If any of you want wisdome let him aske it of God who giveth it to all men abundantly So as this joy is a spirit extracted out of patience not inherent in the matter of passion and patience is a virtue too celestiall to be educed as it were ex traduce by the materiall body of affliction It is infused by the holy spirit which S. Paul confirmeth when he saith Rom. 5. that Tribulation worketh patience shewing the reason of this operation in the next words after the sequence of many good productions derived from one another he setteth this for the effective cause of all because The charity of God is powred forth in our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 5.5 So as it is the spirit of God moving upon these Waters which divideth the light from the darknesse not the Chaos it selfe that actively produceth these two lights of patience and hope although the troubles and confusions of this world may be the elements out of which the spirit may extract them For sufferings seeme to be to patience that which matter is to the artificer for though the art be seated in the minde yet it cannot be actuated and expres'd but by some matter that supports it so patience though it be a spirituall disposition inherent in the soule cannot be exercised but upon some passion and contrariety which is the subject that renders it visible and discernable for the Theory of this virtue can no more assure us of our abilities in it then the studie of all the Geometricall rules of Sculpture can ascertain a Statuary of his sufficiency untill he hath experimented it upon either stone and brasse or waxe or clay at least some matter is requisite to reflect to him the sight of his notions formed and reduced to their last terme which is a visible exhibition of them So there must be some afflictions though not the severest yet some at least of a softer quality which must minister some matter of contrariety and vexation to be as the ground and subject exposing to our selves the worke of our patience upon it Wherefore as joy in tribulations must be derived from Patience so this vertue must be acquired by Prayer They who look lower then God for patience doe commonly look also lower then heaven for the order of their afflictions and so fall short both in the knowledge of the nature of their evils and their remedies For they who rely on nature or morall reason for their cure may well be judged to impute their malady to Fortune Whereupon S. James giveth this further advise to that of our petitioning and postulating of wisdome James 6. that We must aske in faith without any doubting or haesitation not tossing in an irresolution of referring our crosses to the eye of Providence or to the blindnesse of Fortune Such a wavering aestuation of spirit the Apostle saith must not expect to receive any thing Our prayer therefore must be as fixed in the beliefe of Gods speciall providence in all contingencies as it is in the confession of a God for the one involveth the other and then we shall finde such a joy in patience as our reason it selfe shal witnesse to be divine as being beyond her reach so much as she must avow it to be Digitus Dei Wherefore I beseech you to beware of the fluctuation of these times betweene the strength of morall reason and the rest of faith for there is nothing so injurious to reason as under the pretence of exalting it to raise it out of the owne sphere of activity exacting such effects of Reason as are not to be found lower then the orbe of grace For they who assigne themselves peace and repose in all tribulations out of the stock of Phylosophie prejudice Reason much by their over-promising for it For Morall Phylosophie at the highest is but as it were a Meteor suspended in the ayre betweene the earth of a meere sensuall 1 Cor. 15. The first man of earth earthly The second man from heaven heavenly and the firmament of a spirituall man It is not so much raised above the man who is de terrâ terrenus as it is below him who is de coelo coelestis wherefore all the sweet-sounding and harmonious tongues of the Phylosophers are but sounding brasse or tinkling cymbals when they come to be used without the charity infused by the fiery tongues of Sion We shall find the hollownesse of such tongues which raised their noise to our eares very light when we take them into our hands to weigh against the heavinesse and gravations of sad crosses and oppressions Methinks many of the Heathen Phylosophers supposed in their prescripts concerning the minds insensiblenesse in all the passions and pressures of the body that the body had but such a coexistence of place with the mind as we say those bodies of aire have with the Angels that assume them in which those spirits are onely as movers in a moveable subject not at all united or affected thâ—â— matter appeareth about them which is not informed by them but assumed by them to expose them to our sight and so is only moved by them without any connexion to them So sure their suppositions that the minde may remaine unconcerned in all the sufferances and tortures of the flesh require that our bodies should be but such ayery matter rather moved only then informed by our soules For that apathie the Stoicks propose in all the bodies distresses cannot hold in that connexion our soules and bodies have with one another and so whosoever shall relye upon their conclusions shall finde their conceits ayery and vacuous and their owne bodies too solid and too closely conjoyned to their souls not to be affected with the burthens and pressures of it Wherefore our faith teacheth us to resort to a higher Principle residing in our soule and yet is no part of it which is the Holy spirit of God infused by his grace whereby we are instructed in the incapacities and deficiencies of our owne nature and the detection of our minds inability in her own single power proveth her enforcement nay inablement to resent all the bodies grievances yet to bear them without distraction or reluctancy and this discernment of that obnoxious state the soule is exposed unto showeth her That as she can doe nothing of her selfe but suffer and complain so in virtue of that supplementall aid she can rejoyce in tribulations and professe Phil. 4.14 I can doe all things in him that strengthens me Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat Whereupon we must be possessed of this principle that peace of minde doth not spring up in affliction as the plants did in Paradise Genes 2. without either raine or culture Patience which is the dew of heaven must be drawn from thence and this as it is attracted only by the meanes Elias used to open heaven so likely it holds this analogy with his small cloude he could
out of the strong shall issue sweetnesse The Lyon of the Tribe of Judah hath infused honey into the teeth of all these Lyons he le ts loose upon his Church and a resigned patient shall taste more the honey then he shall feele the teeth of the beast that quartereth him They therefore who will finde the suavity of persecution must suck it out of Christs Passion where it lyes ready made and not amuse themselves to work it out of the order of Gods providence wherein it rests implicated in the folds of many mysteries and our curiosity in seeking it will return us rather Sauls anxiety upon his enquiry of Samuels ghost then Sampsons sweetnesse in the Lyons jawes which he found when he looked not for it And out of S. Pauls mouth who was once a raging Lyon till he was killed by him of whom Sampson was a figure we may take this hony to dulcifie all those bitternesses of our lives 2 Cor. 4.18 Our tribulation which presently is momentanie and light worketh above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory in us Quod in praesenti est momentantum leve tribulationis nostrae supra modum in sublimitate aeternum gloriae pondus operatur in nobis HAving thus seene and considered Gods hand and manner in the figure of his dearly beloved Son upon the Crosse by which he conveyed him to his Coronation let us now consider also Christs method in ordering his Church after he professeth that all power is given him both in heaven earth so as the sufferings of the Body to such an Head must needs be by order not infirmity For after he had suffered sufficiently for more worlds then he shed drops of blood and for as many ages as worlds he might well have allowed the members of his body all joy and felicity for the rest of those few Ages this world was to subsist But he who was Wisdome it self chose another method as he told his dearest friends Ego dispone vobis sicut disposuit mihi Pater meus regnum He copyed his Fathers hand upon himselfe in his drawing and figuring his Church upon earth Lu. 22.29 I dispose to you as my Father disposed to me a kingdome so as after his glorious body was enthroned at the right hand of God he left his mysticall body hanging as it were upon the crosse in Calvary for some Ages wounded by the launces of the Gentiles and vilified by the scornes of the Jewes In this posture it hung exposed many yeers a scandall to the eyes of the one and folly to the understandings of the other insomuch as the extreme passions of this body might well have extorted out of flesh and blood a Deus meus ut quid dereliquisti me The afflictions were so intollerable as no body that had not a God for the head of it Mat. 27. My God why hast thou forsaken me could have growne and prospered in so bleeding an infancie It seemeth Gods unsearchable Wisdome designed Christs mysticall body to be formed on the face of the earth as his naturall body was in the wombe of the Virgin in the composition whereof there was onely the Spirit of God working upon the pure blood of the Virgin and in like manner the vertue of the holy Ghost came upon the blood of the Martyrs forming and animating the Primitive Church For in those times we find the vertue of the Spirit working most upon blood to forme and procreate the body of the Church And thus by the admirable vertue of Christs Passion it seemed not an effusion but rather a transfusion of all the blood was drawne conveying it into other veynes and the same spirits seemed to be carryed in it into other bodies which successively making the same use of it might make one think it had been the very same blood infused into other veyns which like channels rather then owners of it poured it out againe so freely and in this way of generation the Saints and Martyrs procreated the descent of the family of Christ for above three hundred yeeres The Apostles seemed to poure out their blood into the veynes of their Disciples and Successors and they in like manner to transfuse theirs into those discended from them and by this successive transmission the Progeny of the Church was deduced through the Primitive Persecutions This was the operation of that one heart Act. 4.32 and one soule the Apostle saith was then in the multitude of the Beleevers And indeed the records of those times may well make one reflect on the doctrine of Pythagor as in his transmigration of soules for in those times the spirit of acting and suffering which was transmitted from one to another seemed so much the same as one might fay there was a transmigration of the soules of the first Martyrs into the surviving issue of their spirit Herod is said to have suspected that the soule of S. John Baptist had passed into Christ when he said Mat. 14.1 This is John the Baptist he is risen from the dead and therefore vertues work in him Hic est Joannes Baptista ipse surrexit à mortuis ideo virtutes operantur in eo The doctrine of transition of soules from one body to another was much followed in those times But we may wel in a pious and sober sense say that the soule of S. Peter seemed transmigrated into his successors for many yeeres for the same spirit of fervour in watering with their blood the Rock whereon Christ had planted his Church possessed above thirty Popes successively after S. Peter and so all their bodies seemed to be cast as a mold of earth upon that rock whereupon the faith of the Romane Church did spring the plants whereof even all acknowledge their Churches to be who have now severed themselves from that radicall communion and forgetting the benefits of those Josephs who sed them in the famine of their Faganisme are now laying burthens on their children In this manner the Primitive Church was nourished in her cradle instead of having milk given her to make blood of she sucked blood and made milke of it by the which she hath nursed the succeeding times for in all the Churches following persecutions the faithfull have been sustained and refreshed by that milk which the blood of those times did make for them for their examples descending with their doctrines hath confirmed and strengthned as well as alimented all their future progenie It is an admirable evincement of the truth of Christian Religion to remark that as it was founded upon a supernaturall conjunction of a body that might suffer to a person that was impassible so it was propagated by the destruction of those bodies which were the organs of tradition of it to posterity for the wounds of the Apostles and the Martyrs seemed but so many more mouthes opened to speak out louder the mysteries of the Gospel and to prove those verities by daring to dye for them which were not to
with joy giving thankes to God and the Father who hath made us worthy unto the lot of the Saints in light CHAP. VIII Answers and Resolutions to some subtile Temptations AFter the chiefe Priests Scribes Mar. 12. and Elders had laid before Christ Jesus all the stones of offence and scandall their wits could pick out of the Law or the Prophets all which he converted into touch-stones of his wisdome and humility and so rendred all these tryalls attests of his purity and sincerity in these excellent graces then they excogitated a more subtile temptation for him which was to tempt him by his owne perfections For then they sent to him some of the Pharisees Ibid. 12. and of the Herodians who were to work upon his tendernesse and compassion of the publick to ensnare him by his benignity and charity to others and to that purpose they moved him in a point of commiseration to his Countrey asking him with a Preface of his praises whether they might not ease themselves of the publique tribute And this they thought a likely way to insnare his goodnesse when all their other projects could not infirme his vertue In like manner our subtilest enemy may have found many of you answering and corresponding faithfully in all his examinations of you in your own particular sorrows losses and distresses and finding you thus armed in your owne persons with JOB's Dominus dedit Iob. 1.21 Our Lord gave and our Lord hath taken away Dominus abstulit he is very likely to attempt you by your owne graces of piety and tendernesse of others and devotion to your Countries redemption from error or a present apprehension of a totall extirpation of those few seeds are still dispersedly left in it of Catholike Religion And this tentation may well be presented you with praises of your owne vertues and pressed more upon your devotion as a solicitude properly affected to the love of your Religion This is so fine and soft an insinuation of motions to disquiet and discordance from Gods order as you may very easily be slid into it upon this so smoothe and faire suggestion thereof as a practise of vertuous duty I shall therefore endeavour to detect unto you the danger of this so subtile illaqueation and insnarement in this net may be made of your owne pieties For when Sathan stands among the sonnes of God he is in the most dangerous position for the children of men that is when in the shape of some vertue he introduceth a temptation First then we must lay this for ground-work of all our peace of spirit a firme immovable perswasion of the divine providence in all occurrencies This rock the devill doth not attempt to batter in the minds of sober and pious persons but worketh to undermine it by arguments and consequences When any thing occurreth incongruent to our reason concerning the government of such affaires as seeme properly to appertaine to Gods interest as the miscariage and adversity of Gods cause and his Churches periclitation in these advantages the serpent hath over our weak and dim power of reasoning he alwaies inforceth this subtilty upon us That Gods hand cannot be in matters so opposite to his goodnesse To which our faith answereth easily enough when it is awake but when our mindes are in that state the Psalmist confesseth even his to have been reduced unto Psal 118 28. My soule hath slumberd for tediousnesse of Dormitavit anima mea prae taedio when our spirits are growne drowsie and heavy under the burthen of their encumbrances then he presseth this point upon us when the vivacity of our faith is a little relaxed Psal 72. But my feet were almost moved my steps almost slipped seeing the peace of sinners and by watching this opportunity we know the tempter hath shaken even the greatest Saints as we know David himselfe avoweth in Mei autem penè moti sunt pedes penè effusi sunt gressus meì pacem peccatorum videns So as this is a temptation to be precautioned by the best advises can be provided For what the enemy aimeth at in the first place is not to subvert directly our faith but to supplant our peace and quiet of spirit and when he hath raised this mist in our discoursing faculty then all the images are set before us seeme to have farre different proportions from the realities themselves One of the most safe admonitions therefore is to watch upon our pronenesse to passion either in griefe anger or enmity for an intemperance in any of these upon the several occasions which respect each of them doth first cloud that serenity of mind which should keep the light of Gods providence cleere to our apprehension and then insensibly we sink into chagrins and dissavours of Gods present judgements Therefore let us alwayes check the first motions to any excesse of sorrow though the occasion be never so legitimate as even for the persecution of the Church in that case we must seek to represse any immoderate resentment of it though the colour seeme such as admits of no over-doing in it yet all extremities even of zeale in this exigence weaken and enfeeble our Reason and so leave us worse armed against our opponent who alwayes seeketh to deduce some reason of repining and disrespect to Gods order out of this argument of Gods unconcernment in the safety of his children Therefore in all provocations to griefe we must attend the preserving of our spirits as little overcast by sadnesse as we possibly can for in this obscurity the enemy soweth what we feele growing up before we see it cast into us For which cause let this be a generall receit for all emergencies in matter of disconsolation to oppose studiously the first motions towards any inordinate sorrow or resentment That I may then give you some particular satisfaction in this case of yours which may seeme so devout a disquiet in order to the Churches sufferings I must desire you to lay this in your minds as a deep and immoveable foundation That the verity of the Church is not questioned by the vicissitude of states into which she is translated You may consider that your faith telleth you the roots of the Church are growing in a rock and are watred and kept alive by a supernaturall irrigation with the dew of heaven so as no storm can loosen them nor no heat penetrate so far as to offend them The particular branches of this stemme may wither or be removed according to the intemperance of the places they are planted in as we see that many single shafts and bodies of particular Churches which are but sprigs in respect of the Universall are now eradicated even in the first ground they were planted as we see in the desolation and barrennes of Mount Sion it selfe and the land of Canaan which we may call the garden of Eden where the tree of life first sprang up and where the Church seemed to all humane reason rooted
Christo propter quod placeo mihi in infirmitatibus meis in persecutionibus because he found power was perfected in infirmity Whereby we are convinced that those who are called to Christianity are assigned to all sorts of crucifying All the iniquity of a Christian consisteth either in doing what Christ did not or in refusing to doe what he did and none can excuse themselves by an incapacity of imitating Christ in that wherein he hath been pleased to state Christian profession for every one may be poore and patient and mortified but every one is not qualified to attain to riches honour or learning This is the wisdome and love of God to have those things made the best contributions to our eternall felicity which may not onely be reached by every one but can even scarce be missed by any which are the afflictions and adversities of this life wherefore those who it may be would not have had the zeal to affect a similitude to Christ in these hard touches of Gods hand must not be so ungratefull as to repugne to this operation of God upon them or be ashamed and confused to see this figure of deformity in the worlds eye impresed upon them in poverty infamy destitutions of friends reproaches of enemies and all other assimilations to Christ but rather acknowledge a mercy of God who having called them to these tryals as Christians whereunto they have answered but ill in other times that now he vouchsafeth himselfe to place them in the society of the passions of Christ remembring what the great Doctor in this worlds miseries and the others felicities remonstrates to us 2 Cor. 1.7 That in the same measure you are partakers of the passions 1 Pet. 4.1 Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh be you also armed with the same cogitation you shall be of the consolations of Christ With good reason then I may urge this to you in S. Peters name Christo igitur passo in carne vos eadem cogitatione armemini Which must not be onely to suffer all patiently from your enemies but even to be disposed to suffer for your enemies if Gods glory should propose it to you O! shall not this lover of you and benefactor of his enemies be able to heap coales upon your hearts to inflame them with a desire of this imitation Put then I beseech you the sad heart of Jesus as a signet upon your hearts that he may find you according to his heart You need not be disheartned to finde your persons and estates become according to the hearts of your enemies since you know Tradidit eos in desideria cordis eorum 1. Rom. 24. God hath delivered them up into the desires of their own heart proveth often an unhappy prevalence and you looking upon all your deprivations and passivenesse under the notion of Christians have this lesson given you from that naked body on the Crosse whereof you are members who did but pittie those that were dividing his clothes and casting lots for his upper garment which was a figure of his Church and the action no ill figure of these times in the regard of casting lots and Christ when there was nothing left to extenuate their guiltinesse but ignorance pleaded that for them to his Father in Dimitte illis Luk. 23.34 Forgive them for they know not what they doe non enim sciunt quid faciunt and sought thus to cover their nakednesse who had so profanely exposed and violated his and sure Nesciunt quae faciunt is a proper plea for your charity to make now in defence of your afflictors it is writ upon the face of most of their actions and we may well use the Prophets Quis scit si convertatur Ionas 3.9 Who knoweth if God will convert and forgive ignoscat Deus Who knoweth whether Gods mercy doth not designe another work then that which they think they set their hands to and so they may be doing they know not what in the best sense we can understand it S. Gregor Moral lib. 6. Ca. 13.14 for as S. Gregorie saith pertinently to this purpose God who is just and mercifull in his disposure of humane actions accordeth some things as he is gracious and permitteth some as he is angry and the things he doth but permit he tolerateth them so as he turneth them to the use of his counsell and purposes Whereby it is effected in a wonderfull manner that what is acted without Gods will is not done against it for while ill deeds are converted to good uses even those things beare armes for his designe that militate and repugne against it and we may well say not by way of Prediction but of Prayer Who knoweth whether the Spirit of God may not be pleased to move upon the face of those waters which now cover our land and out of this abysse and Chaos extract light and clarity But as Saint Peter said to consolate and confirme the Christians in their persecutions you have a sure word of Prophesie to rest upon Jo. 16.33 in all your agitations the eternall Word it selfe prophesying that his members should have all sorts of pressures and crosses in this world To which you shall doe best to attend as unto a light shining in a dark place Act. 15.15 till the day dawne againe and looking upon the verification of this Prophesie To our Lord was his owne worke known from the beginning of the world Luk. 9. in all ages we may rest upon S. Pauls ground for the re-edifying of the tabernacle of David and repayring the breaches thereof and setting it up so as the residue of men may seek after the Lord. Notum à seculo est Domino opue suum Leaving therefore the knowledge of times and seasons to his providence as the prerogative thereof we must husband our properties of Christians which is to take up the crosse daily and to follow Christ This is the inheritance of a Christian the Passion of Christ the which he may improve to himselfe by the culture of Meditation and must take heed of venturing to plough up the ground of Gods Providence and sowing it with his owne Reason that it may beare him satisfaction of the causes of his sufferings or the Churches persecutions For this is a labour he is forbid to sweat in for which reason this sweat of his brain shall not afford him bread Our Father in this case onely gives a stone to him that asketh him this bread to feed his scruple or his curiosity whereas a Christian by an humble acquiescence simply to Gods inscrutable order and providence in all events may turne even stones into bread his afflictions into spirituall aliments and draw oyle out of the rocks he is cast upon while he studieth not to solve Gods riddles the intricacies of his Providence he shall have Sampsons riddle explained and applyed to him Judg. 4 4. for Out of the eater shall come forth meat and
patient in tribulation knowing all our hope must rise out of sufferances as they are the ligaments and connections of the body to a crucified head Wherefore I will desire you for your comfort as well as your conviction in this point to cast your thoughts upon the Crosse and consider only the last miracle which Christ was pleased his body should exhibit to us after his soule was departed from it You may note how out of that wound which Longinus the Souldier gave him after he was dead there issued the two greatest mysteries of the Church to oblige us to beleeve that much more the head himselfe never woundeth or permitteth to be offended any of the members of his living body upon earth but upon some speciall reason which alwaies resulteth to the good of that part he striketh unlesse the part it selfe prove the impediment by some miscarriage in the state of cure Wherefore that portion of his body amongst you which is now bleeding under his hand need feare nothing but their own ill diet irregularity in their hurts for they may prove so healthfull to you as they may convert even the diseases of your naturall bodies into a good constitution of your souls and the regiment of your selves in this case is prescribed by S. Paul 1. Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand in the faith doe manfully and be strengthened upon occasion of the same infirmity in his time Vigilate state in fide viriliter agite confortamini This prescript containeth a direction to your three constitutions of Sufferers Doe manfully relateth to you as you are men Be strengthened belongeth to you as Christians Watch and stand in the faith respecteth you as Catholikes and if you apply these remedies respectively to your infirmities even every one of these your three Vae Vae Vae's upon earth shall afford you a Sanctus in heaven and so as Men Christians and Catholikes weeping here you may attain to the singing eternally of Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus in heaven CHAP. IV. Of the manner of discharging these duties of Sufferings WE may observe that Christ spake neither so frequently nor so cleerly of any one thing to his Disciples as of the sufferings and passions he was to undergoe and yet they never understood him in them They were alwayes either in such feare or such wonder concerning them as they never durst aske the question for the explication of their perplexities They quickly sought the explication of all his Parables Mar. 9.31 that seemed referred either to his power or his promises but in this point of his disparagements and his passions they seemed so little desirous of an illumination as when he was ready to be seized according to his prediction and upon the point of separation from them he is faine to reproach them that they were dejected only not desirous to be informed whither he was going John 15.5.6 whereupon depended all their reperations The apprehension of sufferance and passion seâ—meth to have such a quality as is reported of the Torpedo for it often stupifies and benummeth our nature so as it leaves not so much as even curiosity stirring in it towards an inquisition of reliefe In like manner there may be many who have heard much of our exposure to sufferings and afflictions in this life and yet remain little inlightned in the right conception of them and which is worse little inquisitive of that method whereby we must extract benefit and utility out of them Wherefore it is requisite to exhibit as faire a copy of that method as I can let forth to their comprehensions that they may not be dismaied by this Onus Domini Jer. 23. The burthen of the Lord. nor be deluded by this supposition that they are all the spirituall children of Abraham who have this marke of the Covenant of sufferances upon their bodies or their fortunes for it is not this moral circumcision or uncircumcision that intitles us to the promises but the spirituall signature of Christ upon the heart it is not the exterior infliction of misery that qualifies us for the reward proposed nor a present immunity and quiet that ejects us out of the society of Christs passions it is the interior disposition in both cases that constituteth the rightfull title to remuneration In those who are actually exercised under their crosses it is the patient and pious resignation which intitleth them to the conditions of the Covenant and in those who are in a present suspension or truce enjoying a serene conveniency it is the preparation and disposure of their hearts to accept humbly all orders of God in how sharp a stile soever they shall be issued against their persons or estates This frame of the mind is their evidence before the eyes of God of their right to the contract of suffering members of Christ Job's disposition in his quotidian sacrifices was no worse an odour to God then the suavity of his patience fuming up from that meane altar whereon he lay offering up his ashes The materiall part of affliction doth not sanctifie no more then the same part in alms or charity doth expiate they are both but Egena elementa Gal. 4.9 Barren elements of themselves the heart and the spirit wherewith they are designed animateth and enliveneth them Wherefore we may say of sufferings that which Christ said of a case not much unlike to this Mar. 7.15 That no affliction which goeth into a man doth actually sanctifie him but it is the spirit of sufferance which resideth in him that must render him holy for out of the heart only good intentions and humble conformities doe issue so as the externall crosses that fall upon the man doe not formally purifie him it is what comes out of the heart as the emissions of humility patience and charity which his heart sendeth forth to meete and imbrace all Gods pleasures which can onely hallow and sanctifie the man Therefore I may very fitly say if any man hath eares to heare let him heare that you may not prove so unhappy as to beare the weight and heat of the day and to forfeit at last your hire for though God saith He chastiseth every child he receiveth he doth not say He receiveth every one that he chastiseth S. James therefore when he proposeth to his distressed country-men The esteeming it all joy their falling into various trialls and temptations coupleth this reason with his proposition James 1.2 Knowing that the probation of your faith worketh patience So that the benefit must be derived from the effect of tribulation which is the producing of patience the which doth not naturally spring out of misery for this is but the matter or the subject whereon this virtue is exercised not the spirit or forme of this holy disposition For which reason the Apostle compleateth his advise by proceeding to direct them how to compasse this necessary adjunction to the matter of their afflictions to render them subjects of joy saying
neighbours as our selves and out of which this position of Christ is naturally deduceable And yet the depraved natures of the Scribes would extend the love designed by God to all his images no farther then the twelve Tribes nay within this circle they made a second circumscription of their loves within the tormes of mutuall friendship teaching that their loves were not obliged to goe further then to a correspondency to them that affected them and against others that provoke their passions they let them loose upon them in this prevaricating sense of Gods commandement Mat. 5.4 our Saviour we know found the people when he reproacheth them the being mis-led by this license apprehended of hating their enemies wherein he rectifieth them commanding them in expresse termes to love their enemies and to doe good to those that hate them Therefore Christians who have not this latitude of the term of Neighbour to shift senses in being positively restrained and coupled as it were in this bond of love with enemies by a formall command of their Law-giver Since the subject whereon they are to act this charity cannot be mistaken are very studious to mitigate to their vitious nature the displeasing part of this order by restraining this love in the proportions whereof they cannot dispute the adjudgment to the persons and therefore many are very inquisitive in the kind and the quantity of love assigned unto enemies so as now a dayes they who are as willing to justifie themselves as the Lawyer in the Gospell Luk. 10.30 and cannot aske the Church this question who are we to love since the case is so plainly ruled as the very Samaritans are not excluded now they put her this case how much are we to love our enemies and what exteriour testimonies are we obliged to render of our Charity The rule of forgiving enemies is so much exempted from dispute among Christians as they dare not claime of God any discharge of their sinnes but by the measures of their own compliances in this duty Our Lords Prayer hath set this condition upon all our petitions for mercy to aske our reconciliation to him only in the same degrees we are conformable to this order of our releasing the debts of our offenders You then who sue to God still in the Lords Prayer cannot be undisciplined in the precisenesse of this duty of forgiving enemies Those who make little use of this forme of prayer may have more excuse for their pretermitting this observance and so are likely to give you the more occasion to remember this duty wherein your faithfull discharge will provide you a better condition then any have that are so truly unhappy as to furnish you with the matter of this excellent practice wherein these times afford you the means of exercifing this fidelity in the suptemest degree which is in the forgiving of friends and kindred And in this case holy King David testifieth the difficulty and consequently meritoriousnesse of the act when he faith If myenemy had spoken ill of me I would verily have born it but when his guide and his familiar was the tempation he professeth that was the greatest stresse of weather his charity could be put to steere her course in and as this case was figurative in David so we know it was accomplished by Christ upon the provocation of the man typified in the Psalmes in these words Of him who had walked in the house of God with consent and how did Christ behave himselfe to this man He received him with a strange benignity treating him still with the termes of familiarity and love Mat. 26. Friend wherefore art thou come Amice ad quid venisti That even under that notion of a perfidious friend which is the most demeriting irritation of our nature he might exhibit to us a pattern of this perfection of forgiving injuries But alas too many are proner to follow David after the letter in this case then the Sonne of David after the Spirit and apter to take these words from Davids mouth Psal 4.16 Let death come upon them and let them get downe quick into hell then to draw their copie from Christs mouth of meeting with a kisse and receiving Judas with Friend Wherefore art thou come Whereupon it will not be alien from our subject to cleare David of those suspitions of animosity of which he may be indicted upon the letter of his expressions in this and divers other encounters with his enemies For in this case the blind and the lame doe often resort to this City of David to take sanctuary in his precedent for many intemperate asperities in these occasions Wherefore to vindicate David in these imputations we must understand all the literall imprecations we meet in his mouth in one of these three manners First that his maledictions in some places are by way of prediction of what shall happen to his enemies not in order of his prosecution against them Psal 9.18 as when he saith Let sinners be turned into hell here he denounceth as a Prophet that sinners shall have this judgement and doth not solicite this sentence against them upon his provocations In a second manner they may be conceived as wishes but so as the desire is not referred to the paine of the persons but to the justice of the punisher Psa 57.11 as when he saith The just shall rejoyce when he shall see revenge he shall wash his hands in the blood of a sinner this appetency of revenge is in order simply to the honour of Gods justice for God himselfe doth not delight in the destruction of the wicked but in the exercise of his justice Or in a third sense these wishes and optatives of evills may be assigned and directed to the removing and suppressing of the crimes only that the persons may be preserved and the faults abolished In one of these three senses all Davids vehement insectations of sinners are to be accepted and none of them afford any patronage of personall malevolence or animosity against enemies not under the pretence even of fighting under Gods Colours and wounding them in this quarrell For David being sincerely comprehended suggesteth to us no countenance of any private malignity Saint Augustine unto some who it seemeth sought to extenuate the foulnesse of those sinnes in themselves wherein they had truly Davids precedent answereth that they who are bold to sinne because David did doe that which David did not that is sin by precedent or seek to palliate his offence by example I may then well say that they doe much more perversly that wrest and bend David into a patronage of any rancour or virulency to his enemies for they must be guilty of traducing him as wel as of transgressing the precept when they upon misconstruction vouch his authority for this licence of maligning enemies I shall request then every one in all their desires or prayers respecting their enemies to follow this unquestionable precedent of David in
stock you have now in your hands of not onely forgiving but loving enemies For the ruines of your houses and the destroying of your woods afford you matter to make these coaies of charity which I hope you heap upon the heads of your enemies in continuall prayers for their resipiscency and in a preparative disposure of your minds to render good for evill to the extent of your abilities unto all their occasions These are the coales of fire the Apostle saith we should cast upon the heads of our enemies Rom. 13.1 not in order to the aggravation of their faults as some understand it but referred sincerely to the kindling of their charity to God and us And this vertue blazing among you is the most probable way to extinguish the flame of your persecution for this ardent Charity may by the mercy of God fire your neighbours houses and if the love of enemies take hold of them you will partake of the operation of this vertue And thus you may convince them of your undeserving the name of enemies by doing them the offices of friends in this cummunicating to them so excellent a vertue as charity to enemies and while you thus benefit your selves by your oppressions if you infect your adversaries with Charity you may introduce into the nation the good husbanding also of prosperity which oeconomy hath been little practised hitherto in all her secular advantages For alas how truly may it be applyed to our nation what God reproacheth by the Prophet Esay Isa 57 12 Because I am holding my peace and as it were not seeing and thou haft forgotten me Quia ego tacens quasi non videns mei oblita es Wherefore it will be an enterprise worthy your religion to endeavour by the fervour of your Charities to satisfie in some degree for the oblivions of your brethren and thus in honour of the Catholike doctrin of Satisfaction you may render it beneficiall even to the enemies thereof while your abundance of Charity in this present time supplieth their want your virtues defigning to appease God 2 Cor. 8. as much as you feare their violences may incense him against the nation So that if one part be liable to the exprobration of the Prophet in forgetting God by the abuse of prosperity the other may have this claime of the Psalmist to intercede for both At the voice of the upbraider Psal 43.17 18. and the reproacher at the face of the enemie and persecutor all these things have come upon us neither have we forgotten thee and our heart hath not revolted backward When we find our loves then starting or flying backward in the incounters of our enemies let us remember this military discipline and rule That there is lesse danger in fighting then in flying for very often wee overcome evill by contending with good against it and when we fly to evill to bring that into the field against our enemies though we master a Forreigne we raise a Domestique enemy which is the more desperate mischiefe for even the successe of revenge kindleth those passions in our hearts which demand 〈◊〉 lesse their slavery for their pay malice anger and intemperancy remaining instead of auxiliaries to our enmity owners of our hearts So that though it were in your power to overcome vice by vice it were both the nobler and the safer way to vanquish it by vertue and to imploy rather love which is sure to be faithful and to preserve an intrinsike peace then to trust hatred which is very uncertaine of any successe in offending others and alwayes sure of injuring our selves Christ Jesus who had revenge more in his power then his enemies had their provocations would not countenance it by taking the least grain of it in all his life He seemed neerer being angry with his friends that but proposed any resentment then with the strangers for their irritations The sonnes of thunder were reproached of being strangers to his spirit more then the Samaritans for being exercisers of his patience So as in this case Christ seemeth to have provided a cautionary instruction for us against any eager promptitude in revenge under the colour of his quarrell because the edge of our owne nature is so apt to be set upon the weapons we pretend to whet in his cause when we are in a sharp prosecution of our enemies The sword is commonly that of our own spirit and the sheath only the Word of God for we cover familiarly our private animosities with Gods assignations when indeed we rather take God for our second in our owne differences then combat sincerely for his designes This is a pravity so cleaving to our nature as we may note that Christs Disciples who had heard so many inculcations of this designe of Christ to suffer and submit himselfe to all sorts of offences and violations did never comprehend his meaning in this matter and never answered him any thing upon this discourse but as soone as he did but touch upon what sounded like a purpose of vindication and revenge Luke 22. as when he had signified to them the approach of his danger and given them but a little hint of arming themselves they presently answered as if they had been cleere sighted in this proposition Behold here are two swords The Crosse and scourges whereof he had so often acquainted them did not so much as awake their curiosities and having never spoken before of any offensive weapons or instruments he would imploy our nature was as quick in the acceptance at the first notice of this resolution of revenge as it had been heavy in conceiving the frequent intimations of yeelding unto the offences of enemies and persecutors but we see they understood Christs meaning as little in this point as in the other for Christ came not to follow the vitiated nature of man that dictateth with the Scribes Mat. 5. Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine enemy but to make man partaker of the divine nature the which fâ—rnishes the just and unjust with the same sunne for light and the same clouds for refreshment nay he gave his owne Sonne universally for the whole world even for those he knew would be so unworthy of him as not to accept him Whereupon this Sonne of God this self-sacrificer for his enemies hath good right to impose exact duties upon us in reference to our enemies the which are more his enemies in the very act of being ours So as in this order to us he sheweth the way to this benignity since his command of these succours for them manifesteth his indulgence to them enjoyning his friends those that are conformable to the perfection of his Father these three good offices for his enemies and theirs which are all in order to the reclaiming them and reducing them to a redamancy of him Benedicite benefacite orate These three invitations he appointeth towards the resipiscence of enemies he will have them invited by our
of prayer is it that produceth a continuation of joy It is prayer then that is the anchor of our joy in this world Heb. 6.19 which may be fastned to the inner part of the vayle where Jesus the precursor is entred he hath left us this anchor to cast upwards to stay our peace in all afflictions and storms of this sea we sail up and down in for a while and if in any calm of spirit we lessen our prayer we doe but as if in faire weather a Ship should cut off her anchors confiding in the continuance of this serenity and consequently it can be no lesse then desperatenesse not to be very instant and intentive in prayer in the foule weather of persecution This prescription then of the Apostle is the most soveraign that can be ministred to your exigencies 2 Tim. 8.2 I wil therfore that men pray in every place lifting up pure hands without anger or altercation Volo ergo vires orare in omni loco levantes puras manus sine irâ disceptations When your hands are thus lifted up to Heaven the Amalekites are easilyer defeated then while they are retorting back their own darts of malices and animosities Whereupon David in his Canticle of resurrection wherein he acknowledgeth his marvailous restaurations assigneth all to the vertue of Prayer saying Psal 65.19.20 Therefore hath God heard and attended to the voice of my Petition Blessed be God who hath not removed my Prayer and his mercy from me Upon which words Saint Augustine gives us this rule That as long as we find not our Prayer removed from us we may be sure Gods mercy is not far from us for God doth often misericordiously deny our prayers that are in order to temporall reliefe as the Physitian knoweth better then the Patient what may be conveniently granted him but while he giveth us this perseverance he bestoweth his will upon us which must needs be better then our owne it may be we beg a serpent and he giveth us bread infallibly when he inspireth this indeficiency in Prayer Wherefore in resemblance of Saint Augustines excellent ejaculation of Lord give what you command and command what you please I will propose to you this adjunction in the unsuccessefulnesse of all your petitions Lord be pleased not to deny us the persistence in Prayer and deny us what you please of our prayers This is then the universall remedy I humbly offer to all your wounds or distempers exteriour or intrinsike the constant application of Prayer which is as the Spirit to the body of Religion whereof no violence can interrupt the exercise which I shall leave recommended to you with this testimony of the holy Spirit Prov 31.29 Many daughters have gathered together riches thou hast passed them all very applyable to the prerogatives of Prayer Multae filiae congregaverunt divitias tu supergressa es universas Upon the premission of all these principles of Christianity I may justly charge you with this injunction of Saint Paul to his brethren upon the same occasion Heb. 12.12 For the which cause stretch up the slacked hands and the loose knees and make straight steps to your feet that no man halting erre but rather be healed Cast off then all faintnesse and pusillanimity let not your hearts hang down as oppressed with that weight which groweth the lighter the more your hands are elevated and lifted to heaven And nothing is more opposed to the cure of your hurts then this halting the Apostle disswadeth to wit the favouring of your nature in that part it is offended by the world still leaning and swaying your thoughts towards the desires of temporall restitutions towards animosities to enemies and limping a little between repining and resignation These are the haltings in which our nature seemeth to ease her selfe but in effect this is but to favour a sore part by which tendernesse we may suffer the nerves to contract and the members may be by degrees rendred uselesse by this error of indulgence For this cause we are advised to make our steps straight to tread confidently in the vestiges and footsteps of our Saviour who Heb. 12.2 joy being proposed to him sustained the Crosse and the power of walking upon the same waters is denyed to none who have faith enough to tread confidently upon them when they are called to come to him in those his paths of many waters He who hath bid us all take up our Crosse and follow him cannot be answered John 14.5 Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way For we know he hath entred into his glory this way and hath set our glory at the end of the same passage wherein not onely his precedencie guideth us but the concomitancy of his grace and vertue supporteth and carryeth us and that the easilyer the more we leane upon them Therefore turne not your heads awry out of this narrow way to looke upon the broad flowrie passages of sinners but making straight steps in your owne track follow your glorious Crosse-bearer crying to him with the Psalmist Psal 93.12 13. Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct O Lord and shalt teach out of thy Law that thou mayst give him quietnesse from the evill dayes till a pit be digged for the sinner There is a Mine digging under all the rosie banks of full blowne prosperity and it is not our parts to know the times or moments of Gods springing this mine Let it be then your application to draw as many as you can by your prayers from under this hollow ground they are walking and building on and not your study to calculate or prognostike the day of their destruction This you may be assured of from the mouth of the Prophet and compassionate their sentence in comparison of your present sufferings Upon the ground of my people shall thorns and bryars come up how much more upon all the houses of the City rejoycing You may therefore rejoyce Esay 32.13 that you are but scratched a little by those thorns and bryars while others are in danger to have their roses and flowers turned into the fuell of eternall flames O then how much more are you to be accounted blessed upon whom is entayled that inheritance incorruptible and incontaminate conserved in the heavens Wherein you shall rejoyce 1 Pet. 1.6 7. a little now if you must be made heavy in divers tentations that the probation of your faith much more precious then gold which is proved by the fire may be found unto praise and glory and honour in the revelation of JESUS CHRIST Therefore in all the provocations of these times either by our personall distresses or by the contumelies and exprobrations of your religion let your spirits answer the reluctant impulses of your sensitive nature 2 Tim. 1.2 I suffer these things but I am not confounded for I know whom I have beleeved I am sure that he