spake of Philosophy is as true of Religion and Devotion Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes When men were truly devout there was no contention but this one Who should be most devour All the noise was in their Temples little in their Schools All men then did joyn together with one heart and mind in prayer and not as now fly asunder and stand at distance and then give laws to one another or which is worse in their hearts denounce a curse against those who will not follow their example that is set the countenance tune the voice roll the eye pray at adventure and in all things do as they do or which is equivalent to a curse esteem them at best but meer moral men would they were so good but unsanctified men and void of saving Grace and so nourish that venome and malice in their hearts against their Brethren which certainly cannot lodge in the same room with true Devotion and leave them only fit to act a prayer And then what a Roscius is a Pharisee Beloved Prayer was a Duty but is become a Probleme and men who cannot gain the reputation of Wise but by doing that for which they deserve another name and title have been bold to put it to the question When and How and In what manner we may pray as if this Form came short which our Saviour hath prescribed have lookt upon all other Forms and this of Christs by which they were made as upon a stone of offense and out of it have struck the fire of Contention Nihil tam sanctum quod non inveniat sacrilegum There is nothing so sacred so set apart which a profane hand dare not touch and violate no Manna which may not be loathed nothing so profitable to advance piety which may not be trod under foot If you cast a pearl to a Swine he will turn upon you and rent you if he can A set-Form That is a chain and binds the holy Ghost to an Ink-horn Meditation without which we will not speak to our fellow mortal That stints the blessed Spirit It is their own language They bring Sermons and Prayers of Gods own making because they themselves takes no pains in framing them Multa sunt sic digna revinci nè gravitate adorentur saith Tertullian Many exceptions may be taken which are not worth the excepting against and many are so ridiculous that to be serious and earnest in confuting of them were to honour them too much We cannot but pity the men because we are Christians otherwise we could not but make them the object of our laughter We have probability enough to induce us to believe that some of those who have so startled at a Form would for the very same reason have complained had there been none at all For he that looks for a fault will be sure to find one or if he do not find will make one They would have been as hot and angry had the Church been naked as they are now they see her glorious in all her embroydery Ceremony or no Ceremony Form or no Form all is one to him whose custome whose nature whose advantage it is to be contentious What no reverence in the Church of Christ as lyable to exceptions as What too much What turn the cock and let it run one would think more obnoxious to censure then by meditation to draw waters out of the fountain the Word of God What speak we know not what Such an accusation in all reason should sooner raise a tempest then to pray after that manner which our best Master hath taught us When it concerns us to be angry every shadow is a monster every thing is out of order every thing nothing is a fault I have not been so particular as I should because we live among fanatick spirits with men who as David speaketh are soon set on fire who can themselves at pleasure libel the whole world yet put on the malice of a Fiend and clothe themselves with vengeance at the sound of the most gentle reprehension Imbecilla loedi se putant si tangantur You must not lay a finger upon that which is weak If you but touch them they are inraged and will pursue you as a murderer Yet we may take leave to consider what degrees and approaches the Arch-Enemy of the Church and Religion hath made to overthrow all Devotion and to digg up Christianity by the roots First men are offended with Ceremony though as ancient as the Church it self and at last cry down Duty First no Kneeling at the Sacrament and then no Sacrament at all First no Witnesses at the Font and then no Baptism First no Ordination and then no Minister and he is the best Preacher who hath no calling though he be fitter to handle the Flayl then the Bible First no Adorning of Churches and presently they speak it plainly A Barn a Stable is as good as a Church And so it may be for such cattle as they First no set-Form of Prayer and within a while they will teach Christ himself how to pray Thus Error multiplyes it self and striking over-hastily at that which is deemed Superstition leaves that untoucht and wounds Religion it self and swallows up the Truth in victory in the unadvised and heedless pursuit of an error This is an evil humor and works upon every matter it meets with and when it hath laid all desolate before it it will at last gnaw upon it self as in the bag of Snakes in Epiphanius the greatest Snake eat up the lesser and at last half of himself For we commonly see that they that strike at whatsoever other men set up are at last as active to destroy the work of their own hands and they who quarrel with every thing do at last fall out with themselves Oh what pity is it that Religion and Piety should be thus toyed withal that men should play the wanton with those heavenly advantages which should be as staves to uphold them here on earth and as wings to carry them up to heaven that there should be so much noise and business about that Duty which requireth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quietness the tranquility the stillness of the soul that Praying should become begging indeed I mean as Begging is now-a-dayes an art and trade that all Devotion should be lost in shews that men should hate Ceremony and yet be so much Papists as they are that they should cry Down with Babylon even to the ground and yet build up a Babel in themselves But beloved we have not so learned Christ Therefore let us lay hold on better things and such as accompany Piety that Piety which brings with it salvation Let us not be afraid of a good duty because it hath fallen into evil hands Let us not leave off to pray in that Form which our Saviour hath taught us or in any other Form which is conformable to that because some men love to play the wantons and
is light and to make that obscure which is plain and easie of it self That hath befallen Divinity which the Stoick complained of in Philosophy Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes Divinity was not so perplext and sullen a thing till Ambition and Faction made her so The very Hereticks and Schismaticks saith St. Augustine Catholicam nihil aliud quà m Catholicam vocant When they speak with Pagans they call the Catholick Church that Society of men which are divided from all the world besides by the profession of Christ This very word Our Father is enough to express it But by contentious spirits it hath been made a matter of business and the business of the Will And in these times if we will follow private humors in those Meanders and Labyrinths which they make we may sooner go to heaven then find the Church Which like the Cameleon is drawn and shaped out by every phansie like unto it self Sometimes it is a Body but nec caput nec pedes it must have neither head nor feet Sometimes it is a Spirit rather than a Body so invisible we cannot see it Sometimes it is visible alone and sometimes invisible And so we may ecclesiam in ecclesia quaerere seek for the Church even in the Church it self Who knows not what the Church is The subject is plain and easie But where men walk several wayes the discourse must need be rugged and uneven They who would bring in an Anarchy and make all the members equal are droven to this shift also to keep the Church out of sight And they who would raise a Monarchy are forced to set it upon a hill So that in talking so much of that company of children which make the Church we have almost lost the Father nay the Pater Noster and can but hardly consent that God should be a Father to us both For to say so is an error and mistake of charity No how can God be our Father when the Church is not our Mother How can Schismaticks and Rebels against the Church have their fellowship and communion with the Saints How can he be a Christian who is not a Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Poet Mothers were wont to call up Hobgoblings and Cyclops to still and silence their children And what is all this but powder without shot What are these terms of Church and Catholick and Communion as the Church of Rome urgeth them but words and noyse We can say Our Father for all this and joyn with them in prayer too if they will pray as Christ taught We communicate with them whether they will or no as far as they communicate in the truth But if the Church of Rome tender us errors for truth if she obtrude upon us a multitude of things for fundamentals which are only the inventions of men and no way concern our Faith here non fugamur sed fugimus we did not stay till she thrust us out but we were bound to separate our selves from partaking of those gross impieties which proceeded from the Father of lyes and not from our Father which is in heaven That she sent thunder after us and drove us out by excommunication when we were gone may argue want of charity in her but makes no impression of hurt upon us For what prejudice can come unto us by her excommunicating us whose duty it was to make haste and leave her unless you will say that that souldier did a doughty deed who cut off the legg of a man who was dead before I am sure we are the children of God by the surer side for we lay claim by the Father when they so much talk of their Mother the Church that they have forgotten their Father who alone begets us with the word of truth Quot palestrae opinionum quot propagines quaestionum Hence what a wrestling in opinions hath there been what propagations and succession of quaestions Where our Church was when we separated We need answer but this That it was there where it was For they who have God to their Father may be sure they have the Church to their Mother Nor can any who find the truth and embrace it miss of the Church This is one devise ready at hand to fright and amaze those who have not maturity of understanding to take heed of their deceit The other is like unto it and a most the same the Communion of Saints which is here implyed in these first words of our Pater Noster In both which vacua causarum implent ineptiis When their cause is so hollow and empty that it sounds and betrayes it self at the very first touch they fill it up with chaff They make it fuel for Purgatory They draw it to the Invocation of Saints They make it as a Patent for their sale of Pardons They give it strength to carry up our Prayers to the Saints and to conveigh their Merits to us on earth They temper it to that heat to draw up the bloud of Martyrs and the Works of Supererogating Christians into the treasury of the Church and then shower them down in Pardons and Indulgences So that he that reads them and weighs their proofs would wonder that men of great name for learning should publish such trash and make it saleable and more that any man should be so simple as to buy at their market It is say they the general property of the Church that one member must be helped by another Therefore one member may suffer punishment for another Again One man may bear anothers burden Therefore he may bear his brothers sin It were even as good an argument to say He is my Brother Therefore he is my Mediatour Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We Schismaticks dare not pretend to such subtilty and wit We are taught to distinguish between the duties of Charity and the office of Mediation The unction we have from the Head alone but the Members may anoint one another with that oyl of Charity Though I cannot suffer for my brother yet I may bear for him even bear his burden Though I cannot merit for him I may work for him Though I cannot satisfie for him I may pray for him Though there be no profit in my dust yet there may be in my memory in the memory of my conversation my counsel my example In this duty high and low rich and poor learned and ignorant all are equal All have one Father who hears the low as well as the high the poor as well as the rich and the ideot as well as the great clerk Nihil iniquius fide si tantùm in eruditos caderet Faith and Religion were the unjustest things in the world if no place were a fit habitation for them but the breast of a Rabbi or a Potentate No God is our Father and every man claims an equal title to him Licet parva rati portum subire In the smallest bark and weakest vessel we may sail
teach us that all this may be done without malice or rancor to their persons whose error we strive against and that the Lords battles may be fought without shedding of bloud Surely Meekness is the best Director in these wars where he gains the greatest conquest who is overcome The Physician is not angry with him whom he intends to cure but he searcheth his books and useth his art and all diligence morbum tollere non hominem to remove the disease and not to kill the man How much more should we be careful how we handle our weak and erring brother lest we make him weaker by our rough and unskilful usage and cure him indeed but in the Tyrant's sense in Suetonius who boasted he had done a cure when he cut off a mans head or otherwise put him to death who had offended him We read that Paul and Barnabas were at some difference about the choice of their Acts 15. companion the one determined to take Mark with them the other thought it not good From whence sprung that paroxysme as the Evangelist terms it which divided them the one from the other Yet St. Hierom will tell us Quos navigatio separavit hoc Christi Evangelium copulavit Though they sailed to several Coasts yet they were both bound for the same negotiation even the preaching of the Gospel Paul withstood Peter to his face yet in Gal. 2. 11. the same Chapter he calls him a Pillar of the Truth A Father may differ from his Son and the Wife from the Husband in opinion yet this difference breaks not the bond of that relation which is betwixt them but the Father may nay must perform the office of love and the Son of duty And why may not Christians be diversly perswaded in some points of Religion in earth and yet the same Heaven hold them both That which deceives us are those glorious things which are spoken of Zeal We read of Phinehas who was blest for thrusting his Javelin through the adulterous couple of the austerity of Elijah the zeal of Simon the Canaanite the severity of Peter which struck Ananias and Sapphira dead the constancy of Paul who struck Elymas the Sorcerer blind And we are told Non est crudelitas pro Deo pietas That in God's cause the greatest piety is to be cruel But we willingly mistake our selves for neither here is the cause alike nor the person the same We know not of what Spirit we are Every man is not a Phinehas an Elijah a Paul a Peter Nor did Elymas loose his sight and Ananias his life for their errors but for their witchcraft and grand hypocrisie Nor are times the same We cannot but commend Zeal as an excellent quality in man but as Agarick or Stibium being prepared and castigated are soveraign Physick but crude and unprepared are dangerous so Zeal which so many boast of seasoned with discretion is of singular use and profit but taken crude and in the Mineral it oft-times proves deleterial and unfortunate Zeal is a light but by occasion it troubles the eye of the understanding and being by degrees enraged by our private ends and phansies at last it puts it quite out and leaves us fighting in the dark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unlearned Zeal and supine Negligence are both so bad that it is not easie to determine which is worst only Negligence lets inconveniencies slily steal into the Church but unguided Zeal much plies those errours which Negligence letteth in and as if error were indeed a Hydra it never strikes off the head of one error but two arise in the place And therefore St. Bernard in his forty ninth Sermon on the Canticles will tell us Semper zelus absque scientia minùs utilis invenitur plerumque etiam perniciosus sentitur Zeal without knowledge is alwaies unprofitable many times most dangerous And therefore the more hot and fervent it is and the more profuse our Charity with the more care and diligence should we set our Knowledge and Reason as a Sentinel quae Zelum supprimat spiritum temperet ordinet charitatem which may abate and cool our Zeal temper our spirit and compose and order our Charity For if we do not keep our souls with diligence and carry a strict and observant eye upon our Zeal our Meekness will be consumed in this fire and with it the whole crop and harvest of spiritual Wisdom lost We shall be heady and high-minded lovers of our selves unwilling to pardon one error to our brethren and to acknowledge any of our own This is it which hath been the mother and nurse too of all those outrages in the Church of Christ that Story hath transmitted to Posterity and those too which later and our present times have been too guilty of that men will neither subscribe to the opinion of others lest they may be thought not to have found the Truth but have borrowed it nor will yet retain so much meekness as to give their brother leave to erre but when they cannot convince him by Argument fall heavy upon him with Reproach A fault sometimes in him that errs and sometimes in him who holds the truth the one obstinate the other indiscreet both ready to maintain with violence what they cannot perswade by reason The Arians betook themselves to this guard and called in the temporal Sword to defend their Cause against the Orthodox and when they could not prevail by Argument they made use of outward force And so this faction saith the Father plainly shewed quà m non sit pia nec Dei cultrix how destitute it was of piety and the fear of God The Donatists stiled themselves filios Martyrum the off-spring of Martyrs and all other Christians progeniem traditorum the progeny of those who basely delivered up the sacred things They broke the Chalices demolisht the Altars ravisht Virgins and Matrons flung the holy Eucharist to the Dogs slew those who were not of their faction beat down the Bishop Maximinian with batts and clubs even as he stood at the Altar and did those outrages on Christians which Christian Meekness would have forbidden them to commit on a Jew or Infidel the Monks of Aegypt were indeed devout and religious men but for the most part Anthropomerphites holding that God had hands and feet and all the parts that a Man hath and was in outward shape and proportion like unto one of us That having got Theophilus a learned Bishop of Alexandria into their hands so roughly used him that he could not get out of their fingers till he made use of his wits and sophistry and told them in a kind of complement that he had seen their face as the face of God Nor did this evil rest here amongst the vulgar and discontented persons quibus opus erat bello civili as Caesar spake who could not subsist but in times of noise and hurry but it blasted the fairest plants in all the Church
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
they do well to be angry even to death but not at their sin of themselves but their brethren For Meekness and cruelty cannot harbor in the same breast Nor will it come near the habitations of Covetousness Ambition and Hypocrisie for where these make their entrance Meekness takes the wing and flyes away Therefore to conclude let us mark these men and avoid them as the Apostle counsels And though they bring us into bondage though they smite us on the face though they take from us all that we have let us pity them and send after them more then they desire our prayers that God will open their eyes that they may see the snare of the Devil which holds them fast while they defie him and all his works and what a poor and narrow space there is betwixt them and Hell while they think they are in the presence and favour of God In a word though they curse let us bless though they rage let us pray and as the Apostle counsels Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from us with all Eph. 4. 31 32. malice And let us be kind and meek one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us The Third SERMON PART III. MATTH V. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth WE cannot insist too long upon this subject yet we must insist longer then at first we did intend For this holy oyl like that of the Widows increaseth under our hands and flows more plentifully by being powred out That which our last reached unto you was the Object of Meekness which we found to be as large as the whole world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Paul Let your moderation be known unto all men For Meekness is not cloyster'd up within the walls of one Society nor doth it hide it self behind the curtains of Solomon but looks further upon the tents of Kedar upon Bethel and Bethaven We could not nor was it necessary to gather and fetch in all particulars but we then confined our meditations to those which we thought most pertinent and within their compass took in the rest which were Error in opinion and which is the greater error nay the greater heresie saith Erasmus Error in life and conversation Where we took off those common pretenses and excuses which Christians usually bring in as Advocates to plead for them when they forget that Meekness without which they cannot be Christians For what is in Error or in Sin which may raise my anger against my brother Errantis poena est doceri saith Plato If he erre his punishment is to be taught and if he sin we must molest and pursue him and beat upon him with line upon line with reprehension upon reprehension till we convert him If he erre why should I be angry and if he sin why should I hate him The way to uphold a falling House is not to demolish it nor is it the way to remove Sacriledge to beat the Temple down When we fight against Sin and Error we must make Christ our patern qui vulnus non hominem secat qui secat ut sanet who levels his hand and knife against the disease not against the man and never strikes but where he means to heal And now to add something which the time would not before permit Let us but a while put upon our selves the person of our adversaries and ours upon them and conceive it as possible for our selves to erre as for them and if we do not thus think we fall upon an error which will soon multiply and draw with it many more For we cannot erre more dangerously then by thinking we cannot erre And then to this let us joyn a prudent consideration of those truths wherein we both agree which peradventure may be more and more weighty then those in which we differ that so by the lustre and brightness of these the offence taken by the other may vanish as the mist before the Sun For why should they who agree in those truths that may lift them both up together to Heaven fall asunder and stand at distance as enemies for those which have no such force and activity This is to hazard the benefit of the one for the defense of the other and for the love of a truth not necessary to abate our love of that which should save us to forfeit our Charity in a violent contention for Faith and so be shut out of Heaven for our wild and impertinent knocking at the gates Therefore in all our disputes and debates with those whom we are so ready to condemn of error let us walk by this rule which Reason and Revelation have drawn out to be our guide and direction That no Text in Scripture can retain the sense and meaning of the blessed Spirit which doth not edifie in Charity Knowledge puffeth up swelleth us beyond our sphere and compass but it is Charity alone that doth edifie which in all things dictates what is expedient for all and so builds us up together in a holy Faith We cannot think that Doctrine can be of any use in the Church which exasperates and envenoms one man against another It is St. Bernards observation And therefore Moderation and Meekness is that Salt which Christ requires to be in us that wise and prudent seasoning Mark 5. 90. of our words that purging of our affections amongst which Ambitions and Envyings are the most violent Have this salt in your selves and then as it follows you shall have peace one with another And this Peace will beget in you a holy emulation to work out your eternal peace together with fear and trembling Secondly for Sin why judgest thou thy brother or so much forgettest that name as to be enraged against him The judgment is the Lord's who seeth things that are not as if they were What though he be fallen upon a stone and sore bruised he may be raised again and be built upon that foundation which is sure and hath this zeal The Lord knoweth who are his This open Profaner may become a zealous Professor this false witness may be a true Martyr this Persecutor of the Church may at last be a glorious member of it and a stout Champion for the Truth He that led the Saints bound to Jerusalem did himself afterwards rejoyce in his bonds and suffer and dye for that truth which he prosecuted The Apostle where he erects a kind of discipline amongst the Thessalonians thus 2 Thess 3. 14. draws it forth If any man obey not our word that is be refractory to the Gospel of Christ have no company with that man that he may be ashamed that seing others avoid him he may be forced to dwell at home to have recourse unto himself to hold colloquy with his own soul and to find out the plague in his heart which makes him thus like a Pelican in
the next place as the observance of this duty hath promoted the Gospel so the neglect of it hath hindred the growth of Christianity and made those rents and schisms in the Church which good men may lament with tears of bloud but the wisest cannot make up again with all their care and endeavour which most times we see in stead of closing and healing such wounds do make them wider then before We see the undiscreet and unseasonable defense of the truth doth but call in more company to side with the opposer draws down even Zelotes themselves to an indifferency in which they do not long stand wavering but soon fall into error It is not noise but silence that prevaileth It is not the rough but tender hand that binds up these wounds It is not power nor subtilty of wit not disputation nor consultation not the tongue of the eloquent nor the pen of the ready writer which can compose these differences in the Church We cannot but observe that after all the labour and travel of the learned there is yet Altar against Altar Religion against Religion and Christ against Christ and the wounds the Church hath received bleed still afresh and are every day more inflamed more incurable What have all our prisons and whips and fire and sword done What one hair have they added to the stature of Christianity Is she not rather contracted and shrunk Is she now of so large a size and proportion as she was in her infancy and cradle Is she as powerful in her Catholick extent and universality as she was in a few Fishermen Certainly the best balm is this Wisdom of our Saviour by which we are directed to forgive injuries and errors to yield so far to our brethren as not to hate them not to be angry with them because they are not of our opinion The want of this temper of this softness and sweetness of disposition was the true Mother of Schisme which Meekness hath not edge enough to make It is but taking it up again and all this business will be at an end and conclude in peace Yet do I not here derogate from Counsels or Disputations These are the means appointed by God himself to settle men who doubt We must consult before we give sentence and he that instructs disputes No these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pillars and tropheys where all Heresies are hung up engraven and shewen openly to the Sun and the People I know they may be Antidotes against the poyson of the Serpent who is as ready to cast his mist about the Understanding part as to infect the Will and I may subscribe to that of Isidore Ideo Christi veritas in diversas haereses est scissa c. That Origin 6. Christianity had formerly been divided into so many Sects because before the times of Constantine and those halcyon-dayes the Bishops durst not meet together to consult This indeed may be a reason but not all the reason which may be given For even in Constantine's time did the Arian Heresie shew and vaunt it self and after the Council of Nice so famous over the world did so prevail that it was a doubt which way the Church did look and incline whether to the Arian tenents or the determination of that Councel because the Arians did almost equal the Orthodox in number and in eloquence and learning far exceed them Afterwards this Heresie was revived though with another name in the Origenists and not long after tot erant symbola quot professores there were almost as many Creeds as Professors And one main reason thereof I suppose was the want of Meekness and Moderation when the noyse and violence of the one party would not give the other so much leasure as to bethink themselves when men would raise tempests only for a thought which did not please them and most men were like Scaurus in the Oratour qui nullius unquam impunitam stultitiam transire passus est who would not suffer a soloecisme or any error to pass without a heavy censure when as Luther speaks for the omission of a syllable or of a letter they would novos infernos cudere make another Hell and devote their brethren to the Devil thundring out Anathema's one against the other which many times both deserved rather for their heat and bitterness then for their errors For the Church may erre but if she drive Charity and Meekness out of her quarters she is no longer a Church Ambition and Covetousness these break down her hedges and Malice is the wild Boare which destroyeth and eats up her grapes When this fire is once kindled in her bowels then ruit Ilium then her Pillars shake and she is ready to fall But as I remember I have spoken at large of this heretofore You see Beloved then that Meekness is necessary to the Church ad bene esse to keep its parts together from flying asunder and so to every Christian to keep him compact and at unity with himself and others But now in the next place I may say it is necessary to the very being of the Church as without which no man can be admitted into the Congregation of the first-born which are written in Heaven With wanton Christians that trifle away their souls and would walk to Heaven with earthly members and unwashen feet there is but unum necessarium one thing necessary and that is Faith which because it doth alone justifie we leave it alone naked and destitute or take it along with us as a comfort to us whilst we labour and sweat in a world of wickedness For what title to Heaven can the most Christians shew but this CREDO I believe The rest of the copy is Malice and Envy and Covetousness the black lines of reprobation Poverty and Mourning and Meekness are no part of their claim But let us look upon our Charter again and we shall find Meekness to be one of those paucissima necessaria of those few things necessary to give us right to our inheritance and that Faith is nothing is dead and so cannot give life if it do not work by Love even work out all our venom and malice and so leave us liable and open to receive reproaches and blows but without tongues or hands to return them as so many dead marks for every dart to stick in till by the power of Meekness they drop from us or by the hand of the highest are plucked out and shot back upon our enemies A truth so plain that I dare boldly say there is not a plainer in the whole Scripture For what can a guilty condemned person plead for himself that he should enter into this inheritance but forgiveness For this is the object of our Faith That God will be reconciled to us in his Son And then this is plain English I am sure That if we forgive God will also forgive us But if Mat. 6. 14 15. we forgive not men their trespasses neither
be thrown against them so communicate as it were with God and are assimilated to him may also by the grace and favour of God participate with him of the same lasting and unchangeable glory And now we should descend to shew the title the Meek have to the Earth as it is in the letter and signifies temporal happiness and the quiet possession of the things of this world but the time is well-near spent now therefore we will add but a word or two by way of Application of what hath been already spoken and so conclude And did I say that Meekness was a necessary virtue to the Church of Christ and that without it we cannot receive the Gospel nor be our selves received into the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly I mistook at least the greatest part of Christendom will rise up against me and arraign me as guilty of a dangerous heresie For in their practice they confute it every day It was indeed a necessary virtue for the infant baby Church when she could not move her arms nor her tongue but in prayers and blessings when Christians were ready to suffer but knew not what it was to strike when they were expeditum morti genus readier to breath forth their souls in the fire then to kindle one readier to receive the sword into their bowels then to draw it But now the Church is aged and forgetful and men have learnt to dispute and distinguish themselves out of their duty have found out a new light by the guidance of which they may walk on securely and follow their brutish passions and covetous desires to the mark they have set up and by this light wade on and wash their feet in the bloud of their brethren It was a virtue it is now the mark of a lukewarm Reprobate It was the beauty and glory of the Church but later times have looked upon it as a fowl dishonour It was the only buckler the former Christian had but those of after-times have thrown it away and for it took up the sword which they brandish with terror as that weapon which Christ himself hath put into their hands It was the proper virtue of Christians and most necessary for them it is now an Anathema Now not to curse deserves a curse The Church was a flock a little flock of sheep it is now become as terrible as an army with banners and Christ is already brought into the world in that posture in which the Jews expect their Messias with Drum and Colours Shall I tell you what is counted necessary now It is necessary to contend for the Faith to stand up against Error to be zealous for the glory of God And what man of Belial dare be so bold as to stand up and say this is not necessary God forbid that Faith should fail that Error should take the chair that the Glory of God should be trod under foot It is true but then though this be necessary it is necessary to do it in that way and order which Christ himself hath prescribed and not in that which our Malice and Covetousness and Ambition draws out in bloud And the Sword of the Lord the Word of God managed with the Spirit of Meekness is more apt and fit to enter the soul and the spirit then the Sword of Gideon Religionis non est cogere religionem saith Tertullian Religion cannot be forced which if it be not voluntary is not at all For there cannot be a grosser soloecism in Divinity then to say a man is good against his will And sad experience hath taught us that they who thus contend for the Faith with noyse and fury do name Christ indeed but mean themselves We may instance in the Church of Rome They who defend the Truth non syllogismis sed fustibus as St. Hierome speaks not with Reason and Scripture but with clubs and swords do but glance upon the Truth but press forward to some other mark And THE GLORY OF GOD is but written in their foreheads that whilst men look stedfastly upon that they may with more ease and less discerned lay hold on the prey and so be Villains with applause Yee suffer fools gladly 2 Cor. 11. 19 20. saith St. Paul such as boast and count themselves the Sages of the Age because you your selves are wise in your own conceit though as very fools as they Yee suffer if a man bring you into bondage what do not the Romish Proselites endure if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a man smite you on the face For how willing have men been to be deceived and to canonize them for Saints who wrought the cheat to think them the best Pastors who devour them and them the humblest men who exalt themselves and them the most gentle friends who smite them on the face Such a Deity such an Idole such a Nothing is Religion and Christianity made in this world cried up with noyse and beat down with violence pretended in every thing and denied in every thing magnified in those actions which destroy her forced to draw that sword which she commanded her disciples to put up made a sanguinary and shedder of bloud of which could she prevail and have that power which God hath given her there would not one drop fall to the ground But the World is the World still and would make the Church like unto it And though it be Ambition or Covetousness or Malice yet we call it Religion and when that word is once spoken then down goes all Morality all Humanity all Meekness and Religion it self Is it not for her cruelty that we make the Church of Rome the seat of Antichrist and call her the BEAST And let it be the mark and character of the Beast still Let not that which a Turk or Jew would run from with disdain be fastned as an ornament of glory on the Christian who is better drawn and expressed in chains and fetters then with his feet on the neck of his enemies For where should a Christian be seen but under the Cross When he flings it upon others he may call himself by what name he please but he is not a Christian Do we not make this our plea against the Church of Rome That sentence of death was never past upon any of them for Religion and therefore let not our words anathematize and our actions justifie them Let us not do that which in a Papist we call an abomination Let us not name the Lord Jesus and then fall down and worship the Prince of this world when he lures us to him with the glory of it and those things which he will give us A strumpet is not a whit the less a strumpet because she calls her neighbour so and the name of Antichrist will belong to us as well as to that Church if we partake with her in those sins for which we call her so And it will little avail us to call
Catone peccatum That for all so great an ensample of severity as Cato was yet Vice was still impudent And Pliny speaks it as a commendation of Trajane That he was good among the worst For saith he when Camillus and Scipio lived when Virtue had as it were made her self visible in those Worthies it was a matter of no difficulty to be good Tunc enim imitationis ardor semper melior aliquis accenderet For then the heat of Imitation inflamed men and still the life of some better man was a silent call to the weaker to follow after Beloved in our Lord and Saviour the time was when this our Land was overcast with as thick a darkness as that of Aegypt and there was no Goshen for a true Israelite no light but that of the faggot no place to profess safely in yet they then were followers of Christ and in the Scriptures diligently searcht out the steps of the Apostles and in spite of fire and persecution walked in them And although the Gospel was unto them but as a light in a dark cloud yet by this light they traced the paths of the primitive Fathers sub Principe dura Temporibúsque malis and in bad times they durst be good when the Queen was even as a Lioness amongst the Lions and Cruelty lurkt no where more then under a Mitre and Rochet The case God be thanked is otherwise with us now The bands of our cativitie are snapt asunder The cup of God's wrath is taken out of our hands and God hath made us as it were a strong brasen wall and his enemies and ours have fought against us and have not prevailed Antichrist is revealed the mystery of iniquity laid open errors of all kind detected the Bible unclasped teachers of truth like stars in the firmament eminent Wisdom cryeth out in the streets and Religion hath as it were placed her tabernacle in the Sun and shall we still have a frost at our heart shall we have withered hands shall we be cold and benumned and not able to set one foot forward in the steps of our Forefathers Beloved let us look over into the tents of our enemies into the tabernacles of Wickedness What doth that Church of Rome more crack of than of Antiquity how like she is to the Church in former times how she hath still the same gate and traceth the same paths and that we are but of yesterday that Luther breathed into us our first breath that it troubleth us much saith Gregory of Valence that we are not able to shew any company of people in times past known to the world whom we follow in our Doctrine and Religion If we would pull down the Images out of their Church they cry us down with a Populus eruditur They are the Books of Laymen by which they are instructed in the Articles of Faith and have as it were before their eyes laid open the wholesome examples of the faithful which may move them to compose their lives to the imitation of them If we would pull off those wings which they have given to Nature to soar up above her power if we deny their Freewil if we pull down their Babel of Merits they then tell us of the ancient Worthies of their Church and add some Saints that were wicked men yea some that never were men They will shew you what they have layed up for others in the treasury of the Church to discharge their Debts before they owed them They say that we walk blindfold in our own waies and will not open our eyes to see the times of old that we have run away from the bosome of our Mother and now suck strange breasts It is true indeed that we can both silence them in their boast and wipe out their accusation we can tell them that Rome is unlike her self Non Roma praestat Romam as Scaliger speaketh That the Church began not with Luther but began then to be les corrupt That we left not her but her Superstition That we walk in the old way and are followers of the Professors of the primitive Truth which was then embraced when the Popes kitchin was not yet heated by the fire of Purgatory when his Exchequer was not fill'd by Indulgences when there was no corner-Mass when Transubstantiation was yet unbaked when all Sins were accounted mortal when Pardons were sold only for Prayers and Repentance when there were no Merits heard of but our Saviours when the people were not cousened of the Cup when the Pope was not Jupiter fulminans when he had no thunderbolt no power of deposing Kings and Emperours But Beloved our Christian care and industry should be that we rank not our selves amongst those of whom St. Paul affirms that they Rom. 1. 18. held the truth of God in unrighteousness that we walk as children of the truth ne dicta factis deficientibus erubescant as Tertullian speaketh that our life give not our profession the lye that we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as St. Peter saith that when they speak evil of us they 1 Pet. 3. 16. may be ashamed which blame our good conversation in Christ For if we follow Christ and his Apostles only in word and shew if we wear Christs colours and fight under the Devils banner the title of CHRISTIAN will no more befit us then that of BONIFACE a hard-visage or that of URBANUS a cruel Pope Therefore a Christian is well defined by an ancient Father to be qui Christum verbis operibus quantum homini possibile est imitari nititur that striveth as much as lies in the power of Man to imitate Christ by making his Hand as active as his Tongue to imitate him both in his deeds and in his words You see Beloved that our Weaknes's stands in need of that which God hath graciously reached out unto us this help of Example As he hath made the Ear so the Eye also to obtein Learning And lest we should complain of impossibility to perform what he commands he hath proposed unto us men of the same mould we are of This Doctrine then concerns us two ways 1. in respect of our selves 2. in respect of others In respect of our selves 1. to remove the letts and hindrances of Imitation 2. to observe the rules of Imitation Now there are divers hindrances I will mention but three The first is spiritual Pride and Self-conceit We willingly perswade our selves that we are out of danger and that we can go upon our own strength that we may rather be examples to others than follow them At a sight only of our Saviour at the least feeling of the operation of the Spirit with Peter we cast our selves into the Sea we venture upon any temptation and think we can walk in the most dangerous places without a leader And this Self-conceit proceedeth from want of grace Grace teacheth us to remove this hinderance Non extollit sed humilitat saith one
we are not but Heirs Heirs of God and coheirs joynt-heirs Rom. 8. with Christ As he is Son so we by his right are sons too All is ours Paul is ours and Cephas is ours because we are Christs and Christ is Gods So that St. John might well usher-in this great advancement which an ECCE Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 1 John 3. 1. But in the second place besides this grace of Adoption we are children too in a manner by Generation Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth But not so as he begat his only begotten Son by an eternal geneneration James 1. 18. as Fulgentius speaks but by a voluntary regeneration In him without any natural beginning there remained an eternal nativity but Gods Will preceded and went before our new birth And to this end he placed us in gremio matris Ecclesiae even in the bosome of the Church our Mother who conceived us of the incorruptible seed of Gods word as St. Peter speaketh the blessed Spirit quickening this seed till a new creature be brought forth not into this temporary but into the eternal light which she feeds with the bread of life the word of truth which she nourisheth with the milk of faith which she strengthneth with the bread of affliction with the bloud of Martyrs till growing up from strength to strength from virtue to virtue it became at last a perfect man in Christ Jesus And this may well be called a birth for indeed it much resembles our natural birth but especially in two respects First here are the two terms of Generation Non-ens tale and Ens tale the Matter out of which it was produced and the Substance or Entity which it is now Terms truly contradictory as different as Heaven and Hell as Light and Darkness So that here is mira mutatio the change is wonderful View Man in his naturals as not yet regenerate and he is as the Apostle saith the child of wrath candidatus Diaboli saith Tertullian one that hath abjured Heaven and is as it were a competitor and one that stands for Hell nay one that may be imployed as the Devils instrument to bring others thither As Pliny said of Regulus Quicquid à Regulo sit necesse est fieri sicut non oportet so of him Whatsoever he doth must needs be done amiss because he doth it Who would ever look that a sweet stream should flow from this corrupt Fountain Who would expect that this Nehustitan this rude piece of brass should ever be polisht Or is it possible so far as in our conceit that out of this Cockatrice-egge there should be hatcht a Dove Hence then encrease thy gratitude and obedience and admire Gods Power With meer man this is impossible but with God all things are possible And this Change too as the Introduction of a humane soul is instantaneous and in a moment though the growth be by degrees Non opus est morâ Spiritui Sancto The holy Ghost needs not the help of delays But if even into this dead and corrupt matter he breathe the breath of spiritual life it shall stand up from the dead and live and be a new creature Which is the terminus ad quem the second term of this spiritual birth And here view him and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is changed another out of another a child of light candidatus aeternitatis one that thinks of nothing but Aeternity Certainly a blessed birth and happy change A happy day it was when it might be said that such a child was conceived a child of peace a child of blessings a child of God That day was a day of brightness a day of rejoycing a typical day of that eternal day when time shall be no more The second resemblance of our spiritual birth to our natural is in respect of the difficulty and pains in bringing forth this child And here it is but a resemblance it will not admit a comparison For though the pains of a woman in travel are great so that almost they are become proverbial yet they are but light afflictions scarce worth note or naming in respect of the sorrow and pain endured in this delivery but rods to these scorpions but as a cramp or convulsion to this rack as scratches to these wounds scarce breaking the upper skin as Seneca speaks whilst these divide asunder the soul and the spirit whilst they enter the bowels and the heart scarce worth the speaking of in respect of these sighs and groanings which the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 26. are unspeakable For indeed the grief of the body is but the body of Grief but the pain of the soul is the very soul of Pain and the Soul it is that is afflicted in this birth The sighs are hers and the groans are hers and all is to dead in her self the root of Sin non exercere quod nata est as St. Hierome not to be what she is to be in the body and yet out of the body to tame the wantonness of the flesh to empty the whole man of luxury to prune the over-spreading passions all to be delivered and to bring forth this New creature Quantae solicitudines quantae contritiones saith St. Ambrose What solicitude what anxiety what contrition what tye of Continence what lashes of Conscience what bitterness of soul Qualis adversarius What an adversary to cope withall and to remove that would strangle this Infant in the womb in the conception nay that would destroy it in semine in principiis before it were an embryon that would not suffer it to have power to become a child of God But yet though there be pain and grief in the travel there is joy and comfort after the delivery Quae parturit quatitur compungitur In the travel there is a conquassation and compunction as it were but quae peperit exsultat when the woman is delivered when the little Infant hangs on the teat there is joy and exsultation and the Mother forgets the pain because a child is born into the world So Christ is our joy 〈…〉 he Child to be formed in us as the Apostle speaketh at the first is bitter and distastful to us and we are not willing to conceive him in the womb of our soul because this new birth cannot be without a funeral For to be thus born we must dye we must dye to our selves to the world to the flesh we must hate that which we most love we must renounce all that may hinder this birth But when Christ is fully formed in us the cloud of sorrow is removed all is serene and bright and we forget the pangs and grief and sorrow which before we endured for the holy Ghost hath come upon the soul and the most High hath over-shadowed it and now that holy thing which is born shall be called the Son of
Galatians For indeed a great folly it is when God hath plainly revealed his will when he hath concluded all under sin and St. Paul proves both against Jew and Gentile that all have sinned when God is pleased to justifie us freely by his Grace then to bring in our inherent Righteousness to joyn with Grace as Rom. 3. 24. if we were unwilling to be too far ingaged to God's Mercy It is true indeed every good act doth justifie a man so far as it is good and God so far esteems them holy and good He taketh notice of his own graces in his children He registers the Patience of Job the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David A Cup of cold water a Mite flung into his treasury shall have its reward But yet all the good works of all the Saints in the world cannot satisfie for the breach of the Law no more then a Traytor can redeem his Treason against the King by giving an alms or which is more by dying for his Country The point is plain and easie delivered in terminis in Scripture urged proved and strongly confirmed by St. Paul almost in every Epistle that all is from Grace Et cum de voluntate Dei constat omnis de merito quaestio vana est When we know Gods will what dispute we any longer of Merit But such is our ingratitude and curiosity that we will not take Gods Grace as we find it we will not take Gods gifts in the building but we beat and work them out into what form we please we come and stamp them and be the piece what mettal it will we set our image and superscription upon it God in Scripture sets these two terms Grace and Works at extream opposition but by a trick of wit we have learnt to work them into one piece making a good work meritorious because it is of Grace as Pelagius of old confounded Nature and Grace because even Nature it self is a Grace A flat contradiction For if it be of grace how doth it merit unless we will say that the Gift deserves something of the Giver or that a charitable man is indebted to a beggar for the penny and almes which he gave him I have said enough to clear the point which hath been too much obscured with needless disputes I will not say with Calvine Diabolica illa ars quae Scholasticae nomen obtinet that devilish art of wrangling which we call School-Divinity hath put out the light of this truth nor with Martin Luther Theologia Scholastica est mater ignorantiae that Scholastical disputations are the mother of ignorance but as Pliny spake of the Graecians Cùm gens ista literas suis dedisset omnia corrupit they have corrupted the Truth and put her in such a dress that we cannot know her they have shut up this doctrine in perplexed obscurity which before was plain and easie to the understanding For what hath been observed of the study of Philosophy is true also in the pursuit of Divine knowledge When men made Wisdome the only aim and end of their studies then was Philosophy referred to its proper end but when they used it only to fill up their time or satisfie their ambition or delight their will then Philosophy lost her complexion and strength and degenerated into folly then Diogenes got him a tub and Epicurus a swarm of Atomes then the Stoicks brought in their Decrees and Paradoxes then were there mille familiarum nomina discrimina so many sects that it is not easie to name them and some there were who did shew the diversity of their opinions by outward signs alone by Weeping and Laughing So in Divinity we find it that Truth never suffered tell she was made a matter of wit and ambition tell out of private respects Policy was made a moderator and stater of questions then for one Justification we had two nay three then meritum de condigno and de congruo Merits of Condignity and Congruity of Worthiness and Fitness were brought in to help at a dead lift And that they may appear more glorious tinguntur sanguine Christi pains have been taken to dye them over with the bloud of Christ and in these red colours they are presented which they borrowed from art and not from Scripture Sure I am in St. Pauls phrase this is to cast away the grace of God and to evacuate the death of Christ this is against the nature of Grace which blended with humane Satisfaction and Merit is no more Grace this is against the evidence of the Prophet Habakkuk often repeated by St. Paul The Just shall live by faith or as some render it The Just by faith shall live And if their Divinity on their death-bed be not better then that in their Schools I fear me there will be a Frustrà For thus to receive the grace of God is to deny it or rather to despise it and to despise it I think I may boldly say is to receive it in vain Beloved if it were but for this alone for this derogation from the Grace of God yet even for this alone might we justifie our separation from the Church of Rome and send home the loud imputations of Heresie and Schism to her own gates where first they were conceived For where false conclusions are obtruded for truths or truths corrupted with false additions there to consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism but Christian animosity They rather are guilty of the schism who made it necessary It was a weak and foolish speech of Bosius in Tully who professed that if his friend Gracchus would bid he would set fire on the Capitol Christianity admits no such friendship If that Church will commend to us works of piety we will hear with reverence if enjoyn us to faste on Friday or observe Lent-fast we condemn it not we will faste with her we will pray with her we will be reverent in Gods house with her but if she bid us set fire on the Capitol on this main and capital point of Religion for so I may call it arcem Capitolium religionis here to obey were to be a Schismatick to separate our selves from the truth and comforts of the Gospel and from Christ himself Non tanti est tibi ut placeam perire Better it is that our opposers should be angry then we perish But we leave this vain receiving and proceed to the other no less dangerous then this when we receive the grace of God only as a Pardon and not as a Law For who is not willing to be justified by Christ To be freed from the Law to be delivered from the Law to be dead to the Law it is musick to every ear and a continual feast Evangelical righteousness we are glad to hear of and we could wish perhaps that there were no other mentioned Lex ligat Enact a law and we are in fetters Nay lex occidit The Law is a killing
and diametrically opposed Frustrà is placed è regione point blanck to the Magistrate For the Apostle lays it down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he puts a Non a negation between them He speaks it positively and he speaks it destructively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he beareth not the sword in vain The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Duty and the Power the Office and the Definition the same That which should be so is so and it is impossible it should be otherwise say the Civilians For at this distance these tearms naturally stand But when we read a corrupt Judge a perjured Jurer a false Witness we have conciliated them and made up the contradiction These terms naturally stand at a distance we must then find out something to keep them so to exclude this Frustrà to safeguard the Magistrate that he bear not the sword in vain And we need not look far For it is the first thing we should look upon and the Philosopher pointeth it out to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to propose an end Non agitur officium nisi intendatur finis say the Schools I stir not in my duty if this move me not and I faint and sink under my duty if this Continue not that motion And down falls the Sword with a Frustrà upon it if this uphold it not I am but Man and my actions must look out of themselves and beyond themselves I have not my compleatness my perfection my beatitude within my self and therefore I must take aim at something without my self to enfeoff and entitle me to it Now the Magistrate hath divers ends laid before him First that first and architectonical end the Glory of God and then that which leads to that the Peace of the Church and that which procures that the Preservation of Justice and that which begins that the proper work of Justice it self to stand in the midst between two opposite sides till he have drawn them together and made them one to keep an equality even in inequality to use the Sword not only rescindendo peccatori to cut off the wicked but communi dividundo to give Mephibosheth his own lands to divide to every man his own possessions Then the NON FRUSTRA is upon the Magistrate as well as upon the Sword when the Law is not only the edge of this Sword but flabellum justitiae a fan to blow and kindle up Justice in the breast of the Magistrate that it may warm and comfort the oppressed but to the wicked become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a consuming fire When he layeth not these ends aside and instead thereof placeth others for the Glory of God some accession and addition of Honor to himself for the good of the Commonwealth the filling of his Coffers for the Peace of the Church the avoiding of a frown for the right of the oppressed his own private conveniencies and for the Truth Mammon There are many ends you see but that is most pertinent to our present purpose which the Apostle sets down in this Chapter Terror to the wicked Security of the good Justice on both sides And first the Magistrate like God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 governs us by that which is adverse to us curbeth the transgressor by the execution of poenal laws which St. Basil calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a purging cleansing refining fire even of that other fire which when it breaks forth is Lust Adultery Murder Sedition Theft or what else may set the Church and Commonwealth in a combustion And in the next place this end hath its end too For no Magistrate doth simply will the affliction and torture of the offender or punish only to shew his autority but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath an end for that too His Power rests not in the evil of punishment but looks further to the good of amendment and to the good of example not to the taking off heads but piercing of hearts not to binding of hands but limiting of wills not to the trouble of the sinner but the peace of the Commonwealth This is the very end of Punishment to destroy that proclivity and proneness to sin which every evil action begets in the very committing of it Lay the whip upon the fools back and slumber is not so pleasant bring him to the post and he unfolds his arms Set up the Gibbet the Gallants sword sticks in his scabberd exact the mulct and he hath lost the grace of his speech and half his Gentility Let the sword be brandisht and Sin is not so impudent but croucheth and mantleth her self and dares not step forth before the Sun and the people Gird then the sword upon the thigh O most mighty You who are invested with this power remember the end Remember you were placed with a Sword hostire iniquitatem in a hostile manner to pursue the wicked to run after the oppressor and break his jaw and take the prey out of his mouth to destroy this Wolf to chase away the Asp the poisonous heretick to cut off the hands of Sacriledge to pierce through the spotted Leopard And in doing this you perform the other part You defend and safegard the innocent The death of one murderer may save a thousand lives and the destruction of one traiterous Jesuite as many souls Qui malos punit bonos laudat The Correction of the evil is the Commendation nay it is the buckler the castle the defense of the good And it may prove too the Conversion of the wicked The bloud of one Wolf may work an alteration and change of another the Leopard may come to dwell with the Kid the Wolf may feed quietly with the Lamb the Lion may eat straw like an Ox and the Asp play with a Child Isa 11. The poenal Statutes are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 copies and samplers and a Judge must do as a Painter doth saith Plato follow and imitate his forms and draughts Where the Law is drawn in lines of bloud he must not lay on colours of oyl Where the Law shews the offender in chains he must not present him at liberty Where it frowns he must not draw a smile nor Timanthes like draw a veil as not able to express that frown No he must take his proportions and postures from the Law Oppression must be portrayed with its teeth out Murder pale and wounded to death Idleness whipt the common Barretter with papers in his hat He must similem pingere not a Man for a Beast not a Dog for a Lion not a Fox for a Wolf not Manslaughter for Murder not Usury for Extorsion not Deceit for Oppression not a sum of daily incursion for a devouring one He must not depose and degrade a gallant boystrous sin and put it in a lower rank to escape unpunished with a multitude The neglect hereof brings in not only a frustrà but a nocivum with it It is hurtful and
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
was her shame more laid open to the world by many amongst us who for their great pains have no better reward then to be called his Shavelings This they saw and their heart waxt hot within them and at last this fire kindled which is now ready to consume us Before they whisper'd in secret now they speak it on the house-top before they husht up their malice in silence now they noise it out by the drum Enemies to the Ark enemies to the Church enemies to Government and Order enemies to Peace which particulars make up this entire sum INIMICI DEI enemies to God But now what if we see RELIGIONIS ERGO written upon their designs and that this Rebellion was raised and is upheld for the cause of God and Religion shall we then call them Gods enemies who fight his battels who venture their lives for the common cause for Christs Vicar for Religion for the Church for God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All they intend is good Nihil malè sed rem sacram facio So said Cillicon I do no evil I do but sacrifice when he betrayed a City Let us rise up in arms let us cut the heretiques throats let us destroy them that they be no more a Nation It is no harm at all but an acceptable sacrifice to God Sed quid verba audio cùm facta videam what are words when we feel the smart of their blows All this will not change their title nor blot their names out of the Devils Kalender out of the number of those that hate God For a man may be an enemy to God and yet do some things for Gods sake And it is too common a thing in the world sub religionis titulo evertere religionem to cry up Religion when we beat it down The Father well said Many good intentions are burning in Hell Multa non illicita vitiat animus It is true indeed The mind and intention may make a lawfull action evil but it cannot make an evil action good Propose what end you please set up Religion the Church and God himself yet Treason and Rebellion are sins which strike at his Majesty No enemies to those who stroke us with one hand and strike us with the other who dig down the foundation and then paint the walls We may observe when Reason and Scripture fail them they bring in the Church at a dead lift and when they are put to silence by the evidence of the Truth then they urge the Authority of the Church and make this word to be like Anaxagoras his Mâ—ne in Aristotle to answer all Arguments The Church is their scarre-sun by which they fright poor silly souls from their faith The Church must make good Purgatory Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints c. And indeed this is the best and worst Argument they have And as they make it an Argument for their grossest errors so they have learnt to make it an excuse for Treason for Rebellion for Murder And to the Church they are enemies because they love the Church Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Such heart and life and bloud doth the fair pretence of the Church and Religion put into wicked men so desperately do they fight against God under his own colours No sin I will not say venial but meritorious drawn on for the advantage of the Catholick cause But for all these glorious pretences enemies they are and Haters of God and to bring in the third appellation wicked persons not sinners of an ordinary rank but gyant-like sinners who fight against God with a high hand Now there is a great difference saith Hilary inter impium peccatorem betwen a Sinner and a Wicked man For every wicked man is a sinner but every sinner is not a wicked man Et carent impietate qui non carent crimine and they may be guilty of sin who are not guilty of Impiety The justest man alive falls seven times a day but this fall is not a rising against God not contumelious to his Majesty But the wicked make sin their trade nay their Religion Deum non ex Dei ipsius professione sed ex arbitrij sui voluntate metiuntur saith the same Father They measure God not by those lines by which he is pleased to manifest himself but by their own perverse will They entitle his Wisdom to their fraud his Justice to their rebellion his Truth to their treason He could not have given us a better mark and character of these men What pretend they the Holy cause the Honour of God the Liberty of Conscience the promoting of Religion and these pretences make the fact fouler and their rebellion more abominable because they thwart the plain definitions and the evident commands of God and break his Law under colour of doing his will Nec minoris est impietatis Deum fingere quam negare It is as great impiety and wickedness to frame a God unto our selves as to deny him to feign a God who will applaud sin countenance murder reward rebellion and crown treason So that to conclude this these men may well bear all these titles of Enemies of Haters of God of wicked persons If there were ever any such in the world these are they But to drive it yet a little more home There is not the like danger of enemies when they are sever'd and asunder as when they are collected as it were into one mass and body not so much danger in a rout as in a well-drawn army Vis unita fortior Let them keep at distance one from another and their malice will not reach to the hurt of any but themselves but being gathered and knit together in one band their malice is strong to do mischief to others The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against Psal â— his anointed Paquine renders it fundati sunt were founded Before they were but as pieces scatter'd here and there but being gather'd gather'd together they have a foundation to build on While the vapours are here and there dispersed upon the earth they present no appearance of evil but when they are drawn up into the ayr and are compact they become a Comet and are ominous and portend shipwracks and seditions and the ruine of Kings and Common-wealths And such a Comet hangs over us at this day in which we see many thousands are drawn together not by virtue of the stars or any kindly heat from heaven but by an irregular zeal and a false perswasion that they can do God no better service than to destroy us Before they were gathered together in mind and resolution but that was but as the gathering together of a heap of stones in a field now they are knit together as in a building And now we may cry out with the Prophet Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to have Psal 102. 13. mercy upon her yea the appointed time is come When God's enemies when they
to a marriage-feast without a wedding-garment Yet we see many so come with their old cloaths and torn apparrel with the works of darkness not cast off but hanging still fast about them so that though they be there we may make a stand and doubt whether they be guests or no. We may doubt whether all be Christians in Christendome whether all in the Church be parts and members of the Church Did I say we might doubt Ecclesiam in Ecclesia quaerere Why no doubt Guests they are They were invited to the wedding and so guests They are in the company of those who were called to the feast and so of that Church and Congregation All this they may be even guests cum privilegio they may partake of all Church-prerogatives be washed in Christs laver frequent his house sit-down at his table and yet for all this be questioned nay be thrust out of doors and cast into utter darkness The Cardinal maketh it a controversie and methinks a needless one Whether magni manifesti peccatores great and open sinners and reprobates be not members of the true Church And it is the Heresie forsooth of Wickliff Hus and Calvin to deny it Novum crimen Cai Caesar Shall I say a new heresie and till of late unheard of No a plain truth it is and St. Augustine long since cryed it up with an Absit Absit ut monstra illa in membris illius Columbae computentur Lib. 2. contra Crescon Don. God forbid that these monsters should be reputed members of that innocent Dove Can we conceive Christs body with dry arms and dead parts and the City of God to be inhabited by devils Or is it possible Christs members should be thrown into hell Indeed let the Church be as he makes and presents it visibilis palpabilis a Church that may be seen and felt Let her have a body as well as a soul as St. Augustine gives her And then members they are but not intrinsecùs and in occulto intus as St. Augustine speaks not intrinsecally in that Collection of Saints not veritate finis as himself confesseth to that end and purpose they are called Nominals not Reals numero non merito in number not in weight equivocal members as we call a painted hand a Hand and a dead man a Man But we had rather let the Cardinal tell us what members they are Capilli sunt ungues mali humores they are his own words The true Christian is placed in the body as an Eye or an Ear or a Hand or a Foot But the wicked what are they Even as the Hair or Nayls or bad Humors in the body Cives non cives such members of Christs Church as Traitours are of a Common-wealth as Cataline and Cethegus were at Rome members that would eat-out the very bowels of their body and subvert Church and Christ and all But we will not funem contentionis ducere as Tertullian speaks teaseout the controversie too far Upon the upshot we shall find that we are fallen upon that fallacy which by the Logicians is called Ignoratio elenchi We fight in a mist and mistake the question quite Let us joyn issue agree upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the matter in hand let the face of the Church be the same and not vary and change colour in our alteration and the question is stated the controversie at an end For it is agreed upon on all hands That Christ hath a Floor to be purged That there are Tares amongst his Wheat That at the marriage of the Kings Sons though the guests perceive it not the King when he comes will spy some one or other that hath not on his wedding-garment That in the Church of God mali miscentur bonis the Evil are mingled with the Good to file them to an edge and brightness saith Gregory Call them Guests Friends Christians Members of the Church give them what titles you please syllabae non salvant Heaven we may gain by violence but not by spells and inchantment Names and titles will not save us Write the Devil saith Bede calculo candido in a fair character in white silver letters yet he is a Devil still and his signification is Darkness Write out an Aegyptians name with chalk yet who will say an Aethiopian is white Paint Thersites in Achilles 's armor will it stile him valiant A lame commendation it is to be a Christian in a picture to have a name only that we live to give-up no more than our names to Christ and take no more from him than his to come into the Church by the water of Baptism and to go-out by a deluge of sin A poor comfort to be the Kings guest and be questioned intrare ut exeamus to enter into his courts and then be turned out of doors This is the cafe of the Guest here who in a throng was as good as the best as well apparelled as well prepared as any but coram Deo in the Kings eyes naked and miserable and is therefore questioned Quomodo HUC INTRASTI How camest thou in hither Which is our next Part. The King is moved at the sight of the guests and one of them he questions Affections are commotions saith the Philosopher They make an earth-quake in us they move us to speak oftentimes what otherwise we would not Commonly then the language is violent and peremptory not in cold terms and by way of a plain declaration of our mind but by a sudden and abrupt interrogation Thus in Fear What shall I do saith the Steward in Love How fair art thou oh my beloved saith Christ to Luke 16. his Church in Anger Who made thee a judge say the to Moses in Acts 6. Admiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostles of the Temple Mark 13. 1. What stones and what buildings are these And here the King comes-in one would think to welcome his guests but upon the sight of an unpleasing object he is moved spying one there who had not on a wedding-garment he is quick and round with him He says not It is not well done to come naked If you will taste of my dainties you must bring your garment with you but How cam'st thou in hither But what moved the King What raised the storm May we not set up a Quare against the Kings Quomodo May we not ask why the King asketh how he came thither How came he thither Why he was invited to come he was sent for and intreated kindly to come and he had been very unadvised if he had stayed behind We know it cost some their lives slain they were that refused Quomodo in the dining-room is a strange question v. 7. but a cold welcome to invite a guest and then ask him how he came thither But this King we know is never angry without cause He is not as Man Numb 23. 19. that he should lye is not as some men are qui irascuntur quia
but what mens prejudice shall cast upon them I will yet increase upon you and grow a little bolder and so draw all this to our present purpose You who come hither to receive that food which must nourish you up to eternal life and in the strength of which you must walk forward to perfection ought not so you have the food you come for to stand too much upon circumstance or the manner how it is divided to you St. Paul tells us that some preach Christ out of envy some of good will some not sincerely others Phil. 1. 15-18 of love What then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretense or in truth Christ is preached and I therein saith he do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Beloved whether Christ be preached by publick reading or by Sermons whether in the Pulpit or at the Desk whether with eloquence or plainness of speech are things in themselves almost not considerable So the truth be preached we may say with the Apostle Herein we do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce My brethren saith St. James have not the faith of Jesus with respect of persons I may add not in respect of place or any other circumstance Lactantius will tell us that this was the main cause that the Gospel of Christ found not that entertainment amongst the Philosophers and wise men of this world which otherwise it would have found Nemo rem veritate ponderabat sed ornatu No man weighed the Gospel by the truth which it carried with it but by those complements and ornaments of speech which it wanted Many now-adayes Wonder and complain that so much preaching hath begot so little knowledge so little amendment and though Doctrine drop as the rain and wholsom instruction distill as the dew yet many who profess Christianity remain like Gedeons fleece dry when there is dew on all the ground besides them Many reasons may be given but I perswade my self the chief is this We come to hear the word of God as men come to fairs not to buy but to look about us to see fashions to hear some novelty or some curious discourse Some come indeed to buy to profit but they find not the ware they look for they hear not that Doctrine they come to be informed in and so return home empty with no other purchase then the loss of time and I fear of their souls St. Hilary in one of his books de Trinitate reports of some so obstinate and so obdurate in errour that they would not so much as hear any reasons which might be brought against it for fear of being convinced And St. Hierome complains of the hereticks of his time Quis haereticorum non despicit ecclesiasticos Who is there amongst the hereticks that doth not slight the instructions of the orthodox St. Basil calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men who could sit down and deliberate and build up some new opinion which by no care of the Church could be afterwards demolished We are not now beloved to deal with Hereticks but with some men even as perverse and obstinate as they whose mark also it is dogmata patrum contemnere to despise the instructions of their Governors who will give ear to no truth but out of the Pulpit nor out of that holy place neither unless some Prophet of their own cry aloud from thence and lift up his voice like a trumpet Why this Exercise if you so please to call it is changed both in respect of the place and of the manner from the Pulpit to the Desk from a popular Sermon to a Catechistical Lecture I need yield no other reason but the command of those whom it especially concerns It is enough for me ex praescripto agere as near as I can to observe what they enjoyn and as it is in the proverb quem mater amictum dedit solicitè custodire to keep my self to that form which the Church hath prescribed And yet I see no reason that any should complain of change For what difference between this place and the other I know they who deny it to the Altar can attribute no holiness to the Pulpit And I am sure every Sermon is or should be a Catechism Which is nothing else but institutio vivâ voce an instruction by word of mouth Yet though I can give you no reason for this so scarce markable change yet I will crave leave of them to give you my conjecture Perhaps they have just cause to stand in some jealousie and fear lest the overvaluing of Sermons hath brought the price and estimation of Scripture so often read in this place to fall that there is a conceit too much taken up That Faith doth so naturally grow from Sermons that it cannot possibly be the effect of any other teaching That the doctrine which conveys this saving knowledge never breaths so comfortably as from that place That it cannot have its true stamp and character but at this mint If it be tendred in any other place Truth it self doth either want of its weight or is but counterfeit Now by this what gold what pearls what treasure what riches of knowledge are we deprived of How do we tye-up and confine the blessed Spirit who is as various in his wayes of entrance as in his operation sometimes passing through the Ear sometimes piercing the Eye nay sometimes felt and tasted who breaths in any ayr in any coast He that never heard Aristotle may yet we see by reading of his books gain that knowledge which may stile him a Philosopher And why do we search the Scriptures and read them in our closets if Sermons only be the means of our Salvation Faith is nothing else but a voluntary assent to any truth for the authority of him who speaks it And in sacris in this our holy Faith though we acknowledge no Author but God himself yet there be many motives and inducements which may strengthen us in the apprehension of that truth which we believe and to which we have given up our assent Now why this may not be done by disputations by friendly intercourse by letters by familiar conversation by instruction at any time in any place as well as by Sermons and in the Pulpit is so far beyond the conceit of any reasonable man that it may justly be thought a wonder that any man can be so unreasonable as to think the contrary I do not prejudice this holy custome of speaking out of the Pulpit to the people but yet I think it will be a hard task for any man that shall take it upon him to prove by Scripture that teaching is confined to that place For as it is plain that our Saviour and the Apostles went into the Synagogues and there expounded Moses and the Prophets so it is as plain that wheresoever our Saviour and the Apostles opened the will of God whither it were in the Temple or in Synagogues or in private houses or by the way-side whither to one or
forth our hands as if we were to meet the blessing and lay hold on it But when we remember the Majesty of Heaven we are struck with reverence we begin to fall back 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justine Martyr speaks casting our selves upon our faces on the ground The Philosopher will tell us in his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that those men many times are esteemed valiant whom the ignorance of danger makes audacious It fareth so with Christians They would not be so bold with God did they rightly conceive of his Majesty did they consider that as he is a Father ready to open his hand in bounty to his children so he is in heaven as ready to lift it up against those that are too familiar with him Volo illum qui sit dicturus solliciter surgere periculum intelligere saith Quintilian In our exordiums and beginnings we must put-on some sollicitude and understand the danger we are in not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremble and look pale as Tully himself once did that we cannot speak but so to behave our selves as that Fear may not shut-up our speech but commend it With the same care and reverence must we begin our Prayers We must with Demosthenes be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modest and fearful but not discouraged to tender our petitions The Love of a Father may fill us with confidence but the Majesty of God must strike us with fear I dare speak to God because he is my Father but I speak in trembling because he is in heaven If we do not thus begin we lose our petitions before we utter them as the Mariner which unskilfully thrusts forth his ship from shore shipwracks in the very haven Biel upon the Canon of the Mass divides this Exordium into four parts which are as so many wayes by which we do captare benevolentiam Dei insinuate our selves into the favour of God First we do it à dilectionis magnitudine by the greatness of his Love by which he vouchsafes to be our Father Secondly à liberali Bonitatis diffusione from the free communication of his Goodness in that he is Our Father Thirdly ab immutabili perpetuitate from the immutability of his Essence which he gathers out of these words QUI ES which art Lastly à sublimitate Potentiae from the sublimitie and eminencie of his Power which is exprest in those words IN COELIS in heaven We have here our method drawn to our hand But in our discourse we shall omit the third and rather take the words in sensu quo fiunt in that sense in which they were made to be understood then in sensu quem faciunt in that sense which they will bear without any prejudice to the truth God said unto Moses I AM THAT I AM Exod. 3. 14. and there cannot be a better expression of the Immutability of his Essence than to say HE IS But to say He is in heaven doth not more naturally enforce than to say He is Good and he is Merciful and he is Just The lines then by which we will bound our discourse are these and by these we will pass We will enquire I. How God is our Father II. Wherefore we call him ours III. How he is in heaven Of these in their order And first the word FATHER is not taken here as it is in our Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 personally for so God is the Father of Christ alone but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentially for the whole Trinity and so he is the Father of all Christians For the Persons of the Trinity are inseparable nor doth every Person take a several possession of us But the Father as Goodness the Son as Wisdom the holy Ghost as Power do all concur ad extra in every particular which doth issue outwardly from that one glorious Deity which they all are And he that is not partaker of all can have fellowship with none The whole Trinity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene speaks a Sea an Ocean of Essence and a Sea an Ocean of Goodness which hath overflowed all Mankind Whatsoever God did whatsoever God determined he determined as a Father out of his Goodness The very name of FATHER breaths Love and Power Appellatio ista pietatis potestatis est saith Tertullian But Gods Power is not more wonderful than his Goodness is eminent Therefore Synesius in his Oration De Regno tells us that when we call God our FATHER non tam potentiam glorificamus quam adoramus providentiam we do not so much magnifie his Power as adore his Goodness and Providence And here what wings might I wish for to fly a pitch proportionable to the height of Gods Goodness or what line might I use to sound the depth of his Care The World all that is in the woâ—â—d all that we are all that we desire all that we hope for all that we believe are the arguments of his Goodness Verba amoris opera sunt His Works are the language of his Love and his Hand the tongue of his Goodness Whom doth not the eloquence of the Universe amaze What Rhetorick is so furnisht with figures as we see natures What Goodness is that which so overflows that we can neither receive nor understand it FATHER is the best expression we have but it doth not express that Love which makes him more then a Father First he exprest himself a Father in our creation For what other motive had he than his Goodness to create the World and Men and Angels in so wonderful a manner Who counselled him who moved him to do it He was of himself all-sufficient and needed nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There can be no accession to God could the Philosopher say Why then did he thus break out into action We can give no reason but his Goodness which is a restless thing alwaies in doing and like a Fountain cannot stay it self within it self but must find vent to disperse it self By his Goodness I say we were at first created his children and by his Goodness we were redeemed when we had forfeited our filiation When we had forgot to be Children He did not forget to be a Father but provided that his own Son should die that his adopted sons might live for ever And so he hath made us his by a double right 1. of Creation 2. of Redemption And lastly he doth not suffer us to fall to the ground but in all miseries and afflictions yea in death it self he lifteth and raiseth us up with the hope of immortality and eternal life O what room have we here to expatiate Further we might shew you how God is our Father by Adoption taking us in familiam injúsque familiae into the family and church of the first-born and giving us right and title to be of that family We might lay open his Goodness in our Regeneration For of his own will he begat us with the word of truth I might set
Christum facimus saith Petrarch in another case It is not enough for us to set our hearts upon riches unless we make Christ himself Covetous also It is not enough for us to pursue honors and dignities unless we make Christ ambitious and so set up a temporal Monarchy in the Church We crown Christ but it is not with the crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his espousals when he made him the Head of the Church In the world we are born in the world we are bread and hence it comes to pass that when we divert our industry unto Christian study to the knowledge of Christ and his Kingdome we still phansie something like unto the World Riches and Honor and a universal Monarchy But suppose that Christ had the politick government of the world given him as man yet he never exercised his Regal power in this kind He built no castles raised no armies trod not upon the necks of Emperors Suppose he had exercised his Regal power yet all this would hardly fasten the triple Crown on the high Priests head But we see himself renounce all such claim He complains he hath not what the Foxes have a hole to hide his head Being desired to divide the inheritance between two brothers he answers sharply Man who made Luke 9. 56. me a judge or a divider over you When Pilate asketh him Art thou the King Luke 12. 14. of the Jews Christ answereth Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Dost thou object this crime or is it seigned to thy hands by others And at last he makes this plain confession before Pontius Pilate My kingdome is not of this world Which words like the Parthian horseman John 18. ride one way but look another are spoken to an Infidel to Pilate but are a lesson directed to the subjects of his spiritual Kingdome a Lesson teaching us not to dream of any honor in his kingdome but salvation nor any crown but the crown of life And therefore as Aristotle tells us of his moral Happiness that it is the chiefest good but not that which the Voluptuary phansieth the Epicures Good nor that which the Ambitious adoreth the Politicians Good nor that which the Contemplative man abstracteth a Universal notion and Idea of Good so may we say of this Kingdome that in respect of it all the Kingdoms of the earth are not worth a thought but it is not such a Kingdome as the Jews expect or the Chiliasts phansie or the Church of Rome dreams of And though commonly Negatives make nothing known yet we shall find that the nature of Christs Kingdome could not have been more lively and effectually exprest than by this plain negation My Kingdome is not of this world To come yet a little nearer to the light by which we may discover this Kingdome The School-men have raised up divers Kingdoms and built them all upon the same foundation the Word of God First his absolute Dominion over the creature in respect of which Christ is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords To this they have added Regnum Scripturae and Regnum Ecclesiae They call the Scripture and the Church Kingdoms Then they make Regnum Gratiae a Kingdom of Grace and Regnum Gloriae a Kingdome of Glory And by a figure they make the King Christ himself a Kingdome All these may be true and these appellations may have some warrant from Scripture it self and may have an ADVENIAT set to them When we rest upon that law of Providence by which in a wonderful manner God governeth the world we say ADVENIAT Let his absolute Kingdome come Let him dispose and order the actions of men and the events of things as he pleaseth When we make our selves Saints and strive to bring others into that fellowship and communion there is an ADVENIAT for we pray for the increase of the Church and the enlarging of her territories When we hunger and thirst after the water of life when we desire that wholsome doctrine may drop as the rain and saving truth distil as the dew there is an ADVENIAT a prayer which will open the windows of heaven Some are of opinion that by Kingdom come here Christ did mean the Gospel And this carries some probability in it For the Disciples and Apostles of Christ whose business it was to propagate the Gospel had this petition Thy Kingdom come so often in their mouths that they were accused affectati regni as Enemies to the State who did secretly undermine one Empire to set up another We cannot deny but that not only the manifestation of Gods will but the confirmation of it either by preaching or by miracle or by those gifts and effects which can proceed from no other cause but the power and efficacy of the Spirit are truly called the kingdome of Christ because they are instrumenta regni instruments and helps to advance his throne or Kingdome in our very hearts that as true Subjects we may obey his commands as true Souldiers fight under his banner that so we may suffer with him here and reign with him hereafter And in this sense we may call the Scripture a Kingdome and the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the outward Government of the Church whether Political by the Magistrate or Ecclesiastical by the Bishops and Priests a Kingdome because both Powers both Ecclesiastical and Civil are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great helps and furtherances to advance Gods Kingdome But Aquinas shall give you a full resolution 1 a 2 ae Qu. 104. Regnum Dei in interioribus consistit principaliter sed ex consequenti ad regnum Dei pertinent omnia illa sine quibus interiores actus esse non possunt The Kingdome of God is within us and principally consists in the subduing of the inward man in taking the citadel of the Heart but by a plain and easie consequence all those things without which these inward acts are not ordinarily performed may be taken in within its verge and compass And when we pray for the supply and continuance of these helps we truly say Thy Kingdome come For Christ is not truly and properly said to reign till we have surrendered up unto him our very souls and hearts and laid them at his feet For as Cassian saith of Fasting and Watching and Nakedness that they are not perfection it self but the instruments to work it So may we say of these outward helps the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the Watchfulness of Kings and Prelates and the like They are not the Kingdome of God but helps and instruments to set us up And his reason will hold here also In ipsis enim non consistit disciplinae finis sed per illa pervenitur ad finem For these are not the end but by these we are brought to the end to the Kingdome of Grace which will bring us to the Kingdome
Divinitatis as Tertullian calls it the very work and invention of the Deity though it breathe nothing but peace and joy though it have not only authority but reason to plead for it yet the sound of it was no sooner heard but the world was in a tumult The heathen did rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the earth did set themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed Do the Angels proclaim it Men oppose it Doth Psalm 2. Christ preach it and confirm it by wonders Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula say the Gentiles after Away with Christ and his Legend Whilst it was yet in its swathing-bands it was brought to the barr the professors of it are punished and tortured non ut dicant quae faciunt sed ut negent quod sunt not to reveal what they do but to deny what they are For this the most chast wife is devorced from her husband the most obedient son disinherited by his father the most trusty and faithful servant shut out of doors by his master even for the Religion of the Gospel which made the Wife chast the Son obedient and Servant faithful Ex aemulatione Judaei ex natura domestici nostri The Jew is spurred on by his envy nay she finds enemies in her own house the Church of God and even Christians oppose her because of the truth it self whose nature it is to offend It is a just complaint that our Saviour came into the world and the world received him not would not receive him as a King but groaned under him as a cruel Tyrant His edicts his commands his proclamations his precepts were hard and harsh sayings none could bear them So it stands with Christian Religion Cum odio sui caepit It was hated as soon as it was Nor indeed can it be otherwise For it offends the whole world It stands between the Wanton and his lust the Ambitious and his pomp the Covetous and his mammon Christ is truth and his Kingdome is a Kingdome of righteousness and truth noâ— is there any thing in the world more scandalous and offensive than the Truth Old Simeon tells Mary of Christ This child is set for the falling and rising again Luke 2. 34. of many in Israel Not that Christ saith St. 〈◊〉 is contrary â—â— himself a Saviour and a Destroyer a Friend and an Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for the divers opinions and affections of men which abusing his love make him an enemy and the Saviour of the world a Destroyer I might name here many hinderances of the growth of â—he Gospel as Heresie which is a most poysonous viper biting not the heel but the very heart of it Infidelity which robs Christ of his subjects contracts his Kingdome into a narrow room and into a small number Disorder which rents it which works confusion there All these are impedimenta lets and hinderances to the propagation of the Gospel not like those impedimenta militiae the luggage and carriage of an army without which it cannot subsist but obicem ponentia fences and bulwarks and barricadoes against the King of Heaven if it were possible to stay him in his victorious march and to damm up that light which must shine from one end of the earth unto the other But this perhaps might fill up our discourse and make it swell beyond its bounds The greatest hinderance which we must pray against is an evil thought which flyes about the world That there is no Hinderance but these no opposition to the truth but Heresie no sin but Infidelity no breaking of order but in a Schism This it is to be feared not only hinders the propagation of the Gospel in credendis in respect of outward profession but blasts and shrinks it up in agendis in respect of outward practice and of that obedience without which we are meer aliens and strangers from this Kingdome This doth veritatem defendendo concutere this shakes that truth which should make us fruitful to every good work by being so loud in the defense of it It is a truth I think confest by all That the errors of our Understanding for the most part are not of so great alloy as those of the Will That it is not so dangerous to be ignorant of some truth as it is to be guilty of any evil yet all the heat of contention is spent here all our quarrels and digladiations are about these nay all our Religion is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnestly to contend not who shall be the truest subjects in Christs Kingdome but who shall be most loud to cry down Heresie and Schism And this phansie I take to be as great a viper as Heresie as poysonous as Infidelity and the first ground and original of all Schisms in the world Whose zeal is so hot against an Oath as against an Error Who says Anathema to the Wanton What curse upon the Oppressor but of the Orphan and the Widow And from whence come wars from whence come fightings amongst us but from this corrupt imagination That we do better service in the Church of Christ which is the Kingdome of God by the loud defence than by the serious practice of the truth And all this while we mistake this Kingdome and the Religion which we profess which is absoluta simplex a Religion of great perfection and simplicity non quaerens strophas verborum and needs not the help of wit and sophistry God leads us not unto his Kingdome by knotty and intricate Disputes In absoluto nobis facili aeternitas saith Hilary Our journey to it is most easie It will come unto us sine pompa apparatu without pomp or observation It was Erasmus his complaint in the dayes of our Fore-fathers Ecclesiam sustineri syllogismis That this Kingdome was upheld not by piety and obedience but by syllogistical disputes as the surest props I could be infinite in this argument but I am unwilling to loose my way whilst I pursue a thief The sum of all is That this ADVENIAT is not only an invitation to draw this Kingdome nearer but an antidote against Heresie Infidelity and Schism and also against this corrupt conceit That Religion doth in labris natare is most powerful when it floats upon the tongue And we must raise it up as an engine to bruise the head of these vipers to cast down imaginations and every thing that exalteth it self against the Kingdome of Christ Again as this ADVENIAT fits all ages of the Church and was the language which Christ taught his Disciples when the Church was yet an Embrio in semine principiis not yet brought forth in perfect shape so is it a most proper and significant word verbum rei accommodatum a word fitted to the matter in hand the Kingdome here mentioned which must come to us before we can come to it Nothing more free and voluntary more
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
which are uncertain are with great curiosity searcht into and those which are dark and obscure for any light we have past finding out are the subject of every discourse and have set mens pens and tongues a working Although even this Curiosity is from the Evil one which is alwayes as far from Knowledge as it is eager to enquire and seeks for that which cannot be sound and so passeth by those certa in paucis as Tertullian saith that which lyes naked and open in our way seeks for many things and so neglects those few which are necessary For the Devil in this is like the Lapwing which flutters and is most busie and hovers over that place which is most remote from its nest He cryes Here is Christ and there is Christ Here the truth is to be found and There it is to be found where no sign of footstep not the least shadow of it appears I will not mention these That which hath made Error a God to reign and rule amongst men by the Devils chymistry hath been attracted and wrought out of the Truth it self That worship is due unto God is not only a fundamental truth in Divinity but a principle in Nature and here it should rest But by the policie of Satan it hath been drawn to his Saints to Pictures to Statues to the Cross of Christ nay to the very Representation of it And men have learnt sub nomine religionis famulari errori as the Fathers in the third Councel of Toledo speak of the people of Spain to submit and wait upon Error under the habit of Religion and the name of Catholick and Orthodox Again if we look into the world we shall find that nothing deceives men more nothing doth more mischief amongst men then the thought that those things must needs please God which we do with a good mind and with an ardent affection and zeal and love to Religion This guilds over Murder and Covertousness and Idolatry and Sedition and all those evils which rent and wound the Church of Christ and many times pull Common-wealths in pieces Murder hath no voice Covetousness is no sin Faction is zeal for the Lord of Hosts If we can comfort our selues that we mean well and have set up the glory of God in our phansie only as a mark and when we cast an eye upon that with Jehu we drive on furiously We steal an ox to make a sacrifice we grind the face of the poor that we may afterwards build an Hospital and are very wicked all the dayes of our life that we may leave some sign of our good meaning when we are dead And this is but a sophisme a cheat put upon us by the Deceiver For though an evil intention will make an action evil yet a good one will not make an evil action good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bonum ex causâ integra There must be a concurrence of all requisites to render an action or a person good but the absence of any one serveth to denominate them evil A bad action then and a good intention cannot well be joyned together And as ill will the Profession of Christ and a profane life the Christian and the Knave sort together the one commanding as a Law and prohibition against the other and the Christian being as a judge to condemn the Knave And yet the Devils art it is to make them friends and bring them together Though we do those things which strike at the very life and soul of Christianity yet we perswade our selves we are good Christians Though we thirst after bloud and suck-in the world though we cheat our neighbour as cunningly as the Devil doth us though we breath nothing but revenge and speak nothing but swords though we know no language but that of the Horsleach Give Give though as Tertullian spake of the heathen Gods there be many honester men in hell than our selves yet we are Saints and we alone We have made Grace not the helper but the abolisher of Nature and placed it not above Reason but against it we are so full of Grace that we have lost our Honesty our tongues are set on fire by hell and yet Anathema to that Angel who shall speak against us And this is our composition and medley as if you should bind a Sermon and a Play-book together There is another fallacie of Satan yet fallacia Divisionis by which we divide and separate those things which should be joyned together as Faith and Good works Hearing and Doing Knowledge and Practice And these two though they seem to stand at distance and be opposite one to the other yet they alwayes meet For he that is ready to joyn those things which he should separate and keep asunder will be as active to separate those things which God hath put together We are hearers of the word but hearers only the only that makes a division We have faith that we have by which we are able to remove mountains even all our sins out of our way but where is that Meekness that Humility that Piety which should demonstrate our Faith and conclude that we are Christians Certainty of salvation we all challenge but we give little diligence to make our election sure Faith may seem to be as easie a duty as Hearing which begets it and to apply the merits of our Saviour and the promises of the Gospel as easie as a Thought the work of the brain and phansie for who may not conceive and say to himself that Christ is his God and his Lord Even this is one of Satans tentations to bring in the Application of Christs merits before Repentance from dead works By this craft and subtilty it is that we thus hover aloft on the wing of contemplation that we so lose our selves in one duty that we do not appear in the other not descend to work-out our salvation and busie our selves in those actions upon the performance of which the Promises will apply themselves and Christ present himself unto us in his full beauty that we may taste how gracious he is and with comfort feel him to be our Lord and our God And therefore to resolve this fallacy we must be solicitous to preserve these duties in integritaâ—e totâ solida solid and entire For he that hath one without the other hath in effect neither Valde singula virtus destituitur si non una alii virtus virtuti suffragetur Every virtue is naked and desolate if it have not the company and aid of all What is my Hearing if I be dead to Good works What is my Faith if Malice make me worse then an Infidel What is my Assurance if Unrepentance cancel it Therefore those things which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder I will but mention one Stratagem more and so conclude It is the Devils policy when he cannot throw us into Hell at once to bring us on by degrees and by lesser sins to make way and
Grace doth not puff up but humble a man It shews him unto himself The more a man tasts of these spiritual vanities the greater is his hunger and he will leap for joy to eat them at any table Therefore it was a good rule of St. Hirome Omnium simus minimi ut omnium fiamus maximi Let us in our own opinion be the least of all and then we shall strive forward and forward and by a willingness to follow others example grow up to be the greatest of all This Self-conceit works in us a Prejudicate opinion and makes us undervalue and detract from the worth of our brother Which is the second hinderance We may see it in the Scribes and Pharisees They were forsooth Moses disciples and were swelled up with the thought of that chair As for Jesus he was not known unto them from whence he was And how crafty were they being cheated themselves to deceive others They buzze into the peoples ears that he was but the Carpenters Son that none of the rulers believed on him And so daily in themselves they encreased a willing and obstinate ignorance and at last not knowing him they crucified the Lord of life Therefore the Apostle speaking of the diversity of gifts and offices of the members of Christ gives this counsel In Rom. 12. 10. giving honor go one before another Our honor our preferment our precedencie is to honor our brother If we honor him for those good gifts which God hath bestowed upon him we shall strive to benefit our selves by them lumen de lumine accendere to light our candle at his to borrow of his lustre to sit at that heavenly fire which warms his breast When Naaman was to be healed of his Leprosie Elisha bad him wash himself seven times in the River of Jordan but at this the Syrian was wroth and his 2 Kings 5. thoughts were at home Abanah and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were better with him then all the waters of Israel And if he after had not been better advised he had still remained and died a Leper Beloved if thy brother hath tasted of Gods graces If the river of God hath made his heart glad and God hath appointed that thou shouldst wash at this river that thou shouldst amend by his fruitful example and thou then esteeming him to be dry and barren thinkst of a fountain at home of thine own ability take heed that thou still retain not thy leprosie of sin take heed thou perish not in thy sin and that it may not truly be said of thee He that is a scholar to himself hath a fool to his master To this end let Charity possess thy heart that excellent gift of Charity quae se consiliis suis non credit which trusts not her self to her own counsels as Ambrose speaks which envieth not which thinketh not evil Whose contemplation blesseth it self with the 1 Cor. 13. Patience of Job the Sincerity of David the Courage of Nehemiah the Industry of Paul Which writes in our memories these good examples and teacheth us to turn them over every day Which will not suffer us to undervalue our brother but makes us nourish the least spark of goodness in him and if we can blow it and enliven it into a flame both in his breast and ours The third and last hinderance of Christian Imitation is spiritual Drowsiness The Schoolmen call it Acedia the Devils dormitory and sleepy potion by which each faculty of the soul is laid in a deep sleep so that though God call never so loud by his cryers the Preachers of his word by the open and visible examples of good men yet we hear not we stir not we walk not or if we do it is but like those that walk in their sleep our phansie is troubled and we know not whether we do or no. If we stir and move it is but like the Sluggard in the Proverbs to fold the hands to lye down and sleep again in sin like Eulychus in the Acts whilst Paul is a preaching whilst the example of good men is vocal we are fast asleep in danger to fall down and break our necks By this we suffer our souls to gather rust which should shine and glister with the continual exercise of good works which should be rub'd and furbished as it were with the frequent meditation of the good life of others By this we are utterly deprived of that great help in our warfare the Imitation of others Rowse then up your selves Beloved and remove this hindrance awake from this sleep and stand up Let the quire of Angels and the joyes of Heaven wake you Let the howling and gnashing of teeth the noise of the damned stir you As ye have heretofore drunk nothing but the top of the cup the sweet of sin so now take and drink the dregs of it that it may be bitter to your soul and that your spirit may be wounded and then yee will not be able to bear it then yee will stir and move and be active then yee will make use of the examples of good men and do any thing to be rid of this cup. Thus we have opened the door and removed the barr and are now as it were in the plain field in our walk In the second place we must take heed how we walk and observe the Rules of Imitation And first we must not take our patern upon trust no not St. Paul himself He brings it in indeed as a Duty Be yee followers of me but he adds 1 Cor. 11. 1. this direction as I am of Christ For in imitation besides the persons there is also to be considered saith Quintilian quid sit ad quod efficiendum nos comparemus what it is we must imitate in the persons We must no further follow them than they follow the rules of Art And he tells us of many in his age who thought themselves perfect Ciceronians if they could shut up a period with esse videatur Some there were quibus vitium pro exemplo erat saith Seneca who imitated nothing but that which was bad in the best It is so in our Christian profession We must view and try and understand what we are to imitate We must not make use of all eyes but of those only which look upon the Lord. We must not walk as it were upon other mens feet unless we know what paths they tread We must not follow all guides for some may be blind and lead us into the ditch To this end God hath bounded and limited us in our walks and drawn out as it were certain lines In the Scripture he tells thee Thus far shalt thou go Thus far shalt thou follow and no further If any do transilire line as as Tertullian speaks leap over the lines pass the limits thou must leave him there and keep within thy bounds All other waies are dangerous all others paths slippery all other imitation damnable This the Church of
Rome is well acquainted with and therefore she breaks down the bounds pulls down the limits hides the lines dammeth up the Kings high-way She pulls out thy eyes and there she leads thee in a way indeed but not of Truth in a by-path in a way leading out of the way The way of Truth it cannot be For veritas nihil erubescit nisi solummodò abscondi Truth blusheth at nothing but to be hid But I must walk their way and not know whether it be a way or no. Though I doubt yet I must not dare to question it but must still walk on and put it to the adventure If Idolatry and Superstition and blind Obedience will saint a man then I am sure to be a Saint in heaven That Church reacheth forth unto thee a cup and sayes it is of the water of life when indeed it is but poison She hath an open breast and a motherly affection she shews thee a milky way but which neither Christ nor his Apostles ever trod in No tracking of them but by bloud She shews thee an easie way a sensual way made passable by Indulgences and Pardons and private Masses and Supererogation only thou must walk in it without offense to the Church of Rome Thus like those Physicians Sidonius speaks of officiosè occidit she will kill thee with good words like some kind of Serpents she will sting thee and thou shalt dance when thou art stung she will flatter thee to thy destruction and thou shalt perish as it were in a dream Beloved what shall we do then We will pray to God with Paul to guide our journey with David to make our way upright We will say as Israel said to Sihon King of the Amorites We will neither turn aside into the fields nor into the vinyards Numb 21. 22. neither drink of the waters of the wells We will neither walk in those specious pleasing wayes nor taste of the Wine which that Harlot hath mingled nor draw water out of those Wells which they have digged unto themselves but we will go in the Kings high-way even in that way wherein the Apostles the Prophets the blessed Martyrs the holy Saints all our Forefathers by the light of Scripture have gone before us The second Rule of our Christian Imitation is That we strive to imitate the best Stultissimum est non optimum quemque proponere saith Pliny It is great folly not to propose alwaies the best patern And Elige Catonem saith Seneca Chuse a Cato a prime eminent man by whose autority thy secret thoughts may be more holy the very memory of whom may compose thy manners whom not only to see but to think of will be a help to the reformation of thy life Dost thou live with any in whom the good gifts and graces of God are shining and resplendent who are strict and exact and so retein the precepts of God in memory that they forget them not in their works Then as St. James saith Take the Prophets for example so I say Take these for an ensample lodge them in the closet of thy heart confer with their virtuous actions and study them And if at any time the Devil and the World put thee upon those actions which might make thee to forget thy copy then take it into thy hands and look it over again and as St. Cyprian would often call for Tertullians works with a Da magistrum Give me my master so do thou Da praeceptores Give me the instructing examples of these good men let them alwaies be before my eyes let them be a second rule by which I may correct my life and manners Let me not loose this help which God hath granted me of Imitation But Beloved here beware we must that we mistake not the Goats for the Sheep the left hand for the right that we weigh not Goodness by the number of Professors For it is the Devils policie to make us think that the most are the best and so he shuts us out of the little flock and thrusts us into the folds of Goats and thus we deceive our selves Plerique ducimur non ad rationem sed ad similitudinem We are not guided by Reason but let her slip and so are carried away as it were in a throng non quà eundum sed quà itur not indeed whither we should go but whither the many-headed multitude lead us Therefore thou must take this as a Rule Multitudo argumentum mali No surer argument that men are evil then that they are many The City of the Lord is not so peopled as the City of the World which the Devil hath erected neither is Heaven so full as Hell nor are there so many Saints as there are Devils not so many chosen as there are past-by not somany good examples as there be bad ones We undervalue true professors we make their Paucitie a blemish whereas our Saviour tells us his flock is little a lily amongst the thorns and when God commands us Exod. 23. as in this so in all actions not to follow a multitude in evil And this in our Christian Imitation we must observe in respect of our selves We must be careful too in respect of others And since God hath made Imitation such a help to our Salvation we must strive to be guides and lights unto our weaker brethren not an ignis fatuus or lambens a fat and foggy meteor to lead them out of the way but stellae micantes bright and glistering stars to lead them to Christ And this in the first place concerneth the Ministers and Messengers of God It is St. Paul's charge to Timothy even before the holy Angels that he should keep himself unblamable before all men Valentinian's to his Bishops that they should vitâ verbo gubernare govern the Church both with their life and with their doctrine and as Nazianzene spake of Basil they should have thunder in their words and lightning in their deeds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking and doing Not like Lucian's Apothecary who sold Medicines for the Cough when he and all his houshold were infected with it nor like those Physicians Nazianzene speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying their hands to cure the wounds of others whilst themselves were full of sores But striving to come forth glorious and wholsome examples that they humble not those with their life whom they have raised up with their doctrine Considering that sin doth not only shew but teach it self And what a heavy doom will reach them if they beat down those with a bad whom they should raise up and set a walking with a good example But Beloved I here mistake my Auditory and speak to this Congregation as if I were amongst an assembly of Levites And yet I know too and I need not fear to speak it that it is an argument of a wicked and profane heart of a sensual love of the world that no doctrine now-adayes is more acceptable then that by