we are not but Heirs Heirs of God and coheirs joynt-heirs Rom. 8. with Christ As he is Son so we by his right are sons too All is ours Paul is ours and Cephas is ours because we are Christs and Christ is Gods So that St. John might well usher-in this great advancement which an ECCE Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 1 John 3. 1. But in the second place besides this grace of Adoption we are children too in a manner by Generation Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth But not so as he begat his only begotten Son by an eternal geneneration James 1. 18. as Fulgentius speaks but by a voluntary regeneration In him without any natural beginning there remained an eternal nativity but Gods Will preceded and went before our new birth And to this end he placed us in gremio matris Ecclesiae even in the bosome of the Church our Mother who conceived us of the incorruptible seed of Gods word as St. Peter speaketh the blessed Spirit quickening this seed till a new creature be brought forth not into this temporary but into the eternal light which she feeds with the bread of life the word of truth which she nourisheth with the milk of faith which she strengthneth with the bread of affliction with the bloud of Martyrs till growing up from strength to strength from virtue to virtue it became at last a perfect man in Christ Jesus And this may well be called a birth for indeed it much resembles our natural birth but especially in two respects First here are the two terms of Generation Non-ens tale and Ens tale the Matter out of which it was produced and the Substance or Entity which it is now Terms truly contradictory as different as Heaven and Hell as Light and Darkness So that here is mira mutatio the change is wonderful View Man in his naturals as not yet regenerate and he is as the Apostle saith the child of wrath candidatus Diaboli saith Tertullian one that hath abjured Heaven and is as it were a competitor and one that stands for Hell nay one that may be imployed as the Devils instrument to bring others thither As Pliny said of Regulus Quicquid à Regulo sit necesse est fieri sicut non oportet so of him Whatsoever he doth must needs be done amiss because he doth it Who would ever look that a sweet stream should flow from this corrupt Fountain Who would expect that this Nehustitan this rude piece of brass should ever be polisht Or is it possible so far as in our conceit that out of this Cockatrice-egge there should be hatcht a Dove Hence then encrease thy gratitude and obedience and admire Gods Power With meer man this is impossible but with God all things are possible And this Change too as the Introduction of a humane soul is instantaneous and in a moment though the growth be by degrees Non opus est morâ Spiritui Sancto The holy Ghost needs not the help of delays But if even into this dead and corrupt matter he breathe the breath of spiritual life it shall stand up from the dead and live and be a new creature Which is the terminus ad quem the second term of this spiritual birth And here view him and he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is changed another out of another a child of light candidatus aeternitatis one that thinks of nothing but Aeternity Certainly a blessed birth and happy change A happy day it was when it might be said that such a child was conceived a child of peace a child of blessings a child of God That day was a day of brightness a day of rejoycing a typical day of that eternal day when time shall be no more The second resemblance of our spiritual birth to our natural is in respect of the difficulty and pains in bringing forth this child And here it is but a resemblance it will not admit a comparison For though the pains of a woman in travel are great so that almost they are become proverbial yet they are but light afflictions scarce worth note or naming in respect of the sorrow and pain endured in this delivery but rods to these scorpions but as a cramp or convulsion to this rack as scratches to these wounds scarce breaking the upper skin as Seneca speaks whilst these divide asunder the soul and the spirit whilst they enter the bowels and the heart scarce worth the speaking of in respect of these sighs and groanings which the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 26. are unspeakable For indeed the grief of the body is but the body of Grief but the pain of the soul is the very soul of Pain and the Soul it is that is afflicted in this birth The sighs are hers and the groans are hers and all is to dead in her self the root of Sin non exercere quod nata est as St. Hierome not to be what she is to be in the body and yet out of the body to tame the wantonness of the flesh to empty the whole man of luxury to prune the over-spreading passions all to be delivered and to bring forth this New creature Quantae solicitudines quantae contritiones saith St. Ambrose What solicitude what anxiety what contrition what tye of Continence what lashes of Conscience what bitterness of soul Qualis adversarius What an adversary to cope withall and to remove that would strangle this Infant in the womb in the conception nay that would destroy it in semine in principiis before it were an embryon that would not suffer it to have power to become a child of God But yet though there be pain and grief in the travel there is joy and comfort after the delivery Quae parturit quatitur compungitur In the travel there is a conquassation and compunction as it were but quae peperit exsultat when the woman is delivered when the little Infant hangs on the teat there is joy and exsultation and the Mother forgets the pain because a child is born into the world So Christ is our joy 〈…〉 he Child to be formed in us as the Apostle speaketh at the first is bitter and distastful to us and we are not willing to conceive him in the womb of our soul because this new birth cannot be without a funeral For to be thus born we must dye we must dye to our selves to the world to the flesh we must hate that which we most love we must renounce all that may hinder this birth But when Christ is fully formed in us the cloud of sorrow is removed all is serene and bright and we forget the pangs and grief and sorrow which before we endured for the holy Ghost hath come upon the soul and the most High hath over-shadowed it and now that holy thing which is born shall be called the Son of
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
ignorant that he knows not whether the ground he treads upon stands still or moves God whose Thoughts do as far exceed our Thoughts as the Heavens do the Earth nay more for the distance between us and the highest Star is known and calculated but the distance between us and God passes all Arithmetick It is infinite Why then should we sawcily pry into the hidden Councels of God If he hath let down a Veil before his Holy of Holies how should we dare to tear it asunder and prophanely break into his Mysteries What must we know before we will believe have a Demonstration for all God does to give us satisfaction Why perhaps we shall never answer Zeno's argument against Motion and shall we therefore sit still all the days of our life and say we cannot stir perhaps it is impossible to solve Pyrrho's objections against Reality shall we therefore fondly conceit that every thing we see is but an appearance only that it is but your fancy that I seem now to speak and nothing but your imagination that you think you hear me aâ—â—f our whole life were but one continued Dream And is it not as much madness to mistrust the truth and faithfulness of God confirmed by so many Clouds of Witnesses evinced by so many Ages of Instances because we cannot answer this one objection against It because we cannot see through this one single particular of Providence Why then should we think it any indiscretion with Abraham to believe against Hope or to be sure though we have least reason to expect it That the only way for a man to become a great Nation is to kill his only Child and the means to overcome Canaan was to go alone and a stranger into it Pray why should we not believe our Saviour that to save is to loose and to preserve is to destroy Why should we imagine our selves any wiser then St. Paul who committed his body to God until the last day and perswaded himself that God was able to keep it until that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. though it past through so many transmutations and changes into beasts fowl and fish nay though it became part of another Man which is to rise together with him in the same Body Yet this seeming contradiction did not startle the Apostle He was sure of the thing though he knew not how it could come to pass I know whom I have believed says the Apostle in the same place Yet though Almighty God might challenge our Obedience without giving us account of his matters though we ought to conclude the Lord righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works when to our eye of flesh he appears neither holy nor righteous but rather the contrary though our understandings be shallow and Gods Judgments profound though the Well be deep and we have nothing to draw yet God like a most gracious Prince when he might absolutely command vouchsafes a reason why we should obey submitting himself to our slender capacities he appears at our Barrs and to settle our wandring thoughts to leave us quite without excuse exposes himself to be impleaded by us to be judg'd by us to be examined by us Which leads me to the Objection which seems to overthrow the Righteousness of God Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously The occasion of this Question I told you was because the Prophets adversaries did continually prosper and had power to do him hurt not simply because the wicked prosper'd but that by this their prosperity they had means and opportunity to mischief him to smite him with their tongue by secret whisperings and smite him with their fists to hurry him from one prison to another and at last clap him up in the Dungeon sealing him up there unto unevitable destruction Now the Prophet demands of God in this Question why he did not disappoint the plots and contrivances of all those who had designed his ruine being God had sent him as an especial Ambassador to his people So as we may resolve the Question into this Why does God suffer the wicked to have any Power to oppress the righteous A Question if we consider the time in which the Prophet lived not altogether idle or impertinent for he lived under the Law a Covenant of Works unto which God had annexed Blessings and Cursings in outward appearance altogether temporal Deut. 28. But on the contrary this Prophet found by sad experience that he fled from his Enemies and not they from him that not they but he groped at noon days being cast into a Dungeon which was only a larger Sepulchre and that the Iron yoke was put upon his not their necks all which was contrary to the express words of the promise as you may read at large in that Chapter Which made him think God had forgotten to be gracious and to ask wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Nevertheless had the Prophet consider'd with himself rightly he would not have thought this so strange a thing even under the Law where God seems to set bounds and terms even to his Almighty power and to confine his absolute Dominion and Royalty over the Creature by making Promises Oaths and Contracts with his People Yet he never pass'd away the Land of Canaan or any thing in it so absolutely but that still he reserv'd the title and propriety of it to himself All souls are mine saith the Lord And the Land shall not be sold for ever for the Land is mine and ye are sojourners and strangers with me Levit. 25. 23. God granted the use of it to them yet kept still the Right and full disposal of it to himself for the Lord calls them for all this Grant but sojourners and strangers who held what they possest under God and continued in it no longer then he gave them leave from whom he might take it away and bestow it on whom he pleased And truly if we allow God the power but of a temporal Prince and grant him to be King of Israel only we must allow him the liberty of changing altering and dispensing with his own Laws For we read how Nebuchadnezzar might slay whom he would and whom he would he might keep alive within his own Realms set up whom he would and whom he would he might put down Dan. 5. 3. And least you might imagine such an unlimited power over the Subject unlawful God is said to give him this power in the same verse and can we think for all his promises the Lord of the whole Earth may not challenge as much Soveraignty as a Prince but of a single Shire enjoyes As then he in whom the Supream power of a State resides when he grants out property of life liberty and estate to his Subjects does not by this Charter debar himself the liberty of taking them away again if the use of
and there discourse with none but God and Angels Thus we may shame a Tyrant and puff at his Terrors For what I beseech you can the most subtle in curses invent against such who call Banishment a going to travel Imprisonment a getting out of a throng who say to dye is to lye down to sleep It is as impossible to torment these as to confine a Spirit or to lay shackles upon that thing which has no Body to bear them For you must not esteem these kind of expressions the heat only of a luxuriant wit because whatever happens in this life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one most excellently calls it whose whole being consists meerly in Relation seems good to such as like it and evil to such as think the contrary just like meat which though it nourish one may kill another His Brethren thought they had sold Joseph into a strange Country to destroy him but he says God sent him before to provide for their whole Family So this Apostle collects with himself that if he dy'd he should go to his Saviour and if he liv'd he should serve his Brethren If he were at liberty his tongue should preach but being in prison his sufferings did further the Gospel much more If he met with all friends they would receive the Truth chearfully and if he found enemies they would preach Christ for him though out of strife and envy With him to dye was gain and to live was gain He took every thing by the right ear and found some benefit in every condition whatsoever whether by good report or by disgrace whether by the left hand or by the right whether by hatred 2 Cor. 6. or out of good will whether by life or death if Christ were preached he lookt no farther he had his end that unum necessarium the advancement of the Gospel and whatsoever happened besides this he esteemed as an additional complement which he might very well spare and yet remain an Apostle still But now on the other side what a continued torment is a mans life without this spiritual carelesness this holy neglect of our earthly Being Then are we born to misery indeed if a moth rust or canker can make us wretched If the trouble which as our Saviour says belongs to every single day can sully our mirth and cast us down If every wind and breath of an insulting Tyrant can twirl us about to all points of the Compass If we make our selves the shadow of the times and take both form and figure only as men do Rise and Set like some flowers if we shut and open just as they shine or not upon us 't were better a Mill-stone were tyed about our neck and we were cast into the midst of the Sea for that would keep us steddy Thus to halt to be divided as the word imports between Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness God and Mammon It breeds the same deformity in the Soul as would appear in the Body If you fancied a man lookt with one ey directly up to the skie and at the same time pitched the other ey streight down upon the ground how ugly would such a one seem unto you This this is the carefulness or rather this denying of Gods Providence which makes so many desire a gift desire it Nay most impudently make it their whole design and business of their lives to get it mounting the Pulpit as they would do a Bank and there sell of their Drugs for Medicines when in truth they poyson the very Soul Whence is it else that they preach their dreams calling that the word of God which hits in their heads when they cannot sleep Who bite with their teeth as Micha says eat on and talk as the company will have it and as it follows in the same verse who puts not into their mouths and gives not what they expect they even prepare a war against him Micha 3. 5. nay blot him out of their book of life Doggs 't is St. Pauls word to them or else I durst not use it Phil. 3. 2. that divine for money who will be rich whose greatest triumph is to lead captive silly women Men that will help up a sin into your bosome which otherwise perhaps a tender Conscience would keep down and set a whole City a fire and then like Nero stand by and play to it Men without whom no mischief ever had a beginning nor by whom shall ever any have an end Give me leave I beseech you to bend this crooked bough as much the other way and call such to St. Pauls example who when he was to preach a new Law preach'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel without charge 1 Cor. 9. who put his hands to work night and day that they might not receive any thing but from himself And I heartily wish what the Apostle did here of choice the Civil Magistrate would whip them to for they are a scandal to their beautiful Profession to preach Providence and at the same time scrape together as if God who provides for all things would have more care of a crow or the grass of the field then of man whom he created after his own Image as if he who sent forth his Disciples without scrip or penny did it only to destroy them and how shall the people credit those who preach the contempt of the world to their Congregations when they see these Foxes would only have their Auditors leave the world that they may enjoy it wholly to themselves calling that the Kingdom of Christ when they themselves raign or rather when Lust raigns in them Whereas St. Paul often urg'd this as an Argument to confirm his Doctrine that he took nothing for it Thirdly St. Paul did not desire a Gift because their Benevolence kept him still alive heartned his body up and prolong'd his days which considering St. Pauls condition was cruel mercy the greatest injury they could possibly do him to hold him thus from his Saviour with whom he long'd to be For the Apostle had fully weigh'd the poizes both of life and death concluded the most beneficial thing to him if he lookt only after his own advantage was Death having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is the better Phil. 1. 23. For pray resolve me what kindness is it to fetch a wretch devoted and given up to affliction necessity and distresses to stripes imprisonment tumults to fasting watching and all kind of labours 2 Cor. 6. to make much of a man only that he may last out to torment to set his joynts that he may go on upon the rack again to strengthen and enable him that he may suffer yet more to bind up his wounds as they did the Slaves in Rome meerly that he might fight with more beasts This is the same pity simply so considered as if you should give strong Cordials to one irrecoverably sick to lengthen and draw out his pain least he
her part on An easie thing it is to be meek where there is nothing to raise our Anger and Revenge hath no place where there is no provocation The Philosopher in his Rhetorics giving us the character of Meekness tells us that most men are gentle and meek to those who never wronged them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or who did it unwillingly to men who confess an injury and repent of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those who humble themselves at their feet and beseech them and who do not contradict them to those whom they reverence and fear For Fear and Anger seldom lodge in the same breast But Christianity raiseth Meekness to a higher pitch where no injury can reach it A studied and plotted injury an injury made greater by defense an injury from the meanest from him that sits with the dogs of our flocks any injury at any time from any man maketh a fit object for Christian Meekness which in the midst of all contumelies and reproaches in the midst of all contradictions is still the same Should we insist upon every particular our Discourse would be too large We will therefore fasten our meditations upon those which may seem most pertinent and so take off all those pretenses which we Christians commonly bring in as Advocates to plead for us when we forget that we are Christians There be two errors in our life the one of Opinion the other in Manners and Behaviour which is far the worse and though these of themselves carry no fire with them yet by our weakness commonly it comes to pass that they are made the only incendiaries of the world and set both Church and Commonwealth in combustion If our brothers opinion stand in opposition to ours if his life and conversation be not drawn out by the same rule we presently are on fire and we number it amongst our virtues to be angry with those who in their Doctrine are erroneous or in their lives irregular Now in this I know not how blessed we think our selves but I am sure we are not meek For if we were truly possessed of that Meekness which Christ commends as we should receive the weak in Faith with all tenderness so should we be compassionate to the wicked also and learn that Christian art which would enable us to make good use both of Sin and Error And first for Error though many times it be of a monstrous aspect yet I see nothing in it which of it self hath force to fright a Christian from that temper which should so compose him that he may rather lend an hand to direct him that errs then cry him down with noise and violence seeing it is a thing so general to be deceived so easie to erre and so hard to be reduced from our error seeing with more facility many times we change an evil custom then a false opinion For Sin carries with it an argument against it self Hoc habet quod sibi displicet saith Seneca As it fills the heart with delight so it doth with terror Like the Viper mater est funeris sui it works its own destruction and helps to dispossess it self But Errour pleaseth us with the shape of Truth nor can any man be deceived in opinion but as Ixion was by embracing a cloud for Juno and Falshood for the Truth He that errs if he were perswaded he did so could err no longer And what guilt he incurs by his error the most exact and severe inquisition cannot find out because this depends on that measure of light which is afforded and the inward disposition and temper of his soul which are as hard for a stander-by to dive into as to be the searcher of his heart The Heresie of the Arians was as dangerous as any that ever did molest the peace of the Church as being that which strook at the very foundation and denyed the Divinity of the Son yet Salvian passeth this gentle censure on them Errant sed bono animo errant non odio sed affectu Dei They erred but out of a good mind not out of hatred but affection to God And though they were injurious to Christs Divine generation yet they loved him as a Saviour and honoured him as a Lord. The Manichees fell upon those gross absurdities that Reason when her eye is weakest may easily see through yet St. Augustine who had been one himself bespeaks them in this courteous language Illi saeviant in vos qui nesciunt quocum labore verum inveniatur Let them be angry with you who know not with what difficulty the truth is found and how hard a matter it is to gain that serenity of mind which may dispel the mists of carnal phantasmes Let them be angry with you who were never deceived and who do not know with what sighs and groans we purchase the smallest measure of knowledge in Divine mysteries I cannot be angry but will so bear with your error now as I did with my own when I was a Manichee A good pattern to take out and learn how to demean our selves towards the mistakes of our brethren and to bear with the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves with the pretense of Zeal and Religion which loose their name and nature and bring in a world of iniquity when we use them to fan the fire of contention I do not see that relation or likeness between Difference of Opinion and contrariety in affections that one would beget the other or that it should be impossible or unlawful to be united unto him in love who is divided from me in opinion No Charity is from heaven heavenly and may have its influence on minds of divers dispositions as the Sun hath on bodies of a different temper and it may knit the hearts of those together in the bond of love whose opinions may be as various as their complexions But Faction and Schism and Dissention are from the earth earthly and have their beginnings and continuance not ab extra from the things themselves which are in controversie but from within us from our Self-love and Pride of mind which condemn the errors of our brethren as heresies and obtrude our own errors for Oracles I confess to contend for the Truth is a most Christian resolution and in Tertullians esteem a kind of Martyrdom It is the duty of the meekest man to take courage against Error and as Nazianzene speaketh in a cause that so nearly concerns us as the truth of Christ a Lamb should become a Lion I cannot but commend that of Calvine Maledicta pax cujus pignus desertio Dei That peace deserves a curse which lay's down the Truth and God himself for a gage and pawn and benedicta praelia quibus regnum Christi necessitate defenditur those battels are blessed which we are forced to wage in the name of the Lord of Hosts And thrice happy he who lays down his life a sacrifice for the Truth But Religion and Reason will
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
their Laws In the Common-wealth of Rome the Laws were the works of many hands Some of them were Plebiscita the acts of the people others Senatus Consulta the decrees of the Senate others edicta Praetorum the verdicts of their Judges others Responsa prudentum the opinions of Wise men in cases of doubt others rescripta Imperatorum the rescripts and answers of their Emperors when they were consulted with Christiani habent regulam saith Tertullian Christians have one certain immoveable rule the Word of God to guide and rule them in their life and actions Besides the Laws of the Kingdome of Christ are eternal substantial indispensable But the laws made by humane autority are many of them light and superficial all of them temporary and mutable For all the humane autority in the world can never enact one eternal or fundamental law Read the Laws that men have made and lay them together and we shall observe that they were made upon occasion and circumstance either of Time or Place or Persons and therefore either by discontinuance have fallen of themselves or by reason of some urgent occasion have been necessarily revoked But the Laws of our Great King are like himself everlasting never to be revoked or cancelled but every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tittle of them to stand fast though heaven and earth pass away Thus you see the Kingdome of Christ and the Kingdomes of this world have not the same face and countenance the Subjects of the one being discernable of the other unknown their seat and place and lawes are different So that our Saviour as he answered the sons of Zebedee Yee know not what yee ask so he might have replied to his Disciples here Yee know not what yee speak My kingdome is not of this world The kingdome of heaven is within you Why ask you then Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven That you commit no more such soloecisms behold here a little child let him teach you how to speak and become like him and you shall be great in the kingdome of heaven We see then that the Disciples of Christ were much mistaken in this question of greatness And a common error it is amongst men to judge of spiritual things by carnal of eternal by temporary When our Saviour preached to Nicodemus the Doctrine of Regeneration and New life what a gross conceit did he harp upon of a Re-entry to be made into his mothers womb When he told the Samaritane of the water of life her thoughts ran on her pitcher and on Jacob's well When Simon Magus saw that by laying on of hands the Apostles gave the holy Ghost he hopes by money to purchase the like power For seeing what a kingdome Money had amongst men he streight conceived Coelum venale Deumque that God and Heaven might be bought with a price Thus wheresoever we walk our own shadow goes before us and we use the language and dialect of the World in the School of Christ we talk of Superiority and Power and Dominion in that Kingdome wherein we must be Priests and Kings too but by being good not great The sense which the Disciples through error meant was this Who should be greatest Who should have most outward pomp and glory Who should have precedency above others But the sense which as appears by our Saviours answer they should have meant was Who is the greatest that is Who is of the truest and reallest worth in the kingdome of heaven This had shewed them Disciples indeed whose eyes should be the rather on the Duty then on the Reward and who can have no greater honor then this that they deserve it Though there be places of outward government of praeeminence and dignity in the Church yet it ill becomes the mouth of a Disciple to ask such a Question For though they all joyntly ask Who is the greatest yet it appears by the very question that every one of them did wish himself the man An evil of old very dangerous in the Church of Christ but not purged out in after ages Per quot pericula sath St. Augustine pervenitur ad grandius periculum Through how many dangers and difficulties do we strive forward to Honor which is the greatest danger of all Ut dominemur aliis priùs servimus saith St. Ambrose To gain Dominion over others we become the greatest slaves in the world What an inundation had this desire of Greatness made in the Church how was it ready to overwhelm all Religion and Piety had there not been banks set up against it to confute it and Decrees made to restrain it The Deacon would have the honor of the Priest the Priest the Consistory of the Bishop The Bishops seat was not high enough but he would be a Metropolitane and to that end procured Letters from the Emperors which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which they obteined that where there was formerly but one there might now be two Metropolitanes And all these no doubt were Disciples of Christ if for no other reason yet for this QUIS EST MAXIMUS for their affectation of Greatness And now what followed As one well observes Ex religione ars facta Religion was made a trade and an art to live by Till at last it was cried down in divers Councels at Chalcedon at Trullum in Constantinople and others And in the Councel of Sandis a Bishop is forbidden to leave the government of a small City for a greater Of all men Ambition least becomes a Disciple of Christ And therefore Christian Emperors did after count him unworthy of any great place in the Church who did affect it Quaeratur cogendus rogatus recedat invitatus effugiat Being sought for let him be compelled being askt let him withdraw himself being invited let him refuse Sola illi suffragetur necessitas recusandi Let this be the only suffrage to enthrone him that he refus'd it Maximè ambiendus qui non est ambitiosus For it is fit that he that doth not seek for should be sought for by preferment And to this purpose it was that our Saviour answers the Disciples not to what they meant but to what they should have meant to divert them from all thought of dominion And withal he implyes that that is not Greatness which they imagined but that Humility and Integrity of life was the truest Greatness and greatest Honor in his Kingdome And to speak the truth this only deserves the name of Greatness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Goodness is not placed in Greatness but Greatness in Goodness To go in costly apparel to fare deliciously to have a troup to follow us perhaps wiser then our selves this we may call what we please but Greatness it cannot be We read in Seneca the Orator of one Senecio an Orator who affected much grandia dicere to speak in a lofty stile and great words Which affectation in his art after turn'd to a disease so that he would have
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
The Gods themselves have not strength enough to strive against Necessity but he is weaker than a man who yieldeth where there is no necessity The VVoman gave it me then is but a weak apology Further yet What was the gift was it of so rich a value as to countervail the loss of Paradise No it was DE FRUCTU ARBORIS the fruit of the tree We call it an Apple Some would have it to be an Indian Fig. The Holy Ghost vouchsafeth not once to name it or to tell us what it was Whatsoever it was it was but fruit and of that tree of which Man was forbidden to eat upon penalty of death Quasi vero rationis aliquid Gen. 2. 17. haberet haec defensio saith a Father As if this defense had any shew of reason in it when he confesseth that he preferred this apple this slight gift of the Woman before the command of God The Woman gave me of the tree and I did eat Here are two God and the Woman the Gift and the Command the Apple and Obedience To hearken to the Woman and to be deaf to God to forsake the command for the gift to fling off obedience at the sight of an apple is that which sheweth Adam's sin in its full magnitude and yet is taken-in here for an apologie But perhaps this fruit may be of high price this apple may be an apple of God with this glorious inscription upon it ERITIS SICUT DII if ye eat it ye shall be as Gods Who would not venture then to touch upon such hopes who would not eat an Apple to become a God It is true if this had not been the Devil's inscription whose every letter is a lie and whose greatest gift is not worth an apple whose kingdoms of the world and glorie of Mat. 4. 8. them are overbought with a thought Mala emtio saith the Oratour semper ingrata est quia semper exprobrare videtur domino stultitiam An evil bargain is an ey-sore because it alwayes upbraideth him with folly who made it And such a bargain here had our first father made He had bought gravel for bread wind for treasure spem pretio hope for a certainty a lie for truth an apple for paradise The Woman the Gift the gift of an Apple these are brought-in for an excuse but are indeed a libel Further still to aggrandize Adam's fault consider how the reason of his excuse doth render it most unreasonable Why doth he make so buisy a defense why doth he shift all the blame from himself upon the woman Here was no just detestation of the offence but only fear of punishment The fruit of the tree had been pleasant to the eyes and tast but MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt surely die was bitter as gall He would offend Gen. 3. 6. Gen. 2. 17. with the woman but with the woman he would not be punished For love of her he did eat but now he hath eaten see how he loveth her Behold the Lord cometh with a fiery sword to take vengeance for his sin Doth he oppose himself to the danger doth he stand between the sword and his wife doth he urge her weakness doth he plead for her doth he call for the blow on himself No She gave and let the blow light upon her Pernitiosè misericors pernitiosiùs crudelis saith Bernard He had been too pliant and kind to sin with his wife but now most cruel when he should be merciful It was too much mercy to joyn with her in the sin but cruelty without mercy to leave her in the Punishment And here is a sign that Adam is fallen indeed even fallen from the high degree of a Lord to the low condition of a Servant who feareth not to offend but to be punished would break the command at pleasure but that Death is the best reward that followeth To a good man Punishment appeareth not in so horrid a shape as sin for punishment is but the evil of passion inflicted for the evil of action and of the two the evil of action is far the worse The lips of an harlot are far worse then the biting of a cockatrice Theft is far worse then the whip Yea to sin as Anselm saith is far worse then to be damned For there is a kind of justice in punishment which is not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither God nor Man will deny but that it is most just that he who sinneth should suffer for his sin Omnis pana si justa est peccati paena est saith Augustine But for sin punishment were not just We may bespeak Adam in the stile of the imperial Law ipse te subdedisti paenae thou hast brought thy self under punishment and deservest to have it doubled for shifting it off to thy wife He had taken possession of Paradise upon condition and had made a contract with God And the Scholiast on the fifth of Aristotle's Ethicks will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in punishment a kind of giving and receiving in which the nature of all contracts doth consist He who receiveth by theft 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine phrase is dabit paenas he must give punishment Adam receiveth an apple and he must give paradise yea his life for it We have said enough to shew that Adam did but pavementare peccatum as St. Augustin speaketh parget and plaister ever his sin and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alleage that for a cause of his transgression which in truth was none But In the last place that which maketh his apologie worse than a lie and rendreth his excuse inexcusable is that he removeth the fault from the Woman on God himself Not the Woman alone is brought in but MULIER QUAM TU DEDISTI The Woman whom thou gavest me she gave me of the tree and I did eat Which indeed is a plain sophism non causae pro causa That is made a cause which is not a cause but an occasion only It is a common axiome Causa causae est causa causati That which produceth the cause produceth also the effect of that cause And it is true in Causes and effects essentially coordinate But here it is not so God indeed gave Adam the Woman but he gave him not the Woman to give him the Apple Dedit sociam non tentatricem He gave her for a companion not for a tempter He gave her not to do that which he had so plainly forbidden The true cause of Adam's sin was in himself and in his own will It was not the Woman which God gave him but the Woman which he gave himself who gave him the fruit God gave him a Woman to be obedient to him not to command him God gave him a Will to incline to his command but not to break it Whatsoever God gave him was good The Woman was good the Fruit was good his Will was good the Command was good but he gave himself a Woman who was
of satisfaction from his fulness that filleth all in all filleth all in every Good man filleth the Mind with light the Will with holy affections and the Body with an obsequious inclinableness and obedience to the Will and makes the whole man a Temple to himself full of light of peace of glory so filleth it that it is satisfied as with marrow and fatness with all satiety of joy The Chaldee Paraphrase brings it home to my Text satisfied with marrow and fatness that is with thy Law that is with that which is Good And thus we may draw an argument from the nature of Goodness which the nearer it carryeth us to the fountain of Goodness the more satisfaction it brings with it and the fuller is our Cup. Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domûs tuae saith the Psalmist They shall be overcome and even intoxicated with this cup. Without God we cannot be happy in heaven it self nay without him there could be no heaven and with him we shall enjoy what we can desire even in the lowest pit Nihil illi satis est cui non sufficit Deus We can never be satisfied till we rest in the greatest Good and Goodness lays us in his very bosome nay in his heart We never find our selves and all things but in him And as we draw an argument from Piety so may we draw another from the Love of it and therefore amamus amorem nostrum saith Augustine we do not only love Goodness but even the Love with which we embrace it and delight in both And this satisfaction proceeds not only from that which is good but from our hearty affection to it Goodness shines upon us and kindles our Love and as there is a glory in goodness so there is in our Love For Joy and Satisfaction is a resultancy from Love for our delight is to have and do what we love That which we love is also the joy of our heart If Love be as the Sun Joy and Satisfaction are as the beams that stream from it If Love fill the heart it will heave and work it self out and break forth in joy Gaudium de amore say the Schools our Satisfaction is the off-spring of Love and issueth from it and bears its shape and likeness For as our Love is such is our Joy If our Love be kindled from heaven our Joy will be also from the heaven heavenly and resemble that of the Angels But if it be placed on things below on that which is transitory on that which will not satisfie it will be also transitory and unsatisfying What is the satisfaction of a Worldling a thief may break through and steal it away What is the satisfaction of the Ambitious a frown will chase it away What is the satisfaction of the Wanton burnt and consumed in his lust The adulterer waiteth for the twilight the twilight cometh and to night sin is as a purchase but to morrow it is rottenness to his bones and dulness to his understanding to night it is the horn of beauty and to morrow a fury Goe compass about the world and what satisfaction can you find Draw all its beauty and honor and riches together and all is but ingens fabula magnum mendacium a long tale and a huge lye and Satisfaction and Joy may seem to be exhaled out of these as noysome vapours are out of the earth to be seen a while and then to be nothing or which is worse to gather into a cloud and dissolve in tears of sorrow and bitterness Ever as our Love and Desire is such is our Satisfaction One argument we take more à minori ad majus to perswade us to this Truth If the bare opinion of Piety in those who are not yet made perfect satisfie though it be but for a while then Piety it self will satisfie much more If the shadow if a weak representation of Virtue and Piety will refresh us what will it do when it shines upon us in perfection of beauty If one good act which is but the shell and outside of Goodness in them who rather approve than love it if one good thought one good word one good action lift us up how will a habit of goodness exalt us If I say the shadow hath this operation what hath the substance the thing it self If the giving a Cup of cold water will raise and settle content in us how will that Heart be filled with joy which is sacrificed to its Maker We may if we please discover this in our selves What feel we in our Heart when our Hand hath reached out a peny Doth it not make a kind of melody there doth it not so fill us that it is ready to break out at the lips What hear you when you give good counsil doth it not echo back again upon you When you have heard two Sermons on the Lords-day do you not tell your selves you have sanctified the Sabbath When you have received a Prophet though in your own name do you not look for a Prophets reward See what a paradise one leafe of the Tree of life may make for all these may be but leaves what a glorious structure may be raised upon a Thought And if Error if Opinion may work some satisfaction then Truth may much more If a Dream may enlighten us what will a Revelation from God himself do And if the embracing of a cloud do so much please us How shall we be transported when we shall find our Juno even Goodness it self in our arms If a form of Godliness then much more Godliness in its full power will fill and satisfie us Run to and fro through Jerusalem go about the streets thereof muster up together all that name the Lord Jesus and you shall find that every man is full every man almost is satisfied few drooping and hanging down the Head In our Health we comfort our selves and on our bed of Sickness we send for comforters and as miserable comforters as they are we are willing to hear them and a little opiate Divinity a few good words the name of JESUS doth settle and satisfie us There be very few Rachels that will not be comforted We run from that which is good and sit down in the shadow of it we wound our Conscience and then stain it over again we break the whole Law and one sigh is satisfaction nay we break the Law and perswade our selves we have kept it any perswasion is satisfaction We break one Law and satisfie our selves in the misinterpretation of another and so break it when we think we have kept it Industry is commanded and that must countenance our love of the world Zeal is commended and that must raise a faction Truth must be defended and that must beat up a drum It is not women only but men that are never to seek for an excuse and that is satisfaction Every man posts to destruction yet every man would seem to be on the wing to heaven Every man
For as St. Paul speaks of the Jews Had they known it they had not crucified the Lord of glory so may we of the Devil Had he known Christ to be God and Man and the Saviour of the world he would never have put into the heart of Judas to betray him nor have moved the Jews to put him to death by which the determinate counsel of God was brought to pass and by which himself was trod under-foot and his kingdom overthrown But such a Captain it behoved us to have who could be tempted but could not sin who might be set hard at but could not be overthrown who could discover the falacies of that subtle Sophister who could subsist and not turn stones into bread who could go up to the pinacle of the Temple and come down from it who could see the world and the glory of it and contemn it The Schoolmen where they speak of this Tentation of Christ tell us of a double tentation an inward and an outward and rank our Saviour with our first Parents in the state of innocency who as they imagine could have no inward tentation at all because the Flesh was then in full and perfect subjection to Reason and their Reason in due obedience to God whose Phansie could receive no species or phantasms but upon deliberate counsel whose Understanding had no cloud to obscure it and whose Will waited as an handmaid on the Understanding and followed as that led All this may be true and yet might our first Parents be tempted inwardly For Tentation if it go no further is no sin We are then tempted when objects are proposed to the Eye and then pass to the Phansie and from thence are tendred to the Understanding I may see an object suppose the forbidden fruit and think of it and know it and yet not sin It is beauty in the Eye and so in the Phansie and it may be so in the Understanding and yet the Will may not incline to it because Reason may judge it though fair to the eye yet dangerous to the touch Scire malum non facit scientem malum To know evil cannot denominate us evil For God who is a pure essence and Purity it self knows Evil more exactly then we and therefore hates it with a perfecter hatred then we can I may know the Apple to be fair to look to and pleasant of taste and yet not taste it I may know that Bread is the staff of our life and yet rely more upon the providence of God then on bread I may know that the nearest way down from the pinacle is to fling my self off and yet chuse the safer and go down by the stairs I may see Riches to be the God of this world and yet count them as dung For I cannot see but the tentation may be inward and yet no sin Nay if it be but a tentation it is not sin and if it be sin the tentation is at an end And if the tentation had not its operation upon the will and inward man as well as upon the outward and sensitive part let them tell me how Adam fell Besides there is a great disproportion between the state of the first Adam and the state of the second between our first Parents and Christ For although they were created upright and in a state of innocency for indeed they could not be created otherwise by God who is Goodness it self yet we do not read that they were conceived by the holy Ghost In Christ there was no sin nor could there be He had not only Nolle peccare but Non posse peccare not only a Will not to sin but an Impossibility of sinning although Durand upon I know not what grounds phansieth the contrary The Prince of this world comes and hath nothing in me saith our John 14 30. Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing in him which he might accuse not only no sin but no fuel for his scintillations his sparkles his tentations no fuel for his sullen tentations to fall upon and smoke up in distrust no combustible matter for his glorious tentations to settle upon and flame up in ambition There was nothing in Christ which the Devil had or could make his no Ignorance of what he should do no Dulness of Mind no Difficulty in resisting tentations The second Adam was like unto the first in all things not only in his state of innocency but in his fall sin only excepted But in Adam though there was no fomes peccati no fuel yet there was a possibility of sinning which was ad instar fomitis and which the Devil made use of as of fuel in which he raised that fire that consumed him to dust and ashes brought death and the condition of mortality both upon him and his progeny We will not here make any curious search to find out the degrees of this Tentation of our Saviour or what operation it had upon him Scrutari hoc temeritas est credere pietas est nosse vita est vita aeterna To dive too far into this into the manner how the tentation wrought would be rashness to believe that Christ was tempted is an act of piety and to know it and make use of it is life and life eternal And I know that discourses of this nature are not welcome in this age where not Schoolmen but dunces are most in request where men are afraid to hear of any truth that is new to them and disdain to know more then they know already although if they were diligent they might learn more in their Catechisme And indeed in this point we can walk no further then we have light from the Scripture And there we find that Christ did suffer something when he was tempted that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was touched Hebr. 2. 18. with the feeling of our infirmities like unto us in all things sin only excepted And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he learnt something that is obedience Hebr. 4. 15. by the things which he suffered This we may receive simplici notâ fide by a plain and common faith And we dare not stretch further for fear we stretch beyond the line Tempted he was but temptations did fall upon him as waves upon a rock which dashed them into ayr into nothing or as hailstones upon marble erepitant solvuntur They made some noyse but no impression they did no sooner fall but were dissolved And this is enough for any to know but those quibus nihil est satis who will know more then they can know It is sufficient for us to know that our Saviour was tempted and it will be very necessary for us to know the end why he was tempted For as he was made Man so also was he tempted for our sakes First as he was made a sacrifice for sin so here he made himself an ensample which we should follow when the enemy assaults us For as Commentators on Aristotle
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
ventures upon Christians in their childhood in their spring in their new birth that they may never grow up to the stature of men be seen in their blossom but not in their blade or ear that they may never be perfect men in Christ Jesus Thus he set upon the first Adam and thus he set upon the second and thus he sets upon the sons of Adam We shall briefly lay before you both the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Doctrine and the Reason and shew you both that it is so and why it is so That the Devil takes his time and opportunity and the reason Why he takes this as his time And with these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time Then was Jesus led forth By this example of our Captain we his Souldiers may learn what to expect and draw that lesson for our direction which the Wise-man gave his son My son if thou come to serve the Lord Ecclus. 2. 1. prepare thy soul for tentation No Moses but meets with a James and Jambres to withstand him no Samson but shall meet with the Philistines If Nehemiah will build up Jerusalem there will be Samballats and Tobiahs to weaken his hand from the work that it be not done If Jeremiah prophesie the Princes will put him in prison If there be a great door and effectually opened to St. Paul there will be many enemies If we run not on to the same riot with the world the world will run against us to overthrow us If we turn our face from the Devil he will after us to give us a fall Still the better the work is the more resistance and opposition it shall find We read that the children of Israel gathered together to Mispeh and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted that day and 1 Sam. 7. 6. said there We have sinned against the Lord that is They abjured their sins they washed them with their tears they macerated their bodies with fasting they put on a strong resolution to serve the Lord. And see The Philistines no sooner heard of it but suddenly upon the very report the Lords of the Philistines went up against them Now they had cast away from them their false Gods and had solemnly kept the Fast not a few souldiers but the Princes and Lords of the Philistines are up in arms And Gregory gives the reason Quia cum altiori vitâ proficimus maligni spiritus qui semper benè agentibus invident nobis infestiores sunt Because the evil Spirits are most enraged when we are least like them and the Devil is never more a Devil then when we have renounced him For he deals with us as Laban did with Jacob. For twenty years together whilst he served Gen. 31. 23. him Jacob led a quiet and peaceable life but when he left his service and fled from him then Laban pursues him as an enemy So whilst we do the Devil service and are led by him according to his will we find not those fightings without and terrors within we are not sensible of molestation but run on with ease in those wayes which lead unto death but when upon better deliberation we resolve with our selves to shake off his yoke and to fling his bonds from us then he prepares his deadly weapons he smites us with the hand and smites us with the tongue he disgraces our endeavours and disgraces the work it self he pursues us as Laban did Jacob flings his darts thick after us and every day multiplies his tentations When Jacob had sent all he had over the brook Jabboh and was left alone Gen. 32. 24. the Text says a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day I cannot but reject the phansie of Procopius out of the Rabines That this Man was no other but the Devil yet the reason upon which they grounded their opinion is it self grounded upon a truth That the Devil did now invade and set upon him because he was now slipt out of his hands and had withdrawn himself out of that place where Idolatry breathed that he might worship God in sincerity and truth For thus doth the Devil present himself unto us in a shape of beauty and delight like an Angel of light whilst we sleep in darkness but when we are awake and bestir our selves to fly from that wrath which is now visible to our eye he sets upon us and wrestles with us toucheth the hollow of our thigh puts it out of joynt that we may faint and sink under our resolution Non obsidet mortuos sed impugnat viventes he fights not against the dead but the living Non impugnat adversarius nisi milites Christi saith Cyprian Christs Adversary strikes at none but Christs souldiers Those who are down already he passeth by but his malice heaves at them that stand that they may fall He will not bestow a dart upon thee while thou art dead in sin but when thou beginnest to breathe in the land of the living then his fiery weapons fly about He sets not upon thee in the stews or in the tavern or in a seditious rout for this is his own work and he fights not against himself but he sets upon thee in the holy City in the Temple in the congregation of Saints If thou hast a good thought he will strive to strangle it in the birth If thou speakest a good word he will silence thee If thou hast built up a strong resolution to defie him his deadly weapons are up to beat it down and demolish it But if thou strive forward to the top of Sion to the top of perfection then to stagger thee and tumble thee down is his master-piece He deals with us as the Aegyptians did with the Hebrews For two hundred years they were in slavery indeed but their burdens were not so great When they spoke of sacrificing to the Lord the Aegyptians upbraid them with idleness Vacant idcirco vociferantur Exod. 5. 8. They are idle and therefore they say Let us go and sacrifice But when they thought of flight and desired to depart out of those coasts when Moses and Aaron cry Let the people go then Pharaoh cryes Get ye to your burdens OPPRIMANTUR OPERIBUS Let there more work be laid upon them and let them labor therein In this manner doth our enemy deal with us When we willingly serve him when we are as ready to take a bate as he is to offer it when we are pleased with his flattery and fall down to those Idols which he sets up he is not rough and fierce but a gentle Devil but when we bid him go when we shake off his fetters then he is a tyrant The application is St. Bernards That he layes a greater task of brick upon those who are going out of Aegypt St. Chrysostom Hom. 31. in Gen. compares him to a Pirate who hoiseth up sails and follows those ships
Christum facimus saith Petrarch in another case It is not enough for us to set our hearts upon riches unless we make Christ himself Covetous also It is not enough for us to pursue honors and dignities unless we make Christ ambitious and so set up a temporal Monarchy in the Church We crown Christ but it is not with the crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his espousals when he made him the Head of the Church In the world we are born in the world we are bread and hence it comes to pass that when we divert our industry unto Christian study to the knowledge of Christ and his Kingdome we still phansie something like unto the World Riches and Honor and a universal Monarchy But suppose that Christ had the politick government of the world given him as man yet he never exercised his Regal power in this kind He built no castles raised no armies trod not upon the necks of Emperors Suppose he had exercised his Regal power yet all this would hardly fasten the triple Crown on the high Priests head But we see himself renounce all such claim He complains he hath not what the Foxes have a hole to hide his head Being desired to divide the inheritance between two brothers he answers sharply Man who made Luke 9. 56. me a judge or a divider over you When Pilate asketh him Art thou the King Luke 12. 14. of the Jews Christ answereth Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Dost thou object this crime or is it seigned to thy hands by others And at last he makes this plain confession before Pontius Pilate My kingdome is not of this world Which words like the Parthian horseman John 18. ride one way but look another are spoken to an Infidel to Pilate but are a lesson directed to the subjects of his spiritual Kingdome a Lesson teaching us not to dream of any honor in his kingdome but salvation nor any crown but the crown of life And therefore as Aristotle tells us of his moral Happiness that it is the chiefest good but not that which the Voluptuary phansieth the Epicures Good nor that which the Ambitious adoreth the Politicians Good nor that which the Contemplative man abstracteth a Universal notion and Idea of Good so may we say of this Kingdome that in respect of it all the Kingdoms of the earth are not worth a thought but it is not such a Kingdome as the Jews expect or the Chiliasts phansie or the Church of Rome dreams of And though commonly Negatives make nothing known yet we shall find that the nature of Christs Kingdome could not have been more lively and effectually exprest than by this plain negation My Kingdome is not of this world To come yet a little nearer to the light by which we may discover this Kingdome The School-men have raised up divers Kingdoms and built them all upon the same foundation the Word of God First his absolute Dominion over the creature in respect of which Christ is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords To this they have added Regnum Scripturae and Regnum Ecclesiae They call the Scripture and the Church Kingdoms Then they make Regnum Gratiae a Kingdom of Grace and Regnum Gloriae a Kingdome of Glory And by a figure they make the King Christ himself a Kingdome All these may be true and these appellations may have some warrant from Scripture it self and may have an ADVENIAT set to them When we rest upon that law of Providence by which in a wonderful manner God governeth the world we say ADVENIAT Let his absolute Kingdome come Let him dispose and order the actions of men and the events of things as he pleaseth When we make our selves Saints and strive to bring others into that fellowship and communion there is an ADVENIAT for we pray for the increase of the Church and the enlarging of her territories When we hunger and thirst after the water of life when we desire that wholsome doctrine may drop as the rain and saving truth distil as the dew there is an ADVENIAT a prayer which will open the windows of heaven Some are of opinion that by Kingdom come here Christ did mean the Gospel And this carries some probability in it For the Disciples and Apostles of Christ whose business it was to propagate the Gospel had this petition Thy Kingdom come so often in their mouths that they were accused affectati regni as Enemies to the State who did secretly undermine one Empire to set up another We cannot deny but that not only the manifestation of Gods will but the confirmation of it either by preaching or by miracle or by those gifts and effects which can proceed from no other cause but the power and efficacy of the Spirit are truly called the kingdome of Christ because they are instrumenta regni instruments and helps to advance his throne or Kingdome in our very hearts that as true Subjects we may obey his commands as true Souldiers fight under his banner that so we may suffer with him here and reign with him hereafter And in this sense we may call the Scripture a Kingdome and the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the outward Government of the Church whether Political by the Magistrate or Ecclesiastical by the Bishops and Priests a Kingdome because both Powers both Ecclesiastical and Civil are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great helps and furtherances to advance Gods Kingdome But Aquinas shall give you a full resolution 1 a 2 ae Qu. 104. Regnum Dei in interioribus consistit principaliter sed ex consequenti ad regnum Dei pertinent omnia illa sine quibus interiores actus esse non possunt The Kingdome of God is within us and principally consists in the subduing of the inward man in taking the citadel of the Heart but by a plain and easie consequence all those things without which these inward acts are not ordinarily performed may be taken in within its verge and compass And when we pray for the supply and continuance of these helps we truly say Thy Kingdome come For Christ is not truly and properly said to reign till we have surrendered up unto him our very souls and hearts and laid them at his feet For as Cassian saith of Fasting and Watching and Nakedness that they are not perfection it self but the instruments to work it So may we say of these outward helps the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the Watchfulness of Kings and Prelates and the like They are not the Kingdome of God but helps and instruments to set us up And his reason will hold here also In ipsis enim non consistit disciplinae finis sed per illa pervenitur ad finem For these are not the end but by these we are brought to the end to the Kingdome of Grace which will bring us to the Kingdome
themselves even in his Wisdom Power and Majesty For why did he create the Universe What moved him to make those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two lights as Nazianzene calls Angels and Man after his own image It was not that he needed the company of Cherubim and Seraphim or had any addition of joy by hearing of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not that he needed the ministery of Angels or the obedience of Men. But in mercy hath he made them all and his Goodness it was which did communicate it self to his creature to make him capable of happiness and in some degree a partaker of those glories and graces which are essential to him For having made Man he could not but love and favour the work of his own hands Therefore as in mercy he made him so in mercy he made him a Law the observation of which would have assimilated and drawn him neer unto God and at last have brought him to his presence there to live and reign with him for ever And when Man had broken this Law and so forfeited his title to bliss God calls after him not simplici modo interrogatorio sono as Tertullian speaks not in a soft and regardless way or by a gentle and drowsie interrogation Where art thou Adam but impresso incusso imputativo he presseth it home and drives it to the quick not by way of doubt but imputation and commination Adam where art thou that he might know where he was in what state and danger and so confess his sin and make himself capable of Gods mercy which presented and offer'd it self in this imputation and commination and was ready to embrace him Thus his Mercy prevents us It is first as being saith Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natural to him whereas Anger and Hostility to his creature are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quite besides his nature Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam posterior severitas secundum causam illa edita haec adhibita saith Tertullian Lib. 2. adv Marcion Goodness and Mercy are natural to him Severity forced That is momentany and essential this accidental Mercy follows after us and is more willing to lift us up than we were to fall more willing to destroy Sin than we to commit it more forward to forgive us our sins than we are to put up the Petition REMITTUNTUR TIBI PECCATA Thy sins are forgiven thee is a standing sentence a general proclamation saith Father Latimer to all that will believe and repent The Scripture gives us the dimensions of this Mercy sometimes pointing out to the height of it It reacheth unto heaven sometimes to the depth of it It fetcheth men from the grave and hell it self sometimes to the length of it It hath been ever of old and sometimes to the breadth of it All the ends of the world have seen the salvation of God And all these meet and are at home in this act of Remission of sins Which makes us to understand with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of God which passeth knowledge and fills Eph. 3. 18 19 us with the fulness of God But though the Lord's Mercy be infinite and he be most ready to forgive yet he will not remit our sins unless we repent A lesson never taught in the School of Nature or in the books of the Heathen Quid Cicero quid Seneca de poenitentia What have Tully or Seneca who have written most divinely of other duties and offices of life written of the duty of Repentance Non negamus philosophos juxta nostra sensisse saith Tertullian Many truths Philosophers have delivered of near alliance to those which God himself hath commended to us and in many vertues they may seem to have out-stript the most of Christians But of Repentance they knew no more than this that it was passio quaedam animi veniens de offensa sententiae prioris a certain passion of the mind which checkt men for that which was done amiss and caused them to alter their mind Here all reason and discourse is posed But when the earth was barren and could not yield this seed of Repentance Deus eam sevit God himself sowed it in the world aperuit salutis portam open'd an effectual door of salvation and made it known to all mankind That if men would leave off their sins he would forgive them and accept of true repentance as the only means to wash away the guilt of sin and reconcile the creature to his Maker Now joyn these two together the Mercy of God and his Readiness to forgive and our Repentance which he hath chalkt out unto us as a way to his Mercy and they are a pretious antidote against Despair which so daunts us many times that we are afraid to put up this Petition For Despair is not begot by those sins we have committed but by those which we daily fall into nor so much from want of Faith that God is merciful and true and faithful in all his promises as for want of Hope which hangs down the head when Repentance and Amendment of life yield no juyce nor moisture to nourish it Ask Judas himself and he will tell you there is a God or else he could not despair Ask him again and he will tell you he is true or else he denies him to be God He will tell you of the riches of the glorious mystery of our Redemption and that in Christ remission of sins is promised to all mankind But his perseverance in sin and the horror of his new offences hath weakned and infeebled his hope and forceth him to conclude against himself Ubi emendatio nulla poenitentia nulla Where there is no amendment there is no repentance And though Mercy stand at the door and knock yet if I leave not my sins there must needs follow a weakness and disability so that I shall not be able to let her in But if I forsake my sins the wing of Mercy is ready to shadow me from Despair Et si nudus rediero recipiet Deus quia redii Though I return naked to God he will receive me because I return And if I leave the swine and the husks he will meet me as a Father and bring forth his robe of Mercy to cover me And so I pass from the consideration of Gods Mercies in the Forgiveness of sin to the first particular enquiry What sins they are which we desire may be forgiven And this may seem to be but a needless enquiry For even Nature it self will suggest an answer Men in wants desire a full supply And they who are sick of many diseases do not make it their end to be cured of one malady but to be restored to perfect health In corporibus aegris nihil quod nociturum est medici relinquunt Physicians purge out all ill humors from those bodies which are distemper'd For when one disease is spent another may
times even in the New Nestament it is placed only for the elegancy of the speech yet it will be better in this place not to recede from the proper signification of the word since there can no inconvenience follow And from thence we may gather a useful conclusion which would not so naturally follow if we took these words for a plain and naked Doxologie which will be better fitted to that which we receive then that which we expect and make up a close to a Song of thanksgiving rather than to a Prayer We will retain therefore the primary and native signification of the word and then we find an excellent reason why we should fall down at Gods feet to beg so many and so great blessings as are comprised and comprehended in this absolute form of prayer 1. Because the Kingdom is his and so he hath dominion and power over all things And 2. because all power is his and so nothing so hard which he cannot bring to pass and therefore there is good cause not only why we are bold but why we ought to seek the supply of all our wants at his hands For the Pronoun Thine hath the force of an exclusive Thine is the kingdome and thine alone And this doth improve and exalt the reason because we acknowledge that there is none besides him who either de jure or de facto either ought or can grant us these things and give us what we would have 3. The last motive is the Glory of God For even of this there is mention as of a reason of our petitions For he that calleth upon God honoureth him and whatsoever we desire or obtain must end in his glory So that the Glory of God may seem to be mentioned here both as a cause to move us to pray and as a motive to make God to grant Take it either as a plain Doxologie or as a Conclusion conteining these arguments or motives that we put up our petitions in his Court of Requests Christ no question did leave us this lesson That when we make our prayer to God we must not forget to land and magnifie his Name We shall bound our discourse at this time within these three considerations 1. That we stand in need of these helps to devotion which God is pleased to afford us de proprio even from his very nature and essence 2. That these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest and most proper motives 3. That God is glorified in our prayers and glorified in granting the request of our lips that the kingdome and the power and the glory may be his The consideration of the Kingdom and Power of God is the nurse of all Devotion to foment and cherish it which would otherwise grow chill and cold and dye and in ipso conatu elabi be of such lubricity as to slip away from that which it seems to makes haste to lay hold on Diffidence is a great enemy to Prayer takes off its edge abates it heat plucks off its wings that it cannot strive forward and fly to the presence of God He that doubteth and wavereth is like a wave of the Sea driven of the wind and tossed up and down from what he desires to what he fears James 1. 6. from his wants to a desire of a supply and from a desire of a supply back again to his wants nor can he find rest He knows not how to pray He seeks to God for help but then doubts of his Providence and Power and so denies him to be God which is to deny his own request And as one said of Tully habet quem fugiat quem sequatur non habet In other things Doubting may be very useful and advantageous Rectè dubitare viam aperit sapientiae To be able to propose our doubt aright is the next way to knowledge For he that doubts is like a man who hath life in him though the operation of it be staid and hindered by some stoppage and obstruction which being purged away and removed he is full of cheerfulness and activity Or we may say he woes the Truth and for a while stands at some distance but anon after some attempts and some denyals meets and embraces and grows familiar with her Therefore Plutarch noteth it as a great sign of towardliness in young Cato that he doubted of many things and of every thing would ask a reason of his Master And Plato requires of his ingenuous Scholar that he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of doubting and ever asking questions But the Philosopher will tell us that every thing is and hath its being for the work it hath to do which is not one and the same in every thing but hath its diverse and several effects according to the different qualities of those actions to which it is applyed In one this may be the savour of life unto life and in another the savour of death unto death In the way to Knowledge it is a key to open a door to let us in But when we tender our petitions to God it is a barr to keep them out To Doubt and Obtain cannot consist Unum arbustum non alit duos erithacos They are birds too quarrelsome to live in one bush If any man lack any thing let him ask it of God but let him ask in faith nothing wavering saith St. James For let not him that doubteth think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. And he gives the reason Because such a one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of a double mind halting between two opinions inconstant in all his actions praying to God but not trusting in him breathing-out his petition O Lord help O Lord consider and at the same time exhaling-out a lothsome doubt from his heart whether God can help or consider Which mixt and blended together make-up a dangerous contradiction whereas God requires Simplicity and Constancy at our hands which is virtus sine varietate a virtue looking alwayes one way by which the petitioner in some degree resembles that God to whom he prays and is made one in himself as God is one Now there may be a double doubting in us either of the Will of God or of his Power Of his Will when looking upon our own unworthiness and the incomprehensible Purity and Majesty of God we begin to doubt whether such a pure God will hear the prayers of such a lothsome creature Which thought many times may be nothing else but the issue of our Modesty and Fear of God and may well consist with this Confidence That if he will our request is granted Or we doubt of Gods Power whether if he will he can help us Which we may do though we acknowledge his Omnipotencie by seeking other means without him or such means as he forbids by going to the witch of Endor with Saul by seeking not to the Lord but the Physicians with Asa or by seeking to the Gods of Damascus with