revenge and crowne him What a pleasing walk did the three children find in Nebuchadnezzars Fornace whiles the Sonne of God made up the fourth What Bath was so suppling and delightfull as the rack of Theodorus the Martyr whiles Gods Angel wip't and refreshed his distended joynts With what confidence and resolution did the Father of the faithfull break thorow all troubles and tentations when he heard God say Feare not Abraham I am thy sheild and thy exceeding great reward Certainly all feare and discouragement arises from a conceit of our owne weaknesse and an adversaries power and advantage take away these two and the mind of man remaines undanted and both these vanish at the sight of the Invisible For what weaknesse can we apprehend when God is our strength or what adversary can we feare when the Almighty is with us Good Ezekiah was never so much scarred with all the bravings of Rabshakeh as when he said Am I come up hither without the Lord Had God taken part against his degenerated people what could the arme of flesh have availed for their defence As contrarily when hee strikes in what can the gates of hell do Is it multitude that can give us courage as Elisha's servant said there are more with us than against us It is strength behold the weaknesse of God is stronger than men than divels How justly do we contemne all visible powers when we see the Invisible when we see him not empty handed but standing ready with a crowne of glory to reward our conquest Vincenti dabitur Are we therfore persecuted for professing the truth of the Gospell and cast into a dark and desolate dungeon where no glimmering of light is allowed to look in upon us where we are so farre from being suffered to see our friends that we cannot see so much as the face of our Keeper Lo even there and thence we may yet see the Invisible and in spight of malice in his light wee can see light Do we lie groaning upon the painfull bed of our sicknesse closing our curtaines about us to keep out the light which now growes offensive to our sight yea doth death begin to seize upon our eyes and to dim and thicken our sight so as now we cannot discerne our dearest friends that stand ready to close them for us yet even then may we most cleerly see the Invisible and that sight is able to cheere us up against all the pangs and terrours of death and to make us triumph even in dying SECT X. LAstly what other doth this vision of God but enter us into our heaven Blessed are the pure in heart saith our Saviour upon the Mount for they shall see God Lo he that only can give blessednesse hath promised it to the pure and he that best knowes wherin blessednesse consists tells us it is in the seeing of God The blessed Spirits above both Angels and soules of the departed Saints see him cleerly without any vaile drawne over their glorified eyes we wretched Pilgrims here on earth must see him as wee may there is too much clay in our eyes and too many and to grosse vapors of ignorance and infidelity betwixt us and him for a full and perfect vision Yet even here we see him truly though not cleerly and the stronger our faith is the clearer is our sight and the clearer our sight is the greater is our measure of blessednesse Neither is it a meere presence or a bare simple vision which doth either inchoate or perfect our happinesse we find there was a day when the Sonnes of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them and the wickeds eyes shall see him whom they have peirced we see so much of God in the way of our blisse as we enjoy I know not how the eye in these spirituall objects betwixt which and us there is a gracious relation hath a certaine kind of applicatory faculty which in these materiall things it wanteth O taste and see saith the Psalmist how sweet the Lord is as if our sight were more inwardly apprehensive of heavenly pleasures than our most sensible gustation In these bodily objects either there is no operation upon the sense or to no purpose The eye is never the warmer for seeing a fire a farre off nor the colder for beholding yce we are no whit the richer for seeing heapes of treasure nor the fairer for viewing anothers beauty But such a powerfull and glorious influence there is of God into our spirituall senses that we cannot see him by the eye of our faith here and not be the happier we cannot see him above by the eye of our separated soules and not be perfectly glorious and the one of these doth necessarily make way for the other for what is grace here but glory begun and what is glory above but grace perfected Whosoever therfore here hath pitcht the eye of his faith upon the Invisible doth but continue his prospect when he comes to heaven the place is changed the object is the same the act more compleat As then we do ever look to have our eyes blessed with the perpetuall vision of God in the highest heavens let us acquaint them before hand with the constant and continuall sight of him in this vale of mortality SECT XI NO sooner have our eyes beene thus lifted up above the hills to the sight of the Invisible than they must be instantly cast downe and turned inwards to see our owne wretchednesse how weak and poore we are how fraile how vaine and momentany how destitute of all good how obnoxious to all sinne and misery Contrarieties make all things better discerned And surely however it be cōmonly seene that the neernesse of the object is an hindrance to the sight yet here the more closely we behold our owne condition the more cleerly we shall discerne and the more fully shall we be convinced of this unpleasing truth It is not for us to look back like the heires of some decayed house at what we were whoever was the better for a past happinesse Alas what are we now miserable dust and ashes earth at the best at the worst hell Our being is vanity our substance corruption our life is but a blast our flesh wormes-meat our beginning impotent above all creatures even wormes can crawle forward so soone as they are so cannot we our continuance short and troublesome our end grievous who can assure himselfe of one minute of time of one dramme of contentment But woe is me other creatures are fraile too none but man is sinfull our soule is not more excellent than this tainture of it is odious and deadly our composition laies us open to mortality but our sinne exposes us to the eternall wrath of God and the issue of it eternall damnation The grave waits for us as men hell as sinners Beasts compare with us in our being in our sinning Devils insult over us And now since the spring
liquid body and how tamed and confined by thine Almightinesse How justly didst thou expostulate with thy people of old by thy Prophet Ieremy Feare yee not mee saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof tosse themselves yet they cannot prevaile though they roare yet can they not passe over it And what a stupendious work of omnipotence is it that thou O God hast hanged up this huge globe of water and earth in the midst of a yeelding aire without any stay or foundation save thine owne eternall decree How wonderfull art thou in thy mighty winds which whence they come and whither they go thou only knowest in thy dreadfull thunders and lightnings in thy threatning Comets and other fiery exhalations With what marvellous variety of creatures hast thou peopled all these thy roomy elements all of severall kinds fashions natures dispositions uses and yet all their innumerable motions actions events are predetermined and over-ruled by thine all-wise and almighty providence What man can but open his eyes and see round about him these demonstrations of thy divine power and wisedome and not inwardly praise thee in thine excellent greatnesse For my owne practise I cannot find a better notion wherby to work my heart to an inward adoration of God than this Thou that hast made all this great world and guidest and governest it and fillest and comprehendest it being thy selfe infinite and incomprehensible And I am sure there can be no higher representation of the divine greatnesse unto our selves Although withall we may find enough at home for what man that lookes no further than himselfe and sees the goodly frame of his body erected and imployed for the harbour of a spirituall and immortall soule can choose but say I will praise thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made SECT III. SVrely could we forget all the rest of the world it is enough to fetch us upon our knees and to strike an holy awe into us to think that in him we live and move and have our being For in these our particular obligations there is a mixed sense both of the greatnesse and goodnesse of our God which as it manifestly showes it selfe in the wondrous work of our excellent creation so most of all magnifies it selfe in the exceedingly gratious work of our redemption Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared saith the sweet Singer of Israel Lo power doth not more command this holy feare than mercy doth though both here meet together for as there was infinite mercy mixed with power in thus creating us so also there is a no lesse mighty power mixed with infinite mercy in our redemption What heart can but awfully adore thy soveraigne mercy O blessed God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ in sending thine only and coequall Sonne the Sonne of thy love the Sonne of thine eternall essence out of thy bosome downe from the height of celestiall glory into this vale of teares and death to abase himselfe in the susception of our nature to clothe himselfe with the ragges of our humanity to indure temptation shame death for us O blessed Iesu the redeemer of mankind what soule can be capable of a sufficient adoration of thine inconceive able mercy in thy meane and despicable incarnation in thy miserable and toilsome life in thy bloudy agony in thine ignominious and tormenting passion in thy wofull sense of thy fathers wrath in our stead and lastly in thy bitter and painfull death thou that knewest no sinne wert made sinne for us thou that art omnipotent would'st die and by thy death hast victoriously triumphed over death and hell It is enough O Saviour it is more than enough to ravish our hearts with love and to bruise them with a loving feare O blessed Spirit the God of comfort who but thou only can make our soules sensible of thy unspeakable mercy in applying to us the wonderfull benefit of this our deare redemption in the great work of our inchoate regeneration in the mortifying of our evill and corrupt affections in raising us to the life of grace and preparing us for the life of glory O God if mercy be proper to attract feare how must our hearts in all these respects needs be filled with all awfull regard unto thy divine bounty Oh how great is the goodnesse that thou hast laid up for those that feare thee even before the sonnes of men SECT IV. NOw we may not think this inward adoration of the greatnesse goodnes of God to be one simple act but that which is sweetly compounded of the improvement of many holy affections for there cannot but be love mixed with this feare The feare of the Lord is the beginning of love and this feare must be mixed with joy Rejoyce in him with trembling and this feare and joy is still mixed with hope For in the feare of the Lord is strong confidence and the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy As therefore we are wont to say that our bodies are not neither can bee nourished with any simple ingredient so may we truly say of our soules that they neither receive any comfort or establishment nor execute any powers of theirs by any sole single affection but require a gracious mixture for both As that father said of obedience we may truly say of grace that it is all copulative Neither may wee think that one only impression of this holy feare and inward adoration will serve the turne to season all our following disposition and carriage but there must be a virtuall continuation thereof in all the progresse of our lives Our Schooles do here seasonably distinguish of perpetuity of whether the second act when all our severall motions and actions are so held on as that there is no cessation or intermission of their performance which wee cannot here expect Or of the first act when there is an habit of this inward adoration settled upon the heart so constantly that it is never put off by what ever occurrences so as whatsoever we do whatsoever we indeavour hath a secret relation hereunto And this second way we must attaine unto if ever we will aspire to any comfort in the fruition of Gods presence here upon earth and our meet disposition towards him I have often thought of that deep and serious question of the late judicious and honourable Sir Fulke Grevil Lord Brook a man worthy of a fairer death and everlasting memory moved to a learned kinsman of mine much interessed in that Noble man who when he was discoursing of an incident matter very considerable was taken off with this quick interrogation of that wise and noble person What is that to the Infinite as secretly implying that all our thoughts and discourse must be reduced thither and
every where must bee acknowledged to be ever in a glorious manner present with us manifesting his presence most eminently in the high heavens and yet filling both heaven and earth with the Majesty of his glory In him it is that we live and move and have our being he comprehends the whole world himselfe being only incomprehensible secluded from no place included in no place neerer to us than our owne soules when we die we part from them from him we cannot part with whom remotenesse of place can make no difference time no change when the heart is thus throughly assured it is in a faire way to see the Invisible for now after all the former impediments the hinderance of distance is taken away and nothing remaineth but that the eye bee so affected and imployed hereabouts as it ought SECT V. TO which purpose in the third place there must be an exaltation and a fortification of our sight An exaltation rasing it above our wonted pitch for our heart is so inured and confined to bodily objects that except it bee somewhat raised above it selfe it is not capable of spirituall things A fortification of our sight so raised for our visive beames are at our best so weak that they are not able to look upon a sight so spiritually glorious alas wee cannot so much as look upon the Sunne-beames but we are dazeled and blinded with that which gives us opportunity of sight how shall wee be able to behold the infinite resplendence of him that made it St. Stephen was a true Eagle that blessed protomartyrs cleared exalted fortified sight pierced the heavens and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God Whence was this vigor and perspicacity Hee was full of the holy Ghost that Spirit of God that was within him gave both clearnesse and strength in such miraculous manner to the eyes of him who should strait-way see as hee was seene who should instantly by the eye of his glorified soule no lesse see the incomprehensible Majesty of God the Father than now by his bodily eye he saw the glorified body of the Son of God It must bee the only work of the same Spirit of God within us that must enable us both to the faculty and exercise of seeing the Invisible for the performance whereof there must be in the fourth place a trajection of the visuall beames of the soule thorow all earthly occurrences terminating them only in God as now we look thorow the aire at any object but our sight passes thorow it and rests not in it whiles we are here we cannot but see the world even the holiest eye cannot look off it but it is to us as the vast aire is betwixt us and the Starry heaven only for passage all is translucid till the sight arrive there there it meetes with that solid object of perfect contentment and happinesse wherewith it is throughly bounded When it hath therefore attained thither there must bee in the fifth place a certaine divine irradiation of the mind which is now filled and taken up with a lightsome apprehension of an infinite Majesty of a glory incomprehensible and boundlesse attended and adored by millions of heavenly Angels and glorified Spirits whereto way must be made by the conceit of a transcendent light wherein God dwelleth as far above this outward light which we see as that is above darknesse For though we may not in our thoughts liken God to any created brightnesse bee it never so glorious yet nothing forbids us to think of the place of his eternall habitation as infinitely resplendent above the comparison of those beames which any creature can cast forth He is clothed saith the Psalmist with light as with a garment Lo when wee cannot see a mans soule yet we may see his body and when we cannot see the body yet wee may see the clothes Even so though wee may not think to see the essence of God yet we may see and conceive of this his resplendent garment of light Farre be it therefore from us when we would look up to a Deity to have our eye-sight terminated in a gloomy opacity and sad darksomnesse which hath no affinity with any appendance of that divine Majesty who hath thought good to describe it selfe by light Let our hearts adore such an infinite spirit as that the light wherein he dwels is inaccessible the light which he hath and is is inconceiveable and rather rest themselves in an humble and devout adoration of what they cannot know than weary themselves with a curious search of what they cannot comprehend A simple and meek kind of astonishment and admiration beseemes us here better than a bold and busie disquisition But if this outward light which of all visible creatures comes neerest the nature of a spirit shall seeme too materiall to expresse the glory of that blessed habitation of the Highest Let the mind labour to apprehend an intellectuall light which may be so to our understanding as this bodily light is to our sense purely spirituall and transcendently glorious and let it desire to wonder at that which it can never conceive How should this light be inaccessible if it were such as our either sense or reason could attaine unto SECT VI. WHen we have attained to this comfortable and heavenly illumination there must be in the sixt place a fixing of the eye upon this beatificall object so as it may be free from distraction and wandring Certainly there is nothing more apt to be miscarried than the eye every new sight winnes it away from that which last allured it It is not hard or unusuall to have some sudden short glympses of this happy vision which yet the next toy fetches off and makes us to forget like as the last wave washeth off the impression of the former what are we the better for this than that patient who having the filme too early raised from his eye sees the light for the present but shall never see any more Would wee see God to purpose when we have once set eye upon him we may not suffer our selves by any means to lose the sight of him againe but must follow it still with a constant and eager intention Like as the Disciples of Christ when they had fixed their eyes upon their ascending Saviour could not be taken off with the presence of Angels but sent their eye-beames after him into heaven so earnestly that the reproofe of those glorious spirits could hardly pull them off You are now ready to tell me this is a fit task for us when we are in our heaven and to plead the difficulty of such our settlement in this region of change where our eyes cannot but bee forced aside with the necessity of our worldly occasions and to question the possibility of viewing two objects at once God and the world not considering that herein lyes the improvement of the Christians skill in these divine Opticks The carnall eye looks through God at the world The
he find that the deceitfulnesse of riches will be apt to beguile good soules he deales with them as carefull gardiners are wont to do by those trees from which they expect fayre fruit abate the number of their blossomes as more caring they should be good than full Lastly then How can we account those arguments of favour which the best have had least Even the great Lord of all the world for whom heaven it selfe was too strait when he would come down and converse with men could say The Foxes have holes and the fowles of heaven have nests but the son of man hath not where to rest his head And when the tribute mony was demanded is faine to send for it to the next fish Shortly wore out his few dayes upon earth in so penall a way that his sorrowes were read in his face in so much as when he was but two and thirty yeares of age the by-standers could say Thou art not yet fifty What proofes of divine favour then are these to presume upon which the worst have which the best want which God oft-times gives in judgement denyes in mercy SECT XVII THere cannot bee a more sure remedy for presumtion of abilities than to take an exact survay of our graces both of their truth and degrees Satan is a great imposter hee that was once an Angell of light knowes how to seeme so still when hee left to bee an Angell hee began to bee a Serpent and his continuall experience cannot but have added to his Art so as he knowes how to counterfeit graces both in himselfe and his in so exquisite a fashion that it is not for every eye to discerne them from true We see to what perfection Mechanicall imitation hath attayned what precious stone hath Nature yeelded which is not so artificially counterfeited both in the colour and lustre that only the skilfull Lapidary can descry it Pearles so resembled that for whitenesse cleernesse smoothnesse they dare contend with the true Gold so cunningly multiplyed and tinctured that neither the eye can distinguish it nor the touch scarce the crucible So as Art would seeme to bee an Havilah whose Gold is good whiles Nature is an Ophir whose Gold is exceeding good What marvell is it then if crafty Spirits can make so faire representations of spirituall excellencies as may well deceive ordinary judgements The Pythonesse's Samuel was so like the true that Saul adored him for such And Iannes and Iambres made their wooden Serpent to crawle so nimbly and hisse so fiercely that till Moses his Serpent devoured theirs the beholders knew not whether were more formidable Some false things seeme more probable than many truths there must be therefore much serious and accurate disquisition ere we can passe a true judgement betwixt apparent and reall graces Neither would it aske lesse than a volume to state the differences whereby we may discriminate counterfeit vertues from true in all their severall specialties they are faced alike they are clad alike the markes are inward and scarce discernable by any but the owners eyes In a generality we shall thus descry them in our owne hearts True grace is right-bred of a divine originall and comes down from above even from the father of lights Gods spirit working with and by his own ordinances produceth it in the soule and feeds it by the same holy meanes it is wrought The counterfeit is earth-bred arising from mere nature out of the grounds of sensualialitie True grace drives at no other end than the glory of the giver and scornes to look lower than heaven The counterfeit aimes at nothing but vaine applause or carnall advantage not caring to reach an inch above his own head True grace is apt to crosse the plausiblest inclinations of corrupt nature and chears up the heart to a delihgtfull performance of all good duties as the best pastime The counterfeit is a meere parasite of fleshly appetite and findes no harshnesse but in holy devotions True grace is undantedly constant in all opposition and like a well wrought vault is so much the stronger by how much more weight it undergoes This metall is purer for the fire this Eagle can look upon the hottest Sunne The counterfeit showes most gloriously in prosperity but when the evill day commeth it looks like the skinne of a dead Camelion nasty and deformed Lastly true grace is best alone the counterfeit is all for witnesses In briefe if in a holy jealousie of our own deceitfulnesse wee shall put dayly interrogatories to our hearts and passe them under severe examinations we shall not bee in danger to presume upon our mistaken graces but the more we search the more cause we shall find of our humiliation and of an awfull recognition of Gods mercy and our own unworthinesse SECT XVIII THe way not to presume upon salvation is in an humble modesty to content our selves with the clearely revealed will of our Maker not prying into his counsells but attending his commands It is a grave word wherein the vulgar translation expresses that place of Salomon Scrutator majestatis opprimetur à gloria hee that searcheth into majesty shall bee overwhelmed with glory Amongst those sixteene places of the Bible which in the Hebrew are marked with a speciall note of regard that is one The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that wee may do all the words of this Law Wherein our maine care must bee both not to sever in our conceit the end from the meanes and withall to take the meanes along with us in our way to the end It is for the heavenly Angels to climbe downe the ladder from heaven to earth It is for us onely to climbe up from earth to heaven Bold men what do we begin at Gods eternall decree of our election and thence descend to the effects of it in our effectuall calling in our lively and stedfast faith in our sad and serious repentance in our holy and unblameable obedience in our unfaileable perseverance This course is saucily preposterous What have wee to do to be rifling the hidden counsells of the Highest Let us look to our owne wayes Wee have his word for this that if wee do truly beleeve repent obey persevere wee shall bee saved that if wee do heartily desire and effectually indeavour in the carefull use of his appointed meanes to attaine unto these saving dispositions of the soule wee shall bee sure not to faile of the successe What need wee to look any further than conscionably and cheerefully to do what we are enjoyned and faithfully and comfortably to expect what hee hath promised Let it be our care not to be wanting in the parts of our duty to God we are sure hee cannot be wanting in his gracious performances unto us But if wee in a groundlesse conceit of an election shall let loose the reines to our sinfull desires and vicious
salvation Of our modest consideration of the waies and counsels of God Sect. 19. The extreames on the other hand 1. Of the feare of horrour how to be remdyed Sect. 20. 2. Of the feare of distrust with the remedy thereof Conclusion A recapitulation of the whole OF THE SIGHT and FEARE of the ALMIGHTY The First Book The Proem NOthing is more easie to observe than that the mind of man beeing ever prone to extremities is no sooner fetcht off from Superstition than it is apt to fall upō Prophanenesse finding no meane betwixt excesse of devotion and an irreligious neglect No wise Christian who hath so much as sojourned in the world can choose but feele and with griefe of heart confesse this truth We are ready to think of Gods matters as no better than our owne And a saucy kind of familiarity this way hath bred a palpable contempt so as we walk with the great God of Heaven as with our fellow and think of his sacred Ordinances as either some common imployment or fashionable superfluity Out of an earnest desire therefore to settle in my selfe and others right thoughts and meet dispositions of heart towards the glorious and infinite Majesty of our God and his holy services wherein we are all apt to be too defective I have put my pen upon this seasonable task beseeching that Almighty God whose work it is to blesse it both in my hand and in the perufall of all Readers whom I beseech to know that I have written this not for their eyes but for their hearts and therefore charge them as they tender the good of their owne soules not to rest in the bare speculation but to work themselves to a serious and sensible practice of these holy prescriptions as without which they shall never have either true hold of God or found peace and comfort in their owne soules Come then yee children hearken unto me and I shall teach you the feare of the Lord There cannot be a fitter lesson for me in the improvement of my age to reade nor for your spirituall advantage to take out One glance of a thought of this kind is worth a volume of quarrelsome litigation SECT II. AS above we shall need no words when we shall be all spirit and our language shall be all thoughts so below wee cannot but want words wherein to cloath the true notions of our hearts I never yet could find a tongue that yeelded any one terme to notifie the awfull disposition of the heart towards God wee are wont to call it Feare but this appellation comes farre too short for this signifies an affection whereas this which we treat of is no other than an excellent vertue yea a grace rather yea rather a precious composition of many divine graces and vertues It is no marvell therefore if the Spirit of God have wont under this one word to comprehend all that belongs either to the apprehension or adoration of a God For this alone includes all the humble constitution of an holy soule and all the answerable demeanure of a mortified creature neither is there any thing so well becomming an heart sensible of infinitenesse as this which wee are faine to mis-name Feare To speak properly there is no feare but of evill and that w ch we justly call servile which is a doubtfull expectation of something that may be hurtfull to us and this when it prevailes is horror and dreadfull confusion an affection or perturbation rather fit for the gallies or hell it selfe Love casts it out as that which is ever accompanied with a kind of hate and so will we we are meditating of such a temper of the heart as in the continuance of it is attended with blessednesse as in the exercise of it is fixed upon infinite greatnesse and infinite goodnesse and in the meane time is accompanied with unspeakable peace and contentment in the Soule And yet who so had a desire to retaine the word if our Ethick Doctors would give him leave might say that affections well imployed upon excellent objects turne vertues so love though commonly marshelled in those lower ranks of the soule yet when it is elevated to the All-glorious God is justly styled the highest of Theologicall vertues yea when it rises but to the levell of our brethren it is Christian charity so griefe for sinne is holy penitence and what more heavenly grace can be incident into the soule than joy in the holy Ghost Neither is it otherwise with Feare when it is taken up with worldly occurrents of paine losse shame it is no better than a troublesome passion but when wee speak of the feare of God the case and style is so altered that the breast of a Christian is not capable of a more divine grace But not to dwell in syllables nor to examine curious points of morality That which we speak of is no other than a reverentiall awe of the holy and infinite majesty of God constantly and unremovably setled in the soule A disposition so requisite that he who hath it cannot but be a Saint and he that hath it not is in a sort without God in the world To the producing whereof there is need of a double apprehension The one of an incomprehensible excellence and inseparable presence of God The other of a most miserable vilenesse and as it were nothingnesse of our selves The former is that which the spirit of God calls the sight of the Invisible For sight is a sense of the quickest and surest perception so as in seeing of God we apprehend him infinitely glorious in all that he is in all that he hath in all that he doth and intimately present to us with us in us SECT II. LEt us then first see what that Sight is wherein we cannot have a more meet patterne than Moses that exposed infant who in his cradle of Bulrushes was drawne out of the flagges of Nilus is a true embleme of a regenerate soule taken up out of the mercy of a dangerous world in whose waves he is naturally sinking Hee that was saved from the waters saw God in fire and in an holy curiosity hasted to see the Bush that burned and consumed not Let our godly zeale carry us as fast to see what he saw and make us eagerly ambitious of his eyes of his Art Surely Moses as St. Stephen tels us was learned in all the wisedome of the Egyptians Hee was not a greater Courtier than a Scholler But Moses his Opricks were more worth than all the rest of his skill All Egypt and Chaldea to boot though they were famous of old for Mathematick Sciences could not teach him this Art of seeing the Invisible As only the Sunne gives us light to see it selfe so only the Invisible God gives a man power to see himselfe that is Invisible There is a threefold world objected to humane apprehension A sensible world an intelligible a spirituall or divine and accordingly man hath three sorts of eyes
soft at free ease neither would that evill spirit wish for any more pleasing repose it flatters the soule with an impossible impunity it shifts off necessary vengeance Lastly whiles other dispositions do but yeild to an hell this invites it By how much more wofull it is by so muâ—h more carefull must we be to avoid it SECT XIV IF we care for our souls then we shall zealously apply our selves to prevent this hellish evill which shall bee done if wee shall constantly use all meanes to keepe the heart tender whereof the first is Frequent meditation upon the judgements of God attending sinners it is the Apostles owne prescript Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare For our God is a consuming fire Could wee but stoop downe a little and looke into hell wee should never come thither the apprehension of those torments would be sure to keep us from sinning and and impenitence It is a true observation of Cyrill that the want of beleefe is guilty of all our obdurednesse for should it be told thee saith that Father that a secular Iudge intends to doome thee to bee burned alive to morrow how busily wouldst thou imploy the remaining time to prevent the judgement how eagerly wouldst thou runne about how submissively and importunately wouldst thou sue and beg for pardon how readily wouldest thou poure out thy mony to those friends that should purchase it and why wouldest thou do all this but because thou doubtest not of the truth of the report Were our hearts no lesse convinced of the designation of an everlasting burning to the rebellious and impenitent could we lesse bestirre our selves To this purpose also it will much conduce that we meditate often of our owne frailty and momentanynesse no evill can fasten upon the soule of that man that hath death ever before his eyes That father said well he easily contemnes all things that thinks to die every day The servant that said my master deferres his comming was he that revelled in the house and beat his fellowes he durst not have done it if he had seene his master at the doore No whit lesse prevalent a remedy of security is a firme resolution of the soule to repell the first motions to what soever sinne whose nature as experience tells us is to gather strength by continuance commonly all onsets are weakest in their beginnings and are then most easily and safely resisted Custome can never grow where no action will be admitted to make a precedent It is well observed by that learned Chancellour of Paris that some filthy and blasphemous cogitations are better overcome by contemning them than by answering them If either way they bee repulsed the heart is safe from security But thirdly if we have beene so farre overtaken as to give way to the perpetration of evill our care must be to work our hearts to a speedy renovation by repentance If sinne have seized upon the soule it may not settle there this is that which will else work a palpable indisposition Let a knife be wet with the strongest aqua fortis and presently wipt dry againe the mettall is yet smooth and bewrayeth no change but if that moist fire bee suffered to rest upon it a while it eates into the blade and leaves behind some deep notes of corrosion It is delay in these cases that breeds the utmost danger Let a candle that is casually put out be speedily rekindled at the next flame neither is the scent offended nor the wick unapt to be strait-way re-inlightned stay but a while the whole roome complaines of the noysome smell and it will cost perhaps much puffing and dipping in ashes ere it can recover the lost light That which Salomon advises in matter of suretiship we must do in the case of our sinne speedily extricate our selves and give no sleep to our eyes till we bee freed from so dangerous an engagement Moreover unto these it must bee our maine care not to give any check to the conscience upon whatsoever occasions That power hath as a keene so a tender edge and easie to be rebated when that dictates to a man some duty or the refraining of some doubtfull action he that disobeyes it makes way for an induration for when that faculty hath once received a discouragement it will not be apt to controule us in evill but growes into a carelesse neglect of what we do or omit and so declines to an utter senselessenesse As therefore wee must bee carefull to have our consciences duly regulated by the infallible word of God so must wee be no lesse carefull still to follow the guidance of our conscience in all our wayes And that all these things may be performed with effect we must bee sure that wee do constantly observe all our set exercises of piety hearing reading receiving the blessed Sacrament prayer and especially strict selfe examination whereby wee may come to espy our first failings and correct our very propensions to evill One said well that nature doth not more abhorre vacuity than grace doth idlenesse now all these if they seeme harsh and tedious to corrupt nature yet to the renewed heart familiarly conversant in them nothing is more pleasing and cordiall The Philosopher could say and find that vertuous actions are delightfull to well disposed minds in so much as it is defined for the surest argument of a good habit fully acquired that wee find contentment and delectation in good performances Lastly because ill used prosperity is apt to obdure the heart we must be sure to settle in our selves a right estimation of all these worldly things which indeed are as they are taken I may well say of riches as the Iewish Rabbins had wont to say of their Cabala with a good heart they are good otherwise they are no better than the Mammon of iniquity and indeed worse than want but at their best they are such as are utterly unable to yeeld true contentment to the soule they are good for use ill for fruition they are for the hand to imploy not for the heart to set up his rest in hereupon it is that the holiest men have still both inclined and perswaded to their contempt That great master of meditation applauded it in his friend the Cardinal of Cambray as the happiest condition that all these earthly and temporall things which his eye beheld were tedious unto him And Saint Bernard magnifies in this name his deare acquaintance Gilbert Bishop of London that even in that state he would live poore and the same Father would have his Monke to take most joy and think himselfe then welcommest when the coursest fare was set before him answerable whereunto but beyond it was the diet of Valentine a rigorous Votary who for ten yeares together would eat nothing but bread dipt in water wherein wormwood was steept And of that other his fellow who steept his
have wee heard to boast of those graces whereto they beene perfect strangers How have wee knowne some that have pretended to no lesse illumination than Pisanus reports of Iohn of Alverne who in a rapture was elavated above every creature and his soule swallowed up in the abisse of the divinity when it hath beene indeed nothing but a fanaticall illusion How ordinarily do wee find men challenging no meane share in a lively faith spirituall joy fervent zeale true sanctity when in the meane while they have embraced nothing but the clouds of their owne fancies instead of these heavenly graces and by this meanes have stript themselves of the possibility of those holy vertues which they falsly soothed in themselves for who can care to seeke for that which he thinks he hath already Men do not so much covet as arrogate spirituall gifts Every Zidkijah can say which way went the spirit of God from mee to speake unto thee and like a spirituall Epicure can clap himselfe on the breast with Soule take thy ease thou hast grace enough layd up for many yeares from this opinion of satiety arises a necessary carelesnesse of better indeavors and a contemptuous undervaluation of the poore stock of grace in others It being commonly incident into these presuming soules that was of old wont to be said of the Tartars that they are better invaders of other mens possessions than keepers of their owne those censures then which they should spend upon their owne secret corruptions they are ready to cast upon the seeming enormities of their neighbours And as if they would go contrary to the Apostles charge Be not high minded but feare these men are high-minded and feare not The way leades to the end the presumption of the way to the presumption of the end over-weening and misprision of grace to an over-reckoning of an undue salvation Good God with what confidence have I heard some not over-conscionable men talke of the assurance of their heaven as if the way thither were so short and so plaine that they could not misse it as if that passage had neither danger nor difficulty as if it were but a remove from the Lobby to the great Chamber wherein they can neither erre nor fall Here need no harsh exercises of mortification here are no misdoubts of Gods desertions no selfe-conflicts no flashes of troubled consciences but all faire and smooth Have they sinned the score is crossed by their surety have they forfeited their soules their ransome is payd is justice offended mercy hath satisfied Shortly they have by Acesius his ladder climbed up into heaven and stollen the sight of the Book of life and found their name there and who can obliterate it I cannot forget a bold word which many yeeres ago I heard fall from a man whom I conceived not to have had any extraordinary reason of confidence If I should heare God say there shall but one man be saved I would strait say That is I Lord. Surely the man was in good favour with himselfe in what termes soever hee stood with the Almighty Not that I condemne an holy and well-grounded resolution of our spirituall estate I know who hath charged us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure Had it not been at all feisible our wise and good God had not tasked our diligence with it and had it been easie and obvious it might even without diligence of study and endeavour have beene effected Now as one said of Evangelicall Councels I must say of this high pitch of Christianity It is not for every man to mount up this steep hill of assurance every soule must breathe and pant towards it as he may even as wee would and must to perfection hee is as rare as happy that attaines it Give mee a man that hath worne out himselfe with a strict austerity who by many secret bickerings hath mastered his sturdy and rebellious corruptions who in a trembling awfulnesse walks constantly with his God keeping a severe watch over all his wayes assiduous and fervent in his devotions Shorly who hath spent his time in heaven before-hand why should I not beleeve that God hath sealed up to such a soule an assecurance of his future glory Some transient acts of interposed doubting may and will glance into the holiest heart but a formed habit of doubt falles not into such an eminence of grace This is not a lesson for every novice to take out whose maine care must ever bee to work out his salvation with feare and trembling As for spirituall security let him labour towards it as that which hee would most gladly compasse but not brag of it too soone as that which he hath already compassed SECT XVI AS there is no disease incident into the body for which nature hath not provided a remedy so neither is there any spirituall complaint incident into the soule for which grace affords not a redresse The way of the generall cure of presumption is to take a just estimate of our priviledges and abilities and to work the heart to a true selfe-dejection and humiliation under the mighty hand of God Particularly he can never presume upon those outward commodities that seriously considers how they are valued by the owner and giver of them Where are the most curious and rich Pearles layd up but in the mud of the sea And what is the earth but marsupium Domini as Saint Malacby termd it of old Gods purse wherein he puts his most precious jewells and mettalles And what baser peece hath the world than this repository And if it please him to lay them out how doth hee think them worthy to be bestowed He fills the belly of the ungodly with his hidden treasure saith the Psalmist and The earth is given into the hands of the wicked saith holy Iob in his answer to Bildad neither is it other that he observes in his reply to Zophar The Tabernacles of the robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hands God bringeth abundantly How then can we esteeme those things as pledges of favour which God makes choyce to cast upon enemies which mere naturall men have contemned as not worthy their affectation or regard with what scorne did those naked Brachmanni the relation is fatherd upon Saint Ambrose repell the profered gold And if at any time it hath pleased him whose the earth is and the fullnesse thereof to lade his deere ones with this thick clay as himselfe stiles it and to store them with abundance he doth it not without a further blessing of sanctification Some kinds of fishes there are that passe for delicate with our great masters of the palate which yet must have the dangerous string in their backs puld out ere they can bee safely fed upon Such is worldly wealth and prosperity The wise and holy God plucks out their venome when he will have them serv'd up for dainties to his childrens table Or if
practises thereupon growing idle or unprofitable wee make divine mercy a Pander to our uncleannesse and justly perish in our wicked presumption SECT XIX THe other extreame followes It may seeme a harsh word but it is a true one that there may bee an evill feare of a good God A feare of horror and a feare of distrust That God who is love it selfe is terrible to a wicked heart Even in the beginning our first progenitor ran from the face of his late maker and hid him in the thickets For it is a true observation of Tertullian no wickednesse can bee done without feare because not without the conscience of doing it Neither can any man flee from himselfe as Bernard wittily and this conscience reads the terrible things that God writes against the sinner and holds the glasse wherein guilty eyes may see the killing frownes of the Almighty Now offensive objects cause the spirits to retire as Philosophy and experience teacheth us whereupon followes a necessary trepidation in the whole frame of the body And now the wicked heart could wish there were no God or which is all one that this God had not power to avenge himselfe and finding that after all his impotent volitions the Almighty will bee still and ever himselfe he is unspeakably affrighted with the expectation of that just hand which hee cannot avoid This terror if through the improvement of Gods mercy at the last it drive the sinner to a true penitence makes an happy amends for its owne anguish otherwise it is but the first flash of that unquenchable fire which is prepared for damned soules In this case men do not so much feare God as are afraid of him and such a torturing feare is never but joyned with heart-burning and hatred wherin sinners demeane themselves to God as they say the Lampray doth to the fisher by whose first blow that fish is said to bee dulled and astonished but inraged with the next and following Wretched men it is not Gods fault that hee is terribly just no it is his glory that hee is mercifully terrible It is not for me to say as Spalatensis cites from Cyrill that those who would not bee saved are no lesse beholden to the bounty of the good God than those that are brought home to glory I know and blesse God for the difference But certainely God is wonderfully gracious as hee is also infinitely just even to those that will needs incurre damnation having tendered unto them many powerfull helps to their repentance which hee hath with much patience and longanimity expected That God therefore is just it is his owne praise that hee is terrible wee may thank our selves for were it not for our wickednesse there were nothing in God not infinitely amiable Seest thou then O sinnefull man nothing at all in Gods face but frownes and fury doth every beame of his angry eye dart vengeance into thy soule so as thou would'st faine runne away from his presence and wooest the rocks and mountaines to fall upon thee and hide thee from the sight of that dreadfull countenance cleanse thy hands purge thine heart cleare thine eyes with the teares of true contrition and then look up and tell me whether thou dost not see an happy change of aspect whether thou canst now discerne ought in that face but a glorious lovelinesse fatherly indulgence unconceivable mercy such as shall ravish thy soule with a divine love with a joy unspeakable and glorious SECT XX. SEldome ever is the feare of horror separated from a feare of distrust which in the height of it is that which we call despaire for when the soule apprehends a deep feare of Gods dereliction it cannot but be filled with horrour Now as the holy and well moderated feare gives glory to God in all his attributes so this extremity of it affronts and dishonours him in them all but especially in his mercy and truth In his truth suggesting that God will not make good his promises in his mercy suggesting that he either cannot or will not forgive and save It was a true observation of Saint Hilary that it is not the least office and effect of faith to feare for that it is said by the Prophet Esay He shall fill them with the spirit of the feare of the Lord and againe we are charged to worke out our salvation with feare But there cannot be an act more opposite to faith then to feare distrustfully to despaire in fearing none more injurious either to God or our owne soules For surely as Cyrill well the wickednesse of our offences to God cannot exceed his goodnesse toward us the praise whereof from his creature he affects and esteems so highly as if he cared not in any other notion to bee apprehended by us proclaiming himselfe no otherwise in the mount then The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sinne adding onely one word to prevent our too much presumption That will by no meanes cleare the guilty which to doe were a meere contradiction to his justice Of all other therefore GOD hates most to be robbed of this part of his glory Neither is the wrong done to God more palpable then that which is done herein unto our selves in barring the gates of heaven upon our soules in breaking open the gates of hell to take them in and in the meane time striving to make our selves miserable whether God will or no. And surely as our experience tels us concerning the estate of our bodily indispositions that there is more frequent sicknesse in summer but more deadly in winter so we finde it here other sinnes and spirituall distempers are more common but this distrustfull feare and despaire of mercy which chils the soule with a cold horror is more mortall For the remedy wherof it is requisite that the heart should be throughly convinced of the super-abundant and ever ready mercy of the Almighty of the infallible and unfaileable truth of all his gracious ingagements And in respect of both be made to confesse that heaven can never be but open to the penitent It is a sweet word and a true one of Saint Bernard In thy Booke O Lord are written all that doe what they can though they cannot doe what they ought Neither doth God onely admit but he invites but he intreates but he importunes men to be saved what could he doe more unlesse he would offer violence to the Will which were no other then to destroy it and so to undoe the best piece of his owne workmanship It is the way of his decree and proceedings to dispose of all things sweetly Neither is it more against our nature then his to force his owne ends and when he sees that fayre meanes will not prevayle to win us from death he is pleased feelingly to bemone it as his owne losse Why will ye dye O house
about him His soule shall dwell at ease here below and above salvation is neare unto him yea he is already feoffed of life and glory SECT XIII NOw as some carefull Pilot that takes upon him to direct a difficult sea-passage which his long and wary observation hath discovered doth not content himselfe to steere a right course in his owne vessell and to show the eminent sea-markes a farre off but tells withall what rocks or shelves lie on either side of the channell which upon the least deviation may indanger the passengers So must we do here Having therefore sufficiently declared wherein this feare of God consisteth what it requireth of us and how it is acted and expressed by us it remayneth that we touch at those extremes which on both sides must bee carefully avoyded These are Security and Presumption on the one hand on the other Vicious feare It was the word of the wise man yea rather of God by him Happy is the man that feareth alway but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischiefe Lo an obdured security is proposed to feare both in the nature and issue of it Feare intenerates the heart making it fit for all gracious impressions security hardens it and renders it uncapable of good feare ends in happinesse security in an evitable mischiefe And these two though contraries yet arise from the same cause contrarily applyed Like as the same Sunne hardens the clay and softens the wax it is heat that doth both causing drynesse in the one and a dissolution in the other Even so the same beames of divine mercy melt the good heart into an holy feare Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared and harden the wicked heart in a state of security For upon the goodnesse of God to men both in giving and forgiving do men grow securely evill and rebellious to their God as being apt to say J have sinned and what harme hath happened unto mee saith Siracides Lo even forbearance obdureth Because sentence against an evill work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to do evill How much more do the riches of Gods goodnes which are the hottest beams of that Sun when they beat directly upon our heads The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fooles shall destroy them saith Salomon Our philosophy tells us that an extreme heat shuts up those pores which a moderate openeth It was a sore word of Saint Ambrose that no man can at once embrace Gods favour and the worlde Neither can I disallow that observation of a rigorous Votary that the Divells of consolation as he calls them are more subtile and more pernicious than those of tribulation Not so much perhaps in their own nature as for the party they find in our own breasts The wise man could say Lest J bee full and deny thee and aske who is the Lord Even very heathens have beene thus jealously conscious of their owne disposition So as Camillus when upon ten yeeres siege he had taken the wealthy city Veies could pray forsome mishap to befall himselfe and Rome to temper so great an happinesse This is that which Gregory the great upon his exaltation to that papall honour doth so much complaine of in himselfe that his inward fall was no lesse than his outward raysing and that his dull heart was almost grown stupid with those temporall occasions And surely so it will be if there be not a strong grace within us to season our prosperity That which the Historian observed in the course of the world that abundance begets delicacy and animosity that againe quarrells and vastation of warre and from thence growes poverty is no lesse true in the particular state of the soule If we be rich and high fed we grow wanton and stomackfull and apt to make warre with heaven till we be taken down againe with affliction Thereupon it is that the wise and holy God hath found it still needfull to sauce our contentments with some mixtures of sorrow and to proclaime the Iubile of our mirth and freedome upon the sad day of expiation The man after Gods owne heart could say In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved but the next yee heare is Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled and this trouble he professes to have beene for his good without these meet temperaments worldly hearts runne wilde and can say with the scornfull men that rule in Ierusalem We have made a covenant with death and with hell are wee at agreement when the overflowing scourge shall passe thorow it shall not come to us for we have made lies our refuge and under falshood have wee hid our selves yea in a stout insolence as the Prophet Ieremy expresses it They belie the Lord and say it is not he neither shall evill come upon us neither shall we see sword or famine Neither yet is it only the abuse of Gods long suffering and bounty that produceth this ill habit of security and hard-heartednesse but especially a custome of sinning Oft treading hardens the path the hand that was at the first soft and tender after it hath beene inured to worke growes brawned and impenetrable Wee have heard of Virgins which at the first seemed modest blushing at the motions of an honest love who being once corrupt and debauched have grown flexible to easie intreaties unto unchastity and from thence boldly lascivious so as to solicite others so as to prostitute themselves to all commers yea as our Casuists complaine of some Spanish Stewes to an unnaturall filthinesse That which our Canonists say in an other kind is too true here Custome can give a Iurisdiction neither is there any stronger law than it The continued use then of any known sinne be it never so small gives as Gersons phrase is a strong habituation and though it be a true rule that habits do only incline not compell yet the inclination that is wrought by them is so forceable that it differs little from violent Surely so powrefull is the habit of sinne bred by ordinary practise as that it takes away the very sense of sinning so as the offender now knowes not that he doth the very act of some evill much lesse that he sinnes and offends in doing it and now the heart is all turned dead flesh whether too good or ill there is not then a more dangerous condition incident into the soule of man than this of security it bars us of the capacity of any good that may be wrougâ—â— upon us it exposes us to the successe of all tentations it drawes downe the heaviest of Gods judgements upon our heads it defies justice it rejects mercy it makes the heart Gods Anvile which the harder it is struck the more rebounds the blow but the devills featherbed wherein hee sinkes and lyes