name was led to execution every man cursed him but no man wept Deformitas exitus misericordiam abstulerat saith Tacitus The filthinesse of his life and death took away pity So it is with us in our prayers while we love our sin we must nurse all its children and when we roare in our lustfull beds and groane with the whips of an exterminating Angell chastising those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aretas calls them the lusts of the lower belly wantonnesse and its mother intemperance we feel the price of our sin that which God foretold to be their issues that which he threatned us withall and that which is the naturall consequent and its certaine expectation that which we delighted in and chose even then when we refused God and threw away felicity and hated vertue For punishment is but the latter part of sin it is not a new thing and distinct from it or if we will kisse the Hyaena or clip the Lamia about the neck we have as certainly chosen the taile and its venemous embraces as the face and lip Every man that sins against God and loves it or which is all one continues in it for by interpretation that is love hath all the circumstances of unworthinesse towards God hee is unthankfull and a breaker of his vowes and a despiser of his mercies and impudent against his judgments he is false to his profession false to his faith hee is an unfriendly person and useth him barbarously who hath treated him with an affection not lesse then infinite and if any man does half so much evill and so unhandsomely to a man we stone him with stones and curses with reproach and an unrelenting scorn And how then shall such a person hope that God should pity him for God better understands and deeper resents and more essentially hates and more severely exacts the circumstances and degrees of basenesse then we can doe and therefore proportionably scorns the person and derides the calamity Is not unthankfulnesse to God a greater basenesse and unworthinesse then unthanfulnesse to our Patron And is not hee as sensible of it and more then wee These things are more then words and therefore if no man pities a base person let us remember that no man is so base in any thing as in his unhandsome demeanour towards God Doe wee not professe our selves his servants and yet serve the Devill Doe we not live upon Gods provision and yet stand or work at the command of lust or avarice humane regards and little interests of the world We call him Father when we desire our portion and yet spend it in the society of all his enemies In short Let our actions to God and their circumstances be supposed to be done towards men and we should scorn our selves and how then can we expect God should not scorne us and reject our prayer when we have done all the dishonour to him and with all the unhandsomnesse in the world Take heed lest we fall into a condition of evill in which it shall be said You may thank your selves and be infinitely afraid lest at the same time we be in a condition of person in which God will upbraid our unworthinesse and scorne our persons and rejoyce in our calamity The first is intolerable the second is irremediadle the first proclaims our folly and the second declares Gods finall justice in the first there is no comfort in the latter there is no remedy that therefore makes us miserable and this renders us desperate 3. This great truth is further manifested by the necessary and convenient appendages of prayer requir'd or advis'd or recommended in holy Scripture For why is Fasting prescribed together with prayer For neither if we eat are we the better neither if we eat not are we the worse and God does not delight in that service the first second and third part of which is nothing but pain and self-affliction But therefore fasting is usefull with prayer because it is a penall duty and an action of repentance for then onely God hears sinners when they enter first into the gates of repentance and proceed in all the regions of sorrow and carefulnesse and therefore we are commanded to fast that we may pray with more spirituality and with repentance that is without the loads of meat and without the loads of sin Of the same consideration it is that almes are prescribed together with prayer because it is a part of that charity without which our soules are enemies to all that which ought to be equally valued with our owne lives But besides this we may easily observe what speciall undecencies there are which besides the generall malignity and demerit are speciall deleteries and hinderances to our prayers by irreconciling the person of him that prays 1. The first is unmercyfulnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said one in Stobaeus and they were well joyned together He that takes Mercy from a Man is like him that takes an Altar from the Temple the Temple is of no use without an Altar and the Man cannot pray without mercy and there are infinite of prayers sent forth by men which God never attends to but as to so many sins because the men live in a course of rapine or tyranny or oppression or uncharitablenesse or something that is most contrary to God because it is unmercifull Remember that God sometimes puts thee into some images of his own relation We beg of God for mercy and our Brother begs of us for pity and therefore let us deal equally with God and all the world I see my selfe fall by a too frequent infirmity and still I beg for pardon and hope for pity thy brother that offends thee he hopes so too and would fain have the same measure and would be as glad thou wouldst pardon him as thou wouldest rejoyce in thy own forgivenesse I am troubled when God rejects my prayer or in stead of hearing my petition sends a judgement Is not thy Tenant or thy Servant or thy Client so to thee does not he tremble at thy frown and is of an uncertaine soule till thou speakest kindly unto him and observes thy lookes as hee watches the colour of the bean coming from thy box of Sentence life or death depending on it when he begs of thee for mercy his passion is greater his necessities more pungent his apprehension more brisk and sensitive his case dressed with the circumstances of pity and thou thy selfe canst better feel his condition then thou doest usually perceive the earnestnesse of thy own prayers to God and if thou regardest not thy brother whom thou seest whose case thou feelest whose circumstances can afflict thee whose passion is dressed to thy fancy and proportioned to thy capacity how shall God regard thy distant prayer or be melted with thy cold desire or softned with thy dry story or moved by thy unrepenting soul If I be sad I seek for comfort and goe to God and to the ministry of his
in the state of any one sin whatsoever is at such distance from and contrariety to God that he provokes God to anger in every prayer hee makes And then adde but this consideration that prayer is the great summe of our Religion it is the effect and the exercise and the beginning and the promoter of all graces and the consummation and perfection of many and all those persons who pretend towards heaven and yet are not experienced in the secrets of Religion they reckon their piety and account their hopes onely upon the stock of a few prayers it may be they pray twice every day it may be thrice and blessed be God for it so farre is very well but if it shall be remembred and considered that this course of piety is so farre from warranting any one course of sin that any one habituall and cherished sin destroyes the effect of all that piety wee shall see there is reason to account this to be one of those great arguments with which God hath so bound the duty of holy living upon us that without a holy life we cannot in any sense be happy or have the effect of one prayer But if we be returning and repenting sinners God delights to hear because he delights to save us Si precibus dixerunt numina justis Victa remollescunt When a man is holy then God is gracious and a holy life is the best and it is a continuall prayer and repentance is the best argument to move God to mercy because it is the instrument to unite our prayers to the intercession of the Holy Jesus SERMON V. Part II. AFter these evidences of Scripture and reason deriv'd from its analogy there will be lesse necessity to take any particular notices of those little objections which are usually made from the experience of the successe and prosperities of evill persons For true it is there is in the world a generation of men that pray long and loud and aske for vile things such which they ought to fear and pray against and yet they are heard The fat upon earth eat and worship But if these men aske things hurtfull and sinfull it is certain God hears them not in mercy They pray to God as despairing Saul did to his Armour-bearer Sta super me interfice me stand upon me and kill me and he that obey'd his voice did him dishonour and sinn'd against the head of his King and his own life And the vicious persons of old pray'd to Laverna Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere da justum sanctúmque videri Noctem peccatis fraudibus objice nubem Give me a prosperous robbery a rich prey and secret escape let me become rich with theeving and still be accounted holy For every sort of man hath some religion or other by the measures of which they proportion their lives and their prayers Now as the holy Spirit of God teaching us to pray makes us like himself in order to a holy and an effective prayer and no man prayes well but he that prays by the Spirit of God the Spirit of holinesse and he that prayes with the Spirit must be made like to the Spirit he is first sanctified and made holy and then made fervent and then his prayer ascends beyond the cloud first he is renewed in the spirit of his minde and then he is inflamed with holy fires and guided by a bright starre first purified and then lightned then burning and shining so is every man in every of his prayers He is alwayes like the spirit by which he prayes If he be a lustfull person he prayes with a lustfull spirit if he does not pray for it he cannot heartily pray against it If he be a Tyrant or an usurper a robber or a murtherer he hath his Laverna too by which all his desires are guided and his prayers directed and his petitions furnished He cannot pray against that spirit that possesses him and hath seised upon his will and affections If he be fill'd with a lying spirit and be conformed to it in the image of his minde he will be so also in the expressions of his prayer and the sense of his soul. Since therefore no prayer can be good but that which is taught by the Spirit of grace none holy but the man whom Gods Spirit hath sanctified and therefore none heard to any purposes of blessing which the holy Ghost does not make for us for he makes intercession for the Saints the Spirit of Christ is the praecentor or the rector chori the Master of the Quire it followes that all other prayers being made with an evill Spirit must have an evill portion and though the Devils by their Oracles have given some answers and by their significations have foretold some future contingencies and in their government and subordinate rule have assisted some armies and discovered some treasures and prevented some snares of chance and accidents of men yet no man that reckons by the measures of reason or religion reckons witches and conjurors amongst blessed and prosperous persons these and all other evill persons have an evill spirit by the measures of which their desires begin and proceed on to issue but this successe of theirs neither comes from God nor brings felicity but if it comes from God it is anger if it descends upon good men it is a curse if upon evill men it is a sin and then it is a present curse and leads on to an eternall infelicity Plutarch reports that the Tyrians tyed their gods with chains because certain persons did dream that Apollo said he would leave their City and go to the party of Alexander who then besieged the town and Apollodorus tels of some that tied the image of Saturne with bands of wooll upon his feet So are some Christians they think God is tyed to their sect and bound to be of their side and the interest of their opinion and they think he can never go to the enemies party so long as they charme him with certain formes of words or disguises of their own and then all the successe they have and all the evils that are prosperous all the mischiefs they do and all the ambitious designs that do succeed they reckon upon the account of their prayers and well they may for their prayers are sins and their desires are evill they wish mischief and they act iniquity and they enjoy their sin and if this be a blessing or a cursing themselves shall then judge and all the world shall perceive when the accounts of all the world are truly stated then when prosperity shall be called to accounts and adversity shall receive its comforts when vertue shall have a crown and the satisfaction of all sinfull desires shall be recompensed with an intolerable sorrow and the despair of a perishing soul. Nero's Mother prayed passionately that her son might be Emperor and many persons of whom S. Iames speaks pray to spend upon their lusts and they are heard
too some were not and very many are and some that sight against a just possessor of a country pray that their wars may be prosperous and sometimes they have been heard too and Julian the Apostate prayed and sacrificed and inquired of Daemons and burned mans flesh and operated with secret rites and all that he might craftily and powerfully oppose the religion of Christ and he was heard too and did mischief beyond the malice and effect of his predecessors that did swim in Christian bloud but when we sum up the accounts at the foot of their lives or so soon as the thing was understood and finde that the effect of Agrippina's prayer was that her son murdered her and of those lustfull petitioners in St. Iames that they were given over to the tyranny and possession of their passions and baser appetites and the effect of Iulian the Apostate's prayer was that he liv'd and died a professed enemy of Christ and the effect of the prayers of usurpers is that they do mischief and reap curses and undoe mankinde and provoke God and live hated and die miserable and shall possesse the fruit of their sin to eternall ages these will be no objections to the truth of the former discourse but greater instances that if by hearing our prayers we mean or intend a blessing we must also by making prayers mean that the man first be holy and his desires just and charitable before he can be admitted to the throne of grace or converse with God by the entercourses of a prosperous prayer That 's the first generall 2. Many times good men pray and their prayer is not a sin but yet it returns empty because although the man be yet the prayer is not in proper disposition and here I am to account to you concerning the collaterall and accidentall hinderances of the prayer of a good man The first thing that hinders the prayers of a good man from obtaining its effect is a violent anger a violent storm in the spirit of him that prayes For anger sets the house on fire and all the spirits are busie upon trouble and intend propulsion defence displeasure or revenge it is a short madnesse and an eternall enemy to to discourse and sober counsels and fair conversation it intends its own object with all the earnestnesse of perception or activity of designe and a quicker motion of a too warm and distempered bloud it is a feaver in the heart and a calenture in the head and a fire in the face and a sword in the hand and a fury all over and therefore can never suffer a man to be in a disposition to pray For prayer is an action and a state of entercourse and desire exactly contrary to this character of anger Prayer is an action of likenesse to the holy Ghost the Spirit of gentlenesse and dove-like simplicity an imitation of the holy Jesus whose Spirit is meek up to the greatnesse of the biggest example and a conformity to God whose anger is alwaies just and marches slowly and is without transportation and often hindred and never hasty and is full of mercy prayer is the peace of our spirit the stilnesse of our thoughts the evennesse of recollection the seat of meditation the rest of our cares and the calme of our tempest prayer is the issue of a quiet minde of untroubled thoughts it is the daughter of charity and the sister of meeknesse and he that prayes to God with an angry that is with a troubled and discomposed spirit is like him that retires into a battle to meditate and sets up his closet in the out quarters of an army and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in Anger is a perfect alienation of the minde from prayer and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grasse and soaring upwards singing as he rises and hopes to get to heaven and climbe above the clouds but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern winde and his motion made irregular and unconstant descending more at every breath of the tempest then it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings till the little creature was forc'd to sit down and pant and stay till the storm was over and then it made a prosperous slight and did rise and sing as if it had learned musick and motion from an Angell as he passed sometimes through the aire about his ministeries here below so is the prayers of a good man when his affairs have required businesse and his businesse was matter of discipline and his discipline was to passe upon a sinning person or had a design of charity his duty met with the infirmities of a man and anger was its instrument and the instrument became stronger then the prime agent and raised a tempest and overrul'd the man and then his prayer was broken and his thoughts were troubled and his words went up towards a cloud and his thoughts pull'd them back again and made them without intention and the good man sighs for his infirmity but must be content to lose that prayer and he must recover it when his anger is removed and his spirit is becalmed made even as the brow of Jesus and smooth like the heart of God and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove and dwels with God till it returnes like the usefull Bee loaden with a blessing and the dew of heaven But besides this anger is a combination of many other things every one of which is an enemy to prayer it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in the severall definitions of it and in its naturall constitution It hath in it the trouble of sorrow and the heats of lust and the disease of revenge and the boylings of a feaver and the rashnesse of praecipitancy and the disturbance of persecution and therefore is a certain effective enemy against prayer which ought to be a spirituall joy and an act of mortification and to have in it no hears but of charity and zeal and they are to be guided by prudence and consideration and allayed with the deliciousnesse of mercy and the serenity of a meek and a quiet spirit and therefore S. Paul gave caution that the sun should not go down upon our anger meaning that it should not stay upon us till evening prayer for it would hinder our evening sacrifice but the stopping of the first egressions of anger is a certain artifice of the Spirit of God to prevent unmercifulnesse which turns not only our desires into vanity but our prayers into sin and remember that Elijah's anger though it was also zeal had so
can we think that the grace of Chastity can be obtain'd at such a purchase that grace that hath cost more labours then all the persecutions of faith and all the disputes of hope and all the expence of charity besides amounts to Can we expect that our sinnes should be washed by a lazie prayer Can an indifferent prayer quench the flames of hell or rescue us from an eternall sorrow Is lust so soon overcome that the very naming it can master it Is the Devill so slight and easie an enemy that he will fly away from us at the first word spoken without power and without vehemence Read and attend to the accents of the prayers of Saints I cryed day and night before thee O Lord my soul refused comfort my throat is dry with calling upon my God my knees are weak through fasting and Let me alone sayes God to Moses and I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me said Jacob to the Angell And I shall tell you a short character of a fervent prayer out of the practise of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Eustochium de custodiâ virginitatis Being destitute of all help I threw my self down at the feet of Jesus I water'd his feet with tears and wiped them with my hair and mortified the lust of my flesh with the abstinence and hungry diet of many weeks I remember that in my crying to God I did frequently joyn the night and the day and never did intermit to call nor cease from beating my brest till the mercy of the Lord brought to me peace and freedome from temptation After many tears and my eyes fixed in heaven I thought my self sometimes encircled with troops of Angels and then at last I sang to God We will run after thee into the smell and deliciousnesse of thy precious ointments such a prayer as this will never return without its errand But though your person be as gracious as David or Job and your desire as holy as the love of Angels and your necessities great as a new penitent yet it pierces not the clouds unlesse it be also as loud as thunder passionate as the cries of women and clamorous as necessity And we may guesse at the degrees of importunity by the insinuation of the Apostle Let the marryed abstain for a time ut vacent orationi jejunio that they may attend to Prayer it is a great attendance and a long diligence that is promoted by such a separation and supposes a devotion that spends more then many hours for ordinary prayers and many hours of every day might well enough consist with an ordinary cohabitation but that which requires such a separation cals for a longer time and a greater attendance then we usually consider For every prayer we make is considered by God and recorded in heaven but cold prayers are not put into the account in order to effect and acceptation but are laid aside like the buds of roses which a cold wind hath nip'd into death and the discoloured tawny face of an Indian slave and when in order to your hopes of obtaining a great blessing you reckon up your prayers with which you have solicited your suit in the court of heaven you must reckon not by the number of the collects but by your sighs and passions by the vehemence of your desires and the fervour of your spirit the apprehension of your need and the consequent prosecution of your supply Christ pray'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with loud cryings and S. Paul made mention of his scholars in his prayers night and day Fall upon your knees and grow there and let not your desires cool nor your zeal remit but renew it again and again and let not your offices and the custome of praying put thee in mind of thy need but let thy need draw thee to thy holy offices and remember how great a God how glorious a Majesty you speak to therefore let not your devotions and addresses be little Remember how great a need thou hast let not your desires be lesse Remember how great the thing is you pray for do not undervalue it with thy indifferency Remember that prayer is an act of Religion let it therefore be made thy businesse and lastly Remember that God hates a cold prayer and therefore will never blesse it but it shall be alwaies ineffectuall 3. Under this title of lukewarmnesse and tepidity may be comprised also these Cautions that a good mans prayers are sometimes hindred by inadvertency sometimes by want of perseverance For inadvertency or want of attendance to the sense and intention of our prayers it is certainly an effect of lukewarmnesse and a certain companion and appendage to humane infirmity and is only so remedyed as our prayers are made zealous and our infirmities passe into the strengths of the Spirit But if we were quick in our perceptions either concerning our danger or our need or the excellency of the object or the glories of God or the niceties and perfections of Religion we should not dare to throw away our prayers so like fools or come to God and say a prayer with our minde standing at distance trissing like untaught boyes at their books with a truantly spirit I shall say no more to this but that in reason we can never hope that God in heaven will hear our prayers which we our selves speak and yet hear not at the same time when we our selves speak them with instruments joyned to our ears even with those organs which are parts of our hearing faculties If they be not worth our own attending to they are not worth Gods hearing If they are worth Gods attending to we must make them so by our own zeal and passion and industry and observation and a present and a holy spirit But concerning perseverance the consideration is something distinct For when our prayer is for a great matter and a great necessity strictly attended to yet we pursue it only by chance or humour by the strengths of fancy and naturall disposition or else our choice is cool as soon as hot like the emissions of lightning or like a sun-beam often interrupted with a cloud or cool'd with intervening showers and our prayer is without fruit because the desire lasts not and the prayer lives like the repentance of Simon Magus or the trembling of Felix or the Jewes devotion for seven dayes of unleavened bread during the Passeover or the feast of Tabernacles but if we would secure the blessing of our prayers and the effect of our prayers we must never leave till we have obtain'd what we need There are many that pray against a temptation for a moneth together and so long as the prayer is servent so long the man hath a nolition and a direct enmity against the lust he consents not all that while but when the moneth is gone and the prayer is removed or becomes lesse active then the temptation returnes and forrages and prevails and seises upon
sottishnesse of lust and the follies of drunkennesse that reflecting upon the change they begin to love themselves too well and take delight in the wisdome of the change and the reasonablenesse of the new life and then they by hating their own follies begin to despise them that dwell below It was the tricke of the old Philosophers whom Aristophanes thus describes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pale and barefoot and proud that is persons singular in their habit eminent in their institution proud and pleased in their persons and despisers of them that are lesse glorious in their vertue then themselves and for this very thing our blessed Saviour remarks the Pharisees they were severe and phantasticall advancers of themselves and Judgers of their neighbors and here when they have mortified corporall vices such which are scandalous and punishable by men they keep the spirituall and those that are onely discernible by God these men doe but change their sin from scandall to danger and that they may sin more safely they sin more spiritually 2. Sometimes the passions of the flesh spoyle the changes of the Spirit by naturall excesses and disproportion of degrees it mingles violence with industry and fury with zeale and uncharitablenesse with reproofe and censuring with discipline and violence with desires and immortifications in all the appetites and prosecutions of the soule Some think it is enough in all instances if they pray hugely and fervently and that it is religion impatiently to desire a victory over our enemies or the life of a childe or an heir to be born they call it holy so they desire it in prayer that if they reprove a vicious person they may say what they list and be as angry as they please that when they demand but reason they may enforce it by all means that when they exact duty of their children they may be imperious and without limit that if they designe a good end they may prosecute it by all instruments that when they give God thanks for blessings they may value the thing as high as they list though their persons come into a share of the honour here the spirit is willing and holy but the flesh creeps too busily and insinuates into the substance of good actions and spoyles them by unhandsome circumstances and then the prayer is spoil'd for want of prudence of conformity to Gods will and discipline and government is imbittered by an angry spirit and the Fathers authority turns into an uneasie load by being thrust like an unequall burden to one side without allowing equall measures to the other And if we consider it wisely we shall find that in many good actions the flesh is the bigger ingredient and we betray our weak constitutions even when we do Justice or Charity and many men pray in the flesh when they pretend they pray by the spirit 3. In the first changes and weak progresses of our spirituall life we find a long weaknesse upon us because we are long before we begin and the flesh was powerfull and its habits strong and it will mingle indirect pretences with all the actions of the spirit If we mean to pray the flesh thrusts in thoughts of the world and our tongue speaks one thing and our heart means another and we are hardly brought to say our prayers or to undertake a fasting day or to celebrate a Communion and if we remember that all these are holy actions and that we have many opportunities of doing them all and yet doe them very seldome and then very coldly it will be found at the foot of the account that our flesh and our naturall weaknesse prevailes oftner then our spirituall strengths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are bound long in chains feel such a lamenesse in the first restitutions of their liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the long accustomed chain and pressure that they must stay till Nature hath set them free and the disease be taken off as well as the chain and when the soul is got free from her actuall pressure of sins still the wound remaines and a long habitude and longing after it a looking back and upon the presenting the old object the same company or the remembrance of the delight the fancy strikes and the heart fails and the temptations returne and stand dressed in form and circumstances and ten to one but the man dies again 4. Some men are wise and know their weaknesses and to prevent their startings back will make fierce and strong resolutions and bind up their gaps with thornes and make a new hedge about their spirits and what then this shews indeed that the spirit is willing but the storm arises and windes blow and rain descends and presently the earth trembles and the whole fabrick falls into ruine and disorder A resolution such as we usually make is nothing but a little trench which every childe can step over and there is no civill man that commits a willing sin but he does it against his resolution and what Christian lives that will not say and think that he hath repented in some degree and yet still they commit sin that is they break all their holy purposes as readily as they lose a dream and so great is our weaknesse that to most men the strength of a resolution is just such a restraint as he suffers who is imprisoned in a curtain and secured with dores and bars of the finest linnen for though the spirit be strong to resolve the flesh is weak to keep it 5. But when they have felt their follies and see the linnen vail rent some that are desirous to please God back their resolutions with vows and then the spirit is fortified and the flesh may tempt and call but the soul cannot come forth and therefore it triumphs and acts its interest easily and certainly and then the flesh is mortified It may be so But doe not many of us inquire after a vow And we consider it may be it was rash or it was an impossible matter or without just consideration and weighing of circumstances or the case is alter'd and there is a new emergent necessity or a vow is no more then a resolution made in matter of duty both are made for God and in his eye and witnesse or if nothing will doe it men grow sad and weary and despaire and are impatient and bite the knot in pieces with their teeth which they cannot by disputing and the arts of the tongue A vow will not secure our duty because it is not stronger then our appetite and the spirit of man is weaker then the habits and superinduced nature of the flesh but by little and little it falls off like the finest thread twisted upon the traces of a chariot it cannot hold long 6. Beyond all this some choose excellent guides and stand within the restraints of modesty and a severe Monitor and the Spirit of God hath put a veile upon our spirits and by modesty in
sun may shine under a cloud and a man may rejoyce in persecution and delight in losses that is though his outward man groanes and faints and dies yet his spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner man is confident and industrious and hath a hope by which it lives and works unto the end It was the case of our blessed Saviour in his agony his soule was exceeding sorrowfull unto death and the load of his Fathers anger crushed his shoulder and bowed his knees to the ground and yet he chose it and still went forward and resolved to die and did so and what wee choose wee delight in and wee thinke it to be eligible and therefore amiable and fit by its proper excellencies and appendages to be delighted in it is not pleasant to the flesh at all times for its dignity is spirituall and heavenly but therefore it is proportioned to the spirit which is as heavenly as the reward and therefore can feel the joys of it when the body hangs the head and is uneasie and troubled These are the necessary parts of zeale of which if any man failes he is in a state of lukewarmnesse and that is a spirituall death As a banished man or a condemned person is dead civilly he is diminutus capite he is not reckoned in the census nor partakes of the priviledges nor goes for a person but is reckoned among things in the possession of others so is a lukewarm person he is corde diminutus he is spiritually dead his heart is estranged from God his affections are lessened his hope diminished and his title cancell'd and he remains so unlesse 1. he prefers Religion before the world and 2. spiritually rejoyces in doing his duty and 3. doe it constantly and with perseverance These are the heats and warmth of life whatsoever is lesse then this is a disease and leads to the coldnesse and dishonors of the grave SERMON XIV Part III. 3. SO long as our zeal and forwardnesse in Religion hath only these constituent parts it hath no more then can keep the duty alive but beyond this there are many degrees of earnestnesse and vehemence which are progressions towards the state of perfection which every man ought to design and desire to be added to his portion of this sort I reckon frequency in prayer and almes above our estate Concerning which two instances I have these two cautions to insert 1. Concerning frequency in prayer it is an act of zeal so ready and prepared for the spirit of a man so easie and usefull so without objection and so fitted for every mans affairs his necessities and possibilities that he that prayes but seldome cannot in any sense pretend to be a religious person For in Scripture there is no other rule for the frequency of prayer given us but by such words which signifie we should do it alwaies Pray continually and Men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint And then men have so many necessities that if we should esteem our needs to be the circumstances and positive determination of our times of prayer we should be very far from admitting limitation of the former words but they must mean that we ought to pray frequently every day For in danger and trouble naturall Religion teaches us to pray In a festivall fortune our prudence and our needs inforce us equally For though we feel not a present smart yet we are certain then is our biggest danger and if we observe how the world treats her darlings men of riches and honour of prosperity and great successe we cannot but confesse them to be the most miserable of all men as being in the greatest danger of losing their biggest interest For they are bigger then the iron hand of Law and they cannot be restrain'd with fear the hand grasps a power of doing all that which their evill heart can desire and they cannot be restrained with disability to sin they are flatter'd by all mean and base and indiligent persons which are the greatest part of mankinde but few men dare reprove a potent sinner he shall every day be flattered and seldome counselled and his great reflexions and opinions of his condition makes him impatient of reproof and so he cannot be restrain'd with modesty and therefore as the needs of the poor man his rent day and the cryes of his children and the oppression he groans under and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his uneasie ill sleeping care will make him run to his prayers that in heaven a new decree may be passed every day for the provisions of his daily bread so the greater needs of the rich their temptations and their dangers the flattery and the vanity the power and the pride their businesse and evill estate of the whole world upon them cals upon them to be zealous in this instance that they pray often that they pray without ceasing For there is great reason they should do so and great security and advantage if they do For he that prayes well and prayes often must needs be a good and a blessed man and truly he that does not deserves no pity for his misery For when all the troubles and dangers of his condition may turn into his good if he will but desire they should when upon such easie terms he may be happy for there is no more trouble in it then this Aske and ye shall receive that 's all that is required no more turnings and variety in their road when I say at so cheap a rate a poor man may be provided for and a rich man may escape damnation they that refuse to apply themselves to this remedy quickly earnestly zealously and constantly deserves the smart of his poverty and the care of it and the scorne if he be poor and if he be rich it is fit he should because he desires it dye by the evils of his proper danger * It was observed by Cassian orationibus maximè insidiantur Daemones the Devill is more busie to disturb our prayers then to hinder any thing else For else it cannot be imagined why we should be brought to pray so seldome and to be so listlesse to them and so trifling to them No The Devill knowes upon what hard terms he stands with the praying man he also knows that it is a mighty emanation of Gods infinite goodnesse and a strange desire of saving mankinde that he hath to so easie a duty promised such mighty blessings For God knowing that upon hard terms we would not accept of heaven it self and yet hell was so intolerable a state that God who loved us would affixe heaven to a state of prayer and devotion this because the Devill knowes to be one of the greatest arts of the Divine mercy he labours infinitely to supplant and if he can but make men unwilling to pray or to pray coldly or to pray seldome he secures his interest and destroys the mans and it is infinitely strange that he can and doth prevail so
shall have three sorts of accusers 1. Christ himself who is their Judge 2. Their own conscience whom they have injured and blotted with characters of death and foul dishonour 3. The Devill their enemy whom they served 1. Christ shall be their accuser not only upon the stock of those direct injuries which I before reckoned of crucifying the Lord of life once and again c. But upon the titles of contempt and unworthinesse of unkindnesse and ingratitude and the accusation will be nothing else but a plain representation of those artifices and assistances those bonds and invitations those constrainings and importunities which our dear Lord used to us to make it almost impossible to lye in sin and necessary to be sav'd For it will it must needs be a fearfull exprobration of our unworthinesse when the Judge himself shall bear witnesse against us that the wisdome of God himself was strangely imployed in bringing us safely to felicity I shall draw a short Scheme which although it must needs be infinitely short of what God hath done for us yet it will be enough to shame us * God did not only give his Son for an example and the Son gave himself for a price for us but both gave the holy Spirit to assist us in mighty graces for the verifications of Faith and the entertainments of Hope and the increase and perseverance of Charity * God gave to us a new nature he put another principle into us a third part of a perfective constitution we have the Spirit put into us to be a part of us as properly to produce actions of a holy life as the soul of man in the body does produce the naturall * God hath exalted humane nature and made it in the person of Jesus Christ to sit above the highest seat of Angels and the Angels are made ministring spirits ever since their Lord became our Brother * Christ hath by a miraculous Sacrament given us his body to eat and his bloud to drink he made waies that we may become all one with him * He hath given us an easie religion and hath established our future felicity upon naturall and pleasant conditions and we are to be happy hereafter if we suffer God to make us happy here and things are so ordered that a man must take more pains to perish then to be happy * God hath found out rare wayes to make our prayers acceptable our weak petitions the desires of our imperfect souls to prevail mightily with God and to lay a holy violence and an undeniable necessity upon himself and God will deny us nothing but when we aske of him to do us ill offices to give us poisons and dangers and evill nourishment and temptations and he that hath given such mighty power to the prayers of his servants yet will not be moved by those potent and mighty prayers to do any good man an evill turn or to grant him one mischief in that only God can deny us * But in all things else God hath made all the excellent things in heaven and earth to joyn towards holy and fortunate effects for he hath appointed an Angell to present the prayers of Saints and Christ makes intercession for us and the holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groans unutterable and all the holy men in the world pray for all and for every one and God hath instructed us with Scriptures and precedents and collaterall and direct assistances to pray and he incouraged us with divers excellent promises and parables and examples and teaches us what to pray and how and gives one promise to publique prayer and another to private prayer and to both the blessing of being heard * Adde to this account that God did heap blessings upon us without order infinitely perpetually and in all instances when we needed and when we needed not * He heard us when we pray'd giving us all and giving us more then we desired * He desired that we should aske and yet he hath also prevented our desires * He watch'd for us and at his own charge sent a whole order of men whose imployment is to minister to our souls and if all this had not been enough he had given us more also * He promised heaven to our obedience a Province for a dish of water a Kingdome for a prayer satisfaction for desiring it grace for receiving and more grace for accepting and using the first * He invited us with gracious words and perfect entertainments * He threatned horrible things to us if we would not be happy * He hath made strange necessities for us making our very repentance to be a conjugation of holy actions and holy times and a long succession * He hath taken away all excuses from us he hath called us off from temptation he bears our charges he is alwaies before-hand with us in every act of favour and perpetually slow in striking and his arrowes are unfeathered and he is so long first in drawing his sword and another long while in whetting it and yet longer in lifting his hand to strike that before the blow comes the man hath repented long unlesse he be a fool and impudent and then God is so glad of an excuse to lay his anger aside that certainly if after all this we refuse life and glory there is no more to be said this plain story will condemn us but the story is very much longer and as our conscience will represent all our sins to us so the Judge will represent all his Fathers kindnesses as Nathan did to David when he was to make the justice of the Divine Sentence appear against him * Then it shall be remembred that the joyes of every daies piety would have been a greater pleasure every night then the remembrance of every nights sin could have been in the morning * That every night the trouble and labour of the daies vertue would have been as much passed and turned to as very a nothing as the pleasure of that daies sin but that they would be infinitely distinguished by the remanent effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Musonius expressed the sense of this inducement and that this argument would have grown so great by that time we come to dye that the certain pleasures and rare confidences and holy hopes of a death-bed would be a strange felicity to the man when he remembers he did obey if they were compared to the fearfull expectations of a dying sinner who feels by a formidable and afrighting remembrance that of all his sins nothing remains but the gains of a miserable eternity * The offering our selves to God every morning and the thanksgiving to God every night hope and fear shame and desire the honour of leaving a fair name behinde us and the shame of dying like a fool every thing indeed in the world is made to be an argument and an inducement
is if wee be not good men our prayers will doe us no good wee shall be in the condition of them that never pray at all The prayers of a wicked man are like the breath of corrupted lungs God turns away from such unwholsome breathings But that I may reduce this necessary doctrine to a method I shall consider that there are some persons whose prayers are sins and some others whose prayers are ineffectuall some are such who doe not pray lawfully they sin when they pray while they remain in that state and evill condition others are such who doe not obtain what they pray for and yet their prayer is not a direct sin the prayer of the first is a direct abomination the prayer of the second is hindred the first is corrupted by a direct state of sin the latter by some intervening imperfection and unhandsome circumstance of action and in proportion to these it is required 1. that he be in a state and possibility of acceptation and 2. that the prayer it selfe be in a proper disposition 1. Therefore wee shall consider what are those conditions which are required in every person that prays the want of which makes the prayer to be a sin 2ly What are the conditions of a good mans prayer the absence of which makes that even his prayer returns empty 3ly What degrees and circumstances of piety are required to make a man fit to be an intercessor for others both with holinesse in himself and effect to them he prays for And 4ly as an appendix to these considerations I shall adde the proper indices and significations by which we may make a judgment whether God hath heard our prayers or no. 1. Whosoever prays to God while he is in a state or in the affection to sin his prayer is an abomination to God This was a truth so beleeved by all Nations of the world that in all Religions they ever appointed baptismes and ceremoniall expiations to cleanse the persons before they presented themselves in their holy offices Deorum Templa cum adire disponitis ab omni vos labe puros lautos castissimósque praestatis said Arnobius to the Gentiles When you addresse your selves to the Temples of your Gods you keep your selves chast and clean and spotlesse They washed their hands and wore white garments they refused to touch a dead boyd they avoyded a spot upon their clothes as they avoyded a wound upon their head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That was the religious ground they went upon an impure thing ought not to touch that which is holy much lesse to approach the Prince of purities and this was the sense of the old world in their lustrations and of the Jews in their preparatory baptismes they wash'd their hands to signifie that they should cleanse them from all iniquity and keep them pure from bloud and rapine they washed their garments but that intended they should not be spotted with the flesh and their follies consisted in this that they did not looke to the bottome of their lavatories they did not see through the vail of their ceremonies Flagitiis omnibus inquinati veniunt ad precandum se piè sacrificasse opinantur si cutem laverint tanquam libidines intra pectus inclusas ulla amnis abluat aut ulla Maria purificent said Lactantius they come to their prayers dressed round about with wickednesse ut quercus hederâ and think God will accept their offering if their skin be wash'd as if a river could purifie their lustfull souls or a sea take off their guilt But David reconciles the ceremony with the mysterie I will wash my hands I will wash them in innocency and so will I goe to thine altar Hae sunt verae munditiae saies Tertullian non quas plerique superstitione curant ad omnem orationem etiam cum lavacro totius corporis aquam sumentes This is the true purification not that which most men doe superstitiously cleansing their hands and washing when they go to prayers but cleansing the soul from all impiety and leaving every affection to sin then they come pure to God And this is it which the Apostle also signifies having translated the Gentile and Jewish ceremony into the spirituality of the Gospell I will therefore that men pray every where levantes puras manus lifting up cleane hands so it is in the Vulgar Latine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is in the Greek holy hands That 's the purity that God looks for upon them that lift up their hands to him in prayer and this very thing is founded upon the Naturall constitution of things and their essentiall proportion to each other 1. It is an act of profanation for any unholy person to handle holy things and holy offices For if God was ever carefull to put all holy things into cancels and immure them with acts and laws and cautions of separation and the very sanctisication of them was nothing else but the solemn separating them from common usages that himself might bee distinguished from men by actions of propriety it is naturally certain he that would be differenc'd from common things would be infinitely divided from things that are wicked If things that are lawfull may yet be unholy in this sense much more are unlawfull things most unholy in all senses If God will not admit of that which is beside Religion he will lesse endure that which is against Religion And therefore if a common man must not serve at the altar how shall he abide a wicked man to stand there No he will not indure him but he will cast him and his prayer into the separation of an infinite and eternall distance Sic profanatis sacris peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos So Troy entred into ruine when their prayers became unholy and they profan'd the rites of their Religion 2. A wicked person while he remains in that condition is not the naturall object of pity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Zeno Mercy is a sorrow or a trouble at that misery which falls upon a person which deserv'd it not And so Aristotle desines it it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When we see the person deserves a better fortune or is dispos'd to a fairer intreaty then wee naturally pity him and Sinon pleaded for pity to the Trojans saying Miserere animi non digna serentis For who pityeth the tears of a base man who hath treacherously murthered his friend or who will lend a friendly sigh when he sees a traitor to his country passe forth through the execrable gates of cities and when any circumstance of basenesse that is any thing that takes off the excuse of infirmity does accompany a sin such as are ingratitude perjury perseverance delight malice treachery then every man scorns the criminall and God delights and rejoyces in and laughs at the calamity of such a person When Vitellius with his hands bound behind him his Imperiall robe rent and with a dejected countenance and an ill
creatures for it and is it not just in God to stop his own fountaines and seal the cisterns and little emanations of the creatures from thee who shuttest thy hand and shuttest thy eye and twistest thy bowells against thy brother who would as fain be comforted as thou It is a strange Iliacall passion that so hardens a mans bowells that nothing proceeds from him but the name of his own disease a Miserere mei Deus a prayer to God for pity upon him that will not shew pity to others We are troubled when God through severity breaks our bones and hardens his face against us but we think our poor brother is made of iron and not of flesh and bloud as we are God hath bound mercy upon us by the iron bands of necessity and though Gods mercy is the measure of his justice yet justice is the measure of our mercy and as we doe to others it shall be done to us even in the matter of pardon and of bounty of gentlenesse and remission of bearing each others burdens and faire interpretation Forgive us our trespasses as wee forgive them that trespasse against us so we pray The finall sentence in this affair is recorded by St. James Hee that shews no mercy shall have justice with out mercy as thy poor brother hath groan'd under thy cruelty and ungentle nature without remedy so shalt thou before the throne of God thou shalt pray and plead and call and cry and beg again and in the midst of thy despairing noyses be carryed in the regions of sorrow which never did and never shall feel a mercy God never can heare the prayers of an unmercifull man 2. Lust and uncleannesse is a direct enemy to the Praying man and an obstruction to his prayers for this is not onely a prophanation but a direct sacriledge it defiles a Temple to the ground it takes from a man all affection to spirituall things and mingles his very soul with the things of the world it makes his understanding low and his reasonings cheap and foolish and it destroys his confidence and all his manly hopes it makes his spirit light effeminate and fantastick and dissolves his attention and makes his mind so to disaffect all the objects of his desires that when he prays he is as uneasy as an impaled person or a condemned criminall upon the hook or wheel and it hath in it this evill quality that a lustfull person cannot pray heartily against his sin he cannot desire his cure for his will is contradictory to his Collect and he would not that God should hear the words of his prayer which he poor man never intended For no crime so seises upon the will as that some sins steale an affection or obey a temptation or secure an interest or work by the way of understanding but lust seises directly upon the will for the Devil knows well that the lusts of the body are soon cured the uneasynesse that dwels there is a disease very tolerable and every degree of patience can passe under it But therefore the Devill seises upon the will and that 's it that makes adulteries and all the species of uncleannesse and lust growes so hard a cure because the formality of it is that it will not be cured the will loves it and so long as it does God cannot love the Man for God is the Prince of purities and the Son of God is the King of Virgins and the holy Spirit is all love and that is all purity and all spirituality And therefore the prayer of an Adulterer or an uncleane person is like the sacrifices to Moloch or the rites of Flora ubi Cato spectator esse non potuit a good man will not endure them much lesse will God entertaine such reekings of the Dead sea and clouds of Sodome For so an impure vapor begotten of the slime of the earth by the feavers and adulterous heats of an intemperate Summer sun striving by the ladder of a mountaine to climbe up to heaven and rolling into various figures by an uneasy unfixed revolution and stop'd at the middle region of the aire being thrown from his pride and attempt of passing towards the seat of the stars turnes into an unwholsome flame and like the breath of hell is confin'd into a prison of darknesse and a cloud till it breaks into diseases plagues and mildews stink and blastings so is the prayer of an unchast person it strives to climbe the battlements of heaven but because it is a flame of sulphur salt and bitumen and was kindled in the dishonorable regions below deriv'd from hell and contrary to God it cannot passe forth to the element of love but ends in barrennesse and murmur fantastick expectations and trifling imaginative confidences and they at last end in sorrows and despaire * Every state of sin is against the possibility of a mans being accepted but these have a proper venome against the graciousnesse of the person and the power of the prayer God can never accept an unholy prayer and a wicked man can never send forth any other the waters passe thorough impure aquaeducts and channels of brimstone and therefore may end in brimstone and fire but never in forgivenesse and the blessings of an eternall charity Henceforth therefore never any more wonder that men pray so seldome there are few that feel the relish and are enticed with the deliciousnesse and refreshed with the comforts and instructed with the sanctity and acquainted with the secrets of a holy prayer But cease also to wonder that of those few that say many prayers so few find any return of any at all To make up a good and a lawfull prayer there must be charity with all its daughters almes forgivenesse not judging uncharitably there must be purity of spirit that is purity of intention and there must be purity of the body and soule that is the cleannesse of chastity and there must be no vice remaining no affection to sin for he that brings his body to God and hath left his will in the power of any sin offers to God the calves of his lips but not a whole burnt-offering a lame oblation but not a reasonable sacrifice and therefore their portion shall be amongst them whose prayers were never recorded in the book of life whose tears God never put into his bottle whose desires shall remaine ineffectuall to eternall ages Take heed you doe not lose your prayers for by them you hope to have eternall life and let any of you whose conscience is most religious and tender consider what condition that man is in that hath not said his prayers in thirty or forty years together and that is the true state of him who hath lived so long in the course of an unsanctified life in all that while he never said one prayer that did him any good but they ought to be reckoned to him upon the account of his sins Hee that is in the affection or in the habit or
discomposed his spirit when the two Kings came to inquire of the Lord that though he was a good man and a Prophet yet he could not pray he could not inquire of the Lord till by rest and musick he had gathered himself into the evennesse of a dispassionate and recollected minde therefore let your prayers be without wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God by many significations hath taught us that when men go to the altars to pray or to give thanks they must bring no sin or violent passion along with them to the sacrifice said Philo. 2. Indifferency and easinesse of desire is a great enemy to the successe of a good mans prayer When Plato gave Diogenes a great vessell of Wine who ask'd but a little and a few Carrawaies the Cynic thank'd him with his rude expression Cum interrogaris quot sint duo duo respondes viginti ita non secundum ea quae rogaris das nec ad ea quae interrogaris respondes Thou neither answerest to the question thou art asked nor givest according as thou art desired but being inquired of how many are two and two thou answerest twenty So it is with God and us in the intercourse of our prayers we pray for health and he gives it us it may be a sicknesse that carries us to eternall life we pray for necessary support for our persons and families and he gives us more then we need we beg for a removall of a present sadnesse and he gives us that which makes us able to bear twenty sadnesses a cheerfull spirit a peacefull conscience and a joy in God as an antepast of eternall rejoycings in the Kingdome of God But then although God doth very frequently give us beyond the matter of our desires yet he does not so often give us great things beyond the spirit of our desires beyond the quicknesse vivacity and fervor of our minds for there is but one thing in the world that God hates besides sin that is indifferency and lukewarmnesse which although it hath not in it the direct nature of sin yet it hath this testimony from God that it is loathsome and abominable and excepting this thing alone God never said so of any thing in the New Testament but what was a direct breach of a commandement The reason of it is because lukewarmnesse or an indifferent spirit is an undervaluing of God and of Religion it is a separation of reason from affections and a perfect conviction of the understanding to the goodnesse of a duty but a refusing to follow what we understand For he that is lukewarm alwaies understands the better way and seldome pursues it he hath so much reason as is sufficient but he will not obey it his will does not follow the dictate of his understanding and therefore it is unnaturall It is like the phantastick fires of the night where there is light and no heat and therefore may passe on to the reall fires of hell where there is heat and no light and therefore although an act of lukewarmnesse is only an undecency and no sin yet a state of lukewarmnesse is criminall and sinfull state of imperfection and undecency an act of indifferency hinders a single prayer from being accepted but a state of it makes the person ungracious and despised in the Court of heaven and therefore S. Iames in his accounts concerning an effective prayer not only requires that he be a just man who prayes but his prayer must be fervent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an effectuall fervent prayer so our English reads it it must be an intent zealous busie operative prayer for consider what a huge undeceney it is that a man should speak to God for a thing that he values not or that he should not value a thing without which he cannot be happy or that he should spend his religion upon a trifle and if it be not a trifle that he should not spend his affections upon it If our prayers be for temporall things I shall not need to stirre up your affections to be passionate for their purchase we desire them greedily we run after them intemperately we are kept from them with huge impatience we are delayed with infinite regret we preferre them before our duty we aske them unseasonably we receive them with our own prejudice and we care not we choose them to our hurt and hinderance and yet delight in the purchase and when we do pray for them we can hardly bring our selves to it to submit to Gods will but will have them if we can whether he be pleased or no like the Parasite in the Comedy Qui comedit quod fuit quod non fuit he eat all and more then all what was set before him and what was kept from him But then for spirituall things for the interest of our souls and the affairs of the Kingdome we pray to God with just such a zeal as a man begs of the Chirurgeon to cut him of the stone or a condemned man desires his executioner quickly to put him out of his pain by taking away his life when things are come to that passe it must be done but God knows with what little complacency and desire the man makes his request And yet the things of religion and the spirit are the only things that ought to be desired vehemently and pursued passionately because God hath set such a value upon them that they are the effects of his greatest loving kindnesse they are the purchases of Christs bloud and the effect of his continuall intercession the fruits of his bloudy sacrifice and the gifts of his healing and saving mercy the graces of Gods Spirit and the only instruments of felicity and if we can have fondnesses for things indifferent or dangerous our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg coldly and tamely for those things for which we ought to dye which are more precious then the globes of Kings and weightier then Imperiall Scepters richer then the spoils of the Sea or the treasures of the Indian hils He that is cold and tame in his prayers hath not tasted of the deliciousnesse of Religion and the goodnesse of God he is a stranger to the secrets of the Kingdome and therefore he does not know what it is either to have hunger or satiety and therefore neither are they hungry for God nor satisfied with the world but remain stupid and inapprehensive without resolution and determination never choosing clearly nor pursuing earnestly and therefore never enter into possession but alwaies stand at the gate of wearinesse unnecessary caution and perpetuall irresolution But so it is too often in our prayers we come to God because it is civill so to do and a generall custome but neither drawn thither by love nor pinch'd by spirituall necessities and pungent apprehensions we say so many prayers because we are resolved so to do and we passe through them sometimes with a little attention sometimes with none at all and
all our unguarded strengths There are some desires which have a period and Gods visitations expire in mercy at the revolution of a certain number of dayes and our prayer must dwell so long as Gods anger abides and in all the storm we must out cry the noyse of the tempest and the voices of that thunder But if we become hardned and by custome and cohabitation with the danger lose our fears and abate of our desires and devotions many times we shall finde that God by a sudden breach upon us will chastise us for letting our hands go down Israel prevailed no longer then Moses held up his hands in prayer and he was forced to continue his prayer till the going down of the Sun that is till the danger was over till the battell was done But when our desires and prayers are in the matter of spirituall danger they must never be remitted because our danger continues for ever and therefore so must our watchfulnesse and our guards Vult n. Deus rogari vult cogi vult quâdam importunitate vinci sayes S. Gregory God loves to be invited intreated importun'd with an unquiet restlesse desire and a persevering prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Proclus That 's a holy and a religious prayer that never gives over but renewes the prayer and dwels upon the desire for this only is effectuall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hears the persevering man and the unwearied prayer For it is very considerable that we be very curious to observe that many times a lust is sopita non mortua it is asleep the enemy is at truce and at quiet for a while but not conquered not dead and if we put off our armour too soon we lose all the benefit of our former war and are surprised by indiligence and a carelesse guard For God sometimes binds the Devill in a short chain and gives his servants respite that they may feel the short pleasures of a peace and the rest of innocence and perceive what are the eternall felicities of heaven where it shall be so for ever But then we must return to our warfare again and every second assault is more troublesome because it finds our spirits at ease and without watchfulnesse and delighted with a spirituall rest and keeping holiday But let us take heed for whatsoever temptation we can be troubled withall by our naturall temper or by the condition of our life or the evill circumstances of our condition so long as we have capacity to feel it so long we are in danger and must watch thereunto with prayer and continuall diligence And when your temptations let you alone let not you God alone but lay up prayers and the blessings of a constant devotion against the day of tryall Well may your temptation sleep but if your prayers do so you may chance to be awakened with an assault that may ruine you However the rule is easie Whatsoever you need aske it of God so long as you want it even till you have it For God therefore many times defers to grant that thou mayst persevere to aske and because every holy prayer is a glorification of God by the confessing many of his attributes a lasting and a persevering prayer is a little image of the Allellujahs and services of eternity it is a continuation to do that according to our measures which we shall be doing to eternall ages therefore think not that five or six hearty prayers can secure to thee a great blessing and a supply of a mighty necessity He that prays so and then leaves off hath said some prayers and done the ordinary offices of his Religion but hath not secured the blessing nor used means reasonably proportionable to a mighty interest 4. The prayers of a good man are oftentimes hindered and destiture of their effect for want of praying in good company for sometimes an evill or an obnoxious person hath so secured and ascertained a mischief to himself that he that stayes in his company or his cratfick must also share in his punishment and the Tyrian sailers with all their vows and prayers could not obtain a prosperous voyage so long as Jonas was within the Bark for in this case the interest is divided and the publick sin prevails above the private piety When the Philosopher asked a penny of Antigonus he told him it was too little for a King to give when he asked a talent he told him it was too much for a Philosopher to receive for he did purpose to cousen his own charity and elude the others necessity upon pretence of a double inequality So it is in the case of a good man mingled in evill company if a curse be too severe for a good man a mercy is not to be expected by evill company and his prayer when it is made in common must partake of that event of things which is appropriate to that society The purpose of this caution is that every good man be carefull that he do not mingle his devotion in the communions of hereticall persons and in schismaticall conventicles for although he be like them that follow Absalom in the simplicity of their heart yet his intermediall fortune and the event of his present affairs may be the same with Absaloms and it is not a light thing that we curiously choose the parties of our Communion I do not say it is necessary to avoid all the society of evill persons for then we must go out of the world and when we have thrown out a drunkard possibly we have entertain'd an hypocrite or when a swearer is gone an oppressor may stay still or if that be remedied yet pride is soon discernible but not easily judicable but that which is of caution in this question is that we never mingle with those whose very combination is a sin such as were Corah and his company that rebelled against Moses their Prince and Dathan and Abiram that made a schisme in Religion against Aaron the Priest for so said the Spirit of the Lord Come out from the congregation of these men lest ye perish in their company and all those that were abused in their communion did perish in the gain saying of Corah It is a sad thing to see a good man cousened by fair pretences and allured into an evill snare for besides that he dwels in danger and cohabits with a dragon and his vertue may change by evill perswasion into an evill disposition from sweetnesse to bitternesse from thence to evill speaking from thence to beleeve a lye and from beleeving to practise it besides this it is a very great sadnesse that such a man should lose all his prayers to very many purposes God will not respect the offering of those men who assemble by a peevish spirit and therefore although God in pity regards the desires of a good man if innocently abused yet as it unites in that assembly God will not hear it to any purposes of blessing and holinesse unlesse we
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace we cannot have the blessing of the Spirit in the returns of a holy prayer and all those assemblies which meet together against God or Gods Ordinances may pray and call and cry loudly and frequently and still they provoke God to anger and many times he will not have so much mercy for them as to deny them but le ts them prosper in their sin till it swels to intolerable and impardonable * But when good men pray with one heart and in a holy assembly that is holy in their desires lawfull in their authority though the persons be of different complexion then the prayer flies up to God like the hymns of a Quire of Angels for God that made body and soul to be one man and God and man to be one Christ and three persons are one God and his praises are sung to him by Quires and the persons are joyned in orders and the orders into hierarchies and all that God may be served by unions and communities loves that his Church should imitate the Concords of heaven and the unions of God and that every good man should promote the interests of his prayers by joyning in the communion of Saints in the unions of obedience and charity with the powers that God and the Lawes have ordained The sum is this If the man that makes the prayer be an unholy person his prayer is not the instrument of a blessing but a curse but when the sinner begins to repent truly then his desires begin to be holy But if they be holy and just and good yet they are without profit and effect if the prayer be made in schisme or an evill communion or if it be made without attention or if the man soon gives over or if the prayer be not zealous or if the man be angry There are very many waies for a good man to become unblessed and unthriving in his prayers and he cannot be secure unlesse he be in the state of grace and his spirit be quiet and his minde be attentive and his society be lawfull and his desires carnest and passionate and his devotions persevering lasting till his needs be served or exchanged for another blessing so that what Laelius apud Cicer. de senectute said concerning old age neque in summâ inopiâ levis esse senectus potest ne sapienti quidem nec insipienti etiam in summâ coptâ non gravis that a wise man could not bear old age if it were extremely poor and yet if it were very rich it were intolerable to a fool we may say concerning our prayers they are sins and unholy if a wicked man makes them and yet if they be made by a good man they are ineffective unlesse they be improved by their proper dispositions A good man cannot prevail in his prayers if his desires be cold and his affections trifling and his industry soon weary and his society criminall and if all these appendages of prayer be observed yet they will do no good to an evill man for his prayer that begins in sin shall end in sorrow SERMON VI. Part III. 3. NExt I am to inquire and consider what degrees and circumstances of piety are requir'd to make us fit to be intercessors for others and to pray for them with probable effect I say with probable effect for when the event principally depends upon that which is not within our own election such as are the lives and actions of others all that we can consider in this affair is whether wee be persons fit to pray in the behalf of others that hinder not but are persons within the limit and possibilities of the presentmercy When the Emperour Maximinus was smitten with the wrath of God and a sore disease for his cruell persecuting the Christian cause and putting so many thousand innocent and holy persons to death and he understood the voice of God and the accents of thunder and discerned that cruelty was the cause he revoked their decrees made against the Christians recall'd them from their caves and deserts their sanctuaries and retirements and enjoyned them to pray for the life and health of their Prince They did so and they who could command mountaines to remove and were obeyed they who could doe miracles they who with the key of prayer could open Gods four closets of the wombe and the grave of providence and rain could not obtain for their bloudy Emperour one drop of mercy but he must die miserable for over God would not be intreated for him and though he loved the prayer because he loved the Advocates yet Maximinus was not worthy to receive the blessing And it was threatned to the rebellious people of Israel and by them to all people that should sin grievously against the Lord God would break their staffe of bread and even the righteous should not be prevailing intercessors Though Noah Job or Daniel were there they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousnesse saith the Lord God and when Abraham prevailed very far with God in the behalf of Sodome and the five Cities of the Plain it had its period If there had been ten righteous in Sodom it should have been spared for their sakes but four onely were found and they onely delivered their own souls too but neither their righteousnesse nor Abrahams prayer prevailed any further and we have this case also mentioned in the New Testament If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death At his prayer the sinner shall receive pardon God shall give him life for them to him that prays in their behalf that sin provided it be not a sin unto death For there is a sin unto death but I doe not say that he shall pray for it There his Commission expires and his power is confin'd For there are some sins of that state and greatnesse that God will not pardon S. Austin in his books de sermone Domini in monte affirms it concerning some one single sin of a perfect malice It was also the opinion of Origen and Athanasius and is followed by venerable Bede and whether the Apostle means a peculiar state of sin or some one single great crime which also supposes a precedent and a present state of criminall condition it is such a thing as will hinder our prayers from prevailing in their behalf we are therefore not encouraged to pray because they cannot receive the benefit of Christs intercession and therefore much lesse of our Advocation which onely can prevail by vertue and participation of his mediation For whomsoever Christ prays for them wee pray that is for all them that are within the covenant of repentance for all whose actions have not destroyed the very being of Religion who have not renounc'd their faith nor voluntarily quit their hopes nor openly opposed the Spirit of grace nor
grown by a long progresse to a resolute and finall impiety nor done injustices greater then sorrow or restitution or recompense or acknowledgment However though it may be uncertain and disputed concerning the number of sins unto death and therefore to pray or not to pray is not matter of duty yet it is all one as to the effect whether we know them or no for though we intend charity when we pray for the worst of men yet concerning the event God will take care and will certainly return thy prayer upon thy own head though thou didst desire it should water and refresh thy neighbors drynesse and St. John so expresses it as if he had left the matter of duty undetermin'd because the instances are uncertain yet the event is certainly none at all therefore because we are not encouraged to pray and because it is a sin unto death that is such a sin that hath no portion in the promises of life and the state of repentance But now suppose the man for whom wee pray to be capable of mercy within the covenant of repentance and not farre from the Kingdome of heaven yet 2ly No prayers of others can further prevail then to remove this person to the next stage in order to felicity When S. Monica prayed for her son she did not pray to God to save him but to cōvert him and when God intended to reward the prayers and almes of Cornelius he did not do it by giving him a Crown but by sending an Apostle to him to make him a Christian the meaning of which observation is that we may understand that as in the person prayed for there ought to be the great disposition of being in a saveable condition so there ought also to be all the intermediall aptnesses for just as he is disposed so can we prevail and the prayers of a good man first prevail in behalf of a sinner that he shall be invited that he shall be reproved and then that he shall attend to it then that he shall have his heart open'd and then that he shall repent And still a good mans prayers follow him thorough the severall stages of pardon of sanctification of restraining graces of a mighty providence of great assistance of perseverance and a holy death No prayers can prevaile upon an undisposed person For the Sun himself cannot enlighten a blind eye nor the soule move a body whose silver cord is loosed and whose joints are untyed by the rudenesse and dissolutions of a pertinacious sicknesse But then suppose an eye quick and healthfull or apt to be refreshed with light and a friendly prospect yet a glow-worm or a diamond the shels of pearl or a dead mans candle are not enough to make him discern the beauties of the world and to admire the glories of creation Therefore 2. As the persons must be capable for whom we pray so they that pray for others must be persons extraordinary in something 1. If persons be of an extraordinary piety they are apt to be intercessors for others This appeares in the case of Job When the wrath of God was kindled against Eliphaz and his two friends God commanded them to offer a sacrifice but my servant Job shall pray for you for him will I accept and it was so in the case of the prevaricating Israelites God was full of indignation against them and smote them Then stood up Phinehas and prayed and the plague ceased For this man was a good man and the spirit of an extraordinary zeal filled him and he did glory to God in the execution upon Zimri and his fair Madianite And it was a huge blessing that was intail'd upon the posterity of Abraham Isaac and Jacob because they had a great Religion a great power with God and their extraordinary did consist especially in the matter of prayers and devotion for that was eminent in them besides their obedience for so Maimonides tells concerning them that Abraham first instituted Morning prayer The affairs of Religion had not the same constitution then as now They worshipped God never but at their Memorials and in places and seldome times of separation The bowed their head when they came to a hallowed stone and upon the top of their staffe and worshipped when they came to a consecrated pillar but this was seldome and they knew not the secrets and the priviledges of a frequent prayer of intercourses with God by ejaculations and the advantages of importunity and the Doctors of the Jews that record the prayer of Noah who in all reason knew the secret best because he was to teach it to all the world yet have transmitted to us but a short prayer of some seaven lines long and this he onely said within the Ark in that great danger once on a day provoked by his fear and stirred up by a Religion then made actuall in those days of sorrow and penance But in the descending ages when God began to reckon a Church in Abraham's family there began to be a new institution of offices and Abraham appointed that God should be prayed to every morning Isaac being taught by Abraham made a law or at least commended the practise and adopted it into the Religion that God should be worshipped by decimation or tithing of our goods and he added an order of prayer to be said in the afternoon and Jacob to make up the office compleat added evening prayer and God was their God and they became fit persons to blesse that is of procuring blessings to their relatives as appears in the instances of their own families of the King of Egypt and the Cities of the Plain For a man of an ordinary piety is like Gideons fleece wet in its own locks but it could not water a poor mans Garden But so does a thirsty land drink all the dew of heaven that wets its face and a great shower makes no torrent nor digs so much as a little furrow that the drils of the water might passe into rivers or refresh their neighbours wearinesse but when the earth is full and hath no strange consumptive needs then at the next time when God blesses it with a gracious shower it divides into portions and sends it abroad in free and equall communications that all that stand round about may feel the shower So is a good mans prayer his own cup is full it is crowned with health and overflowes with blessings and all that drink of his cup and eat at his table are refreshed with his joys and divide with him in his holy portions And indeed he hath need of a great stock of piety who is first to provide for his own necessities and then to give portions to a numerous relation It is a great matter that every man needs for himself the daily expences of his own infirmities the unthriving state of his omission of duties and recessions from perfection and sometimes the great losses and shipwracks the plundrings and burning of his house by
a fall into a deadly sin and most good men are in this condition that they have enough to doe to live and keep themselves above water but how few men are able to pay their own debts and lend great portions to others The number of those who can effectually intercede for others to great purposes of grace and pardon are as soon told as the number of wise men as the gates of a City or the entries of the river Nilus But then doe but consider what a great ingagement this is to a very strict and holy life If we chance to live in times of an extraordinary trouble or if our relatives can be capable of great dangers or great sorrows or if we our selves would doe the noblest friendship in the world and oblige others by acts of greatest benefit if we would assist their souls and work towards their salvation if we would be publick ministers of the greatest usefulness to our countrey if we would support Kings and relieve the great necessities of Kingdoms if we would be effective in the stopping of a plague or in the successe of armies a great and an exemplar piety and a zealous and holy prayer can do all this Semper tu hoc facito ut cogites Id optimum esse tute ut sis optimus si id nequeas saltem ut optimis sis proximus He that is the best man towards God is certainely the best Minister to his Prince or Countrey and therefore doe thou endevour to be so and if thou canst not be so be at least next to the best For in that degree in which our Religion is great and our piety exemplar in the same we can contribute towards the fortune of a Kingdome and when Elijah was taken into heaven Elisha mourn'd for him because it was a losse to Israel My Father my father the chariots of Israel and horsemen thereof But consider how uselesse thou art when thou canst not by thy prayers obtain so much mercy as to prevaile for the life of a single Trooper or in a plague beg of God for the life of a poor Maid-servant but the ordinary emanations of providence shall proceed to issue without any arrest and the sword of the Angel shall not be turn'd aside in one single infliction Remember although he is a great and excellent person that can prevaile of God for the interest of others yet thou that hast no stock of grace and favour no interest in the Court of heaven art but a mean person extraordinary in nothing thou art unregarded by God cheap in the sight of Angels uselesse to thy Prince or Countrey thou maist hold thy peace in a time of publick danger For Kings never pardon Murtherers at the intercession of Theeves and if a mean Mechanick should beg a Reprieve for a condemned Traitor he is ridiculous and impudent so is a vicious Advocate or an ordinary person with God It is well if God will hear him begging for his owne pardon hee is not yet disposed to plead for others And yet every man that is in the state of grace every man that can pray without a sinfull prayer may also intercede for others and it is a duty for all men to doe it all men I say who can pray at all acceptably I will therefore that prayers and supplications and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men and this is a duty that is prescrib'd to all them that are concern'd in the duty and in the blessings of Prayer but this is it which I say if their piety be but ordinary their prayer can be effectuall but in easy purposes and to smaller degrees but he that would work effectively towards a great deliverance or in great degrees towards the benefit or ease of any of his relatives can be confident of his successe but in the same degree in which his person is gracious There are strange things in heaven judgments there are made of things and persons by the measures of Religion and a plain promise produces effects of wonder and miracle and the changes that are there made are not effected by passions and interests and corporall changes and the love that is there is not the same thing that it is here it is more beneficiall more reasonable more holy of other designes and strange productions and upon that stock it is that a holy poor man that possesses no more it may be then an Ewe-lambe that eats of his bread and drinks of his cup and is a daughter to him and is all his temporall portion this poor man is ministred to by Angels and attended to by God and the Holy Spirit makes intercession for him and Christ joyns the mans prayer to his own advocation and the man by prayer shall save the City and destroy the fortune of a Tyrant army even then when God sees it good it should be so for he will no longer deny him any thing but when it is no blessing and when it is otherwise his prayer is most heard when it is most denyed 2ly That we should prevaile in intercessions for others we are to regard and to take care that as our piety so also must our offices be extraordinary He that prays to recover a family from an hereditary curse or to reverse a Sentence of God to cancell a Decree of heaven gone out against his friend hee that would heale the sick with his prayer or with his devotion prevaile against an army must not expect such great effects upon a Morning or Evening Collect or an honest wish put into the recollections of a prayer or a period put in on purpose Mamercus Bishop of Vienna seeing his City and all the Diocese in great danger of perishing by an earthquake instituted great Letanies and solemn supplications besides the ordinary devotions of his usuall hours of prayer and the Church from his example took up the practise and translated it into an anniversary solemnity and upon St. Mark 's day did solemnly intercede with God to divert or prevent his judgments falling upon the people majoribus Litaniis so they are called with the more solemn supplications they did pray unto God in behalf of their people And this hath in it the same consideration that is in every great necessity for it is a great thing for a man to be so gracious with God as to be able to prevaile for himself and his friend for himself and his relatives and therefore in these cases as in all great needs it is the way of prudence and security that we use all those greater offices which God hath appointed as instruments of importunity and arguments of hope and acts of prevailing and means of great effect and advocation such as are separating days for solemn prayer all the degrees of violence and earnest addresse fasting and prayer almes and prayer acts of repentance and prayer praying together in publick with united hearts and above all praying in the susception and communication of the holy
is like the compassion we have in other mens miseries we are not concerned in it and it is not our case and our hearts ake not when another mans children are made fatherlesse or his wife a sad widow and just so are our prayers for their relief If we thought their evils to be ours if wee and they as members of the same body had sensible and reall communications of good and evill if we understood what is really meant by being members one of another or if we did not think it a spirituall word of art instrumentall onely to a science but no part of duty or reall relation sure we should pray more earnestly one for another then we usually doe How few of us are troubled when he sees his brother wicked or dishonorably vicious Who is sad and melancholy when his neighbour is almost in hell when he sees him grow old in iniquity How many days have we set apart for the publick relief and interests of the Kingdome How earnestly have we fasted if our Prince be sick or afflicted What almes have we given for our brothers conversion or if this be great how importunate and passionate have we been with God by prayer in his behalf by prayer and secret petition But however though it were well very well that all of us would think of this duty a little more because besides the excellency of the duty it self it would have this blessed consequent that for whose necessities we pray if we doe desire earnestly they should be relieved we would when ever we can and in all we can set our hands to it and if we pity the Orphan children and pray for them heartily we would also when we could relieve them charitably but though it were therefore very well that things were thus with all men yet God who takes care for us all makes provision for us in speciall manner and the whole Order of the Clergy are appointed by God to pray for others to be Ministers of Christs Priesthood to be followers of his Advocation to stand between God and the people and present to God all their needs and all their desires That this God hath ordained and appointed and that this rather he will blesse and accept appears by the testimony of God himself for he onely can be witnesse in this particular for it depends wholly upon his gracious favour and acceptation It was the case of Abraham and Abimelech Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he will pray for thee and thou shalt live and this caused confidence in Micah Now know I that the Lord will doe me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest meaning that in his Ministery in the Ministery of Priests God hath established the alternate returns of blessing and prayers the entercouses between God and his people And thorough the descending ages of the synagogue it came to be transmitted also to the Christian Church that the Ministers of Religion are advocates for us under Christ by the Ministery of Reconciliation by their dispensing the holy Sacraments by the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven by Baptisme and the Lords Supper by binding and loosing by the Word of God and Prayer and therefore saith St. James If any man be sick among you let him send for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him meaning that God hath appointed them especially and will accept them in ordinary and extraordinary and this is that which is meant by blessing A Father blesses his childe and Solomon blessed his people and Melchisedec the Priest blessed Abraham and Moses blessed the Sons of Israel and God appointed the Leviticall Priests to blesse the congregation and this is more then can be done by the people for though they can say the same prayer and the People pray for their Kings and Children for their Parents and the Flock for the Pastor yet they cannot blesse him as he blesses them for the lesse is blessed of the greater and not the greater of the lesse and this is without all contradiction said S. Paul the meaning of the mysterie is this That God hath appointed the Priest to pray for the People and because he hath made it to be his ordinary office and imployment he also intends to be seen in that way which he hath appointed and chalked out for us his prayer if it be found in the way of righteousnesse is the surer way to prevaile in his intercessions for the people But upon this stock comes in the greatest difficulty of the text for if God heareth not sinners there is an infinite necessity that the Ministers of Religion should be very holy For all their ministeries consist in preaching and praying to these two are reducible all the ministeries Ecclesiasticall which are of divine institution so the Apostles summ'd up their imployment But we will give our selves continually to prayer and to the ministery of the Word to exhort to reprove to comfort to cast down to determine cases of conscience and to rule in the Church by the word of their proper Ministery and the very making lawes Ecclesiasticall is the ministery of the word for so their dictates passe into lawes by being duties injoyn'd by God or the acts or exercises or instruments of some injoyn'd graces To prayer is reduced administration of the Sacraments but binding and loosing and visitation of the sick are mixt offices partly relating to one partly to the other Now although the Word of God preached will have a great effect even though it be preached by an evill Minister a vicious person yet it is not so well there as from a pious man because by prayer also his preaching is made effectuall and by his good example his Homilies and Sermons are made active and therefore it is very necessary in respect of this half of the Ministers office The preaching of Word he be a good man unlesse he be much perishes to the people most of the advantages are lost But then for the other half all those ministeries which are by way of prayer are rendred extremely invalid and ineffectuall if they be ministred by an evill person For upon this very stock it was that St. Cyprian affirmed that none were to be chosen to the Ministery but immaculati integri antistites holy and upright men who offering their sacrifices worthily to God and holily may be heard in their prayers which they make for the safety of the Lords people But he presses this caution to a further issue that it is not only necessary to choose holy persons to these holy Ministeries for fear of losing the advantages of a sanctified Ministery but also that the people may not be guilty of an evill communion and a criminall state of society Nec enim sibi plebs blandiatur quasi immunis à contagione delicti esse possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans the people cannot be innocent if they
communicate with a vitious priest for so said the Lord by the Prophet Hosea Sacrificia eorum panis luctus their sacrifices are like bread of sorrow whosoever eat thereof shall be defiled The same also he sayes often and more vehemently ibid. lib. 4. ep 2. But there is yet a further degree of this evill It is not only a losse and also criminall to the people to communicate with a Minister of a notorious evill life and scandalous but it is affirmed by the Doctors of the Church to be wholly without effect their prayers are sins their Sacraments are null and ineffective their communions are without consecration their hand is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dead hand the blessings vain their sacrifices rejected their ordinations imperfect their order is vanished their character is extinguished and the holy Ghost will not descend upon the mysteries when he is invocated by unholy hands and unsanctified lips This is a sad story but it is expresly affirmed by Dionysius by St. Hierom upon the 2. chapter of Zephaniah affirming that they do wickedly who affirm eucharistiam imprecantis facere verba non vitam necessariam esse tantum solennem orationem non sacerdotum merita that the Eucharist is consecrated by the Word and solemn prayer and not by the life and holinesse of the Priest and by St. Gelasius by the Author of the imperfect work attributed to St. Chrysostome who quotes the 8th book of the Apostolicall Constitutions for the same Doctrine the words of which in the first chapter are so plain that Bovius and Sixtus Senensis accuse both the Author of the Apostolicall Constitutions and St. Hierom and the Author of these Homilies to be guilty of the Doctrine of Iohn Hus who for the crude delivery of this truth was sentenced by the councell of Constance To the same sense and signification of Doctrine is that which is generally agreed upon by almost all persons that he that enters into his Ministery by Simony receives nothing but a curse which is expresly affirmed by Petrus Damiani and Tarasius the Patriarch of Constantinople by St. Gregory and St. Ambrose For if the holy Ghost leaves polluted Temples and unchast bodies if he takes away his grace from them that abuse it if the holy Ghost would not have descended upon Simon Magus at the prayer of St. Peter if St. Peter had taken money for him it is but reasonable to beleeve the holy Ghost will not descend upon the simoniacall unchast Concubinaries Schismaticks and scandalous Priests and excommunicate And beside the reasonablenesse of the Doctrine it is also further affirmed by the councell of Neocaesarea by St. Chrysostome Innocentius Nicolaus the first and by the Master of the Sentences upon the saying of God by the Prophet Malachic 1. Maledicam benedictionibus vestris I will curse your blessings upon the stock of these Scriptures reasons and authorities we may see how we are to understand this advantage of intercession The prayer and offices of holy Ministers are of great advantages for the interest of the people but if they be ministred to by evill men by vicious and scandalous Ministers this extraordinary advantage is lost they are left to stand alone or to fall by their own crimes so much as is the action of God and so much as is the piety of the man that attends and prayes in the holy place with the Priest so far he shall prevail but no further and therefore the Church hath taught her Ministers to pray thus in her preparatory prayer to consecration Quoniam me peccatorem inter te eundem populum Medium esse voluisti licet in me boni operis testimonium non agnoscas officium dispensationiis creditae non recuses nec per me indignum famulum tuum eorum salutis pereat pretium pro quibus victima factus salutaris dignatus es fieri redemptio For we must know that God hath not put the salvation of any man into the power of another And although the Church of Rome by calling the Priests actuall intention simply necessary and the Sacraments also indispensably necessary hath left it in the power of every Curate to damn very many of his Parish yet it is otherwise with the accounts of truth and the Divine mercy and therefore he will never exact the Sacraments of us by the measures and proportions of an evill Priest but by the piety of the communicant by the prayers of Christ and the mercies of God But although the greatest interest of salvation depends not upon this Ministery yet as by this we receive many advantages if the Minister be holy so if he be vicious we lose all that which could be conveyed to us by his part of the holy Ministration every man and woman in the assembly prays and joynes in the effect and for the obtaining the blessing but the more vain persons are assembled the lesse benefits are received even by good men there present and therefore much is the losse if a wicked Priest ministers though the summe of affairs is not intirely turned upon his office or default yet many advantages are For we must not think that the effect of the Sacraments is indivisibly done at once or by one ministery but they operate by parts and by morall operation by the length of time and a whole order of piety and holy ministeries every man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow-worker with God in the work of his salvation and as in our devotion no one prayer of our own alone prevails upon God for grace and salvation but all the devotions of our life are upon Gods account for them so is the blessing of God brought upon the people by all the parts of their religion and by all assistances of holy people and by the ministeries not of one but of all Gods Ministers and relies finally upon our own faith and obedience and the mercies of God in Jesus Christ but yet for want of holy persons to minister much diminution of blessing and a losse of advantages is unavoidable therefore if they have great necessities they can best hope that God will be moved to mercy on their behalf if their necessities be recommended to God by persons of a great piety of a holy calling and by the most solomn offices Lastly I promised to consider concerning the signs of having our prayers heard concerning which there is not much of particular observation but if our prayers be according to the warrant of Gods Word if we aske according to Gods will things honest and profitable we are to relye upon the promises and we are sure that they are heard and besides this we can have no sign but the thing signified when we feel the effect then we are sure God hath heard us but till then we are to leave it with God and not to aske a sign of that for which he hath made us a promise And yet
and an active living faith it is a grace that the most holy persons beg of God with mighty passion and labour for with a great diligence and expect with trembling fears and concerning it many times suffer sadnesses with uncertain soules and receive it by degrees and it enters upon them by little portions and it is broken as their sighs and sleeps But so have I seen the returning sea enter upon the strand and the waters rolling towards the shore throw up little portions of the tide and retire as if nature meant to play and not to change the abode of waters but still the floud crept by little steppings and invaded more by his progressions then he lost by his retreat and having told the number of its steps it possesses its new portion till the Angell calls it back that it may leave its unfaithfull dwelling of the sand so is the pardon of our sins it comes by slow motions and first quits a present death and turnes it may be into a sharp sicknesse and if that sicknesse prove not health to the soul it washes off and it may be will dash against the rock again and proceed to take off the severall instances of anger and the periods of wrath but all this while it is uncertain concerning our finall interest whether it be ebbe or floud and every hearty prayer and every bountifull almes still enlarges the pardon or addes a degree of probability and hope and then a drunken meeting or a covetous desire or an act of lust or looser swearing idle talk or neglect of Religion makes the pardon retire and while it is disputed between Christ and Christs enemy who shall be Lord the pardon fluctuates like the wave striving to climbe the rock and is wash'd off like its own retinue and it gets possession by time and uncertainty by difficulty and the degrees of a hard progression When David had sinned but in one instance interrupting the course of a holy life by one sad calamity it pleased God to pardon him but see upon what hard terms He prayed long and violently he wept sorely he was humbled in sackcloth and ashes he eat the bread of affliction and drank of his bottle of tears he lost his Princely spirit and had an amazing conscience he suffer'd the wrath of God and the sword never did depart from his house his Son rebell'd and his Kingdome revolted he fled on foot and maintained Spies against his childe hee was forc'd to send an army against him that was dearer then his owne eyes and to fight against him whom he would not hurt for all the riches of Syria and Egypt his concubines were desir'd by an incestuous mixture in the face of the sun before all Israel and his childe that was the fruit of his sin after a 7 days feaver dyed and left him nothing of his sin to show but sorrow and the scourges of the Divine vengeance and after all this God pardoned him finally because he was for ever sorrowfull and never did the sin againe He that hath sinned a thousand times for David's once is too confident if he thinks that all his shall be pardoned at a lesse rate then was used to expiate that one mischief of the religious King The son of David died for his father David as well as he did for us he was the Lambe slain from the beginning of the world and yet that death and that relation and all the heap of the Divine favours which crown'd David with a circle richer then the royall diadem could not exempt him from the portion of sinners when he descended into their pollutions I pray God we may find the sure mercies of David and may have our portion in the redemption wrought by the Son of David but we are to expect it upon such terms as are revealed such which include time and labour and uncertainty and watchfulnesse and fear and holy living But it is a sad observation that the case of pardon of sins is so administred that they that are most sure of it have the greatest fears concerning it and they to whom it doth not belong at all are as confident as children and fooles who believe every thing they have a mind to not because they have reason so to doe but because without it they are presently miserable The godly and holy persons of the Church work out their salvation with fear and trembling and the wicked goe to destruction with gayety and confidence these men think all is well while they are in the gall of bitternesse and good men are tossed in a tempest crying and praying for a safe conduct and the sighs of their feares and the wind of their prayers waft them safely to their port Pardon of sins is not easily obtain'd because they who onely certainly can receive it find difficulty and danger and fears in the obtaining it and therefore their case is pityable and deplorable who when they have least reason to expect pardon yet are most confident and carelesse But because there are sorrows on one side and dangers on the other and temptations on both sides it will concern all sorts of men to know when their sins are pardoned For then when they can perceive their signes certain and evident they may rest in their expectations of the Divine mercies when they cannot see the signes they may leave their confidence and change it into repentance and watchfulnesse and stricter observation and in order to this I shall tell you that which shall never faile you a certaine signe that you may know whether or no and when and in what degree your persons are pardoned 1. I shall not consider the evils of sin by any Metaphysicall and abstracted effects but by sensible reall and materiall Hee that revenges himself of another does something that will make his enemy grieve something that shall displease the offender as much as sin did the offended and therefore all the evills of sin are such as relate to us and are to bee estimated by our apprehensions Sin makes God angry and Gods anger if it be turned aside will make us miscrable and accursed and therefore in proportion to this we are to reckon the proportions of Gods mercy in forgivenesse or his anger in retaining 2. Sin hath obliged us to suffer many evills even whatsoever the anger of God is pleased to inflict sicknesse and dishonour poverty and shame a caytive spirit and a guilty conscience famine and war plague and pestilence sudden death and a short life temporall death or death eternall according as God in the severall covenants of the Law and Gospel hath expressed 3. For in the law of Moses sin bound them to nothing but temporall evills but they were sore and heavy and many but these only there were threatned in the Gospel Christ added the menaces of evills spirituall and eternall 4. The great evill of the Jews was their abscission and cutting off from being Gods people to which eternall damnation answers
life of man the rule is good and the greater ingredient shal prevail and he shall certainly be pardoned and accepted whose life is so reformed whose repentance is so active whose return is so early that he hath given bigger portions to God then to Gods enemy But if we account so as to divide the measures in present possession the bigger part cannot prevail a small or a seldome sin spoils not the sea of piety but when the affection is divided a little ill destroyes the whole body of good the cup in a mans right hand must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be pure although it be mingled that is the whole affection must be for God that must be pure and unmingled if sin mingles in seldome and unapproved instances the drops of water are swallowed up with a whole vintage of piety and the bigger ingredient is the prevailing in all other cases it is not so for one sin that we choose and love and delight in will not be excused by 20 vertues and as one broken link dissolves the union of the whole chain and one jarring and untuned string spoils the whole musick so is every sin that seises upon a portion of our affections if we love one that one destroyes the acceptation of all the rest And as it is in faith so it is in charity He that is a Heretick in one article hath no saving faith in the whole and so does every vicious habit or unreformed sin destroy the excellency of the grace of charity a wilfull error in one article is Heresie and every vice in one instance is Malice and they are perfectly contrary and a direct darknesse to the two eyes of the soul faith and charity 4. There is one deceit more yet in the matter of the extension of our duty destroying the integrity of its constitution for they do the work of God deceitfully who think God sufficiently served with abstinence from evill and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion This Clemens Alexandrinus affirmes of the Pharisees they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hoped to be justified by abstinence from things forbidden but if we will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of the kingdome we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides this and supposing a proportionable perfection in such an innocence we must love our brother and do good to him and glorifie God by a holy Religion in the communion of Saints in faith and Sacraments in almes and counsell in forgivenesses and assistances Flee from evill and do the thing that is good and dwell for evermore said the Spirit of God in the Psalmes and St. Peter Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue to vertue patience to patience godlinesse and brotherly kindnesse and charity Many persons think themselves fairly assoiled because they are no adulterers no rebels no drunkards not of scandalous lives In the mean time like the Laodiceans they are naked and poor they have no catalogue of good things registred in heaven no treasures in the repositories of the poor neither have the poor often prayed concerning them Lord remember thy servants for this thing at the day of Judgement A negative Religion is in many things the effects of lawes and the appendage of sexes the product of education the issues of company and of the publick or the daughter of fear and naturall modesty or their temper and constitution and civill relations common fame or necessary interest Few women swear and do the debaucheries of drunkards and they are guarded from adulterous complications by spies and shame by fear and jealousie by the concernment of families and the reputation of their kindred and therefore they are to account with God beyond this civill and necessary innocence for humility and patience for religious fancies and tender consciences for tending the sick and dressing the poor for governing their house and nursing their children and so it is in every state of life When a Prince or a Prelate a noble and a rich person hath reckon'd all his immunities and degrees of innocence from those evils that are incident to inferiour persons or the worser sort of their own order they do the work of the Lord and their own too very deceitfully unlesse they account correspondencies of piety to all their powers and possibilities they are to reckon and consider concerning what oppressions they have relieved what causes and what fatherlesse they have defended how the work of God and of Religion of justice and charity hath thriv'd in their hands If they have made peace and encouraged Religion by their example and by their lawes by rewards and collaterall incouragements if they have been zealous for God and for Religion if they have imployed ten talents to the improvement of Gods bank then they have done Gods work faithfully if they account otherwise and account only by ciphers and negatives they can expect only the rewards of innocent slaves they shall escape the furca and the wheel the torments of lustfull persons and the crown of flames that is reserved for the ambitious or they shall not be gnawn with the vipers of the envious or the shame of the ingratefull but they can never upon this account hope for the crowns of Martyrs or the honorary rewards of Saints the Coronets of virgins and Chaplets of Doctors and Confessors And though murderers and lustfull persons the proud and the covetous the Heretick and Schismatick are to expect flames and scorpions pains and smart poenam sensus the Schooles call it yet the lazic and the imperfect the harmlesse sleeper and the idle worker shall have poenam damni the losse of all his hopes and the dishonours of the losse and in the summe of affairs it will be no great difference whether we have losse or pain because there can be no greater pain imaginable then to lose the sight of God to eternall ages 5. Hither are to be reduced as deceitfull workers those that promise to God but mean not to pay what they once intended * people that are confident in the day of ease and fail in the danger * they that pray passionately for a grace and if it be not obtained at that price go no further and never contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer * such as delight in forms and outsides and regard not the substance and design of every institution * that think it a great sin to tast bread before the receiving the holy Sacrament and yet come to communicate with an ambitious and revengefull soul * that make a conscience of eating flesh but not of drunkennesse * that keep old customes and old sins together * that pretend one duty to excuse another religion against charity or piety to parents against duty to God private promises against publick duty the keeping of an oath against breaking of a Commandement honour against modesty
and value it above his life he must contend earnestly for the faith by the most prevailing arguments by the arguments of holy living and ready dying by zeale and patience by conformity and humility by reducing words to actions fair discourses to perfect perswasions by loving the article and encreasing in the knowledge and love of God and his Son Jesus Christ and then his faith is not negligent deceitfull artificiall and improper but true and holy and reasonable and usefull zealous and sufficient and therefore can never be reproved 2. Our prayers and devotions must be fervent and zealous not cold patient easie and soon rejected but supported by a patient spirit set forwards by importunity continued by perseverance waited on by attention and a present mind carryed along with holy but strong desires and ballasted with resignation and conformity to the divine will and then it is as God likes it and does the work to Gods glory and our interest effectively He that asks with a doubting mind and a lazy desire begs for nothing but to be denyed we must in our prayers be earnest and fervent or else we shall have but a cold answer for God gives his grace according as we can receive it and whatsoever evill returnes we meet in our prayers when we ask for good things is wholly by reason of our wandring spirits and cold desires we have reason to complain that our minds wander in our prayers and our diversions are more prevailing then all our arts of application and detention and we wander sometimes even when we pray against wandring and it is in some degrees naturall and unevitable but although the evill is not wholly to be cured yet the symptomes are to be eased and if our desires were strong and fervent our minds would in the same proportion be present we see it by a certain and regular experience what we love passionately we perpetually think on and it returnes upon us whether we will or no and in a great fear the apprehension cannot be shaken off and therefore if our desires of holy things were strong and earnest we should most certainly attend our prayers it is a more violent affection to other things that carries us off from this and therefore if we lov'd passionately what we aske for daily we should aske with hearty desires and an earnest appetite and a present spirit and however it be very easie to have our thoughts wander yet it is our indifferency and lukewarmnesse that makes it so naturall and you may observe it that so long as the light shines bright and the fires of devotion and desires flame out so long the mind of a man stands close to the altar and waits upon the sacrifice but as the fires die and desires decay so the mind steals away and walks abroad to see the little images of beauty and pleasure which it beholds in the falling stars and little glow-wormes of the world The river that runs slow and creeps by the banks and begs leave of every turfe to let it passe is drawn into little hollownesses and spends it selfe in smaller portions and dies with diversion but when it runs with vigorousnesse and a ful stream and breaks down every obstacle making it even as its own brow it stays not to be tempted by little avocations and to creep into holes but runs into the sea through full and usefull channels So is a mans prayer if it moves upon the feet of an abated appetite it wanders into the society of every trifling accident and stays at the corners of the fancy and talks with every object it meets and cannot arrive at heaven but when it is carryed upon the wings of passion and strong desires a swift motion and a hungry appetite it passes on through all the intermediall regions of clouds and stays not till it dwells at the foot of the Throne where mercy sits and thence sends holy showers of refreshment I deny not but some little drops will turn aside and fall from the full channell by the weaknesse of the banks and hollownesse of the passage but the main course is still continued and although the most earnest and devout persons feel and complain of some loosenesse of spirit and unfixed attentions yet their love and their desire secure the maine portions and make the prayer to be strong fervent and effectuall Any thing can be done by him that earnestly desires what he ought secure but your affections and passions and then no temptation will be too strong A wise man and a full resolution and an earnest spirit can doe any thing of duty but every temptation prevailes when we are willing to die and we usually lend nothing to devotion but the offices that flatter our passions we can desire and pray for any thing that may serve our lust or promote those ends which we covet but ought to tear and fly from but the same earnestnesse if it were transplanted into Religion and our prayers would serve all the needs of the spirit but for want of it we do the Lords work deceitfully 3. Our Charity also must be fervent Malus est miles qui ducem suum gemens sequitur He that follows his Generall with a heavy march and a heavy heart is but an ill souldier but our duty to God should be hugely pleasing and we should rejoyce in it it must passe on to action and doe the action vigorously it is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour and travail of love A friend at a sneese and an almes-basket full of prayers a love that is lazy and a service that is uselesse and a pity without support are the images and colours of that grace whose very constitution and designe is beneficence and well-doing He that loves passionately will not onely doe all that his friend needs but all that himself can for although the law of charity is fulfilled by acts of profit and bounty and obedience and labour yet it hath no other measures but the proportions and abundance of a good mind and according to this God requires that we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abounding and that alwayes in the work of the Lord if we love passionately we shall doe all this for love endures labour and calls it pleasure it spends all and counts it a gain it suffers inconveniencies and is quickly reconciled to them if dishonours and affronts be to be endured love smiles and calls them favours and wears them willingly alii jacuere ligati Turpitèr atque aliquis de Diis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis It is the Lord said David and I will be yet more vile and it shall be honour unto me thus did the Disciples of our Lord goe from tribunals rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer stripes for that beloved name and we are commanded to rejoyce in persecutions to resist unto bloud to strive to enter in at the strait gate not to be weary of well doing doe
much in this so unreasonable temptation Opposuisti nubem ne transiret oratio the mourning Prophet complained there was a cloud passed between heaven and the prayer of Judah a little thing God knowes it was a wall which might have been blown down with a few hearty sighs and a few penitentiall tears or if the prayers had ascended in a full and numerous body themselves would have broken through that little partition but so the Devill prevails often opponit nubem he claps a cloud between some little objection a stranger is come or my head akes or the Church is too cold or I have letters to write or I am not disposed or it is not yet time or the time is past these and such as these are the clouds the Devill claps between heaven and us but these are such impotent objections that they were as soon confuted as pretended by all men that are not fools or professed enemies of Religion but that they are clouds which sometimes look like Lions and Bears Castles and wals of fire armies and horses and indeed are any thing that a man will fancy and the smallest article of objection managed and conducted by the Devils arts and meeting with a wretchlesse carelesse indevout spirit is a Lion in the way and a deep river it is impassable and it is impregnable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Sophister said in the Greek Comedy Clouds become any thing as they are represented Wolves to Simon Harts to Cleonymus For the Devill fits us with clouds according as we can be abused and if we love affairs of the world he can contrive its circumstances so that they shall crosse our prayers and so it is in every instance and the best way to cure this evill is prayer pray often and pray zealously and the sun of righteousnesse will scatter these clouds and warm our hearts with his holy fires But it is in this as in all acquired habits the habit makes the actions easie and pleasant but this habit cannot be gotten without frequent actions habits are the daughters of action but then they nurse their mother and produce daughters after her image but far more beautifull and prosperous For in frequent prayer there is so much rest and pleasure that as soon as ever it is perceived the contrary temptation appears unreasonable none are so unwilling to pray as they that pray seldome for they that do pray often and with zeal and passion and desire feel no trouble so great as when they are forced to omit their holy offices and hours of prayer It concerns the Devils interest to keep us from all the experience of the rewards of a frequent and holy prayer and so long as you will not try and taste how good and gracious the Lord is to the praying man so long you cannot see the evill of your coldnesse and lukewarm state but if you would but try though it be but for curiosity sake and informe your selves in the vanity of things and the truth of pretences and the certainty of Theologicall propositions you should finde your selves taken in a golden snare which will tye you to nothing but felicity and safety and holinesse and pleasures But then the caution which I intended to insert is this that frequency in prayers and that part of zeal which relates to it is to be upon no account but of an holy spirit a wise heart and reasonable perswasion for if it begins upon passion or fear in imitation of others or desires of reputation honour or phantastick principles it will be unblessed and weary unprosperous and without return or satisfaction therefore if it happen to begin upon a weak principle be very curious to change the motive and with all speed let it be turned into religion and the love of holy things then let it be as frequent as it can prudently it cannot be amisse 2. When you are entred into a state of zealous prayer and a regular devotion what ever interruption you can meet with observe their causes and be sure to make them irregular seldome and contingent that your omissions may be seldome and casuall as a bare accident for which no provisions can be made for if ever it come that you take any thing habitually and constantly from your prayers or that you distract from them very frequently it cannot be but you will become troublesome to your self your prayers will be uneasie they will seem hinderances to your more necessary affairs of passion and interest and the things of the world and it will not stand still till it comes to Apostasie and a direct despite and contempt of holy things For it was an old rule and of a sad experience Tepiditas si callum obduxerit fiet apostasia if your lukewarmnesse be habituall and a state of life if it once be hardned by the usages of many daies it changes the whole state of the man it makes him an apostate to devotion Therefore be infinitely carefull in this particular alwayes remembring the saying of St. Chrysostome Docendi praedicandi officia alia cessant suo tempore precandi autem nunquam there are seasons for teaching and preaching and other outward offices but prayer is the duty of all times and of all persons and in all contingences From other things in many cases we can be excused but from prayer never In this therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is good to be zealous 2. Concerning the second instance I named viz. To give almes above our estate it is an excellent act of zeal and needs no other caution to make it secure from illusion and danger but that our egressions of charity do not prejudice justice See that your almes do not other men wrong and let them do what they can to thy self they will never prejudice thee by their abundance but then be also carefull that the pretences of justice do not cousen thy self of thy charity and the poor of thine almes and thy soul of the reward He that is in debt is not excused from giving almes till his debts are paid but only from giving away such portions which should and would pay them and such which he intended should do it There are lacernae divitiarum and crums from the table and the gleanings of the harvest and the scatterings of the vintage which in all estates are the portions of the poor which being collected by the hand of providence and united wisely may become considerable to the poor and are the necessary duties of charity but beyond this also every considerable relief to the poor is not a considerable diminution to the estate and yet if it be it is not alwaies considerable in the accounts of Justice for nothing ought to be pretended against the zeal of almes but the certain omissions or the very probable retarding the doing that to which we are otherwise obliged He that is going to pay a debt and in the way meets an indigent person that needs it all
very passage I am insnared by the cords of my own concupiscence Necessity bids me passe but I have no way to passe from hunger to fulnesse but over the bridge of pleasure and although health and life be the cause of eating and drinking yet pleasure a dangerous pleasure thrusts her self into attendance and sometimes endeavours to be the principall and I do that for pleasures sake which I would only do for health and yet they have distinct measures whereby they can be separated and that which is enough for health is too little for delight and that which is for my delight destroyes my health and still it is uncertain for what end I doe indeed desire and the worst of the evill is this that the soul is glad because it is uncertain and that an excuse is ready that under the pretence of health Obumbret negotium voluptatis the design of pleasure may be advanced and protected How farre the ends of naturall pleasure may lawfully be enjoyed I shall afterwards consider In the mean time if we remember that the Epicures design is pleasure principally we may the better reprove his folly by considering that intemperance is a a plain destruction to all that which can give reall and true pleasure 1. It is an enemy to health without which it is impossible to feel anything of corporall pleasure 2. A constant full table hath in it lesse pleasure then the temperate provisions of the Hermite or the Labourer or the Philosophicall table of Scholars and the just pleasures of the vertuous 3. Intemperance is an impure fountain of vice and a direct nurse of uncleannesse 4. It is a destruction of wisdome 5. It is a dishonour and disreputation to the person and the nature of the man It is an enemy to health which is as one cals it ansa voluptatum condimentum vitae it is that handle by which we can apprehend and perceive pleasures and that sauce that only makes life delicate for what content can a full table administer to a man in a feaver and he that hath a sickly stomach admires at his happinesse that can feast with cheese and garlick unctious breuuages and the low tasted spinage Health is the opportunity of wisdome the fairest scene of Religion the advantages of the glorifications of God the charitable ministeries to men it is a state of joy and thanksgiving and in every of its period feels a pleasure from the blessed emanations of a mercifull providence The world does not minister does not feel a greater pleasure then to be newly delivered from the racks or the gratings of the stone and the torments and convulsions of a sharp colick and no Organs no Harp no Lute can sound out the praises of the Almighty Father so spritefully as the man that rises from his bed of sorrowes and considers what an excellent difference he feels from the groans and intolerable accents of yesterday Health carries us to Church and makes us rejoyce in the communion of Saints and an intemperate table makes us to lose all this For this is one of those sins which S. Paul affirms to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifest leading before unto judgement It bears part of its punishment in this life and hath this appendage like the sin against the holy Ghost that it is not remitted in this world nor in the world to come that is if it be not repented of it is punished here and hereafter which the Scripture does not affirm concerning all sins and all cases But in this the sinner gives sentence with his mouth and brings it to execution with his own hands Paena tamen praesens cum tu deponis amictum Turgidus et crudum pavonem in balneaportas The old gluttons among the Romans Heliogabalus Tigellius Crispus Montanus notaeque per oppida buccae famous Epicures mingled their meats with vomitings so did Vitellius and enter'd into their baths to digest their Phesants that they might speedily return to the Mullet and the Eeles of Syene and then they went home and drew their breath short till the morning and it may be not at all before night Hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus Their age is surprised at a feast and gives them not time to make their will but either they are choked with a large morsell and there is no room for the breath of the lungs and the motions of the heart or a feaver burns their eyes out or a quinzie punishes that intemperate throat that had no religion but the eating of the fat sacrifices the portions of the poor and of the Priest or else they are condemned to a Lethargie if their constitutions be dull and if active it may be they are wilde with watching Plurimus hinc aeger moritur vigilando sed illum Languorem peperit cibus imperfectus haerens Ardenti stomacho So that the Epicures geniall proverb may be a little alter'd and say Let us eat and drink for by this means to morrow we shall die but that 's not all for these men live a healthlesse life that is are long are every day dying and at last dye with torment Menander was too soft in his expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is indeed a death but gluttony is a pleasant death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this is the gluttons pleasure to breath short and difficultly scarce to be able to speak and when he does he cries out I dye and rot with pleasure But the folly is as much to be derided as the men to be pityed that we daily see men afraid of death with a most intolerable apprehension and yet increase the evill of it the pain and the trouble and the suddennesse of its coming and the appendage of an unsufferable eternity Rem struere exoptant caeso bove Mercuriúmque Arcessunt fibrâ They pray for herds of cattell and spend the breeders upon feasts and sacrifices For why do men go to Temples and Churches and make vowes to God and daily prayers that God would give them a healthfull body and take away their gout and their palsies their feavers and apoplexies the pains of the head and the gripings of the belly and arise from their prayers and powre in loads of flesh and seas of wine lest there should not be matter enough for a lusty disease Poscis opem nervis corpúsque fidele senectae Esto age sed grandes patinae tucetáque crassa Annuere his superos vetuere Jov émque morantur But it is enough that the rich glutton shall have his dead body condited and embalmed he may be allowed to stink and suffer corruption while he is alive These men are for the present living sinners and walking rottennesse and hereafter will be dying penitents and perfumed carcasses and their whole felicity is lost in the confusions of their unnaturall disorder When Cyrus had espyed Astyages and his fellowes coming drunk from a