or degrees of perfection in them in some of them not all Oculus corporis est anima animae mens the soule is the eye of the body and the minde is the eye of the soule and as the eye is the beautie of the face the bright Starre of that Orbe it moves in so is this the beautie and bright Starre of the soule and therefore that is called Mens quod emineat in Anima Minde because it shines in the soule as a light in the spheare it rolls in Hence some would derive the Etimology of Mens from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. Aug. ut supra cap. 11. which signifies the Moone not so much for varietie of change as brightnesse or else Mens a mensurando from a dexteritie it hath in measuring or contriving Now Dijudicare mensurare estactus intellectus Parte 1. q. 79. Art 9. ad 4. sayes Thomas to judge and to measure is an art of the understanding and the understanding is the very forme and selfe-being of the soule or rather the soule of the soule as the apple of our eye is the very Eye of our eye so that the minde is the beame and splendor of the soule as the soule is of the body so neere Divinity and so much resembling it that the Romanes of old ador'd the Minde as a Goddesse and by Marcus Aemilius Scaurns there was a Temple dedicated Deae menti ut bonam haberent mentem as S. Augustine observes in his 4. Booke De civitate Dei 21. chapter Well then that we may now looke backe unto the Text we take not here the word Mens physically for reason and understanding as they are in Meris naturalibus but Theologically for the spirituall and regenerate part of man And so taken it stands at some distance with the word Anima though not with the word Spiritus For though every Soule be a kinde of Spirit yet every Spirit is not a Soule nor every Soule a Minde at least a Minde regenerate but Minde and Spirit for the most part kisse in Scripture Saint Paul in the latter end of this chapter calling that Mens which in the very beginning of the next he names Spiritus so that Minde and Spirit in a sacred sympathy goe hand in hand but soule and spirit doe sometimes justle My Soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoced in God my Saviour Luk. 1.46 Here the blessed Virgin makes a difference betweene her * Non in hoc gemmo vocabule gemina substantia intelligitur sed cum ad distinctionem ponitur gemina vis ejusdem substantiae una superior per spiritum altera inserior per animam designatur in hac utique divisione anima quod animale est in imo remanet spiritus autem quod spiritale est ad summum evolat ab infimis dividitur ut ad summa sublimetur ab anima seinditur ut domino uniatur De Spiritu Anima cap. 34. soule and her spirit and why why It is called soule in respect of vivification spirit of contemplation Soule as it is a leiger and sojourner with the body quickning and informing that Spirit as it is mounted and imbarqu'd for Heaven and rapt with the beatitude of that caelestiall Host the soule doth onely magnifie God as a God the spirit rejoyceth in that God as a Saviour In a word the soule in man as it is a soule is like Fire raked up in embers the spirit like that fire extenuated and blowne into a flame the one glowing in our ashy part the other sparkling in our intellectuall And this distinction the great Doctour himselfe useth to his Thessalonians where after some benediction at length he prayeth that their whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ 1 Thes 5.23 Marke hee begins with the spirit O culatissima hominis parte the Eagle part of man which eyes things divine that like another Mary alwayes sits at the feet of Iesus then comes the soule Stella in cap. 1. Lucae Quae naturales exercet ratiocinales this like another Martha is cumbred with much serving busied about Reason and the naturall faculties but the unum necessarium it hath not chosen yet And lastly the Body that villa Marthae the Village where our Martha dwells those earthly affections of ours which so taste of the body and earth that if they be not restrain'd make man as it were all body that is all carnall for which cause we finde some men call'd spirituall some animall and some carnall 1 Cor. 2.3 Thus the spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Pilot or Governour squaring and fashioning new motions in the regenerate and subjecting their will to the will of God The soule is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under whose Lee come the sensitive faculties Reason Iudgement not yet wash'd and purified by the spirit the body Organum illorum the engine and Instrument of both which they imploy in their diversities of actions and operations These three are the integrall parts of a man regenerate when of the earthly man there are only two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aret. in Ep. 1. Thess cap. 5. v. 23. soule and body no spirit he it is foolishnesse unto him Hence proceedes that double man so frequently mentioned in the Scriptures the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Animall or carnall and lives yet in the state of Nature the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentall or spirituall and in the state of Grace shewing his profession by his Faith and his Faith by his Workes Now as with man there is a double man spirituall and secular so with the spirituall man there is a double man too inward and outward the one in the Text here call'd Minde the other Flesh that serving the Law of God and this the Law of sinne And here by the Law of God wee understand not that onely on Mount Sinai first promulgated by Moses and after him taught by the Prophets but that also on Mount Sion by Christ and his Apostles to wit The eternall will of God declared in the Doctrine of the Gospell which is no lesse a Law than the other and this Law every regenerate man doth serve serve though not fulfill serve with the minde a willing minde crying out with the Prophet My heart is ready Psal 42.1 my heart is ready so ready that it panteth and gaspeth for the water-brooke the Commandements of God which are as deepe waters But on the other side the Flesh playes the Craven and as if it had received some deadly wound makes him complaine with the same Prophet Thine Arrowes sticke fast in me there is no health in my flesh nor any rest in my bones by reason of my sinne Psal 38.3 You heare then how sinne still lyes at the doores of the Flesh though the Flesh be not properly the
and treading the by wayes to Rhemes and Doway make a double partin Man Reason and Sensuality the one of them they stile Spirit the other Flesh dishonouring thereby the sacred Doctrine of our Apostle as if Reason and the Spirit sounded alike in regard of the Inward man Flesh and Sensualitie in respect of the Outward But this were to rivall Philosophy with Scripture Acts 19.9 send S. Paul to Stagyra and Aristatle to the Schoole of Tyrannus for the same Divinity the great Peripateticke preacheth in the first of his Ethicks where hee divides the Minde into two parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 13. where Reason dwelleth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Passions reigne These drawing one way and That another Appetite in an incontinent man being towards Reason ut membrum paraliticum as a limme that is strucke with the dead Palsie turne it to the right hand and it falls to the left whatsoever Reason dictates for the Better Sensuality straineth to the worse and what is that say they but the Flesh and the Spirit Thus they would confound Nature with Grace the meere Carnall men with the Regenerate making the struglings of the one betweene Sensuality and Reason the others combate betweene the Flesh and the Spirit Lib. 6. cap. 11. But S. Augustine tells Julian the Pelagian who first hatch'd this dangerous Cockatrice that in these words of the Apostle Sunt gemitus sanctorum contra carnales concupiscentias dâ—rnicantium the deepe sighes and groanes of the Saints breath'd out against their remainders of corruption and their carnall frailties their minde serving the Law of God but the Flesh the fraile Flesh lead captive by the Law of Sinne. Now in Scripture you know the word Caro Flesh Isa 40.6 is taken either properly pro carnulentâ illâ mole for the body which is compos'd of Flesh or else Tropically Gen. 6.3 for her fleshly qualities and in this latter sense it sometimes signifies the corruptions of the Flesh sometimes the lusts of the Flesh sometimes men expos'd to Both which are nothing else but Flesh and hold a direct Antipathy with the Spirit And therefore the learned African tells his Consentius Epist 164. that he that will be Eminent in vertue must be free of the Flesh And hence is the Apostles Vos non estis in carne Yee are not in the flesh but in the spirit Rom. 8.9 And the Evangelists Quicquid natum de carne caro est Whatsoever is borne of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever is borne of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3.6 Againe Caro goes sometimes for Concupiscentia Cornel. a lap in Canon verb. Epist Sancti Pauls pag. 22. not properly as if Flesh were Concupiscence it selfe but Metonimically because the Flesh is as it were the shop of the Soule where it moulds and workes as the Potter doth his clay Concupiscentiarum imagines portenta I know not what strange Anticks and Monsters of concupiscence And therefore some Philosophers are of opinion that as the censations so the motions of the sensitive appetite are as well in the body and organs of it as in the soule though others more subtilly and indeed more rationally say that as they are spirituall vitall and animall so they are in the soule onely since that alone is said of it selfe to live and the body by that life and yet the body as they conceive by the Organs Spirits and Blood doth dispose and assist the soule in these and the like motions and operations whereas Saint Cyprian will by no meanes heare that the affictions should any way belong unto the body but to the soule Hoc ipsum quod dico carnis affectus impropriè dico saith the Father For vices indeed are principally the Soules to which sinne is directly and properly imputed for as much as it is indowed with judgement will knowledge power by which it may eschew that which is evill and cleave to that which is good the Soule using the Body as the Smith his hammer or his Anvile by which hee forgeth and fashioneth Omnium turpitudinum idola quarumcunque voluptatum simulachra all her voluptuous and filthy Idols of lust and sensualitie The Flesh doth neither dictate nor invent nor forme nor dispose no project no thought no malice no sinne from her not from her but by her S. Cyp. in prol de Card navirt Christi the soule not sinning neither but by the flesh Saltem mediatione remotâ And yet the Flesh as it is Flesh meerely without the Soule can neither sinne nor serve sinne knowing that when the Flesh is separated from the Soule Idem ibid. it is nothing else but Putredinis massa paludis Acervus a putted and corrupt Masse or Bog and when it is joyned with it It is at best but Quadriga Animae as Galen calls it the Chariot of the Soule in which it jogs for a time in Triumph and then it is Seneca's Carcer animae the Goale and Fetters of the Soule nay his Sepulchrum animae the Greekes calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tombe or Sepulchre a living death a sensible carrion a portable grave Vbi homo in vitijs est sopultus ubi corrupti corporis scatent scelera ubi homo hominis est sepulchrum ubi in homine non homo cernitur sed cadaver as the golden tongu'd iChrysologus in his 120. Sermon upon the fifth of S. Matthew But what then is it this Carkasse and Tombe and Sepulchre St. Paul here so much complaines of is it the bodie and the frailetties there that are here meant by this word Flesh noe But as before wee tooke the word Mens Theologically not Phisically so doe wee here the word Caro Flesh not for the fleshly lumpe this fraile masse of shinne bloud and nerves kneaded and incorporated into one substance but for the Carnall and as yet unregenerate part of man Will Minde Affections soil'd and corrupted from the old Adam so Gal. 5.20 Heresies are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Workes of the flesh Now Heresies you know flow from the minde not from the bodie so that the minde is in some sort Flesh as well as the other not flesh sensible and materiall but Metaphorically taken insomuch that the very Saints and servants of God as long as they have the dregs and remainders of sinne about them not only in the inferior part of the soule but even in the minde and the will are said to bee Flesh and the reason is because that that sinne by which wee consent unto the lusts of the flesh is not committed but in the will where it hath his originall and foment The Schooleman defining Concupiscence to bee nothing else but Voluntatem improbam Altissiod lib. 3. tract 2. cap. 3. q. 2. qua Anima appetit fornicari in creatura A depravednes of the will by which the Soule desireth to play the strumpet with the creature And hence it is that
time shall passe for a division for here is Flesh against Spirit and Spirit against Flesh and lust against lust and these in the same man and this man cleft and sundred betweene these in a bitter and restlesse Combat My purpose rather is to shew you the originall and ground of this Duell where and whom it challengeth and how that so the nature and qualitie of this warre being discover'd I may with more truth and boldnesse unmaske the Hytocrite pull off the visard from the Mountebanke in Religion shem you Christianity in her owne face and feature without the whoredomes either of Art or Falsehood the gildings and overlayings of Dissimulation and Imposture tell you who are selected Souldiers for the Lords Battell and who Volunteers for the service of the Enemy what they are that march under the Ensignes of the Spirit and what these under the colours of the Flesh and all this in a Caro concupiscit adversus Spiritum The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the Flesh of which briefly and as my custome is bluntly in a few broken Meditations such as I could solder and piece up from the remainders of a more involv'd and laborious discourse And now Caro-concupiscit The Flesh lusteth MAN since the breach of his first Truce with his Greater hath beene a continuall Rebell and Mutineere up in armes against God and himselfe too Gen. 3. the violation of that great Caveat Ne manducas Thou shalt not eate hath expos'd both him and his posterity to the Sword and the doom thereof lies fresh upon record in a Mortemorieris The Lord hath bent his Bow Isai 9. and whet his Sword and prepar'd for him his instruments of Death Psal 7.12 13. And whereas Man hath forsaken the way of peace and broken his league with the great Prince thereof and by that revolt made himselfe no more a Man of peace but of open warre God therefore will signe him his Letters of Mart Gen. 3.15 with an Ego ponam inimicitiam Gen. 3. I will set enmity not onely betweene the Serpent and the Woman or the Woman and the Man but even betweene man and himselfe so that instead of Davids pax inter muros Psal 122.7 Peace within the walls of Ierusalem peace within these spirituall walls calmenesse and quietnesse in the bosome of the Saints here the noyse of Discord hath beene shrill in our eares and that Propheticke speech of our Saviour is come not only about us but within us Bella rumores bellorum Matth. 24.6 There shall be warres and rumours of warres Warres within us and rumours of warres without us Certamen illud praeclarum decertavi saith Saint Paul I have sought the fight the good fight 2 Tim. 4. There 's the warre we talke of Sonum bucccinae audit Anima mea clangorem belli My soule hath heard the sound of the Trumpet the Alarum of Dissention Ier. 4.19 there 's the rumour of warre To come home Care concupiscit adversus spiritum the Flesh is at opposition with the Spirit and the Spirit with the Flesh in the Text here there 's the warre within Vices exercitus tui sunt contra me Thy changes and thine Armies are against me Iob 10.17 there 's the warre without Now though in these wars and rumours of wars there be not as in the other insurrectio gentium a rising up of Nation against Nation or of Church against Church or of opinion against opinion for in their bloudy pursuit the Sword hath been a long time drunke and made the Prophet of them for the truth of his predictions no lesse than a true God yet there is a rising of Brother against Brother nay of each Brother against himselfe the Spirituall is against the Carnall the unregenerate against the sanctified the inward against the outward man and all these as I told you in the same man and this man sawed and rent betweene these in an irreconcileable Discord Neither is there onely thus a rising of Brother against Brother but in an allegoricall way of the Brother against the Sister of the body against the Soule nay of the Sister against the Sister of the Soule against her selfe And herein both Rome and Geneva kisse Cornel. a lap in cap. 7. Rom. v. 25. Solius animae lis ista the soule onely is ingag'd in this Combat the Flesh as Flesh meerely hath nought to doe but as a second to abbet or look on And therefore we take not the word Caro here properly for this fleshly Masse or lump which is as it were the paste and crust of the body but metaphorically for the carnall and unregenerate part of man neither doe we take the word Spirit physically for the reasonable Soule meerely but Theologically for the spirituall regenerate part of man and between this Spirit and that Flesh this regenerate and that unregenerate part this new and that old man there is a continuall skirmish in the same man and this Quarrell not to be decided but by Death Now as this Combat all the Saints and servants of God have so they onely have it a Combat so proper to the true christian that none can fight it but hee alone hanc pugnam non experiuntur in semetipsis nisi bellatores virtutum et debellatores vitioorum saith S. Augustine those that fight for virtue Serm. 59. de diversis and against vice feele this warre and no other and this is a blessed warre and where it is not there is but a cursed Peace If all bee husht and calme within there is not onely a Sleepines but even a vacancy of goodnes the spirit is no longer spirit in man then when it is in agitation and at variance with the flesh And therefore wee here peremptorily exclude two sorts of men from any interest they can challenge in this warre of the Regenerate such as are so buried in the flesh that they seeme to have no spirit at all and such as glory altogether in the spirit as if they had no flesh for as on the one side if there bee no spirit there can bee no reluctancy of the flesh so on the other if no flesh no opposition of the spirit and if neither of these no warre if no Warre no Crowne no Garland no Glory The former sort wee may compare to the children of Israell in the times of Deborah Iudges 5.8 There is not a sworde nor a speare amongst fourty thousand of them a troope of secular and carnall men which know not the use of S. Pauls artillery The sworde of the spirit Ephes 6.14 et 17. and the shield of faith the brest-plate of righteousnes and the helmet of salvation are not their proper harnesse but as unwieldy for their shoulders as Sauls armour was for David A brawling perhaps they may have betweene reason and affection or betweene naturall conscience and naturall affection between the will and the understanding which as in a
maintenance and support of these fleshly tabernacles thou shalt eate and drinke ad necessitatem and the church to take downe the frankenesse of nature and tame the wildnesse of the flesh for in point of fasting there is as well a religious as a civill or politicke respect saies thou shalt not eate and drinke ad intemperantiam let us so eate and drinke that we may live and not lust and so live that thus eating drinking we care not if we die to morrow The cause why Moses so long fasted in the Mount was meere divine speculation the cause why David did humiliation so that the way to mortify the flesh and to advance the spirit is by the doore of abstinence whereby wee may undermine the pallaces of lust and wantonnes plant parcimony as nature where riotousnes hath beene study Hooker Eccles pol. lib. 5. that whereas men of the Flesh eate their bread with joy and drinke their wine with a merry heart Eccles 9.7 The man of the Spirit may be contrite and wounded and so humble his soule with fasting Psal 35.13 Beware then of this Ingenuosa Gula this kick-shawed luxury when the braine turnes Cooke for pleasing both of the eye and palate let 's not court appetite when we should but feed it not feed excesse when we should strangle it Moderation and sobrietie are the best Governours of our meetings and where these are as they are not too often in the meetings of a multitude the example of our Saviour will allow us to turne Water into Wine and the advice of his Apostle to drinke it also for our stomacks suke and doubtlesse sometimes for our mirths sake too if we exceed not the bounds of temperance nor flye out into superfluity or Epicurisme which are the blot and staine of Societie and a hinderance of that true joy and comfort which otherwise might smile in our publike meetings when invitations are turned into riots feeding into suffocation clogging the body and damping the spirits and thereby those blessings which else happily might have shower'd upon us A Soule drown'd in meat as the Father phraseth it can no more behold the light of God than a body sunk in puddle can behold the light of the Sun For as fogs and mists arising from the Earth and hiding the light of the Sunne from us debarre us for the present of the vertue of those heavenly influences which otherwise we might partake of So the fumes and vapours of an over-charg'd stomacke ascending to the brain cause a cloudinesse in the soule hindring and darkning those heavenly speculations which the Spirit would else mount to in God and his Son Christ Iesus To conclude then it should be our principall care to keepe the whole man brush'd all sluttishnes swept-of as well within as without not only those outward spots and blemishes which bestain the flesh but even those smaller dusts and atomes which over-spred the soule Remember it is the white robe which is the dressing of the Saint and that the hand which is wash'd in innocency is accepted at Gods Altar The haire that is unshaven is not for his congregation nor the fowle and uncleane thing for his kingdome We read that Solomons Temple had two altars the one without Vbi animaliū caedebatur Sacrificium 1. Kings 6.20 22. where the bullocke was flaine for sacrifice The other within Vbi Thymiamitis offerebatur incensum where incense and perfumes were offered the best mirrhe and the onyx the sweet storax Ecclus. 24.15 And we know that this temple of the holy Ghost hath two altars also the one without in the flesh where the bullocke should bee slaine the Hecatomb of our hundred beasts offered our beastly lusts and corruptions which fight against the soule The other within in the minde where the fumes of mirrhe and frank incense ascend the incense of prayer and gratulation that spirituall holocaust that viall of the Saints full of odours which reacheth the very nostrils of the Almighty On these two altars D. Aug. 256. serm de temp God requires a two fold sacrifice munditiem in corde cleanesse in the heart which David so vehemently desired create in mee a cleane heart O God Psal 5 1. and castitatem in corpore chastity in the body S. Bern. inter sententias which S. Bernar calls martyrium sine sanguine a martyrdome without bloud where there is a death of the flesh without the death of the body a death of her lusts and a death of her corruptions by mortifying and subduing all carnall rebellions And this martyrdome of the flesh S. Paul glories in I keepe under my body or as the Greeke hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corpus contundo Paulin. Ep. 58. et Lividum reddo soe Paulinus reades it to S. Augustine I Bray as it were and macerate my body and marke what followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In servitutem redigo I bring it into subiection 1. Cor. 9.27 And in subjection indeed it must be brought in subjection to the soule which as it gives the other forme so it should steere and master it Vnumquodque sicundum hoc vivat unde vivit saith S. Augustine let every thing live according to the rule and platforme of that by which it lives Vnde vivit caro tua De anima tua unde vivit anima tua De Deo tuo unaquaque harum secundum vitam suam vivat Whence lives thy body from thy soule whence lives thy soule from thy God Let both then live according to that Life which gave them life The world was made for man and man for his soule his soul for God Tū rectè vivit carosecundū animā D. Aug. Serm. 13. deverb Dom. cùm anima vivit secundum Deum The sweet Saint Augustine still then the body lives rightly according to the soule when the soule lives rightly according unto GOD. Let the body then so live after the soule and the soule after GOD that both body and soule may live with God in his eternall kingdome and that for his deare Sons sake Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father the holy Ghost bee all honour and glory ascrib'd both now and for ever Amen Gloria in excelsis Deo FINIS Jehovah-Jireh GOD In his PROVIDENCE And OMNIPOTENCE Discovered A SERMON PREACHED Ad Magistratum at CHARD in Sommerset 1633. By Humphrey Sydenham Laudate Dominum de omnimoda potentia ejus Laudate eum secundum multitudinem Magnitudinis ejus Psal 150.2 LONDON Printed by IOHN BEALE for Humphrey Robinson at the Signe of the Three Pigeons in PAULS Church-yard 1637. TOMY HIGHLY HONOUR'D FRIEND Sr. JOHN STAVVELL Knight of the BATH THIS SIR IUST promises are just debts and debts though delayed ever come acceptably if they come with advantage I long since promised you a transcript of this Sermon which was the Principall and now I send it you with a Dedication which is the Interest and such an Interest I
imaginations following their owne Spirit by which they see nothing and leaving that Spirit by which they might see all So that now wee cannot but discover here a double Spirit the two Spirits spoken of by Saint Paul Dei Hominis 1. Cor. 2.11 By which wee may cleerely distinguish the foolish from the wise the false from the true Prophet That followes the tracke of his owne wheele meerely as his spirit or fancy gyres him This turnes his thoughts with those wheeles in Ezekiel whithersoever the spirit was to goe they went Thither was there spirit te goe too Ezec. 1.20 The one is in Egypt still in darkenesse darkenesse so thicke that it may be felt a grosse and affected stupidity The other followeth his pillar of fire his inspired illuminations and they conduct him to his promised Canaan The former with his darke lanthorne stumbles along the broad way which leads downe to the chambers of Death The latter with a lanthorne too but a light unto his stepps treads that Semitam rectam in the Psalmist and that brings him into the land of the living In fine the foolish Prophet without any divine influence or revelation proprio vaticinatur corde makes the thoughts of his owne heart oraculous when the Prophet of the Lord knowing that the thoughts of the heart are evill continually leaves those vaine suggestions perceiving that he is blinde by nature and must to his poole of Syloam desires to have his Spittle and his Clay wash'd off and so cryes out with David Lord open mine eyes and then I shall see the wonderfull workes of thy Law Here then as there is a double Spirit so a double Prophet And to distinguish either Prophet from his Spirit Saint Augustine borroweth a double word from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and both these from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiro but this latter a Spirit of a courser temper Wee reade in the last of Saint John that Christ breath'd upon his Disciples Spiritum sanctum the Originall there using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for the most part hath reference to the Spirit of Sanctity That the Father appropriates to the wise Prophet In the 2. of Genesis 't is said of Adam that God breath'd into him Spiritum vitae the word of the Septuagint is there * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more frequently used in the expression of humane spirit then divine This he bestowes on the foolish Prophet And therefore some Auncient Romans well verst in the Criticisme of that language D. Aug. lib. 13. C. Dei cap 24. and for the better discovery of the difference in Idioms will not call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritum but Flatum So in the 5. of Esay the vulgar translation reades it Omnem flatum ego feci Flatus no doubt there taken for Anima And so also that of Genesis Halitum not Spiritum breath of life Cap. 2.7 not Spirit though the Chaldee paraphrase to reconcile both joynes there Flatus Spiritus together and so reades God breath'd into man flatum sive animam vitae the soule that is the breath of life Vid. Coqueum in lib. 13. Aug. de Civ Dei cap. 24. and man was made in Spiritum loquentem a speaking Spirit Thus after some strugling with the words we have brought Soule Breath spirit in one and this Spirit in the wise Prophet following the true God It is time now to looke backe unto the Text and there view the foolish Prophet leaving the true God and following his owne Spirit Vae Prophetis insipientibus Woe to the foolish Prophet which followes his owne Spirit And what is that Spirit which he followes By Spirit no doubt are understood the corrupt thoughts and imaginations of the Heart For what in the 2. verse of this chapter was call'd Prephecy of their owne heart is in the Text here following their owne Spirit And indeed in the naturall man Spirit and Imagination are al one in essence though in action and vertue diverse the one receiving the formes and images of things with a kinde of passion and impression of the soule occasion'd by the presence of her objects therefore call'd Imagination The other a subtle facility in the penetration of those formes and images received and therefore Spirit which though for the vivacity and quicknesse of it some have beene pleas'd to stile the image of the living God a taste of the immortall substance a streame of the immortall Divinity a celestiall Ray by which there is a kinde of kinred betweene God and Man there being nothing great with God but Man and nothing great in Man but his Spirit yet if this Spirit be not guided by a higher as the poise and wheele by which it moves but leaving the influence of that followes the motions of its owne breast we shall make it the source of all vanity and error a meere Quack-salver in the Church the seedesman of imposture and debate and the very ground worke of novelty and innovation I have seene folly in the Prophets of Samaria an horrible thing in the Prophets of Ierusalem saith Ieremy What is this thing of Folly and Horrour he so deepely complaines off What They walke in lyes what lyes the visions of their owne heart Ier. 23.16 And doubtles the visions of the heart meerely can be no lesse then lyes and therefore lyes because visions of their owne and therefore their owne lyes too because they walke in them and because they thus walke in them they deceive themselves and then there is no hath in them Truth hath abounded by my lie to Gods glory Rom. 3.3 meum dixit mendacium saith S. Augustine veritatem Dei Truth there hath reference to God Lye unto Man unto man properly and solely and therefore Meum mendacium my lye and why my lye because I follow mine owne Spirit which being mans cannot but erre and so prove false and not the Spirit of God which being Gods cannot but be true The Prophet then that thus followes his owne Spirit cannot but speake according to that Spirit which hee followes And he that so speakes must of necessity lye Qui de seipso loquitur Mendax est He that speakes of his owne is a verylyer Iohn 8.44 God only is to be beleeved in all he sayes and that because he sayes it Truth depends not on any humane revelation or authority I may lawfully dispute whether it will passe for current except it be stamp'd with a Sic dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord God * Audi dicit Dominus non dicit Donatus aut Rogatus aut Vincentius aut Ambrosius aut Augustâ—nus sed dicit Dom nus D. Aug. Epist 48. there are no Principles in man if Divinity hath not either reveal'd or confirm'd them All the rest is but a fancy or a dreame the heate of some private spirit at first which taking bud and blossome
all 'T were well if such had a hooke put in their Nostrils and a bridle in their jawes that as there is now a generall uniformity in our habit so there may be in our mind and manners too one Heart one Conformity one Obedience I shut up all with the advice of Saint Paul to his Ephesians Since he hath given some Apostles Ephes 4. some Prophets some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Be not henceforth any more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftinesse of those whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love grow up to him in all things which is our head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyn'd together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it selfe in love And therefore if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill my joy that yee be like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one judgement end eavouring to keepe the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace knowing that there is but one Body one Spirit one hope of our calling one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all 1 Thes 5.23 And Now the very God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ Amen Amen Gloria in excelsis Deo FINIS The Good Pastor A SERMON Ad Clerum Preached at the Primary Visitation of the right Reverend Father in GOD WILLIAM by divine providence Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells At CHARD in SOMMERSET Anno Dom. 1633. By Humphrey Sydenham MATTH 7.15 Cavete vobis a pseudo-Prophetis qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium sed intrinsicus sunt lupi rapaces LONDON Printed by IOHN BEALE for Humphrey Robinson at the Signe of the Three Pigeons in PAULS Church-yard 1637. TO MY REVEREND AND LEARNED FRIEND Dr. RALEIGH Chaplaine in Ordinary to his Majesty and Rector of Chedsey in Sommerset SIR WOnder not that in such a troope of Dedications I set a Learned Doctour in the Reare for it is my custome in publike Epistles as in my private Letters To remember my choisest Friend in a Postscript Besides you know I am a Divine and no Herauld and therefore should not so much study priority of place as merit or had I done both in these I should have met with no great disparity since vertue was ever thought a companion for bloud and fortune especially in them which can challenge as well an eminency of Descent as Knowledge And therefore to suppose a distance here were but to distinguish men at Ordinaries and make an upper end at a round Table To you then I cannot but send this wandering Pastor of mine who amongst my other Pilgrims abroad hopes to find countenance entertainment frō you and from you in a just claime and interest where like severall streames in a full channell Integritie Learning and Charity meet and what else may speake a Pastor good or a good man glorious In confidence whereof I tender this with my selfe and you can have no more of your best votaries than all assuring you that you have not a truer honourer any where than with Your most respective Friend and Servant HUM SYDENHAM THE GOOD PASTOR JEREM. 3.15 I will give you Pastors according to my heart which shall feede you wich knowledge and understanding GOD is the God of Israel and Israel is now sicke at heart and her Pastors as sicke as Israel Her Diseases are in chiefe two Ignorance and Idolatry and these no lesse fatall than infectious This contagion hath over-spread the Land Numb 1.46 and amongst so many hundred thousands in her Tribes which have bin worshippers of the true God so many that they have bin compar'd to the stars of Heaven for multitude there is but a remnant free seven thousand left that have not bowed to Baal Shee that had so long the affectionate and familiar stile of the Daughter of my people Ezech. 23.3 and in purity preserv'd her Virgin Teats unbruised as the Prophet speakes is at length become the Strumpet of the Nations Vpon every high Mountaine and under every greene Tree Jer. 3.6 shee hath played the Harlot and through the lightnesse of her whoredomes hath committed Adultery with stockes and stones Those Altars which were wont to smoake onely to the Lord of Hostes now cast up their incense to false and imaginary Gods Jer. 7.18 The children gather wood and the Fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the Dough to make Cakes to the Queene of Heaven The Gods of the Ammonite and the Moabite have their Offerings of drinke and bloud when the Mighty One of Iacob hath not so much as a Sheepe or an Oxe for Sacrifice In this great disorder of the Church GOD himselfe will become Bishop and intends a Visitation no lesse severe than speedie and because he will reforme as well as visite he threatneth the deposing of the Old with the choice of a New Priesthood Wherein you may please to observe first the manner of Ordination and that in the Dabo vobis I will send or give you Next the parties to be ordered and they are intitled here to the word Pastores I will give you Pastors Thirdly their Qualification Secundum cor meum Pastors according to my heart Fourthly their Office Pascent vos they shall feed you Lastly the power and manner of that feeding in respect of their mentall endowments Scientiâ and Intelligentia with Knowledge and Vnderstanding Dabo vobis I will give you I Begin this Dabo vobis Pars 1. with the glosse of Stella upon that Mittam vos of Christ to his Disciples Luke 10. Non est omnium se divino ministerio ingerere sed qui a Deodatur eligitur Instead of a Translator here pray take an Apostle who gives us the sence though not the words No man takes this honour to himselfe but hee that is called of God as Aaron was Heb. 5.4 In matters of divine Ministery to runne and not be sent is not to undertake but to invade it which invasion is no lesse bold than dangerous and therefore amongst the Iewes such as prophesied without a Vision were called Dreamers and not Prophets or if Prophets Prophets of the deceit of their owne heart Jer. 23.26 and by the Sword and Famine such Prophets were consumed Ier. 14.15 The Scribe that made a voluntary tender of himselfe to Christ resolving to follow him wherso'ere he went was
to the Right Honourable IOHN Lord POVLETT Baron of Henton St. George SIR IF there be a Succession of Vertues with the Fortunes of Great men doubtlesse there should be of the Services of those that honour them This makes me speak boldly through the sides of your Noble Father whose continued respects towards me and incouragements I cannot better acknowledge than by my thankefull expressions to such a Son who in the hopes and expectations of his Countrey shall no lesse inherit Him than his Revenewes Ana then Honour Riches Wisedome you cannot but prescribe for what else may either intitle you to Greatnesse here or to Glory hereafter Such a Patronage as This I could not but listen after where is as well Vertue to countenance me as Power and so perhaps Censure and Prejudice may be a little hush't or at least not so loud but that the labours of poore men may travell the world if not without their snarlings for who can so muzzle a blacke mouth'd Curre yet without their publique Barkings and traducements Beleeve it Sir what I present you here is mine owne though but a mite and a mite thus offered cannot prove lesse acceptable to a noble Treasury than an Oblation of a richer value since your Free-will offerings were ever of best esteeme both with God and Good men which doth hopefully incourage me of your faire entertainment of This from the hands of Your most devoted HVM SYDENHAM THE CHRISTIAN DUELL The first Sermon ROM 7.25 So then with the minde I my selfe serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of sinne THis life is a warfare and this Text a lively description of it where the parts lye as the two Armies of Israel and the Philistines did in Elah Ephes Dammim there is a Mountaine on the one side and a Mountaine on the other and a Valley betweene them 1 Sam. 17. Here is first Lex Dei V. 3. the Law of God on that Mountain the Israelite pitcheth then Lex peccati the Law of sinne on this the Philistine betweene both there is a spacious Valley where David encountreth the mightie Goliah the spirituall Combatant his fleshly adversary and this in the Ego ipse I my selfe where the conflict is both hot and doubtfull sometimes the flesh hath the defeate and then the Law of God hath the glory sometimes the minde is overlaid by the strokes of the Flesh and then the Law of sinne In this Duell our Apostle is a maine Champion or to use his own word a Servant Ego ipse servio I my selfe serve and I serve two wayes mentally with the minde that is for the Law of God carnally with the flesh this for the Law of sinne Serm. 44. de temp Audi saith the Father vitam justi in isto adhuc corpore bellum esse nondum triumphum the righteous man hath but a skirmish here no triumph no triumph yet but a daily tempest and strugling betweene the minde and the flesh the Law of God and the Law of sinne and this Law is the occasion of that warre and that warre of captivitie and yet this captivitie at last of triumph I finde a Law in my members fighting against the Law of my minde Quando audis repugnantem quandò captivantem bellum non agnoscis D. Aug. ibid. and bringing me into captivitie to the Law of sinne V. 23. Here is fighting and bringing into Captivity that 's the Warre on the other side Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thanke God through Iesus Christ our Lord v. 24. Here is deliverance from death and Grace by Iesus Christ our Lord this the Triumph Now the ground both of that warre and this Triumph the Apostle locks up here in a Nempe igitur a so then So then with the minde I my selfe serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of sinne Thus you see how the Field is pitch'd and every word in its severall squadron but before wee enter lists or can well shew you the heate of the encounter it will not be amisse to open first what the word Minde imports what her office and properties then what the Law of God and the service requir'd there and so the Analogie between both In the next ranke what the word Flesh specifies what the Law of sinne the service due there also and the relation between them This done I shall in the reare bring up the ego ipse the Apostle himselfe harness'd and ready arm'd for the spirituall conflict and setting him betweene the Minde and the Flesh the Law of God and the Law of sinne typifie and represent unto you the state of a true Christian Souldier here on earth how his loynes should be girt his feet shod his Armour buckled on what his breast-plate and Shield and Sword and Helmet and how farre able or not to withstand all the firy Darts of the wicked one This whilst I endevour to performe I shall desire this honorable and learned Throng to make use of Saint Augustines Apologie on the same subject Potentiam mihi praebeat charitas vestra D. Aug. Serm. 5. de verb. Ap. ut si habeam propter obscuritatem rerum difficilem disputationem saltem habeam facilem vocem ut autem prosit labor noster sit patiens auditus vester Discourses which savour of depth and industry are most proper for noble and ingenuous Auditories and looke for patient attention and candid interpretation I begin where I should with the minde of man tell you what it meaneth here and how it holds conformitie with the Law of GOD. PARS I. With the minde I serve the Law of God AND for the better opening of this Cloud both Fathers and Interpreters make a criticisme between Soule and Minde and Spirit which some endevouring to expresse have not unfitly compar'd to a house of three roomes or stories in the lower roome is Anima in the middle Mens above both Spiritus as the Cock-loft or upper Region of the Soule In these three is the substance of the soule lodged Quasi quadam sua Trinitate this being it seemes an Embleme of the Deity a Trinitie in Unitie and a Unitie in Trinitie the Essence the same in all but the proprietie diverse like severall strings in an Instrument set in tune to make up one Harmony and therefore it is call'd Anima De spirit Anima c. 12. dum animat Spiritus dum spirat mens dum metit meminit Or else Anima dum vegetat mens dum intelligit Spiritus dum contemplatur So that here is no Essentiall but onely a Vertuall difference the substance of the soule lying in the powers and properties thereof and yet not divided into parts but simple and individuall these powers neither impairing nor adding to the unitie of the soule no more than the diversities of streames to the unitie of one source or fountaine And yet there are divers steps
seate of finne but the soule and yet the soule new borne by the spirit serves principally the Law of God which is indeed rather a freedome than a service a perfect freedome sayes our Lyturgie and because made perfect by the Spirit the spirit of freedome too Non accepistis spiritum serviiutis sedlibertatis And if Christ have made us free we are free indeed otherwise our freedome is no better than a bondage Rom. 8.15 This made the Singer of Israel warble sweetly Psa 19.7 The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soule And the Soule in this manner converted is a kinde of undefiled soule because it so serves the Law of the Lord. Thus He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 One Spirit How Essentially no how then accidentally one in charity consent of will grace and glory too Cornel. Lap. 1. Cor. 6.17 Quae hominem saciunt quasi Divinum Deum which make a man as t were divine so farre forth God that with God he is as one and the same spirit And therefore a chaste and a holy soule the Fathers often stile Deisponsam the Betrothed of the Lord. Now Serm. 7. sup Cant. Sponsa and Sponsus as S. Bernard notes Maximè indicant internos animi affectus And doubtlesse God doth so intimately affect a religious and a sanctified soule that in his Armes he doth imbrace it even as his Spouse and with the Beloved in the Canticls doth even kisse it with the kisses of his mouth and therefore as at first in the matrimoniall Vnion betweene man and wife Cant. 1.2 Two were made as one flesh so in this mysticall union betweene God and the Soule two are become as one spirit Againe The Commandement of the Lord is pure and giveth light unto the eyes Psal 19.8 Light unto the Eyes what Eyes the eyes I told you of before the eyes of our intellectualls the eyes of our minde which being dimm'd and clouded by the fall of the first man God doth illuminate againe by the beames of the spirit and the Eyes thus opened behold instantly the wonderfull workes of his Law and so Psa 36.10 In lumine tuo videbimus lumen In this light wee shall see light Psa 119.105 the Light of his Word and Commandements which he called A Lanthorne unto our feet and a light unto our pathes and without which we grope in ignorance and error walking in blindnesse and in the shadow of Death the way of the wicked being darknesse saith Salomon and a continuall stumbling Prov. 4.18 19 but the way of the Just as a shining Light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day And therefore S. Peter cals the word of Prophecie which is the Word of God and of his Law A Light which shineth in a darke place untill the Dawne and the Day-starre arise in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 Our hearts which were but the Chambers of darknesse the couch and resting place of our blinded minde God who hath commanded light to shine out of darknesse hath shin'd into 2 Cor. 4.6 shin'd into the darker corners of them To give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ who is the spirituall day-star that day-spring from on High Luk. 1.79 which through the tender mercies of God hath thus visited us giving light to them that sit in darknesse and guiding their feet in the way of everlasting peace Hereupon the Kingly Prophet ravish'd it seemes with the joy of the inward man tells us That the statutes of the Lord are right and rejoyce the heart Psal 19. V. 8. The heart which was before meerely sensuall a rude lumpe of flesh a cage of uncleane birds a bundle of sinfull and impure thoughts they new brush and sweepe and so garnish with spirituall gifts and graces that insteed of drooping they cheere and elevate it making that which was before the ground of Terror the meanes of rejoycing more desiring it now than gold than fine gold sweeter than the hony or the hony combe that to the mind regenerate the Law of God is not a service barely but a delight His delight is in the Law of God and in that Law doth he exercise himselfe day and night Psal 1.2 And indeed wherein should he be exercised what object more proper or more blessed what should the Spirit minde but the things of the Spirit what the Righteous aime at but his center and eternall resting point God hath created man for his own Glory and as Man is the end of the world so is God the end of man and his Glory of both And therefore he is call'd The Temple of the Living God and his minde the Sanctum Sunctorum in that Temple in which God is said not onely to dwell Serm. 27. Sup. Cant. but to walke 1 Cor. 6.16 O quanta illi Animae latitudo quanta meritorum praerogativa quae divinam in se praesentiam digna invenitur suscipere sufficiens capere saith S. Bernard That Soule is of a boundlesse circuit and goodnesse that can comprehend the incomprehensible God Cannot the greater World containe him and is he involv'd in the lesse Is the Minde a Temple for him to dwell in that dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Is there in Man a Tabernacle for his service at whose seete both Men and Angels fall downe and worship This then should mount him above the world and all the base Lees and dregs thereof disrobe him of his earthly garment make him put on the New man in Righteousnesse and Holines shake off the very dust from his feete those dusty corruptions which sticke so fast on his feet of frailty lifting himselfe above himselfe and retiring from all outward things into the Soule the soule unto the minde and the mind unto God may seeke his conversation in Heaven onely minding nothing but Heaven and Heavenly things every true sanctified soule being not only Heavenly saith S. Bernard but Heaven it selfe Sâ—rm 27. sup Cant. and sitting in the body tanquam Deus in suo mundo where his understanding shines as the Sunne his vertues as the Starres and his Faith as the Moone which he calls Psal 89.36 The faithfull witnes in Heaven And so Man being a kinde of Heaven to himselfe and having a God within him ruling and commanding it should alwayes have his Contemplation wing'd his thoughts towring upwards to the God of Gods in the Heaven of Heavens where there is joy unspeakeable for evermore And now you have heard what the Front of the Text meaneth by the word Mind what her office and properties and how they looke to the Law of God In the next ranke I am to sew you how the Flesh comes up with all her Forces and how that joynes with the Law of Sinne. PARS II. With the Flesh I serve the Law of Sinne. SOme Expositors leaving the Geneva Rode
Rivers of Oyle will be in the Canaan above The earthly Jerusalem may abound with Silver and Gold and Arabian spices But what are These to the gates of pearle to the streets pav'd with precious stones Sheba and Tharshish and Ophir may supply her both with treasure and delight Ivory and Apes and Peacoks 1 King 10. But these are comparatively Toyes in respect of those rich and glorious Constellations which shine in the heavenly Ierusalem The Emerauld the Saphire and the Chrysolite are there The Iacinth the Topaz the Amethist are above Rev. 21.20 Honorificentissima praedicantur de Te Psal 87.3 O Civitas Dei Summè honorifica Great and excellent things are spoken of Thee thou City of God Thou everlasting City Great and excellent indeed for there is neither true Greatnesse nor Excellency but There where we shall grow up to the perfect Man Indeed as S. Paul tells us And to the measure of the ture of the Fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4.13 when we shall lay hold on that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Aeternum pondus Gloriae The excellent and eternall waight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 No Defect there no Sinne no Temptation no Lust no Infirmity no Sorrow but we shall be filled with all the Fulnesse of God Ephe. 3.19 The Sun shall not burne us by day nor the Moone by night Nay there shall be no need of Sunne and Moone for the Glory of God shall shine there and the Lambe is the light thereof for evermore But whilst we wander as strangers and pilgrims here on earth there will be a daily tempest betweene the Flesh and the Spirit a wildernesse of sin must bee past through and a fiery pillar requir'd to guide us in our night of errors And though God by his great mercies in his Sonne Christ Iesus hath brought us out of darkenesse into his marvelous light yet even in this light darkenesse sometimes over-shadowes us And therefore as in the Creation of the greater World God ordained two principall lights the one to rule the day and the other the night So in the restauration of this lesser World Man God hath set two lights also a Sunne and a Moone Christ and his Church the one to governe him by Day when the beames of the Spirit doe enlighten him the other in the Night when the fogs and mists of the Flesh doe overspread him and as those naturall Planets doe sometimes meet with their Clouds and Eclipses so doe these mysticall also Now as the interposition of the Earth betweene the Sunne and the Moone causeth an Eclipse in the Moone and as the interposition of the Moone betweene us and the Sunne causeth an Eclipse in the Sunne So the interposition of the Flesh which is as our earthly part betweene God and the Soule causeth an Eclipse in the Soule whereby her saculties are over-clouded and the interposition of concupiscence or lust betweene our Spirit and the Spirit of God causeth an Eclipse in the Spirit whereby Grace is darkned and that Sunne of Righteousnesse which would otherwise arise in our hearts is many times over-shadowed by our corrupter motions insomuch that the best Saints and Servants of God have often groan'd within themselves and powr'd out their complaints in bitternesse of Soule with an Vsquequo Domine Jesu usquequo How long Lord Iesus how long How long this Tyranny of the Flesh this bondage of corruption this body of Death this captivity to the Law of finne Psal 120.5 Wretched wretched that we are who shall deliver us Woe that we are thus constrained to sojourne in Mesech here and to dwell in the Tents of Kedar But even in these spirituall convulsions they have their lucida intervalla their Divine solaces and refreshments this being not the language of desperation but complaint Ieb after all his passionate expostulations with God tell 's Bildad that hee knowes his Redeemer liveth Iob 19.25 And Saint Paul after his sad and manifold disputes with his owne frailties here can give thankes to God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7.24 which sacred ejaculations of theirs preach no other Doctrine and use but this That wee feeling this thorne in the flesh and the messenger of Satan ever ready to buffet us 2 Cor. 12.7 should not be exalted above measure but when wee begin to bristle and advance our selves in the whitenesse of our feathers swell in the opinion of our owne Justice and perfections wee should cast downe our eyes upon the blacke and ugly feet of our infirmities and so humble the pride of our imaginations with the modest language of the Prophet Lord blot out my transgressions as a mist and as a thicke cloud my sinnes Isai 44.22 Melior est peccator humilis quam justus superbus D. Aug. serm 49. de temp a sinner in his humility is a more acceptable Sacrifice than a just man if such a one may be in his pride And yet as we should be thus sensible of our infirmities how daily how hourely how minutely how unavoidably they are so we should not humble our selves below our selves forgetting the great Pilot and Anchor of our Soules but whilst we have armes and Oares and plankes to waft us in let us not voluntarily plundge our selves in that depth which may occasion our everlasting shipwracke diffidence and despaire but knowing that Prophers and Disciples themselves have beene in the like Tempest the Ship ready to sinke and her Great Steeres-man asleepe they crying amazedly we perish we perish yet if we invoke him by our zealous importunities rouze him with a Master Master hee shall awake at length and rebuke the churlish windes and the waves Luke 8.24 and a blessed calme shall follow The greatest servants of God have had their great infirmities and yet none so great but have had a faire audience in his Court of mercy and met both with excuse and pardon from the mouth of a compassionate Iudge who acknowledgeth that their spirit is ready though their flesh be weake and their minde following the Law of God though the Flesh the fraile Flesh bee led captive by the Law of sinne And this peculiar Plea of Gods chosen Servants is at length become an Apologie for the customary sinnes of those who in their conversations are most wicked and deprav'd the prophanest Esaus Pet. Mart. in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 25. the loosest Libertines that are Illae pestes furiae temporum as Peter Martyr calls them those plagues and furies of the times lay title to it and 't is made not onely the excuse of their sinnes but their very patent and priviledge of sinning who under the colour of their carnall frailties can blanch and palliate their deepest enormities make Scarlet Snow and Crimson Wooll crying out with those wretches in the times of S. Augustine Vide D. Aug. Serm. 46. de Temp. Ser. 13. deverbis Dom. Serm. 6. de verbis Apostol Non nos sed Caro non nos
sed Caro Not us but the Flesh the Flesh that must be are the blame whatsoever the Sinne be Their minde they pretend is prone enough to matters of Religion but the flesh as a violent Tide or Torrent drives them another way and no sinne so capitall but findes S. Paul's evasion Non nos sed peccatum in nobis 'T is no more we that doe it but Sinne that dwelleth in us Lyes and Oathes and Blasphemies and Prophanations are at length but a businesse of the Flesh to wallow in Surfets and Vomitings and Excesse of Riots till the wine inflame and the eyes looke red and startle a toy of the flesh too Raylings and Envies and Scandalls and Back bitings the Cut-throates of neighbourhood and amity but a frailty of the flesh neither Chambering and watonnesse and a lustfull neighing after thy neighbours wife nay the ranke sweat of an Incestuous Bed a tricke of the flesh also and that 's a tricke of the flesh indeed to grinde a poore man or steece a Tenant or pillage a Church cheate God himselfe of his dues imbeazle his tithes and offerings Imbrue our hands in the bloud of his Sacrifices but a trifle of the Flesh neither In a word be their Sinnes dyed in Graine never of so sanguine and deepe a Tincture so mighty so hainous so inexpiable the Flesh shall be their excuse still and the words of the Apostle are ever ready to plead for them Rom. 7.25 With the mind I serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sinne. But let such corrupt Glossers on the Text consider who S. Paul was that us'd those words and of what sins for let the Pelagian bray what he list the words are S. Paul's S. Pauls of himselfe and of himselfe as an Apostle Vide D. Aug. Ser. 5. de verbis Apost not as a Pharisee not of publike and scandalous and notorious sinnes from which even his Pharisaisme was exempt but of bosome and inward infirmities whereby he felt his sanctified intentions strangled by the counter-plots of the Flesh Moreover the Text properly belongs to those that struggle not to them that lye soaking and weltring in their sinnes the Spirit must be still lusting against the Flesh and the Flesh still lusting against the Spirit This Sea of Ours never lying calme unruffled without some storme So that those which tugge not and beare up stiffe Saile against this Tide but plunging themselves headlong in all manner of Vices yet still pretending a rectitude of their mind and will have nothing to doe with this prerogative of the Saints For as a grave Neoterick of ours strictly observes None can say The mystery of selfe deceiving by D. D. cap. 14. that sins are not Theirs but the Fleshes but such have the Spirit besides the Flesh contending with the Flesh Now those saith he which are so ready with their Non nos sed caro Not us but the flesh are oftentimes themselves nothing else but flesh no Spirit at all to make the least resistance but give up themselves in a voluntary subjection to the lusts and corruptions of the Old man So that this non Nos sed Caro is but a vaine Pretence of Theirs sounding nothing else but us and our selves For in understanding will memory affections soule and body too they are altogether flesh Nature speaking of These as sometimes Adam did of Eve Adest Os ex ossibus meis et Caro de carne mea Here is Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh Gen. 2.23 Notwithstanding in the committing of some grievous sinne they have no doubt a kinde of inward murmuring and reluctation Pilate will not condemne Christ but hee will first wash his hands pretending that hee is innocent of his bloud Mat. 27.24 Felix will give S. Paul liberty of speaking for himselfe before hee will deliver him mercilesly to the Iewes bound Acts 24.27 There is a grudging and recoyling in the consciences of most men even In and Before the act of their mistreadings but this resistance is not from a minde renewed but enlightned only not from a religious feare of offending God for this or that sin but the fearfull apprehension of punishments which shall follow upon those sins so that they doe it only saith S. Austine timore poenoe non amore justitiae rather to avoide a hovering vengeance Serm. 59. de diversis then for any filiall obedience or respect to God and his commaunds And herein as in a mapp or glasse wee may see the difference of the combat betweene the regenerate and the meere carnall man that of the regenerate is in the same faculties of the soule betweene the will and the will the affections and the affections these faculties even in the renovated soule being partly spiritual and partly carnall whence it followes that when the renewed part of the will which is the spirit invites us to good the unregenerate part which is the flesh swayes us to evill But the combate in the meere carnall man is betweene diverse faculties of the soule betweene the understanding and the will betweene the conscience and the affections hee neither resisting temptations to sin nor the swindge of them when hee is tempted neither hating the sinne forbidden nor loving the law forbidding it but still drawes on cords with cart-roaps vanities with iniquities and these in a full measure drinking them like water untill hee come even to the overflowing of ungodlines Iob. 15.16 so far from holding backe from mischiefe that hee doth it with greedinesse and swiftnesse committing all uncleanes with greedines Ephes 4.19 Et pedes festinanter currentes ad malum his feete are swift in running to mischiefe Pro. 6.18 the regenerate man checkes evill motions when they are offered the carnall man gives them line and liberty of accesse without controule Sinne to the one is like the booke Saint Iohn mentions causing bitternes in the belly Revel 10.9 To the other like Ezekiels scroule 't is to him as honey and sweetnes Ezek 3.3 That doth utterly distast this doth affect and rellish it hee in the temptation of sin strives to avoyde the action to this the action is as ready as the temptation so that insteed of the rayne or the snaffle hee is altogether for the switch and the spurre veloces sunt pedes ejus ad effundendum sanguinem his feete are swift to shed bloud Rom. 3.15 Once more The one keepeth his tongue from evill and his lips that they speake no guile 1. Pet. 3. The others tongue frameth deceit and deviseth mischiefe and the poison of Aspes is under his lips proudly vaunting with those in the Psalmist Quis est Dominus nobis with our tongues we will prevaile wee are they that ought to speake who is Lord over us Psal 12.4 I deny not but the same sin according to the act may bee both in the regenerate and the meere carnall man but not without this qualification in the one for
the most part 't is a sinne of will and choyce and delight and custome in the other a sinne of infirmity and reluctation and contempt a sinne of invasion not of appetite Besides as there is a difference in the manner of their sinning so there is in their opposition which they make against their sinnes The reluctancy which the regenerate hath is from the apprehension of the goodnes of Gods law forbidding sinne of the carnall man D. D. ut si p. 〈◊〉 from the apprehension of the truth of the judgements denounced by that law punishing those sinnes that from love this from feare Credit bonus et verè credit saith Saint Augustine credit malus sed non vere credit credit Christum sed odit Christum the good man beleeves and hee beleeves truly the wicked man beleeves too but he beleeves not truly hee beleeves Christ but hee loves not Christ hee beleeves him as a GOD loves him not as a Iudge in a word habet confessionem fidei in timore poenae non in amore coronae Peters confession of Christ and the Divells was all one in respect of the words but not of the heart they both acknowledged that hee was filius Dei magni the Sonne of the living God Math. 16. But see the difference Hujus confessio quia cum odio Christi prolata est merito damnatur Eius D. Aug. Serm. 59. de diversis Tom. 10. p. 616 quia ex interna dilectione processit aeterna beatitudine remuneratur The Divell as an Angell that was fallen enviously acknowledged Christs divinity therfore his own just condemnation Peter as an Angell that should rise had an inward tast of his mediatourship and therefore of his owne undoubted glorification In fine though the motions of the flesh bee alike in both yet the humouring of those motions is not Aliud est concupiscere aliud post concupiscentias non ire It is one thing to lust another to goe a whoring after it As it is one thing to glance and dart a wanton desire another to court and plead it A man may have and hath and must as hee is man his carnall titillations and yet a spirituall man all this while if hee oppugne them if hee withstand their march and onset But if hee once hang out his flags of truce if hee give way to their fiery seige if hee open the city gates to let in this armed monster the spirituall man hath lost the day and the carnall hath the full triumph Hearke what Saint Augustine in this case obtrudeth Quicunque carnalibus concupiscentiis cedis atque consentis c Whosoever thou art that givest way to thy carnall concupiscences and either thinkest them good to fill up the saturity of thy lust or else so seest them to be evill that notwithstanding that evill thou doest assent and so follow them where they leade thee and what they suggest commit Tu tu quisquis talis es totus totus carnalis es Thou art carnall Thou thou whosoever thou art art All all carnall And therefore the advice of the same Father will be seasonable here If the infirmities of the Flesh be such D. Aug. Serm. 5. de verb. Apost ut concupiscas saltèm post concupiscentias non eas If thou must needs lust as lust thou must because a man yet run not after thy lusts Though they surge and boile let them not breake upon thee though their flouds rise though they lift up their voyce aloud though their waves are mighty and rage horribly let them not compasse thee about Psalm 93. v. 3.4 let them not come in upon thy soule But though the raine fall and the windes blow and these flouds come and beate upon thy house of clay yet remember the Rocke upon which it is founded the Rocke Christ The Rocke of thy strength as David calls him and the Rocke of thy refuge and the Rocke of thy salvation Againe Math. 7.25 seeing the Flesh is Hostis internus gravissimus as Origen stiles it and that our greatest Enemies are those of our owne House those that are about us Psal 62.7 and within us pâ—aeâ—aeteris omnibus carnis insidiae formidandae sunt we should principally beware of the Stratagems and Ambuscadoes of the Flesh let us strive to awaken her forces abate the edge both of her pride and teachery knowing that where this Syren sings it doth but presage our shipwracke when this Delilah imbraceth 't is but to betray us to the spirituall Philistine 't is the principall snare and pit fall the Divell useth to entrap us to our destruction He may be the Father begetting sinne but the Flesh for the most part is the Mother conceiving and bringing it forth And therefore Saint Iames saith that Every man when he is tempted is enticed and drawne away by his owne Concupiscence Jam. 1.14 So that although Satan hath a hand a powerfull a subtle and malicious hand in tempting us yet the Flesh and her Lusts carry the greater stroke He tempts onely the other entice and draw away he doth but lay the baite the other cause us to play and nibble and at length to swallow it The Divell hath onely a subtilty in perswading no power in compelling man to sinne Non enim cogendo sed suadendo nocet D. Aug. Serm. 197. de temp nec extorquet à nobis consensum sed petit saith Saint Augustine But the Flesh doth not onely insinuate consent to sinne but even extort it she being both a Traytor and a Tyrant first layes her powder-plot and then blowes us up And therefore let every one of us arme himselfe against the assaults of the Flesh the suggestions of our corrupter Lusts humbling and macerating these pamper'd bodies of ours by Prayer and Abstinence choaking all inordinate motions and all wayes of distemper and excesse which may give them either flame or nourishment You know who tells you that Gluttony is the fore-chamber of Lust and Lust is the inner-roome of Gluttony On the other side Abstinence is the mid-wife of Devotion and Devotion is the sister of Zeale and Zeale is the mother of true Prayer so that there is neither Zeale nor Prayer nor Devotion truely without Abstinence I meane as well a corporall as mentall Abstinence a Restraint from the fulnesse of bread as from the fulnesse of Sinne. For it is with the soule and Body for the most part pardon the similitude I beseech you as it is with the Common-wealth and the Exchequer if the one be full the other they say is still empty The Soule which is Gods Exchequer and Storehouse of his Graces when it is full of Contemplations and heavenly Entrancements the Body is commonly empty of her carnall repletions as causing a drowsinesse and dulnesse in all spirituall agitations On the other side the Body which is the Common-wealth of the senses the rebells commonly of the Spirit when that is cramm'd with satiety the bloud dancing in the cheeke
perplex'd by the Pagan Sophisters about this great Attribute of God Omnipotence Omnipotens Omnia-potens some jangling meerely about the etymology of the word have dash'd themselves against the rockes of heresy Faustus the Manichee and Cresconius the Grammarian have put Saint Augustine to the sweat about it who dwelling too critically upon God's omnia potest went about to geld his omnipotence Nay D. Aug. lib. 26. Cont. Faust cap. 5. some herein making reason their pole-starre and not faith have leap'd out of their curiosity into blasphemy as the Hermians and Seleucians of old those hoeretici materiarii as Tertullian styles them who following the proud sect of the Platonists Adversus Hermog cap. 25. made their materia prima co-omnipotent with God because God as they pretended could not make the world out of nothing but of some praeexisting matter And from this hive belike swarm'd those Locusts of their age Menander Carpocrates and Cerinthus who tooke off the power of God in the creation of the world and set it upon Angells D. Aug. de fide Symb. c. 1. and so either par'd too much the divine prerogative in making it slow or unable for so great a worke or else super-added to the glory of those intellectuall natures as if this great frame of the universe had been rather the workmanship of their hands then of his that created both it and them Although others of a like vertigo were not so over-stagger'd with their owne phrenzies but that they allowed the God-head a superintendency of power and yet not that * Tri. Vne Triune power the christian struggles for a power of three persons in one essence of equall majesty and commaund but ascrib'd to the Father only a sulnes of power a mediocrity to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost none at all and of this sinke was Petrus Abaialardus censured by Saint Bernard in his 190. Epistle ad innocentium But leaving these to their strong delusions knowing that an evil conjecture hath overthrown their judgement Ecclus. 3.24 Let us returne whence wee have digress'd a little to divine omnipotence and wee shall finde by ground or reason there of to bee divine essence for GOD workes not but by his essence and by how much more perfect the forme is in every agent by which it workes by so much the power is greater in working Seeing then the essence of God is infinite his power of necessity must bee infinite too now because to be thus infinite is to bee but one there is but one omnipotence as there is but one essence and yet for the diversities of respects Divines have cut it into a double file an actuall and absolute omnipotence Omnipotentia absoluta the absolute omnipotence of God is that by which hee can perfectly doe any thing that is possible to bee done and it is called absolute because it is not limited by the universall law of nature as if divinity were necessarily pinn'd to the order of secondary causes and that God could not doe any thing besides or above that law and this the schooles call omnipotentia Dei extraordinaria Gods extraordinary power because by that hee can worke besides the trodden and accustomed course of nature producing of himselfe as wel those effects of secundary agents as others Pol. syntag lib. 20. cap. 29. to which sublunary creatures cannot attaine Haec simpliciter essentialis saith the Syntagmatist this omnipotence is simply essentiall by which God can absolutely and simply doe all things which are possible to bee done to wit such as doe not repugne the will or nature of God though they doe sometimes the course of nature for that may bee impossible in respect of the one which is not of the other Quod dicitur impossibile secundum aliquam Parte 1. q. 25. Art 40. ad primum potentiam naturalem divinae subditur potentiae saith Thomas what naturall power calls impossibillity is without dispute possible to omnipotence and therefore there is nothing that hath but a * Quicquid potest habere rationem entis comprehenditur sub possibilâ—bus respect n omnipotentiae absolutae capability of being that comes not within the verge of Gods absolute power of his power though sometimes not of his will or wisedome for God can doe many things which these thinke neither convenient nor necessary to bee done To imagine any thing of God as if hee did it because he can doe it is an abrupt and rude presumption non quia omnia potest facere ideo credendum est Deum fecisse etiam quod non fecerit sed an secerit requirendum God can of stones raise up children unto Abraham Lomb. lib. 1. dist 43. ex Aug. lib. de spir et lit Cap. 1. but hee never did nor I thinke will Potuit Deus ut duodecim legiones Angelorum c. God could have sent twelve legions of Angells to fight against those Iewes that apprehended Christ sed noluit saith Lombard potuit Deus hominem pennis ad volandum instruxisse God could have given man as well wings as feete made him soare as goe non tamen quia potuit Tert. lib. adversus Prax. cap. 10. secit saith Tertullian Potuit et Praxeam et omnes pariter haereticos statim extinxisse hee could have crush'd Praxeas and all other heretickes in their very shell and first matter non tamen quia potuit D. Aug. lib. de Nat. et Grat. cap. 7. extinxit saith the same Father Once more Dominus Lazarum suscitavit in corpore nunquid dicendum est non potuit Iudam suscitare in mente God rais'd Lazarus in body and could hee not Iudas in spirit also potuit quidem sed noluit saith S Augustine Thus Antiquity you heare still pleades for Gods Potuit His infinite Power the Fathers generally acknowledge but they sometimes restraine the execution of it and mince it with a Noluit or a non fecit And doubtlesse he can doe more things than he doth doe if hee would doe them but he will not not that there is any defect in his Will or Power but because in Wisedome he doth not thinke it meet Gods actuall Omnipotence is that by which he is not onely able to doe whatsoever he wil'd or decreed to be done Actualis omnipotentia but also Really doth it Solo voluntatis imperio at a becke or command without difficulty or delay with a meere Dixit factum est He speakes onely and he does it So does it that it cannot be hinder'd by any cause or impediment whatsoever And this the Schooles call againe Omnipotentia Dei ordinata Gods ordinated Omnipotence because hee doth by that what hee hath ordain'd or decreed to doe And this hath respect to the particular Law of nature and to a speciall order bequeath'd things by that Law through which he at first creat'd all things and still either conserves or moderates or destroyes them Now as there are
as in the night wee are in desolate places as dead men Isai 59.10 Now what causeth this blindnesse this groaping this stumbling at noone day this sicut mortui that wee are as dead men but the fearful night desolation ignorance carryes with it And indeed there is an ignorance which is no better then a desolation a dwelling for the Ostrich and a dancing roome for the Satyre Where the Beasts of the land and the Dragons crye Isay 13. men brutishly and barbarously and sometimes diabolically inclin'd and 't is a night too a night for the Batt to flutter and the owle to hoote in men of besotted and infatuated condition and t is not only nox but nox media saith S. Augustine the very depth of night and as it were a night in a night and because I will not be thought to coyne it I wil quote it from the Father in his 30. Sermon de verbis Domini Now as night is a time for Zijm and Ohim Isai 13.22 for the ranging of dolefull creatures and spirits that are wicked so is Ignorance a nightly haunt of Spirits that are dosefull and wicked also 1. Iohn 4 6 the Spirit of dulnesse and the Spirit of error and to make it nightly indeed the Spirit of slumber too 1. Tim. 4.1 Rom. 11.8 per noctes quaesivi quem diligit anima mea saith the Spouse in the Canticles In the nights I sought for him whom my soule loveth And what then I sought him but I found him not Cant. 3.1 Christ will not be met with in the darke Night is not a season to seeke Jesus in though perhaps to betray him the night either of Ignorance or Infidelity For what hath a Saviour to doe with him that knowes him not or with him that knowes him but beleeves him not or with him that beleeves him but beleeves him not as he should Againe the Text saies not per noctem quaesivi but per noctes not in the Night but in the Nights Now Ignorance is a double Night One of nature the other of grace Reason and Vnderstanding are darkned in the one Faith all spirituall operations in the other Habet mundus nectes suas non paucas saith Saint Bernard Scrm. 5. supcam The world hath her nights and too many Nay the world it selfe is but a night and totally involv'd in darknesse no light at all in it but what is influenc'd and beam'd downe from above And therefore Christ is called Lux mundi the light of the world Because where the knowledge of him shines not there is undoubtedly darkenesse the O lim tenebrae in the Text here Yee were sometimes Darknesse Againe Quot Sectae tot Noctes As many Schismes so many Nights Nox est Iudaica persidia Nox Haeretica pravitas Nox Catholicorum carnalis Conversatio Heresy and Iudaisme and the carnall Conversation of pretended Catholiques are all Nights On the other side Donatisme Anabaptisme nay the holy Catharisme or if that word bee too much antiquated Carthwritisme bragg of their Lux in domino what they list are Nights too They waite for light but behold obscurity for brightnesse but they walke in darkenesse Isai 59.9 And lastly which is the night of all those nights Nox Ignorantia Pagancrum 't is Saint Bernards againe Pagan or Ephesian Ignorance is a Night also Ve supra or if not a Night Darkenesse I am sure the Olim tenebrae the Text speakes off Darkenes sometimes though afterward made light in the Lord therefore as S. Paul saith elsewhere of his Thess Qui Ebrii sunt 1. Thess 5.7 Nocte Ebrii Those that are drunken are drunken in the Night So we may not improperly say here of our Ephesian Qui ignorant nocte ignorant Those that are ignorant are ignorant in the Night for Ignorance is nothing else but a mentall Darknesse or Drunkennesse and both these a busines of the Night causing us to groape without light as Iob speakes and to wander in a wildernesse where there is no way Iob 12.24 Errare eos faciet sicut Ebrios They are made to erre like a drunken man Iob 12.25 Here Error and Drunkennesse reele together and with them Ignorance and are as neere allyed as a Vertigo and an Epilepsie the one causing us to fall or stagger the other to some in our owne shame Now this disease had a long time dangerously infected the world this Darknesse fearefully overspread it before the Sun of righteousnesse began to arise untill Christ Jesus by the beames of his Gospell shin'd upon it Witnesse the woefull Blindnesse and perverse Judgement which possest the Gentiles in the time of Gentilisme even in those things which common reason and the law of nature prohibited The Persians tooke their Mothers Sisters and Daughters nefandis matrimoniis for so the Historian into matrimony shal I call it or incest Either damnable enough The Scythians were no better then Anthropophagi and made their owne Sexe their foode Sacrificing their children like those in the valley of Hinnon to the Tabernacle of Moloch Acts 7.43 or the starre of their God Remphan The Massagetae as Clemens Alexandrinus testifies feasted on the bodyes of their nearest Kinred Hircanae què admorunt ubera Tygres the Hircani and from thence I suppose the Poets Hircanae Tygres threw out their old men to the fowles of the Aire The Caspians to their dogs The Lacedemonians magnified theft as a project of wit and industry And Saint Ierom writing-against Iovinian tells him Apud multas Nationes licuisse Lib. 1. Epist parte Epist 6. cap. 36. that amongst many Nations many kindes of homicide were nor only conniv ' dat but allowed nay if we reflect a little on the lawes of Plato Plato the Divine as they style him how monstrous and abominable in giving full liberty to lyes to insanticide to community of wives to the unnaturall abuse of sicke men that were ready for the vrne and those brutish Edicts of Lycurgus also the great Lacedemonian Oracle Pueros impune prostitui Feminas licenter exponi Proclaiming an unpunish'd freedome of prostituting and exposing both Sexes to that which the Apostle calls Burning in lust and a worke which was unseemely Rom. 1.27 Insomuch that some strumpetted their owne wives unbracing them to their Guests in symbolum Hospitii as you may have it in a larger survey from Eusebius and Theodoret quoted by Cornelius a lapide on this place And if this kinde of Antiquity will not passe for Authentick please you to enquire a little at the Oracles of God and there you shal finde the mistredings of the Ammonite and Moabite and Ekronite nay of the Israelite himselfe no lesse damnable then the other Their abominations in respect of Earth as great and if possible of Heaven greater leaving that true God that made them and making Gods of their owne which were so farre from the True that they were none at all Sacrificing to stocks and
from the approbation of some weaker proselites grew at length to the height of Aphorismes and so must spread our beleefe without controulment But as the great Criticke of the French observes what judgement can be so infatuated or made drunke as to receive for classicall either Plato's Idaea's Charron sap lib. 1. or Epicuru's Atomes or Pithaegora's numbers or Copernicu's vertigo of the earth They were but the indigestions of distemper'd spirits meere chymera's of their brain which they rather faign'd than knew and wee receive than trust All humane positions weigh alike except Reason turne the scale and with most men all divine too without the Text. Personall Authoritie may not totally sway us except it convince our judgement then wee not onely submit but subscribe too But to be milk'd along with a bare Ipse dixit not weighing the reason as well as the authority were to borrow our owne overthrow and turn Bankerupt upon trust A hastie beliefe speakes the heart light Qui cito credit levis est corde John 5.36 1 John 4.1 1 Cor. 11.13 and the braine shallow The Holy Ghost tells us that we are to search Scriptures and try Spirits and judge of occurrences and yet oftentimes we pin our Faith to the spirit of another and so beleeve and judge and live and dye and all upon his authority There is not an Art or Science without a Sic dicit to it and the power of that must carry my reason sometimes my Religion too Not a place of remarke or same without this Apothegme 'T is at Athens Sic dicit Socrates at Siracusa Sic dicit Archimedes at Stagyra Sic dicit Aristoteles at Millaine Sic dicit Ambrosius at Hippo Sic dicit Augustinus at Geneva Sic dicit Calvinus And that Sic dicit comes hither too where it hath been so long advanc'd in the opinions of many that heretofore it seem'd to grow disputable which was of greater authority a sic dicit Calvinus or a sic dicit Dominus Let no hasty censurer condemne mee here I like the sic dicit of Antiquity well like it magnifie it You heare I quote it often Calvines very well if his sic ratiocinatur goe with it Otherwise I may fairely evade him with that of the learned Cardinall Authoritatem video argumentum non video I acknowledge him the great Patriarch of the reformed Discipline the Lucernae lucens both of the age and Church he liv'd in a man of admirable dexterity and spirit and yet a man too a man that in some things too much followed his owne spirit and so might and did erre And therefore to lay the whole bulke and body of my Religion on a foundation in part fraile or sandy must either question my weaknesse or partiality or both and so whilst I leane too much to the positions of a private man I must fall off from the principles of my God Plura sunt quae nos tenent quam quae premunt opinione potiùs Sen. ad Lucil. Ep. 53. quam re laboramus More things take hold of our beliefe than carry our reason and wee are not so much transported with the weight of things as the conceit of him that fram'd them Thus wee are led along by the Spirit of another which is as great a folly as to be led by our owne and that which points us the way is for the most part a blinde Guide that common Huckster of ignorance and popularity Opinion which without scanning the nature and truth of things growes at once resolute and lawlesse and so travels the world without a Past-port But I would not have men pretending to knowledge and sounder literature to be muffled in matters of Religion like Hawkes that are unman'd kept hooded for feare of bating An implicite faith wee vehemently cry downe in the Romish Church let 's not begin to advance it in our owne for who had ever eyes given him to keepe them shut or Intellectuals that they should slumber or Judgement that it should fall asleepe Spiritualis omnia dijudicat saith Saint Paul The spirituall man judgeth 1. Cor. 2.15 or at least should judge all things all things that are not immediately sacred and inspir'd knowing that there is no captivation of minde or judgement to any principle but divine all humane propositions having a taste of frailtie and following too much the spirit of him that followes his owne spirit and how such a spirit must delude heare and then judge Man poore man in himselfe understands nothing perfectly and purely as hee should doe appearances doe alwayes circle and involve him which are no lesse in things that are false than true Errours are receiv'd into our soule 't is Charron's I confesse Lib. 1. cap. 14. there I had it by the same Pipe and Conduit that the Truth is the Spirit hath no power to discerne nor choose Truth and Errour are but Cousin-germans remov'd and these sometimes so neere that a wise man is put to his plundge to distinguish them the meanes wee principally use for the discovery of Truth are two Reason and Experience and the one of these is a meer Cheat the other a Curtisan Experience it selfe tells us that experience cozens us the same conclusion now made triall of speakes one thing upon a second experiment another Insomuch that learned men have bestowed one prime honour on it in making it The mother of fooles On the other side Reason playes the Dalilah hath Samson in her armes but a Philistin in her heart lulls us one way but betrayes us another It hath two faces in one head carries a staffe with two pikes Charron ibid. a Pot saith Epictetus with two handles There is no Reason but hath a contrary reason and upon which of these shall I raise a principle for Truth Thus we see how weake our Spirit is how false and yet how proud The Foole that ownes it is not so properly a companion of it as a drudge he goes not with it but followes it whereby he reposeth himselfe meerely in his owne opinions moves in his owne circumference rests in his owne Center will not vouchsafe an eare to the reasons of another but supposes the whole world must saile by his Compasse as if Heaven and Earth and all mov'd when hee mov'd But this sayes that wise man is a Disease of our Judgement an Ignorance of our selves in not discerning the weaknesse of our Spirit which if it chance prove vigorous and quicke as in some it doth it is the Mother of all prodigie and disorder growes not only troublesome but dangerous makes Earth-quakes in Religion shakes the very Rocke and Buttresse of our Faith justles the grey haire to make roome for an upstart lifts at aged principles to bring in novelty and under a colour of cleering old doubts creates new It would seem to remove weeds but it sowes Tares to root out Solecisme but plants Error to prune impertinences but grafts Faction And this is the common
and veines and the joynts swimming with marrow and fatnesse there is a kinde of macelency and famine and leannesse in the soule all goodnesse is vacant and banish'd then and Lust keepes her revell and rendevouz A fit caution and mements as I conceive for this place and meeting that those dayes which the Church hath of Old solemnely consecrated to the service of the Spirit we devote not another way in making provision for the Flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof That the time shee hath set apart for Fasting and Prayer whereby we should magnifie the Lord upon the strings and pipe and so make the tongue Cymbalum jubilationis A wel-tun'd Cymball wee over-lavish not to feasting and excesse and so make our throate Sepulchrum apertum An open sepulchre I know that Noble assemblies require something extraordinary both for State and Multitude and let them have it But withall I beseech them to consider what Lent is Preached in Lent ad Magstratum and with what devout strictnesse observ'd by the Christian Church for many hundred yeeres together though in these dayes of Flesh cryed downe by some pretenders to the Spirit as a superstitious observation of our blinded Ancestours But let them know or if they doe not let them reade reade Antiquity in her cleere though slow streamings unto us not the troubled and muddy waters novelty hath cast upon our shore and then they shal know that it is a time of Sackcloth and Ashes and casting earth upon the Head for the humbling and macerating of the Sinner not of putting on the glorious apparell your vaine shinings in silkes and trssues for the ruffling of the Gallant A time like that in the mountaine of restraint and scarcity when a few barly loaves and some small Fishes should suffice a Multitude Ioh. 6.9 Not of pomp or magnificence when the stalled Oxe and the pastur'd Sheepe and the fallow Deere 1 King 2.4 and the satted Fowle are a service for the Lords Anointed For mine owne part I am not so rigid either in practise or opinion or if I were in both it matters not where a higher judgement and authority overballac'd me to deny sicknesse or age or in respect of travell or multitude of imployments the publike Magistrate what in this case were either convenient or necessary or enough however I desire them to remember that both the Sword and the Keyes have a stroke here and so that they would feed onely not cloy nourish not daintie up the body knowing that when it is cocker'd and kept too high the Soule it selfe is manacled and more than lame and heavie in sacred operations And therefore let us not be altogether men of Flesh but as the Father hath it occasionally on this Text D. Aug. 43. Ser. de verb. Dom. Vincat spiritus carnem aut certè nè vincatur a carne let the spirit have a sway too and though not wholly a Conquerour yet make her not a captive let our Devotions goe along with our entertainments our Acts of Charity with our Acts of Iustice Foeneratur Domino qui miseretur pauperis saith the Wiseman He that hath pitty upon the poore lendeth or as the Latine implies putteth to use unto the Lord Prov. 19.17 Now Qui accipit mutuum servus est foenerantis The borrower is a Servant to the lender Prov. 22.7 So that the Lord is as 't were a Servant unto him that hath pitty on the poore because in that pitty hee lendeth to the Lord. And indeed who would not be a lender to the Lord when his interest may be a Crowne and his reward everlastingnesse who would not exchange a morsell of bread for the celestiall Manna and almes for the food of Angels a few earthly ragges for the white Robe of the Saints Since most of these are not so properly a lending or benevolence as a due The gleanings of the Cor-field Levit. 23.22 and the shakings of the Vintage were a Legacie long since bequeath'd the poore man by the Law when the Gospel was yet in her non-age and minoritie But now it is not onely the crums and fragments from thy Table and so feed the hungry or the courser shearings of thy Flock and so cloath the naked But visit the sicke too and those which are in prison Mat. 25.26 So that our charity should not onely reach the impotent and needy but the very malefactor and legall transgressor The groanings of the prison should bee as well listned to as the complainings in the streets and at this time more specially more particularly that those bowels which want and hunger have even contracted and shrivel'd up and those bodies which cold and nakednesse have palsied and benumm'd not finding it seemes so much pitty as to cloath and feed them as they should whilst they were alive may at last meet with such a noble and respective charitie as to shroud and interre them like Christians when they are dead In the meane time I have that humble suit to preferre to the Gods of Earth here which David had of old to the God of Heaven Oh let the sorrowfull sighing of the prisoners come before you Psal 79.12 according to the greatnesse of your power have mercy on those which are appointed to dye Let your Vinegar be tempered with Oyle Iustice suger'd o're with some compassion that where the Law of God sayes peremptorily Thou shalt restore and not dye let not there the Law of Man be writ in blood and say except to the notorious and incorrigible offender Thou shalt dye and not live There will a time come when wee shall all appeare before the Iudgement seate of God 2 Cor. 5.10 And what then what The Sinners Plea will bee generally then Job 9.3 Lord I cannot answer thee one for a thousand And what if I cannot yet O Lord with thee there is mercy and plenteous redemption Psal 130.7 But now and then it falls out so unhappily at the Judgement seate of Man that parties arraign'd though they answer a thousand in one multitudes of inditements in one innocence yet sometimes naked circumstances and meere colourable conjectures without any solid proofe at all shall so cast them in the voyce of a dazled Iury that there is neither hope of mercy nor redemption Gen. 40.22 Esther 7.10 but Pharohs Baker must to the Tree and Haman to the Gallowes fifty cubits high But in this case Bee learned and wise yee Iudges of the Earth serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce to him in reverence Psal 2.10 But I have here digress'd a little and perhaps a little too sawcily in this point of charity let charity have the blame if shee have deserved it whilest I returne where I formerly left you and that was at a feast in time of fasting Good LORD how preposterously nay how rebelliously and in one act crossing both the civill and ecclesiasticke power which prohibite it And therefore since nature saies for the better