surprisall here but in a church triumphant where the Palme and the Crowne and the white Robes are layd up and insteed of Drums and Ensignes Hallelujahs to the Lambe for ever I have done now with the text Applicatio ad Magistratum and the two lawes there lex Dei and lex peccati But the occasion of this meeting listen's after a third law and that 's lex Regni which though it be grounded or at least should bee on the lex Dei yet it sometimes fall's unhappily upon the lex peccati Now a warre there is in this law as betweene the former two Inveterate sometimes Irreconciliable and not to be decided but by Deaath war much of the nature of the other between Spirit Flesh a proud spirit for the most part and a stubborne peece of flesh for if there were either humility on the one side or patience on the other the noise of discord would not bee so loud in our streets but the voyce of the turtle would bee heard better in our land There would bee more peace within our walls I am sure more plentiousnes within our habitations What in the first institution was intended as a shield or buckler is us'd at length as a semiter or sword That which should defend mee from the blowes of another is the engine by which I wound him at last and my selfe too The law which in case of in jury or trespasse was ordain'd of old for a Sanctuary is made sometimes little better then a house of correction If I malice another 't is not I must seourge him but the law though it be in mine own power to chastise him with whips yet the law doe it with more state and more fury too for that shall chastise him with Scorpions when all this while the lash falls not so much on the back of the transgressor as his purse and the bleeding of that as the world goe's is as fatal as the other Sed hominum sunt ista non legum the fault is not in the law but in some of her touchy and waspish votaries or if it bee in the law I am sure it is not in the lex Dei nor I hope in this lex Regni but in the lex peccati 'T is the law of sin is to blame here the mighty Holofernes as Castrusian tolde S. Ierom that rebellious lust of ours which thus plaie's the tyrant with our selves and others Ille criminum leno Ille par asitus vitiorum that bawd and parasite of vices which in one act flatters and betraies us This is the Fox with a Fire-brand in the taile that burnes up the corne field of the Philistines the prime wheele and stirrer of all our turbulent motions our unpeaceable proceedings which first sets our pride a-gog and then our malice and at length our revenge and in such a high way of distaste that no sorrow of the partie offending no mediation of friends no tender of sitisfaction no interposing of the Magistrate himselfe can attone or pacifie But as if there were no Gospell upon earth or else no mercy by that Gospell they are still Jewishly bent with their crucifige crucifige the Law the Law And let such implacable Spirits have their fill of it let it enter like water into their bowels and like oyle into their bones let the Law at last be their comfort and not the Gospell let justice have her full swindge and not mercy and so if they will needs have it so Currat Lex let the Law goe on á lege ad legem from one Law to another from the Lex Regni to the Lex Dei from the Court of Common Pleas here below to the great Starre-chamber above where every man shall receive either doom or recompence according to his works The Law all this while is unreproveable you heare no staine nor blemish there but either in the malicious Clyent or Sollicitor or both It being true in this case what Saint Paul spake in another Lex quidem spiritualis illi vero carnales venundati sub peccatò Rom. 7. v. And here some may expect that I should have a fling at the Gowne or at least as the custome of this place is instruct or counsell it But this were to bring drops to a River offer a few mites or pence to a Treasury that is full for no charity can be so barren as to conceive that those should be ill husbands in counselling themselves that so abundantly dispense and communicate to others And indeed how or to what purpose should they receive instructions in a Church here that are taking so many in a Chamber How make use of the Doctrine of the Preacher that are so busie with the breviat of a Clyent But by their leave for I must have leave to tell them so God is herein dishonour'd and the solemnity both of this time and place disparag'd if not prophan'd They are not I presume so straightned with time nor so throng'd with the multitude of affaires but they might sequester one solemne houre for the service of the Lord The hearing of a Sermon can be no great prejudice to the debating of a cause if it bee just and honest and a few Orisons first offer'd in the Temple are a good preparative and prolog to a conscionable and faire pleading at the Barre As for any error else either in their practise or profession I have not to obtrude here or if I had I would not Every man or at least every good man is a Temple to himselfe and hath a Pulpit in his owne bosome where there is a continuall Preacher or Monitor a conscience either accusing or excusing him and one lash of that toucheth more at the quicke than a thousand from the tongue or pen of another Cor hominis saith Saint Augustine aut Dei Thuribulum aut Diaboli every mans heart is an Altar for God or for the Divell and according to the nature or quality of the Sacrifice so it smoakes either to his doome or glory and this is enough for an understanding eare without farther boring it And indeed it is not my practise to pull Gravitie by the beard bring backe the grey haire to the Rod and the Ferule Schoole as some doe a Magistrate and catechise a Judge nay traduce him too with their borrowed and affected Epithites Rampant Couchant Dormant and the like unreverent and saucie follies which are nothing else but the leakings of bottles which are not sound the noyse of Caskes which are both foule and emptie fragments of that broken vessell Salomon speakes of which can containe nothing no not the droppings of their owne vanities For mine own part I have been taught what the word Iudge meaneth both by representation and by office a King one way and a God another and what is that but a God and a God and therefore a God shall admonish him not I and one God I presume may speake roundly to another Hearke then what the God Iekosaphat
mind inlightned only not renewed is nothing else but a neighborly discord between flesh flesh but for any solid debate between will and will affections and affections flesh and spirit indeed they have none at all it being true of these which God by Mosis spake of those of the old world My spirit shall no longer contend with them for they are but flesh Gen. 6.3 The other sort we may fitly resemble to the Children of Ephraim who being harnessed and carrying Bowes Psal 78.10 turned themselves backe in the day of Battell Men that make a shrewd flourish in the vant-guard of Religion their Bow is ready bent against the wicked and they shoot their Arrowes even bitter words desperately bitter but when they come themselves to the shocke and brunt of the Battell to the handy-gripe of the Adversary to the tryall indeed of their spirituall manhood they instantly forsake their Colours and the Roe is not more swift on the Mountaines than they to flye from the Standard and Ensigne under which they fought running from one Clime and Church unto another from an old one here founded on a Rock Councels Synods Decrees Harmony of Fathers the practice of the very Apostles themselvs to a new one built on the sands of their owne fancies the brain-sick plantations of unstable souls And such are so farre from any true spirituall valour or wisdome that our Apostle bestowes on them the livery of Fooles their first March and On-set might perhaps bee in the Spirit but their Retrait doubtles was in the flesh their Comming on in lightning and thunder but their Going off in smoake And here in this throng I cannot passe without shouldring a little with the Anabaptist and the Persectist men forsooth so wholly seal'd up by the spirit that they seeme to disclaime the least impressions of the flesh and pretending that they see visions do nothing else but dreame dreames lull'd along in a confidence of their legall righteousnesse and slumbring in an opinion of their perfection in this life as if they were no longer militant but triumphant But as in the mouth of the foolish there is virga superbiae saith Solomon Arod of pride Prov. 13.3 so in the mouth of those proudones there is virga stultitiae A rod of folly If I iustifie my selfe mine owne mouth shall condemne mee if I say I am Perfect I shall also proue my selfe perverse Iob 9 20. Loe here in one text these great vaunters with all their flourishes and bravado's are put unto the foile and the justice and perfection they so wrestle for throwne flat upon the backe even by Iob himselfe as just a man the text saies as any the earth had and yet hee tels them plainely by his owne experience tht if they glory in the one their owne mouth shall condemne them if they but mention the other they shall prove themselves as indeed they are wayward and perverse Shall wee leave the just and enquire after the perfect man David the man after Gods owne heart and such a one was a perfect man you will say if the earth had any wee shall finde him complayning of uncleanesse within and vehemently importuning the Lord for purging and washing Psal 51.7 S. Hieron Regmonach c. p. 15 In carne justorum imperfecta tantum perfectio est saith Saint Ierome the most righteous upon earth here have but an imperfect perfection and those that would bee thought more righteous then others a perfect imperfection And therefore I may say of these phanatickespirits as Hanna the wife of Elkanah said of Peninnah Talke no more so exceeding proudly 1. Sam. 2.3 let not arrogance come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are waighed His hand is ever at the beame his eye looking how it turnes and so when your clipt your washt gold comes to the scale your false stamp'd shekle to the ballance of his sanctuary how will it bee found lighter then vanity it selfe how more vaine then nothing for if Angells before him are charged with folly how much more those that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust that are crush'd before the moth Iob 4.19 That of the Athenians to Pompey the great Ipsd est perfectio hominis invenisse se non esse perfectum D. Aug. Serm. 49. de temp D. Aug. Serm. 44. de temp was a remarkable saying Thou art so much the more a God by how much thou acknowledgest thy selfe to bee a man To bee an excellent man is to confesse himselfe to be a man indeed that is fraile imperfect haec est vera regenitorum persectio si imperfectos se esse agnoscant saith Saint Augustine then is a regenerate man come to his true perfection here when hee knowes that hee hath none here truly And questionlesse 2. Cor. 4.16 2. Cor. 7.1 If the inward man bee renewed day by day and that wee are yet to perfect holines in the feare of God as S. Paul testifies then this renovation and sanctification being not yet absolutely ripe cannot produce any perfect operation untill it selfe bee perfect and therefore our habituall justice is so farre forth compleate and no farther D. Aug. lib. 3. contra 2. Epist pelag cap. 7. ut ad eius perfectionem pertineat ipsius imperfectionis et in veritate cognitio et in humilitate confessio A true knowledge and an humble confession of our own frailties is the greatest justice and perfection we have about us Though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much soape yet thy iniquity is still marked before thee Jer. 2.22 And Though I wash my selfe with snow-water and make my hands never so clean yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch and my very cloathes shall abhorre me Job 9.30 31. There is no perfection then in this earthly Tabernacle None none as wee are Sojourners and in our pilgrimage But at our Iournies end in the Palestina above None of Degrees I meane but of Parts onely As an Infant is a perfect man because hee hath the perfect proportion of a Man there is nothing monstrous nothing defective or superfluous in him in respect of the Organs or Parts but in respect of the Faculties and Functions and the Operation of the Organicall parts which is the perfection of Degrees hee hath none at all for though hee have members yet they cannot doe their office The feet walke not the hands feede not the head judgeth not So it is in our spirituall growth where there is onely perfctio viae not patriae S. Augustine detrmining this point with a Tum erit perfectio Boni quandoerit consummatio mali A perfection of Good and a consummation of Evill have their Joynt-inheritances in the Kingdome of Heaven so the Father in his 15. Sermon de verbis Apostoli No doubt Aegypt here may afford us her Garlike her Onions and her Flesh-pots but the Flowings of milke and honey and the
stones and sometimes Divells as our Ephisian here did whose impietyes consisted most in the darker practises of Magicke and Idolatry the one a plaine trassicke with the Divell the other a tribute to him Now what is the cause of these prodigious aberrations but an invellectuall blindnesse a darknesse of the inward man A stupid ignorance of God and things divine And therefore as a wicked man is not quis but quasi quis or else non homo sed quasi cadaver hominis as Boetius hath it So an ignorant man is not a man properly but a quasi homo as it were a man Nay quasi cadaver hominis as a carkasse of a man that was And where is a fit place for a carkasse but in darkenesse So I told you before my bed is made in the darkenesse And what is this darkenesse but death I goe whence I shall not returne saith Iob And where's that To the land of darkenesse and the shadow of death Iob 10.22 Tolerabilior est poena vivere non posse quam nescire 'T is a calmer punishment to be depriv'd of life then knowledge For knowledge is a posting unto life and ignorance a lingring or hanging backe unto death And therefore Solomon tells us that the holy Spirit of discipline will remove from thoughts that are without understanding Wise 1.5 God dwells not with him that dwels not with himselfe that is Multi multa sciunt seipsos nesciunt cum tamen summa philosophia sit suipsius cognitio Hugo de sancto victore lib. 1. de Anima cap. 9. not with one that knowes not himselfe and his God too So that in every man there is a double knowledge not only requir'd but necessary unto life Dei Sui of God and of Himselfe Of which he that is ignorant comes within the lash of this Olim tenebrae and is not only Darkenesse but in the way to utter Darkenesse Such an Ignorance being not only dangerous or desperate but Ad perditionem Damnable too So sayes Saint Bernard in his 36. Sermon upon the Canticles Nosceteipsum was one of the proverbs of a secular wiseman and Reverentia Iehovae of a sacred First know thy Selfe that morality enjoynes and doth distinguish Man from Beast then know thy God and feare him too This Divinity requires and divides man from man makes that Spirit which was before-Nature and is no lesse then Caput scientiae The spring-head as well of life as knowledge Prov. 1.7 And indeed what hope of life without this knowledge or of this knowledg without humility and feare of humility in thy selfe which as it is the Mother of vertues so of happinesse of feare in respect of God which as it is the beginning of Wisedome so of divine Love Non potes amare quem nescias aut habere quem non amaveris S. Bern. 37. Serm. super Cant. thou canst neither love him whom thou knowest not nor enjoy him truely whom thou dost not love And therefore labour to know thy selfe that thou mayst feare God and so feare and know God that thou maist love him too In altero initiaris ad sapientiam in altero consummaris the one is the first step to wisdome the other the staire-head that as earth which is the footstoole this as Heaven which is the Throne of God Moreover as from the knowledge of God proceeds his feare so from the same knowledge love and from both hope which is the bloud and marrow of faith and saith of life and glory Fili mi Reverere Iehovam saith the Wiseman My son feare the Lord and what then Salutare erit umbilico tuo medulla ossibus tuis It shall be health to thy navell and marrow to thy bones And is this feare then of the Lord all No but get wisedome and understanding too and why why Longitudo dierum in dextra ejus in sinistra divitiae honor Length of dayes is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour Pro. 3.8 Now as knowledge doth mightily advance man and sets him up to God so simplicity pulls him downe and thrusts him below himselfe It unmans him makes him beast buries him in shame contempt and obloquie whither in a morall or civill or spirituall way The Stoicke will tell us Loco ignominiae est apud indignum dignitas Titles or Fortunes cast on a worthlesse and simple man tend more to his scorne than honour for hee is but Simia in tecto or Latro in scalis as Ludolphus hath it Apishnesse or robbery advanc'd De vita Christi part 1. cap. 68. and in the vote and opinion even of the multitude Non ad honorem sed ad derisionem he is rather expos'd to laughter than applause as if men by nature were taught to shun the presence of him in whom they perceiv'd not the lippes of knowledge Prov. 14.7 And indeed such a one is but a meere Bladder of honour some thing that time and Fortune have blowne up as children doe their bubbles to game and sport at a meere windy Globe which hath colour but no weight Titulus sine homine Contra Avaritiam lib. 2. p. 68. saith the sweet-tongu'd Salvian a Title without a man or a man without his Soule or a Soule without her ballace Reason and Vnderstanding Man that is in Honour and understands not what becomes of him Aske the Psalmist and he will tell you Similis fit jumentis hee is made like unto the beasts what Beasts Iumentis qui pereunt to the beasts that perish Psal 49.20 Other Beasts are not like or equall to him but beyond him Isai 1.3 God giving them a distinct preheminence the Oxe and the Asse before his Israel Nay the Storke the Turtle the Crane and the Swallow with the rest of that winged Common-wealth are better disciplin'd than he they know their appointed times and observe them too But Populus meus non intelligit my people doe not understand S. Bern. Serm. 37. in Cant. Ier. 8.7 An non tibi videtur ipsis Bestiis quodammodo bestialior esse home ratione vigens non vivens saith Saint Bernard A man endued with reason and not squaring his actions accordingly is hee not more brutish than the beast himselfe Yes questionlesse for though the one be steer'd altogether by sence reason being a peculiar property and prerogative of man yet man faltring either in the use of it or end the beast hath got the start of him and is become if not more rationall more regular than he Si ignor as ô pulcherrima foeminarum sayes the Beloved to the Spouse If thou knowest not O thou fairest amongst women if thou knowest not what then what Egredere post greges tuos Get thee behind the footsteps of thy Flocke and feed thy Kids besides thy Shepheards Tents Cant. 1.8 Marke the Text sayes not get thee out with thy Flocke or to it but behind it And Ad quid hoc saith Saint Bernard what meanes
imaginations following their owne Spirit by which they see nothing and leaving that Spirit by which they might see all So that now wee cannot but discover here a double Spirit the two Spirits spoken of by Saint Paul Dei Hominis 1. Cor. 2.11 By which wee may cleerely distinguish the foolish from the wise the false from the true Prophet That followes the tracke of his owne wheele meerely as his spirit or fancy gyres him This turnes his thoughts with those wheeles in Ezekiel whithersoever the spirit was to goe they went Thither was there spirit te goe too Ezec. 1.20 The one is in Egypt still in darkenesse darkenesse so thicke that it may be felt a grosse and affected stupidity The other followeth his pillar of fire his inspired illuminations and they conduct him to his promised Canaan The former with his darke lanthorne stumbles along the broad way which leads downe to the chambers of Death The latter with a lanthorne too but a light unto his stepps treads that Semitam rectam in the Psalmist and that brings him into the land of the living In fine the foolish Prophet without any divine influence or revelation proprio vaticinatur corde makes the thoughts of his owne heart oraculous when the Prophet of the Lord knowing that the thoughts of the heart are evill continually leaves those vaine suggestions perceiving that he is blinde by nature and must to his poole of Syloam desires to have his Spittle and his Clay wash'd off and so cryes out with David Lord open mine eyes and then I shall see the wonderfull workes of thy Law Here then as there is a double Spirit so a double Prophet And to distinguish either Prophet from his Spirit Saint Augustine borroweth a double word from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and both these from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiro but this latter a Spirit of a courser temper Wee reade in the last of Saint John that Christ breath'd upon his Disciples Spiritum sanctum the Originall there using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for the most part hath reference to the Spirit of Sanctity That the Father appropriates to the wise Prophet In the 2. of Genesis 't is said of Adam that God breath'd into him Spiritum vitae the word of the Septuagint is there * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more frequently used in the expression of humane spirit then divine This he bestowes on the foolish Prophet And therefore some Auncient Romans well verst in the Criticisme of that language D. Aug. lib. 13. C. Dei cap 24. and for the better discovery of the difference in Idioms will not call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritum but Flatum So in the 5. of Esay the vulgar translation reades it Omnem flatum ego feci Flatus no doubt there taken for Anima And so also that of Genesis Halitum not Spiritum breath of life Cap. 2.7 not Spirit though the Chaldee paraphrase to reconcile both joynes there Flatus Spiritus together and so reades God breath'd into man flatum sive animam vitae the soule that is the breath of life Vid. Coqueum in lib. 13. Aug. de Civ Dei cap. 24. and man was made in Spiritum loquentem a speaking Spirit Thus after some strugling with the words we have brought Soule Breath spirit in one and this Spirit in the wise Prophet following the true God It is time now to looke backe unto the Text and there view the foolish Prophet leaving the true God and following his owne Spirit Vae Prophetis insipientibus Woe to the foolish Prophet which followes his owne Spirit And what is that Spirit which he followes By Spirit no doubt are understood the corrupt thoughts and imaginations of the Heart For what in the 2. verse of this chapter was call'd Prephecy of their owne heart is in the Text here following their owne Spirit And indeed in the naturall man Spirit and Imagination are al one in essence though in action and vertue diverse the one receiving the formes and images of things with a kinde of passion and impression of the soule occasion'd by the presence of her objects therefore call'd Imagination The other a subtle facility in the penetration of those formes and images received and therefore Spirit which though for the vivacity and quicknesse of it some have beene pleas'd to stile the image of the living God a taste of the immortall substance a streame of the immortall Divinity a celestiall Ray by which there is a kinde of kinred betweene God and Man there being nothing great with God but Man and nothing great in Man but his Spirit yet if this Spirit be not guided by a higher as the poise and wheele by which it moves but leaving the influence of that followes the motions of its owne breast we shall make it the source of all vanity and error a meere Quack-salver in the Church the seedesman of imposture and debate and the very ground worke of novelty and innovation I have seene folly in the Prophets of Samaria an horrible thing in the Prophets of Ierusalem saith Ieremy What is this thing of Folly and Horrour he so deepely complaines off What They walke in lyes what lyes the visions of their owne heart Ier. 23.16 And doubtles the visions of the heart meerely can be no lesse then lyes and therefore lyes because visions of their owne and therefore their owne lyes too because they walke in them and because they thus walke in them they deceive themselves and then there is no hath in them Truth hath abounded by my lie to Gods glory Rom. 3.3 meum dixit mendacium saith S. Augustine veritatem Dei Truth there hath reference to God Lye unto Man unto man properly and solely and therefore Meum mendacium my lye and why my lye because I follow mine owne Spirit which being mans cannot but erre and so prove false and not the Spirit of God which being Gods cannot but be true The Prophet then that thus followes his owne Spirit cannot but speake according to that Spirit which hee followes And he that so speakes must of necessity lye Qui de seipso loquitur Mendax est He that speakes of his owne is a verylyer Iohn 8.44 God only is to be beleeved in all he sayes and that because he sayes it Truth depends not on any humane revelation or authority I may lawfully dispute whether it will passe for current except it be stamp'd with a Sic dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord God * Audi dicit Dominus non dicit Donatus aut Rogatus aut Vincentius aut Ambrosius aut Augustâ—nus sed dicit Dom nus D. Aug. Epist 48. there are no Principles in man if Divinity hath not either reveal'd or confirm'd them All the rest is but a fancy or a dreame the heate of some private spirit at first which taking bud and blossome