base condescendency for what error yet hath shewn so foul a face as not to finde a patron If we consider what mountebanks we have in Divinity as well as in Physick who seek not men but theirs and not to cure their souls but their own poverty we shall find reason enough to be jealous that there hath been a kinde of conspiracy made to meet and satisfie this so inordinate and pernitious desire and to betray the of truth of Christ to this soul and loathsome humor We must enquire then what it is to please men and from whence it proceeds that men who naturally love to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to to be eminent above their Brethren can work themselves to this Basenesse as to fall down and lick the dust of their feet and help them to destroy themselves to the Ruine of Both for both he that makes the Musick and he that heares it fall together into the same Hell to howl forever And first we must not Imagine That Saint Paul doth bring in here a Cynicall Morosity or a Nabal-like Churlishness That none may speake to us and we speake nothing but swords Psal 59.6 That we should make a noise like a Dogge and so goe round about the City That we should be as Thornes in ou Brethrens sides ever pricking and gauling them That we should as Appius in Livy accusatoriam vitam ducere breath nothing but rayling accusations nothing but what may strike them with feare or cast them down with sorrow or raise their anger and Indignation No Saint Paul was now no such rigid and morose Disciplinarian for now he is an Apostle and not a Persecuter Manè lupus rapax Benjamin ad vesperam dividit escam Hieron ad Heliodorum Epitaph Nepotiani Ananiae ovi submittens caput He was as Benjamin of whose tribe he was a Ravening Wolfe but now he bows down his head to Ananias who was a sheep and of the flock of Christ and breaths nothing but meekness There is not a more pleasing more Tractable more plyable Creature in the world then a Christian If his Brother persecutes him he is his Beadsman and prayes for him if he injure him he is his Priest and absolves him if he erre he is his Angel to keep him in all his wayes and bring him back if he mourn he puts on Sackcloath and if he Rejoyce He is one at the Feast He appears not to him in any shape that may disquiet or trouble him but as Esau did to Jacob Gen. 33.10 That he may see his face as if he saw the face of God himself Read the 10. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians the last verse Even I saith Saint Paul please all men in all things not seeking my own profit out the profit of many That they may be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I please them the same word which is in the Text and in the Ninth Chapter of the same Epistle at the 22 Verse I am made all things to all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am made I even frame and Fashion and force my self to it Though I am free I make my self a servant at the 19. Vers I undergoe all the Humility the Drudgery the hardship of a servant To the Jew I become a Jew that I might gaine the Jew and you have an example of it Acts 21. verse 23 24 25. To those that are under the Law as under the Law to the Gentiles who were not bound to Mases Law as a Centile to them that were without Law as without Law as we find Acts 17.22 a Christian Proteus that wrought himself into any shape which might bring advantage to them who beheld him was a Jew to the Jew to make him a Christian to them that were without Law as without Law to confirm them in the Truth of the Gospel to them that were weak as weak to make them strong as all Things to all men not to fill his purse but to gaine their soules to cut off Circumcision by permitting Circumcision to converse with the Gentile and passing by to throw down their Altar by the Inscription and by the unknowne bring them to the knowledge of the living God by being without the Law bring the Gentile to the grace of the Gospel and thus Cedendo vincere by seeming to yeeld to overcome And this is not the pleasing of a parasite but of an Apostle and carefull Father even that Discretion and Wisedome which Quintilian commends in a School-master whose Duty it is non statim onerare infirmit atem discentium Quint. l. 1. Inst. c. 3. sed temperare vires not presently to over burden the weak capacitie of Noviers but to Temper and moderate his own strength and consider not what he can teach but what they can learne with Jacob to lead his Flock on softly lest they Die Besides The Act it self was not unlawfull because the Synagogue was indeed Dead but not yet buried but to be buried with Honor and it was Judaeis factus tanquam it was onely amongst the Jews for what himself did amongst the Jews at Jerusalem he reproves Saint Peter for doing it amongst the Gentiles at Antioch Gal. 2.11,14 Nihil Paulo indignum quod efficit Deo credere saith Hilary That which brings a Jew or Gentile to Christ may well become Saint Paul an Apostle of Christ when we so please men that we please God also we cannot please them enough But when the Case is otherwise when the Truth and Honor of God were in hazard then Saint Paul is in a manner Saul againe and breaths forth threatnings and slaughter He strikes Elymas the Sorcerer Blind Delivers up the Incestnous Corinthian to Satan 1 Cor. 4.21 and when they were puffed up was ready with his Goad to let out the wind comes toward them in that Imperious straine What will ye shall I come unto you with a rod which I am sure are not pleasing words sed quae cum ictu quodam andiuntur but such as are Heard with a kind of smart and leave an impression behind them for quam exerta acies macherae spiritualis as Tertullian speaks hownaked and keene is the edge of his Reprehension In faciem impingit he strikes them on the face in os caedit he beats them on the mouth jam vero singulari stylo figit and sometimes points them out as a mark and darts his Reprehension and strikes it in them what then would he doe if he lived now and saw what we see Thus you see Both these are true we may please men and we may not please them Ex Deo magia quam in con tumeliam Dei hominibus placendum Hil. in Psal 52. we must please them and we must not please men if we will be the servants of Christ For if you please you may conceive that Relation betwixt God and Man which is betwixt our Reason and our sense Now sinne may seem to be nothing
an eye of mercy There is an eye that looks right on Proverb 4.25 and there is a bountifull eye Prov. 22.9 and if you shut but one of them you are in darknesse he that hath an evil eye to strip his brother can never see to clothe him he whose feet are swift to shed blood will be but a cripple when he is called to the house of mourning and if his bowels be shut up his hand will be soon stretcht out to beat his fellow-servants Ps 147.1 It becometh the just to be thankfull In their mouth praise is comely it is a song 't is musick and it becometh the Just to be mercifull and liberall out of their heart mercy flows kindly streames forth like the River out of Eden to water the dry places of the earth there you shall find gold and good gold Bdellium and the Oynx stone all that is precious in the sight of God and man But the heart of an unjust man is as a rock on which you may strike and strike again but no water will flow out but instead thereof gall and worm-wood blood and fire and the vapour of smoke Ioel 2.30 Prov. 12.10 The tender mercies the bowels of the wicked are cruel their kisses are wounds their favours reproches their Indulgences Anathema's their bread is full of gravell and their water tainted with blood If their craft or power take all and their seeming mercy their hypocrisie put back a part that part is nothing or but trouble and vexation of spirit Thus do these two branches grow and flourish and bring forth fruit and thus do they wither and dye together And here we have a faire and a full vintage for indeed mercy is as the vine which yeeldeth wine to cheere the hearts of men hath nothing of the Bramble nothing of the fire nothing that can devour it yeeldeth much fruit but we cannot stand to gather all I might spread before you the rich mantle of mercy and display each particular beauty and glory of it but it will suffice to set it up as the object of our Love for as Misery is the object of our Mercy so is Mercy the object of our Love And we may observe it is not here to doe mercifully as before to doe justly and yet if we love not Justice we cannot doe it but in expresse termes the Lord requires that we love mercy that is that we put it on weare it as a robe of Glory delight in it make it as God doth make it his our chiefest attribute to exalt and superexaltate to make it triumph over Justice it self For Justice and Honesty gives every man his owne but Mercy opens those Treasuries which Justice might lock up and takes from us that which is legally ours makes others gatherers with us partakers of our basket and brings them under our own vine and fig-tree Et haec est victoria this is the victory and triumph of Mercy Let us then draw the lines by which we are to passe and we shall first shew you Mercy in the fruit it yeelds secondly in its root First in its proper act or motion casting bread upon the waters and raising the poore out of the dust Secondly in the forme which produceth this act or the principle of this motion which is the habit the affection the love of mercy for so we are commanded not onely to shew forth our mercy but to love it for what doth the Lord require but to love mercy c. We begin with the first and the proper act of mercy is to flow to spend it self and yet not be spent to relieve our brethren in misery and in all the degrees that lead to it necessities impotencies distresses dangers defects This is it which the Lord requires And howsoever flesh and blood may be ready to perswade us that we are left at large to our own wills and may do what we will with our own yet if we consult with the Oracle of God we shall find that these reciprocall offices of mercy which passe between man and man are a debt That we are bound as much to do good to others as not to injure them to supply their wants as not to rob them to reach forth a hand to help them as not to smite them with the fist of wickednesse and though my hundred measures of wheat be my own and I may demand them yet there is a voice from heaven and from the mercy-seat which bids me take the bill and sit down quickly and write fifty Do we shut up our bowels and our hands together Behold Habemus legem we have a Law and the first and greatest Law the Law of Charity to open them 'T is true what we gain by the sweat of our brows what Honesty and Industry or the Law hath sealed unto us is ours ex asse wholly and entirely ours nor can any Hand but that of Violence divide it from us but yet Habemus legem we have a Law another Law which doth not take from us the propriety of our Goods but yet binds us to dispense and distribute them In the same Court-roll of Heaven we are made both Proprietaries Stewards The Law of God as well as of Man is Evidence for us that our possessions are ours but it is Evidence against us if we use them not to that end for which God made them ours They are ours to have and to hold nor can any Law of man divorce them from us or question us For what Action can be drawn against want of mercy who was ever yet impleaded for not giving an Almes at his doore what bar can you bring the Miser to who ever was arraigned for doing no good but yet in the Law of God and in the Gospel of Christ which is a Law of Grace we find an action drawn de non vestiendis nudis for not clothing the Naked not feeding the Hungry not visiting the Sick I saith Nazianzen could peradventure be willing That Mercy and Bounty were not Necessary but arbitrary not under a Law but presented by way of Counsel and advice for the flesh is weak and would go to Heaven with as little cost and trouble as may be but then the mention of the Left hand and the right of the Goates of the torments they shall be thrown into not who have invaded other mens goods but who have not given theirs not who have beat down but who have not supported these Temples of the Holy Ghost this is that which strikes a terrour through me and makes me think and resolve That I am as much bound to do acts of mercy as I am not to do an injury as much bound to feed the poore man as I am not to oppresse and murder him To shew mercy to others is not an Evangelicall Counsel it is a Law And therefore as Homer tells us when he speaks of rivers or birds That men did not call them by their proper names for the Gods had
the barking of a dog may be to a bird though on the wing and out of reach I should not certainly have thus put my self upon my Country nor ventured my triall there where the judges may be of severall minds and diversely biassed and yet meet at the same mark and joyne in the same sentence of condemnation which I will not say envy for what matter can my low fortunes or these sorry papers yield for that humour to gnaw on but the disesteem of my person the low conceit of my abilities in some the dislike of the matter in others and of the method and manner of handling it in many and ignorance in not a few will soon make up and pronounce against me But I have past over my Rubicon and left it behind me and must now stand censure the shock of all that opposition which can be but breath and words but darts made up of aire pointed peradventure with wit and envenomed with some droppings of malice against which there need no other buckler then this thought that whatsoever I shall appeare yet I am still the same not higher not lower in all the demonstrations and fulnesse either of Praise or Detraction Or this That Censure for the most part is but Pride in its vvantonnesse self-pleasing and not much displeasing any that are wise who may be strong enough to hear without disgust what others are ready to vent with so much delight what Wit suggests to their Passion and what Passion utters by the Tongue And such Readers I may have and too many such some of the same faith and opinion who yet will mislike something others not alike principled who will condemn all To the first I have nothing to say and to these but this That I cannot be of their opinion nor move as they do till more weight of reason be hung on Yet I nothing doubt but to find many more candid and charitable and who will give fairer welcome and entertainment to these Sermons then peradventure they do deserve and peruse them with an eye no more severe and averse then their eare was when they first heard them from my mouth And for satisfaction to these I shall give up this account for my self that they are now publisht to the eye with the same mind and intention which first breathed them forth unto the eare and that was first to work men off from those errors which are so common in the world and have gained honour and kindnesse and reception because they are so secondly to draw up their love and industry to necessary truths that they may not spend and waste them there where they may perhaps satisfie their humour but not fill their soules but fix and tye them to that which is most essentiall which hath the favour of God and happinesse evermore annex unto it and ready to Crown it thirdly to draw up the meanes to the end the duty to the reward by that necessary relation which is betwixt them this being the way and there being no other unto it and this with that plainnesse and evidence laying it open as neer unto the eye as the matter being spirituall would permit and my weake abilities and diligence could bring it In which if I have failed or come short as I must needs do of those who have a more quick and searching eye and a greater art felicity in clothing and uttering their conceptions I must make use of that Apologie of an Apocryphall writer Concedendum est mihi Mach. 2. 15. If I have done slenderly and meanly it is that which I could attain to and I have no other argument but my good will and endeavour to speak for me And first how weakly soever I have carried it on yet I made it my aime and principall intendment to lay all levell before me to remove those practicall errours which are most common and regnant which men walk in as in the waies of righteousnesse and glory in as in the truth it self which grow up in the world like those weeds which run and spread themselves over the surface of the water but have no root even those errours which are the proper issues of lust and idlenesse with which men infect and in which they applaud one another and so move together with content and danger which are improved by custome and at last raised up to the power and dignity of a Law It was well observed by Seneca Cùm error singulorum fecerit publicum errorem singulorum facit publicus the beginning of errours is from private persons but the continuance and life of them is from the multitude who are first dazled with the authority and practice of some few and then take it from one another and hold it up as a ball from hand to hand and the publicknesse of it gaines authority and interchangeably prevailes with private men to receive and embrace it it first steals or begs an entrance and when it is common and publick it reigns From hence are those noxious yet beloved errours of which men are so tender and jealous that if you do but breath against them or but look towards them with an eye which betrayes but the least dislike they presently swell and rage as against an enemy and are never at ease but in his snare who is so Proficit semper contradictio stultorum ad stultitiae demonstrationem saith Hilary the perversnesse and contradiction of weak and wilfull men is violent and impetuous to gain ground and out-run that truth which should stay and moderate it but the greatest progresse it makes in these its easie and pleasant journeys is to make it self more open and manifest like Giges wife who was seen naked of all but herself From hence have those errours crept into the Church which have lessened her number and filled her up not with members but with names from hence it is that God is made more cruell then man and yet more mercifull then he is that men are Saints and yet the Law impossible that the beginnings of obedience are set down for perfection that men are made perfect and yet sin oftner then they obey that our endeavours are performances and our weakest and most feeble thoughts are endeavours that hearing is faith and faith fancy that imputed righteousnesse is all when we have none of our own that we may be reputed good when we are notoriously evil that our election may be sure though we do not make it so and that we must assure our selves when we have more reason to despaire that assurance is a duty and to work it out is none from hence it is that Christian liberty is let loose against Christ himself and the spirit brought in to contradict it self and God to do himself what he doth command that grace is miraculous and irresistible and the will is but a word which signifies nothing or if it do it is that which cannot will All these we find in the books and
Crucified his death for sinne with our Death to it his Resurrection with our Justification For he bore our sins that he might cast them away He shed his blood to melt our Hearts and he dyed that we might live and turn unto the Lord and he rose againe for our Justification and to gaine Authority to the doctrine of Repentance Our convertimini our Turne is the best Commentary on the consummatum est it is Finished for that his last Breath breathed it into the world we may say It is wrapt up in the Inscription Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes for in him even when he hung upon the Crosse were all the Treasuries of Wisdome and Knowledge hid 2 Coloss 3. In him Justice and Mercy are at Peace for to reconcile us unto God he reconciled them one to another The hand of Mercy was lifted up ready to seale our Pardon we were in our Blood and her voice was Live we were miserable and she was ready to relieve us our heart was sick and her bowells yearn'd but then Justice held up the Sword ready to latch in our sides God loves his Creature whom he made but hates the sinner whom he could not make and he must and yet is unwilling to strike If Justice had prevail'd Mercy had been but as the morning Dew and soon vaâ—…sh'd before this raging heat and if Mercy had swallowed up Justice in victory his hatred of sinne and fearfull menaces against it had been but bruta fulmina and had portended nothing Deus purgari homines à peccato maxime cupit ideoque agere poenitentiam jubet Lact. l. 6. c. 24. had been void and of no effect If he had been extreme to marke what is done amisse men had sinned more and more because there could be no hope of Pardon and if his Mercy had seal'd an absolute Pardon men would have walked delicately and sported in their Evill wayes because there could be no feare of punishment And therefore his wisedome drew them together and reconciled them both in Christs propitiatory Sacrifice and our Duty of Repentance the one freeing us from the Guilt the other from the Dominion of sinne and so both are satisfy'd Justice layes downe the sword and Mercy shines in perfection of Beauty God hates sinne but he sees it condemned in the flesh of his Sonne and fought against by every member he hath sees it punisht in him and sees it every day punisht in every repentant sinner that Turnes from his evill wayes beholds the Sacrifice on the Cross and beholds the Sacrifice of a broken Heart and for the sweet savour of the one accepts the other and is at rest his death for sinne procures our Pardon and our death to sinne sues it out Christ suffers for sinne we turne from it his satisfaction at once wipes out the guilt and penalty our Repentance by degrees Tert. de anima c. 1. destroyes sinne it self Haec est sapientia de scholâ caeli This is the method of Heaven this is that Wisedome which is from above Thus it takes away the sinnes of the world And now wisedome is compleat Justice is satisfyed and Mercy triumphs God is glorified man is saved and the Angels rejoyce Tert de poenit c. 8. Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur saith Tert. Take comfort sinnner thou seest what joy there is in heaven for thy returne what musick there is in a Turne which begins on earth but reaches up and fills the highest Heavens A repentant sinner is as a glass or rather Gods own renewed Image on which God delights to look for there he beholds his wisedome his Justice his mercy and what wonders they have wrought Behold the shepherd of our souls see what lies upon his shoulders you would think a poor Sheep that was lost nay but he leads sinne and Death and the Devill in Triumph and thou mayst see the very brightnesse of his Glory the fairest and most expresse Image of these Three his most glorious Attributes which are not onely visible but speake unto us to follow this heavenly Method His wisedome instructs us his Iustice calls upon us and Mercy Eloquent mercy bespeaks us a whole Trinity of Attributes are instant and urgent with us To Turne à viis malis from our evill wayes And this is the Authority I may say the Majesty of Repentance for it hath these Three Gods Wisedome and Iustice and Mercy to seale and ratify it to make it Authentique The 2. part Turn ye Turn ye We come now to the dictum it self and it being Gods and it being Gods we must well weigh and ponder it and we shall find it comprehends the Duty of Repentance in its full latitude For as sin is nothing else but aversio à Creatore and conversio ad creaturam and aversion and Turning from God and an inordinate conversion and application of the soul to the Creature so by our Repentance we doe referre pedem start back and alter our course worke and withdraw our selves a viis malis from evill waies and Turne to the Lord by cleaving to his Lawes which are the minde of the Lord and having our feet enlarged run the way of his Commandements We see a streight line drawne out at length is of all lines the weakest and the further and further you draw it the weaker and weaker it is nor can it be strengthened but by being redoubled and bow'd and brought back againe towards its first point Eccles 7.20 The Wise man will tell us That God at first made man upright that is simple and single and syncere bound him as it were to one point but he sought out many Inventions mingled himself and Ingendered with Divers extravagant Conceits and so ran out not in one but many lines now drawne out to that object now to another still running further and further sometimes on the flesh and sometimes on the world now on Idolatry and anon on Oppression and so at a sad Distance from him in whom he should have dwelt and rested as in his Center and therefore God seeing him gone so farr seeing him weak and feeble wound and Turned about by the Activity of the Devill and sway of the Flesh and not willing to loose him ordained Repentance as a remedy as the Instrument to bend and bow him back again that he might recover and gain strength and subsistencie in his former and proper place to draw him back from those Objects in which he was lost and so carry him on forward to the Rock out of which he was hewed whilst he is yet in viis malis in his evill wayes all is out of Tune and Order for the Devil who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. de poenitent invert the order of things placeth shame upon repentance and boldness and senlessness upon sinne but Repentance is a perfect Methodist upon our Turne we see the danger we plaid
their name calls them by one quite contrary Immundissimos the impurest men of all the world pietatis paternae aversarios Nazianz. or 14. the Enemies of Gods mercy and goodnesse and Nazianzen tells them their Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. and uncleannesse which had nothing but the name of Purity which they made saith he a bait to catch and cajol the ignorant and unwary multitude who are taken more with the Trumpet of a Pharisee then with his almes and are fed with shewes and pretenses as they say Camelions are with air For as Basil and Nazianzen observe this severe Doctrine of these proud and covetous men did drive the offending Brethren into despair and despair did plunge them deeper in sin left them wallowing in the mire in their blood and pollution being held down by a false opinion that no hand could draw them out and that pardon was impossible whereas a Convertimini the Doctrine of Repentance might have raised them from the ground drawn them out of their blood and failth strengthned their feeble knees and hands hat hang down put courage and and life into them to turn from that evil which had cast them down and stand up to see and meet the Salvation of the Lord. And this is the proper and Natural effect of mercy to give sight to the blinde that they may see to binde up a broken limb that it may move and to raise us from the dead that we may walk to make us good who were evil For this is shines in brightnesse upon us every day not onely to enlighten them who sit in darknesse but many times the children of light themselves who though they sit not in darknesse yet may be under a cloud raise up and setled in the brain not from a corrupt but a tender and humble Heart For we cannot think that every man that sayes he despairs is cast away and lost or that our erroneous Judgement of our state and condition shall be the rule by which God will proceed against us and Judge us at the last day that when we have set our hearts to serve him and have been serious in all our wayes when we have made good the condition i. e. our part of the Covenant as far as the Covenant of Grace and the equity and gentlenesse of the Gospel doth exact it he will refuse to make good his part because we cannot think well of our selves and though we have done what is required perswade our selves that we are fallen so short in the performance of our duty that we shall never reach to the end in a word that he will forbear to pronounce the Euge well done because we are afraid and tremble at all our works or put us by and reject us after all the labour of our charity for a melancholly fit or condemn the soul for the distemper of the body or some perturbation of the minde which he had not strength enough to withstand though he were strong in the Lord and in the power of his spirit did cheerfully run the wayes of his Commandements It were a great want of Charity thus to Judge of those whose troublesome and most afflicting errour was conceived and formed in the very bowels of charity For sometimes it proceeds from the distemper of the body from some indisposition of the brain and if we have formerly and do yet strive to do him service he is not so hard and austere a Master as to punish us for being sick Sometimes it arises from some defect in the judicative faculty through which as we make more Laws to our selves and so more sins then there are so we are as ready to passe sentence against our selves not onely for the breach of those Laws which none could binde us to but our selves but even of those also which we were so careful to keep for as we see some men so strong or rather so stupid that they think they do nothing amisse so there be others but not many so weak or rather so scrupulous that they cannot perswade themselves that they ever did any thing well This is an infirmity and disease but it is not Epidemical The first are a great multitude which 't is hard to number quocunque sub axe they are in every Climate and in every place but most often in the Courts of Princes and the habitations of the Rich who can do evil but will not see it who can make the loud condemnation of a fact and the bold doing it the businesse of one and the same hour almost of one and the same moment The other are not many for they are a part of that little Flock and the good Shepherd will not drive them out of the fold for the weak conceit they had that they had gone too far astray For errour is then most dangerous and fatal when we do that which is evil not when we shun and fly from it as from the plague and yet cannot beleeve we are removed far enough from the infection of it And therefore again it may have its Original not onely from the Acrasie and discomposedness of the outward-man or the weaknesse in Judgement or that ignorance of their present estate which may happen to good men even to those who have made some fair proficiency in the School of Christ and to which we are very subject amidst that variety of circumstances that perplexity and multiplicity of thoughts which rise and sink and return again and strangle one another to bring in others in their place but it may be brought in by our very care and diligence and an intensive love For care and diligence and love are alwayes followed with fears and jealousies love is ever a beginning till all be done and is but setting out till she be at her journeyes end The liberal man is afraid of his Almes and the Temperate mistrusts his abstinence the meek man is jealous of every heat pietas etiam tuta pertimescit piety is afraid even of safety it self because it is piety and cannot be safe enough And if it be a fault thus to undervalue himself it is a fault of a fair extraction begotten not by blood or the will of men not by negligence and wilfulnesse and the pollutions of the flesh but of care and anxiety and an unsatisfied love which will sometimes demur and be at a stand in the greatest Certainty so that though the lines be fallen to him in a faire place and he have a Goodly Heritage a well setled spiritual Estate yet he may sometimes look upon it as Bankrupts doe upon their temporall worne out Debts and Statutes and Mortgages and next to nothing Every man hath not a place and mansion in Heaven that pretends a Title to it nor is every man shut out that doubts of his evidence This diffidence in our selves is commonly the mark and Character of a Good man who would be better and though he hath
excludes all stoicall fate all necessity of sinning or dying there is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or binde us over to death so that if we die it is in our volo in our will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason quia volumus because we will die We have now brought you to the very Cell and Den of death where this monster was framed and fashioned where 't was first conceived brought forth and nurst up I have discovered to you the Original and beginnings of sin whose natural issue is death and shut it up in one word the will that which hath so troubled and amuzed men in all the ages of the Church to finde out That which some have sought in Heaven in the bosom of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked Hell and made the devil the Author of it who is but a perswader a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the fancy alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to binde men much lesse the Gods themselves as 't is said what many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to finde out opening the windows of Heaven to finde it there running to and fro about the universe to finde it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own Breasts in our own heart the will the womb that conceives this Monster this Viper which eats through it and Destroyes the Mother in the Birth For that which is the beginning of Action is the beginning of sinne and that which is the beginning of sinne is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit Hilar. in Ps 118. saith Hilary there is nothing in man Nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death and In homine quic-quid est sibi nocet there is nothing in man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and Instrument of sinne That which hurts him may help him That which Circumspection and Diligence may make an Antidote neglect and Carelesness may Turn into Poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil as goodness so sinne is the work of our will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither Good nor Evill I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse saith GOD by his Servant Moses I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and cursing Deut. 30.19 and what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own Hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sinne Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weake Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of Dying For the Qeustion or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law why are you weake or why are you Dead for Reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisedome of God will stand up to defend them but the Question is Why Will ye die for which there can bee no other Reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will for upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a Temple of the Lord or into that Tower of Babel and Confusion which God will Destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our Folly and madness so full of Contradictions is a wilfull sinner that though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of Death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion Tert. Apol. c. 1. That he was ever willing to Die nolumus nostrum quia malum Agnoscimus we will not call sinne ours because we know it Evill and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself 'T is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is Comfort sounds every where but we are deafe and cannot heare it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fetter'd and can make no use of it There is Balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our naturall weakness of our want of Grace and Assistance when we might know the Danger we are in we plead Ignorance when we willingly yeeld our Members servants to sinne we have learnt to say we did not doe it plenâ voluntate with a full Consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the faire Glosse of a good Intention and meaning we complaine of our Bodies and of our Souls as if the Wisedome of God had fail'd in our Creation we would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we might be good we will be evill And these Webbs a sick and unsanctify'd Fancy will soon spin out These are Receipts and Antidotes of our own Tempering devis'd and made use of against the Gnawings of Conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience begins to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and to put it to silence wee carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostoms time bound the coines of Alexander the Great or some part of Saint Johns Gospel to ease them of the Headach for by these Receits and spells we more envenom our souls and draw neerer to Death by Thinking to fly from it and are ten-fold more the Servants of Satan because we are willing to doe him service but not willing to weare his Livery and thus excusando exprobramus our Apologies defame us our false Comforts destroy us and wee condemn our selves with an Excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to passe we will take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from these First from our Naturall weakness Secondly from the Deficiency of Grace for neither can our Naturall weakness Betray nor can there be such a want of Grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much Power as to force the will and so there will be no Necessity of Dying either in respect of our Naturall weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his Grace and then in the second place that neither Ignorance of our duty nor regret or reluctancie of Conscience nor any pretence or good Intention can make sin lesse sinfull or our Death lesse voluntary and so bring Death to their Doores who have sought it out who have called it to them who are Confederate with it and are worthy to bee partakers thereof And Why Will you
it is planted it will shoot forth and grow up and raise it self far above the love of the world above covetousnesse and envy and malice and fraud which first disquiet and rack that breast in which they are and then breath forth that venom which blasts the world and troubles and provokes those which are neere us sometimes gnashing the teeth which eats and consumes us sometimes breathing forth hailestones and coales of fire which fly back in our faces and destroy us sometimes laying of snares in which our selves are caught for envy is the rottennesse of the bones saith Solomon and anger killeth the foolish and the Bread of deceit though it be sweet at first yet it shall fill the mouth with gravell nemo non in seipsum priùs peccat saith Austine no man disturbs the peace of another but he breaks his own first no man repines at his brothers good but he makes it his own evil and his vice is his executioner no man breaths forth malice but it ecchoes back upon him no man goes beyond his brother but hath outstript himself and the Psalmist tells us that evill shall bunt the violent man to destruction But when this plant this peace is deeply rooted in us it spreads its branches abroad over all over all crosse events over all injuries over all errors and miscarriages over envy malice deceit and violence and shadows them that they are not seen or not seen in that horror which may shake it spreads it self over the poore and relieves them over the malicious and melts him over the injurious man and forgives him over the violent man and overcomes him by standing the shock keeps it self to its roote is fixt and fastened there and when this wind blows when this raine falls when all these beat upon it when the tempest is loudest is ever the same is peace still And this is the work of the Gospel the summe of all the end of all that it teacheth to work this quietnesse and peace in us that we may raise it up in others that this peace may beget and propagate it self in those who are enemies to it that the kid may feed with the wolf and the Lamb with the Leopard so long as the moone endureth that there may be no deceit no envy no violence no invasion no going out no complaining in our streets This is the Evangelicall virtue this is peculiar and proper to the Gospel and Christian religion proper in the highest and strictest degree of propriety every good Christian is a peaceable man and every peaceable man is a good Christian Look into your prisons saith Tertullian to persecuting heathens Tert. Apol. and you shall find no Christians there and if you do it is not for murder or theft or cozenage or breach of the peace the cause for which they are bound and confined there is onely this that they are Christians This is that height of Perfection which the vanity of Philosophy and the weaknesse and unprofitablenesse of the law could not reach nor could the Jews bring any thing ex horreis suis out of his granary his store or basket or the philosopher è narthecio suo out of his box of oyntments out of his book of prescripts which could supple a soule to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this tranquillity and quietnesse which might purge and sublime and lift it up above the world and all the flattery and terror that is in it humane reason was too weake to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it nor was it seen in its full beauty till that light came into the world which did improve and exalt and perfect our reason the Philosophers cryed down anger yet gave way to revenge laid an imputation upon the one yet gave line and liberty to the other both Tully and Aristotle approve it as an act of Justice The language of the law was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth It was said to them of old you shall love your neighbour Math. 6. and hate your enemy but the return of the Gospel is a blessing for a curse love for hatred a prayer for persecution whatsoever the Law required that doth the Gospel require and much more an humility more bending a patience more constant a meeknesse more suffering a quietnesse more setled because those heavenly promises which the Philosopher never heard of were more and more cleerly proposed in the Gospel then under the Law for is not eternity of blisse a stronger motive then the basket or glory or temporall enjoyments is not heaven more attractive then the earth under the Law this peace and quietnesse was but a promise a blessing in expectation and in the Schooles of Philosophers it was but a fancy the peace and quietnesse they had was raised out of weak and failing principles de industria consultae aequanimitatis non de Fiducia compertae veritatis saith Tertullian Tertull. de Animax 1. out of an industrious affected endurance of every evill that it might not be worse out of a politick resolution to defeat the evill of its smart but not out of conscience or assurance of that truth which brought light and immortality to settle the mind to collect and gather it within it self in the midst of all those provocations and allurements which might shew themselves to divide and distract it but remaine it self untoucht unmoved looking forward through all these vanishing shadows and apparitions which either smile or threaten to that glory which cannot be done away This Christianity only can effect this was the businesse of the prince of peace who came into the world but not with drumme and colours but with a rattle rather not with noise Tertull. cont Judaeus but like rain into the mowen grasse not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Caesar or Alexander but as an Angel and Embassadour of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee and with no sword but that of the spirit who made good that prophesie of the Prophet Micah that swords should be turned into plow-shares and speares into pruning hookes Micah 4.3 that all the bitternesse and malice of the heart should be turned into the love and study of modesty and peace that every man should sit under his own vine and under his own figtree and gather his own fruit and not reach out his hand into another mans vineyard not offer violence nor feare it nor disturb his brothers peace nor be jealous of his own not trouble others nor be afraid himself that the earth might be a temporall paradise a type representation of that which is eternall For this he came into the world and brought power enough with him to performe it and put this power into our hands that we may make it good and when he hath drawn out the method of it when he hath taught us the art to do it when there is nothing wanting but our will the prophesy
giving Laws of requiring what he please from his creature for as there is but one omnipotent God so there is but one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy James 4.12 for the one is the ground and foundation of the other If he made us and not we our selves if he preserve us and nor we our selves then not we our selves but he is to give us Lawes It is here Do ut des and facio ut facias he gives us our being and continuance that we should give him our obedience and subjection he doth this for us that we may do something for him even whatsoever he shall require The Stoicks say well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All duties are measured out by relations Epict. Enchir. c. 28. The care of the Father calls for the Honor of the Sonne the oversight of the master commands the obedience of the servant and the Father and the Master are to the Sonne and Servant as Moses is said to be to Pharaoh Exod. 4.16 instead of God Domestici magistratus saith Seneca Sen. de Benes 3.11 Domestick Lords or Magistrates He is my father if he speak the word 't is done He is my Master Lord if he say Goe I goe The reason of this is plain for Beneficia Compedes All benefits are as fetters are obligations and he that doth me good obligeth me placeth himself as it were in authority over me and giveth me Lawes looks upon me as his Creature which must do whatsoever he requires in a just and equall proportion to what he hath done Accepi beneficium protinus perdidi libertatem I receive a good turn and forthwith lose my liberty my hand is filled and bound at once bound to his service that fills it If he say do this I do it I plead for him I commend him I excuse him I run for him I dy for him because he is my friend If my friend bid me I will set fire on the Capitol saith Blosius in Tully Not onely a Father Tull. de Amicitia a Master a Lord but a Friend every one that obligeth me is a kind of Lawgiver bounds and keeps me in on every side tenders me his Edicts and Lawes by doing something for me gains a power over me In the civill-Civill-Law it is styled Patris Majestas the Majesty of a Father and there is the Majesty of a Master Nique id magis facimus quà m nos monet pietas Plant. Stich. Act. 1. sc 1. and the Majesty of a Friend or Benefactor for* nostrum officium nos facere aequum est There is a kind of Equity Justice that he that buys me with a price should claim some interest in me These are those cords of men to tye us to them and if we break them asunder and cast these bands from us if we will not answer the diligent love of a Friend by doing something which may be required at our hands we are guilty of a foule Ingratitude which is a kind of Civil or Moral Rebellion And therefore God takes up this as an argument against the Rebellious Jews and draws it from that Relation which was founded on his Power and that love which he had shewed to them Mal. 1.6 A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father where is my Honour If I be a Master where is my Feare saith the Lord of Hosts who am not onely your Lord by right of Creation but your Father for my daily care and preservation of you and those many benefits I have laden you withall And You are my friends if you doe what I command you saith Christ Joh. 15.14 If you doe it not you are not my friends but you have broke that relation which might have been eternall So that we see one power follows another as in a chain The power and right of Dominion the power by which we were made and are preserved the power of giving Laws the power that made us capable of a Law He that did these great things for us may require what he please First God creates Man and then gives him a Law puts him to the triall of his Obedience for by the same Act of Power by Creating as he acquired to himself the full right of Dominion so he brought also upon Man the Necessity of Subjection Lord what will thou have me to doe saith Saint Paul when he was struck to the ground Acts 9. verbum breve Rern de converse Paul Ser. 7. sed vivum sed efficax saith Bernard a short speech but full and lively and operative even an acknowledgment of that power of God which is mighty in operation by which power he hath authority to command and require what he will Gods Will then thus attended with his Power must be the rule of all our actions and is the matrix from which all Laws must issue But in the next place As his Absolute Will is attended with Power uncontroulable so is it also with Wisdome unquestionable For as he is the onely Powerfull so he is the onely wise God Rom. 16.27.1 Tim. 1.17 and from the inexhaust fountain of his Wisdome flow those Rivers of Lawes which make glad the City of God which are made as all things in the world are in Number Weight and Measure Numbred Weighed Measured fitted out unto us That we may live and move thereby even move upwards towards the House of our Lord where there are many mansions prepared for us So that all the Laws of men which look towards Innocency and Perfection Tertull. Apol. c. 45. are borrowed saith Tertullian from the Divine Law and all Law-givers are called by Galen and called themselves the Disciples of God Minos of Jupiter Numa of Egeria Solon of Minerva Lycurgus of Apollo Trismegistus of Mercury none ever having been thought fit to make a Law but God whose Power hath no bounds but his Will Nalla lex satis commoda omnibus est c. Liv. Dec. 4. l. 4 and whose Wisdome reacheth over all Tempers and Constitutions all Casualities and Contingences all Circumstances of Time or Place all Crosse intercurrent Accidents which the narrownesse of mans understanding which humaine frailty cannot foresee Nalla tâ—nta esse 〈◊〉 prudeâ—iam jorum ut ad omne ignus acquitiae accurrat Qaint doct 350. nor prevent Lex erit omne quod ratione consistit saith Tertullian That which binds a reasonable creature must it self be reasonable and whatsoever is reasonable is a Law and reason is a beame of the Divine Light by which all Lawes which deserve the name of Lawes were drawn The Power of God yea and his Wisdome ruleth over all and his Laws are like himself Just and holy pure and undefiled unchangeable Qui dat rationem dat legem Tert. de Coron mil. c. 4. immutable and everlasting fitted to the first Age of the world and fitted to the last fitted to the wisest and fitted to the simplest
commit but costs us deare what more painfull then Anger what more perplext and tormenting then Revenge what more intangled then Lust what can more disquiet us then Ambition what more fearefull then Cruelty what sooner disturbed then pride nay further yet how doth one sinne incroche and trespasse upon another I fling off my Pleasure and Honor to make way to my Revenge I deny my Lust to further my Ambition and rob my Covetousnesse to satisfie my Lust and forbeare one sinne to commit another and so do but versuram facere borrow of one sinne to lay it out on another binding and loosing my self as my corruption leads me but never at ease Tell me which is easier saith the Father to search for wealth in the bowells of the earth nay in the bowells of the poore by oppression then to sit down content with thy own night and day to study the world or to embrace Frugality to oppresse every man or to relieve the oppressed to be busie in the Market or to be quiet at home to take other mens goods or to give my own to be full of businesse for others or to have no businesse but for my soul to be solicitous for that which cannot be done or to have no other care but to do what God requires To do this will cost us no sweat nor labour we need not go a Pilgrimage or take any long journey it will not cost us money nor enage us to our friends we need not saile for it nor plough for it nor fight for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Chrysostome if thou beest willing Chrysost orat de ira obedience hath its work and consummation if thou wilt Arist l. 4 Eth. c. 3. thou art Just Mercifull and Humble As Aristotle spake of his Magnanimous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to a resolved Christian nothing is great Liber rectus animus omtia subjiciens sin se nuili Sen. cp ult nothing is difficult 'T is not to dig in the Mineralls or labour in chaines 't is not to cleave wood or draw water with the Gibeonites but thy lines are fallen unto thee in a faire place 't is but to do Justly love Mercy c. Lastly it is not onely easie but sweet and pleasant to do what God requires For Obedience is the onely spring from whence these waters of comfort flow it is an everlasting foundation on which alone joy and peace will settle and rest For what place canst thou find what other foundation on which thou mayst build up a true and lasting joy wilt thou look on all the works which thy hands have wrought wilt thou prove thy heart with mirth and gather together all that is desireable and say here it will lye All that joy will soon be exhausted and will draw it self dry That pleasure is but like that beast of the Apothecary to whom Julian the Pelagian likens Saint Austin Non sum similis pâ—arm â—copolae utâ—d t is qui promit tebat Bestiam quae seipsam com sset August Cont. Iul. Pelag. l. 3. c. 21. which he promised his patient of great virtue which before the morning was come had eaten up himself But the doing what God requires our conformity to his will is the onely basis upon which such a superstructure will rise and towre up as high as heaven for it hath the will and power of God to uphold and perpetuate it against all those stormes and tempests which are sent out of the devils treasury to blast or imbitter it Do you take this for a speculation and no more Indeed it is the sin and the punishment of the men of this world to take those truths which most concern them for speculations for the groundlesse conceptions of thoughtfull men for school subtilties rather then realities Mammon and the world have the preeminence in all things and spirituall ravishments and heaven it self are but ingens fabula magnum mendacium as a tedious ly or a long tale that is told And there is no reason of this but their disobedience for would they put it to the triall deny themselves and cleave to the Lord and do what he desires there would then be no need of any Artist or Theologue to demonstrate it or fill their mouth with arguments to convince them of the truth of that which would so fill their souls Of all the Saints and Martyrs of God that did put it to the triall did we ever read that any did complain that they had lost their labour but upon a certain knowledge and sense of this truth betook themselves cheerfully to the hardship of mortification renounced the world and laid down their lives poured out their blood for that truth which paid them back again with interest even with fulnesse of joy Let us then hearken what this Lord will say and answer him in every duty which he requires and he will answer us again and appeare in glory and make the terrours and flatteries of the world the object not of our feare and amazement but contempt and the displeasing and worser side of our obedience our Crown and Glory the most delightfull thing in the world for to conclude this why are we afraid why should we tremble at the commands of God why should their sound be so terrible in our eares The Lord requires nothing of us but that which first is possible to rouse us up to attempt it secondly which is easie to comfort and nourish our hopes and thirdly which is pleasant and delightfull to do to woe and invite and even flatter us to obedience and to draw us after him with the cords of men And what doth he require but to do justly and love mercy c. We have now taken a view of the substance of these words The Application and Conclusion and we have looked upon them in the form and manner in which they lye what doth the Lord require let us now draw them neerer to us for to this end they are sharpned into an interrogation that as darts they might pierce through our souls and so open our eyes to see and our eares to hearken to the wonders of his Law And first this word Lord is a word of force and efficacy and strikes a reverence in us and remembers us of our duty and allegiance for if he be the Lord then hath he an absolute will a will which must be a rule to regulate our wills by his Jubeo and his vete by his commands and prohibitions by removing our wills from unlawfull objects and confining them to that which may improve and perfect them from that which is pleasing but hurtfull to his Laws and commands which are first distastfull and then fill them with joy unspeakable And this is the true mark and character of a servant of God to be then willing when in a manner he is unwilling to be strong when the flesh is weak to have no will of his own
the Law against our brethren against God himself making us to complain of the Law as unjust to start at the shadow of an injury to do evil and not to see it to commit sinne and excuse it making our tongues our own our hands our own our understandings our own our wills our own leaving us independents under no Law but our own The Prophet David calls it the highnesse or haughtinesse of the heart Ps 131. Solomon the haughtinesse of the spirit Prov. 16.18 which is visible in our sinne and visible in our Aplogies for sinne lifting up the eyes and lifting up the nose for so the phrase signifies Ps 10.4 lifting up the head making our necks brasse as if we had devoured a spit as Epictetus expresses it I am and I alone Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant Arrian Epict. is soon writ in any mans heart and it is the office and work of humility to wipe it out to wipe out all imaginations which rise and swell against the Law our neighbour and so against God himself For the mind of man is very subject to these fits of swelling humility our very nature riseth at the mention of it Habet mens nostra sublime quiddam impatiens superioris saith the Orator mens minds naturally are lifted up and cannot endure to be overlookt Humility 'T is well we can heare her named with patience it is something more that we can commend her but quale monstrum quale sacrilegium saith the Father O monstrous sacriledg we commend humility and that we do so swells us we shut her out of doores when we entertain her when we deck her with praises we sacrilegiously spoile her and even lose her in our Panegyricks and commendations We see for it is but too visible what light materialls we are made of what tinder we are that the least spark will set us on fire to blaze and be offensive to every eye We censure pride in others and are proud we do so we humble our brethren and exalt our selves It is the art and malice of the world when men excell either in virtue or learning to say they are proud and they think weith that breath to levell every hill that riseth so high and calls so many eyes to look upon it But suppose they were alas a very fool will be so and he that hath not one good part to gain the opinion of men will do that office for himself and wonder the world should so mistake him Doth learning or virtue do our good parts puff us up and set us in our Altitudes No great matter the wagging of a feather the gingling of a spur a little ceruse and paint any thing nothing will do it Nay to descend yet lower That which is worse then nothing will do it wickednesse will do it He boasteth of his hearts desire saith David Ps 10.3 he blesseth himself in evil he rejoyceth in evil saith Solomon Prov. 2.14 he pleaseth and flattereth himself in mischif And what are these benedictions these boastings these triumphs in evil but as the breathings the sparkles the proclamations of pride The wicked is so proud he careth not for God he is not in all his waies When Adam by pride was risen so high as to fall from his obedience God looks upon him in this his exaltation or rather in this ruine and beholds him not as his creature but as a prodigie and seemes to put on admiration Ecce Adam factus tanquam unus è nobis See the man is become like unto us and he speaks it by an Irony A God he is but of his own making whilest he was what I made him he was a man but Innocent Just immortall of singular endowments and he was so truly and really but now having swelled and reach'd beyond his bounds a God he is but per mycterismum a God that may be pitied that may be derided a mortall dying God a God that will run into a thicket to hide himself His greatnesse is but figurative but his misery is reall being turned out of Paradise hath nothing left but his fancy to Deifie him This is our case and our Teeth are on edge with the same sowre grapes we are proud and sinne and are proud in our sinnes we lift up our selves against the Law and when we have broke it we lift up our selves against repentance when we are weak then we are strong when we are poor and miserable then we are rich when we are naked then we clothe our selves with pride as with a garment and as in Adam so in us our greatnesse is but a tale a pleasing lye our sins and imperfections true and reall our Heaven but a thought and our hell burning a strange soloecisme a look as high as heaven and the soule as low as the lowest pit It was an usuall speech with Martin Luther That every man was born with a Pope in his belly we know what the Pope hath long challeng'd and appropriated to himself Infallibility Supremacy which like the two sides of an Arch mutually uphold each other for doe we question his Immunity from Errour it is a bold errour in us for he is supreme Judge of Controversies And the Conjecture is easie which way the question will be stated Can we not be perswaded and yield to his supremacy then his Parasites will tell you that he is Infallible by this we may well guesse what Luther meant for so it is in us Pride makes us incorrigible and the thought that we are so increaseth our pride we are too high to stand and too wise to be wary too learned to be taught and too good to be reproved we now stand upon our supremacy see how the worme swells into an Angel The heart forgets it is flesh and becomes a stone and you cannot set Christs Impresse Humility upon a stone Learne of me for I am humble The eare is deafe and the heart stubborne the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret a reprobate reverberating mind a heart of marble which violently beats back the blow that should soften it Now the office of humility is to abate this swelling It s proper work is to hammer this rock and break it to pieces Jer. 23.29 to drive it into it self to pull it down at the sight of this Lord to place it under it self under the Law under God to bind it as it were with cords and let out this corrupt blood and this noxious humour and so sacrifice it to that God that framed it In a word depressing it in it self that it be not too wise too full That it may behold it self of more value then the whole world and then shut it self up that it wander not abroad after those vanities which will soon fill it with aire and swell it This is the method and this is the work of humility It pulls out our eyes that we may see spoiles us of our