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
but to speak an hour to be a Hearer but to come to Church to be a Bishop but to put on a mitre to be a King but to wear a crown And this is to disesteem and undervalew these duties This is to be officiperdae in this sense also to destroy our work before we begin it For what place can our work have amongst those thoughts which stifle it and where the birth is so sudden and immature how can it chuse but prove an abortive I cannot conceive but that our Saviour could have performed the work he came about without this preamble or preparation but yet in honor to this great work he would first step aside and not suddenly enter upon it but by degrees first retire and fast and pray and then work miracles To teach us that a Christian is not made up in haste that no good work will beget it self between our fingers nor come towards us unless we fit and prepare our selves to meet it And yet some there be who are willing to think that this is more then needs that it is in the greatest profession that is as it was in the Cirque-shews amongst the Romans Odiosa circensibus pompa that as there so in this all pomp and shew and preparation is in vain that the sooner they enter upon it the more dextrous they shall be in the performance Divines as Nazianzene terms them of a day old made up ut è luto statua assoon as you can make a statue of clay No desart that they will go to no cell that they will retire to no secession that they will make but presently upon the work they enter leap into the Pulpit and there they stir and make a noyse semper agentibus similes like unto those who are alwaies busie or indeed rather like unto those spirits in minerals that Cornelius Agrippa speaks of which digg and cleanse and sever the metals but when men come to view their work they find nothing is done With these men there are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no prefaces no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing to be learnt first All with them is the Work no study or preparations All is working of miracles And indeed one great miracle they work Docent antequam discunt They teach that which they never learnt and their skill and art is so teach men that they shall be more ignorant then before Our Saviour here is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to prepare him for his work but these will not prepare themselves because they pretend they are led by the Spirit Nor is this evil of yesterday or which befalls the weakest only but the Devil hath used it in all ages as an engine to undermine this good work What men are not able to manage for want of due consideration to bring in the Spirit as a supply Tertullian was as wise a man as the Church had any but being not able to prove the corporeity of the Soul he flyeth to Revelation in his book De Anima Non per â—stimationem sed revelationem We cannot make this good by judgment but by revelation Post Joannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi We have our Revelations as well as St. John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them she hath her traunces in the Church and converseth with Angels and with God himself and can discern the hearts and inward thoughts of man St. Hierom speaking of a Monk in his time thus describes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is start up a man who hath exactly learnt all knowledge without a teacher full of the spirit his own master who like a Carneades can dispute both for and against the truth who needs no preparation but can do what he will and when he will But this is not the Spirits manner of Leading for he leads us by degrees and by a certain method For even so he led our Saviour first into the wilderness and then to his work And though his leading of the Apostles were extraordinary yet even them he commands to stay at Jerusalem and to expect his coming And although their determinations were subscribed to with a VISUM EST SPIRITUI SANCTO It seemeth Good to the holy Ghost yet they conferred one with another met together in councel and did deliberate before they did determine Nor did they once imagine that they had the Spirit in a string or could command him when they pleased or call him down to help them in their work sedendo votis by sitting still and doing nothing that he would fly down unto them and sit upon them though they slept Much less can we imagine that he will wait upon our spirit and humor and when we have cripled and disenabled our selves for any service of his in a moment anoint and supple our joynts and make us active for the highest calling when we have put our selves into prison even thrown our selves into the dark and loathsome dungeon of Ignorance that he will come to us as the Angel did to Peter Acts 12. and smite us on the side and raise us up and bid us arise up quickly and go on an ambassage which we do not know go set our hands to his plough which are a great deal fitter for another Certainly to be a Disciple of Christ is a greater work then to cast our garment about us to take up the habit of a Minister No we must be led into some secret and solitary place there to fast and pray to fit and prepare our selves for the work which we have to do there to taste how sweet the word of God is to ruminate and chaw upon it as it were and digest it to fasten it to our very soul and make it a part of us and by daily meditation so to profit that all the mysteries of Faith and precepts of Holiness may be as vessels are in a well-ordered family ready at hand to be used upon any occasion Now this we may imagine to be the work of the Spirit alone and so it is but of the Spirit leading us into the desart placing us on the mount of Contemplation there by long study and industry to learn confusa disterminare hiantia cogere sparsu colligere to separare those things which are confused and mixt together to separate Fear from Despair and Confidence from Presumption to draw and unite those things together which are severed as Faith and good Works Knowledge and Practice and to joyn together those Texts which bid us rejoyce with them which bid us mourn those which command our Zeal with those which exact our Meekness Et diligentia pietas adhibenda est saith St. Augustine alterâ fiat ut quaerentes inveniamus alterâ ut scire mereamur We must make use both of our Diligence and Piety by the one we find when we seek by the other we are filled both to seek and find Unless we follow the Spirit in this his Leading we have no reason to
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
him This is to be like unto God and to be partaker of his spirit And to be Christs Disciple is to be one with him and to be ingrafted into him Here is the Christians highest pitch his Ascension his Zenith his Third heaven And therefore it is said to be a speech of Christ which the Nazarene Gospel hath recorded though our Bibles have not Nunquam loeti sitis nisi cum fratres in charitate videritis No spectacle of delight nothing that a Christian can take pleasure in nothing of virtue and power hath enough to raise a Disciples joy but to see his fellow-disciples his Brethren embracing one another in love For if the ground of all Pleasure be agreement and proportionableness to the temper and constitution of any thing then certainly nothing so agreeing so harmonical so consonant to our reasonable nature and to the ingenuity of our kind and consequently so universally delightful to all who have not put off the bowels and the nature of Man and are by the love of the world swayed and bended to a brutish condition as that which may as well go for a Reward as for a Duty the Loving of the Brethren that language of Love which we must practice here that we may chant it in heaven with the congregation of the first-born and the spirits of men made perfect by love eternally And indeed Charity is the prime ingredient of the glorified Saints Of whose state we understand no more but that they are in bliss and love one another and that they are for ever blessed because they for ever love one another Their Charity never faileth saith St. Paul and then their bliss is everlasting What is Paradise saith the Father but to love God and serve him And the best love we can shew him the best service we can do him is to love and serve the Brethren The end of the Gospel is love 1 Tim. 1. 5. that is other doctrine tendeth to strife and contention but the whole doctrine of the Gospel tendeth to love and unity So that no doctrine that naturally and of it self worketh wrath and uncharitableness can be Evangelical For the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without judging James 3. 17. and without Hypocrisie Beloved Envy malice debate contention strife are the delight and joy of them who have tasted of the powers of no other world then of this which shall be consumed or rather they are the delight of the infernal spirits as it is a torment to them to be restrained from doing mischief Art thou come to destroy us to torment us before our time saith the unclean Spirit Art thou come to curb and hinder us from vexing and destroying those we hate for this is torturing this is sending them again into the deep confining them to their Luke 8. 31. Hell As the lower pit is said to be opened in the Revelation when they have liberty to vex and torment mankind so it is as much Hell to them not to punish others as it is to be punished And none but evil spirits and Men of their constitution and temper can make a Heaven in Hell it self by doing mischief And indeed Delight it is not properly but it is called so because it is proportionable and satisfactory to their malice and pernicious nature and disposition No if we hear LAETENTUR COELI Let the Heavens rejoyce it is because Peace is here on earth If we hear LAETENTUR ANGELI Let the Angels rejoyce it is for the tears and repentance of some sinner here below If we hear LAETENTUR SANCTI Let the Saints rejoyce it is in their union and communion in those mutual offices of bearing and supporting one another and as so many Angels by prayers and exhortations and by the reciprocal activity of their love lifting and conveighing one another into Abrahams bosome Thus we see that that love which makes and keeps us Brethren is the pleasantest thing in the world and that all other joy is no better joy then the Damned have in hell A Joy I must not call it A Complacency we may call it But that is too good a name It is the feeding the filling the satisfying the Malice of an ugly and malicious Fiend But in the next place we shall the sooner fall in love with this Love if Profit also be brought-in to commend and enhance the price and value of this Pleasure And here if we ask with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What profit is there we may answer Much every manner of way For from this we have all those helps those huge advantages which are as so many heaves and promotions and thrustings forward into Happiness By my brother I may see that which before I could not discover He may clear up my Affections from storm and tempest and my Understanding from darkness and confusion of thoughts He may cast out infinitatem rei as the Civilians speak that variety that kind of infinity of appearances in which every thing useth to shew and present it self He may be as Moses said to Hobab to me instead of eyes to guide and direct Numb 10. 31. me by his counsel and providence By him I may hear as Samuel did for Ely what the Lord God will say By him I may feel and taste how gracious the Lord God is He may do those offices for me which the Angels of God those ministring Spirits cannot do because they have no body He may be my Servant and I may wait upon him He may be my Supporter and I may uphold him He may be my Priest and I may teach him He may be my Guard and I may protect him He may be my Angel and I may go with him and be his conduct He may be made all things to me and I may be made all things to him Thus we may grow up together in Grace for in this Nursery in this Eden in this Fraternity the nearer and closer we grow together the more we spread and flourish COMPLANTATI grafted together in the similitude of Christs Death and Rom. 6. 5. CONSEPULTI Buried together with him in Baptism and CONRESUSCITATI v. 4. risen together with Christ No Grafting no Burying Col. 3. 1. no Rising but together No profit no advantage no encrease but in love Speaking the truth in love we grow up into him in all things Eph. 4. 15 16. which is the Head even Christ By which the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted as a House by that which every joynt supplyes by that spirit and juyce which every part conveighs according to the effectual working in the measure of every part according as it wants sustentation and increase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the body which is the Brotherhood may be edified that is more and more instructed and improved by mutual love and the duty and offices of Charity which
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
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
themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 working together with God as God by us we from God and God by us beseech you For this end we received our Commission that you might not receive the grace of God in vain So the Ne recipiatis is both an Exhortation and a Command Potestas cùm rogat jubet The Insinuations of Autority are Commands their Intreaties Precepts But this circumstance perhaps will be neither seasonable nor welcome The dignity and high calling of a Priest is no argument now-adayes but only then when Malice can draw it close to meet with our infirmities We are never so high as Angels till we are lower than Men even like to the Beasts that perish Then argumentum à persona an argument from our person from our office and dignity is readily taken up and we are very skilfull in these Topicks Humanum aliquid patimur Do we betray our selves to be men of the like passions and infirmities with you Do we fall like other men then and then only we are Angels Then Lucifer is fallen from heaven the worker hath forgot his rule and the helper is in the ditch When we sow our spiritual things we are not helpers When we should reap your temporal things we are not helpers When we do not help our selves then we are and we hear it loud enough When our mouth is open unto you and our affections vehement and vocal then our mouths are open against us and our titles of honour accuse us A main reason I perswade my self that the Nè recipiatis finds so hard an entrance into your hearts and that so many receive the grace of God in vain But I will wave this circumstance and in this spare you And indeed the Duty here the Nè recipiatis is of such consequence that it commends its self without a Preface Nor needs there any motive where the prescript is Salvation Maltùm valet oratio remedio intenta saith Seneea That speech is powerful which is fixt and intentive and level'd on the good of the hearer It is easie one would think to perswade a sick man to be well a poor man to be rich and a wretched man to be happy Not to receive a gift in vain what need there any art to commend it We will therefore fix our meditations here and carry them along by these steps or degrees We will shew you 1. What this Grace of God is 2. That received it must be And these two will serve for an introduction to the last and bring in the Caution Nè recipiatis which casts a kindly reflexion on and sweetens and seasons both the other For what is Grace if it be not received and what is the recipiatis if it be in vain Of these in their order There is nothing more talked of then Grace nothing less understood nothing more abused Every man fills his mouth with it justus ad aequitatem perjurus ad fraudem the upright man for honesty the perjured man for deceit the humble for piety the proud for aemulation Ebrius ad phialam mendicus ad januam the Drunkard at his cups the Beggar at the gate The Tradesman in his shop The Schools are intricate and the Fathers profuse in this argument Totius mundi una vox Gratia est Men mention nothing oftner as if they had studied nothing else By Grace we are good by Grace we are rich and by Grace we are honourable and if we be evil it is for want of Grace But bring the greatest sort of men to a tryal and we shall find them no better proficients in the study of Grace then Boethias's Scholar in Poetry who having a long time studied Virgil askt at length whether Aeneas was a man or woman Not to trouble you with curious speculations which commonly make things more obscure by interpretation and the Commentary harder then the Text the Grace of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath divers significations It is taken for the favour of God inherent in God himself and it is taken for sanctifying Grace inherent in the regenerate person a gift flowing from the former It is taken for Habitual Grace and it is taken for Inherent Grace In the language of the Schools it is auxilium speciale that special and immediate furtherance by which God moves us to will and to do a supernatural quality which sweetly and readily directs us in our way unto the end by illuminating our mind by enflaming our love by strengthning our hand that we see how to work and are willing and able to work the three necessary requisites to the performance of every good action It works in us without us and it worketh in us with us It prevents and it follows us By it we begin and by it we persevere and by it we are brought unto glory By it saith St. Augustine we are healed and by it we are made active by it we are called and by it we are crowned And this is that which St. Paul mentioneth 1 Cor. 15. 10. By the grace of God I am that I am and his grace was not in vain For see the blessed and fruitful effects it wrought in the next words I laboured more abundantly then they all Yet startling as it were and afraid of the very mention of himself he corrects himself yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Would you know what materials Grace had to work upon He tells you ver 9. that he was a persecutor of the Church of Christ Strange materials to square an Apostle out of and a statue of Christ Primus pietatis aries Evangelii retusus est mucro saith St. Hierome He who was as a battering Ram or Engine to shake the Gospel by the grace of God had his edge taken off and his force abated and was made a pillar of that Truth which he sought to ruin Thus can the Spirit of God work miraculously where it pleaseth and to sow the seed of grace alter the complexion and nature of the soil Though the heart be as hard as flint and barren as the sand he can make it as soft as wax and as fertile as Canaan or the Paradise of God Indeed no man can deny the operation of Grace but he that feels it not and such a mans denyal can be no argument that there is no Grace for his very want of Grace confutes it Noctua non praejudicat aquilae The Batt doth not prejudice the light which the Eagle sees Nor would we credit a blind man that should tell us there were no Sun This Grace then we must acknowledge But this is not the Grace meant in the Text nor indeed as we are made believe by some can it be For this Grace say they ideo datur ut non recipiatur in vanum is therefore given that it may not be received in vain When it is offered it is received and when it is received it is received to that end and purpose for which it was offered No
us in the ways of righteousness and in that course which leads to bliss much less to drive us out of the way What though there be signs in the Sun and Moon and Stars must my light therefore be turned into darkness must my Sun set at noon and my Stars those virtues which should shine in my soul fall out of their sphere and firmament What though the Seas roar and make a noise shall my impatience be as loud And if they break their bounds must I forget mine What though there be a Famine in the land must I make my Soul like unto the season lean and miserable What though there be wars and rumors of wars must I be at variance with my self and bid defiance to the Lord of hosts What though my friends betray me must I deceive my self And if the World be ready to sink must I fall into Hell Nay rather when we see these things come to pass when these signs come to pass let it be that we do as occasion serves us for God is with us in these signs Let 1 Sam. 10. 7. them be as Signs to us perswading signs Let them have the commanding eloquence of Signs Let them not be as Shadows which pass by us and we regard them not but let them be signa significantia signs that signifie something signs to represent something to our Understanding and so make an impression on our Wills Let them be as the Voice of God calling us out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey Let them be as the Finger of God and let us follow in that way the line is drawn Let them be as a Hand of God and let us humble our selves under his mighty hand Let them be the great Power of God and let us fall down and worship that so we may in his signis signari with these signs be signed and sealed up to the day of our redemption When the Sun is darkned think it is to upbraid thy ignorance and learn to learn to abound more in knowledge and all Phil. 1. 9. judgment When the Moon shall be turned into bloud think it is to chide thy Cruelty and put on the bowels of mercy and loving kindness When the Col. 3. 12. Stars fall from heaven the professors of truth speak lyes do thou stand fast in the faith When the powers of heaven are shaken when there be many sects and divisions do thou keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4. 3. every mans brother if he will and if he will not every mans brother If the Plague break in do thou purge the plague of thine own heart and keep thy self unspotted of the world If there be a Famine in the land do thou fill thy self with the bread of life as with marrow and fatness If Banners be displaid as signs as the Psalmist speaks let them be as signs to thee to fight against thy lusts When Parents and Brethren and Kinsfolk are false do thou look up to thy Father in heaven who is truth it self When the World is ready to sink do thou raise thy self with expectation of eternal glory This constancy this resolution this behaviour Christ requires at our hands and it will be in vain to plead impossibilities For could these men under Nature go so far and cannot we who are under Grace do so much Could they think that nothing without them could hurt them and shall fear nothing more then that which is without Good God! how comes it to pass that Nature should bear more sway in a Pagan then the Grace of the Gospel in a Christian Or have we disputed and trifled Grace out of its power or hath our abuse of Grace swallowed even Nature and Reason it self up in victory Tanti vitrum quanti margaritum Were these men so rich that they could bestow so much upon a trifle upon a toy of glass and cannot we who are under Grace give the same price for a rich Jewel When Themistocles was leading forth his army by chance he past by where Cocks were fighting and shewing them to his Souldiers Lo saith he these have neither altars nor temples nor children to fight for and you see how stoutly they fight for no other end but who shall be the conqueror And to this end have I shewn unto you the examples of these Heathen men as Themistocles did the Cocks to his Army For these men nec aras habebant neque focos They were without Christ in the world received not the promises neither saw they them so much as afar off saw not so much as a glimering of that Light which lightneth every man that commeth into the world Of immortality and eternal life they knew little What was their hopes what was their end As for Heaven and Hell their knowledge of them was small Yet their stomach and courage was such that we who are Christians hear it only as a tale and can scarcely believe it Beloved I speak this to our shame For a great shame it is that Nature defamed Nature should more prevail with them then God and Grace with us that they by the power of their Reason should stand the strongest assault and shock of misery and we run away affrighted from the very phansie and shadow of it For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And if we Christians cannot look undauntedly when we see these things come to pass how shall we behold the Heavens gathered together as a Scrowl the Elements melted and the Earth burnt up how shall we be able to hear the trump and the voice of the Arch-angel If we cannot look up and lift up our heads when we see these things with what face shall we meet our Saviour in the clouds Therefore as our Saviour in this Chapter exhorts v. 19. let us possess our souls with patience Let us withdraw our souls from our bodies our minds from our sensual parts that what is terrible to the eye may have no such aspect on the mind and what is dreadful to the ear may be as musick to the spirit and what wounds and torments the body may not touch the soul that so we may be what we should be our selves our own Lords in our own possession that Christ at his coming may find us not let out to Pleasure not sold to this Vanity nor in fetters under that fear nor swallowed up in that Calamity nor buried in the apprehension of those evils which shall come upon this generation but free in Christ alive in Christ active making these our adversaries friends these terrors blessings these signs miracles by Christs power working light out of darkness plenty out of famine peace out of these wars that at his second coming he may find us looking up upon him and lifting up our heads waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body that so we may be caught up together in the clouds and be for
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cujacius adds out out of the Basilicae not to men asleep And can we then think that that Knowledge which is saving which must make us happy is of so easie purchase that it will be sown in every ground or as the Devils Tares will grow up whilst we sleep There is indeed that relation that sympathy betwixt the Soul of man and the Truth that there is between the Seed and the Ground but if it be not tilled and manured if not cultivated and prepared it will yield never an ear of corn but bring forth bryars and thorns But we leave this and pass to the third which is Method and orderly proceeding in the wayes of our calling As in all Sciences so in the businesses of Christianity we must not think to huddle up matters hand over head as we please Nemo vellus portat ad fullonem no man carries his fleece to the Fuller first before it be spun out and woven Si te titillat clericatûs desiderium saith St. Hierome If thou hast a kind of spiritual itch and be tickled with a desire of being a Preacher if thou thinkest the nearest way to heaven is to go up into the Pulpit yet at least discas quod possis docere learn that first which thou mayest after teach and think there is a pair of stairs unto Knowledge as well as into the Pulpit and that thither thou must ascend by steps and by degrees Learn it by thy Sermon if any thing may be learnt out of it that as thou dividest thy Text and thou handlest each part in its order so thou must divide the parts of thy life and spend them upon those particulars which will promote thy knowledge Sunt gradus multi per quos ad domum Veritatis ascenditur saith Lactantius There be certain steps and degrees by which we ascend into the house of Truth and we must pass step by step unto it For she will admit of no guests who will leap over the wall but of those onely who come orderly and mannerly in She looks down as it were upon us and observes how we come towards her If we are upon the wing or leap up two or three steps at once she shuts her door and turns her back upon us To see him a Master of a Ship in the Adriatick Sea who could never rule a cock-boat in a fish-pond him a Captain who was never yet a Souldier and him a teacher who is to learn is a strange kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an immethodical disorderly proceeding which is used in the world and what can the issue be but a Shipwrack a Defeat gross Ignorance and Confusion The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercise and practice of truths in that order in which we learnt there This is of singular use to drive them home as a nayl is by the masters of the assemblies to make them enter the soul and the spirit the joynts and the marrow to do something by way of preparation which may bear some affinity and correspondence with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief work we have to do Our preparations must not be like to those prefaces and proems which the old Orators used to frame and lay by them to serve for any tract or oration but it must be such as will fit and joyn it self to the work and be one entire piece You see our Saviour here makes use of Solitude and Fasting and Prayer and what more agreeable then these to the work which he had to do which was indeed to go about doing good and then to suffer death for the sin of the world which was now no paradise but a wilderness It is a sign of a happy progress when our preparation is a kind of type and presage of our work when our rising is fair when the beholder may say He is much given to meditation it is like he will be a Divine He is gone into the wilderness he hath retired himself sure he hath some great work in hand But the event is most unprosperous when Idleness and Ignorance are made the key of the Scripture when Darkness must usher in the Light and Belial be a fore-runner to God No work ends well which begins not well which is taken in hand without due preparation When we have taken any great work upon us it will be good for us to follow our Saviours method first retire from the world and go out into the wilderness first fast and pray and then work miracles And so much be spoken of the first reason of our Saviours Secession his Preparation to his work The second is That he might be fitter for Prayer In monte orationi adhaeret miracula in urbibus exercet For Prayer he chuseth the mountain for his Works the city He prayed all night saith the Father and wrought his miracles in the day Our Saviour often retired as we find in Scripture and for this end And when he gives us directions for Prayer one is Enter into thy chamber into thy closet Shut thy door Hide thy self for a little Isa 26. 20. time Which are works pointing out to those things which must be done without noise Every good work requires the whole man a soul divided and taken from the world but especially Prayer which is ascensus mentis in Deum a kind of an ascent of the mind unto God SURSUM CORDA Lift up your hearts They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mystical words But how can we lift up a heart of flesh It is much it should ascend having such a weight upon it as the Body having an Eve which cannot alwaies be closed an Ear which cannot ever be shut but when the weight of Sin hangs upon it when it is clog'd with impertinent thoughts how should it ascend Nunc creberrimè in oratione mea aut per porticus deambulo aut de faenore computo saith St. Hierome Now many times it falls out in my prayer that I do nothing less then pray I cry for Mercy but the thought of Judgment is loud I pray for chastity when lustful thoughts sport in my heart I walk I talk I fight I dispute I tell money in my prayer and indeed I do but say my prayers Therefore intention of mind is most necessary to Prayer which is torn and distracted if it be not fastned on God alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thought to be an Apostolical Constitution Be thou not double-minded in thy prayer Let not one thought stifle another the thought of the world quench the desire of a blessing Let not thy wandring imaginations contradict thy Prayers Let not thy Devotion be stained with bloud or polluted with lust or spotted with the world Quomodo te à Deo audiri postulas saith Cyprian cùm teipsum non audis How canst thou hope to be heard of God when thou dost not hear thy self how canst thou expect that he should understand thee when thou canst not tell
argument by transferring the QUOMODO from the person of the King to the Guest QUOMODO TU how camest Thou in hither Thou my liege-servant and sworn subject For we know though Gods kingdome be as large as the whole Universe though God be King of all the Earth yet his name is great in Israel His throne is in the Church In our PATER NOSTER we begin as Sons and call God Father but we end as Subjects and acknowledge the kingdome to be His. Again QUOMODO TU How camest Thou in hither Thou who hast given thy name to Christ and wast a Christian when thou couldst not name Christ Thou who shouldst shed thy bloud for him yet trampled on his and as much as in thee lyeth crucifie him afresh This is circumstantia aggravans a circumstance that hath weight in it talent-weight For the Grammarian will tell us Plus est prodere quà m oppugnare to Betray is more than to defie and a Traytor worse than an open Enemy That Malice which whispers in a corner or worketh in a vault is more dangerous than that which is proclaimed by the drum Judas was worse than the Jews his Kiss more piercing than the Spear and this Guest here more bloudy than those Murderers It was v. 7. a charitable wariness and a wary charity in that holy Father St. Augustine to suspend his censure and not suddenly to give sentence against a Heretick whose conversation was pious Whether were more damnable a bad Catholick or a just Heretick he would not by any means determine But Aquinas layeth it down for a positive truth Graviùs peccat fidelis quà m infidelis propter Sacramenta fidei quibus contumeliam facit The same sin makes a deeper dye in a Christian then in an Infidel and leaves a stain not only on the person but also on his Profession and flings contumely on the very Sacraments of Faith whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is veiled and shadowed by Ignorance and borrows an excuse from Infidelity it self For Ignorance is circumstantia allevians a lessning circumstance and doth abate and take off from the sinfulness of Sin Which maketh our Saviour give sentence against Capernaum even for Matth. 11. 23. Sodom it self Though Sin be Sin in all yet the person doth aggravate and extend and multiply it Oh the paradox of our misery Our Christianity shall accuse us and our Happiness undo us At the day of judgment it shall be easier for a miscreant Turk than for a bad Christian and the King be more terrible to this Guest here than to a stranger The Person ye see is a main circumstance a King to be slighted and his Guest to slight him his Subject to contemn him A high contempt But in the next place the Invitation will heighten it Tantus tanti tantillum That a King should invite a Beggar send his servants to intreat him to a feast and that at the marriage of his son makes the benefit a wonder and the neglect as strange and that all should be thought but a parable no history no history ever yielding the like example For what is this Man that he should thus be honor'd or what is this King that he should invite him Was he bound by any prae-contract or prae-obligation Did his justice or his honor lye upon it or could he not feast without him We cannot conceive thus of the King No He might have left this man in the streets and high-wayes amongst the poor the blind and the maimed naked to every storm and tempest open to the violence and shock of every temptation amongst men as impotent as himself not able to succour him not able to succour themselves But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. James of his own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 James 1. 18. according to the good pleasure of his will he sends for Ephes 1. 5. him messengers are dispatcht and they bespeak him in the same form they do the rest Come unto the marriage But this may be but a complement and no more And there are that make little more of it What say we then to Go compell them to come in This I hope is in earnest And this Luke 14. 23. he did His invitation was so hearty his beseechings so vehement his request so serious that it might seem to be violence and did bear the shew of a compulsion Not that God compels any or necessitates them to that end he intends as some conceive Who because all power is his will needs have him shew it all in every purpose so irresistibly as if that of the Baptist were true in the letter that God out of stones did raise up children unto Abraham For as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise too and sweetly disposeth all things accomplishing his will by those means he in his eternal wisdom knows best using indeed his power but not violence working effectually upon our souls that we do not actually resist per suaviductionem say the Schools leading us powerfully but sweetly to that end his prae-determinate will hath set down When he invites us to his Church militant mittit servos he sends his servants and when he establisheth and buildeth us up for his Church triumphant mittit servos he useth that means also He instructs he corrects he exhorts he commands he threatens and he promiseth He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens various and manifold in his operation There is lightning with his thunder counsel in his threats light with his fire discipline in his tryals hony with his gall and his most bitter prescripts are not only sweet but cordials Now all these will make it an invitation at least and if we rightly weigh them lay them in the ballance and they will put it out of all doubt that this Invitation was serious that the King sent for the man ad convivium non ad notam not to commit him as some phansie but to entertain him not to a censure but to a banquet to have made him a guest not a spectacle We cannot then to press this argument but lay the blame on the Guest and implead him of perverse obstinacy His neck was stiff no perswasions could bow him his heart was adamant no love no fear could soften it And withal we must acknowledge that Faith and Charity are a useful wear without which Gods purpose to us is frustrate and his love lost without which we come to his table and are not fed without which his earnest beseechings his bowels his compassion his promises his threatnings all are in vain And further we carry not this consideration The Invitation leads us to the Feast And that is our next point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calls it a splendid and magnificent feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a delicious banquet COENA MAGNA that great Supper with an emphasis in which the bread is Manna and the Manna everlasting