Rain upon the grass Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus We are water'd with this rain and we know not how We feel the drops are fallen but how they fell we could not discern And we are too ready to ask with the Virgin Mary How cometh this to pass But the Angel nay God himself telleth us The Holy Ghost doth come upon us and the power of the Most High overshadows us and that Holy thing which is born in us shall be called the Son of God Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought we shall find but the retired passages by which it hath wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration Res illic geritur nec videtur The Rain is fall'n and we know not how We saw not Christ when he came down but it is plain that he is come down And he comes down not into the Phansie alone That commonly is too washy and fluid of it self and brings forth no better a Christ then Marcions a Shadow or Phantasme Nor into the Understanding alone For thither he descends rather like Light then Water and he may be there and the grass not grow He may be there only as an absent Friend in his picture But he commeth down in totum vellus into the whole fleece into the Heart of man into the whole man that so he may at once conceive Christ and yet be presented a pure and undefiled Virgin unto Christ and be the purer by this new conception And he cometh down in totam terram upon all the ground upon the whole Little World of Man that so he may be like a well-water'd Garden even a Paradise of God A strange Jer. 31. 12. complaint the world hath taken up yea rather not a complaint but a pretense a very cloak of maliciousness to hide our sins from our eyes That Christ doth thus come down but at pleasure only sometimes and but upon some men some who like Mary are highly favour'd by God and call'd out of all the world nay chosen before the world was made And if the earth be barren it is because this Rain doth not fall As if the Grace of God were not like Rain but very Rainie indeed and came down by seasons and fits and as if the Souls of men were not like the Grass but were Grass indeed not voluntary but natural and necessary Agents Thus we deceive our selves but we cannot mock God His Grace comes not down as a Tempest of Hayl or as a destroying Storm or as a Floud of many Waters overflowing but as Rain or Drops He poureth it forth every day and renews it every morning And he would never question our barrenness and sterility if he did not come down nor punish our unfruitfulness if he did not send Rains If before he came into the world this Rain might fall as it were by coasts in Judaea alone yet now by the virtue of his comming down it drops in all places of his Dominion Omnibus aequalis omnibus Rex omnibus Judex omnibus Deus Dominus As he came to all so he is equal and indifferent to all a King to all a Judge to all and a God and a Lord to all And his Grace manat jugiter exuberat affluenter flows continually and falls down abundantly Nostrum tantùm sitiat pectus pateat Let our hearts lye alwaies open and the windows of Heaven are alwaies open let us continually thirst after righteousness and this Dew will fall continually Let us prepare our hearts let us make them soft as the Fleece let us be as Grass not Stubble as Earth not Brass and the Son of God will come down into our hearts like rain into the fleece of wooll or mowen grass and like showers that water the earth And now we have shewed you this threefold Descent We should in the next place contemplate the effect which this great Humility wrought the Fruit which sprung upon the fall of this gracious Rain upon Gods Inheritance the Spring of Righteousness and the Plenty of Peace and the Aeternity of them both But I see the time will not permit For conclusion therefore and as the present occasion bespeaks me I will acquaint you with another Descent of Christ into the blessed Sacrament I mean into the outward Elements of Bread and Wine Into these also he comes down insensibly spiritually ineffably yet really like Rain into a fleece of wooll Ask me not how he is there but there he is Eia fratres ubi voluit Dominus agnosci In fractione panis saith St. Augustine O my brethren where would our Saviour discover himself but in the breaking of bread In his Word he seems to keep a distance and to speak to us saith the Father by way of Letter or Epistle but in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud he communicates himself that we who could not see him in his flesh may yet eat that flesh we cannot see and be in some kind familiar with him I need not busie my self in making the resemblance Theodoret in one of his Dialogues hath made up the parallel between the Incarnation of Christ and the Holy Sacrament In Christ there are two Natures the Divine and the Humane and in the Sacrament there are two Substances the heavenly and the earthly 2. After the union the two Natures are but one Person and after the consecration the two Substances make but one Sacrament 3. Lastly as the two Natures are united without confusion or coalition of either in Christ so in the Sacrament are the Substances heavenly and earthly knit so together that each continueth what it was The Bread is bread still and the Body of Christ is the body of Christ and yet Christ is the Bread of Life and the Bread is the body and the Wine the bloud of Christ It is panis Domini the Bread of the Lord and panis Dominus the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from Heaven And to a believing John 6. 51. Virgin soul Christ comes nearer in these outward Elements then Superstition can bring him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation For as he by assuming our Nature was made one with us made flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones so we by worthily receiving his flesh and his bloud in the Sacrament are made one with him even partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Per hunc panem ad Dei consortium preparamur saith Hilary By this Bread we are united to him here and made fit to be with him for ever And to drink this Cup the Bloud of Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens to be made partakers of the incorruptibility of God And now to conclude This quiet and peaceable committing of Christ to us should teach us the like behaviour one to another For shall he come down like rain and shall we fall like
insensibilis saith the Father sweet and peaceable without trouble without noise scarcely to be perceiv'd not in the strong wind to rend us to pieces not in the Earth-quake to shake us not in the fire to consume us but in a still and small voice not as Thunder to make a noise not as Hayl to rattle on the house-tops not as the Blast and Mildew to wither us but as the Rain falling sweetly on the grass or on a fleece of wooll and as the showers which water the earth and make it fruitful 3. We shall observe the Effect which this Descent produceth or the Fruit which springs up upon the fall of this gracious Rain First Righteousness springs up and spreads her self Justus florebit So some render it The righteous shall flourish Secondly After Righteousness Peace shews it self even abundance of peace And Thirdly both these are not herbae solstitiales herbs which spring up and wither in one day but which will be green and flourish so long as the Moon endureth which is everlastingly And therefore we must Fourthly in the last place observe 1. the Relation which is between these two Righteousness and Peace They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where there is Righteousness there is Peace and where there is Peace there is Righteousness 2. The Order Righteousness first and then abundance of Peace Take them all three and you shall find a kind of subordination betwixt them for no Peace without Righteousness no Righteousness without this Rain But if the Son of God come down like rain streight Righteousness appears on the earth and upon the same watering and from the same root shoots forth abundance of Peace and both so long as the Moon endureth Of these then in their Order briefly and plainly and first of the Descent He that ascended is he also that descended first saith the Apostle And he Eph. 4. came down very low He brought himself sub lege under the Law sub cultro under the Knife at his Circumeision sub maledicto under the curse sub potestate tenebrarum under the power of darkness down into the cratch down into the world and down when he was lifted up upon the Cross for that ascension was a great descent and from thence down into the grave and lower yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the lowermost parts of the earth Thus low did he come down But if we terminate his Descension in his Incarnation if we interpret his Descent by NATUS EST that he was born and say no more we have brought him very low even so low that the Angels themselves must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop to look after him that not the clearest Understanding not the quickest Apprehension nothing but Faith can follow after to behold him which yet must stand aloof off and tremble and wonder at this great sight Hîc me solus complectitur stupor saith the Father In other things my Reason may guide me Meditation and Study may help me and if not give me full resolution yet some satisfaction at least But here O prodigia O miracula O prodigy O miracle of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the paradox of this strange Descent This is a depth which I connot foard a gulph wherein I am swallowed up and have no light left me but my Faith and Admiration Certe mirabilis descensus saith Leo a wonderful descent à coelo ad uterum from his Throne to the Womb from his Palace to a Dungeon from his dwelling place on high to dwell in our flesh from riding on the Cherubin to hanging on the Teat A wonderful Descent Where is the wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World That God should thus come down that he that conteineth all things should be compassed by a Woman that he should cry as a child at whose voice the Angels and Archangels tremble that he whose hands meted out the Heavens and measur'd the waters should lye in the cratch Deus visibilis Deus contrectabilis as Hilary speaks that God should be seen and touched and handled no Orator no Eloquence the tongues of Men and Angels cannot reach it O anima opus est tibi imperitiâ meâ O my soul learn to be ignorant and not to know what is unsearchable Abundat sibi locuples fides It is enough for me to believe that the Son of God came down And this coming down we may call his Humiliation his Exinanition his Low estate Not that his Divine nature could descend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider'd in it self but God came down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of that gracious dispensation by which he vouchsafed to dwell amongst us For he assumed into the unity of his Person that which before he was not and yet remained that which he was Ille quod est semper est sicut est ita est For what he is he alwaies is and as he is so he is without any shew or shadow of change But yet in the great work of our redemption he may seem to have laid his Majesty aside and not to have exercised that Power which was coeternal with him as infinite as Himself And now it is no blasphemy but salvation to say That he who created man was made a Man That he who was the God of Mary was the Son of Mary That he that made the world had not a hole to hide his head That he who was the Law-giver was made under the Law And therefore in every action almost as he did manifest his Power so he exprest his Humility A Star stands over him when he lay in the Manger He rebukes the Winds who was asleep in the Ship He commands the Sea and Fishes bring tribute in their mouths but at Caesars commands he submits and pays it He strikes a band of men backward to the Ground but yields as a man and is bound and led away as a sheep to the slaughter And thus that Love which reconcil'd the World unto God reconcileth these strange contradictions a God and a Man a God that sleeps that thirsts vectigalis Deus a tributary God Deus in vinculis a God in bonds a God crucified dead and buried All which Descents he had not in natura not in his Divine Nature Neque enim defecit in sese qui se evacuavit in sese saith Hilary For He who emptied himself in himself did not so descend as to leave or loose himself But the Descent was in persona in his Person in respect of his voluntary Dispensation by which he willingly yielded to assume and unite the Humane nature to Himself And thus he was made of that Woman who was made by himself and was conteined in her womb whom the Heavens cannot contein and was cut out of the land of the living who was in truth what Melchisedec was only in the conceit of men in his time without father and without mother having no beginning of days nor end of life He was
less then his Father and yet his Fathers Equal the Son of David and yet Davids Lord A case which plunged the great Rabbies among the Pharisees who had not yet learned this wisdom nor known this knowledge of the Holy But most true it is Non fallit in vocabulis Deus God speaks of things as they are nor is there any ambiguity in his words He tells us he is God and he tells us he is man He tells us that his dwelling-place is in Heaven and he tells us that he came down into the world He tells us he is from everlasting and he tells us he was born in the fulness of time Et quod à Deo discitur totum est And what he tells us is all that can be said Nor must our Curiosity strive to enter in at the Needles eye where he hath open'd an effectual Door Indeed it was the Devils policie when his Altars were overthrown when his Oracles were silenced when he was driven from his Temples when his God-head was laid in the dust and when Pagans and Idolaters his subjects and slaves came in willingly in the days of Christs power to strive dimidiare Christum to divide Christ into halves and when Christ became the language of the whole world to confound their language that men might not understand one anothers speech And like a subtle enemy when he was beat out of the field he made it his master-piece to raise a civil dissension in the City of God Proh quanta etiamnum patitur Verbum saith the Father Good God! how much doth Christ yet suffer in his Church He came into the world and the world knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not He comes down but as a Phantasin as a mear Creature so Anius as an adopted Son so Phocius which is in effect to say he came not down at all For if he be a meer creature the Descent is not so low And if he be adopted to this work it is rather a rise then a Descension And if he be but the Son of Mary made the Son of God and not the Son of God made the Son of Mary it is no Descent at all I do not love to rake these mis-shapen Monsters out of their dust but that I see at this day they walk too boldly upon the face of the earth and knock and that with some violence to have admittance into the Church And therefore it will behove us to take the whole armour of Faith and to stand upon our defence conservare vocabula in luce proprietatum to preserve the propriety of words entire to walk by that light which they cast and not with those Hereticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make use of those Phrases which speak Christ Man and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pass by those which magnifie him as God but to joyn together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his good pleasure and his power to say that he came into the world and to say that he created the world to say he was the scorn of men and to say he was the Image of his Father in a word ipsi Deo de se credere to believe God in that he speaks of himself And then we may turn aside and behold this great sight and make it our glory and crown to say Descendit Rex not Solomon but the King of Kings the King of Glory is come down And so I pass from the Descent or Coming down to the Manner of it Descendit sicut pluvia c. The Manner of his Descent is as wonderfull as the Descent it self It is as full of wonder that he thus came down as that he would come down especially if we consider the place to which he came the World a Babylon of confusion a Sodom a Land of Philistines of Giants who made it as a Law to fight against the God of Heaven We might have expected rather that he should have come cown as a Fire to consume us as a Tempest to devour us as Thunder to amaze us then as Rain to fall softly upon us or as a Shower to water and refresh us that he should have come down to blast and dig us up by the roots rather then to yield us juice and life to grow green and flourish Indeed we could expect no less But his mercy is above all his works and then far above our expectation far above all that we could conceive far above our sins which were gone over our heads and hung there ready to fall in vengeance upon us And rather then they should fall as hailstones and coals of fire he himself comes down like rain and as showers that water the earth Justice would have stay'd him and for him sent down a Thunderbolt but Mercy prevail'd and had the better of Justice and in this manner brings him down himself And here to shew you the manner of his coming down we shall observe a threefold Descent in uterum matris into the Virgins womb in mundum into the World and in homines into the Souls of men For as the Virgins womb was thalamus Christi the Bride-chamber of Christ wherein the Holy Ghost did knit the indissoluble knot between his Humane nature and his Deity so the World was the place where he pitcht his Tent and the John 1. 14. Soul of man is the Temple of the Lord where the same quickning Spirit by the operation of Faith makes up that eternal union and conjunction between the Members and the Head And into all these he came down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostom and we find the very same words in the sixth Councel of Constantinople quietly and without any noise at all like Rain which we may know is fallen by the moistures of the Fleece or Grass but not hear when it falls And first thus he came down into the Virgins womb as upon the Grass and made her fruitful to bring forth the Son of God and as into a fleece of wooll out of which he made up tegmen carnis the vail and garment of his flesh and so without noise so unconceivably that as it is an Article of our Faith and the very language of a Christian to say He is come down so it is a question which poseth the whole world and none but himself can resolve the Quomodo How he came down For as he came down and was made Man not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by any alteration or mutation of his Divine Essence sine periculo statûs sui saith Tertullian without any danger of the least change of his state not by converting the Godhead into Flesh as Cerinthus nor the Flesh into the Godhead as Valentius no nor by compounding and mingling the Natures so that after the union there should remain one entire Nature of them both but by an invisible inconceivable ineffable union So also did the blessed Virgin
Person to blemish and deface his Calling and Profession Nor can our Freedom by Christ priviledge us for we must submit quasi liberi as free and quia liberi because we are free For to this end we are made free that we should work all righteousness and not make our Freedom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cloak of maliciousness that by obeying of Kings and Governours we may be the Servants of God This is the sum of these words In them there be divers circumstances observable which we cannot handle now We will therefore confine our meditations and consider the Object which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every humane ordinance which hath here its distribution into Superior and Infeferior first the King secondly those Governours which are sent by him and are his Vicegerents 2. What is meant here by Submission 3. The Motives to win us to the performance of this Duty One is drawn ab autoritate from the Authority of God himself whose Deputys Kings and Governours are We must submit for the Lords sake another ab utili from the Good and Benefit we receive from them in the punishment of evil doers and the praise and encouragement of those that do well Of these in their order and first of the Object Submit your selves to every ordinance of man What this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ordinance of man this humane creature is there is some dispute and by divers hands it hath been fashion'd and shaped as it were into divers forms Some have tender'd it as a Law as a Constitution made by man Others have presented it as a Man though not invested with Authority and so have made every man both a King and a Subject a King to receive honour and a Subject to give it every man being bound by Christianity as by a Law to esteem every man his Superior and better than himself Some take it for the civil Power it self which though it be ordained of God and so is his creature yet it was first received and approved of men and so may be said to be a humane constitution à Deo saith St. Paul because all power is derived from God humana creatura saith St. Peter because even Nature it self hath taught men this lesson That two are better than one and that every family and every man is most safe in a collection and Society which cannot subsist but by a mutual dependance Eccles 4. 9. and a friendly subordination of parts where some are govern'd and others bare rule To reconcile all we may observe that rule in St. Augustine Turpe est disputantibus in verborum quaestione immorari cùm certamen nullum de rebus remanserit It is a thing not seemly to dwell long upon the words and to contend and criticize thereupon when the sense is plain Though we cannot separate the Power from the Man whose power it is yet it is plain by the distribution which follows that it cannot be meant of the Power but of the Man upon whose shoulders the Government lyeth For we cannot properly say of Power that it is either King or his Deputy It is very probable what a late writer hath observed that by this phrase the name of Magistrate is exprest in general and that St. Peter calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature as the Latines say creare consulem to make or create a Consul and that he stiles him a humane creature not that the Magistrate hath his Authority from men but because Magistrates themselves who are endowed with this Authority are men So that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath reference not to the Efficient cause but to the Subject to the Man in Authority who is the creature of God from heaven heavenly Nor indeed is it much material which sence we take but that the words will bear this last better then the other For as the man is such is his strength and as the Magistrate is such is his Power They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and bear so near a relation that they cannot subsist but together And St. Paul joyns them together and makes them one For whom he calls Rulers in one place he calls the higher Powers in another They are humane creatures as being men and formen but in respect of their power neither of men nor by men further then their consent No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Pythagoreans say Kings and Governours are creatures of Gods making And we may say of them as the people spake of Paul and Barnabas Gods are come down to us in Acts 14. the likeness of men Now this humane ordinance or creature if you take it for the Power it self is still the same and though it be conveyed by divers subordinations unto divers yet it differs no more then Water in the chanel doth from what it was in the fountain For as the King rules in nomine Dei in the name and place of God so doth the lower Magistrate judge the innocent and punish the offendor but withall in nomine Regis in the Kings name But if we take it for the Magistrate himself then it hath degrees of Sub and Suprà 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supreme and transcendent The Rulers and Governours which are sent and appointed by him move in a lower sphere and as the Stars differ from one another in glory For as we say in Logique that the middle Species is the Genus in respect of a lower yet but the Species in respect of the Genus so Magistrates in comparison of Inferiors are publick persons and yet again but Private men in respect of him who is Supreme There is indeed a derivation but no equalizing of power Regis absolutum Dominium the Kings Dominion is absolute under God theirs who are sent concreditum delegatum dependant and by way of delegation For the King is in the Kingdom as the Soul in the Body And the Philosopher will tell us Anima est ubi animat The Soul is wheresoever it hath its operation And so is the King wheresoever he ruleth For he sends his Governours and by them conveigheth and lets forth himself into every corner of his Kingdom His house is the Tent whilst the Captain is a commanding the Province whilst the Deputy is a governing the Tribunal whilst the Judge is a sitting the Consistory whilst the Bishop is a censuring And there is no place hid from his power but his power is every where where his Laws are in force For these Governours are taken in in partem curarum to ease the King of his burden not in partem imperij to share with him in his Supremacy The King then or Emperour is still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his sublimity in the very Zenith of state and admits none to be above him or in the same altitude He is the first compassing wheel others are carried about by his motion moving as the Kings Law moves and as
and flower upon their Idole Bell Behold the Soul can neither eat nor drink any thing and is no more satisfied with these then the Angels were with Abrahams fine meale and cakes which he bak't upon the hearth No the meat which must satisfie the soul is bak't and drest in the mind and then brought forth by the tongue and hands It is the flesh and bloud of the Son of man which is indeed his death his doctrine his obedience humility righteousness For we cannot abstract these and divide Christ from his doctrine This is the gross error of the world and fatal to many but we must joyn together Christ and his precepts and these will satisfie a soul And to this end in the next place God hath imprinted in the soul and in the very nature of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an infinite and insatiable desire which cannot be satisfied with any thing that the world can present The Heart is a little but a vast member Our desires are as Numbers you cannot give a last The Soul which is made capable of God can be satisfied with nothing but with God not with any thing that is to be seen in this shop of vanities The Covetous is never rich enough the Ambitious is never high enough and the Philosopher never knows enough The Appetite is infinite and cannot be satisfied with that which is finite Now we have an axiome in Philosophy That God and Nature never made any thing in vain He that made Hunger hath made bread to stench it and he that made Thirst hath made drink to quench it And he that hath imprinted this infinite and insatiable desire in man hath made and prepared something also to satisfie it Which since we see we cannot find in the world though we should live Methuselah 's age nay though we should live to the end of it we must seek for it somewhere else even above where Christ sits at the right hand of God we must seek it in him who is the fulness of time that filleth all things and in that Piety and Goodness by which we dwell in him and he in us and so partake of that fulness which will fill us for evermore We will draw but one argument more and that is à contrario from Wickedness and Impiety the licentiousness of the Tongue and the wantonness of the Hands In these we can find no satisfaction no more then in Hell it self Sin delights and torments â—â— gives us a Hail a flattering salutation and betrays us cryes Hosanna and crucifies us leads us in triumph but in chaines and when our heart is merry breeds a worm to eat it out which gives some satisfaction indeed but such as the Serpent gave with the Apple which brought with it shame and pain and sorrow and death There is no peace saith my God to the wicked and where there is Isa 57. 20. no peace there can be no satisfaction but they are like a troubled sea which cannot rest whose waters cast out mire and dirt No true peace no true satisfaction can there be but gaudium quasi saith St. Augustine joy and satisfaction in a manner and as if it were Satisfaction in a picture in a shadow in a representation drawn out in the colours of the rainbow which appear and are not as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth and when he awaketh his soul is empty as the Prophet expresseth Isa 29. 8. it As if I were a king might the begger say As if I were in health may the sick man say As if I were a Philosopher may the Idiot say As if I were in heaven may Dives say As if is but as the bringing in of a picture for a Man which is but as if it were so What being hath that which is but as if it were not a satisfaction but a torment For to be as if it were is not to be The picture of Heaven is not Heaven and the picture of Satisfaction and Happiness is no more then a thin and fading representation thereof no more then a shadow nay not so much for being sensual it cannot be the shadow of that which is spiritual Well said the Father Gaudium illorum habet QUASI Tristitia illorum non habet QUASI Their Joy and Satisfaction is but as if it were their Misery true and real their Joy is a picture their Torment substantial and sensible their Satisfaction is a phantasme and an apparition but their Sin and Sorrow shall be ever before them ever against them Nor can we ever be satisfied with good but by the words of our mouth and the works of our hands These alone carry Satisfaction as their recompense along with them 4. Further yet to shew how unsatisfying a thing Sin is you may behold it tormenting the wicked man and that not only after the act but also before and in it first forbidding it self then perplexing him in the act and after gnawing his heart For this luctation this Shall I or shall I not even a wicked man may have And then what trouble and business is there what waiting for the twilight what watching opportunities what study what cost what defalcations from our selves for that which will undo us And after Conscience follows Sin with a whip whither soever the sinner goes Most sins we commit cost us dear our wealth our honour our health our reputation And within a while all our sins are set in order before us and then versa est Cithara in luctum all the musick and melody Sin made ends in starts and sighs and cast-down looks in horror and amazement To conclude this There is no way left us but to take the wings of a Dove Piety and Conformity to our Maker and to fly away from Sin that we may be at rest And since nothing can satisfie the mind but that which settles it and nothing can settle it but Goodness and Holiness let us earnestly seek after it as being that which as we are made after the image of God makes us also after his likeness not indeed so immutable as He is but yet constant in our obedience as far as our Humane nature is capable not all-sufficient as he is yet at peace and rest within our selves because we rest in him not omnipotent as he is but by his assistance and grace able to do all things which may work our peace and satisfie us Being filled with the fulness of God not with that fulness which God is for Eph. 3. 19. that is impossible but with the fulness of that Holiness which he hath ordeined to fill and satisfie us For when our thoughts are heavenly he whispers back unto us when our tongues utter his prayses he speaks to our hearts and comforts us when our hands are busie in his service they at once finish a good work and draw out the recompense of reward The end is They shall be satisfied with good Give me leave now but to
quencheth the spirits cooleth the bloud closeth and contracteth the heart At one object it leapeth for joy at another is cold and dead Thus by these gates of Sin as Gregory calls them do those Tentations enter which will soon overthrow the state and peace of the mind Aâ—dâ—â—it auris intentionem inflexit c. saith St. Ambrose He did but hearken and lost a good intention he did but look and his mind was overthrown but smell and his thought perisht but taste the lip of the harlot and he devoured a sin but touch and he was all on fire Now as Tentations work by the Sensitive part upon the Rational so in the last place they have a diverse operation according to mens several Constitutions and Complexions In some they soon prevail in others by degrees and in some not at all For every man is not equally inclined to every sin This stayeth the eye of one which another will not look on And this our own uncharitable censures of each other may teach us For â—e see that this man blesseth himself and wonders how such a one could commit such a sin and the other wondreth no less that he or any one else should commit the contrary Therefore the Devil who knows how we 〈◊〉 elemented and composed hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Macarius di 〈…〉 s inventions divers back-doors by which he may slip and return at pleasure and if his first bait be distastful come again and present another which will fit our taste and palate He applyeth himself to every mans humor and complexion Omnium discutit consuetudinem ventilat curas scrutatur affectus saith Leo He examines every mans customary behaviour he marks where we place our care and solicitude he searcheth our affections and observeth our constitution and enters with such forces as we are not willing to withstand with a Sword which a Cholerick person will snatch at with Beauty which the Wanton at first sight will fall down and adore with Honour which the Ambitious will fly to with Riches which the Covetous will dig for He knows whom to inflame with lust whom to incite to luxury whom to pour the poyson of envy into whom to cast down with sorrow whom to deceive with joy whom to amaze with fear whom to seduce with admiration And he so fits his temptations that something about us something within us our very natural temper and constitution may quicken and promote the activity of those tentations which may destroy us Again that we may conclude as their operation is either farthered or slacked by the several tempers and complexions of men so is it by many outward circumstances of Time at one time a birth-right for a mess of pottage at another not receive a drove of cattle but say I have enough my Brother Of Place Not look upon that bait in publick which I will devour in my closet be very attentive at Church and as busie a knave in my shop And lastly of humane Laws which are many times more powerful against Sin then the Laws of the Eternal God whence it comes to pass that we resist temptations to the greatest sins as Murder Adultery and the rest of those which are the grosser and of the highest nature because they are hung round with curses and the Magistrate stands by and if we yield he lays the whip upon our backs or draws his sword and destroys us but those lesser sins secret and speculative sins Wanton thoughts Idle words and the like we scarce take notice of because there is no penal statute to repress them And we are ready to say of every such sin as Lot did of Zoar Is it not a little one and my soul shall live For as Tentations work by the Sense so are we led by it We fear that Power which is seen more than that Omnipotency which is invisible we fear Man more than God and the shaking of his whip more than the scorpions of a Deity and therefore we fly greater sins and run into less prevail against the Anakim and are beat with a grashopper For though Tentations make their entrance by pleasing and flattering the Sense and being admitted are polished and decked-up with glory and so presented to the nobler faculties though this be their natural operation and common way of working yet they work differently and unequally according to that variety which is observable in the tempers and constitutions of men and by outward circumstances of Time and Place or the like are either hindered or advanced in their operation And this may suffice to discover the Manner how Tentations work upon the Soul I should now proceed and enquire when Tentations prevail with us and overcome us But having upon another Text Matth. xxiv 42. handled this point at large and shewn that though the Sense and Phansie receive the object which is the tentation and that with some delight yet it may be without sin yea though our natural temper incline to it and raise in us some kind of desire yet if we stand upon our guard and watch and keep it within the limits that God hath set us we shall be so far from sinning that our obedience will be the greater these things having been there fully treated of I will now pass-over Only this I add That there may be yet more than an Inclination There may be a kind of Desire a sudden motion of the mind which may at unawares strike through the heart of man but yet not so entangle it as to procure the assent of the Will may but shew it self and vanish like lighning may be extinguisht in the very flash Now that this is not truly and properly a sin we may gather from the very nature of Sin to the committing of which these two things concur 1. an Assent of the Will 2. a Power in man to avoid it **** We think of it to hate it and by thinking love it We must therefore give them no line but curb and restrain them at the first not only shun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaks the causes and beginnings which may produce it chase away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justine Martyr speaks the first smoke the first inclination of our sensual appetite and when tentations offer and present themselves not revile and embrace them say we would and we would not but to give them a peremptory denyal by our serious distast of them and that detestation which may take these brats of Satan and dash them against the rock Nemo sic negantem iterum rogat When we have given them such a denyal a denyal with anger and indignation they will keep a distance and not suddenly come so near as to solicite us to sin But if we first give them admittance and then take pleasure in them it is a sign we will make them our friends and companions nay it is a sign that we have made them our