a seducer fruit which was poison a will which was irregular and the command he made his ruine And now he who affected to become like unto God doth desire also to make God like to himself he who would be made a God maketh God a man and bringeth him in as guilty of the transgression And so he added to his guilt by defending it ut culpa ejus atrocior fieret discussa quà m fuit perpetrata saith the Father His sin was greater being excused than it was when first committed To exalt it to the highest we may well call it Blasphemy For as we may blaspheme by giving that to the Creature which is proper to God so may we also by attributing that to God which is the Creatures only To worship an Angel or a Saint is contumelious to God to make God an Angel is blasphemy what is it then to make him a Man what is it to make him a Sinner I know nothing that Adam could call his own but the transgression There is some truth in the TU DEDISTI for his Wife God had given him So Paradise was God's gift and his Body God had created him But if we bring-in his Sin then TU DEDISTI is blasphemy For God gave him not that nay God could not give it him but he must father it who was the father of us all To recollect all and lay before you these bella tectoriola these excuses in brief What if the Woman gave it The Man was stronger then the Woman and Lord over her What though it were a Gift He had will to refuse it his hands were not bound nor his feet put into fetters there was no chain of necessity to force him But then it was but an Apple and what was all the fruit in Paradise to the loss of his obedience What was the Devil's promise to God's threatning how unjust and cruel was he to his wife in transferring the fault upon her Lastly how blasphemous was he against God in imputing his very gift unto him as the only cause of his sin If the Woman seduce him must it be with a Gift If a Gift will prevail must it be no more then an Apple Must an Inscription a Promise a Lie deceive him and must he buy the false hope of eternity with the certain loss of Paradise If he sin with Eve why is he unwilling to be punished with Eve And why doth he dispute with God and darken counsel by words without knowledg We may well cry out Adam where art thou In a thicket Job 38. 2. amongst the trees nay amongst the leaves For all excuses are so even leaves nay not so good shelter as leaves for they do not cover but betray us Adam increaseth his shame by endeavouring to hide it Mulier quam dedisti is not an excuse but an accusation And now I wish that the leaves of those trees among which Adam hid himself had cast their shadow only upon him But we may say as St. Ambrose doth of the storie of Naboth and Ahab Adami historia tempore vetus est usu quotidiana This historie of Adam is as antient as the World but is fresh in practice and still revived by the sons of Adam We may therefore be as bold to discover our own nakedness as we have been to pluck our first father from behind the bush We have all sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression and we are as ready to excuse sin as to commit it that we may seem to take this at least from Adam as Pelagius thought we do all other defects only by imitation Do we only excuse our sin No Many times we defend it by the Gospel and even sanctifie it by the doctrine of Christ himself Superstition we commend for Reverence prophaneness for Christian liberty indiscretion for Zeal will-worship for Obedience Nay doth not Rebellion come towards us under the grave habit of Religion with a Sword in one hand and a Bible in the other as if God himself had decreed to set up these men of Belial against his own ordinance and the word of God were powerful not to demolish imaginations but Kingdoms The Oratour telleth us that honesta verba moribus perdidimus by our evil manners we have lost the proper and native signification of many good and honest words so have we also almost lost the knowledg of our Sins in words in borrowed titles and assumptitious names And hence it cometh to pass that neither our Virtues are as they appear nor our Vices appear to us as they are but we look upon our defects without grief and applaud our false virtues with joy our feigned Temperance our adulterate Charity our mock-Fasts our superficial Mortification our spurious Humility our irregular Devotion our Pharisaical Zelé our Obedience with a sword drawn and ready to strike Nor are we content alone to be deceived but we affect it sub nomine religionis famulamur errori we talk of God but worship our own imaginations sub velamento nominis Christi adversus nomen Christi militamus we fight against Christ even under his own colours This disease of Adam's runs through each vein and passage of our soul by which we are still unlike ourselves like Adam indeed in Paradise but then when he was in the thicket and like unto him out of the thicket but with an excuse in his mouth We may observe that many things in themselves not commendable do yet help to make up our defects and one vice serveth to set out another Impudence promoteth Ignorance For do we not see many whose boldness is the greatest part of their learning and whose confidence is taken for judgment and wisdome Good God! what cannot a brow of brass a sad countenance and a forced deportment do This Quintilian maketh one reason why amongst the vulgar sort Ignorance many times beareth the bell and is more amiable and gratious than Knowledg And may we not in like manner think that that peace and quietness we have at home in our own breasts and that approbation we gain abroad is due not alwaies to our virtue but oft-times to our whorish and impudent looks not to that constant tenour and equality of life which Reason prescribeth but to this art of apologizing to our manifold evasions and excuses which if we look nearer upon them are of a fouler aspect then those sins they colour and commend To come close home therefore we will stay a little and draw the parallel and shew the similitude that is betwixt Adam and his sons We shall still find a Mulier dedit to be our plea as well as his Some Woman something weaker then our selves overthroweth us and then is taken-in for an excuse Omnes homines vitiis nostris favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem saith Hierom to Amandus We all favour ourselves and our vices too and what we do willingly we account as done out of necessity of nature
The Gods themselves have not strength enough to strive against Necessity but he is weaker than a man who yieldeth where there is no necessity The VVoman gave it me then is but a weak apology Further yet What was the gift was it of so rich a value as to countervail the loss of Paradise No it was DE FRUCTU ARBORIS the fruit of the tree We call it an Apple Some would have it to be an Indian Fig. The Holy Ghost vouchsafeth not once to name it or to tell us what it was Whatsoever it was it was but fruit and of that tree of which Man was forbidden to eat upon penalty of death Quasi vero rationis aliquid Gen. 2. 17. haberet haec defensio saith a Father As if this defense had any shew of reason in it when he confesseth that he preferred this apple this slight gift of the Woman before the command of God The Woman gave me of the tree and I did eat Here are two God and the Woman the Gift and the Command the Apple and Obedience To hearken to the Woman and to be deaf to God to forsake the command for the gift to fling off obedience at the sight of an apple is that which sheweth Adam's sin in its full magnitude and yet is taken-in here for an apologie But perhaps this fruit may be of high price this apple may be an apple of God with this glorious inscription upon it ERITIS SICUT DII if ye eat it ye shall be as Gods Who would not venture then to touch upon such hopes who would not eat an Apple to become a God It is true if this had not been the Devil's inscription whose every letter is a lie and whose greatest gift is not worth an apple whose kingdoms of the world and glorie of Mat. 4. 8. them are overbought with a thought Mala emtio saith the Oratour semper ingrata est quia semper exprobrare videtur domino stultitiam An evil bargain is an ey-sore because it alwayes upbraideth him with folly who made it And such a bargain here had our first father made He had bought gravel for bread wind for treasure spem pretio hope for a certainty a lie for truth an apple for paradise The Woman the Gift the gift of an Apple these are brought-in for an excuse but are indeed a libel Further still to aggrandize Adam's fault consider how the reason of his excuse doth render it most unreasonable Why doth he make so buisy a defense why doth he shift all the blame from himself upon the woman Here was no just detestation of the offence but only fear of punishment The fruit of the tree had been pleasant to the eyes and tast but MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt surely die was bitter as gall He would offend Gen. 3. 6. Gen. 2. 17. with the woman but with the woman he would not be punished For love of her he did eat but now he hath eaten see how he loveth her Behold the Lord cometh with a fiery sword to take vengeance for his sin Doth he oppose himself to the danger doth he stand between the sword and his wife doth he urge her weakness doth he plead for her doth he call for the blow on himself No She gave and let the blow light upon her Pernitiosè misericors pernitiosiùs crudelis saith Bernard He had been too pliant and kind to sin with his wife but now most cruel when he should be merciful It was too much mercy to joyn with her in the sin but cruelty without mercy to leave her in the Punishment And here is a sign that Adam is fallen indeed even fallen from the high degree of a Lord to the low condition of a Servant who feareth not to offend but to be punished would break the command at pleasure but that Death is the best reward that followeth To a good man Punishment appeareth not in so horrid a shape as sin for punishment is but the evil of passion inflicted for the evil of action and of the two the evil of action is far the worse The lips of an harlot are far worse then the biting of a cockatrice Theft is far worse then the whip Yea to sin as Anselm saith is far worse then to be damned For there is a kind of justice in punishment which is not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither God nor Man will deny but that it is most just that he who sinneth should suffer for his sin Omnis pana si justa est peccati paena est saith Augustine But for sin punishment were not just We may bespeak Adam in the stile of the imperial Law ipse te subdedisti paenae thou hast brought thy self under punishment and deservest to have it doubled for shifting it off to thy wife He had taken possession of Paradise upon condition and had made a contract with God And the Scholiast on the fifth of Aristotle's Ethicks will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in punishment a kind of giving and receiving in which the nature of all contracts doth consist He who receiveth by theft 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine phrase is dabit paenas he must give punishment Adam receiveth an apple and he must give paradise yea his life for it We have said enough to shew that Adam did but pavementare peccatum as St. Augustin speaketh parget and plaister ever his sin and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alleage that for a cause of his transgression which in truth was none But In the last place that which maketh his apologie worse than a lie and rendreth his excuse inexcusable is that he removeth the fault from the Woman on God himself Not the Woman alone is brought in but MULIER QUAM TU DEDISTI The Woman whom thou gavest me she gave me of the tree and I did eat Which indeed is a plain sophism non causae pro causa That is made a cause which is not a cause but an occasion only It is a common axiome Causa causae est causa causati That which produceth the cause produceth also the effect of that cause And it is true in Causes and effects essentially coordinate But here it is not so God indeed gave Adam the Woman but he gave him not the Woman to give him the Apple Dedit sociam non tentatricem He gave her for a companion not for a tempter He gave her not to do that which he had so plainly forbidden The true cause of Adam's sin was in himself and in his own will It was not the Woman which God gave him but the Woman which he gave himself who gave him the fruit God gave him a Woman to be obedient to him not to command him God gave him a Will to incline to his command but not to break it Whatsoever God gave him was good The Woman was good the Fruit was good his Will was good the Command was good but he gave himself a Woman who was
If we taste the forbidden fruit we are ready to say The Woman gave it us Again it is some gift some profer that prevaileth with us something pleasant to the eye something that flattereth the body and tickleth the phansie something that insinuateth it self through our senses and so by degrees worketh upward and at last gaineth power over that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should command our Reason and Understanding Whatsoever it is it is but a Gift and may be refused Homo potest peccare sed si nolit non facit saith St. Augustine Man may fall into sin but if he will not he doth not What though it be pleasant I may distast it What though it flatter I may frown upon it What though it be Honour I may look down upon it What though it be Wealth I may cast it upon the waters or fling it into the sea What if Eccles 11. ◠the Devil say All these things will I give thee If we will not reach out Mat. 4. 9. the hand they are not a gift No insinuation no flattery no smiling tentation no argument no rhetorick is of more power and activity then the Will which may either take or refuse the gift as it please Further as it is something presented in the manner of a gift which overcometh us so commonly it is but an Apple something that cannot make us better but may make us worse something offered to our Hope which we should fear something that cannot be a gift till we have sold our selves nor be dear to us till we are vile and base to our selves at the best but a guilded temptation an Apple with an Inscription with an ERITIS SICUT DII upon it with some promise some shew and but a shew and glimpse of some great blessing but earthy and fading yet varnished with some resemblance of heaven and eternity Look upon those gifts which are most welcome unto us and which we run after as unwilling to stay till they be proferred and ye shall find an ERITIS SICUT DII upon them There is upon Honour such an Inscription For Honour either maketh us God's or at least maketh us think we are so There is the like upon Wealth for when our chests are full how do we worship ourselves and sacrifice to Habac. 1. 16. our own net Nay ye may see it written in the dresses and paint and forehead of the Harlot for are not the strumpets smiles the wantons paradise are not her embraces his heaven in a word it is written upon every thing that is offered as a gift and being received is a sin For when we sin volumus Divinam excellentiam imitari saith the Father we emulate the Majesty of the Highest we acknowledg no superior but would be as Gods to do what we please Lastly the TU DEDIST I will come in too For be it the World God created it be it Wealth he openeth his hand and giveth it be it Honour he raiseth the poor out of the dust be it our Flesh he fashioneth it be it our Soul he breathed it into us be it our Understanding it is a spark of his Divinity be it our Will he gave it us be it our affections they are the impressions of his hand But be it our Infirmity we are too ready to say that that is a Woman too of God's making But God never gave it For suppose the Flesh be weak yet the Spirit is strong si spiritus carne fortior nostrâ culpâ infirmiora sectamur saith Tertullian If the Spirit be stronger than the Flesh it is our fault if the weaker side prevail And therefore let us not flatter our selves saith he because we read in Scripture that the flesh is weak for we read also that the Mat. 26. 41. spirit is ready that we might know that we are to obey not the flesh but the spirit Of all discourses those of our own infirmity prove many times most dangerous For this indeed is the Woman which giveth us the Apple If we blaspheme God's name it is our infirmity if we revenge our selves it is our infirmity if we steal it is our infirmity if we taste of forbidden pleasures it is our infirmity when our greatest infirmity is to talk so much of infirmity and still to alledg it as an excuse of our faults Inevery sin we commit we renew this antient storie and Eve continually overcometh Adam Nay further yet as Adam excused himself by Eve so do we excuse our selves by Adam we lay all our sins on his shoulders and hide all our actual transgressions within the folds of original corruption When God cometh to question us and to ask us Where and In what state we are we cannot but be guilty and conscious to ourselves of sin we cannot but say that we have eaten and done that which was forbidden But then nolumus esse nostrum quia malum agnoscimus though the sin be ours we are unwilling to own it because of its deformity We carry Sin about us Nay saith Luther unusquisque infernum in se habet every man hath an Hell within himself and therefore he casteth-in this water these cold excuses to cool and allay it And thus ye see what a near resemblance and likeness there is between Adam and his posterity that we are so like him in this art of apologizing Ut sit tam similis sibi nec ipse that we cannot easily tell whether had most skill to paint Sin with an excuse the Father or the Children Adam behind the bush Adam with a Mulier dedit is a fair picture of every sinner but it is not easy to say that it doth fully express him But now to draw towards a conclusion that we may learn exuere patrem to cast off the old man and to avoid that danger that was fatal to him we must remember that we are not only of the first Adam but also of the second not only of the earth earthy but also 1 Cor. 15. 47. 49. of the Lord from heaven and as we have born the image of the earthy so we must also bear the image of the heavenly We must remember that we are born with Christ that we are baptized and buried with Christ and that we must rise with Christ that the Woman was given to be in subjection the Flesh to be subdued by us and the World to be troden under our feet that we must not count these as enforcements and allurements before sin lest we take them up as excuses after sin that we must not yield to them as stronger than ourselves that we may not need to run to shelter ourselves under them in time of trouble A strange weakness it is to talk of Weakness when we are to sight for this is to yield before we strike a stroke and no wonder si vincantur qui jam victi sunt if they fall by conquest who in their own opinions are already overcome And as
guard and to be ever in a readiness that no temptation may be sudden with him nothing come upon him unawares For if we slight these sins which beset us in silence if we have not benè praeparatum pectus a mind well prepared against them not onely our sins of Malice of Infirmity and of Ignorance but even these also of Subreption are voluntary and ours To conclude this point As St. Augustine asking the question Quid bonum replies himself Quod nemo invitus amittit What is Good It is that which no man looseth against his will So will I say What is Evil It is that which no man commits against his will If it be Sin it is Voluntary and ours I now proceed to shew you first that Sin is Onely ours and that we cannot ease our selves of any part of our burden by complaining either of Original corruption or the Devil or want of Grace and in the next place That Sin is Wholy and Totally ours That the Will cannot be divided and that renisus conscientiae the reluctancy and resistance of Conscience in which respect some are perswaded they sin but semi-plenâ voluntate with but half a will doth much aggravate the Sin and make it more Voluntary and more ours And first of them that shift the guilt of their Sins upon Adam and alledge Original corruption for an excuse of their transgressions I deny not that we have derived weakness and corruption from our first Parents But do not we to extenuate our actual sins make Original sin more contagious and infectious more dangerous and deadly than it is We bankrupt we criple our selves and then cry out we were born poor and lame We put out our own eyes and then complain we are in the dark We make original Weakness a pretence to cloak and cover our actual wickedness and entitle Adam to all our sins and defects But let us with Aquinas admit of that double process or derivation of Original sin from the Flesh into the Soul and from the essence of the Soul into every power of it let us take it in its proper subject the Soul or in the Flesh which is vehiculum the instrument and conduit to convey it and we shall quickly find that we may not onely subdue and overcome it but turn it to our benefit and behoof that though with Sampsons Lion it comes with open mouth to devour us yet we may kill it by degrees and find honey in the belly of it that we may destroy this Viper and like skilful Apothecaries make a precious Antidote of it This Flesh of ours is much blamed as being a Prison of our soul and a Weight to press it down and the Manichee observing that war which is betwixt the Soul and it allowed it no better maker than the Devil and is solidly confuted by St. Augustine and Gregory Nyssen calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fuliginous ill-favour'd shop But all this will not minuere voluntarium or make our Sin less ours For the Father will tell us that the Angels had no bodyes and yet they sinned and fell Nec suo nomine Caro infamis saith Tertullian Nor is the Flesh ill-spoken of for it self Neque enim de proprio sapit aliquid aut sentit for it doth neither understand nor will but it is of another substance of another nature added and joyned to the Soul as an instrument in the shop of life Therefore the Flesh is blamed in Scripture because the Soul doth nothing without it And it was made not to press us down to hell but by the Soul to be lifted up into heaven Animus imperator est corporis The Soul hath supream power and is enthroned there The Body is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedient and tractable to be reined and checke and guided by the Reason Hence Athanasius compares the Soul to a Musician and the Body to a Harp or Lute which he may tune and touch as he please till it yield a pleasant and delightful Harmony Nunc pietatis carmen nunc temperantiae modulos now a song of Sion a psalm of piety a coelestial Hymne and anon the composed measure of temperance and chastity St. Ambrose saith the Body was made for the Soul as Eve was for Adam in adjutorium not to tempt and seduce it but to be a helper And what part is there of Christianity which is not performed by the ministery of the Body Hast thou a Hand to take thy brother by the throat Thou hast a Hand also to lift him up out of the dust Hast thou an Ey to take in the adulteress Thou hast no less an Ey to pity the poor Hast thou a Tongue which is a sword to wound thy brothers reputation Thou mayst if thou wilt make it thy glory and sing praises to the God of heaven Domus animae caro est inquilinus carnis anima The Body is the house of the Soul and the Soul the tenant and inmate of the Body Desiderabit igitur inquilinus ex causa hujus nominis profutura domui Therefore the Soul is obliged by this very name as she is an inmate to watch over the Body and carefully to provide those things which may uphold and sustain it and not to put it to slavish and servile offices to let and hire it out to sin and uncleanness which will bring a fearful name both upon the house and tenant and cast both Body and Soul into hell But what is the Instrument you will say if the Arts-man hath lost his skill and all his cunning be gone If the Tenant cannot uphold it self how shall it be able to provide for the House If the Soul it self be poyson'd with this infection what can follow but a jarring discord and disorder both in Soul and Body What is my Understanding without knowledge but an ey in the dark What is my Will without love but like a pilote strong and able but deaf and therefore unfit for the practice of his place Neither can Reason command what it knows not nor the Will act what it doth not love It is true two main blemishes we receiv'd in our fall in our Understandings and in our Wills But what we lost in Adam we recovered again with infinite advantage in Christ The loss of that portion of strength with which our nature was originally endued is made up with the fullness of power in Christ So that as St. Ambrose spake of Peters fall Non mihi obfuit quod negavit Petrus imò profuit quòd emendavit so may we speak of the fall of our first parents It hurts us not that Adam fell for in Christ we rise again and have power enough to avoid sin Which if we betray Sin is voluntary and ours And this divides the Orthodox Christian from the Manichee and Pelagian and placeth him in aequilibrio in the midst between them both Evil saith the Manichee is à malo principio from a bad original therefore Gods help alone
will our heavenly Father forgive us ours Et qui ad tam magnum tonitruum non expergiscitur non dormit sed mortuus est saith St. Augustine He that awakes not out of his pleasant dream of Revenge at this thunder is not asleep but dead For He will not forgive you is the same with this He will damn you with those malicious Spirits the Devil and his Angels and He will forgive you is equivalent to this He will receive you into his Kingdom to his seat of mercy and glory We may say then that Meekness is necessary as a cause to this effect as a virtue destined to this end at least causa sine qua non a cause so far as that without it there is no remission of sins For though I have faith to remove mountains and have all Knowledge yet if I have not Meekness there is no hope of heaven Or it is causa removens prohibens a cause in as much as it removes those hindrances which stand between us and the Mercy of God For how can I appear before the Father of compassion with a heart spotted and stained with the gall of bitterness How can I stand before the Mercy-seat with my hands full of blood And thus Meekness is a cause of Forgiveness and may be said to produce this effect because though it have no positive causality yet without it mercy will not be obteined Blessedness is joyned to Meekness as in a chain which hath more links and If you shall forgive your enemies my Father will forgive you doth not shew what is sufficient but what is necessarily required to the expiation of sin and the inheritance of heaven Again by Meekness we resemble him who is a God that blotteth out transgressions When we are angry we are like unto the beasts that perish yea we are as the raging waves of the Sea foming out our own shame But when we yield to our brother's infirmity and forgive him we are as Gods Thirdly This virtue is seldom I may say never alone but it supposeth Faith which is sigillum bonorum operum the seal to every good work to make it current and authentick yea and all that fair retinue of Virtues which as Handmaids wait upon Faith and make her known to the world For he whose mind is so subact as to bear another mans burthen and to lift himself up upon the ruins of himself and create virtue out of injury and contempt cannot be far from the Kingdom of heaven nor destitute of those sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased And this I say though it be not necessary yet is very probable For these to be Covetous to be Luxurious to be Wanton and to be Meek cannot lodge in the same breast For we see Prodigality as well as Covetousness is a whetstone to our Anger and makes it keen and sharp And the Wanton will as soon quarrel for his Whore as the Miser for his Purse But Meekness believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things and doth nothing unseemly For the mind of the Meek is like the Heavens above Semper illîc serenum est there is continual serenity and a perpetual day there It is as Wax fit to receive any impression or character of goodness and retein it a fit object for Gods benefits to work upon ready to melt at the light of his countenance and to yield at the lifting up of his hammer And therefore In the last place this Meekness and Readiness to forgive maketh us more capable of the Gospel of Christ and those other Precepts which it doth contain and so fits and prepareth and qualifieth us for this Blessedness for this great benefit of Remission of sins For he that is ready to forgive all injuries will be as ready to be poor very forward to go to the house of mourning merciful a peace-maker one that may be reviled and persecuted and so rightly qualified for those Beatitudes And he who can suffer an injury will hardly do one whereas they commonly are most impatient of wrongs who make least conscience of offering them qui irascuntur quia irascuntur who play the wantons and are angry with their brother for no other reason but because they are pleased to be angry Now the Oratour will tell us that Nullus rationi magìs obstat affectus there is no affection which is so great an enemy to Reason as Anger For Sorrow and Fear and Hope and the rest make an assault and lay hard at us but anger as a whirlwind overwhelms us at once I may be stricken with Fear and yet hearken to that counsel which will dispel it I may hang down my head with Sorrow and yet be capable of those comforts which may lift it up again for every one is not as Rahel that would not be comforted but we deal with Angry men as we do with men overcome with drink never give them counsel till the fit be over For fairly to be speak a man thus transported is to as much purpose as to bid the Sea go back or to chide the Winds And as the Reason and Judgment are dimmed and obscured with that mist which sudden Anger casts so are they also by that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lasting or abiding Anger which is the forge or alembick of Revenge and works it by degrees And till this be dispelled and scattered there is no room for the Doctrine of the Gospel which breaths nothing but meekness and forgiveness Disce sed ira cadat naso To be angry and To learn are at as great a distance as To be in motion and To stand still He that fills his thoughts with Revenge can leave no room for the Precepts of that Master who was led to the slaughter as a sheep But the Meek man is like him is a Sheep his Sheep and will soon hear his voice draw nearer and nearer unto him and by Meekness learn Purity and those other virtues which will bring him into the arms of his Saviour and the Kingdom of Heaven And thus you see how necessary a virtue Meekness is for the Church and for every part of it for every Christian to entitle him to the inheritance of the earth as the earth is taken for that new earth Rev. 21. 1. the Earth not of living dying men but that Earth where we shall live for ever that state of happiness which like the Earth shall stand fast for ever For what is Meekness but a pregustation and fore-taste of that quiet and peaceable estate which is no where to be found but at the right hand and in the presence of God That as God who is slow to anger and full of goodness and mercy is properly and naturally in a constant and immoveable state of bliss so Christians who by divine grace and assistance raise themselves up to this height and pitch as to look down from a quiet mind as from heaven upon all the injuries and reproaches which shall
which a Minister may be arraigned no Sermons more applauded then those that strike at the Ephod nothing that the peoples ears do more itch after or more greedily suck in than the Disgrace or Weakness of their leaders I will speak it and as Salvian spake in another case utinam mentirer I would to God in this I were a liar I would you might accuse I would you might justly reprove me no news more welcome especially to the wicked then that which carrieth with it the sin of a Teacher No calling more spurned I mean by the wisest then that of Priesthood As Job speaketh they whose fathers he refused to set with the dogs of his flock mockt him so the children of fools more vile then the earth make their Pastours their song and the greatest sinners the most debaucht sinners when they have outcries within them when they have a tempest within them when their conscience affrights them with doleful alarums will still the noise will becalm the tempest will drown the cryes with this breath with this poysonous blast with a defamation of the Messengers and Ministers of the Lord. But let these men know that a day will come when no excuse shall lull them asleep when their conscience shall awake them when the billows shall rise higher when the tempest shall be louder when the cry shall be more hideous when they shall know that though God will require their bloud at their Pastors hand yet it is a poor comfort to them to dye in their sin whenas he shall be punished for giving and they for following a bad example But as this concerns most especially the Ministers of the Lord and those that serve at the Altar so in the next place it concerneth the people too and that nearly as nearly as the safety of their souls concerns them For Beloved the womb of Sin is not barren but she is very fruitful and brings forth too without sorrow or travel The Devil hath his Crescite multiplicate Increase and multiply It is enough for Sin to shew her self and be delivered And therefore most true it is Plus exemplo peccatur quà m scelere We sin more against God by example then by the sin it self Adultery whilst it lyes close in the thought is only hurtful at home but if it break forth into act it spreads its contagion and it seizeth upon this Christian and that Christian and in them it multiplies and like the Pestilence goeth on insensible invisible inavoidable If the father be given to that great sin of Taking Gods name in vain it will soon be upon the tongue of the little infant and he will speak it as his own language nay he will speak it before he can speak his own language before he knows whether it be a sin or no he will be as by birth so by sin a child It was held a miracle that Nicippus Sheep did yean a Lion and almost impossible it is that he should swear that never heard an oath before that the child should be like a Lion greedy of the prey and the father as innocent as a Lamb that so many should trace the paths of Death the broad way to Destruction without a leader Hence it is that in punishing of sin God looks not only with the eye of Justice upon it as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the law but as it is exemplary as it hinders the edification of the body of Christ and the gathering together of the Saints and is the milstone that hangs upon the neck of the sinner and sinketh him not only for the particular sin it self but because he hath been an occasion of his brothers fall Thus then you see we must be careful in the performance of this duty in respect both of our selves and of others also of our selves in removing the lets and observing the rules of Imitation of others in so going before them that we lay not a stumbling-block for them in the way And thus much the general doctrine of Imitation implyed here hath afforded us Behold now the love of a good Father the tender care of our best Master He will not only set his best Scholars over us and teach us by others but he will read the lecture himself and be a patern for our Imitation And so I come to the more especial Object of Imitation here proposed and that is GOD Be yee followers of God The Soul of man as it takes not the infection of original sin before its union with the Body so makes the Body her minister as it were and helper to abate Corruption to keep down Concupiscence to make the shafts of the Devil less mortal She sees with the eyes and hears with the ears and reacheth forth the hands and walks with the feet But yet all this is an argument of weakness and imperfection that we stand in need of these helps that I must learn of him whose pedigree is the same with mine who is an Adamite as well as I who was conceived in sin as I was nay more that a rational and immortal creature must be sent to School to an Ox and an Ass nay to the Pismire Therefore Isa 1. 3. Prov. 6. 6. the Soul is then most her self and comes nighest to her former estate when forgetting the weight and hinderance of the body she enjoyes her self and takes wings as it were and soars up in the contemplation of God and his goodness cùm id esse incipit quod se esse credit as Cyprian speaks when she begins to be that which she must needs believe her self to be of a celestial and heavenly beginning When the inward man lifts it self up with the contempt of the outward then we are illuminated with blindness we are cloathed with nakedness we see without eyes we walk without feet we hear without ears and we encrease our spiritual wealth by not making use of those outward gifts which seem to enrich us Hence it is that God so often calls upon us to take up our thoughts from the earth and imploy them above and to have our conversation in heaven And to this end he speaks to us in Scripture after the manner of men and tells us that he is gracious and merciful and long-suffering And when he calls that cruel servant to account for pulling his fellow by the throat he condemns him by example O thou wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because Matth. 18. 32 33. thou desiredst me Oughtest not thou also to have had pity on thy fellow-servant even as I had of thee Not that these virtues are in God as accidents To say this were to be blasphemous and to deny him to be God They are so indeed in Man and admit degrees of perfection and imperfection but in God they are essential He is Justice he is Mercy he is Truth he is Wisdom it self And therefore the Schoolmen call them as they are in God exemplares virtutes no
heart is stone enough to beat it back no soul so stubborn as to resist it neither height nor depth nor the Devil nor Sin it self can evacuate it The Recipiatis is unavoidable and the in vanum impossible And every man is a St. Paul a priviledged person not sweetly water'd with abundance but violently driven on with a torrent and inundation of Grace We must therefore find out another sense of the word Although for ought that can be said the Exhortation may concern us in this sense also and teach us to hear when God speaks to open when he knocks not to be deaf to his thunder nor to hide our selves from his lightning nor to quench the spirit nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to resist and fall cross with Acts 7. 51. the holy Ghost But in the Scripture two words we find by which the Graces of God are expressed There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in the Text and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual gifts Plainly there are more common and necessary Graces which 1 Cor. 12. concur to sanctification of life to uprightness and common honesty And there are peculiar graces as Quickness of Will Depth of Understanding Skill in languages or supernatural as gifts of Tongues gifts of Healing of Miracles of Prophesie and the like These are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather gifts then graces and are distributed but to certain persons in such measure as seems best to Gods Wisdome Why men are not as strong as Samson or as learned as Solomon why they prophesie not as Jeremy and work not miracles as Paul all this is from God But why men are not righteous as Noah devout as David zealous as Elias we must find the cause in our selves and not lay the defect on God Now the Grace in the Text is none of all these but is that gratia Evangelii the Grace of reconciliation by Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel which Christ commanded to be preached to all Nations And in this sense it is most frequently used in holy Scripture in the Epistles of St. Paul where we so often find it placed in opposition to the Works of the Law This is it which he so oft commends unto us This is it which he here exhorts us to receive This is it for the propagation of which he was in afflictions necessities distresses in stripes in prisons in labors in tumults which are a part of the catalogue of his sufferings in this Chapter And this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grace and a gift too without which all other gifts and graces aut nihil sunt aut nihil prosunt deserve not that name Strength is but weakness Learning is but folly Prophesies are but dreams Miracles are sluggish all are not worth the receiving or are received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain Shall I say it is a greater gift then that robe of Righteousness with which God clothed Adam in Paradise It so far exceeds it that we dare not compare them There is a MULTO MAGIS set upon it by St. Paul Rom. 5. 15. and a NON SIC Not as the offense so is the free gift The Loss not so great as the Recovery Nay cui Angelorum What speak we of Adam To whom of the Angels did God give such a gift What a glory would we count it out of Nothing to be made an Angel a Seraphim By this gift by the Grace of Christ we are raised from Sin above the perfection and beauty of any created substance whatsoever above the Hierarchy of Angels and Archangels A Christian as he is united to Christ is above the Seraphims For take the substance of a Seraphim by it self and compare it to a Man reconciled to God by this Grace and the difference will be as great as between a Picture and a Man An Artificer may draw his own Picture but he can only express his likeness his color his lineaments he cannot represent his better part his Soul which constitutes and makes him what he is Take all the creatures of the Universe and they are but weak and faint shadows and adumbrations of Divine perfection God is not so exprest by an Angel as by a Christian who is his lively image as the Son is the image of his Father by a kind of fellowship and communication of nature The Creature represents God as a Statue doth the Emperor but a Christian as the Son his Father between whom there is not only likeness but identity and a participation of the same nature For by this gift by these promises we are made partakers of the Divine nature saith St. Peter ◠Pet. 1. 4. And as a Father takes more delight to look upon his Son then upon his Picture and Figure so God looks more graciously upon a Christian then upon any created essence then upon the nature of Angels He that gave the Gift he that was the Gift pray for us John 17. 21 22. that we may be all one and as his Father is in him and he in his Father so we may be one in them as they are one This is the Gift by which God did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle gather together and re-establish the decay'd nature of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Chrysostome knit and joyn together Heaven and Earth And as Christ spake of John Baptist Matth. 11. 14. Hic est Elias si vultis recipere He shall be Elias to you if you will receive him so Haec est gratia Dei The Gospel the Reconciliation made by Christ is the Grace of God if we will receive it Which is my next part And what is a Gift if it be not received Like a mess of pottage on a dead mans grave like Light to the blind like musick to the deaf The dead man feeds not the blind man sees not the deaf man hears not What were all the beauty of the Firmament if there were no eye to descry it What is the Grace of God without Faith The Receiving of it is it which makes it a Grace indeed which makes it Gospel If it be not received it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain An unbelieving heart turneth this bread into gravel this honey into gall and as much as in him lyes doth not only crucifie but annihilate the Lord of Life We usually compare Faith to a Hand which is reached forth to receive this Gift Without a Hand a Jewel is a trifle and the treasure of both the Indies is nothing and without Faith the Gospel is but Christus cum suâ fabulâ as the Heathen spake in reproach but a fable or relation And therefore an absolute necessity there is that we receive it For without this receipt all other receipts are not worth the casting up Our Understanding receives light to mislead her our Will power to overthrow her our Afflictions which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
ever with the Lord in his everlasting Habitations I have done with the first Point the Possibility of the Doctrine That we must arm our selves with courage and resolution against common calamities I proceed now to the second That it is an argument of great folly not to do so What is Folly but a mistake of things a mistake of their nature and of their end Not only a privative ignorance which may be in children and simple men but as the Hebrew Doctors call it a possessive ignorance possessing us with false opinions of things making us run counter to that light which Wisdome holdeth forth placing pleasure upon that which bringeth no delight and horror upon that which rightly considered hath no terror at all transforming a Devil into an Angel of light and turning Light it self into Darkness making the signs of Gods favor arguments of his wrath calling Afflictions and Calamities which are the instructions of a Father the blows of an Enemy and if Calamities be whips making them Scorpions An unwise man saith the Psalmist knoweth it not and a fool doth not consider it He doth not consider either the nature of these signs or the end for which they are sent but is led by likeness and opinion The natural man perceiveth not the things of Gods spirit but they 1 Cor. 2. 14. are foolishness unto him as the words of fools which signifie nothing And therefore he puts what sense and meaning he please upon them an interpreter the worst of a thousand And so he finds not evils but makes them makes them the mothers of his sorrow which might be the helpers of his joy When Reason and Religion are thrust out of the chair the Passions full soon take their room and dictate heavy things Then either Fear shakes us or Hope makes us mad either Grief pulls us down or Joy transports us One is afraid where no fear is as the Psalmist speaks another is struck dead at the sight of a statue and to some even Joy it self hath been as fatal as a thunderbolt All is from Opinion the mistress of fools which makes the shaking of a leaf as terrible as an earth-quake makes Poverty more sad the Plague more infectious Famine and the Sword more killing then they are It is not the tooth of Envy it is my Phansie bows me It is not the reproach of an Enemy hurts me It was but a word and Opinion hath turned it into a stone It is not an army of Sorrows it is my own Phansie overthrows me What St. Ambrose speaks of Poverty is true of all those evils which are so terrible to flesh and bloud Non naturae paupertas sed opinionis vis est Poverty as men call it is but a phansie there is no such thing indeed It is but a figment an Idole Men first framed it and set it up and trembled before it As some Naturalists tell us that the Rainbow is oculi opus a thing framed only by the eye because there are no such colours on the cloud as we see so this difference of Rich and Poor of Honorable and Dishonorable of Wars and Peace of Sorrow and Joy is but a creature of the Eye Did we not think the Souldier tremble we had disarmed him Did we not think Calamities grievous we might rejoyce in them Did not our Folly make these Signs terrible we might then look up and lift up our heads We read of Smyndenides the Sybanite that he was so extreamly dainty that he would grow weary at the sight of another mans labour and therefore when he sometimes saw a man labouring and painfully digging he began to faint and pant and desired to be removed Quà m inclementer fodicat saith he What a cruel and merciless digger is this So it is with us Our delicate and tender education our familiarity with the vanities of this world have betrayed our Reason to our Sensual parts so that we startle at every unusual object tremble at every apparition make War and Famine and Persecution more terrible then they are sink under those signs and warnings from heaven at which we should look up and lift up our heads This our way uttereth our foolishness as the Psalmist speaks For is it not a great folly to create evils to multiply evils to discolour that which was sent for our good and make it evil to make that which speaketh peace and comfort unto us a messenger of Death Let us now consider the Lets and Impedimens or the Reasons why our hearts fail us at such sights as these I shall at this time only remove a pretended one having formerly at large upon another Text Matth. 24. 25. spoken of Self-love and Want of Faith which are real and true hindrances of Christian Courage The main pretense we make for our pusillanimity and cowardise is our natural Weakness which we derived from our first parents and brought with us into the world For thus we lay every burden upon our fore-fathers shoulders and Adam is arraigned every day as guilty of every defect of every sin which is committed in the world HOMOSUM I am a man the child of Adam born under wrath is the common apology of the men of this world when they fall into those sins which by watching over themselves they might and which in duty they are bound to avoid As we fell in Adam so Adam falls in us falls under fears and sorrows and calamities unto the end of the world And if we observe it this is so common a plea and so stoutly and resolvedly stood to as if men did rather boast of it then bemoan it and did rather make use of it as a comfort after sin then fear it as a burden pressing and inclining to it For the best excuse they have the best plea they make is that they are the children of Adam I deny not that we drew this Weakness from our first parents I leave it not after Baptisme as subsistent by it self but bound to the center of the earth with the Manichee nor washt to nothing in the Font with Pelagius But yet and it will be worth your observation I take it to be a matter of difficulty to judge of what strength it is I fear we make it stronger then it is and I am sure a Christian is bound by that religion which he professes to encounter and tame and crucifie it For take us in our infancy not altered à puris naturalibus from that which we were made and then we do not understand our selves much less the Weakness of our nature And then take us in our years of discretion before we can come to discover it Custome and Education if good hath much abated if evil hath much improved the force of it and our Sloth or Cowardise hath made it strong A strange thing it is to see little children in their tender years prompt and witty to villany as if they had gone to School to it in their mothers womb and this
we may impute to original Sin But yet Divines generally consent that this original Sin is alike in all only it works more or less according to the diversity of mens tempers as water runs swifter down a Hill then in a Plain Again even in children we see many good and gracious qualities which by good education come to excellent effect In pueri elucet spes plurimorum saith Quintilian quae cùm emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam In children many times there is a beam and hope of Goodness which if not cherisht by Discipline is dampt and darkned a sign that Nature was not wanting but our Care Now from whence this difference should come is not easie to discern but this we cannot but observe That be the strength of original Sin what it will yet there is no man but is more wicked then the strength of any natural Weakness or primitive Corruption can constrain For when evil Education bad Enamples long Custome and Continuance in sin have bred in us a habit of sinning cùm per secordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxere naturae infirmitas accusatur when through sloth and idleness through luxury and distemper our time is lost our bodies decayed our wits dulled we cast all the fault upon the Weakness of our Nature and our full growth in sin we attribute to that Seed of sin which we should have choaked Behold the Signs in the heaven the Sun darkned the Moon turned into bloud See Poverty coming towards you as an armed man Famine riding upon a pale horse killing with Hunger and with Death Behold the Plague destroying Persecution raging I say Behold these for to this thou wert made for this thou wert sent into the world to behold and look up upon these to look up and be undaunted nay to look up and leap and rejoyce For thy whole life is but a preparation and Eve to this great Holiday of sights If the eye of Nature be too weak thou hast an unction from the Holy one the unction of the blessed Spirit For this end ◠John 2. 20. Christ came into the world for this end did he pour forth his grace that he might refresh thy spirits and clear thy eye-sight that thou mayest look up and lift up thy head For tell me Why were we baptized why are we Christians Is it not to mortifie our earthly members and lusts to dead in our selves the bitter root of Sin Is it not to spiritualize to angelifie I had almost said to deifie our Nature For we are no further Christians nisi in quantum caeperimus esse angeli but so far forth as we are like unto the Angels I may add and St. Peter doth warrant me so far forth as we are made partakers of the Divine Nature Were we not baptized into this faith I speak to Christians whose life should be a continual warfare not against Beasts but our Passions which if they be not tyed up and held in with bitt and bridle are as fierce and violent as they And a strange kind of weakness it is to talk of Weakness when we are to fight for this is to yield before we strike a stroke not to be put to flight but to run away Nec mirum si vincantur qui jam victi sunt and it is no marvail if we fall by conquest who in our own opinion are already overcome Beloved are we weak in Adam Yet are we strong in Christ I can do all things saith Paul and suffer all things through Christ that strengthneth me Though many blemishes befall us by Adams sin in our understandings and in our wills yet what we lost in Adam that with infinite advantage is supplyed in Christ Are we truly Christians Then these things these fearful sights cannot hurt us If they hurt us it is because we are not Christians There is a fable that past amongst the Heathen that Vulcan offended with the men of Athens told them they should be all fools but Pallas who favoured them told them they should indeed be fools but withall that their folly should not hurt them Our case is not much unlike For though the Devil hath made us fools and weak yet Christ the Wisdome of the Father hath given us this gift that this Weakness shall never hurt us unless we will Fear not therefore why should we fear Christ hath subdued our enemies and taken from them every weapon that may hurt us He hath taken the sting not only from Sin but from those evils which are the natural issues and products of Sin He hath made Afflictions joyful Terrors lovely that thou mayest look up upon them and lift up thy head I have done with this pretense of natural Weakness and with my second part and I come now to the third and last the encouragement our Saviour giveth For your redemption draweth nigh And when these things come to pass when such terrible signs appear this news is very seasonable As cold waters to a thirsty soul so is the promise Prov. 25. 25. of liberty to those who have been in bondage all their life long under the fear Heb. 2. 15. of those evils which shew themselves unto us and lead us captive and keep us in prison so that we cannot look up When we are sold under Sin and by that sold under fears of Calamities of Death of Hell when the Heaven loures upon us and Hell opens its mouth then a message of Redemption is a word fitly spoken a word upon its wheels guided and directed by art and is as delightful as apples of Gold with pictures of silver It is that Peny in the evening which makes the Labourer bear the burden all the day How will that Souldier fight who heareth of a reserve and party at hand to aid him How will the Prisoner even sing in his chains when news is brought that his ransome is paid and his redemption near at hand It is a liberty to be told we shall be free And it is not easie to determine whither it more affect us when it is come or when it is but in the approach drawing nigh when we are free or when we are but told that shortly we shall be so And indeed our Redemption is actus individuus one entire act and we are redeemed at once from all though the full accomplishment of it be by degrees When we are redeemed from Sin we are redeemed from the Grave redeemed from the fear of Death redeemed from all fear of these fearful Signs and Apparitions redeemed by our Captain who besides the ransome he paid down hath taught us to handle the weapons of our warfare hath proposed a crown hath taught us to shake off our fetters and break our bonds asunder For to this end he paid down the ransome and if we do it not we are not redeemed no not when we are redeemed It is enough for him to open the prison-doors Certainly it is our
and pride and wantonness of that nation all which are our sins and our enemies weapons so non gladiis pugnamus sed orationibus non telis sed meritis saith Ambrose we fight against them not with sharp swords but with strong supplications not with weapons but with alms and fasting with sighs and groans And as when we sin we put deadly weapons into their hands so when we repent we shall disarm them And indeed it is Repentance which kindles this heat and makes our prayers fervent which otherwise will be but so many sins to help our enemies Without Repentance our Prayers are indeed but the sacrifice of fools For what more foolish and ridiculous quà m quod voto volumus actu nolle then to pray for that which we will not have to cry for help against our enemies by our continuance in sin to increase their number cry Help Lord how long shall the wicked prevail and yet to help them more by our transgression then we do God by our contribution to call upon God to fight for us when we fight against him to desire peace when we are the only incendiaries to fight it out and pray for a blessed Commonwealth and yet not be willing to reach forth so much as the little finger to uphold it Certainly this noise will never awake God nor can we think he will be raised up with words with empty flattering deceitful words with words as Job speaks without counsel No If we will have our prayers make a noise to awake God we must drop our tears upon our prayers which we drop out of our own substance as it were the bloud of Martyrs saith Anastasius And Bloud we know will cry and be loud Non sileat pupilla oculi tui Let not the apple of thine eye cease or be silent And then we must feed our prayers with fasting This doth nourish our Devotion as a woman doth her child with the teat God hath an ear to harken to our Fasting Ostendit se Mosi jejunii collegae saith Tertullian He shews himself presently to Moses his copartner in fasting And after this we must adorn them with our Alms our free-will offering our Contribution to the work For can we pray for that which we will not forward And then as our prayers are heard so shall our alms come up before God and with an holy importunity urge and provoke him to arise for in the midst of so many Prayers of so many Sighs and Groans of so many Tears and when our Charity speaks whose voyce is shriller than the tongues of Men and Angels God cannot rest but will hear from the Heavens our prayer and supplication and maintain our cause He will cloath us with Salvation and our enemies with shame that we may enter his House with joy and his Courts with Praise that we may sit every man under his own vine and under his own fig-tree and may make our lives a continual holyday singing praises to the God of our deliverance This duty let us so perform here that after we shall have finished our course we may be admitted unto the quire of Angels with them to praise God for evermore We will add but one word to bring it home to our present occasion And it will apply it self This is a day of Thanksgiving and here is a feast of Thanksgiving A day of Thanksgiving for our deliverance from our outward fraud A feast of Thansgiving for our redemption from our spiritual enemies Let us offer up therefore sacrificium eucharisticum a pay-offring or sacrifice of payment let us pay to God Confession and Thanks for our deliverance and for his mercies in both Let us as Jacob exhorts his Sons Gen. 43. 11. take of the best fruits of the land of the Musick and Melody of the land as the word signifieth let us bring with us the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith let us bring forth fruits meet for Repentance meet for these blessed mysteries which will be as Musicks even those songs of Sion which God is most delighted with For if there be a blessing even in a cluster of grapes what songs of praise are due to him who is the true Vine and hath given us Wine to make our hearts glad pressed bloud out of his very Heart that we might drink and be nourisht up unto everlasting Life Let us then praise him for our deliverance this day praise him and not be like them out of whose snare we have escaped not imitate their actions whose ruine we tremble at but praise him by our Meekness and Gentleness by our Patience and Obedience to lawful Authority For what praise is that which is breathed out of the mouth of a Traytor If we be as ready to spoyl others as our enemies were to devour us our Harp is but ill strung and our songs of Thanksgiving will be quite out of tune Let us double our praises and magnifie God for that which is presented to us in the Sacrament our deliverance out of Hell the destruction of our worst enemy Sin and our last enemy Death Here is that Red Sea in which that spiritual Pharaoh and his Host were overthrown And what is our Praise To speak good of his name This is not enough we may do this and crucify him We must prayse him by obedience by love by sincerity and by a lively faith This is indeed to eat of his Body which was broken for us and to drink of that Bloud which was shed for remission of Sins For he that truly believes and repents as he is sick of sin so he is sick of love even of that love which in this Sacrament is sealed and confirmed to us He is ever bowing to Christs sceptre he is sincere and like himself in all his wayes he makes his Faith appear in the outward man in Godly lips and in liberal Hands he breaths forth nothing but devotion but Hallelujahs Glory and Honour and Prayse for this great love And so he becoms Peniel Gen. 32. 30. as the face of God as the shape of Christ representing all his Favours and Graces back upon Him a pillar engraven with the bowels of Christ a memorial of his love Thankfully set up for ever It is usual with the Fathers to make the Ark a Type of Christ his Word as the two Tables his Discipline as Aarons Rod and the Sacrament of his Supper as the Pot of Manna EXSURG AT CHRISTUS Let Christ arise who is a brighter image of God then ever the Ark was Let us take him up but not upon prophane Shoulders lest we dy First let us be Priests unto the Lord without blemish not blinded by the Prince of this world not halting between God and the World but perfect men in Christ Jesus to offer up Sacrifices to the King of Heaven When we receive him by a lively Faith we may say he is risen To this end he lifted up himself upon
his cross that we might lift up our Hearts and so lift him up again and present him to his Father Who for his sake when he sees him as the Ark lifted up will bring mighty things to pass will scatter our Sins which are our greatest enemies and separate them from us as far as the East is from the West And though they be as the Smoke of the bottomless pit he will drive them away and though they be complicated and bound together as wax into a kind of body he will melt them and deliver us from this body of Death For what Sin of ours dares shew it self when this Captaine of ours shall arise Let God arise that is the first verse of this Psalm that is our Prayer And let us conclude with the Psalm in Thanksgiving and ascribe the strength unto God saying His excellency is over his Israel to deliver them from their Enemies and to deliver them from their Sins and his Strength is in the clouds O God thou art terrible in thy holy places The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people against the machinations of Men and against the wills of the Devil against sinful Men and against Sin it self Blessed be God And let all the people say AMEN The Fifteenth SERMON Gen. III. 12. And the man said The Woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eat WE have here the antiquity of Apologies we find them almost as ancient as the World it self For no sooner had Adam sinned but he runneth behind the bush No sooner had our first parents broken that primor dial Law as Tertullian calleth it which was the womb and matrix of all after-laws but they hide themselves Vers 8. amongst the trees of the Garden and as if they had made a covenant and agreement they joyntly frame excuses The Man casteth it off upon the Woman and in effect upon God himself The Woman gave it me and Thou gavest me the Woman and thus he lyeth down and sleepeth and is at rest The Woman removeth it from herself upon the Serpent The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat So that now Vers 13. God having made inquisition for the fact neither Adam nor Eve are returned but the Serpent nay indeed God himself who maketh the Inquiry is charged as a party and accessory The Man did eat because the Woman gave and God gave the Woman and Adam thinketh himself safe behind this bush And therefore as Adam hideth himself from God so doth God return his folly upon his own head and seemeth to seek him as if he were hid indeed Adam where art thou in a kind of ironie he acteth the part of an ignorant person he calleth as at a distance and seemeth not to know him who was so unwilling to be known Or if we take Tertullian's interpretation Adv. Marcion l. 2. we must not read it simplici modo id est interrogatorio sono UBI ES ADAM as a plain and easy and kind interrogation WHERE ART THOU ADAM sed impresso incusso imputativo ADAM UBI ES but as a sharp and smart demand as a demand with an imputation ADAM WHERE ART THOU that is jam non hic es Thou art not here not where thou wast not in paradise not in a state of immortality but in a state of perdition in a state of corruption never more open and naked then in the thicket and behind the bush This was not quaestio but vagulatio as it is called in the XII Tables All the thick trees in the Garden could not conceal Adam and keep him from the eyes of his God but thus God was pleased to question his folly with some bitterness and scorn It is the first question that was ever put to Man And we may be sure all is not well when God asketh questions His Laws his Precepts his Counsels yea his Comminations are all delivered per rectam orationem by a plain and positive declaration of his mind HOC FAC ET VIVES Do this and live Luk. 10. 23 If thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt dic the death What he commandeth Gen. 2. 17. to be done he supposeth will be done and never beginneth to ask questions till our Disobedience questioneth his Law Then he proceedeth against us ex formula in a kind of legal and judiciarie way When the Angels fall he calleth after them How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer Isa 14. 12. son of the morning and when Adam is in the thicket he seeketh him Adam where art thou A question one would think of force to plow up his heart and to rend it in pieces that so his sin might evaporate and let it self out by an humble confession a question sufficient one would think to fill his soul with sorrow horrour and amazement But though Adam were now out of the thicket he was behind the bush still He striveth to hide himself from God when he is most naked and speaketh of his Fear and of his Nakedness but not at all of his Sin I heard thy voice saith he in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self He Gen. 3. 10. was sensible not of the breach of the Law but of his nakedness It was the voice of God that frighted him not his transgression We commonly say Suam quisque homo rem bene meminit that every man hath a good memorie for that which concerneth him Only Sin which is properly ours and whereof we are the proprietaries to which we can entitleneither God nor the Devil nor any other creature but our selves we are unwilling to own and to call ours Ours it is whilst it is in committing on it we spend and exhaust ourselves we prostitute our wills we give up our affections we sell our selves all the faculties of our souls and all the parts of our bodies we woe it we wait for it we purchase it But when it is committed we cast it from us we look upon it as upon a bastard issue we strive to raize it out of our memories we are afraid when we are deprehended we deny when we are accused when we are questioned our to answer is an excuse Nolumns esse nostrum quia malum agnoscimus Ours we will not call it because we know it to be evil One would think that Excuse were the natural offspring of Sin or rather that Sin and Excuse were twins Omne malum pudore natura suffundit No sooner hath Sin stained the soul but shame dieth the face with a blush The Philosopher will tell us that shame is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear of just reprehension which to avoid we seek out many inventions We run behind the bush and when the voice of God calleth us from thence we make a thicket of our own a multitude of excuses where we think our selves more safe then amongst all
the trees of the Garden Behold here the first sin that ever was committed and behold our first Father Adam ready with an excuse as soon as it was committed God came unto him not in a sire devouring before Psai 51. 3. Gen. 3 8. 1 Cor. 4. 21. him nor in a mighty tempest round about him but in the cool of the day he cometh not with a rod but with meekness he inviteth him to mercy and prompteth him to repentance he asketh him Adam where art thou not out of ignorance as if he saw him not but as a remembrance that he might see himself And when he cannot extort from him so much as a bare mention of his sin but only of his fear and his nakedness which were indeed the bitter effects of it he cometh nearer to him and is instant with him as if he would dictate to him and bespeak him to confess and put a form of words into his mouth Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded v. 11. thee that thou shouldest not eat A question so plain so keen of such an edge that it was able to have cleft his heart in twain and let his sin out at his mouth by an humble confession What was it but as the Hand writing upon the wall and sure now it cannot be but Adam's countenance is Dau. 5 5. changed his thoughts troubled his joynts loosed and his knees smiting each other Against this battery what hold can prevail But oh the Sinfulness of Sin oh the mighty powea of sin which so stupifieth the heart and so filleth it with it self that it feeleth it not which transformeth an heart of flesh into brass or marble that no hammer can malleate it no sword can pierce it no influence from God himself can mollifie it In ipso peccato impudentiam discimus ab ipso In sin it self we learn a kind of impudent remorselessness and we learn it from it These two are contrary saith St. Chrysostom Sin and Repentance In Sin we see shame and confusion in Repentance hope and confidence but the devil hath changed and inverted this order and hath placed upon Sin boldness and confidence and shame upon Repentance Adam here was not ashamed to commit sin but he is ashamed to confess it and therefore he maketh an apron for his sin as he had done for his body but he was never more naked then in his fig-leaves And the man said The VVoman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eat My Text then ye see is not an Answer but an Excuse and therefore will not so easily admit a methodical division For in these ambages in the turnings and windings in the mazes and labyrinths of Excuses what order can we find But though we cannot orderly divide this excuse we will dissect and anatomize it and make some use of our Father's sin God may seem sometimes to have been more ready to discredit his Saints then to honour them in that he setteth down oftentimes and recordeth their faults but wrappeth up their repentance in silence The story of Noah is shut up Gen. 9. with his drunkenness After the relation of Lots's incest we hear no more Gen. 19. of him After the storie of Solomon's idolatry it followeth immediately And Solomon slept with his Fathers Adam no doubt did repent yet we 1 Kings 11. 43 see his storie concluded with his punishment Nor may we think that this was done by chance but as the Apostle speaketh all these things are written 1. Cor. 10. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come As therefore they who come to see dead bodies cut up although they purpose not to learn Anatomie yet by that sight go away informed what manner of substance the Heart the Spleen the Liver are of so by dissection of this Excuse of Adams and by view and inspection as it were of the very entralls of our Progenitors we may read our own disease we may learn to search and examine our own hearts and find that our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and constitution is the very same with theirs that we resemble them not only in their fall but also in their excuse and that we are as skilful artificers to few fig-leaves together to apologize for our sins and to extenuate them as ever our first father was The lines then by which we are to pass are these First we will anatomize and disect this excuse of Adam's Next we will look into our selves take some notice of our own hearts and of those excuses which we commonly frame and then to make an exact Anatomie-lecture we will lay open the danger of the disease that we may learn to avoid what was fatal to our Parents and though we sin with Adam yet not with Adam to excuse our sin Of these in their order And the Man said The VVoman c. I told you this was no Answer but an Excuse For indeed an Excuse is no Answer An answer must be fitted to the question which is asked but this is quite besides it We find indeed ambages a circuit of words which the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they run round as it were in a circle and never point in a direct line to the matter in hand never present it with what the Question expecteth but something else in stead of it The Question here is Hast thou caten of the forbidden tree The Answer is wide from the purpose an accusation of the Woman yea of God himself The VVoman whom thou gavesl to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eat In civil Courts Patronus negat defendit transfert minuit deprecatur saith the Orator It is usual and commendable for him who taketh upon himself to be an Advocate either to deny the fact or defend it or translate it or extenuate it or put it off and he who falleth short of this act deserveth not the name of a Patron But in the court of Conscience there is no room for this act Here every man must be not his own advocate but accuser and judge For when God asketh the question maketh inquisition for bloud or any other sin to extenuate the offense is to aggravate it to put it off is to draw it closer on to defend it is to augment it There is no answering of God when he questioneth us but by acknowledgment But to proceed orderly in our Dissection We find the Man doth not deny but in plain terms confess that he did eat And COMEDI I have eaten by it self had been a wise answer but it is COMEDI with MULIER DEDIT I did eat it but the Woman gave it a confession with an extenuation And such a confession is far worse than a flat denyal I did eat were words that might have proved as sweet as the rivers of paradise had it not been for the
poison of the excuse But Adam's last words Gen. 41. 4. are lost in the former as the lean and ill-favoured Kine in Pharaoh's dream ate up the fat ones Deny indeed the fact he could not For as God had built him up in his own image and likeness so he had raised up within him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural tribunal his Conscience and made him thus far a God unto himself as not only to discern evil from good but also to search the very inwards of his own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith St. Chrysostome all men of what rank soever though they sit not in the throne of justice though they be not Judges and Magistrates though they have no executioners nor prisoners nor gives nor bolts yet they judge and condemn Sin in themselves and others and that by the common principles of Discourse and Reason and by that secret verdict and sentence which every man carrieth in his own breast The first man that condemneth a Sinner is a Sinner himself Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur in himself he beareth about him a Court and Seat of justice from which no appeal lieth His reason is his judge his Conscience is his accuser himself his own prisoner The terrours of an afflicted Conscience hang him up and crucifie him every day though no forreign autority arrest him For as the shadow followeth the body saith Basil so doth Sin the Soul and whithersoever we go it presenteth it self before us No sooner do we reach out our hand to the Apple no sooner is our eye full of the adulteress 2 Pet. 2. 14. Jam. 1. 15. no sooner hath Lust conceived and brought forth Sin but presently verberamur tacito cogitationis nostrae opprobrio as St Ambrose speaketh our own thoughts are as whips and scorpions to scourge us our conscience striketh us with amazement and horrour when no man pursueth us she plougheth up our soul and maketh deep furrows there laniatus ictus as the Historian speaketh stripes and wounds when no other hand is lift up against us But as Judges would see more clearly and judge more uprightly if they were not blinded with a bribe so would the Conscience speak more plainly if we did not teach her broken and imperfect language to pronounce Sibboleth for Shibboleth to leave out some letter some aspiration Judg. 12. 6. some cicumstance in sin But to speak truth the Conscience cannot but speak out to the offender and tell him roundly that he hath broken God's law But as we will not hearken to Reason when she would restrain us from sin so we slight her when she checketh us for committing it we neither give ear to her counsel before we eat nor to her reproof after we have eaten we observe her neither as a friend nor as an enemy Adam's conscience told him he had broken the command had eaten of the forbidden fruit and must die but the shame of what he had done and the fear of what would follow made him as deaf to his conscience after his fall as he was before as unwilling to acknowledg his sin as to prevent it and therefore he seeketh to palliate and colour over what he could not deny he faltreth in his language and instead of a confession rendreth nothing but an excuse an excuse which indeed is nothing Now to dissect and examine the Excuse We shall find that Adam dealeth like an unskilful Phisitian qui pro morbo extinguit hominem He removeth not the disease but destroyeth himself and by applying a remedy worse than the disease maketh the disease incurable His Apologie upbraideth him and he condemneth himself with his excuse For first MULIER DEDIT The woman gave it me weigh it as we please is an aggravation of his sin We may measure Sin by the tentation It is alway the greatest when the tentation is least A great sin it would have been to have eaten of the forbidden fruit though an Angel had given it what is it then when it is the Woman that giveth it Why should the Woman prevail over the Man the weaker over the stronger vessel He was made her head and was to rule over her His Duty saith St. Chrysostome was not only to have refused the woman's offer but also to have shewed her the greatness of the sin and to have kept her from eating not only to have saved himself but to have plucked her also out of the fire But for Strength to yield to Weakness for the Head to be directed by the Body for him to put himself in subjection who ought to command for him to follow to evil who should lead to good was to invert the order which God had constituted What a shame do we count it for a man of perfect limbs to be beaten by a criple for a son of Anak to be chased by a grashopper for Xerxes 's army which drank up the sea to be beaten out of Greece by three hundred Spartains Certainly he deserveth not power who betrayeth it to Weakness The VVoman gave it me then was a deep aggravation of the Man's transgression Again it is but The VVoman gave it And a gift as we commonly say may be either taken or refused and so it is in our power whether it shall be a gift or no. Had the man been unwilling to have received the Woman could have given him nothing Nunquid obsecravit num disseruit num decepit saith the Father Did she besiege him with her intreaties did she use the battery of discourse did she cunningly undermine him with a fallacie No it is but dedit she only gave it him The Orator will tell us Necessitas est magnum humanae infirmitatis patrocinium that Necessity is the best Plea that humane weakness hath for the misery that befalleth us But it is too common a thing as Tertulian saith licentiam usurpare praetextu necessitatis to make Necessity a pretense for our liberty and licentiousness in sinning At this door enter-in Covetousness Intemperance Revenge Pride which we might easily keep out even with one of our fingers Nusquam est necessitas nusquam violentia sed electio voluntas Here was no necessity no violence It is but DEDIT she gave it him and he was willing to receive it Oh how are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battel how is Adam fallen in the midst of his strength He who had the Graces of God encompassing him about as a ring who had his Understanding richly adorn'd and his Will obedient to his Understanding who had an harmonie in his Affections and an Heaven in his Soul who had the Angels for his guardians and God for his strength who was himself a kind of God upon earth and had dominion over all the creatures surrendreth up all at the sight of a gift a gift which he might have refused and which he was bound to refuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Plato de Log. proverb
great weakness it is when the Woman hath prevailed and we have given up our strength to infirmity then out of that to draw an apologie from whence by resistance we might have raised that virtue which would have crowned us with honour and glory It was the Woman saith Adam It is my Melancholy saith the Envious it is my Bloud saith the Wanton It is my Appetite saith the Glutton It is my Choler saith the Murderer But God gave Adam a wife not a tempter and God gave an appetite not Gluttony natural tempers and constitutions not Envie not Luxurie not Revenge And the Envious should clear-up the cloud of Melancholy with the light of Reason the furious Gallant purge his Choler the Wanton quench the fire in his bloud and make himself an Eunuch for the Kingdom of heaven and the Glutton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 13 12. wage war with his appetite put a knife to his throat and beat down Prov. 23. 2. Cor. 9. 27. his body with fasting and abstinence Beloved if this care were general and serious we should not hear Adam complain of Eve nor should we complain of Adam nor make our Infirmity an apologie for sin nor our Weakness to resist temptation a temptation to those sins which encrease our weakness God sendeth us into the world as the Romans did their armies against Carthage not to return but with conquest If we fail and be foiled it will be in vain to urge and plead our Infirmity It is the perverseness of the will saith St. Ambrose that damneth the wicked but no necessity of nature nor infirmity of the flesh can excuse them God indeed gave the Woman to Adam but dedit in adjutorium he gave her him to be an helper So there is not any thing which God hath given us that of it self can hurt us There is no natural appetite or inclination in man say the Schools which may not be drawn up to a virtuous act There is no fuel no spark in our nature which may not be improved and fixed up at last as a star in the firmament of the soul For every inclination is from God and therefore is good and tendeth to good My inclination to Anger may end in true Christian Fortitude my inclination to Sorrow may be perfected in Repentance my inclination to meats in Sobriety and Abstinence If the Woman had been given to Adam to have given him the Fruit he might have tasted and not dyed and if our natural inclination did necessitate us to the act we may say it and be no lyars that we have no sin What pretence then can we find what excuse can we possibly frame when we break God's command That Sin doth insinuate A Christian hath a charm That it is invisible and so insensible Faith unfoldeth it That our nature is weak Christ doth strengthen us That there is a Woman with an Apple in her hand many incitements to sin There are more and stronger to goodness There needeth no instructour to teach us saith St. Basil no Oratour to perswade us to hate a loathsom disease and by the common principles of Reason we commend Justice and Temperance and condemn that which is evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is saith he in the soul of Man an aversness from evil which he never learned but brought with him into the world But then what if Evil look well and speak well and appear in some glory We have light enough to discover that imposture For the Fruit with the inscription there is a Morte morieris If the World flattereth God threatneth If Nature incline grace is a bridle If the Devil suggest the Angels are our guardians If he fetch his circuit and compass to see where he may foil us they are ready to pitch their Tents round about us What speak we of Temptations They are officina meritorum a shop to build good works in If Temptation cloath it self with Lust I may make it Chastity and Temperance If it smile in a piece of gold I may make it poverty of spirit If it cringe to me in his knee that honoureth me I may shadow it with humility Our Passions which have quandam mulieritatem a kind of womanishness in them and are many times as froward and perverse as any of that Sex yet may be made useful and serviceable cùm illud quod in illis foemininum est virile facimus saith the Father by turning their effeminacy into true manhood by making my Fear a Centinel to warn me of danger my Anger a Magistrate to punish my sin and my sorrow a penetentiary to water my couch with tears nay cùm illud quod in illis ferinum est divinum facimus by making that Divine which was bestial and brutish in them And indeed wherein can we more nearly resemble God then in the destruction of sin and this we may work by help of our passions This fleshly part of ours God hath given us but dedit sociam he gave it for a companion not an enemy Nyssene will tell us that the Soul may set it in tune as a Musician doth his Harp and Lute and make such an harmony as shall be very delightful in the ears of God And a friend also we may make it to exalt and promote us It may help us to a Confessors place in Heaven by the confession of the tongue it may procure us a Virgin 's place by chastity and crown us with Martyrdome by dying for Christ Nemo non in cansa Dei facere potest quod in causa sua quotidiè facit We are prodigal of our blood and of our life if our Lust or some quarrel call for it why should it then be so difficult a matter to employ and spend it in the cause of God If we shall search the Scripture to improve our knowledge if we shall earnestly beg of the God of grace to inflame our Love let the Woman tempt never so much we shall not hear her Let our natural endowments be what they will he that doth little amongst us shall do much and he that doth much shall do much more And for our enemies which we so fear and which we bring in as an excuse of our cowardise one of us as Deut. 32. 30. it was said of the Israelites shall chase a thousand of them and if they Deut. 28. 7. come out against in one way they shall flee before us seven wayes Nor shall we ever so forget our selves as to palliate our offences and when God and our Conscience or our Conscience which is our God shall call us to account put them off upon Adam as Adam did here upon Eve There shall never come a MULIER DEDIT or a TU DEDISTI The Woman both done this or Our Flesh hath done this or God hath done this into our apology Nor will we hide our selves under any Tree but that whose leaves are to heal the Nations nor run unto any Rock but the Rev.
For as St. Paul speaks of the Jews Had they known it they had not crucified the Lord of glory so may we of the Devil Had he known Christ to be God and Man and the Saviour of the world he would never have put into the heart of Judas to betray him nor have moved the Jews to put him to death by which the determinate counsel of God was brought to pass and by which himself was trod under-foot and his kingdom overthrown But such a Captain it behoved us to have who could be tempted but could not sin who might be set hard at but could not be overthrown who could discover the falacies of that subtle Sophister who could subsist and not turn stones into bread who could go up to the pinacle of the Temple and come down from it who could see the world and the glory of it and contemn it The Schoolmen where they speak of this Tentation of Christ tell us of a double tentation an inward and an outward and rank our Saviour with our first Parents in the state of innocency who as they imagine could have no inward tentation at all because the Flesh was then in full and perfect subjection to Reason and their Reason in due obedience to God whose Phansie could receive no species or phantasms but upon deliberate counsel whose Understanding had no cloud to obscure it and whose Will waited as an handmaid on the Understanding and followed as that led All this may be true and yet might our first Parents be tempted inwardly For Tentation if it go no further is no sin We are then tempted when objects are proposed to the Eye and then pass to the Phansie and from thence are tendred to the Understanding I may see an object suppose the forbidden fruit and think of it and know it and yet not sin It is beauty in the Eye and so in the Phansie and it may be so in the Understanding and yet the Will may not incline to it because Reason may judge it though fair to the eye yet dangerous to the touch Scire malum non facit scientem malum To know evil cannot denominate us evil For God who is a pure essence and Purity it self knows Evil more exactly then we and therefore hates it with a perfecter hatred then we can I may know the Apple to be fair to look to and pleasant of taste and yet not taste it I may know that Bread is the staff of our life and yet rely more upon the providence of God then on bread I may know that the nearest way down from the pinacle is to fling my self off and yet chuse the safer and go down by the stairs I may see Riches to be the God of this world and yet count them as dung For I cannot see but the tentation may be inward and yet no sin Nay if it be but a tentation it is not sin and if it be sin the tentation is at an end And if the tentation had not its operation upon the will and inward man as well as upon the outward and sensitive part let them tell me how Adam fell Besides there is a great disproportion between the state of the first Adam and the state of the second between our first Parents and Christ For although they were created upright and in a state of innocency for indeed they could not be created otherwise by God who is Goodness it self yet we do not read that they were conceived by the holy Ghost In Christ there was no sin nor could there be He had not only Nolle peccare but Non posse peccare not only a Will not to sin but an Impossibility of sinning although Durand upon I know not what grounds phansieth the contrary The Prince of this world comes and hath nothing in me saith our John 14 30. Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing in him which he might accuse not only no sin but no fuel for his scintillations his sparkles his tentations no fuel for his sullen tentations to fall upon and smoke up in distrust no combustible matter for his glorious tentations to settle upon and flame up in ambition There was nothing in Christ which the Devil had or could make his no Ignorance of what he should do no Dulness of Mind no Difficulty in resisting tentations The second Adam was like unto the first in all things not only in his state of innocency but in his fall sin only excepted But in Adam though there was no fomes peccati no fuel yet there was a possibility of sinning which was ad instar fomitis and which the Devil made use of as of fuel in which he raised that fire that consumed him to dust and ashes brought death and the condition of mortality both upon him and his progeny We will not here make any curious search to find out the degrees of this Tentation of our Saviour or what operation it had upon him Scrutari hoc temeritas est credere pietas est nosse vita est vita aeterna To dive too far into this into the manner how the tentation wrought would be rashness to believe that Christ was tempted is an act of piety and to know it and make use of it is life and life eternal And I know that discourses of this nature are not welcome in this age where not Schoolmen but dunces are most in request where men are afraid to hear of any truth that is new to them and disdain to know more then they know already although if they were diligent they might learn more in their Catechisme And indeed in this point we can walk no further then we have light from the Scripture And there we find that Christ did suffer something when he was tempted that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was touched Hebr. 2. 18. with the feeling of our infirmities like unto us in all things sin only excepted And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he learnt something that is obedience Hebr. 4. 15. by the things which he suffered This we may receive simplici notâ fide by a plain and common faith And we dare not stretch further for fear we stretch beyond the line Tempted he was but temptations did fall upon him as waves upon a rock which dashed them into ayr into nothing or as hailstones upon marble erepitant solvuntur They made some noyse but no impression they did no sooner fall but were dissolved And this is enough for any to know but those quibus nihil est satis who will know more then they can know It is sufficient for us to know that our Saviour was tempted and it will be very necessary for us to know the end why he was tempted For as he was made Man so also was he tempted for our sakes First as he was made a sacrifice for sin so here he made himself an ensample which we should follow when the enemy assaults us For as Commentators on Aristotle
his baits to catch it When we hide it in sloth and idleness we hide it in a grave which he digged to bury it When we think to save it we loose it But when we hide it in Christ when we do Deum per Christum colere worship God through Jesus Christ our Lord when we rely on his power in Christ which is the foundation of all Christian Religion then our life having put off the old Adam is clothed with righteousness and is in a manner divine our mortal hath put on immortality and having hid our sins and weakness in Christ the image of God brightly shines forth in every action and the life of Jesus is made manifest in our mortal flesh so that our life with 2 Cor. 1. 11. him and his life in our mortal flesh in our weekness in our infirmities arms us against all assaults and makes us more then conquerors Now in the last place Christ 's help we need not doubt of if we be not wanting unto our selves For we have not such an high Priest who will not help us But which is one and the chief end of his Tentation who is merciful and faithful and was tempted that he might succour them which are tempted He hath not only Power for so he may have and not shew it but also Will and Propension Desire and diligent Care to hold them up that are set upon for the tryal of their faith Indeed Mercy without Power can beget a good wish but no more and Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart But Mercy and Power together will work a miracle will hold us up when we are ready to fall will give legs to the lame and eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery fornace a bath make a rack a bed will keep us the same men amidst the changes and armies of sorrows will moderate our sorrows when they are great that they be not long and when they are of continuance will call the evils that are as if they were not will uphold us against the terrors of Death and when he soundeth his retreat and takes us off from the field by Death will receive us to glory And this Compassion and Mercy though it were coeternal with Christ as God yet as Man he learnt it by his sufferings saith the Apostle Hebr. 5. 8. For the way indeed to know anothers misery is to be first sensible of our own For we commonly see that men who are softly and delicately brought up have hearts of flint If Dives be clothed in purple and fare deliciously every day it is no marvail to see him less merciful then his Doggs when Lazarus was at his door But you may say Could Christ who was the Son of God forget to be merciful or was he now to learn it as a new lesson who by his wisdome made the heavens because his mercy endureth for ever No He saw Joseph in the stocks Job on the dung-hill and the Mariners in the tempest He heard the sighs and complaints of the poor he numbred all their tears and had compassion on his afflicted ones even as a father hath on his only child But then before he emptied himself and took upon him the form of a servant sicut miseriam expertus Phil. 2. 7. non erat ita nec misericordiam experimento novit as he had no acquaintance with sorrow so neither had he any experimental knowledge of mercy and compassion In his sufferings he had tryal of misery and learn't to be merciful His own Hunger moved him to work that miracle of the Loaves For it is said in the Text He had compassion on the multitude His Poverty made him an Orator for the poor and he beggs with them and his Compassion melted him into tears at the sight of Jerusalem When he became a man of sorrows he became also a man of compassion And yet his experience of sorrow added in truth nothing to his knowledge But it rowseth our confidence to approach with boldness near unto him who by his miserable experience is brought nearer to us and hath thus reconciled us in the body 1 Cor. 21. 12. of his flesh For he that suffered for us hath compassion on us and suffers and is tempted with us even to the end of the world He was on the cross with St. Peter on the block with St. Paul in the fire with the Martyrs He in his members is still destitute afflicted tormented Would you take a view of Christ You may look upon him in your own souls take him in a groan mark him in a sigh behold him bleeding in the gashes of a wounded spirit Or to make him an object more sensible you may see him every day begging at your doors Christ learnt this Compassion in our flesh saith the Apostle Inasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself Hebr. 2. 14. likewise took part of the same and in our Flesh he was hungry was spit upon was whipped was nayled to the cross And all these were as it were so many parts of that discipline which taught him to be merciful to be merciful to them who are tempted by famine in that he was hungry to be merciful to them who are tempted by riches because he was poor to be merciful to them who tremble at disgrace because he was whipt and to be merciful to them who will not yet will suffer for him who refuse and yet chuse tremble and venture are afraid and yet dye for him because as Man he found Death a bitter cup and would have had it pass from him Who in the dayes of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears for mortal men for weak men for sinners for those whose life is a warfare Pertinacissimè durant quae discimus experientiâ This experimental knowledge is rooted in Christ is sixt and cannot now be removed no more then his natural knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher Experience is a kind of collection and multiplication of remembrances the issue and child of memory Usus me genuit mater peperit Memoria It proceedeth from the memory of many particulars And this experience Christ had And as the Apostle tells us he learnt so the Prophet tell us he was acquainted with our griefs and carried our sorrowes about with him even from his birth from his cradle to his cross By his fasting and tentation by his agony and bloudy sweat by his precious death and burial He remembers us in famine and tentation in our agony and bloudy sweat and all the penance we do upon our selves for sin He remembers us in the hour of death and in our grave and will remember us at the day of Judgment As a father pitieth his children so he pities us Psal 103. 13. and the reason is given verse 14. For he knoweth our frame he remembreth we are
in the soul of man though there be many admirable parts Understanding Sense Life and the like yet the commanding power of our soul which gives laws as it were to all the other faculties and which makes us Lords of our actions is the Will So it is also with God We see some parts of his glory by the light of Nature but we have a fairer radiation by the light of Scripture Ut res in literis sic literas in rebus We read him in the Book of his Word and in the Book of his Works But we never so fully express him as when we give him a Will which makes him Lord paramount and commander of all things Dei posse est velle saith Tertullian against Draxeas His Will is his Power and his Power is his Will For whatsoever he can do yet he doth no more than he willeth Quis potest eloqui potentias Domini Who can speak of the Power and Omnipotency of God Yet his Omnipotency seems to vail to his Will and in a manner to be commanded by it For he is therefore said to be omnipotent because he can do all things that he will He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an infinite sea of Essence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an infinite ocean of Power And did not his Will bound his Omnipotencie all things would have been as infinite as he himself is Wherefore did he create us wherefore did he redeem-us He himself gives the answer QUI A VOLUIT Because he would Whence comes it to pass that the world is contained within these limits whence is it that it is no greater nor less than it is Whence have living things their limits of growth their measure of power their date of time and durance The best reason we can give is Gods Will which bounds that infinite Ocean of his Power which otherwise must needs have had a larger flow In the former Petition we give God a Kingdome but we give him more when we give him an absolute and uncontroulable Will For what is a Kingdome but a meer name if it have any other Law than the Will of the King Some Kings there are which are so nomine not re rather by title than indeed as we find in Livy and Plutarch the Kings of the Lacedemonians were Others are more absolute Of which we read in the Historian Liberi sunt suique ac legum potentes ut et quod volunt faciant et quod nolunt non faciant They are free and powerful in themselves and their laws to do what they would and not to do what they would not unà regentes cuncta arbitrio governing all by their will And this giving them an illimited Will is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks to make them Gods indeed Howsoever then in that Petition Thy Kingdome come we stile him in this Thy Will be done we make God a King Behold these who call themselves Gods and Lords here on earth They then think themselves tantum nomen implere best to answer the name they bear when they can plead exemption from all Law but their own Will Antonine one of the Roman Emperors speaks it plainly Legibus soluti legibus vivimus Kings howsoever they are pleased to condescend and submit themselves to Law yet in their own nature are free from the Law and have no other Law to bound them besides their Will Yet this is but a weak resemblance For take the highest pitch of Regality that our imagination can reach yet it falls short of His to whom all earthly Majesty must vail and at whose feet Princes lay down their crowns and scepters Therefore Dionysius Longinus in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the sublimity of speech makes that expression of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God spake Let there be light immediately there was light Let there be earth and there was earth the highest and most sublime that could be given and doth much commend his art that he so spake of God as well befitted the person of whom he spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus the Power of God is best exprest No sooner to speak but it is done To conclude this If Moses 's art speaking of Gods Power did seem so wonderful to this heathen Orator what art then may a Christian observe in these words of our Saviour Thy Will be done which to speak to any thus but unto God were utterly unlawful We will give you one taste more of the excellency of this Prayer As it best suits with Gods Majesty so it is the fairest expression of our humility For greater Humility than this hath no man than absolutely to resign all disposition of our selves and wholly to cast our selves upon Gods Will whatsoever it be We are told by some that Pride was the first sin that it threw Lucifer down from heaven and drove Adam out of Paradise And Basil on Isa 13. tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the whole nature and species of all sin is derived from this from an unwillingness to submit our selves to the will of God Deum inter damna sua avarus accusat saith Hilary The covetous person when he hath lost his money accuses God himself He that is tryed by persecutions thinketh God unjust Rachel weepeth for her children and will not be comforted because they are not All our repinings and murmurings and discontents are from this that we cannot say Thy will be done But he that resigns his will into the hands of God I do not see how it is possible for him to offend him but he stands like Scaeva in the Poet strong before an army Párque novum fortuna videt concurrere bellum Atque virum There are but these two in this glorious contention thou O Man and all the evils and calamities in the world and all the devils in hell Doth the world frown Doth persecution rage Doth Sickness seize upon Let God touch let him kill all that you hear from Humility is Let his will be done In this form you may behold the full and perfect shape of Humility drawn to the life Other forms may seem to set us above our sphere When we call God Father it is too high and honorable a term for such miscreants as we are For though it do imply Subjection yet it doth imply the subjection of a Child rather than of a Servant And therefore we must joyn this FIAT to PATER submit our selves as children but submit our selves as servants too And there is great reason for it For many so rely upon the name of Father that they forget the FIAT quite Therefore in this Petition we may learn to preserve our selves from extreams neither so to presume upon Gods Love as to forget his Power nor so to think upon his Power as to despair of his Love A Father he is but if he give us blows we must remember the FIAT and fall down before him saying Thy will be done God will
off that yoke which Custome hath put on but I cannot conceive how it should reign ad necessitatem so to necessitate our damnation as to take off that last comfort we are capable of which is hope The Church when she strikes the sinner with the spiritual sword of Excommunication doth not with that blow cut off Hope Vulnus non hominem secat secat ut sanet She strikes rather at the wound which is already made than at the man to wound him deeper She strikes him to heal him Delivers him to Satan to deliver him from Satan She shuts him out to keep him in Abstention Pulsion Exclusion Exauctoration Ejection Ejeration all these phansies we find in the ancients for Excommunication yet all these are not of so malignant power as to shrivel up all our Hope but rather they beget a hope that the excommunicated person will run back to the bosome of that Church which did therefore cast him out that she might receive him again more fair and healthful than before Did Love dwell in us continually we should not be so willing to hear nor so ready to talk of the everlasting destruction of our brethren Malo non credere sit falsum omne quod sanguinis est as St. Hierome spake in another case We should rather not believe that it were so and wish it false though it were most probably true It hath been therefore the practise of the ancient Church and it is in present use with our own to pray for all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks for all those to whose blindness the light of the Gospel is not yet known that they may be drawn out of the darkness of ignorance and be converted and see the beauty of that truth which may save them even to those whose damnation sleepeth not For this is most agreeable to that Will of God which is known and which is therefore known that it may be the rule of our actions Nor do we herein offend against that secret Will of his For most true it is that we may bonâ voluntate velle quae Deus non vult saith St. Augustine will and with a very good will those things which God will not And our prayers thus sent up though they prevail not in that against which God hath secretly determined yet shall prevail to draw down a blessing upon our heads for thus conforming our selves to Gods Natural and Known Will And this leads us one step further to the consideration of God's Occasioned and Consequent Will by which he punisheth those that obstinately continue in sin And to this Will of his we are bound to conform although for the reasons but now alledged we are not bound to pray that all unrepentant sinners may be damned but rather that they may repent God will proceed to punishment He hath whet his sword and he will make it drunk in the bloud of his enemies whether we pray that he will do it or not To this Will of his they who have made themselves the children of perdition must conform even against their will And our conformity consists but in this to rest contented herewithal and to admire Gods uncontroulable Justice which no Covetousness can bribe no Power affright no Riches corrupt no Fear bend and to cry out with the Father O quanta est subtilitas judiciorum Dei O quà m districtè agitur bonorum malorumque retributio O the infinite wisdome of the judgments of the Lord O how exactly and precisely will he reward the good and punish the impenitent sinner Every thing that God will do is not a fit object for our devotion nor are we bound to pray for every thing that he will do Nay in some cases as it hath been shewed we may pray against it God may perhaps purpose the death of my father For me to will the same is no less sin than Parracide God upon fore-knowledge of Judas his transgression did determine that Judas should go to his own place but Judas was not bound to will the same No his greatest sin was that he so behaved himself as if he had willed it indeed In a word I am not bound to say FIAT to all that God will do but when he hath done it to sit down and build my patience upon this consideration That whatsoever he will do or hath done must needs be just Absolutio difficultatum in his ipsis requirenda est è quibus videtur exsistere saith Hilary We must see the resolution of doubts which may hence arise even from that which raised them or from whence they were occasioned And we cannot be at any loss in our conformity if we do not first mistake that Will of God to which we should conform The Schoolmen who are very apt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make ropes of sand or rather with little children to blow-up those bubbles which are lost in the making amongst many other empty and unnecessary questions have started up this as of some bulk and substance when indeed it is but very airy They ask Whether if God should reveal to a particular person that he should be damned he were bound to conform his will and give assent and not pray against it A vain speculation like that of Buridans Ass which stood between two bottles of hey and starved because he knew not which to chuse Men may suppose what they please the Heavens to stand still and the Earth to move and wheel about as Copernicus did They may suppose that God will send his Angel with a revelation who would not send Lazarus with a message to Dives his brethren But let me also suppose that men are wise unto sobriety and then I will move one question more and that is What reason possibly they can imagine to move this doubt God doth not send any such revelation We have Moses and the Prophets we have the Gospel of Christ If we look for any revelation we must find it there There as in a glass we may see either the regularity or deformity of our wills There we may hear that voice which speaks comfort to the penitent and denounceth vengeance on obstinate offenders Nolo ut mihi Deus mittat Angelos saith Martin Luther I would not that God should send down his Angel with a revelation For he that brings any revelation to me which is not in Scripture shall find no more credit than the Puck in the Church-yard And if it be in Scripture the message though of an Angel is but superfluous Suppose God will do that which he never will and you may raise as many doubts and questions as you please Again if God did reveal it yet it might be lawful nay thou art commanded to pray against it God revealed to David that the child which was born to him in adultery should surely dye yet David besought God for the child and fasted and lay all night upon the earth And his reason is Who can tell whether God will be 2 Sam. 12.
themselves even in his Wisdom Power and Majesty For why did he create the Universe What moved him to make those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two lights as Nazianzene calls Angels and Man after his own image It was not that he needed the company of Cherubim and Seraphim or had any addition of joy by hearing of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not that he needed the ministery of Angels or the obedience of Men. But in mercy hath he made them all and his Goodness it was which did communicate it self to his creature to make him capable of happiness and in some degree a partaker of those glories and graces which are essential to him For having made Man he could not but love and favour the work of his own hands Therefore as in mercy he made him so in mercy he made him a Law the observation of which would have assimilated and drawn him neer unto God and at last have brought him to his presence there to live and reign with him for ever And when Man had broken this Law and so forfeited his title to bliss God calls after him not simplici modo interrogatorio sono as Tertullian speaks not in a soft and regardless way or by a gentle and drowsie interrogation Where art thou Adam but impresso incusso imputativo he presseth it home and drives it to the quick not by way of doubt but imputation and commination Adam where art thou that he might know where he was in what state and danger and so confess his sin and make himself capable of Gods mercy which presented and offer'd it self in this imputation and commination and was ready to embrace him Thus his Mercy prevents us It is first as being saith Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natural to him whereas Anger and Hostility to his creature are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite besides his nature Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam posterior severitas secundum causam illa edita haec adhibita saith Tertullian Lib. 2. adv Marcion Goodness and Mercy are natural to him Severity forced That is momentany and essential this accidental Mercy follows after us and is more willing to lift us up than we were to fall more willing to destroy Sin than we to commit it more forward to forgive us our sins than we are to put up the Petition REMITTUNTUR TIBI PECCATA Thy sins are forgiven thee is a standing sentence a general proclamation saith Father Latimer to all that will believe and repent The Scripture gives us the dimensions of this Mercy sometimes pointing out to the height of it It reacheth unto heaven sometimes to the depth of it It fetcheth men from the grave and hell it self sometimes to the length of it It hath been ever of old and sometimes to the breadth of it All the ends of the world have seen the salvation of God And all these meet and are at home in this act of Remission of sins Which makes us to understand with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God which passeth knowledge and fills Eph. 3. 18 19 us with the fulness of God But though the Lord's Mercy be infinite and he be most ready to forgive yet he will not remit our sins unless we repent A lesson never taught in the School of Nature or in the books of the Heathen Quid Cicero quid Seneca de poenitentia What have Tully or Seneca who have written most divinely of other duties and offices of life written of the duty of Repentance Non negamus philosophos juxta nostra sensisse saith Tertullian Many truths Philosophers have delivered of near alliance to those which God himself hath commended to us and in many vertues they may seem to have out-stript the most of Christians But of Repentance they knew no more than this that it was passio quaedam animi veniens de offensa sententiae prioris a certain passion of the mind which checkt men for that which was done amiss and caused them to alter their mind Here all reason and discourse is posed But when the earth was barren and could not yield this seed of Repentance Deus eam sevit God himself sowed it in the world aperuit salutis portam open'd an effectual door of salvation and made it known to all mankind That if men would leave off their sins he would forgive them and accept of true repentance as the only means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the creature to his Maker Now joyn these two together the Mercy of God and his Readiness to forgive and our Repentance which he hath chalkt out unto us as a way to his Mercy and they are a pretious antidote against Despair which so daunts us many times that we are afraid to put up this Petition For Despair is not begot by those sins we have committed but by those which we daily fall into nor so much from want of Faith that God is merciful and true and faithful in all his promises as for want of Hope which hangs down the head when Repentance and Amendment of life yield no juyce nor moisture to nourish it Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God or else he could not despair Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or else he denies him to be God He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our Redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised to all mankind But his perseverance in sin and the horror of his new offences hath weakned and infeebled his hope and forceth him to conclude against himself Ubi emendatio nulla poenitentia nulla Where there is no amendment there is no repentance And though Mercy stand at the door and knock yet if I leave not my sins there must needs follow a weakness and disability so that I shall not be able to let her in But if I forsake my sins the wing of Mercy is ready to shadow me from Despair Et si nudus rediero recipiet Deus quia redii Though I return naked to God he will receive me because I return And if I leave the swine and the husks he will meet me as a Father and bring forth his robe of Mercy to cover me And so I pass from the consideration of Gods Mercies in the Forgiveness of sin to the first particular enquiry What sins they are which we desire may be forgiven And this may seem to be but a needless enquiry For even Nature it self will suggest an answer Men in wants desire a full supply And they who are sick of many diseases do not make it their end to be cured of one malady but to be restored to perfect health In corporibus aegris nihil quod nociturum est medici relinquunt Physicians purge out all ill humors from those bodies which are distemper'd For when one disease is spent another may
kill me and when I have recovered one malady I may be thrown down by another Habet hoc solicitudo quòd omnia necessaria putet True Care and Solicitude thinks nothing done till all be done and is afraid that the least distemper may be as dangerous as a disease FORGIVE US OUR SINS Who knows the danger of the least sin and will not make the gloss himself Forgive us them all and make his Repentance hold analogy with the Mercy of God which doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make a perfect and universal cure In medicines for the body that may be good for the Head which is not for the Heart and that may be soveraign for the Stone which hath no virtue in easing the Gout But the Mercy of God is like his Power in this ita magna in magnis ut non sit minor in minimis equal and like it self in the purging and remission of the greatest and smallest sins Upon our repentance he blotteth out all our sins and transgressions whether they be devoratoriae salutis those which till they be forgiven take away all hope of salvation or quotidianae incursionis those which every day by subreption steal upon us or modica media delicta as Tertullian those sins of a middle nature which are not to be reckoned amongst those of daily incursion nec tamen culmen tenent and yet do not reach the highest pitch of impiety I cannot but acknowledge that it is necessary to distinguish of sins And it is no Logical deduction which the Church of Rome hath made That because we make all sins in their own nature mortal we therefore make them all equal Yet in our repentance and devotion it will be one part of our spiritual wisdom minima pro maximis cavere to consider our least sins as if they were of the greatest magnitude to think there is danger not only in Murder but in an angry thought that not only our burning Lusts but a very spark may consume us vel atomos numerare and to number up the very atomes of sins For though those ordinary sins which steal upon us unseen and slip by us insensibly do not digg up Charity by the very root yet certainly they proceed from no other fountain than a defect and want of Charity which if it were as perfect and consummate as it ought to be would arm us against the assault of these thieves which steal in by night And more wisdom it is etiam quae tuta sunt pertimescere to be jealous of that which will not hurt us and to think that a fault which is none than to say of these sins as Lot did of Zoar Are they not little ones and my soul shall live or to sit down with the resolution of the Casuists in almost the same case Modicum pro nihilo est A small sin is in esteem as good as none at all For by thus slighting them sins multiply and gather strength numero vincunt what they want in bulk they supply in number and overwhelm thee if not as great yet as many Small expenses saith Aristotle if frequent overthrow a family And it is but a fallacie to think if the particulars be small the sum will be so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is not therefore small because it consists of many littles And the great Oratour will tell us that that neglect which endangers a Common-wealth is not streight seen in particular actions and miscarriages but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the conclusion and event at last And St. Augustine hath observed of these small sins Quantò minora tantò crebriora Because they be less we presume the oftner to commit them I know there is no man when he puts up this Petition doth except any the least sin but would have them all buried in the bottom of the Sea Yet we must not think it is enough to ask forgiveness but we must be also watchful to observe them and take these brats and dash them against the stones For even these brats if we play and sport with them will prove at last mighty Gyants sons of Anak which will fight against us to keep us out of Canaan St. Augustine lib. 2. De Civit. Dei tells us that this is a daily prayer and that it will blot out quotidiana peccata our ordinary and daily sins sine quibus in hac vita non vivitur as he speaks in his Enchiridion without which the severest man doth not pass his life and for common steps DIMITTE NOBIS PECCATA this common prayer Forgive us our trespasses may suffice But yet he tells us withal Quia fiunt peccata ideo dicitur non ut ideo fiant quia dicitur That this is said and we are taught thus to pray because we through infirmity fall into these sins but we must not fall into these sins because we are taught thus to pray For as there were some in his time who mistaking this very Petition thought that they might persist in any sin so they forgave their brother and were bountiful to the poor and needy that with a piece of money they might redeem their adulteries and uncleanness and satisfie for the sins of the greatest magnitude So if it went once for true that to breathe out these words would scatter our daily sins before the wind and quite abolish them men would be very apt at last to be too favourable interpreters of God and to think he takes no notice of those idle words for which he hath threatned to bring us into judgment and we should sin and pray and pray and sin and carry this Petition with us to ease us of these sins as some foolish women in Chrysostoms time did certain pieces of gold of Alexander the Great to cure the head-ach And this is non tam morbo laborare quà m remedio to be sick not so much of our disease as of the remedy which being skilfully applyed is indeed an antidote but taken as a charm or spell proves as dangerous as the disease which it was to remove and makes that mortal which of it self might have been purged out with ease I will say no more but with the Father Objurgemus nostra phantasmata tam nugatorios ludos de spectaculo mentis ejiciamus Let us check and chide our phansies when they catch at such shadows as these and cast out such trifling slights out of our minds and learn to pray for the forgiveness of these sins and also to strive against them to watch our hands and set a seal to our lips to observe each thought as it enters lest when we have purged the hand and the tongue and all the members of our body by delighting in thoughts because they are but thoughts we do at last lupanar in palatio constituere erect a stews in the very palace of the soul Let us remember that we pray for the forgiveness of these sins as we do of all the rest with a resolution
to extirpate them by degrees For as the Schoolmen tell of the Sacraments that they are protestationes fidei certain protestations of the Faith which we profess so is Prayer for remission of sins protestatio poenitentiae an open protestation and promise of repentance And we pray for the forgiveness of all our sins but it is of those which we have already committed and which are past To put up a petition for future sins or those which may be committed hereafter were rather to threaten God than to pray to him and not so much a prayer as a further resolution to sin again or at least a betraying of a very weak resolution against it Common sense will instruct us in many duties which we owe unto God Would any man who had forfeited his life begg a pardon of his Prince for that fault and the next he commits Nemo sic rogat ut minetur saith Hierom. This were a strange way of petitioning a strange method of praying to back it with threats A strange method of praying to say Forgive my sins even those which as yet are neither obnoxious to punishment nor capable of pardon Forgive me that which is not but may be that which with my tears I now wash out and that which may again pollute my soul that which I now strive to mortifie and kill in me and that which my lust will no doubt conceive and bring forth This were not so much a prayer against sin past as an encouragement to offend again a prayer for a pardon of that sin which when it appears will disannul and nullifie that which is already seal'd or rather a petition which denies it self because it puts together two things so contrary and opposite as the Forgiveness of sin past and a plain Supposal of future transgressions For this Petition for Forgiveness of sins though it be no manifest proof that we shall not yet is a strong argument that we should not sin again I am no Novatian no enemie of Gods Goodness and Mercy nor interfector poenitentiae a suppressour of frequent repentance I know Repentance is not as Baptism but once to be had and never reiterated I know we ought to repent toties quoties as oft as we offend and daily to pray that God will pardon the sins we daily commit But we cannot expect that God should accept our prayers and our repentance and vouchsafe to pardon us unless we stedfastly resolve to strive against all sin for the future and to serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life The Fourtieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Or as LUKE XI 4 And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us HAving led you through the land of the Philistines to the land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey from the mount which burned with fire to mount Sion to the city of the living God from the acknowledgment of our Sins to the sight of Gods Mercy which as St. Bernard calls it is a large cloak to cover all our sins of what magnitude soever Having spoken in general of the Mercy of God and his readiness to forgive before we shew the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the effect and fruit which it brings forth and what Remission of sins is we must make a pause and stand and a while take off our eyes from the Mercy-seat and direct them to the further consideration of our Sins 1. as they are debts 2. as they are ours and enquire 1. why they are called debts 2. why we are taught to appropriate them to our selves and call them ours And then we shall bring you to the full taste of that pleasant fruit which grows up and hath its bud and blossom and full beauty and perfection from this dew of heaven the rich influence of Mercy And in this pause or parenthesis we do but follow the method of Nature it self which doth not present all her creatures at once but by degrees or of the Eleusinian Priests qui servabant quod ostenderent revisentibus who did not open all their secrets and mysteries at first but fed the expectation of their novices with the hope of something which they reserved for a second view First then what S. Matth. here calleth debts St. Luke calleth sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in Debts it is between the creditor and the debtor so is it in Sins between God and Man Now the Philosopher nay common reason will teach us that he that will compare two things one with the other must know them both And we need not make any anxious search in these matters For who knows not what Debt is and who knows not what Sin is Utinam tam solicitus affectus de fugiendo peccato quà m facilis sermo It were to bè wished that we were as solicitous to shun them both as we are ready and active to speak of the horror and affliction they bring that it were as easie to avoid as to know them Thus hath it pleased our great Master who hath taught us here to pray for the forgiveness of sins to teach us also to know the nature and quality of our Sins by that which is most familiar to our very sense I might here lay down before your eyes the several respects in which our Sins and pecuniary Debts bear analogy and likeness and I might also point out certain like effects and operations which they both produce in their several subjects and which are common both to men far indebted in the world and to those who are bankrupts in the house of God But having handled both those points at large in another place I shall at this time pass them over and only observe the wisdom of the holy Ghost in this expression and that very briefly The words of God the more we view them the more plentifully do they evermore offer themselves and like rich minerals assiduè pleniùs respondent fodienti the more they are dig'd the more treasure do they yield even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifold and various Doctrines Therefore St. Chrysostome tells us that in reading of the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we ought to weigh every particle and syllable For though they seem to be but like unto rivulets yet if a man follow them with a diligent and observant eye they will lead him into a Sea and Ocean of matter And this hath befallen me in the survey of this Petition At the first view we conceived this word debts to be a fit metaphor fully expressing the nature of our Sins but having staid longer and dwelt upon it a bright beam of light shewed it self by which we could descry the wisdom of our Saviour in making choice of this resemblance which presenteth the deformity and danger of Sin as it were to our very eye Habemus alium sensum interioris hominis isto praestantiorem saith St. Augustine Indeed God
hath given us another sense of the inward man far exceeding the outward by which we may plainly discern Good from Evil by those species and appearances in which they represent themselves And this may do its office and exercise its act sine acie pupillae sine foramine auriculae without the help of the apple of the eye or the hollow of the ear or any other sense For quis unquam contrectavit justitiam Who ever handled Justice who ever saw Vice But Man being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome calls him a creature composed as it were of a double nature made up of a Sensitive and Intellectual part and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bond and knot in which both are united makes use of both and many times apprehends things not so lively by their proper species which they present as from those which are forinsecal but from some outward object more visible and familiar to him understands things not so well by Definitions as Comparisons as what Sins are by Debts what the Devil is by a Jaylor what Hell is by a Prison We do not know things our selves unless our Understanding do convertere se ad phantasmata unless we frame unto our selves certain phantasmes per modum exemplorum in which we may behold the things in their true shape And when we would teach others what we already know we do it by examples and comparisons So the Philosopher not only in his Logicks but also in his Physicks and Metaphysicks proveth his rules by Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his instances are out of Arithmetick or Geometry or Musick which they first learnt and which every one had skill in In Definitions we see it falls out that both Virtues and Vices either appear in different shapes or else slide away and pass by us in silence but being thus charactered and drawn out to the very eye by art and fit similitudes they gain more force and efficacie they press upon our phansie and busie our understanding part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and are more visible in outward things than inwords When we hear Sin called a transgression of the Law a prevarication an offense against God we are not so sensible as when we hear Sins called Debts And therefore our blessed Saviour in this doth ancillari infirmitati condescend to our infirmity rem invisibilem per rei visibilis formam describit by telling us that our sins are Debts he sheweth us the danger and the misery they plunge us into and the deep and heavy engagements they make us liable to Our next enquiry is How these Debts are ours and why we are taught to call them so And this is no vain unnecessary inquiry For if they be not ours why do we put up this Petition or what need have we of mercy and forgiveness And if we put up our Petition in that form and stile which Christ hath prescribed and then please our selves with I know not what extenuations and reservations as That they are ours indeed but not onely ours not fully and wholly ours the work of our fingers but so that there were other hands which did help to forge and shape them OURS but so that Fate had a share and Adam a share and the Devil a share and God himself a share that is NOSTRA NON NOSTRA ours and not ours we do but ludere interpretationibus de peccatis nostris delude our selves with false glosses and interpretations and we do not breathe forth a prayer but a complement and teach God not to hear us who are so unwilling to understand our selves and dare equivocate with the Truth it self And this may serve to wipe off the paint that men use to lay upon their sins that they may not appear so ugly and deformed as they are The World hath long since learnt this art of jugling with themselves and been very expert and cunning pavimentare peccata as St. Augustine speaks to plaister and parget their sins over Not my sin saith the Man but the Womans Not my sin saith the Woman but the Serpents Oh my Fate saith one Oh my Infirmity saith another Oh the Devil saith a third Either they are not sins or else sins which the Devil must father or else compensativa peccata sins to a good end which will recompense the sin Neque quisquam tam malus ut malus videri velit Nor is any one so desperately evil that he is willing to be thought so or will own that brat which his Lust hath conceived and brought forth Omnes peccata dissimulant quamvìs feliciter cesserint fructu illorum utuntur ipsa subducunt saith Seneca All are apt to dissemble their faults being content when they are crowned with fortunate success to reap the fruit and pleasure of them whilst they subduct the faults themselves and remove them out of the way So that Sin which is bred out of the corruption of every mans heart is exposed and cast-out and though it have many foster-fathers yet it finds none that will acknowledge it That as Tiberius spake of Rufus in Tacitus a man of obscure birth and parentage and that could not well tell from what stock or family he descended Videri potest Rufus ex se genitus Rufus may seem to have been his own Father So may we say of sin Videri potest ex se natum Since all disclaim it in its own shape and likeness it may be thought also that it is grown up of it self In other things we are not content with our own but are ready to claim a title to that which is properly anothers How many plagiaries have we not only of Learning but of Virtue how many pretenders to Integrity What altercation hath there been which were the first inventors of the Arts And what an Euge do we give our selves what a triumph doth it beget when a man can say Ego primus inveni I was the first author and finder out of this conclusion What would we not have ours What is not ours Paul is ours and Cephas is ours and Christ is ours and Heaven is ours Only Sin which we labor for which we sweat for which we are ambitious of is not ours That Adultery which I waited for till the twilight that Murder which I thirsted for till a fit opportunity that Deceit which I forged with that difficulty that Iniquity which was the study of my whole life is none of mine Of these we love to deonerate our selves to rid our hands of them Et nolumus esse nostra quia mala agnoscimus and ours we are unwilling to call them because our Conscience is convinced and Reason doth plainly tell us to our faces that they are evil Now this is a great evil under the Sun and there is a soveraign remedy for it shut up in this one word OURS in which our Saviour doth not only teach us to pray against it but doth give us catharticum a receit to purge out this
afflictions which may tempt us to evil but hath also afforded us his grace and assistance as a staff by which we may walk And as when the children of Israel were in the wilderness he rained down Manna upon them and led them as it were by the hand till they came into the land of promise and tasted of the milk and honey there so God deals with all that call upon his name whilst they are in via in this their peregrination ever and anon beset with Philistines and Amalekites with those temptations which may deter them in their journey he rains down abundance of his Grace and is ready at hand to assist them against the violence of temptations till he have brought them to the celestial Canaan where is fulness of joy for evermore And therefore as he hath given us a command to try our obedience so he hath commanded us also to call upon him for assistance that we may obey Et scimus quià petentes libenter exaudit quando hoc petitur largiri quod jubet And we know it is impossible he should deny us our request when we desire him to grant us that which he commands We beg his assistance against the lusts of the flesh he commands us to mortifie them against the pollutions of the world his will is our sanctification against the Devil he bids us tread him under foot And can we once doubt of his help and assistance to the performance of that which he exacts at our hands as service due and pleasing to his Majesty The defect of Grace cannot be in the conduit in the conveyance but in the vessel which should receive it Which if it be vas obturatum a vessel shut up or closed or full already of filth and uncleanness or if it do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leak or let Grace slip no marvel then if the dew of heaven fall beside and we remain dry and empty And what greater folly then to complain of the Want of that Grace which we might have had nay which we had neglected and fell with our staff in our hand were evil when we had helps enough to be good when we shut our eyes to cry out there is no light like the foolish old woman in Seneca who was blind through age yet could not be perswaded but that the room was dark Our error and grand mistake is that whereas God is bountiful of his Grace to assist us we phansie to our selves an irresistible and necessitating Grace as if God did raise up children unto Abraham out of very stones And therefore we conceive that when we rusht upon sin as the horse doth into the battle God might have restrained us and kept us back when we were adulterers he might have made us chast And when we sin we wipe our mouths and comfort our selves that if God give us grace we will not sin again And what is this but to turn the Grace of God into wantonness and magnifying his Grace to entitle him to our sins It is not here The Lord shall fight for thee and thou shalt sit still but thou must buckle on thy armor and make use of his assistance when it offers it self thou must be as officious to wait on that as that is on thee If thou hast a good thought by his Grace thou hast it and thou must not be so unkind as to stifle it If a holy intention it is his Grace that raised it and it is a kind of sacriledge to pull it down If a strong resolution it is Grace that built it and thy care must be that it fall not to the ground To attribute all unto God is both very safe and very dangerous safe in our thanks and acknowledgments dangerous in the performance of our duty safe when we work our selves but dangerous when we put our hands into our bosome For he that will not rowse himself up and make haste to fly from Sin upon a phansie that he wants Grace hath already despised the Grace of God and cannot plead for an excuse the Want of that which he might have had nay which he had and chased from him And in this respect when we have light and will not work in the light when we have Gods Grace assisting us and will not make use of it when we have determents from Sin and yet will embrace it we must need stand guilty as wilfull offenders and confess that it was neither Adam nor the Devil nor the shortness of Gods hand did betray us but our own will that though we were weak in the first Adam yet we recovered our strength in the second that the Devil would have fled if we had resisted and that Grace was not wanting unto us but we were wanting unto Grace and therefore stand no more to deny or interpret this conclusion but subscribe to it with tears of bloud and make an unfeigned and sincere confession That the sins which we have committed are OURS and only OURS And now in the last place as they are only Ours so they are fully and totally Ours And if we strive to make a defalcation we add unto their bulk and make them more mountainous than before And as we do minuendo numerum augere by seeking to make our sins fewer then they are sin more and so increase their number so by attempting to make them less we make them greater Excusando exprobramus Our Apology upbraids us and we condemn our selves with an excuse Some perswade themselves their sin is much less because they sinned not as they say with full consent but renitente reluctante conscientia Their mind was long pausing and fluctuating before they did it But this is so far from extenuating the fault that it doth much aggravate it For a sin it is in the avoiding of Sin to make any stand or deliberation at all Deliberanda enim omnino non sunt in quibus est turpis ipsa deliberatio saith Tully There is no room for doubt and consultation where the consultation it self is foul and blameable Why should I halt so between these two the Committing or not committing of sin Why should I doubt when I know it to be sin Why should I ask my self that foolish question Shall I or shall I not when the sin is so manifest and death so visible in the sin These pawses and reluctations which we make our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we subborn as comforts and excuses of sin are nothing else but certain presages and forerunners of wilfull transgression How readest thou What are the Commandments Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal Never stand inaking demurs nor asking of questions but resolve not to do them For as Mucianus in Tacitus well observeth of the common souldiers in time of faction so is it here Qui deliberant desciverunt They who deliberate and are uncertain which side to cleave to have in effect revolted already We take notice of that in our sins which
stand upright at the great day of tryal Neither did these monsters only blemish this doctrine but it received some stain also from their hands who were its stoutest champions Not to mention Clemens Alexandrinus Theophilus Cyprian Hilary and others St. Augustine that great pillar of the truth and whose memory will be ever pretious in the Church though he often interpret the word Justification for Remission of sins yet being deceived by the likeness of sound in these two words JUSTIFICARE and SANCTIFICARE doth in many places confound them both and make Justification to be nothing else but the making of a man just So in his Book De Spiritu Litera c. 26. interpreting that of the Apostle Being justified freely by his grace he makes this discant Non ait PER LEGEM sed PER GRATIAM He doth not say by the Law but by Grace And he gives his reason Ut sanet gratia voluntatem ut sanata voluntas impleat legem That Grace might cure the Will and the Will being freed might fulfill the Law And in his Book De Spiritu Gratia he saith Spiritus Sanctus diffundit charitatem quâ unâ justi sunt quicunque justi sunt The holy Spirit powers out his love into our hearts by which Love alone they are just whosoever are just And whosoever is but little conversant in that Father shall soon observe that where he deals with the Pelagian he makes the grace of Justification and of Sanctification all one Now that which the Father says is true but ill placed For in every Christian there is required Newness of life and Sanctity of conversation but what is this to Justification and Remission of sins which is no quality inherent in us but the act of God alone As therefore Tully speaks of Romulus who kill'd his brother Peccavit pace vel Quirini vel Romuli dixerim By Romulus his good leave though he were the founder of our Common-wealth he did amiss So with reverence to so worthy and so pious a Saint we may be bold to say of great St. Augustine that if he did not erre yet he hath left those ill weighed speeches behind him which give countenance to those foul mishapen errours which blur and deface that mercy which wipes away our sins For Aquinas in his 1 a 2 ae q. 113. though he grant what he cannot deny because it is a plain Text That Remission of sins is the Not-imputation of sins yet he adds That Gods wrath will not be appeased till Sin be purged out and a new habit of Grace infused into the soul which God doth look upon and respect when he forgives our sins Hence those unsavory tenets of the Romish Church That Justification is not a pronouncing but a making one righteous That inherent holiness is the formal cause of Justification That we may redeem our sins and puchase forgiveness by Fasting Almes-deeds and other good works All which if she do not expose to the world in this very garb and shape yet she so presents them that they seem to speak no less so that her followers are very apt and prompt to come towards them and embrace them even in this shape And although Bellarmine by confounding the term of Justification and distinguishing of a Faith informed with Charity and a Faith which is not and by putting a difference between the works of the Law and those which are done by the power and virtue of the holy Spirit and by allotting no reward but that which is freely promised and promised to those who are in the state of grace and adoption though by granting that the Reward doth far exceed the dignity of our Works he striveth to bring the Church of Rome as near to St. Paul as he can and lays all the colours he hath to make her opinion resemble his yet when he tells us that the Good works of the Saints may truly satisfie the Law of God and merit eternal life when he makes our Satisfaction go hand in hand with Christs and that Fasting and Prayer and Alms are satisfactory not only for punishment but for all punishment and which is more for the guilt it self he hath in effect unsaid what formerly he had laid down concerning the free Remission of our sins and made so wide a breach between St. Paul and their Church as neither St. Peter nor all the Saints they invocate are able to close In a word he speaks as good sense as Theodorus Antiochenus doth in Photius his Bibliotheca who makes a twofold Forgiveness of sins the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those things which we have done the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Impeccancie or Leaving off to Sin So that we may say with Photius What this Forgiveness is or from whence it is is impossible to find out No doubt God taketh notice of the graces he hath bestowed on his children and registreth every good work they do and will give an eternal reward not only to the Faith of Abraham the Chastity of Joseph the Patience of Job the Meekness of Moses the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David but even to the Widows two mites cast into the treasury to a cup of cold water given to a thirsty Disciple Yet most true it is that all the righteousness of all the Saints cannot merit forgiveness And we will take no other reason or proof for this position but that of Bellarmins Non acceptat Deus in veram satisfactionem pro peccato nisi justitiam infinitam God must have an infinite satisfaction because the sin is infinite Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint and the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church All these are but as an atome to the infinite mass of our Sin Shall I yet add my Fasting my Alms my Tears my Devotion All these will vanish at the guilt of Sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun We must therefore disclaim all hope of help from our selves or any or all creatures in earth or in heaven It is only the Lamb of God who taketh John 1. 29. away the sins of the world the Man Christ Jesus is the only Mediatour between 1 Tim. 2. 5. God and Man He alone is our Advocate with the Father and the 1 John 2. 1 2. propitiation for our sins His bloud cleanseth us from all sin In him we have 1 John 1. 7. Eph. 1. 7. Eph. 3. 12. redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of sins In him we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him In his name therefore who taught us thus to pray let us put up this Petition Forgive us our debts and our prayer will be graciously heard and we shall be accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. all our Debt will be remitted through the merits of our Surety who hath