end of Faith. If a man believes firmely but not soundly nor truely his faith like to the knowledge acquired by our first Parents upon the eating of the forbidden fruit brings him to shame and confusion of face And of this sort are innumerable mistakes not to be here instanced in that only excepted which is of most generall evill consequence whereby men are wont and willing to divide and rend faith from it selfe I mean the Forme or inward act of believing from the power and effect of Faith perswading themselves that Faith alone so taken gives us Justification and if so it must needs give us Sanctification too For none are justified but such as are thereunto prepared by a competent degree of Sanctification And so in trueth at length it will be found that whatever is pretended and more dangerously presumed no man is more Justified alone by Faith than he is Sanctified by it alone and the workes of Faith are in no place of holy Scripture opposed to Faith it selfe the cause of such workes in reference to our Justification And it is altogether as derogatory to Christs merits and the freenesse of Gods Grace to rest upon such Faith for justification and salvation as upon such workes of Faith. But this I speak as I passe 4. However therefore the Authours of such Doctrine or at least formes of speaking as have lately prevailed disown the necessary ill consequences of the same and allow yea urge much good workes and with many flourishes commend the use of them yet advancing immoderately and injudiciously the Act of Faith creeple it and binde it up from the free course and full influence it may and otherwise would have upon mens lives to the purging of the Soule from evill and impregnating it to good works of vertue and holinesse 5. But leaving that Controversie let us proceed to what is without Controversie shewing by plain instances what we have propounded concerning the power of Faith in our militant state here And let it be ingenuously judged how a man by Faith thorowly convinced of that one first Principle that there is a God Creatour of all things Judge of all things and of all Men especially and their hearts and actions and infallibly rewarding the good and the evill can easily omitt the good so amply hereafter to be remunerated or rashly fall into the evill of Sin-tempting standing by his Christian Faith assured that his temporary trifling vanishing as soon as felt pleasures shall end infallibly in bitternesse and never-failing sorrowes Who would sow that seed in his Field which he might easily believe will rise up to an harvest of Serpents which will sting him to death Or can a man stedfastly believe that Article of his Creed teaching and assuring him that Christ that righteous Judge shall appear a second time in glorie and severe Justice towards quick and dead rendering to every man according to the good or evill he hath done in his bodie viz. Life Everlasting or shame and torment everlasting and not feare or fear and yet committ such things as will weigh him down into the place of such miserie What wise man would be tempted so with the beautie and desireablenesse of drinking out of a Golden Cup when he knowes it is filled with deadly Poison Or would any man eat of that bread fair to the Eye and perhaps pleasant to the palate which he knowes will suddenly after breed gravell and stones in his reins and bladder and infinitely torture him Certainly such a mans perswasion which in Religion we call Faith must needs be verie weak and his fondnesse strong which can impose so hard things on him unrejected 6. No more can any man have a sound and sufficient perswasion of the heavenly Mansions and the unspeakable Glories thereof yea the perfection and beautie of Vertue and Divinenesse of holie Life and good Conscience and neglect or contemn the same for the fallacies vitious practices put on the outward senses for a moment or lesse if lesse we can imagine Is not this next to a Miracle if we may allow the Devill to be able to work Miracles contrary to the Doctrine of the Schools For what way we call a Miracle if not deluding the senses and so far changing the natures of things to mans eye and common sense that he shall call good evill and evill good and have no other opinion of Flames into which he must be cast than of a Feather bed 7. To him that lives by Sense the present sweet is most sweet and the present bitter most bitter but to him that lives by Faith and not by Sense the future exceeds in both kinds And to a truly wise man knowing the worst of troubles and hardships in this world no more to be compared to the miseries wicked men suffer hereafter than the joyes of sin in this life are to the glorie to be hereafter enjoyed in Heaven by the Righteous it may seem most reasonable to choose the least of Evills and to run the least of hazards too as that poore simple austere man vilely and coldly clad and as ill fed did with whom as our own histories tell a boisterous and soft Gallant meeting demanded of him Why he used himselfe so hardly and was answered by him I doe this to escape Hell-fire But said the Gallant again If there be no Hell what a Fool art thou to use thy selfe so ill But he more wittily and sharply replied But what if there be an Hell how much more Fool art thou to live so as thou doest Put the case to common Reason for true Faith is infallibly assured of it that it was a doubtfull point Whether there were an Hell or not a Heaven or no Heaven and the Scales weighing both sides were equall would not generall Reason advise so to believe as to take the safest course and live that life which may lead to the supposed happinesse and escape the threatened torments What hurt befalls that man that lives continently temperately modestly justly soberly yea and selfe-denyingly as to those things which are not necessarie though no reward followes upon his rigours but the ordinary comforts of health and peace of minde which are greater to him than the riotous liver and pleaser of his appetites and senses without restraint But what hurt doth not befall him hereafter who by indulging to his sensible Soule bereaves himselfe of everlasting happinesse in the world to come that not being all neither as our Religion truely informes us 8. Let us therefore truely examine our selves as St. Paul exhorteth whether we be in the faith and prove our selves knowing of our own selves that Jesus Christ is in us except we be reprobates 2 Corin. 13. 5. Surely if Christ be in us it must be by Faith and if Faith be in us it will discover so much of the events of an holy and wicked life as not to be like a Horse and Mule which have no understanding nor like such men who have
of Christs mediation God would have to depend wholly on Repentance as is implyed in these words Acts 5. 31. Him Christ hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sin So that as there is no forgivenesse without repentance and there is no saving repentance without Christ so is there no saving Christ without repentance For this was one end of Christs coming into the world Repentance as we read Acts 17. 20. The times of former ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men to repent every where And hence it is that the Apostles having heard what successe St. Peter's preaching had amongst the Gentiles make it matter of astonishment and glorification of Allmighty God as it is written Acts 11. 18. When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life 7. But farther let us see more particularly the dignitie of Repentance in the managing of which all the principall Attributes of Allmighty God are engaged as first of all that which is most formidable to a guilty and conscious Soule his Justice For when by foregoing Illumination the minde of man is brought to the knowledge of the nature of sin dwelling in it and the strong opposition which is made against it and enmity and the fearfull reward due to it who can but tremble to finde himselfe brought under the plagues due to it But withall considering the wonderfull condescension of Allmighty God entring into a Covenant of Grace and favour with Sinners upon the termes of true repentance and that he will infallibly be as good as his promises declare him the bitternesse of his Justice is changed into the sweet waters of Life to the desponding Sinner For if God had only said as he doth Exodus 34. 6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and trueth Keeping mercie for thousands forgiving iniquities transgression and sin and that will by no means cleer the guilty c. the matter had not been so wonderfull For it is imprinted in the mindes of all Believers that God is mercifull and Good to all even to Sinners that repent Allmost every Chapter in Mahomets Alchoran proclaims that aloud and this is most pleasant to the ear of a Sinner dejected for his errours but much more is that refreshing the languishing Soule to hear that Justice it selfe is turned to be a Friend to a Sinner by vertue of repentance as St. John assures us 1 Epist 1. 9. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse However therefore Scholasticall doubts and disputations may be raised about the manner how God out of his justice may be said to save a man yet it cannot be doubted after such expresse words of Scripture that so it is And that this comes thus to passe that God hath so great regard and esteem for his own gift Repentance that where ever he finds that he hath obliged his honour his trueth or faithfulnesse to his word and Justice it selfe to acquitt that Sinner and cleanse him from his pollutions Not unlike to the gift of some great Prince or Person to some inferiour one who in token of his fidelitie to him and firmenesse in all great calamities and distresses endangering his life delivereth to him a Ring or other privie token well known to him advising that if ever he be call'd in question for his life or like to be oppressed by his Enemies he would send him that or show it him and it shall suffice to oblige him to come speedily to his deliverance and safety so pleaseth it Allmighty God to grant to his friends in Christ this excellent gift of Repentance which he beholding is so much affected with the dangerous condition of the miserable Sinner that in honour and justice he holdeth himselfe bound to secure him from the malice and mischiefs which his Enemies long and strain hard to bring upon him 8. And so may we say of the Omnipotencie of God concerned very much in the deliverie of the penitent Sinner For as there is guilt danger and damnation in sin so is there likewise shame and confusion of minde and face at the apprehension of so foul errours and odious spots as accompanie the commission of sins so that the same pierces into the verie soule by its stain and infests the Conscience with intolerable pain at the apprehension of such a shamefull condition What would an ingenuous Penitent give yea rather What would he not give that he had never offended so Great a God and so Good a Father With what shame the eyes of his minde being illuminate doth he reflect upon himselfe so that it is questionable in some truely repenting and generous soules whether the abhorrence of that foul state it findes it selfe in by sin be not altogether as intolerable as the foreseen punishments of Hell it selfe In such cases as this when all other hopes of being restored to its pristine integrity and purity so infinitely desireable to a true Convert faileth relief and remedie is discovered in the Allmighty power of God which and none but which could cause the Leprous and filthy parts of Naaman to returne to the soundnesse and sweetnesse of the flesh of an Infant and can as easily renew the defaced and defiled Soule so that when one day it shall appear naked at the Tribunall of Christ before the sharp-sighted Angells and men they shall not be able to discerne the least blott or blemish in the same And why because as by a second regeneration after Baptisme Repentance renews the soule by Gods powerfull Grace to a new habit and is therefore called a Second Baptisme 9. Furthermore what can be more worthy of every good Christians practice than Repentance which God honoureth above many splendid Graces in the sight of the world yea which men more thorowly seen into the divine study and art of conversing with God judge to be inferiour to none in dignitie and above all in necessitie How doe we read of Davids Repentance and Peters restoring them entirely to Gods favour so that former sins which were great obstructed not their ascent to the highest pitch of Gods favour and of Rule and Authority in the Church of God. For doth not the incomparable Parable of our Saviour Christ in the Gospell Luke the 15th of the lost Sheep of the lost Groat of the lost Son prove the certainty to us all which declare unto us this miserable state of Sinners fled from God and unreduced and the happinesse and glory upon their returne by Repentance and the joy in heaven and earth upon their conversion unto God and goodnesse as upon a Victory wun over the Devill and a soule wun to God. 10. And if we compare Repentance with other Christian vertues adorning the Soule we shall
which the Masters of Jewish morality noted and wisely disswaded all to turne their Faces from Amorous Romances and Lascivious Poetrye are to be reduced to this caution And that eye cannot be accounted innocent which coming into a Shop of Rarities and great varieties looketh not so much nor demandeth what it doth want but seeketh for somewhat which when it beginneth first to see it beginneth allso to want and desire and to want it because it desireth it and not desire it because it wanteth it Excellent therefore is that counsell of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 9. v. 5. 7. against both these and their fellowes and that when there were no Monks nor Friers in the world upon whome we would cast such severe counsells as their prosession leads them to Gaze not on a Maid that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her Look not round about thee in the streets of the City neither wander thou in the solitarie places thereof But our Saviours Evangelicall counsell exceeds this Matth. 5. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out It is better for thee to c. Nature as Lactantius observes to preserve the eye a very tender and precious part hath fenced it with hairs on the lids as so many Speares which at the approach of the least Enemy to it being but lightly touched give notice to shut it presently for its securitye But it hath not provided such meanes to defend the eye from morall objects which are ever in readinesse to offend it but that is the speciall gift of God and should be the Christian prudence of every true Believer 3. And the like circumspection is necessary to be had about the Ear another most profitable yea necessarie Sense and no lesse passionate than the other 'T is incredible even to them that are overcome and captivated by dishonest Speeches lewd Books obscene Poetry what a change and that for the worst aptly tempered sounds and melodious Voices have upon a man. They deject him and make him moody and heavie they inflame and lighten him make him brisk and wanton make him full of talk and ridiculous motions and finally insnare and draw him to humour the notes in his actions good or bad Cease my Son therefore saith Solomon to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge whether Poeticall or Prosaicall For when the forme of words the eloquence of the Tongue and gracefulnesse of speaking are the gift of God the matter clothed and adorned and adapted to the eare by them may be of the Devills devising and sent before him to fowl the room of the Soule for him and his unclean Spirits to dwell there For as the Good Spirit of Wisdome will not enter into a body given to sin no more will or can the evill Spirit enter into a Soule or bodie not fitted for his turne by impure cogitations and devices Turne therefore saith Solomon Proverbs 14. 7. from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge Which knowledge is there used for wise and profitable talke opposed commonly to foolishnesse which in Scripture signifies as much as Sin. And in so advising he doth implye the next and right way to avoid not only certain single acts of corrupt communication but even the inclination and desire of impure matter imbibed by word or writing For it is true in morall things as well as naturall that the understanding is made all things according to the impression made by the object as Philosophers teach being formable into any shape So according to divinity is it true that according to the pure and chast subject we choose to meditate on and converse with or the light obscene and frothy is the inward Sense affected not only actually or transiently but habitually and permanently So that in accustoming a mans selfe to immodest and immorall acts or businesses the minde is so tainted that all Diviner things become unsavourie and irksome In like manner to the palate of the Soule accustomed to spirituall pure and chast Discourses and reading the pleasureablenesse of vain idle and foolish Subjects and especially obscene becomes alltogether extinguished an irksomenesse succeeding in its place 4. And there being such neer relation as we have partly seen between the Ear and the Tongue as there is between a Fiddle-stick and Fiddle to strike it as it pleaseth the same doctrine of Sanctitie reacheth unto the due regiment of the one as well as of the other but more especiall care and custodie seem to be due to this than that For as much as the Tongue is an active part and Organ to evill but the Ear passive chiefly And sometimes it so falls out that a man must whether he will or no hear what is leud vain riotous wanton unclean and prophane but no man is constrained to use his Tongue so indiscreetly and wickedly he hath it more in his power than he hath his Eares and therefore he is the more obliged to make a good use of the one than he can of the other And as some have observed Nature by fencing it double with Teeth and Lips least it should trespasse upon God and our Neighbours teaches us with what good advice and moderation we are to use it For in trueth generally it so demeaneth it selfe that few can give that a good word which is the great instrument of Speech And seldome is it better employed than when it accuses it selfe and commends taciturnity and silence What can be said of it or any thing else more bitterly or truely than what St. James writeth of it Chap. 3. The Tongue is an unruly evill full of deadly Poison Therewith blesse we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the Image of God. And Solomon saith Prov. 21. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue meaning that by a Lying slandering perjurious profane and unclean Tongue we hasten Death to others so that our own damnation at the same time lingreth not thereby Christ telling us Matth. 12. 36 38. that For every evill word that men speak they shall give an account at the day of judgement For By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned So that the Tongue or sting of the Adder is not so poisonous and pernicious as the evill tongue of Man. For that doth not sting or hurt the user but this doth verifying what is said of wicked men Pssalm 6. 4 8. They shall make their own tongues to fall on themselves All that see them shall flee away viz. as from the face and sting of a Viper And if we would judge of the ill Tongue as we doe of Persons of worth from their Extraction we shall find how low and base an originall it hath from St. James Chap. 3. The Tongue is a little member boasting great things the Tongue is a fire a world of iniquity it defileth the whole body
shall begin to beat the Men-servants and Maidens and to eat and to drink and to be drunken the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with Vnbelievers And the wise Servant will not say within himselfe My Lord deferreth his coming understanding this to be spoken only of the coming of Christ at the last and generall Judgement but of his particular Domes-day when his life shall be called for by God and his own beloved sin of excesse shall snatch his Soule from his wretched bodie for indulging it How many Tragicall Instances doth our Age afford of such who have been confounded in their own sin and perished in this pleasure I shall need to name none of yesterday or of this Nation I would it were not notorious But two most eminent and mighty Potentates I may mention I hope without offence and not without sense or some effect Alexander the Great his Friends and Flatterers write that he died of Poison given him at Babylon but others more severe tellers of Trueth write that Wine was that Poison excessively taken and that Drunkennesse kill'd him as may be seen in Seneca Epist 58. And who so great a Man in his dayes and so victorious as Attilas who after his many Conquests not being able to overcome his Appetite of Wine was overcome by it to that degree one day that he was taken so ill the next night that he voided blood at his Mouth and so died choaked with it As Munster tells us in his Cosmographie Let these things then sink into our hearts and have such influence upon our lives and manners as to prevent such disorders and miscarriages And let all they whose faith is dim-sighted or weak as to have no power over them in declaring to them and convincing them of the defilements of their Soules contracted by these excesses and shamefull spewings on their own glorie as the Prophet Habakkuk aptly expresses it Chap. 2. 16. be taught at length and convinced by their senses and common experience what a stain to their Name what a wound to their Bodie they bring from which they can never be purged or of which cured but by Tears of timely Repentance and the happie change of due Renovation both which will be so much the more difficult by how much they are more deferred SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. 1. SLothfulnesse and affected dulnesse of Minde and lazinesse of Bodie is not denied to be a Sin by any but to many seems so modest innocent and harmlesse that they wonder why it should be ranked amongst the most dangerous and deadly But as we before observed Sins are not to be estimated from their intrinsick or absolute evill only but allso from the tayle they draw after them and the brood issuing from them And thus Slothfullnesse may be inferiour in consequentiall mischiefs to none For this numnesse of minde and indisposition of bodie to act extendeth it selfe equally to both capacities viz. Naturall and Divine or Religious it being seldome known that he whose minde is dull'd by indulging to ease is active any wayes in Religion And in trueth so notorious is it that Divines treat of it onely or chiefly as to Religion which it corrupteth if not totally destroyeth 2. For as Labour and honest industry seems to be the first Vertue insinuated in Scripture and appointed to Man so may the Vice of Sloth be the very first of practicall Errours supposing that Pride was the first of Mentall Vices For we read Genesis Chap. 2. that there was at first no man to till the ground v. 5. and we read v. 8. That God made man so soon as he had made Eden and put him therein surely not to be idle lest the Earth should be idle too so that Action was a Vertue of Paradise And so it was afterward when man turned out from thence was to make a Vertue of necessity and work to keep him from adding sin unto sin and calamitie unto calamitie For as Chrysostome well observes it was an act of Goodnesse in God to turne fallen man out of Paradise to the wide world and a blessing to him to curse the Land so that without hard labour he could not well subsist For if when Man was master of so much Reason and owner of so much Grace given him of God he fell into temptations and from thence into sin who can imagine but destitute in great measure of such aids and abilities he should riot unmeasurably living in ease plenty spontaneous and unactive rest odious and dangerous 3. And therefore though my purpose be to oppose Sloth as it relates to Religion the Connexion being so neer and strait between diligence in humane and divine Affairs it is necessarie to declare the sinfullnesse and odiousnesse and to correct the pravitie of the first before we can expect any good event in the latter For a soft heavie temper is the originall of both and a sicklenesse and wearinesse in doing any thing long or of difficultie but a certain spiritlesse loying and lying still or as the saying is Wandering up and down to see who does nothing and help them untill all meanes used to gratifie flesh and blood and none sufficing idlenesse proves more tedious and tiresome than labour to others And none groan under the burden and heat and length of the day by labouring so much as the slothfull and idle person doth under void time and emptie hours And none brings more distempers upon his bodie by working nor so many as the Sluggard by doing nothing 4. But doe I say or suppose that a man awake and well in his witts and limbes can rest in the Negative doing nothing it is hard to be believed The Devill will not suffer his Soule to be as Aristotles Understanding of Infants Rasa Tabula a smooth and eaven Table or as white Paper in which nothing is writ but is capable of any stamp or impression it pleases the stander by to make in it but he will write his minde in it speedily This is saith Cassian Collat. 10. the judgement of the Monastique Fathers of old in Egypt that the industrious Monk is tempted with one Devill but the idle with innumerable So that as the same Author there allso tells it was the custome of Abbot Paul to avoid idlenesse to burne those effects of his labours which were more than sufficient to bring in a bare livelihood that he might never want work or become idle 5. And this he might learn of Saint Paul Rom. 12. 11. who teaches us the dependence secular labour in an honest way hath upon Religion and on the contrary saying Not slothfull in businesse fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Diligence here in businesse is set before Fervour in Spirit and in the service of God intimating the usefulnesse of bodily labour in disposing to
reject his maimed and lame sacrifice For as it is usually said A cold Praise tends to a disparagement so a cold Prayer tends much to a deniall It is the effectuall fervent prayer of the Righteous that availeth much as Saint James teaches us And so by the Rule of contraries It is the slothfull and cold Prayer that prevaileth nothing or very little 13. And therefore fifthly to quit our selves of this stupidnesse of spirit it will be necessary to take that contrary and most commendable Vertue of Christian fortitude unto us so rare and yet so usefull against the many temptations offered to us in this world and to be cloathed with zeal as with a cloak as the Prophet speaks Es 59. 17. For were not it for the carnall bashfullnesse that many men show in the cause of Religion and serving of God shrinking for fear of the Enemies to it and that without cause Enemies to godly life would not be so audacious as they are but by the cowardise of the well-principled and inclined a Conquest seems to have been made by the adverse partie over the Religious which consent and courage may easily undoe And not only the openly irreligious have brought under too much the profession of the truely religious but the audaciousnesse of men of erroneous Religion hath gain'd them respect when their opinions and practice deserved nothing lesse Yea it is to be lamented to consider that Fanaticall Persons having with wonderfull confidence usurped to themselves the advantages of sober and precise behaviour and many excellent Phrases of Holy Scripture and communication becoming the mouths of better Christians divers have been so scandalized at the ill use of them by such which in trueth hath been notorious that they can hardly finde in their heart or frame their mouths to such wholesome formes of words which are an Ornament to the mouth of a good Christian so perverted by others It was the comparison indeed of a religious Person living an Age or two since Whoe would not loth to eat an Apple before knawn by a Swine so who will not shrink to take that Phrase into his mouth which has been abused by polluted mouths and to scandalous ends But as they who shoot at God hurt not him but wound themselves so they who are vulgarly said to corrupt and abuse the Scriptures and its holy Dialect to their own purposes doe not in very deed defile and abuse that which like God the Authour changes not but remains the same but they pollute and wrong themselves For as the Apostle to Titus speaketh Chap. 1. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled Wherefore laying aside that vain and fearfull modestie which is so near a-kin to the sin of Acedia as the Greek word is and more comprehensively which we may render Incuriousnesse or Oscitancie or indisposednesse to Good Let us Brethren as Saint Pauls words are Ephes 6. be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and then impious and vitious men their own Conscience bearing witnesse against them will become timorous and ashamed For as Solomon tells us Prov. 22. 13. It is the slothfull man that saith There is a Lion in the way that is great dangers and many difficulties in the stricter and more faithfull service of God but the more resolute and diligent finde it not so but that the Yoke of Christ is easie and his burden light and that there is rest for the Soule as himselfe hath said SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein 1. HAving thus treated of the necessity and manner of supernaturall Illumination and Purgation tending to supernaturall Union with God we hold it fit to close this Part with the offering of some brief Rules for the better directing of such who shall be inclined to improve farther what hath been said before concerning the purification and preparation of the Soule for a nerer conjunction with God by subduing that Seven-headed Dragon in the seven Capitall Sins or those seven Devills like to them which possed Mary Magdalene and which are as the seven Hills upon which the Antichrist every one carries about him sitteth and tyrannizeth over the Soule 2. First That because we are all borne in sin and even after we are regenerate in Baptisme doe through the infirmitie of the flesh fall commonly into sin that no man therefore allowe in himselfe any known sin whether light or heavie for hereby what was but a sin of infirmity becomes a presumptuous sin and so is accounted by God. 3. Secondly Some sins of both ranks are with more speciall care to be attended to and opposed by us And such I am wont to instance in which our Parents from whome we are immediately descended were subject to more than others or they who are immediately before them For undoubted experience teacheth us that not onely what we call Originall Sin but such actuall sin as hath strongly possessed them is often communicated to Children together with the temper of their bodies And allso those sins or failings in Parents and others which have been Examples to us in our minority and Education are to be suspected and feared by us Constant Examples of evill even disapproved in others too often having a great power over us when especially we are brought into the like circumstances and the same occasions are offered us of offending as was to them 4. Thirdly Great inspection and examination is to be had by every man of his own constitution or naturall complexion For as that Great Physician said Mens manners doe generally follow their humours abounding in them and therefore we commonly call the frequenter and constanter extravagancies of men their humours so that some are inclined naturally to Choler or Anger others to Jocundnesse and Levitie others to Melancholy and dullnesse c. Which a wise man and good Christian reflecting upon and discerning in himselfe ought to apply a proper Remedie unto and more watchfully to prevent the evill events of them 5. Fourthly A strong hand is to be carried against the powerfull and violent temptation of Fashion when it becomes Noble Gallant or Great as vain persons sometimes speak against Modesty Sobriety Temperance or Continence For such many are as must be acknowledged more especially in diversitie of Sexes which Nature hath made and diversitie of Politicall and Ecclesiasticall Orders which God hath made And therefore are wisely and justly distinguished by best Autoritie So that by no better arguments can any man defend indifferencie of Habits and outward deportment of the Laiety and Clergie than will equally serve for the indifferencie of the same to both Sexes For what is said against it by Moses his Law may easily be eluded by reducing it to a ceremoniall or judiciall Law. 6. Fifthly To rebuke represse or expell sinfull inclinations in our selves it
him the exception lying onely good where there can be no accesse to the publique Place 4. But I know not what vitious and very blameable modesty hath possessed so many of late dayes as to be affraid to be seen or taken praying and sundry devout Persons are startled and shrink to be seen unawares at their Prayers in Gods House it selfe which is the House of Prayer unlesse when the Bells publish the dutie at hand and an Assembly is made professedly and so likewise at their domestick and separate Devotion as if they were taken in a fault or some Crime whereof a man should be ashamed and affraid some men being more abashed seen to doe well than others are taken in an evill Action This cannot be well thought of by God whose service a man is then engaged in and cannot but be an infirmitie in men praying For though a man is not hypocritically and with no better designe than to be noted and praised by men to expose studiously himselfe to the view of others while he prayes he is no lesse obliged not to forbear what place and time and just occasion require at his hands or otherwise may be expedient because people see him For God sayes Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven and the manifestation of our Adoration and service is likewise a manifestation of his honour and glorie And if at length we could recover and bring into Reputation such lost good Actions as publique Prayer in private Persons Religion would be more renowned and many more than now doe would allso fall down and say God is in you of a trueth and so be excited to the same good work or worship in use 5. But a known time of Gods Worship being assigned a sound entire tryed approved Sacrifice and reasonable service of God being appointed for Confession Humiliation Supplications Petitions Deprecations Intercessions Thanksgivings and Benedictions as Saint Paul directeth 1 Tim. 2. 1. with sobrietie or good Conscience to contemne these either ignorantly or presumptuously and to foist in private Inventions scarce so good as humane all things considered what amounts this to but a despising of Christ himselfe and a provocation of God to cast the officious zeal of such as dung upon their own faces For how can it be supposed that God should be pleased with that Oblation obtruded upon him and others without Autoritie which is often put up without Faith and never with Charitie or Humilitie convenient But if our Prayers themselves offend how should we hope for pardon of our offences by them That therefore they should have favourable accesse to God is necessarie they should be dulie qualified themselves and that such as these Conditions here onely to be named be found in them 1. That we pray in Faith that God is and that he is a rewarder of all that call upon him 2. That we pray in trueth without any hereticall or erroneous Dogmes or corrupt Opinions of God of his Word or holy Worship 3. Praying in puritie of intention seeking even when our Prayers consist of spirituall or temporall benefits to our selvles primarily the glorie and good will of God. 4. In Puritie or holinesse of hands that is innocencie of life as David when he said I will wash my hands in innocencie and so will I goe to thine Altar or at least a dislike of our guilt and contaminations making them part of our humiliation and supplications to God. 5. In Charitie towards others so far as Justice and Pietie will permitt And lastly In zeal to Gods service and to our own Soules in so praying which is that lifting up the Soule we so much speak of here and leaving it with him to preserve to his greater service and glorie and our immortall happinesse SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed and fixed as allso Singing of Psalmes 1. NOw because there are usually distinguished severall kinds of Prayer to God as well according to the matter as manner of putting up our requests to him all concurring in this one thing that the minde and heart should be thereby united to God and fixed it will not be amisse to glance at the principall in this second order having touched the former from the Apostles words 1 Tim. 2. 1. All which relate to the matter of Prayer and may be perfourmed in any one of those which great Artists have cast into this threefold Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall and Supramentall Sensible they make that which is common to all Christians praying to God in a vocall sensible manner to themselves and others Mentall they would have that called which is contemplative and whereby the minde is throughly directed to God not without affection For if the Understanding onely be erected and directed to God it can scarce deserve the name of Prayer to God as Philosophizing about him therefore it is necessarie that affectionatenesse and adherence to God by love which are acts of the will allso should be found in all due Prayer yea in all Treaters of the nature and use of Prayer otherwise acute and learned men may prescribe better than teach or affect A manifest Example we have in the two great Chieftains amongst Schoolmen Thomas the Angelicall and Bonaventure the Seraphicall Doctour as they call them Both which have in their Opuscula written Treatises of the Love of God. In which the former keeping closer than in such a Subject is expedient to Scholasticall Methods and termes of writing hath left but a dry Monument and insipide to a spirituall Palate of his gift in that kinde whereas Bonaventure speaking out of the abundance of the heart and affection as the Subject required rather than by the rule of humane disquisitions hath much more divinely commendably and profitably as to practice treated thereof And spirituall Doctrine and devotion towards God seem much to resemble the Notion we generally have of the nature of Spirits in themselves which they say consisteth in not being circumscribed by limits as our Bodies are but indefinite and diffusive very much like to the bodie of the Air in which we are inclosed which is capable of any figure but determined to none In like manner Spirituall Prayer and the gifts God bestoweth upon the Soule are not to be limited by the lineaments and parts of humane Methods which as it were fetters the Spirit from expatiating according to its pleasure which like the Winde bloweth and breatheth and leadeth as it listeth and is in very deed as Phanatiques terme it stinted and obstructed by the Arts of Men modelling their Devotion and not subject rather to it and following rather than going before its dictates and impulses For however I finde many Commentatours ingeniously enough and acutely methodizing holy Scripture and Analyzing it so as if it had been the very intent and designe of the Holy Spirit therein to speak Logically and