after them that which God alone deservedly challengeth to himself and that they might be as prints and testimonies of God whereby we come neerer to the knowledge and love of God the author of them all which divine institution when the love of the world dare abrogate it then the same by the most just vengeance of God together with the proper Idolaters are turned into the fire The love of the world Is converted into the fire of Sodom and infernall flood of which Sodom and Gomorrah is a type and this burning of the Tents of which we speak Truly all creatures are of themselves good but when men set their hearts upon them and that not after a lawfull manner but doth worship them as Idols then they become abomination How the creature becometh abomination before God Almighty no otherwise then the detestable and execrable Images of gold and silver and therefore matters of eternall fire although gold and silver of themselves are good creatures In brief the love of Christians joy wealth and honour are circumscribed in eternity whereupon there followeth even life eternall for where thy treasure is there is thy heart Luke 1â— On the contrary from the concupiscence The fruit of worldly love and love of the world nothing can follow but eternall damnation for the world passeth away with all the pomp thereof but he that doth the will of God continueth for ever whereupon B. John 1. Epist chap. 2. beseecheth the faithfull saying Little sonnes doe not love the world nor those things that be in the world which being so manifestly shewed thee that God would not have us love any creature first Why the creatures are not loved because love is the heart of man and the most noble of all affections which therefore is due to God alone as to the chiefest and onely good Secondly because it is a great folly to love that which cannot love us again whereupon in vain are frail and transitory things beloved by good right is God alone to beloved above all creatures who out of his exceeding love created us to eternall life redeemed and sanctified us Thirdly because naturally like things are Why man was created after Gods Image loved therefore God made thee after his own image and likenesse that thou mightest love him and thy neighbour Fourthly although our soule be like to wax ready The soule is the lookingglasse of God to take any impression put upon it rather like a glasse representing all objects set before it whether of heaven or earth yet it is born onely to set God before it Fifthly as the Patriarch Jacob when he lived in Mesopotamia amongst strangers and after twenty yeares service demanded his two What our mind ought alwayes to respect wives and his wages and being provoked with the sweet memory of his country did think and desire to return to the same so our soule among worldly occupations and businesses of our
which is life it selfe this Way is Truth this Truth is the Way O the blindnesse a worm of the earth will make himself great when the Lord of glory in the world did willingly give up his own life Blush therefore faithfull soule and doe not thou when thy heavenly spouse celestiall Isaac cometh Humility is the way to Christ on foot to meet thee fit aloft on thy Cammel but like to Rebecca who beholding her Husband for bashfulnesse covered her face and comming down from her Camel went on foot with him so thou from the toylsome beast of thy proud heart descend lowly upon the ground and meet thy Spouse and he wil infold thee in his armes and bring thee into his heart Goe from thine own land and from thine acquaintance and from thy fathers house and come into the Land I will shew unto thee so said God unto Abraham Gen. 12. Goe thou likewise out of the house of thy selfe love and proper will for selfe-love corrupteth true judgement blindeth the understanding The evil fruits of selfe love disturbeth the reason seduceth the will corrupteth the conscience shutteth the gates of life and knoweth neither God nor his neighbour expelleth vertue hunteth after honours lyeth in wait for riches longeth after pleasures and lastly preferreth earth before heaven who so doth so love his life loseth it John 12. but whosoever hateth his own life that is doth deny his selfe-love this man shall keep it to eternall life selfe-love is the root of impenitence and eternal damnation with the which whosoever are bewitched they are without humility and acknowledgement of their sinnes the remission whereof can be obtained with no teares For they were not teares for God offended but for their own proper losse Mat. 13. the kingdome of heaven is compared to a pretious stone or pearle of great value which to obtain the Jeweller went and sold all that he had This Pearle is God himselfe or eternal life which to obtain all other things are to be left of which thing wee have a most absolute example Jesus Christ who descended from heaven not for his owne but for thy cause not to serve or profit himselfe but thee and shall we then doubt to seek him alone who did forget himselfe and for us gave himselfe unto death It is the part of a faithful Spouse to seek to please none but her husband and thou being spoused to Christ desirest still to please the world See then thou remember What soule is the virgin and spouse of Christ that thy soule is espoused to Christ yet not without a sacrifice with this condition annexed that thou mayst not love any but Christ rather perswade thy selfe thus that thou oughtest to contemne and put all things out of thy mind that thy Spouse might deem thee worthy of his loving imbracements for if thou darest divide thy love so that thou beholdest not Christ alone in all things now thou art no virgin but an adulterer for it behoveth the charity of Christians to be a chaste virgin and without spot Therefore as in the Law of Moses it was lawfull for the Priests onely to marry with virgins so Christ our true high Priest doth desire a virgin soule and which is taken with nothing besides his love and so knoweth not her own self in respect of Christ that which he professeth in expresse words saying If any come unto me and hateth not his own sâ—ule he cannot be my Disciple What it is so to doe to hate himselfe Why a man must hate himself let us shew in a word We all doe carry about with us the old man and are so the old man himselfe whose nature and property is to doe nothing but sinne to love himselfe to follow his profits and honors to pamper his own will and the flesh for the flesh and bloud is at all times like unto it self studieth it selfe giveth honour to it selfe doth applaud it selfe doth serve it selfe doth respect it selfe in all things it is easily grieved envious bitter covetous of revenge All which thou dost and art for seeing they arise and flow from thy heart this is thy life thine I say of the old man Wherefore thou must hate thy selfe if thou desirest to be Christs Disciple And he that loveth himselfe he that loveth his proper pride covetousnesse wrath hatred envie lying perfidiousnesse unrighteousnesse and wicked concupiscence which without doubt are not to beloved of any they are not to be excused and covered but followed with professed and open hatred mortified and utterly denied by him that will be Christs Disciple CHAP. XV. In a true Christian it behoveth the old man should daily die and the new man be renewed Also what it is to deny himself and what is the true Crosse of Christ Luke 9. If any will follow me let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me THese are the words of St. Paul Ephes 4. of the old man Lay aside according to your former conversation the old man which is corrupted according to the desires of error but be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put you on the new man wich is created according to God in justice and holinesse of truth And he expresseth the cause 1 Cor. 6. For yee are bought with a great price therefore glorifie and beare about with you God in your hearts What the old man is we said even now as What the old man is pride covetousnesse lust unrighteousnesse wrath enmity hatred and envie all which must die in a true Christian that the new man might spring up and be daily renewed The old man therefore dying the new man quickneth in opposit to it that is pride wasting humility succeedeth by the grace of the holy Ghost wrath dying lowlinesse shineth in the room covetousnesse being extinguished trust in God is increased the love of the world being taken away the love of God waxeth warm And What the new man is this then is the new man with his members these are the fruits of the Spirit this is the living and powerfull faith this is Christ in us and his most noble life this is new obedience this is the new commandement this is the fruits of regeneration in us in which whoso live these verily are the onely sonnes of God and therefore it is said that a man ought to deny himselfe as proper honour selfe-will and his own judgement privat profits and his own estimation yea to forgoe his own right and not onely all other things but to think himselfe unworthy to live his owne life What it is to deny himselfe Wherfore a true Christian and one that is indued with the humility of Christ doth willingly acknowledge that the man cannot All things are to â—e used with feare by his own right challenge or require any of those things which God bestoweth on him seeing that all things that are are the free gifts of Gods divine munificence wherupon he useth
truly humbled think themselves worthy of nothing Jacob Gen. 32. who pronounceth himself unworthy of all divine favour and temporall blessings Therefore to his example and pattern a heart truly humbled contrite acknowledging himselfe unworthy of the least heavenly visitation and consolation be it never so little crieth O Lord my soule thine handmaid is unworthy of thy great love and mercy which thou hast shewed it in Christ Jesus behold since thou gavest me thy Sonne I come with two troops with the blessings I say of grace and glory And indeed if a man would weep a sea of teares it were not sufficient price for the least heavenly favour or consolation Therefore the grace of God is meerly pure and free gift and the merit of man is nothing else but punishments and eternall damnation which every one knoweth What misera men God respects through faith and acknowledgeth freely man consequently is guilty of his own misery and is pardoned of God that which cannot befall man without this zealous acknowledgement and so to obtain the favour of God Wherupon S. Paul 2 Cor. 12. saith I would boast of the infirmities in me that the power of Christ might awell in me For such is the mercifulnes of God he will not see his workes suffer corruption but so much the weaker it is in it selfe so much more fortitude is divinely infused into it according to that the Lord said unto Paul My grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect in infirmity Wherefore by how much a true Christian in his own judgment is more wretched by so much doth God pardon more freely to the manifestation of the riches of his glory in a vessell of mercy Rom. 9. not looking to any merit of his by heavenly consolations more sincere then all human joyes Furthermore we call not him a miserable man not he that is poore Why a man is wretched and destitute of human succour and comfort but he that from the bottome of his heart acknowledgeth and is grieved for his sinnes for if sinne were not there would be no misery in the world and so much could not befall man but that he is worthy of much more Far be it from us to grieve because many heavenly benefits are not bestowed Man is worthy of no divine grace seeing we are not worthy of the least no not the life we carry about with us Which saying although our flesh think it a very unworthy and hard saying yet if we will obtain the grace of God the truth is to be spoken and every true repentant sinner most be a most bitter Judge and upbraider of himselfe for his sinnes Wherein then and wherefore should a man open his mouth Truly thus I think what ever man thou be it is better for thee to say thou canst say nothing in these two words Lord I have sinned Have mercy upon me a sinner certainly God himselfe requireth nothing else of a man but that he should deplore his sins and crave pardon which two whoso The best work of man neglecteth may be said that he hath omitted the best part Take heed therefore O man to powre forth teares for thy body because it is naked because it is afflicted with hunger and cold and because it suffereth persecutions because it is restrained in bands or because it is weak and sick but bewaile and send forth tears for thy soule which is constrained to dwell in flesh and bloud obnoxious to sinne and death Vnhappy man that I am cryeth blessed Paul Rom. 7. who shall deliver me from this body of sinne And this Christian acknowledgement and conscience of his proper and inward misery this grace-thirsting repentance Faith is the door of grace this faith fastened on Christ alone opening the doore of grace in Christ by which God cometh into the soule therefore repent and amend saith John chap. 3. Behold I stand at the doore and I beat or knock if any shall heare my voyce and shall open it to me I will enter therein and I will sup with him and he with me Which supper is nothing verily but the remission of sinnes consolation life and happinesse at this doore of faith our most loving God at his own time doth meet the wretched soule here the truth ariseth from the earth and justice looketh from heaven here Mercy and Truth meet one another Justice and Peace doe kisse each other Psalm 85. Here the offender Magdalene I say the soule of Mystical Magdalen man all confused and powring forth tears anointeth the feet of our Lord washeth them with teares wipeth them with the hairs of her head of most profound humility Here the spirituall and mysticall Bishop in the holy ornaments of faith offereth the true sacrifice the contrite heart and lowly and the frankincense of true repentance and contrition I say the teares for sins committed that true cleansing water The misticall Bishop and sacrifice of a Christian wherewith the mysticall Israel are washed and made clean by faith and efficacy of the bloud of Christ And thus much Christians it appeareth how by the acknowledgement of your proper misery and faith in Christ you may attain the grace of God so that by how much every one in their own judgement is more wretched so much the more dearly beloved of God and by him is adorned with great favours CHAP. XX. By Christian contrition our life is daily amended and made more and more fit for the Kingdome of Heaven and life eternall 2 Corinth 7. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to eternall salvation but worldly sorrow worketh death TRue Christianity consisteth in pure Faith true Charity and holy life which have their beginning out of serious Holiness from whence contrition repentance and a strict and severe knowledge of himselfe perceiving daily more and more his defects and amending them daily and participating the righteousnesse and holinesse of Christ by faith 1 Cor. 1. and cannot be obtained The fear of God by any other means in which if we walk in the continuall feare of God after the example of good children and subjects we doe not nourish any thing belonging to the flesh All things are lawfull for me saith Paul 1 Cor. 6. but are not all expedient in me making me better For even as a sonne in his fathers house doth not all things which many times the lust of the flesh prompteth him unto but warily observeth his father and as it were by the eye doth counsel with him before hee cometh to say or doe any thing So a true Christian and the Child of God will chastice his senses with Christian modesty neither will doe or speak any thing without the fear of God But for The ioy of the world doth extinguish the fear of God the most part all men are without the feare of God do addict themselves to worldly pleasures not knowing it is better continually to feare God then to wallow in
him hee is transformed into his Image and is united by an everlasting conspiration The seventh fruit of love is Not to seek that which is his own nor to have nothing more acceptable or pleasing then gratis or without expectation to serve others and as much as he can to be helpfull to others that which onely God most abundantly performeth giving all things to us freely and commanding his worship and feare unto us not for his own sake but that we might receive the fruit of his divine love and carry away the blessing thereby So Christ had no recompence but onely the cause of our salvation neither did he come to be ministred unto but to minister unto us and like unto the tree which without envie or respect of persons doth give his fruits such as he hath received of God first to all men indifferently doth wholly spend himselfe unpon us yea God himselfe in Christ hath reacht himself with all his gifts to humane kind and delivered it by a right of property to have and possesse them in this thing openly making himself to be the chief good which needs must be most specially in communicating himselfe he who studieth to make himselfe like unto him he shall be a plantation of the Lord to his glory Esay 61. and Christ shall bud and flourish in him a living vine and a Palm alwayes flourishing or waxing green The eighth fruit of love is not to be provoked to anger not to be inflamed with anger nor that which maketh man no man to utter wrath conceived by cursing railing speeches but to imitate Christ Jesus which did not cry out or open his mouth witnesse Esay cha 42. nor any kind of bitternesse but spake meer benediction and life And although hee did denounce threats against Chorazin Capernaum and Bethsaida and against the Pharirisees themselves uttering many woes against them yet it came not from a cruell or vengeative mind it was a serious and severe exhortation to repentance Therefore let us be wary lest any root of bitternesse springing again doe hinder our charitie and many bee offended thereby Heb. 12. The ninth fruit of charity is Not to think any evill which is the property of Almighty God as hee testifieth Jeremy 39. I know the thoughts which I think of you or concerning you the thoughts of peace and not of affliction that I may give an end and have patience Seek me and you shall find me when you shall seeke me with your whole hearts Whereupon it followeth He that hath the thoughts of peace towards his neighbour hath the heart of God and the understanding of Christ and as a living member knit unto his head is inspired of him Tenthly It rejoyceth not in iniquity nor in the injury or oppression of injustice as wicked Shimei did when David fled from Absolom but it imitates Christ Jesus who with most tender compassion beholding Peters perjury did with his most benigne aspect rectifie him according to the Psalm 146. God doth raise them that â—â—e fallen who deplored the evill that was to befall the men of Judea and the destruction of the Jewes lastly who with all his heart desired to bring his wandring and lost sheep into their way and that which was in him with a sweet and most gentle voyce did allure them home Let us imitate this so great a Master of love and if any bee fallen from his love let us deplore him after this manner Let us instruct him in the spirit of love and lenity and help to beare his burden that we may fulfill the Law of Christ Gal. 6. His law I say that first did beare the burden of our sinnes and let him be in us as in true members of our head life sense and spirit The eleventh fruit Doth rejoyee together with the truth and where all things are done rightly and decently after the example of Christ who at the return of his seventie disciples at their well doing rejoyced very heartily and confessed himselfe to his heavenly Father and also the Angels in heaven doe rejoyce as Christ teacheth at the return of a sinner which if we do the like then truly we have the understanding of God and Angels The twelfth fruit of charity is to suffer all thiâ—gs as may appeare by this bond of peace after the example of blessed Paul I am made weak with the weak that I might profit the weak I am made all things with all men that I may save all men The same beleeveth all things suspecting no evill of his neighbour hopeth all things praying that nothing may fall amisse to his neighbour lastly It sustaineth all things that it may goe so much the better with his neighbour and more profitable All which our Saviour by a lively example of his life did teach us by bearing most heavie injuries and reproaches for our sins as also most inhumane scourgings and extream poverty and hunger that we in him and by him might obtain joy and honour The thirteenth fruit of love is Not Gods love is eternal to be weary nor to cease Like unto God whose mercy from eternity to eternity is upon those that feare him Psalm 103. who respecteth not that he may have mercy on us and rose up to spare us Esay 30. whose love is strong as death Cant. 4. which many waters cannot extinguish Cant. 8. Lastly from which nothing can separate us Rom. 8. who hath mercy on us with everlasting mercies Isa 54. And although Jer. 15. he denieth that henceforth he can have mercy to those onely it pertaineth who repell obstinately the divine mercies contemne his grace and abuse them with high contempt but not to those that feare him according to that of Esa 54. The mountaines shall be moved and the little hills shall tremble but my mercy shall not depart from thee and the covenant of my peace shall not be moved Thy mercifull Lord hath spoken it To which example also we must comply our love that it bee never weary no not towards our enemy but even as Christ praieth in us Christ did live and prayed let Christ in us say Father forgive them Last of all love is the Head and Queen of all vertues because God himselfe is love and because it is the end of the commandments and summe or collection of the Law and because it is eternall neither will it vanish with faith hope tongues and so forth our happinesse appearing which is the end of faith because it worketh all things and all vertues without it are as nothing and last of all because it will give us testimony through faith in Christ that we shall have eternall happinesse Whereupon it followeth that Christian charity must needs excell all Gifts and Arts whatsoever according to that of the Ephesians chap. 3. To know the supereminent love of the knowledge of Christ that you may bee filled in all fulnesse of Christ CHAP. XXXI Self-love and Arrogancie is as Ink upon white Ivory spotting and
defiling the greatest and most excellent gifts 1 Corinth 13. If I should speak with the tongues of men and Angels and have not love I shall be as a tinckling Cymball or sounding brasse LEst any man should marvell that Saint Luther of the Church part 2. fol. 13. Paul doth adorn Charity with so many praises you must know that God himselfe is love and consequently like praise to belong to both neither greater or more ample vertue to be found in man or in God himselfe Now that which respecteth our neighbour is twofold one true living sincere and cleare the other hypocriticall and dissembled or cloaked The first St. True love false Paul describeth by a most ample catalogue and an account of the fruits and properties thereof added thereunto the latter with all his words gifts and workes abused as a Bawd to and for private gain and honour And howsoever in outward shew it seemeth to affect divine and humane good and profit yet inwardly and in his heart he respecteth nothing but his private profit and honour and wealth and whatsoever floweth from this fountain cometh not from God but from the Devill and it What ariseth not of charity ariseth not of God is poyson infecting all good workes and the most excellent gifts For as a flower in sight tast and smell most beautifull and sweet if it retain any venome is not approved by the beauty of the colour nor pleasantnesse of smell nor sweetnesse because it is deadly or hurtfull to man if it be not foreseen So man if he be adorned with the gifts of Angels and if he be full of avarice pride selfe-love and arrogancy then those gifts doe not onely faile in their fruits but become pernicious for that which is good indeed ought to have God in the beginning and ending who as he is the onely author of every good thing What is good so whatsoever he worketh in thee is truly that onely good But it is otherwise if arrogancy selfe-love the desire of honour or private profit shall have any designe in it for when it commeth not from God his impulsion and provocation it can never be good Therefore God alone is good also love it self by which all good is conveyed to our neighbour through love no otherwise then from God to our selves this necessarily cometh to passe It is said that a certain Saint of old should wish that he should be of no other use unto God then his own right hand was unto him which seeing it was nothing but an instrument aptly to give and receive what was fit and consequently arrogateth neither honour nor glory to it selfe And indeed it is meet we all should be such and because all things come from God to us freely in like manner we should render all things to our neighbour in single simplicity and without the desire of vainglory and praise out of pure love for unto God alone as to the author is honour and glory due but unto us nothing at all we are onely instruments created and made fit to receive and deliver which if any be without this sincere charity he with all his gifts is nothing So I say Although hee speake with the tongues of Angels can prophesie know all mysteries and all knowledge and had never so much faith even that it would remove mountaines and give all that he hath to the poore lastly give himselfe to be burned Selfe love and arrogance was the fall of the Devill 1 Cor. 13. For all selfe-love that is the desire of honour and praise and private profit is of the Devill and was his Apostasie by which hee fell from heaven and for which hee was worthily driven from thence For when God had created Lucifer the most beautifull Angell and adorned him with most excellent gifts of wisdome light glory and riches he began to admire himselfe in his gifts as a Peacock doth admire himselfe to love honour and praise himselfe which was the first step to his ruine even to give honour to himselfe not to God and to turne his love from God to himselfe whereupon he was worthily cast out of heaven with all his companions which his pride by contagion had infected neither was hee contented with his principality amongst Angels according to that of Saint Jude The Angels which kept not their principality And that of Saint Paul to the Colossians chap. 2. Spoyling Principalities and Powers traduced them confidently And of man and openly triumphing over them in himselfe Now by what sinne Lucifer procured his own ruine he was the cause and perswader by the same sinne of the losse of mankind turning him frō the love of the honor of God to himselfe whereby followed self-love and arrogancy such and so great even to affect the similitude of God whereby consequently hee was no otherwise cast out of Paradise then Lucifer out of Heaven leaving to us all the heritage of arrogancy and self-love And this is the fall and Apostasie of Adam which all men in like manner doe iterate and with flesh and bloud give and deliver every one to other the same the means of amendment and cure whereof can and ought no other wayes be sought and obtained but by the merit of Christ apprehended by faith whereby thenceforth wee are renewed in Christ and our flesh is crucified neither now doe we love our selves any more but Denying our selves necessary hate our selves Luke 9. that is all our own works doe begin to displease us we do not honour our selves or beare out our selves but deny our selves Luke 14. that is wee set nought by our selves lastly we do not now seek our singular praise and glory but by denying all things that we have place our pleasure and trust in no earthly thing and likewise doe fight and strive with flesh bloud our inward enemies which whosoever hath not nor doth not as abovesaid he neither is nor can be the Disciple of Christ seeing by this meanes in serious and true repentance the conversion of humane nature must be changed Moreover seeing that means is greater then the strength of man which of it selfe and by its nature can doe nothing but love it self favour it selfe and boast and cannot forbeare By the incarnation of Christ our nature is renewed to seek his own ends or to speak in a word to sinne therefore it behoveth God to be the beginning middle and end and prop the Sonne of God to take the forme of a man upon him and consequently to renew our nature that thereby every one of us being regenerate by him in him and from him we become a new creature for even as in Adam we were dead bodily and spiritually so it behoveth us in Christ to rise and be spiritually renewed Even as by carnall nativity we entred upon the sin of Adam as a certain heritage so in Christ by a spiritual birth and faith wee must bee justified Finally as radically we draw from Adam
130. If thy imperfections be great again and again remember Christs merits are far greater and say with David Psalm 11. Have A repentanr soul is at peace with God mercy upon mee according to thy great mercies And when by the grace of God thou art penitent for thy sinnes and dost behold Christ in faith then in like manner God is grieved at thy punishment and pardon and remission followeth this thy divine and wholsome contrition by and by and so oft as thou becomest an offender and returnest again to him by sorrowfull sighes For even as the Leper was healed in a moment when he said to Christ Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me whole and he answered I will be thou clean So Almighty God inwardly and in the Spirit maketh thee clean saying Be confident my sonne thy sins are forgiven thee Which great mercy of God in cleansing and pardoning our sins prefigured in that Lepers example ought not to give us occasion to sin again but more and more to glorifie God whereupon thou mayst say My soule praise the Lord. IX Outward injuries reproaches and How iniuries are to be born upbraids beware they doe not provoke thee to wrath indignation or revenge but rather think them to be certain trials of thy heart by which God would prove thee what is in thee and in thy heart doth lie hid I say whether meeknesse and humility or pride and wrath For whatsoever lieth hid in a man or concealed provocated contumelies do make triall of him Therefore if thy heart bee indued with humility and lowlinesse thou wilt easily beare all contempts nay whatsoever shal happen to thee of that kind thou wilt accept it as a punishment of God for thy just desert and sinne after the example of David who being reproached to his face by Shimei said 2 Sam. 16. God commanded him to revile David Moreover thou shouldst think the contempt of us to be a great part of the contumely of Christ which a living and a true member of him ought to participate according to that saying Heb. 13. Let us goe to him bearing our infirmities Not being unmindfull with what heart with what lowlinesse hee did beare his reproach then conclude for him in like manner thou art to bear thy reproaches and private injuries with an equal mind Do not thou say Shall I suffer these things at his hands For by reason of the lowlinesse and most patient heart of Christ all things should bee moderately born by thee I conceale the benignity of Christ to be so great that for one contumely that an innocent doth suffer he is ready to reward it with many honours and gifts That David knew when hee received the reproach of Shimei as a pledge and token of honour to come saying Suffer him to revile as the Lord hath commanded him If the Lord shall respect my affliction and the Lord shall return me good for his cursing this very day Wherefore let not the fables of men perturb thee but rather rejoyce because the glory of Gods Spirit resteth in vile things 1 Pet. 4. Victory consists in patience X. Study to overcome and pacifie thy enemies and detractors with benefits and goodnesse not in wrath nor in revenge nor in returning answer for no man will be reconciled to thee by this means seeing that victory consisteth in virtue not in vice For as Devils doe not drive one another out or away so revenges and maledictions doe not pacifie but provoke thy calumniators For as no man goeth about to heale a frantick man or a wretched person or a wounded man afflicted with soares with beating or club-law so a man evil affected to you is to be handled with lenity and not with cruelty and by sweet and gentle means pacified That which God himself to overcome us doth think he must observe pacifying our malice with his goodnes and our wrath with his love and inviting us with this such and so great benignity to repentance And Paul hath commended the same Art unto us Rom. 12. Bee not overcome of evill but overcome evill with goodnesse For this is our victory XI If in thy neighbour thou observest Wee ought not to envie good in others a gift which God hath adorned him with before thee and others take heed thou dost not envie this in him rather rejoyce give God thanks for seeing all the chosen and faithfull are one body it followeth that the beauty of every member doe ennoble the whole body On the contrary if thou perceive The sin of our neighbour is to be condoled any misery in thy neighbour lament it as thine own thinking the condition of all men to be equall and the weaknesse of the flesh to bee alike and hee that cannot take compassion nor condole he is no member of Christ For hee thought ours his own by compassion hee delivered us from all our miseries To which belongeth that of Saint Paul to the Galatians chap. 6. Bear one anothers burdens and so you shall fulfill the law of Christ XII The vices and sins of our neighbour are to be hated even as the works of Hate the vice not the mâ—n the Devil and if he should be no otherwise lest thou become more wicked then the man himselfe but rather bewaile his lot because he is subdued with such sinnes and commend his cause to God as Christ prayed for his enemies upon the Crosse Father forgive them And contrariwise whosoever hateth man cannot please God seeing it is his property to desire to rectify all men according to that of Luke 9. The Son of Man came not to destroy but to save mens souls XIII Think all men frail but thy self A Christian thinks himselfâ— the greatest sinner most frail for before God all men are of equal condition and alike condemnable because we have all sinned neither have we any thing whereon wee may boast before God Then how great a sinner soever thy neighbour be take heed thou beleeve not therefore thou art the better before God Let him that standeth take heed that hee fall not Yea he that maketh himself the lowest of all men this man keepeth the grace and favour of God It is sure that thou no lesse standest need of the grace and mercy of God then the greatest sinner which is the greater to thee the more humble thou art Wherefore blessed Paul accounted himselfe the greatest sinner 1 Tim. 1. And therefore saith That he obtained mercy Christ shewing his patience in him To which alike is that which he saith 2 Cor. 12. As concerning my selfe I will boast of nothing but my infirmities XIV That true illumination doth follow The contempt of the world is from illumination contempt of worldly things For even as the sonnes of this world have their inheritance upon earth as temporall honours fraile wealth vain splendor and beauty which they love and keep as treasures so the treasures of the sons of God are poverty
contempt persecution contumely and reproach the crosse death martyrdome and punishment whereupon Moses preferred the contumely of Christ before the treasure of Aegypt which is true illumination XV. The true name of Christians written The name of Christians in heaven is the true knowledge of Christ in faith by which we are transplanted into Christ and written in him as in the book of life from whom do flow living virtues which God in that day will beautifie with an honorable testimonie Mat. 25. bringing forth all those treasures which we have layed up in heaven 1 Tim. 6. and bringing to light every work which is wrought in God Joh. 3. None of the Saints hath made himselfe famous by any vertue which will be forgotten Psal 112. And this vertue of his as faith charity mercy patience and the like are that name written in heaven and the note and character of the Saints and the eternall names of heaven Of which more in the second Book CHAP. XLI In which is repeated the summe of the whole Book That the whole Christian Religion doth consist in the restauration of the divine Image in Man and extirpation of the Image of Satan 2 Corinth 3. We all beholding with a revealed face the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same Image from glory to glory as it were by the Spirit of the Lord. IN the true knowledge of Christ and of his person offices benefits and heavenly gifts doth consist the blessed life which the H. Ghost doth enlighten in us as a certain new light which in it selfe becometh more and more cleare as a certain metalline body Wherin consists eternall life or a glasse by making it cleane becommeth more neat and clearer or as an infant daily augmented in stature and growth For even as righteousnesse is given to a man by faith in Christ and then hee beginneth his conversion or regeneration or to bee begotten in his conversion and daily to be renewed after the Image of God neither is he by and by a man but is an infant whom afterwards the holy Ghost doth nourish and from day to day doth more and more conform him to Jesus Christ For the whole life of a Christian man upon this earth What Christianity is ought to be nothing else then a reformation of the image of God so that hee might live continually in the new birth and on the contrary mortifie the old man daily Which manner of life is onely begun in this world and perfected in the world to come Therefore he that before the day of the last judgement and so of his death hath not made his beginning in this man the Image of God shal never be erected to all eternity Wherefore I hold it very needfull forthwith to inculcate and inform what is the Image of God and also what the Image of Satan is seeing that in the knowledge of these the whole Christian religion consisteth and from this one head many other doctrines of originall sin of freewill and so of repentance of faith of justification of prayer of regeneration renovation sanctification and of the new life and obedience come to be explained Therefore the soul of man is an immortall spirit indued by God with excellent powers and faculties as understanding will memory and other motions and affections of the mind And this ought to be turned to God in him to be made the image of God so The soul of man is the glass of God that as the object in a glasse so in it God may be manifested and made conspicuous In which sense Saint Paul speaketh 1 Cor. 3. That the glory of God in the image of God renewed doth shine as in a glasse Moreover as God is good and holy himself so the substance and essence of the soule in the beginning The conformity of our soule with God in the state of inâ—ocency was originally good and holy And as in God there was no evill so the soul of man was without all evill from the beginning as in God nothing is but good Deut. 32. Psal 92. so in the soule there was nothing that was not good as God is all-knowing and wise the humane soule was full of divine knowledge and spiritualls celestiall and eternal wisdome as the divine wisdome disposed all things in number weight and measure and knew the strength of all creatures as wel celestial as terrestrial so the mind of man was enlightned by the same light Neither was the will inferiour to the understanding as equally holy and conformable to the divine wil in all things Therefore as God was so the soule of man was just benigne merciful long suffering patient meek courteous true and chast Which conformity of the humane wil with the divine all the affections appetites desires motions of the heart did participate emulating or following most perfectly the motions and affections of the divine wil even as God is charity so the affections of the man did breathe nothing but meer charity and as God Father Sonne and holy Ghost are joyned together and conspire in ineffable and eternal love so all the affections motions and desires of the humane soule by a meer most pure most perfect and most ardent love from the bottome of the heart did grow warm and Thâ— body of man is the temple of God prosper together so that the man loved God and his honour more dearly then himselfe Moreover even as in the soule so also in the body the image of God did shine most gloriously which therefore in all the faculties thereof was holy chast subject to no filthy concupiscences or motions beautiful comely of perfect health immortal and was without molestation tediousnesse passion griefe vexation and old age In brief the whole man both in mind and body was perfect holy just and acceptable to God every way For as the man was the image of God it followeth necessarily that the body it self be holy and conformable to God according to blessed Paul who commanded to sanctifie the body soule and spirit together For seeing that the man consisteth of soule and body and therefore bodily and spiritual functions going together it is necessary that a soule holy and just accomplishing its workes through the body and in the body should have an observant instrument and equally holy as it selfe Therefore as the soule did burn or was zealous in the most pure love of God so all the faculties of the body did imitate the same gesture in the love of God and his neighbour As the soule was all mercifull so the body with all the powers thereof did incline to clemency As in the divine soul chastity did shine so all the body with all internall and externall senses and powers did use perfect purity and chastity In brief the perfections of virtues were conspicuous no lesse in the body then in the mind or soul Wherefore it was easie What heart signifieth in Scripture for a man in the