THE MIRROR OF pure Devotion OR THE DISCOVERY of Hypocrisie Delivered in sixe severall Sermons in the Cathedrall Church of Chichester by way of an exposition of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican By R. B. Preacher of the Word at Chidham in the County of Sussex 1 Corinth 2. 14. The naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Verse 15. But he that is spirituall discerneth all things yet he himselfe is judged of no man Aut appare quodes aut esto quod appares LONDON Printed by Iohn Legatt for Richard Thrale dwelling at the Crossâ—-â—eyes by Pauls gate 16â—5 TO THE WORSHIPFVLL RIGHT worthy and his much honoured Mecaenas William Drury Esquire one of the Gentlemen of His Majesties most honorable Privy Chamber all increase of temporall with endlesse succession of eternall happinesse Iámque opus exegi AS Ovid concludes his Poetry so may I begin my Divinity I am at length delivered of that birth which mine unfained zeale to Gods glory mine humble service to his Church and my respective observance unto your worship have beene this many yeeres conceiving in mee and whereof neither the barrennesse of the wombe nor the hardnesse of the travell nor the unskilfulnesse of the midwife nor the rough handling of some ill disposed Gossips could being so graciously assisted by the Almightie make mee miscarry How timely and comely the fruit may be the predominant End I ayme at the glory of God gives mee sufficient boldnesse and the two subordinates my service in generall to the Church in particular to your worship give mee sufficient incouragement to present it to the eye of the world wherein if it shall finde but churlish entertainment I shall not marvell I know sufficiently the world cannot brooke its nature the discovery of an hypocrite or a Pharisee deserves no lesse then a Crucifige at the worlds hands that is so full fraught with both But I know againe there be some in the world that are called out of the world because they are not of the world that will bid my child good wellcome such as leane neither to the right hand of Schisme nor the left of heresie but worship the Father in spirit and in truth amongst which small number your worship is well noted and approoved for sincere and eminent To these therefore under your worships protection I desire to commend my first fruit with Saint Iohns blessing in his 1. Epist 4. 4. Little babe thou art of God and therefore thou shalt overcome the world for greater is he that is in thee then he that is in the world So he that is in thee keepe thee in him and he that hath overcome the world for thee defend thee from the world and from the men of the world whose teeth are speares and arrowes and their tongue a sharpe sword And the God of peace tread Sathan under thy feet shortly Amen Your Worships in all humble and true-hearted observance alwayes to bee commanded in the Lord Iesus RO BALL THE MIRROR OF PVRE DEVOTION OR THE DISCOVERIE OF HYPOCRISIE Luke 18. â— Also hee spake this parable unto certaine which trusted in themselves that they were just or righteous and despised others OVR Blessed Saviour having in the former part of this Chapter most powerfully exhorted and perswaded his disciples to the undeniable and never-ceasing importunitie of Faith by a resemblance traduced from an importunate widdow and almost inexorable Iudge beginnes now to draw them to humility of heart in confession of sinne by a parable of two men a Publican become the sonne of God and a Pharisee the servant of Mammon Better is a penitent offender then a presumptuous justiciarie for in that the one humbleth himselfe hee is no longer an offender Every valley shall bee exalted and in that the other swelleth with an imaginarie opinion of selfe-conceited purity he is no longer righteous Every mountaine and hill shall bee brought lowe Esa 40. 4. It was long since rung in the eares of curiositie presuming to Eras Ap. out-reach humane capacitie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God every day pluckes downe high things and lifes up base things Our God is in heaven saith David and doth whatsoever pleaseth him As God judgeth not after the outward appearance like unto man so his proceedings are quite contrary to the course of the world they grow from a little to more from a base meane there amounts a mighty matter The world it selfe was made of nothing The eternall Word it selfe was compared to a slender graine of mustard seede Christ himselfe came out of Galile a contemptible citie and heere a penitent Publican is justified rather then a presumptuous Pharisee But the course of the world is altogether retrograde like Ahaz his diall it runs backeward from greater to lesse from ostentation to confusion Balshazar in his princely royaltie at supper but in the hand-writing upon the wall he and his Monarchy numbred weighed and divided to others So here a fullswollen Pharisee all glorious in the sight of his owne eies but most odious and abominable in the sight of God The Saints preferment it seemes comes neither from the East nor from the West It is the Lord that judgeth whose eies are puritie whose eares jealousie Bern. whose word veritie whose hand equitie and whose daies eternitie Invocat pauper et exaudit Dominus flet miserabilis et flectitur misericors agnoscit Publicanus ignoscit et Christus The poore man cals upon and the Lord listens unto the miserable man mournes and the mercifull God is mooved the sinner confesses and the Saviour forgives Confessio salus animarum Amb. dissipatrix vitiorum restauratrix virtutum oppugnatrix Daemonum quid plura obstruit os inferni aperis portas Paradisi The confession of sins is the saving health of soules the dispersing of vice the repaire of vertue the overture of the Divel What shall I say more saith S. Augustine it stoppeth Aug. the very gulfe of hell and openeth unto us the everlasting doores of Heaven The whole Parable depends upon these foure Generalls The Preface The Parable it selfe The Event And the Application The Preface is set downe in this ninth verse 9. Also he spake this parable to certaine that trusted in themselves that they were just or righteous and despised others The Parable it selfe in the 10 11 12 and 13. verses 10. Two men went up into the Temple to pray the one a Pharisee and the other a Publican 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himselfe thus God I thanke thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as that publican 12. I fast twice in the weeke I give tithes of all that I possesse 13. But the Publican standing afarre off would not lift up so much as his eies to heaven but smote his brest saying O God be mercifull to
into the very secret thoughts and intentions of the heart For say I beseech you Is not the parable of the hidden treasure abundantly able to convince the Vsurer in particular The parable of the fruitlesse figge-tree to informe the Gardiner The house built upon the sand the Mason The strong man armed the Souldier The lost groat the Widow And the lost sheep the Shepheard and each or all of these aboundantly able to instruct all What plough-man is there in the world so stupid but when hee reads the parable of the Sower Luke 8. both propounded and expounded unto him by our blessed Saviour is able to reade unto himselfe a Lecture of sound Divinitie and mediâ—â—te with himselfe thus That as himselfe goes forth into the field to sowe his seede so the Sonne of man came once personally into the world to sow the immortall seed of his sacred Word in the hearts of beleevers and to this very day hath left behind him Ministeriall Seeds-men the Preachers of the Gospel to dresse and dung and to manure his field and sow his seede As hee himselfe cannot possibly scatter his seede so choicely but some will of necessitie fall by the hie-way side and so either be troden under foote of men or devoured of the fowles of the Ayre some will fall amongst the stones and then no sooner it springs up but withers away againe for want of moisture some will fall amongst thornes and so the thornes spring up with it and choake it It is but the fourth part that falls upon good ground that springs up and beares fruit some thirty some sixty some an hundred fold So the Preachers of the Gospel cannot possibly scatter the good seed of the Word so choicely but doe what they can some will fall by the hie-way side that is amongst carelesse drousie and negligent hearers and then it is either trodden under foote of men contemned and vilified or else devoured of the fowles of the ayre that is the Devill and his instruments steale it out of the hearts of the hearers lest they should beleeve and bee saved some will fall amongst stones hard and flinty hearts where the Word for a time may be received with joy but for want of roote the people beleeve for a time and in the time of temptation they fall away some will fall amongst thornes worldly and licentious hearers in whom the cares of the world and the deceitfulnesse of riches and the lusts of other things doe so choake the Word that it becomes unfruitfull It is but the fourth part or scarce that which fals upon good ground that with an honest and good heart heare the Word and keepe it and bring forth fruite with patience Vpon which due and serious meditation he cannot choose but bring the Application of the parable home to himselfe himselfe then being in the very act of sowing When hee sees three parts of every handfull of temporall seed he sowes in danger of miscarrying some falling by the hieway-side some amongst stones and some amongst thornes hee cannot choose but grieve and much lament it oh how ought it then to perplexe his soule and yearne his very bowels to consider the most lamentable hardnesse and intolerable barrennesse of his owne heart that receives not the most precious seed of the Word of God with any reasonable cheerefulnesse muchlesse returnes it with any tolerable fruitfulnesse See what lumpes of divinity lye hid and buryed under the very clods of the earth what profound Lectures of Divine literature may bee read in the very field at plough so profitable are those doctrines in Scripture that are couched by our blessed Saviour under Similies and Parables In what a lamentable and dangerous condition then is the stupid Papist in forbidding and the negligent carnall Gospeller in forbearing to reade the sacred Scriptures both building their Babel upon this sandy foundation That they are darke mysteries and obscure parables Whereupon the Papists some of them forbid the reading of the Scriptures to the Laytie as a thing most dangerous and pernitious for them being as they affirme the roote and seminary of all strife and controversie the mother and the nurse of all heresie and faction Christ commands us to search the Scriptures 〈…〉 19. for eternall happinesse they countermand it with a Noli me tangere for feare of heresie The Spirit of Christ exhorts us to try the spirits whether they bee of God because many false prophets are come into the world these spirits forbid the common people the very touch-stone of tryall The spirit of truth adviseth Colos 3. 16. us to give the Word of God all possible entertainement not to lodge with us as a stranger for a night but to dwell in us plenteously as a continuall In-mate because it is profitable to teach to improove to correct and to instruct in righteousnesse The spirit of errour counsels to bannish it quite out of our coasts and in stead thereof to bring in ignorance for the mother of devotion The one tels us it is the peoples instruction the other tels us it is the peoples destruction The one tels us it makes the man of God perfect and absolute the other tels us it makes him hereticall and dissolute And so wee may safely conclude with Reverend Wickeliffe and that Iewell of England To condemne the Word of God of heresie is no better then to make God himselfe an hereticke But the very truth is beloved the Scriptures make men heretickes no otherwise then the Sun makes men blind As nothing is cleerer then the Sunne and yet nothing harder to be looked into for the weakenesse of our sight So nothing more manifest then the Scriptures in themselves and yet nothing more obscure then mysteries therein contained for that the naturall man perceives not the things of God Say then I beseech you Is light darkenesse because darkenesse comprehends it not Is sweet sowre because some men taste it not no more certenly are the Scriptures obscure because some men understand them not Wee deny not then a kinde of obscuritie to bee in the Scriptures both in regard of the profunditie of the particular points and of our disabilitie to conceive them but the manner of the deliverie is not obscure in it selfe but familiar and easie to them that have their senses prepared by the holy Ghost to understand them and use the meanes that God hath ordained for that end Let the wary Protestant then that would carefully avoid the Papists ginne soundly distinguish of these three The mysteries delivered the manner of the deliverie and the indisposition of the receiver The things themselves are mysteries therefore secret and involved in divers difficulties The indisposition of our understanding not onely darke but darkenesse it Eph. 5. 8. selfe therefore were they never so cleere wee could not possibly understand them till we were inlightned But for the manner of the delivery in it selfe it is apert and patent if any where darke it
in the furrow and tillage as those that to day are bad but to morrow may be good as was this Publican and they which presume to day that they are perfect to morrow may bee found agraine too light as was this Pharisee And therefore sine utrosque crescere let them both grow together untill the harvest Then the great husband-man shall come with his fanne in his hand to purge his floore thorowly the Wheate hee shall carry into his barne but burne up the chaffe with unquenchable fire In the meane time let no sublunary distraction slacken thy happy progresse to the Temple but ascend in body and ascend in spirit For this purpose Temples were anciently scituated upon hils as that at Ierusalem upon mount Sion a faire place and the joy of the whole earth Our father 's worshipped in this mountaine said the woman of Samaria And many of our Temples are so scituated at this day And most of them have certaine steppes or ascents to Quires and Chancels to teach thee to ascend in spirit aswell as in body to ascend from the blindnesse of nature to the light of grace from the old Adam of sinne to the new man of righteousnesse from affection to perfection forsaking thy selfe and following thy Saviour And when thou art come up into the Temple stand not up proudly to justifie thy selfe as did this Pharisee neither squot downe unmannerly in thy seat to sleepe as too many in this drowzy age but fall low on thy knees with this Publican to pray The Temple was not made to prate in or to sleepe in but to pray in Pray then and be sure to pray as thou oughtest to pray Pray humbly pray heartily pray devoutly pray faithfully and waver not Feare not the two men that are about thee or without thee they can neither helpe nor hinder thy devotion but let all thy care bee when thou commest into the Temple to pray that there be not duo homines as and homine two men in one man within thee Consider where thou art in the Temple Consider wherefore thou commest thither to pray Consider to whom thou speakest by prayer to to him that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a searcher of thy very heart and reines and a discerner of thy secret thoughts long before thy selfe and therefore will not be doubled or dissembled with all O consider all this thou that forgettest God and thy selfe too much when thou goest up into the Temple to pray First take Salonion for thy counsell Be not rash with thy mouth nor let thine heart bee hastie to utter a thing before God Then take Moses and David for thy Presidents Put off the uncleane shoes of thy polluted affections for the ground whereon thou treadest is holy ground First be able to say Paratum est cor meum Domine My heart is ready O God my heart is ready and then wash thine hands in innocency and so compasse Gods altar THE THIRD SERMON Luke 18. 11. The Pharisee stood and prayed with himselfe thus c. WEE are past the Preface and have made an entrance into the Parable it selfe so farre as the behaviour of the two men whom it principally concernes the Pharisee and the Publican is expressed joyntly in the Temple where for a time we left them at theiâ— devotion together and now have found them at it againe severally and apart and first the Pharisee for still hee will be first Who though he came into the Temple with the Publican yet being come he prayes by himselfe apart Whose devotion proclaimes him a presumptuous hypocrite both in the manner and in the matter In the manner by standing up so pert and by standing apart In the matter which was nothing but meere braggery bumbasting his petitions first with odious commendations of himselfe privative and positive God I thanke thee I am no extortioner no unjust man no adulterer but I fast twice in the weeke and I give tithe of all that I possesse Secondly by a malicious contempt of others generall and speciall I am not as other men are nor as this Publican The very manner of his devotion plucks away the vale from his face and fets him apparently up to the view of the whole world that folly may blush and wisdome be nothing ashamed And first it discovers the woodden head of selfe-confidence which hath three parts The first is his division or departing from the Church taxed in this word Phâ—â—ifee which is derived from the Hebrew Phares and Phareth to divide 80 signifies the name of King Pharaoh whose regiment consisted of two forts of people Hebrewes and Egyptians So Thamars â—â—btwins the younger â—â—â—eth but the elder called Pharez beon use he first opened the wombe So in that hand-writing against Balthazar MENâ— TEKEL PHARES or PERES Thon and thy kingdome are humbred weighed and divided to others The second part of selfe confidence is wilfull resolution or oâ—firmation of judgement neither mooved by reason nor removed by argument intimatâ—â— in the word Standing The third part of selfe-confidence is either heresie or any other imperfection of doctrine implyed in these words praying with himselfe Three notable notes and manifest markes of a compleat Pharisee First the rending and sequestring of a mans selfe from the Congregation if it be in matters of faith it is called heresie if in matter of order or Ceremony it is called Schisme Both which fall under the compasse of Saint Iohns virge They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had beene of us they would have continued with us But this comes to passe that it might appeare they are not all of us These two vipers and pestilent brood of their mother Confusion have from the very beginning either snatched at the heeles or flowne into the face of the true Church of God The one like those men of Iabes Gilead will conclude no peace with Israel except they may plucke out their right eyes The other like the young prince Ammon shave away halfe the beard and cut off by the buttocks the garments of Davids Embassadours So unmercifully is the Church crucified betwixt these two malefactors The one doe disrumpere charitatis vincula D. Boys untie the bonds of peace the other doe corrumpere fidei dogmata undoe the unitie of the spirit The first are different in things indifferent the second almost indifferent in matters different and both spurne at the poore Church as at a common football Of all the world like Sampsons Foxes severed in their head but tyed together by the tayles with fire-brands betwixt them able to set a whole State in an uproare and a combustion The Church is called in Scripture a pillar from whence they are fallen like a tottering roofe A Ship out of which they have wilfully leaped to bee drowned making shipwracke of their faith The hill of Sion from whence they have tumbled and broken the necke of a good conscience And the Spouse of Christ whose
behold thine adversary the divell like a roaring Lion alwayes ready at hand to accuse and condemne proud earth Looke but round about thee and behold many thousands farre more deserving and yet farre more humble vessels then thy selfe of earth And lastly looke but right before thee and so looke once for all and behold the Author and finisher of thine earth marke and learne what a singular precept and president hee reads unto thee even in terrâ tuâ in thine owne earth He that was an eternall and ever-blessed spirit humbled himselfe so low as to stoope to a mortall and miserable lump of thine earth And in that earth he did infimum sapere in altissimo clothe the highest majestie with lowest misery And in that misery hee was liberrimus agens though miserrimus patiens hee was not humbled by an other but quia ipse voluit hee humbled himselfe Neither was hee superficially but substantially humble and obediently humble and legally obedient and singularly legall Bishop Andrews sermon in Pasch even to a threefold usque the nature of man the forme of a servant and the death of the crosse for these bee his steps of descent noted by the Apostle Phil. 2. Phil. 2. Humiliavit ipse Ipse se Ipse obediens obediens factus factus usque Hee was humbled not by an other but himselfe and his humilitie was obedient and his obedience legall and his legalitie singular Oh Earth earth earth canst thou behold humble God-man cloathed in the ragged humilitie of thine earth and thy selfe not clothed so much as with one ragge of the glorious humilitie of that God canst thou for shame endure so miserable a Solecisme as humilem Deum superbum hominem an humble God of heaven and a proud man of earth wert thou any thing else but earth thou wouldst never spread it so proudly upon the face of the earth terra oalcans terram as if the earth should never set her foote upon thy face Cannot the bitter passion of thy Saviour that split the very stones peirce thine earth or his powerfull resurrection that raised so many dead quicken thy This Sermon was preached the Sunday after Easter living earth Consider oh consider what a Trophee it were to procure solemnitie to the instant season for that ugly and infernall feind pride to be conjured downe to the divell in hell that first sent her never to rise againe within this circle and that faire damsell humilitie to bee raised by virtue of a Tabitha Cumi with her blessed Saviour that first found her never to become a stranger more unto us but that every Easter shee may spring a fresh and bud out of the earth with that Prim-rose of Sharon and Lillie of the vallies that no longer proud but humble earth may bee our Epithite That beeing at this instant raised with our blessed Saviour from pride to humilitie we may be hereafter raised with him from humilitie to glory Which hee for his tender mercy grant us who by his precious blood so dearely bought us Iesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be ascribed as is most meete all possible honor glory power praise might majestie and dominion now and for ever Amen Soli Deo tri-uni Gloria Recensui Librum hunc cui titulus The mirror of pure Devotion c. in quo nihil reperio quò minùs cum utilitate publicâ Imprimatur modò intra quatuor menses proximè sequentes typis mandetur Ex aedi Londin Nov. 3. 1634. Sa. Baker