his conscience and his reason v. 16. he is one in whom sin dwells but the Spirit of God does not dwell for no good thing dwels in him v. 18. he is one who is brought into captivity to the law of sin he is a servant of uncleanness with his flesh and members serving the law of sin v. 25. Now if this be a state of regeneration I wonder what is or can be a state of reprobation for though this be the state of Nature yet it cannot be the state of one redeemed by the Spirit of Christ and therefore flatter not your selves any more that it is enough for you to have good desires and bad performances never think that any sin can reign in you and yet you be servants of God that sin can dwell in you and at the same time the Spirit of God can dwell in you too or that life and death can abide together The sum of affairs is this If ye live after the flesh ye shall dy but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live but not else upon any terms whatsoever My Text is one of the hard places of S. Paul which as S. Peter sayes the ignorant and the unstable wrest to their own damnation But because in this case the danger is so imminent and the deception would be so intolerable S. Paul immediately after this Chapter in which under his own person as was usual with him to do he describes the state of a natural man advanced no further than Moses Law and not redeemed by the blood of Christ or inlightned by the Spirit of God and taught by the wiser Lessons and Sermons of the Gospel immediately spends the next Chapter in opposing the Evangelical state to the Legal the Spiritual to the Carnal the Christian to the Natural and tells us plainly he that is redeemed by the blood of Christ is redeemed from the power of sin he that is Christs freed man is not a slave of sin not captive to the Devil at his will he that is in the flesh cannot please God but that every servant of Christ is freed from sin and is a servant of righteousness and redeemed from all his vain conversation for this is the end of Christs coming and cannot be in vain unless we make it so He came to bless us by turning every one of us from our iniquities Now concerning this besides the evidence of the thing itself that S. Paul does not speak these words of himself but by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under his own borrowed person he describes the state of a carnal unredeemed unregenerate person is expresly affirmed by S. Irenaeus and Origen by Tertullian and S. Basil by Theodoret and S. Chrysostom by S. Jerom and sometimes by S. Austin by S. Ambrose and S. Cyril by Macarius and Theophylact and is indeed that true sense and meaning of these words of S. Paul which words none can abuse or misunderstand but to the great prejudice of a holy life and the Patronage of all iniquity But for the stating of this great case of conscience I shall first in short describe to you what are the proper causes which place men and keep them in this state of a necessity of sinning and 2. I shall prove the absolute necessity of coming out of this condition and quitting all our sin 3. In what degree this is to be affected 4. By what Instruments this is to be done and all these being practical will of themselves be sufficient use to the Doctrines and need no other applicatory but a plain exhortation 1. What are the causes of this evil by which we are first placed and so long kept in a necessity of sinning so that we cannot do what good we would nor avoid the evil that we hate The first is the evil state of our Nature And indeed he that considers the dayly experiment of his own weak Nature the ignorance and inconstancy of his soul being like a sick mans legs or the knees of Infants reeling and unstable by disease or by infirmity and the perpetual leaven and germinations the thrustings forth and swelling of his senses running out like new wine into vapours and intoxicating activities will readily confess that though even in nature there may be many good inclinations to many instances of the Divine Commandments yet it can go no further than this velleity this desiring to do good but is not able And upon this account it is that Lactantius brings in the Pagan or natural man complaining Volo equidem non peccare sed vincor indutus enim sum carne fragili imbecillà This is very true and I adde only this caution There is not in the corruption of our nature so much as will save us harmless or make us excusable if we sin against God Natural corruption can make us criminal but not innocent for though by him that willingly abides in the state of mere nature sin cannot be avoided yet no man is in that state longer than he loves to be so for the Grace of God came to rescue us from this evil portion and is alwayes present to give us a new nature and create us over again and therefore though sin is made necessary to the natural man by his impotency and fond loves that is by his unregenerate nature yet in the whole constitution of affairs God hath more then made it up by his Grace if we will make use of it In pueris elucet spes plurimorum quae ubi emoritur aetate manifestum est non defecisse naturam sed curam said Quintilian We cannot tell what we are or what we think in our infancy and when we can know our thoughts we can easily observe that we have learned evil things by evil examples and the corrupt manners of an evil conversation ubi per socordiam vires tempus ingenium defluxêre naturae infirmitas accusatur that indeed is too true we grow lazy and wanton and we lose our time and abuse our parts and do ugly things and lay the fault wholly upon our natural infirmities but we must remember that by this time it is a state of Nature a state of flesh and blood which cannot enter into Heaven The natural man and the natural child are not the same thing in true Divinity The natural child indeed can do no good but the natural man cannot choose but do evil but it is because he will do so he is not born in the second birâ—h and renewed in the Baptism of the Spirit 2. We have brought our selves into an accidental necessity of sinning by the evil principles which are sucked in by great parts of mankind We are taught ways of going to Heaven without forsaking our sins of repentance without restitution of being in charity without hearty forgiveness and without love of believing our sins to be pardoned before they are mortified of trusting in Christs death without conformity to his life of
unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and says Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind Some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisi qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and because the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain from meat and drink even when they are commanded which is just as if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart should refuse to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect the Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore it is fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our iniquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a found of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sense signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is alwayes the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him believing his Word praying for his Spirit supported with his Hope refreshed by his promises recreated by his Comforts and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life that is the true Communion The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent they are the food of our Souls but our Souls must be alive unto God or else they cannot eat It is good to confess our sins as St. James sayes and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion but they absolve none but such as are truly penitent Solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies
frighted Fly vexing themselves with their own reflexions They are cruel in their bargains unmerciful to their tenants and proud as a Barbarian Prince They are for all their fine words impatient of reproof scornful to their Neighbours lovers of money supream in their own thoughts and submit to none all their spiritual life they talk of is nothing but spiritual fancy and illusion they are still under the power of their passions and their sin rules them imperiously and carries them away infallibly Let these men consider there are some men think it impossible to do as much as they do The common swearer cannot leave that vice and talk well and these men that talk thus well think they cannot do as well as they talk but both of them are equally under the power of their respective sins and are equally deceived and equally not the servants of God * This is true but it is equally as true that there is no necessity for all this for it ought and it may be otherwise if we please For I pray be pleased to hear S. Paul Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh There 's your remedy For the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit there 's the cause of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that ye may not or cannot do the things ye would That 's the blessed consequent and product of that cause That is plainly As there is a state of carnality of which S. Paul speaks in my Text so that in that state a man cannot but obey the flesh so there is also a state of spirituality when sin is dead and righteousness is alive and in this state the flesh can no more prevail than the Spirit could do in the other Some men cannot choose but sin for the carnal mind is not subject to God neither indeed can be saith S. Paul but there are also some men that cannot endure any thing that is not good It is a great pain for a temperate man to suffer the disorders of Drunkenness and the shames of Lust are intolerable to a chaste and modest person This also is affirmed by S. John Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him So that you see it is possible for a good man not to commit the sin to which he is tempted but the Apostle sayes more He doth not commit sin neither indeed can he because he is born of God And this is agreable to the words of our Blessed Saviour A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit that is as the child of Hell is carried to Sin pleno impetu he does not check at it he does it and is not troubled so on the other side a child of God is as fully convinced of righteousness and that which is unrighteous is as hateful to him as Colocynths to the taste or the sharpest punctures to the Pupil of the eye We may see something of this in common experiences What man of ordinary prudence and reputation can be tempted to steal or for what price would he be tempted to murder his friend If we did hate all sins as we hate these would it not be as easy to be as innocent in other instances as most men are in these and we should have as few Drunkards as we have thieves In such as these we do not complain in the words of my Text What I would not that I do and what I would I do not Does not every good man overcome all the power of great sins And can he by the Spirit of God and right reason by fear and hope conquer Goliath and beat the sons of the Giant and can he not overcome the little Children of Gath or is it harder to overcome a little sin than a great one Are not the temptations to little sins very little and yet are they greater and stronger than a mighty grace Could the poor Demoniack that liv'd in the graves by the power of the Devil break his iron chains in pieces and cannot he who hath the Spirit of God dissolve the chains of sin Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things saith S. Paul Satis sibi copiarum cum Publio Decio nunquam nimium hostium fore said one in Livie which is best rendred by S. Paul If God be with us who can be against us Nay there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul We are more than Conquerers for even amongst an army of Conquerours there are degrees of exaltation and some serve God like the Centurion and some like S. Peter some like Martha and some like Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all good men conquer their temptation but some with more ease and some with a clearer victory and more than thus Non Solum viperam terimus sed ex ea antidotum conficimus we kill the Viper and make treacle of him that is not only escape from but get advantages by temptations But we commonly are more afraid than hurt Let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us so we read the words of the Apostle but S. Chrysostoms reddition of them is better for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a perfect passive and cannot signifie the strength and irresistibility of sin upon us but the quite contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the sin that is so easily avoided as they that understand that language know very well And if we were so wise and valiant as not to affright our selves with our own terrors we should quickly find that by the help of the Spirit of God we can do more then we thought we could It was said of Alexander Bene ausus est vana contemnere he did no great matter in conquering the Persian because they were a pitiful and a soft people only he understood them to be so and was wise and bold enough not to fear such images and men of clouts But men in the matter of great sins and little do as the Magicians of Aegypt when Moses turned his rod into a Serpent it moved them not but when they saw the Lice and the Flies then they were afraid We see that by the Grace of God we can escape great sins but we start at Flies and a bird out of a Bush disorders us the Lyon in the way troubles us not but a Frog and a Worm affrights us Remember the saying of S. Paul Christ came to redeem to himself a Church and to present it pure and spotless before the Throne of Grace and if you mean to be of this number you must endeavour to be under this qualification that is as Paul laboured to be void of offence both towards God and towards Man And so I have done with the second Proposition It is necessary that all sin great and little should be mortified and dead in
that he have remaining in him no habit of any sin whatsoever Our old man must be crucified the body of sin must be destroyed he must no longer serve sin sin shall not have the dominion over you All these are the Apostles words that is plainly as I have already declared you must not be at that pass that though ye would avoid sin ye cannot For he that is so is a most perfect slave and Christs freed man cannot be so Nay he that loves sin and delights in it hath no liberty indeed but he hath more shew of it than he that obeys it against his will Libertatis servaveris umbram Si quicquid jubeare velis He that loves to be in the place is a less prisoner than he that is confined against his will 2. He that commits any one sin by choice and deliberation is an enemy to God and is under the dominion of the flesh In the case of deliberate sins one act does give the denomination he is an Adulterer that so much as once foully breaks the holy Laws of Marriage He that offends in one is guilty of all saith S. James S. Peters Denial and Davids Adultery had passed on to a fatal issue if the mercy of God and a great repentance had not interceded But they did so no more and so God restored them to Grace and Pardon And in this sense are the words of S. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that does a sin is of the Devil and he that is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does not commit a sin he chooses none he loves none he endures none talia quae non faciet bonae fidei spei Christianus they do no great sin and love no little one A sin chosen and deliberately done is as Tertullians expression is crimen devoratorium salutis it devours salvation For as there are some sins which can be done but once as a man can kill his Father but once or himself but once so in those things which can be repeated a perfect choice is equivalent to a habit it is the same in principle that a habit is in the product In short he is not a child of God that knowingly and deliberately chooses anything that God hates 3. Every Christian ought to attain to such a state of life as that he never sin not only by a long deliberation but also not by passion I do not say that he is not a good Christian who by passion is suddenly surpriz'd and falls into folly but this I say that no passion ought to make him choose a sin For let the sin enter by anger or by desire it is all one if the consent be gain'd It is an ill sign if a man though on the sudden consents to a base action Thus far every good man is tied not only to endeavour but to prevail against his Sin 4. There is one step more which if it be not actually effected it must at least be greatly endeavour'd and the event be left to God and that is that we strive for so great a dominion over our sins and lust as that we be not surpriz'd on a sudden This indeed is a work of time and it is well if it be ever done but it must alwayes be endeavoured But in this particular even good men are sometimes unprosperous S. Epiphanius and S. Chrysostom grew once into choler and they past too far and lost more then their argument they lost their reason and they lost their patience and Epiphanius wished that S. Chrysostom might not die a Bishop and he in a peevish exchange wished that Epiphanius might never return to his Bishoprick when they had forgotten their foolish anger God remembred it and said Amen to both their cursed speakings Nay there is yet a greater example of humane frailty S. Paul and Barnabas were very holy persons but once in a heat they were both to blame they were peevish and parted company This was not very much but God was so displeased even for this little Fly in their Box of Oyntment that their story sayes they never saw one anothers face again These earnest emissions and transportations of passion do sometime declare the weakness of good men but that even here we ought at least to endeavour to be more than Conquerors appears in this because God allows it not and by punishing such follies does manifest that he intends that we should get victory over our suddain passions as well as our natural lusts And so I have done with the third inquiry in what degree God expects our innocence and now I briefly come to the last particular which will make all the rest practicable I am now to tell you how all this can be effected and how we shall get free from the power and dominion of our sins 4. The first great instrument is Faith He that hath Faith like a grain of Mustard seed can remove mountains the mountains of sin shall fall flat at the feet of the Faithful man and shall be removed into the sea the Sea of Christs blood and penitential waters Faith overcometh the world saith S. John and walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh there are two of our enemies gone the world and the flesh by Faith and the Spirit by the Spirit of Faith and as for the Devil put on the shield of Faith and resist the Devil and he will flee from you saith the Apostle and the powers of sin seem insuperable to none but to them that have not Faith we do not believe that God intends we should do what he seems to require of us or else we think that though Gods grace abounds yet sin must superabound expresly against the saying of S. Paul or else we think that the evil spirit is stronger than the good Spirit of God Hear what S. John saith My little children ye are of God and have overcome the evil one for the Spirit that is in you is greater than that which is in the world Believest thou this If you do I shall tell you what may be the event of it When the father of the boy possessed with the Devil told his sad story to Christ he said Master if thou canst do any thing I pray help me Christ answered him If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth N. B. And therefore if you do believe this go to your prayers and go to your guards and go to your labour and try what God will do for you For whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye shall receive them and ye shall have them Now consider Do not we every day pray in the Divine Hymn called Te Deum Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin And in the Collect at morning prayer and grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by thy
his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified Till than we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he haâ—h none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun fâ—om whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is deriv'd Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrunque placitum sayes one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience And he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well-doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely died for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dy for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto Glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude faith it self for faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the Foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not only as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promiâ—e without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but deceive us and turn Religion into words and holiness into hypocrisy and the promises of God into a snare and the truth of God into a ly For when God made a Covenant of faith he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the law of Faith and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works or of the law he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness and incurious walking in a State of disobedience but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance and when he gives us better promises he intends we should
of the Faithful and fasting dayes and acts of external worship are the solemnities and rites of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandâ—inus defined the Righteousness of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts faculties that make up a man must make up our Religion but the heart is Domus principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues with a humble and a good mind with a bountiful heart and a willing Soul and these will command the eye and give laws to the hand and make the shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque a mans soul is the man and so is his Religion and so you are bound to understand it True it is God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must work together with God and the body works together with the soul But no external action can purifie the soul because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats or a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations The sum is this No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart And although it becomes comes us to fulfil all righteousnes even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification Leges non ex verbis sed ex mente intelligendas sayes the Law There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning we must secure his service we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure And therefore our Rigteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery unless our Eyes and Hands be chast and the desires be clean A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her He must hate Sin in all dimensions and in all distance and in every angle of its reception A Christian must not sin and he must not be willing to sin if he durst He must not be lustful and therefore he must not feed high nor drink deep for these make provisions for lust and amongst Christians great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance and whatever ministers to sin and is the way of it it partakes of its nature and its curse For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different Mortification e. g. is a duty of Christianity but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns as St. Benedict did or to burn our flesh like St. Martinian or to tumble in Snows with S. Francis or in pools of water with S Bernard A man may chew Aloes or ly upon the ground or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love and so the thing be done no special Instrument is under a command * But although the Instruments of vertue are free yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not Not only the sin is forbidden but all the wayes that lead to it The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent that is not naturally but good only for their relation sake and in order to their end But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious they are part of the sin they have a share in the phantastick pleasure and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God and are directly in the prohibition For we are commanded to fly from temptation to pray against it to abstain from all appearances of evil to make a covenant with our eyes to pluck them out if there be need And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification they will be innocent only by the measures of humane laws but not by the righteousness of God 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty not only to what is named and what is not named of the same nature and design but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins * Of this nature there are many All violences of Passion Irregularities in Gaming Prodigality of our time Undecency of action doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession aptness to go to Law Ambitus or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother easiness to believe evil of others willingness to report the evil which we hear curiosity of Dyet peevishness toward servants indiscreet and importune standing for place and all excess in ornaments for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and royal Law of Charity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul the word is a word hard to be understood we render it well enough Charity vaunteth not it self and upon this Saint Basil says that an Ecclesiastick person and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a vaunting which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure * These things are like to sins they are of a suspicious nature and not easily to be reconcil'd to the righteousness Evangelical It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends to present his Church to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without spot or wrinkle or any such thing N. B. or any such thing If there be any irregularity that is less than a wrinkle the Evangelical righteousness does not allow it * These are such things which if men will stand to defend possibly a modest Reprover will be more ashamed than an impudent Offender * If I see a person apt to quarrel to take every thing in an ill sense to resent an error deeply to reprove it bitterly to remember it tenaciously to repeat it frequently to upbraid it
unhandsomly I think I have great reason to say that this person does not do what becomes the sweetness of a Christian Spirit If it be replied It is no where forbidden to chide an offending person and that it cannot be a fault to understand when a thing is said or done amiss I cannot return an answer but by saying That suppose nothing of it were a sin yet that every thing of it is so like a sin that it is the worse for it and that it were better not to do so at least I think so and so ought you too if you be curious of your eternal interest a little more tenderness here would do well I cannot say that this dress or this garment or this standing for place is the direct sin of pride but I am sure it looks like it in some persons at least the letting it alone is much better and is very like humility And certain it is that he is dull of hearing who understands not the voice of God unless it be clamorous in an express and a loud Commandment proclaimed with Trumpets and Clarions upon mount Sinai but a willing and an obedient ear understands the still voice of Christ and is ready to obey his meaning at half a word and that is the righteousness Evangelical It not only abstains from Sins named and sins implied but from the beginnings and instruments of sin and from whatsoever is like it The Jews were so great haters of Swine upon pretensions of the Mosaick rites that they would not so much as name a Swine but called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daber Acher another thing And thus the Romans in their Auguries us'd alterum for non bonum The simile of this St. Paul translates to a Christian duty Let not fornication be so much as named amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is comely amongst Christians that is come not near a foul thing speak not of it let it be wholly banished from all your conversation for this niceness and curiosity of duty becometh Saints and is an instance of the righteousness Evangelical I have now done with the first sort of measures of the Christian righteousness these which are the matter of our negative duty these are the measures of our caution and our first innocence But there are greater things behind which although I must croud up into a narrow room yet I must not wholly omit them therefore 4. The fourth thing I shall note to you is that whereas the righteousness of the Pharisees was but a fragment of the broken Tables of Moses the pursuance of some one Grace lacinia sanctitatis a piece of the robe of righteousness the righteousness Evangelical must be like Christs seamless Coat all of a piece from the top to the bottom it must invest the whole Soul Misma Dumah Massah said the Proverb of the Rabbins It is this and it is the other it must be all it must be an universal righteousness not a little knot of holy actions scattered in our lives and drawn into a sum at the day of Judgement but it must be a state of holiness It was said of the Paphlagonian Pigeons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one of them had two hearts but that in our mystical Theologie signifies a wicked man So said Solomon The perverse or wicked man derachaim he is a man of two ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. James expresses an unbeliever a man that will and will not something he does for God and something for the world he hath two mindes and in a good fit in his well days he is full of Repentance and overflows in piety but the paroxysm will return in the day of temptation and then he is gone infallibly But know this that in the righteousness Evangelical one duty cannot be exchang'd for another and three vertues will not make amends for one remaining vice He that oppresses the poor cannot make amends by giving good counsel and if a Priest be Simonaical he cannot be esteemed righteous before God by preaching well and taking care of his charge To be zealous for God and for Religion is good but that will not legitimate cruelty to our Brother It is not enough for a man to be a good Citizen unless he be also a good man But some men build their houses with half a dozen cross sticks and turfe is the foundation and straw is the covering and they think they dwell securely their Religion is made up but of two or three vertues and they think to commute with God some good for some bad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one deadly wound were not enough to destroy the most healthful constitution in the world Deceive not your selves It is all one on which hand we fall Vnum operantur Et calor frigus sic hoc sic illud adurit Sic tenebrae visum sic sol contrarius aufert The Moon may burn us by night as well as the Sun by day and a man may be made blind by the light of the Sun as well as by the darkness of the evening and any one great mischief is enough to destroy one man Some men are very meek and gentle naturally and that they serve God withal they pursue the vertue of their nature that is they tye a stone at the bottom of the well and that 's more than needs the stone will stay there without that trouble and this good inclination will of it self easily proceed to issue and therefore our care and caution should be more carefully imployed in mortification of our natures and acquist of such vertues to which we are more refractory and then cherish the other too even as much as we please but at the same time we are busie in this it may be we are secret Adulterers and that will spoil our confidences in the goodness of the other instance others are greatly bountiful to the poor and love all mankind and hurt no body but themselves but it is a thousand pities to see such loving good natured persons to perish infinitely by one crime and to see such excellent good things thrown away to please an uncontrolled and a stubborn lust but so do some escape out of a pit and are taken in a trap at their going forth and stepping aside to avoid the hoar frost fall into a valley full of Snow The Righteousness Evangelical is another kind of thing it is a holy conversation a God-like life an universal obedience a keeping nothing back from God a Sanctification of the whole man and keeps not the body only but the soul and the spirit unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus 5. And lastly The Pharisaical righteousness was the product of fear and therefore what they must needs do that they would do but no more But the righteousness Evangelical is produced by Love it is managed by Choice and cherished by Delight and fair Experiences Christians are a willing people homines bonae voluntatis men
as is possible to be endured that he hath watched alwayes and never nodded when he could avoid it that he hath loved as much as he could love that he hath waited till he can wait no longer then indeed if he sayes true we must confess that it is not to be understood But is there any man in the World that does all that he can do If there be that man is blameless if there be not then he cannot say but it is his own fault that his sin prevails against him It is true that no man is free from sin but it is as true that no man does as much as he can against it and therefore no man must go about to excuse himself by saying no man is free from his sin and therefore no man can be no not by the powers of grace for he may as well argue thus No man does do all that he can do against it and therefore it is impossible he should do what he can do The argument is apparently foolish and the excuse is weak and the deception visible and sin prevails upon our weak arguings but the consequence is plainly this When any man commits a sin he is guilty before God and he cannot say he could not help it and God is just in punishing every sin and very merciful when he forgives us any but he that sayes he cannot avoid it that he cannot overcome his lust confesses himself a servant of Sin and that he is not yet redeemed by the blood of the Holy Lamb. 5. He that would be advanced beyond the power and necessity of sinning must take great caution concerning his thoughts and secret desires For lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin but if it be suppressed in the conception it comes to nothing but we find it hard to destroy the Serpent when the egg is haâ—ched into a Cockatrice The thought is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no man takes notice of it but lets it alone till the sin be too strong and then we complain we cannot help it Nolo sinas cogitationem crescere Suffer not your thoughts to grow up For they usually come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Basil sayes suddenly and easily and without business but take heed taht you nurse them not but if you chance to stumble mend your pace and if you nod let it awaken you for he only can be a good man that raises himself up at the first trip that strangles his sin in the birth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good men rise up again even before they fall saith S. Chrysostom Now I pray consider that when sin is but in the thought it is easily suppressed and if it be stopt there it can go no further and what great mountain of labour is it then to abstain from our sin Is not the Adultery of the eye easily cured by shutting the eye-lid and cannot the thoughts of the heart be turned aside by doing business by going into company by reading or by sleeping A man may divert his thoughts by shaking of his head by thinking any thing else by thinking nothing Da mihi Christianum saith S. Austin intelligit quod dico Every man that loves God understands this and more than this to be true Now if things be thus and that we may be safe in that which is supposed to be the hardest of all we must needs condemn our selves and lay our faces in the dust when we give up our selves to any sin we cannot be justified by saying we could not help it For as it was decreed by the Fathers of the Arausican Council ad Hoc etiam secundum fidem Catholicam credimus c. This we believe according to the Catholick Faith that have received Baptismal Grace all that are baptiz'd by the aid and cooperation of Christ must and can if they will labour faithfully perform and fulfil those things which belong unto salvation 6. And lastly If sin hath gotten the power of any one of us consider in what degree the sin hath prevailed If but a little the battel will be more easy and the victory more certain but then be sure to do it throughly because there is not much to be done But if sin hath prevailed greatly than indeed you have very much to do therefore begin betimes and defer nor this â—ork till old age shall make it extremely difficult or death shall make it impossible Nam quamvis prope te quamvis temone sub uno Vertentem sese frustra sectabere canthum Cum rota posterior curras in axe secundo If thou beest cast behind if thou hast neglected the duties of thy vigorous age thou shalt never overtake that strength the hinder wheel though bigger than the former and measures more ground at every revolution yet shall never overtake it and all the second counsels of thy old age though undertaken with greater resolution and acted with the strengths of fear and need and pursued with more pertinacious purposes than the early repentances of young men yet shall never overtake those advantages which you lost when you gave your youth to folly and the causes of a sad repentance However if you find it so hard a thing to get from the power of one master-sin if an old Adulterer does dote if an old Drunkard be further from remedy than a young sinner if Covetousness grows with old age if ambition be still more Hydropick and grows more thirsty for every draught of honour you may easily resolve that old age or your last sickness is not so likely to be prosperous in the mortification of our long prevailing sins Do not all men desire to end their dayes in Religion to dye in the arms of the Church to expire under the conduct of a religious man when ye are sick or dying then nothing but prayers And sad complaints and the groans of a tremulous repentance and the faint labours of an almost impossible mortification then the dispised Priest is sent for then he is a good man and his words are Oracles and Religion is truth and sin is a load and the sinner is a fool then we watch for a word of comfort from his mouth as the fearful Prisoner for his fate upon the Judges answer That which is true then is true now and therefore to prevent so intolerable a danger mortifie your sins betime for elâ—e you will hardly mortifie it at all Remember that the snail outwent the Eagle and won the goal because she set out betimes To sum up all every good man is a new Creature and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit which if we heartily pray for and endeavour to obtain we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the heavens which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies and subtilly
insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a law of righteousness and it is a law of the Spirit of Life and changes nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our Souls through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love James II. 24. You see then how that by works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us that we are also justified by works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this justification is wrought by Faith without works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul that this is not wrought without works S. James is as express for his negative as S. Paul was for his affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom faith was imputed for righteousness and therefore not by works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this that S. James uses the very same argument to prove that our justification is by works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac Now which of these sayes true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on faith to the disparagement of good life and the other makes works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recals us to live the life of Jews while one sayes I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtile arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes but because the great end of Faith the design the definition the State the Oeconomy of it is that all believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing senses of the Apostles to understand the question and the duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with allegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righâ—eousness and Works be pleased to consider that the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous in so much that in the Latin Concordances of S. Hieroms Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less than twenty two several senses and acceptations of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them To which if out of my own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration that whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sense as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other senses be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in works for by works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of works it sometimes means the works of the Law sometimes the works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to recieve the favour and the grace of God Now since our good works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as to need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without works in this sense for by such works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of works But because we came into the world to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from sin and to redeem to himself a people zealous of good works and hath to this purpose revealed to us all his Fathers will and destroyed the works of the Devil and gives us his holy Spirit and by him we shall be justified in this obedience therefore when works signifie a sincere hearty endeavour to keep all Gods commands out of a belief in Christ that if we endeavour to do so we shall be helped by his grace and if we really do so we shall be pardoned for what is past and if we continue to do so we shall receive a Crown of Glory therefore
us by the decree of God and it is unalterably certain that every believer must do good works or his believing will signifie little nay more than so every man must be careful to do good works and more yet he must carefully maintain them that is not do them by fits and interrupted returns but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be incumbent upon them to dwell upon them to maintain good works that is to persevere in them But I am yet but in the general be pleased to go along with me in these particular considerations 1. No mans sins are pardoned but in the same measure in which they are mortified destroyed and taken away so that if faith does not cure our sinful Natures it never can justifie it never can procure our pardon And therefore it is that as soon as ever faith in the Lord Jesus was preached at the same time also they preached repentance from dead works in so much that S. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first Principles of Christianity nay the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the faith of Christ. And I pray consider can there be any forgivness of sins without repentance But if an Apostle should preach forgiveneâ—s to all that believe and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin the Sermons of the Apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the Sanctuary of Romulus a device to get togethâ—r all the wicked people of the world and to make them happy without any change of manners Christ came to other purposes he came to sanctifie us and to cleanse us by his Word the word of faith was not for it self but was a design of holiness and the very grace of God did appear for this end that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live holily justly and soberly in this present World he came to gather a People together not like Davids army when Saul pursued him but the armies of the Lord a faithful people a chosen generation and what is that The Spirit of God adds a People zealous of good works Now as Christ prov'd his power to forgive sins by curing the poor mans palsie because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed so the great act of justification of a sinner the pardoning of his sins is then only effected when the spiritual evil is taken away that 's the best indication of a real and an eternal pardon when God takes away the hardness of the heart the love of sin the accursed habit the evil inclination the sin that doth so easily beset us and when that is gone what remains within us that God can hate Nothing stayes behind but Gods creation the work of his own hands the issues of his holy Spirit The faith of a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it destroyes the whole body of sin and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner whom he doth not also purge and râ—scue from the dominion of sin is to affirm that he justifies the wicked that he calls good evil and evil good that he delights in a wicked person that he makes a wicked man all one with himself that he makes the members of a harlot at the same time also the members of Christ. But all this is impossible and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our Blessed Saviour Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Faith ingrafts us into Christ by faith we are inserted into the vine but the plant that is ingrafted must also be parturient and fruitful or else it shall be quite cut off from the root and thrown into the everlasting burning And this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of faith The just shall live by Faith No man shall live by faith but the just man he indeed is justified by faith but no man else the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter That 's the first great consideration in this affair no man is justified in the least sense of justification that is when it means nothing but the pardon of sins but when his sin is mortified and destroyed 2. No man is actually justified but he that is in some measure sanctified For the understanding and clearing of which Proposition we must know that justification when it is attributed to any cause does not alwayes signifie justification actual Thus when it is said in Scripture We are justified by the death of Christ it is but the same thing as to say Christ dyed for us and he rose again for us too that we might indeed be justified in due time and by just measures and dispositions he dyed for our sins and rosâ— again for our justification that is by his death and Resurrection he hath obtained this power and effected this mercy that if we believe him and obey we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the Kingdom But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon of grace and of salvation appears not only by Gods requiring Obedience as a condition on our parts but by his expresly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances in which it is certain and evident that we could not actually be justified For so saith the Scripture We when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that is then was our Justification wrought on Gods part that is then he intended this mercy to us then he resolved to shew us favour to give us Promises and Laws and Conditions and hopes and an infallible Oeconomy of Salvation and when faith layes hold on this Grace and this Justification then we are to do the other part of it that is as God made it potential by the death and resurrection of Christ so we laying hold on these things by Faith and working the Righteousness of Faith that is performing what is required on our parts we I say make it actual and for this very reason it is that the Apostle puts more Emphasis upon the Resurrection of Christ than upon his Death Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again And Christ was both delivered for our sins and is risen again for our justification implying to us that as it is in the principal so it is in the correspondent our sins indeed are potentially pardoned when they are mark'd out for death and crucifixion when by resolving and fighting against sin we dy to sin daily and are so made conformable to his death but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual when we are dead to sin and are risen again unto righteousness then as we are partakers of
Ordinances and makes progressions by the measures of life his infusions are just as our acquisitions and his Graces pursue the methods of nature that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection and that which was weake he makes strong he opens the heart not to receive murmurs or to attend to secret whispers but to hear the Word of God and then he opens the heart and creates a new one and without this new creation this new principle of life we may heare the Word of God but we can never understand it we heare the sound but are never the better unlesse there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the spirit of God the Gospel it self is a dead Letter and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God Do not we see this by a daily experience Even those things which a good man and an evil man know they do not know them both alike A wicked man does know that good is lovely and sin is of an evill and destructive nature and when he is reproved he is convinced and when he is observed he is ashamed and when he hath done he is unsatisfied and when he pursues his sin he does it in the dark Tell him he shall dye and he sighs deeply but he knows it as well as you proceed and say that after death comes Judgement and the poor man believes and trembles He knows that God is angry with him and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow he knows that it is an intolerable truth but it it also undeniable And yet after all this he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no argument against it These notices of things terrible and true passe through his understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the Air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves halfe a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the Crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorialls of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and heare the same Sermons they have capable understandings they both believe what they heare and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a son of man the other as a son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the World and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine principle within him and a new understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more then Knowledge as was rarely well observed by St. Paul Knowledge puffethup but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edify you no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God unlesse the love of God be in your hearts and purifie your souls from all filthinesse of the Flesh and spirit But so it is in the regions of Starrs where a vast body of fire is so divided by excentric motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbes and round shells of plain and purest materialls but where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniforme and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll and now the wonder ceases for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South they being both indifferent to either it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre and makes the same matter turne not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God and so it is in the understandings of men When they all receive the same notions and are taught by the same Master and give full consent to all the propositions and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events it is because God hath sent his Divine spirit and kindles a new fire and creates a braver capacity and applies the actives to the passives and blesses their operation For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea and an indisposition to holy flames like as in the cold Rivers in the North so as the fires will not burn them and the Sun it self will never warme them till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the new Ierusalem bring a holy flame and make it shine and burn The Naturall man saith the holy Apostle cannot perceive the things of the Spirit they are foolishnesse unto him for they are spiritually discerned For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palat or pleases the brutish part of man and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures they must needs seeme as insipid as Cork or the uncondited Mushrom for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily so fill'd with the deliciousnesse of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge that they can never keep the sent of their game 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Chrysostome the fire and water can never mingle so neither can sensuality and the watchfulnesse and wise discerning of the spirit Pilato interroganti de veritate Christus non respondit When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning truth Christ gave him no answer He was not fit to heare it He therefore who so understands the Words of God that he not only believes but loves the proposition he who consents with all his heart
finger may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their heart and be never the wiser All that I shall now say of it is that a good man is united unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a flame touches a flame and combines into splendor and to glory so is the Spirit of a man united unto Christ by the spirit of God These are the friends of God and they best know Gods mind and they only that are so know how much such men do know They have a special Unction from above So that now you are come to the top of all this is the highest round of the Ladder and the Angels stand upon it they dwell in love and Contemplation they worship and obey but dispute not and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about Religion are nothing else but the want of the measures of this State Our light is like a Candle every wind of vain Doctrine blows it out or spends the wax and makes the light tremulous but the lights of Heaven are fixed and bright and shine for ever But that we may speak not only things mysterious but things intelligible how does it come to passe by what means and what Oeconomy is it effected that a holy life is the best determination of all Questions and the surest way of knowledge Is it to be supposed that a Godly man is better enabled to determine the Questions of Purgatory or Transubstantiation is the gift of Chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus and is a temperate man alwayes a better Scholar then a Drunkard To this I answer that in all things in which true wisdom consists Holinesse which is the best wisdom is the surest way of understanding them And this 1. Is effected by Holinesse as a proper and natural instrument for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as the eye sees visible objects and the understanding perceives the Intellectual so does the spirit the things of the Spirit The naturall man saith St. Paul knows not the things of God for they are Spiritually discerned that is they are discovered by a proper light and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pittifully with an imperfect Idea as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw A good man though unlearned in secular notices is like the windows of the Temple narrow without and broad within he sees not so much of what profits not abroad but whatsoever is within and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God that he sees with a broad inspection But all humane learning without God is but blindnesse and ignorant folly But when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 righteousnesse dipt in the wells of Truth it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment or like the light of Heaven it shews it self by its own splendor What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament if you do not feel the virtue of it and the man that can with eloquence and subtilty discourse of the intrumentall efficacy of Baptismal waters talkes ignorantly in respect of him who hath the answer of a good Conscience within and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy all that is the proper knowledge and notice of the good man How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by faith to dwell with him to be united to him to receive him in his heart The good man only understands that the one sees the colour and the other feels the substance the one discourses of the Sacrament and the other receives Christ the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joyn'd to Christ that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone flesh of his flesh and of the same spirit with his Lord. We talk much of Reformation and blessed be God once we have felt the good of it But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension The Woman that lost her groate everrit domum not evertit she swept the house she did not turn the house out of doors That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof and broak the Walls and was digging down the Foundation Now among all the pretensions of Reformation who can tell better what is and what is not true Reformation then he that is truly Reform'd himself He knows what pleases God and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable saith Solomon He cannot be cousen'd by names of things and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious himself is humble and obedient and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schisme and Disobedience and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing and therefore to be layd aside or if they be complicated with action and are ministeries of practice no man can judge them so well as the spirituall man That which best pleases God that which does good to our Neighbour that which teaches sobriety that which combines with Government that which speaks honour of God and does him honour that only is Truth Holinesse therefore is a proper and naturall instrument of Divine knowledge and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proportion No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time but that hath been the method ever since There was no Church till then was ever Governed without an Apostle or a Bishop and since then they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too Nolumus hunc regnare and when we see men pretending Religion and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy they may upon the stock of holinesse easily reprove their own folly by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst the most intolerable parts of Popery For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant cause and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent if this were the proper
season for it 2. Holinesse is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holinesse but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and uselesse and contentious and to one of these heads all Questions will return and therefore in all from Holinesse we have the best Instructions And this brings me to the next Particle of the generall Consideration For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God this new nature this vital principle within us it is that which is worth our learning not vaine and empty idle and insignificant notions in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbes and your flesh unfixed from its bones you are no better and no wiser If the Spirit of God be your Teacher he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God and become like to him and enjoy him for ever by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen and what is any man the more learned if he heares the disputes whether Adam should have multiplied Children in the state of Innocence and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past and troubled themselves with tying and untying Knots like Hypochondriacs in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing and troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise and very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocall and unnaturall Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and carefull and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts then can be obtain'd by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeale in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist then to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the body of Religion not so much for the garment of the body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things which the Soul and spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holinesse of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Naturall medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may rely The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recitall of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to doe and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jewes revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdome superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29.11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime
ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightnesse of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions and to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandements and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye cannot know him And this is the particular I am now to speak to The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the wayes and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse Secreta Dei Deo nostro et filiis domus ejus Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House saith the Jewish Proverb Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the height of all that is to be taught or learned Love is Obedience and we learn his words best when we practise them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle those things which they that learn ought to practise even while they practise they will best learn Quisquis non venit profectò nec didicit Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam ut quod quisque didicerit non tantum cognoscendo videat sed etiam volendo appetat agedo perficiat St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ we shall never learn for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his spirit that what any one learns he not only sees it by knowledge but desires it by choice and perfects it by practice 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience we find not only in things of practise but even in deepest mysteries not only the choicest and most eminent Saints but even every good man can best tell what is true and best reprove an error He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity and does it by words and names of mans invention or by such which signifie contingently if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers by the Cabala of Letters by the distinctions of the School and by the weak inventions of disputing people if he only talks of Essences and existencies Hypostases and personalities distinctions without difference and priority in Coequalities and unity in Pluralities and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects may amuse himself and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration he may build three Tabernacles in his head and talke something but he knows not what But the good man that feels the power of the Father and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost the Comforter this man though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy Blessed and Undivided Trinity but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life the wisdome of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith and the love of the spirit of God making him to become like unto God He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spirituall generation of the Father and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings and from thence is become an old Disciple and strong and grown old in Religion and the conversation of the Spirit this man best understands the secret and undiscernable Oeconomie he feels this unintelligible mysterie and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express and his Metaphysics can never prove In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledge and Jesus Christ is best known by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and if the Kingdom of God be in us then we know God and are known of him and when we communicate of the Spirit of God when we pray for him and have received him and entertained him and dwelt with him and warmed our selves by his holy fires then we know him too But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically there is no knowing of God Theologically and as he ought to be known but by the measures of Holinesse and the proper light of the Spirit of God But in this case Experience is the best learning and Christianity is the best institution and the Spirit of God is the best teacher and Holinesse is the greatest wisdome and he that sins most is the most Ignorant and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit and will not enter into a polluted Soul But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is wisdom said the wise Ben-Sirach And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you and so I shall dismisse you from this attention Many wayes have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion and all the Counsels of man have yet proved ineffective Let us now try Gods Method let us betake our selves to live holily and then the spirit of God will lead us into all truth And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of if he be a Villaine the opinion of his Sect as it will not save his Soul so neither will it do good to the publick But this is a sure Rule
at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this that beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of Dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believ'd and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of S. Pauls argument If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God then for one that is so to be carried up to heaven and partake of his glory The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle But he that hath risen once may rise again and this is as sure as that he that dies once may die again and die for ever But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith shall according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah Enter into his chamber of death when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him and there he shall be hidden for a little moment But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing with Christs dead body shall they arise all shall rise but every man in his own order Christ the first fruits then they that are Christs at his coming Amen I have now done with my Meditation of the Resurrection but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all God's Servants but when we consider that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must twice exuere hominem put off the Old man and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the Grave it is Vinum Myrrhatum there is Myrrhe put into our Wine it is wholsom but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation But no man can escape it After that the Great Cyrus had rul'd long in a mighty Empire yet there came a Message from Heaven not so sad it may be yet as decretory as the Hand-writing on the wall that arrested his Successor Darius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare thy self O Cyrus and then go unto the Gods he laid aside his Tiar and his beauteous Diadem and cover'd his face with a cloth and in a single Linen laid his honour'd head in a poor humble Grave and none of us all can avoid this sentence For if Wit and Learning great Fame and great Experience if wise Notices of things and an honourable Fortune if Courage and Skill if Prelacy and an honourable Age if any thing that could give Greatness and Immunity to a wise and prudent man could have been put in bar against a sad day and have gone for good plea this sad Scene of Sorrows had not been the entertainment of this Assembly But tell me where are those great Masters who while they liv'd flourish'd in their studies Jam eorum praebendas alii possident nescio utrum de iis cogitant Other men have got their Prebends and their Dignities and who knows whether ever they remember them or no While they liv'd they seem'd nothing when they are dead every man for a while speaks of them what they please and afterwards they are as if they had not been But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial Immortality for brave and worthy persons and the Friendships which our dead contracted while they were alive require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can but they expire in monethly minds or at most in a faint and declining Anniversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most Reverend Primate whose death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore and we have great obligation to remember his very many worthy Deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised Church S. Paul made an excellent Funeral Oration as it were instituting a Feast of All Saints Who all died having obtained a good report and that excellent Preacher in the 11. chap. of the Hebrews made a Sermon of their Commemoration For since good men while they are alive have their conversation in Heaven when they are in Heaven 't is also fit that they should in their good names live upon Earth And as their great Examples are an excellent Sermon to the living and the praising them when Envy and Flattery can have no Interest to interpose as it is the best and most vigorous Sermon and Incentive to great things so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them is great unthankfulness to God and to good men When Dorcas died the Apostle came to see the dead Corps and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the Coats that she whilest she lived wrought with her own hands She was a good Needle-woman and a good Huswife and did good to Mankind in her little way and that it self ought not to be forgotten and the Apostle himself was not displeased with their little Sermons and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the women made upon that sad interview But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable Father and Brother and if there remains no more of that Envy which usually obscures the splendour of living Hero's if you can with your charitable though weeping eyes behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great Prelate aâ—d not object the failings of Humanity to the participation of the