man consider'd the one Interior Ingraffed into Christ assisted and agitated by the holy spirit which searcheth every chinke cranny of the heart watering her barren furrowes and sending showies into the little vallies thereof making it fruitfull with the drops of raine Psal 65.11 suppling and mollifying that stone like flesh According to this man which is Inward he wills that which is Good approues the law of God serves it delights in it magnifies it The other Exterior which is not yet totally renewed but remaines in part carnall still retaining the corruptions of mans nature and as a prisoner to the flesh hath not yet knock'd off his Gives and Fetters This man being still outward to the world followeth the law in his members And hence is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that contrary warre in the same man in the one part or wing of him we see the law of the members fighting and strugling for the law of sinne leading man captive through the infirmities of the flesh On the other side is the law of God to which in a holy correspondency the minde or will being renewed assent Betweene these is the whole man placed Aret. in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 23. quasi communis praeda as a common booty or prey expos'd unto the assaults of both And in this encoūter it speeds with him as with the two opposite armies in the valley of Rephidim Exod 17. sometimes Israell prevaileth sometimes Amaleck the minde sometimes sometimes the flesh As long as the hands be held up whiles the thoughts be elevated the minde soring there is a great shout heard in the Hebrew Campe the Israelite hath the day the inward man prevaileth and then the Hosannah goes for the Law of God but when the hands be let downe when his devotions are a drooping when he begins to flag and grovell towards the Flesh straight there is a noyse of victory in the Heathen troops the Amalekite gives the chase the outward man prevaileth and so the cry runnes for the Law of sinne In this case the regenerate man must doe as Moses there did rest upon the stone the Corner-stone Christ Iesus and his hands being wearie with lifting up his mentall parts overburdened with the waight of the flesh Faith and Prayer like another Hur and Aaron must pillar and support them then he shall be steady till the going downe of the Sun till hee set in death when Amalek shall be discomfited all his spirituall enemies put to the sword and he in peace goe in and possesse the land promised to his Fore-fathers the caelestiall Land the Canaan above where he shall raigne with Abraham Isaac and Iacob for ever and ever Thus in a double ranke I have shewed you the double man inward and outward the one under the colours of the flesh marching for the Law of sinne the other under the Ensigne of the spirit fighting for the Law of God It remaines now that in the Reare we bring up the Ego ipse the Apostle himselfe ready arm'd for the conflict and viewing him dividing these Ranks observe how with the Minde he serves the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of sinne PARS III. Ego ipse servio I my selfe serve SOme ancient Hereticks taking occasion by the errour of Origen S. Chrys Theo. Basil whom many of the Greeke interpreters followed and some of the Latine make here a Prosopopeia or fictio pèrsonae as if by this Ego ipse I my selfe Saint Paul himselfe had not beene understood S. Amb. Icrome but some other by him personated some unregenerate or carnall man or if himselfe himselfe as he was formerly under the Law and not yet under Grace D. Aug. ad Simplicium lib. 1. q. 1. D. Aug. lib. 6. cont Iulian. c. 11. In which opinion the great Saint Augustine confesseth that he sometimes wandred but afterwards tooke up with his Prius aliter intellexeram vel potius non intellexeram in the first of his Retractations 23. chapter And upon this tide many scruples of the Church then were after wasted to posteritie The Pelagians of old and their way-ward Proselites have scattered two pestilent Epistles to this purpose the one written by Iulian to Boniface at Rome the other by eighteene Bishops Ring-leaders of that Faction to the See of Thessalonica both which quoted and confuted by the learned Father in his Anti-pelagian controversies principally against Iulian the Muster-master if I may so stile him of that dangerous Sect who contended that under this Ego ipse Saint Paul either described Vid. fusius Par. in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 25. hominem aliquem libidinosum some one that was luxurious or incontinent not yet wash'd from the grosser corruptions of the Flesh or else discover'd the nature of man after the Fall when and how farre he might prevaile without grace and upon this misconjecture they strooke at the heart of originall sinne strangled that in the wombe of our first Parents gave sucke to new fancies of the times cocker'd an upstart of their owne begetting shoulder'd up nature with grace engag'd freewill in matters of the Spirit contrary to the Apostles Peccatum in me habitans and his quod non vellem hoc ago in the 15. and 17. verses of this chapter But it is more than probable that this Ego ipse reacheth Saint Paul himselfe he continuing his complaint in the first person through the whole body of this chapter Ego sum carnalis ego agnosco ego consentio ego delector ego servio it is I that am carnall at the 14. verse and I allow not at the 15. and I will not at the 16 and I delight at the 22. and I serve here at the 25. I I my selfe I Saint Paul I the Apostle I the great Doctour I the chosen vessoll hee gives not the least hint or touch of any other Ego nescio quid sit Scr. pturas penitus pervertere si hoc non sit Beza Annot. in cap. 7. Rom. v. 25. And therefore it is a bold Fiction and a manifest depravation of the Text to wire-draw Scripture to mens private purposes interpreting here Ego by Alter as if I Saint Paul were not carnall not sold under sinne not captivated by the Law of it but some other some Iew or Gentile not yet converted when the maine bent of the great Doctour driveth another way he speaking of himselfe in the state of his Apostleship the conflicts and sikrmishes hee then had betweene the Minde and the Flesh not of his old Pharisaicall condition as some dreame for the words are of the present Ego servio not Ego servivi not I did but I doe serve and not barely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither I but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I my selfe I and no other which excludeth all figurative interpretation whatsoever And therefore doubtlesse the Apostle here even as * Sed hoc forte aliquis non Apostolus certe Apostolus
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
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
surprisall here but in a church triumphant where the Palme and the Crowne and the white Robes are layd up and insteed of Drums and Ensignes Hallelujahs to the Lambe for ever I have done now with the text Applicatio ad Magistratum and the two lawes there lex Dei and lex peccati But the occasion of this meeting listen's after a third law and that 's lex Regni which though it be grounded or at least should bee on the lex Dei yet it sometimes fall's unhappily upon the lex peccati Now a warre there is in this law as betweene the former two Inveterate sometimes Irreconciliable and not to be decided but by Deaath war much of the nature of the other between Spirit Flesh a proud spirit for the most part and a stubborne peece of flesh for if there were either humility on the one side or patience on the other the noise of discord would not bee so loud in our streets but the voyce of the turtle would bee heard better in our land There would bee more peace within our walls I am sure more plentiousnes within our habitations What in the first institution was intended as a shield or buckler is us'd at length as a semiter or sword That which should defend mee from the blowes of another is the engine by which I wound him at last and my selfe too The law which in case of in jury or trespasse was ordain'd of old for a Sanctuary is made sometimes little better then a house of correction If I malice another 't is not I must seourge him but the law though it be in mine own power to chastise him with whips yet the law doe it with more state and more fury too for that shall chastise him with Scorpions when all this while the lash falls not so much on the back of the transgressor as his purse and the bleeding of that as the world goe's is as fatal as the other Sed hominum sunt ista non legum the fault is not in the law but in some of her touchy and waspish votaries or if it bee in the law I am sure it is not in the lex Dei nor I hope in this lex Regni but in the lex peccati 'T is the law of sin is to blame here the mighty Holofernes as Castrusian tolde S. Ierom that rebellious lust of ours which thus plaie's the tyrant with our selves and others Ille criminum leno Ille par asitus vitiorum that bawd and parasite of vices which in one act flatters and betraies us This is the Fox with a Fire-brand in the taile that burnes up the corne field of the Philistines the prime wheele and stirrer of all our turbulent motions our unpeaceable proceedings which first sets our pride a-gog and then our malice and at length our revenge and in such a high way of distaste that no sorrow of the partie offending no mediation of friends no tender of sitisfaction no interposing of the Magistrate himselfe can attone or pacifie But as if there were no Gospell upon earth or else no mercy by that Gospell they are still Jewishly bent with their crucifige crucifige the Law the Law And let such implacable Spirits have their fill of it let it enter like water into their bowels and like oyle into their bones let the Law at last be their comfort and not the Gospell let justice have her full swindge and not mercy and so if they will needs have it so Currat Lex let the Law goe on á lege ad legem from one Law to another from the Lex Regni to the Lex Dei from the Court of Common Pleas here below to the great Starre-chamber above where every man shall receive either doom or recompence according to his works The Law all this while is unreproveable you heare no staine nor blemish there but either in the malicious Clyent or Sollicitor or both It being true in this case what Saint Paul spake in another Lex quidem spiritualis illi vero carnales venundati sub peccatò Rom. 7. v. And here some may expect that I should have a fling at the Gowne or at least as the custome of this place is instruct or counsell it But this were to bring drops to a River offer a few mites or pence to a Treasury that is full for no charity can be so barren as to conceive that those should be ill husbands in counselling themselves that so abundantly dispense and communicate to others And indeed how or to what purpose should they receive instructions in a Church here that are taking so many in a Chamber How make use of the Doctrine of the Preacher that are so busie with the breviat of a Clyent But by their leave for I must have leave to tell them so God is herein dishonour'd and the solemnity both of this time and place disparag'd if not prophan'd They are not I presume so straightned with time nor so throng'd with the multitude of affaires but they might sequester one solemne houre for the service of the Lord The hearing of a Sermon can be no great prejudice to the debating of a cause if it bee just and honest and a few Orisons first offer'd in the Temple are a good preparative and prolog to a conscionable and faire pleading at the Barre As for any error else either in their practise or profession I have not to obtrude here or if I had I would not Every man or at least every good man is a Temple to himselfe and hath a Pulpit in his owne bosome where there is a continuall Preacher or Monitor a conscience either accusing or excusing him and one lash of that toucheth more at the quicke than a thousand from the tongue or pen of another Cor hominis saith Saint Augustine aut Dei Thuribulum aut Diaboli every mans heart is an Altar for God or for the Divell and according to the nature or quality of the Sacrifice so it smoakes either to his doome or glory and this is enough for an understanding eare without farther boring it And indeed it is not my practise to pull Gravitie by the beard bring backe the grey haire to the Rod and the Ferule Schoole as some doe a Magistrate and catechise a Judge nay traduce him too with their borrowed and affected Epithites Rampant Couchant Dormant and the like unreverent and saucie follies which are nothing else but the leakings of bottles which are not sound the noyse of Caskes which are both foule and emptie fragments of that broken vessell Salomon speakes of which can containe nothing no not the droppings of their owne vanities For mine own part I have been taught what the word Iudge meaneth both by representation and by office a King one way and a God another and what is that but a God and a God and therefore a God shall admonish him not I and one God I presume may speake roundly to another Hearke then what the God Iekosaphat
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
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
the Apostle confesseth that hee is not yet delivered of the burthen of the Flesh that hee still labours of her infirmities that hee is Carnall both by Nature and Suggestion by * Pareus in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 25. Nature because borne so by Suggestion through the daily flatteries and titillations of his fleshly associate Quae non post nos sed in nobis nos sequitur saith St. Ambrose de poeniten lib. 1. cap. 14. which haunts and whores us wheresoever wee goe a continuall Dalilah about us and within us not discarding of this Hittite nor this Amorite but in despight of us it will bee medling with our flesh pot so journe it will in our Mesech here dwel in our tent of Kedar However I presume you conceive a difference betweene Flesh and Flesh onely that is meerely Carnall and another which is carnall but in part him that is In the Flesh walkes in the Flesh and whose weapons are fleshly and him that is onely obnoxious to the infirmities of the flesh In cap. 7. ad Rom. an Amphibion as I may call him betweene Flesh and Spirit Carnem habentem legi Dei obstreperam as Carthusian speakes whose flesh is ever scolding with the Spirit and his spirit ever chiding with the flesh for to bee flesh imports for the most part a humane Imbecillitie but to be In or After the flesh an vniversall bondage and subjection of mans nature to the lusts of the flesh The Patriarcks and Prophets and Apostles them selves were flesh and liv'd heere saith St. Augustine but they liv'd not here In the flesh Portabant Carnem Serm. 6. de verb. Dom. non Portabantur a Carne the flesh was their Burthen not their Guide And therefore it is one thing to say that Sinne and fleshly corruptions are in man another that man is in sinne and in the Flesh as that of St. Peter to Simon Magus was more wounding Thou art in the gall of Bitternes then if hee said the gall of Bitternes is in thee For for man to bee In sinne and In the flesh presupposes a kind of Uassalage and Thraldome sinne the flesh have over him for sinne to bee in man an Hereditary corruption quam nec fugere possumus nec fugare St Bernard serm 7. sup cant circurn ferre necesse est which wee can neither shake off nor avoid but it sticks like a Burre to our fraile condition and though we labour to wash it out with all our Hysop all our Nitre yet this Aethiope will not bee cleane this Leopard will not change his spots but though the Minde bee intent upon the Law of God yet the Flesh the weak weake flesh will bee still serving the law of Sinne. The Law of Sin what 's that what that which before S. Paul entitled to the Lex membrorum The Law in his members v. 23. what is that Law That which in the next verse he calls Corpus mortis The Body of death And what is that death and that Law v. 24. That which all the Servants and Saints of God have pang'd and groan'd under Concupiscence that which S. Austin stiles legem foetidam legem miseram vnlnus tabem languorem Serm. 46. de temp A putred loathsome and wretched law an enticing lustful law lodging and raigning in our very members and in such a Tyrannicall way that the Flesh is even inforc'd to serve and obey it and therefore by the Apostle here call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law the word Law being taken at large for any thing that governes and moderates our actions So that Concupiscence holding such a strict Empire and Commaund over it can be no lesse then a Law unto it and therefore Peter Martir calls it Vim * In cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 24. peccati et innatae pravitatis The Scepter as it were and Prerogative of sinne an inbred pravitie Qua quisque * D Aug. in 7. ad Rom. tom 4. carnis consuetudine implicatus astringitur By which every man involv'd in the customary snares of the flesh is so manacled bound as by a rigid Law Now it is call'd lex peccati The law of sin because such concupiscence is sin indeed not only Fomes et Causa and Poena peccati as the Church of Rome doth cavill but peccatum it selfe S. Paul no lesse then fourteene times in this Epistle calling it plainely Sin seven times in this Chap. foure times in that before three times in the next that follows It is called Lex membrorum the law in our members because it useth all our parts powers faculties as instruments or members or else lex membrorum in relation to corpus mortis This law in the mēbers Pet. Mart. in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 24. being afterwards call'd The body of death and there is no true body you know without its mēbers which mēbers do here signifie as wel al the Powers of the mind as al the parts of the body infected defild by sin which as an hereditary disease we have derived even from the wombe residing not onely in some one part of us but sprinkling this contagion through the Whole Man and every parcell and memeer of him Now this whole man though it suffer the distinction of Interior and Exterior Homo yet it is but one the self same man But by reason of divers States Affections and Operations call'd the inward and the outward man and not as the Manichees wildly fancy teaching two soules in man the one good from which vertues flowed the other evill whence vices proceeded and so consequently that in one man there were as two men the inward embracing those vertues and the outward following these vices but in one and the same man there is one and the same soule and in this same soule and the same portion and faculty of it Calvine sets this Apostolicall combat Cor. lap in cap. 7. ad Rom. v. 25. making the inward man nothing but the minde quatenus consentit legi Dei the outward the same minde quatenus concupiscit mala which though the Iesuite cry downe for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soli renati habent hom nem interiorem Ephes 3.16 soli filij dei sunt renati Ioh. 1.13 soli renati spiritum habent-Rom 8.14 quem mundns excipere non potest Iohn 14.17 et Haeretica and set's up Reason sense in a vie with the Flesh and the Spirit for mine owne part I thinke it both senselesse and reasonlesse forasmuch as the combat betweene these is proper only to the Regenerate Betweene the other to the meere naturall and carnall man who hath no touch of the Spirit at all nor oftentimes of God about him And therefore that wee may at length take away the vaile from this darkned face pull aside the curtaine that so obscures the Text wee must know that in one and the same S. Paul here there is a double
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alexandrinus calls them Against which we are to take up our Sword and Buckler and not onely oppose De Sacrament Mat. cap. 7. but murther them if we can And therefore in this warre of the Flesh the learned Parisiensis would have the prima acies cut off the first Motions slaine propter iniquitatem Rebellionis for their rebellious attempts against the Spirit as being not onely bellowes and fuell but Fire also to our daily and dangerous mis-treadings And yet the Church of Rome is so hot here for the immaculatenesse of the Saint that she altogether dis-inherits him of flesh cuts off the Intaile of his primitive corruption washes cleane away his originall Taint in the Laver of Baptisme And so doth the conduit of our Church too quoad Reatum but not quoad Actum The guilt of sinne is expung'd but the act and existency remaines still even in the Regenerate there being found in them not onely poenas quasdam aut sequelas peceati Certaine sequels or punishments of sinne but also really and in their owne Nature damnabiles * Reveren dissimus Davenantues de justitia habit cap. 1. Reliquias remainders enough to damne them but that the dominion of sinne being Bankrupt as it were and broken and the bond cancell'd above they make not to the condemnation of his person that is atton'd and reconcil'd by Christ And therefore the Cardinall may forbeare to traduce us for Messalians and Origenists Bell. de sacr Bapt. l. 1. c. 13. because we allow not a totall eradication of sin by the power of that Sacrament for as much as some of his owne Tang denying concupiscence after Baptisme to be Peceatum yet they say that it is Radix peccati and so takes hold in the very child of God which Root though it be crush'd a little and bruiz'd yet it sticks fast still in the Nature notwithstanding the guilt be absolutely remov'd from the person of the regenerate And this much their owne * Lib. 2. dist 32. lit B. Lombard in circumstance will tell us who granteth that by the vertue of Baptisme there is a full absolution of originall sin in respect of the Guilt of it but a Debilitation only and an Extenuation of the vice no totall Extirpation And therefore the Gratianists sticke not to glosse here that it is not so dismissed nè sit that it be not at all But it remaines debilitatum sopitum languishing and slumbring not dead it seemes Nay Aâ—not ad Rom. cap. 5. Hugo de sancto victore comes on more fully Manet secundum culpam dimittitur secundum solum aeternae dan nationis debitum Whence I gather with that learned * Episcopus Sarisburiensis de justitia habit cap. 20. Prelate that concupiscence after Baptisme is no lesse than Culpa even in the Regenerate And that That Justice which is conferr'd on them consists rather in the participation of Christs merits who cut the score than in any perfection of Vertues or Qualities infus'd So that the Vis damnatoria as they call it The condemning power in this Sinne is taken off by vertue of that Sacrament but the contagion or deordination of it still dwells in man which is so rivited in his nature and as it were nature it selfe ut tolli non possit sine destructione naturae we may assoone destroy nature herselfe as It And if we beleeve the Scholeman Non est medici summi illum tollere In this case God himselfe cannot doe it so Alexander Halensis de Sacramento Baptismi 4. part 8. quaest 2. Articl Let others then vaunt at their pleasure in the riches and ornaments of their inward man ruffle in the gawdy plumes of their conceiv'd perfections decke their minds in their white robes of purity file and whet and sharpen the very point of the spirit they talke of yet if wee knock a little at the doores of their hearts Enter into them with a Candle and a snuffer as Charron speakes wee shall finde Concupiscence there sitting in her chaire of state commaunding or at least drawingon the motions of the flesh which they can no more restraine then the beating of their pulses which still keepe centinell in the body and are the watch words of nature that the heart liveth Serm. 58. super Cant. Erras si vitia putes emortua et non magis suppressa Hee is in an error saith S. Bernard that thinks his corrupt inclinations to be absolutely dead and not rather supprest or smothered Velis nolis intra sines tuos habitat Cananaeus let the Israclite doe what he can this Canaanite will be still skulking about his coasts subjugari potest exterminarinon potest made tributary perhaps hee may bee exil'd he will not And indeed those untamed lusts and affections of ours which are nothing else but the waves and stormes of our soules rais'd by every litle blast of the flesh as long as we are inviron'd with these walls of frailty this rotten tabernacle of the body Moder ari et regere possumus S. Ier. Reg. Monach c. 22. amputare non possumus master perhaps or qualify for a time wee may totally subdue wee cannot The mind no doubt may put in her plea with a Video meliora I see that the law of God is the better I see and approve it too and therfore I serve it But then comes the flesh with a Deteriora sequer 't is true the other is the right way but it is troublesome and slippery and like a sandy hill to the feete of the aged The way the flesh walkes is smooth and even pleasing to him that treads it and therfore I follow that I follow That were more tolerable but I serve I am in subjection to it though my minde have a desire and more then a desire an act of serving the law of God yet there is another Master I must serve too my flesh invites mee invites nay commaunds and hurryes me and that is to the law of sinne Certum est Orig. Homil. 21. in Ios etiam Iebuzoeos habitare cum filiis Iudoe in Ierusalem saies the Allegoricall Father nothing more certaine then the deepe remainders of corruptioneven in Gods peculiar Israel These Iebusites will be still dwelling with the sonnes of Iudah in Ierusalem the flesh will bee serving the law of sinne even in the sanctified and chosen vessell S. Paul himselfe and the reason is 't is a church militant wee live in Cant. 2. an Army saith Solomon terrible with her banners no lying idle then in tents and garrisons but a daily marching on against the enemy a continuall skirmishing with the flesh which though by the daily sallyes and excursions of the spirit it be somtimes repell'd and driven back as if it had received the foyle or the defeate yet gathering new strength and forces it comes on againe with her fresh and restlesse assaults so that there is no expectation of a totall triumph and
tells the Gods his Judges in the fenced Cities of Iudah Take heed what you doe for you judge not for man but for God who is with you in the judgement Wherefore now let the feare of the Lord be upon you take heed and doe it for there is no iniquity with God no respect of persons nor taking of gifts 2 Chron. 19.6 7. Doubtlesse the matter is of great weight and consequence that is thus prefac'd with a double caution Take heed Take heed The formér Cavete is for a Quid facitis the latter for an ut faciatis first take heed what you doe and then take heed that you doe it too so that in matters of Judicature a deepe consideration should alwayes precede Action Deliberation Judgement And the reason of the quid sacitis if you observe it is very ponderous For you judge not for man but for God and God as the Psalmist speaketh Iudgeth amongst the gods Psal 82.1 You gods that judge men here that God shall judge hereafter and as you judge these so shall he judge you The reason of the ut faciatis is no lesse weighty neither for there is no iniquity with God he loves it not and what he loves not you are to condemne and judge and that this judgement may carry an even faile there must be no respecting of persons nor taking of gifts The eares must be both open and the hands shut the complaint of the Widdow and the Orphan and the oppressed must be as well listen'd to as the trials of the rich and mightie aswell and assoone too nay sooner for the one gives onely the other prayes and mens devotions goe with us to heaven when their benevolences with the giver moulder upon earth Let the Sword then strike where it should in the great busines of life and death let the ballance hang even in matters of nisi prius that there bee no selling of the righteous for a peece of silver Amos 8.6 or of the needy for a paire of shooes no cruell mercy in the one in remitting incorrigible of fenders no partiality in the other in siding with particular men or causes but fiat justitia et ruat coelum And when justice is thus done in your part it is not done in all manifold experience tells us that when causes have been prosecuted by all the fidelity and care of the sollicitor pleaded by all dexterity of counsel attended by al the vigilancy of the Iudge yet the mystery the wicked mystery of a decem tales shall carry them against wind and tide and a heard of mercenary ignorants for mnay of them are no better shall buy and sell a poore man his estate for eight pence This is neither christian nor morall nor scarce humane therfore for reformation of this capitall abuse it is both just necessary that such substantial men as are returnd in Iuryes should attend in their own person and not shuffle of the waight of publike affaires upon the shoulders of those who either understand not a cause when it is debated or else use not a conscience as they should in giving up their verdict but make their foreman their primus motor whom they follow like those beasts ' in Seneca non qua eundum est sed qua itur No man is to good to doe his God or King or Countrey service nay every good man thinkes it rather his honour then his burthen and therefore where there are delinquents this way let the mulct the fine bee laid on according to statute that where admonition cannot prevaile imperet Lex compulsion may And now I have performd my office done the part of a spirituall watchman blowne the cornet in Gibeah and the trumpet in Ramoth told Israell aloud her sinnes and Iudah her transgressions The next act is from the Pulpit to the Tribunall where it will bee expected that Moses should doe all things according to the patterne shewed him by GOD in the mount beere that lawes be not only written or prescribed or remembred but put in execution also and for your better encouragement herein observe what the same Moses saies to Ioshua Deut. 31.8 Bee strong and of a good courage for the Lord thy God hee it is that goeth with thee hee will not saile thee nor forsake thee To that God and to his sonne Christ Iesus with the blessed spirit bee ascribed all honour glory power and dominion both now and forever Amen Gloria in excelsis Deo FINIS The Christian Duell THE SECOND SERMON Ad Magistratum Preached at the ASSIZES held at TAUNTON in Sommerset 1635. By Humphrey Sydenham ROM 8.6 Quod sapit Caro Mors est Quod autem sapit Spiritus Vita Pax. LONDON Printed by IOHN BEALE for Humphrey Robinson at the Signe of the Three Pigeons in PAULS Church-yard 1637. TO THE NOBLE AND MVCH DESERVING Sr. WILLIAM PORTMAN BARONET SIR STartle not my Noble Sir This is no Challenge I present you with but a Flag of truce for though it have an Alarum in the Front and the subject speakes warre altogether and discord yet it prepares to peace such a peace as presupposeth victory and victory life and life Eternity To tell you here the nature of this warre it's feares stratagems dangers sufferings were but to preach by Letter and degrade a Sermon to an Epistle The following discourse shall give you a hint of all where shall find that he that is a true Christian souldier must be at peace with others though he have no concord with himselfe This is the modell of the whole fabrick and this I offer to your Noble hands which when it shall kisse be confident you cannot hold faster than please you try the heart of him that offers it Sicknesse and Age both my companion now are but ill Courtiers and as little acquainted with the nature of Ceremony as the practise A Complement then you cannot stile this but an expression of my zeale to the merits of your dead Brother to whom as I was of old a faithfull Servant so still a true honorer of his Name though not O my unhappinesse an Attendant which I cannot so much ascribe to negligence or error as to Fate But suppose either or all or others I murmure not but blesse rather and blesse thus God preserve you and yours and send you length of dayes and accumulation of honours and fruitfulnesse of Loynes that as your Fortunes looke greene and flourishing so may your Name also to the glory of your God the service of your Countrey the hope of your friends the Ioy of your Allies and the Prayers of Your wel-wishing Honorer HVM SYDENHAM THE CHRISTIAN DUELL The second Sermon GAL. 5.17 The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the Flesh T Is not my intent to perplex either my selfe or Auditorie with any curiositie of Preface or division the words are already at variance betweene themselves and so instead of farther dividing them the Text at this
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
mind inlightned only not renewed is nothing else but a neighborly discord between flesh flesh but for any solid debate between will and will affections and affections flesh and spirit indeed they have none at all it being true of these which God by Mosis spake of those of the old world My spirit shall no longer contend with them for they are but flesh Gen. 6.3 The other sort we may fitly resemble to the Children of Ephraim who being harnessed and carrying Bowes Psal 78.10 turned themselves backe in the day of Battell Men that make a shrewd flourish in the vant-guard of Religion their Bow is ready bent against the wicked and they shoot their Arrowes even bitter words desperately bitter but when they come themselves to the shocke and brunt of the Battell to the handy-gripe of the Adversary to the tryall indeed of their spirituall manhood they instantly forsake their Colours and the Roe is not more swift on the Mountaines than they to flye from the Standard and Ensigne under which they fought running from one Clime and Church unto another from an old one here founded on a Rock Councels Synods Decrees Harmony of Fathers the practice of the very Apostles themselvs to a new one built on the sands of their owne fancies the brain-sick plantations of unstable souls And such are so farre from any true spirituall valour or wisdome that our Apostle bestowes on them the livery of Fooles their first March and On-set might perhaps bee in the Spirit but their Retrait doubtles was in the flesh their Comming on in lightning and thunder but their Going off in smoake And here in this throng I cannot passe without shouldring a little with the Anabaptist and the Persectist men forsooth so wholly seal'd up by the spirit that they seeme to disclaime the least impressions of the flesh and pretending that they see visions do nothing else but dreame dreames lull'd along in a confidence of their legall righteousnesse and slumbring in an opinion of their perfection in this life as if they were no longer militant but triumphant But as in the mouth of the foolish there is virga superbiae saith Solomon Arod of pride Prov. 13.3 so in the mouth of those proudones there is virga stultitiae A rod of folly If I iustifie my selfe mine owne mouth shall condemne mee if I say I am Perfect I shall also proue my selfe perverse Iob 9 20. Loe here in one text these great vaunters with all their flourishes and bravado's are put unto the foile and the justice and perfection they so wrestle for throwne flat upon the backe even by Iob himselfe as just a man the text saies as any the earth had and yet hee tels them plainely by his owne experience tht if they glory in the one their owne mouth shall condemne them if they but mention the other they shall prove themselves as indeed they are wayward and perverse Shall wee leave the just and enquire after the perfect man David the man after Gods owne heart and such a one was a perfect man you will say if the earth had any wee shall finde him complayning of uncleanesse within and vehemently importuning the Lord for purging and washing Psal 51.7 S. Hieron Regmonach c. p. 15 In carne justorum imperfecta tantum perfectio est saith Saint Ierome the most righteous upon earth here have but an imperfect perfection and those that would bee thought more righteous then others a perfect imperfection And therefore I may say of these phanatickespirits as Hanna the wife of Elkanah said of Peninnah Talke no more so exceeding proudly 1. Sam. 2.3 let not arrogance come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are waighed His hand is ever at the beame his eye looking how it turnes and so when your clipt your washt gold comes to the scale your false stamp'd shekle to the ballance of his sanctuary how will it bee found lighter then vanity it selfe how more vaine then nothing for if Angells before him are charged with folly how much more those that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust that are crush'd before the moth Iob 4.19 That of the Athenians to Pompey the great Ipsd est perfectio hominis invenisse se non esse perfectum D. Aug. Serm. 49. de temp D. Aug. Serm. 44. de temp was a remarkable saying Thou art so much the more a God by how much thou acknowledgest thy selfe to bee a man To bee an excellent man is to confesse himselfe to be a man indeed that is fraile imperfect haec est vera regenitorum persectio si imperfectos se esse agnoscant saith Saint Augustine then is a regenerate man come to his true perfection here when hee knowes that hee hath none here truly And questionlesse 2. Cor. 4.16 2. Cor. 7.1 If the inward man bee renewed day by day and that wee are yet to perfect holines in the feare of God as S. Paul testifies then this renovation and sanctification being not yet absolutely ripe cannot produce any perfect operation untill it selfe bee perfect and therefore our habituall justice is so farre forth compleate and no farther D. Aug. lib. 3. contra 2. Epist pelag cap. 7. ut ad eius perfectionem pertineat ipsius imperfectionis et in veritate cognitio et in humilitate confessio A true knowledge and an humble confession of our own frailties is the greatest justice and perfection we have about us Though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much soape yet thy iniquity is still marked before thee Jer. 2.22 And Though I wash my selfe with snow-water and make my hands never so clean yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch and my very cloathes shall abhorre me Job 9.30 31. There is no perfection then in this earthly Tabernacle None none as wee are Sojourners and in our pilgrimage But at our Iournies end in the Palestina above None of Degrees I meane but of Parts onely As an Infant is a perfect man because hee hath the perfect proportion of a Man there is nothing monstrous nothing defective or superfluous in him in respect of the Organs or Parts but in respect of the Faculties and Functions and the Operation of the Organicall parts which is the perfection of Degrees hee hath none at all for though hee have members yet they cannot doe their office The feet walke not the hands feede not the head judgeth not So it is in our spirituall growth where there is onely perfctio viae not patriae S. Augustine detrmining this point with a Tum erit perfectio Boni quandoerit consummatio mali A perfection of Good and a consummation of Evill have their Joynt-inheritances in the Kingdome of Heaven so the Father in his 15. Sermon de verbis Apostoli No doubt Aegypt here may afford us her Garlike her Onions and her Flesh-pots but the Flowings of milke and honey and the
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
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
for instead of those Magnificats and Hosannahs which were proper onely to the true God Act. 19. v. 28. 34. Great great is the Lord and worthy to bee praised how excellent is thy Name in all the world Psal 8. Here the unruly shout of Crafis-men and Shrine-makers so busie are Mechannicks still in matters of Religion are loud for a more glittering Deity and cause both the streets the Temple to ring Act. 19.26 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Great is Diana of the Ephesians Saint Paul therefore pittying their blindnesse and willing to reduce them from darknesse unto light tells them that they were no Gods which were made with hands but the braine-sicke sancies of those that made them and withall acquaints them with a new Divinity which they had not heard of and hearing perhaps could not well understand opens to them the mystery of a Trinity tells them of Three Persons in one God nay that three persons were but one God and yet every one of these persons a true God that there was a Father from everlasting which was Divine and a Sonne so too very God of very God begotten before the world and before all time and yet brought forth after there was a world and in the fulnesse of time This could be no lesse than a Riddle to Flesh and bloud and more apt to stagger a naturall understanding than informe it But that God who wrought miraculously in the Creation of man doth also in his Conversion His Apostle here shall doe that by the secret operations of the spirit which the subtle powers of Art and reason with all their acutenesse and sublimity cannot possibly aspire unto And now he begins to preach unto them Christ Iesus and him crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 a matter of folly unto some of stumbling unto others but of salvation here and this great worke is not to be done suddainely or with a flash but requireth both time and teares diligence and compasaion as if in matters of spirituall imployment God not onely expected the tongue or hands of his Ministers but their eyes also for so Saint Paul tells the Elders of Ephesus at Myletum Acts 20. that Hee ceased not to warne every one night and day with teares And this he did for the space of three yeeres untill a commotion being rais'd against him by Demetrius the Silver-smith one that more lov'd his owne gaine than Religion as most mercenary men doe hee departed into Macedonia leaving Timothy at Ephesus for the farther growth of that Doctrine which hee there seeded Not long after going bound in spirit to Ierusalem and from thence to Rome where he was in bonds and fearing that the Dog might againe to his old vomit hee writes this Epistle to Ephesus by Tychicus the Deacon 2 Tim. 4.12 not to the dispersed Iewes there or Iudais'd Christians as some conjecture for these had formerly revolted 2 Tim. 1.15 Phygellus and Hermogenes being chiefe but to the converted Gentiles for so he himselfe profess'd Ego Paulus vinct us Iesu Christi pro vobis Gentibus in the 3. chapter of this Epistle In which he is not onely carefull for the suppressing of Heresies which were like to rise or else already growne principally those of the Symonian Sect and the Schooles of the Gnosticks Epiph. lib. 1. contra Haeres as Epiphanius notes but also for the perfecting of that great worke of Christianity which hee had with such danger begun and with such difficulty proceeded in And therefore here like a discreet Monitor he first puts them in mind of their primitive condition what they formerly were Yee were sometimes darknesse Then of their present state and happinesse what they now stood in Ye are light in the Lord And lastly of their conversation in the future what a holy strictnesse should carry them in after-times Walke as children of light These are the branches the Text naturally spreads unto and because they are large ones and each particular full enough for the whole body of a discourse I shall pitch my meditations for the present on the former onely and so confine both my selfe and them to the very front of the Text Eratis olim Tenebrae Ye were sometimes darknesse And here lest we fall a stumbling in the darke and with the Israclite wander up and downe under the Cloud let us inquire a little what darknesse is or rather what it is not then what it is or is not in the Text here and so make up the Analogie betweene both Now darknesse is nothing else but Absentia luminis a Non-residency if I may so stile it or vacancy of light Qui diligenter considerat quid sint tenebrae snil aliud invenit quam lucis absentiam D. Aug. lib. de Gen. ad lit imperfecte And to this purpose Moses tells us that in the beginning when the earth was without forme and void Tencbrae erant super Abyssum Darknesse cover'd the face of the deepe which is all one saith Saint Augustine with Non erat lux super abyssum There was no light upon the face of the deepe So that the Father would have darknesse there to be onely Informitas sine lumine A prodigie without light blemishing and dimming that rich beauty and lustre which should radiate and enlighten the whole world And indeed if we critically enquire into the originall of things wee cannot bring darknesse within the verge of Creation wee reade of a Fiat lux let there be light but no where of a Fiant tenebrae let there be darknesse as if with darknesse God had nothing to doe nothing indeed in respect of Creation but of Ordinance or Administration For God made the Species of things Nè vel ipse privat ones non haberent suum ordinem D. Aug. ut supra not privations not made these but dispos'd them least privations themselves should not have their order God managing though not creating them who is the God of Order Now light you know is a created quality not made as I told you but ordain'd onely like a rest in a Song where though there be an intermission of voyce for the present as if there were neither voyce nor Song yet if it be rightly tim'd and order'd makes the Song more melodious and the art fuller Or like shadowes in wel-limn'd Pictures which give the other life and excellence but in themselves Non specie sed ordine placent their shape is not pleasing ' but their order Wee say not nor dare not say that God was the causer of this Ephesian darknesse but doubtlesse he was the Disposer of it otherwise it had never beene advanc'd to this Lux estis in Domino yee are now light in the Lord. God is not the Authour of any obliquity or crookednesse in our wayes but he is the Orderer and turnes them oftentimes to our punishment and his glory Nay oftentimes O the depth and riches of his mercyes ' from our punishment to our owne
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