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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
plainly named The Disciples came unto Jesus saying 3. The Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven Where we shall take some pains to discover the true nature of this Kingdome that so we may plainly see the Disciples error and mistake and carefully avoid it These are the parts we shall speak of and out of these draw such inferences as may be useful for our instruction that as if by the Disciples doctrine when they were inspired by the holy Ghost so by their error when they were yet novices in the School of Christ we may learn to guide our steps and walk more circumspectly in the wayes of truth that by their ill putting up the Question We may learn to state it right Of these in their order We are first to speak of the Occasion of this Question And to discover this we must look back upon the passage immediately going before Chapt. 17. and as it were ushering in my Text. There the Occasion privily lurks as the Devil did in the Occasion And there we find how our Saviour in a wonderful manner both paid and received tribute received it of the Sea and paid it unto Caesar in the one professing himself to be Caesars Subject in the other proving himself to be Caesars Lord. You see Caesar commands him to pay tribute and Christ readily obeys but withal he commands the Sea and behold the Fishes hasten to him with tribute in their mouths Chapt. 17. 27. Now why our Saviour did so strangely mix together his Humility and his Power in part the reason is given by himself Lest we should offend them For having proved himself free and therefore not subject to tribute for if the Sons of Kings be free then the Son of the King of Heaven must needs be so yet saith he unto Peter That we give no offence cast thy angle into the Sea He is content to do himself wrong and to loose his profit to gain his peace And as he did express his Humility that be might not offend Caesar so we may be easily perswaded that he did manifest his Glory that he might not offend his Disciples For lest his Disciples peradventure should begin to doubt whether he was as he pretended Lord of heaven and earth who did so willingly acknowledge a superior look how much he seem'd to impair his credit by so humbly paying of tribute so much and more he repaired it by so gloriously receiving it Now saith the Text At the same time when this wonderful thing was acting then was this Question proposed But now in all this action let us see what occasion was here given to this Question what spark to kindle such a thought in the Disciples hearts what one circumstance which might raise such an ambitious conceit They might indeed have learnt from hence Humility and Obedience to Princes though Tyrants and as Tyrants exacting that which is not due and a Willingness to part with their right rather then to offend That Christ is not offended when thus parting with our goods we offend our selves to please our Superiours But a corrupt Heart poysons the most wholsome the most didactical the most exemplary actions and then sucks from them that venome which it self first cast A sick ill-affected stomach makes food it self the cause of a disease and makes an Antidote poyson Prejudice and a prepossessed mind by a strong kind of Alchymie turns every thing into it self makes Christs Humility an occasion of pride his Submission a foot-stool to rise up upon and upon Subjection it self lays the foundation of a Kingdome Some of the Fathers as Chrysostome and Hierome and others were of opinion that the Disciples when they saw Peter joyned with Christ in this action and from those words of our Saviours Take and give them for me and thee did nourish a conceit that Peter in this was preferred before the rest and that there was some peculiar honor done to him above his fellows and that this raised in them a disdain against Peter and that their disdain moved them to propose this Question not particularly Whether Peter should be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general terms Who should be the greatest And this the Church of Rome lays hold on and founding her pretended Supremacy on Peter wheresoever she finds but the name of Peter nay but the shadow of Peter she seeks a mystery and if she cannot find one she will make one The Cardinal is fond of this interpretation and brings it in as a strong proof of that claim the Bishop of Rome makes of being Prince of all the world But what is this but interpretationibus ludere de scripturis when the Text turns countenance to put a face and a fair gloss upon it and make it smile upon that monstrous Error which nothing but their Ambition could give birth and life unto For to speak truth what honor could this be to Peter To pay tribute is a sign of subjection not of honor And if we will judge righteous judgment nay if we will judge but according to the appearance the greatest honor which could here have accrewed to Peter had been to have been exempted when all the rest had paid To speak truth then or at least that which is most probably true not any honor done to Peter but the dishonor which was done to Christ himself may seem to be the true Occasion of this Question I shall give you my reason for it We see it a common thing in the world that men who dream of Honors as the Disciples here did grow more ambitious by the sense of some disgrace As in Winter we see the fountains and hollow caverns of the earth are hottest and as the Philosophers will tell us that a quality grows stronger and more intense by reason of its contrary Humility may sometimes blow the bladder of Pride Disgrace may be as a wind to whet up our ambitious thoughts to a higher pitch Or it may be as Water some drops of it by a kind of moral Antiperistasis may kindle this fire within us and enrage it and that which was applyed as a remedy to allay the tumour may by our indisposition and infirmity be made an occasion to encrease it We trusted that this had been he who should have redeemed Israel say they Luke 24. 21. Is this he who should come with the Sword and with Power and with Abundance unto them that should root up the Nations before them and re-instate them in the Land of Canaan Is this that Messias which after many years victoriously past on earth should at last resign up his life and establish his Kingdome upon his Successors for ever A conceit not newly crept in but which they may seem to have had by a kind of tradition as appeareth by that of our Saviour Luke 14. 15. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdome of God and by the mother of Zebedee's children who requested that her two sons might sit one
probable conjecture And therefore I will give you a second reason Besides this natural Inclination God himself hath a further purpose in it He that observes the wayes of God as far as he hath exprest himself shall find that he hath a delight to shew unto the world those that are his to lift them up on high and mark and character them out by some notable tryal and temptation Thus he made tryal of Abrahams Faith by such a command as struck at the very foundation of his faith In Isaac shall thy seed be blessed and yet Take thy son thy only son thy son Isaac in whom alone all the Promises made to Abraham were to be made good Ill signs for Abraham to look upon signs that with him the world would soon be at an end yet God set them up before him to look upon but by looking upon them he became the Father of the faithful Thus God made tryal of Job by putting all that he had into the power of Satan who presently sent Sabaeans to fall upon his servants and oxen Fire upon his sheep Chaldeans upon his camels and a great wind to beat down the house upon his sonns â—ll signs for Job to look upon but by looking upon them he became operarius victoriae Dei as Tertullian speaketh Gods workman hired as it were and prest by God to gain a conquest for him and in him to triumph and erect a trophee over Satan To draw this down to our present purpose To try the Strength the Faith the Love the Perseverance of those who are his God is pleased to give way to this tumult and danger in the last dayes And as the Eagle brings out her young and then counts them hers if she can make them look up against the Sun so Christ here in my Text brings forth those who are his and proposeth before them the dreadful spectacles here mentioned to try whether they can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Text speaks whether they can out-look them and lift up their heads when all the world doth hang down theirs Or he deals with his as the Jesuites are said to deal with their Novices They are wont to try of what courage and heart they are by frighting them with feigned apparitions of Hobs and Bug-bears in the night And if they find them stout and fearless they entertain them as fit for their use if otherwise they dismiss them as not for their turn and purpose Even thus may God seem to deal with them whom he means to make his of the order and general assembly and church of the first-born who are written in heaven whom he means to place amongst the great and few examples of eternal happiness he scareth them with dreams and terrifieth them with visions He sets before us these terrors and affrightments to see whether we fear any thing more then him or whether any thing can shake the alliance and trust which we repose in him whether our Faith will be strong when the World is weak whether our Light will shine when the Sun is darkned whether we can establish our selves in the power of Gods Spirit when the powers of heaven are shaken And indeed what are all these signs here mentioned but Mormos meer toyes to fright children with if we could truly consider that if the world should sink and fall upon our heads it cannot hurt a soul nor yet so grind the body into dust that God cannot raise it up again Can the Heavens with all their blackness and darkness have any operation upon a Soul which is of a more noble essence than they Can the Waters drown or the Plague devour or Famine starve or Fire consume and waste a Soul Can an immortal Soul be lost in the noise and tumults of the people For all these signs and apparitions if we know whom we have believed or believe what we have read in St. Paul neither life nor death nor angels nor Rom. 8. 38 39 principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now in the third place I will adde one reason more and so make an end of this point If Fear will give us leave to consult with our Reason and with Scripture we shall find that all this army of dismal events are nothing else but the effects of that Love which God bears to the World especially to Man the creature which he made after his own image and therefore cannot hate him because he so made him As men are wont to say of sick persons that so long as there is breath be they never so sick there is hope of their recovery for our hope expires not but with our soul so though we be far gone though we be dead in sin though we be sick of a Consumption of grace yet God lays not down the expectation of our recovery so long as there is breath in us Many examples we have of Gods long-sufferance in Scripture Betwixt Niniveh and final Desolation there stood but forty dayes or as the Septuagint render it but three for whereas we read it fourty dayes they render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet three dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed Yet God sent his Prophet unto them and upon their repentance turned away those evils which he had denounced against them and which were now in their approach even at their very doors Many messages had God sent unto King Ahab to reclaim him yet amongst them all none was more signal then that which was sent him immediately before his fall It should seem that God had already determined with himself the destruction of Ahab and that he should fight and fall at Ramoth-Gilead yet notwithstanding Micaiah the Son of Imlah a Prophet of God even against the Kings will is brought before him and telleth him to his head that he should go and fall at Ramoth-Gilead Nor can we now think that this was done by chance For notwithstanding four hundred Prophets of his own had smooth'd and flatter'd him with hopes of good success yet Micaiah one whom the King hated against the Kings will is constrained to come and when he seemed at first either to mock or fail in the delivery of his message he is deeply adjured to deliver the truth How many times saith the 1 Kings 22. 16. King shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord Now from whence did all this come but even from this that God had not laid down the care of Ahabs conversion but truly desired that he would return and live To apply now all this to our present purpose From hence even from Gods love it is that the last and worst age of the World is attended upon with dreadful signs and wonders For God who delights to be called a Preserver of men will
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
before our eyes that we cannot see the truth of this promise the meek shall inherit the earth And first we must not look for certainty in moralibus in matters of this nature as we do in natural Philosophy and in the Mathematicks This and the like propositions may be true although that which they affirm fall not out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all times and in every place It is a Topick proposition and shews what if we consider the nature of the terms and of the things themselves is likely to be we have the very same almost Prov. 2. 21. The just shall live in the land and the righteous shall remain in it And yet no doubt there have been just men who have been driven up and down in the world and not had a hole to hide their heads in And again Mercy doth establish the Throne And yet we have read of Kings who have lost their crowns and that by being too merciful And in another place He that is diligent in his wayes shall stand before Kings Yet we cannot think but that there have been many industrious men who never saw the inside of a Court. There is a fair applicability and correspondency between these Mercy in a King and a long Reign Industry and Honour Meekness and the quiet possession of the earth but there is not so necessary a connexion as there is between these a Man and a living Creature If the world were dissolved yet this proposition is everlastingly true Man is a living Creature But many cross accidents may intervene to make Mercy malevolent which of its own nature is a preservative to keep industry in a corner which of it self doth raise the dilligent out of the dust and to drive the Meek out of possession who carry about with them the strongest title to an Inheritance A second error there is and it is this We are too prone to mistake the nature and quality of God's Promises and when we read that God will preserve and continue the Meek in their estates we presently conceive that God is oblig'd by this promise to exempt us from common casualties and to alter the course of things for our sakes When common calamities like an inundation break in and overflow the world we expect that God who fits in Heaven and looks upon the children of men should bow the Heavens and come down and work a miracle for us even do by us as he did by Noah at the Floud build us an Ark to float in till the waters abate Which is no less then to dictate to the Wisdome of God and to teach him who made the world how to govern it Beloved God never promised to exempt the Meek from the common casualties of the world but he hath promised to uphold them in all and to take care for them in such a sort as the world never useth to do Will you take a line and measure out the circuit of the promise and St. Hierome is ashamed to do it in his Epistle to Dardanus Pudet dicere latitudinem terrae promissionis He was ashamed to draw the map lest he should give occasion to the Heathen to blaspheme For from joppa to Bethlehem are but six and forty miles and yet God made his people there a mighty nation multiplied them as the stars of Heaven and made them a fear and terror to the nations round about them Folow them into captivity and the Psalmist tells us that he gave them favour in the eyes of their enemies and made all those who led them away captive to pitty them And Psal 1â—6 46. it is more to find favour from an enemy than to have no enemy at all more to be pittied of our enemies than to tread them under our feet for this is to gain a conquest even in our chains Whether in captivity or liberty whether in riches or poverty the Meek person is still in manutenentia Divina in the hands of a powerful God who makes good his promise even then when it seems to be broken For in the third place many times God's promise is made good unto us when we believe it not for as the Jews would not receive Christ himself because he came not in that pomp and state in which they lookt for their Messias So if God come short of our desires we are ready to except against and question the truth of his promises We are at a stand and begin to think that Meekness is not so thriving a virtue as the Scripture hath made it Whereas we rather ought to consider that be it much or little that falls unto us it is sufficient to make good Gods promises For that a Meek man thrives at all is meerly from God For consider the malice and craft of the Wicked how his eyes are privily against the Meek with what humility and crouching he waits for the prey and what a Lion he is when he hath caught it how he pretendeth that God himself is his Second and a-better and though the Devil be his leader yet he falls on in the name of the Lord of Hosts consider this and you cannot but cry out Digitus Dei est hic That what part soever the Meek man hath in the earth it is measured to him by the finger of God himself who is miraculous in his preservation Again in the last place this promise is cum conditione not absolute but made over to us upon condition The Inheritance of the earth is given to us as an handmaid to wait on us to a better Inheritance even to an abiding city whose builder and maker is God This is the full extent of the promise And therefore if God see that earthly possessions will be as mountains in our way to the heavenly Jerusalem we have no reason to complain if he romove them His mercies are renewed every morning and he remembreth us in our low estate because his mercy endureth for ever But if the case so stand that my portion shall be in this life only then Nolo Domine hanc miserecordiam saith St. Bernard Lord I will have none of this kind of mercy If this be the case I had rather God should frown than smile on me I had rather he should wound than kiss me and break me on a wheel than lay me in a bed of roses I had rather have no place on earth than loose my mansion in Heaven If we ask God bread should he give us a stone if we ask him fish should he give us a Serpent This bread we ask may be a stone this Fish a Serpent liberalis est Deus dum negat God is very liberal if he deny us what we expect as a promise for the promise is fulfilled though he deny us Still it is true The meek shall inherit the earth To look back and sum up all and so conclude We have first seen the Wicked in his rise followed him with our eye to his very Zenith where like a
expect he should lead us further Aliud est esse vatem aliud esse interpretem saith St. Hierome It is one thing to be a prophet another to be an interpreter of Scripture There the Spirit foretels things to come here by our industry and skill in language we give that sense which the words will best bear Those interpretations now-adayes which are entitled to the Spirit are so dark and obscure ut interpretes interprete indigeant that we must take the pains to interpret the interpreters and find greater difficulty in their explanations then in the Text it self It will be good therefore first to prepare our selves in private before we lift up our voice like a trumpet and if we will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 workers together with the Spirit to work as he directs us It is a rule in Quintillian Ut praeceptorum est docere ità discipulorum est praebere se dociles As it is the office of the Master to teach so is it of the Scholar to be attentive and apt to learn And it holds true in Divinity also As the Spirit is our teacher so are we bound to observe those rules which he hath drawn out for all those who will be his followers Res enim aliter coalescere nequit sine discentis docentÃsque concordia For this business will not close and be brought together without an agreement on both sides If the Spirit will first lead me into the wilderness and I will presently to the streets of Jerusalem it is not likely my message should be from the Spirit whom I have left behind me in the desart And therefore to prepare our selves to this work we must observe those rules which a learned Physician gives for the finding out of the truth There must be 1. Amor operis a Love of the work 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of industry and earnest study in our preparation 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a methodical proceeding and progress 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 practice and exercitation and a conformity of our operations to the work And this gold though it be brought from Ophir yet may be useful for those who are the living temples of the holy Ghost My Love kindles a fire in me and makes me active my Industry is ruled by method that it be not fruitless and all is confirmed by Practice and then the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sets his seal and impression and character and makes it a good work And first if we ask the question What moved Christ to make this preparation we cannot better answer then by saying it was his Love unto the work That he having loved us first might provoke us to love him again and prepare our selves to our work And to this end Love is a passion imprinted in us saith Gregory Nyssene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to this good end to be leveled and fixed on the work of our Salvation Where when it is once fastned it is restless and unquiet It will into the wilderness though it meet with the Devil himself It passeth all difficulties whatsoever nihil erubescit nisi nomen difficultatis and is not ashamed of any thing but that any thing should be too hard and heavy for it Heat and Light are the two ornaments of the Sun joyned and united together quò calidior radius est lucidior the hotter the beams are the more light there is So the Love of a good work and the good Work which we love are as neerly united together as Heat and Light and the more Heat in my Love the more Light in my Work and the more my Light shines forth the more my Love encreaseth They both are one to another both mother and daughter both begotten and begetting For again the love of knowledge which fits and prepares us to the work of the Gospel brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a love of labor and industry Which will not do things by halves nor bring us to the chair till we have sate at the feet of Gameliel Thus it is in all the passages of our life We propose nothing to our selves of any great moment which we can presently conquer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil Even the things of the Devil are not attained without labor and sweat How laborious is thy Revenge how busie thy Cruelty how watchful and studious thy Lust What penance doth thy Covetousness put thee to Vitia magno coluntur saith Seneca Even our vices cost us dear and stand us at a high rate And can we expect such an easie and quick dispatch of those things which bring along with them an eternal weight of glory Can a negligent and careless glance upon the Bible can our aery and empty speculations can our confidence and ignorance streight make us Evangelists Or is it probable that Truth should come up è profundo putei from the bottom of the well and offer it self to them who stand idle at the mouth and top of it and will let down no bucket to draw it up This indeed is now-adayes conceived to be the Spirits manner of Leading not about by the Wilderness by a sequestred life but streight to Jerusalem to the holy City where there is little enquiry mà de whether they have been at Jacobs well and let down their bucket where by many God is served in spirit but not in truth And so they be born again of the Spirit no matter for this water Who glory in their ignorance amant ignorare cùm alii gaudeant cognovisse as Tertullian speaks Whereas others can receive no satisfaction or content but in knowledge their great joy it is to be ignorant Some truth there is in what they say that the Spirit is an omnipotent agent but ill applyed by them That since he can do all things he will also teach those who will be ignorant and who do him this great honor to call him Master when there are no greater non-proficients in the world ever learning of this good Master and yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth It is true the Spirit is a powerful agent but it is as true that he is a free agent and will not teach them who will not learn will not bring us to Jerusalem unless we will first follow him into the desart qui pulcherrimo cuique operi proposuit difficultatem who on purpose hath placed some rubs and difficulties between us and Knowledge that we may with labor and anxiety work out a way unto it He hath cast some darkness upon Scripture that our Industry may strive to dispel it and in some places as Heraclitus speaks of the Oracle of Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth neither plainly manifest nor yet hide the truth but leaves some glimpse and intimation that we may search and find it out It was the saying of Scaevoâ—a the Lawyer Jus vigilantibus scriptum That the Civil Law was written to men awake who could look about them
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
we shall find both the Creed and the Decalogue Tertullian I am sure calls it Breviarium totius Evangelii the Compendium of the whole Gospel and St. Cyprian Praeceptorum Christi grande compendium a Collection of all Christs precepts Some prejudice it may be perhaps that it is common in every mans nay in every childs mouth For things common and ordinary do lose their credit and price amongst men for no other reason but because they are common and ordinary like the Jews Manna which their souls abhorred because it was so common and they could gather it every day Indeed this is no prejudice at all to this Prayer but serves rather to commend it Quid non commune est quod natura optimum fecit saith that witty but lascivious Author Those things which Nature hath made most useful are most common yea therefore are common because they are useful The holy Father Nazianzene applies it to Divine mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is our King and he hath made his Law his Grace his Gospel his Miracles his Sufferings as common as the Sun Faith Hope and Charity are for every heart that will entertain them Only those things which are valid and secret are least necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he they are to be placed in the second rank because least useful Were not our Pater noster of such use it had not been so common as it is but now it is made common because it is of weightiest and greatest price I will not urge the superstitious numbring of Pater Nosters by tale as if our Prayers were to be muster'd up like Xerxes 's army ut numero vincetur to prevail rather by number than by weight I need not tell you out of Rupertus and Amalarius Fortunatus that this Prayer was alwayes uttered in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a loud voice when others were pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with more secrecie and silence nor trouble you with the reasons they alledge I need not commend the laudable practise of our Church which hath often inserted it in her Liturgy and hath placed it at the beginning both of first and second Service Animata suo privilegio ascendit coelum commendans Patri quae Filius docuit The greatest priviledge it hath is That it had Christ himself for its Author and being quickened and enlivened with this prerogative it ascends the heavens and commences those petitions to God the Father which the Son himself hath taught SIC ERGOO RATE After this manner therefore pray ye Which words are taken as they lye for a plain precept not to pray which is implyed but to pray after this manner For though it be in St. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When you pray say yet here in St. Matthew we read it in the Imperative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pray ye thus For although Christ may seem only to prescribe what we must desire of God when we pray and not command that we should thus pray yet the very subject of this prayer and the nature of the things we are to pray for are such that we cannot but conceive that Christ did enjoyn both Prayer is implyed in Religion whether true or false grounded by the very Heathen on Gods Care and Providence by which he governs all things The Stoicks appropriated it to their sect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As they thought that none but a wise man could be a Priest so they imagined that none but a wise man could pray And indeed all Philosophers accounted it their proper praise to know how to pray None ever denyed that God was to be prayed unto but the Cyrenaeans as Clemens tells us and the Epicureans who acknowledged no Divine Providence at all Indeed all Religions agree in this That we must pray But to pray amiss hath been the error not only of Pagans but of many also who called upon the name of the living God Bene orare gratia spiritalis To pray well we can learn from none but from Christ alone We may find perhaps the truth which teacheth some other virtue if not entire in one Philosopher yet diffused and scattered throughout their several sects and writings but Christ alone as he is the author and the finisher of our Faith so is he also of all true Devotion Laertius tells us that Aristotle wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning Prayer and one of Plato's Diologues is extant upon that subject And the very light of Nature directed them so far that they did acknowledge Reverence a companion of Prayer that they esteemed and judged of men by the manner of their Devotion that they accounted them profane who desired things unlawful of the Gods and them foolish whose prayers were for trifles that they could deride the superstitious rites and ceremonies which they used in their devotion But to pray for those things which will procure eternal happiness to pray for a Kingdom he alone can teach us whose most precious bloud hath purchast it for us I cannot now proceed to the further handling of these words for time will prevent me I intended to make this Lecture only an Introduction For the main I must remain your debter till this day seven-night because I have already ingagements lye upon me for the next Sunday and then in this place we shall Godwilling meet again In the mean time I commend you all to the Grace of our Lord Jesus The Thirtieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 9. After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven c. THose things which degenerate are so much the worse by how much the better they had been had they retained that primitive rectitude which God and Nature put into them they being withered and deformed by that irregularity and unnatural motion which swayes and wrests them from the rule as Beauty is with Age and Violence which write deformity deeper in that countenance whose composition and native complexion was most exact and elegant In this very Chapter here we find mention of three principal virtues which are as wings to lift a Christian up to heaven giving of Alms Fasting and Prayer All which have a CAVE a Take-heed placed in the very front of them as if there were as great danger in them as in their contraries which are cloathed with Death By our Alms and Liberality we do as the Apostle speaks sow in blessings in a fertile place 2 Cor. 9. 6. where for one we receive a thousand or as Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sow our piety which will bring in increase a hundred-fold But yet we see Vain-glory and the sound of a trumpet will blast all our crop and rob us of our harvest Castigation and beating-down of the body by Fasting is that which gâ—ves life and growth unto our Devotion and by which we do humilitatem animae Deo immolare make our Humility an holy and acceptable sacrifice to God But when it appears only in
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
off that yoke which Custome hath put on but I cannot conceive how it should reign ad necessitatem so to necessitate our damnation as to take off that last comfort we are capable of which is hope The Church when she strikes the sinner with the spiritual sword of Excommunication doth not with that blow cut off Hope Vulnus non hominem secat secat ut sanet She strikes rather at the wound which is already made than at the man to wound him deeper She strikes him to heal him Delivers him to Satan to deliver him from Satan She shuts him out to keep him in Abstention Pulsion Exclusion Exauctoration Ejection Ejeration all these phansies we find in the ancients for Excommunication yet all these are not of so malignant power as to shrivel up all our Hope but rather they beget a hope that the excommunicated person will run back to the bosome of that Church which did therefore cast him out that she might receive him again more fair and healthful than before Did Love dwell in us continually we should not be so willing to hear nor so ready to talk of the everlasting destruction of our brethren Malo non credere sit falsum omne quod sanguinis est as St. Hierome spake in another case We should rather not believe that it were so and wish it false though it were most probably true It hath been therefore the practise of the ancient Church and it is in present use with our own to pray for all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks for all those to whose blindness the light of the Gospel is not yet known that they may be drawn out of the darkness of ignorance and be converted and see the beauty of that truth which may save them even to those whose damnation sleepeth not For this is most agreeable to that Will of God which is known and which is therefore known that it may be the rule of our actions Nor do we herein offend against that secret Will of his For most true it is that we may bonâ voluntate velle quae Deus non vult saith St. Augustine will and with a very good will those things which God will not And our prayers thus sent up though they prevail not in that against which God hath secretly determined yet shall prevail to draw down a blessing upon our heads for thus conforming our selves to Gods Natural and Known Will And this leads us one step further to the consideration of God's Occasioned and Consequent Will by which he punisheth those that obstinately continue in sin And to this Will of his we are bound to conform although for the reasons but now alledged we are not bound to pray that all unrepentant sinners may be damned but rather that they may repent God will proceed to punishment He hath whet his sword and he will make it drunk in the bloud of his enemies whether we pray that he will do it or not To this Will of his they who have made themselves the children of perdition must conform even against their will And our conformity consists but in this to rest contented herewithal and to admire Gods uncontroulable Justice which no Covetousness can bribe no Power affright no Riches corrupt no Fear bend and to cry out with the Father O quanta est subtilitas judiciorum Dei O quà m districtè agitur bonorum malorumque retributio O the infinite wisdome of the judgments of the Lord O how exactly and precisely will he reward the good and punish the impenitent sinner Every thing that God will do is not a fit object for our devotion nor are we bound to pray for every thing that he will do Nay in some cases as it hath been shewed we may pray against it God may perhaps purpose the death of my father For me to will the same is no less sin than Parracide God upon fore-knowledge of Judas his transgression did determine that Judas should go to his own place but Judas was not bound to will the same No his greatest sin was that he so behaved himself as if he had willed it indeed In a word I am not bound to say FIAT to all that God will do but when he hath done it to sit down and build my patience upon this consideration That whatsoever he will do or hath done must needs be just Absolutio difficultatum in his ipsis requirenda est è quibus videtur exsistere saith Hilary We must see the resolution of doubts which may hence arise even from that which raised them or from whence they were occasioned And we cannot be at any loss in our conformity if we do not first mistake that Will of God to which we should conform The Schoolmen who are very apt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make ropes of sand or rather with little children to blow-up those bubbles which are lost in the making amongst many other empty and unnecessary questions have started up this as of some bulk and substance when indeed it is but very airy They ask Whether if God should reveal to a particular person that he should be damned he were bound to conform his will and give assent and not pray against it A vain speculation like that of Buridans Ass which stood between two bottles of hey and starved because he knew not which to chuse Men may suppose what they please the Heavens to stand still and the Earth to move and wheel about as Copernicus did They may suppose that God will send his Angel with a revelation who would not send Lazarus with a message to Dives his brethren But let me also suppose that men are wise unto sobriety and then I will move one question more and that is What reason possibly they can imagine to move this doubt God doth not send any such revelation We have Moses and the Prophets we have the Gospel of Christ If we look for any revelation we must find it there There as in a glass we may see either the regularity or deformity of our wills There we may hear that voice which speaks comfort to the penitent and denounceth vengeance on obstinate offenders Nolo ut mihi Deus mittat Angelos saith Martin Luther I would not that God should send down his Angel with a revelation For he that brings any revelation to me which is not in Scripture shall find no more credit than the Puck in the Church-yard And if it be in Scripture the message though of an Angel is but superfluous Suppose God will do that which he never will and you may raise as many doubts and questions as you please Again if God did reveal it yet it might be lawful nay thou art commanded to pray against it God revealed to David that the child which was born to him in adultery should surely dye yet David besought God for the child and fasted and lay all night upon the earth And his reason is Who can tell whether God will be 2 Sam. 12.
tentations but lead us into them not only shews us that which may hurt us but betrays us to it And no doubt such there are But here we must be wary that we raise not arguments from meer sound of the words Expetit sensus interpretationis gubernaculum saith Tertullian We must make use of the light which a just interpretation may bring Universa Scriptura quasi una propositio copulativa saith Gerson there is such a sympathy such an analogy between one part and another that the whole Scripture may seem to be but one entire copulative proposition Therefore where two places seem to look divers waies we must not be too forward to adhere or fasten to either but ex praepositis consequentibus as Hilary teacheth us by comparing that which goes before with that which follows after by help of plain and open places bring them together and make them one in understanding which cannot possibly be opposite in sense It cannot be that that should be the sense of any part of Scripture which contradicts any principle of truth or violates any attribute of God as his Goodness his Wisdom his Justice I will not say as the Father upon occasion doth Talia si dicunt Prophetae non erunt mei If the Prophets or Apostles speak any such words they shall be none of mine but rather be confident that whatsoever at first to an indiligent Reader the words may sound the Prophets and Apostles could not mean And in common reason that which is plain and acknowledged on all sides to be true should give light to that which is obscure and be as an Oath for confirmation to set an end to all strife and controversie To examine some places of this nature In 2 Sam. 24. 1. after we are told that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel it presently follows and he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah And some have been too ready to lay hold on this and urge it as a plain testimony that God many times makes Satan his instrument and by him inciteth and moveth men to sin Which notwithstanding the gross absurdity of the thing it self and a plain testimony of Scripture That God tempteth no man that is incites or solicites Jam. 1. 13. none to sin doth evidently demonstrate to be most false And this He in Samuel is pointed-out by name and is no other than Satan himself Now the 1 Chron. 21. 1. reason of this grand mistake and blasphemy was no other than this that this He moved David is brought-in close to that That God was angry so that it might seem to be referred unto Him because there is no mention there of any other But yet they might have observed that it is a common thing with the Hebrews to bring-in their Verbs many times without the Person who is the agent so that these words ET INSTIGAVIT DAVIDEM he moved David by the common opinion of Grammarians may be thus supplyed ET INSTIGAVIT IS QUI INSTIGAVIT He moved him that moved him that is the Devil But that 1 Kings 22. is more plain There comes-forth an evil Spirit and offers as it were himself to assist and help God to destroy Ahab For when God asks Who shall perswade Ahab to fall at Ramoth-Gilead the evil Spirit answers him That will I How saith God I will go forth saith he and be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his prophets Go saith God and prevail If we take the words as they sound here was more than Permission Here was a Command and God may seem to have given the Spirit a Commission and deputed him as an instrument to destroy Ahab But if we rightly weigh each circumstance all will amount to no more than Permission For though God gave-way to the evil Spirit yet was it not infallibly necessary that Ahab should be deceived If he would he might have hearkened to Micaiah the true Prophet and cast the lying Prophets into prison there to eat the bread of sorrow and drink the water of affliction GO AND DO SO are the words of an offended God who when he found an instrument ready to his hands would not hinder that voluntary profer of the evil Spirit which he knew how to use to execute his vengeance upon that wicked King Occulta justitiae licentia malignis spiritibus datur saith Gregory ut quos volentes in peccati laqueo strangulant in peccati poenam etiam nolentes trahant Even the evil Spirits have a kind of licence a Writ De puniendo peccatore given them that they who are so gentle and willing to be led into the snare of the Devil may be dragged by them to punishment against their will Again God indeed is said in Scripture to have hardened Pharaoh's heart to give-up men to their own lust to vile affections and to a reprobate mind c. But all this in effect is no more as I have elsewhere shewn at large than that God hath so ordained hath set things in such a course that if men continue in sin they shall be hardned if they love temptations they shall be led into them and if they will needs play and sport with these Serpents they shall at last be stung to death To conclude then God tempteth no man God solicites no man to sin much less doth he lead or force men into this snare No God is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength He doth not bid us fight when he hath disarmed us nor assist that enemy which he bids us resist nor lead us into those tentations which we are sure to fall under But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is true and faithful and to expose us a prey to a merciless and invincible enemy is prejudicial to the Faith and Truth and Sincerity of God He leaves Tentations as they are allurements and terrors and no more And he leaves us as we are with Understanding to discern what is true and what is counterfeit and with a Will of greater activity than the Rhetorick of a pleasing or the terror of a fearful tentation As he leaves us Sense to receive objects so he leaves us Reason to weigh and ponder them to consider what deceit may be in Beauty and what danger in Honour to consider that a light affliction may bring a great weight of glory that though Pleasure flatter yet I may run from it and though Affliction threaten yet I may embrace it and count the strokes of the one better than the kisses of the other God is faithful and will with the tentation also make a way to escape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle not make a way with the breath of his Omnipotency but make a way so plain and easie and passable that if thou wilt thou maist escape flee from the noise of the fear and yet not fall into the pit and come out of the midst of the pit and yet
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
Atheism by which we doubt of Gods approach because we cannot find-out his wayes and rely not upon his Power because we see not how it works but is many times as invisible as himself because this omnipotent and wise King never presents himself to the eye of mortal men nor doth so evidently manifest his power as to leave no place for doubting because he suffers fools to ride on horsback and wisemen to lacquey it by their sides because he thunders not upon the wicked but lets them rain-down hailstones and coals of fire upon the just And these are the complaints of weak and ignorant men who though they see miracles every day will not believe nor are content with those evident marks and impressions of Gods Power which are as legible in his works as if they had been written with the Sun-beams but must have him in a manner condescend to be incarnate again to become like unto themselves and perform his actions as a Man Now to these men qui contra se ingenio suo utuntur who use their wit and reason against themselves to destroy in themselves that Confidence without which they are worse than the beasts that perish we need say no more than this That in this dispute they do betray their ignorance of the nature of Faith upon which true Religion is builded For the force efficacie of Faith is seen where there be sufficient reasons to move us to believe but not such which will leave no room for doubting if men of a wicked stiff-neck do violently oppose the truth For that is true Religion which is freely and willingly enterteined by us not that which is forced upon us or extorted from us Therfore God doth not make himself visible to man For Majesty is no fit object for a mortal eye Nor doth he always follow the wicked with his rod that every man may see him strike nor fills he the righteous with good things before the Sun the people For thus to take away all occasion of doubting were in effect to take away Faith it self quae non nisi difficultate constat whose merit it is to believe more then can be seen or known by evidence of demonstration and by leaving no place for Infidelity leave no matter for our Faith Since God hath taught us more then the beasts of the field since that which may be known of God is manifest in the Creature since he hath made the World a book and each Creature a leaf wherein are written the lively characters of a Deity since he hath even shapen himself unto us as a God of mercy in his manifold blessings since many times he comes with a tempest and a fire before him that we may even see him in that tempest and that fire since he hath shewn himself in those effects of which we can give no reason but must cry out DIGITUS DEI EST HIC the finger of God is here since he hath given us so many strange deliverances from sins which we might have committed and from punishments which we might have suffered that we cannot but say MANUS DEI EST HIC the hand of God is here his right hand his powerful hand since he inspires us with so many good thoughts that enter into our souls invisibly insensibly that we must needs confess EST DEUS IN NOBIS God is even in us let us not make it a reason to doubt of his Power when our Reason is at a stand and cannot resolve every doubt or conceive he is not a powerful King because we do not touch and feel and handle him He is near unto us though we see him not he is about our paths when we perceive it not when we rove about the world he is our King and when we are in the dust he is as powerful as when he lifts us up into a throne It concerns not us to know how his Providence worketh It is enough for us to know that he is our King and our powerful God Which if we weigh it as we should will work in us that Assurance which is the stay and prop of our devotions Here we may rest and need seek no further This knowledge is sufficient for me when I know not the manner how he works to know that he worketh all in all and that wheresoever I am I am still under the protection of that King who governs the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the law of his Providence and of that God who is omnipotent Hence we may conclude with the Prophet Whatsoever we desire or request if it be marvellous in the eyes Zech. 8. 6. of the people yet there is no reason it should be marvellous in the eyes of the Lord of hosts And if those cursed Hereticks which Epiphanius calls the Satanicans who were almost the same with the Massalians were forward to worship the Devil upon no other motive than this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they conceived he was great and powerful and the Romans did worship their Goddess Febris ut minùs noceret because they thought she had power to hurt them then much rather let us make our address to the God of heaven who hath the Devil in a chain and hath beat down his temples and destroyed his altars and laid his honor in the dust and let us commence our suits unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly Eph. 3. 20. above all we can ask or think and in full assurance present our wants unto him who is our King and powerful God that as the kingdom and power is his so he may have the glory And having thus acknowledged the Kingdom and Power to be his we cannot but end in GLORIA ALTISSIMO Glory be to God on high and take them all three together and make up the-Doxologie Thus we must conclude But I told you that this Conclusion was but the collection of so many reasons or motives to make Prayer it self a conclusion The Glory of God is Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End This is it which makes us cry ABBA Father And when He hears us and grants us our requests this is the end this is the first wheel and this is the last So that take the whole subsistence of a Christian in the state of Grace and the state of Glory and it is but one continued and constant motion of Glorifying God GLORIA DEO Glory and God these two you cannot separate them because He is our King and our Lord. If we take Glory to our selves we loose it and our glory is our shame And this is a lesson which we learn from God himself and the first lesson that ever he taught For no sooner had he made the Creatures but he says of them that they were good that is he saw his own glory in them And if we pray as he commands our Prayers are his creatures and he will say of them that they are good and behold his glory in
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