them is like a very stout Champion who salls to grapple with a man that is arm'd with Sickness I mean the Leprosie or the Plague or other diseases of Infection Because notwithstanding he throws the man far enough it will be hard to clear himself from all contagion of his Disease Many are led into Captivity to the Law of Sin by not distinguishing as they ought and as holy men of old were wont to do betwixt Temptations and Temptations of several sorts I mean the Temptations they ought to fight with and the Temptations they ought to fly To make it profitable and plain I will illustrate what I say by one or two Scriptural Examples § 9. When nothing but the Patience of Job was tempted by the loss of his Estate and the destruction of his Children Tunc surrexit saith the Text Then Job arose rouz'd up himself like a sturdy Lion and as it were girded himself with strength He was so far from drawing back from the face of Danger that he arose and stood to it and bravely baffl'd both the wit and the strength of Satan But when the same Job was tempted by the Allurements of the Flesh Then he manifested his valour like Fabius Maximus or the Parthians by taking the Courage to use his Prudence And he manifested his Prudence by the timeliness of his Flight He made a Covenant with his Eyes not to look upon an Object which might indanger him by Delight It was then his chief Wisedom when not his Constancy or his Patience but his Chastity was concern'd not to make trial of his Mastery in containing from a pleasant forbidden Object but rather wholly to abstain from the Presence of it The different way of incountring the different sorts of Temptation may be collected from the difference wherewith the Scripture doth direct us to deal with the Devil and the Flesh Resist the Devil is the Precept of S. James but fly Fornication is the Caveat of S. Paul For other Vices saith Anselm upon that Caveat to the Corinthians are easily conquerable by Conflict whereas This of Fornicacation is onely conquerable by Flight Now to fly Fornication is not onely to be continent which implies a kind of Combat though 't is not follow'd with consent a being somewhat affected although not drawn but 't is totally to abstain from all commerce with the Temptation 'T is to defeat it in such a manner as King Edward the Sixth and the most excellent Bishop Wainflet are said by Budden to have defeated the Armed Rebells under Jack Cade vel non pugnando by not fighting with them at all but onely by praying against their Wickedness The total abstinence I speak of is not onely from the Objects of Fleshly Lust but from the Vicinities and the occasions yea from all the very memories and mentions of them For so Aquinas and Cajetan do expound S. Paul's Caveat 1 Cor. 6. 18. § 10. It follows then that we are likelier to be secure from such dangers by timely flight than to beat them quite down by a stout Resistance And though the later must be imploy'd when we are actually ingag'd yet to anticipate such ingagements it will be our best method to use the former For how much safer 't is to fly than to incounter such Allurements though incounter them we must when we cannot fly them we may illustrate by the examples of Joseph and Sampson who were as various in their Behaviours as they were different in their Success Joseph fled from his Mistriss by whom he was tempted day by day He was so far from discoursing about the matter in design as that he would not be with her but sprang from her presence and got him out Gen. 39. 10. 12. Whereas Sampson on the contrary was no sooner come to Gaza than he saw there an Harlot nor did he onely See but he went unto her Judg. 16. 1. Again no sooner was he come to the Valley of Soreck where he adventur'd to converse with another Woman v. 4. but one of the next Things we read of is His telling her all his heart v. 17. And the very next to That is His sleeping upon her knees v. 19 And the consequent of This the loss of his Liberty and his Eyes v. 21. It was not then without reason That so great and good a Prophet as the Prophet Elijah who had so bravely withstood King Ahab did quickly after fly away from the Face of Jezebel And that Abimelech should have fled at the sight of Sarah is very evident even from hence That no sooner had he taken her than he was fain to put her away Gen. 20. 3. 7. Nor did he part onely with Her but with a thousand pieces of Silver v. 16. And that in velamen Oculorum for a Covering of the Eyes And that not onely unto Her but to all that hereafter should look upon her as Gerundensis and Hamerus explain the Text. Or in the Gloss of Tertullian for the buying of veils enough wherewith to cover both her own and her Maiden's Beauty and this to the end they might not easily either See or be Seen by the other Sex § 11. But I have largely enough explain'd the moral use of the word Flesh and what is meant by the Lustings of it and what it is to Abstain from all These as well according to the Object as Act of Lusting and as well in a divided as compound Sense Besides that in so spacious a Field of matter and so fruitfull of meditation as That I am entring now upon there will be need of some Care that none be surfeited even with Abstinence For though an Abstinence not from Flesh but from Fleshly Lusts is both the Best and the most wholesom and the most suitable to the Season in its primitive Vse and where the Guests are all Christian the most desirable Entertainment to be imagin'd yet a Satiety of the best things is apt to become the worst Satiety in the world And therefoâ—e rather than exceed the Time allow'd for This Service I will begin and end too with That one Argument or Motive which here is taken from the Nature and perpetual Employment of Fleshly Lusts which are not onely no Friends but most Implacable Enemies nor onely Enemies to our temporal but aeternal Interest § 12. It is not onely here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they fight which may imply nothing more than a Single Battle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they war which imports a continued State of fighting So far from being capable of a firm and solid Peace that they allow us not a Truce or time to breath in Nor do they terminate their malice upon the Body for then we needed no more to fear them than Armed Enemies from without but which is nearer and dearer to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they ever war against the Soul too § 13. Thus the life of
other must needs me meant of the Second Thus our Dangers do incourage us in our Encounters § 17. Another Incouragement which we injoy whilst we are prosecuting our War against Fleshly Lusts lies in the Goodness and the Nobleness and as the consequence of Both in the Pleasure of it For what can be better in it self than to side with the Spirit against the Flesh with the Rational part in us against the Brutal what more honourable or noble than to win a Victory over our selves It was not near so great a Glory to the Young man of Macedon to have brought into Subjection all the Provinces of Asia as it had been to have subdued at once his Avarice and his Ambition For 't is not the greatness of the Conquest but the goodness of the fight which yields an happiness to the Victor and solid glory to his success When Paul was ready to be offer'd and at the Approach of his Departure his chiefest Comfort and Honour stood both in This That he had fought the good fight that he had finished his Course and had kept the Faith that he had prosperously ingaged against Fleshly Lusts which however they had warred had not prevailed against his Soul Many are worsted in their Warfare for want of distinguishing as they ought between the Acts and the Effects of their Self-denials 'T is true the Act of Self-denial will affect the best of us with pain or trouble but how much more will it delight us by our Injoyment of its Effects as the drawing of a Tooth is painfull and troublesom for a moment although in order to perfect ease We know the Soul is the life and so the happiness of the Body as God himself is both the happiness and the life of the Soul And as there is no greater pleasure than that which affects the very Soul of a Pious man for 't is a Proverbial Antimetabole and in every man's mouth that the Pleasure of the Soul is the Soul of Pleasure so the Pleasure of the Soul can hardly be greater or more refin'd than in despising and rejecting the grosser Pleasures of the Body Nor need we fear that such a Pleasure is not attainable at all because it does not grow up like a worthless Mushrom in a night but rather like the goodly Rose requires a certain Tract of Time to give it Ripeness For a Left-handed Conscience like a Left-handed Man by abstaining long enough from the use of the Left and by continuing long enough the use and practice of the Right will perform the same Actions with ease and pleasure which at present may be difficult and painfull to him Habitual Sicknesses of Soul being like to those inveterate diseases of the Body which cannot possibly be cur'd by one or two Tasts of a Noble Med'cin but must submit to whole Methods and Courses of it Many Sciences and Arts are extremely tedious to such as are but new beginners and learners in them which yet will yield them the greatest Comfort Content and Pleasure as soon as Vse and Vnderstanding hath bred a very good Acquaintance and Friendship with them Will any Man who is not mad break off the finger of his Watch as an useless Thing because he cannot perceive it moving or leave off the practice of a generous abstinence from his Debauches because his very first Indeavours of Self-denial and Pious life are not so pleasant or so easie as he expected let him have patience and That Finger will most apparently though insensibly make a progress from this to another hour So let him stay his due time and his practice of Reformation will pass from difficult to easie from easie to usefull and familiar from familiar to delightfull and joyous also Let a vitious man get but the knack of Virtue which without Custom he cannot have and he will wonder how he could once have been pleas'd with Vice But he who stays 'till it is pleasant to leave his gross pleasures will never leave them because the pleasure of leaving such cannot begin 'till they are left From whence it follows that He who will not be perswaded to persevere in abstaining from Fleshly Lusts until his Abstinence is easie and pleasant to him is like the natural Fool of Greece whom Hierocles in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does merrily call his Athenian Scholar who determin'd within Himself never to go into the Water until before hand he might be sure that he could Swim Or like the overwary Messenger of whom we read in the Spanish Story who having been threaten'd under a Poenalty by him that sent him not to return without an Answer would not part with his Letter to the Person to whom 't was sent until he might first have an Answer to it For a man not to abstain from Fleshly Lust till he finds it pleasant is just as sensless and as absurd as for a man to be impatient of ever learning the use of Books 'till he can read and understand them with ease and pleasure or to grumble at the labour of taking a Pencil into his hand until he finds he can use it like some Apelles If there is any man that hears me who is conscious to himself of so great a Folly I have no more to beg of him than barely This That he will not come with Praejudice to the Amendment of his Life as the Israelites did to the Land of Promise in fear of Anakims and Lions to be incounter'd in the way and that he will not distrust a vertuous course 'till he has try'd it That he will weigh Vice and Virtue in equal Scales before he cleaves unto the First or rejects the Second That he will have so much Justice both for God and Himself as to make an essay whether a Customary Abstinence from Fleshly Lusts will not yield him more pleasure than all his Customary Injoyments have ever done That he will once have the courage to make a Trial of new obedience I mean an incorrupt and impartial Trial. And that being once ingag'd in the practice of it he will not poorly start back at its first uncouthness for difficilia quae pulchra the goodliest things in their Injoyment are ever difficult in their acquist but that imitating the Bravery of Caleb and Josua he will deferr to make a Judgement or final Aestimate of the Thing 'till he has had a Sound proof and experience of it For if the Savour and the Tast he shall have of Virtue be but as much and as long as his Tast of Vice he will sooner swallow the Stings and the Gall of Asps than vouchsafe the licking up of his nauseous Vomit § 18. But besides this Incouragement which of it self is very great from the Fight it self a fight for God against Satan and for the Interest of the Soul against Fleshly Lusts there is a Third arising to us from the consideration of our support For 't is the powerfull Spirit of God which helpeth our
Liberty is to consist I give a Caveat touching the first in the Third Sermon following and touching the second in the Fourth To each of w ch if our Dividers will but deliberately advert They will be much better Subjects both to God and the King than they are at present and we who are Lovers of the Government by Law establish'd shall have the fairer Quarter from them for That Conjunction This one would think should be agreed to even by Men of All Parties that if the Consciences of Some as Some do use the word Conscience contend for a Liberty to resist or at least to contradict and to defame the Laws in force sure the Consciences of others may have a Liberty to obey them without offense Which yet has been envied or deny'd us we know by whom If where the matter is indifferent or barely lawfull All the immediate Laws of Men are also the mediate Laws of God by being enacted by That Authority which God has enacted we shall obey and if it is a prime part of That Christian Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free to submit our selves with S. Peter to every Ordinance of man and to do it for the Lord's sake as S. Peter bids us 'T is equally strange and unexcusable that They who call it most falsly their Christian Liberty to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities to live in Schism and Disobedience to Laws in force should seek to defraud us of That genuine and True Christian Liberty The Liberty to obey such as are over us in the Lord and such as Watch for our Safeties whilst we are Sleeping In this Grand Doctrine of Jesus Christ the Doctrine of submission to every Ordinance of man by way of Climax and Gradation from the bottom to the Top of All Authority upon Earth from the Constable or the Tithing-man who labours at the Plough to Him who sits upon the Throne as the Supreme Resort of Justice and to whose Determination the last Appeal lies we have a Principle of Vnity which either will bind up all our Breaches or else will make our Divisions innocent For our Judgements all meeting in This One Point as very easily they may and unavoidably they must if we do heartily and truly believe the Gospel All our other Disagreements in point of Opinion or Perswasion will not be publickly Inconvenient much less Pernicious because when Inbred Insurrections are made impossible as they are in the Case premised no Invasions from without can ever hurt us On the other side I cannot forbear to prophecy wishing my Prophecy may be false as it is modest and but conditional that if we fix not on some Expedient whereby to agree among our selves nor can I imagin any one likelier than the Great Principle of obedience to God's Anointed whose Life is every day endanger'd for his Adherence to our Religion we shall not have a way left to keep out a foreign Jurisdiction or to prevent its coming in with a foreign Force I have the more reason to hope the greater reason I have to pray that my Caveats may find their Readers in so much Temper as to weigh the several Arguments made use of in This Conjuncture which are in hopes to outweigh whatsoever witty Malice may urge against them And that This may be an Instance of God Almighty's great Mercy to This most coveted and indanger'd and not despised but Envied Land is so far the Hope as it is the Prayer of The Reader 's well-meaning and faithfull Servant T. P. THE GENERAL HEADS or CONTENTS of the several Caveats 1 JOH 4. 1. I. Of Trying the Spirits before we Trust them p. 1. 2 THESS 3. 6. II. Of the exceeding sinfulness of Schism in how many great Regards it is worse than Haeresie and why more damning than other Crimes p. 39. EPH. 5. 15 16. III. Of Circumspection in Thesi p. 79. MATTH 24. 4. IV. Of Circumspection in Hypothesi p. 115. 1 COR. 10. 12. V. Of Fear as necessary to Faith in the well-ordering of our Lives p. 161. HEB. 12. 14. VI. Of Peace and Holiness united as equally required to our Salvation p. 193. 1 THESS 5. 22. VII Of Abstaining from all Appearance of Evil. p. 237. 1. PET. 2. 11. VIII Of Abstaining in general from Fleshly Lusts p. 273. 1 PET. 2. 13. IX Of Abstaining in particular from Disobedience to Authority in things Indifferent as from the worst and the most scandalous of all Fleshly Lusts in S. Peter's Judgement p. 317. HEB. 12. 25. X. A Caveat touching the Danger of Refusing those Caveats our Lord hath given us in his Gospel p. 345. To which is added an Inquiry How God is said to be the Object of Real Knowledge and how of Faith onely and why Faith rather than Knowledge is essentially belonging to All Religion p. 389. A SEASONABLE CAVEAT Against the Dangers of CREDVLITY IN OUR Trusting the SPIRITS Before we Try them Delivered in a SERMON BEFORE THE KING AT WHITE-HALL On the First Sunday in February 1678 9. By THOMAS PIERCE D. D. Domestick Chaplain to His Majesty and Dean of Sarum Published by His Majestie 's especial Command LONDON Printed by E. F. for R. Davis Bookseller in Oxford MDCLXXIX A SERMON PREACHED before the KING 1 JOHN 4. 1. But try the Spirits whether they be of God § 1. THERE are Multitudes of Deceivers in these our last and worst Times by way of Antidote unto whose Venom These words of S. John are a good Provision And however they are numerous I think they may fall under two general Heads Some are so credulous as to believe every Spirit and some so Atheisticall as to believe none at all Both are Enemies to Religion though not Both alike For though the first are bad enough the last are very much worse The first are Meteors in Religion expressed to us in Scripture by Clouds without water and wandring Stars such as are carried to and fro with every Wind of false Doctrine men so unlearned and so unstable so in love with New Light and so given to change that not contented with one or two though the best and soundest they heap up Teachers unto themselves and by the Novelty of the Doctrine putting an estimate or value on him that brings it they are easily made Proselytes to every New Prophet who next bespeaks them little considering with S. John in the next words after my Text that there are many false Prophets many even in His Time and many more sure in ours gone out into the World The second sort of Enemies which are the worst too are the Disciples of the Book which is call'd Leviathan the greatest Monster in all the World excepting onely the Authour of it For if the perfectest Definition of Man as Man is to be Animal Religiosum which still includes Rationale and therefore makes the most exact Definition as many great and good Writers have very rationally esteem'd it then He must certainly be a Monster more
Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Jesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4. 4. What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7. 20. Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who in stead of loving Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well
Nay whensoever we have occasion they are our most obedient and faithfull Servants But Man to Man for the greatest part is either a very fierce Enemy and so the worst of Wild Beasts or else a very false Friend the worst of Tame ones § 6. So far therefore as we are men I think our first and greatest head is to be taken for our selves against our selves Not for this Reason onely because we love our selves most and so are most apt to deceive our selves the Devil commonly using us as the Empress Agrippina her husband Claudius whilst she poyson'd That Dish with which she knew he was most delighted and on which he was likely to make the plentifullest Meal But withall because the Soul like the Eye of Man is least of all able to see itself And this I think the best Moral though I know there is another of Diodorus his Mythology concerning Lamia who did put on her Eyes when she went abroad but always coming home put them up into her pocket We are blind to the greatest Beam if it be in our own Eye though we can spy the least Mote in another man's Nor is it onely the Eye but the Heart of man also if we believe the Prophet Jeremy is deceitfull above all things And this is that which makes him his own worst cheat whilst either he falls without a Tempter like Lucifer in heaven or else like Peter upon earth he is endanger'd by a temptation from the meer Confidence of his safety Amongst a Thousand which might be given I cannot name a fitter Instance of Self-Deceiving than that of Eldavid the Fanatick in Rabbi Mosche Ben Maiemon who was so very sincere a Cheat in the couzenage of himself and did so seriously believe he was the Prodromus of the Messias that he offer'd to be try'd by a Decollation and died a Martyr to his Delusions So much 't is every man's duty to fear Himself and to suspect his own Phantasie or Imagination which he takes to be his judgment in divers cases § 7. Next and immediately after our selves we must be circumspect and wise in respect of one another And as of other men in generall for this very reason that they are Men so of Those in special manner whom we have most of all trusted and most obliged who have mingl'd their Projects and Prayers with us who have eaten of our bread and as it were lain in our very Bosoms who are apt to hate us for the favours they are not able to requite and for exceeding their Gratitude will not allow us their Humanity Of such ill-natur'd Creatures we read in Tacitus quibus beneficia eousque laeta dum videntur exolvi posse sed ubi antevenêre pro gratiâ odium redditur Little Curtesies and good turns they take very well and are thankfull for But when a Munificence is excessive and far beyond their possibility either to recompense or deserve Then they onely love the benefits but perfectly hate the Benefactor and wish Him Dead because according to that of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as often as he sees them he makes them blush Now 't is very sound arguing from the Act to the Aptitude such Things there may be in these our days because there were such in the days we read of And special heed is to be taken that we be not deceived by such as These because by Courage and easie Caution a man may be saved from his Enemies But God alone can keep him safe from his dearest Friends Thence said God by the Prophet Jeremy Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour and trust ye not in any Brother for every Brother will utterly supplant and every Neighbour will walk with slanders their habitation is in the midst of Deceit So said Jesus the Son of Sirach Separate thy self from thine Enemies and take heed of thy Friends Julius Caesar was more endanger'd from Brutus and Cassius his Bosom Friends than from Antony and Cato his open Enemies Pompey the Great could never hurt him with all his Armies because he was a brave and a generous Enemy But his Friends were such Flayls as against which there was no Defense Even the Serpent himself was not more treacherous to Eve than Eve was unto her Husband and her Husband to his posterity For although she derived Her Body from His and so might seem in some regard to have been his own Daughter before his Wife as it were joyn'd to him in Wedlock by a kind of lawfull Incest yet no sooner had that Woman received Life from out his Side than she in a lamentable Requitall returned Death into his Bowells David did not complain That an open Enemy had dishonour'd him or that an Adversary had magnify'd himself against him for said he I could have born the one and have hid my self from the other But his Cordolium and his out-cry was against his Companion and his Guide with whom he took sweet Counsell and walked with as with a Friend in the House of God I wish it may prove a very groundless and weak Suggestion that both our Jesuites and their Journy-men passing commonly under the name of fanatick Protestants are by much the most innocent because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle words it the most undisguised and barefac'd Enemies at once to the Monarchy and Church of England Such as declare themselves in print for the Deposing of our Kings and the Disposing of their Kingdoms In this respect the more innocent that by professing themselves implacable and ungainable Antagonists they give us an Helmet before they strike We know the Thirtieth of January stands as execrably black in our English Calendar as the Fift of November has ever done Which proves the Truth of what was written by Isaac Casaubon to Heinsius before our days and when the days were less evil than we have liv'd in that we have Jesuited Protestants as well as Papists equally Haters of the Government of Church and State here in England equally poyson'd with an Opinion that the worst of all Murthers is the most highly meritorious equally Practicers and Patrons of That Hildebrandine Divinity which has cost so many Monarchs their Lives and Fortunes I say 't were safer than now it is if all our Enemies were such ut professa prodant odia vindictae locum that by knowing our utmost Danger we might Timely stand upon our Guard Were I at leisure to rifle Story I could name several Hundreds besides the Emperour Darius and Charles the first of these Realms who were betray'd by those most in whom they most trusted and whilst they thought the best way to make men Loyall was not to doubt of their being such most unhappily have died by their Credulity It is indeed a very generous and Princely Errour as being the Errour of a Great and a Candid Soul not at all to be capable of Fears and Jealousies and rather to run the
and that indeed is one Sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor can we say they are Possessors but onely Personators of Holiness I am not willing to be so rigid and do heartily wish it were false to say That they are really nothing else but the Apes of Satan who is Then at his worst the Prince of Darkness when he transforms himself the most into an Angel of Light So said our Saviour and so S. Paul And from both we may infer That of all the Hypocrites in the world the Devil himself is the most Demure and by being such indeed is the more a Devil Thus we see what is meant by the Relative Which in this Place and what use we are to make of its Antecedent § 13. But what may last of all be meant by seeing the Lord in this Text that our Apostle should set it down as the greatest Recompence of Reward to such as are Followers of Peace and Holiness When Moses desired to see the Lord and therefore earnestly pray'd that God would shew him his Glory The very Mercy of God's Answer did consist in the Reason of his Denial Thou canst not see my Face for there is no man shall see me and live And therefore Gideon himself although a mighty man of Valour as God himself is pleas'd to call him a man as stout as the steel with which his Proverbial Sword was temper'd was yet exceedingly afraid as soon as he perceiv'd he had seen an Angel of the Lord. And so it was with good reason that Manoah said unto his Wife We shall surely Die because we have seen God And if these things are so that we cannot see God without the danger of sudden Death It may seem a sad thing for a man to be a Follower of Peace and Holiness because by that means he shall see the Lord. But § 14. The Answer to this is extreamly obvious It being no more than to distinguish betwixt the Eyes of our vile and of our glorified Bodies If we behold him with the first we shall find him indeed a consuming Fire But when we shall see him with the second we shall find him nothing less than a quickening Light Here our Eyes are so carnal that it very much hurts us to see the Sun unless we see him in his Reflexion or at least through the veil of some Diaphanous Body And if the Brightness of the Sun is enough to strike the Beholder Blind How can we safely gaze on Him to whom the Sun is but a Shadow Yet after the Time of Restitution when what is sown in weakness shall be raised again in power Then our Life will consist in the sight of God We then shall see him as he is no longer darkly as in a Glass but face to face and that with infinite Pleasure as well as Ease And this alone is that Vision which is alluded to in the Text. Without an earnest Prosecution of Peace and Holiness in conjunction no one shall be qualified to live by seeing what here he cannot see and live None shall enter within the Veil or be made a partaker of the Beatifick Vision None shall wait on his Throne in whose presence is Life and where there are Pleasures for evermore § 15. Thus in the Suit of the Explication we have before we are aware a full Division of the Text. And not so only but also practical Reflections on all its parts First We have seen a single Act of great Moment And Secondly How 't is fixt on a double Object The double Object is Peace and Holiness which according to the Scope of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewing the Energie and the Force of the single Act are to be Prosecuted and follow'd with Zeal and Fervour Next to the Act and the Object which are sufficiently express'd we have their absolute Necessity very significantly imply'd For these are set as the Condition on which alone we arrive at Bliss It is for none to see God but the pure in heart And therefore this is a cogent Reason for the fastening of the Act on the Double Object For the Intensiveness of the one and the Extensiveness of the other § 16. But now because it is impossible that men should eagerly pursue their Christian Duties whilst they believe them to be needless or gainless Things Things which rob them of their happiness in this present World and without which they may be happy in That to come We must possess our selves more fully than we have hitherto done not onely with the Nature of Peace and Holiness but more especially and in the first place with their absolute Necessity to life aeternal whereof unless we throughly convince our selves we cannot hope with any reason to ingage our Resolutions to follow Both. § 17. First For the word Peace it is that that comprehends our whole Duty towards our Neighbour and as well to our Enemies as to our Friends For how can we follow Peace with All men in so earnest a manner as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does import unless we labour by forgiveness to overcome evil with good Rom. 12. ult much more must we render unto every man his Due Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom Honour to whom Honour Fear to whom Fear Rom. 13. 7. and so by analogy of Proportion Service to vvhom Service Love to vvhom Love no injury to vvhom no injury is due For every Injury is breach of Peace We must owe no man any thing but to love one another Rom. 13. 8. And therefore injure him vve must not no not so much as in desire This is to follow Peace indeed when we do not onely not give a Cause but not so much as an occasion of just offence When we keep not onely our Hands but even our Heads and our Hearts from picking and stealing When we do not commit Adultery no not so much as with our Eyes When we do no Murther no not so much as in our wishes When we dishonour not our Parents whether private or publick Ecclesiastical or Civil not not so much as in our Wills This is as much as in us lies to make an eager Prosecution of Peace with all men Which comprehends our whole Obedience to the Second Table of the Law § 18. Secondly As Peace does grasp the whole Duty of Man to Man so we may say also of Holiness that 't is the whole immediate Duty of Man to God Which more especially consisteth in these three Things In preserving our Loyalty in exhibiting our Reverence and lastly in rendring our Active Service The first hath respect unto our Thoughts the second unto our Words the third unto our Actions First for Loyalty That we know is a vertue by which a Servant does acknowledge no Master but his own holds no Intelligence with his Enemies admits no Rival in his Affections but ever honours him and owns him and adheres to him alone
a Christian as 't is a Pilgrimage of the Body from Earth to Earth for Dust thou art and unto Dust shalt thou return said God to Adam and a Pilgrimage of the Soul from Heaven to Heaven for the Spirit shall return to God that gave it saith the Royal Ecclesiastes so as truly is it a warfare of Soul and Body in conjunction whereof That fights for Heaven and This for Hell The former under God's Banner and the later under the Devil 's The Flesh and the Spirit are so unequally match'd that however nearly wedded they are incessantly falling out Each may say unto the other nec possum vivere cum te nec sine te For however unwilling they are to part they are seldom or never at Agreement There is a Law in the members so continually warring against the Law of the mind that the Flesh still lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh And these are contrary the one to the other Now 't is the nature still of Contraries very earnestly to indeavour a mutual overthrow And they must Both be well beaten brought down and refracted ere they can peaceably cohabit under one and the same Roof Which kind of Peace may be effected betwixt another sort of Contraries for Heat and Cold may agree together in a Lukewarmness white and black in mixt Colours Day and Night in a Crepusculum however These two last are but privatively oppos'd but in this moral Contrariety 'twixt the Spirit and the Flesh it never can be the reason is because when the Spirit is most indulgently at Peace with the Flesh the Flesh is then the most dangerous and fatal Enemy to the Spirit Exactly such an Enemy as Joab was to Abner when he took him aside and slew him peaceably Or as the very same Joab to Captain Amasa when he saluted him as a Brother inquir'd after his health as a kind Physician offer'd to kiss him as a Dear Friend that so he might civilly and sweetly smite him under the fifth Rib. Or as the two Sons of Rimmon to Righteous Ishbosheth when making as if they would fetch some Wheat they kill'd him slylie in his own House and quietly resting upon his Bed Or as Judeth to Olofernes when she pleas'd him into Destruction and maliciously made him in love with her Conversation when she ravish'd him with her Beauty that she might kill him with the fruit of his kindness to her stole his Heart whilst he was waking that whilst he slept she might take his Head too And exactly such an Enemy is the Flesh unto the Spirit when the Spirit gives no disturbance but dwells in quietness with the Flesh For then the Lusts of the Flesh do give the Spirit such wounds as it cannot feel Wounds indued with such a numming Narcotick Quality as hurts the Spirit without offense and by killing it very pleasantly sends it insensibly to Hell Nor are any whit the less but the more certainly destroy'd for being laid into a sleep by an over-great Dose of Opium Hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible Wars and indiscernable Insurrections from which the antient Greek Liturgies were wont to pray for a Cessation For when the Soul is so degenerate as even to doat upon the Body Then does the Body with most advantage insensibly war against the Soul The treacherous Lusts of the Flesh like the treacherous Assassinates of Olofernes and Ishbosheth assault the Spirit in its own House and which is the worst of all Supercherie as they find it fast asleep in the Bed of Carnal Security Nor is it onely not awak'd by the Blows they give it but it rather sleeps the faster for being struck just as if it were struck by the Rod of Hermes That when at last it shall awake either in This or another World it may not be to escape but to see its Ruin § 14. So that the War I now speak of is more than Civil or Domestick For there we war against others but here against our own selves A Man's Enemies saith the Prophet are those of his own House And indeed the greatest Enemies excepting those of his own Heart This especially being the Field wherein the Lusts of the Flesh do still incamp against the Spirit and give it Battle and strive to bring it into Captivity to the Law of Sin And because the whole Man does consist of these two Flesh and Spirit Body and Soul matter and form as essential Parts of his Composition it cannot but follow that we our selves are incessantly warring against our selves To wit our selves as we are Animals against our selves as we are Men. Our selves as we are Men against our selves as we are Christians Our selves as we are Carnal against our selves as we are Spiritual Again it follows that we our selves are the greatest Enemies to our selves because we arm our vile Members against our Mind For what our English Translation does call the Instruments is in S. Paul's own language the Armour of unrighteousness And by the help of this Armour we Arm our base Appetites against our Wills and our brutish Affections against our Reasons We use our selves as unmercifully as Samson's Enemies did Him We strive to pluck out our inward Eyes and to deliver our selves bound to Sin and Satan We side with the old man against the new Abet the outward man in us against the inward are such Enemies to our selves as to despoil our selves of Grace whereby as much as in us lies and without Repentance we make our selves incapable of Bliss and Glory § 15. But when I speak of a War between the Flesh and the Spirit I do not mean onely the visible and gross Body of Flesh which of it self is but passive and cannot fight No 't is the animated Flesh the Flesh that is capable of Lusting It is a fleshliness of Spirit and a carnality of Reason which is arm'd with a Wisedom fetch'd up from Hell and stands in hostile opposition to that which cometh down from Heaven Jam 3. 14 15 16. And accordingly when God had upbraided Israel with their being a foolish and sottish People and void of all understanding he gave the reason of it in this That they were wise to do evil Jer. 4. 22. Observe the pithy Brevity of That Expression Because they were Wise they were therefore Foolish Their Wisedom did not onely consist with Folly but in That sort of Wisedom their Folly and Sottishness did consist This is that Wisedom of the Flesh which exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God 2 Cor. 10. 5. It is an Earthy Sensual Devilish wisdom as God Himself by his Apostle is pleas'd to call it And 't is with very great reason he calls it Devilish because the Lust of the Flesh which is its Wisedom is a direct Devil within us as having a faculty to intice us and to draw us quite away from fighting under Christ's Banner Therefore 't is that Lust and
I need not say more Committing therefore what I have said to due and serious Consideration I shut up all with That Prayer which is the fittest to compleat and conclude the Sermon That what we have heard at this time with our outward Ears may by the powerfull Grace of God be so grafted inwardly in our Hearts as to bring forth in us the fruit of good Living to the Honour and Praise of his Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit be Glory and Thanksgiving both now and for ever Amen THE APPENDIX § 1. OUr steddy Adherence or Assent to the Two last Articles of the Creed and indeed to the other Ten cannot possibly subsist without our Assent unto the First We cannot certainly believe that we shall rise from the Dead unless it be by believing that Christ is risen And as little can we believe that Christ is risen unless it be by believing first that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself This implies and presupposes the First Article of our Creed which is as well the Foundation as the Support of all the Rest But since the breaking loose of Hell in This last Age of a loathsome World we have met with such Enemies not onely to ours but to All Religion as from their wishing and woulding there were no God no Resurrection of the Body no life after Death no Day of Judgment have proceeded so far as to say and teach There is no God nor any one of those Things which have been regularly built upon This Foundation And if we suffer This Foundation to be either undermin'd or but shaken in us All the Fabrick of our Faith will fall to nothing in an Instant An Error here is like one in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second If we do not believe in God the first Article of our Creed we cannot choose but be Infidels in All that follow Nor are we onely to believe him as Belief is opposed unto a comprehensive knowledge But we must knowingly believe him as Belief is consistent with knowledge meerly Apprehensive And so as to say with as much Truth as S. Paul to Timothy every man for himself in whatsoever Temptations and Times of Trial For I know whom I have believed § 2. A Text which serves well for a double purpose to ascertain our Knowledge and to establish our Belief as well as to shew the just measure and use of Both in our Religion A Text accordingly to be consider'd not onely in its Relative but in its Absolute importance First the words in their Relation to Those that follow and go before them will be most easily understood by being paraphrased Thus. I am a Preacher and an Apostle and therefore now a Prisoner of Jesus Christ Even for this very cause of my being sent forth by the Will of God and made a Teacher of the Gentiles I suffer these Bonds and Persecutions of the Jews But I am not asham'd of my Bonds or Office I am not sorry for my Preaching though 't is the Cause of my Imprisonment For He on whom I have depended will never forsake me I am sure In His hands I can with chearfulness repose my Life by whom my Death will be a Door to my Resurrection For I have not believ'd I know not whom Nor do I nakedly believe whom I love and adore and rely upon but I perfectly Know whom I have believed and have a plentitude of Perswasion that He for whom I now suffer will never fail me on Him my Cares are all cast who careth for me With Him I have intrusted the whole Depositum of my Labours in the preaching of the Gospel and the Depositum of my Sufferings for having preach'd it And whatsoever I have intrusted or shall intrust to His keeping be it my Body or my Soul my Body in Peace or my Soul in Patience I am assur'd he is Able and am perswaded he is Willing to lay it up for me against That Day A Day expressed to us in Scripture by such Periphrases as These The Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire The day wherein God shall judge the Secrets of men by Jesus Christ The Day when all that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice and come forth The Day of Discrimination when He will make up his Jewels and a Book of Remembrance shall lie before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name All my Concerns are left with Him who will keep them in safety against That Day Thus lies the Text in its relation to the Context § 3. But being consider'd in it self and without such Relation 't will be as easily understood by this other Paraphrase I know Him perfectly as to his Being whom I believe as to his Essence or whom as to his Essence I know in part onely I can demonstrate his Existence although I can but most firmly believe his Word For at one and the same time as also in one and the same respect I cannot know and believe him too because what I know I do more than believe or am past believing And what I do but believe I have not yet attained the knowledge of Knowledge and Belief do move in two distinct Spheres and That of Knowledge is so much higher than This of Faith that 't is the Perfection of a man's Faith wholly to perish and expire to be drown'd and swallow'd up into perfect Knowledge St. Paul expresseth his Believing by his knowing in part And the Top of his comfort does stand in This that when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Here we can but see darkly as through a glass but the time is now coming when we shall see face to face Here we onely can Believe the Three Subsistences of the Godhead in but one and the same Substance whereas in That Day of Revelation and Restitution we shall Know this great Mystery even as also we are Known Here we can but Believe the Resurrection of our Bodies but in the great Day of Recompence our Fruition and Experience will make us Know it We do not know more exactly that Five and Five do make Ten or that a part of any Dimension is unequal to the whole than we do Know and can demonstrate against the Enemies of a Deity the uncontroulable existence of the Deity we adore But This I say onely of God's Existence and of his Essence onely in part For in our deepest Contemplation of certain Mysteries in our Religion such as a Trinity of the Persons in the Vnity of the Godhead the Generation of the Second the Procession of the Third and yet the Coessentiality of Both-together with the First I say in This contemplation our Childish understandings become so froward they cannot be quieted but by