nature obtain habits that may have an inward operation upon the soule and may change the affections in some degree but in a degree so weak and imperfect as can never bring him to salvation A man may by the strength of Reason assisted only by the generall ordinary concourse acquire habits of vertue and those habits may cause a readinesse in the affections to turn to vertuous actions yet those acts of vertue will differ much from those that spring from grace Actions that spring from nature if they be done out of a love to honesty and be without the mixture of all private respects may have a morall goodnesse and I think they may truely be called vertues yet actions that spring from grace will as far excell them as domestick fruits that are kept and fomented by an husbandman excell those that grow naturally in the woods and open fields for grace changes the affections more powerfully and so makes the work which is partly measured by the affections to be of greater value Our Saviour Christ having examined this matter by his infallible scrutiny ascribes more worth to a small gift which a poor widow brought into the treasurie then to the large gifts of many rich men Of a truth saith hee I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more then they all Luk. 21.3 They from their great heaps brought great gifts shee from a small heap brought onely two mites and yet our Saviour Christ having weighed all their charity against hers found that many graines would not make them equall for though their gifts were voluntary as well as hers yet they were not so much voluntary because their affections were not so ready for the affections work upon the Will when the affections are not ready retardunt si non impediunt voluntatem they hinder and stop the Will if they doe not divert her from a right course There being then great difference between nature and grace in working upon the affections their effects must needs be different Nature may cause some change in the affections and perfect them in some degree but grace changes the affections powerfully and makes them as it were new affections If any man be in Christ saith Saint Paul hee is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new 2 Corinth 5.17 And yet grace doth not totally heal the affections in this world there is but a partiall healing here the flesh lusteth against the spirit in the best men lustfull ambitious covetous and an innumerable company of unlawfull thoughts and desires will sometimes arise in every man they which have obtained the greatest measure of grace had never sufficient to exsiccate and dry up the streames of those impurities yet this is our comfort those wounds that remaine are not left for our destruction but our tryall the danger and deadlinesse of them is taken away although they be not perfectly healed As God left the Egyptians and the Jebusites and the Ammonites amongst the people of Israel not to consume his people but to prove them so hee leaves severall kinds of concupiscence in his children not to destroy us but to try whether wee will abstain from sin for his sake when our affections move us to the contrary and as Joshua Josh 10.18 having overcome the five Kings that combined against the Israelites did not presently put them to death but kept them in a cave that hee might put them to death afterwards in the sight of all the people with greater triumph so God having by his grace subdued the concupiscence and inordinatenesse of the affections doth not presently destroy them but keeps them a while in bondage deprived of their wonted liberty that he may destroy them afterwards in the sight of all the world with greater glory At the generall judgement when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortall shall put on immortality all inordinatenesse shall be destroyed the affections shall be totally healed then the soule like the sick man in the Gospel shall take up his bed and walk it shall take the body wherein it lay sick as in a bed and carry it where it please portabit lectum à quo ante portatus fuerat it shall carry that whereby it selfe was carried then the flesh shall yeeld to the spirit and shall rejoyce to be overcome In the mean time the concupiscence and inordinatenesse of our affections are so healed that they cease to reigne though they cease not to be we may by the help of grace subdue our affections though wee cannot keep them from rebellion And this is the first thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to the affections Now in the next place this petition must be applied to the vnderstanding Heal my vnderstanding for the wound of Ignorance is as great as the wound of Infirmity and therefore that must be healed too or else the soul will be never the better And here two things are required for as I shewed you before there is a double Ignorance in the vnderstanding arising from a double defect and want in the soule the first ariseth for want of sufficient revelation the soul having lost the knowledge of those truths that were revealed by God to our first parents The second ariseth for want of evidence after sufficient revelation the vnderstanding being not able of it selfe to assent to revealed truths without some light given her by God whereby it may discover the certainty of them And therefore two things are required I say to heale these two kindes of Ignorance The first is divine revelation The second is divine illumination The first thing necessary to heal the wound of Ignorance is divine revelation The articles of faith must be revealed immediately by God himselfe as they were to the Patriarchs and the Apostles or mediately by the working and administration of the Church or else they can never be known Thou art blessed Simon Barjona saith our Saviour Christ unto Saint Peter for flesh and bloud bath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven Matth. 16.16 The revelations of flesh and bloud doe rather inlarge then heal the wound of Ignorance Whilest Solomon followed the revelations of flesh and bloud hee lost that knowledge that was before revealed and as formerly for wisdome and knowledge so afterward for simplicitie and foolishnesse hee became a second time the wonder and amazement of the world The mysteries of faith must be revealed from above or they can never be revealed No man knoweth the Son saith our Saviour Christ but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and hee to whom the Son will reveale him Matth. 11.27 The second thing necessary to heale the wound of Ignorance is divine illumination for after the articles of faith be revealed if there be not something else added to make the truth evident the vnderstanding will either be deceived by falshood or else perplexed by
doubts and scruples The eye cannot discern an object though present except there be light to make it visible and although the articles of faith be sufficiently presented to the vnderstanding by supernaturall revelation yet if there be not a supernaturall light too to make the truth evident the wound of Ignorance cannot be healed Naturall Reason is too weak to enlighten the soule sufficiently for as Noah's dove could find no rest in the air for the sole of her foot so when the vnderstanding enters into contemplation of supernaturall truths as in the thin and subtile air it can find nothing to rest on or as Saint Peter had sunk when hee walked upon the sea Matth. 14.30 31. if our Saviour Christ had not upholden him with his hands so the vnderstanding sinks when it walks upon the deep ocean of supernaturall truths if it be not upholden by divine assistance And yet as Reason may move the affections in order to supernaturall goodnesse but cannot heal their infirmity so it can likewise enlighten the vnderstanding in order to supernaturall truths but cannot heal its ignorance The light of Reason may make supernaturall truths so evident to the vnderstanding that a man may think his faith perfect in all respects and yet it may be perfect in nothing The ancient Fathers of the Church in their Apologies for Christian religion alledge many reasons which may make a naturall man beleeve the articles of our Christian faith The miracles which were wrought by the Apostles have given their doctrine such authority that a naturall man cannot but assent unto it unlesse his vnderstanding be carried away by some private respect and interest of his own And hee that hath this assent may think his understanding is enlightened and healed sufficiently but hee deceives himself like the Syrians which thought they had been in the way to the Prophet 2 King 6.20 when they were in the midst of Samaria or like Sauls messengers 1 Sam. 19.16 which thought they had found David when they found but an image in his place For this faith that springs from naturall Reason is but imago simulacrum fidei the image and representation of true faith it is like it in shew but differeth much from it in essence For there are two properties essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul The first is certainty Nothing but the light of grace can work in us such a certainty as is essentiall to true faith Hee that beleeves a thing certainly must have some infallible motive cui falsum subesse non potest in which there can be no errour or delusion for an uncertaine motive can give a man no assurance of that which he beleeves Certainty of faith alwayes supposeth a certain and infallible motive upon which it is built Now concerning the articles of our faith nothing but the light of grace can give us an infallible motive of their truth for many of them being above Reason cannot by the light of Reason be made evident But some perhaps will say A naturall man by the light of Reason may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God and so may have an infallible motive For hee that beleeves the articles of faith because they are grounded upon the authority of Gods word hath a sure and certain motive of their truth it being impossible that any falshood should proceed from God To this I answer Although a naturall man may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God yet his faith concerning this matter is but an historicall kind of faith and is grounded upon deceitfull and uncertain motives and therefore though the Scriptures be an infallible motive to those that have certaine grounds to beleeve them to be true and to be the word of God yet they can be no infallible motive to him that hath not such grounds for they that are not sure that the Scriptures are true and that they are the word of God cannot be sure that any thing is true which they prove from them Now a naturall man cannot from the light of Reason have any other but uncertain and deceitfull grounds concerning the truth of Scripture for hee beleeves them to be true and to be the word of God either from the tradition of the Church from the miracles which were wrought by the Apostles or from some other humane motive in which although there be great probability yet there can be no infallibility Such grounds as these can give him no such assurance as excludes all possibility of deceit he hath but an historicall faith of the truth of Scripture and so can have but an historicall certainty But the light of grace shewes us infallibly the truth of Scripture it gives us an experimentall knowledge of it and makes us as it were to see it with our eyes so that there is as great a difference between the faith that a man hath from the light of Reason and that which hee hath afterward from the light of grace as there was between the faith which the Samaritans had of our Saviour Christ from the speech of the woman and that which they had afterwards when they saw him with their eyes The second property essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul is a pious affection to faith and to all the truths which it reveales nothing but the light of grace can work this pious affection in us The light of Reason although it cannot make all truths evident that are to be beleeved yet as I said before there are many truths that may be discovered by it namely such as are of the law of nature but then it cannot like grace work a pious affection in the soul towards them The Divell sees many excellent truths by the naturall light of his understanding hee sees that God is infinitely good and infinitely wise and infinitely just and infinitely mercifull and infinitely happy but hee can have no affection to these truths hee sees them all in lumine coacto in a forced and compelled light and not in lumine jucundo in a delightfull and pleasant light A theefe may know by the light of reason that theft is an unjust act or an adulterer that adultery is unlawfull but they can have no affection to these truths their faith is like the Divels they beleeve them by the force and compulsion of Reason and not with delight and pleasure But the light of grace doth not onely make truth evident but it produceth also in the soul a pious affection towards that truth it makes a man to be in love with it and to delight in it I have had as great delight in the way of thy testimonies as in all manner of riches saith David Psal 119.14 And so say all they whose understandings are enlightned by grace He that hath the light of reason can delight onely in such
and that David desired to have healed was his soul the principall and most excellent part of a man The Pelagians affirme that sin can no way wound the soul for being a bare privation it cannot have say they a positive and naturall act An errour directly opposite to my text De natura gratia cap. 19. Quid sanatur si nihil est vulneratum nihil sauciatum nihil debilitatum atque vitiatum Why doth David desire to have his soule healed if nothing in it were wounded nothing debilitated nothing corrupted it is S. Augustines inference out of these words The Polagians then were full of vain presumption or else David was full of vain fears But Davids fears were just and he spake these words out of experience and a deep sense of his own miseries For if wee descend into particulars wee shall see his soule had many wounds it had some as old as it selfe his soule was wounded as soon as it was created God gave him life and sin death at the same instant for David together with all mankind sinned in our first parents and was wounded in his soule by that originall sinne which hee derived from them Behold saith hee I was shapen in wickednesse and in sin did my mother conceive mee Psal 51.5 Here was a sin and therefore a wound at his first conception Apol. David lib. 1. cap. 11. Contra Julianum l. 6. cap. 7. S. Ambrose calls it naturale contagium a naturall contagion S. Augustine morbum languorem naturae the disease and languishment of nature And this wound was deep enough had he had no other for originall sin hath not onely wounded the soule but it hath wounded all her powers and faculties First it hath wounded the affections for whilest man stood in the integrity of his nature all his affections were regulated and governed by reason the superiour faculties of the soule exercised a kind of regall authority and jurisdiction over the inferiour and the inferiour did inviolably performe those duties that were required of them Man was like a perfect Common-wealth like Jerusalem that was built as a city that is at unity with it selfe but sin hath now so wounded the affections that they are no longer enclined or naturally able to execute the decrees of reason but as a ship is carried up and downe by the violence of the waves in a tempest at sea so a man is carried by the violence of his owne affections hee is driven by them as by strong and impetuous windes upon many rocks Now the inferiour faculties of the soule resist the superiour the affections like seditious Tribunes being alwayes ready to stir up commotions I see another law in my members saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warring against the law of my mind Rom. 7.23 The affections are at warre with reason and force it oftentimes to stoop to their unreasonable and unjust commands This is the first wound of the soule which is called imbecilitas naturalis infirmitas imbecility and naturall infirmity Secondly It hath wounded the vnderstanding for the vnderstanding did naturally apprehend truth without difficulty and as the eye looketh upon a beautifull object so the vnderstanding looked upon truth with delight and pleasure and the more excellent and eminent the truths were the greater pleasure had the vnderstanding in the contemplation of them It was not subject to be deluded by the false insinuations of any affection but could upon deliberation clearly discern all naturall truths and as for those truths that were supernaturall and above its capacity as many of them as were necessary to be known were infused or revealed by God when he first created it But sin hath likewise so wounded the vnderstanding as it can hardly apprehend its first principles without difficulty Now reason like Achitophel takes part with rebellious Absolom the corrupt affections and is apt to represent things to the will not as they are in themselves but as the affections please Now the vnderstanding is filled with ignorance and obscurity and hath lost that knowledge that was revealed to our first parents and which should likewise have beene revealed to all their posterity together with the light whereby it was able to judge and discern supernaturall truths So that there is a double ignorance in the vnderstanding arising from a double defect and want in the soul The first kind of ignorance ariseth from want of sufficient revelation for naturally the vnderstanding cannot know the articles of faith God hath given to every thing a certain circuit and determinate sphere of activity beyond which it cannot passe as fire can heate to a determinate distance but cannot passe beyond that distance The vnderstanding hath a sphere of activity too it hath a naturall sufficiency to understand some truths such as are of the law of nature and such as it can come unto by the knowledge of the senses but cannot passe beyond them to those that are supernaturall The second kind of ignorance ariseth from want of evidence after sufficient revelation and is alwayes joyned with falshood or doubt Falshood ariseth from deception when the vnderstanding apprehends errour for truth in things speculative or in things practicall when it apprehends that goodnesse to be in some actions which is not and in others that goodnesse to be wanting which is in them Doubt ariseth from irresolution I speak not now of irresolution in matters of action which belong properly to the will but of irresolution in matters of judgement which belong to the vnderstanding for there is an irresolution in the will and an irresolution in the vnderstanding as a Judge sometimes knowes the law and yet suspends judgement out of partiality and affection and this is called suspensio facti a suspension of fact and sometimes when reasons are equall on both sides hee knowes not to whom the lawes incline and so suspends judgement for want of evidence and this is called suspensio juris a suspension of right So it is likewise in the soul sometimes a man knows what hee ought to doe but yet out of particular and private respects resolves upon nothing here the suspense is in the will and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio facti and sometimes when arguments are equall on both sides hee knowes not what to resolve upon for want of evidence here the suspence is in the vnderstanding and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio juris In the first case there is a conflict of severall desires in the last a conflict of severall thoughts And from this kind of irresolution proceed all doubts and scruples in matters of conscience which although they be not joyned with falshood because the vnderstanding hath made no conclusion yet they are alwayes joyned with ignorance And this is the second wound of the soule which is called Ignorantia coecitas mentis ignorance and blindnesse of mind Thirdly It hath wounded the will
truths as entertain and second his humour but hee that hath the light of grace delights equally in all truths though they seem directly to oppose his profit honour pleasure and all his other desires Hee that hath this supernaturall gift can say like David of all divine truths More to be desired are they then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then the honey and the honey-comb Psal 19.10 Whosoever then finds in himselfe this pious affection to faith and to all the truths that it reveales may assure himselfe his vnderstanding is enlightened by grace but hee that finds it not whatsoever hee beleeves his soule was never touched by the influence of this divine light Men doe generally love such things as they possesse themselves they which have faith cannot but love faith it is our Saviour Christs manner of arguing with his disciples If yee were of the world the world would love his own but ye are not of the world therefore the world hateth you John 15.19 The summe and abstract of our Saviours speech is this The world loves not a spirituall profession because spirituall things are none of their owne if spirituall things were their own they would love a spirituall profession So I may argue with others If faith be their owne they cannot but love faith and the truths which it reveales And this is the second thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to the understanding Now in the third place this petition must be applyed to the will Heal my will For among all the wounds which the soule hath received there are none greater or more mortall then those that are in the will the wound of Malice is worse then either the wound of Infirmity or of Ignorance and therefore that must be healed before the soule can be in a safe condition The will indeed is in a better case after the affections and vnderstanding be healed then it was before for being an indifferent faculty of it selfe it is moved by the affections and therefore when the affections are healed it hath not such strong provocations to sin and being a blind faculty of it self it receives information from the understanding and therefore when the understanding is healed it hath not such false dictates to make it erre Yet this is not sufficient to heal the will the will hath his proper wound and so must have his proper cure And here the manner of healing is still by supernaturall grace Grace hath heat for the will as well as light for the understanding otherwise it could not heal the soul sufficiently For the Divell hath light but he hath no heat his name is Lucifer which signifies a carrier of light but it had been better for him saith S. Bernard si ignifer magis esset quà m Lucifer Bernard de verb. Isai proph serm 3. if hee had been a carrier of heat rather then a carrier of light light without heat doth him no good to beleeve and not to love doth but increase his misery But grace hath both light and heat light whereby it begets faith in the vnderstanding and heat wherby it begets love in the will and this love is the chiefe of all the vertues the best and most excellent effect of grace I know there are some which give faith the precedency whom I leave to enjoy their opinion for my selfe as in all other things so for my part in spirituall graces I submit my will to Gods will as knowing the least is more then I am worthy of yet my prayers shall alwayes be to have love in the excesse which I will not onely desire above all other spirituall graces but above all them and all the joyes of heaven together Faith is the foundation upon which wee must build our love for how can wee love God as we ought if wee beleeve not in him as wee ought and yet love may exceed faith in dignity as the superstructure may exceed the foundation in rich and costly materials But I intend not to speak of the excellency of love in generall love hath many operations in via whilest we are in the way to heaven besides the healing of the will and it hath many operations in patria when wee are in heaven where the will shall be perfectly healed but all these are out of my Text and shall be out of my discourse I will onely speak of the operation that love hath in healing the will and love when it flowes from grace hath an operation in this respect above all other things for that alone is able to work true repentance in the will to melt it with sorrow for sin to make it flexible and to mollifie that stiffenesse and that hardnesse that is in it Yet as Reason may work upon the affections and upon the vnderstanding so it may work also upon the will but failes as much in healing this as in healing the other faculties There is a naturall repentance which springs from naturall reason for hee that hath received many temporall blessings at the hands of God cannot chuse if hee followes the dictate of right reason but love him and if hee loves him hee cannot but be grieved when hee sins against him for hee that loveth will grieve for the least offence committed against the thing beloved Yet this sorrow that springs from naturall reason is not sufficient to heale the will For first it failes in the cause A naturall man may be sorrowfull for his sins but hee hath not a fountain of sorrow that flowes and streames continually that love that springs from naturall reason is soon extinguished and when the cause ceaseth sorrow that is the effect proceeding from it must needs cease But that love that proceeds from grace is more durable it is able to perpetuate sorrow hee that is endued with this love hath a constant habit of repentance and if at any time hee sins through infirmity his soule becomes immediately an house of mourning an Hadad rimmon a valley of lamentation Secondly It failes in the effect That sorrow that springs from naturall reason cannot convert the will and make it turn from sin a naturall man may be sorrowfull for his sinnes past and have a full resolution to abstain from sin for the time to come but he cannot actuate and performe his resolutions for reason may inable a man to make good resolutions but onely grace can inable him to keep them Now when amendment of life is not joyned with sorrow for sinne it rather makes new wounds then heales the old Qui plangit peccatum iterum committit peccatum quasi si quis laterem lavet crudum quem quantò magis laverit tantò magis lutum fecerit saith Isidore hee that mourneth for his sin and yet ceaseth not to commit sin is like him that washeth a tile stone that is not well burnt which is made more dirty by being often washed Hee that is sorrowfull for sinne and resolves to amend begins well but