but when as God shall haue opened the eyes of our vnderstanding then with Dauid may we see the wonderfull things of Gods law and then with him may we runne the way of his commandements when as God shall haue set our hearts at libertie But before we do all euen the best of vs lie lame and impotent like the cripple at the poole of Bethesda Iohn 5.5 all the dayes and yeares of our times are spent like his without the case of our infirmities and the vertue of the waters of life like those waters in that poole can neuer comfort vs. Seeing therefore that mans reason since the fall of our first father Adam is so cleane perished and decayed in it selfe that of it selfe it is not able to make choise of that which is good it remaineth for a truth that vnlesse Gods grace do accompanie mans reason as the Angel did Toby do go before it as the starre did before the wise men vnto Christ man shal neuer be able to walke in the way nay he shall neuer be able to find out the way that shold leade him vnto life but he shal go on like a naturall and carnall man in that broade beaten path which leadeth vnto death So that you see mans reason being not able to discerne good from euill the way of life from the way of death and by the fall of Adam preuailing ouer all the sonnes of Adam to be one maine let in vs why so few of vs do find out this way of life 2. Peruersnesse of will But let vs grant that mans reason were such in him and so well rectified as that he could discerne good from euill the way of life from the way of death yet is there a second let impediment in man and that is peruersitas voluntatis the peeuishnesse the peruersnes of his will It was the error of the old Manichees and it is at this day the practise of many prophane Christians euermore to cast their sinnes vpon God excusing themselues and accusing him as the author of their iniquities but the Scriptures are all directly against this for as they make God to be the sole cause and author of all happinesse and good that befalleth man so do they make man the sole cause and author of all euil that betides himselfe It is Gods owne speech in the Prophet Hosea 13.9 Perditio tua ex teô Israel salus ex me O Israel thy saluation is from me but thy destruction and ruine from thy selfe As some locks there are which will lock without a key but without a key they neuer can be opened so without a key I meane without any other meanes then their owne proper sinnes men may shut vp the the gates of Gods kingdome against thēselues but without the key of Gods mercy and gracious goodnesse to them it neuer can be opened And as the Magitians of king Pharaoh had indeed power to bring plagues into the land of Aegypt Exod. 7. but had no power to remoue the plagues thence so men of them selues may be the authors of death vnto themselues but to giue vnto themselues either the life of grace or the life of glory they haue no ability God is so farre from barring vp the gate of his kingdom against any that he setteth it wide open vnto all I will not the death of a sinner but that he liue be saued in the Gospel Come vnto me all yee that labor and are heauy laden Math. 11.28 and I will refresh you but such is the peruersenesse of mans will such the obstinacy and rebellion of his corrupt nature that though God doth offer grace yet mā wil not accept it though he do as it were chalke him out the way that should leade him vnto life yet he will not walke in it yea though he lay before him the crowne of eternall glory as his reward and recompence yet will he take no labour or paine for it If then man by following the sway of his crooked corrupt will and by reiecting the good meanes which God giueth for his saluatiō do eternally perish let him not lay the fault vpon God but vpon his owne peeuish peruerse will You shall see the truth of this by a most familiar example and yet such a one as a whole generall Councell hath thought fit for the illustration of it If two men should fall out of a ship Con Colonien and there were no way to saue them but by casting forth a rope vnto them whereby they might be drawne vp if one of them shall lay holde of it and be drawne vp but the other in the peeuishnes and peruersnes of his will shall refuse the meanes of his deliuerance is it not a cleare case that he which layes hold vpō the rope is saued by the great kindnesse of him that threw it out but the other which obstinatly refuseth it perisheth by his own peruerse will Euen thus and no otherwise doth the case stand with vs for by one mā sin hath entred into the world and we are all cast out as it were from that arke of innocency in which we were created But behold the great mercy of God vnto man he casteth forth if I may so speake a rope to saue vs he hath sent his sonne into the world Iohn 3.16 That whosoeuer beleeueth in him should not perish but haue euerlasting life If then thou dost lay hold vpon this meanes of thy saluation by the hand of a liuely faith thou must acknowledge God to be the author thereof but if in the peruersnes of thy will thou dost refuse it then thy perishing it proceedeth from thy selfe from thy obstinate and rebellious will This Saint Austin knew to be most true and therefore he was bold to say Non est punitor Deus antequà m peccator homo God neuer doth become a punisher till man first becomes a sinner and we see it to be true in that speech of Samuel vnto Saul 1. Sam. 15.26 thou hast wilfully cast away the Lord and this saith Samuel is the cause of thy reiection why the Lord hath cast away thee This peruersnes of will was that which in the daies of our Sauior kept the people of the Iewes from finding the way of life and this is that which in these dayes of the Gospel keepes many of vs frō finding it As Christ said vnto thē Math. 23.37 so may he not as truly say vnto vs Quoties volui sed noluistis How often wold I but you wold not hath not God to vse that speech in the Gospel piped vnto you by vs and you haue not danced Luke 7.32 hath not he mourned vnto you by vs and you haue not wept 2. King 4.31 haue not we the Prophets by the appointmēt of our maister Christ layed the staffe of Gods iustice and Gods mercy vpon you that are dead in sinne as Gehezi did his maisters staffe on the dead child and like
vnto sinne shall be able to withdraw vs from it First then for the world which is the first enemy that opposeth vs in the way of life The World The tribes of Ruben and Gad being allured by the beauty and fatnesse of the ground on this side Iordan Numb 32.12 thought the land of Canaan in goodnesse to be farre inferiour to it and therefore they did set vp their rest there and would go no further and thus it is with most men who are or should be in this world trauellers vnto the kingdome of heauen For when they see the beautie and fatnes of this world wherin they liue and that that is true of it which the citizens of Iericho said once to Elisha concerning their citie Behold the situation of the place is faire and the ground pleasant therefore with those two tribes of Gad and Ruben they wil go no further Math. 17.4 but as Peter said in the moūt beholding Christs glory so say they beholding the glorie of this world Bonū est esse hîc It is good for vs to be here And indeed as Vlisses souldiers hauing once tasted of that poisonous cup which the Lotor phagi gaue vnto them Hom. Odys pag. 247. they were neuer after desirous to go into their owne country so the greatest part of men in the world being poisoned as it were with the pleasures and delights of it they desire to haue their residence still in this life they neuer looke after that way that should bring them to eternal life This the Apostle Saint Iohn knew very well and therefore to withdraw the affections of men from the inticements of the world he giueth this counsell Loue not the world 1. Epi. Ioh 2 1◠Vpon which words of the Apostle Serm. in verba Petri. Ecce nos reliquimus omnia Saint Bernard maketh this question Vis nosse quis sit qui diligit mundum Wilt thou know who it is that doth loue the world then marke saith he what the Apostle addeth Loue not the world nor the things of the world as if he had said they that loue the things of the world they are those that loue the world and in louing them they are drawne from the wayes of life for August de verbis Dom. in Mat. serm 33. amor rerum terrenarum viscus est spiritualium pennarum The loue of earthly things is euen as birdlime to the spirituall wings of mens soules that they cannot mount to heauen And as the spirit of God making Dauid apt and fit for the gouernment of the kingdome 1. Sam. 16. was not vpon Dauid till the same spirit was departed from Saul so the spirituall blessings and graces of God cannot possibly rest vpon men till such time as the loue of this world is departed from them And therefore our Sauiour in the Gospell very fitly answereth the man that was desirous to follow him but to make a worldly gaine by that profession The foxes haue their holes Luke 9.58 and the birds of the aire their nests but the Son of man hath not where to rest his head meaning that worldly affections and desires had taken vp the possession of his heart and that therefore there was no roome in his heart for the son of man to lodge in Now if you would know of me what the things of the world are which vsually withdraw most of vs frō the wayes of life because to speake thus of the world is too generall 1. Ep. Ioh. 2.16 I answer from the Apostle Saint Iohn they are ambition and pride of the world lust and concupiscence of the flesh couetousnesse and insatiable desire of filthy lucre these 3. Ambition Lust Couetousnesse which are not of the Father but of the world these are the chiefe things of the world vnto which al other worldly things may be referred which withdraw vs from the way of life You shal see the truth of all these together in one chapter Luke 14. Where when a certain man had made a great supper and bad many vnder whom is shadowed out God the Father inuiting men vnto the banquet of grace in this life and so consequently vnto that eternall supper of glory in the world to come the first excused himselfe thus that he had bought a farme in which say the expositors are taxed the ambitious men of this world whose whole delight is to gather farmes and Lordships into their hands to be accounted Kings on earth The seconds excuse is that he had bought a yoke of oxen in which are taxed the couetous men whose whole time of life is spent and employed in nothing else but in bargaining to get money And the third mans answer is that he had maried a wife and therefore he could not com by which we see that carnall concupiscence is a great hinderance vnto men in following the way of life But of that by it selfe anone I will now amplifie a little the other two in this first branch of the world First then for the ambitious affectation of worldly honors Ambition In that the diuell in the fourth of Matthew did seeke to perswade our Sauiour Christ to fall downe and to worship him by promising him the kingdomes of the world it is a cleare demonstration considering the wisedome of the diuell that honour and preferment is able to draw men out of the right way for although this temptation did not preuaile with Christ who was both God and man yet it hath and doth wil preuaile with men Our mother Euah had honor and royalty enough she was lady of Paradise and not onely of Paradise but of all the earth besides and yet neither the earth nor Paradise can content her mind but she must either be Similis altissimo Gen. 3. like vnto the most high she must be the Queene of heauen or she will breake the commandement of God Did not this thinke you worke strongly vpon Balaam Numb 22. when it made him saddle vp his asse and in hope of high fauors and preferments from the king to ride post with the Princes of Moab to curse Gods people Hath not this caused Abimelek to become a butcher to his owne brethren and Herod the king Iudg. 9.5 Ioseph lib. 15. Antiq. cap. 2. that he might more peaceably inioy that crown into which before most ambitiously he had crept not to regard the life either of friends of wife of children 2. Sam. 15. Did not this cause Absolon most vnnaturally to thirst after the life and crowne of his owne father Hest 3.6 and Haman to thirst after the life not of one priuate man alone but of all the people of the Iewes in the kingdome of Assuerus The trap which the diuell set to insnare our mother Eue was hope of higher dignity Gen. 3.5 and this one subtlety of his Eritis tanquam Dij You shall be as Gods shining in honor and glory aboue other men it hath
him you are not reuiued hath not God called early and late vnto you as vnto his people the Iewes for an absolute relinquishment of sinne hath he not cryed euen out of this place by the shrillest trumpets that our land had to magistrates do iustly to officers liue not by bribes to citizens gaine not by vsury to country gentlemen grow not great by your poore neighbours oppression to all do vnto others as you would be done vnto Verily all this hath God done to bring vs to the wayes of life but with very bad successe for so voluntary an opposition there is betweene mans peruerse will and this holy wil of God that iniquity hath the chaire still triuing writs are in most offices Mammon is the cityzens God and the morter I may not say of al but of many of your goodly buildings abroad are tempered with the teares of Orphanes In this man reignes pride in that man dissention in a third enuy in a fourth dissimulation in some bribery in some periury and in most hypocrisie yea the whole land is couered with a flud of sinne as the old world with a flud of waters and men swim vp and downe in it like fishes in the sea by the motion of their owne passions so that that speech which God taketh vp against the Iews he may fitly take vp against vs and say I haue laboured to purge thy filthinesse but thou art not purged God hath called to the carnal man to forsake his beastly pleasures to the couetous man to relinquish his insatiable desires to the drunken man to forbeare barrelling vp Gods creatures in his belly to the blasphemers to leaue their swearing to the hypocrites to leaue dissembling to all of vs to leaue sinning and to runne the way of his commandements here in earth that hereafter we might receiue a crowne of glorie in heauen but what hath bin our answer surely from the frowardnesse of our hearts and from the obstinate rebellion of our peruerse wils we haue cried with Pharaoh Quis est Dominus Who is the Lord that we should serue him or the God of Iacob that we should regard him If therefore we are desirous to haue this peruersnesse of our wil remoued from vs which we know in most of vs to be a great meanes to keepe vs from the wayes of life then our best course is euermore to subiect our wils vnto the will of God Now the subiecting of our will vnto Gods will consisteth in these three Bernard serm contra pessimū vitium ingratitudinis first that we absolutely will those things which we certainly know God willeth then that we absolutely nil those things which we certainly know God nilleth and lastly that in those things whereof we are vncertaine whether God doth will or nill them neither must we altogether will them neither must we altogether refuse them so subiecting euery way our will vnto the will of God this peruersnesse of will which in most of vs is a second let to keep vs from finding the way of life will be remoued 3. Want of perseuerance Many there be which are willing and desirous to attain eternal life but yet they wil take no pains in the performance of Gods commandements not vnlike vnto Naaman the Syrian who comming to the Prophet to be cured of his leaprosie and the Prophet willing him onely to wash in Iordan seuen times and he should be cleane he stomaketh the matter and breaketh out into these words 2 King 5. I thought saith he that he wold haue come out vnto me and haue called on the name of his God and haue layed his hands vpon me and so I should be healed Here are three things which Naaman would haue done for him first he will haue the Prophet to come forth secondly to call vpon his God thirdly to lay his hands vpon him but in the meane time there is not the least paines mentioned to be vndertaken by himselfe And surely looke how it was with Naaman in the curing of his leaprous body so it is with most of vs in the curing of our leaprous soules we will haue God to do all for vs but we will do nothing for our selues our desire shall be as great for the cleansing of our leaprous soules as Naamans was for the cleansing of his leaprous bodie but if it once come vnto this thou must wash thy selfe in Iordan seuen times that is thou must bathe thy sinfull soule in the poole of repentance and enter in at the straight gate of a holy and religious life then with Naaman we fall to murmuring and we sticke not to say in effect as he said that we looke for a more easie kind of cure in our conuersion But let vs grant that we are willing to performe whatsoeuer is prescribed vnto vs for the finding of this way of life yet vnlesse we do perseuere and continue euen vnto the end in that course it is to smal purpose To haue the Arke of God for a while 1. Sam. 5. did more endanger the Philistines then benefite them and so for men to serue God for a while in a vertuous and religious course of life will more hurt then helpe them 2. Pet. 2.21 for better it is not to haue knowne the way of truth then not to persist in it and farre more happie are those men who haue not entred at all into the wayes of life then Iudas and such wicked ones as he whose ends are worse then their beginnings We do reade in the Gospell Math. 20.8 that some men came into the vineyard in the morning and that some came in at noone but none of these did receiue the reward but such as stayed vntill night to giue vs to vnderstand that they are not initia Christianorum sed fines not the good beginnings but the good endings of Christians which the Lord crowneth The Church of Thyatira in the Reuelation is much commended for this vertue Reuel 2.19 I know thy faith and thy workes and thy loue and that thy last workes are more then thy first and the conclusion of the Epistle vnto that Church and of all the other Epistles is this not he that drawes his sword not he that fighteth the battels of the Lord not he that spends his bloud and after fainteth but he that perseuereth and continueth to the end shall eate of the tree of life Bern. Epist 129 For without perseuerance nec qui pugnat victoriam nec palmam victor consequitur neither he which fighteth the Lords battels against sinne and Sathan can haue the victory nor he which ouercometh can haue the crowne of glorie It is a notable remembrance which our Sauiour Christ giueth vs in the Gospell from the example of Lots wife Luke 17.31 and which Saint Bernard amplifieth very fitly to this purpose Memento vxoris Loth Epist 2. de Sodoma quidem eiectae quia Deo credidit sed in via mutatae quia retro
then should we not see so many in all places to loue better the thresholds of their doores and their benches in aleboothes then they loue the courts and seates of the Lords temple The time was when with gladnesse we haue receiued this word vpon al occasions and entertained this heauenly food of our soules as Elias foode for his body with all thankfulnesse 1. King 17. euen then when a blacke Rauen hath brought it vnto vs I meane men but meanly qualified But now vnto so low an ebbe is our zeale and deuotion come that though Angels from heauen bring it I meane men excellently qualified and able sufficiently to performe the worke of right faithfull Euangelists yet men reiect it nay which is worse they euen resolue with Ahab not at all to heare Michea 1. King 22. not because Michea prophesieth euill vnto them and not good 2. Kin. 13.14 but because Michea is not a preacher qualified in all points according to their humours But to leaue our loue vnto the word let vs descend vnto our loue to those that labor in the word and for which loue many places in this land haue bene much commended True it is we haue bin as affectionate vnto them as king Ioas was to Elizeus ascribing more vnto them for the good of the whole land then to al our chariots and our horsmen It is true we haue entertained them as the Galathians did Saint Paul not onely as the Angels of God but as Iesus Christ himselfe yea we haue giuen no lesse honour vnto them Gal. 4.13 then the men of Lysia vnto Barnabas Paul freely coÌ„fessing of these as they confessed of them Act. 14.11 that gods were come down vnto vs in the likenesse of men I adde yet more that you may see vnto what a fearefull relapse we are now in this age come Aquin. in hunc locum lâ—ct 3. that double honor both of countenance and maintenance of countenance for their place of maintenance for their seruice which they that labour in the word are worthy of saith S. Paul 1. Timoth 5.17 this double honour haue we yeelded and offered vnto them as their due in the amplest manner But haue we so continued haue we perseuered in this loue I must be faithful in my maisters house with Moses and speake a truth without flattery I say boldly in the feare of God concerning this as the Angell saith vnto the Church of Ephesus we are become changelings Reuel 2.4 and haue lost our former loue For first for countenance now euery vpstart that hath scraped but a little pelfe together by the patchings of his braine will be deadly opposite vnto no man more then to Gods minister And as for maintenance the time indeed was when with the good Shunamite you haue prouided for Elias a chamber 2. King 4. a stoole a table and a candlesticke and haue come vnto the Prophets as Christ vnto the lame man at the poole of Bethesda Iohn 5.6 Vis sanus fieri wilt thou be maintained wilt thou be beneficed But now so are the times and with the times so are men changed that you take from Elias his chamber his stoole his table and his candlestick You do come vnto the Prophets not as Christ to the man before mentioned Vis sanus fieri wilt thou be beneficed but as Iudas to the high Priest when he sold his master Quid mihi dabitis ego tradam vobis what will you giue me and I will giue you a presentatioÌ„ And though the visible iudgment of God be vpon such sacriledge for it thriues with them as the Arke of God among the Philistines 1. Sam. 5.1 and as the flesh which an Eagle sometime caried from an altar to her nest a coale of Gods wrathfull indignation is caried with it which in time consumeth them and their yong though I say this visible iudgement of God be vpon such sacriledge yet the eies in our heads may faile with the expectation of that day when the chambers of the Lord his house which Tobiah the Ammonite hath seized into his hands Nehem. 13. shold be restored againe to their ancient institution for the maintenance of the Leuites What should I speake in particular of that stedfastnesse in faith that modestie in words that vprightnesse in our actions that mercie in our works that discipline in our manners that loue and vnitie among neighbours and brethren which in the Primitiue Church was the glory of the first Christians and in some good measure hath heretofore bin seene among vs Verily our coldnesse in all these as in the former is a plaine demonstration that albeit we haue layed our hands vnto the plough of the best husbandry in the whole world yet we haue looked back and albeit we haue made some small entrance into the way of a vertuous life yet we haue started aside and fallen from it again for want of perseuerance To draw this then to a conclusion If we looke vpon all the sons of Adam who are bound by the commaundement of God to seeke after the way of life and in them if we wel consider first the blindnesse of their reason which is not able of it selfe without Gods assisting grace to discerne the way of life from the way of death secondly the peruersnesse and obstinacie of their wils which albeit they know the way yet refuseth to walk in it and lastly their back-sliding and want of perseuerance when haply they haue begun if I say we consider all these bearing sway for the most part with most of Adams sonnes we may then say and say truly euen as our Sauiour Christ saith in my text They are few yea very few that do find the way of life Now as this is a manifest and certaine truth that there be few that do find the way of life if we consider the hinderances in our selues that seeke the way so in the next place if we shall take a view of those things which do retrahere which do allure vs and withdraw vs from the search of this way it will appeare more plaine vnto vs. The things then which do vsually detaine and keepe vs backe from the search of this way of life are these three old and ancient enemies of man Bern. medit cap. 14. Mundus Caro Diabolus the world the flesh the diuell and these three hauing drawne as many men vnto their part as the Dragon drew the starres of heauen with his taile Reuelat. 12.4 it must needs follow that their number should be very small that go on in the way of life I wil touch them all three in their order and giue you such caueats out of Gods booke against each of them that if we be once entred into the way of a godly life which is the narrow way that must leade vs to eternall life neither the world with his inticemeÌ„ts nor the flesh with her alluremeÌ„ts nor the diuell with his suggestions