ever with the Lord in his everlasting Habitations I have done with the first Point the Possibility of the Doctrine That we must arm our selves with courage and resolution against common calamities I proceed now to the second That it is an argument of great folly not to do so What is Folly but a mistake of things a mistake of their nature and of their end Not only a privative ignorance which may be in children and simple men but as the Hebrew Doctors call it a possessive ignorance possessing us with false opinions of things making us run counter to that light which Wisdome holdeth forth placing pleasure upon that which bringeth no delight and horror upon that which rightly considered hath no terror at all transforming a Devil into an Angel of light and turning Light it self into Darkness making the signs of Gods favor arguments of his wrath calling Afflictions and Calamities which are the instructions of a Father the blows of an Enemy and if Calamities be whips making them Scorpions An unwise man saith the Psalmist knoweth it not and a fool doth not consider it He doth not consider either the nature of these signs or the end for which they are sent but is led by likeness and opinion The natural man perceiveth not the things of Gods spirit but they 1 Cor. 2. 14. are foolishness unto him as the words of fools which signifie nothing And therefore he puts what sense and meaning he please upon them an interpreter the worst of a thousand And so he finds not evils but makes them makes them the mothers of his sorrow which might be the helpers of his joy When Reason and Religion are thrust out of the chair the Passions full soon take their room and dictate heavy things Then either Fear shakes us or Hope makes us mad either Grief pulls us down or Joy transports us One is afraid where no fear is as the Psalmist speaks another is struck dead at the sight of a statue and to some even Joy it self hath been as fatal as a thunderbolt All is from Opinion the mistress of fools which makes the shaking of a leaf as terrible as an earth-quake makes Poverty more sad the Plague more infectious Famine and the Sword more killing then they are It is not the tooth of Envy it is my Phansie bows me It is not the reproach of an Enemy hurts me It was but a word and Opinion hath turned it into a stone It is not an army of Sorrows it is my own Phansie overthrows me What St. Ambrose speaks of Poverty is true of all those evils which are so terrible to flesh and bloud Non naturae paupertas sed opinionis vis est Poverty as men call it is but a phansie there is no such thing indeed It is but a figment an Idole Men first framed it and set it up and trembled before it As some Naturalists tell us that the Rainbow is oculi opus a thing framed only by the eye because there are no such colours on the cloud as we see so this difference of Rich and Poor of Honorable and Dishonorable of Wars and Peace of Sorrow and Joy is but a creature of the Eye Did we not think the Souldier tremble we had disarmed him Did we not think Calamities grievous we might rejoyce in them Did not our Folly make these Signs terrible we might then look up and lift up our heads We read of Smyndenides the Sybanite that he was so extreamly dainty that he would grow weary at the sight of another mans labour and therefore when he sometimes saw a man labouring and painfully digging he began to faint and pant and desired to be removed Quà m inclementer fodicat saith he What a cruel and merciless digger is this So it is with us Our delicate and tender education our familiarity with the vanities of this world have betrayed our Reason to our Sensual parts so that we startle at every unusual object tremble at every apparition make War and Famine and Persecution more terrible then they are sink under those signs and warnings from heaven at which we should look up and lift up our heads This our way uttereth our foolishness as the Psalmist speaks For is it not a great folly to create evils to multiply evils to discolour that which was sent for our good and make it evil to make that which speaketh peace and comfort unto us a messenger of Death Let us now consider the Lets and Impedimens or the Reasons why our hearts fail us at such sights as these I shall at this time only remove a pretended one having formerly at large upon another Text Matth. 24. 25. spoken of Self-love and Want of Faith which are real and true hindrances of Christian Courage The main pretense we make for our pusillanimity and cowardise is our natural Weakness which we derived from our first parents and brought with us into the world For thus we lay every burden upon our fore-fathers shoulders and Adam is arraigned every day as guilty of every defect of every sin which is committed in the world HOMOSUM I am a man the child of Adam born under wrath is the common apology of the men of this world when they fall into those sins which by watching over themselves they might and which in duty they are bound to avoid As we fell in Adam so Adam falls in us falls under fears and sorrows and calamities unto the end of the world And if we observe it this is so common a plea and so stoutly and resolvedly stood to as if men did rather boast of it then bemoan it and did rather make use of it as a comfort after sin then fear it as a burden pressing and inclining to it For the best excuse they have the best plea they make is that they are the children of Adam I deny not that we drew this Weakness from our first parents I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self but bound to the center of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with Pelagius But yet and it will be worth your observation I take it to be a matter of difficulty to judge of what strength it is I fear we make it stronger then it is and I am sure a Christian is bound by that religion which he professes to encounter and tame and crucifie it For take us in our infancy not altered à puris naturalibus from that which we were made and then we do not understand our selves much less the Weakness of our nature And then take us in our years of discretion before we can come to discover it Custome and Education if good hath much abated if evil hath much improved the force of it and our Sloth or Cowardise hath made it strong A strange thing it is to see little children in their tender years prompt and witty to villany as if they had gone to School to it in their mothers womb and this
rest and sleep as ours quasi per quasdam ferias as the Father speaks as by so many daies of vocation and rest but every moment they observe things and every moment draw new conclusions and every moment collect and infer one thing out of another Besides as Tertullian tells us momento ubique sunt their motion and apprehension is swift and sudden Totus mundus illis locus unus est The whole world is to them but as one place and what is done in every place they soon know in any place We do not meet them as Hippocentaurs but we meet them as Tyrants We cannot say we have seen the Devil in the shape of a Fox but yet we are not ignorant of his wiles and crafty enterprises And though his hand be invisible when he smites us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incorporeal hangman as Chrysostom calls him yet we may feel him in our impatience and falling from God What speak we of the possession of our body when it is too manifest that he possesses our soul For do we see a man with a mouth like a sepulchre and a tongue like a rasor with a talking eye and a restless hand starting at the motion of every leaf drooping at the least breath of affliction amazed at the sight of white and red colour stooping at every clod of earth transported at every turn of his eye afraid where no fear is mourning for the absence of that which will hurt him and rejoycing at that stoln bread which will be as gravel between his teeth Do we see him sometimes fall into the water and sometimes into the fire sometimes cold and stupid and anon active and furious we may well conclude and account him as one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who are possest with a Devil That he insinuates himself into the Soul of Man that being of so subtile an essence he works upon the Spirits by inflaming or cooling upon the Phansie by strange representations making it a wanton and on the Understanding by presenting of false light and sending-in strong illusions it is plain and evident and we need not doubt But the manner how he worketh is even as invisible as himself and therefore it were a great vanity to enquire after it Stultum est calumniam in eo inquisitionis intendere in quo comprehendi quod quaeritur per naturam suam non potest saith Hilary It is a great folly to run-on in the pursuit of the knowledge of that which before we set forth we know we cannot attain And therefore saith the Father Nemo ex me scire quaerat quod me nescire scio nisi fortè ut nescire discat quod sciri non posse sciendum est Let no man desire to know of me that which I know I cannot know unless peradventure he would learn to be ignorant of that which he must know he cannot but be ignorant Let others define and determine and set-down what manner they please we may rest upon that of St. Augustine Facilius est in alterius definitione videre quod non probem quà m quicquam bene definiendo explicare In this point it is easier to refute anothers opinion than to establish our own and to shew that the Devil doth not work thus than plainly to set-down and say Thus he works It is enough for us to know that as God is a friend so the Devil is an enemy as God inspires good thoughts so the Devil inspireth evil that he can both smite the body and wound the soul that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks divers and various operations and can alter with the occasion that he knows in what breast to kindle Lust into what heart to pour the venom of Envy whom to cast-down with Sorrow and whom to deceive with Joy that his snares are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of many shapes and forms which he useth to draw-on that sin to which he sees man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most inclinable and prone and gives every man poyson in that which he best loves as Agrippina did to Claudius her husband in Mushromes Now to proceed The Reasons why the Devil thus greedily thirsts after the ruine and destruction of Mankind are derived from his Hatred to God and his Envy to Man His first wish which threw him down from heaven was To be a God and being fallen he wished in the next place that there should be no God at all willing to abolish that Majesty which he could not attain Odium timor spirat saith Tertullian Hatred is the very breath of Fear We never begin to hate God till we haâ—e committed something for which we have reason to fear him And the Devil being now in chains of everlasting darkness doth hate that Light which he cannot see And because God himself is at that infinite distance from him that his Malice cannot reach him he is at enmity with whatsoever hath being and essence and conservation from God or is answerable and agreeable to his will but especially with Man because God hath past a gracious decree to save him and put him in a fair possibility of the inheriâ—â—nce of that heaven from whence he was thrown down He manifests his hâ—â—â—ed to God in hating his Image which he doth labour to deface now blurring it with Luxury anon with Pride and every day bespotting it with the world striving to destroy that new-creature which Christ hath purchast with his bloud just as some Traitours have used to stab their Prince in his picture or as the poor man in Quintilian who not able to wreak his anger on the person of his rich and powerful enemy did solace himself in whipping his statue And as the Devils Hatred to God so his Envy to Man enrageth him For through envy of the Devil came sin into the world It is Bernards opinion that Man was created to supply the defect of Angels in heaven and to repair that breach which their fall had made in the celestial Jerusalem But most probable nay without question it is that the Devil with his hellish troop are therefore so fiery and hot against us because they see and are verily perswaded that those men whom they cannot withdraw from obedience to God shall by the power of Christ be raised to that height of glory from which he and his Angels were cast-down and shall in a manner supply their place in heaven whilst they lay bound in chains of everlasting darkness And therefore though he gave Man a fall in Paradise yet he still envieth his hope as Timagenes was grieved when he saw Rome on fire because he knew it would be built-up fairer than it was before it was burnt Quoniam emulari non licet nunc invidet as he speaks in Plautus Because he cannot emulate us in our rise he envies us and that happiness which he cannot make the object of his Hope he makes the object of his Malice as they who are tumbled
her part on An easie thing it is to be meek where there is nothing to raise our Anger and Revenge hath no place where there is no provocation The Philosopher in his Rhetorics giving us the character of Meekness tells us that most men are gentle and meek to those who never wronged them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or who did it unwillingly to men who confess an injury and repent of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those who humble themselves at their feet and beseech them and who do not contradict them to those whom they reverence and fear For Fear and Anger seldom lodge in the same breast But Christianity raiseth Meekness to a higher pitch where no injury can reach it A studied and plotted injury an injury made greater by defense an injury from the meanest from him that sits with the dogs of our flocks any injury at any time from any man maketh a fit object for Christian Meekness which in the midst of all contumelies and reproaches in the midst of all contradictions is still the same Should we insist upon every particular our Discourse would be too large We will therefore fasten our meditations upon those which may seem most pertinent and so take off all those pretenses which we Christians commonly bring in as Advocates to plead for us when we forget that we are Christians There be two errors in our life the one of Opinion the other in Manners and Behaviour which is far the worse and though these of themselves carry no fire with them yet by our weakness commonly it comes to pass that they are made the only incendiaries of the world and set both Church and Commonwealth in combustion If our brothers opinion stand in opposition to ours if his life and conversation be not drawn out by the same rule we presently are on fire and we number it amongst our virtues to be angry with those who in their Doctrine are erroneous or in their lives irregular Now in this I know not how blessed we think our selves but I am sure we are not meek For if we were truly possessed of that Meekness which Christ commends as we should receive the weak in Faith with all tenderness so should we be compassionate to the wicked also and learn that Christian art which would enable us to make good use both of Sin and Error And first for Error though many times it be of a monstrous aspect yet I see nothing in it which of it self hath force to fright a Christian from that temper which should so compose him that he may rather lend an hand to direct him that errs then cry him down with noise and violence seeing it is a thing so general to be deceived so easie to erre and so hard to be reduced from our error seeing with more facility many times we change an evil custom then a false opinion For Sin carries with it an argument against it self Hoc habet quod sibi displicet saith Seneca As it fills the heart with delight so it doth with terror Like the Viper mater est funeris sui it works its own destruction and helps to dispossess it self But Errour pleaseth us with the shape of Truth nor can any man be deceived in opinion but as Ixion was by embracing a cloud for Juno and Falshood for the Truth He that errs if he were perswaded he did so could err no longer And what guilt he incurs by his error the most exact and severe inquisition cannot find out because this depends on that measure of light which is afforded and the inward disposition and temper of his soul which are as hard for a stander-by to dive into as to be the searcher of his heart The Heresie of the Arians was as dangerous as any that ever did molest the peace of the Church as being that which strook at the very foundation and denyed the Divinity of the Son yet Salvian passeth this gentle censure on them Errant sed bono animo errant non odio sed affectu Dei They erred but out of a good mind not out of hatred but affection to God And though they were injurious to Christs Divine generation yet they loved him as a Saviour and honoured him as a Lord. The Manichees fell upon those gross absurdities that Reason when her eye is weakest may easily see through yet St. Augustine who had been one himself bespeaks them in this courteous language Illi saeviant in vos qui nesciunt quocum labore verum inveniatur Let them be angry with you who know not with what difficulty the truth is found and how hard a matter it is to gain that serenity of mind which may dispel the mists of carnal phantasmes Let them be angry with you who were never deceived and who do not know with what sighs and groans we purchase the smallest measure of knowledge in Divine mysteries I cannot be angry but will so bear with your error now as I did with my own when I was a Manichee A good pattern to take out and learn how to demean our selves towards the mistakes of our brethren and to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves with the pretense of Zeal and Religion which loose their name and nature and bring in a world of iniquity when we use them to fan the fire of contention I do not see that relation or likeness between Difference of Opinion and contrariety in affections that one would beget the other or that it should be impossible or unlawful to be united unto him in love who is divided from me in opinion No Charity is from heaven heavenly and may have its influence on minds of divers dispositions as the Sun hath on bodies of a different temper and it may knit the hearts of those together in the bond of love whose opinions may be as various as their complexions But Faction and Schism and Dissention are from the earth earthly and have their beginnings and continuance not ab extra from the things themselves which are in controversie but from within us from our Self-love and Pride of mind which condemn the errors of our brethren as heresies and obtrude our own errors for Oracles I confess to contend for the Truth is a most Christian resolution and in Tertullians esteem a kind of Martyrdom It is the duty of the meekest man to take courage against Error and as Nazianzene speaketh in a cause that so nearly concerns us as the truth of Christ a Lamb should become a Lion I cannot but commend that of Calvine Maledicta pax cujus pignus desertio Dei That peace deserves a curse which lay's down the Truth and God himself for a gage and pawn and benedicta praelia quibus regnum Christi necessitate defenditur those battels are blessed which we are forced to wage in the name of the Lord of Hosts And thrice happy he who lays down his life a sacrifice for the Truth But Religion and Reason will
that we should be carried up to heaven in a dream or that God should draw us thither whether we will or no as if he could not reign without us nor the blessed Angels be happy but in our company Good God! what a presumption is it to think that the name of Child the meer opinion of Gods Love and to talk of forgiveness of sins should help us that good wishes will promote us that when we have cast our selves headlong into a sea of misery into a deluge of sin it will be enough to say Master save us we perish Beloved be not deceived God is not mocked If we will have Christ to be our Priest to satisfie for our sins and to intercede for us he must be our Prophet too to teach us and our King to govern and rule us If we will have the meat that perisheth not we must labour for it if eternal life we must lay hold on it if the garland we must run for it if we will enjoy the Benefit we must perform the Office if we will be children of God we must be followers of God if we would be endeared to him he must be dear to us if we would be lovely we must be loving and if God forgive our sins we must forsake them if we will have the crown of life we must be faithful unto death if we will have the victory we must Rev. 3. â—1 fight for it Vincenti dabitur To him that overcometh will Christ grant to sit upon his throne He hath a Crown laid up for his Children and his Children shall have their blessing and shall know that they were dear unto him They shall enter into their inheritance the Kingdom prepared for them And now not only Paul is theirs and Cephas is theirs but Christ is theirs and God is theirs and the Crown is theirs and Heaven is theirs not in hope only but in reality not in apprehension onely but in fruition also not in right and title only but also in possession Thither the Lord bring us who purchased it for us with his precious bloud The Seventh SERMON MATTH XVIII 1. At the same time came the Disciples unto Jesus saying Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven HERE is a strange Question put up and that by Disciples and as strange an Answer given and that by Christ himself The Question is Who should be the greatest in the kingdome of heaven The Answer is That in that kingdome a Child is the greatest A Question put up by men prepossessed with hopes of Greatness ignorant what this Kingdome and what Greatness was and an Answer excellently fitted to that Question checking at once their ignorance and removing it So that here you see Ambition and Ignorance put up the Question and Wisdome it self makes the Answer Ambition and Ignorance swell our thoughts into a huge bulk and make us Giants but Wisdome abates that tumour contracts and shrinks us up into the stature of a Child Who is the greatest say the Disciples that is the Question A Child is the greatest saith our Saviour who was the Wisdome of the Father That is the Answer Indeed a man is known by his speech and our words commonly are the evaporations of our Hearts Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts saith Matth. 15. 19. Christ and evil questions too Such as the Heart is which is the fountain of life such are the motions of the parts Such as the Will is which is the beginning of action such are the motions and operations of the Soul which flow from the Will and are commanded by it Our Words are the commentaries on our Will For when we speak we make as it were a defection of our own Hearts and read an Anatomy-lecture upon our selves Our wanton talk discovers a stews in the Heart When our words are swords the Heart is a slaughter-house When we bear false witness that is the Mint When we worship Mammon that is his Temple The Heart is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shop and work-house of all evil In this we set up idols in this we work mischief in this we heap up riches build up thrones raise up Kingdomes Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven is the very dialect of Ambition and shews that the Disciples hearts were so set on Honor that they could not ask a question right We read that they had disputed of this before amongst themselves by the Mark 9. 34. way and then they put up this question to Christ here in this Chapter And again Chap. 20. and again Luke 22. when he had eaten the Passeover with them when he had foretold his Passion and preacht unto them the doctrine of the Cross when his Passion was nigh at hand even then did these Disciples dream of honors and greatness and a temporal kingdome and are not ashamed to tell it to Christ himself Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven First they dispute it among themselves in the way and then they ask Christ the question This is the method of the world at this day First to dispute every man in the way in viâ suâ in his own way the Covetous in the way that leads to wealth the Ambitious in the way that leads to honor the Sacriligeous person in the way that leads to atheisin and profaneness and then to ask Christ himself a question and hope to strengthen their vain imaginations by Scripture and to have an answer which shall fit their humor and flatter their ungrounded resolutions even from the mouth of Christ himself From him they hear that they must work with their own hands he then speaks of Riches and Honor. From him they hear that Bell boweth down Dagon must fall and all Superstition must be rooted out Nullum sine auctoramento malum est We can now be covetous be ambitious be sacrilegious be what the Flesh and our Lusts will have us be any thing by Scripture Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven the Disciples would never have askt the question had not their thoughts run on Greatness had they not thought that Christ had come to this end to set up a throne of state for one of them I will not make this error of the Disciples greater then it is and yet I cannot make it less because Disciples fell into it and which the Jesuits for St. Peters sake pronounce it but a small and venial one St. Chrysostome calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fault And it concerns us not so much to aggravate as to avoid it It is sufficient for us that Christ hath resolved this Question and brought a little Child upon the stage to teach Disciples and to teach us to avoid that rock which the Disciples themselves had dasht upon In the words then we will observe 1. the Occasion of the Question pointed out unto us in the first words At the same time 2. The Persons that moved the Question which are
and Preferments in the Kingdome of Christ Let us not fit Religion to our carnal desires but lay them down at the foot of Religion Make not Christianity to lacquey it after the World but let Christianity swallow up the World in victory Let us clip the wing of our Ambition and the more beware of it because it carries with it the shape and shew of Virtue For as we are told in Philosophy In habentibus symbolum facilior transmutatio amongst the Elements those two which have a quality common to both are easiliest changed one into the other so above all Vices we are most apt to fall into those which have some symbolizing quality some face and countenance of Goodness which are better drest and better clothed and bespeak us in the name of Virtue it self like a strumpet in a matrons stool Let us shun this as a most dangerous rock against which many a vessel of burden after a prosperous voyage hath dasht and sunk By Desire of honor and vain glory it comes to pass that many goodly and specious monuments which were dedicated rather to Honor then to God have destroyed and ruined their Founders who like unfortunate mothers have brought forth beautiful issues but themselves have dyed in the birth of them They have proved but like the ropes of silk and daggers of gold which Heliogabalus prepared to stab and strangle himself withall adding pretiosiorem mortem suam esse debere that his death ought to be more costly then other mens and they have served to no other end but this ut cariùs pereant that the workers of them might dye with greater state then other men and might fall to the lowest pit as the sword-players did in the Theater with noyse and applause I have spoken of the Occasion of the Question and of the Persons who put it Come we now in the last place to the Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven The Disciples here were mistaken in terminis in the very terms of their Question For neither is Greatness that which they supposed nor the Kingdome of heaven of that nature as to admit of that Greatness which their phansie had set up For by the Kingdome of heaven is meant in Scripture not the Kingdome of Glory but the Kingdome of Grace by which Christ sits and rules in the hearts of his Saints When John the Baptist preacht Repentance he told the Jews that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand When our Saviour tells us that it is like seed sowen in good ground like a net cast into the sea like a pearl like a treasure hid in the field what else can he mean but his Kingdome of Grace on earth not his Kingdome of Glory in heaven So that for the Disciples to ask Who is greatest in this kingdome was to shape out the Church of God by the World Much like to that which we read in Lucian of Priams young son who being taken up into heaven is brought-in calling for milk and cheese and such country cates as were his wonted food on earth For in the Kingdome of Grace that is in the Congregation of Gods Saints and the elect Members of Christ there is no such difference of degrees as Ambition taught the Disciples to imagine Not that we deny Order and Government in the Church of God No without these his Church could not subsist but would be like Aristotles army without discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unprofitable rout To this end Christ gave Apostles and Teachers and Pastors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ His Teachers call us his Governors direct us to this Kingdome But the Disciples being brought up in the world thought of that Greatness which they saw did bear the sway amongst men Much like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thought that God bare the shape of a Man because they read in Scripture of his Feet and Hands and Eyes and the like But that it was not so in Christs Kingdome may appear by our Saviour's Answer to the Question For he takes a Child and tells them that if they will be of his Kingdome they must be like unto it By which he choaks and kills in them all conceit of Ambition and Greatness For as Plato most truly said that those that dye do find a state of things beyond all expectation diverse from that which they left behind so when we are dead to the World and true Citizens of the Kingdome of Christ we shall find there is neither Jew nor Greek neither bond nor free neither male nor female but all are one in Christ Gal. 3. 28. Jesus God looks not what bloud runs in thy veins he observes not thy Heraldry If Greatness could have purchased heaven Lazarus had been in hell and Dives in Abrahams bosome Earl and Knight and Peasant are tearms of distinction on earth in the Kingdome of heaven there is no such distinction Faith makes us all one in Christ and the Crown of glory shall be set upon the head of him that grindeth at the mill as well as upon his that sitteth on the throne Christ requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nobility of the Soul and he is the greatest in his Kingdome who hath the true and inward worth of Honesty and Sanctity of life though in this world he lye buried in obscurity and silence Here Lazarus may be richer then Dives the beggar higher then the King and a Child the least is greatest in this Kingdome A main difference we may see between this Kingdome and the Kingdomes of the world if we compare them First the Subjects of this Kingdome are unknown to any but to God himself The foundation of the Lord standeth sure saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 19. having this seal The Lord knowes who are his And if they be unknown who then can range them into orders and degrees Secondly of this Kingdome there is no end Thirdly the seat of this Kingdome is the hearts of the faithful Cathedram habet in Coelo qui domat corda His chair is in heaven that rules the hearts of the sons of men here on earth This earth that is this body of clay hath God given to the sons of men to the Princes of the earth under whose government we live But our Heaven our better part our inward and spiritual man he reserves to himself Kings and Princes can restrain the outward man and moderate our outward actions by their laws and edicts Illa se jactat in aulâ Aeolus Thus far can they go They can tye our Hands and Tongues and they can go no further For to set up an imperial throne in our Understandings and our Wills belongs to Christ alone He teacheth the lame to go and the blind to see and recovers the dry hand He makes us active in this Kingdome of Grace Lastly as their Subjects and Seat are different so are
heart is stone enough to beat it back no soul so stubborn as to resist it neither height nor depth nor the Devil nor Sin it self can evacuate it The Recipiatis is unavoidable and the in vanum impossible And every man is a St. Paul a priviledged person not sweetly water'd with abundance but violently driven on with a torrent and inundation of Grace We must therefore find out another sense of the word Although for ought that can be said the Exhortation may concern us in this sense also and teach us to hear when God speaks to open when he knocks not to be deaf to his thunder nor to hide our selves from his lightning nor to quench the spirit nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to resist and fall cross with Acts 7. 51. the holy Ghost But in the Scripture two words we find by which the Graces of God are expressed There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts Plainly there are more common and necessary Graces which 1 Cor. 12. concur to sanctification of life to uprightness and common honesty And there are peculiar graces as Quickness of Will Depth of Understanding Skill in languages or supernatural as gifts of Tongues gifts of Healing of Miracles of Prophesie and the like These are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather gifts then graces and are distributed but to certain persons in such measure as seems best to Gods Wisdome Why men are not as strong as Samson or as learned as Solomon why they prophesie not as Jeremy and work not miracles as Paul all this is from God But why men are not righteous as Noah devout as David zealous as Elias we must find the cause in our selves and not lay the defect on God Now the Grace in the Text is none of all these but is that gratia Evangelii the Grace of reconciliation by Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ commanded to be preached to all Nations And in this sense it is most frequently used in holy Scripture in the Epistles of St. Paul where we so often find it placed in opposition to the Works of the Law This is it which he so oft commends unto us This is it which he here exhorts us to receive This is it for the propagation of which he was in afflictions necessities distresses in stripes in prisons in labors in tumults which are a part of the catalogue of his sufferings in this Chapter And this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grace and a gift too without which all other gifts and graces aut nihil sunt aut nihil prosunt deserve not that name Strength is but weakness Learning is but folly Prophesies are but dreams Miracles are sluggish all are not worth the receiving or are received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain Shall I say it is a greater gift then that robe of Righteousness with which God clothed Adam in Paradise It so far exceeds it that we dare not compare them There is a MULTO MAGIS set upon it by St. Paul Rom. 5. 15. and a NON SIC Not as the offense so is the free gift The Loss not so great as the Recovery Nay cui Angelorum What speak we of Adam To whom of the Angels did God give such a gift What a glory would we count it out of Nothing to be made an Angel a Seraphim By this gift by the Grace of Christ we are raised from Sin above the perfection and beauty of any created substance whatsoever above the Hierarchy of Angels and Archangels A Christian as he is united to Christ is above the Seraphims For take the substance of a Seraphim by it self and compare it to a Man reconciled to God by this Grace and the difference will be as great as between a Picture and a Man An Artificer may draw his own Picture but he can only express his likeness his color his lineaments he cannot represent his better part his Soul which constitutes and makes him what he is Take all the creatures of the Universe and they are but weak and faint shadows and adumbrations of Divine perfection God is not so exprest by an Angel as by a Christian who is his lively image as the Son is the image of his Father by a kind of fellowship and communication of nature The Creature represents God as a Statue doth the Emperor but a Christian as the Son his Father between whom there is not only likeness but identity and a participation of the same nature For by this gift by these promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature saith St. Peter ◠Pet. 1. 4. And as a Father takes more delight to look upon his Son then upon his Picture and Figure so God looks more graciously upon a Christian then upon any created essence then upon the nature of Angels He that gave the Gift he that was the Gift pray for us John 17. 21 22. that we may be all one and as his Father is in him and he in his Father so we may be one in them as they are one This is the Gift by which God did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle gather together and re-establish the decay'd nature of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostome knit and joyn together Heaven and Earth And as Christ spake of John Baptist Matth. 11. 14. Hic est Elias si vultis recipere He shall be Elias to you if you will receive him so Haec est gratia Dei The Gospel the Reconciliation made by Christ is the Grace of God if we will receive it Which is my next part And what is a Gift if it be not received Like a mess of pottage on a dead mans grave like Light to the blind like musick to the deaf The dead man feeds not the blind man sees not the deaf man hears not What were all the beauty of the Firmament if there were no eye to descry it What is the Grace of God without Faith The Receiving of it is it which makes it a Grace indeed which makes it Gospel If it be not received it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain An unbelieving heart turneth this bread into gravel this honey into gall and as much as in him lyes doth not only crucifie but annihilate the Lord of Life We usually compare Faith to a Hand which is reached forth to receive this Gift Without a Hand a Jewel is a trifle and the treasure of both the Indies is nothing and without Faith the Gospel is but Christus cum suâ fabulâ as the Heathen spake in reproach but a fable or relation And therefore an absolute necessity there is that we receive it For without this receipt all other receipts are not worth the casting up Our Understanding receives light to mislead her our Will power to overthrow her our Afflictions which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
never forsake his creature whilst there is any hope of return O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do Hos 6. 4. unto thee Canst thou find out any thing Alass what canst thou find out who art as a silly dove without heart But whatsoever my Wisdome my infinite Hos 7. 11. Wisdome can find out whatsoever may forward thy conversion whatsoever may be done I will do it And therefore as Sin and Iniquity have increased so have the Means to reclaim it As Wickedness hath broken in as a floud so hath Judgment been poured forth and doth swell wave upon wave line upon line judgment upon judgment to meet it and purge it and carry it away with it self and so run out both together into the boundless ocean of Gods Mercy This is Gods method who knows whereof we are made and therefore must needs know what is fittest to cure us For as when our bodies having been long acquainted with some gentle kind of Physick and the disease at last grows too strong for it it commends the art of the good Physician to add strength to his potion that so at last he may conquer the malady So Mans sinful disease in the last age of the World being much increased it pleaseth God to use stronger means to cure it If his little army of Caterpillars if common calamities will not purge us he brings in Sword and Famine and Pestilence to make the potion stronger If the enemies Sword cannot launce our ulcers he will make us do it with our own If fightings without cannot move us he will raise terrors within He will pour down hailstones and coals of fire that we may thirst for his dew and gentle rain He will set us at variance with one another that we may long to be reconciled to him and by the troubles of one Kingdome learn to pray and pray heartily for that other which is to come That so if possible he may save some and pull them as brands out of the fire singed and scorcht but not consumed That if men will repent them of their evil wayes he may repent him of the evil he imagined against them as he sometimes told his people by the mouth of his Prophet Ezekiel Our third general part was the consideration of the Behaviour which our Saviour commends unto us in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look up and lift up your heads words borrowed from the behaviour which men use when all things go as they would have them When we have what we desire when success hath fill'd our hopes and crowned our expectation then we look up and lift up our heads As Herbs when the Sun comes near them peep out of the earth or as Summer-Birds begin to sing when the Spring is entred so ought it to be with us when these things come to pass This Winter should make us a Spring this noise and tumult should make us sing Wars Famines Plagues Inundations Tumults Confusion of the world these bring in the Spring of all true Christians and by these as by the coming of Summer-Birds we are forewarned that our Sun of Righteousness draws near Indeed unto Nature and the eye of the World such are sad and uncouth spectacles sights far from yielding comfort or being taken for authors of welcome news and therefore our Saviour pointing out to the behaviour which in this case the world doth use tells us in the words foregoing my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men should be ready to sound for fear ARESCENTIBUS HOMINIBUS saith the Vulgar men should dry and wither away for fear as Leaves smitten with mildew or blasting or fading away with unreasonable heat Lest therefore our hearts should fail us upon the sight of these signs our Saviour forewarns us that all these ostenta these apparitions bode us no harm nor can bring any evil with them but what we our selves will put upon them that for all these signs in the heaven for all this tumult and confusion upon earth even then when the foundations are shaken and the world is ready to sink we may lift up our heads When you see these things come to pass look up lift up your heads Let us a little weigh these words For they are full and expressive talent-weight They are a prediction and they are an admonition which is saith Clemens as the diet of the soul to keep it in an equal temper and a setled constitution against those evils and distempers of the mind which as Tully speaks do tumultuantem de gradu dejicere cast it down with some kind of disorder and confusion from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that quietness and silence which is the best state and condition of the soul as Fear and Sorrow the unhappy parents of Murmuring and Repining which press down the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the gross and bruitish part which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fall of the Soul the symptomes and indications whereof are a cast-down Look and a Head bowed down like a bull-rush For 1. Fear is a burden that maketh us not able to look upwards towards that which might rid and ease us of it but towards something that may hide and cover us When Adam had sinned God comes toward him in the cool of the day in a wind as it is rendred by some and as the word signifies in such a sound as he never heard before and he presently runs into the thicket hides himself amongst the trees of the garden If the King of Jericho pursues Joshua's spies they run under the stalks of flax and if Saul pursues David he betakes himself to some cave Fear may make us look distractedly about with a wandring inconstant unsetled eye but not to look up it may make us hide our heads but not lift them up If an Evil bite Fear is the tooth and if it press down Fear is the weight Behold here this tooth is broken and this weight is taken away by Wisdome it self in these words Look up lift up your heads 2. Grief is another weight that presseth down Why art thou cast down O my Soul saith David And Psal 42. Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop saith Solomon Sorrow Prov. 12. 2◠kept Aaron from eating the sin-offring cast Job on the ground and David on the ground and Ahab on his bed An evil disease it is under the Sun but here you have a medicine for it a medicine to make a merry heart Look up lift up your heads 3. These two Fear and Sorrow are the mother and the nurse the beginners and fomenters of all Murmuring and Repining For as Fear so Sorrow is nothing else but a kind of distaste and grudge of the mind Imperari dolori silentium non potest The Murmurer cannot be silent He will complain to any man to any thing to the Night to the Day to the Sun to the Moon as he in the Comedy
and diametrically opposed Frustrà is placed è regione point blanck to the Magistrate For the Apostle lays it down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he puts a Non a negation between them He speaks it positively and he speaks it destructively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beareth not the sword in vain The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Duty and the Power the Office and the Definition the same That which should be so is so and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians For at this distance these tearms naturally stand But when we read a corrupt Judge a perjured Jurer a false Witness we have conciliated them and made up the contradiction These terms naturally stand at a distance we must then find out something to keep them so to exclude this Frustrà to safeguard the Magistrate that he bear not the sword in vain And we need not look far For it is the first thing we should look upon and the Philosopher pointeth it out to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to propose an end Non agitur officium nisi intendatur finis say the Schools I stir not in my duty if this move me not and I faint and sink under my duty if this Continue not that motion And down falls the Sword with a Frustrà upon it if this uphold it not I am but Man and my actions must look out of themselves and beyond themselves I have not my compleatness my perfection my beatitude within my self and therefore I must take aim at something without my self to enfeoff and entitle me to it Now the Magistrate hath divers ends laid before him First that first and architectonical end the Glory of God and then that which leads to that the Peace of the Church and that which procures that the Preservation of Justice and that which begins that the proper work of Justice it self to stand in the midst between two opposite sides till he have drawn them together and made them one to keep an equality even in inequality to use the Sword not only rescindendo peccatori to cut off the wicked but communi dividundo to give Mephibosheth his own lands to divide to every man his own possessions Then the NON FRUSTRA is upon the Magistrate as well as upon the Sword when the Law is not only the edge of this Sword but flabellum justitiae a fan to blow and kindle up Justice in the breast of the Magistrate that it may warm and comfort the oppressed but to the wicked become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a consuming fire When he layeth not these ends aside and instead thereof placeth others for the Glory of God some accession and addition of Honor to himself for the good of the Commonwealth the filling of his Coffers for the Peace of the Church the avoiding of a frown for the right of the oppressed his own private conveniencies and for the Truth Mammon There are many ends you see but that is most pertinent to our present purpose which the Apostle sets down in this Chapter Terror to the wicked Security of the good Justice on both sides And first the Magistrate like God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 governs us by that which is adverse to us curbeth the transgressor by the execution of poenal laws which St. Basil calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purging cleansing refining fire even of that other fire which when it breaks forth is Lust Adultery Murder Sedition Theft or what else may set the Church and Commonwealth in a combustion And in the next place this end hath its end too For no Magistrate doth simply will the affliction and torture of the offender or punish only to shew his autority but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath an end for that too His Power rests not in the evil of punishment but looks further to the good of amendment and to the good of example not to the taking off heads but piercing of hearts not to binding of hands but limiting of wills not to the trouble of the sinner but the peace of the Commonwealth This is the very end of Punishment to destroy that proclivity and proneness to sin which every evil action begets in the very committing of it Lay the whip upon the fools back and slumber is not so pleasant bring him to the post and he unfolds his arms Set up the Gibbet the Gallants sword sticks in his scabberd exact the mulct and he hath lost the grace of his speech and half his Gentility Let the sword be brandisht and Sin is not so impudent but croucheth and mantleth her self and dares not step forth before the Sun and the people Gird then the sword upon the thigh O most mighty You who are invested with this power remember the end Remember you were placed with a Sword hostire iniquitatem in a hostile manner to pursue the wicked to run after the oppressor and break his jaw and take the prey out of his mouth to destroy this Wolf to chase away the Asp the poisonous heretick to cut off the hands of Sacriledge to pierce through the spotted Leopard And in doing this you perform the other part You defend and safegard the innocent The death of one murderer may save a thousand lives and the destruction of one traiterous Jesuite as many souls Qui malos punit bonos laudat The Correction of the evil is the Commendation nay it is the buckler the castle the defense of the good And it may prove too the Conversion of the wicked The bloud of one Wolf may work an alteration and change of another the Leopard may come to dwell with the Kid the Wolf may feed quietly with the Lamb the Lion may eat straw like an Ox and the Asp play with a Child Isa 11. The poenal Statutes are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 copies and samplers and a Judge must do as a Painter doth saith Plato follow and imitate his forms and draughts Where the Law is drawn in lines of bloud he must not lay on colours of oyl Where the Law shews the offender in chains he must not present him at liberty Where it frowns he must not draw a smile nor Timanthes like draw a veil as not able to express that frown No he must take his proportions and postures from the Law Oppression must be portrayed with its teeth out Murder pale and wounded to death Idleness whipt the common Barretter with papers in his hat He must similem pingere not a Man for a Beast not a Dog for a Lion not a Fox for a Wolf not Manslaughter for Murder not Usury for Extorsion not Deceit for Oppression not a sum of daily incursion for a devouring one He must not depose and degrade a gallant boystrous sin and put it in a lower rank to escape unpunished with a multitude The neglect hereof brings in not only a frustrà but a nocivum with it It is hurtful and
poison of the excuse But Adam's last words Gen. 41. 4. are lost in the former as the lean and ill-favoured Kine in Pharaoh's dream ate up the fat ones Deny indeed the fact he could not For as God had built him up in his own image and likeness so he had raised up within him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural tribunal his Conscience and made him thus far a God unto himself as not only to discern evil from good but also to search the very inwards of his own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith St. Chrysostome all men of what rank soever though they sit not in the throne of justice though they be not Judges and Magistrates though they have no executioners nor prisoners nor gives nor bolts yet they judge and condemn Sin in themselves and others and that by the common principles of Discourse and Reason and by that secret verdict and sentence which every man carrieth in his own breast The first man that condemneth a Sinner is a Sinner himself Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur in himself he beareth about him a Court and Seat of justice from which no appeal lieth His reason is his judge his Conscience is his accuser himself his own prisoner The terrours of an afflicted Conscience hang him up and crucifie him every day though no forreign autority arrest him For as the shadow followeth the body saith Basil so doth Sin the Soul and whithersoever we go it presenteth it self before us No sooner do we reach out our hand to the Apple no sooner is our eye full of the adulteress 2 Pet. 2. 14. Jam. 1. 15. no sooner hath Lust conceived and brought forth Sin but presently verberamur tacito cogitationis nostrae opprobrio as St Ambrose speaketh our own thoughts are as whips and scorpions to scourge us our conscience striketh us with amazement and horrour when no man pursueth us she plougheth up our soul and maketh deep furrows there laniatus ictus as the Historian speaketh stripes and wounds when no other hand is lift up against us But as Judges would see more clearly and judge more uprightly if they were not blinded with a bribe so would the Conscience speak more plainly if we did not teach her broken and imperfect language to pronounce Sibboleth for Shibboleth to leave out some letter some aspiration Judg. 12. 6. some cicumstance in sin But to speak truth the Conscience cannot but speak out to the offender and tell him roundly that he hath broken God's law But as we will not hearken to Reason when she would restrain us from sin so we slight her when she checketh us for committing it we neither give ear to her counsel before we eat nor to her reproof after we have eaten we observe her neither as a friend nor as an enemy Adam's conscience told him he had broken the command had eaten of the forbidden fruit and must die but the shame of what he had done and the fear of what would follow made him as deaf to his conscience after his fall as he was before as unwilling to acknowledg his sin as to prevent it and therefore he seeketh to palliate and colour over what he could not deny he faltreth in his language and instead of a confession rendreth nothing but an excuse an excuse which indeed is nothing Now to dissect and examine the Excuse We shall find that Adam dealeth like an unskilful Phisitian qui pro morbo extinguit hominem He removeth not the disease but destroyeth himself and by applying a remedy worse than the disease maketh the disease incurable His Apologie upbraideth him and he condemneth himself with his excuse For first MULIER DEDIT The woman gave it me weigh it as we please is an aggravation of his sin We may measure Sin by the tentation It is alway the greatest when the tentation is least A great sin it would have been to have eaten of the forbidden fruit though an Angel had given it what is it then when it is the Woman that giveth it Why should the Woman prevail over the Man the weaker over the stronger vessel He was made her head and was to rule over her His Duty saith St. Chrysostome was not only to have refused the woman's offer but also to have shewed her the greatness of the sin and to have kept her from eating not only to have saved himself but to have plucked her also out of the fire But for Strength to yield to Weakness for the Head to be directed by the Body for him to put himself in subjection who ought to command for him to follow to evil who should lead to good was to invert the order which God had constituted What a shame do we count it for a man of perfect limbs to be beaten by a criple for a son of Anak to be chased by a grashopper for Xerxes 's army which drank up the sea to be beaten out of Greece by three hundred Spartains Certainly he deserveth not power who betrayeth it to Weakness The VVoman gave it me then was a deep aggravation of the Man's transgression Again it is but The VVoman gave it And a gift as we commonly say may be either taken or refused and so it is in our power whether it shall be a gift or no. Had the man been unwilling to have received the Woman could have given him nothing Nunquid obsecravit num disseruit num decepit saith the Father Did she besiege him with her intreaties did she use the battery of discourse did she cunningly undermine him with a fallacie No it is but dedit she only gave it him The Orator will tell us Necessitas est magnum humanae infirmitatis patrocinium that Necessity is the best Plea that humane weakness hath for the misery that befalleth us But it is too common a thing as Tertulian saith licentiam usurpare praetextu necessitatis to make Necessity a pretense for our liberty and licentiousness in sinning At this door enter-in Covetousness Intemperance Revenge Pride which we might easily keep out even with one of our fingers Nusquam est necessitas nusquam violentia sed electio voluntas Here was no necessity no violence It is but DEDIT she gave it him and he was willing to receive it Oh how are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battel how is Adam fallen in the midst of his strength He who had the Graces of God encompassing him about as a ring who had his Understanding richly adorn'd and his Will obedient to his Understanding who had an harmonie in his Affections and an Heaven in his Soul who had the Angels for his guardians and God for his strength who was himself a kind of God upon earth and had dominion over all the creatures surrendreth up all at the sight of a gift a gift which he might have refused and which he was bound to refuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Plato de Log. proverb
to beat on who have been viri perpessitii as Seneca speaks of Socrates men of great sufferance who have suffer'd not only their goods to be torn from them by oppression and wrong but their reputations to be wounded with the sharp rasor of detraction and have withstood the shock of all spectantibus similes with the patience of a looker on should be raised and comforted with a promise of that which their Meekness gave up to the spoil and that by the providence of God which loves to thwart the practice of the world they should be made heirs even of those possessions which the hand of Violence hath snatched from them It is a common proverb in the world Cum lupis ululandum That amongst a company of Wolves we must howl as loud as they for he that amongst Wolves will make himself a Sheep shall be sure to be eaten Vim vi repellere To arm our selves with force against violence and with Circumspection against deceit To be ready to strike with one hand whilst we defend ourselves with the other are lessons written upon every post the neglect of which will entitle us to Folly though in other things we be as wise as Solomon What though we speak with the tongues of men and angels What though we understand all mysteries and all knowledg What though we have all faith even to remove mountains yet if we want this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this quickness and dexterity of wit in removing those obstacles and retardances which are laid in our way to honour and wealth we are but as sounding brass or tinckling Cymbals not to fright our enemies but to make them sport and melody But St. Hierome will tell us Aliud est judicium tribunalis Christi aliud anguli susurrorum that there is great difference between the Judgment of the world and the Tribunal-seat of Christ What a vain fellow was David to day sayth Mich. when he danced before the Ark. He did it as a man after my own 2 Sam. 6. 20. heart saith God He is a weak man saith the world and knows not to tread those paths which lead to honour and preferment but He is my Souldier sayth Christ and will take the kingdom of heaven by force It is a very small thing to be judged of the world or of mans judgment O let 1 Cor. 4. 3. me even wear that fools coat which shall be changed for a robe of glory The language of the world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will be rich must ask council of his wits must betake himself to violence must sometimes lurk like a serpent and at other times roar like a lion For this sheepish virtue of Meekness is like the equus Sejanus a certain horse which none could ever thrive that kept him This Divinity goes for Orthodox in the world But David a man of war of whom it was sung that he killed his ten thousands tenders us a doctrine of another strain shews yet a more excellent way by so ridiculous and contemptible a virtue as Meekness to purchase the inheritance of the Earth And indeed if we look nearer upon Meekness and behold the beauty of her countenance we shall even fall in love with her as with the most thriving virtue as with a virtue which will place us in a more firm and setled possession of that which is ours then all the Engins of deceit then all the weapons of the mighty But because most men are hard of belief when they are told that Godliness is great gain and that we may encrease our stock by loosing it with Patience and rely on their own brain and reach as a surer staff to walk with then the Providence of God I will make this yet plainer by reason and lay it open and naked to the very eye To this end we may observe two divers and contrary dispositions in the nature of Man by which we may divide and distinguish almost all the world The one rough and stern and contentious which is most remarkable in evil men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Demosthenes For wickedness is commonly bold and daring and contentious I never yet saw the Face of brass but the Heart was adamant Take it in St. James expression The wisdom which descendeth not from above is earthly sensual and divilish full of tumult and confusion The other that which the Philosopher calls â—â—m 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soft and sweet and flexible disposition which is the common character of a good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth the same Orator For Goodness is peaceable and gentle easy to be intreated ready to be diminished and brought low by oppression evil and sorrow Now take a survey of them both The first naturally produceth Fear Fear as naturally begetteth Hatred which is longer-lived than Fear Hatred raiseth up Contention saith Solomon which seldom endeth but in the destruction of those we hate whom we cease not to hate till they cease to be But Meekness is her own safeguard and castle of defense Rerum tutela suarum Certa magis and keeps us in quieter possession of that which is ours then the Law can do Whoever yet took up arms against the Meek Who will pursue a fly or a dead dog Who will strive with him that will not fight I confess we have of late seen a generation I cannot say of Christians I cannot say of Men I know not what to call them whose word is Kill and Slay not only those who are in arms against us but those damned Neutrals For so they call them who will not help them kill and slay But this is not natural and common but monstrous and unusual All that Meekness probably can expose us to is contempt Et quot contemptu tuti How many have made themselves contemptible to keep themselves safe Sure I am Brutus was never wiser then when he put on the person of a fool I know it is a very hard matter to perswade the world of the truth of this which I have taught For as St. Peter tells us there shall come mockers who will say Where are the promises of his comming and do not all things continue alike since the creation So there may be who will ask Where is the promise of the possession of the earth made good unto the Meek Is it not with them as it is with other men Nay is it not worse with them than with any men Is any man poor and they are not poor Is any man weak and they are not weak Is any man persecuted and they are not persecuted Are not the Meek every day driven out of their possessions And are they not driven out because they are Meek He that shall look into the state and condition of Meek men will peradventure be fully perswaded there is just cause of these complaints And therefore to drown and silence them we must remove some errors which are cast as a cloud
Devil But if I forget not I have spoken of this heretofore and chased it away as a phansie of the Devils creating and the invention of a sick distempered brain All that we will now say to those who doubt whether there be such a person or no which set upon our Saviour in the wilderness and every day renews his assaults against us is that his conceit can proceed from no other cause then a strong delusion of the Devil who they conceive to be nothing but like Aesops Fox and Lyon and Wolf which carry their Moral along with them and till that be made are nothing but tales And whilst they say there is no Devil it may be truly said to them that they have a Devil That there is such a person we may draw an argument from his name here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For what is a name but a signification of the nature of that thing which it doth express And he is called here not a Spirit or the Tempter as he is verse 3. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devil from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to Accuse to Defame to Publish infamous reports to Be the mint where slanders are coyned or else Credulously to receive them and pass them from hand to hand as current coyn to Please himself at the fall of another as the people of Rome used to delight and clap their hands at the fall of a Sword-player in the Theater He hath other names as the Evil spirit the Wicked one the Prince that rules in the ayr the God of this world But as Quintilian speaks Omnia verba alicubi sunt optima Words have their weight as they are placed And here when he was to tempt our Saviour DIABOLUS the Devil was the fittest name for him For indeed every tentation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of accusation and the Devil tempts us that he may accuse us and accuses us when he tempts us He is saith Augustine the accuser of the Saints and knowing what Judge he is to appear before into what Court he is to bring his bills of accusation even into the Court of that God who cannot be deceived though he be the father of lyes yet he strives to make his bills true by making us sin Quia falsa contra nos non potest dicere quaerit vera quae dicat ideo tentat ut habeat quae dicat Because he cannot lay to our charge those sins which we did not commit he incites us to sin that he may lay it to our charge He accuseth God to us which is his Tentation and then he accuseth us unto God which makes him a compleat Devil And as St. Hierome shuts up his whole discourse against Jovinian with a Caveat Cave JOVINIANI nomen quod ab idolo derivatum est Beware of the name of Jovinian which is derived from an Idole from Jupiter so will I begin mine Cave DIABOLI nomen Beware of the Devils name Beware of accusing and defaming thy brethren Remember the Devils name that thou be not like him Remember that when thou hast drawn a false accusation against thy brother thou hast drawn out a true one against thy self which the Devil will be ready to take up and present before the Tribunal of God And now that we may make some use of his name we will shew you 1. that he is an Accuser 2. the Motives or Causes which move him to be so and 3. lastly we will apply all to our selves and parallel our defamations with his as proceeding from the same root of bitterness and so learn to detest them For the first as Christ is an Advocate pleading for Man so the Devil is an Accuser pleading against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first walking with us that we may sin and then accusing us for sinning First accusing God to us which is the cause of all sin and then accusing us to God which is the cause of all punishment Omnia agens accusatorio spiritu as Livy speaks of Appius in all his proceedings breathing forth malice and railing accusations And first because all sin proceeds from error in judgment at least in the practick faculty of the soul Nam si homo poterit intelligere Divina potest facere saith Lactantius for if man could rightly understand the things of God he might easily do them But our practick determinations are sooner vitiated and corrupted then our speculative conclusions because those present Truth and Goodness these Truth alone the Devil instills his poyson and infects the Understanding with an evil report of God And though we cannot deny God or his attributes yet we seldome sin but we say in our hearts There is no God Here in this Chapter the Devil doth excaecare providentiam Dei strive to put out the very eye of Gods Providence that he might shake Christs Faith as it were and drive him to distrust He accuseth his Wisdome in our retirement and secret sins and that with some scorn Tush God doth not see it nor is there knowledge in the most High He accuseth his Justice and puts stout words into our mouths when we deny our obedience It is in vain to serve the Lord and what profit is there that we have kept his ordinances He defames his Mercy when remembring our sins we fall under them as a burden too heavy for us and as if God had forgotten to be merciful He roars loud against his very Power in the mouth of a Rabshakeh and would perswade the Israelites that to say God should deliver them was nothing else but to deliver themselves up to famine and thirst He casts his venome upon all the Divine Attributes and makes them the inducements to sin which are the strongest motives to goodness He never presents God to us as he is but in several forms and all such as may drive us from one attribute to run us on another He presents him without an eye that we may do what we list without a hand that we may trust in a hand of flesh without an Ear that our blasphemies may be loud He makes us favorable interpreters of him before we sin and unjust judges of him when we have sinned He makes him a Libertine to the presumptuous and a Novatian to the despairing sinner being a lyar in all whose every breath is a defamation Nulla apud eum turpis ratio vincendi as was said of King Philip He is not ashamed of any lye that may lead us from the truth And as he defameth God unto us so in every sin almost he accuses us unto our selves In the heat of our Zeal he accuseth us of Madness that we may be remiss and in our Meekness he chargeth us with Folly that we may learn to be angry In our Justice he calls us tyrants that we may yield it up unto unnecessary Pity and in our Compassion he urgeth the want of Justice that to put on the New man we may put of
as their argument It is plain we must not understand here Moses 's Heaven the Ayr for the Firmament but St. Pauls third Heaven This is the City of the great King the City of the living God the Psal 48. 2. Hebr. 12. 22. Hebr 1 10. 1 Tim. 6 16. Psal 103. 19. heavenly Jerusalem a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Here our Father dwelleth in light inaccessible unconceivable Here he keepeth his glorious residence and here he hath prepared his throne Here he keepeth his glorious residence and here he hath prepared his throne Here thousand thousands minister unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand Dan. 7. 9. before him Here he still sheweth the brightness of his countenance and to all eternity communicateth himself to all his blessed Angels and Saints Beloved the consideration of this stately Palace of the King of Kings should fill our hearts with humility and devotion and make us put-up our petitions at the throne of Grace with all reverence and adoration Is our Father Psal 104. 1. Gen. 18. 27. in heaven clothed with honor and majesty Then let us who are but dust and ashes vile earth and miserable sinners when we make our approaches to this great and dreadful God not be rude and rash and inconsiderate vainly multiplying Dan. 9 4. words before him without knowledge and using empty and heartless repetitions but let us first recollect our thoughts compose our affections bring our minds into a heavenly frame take to our selves words fit to Hos 14. 2. express the desires of our souls and then let us worship and bow down and Psal 95. 6. kneel before the Lord our Maker and let us pour forth our prayers into the bosome of our heavenly Father our Tongue all the whiâ—e speaking nothing but what the Heart enditeth This counsel the Preacher giveth us Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before Eccl. 5. 2. God For God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few Again is our Father in heaven Then our heart may be glad and our Psal 16. 9 10. glory rejoyce and our flesh also rest in hope God will not leave us in the grave nor suffer us to live for ever under corruption but in due time we shall be brought out of that bonaage into a glorious liberty and be admitted into those Rom. 8. 21 happy mansions in our Fathers house He will have his children like unto John 14. 2 3. himself Therefore we may be assured that as now he guideth us with his counsel Psal 73. 25. so he will afterwards receive us into glory Our elder Brother who is gone before and hath by his ascension opened the gate of Heaven and prepared a place for us will come again at the end of the world and awake us John 14. 3. Psal 17. 15. Mat. 25. 21 23. 1 John 3. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 49. out of our beds of dâ—st and receive us unto himself that we may enter into the joy of our Lord for ever behold his face see him as he is be satisfied with his likeness and as we have born the image of the earthy so bear the image of the heavenly And now Beloved having this hope in us let us purifie our 1 John 3. 3. selves even as our Father which is in heaven is pure While we remain here below and pass through this valley of Tears let us ever and anon lift up our Psal 84. 6. Psal 121. 1. Isa 57. 15. eyes unto the hills even to that high and holy place wherein dwelleth that high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity yet not boldly to gaze and busily to pry within the veil For Heaven is too high and bright an object for our Eye to discern and discover for our Tongue to discourse and dispute of But SURSUM CORDA Let us look up to heaven that we may learn not to mind earthly things but to set our affections on those things which are above to Col. 3. 2. have our conversation in heaven and our heart there where our everlasting Phil. 3. 20. Matth. 6. 21. treasure is Let us still wish and long and breathe and pant to mount that holy hill and often with the Spirit and the Bride say Come Come Lord Rev. 22. 17 20 Jesus come quickly and sigh devoutly with the Psalmist When shall we come Psal 42. 2. and appear before God And in the mean time let us sweeten and lighten those many tribulations we must pass through with the sober and holy contemplation Acts 14. 22. of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory of the fulness of joy 2 Cor. 4. 17. that is in Gods presence and of those pleasures for evermore that are at the Psal 16. 11. right hand of OUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory now and ever Amen The Two and Thirtieth SERMON PART IV. MATTH VI. 9. Hallowed be thy Name WE have past the Preface or Frontis-piece and must now take a view of the Building the Petitions themselves We find a needless difference raised concerning the number of them Some have made seven Petitions and have compared them to the seven Stars in heaven to the seven golden Candlesticks to the seven Planets to the river Nilus which as Seneca tells us per septena ostia in mare effunditur ex his quodcunque elegeris mare est is divided into seven streams and every stream is an Ocean Others have fitted them to the seven Gifts of the Spirit Those we will not call with A. Gellius nugalia or with Seneca ineptias toyes and trifles but we may truly say Aliquid habent ingenii nihil cordis Some shew of wit we may perhaps descry in them but not any great savor or relish of sense and judgment What perfection there can be in one number more than in another or what mystery in the number of seven I leave it to their inquiry who have time and leasure perscrutari interrogare latebras numerorum as the Father speaks to search and dive into the secrets of Numbers who by their art and skill can digg the ayr and find precious metal there where we of duller apprehension can find no such treasure I confess men of great wits have thus delighted themselves numeros ad unquem excutere to sift and winnow Numbers but all the memorial of their labor was but chaff The number of Fourty for Christ after his Resurrection staid so long upon earth they have divided into four Denaries and those four they have paralleld with the four parts of the World into which the sound of the Gospel should go The number of Ten they have consecrated in the Law and the number of Seven in the holy Ghost Perfecta lex in Denario numero
eyes to be strong in the faith that we may contemn this Adversary to keep the innocency of the Dove to shut-up the mouth of this Calumniator and to have the wisdom of the Serpent that we may be wise unto salvation and defeat all his plots and enterprises and to put-on that Christian fortitude and resolution which may deliver us out of the mouth of this Lion that though he be a Serpent he may but flatter and though he be a Lion he may but roar that so at last we may triumph over this Evil this Wicked one this malicious Enemy and tread him under our feet We shave shut up and concluded all evil in him who is the Father of Evil We have considered him as an Enemy to mankind and Why he is so We descend now to discover some Stratagems of his which he useth to bring his enterprises to pass by which he leads us through the wayes of Truth into error and by Virtue it self to those vices which will make us like unto him And here we have a large field to walk in And should we follow those who have gone before us in this way we might run our selves out of breath Gerson hath writ a Tract of purpose De diversis Diaboli Tentationibus Of divers Tentations of the Devil by which he instills his poyson into our hearts Many he hath numbred-up to our hands and he might have brought us twice as many more We shall make choice of those which most commonly abuse us because they are less observable For what the Orator speaks of Tempests may be truly said of the Devils Tentations Saepe certo aliquo coeli signo saepe ex improviso nulla ex certâ ratione obscurâ aliquâ causâ commoventur Sometimes we have some certain indications of them from certain signs in the heavens sometimes they are raised on a sudden from some obscure and hidden cause nor can we give any reason of them So some tentations are gross and palpable some more secret and invisible But as the Magicians when they saw the Lice presently cryed out This is the finger of God so when we see the effects of Exod. 8. 19. these Tentations that swarm of sins which they produce we cannot be so blind as not to discover and confess that the finger or rather the claw of the Devil is in them For let him put-on what shape he please let him begin how he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene he alwayes ends in evil Two evils he strives to sow in the heart of Man Error and Sin and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil calls him that great and invisible Sophister of the world he makes use of those means to bring them in which are in their own nature preservatives against them turneth our antidote into poyson and our very light into darkness and so cunningly leads us on in the way to destruction as withal to perswade us that we are making haste to meet with Truth and Happiness Nor can we think that this proceeds meerly from the corruption of our nature or from some predominant humor in us which may sway and bow us down from the check and command of Reason For to a reasonable man it is a kind of tentation not to believe that any should be forc't thus far from themselves as to forget their Reason But admiscet se malitiae Angelus totius erroris artifex that evil and malitious Angel that forger of all error joyns and mingleth himself with our temper and inclination Fallitur fallit depravatus errorem pravitatis infundit His Pride deceived him and his Malice makes him the father of lyes and so he transforms himself into an Angel of light to make us like unto himself the children of darkness and error St. Paul calls these his tentations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which St. Ambrose interprets ASTUTIAS deceits Sedulius VERSUTIAS wiles and shiftings Tertullian INJECTIONES injections or casting of snares and Erasmus COGITATIONES crafty thoughts by which he pretends one thing and intends another as we commonly say of a subtile and deceitful man that he is full of thoughts thinking to please and thinking to hurt and studying so to please that he may hurt You may take St. Pauls instance 2 Cor. 2. where the Corinthians to uphold the severity of their Discipline had almost forgot their Christianity Charity and Compassion and to defend one good duty had endangered another and were so severe to the incestuous excommunicate person that they had almost swallowed him up the Apostle tells them that if they thus proceeded Satan would gain an advantage over them For most plain it was that this was one of his devices Tertullian will tell us Invenit quomodo nos boni sectationibus perdat nihil apud eum refert alios luxuriâ alios continentiâ occidere The Devil knows how to throw us on the ground even in our hottest pursuit of that which is good He destroys some with luxury and wantonness others with continence some with too much remissness and flackness in discipline others with too much severity And when we follow close and run after one virtue he so works it many times that we leave another behind us as saving and necessary as that Thus doth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come about us hunt and search-out the occasions and opportunities to draw us to evil from goodness it self Omnia obumbrat lenociniis He shadows over evil with some colourable good When he sells his wares and commodities he doth not disclose what vice and imperfection they have he doth not proclaim as there was a law in Rome Pestilentem domum vendo I sell an infectious house He doth not let us know that this our Thrift is Covetousness this our irregular Zeal Madness this our Assurance Presumption but with the beauty of the one covers over the deformity of the other and makes Thrift a provocation to covetousness Zeal an abettor and patron of faction and our duty to make our election sure a kind of motive and inducement to perswade us it is so And this his art and method is observable both in the errors of our Understanding and in those of our Will both in our Doctrine and Conversation And first what monstrous errors have been embraced in the Christian Church what ground have they got how many ages have they passed as current coin which if you look nearer upon them have no other image nor superscription but his who is the Father of lyes who is well skill'd veritatem veritate concutere to shake and abolish one truth with another I will not urge the proposing doubtful things as certain and building up those opinions for articles of Faith which have no basis or foundation in Scripture I will not speak of adding to the rule either by way of gloss or supply I will not complain with the Father Latè quaeruntur incarta latius disputantur obscura that those things
must both smart together I went-out by thy Ears and Eyes and Hands and wandred abroad after forbidden objects and now being returned home I find my self naked It is evident then that the Senses of the Body are the Windows of the Soul and that through them Tentations make their entrance into the inward man Why do men disbelieve and impugn the word of God but because they measure Divine things by humane Sense and Experience Thus did Mahometism get a side presently and overflow the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of Lusts and such promises as flattered the Sense to blindfold the Reason that it might not see its absurdities For the Turk destitute of truth and so not able to judge aright of Gods favours in this life casting an eye on the worldly miseries of Christians and puffed-up with his own victories condemneth the faith of Christ as displeasing to God because by reason of afflictions it is so unto the Flesh and preferreth and magnifieth his own for no other reason but that it is more attempered to the Sense and answerable to the desires of the Flesh The Atheist who hath no Religion at all no God but his own right hand and his arm no Deity but Policy is carried with the same respects to deny and despise the Providence of God For being earthly minded and even buried alive in the contemplation of the things of this world and seeing the wicked flourish as a green bay-tree and Innocence clothed with shame brought to the stake and the rack concludeth there is no God and derides his Patience and Justice because his Providence waiteth not upon his desires governs not the world as he would have it and is wanting sometime to his expectation Nay beloved how many are there of us who draw-out our Religion by this model and if Religion will not condescend and meet with our sensual Desires draw them up and mix and temper them with our Religion and if we do not find Religion fit to our humor we make one Christianity of it self is a severe and simple Religion and doth so little favour our fleshly part that it commands us to mortifie and kill it and yet how by degrees hath it been brought to joyn and conform it self to our Sense which lets-in those tentations which are the very seed out of which many monstrous errors are ingendred Of a severe Religion we have made it a sportful Religion an easie Religion a gaudy and pompous Religion of a doing active Religion a heavy Religion of a bountiful Religion we have made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap and thriving Religion For from our Senses and fleshly desires have those corruptions and mixtures crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to them Ambition hath brought-in her addition or defalcation and Covetousness hers and Wantonness hers and the Love of pleasures hath cast-in her poyson and all these have left their very mark and character in the doctrines of men Nor can I attribute it to any thing more than to this that we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take our Senses from the world and sanctifie and consecrate them to God One would think indeed that Ambition and Covetousness and Sensuality were of a quite contrary strain and not competible with those more speculative errors For what can the Love of money or honor do to the stating of a question in Divinity But by the art and craft of the Devil these have been made tentations to error have been as the Popes claim runs infallible far more potent with us than an oecumenical Councel For these tentations of the World and the Flesh first strike the Sense with delight which by the help of the Phansie doth soon enflame the Affections and the Affections will soon build-up an opinion The Love of honor makes the Judgment follow it to that height and pitch which it hath markt-out My Love of money will gloss that Blessing which our Saviour hath annext to Poverty of spirit My Factions humor will strike at the very life and heart of Religion in the name of Religion and God himself and destroy Christianity for excessive love of Christ Every humor will venture upon any falshood which is like it There is nothing within the compass of our Sensual appetites which we are not ready to embrace and believe it to be true because we wish it so being advantageous and conducible to the end which we have proposed and set-up to our selves When Christians did revocare mentem à sensibus take and withdraw their Hand from those objects which were busie with the Sense when they were within themselves and framed their lives to the simplicity and plainness of the Gospel there was scarce the name of Heretick heard amongst them no contentions no exsecrations no thundring-out excommunications against one another But within a while this simplicity abated and the doctrine of Faith was made to give attendance on sensual humours that did pollute it Therefore the Heathen to make the Christians let go their hold and fall off from the acknowledgment of the truth did use the Devils method and laid before them temporal contentments and the sweetness of life Their common forms were CONSULE TIBI MISERERE TUI Have a care of your self Pity your self NOLI ANIMAM TUAM PERDERE Destroy not your own life They made large promises of honours riches and preferment And these Tertullian calls devillish suggestions But when they could not thus prevail when these shining and glorious tentations could not shake or move them then Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis larina Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors then torments were threatned the Hook and the Whip and the last of punishments Death it self And as Tentations inter ento the soul by the Senses so they look-out by the Eye Facies intentionum omnium speculum saith Tertullian The face is the glass wherein you may see the very intentions of the mind Anger Sorrow Joy Fear and Shame which are the affections of the heart appear in the countenance Why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance Gen. 4. 6. fallen saith God to Cain When Esau was well pleased with Jacob Jacob tells him I have seen thy face as the face of God Habitus mentis in corporis Gen. 33. 10. statu cernitur saith St. Ambrose You may view the state of the soul in the outward man and see how she changes and alters by those outward motions and impressions which she makes in the body When the Soul of man liketh the object and apprehendeth it under the shew of good she kindleth and moveth her self to attain her desire and withal incenseth the spirits which warm the bloud enlarge the heart and diffuse themselves to embrace that good which is either in the approach or present And when she seeth evil which she cannot decline she staggereth and sinketh for fear which
quencheth the spirits cooleth the bloud closeth and contracteth the heart At one object it leapeth for joy at another is cold and dead Thus by these gates of Sin as Gregory calls them do those Tentations enter which will soon overthrow the state and peace of the mind Aâ—dâ—â—it auris intentionem inflexit c. saith St. Ambrose He did but hearken and lost a good intention he did but look and his mind was overthrown but smell and his thought perisht but taste the lip of the harlot and he devoured a sin but touch and he was all on fire Now as Tentations work by the Sensitive part upon the Rational so in the last place they have a diverse operation according to mens several Constitutions and Complexions In some they soon prevail in others by degrees and in some not at all For every man is not equally inclined to every sin This stayeth the eye of one which another will not look on And this our own uncharitable censures of each other may teach us For â—e see that this man blesseth himself and wonders how such a one could commit such a sin and the other wondreth no less that he or any one else should commit the contrary Therefore the Devil who knows how we 〈◊〉 elemented and composed hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Macarius di 〈…〉 s inventions divers back-doors by which he may slip and return at pleasure and if his first bait be distastful come again and present another which will fit our taste and palate He applyeth himself to every mans humor and complexion Omnium discutit consuetudinem ventilat curas scrutatur affectus saith Leo He examines every mans customary behaviour he marks where we place our care and solicitude he searcheth our affections and observeth our constitution and enters with such forces as we are not willing to withstand with a Sword which a Cholerick person will snatch at with Beauty which the Wanton at first sight will fall down and adore with Honour which the Ambitious will fly to with Riches which the Covetous will dig for He knows whom to inflame with lust whom to incite to luxury whom to pour the poyson of envy into whom to cast down with sorrow whom to deceive with joy whom to amaze with fear whom to seduce with admiration And he so fits his temptations that something about us something within us our very natural temper and constitution may quicken and promote the activity of those tentations which may destroy us Again that we may conclude as their operation is either farthered or slacked by the several tempers and complexions of men so is it by many outward circumstances of Time at one time a birth-right for a mess of pottage at another not receive a drove of cattle but say I have enough my Brother Of Place Not look upon that bait in publick which I will devour in my closet be very attentive at Church and as busie a knave in my shop And lastly of humane Laws which are many times more powerful against Sin then the Laws of the Eternal God whence it comes to pass that we resist temptations to the greatest sins as Murder Adultery and the rest of those which are the grosser and of the highest nature because they are hung round with curses and the Magistrate stands by and if we yield he lays the whip upon our backs or draws his sword and destroys us but those lesser sins secret and speculative sins Wanton thoughts Idle words and the like we scarce take notice of because there is no penal statute to repress them And we are ready to say of every such sin as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live For as Tentations work by the Sense so are we led by it We fear that Power which is seen more than that Omnipotency which is invisible we fear Man more than God and the shaking of his whip more than the scorpions of a Deity and therefore we fly greater sins and run into less prevail against the Anakim and are beat with a grashopper For though Tentations make their entrance by pleasing and flattering the Sense and being admitted are polished and decked-up with glory and so presented to the nobler faculties though this be their natural operation and common way of working yet they work differently and unequally according to that variety which is observable in the tempers and constitutions of men and by outward circumstances of Time and Place or the like are either hindered or advanced in their operation And this may suffice to discover the Manner how Tentations work upon the Soul I should now proceed and enquire when Tentations prevail with us and overcome us But having upon another Text Matth. xxiv 42. handled this point at large and shewn that though the Sense and Phansie receive the object which is the tentation and that with some delight yet it may be without sin yea though our natural temper incline to it and raise in us some kind of desire yet if we stand upon our guard and watch and keep it within the limits that God hath set us we shall be so far from sinning that our obedience will be the greater these things having been there fully treated of I will now pass-over Only this I add That there may be yet more than an Inclination There may be a kind of Desire a sudden motion of the mind which may at unawares strike through the heart of man but yet not so entangle it as to procure the assent of the Will may but shew it self and vanish like lighning may be extinguisht in the very flash Now that this is not truly and properly a sin we may gather from the very nature of Sin to the committing of which these two things concur 1. an Assent of the Will 2. a Power in man to avoid it **** We think of it to hate it and by thinking love it We must therefore give them no line but curb and restrain them at the first not only shun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks the causes and beginnings which may produce it chase away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justine Martyr speaks the first smoke the first inclination of our sensual appetite and when tentations offer and present themselves not revile and embrace them say we would and we would not but to give them a peremptory denyal by our serious distast of them and that detestation which may take these brats of Satan and dash them against the rock Nemo sic negantem iterum rogat When we have given them such a denyal a denyal with anger and indignation they will keep a distance and not suddenly come so near as to solicite us to sin But if we first give them admittance and then take pleasure in them it is a sign we will make them our friends and companions nay it is a sign that we have made them our