Chrysostom would not consent to give his suffrage for the condemnation of Origen's works Epiphanius subscribes to it and makes St. Chrysostom a Patron of those errors which did no doubt deserve a censure Both forgot that Meekness which they both commended in their Writings Epiphanius curseth Chrysostom and Chrysostom Epiphanius and both took effect for the one lost his Bishoprick and the other his Country to which he never after returned An infirmity this is which we cannot be too wary of since we see the strongest Pillars of the Church thus shaken with it An evil which hath alwaies been forbidden and retained in all Ages of the Church Zeal being made an apology for Fury and the Love of Truth a pretense to colour over that behaviour which hath nothing in it to shew of Truth or Christianity And therefore the Church of Christ which felt the smart of it hath alwaies condemn'd it When Eulalia the Martyr spit in the face of the Tyrant and broke and scatter'd the Idols before Prudentius and others were fain to excuse it that she did it impulsu Divini spiritûs by special revelation from the Spirit Which was indeed but an excuse and a weak one too For that Spirit which once descended in the shape of a Dove and is indeed the Spirit of Meekness cannot be thought to be the Teacher of such a Lesson But when other Christians in the time of Dioclesian attempted the like and were slain in the very enterprise to deter others from such an inconsiderate Zeal it was decreed in the Councel of Eliberis and the 60 Canon Siquis idola fregerit If any hereafter break down the heathen idols he shall have no room in the Diptychs nor be registred with the number of the Martyrs although he be slain in the very fact quatenus in Evangelio non est scriptum because we find nothing in the Gospel that casts a favourable countenance upon such a fact I have brought this instance the rather to curb those forward spirits now adaies which did not Fear more restrain them then Discretion would be as good Martyrs as these and with the same Engine with which they heave at the outwork in time would blow up Church Religion and all who are streight angry with any thing that doth but thwart their private humor or with any man that by long study and experience and evidence of reason hath gained so much knowledge as not to be of their opinion What mean else the Unchristian nick-names of Arminians and Pelagians and Socinians and Puritanes which are the glorious Scutchions the Meekness of these times doth fix in every place and the very pomp and glory of their triumph when factious men cry down that truth which they are not willing to understand Doth this rancor think you proceed from the spirit of Meekness or rather from the foul Spirit of Destraction Little do these men think that the Truth it self suffers by such a Defense that rash Zeal cannot be excused with intentions and the goodness of the end which is proposed that the crown of Martyrdom will sit more gloriously on his head who rather suffers that the Church may have her peace then on his who dies that he may not offer sacrifice to idols For in this every man hath been merciful and good to himself but in the former he merits for the whole and is a sacrifice for the publick peace of the Church whereof he is a part Talk of Martyrdom what we please never was there any Martyr never can there be any Martyr made without Meekness Though I give all my goods to feed the poor though I give my body to be burnt in the justest cause for the truth of the Gospel and have not Meekness which is a branch of Christian Charity it profitteth me nothing For my impatience will rob me of that crown to which my sufferings might otherwise have entitled me The Canonists speak truly Non praesumitur bono exitu perfici quae malo sunt inchoata principio The event of that action can never be good whose very beginning was unwarrantable Philosophers have told us that when the Sea rageth if you throw in oyl upon it you shall presently calm it The truth of this I will not now discuss but give me leave to commend this precious oyl of Meekness to powre upon your souls when Zeal or Ignorance shall raise a tempest in your thoughts Have men of wisdom tender'd to you something which falls cross with your opinion If you obey not yet be not angry If your obedience appear not in your practise yet let it be most visible in your Meekness Remember that private men who converse in a narrow Sphere must needs be ignorant of many things which fall not within their horizon and the compass of their experience that they may have knowledge enough perhaps to do their own duty which will come short in the performance of anothers especially of a Superiors If an erroneous Conscience bind thee from the outward performance of what is enjoyned yet let Truth and Scripture and Meekness seal up thy lips from reviling those qui in hoc somnum in hoc vigilias reponunt who do watch for thy good and spend their dayes and nights too that thou mayest live in all good conscience before God all the dayes of thy life To conclude this point Dost thou know or suppose thy brother to be in an error Take not mine but St. Paul's counsel and restore such a one in the spirit of Meekness considering that thou also maist be deceived And peradventure this may be one error that thou art perswaded that thy brother errs when Truth and Reason both speak for him Pride and Self-conceit are of a poysonous quality and if not purged out exhalat opaca mephitia it sends forth pestiferous vapors which will choak and stifle all goodness in us But Meekness qualifies and prepares the mind and makes it wax for all impressions of spiritual graces it doth no evil it thinketh no evil it cannot be provokt with errors in opinion nor with those grosser mistakes and deviations in mens lives and conversation We have brought Meekness to its tryal indeed For sure where Sin once shews its deformity all meekness in a Christian whose Religion bindeth him to hate sin must needs be lost It is true all created natures we must love because they have their first foundation in the love and goodness of God and he that made them saw that they were good But Sin is no created entity but without the compass of Nature and against her against that order and harmony which Reason dispenseth This only hurts us this is that smoke which comes from the very pit of Hell and blasts the soul even then when the body is untoucht This is the fornace in which men are transformed into Devils We cannot then hate Sin enough Yet here our Christian skill must shew it self and we must be careful that our Anger which frowns upon Sin
but apply it to our present occasion For enemies God hath who are gather'd together and our prayer is they may be scattered enemies shall hate him and defie him to his face and these who should be glad to see to fly from his face Our hope is they are but smoke and may be driven away but wax in appearance a hard and solid body strongly united and compact together by the devils art but yet as wax will melt before the fire of his wrath and when it shall please God to arise shall perish at the presence of God You may if you please take the words either as a Prayer or as a Prophesy as a Prayer that they may or as a Prophesy that they shall be scatter'd Or you may read it SURGENTE DOMINO As soon as the Lord shall arise his enemies shall be scatter'd and so make it a Theological axiome and so it is a proposition aeternae veritatis everlastingly true true in the first age of the world and true in the last age of the world and will be true to the worlds end We may make it our prayer that they may be destroyed and we may prophesy that they shall be destroyed Summa votorum est non ex incerto poscentis sed ex cognitione scientiâque sperantis saith Hilary It is a prayer not proceeding from a doubting and wavering heart as if God did at sometimes deliver his Church and at others fail and leave her to the will of her enemies but grounded upon certain knowledge and infallible assurance that he will arise and not keep silence and avenge himself of his enemy For there is a kind of presage and prophesy in Prayer If we pray as we should he hath promised to grant our request Which is a fairer assurance than any Prophet can give us Let God arise and God will arise is but the difference of a Tense and the Hebrews commonly use the one for the other Whoever compiled this Psalm most plain it is that he borrowed it from Moses who when the Ark set forward used this very form Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scatter'd and let them that hate thee fly before thee and when it rested Return O Lord to the many Thousands of Israel Now Numb 10 35. 36. the occasion of this Psalm is diversly given The Jews refer it to the overthrow of the army of Senacherib when the Angel of the Lord smote in one night a hundred fourscore and five thousand of the Assyrians Others to Davids victories over his neighbouring enemies the Ammonites Moabites Syrians and Idumaeans Others to the pomp and triumph in 2 Kings 19. 35. which the Ark was removed by David from Kiniathaarim to the house of Obed-Edom and from thence to Sion its resting-place The Fathers most of them apply it unto Christ who most gloriously triumphed over the Devil and the powers of this world and shewed them openly who led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men as S. Paul himself borroweth the words out of this Psalm Take the Cliff how you please the Notes will follow and we Eph. 4. 8. may take them up No Assyrian so cruel no Rabshakeh so loud no Ammonite no Moabite no Philistine so bloudy as a Jesuite or a Jesuited Papist Take in the Devil himself and then you have a parallel the wicked one indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil terms him the wonderfull mischief who like the Tyrant in the Story if all men in the world had but one neck would strike it off at a blow as his instruments at this day would ruine three Kingdoms by shaking of one Or if you please suppose now you saw the children of Israel moving their tents and the Ark which was the pledge and testimony of Gods presence on the Levites shoulders and the same thought almost will apply it to the Church where we may be sure God is as present as he was in the Ark. Indeed wicked persons as wicked as the Amalekites have a long time endeavoured and do now strive to throw it down from the shoulders of those that bear it and cannot endure to hear that God should be worshipped in spirit and truth But no Amalekite no Ammonite no Jebusite no Philistine did overthrow the one no Jesuite no Devil shall prevail against the other but the Ark shall be brought to its resting-place and the Church which is the pillar of truth shall be upheld by the Truth and after many removals after many persecutions after many oppositions though the Devil rage and wicked men take counsel together shall be brought in triumph to its resting place and appear before God in Sion God will never fail his Church Though his enemies gather themselves together they shall be scatter'd though they fight against him with hatred and malice they shall fly before him They are but smoke and they shall vanish they are but wax and they shall melt away Upon an Exsurgit follows a dissipabuntur If God arise all the plots and machinations of his enemies shall be but as smoke You may pray for it you may conclude upon it Let God arise and let his enemies be scatter'd or God will arise and his enemies shall be scatter'd they also that hate him shall fly before him c. In which Prayer or Prophesy or Conclusion you may as in a glass behold the providence of God over his people and the destiny and fatal destruction of wicked men Or you may conceive God sitting in heaven and looking down upon the children of men and laughing to scorn all the designs of his enemies his Exsurgat his Rising as a tempest to scatter them and as a fire to melt them And these two Exsurgat and Dissipabuntur the Rising of God and the Destruction of his enemies divide the Text and present before our eyes two parties or sides as it were in main opposition Now though the Exsurgat be before the Dissipabuntur God's Rising before the Scattering yet there must be some persons to rowse God up and awake him before he will rise to destroy We will therefore as the very order of nature requir'd consider first the persons which are noted out unto us by three several appellations as by so many marks and brands in their forehead They are 1. enemies 2. haters of God 3. wicked men But God Rising in this manner is more especially against the Fact than the Person and against the Person but for the Fact We must therefore search and enquire after that and we find it wrapt up and secretly lurking in the Dissipabuntur in their punishment For Scattering supposeth a gathering together as Corruption doth Generation That then which moved God to rise was this His enemies they that hated him the wicked were gathered together and consulted against God and his Church As we see it this day and seeing it are here meet together to fall down before God in all humility that he may arise and scatter them
eyes to be strong in the faith that we may contemn this Adversary to keep the innocency of the Dove to shut-up the mouth of this Calumniator and to have the wisdom of the Serpent that we may be wise unto salvation and defeat all his plots and enterprises and to put-on that Christian fortitude and resolution which may deliver us out of the mouth of this Lion that though he be a Serpent he may but flatter and though he be a Lion he may but roar that so at last we may triumph over this Evil this Wicked one this malicious Enemy and tread him under our feet We shave shut up and concluded all evil in him who is the Father of Evil We have considered him as an Enemy to mankind and Why he is so We descend now to discover some Stratagems of his which he useth to bring his enterprises to pass by which he leads us through the wayes of Truth into error and by Virtue it self to those vices which will make us like unto him And here we have a large field to walk in And should we follow those who have gone before us in this way we might run our selves out of breath Gerson hath writ a Tract of purpose De diversis Diaboli Tentationibus Of divers Tentations of the Devil by which he instills his poyson into our hearts Many he hath numbred-up to our hands and he might have brought us twice as many more We shall make choice of those which most commonly abuse us because they are less observable For what the Orator speaks of Tempests may be truly said of the Devils Tentations Saepe certo aliquo coeli signo saepe ex improviso nulla ex certâ ratione obscurâ aliquâ causâ commoventur Sometimes we have some certain indications of them from certain signs in the heavens sometimes they are raised on a sudden from some obscure and hidden cause nor can we give any reason of them So some tentations are gross and palpable some more secret and invisible But as the Magicians when they saw the Lice presently cryed out This is the finger of God so when we see the effects of Exod. 8. 19. these Tentations that swarm of sins which they produce we cannot be so blind as not to discover and confess that the finger or rather the claw of the Devil is in them For let him put-on what shape he please let him begin how he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene he alwayes ends in evil Two evils he strives to sow in the heart of Man Error and Sin and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil calls him that great and invisible Sophister of the world he makes use of those means to bring them in which are in their own nature preservatives against them turneth our antidote into poyson and our very light into darkness and so cunningly leads us on in the way to destruction as withal to perswade us that we are making haste to meet with Truth and Happiness Nor can we think that this proceeds meerly from the corruption of our nature or from some predominant humor in us which may sway and bow us down from the check and command of Reason For to a reasonable man it is a kind of tentation not to believe that any should be forc't thus far from themselves as to forget their Reason But admiscet se malitiae Angelus totius erroris artifex that evil and malitious Angel that forger of all error joyns and mingleth himself with our temper and inclination Fallitur fallit depravatus errorem pravitatis infundit His Pride deceived him and his Malice makes him the father of lyes and so he transforms himself into an Angel of light to make us like unto himself the children of darkness and error St. Paul calls these his tentations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which St. Ambrose interprets ASTUTIAS deceits Sedulius VERSUTIAS wiles and shiftings Tertullian INJECTIONES injections or casting of snares and Erasmus COGITATIONES crafty thoughts by which he pretends one thing and intends another as we commonly say of a subtile and deceitful man that he is full of thoughts thinking to please and thinking to hurt and studying so to please that he may hurt You may take St. Pauls instance 2 Cor. 2. where the Corinthians to uphold the severity of their Discipline had almost forgot their Christianity Charity and Compassion and to defend one good duty had endangered another and were so severe to the incestuous excommunicate person that they had almost swallowed him up the Apostle tells them that if they thus proceeded Satan would gain an advantage over them For most plain it was that this was one of his devices Tertullian will tell us Invenit quomodo nos boni sectationibus perdat nihil apud eum refert alios luxuriâ alios continentiâ occidere The Devil knows how to throw us on the ground even in our hottest pursuit of that which is good He destroys some with luxury and wantonness others with continence some with too much remissness and flackness in discipline others with too much severity And when we follow close and run after one virtue he so works it many times that we leave another behind us as saving and necessary as that Thus doth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come about us hunt and search-out the occasions and opportunities to draw us to evil from goodness it self Omnia obumbrat lenociniis He shadows over evil with some colourable good When he sells his wares and commodities he doth not disclose what vice and imperfection they have he doth not proclaim as there was a law in Rome Pestilentem domum vendo I sell an infectious house He doth not let us know that this our Thrift is Covetousness this our irregular Zeal Madness this our Assurance Presumption but with the beauty of the one covers over the deformity of the other and makes Thrift a provocation to covetousness Zeal an abettor and patron of faction and our duty to make our election sure a kind of motive and inducement to perswade us it is so And this his art and method is observable both in the errors of our Understanding and in those of our Will both in our Doctrine and Conversation And first what monstrous errors have been embraced in the Christian Church what ground have they got how many ages have they passed as current coin which if you look nearer upon them have no other image nor superscription but his who is the Father of lyes who is well skill'd veritatem veritate concutere to shake and abolish one truth with another I will not urge the proposing doubtful things as certain and building up those opinions for articles of Faith which have no basis or foundation in Scripture I will not speak of adding to the rule either by way of gloss or supply I will not complain with the Father Latè quaeruntur incarta latius disputantur obscura that those things
For as St. Paul speaks of the Jews Had they known it they had not crucified the Lord of glory so may we of the Devil Had he known Christ to be God and Man and the Saviour of the world he would never have put into the heart of Judas to betray him nor have moved the Jews to put him to death by which the determinate counsel of God was brought to pass and by which himself was trod under-foot and his kingdom overthrown But such a Captain it behoved us to have who could be tempted but could not sin who might be set hard at but could not be overthrown who could discover the falacies of that subtle Sophister who could subsist and not turn stones into bread who could go up to the pinacle of the Temple and come down from it who could see the world and the glory of it and contemn it The Schoolmen where they speak of this Tentation of Christ tell us of a double tentation an inward and an outward and rank our Saviour with our first Parents in the state of innocency who as they imagine could have no inward tentation at all because the Flesh was then in full and perfect subjection to Reason and their Reason in due obedience to God whose Phansie could receive no species or phantasms but upon deliberate counsel whose Understanding had no cloud to obscure it and whose Will waited as an handmaid on the Understanding and followed as that led All this may be true and yet might our first Parents be tempted inwardly For Tentation if it go no further is no sin We are then tempted when objects are proposed to the Eye and then pass to the Phansie and from thence are tendred to the Understanding I may see an object suppose the forbidden fruit and think of it and know it and yet not sin It is beauty in the Eye and so in the Phansie and it may be so in the Understanding and yet the Will may not incline to it because Reason may judge it though fair to the eye yet dangerous to the touch Scire malum non facit scientem malum To know evil cannot denominate us evil For God who is a pure essence and Purity it self knows Evil more exactly then we and therefore hates it with a perfecter hatred then we can I may know the Apple to be fair to look to and pleasant of taste and yet not taste it I may know that Bread is the staff of our life and yet rely more upon the providence of God then on bread I may know that the nearest way down from the pinacle is to fling my self off and yet chuse the safer and go down by the stairs I may see Riches to be the God of this world and yet count them as dung For I cannot see but the tentation may be inward and yet no sin Nay if it be but a tentation it is not sin and if it be sin the tentation is at an end And if the tentation had not its operation upon the will and inward man as well as upon the outward and sensitive part let them tell me how Adam fell Besides there is a great disproportion between the state of the first Adam and the state of the second between our first Parents and Christ For although they were created upright and in a state of innocency for indeed they could not be created otherwise by God who is Goodness it self yet we do not read that they were conceived by the holy Ghost In Christ there was no sin nor could there be He had not only Nolle peccare but Non posse peccare not only a Will not to sin but an Impossibility of sinning although Durand upon I know not what grounds phansieth the contrary The Prince of this world comes and hath nothing in me saith our John 14 30. Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing in him which he might accuse not only no sin but no fuel for his scintillations his sparkles his tentations no fuel for his sullen tentations to fall upon and smoke up in distrust no combustible matter for his glorious tentations to settle upon and flame up in ambition There was nothing in Christ which the Devil had or could make his no Ignorance of what he should do no Dulness of Mind no Difficulty in resisting tentations The second Adam was like unto the first in all things not only in his state of innocency but in his fall sin only excepted But in Adam though there was no fomes peccati no fuel yet there was a possibility of sinning which was ad instar fomitis and which the Devil made use of as of fuel in which he raised that fire that consumed him to dust and ashes brought death and the condition of mortality both upon him and his progeny We will not here make any curious search to find out the degrees of this Tentation of our Saviour or what operation it had upon him Scrutari hoc temeritas est credere pietas est nosse vita est vita aeterna To dive too far into this into the manner how the tentation wrought would be rashness to believe that Christ was tempted is an act of piety and to know it and make use of it is life and life eternal And I know that discourses of this nature are not welcome in this age where not Schoolmen but dunces are most in request where men are afraid to hear of any truth that is new to them and disdain to know more then they know already although if they were diligent they might learn more in their Catechisme And indeed in this point we can walk no further then we have light from the Scripture And there we find that Christ did suffer something when he was tempted that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was touched Hebr. 2. 18. with the feeling of our infirmities like unto us in all things sin only excepted And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he learnt something that is obedience Hebr. 4. 15. by the things which he suffered This we may receive simplici notâ fide by a plain and common faith And we dare not stretch further for fear we stretch beyond the line Tempted he was but temptations did fall upon him as waves upon a rock which dashed them into ayr into nothing or as hailstones upon marble erepitant solvuntur They made some noyse but no impression they did no sooner fall but were dissolved And this is enough for any to know but those quibus nihil est satis who will know more then they can know It is sufficient for us to know that our Saviour was tempted and it will be very necessary for us to know the end why he was tempted For as he was made Man so also was he tempted for our sakes First as he was made a sacrifice for sin so here he made himself an ensample which we should follow when the enemy assaults us For as Commentators on Aristotle