God it is a certaine secret feeling or knowledge of our deeds which leaveth behinde it or imprints the motions of joy or sorrow hope or feare confidence or shame it is an inward key which unlocketh and openeth the doores and barres of our hearts that the grieved spirit commeth forth like good Lot out of the house of sinne and sayes to the man of Sodome O deale not so wickedly Now as the great Turke permits every one to live in his owne religion so they pay him in his tribute so the conscience hardned or seared permits the appetites to their pleasure so it may partake it neglects the soule to please the sense it prevaricates and willfully suppresses the true verdict or testimonie and is idle and doth not its office but luls us asleepe in our sinne and layes the raines on the necks of our wilde and untamed lusts Cor dilatatum a spacious loose heart a Chiverell conscience and indeed when the minde is in meere darknesse as in the state of unregeneration or when it is overflowed or dimmed with the dampe of some temptation or wasting sinne as it may befall the godly no marvell then if this particular knowledge bee darkenesse too and our inward thoughts cease from their accusing for a season for the soule it hath not now an actuall or exercised sense and light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh to discerne the proportions of good and evill being possessed with a spirit of slumber in any measure so farre it is no rightfull Judge no more than the blinde man is of colours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience without science a heart like Nabals benum'd and senslesse And the manner or growth of it is thus Originall sinne sends out actuall and they leave a straine a disposition to sinne so againe and sinning so againe slight impressions of evill become radicate and habituall till the callum the crust deadnesse or security in sinne comes over the soule the buds of infirmity steale to the twigs of negligence and they to the tyranny of custome and then audacious and grand sinnes plead prescription and like a stout tenant take no warning and this is nervus ferreus the iron sinew the heart of adamant When Camels grosse sinnes passe and digest without remorse and this our Church in her Letany deprecates most Christianly From hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy word and commandements good Lord deliver us Now the contrite conscience is the very contrary and that it may have its beginning thus as Ioab would not be moved to come to Absalom till his fields were set on fire so we oft-times we have no heart no perceiving of our estate towards God till affliction like fire ceaseth upon us till with Manasses our chaine or with Hezekiah our bed of sicknesse or with Mauritius death of wife and children rouze and startle us and wring forth a holy confession Iustus est Deus justa sunt judicia ejus For thus the good Shepherd oft-times sends after his sheepe poverty persecution sicknesse and the like to hurry them backe when they goe astray from him and the heart indeed the conscience is in a very ill case which ffliction cannot mollifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the Apostle Heb. 5.8 the sonnes of God learne obedience by the things they suffer and for this wee may learne to take well the Lords castigations kisse the rod as often as it betides us Againe we must not thinke much to wait at the posts of Gods house continually to listen as David did to his word in the mouth of Nathan his word in the ministery of it God useth to blesse it and to put forth his spirit with it that with David our heart smiteth us we tremble with Foelix we melt with Iosiah we are pierced to the quicke like those thousands at S. Peters Sermon and we are rifled and convinced in our consciences like those in the 1 Cor. 14. Without the Law sin is dead Rom. 7. It is not acknowledged the word is Gladius Domini the sword of the Lord Heb. 4. It opens our sinnes to our eyes and Malleus Domini the Lords hammer to breake our stony heart Ierem. 23. Wherefore Moses and Aaron being called by the Lord in the wildernesse before the burning mount he commanded them his word and Law not to be supprest in secrecie but to be pitched up in the eye of all the world even that the presumptuous heart might looke on it as Christ did on Hierusalem with weeping eyes to see how short he comes of that hee should and that the dissembling heart might have his paintings and colours his faces of sanctitie thawed all by the fire of Gods justice The Word of the Lord is spirit and life a sacred perspective it is wee may behold in it our sins of thought desire and deed and thereupon see how the host of heaven with chariots of fire march in array ready prest to charge the curse of God how ready it is to light on us A sight for which Davids heart becommeth so intenerate that hee a King commits a Psalme to bee sung here in the Church wherein his owne capitall sins should be blazed to all posteritie by his owne confession a sight for which S. Austen needs would that this verie Psalme should bee set over his bed night and day that with teares hee might read over his transgressions a roll wherof he hath left in his owne Confessions which is admirable to the Reader And Conscience indeed is a sleeping Lion it will awaken in the evill houre we shall finde it our owne heart then seeks occasions against us as Iob speakes and let not him thinke who hath not yet the sting of his sinne that he hath not offended it watches the conscience till the time of most advantage but the Lord by this conscience of sinne awakens those to life that are his by this sensiblenesse or accusing of the heart he doth much in our calling to grace and in our continuing in it for the contrite or wounded conscience dealeth not with our evill motions as Darius did with Alexander suffer them to passe or come over the heart as he did the Hellespont till they beare all before them but like Pharaoh that killed the infants of Israel lest they should overgrow his Countrey So the truly broken and tender heart growes daily verie conscientious of everie the least sin and taketh care therefore of the serpents in the shell Allidere parvulos ad petram to crush the verie occasions of sin and with S. Paul it shaketh of the vipers from the fingers ends at the first motion of evill lest suggestion beget delight and that multiply from action into custome like the fish that swim downe the streames of Jordan in mare mortuum into the dead sea Yea and in the midst of all our prosperities pleasures it is the qualitie of a contrite conscience ever and anon to send us downe an holy feare as it
out of the Cradle is the entring into the grave to have a beginning and to be borne is to breed or be in travell yea to bee darted or put in a slight to an end Therefore Thales was wont to say that there is no difference betweene life and death and being thereupon demanded Tu ergo quid non moreris Why doest not thou dye then Because saith he there is no difference So that if we seeke the act of living our hearts if we be wise should be established against dying because life and death are essentiall to one another or include one another and it is as naturall to dye as to live and in themselves therefore to be regarded both alike Quid ergo novi si mortalis natus moriatur Let it not bee strange to us that we should die being borne dying or mortall His spirit goeth forth Exit And to us that bee Ministers in the Gospell of Jesus Christ let this word bee to us a remembrance like Bezaleel and Aholibah by the grace that is given us we are master-builders but of the Lords Tabernacles or Church militant on the earth and wee are gentle among you saith the Apostle even as a Nurse cherisheth her children affectionately desirous of you 1 Thess 3. even so with piteous heart◠looke wee upon our charge for they be earthly tabernacles dying men and women their soule and spirit stand upon their lips as it were It goeth forth Spiritus exit O let us tender them therefore and apply our present speedy releefe lest they fall out of our hands before we have dispenced them the bread of life of which Christ hath made us overseers and stewards and as upon the bed of our languishing we would not have a loftie or profound but a gracious word come to us so seeing wee deale with such whose living is a continued dying let us seeke that our divinitie may be as profitable as may be to save Salus populi suprema lex esto Now I come to the libertie of the spirit that it recedes inviolate 1. In Act it goeth 2. In essence it goeth forth Our spirit is free in the Act it is not haled not snatched out as it were it goeth forth A soule in life sealed to eternitie by the first fruits of the spirit hath its good issue its free passing its hopes even in death for let this breath fade fidelis Deus God who cannot lye because he hath said it be we sure he will stand nigh us in that exigencie and begin to helpe where man leaveth not suffering his to be tempted above that they are able 1 Cor. 10. The holy Spirit whose name is the Comforter will not omit and leave off his owne act or office in the great needs of death Hence good Hilarion having served the Lord Christ seventie yeares checkes his soule that it was so loth at the last to part to goe forth saying Egredere ô anima mea egredere Goe forth my soule goe forth And devout Simeon sueth for a manumission Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word And this is the freedome of the act the Spirit goeth forth it yeelds yea it goes and passes freely that is it taketh up or embraceth the Crosse of Christ as he commandeth us to doe But is the act at our will and libertie not simply we may not projicore animam thrust or cast forth our breath or spirit Spiritus Exit it goeth forth strive wee must to cast the world out of us we may not cast our selves out of the world Saint Paul dareth not dissolve himselfe though he could wish to be dissolved God must part that which he joynes God giveth and God taketh away and if God say as he doth to Lazarus Exi foras come forth with faithfull Steven we must resigne our Spirit and all into his hands When God biddeth us yoke he is the wisest man that yeeldeth his necke most willingly when our grand Captaine recalls us we must take the retreit in good part but it is heathenish to force out the soule for when the misdeeming flesh amidst our disasters will not listen with patience for God his call but rather shake off the thought of divine providence quite then are wee ready to curse God and die and that is probably to leape e fumo in stammam out of the sinne of selfe-murder into hell no but God will have our spirits to passe forth upon good termes Spiritus exit the spirit goeth forth Secondly the spirit goeth free or inviolate in essence death is not the end but the out-going of the soule a transmigration or journey from one place to another It goeth forth so the character of our weaknesse we see in the issue it is an argument of our eternity for man indeed is perishing but so is not his spirit Non simul perit anima animal The Phaenix goes forth or out of his ashes the spirit returneth to God that gave it Eccles 12. that is it abides still and as in the body it pleased God to inclose the soule for a season so it may as well exist elsewhere without it if God will for it hath no rise at all from the clay yea it beares in it immortality an image of that brest whence it is breathed The separate and very abstract acts of the spirit even while it is in the body the wondrous visions of the Lord to his Prophets usually when their bodies were bound up in sleepe Saint Paul his rapture when he knew not whether he was in the bodie or out of it the admirable inventions and arts of men manifest the soules-selfe-consisting Not Socrates and Cato and the civilized heathen onely but the very savage beleeve this and so entertaine death Vt exitum non ut exitium as a dissolution not as a destruction Spiritus exit his spirit goeth forth But we know saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. we are sure God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost doth no create redeeme and regenerate man for the meere use of a wretched short life and who can imagine so monstrously that of all men the good and righteous and of all creatures man for whom the rest are made and who hath the use or soveraignty of all yet by farre that he should be the most vile and miserable of all but sure it were so if in this life onely we had hope seeing there be no lower creatures that are capable of sorrow and terrours of conscience and feares of death and conceit of future judgement yea not so subject to bodily disease But account mee not dead said the holy martyr for I shall certainely live and never die And the martyrs so vigorous as we see amidst the ruines and destructions of the body had something in them surely more than dust A Philosopher Hermes Trismegistus dying said Mourne not for me as if I were dead for I returne to the happiest City Above all Jesus Christ giveth us an expresse
die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Rev. 14. The thoughts of Gods worship good workes have their abiding fruit for ever and when all faile us they follow goe along with us after death in their reward and crowne but the bent of our hearts if it be on by matters we may say what is this we doe what fruit will this afford us in or after death In that very day our thoughts are cut off and perish Our dayes are a declining shadow Psal 102. and the shadow declines and lengthens as the Sunne goeth off or on us when it is direct or meridian short is our shadow and stretched out at even when the light of Christ is far from us then according to the mold of our owne blinde thoughts our shadow lengthens for life is our shadow Iob 14. but then we thinke of death as farre removed In hoc enim fallimur quod mortem prospicimus saith Seneca Now let our eyes be truly inlightened and all those thoughts perish and we perceive life sliding swifter away than a Weavers shuttle Iob 7. and so the Lord is said to shorten our dayes Psal 89. not that he cuts off or depriveth us of that time which hee had determined but of that which our owne thoughts have minted And ô we vaine and blinde that thinke thus as if wee were at a fee with death and never to be removed Nullius vita non spectat in crastinum saith Seneca wee thinke all to morrow we shall live and we shall live better to morrow and the life we forge and fancie to us failes us even before we thinke on it In that verie day his thoughts perish Be we therefore advised to fasten on the present time to repent to day and beleeve to day let us provoke our hearts to good purposes and to day let us put our hands to practise them But there be who thinke or dreame rather of future expiations or satisfactions to be made after death of a release after a time in hellish durance but these are groundlesse perishing thoughts It is for men once to dye but after death commeth judgement Heb. 9.27 Therefore the tree of our life while it hath a standing let it bend to God-ward and then we shall both stand and fall to our owne Lord and Master and let us seeke presently to bee reconciled to God through the pretious purgation of our soules which is through faith in Christ his bloud and then wee shall never be confounded our thoughts shall not perish or bee made void Praeveniendus ergo dies est qui praevenire consuevit saith S. Austen wee must trim our lamps betime with the oyle of faith and love and prevent the day of death lest it prevent us our eternitie of woe or blisse wee should not hazard it to after-thoughts and to second plots yea surely it cannot be mended afterward the watchlesse virgins because unprovided then were undone for ever and though sorrowing learnt them wit they had no time to practise it In that verie day his thoughts perish And to you especially my Brethren in the Ministerie let me speake in the words of S. Paul As we have opportunitie let us die good Gal. 6.10 let us be doing good while wee may Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat Should such as wee cast in our thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve our selves or the times for a season and thinke then afterward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve the Lord in his Vineyard perhaps at even but when our carnall thoughts have reached up to their ends alas while wee so thinke while our thoughts are in our hearts our thoughts may perish the hand of Justice may write bitter things against us in that verie moment high is our race and life is perishing heavenly be our thoughts let us take that good of our high calling at the first opportunitie the world should stoope to it for the fashion of the world passeth away but the Crowne is uncorruptible which God reserveth for us if wee finish our course with a conscience of his ordinance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with feare and trembling The Atticke Oratours saith Quintilian are Eloquentiae quadam frugalitate contenti ac semper manum intra pallium continentes just so many of us doe thinke with Nicodemus we can plead for God in sober silence husbanding both our professing and preaching of Christ Jesus for feare of the Jewes lest we should run into suspition with great ones and hazard our stocke of worldly favours The argument of my Text is good to raise our diligence namely that we may bee called to dye in the midst of our ambitious and terrene thoughts and so to dye before wee have begun to live and so we may live and dye in vaine and without Use a wretched mishap especially in a most spirituall and heavenly calling a Prophet a Seer of the Lord to perish before hee hath done any good a worthlesse case and most to be feared To conclude heare we the words of our Savior to his Apostles What I say unto all I say unto you Watch Mat. 26. and heare what Salomon saith Whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe doe it for there is no worke no device nor wisdome in the grave whither thou goest Eccles 9.10 In that verie day his thoughts perish FINIS A FVNERAL SERMON PSAL. 51.17 A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise AS all civill bodies or common-wealths so that of the Jewes was made up of three diverse parts the rich the middle sort the poore and so their oblations were diverse from the herd the flock the fowles of the aire and diverse often was their end and acceptation he in the impurity of his heart killeth an oxe or sacrificeth a kid Decollat canem saith the Prophet is as if he cut off a dogs necke so little is the Lord affected to the worship wee doe him in meere ceremony but the honest contrite soule the poore in spirit that comes trembling with his paire of turtle doves repentance and faith to this man will I looke saith the Lord Es 66. The poore service we doe him if it be in spirit and in truth he takes delight in it wherefore David here at the 15. verse praying for ability to praise or worship the Lord aright sets it out First by negation even what it is not in comparison thou desirest not sacrifice thou delightest not in burnt offerings Secondly hee positively concludes what indeed that is which indeed God wills and likes the sacrifices of God are the contrite spirit A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Not that the Jewish rights were not Gods ordinances or were then in abrogation in sepultura in their buriall but because these outward forms or performances did never satisfie not please the Lord without the sacrifice and service of the heart a lip-devotion a deed done an heartlesse manner of worship
is not that which delights the Lord or profits us yea if there be no heart no soule in it it is a shining sinne it is abominable as if we blest an Idoll as if a Jew had offered swines bloud The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Pro. 21.27 But a cup of cold water saith our Saviour and the least sparke of zeale out of a true heart though mixt with much infirmity yet goeth not away unregarded this when the widow good soule came in with her mite the Lord calls his disciples to see as in admiration of her bounty and David here upon Nathans rebuke a contrite sinner presents the Lord with his offering even such he had a broken heart and goeth away well perswaded or satisfied concerning Gods acceptance O God thou wilt not despise You may see there is a double use of that I am to say First Preparatory like the Lords Epistle to the Church of Laodicea that the luke-warme indifferent Christian who sayes he is rich and needs nothing may see he is poore indeed and so become poore in spirit Secondly Principall like the other Epistle of comfort to the Church of Smyrna a Church of a broken heart we see and much humbled but very rich therefore according to the grace of Gods acceptation Now two things were of great regard in the legall sacrifices or oblations the subject and the manner a lambe or a dove there is the thing and both without blemish not the refuse not the reversion there is the quality The burden of the word of the Lord came downe against Iudah because the table was come into contempt and if you offer the blinde saith he for sacrifice is it not evill and if you offer the lame and sicke is it not evill carry these to your Prince and can he be pleased with you and can he accept your persons saith the Lord of hosts Malac. 1. The greatest man alive let him come to the Table of the Lord to receive of his visible and invisible word with an unwasht irreverent and dead heart and the very Sacrament and word he taketh are his judgements for not discerning and because of his contempt wherefore King David offereth like himselfe that is according to Gods owne heart First for the materialls his heart Secondly for the forme and qualification his heart broken and contrite That very Caruncula that little flesh or part of the body the heart some from the triangular figure of that observe a seat and receptacle not of the round world but of the blessed Trinity yea and some gather this same doctrine from the letters of the word Cor. But the heart it meaneth more spiritually and first the understanding in which Saint Paul saith Cor excaecatum a blinded heart Rom. 1. And David sayes The foole hath said in his heart in corde suo that is in his unhallowed unbroken understanding Secondly the heart is the conscience so Davids heart smote him Thirdly it is the desiring part of the soule Quid est cor tuum nisi voluntas tua saith Saint Bernard Love the Lord with all thy heart and out of the abundance of the heart c. Vbi thesaurus ibi cor our affections our wills live with our treasure Vbi ancant non ubi animant Fourthly the heart is the complete soule quite through With the heart we beleeve Rom. 1. with the act of the understanding conceiving and with the armes of the will and affiance consenting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 15. God which searcheth the heart that is the thoughts the conscience the affections the whole depth of the soule a thing which neither the sight of man can reach nor the law of man can censure This is the subject of Davids sacrifice the matter but without forme and void as it was in the beginning the manner or information the due trimming to the Lords Altar followes in these words Broken and conâ—rite and to take them and apply them to the subject in order First the understanding yea Nathan uses this method with David by the parable of the Ewe lambe 2 Sam. 12. First of all he convinces the judgement breaketh that maketh David plyable to understand himselfe for the judgement unbroken approves of sinne thus David makes no matter of numbring the people so did pride hood-winke reason upon his confession he confesses he did very foolishly or without any true understanding S. Paul so understood as if he did well to persecute the saith of Christ but upon his repentance his judgement altered I did it ignorantly saith he and I am the least of the Apostles not worthy to be so called yea an abortive or one borne out of time because I did persecute the Church of God Surely the reason why wee so rarely repent in truth is because we allow sinne in our judgement our minde dislikes it not and we have no apprehension of the danger of it that it is so deadly and therefore we refuse the Physicke of contrition because we conceive that as a thing more than needs we consider not that God is as well just as mercifull and cannot possibly be served without repentance and therefore this holy informing it deales first at the understanding as in the case of comfort namely against the feares of death faith cheeres up the heart by meditation or minding it of the blessed promises that the judgement rectified and made to understand death inwardly as it is without the larvae the shapes it appeareth in to ignorants and Infidels we may be so resolved and setled and not to be amazed for death even so in the case of renovation the Lord alters and breaks the imaginations of the heart first of all layeth open to our eye the heinousnesse of our sinfull estate in generall and then commeth home to us that we relent in particular Yea contrition giveth the minde the understanding a right reflection that it sees it selfe rightly without the vaile and scales of superficiall proud blinde Science The contrite heart feeleth how heavy the wings of depraved reason are and how it hovers like Noahs Raven Super profundum sine fundo and like the earth receives the light onely in superficie in the surface of it and in things divine how it builds rather upon negation to know what the truth is not than what it is how uncapable yea averse it is since the fall from the right scanning of truth that the very Philosophers the best or wisest heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh They became vaine in their imaginations of God Rom. 1. and indeed the naturall man judgeth of divine truths but according to his owne senses receives no more in religion than he can shew reason for not reason of the word or divine authority but reason of nature or demonstration So the things of God which are spiritually discerned or with a contrite eye carry a kinde of contrariety to him and the undoubted knowledge or perswasion of Gods
gospell is not to be had in the worldly wise who doe not who will not so farre renounce their conceited knowledge and subdue their imaginations as farre as they exalt themselves against the word or have repugnance to Gods knowledge Now in the works of repentance or contrition when the Lord puts a holy light into the heart this eye of the soule he makes it simple and submisse The Law of the Lord is pure making wise the simple Psal 19. So that reason it comes to conclude with Iewell the peerelesse Bishop Gratias ago Deo quod ignorantiam meam non ignoro God I thanke thee that I am not ignorant of my ignorance But faith when it winnes upon us first it finds reason sitting like Iezabel painting her face dressing her head and looking out at the window till contrition which like the Baptist ushers the way of the Lord calleth to our thoughts and sayes with Iehu throw her downe and if they yeeld not but advance themselves against God too it sayes of them also as Edom said of Israel Downe with them downe with them even to the ground Contrition it breaketh the understanding maketh it teachable and glad of Gods wayes as they that were stung with the fiery serpents were glad to looke to the brazen serpent so the broken soule with earnest expectation erecto capite waiteth for the manifestation of Christ and his grace Omne humidum facilè alieno termino But take a man when the sunne of much prosperity and the like temptations exhale and draw out this holy moisture of contrition and the Lord of life the Sonne of God though he then approve himselfe ne're so much before him by word and works yet like the Scribes and Pharisees seeing hee will not perceive and learning he will not understand let the Lord sing of mercy and he needs it not or of judgement and he feareth it not I referre you to Saint Austen the third booke of his Confess the fifth chapter yea let common experience speake if many an impenitent heart preacheth not talketh not disputeth not subtilly of the doctrines of God and hath no right knowledge of them nor acknowledging but is even made up and mixt of doubtings unbeleefe and errour and Where is the disputer of this world saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. Contrariwise as Abraham went to offer his onely sonne upon the mount of Moriah and never once advised with naturall reason he left his servants at the foot of the hill lest by their clamours and disswasions he might be disturbed in his sacrifice so the contrite broken heart the mind thus qualified of God obeyeth the call of God subdueth it selfe and becommeth a slave to his word Da quod jubes jube quod vis Gods commands are not grievous to him but he is ready wheresoever he sees thus saith the Lord to intrust himselfe to the word Say unto his soule that man was by the breath of the Lord and the world was by his word at the beginning he stands not with Galen to censure Moses for want of demonstration say unto him that God Almighty was incarnate and the mother a Virgin delivered of her Maker he learnes not to dispute where the Cherubins are said to vaile but saith with the Centurion Domine dic verbum sanabitur servus tuus the contrite understanding taketh the Lord at his word though hee seeth not his owne reason for it he followes the word of God in all formes Vt aqua sequitur sulcantem digitum And as one said having read the writings of Heraclitus the things I know and the things I know not omnia fortia generosa so he of Gods Scriptures they be celestiall and good all and what he cannot fadome he adoreth and saith O the depths of Gods counsells in summe he hath all divinity in praeparatione animi in a readinesse to submit to the word as it shall bee revealed to him and ever saith Now faith arise and sleeping hope awake awake my glory and though reason would comprehend nothing beleeveth all Agrippina the mother of Nero said o ccidar modo imperet but the faith of the contrite minde saith imperabo modò occidat I will trust the Lord though he kill me with Abraham against hope hee beleeves in hope and offers himselfe in sacrifice to the Lord by an holy violence upon his carnall reasonings he seeketh to bring every thought in captivity to the obedience of Christ and he reckoneth of all science how subtil soever but as drosse compared to the excellencie of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour yea that sweet and pretious name with Ignatius the martyr he hath such a dear impression of it that it seemeth riveted and graven In tabulis cordis in the tables of his heart or understanding for now hee sees well and sayes with Themistocles periissem nisi periissem I had utterly perished if with the prodigall by remorse and contrition I had not beene rein'd in to see my foule mistakings and so to seeke and returne to God my mercifull father in Christ Jesus And lastly this contrite understanding is the onely Irenaeus he delights in peace and therefore goeth on warily and timorously and feareth to frame out articles of faith from the mould of his reason much lesse to frame out oppositions against manifest truths of Scripture or to thrust out publike positions from any private dispositions ludere cum Deo yea hee dares not let himselfe bee deceived with any hate or evill opinion of good wheresoever it is professed lest he commeth in the end to deceive himselfe with a delight or good opinion of evill In summe he minds and is taken up most of all how or by what meanes he may confound the devill rather than how to confute his gainesayers and bewaile the time that ever the simplicity of beleeving should lose it selfe in the Labyrinths of beleefe and that the word should be tam ferax religionum so fruitfull of opinions and so barren of piety as Lipsius once spake and this is to be transformed by the renewing of the minde as the Apostle speaketh this is contrition in spiritu mentis in the spirit of our minde in the understanding The second seat of contrition is the Conscience the nimming away of the skirts of Sauls garment and a rash wish for the waters of Bethlem if these smote David to the heart his conscience if it was of so tender a touch surely his presumptuous fact in numbring the people and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially this scarlet or double-dyed sinne of which the Prophet Nathan rebukt him the conscience of this heinous sinne melts him away like water as wee see in this Psalme a Psalme we may all take up as Gregorie Nazianzene did the Lamentations of Ieremie to make us weepe for our sins and transgressions But conscience is a part of the practicke understanding as Gods Deputy sitting within to judge to see and censure us together with
were a bucket into the bottome of our hearts to taste the waters whether or no they bee still sweet and cleere and so to preserve us from relapsing or reciduation I will put my feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from me saith the Lord Ier. 32. The third thing which partakes this contrition or breaking is the will and affections O Lord create in me a cleane heart vers 10. which is as if hee had said O Lord inable me to breake my will and affections from frowardnesse and perversenesse against thy will to which I am bound by the cords of thy word will and affections these are the horse and mule that must bee hold in or broken by the bit and bridle as David speaketh yea the horse may cast his rider and himselfe stand upright still but affections indanger not the soule but by ruining themselves as Pharaohs horse and the riders also were drowned in the red sea affections these are the intestine foes the Jebusites which fight still within our borders yea which rush in upon us oft times amidst our best devotions S. Hierom in the wildernesse among all his mortifications had enough to doe to breake them and S. Basil complaines that when hee had forsaken the societie of men he could not forsake his owne affections his owne heart haunted him and pursued him still But Ismael the sonne of Agar the bond-woman when he would be oppressing the sonne of the free he was thrust out of Abrahams house The Father of the faithfull gives us even in this a patterne namely that we breake with those affections which hinder our holy purposes that wee banish them and binde them to their obedience and good behaviour and this it is to sacrifice our affections or to separate them to the Lord when wee set them apart from their old excesses and this is Sacrificium vivum as the Apostle cals it the living sacrifice of a broken heart or affection a sacrifice that liveth the better after it is offered Beloved as in a common fire when the flames take hold of our houses we instantly run to the rivers to the water to quench it so our hearts within our affections naturally being set on fire with hell as S. Iames speaketh what should we doe but flye to the river of contrition and repentance This Red sea of remorsefull sorrow our spirituall Pharaoh drownes in it with all his armies of vicious lusts here they perish together And as in a common siege when the enemies reares up workes or edifices to the wals of a Citie and from thence shoots and hurles fire into it a chiefe remedy is to dig secret wayes and passages for water under the earth unto those fabricks that so their foundation may weaken fall so a tower of Babel of inordinate affections being set up against our soule and therein the Archers of Satan Pride Lust Avarice and the like shooting the fire of sin into our hearts let us with the Magdalene derive thither even thorow the secret veines of our hearts flouds of contrition and repentance for this shakes the verie ground-worke of Satans holds the gates of the rivers shall be opened and the palace shall be dissolved that I may speake in the words of the Prophet Nahum 2.6 O poenitentiae lachryma rutulantior auro splendidior Sole saith Anselme O Contrition more radiant than gold more shining than the Sun respicis avaritiam horres luxuriam and so forth thou hatest covetousnesse thou abhorrest luxurie thou breakest the power and yoke of evill affections Thou art the axe laid to the root of the heart thou art the Catholicon the universall medicine that workes upon everie peccant humour thou makest us ready to part with all bad desires in obedience to the Lords command for this godly contrition is a distaste of sin as sin and so it is impartiall against whatsoever comes as a transgression against God I have refrained my feet from everie evill way that I may keepe thy word Psal 119.101 Worldly sorrow hideth our ill affections restraineth open breakings out and that 's all Like the cold aire it doth but drive the disease of sin inward Abscondit vitia non abscindit But godly sorrow or contrition enters and searches it cancels and sacrifices the evill that is in our most covert and retired inclining and withall it cals out repentance it is not content to sigh in secret it cals the heart the affection into the eye to weepe for sinne with S. Peter and into the mouth to confesse it with King David yea and into the hands to break it off by good workes the offices of pietie and pitie Poros aperit cordis saith S. Gregorie And the contrite affection is of all the openest the easiest to commiserate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so well it is acquainted with its owne evill that who is ill affected with sinne and miserie that melts not And so respective is it to Gods ire and displeasure which it hath weighed and tasted that the least symptome or signe of it upon it selfe or others dissolves it into feare and trembling and this is the circumcision of the heart the breaking or contrition of the will and affections Fourthly to summe up all together the heart meaneth no lesse here than the soule complete or quite thorow Contriti cordis holocaustum saith S. Cyprian The perfect heart Psal 101. Not perfection in everie part but perfection of all the parts Integritas animi Create in me a cleane heart saith David before as in the first creation God made man perfect in all members and parts so in the second in regeneration it is a new birth or breaking of all the powers of the soule in some good measure and say not thou art contrite or renued in the eye of the soule in thy understanding and conscience unlesse it goe also to thy bowels to thy will and affections the good heart is a broken but not a divided heart their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty Hos 10.2 the Lord liketh not to have his right parted with the naturall mother he will part with his right rather reason must become a captive and conscience an accuser will and affections flexible and laid downe at the feet of the Lord the heart contrite is the soule affected throughly the word signifieth a grinding to powder as of the corne betweene the milstones And great reason and ground is there for this the Lord besides his law delivered on the mount made us in Eden a new and everlasting covenant even that his holy sonne the essentiall image of his person should come in our nature by the price of redemption paid in his bloud to reconcile us to God so did the mighty God make a holy and speciall league with his mortall foe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle meerely for the good pleasure of his grace and bound himselfe by as free promise to make the faithfull his Church a joynture of all
the same yea though it have sinned much is yet such a worke of God wherein God cannot but bee well pleased From the heart are the issues of life and death it rowles the lower spheres with it and therefore though Davids eyes were adulterous his hands imbrued and his verie lips sealed up with his sinnes as we see at the fifteenth verse Yet no sooner doth the Lord open his mouth but his prayer is for his heart and spirit for till God give us grace to draine that fen or sinke of evill which is in our heart in vaine should we labour about our words or deeds And therefore Apollodorus in Plutarch dreamed that his body being cut in peeces and cast into a seething cauldron his heart leapt up and said Ego horum tibi causa fui I was the cause of all this mischiefe And therefore the Pharisies those old hypocrites when they cleansed but the outside Christ the second Elias called them vipers and a generation of vipers and bid them Mundare priùs quod intùs cleanse within first or be sincere at heart and humble that for till contrition come to the heart their religion like a mill it moved not without the wind of vaine glorie and the light of their good works the lampe of their charitie did not shine and burne without the oyle of mans praise they had no zeale but in publike and in the corners of the street whereas the heart once well affected and humbled then would they enter their closets to pray and seeke in their devotions not their owne but Gods glorie and though man would super-admire or deifie them for any their good deeds yet the heart well toucht with a sense of its owne infirmitie it would retaine its humilitie amidst the holiest and best performances it would give backe to God his due Of such behoofe is the broken heart the issue of it is sinceritie and that is the soule of all vertue and therefore the contrite heart is as wee see the verie center wherein the lines of Gods graces meet and to which they run and so it hath Gods speciall love and acceptation for its circumference O God thou wilt not despise The summons of death went out against Hezekiah hee retires like the Sunne in his diall he goeth backe to the Lord hee mournes in his prayer like a Dove he chatters like a Crane or Swallow and I have heard thy prayers I have seene thy teares behold saith the Lord I will adde unto thy dayes fifteene yeares Isa 38. The summons of death the threats of Gods Law and Word were read in the cares of Iosiah the King and his heart was tender hee humbled himselfe before the Lord hee rent his clothes hee wept sore and the Lord sent Huldah the Prophetesse to assure him that his contrition was not despised and he should bee gathered to his fathers in peace 2 King 22.19 The summons of death were out against Nineveh that great Citie and shee relents shee fits her downe in sack-cloth and turnes her silkes into ashes Peeres and people none excepted come downe è sâ—lio in solum and by and by the hand of vengeance that was waved over them is taken aside and the writ of bloud is reversed Surge desperatio vade ad Niniven Now rise despaire and goe to Nineveh Thinke how Nineveh was not refused though the cry of her sins went up to Heaven before the cry of her teares And who art thou then that sayest with Spira I cannot be saved or with Cain Major iniquitas Mine iniquitie is greater than God can forgiue Mentiris Cain Cain thou lyest saith Austen thy sinnes bee they in number as the haires of thine head Gods mercies are as the starres of Heaven above all his workes Can we with Elias surround our sacrifice with water our prayers and devotions with holy sorrow for the wants and defects of our devotions yea if but with sorrow for not sorrowing so heartily so earnestly as we ought the Lord will not despise us In ipsius praesentia nunquam supervacuae mendicant lachrymae veniam saith S. Cyprian Never did teares or true contrition beg before the Lord in vaine Nec unquam patitur repulsam contriti cordis holocaustum And never did the sacrifice of the broken heart finde repulse at the hands of God The Israel of God that ever is fighting with Ammon and conflicting to the verie Sun-setting and the man of God that still holds up his hands and prayes life and victorie is layd up for them in the bosome of Jesus Christ our Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 3. And now let him be hid to the world and despised that the verie abjects have him in derision his light shall breake forth like the Sun through the continuall intercession of Christ for him and all the world shall see that God will not despise him We see Gods manner or method Deducit ad inferos reducit When he brings a sinner to him hee leadeth him as he did the Israelites thorow a perillous wildernesse into Canaan thorow Hell to Heaven by mount Sinai to mount Sion thorow painfull contrition and sorrow and sense of his sinnes and corruptions to the consolations and peace of the Holy Ghost so that being well experienced in the miseries of his sinfull estate he shall feare to returne into Aegypt the bitter impression and sting of his sins which still remaineth it will be a checke to him from looking backe againe and this may be a reason of Gods dealing with us why hee accepts the sacrifice of our hearts contrite and broken But now if we shall feare to venture into the wayes of repentance and godlinesse for feare of losing our pleasures and being cast upon the paines of contrition prayer and watching we see the vanitie of that delusion because from being Benonies sons of sorrow the Lord maketh us to bee Benjamins sons of his owne right hand From a deluge of contrition to rinse us we come to enjoy the certificates of our peace like his heavenly raine-bow to strengthen us In sense of man Iobs contrition was ignis foeno like the fire to the stubble to undoe him or confound him but in truth and in the event it was ignis auro like fire to the gold to refiâ—e him and doe him good For his corruption we see assumeth incorruption and this vile bodie riseth up a glorious bodie Gods tender mercie a little bounded in for his triall like a river breaketh forth the more at the sluces of his repentance and contrition A broken and a contrite heart ô God thou wilt not despise Wherefore seeing the heart contrite is so acceptable an offering to the Lord let us from the little Spider learne here to begin our amendment let us begin to mend our web at the middle our contrition let us seek to bring it to the heart A cursorie confession a formall fast a coat of sack-cloth and the like can these quench the flames which sinne hath blowne and kindled Leave off renting your garments saith the Prophet and learne to unharden your hearts the contrite heart is the oblation that God will not despise The Romish Votarie or Secluse how often is her eye cast downe and heavie when her heart is an Aetna of vicious affections How seemes the Jesuite as if with S. Paul he were crucified to the world and the world to him when his spirit is with Lucifer in the clouds contriving combustions of State How broken abject and vile seeme their begging Orders being men of another mould indeed just like the Comedians who play and act the siege of Troy and the teares of Priam without all sense or touch of that griefe at the heart True acceptable contrition runs and goes in another straine by inward smart and groanes of heart and spirit it prayes it vowes it powres out the soule before the Lord Lam. 2. Like the parched earth it gaspes towards Heaven as if it would devoure the clouds it wrestleth with the Lord like Iacob with strong supplications it repents from the verie heart root and the savour of this incense ascends before the throne of the Lord and returnes not without a blessing yea not without some inward pledge in the issue and experience of Gods mercie and remission The stroke of an wholly accusing guiltie heart is heavie exiccat ossa Prov. 17. but the joy of the contrite repenting heart is incredible it is sanitas carnium Prov. 14. So sweet are the issues of the contrite heart that iâ—… sense thereof Iob feeleth not the witnesse of man against him because God would witnesse for him Iob. 31. and when our hearts dare indeed witnesse to us that we are contrite or doe unâ—einedly repent this makes glad the heart and is a continuall Jubilee because it is the co-witnesse with Gods spirit that we are his that God hath accepted us A broken and a contrite heart ô God thou wilt not despise FINIS Errata PAg. 10. lin 4. for no read not pag. ib. lin 35. for nured read inured p. 11. l 19. read cover and hide p. ib. l. 33. for exacts read exact p. 14. l. 19 20. read in that verie day