that supreme facultie of the soul and mistresse of all the other for the will was once able to rule the affections and to hold them all in subjection it had a naturall power to love God and a naturall inclination carrying all her desires towards him But sin hath now wounded the will also and deprived it of those naturall perfections wherewith it was created it is now inclined to love the creatures and to desire and long after them more then after God Could wee but penetrate with our bodily eyes into the souls of men and behold all the severall acts of their wills wee should see an admirable diversity and multitude of desires but all fixt upon the creatures wee should see some desiring riches others honour others to spend their dayes in lust and pleasure we should see some transported with love others with jealousie wee should see an infinite number of desires but all pointed downwards towards transitory and earthly things How few are there whose desires fly upward Who is there that will say I desire to enjoy God though it cost me my lust my riches mine honour and all that I possesse The name of happinesse is pleasing to our ears but wee regard not the thing it selfe or at least we pursue the shadow whilest the substance flies from us our disordered passions do now so over-rule our wills that wee preferre lies before truth vice before vertue the vain delights of the body before the true and solid contentments of the mind wee preferre the spurious pleasures of our senses before those which are legitimate which vertue receives and approves Whilest wee should moderate our affections and establish a durable and lasting peace within our selves we rather give way to their disorders and suffer our happinesse to be interrupted by their excesse and riot Our wils are full of inordinate and unsatiable desires and are become soft and plyable to evill but hard and impenetrable to every good motion This is the third wound of the soul which is called Malitia duritas cordis malice and hardnesse of heart And yet this is not all Sin hath made another wound in the soule which troubles it worse then all the rest and that is in the conscience In the spirituall conflict between sin and the soul 1 King 22.34 the conscience may say like Ahab Take mee out of the battell for I am wounded There are two effects of sin macula reatus the stain of sin and the guilt of sin the stain of sin is that distemper and vitious inclination that sin leaveth behind it and this adheres to the faculties before mentioned The guilt of sin is the obligation to punishment that lies upon every sinner after hee hath committed it for as hee that breaks the provinciall laws and customes of any common-wealth is guilty of the punishment which the sanction and penalty of the law provides in that common-wealth so he that sins against God is guilty of the punishment appointed by his law and this guilt adheres to the conscience Thus sin hath wounded all the powers and faculties of the soul not by any positive acts as the Pelagians supposed a necessity but by depriving it of that originall justice wherewith it was created as a man may overthrow a building as well by taking away a pillar as by applying outward force The want of originall justice hath made the soul lame and imperfect hee that hath one leg shorter then another cannot chuse but halt and goe unequally in his naturall motion and the soul that is moved by Reason Affections tanquam à duobus pedibus inaequalibus as by two unequall legs cannot chuse but halt and goe unequally in its morall motion for whilest it follows the motion of its longer leg Reason it riseth towards heaven but whilst it follows the motion of its shorter leg the Affections it falleth towards the earth God to supply this inequality and defect created the soul with originall justice which did after a manner spiritualize the Affections and kept the whole soul in such a frame and temper that all her faculties moved towards heaven But man sinned and God as a just judgement took from him that originall justice that upheld his nature for want whereof the soul is fallen into that decay and become subject to those vvounds and defects that I have named This is every finners condition and this was Davids condition hee was wounded in all the powers and faculties of his soul he was wounded in his affections in his vnderstanding in his will and in his conscience and all these wounds were the effects of originall sin But David had yet more vvounds David had his personall and actuall sins which although they did not wound new faculties for originall sin had vvounded all before yet they made new vvounds but if I should undertake to shew you all those wounds I should undertake that which himself was not able to performe though more privie to his owne actions Psal 19.21 Who can tell saith hee how oft hee offendeth His words have the forme of a question but the force of a peremptory assertion for there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks questions which have the force of affirmative or negative propositions and so hath this here Davids Quis intelligit is as much as Nullus intelligit and if no man can number his sins then surely no man can number the vvounds of his soule for every sinne is as deadly as the first it vvounds as deep though it vvounds not so many and these wounds vvere dangerous though but light in comparison of others for David had sins of presumption also sins against his knowledge and against his conscience but those sins vvhich made the vvorst vvounds and which he desires in my Text especially to have healed were his adultery and his murther In the next Psalm to my Text he complains of the bitternesse of those wounds Why art thou so full of heavinesse O my soul Psal 42.11 saith he and why art thou so disquieted within mee here was heavinesse and disquietnesse in his soul and all this the effect of those wounds His adultery and murther were sins of an high nature and most of all destructive to the soule Whoso committeth adultery with a woman saith Solomon lacketh understanding hee that doth it destroyeth his owne soul Prov. 6.31 Adultery you see destroyes the soul it wounds it mortally and murther is no lesse destructive then adultery Yee know saith Saint John that no murtherer hath eternall life abiding in him 1 John 3.15 This sin doth not onely deprive the soul of health but of life it selfe it kils the soul outright this made David complain My wickednesses are gone over mine head and are like a sore burden too heavie for mee to bear Psal 38.4 The cruell and unnaturall homicide sheds his brothers bloud and it falls upon the earth and the earth seems to drink it up and yet the word
run after creatures which are but images and imperfect adumbrations of his beauty Why should wee embrace the shadow and let the substance go It hath pleased God to condescend so much as to love the soul and to contract it to himselfe in a sacred and spirituall marriage the soul is Gods wife and God like an indulgent and loving husband hath given her all the creatures to be her servants but the soul oftentimes sets her affections upon the creatures as Potiphars wife set her affections upon her servant Joseph and the creatures Gen. 39.7 as if they were sensible of the injury which the soul offers to God fly from the soul as Joseph fled from his mistresse riches and honours and worldly delights do oftentimes fly from the soul that pursues them as if they were unwilling to be the causes of her adultery Let us not then fly after our owne destruction or set our affections upon those things whose love brings death not health to the soul In heaven there are none of those delights which worldly men use most to admire and for which they are wont most to hazzard their souls and yet there is perfect and true happinesse Can wee not then want those things here for a little while and not think our selves miserable which in heaven wee shall want for ever and yet be most perfectly and truely happy Mee thinks wee should rather set our affections upon God who is the bridegroom of our souls and who loves us in that excesse that it is impossible wee should return him equall love yet though wee cannot love him equally let us love him again with the best affection that we can and as it did not grieve us to leave the delights of children after wee became men so let it not grieve us to leave the delights of worldly men after wee be advanced to this sacred and holy union with God And so much of the first part of my Text which is Designatio partis vulneratae Davids discovery of the wounded part I come now to the second that is Petitio remedii his prayer and petition for a remedy Heal my soule I have showne you already that David was wounded in all the faculties of his soul and therefore this petition must be applyed to all and first to the affections Heal my affections For except the affections be healed their distempers work upon the whole soul A wound in any one part of the body infects the whole if one member suffer all the members suffer with it not onely because of the sympathy which one part hath with another but because the bloud passing through the infected place carrieth with it some of the corrupt humors so it is likewise in the soule if one faculty suffers all the faculties suffer with it not onely by reason of the sympathy which one faculty hath with another but because there is a mutuall influence between them by transfusion of their qualities into one another for Reason is corrupted by the affections as bloud is corrupted by an ulcerous part of the body and infects both the Understanding and the Will by their contagion David found this by experience for the sensitive part made the rationall to transgresse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Chrysostome The first hurt which hee received was at the eye and from thence it was derived to the heart his affections corrupted his vnderstanding and his will and therefore his affections must first be healed Heal my soul that is change my affections for the soul cannot be healed till the affections be changed There is an outward healing and there is an inward healing the inward healing causeth a true and reall change in the affections the outward healing causeth a change only in outward appearance and doth not properly heal the wound but cover it for after this outward healing the wound is still as great and the danger greater as a wound which is healed in the outward skin and superficies of the body if it bleed inwardly is so much the more dangerous by how much it is more inward and unsuspected Now this outward healing is wrought divers wayes First by time In old age divers affections seem to be healed the flame of lust seems to be extinguished and yet in many it is not extinguished though it burne lesse violently or seems not to burn at all Tutò tractatur serpens dum riget frigore non deest illi venenum sed torpet a serpent cannot sting whilest his members are numb with cold and yet hee wants not poyson but strength to shoot it forth and there are many because of the coldnesse proper to old age want strength to execute but not vitious affections to move them to all uncleannesse had they sufficient heat to cherish their corrupt affections they are not so healed but that they would soon break into their former extravagancies and excesse of lust Secondly by place Hee that lives in a cloister or call where the affections want outward objects to vvork upon them may think himselfe healed and the vvorld may think him a new man and yet his affections may be still the same That fire vvhich is buryed in ashes shevves not the same fury vvhich another fire doth that meets vvith fit matter to kindle it not because it hath lost its naturall property but because it vvants like nourishment and many that live in retirement sequestred from all worldly affairs abstain from many wrongs and insolencies that other men commit not because their affections are lesse furiously enclined to doe wrong but because they want the same outward matter to incense and kindle them Thirdly by the persons among whom we live They that live in a well-ordered Common-wealth where the care and vigilance of the Magistrate suppresseth all vice or they that converse daily with good men may in the former case for fear in the later for shame abstaine from all notorious and infamous sins and may seem both to themselves and others to be just patient chaste and temperate and yet not have their affections healed As stones that lie in the top of an high tower have not lost their weight and naturall inclination to descend downeward but are sustained by the other parts of the building so there are some supported by others not by the soundnesse of their own affections But this outward healing is not here meant David desired to have his affections changed and healed inwardly which neither time nor place nor the persons that were about him could effect it is onely grace can heal the affections inwardly and so grace is here the subject matter of his petition for the wounds of sin are too deep to be healed by any means lesse powerfull then grace And if man in his innocency having supernaturall gifts continued not long in the purity of his nature how much lesse shall wounded nature without supernaturall gifts recover her former purity Yet I deny not but that a man may by the help of
truths as entertain and second his humour but hee that hath the light of grace delights equally in all truths though they seem directly to oppose his profit honour pleasure and all his other desires Hee that hath this supernaturall gift can say like David of all divine truths More to be desired are they then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then the honey and the honey-comb Psal 19.10 Whosoever then finds in himselfe this pious affection to faith and to all the truths that it reveales may assure himselfe his vnderstanding is enlightened by grace but hee that finds it not whatsoever hee beleeves his soule was never touched by the influence of this divine light Men doe generally love such things as they possesse themselves they which have faith cannot but love faith it is our Saviour Christs manner of arguing with his disciples If yee were of the world the world would love his own but ye are not of the world therefore the world hateth you John 15.19 The summe and abstract of our Saviours speech is this The world loves not a spirituall profession because spirituall things are none of their owne if spirituall things were their own they would love a spirituall profession So I may argue with others If faith be their owne they cannot but love faith and the truths which it reveales And this is the second thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to the understanding Now in the third place this petition must be applyed to the will Heal my will For among all the wounds which the soule hath received there are none greater or more mortall then those that are in the will the wound of Malice is worse then either the wound of Infirmity or of Ignorance and therefore that must be healed before the soule can be in a safe condition The will indeed is in a better case after the affections and vnderstanding be healed then it was before for being an indifferent faculty of it selfe it is moved by the affections and therefore when the affections are healed it hath not such strong provocations to sin and being a blind faculty of it self it receives information from the understanding and therefore when the understanding is healed it hath not such false dictates to make it erre Yet this is not sufficient to heal the will the will hath his proper wound and so must have his proper cure And here the manner of healing is still by supernaturall grace Grace hath heat for the will as well as light for the understanding otherwise it could not heal the soul sufficiently For the Divell hath light but he hath no heat his name is Lucifer which signifies a carrier of light but it had been better for him saith S. Bernard si ignifer magis esset quà m Lucifer Bernard de verb. Isai proph serm 3. if hee had been a carrier of heat rather then a carrier of light light without heat doth him no good to beleeve and not to love doth but increase his misery But grace hath both light and heat light whereby it begets faith in the vnderstanding and heat wherby it begets love in the will and this love is the chiefe of all the vertues the best and most excellent effect of grace I know there are some which give faith the precedency whom I leave to enjoy their opinion for my selfe as in all other things so for my part in spirituall graces I submit my will to Gods will as knowing the least is more then I am worthy of yet my prayers shall alwayes be to have love in the excesse which I will not onely desire above all other spirituall graces but above all them and all the joyes of heaven together Faith is the foundation upon which wee must build our love for how can wee love God as we ought if wee beleeve not in him as wee ought and yet love may exceed faith in dignity as the superstructure may exceed the foundation in rich and costly materials But I intend not to speak of the excellency of love in generall love hath many operations in via whilest we are in the way to heaven besides the healing of the will and it hath many operations in patria when wee are in heaven where the will shall be perfectly healed but all these are out of my Text and shall be out of my discourse I will onely speak of the operation that love hath in healing the will and love when it flowes from grace hath an operation in this respect above all other things for that alone is able to work true repentance in the will to melt it with sorrow for sin to make it flexible and to mollifie that stiffenesse and that hardnesse that is in it Yet as Reason may work upon the affections and upon the vnderstanding so it may work also upon the will but failes as much in healing this as in healing the other faculties There is a naturall repentance which springs from naturall reason for hee that hath received many temporall blessings at the hands of God cannot chuse if hee followes the dictate of right reason but love him and if hee loves him hee cannot but be grieved when hee sins against him for hee that loveth will grieve for the least offence committed against the thing beloved Yet this sorrow that springs from naturall reason is not sufficient to heale the will For first it failes in the cause A naturall man may be sorrowfull for his sins but hee hath not a fountain of sorrow that flowes and streames continually that love that springs from naturall reason is soon extinguished and when the cause ceaseth sorrow that is the effect proceeding from it must needs cease But that love that proceeds from grace is more durable it is able to perpetuate sorrow hee that is endued with this love hath a constant habit of repentance and if at any time hee sins through infirmity his soule becomes immediately an house of mourning an Hadad rimmon a valley of lamentation Secondly It failes in the effect That sorrow that springs from naturall reason cannot convert the will and make it turn from sin a naturall man may be sorrowfull for his sinnes past and have a full resolution to abstain from sin for the time to come but he cannot actuate and performe his resolutions for reason may inable a man to make good resolutions but onely grace can inable him to keep them Now when amendment of life is not joyned with sorrow for sinne it rather makes new wounds then heales the old Qui plangit peccatum iterum committit peccatum quasi si quis laterem lavet crudum quem quantò magis laverit tantò magis lutum fecerit saith Isidore hee that mourneth for his sin and yet ceaseth not to commit sin is like him that washeth a tile stone that is not well burnt which is made more dirty by being often washed Hee that is sorrowfull for sinne and resolves to amend begins well but
nature obtain habits that may have an inward operation upon the soule and may change the affections in some degree but in a degree so weak and imperfect as can never bring him to salvation A man may by the strength of Reason assisted only by the generall ordinary concourse acquire habits of vertue and those habits may cause a readinesse in the affections to turn to vertuous actions yet those acts of vertue will differ much from those that spring from grace Actions that spring from nature if they be done out of a love to honesty and be without the mixture of all private respects may have a morall goodnesse and I think they may truely be called vertues yet actions that spring from grace will as far excell them as domestick fruits that are kept and fomented by an husbandman excell those that grow naturally in the woods and open fields for grace changes the affections more powerfully and so makes the work which is partly measured by the affections to be of greater value Our Saviour Christ having examined this matter by his infallible scrutiny ascribes more worth to a small gift which a poor widow brought into the treasurie then to the large gifts of many rich men Of a truth saith hee I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more then they all Luk. 21.3 They from their great heaps brought great gifts shee from a small heap brought onely two mites and yet our Saviour Christ having weighed all their charity against hers found that many graines would not make them equall for though their gifts were voluntary as well as hers yet they were not so much voluntary because their affections were not so ready for the affections work upon the Will when the affections are not ready retardunt si non impediunt voluntatem they hinder and stop the Will if they doe not divert her from a right course There being then great difference between nature and grace in working upon the affections their effects must needs be different Nature may cause some change in the affections and perfect them in some degree but grace changes the affections powerfully and makes them as it were new affections If any man be in Christ saith Saint Paul hee is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new 2 Corinth 5.17 And yet grace doth not totally heal the affections in this world there is but a partiall healing here the flesh lusteth against the spirit in the best men lustfull ambitious covetous and an innumerable company of unlawfull thoughts and desires will sometimes arise in every man they which have obtained the greatest measure of grace had never sufficient to exsiccate and dry up the streames of those impurities yet this is our comfort those wounds that remaine are not left for our destruction but our tryall the danger and deadlinesse of them is taken away although they be not perfectly healed As God left the Egyptians and the Jebusites and the Ammonites amongst the people of Israel not to consume his people but to prove them so hee leaves severall kinds of concupiscence in his children not to destroy us but to try whether wee will abstain from sin for his sake when our affections move us to the contrary and as Joshua Josh 10.18 having overcome the five Kings that combined against the Israelites did not presently put them to death but kept them in a cave that hee might put them to death afterwards in the sight of all the people with greater triumph so God having by his grace subdued the concupiscence and inordinatenesse of the affections doth not presently destroy them but keeps them a while in bondage deprived of their wonted liberty that he may destroy them afterwards in the sight of all the world with greater glory At the generall judgement when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality all inordinatenesse shall be destroyed the affections shall be totally healed then the soule like the sick man in the Gospel shall take up his bed and walk it shall take the body wherein it lay sick as in a bed and carry it where it please portabit lectum à quo ante portatus fuerat it shall carry that whereby it selfe was carried then the flesh shall yeeld to the spirit and shall rejoyce to be overcome In the mean time the concupiscence and inordinatenesse of our affections are so healed that they cease to reigne though they cease not to be we may by the help of grace subdue our affections though wee cannot keep them from rebellion And this is the first thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to the affections Now in the next place this petition must be applied to the vnderstanding Heal my vnderstanding for the wound of Ignorance is as great as the wound of Infirmity and therefore that must be healed too or else the soul will be never the better And here two things are required for as I shewed you before there is a double Ignorance in the vnderstanding arising from a double defect and want in the soule the first ariseth for want of sufficient revelation the soul having lost the knowledge of those truths that were revealed by God to our first parents The second ariseth for want of evidence after sufficient revelation the vnderstanding being not able of it selfe to assent to revealed truths without some light given her by God whereby it may discover the certainty of them And therefore two things are required I say to heale these two kindes of Ignorance The first is divine revelation The second is divine illumination The first thing necessary to heal the wound of Ignorance is divine revelation The articles of faith must be revealed immediately by God himselfe as they were to the Patriarchs and the Apostles or mediately by the working and administration of the Church or else they can never be known Thou art blessed Simon Barjona saith our Saviour Christ unto Saint Peter for flesh and bloud bath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven Matth. 16.16 The revelations of flesh and bloud doe rather inlarge then heal the wound of Ignorance Whilest Solomon followed the revelations of flesh and bloud hee lost that knowledge that was before revealed and as formerly for wisdome and knowledge so afterward for simplicitie and foolishnesse hee became a second time the wonder and amazement of the world The mysteries of faith must be revealed from above or they can never be revealed No man knoweth the Son saith our Saviour Christ but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and hee to whom the Son will reveale him Matth. 11.27 The second thing necessary to heale the wound of Ignorance is divine illumination for after the articles of faith be revealed if there be not something else added to make the truth evident the vnderstanding will either be deceived by falshood or else perplexed by
doubts and scruples The eye cannot discern an object though present except there be light to make it visible and although the articles of faith be sufficiently presented to the vnderstanding by supernaturall revelation yet if there be not a supernaturall light too to make the truth evident the wound of Ignorance cannot be healed Naturall Reason is too weak to enlighten the soule sufficiently for as Noah's dove could find no rest in the air for the sole of her foot so when the vnderstanding enters into contemplation of supernaturall truths as in the thin and subtile air it can find nothing to rest on or as Saint Peter had sunk when hee walked upon the sea Matth. 14.30 31. if our Saviour Christ had not upholden him with his hands so the vnderstanding sinks when it walks upon the deep ocean of supernaturall truths if it be not upholden by divine assistance And yet as Reason may move the affections in order to supernaturall goodnesse but cannot heal their infirmity so it can likewise enlighten the vnderstanding in order to supernaturall truths but cannot heal its ignorance The light of Reason may make supernaturall truths so evident to the vnderstanding that a man may think his faith perfect in all respects and yet it may be perfect in nothing The ancient Fathers of the Church in their Apologies for Christian religion alledge many reasons which may make a naturall man beleeve the articles of our Christian faith The miracles which were wrought by the Apostles have given their doctrine such authority that a naturall man cannot but assent unto it unlesse his vnderstanding be carried away by some private respect and interest of his own And hee that hath this assent may think his understanding is enlightened and healed sufficiently but hee deceives himself like the Syrians which thought they had been in the way to the Prophet 2 King 6.20 when they were in the midst of Samaria or like Sauls messengers 1 Sam. 19.16 which thought they had found David when they found but an image in his place For this faith that springs from naturall Reason is but imago simulacrum fidei the image and representation of true faith it is like it in shew but differeth much from it in essence For there are two properties essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul The first is certainty Nothing but the light of grace can work in us such a certainty as is essentiall to true faith Hee that beleeves a thing certainly must have some infallible motive cui falsum subesse non potest in which there can be no errour or delusion for an uncertaine motive can give a man no assurance of that which he beleeves Certainty of faith alwayes supposeth a certain and infallible motive upon which it is built Now concerning the articles of our faith nothing but the light of grace can give us an infallible motive of their truth for many of them being above Reason cannot by the light of Reason be made evident But some perhaps will say A naturall man by the light of Reason may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God and so may have an infallible motive For hee that beleeves the articles of faith because they are grounded upon the authority of Gods word hath a sure and certain motive of their truth it being impossible that any falshood should proceed from God To this I answer Although a naturall man may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God yet his faith concerning this matter is but an historicall kind of faith and is grounded upon deceitfull and uncertain motives and therefore though the Scriptures be an infallible motive to those that have certaine grounds to beleeve them to be true and to be the word of God yet they can be no infallible motive to him that hath not such grounds for they that are not sure that the Scriptures are true and that they are the word of God cannot be sure that any thing is true which they prove from them Now a naturall man cannot from the light of Reason have any other but uncertain and deceitfull grounds concerning the truth of Scripture for hee beleeves them to be true and to be the word of God either from the tradition of the Church from the miracles which were wrought by the Apostles or from some other humane motive in which although there be great probability yet there can be no infallibility Such grounds as these can give him no such assurance as excludes all possibility of deceit he hath but an historicall faith of the truth of Scripture and so can have but an historicall certainty But the light of grace shewes us infallibly the truth of Scripture it gives us an experimentall knowledge of it and makes us as it were to see it with our eyes so that there is as great a difference between the faith that a man hath from the light of Reason and that which hee hath afterward from the light of grace as there was between the faith which the Samaritans had of our Saviour Christ from the speech of the woman and that which they had afterwards when they saw him with their eyes The second property essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul is a pious affection to faith and to all the truths which it reveales nothing but the light of grace can work this pious affection in us The light of Reason although it cannot make all truths evident that are to be beleeved yet as I said before there are many truths that may be discovered by it namely such as are of the law of nature but then it cannot like grace work a pious affection in the soul towards them The Divell sees many excellent truths by the naturall light of his understanding hee sees that God is infinitely good and infinitely wise and infinitely just and infinitely mercifull and infinitely happy but hee can have no affection to these truths hee sees them all in lumine coacto in a forced and compelled light and not in lumine jucundo in a delightfull and pleasant light A theefe may know by the light of reason that theft is an unjust act or an adulterer that adultery is unlawfull but they can have no affection to these truths their faith is like the Divels they beleeve them by the force and compulsion of Reason and not with delight and pleasure But the light of grace doth not onely make truth evident but it produceth also in the soul a pious affection towards that truth it makes a man to be in love with it and to delight in it I have had as great delight in the way of thy testimonies as in all manner of riches saith David Psal 119.14 And so say all they whose understandings are enlightned by grace He that hath the light of reason can delight onely in such