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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20637	LXXX sermons preached by that learned and reverend divine, Iohn Donne, Dr in Divinity, late Deane of the cathedrall church of S. Pauls London	Donne, John, 1572-1631.; Donne, John, 1604-1662.; Merian, Matthaeus, 1593-1650, engraver.; Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.	1640 (1640)	STC 7038; ESTC S121697	1,472,759	883

be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost yet we see out of the formes of the Heretiques themselves still so farre as they conceived the Godhead to extend so farre they extended Glory in that holy acclamation those who beleeved not the Son to be God or the Holy Ghost not to be God left out Glory when they came to their Persons but to him that is God in all confessions Glory appertains Now Glory is Clara cum laude notitia sayes S. Ambrose It is an evident knowledge and acknowledgement of God by which others come to know him too which acknowledgement is well called a recognition for it is a second a ruminated a reflected knowledge Beasts doe remember but they doe not remember that they remember they doe not reflect upon it which is that that constitutes memory Every carnall and naturall man knowes God but the acknowledgement the recognition the manifestation of the greatnesse and goodnesse of God accompanied with praise of him for that this appertaines to the godly man and this constitutes glory If God have delivered me from a sicknesse and I doe not glorifie him for that that is make others know his goodnesse to me my sicknesse is but changed to a spirituall apoplexy to a lethargy to a stupefaction If God have delivered us from destruction in the bowels of the Sea in an Invasion and from destruction in the bowels of the earth in the Powder-treason and we grow faint in the publication of our thanks for this deliverance our punishment is but aggravated for we shall be destroyed both for those old sins which induced those attempts of those destructions and for this later and greater sin of forgetting those deliverances God requires nothing else but he requires that Glory and Praise And that booke of the Scriptures of which S. Basil sayes That if all the other parts of Scripture could perish yet out of that booke alone we might have enough for all uses for Catechizing for Preaching for Disputing That whole Booke which containes all subjects that appertaine to Religion is called altogether Sepher Tehillim The Booke of praises for all our Religion is Praise And of that Book every particular Psalme is appointed by the Church and continued at least for a thousand and two hundred yeares to be shut up with that humble and glorious acclamation Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost O that men would therefore praise the Lord and declare the wonderfull works that he doth for the sons of men Nil quisquam debet nisi quod turpe est non reddere sayes the Law It is Turpe an infamous and ignominious thing not to pay debt And infamous and ignominious are heavy and reproachfull words in the Law and the Gospell would adde to that Turpe Impium It is not onely an infamous but an impious an irreligious thing not to pay debts As in debts the State and the Judge is my security they undertake I shall be paid or they execute Judgement so consider our selves as Christians God is my security and he will punish where I am defrauded Either thou owest God nothing And then if thou owe him nothing from whom or from what hath shestollen that face that is faire or he that estate that is rich or that office that commands others or that learning and those orders and commission that preaches to others or they their soules that understand me now If you owe nothing from whom had you all these all this Or if thou dost owe Turpe est Impium est It is an unworthy it is an unhonest it is an irreligious thing not to pay him in that money which his owne Spirit mints and coynes in thee and of his owne bullion too praise and thanksgiving Not to pay him then when he himselfe gives thee the money that must pay him the Spirit of Thankfulnesse falls under all the reproaches that Law or Gospell can inflict in any names How many men have we seene molder and crumble away great estates and yet pay no debts It is all our cases What Poems and what Orations we make how industrious and witty we are to over-praise men and never give God his due praise Nay how often is the Pulpit it selfe made the shop and the Theatre of praise upon present men and God left out How often is that called a Sermon that speakes more of Great men Psal 148.2 then of our great God Laudate eum omnes Augeli ejus laudate eum omnes virtutes ejus David calls upon the Angels and all the Host of Heaven to praise God and in the Romane Church they will employ willingly all their praise upon the Angels and the Host of Heaven it selfe and this is not reddere debitum here is mony enough spent but no debt paid praise enough given but not to the true God Ver. 10. Laudate eum ligna fructifera universa pecora volucres pennatae sayes David there David calls upon fruits and fowle and cattle to praise God and we praise and set forth our lands and fruits and fowle and cattle with all Hyperbolicall praises and this is not reddere debitum no paiment of a debt where it is due Laudate eum juvenes senes virgines sayes David too He calls upon old men and young men and virgins to praise the Lord and we spend all our praises upon young men which are growing up in favour or upon old men who have the government in their hands or upon maidens towards whom our affections have transported us and all this is no paiment of the debt of praise Laudate eum Reges terrae Principes omnes Iudices V. 11. He calls upon Kings and Judges and Magistrates to praise God and we employ all our praise upon the actions of those persons themselves Beloved God cannot be flattered he cannot be over-praised we can speake nothing Hyperbolically of God But he cannot be mocked neither He will not be told I have praised thee in praising thy creature which is thine Image would that discharge any of my debt to a Merchant to tell him that I had bestowed as much or more mony then my debt upon his picture Though Princes and Judges and Magistrates be pictures and Images of God though beauty and riches and honour and power and favour be in a proportion so too yet as I bought not that Merchants picture because it was his or for love of him but because it was a good peece and of a good Masters hand and a good house-ornament so though I spend my nights and dayes and thoughts and spirits and words and preaching and writing upon Princes and Judges and Magistrates and persons of estimation and their praise yet my intention determines in that use which I have of their favour and respects not the glory of God in them and when I have spent my selfe to the last farthing my lungs to the last breath my wit

the sorenesse of Circumcision they slew them all Gods justice required bloud but that bloud is not spilt but poured from that head to our hearts into the veines and wounds of our owne soules There was bloud shed but no bloud lost Before the Law was thorowly established when Moses came downe from God and deprehended the people in that Idolatry to the Calfe before he would present himselfe as a Mediator betweene God and them Exod. 32.28 32. for that sinne he prepares a sacrifice of bloud in the execution of three thousand of those Idolaters and after that he came to his vehement prayer in their behalfe And in the strength of the Law Heb. 9 22. all things were purged with bloud and without bloud there is no remission Whether we place the reason of this in Gods Justice which required bloud or whether we place it in the conveniency that bloud being ordinarily received to be sedes animae the seat and residence of the soule The soule for which that expiation was to be could not be better represented nor purified then in the state and seat of the soule in bloud or whether we shut up our selves in an humble sobriety to inquire into the reasons of Gods actions thus we see it was no peace no remission but in bloud Nor is that so strange as that which followes in the next place per sanguinem ejus by his bloud Before Per sanguinem ejus Psal 50.10 under the Law it was in sanguine hircorum vitulorum In the bloud of Goats and Bullocks here it is in sanguine ejus in his bloud Not his as he claims all the beasts of the forrest all the cattle upon a thousand hils and all the fowles of the mountaines to be his not his as he sayes of Gold and Silver The Silver is mine and the Gold is mine Hag. 2.8 not his as he is Lord and proprietary of all by Creation so all bloud is his no nor his as the bloud of all the Martyrs was his bloud which is a neare relation and consanguinity but his so as it was the precious bloud of his body the seat of his soule the matter of his spirits the knot of his life This bloud he shed for me and I have bloud to shed for him too though he call me not to the tryall nor to the glory of Martyrdome Sanguis animae meae voluntas mea The bloud of my soule is my will Bern. Scindatur vena ferro compunctionis open a veine with that knife remorce compunction ut si non sensus certe consensus peccati effluat That though thou canst not bleed out all motions to sinne thou maist all consent thereunto Noli esse nimium justus noli sapere plus quam oportet St. Bernard makes this use of those Counsels Be not righteous overmuch nor be not overwise Ecces 7.16 Cui putas venae parcendum si justitia sapientia egent minutione what veine maist thou spare if thou must open those two veines righteousnesse and wisedome If they may be superfluously abundant if thou must bleed out some of thy Righteousnesse and some of thy wisedome cui venae parcendum at what veine must thou not bleed Tostat in Levit fo 45. D. Now in all sacrifices where bloud was to be offerd the fat was to be offerd to If thou wilt sacrifice the bloud of thy soule as St. Bernard cals the will sacrifice the fat too If thou give over thy purpose of continuing in thy sin give over the memory of it and give over all that thou possessest unjustly and corruptly got by that sinne else thou keepest the fat from God though thou give him the bloud If God had given over at his second daies work we had had no sunne no seasons If at his fift we had had no beeing If at the sixt no Sabbath but by proceeding to the seventh we are all and we have all Naaman 2 Reg. 5.14 who was out of the covenant yet by washing in Jordan seven times was cured of his leprosie seaven times did it even in him but lesse did not Tostat in Levit 4. q. 16. The Priest in the Law used a seven-fold sprinkling of bloud upon the Altar and we observe a seven-fold shedding of bloud in Christ In his Circumcision and in his Agony in his fulfilling of that Prophesie gen as vellicantibus I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the haire and in his scourging Esay 50.6 in his crowning and in his nayling and lastly in the piercing of his side These seven channels hath the bloud of thy Saviour found Poure out the bloud of thy soule sacrifice thy stubborne and rebellious will seaven times too seaven times that is every day and seaven times every day for so often a just man falleth And then Prov. 24.16 how low must that man lie at last if he fall so often and never rise upon any fall and therefore raise thy self as often and as soone as thou fallest Iericho would not fall Jos 6. but by being compassed seaven dayes and seaven times in one day Compasse thy selfe comprehend thy selfe seaven times many times and thou shalt have thy losse of bloud supplied with better bloud with a true sense of that peace which he hath already made and made by bloud and by his owne bloud and by the bloud of his Crosse which is the last branch of this second part Greater love hath no man then to lay downe his life for his friend yet he that said so Crux Joh. 15.13 did more then so more then lay downe his life for he exposed it to violences and torments and all that for his enemies But doth not the necessity diminish the love where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator Heb. 9.16 was there then a necessity in Christs dying simply a necessity of coaction there was not such as is in the death of other men naturall or violent by the hand of Justice There was nothing more arbitrary more voluntary more spontaneous then all that Christ did for man And if you could consider a time before the contract between the Father and him had passed for the redemption of man by his death we might say that then there was no necessity upon Christ that he must dye But because that contract was from all eternity Luc. 24.26 supposing that contract that this peace was to be made by his death there entred the oportuit pati That Christ ought to suffer all these things and to enter into his glory And so as for his death so for the manner of his death by the Crosse it was not of absolute necessity and yet it was not by casualty neither not because he was to suffer in that Nation which did ordinarily punish such Malefactors such as he was accused to be seditious persons with that manner of death but all this proceeded ex

sheep God and Man Him and Them Them indefinitely all them all men I came sayes Christ I alone that they all they might have life And secondly we consider the action it self as it is wrapped up in this word veni I came for that is first that he who was alwaies omnipresent every where before did yet study a new way of comming communicating himself with man veni I came that is novo modo veni I came by a new way And then that he who fed his former stock but with Prophesies and promises that he would come feeds us now with actuall performances with his reall presence and the exhibition of himself And lastly we shall consider the end the purpose the benefit of his comming which is life And first ut daret that he might give life bring life offer life to the world which is one mercy and then ut haberent that we might have it embrace it possesse it which is another and after both a greater then both that we might have this life abundantiùs more abundantly which is first abundantiùs illis more abundantly then other men of this world and then abundantiùs ipsis more abundantly then we our selves had it in this world in the world to come for therefore he came that we might have life and might have it more abundantly First then in our first part we consider the Persons The Shepheard and the Sheepe 1 Part. Persone Him and Them God and Man of which Persons the one for his Greatnesse God the other for his littlenesse man can scarce fall under any consideration What eye can fixe it self upon East and West at once And he must see more then East and West that sees God for God spreads infinitely beyond both God alone is all not onely all that is but all that is not all that might be if he would have it be God is too large too immense and then man is too narrow too little to be considered for who can fixe his eye upon an Atome and he must see a lesse thing then an Atome that sees man for man is nothing First for the incomprehensiblenesse of God the understanding of man Deus hath a limited a determined latitude it is an intelligence able to move that Spheare which it is fixed to but could not move a greater I can comprehend naturam naturatam created nature but for that natura naturans God himselfe the understanding of man cannot comprehend I can see the Sun in a looking-glasse but the nature and the whole working of the Sun I cannot see in that glasse I can see God in the creature but the nature the essence the secret purposes of God I cannot see there There is defatigatio in intellectualibus sayes the saddest and soundest of the Hebrew Rabbins R. Moses the soule may be tired as well as the body and the understanding dazeled as well as the eye It is a good note of the same Rabbi upon those words of Solomon fill not thy selfe with hony lest thou vomit it that it is not said that if thou beest cloyd with it thou maist be distasted Pro. 25.16 disaffected towards it after but thou maist vomit it and a vomit works so as that it does not onely bring up that which was then but that also which was formerly taken Curious men busie themselves so much upon speculative subtilties as that they desert and abandon the solid foundations of Religion and that is a dangerous vomit To search so farre into the nature and unrevealed purposes of God as to forget the nature and duties of man this is a shrewd surfet though of hony and a dangerous vomit It is not needfull for thee to see the things that are in secret sayes the wife man nonindiges Ecclus. 3.23 thou needest not that knowledge Thou maist doe well enough in this world and bee Gods good servant and doe well enough in the next world and bee a glorious Saint and yet never search into Gods secrets Ps 65.1 Te decet Hymnus so the vulgar reades that place To thee O Lord belong our Hymnes our Psalmes our Prayses our cheerefull acclamations and conformably to that we translate it Praise waiteth for thee O God in Sion But if we will take it according to the Originall it must be Tibi silentium laus est Thy praise O Lord consists in silence That that man praises God best that sayes least of him of him that is of his nature of his essence of his unrevealed will and secret purposes O that men would praise the Lord is Davids provocation to us all but how O that men would praise the Lord and declare his wondrous works to the sons of men but not to goe about to declare his unrevealed Decrees or secret purposes is as good a way of praising him as the other And therefore O that men would praise the Lord so forbeare his Majesty when he is retired into himselfe in his Decrees and magnifie his Majesty as he manifests himselfe to us in the execution of those Decrees of which this in our Text is a great one that he that is infinitely more then all descended to him that is infinitely lesse then nothing which is the other person whom we are to consider in this part ille illis I to them God to us The Hebrew Doctors almost every where repeat that adage of theirs lex loquitur linguam filiorum hominum Illis God speakes mens language that is the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures descends to the capacity and understanding of man and so presents God in the faculties of the minde of man and in the lineaments of the body of man But yet say they there is never braine nor liver nor spleene nor any other inward part ascribed to God but onely the heart God is all heart and that whole heart that inexhaustible fountaine of love is directed wholly upon man And then though in the Scriptures those bodily lineaments head and feet and hands and eyes and eares be ascribed to God God is never said to have shoulders for say they shoulders are the subjects of burdens and therein the figures of patience and so God is all shoulder all patience he heares patiently he sees patiently he speakes patiently he dyes patiently And is there a patience beyond that In Christ there is he suffers patiently a quotidian Crucifying we kill the Lord of Life every day every day we make a mock of Christ Jesus and tread the blood of the Covenant under our feet every day And as though all his passion and blood and wounds and heart were spent by our former oathes and blasphemies we crucifie him dayly by our dayly sins that we might have new blood and heart and wounds to sweare by and all this hee suffers patiently and after all this ille illis to this man this God comes He to us God to man all to nothing for upon that we insist first as the first

of all And if there should be no other bodies in heaven then his yet yet now he is Lord of all as he is Head of the Church Aske of me sayes his Father and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance Psal 2.8 and the utter most parts of the Earth for thy possession And as it is added ver 6. I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion So he hath made him Lord Head of the Jews and of the Gentiles too of Sion and of the Nations also Hee hath consecrated his person raised his humane nature to the glorious region of blessed Spirits to Heaven and he hath dignified him with an office made him Lord Head of the Church not only of Jews and Gentiles upon earth but of the Militant and Triumphant Church too Our two generall parts were Scientia 2. Part. modus what we must all know and by what we must know it Our knowledge is this Exaltation of Jesus and our meanes is implied in the first word of the Text Therefore Therefore Therefore because he is raised from the Dead for to that Resurrection expressed in three or foure severall phrases before the Text is this Text and this Exaltation referred Christ was delivered for our sins raised for our justification and upon that depends all Christs descending into hell and his Resurrection in our Creed make but one Article and in our Creed we beleeve them both alike Quis nisi Infidelis negaverit apud inferos fuisse Christum saies S. Augustine Who but an Infidell will deny Christs descending into hell And if he beleeve that to be a limme of the article of the Resurrection His descent into hell must rather be an inchoation of his triumph then a consummation of his Exinanition The first step of his Exaltation there rather then the last step of his Passion upon the Crosse But the Declaration the Manifestation that which admits no disputation was his Resurrection Factus id est declaratus per Resurrectionem saies S. Cyrill He was made Christ and Lord that is declared evidently to be so 1 Cor. 1.20 by his Resurrection As there is the like phrase in S. Paul God hath made the wisdome of this world foolishnesse that is declared it to be so And therefore it is imputed to be a crucifying of the Lord Jesus againe Heb. 6.6 Non credere eum post mortem immortalem Not to beleeve that now after his having overcome death in his Resurrection he is in an immortall and in a glorious state in heaven For when the Apostle argues thus 1 Cor. 15.14 If Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vaine and your faith in vaine he implies the contrary too If you beleeve the Resurrection we have preached to good purpose Mortuum esse Christum August pagani credunt resurrexisse propria fides Christianorum The Heathen confesse Christs death To beleeve his Resurrection is the proper character of a Christian for the first stone of the Christian faith was laid in this article of the Resurrection In the Resurrection onely was the first promise performed Ipse conteret He shall bruise the Serpents head for in this he triumphed over Death and Hell And the last stone of our faith is laid in the same article too that is the day of Judgement of a day of Judgement God hath given an assurance unto all men saies S. Paul at Athens In that he hath raised Christ Iesus from the dead Acts 17.31 In this Christ makes up his circle in this he is truly Alpha and Omega His comming in Paradise in a promise his comming to Judgement in the clouds are tied together in the Resurrection And therefore all the Gospell all our preaching is contracted to that one text To beare witnesse of the Resurrection onely for that Acts 1.22 was there need of a new Apostle There was a necessity of one to be chosen in Iudas roome to be a witnesse of the Resurrection Non ait caeterorum sed tantùm Resurrectionis saies S. Chrysostome He does not say to beare witnesse of the other articles but onely of the Resurrection he charges him with no more instructions he needs no more in his Commission but to preach the Resurrection Athan. for in that Trophaeum de morte excitavit indubitatum reddidit corruptionem deletam Here is a retreat from the whole warfare here is a Trophee erected upon the last enemy The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death and here is the death of that enemy in the Resurrection And therefore to all those who importuned him for a signe Christ still turnes upon the Resurrection Iohn 2.38 Mat. 12.38 The Jewes pressed him in generall Quod signum What signe showest thou unto us and he answers Destroy this Temple this body and in three dayes I will raise it In another place the Scribes and the Pharisees joyne Master we would see a signe from thee and he tels them There shall be no signe but the signe of the Prophet Ionas who was a type of the Resurrection And then the Pharisees and Sadduces joyn now they were bitter enemies to one another but as Tertullian saies Semper inter duos latrones crucifixus Christus It was alwaies Christs case to be crucified betweene two Thieves So these though enemies joyne in this vexation They aske a signe as the rest and as to the rest Christ gives that answer of Ionas So that Christ himselfe determines all summes up all in this one Article the Resurrection Now Nos if the Resurrection of this Jesus have made him not onely Christ Anointed and consecrated in Heaven in his owne person but made him Lord then he hath Subjects upon whom that dominion and that power works and so we have assurance of a resurrection in him too That he is made Lord of us by his Resurrection is rooted in prophecie It pleased the Lord to bruise him saies the Prophet Esay But he shall see his seed Esay 53.10 and he shall prolong his daies that is he shall see those that are regenerate in him live with him forever It is rooted in prophecy and it spreads forth in the Gospell To this end saies the Apostle Christ died and rose that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living Now Rom. 14.9 Gregor what kinde of Lord if he had no subjects Cum videmus caput super aquas when the head is above water will any imagine the body to be drowned What a perverse consideration were it to imagine a live head and dead members Or consider our bodies in our selves and Our bodies are Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall the Temples of the holy Ghost lye for ever for ever buried in their rubbidge They shall not for the day of Judgement is the day of Regeneration as it is called in the Gospell Mat. 19.28 August Quia caro nostra ita generabitur per

thee and thou shalt feele him begin to storme and at first that spirit thy spirit 1 Kings 18. will say to the spirit of the Preacher Tune qui conturbas Art thou he that troublest Israel as Ahab said to Eliah Art thou he that troublest the peace of my conscience and the security of my wayes And when the Spirit of God shall search farther and farther even ad occulta to thy secretest sins and touch upon them and that that spirit of disobedience 1 King 21.20 when he feeles this powerfull Exorcisme shall say in thee and cry as Ahab also did Invenisti me Hast thou found me O mine enemy God shall answer Inveni te I have found thee and found that thou hadst sold thy selfe to worke wickednesse in the sight of the Lord And so shall bring thee to a more particular consideration of thine estate and from thy having joyned with the Church Psal 1●2 13 in a Dominus miserebitur Sion In an assurance and acknowledgement that the Lord will arise and have mercy upon Sion that is of his whole Catholique Church Psal 67.1 And then come to a Dominus misereatur nostri God be mercifull unto us and blesse us and cause his face to shine upon us upon us that are met here according to his Ordinance and in confidence of his promise upon this Congregation of which thou makest thy selfe a part thou wilt also come to this of David here Domine miserere mei Have mercy upon me me in particular and thou shalt heare God answer thee Miserans miserebor tibi With great mercy will I have mercy upon thee upon thee For with him is plentifull Redemption Mercy for his whole Church mercy for this whole Congregation mercy for every particular soule that makes her selfe a part of the Congregation Accustome thy selfe therefore to a generall devotion to a generall application to generall ejaculations towards God upon every occasion and then as a wedge of gold that comes to be coyned into particular pieces of currant money the Lord shall stamp his Image upon all thy devotions and bring thee to particular confessions of thy sins and to particular prayers for thy particular necessities And this we may well conceive and admit to be the nature of Davids first prayer Miserere mei Have mercy upon me And then the reason upon which this first petition is grounded for so it will be fittest to handle the parts first the prayer and then the reason is Quia infirmus Have mercy upon me for I am weak First then Quia how imperfect how weak soever our prayers be yet still if it be a prayer it hath a Quia a Reason upon which it is grounded It hath in it some implied some interpretative consideration of ourselves how it becomes us to aske that which wee doe ask at Gods hand and it hath some implied and interpretative consideration of God how it conduces to Gods glory to grant it for that prayer is very farre from faith which is not made so much as with reason with a consideration of some possibility and some conveniency in it Every man that sayes Lord Lord enters not into heaven Every Lord Lord that is said enters not into heaven but vanishes in the ayre A prayer must be with a serious purpose to pray for else those fashionall and customary prayers are but false fires without shot they batter not heaven It is but an Interjection that slips in It is but a Parenthesis that might be left out whatsoever is uttered in the manner of a prayer if it have not a Quia a Reason a ground for it And therefore when our Saviour Christ gave us that forme of prayer which includes all he gave us in it a forme of the reason too Quia tuum For thine is the Kingdome c. It were not a prayer to say Adveniat Regnum Thy Kingdome come if it were not grounded upon that faithfull assurance that God hath a Kingdomehere Nor to say Sanctificetur nomen Hallowed be thy name If he desired not to be glorified by us Nor to aske daily bread nor forgivenesse of sins but for the Quia potestas Because he hath all these in his power We consider this first accesse to God Miserere mei Have mercy upon me to be but a kind of imperfect prayer but the first step but it were none at all if it had no reason and therefore it hath this Quia infirmus Because I am weake This reason of our own weaknesse is a good motive for mercy Quia infirmus Iohn 11.3 if in a desire of farther strength we come to that of La●arus sisters to Christ Ecce quam amas infirmatur Behold Lord that soule that thou lovest and hast dyed for is weak and languishes Christ answered then Non est infirmitas ad mortem This weaknesse is not unto death but that the Son of God might be glorified He will say so to thee too if thou present thy weaknesse with a desire of strength from him he will say Quare moriemini domus Israel why will ye die of this disease Gratia mea sufficit you may recover for all this you may repent you may abstaine from this sin you may take this spirituall physick the Word the Sacraments if you will Tantummodo robustus esto as God sayes to Ioshuah Only be valiant and fight against it and thou shalt finde strength grow in the use thereof But for the most part De infirmitate blandimur sayes S. Bernard De gradibus humilitatis we flatter our selves with an opinion of weaknesse ut liberiùs peccemus libenter infirmamur we are glad of this naturall and corrupt weaknesse that we may impute all our licentiousnesse to our weaknesse and naturall infirmity But did that excuse Adam sayes that Father Quòd per uxorem tanquam per carnis infirmitatem peceavit That he took his occasion of sinning from his weaker part from his wife Quia infirmus That thou art weak of thy selfe is a just motive to induce God to bring thee to himselfe Qui verè portavit languores tuos who hath surely borne all thine infirmities Esay 53.4 But to leave him againe when he hath brought thee to refuse so light and easie yoake as his is not to make use of that strength which he by his grace offers thee this is not the affection of the Spouse Languor amantis when the person languishes for the love of Christ but it is Languor amoris when the love of Christ languishes in that person And therefore if you be come so far with David as to this Miserere quia infirmus that an apprehension of your owne weaknesse have brought you to him in a prayer for mercy and more strength goe forward with him still to his next Petition Sana me O Lord heale me for God is alwayes ready to build upon his owne foundations and accomplish his owne beginnings Acceptus in gratiam hilariter veni ad