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A74632 Herbert's remains, or, sundry pieces of that sweet singer of the temple, Mr George Herbert, sometime orator of the University of Cambridg. Now exposed to publick light. Herbert, George, 1593-1633.; Oley, Barnabas, 1602-1686. 1652 (1652) Thomason E1279_1 88,323 339

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it there being a promise that if the Kingdome of God be first sought all other things shall be added even it selfe is a Sermon For the temptations with which a good man is beset and the ways which he used to overcome them being told to another whether in private conference or in the Church are a Sermon Hee that hath considered how to carry himself at table about his appetite if he tell this to another preacheth and much more feelingly and judiciously then he writes his rules of temperance out of bookes So that the Parson having studied and mastered all his lusts and affections within and the whole Army of Temptations without hath ever so many sermons ready penn'd as he hath victories And it fares in this as it doth in Physick He that hath been sick of a Consumption and knows what recovered him is a Physitian so far as he meetes with the same disease and temper and can much better and particularly do it then he that is generally learned and was never sick And if the same person had been sick of all diseases and were recovered of all by things that he knew there were no such Physician as he both for skill and tendernesse Just so it is in Divinity and that not without manifest reason for though the temptations may be diverse in divers Christians yet the victory is alike in all being by the self-same Spirit Neither is this true onely in the military state of a Christian life but even in the peaceable also when the servant of God freed for a while from temptation in a quiet sweetnesse seeks how to please his God Thus the Parson considering that repentance is the great vertue of the Gospel and one of the first steps of pleasing God having for his owne use examined the nature of it is able to explaine it after to others And particularly having doubted sometimes whether his repentance were true or at least in that degree it ought to be since he found himselfe sometimes to weepe more for the losse of some temporall things then for offending God he came at length to this resolution that repentance is an act of the mind not of the Body even as the Originall signifies and that the chiefe thing which God in Scriptures requires is the heart and the spirit and to worship him in truth and spirit Wherefore in case a Christian endeavour to weep and cannot since we are not Masters of our bodies this sufficeth And consequently he found that the essence of repentance that it may be alike in all Gods children which as concerning weeping it cannot be some being of a more melting temper then others consisteth in a true detestation of the soul abhorring and renouncing sin and turning unto God in truth of heart and newnesse of life Which acts of repentance are and must be found in all Gods servants Not that weeping is not usefull where it can be that so the body may joyn in the grief as it did in the sin but that so the other acts be that is not necessary so that he as truly repents who performes the other acts of repentance when he cannot more as he that weeps a floud of tears This Instruction and comfort the Parson getting for himself when he tels it to others becomes a Sermon The like he doth in other Christian vertues as of faith and Love and the Cases of Conscience belonging thereto wherein as Saint Paul implyes that he ought Romans 2. hee first preacheth to himselfe and then to others CHAP. XXXIV The Parson's Dexterity in applying of Remedies THe Countrey Parson knows that there is a double state of a Christian even in this Life the one military the other peaceable The military is when we are assaulted with temptations either from within or from without The Peaceable is when the Divell for a time leaves us as he did our Saviour and the Angels minister to us their owne food even joy and peace and comfort in the holy Ghost These two states were in our Saviour not only in the beginning of his preaching but afterwards also as Mat. 22.35 He was tempted And Luke 10.21 He rejoyced in Spirit And they must be likewise in all that are his Now the Parson having a Spirituall Judgement according as he discovers any of his Flock to be in one or the other state so he applies himselfe to them Those that he findes in the peaceable state he adviseth to be very vigilant and not to let go the raines as soon as the horse goes easie Particularly he counselleth them to two things First to take heed lest their quiet betray them as it is apt to do to a coldnesse and carelesnesse in their devotions but to labour still to be as fervent in Christian Duties as they remember themselves were when affliction did blow the Coals Secondly not to take the full compasse and liberty of their Peace not to eate of all those dishes at table which even their present health otherwise admits nor to store their house with all those furnitures which even their present plenty of wealth otherwise admits nor when they are among them that are merry to extend themselves to all that mirth which the present occasion of wit and company otherwise admits but to put bounds and hoopes to their joyes so will they last the longer and when they depart returne the sooner If we would judg ourselves we should not be judged and if we would bound our selves we should not be bounded But if they shall fear that at such or such a time their peace and mirth have carryed them further then this moderation then to take Jobs admirable Course who sacrificed lest his Children should have transgressed in their mirth So let them go and find some poore afflicted soul and there be bountifull and liberall for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Those that the Parson findes in the military state he fortifyes and strengthens with his utmost skill Now in those that are tempted whatsoever is unruly falls upon two heads either they think that there is none that can or will look after things but all goes by chance or wit Or else though there be a great Governour of all things yet to them he is lost as if they said God doth forsake and persecute them and there is none to deliver them If the Parson suspect the first and find sparkes of such thoughts now and then to break forth then without opposing directly for disputation is no Cure for Atheisme he scatters in his discourse three sorts of arguments the first taken from Nature the second from the Law the third from Grace For Nature he sees not how a house could be either built without a builder or kept in repaire without a house-keeper He conceives not possibly how the windes should blow so much as they can and the sea rage as much as it can and all things do what they can and all not only without dissolution of the whole but also