apparitions that shall go before his second coming to the end that when they come we may not be dismayed and affrighted at the sight but may entertain them as Angels which bring us good tidings of good things that we may look upon them as Objects of joy rather then of amazement that they may not dead our spirits or change our countenances or trouble our joynts or make us hold down our heads like a bullrush but rowse up our hearts and fill us with joy and make us to say This is the day which the Lord hath made a day of exaltation and redemption a day of jubilee and triumph and so look up and lift up our heads And here methinks I see in my Text a strange conjunction of Night and Day of Brightness and Darkness of Terror and Joy or a chain made up as it were of these three links Terror Exultation and Redemption Yet they will well hang together if Redemption be the middle link For in this they meet and are friends Redemption being that which turns the Night into Day maketh affliction joyful and puts a bright and lovely colour upon Horror it self When these things come to pass Why these things are terrible It is true yet lift up your heads But how can we lift up our heads in this day of terror in this day of vengeance in this day of gloominess and darkness Can we behold this sight and live Yes we may The next words are quick and operative of power to lift up our heads and to exalt our horn and strength as the horn of an Unicorne and make us stand strong against all these terrors Look up lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Not to detein you longer by way of Preface Four things there are which in these words that I have read are most remarkable 1. The Persons unto whom these words are uttered in the particle Your Lift up your heads 2. What things they are of which our Saviour here speaks in the first words of the Text Now when these things begin to come to pass 3. The Behaviour which our Saviour commends unto us in these words Look up lift up your heads 4. Last of all the Reason or Encouragement words of life and power to raise us from all faintness of heart and dullness of spirit For your redemption draweth nigh I have formerly upon another Text spoken of the two first points the Persons to whom and the Things whereof our Saviour here speaketh Before I come to the third point the Behaviour prescribed to be observed by them who see the signs foretold in this Chapter come to pass it will not be amiss a little to consider whence it comes to pass that in the late declining age of the world so great disorder distemper and confusion have their place And it shall yield us some lessons for our instruction And first of all it may seem to be Natural and that it cannot be otherwise For our common experience tells us that all things are apt to breed somewhat by which themselves are ruin'd How many Plants do we see which breed that worm which eats out their very heart We see the body of Man let it be never so carefully so precisely ordered yet at length it grows foul and every day gathers matter of weakness and disease which at first occasioning a general disproportion in the parts must at the last of necessity draw after it the ruin and dissolution of the whole It may then seem to fall out in this great body of the World as it doth in this lesser body of ours By its own distemper it is the cause of its own ruin For the things here mentioned by our Saviour are nothing else but the diseases of the old decaying World The failing of light in the Sun and Moon what is it but the blindness of the World an imperfection very incident to Age. Tumults in the Sea and Waters what are they but the distemper of superfluous humors which abound in Age Wars and rumors of wars are but the falling out of the prime qualities in the union and harmony of which the very being of the creature did consist It is observed by the Wise Libidinosa intemperans adolescentia effoetum corpus tradit senectuti Youth riotously and luxuriously and lewdly spent delivers up to old age an exhaust and juyceless and diseased body Do we not every day see many strong and able young men fade away upon the sudden even in the flower of their age and soon become subject to impotency and diseases and untimely death These commonly are the issues of riot luxury and intemperance Nor can it be otherwise Therefore we cannot but expect that the World should be exceedingly diseased in its old decaying age whose youthful dayes and not only those but all other parts of its age have been spent in so much intemperance and disorder Scarcely had the World come to any growth and ripeness but that it grew to that height of distemper that there was no way to purge it but by a general Floud purgati baptisma mundi as St. Hierome calls it in which as it were in the Baptism its former sins were done away And after that scarcely had three hundred years past but a general disease of Idolatry over-spread and seized on all well-near Abraham and his Family excepted Yet after this once more it pleased God to take the cure into his hands by sending his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ the great Physician and Bishop of our souls But what of all this After all this was done tantorum impensis operum by so much cost and so much care his Physick did not work as it should and little in comparison was gained upon the World For the Many of us we are still the sons of our fathers Therefore we have just cause of fear that God will not make many more tryals upon us or bestow his pains so oft in vain Christ is the last Priest and the last Physician that did stand upon the earth and if we will not hear him what remains there or what can remain but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the world Ephraim is turned unto Idols let him alone I will spend no more labor in Hos 4. vain upon him Thus as Physicians when they find the disease incurable let the diseased go on unto his end so God having now as it were tryed his skill in vain having invited all and seeing so few come having spoken to all and so few hear having poured out his Sons bloud to purge the World and seeing so few cleansed for ought we know and it is very probable hath now resolv'd the World shall go unto its end which in so great a body cannot be without the disorder and confusion our blessed Saviour here speaketh of But you may peradventure take this for a speculation and no more and I have urged it no further then as a
and pride and wantonness of that nation all which are our sins and our enemies weapons so non gladiis pugnamus sed orationibus non telis sed meritis saith Ambrose we fight against them not with sharp swords but with strong supplications not with weapons but with alms and fasting with sighs and groans And as when we sin we put deadly weapons into their hands so when we repent we shall disarm them And indeed it is Repentance which kindles this heat and makes our prayers fervent which otherwise will be but so many sins to help our enemies Without Repentance our Prayers are indeed but the sacrifice of fools For what more foolish and ridiculous quà m quod voto volumus actu nolle then to pray for that which we will not have to cry for help against our enemies by our continuance in sin to increase their number cry Help Lord how long shall the wicked prevail and yet to help them more by our transgression then we do God by our contribution to call upon God to fight for us when we fight against him to desire peace when we are the only incendiaries to fight it out and pray for a blessed Commonwealth and yet not be willing to reach forth so much as the little finger to uphold it Certainly this noise will never awake God nor can we think he will be raised up with words with empty flattering deceitful words with words as Job speaks without counsel No If we will have our prayers make a noise to awake God we must drop our tears upon our prayers which we drop out of our own substance as it were the bloud of Martyrs saith Anastasius And Bloud we know will cry and be loud Non sileat pupilla oculi tui Let not the apple of thine eye cease or be silent And then we must feed our prayers with fasting This doth nourish our Devotion as a woman doth her child with the teat God hath an ear to harken to our Fasting Ostendit se Mosi jejunii collegae saith Tertullian He shews himself presently to Moses his copartner in fasting And after this we must adorn them with our Alms our free-will offering our Contribution to the work For can we pray for that which we will not forward And then as our prayers are heard so shall our alms come up before God and with an holy importunity urge and provoke him to arise for in the midst of so many Prayers of so many Sighs and Groans of so many Tears and when our Charity speaks whose voyce is shriller than the tongues of Men and Angels God cannot rest but will hear from the Heavens our prayer and supplication and maintain our cause He will cloath us with Salvation and our enemies with shame that we may enter his House with joy and his Courts with Praise that we may sit every man under his own vine and under his own fig-tree and may make our lives a continual holyday singing praises to the God of our deliverance This duty let us so perform here that after we shall have finished our course we may be admitted unto the quire of Angels with them to praise God for evermore We will add but one word to bring it home to our present occasion And it will apply it self This is a day of Thanksgiving and here is a feast of Thanksgiving A day of Thanksgiving for our deliverance from our outward fraud A feast of Thansgiving for our redemption from our spiritual enemies Let us offer up therefore sacrificium eucharisticum a pay-offring or sacrifice of payment let us pay to God Confession and Thanks for our deliverance and for his mercies in both Let us as Jacob exhorts his Sons Gen. 43. 11. take of the best fruits of the land of the Musick and Melody of the land as the word signifieth let us bring with us the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith let us bring forth fruits meet for Repentance meet for these blessed mysteries which will be as Musicks even those songs of Sion which God is most delighted with For if there be a blessing even in a cluster of grapes what songs of praise are due to him who is the true Vine and hath given us Wine to make our hearts glad pressed bloud out of his very Heart that we might drink and be nourisht up unto everlasting Life Let us then praise him for our deliverance this day praise him and not be like them out of whose snare we have escaped not imitate their actions whose ruine we tremble at but praise him by our Meekness and Gentleness by our Patience and Obedience to lawful Authority For what praise is that which is breathed out of the mouth of a Traytor If we be as ready to spoyl others as our enemies were to devour us our Harp is but ill strung and our songs of Thanksgiving will be quite out of tune Let us double our praises and magnifie God for that which is presented to us in the Sacrament our deliverance out of Hell the destruction of our worst enemy Sin and our last enemy Death Here is that Red Sea in which that spiritual Pharaoh and his Host were overthrown And what is our Praise To speak good of his name This is not enough we may do this and crucify him We must prayse him by obedience by love by sincerity and by a lively faith This is indeed to eat of his Body which was broken for us and to drink of that Bloud which was shed for remission of Sins For he that truly believes and repents as he is sick of sin so he is sick of love even of that love which in this Sacrament is sealed and confirmed to us He is ever bowing to Christs sceptre he is sincere and like himself in all his wayes he makes his Faith appear in the outward man in Godly lips and in liberal Hands he breaths forth nothing but devotion but Hallelujahs Glory and Honour and Prayse for this great love And so he becoms Peniel Gen. 32. 30. as the face of God as the shape of Christ representing all his Favours and Graces back upon Him a pillar engraven with the bowels of Christ a memorial of his love Thankfully set up for ever It is usual with the Fathers to make the Ark a Type of Christ his Word as the two Tables his Discipline as Aarons Rod and the Sacrament of his Supper as the Pot of Manna EXSURG AT CHRISTUS Let Christ arise who is a brighter image of God then ever the Ark was Let us take him up but not upon prophane Shoulders lest we dy First let us be Priests unto the Lord without blemish not blinded by the Prince of this world not halting between God and the World but perfect men in Christ Jesus to offer up Sacrifices to the King of Heaven When we receive him by a lively Faith we may say he is risen To this end he lifted up himself upon
him This is to be like unto God and to be partaker of his spirit And to be Christs Disciple is to be one with him and to be ingrafted into him Here is the Christians highest pitch his Ascension his Zenith his Third heaven And therefore it is said to be a speech of Christ which the Nazarene Gospel hath recorded though our Bibles have not Nunquam loeti sitis nisi cum fratres in charitate videritis No spectacle of delight nothing that a Christian can take pleasure in nothing of virtue and power hath enough to raise a Disciples joy but to see his fellow-disciples his Brethren embracing one another in love For if the ground of all Pleasure be agreement and proportionableness to the temper and constitution of any thing then certainly nothing so agreeing so harmonical so consonant to our reasonable nature and to the ingenuity of our kind and consequently so universally delightful to all who have not put off the bowels and the nature of Man and are by the love of the world swayed and bended to a brutish condition as that which may as well go for a Reward as for a Duty the Loving of the Brethren that language of Love which we must practice here that we may chant it in heaven with the congregation of the first-born and the spirits of men made perfect by love eternally And indeed Charity is the prime ingredient of the glorified Saints Of whose state we understand no more but that they are in bliss and love one another and that they are for ever blessed because they for ever love one another Their Charity never faileth saith St. Paul and then their bliss is everlasting What is Paradise saith the Father but to love God and serve him And the best love we can shew him the best service we can do him is to love and serve the Brethren The end of the Gospel is love 1 Tim. 1. 5. that is other doctrine tendeth to strife and contention but the whole doctrine of the Gospel tendeth to love and unity So that no doctrine that naturally and of it self worketh wrath and uncharitableness can be Evangelical For the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without judging James 3. 17. and without Hypocrisie Beloved Envy malice debate contention strife are the delight and joy of them who have tasted of the powers of no other world then of this which shall be consumed or rather they are the delight of the infernal spirits as it is a torment to them to be restrained from doing mischief Art thou come to destroy us to torment us before our time saith the unclean Spirit Art thou come to curb and hinder us from vexing and destroying those we hate for this is torturing this is sending them again into the deep confining them to their Luke 8. 31. Hell As the lower pit is said to be opened in the Revelation when they have liberty to vex and torment mankind so it is as much Hell to them not to punish others as it is to be punished And none but evil spirits and Men of their constitution and temper can make a Heaven in Hell it self by doing mischief And indeed Delight it is not properly but it is called so because it is proportionable and satisfactory to their malice and pernicious nature and disposition No if we hear LAETENTUR COELI Let the Heavens rejoyce it is because Peace is here on earth If we hear LAETENTUR ANGELI Let the Angels rejoyce it is for the tears and repentance of some sinner here below If we hear LAETENTUR SANCTI Let the Saints rejoyce it is in their union and communion in those mutual offices of bearing and supporting one another and as so many Angels by prayers and exhortations and by the reciprocal activity of their love lifting and conveighing one another into Abrahams bosome Thus we see that that love which makes and keeps us Brethren is the pleasantest thing in the world and that all other joy is no better joy then the Damned have in hell A Joy I must not call it A Complacency we may call it But that is too good a name It is the feeding the filling the satisfying the Malice of an ugly and malicious Fiend But in the next place we shall the sooner fall in love with this Love if Profit also be brought-in to commend and enhance the price and value of this Pleasure And here if we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is there we may answer Much every manner of way For from this we have all those helps those huge advantages which are as so many heaves and promotions and thrustings forward into Happiness By my brother I may see that which before I could not discover He may clear up my Affections from storm and tempest and my Understanding from darkness and confusion of thoughts He may cast out infinitatem rei as the Civilians speak that variety that kind of infinity of appearances in which every thing useth to shew and present it self He may be as Moses said to Hobab to me instead of eyes to guide and direct Numb 10. 31. me by his counsel and providence By him I may hear as Samuel did for Ely what the Lord God will say By him I may feel and taste how gracious the Lord God is He may do those offices for me which the Angels of God those ministring Spirits cannot do because they have no body He may be my Servant and I may wait upon him He may be my Supporter and I may uphold him He may be my Priest and I may teach him He may be my Guard and I may protect him He may be my Angel and I may go with him and be his conduct He may be made all things to me and I may be made all things to him Thus we may grow up together in Grace for in this Nursery in this Eden in this Fraternity the nearer and closer we grow together the more we spread and flourish COMPLANTATI grafted together in the similitude of Christs Death and Rom. 6. 5. CONSEPULTI Buried together with him in Baptism and CONRESUSCITATI v. 4. risen together with Christ No Grafting no Burying Col. 3. 1. no Rising but together No profit no advantage no encrease but in love Speaking the truth in love we grow up into him in all things Eph. 4. 15 16. which is the Head even Christ By which the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted as a House by that which every joynt supplyes by that spirit and juyce which every part conveighs according to the effectual working in the measure of every part according as it wants sustentation and increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the body which is the Brotherhood may be edified that is more and more instructed and improved by mutual love and the duty and offices of Charity which
is that increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love Oh what a shole of Christians did this Love send forth when the Heathen could make the observation and proclaim it See how these Christians love one another Then did they fill their villages their temples their armies And if we look upon their number they might as Tertullian observes have easily swallowed up their enemies in victory When St. Peter that Fisher of men caught so many together even three thousand souls it was Love that gathered them in and Acts 2. 41. it was Love that kept them in For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they continued daily with v. 46. one accord in the temple They were of one heart and of one soul And what Acts 4. 32. is it that hath made such a dearth and scarcity of sincere and truly pious Christians but our Debate and bitter Malice the greatest enemy Christianity hath For by biting and devouring one another we have well-near consumed one another nay well-near consumed Religion it self And if a Heathen should stand by he could not but wonder and make no other observation then this See how the Christians hale one another The Heathen of old could find out nothing in the Christians but their name to accuse them but we of this aged and corrupted world have scarce any thing but the name of Christians to commend us Hoc Ithacus velit This is that which our enemies have long expected and to effect which they have spent their nights their dayes have laid out their leasure their business their watchings their very sleep and now have seen that fire which they did help to kindle by the light of which they may stretch forth their curtains and enlarge their territories and dominions every day in Christendome For as the Devil is tormented as Optatus speaks with the peace of the Brethren when they are joyned together vinculo fidei glutine charitatis by the bond and cement of Faith and Love so is he enlivened and put into hopes of success in his attempts by the mutual ruptures and jealousies which the Brethren the members of the Church foment and cherish amongst themselves When by the defection of Jeroboam Judah and Israel were rent asunder then came Shishak and troubled Jerusalem And 2 Chron. 12. 2. therefore let us love the Brotherhood as the Apostle exhorts For an enemy is never more dangerous to an army then when it is disordered by mutiny and division If it be at peace with it self it hath half conquered the enemy When the Church begins to be torn by Schisms and Contentions then every blast is ready to shake and shatter it but when it is in unity within it self then it is built up strong and fair as the tower of David No Heresie no Enemy no Jesuite no Devil no not the Gates of Hell can prevail against us whilst we are fast joyned together rooted and built-up and establisht in love No principalities nor powers no height nor depth no creature can come near to touch us whilst we keep within the circle and compass which Love maketh whilst we continue Brethren Thus then we find both Pleasure and Profit in being Brethren But now in the third and last place there is a kind of Necessity to force us And the Love that keeps us so is necessary not only as a virtue or quality without which we ought not to be but as a virtue without which we cannot be what we profess For loose but this bond once unjoynt this goodly frame shake but the Brotherhood and we are fallen from heaven spoiled of all the riches of the Gospel deprived of all the priviledges and prerogatives of Christians defeated of all those glorious promises shook from the hope of immortality and eternal life without love and then without God in this world left naked and destitute stript of our inheritance having title to no place but that where the revolting Angels and malicious Spirits are shut up For as that is true which we find in the Gloss on the Canon Law Habe Charitatem fac quod vis Do it in love and do what thou wilt Thy Zeal shall be as the fire in the bush burning but not consuming thy Reproofs shall be balm thy Justice physick thy Wounds kisses thy Tears as the dew of heaven thy Joy the joy of Angels all thy Works fit to be put in the register of God But if once thou forsake the Brotherhood if once thou shake hands with Love then whatsoever thou doest must needs be ill done because thou doest it If thou speak with the tongue of Men and Angels it is but noise if thou give all thy goods to the poor it is but loss and that which with Love is martyrdom without it may be murder Thy Zeal will be rage thy Reproofs swords thy Justice gall and wormwood thy Wounds fatal thy Tears the dropping of a crocodile thy Joy madness and thy Works sit for nothing but the fire The Gospel to thee will be as killing as the Law and the Bloud of Christ cry as loud for vengeance as that of Abel or of any Brother whom thou hast persecuted and wounded with injuries and reproach Let us not deceive our selves with vain pretences and ridiculous excuses with empty and airy phansies which can conceive and shape out Love when it is dead in the heart which can revile and love strike and love kill and love For a truth it is and a sad truth a truth which may bore the ears of many of us Christians and strike us to the ground as Peters voice did Ananias And St. John hath set his seal to it He that loveth not his Brother and not to 1 John 3. 14. love him with St. John is to hate him abideth in death And again He He that hateth his brother is a murderer alluding to our Saviours reformation of the Law which even made Anger murder What degree of Murder soever he means such a Murderer he is that hath not eternal life abiding in him The want of this Love being a sure mark of a child of wrath and of one carrying his hell about with him whithersoever he goes being himself a Tophet burning with fire and brimstone with Hatred and Malice and Fury having nothing between him and that everlasting Hell but a ruinous wall his body of flesh which will moulder away and fall down within a span of time Oh how should this still sound in our ears as that Rise and come unto judgment did in St. Hieroms who could not sleep for it Oh that the sound of this would make us not to leave our sleep but to leave our gall our venome our Malice which may peradventure bite our Brothers heel wound him in his person in his estate or good name but will most certainly sting us unto death Let then this sad nay this behoofful this glorious this Necessity prevail with us and let us not so trifle with
Thunder upon our Brethren Shall he consider us as a Fleece of woll or as Grass and shall we make one another a mark and an anvil for injuries to beat on Shall Butter and Honey be his meat and shall we feed on Gall and Wormwood Shall he not break a bruised reed and shall we make it our glory to break in pieces the Cedars of Libanus Shall he come to save and shall we destroy one another Shall he come without noise and shall we make it our study to fill the world with tumult and confusion Shall he give eyes to the blind and we put them out Cloths to the naked and we strip them Leggs to the lame and we cripple them Shall he raise men from the dead and we kill them And if we do it can we be so bold as to say we are Christians or that Christ dwelleth in us of a truth Will he abide in this region of blackness and darkness in this place of noise and thunder and distraction No the humble and contrite the meek and merciful is the place of his rest He that came down in humility will not stay with the proud heart he that came down in silence will not dwell in a Chaos in confusion Therefore put you on the Lord Jesus Christ put on his Meekness his Humility As children of Christ put on tender bowels and compassion And let your bowels yearn over the poor to relieve him over the weak to strengthen him over the injurious to forgive him And let us be as Rain to soften and quicken not as Fire to consume one another And then He who thus came down into the Womb thus into the World thus into our Souls thus into the Sacrament in silence without noise or tumult like Rain or Dew having thus watered us and distilled his graces upon us by virtue of this his first Advent at his second Advent when he shall descend with a shout and with the voice of the Archangel though he come with more terrour yet shall he let fall his dew as the dew of herbs and drop upon our rottenness and corruption And they that dwell in the dust shall awake and sing And in those his dayes shall the righteous flourish and abundance of Peace not only so long as the Moon endureth but in new Heavens and new Earth shall dwell Righteousness and Peace for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MATTH V. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth BLessedness is that which all men desire the Sun which every eye looks upon And in this Sermon of our Saviour it streams down upon us in several beams and strictures in Poverty of Spirit in Mourning in Meekness which seem to us as dark and thick clouds but are beams by which we have light to see the way to the Kingdom of Heaven to comfort and the inheritance of the Earth Now the two first Virtues or Beatitudes call them what you please and if they be Virtues they are Beatitudes though not formally yet by communication and if Blessedness be the garland to crown them they must be Virtues The two first I say Poverty of Spirit and Mourning are set in opposition to our Concupiscible appetite Which if not checkt and held back by these stoops at every prey is ensnar'd with wealth and crown'd in pleasure and like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those artificial Engines or Clocks the Philosopher speaketh of are turned about disorderly parvâ motione factâ at the least touch and representation of unlawful and forbidden objects whether it be a wedge of Gold or the lips of the Harlot whither wealth or pleasure And therefore our best Master hath placed these two as assistant Angels to order the motion of that power in the desire of earthly blessings and continue her motion in the search of those things which are above even Poverty of Spirit and a voluntary Abdication of those pleasures which smile upon us as friends at their entrance but at their Exit when they turn their backs upon us are as terrible as Hell it self He that hath his mind so spiritually steer'd that it declines not to the wealth and pomp of the world nor to the delights which it affords howsoever his way be rugged and uneven and his passage cloudy and tempestuous shall notwithstanding at the end thereof find a Kingdom and Consolation And now to these two in its due place and by a kind of nearer method is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meekness and Sweetness of Disposition to restrain the Irascible faculty or appetite as those did the Concupiscible Thus they stand in the original and Greek Copy and the Latine Fathers read them so Nor could the Jesuite find any reason why they should not be so placed in the vulgar Translation and he thinks they were misplaced by the error of the Scribe and put between Poverty and Mourning Sure I am there is good reason why Meekness should stand in the place it doth For from whence come wars and fightings amongst us saith St. James come they not from hence even from our lusts that war in our members And the Schools teach us that Anger proceeds from the concourse of many passions We lust and have not We hope for wealth and are poor and destitute we would sport away our time in pleasure but some intervening cross accident casts us down and for this we are angry Jacob hath Esau's birth-right and Esau will kill him Naboth denies his Vineyard and Ahab is on his bed Jonathan loves David and Saul is ready to nail him to the wall with his Javelin The Samaritanes deny entertainment the Disciples would presently call down fire from Heaven to consume them Irascibilis propugnatrix concupiscibilis saith Gerson These two seditious Tribunes of the Soul the Irascible and the Concupiscible faculty mutually uphold each other My Desire my Hope my Grief are the fewel of my Anger He that stands in my way to wealth or pleasure is my enemy and setteth me on fire which nothing can quench but Poverty of Spirit and Contempt of pleasure When we are weaned from the world and the vanities thereof when we are crucified to the world and the world unto us we are then aptinati fitted for this third Beatitude and gain strength against Anger and against all Thirst and Desire of revenge If I know how to abound and how to want if I can sit down in the House of Mourning and judge those miserable whom the world calls happy and pity them whom most men bow to I am then idoneus auditor a fit man to hear our Saviour preaching from the Mount and proclaiming to all the world Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth And thus much of the dependence this third Beatitude hath on the former two Meekness then you see stands in its right place after Poverty of Spirit and Mourning which make its way plain and usher it in I will not here compare them For
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
be lost it never was true Faith as St. Hierome speaketh of Charity Tell me not of Saul's annointing of Judas's Apostleship of Balaam's prophetick spirit Tell me not of those who are in the Church but not of the Church who like the Pharisees have the Law written on their freinges Religion on the outside when the Devil is in their heart For Judas was but a traytor lurking under the title of a Disciple Sub alterius habitu alteri militavit He wore Christs livery but was the Devils servant Saul was amongst the Prophets but never received a Prophets reward And Balaam blessed the people from God but he died not the death of the righteous There may be some gifts of the Spirit where the Spirit never truly was There may be a beam of grace a shew of godliness where the power thereof is denyed And Faith in him may seem to be dead where it never had true life or being So Nazianzene speaking of those who forsook the colours under which they had formerly fought says they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men which negligently and for fashions sake handled matters of Religion having an Hosanna in their mouth when a Crucifige was in their heart like Meteors which either being drawn up by the heat of the Sun or lifted up by some puff of wind into the air there for a while they remain and draw mens eyes to behold them till at last they go out and infect it But true Faith is like the Sun which is not therefore not at all because a cloud hath overcast it or like the Moon it waxeth and waneth but still receives some light from the Sun The Papists and Arminians in this point as Augustine spake of Hereticks of the same stamp should have rather our prayers then our dispute and will sooner be recalled by our devotion then yield to the strength of our reason But if there be any infant in religion which is not yet grown up to this truth whose earthly thoughts cannot reach to the height of this heavenly mystery if he will not believe God in the book of his Words he may see and read a resemblance of it in the book of his Works Come Christian look upon the Tree In the winter it is stripped of its fruit and leaves nipped by the frost covered with snow so that it seems to be withered and dead and fit only to be cast into the fire Say then May not Faith be where Sin and the filth of the Flesh hath oppressed it Can a winter of affliction dead it Or shall we think that man whose Works alwaies speak not his Faith whose light sometimes shines dimly before men to be in the shadow of death and only fit fuel for hell-fire No this were to wrong our Charity as well as our Faith to make the way to hell broader then it is to enlarge the kingdome of Satan to undervalue the gift of Grace to mistrust the promise of God and to make him a liar like unto our selves What if we be weak and feeble What if the arm of flesh cannot uphold us Yet God directeth us in our paths and is as tender-hearted to us as a nurse to her child when she teacheth it to go sometimes leading and guiding us by his mercy sometimes catching if we slip and if we fall hastily pulling us up again and snatching us to his embraces Hear this and leap for joy you who are members of Christs mystical body You may fall but you shall rise again Your names are written in the Book of Life and neither the malice nor the policy of Satan can blot them out God hath made a league with you and you may be sure he will be as good as his word He hath married himself to you for ever and then you need not fear a divorce He hath written his law in the midst of your heart and the Devil shall never rase it out He hath put his fear into you and such and so great a fear as St. Augustine speaks that you shall alwaies adhere unto him that shall make you fly Sin as a Serpent and if it chance to bite and sting you shall make you look up to that brasen Serpent lifted up and you shall be healed If you be tempted he will give the issue Only thou must so be confident that you presume not 1 Cor. 10. so fear that you despair not Faith and Fear together make a blessed mixture Fear being as the lungs and Faith as the heart which will get an heat and over-heat as one speaketh if by Fear as by cool air it be not tempered If then Faith uphold thy Fear and Fear temper thy Faith though thou take many a fall by the way yet at last thou shalt come to thy journeys end Though the Devil shake thy Faith yet God will protect it Though he for a while steal away this precious Jewel the joy of thy salvation yet God will restore it Which is my second part the Person whose act it is Restore thou It is not the tongue of an Angel can comfort David The Prophet might awake him but raise him up he could not Nathans Parable had been but as a Proverb of the dust and his Thou art the man had sooner forced a frown then a tear from a King had not Gods Spirit fitted his heart had not the holy Ghost been the Interpreter For it is not so with the Heart as it is with the Eye The Eye indeed cannot make light nor colours yet it can open it self and receive them but the Heart neither can produce this Joy neither can it open it self to receive it But God must pulsare aperire knock and open take away the bars and open the doors of it and purge and cleanse it He must write in it the forgiveness of sins and shine upon it with the light of his countenance or else the weight of Sin will still oppress it This Joy ariseth out of the forgiveness of our sins Now such is the nature of Sin that though actus transit yet reatus manet as Lombard speaks Sin no longer is then it is a committing but the guilt of Sin still remains like a blazing star which though it self be extinct yet leaves its infection behind it For to rise from sin is not only to cease from the act of sinning but to repair our former estate not only to be rid of the disease but to enjoy our former health Now in sin as Aquinas saith there are two things peccati macula and poenae reatus the Blot and Stain of sin which doth darken the lustre of Grace And we who made this stain can blot it out again It is lost labour to wash our selves Can we Leopards lick out our own spots Can we purge our selves with hyssope and be clean Can we wash our black and polluted souls and make them whiter than snow And for the Guilt and Punishment due to sin we all stand quaking at God's Tribunal
but to speak an hour to be a Hearer but to come to Church to be a Bishop but to put on a mitre to be a King but to wear a crown And this is to disesteem and undervalew these duties This is to be officiperdae in this sense also to destroy our work before we begin it For what place can our work have amongst those thoughts which stifle it and where the birth is so sudden and immature how can it chuse but prove an abortive I cannot conceive but that our Saviour could have performed the work he came about without this preamble or preparation but yet in honor to this great work he would first step aside and not suddenly enter upon it but by degrees first retire and fast and pray and then work miracles To teach us that a Christian is not made up in haste that no good work will beget it self between our fingers nor come towards us unless we fit and prepare our selves to meet it And yet some there be who are willing to think that this is more then needs that it is in the greatest profession that is as it was in the Cirque-shews amongst the Romans Odiosa circensibus pompa that as there so in this all pomp and shew and preparation is in vain that the sooner they enter upon it the more dextrous they shall be in the performance Divines as Nazianzene terms them of a day old made up ut è luto statua assoon as you can make a statue of clay No desart that they will go to no cell that they will retire to no secession that they will make but presently upon the work they enter leap into the Pulpit and there they stir and make a noyse semper agentibus similes like unto those who are alwaies busie or indeed rather like unto those spirits in minerals that Cornelius Agrippa speaks of which digg and cleanse and sever the metals but when men come to view their work they find nothing is done With these men there are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no prefaces no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing to be learnt first All with them is the Work no study or preparations All is working of miracles And indeed one great miracle they work Docent antequam discunt They teach that which they never learnt and their skill and art is so teach men that they shall be more ignorant then before Our Saviour here is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to prepare him for his work but these will not prepare themselves because they pretend they are led by the Spirit Nor is this evil of yesterday or which befalls the weakest only but the Devil hath used it in all ages as an engine to undermine this good work What men are not able to manage for want of due consideration to bring in the Spirit as a supply Tertullian was as wise a man as the Church had any but being not able to prove the corporeity of the Soul he flyeth to Revelation in his book De Anima Non per â—stimationem sed revelationem We cannot make this good by judgment but by revelation Post Joannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi We have our Revelations as well as St. John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them she hath her traunces in the Church and converseth with Angels and with God himself and can discern the hearts and inward thoughts of man St. Hierom speaking of a Monk in his time thus describes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is start up a man who hath exactly learnt all knowledge without a teacher full of the spirit his own master who like a Carneades can dispute both for and against the truth who needs no preparation but can do what he will and when he will But this is not the Spirits manner of Leading for he leads us by degrees and by a certain method For even so he led our Saviour first into the wilderness and then to his work And though his leading of the Apostles were extraordinary yet even them he commands to stay at Jerusalem and to expect his coming And although their determinations were subscribed to with a VISUM EST SPIRITUI SANCTO It seemeth Good to the holy Ghost yet they conferred one with another met together in councel and did deliberate before they did determine Nor did they once imagine that they had the Spirit in a string or could command him when they pleased or call him down to help them in their work sedendo votis by sitting still and doing nothing that he would fly down unto them and sit upon them though they slept Much less can we imagine that he will wait upon our spirit and humor and when we have cripled and disenabled our selves for any service of his in a moment anoint and supple our joynts and make us active for the highest calling when we have put our selves into prison even thrown our selves into the dark and loathsome dungeon of Ignorance that he will come to us as the Angel did to Peter Acts 12. and smite us on the side and raise us up and bid us arise up quickly and go on an ambassage which we do not know go set our hands to his plough which are a great deal fitter for another Certainly to be a Disciple of Christ is a greater work then to cast our garment about us to take up the habit of a Minister No we must be led into some secret and solitary place there to fast and pray to fit and prepare our selves for the work which we have to do there to taste how sweet the word of God is to ruminate and chaw upon it as it were and digest it to fasten it to our very soul and make it a part of us and by daily meditation so to profit that all the mysteries of Faith and precepts of Holiness may be as vessels are in a well-ordered family ready at hand to be used upon any occasion Now this we may imagine to be the work of the Spirit alone and so it is but of the Spirit leading us into the desart placing us on the mount of Contemplation there by long study and industry to learn confusa disterminare hiantia cogere sparsu colligere to separare those things which are confused and mixt together to separate Fear from Despair and Confidence from Presumption to draw and unite those things together which are severed as Faith and good Works Knowledge and Practice and to joyn together those Texts which bid us rejoyce with them which bid us mourn those which command our Zeal with those which exact our Meekness Et diligentia pietas adhibenda est saith St. Augustine alterâ fiat ut quaerentes inveniamus alterâ ut scire mereamur We must make use both of our Diligence and Piety by the one we find when we seek by the other we are filled both to seek and find Unless we follow the Spirit in this his Leading we have no reason to
we are risen up most ready to fall We might here enlarge our Discourse but I had rather tender you the reasons Why it is so And we draw the first from the Envy of the Devil who cannot behold God nor any thing that is like unto him but is troubled with his beauty and is troubled with the least reflexion of his beauty is troubled with his infinite goodness and is troubled with his created goodness is troubled with his nature and is troubled with his name Who if he could would rob God of his purchase and would overthrow the heavens and all that ever God made all the created substances in the world Pervicacissimus hostis nunquam otium sui patitur saith Tertullian His malice is so great that he is never at rest He watcheth every good thing in its bud to nip it in its blossom to blast it in its fruit to spoil it And then he rageth most when man is delivered from his rage Tunc accenditur cùm exstinguitur Then is he most enflamed when his darts are quencht And indeed this is the nature of Envy to be restless never to sleep The Hebrews express Envy by the Eye Why is thy eye evil that is Why art thou envious The Devil hath an eye which is alwayes open observing not only the fruits of Holiness but the very seeds The Poor that is envious looks with an evil eye upon the peny that another hath He that is illiterate is angry with a letter he that is weak wisheth all were cripples This torments the Devil as much as Hell it self Invidia primùm mordax suis Envy hath a venomous tooth but it is first fastned in it self It is the pain and death of our Enemy not only to be punished with his own sin but with our goodness not only to be grieved at his own overthrow but at our hope of victory and therefore he kindles and is on fire at the sight not only of the Sun but of a Star yea at the least scintillation and glimpse of Goodness A good thought is a look towards heaven and this he strives to divert A good profession is a profer and he abates our strength in the way An Abba Father is a call to Love and he strives to disinherit us Ever as we make forward he is ready to assault us placing horror in our way that we may fear to proceed And like a cunning enemy he sets upon us at our first onset lest we gather strength He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril speaks fierce and violent in his opposition A wise-man being askt how a man might preserve himself from the evil eye of Envy well replyed Si nihil feliciter gesseris If thou delight not in the practice of that which is good and beest not happy in thy undertakings Extreme Misery hath this priviledge that it stands out of the ken and reach of Envy Therefore as St. Augustine tells us Non invident archangelis angeli the Angels do not envy the Arch-angels because they are both eminently good So we cannot think that the evil spirits do envy one another because they are eminently evil and equally miserable It is therefore the duty of a Christian to make himself an object from the envy of Satan to shew forth those good works which may provoke him to build up that resolution which may anger him to make that glorious profession which may torment him For from his envy we cannot be free till we are like him till we are Diaboli so his children are called in Scripture Devils as miserable as he Whilst we lye like dry bones at the graves Ezek. 37. mouth he is quiet and still he doth not admoenire nor legiones adducere he doth not besiege us nor draw forth his troops and legions against us nec vult artem consumi ubi non potest ostendi nor will he spend his art and cunning there where he cannot shew it But when these dry bones hear the word of the Lord when the spirit breatheth into them and they live when we stand up upon our feet and make an exceeding great army when we make our members the weapons of righteousness to fight against him when he hears our songs of praise when he sees our alms when our tears drop upon his fire to quench it then the Worm begins to knaw then he walks about us and observes in what part we are weakest then he is a Serpent a Lyon a Devil Timagenes was well content that Rome should be set on fire but it troubled him much that it should rise higher and be more glorious then before So it troubleth the Devil to see him who took a fall and a bruise to be built up stronger then he was to see him who was dead in sin become a new creature and a child of wrath become the son of God And therefore hither he brings his forces that if he cannot hinder those beginnings yet he may stay them there and stop them at the first that they may be no more then beginnings that a Jew may be circumcised and no more a Christian baptised and no more that Judas may be an Apostle and no more and a Christian have that name and no more Well you may bring out the corner-stone and cry Grace grace unto it Well you may please your selves with the profession of Christianity you may lay your foundation than which no other can be laid a JESUS CHRIST but you shall build upon it not gold and silver and precious stones but wood and hay and stubble Satan will suffer thee to contend for that faith which was once delivered to the Saints to be zealous for the Lord of hosts This man shall stand up for his Christ another shall bring him forth in another shape Thou shalt dispute for the Truth thou shalt fight for the Truth The world shall be on fire for the Truth For all this is but noyse and he is very well-pleased with any noyse but that of Good works for that comes up into the presence of God In all other contentions though the cry be for Religion he is commonly one In these out-cryes and exclamations Christ indeed is named but it so falls out that every man is for him and every man against him every man speaks for him and every man contradicteth him every man cryes Hosanna Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord and every man drives him out of their coasts Religion is the badge and Religion is the word and indeed it is but a badge and a word you see and hear all The rest is Fraud and Malice and Uncleanness a wandring Eye a wanton Ear a hollow Heart a rough Hand and the name of Christian is taken in by the by to countenance these to put a gloss upon our Fraud that it may be holy to colour our Malice with zeal to make our Uncleanness the infirmity of a Saint as if you drew out the picture of a Devil
to the haven where we would be And we have winds from every point the prayers of the whole Church to drive us We have already shewed you what may raise our hope and confidence when we pray even the name of Father For what will not a father give to his children But we must now present God in his Majesty to strike us with fear that so our Fear may temper our Hope that it be not too saucy and familiar and our Hope may warm and comfort our Fear that it be not too chill and cold and end in Despair I dare speak to God because he is our Father but I speak in trembling because of his Majesty because he is in heaven And these two make a glorious mixture There be many things which in themselves may be hurtful yet being tempered and mixt together are very cordial and wholesome Fear and Hope which in their excess are as deleterial as poyson being compounded and mingled may be an antidote Fear bridles my Hope that I do not presume and Hope upholds my Fear that I do not despair Fear qualifies my Hope and Hope my Fear Hope encourageth us to speak Fear composeth our language Hope runs to God as a Father Fear moderateth her pace because he is in heaven We are too ready to call him Father to frame unto our selves a facile and easie God a God that will welcome us upon any terms but we must remember also that he is in heaven a God of state and magnificence qui solet difficilem habere januam whose gates open not streight at the sound of Pater noster Deum non esse perfunctoriè salutandum as Pythagoras speaks that God will not be spoken to in the by and passage but requires that our addresses unto him be accurate with fear and reverence Hope and Fear Love and Reverence Boldness and Amazement Confusion and Confidence these are the wings on which our Devotion is carried and towres up a loft till it rest in the bosome of our Father which is in heaven And now let us lift-up our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our salvation even to the throne of God and seat of his Majesty but not to make too curious a search how God is in heaven but with reverence rather to stand at distance and put-on humility equal to our administration not to come near and touch this mount for fear we be struck through with a dart Nunquam verecundiores esse debemus quam cùm de Diis agitur saith Aristotle in Seneca Modesty never better becomes us then when we speak of God We enter Temples with a composed countenance vultum submittimus togam adducimus we cast down our looks we gather our garments together and every gesture is an argument of our reverence Where the object is so glorious our eyes must needs dazle Gods Essence and Perfection is higher then heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the Sea Job 11. 8 9. What line wilt thou use De Deo vel verum dicere periculum We dangerously mistake our selves even when we speak the truth of God That God is that he is infinite and imcomprehensible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even our Fye will teach us and the very law of Nature manifest But how he is in heaven he is on the earth how every-where no mortal Eye can discern no Reason demonstrate If we could perchance utter it yet we could not understand it saith Nazianzene Crat. 34. if we had been ravisht with St. Paul into the Third heaven yet we could not utter it Indeed it is most true what Tertullian urgeth against Hermogenes Alium Deum facit quem aliter cognoscit He maketh another God who conceives of him otherwise then as he is But no river can rise higher than its spring and fountain nor can we raise our knowledge above that light which is afforded us God is infinite and the most certain kdowledge we have is that he iâ— infinite The light which we have is but lightning which is sudden and not permanent enough to draw us after him because we conceive something of him and enough to strike us with admiration because we conceive so little It fares with us in the pursuit of these profound mysteries as with those who labor in rich mines When we digg too deep we meet with poysonous damps and foggs instead of treasure when we labor above we find less metal but more safety Dangerous it is for a weak brain to wade too far into the doings of the Most high We are most safely eloquent concerning his secrets when we are silent How great God is What is his measure and essence and How it is in any place or every place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basile as it is not safe to ask so it is impossible to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THEY HEAR saith he not DISPUTE Yet how have men attempted to fly without wings and wade in those depths which are unfordable to dispute of Gods Essense his Immensity his Ubiquity of the Nature of Angels of their Motion of their Locality nay de loquutione Angelorum of their Language and how that they communicate their minds one to another When we ask them how the Body of Christ is seated in the Eucharist they will tell us that it â—s there as the Spirits and glorified Bodies are in the place which they possess Tertius è caelo cecidit Cato Have these men lately descended like a second Paul out of the third heaven and from thence made this discovery By what means could they attain to this knowledge What light have they in Scripture to direct them to the knowledge of the manner of location and site which Spirits and glorified Bodies have St Paul hath long since past his censure upon them They thrust themselves into things they have not seen and upon a false shew of knowledge abuse easie hearers and of things they know not adventure to speak they care not what The Philosopher will tell us that men who neglect their private affairs are commonly over-busie in the examining of publick proceedings They will teach Kings how to rule and Judges how to determine and are well skilled in every mans duty but their own The same befalls us in our pursuit of divine knowledge Did every man walk according to that measure of knowledge he hath we should not be so busily to find out more light to walk by Did we adde to our faith virtue and to our knowledge temperance we should not multiply questions so fast which vanish into nothing and when they make most noyse do nothing but sound quae animum non faciunt quià non habent which can give us no light and spirit because they have it not Did we enter that effectual door which lyeth open unto us our Curiosity would not
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
blessed Spirits are in heaven who readily fulfill all his commands And this is an holy ambition in the performance of our duty to look upon the best Ambitio non respicit saith the Philosopher True Ambition and Christian Aemulation never look down upon those who are in the valley below but on those who are in culmine Sion in the top of perfection Optimi mortalium altissima sapiunt The best men look highest Go to School to the Pismire is a reproach as well as a precept To learn of the Lilies of the field is a task for those who will not take notice of Gods providence at home in themselves The examples of good men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 helps and supplies to us in our way and it is good to have them continually before our eyes But yet the best men being full of imperfections Luther tells us Nihil est periculosius gestis Sanctorum That there is nothing more dangerous than the deeds and actions of the Saints because we are so prone to mistake them Safer it is to take those actions of theirs which were done beyond and without the authority of Scripture for faults than to set them up for examples We may learn of Beasts of the Ox and of the Ass we may learn of Men of the same mould with our selves but the safest and most excellent pattern we can take is from Heaven the blessed Angels whose elogium it is that they do God's commandments and hearken unto the voice of his word that they Psal 103. are his hosts and ministers of his to do his pleasure I will not trouble you with any of those nice speculations of the Schools concerning the Nature Motion Locality Speech of Angels For I alwayes accounted it a grave and judicious censure of Hilary Stultum est calumniam in eo disputationis intendere in quo comprehendi id unde quaeritur per naturam suam non potest Lib. 3. de Trin. It is a great folly to make any anxious inquisition after that which before we set out we know cannot be found Of the Nature and Motion and Locality of those blessed Spirits we have no light in Scripture And if we carry not this light along with us we do but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make search for that which is past finding out We win no ground at all but tantum deerit discere quantum libuerit in quirere the more we search the more we are at loss But because the Philosopher and common Reason teach us that he who will compare two things together must necessarily know them both and since we are in this Petition taught to level our Obedience by this heavenly form by the obedience of Angels though we cannot gain any certain knowledge of their Nature Motion Locality and Manner of conveighing their minds one to another which notwithstanding the Schools with more boldness than warrant have defined yet we shall find light enough to walk by and to direct our obedience that it may be like theirs that we may strive forward to perfection and do Gods will in earth as it is in heaven First we are taught that the word Angel is a name of office not of nature Spirits they are alwayes but they cannot alwayes be called Angels but then only when they are sent saith Gregory And this office of theirs they execute speedily and without delay We will not positively say with Parisiensis that their motion from place to place upon command is instantaneous as sudden as their Will by which alone they move But many expressions of their Swiftness we have in Scripture Zech. 1. 10. they are said to stand as ready to hear and dispatch Gods will Isa 6. to have wings and to fly They are said to go forth like lighning Which note their prompt alacrity in executing all Gods commands Unum corum solidúmque officium est servire nutibus Dei their office is ever to be ready at Gods beck This is a true and perfect pattern of a Christians obedience Festina fides festina charitas saith Ambrose Faith and Charity are on the wing Devotion is active Obedience is ever ready to run the way of Gods commandments Though advice and deliberation commend other actions yet in this of Obedience counsel is unreasonable neither can there be any reason of delay Delicata est obedientia quae transit in causae genus deliberativum saith Petrus Blesensis It is a nice obedience which takes time of deliberation For when the command is past every moment after the first is too late nor can there be any need of deliberation in that action wherein all the danger is not to do it Fac quod tibi praeceptum est saith St. Cyprian to the magistrate now ready to pass sentence of death upon him but counselling him to advise better Do saith he what you have commission to do In so just an action as this there is no need of consultation Those that write of Husbandry have a common precept and Pliny calls it an oracle SERRERE NE METUAS Be not afraid to cast thy seed into the ground Delay not time And their reason is full of wisdome Villicùs si unam rem serò fecerit nihil proficit The Husbandman if he do but one thing too late hath endangered the expectation of the whole year nor can he recover that loss Negligentia enim multò operosior diligentia For neglect makes more business and trouble than Diligence and that which in time might have been done with ease and a quick hand being put off to a longer time will either not be done at all or require treble diligence It is so in our spiritual Husbandry If our Obedience had wings or feet readily to put in execution what is commanded we should find that of St. John to be most true His commands are not grievous But Procrastination and Delay doth bemire and clog us makes the command more horrid than that Death which is threatned to disobedience and we are ready to cry out it is impossible He who defers to do Gods will till death would not do it saith Basil if he were made immortal But this is not to do his will here in earth as it is in heaven Further the obedience of the heavenly host is orderly Qui minima nuntiant Angeli qui summam annuntiant Archangeli vocantur There be Angels which are sent on messages of lesser moment and there be Archangels which declare greater things as Gabriel to the blessed Virgin Nec tamen invident Angeli Archangelis saith Augustine in his last book De Civitate Dei yet no Angel doth envy an Archangel nor an Archangel a Cherubim or Seraphim nor desire they to change offices no more than my Finger desires to be an Eye In respect of the diversity of their ministery saith Hilary the Angels and Archangels and Thrones and Dominations have the observances of divers precepts laid upon them And they differ not only in name but in
office The Angel intrudes not into the office of an Archangel nor doth an Archangel usurp the place of a Cherubin or Throne but every one is perpetually constant in his office and never fails We cannot say our Pater noster but we must needs conceive that these blessed Spirits do their duties orderly For there can be no confusion in heaven Nor indeed should there be any disorder in the Church of Christ whose government by Bishops Priests and Deacons St. Maximus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an imitation and fair resemblance of the coelestial Hierarchy As it is in the Church triumphant in heaven so should it be in the Church militant here on earth Order doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preserve and keep together both heaven and earth saith Nazianzene And therefore we may observe that all duties do not concern all men Some duties there are which are as oecumenical as the whole world others more personal Some which if Corah attempt to do he shall be buried alive if Uzzah he shall be struck dead Why should Sheba blow a trumpet or Absalom pull at his Fathers crown Why should every artisan meddle in matters of Divinity every Mechanick teach Bishops how to govern and Divines how to preach Why should he that handles the awl or the shuttle stand up and controul the Miter Private persons who converse within a narrow sphere must needs be unskilfull in things which fall not within the compass of their experience Men that meddle but with few things must needs be ignorant of much and therefore can never frame canons and rules Paucorum est ut literati sint omnium ut boni Few men are fit for government but there is scarce any of so shallow conceit but he may be an honest man Doth any man go to a Physician to ask advise in a point of Law or to a Lawyer when he is sick Episcopus episcopum non conculcet That one Bishop should not usurp or meddle in another Bishops Diocess was one of the ancient Canon of the Church and ought never to be antiquated Than Peace will crown the Church and Plenty the Commonwealth when every man understands what is his place and station and is not ready to leap over it and start into anothers function when every Star knows his own magnitude and sphere This indeed were sicut in coelo a heaven upon earth For the least place in the Church of Christ is a high preferment Nor is there any so low who may not be an Angel in his place to do Gods will an Angel though not for power and dominion yet an Angel for obedience And it is not much material if I do the will of God whether I do it as a Lay-man or as a Clergy-man as poor Lazarus or as rich Abraham as a Peasant or as a Prince at the Mill or in the Throne Only here is the difference That duty which concerns the Clergy-man the Lay-man must not tamper with nor must the Peasant teach the King to reign and govern Remember what I told you out of St. Augustine Angelus non invidet Archangelo The Angel doth not envy to see another Angel more glorious nor doth he desire a higher place No Superné omnia serena sunt in inferioribus fulminatur All is serene and quiet above Thunders and disorders are in the lower region here in terrâ on the earth And we have too much reason in the last and worst dayes to pray and pray again Fiat volunt as tua sicut in coelis That God's will may be done on earth in that peaceable order and quietness as it is in heaven Will you know the reason of these tumults and disorders The reason is evident and plain No man is content with an Angels place but would be an Archangel a Throne a Cherubim and yet neither Angel nor Throne nor Cherubim for their obedience but only for their power Men desire saith Austine to imitate those deeds of Angels which beget wonder but not that piety which gains eternal rest Malunt enim superbè hoc posse quod Angelus quà m devotè hoc esse quod Angelus Lib. 8. De Trinit c. 7. Their Pride affects to do that which Angels do but their Devotion hath not strength enough to beget any desire in them to be what the Angels are humble reverent obedient Such Angels they would be as may be Devils but not such Angels as stand about Gods throne to praise him for evermore We conclude and contract all in one word If we bring weak desires of doing Gods will and think he will be well content with them we have as good reason to think that all the reward which we shall have from God will be only a desire to do us good If we be not active and speedy in the performance of his will why should he make haste to help us Our Inconstancie is his repentance and when we fall from him he is forced to break his word If we do it by halves we have no reason to look for a full reward If our obedience be disorderly we cannot hope to be companions of those Angels who do hate confusion But if we be chearful and constant and perfect in our obedience if we abide in our own callings and do the will of God orderly in that place where he hath ranked us the Lord will come and make no long tarrying he hath sworn nor will he go from it and he will bring his reward with him MERCEDEM NIMIS MAGNAM an exceeding great reward and at last translate us from earth to heaven where we shall be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels in equality of grace though not of nature I might have drawn-in many more particulars concerning the Angels by which to direct our Obedience But I never loved to lease out a discourse malens totum dicere quam omnia desiring rather to speak that which is most fit and pertinent than to take in all that might be said I shall now pass to the next Petition Give us this day our daily bread The Six and Thirtieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 11. Give us this day our daily Bread WE pass now from the three first Petitions which looked up directly into heaven upon the face of God unto the three last which look up indeed to heaven also upon the Giver of all things but withal reflect upon our selves and on our present necessities The first whereof is that I have read unto you GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD Before we come to handle which words be pleased to take notice of the method here laid down by our Saviour for us to regulate our Devotion by Order and Method as it makes the way easie and plain to every design we take in hand so it poises our Devotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Historian There is nothing so fair nothing so commodious for use as Order This is it which hath given praeeminence to Aristotle above all
gorgeously apparelled as trim as Solomon on the throne or as the Lilies in the field How can one chuse when he meeteth these silken things but fall down and worship them Nay rather we will be bold to tell these painted Sepulchres these unprofitable burdens of the earth who have nothing generous in themselves but their Names nothing noble in their houses but the Pictures of their Ancestours That their bread is not their own That the vilest servant they keep even he that sitteth with the dogs of their flocks deserveth his food and rayment better than they That the Ox may lawfully feed when they should be muzzled I know they will reply That they are born to lands and riches that what they have is their own by inheritance that they abound with bread and therefore need not labor for it I do not bid them take a Sheep-hook in their hands yet Abraham Isaac and Jacob were Shepherds nor the Ax and the Saw yet Joseph yea Christ himself was a Carpenter nor the Awl and the Last yet some Philosophers saith Augustine have done the office of a Cobler but yet I cannot think that God gave them so much Bread to make them idle did so much for them that they themselves should do just nothing or which is worse then nothing make themselves gallant and boysterous fools Cain and Abel were better born then they heirs apparent of the whole earth yet both of them had their employment in their several vocations Why should any then because of Gentile or Noble extraction count himself priviledged and exempt from labor and to have licence to do nothing but eat and drink and snort and sport There be other Arts besides mechanical as the art of Living well the art of Hospitality that oeconomical art of Well-ordering ones houshold These the greatest ought to learn and follow And thus doing they will shew themselves thankful to God for his great bounty and they will not eat the bread of Idleness but their own Bread Now in the next place though Labour fill our basket yet Honesty and Integrity of conversation is that which gives us firm possession and makes us Lords and Proprietaries of that Bread we gather Many labour and rise up early and lye down late and eat the bread of sorrow yet eat not their own bread There is nothing that hath esteem amongst men whether good or bad but is sold for Labour and Industry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Basil All things in this are alike Even those things which make us slaves to the Devil are bought with difficulty and vexation of spirit And many times laboriosior est hujus mundi amor saith Gregory men are more busie to destroy themselves than others are to work out their salvation The Adulterer waits and watches for the twilight studies to find out occasions and opportunities to satisfie his inordinate lust The Thief breaketh his sleep and lurks in the dark Quibusdam somnum rixa facit saith the Poet and Solomon interprets it Prov. 4. 16. Some there be that cannot sleep unless they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall Tertullian limits and restrains that of the Apostle Let every man work with his own hands that he may eat his own bread For if every one who laboureth with his own hands may be defended by this credo ipsos latrones manibus agere quo vivant Certainly even thieves saith he do labor with their hands for their bread Falsarios utique non pedibus sed manibus operari They who forge writings and falsifie evidences do it not with their feet but with their hands Histriones verò non manibus solis sed totis membris victum elaborant Stage-players themselves may go for Apostolical who labor for their bread not with their hands alone but with their tongues and every member of their body It were even a labor to shew the divers arts and inventions men have found out to work out their way to meet the wealth and riches of the world and that even amongst those who go under the name of Christians For if we please to observe it we shall easily find that there are not any two things of more different and unlike countenance and complexion than that Christianity which is commended to us in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and that which goes for current in use and practise of the times He that shall behold the true face of a Christian as it is decipher'd and painted out unto us in the Books of the New Testament and unpartially compare it with that copy and counterfeit which is exprest in the life and demeanour of common Christians will think them no more like than those shields of Gold which Solomon made were unto those of brass which Rehoboam placed in their stead and may think perhaps that the writers of those Books had brought vota magis quà m praecepta had rather phansied to themselves some admirable pattern of a Christian such as they could wish than delivered rules and laws which seriously and truly ought to be practized in common life and conversation To walk honestly is that which must regulate our Devotion must give us right and title to that we possess must make our wealth our possessions our lands PANEM NOSTRUM our bread This is commended to us by Nature it self and by the Religion which we profess And yet I know not how though we cannot quite banish Nature though we cannot utterly blot out those principles of Honesty yet many times we interline them with false glosses though we cannot race them out yet we blurr and deface them We draw false consequences from true principles we hunt out tricks and evasions but it is to cheat and delude our own souls And now what talk we of the Law of Nature If you read it in the Worlds corrupt edition if unjust man may be the Scholiast thus it runs INJURIAM FEGISSE VIRTUTIS EST To do injury is virtue To oppress is power Craft is policy Theft frugality and the greatest wisdom not to be wise unto salvation And as we slip off the bridle of Nature and as much as we can unlearn that law which is written in our hearts so we are as willing to pull our necks out of the easie yoke of the Gospel For a strange conceit is at this day crept into the world and it receives warmth in the bosom of the Church That how regardless soever we be of those seeds of goodness how forgetful soever of common honesty yet for all that we may be Christians good enough But as Tertullian speaks of the heathen Gods Quot potiores viri apud inferos certainly there is many an honester man in Hell than they They talk big against the world which is the worse for them and out of Sodom they will go though they have no other Angel to hasten them than an idle phansie and the spirit of a sick
unpleasing sound but if we will attend and hearken to them they are sermons and instructions and they may serve to order and compose rotam nativitatis the whole wheel of our nature And first they work upon the Understanding part to clear and enlighten that We see not only seeds of moral conversation those practick notions which were born with us but also those seeds of saving knowledge which we gather from the Scripture and improve by instruction and practise never so darkned and obscured as when Pleasures and Delights have taken full possession of our souls And as we see in sick and distempered men that the light of their reason is dimmed and their mind disturbed which proceeds from those vicious vapors which their corrupt humors do exhale it is so in the Soul and Understanding which could not but apprehend objects as they are and in their own likeness as it were not dazled and amazed with intervenient and impatient objects and phantasms but being blinded by the God of this world it sees objects indeed but through the vanities of the world which as coloured Glass present the object much like unto themselves Sin hath now the face and beauty of Virtue Envy is emulation Covetousness thrift Prodigality bounty the Gospel a promulgation of liberty and a priviledge to sin Things now appear unto us as upon a stage in masques and vizards and strange apparel Now when the hand of God is upon us when to expel that sin which a delightful tentation hath occasioned he maks us feel the smart of one quite contrary and to drive out that which entred with delight he sends another with a whip when this cross tentation hath cut of all hopes of enjoying such pleasing objects as have taken us up the Understanding hath more liberty then before to retire into it self and begins evigilare to awake as a man out of sleep and to enjoy a kind of heaven and serenity which before did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonicks speak sleep in a hell of confusion and darkness Now the seeds of Goodness being freed from the attractive force of allurements begin to recover life and strength and sprout forth into those apprehensions which bring with them a loathing of that evil which before they converst withal as with a familiar friend And anon every sin appears in his own shape Envy is Murder Covetousness Idolatry Prodigality Folly and the Gospel a Sanctuary not for Libertines but Repentants In my prosperity I said saith David I shall never be moved Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled I cryed unto thee O Lord Psal 30. 6 7 8 and unto the Lord I made my supplication It is strange saith Calvine that God should enlighten Davids eyes by hiding his face without the light of whose countenance even Knowledge it self is no better than Darkness But we find it most true that when one temptation doth infatuate a contrary is brought-in to make men wise Secondly the Will of man as it is a free so is a perverse and froward faculty and many times Planet-wise moveson in its own way contrary to the strong circumvolution of the First mover But the Temptations of the left hand serve to settle its irregular motion and to make it wait upon Reason For having followed the deceitful allurements of the World and finding gall and bitterness upon every seeming delight having found death in the Harlots lips and misery in every way she wandered she begins to renounce her self and though she be free to every object yet she fastens her self on one alone and hath her eye alwayes upon the Understanding as the eye of the hand-maid is upon the eye of the mistress who directs her Lastly Tentations may have their operation on the Memory and revive those decay'd characters whether of Gods blessings or of our own sins and bring those sins which did lurk in secret into the open light How soon when we are at quiet and ease do we forget God how soon do we forget our selves How many benefits how many sins are torn out of our memories Who remembers his own soul in this calm or can think that he hath a soul Who thinks of Sin in Jollity So that it may seem to be a kind of tentation to be long free from tentation We read in the book of Genesis that Joseph's brethren made no scruple of the sin they committed against him for fourteen years together but being cast into prison they presently call it to mind and that upon no apparent reason We are verily guilty concerning our brother and therefore is this distress come upon us Beloved afflictions are to us à memoriâ and though they be tentations to distrust and murmuring yet they may prove and so they are intended like Joseph unto his brethren remembrancers to us to remove the callum the hardness of our consciences and make them quick of sense that we may ab ipso morbo remedium sumere force a remedy from the disease and make even Sin advantageous to us by removing it out of the Affection where it playes the parasite and fixing it in the Memory where it is a fury where it is as operative to destroy as it was in the Affection to increase it self To contemplate Sin and to view the horror of it and the hell it deserves is enough to break our hearts and bow our wills and to make us hate and detest Sin more than Hell it self Again in the third place this exercise in tentations doth not only draw us to repentance for sins past but also serves as a fence or guard to those virtues and saving graces which make us gracious in the sight of God it doth temper that portion in us which is the Spirits that it prove not more dangerous and fatal than that of the Flesh For as Bernard discanteth upon Porphyrie's definition of Man HOMO EST ANIMAL RATIONALE MORTALE Man is a rational but mortal creature The Mortal saith he doth temper the Rational that it do not swell and the Rational strengthen the Mortal that it do not weaken and dead our spirits And therefore St. Augustine was bold to pronounce that it was very happy for some men that they did fall in tentations For Pride which threw down the Angels from heaven will grow not only upon Power and Beauty and Pomp of the world but upon the choicest virtues and like those plantae parasiticae those parasitical plants which will grow but upon other plants it sucks out the very juice and spirits of them and is nourisht with that which quickens those virtues and keeps them alive When we have stood strong against temptations quâdam delectatione sibimet ipsi animus blanditur there ariseth in our soul a kind of delight which doth fâ—â—tter and tickle us to death Fovea mentis memoria virtutis saith Gregory Too much to look back upon our beauty and too steddily
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
out prayers as in an humble embassage to crave Gods aid and auxiliary forces For as God hath his army to fight against his enemies his Locust his Caterpillar and his Palmer-worme so hath he his army to defend those Joel 2. who are under his protection his Angels and Archangels who are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Hebr. 1. 14. Nor can we think but that this army is stronger than all the troops of the Prince of darkness and that God by these is able to curb and restrain the violence and fury of Satan Nor could we hope to resist our spiritual Enemy sine naturae potioris auxilio but by the aid and assistance of those creatures which are of a more excellent being Therefore Justin Martyr tells us that God hath given the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a care and providence over us Tertullian that they do universam paraturam hominis modulari elegantly and aptly and harmoniously order and govern the whole course of our life And no question though we perceive it not they do many good offices for mankind they rowse up the Melancholick comfort the Poor chide the Wanton moderate the Chollerick They are very ready to defend us there where we are the weakest and to dull the force of every dart which is thrown at us We will not now question Whether every man hath his Angel-keeper Which Basil so often and other of the Fathers affirm or Whether children in age have their tutelary Angels which our Saviour seems to intimate or children in understanding men of weaker capacities in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this doubtful and uncertain combat where there is so little light and so much danger have their Angels to defend them from the sleights and enterprises of Satan or How the blessed Angels minister for us We are sure they pitch their tents about us and do many offices for us though we perceive it not We have an author who writes of the Meteors it is Garcaeus I mean who was of opinion that whereas many times before great tempests there is wont to be heard in the air above us a great noise and rushing the cause of this was the bandying of good and evil angels the one striving to annoy us with tempests the other to preserve us from danger The truth of this I know not But as about Moses 's body so about every faithful person these do contend the one to hazard the other to deliver Therefore we may well pray that as the Devil inspires us with evil thoughts so the good Angels may inspire us with good and that if Hell open her mouth to devour us Heaven would open its gate that from thence there may descend the influence of Grace to save us And nemo officiosior Deo there is none more officious than God Who is not afar off from our tears but listens when we call is with us in all our wayes waits on us ponders our steps and our goings and when we are ready to fall nay inter pontem fontem in our fall is ready to help and save us And officiocissima res est gratia his Grace is the most diligent and officious thing in the world quasi in nostram jurata salutem as if it were our sworn friend and were bound by solemn oath to attend and guard us When doth the Devil roar and we hear not a kind of watch-word within us NO LITE TIMERE Fear it not all this is but noise And when doth he flatter and we hear not a voice behind us NO LITE PRAESUMERE Be not too bold it is the Devil it is thy utter Enemy And in all time of tribulation in all time of our wealth this Grace is sufficient for us But further yet in the last place we beg Gods immediate Assistance his Efficacious and Saving Grace that he will not only send his Angels but make us Angels to our selves For no man can be delivered from evil nisi in quantum angelus esse coepit but so far forth as he is become an Angel yea nisi in quantum Deus esse coepit but so far forth as he is become a God partaker saith St. Peter of the divine nature and endued with wisdom from above Therefore we must pray with Solomon for an understanding heart for the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of counsel for the assistance of Gods holy Spirit which is Christs Vicar here on earth for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual wisdome which may make us wise unto salvation that we may have eye-sight and fore-sight and over-sight that we may see and fore-see and over-see that evil which is near at hand and about us in all our paths that we be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Peter speaks purblind stricken with gross darkness like the Sodomites to stumble at the threshold nay in montes impingere as St. Augustine speaks run upon evils never so palpable visible mountainous evils and see them not enter the gates of our enemies as friends and think our selves at Dothan when we are in the midst of Samaria We read that the men of the first age knew not what Death meant or what it was to dye but fell to the ground as men ly-down upon their beds when they are weary or rather fell to the ground like Beasts not thinking of Death or what might follow And indeed the reason why we fall so often into Evil is because we see it not know not what it is not what it means as if to sin were nothing else but to lye down and rest nothing else but to satisfie the Sense and to please the Appetite as if Sin were as natural as to eat Therefore we pray Lord open our eyes that we may see it and so fly away and escape And as we pray for Sight so we do for Foresight For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus The Understanding is the Eye and the Far the Eye to see afar off and the Ear to listen and give notice of danger yet at some distance to know the signs of Sin as we do of the heavens to say This Bread may â—e gravel this Beauty deceitful and this Wine a mocker This rage of Satan may praise the Lord and this his fawning may make me dishonor him This his war may work my peace and his truce may be but a borrowed space of time to undermine me Magna tentatio est tentatione carere It may be a great tentation to be without one and a great evil not sometimes to taste of evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Understanding and a good mind and much forecast lead us to a paradise of bliss Scelera consilia non habent It is easie to rush upon evil but we cannot avoid it without forecast and counsel And therefore in the third place we desire not only an Eye which may see and foresee but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil speaks
Ahaz who said Because the Gods of the Kings of Syria help them 2 Chr. 28. 23. therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me by setting-up other Gods other helps and saying These be our Gods And this last is of so malignant an aspect that it makes the heavens of brass and that God to turn away his ears who is alwayes ready to hear and that which we call a prayer to be registred for a sin For by this we violate that Majesty before which we fall down we mock God and beseech him to do that which we are not perswaded he can do Which is to make him no better than an Idol which hath ears but hears not eyes but sees not hands but can do nothing And this is not to pray to God but to libel him to make him like unto our selves that there can be no trusting in him So that that of the Historian is here true Plura peccamus dum demoremur quà m dum offendimus Our Prayers are turned into sin and we never wrong God more then when we thus worship him Majestas injurias graviùs intelligit Kings are never more angry then when their Majesty is toucht then their wrath is as the roaring of a Lion Nor do we offend God so much when we doubt of his Will as when we distrust his Providence and his Power which are the parts of his Royalty And in this respect it is most true Magna est praesumptio de Deo quam non presumere It is a great presumption not to presume upon his Power non putare illum posse quod non putamus and not to think he can do what we cannot think And therefore that our prayers may ascend to that pitch we level them to even to the Throne of God We must consider him seated there as a King and as Omnipotent Which consists not in a bare apprehension or sense of the mind that there is a Divine Power greater and mightier than all nor in those common senses and notions as Tertullian calleth them which even the Heathen had They could say Deus videt omnia Deo me commendo God seeth all things and I commend my self to his protection Nay the Devils believe saith St. James and tremble They have a kind of belief and therefore have knowledge But here is requisite a full consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus speaketh a settled and full perswasion of heart touching the Providence and Power of God Upon this foundation we may build and settle our Devotion and raise it as high as heaven This makes our Prayer a Sacrifice this sets it on fire that the flame goes upward from off the altar of our hearts nay the Angel of the Lord ascends up with this flame and commonly returns back and descends with a message of comfort And although there may come upon us a fit of trembling when we look upon our selves yet if our prayer be formed according to Gods will we may draw near unto the throne of Grace in full assurance of faith that he will hear our prayers even then when he granteth not our requests and that he can do more for us than we can know how to desire Amongst other properties of Place the Philosopher requires Immobility If it be a Place it must be immoveable For if the body on which you place your self flit and glide away from under you you can never well rest and move upon it And certainly to go about to rest or settle our confidence on any other grounds but these is as if we should attempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk on the air or tread the waters or build without foundation Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man for their breath goeth from them There the ground glideth away from under us Trust not on your own Wisdom and Power Your turning of devices shall be as the potters clay and shall break and crumble between your fingers There it flits away How can he help who hath no power how can he save who hath no arm or strength Nay we can find no stability in the Angels They are ministring spirits and their Elogium is They do Gods will But if he command not they have no sword to strike no buckler to defend And in Men we find less Vain is the help of Man Stas non stas cum in teipso stas For one man to put confidence in another is as if one begger should ask an alms of another or one cripple should carry another or the blind lead the blind It is very incident unto men in want not only to desire help but to doubt of the means which should help them A disease rising from their very want For it is natural to Desire to beget Fear and Doubting whilst the Phansie sets up morinos to fright us In us there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flitting and unsatiable humor We cannot endure the deferring of our hopes But when God answereth us not neither by Urim nor by Prophets brings not in that aid we beg of him we presently droop and let go our confidence And if we speed not according to our desires we set-up some golden Calf straight Nor can we settle our Devotion till we have built and establisht our Confidence upon these two the Kingdom and the Power of God These are munimenta humanae imbecillitatis inexpugnabilia as Tertullian speaks impregnable fortresses of our humane weakness to keep us from that which we cannot withstand If God be with us who can be against us What is it we can desire which we may not find in the Fountain of Goodness What is there to be done which God cannot do There is no word no thing which shall be impossible unto him What thing soever we would have is but his Word If he speak the word it is done Art thou in darkness If he say Let there be light there shall be light Art thou in poverty If he say thy poverty shall be riches it shall be wealth Are thy sins more than the hairs of thy head If he say Thy sins are forgiven thee they are forgiven Here is the Power of God no sooner to speak but it is done His Power flows from his very Essence and whatsoever is done in heaven or in earth is done by his voice The voice of the Lord is upon the waters The voice of the Lord is powerful The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars yea the Lord breaketh the cedars Psal 29. of Lebanon I will not now speak any thing in particular of Gods Providence and Power by which he reigneth as King and governeth the world and every thing therein and doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth for of these I have spoken heretofore at large We will only at this time to remove our diffidence and distrust dig at the very root and cause of it and that is no less than a vile branch of
in manu consilii sui in his own hands and disposing yet in his goodness and mercy to his chosen ones he would set bounds to wicked persons that he would shackle though not their wills yet their hands that he would cut off the designs infatuate the counsels scatter the imaginations of all those who like serpents were only born to do mischief and to sin against heaven and earth So much of this point Now that we may say something of that which we call voluntatem praecepti of God's Law and Precept and Command which every where in Scripture is called his Will and indeed doth most of all concern us we will draw and wind up all in this main conclusion That every Christian who will truly say this Petition Thy will be done must bring with him a heart prepared to yield ready obedience to do whatsoever God commands and a chearful patience to suffer what his hand shall lay upon him THY WILL BE DONE is the thing we pray for And that we may do his will God hath opened and revealed his will and made it as manifest as the day Jam autem praecipitur quià non rectè curritur si quò currendum sit nescitur saith St. Augustine He hath taught us before-hand because he runs not well that knows neither his way nor journeys end Therefore God did as it were evaporate and open his will writ his eternal law in our hearts engraved it in tables of stone publisht it by the voice of Angels by the sound of that trumpet which the Evangelists and Apostles did blow declared it fully and plainly that we may run and read it and not turn aside to seek any other rule but conform our selves unto it by a voluntary Obedience which like an hand-maid may wait upon his Will and by an humble and obedient Patience which alwayes hath an eye not upon the blow but the hand that gives it and bows under it when he speaks or when he strikes returns no answer but this FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA Thy will be done This is the sum of this Petition and indeed of all Religion For if we level our actions by that rule which is naturally right we can do no evil and whatsoever befalls us judicio bonitatis ejus accidit saith Hilary befalls us not by chance but by the judicious Providence of Gods goodness and therefore we can suffer no evil And this one would think were enough What can God teach us more than to pray that we may do his will We might now well pass to the next Petition and not once glance upon these words In earth as it is in heaven But the word of God as it is no way defective so hath nothing redundant and superfluous not a versicle not a clause which doth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome which carries not its weight with it and presents us with plenty and riches of wisdome If we do Gods will we can do no more the Angels can do no more Yet if we look upon our selves and reflect a while upon our own tempers and dispositions we shall find that what is in it self enough and sufficient is not enough and sufficient for us and that this clause In earth as it is in heaven was a necessary addition put in by our Saviour by way of caution and prevention It is not enough for us to be taught to pray that we may do God's will we shall fall short in our obedience if we be not taught also the manner how this must be accomplished For we are naturally prone jussa magìs interpretari quà m exsequi to boggle at every duty that is enjoyned and if we be left at loose instead of executing what is commanded to sit down and seek out shifts and evasions and inventions of our own and so to do it by halves to do it as St. Basil saith either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unseasonably or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disorderly or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scantly and not in that measure which is required to content our selves with Agrippa's modicum When indeed we are subjects to every duty we become Justitiaries and set it bounds and limit and restrain it Do his will As Men made up and composed of weakness and infirmities as Men bruised and maimed with the fall of our first parents as Men in terris dust and ashes But sicut in coelis to do the will of God as it is done in heaven our contemplation would never have set it at this altitude Nullum morosius animal est nec majore arte tractandum quam homo saith Seneca There is not a more waiward and curious creature than Man nor to be handled with more art He must be taught not only what to do but how and how far to do it He must be instructed in each circumstance he must have a pattern as well as a duty otherwise he will start and slip aside he will neither do it constantly nor equally he will do it and omit it Were he not taught to do it as it is done in heaven he would not do it at all Were he not commanded to be like the Angels in heaven he would degenerate from himself and become worse than the beasts that perish You see then this clause was not added in vain but is operatoria as the Civilians speak carries with it great force and efficacy And whether we interpret it of the material Spheres quae iterum eunt per quae venerant as Seneca speaks which are alwayes in motion yet never alter their course or of those super-coelestial Powers the Angels those mystical wheels as Dionysius calls them turning themselves about in an everlasting gyre of obedience it must needs lift up our thoughts to this consideration That the performance of Gods will by us must be most exact and perfect heavenly and angelical That we must make it our endeavour to be like them as Angels here on earth who make it our ambition to be equal to them in heaven I will not take those several interpretations I find although I censure none of them especially since none of them swerve from the analogy of faith nor from that doctrine which was delivered to the Saints and all of them are profitable to instruction You may take earth and heaven for the Flesh and the Spirit with St. Cyprian or for Men which are of the earth earthy and those coelestial Orbs for the Just and Wicked with others and thence extract this Christian duty To pray for your enemies All these may be useful and with St. Augustine I condemn no sense upon which any good duty may be raised and built But I rather understand with the same Father by heaven the Angels and by earth Men because the words do best bear it and we cannot take a better pattern than the Angels And in this sense we pray ut sint homines similes Angelis That Men may be as obedient to Gods will here in earth as those