them For we must not think that all is done in a Gloria Deo or that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of spell in the very words For what is more easie than a song of praise what is sooner said then a Doxologie If to draw near to God with the mouth and the lips be to honor him we are Angels all No as St. Paul tells us that the Woman is the glory of the Man when she is subject to him so are we the glory of God when we are obedient to his will And if our Prayers and our Praises flow from a grateful heart which is truly his fashioned and prepared as he would have it then are they sacrifices of a sweet smelling favour unto God Not that from hence there accrues to him any thing by way of access or addition For no quire of Angels can improve no roaring Devil can diminish his glory Ille quod est semper est sicut est ita est What he is he alwayes is and as he is so he is in the midst of the noyse of Seraphim and Cherubim of Men or Devils But because it cannot but be well pleasing unto him to see his creature answer to that pattern which himself hath set to be what it should be and what he intended For as every Artificer is delighted in his work when he sees it finished according to the rule he wrought by and as we use to look upon the works of our hands or wits with favour and complacencie as we do upon our children when they are like us so doth God look upon his creature especially upon Man when he appears in that shape and form of obedience which he prescribed when he is what God would have him be when he doth not change the glory of God into an image made like unto corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things when he doth not take the member of Christ and make it the member of an harlot not prostitute that Understanding to folly which should know him nor that Will to vanity which should seek him nor fasten those Affections to the earth which should seek the things which are above when he falls not from his state and condition but is holy as God is holy merciful as he is merciful perfect as he is perfect Then God doth rejoyce over him as over the work of his hands as over his image and likeness not corrupted nor defaced Then is the Man nothing else but the glory and praise of his Maker Then the bowing of his Knee is worship the lifting up of his hands is prayer and his prayers and his praises are musick in the ears of God like unto that which the Angels and Archangels the Cherubim and Seraphim do make And to this end God hath done these great things for us to the praise of his glory as St. Paul repeats it again and again and that we may shew forth Ephes 1. 1 Pet. 2. 9. his praises that the Soul as Athanasius gives the resemblance may be as a skilful Musitian and the Body as a Harp or Lute which she may tune and touch till it yield a celestial harmony that the whole man may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and make up a GLORIA DEO in a compleat and perfect harmony that the love of Gods Glory may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum eructet à conscientia in superficiem ut forìs inspiciat quasi supellectilem suam that the Soul may not be able to contein her self within the compass of the heart but evaporate from the mind into the outward gesture and break forth out of the conscience into the voice open her shop and wares and behold her own provision and furniture abroad that so she may make-up that circular motion which the Father speaks of first look upon God then draw back into her self then after some reverent pause collect her self then call all her faculties together and at last take-in and command all the members of the body and make her Doxologie perfect and compleat This must be our constant practice here on earth that our praise may continually ascend for us into heaven If we leave-out Gods Glory we lose the benefit of assurance we might have of the other two God will be our King indeed but not protect us and we shall feel his power but to our destruction We deceive our selves if we think there is no Anthem to be sung but in heaven nor Hallelu-jah to be chanted-out but by the Angels or that we cannot glorifie God till he hath glorified us It is indeed the Angels work But candidati Angelorum nos ediscimus canticum laudis when we learn and study this we stand in competition for an Angels place And our Glorifying God here in our earthly members is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prologue and preface to that which we shall be and act hereafter It was a phansie which possessed many of the Heathen That men after death should much desire and often handle those things which did most take and affect them in their life-time So Lucian brings in Priams young son in heaven calling for milk and cheese and such country-cates as he most delighted in on earth Even now saith Maximus Tyrius Aesculapius ministreth Physick Hercules tryes the strength of his arm Castor and Pollux are under sail Minos is on the bench and Achilles in arms And this indeed is but a phansie for when our breath departeth these our thoughts perish and all things shall end with the world War and Navigation and Physick Yet it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect whose life is Grace and eternity Glory Which is nothing else saith Gerson but gratia consummata nullatenus impedita Grace made perfect and consummate finding no opposition no temptation to fight with For though there will be no place for Alms where there is no poverty no use of Prayers where there is no want no need of Meekness where there can be no injury yet to Praise and Glorifie and Worship God are everlasting offices to be performed here by us on earth and to be continued by us in heaven when we shall be made equal to the Angels This is a duty without which Prayer cannot subsist but breaths it self into the air and vanisheth or rather ascends to pull-down a curse for a blessing Therefore it is fitted to all sorts of men As indeed the best and most excellent parts of Religion are common to all without exception of Quality Age Time Place or Sex as a Hymn set to every voice The Jews were wont to give out the books of holy Scripture to be read respectively to the abilities of men Some were permitted to the Vulgar the rest were lockt-up and permitted only to be read by the Learned This Doxologie admits no such restraint Arator ad stivam The plowman at the plow may sing Hallelujah as well as the greatest Clerk and profoundest Doctor Again when the Athenians met together in their Senate it was not lawful for men of all ages to speak therefore it was proclaimed by a publick cryer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is there any above fity years of age let him speak But here it is Young men and maids old men and children all must praise the name of the Lord. Young or old it skils not in our sacred Senate and holy Assemblies Yea children adhuc dimidiata verba tentantes as yet scarsly able to apply their tongue to the roof of their mouth must practise this duty For as earthly Fathers think loquelam liberorum ipso offensantis linguae fragmine dulciorem as Minutius speaks their little childrens first broken and imperfect prattle pleasantest so to our heavenly Father who opens the mouths of babes and sucklings it is a thing very pleasant to hear parvulorum adhuc linguas balbutientes Christo Hallelujah resonare as St. Hierom speaks to hear even children in their imperfect language sing his praise Thirdly amongst the superstitious ceremonies of the Heathen there were many things which might not be said or done but in their Temples and at solemn Meetings and therefore Alcibiades was called in question at Athens for no less then his life because he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 utter amongst his companions such things as he had seen in their sacred mysteries falsly so called But this duty is not restrained to any place The Church or our private house or whatsoever place else are all alike Ecce Rhodus ecce saltus Every place we stand in is holy ground Again some Nations have shewed themselves so superstitious that as if Words were like Garments some peculiar to Men some to Women they ordained that some things ought not to be spoken by Men some by Women So amongst the Romans it was not lawful for Men to swear by their Goddess Ceres nor for Women by their God Hercules But as this Doxologie admits of no difference of Place or Person so neither of Sex but is a duty which concerns all Kings of the earth and all people young and old rich and poor And it is very meet right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee O Lord holy Father eternal King almighty and everlasting that thy praise should be in our mouth continually even IN SECULA SECULORUM for ever and ever AMEN And with this we end and shut-up all our Meditations upon this excellent Form of Prayer ascribing to this our King even to the King of Kings God the Father God the Son and God the holy Ghost all honour and majesty and power and dominion and glory now and for evermore Errata of the two Sermons PAge 3. l. 3. r. and. l. 9. r. natural obliquity l. 50. add with Reverence p. 4. l. 46. r. when p. 7. l. 21. r. self-love p. 15. l. 43. add to p. 16. l. 1. r. Rome l. 2. r. before there was a law to punish paricide ib. l. 55. r. which p. 18. l. 8. r. Then p. 23. l. 51. r. Give Alms of such things as you have and behold all things are clean unto you p. 25. l. 26. dele again FINIS
commit Adultery but did you never cast a lascivious glance Perhaps you did never stab a man with your dagger but did you never run one through with your tongue and though you did not kill your Brother yet have you not been so much as angry with him without a cause Now he that commits the least sin deserves the Curse as well as he that commits the greatest for as St. James excellently gives the reason for the same God did forbid one as the other and he who stands at the door here is as well out of the Church as he who is 1000 miles off though not so far He that saith he hath no sin lyes saith the Apostle at the very heart he lyes St. Paul knew nothing by himself yet for all that he would not quit himself but refers that wholly to God He that judges me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 4. who knew his heart better then he himself did And David cryes out Cleanse me from my secret sins O Lord Sins which fly our sight that steal from us in crouds or borrowed shapes so slighly as man who is the most absurd flatterer of himself cannot discern them As pride in decency malice in zeal hypocrisie in devotion boasting in charity covetousness and extortion under the name of providing for our families wherefore when we meet with those terms of Holy Just and Righteous given unto men in Scripture we must not conceive them so as if they were absolutely Just Holy and Righteous no more than we can say there is pure earth or pure water without the commixture of any other Element But when we are said to be innocent 't is either meant in foro humano because the Law of man can take no hold of us though God the searcher of all hearts may as St. Paul saith He was blameless but not perfect Phil. 3. Or as righteous Lot in wicked Sodom was because he loathed to do such horrid things as they did though he committed Incest so soon as ever he came forth or else because God seeing our Hearts and Intentions towards him is pleased to cover our slips and failings with his mercy as David is said to have done all things well excepting the matter of Uriah not that he could indeed clear himself from all guilt for whosoever marks his story will find many foul actions besides this of Uriah but because he did not lye dead in any sin but this for he had a Child before ever he thought he had committed Adultery The Prophet Habakkuk puts the Question into more reasonable terms who inquires not Why the wicked should devour the Righteous but Why the wicked should devour the man who is more righteous then he A man may be more righteous yet not righteous neither Perhaps he did not deserve it from this or that man but from God he did As David deserved not the disloyalty from Saul Absolom and his familiar Friend yet he deserved so much from God as it was counted an escape when his Child only lost his Life The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye saith Nathan to him But with what face can we complain against God We of this sottish and sinful Nation whose sins are risen so high as we may very well conclude we were markt out to fulfill all the wickedness which is to fore-run the day of Judgment Do we murmur because our fears have compassed us when our Sins have beset us round about A Nation wholly divided between Debauchery and Hypocrisie between open profaneness the Sin of Sodom and Lying unto God the Sin of those Priests and Elders which crucified our Saviour What if our Churches be thrown down when we have profaned them by our empty formality by bringing our Bodies thither but leaving our minds and hearts fast with some lust at home This this was the Idolatry they so often twitted us withal these were the Images and Pictures we set up in Churches our empty Bodies that stood here without Souls and Hearts to attends Gods Service What would we call God to protect Stones and Morter when nothing besides zeal holiness and fervency of Devotion these are the Encania which do sanctifie consecrate and make a Temple The last thing which moves us to ask this Question Why the wicked prosper is because we think them in a better condition then they are Envy not the ungodly sayes the Psalmist as if the main ground of our Impatience were our Envy because we so earnestly dote on these earthly vanities as we grow mad with such as injoyes them from us and charge the most righteous God for bestowing them on others as this very Prophet does in the seventh Chapter whereas we quite mistake their Condition The Objection supposes a false thing For wicked men did never prosper in the world unless you will call it Happiness for a man to assure Gods wrath upon himself and to have a liberty to improve his sins and increase his damnation and this he does if you will believe Scripture to be the word of God for this which you call prosperity engages us most certainly to punishment The threats of Jonah saved Niniveh though God had set down the very day in which he would destroy it But when we go finely on in a wicked course of life when we raise an Estate by false-dealing this flatters us to go still further to put off the evil day far from us and cause the Seat of violence to draw near us Amos 6. 3. to pull our Lusts still closer and closer to us but remove the thought of Gods Judgments farther and farther off till at last we will not believe that he does see that he does understand and which is worse till we imagine God approves and blesses our sins because we thrive by it like Ephraim who concluded God should find no iniquity in all his labours because he was rich when at that very time he held the ballance of deceit in his hands Hos 12. 8. It is the last of Gods Judgments when he throws away the Rod when he will smite us no more when he lays down his pruning knife and will dress his Vineyard no more when he will not pour us out and wrack us any longer bus lets us settle upon the Lees to putrifie and corrupt when God gives us over to our vile affections and delivers us over to Satan already when he hath bound up our sins in a bundle as the Prophet saith Hos 13. 12. and laid them by himself till the day of his Feast his Sacrifice his Banquet for these are the terms by the which the Scripture expresses Gods laughter mirth and jollity when he means to glut himself with the bloud of his Adversaries Again we do not only assure our Damnation but encrease it by our seeming Prosperity by having power to commit more and more sins to treasure up wrath to proceed from evil to evil to add iniquity to iniquity and so raise
they do well to be angry even to death but not at their sin of themselves but their brethren For Meekness and cruelty cannot harbor in the same breast Nor will it come near the habitations of Covetousness Ambition and Hypocrisie for where these make their entrance Meekness takes the wing and flyes away Therefore to conclude let us mark these men and avoid them as the Apostle counsels And though they bring us into bondage though they smite us on the face though they take from us all that we have let us pity them and send after them more then they desire our prayers that God will open their eyes that they may see the snare of the Devil which holds them fast while they defie him and all his works and what a poor and narrow space there is betwixt them and Hell while they think they are in the presence and favour of God In a word though they curse let us bless though they rage let us pray and as the Apostle counsels Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from us with all Eph. 4. 31 32. malice And let us be kind and meek one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us The Third SERMON PART III. MATTH V. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth WE cannot insist too long upon this subject yet we must insist longer then at first we did intend For this holy oyl like that of the Widows increaseth under our hands and flows more plentifully by being powred out That which our last reached unto you was the Object of Meekness which we found to be as large as the whole world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul Let your moderation be known unto all men For Meekness is not cloyster'd up within the walls of one Society nor doth it hide it self behind the curtains of Solomon but looks further upon the tents of Kedar upon Bethel and Bethaven We could not nor was it necessary to gather and fetch in all particulars but we then confined our meditations to those which we thought most pertinent and within their compass took in the rest which were Error in opinion and which is the greater error nay the greater heresie saith Erasmus Error in life and conversation Where we took off those common pretenses and excuses which Christians usually bring in as Advocates to plead for them when they forget that Meekness without which they cannot be Christians For what is in Error or in Sin which may raise my anger against my brother Errantis poena est doceri saith Plato If he erre his punishment is to be taught and if he sin we must molest and pursue him and beat upon him with line upon line with reprehension upon reprehension till we convert him If he erre why should I be angry and if he sin why should I hate him The way to uphold a falling House is not to demolish it nor is it the way to remove Sacriledge to beat the Temple down When we fight against Sin and Error we must make Christ our patern qui vulnus non hominem secat qui secat ut sanet who levels his hand and knife against the disease not against the man and never strikes but where he means to heal And now to add something which the time would not before permit Let us but a while put upon our selves the person of our adversaries and ours upon them and conceive it as possible for our selves to erre as for them and if we do not thus think we fall upon an error which will soon multiply and draw with it many more For we cannot erre more dangerously then by thinking we cannot erre And then to this let us joyn a prudent consideration of those truths wherein we both agree which peradventure may be more and more weighty then those in which we differ that so by the lustre and brightness of these the offence taken by the other may vanish as the mist before the Sun For why should they who agree in those truths that may lift them both up together to Heaven fall asunder and stand at distance as enemies for those which have no such force and activity This is to hazard the benefit of the one for the defense of the other and for the love of a truth not necessary to abate our love of that which should save us to forfeit our Charity in a violent contention for Faith and so be shut out of Heaven for our wild and impertinent knocking at the gates Therefore in all our disputes and debates with those whom we are so ready to condemn of error let us walk by this rule which Reason and Revelation have drawn out to be our guide and direction That no Text in Scripture can retain the sense and meaning of the blessed Spirit which doth not edifie in Charity Knowledge puffeth up swelleth us beyond our sphere and compass but it is Charity alone that doth edifie which in all things dictates what is expedient for all and so builds us up together in a holy Faith We cannot think that Doctrine can be of any use in the Church which exasperates and envenoms one man against another It is St. Bernards observation And therefore Moderation and Meekness is that Salt which Christ requires to be in us that wise and prudent seasoning Mark 5. 90. of our words that purging of our affections amongst which Ambitions and Envyings are the most violent Have this salt in your selves and then as it follows you shall have peace one with another And this Peace will beget in you a holy emulation to work out your eternal peace together with fear and trembling Secondly for Sin why judgest thou thy brother or so much forgettest that name as to be enraged against him The judgment is the Lord's who seeth things that are not as if they were What though he be fallen upon a stone and sore bruised he may be raised again and be built upon that foundation which is sure and hath this zeal The Lord knoweth who are his This open Profaner may become a zealous Professor this false witness may be a true Martyr this Persecutor of the Church may at last be a glorious member of it and a stout Champion for the Truth He that led the Saints bound to Jerusalem did himself afterwards rejoyce in his bonds and suffer and dye for that truth which he prosecuted The Apostle where he erects a kind of discipline amongst the Thessalonians thus 2 Thess 3. 14. draws it forth If any man obey not our word that is be refractory to the Gospel of Christ have no company with that man that he may be ashamed that seing others avoid him he may be forced to dwell at home to have recourse unto himself to hold colloquy with his own soul and to find out the plague in his heart which makes him thus like a Pelican in
ventures upon Christians in their childhood in their spring in their new birth that they may never grow up to the stature of men be seen in their blossom but not in their blade or ear that they may never be perfect men in Christ Jesus Thus he set upon the first Adam and thus he set upon the second and thus he sets upon the sons of Adam We shall briefly lay before you both the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Doctrine and the Reason and shew you both that it is so and why it is so That the Devil takes his time and opportunity and the reason Why he takes this as his time And with these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time Then was Jesus led forth By this example of our Captain we his Souldiers may learn what to expect and draw that lesson for our direction which the Wise-man gave his son My son if thou come to serve the Lord Ecclus. 2. 1. prepare thy soul for tentation No Moses but meets with a James and Jambres to withstand him no Samson but shall meet with the Philistines If Nehemiah will build up Jerusalem there will be Samballats and Tobiahs to weaken his hand from the work that it be not done If Jeremiah prophesie the Princes will put him in prison If there be a great door and effectually opened to St. Paul there will be many enemies If we run not on to the same riot with the world the world will run against us to overthrow us If we turn our face from the Devil he will after us to give us a fall Still the better the work is the more resistance and opposition it shall find We read that the children of Israel gathered together to Mispeh and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted that day and 1 Sam. 7. 6. said there We have sinned against the Lord that is They abjured their sins they washed them with their tears they macerated their bodies with fasting they put on a strong resolution to serve the Lord. And see The Philistines no sooner heard of it but suddenly upon the very report the Lords of the Philistines went up against them Now they had cast away from them their false Gods and had solemnly kept the Fast not a few souldiers but the Princes and Lords of the Philistines are up in arms And Gregory gives the reason Quia cum altiori vitâ proficimus maligni spiritus qui semper benè agentibus invident nobis infestiores sunt Because the evil Spirits are most enraged when we are least like them and the Devil is never more a Devil then when we have renounced him For he deals with us as Laban did with Jacob. For twenty years together whilst he served Gen. 31. 23. him Jacob led a quiet and peaceable life but when he left his service and fled from him then Laban pursues him as an enemy So whilst we do the Devil service and are led by him according to his will we find not those fightings without and terrors within we are not sensible of molestation but run on with ease in those wayes which lead unto death but when upon better deliberation we resolve with our selves to shake off his yoke and to fling his bonds from us then he prepares his deadly weapons he smites us with the hand and smites us with the tongue he disgraces our endeavours and disgraces the work it self he pursues us as Laban did Jacob flings his darts thick after us and every day multiplies his tentations When Jacob had sent all he had over the brook Jabboh and was left alone Gen. 32. 24. the Text says a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day I cannot but reject the phansie of Procopius out of the Rabines That this Man was no other but the Devil yet the reason upon which they grounded their opinion is it self grounded upon a truth That the Devil did now invade and set upon him because he was now slipt out of his hands and had withdrawn himself out of that place where Idolatry breathed that he might worship God in sincerity and truth For thus doth the Devil present himself unto us in a shape of beauty and delight like an Angel of light whilst we sleep in darkness but when we are awake and bestir our selves to fly from that wrath which is now visible to our eye he sets upon us and wrestles with us toucheth the hollow of our thigh puts it out of joynt that we may faint and sink under our resolution Non obsidet mortuos sed impugnat viventes he fights not against the dead but the living Non impugnat adversarius nisi milites Christi saith Cyprian Christs Adversary strikes at none but Christs souldiers Those who are down already he passeth by but his malice heaves at them that stand that they may fall He will not bestow a dart upon thee while thou art dead in sin but when thou beginnest to breathe in the land of the living then his fiery weapons fly about He sets not upon thee in the stews or in the tavern or in a seditious rout for this is his own work and he fights not against himself but he sets upon thee in the holy City in the Temple in the congregation of Saints If thou hast a good thought he will strive to strangle it in the birth If thou speakest a good word he will silence thee If thou hast built up a strong resolution to defie him his deadly weapons are up to beat it down and demolish it But if thou strive forward to the top of Sion to the top of perfection then to stagger thee and tumble thee down is his master-piece He deals with us as the Aegyptians did with the Hebrews For two hundred years they were in slavery indeed but their burdens were not so great When they spoke of sacrificing to the Lord the Aegyptians upbraid them with idleness Vacant idcirco vociferantur Exod. 5. 8. They are idle and therefore they say Let us go and sacrifice But when they thought of flight and desired to depart out of those coasts when Moses and Aaron cry Let the people go then Pharaoh cryes Get ye to your burdens OPPRIMANTUR OPERIBUS Let there more work be laid upon them and let them labor therein In this manner doth our enemy deal with us When we willingly serve him when we are as ready to take a bate as he is to offer it when we are pleased with his flattery and fall down to those Idols which he sets up he is not rough and fierce but a gentle Devil but when we bid him go when we shake off his fetters then he is a tyrant The application is St. Bernards That he layes a greater task of brick upon those who are going out of Aegypt St. Chrysostom Hom. 31. in Gen. compares him to a Pirate who hoiseth up sails and follows those ships