the long tract of mens lives can wear out Thus did the private hatred betwixt Caesar and Pompey pull down ruine on the Roman Empire Thus Arius disdaining at his repulse in aspyring to a Bishoprick broacht such an heresie as overspread the whole Christian world yea death it self on the one party in some cannot destroy the hatred of the survivor witnesse the Story of Pope Stephen the sixt who caused the body of his Predecessor Formosus to be taken up and beheaded in the market place and afterwards cast into Tyber Yea death in both parties which hath killed the men yet hath not kild their malice if the story of Eteocles and Polynices be true which saith that when they had by mutuall wounds made windows for each others soul to fly out at their bodies being burnt together their very flames divided themselves as hating to be united in their dead bodies who were so divided in their living affections Thus homo homini Lupus one man is a Wolf unto another in whose hearts and hands and mouths are the instruments of mischief as the Prophet David saith Psal 13.3 Their throat is an open Sepulcher they delt deceitfully with their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood Sorrow and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace they have not known the fear of God is not before their eyes I have read that a string made of Wolfs guts laid amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of Sheep corrupts and spoyls them all it is a strange secret in nature and serves to insinuate the malice of these Lycant hropi these Wolf-turn'd men against the Sheep of Christs flock for which cause our Saviour gave us this commandement saying Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore prudent as Serpents and simple as Doves Simple as Doves 1 Pet. 3.9 not returning evill for evill nor curse for curse but on the contrary bless because you are called to this to be heirs of blessing as saith S. Peter S. Paul also saith Rom. 12.17.18.19 Render evill for evill to no man If it be possible as much as in you is have peace with all men Avenge not your selves but give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith our Lord. And as it is reported of the wals of Bizantium that they were so smoothly and closely wrought that they seemed to be but one stone and of the building of Salomons temple that there was not so much as the noyse of a hammer to bee heard therein So should wee have all our thoughts our words our deeds so even so smooth so polisht that they should not send forth the least noyse of injury to our neighbour or sound of disaffection CHAP. IIII. YEt this is not enough to doe no evill but we must also doe good Christ cursed the fig-tree not for any hurt it did but because it did no good it brought forth no fruit And this exercise of good must not be centred in those only which either prevent or return us with an equall measure like the Scribes and Pharisees the Publicans and sinners but it must expatiate and diffuse it self like the impartiall Sun to all even to our enemies And so we shall be simple as Doves who besides that they doe no hurt to any living creature doe also indifferently nourish both their own and others young ones Now this practice of good must receive its form from the former prohibitions of evill to wit in thought word and deed First then in thought wee must have our hearts suppled and entendred with charity meekness gentleness humility and patience It was the greatest commendation of Moyses that he was stiled Num. 12.3 the meekest man upon earth for which cause God conversed with him more familiarly than ever he did with any as the Scripture saith Exod. 33.11 God talked with him face to face as a man talketh to his friend and our Saviour saith Math. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls The valleys are more fruitfull than the mountains and the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest towards the ground such are the riches of humility disposing men like figures in arithmetique where the last in place is greatest in accompt Our charity likewise expecteth of us that we should breath forth nothing but desires of bliss unto our brethren not suspecting evill without great ground not beleeving evill without strong proof 1 Cor. 13.5 for charity thinketh no evill as saith the Apostle And God hath propounded himself for an example unto us to prevent our too easy taking up upon trust a prejudiciall report against our brethren in the eighteenth of Genesis where he saith speaking of Sodom and Gomorrha those wicked Cities Gen. 18.21 I will goe down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up unto me and if not so that I may know not as if God were ignorant of the truth of any thing but for our instruction it is thus written to teach us as Solomon saith that wee should not apply our hearts to all words that are spoken Eccles 7.22 nor by too hasty beleef doe that which must be undone again Our patience likewise in which our Saviour commandeth us to possess our souls Luke 21.19 claimeth of us an unresisting sufferance of evill though there be whole vollies of injuries discharged against us yet must our hearts be in ury-proof and our patience preserve us un-hurt unprovoked to anger hatred desire of revenge and their dangerous effects for as Salomon saith Eccles 7.10 anger resteth in the bosome of a fool And although the Apostle bids us be angry and sin not Ephes 4.26 yet it is but a permission not a command and I suppose it is easier not to be angry at all than to be angry and not sin at all For anger in mans brest is like fire in an Oven which if it be quite damd up is extinguished but having but a little vent is apt to rage too fiercely Wherefore the Apostle saith Ephes 4.32 Be ye courteous one to another and mercifull forgiviâ—g one another even as God for Christs sake forgave you Yea so far must our patience in injuries and our charitable return to those that have injured us proceed that we must not only cancell the debt of all their injuries so that not so much as in a thought may we wish them any evill as it is evill but also if any adverse accident doe befall them wee must be inwardly moved with a compassionate sorrow for the same As Job declaring his own innocence testifieth of himself Job 31.29 If I have rejoyced in the ruin of him that hated me or have exulted that evill found
apply our imitation renewing our lives by the works of Penance First by Fasting whereby wee shall dry up the flux of Intemperance then by taking down into our hearts a dose of the bitter herb of of Contrition whereby wee must vomit up of the poyson of sin at our mouths by Confession and washing our selves in our tears and in the river of the sanctuary the word of God passing through the straits of a firm resolution to serve God and forsake sin we must put off the old man with the lusts therof and by the heat of the sun the love of Christ drying up our facilitie and proness unto sin we must put on the new man Ephes. 4.24 which is created according unto God in justice and holiness of truth and so recovering new strength unto well-doeing wee shall more cleerly understand spirituall things more ardently affect God and our neighbour and more earnestly hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and thus shall wee renew again the life of grace in our decayed souls As abstemious John Baptist was the fore-runner of the birth of Christ so must abstinence usher the new birth of a Christian but the devill enters into the voluptuous as he did into the herd of swin or as into Judas when he had eaten the sop Prayer the weapon by which wee overcome even God himself is by nothing so much sharpened as by Fasting And therefore in the whole current of Scripture shall wee find these two in the examples of holy men linked together like the bells and pomegranates on the vestments of Aaron Prayer rendring a sweet sound Fasting a sweet smel which is therefore compared to cinamon and balsum which drying up the corruption of dead bodies keep them sweet Cúm S. Aug. caro arescit per abstinentiam ab humore luxuriae tunc reddit deo odorem continentiae when the humor of luxurie is dryed up in our flesh by abstinence then doe wee render unto God the sweet odor of continence Neh. 1.4 The Prophet Nehemia saith When I heard these words I sate down and wept and mourned many dayes I fasted and prayed before the face of the God of heaven Also the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9.3 I turned my face unto my Lord God to ask and beseech in fasting sackcloth and ashes And then did he receive an especiall revelation concerning the birth and death of Christ St. Peter when he was fasting saw the vision in the house of Simon the tanner Acts 10. Also Acts 13.2 As they ministred unto our Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said unto them separate Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have taken them Here wee see that fasting-prayer is most pleasing unto God even as emptie-bellied instruments are sweetest to the eares of men Facilius per jejunium oratio penetrat coelum saith S. Jsodore The darts of our prayers being headed with fasting doe more easily pierce the heavens And as fasting-spittle as Pliny saith kills a serpent so doth fasting-prayer put the devill to flight and with him the many troups of his temptations wherewith he assults our disarmed senses And therefore our Saviour buckling himself to grapple with the devill made this one peece of his armour as the Scripture saith He fasted forty dayes and forty nights S. August saith Fasting doth purge the mind it englightens the soul it subdues the flessh unto the spirit and moulds in a man an humble and contrite heart It purgeth the mind by consuming and drying up the humour of luxury even as the fire which came down from heaven licked up the water about the sacrifice of Elias It enlightens the soul by lightning of the bodie and freeing it from those clogs of flesh to which in not a few it is a prisoner for the bellies fullnesse is mother of the minds dullnesse and repletions of meat in the body breed obstructions of vice in the soul whence saith the Prophet David Psal 34.13 Their iniquitie hath proceeded as it were out of fatnesse then immediatly followes They have thought and spoken wickednesse It subdues the flesh unto the Spirit by striking the swelling sayls of pride and incontinence enabling us to say with S. Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I chastise my body and bring it into servitude and like Abraham it casts out the bondwoman and her children the devill with his spawn of sin not suffering the handmaids of our affections to advance themselves against their mistresse reason And lastly it makes our souls humble and contrite as the Psalmist saith Psal 72.7 I did humble my soul with fasting And this is the second condition required in the renewing of our lease of life The Passeover was commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs Exod. 12.8 and they that will feed profitably upon Christ our Passeover must have their hearts embittered with compunction and sorrow for their sins Surgeons when a bone that hath been broken is set awry are forced that they may set it right to break it again so the rectitude of our souls being broken by our fall in Adam whereby we goe halting all our lives after that we may set our hearts aright which are thus wryed and crookeded by sin we must break them again by an humble sorrow for all our sins Which must not continue for one assault alone but wee must multiply our stroaks and breakings of our hard hearts untill our sorrow swim in our eys and furrow our faces with our tears even as Moses by striking the rock twice made a river of water to gush forth And we must be sorry that we can be no more sorry and with the men of Israel 1 Kings 30. weep till we can weep no more It is not enough to afflict our souls and bow down our heads for a day or to be like the marble which is moyst only against wet weather to weep only when the threatning storms of punishment hang over our heads remaining still inwardly as hard as the marble For as S. Gregory saith Hee that bewayleth his sins yet doth not forsake them makes himself lyable to so much the greater punishment by how much he contemns that pardon which hee might have attained by weeping But if like the Israelites wee pass through the red Sea of our tears of true Contrition we shall leave all the Egyptians our sins overwhelmed therein S. Aug. saith as Grief is the companion of repentance so Tears are the witnesses of grief into which if wee can melt our selves like Niobe through those dolefull images which sorrow imprints in our over-tender hearts for our outward losses of goods or friends or the like and cannot dischannell one rivolet from the fountains of our eys as a tribute due for the Ocean of sorrow which we owe unto the cause of those losses our sins surely we have either no sense of our sins which is bad or no fear of Gods judgements which is worse or no love unto his goodness which is worst of all For
wee after our fasting our eating of the bitter herb of contrition and vomiting our poysonous sins at our mouths by Confession and having washed our selves in the water of Gods word must passing through the streights of a firm resolution to forsake our sins and to serve God put off the old man with the lusts thereof and by the heat of the love of Christ drying up our pronenesse unto sin put on the new man Ephes. 4.24 which is created according unto God in justice and holynesse of truth Streight is the gate Math. 7.14 and narrow is the way Saith our Saviour which leadeth unto life through this streight way must wee resolve to passe that so wee may devest our selves of the old-man and invest our selves with the new by departing from evill and turning unto good Cease to doe evill Esay 1.16.17 learn to doe well saith the Prophet Esayas Eschew evill and doe good saith the prophet David 'T is said Psal 36.27 that when the Eagle groweth old his beak is so crooked that he cannot eat his meat he therefore goes to a rock beates his beak against it untill he have broken it off and then falls to his meat and growes young again So our hearts growing crooked toward the earth and earthy things whereby wee cannot receive the spirituall food of Gods word and Sacraments wee must strike them against the rock Christ Jesus by considering both his precepts and example whereby the crookednesse of our beaks shall be broken that is our earthly affections rectified and our souls directed unto God whereby wee shal be enabled to feed upon Christ in his Word and Sacraments and so renew again our youth As it is Psal 102.5 Who fileth thy desire with good things and thy youth shall be renewed as the eagles And as Samuels mother 1. Kings 2.19 as the Scripture saith brought him a new coat at set times when she went up to offer the yearly sacrifice so as often as wee offer the sin-offering of a contrite heart unto God wee must casting off the old rags of sin cloth our-selves with the new robes of justice For wee must not think to wear this new coat with our old to wear the linsy-wolsy garments of religion and wordlynesse together a thing forbidden in the old law nor yet with the Jewes to cry hayl unto Christ and yet crucify him to make a profession of him in words and contradict it in deeds This is to serve God and mammon Math. 9.16.17 to put new wine into old vessells to patch old garments with new cloth which as our Saviour saith is either impossible or dangerous therefore as the Scripture saith 1. Tim. 2.19 Whosoever nameth the name of our Lord let him depart from iniquitie Moyses when he went into the holy mount put off his shooes Elias when he ascended into heaven cast off his mantle and Elisha when he went to serve the Prophet bad adieu to his father and mother so when wee enlist our selves in the catalogue of Gods servants wee must put off the shooes of our evill affections we must cast off the cloak of our unrighteousnesse and take our leaves of all those sins which either through our pronenesse unto them or their long familiarity and acquaintance with us have so endeared themselves unto us that wee are forced to reproach our selves with the title of their acquaintance Moyses commanded that they that went unto the tabernacle should goe out of the Camp and we out of our sins if we will goe unto Christ Wherefore as S. Paul saith Heb. 13.13 let us goe out unto him without the Camp And being once out let us not prove retrograde in the sphear of goodnesse nor with Lots wife look back unto Sodom nor say of any sin as Lot did of Zoar Gen. 19.20 Is it not a little one It is certain the devill will be tempting of us to turn back and say unto us as Solomons mother did to him I have a small sute unto thee 3. Kings 2.22 I pray deny mee not to which if wee yeeld as he foresaw so wee shall find that it will cost us no lesse than the losse of the kingdome even the kingdome of heaven Therefore having once cast out the old Adam out of the Paradise of our souls let us place there the Cherubin of grace with the flaming sword of the Spirit to resist the entrance of sin and in all the temptations of the world the flesh and the devill unto sin let us answer in the words of the spouse in the Canticles I have put off my coat Cant. 5.3 how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them And thus if we be renewed as the serpent by recovering a new skin doth with it resume new strength sees more cleerely moves more lively feeds more hartily so shall wee by this means enrich our selves with the strength of well doing wee shall more cleerely understand spirituall mysteries wee shall walk more uprightly in the love of God and of our neighbour wee shall more eagerly feed on and more strongly digest the spirituall food of Gods word and Sacraments by the nourishment whereof we shall walk from grace to grace untill wee come to be perfect men in Christ Jesus from grace unto glory untill wee be perfect Saints in the kingdome of heaven CHAP. IIII. A Second property of wisdome in the serpent worthy our imitation is this The serpent by reason of that enmity which it hath with mankind to secure it self from the danger of mens invasions creepeth away and hideth it self under bushes and delighteth to dwell in desarts and unfrequented places so the children of God mindfull of that irreconcilable enmity which God hath put betwixt that old mysticall serpent the devill with his viperous brood wicked men and the seed of the woman the Children of the holy Church should shroud themselves under Gods protection who appeared unto Mayses in a bush and with Enoch walk with God in the desart of divine contemplation that so they may baulk the companie and the consequents thereof the mischiefs of the wicked The Poets feign of Arachne that contending with Pallas for the prize in workmanship and being conquered by her disdaining at the ill successe of her enterprize she did so swell with the poyson of envy and hatred that she turn'd into a Spider so the devill in the pride of his thoughts contending with his Maker and by him like lightning being cast down from heaven hath had his nature ever since transformed into a serpent full of the deadly poyson of envy and hatred against God and all good men continually assaulting them either by battery or undermyning by open force or secret fraud by the feircenesse of the lion or subtilty of the serpent Which enmity of the devill against God like that which often happens betwixt the fathers of two potent families here on earth hath devolved it self unto each