It looked of a blew mould the bone of the nose laid bare the flesh of the neather lip quite fallen off his mouth full of worms and in his eye-pits two hungry Toads feasting upon the remanent portion of flesh and moisture and so he dwelt in his house of darkness And if every person tempted by an opportunity of Lust or intemperance would chuse such a room for his privacy that company for his witness that object to allay his appetite he would soon find his spirit more sober and his desires obedient I end this with the counsel of S. Bernard Let every man in the first address to his actions consider whether if he were now to die he might safely and prudently do such an act and whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise him in the present dispositions and then let him proceed accordingly For since our treasure is in earthen vessels which may be broken in pieces by the collision of ten thousand accidents it were not safe to treasure up wrath in them for if we do we shall certainly drink it in the day of recompence 37. Thirdly Before and in and 〈◊〉 all this the Blessed Jesus propounds Prayer as a remedy against Temptations Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation For besides that Prayer is the great instrument of obtaining victory by the grace of God as a fruit of our desires and of God's natural and essential goodness the very praying against a Temptation if it be hearty servent and devout is a denying of it and part of the victory for it is a 〈◊〉 the entertainment of it it is a positive rejection of the crime and every consent to it is a ceasing to pray and to desire remedy And we shall observe that whensoever we begin to listen to the whispers of a tempting spirit our Prayers against it lessen as the consent increases there being nothing a more direct enemy to the Temptation than Prayer which as it is of it self a professed hostility against the crime so it is a calling in auxiliaries from above to make the victory more certain If Temptation sets upon thee do thou set upon God for he is as soon overcome as thou art as soon moved to good as thou art to evil he is as quickly invited to pity thee as thou to ask him provided thou dost not finally rest in the petition but pass into action and endeavour by all means humane and moral to quench the 〈◊〉 newly kindled in thy bowels before it come to devour the marrow of the bones For a strong Prayer and a lazy incurious unobservant walking are contradictions in the discourses of Religion 〈◊〉 tells us a story of a young man solicited by the spirit of Uncleanness who came to an old Religious person and begged his prayers It was in that Age when God used to answer Prayers of very holy persons by more clear and familiar significations of his pleasure than he knows now to be necessary But after many earnest prayers sent up to the throne of Grace and the young man not at all bettered upon consideration and enquiry of particulars he found the cause to be because the young man relied so upon the Prayers of the old Eremite that he did nothing at all to discountenance his Lust or contradict the Temptation But then he took another course enjoyned him Austerities and exercises of Devotion gave him rules of prudence and caution tied him to work and to stand upon his guard and then the Prayers returned in triumph and the young man trampled upon his Lust. And so shall I and you by God's grace if we pray earnestly and frequently if we watch carefully that we be not surprised if we be not idle in secret nor talkative in publick if we read Scriptures and consult with a spiritual Guide and make Religion to be our work that serving of God be the business of our life and our designs be to purchase Eternity then we shall walk safely or recover speedily and by doing advantages to 〈◊〉 secure a greatness of Religion and spirituality to our spirits and understanding But remember that when Israel fought against Amalek Moses's prayer and Moses's hand secured the victory his Prayer grew ineffectual when his Hands were slack to remonstrate to us that we must cooperate with the grace of God praying devoutly and watching carefully and observing prudently and labouring with diligence and assiduity The PRAYER ETernal God and most merciful Father I adore thy Wisdom Providence and admirable Dispensation of affairs in the spiritual Kingdom of our Lord Jesus that thou who art infinitely good dost permit so many sadnesses and dangers to discompose that order of things and spirits which thou didst create innocent and harmless and dost design to great and spiritual perfections that the emanation of good from evil by thy over-ruling power and excellencies may force glory to thee from our shame and honour to thy Wisdom by these contradictory accidents and events Lord have pity upon me in these sad disorders and with mercy know my infirmities Let me by suffering what thou pleasest cooperate to the glorification of thy Grace and magnifying thy Mercy but never let me consent to sin but with the power of thy Majesty and mightiness of thy prevailing Mercy rescue me from those 〈◊〉 of dangers and enemies which daily seck to 〈◊〉 that Innocence with which thou didst cloath my Soul in the New birth Behold O God how all the Spirits of Darkness endeavour the extinction of our hopes and the dispersion of all those Graces and the prevention of all those 〈◊〉 which the Holy Jesus hath purchased for every loving and obedient Soul Our very 〈◊〉 and drink are full of poison our Senses are snares our 〈◊〉 is various Temptatio our sins are inlets to more and our good actions made occasions of sins Lord deliver me from the Malice of the Devil from the Fallacies of the World from my own Folly that I be not devoured by the first nor cheated by the second nor betrayed by my self but let thy Grace which is sufficient for me be always present with me let thy Spirit 〈◊〉 me in the spiritual 〈◊〉 arming my Understanding and securing my Will and 〈◊〉 my Spirit with resolutions of Piety and incentives of Religion and deleteries of Sin that the dangers I am encompassed withall may become unto me an occasion of victory and trimph through the aids of the Holy Ghost and by the Cross of the Lord Jesus who hath for himself and all his servants triumphed over Sin and Hell and the Grave even all the powers of Darkness from which by the mercies of Jesus and the merits of his Passion now and ever deliver me and all thy 〈◊〉 people Amen DISCOURSE VI. Of Baptism Part I. 1. WHen the Holy Jesus was to begin his Prophetical Office and to lay the foundation of his Church on the Corner-stone he first temper'd the Cement
though less perfectly it ought not to be denied and they less ought to neglect it 25. But as every man must put himself so also he must put his house in order make his Will if he have an Estate to dispose of and in that he must be careful to do Justice to every man and Charity to the poor according as God hath enabled him and though Charity is then very late if it begins not earlier yet if this be but an act of an ancient habit it is still more perfect as it succeeds in time and superadds to the former stock And among other acts of Duty let it be remembred that it is excellent Charity to leave our Will and desires clear plain and determinate that contention and Law-suits may be prevented by the explicate declaration of the Legacies At last and in all instances and periods of our following days let the former good acts be renewed let God be praised for all his Graces and Blessings of our life let him be intreated for Pardon of our sins let acts of Love and Contrition of Hope of Joy of Humility be the work of every day which God still permits us always remembring to ask remission for those sins we remember not And if the condition of our sickness permits it let our last breath expire with an act of Love that it may begin the Charities of Eternity and like a Taper burnt to its lowest base it may go out with a great emission of light leaving a sweet smell behind us to perfume our Coffin and that these lights newly made brighter or trimmed up in our sickness may shine about our Herse that they may become arguments of a pious sadness to our friends as the charitable Coats which Dorcas made were to the widows and exemplar to all those who observed or shall hear of our holy life and religious death But if it shall happen that the disease be productive of evil accidents as a disturbed phancy a weakned understanding wild discoursings or any deprivation of the use of Reason it concerns the sick persons in the happy intervalls of a quiet untroubled spirit to pray earnestly to God that nothing may pass from him in the rages of a Fever or worse distemper which may less become his duty or give scandal or cause trouble to the persons in attendance and if he shall also renounce and disclaim all such evil words which his disease may speak not himself he shall do the duty of a Christian and a prudent person And after these 〈◊〉 he may with Piety and confidence resign his Soul into the hands of God to be deposited in holy receptacles till the day of restitution of all things and in the mean time with a quiet spirit descend into that state which is the lot of Caesars and where all Kings and Conquerours have laid aside their glories The PRAYER O Eternal and Holy Jesus who by Death hast overcome Death and by thy Passion hast taken out its sting and made it to become one of the gates of Heaven and an entrance to Felicity have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death let thy Grace accompany me all the days of my life that I may by a holy Conversation and an habitual performance of my Duty wait for the coming of our Lord and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come Lord let not my death be in any sence unprovided nor untimely nor hasty but after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary Piety and the manifestation of a great and miraculous Mercy Let my Senses and Understanding be preserved intire till the last of my days and grant that I may die the death of the righteous having first discharged all my obligations of justice leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives and let thy blessing descend upon their heads and abide there till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church and bless my Death bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide with the assistence and guard of Angels with the perception of the holy Sacrament with Patience and dereliction of my own 〈◊〉 with a strong Faith and a firm and humble Hope with just measures of Repentance and great treasures of Charity to thee my God and to all the world that my Soul in the arms of the Holy Jesus may be deposited with safety and joy there to expect the revelation of thy Day and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdom O Eternal and Holy Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS He beareth his Cross Ioh 19. 16. 17. And they took Iesus and lead him away 17. And he bearing his Cross went forth into a place called the place of a Scult which is called in y e Hebrew Golgotha They Erect the Crucifixe Ioh 3. 14. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in y e wilderness even so must y e Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but haue eternall life 1. WHen the Sentence of Death pronounced against the Lord was to be put in execution the Souldiers pulled off the Robe of mockery the scarlet Mantle which in jest they put upon him and put on his own garments But as Origen observes the Evangelist mentioned not that they took off the Crown of thorns what might serve their interest they pursue but nothing of remission or mercy to the afflicted Son of man but so it became the King of Sufferings not to lay aside his Imperial thorns till they were changed into Diadems of Glory But now Abel is led forth by his brother to be slain A gay spectacle to satisfie impious eyes who would not stay behind but attended and waited upon the hangman to see the Catastrophe of this bloudy Tragedy But when Piety looks on she beholds a glorious mystery Sin laughed to see the King of Heaven and Earth and the great lover of Souls in stead of the Scepter of his Kingdom to bear a Tree of 〈◊〉 and shame But Plety wept tears of pity and knew they would melt into joy when she should behold that Cross which loaded the shoulders of her Lord afterward sit upon the Scepters and be engraved and signed upon the Foreheads of Kings 2. It cannot be thought but the Ministers of Jewish malice used all the circumstances of affliction which in any case were accustomed towards malefactors and persons to be crucified and therefore it was that in some old Figures we see our Blessed Lord described with a Table appendent to the fringe of his garment set full of nails and pointed iron for so sometimes they afflicted persons condemned to that kind of Death and S. Cyprian affirms that Christ did stick to the wood that he carried being
and the sons of Israel never murmured when God bad them borrow jewels and ear-rings and spoil the Egyptians But because God restrained these desires our duties are the harder because they are fetters to our Liberty and contradictions to those natural inclinations which also are made more active by evil custom and unhandsome educations From which Premisses we shall observe in order to practice That sin creeps upon us in our education so tacitely and undiscernibly that we mistake the cause of it and yet so prevalently and effectually that we judge it to be our very nature and charge it upon Adam to lessen the imputation upon us or to increase the licence or the confidence when every one of us is the Adam the man of sin and the parent of our own impurities For it is notorious that our own iniquities do so discompose our naturals and evil customs and examples do so incourage impiety and the Law of God enjoyns such Vertues which do violence to Nature that our proclivity to sin is occasioned by the accident and is caused by our selves what-ever mischief Adam did to us we do more to our selves We are taught to be revengeful in our Cradles and are taught to strike our Neighbour as a means to still our frowardness and to satisfie our wranglings Our Nurses teach us to know the greatness of our Birth or the riches of our Inheritance or they learn us to be proud or to be impatient before they learn us to know God or to say our Prayers And then because the use of Reason comes at no definite time but insensibly and divisibly we are permitted such acts with impunity too long deferring to repute them to be sins till the habit is grown strong natural and masculine and because from the infancy it began in inolinations and tender overtures and slighter actions Adam is laid in the fault and Original sin did all and this clearly we therefore confess that our faults may seem the less and the misery be pretended natural that it may be thought to be irremediable and therefore we not engaged to endeavour a cure so that the confession of our original sin is no imitation of Christ's Humility in suffering Circumcision but too often an act of Pride Carelesness Ignorance and Security 8. At the Circumcision his Parents imposed the Holy Name told to the Virgin by the Angel his Name was called JESUS a Name above every name For in old times God was known by names of Power of Nature of Majesty But his name of Mercy was reserved till now when God did purpose to pour out the whole treasure of his Mercy by the mediation and ministry of his Holy Son And because God gave to the Holy Babe the name in which the treasures of Mercy were deposited and exalted this name above all names we are taught that the purpose of his Counsel was to exalt and magnifie his Mercy above all his other works he being delighted with this excellent demonstration of it in the Mission and Manifestation and Crucifixion of his Son he hath changed the ineffable Name into a name utterable by man and desirable by all the world the Majesty is all arrayed in robes of Mercy the Tetragrammation or adorable Mystery of the Patriarchs is made fit for pronunciation and expression when it becometh the name of the Lord 's CHRIST And if JEHOVAH be full of majesty and terrour the name JESUS is full of sweetness and mercy It is GOD clothed with circumstances of facility and opportunities of approximation The great and highest name of GOD could not be pronounced truly till it came to be sinished with a Guttural that made up the name given by this Angel to the Holy Child nor God received or entertained by men till he was made humane and sensible by the adoption of a sensitive nature like Vowels pronunciable by the intertexture of a Consonant Thus was his Person made tangible and his Name utterable and his Mercy brought home to our necessities and the Mystery made explicate at the Circumcision of this Holy Babe 9. But now God's mercy was at full Sea now was the time when God made no reserves to the effusion of his mercy For to the Patriarchs and persons of eminent Sanctity and imployment in the elder Ages of the World God according to the degrees of his manifestation or present purpose would give them one letter of this ineffable Name For the reward that Abraham had in the change of his name was that he had the honour done him to have one of the letters of Jehovah put into it and so had Joshua when he was a type of Christ and the Prince of the Israelitish Armies and when God took away one of these letters it was a curse But now he communicated all the whole Name to this Holy Child and put a letter more to it to signifie that he was the glory of God the express image of his Father's person God Eternal and then manifested to the World in his Humanity that all the intelligent world who expected Beatitude and had treasured all their hopes in the ineffable Name of GOD might find them all with ample returns in this Name of JESUS which God hath exalted above every name even above that by which God in the Old Testament did represent the greatest awfulness of his Majesty This miraculous Name is above all the powers of Magical Inchantments the nightly rites of Sorcerers the Secrets of Memphis the Drugs of Thessaly the silent and mysterious Murmurs of the wise Chaldees and the Spells of Zoroastres This is the Name at which the Devils did tremble and pay their inforced and involuntary adorations by confessing the Divinity and quitting their possessions and usurped habitations If our prayers be made in this Name God opens the windows of Heaven and rains down benediction at the mention of this Name the blessed Apostles and Hermione the daughter of St. Philip and Philotheus the son of Theophila and St. Hilarion and St. Paul the Eremite and innumerable other Lights who followed hard after the Sun of Righteousness wrought great and prodigious Miracles Signs and wonders and healings were done by the Name of the Holy Child JESUS This is the Name which we should ingrave in our hearts and write upon our fore-heads and pronounce with our most harmonious accents and rest our faith upon and place our hopes in and love with the overflowings of charity and joy and adoration And as the revelation of this Name satisfied the hopes of all the World so it must determine our worshippings and the addresses of our exteriour and interiour Religion it being that Name whereby God and God's mercies are made presential to us and proportionate objects of our Religion and affections The PRAYER MOst Holy and ever-Blessed Jesu who art infinite in Essence glorious in Mercy mysterious in thy Communications affable and presential in the descents of thy Humanity I
to be quitted But it is S. Chrysostom's Simile As a Lamb sucking the breast of its dam and Mother moves the head from one part to another till it hath found a distilling fontinel and then it fixes till it be satisfied or the 〈◊〉 cease dropping so should we in Meditation reject such materials as are barren like the tops of hills and six upon such thoughts which nourish and refresh and there dwell till the nourishment be drawn forth or so much of it as we can then temperately digest 14. Fifthly In Meditation strive rather for Graces than for Gifts for affections in the way of Vertue more than the overslowings of sensible Devotion and therefore if thou findest any thing by which thou mayest be better though thy spirit do not actually rejoyce or find any gust or relish in the manducation yet chuse it greedily For although the chief end of Meditation be Affection and not Determinations intellectual yet there is choice to be had of the Affections and care must be taken that the affections be desires of Vertue or repudiations and aversions from something criminal not joys and transportations spiritual comforts and complacencies for they are no part of our duty sometimes they are encouragements and sometimes rewards sometimes they depend upon habitude and disposition of body and seem great matters when they have little in them and are more bodily than spiritual like the gift of tears and yerning of the bowels and sometimes they are illusions and temptations at which if the Soul stoops and be greedy after they may prove like Hippomenes's golden Apples to Atalanta retard our course and possibly do some hazard to the whole race And this will be nearer reduced to practice if we consider the variety of matter which is fitted to the Meditation in several states of men travelling towards Heaven 15. For the first beginners in Religion are imployed in the mastering of their first Appetites casting out their Devils exterminating all evil customs lessening the proclivity of habits and countermanding the too-great forwardness of vicious inclinations and this which Divines call the Purgative way is wholly spent in actions of Repentance Mortification and Self-denial and therefore if a penitent person snatches at Comforts or the tastes of sensible Devotion his Repentance is too delicate it is but a rod of Roses and Jessamine If God sees the spirit broken all in pieces and that it needs a little of the oyl of gladness for its support and restitution to the capacities of its duty he will give it but this is not to be designed nor snatched at in the Meditation Tears of joy are not good expressions nor instruments of Repentance we must not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles no refreshments to be looked for here but such only as are necessary for support and when God sees they are let not us trouble our selves he will provide them But the Meditations which are prompt to this Purgative way and practice of first beginners are not apt to produce delicacies but in the sequel and consequent of it Afterwards it brings forth the pleasant fruit of righteousness but for the present it hath no joy in it no joy of sense though much satisfaction to Reason And such are Meditations of the Fall of Angels and Man the Ejection of them from Heaven of our Parents from Paradise the Horrour and obliquity of Sin the Wrath of God the severity of his Anger Mortification of our body and spirit Self-denial the Cross of Christ Death and Hell and Judgment the terrours of an evil Conscience the insecurities of a Sinner the unreasonableness of Sin the troubles of Repentance the Worm and sting of a burthened spirit the difficulties of rooting out evil Habits and the utter abolition of Sin if these nettles bear honey we may fill our selves but such sweetnesses spoil the operations of these bitter potions Here therefore let your addresses to God and your mental prayers be affectionate desires of Pardon humble considerations of our selves thoughts of revenge against our Crimes designs of Mortification indefatigable solicitations for Mercy expresses of shame and confusion of face and he meditates best in the purgative way that makes these affections most operative and high 16. After our first step is taken and the punitive part of Repentance is resolved on and begun and put forward into good degrees of progress we then enter into the Illuminative way of Religion and set upon the acquist of Vertues and the purchase of spiritual Graces and therefore our Meditations are to be proportioned to the design of that imployment such as are considerations of the Life of Jesus Examples of Saints reasons of Vertue means of acquiring them designations of proper exercises to every pious habit the Eight Beatitudes the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost the Promises of the Gospel the Attributes of God as they are revealed to represent God to be infinite and to make us Religious the Rewards of Heaven excellent and select Sentences of holy persons to be as incentives of Piety These are the proper matter for Proficients in Religion But then the affections producible from these are love of vertue desires to imitate the Holy Jesus affections to Saints and holy persons conformity of choice subordination to God's will election of the ways of Vertue satisfaction of the Understanding in the ways of Religion and resolutions to pursue them in the midst of all discomforts and persecutions and our mental prayers or entercourse with God which are the present emanations of our Meditations must be in order to these affections and productions from those and in all these yet there is safety and piety and no seeking of our selves but designs of Vertue in just reason and duty to God and for his sake that is for his commandment And in all these particulars if there be such a sterility of spirit that there be no end served but of spiritual profit we are never the worse all that God requires of us is that we will live well and repent in just measure and right manner and he that doth so hath meditated well 17. From hence if a pious Soul passes to affections of greater sublimity and intimate and more immediate abstracted and immaterial love it is well only remember that the love God requires of us is an operative material and communicative love If ye love me keep my Commandments so that still a good life is the effect of the sublimest Meditation and if we make our duty sure behind us ascend up as high into the Mountain as you can so your ascent may consist with the securities of your person the condition of infirmity and the interests of your duty According to the saying of 〈◊〉 Our empty saying of 〈◊〉 and reciting verses in honour of his Name please not God so well as the imitation of him does advantage to us and a devout 〈◊〉 pleases the Spouse better than an idle Panegyrick Let your work
pursuance of this the same Apostle declares that the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of Baptismal grace and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism we are then unpardonable because we are fallen from our state of Pardon This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews This is the Covenant I will make in those days I will put my Laws in their hearts And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin that is our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation we are then made partakers of the death of Christ which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment But the great work is done in Baptism for so it follows Having boldness to 〈◊〉 into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way that is by the veil of his flesh his Incarnation But how do we enter into this Baptism is the door and the ground of this confidence for ever for so he adds Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water This is the consignation of this blessed state and the gate to all this mercy Let us hold fast the profession of our faith that is the Religion of a Christian the Faith into which we were baptized for that is the Faith that justifies and saves us Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this Faith and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints the use of the Word and Sacrament is included in the Precept mutual Exhortation good Example and the like For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is if we sin against the profession of this Faith and hold it not fast but let the Faith and the profession go wilfully which afterwards he calls a treading under foot the Son of God accounting the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and a doing despite to the spirit of grace viz. which moved upon those waters and did illuminate him in Baptism if we do this there is no more sacrifice for sins no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized that is you are fallen from the state of Pardon and Repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted your baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our Calling and Election sure that is a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant And between these two states of absolute Apostasie from and intirely adhering to and securing this state of Calling and Election are all the intermedial sins and being overtaken in single faults or declining towards vicious habits which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins And in this sence are those words The just shall live by Faith that is by that profession which they made in Baptism from which if they swerve not they shall be supported in their spiritual life It is a Grace which by virtue of the Covenant consigned in Baptism does like a centre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the periods and portions of our life our whole life all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this This consideration is of great use besides many other things to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferred their Baptism till their death-bed because Baptism is a Laver of Sanctification and drowns all our sins and buries them in the grave of our Lord they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism for unless they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition but early some of them durst not take it much less in the beginning of their years that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the days of our folly and infirmity and so long as we have not been baptized so long we are out of the state of Pardon and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins if we have taken it in the beginning of our days 20. Fifthly The next benefit of Baptism which is also a verification of this is a Sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit Spiritus amnem Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas Concipit unda Deum sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem The Holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism and makes them prolifical apt to produce children unto God and therefore S. Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the Blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the Holy Spirit And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord his Ministers baptize with Water our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the Holy Spirit They are joyned together by S. Paul We are by one Spirit baptized into one body that is admitted into the Church by baptism of Water and the Spirit This is that which our Blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried by the Spirit we are made alive But because these are mysterious expressions and according to the style of Scripture high and secret in spiritual significations therefore that we may understand what these things signifie we must consider it by its real effects and what it produces upon the Soul of a man 21. First It is the suppletory of original Righteousness by which Adam was at first gracious with God and which he lost by his prevarication It was in him a principle of Wisdom and Obedience a relation between God and himself a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of Friendship When he fell he was discomposed in all the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken and it so continued in the whole life of Man which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs and therefore when we began the world again entring into the Articles of a new life God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural End which
justifie that a holy life and a persevering Sanctity is enjoyned by the Covenant of the Gospel if I say in its first intention it be declared that we may as well and upon the same terms hope for Pardon upon a Recovery hereafter as upon the perseverance in the present condition 13. From these premisses we may soon understand what is the Duty of a Christian in all his life even to pursue his own undertaking made in Baptism or his first access to Christ and redemption of his person from the guilt and punishment of sins The state of a Christian is called in Scripture Regeneration Spiritual life Walking after the Spirit Walking in newness of life that is a bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance That Repentance which tied up in the same ligament with Faith was the disposition of a Christian to his Regeneration and Atonement must have holy life in perpetual succession for that is the apt and proper fruit of the first Repentance which John the Baptist preached as an introduction to Christianity and as an entertaining the Redemption by the bloud of the Covenant And all that is spoken in the New Testament is nothing but a calling upon us to do what we promised in our Regeneration to perform that which was the design of Christ who therefore redeemed us and bare our sins in his own body that we might die unto sin and live unto righteousness 14. This is that saying of S. Paul Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you Plainly saying that unless we pursue the state of Holiness and Christian communion into which we were baptized when we received the grace of God we shall fail of the state of Grace and never come to see the glories of the Lord. And a little before Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water That 's the first state of our Redemption that 's the Covenant God made with us to remember our sins no more and to put his laws in our hearts and minds And this was done when our bodies were washed with water and our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience that is in Baptism It remains then that we persist in the condition that we may continue our title to the Covenant for so it follows Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering For if we sin wilfully after the profession there remains no more sacrifice that is If we hold not fast the profession of our Faith and continue not the condition of the Covenant but fall into a contrary state we have forfeited the mercies of the Covenant So that all our hopes of Blessedness relying upon the Covenant made with God in Jesus Christ are ascertained upon us by holding fast that profession by retaining our hearts still sprinkled from an evil conscience by following peace with all men and holiness For by not failing of the grace of God we shall not fail of our hopes the mighty price of our high calling but without all this we shall never see the face of God 15. To the same purpose are all those places of Scripture which intitle us to Christ and the Spirit upon no other condition but a holy life and a prevailing habitual victorious Grace Know you not your own selves Brethren how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates There are but two states of being in order to Eternity either a state of the Inhabitation of Christ or the state of Reprobation Either Christ is in us or we are reprobates But what does that signifie to have Christ dwelling in us That also we learn at the feet of the same Doctor If Christ be in you the body is dead by reason of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness The body of Sin is mortified and the life of Grace is active busie and spiritual in all them who are not in the state of Reprobation The Parallel with that other expression of his They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If sin be vigorous if it be habitual if it be beloved if it be not dead or dying in us we are not of Christ's portion we belong not to him nor he to us For whoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God that is every Regenerate person is in a condition whose very being is a contradiction and an opposite design to Sin When he was regenerate and born anew of water and the spirit the seed of God the original of Piety was put into him and bidden to encrease and multiply The seed of God in S. John is the same with the word of God in S. James by which he begat us and as long as this remains a Regenerate person cannot be given up to sin for when he is he quits his Baptism he renounces the Covenant he alters his relation to God in the same degree as he enters into a state of sin 16. And yet this discourse is no otherwise to be understood than according to the design of the thing it self and the purpose of God that is that it be a deep ingagement and an effectual consideration for the necessity of a holy life but at no hand let it be made an instrument of Despair nor an argument to lessen the influences of the Divine Mercy For although the nicety and limits of the Covenant being consigned in Baptism are fixed upon the condition of a holy and persevering uninterrupted Sanctity and our Redemption is wrought but once compleated but once we are but once absolutely intirely and presentially forgiven and reconciled to God this Reconciliation being in virtue of the Sacrifice and this Sacrifice applied in Baptism is one as Baptism is one and as the Sacrifice is one yet the Mercy of God besides this great Feast hath fragments which the Apostles and Ministers spiritual are to gather up in baskets and minister to the afterneeds of indigent and necessitous Disciples 17. And this we gather as fragments are gathered by respersed sayings instances and examples of the Divine mercy recorded in Holy Scripture The Holy Jesus commands us to forgive our brother seventy times seven times when he asks our pardon and implores our mercy and since the Divine mercy is the pattern of ours and is also procured by ours the one being made the measure of the other by way of precedent and by way of reward God will certainly forgive us as we forgive our brother and it cannot be imagined God should oblige us to give pardon oftner than he will give it himself especially since he hath expressed ours to be a title of a
the same Saint When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord but if we would judge our selves we should not be judged where he expounds judged by chastened if we were severer to our selves God would be gentle and 〈◊〉 And there are only these two cautions to be annexed and then the direction is sufficient 1. That when promise of Pardon is annexed to any of these or another Grace or any good action it is not to be understood as if alone it were effectual either to the abolition or pardon of sins but the promise is made to it as to a member of the whole body of Piety In the coadunation and conjunction of parts the title is firm but not at all in distinction and separation For it is certain if we fail in one we are guilty of all and therefore cannot be repaired by any one Grace or one action or one habit And therefore Charity hides a multitude of sins with men and God too Alms deliver from death 〈◊〉 pierceth the clouds and will not depart before its answer be gracious and Hope purifieth and makes not ashamed and Patience and Faith and Piety to parents and Prayer and the eight Beatitudes have promises of this life and of that which is to come respectively and yet nothing will obtain these promises but the harmony and uniting of these Graces in a holy and habitual confederation And when we consider the Promise as singularly relating to that one Grace it is to be understood comparatively that is such persons are happy if compared with those who have contrary dispositions For such a capacity does its portion of the work towards complete Felicity from which the contrary quality does estrange and disintitle us 2. The special and minute actions and instances of these three preparatives of Repentance are not under any command in the particulars but are to be disposed of by Christian prudence in order to those ends to which they are most aptly instrumental and designed such as are Fasting and corporal severities in Satisfaction or the punitive parts of Repentance they are either vindictive of what is past and so are proper acts or effects of Contrition and godly sorrow or else they relate to the present and future estate and are intended for correction or emendation and so are of good use as they are medicinal and in that proportion not to be omitted And so is Confession to a Spiritual person an excellent instrument of Discipline a bridle of intemperate Passions an opportunity of Restitution Ye which are spiritual 〈◊〉 such a person overtaken in a fault saith the Apostle it is the application of a remedy the consulting with a guide and the best security to a weak or lapsed or an ignorant person in all which cases he is 〈◊〉 to judge his own questions and in these he is also committed to the care and conduct of another But these special instances of Repentance are capable of suppletories and are like the corporal works of Mercy necessary only in time and place and in accidental obligations He that relieves the poor or visits the sick chusing it for the instance of his Charity though he do not redeem captives is charitable and hath done his Alms. And he that cures his sin by any instruments by external or interiour and spiritual remedies is penitent though his diet be not 〈◊〉 and afflictive or his lodging hard or his sorrow bursting out into tears or his expressions passionate and dolorous I only add this that acts of publick Repentance must be by using the instruments of the Church such as she hath appointed of private such as by experience or by reason or by the counsel we can get we shall learn to be most effective of our penitential purposes And yet it is a great argument that the exteriour expressions of corporal severities are of good benefit because in all Ages wise men and severe Penitents have chosen them for their instruments The PRAYER O Eternal God who wert pleased in mercy to look upon us when we were in our 〈◊〉 to reconcile us when we were enemies to forgive us in the midst of our provocations of thy infinite and eternal Majesty finding out a remedy for us which man-kind could never ask even making an atonement for us by the death of thy Son sanctifying us by the bloud of the everlasting Covenant and thy all-hallowing and Divinest Spirit let thy 〈◊〉 so perpetually assist and encourage my endeavours conduct my will and fortifie my intentions that 〈◊〉 may persevere in that holy condition which thou hast put me in by the grace of the Covenant and the mercies of the Holy Jesus O let me never fall into those sins and retire to that vain conversation from which the eternal and merciful Saviour of the World hath redeemed me but let me grow in Grace adding Vertue to vertue reducing my purposes to act and increasing my acts till they grow into habits and my habits till they be confirmed and still confirming them till they be consummate in a blessed and holy perseverance Let thy Preventing grace dash all Temptations in their approach let thy Concomitant grace enable me to resist them in the assault and overcome them in the fight that my hopes be never discomposed nor my Faith weakned nor my confidence made remiss or my title and portion in the Covenant be lessened Or if thou permittest me at any time to 〈◊〉 which Holy Jesu avert for thy mercy and compession sake yet let me not sleep in sin but recall me instantly by the clamours of a nice and tender Conscience and the quickning Sermons of the Spirit that I may never pass from sin to sin from one degree to another lest sin should get the dominion over me lest thou be angry with me and reject me from the Covenant and I perish Purifie me from all 〈◊〉 sanctifie my spirit that I may be holy as thou art and let me never provoke thy jealousie nor presume upon thy goodness nor distrust thy mercies nor 〈◊〉 my Repentance nor rely upon vain confidences but that I may by a constant sedulous and timely endeavour make my calling and election sure living to thee and dying to thee that having sowed to the Spirit I may from thy mercies reap in the Spirit bliss and eternal sanctity and everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Saviour our hope and our mighty and ever-glorious Redeemer Amen Vpon Christ ' s Sermon on the Mount and of the Eight Beatitudes Moses delivers the Law Joh. 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. These words the Lord spake unto all the Assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire with a great voice he wrote them in two Tables of stone delivered them unto me Deut. 5. 22. Christ preaches in the Mount He went up into a mountain opened his mouth taught them saying Blessed are the poor in
insert in pursuance of that caution given to the Church of Thessalonica by S. Paul If any one will not work neither let him eat for we must be careful that our Charity which is intended to minister to poor mens needs do not minister to idleness and the love of beggery and a wandring useless unprofitable life But abating this there is no other consideration that can exempt any needy person from participation of your Charity not though he be your Enemy for that is it which our Blessed Saviour means in the appendix of this Precept Love your Enemies that is according to the exposition of the Apostle If thine enemy hunger 〈◊〉 him if he thirst give him drink not though he be an Unbeliever not though he be a vicious person provided only that the vice be such to which your relief ministers no fuel and adds no flame and if the mere necessities of his nature be supplied it will be a fair security against the danger but if the vice be in the scene of the body all freer comforts are to be denied him because they are but incentives of sin and Angels of darkness This I the rather insert that the pride and supercilious austerities of some persons become not to them an instrument of excuse from ministring to needy persons upon pretence their own sins brought them into that condition For though the causes of our calamities are many times great secrets of Providence yet suppose the poverty of the man was the effect of his Prodigality or other baseness it matters not as to our duty how he came into it but where he is lest we also be denied a visit in our sicknesses and a comfort in our sorrow or a counsel in our doubts or aid in any distress upon pretence that such sadness was procured by our sins and ten to one but it was so Do good to all faith the Apostle but especially to the family of faith for to them our Charity is most proper and proportioned to all viz. who are in need and cannot relieve themselves in which number persons that can work are not to be accounted So that if it be necessary to observe an order in our Charity that is when we cannot supply and suffice for all our opportunities of mercy then let not the Brethren of our Lord go away ashamed and in other things observe the order and propriety of your own relations and where there is otherwise no difference the degree of the necessity is first to be considered This also if the necessity be 〈◊〉 and extreme what-ever the man be he is first to be relieved before the lesser necessities of the best persons or most holy poor But the proper objects of our Charity are old persons sick or impotent laborious and poor Housekeepers Widows and Orphans people oppressed or persecuted for the cause of Righteousness distressed Strangers Captives and abused Slaves prisoners of Debt To these we must be liberal whether they be holy or unholy remembring that we are sons of that Father who makes the dew of Heaven to drop upon the dwellings of the righteous and the fields of sinners 4. Thirdly The Manner of giving Alms is an office of Christian prudence for in what instances we are to exemplifie our Charity we must be determined by our own powers and others needs The Scripture reckons entertaining strangers visiting the sick going to prisons feeding and cloathing the hungry and naked to which by the exigence of the poor and the analogy of Charity many other are to be added The Holy Jesus in the very Precept instanced in lending money to them that need to borrow and he adds looking for nothing again that is if they be unable to pay it Forgiving Debts is a great instance of mercy and a particular of excellent relief but to imprison men for Debt when it is certain they are not able to pay it and by that prison will be far more disabled is an uncharitableness next to the cruelties of salvages and at infinite distance from the mercies of the Holy Jesus Of not Judging PART III. ANother instance of Charity our great Master inserted in this Sermon not to judge our Brother and this is a Charity so cheap and so reasonable that it requires nothing of us but silence in our spirits We may perform this duty at the charge of a negative if we meddle not with other mens affairs we shall do them no wrong and purchase to our selves a peace and be secured the rather from the 〈◊〉 sentence of a severer Judge But this interdict forbids only such judging as is ungentle and uncharitable in criminal causes let us find all the ways to alleviate the burthen of the man by just excuses by extenuating or lessening accidents by abatement of incident circumstances by gentle sentences and whatsoever can do relief to the person that his spirit be not exasperated that the crime be not the parent of impudence that he be not insulted on that he be invited to repentance and by such sweetnesses he be led to his restitution This also in questions of doubts obliges us to determine to the more favourable sence and we also do need the same mercies and therefore should do well by our own rigour not to disintitle our selves to such possibilities and reserves of Charity But it is foul and base by detraction and iniquity to blast the reputation of an honourable action and the fair name of vertue with a calumny But this duty is also a part of the grace of Justice and of Humility and by its relation and kindred to so many vertues is furnished with so many arguments of amability and endearment The PRAYER HOly and merciful Jesus who art the great principle and the instrument of conveying to us the charity and mercies of Eternity who didst love us when we were enemies forgive us when we were debtors recover us when we were dead ransom us when we were slaves relieve us when we were poor and naked and wandring and full of sadness and necessities give us the grace of Charity that we may be pitiful and compassionate of the needs of our necessitous Brethren that we may be apt to relieve them and that according to our duty and possibilities we may rescue them from their calamities Give us courteous affable and liberal souls let us by thy example forgive our debtors and love our enemies and do to them offices of civility and tenderness and relief always propounding thee for our pattern and thy mercies for our precedent and thy Precepts for our rule and thy Spirit for our guide that we shewing mercy here may receive the mercies of Eternity by thy merits and by thy charities and dispensation O Holy and merciful Jesus Amen DISCOURSE XII Of the Second additional Precept of Christ viz. Of PRAYER Non magna loquimur sed vivimus Cum clamore valido et lachrymas prâ—ces offerens exauditus â—â—â—
and therefore less likely to deceive for which reason it is said that he shall deceive if it were possible the very elect that is therefore not possible because that by which he insinuates himself to others is by the elect the Church and chosen of God understood to be his sign and mark of discovery and a warning And therefore as the Prophecies of Jesus were an infinite verification of his Miracles so also this Prophecy of Christ concerning Antichrist disgraces the reputation and faith of the Miracles he shall act The old Prophets foretold of the Messias and of his Miracles of power and mercy to prepare for his reception and entertainment Christ alone and his Apostles from him foretold of Antichrist and that he should come in all Miracles of deception and lying that is with true or false Miracles to perswade a lie and this was to prejudice his being accepted according to the Law of Moses So that as all that spake of Christ bade us believe him for the Miracles so all that foretold of Antichrist bade us disbelieve him the rather for his and the reason of both is the same because the mighty and surer word of Prophecy as S. Peter calls it being the greatest testimony in the world of a Divine principle gives authority or reprobates with the same power They who are the predestinate of God and they that are the praesciti the foreknown and marked people must needs stand or fall to the Divine sentence and such must this be acknowledged for no enemy of the Cross not the Devil himself ever foretold such a contingency or so rare so personal so voluntary so unnatural an event as this of the great Antichrist 12. And thus the Holy Jesus having shewed forth the treasures of his Father's Wisdom in Revelations and holy Precepts and upon the stock of his Father's greatness having dispended and demonstrated great power in Miracles and these being instanced in acts of Mercy he mingled the glories of Heaven to transmit them to earth to raise us up to the participations of Heaven he was pleased by healing the bodies of infirm persons to invite their spirits to his Discipline and by his power to convey healing and by that mercy to lead us into the treasures of revelation that both Bodies and Souls our Wills and Understandings by Divine instruments might be brought to Divine perfections in the participations of a Divine nature It was a miraculous mercy that God should look upon us in our bloud and a miraculous condescension that his Son should take our nature and even this favour we could not believe without many Miracles and so contrary was our condition to all possibilities of happiness that if Salvation had not marched to us all the way in Miracle we had perished in the ruines of a sad eternity And now it would be but reasonable that since God for our sakes hath rescinded so many laws of natural establishment we also for his and for our own would be content to do violence to those natural inclinations which are also criminal when they derive into action Every man living in the state of Grace is a perpetual Miracle and his Passions are made reasonable as his Reason is turned to Faith and his Soul to Spirit and his Body to a Temple and Earth to Heaven and less than this will not dispose us to such glories which being the portion of Saints and Angels and the nearest communications with God are infinitely above what we see or hear or understand The PRAYER O Eternal Jesu who didst receive great power that by it thou mightest convey thy Father's mercies to us impotent and wretched people give me grace to believe that heavenly Doctrine which thou didst ratifie with arguments from above that I may fully assent to all those mysterious Truths which integrate that Doctrine and Discipline in which the obligations of my duty and the hopes of my felicity are deposited And to all those glorious verifications of thy Goodness and thy Power add also this Miracle that I who am stained with Leprosie of sin may be cleansed and my eyes may be opened that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law and raise thou me up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness that I may for ever walk in the land of the living abhorring the works of death and darkness that as I am by thy miraculous mercy partaker of the first so also I may be accounted worthy of the second Resurrection and as by Faith Hope Charity and Obedience I receive the fruit of thy Miracles in this life so in the other I may partake of thy Glories which is a mercy above all Miracles Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Lord I believe help mine unbelief and grant that no 〈◊〉 or incapacity of mine may hinder the wonderful operations of thy Grace but let it be thy first Miracle to turn my water into wine my barrenness into fruitfulness my aversations from thee into unions and intimate adhesions to thy infinity which is the fountain of mercy and power Grant this for thy mercie 's sake and for the honour of those glorious Attributes in which thou hast revealed thy self and thy Father's excellencies to the world O Holy and Eternal Jesu Amen The End of the Second Part. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS BEGINNING At the Second Year of his PREACHING until his ASCENSION WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES THE THIRD PART Seneca apud Lactant. lib. 6. c. 17. Hic est ille homo qui sive toto corpore tormenta patienda sunt sive flamma ore recipienda est sive extendenda per patibulum manus non quaerit quid patiatur sed quà m bene LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston 1675 TO The Right Honourable and Vertuous Lady The LADY FRANCES Countess of CARBERY MADAM SInce the Divine Providence hath been pleased to bind up the great breaches of my little fortune by your Charity and Nobleness of a religious tenderness I account it an excellent circumstance and handsomeness of condition that I have the fortune of S. Athanasius to have my Persecution relieved and comforted by an Honourable and Excellent Lady and I have nothing to return for this honour done to me but to do as the poor Paralyticks and infirm people in the Gospel did when our Blessed Saviour cured them they went and told it to all the Countrey and made the Vicinage full of the report as themselves were of health and joy And although I know the modesty of your person and Religion had rather do favours than own them yet give me leave to draw aside the curtain and retirement of your Charity for I had rather your vertue should blush than my unthankfulness make me ashamed Madam I intended by this Address not onely to return you spirituals for
endeavour is the Sacrifice which God delights in that in the firmament of Heaven there are little Stars and they are most in number and there are but few of the greatest magnitude that there are children and babes in Christ as well as strong men and amongst these there are great difference that the interruptions of the state of Grace by intervening crimes if they were rescinded by Repentance they were great danger in the intervall but served as increment of the Divine Glory and arguments of care and diligence to us at the restitution These and many more are then to be urged when the sick person is in danger of being swallowed up with over-much sorrow and therefore to be insisted on in all like cases as the Physician gives him Cordials that we may do charity to him and minister comfort not because they are always necessary even in the midst of great sadnesses and discomforts For we are to secure his love to God that he acknowledge the Divine Mercy that he believe the Article of Remission of sins that he be thankful to God for the blessings which already he hath received and that he lay all the load of his discomfort upon himself and his own incapacities of mercy and then the sadness may be very great and his tears clamorous and his heart broken all in pieces and his Humility lower than the earth and his Hope indiscernible and yet no danger to his final condition Despair reflects upon God and dishonours the infinity of his Mercy And if the sick person do but confess that God is not at all wanting in his Promises but ever abounding in his Mercies and that it is want of the condition on his own part that makes the misery and that if he had done his duty God would save him let him be assisted with perpetual prayers with examples of lapsed and returning sinners whom the Church celebrates for Saints such as Mary Magdalen Mary of Egypt Asra Thasis Pelagia let it be often inculcated to him that as God's Mercy is of it self infinite so its demonstration to us is not determined to any certain period but hath such latitudes in it and reservations which as they are apt to restrain too great boldness so also to become sanctuaries to disconsolate persons let him be invited to throw himself upon God upon these grounds that he who is our Judge is also our Advocate and Redeemer that he knows and pities our infirmities and that our very hoping in him does indear him and he will deliver us the rather for our confidence when it is balanced with reverence and humility and then all these supernumerary fears are advantagious to more necessary Graces and do more secure his final condition than they can disturb it 11. When Saint Arsenius was near his death he was observed to be very tremulous sad weeping and disconsolate The standers by asked the reason of his fears wondring that he having lived in great Sanctity for many years should not now rejoyce at the going forth of his prison The good man confessed the fear and withall said it was no other than he had always born about with him in the days of his pilgrimage and what he then thought a duty they had no reason now to call either a fault or a misery Great sorrows fears and distrustings of a man 's own condition are oftentimes but abatements of confidence or a remission of joys and gayeties of spirit they are but like salutary clouds dark and fruitful and if the tempted person be strengthened in a love of God though he go not farther in his hopes than to believe a possibility of being saved than to say God can save him if he please and to pray that he will save him his condition is a state of Grace it is like a root in the ground trod upon humble and safe not so fine as the state of flowers yet that which will spring up in as glorious a Resurrection as that which looks fairer and pleases the sense and is indeed a blessing but not a duty 12. But there is a state of Death-bed which seems to have in it more Question and to be of nicer consideration A sick person after a vicious and base life and if upon whatsoever he can do you give him hopes of a Pardon where is your promise to warrant it if you do not give him hopes do you not drive him to Despair and ascertain his ruine to verifie your proposition To this I answer that Despair is opposed to Hope and Hope relies upon the Divine Promises and where there is no Promise there the Despair is not a sin but a mere impossibility The accursed Spirits which are sealed up to the Judgment of the last Day cannot hope and he that repents not cannot hope for pardon And therefore if all which the state of Death-bed can produce be not the duty of Repentance which is required of necessity to Pardon it is not in such a person properly to be called Despair any more than it is Blindness in a stone that it cannot see Such a man is not within the capacities of Pardon and therefore all those acts of exteriour Repentance and all his sorrow and resolution and tears of emendation and other preparatives to interiour Repentance are like oil poured into mortal wounds they are the care of the Physician and these are the cautions of the Church and they are at no hand to be neglected For if they do not alter the state they may lessen the judgment or procure a temporal blessing and if the person recover they are excellent beginnings of the state of Grace and if they be pursued in a happy opportunity will grow up into Glory 13. But if it be demanded whether in such cases the Curate be bound to give Absolution I can give no other answer but this that if he lie under the Censure of the Church the Laws of the Church are to determine the particular and I know no Church in the World but uses to absolve Death-bed Penitents upon the instances of those actions of which their present condition is capable though in the Primitive Ages in some cases they denied it But if the sick person be under no positive Censure and is bound only by the guilt of habitual vice if he desires the Prayers of the Church she is bound in charity to grant them to Pray for Pardon to him and all other Graces in order to Salvation and if she absolves the Penitent towards God it hath no other efficacy but of a solemn Prayer and therefore it were better that all the charity of the Office were done and the solemnity omitted because in the earnest Prayer she co-operates to his Salvation as much as she can and by omitting the solemnity distinguishes evil livers from holy persons and walks securely whilst she refuses to declare him pardoned whom God hath not declared to be so And possibly that form of Absolution which the Churches
helped by none comforted by none and he makes himself a companion of Devils to everlasting ages but in the judgment of Repentance and Tribunal of the Church the penitent sinner is prayed for by a whole army of militant Saints and causes joy to all the Church triumphant And to establish this Tribunal in the Church and to transmit pardon to penitent sinners and a salutary judgment upon the person and the crime and to appoint Physicians and Guardians of the Soul was one of the designs and mercies of the Resurrection of Jesus And let not any Christian man either by false opinion or an unbelieving spirit or an incurious apprehension undervalue or neglect this ministery which Christ hath so sacredly and solemnly established Happy is he that dashes his sins against the rock upon which the Church is built that the Church gathering up the planks and fragments of the shipwreck and the shivers of the broken heart may re-unite them pouring Oil into the wounds made by the blows of sin and restoring with meekness gentleness care counsel and authority persons overtaken in a fault For that act of Ministery is not ineffectual which God hath promised shall be ratified in Heaven and that Authority is not contemptible which the Holy Jesus conveyed by breathing upon his Church the Holy Ghost But Christ intended that those whom he had made Guides of our Souls and Judges of our Consciences in order to counsel and ministerial pardon should also be used by us in all cases of our Souls and that we go to Heaven the way he hath appointed that is by offices and ministeries Ecclesiastical 17. When our Blessed Lord had so confirmed the Faith of the Church and appointed an Ecclesiastical Ministery he had but one work more to do upon earth and that was the Institution of the holy Sacrament of Baptism which he ordained as a solemn Initiation and mysterious Profession of the Faith upon which the Church is built making it a solemn Publication of our Profession the rite of Stipulation or entring Covenant with our Lord the solemnity of the Paction Evangelical in which we undertake to be Disciples to the Holy Jesus that is to believe his Doctrine to fear his Threatnings to rely upon his Promises and to obey his Commandments all the days of our life and he for his part actually performs much and promises more he takes off all the guilt of our preceding days purging our Souls and making them clean as in the day of innocence promising withall that if we perform our undertaking and remain in the state in which he now puts us he will continually assist us with his Spirit prevent and attend us with his Grace he will deliver us from the power of the Devil he will keep our Souls in merciful joyful and safe custody till the great Day of the Lord he will then raise our Bodies from the Grave he will make them to be spiritual and immortal he will re-unite them to our Souls and beatifie both Bodies and Souls in his own Kingdom admitting them into eternal and unspeakable glories All which that he might verifie and prepare respectively in the presence of his Disciples he ascended into the bosome of God and the eternal comprehensions of celestial Glory The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast overcome Death and triumphed over all the powers of Hell Darkness Sin and the Grave manifesting the truth of thy Promises the power of thy Divinity the majesty of thy Person the rewards of thy Glory and the mercies and excellent designs of thy Evangelical Kingdom by thy glorious and powerful Resurrection preserve my Soul from eternal death and make me to rise from the death of Sin and to live the life of Grace loving thy Perfections adoring thy Mercy pursuing the interest of thy Kingdom being united to the Church under thee our Head conforming to thy holy Laws established in Faith entertained and confirmed with a modest humble and certain Hope and sanctified by Charity that I engraving thee in my heart and submitting to thee in my spirit and imitating thee in thy glorious example may be partaker of thy Resurrection which is my hope and my desire the support of my Faith the object of my Joy and the strength of my Confidence In thee Holy Jesus do I trust I confess thy Faith I believe all that thou hast taught I desire to perform all thy injunctions and my own undertaking my Soul is in thy hand do thou support and guide it and pity my infirmities and when thou shalt reveal thy great Day shew to me the mercies and effects of thy Advocation and Intercession and Redemption Thou shalt answer for me O Lord my God for in thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Thou art just thou 〈◊〉 merciful thou art gracious and compassionate thou hast done miracles and prodigies of favour to me and all the world Let not those great actions and sufferings be ineffective but make me capable and receptive of thy Mercies and then I am certain to receive them I am thine O save me thou art mine O Holy Jesus O dwell with me for ever and let me dwell with thee adoring and praising the eternal glories of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen THE END 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE TABLE OF The Life of CHRIST Where are more Numbers than one the first Number denotes the Page the latter the Number of the Section A. ABsolution of dying Persons of what benefit 407. 23. Whether to be given to all that desire it 408. 24. Acceptable Year of the Lord what it means 186. 22. Actions of Jesus confuted his Accusers 390. 2. Acts of Vertue to be done by sick and dying Persons 405 406. 19 20. Accusation of Criminals not to be aggravated odiously 393. 8. It ought to be onely for purposes of Charity ibid. Accusation of innocent persons ought to be born patiently by the innocent 393. 9. Accusation of Jesus 352. 24. Adam buried in Golgotha 354. 31. Adoption of Sons 316. 7. Advent of our Lord must be entertained with joy 156. 3. Adultery made more criminal under the Gospel than under the Law 249. 37 c. Adultery of the eyes 250. 36. Adrian the Emperour built a Temple to Venus and Adonis in the place of Christ's Birth 14. 6. Agony of Jesus in the Garden 350. 20. Agesilaus was more commended for his modesty and obedience than for his prosperous good Conduct 50. 25. Albes or white garments wore by the Church and why 393. 9 10. Alms intended for a defensative against Covetousness 258. 1. Ordinarily to be according to our ability ibid. Sometimes beyond in what cases ibid. Necessities of all indigent people are the object of our Alms 259. 3. Manner of Alms an office of Christian prudence ibid. The two Altars in Solomon's Temple what they did represent 83. 4. Ambitious seeking Ecclesiastical Dignities very criminal 96. 2. Ambition is
they their Beneficiaries in receiving Tithes or other provisions of maintenance they owe for it to none but to God himself and it would also be considered that in all sacrilegious detentions of Ecclesiastical rights God is the person principally injured 4. The Turtle-doves were offered also with the signification of another mystery In the sacred Rites of Marriage although the permissions of natural desires are such as are most ordinate to their ends the avoiding Fornication the alleviation of Oeconomical cares and vexations and the production of Children and mutual comfort and support yet the apertures and permissions of Marriage have such restraints of modesty and prudence that all transgression of the just order to such ends is a crime and besides these there may be degrees of inordination or obliquity of intention or too sensual complacency or unhandsom preparations of mind or unsacramental thoughts in which particulars because we have no determined rule but Prudence and the analogy of the Rite and the severity of our Religion which allow in some cases more in some 〈◊〉 and always uncertain latitudes for ought we know there may be lighter transgressions something that we know not of and for these at the Purification of the woman it is supposed the Offering was made and the Turtures by being an oblation did deprecate a supposed irregularity but by being a chast and marital Embleme they professed the obliquity if any were was within the protection of the sacred bands of Marriage and therefore so excusable as to be expiated by a cheap offering and what they did in Hieroglyphick Christians must do in the exposition be strict observers of the main rites and principal obligations and not neglectful to deprecate the lesser unhandsomenesses of the too sensual applications 5. God had at that instant so ordered that for great ends of his own and theirs two very holy persons of divers Sexes and like Piety 〈◊〉 and Anna the one who lived an active and secular the other a retired and contemplative life should come into the Temple by revelation and direction of the holy Spirit and see him whom they and all the World did look for the Lord 's CHRIST the consolation of Israel They saw him they rejoyced they worshipped they prophesied they sang Hymns and old Simeon did comprehend and circumscribe in his arms him that filled all the World and was then so satisfied that he desired to live no longer God had verified his promise had shewn him the Messias had filled his heart with joy and made his old age honourable and now after all this sight no object could be pleasant but the joys of Paradise For as a man who hath stared too freely upon the face and beauties of the Sun is blind and dark to objects of a less splendor and is forced to shut his eyes that he may through the degrees of darkness perceive the inferiour beauties of more proportioned objects so was old Simeon his eyes were so filled with the glories of this Revelation that he was willing to close them in his last night that he might be brought into the communications of Eternity and he could never more find comfort in any other object this world could minister For such is the excellency of spiritual things when they have once filled the corners of our hearts and made us highly sensible and apprehensive of the interiour beauties of God and of Religion all things of this World are flat and empty and unsatisfying vanities as unpleasant as the lees of Vineger to a tongue filled with the spirit of high Italick Wines And until we are so dead to the World as to apprehend no gust or freer complacency in exteriour objects we never have entertained Christ or have had our cups overflow with Devotion or are filled with the Spirit When our Chalice is filled with holy oyl with the Anointing from above it will entertain none of the waters of bitterness or if it does they are thrust to the bottom they are the lowest of our desires and therefore only admitted because they are natural and constituent 6. The good old Prophetess Anna had lived long in chast Widowhood in the service of the Temple in the continual offices of Devotion in Fasting and Prayer and now came the happy instant in which God would give her a great benediction and an earnest of a greater The returns of Prayer and the blessings of Piety are certain and though not dispensed according to the expectances of our narrow conceptions 〈◊〉 shall they so come at such times and in such measures as shall crown the Piety and 〈◊〉 the desires and reward the expectation It was in the Temple the same place where she had for so many years poured out her heart to God that God poured forth his heart to her sent his Son from his bosom and there she received his benediction Indeed in such places God does most particularly exhibit himself and Blessing goes along with him where-ever he goes In holy places God hath put his holy Name and to holy persons God does oftentimes manifest the interiour and more secret glories of his Holiness provided they come thither as old Simeon and Anna did by the motions of the holy Spirit not with designs of vanity or curiosity or sensuality for such spirits as those come to profane and desecrate the house and unhallow the person and provoke the Deity of the place and blast us with unwholsom airs 7. But Joseph and Mary wondred at these things which were spoken and treasured them in their hearts and they became matter of Devotion and mental Prayer or Meditation The PRAYER O Eternal God who by the Inspirations of thy Holy Spirit didst direct thy servants Simeon and Anna to the Temple at the instant of the Presentation of the Holy Child Jesus that so thou mightest verifie thy promise and manifest thy Son and reward the 〈◊〉 of holy people who longed for Redemption by the coming of the Messias give me the perpetual assistance of the same Spirit to be as a Monitor and a Guide to me leading me to all holy actions and to the embracements and possessions of thy glorious Son and remember all thy faithful people who wait for the consolation and redemption of the Church from all her miseries and persecutions and at last satisfie their desires by the revelations of thy mercies and Salvation Thou hast advanced thy Holy Child and set him up for a sign of thy Mercies and a representation of thy Glories Lord let no act or thought or word of mine ever be in contradiction to this blessed sign but let it be for the ruine of all my vices and all the powers the Devil imploys against the Church and for the raising up all those vertues and Graces which thou didst design me in the purposes of Eternity but let my portion never be amongst the 〈◊〉 or the scornful or the Heretical or the profane or any of those who stumble at this Stone
which thou hast laid for the foundation of thy Church and the structures of a vertuous life Remember me with much mercy and compassion when the sword of Sorrows or Afflictions shall pierce my heart first transfix me with love and then all the Troubles of this world will be consignations to the joys of a better 〈◊〉 grant for the mercies and the name sake of thy Holy Child Jesus Amen DISCOURSE III. Of Meditation 1. IF in the Definition of Meditation I should call it an unaccustomed and unpractised Duty I should speak a truth though somewhat inartificially for not only the interior beauties and brighter excellencies are as unfelt as Idea's and Abstractions are but also the practice and common knowledge of the Duty it self are strangers to us like the retirements of the Deep or the undiscovered treasures of the Indian Hills And this is a very great cause of the driness and expiration of mens Devotion because our Souls are so little 〈◊〉 with the waters and holy dews of Meditation We go to our prayers by chance or order or by determination of accidental occurrences and we recite them as we read a book and sometimes we are sensible of the Duty and a flash of lightning makes the room bright and our prayers end and the lightning is gone and we as dark as ever We draw our water from standing pools which never are filled but with sudden showers and therefore we are dry so often Whereas if we would draw water from the Fountains of our Saviour and derive them through the chanel of diligent and prudent Meditations our Devotion would be a continual current and safe against the barrenness of frequent droughts 2. For Meditation is an attention and application of spirit to Divine things a searching out all instruments to a holy life a devout consideration of them and a production of those affections which are in a direct order to the love of God and a pious conversation Indeed Meditation is all that great instrument of Piety whereby it is made prudent and reasonable and orderly and perpetual For supposing our Memory instructed with the knowledge of such mysteries and revelations as are apt to entertain the Spirit the Understanding is first and best imployed in the consideration of them and then the Will in their reception when they are duly prepared and so transmitted and both these in such manner and to such purposes that they become the Magazine and great Repositories of Grace and instrumental to all designs of Vertue 3. For the Understanding is not to consider the matter of any meditation in itself or as it determines in natural excellencies or unworthiness respectively or with a purpose to furnish it self with notion and riches of knowledge for that is like the Winter-Sun it shines but warms not but in such order as themselves are put in the designations of Theology in the order of Divine Laws in their spiritual capacity and as they have influence upon Holiness for the Understanding here is something else besides the Intellectual power of the Soul it is the Spirit that is it is celestial in its application as it is spiritual in its nature and we may understand it well by considering the beatifical portions of Soul and body in their future glories For therefore even our Bodies in the Resurrection shall be spiritual because the operation of them shall be in order to spiritual glories and their natural actions such as are Seeing and Speaking shall have a spiritual object and supernatural end and here as we partake of such excellencies and cooperate to such purposes men are more or less spiritual And so is the Understanding taken from its first and lowest ends of resting in notion and ineffective contemplation and is made Spirit that is wholly ruled and guided by God's Spirit to supernatural ends and spiritual imployments so that it understands and considers the motions of the Heavens to declare the glory of God the prodigies and alterations in the Firmament to demonstrate his handy-work it considers the excellent order of creatures that we may not disturb the order of Creation or dissolve the golden chain of Subordination Aristotle and Porphyry and the other Greek Philosophers studied the Heavens to search out their natural causes and production of Bodies the wiser Chaldees and Assyrians studied the same things that they might learn their Influences upon us and make Predictions of contingencies the more moral AEgyptian described his Theorems in Hieroglyphicks and phantastick representments to teach principles of Policy Oeconomy and other prudences of Morality and secular negotiation But the same Philosophy when it is made Christian considers as they did but to greater purposes even that from the Book of the Creatures we may glorifie the Creator and hence derive arguments of Worship and Religion this is Christian Philosophy 4. I instance only in considerations natural to spiritual purposes but the same is the manner in all Meditation whether the matter of it be Nature or Revelation For if we think of Hell and consider the infinity of its duration and that its flames last as long as God lasts and thence conjecture upon the rules of proportion why a finite creature may have an infinite unnatural duration or think by what ways a material fire can torment an immaterial substance or why the Devils who are intelligent and wise creatures should be so foolish as to hate God from whom they know every rivulet of amability derives This is to study not to meditate for Meditation considers any thing that may best make us to avoid the place and to quit a vicious habit or master and 〈◊〉 an untoward inclination or purchase a vertue or exercise one so that Meditation is an act of the Understanding put to the right use 5. For the Holy Jesus coming to redeem us from the bottomless pit did it by lifting us up out of the puddles of impurity and the unwholsome waters of vanity He redeemed us from our vain conversation and our Understandings had so many vanities that they were made instruments of great impiety The unlearned and ruder Nations had fewer Vertues but they had also fewer Vices than the wise Empires that ruled the World with violence and wit together The softer Asians had Lust and Intemperance in a full Chalice but their Understandings were ruder than the finer Latines for these mens understandings distilled wickedness as through a Limbeck and the Romans drank spirits and the sublimed quintessences of Villany whereas the other made themselves drunk with the lees and cheaper instances of sin so that the Understanding is not an idle and useless faculty but naturally drives to practice and brings guests into the inward Cabinet of the Will and there they are entertained and feasted And those Understandings which did not serve the baser end of Vices yet were unprofitable for the most part and furnished their inward rooms with glasses and beads and trifles fit for an American Mart. From all