Silence Indeed Menander will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that silence to a wise man is an answer But a flat denyal must needs come more unwelcome then silence and here is not a bare denyal but a denyal with a reason with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to doggs What now can this distressed woman reply or how will she be able to hold up her side now she is come ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the hardest part of the Dialogue which the Orators call Contention What can she answer to Reason Behold I will not say a facelious or witty but a wise answer Behold an apple of gold in a picture of silver Here is a cloud drawn over her yet her faith sees a star in this cloud and by a strange kind of Alchimy she draws light out of darkness and makes that sharp denyal the foundation of a grant She answers by way of concession Truth Lord The Jewes are Children nay Masters let them have the bread I am a Dogg and am content with a Doggs reward even with the crums that fall from the Table His silence she answers with her knee and his bitter answer with humility an answer which Wisdome it self doth not only approve but admire Then Jesus answered and said unto her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Before silence now admiration before a reproof now a commendation before a dogg now a woman before not a crum now more bread then the children She cryed before and Christ answered not but now Christ answers and not only gives her a crum but the whole table answers her with a FIAT TIBI Be it unto thee even as thou wilt The words which I have read are the last part and conclusion of the Dialogue a happy conclusion For where Misery begins well and holds out and perseveres Christ alwayes concludes in mercy Truth Lord is answered with O mulier and a prayer for a crum is rewarded with a grant of all we can desire So then the parts are two a Commendation of the womans faith and a Grant of her request And of these we will speak in their order The commendation is not ordinary nor delivered by way of common expression but here we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an holy exclamation O woman great is thy faith This is not Signum perturbati animi sed docentis Magistri We must not conceive this to be the sign of any motion or perturbation in Christ but the lesson of a good Master who would move us to admiration that admiration might win us to faith Exprimit in se ut exprimat de te In himself he expresseth it that he may bring it from us In anger he is that we may be angry with our sin In grief he complains that we may be grieved for our selves and he is loud in his approbations to awake our sloth and to make us active in the pursuit of that which he admires Per tropum probat aut miratur when he commends or admires he doth it by a trope If his plain instructions will not prevail he is content to condescend and bring us to belief by a figure But now what is it that Christ commends and admires It is the greatness of the womans faith Now Faith may be said to be great either in respect had to the Understanding or to the Will For the act of Faith proceeds from them both and it may be said to increase and be great either as the Understanding receives more light or the Will more warmth as the one doth more firmly assent and the other more readily embrace In the Understanding it is raised by certainty and assurance and in the Will by devotion and confidence This womans faith was great in both respects She most firmly believed Christ to be the Lord able to work a miracle on her daughter and her Devotion and Confidence so strongly built that neither Silence nor Denyal nor a Reproach could shake it And because we are told Magnitudo virtutis ostenditur in effectu that the greatness of virtue is best seen in the effects as we best judge of a Tree by the spreading of its branches and of the Whole by the parts we will therefore contemplate this womans Faith in those several fruits it brought forth in her Patience in her Humility in her Perseverance Which are those lesser stars that shine in the firmament of our souls and borrow their light from the lustre of Faith as from their Sun And first we cannot but admire her Patience Which is bona valetudo fidei the very health of Faith saith Tertullian and shews it to be of a good growth And surely if Socrates was stiled senex perpessitius for his great sufferance this Canaanitess may well be called mulier perpessitia a woman which endured much in her misery reproach in the bitterness of her soul a repulse silence and denyal and the name of dogg Fabius Verrucosus was wont to call that grant which was given with some roughness and asperity panem lapidosum stony and gravelly bread which will sooner break the teeth than nourish the body What then think you is a denyal with a reproach Not bread but a stone Yet we see this womans Patience was able to digest this stone and turn it into bread And indeed this is one part of a Christians Omnipotency his Patience is infinite and suffereth all things It swalloweth down stones Christ himself was a stone of offense but yet Patience digests this stone with disgraces with poverty with afflictions with martyrdome with sword and persecution and makes them beatitudes Never any contumely never any loss never any smart so great which could weary a true Christian Patience Talia tantáque documenta saith Tertullian Such precepts such examples have we of Patience as that with Infidels they seem incredible and call in question the truth of our profession But with us they are the very ground and foundation of our Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gordius the Martyr in St. Basil What a loss am I at that I can dye but once for my Saviour No Christian whose Patience hath not met with a stone if not Martyrdome yet Poverty if not Poverty yet Contumely In labors abundantly in stripes above measure in deaths oft And could St. Paul do no more Yes he could Sed ubi historiam perstare non potuit votum attulit when he could not fill up his history he brings in a wish even to endure the pains of hell for the salvation of Israel his kinsmen according to the flesh I cannot now say that this womans Patience was so great but she received those darts of denyals of disgrace clypeo patientiae upon the buckler of Patience and a Denyal with Reproch is if not so terrible as Hell yet many times as bitter as Death I may be bold to say A Patience it
the Writers before him that he brought Nature it self and all Arts and Sciences into a certain order and method Though men pursue knowledge with all eagerness and heat of inquisition yet if they begin where they should end they will be alwaies beginning and never end they will but operose nihil agere take a great deal of pains to be no wiser than they were And though they strive forwards and pace over much ground yet will they be farther off from their wished end then when they made the first onset Therefore what Vitruvius requireth in Architecture is necessary in every work we undertake especially in our Prayers that there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 order and disposition There must be nothing in our Devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill disposed or ill placed For as the devout Schoolman telleth us that to incline too much to the sway of Sensuality and neglect the direction of Reason tam sensualitatem quà m rationem extinguit so also in our Devotion and Orizons if we place them on temporal things and not spiritual or on temporal before spiritual they never reach the mark but fall short of both they neither fill our hands with plenty nor our souls with that spiritual Manna If we prefer Mammon before God we may expect to have leanness enter into our very souls and to be punisht not only with a famine of bread but of the Word of God also The excellency of this method appeareth from the vast distance not only between the Body and the Soul but also between that bread that perisheth and that which nourisheth us unto everlasting life This latter is that which alone can satisfie that infinite appetite which God hath placed in the soul of man This is favourable to us and benevolent this admitteth at once satiety and desire this worketh no loathing For here is the difference between temporal and spiritual blessings The one when we have them not kindle a desire in us and being enjoyed quench that desire with loathsomness But the other are never loath'd but when we have them not when we have them we more desire them The more we feed the more we are a hungry and yet when we are most hungry we are full and satisfied In illis appetitus placet experientia displicet in istis appetitus vilis est experientia magìs placet saith Gregory In temporal matters our appetite pleaseth us but experience is distastful They are hony in the desire but in the tast gravel But unto spiritual things our appetite commonly is sick and queasy but when we chew upon them they are sweeter then the Honey and the Honey-comb They are gall to the appetite but to the tast Manna Much more might be said on this subject but let this suffice at present We proceed now to a particular application of the words of this Petition And every one of them is verbum operativum ful of force and efficacy and hath its weight We ask first for Bread secondly for our bread thirdly our daily bread fourthly we ask it not as a debt but as a gift fifthly and lastly we set a date as it were upon the petition which putteth a period to our care and sollicitude and binds our desires within the narrow compass of a day give it us to day We begin with that which is the subject of our petition Bread which however placed yet in nature is first to be Handled For we must first propose the object and set it up as a mark before we can carry our desires to it First we must know what is meant by Bread or else for bread we may ask a stone And here I find this Bread multiplied not by any miracle but by the activity of mens phansies who have broke it out and distributed it unto us And if we take it from their hands we may fit down and eat and of the very fragments gather more then seven baskets full Some take the word metaphorically others properly Some take Bread in a spiritual sense and that either first for the bread of Righteousness which Christians are to hunger and thirst after or secondly for the bread of the Word which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of Angels by virtue of which we walk in the ways of righteousness all the days of our life and are nourisht up to an Angelical estate or thirdly for that Bread which is the WORD even Christ himself which whosoever eateth shall never hunger or fourthly for Sacramental bread which is consecrated and received in the holy Communion which the Fathers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy and hallowed Bread and Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of God and Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy nutriment or fifthly and lastly for that bread of eternal Life which we shall then eat when we sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the blessed Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven Quinque panes sunt necessarii quatuor in via quintus in patria There be five manner of loaves very necessary Matth. 8. 11. for us four whilest we travel here in our way and the fifth at our journeys end in our country four in this wilderness of the world and the last in that celestial Canaan our corporal bread to sustein us our Spiritual to inform us our Doctrinal to instruct us our Sacramental to purge and cleanse us and the eternal bread of life which the Father will give us to make us happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostome used to speak I embrace all Senses For why should not Righteousness be as our daily bread to feed us why should not we with Job put it on to clothe us and make it as a Robe and Diadem Why should not we thirst as the Hart after those waters which are drawn out of the Wells of Salvation Why should we not long for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Fathers call the holy Eucharist for that holy Bread which is our provision and supply in our way And eternal Life is Hominis optimum saith St. Augustine the best thing that can befall man the very consummation and crown of our desires For every one of these we may solicite the Majesty of heaven and earth and press upon God with a pious impudence and holy importunity DANOBIS PANEM HUNC DOMINE Lord evermore give us of this bread of the Bread of Righteousness of the Bread which thou breakest of the Bread which thou art of the Bread of thy Word and of the Bread of thy Sacrament which are primitiae futuri panis the first-fruits of the Bread of eternal Life which God the Father shall distribute with a full and bountiful hand to all his children in the world to come We reject none of these senses Whether we take it in the metaphor or take it in the letter we do not erre nor will our prayers return empty For if we
Rain upon the grass Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus We are water'd with this rain and we know not how We feel the drops are fallen but how they fell we could not discern And we are too ready to ask with the Virgin Mary How cometh this to pass But the Angel nay God himself telleth us The Holy Ghost doth come upon us and the power of the Most High overshadows us and that Holy thing which is born in us shall be called the Son of God Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought we shall find but the retired passages by which it hath wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration Res illic geritur nec videtur The Rain is fall'n and we know not how We saw not Christ when he came down but it is plain that he is come down And he comes down not into the Phansie alone That commonly is too washy and fluid of it self and brings forth no better a Christ then Marcions a Shadow or Phantasme Nor into the Understanding alone For thither he descends rather like Light then Water and he may be there and the grass not grow He may be there only as an absent Friend in his picture But he commeth down in totum vellus into the whole fleece into the Heart of man into the whole man that so he may at once conceive Christ and yet be presented a pure and undefiled Virgin unto Christ and be the purer by this new conception And he cometh down in totam terram upon all the ground upon the whole Little World of Man that so he may be like a well-water'd Garden even a Paradise of God A strange Jer. 31. 12. complaint the world hath taken up yea rather not a complaint but a pretense a very cloak of maliciousness to hide our sins from our eyes That Christ doth thus come down but at pleasure only sometimes and but upon some men some who like Mary are highly favour'd by God and call'd out of all the world nay chosen before the world was made And if the earth be barren it is because this Rain doth not fall As if the Grace of God were not like Rain but very Rainie indeed and came down by seasons and fits and as if the Souls of men were not like the Grass but were Grass indeed not voluntary but natural and necessary Agents Thus we deceive our selves but we cannot mock God His Grace comes not down as a Tempest of Hayl or as a destroying Storm or as a Floud of many Waters overflowing but as Rain or Drops He poureth it forth every day and renews it every morning And he would never question our barrenness and sterility if he did not come down nor punish our unfruitfulness if he did not send Rains If before he came into the world this Rain might fall as it were by coasts in Judaea alone yet now by the virtue of his comming down it drops in all places of his Dominion Omnibus aequalis omnibus Rex omnibus Judex omnibus Deus Dominus As he came to all so he is equal and indifferent to all a King to all a Judge to all and a God and a Lord to all And his Grace manat jugiter exuberat affluenter flows continually and falls down abundantly Nostrum tantùm sitiat pectus pateat Let our hearts lye alwaies open and the windows of Heaven are alwaies open let us continually thirst after righteousness and this Dew will fall continually Let us prepare our hearts let us make them soft as the Fleece let us be as Grass not Stubble as Earth not Brass and the Son of God will come down into our hearts like rain into the fleece of wooll or mowen grass and like showers that water the earth And now we have shewed you this threefold Descent We should in the next place contemplate the effect which this great Humility wrought the Fruit which sprung upon the fall of this gracious Rain upon Gods Inheritance the Spring of Righteousness and the Plenty of Peace and the Aeternity of them both But I see the time will not permit For conclusion therefore and as the present occasion bespeaks me I will acquaint you with another Descent of Christ into the blessed Sacrament I mean into the outward Elements of Bread and Wine Into these also he comes down insensibly spiritually ineffably yet really like Rain into a fleece of wooll Ask me not how he is there but there he is Eia fratres ubi voluit Dominus agnosci In fractione panis saith St. Augustine O my brethren where would our Saviour discover himself but in the breaking of bread In his Word he seems to keep a distance and to speak to us saith the Father by way of Letter or Epistle but in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud he communicates himself that we who could not see him in his flesh may yet eat that flesh we cannot see and be in some kind familiar with him I need not busie my self in making the resemblance Theodoret in one of his Dialogues hath made up the parallel between the Incarnation of Christ and the Holy Sacrament In Christ there are two Natures the Divine and the Humane and in the Sacrament there are two Substances the heavenly and the earthly 2. After the union the two Natures are but one Person and after the consecration the two Substances make but one Sacrament 3. Lastly as the two Natures are united without confusion or coalition of either in Christ so in the Sacrament are the Substances heavenly and earthly knit so together that each continueth what it was The Bread is bread still and the Body of Christ is the body of Christ and yet Christ is the Bread of Life and the Bread is the body and the Wine the bloud of Christ It is panis Domini the Bread of the Lord and panis Dominus the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from Heaven And to a believing John 6. 51. Virgin soul Christ comes nearer in these outward Elements then Superstition can bring him beyond the fiction of Transubstantiation For as he by assuming our Nature was made one with us made flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones so we by worthily receiving his flesh and his bloud in the Sacrament are made one with him even partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Per hunc panem ad Dei consortium preparamur saith Hilary By this Bread we are united to him here and made fit to be with him for ever And to drink this Cup the Bloud of Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens to be made partakers of the incorruptibility of God And now to conclude This quiet and peaceable committing of Christ to us should teach us the like behaviour one to another For shall he come down like rain and shall we fall like
regulate our devotion by the will of God whatsoever we ask we shall receive Nor doth the Goodness of God consider so much the gloss and interpretation which we make as the affection which we bring Yet I rather admit of that signification which the word BREAD doth first propose unto us Our discourse would be too much enlarged if we should follow and examine metaphors which are feracissimae controversiarum very fruitful to engender both discourse and controversie Chrysostome doth very seldom refer the word Bread to the Sacrament But in his Homily upon the Lords Prayer deriving the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls it our daily bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that BREAD which is turned into the very substance of our bodies And Abulensis upon Matth. 6. hath proved by many reasons that that interpretation by which the Fathers referred it to the Sacrament is far fetched and forced and not so solid And it is most probable that our Saviour by Bread in this Petition meaneth both food and ravment and all other things whatsoever that tend to the sustentation and support of this temporal life Both Food and Rayment I say For though Bread be a staff yet without Clothes it will not uphold us and though Lev. 26. 26. Isa 3. 1. Clothes be domus corporis as Tertullian calleth them the house wherein the Body dwells yet without Bread the Body will sink to the ground and pull the house down with it If we be either naked or hungry long we know Psal 107. 5. what follows our soul will faint within us The end therefore which moves us to pray for Bread must be as a light to shew us what that Bread is Nec verba tantùm defendenda sed ratio verborum constituenda Nor must we so cleave to the letter as to admit of no sense of larger compass than it is but look forward upon the end which we may make gubernaculum interpretationis as it were a rudder to guide us and to carry our interpretation streight and even The end of Bread is to nourish us and preserve life but without Apparel it will not have this operation therefore we must necessarily here understand both With Bread our Garments are a shelter and with Raiment Bread is a staff But this Bread here is not of compass large enough to take in the riotous fare of the glutton and the full cups of the drunkard and it is much too narrow to admit of excess and pride in apparel Primùm tegendo homini necessitas praecessit dehinc ornando imò inflando ambitio successit c. saith the Father If the Fathers lived now how would they declaim against the luxury of these our dayes Shall I invite your eyes to look back upon the face of Antiquity and shew you what commentary their Practice made upon their Pater Noster and what they esteemed Bread And behold instead of our soft beds they had only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and usually lodged themselves upon the cold earth Instead of our full tables they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ate dry'd and parcht meats Shall I set before you a Monks feast out of Cassian It is quictly done The cates were Liquamen cum oleo some Lard with Oyl Olives every one three Cicer frictum partch-Pease every one five and dried Figs every one one And these they called trogalia Junkets All which might keep their stomach a work but sure not over-cloy the body Vesci cocto erat luxuria saith St. Hierom To tast of any thing that was boyled was accounted great luxury This was to them for Bread And for that other help of Garments instead of our Silks and Gold and fine Linnens they had melôtas cilicia their sheep-skins and hair-cloth in which they wandred in Dens and Caverns of the earth Tertullian went so far and it may be too far that he thought it was not fit to supplicate God for our sins in costly apparel Num ergò in coccino tyrio supplicare nos condecet saith he Is it fitting think you to pray to God in silk and scarlet Cedo acum crinibus distinguendis Why then bring your crisping-pins and your pomanders wash your bodies in costly baths fill your selves with pleasant meats and luscious Wines and if any man ask you why you do so Deliqui dicito in Deum You must needs make this answer I have offended God and am in danger of eternal death and therefore I thus afflict and torment my self that I may be reconciled to that God whom I have thus offended Thus did that holy Father whip the Luxurie and Looseness of his time For my self I have no power to enact leges sumptuarias laws to restrain any either in their meat or apparel But methinks we cannot take our pattern better than from the purest times from the primitive Christians who contented themselves with those meats quae mortem arcerent delicias non ministrarent which were antidotes against death but no philtra no inticements to wantonness Whose feasts were not only chast but sober Who received their bread with that modesty ut non tam coenam coenarent quà m disciplinam that they seemed rather to have exercised a part of their Christian discipline than to have met together at their refection And as I do not exact from every Christian that Monkish strictness and severity which notwithstanding I am not overhasty to condemn yet the least I can require at your hands is Nyssen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frugality and moderation both in meats and apparel And 1. bespeak you in St. Paul's words that having food and raiment you will be therewith content and 1 Tim. 6. 8. count these as your daily bread For if we regard our bodies and the sustentation of life Bread is enough and to repair this our tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil a very small care is sufficient Our Bread is a kind of debt we owe it but we must not pay more then the creditor will take and when we owe it but Bread we must not take our Debt-book and set down Superfluities when we owe it but one measure of wheat take the bill and set down fifty If we would abate our Superfluities in diet and apparel we might have enough for our selves and something to spare for others after we have fed and clad our own bodies sufficiently we might fill the bellies and clothe the backs of our poor brethren and so relieve Christ our Head by supplying the wants of our fellow-members Yea by our sobriety and moderation in the use of these things we shall keep both soul and body in good plight free from those distempers that naturally flow from Excess and Luxurie Munditia vestitûs animae immunditia saith Hierome They who are all for a gay out-side must needs be all foul and nastie within For Nimia corporis cura nimia animi incuria saith another
commit Adultery but did you never cast a lascivious glance Perhaps you did never stab a man with your dagger but did you never run one through with your tongue and though you did not kill your Brother yet have you not been so much as angry with him without a cause Now he that commits the least sin deserves the Curse as well as he that commits the greatest for as St. James excellently gives the reason for the same God did forbid one as the other and he who stands at the door here is as well out of the Church as he who is 1000 miles off though not so far He that saith he hath no sin lyes saith the Apostle at the very heart he lyes St. Paul knew nothing by himself yet for all that he would not quit himself but refers that wholly to God He that judges me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 4. who knew his heart better then he himself did And David cryes out Cleanse me from my secret sins O Lord Sins which fly our sight that steal from us in crouds or borrowed shapes so slighly as man who is the most absurd flatterer of himself cannot discern them As pride in decency malice in zeal hypocrisie in devotion boasting in charity covetousness and extortion under the name of providing for our families wherefore when we meet with those terms of Holy Just and Righteous given unto men in Scripture we must not conceive them so as if they were absolutely Just Holy and Righteous no more than we can say there is pure earth or pure water without the commixture of any other Element But when we are said to be innocent 't is either meant in foro humano because the Law of man can take no hold of us though God the searcher of all hearts may as St. Paul saith He was blameless but not perfect Phil. 3. Or as righteous Lot in wicked Sodom was because he loathed to do such horrid things as they did though he committed Incest so soon as ever he came forth or else because God seeing our Hearts and Intentions towards him is pleased to cover our slips and failings with his mercy as David is said to have done all things well excepting the matter of Uriah not that he could indeed clear himself from all guilt for whosoever marks his story will find many foul actions besides this of Uriah but because he did not lye dead in any sin but this for he had a Child before ever he thought he had committed Adultery The Prophet Habakkuk puts the Question into more reasonable terms who inquires not Why the wicked should devour the Righteous but Why the wicked should devour the man who is more righteous then he A man may be more righteous yet not righteous neither Perhaps he did not deserve it from this or that man but from God he did As David deserved not the disloyalty from Saul Absolom and his familiar Friend yet he deserved so much from God as it was counted an escape when his Child only lost his Life The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye saith Nathan to him But with what face can we complain against God We of this sottish and sinful Nation whose sins are risen so high as we may very well conclude we were markt out to fulfill all the wickedness which is to fore-run the day of Judgment Do we murmur because our fears have compassed us when our Sins have beset us round about A Nation wholly divided between Debauchery and Hypocrisie between open profaneness the Sin of Sodom and Lying unto God the Sin of those Priests and Elders which crucified our Saviour What if our Churches be thrown down when we have profaned them by our empty formality by bringing our Bodies thither but leaving our minds and hearts fast with some lust at home This this was the Idolatry they so often twitted us withal these were the Images and Pictures we set up in Churches our empty Bodies that stood here without Souls and Hearts to attends Gods Service What would we call God to protect Stones and Morter when nothing besides zeal holiness and fervency of Devotion these are the Encania which do sanctifie consecrate and make a Temple The last thing which moves us to ask this Question Why the wicked prosper is because we think them in a better condition then they are Envy not the ungodly sayes the Psalmist as if the main ground of our Impatience were our Envy because we so earnestly dote on these earthly vanities as we grow mad with such as injoyes them from us and charge the most righteous God for bestowing them on others as this very Prophet does in the seventh Chapter whereas we quite mistake their Condition The Objection supposes a false thing For wicked men did never prosper in the world unless you will call it Happiness for a man to assure Gods wrath upon himself and to have a liberty to improve his sins and increase his damnation and this he does if you will believe Scripture to be the word of God for this which you call prosperity engages us most certainly to punishment The threats of Jonah saved Niniveh though God had set down the very day in which he would destroy it But when we go finely on in a wicked course of life when we raise an Estate by false-dealing this flatters us to go still further to put off the evil day far from us and cause the Seat of violence to draw near us Amos 6. 3. to pull our Lusts still closer and closer to us but remove the thought of Gods Judgments farther and farther off till at last we will not believe that he does see that he does understand and which is worse till we imagine God approves and blesses our sins because we thrive by it like Ephraim who concluded God should find no iniquity in all his labours because he was rich when at that very time he held the ballance of deceit in his hands Hos 12. 8. It is the last of Gods Judgments when he throws away the Rod when he will smite us no more when he lays down his pruning knife and will dress his Vineyard no more when he will not pour us out and wrack us any longer bus lets us settle upon the Lees to putrifie and corrupt when God gives us over to our vile affections and delivers us over to Satan already when he hath bound up our sins in a bundle as the Prophet saith Hos 13. 12. and laid them by himself till the day of his Feast his Sacrifice his Banquet for these are the terms by the which the Scripture expresses Gods laughter mirth and jollity when he means to glut himself with the bloud of his Adversaries Again we do not only assure our Damnation but encrease it by our seeming Prosperity by having power to commit more and more sins to treasure up wrath to proceed from evil to evil to add iniquity to iniquity and so raise
binding then a debt surely you would think that due from them to him who had begotten them nay who was sacrificed for them and saved them for these glorious terms the Apostle gives himself saved them I say not their Bodies from the Grave but their Souls from Death O my Brethren there was a time when men sold all they had and laid it down at the Apostles feet there was a time even in our memory when Sacriledg was thought a sin and men conceived the maintenance of a lawful Clergy as sacred as their own Revenues in the time when axes and hammers were lifted up to build not to break down the carved works of the Sanctuary yet something is due still at least to give a cup of cold water in the name of a Prophet to hold up their weak hands and to support their feeble knees with your staff of Bread For though St. Paul would have worked with his hands now had they not been lock't up with manicles rather then prove burdensome to them for then was not a time to receive Gifts in the infancy of the Church yet he always says he might claim it as a recompence that he had power to challenge it and proves it by all kind of Arguments 1 Cor. 9. from Custom Reason and Scripture and least you should pretend the abrogation of this Law by Christ the Apostle adds v. 14. That the Lord hath ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel he hath ordained it enacted it and made it a Law for ever he hath tied and bound you up to it for ever it is not left to your choice and discretion And our Saviour when he sends out his Apostles calls their maintenance their Hire Mat. 10. 10. as if there did pass a tacite contract and bargain between the Preacher and the Audience that if he feeds their souls they should feed his body if he gives them the water of life he may claim a draught from out of their well as due and that he who deals the bread of life about should have in return the bread that perishes a fair exchange you 'l say on your parts Carnal for Spiritual things and a Birth-right that gives you title to become the heirs of God for a small mess of porridge The second advantage we have by Charity is the Exercise of our Patience before the day of Tryal come upon us Who pray among you would leave at this very instant his whole Estate to preserve his Conscience if violence should offer to take it from him or who would go immediately from this very place to the stake if God should call him thither but Charity leads us to this perfection for whosoever gives away of his own willingly may come in time to endure quietly if it be forced from him and who can chearfully part with some to relieve his Brethren will at last arrive so far as contentedly to loose all so he may preserve his Conscience My Brethren 't is all the business of our Time Diligence and Experience to be a Christian for though God did sometimes extraordinarily pour forth as much of his Spirit into some Vessels of Mercy as enabled them at once to become Christians and Martyrs both together ready to lay down their lives for the Faith as soon as ever they did believe Yet 't is said of Christ that notwithstanding he was a Son yet learnt he obedience by the things which he suffered Heb. 5. 8. He learnt it Let others learn to measure the Earth do you learn to despise it and let Philosophers dispute the causes of lightnings storms and thunder but do you Christians learn the way to Mount Sion where you may stand above them all The last and highest benefit we receive by our Charity is that as God will most severely punish the neglect of this duty so if we do perform it he will account himself in debt to us for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will 1 Pet. 3. thank you for this for this God will in a manner acknowledge himself beholding to you You lend to the Lord lend to him who possesses all already as if God would willingly part with his whole right and title to this world so we in compassion to our poor Brethren would give him the least return of it again God owes you a blessing which you shall be sure to have not only hereafter but here also if we can believe God for whom it is impossible to lye For as God did certainly punish some with temporal punishments for offending against the Gospel as he did the Corinthians with diseases and sudden death for their prophaning the Lords Supper So 1 Cor 11. 30. likewise may not we doubt but God under the Gospel also rewards those who obey even with temporal blessings and if you observe it nothing prospers here better then this vertue of Charity For the very Politian himself advises us to help our very enemies if we mistrust they can get out of themselves because thus we shall make them our friends Beasts have so much reason and civility to return a courtesie Nature is still calling upon us for this duty so earnestly as some have wished their very friends to whom they stand most obliged in misery for no other reason but that they might relieve them and be quit of this debt On the contrary 't is remarkable what great advantages some have missed meerly because they knew not how to give in season For there is he saith Solomon that withholds what is meet but it tends to poverty Prov. 11. 24. But suppose men do turn inhumane and ungrateful yet still he that gives to the poor shall not lack Prov. 28. 27. For God in your extremities will either afford you an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a place to slip out of or else give you strength to suffer which in effect is all one No great matter whether the three Children be in the Furnace or out of it so the flame does not so much as singe them and then you will without all question receive an ample reward in the world to come For if Heaven do stand open to such as have their sins forgiven then you for your Charity shall be sure to enter in for Charity shall cover the multitude of sins If your luxury did make your Saviour faste the feeding of his afflicted members that will feed him again and if your wantonness in apparel stript him in covering their nakedness you shall cloath him again in short if your sins crucified him in relieving them you revive him and make him alive again upon the earth This Sacrifice will expiate all Give to the poor what thou hast and all shall be clean unto you says our Saviour Luke 11. 41. Again do you think such as do all the whole will of God shall inherit eternal life then your Charity must of necessity let you in for Charity is the fulfilling both of the Law and the Prophets
God as he did we should rather as he did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him for our Brethren then smite them with our tongues then tell of the misery of these wounded ones that is speak vauntingly and Psal 69. 26. preach thereof as the word signifies then thus rain down upon them their own snares halestones and coals of fire I confess prudent and discreet reprehension is as a gracious and seasonable rain as precious balm but rash and inconsiderate censure is as a Tempest or Hurrican to waste a soul to carry all before it and to digg up a good name by the roots And as it is truly said that most men speak against Riches not out of hatred but love unto them so do many declaim against Sin not out of hatred to sin but out of love to themselves which may be as great a crime as that they speak against Signum putant bonae conscientiae aliis malè dicere They think it a sign of a good conscience in themselves to speak evil of others and conceit themselves good if they can say others are evil For as true Righteousness speaks alwaies in compassion but that which is false and counterfeit breaths forth nothing but wrath and reviling and indignation Remember those that are in bonds as if you were bound with them and as being your selves in the Hebr. 13. 3. body as being in the body obnoxious to the same evils in a mortal body Rom. 8. 11. an earthly body and a corruptible body And remember those who are 1 Cor. 15. 40. 53. in their sins which are the bonds I am sure and fetters of the soul as being also in that body of death as being under that burden that presseth Rom. 7. 24. down and under sin that hangeth so fast on that we shall never fling it Hebr. 12. 1. off till we cast off our bodies being in the same polluted garments which will stick close to us till we be uncloathed and cloathed upon 2 Cor. 5. 4. and mortality be swallowed up of life Look not upon thy Brethren as Grashoppers and upon thy felf as a strong and perfect man in Christ as if thou wert spiritual heavenly impeccable and as far removed from Sin as God himself But rather as St. Paul was made a Jew to the Jew so be thou as a sick man ministring to the sick handling another 1 Cor. 9. 20. with the same compassion thou wouldst have extended to thy self if thou thy self should be in his case If thou despise and reproach him I am sure thou art in a far worse For be he what the frailty of the Flesh the subtilty of Satan and the flattery of a vain World can make him yet he is thy Brother be he sick well-near unto death yet he is thy Brother be he the lost sheep yet he is thy Brother and Christ may fetch him back again even upon thy shoulders that is by thy compassion and thy care be he amongst the swine with the Prodigal yet he is thy Brother for within a while he may come back again to his Father and thy Fathers house If he be to thee as an heathen or publican yet he must also be Brother And further we press not this Use So then neither Error nor Sin can unty this knot can dissolve and break this relation of Brethren I named a third but I am well-near ashamed to name it again or bring it in competition with Error or Sin because an offense against God should more provoke us then any injury done to our selves Which our Apostle here sets so light by that although the Galatians had even questioned his Apostleship and preferred Peter and James and John before him yet he passeth it by as not worth the taking notice of Like Socrates who being overcome in judgment profest he had no reason to be angry with his enemies unless it were for this that they conceived and believed they had hurt him And here St. Paul saith Ye have not hurt me at all And indeed no injury can be done by a brother to a brother For the injury is properly done to God who made them Brethren and fellow-servants and who reserves all power of revenge unto himself who is their common Master and the God of revenge If a brother strike us we should saith Chrysostom kiss his hand if he would destroy us our revenge should be to save him Ignoscat tibi Christus saith Nazianzene to a young man that was suborn'd to kill him Christ forgive thee who hath also forgiven me and dyed to save me Ille idoneus patientiae sequester He is the best Advocate for our patience the best Decider of all our controversies and debates If you gage and lay down your injury with him he is the Revenger if your loss he is the Restorer if your grief he is the Physician if your death he will raise you up again But we shall no further prosecute this because it will fall in with our last part We will rather having as ye have read secured and fortified the Brethren walk about yet a while longer and tell the towers and bulwarks which the God of Love hath raised and set up to uphold them And they are 1. Pleasure excessive Pleasure 2. Profit great Profit 3. Necessity extream Necessity All these serve to maintain and uphold this Brotherhood For Brotherly Love is 1. pleasant and delightful 2. profitable and advantageous 3. so necessary that it had been better for us never to have been then not to love the Brethren For the first hear what the Psalmist saith Behold how good and joyful Psalm 133. 1. a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity Not only it is so but it is worth our observing and we are called to behold and consider it Which if we did with a serious eye we should not so slight and undervalue it as we do For Pleasure is winning and attractive It is a motive above all eloquence more persuasive then the words of the wise Oh that we could be once brought to be well perswaded of this Pleasure and did not so dote on that which hath no true pleasure at all in it The Hills saith the Prophet David are girded with gladness Psalm 65. 12. Things are figuratively said to be glad when they attain unto and abide in their natural perfection So the Light is said to rejoyce when it shineth clear and continually because then it is in its highest and fullest splendor Now there can be no higher perfection for a Christian then to love the Brethren He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God 1 John 4. 16. in him and By this men shall know you are my Disciples if ye have John 13. 35. love one to another saith Christ by the same John in his Gospel What perfection greater then for a man to dwell in God and to have God dwell in
the Wilderness or an Owl in the Desert like the Leper under the Law whom no man must come near Have no company with him that is by thy company and familiarity give him no encouragement in his sin For good words and courteous behaviour may be taken for applause a smile is a hug and too much friendship is a kind of absolution And yet for all this have company with him for it tells us Count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother Deal gently and meekly with him but this we cannot do if we wholly separate our selves from him and avoid his company The rule of Charity directs us to think every man an heir with Christ or if he be not at least that he may be so And this is a kind of priviledge that Charity hath in respect of Faith Faith sees but a little flock but few that shall be saved makes up a Church as Gedeon did his Army who took not all that were prest out for the war but out of many thousands selected a band of three hundred and no more but Charity taketh in all and sees not any of that company which she will dismiss but thinks all though now their hands be weak and their hearts faint in time may be sweetly encouraged to fight and conquer You will say this is an error of our Charity But it is a very necessary error for it is my charity thus to erre and it is not a lye but vertue in me in my weak brothers case to nourish a hope of that strength which peradventure he shall never recover The holy mistakes of Charity shall never be imputed as 〈…〉 s no nor be numbred amongst those of Ignorance For he that errs not thus he that hopes not the best of all he sees though weltring in their bloud wants something to compleat and perfect him and make him truly worthy of the name of a good Christian And this error in Charity is not without good reason For we see not how nor when the Grace of God may work how sinful soever a man be Peradventure saith St. Hierom God may call unto him lying and stinking in his sins as in a Grave Lazarus come forth Charity therefore because she may erre nay because she must erre looks upon every man with an eye of Meekness If he erre she is Light if he sin she is a Physician and is ready to restore him with the spirit of Meekness And thus much for the Object of Meekness We proceed now to that which was in order next and as we have drawn forth Meekness in a compleat piece in her full extent and latitude so will we now in the last place propose her to you as a Virtue 1. most proper 2. most necessary to a Christian By which degrees and approaches we shall press forward towards the mark even the reward of Meekness the inheritance of the earth Of these in their order Meekness we told you is that virtue by which we may better know a Christian than by his name And this the very enemies of Christianity have acknowledged Vide ut se invicem diligunt Christiani was a common speech among the Heathen See how the Christians love one another when they broke the laws of Meekness and did persecute them Male velle malè facere malè dicere malè cogitare de quoque ex aequo vetamur To wish evil to do evil to speak evil to think evil are alike forbidden to a Christian whose profession restraineth his will bindeth his hand tacketh up his tongue to the roof of his mouth and curbeth and fettereth his very thoughts For as we are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a Head so if we will be members we must be suppled with that oyl of Meekness which distilleth down from our Head Christ Jesus He came not saith Tertullian into the world with Drum and Colours but with a Rattle rather not with a noise but like the rain into a fleece of wooll not destroying his enemies but making them his friends not as a Captain but as an Angel and Ambassador of peace not denouncing war but proclaiming a Jubilee and with no sword but that of the Spirit Look upon all the acts of our Saviour whilst he conversed on earth amongst men and we shall find they were purely the issues of Tenderness and Meekness He went about doing good As he cured mens bodies of diseases so he purg'd their souls of sin When he met with men possessed though with a Legion of Devils he did not revile but dispossess them he rebuked the Devil but not the man His mouth was so filled with the words of meekness Thy sins are forgiven thee that he seldom spake but the issue was comfort He pronounced indeed a woe to the Pharisees and so he doth to all sinners For Woe will follow the Hypocrite whethersoever he goeth though it be not denounced a Wce to drive them from sin to repentance not a curse but a precept to fright them from that woe which he denounced It is but pulling off the visour casting away their hypocrisie and the Woe will vanish and end in a blessing He called Herode a Fox for as God he knew what was in him and to him every wicked person is worse then a beast No Fox to Herode no Goat to the Wanton no Tiger to the Murderer no Wolf to the Oppressour Obstinate sinners carry their Woe and curse along with them nor can they fling it off but with their sin And Christ's profession was to call sinners to repentance When the Reed was bruised he broke it not and when the flax did smoke he quench'd it not As he hath a Rod for the impenitent and it is the last thing he useth so he cometh in the spirit of Meekness and openeth his arms to receive and imbrace them that will meekly yield and bow before him and repent and be meek a 〈…〉 is meek Now our Saviviour is disciplina morum the way and the truth And that gracious way which it hath pleased him to tread himself before us the very same he hath left behind to be gone by us and hath ordered a course of religious and Christian worship which consisteth in Meekness and sweetness of Disposition An incongruous thing therefore it is that he having presented to us the Meekness of a Lamb we should return the rage of a Lyon that he should speak in a still voice and we should thunder And this is most proper to Christianity and the Church For first what is the Church of Christ but a Congregation of meek ones We cannot bring Bears and Lyons and Tigers within that pale Quomodo colligemus as Tertullian speaketh How shall we gather them together jungantur tigribus ursi We cannot bring them together into one body and collection or if we do but as Sampson did his Foxes to look several waies We are told indeed that the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with
compact but liberality As if an Oath which is freely made bindeth not as much as that doth which is upon agreement Lastly some that he forgave him as he was David but not as he was King of Israel which is in effect As a private man he swore that he should not dye but as a publick person he commanded his Son to cut off his head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These excuses and apologies do not acquit but condemn this blessed Saint of God and with the least breath you see they are scatter'd as leaves before the Wind. It is not our intent to agravate that fact as a sin in David which yet in a Christian would be crimen devoratorium salutis a sin that standeth in adverse aspect to the Spirit of the Gospel and would deprive of all right to that promise which is here made to the meek and leave no hope of salvation For after our Saviour had given that Precept of loving our ememies he presently backeth it with the strongest reason that can be brought That yee may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven who maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the Matth. 5. 45. unjust We conclude this point with that of Tertullian Novam certè mansuetudinem docet Christus etiam vicem injuriae prohibens permissam à Creatore Christ hath brought in a new kind of meekness into the world forbidding that liberty of revenge which the Maker of all things had for some reason permitted for a time But this may seem to be durus sermo a hard saying and the world is not very fruitful of such men as are able to bear it For if this be true the language of the Gospel is more harsh then that of the Law and speaketh in more terror then the Thunder from Mount Sinai we are come again to blackness and darkness and tempest and to the voice of words which we intreat may be spoken to us no more Not to hate an enemy To love an enemy To do good to an enemy Not to be angry if this be Gospel our case is far worse then that of the Jew Indeed saith St. Basil this was the very reason why the Jews would not receive Christ and his Gospel they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was a hard saying Laboriosa omnia ignavis All things are toylsome to the sluggard A pain it is to him to pull his hand out of his bosome Continence is a hard lesson to the wanton Prov. 26. 15. Temperance to the Glutton and Meekness to a Nabal â—â— a Son of Belial who will swell and quarrel at a very Look and though the winds be still about him and not the least injury so much as breath on him yet hath wind enough shut up in his heart to raise a tempest Semper offendunt bona malos pia impios sancta profanos Good things are alwaies scandalous and offensive to evil men If you enjoyn Meekness you put a Thorn in their sides to prick and trouble them And you may to as much purpose bid a dead man rise and walk as win him that loveth his passion to lay it down But yet how hard soever our talk is we find that the Jews had an expensive and laborious Religion that they were sub elementis mundi as children or rather as slaves under the Elements of the world that they had many Ceremonies many Statutes and Laws in quibus non vivebant sed puniebantur in which they did not so much live as were punished And now what doth God Mic. 6. 7 8. require of thee O Christian Not to circumcise thy foreskin but thy heart not thousands of Rams but to forgive seventy times seven times not ten thousands of rivers of oyl but only this pretious oyntment which may fall upon the head of thy brethren and run down to the skirts of their Garments to their lowest infirmities Not the fruit of thy body for the sin of thy soul but to forgive that thou mayst be forgiven And what is easier then this saith Chrysostome Non opus est peregrinationibus Thou needest not go on Pilgrimage or take any long journey to atchieve it It is but going out of thy self and leaving thy pride and animosities behind thee Thou needest not sayl for it thou needest not plow for it It is but plowing up the fallow ground of thy heart and then sowing the seed of Meekness Sufficit ut velis tantùm jam virtus illa suum opus implevit If thou canst fight against thy Flesh degrade thy Ambition and shut out the World if thou canst work in thy self a willingness to forgive this vertue hath its work and consummation Habe charitatem fac quod vis as it is in the Gloss of the Canon Law Have Charity put on the bowels of Compassion and Meekness and do what thou wilt For if thou caust but once love its countenance thou wilt soon embrace it Amor magus Love is a kind of Magician and hath spells and inchantments to charm our passions and conjure down this Devil You may now think your selves in a very slippery place when not a violent tempest but a gust a puff of wind will overthrow you when not Murder but Anger not a Word but a Thought not Revenge but Not doing good not Rage but Impatience not Noyse but a Whisper may endanger your title to this crown of Blessedness Fear not only be strong and of good courage The Stoick looked pale in a Tempest but he imputed it Subitis motibus officium rationis praevertentibus to those phantasies and sudden motions which do unawares suppress the Reason and give her no time to deliberate So a Christian may be shaken with those assaults which by subreption may steal upon him he may speak what afterwards he will revile more than his enemy and do what he will detest more than an injury cast a look of dislike and soon distaste that look cloud his countenance and chase it away with a prayer be moved and within a while be more moved for being so and so remain the same meek man and a Christian still For God forbid that an injected thought a sudden motion a forced frown a word struck out by some outward and unexpected violence should shut any man out of the Covenant of Grace and hope of happiness If God should thus mark extreamly what is done amiss no flesh would be saved but the whole world would be as Sodome and Gomorrah That which the Gospel requireth at our hands is that every man should severely watch over himself watch and deprehend himself and then double his watch suspect a temptation and fight against it before it come fight against it though it never come and not easily entertain any act which standeth in opposition to this virtue nor any occasion which may draw on that act For to be bold to think evil so I
cast them behind him never to think of them so to forget them as if they never had been so must we He doth it too without respect of persons and so we ought to do We must forgive all for ever and so far must we be from respect of persons that we must acknowledge no title but that of Christian To conclude this point How slight soever we make of it there is no surer mark that we are not in the true Faith than Hatred of our brethren no stronger Argument that we are not Members of that Body whereof Christ is the Head then the I will not say Hatred but Not-loving of the weakest Member of it For he that loveth not his brother the love of God cannot dwell in him He may slatter himself with a vain opinion that he loveth God but the love of God is not really in him it abides not it dwells not it hath not residence in him And he that hateth his brother is in 1 John 2. 11. darkness He may think he enjoyes the light of the Gospel and that he is under the Covenant of Grace but there is no such matter He is Diaboli ludibrium the Devils laughing-stock nay the very forge of Satan wherein he hammereth and worketh all iniquity And he walketh in darkness saith S. John His Hatred hath blinded his eyes so that he walks on and thinks he is in the right way He labours in his vocation he goes to Church he receives the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ he can do any Christian office and so he thinks he is sound and healthful even when the poyson is at his very heart And therefore S. John addeth He knoweth not whither he goeth He falls into many sins whilst he thinks he doth well An opinion he hath he is in the right way to Heaven but no Christian knowledge thereof because that darkness hath blinded his eyes so blinded his eyes that he discerneth not any as he should If he be a Prophet he obeys him not if a just man he respects him not if otherwise a friend he knows him not For Malice hath as it were informed his soul and as she makes the Body her instrument so the Soul the place of her dominion and she reigns there as the Devils Tributary Custos peccatorum the keeper of the door of the soul that Sin fly not out And watchful she is too for she never sleeps If but a thought of repentance arise she will chain it up So that whilst Hatred possesseth thy heart thy heart is a stone Broken it may be but softned it cannot be And though thou flatterest thy self that thou hast repented of thy sins yet it hath no more reality then thy Eating or Running in a Dream Oh then Beloved let us put on brotherly love the certain sign and note that God in Christ hath begotten us his children Let us forgive our enemies that so we may resemble our Father Let us root out the bitter weed of Malice the strongest Argument of a true and serious Repentance Let us cloath our selves with Charity which will make our wayes otherwise rugged and uneven to be smooth and passable being the very barr and petard to break up each door and hinderance in our way Lastly in our Apostles words Let us be followers of God as dear children The Sixth SERMON PART II. EPHES. V. 1. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children WHEN my meditations first fastned themselves upon this parcel of Scripture I then thought that the space of an hour would have both quitted them and me But this holy Oyl like that of the Widows in the Book of Kings encreased under my hands and I could not then pour it out all unto you I therefore then became your debtor And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a holy and sacred debt and I am come now to quit my promise to pour out the remainder of the Oyl and to pay my debt even there where I obliged my self in the holy Sanctuary I then observed that these words contained in them a Duty Be yee followers of God and the Persons enjoyned this Duty the Ephesians who are stiled dear children Which title includes motives to win and enforce them to the Duty 1. because they were children a great prerogative 2. because dear children a gracious adjunct The Duty hath been handled The Motives remain Which I say include a high priviledge or prerogative For if as we are men we esteem it honourable to be of such a race and stock to be descended from this Potentate or that Prince surely then as we are Christians when we have put on our better and more heavenly thoughts we shall account it the greatest honour to derive our pedigree from Heaven to be called the Sons of God as St. John speaketh to be filii Divini beneficii as St. Augustine children of the Divine kindness to be children of God and heirs of a Kingdom and that a heavenly Kingdom to have title to a Crown and that a Crown of life But so it is Beloved that when we hear of charters and grants of priviledges and prerogatives our thoughts go no farther but stay themselves in the meer grant and priviledge The Gospel is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good news and we delight to hear of a Saviour of a Prince of peace of one that shall make our peace and take away the sins of the world But we think not of any allegiance or duty which we owe to this Prince Glad we are he is victorious and that he hath the Keyes of Hell and of Death And wear his colours too we would but we would not come under his banner we would not fight his battels Children we all would be but where is our Duty We desire to be endeared but where is our gratitude Nay further yet we would be accounted lovely and yet remain enemies to the Grace of God Our sins we would have cover'd but not blotted out We would have God forget them and yet still walk in them And here we mistake the nature of a Priviledge For the tye thereof is as strong as that of the Law and the greatest sins are those against the Gospel Our own Chronicles will tell us that riots and disorders in Cities in one Kings reign have weakned and disannulled Charters and Priviledges granted by a former King Beloved God is the King of Kings the same to day and yesterday and for ever and he grants not his priviledges or charters that we should let loose the rains to Impiety and make our strength the law of unrighteousness The trumpet of the Gospel sounds not that we should take up the weapons of Sin to prepare our selves to the Devils battel Neither did that Tree of life grow up that we should sin securely under the bough and shadow of it And therefore the Apostle here exhorting the Ephesians to Imitation of God uses this method He taketh not his argument ab inutili
we are not but Heirs Heirs of God and coheirs joynt-heirs Rom. 8. with Christ As he is Son so we by his right are sons too All is ours Paul is ours and Cephas is ours because we are Christs and Christ is Gods So that St. John might well usher-in this great advancement which an ECCE Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 1 John 3. 1. But in the second place besides this grace of Adoption we are children too in a manner by Generation Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth But not so as he begat his only begotten Son by an eternal geneneration James 1. 18. as Fulgentius speaks but by a voluntary regeneration In him without any natural beginning there remained an eternal nativity but Gods Will preceded and went before our new birth And to this end he placed us in gremio matris Ecclesiae even in the bosome of the Church our Mother who conceived us of the incorruptible seed of Gods word as St. Peter speaketh the blessed Spirit quickening this seed till a new creature be brought forth not into this temporary but into the eternal light which she feeds with the bread of life the word of truth which she nourisheth with the milk of faith which she strengthneth with the bread of affliction with the bloud of Martyrs till growing up from strength to strength from virtue to virtue it became at last a perfect man in Christ Jesus And this may well be called a birth for indeed it much resembles our natural birth but especially in two respects First here are the two terms of Generation Non-ens tale and Ens tale the Matter out of which it was produced and the Substance or Entity which it is now Terms truly contradictory as different as Heaven and Hell as Light and Darkness So that here is mira mutatio the change is wonderful View Man in his naturals as not yet regenerate and he is as the Apostle saith the child of wrath candidatus Diaboli saith Tertullian one that hath abjured Heaven and is as it were a competitor and one that stands for Hell nay one that may be imployed as the Devils instrument to bring others thither As Pliny said of Regulus Quicquid à Regulo sit necesse est fieri sicut non oportet so of him Whatsoever he doth must needs be done amiss because he doth it Who would ever look that a sweet stream should flow from this corrupt Fountain Who would expect that this Nehustitan this rude piece of brass should ever be polisht Or is it possible so far as in our conceit that out of this Cockatrice-egge there should be hatcht a Dove Hence then encrease thy gratitude and obedience and admire Gods Power With meer man this is impossible but with God all things are possible And this Change too as the Introduction of a humane soul is instantaneous and in a moment though the growth be by degrees Non opus est morâ Spiritui Sancto The holy Ghost needs not the help of delays But if even into this dead and corrupt matter he breathe the breath of spiritual life it shall stand up from the dead and live and be a new creature Which is the terminus ad quem the second term of this spiritual birth And here view him and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is changed another out of another a child of light candidatus aeternitatis one that thinks of nothing but Aeternity Certainly a blessed birth and happy change A happy day it was when it might be said that such a child was conceived a child of peace a child of blessings a child of God That day was a day of brightness a day of rejoycing a typical day of that eternal day when time shall be no more The second resemblance of our spiritual birth to our natural is in respect of the difficulty and pains in bringing forth this child And here it is but a resemblance it will not admit a comparison For though the pains of a woman in travel are great so that almost they are become proverbial yet they are but light afflictions scarce worth note or naming in respect of the sorrow and pain endured in this delivery but rods to these scorpions but as a cramp or convulsion to this rack as scratches to these wounds scarce breaking the upper skin as Seneca speaks whilst these divide asunder the soul and the spirit whilst they enter the bowels and the heart scarce worth the speaking of in respect of these sighs and groanings which the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 26. are unspeakable For indeed the grief of the body is but the body of Grief but the pain of the soul is the very soul of Pain and the Soul it is that is afflicted in this birth The sighs are hers and the groans are hers and all is to dead in her self the root of Sin non exercere quod nata est as St. Hierome not to be what she is to be in the body and yet out of the body to tame the wantonness of the flesh to empty the whole man of luxury to prune the over-spreading passions all to be delivered and to bring forth this New creature Quantae solicitudines quantae contritiones saith St. Ambrose What solicitude what anxiety what contrition what tye of Continence what lashes of Conscience what bitterness of soul Qualis adversarius What an adversary to cope withall and to remove that would strangle this Infant in the womb in the conception nay that would destroy it in semine in principiis before it were an embryon that would not suffer it to have power to become a child of God But yet though there be pain and grief in the travel there is joy and comfort after the delivery Quae parturit quatitur compungitur In the travel there is a conquassation and compunction as it were but quae peperit exsultat when the woman is delivered when the little Infant hangs on the teat there is joy and exsultation and the Mother forgets the pain because a child is born into the world So Christ is our joy 〈…〉 he Child to be formed in us as the Apostle speaketh at the first is bitter and distastful to us and we are not willing to conceive him in the womb of our soul because this new birth cannot be without a funeral For to be thus born we must dye we must dye to our selves to the world to the flesh we must hate that which we most love we must renounce all that may hinder this birth But when Christ is fully formed in us the cloud of sorrow is removed all is serene and bright and we forget the pangs and grief and sorrow which before we endured for the holy Ghost hath come upon the soul and the most High hath over-shadowed it and now that holy thing which is born shall be called the Son of
this Signet he will take away this Hedge he will dry this Fleece he will pull this Eagle out of her nest Though she make her nest high he will pluck her down from Jer. 49. 15 16. thence She shall be small among the heathen And this Populus meus shall be populus nullus this his people shall be no people but a scatter'd nation the scorn of the world in quos omnium Caesarum ira detumuit who have smarted as slaves under each Emperor whose very name shall be odious as it is at this day Beloved to come home to our selves and to change Jewry into England If they then surely we now are populus Dei Gods people as much endeared as much obliged as ever the Jews were When the cloud of Superstition darkned England God dispersed that cloud and placed the Candle in the candlestick the Gospel in the Church And this Taper hath burnt bright these many years we may say by miracle for our enemies whole industry hath been to extinguish it We have also seen Gods wonders on the deep For when we saw no door of hope to pass through as the Prophet speaks when our enemies were ready to devour us as with an East-wind God scattered them And that Navy which his Holiness had christned and called Invincible in a moment was overcome and a Coin was stampt with a fitter name a new inscription VENIT IVIT FUIT It came it went away it came just to nothing Nay when Hell it self fought against us and there lacked nothing but the touch of a match to our destruction God in an instant blasted and nullified the design of bloudy men They were in travel with mischief and were delivered too but they brought forth a lye These loving kindnesses I know you all will say deserve to be written in a pillar of marble with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond and to be shewen to all posterity But Beloved it is not verbal thanks alone that God requires but we must write these favours in our hearts and the remembrance of them must drive us to repentance for that great sin of Ingratitude it must win us to obedience and inforce us to a more Christian conversation and that citò hodiè without delay this day lest God remove his Providence from our Tabernacle lest he blow out our Taper and remove our Candlestick lest he darken our Sun and turn our Moon into bloud lest he furbish that sword which is already drawn against us to cut us off and destroy us The Jews were his children as dear to him as we are and now they are cast away cut off small and despised amongst men Besides this larger Volume of Gods blessing each Christian hath at least a pocket Manual in which he may read Gods love unto himself and tell what he hath done for his soul If thou be rich it was God's love that made thee so and he looks for some restitution by the hands of the poor If thou be full of daies thou hadst them from Gods right hand and he gave them not that thou shouldst still be a child in understanding If thou be an Absolom for beauty God made not so fair a soul for a bad guest a foul soul If thou hast a good thought it was Gods love that wrought it and thou must not be so unkind as to stifle it If thou hast a holy intendment it was God that raised it and it is sacriledge to pull it down If thou hast Perseverance in goodness it was God that continued it and thy prayer must be that he will not depart from thee And then if out of all these thou findest a full perswasion that thy sins are forgiven and that thou art lovely in Gods sight thou must also encrease thy obedience and as thou tastest of Gods love in the highest degree so thou must wind up this obedience to the highest pin thou must be a follower of God as a child worthy to be beloved worthy to be dear Which is the last step of this Gradation and comes now to be handled A child of God and a dear child A great priviledge a great tye But now not only to be so but to be made worthy to be so not only to be endeared but to be filius diligibilis a child worthy of love and of a deformed and defaced person to be made amiable this is that cord of man that band of Love that draws us this is the covering of that Black which the Sun had looked upon this is the work of our Cant. 1. well-beloved Christ Jesus And now he calleth Arise my love my fair one and come away As when St. Chrysostome makes it an argument of the dignity of the Soul that whereas a Body naturally deformed cannot by the most skilful Artist be brought to an apt and seemly proportion yet the soul polluted crooked and maimed may be cleansed and set as it were and made straight again So must we here with the Apostle make it not only an argument of Gods Love but a great motive to our Obedience That our sins are forgiven us That they shall not be imputed unto us That we shall appear before our Judge not in our own likeness but in the likeness of our elder Brother Christ Jesus who is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods well-beloved Son in whom he is well-pleased When Joseph a fair person and well-favoured was enticed by Potiphars wife to lie with her his answer was My master hath made me ruler over his house and hath committed all into my hand he hath kept nothing from me but thee How then shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God Beloved each Christian should thus dispute with himself I was sore wounded and God hath procured a salve for my sore and shall I therefore lye still and bleed my self to death He hath for my sake humbled his Son he hath multiplyed his mercies upon me and shall I make his Mercy a cause of my obstinacie in sin He hath kept nothing from me but his Honor and shall I strive to diminish that He hath freely forgiven me my sin and shall Sin therefore abound God forbid God forbid that our Practice should not as well give Rome the lye as our Doctrine She imputes it unto us that we lull men asleep on the Pillow of Security that we sing a Requiem to their souls when the conscience is most clamorous that we are meer Solifidians leaning upon a Reed relying only upon an empty and hollow Faith that we do per contemplationem volare saith Bellarmine hover as it were on the wings of Contemplation that we hope to go to Heaven with only thinking of it and never strive for inherent Righteousness and that our Assurance that our sins are forgiven us is praesidium peccati the Devils fense and a strong bullwark that the kingdom of Sin cannot be demolisht in us So charitable is their opinion of us And although
who hath made himself to every good work reprobate It is not a feeble thought it is an active Charity that is the foundation of Hope Run to and fro through Jerusalem go about the streets thereof muster up together all that name the Lord Jesus and you shall find every man is full of Hope and then you may conclude that every man is charitable Whatsoever the premisses be whatsoever the actions of our life be most men make this the conclusion and dye in hope assure themselves of happiness by no better experience then that which Flesh and Bloud and the Love of our selves are ready to bring in They fill themselves with Hope when they are full of nothing but Malice and Envy and Uncleanness of which we are told that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven And what Hope what assurance is this An assurance without a warrant an Hope which only we our selves have subscribed to with hands full of bloud a Hope which is no hope but a cheat a delusion presenting us nothing but heaven when we are condemned already It is true that Hope is a fair tye and pledge of what we shall enjoy hereafter but it is not then the work of the Phansie but of the Heart to be wrought out with fear and trembling and not to be taken up as a thing granted as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we cannot set up a pillar of Hope where there is no basis no foundation for it but a weak and feeble thought I know it is put up by some as a question Whether we ought to be assured of our salvation but it is but an impertinent question and not well put up For will any man ask Whether we ought to be in health and not rather Whether we ought to feed on wholsome meats and keep a temperate diet Beloved let us have Charity and Hope will as certainly follow and as naturally as Growth and Health do a moderate diet Otherwise to hope is a sin it is not Hope but Presumption For what Hope is that which looks towards Liberty and leaves us in chains that which promiseth life when we are children appointed to dye Let us then possess our hearts with Charity and Hope will soon enter in for they love to dwell and breathe together But it will not enter a froward and perverse heart for that will not receive it nor the heart of a Nabal for that is stone and will beat it back nor a heart that is fat as grease for it slips through it nor a Pharisee's heart for that is hollow and doth nothing but sound every thought is a knell and proclaimeth the fall of some in Israel None have less hope of others then they who presume for themselves None condemn more to hell then they whose feet are swift to shed bloud and who delight in those wayes which lead unto death Their very mercies are cruelty To put on the New man with them is to put off all bowels Every word they speak is clothed with Death And if Malice and Deceit and Uncharitableness lead not thither I may be bold to say There is no Hell at all They who make God as cruel as themselves do destiny men to destruction only because he will and to build up men on purpose to ruin them for ever that make the Wickedness of men depend on the antecedent will of God absolutely and irresistibly efficacious They are their own words that say that God doth work all things in all men even in the reprobate that the Induration and Incredulity of men is from the Praedestination of God as the effect from the cause that God calls men to salvation who are condemn'd already that though the elect which are themselves fall into adultery murder treason and other crying sins yet they fall not from grace but still remain men after Gods own heart when they do the works of their father the Devil These are they whose words are as sharp swords to cut off their brethren from the land of the living These men breathe forth nothing but hailstones and coals of fire but death and destruction These make a bridge for themselves to Happiness but pluck it up to their brethren These are in heaven already and shut it up that none else may enter Certainly a new way to heaven never yet discovered by the King of Heaven who hath put the keys into the hand of Charity who may boldly enter her self and who also is very willing to let in others who brings forth a Hope a Hope for our selves and a Hope for others Whoso makes haste to perfection is very willing to forward others in the way he calls upon them he waits on them he expects when they will move forwards and though they move not yet he hopes still Charity which brought down Christ from heaven lifts us up unto that holy place and we are never carried with more delight then when we go with most company there to joyn with the quire of Angels and to sing praises to the God of Love for evermore We love God because he loved us first and for his loves sake we love every man And now what is our Hope but that together with others we may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his eternal and everlasting glory The Ninth SERMON PSALM LI. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation IN these words we have 1. an Act Restore 2. an Agent God Restore thou 3. the Person suing David unto me 4. the blessing sued for the joy of God's salvation Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation David as the Title sheweth us being awakened by Nathan out of the slumber wherein he had long layn after his foul fact with Bathsheba penned this Psalm and published it a truly Penitential Psalm full of humble and hearty acknowledgments of sin and of earnest petitions for mercy and for assurance of God's favour His great fall had so bruised him that he felt no ease or comfort all was discomposed and out of tune his soul cast down and disquieted within him his heart broken his spirit wounded And a wounded spirit who can bear Hence it is that he prayeth with such vehemence Prov. 18. 14. and fervencie that God would be pleased in great merey to blot out all his transgressions and to wash and cleanse him from his sins and iniquities that he would not cast him away from his presence nor take his holy spirit from him and here in my Text that he would restore unto him the joy of his salvation But however these last expressions may seem to be the breathings of a disconsolate spirit and of one even out of hope yet we must not think that this man after God's own heart this great Saint though grievously fallen was quite fallen from grace and that his faith had now utterly failed and was extinguished No Faith can never be lost Or rather if it
probable conjecture And therefore I will give you a second reason Besides this natural Inclination God himself hath a further purpose in it He that observes the wayes of God as far as he hath exprest himself shall find that he hath a delight to shew unto the world those that are his to lift them up on high and mark and character them out by some notable tryal and temptation Thus he made tryal of Abrahams Faith by such a command as struck at the very foundation of his faith In Isaac shall thy seed be blessed and yet Take thy son thy only son thy son Isaac in whom alone all the Promises made to Abraham were to be made good Ill signs for Abraham to look upon signs that with him the world would soon be at an end yet God set them up before him to look upon but by looking upon them he became the Father of the faithful Thus God made tryal of Job by putting all that he had into the power of Satan who presently sent Sabaeans to fall upon his servants and oxen Fire upon his sheep Chaldeans upon his camels and a great wind to beat down the house upon his sonns â—ll signs for Job to look upon but by looking upon them he became operarius victoriae Dei as Tertullian speaketh Gods workman hired as it were and prest by God to gain a conquest for him and in him to triumph and erect a trophee over Satan To draw this down to our present purpose To try the Strength the Faith the Love the Perseverance of those who are his God is pleased to give way to this tumult and danger in the last dayes And as the Eagle brings out her young and then counts them hers if she can make them look up against the Sun so Christ here in my Text brings forth those who are his and proposeth before them the dreadful spectacles here mentioned to try whether they can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Text speaks whether they can out-look them and lift up their heads when all the world doth hang down theirs Or he deals with his as the Jesuites are said to deal with their Novices They are wont to try of what courage and heart they are by frighting them with feigned apparitions of Hobs and Bug-bears in the night And if they find them stout and fearless they entertain them as fit for their use if otherwise they dismiss them as not for their turn and purpose Even thus may God seem to deal with them whom he means to make his of the order and general assembly and church of the first-born who are written in heaven whom he means to place amongst the great and few examples of eternal happiness he scareth them with dreams and terrifieth them with visions He sets before us these terrors and affrightments to see whether we fear any thing more then him or whether any thing can shake the alliance and trust which we repose in him whether our Faith will be strong when the World is weak whether our Light will shine when the Sun is darkned whether we can establish our selves in the power of Gods Spirit when the powers of heaven are shaken And indeed what are all these signs here mentioned but Mormos meer toyes to fright children with if we could truly consider that if the world should sink and fall upon our heads it cannot hurt a soul nor yet so grind the body into dust that God cannot raise it up again Can the Heavens with all their blackness and darkness have any operation upon a Soul which is of a more noble essence than they Can the Waters drown or the Plague devour or Famine starve or Fire consume and waste a Soul Can an immortal Soul be lost in the noise and tumults of the people For all these signs and apparitions if we know whom we have believed or believe what we have read in St. Paul neither life nor death nor angels nor Rom. 8. 38 39 principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now in the third place I will adde one reason more and so make an end of this point If Fear will give us leave to consult with our Reason and with Scripture we shall find that all this army of dismal events are nothing else but the effects of that Love which God bears to the World especially to Man the creature which he made after his own image and therefore cannot hate him because he so made him As men are wont to say of sick persons that so long as there is breath be they never so sick there is hope of their recovery for our hope expires not but with our soul so though we be far gone though we be dead in sin though we be sick of a Consumption of grace yet God lays not down the expectation of our recovery so long as there is breath in us Many examples we have of Gods long-sufferance in Scripture Betwixt Niniveh and final Desolation there stood but forty dayes or as the Septuagint render it but three for whereas we read it fourty dayes they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet three dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed Yet God sent his Prophet unto them and upon their repentance turned away those evils which he had denounced against them and which were now in their approach even at their very doors Many messages had God sent unto King Ahab to reclaim him yet amongst them all none was more signal then that which was sent him immediately before his fall It should seem that God had already determined with himself the destruction of Ahab and that he should fight and fall at Ramoth-Gilead yet notwithstanding Micaiah the Son of Imlah a Prophet of God even against the Kings will is brought before him and telleth him to his head that he should go and fall at Ramoth-Gilead Nor can we now think that this was done by chance For notwithstanding four hundred Prophets of his own had smooth'd and flatter'd him with hopes of good success yet Micaiah one whom the King hated against the Kings will is constrained to come and when he seemed at first either to mock or fail in the delivery of his message he is deeply adjured to deliver the truth How many times saith the 1 Kings 22. 16. King shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord Now from whence did all this come but even from this that God had not laid down the care of Ahabs conversion but truly desired that he would return and live To apply now all this to our present purpose From hence even from Gods love it is that the last and worst age of the World is attended upon with dreadful signs and wonders For God who delights to be called a Preserver of men will
us in the ways of righteousness and in that course which leads to bliss much less to drive us out of the way What though there be signs in the Sun and Moon and Stars must my light therefore be turned into darkness must my Sun set at noon and my Stars those virtues which should shine in my soul fall out of their sphere and firmament What though the Seas roar and make a noise shall my impatience be as loud And if they break their bounds must I forget mine What though there be a Famine in the land must I make my Soul like unto the season lean and miserable What though there be wars and rumors of wars must I be at variance with my self and bid defiance to the Lord of hosts What though my friends betray me must I deceive my self And if the World be ready to sink must I fall into Hell Nay rather when we see these things come to pass when these signs come to pass let it be that we do as occasion serves us for God is with us in these signs Let 1 Sam. 10. 7. them be as Signs to us perswading signs Let them have the commanding eloquence of Signs Let them not be as Shadows which pass by us and we regard them not but let them be signa significantia signs that signifie something signs to represent something to our Understanding and so make an impression on our Wills Let them be as the Voice of God calling us out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey Let them be as the Finger of God and let us follow in that way the line is drawn Let them be as a Hand of God and let us humble our selves under his mighty hand Let them be the great Power of God and let us fall down and worship that so we may in his signis signari with these signs be signed and sealed up to the day of our redemption When the Sun is darkned think it is to upbraid thy ignorance and learn to learn to abound more in knowledge and all Phil. 1. 9. judgment When the Moon shall be turned into bloud think it is to chide thy Cruelty and put on the bowels of mercy and loving kindness When the Col. 3. 12. Stars fall from heaven the professors of truth speak lyes do thou stand fast in the faith When the powers of heaven are shaken when there be many sects and divisions do thou keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4. 3. every mans brother if he will and if he will not every mans brother If the Plague break in do thou purge the plague of thine own heart and keep thy self unspotted of the world If there be a Famine in the land do thou fill thy self with the bread of life as with marrow and fatness If Banners be displaid as signs as the Psalmist speaks let them be as signs to thee to fight against thy lusts When Parents and Brethren and Kinsfolk are false do thou look up to thy Father in heaven who is truth it self When the World is ready to sink do thou raise thy self with expectation of eternal glory This constancy this resolution this behaviour Christ requires at our hands and it will be in vain to plead impossibilities For could these men under Nature go so far and cannot we who are under Grace do so much Could they think that nothing without them could hurt them and shall fear nothing more then that which is without Good God! how comes it to pass that Nature should bear more sway in a Pagan then the Grace of the Gospel in a Christian Or have we disputed and trifled Grace out of its power or hath our abuse of Grace swallowed even Nature and Reason it self up in victory Tanti vitrum quanti margaritum Were these men so rich that they could bestow so much upon a trifle upon a toy of glass and cannot we who are under Grace give the same price for a rich Jewel When Themistocles was leading forth his army by chance he past by where Cocks were fighting and shewing them to his Souldiers Lo saith he these have neither altars nor temples nor children to fight for and you see how stoutly they fight for no other end but who shall be the conqueror And to this end have I shewn unto you the examples of these Heathen men as Themistocles did the Cocks to his Army For these men nec aras habebant neque focos They were without Christ in the world received not the promises neither saw they them so much as afar off saw not so much as a glimering of that Light which lightneth every man that commeth into the world Of immortality and eternal life they knew little What was their hopes what was their end As for Heaven and Hell their knowledge of them was small Yet their stomach and courage was such that we who are Christians hear it only as a tale and can scarcely believe it Beloved I speak this to our shame For a great shame it is that Nature defamed Nature should more prevail with them then God and Grace with us that they by the power of their Reason should stand the strongest assault and shock of misery and we run away affrighted from the very phansie and shadow of it For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And if we Christians cannot look undauntedly when we see these things come to pass how shall we behold the Heavens gathered together as a Scrowl the Elements melted and the Earth burnt up how shall we be able to hear the trump and the voice of the Arch-angel If we cannot look up and lift up our heads when we see these things with what face shall we meet our Saviour in the clouds Therefore as our Saviour in this Chapter exhorts v. 19. let us possess our souls with patience Let us withdraw our souls from our bodies our minds from our sensual parts that what is terrible to the eye may have no such aspect on the mind and what is dreadful to the ear may be as musick to the spirit and what wounds and torments the body may not touch the soul that so we may be what we should be our selves our own Lords in our own possession that Christ at his coming may find us not let out to Pleasure not sold to this Vanity nor in fetters under that fear nor swallowed up in that Calamity nor buried in the apprehension of those evils which shall come upon this generation but free in Christ alive in Christ active making these our adversaries friends these terrors blessings these signs miracles by Christs power working light out of darkness plenty out of famine peace out of these wars that at his second coming he may find us looking up upon him and lifting up our heads waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body that so we may be caught up together in the clouds and be for
Person to blemish and deface his Calling and Profession Nor can our Freedom by Christ priviledge us for we must submit quasi liberi as free and quia liberi because we are free For to this end we are made free that we should work all righteousness and not make our Freedom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cloak of maliciousness that by obeying of Kings and Governours we may be the Servants of God This is the sum of these words In them there be divers circumstances observable which we cannot handle now We will therefore confine our meditations and consider the Object which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every humane ordinance which hath here its distribution into Superior and Infeferior first the King secondly those Governours which are sent by him and are his Vicegerents 2. What is meant here by Submission 3. The Motives to win us to the performance of this Duty One is drawn ab autoritate from the Authority of God himself whose Deputys Kings and Governours are We must submit for the Lords sake another ab utili from the Good and Benefit we receive from them in the punishment of evil doers and the praise and encouragement of those that do well Of these in their order and first of the Object Submit your selves to every ordinance of man What this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ordinance of man this humane creature is there is some dispute and by divers hands it hath been fashion'd and shaped as it were into divers forms Some have tender'd it as a Law as a Constitution made by man Others have presented it as a Man though not invested with Authority and so have made every man both a King and a Subject a King to receive honour and a Subject to give it every man being bound by Christianity as by a Law to esteem every man his Superior and better than himself Some take it for the civil Power it self which though it be ordained of God and so is his creature yet it was first received and approved of men and so may be said to be a humane constitution à Deo saith St. Paul because all power is derived from God humana creatura saith St. Peter because even Nature it self hath taught men this lesson That two are better than one and that every family and every man is most safe in a collection and Society which cannot subsist but by a mutual dependance Eccles 4. 9. and a friendly subordination of parts where some are govern'd and others bare rule To reconcile all we may observe that rule in St. Augustine Turpe est disputantibus in verborum quaestione immorari cùm certamen nullum de rebus remanserit It is a thing not seemly to dwell long upon the words and to contend and criticize thereupon when the sense is plain Though we cannot separate the Power from the Man whose power it is yet it is plain by the distribution which follows that it cannot be meant of the Power but of the Man upon whose shoulders the Government lyeth For we cannot properly say of Power that it is either King or his Deputy It is very probable what a late writer hath observed that by this phrase the name of Magistrate is exprest in general and that St. Peter calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a creature as the Latines say creare consulem to make or create a Consul and that he stiles him a humane creature not that the Magistrate hath his Authority from men but because Magistrates themselves who are endowed with this Authority are men So that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath reference not to the Efficient cause but to the Subject to the Man in Authority who is the creature of God from heaven heavenly Nor indeed is it much material which sence we take but that the words will bear this last better then the other For as the man is such is his strength and as the Magistrate is such is his Power They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and bear so near a relation that they cannot subsist but together And St. Paul joyns them together and makes them one For whom he calls Rulers in one place he calls the higher Powers in another They are humane creatures as being men and formen but in respect of their power neither of men nor by men further then their consent No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could the Pythagoreans say Kings and Governours are creatures of Gods making And we may say of them as the people spake of Paul and Barnabas Gods are come down to us in Acts 14. the likeness of men Now this humane ordinance or creature if you take it for the Power it self is still the same and though it be conveyed by divers subordinations unto divers yet it differs no more then Water in the chanel doth from what it was in the fountain For as the King rules in nomine Dei in the name and place of God so doth the lower Magistrate judge the innocent and punish the offendor but withall in nomine Regis in the Kings name But if we take it for the Magistrate himself then it hath degrees of Sub and Suprà 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supreme and transcendent The Rulers and Governours which are sent and appointed by him move in a lower sphere and as the Stars differ from one another in glory For as we say in Logique that the middle Species is the Genus in respect of a lower yet but the Species in respect of the Genus so Magistrates in comparison of Inferiors are publick persons and yet again but Private men in respect of him who is Supreme There is indeed a derivation but no equalizing of power Regis absolutum Dominium the Kings Dominion is absolute under God theirs who are sent concreditum delegatum dependant and by way of delegation For the King is in the Kingdom as the Soul in the Body And the Philosopher will tell us Anima est ubi animat The Soul is wheresoever it hath its operation And so is the King wheresoever he ruleth For he sends his Governours and by them conveigheth and lets forth himself into every corner of his Kingdom His house is the Tent whilst the Captain is a commanding the Province whilst the Deputy is a governing the Tribunal whilst the Judge is a sitting the Consistory whilst the Bishop is a censuring And there is no place hid from his power but his power is every where where his Laws are in force For these Governours are taken in in partem curarum to ease the King of his burden not in partem imperij to share with him in his Supremacy The King then or Emperour is still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his sublimity in the very Zenith of state and admits none to be above him or in the same altitude He is the first compassing wheel others are carried about by his motion moving as the Kings Law moves and as
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
impatient of Godliness of Sobriety of common Honesty of the Gospel of Christ of Heaven it self upon those terms it is profer'd us And all that bread which should nourish us up to everlasting life we turn into stones Blow what wind will we are still in finibus Tyri Sidonis at home in our own coasts But next for Humility who vouchsafeth once to put on her mantle Humility it is well we can hear her name with patience But humi serpere to creep on the ground is not our posture You will say Christ doth not call us Doggs Yes he doth For though he be in heaven yet he speaketh still and in his Scripture calleth every sinner a Dogg a Swine yea a Devil He upbraids us to our faces as oft as we offend But we will not own these titles but call our selves Priests when we sacrifice to Baal and Kings too when we are the greatest slaves in the world If Humility still live in the world sure it is not the same Humility which breathed here in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon Lastly For our Perseverance and Fervor in devotion we must not dare once to compare them with this Womans For Lord how loath are we to begin our prayers and how willing to make an end When God is silent we think he will not speak when he answers we think he is silent But when we are told that our sins do hinder our prayers and that Christ cannot help us because we are Doggs then we desist and will pray no more because we will sin more and rather suffer the Devil to vex our souls then dipossess him with noyse Yea which is ridiculous and monstrous Quod affectu volumus actu nolumus we pray for that we would not have and desire help which we would not enjoy Every day we pray for Grace and every day we quench and stifle it Every day we desire Christs help and every day we refuse it So that we may well with a little alteration use our Saviours words The woman of Canaan shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from Tyre and Sidon and would not be denyed we live in the Church and are afraid that Christ should grant our requests Her devotion was on fire ours is congealed and bound up with a frost We talk much of Faith but where are its fruits Where is our Patience our Humility our Perseverance in devotion which gave the just proportion to this Womans faith and commend the greatness of it to all posterity For these are glorious virtues and shew the full growth of her Faith These answer St. James his OSTENDE MIHI Shew me thy faith by thy works But yet to come up close to our Text our Saviour mentions not these but passeth them by in silence and commends her Faith Not but that her patience was great her Humility great and her Devotion great But because all these were seasoned with Faith and sprung from Faith and because Faith was it which caused the miracle he mentions Faith alone that Faith may have indeed the pre-eminence in all things First Faith was the virtue which Christ came to plant in his Church Non omnium est credere quod Christianum est saith Tertullian This vertue belongs not to all but is peculiar to Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the first inclination to health and the ground-work of our salvation Let the Heathen accuse the very title and name of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret calls it let them object that our Religion brings in meram credulitatem a meer and foolish credulity and that we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but play the fools in taking up things upon trust yet this Perswasion this Belief this Faith is it which draws us from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon takes us from the number of Doggs and makes us citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem When we could not do what we should not fulfil the Law God taught us to believe and it was the riches and glory of his Mercy to find out this way and save us by so weak an instrument as Faith Besides Faith was the fountain from whence these rivulets were cut from whence those virtues did flow For had she not believed she had not come she had not cryed she had not been patient she had not humbled herself to obtain her desire she had not persevered But having a firm perswasion that Christ was able to work the miracle no silence no denyal no reproach no wind could drive her away A sign that our Faith now-adayes is not so strong it falls off so soon at the least opposition and fails and falls to the ground with a very breath a sign that we have paralyticas cogitationes as one speaks paralytical thoughts which cannot reach a hand to our Will nor guide and govern our desires to the end Lastly Faith is that virtue which seasons all the rest maketh them useful and profitable which commends our Patience and Humility and Perseverance and without which our Patience were but like the Heathens imaginary and paper-Patience begotten by some premeditation by habit of suffering by opinion of fatal necessity or by a Stoical abandoning of all affections Without Faith our Humility were pride and our Prayers babling For whereas in natural men there be many excellent things yet without Faith they are all nothing worth and are to them as the Rainbow was before the Flood the same perhaps in shew but of no use It is strange to see what gifts of wisdome and temperance of moral and natural conscience of justice and uprightness did remain not only in the books but in the lives of many Heathen men but this could not further them one foot for the purchase of eternal good because they wanted the Faith which they derived which gives the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a loveliness and beauty and is alone of force to attract and draw the love and favour of God unto us These graces otherwise are but as the matter and body of a Christian man a thing of it self dead without life but the soul which seems to quicken this body is Faith They are indeed of the same brotherhood and kindred and God is the common Father unto them all but without Faith they find no entertainment at his hands As Joseph said unto his brethren You shall not see my face except your brother be with you So nor shall Patience and Humility and Prayer bring us to the blessed vision of God unless they take Faith in their company You see our Saviour passeth by them all but at the sight of Faith he cryes out in a kind of astonishment O woman great is thy faith And for this faith he grants her her request Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Which is my next part and which I will touch but in a word FIAT TIBI is a grant and it follows close at the heels of the
not seem a strange thing that men should refuse their meat which would satisfie them and so prodigally sell themselves all themselves for that which is not bread as the Prophet Isa 55. 2. speaketh May it not go for a wonder that men should debauch their Understanding which should be their counsellor for their advantage and satisfaction and make it their purveyor for their wealth their surveyor in the works of the flesh and no better then a pander to their lusts that they should bow their Will to that which it would have even when it doth embrace it but determines its act and demolisheth it again in the twinkling of an eye that they should make their Memory a Treasury of nothing but that which should be buried in the land of oblivion that their Affections those incorporeal heads as Basil calls them should catch and grasp nothing but ayr and emptiness and then that they should prostitute all the members of their Body to be instrumental to the Soul in these her excursions and wanton sallies upon vanity to fetch in that which brings leaness unto it the snow of Lebanon in stead of waters out of the river of the Lord But after all this when I have so long fed on husks to deceive my self into a perswasion that I have been all this while at my Fathers house and feasted at his table to supply my defects and emptiness out of the book of life and to conclude my name is written amongst the elect when my tongue is an open sepulchre and I am to every good work reprobate that I should feed my self with a groundless and irregular thought of Gods mercy which though it be over all his works yet is not over a stubborn and unrepentant sinner which is none of his works that I should lay me down in peace and sleep upon this pillow upon this hope That a sigh at last will go for mortification and a prayer at my death for the obedience of my life and a confession when I can scarce speak for that faith which worketh by charity Hear O Heavens and wonder nay rather why art not thou troubled O my Soul and astonished within me For what is this but to sleep at the gates of Hell and to pass unto torment in a dream of satisfaction to build our selves a pillar of assurance to lean upon and then to fall into pieces with it to stuff a hollow and false faith with vain and improfitable imaginations as the souldier did his head-piece which he felt hard under him with chaff and then thought he had made his pillow easier In a word what is it but to feed on poyson instead of meat to smile and flatter our selves to death to call in flesh and bloud with these deceitful thoughts to favour us and to breath nothing but false hopes till our breath departeth and these hopes and these thoughts perish with it O then as the Wiseman speaks if we be wise let us be wise to our selves wise to edification and not to ruine wise with that wisdome which is from above and not with that which is earthly sensual devilish as full of deceit as the Deceiver himself as full of falshood as the Father of lyes but let us hearken to the Lord God who will teach us to profit let us be wise unto salvation And this is our wisdome to chuse that which will satisfie To draw to a conclusion If this be the prerogative of Godliness to be alone in this work so that nothing else can work us satisfaction let her have prerogative also in our hearts and exercise full power and autority and dominion over our desires to chase away from them all heterogenious and deceitful appearances to banish all that are enemies unto her that so we may captivate our Wills unto her and not bring her into subjection to our Wills not first distaste and refuse her and then make use of her name first bid her depart from our coasts and then in her name not cast out devils but let them in or be as malicious and mischievous as they In the name of Religion and Piety why should that be Religion to day which in the dayes before us went under the name of Impiety Why should Religion pass away with the fashion of the world and change as often as that Why should we take away its prerogative and give it to the World to command our desires and to command Religion to attend and promote them in our hastning to wealth and to turn covetous in our grinding the face of the poor and to turn cruel in our pursuit of honor and so turn ambitious as if nothing of Piety and Religion were desirable but the name and the things of this world were the only object that could not fill our desires and satisfie them And so we make up a religious Mammonist a religious Oppressor a religious Tyrant a religious Atheist we joyn together God and the Devil the name of God and a Devil incarnate Thus it falls out when we invert the order of things It is too frequent and common a thing in the world to cry up Religion and Godliness as the Ephesians did their Diana Demesnius his Rhetorick From this craft we have our gain is that which moulds and fashions Religion It shall be no longer Religion then it brings on advantage if it prove dangerous it shall loose both its name and prerogative Hence it cometh to pass that as there are many that are called Gods and called Lords so there are many Religions 1 Cor. 8. 5. The Covetous hath his the Ambitious hath his the Wanton hath his and the Schismatick hath his many Religions and none at all none that can satisfie us Thus whilst we seek satisfaction in every object to which our lusts and affections lead us we find something which we call by that name but whilst we look upon it it slips from us and we see it no more it doth but smile upon us and leaves us If we seek it in Beauty that is but colour and it is changed whilst we look on it Who saw when that eye sunk which took so many hearts who observed when that face wrinkled which was so gazed on All we can say is this Star is shott this Heaven is shriveled as a scrowl If we look for it in Riches they have wings and fly away Satisfaction dwells not in a misers bagg Yet we rise up Prov. 23. 5. early and lye down late we labour and sweat we cheat and oppress we venture our bodies and we venture our souls we venture nay cast away that which would satisfie us indeed only to gain this satisfaction to dye rich and we had rather pass with that esteem then with the honor of a Saint And so we pass away we dye rich and our money and this miserable satisfaction perisheth with us The fool in the Gospel sung a Requiem to his soul at the sight of his barns and that
reason at home in our own breasts and St. James hath shewn us how we should find it chap. 4. 2 3. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss We pray for Peace and lift up hands full of bloud and oppression We pray to God to settle the pillars of the Kingdome when our study is to shake them to be favourable to Sion when we fight against it And therefore saith God When you spread your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and when you make many prayers I will not hear for your hearts are full Isa 1. 15. of bloud Will we have our prayers effectual We must take the Prophets counsel in the next verse Wash you make you clean from oppression cruelty and deceit This is the best preparation to Prayer If we will hearken unto God he will incline his ear to us and if we love Peace and pursue it the God of peace will give it Thus if we we call upon him he will hear and thus if we cry unto him he will answer here I am Here I am as ready to crown you with blessings as you are to ask them as ready to send peace within your walls as you are to desire it ready to crown you with external peace here and with eternal hereafter Again when we pray we must follow our Saviours example and withdraw our selves and retire When he had sent the multitude away he went Matth. 14. 23. up into a mountain apart to pray And he went forward a little and fell Mark 14. 35. on the ground and prayed In Gethsemane he withdrew himself from his Disciples that he might more freely pour forth his soul unto God Retiredness is most fit for passionate and affectionate prayers Then our passions may best vent themselves Then our Indignation our Fear our vehement Desire our Zeal our Revenge may work freely upon the whole man 2 Cor. 7. 11. may force tears from our eyes and sobs from our tongues may beat our breasts and cast our bodies on the ground Then Ingeminations and Reiterations and Expostulations are more seasonable That which peradventure Modesty would stifle in company in our secret retirements is the true eloquence of a wounded soul There God will hear us when we speak and he will hear us when we do not speak He will understand us when we express our selves and he will understand us when our sorrows and tears are so great that we cannot express our selves There every sigh is a prayer every groan a loud cry and though our language be imperfect and come short of our wants yet is it easie and plain to him because it comes from a broken heart And therefore what here by ensample Christ teacheth us he giveth us a rule To pray in private To pray in our closet and he promiseth Matth. 6. 5 6. that our Father that seeth that heareth in secret wilâ— reward us openly He will lead us through the wilderness of this world into a paradise of pleasure where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes where there shall be no more sorrow no more travel no more fighting but peace and rest and joy and glory for evermore We have done now with the two first reasons or conjectures rather why our blessed Lord and Master went into the wilderness We come now to the third which was That by this his Retirement he might draw out to us the resemblance of a Christian mans life which is nothing else but a Secession and holy Pilgrimage out of the world For as the Wilderness is indeed a part of the world and yet in a manner out of the world so is Christ in the wilderness a fair representation of a Christian who lives in the world yet is not of the world who is a part of the world yet separate from it who is no sooner born into the world but is taught to renounce it As Joseph is called a Nazarite in the Latin Translation not that he was of Gen. 49. 26. that order or observed their Law which was made many ages after but that by his strictness and severity of life by his piety and innocency he was severed and removed from others whose lives were irregular and therefore he is said to be separate from his brethren Or as Macarius calls a virtuous man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stranger a barbarian to the World in St. Pauls sense because he understands not the World nor the World him The 1 Cor. 14. 11. Apostle repeats it again and again that the Patriarchs were but strangers Heb. 11. in the land which was given them in their own land yet strangers Howsoever God had promised them an inheritance in Canaan yet they took his word in another and higher sense of the spiritual Canaan They abode in the land of promise as in a strange country looking for a city having a foundation whose builder and maker is God Which was to make a wilderness in Canaan nay to make the land of Promise it self a Wilderness Hence St. Hierome is positive and peremptory That the Saints in Scripture are no where called inhabitatores terrae the Inhabitants of the Earth or of the World but that it is a name alwayes given to sinners and wicked persons to those of whom it is written Wo to the inhabitants of the earth St. Augustine Rev. 8. 13. saith the wicked do only habitare in mundo dwell and have their residence in this world and may pass into a worse but never into a better place but the righteous can only be said esse to be there to have a being and existence there to be there as the Angels are said by the Schoolmen to be in uno loco quod non sint in alio to be in one place not circumscriptively but because they are not in another to be in the world but not of the world to be in this world because they are not yet in the other to be on earth because they are not yet in heaven It is a hard saying this and an unwelcome doctrine to flesh and bloud to the children of this world That we should be sent into the world ideo ut exeamus to this end that we should go out of it be placed in Jerusalem and then bid to go out into the wilderness be seated in such a paradise and then driven out of it even whilst we are in it be set to till the ground from whence we are taken to digg and labor as in a mine and then be taught to be afraid and run from the works of our own hands to see Beauty which we must not touch Fruit which we must not taste Riches and Treasure which we must tread under foot It is indeed a hard saying but even Scripture and Reason have made it good and seal'd and ratifiâ—d it
for a truth They are not of the world even as I am not of the world saith Christ John 17. 16. of his Disciples A Christian is no more of the world then Christ himself I have chosen you out of the world which is in a manner a drawing them John 15. 19. out into the Wilderness I have chosen you out of the world to hate and contemn it to renew and reform it to fight against the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that is in the world 1 John 2. 16. St. John the beloved Disciple who leaned on Christs breast was nearest to him and learned this doctrine from him exhorts us not to love the 1 John 2. 15. world nor the things of this world And not to love it here is to hate it and Hatred is as a wing to carry us away in haste into some wilderness from that thing we hate If we hate the world we shall not endure to look upon it much less to stay and dwell in it or build a tabernacle here Love not the world Fly afar off and retire not only from those sins and vices which all men know and confess to be so which are branded with a mark and carry their shame in their forhead but even from those deviations and enormities which by the profit and advantage they bring have gained some credit and repute amongst men have not only scaped the stroke of reprehension but are crowned with praise and because they thwart not the statutes of Omri and may consist with the laws of men are new Christians as it were and have the names of those virtues given them which are perfect and consummate in that obedience alone which is due to the Gospel of Christ and to the Law of God Love not the world is a sequestring a kind of deportation a banishment of us not only out of the world but out of the confines and borders of it even from that which weak Christians and not yet perfect men in Christ judge to be no part of the World Love it not look down upon it crucifie it as St. Paul did By the virtue of Christs cross I am crucified to the world The World looks Gal. 6. 14. down upon me with scorn and contempt and indignation And the world is crucified unto me I look down upon it with the like scorn and contempt I pass by it and revile it and wag my head I look upon it as upon a dead corpse which I must not touch as upon a crucified thief who is expos'd to shame To conclude this As Christ withdrew himself from the City and multitude into the Wilderness so doth the Christian withdraw himself from the World He is not of the World he is chosen out of it he loves it not but looks upon it as upon a dead carrion and crucified carkase a loathed object an abomination which threatens not only the ruin of the Temple but even of Christianity it self And this will be more evident if we consider the nature either of Man that is led or of the Spirit that leadeth us Man being elemented and made up in this world to look towards another and the Spirit of God being a lover of Man a lover of the image of God and ready to lead him out For first as Man when he builds a house first sits down and consults what use he shall put it to so God the Creator of the world who made the world for mans sake made up Man also to be made an ensample of his Wisdome and Goodness made him to worship him chalked out his way beckon'd and called lowd after him to follow him in that way that so at last as it were by so many steps and degrees by the example of his Son and the conduct of his Spirit he might bring him out of the world unto himself I have made thee I have created thee I have formed thee for my Isa 43. 7. glory saith God by his Prophet to communicate my goodness and wisdome to make thee partaker of the Divine nature to make thee a kind of God upon earth by which according to thy measure and capacity thou mayest represent and express God In homine quicquid est sibi proficit There is nothing in Man which is not advantageous to him which may not help to carry him through this world to the region of Happiness We cannot doubt of his better part his Soul for that being heavenly and a spark as it were of the Divine nature cannot but look upward and look forward too upon its original must needs be ashamed and weary of its house of clay and be very jealous of the World which is but a prison and hath greater darkness and heavier chains to bind and fetter the Soul it self And therefore when it looks on the World and reflects and takes a full view of it self and considers that huge disproportion that is between the World and an immortal Soul you may find it panting to get out As the hart panteth after the rivers of water so panteth my soul after thee O God saith David and When shall I appear before the living Lord Now was David recollected and retired into himself now was he in his wilderness communing with his own heart We cannot doubt of the Soul whilst it is a soul and not made fleshy immersed and drowned in sensuality If it be not led by the Flesh but lead it self out of the world it will and return to its rest to its retirement But then even the body being thus animated with such a soul may help forward the work Glorifie God in your 1 Cor. 6. â—0 body saith St. Paul Not only withdraw your Souls but your Bodies also out of the world For as God breathed in the Soul so his hands have made and fashioned the Body and in his book are all our members written He made Psal 139. 16. the whole man both Soul and Body and built it up as a Temple of his blessed Spirit And if the Soul be the Sanctuary the Body is the Porch and his hand moves from the inward parts to the outward from the Sanctum sanctorum to the very door and entrance What is there almost in this our retirement from the World which is not done by the ministry of the body Our Fasting our Prayers our Alms haec de carnis substantia immolantur Deo these are all sacrificed to God of the substance of the flesh What is Martyrdome That certainly is a going out of the world And this advantage we have above the Angels themselves We can dye for Christ which the Angels cannot do because they have no bodies So that you see the end for which Man was made and sent into the world was to be ever going out of it His natural motion and that which becomes him as Man is to move forwards Which motion is
all bowels of mercy He accuseth our Faith to our Charity and perswades us that for all our good works we are none of the faithful and our Charity to our Hope as if it were so cold it could kindle no such virtue within us From Religion he drives us on to Superstition and from the fear of Superstition into that gulf of Profaneness which will swallow us up And then when he hath us in his nets when he hath by accusing us unto our selves made us guilty indeed when by accusing our virtues he hath brought to sin he draws his bill of accusation and for one sin writes down an hundred He makes every sin of Infirmity a monster writes down sudden Anger in letters of bloud makes a Word in our haste a resolution in earnest Confidence Presumption and Doubting Infidelity He writes down evil for good but not good for evil for that is his work before not after our sins And these his accusations he tenders to the Judge of all the world and is more importunate with him then the Widdow with the Judge in the Gospel Luke 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 troubles and buffets him as it were with his loud cryes and will not give over interitûs nostri avarus exactor being a rigid and covetous exactor of our destruction This he doth thus he accuseth But the manner how he tenders his accusations is not easily exprest We may safely say that as he is a Spirit so the manner of his accusing us is spiritual We when we accuse one another must do it by voice or writing For when we condemn or censure others but in our heart we are but as men that stand behind a wall and must come forth per linguae januam as Gregory speaks through the gate of the Tongue and door of the Mouth and outwardly manifest what we are within But Spirits are of another nature not compounded as we are of two divers parts Body and Soul And as their Nature is such is their Speech Sublimes incogniti modi locutionis intimae Their speech is inward and within them and the manner of it sublime and unknown Animarum verba sunt desideria saith the Father The words of our souls are our Desires and by them we cry and call unto the Lord and he hears us And if we should say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those malicious desires of Satan to devour our Souls were his accusations we speak not much amiss For God sees what the Devil hath treasured up against us as plainly as he doth our thoughts and understands them more fully then we do a Bill which we hear read in any Court of Justice Dicere Diaboli est contra bonos intrà cogitationum suarum latibula conqueri The Devils speech is that inward grudging he hath against those which are good And of that nature is his accusation of the wicked Dicere Diaboli est omnipotenti majestati Dei posse nihil celare He watcheth our steps and ponders our goings He is with us when we sin and he registers our sins down in his malicious thought And his speech is Not to be able to hide it from the eyes of God which at one view seeth both our sins and his malice Howsoever he accuseth us the manner is unknown unto us and if it be more then that I have shewed I am sure it stands out of sight and amplius quaerere non licet quà m quod inveniri licet It is not lawful to seek after that which before we set forth we know we shall not find That which neerly concerns us is so to look to our wayes as that we help not the Devil to accuse us that he may come and find nothing in us no sin not washt away with the tears of repentance and the bloud of the Lamb. For as God bids us to thirst after the joyes of heaven but doth not tell us what they are but only by telling us they are unspeakable so he bids us take heed that this Jaylor take not hold of us and hale us and accuse us before the Judge but doth not set down the manner how he will tender his Bill that so we may lose no time in seeking the one and avoiding the other For who will not hasten to joyes unspeakable or who will not fear to have his name in that Bill which he is sure will be heard I will conclude all with that excellent consideration of Hilary Stultum est calumniam in eo inquisitionis intendere in quo comprehendi id unde quaeritur per naturam suam non potest It is but a piece of vanity to strive and contend about the searching of that which cannot be comprehended or to look after that which hath no light to discover it It is enough for us to know that the Devil is an Accuser and in his best shape in his Angelical habit but a Promooter to catch us and that all his tentations to sin though they be fair to the eye and pleasant to the taste and musick to the ear are nothing else but so many means to procure so many sins to fill up this Bill And so I descend to that which I proposed in the next place to lay before you the Causes or Motives which makes the Devil our accuser And first we cannot imagine that it proceeds from any delight or ease he can take in our bloud For this were to seek Joy in Hell where there can be none at all The number of the damned are so far from diminishing the Devils pain that they increase it but yet in the Devil though there be no true joy yet there is something like our joy in evil which is in him not in the nature of a passion but as an act of his will as Aquinas saith When we sin not he is grieved because it is against his will and when we yield to his tentations he is said to be delighted because his will is fulfilled For something he would have which is not and this is his grief and something he would have which is and this is his joy In him as in us Joy is nothing else but the perfection and complement of those actions which are natural unto him And because he is naturally a hater of God and Men he is said to take delight when God is blasphemed or Man made guilty of death Quantus Diabolo luctus inest saith the Father How is the Devil grieved when the Prodigal returns because his desire was to have had him choakt with his husks And quantum Diabolo gaudium What joy is it to him to see a child turn Prodigal for this is natural unto him even the work of his hands Such is his malice unto us that mavult perire quà m non perdere he had rather be destroyed himself then that we should not perish and had rather Hell were hotter then we not come there And this his obstinate Malice proceeded from his pain from the sad apprehension of
to a marriage-feast without a wedding-garment Yet we see many so come with their old cloaths and torn apparrel with the works of darkness not cast off but hanging still fast about them so that though they be there we may make a stand and doubt whether they be guests or no. We may doubt whether all be Christians in Christendome whether all in the Church be parts and members of the Church Did I say we might doubt Ecclesiam in Ecclesia quaerere Why no doubt Guests they are They were invited to the wedding and so guests They are in the company of those who were called to the feast and so of that Church and Congregation All this they may be even guests cum privilegio they may partake of all Church-prerogatives be washed in Christs laver frequent his house sit-down at his table and yet for all this be questioned nay be thrust out of doors and cast into utter darkness The Cardinal maketh it a controversie and methinks a needless one Whether magni manifesti peccatores great and open sinners and reprobates be not members of the true Church And it is the Heresie forsooth of Wickliff Hus and Calvin to deny it Novum crimen Cai Caesar Shall I say a new heresie and till of late unheard of No a plain truth it is and St. Augustine long since cryed it up with an Absit Absit ut monstra illa in membris illius Columbae computentur Lib. 2. contra Crescon Don. God forbid that these monsters should be reputed members of that innocent Dove Can we conceive Christs body with dry arms and dead parts and the City of God to be inhabited by devils Or is it possible Christs members should be thrown into hell Indeed let the Church be as he makes and presents it visibilis palpabilis a Church that may be seen and felt Let her have a body as well as a soul as St. Augustine gives her And then members they are but not intrinsecùs and in occulto intus as St. Augustine speaks not intrinsecally in that Collection of Saints not veritate finis as himself confesseth to that end and purpose they are called Nominals not Reals numero non merito in number not in weight equivocal members as we call a painted hand a Hand and a dead man a Man But we had rather let the Cardinal tell us what members they are Capilli sunt ungues mali humores they are his own words The true Christian is placed in the body as an Eye or an Ear or a Hand or a Foot But the wicked what are they Even as the Hair or Nayls or bad Humors in the body Cives non cives such members of Christs Church as Traitours are of a Common-wealth as Cataline and Cethegus were at Rome members that would eat-out the very bowels of their body and subvert Church and Christ and all But we will not funem contentionis ducere as Tertullian speaks teaseout the controversie too far Upon the upshot we shall find that we are fallen upon that fallacy which by the Logicians is called Ignoratio elenchi We fight in a mist and mistake the question quite Let us joyn issue agree upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the matter in hand let the face of the Church be the same and not vary and change colour in our alteration and the question is stated the controversie at an end For it is agreed upon on all hands That Christ hath a Floor to be purged That there are Tares amongst his Wheat That at the marriage of the Kings Sons though the guests perceive it not the King when he comes will spy some one or other that hath not on his wedding-garment That in the Church of God mali miscentur bonis the Evil are mingled with the Good to file them to an edge and brightness saith Gregory Call them Guests Friends Christians Members of the Church give them what titles you please syllabae non salvant Heaven we may gain by violence but not by spells and inchantment Names and titles will not save us Write the Devil saith Bede calculo candido in a fair character in white silver letters yet he is a Devil still and his signification is Darkness Write out an Aegyptians name with chalk yet who will say an Aethiopian is white Paint Thersites in Achilles 's armor will it stile him valiant A lame commendation it is to be a Christian in a picture to have a name only that we live to give-up no more than our names to Christ and take no more from him than his to come into the Church by the water of Baptism and to go-out by a deluge of sin A poor comfort to be the Kings guest and be questioned intrare ut exeamus to enter into his courts and then be turned out of doors This is the cafe of the Guest here who in a throng was as good as the best as well apparelled as well prepared as any but coram Deo in the Kings eyes naked and miserable and is therefore questioned Quomodo HUC INTRASTI How camest thou in hither Which is our next Part. The King is moved at the sight of the guests and one of them he questions Affections are commotions saith the Philosopher They make an earth-quake in us they move us to speak oftentimes what otherwise we would not Commonly then the language is violent and peremptory not in cold terms and by way of a plain declaration of our mind but by a sudden and abrupt interrogation Thus in Fear What shall I do saith the Steward in Love How fair art thou oh my beloved saith Christ to Luke 16. his Church in Anger Who made thee a judge say the to Moses in Acts 6. Admiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostles of the Temple Mark 13. 1. What stones and what buildings are these And here the King comes-in one would think to welcome his guests but upon the sight of an unpleasing object he is moved spying one there who had not on a wedding-garment he is quick and round with him He says not It is not well done to come naked If you will taste of my dainties you must bring your garment with you but How cam'st thou in hither But what moved the King What raised the storm May we not set up a Quare against the Kings Quomodo May we not ask why the King asketh how he came thither How came he thither Why he was invited to come he was sent for and intreated kindly to come and he had been very unadvised if he had stayed behind We know it cost some their lives slain they were that refused Quomodo in the dining-room is a strange question v. 7. but a cold welcome to invite a guest and then ask him how he came thither But this King we know is never angry without cause He is not as Man Numb 23. 19. that he should lye is not as some men are qui irascuntur quia
circumstances For though Voice and Speech be given us to this end to conveigh our minds to one another and to communicate our selves yet in respect of God there is no necessity of Speech to whom our most secret thoughts are open and who knows the language of our minds qui mutum intelligit non loquentem exaudit who understands the dumb and hears him that speaketh not The Pythagoreans thought it necessary to use the voice in Prayer but their reason was saith Clemens Alexandrinus not that they thought God could not hear us unless we speak but that our prayers should be just and free and ingenuous and such as we need not fear to pour forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though all the world did hear us But though Speech be not necessary in respect of God yet many times it is in respect of our selves Private prayer indeed may sometimes be more available when the vehemency of our desires binds the organ of speech when no language is equal or carries a just proportion to our Devotion when those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those unspeakable groans will not suffer us to speak Here Rom. 8. 26. God respects modstiaum fidei the modesty of our faith and will more graciously attend to that prayer which comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very center of the heart then that which is made and proceeds from the mouth For by this we do not only confess that unspeakable desire which we cannot express but also that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and reads and understands our very thoughts We do not only tremble at his Majestie but acknowledge his Omniscience But yet we do not exclude the Voice lest we should make Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissonant from himself God who made the Heart and Soul for his temple did also fashion the Tongue for his glory And this member may not only help but conveigh our devotion By our voice saith St. Augustine acriùs excitamus desiderium we rowse and exalt our desire we do not only pierce the heavens but our own hearts also and make a deeper impression into our souls which gain heat by these outward signs as bodies do by motion Therefore Athanasius in one of his Epistles where he gives reasons why Musick was brought into the Church makes this his first Because we are commanded from God to serve him and pray unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with might and main In publick prayer none can so forget reason as to forbid Speech for without Voice how can prayer be publick Publick prayers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong weapons of the Church and cannot be brandisht with power unless the Voice doth help to manage them They are made in persona ecclesiae in the person of all the faithful people of God gathered together and therefore must be uttered and heard of all them for whom joyntly they are made Here we invade God as it were in whole troops and armies and haec vis grata Deo est this violence finds a gracious welcome at Gods hands He hearkens to the cryes of our hearts and bows his ear to the voice of our prayers In the primitive times St. Hierome will tell us that their Hallelujah was like the noise of many waters and their Amen like a clap of thunder Oh when shall we hear this noise this thunder As God hath made the Body and the Soul so he requires the tribute of them both a Soul saith Isidore which can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by its operative devotion call down God from heaven and frame to her self a representation of his presence and a Body which by voice and gesture may lay open the characters of the souls devotion As he requires the sacrifice of our hearts so he doth the Psal 51. 16 17 calves of our lips also Besides even in private prayer we adde the Voice Hos 14. 2. ex quadam redundantia ab anima in corpus ex vehementi affectione saith Aquinas as a resultance of that harmonious devotion which hath fill'd the soul For when the Heart is glad it is fit the Tongue which is our glory should rejoyce To conclude this point then That Prayer may be full Psal 16. 9. and compleat we must keep our Reason awake and not suffer it to be charmed by the incantations of vain and wandring imaginations We must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. James speaks men of double minds which look divers wayes upon God and upon the World Quomodo te audiri à Deo desideras cùm teipsum non audias How canst thou hope that God should hear thee when thou givest no attention to thy self Whilst thou dost thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wander from thy self and follow thy flying thoughts whatsoever part thy Devotion hath of thy Will it hath more of thy Understanding Galen reports of a Physician one Theophilus who was otherwise a prudent than that when he was sick thought he heard musick in his chamber night and day And this he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual infirmity and distemper Now such a distemper in a Christian scatters his prayers before the wind For how can our Understanding at once be taken up with such contrary and opposite objects as are God and the World The counsel of the Wise-man is good Compose and settle thy mind before thou pray and be not as a man Eccl. 18. 23. that tempeth God Again when thou prayest for those graces which may make thee wise unto salvation do not contradict thy self Inconsultissimum est ut quod affectu voto volumus id ipsum re actu nolle videamur saith Salvian It is the unadvisedst thing in the world to beg that at Gods hands which by thy life and conversation thou shewest plainly thou wouldst not have Such a prayer may perhaps take-up some corner of the Understanding but cannot be an act of thy Will Velle non dicitur qui quod potuit non fecit He was never willing to have a blessing who did not strive to procure that blessing which he desired to have Many properties there are of Prayer delivered to our hands from the learned out of Scripture but they are all wrapt up in this one definition of Prayer For if the Will be serious and the Understanding intent if the Object be right the Will truly affected and the Understanding elevated to its due pitch there may be perhaps some difference in degrees but not in the thing it self but he truly prays whose mind and affections are carried level to obtain the thing he prays for I might here enlarge my self but I have said enough by way of introduction Our next enquirie must be What those Repetitions are to which our Saviour hath opposed this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Form here which he hath purposely drawn that we the more easily may discern what he dislikes in our prayers Rectum est index sui obliqui That
forth James 1. 18. his Goodness in the Opening of his hand and feeding us with all things necessary both for this life and that which is to come both to make us Men and Saints This word FATHER is proprium Evangelii most proper to the Gospel A name which God did not reveal to Moses saith Tertullian And had not he commanded it thus to pray no man should have been so bold as to have called him Father Now as God hath most plainly declared in his Gospel that he is our Father so he hath most expresly promised that he will make us his children like unto him immortal His grace saith St. 2 Tim. 1. 10. Paul is now made manifest by the appearing of Jesus Christ who hath abolisht death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel But what was not that brought to light before No the Heathen who granted the Immortality of the Soul denyed the Resurrection of the Body De Caio Caium reduces He that will say that Caius shall rise again the same Caius he was shall be thought by Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to play the fool as it is in Athenagoras Nor was this truth so well known to the Jews Chrysostom in divers places tells us that the common sort knew it not And in his second Epistle to Olympias speaking of Jobs Patience doth thus exalt and amplifie it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job was a just man and knew nothing of the resurrection And Mercer who was well seen in the Jews language interprets those words of Job ch 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth of his redemption from the dunghil and misery I will not be too peremptory to subscribe But I will say with Epiphanius that God dealt like a true Father and applyed himself to the several ages of his children speaking to them in a diverse dialect more obscurely under the Law more expresly under the Gospel Omnis nostra natura in Christi hypostasi revixit Our nature as man united in Christs Person and in him revived and receiveth immortality And we are told that as Christ is risen even so we also by the same power â—â—all rise again and that as God hath been a Father to us in making us after his own image so he will be a Father to us in restoring us He is a Father of the world a Father of our bodies a Father of our souls and he will be a Father of our ashes He will favor them and love them and recollect them and bring us his children to immortality and eternal life I said this word FATHER is most proper to the Gospel Now I say more Vox haec Evangelium est This word FATHER is the Gospel For in it all the riches of the Gospel and the treasures of Wisdom lye hid Doth Gods Countenance shine upon us is he a Father Doth he frown upon us yet he is a Father Doth his hand uphold us he is a Father Is it heavy upon us he is a Father still He is a Father when he reacheth out his hand to help us and a Father when he stretcheth it forth to strike us For even in his anger there is love and his very blows are helps his disgraces are honors his corrections Sermons and when he casts us down then he lifts us up Howsoever he handles us whilst we are in his hands we are in the hands of a Father Upon these points we might make large discourses And as Cato said De morte usque ad mortem that he could speak of Death even until Death so might we speak of this one word FATHER till that this our Father bring us into heaven But we will say with Ausonius Non oblita haec sed praeterita We do not omit these because we forgot them but only pass them by as unwilling to prolong our discourse and speaks all In Christ are hidden all Col. 2. 3. the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And he that says We are redeemed hath said all That which makes God a Father is his Providence and his Providence is most eminent in the Redemption of mankind But it is over all our actions over all our wayes sweetly ordering and composing all things so that necessary events fall out necessarily and contingent contingently and those things which are carryed about motu tumultuario with a tumultuary and uncertain motion yet are regulated and governed certâ lege by a kind of law When we behold the Heavens even the work of Gods fingers we cannot but acknowledge our Father which is in heaven When we consider the World we see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom a large book wherein both the wise and unlearned may read the Providence of God Every Creature is a leaf every Action a Sermon every Thought a character Wisdome cryeth out in the streets in every place that God is a Father Every thing is placed in its proper place the least Herb on the ground the least Gnat in the air as fairly seated as the Stars in heaven Non pulchriùs Angelus in coelo quà m Diabolus in inferno the Devil in hell as an Angel in heaven That which most amazeth us is Gods judicial Providence which is that special branch that calls men to account for their lives This is operosa cognitio hard to find out For as He comes sometimes like an epidemical disease and singles out one here and another there on whom he makes his anger fall striking the sinner in his very sin so sometimes he comes like unto a deluge and floud incestum addens integro without any respect or distinction carrying all before him even good and bad Sometimes we see the wicked flourish and the righteous miserable sometimes we see them both falling under the same calamity And this makes some to think that God is either not a Father at all or a Father of both To root-up this seed of Atheism we may say with the Father Malus interpres Divinae providentiae humana infirmitas Humane infirmity is but a bad interpreter of Gods Providence Nor can he find out Gods wayes who is ignorant of his own Art hath no enemy but Ignorance An unskilful man may think a well-filed army to be but a rout method disorder and care neglect Indeed were there no reason of Gods proceeding yet cannot this prejudice or call in question the Providence and Goodness of our Father Who maketh Poverty a blessing and Riches a curse Qui ex malis foecundat bona Who can raise up a plentiful harvest of good upon no better ground-plot then Evil it self Who as he hath made the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a vail of his Divine Majesty so in all his operations and proceedings upon Man is still Deus sub velo a God under a vail hidden but yet seen in a dark character but read silent and yet heard not toucht but felt then saving his children when he is thought to destroy them We are dull
our Good non sunt unius animi cannot harbor in the same heart at once Nor doth God require of them an actual and perpetual intention of his Glory but as the Schools speak an habitual Thou mayest pray to his glory when thy thoughts are busie and reflect upon thy own want We see an arrow flyes to the mark by the force of that hand out of which it was sent and he that travels on the way may go forward in his journey though he divert his thoughts sometimes upon some occurences in the way and do not alwayes fix them on the place to which he is going So when thy Will and Affections are quickned and enlivened with the love of Gods Glory every action and prayer will carry with it a savor and relish of that fountain from whence they spring An Artificer doth not alwayes think of the end why he builds a house but his intention on his work sometimes comes in between and makes him forget his end And though he make a thousand pieces yet he still retains his Art saith Basil So though thou canst not make this main Intention of Gods Glory keep time with thy Devotion nor send up every thought thus incenst and perfumed yet the smell of thy sacrifice shall come before God because it is breathed forth of that heart which is Gloriae ara an Altar dedicated wholly to the glory of God Thy ear must be to keep it as thy Heart with all diligence to nourish and strengthen it that if it seem to sleep yet it may not dy in thee to barricado thy heart against all contrary and heterogeneous imaginations all wandring cogitations which as Jacob may take his first-born by the heel and afterwards supplant and robb it of its birth-right For these thoughts will borrow no life from thy first intention of Gods Glory but the intention of Gods Glory will be lost and dye in these thoughts We pass forward to that which we proposed in the second place That spiritual blessings must have the first place in our prayers Holiness and Obedience must go before our daily bread the spiritual Manna which nourisheth us up unto eternal life before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things of this present life or that bread which upholds us but for a span of time A doctrine as most plain so most necessary for these times in which mens hearts are so set on gain and temporal respects that heaven finds but little room in their thoughts and so care for the Body as if they knew not whether they had any Soul or no Of his mind in Plautus who professed if he were to sacrifice to Jupiter yet si quid lucri esset if gain and filthy lucre presented it self before him he would rem divinam deserere instantly run from the Altar and leave his sacrifice Epictetus the Stoick observed that there were daily sacrifices brought to the Temples of the Gods for wealth for honors for victory but none ever offered up for a good mind And Seneca tells us Turpissima vota diis insusurrant that men were wont to whisper dishonest desires into the ears of the Gods si quis autem admoverit aurem conticescunt but if any stood near them to hearken they were presently silent Were the hearts of many men anatomized and opened we should find Riches and Content deeply rooted in the very center but Holiness and Obedience and Honesty of conversation written in faint and fading characters in superficie in the very surface and outside of the heart Villam malumus quà m coelum We had rather have a Farm a Cottage than Paradise and three lives in that than eternity in heaven We had rather be rich than good mighty than just And talk what you will of sanctifying Gods Name we had rather make our selves one of advancing his Kingdom we had rather reign as Kings of fulfilling Gods Will we will do our own of the Bread of life Give us this day our daily Bread But thus to pray is not to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that manner which Christ here taught but a strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 want of method in our Devotion Our Love is seen in our language For those things which most affect us we love to talk of we use to dream of and our thoughts are restless in the pursuit of them It was observed in Alexander as a kind of prophesie and presage of his many conquests quòd nihil humile aut puerile sciscitaretur that he speaking with the Persian Ambassadors askt no childish or vain question sed aut viarum longitudinem aut itinerum modos but of the length of the wayes and the distance of places of the Persian King and of his Court A man saith the Wise-man is known by his speech and a Christian by his prayers I could be copious in this argument but purposely forbear because it is so common a place Only to set your Devotion on fire and raise it to things above may you please to consider Temporal goods 1. not satisfactory 2. as an hindrance to the improvement of Spiritual Do but consult your own Reason and that will tell you that the Mind of man is unsatiable in this life Who ever yet brought all his ends and purposes about and rested there Possideas quantum rapuit Hero Let a man possess what Craft and unlawful Policy can entitle him to Let him be Lord of all that lyes in the bosome of the earth and in the bosome of the Sea Let him as Solomon did even study how to give himself all delight imaginable yet with all this cost with all this pains and travel he is as far from what he lookt for as when he first set out Now as God having made the Understanding an eye hath made the whole Universe for its object so having placed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an infinite desire in the soul hath proportioned something to allay it Which since these temporal things cannot do it is evident that heaven and spiritual blessings are those things which alone can satisfie this infinite appetite Put them both in the Scales and there is no comparison You may as well measure Time by Aeternity and weigh a little sand on the shore with the whole Ocean Again as they do not satisfie so are they an hinderance to our improvement in spiritual wealth Alter de lucro cogitat alter de honore putat quòd eum Deus possit audire One thinks of Gain when he prays for Godliness another of Honor when he talks of Heaven We may call this Prayer if we will but most certain it is that God never hears it nor any prayer which is not made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore speaks with diligence Which leads us to that which we proposed in the third place That when we pray Hallowed be thy Name we do not simply pray that God will do it without us but that he will supply us with those means and helps
of Glory In fine non est modus saith the Philosopher in his Politicks When we look on the end our desires are vehement our thoughts restless no ADVENIAT is loud enough till we have attained it And for this alone we are as eager for the means because they conduce and help forward to the end What wrong then is done to the Framer and Fashioner of the Heart when we make that which should be the palace of the great King a den of thieves and rebels and traytors How do we despite the spirit of grace and as much as in us lyes unking him and thrust him out of his Dominions When his word goeth out very swiftly and flyeth from one end of the world to the other when he sendeth Ambassadours of peace to all the world when he destroys his enemies and worketh wonders when he hath drawn out a form of government promulged his laws and backt them with promises and threatnings when he hath mightily shewed himself to be our King by great signs and miracles he doth not yet account himself to reign But when thou openest thy heart and givest him possession of every corner of thy soul then he sits as King in his holy place For as the Philosopher tells us that the confirmation of Laws consisteth not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wise and discreet framing of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the right and due observance of them So though Christ be King from all eternity and cannot be devested of his Kingly office yet then only he calls his Kingdome compleat when we are subject and obedient to him when he hath gotten possession of the Heart where he may walk not as he did in Paradise terrible to Adam who had forfeited his allegiance but as in a garden of pleasures to delight himself with the sons of men For here in the Heart of man sitteth Reason as chief here is the counsel-table here is polity here are decrees here are good purposes and resolutions hither resort those nuntii those messengers which convey those auxiliary forces which either our Senses or the blessed Angels or the Spirit of God provide and send unto it So many Virtues and Vices as there are so many castles and towers are set up where so many battles are fought so many conquests made Here Holiness is besieged Religion shaken here it is either betrayed or defended Here if the Fear of this great King stand not as sentinel the strong tower of our constancies falls to the ground the Scepter and Crown is broken and Reason is thrust out of the throne whilst the enemy regeth Our Affections as in a popular sedition rush in with violence and Christ standeth as secluded and only as looker on Reign he may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Lord of all the world omnipotent as Nazianzene saith and will rule over all whether they will or no but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one who hath brought us under his command to obey his laws and ordinances Both Christs Kingdoms we pray for here for that of Grace for that of Glory the one being the end of our prayers and of our hopes the other a most necessary means to attain it No reigning as Kings in the one unless we serve as Subjects in the other no crown there without allegiance here no glory without grace But because it is impossible for the most piercing eye to discover the rules and laws and order of the Kingdome of Glory we will stay our meditations upon the way which leadeth to it and shew wherein the Kingdome of Grace consists We told you the seat and place of this Kingdome is the Heart of men For who can meddle with ordering mens hearts but Christ alone Princes Laws may sound in the Ears may bind the Tongues may manacle the Hands may command our Goods farther they cannot go Illâ se jactet in aulà Aeolus But to set up an imperial throne and reign in the Heart this none but Christ can do Now by the Heart we do not mean that fleshy part which as the Father speaks is as the center in the body which saith St. Basil was first created first received life and then conveys and derives it to every part Nor do we mean with some the Will nor with others the Affections But by the Heart we understand all the powers and faculties of the soul the Understanding Will and Affections which when they move in an obedient course by the rules and laws of any Kingdome yield us the surest sign and token 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a divine conversation conformable to Christ himself The Kingdome of Christ saith Nazianzene consists in the obteining of that which is most perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the most perfect thing in the world is the knowledge of God By which he doth not mean a bare knowledge of the King and of his Laws but a submission of our Will and a captivating of our Affections that we may walk in obedience and newness of life according to these laws Aristotle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will erect a Commonwealth must also frame laws and fit them to that form of commonwealth which he intends We cannot make the same laws sit a Popular estate and a Monarchy The different complexions of States and Republicks you may see in their Laws as the faces of Princes in their coyns Now as Christ is the wonderful Counsellor so He came out of the loins of Judah and is a Lawgiver too and hath drawn out Laws like unto his Kingdome As his Isa 9. 6. Gen. 49. 10. Psal 60. 7. 108. 8. Scepter is a Scepter of righteousness so are his Laws just No man no devil can question them Socrates and Plato and the wisest of the Philosophers though strangers to him and aliants from his Kingdome yet would no doubt have subscribed to his Laws As his Kingdome is heavenly so are his Laws from heaven heavenly written by the finger of Wisdome it self As he is an everlasting Prince so are his Laws eternal But I will not now stand to shew the difference between these Laws and the Laws by which the Kingdome of the world be governed For what will fall-in more fitly with the TUUM the Pronoun possessive which points out a Kingdom by it self and with which other Kingdoms cannot be compared The Kingdome of God Luke 17. 21. is then within us when the Understanding maketh haste to the object thereof the Truth of God to apprehend it and the Will is ready to meet the object thereof our soveraign Good to embrace it and the Affections wait and give attention upon the will to further our possession of it when we have such wisdom such holiness such courage and desires as are fit for a subject of Christ to bring him unto and keep him in true fidelity and obedience for ever For Christs Laws do not pass only to restrain the Will but to
beat down our body and wage war with our appetite We may say of the Law of Moses as St. Paul speaks of the yearly sacrifices It did not make the commers thereunto Hebr. 10. 8. perfect but left behind it still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience of sins not only ex parte reatûs a conscience which did testifie that they had sinned and affright them with the guilt but ex parte vindictae a conscience which not only questioned their sins but there attonement also Therefore Chrysostome on that place will tell us In that the Jews did offer sacrifice it seemeth they had a conscience that accused them of sin but that they did it continually argued they had a conscience which accused their sacrifice of Imperfection The Law of Faith which is the fundamental Law of the Gospel is expunctor legis totius retro vetustatis blots out these Laws and whatever Antiquity did write down as a Law in her tables Quicquid retrò fuit aut demutatum est ut circumcisio aut suppletum ut lex reliqua aut impletum ut prophetia aut perfectum ut fides ipsa Whatsoever was in times past was either changed as Circumcision or supplyed as the rest of the Law or fulfilled as Prophesies or made perfect as Faith it self I should detein you too long in this argument should I draw a comparison between each particular constitution By the very nature and quality of the Laws you may easily descry a main difference between these Kingdoms The Laws of Christ are unchangeable and eternal but all humane constitutions are temporary and mutable Those which are written in the Body of the Law by the Civilians are called LEGES PERPETUAE Laws unchangeable but after Ages have seen the countenance of some altered and others quite rased out Legum medelae pro temporum moribus pro rerumpubl generibus pro utilitatum presentium rationibus mutari solent flecti nec uno statu consistere sed ut coeli facies maris ita rerum fortunae tempestatibus variari But the Laws of the heavenly Kingdome are eternal written in our souls by the King of Souls from the beginning The second head wherein the difference of this Kingdome from others is seen is the Power of it which is extended not to the body alone but to the soul also Other Kings may lay the whip on the back but this rips-up the very bowels other Kings may kill the body but this can cast both body and soul into hell Many times it is wisdom in Kings not to punish because of the multitude or power of offenders Nescio saith an heathen man in the Historian an suasurus fuerim omittere potiùs praevalida adulta vitia quam hoc assequi ut palam fiat quibus vitiis impares simus Sins many times do reign amongst men and spread themselves so far and wide that no strength of the Magistrate is able to supress them and therefore many times it is our best wisdom to let such sins alone lest by going about to amend them we betray our weakness and shew that the Law it self may have a bridle put into her mouth that offenders may ride her as they please It is not so in this Kingdom God can never be out-braved by any sin be it never so universal Be the offenders never such Giants never so many he is able to chain and fetter them even with a word He that sits on the throne and he that grinds at the mill to him are all one And as a thousand years with him are but as one day so a thousand a million a whole world of men with him are but as one man And when he shall sit to do judgment upon sinners all the world shall have before him but one neck and he can strike it off at a blow When I mentioned the power and virtue of this Kingdome you might expect perhaps that I should have said something of the power and efficacy of Grace because this Kingdome is called the Kingdome of Grace And indeed herein is a difference between this Kingdome and others Magistrates promulge laws threaten bind the tongue and hand but have no influence nor operation on the hearts and wills of men But in this our spiritual Kingdome the King doth not only command but gives us his helping hand that we may perform his command Et quomodo fulgur nubes disrumpit as Cyprian speaketh as lightning suddenly breaketh through the cloud and at once enlightens and amazes the world so the coruscation and splendor of Gods Grace doth at once illuminate and dull the eye of our understanding Nescio quomodo tangimur tangi nos sentimus we are toucht with this sudden flash we know not how and we feel that we are toucht but it is not easie to discern how Non deprehendes quemadmodum aut quando tibi prosit profuisse deprehendes That the power of Gods Grace hath wrought you shall find but the secret and retired passages by which it wrought are impossible to be reduced to demonstration We must confess that by nature we are blind and Grace is the eye by which we see we are lame and Grace is the staff by which we walk we are dead and Grace is the breath by which we live As man upon earth is composed of Body and Soul so in respect of this Kingdome he admits of a new composition of Man and the Spirit of Grace But we must remember it is a Kingdome we speak of and Christ is a King not a Tyrant Now the Philosopher will tell us Rex imperat volentibus tyrannus nolentibus That in this a King and a Tyrant differ that the one ruleth his subjects with that wisdom and temper that they are willing to obey the other makes them obey whether they will or no. Beloved Christ is a King in this respect He will not rule us against our will Nemo se ab invito coli vult No man will take a gift from an unwilling hand And dost thou look that the King of heaven and earth should force thee to allegiance Some have made it an observation That before Christs resurrection he was obeyed by those that served him against their will and so was served but to halves but under the Gospel he gathers unto him populum spontaneum a willing people that still be ready to do his will All this is from Grace thou wilt say It is true But not of Grace so working as to force the Will For as God is powerful and can do all things so is he wise too and sweetly disposes all things accomplishing his will by those means he in his eternal wisdom knoweth to be best using his power as a King but not violence as a Tyrant Wilt thou then sit still and not set thy hand to work upon a phansie that God doth not send thee grace Wilt thou not hearken to the voice of thy King speaking within God unless he
Father Such as care for nothing but to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof cannot put on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle biddeth Rom. 13. 14. us They who will still go brave and drink deep and feed high and fare deliciously every day with the Glutton in the Gospel are likely not only Luke 16. to suffer Lazarus to starve at their doors but also to pine and begger their own souls to eternity It may seem somewhat strange that St. Paul calls Esau 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fornicator and a profane person since Moses no Hebr. 12. 16. where recordeth it And Thalassius the Monk moves the doubt to Isidore Pelusiote lib. 1. Epist who returneth a ready answer That it was no marvel at all that he should sell his chastity who first had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage For this Bread of Luxurie doth not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks corrupt our health but doth aggravare animam layeth a burden upon the soul that she can neither take the wing and raise her self in the contemplation of God and his goodness nor yet prompt the Eye or Hand or Tongue to do those offices for which they were created It makes her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weaker saith Clemens and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weak sensless stupid For quorum corpora saginata eorum animi in maciè When the body is too full streight leanness enters into the soul I may seem perhaps to have divided this Bread with too sparing a hand I will therefore give you the whole Loaf and more I cannot give you And by Bread here we will understand that provision that wealth those necessaries which every particular mans calling requires or which may fit that place which he bears either in Church or Common-wealth For I am not so strait-laced as to imagine that every Artificer should be furnisht as richly as a Noble-man or that every Nabal should make a feast like a King Not the same measure and proportion for Joab the Captain of the Hoast and for David the King for Shaphan the Chancellour and for Josiah for Gellio the Deputy and for Caesar the Emperour It is true in many respects there is no difference between man and man but all are equal We have all one Father who hath made of one bloud all nations of men And as we Matth. 2. 10. Acts 17. 26. are all made of one mold so are we all bought with the same price The soul of him that sitteth on the throne cost Christ no more then did the soul of him that grindeth at the mill All are one in Christ Jesus All true Gal. 3. 28. Christians have the same holy Spirit to sanctifie and guide them all have an army of holy Angels to pitch their tents about them all are spiritual Kings and Priests all are now vessels of grace and shall hereafter be vessels of glory And at the day of doom the great Judge will not look who lieth in a winding-sheet and who in a sheet of lead nor will he pardon this man because he was a King and condemn that other because he was a Begger Yet for all this he hath made up his Church here not of Angels but of Men who live in the world and therefore must live under Government Ecclesia non subvertit regna The Church and Secular powers stand not in opposition but so well sute and sort together that God hath left this as a blessing unto his Church and part of her dowry That Kings should be her nursing fathers and Queens her nursing mothers Now Kingdoms and Common-wealths Isa 49. 23. cannot be governed and maintained unless there be a disparity of persons and places It hath pleased God therefore to dispense his gifts in a wonderful variety amongst the children of men that so they might be fitted for several professions and callings men of ordinary fashion and parts for lower and meaner vocations to handle the Plough or the Spade or the Flail or the Sheep-hook to trade in the Shop or to traffick by Sea or to serve in the Wars but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calleth men of more then ordinary endowments choice active persons picked out of thousands these deserve to become famous in their generations to attend on Princes to bear office in Court or Camp or Church or Common-wealth Sic opus est mundo There is a necessity of disproportion between men and men Nihil enim aequalitate ipsâ inaequalius For there is no greater disproportion in the world then in a body politick to have all the parts equal Being so it cannot long subsist Indeed some fantastick persons have long talkt of a Parity and Community but it is to make themselves supream and the greatest Impropriators in the world For were the world so weak as to yield to their holy counsel and advice you should then see these ravenous Wolfes strip themselves of their lambs-skins and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 openly before the Sun and the People invest themselves with that power which they cry down for Antichristian Sint pares protinus erunt superiores Let them part stakes and they will have all Let them be your equals they will soon be your superiors and give them but leave to stand on even ground with you and they will before you can be aware of them lay you level with the ground Now a Hezekiah is no better than a Senacherib a Constantine than a Julian every King is a Tyrant every Bishop Antichrist no Guide but the Spirit no Court but Heaven no lash but that of Conscience Meum and Tuum are harsh words in the Church Almost of the mind of the Carpocratians in Clemens who because the Air was common would have their Wives so too Quid verba audio These words are most notoriously false and deceitful For did they once rerum potiri could they but shift the scene and return back cloath'd with that power and jurisdiction which they libel their own writings which most barbarously call for the bloud and lives of men for no other reason but because they cannot be fools enough to be of their opinion shew what meek and gentle spirits we should find them Now No King No Bishop No Government But then they will reign as Kings Their little fingers would be bigger then the most cruel Tyrants loyns and we who before did not feel so much as a scourge by these unhallowed Saints should be whipped with Scorpions But I must not stray too far out of my way to follow Thieves I leave them to the mercy and justice of God who in his due time will either work their conversion or confound their devilish practices and machinations To proceed then God doth give every man his portion of bread He did so in the beginning of the world before the Floud he did so in the restitution of the world after
and sturdy Vagabonds The Athenians punisht Sloth in publick ut facinorosae ità erubescendae ream culpae as a most odious and shameful crime And amongst the Romans siquis agrum indiligenter curabat non sine poena fuit He that did not manure his ground or not dress his vineyard came under the authority of the Censors Nay siquis equum habuit gracilentum saith Gellius if any man had but a lean horse he was streight noted and censured for negligence In the art of Tillage and Husbandry not only private men but those also who had born office in the Common-wealth of Rome did exercise themselves The Curii the Coruncani the Fabricii after conquests and triumphs inter aratra vivebant nè virtus quiete languesceret triumphales senes rusticabantur as Latinus Pacatus speaks They went to the plough and that their virtue might not faint and languish through idleness and luxury they left the City and betook themselves to their Country-labors more happy and glorious at their Farms than in the Capitol Hence old Cato in the beginning of his Book De re rusticâ tells us Virum bonum cùm laudabant ità laudabant BONUM AGRICOLAM BONUM COLONUM When they commended a good man they would say he was a good husband-man We read of the Indian Gymnosophists in Apuleius that when for dinner the table was spread the Masters called the younger men and askt them what good they had done à lucis ortu ad illud diei from the rising of the Sun to that time of the day One replies that he had been an umpire or arbitratour between two that had fallen out and had made them friends another that he had obeyed the command of his parents and been busie in what they imployed him a third that he had gained some new conclusion Qui nihil affert cur prandeat extruditur impransus He that could bring nothing why he should sit down was thrust out without a dinner Behold here a plain interpretation of St. Pauls words made by those who never heard of Christ For if Scripture were silent Reason it self will suggest thus much that it is fit that Drowsiness should be clothed with raggs and that the idle soul should suffer hunger He that will not work in his youth suae senectuti acriorem hiemem parat could the Comedian say must needs expect a most sharp winter in his age If I thought the Sluggard would hear me I would tell him that his laziness dulls and slugs his prayers that they cannot mount to heaven to bring down any blessing that he gives himself the lye whilst he prays Give us our bread that though he have bread and more than enough yet his idleness turns it into stones and gravel and fills him with the gall of asps that he eateth not his own bread because that he eateth was not gotten with the work of his own hands and the sweat of his own face that though he spoil not those who pass by and take their purse by force and violence yet he is a thief and a robber He is a Thief say the Civilians qui rem contractat alienam who handleth that which is none of his Nay the Antients were so strict as to reckon him in the number qui mutuo ad aliam rem atque accepit usus est who useth that which he borrows to another purpose then for which it is lent him Certainly then the Sluggard may be arraigned and condemned as guilty of Robbery For he rosteth that which he never took in hunting and eateth that bread which cost him no labor He is Felo de se and robbeth himself For though he be rich and have store of bread yet his Laziness will moulder it to nothing will shake the very foundation of his estate and undoubtedly bring him to beggery He robs also the Common-wealth For a most true axiome it is Interest reipublicae ut quis re suâ bene utatur every mans careful husbanding of his private estate is advantageous to the whole body publick Yea the Sluggard robbeth his own soul For Slothfulness casts him into so deep a sleep that it may be said of him as St. Paul saith of the wanton widow He is dead while he liveth 1 Tim. 5. 6. Eph. 4. 28. Men and brethren are these things so Must we labour with our hands the thing that is good Must our Hand be busie as well as our Tongue If we work not are we guilty of theft rapine How many then are there in the world who have food enough yet eat not their own bread First those cloistred Monks and Friars who have left the World but it is as many men leave Virtue and Learning not that they hate and loath either but because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the way that leads to them is hard and rough because they cannot be obtained without sweat and industry We may truly say with Luther Monachos igna via fecit I speak not of those antient Monks who lived upon the labor of their hands such as St. Augustine describes Lib. 1. De moribus Ecclesiae who had so far estranged themselves from the world that to some they seemed res humanas plùs quà m oportet deseruisse to have exceeded and done more than they ought Yet notwithstanding they laboured hard in manual trades brought what they had wrought to those whom they called their Deans that that which before had cost them so much labor might not now put them to the business of a thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by spinning and making of cloth they provided for themselves and for the poor usquè adeò ut onerarias etiam naves in ea loca mitterent quae inopes incolunt insomuch that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringing their works to perfection they laded whole ships with the works of their hands and conveyed them to those places where the needy did inhabit No I am so far from censuring these that I wish every rich mans house were such a Monastery But those who came after bore the name of Monks but indeed had nothing but the name umbraculo malae disciplinae se contegentes saith Augustine Lib. De opere Monachorum covering their idleness and luxury under the shadow and covert of a Monastical life and solitary devotion under pretence of poverty seizing into their hands the wealth and riches of the world removing themselves from barren places into the fattest places of the Land from solitary Desarts into most frequented Cities turning their poor Cottages into stately Palaces their true fasting into formalizing and partial abstinence So that they left not the world for Christ but under pretense of Christ they gained the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks Therefore they were justly misliked both by St. Hierome in his Epistle to Rusticus and by St. Augustine in his work before mentioned And this their lazy Devotion they maintained by Scripture They had read that the fowls of the
will not be so eager but a dish of herbs will be as a stalled Oxe and we shall be content with our daily Bread which the hand of Providence puts into our mouths Again in the second place as we are taught in this Petition to rely upon the Providence of God so are we also put in mind to take heed that whilst we make haste to be rich we slack not in our duty to God that that which is ordein'd but as a pillar to uphold our bodies be not made a stumbling-block and an occasion of that disaffection to piety and holiness which will destroy both body and soul Grave and wise Philosophers have very highly extolled Poverty which is so loathed of the world Enimvero paupertas philosophiae vernacula frugi sobriae parvo potens For Poverty was born and bred with Philosophy as it were in the same house frugal and sober powerful to do much with a little It was she that raised Common-wealths and built Cities and was the mother and nurse of all the Arts and Sciences we may add the mother of that Religion which will bring us into everlasting habitations That we may learn to bear Poverty with patience and escape that great snare of the Devil the love of riches our Saviour hath here appointed us our Dimensum commanded us to pray for our daily Bread and in taking away all care for the morrow hath taught us obstare principiis to be so far from caring for the riches of this world as not to think of them to beware of Covetousness and the very beginnings of it not to be familiar with them not to look upon them Nemo diu tutus periculo proximus That which was but a suggestion at first may become a fierce and violent desire That which was but a pleasing sight may be a raging thought The sight of the wedge of Gold may ingender that evil which will trouble all Israel and make us fly before our enemies At first we desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle but two half-pence and when we have handled them they multiply in our imagination and in our desire are as bigg as talents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our sinful desires if we cut them not off are infinite like Numbers nullum est post quod non sit aliud there is none which is last but still one follows another and when one is full another opens to be filled And are as the Oratour speaks pleni spei vacui commodorum when our garners are stored and our purse full yet are we empty still and possess nothing but new hopes Irritat se saevitia As Cruelty doth chafe and enrage it self and as Beasts grow more fierce after they have tasted bloud so Covetousness doth whet it self and grows more keen and eager at the sight of those heaps which she hath raised Where St. John tells us 1 Epist 2. 16. that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life A judicious and learned Writer interprets the lust of the eyes to be Covetousness because covetous persons love to handle and see their wealth nummos contemplari to behold their money and feed their eye with that of which they will not take one part to feed or cloth the body And therefore when riches increase we must not joyn our selves to them as to friends but fear and suspect them as enemies in fidem cum armis venire trust our selves with them but with weapons in our hand When they glitter we must turn away our eye when they flatter not be attentive when they gain us the cringe and applause of the common rout not listen or hearken to it We must account them enemies and thus make them friends and as Nazianzene speaks of his brother Caesarius we must sub larva servire mundo act our part as upon a stage seem to be what we are not and as the Apostle speaks buy as if we possessed not and use the world as if we used it not we must run and press forward to the mark and as for the world we must in transitu nosse know it only as we pass and in the by For conclusion then It will be good for us timere actus nostros to be afraid of our own actions to be jealous of our wishes ever to suspect the worst not to make the fear of Poverty an excuse for Covetousness not to cry out We must live when we eat and build and purchase as if we were to live for ever Quid tibi cum Deo est si tuis legibus It is not for us who are to be ruled by the Law of God to determine what is our daily Bread and what not or to call those things necessaries which are superfluous but rather to fit our selves for those lessons which we tremble to hear of as Felâ—â— did at the mention of judgment to learn to gain riches without care and leave them without sorrow that they may not cost us our sweat when they come nor put us to the charge of a tear when they depart nay further to hate and contemn them to sell and give them to the poor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring our bodies in subjection to our souls and our temporalities to our spiritual estate sic uti mundo ut fruamur Deo so to use the world as that we may enjoy Christ And all these To hate and contemn riches To sell and fling them away To cast them on the waters are not paradoxes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inventions of Faith the endeavours of true Zeal and Devotion nay they are the commands of Jesus Christ Who did willingly part with his life for us who count it death to part but with a mite for him We who are to present our selves as pure virgins unto Christ must keep 2 Cor. 11. 2. our selves undefiled and unspotted from the world we must not delight to look James 1. 27. upon the beauty nor tast the pleasures nor handle the riches of this world for fear we forsake our first love and make his jealousie burn like fire Omnia Psal 79. 5. virginis virgo Every part and faculty of a Virgin is so a virgin her Eye shut up by covenant her Ear deaf to profane babling her Hand not defiled with pitch and her Soul an elaboratory of pure and holy thoughts And so are a Christian mans affections pure and untouched He hopes not for wealth but for the reward of justice He fears not poverty but the flames of Hell He desires no honor but to be like unto the Angels When he dwells in the midst of Canaan in a land flowing with milk and honey his conversation is in heaven his Love his Hope his Joy his Delight his Contentation all are levelled on Eternity and concentred in Christ alone And being thus qualified not only Sufficiency but Abundance not onely that which is necessary but great riches
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
noxious and malignant humor It is but a word but a syllable but as the cloud in the Book of Kings as big as a mans hand but as that anon covered all the heavens over and yielded great store of rain so may this word this syllable yield us plenty of instruction But we will confine and limit our discourse and draw those lines which we will pass by and which we will not exceed We shall shew 1. how Sin is ours 2. That all sins are ours 3. That they are only ours and lastly That they are wholly and totally ours that so we may agere poenitentìam plenam as the Ancients used to speak that our exomologesis may be open and sincere and our repentance full and compleat And of these in their order There is nothing more properly ours than Sin Not our Bodies For God formed Man of the dust of the ground de limo terrae quasi ex utero matris Gen. 2 7. saith Tertullian shaped him out of the earth as out of his mothers womb Not our Souls For he breathed into us the breath of life Not our Understandings For he kindled this great light in our souls Not our Affections For he imprinted them in our nature Not the Law For it is but a beam and a radiation from that eternal Law which was alwayes with him Quòd lex bona est nostrum non est quòd malè vivimus nostrum That the Law is just and holy and true is not from us but that we break this law this we can attribute to none but our selves Nec nobis quicquam infoelicius in peccato habemus quà m nos auctores And this may seem our greatest infelicity that when Sin lyes at our doors we can find no father for it but our selves and that we are the authors of that evil which destroys us Now this propriety which we have to Sin ariseth from the very nature of Man who was not made only Lord of the world but had free possession given him of himself and that freedom and power of Will which was libripens emancipati à Deo boni which doth hold the balance and weigh and poise both Good and Evil and may touch and strike either skale as he pleaseth For Man is not good or evil by necessity or chance but by the freedom of his Will quod à Deo rationaliter attributum ab homine verò quà voluit agitatum which was wisely given him of God but is managed by man at pleasure and levelled and directed to either object either good or evil either life or death So that it is not my Knowledge of evil it is not my Remembrance of evil it is not my Contemplation of sin nay it is not my Acting of sin I mean the producing of the outward act which makes Sin mine but my Will Voluntas mali malos efficit sed scientia mali non facit scientes malos saith Parisiensis Sin may be in the understanding and in the Memory and yet not mine I may know it and loath it I may remember and abhor it I may do some act which the Law forbids and yet not break that Law But when my Will which doth reign as an Empress over every faculty of the soul and over every part of the body which saith unto this part Go and it goes and to another Do this and it doth it when this commanding faculty doth once yield and give her assent against that Law which is just fit jam proprietas mali in homine quodammodo natura saith Tertullian then Sin is our choice our purchase our possession and there ariseth a kind of propriety and it is made in a manner natural unto us because we receive and admit it into our very nature at that gate which we might have shut against it The Adulterer may think that he is not guilty of sin till he have taken his fill of lust but that sin was his when his will first yielded An putas tunc primùm te intrare meritorium cùm fornicem meretricis ingrederis saith St. Ambrose Dost thou think thou then first entredst the stews when thou didst first set foot in the harlots house Intrasti jam cùm cogitationes tuas meretrix intravit Thou wert in already when the strange woman entred thy thoughts And when thy will had determined its act thou wert an adulterer though thou knewest no woman And St. Augustine gives the reason Nihil enim aliud quà m ipsum velle est habere quod volumus For to have that which I will it is enough to will it Villicus si velit nihil peccat saith Columella The Steward or Farmer doth nothing amiss unless he will Homo potest peccare sed si nolit non facit saith the Father Man may sin but if he sin there can be no other reason given but his Will For the Will is of that power as to entitle me to sin though I break not forth into action and when I am forced to the outward act to quit me from the guilt of sin to denominate me either evil or good when I do neither evil nor good and when my hands are shackled and bound Lucrece was ravisht by Tarquin and yet was as chast as before and the Oratour said well Duo fuerunt adulterium unus admisit There were two in the fact and but one committed adultery For natural Reason did suggest this Mentem peccare non corpus That it is the Mind and Will and not the Body which sins and where there is a strong resolution not to offend there can be no offense at all For it is not in my power what to do or not to do but it is in my power to will or not to will to make choice or refuse And therefore there is no such danger in the doctrine of Freewill as some have phansied to themselves and brought it in as an argument against it that it is dangerous For though my Will be free my Power is restrained and hath bounds set it Thus far shall I go and no farther 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hierocles Those things which are before me I may choose but those I cannot which are out of my reach I may will the ruin of a Kingdom when I am not able to destroy a cottage I may will the death of my brother and yet not be able to lift up my finger against him My Will is illimited but my Power hath bounds And indeed it was not an argument against Freewill but a Rhetorical flourish and empty boast which we find in Martin Luther Veniant magnifici illi liberi arbitrii ostentatores saith he Let those loud and glorious upholders of Freewill come and shew this freedom but in the killing of a flea For he mistook and made our Power and Will to an act all one when it is plain and manifest that he who cannot challenge a power to kill a flea yet may put on a will and resolution to murder a
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
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
bids us tread him under foot He bids us who is Xystarchus the master of the race and Epistates the overseer of the combate His Grace is Bellonia that divine Power which shall drive-back our enemies And if the Devil inspire evil thoughts God is both able and willing to inspire good and in all our tryals in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgment his Grace is sufficient for us that our rejoycing and boasting may be in the Lord that the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble army of Martyrs that all the victorious Saints of God may cast-down their crowns at his feet and confess that Salvation is from the Lord. And thus much be spoken of the Reasons why God doth exercise his servants with divers tentations The Four and Fourtieth SERMON PART IV. MATTH VI. 13. And lead us not into tentation but deliver us from evil THE Reasons why God permits Tentations and hath placed mankind as it were in open field to fight it out against spiritual enemies we laid before you the last day We proceed now to discover the Manner of their operation and working and to find-out when they become sins and how we may know they have prevailed and overcome us The Will of Man as his Desire is led with respect of somewhat that is good or at least seemeth so This provoketh and draweth both Sense and Will to perform her actions And though the Desire which is first and the Delight which follows be inward and inherent yet those things which we affect and would attain are then external when we pursue them and when we enjoy them they are but in a manner conjoyned with us in opinion or possession which contenteth both body and soul St. Augustine upon the 79 Psalm makes two roots of Sin Desire and Fear Omnia peccata duae res faciunt Desiderium Timor St. James tells us that every man is tempted by his own lust which is the nurse and mother of Sin Nor doth St. Augustine jarr with St. James who setteth down Lust for the first spring of every tentation to Sin For either that Tentation which St. James speaks of is a delightful provocation to sin resting within us or that Terror which St. Augustine addeth is nothing else but a violent and external inducement working from without Or else we may joyn the one as a consequent to the other since the natural Desire we have of our own ease breadeth in us the Dislike and Fear of evil which so strongly urgeth and forceth us From whence we may conclude that if Desire and Fear as St. Augustine speaks be the motives and inducements to all sins and the Desire and Fear on which depend the rest of the affections be passions of the Sensitive part of the Soul permixed in this life with corporal Spirits then all have their provocation and incitement from the bodily senses spirits or motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus All Desires and Fears and Sorrows have their original rising and motion from the Body For the Father will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Passion is nothing else but a sensible motion of the Desiring and Appetitive faculty upon the imagination of good or evil The passions of the soul as Desire Fear Joy Sorrow do not move in this life without the Body First in that they are sensible motions they must be perceived in the Body Secondly in that they rise from the Sensitive appetite they are conjoyned with the Body Thirdly in that they come from the Phansie or Imagination of good or evil whether truly so or but in appearance they are kindled from the Senses of the Body What the Eye sees beautiful awaketh my Desires what terrible provokes Hatred and Disdain What is good and atchievable lightens my Joy What is evil and unavoidable begets Sorrow According as things objected to Sense or remembred after seem good or evil to the powers of the soul so is Desire or Anger kindled by Pleasure on the one side or Dislike and Grief on the other which presently and with a kind of violence prevaileth with the Soul if we do not stand up strong to resist them Thus the Body hath its operation upon the Soul as the Soul hath upon the Body Adeò autem non sola anima transigit vitam ut nec cogitatus licèt solos licèt non ad effectum per carnem deductos auferamus à collegio carnis saith Tertullian So far is it that the Soul should be alone in the actions of our life that we cannot take those thoughts which are alone and not yet by the flesh brought into act from the society and fellowship of the body For in the flesh and with the flesh and by the flesh that is done by the soul which is done in the heart and inward man In all sins not only the Doers and Actors but the Leaders Directors and Advisers Consenters and Allowers are guilty with the Principal All the Instruments are justly detested where the Sin is worthily condemned The Creatures of God which in themselves are very good being made snares and pricks and thorns unto man are subjected Rom. 8. 20. to vanity and have no better ruler than Satan the God of this world because that by infecting Man with sin he hath altered and inverted the use and end of the whole world The Eye that wanderd after vanity shall be filled with horror the Ear that delighted in blasphemy shall be punished with weeping and gnashing of teeth the Touch which luxury and wantonness corrupted shall be tormented with fire and brimstone Men as well as Angels sin in their whole natures in their bodies and in their souls Otherwise one part must be placed in hell as peccant the other in heaven as innocent And this the Fathers made an argument and strong proof of the Resurrection of the dead Sic ad patiendum societatem carnis expostulat anima ut tam plenè per eam pati possit quà m sine ea plenè agere non potuit The Soul must have the society and company of the Body in the punishment as she made it a fellow and companion in sin that now she may as fully suffer by it and with it as before without it she could do nothing And they bring her in thus bespeaking the Flesh Thou didst let open the gates at which the enemy enterd that destroy'd us both Thou hadst Beauty for which I was more deformed Riches for which I was the poorer Thou wert clothed sumptuously for which I was the more naked Thou hadst Strength for which I was the weaker Thou hadst Eyes which let-in those colours which are now blackness and darkness Thou hadst Ears which suckt-in that musick which is turned into mourning In thee was the sin shaped and formed which begat death I have sinned in thee and with thee and now we
must both smart together I went-out by thy Ears and Eyes and Hands and wandred abroad after forbidden objects and now being returned home I find my self naked It is evident then that the Senses of the Body are the Windows of the Soul and that through them Tentations make their entrance into the inward man Why do men disbelieve and impugn the word of God but because they measure Divine things by humane Sense and Experience Thus did Mahometism get a side presently and overflow the greater part of the world because it brought with it a carnal Paradise an eternity of Lusts and such promises as flattered the Sense to blindfold the Reason that it might not see its absurdities For the Turk destitute of truth and so not able to judge aright of Gods favours in this life casting an eye on the worldly miseries of Christians and puffed-up with his own victories condemneth the faith of Christ as displeasing to God because by reason of afflictions it is so unto the Flesh and preferreth and magnifieth his own for no other reason but that it is more attempered to the Sense and answerable to the desires of the Flesh The Atheist who hath no Religion at all no God but his own right hand and his arm no Deity but Policy is carried with the same respects to deny and despise the Providence of God For being earthly minded and even buried alive in the contemplation of the things of this world and seeing the wicked flourish as a green bay-tree and Innocence clothed with shame brought to the stake and the rack concludeth there is no God and derides his Patience and Justice because his Providence waiteth not upon his desires governs not the world as he would have it and is wanting sometime to his expectation Nay beloved how many are there of us who draw-out our Religion by this model and if Religion will not condescend and meet with our sensual Desires draw them up and mix and temper them with our Religion and if we do not find Religion fit to our humor we make one Christianity of it self is a severe and simple Religion and doth so little favour our fleshly part that it commands us to mortifie and kill it and yet how by degrees hath it been brought to joyn and conform it self to our Sense which lets-in those tentations which are the very seed out of which many monstrous errors are ingendred Of a severe Religion we have made it a sportful Religion an easie Religion a gaudy and pompous Religion of a doing active Religion a heavy Religion of a bountiful Religion we have made it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cheap and thriving Religion For from our Senses and fleshly desires have those corruptions and mixtures crept into Religion which carry with them a near likeness and resemblance to them Ambition hath brought-in her addition or defalcation and Covetousness hers and Wantonness hers and the Love of pleasures hath cast-in her poyson and all these have left their very mark and character in the doctrines of men Nor can I attribute it to any thing more than to this that we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take our Senses from the world and sanctifie and consecrate them to God One would think indeed that Ambition and Covetousness and Sensuality were of a quite contrary strain and not competible with those more speculative errors For what can the Love of money or honor do to the stating of a question in Divinity But by the art and craft of the Devil these have been made tentations to error have been as the Popes claim runs infallible far more potent with us than an oecumenical Councel For these tentations of the World and the Flesh first strike the Sense with delight which by the help of the Phansie doth soon enflame the Affections and the Affections will soon build-up an opinion The Love of honor makes the Judgment follow it to that height and pitch which it hath markt-out My Love of money will gloss that Blessing which our Saviour hath annext to Poverty of spirit My Factions humor will strike at the very life and heart of Religion in the name of Religion and God himself and destroy Christianity for excessive love of Christ Every humor will venture upon any falshood which is like it There is nothing within the compass of our Sensual appetites which we are not ready to embrace and believe it to be true because we wish it so being advantageous and conducible to the end which we have proposed and set-up to our selves When Christians did revocare mentem à sensibus take and withdraw their Hand from those objects which were busie with the Sense when they were within themselves and framed their lives to the simplicity and plainness of the Gospel there was scarce the name of Heretick heard amongst them no contentions no exsecrations no thundring-out excommunications against one another But within a while this simplicity abated and the doctrine of Faith was made to give attendance on sensual humours that did pollute it Therefore the Heathen to make the Christians let go their hold and fall off from the acknowledgment of the truth did use the Devils method and laid before them temporal contentments and the sweetness of life Their common forms were CONSULE TIBI MISERERE TUI Have a care of your self Pity your self NOLI ANIMAM TUAM PERDERE Destroy not your own life They made large promises of honours riches and preferment And these Tertullian calls devillish suggestions But when they could not thus prevail when these shining and glorious tentations could not shake or move them then Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis larina Atque ipsa poenarum ultima Mors then torments were threatned the Hook and the Whip and the last of punishments Death it self And as Tentations inter ento the soul by the Senses so they look-out by the Eye Facies intentionum omnium speculum saith Tertullian The face is the glass wherein you may see the very intentions of the mind Anger Sorrow Joy Fear and Shame which are the affections of the heart appear in the countenance Why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance Gen. 4. 6. fallen saith God to Cain When Esau was well pleased with Jacob Jacob tells him I have seen thy face as the face of God Habitus mentis in corporis Gen. 33. 10. statu cernitur saith St. Ambrose You may view the state of the soul in the outward man and see how she changes and alters by those outward motions and impressions which she makes in the body When the Soul of man liketh the object and apprehendeth it under the shew of good she kindleth and moveth her self to attain her desire and withal incenseth the spirits which warm the bloud enlarge the heart and diffuse themselves to embrace that good which is either in the approach or present And when she seeth evil which she cannot decline she staggereth and sinketh for fear which
Pleasure promises the rest and quiet of the body which cannot be but there where there is no want no corruption Non ex eo quod est fallimur sed ex eo quod non est we are not deceived with that which is and hath a reality and being but with that which is not but only in shew and appearance And the curiosity of fools which catch after shades and apparitions may put me in mind of that knowledge which will make me wise to salvation Their affectation of power may provoke in me a desire of an everlasting kingdom and their love of pleasure a love of that joy which is spiritual and heavenly I may learn skill ab adversario artifice from my adversary observe and watch him and blow him up in his own mine And this is not only to resist him but to lead him in triumph and shew him openly to shew how we have taken his weapons out of his hands and made them instruments of righteousness how his provocation to lust hath holpen to beget a greater hunger and thirst after righteousness his tentations to covetousness have expelled all covetous desires but those of eternity and his pleasing tentations whet and encrease our appetite to those pleasures which are at the right hand of God for evermore This is not to fight with him in his visible shape to try it out at blows with him as some foolish Monks in St. Hieromes time would boast they had done to make themselves a wonder to the people but to fight against him invisible hid and obscured in all his wiles and cunning enterprises to discover what is not seen his craft and malice and make use of what is seen his paint and colours his glorious shews and presentments to kindle our love to that which is really and substantially good This is truly to resist and conquer and tread him under foot This is our glory and this is our duty For indeed our Duty is our glory and that which we call service is the glorious liberty of the sons of God And we shall be the more ready and active to perform it if we duly and exactly enter into consideration of Our selves who are to fight of the temptations which assault us and of God who is a pure and simple Essence and therefore cannot but be sore displeased to see Man so noble a creature thus mingle himself every day with the vanities and trash of this world and sell himself for that which is not bread And first the Knowledge of Our selves is of great force to redeem us from the vanities of the World NOSCE TE IPSUM Hujus praecepti tanta vis tanta sententia est ut ea non cuiquam homini sed Delphico Deo tribueretur saith Tully KNOW THY SELF is a praecept in which is conteined so much virtue and high wisdome that men dare not entitle any man to it but the Delphick God Apollo and make him the author of it For he that knows himself shall soon perceive that he hath something in himself Divine that his Will and Understanding are as an image dedicated and consecrated in him and he will alwaies be doing or thinking something which may be worthy of so great a gift of the Gods And when he hath well viewed and surveyed himself in every part he will quickly observe how richly furnisht Nature hath sent him into the world with what helps and instruments to procure that wisdom which must stile and denominate him a Man which may help him deligere bona reijcere contraria to know and choose that which is good and to reject the contrary though it borrow the same shape and countenance Quam pro nihilo putabit ea quae vulgo ducuntur amplissima How will he slight and look down upon those things which the vulgar admire and have in high estimation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Simplicius KNOW THY SELF it is the command of God that wherein all Philosophy and Goodness begins and ends And so it is the beginning of all Divinity saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ask your self the question Who and What you are and search and know your nature and composition Know that thou art 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soul and Understanding that thou art made after the image of God that thou art not the Body but the Body is thine and Money and Arts and all that provision for life are not in thee but about thee that thy body is mortal thy soul immortal that there is a double life proposed this life which is a dying life and ends sooner than a tale and that life which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of some affinity to thy soul immortal and not confined and circumscribed by time And if thou attain to this knowledge thou wilt not fix thy mind upon these transitory things as if they were eternal nor despise those everlasting blessings as if they were fading and transitory but give unto thy Flesh that which is due unto thy Flesh dust to dust and ashes to ashes meat to thy belly and cloth to thy back both which shall be destroyed by God but to thy Soul and immortal part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the precepts of piety the exercise of virtue the moderation of thy unruly affections Nor be so over-careful to cloth thy body that the while thou letst thy soul go naked and bare nor provide for the one to destroy the other Advertamus qui simus ipsi ut nos quales oportet esse servemus It concerns us to remember what we are that we may still keep our selves the same which we ought to be If thou beest never so learned never so wise yet thou still wantest something nay the greatest point of wisdome if thou be not wise for thy self For what commendation is it to know all things which are in heaven and earth to be well seen abroad and yet be a meer stranger at home to have an insight in all things but himself Certainly nothing lays us more open and naked to tentations and the vanities of the world than the low esteem we have of our selves For we live as if these vanities were made for us and we for these vanities as if our Eye were made to no other end but to behold vanity our Ear to hearken after it and all our Senses were ordained as so many inlets of Sin as if we were made for nothing else but Sin and were all Flesh and had no Soul at all And what a dishonour is this to the dignity of our nature How doth this irreverence to our selves make us like unto the Beasts that perish nay far worse then they For proprietas ei nominis ubi de innocentia exciderit aufertur saith Hilary Man looseth the propriety of his name when he divides himself from innocency Aut Serpens aut Equus aut Mulus ei nomen est and you may call him Serpent or Horse or Mule Quot peccata tot personarum similitudines saith Hierom As many sins
may not only subdue and overcome it but turn it to our benefit and behoof that though with Samsons Lion it comes with open mouth to devour us yet we may kill it by degrees and find honey and sweetness in the belly of it This Flesh of ours is much blamed as being a prison of the Soul and a weight to press it down The Manichee observing that war which is betwixt it and the soul allowed it no better maker than the Devil but is solidly confuted by St. Augustine Gregory Nyssen calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fuliginous ill-savoured shop But all this will not make Tentations unavoidable or bring-in an Impossibility of prevailing against them Non enim caro suo nomine infamis saith Tertullian The Flesh is not ill-spoken of for it self Neque enim de proprio sapit aliquid aut sentit for it doth neither understand nor will but is of another substance 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 Nor was it made to press us down to Hell but by the power of the soul to be lifted up into heaven Animus Imperator corporis The Mind hath supream power over the Body and is inthroned there the Body is made to be obedient and tractable to be reined and checked and guided by the Mind Whence Athanasius compares the Soul to a Musician and the Body to a Harp or Lute which she may tune and touch with that art and skill as that it may yield a pleasant and delightful harmony nunc pietatis carmen nunc temperantiae modulos as St. Ambrose speaks now a song of Sion a Psalm of Piety a coelestial Hymn and again the composed measures of temperance and chastity It was made for the Soul as Eve was for Adam in adjutorium not to tempt and seduce it but to be a helper What part almost is there of Christianity which is not performed by the ministry of the Body Hast thou a hand to take thy brother by the throat thou hast a Hand also to lift him out of the dust Hast thou an Eye to take in the adulteress thou hast an Eye also to pity the poor Hast thou a Tongue which is a sword to wound thy brothers reputation thou mayest if thou wilt make it thy glory and minister a word of comfort in due season 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 ergò 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 sustein 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 ruin both upon the house and the tenant cast both Body and Soul into hell Nè nobis ergò blandiamur quia Dominus consensit carnem esse infirmam nam praedixit spiritum esse promptum ut ostenderet quid cui esse debeat subjectum Let us not therefore saith Tertullian flatter our selves in sin because Christ hath told us that the Flesh is weak for he hath told us also that the Spirit is strong and thereby made it plain unto us which part should be subject to the other that we may not excuse our selves by the infirmity of our Flesh but uphold and establish our selves by the strength of the Spirit For tell me Why were we baptized why were we made Christians Was it not to mortifie our earthly members and lusts non exercere quod nati sumus to be in the body and out of the body to tame the wantonness of the flesh to make it our greatest care that the Flesh which is weak prevail not against the Spirit which is strong to fight against temptations and especially against the most dangerous tentation which perswade us that we are weaker than we are For I cannot see of what use this unseasonable consideration of our own weakness should be when the Lord of hosts is with us when he hath girded us with strength and power when he hath fitted us with all habiliments of war the Helmet of Salvation the Sword of the Spirit and the Shield of Faith when they that are with us are more and stronger than they which are against us You will say perhaps To humble us Indeed we cannot be too humble under the mighty hand of God but that is not Humility but baseness which humbles us under tentation This is the best use we commonly make of it We remember our weakness and that thought leads us captive makes us so humble as to crouch and fall at the foot of the enemy which will devour us This low conceit of our selves is the cause of all the errors of our life Desperatione debilitati experiri id nolunt quod assequi posse diffidunt saith Tullie As it is in Arts and Sciences so is it in our Christian warfare Nothing more weakens and disinables us than our Distrust and Diffidence in our selves and we never make a proffer or motion to do that which we presume we cannot do when as they who affect any great matter must try every way break through all opposition do what they can nay do more than they imagine they can do And as David went up against Goliath and ask'd Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defie the armies of the living God so should we buckle on our armor and draw near to the strongest tentation and defie it For what is this Tentation that it should stand up against the whole armour of God against those armies of the living God his many Precepts his many Promises the Examples of good men the Prayers of the Saints What are these Tentations that they should gain the victory over our Faith Are they principalities or powers or things present or things to come are they life or death they shall not be able to separate us from the love of God Thus may we overthrow them in the name of the Lord. We read in the Historian of Caligula the Emperour Nihil tam efficere concupiscebat quà m quod posse effici negaretur that he was most eager in attempting that which he knew before-hand could not be done And this no doubt was a great argument not only of pride but of folly in him But certainly it is a far more dangerous folly in a matter that so nearly concerns us as our everlasting welfare to frame to our selves an impossibility of doing that which we are bound to do which not to do is to undo and destroy our selves to think we are too weak to fight who have vowed to overcome To attempt that which I cannot do is but to lose my labor but not to do
it self or whatsoever may be disadvantageous unto us or that of St. Augustine who forgetting that he had made seven Petitions in his second Book upon the Sermon on the Mount makes this clause the same with the former bring nothing contrary to truth or indeed to this interpretation Having therefore shut-up and concluded all evil in him who is the Father of Evil we will 1. consider him first as an enemy to Mankind 2. lay-down reasons why he is so and why we should make preparation against him and 3. discover some Stratagems which he useth to bring his enterprises to pass And first that the Devil is our enemy we need not doubt For the Apostle hath openly proclaimed him so We wrestle not with flesh and Ephes 6. 12. bloud against Men as weak and mortal as our selves but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world that is against the Devil and his Angels against spiritual wickedness in high places that is as himself speaks in the second Chapter against those spirits which rule in the air And therefore St. Basil gives us 1. his Name which is SATANAS an adversary and DIABOLUS a Devil because he is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow-worker with us in sin and when it is committed an accuser 2. his Nature He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorporeal 3. his Dignity It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a principality 4. the Place of his principality He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the air and is therefore called the Prince of this world His Anger is implacable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as immortal as himself not as Mans who is never angry but with particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as with Cleon and Socrates but not with man Satans Anger and Hatred is bent against the whole nature of Man Cùm sit ipse poenalis quaerit ad poenam comites Being even a punishment unto himself he would have all men with him come under the same lash And if he cannot win a Soul by invasion he attempts it by stratagem To this end as he makes use of Pleasure and Content so he doth of Affliction and Sorrow Operatio ejus est hominum eversio His very working and operation is nothing else but for the eversion and ruine of mankind Nec definit perditus perdere being fallen himself he would draw all men after him The bodies of men he plagueth with diseases and their souls with sudden and unusual distractions being able through the subtility and spirituality of his nature to work-upon both invisibilis in actu in effectu apparens invisible and insensible in the act but manifestly seen in the effect He cheated men with oracles struck them with diseases and pretended a cure desinens laedere curasse credebatur when he did not hurt them he was thought to have healed them By these arts he insinuated him self into the minds of ignorant men and at last was honoured with Temples and Altars and Sacrifices and gained a Principality and kind of Godhead in the world But now his Oracles are stilled his Altars beat down and he is driven out of his Temples But yet he is a Devil still and an Enemy and rules in the air and upon permission may make use of one creature to destroy another And his Power is just though his Will be malicious Quod ipse facere iniquè appetit hoc Deus fieri non nisi justè permittit What he wickedly desires to do that God may suffer justly to be done We will not not say that the evil Spirits visibly fight against us and try it out with fists as those foolish Monks in St. Hierom boasted of themselves that they had often tried this kind of hardiment with them to make themselves a miracle to the ignorant rout who are more taken with lies than with truth We are not apt to believe that story or rather fable in St. Hierome of Paul the Hermite who met the Devil first as a Hippocentaur next as a Satyr and last of all as a Shee-wolf or that of Hilarion to whom were presented many fearful things the roaring of Lions the noise of an Army and a chariot of fire coming upon him and Wolves and Foxes and Sword-players and wicked Women and I cannot tell what For it is scarce expressable what a creating faculty Melancholy and Solitariness and Phansie have ut non videant quae sunt videre se putent quae non sunt that when we do not see those things which are yet they make us believe we see those things which are not We will not speak of Spirits possessing the bodies of men Which power we cannot deny but they have Yet I am perswaded these after-ages have not frequently seen any such dismal effects The world hath been too much troubled with lies and many counterfeits have been discovered even in our times And for us Protestants we see no such signs no such wonders But these Devils are as common as Flies in Summer amongst them who boast of an art and skill they have in casting them out You would think they enterd men on purpose that these men might shew their activity in driving them away and so confirm and make good their Religion make themselves equal to those primitive Christians quorum verbis tanquam flagris verberati nomina aedebant who with their very words would make them roar as if they had been beaten with whips till they confest they were devils and did tell their names We may say of these in our daies as he doth of superstitious Dreams Ipsâ jam facilitate auctoritatem perdiderunt They are too common to be true And because so many of these strange relations have been manifestly false we may be pardoned if we detrect a little and believe not those few which are true For the mixture of fictions in many a good history hath many times made even Truth it self seem fabulous But yet though we suspend our belief and do not suddenly and hand over head subscribe unto these we are not like those Philosophers in Tully qui omnia ad sensus referebant who referred all to their senses and would believe no more than what they did see For these evil Spirits may be near us and we see them not they may be about our paths and we discern them not Many effects of theirs no doubt we may see and yet can have no assurance that they were theirs For that light of their intellectual nature is not put-out but they know how to apply active qualities to passive and diversly upon occasion to temper natural causes being well seen and versed in the book of Nature And this knowledge of theirs is enlarged and advanced by the experience of so many thousand years and their experience promoted and confirmed by an indefatigable and uncessant survey of the things of this world which is not stayed and held back by any pause or interval nor needs any repair or help by
rest and sleep as ours quasi per quasdam ferias as the Father speaks as by so many daies of vocation and rest but every moment they observe things and every moment draw new conclusions and every moment collect and infer one thing out of another Besides as Tertullian tells us momento ubique sunt their motion and apprehension is swift and sudden Totus mundus illis locus unus est The whole world is to them but as one place and what is done in every place they soon know in any place We do not meet them as Hippocentaurs but we meet them as Tyrants We cannot say we have seen the Devil in the shape of a Fox but yet we are not ignorant of his wiles and crafty enterprises And though his hand be invisible when he smites us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incorporeal hangman as Chrysostom calls him yet we may feel him in our impatience and falling from God What speak we of the possession of our body when it is too manifest that he possesses our soul For do we see a man with a mouth like a sepulchre and a tongue like a rasor with a talking eye and a restless hand starting at the motion of every leaf drooping at the least breath of affliction amazed at the sight of white and red colour stooping at every clod of earth transported at every turn of his eye afraid where no fear is mourning for the absence of that which will hurt him and rejoycing at that stoln bread which will be as gravel between his teeth Do we see him sometimes fall into the water and sometimes into the fire sometimes cold and stupid and anon active and furious we may well conclude and account him as one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those who are possest with a Devil That he insinuates himself into the Soul of Man that being of so subtile an essence he works upon the Spirits by inflaming or cooling upon the Phansie by strange representations making it a wanton and on the Understanding by presenting of false light and sending-in strong illusions it is plain and evident and we need not doubt But the manner how he worketh is even as invisible as himself and therefore it were a great vanity to enquire after it Stultum est calumniam in eo inquisitionis intendere in quo comprehendi quod quaeritur per naturam suam non potest saith Hilary It is a great folly to run-on in the pursuit of the knowledge of that which before we set forth we know we cannot attain And therefore saith the Father Nemo ex me scire quaerat quod me nescire scio nisi fortè ut nescire discat quod sciri non posse sciendum est Let no man desire to know of me that which I know I cannot know unless peradventure he would learn to be ignorant of that which he must know he cannot but be ignorant Let others define and determine and set-down what manner they please we may rest upon that of St. Augustine Facilius est in alterius definitione videre quod non probem quà m quicquam bene definiendo explicare In this point it is easier to refute anothers opinion than to establish our own and to shew that the Devil doth not work thus than plainly to set-down and say Thus he works It is enough for us to know that as God is a friend so the Devil is an enemy as God inspires good thoughts so the Devil inspireth evil that he can both smite the body and wound the soul that he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks divers and various operations and can alter with the occasion that he knows in what breast to kindle Lust into what heart to pour the venom of Envy whom to cast-down with Sorrow and whom to deceive with Joy that his snares are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of many shapes and forms which he useth to draw-on that sin to which he sees man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most inclinable and prone and gives every man poyson in that which he best loves as Agrippina did to Claudius her husband in Mushromes Now to proceed The Reasons why the Devil thus greedily thirsts after the ruine and destruction of Mankind are derived from his Hatred to God and his Envy to Man His first wish which threw him down from heaven was To be a God and being fallen he wished in the next place that there should be no God at all willing to abolish that Majesty which he could not attain Odium timor spirat saith Tertullian Hatred is the very breath of Fear We never begin to hate God till we haâ—e committed something for which we have reason to fear him And the Devil being now in chains of everlasting darkness doth hate that Light which he cannot see And because God himself is at that infinite distance from him that his Malice cannot reach him he is at enmity with whatsoever hath being and essence and conservation from God or is answerable and agreeable to his will but especially with Man because God hath past a gracious decree to save him and put him in a fair possibility of the inheriâ—â—nce of that heaven from whence he was thrown down He manifests his hâ—â—â—ed to God in hating his Image which he doth labour to deface now blurring it with Luxury anon with Pride and every day bespotting it with the world striving to destroy that new-creature which Christ hath purchast with his bloud just as some Traitours have used to stab their Prince in his picture or as the poor man in Quintilian who not able to wreak his anger on the person of his rich and powerful enemy did solace himself in whipping his statue And as the Devils Hatred to God so his Envy to Man enrageth him For through envy of the Devil came sin into the world It is Bernards opinion that Man was created to supply the defect of Angels in heaven and to repair that breach which their fall had made in the celestial Jerusalem But most probable nay without question it is that the Devil with his hellish troop are therefore so fiery and hot against us because they see and are verily perswaded that those men whom they cannot withdraw from obedience to God shall by the power of Christ be raised to that height of glory from which he and his Angels were cast-down and shall in a manner supply their place in heaven whilst they lay bound in chains of everlasting darkness And therefore though he gave Man a fall in Paradise yet he still envieth his hope as Timagenes was grieved when he saw Rome on fire because he knew it would be built-up fairer than it was before it was burnt Quoniam emulari non licet nunc invidet as he speaks in Plautus Because he cannot emulate us in our rise he envies us and that happiness which he cannot make the object of his Hope he makes the object of his Malice as they who are tumbled
from some high place catch at all they meet by the way not for help but to pull it after them For that is true which the Oratour hath observed Naturali quodam deploratae mentis affectu monentibus gratissimum est commori It is incident to men of deplored and desperate minds if they see they must perish to desire to fall with company This makes the Devil so raging an enemy and is not more his sin than his punishment Invidiâ enim magis acâ—â—nditur quà m Gehennâ saith Cyprian For he is more tormented with this envy than with the fire of Hell For Envy and Malice though their eye be outward yet their sting is inward And as it was said of Tarquine in Livy That it was no wonder si qualis in cives qualis in socios talis in ultimum in liberos esset In seipsum postremò saeviturum si alia desint that that cruelty he shewed to his citizens and to his allies and confederates he did at last exercise upon his own children For where matter should be wanting for his Malice to work upon he would be cruel to himself So though the Malice of the Devil setteth it self against God first and then against his creature though he wish there were no God and would destroy Mankind though his Malice walk along with him and compass the whole earth yet it resteth in himself and is a great part of that torment which he endureth St. Jude v. 6. tells us that the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation were reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Which Angels are no other than those which are afterwards called the devil and his Angels Who though they have a Kind of principality of power in the air and do abide there for so we must understand those celestial high places yet Ephes 6. notwithstanding are reserved under darkness if we compare it with that light from which they are fallen And although they run to and froâ— in this inferiour and sublunary world yet they may be said to be reserved in chains because they can never be admitted to that highest heaven from whence they were driven St. Bernard conceives that the Devil hangs in the air and to his grief and torture observes the Angels descending and ascending by him and seeing what gifts descend from above from the Father of lights on â—â—e children of men and what incense smoaks upwards what prayers every day beat at the gates of heaven is torn and tormented with envy and malice which make him fierce and cruel against us For that of the Stoick is most true Omnis ex infirmitate feritas est All malice and cruelty and all violent proceedings proceed from want and infirmity from fear or some such low passion in us Non jam Lucifer sed Tenebrifer saith Bernard He is not now a son of light but of darkness The Angels which fell not are loving ready to minister and do many good offices to us but he that is fallen into the lake of Brimstone goes about seeking to devour us quorum obtinere non potest mortes impetit mores saith Leo and if he cannot kill our bodies he makes it his study to destroy our souls Est insita malevolentia quaedam facultas nocendi istis malis spiritibus Gaudent de malo hominum de fallacia nostra si nos sefellerint pascuntur saith Augustine There is a kind of inbred malevolence and activity in hurting in these evil Spirits They rejoice when men suffer and if they can put a cheat upon us they are fed as at a feast From hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cogitations of Satan those treble doors those inventions and engines of his those wiles and crafty enterprises For ingenium de malitia sumit saith Tertullian his malice makes him witty and subtle For without Malice his Subtlety were not hurtful and without Subtlety his Malice would have no edge For Malice is an active and consultative thing busie and industrious to compass its end It looketh about the object it searcheth out means it knows both quid faciat and quando faciat it knoweth the thing to be done and the opportunity of doing Daily experience may teach us what mighty things it brings to pass and how often it frustrates the greatest providence A malicious enemy is the more dangerous and makes his way with more ease because he useth to gild it over and commend it with a shew of love and is like fire coverd over with ashes which is not seen till it burns us The Devil like Caligula in the story could wish that all Mankind had but one neck that he might cut it off at a blow But being not able to destroy all at once he steals the victory by degrees as men covetous of other mens possessions and not able to gain them by open violence are fain to call their wits to counsel and forced to use tricks of legerdemain And these qualities of the Devil his Malice and Envy and Subtlety we have plainly exprest in those names which are given him by the holy Ghost in Scripture Where he is stiled an Adversary alwaies resisting the will of the Lord an Accuser leading us to those Sins which will cry aloud against us a Serpent because he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of turnings and windings various and manifold in his operations and full of deceit a Lion because as a hungry Lion he walks up and down to find out his prey which he may devour and roars against us to fright us from that course of sanctity which leads unto happiness In a word that we may invert St. Pauls words he is made all unto all that he may destroy all Nomina mille mille nocendi artes He hath a thousand names and a thousand waies to hurt us and to express these many waies he hath his diversity of names and all this for our sakes that we may make due preparation against so cunning and potent an enemy that though he accuse us we may stand upright though he be an Adversary he may not prevail though he roar like a Lion he may not be heard though he flatter as the Serpent he may not deceive But then these are but expressions and cannot character him out in his full horrour Semper citra veritatem est similitudo saith Tertullian The image and representation alwaies comes short of the truth The Devil may be an Adversary but in the highest degree an Accuser but one who is instant and urgent and will not be answered like a Serpent but more crafty than the Serpent like a Lion but more fierce a great deal and devouring than the beast In omnibus veritas imaginem antecedit The Truth is alwaies before and beyond the image which shews it All which may teach us to stand upon our guard to look about us as the Father speaks mille oculis with a thousand
the mouth he makes it become a cordial in the stomach that so we may say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted And he puts gall and wormwood on Pleasure that we may seek it where it is in his Law and Testimonies that neither Sorrow dismay nor Pleasure deceive us We may truly say The very finger of God is here For it is the work of God to create Good out of Evil and Light out of Darkness which are heterogeneous and of a quite contrary nature For as the Apostle tells us that every creature of God is good being sanctified by the word of God so when God speaks the word even the worst Evil is Good and not to be refused because by this word it is sanctified and set apart and consecrated as a holy thing to holy uses The word of God is as the words of consecration And when he speaks the word then the things of this world receive another nature and new names and have their denomination not from what they appear but from what they do not from their smart but from their end Then that which I call Poverty shall make me rich and that which I esteem Disgrace shall stile me honourable Then the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Then this Affliction this light and momentany affliction shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory And therefore we may behold the blessed Saints of God triumphing in their misery and counting those blows which the wicked roar under as favours and expressions of Gods love John and Peter esteemed it an honour and high preferment and rejoyced as they who are raised from the dunghil to the throne that they were thought worthy to suffer shame And so doth Paul For after he had Act. 5. 41. besought the Lord thrice to be freed from that buffeting of Satan and had 2 Cor. 12. recoverd that answer My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is perfected is made open and manifest in weakness he presently breaksforth into these high triumphant expressions Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me So rest upon me that no evil may rest upon me to hurt me that I may have a feeling and a comfortable experimental knowledge of it For this I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong My opinion is alterd my thoughts are not the same my judgment is divers from what it was That which was terrible to my Sense is pleasing to my Reason That which was Persecution is a Blessing That which was a Serpent is a Rod to work wonders and forward my deliverance Nova rerum facies There appears a new face and shape of things as there doth to a man who is removed out of a dungeon into the light And as Plato tells us that when the Soul is delivered from the Body for we may call even Death it self a deliverance it doth find a strange alteration and things in the next world divers from what they were in this so when the Soul is delivered from Sin every thing appears to us in another shape Pleasure without its paint and Sorrow without its smart The Devil is not an Angel of light but a Devil a Lion a Serpent a Destroyer in what shape soever he puts-on Oppidum mihi carcer solitudo paradisus saith St. Hierom A City is a prison and the Wilderness a paradise The waters of Affliction break-in but the bloud of Christ is mingled with them Here is the gall of bitterness but the power of Christ works with it and it is sweeter than hony or the hony-comb For this cause I am wel pleased in infirmities I am saith St. Paul so far from desiring to be freed from them that I take Christs word as a kiss and think it best with me when it is worst Let him handle me how he will so he fling me not out of his hands For if I be in his hands though the World frown and the Devil rage yet his hand will be exalted and his mighty power will be eminent in my weakness If God be with us no Evil can be against us Therefore the Apostle calleth Affliction a gift To you saith he it is given not onely to believe on him but also to suffer for his Phil. 1. 29. sake not forced upon you as a punishment but vouchsafed you as a gift We mistake when we call it evil It is a donative and a largess from a royal Prince to his Souldiers who have stood it out manfully and quit themselves well in the day of battel When men have been careful in their waies and have been upright and sincere towards God in all their conversation then God doth grace and honour them by making them champions for his truth and putting them upon the brunt He doth not lend or sell them to calamities but appoints it to them as an office as a high place of dignity as a Captains place a Witnesses place a Helpers place And how great an honour is it to fight and die for the Truth How great an honour is it to be a Witness for God and to help the Lord First God crowneth us with his grace and favour and then by the Grace of God we are what we are holy and just and innocent before him and then he crowns our Innocency with another crown the crown of Martyrdom Quarta perennis erit And at last he crowns us with that everlasting crown of Glory This is truly to be delivered from all evil to be delivered that it may not hurt us and to be delivered that it may help us But we have run too long in generalities we must be more particular For I fear we do not thus understand it nor pray to be delivered in this manner or if we do quod voto volumus affectu nolumus our affections do not follow our prayers When we think of Smart and Sorrow we are all for Gods Preventing grace to step in between us and the Evil that it come not near us not for his Assisting grace by which we may change its nature and make it good unto us for his Effective providence which may remove it out of sight not for his Permissive by which he suffers it to approach near unto us to set upon us and fight against us and put us to the tryal of our strength But beloved we must joyn them both together or else we do not put up our petitions aright We must desire Health for it self but be content with Physick for Healths sake We must look upon Evil and present it before our eyes as our Saviour in that fearful hour did Gods Wrath towards mankind not yet appeased and Death in its full strength and Hell not yet mastered by any and then on the other side a World to be saved
an episcopal an overseeing Eye an Eye watchful and careful to keep evil at a distance or else to order and master it to summon a Synod in our soul to raise up all the forces and faculties we have to make canons and constitutions against it and to say unto it as God doth to the Sea Thus far shalt thou go and no further to say unto Poverty comming towards us like an armed man It may strip us naked but it shall not make us desolate It may thrust us into prison but it shall not shut us in hell It may drive us about the world but it shall not banish us from God This Beauty which flourisheth in my eye shall wither in my heart and for flattering my Sense shall be disgraced by my Reason These Riches shall buy me but food and rayment They shall not be employed by my Phansie to attend upon Gluttony or Wantonness or Revenge Nor will I lay them out upon that purchase whose appurtenance is Damnation And this is our humane Providence which in some degree is proportioned to the Providence of God Which consists of these two parts his Wisdom and his Power His Wisdom runneth very swiftly through the world and sees what is to be done and his Power at his word is ready to do it Thus is our spiritual Providence made up of these two Wisdom to see and foresee evil and a firm resolution to avoid it If you ask me What is the light of the body It is the Eye What is the Eye of the Soul It is this Wisdom And if you ask me Wherein our great strength lyeth I cannot shape you a fairer answer then to tell you In Resolution Quicquid volui illico potui What I will do what I resolve to do is done already These two our Wisdom to discern and our Resolution to chuse or reject make us wise as Serpents and bold as Lions as Serpents against the old Serpent the Devil and as Lions against that roaring Lion that seeks to devour us By our Wisdom we defeat his craft by our Resolution we abate his strength And greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world But now because our Eye-sight is dim and our Fore-sight not great and our Oversight slender and imperfect and all our strength but Resolution and our Resolutions many times but faint we look-up unto him who dwelleth with Wisdom who is Wisdom it self and knoweth all things and to that God of Hosts who doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth who telleth the number of the stars and calleth them all by their names who telleth the number of our hairs so that not one of them can fall without his will who telleth the number of our tears and lets not one fall beside his bottle who calleth things that are not as if they were who when there is plenty bringeth-in a famine and when famine hath broken the staff of bread as he goes drops fatness who sees every thing in its causes operations effects ends what it is what it may be what it doth what it may do the works of all flesh saith the Son of Sirach the intents of all men the thoughts of all hearts the motions and inclinations of all creatures nay that which we call Chance and Fortune is before him He can deliver us with means and he can deliver us without means Our trust only is in him For without him alass our Knowledge is full of ignorance We cannot tell what will be the next day the next hour the next moment We know not how to propose any thing to our selves and when we have proposed it we are to seek how to execute it because there are many impediments divers changes and chances of this mortal life the knowledge and disposing of which comes not within the reach of humane Providence And as men in the bottom of a Well are able to see no greater space of the heavens then the compass of the well so neither can we see more then the bounds which are set us will give leave The Eye sees to such a distance but then it fails And we see no further then our humane frailty will permit we see something near us something about us yet many times we stumble even at noon-day at that which was visible enough I am but Man not God and have not the perfect knowledge of Good and Evil. And my Power is not great The largest power that is is sub regno under a greater power For have I an arm like God or can I thunder with a voice like him And then my Patience which is the best fense I have against evil is but froward For is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh of brass And therefore we look-up unto the hills from whence cometh our salvation upon God himself who sees all actions all casualties all events to whom things past and things to come are present who seeth all things ad nudum as the Schools speak naked as they are and can set-up this to pull-down that cross this intent that it never come into action or cross the intent in the action by driving it to a contrary end to that which was proposed Who when we offend can hiss for the fly for forreign incumbrances and when we repent can make our very enemies our friends Who is wonderful in all his works and whose wayes are exalted above ours as far as the heaven is above the earth But this doth not sufficiently express it Isa 55. For they are infinitely exalted farther then the Heaven is above the Earth But the Prophet could not better express it then by such a distance then which we know no greater That we may not rob God of his honour nor sacrifice to our own nets or clap our hands and applaud our selves in our imaginations and say Is not this Babel which I have built It is my right hand that hath done it That I was not taken in a snare it was my Will That I beat my enemies as small as the dust before the wind it was my Valour That every sensible evil made me not truly evil it was my Free-will This is a greater evil and more dangerous then all those which we avoided This is a glance of the Devils dart in his flight to overthrow us with our victory Therefore as we confess our selves to be under Gods Dominion and commit our selves to his Protection so must we attribute all JOVI LIBERATORI to Him who is the great Deliverer from evil not give him part but all not make him our Partner but our Lord. Nemo saith the Father à Deo se adjuvari vult sed salvum fieri We do not desire help only at Gods hand but we desire to be saved by him That which is the subject of our Prayer must be the burden of our Song If we pray for Salvation we must imitate those who stood before the Throne who though they had Palms