Philosopher in his Rhetoriques saith that men raised from the Dunghill to great fortunes and riches have commonly all the vices of rich men and more And now that we may open this malady we will search and inquire the cause of it and see what it is that lifts up the mind to this dangerous pitch what it is that swells and puffs us up and makes us grossos grossi cordis as Parisiensis most properly though barbarously speaketh that makes the heart of man grosser and greater than it self as in Italy they have long time had an art to feed up a foul 'till they make the Liver bigger than the body What is there in Christianity that naturally can have this operation We confess it is from heaven heavenly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius speaks deriving its pedegree from God We read of rich glorious promises of royal prerogatives of truth and peace and mercy which came by Jesus Christ But all these are like the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purge and cleanse us from the gross and corrupt humours rather than full diet to feed us up to that bulk that we are not able to weild and move ourselves in any order The Gospel is from heaven but we are of the earth earthy These Prerogatives are grants not rewards And Truth and Mercy are not the work of our hands but the purchase of our Saviour Quantò magìs lumen gratiae respicimus the more stedfastly we look upon the throne of grace Tantò magìs nos ipsos reprehèndimus sayth the devout Schoolman The more light we have the more we see our own wants and impotency and so become the more vile in our own eyes Let 2 Pet. 1. 5 6. us joyn Virtue with Faith and with Virtue Knowledg and with Knowledg Temperance and with Temperance Patience yet none of these not all these of their own nature can produce any such effect as to make us be in love with our selves or to raise us to that height as to overlook not only our selves but our brethren Were these virtues truly ours or being ours did they appear to us in their own native shapes they would discover unto us that the way to happiness is as the eye of a needle through which it is impossible for men of gross and overgrown conceits to enter The cause then of this disease is not in the Gospel or in the Riches of the Gospel but in our selves who are willing to be deceived and in the Devil who is totius erroris artifex as Tertullian calls him the forges of all error and deceit For as God whose very essenee is Goodness doth in mercy manifest that Goodness out of Sin it self So the Devil who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Wicked one abuseth Good unto evil and when he cannot drive us to dispair by reason of our sin he takes another course and makes us presume upon conceit of our righteousness Take Virtue in its own shape and it seems to call for fear and trembling and to bespeak us to be careful and watchful that we forfeit not so fair an estate for false riches But take it as from the Devils forge and then contrary to its own nature it helps to blind and hoodwink us that we see not the danger we are in how that not only the way but our feet are slippery It unfortunately occasions its own ruine whilst we with Nero in Tacitus spend riotously upon presumption of treasure The Schools teach us that Evil could not subsist if it were not founded in Good How true this is in general I discuss not but experience makes it plain that not only that Good which but appears so which smiles upon us in an alluring pleasure or glitters in a piece of Gold or cringeth to us in his knee that honours us but also verum plenum bonum as St. Augustine calleth it that which is fully and truly Good not only pretious Promises and high Prerogatives which of themselves cannot make us good but Piety and Patience and Holiness do swell and puff us up That Good which makes us good which names us good is that by which we are made evil And all this proceeds from our own wilful error and mistake for Pride is the daughter of Ignorance sayth Theodoret. Were we not deceived with false visions and apparitions it were impossible that either our eye should be haughty or our neck stiff The Philosopher will tell us that objects present themselves unto us like those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mathematical bodies which have many sides and they who see one side think all are like it or the very same We see the Gospel ex uno situ but on one side or as Seneca speaks ex adverso on the wrong side We see it pictured in glory but not in vengeance It appears to us in a shape of mercy not as it carries fire before it to consume us We behold Christ as a Saviour not as a Lords We entertain Prerogatives as prerogatives and no more and never look on the other side where the obligation is drawn We comtemplate Virtues as the work of our own hands but are blind to those imperfections which they bear in their very forehead Nay our Sins present themselves before us but colour'd and painted over with the prerogatives of mercy and forgiveness We consider our selves as Branches grafted in but cannot see the Tu excidêris that we may be cut off We consider our strength not our weakness But could we totum rerum conceptum exhaurire take-in the whole conceipt of our wayes and apprehend our actions in their full being and essence without those unnatural shadows and glosses our minds would be as even as the Sea when no wind troubles it and not raise those bubbles which are lost in the making nor those raging waves which foam out nothing but our shame But being thus lightned of our burden by error every puff of wind lifts us up above our sins above the mutability of our nature above ourselves and above God himself A Prerogative which is but a breath an appearance of Virtue which is but a shadow our own conceits which are vainty set us in our altitude where the hand of Mercy cannot reach us but a hand of Vengeance hovers over us which when it strikes tumbles us headlong into an amazing pit of horror and leaves us strugling with our distracted thoughts under the terrors of the Law of Death and of Desperation Will you see then spiritual Pride in its full shape and likeness You must then conceive it blind yet of perfect sight deaf but of a quick ear deceiving and being deceived happy and most miserable quick to see the least appearance of goodness but blind to the horror of sin a continual listning to the promises and prerogatives of the Gospel but deaf to the Thunder of the Law it s own parasite happy in conceit but indeed most miserable entitling us to heaven when
to the haven where we would be And we have winds from every point the prayers of the whole Church to drive us We have already shewed you what may raise our hope and confidence when we pray even the name of Father For what will not a father give to his children But we must now present God in his Majesty to strike us with fear that so our Fear may temper our Hope that it be not too saucy and familiar and our Hope may warm and comfort our Fear that it be not too chill and cold and end in Despair I dare speak to God because he is our Father but I speak in trembling because of his Majesty because he is in heaven And these two make a glorious mixture There be many things which in themselves may be hurtful yet being tempered and mixt together are very cordial and wholesome Fear and Hope which in their excess are as deleterial as poyson being compounded and mingled may be an antidote Fear bridles my Hope that I do not presume and Hope upholds my Fear that I do not despair Fear qualifies my Hope and Hope my Fear Hope encourageth us to speak Fear composeth our language Hope runs to God as a Father Fear moderateth her pace because he is in heaven We are too ready to call him Father to frame unto our selves a facile and easie God a God that will welcome us upon any terms but we must remember also that he is in heaven a God of state and magnificence qui solet difficilem habere januam whose gates open not streight at the sound of Pater noster Deum non esse perfunctoriè salutandum as Pythagoras speaks that God will not be spoken to in the by and passage but requires that our addresses unto him be accurate with fear and reverence Hope and Fear Love and Reverence Boldness and Amazement Confusion and Confidence these are the wings on which our Devotion is carried and towres up a loft till it rest in the bosome of our Father which is in heaven And now let us lift-up our eyes to the hills from whence cometh our salvation even to the throne of God and seat of his Majesty but not to make too curious a search how God is in heaven but with reverence rather to stand at distance and put-on humility equal to our administration not to come near and touch this mount for fear we be struck through with a dart Nunquam verecundiores esse debemus quam cùm de Diis agitur saith Aristotle in Seneca Modesty never better becomes us then when we speak of God We enter Temples with a composed countenance vultum submittimus togam adducimus we cast down our looks we gather our garments together and every gesture is an argument of our reverence Where the object is so glorious our eyes must needs dazle Gods Essence and Perfection is higher then heaven what canst thou do deeper than hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the Sea Job 11. 8 9. What line wilt thou use De Deo vel verum dicere periculum We dangerously mistake our selves even when we speak the truth of God That God is that he is infinite and imcomprehensible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even our Fye will teach us and the very law of Nature manifest But how he is in heaven he is on the earth how every-where no mortal Eye can discern no Reason demonstrate If we could perchance utter it yet we could not understand it saith Nazianzene Crat. 34. if we had been ravisht with St. Paul into the Third heaven yet we could not utter it Indeed it is most true what Tertullian urgeth against Hermogenes Alium Deum facit quem aliter cognoscit He maketh another God who conceives of him otherwise then as he is But no river can rise higher than its spring and fountain nor can we raise our knowledge above that light which is afforded us God is infinite and the most certain kdowledge we have is that he iâ— infinite The light which we have is but lightning which is sudden and not permanent enough to draw us after him because we conceive something of him and enough to strike us with admiration because we conceive so little It fares with us in the pursuit of these profound mysteries as with those who labor in rich mines When we digg too deep we meet with poysonous damps and foggs instead of treasure when we labor above we find less metal but more safety Dangerous it is for a weak brain to wade too far into the doings of the Most high We are most safely eloquent concerning his secrets when we are silent How great God is What is his measure and essence and How it is in any place or every place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basile as it is not safe to ask so it is impossible to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My sheep hear my voice saith Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THEY HEAR saith he not DISPUTE Yet how have men attempted to fly without wings and wade in those depths which are unfordable to dispute of Gods Essense his Immensity his Ubiquity of the Nature of Angels of their Motion of their Locality nay de loquutione Angelorum of their Language and how that they communicate their minds one to another When we ask them how the Body of Christ is seated in the Eucharist they will tell us that it â—s there as the Spirits and glorified Bodies are in the place which they possess Tertius è caelo cecidit Cato Have these men lately descended like a second Paul out of the third heaven and from thence made this discovery By what means could they attain to this knowledge What light have they in Scripture to direct them to the knowledge of the manner of location and site which Spirits and glorified Bodies have St Paul hath long since past his censure upon them They thrust themselves into things they have not seen and upon a false shew of knowledge abuse easie hearers and of things they know not adventure to speak they care not what The Philosopher will tell us that men who neglect their private affairs are commonly over-busie in the examining of publick proceedings They will teach Kings how to rule and Judges how to determine and are well skilled in every mans duty but their own The same befalls us in our pursuit of divine knowledge Did every man walk according to that measure of knowledge he hath we should not be so busily to find out more light to walk by Did we adde to our faith virtue and to our knowledge temperance we should not multiply questions so fast which vanish into nothing and when they make most noyse do nothing but sound quae animum non faciunt quià non habent which can give us no light and spirit because they have it not Did we enter that effectual door which lyeth open unto us our Curiosity would not
nothing in his house but what was great great Servants and great Vessels of Silver calceos etiam majores Shoes also too great for him And from this fantastick humor he took his name and was called SENECIO GRANDIO Senecio the Great Yet for all this he added not one hairs breadth unto his stature Beloved if we would measure our selves aright we should find that that is not Greatness which the World calls by that name outward state and pomp and stateliness to cast men on their knees with a frown or to raise an army with a stamp of the foot We are the less for these and to think our selves greater for these is to run upon the same error which Senecio Grandio did Again it is but a phansie and a vain one to think there is most ease and most content in worldly greatness or that we sleep best when our pillow is highest Alass when our affrighted thoughts shall awake each other and our conscience put forth her sting when those sins shall rise up against us by which we have climb'd to this pitch all the honor of the World will not give us ease Will a legg or a cap think you still this noyse Will the obsequious cringe and loud applause of the multitude drown the clamour of our Conscience which like an awaked Lion will roar loud against us No Beloved not all the pomp not all the pleasure of the world not the merry Harp and the Lute and the Timbrel no not a triumph will be able to slumber the tempest within us no more then the distressed weather-beaten Mariner can becalm a boysterous Sea with his whistle or a wish We read of a Souldier who being to sleep upon a hollow piece of steel complained his pillow was hard but stuffing it with chaff he thought it much the lighter Just so it fares with ambitious men When they have run on in the wayes of Honor when they have attained their ends they shall find that their pillow is steel still only they filled it with more chaff then other men Besides Honor doth not make him greater that hath it but him that gives it For if it proceed from virtue bonum nostrum non est sed alienum it is not our virtue but his that honors us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sign saith the Philosopher of another mans good esteem and opinion which opinion is raised not from the person but his virtue And therefore the Apostles counsel is In giving honor go one before another as if he were truly honorable not who receives honor but who gives it and all precedency were in this And indeed Honor is if not a virtue yet a strong argument of it in him who bowes himself in a just veneration of Goodness Scias ipsum abundare virtutibus qui alienas sic amat saith Pliny You may be sure he is full of virtue himself who loves to see the splendor of it in other men Lastly Greatness and Honor adds nothing to Virtue Nothing accrews to a Good man when he rises and comes on in the world nothing is defaulked from him when he falls and decayes The Steed is not the better for his strappings nor doth the Instrument yield sweeter musick for its carved head or for the ribbon which is tyed unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtue in the open ayre naked destitute and afflicted is of as fair a presence as when she sits under a canopy of state David in the wilderness as honorable as on his throne Job on the dunghil as in all his wealth and Joseph in the stocks as when he was a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house When God speaks by his Prophet he tells us that his wayes are not our wayes nor our wayes his and here where Christ speaketh to his Disciples by his answer it appears that his judgment and theirs were not the same When God sent Samuel to anoint David Jesse brought forth Elias and Samuel said Surely this is the Lords annointed But God corrected his error and bade him not look upon his countenance nor the height of his stature for God seeth not as man seeth Beloved if with the Disciples here we have a thought that Christs Kingdome is a temporal Kingdome God hath not chosen that thought If we look upon the countenance of men and think them the greatest who are of highest stature and in honor and dignities are taller then their fellows by the head and shoulders we are deceived and the God of this world hath blinded our eyes that this Pygmay in Christs Kingdome appears to us as big as a Colossus But there is a little one a child behind an humble and low Convert And whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same shall be the greatest in the kingdome of heaven To conclude all Let us seek for Honor but seek for it in its own coasts On earth it is nothing or it signifieth nothing and most commonly it is given to them who signifie as little Therefore let us look up to the highest Heavens where the seat of Honor is Let him who put us into the Vineyard give us our wages and let the King of glory bestow honor upon us Let us make him alone our Spectator him alone our Judge and He will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing Rom. 2. 6 7. seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life Which God grant us all through Christ our Saviour The Eighth SERMON 1 COR. XIII 7. hopeth all things AT the very reading of this Chapter the true Christian cannot but think himself in a kind of Paradise and conceive he sees Charity growing up like a tree of Life spreading its branches full and hanging down the head inviting him to gather such fruit from every one of them as may be pleasant to his taste and abound to his account At this time I have laid hold but on one of them but such an one as will give you a taste of all the rest For in true Hope there is Long-suffering and Kindness there is Patience and Meekness there is no Envy no Malice no Pride no Suspition And if we take down this and digest it the rest will be sweet unto our taste and pleasant as honey to our mouth The tree is a tree of Life and every branch of it is beautiful and glorious and the fruit thereof excellent and comely to them that Isa 4. 2. are escaped of Israel It is truly said that Charity doth virtually contein within her self all other Graces St. Paul calls it the greatest virtue and the complement and fulfilling of the Law If there be Liberality Charity in largeth the heart if Temperance she binds the appetite if Chastity she makes the Eunuch for the kingdome of heaven if Patience she works it if Resolution she makes us valiant Charity saith one is as the Philosophers stone that turns all into Gold It
a seducer fruit which was poison a will which was irregular and the command he made his ruine And now he who affected to become like unto God doth desire also to make God like to himself he who would be made a God maketh God a man and bringeth him in as guilty of the transgression And so he added to his guilt by defending it ut culpa ejus atrocior fieret discussa quà m fuit perpetrata saith the Father His sin was greater being excused than it was when first committed To exalt it to the highest we may well call it Blasphemy For as we may blaspheme by giving that to the Creature which is proper to God so may we also by attributing that to God which is the Creatures only To worship an Angel or a Saint is contumelious to God to make God an Angel is blasphemy what is it then to make him a Man what is it to make him a Sinner I know nothing that Adam could call his own but the transgression There is some truth in the TU DEDISTI for his Wife God had given him So Paradise was God's gift and his Body God had created him But if we bring-in his Sin then TU DEDISTI is blasphemy For God gave him not that nay God could not give it him but he must father it who was the father of us all To recollect all and lay before you these bella tectoriola these excuses in brief What if the Woman gave it The Man was stronger then the Woman and Lord over her What though it were a Gift He had will to refuse it his hands were not bound nor his feet put into fetters there was no chain of necessity to force him But then it was but an Apple and what was all the fruit in Paradise to the loss of his obedience What was the Devil's promise to God's threatning how unjust and cruel was he to his wife in transferring the fault upon her Lastly how blasphemous was he against God in imputing his very gift unto him as the only cause of his sin If the Woman seduce him must it be with a Gift If a Gift will prevail must it be no more then an Apple Must an Inscription a Promise a Lie deceive him and must he buy the false hope of eternity with the certain loss of Paradise If he sin with Eve why is he unwilling to be punished with Eve And why doth he dispute with God and darken counsel by words without knowledg We may well cry out Adam where art thou In a thicket Job 38. 2. amongst the trees nay amongst the leaves For all excuses are so even leaves nay not so good shelter as leaves for they do not cover but betray us Adam increaseth his shame by endeavouring to hide it Mulier quam dedisti is not an excuse but an accusation And now I wish that the leaves of those trees among which Adam hid himself had cast their shadow only upon him But we may say as St. Ambrose doth of the storie of Naboth and Ahab Adami historia tempore vetus est usu quotidiana This historie of Adam is as antient as the World but is fresh in practice and still revived by the sons of Adam We may therefore be as bold to discover our own nakedness as we have been to pluck our first father from behind the bush We have all sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression and we are as ready to excuse sin as to commit it that we may seem to take this at least from Adam as Pelagius thought we do all other defects only by imitation Do we only excuse our sin No Many times we defend it by the Gospel and even sanctifie it by the doctrine of Christ himself Superstition we commend for Reverence prophaneness for Christian liberty indiscretion for Zeal will-worship for Obedience Nay doth not Rebellion come towards us under the grave habit of Religion with a Sword in one hand and a Bible in the other as if God himself had decreed to set up these men of Belial against his own ordinance and the word of God were powerful not to demolish imaginations but Kingdoms The Oratour telleth us that honesta verba moribus perdidimus by our evil manners we have lost the proper and native signification of many good and honest words so have we also almost lost the knowledg of our Sins in words in borrowed titles and assumptitious names And hence it cometh to pass that neither our Virtues are as they appear nor our Vices appear to us as they are but we look upon our defects without grief and applaud our false virtues with joy our feigned Temperance our adulterate Charity our mock-Fasts our superficial Mortification our spurious Humility our irregular Devotion our Pharisaical Zelé our Obedience with a sword drawn and ready to strike Nor are we content alone to be deceived but we affect it sub nomine religionis famulamur errori we talk of God but worship our own imaginations sub velamento nominis Christi adversus nomen Christi militamus we fight against Christ even under his own colours This disease of Adam's runs through each vein and passage of our soul by which we are still unlike ourselves like Adam indeed in Paradise but then when he was in the thicket and like unto him out of the thicket but with an excuse in his mouth We may observe that many things in themselves not commendable do yet help to make up our defects and one vice serveth to set out another Impudence promoteth Ignorance For do we not see many whose boldness is the greatest part of their learning and whose confidence is taken for judgment and wisdome Good God! what cannot a brow of brass a sad countenance and a forced deportment do This Quintilian maketh one reason why amongst the vulgar sort Ignorance many times beareth the bell and is more amiable and gratious than Knowledg And may we not in like manner think that that peace and quietness we have at home in our own breasts and that approbation we gain abroad is due not alwaies to our virtue but oft-times to our whorish and impudent looks not to that constant tenour and equality of life which Reason prescribeth but to this art of apologizing to our manifold evasions and excuses which if we look nearer upon them are of a fouler aspect then those sins they colour and commend To come close home therefore we will stay a little and draw the parallel and shew the similitude that is betwixt Adam and his sons We shall still find a Mulier dedit to be our plea as well as his Some Woman something weaker then our selves overthroweth us and then is taken-in for an excuse Omnes homines vitiis nostris favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem saith Hierom to Amandus We all favour ourselves and our vices too and what we do willingly we account as done out of necessity of nature
let us take notice of the Motives which induced Agrippa to keep him in prison You may perhaps imagin that Zeal for religion drew his sword and hatred of the Gospel And indeed love of one religion naturally begets hatred of another and Love substitutes Hatred as her Captain or Proconsul to bring on her forces and fight against every thing that looks a contrary way and opposeth what we love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene It is as a Play or Comedy to a Jew to see a Christians bloody Tragedy The Philosopher will tell us that Anger is alwayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of particulars but Hatred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bent against some general thing Evil men hate Philosophy because it speaketh truth but they are angry with Socrates The Jews were implacable haters of Christianity but their Anger stretcheth forth their hand against James and Peter We read indeed that this Herod Agrippa was Judaeorum studiosissimus a great lover of the Jews and of their religion that he obtained of Caesar for them the freedom of their religion that he fenced Jerusalem with new walls higher and larger then before that he was very much offended with the Doritae because they had set up Caesars statue in the Synagogue And we see here what reverence he bare to their feast seeing to shew himself a Jew indeed he would not till the feast was past shed the bloud no not of a Christian We cannot now but imagin that it was pure Zeal that whet his sword that he loved Moses better then Christ that he would not see the Law abrogated the Ceremonies destroyed the ancient Religion go to the ground But there was no such matter For see the holy Ghost hath made a window in his breast and tells us that all this was done ut placeret Judaeis that he might please the people You would think the Sword he fought with were of God but indeed it was of Gideon his alone He had been formerly removed out of his Kingdome and but lately restored as we find by Josephus and now finding the Jews a headstrong people impatient of the yoke he strives to strengthen his Kingdome by the same art he gained it And as before he flattered the Emperor with a great feast of amity so now he pleaseth the people with a feast of bloud Religion may be the pretense but the Cause is his Crown and Kingdome Thus he who is a slave to his Affections is sold to all the world besides a King becomes his Subjects parasite And when that Power and Wisdome leave him which should uphold his Kingdome the strongest pillar for him to lean on is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flattery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He must flatter those who flatter him Look now and see John Baptists head in a Platter that they that sate at table might not be displeased Pilate sends Christ to Herode Herode mocks him and sendeth him back again And the same day Herode and Pilate are made friends together Pilate proclaimeth Christs Luke 23. 12. innocency I have found saith he no evil in him But when he is told that he is not Caesars friend at this thunder he is astonisht and gives sentence that it should be as they required Darius at the instance of his Nobles flings Daniel into the lions den Flaminius at his table beheads a man to please his whore who had never seen that butchery before Nay the first sin that ever was committed was from this source and fountain So that Hierome states the fault of Adam That he ate the forbidden fruit nè contrà staret delicias suas lest he should cast her whom he loved so much into an immoderate dejection He that strives to please another hath lost himself he squares his actions by his eye not by the rule Quis placere potest populo cui placet virtus saith Seneca He that strives to please the people is not well-pleased himself with Virtue For that art which gains the people will make the like unto them If Herode will please the Jews he must vex the Christians and be as cruel as a Jew Non probabant nisi quem agnoverint They approve none but whom they acknowledge nor can any please them who is not wholly theirs When I see thee famous in the peoples mouth when the women and the children cry thee up when thou canst not stir but applause doth follow thee when the people cry aloud The voice of a God and not of a man dost thou think I count thee happy No I pity thee cùm sciam quae via ad istum favorem ferat because I know the way that bringeth thee to the peoples favour is of their own chalking but. They commend none but they make him their slave If thou wilt purchase their breath thou must sell thy honesty If thou wilt please them thou must be factious or commit a murder If Herode will make the Jews his friends he must be an enemy to the Christians The head of James must be stricken off and Peter must be kept in prison We have now done with St. Peters part and in the next place must take notice of the behaviour of the Christians And you may know them to be Christians by their devotion and compassion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Divine thing to be compassionate a true badge and mark of those who are commanded to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect And therefore Tertullian tells us that even amongst the heathen Professors of Christianity were not called Christiani but Chrestiani from a word signifying sweetness and benignity of disposition Is St. Peter in prison they are not free Is he in fetters their Compassion binds them in the same chains And though he alone be apprehended yet the whole Church doth suffer persecution For it is in the Church as in Pythagoras his family which he shaped and framed out unto his Lute There is 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an integrity of parts as it were a set number of strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composition and joyning of them together The parts are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coupled and knit together by every joynt saith the Apostle even by the bond of Charity which is copulatrix virtus as Prispes calleth it that virtue which couples all together And then 3. every string being toucht in its right place and order begets a harmony This was the face of the primitive times when the very name of Christianity was accounted as a crime when the Devil and Judaism and Heathenism strove joyntly to destroy the Gospel in the bud When cruel Tyran's spake nothing but bonds and torments and imprisonment then Charity broke out in a pure flame by which the afflicted receiveth warmth from each other Seldome but they found comfort assoon as imprisonment And if the Churches keeper forbad a personal visitation mittcbant libellos consolatorios saith Rhenanus upon Tertullian their
in every part and then write underneath THIS IS A CHRISTIAN Hitherto the Devil will suffer us to name Christ if we will but name him For by this he hath advantage and our guilt is encreased Reatus impii pium nomen saith Salvian Nothing condemns an evil man more then a good name A common thing it is in the world to prefix a fair and promising title to books of no worth And this art the Devil is busie to teach us to put a trick upon God and deceive him with a fair title page He cares not how glorious the frontespiece be so the work be course Look into the book of a formal Christians life and you shall find many leaves but blanks a great part of his life lost in sleep some blurred and blotted with the Love of this world some leaves polluted with Uncleanness others stained with Bloud You shall see it full of Soloecisius of gain-sayings and contradictions of Christ Only there is a fair title page and the name of this Book is THE CHRISTIAN SOULDIER And therefore one rule of our Enemy is to begin with us to entangle us at our first setting out He deals with us as we are commanded to deal with him As we are to break his head to suppress the beginnings of Sin so doth he break ours and suppress the beginnings of Goodness For in the second place the one will encrease as well as the other Festucam si nutrias trabs erit si evellas projicias nihil erit If you nourish a mote it may become a beam but if you pluck it out presently and cast it from you it will be nothing This evil thought may grow up to Murder but if you check it it is nothing So this good thought may be Religion but if the Devil stifle it it will be nothing These beginnings may bring-on perfection but if you stop them they are nothing This grain of mustard-seed this little grain this least of seeds if you suffer it to grow may become a tree but if you choak it at first it is nothing Nihil est fertilius sanctitate Nothing is more fruitful and generative then Goodness For God doth not set us upon vain and fruitless designs he sets us not to plow the winds or cast our seed upon the barren rocks he doth not tie us by a blind obedience to water a dry stick but as the Prophet David speaks our line is fallen unto us in a pleasant place and we have a goodly heritage a fruitful soyl where every seed may increase into many ears of corn and every eare multiply into a harvest where increase makes us more fruitful where the liberal soul is made fat and Prov. 11. 25. he that waters is watered again Every good thought may beget a good Intention every good Intention may raise it self up to the strength of a Resolution every Resolution may bring on Perseverance every good Action looks forward to another and that to a third Patience begets experience Experience Hope Hope Confidence As it was said of Alexander Quaelibet victoria instrumentum sequentis that every conquest he made made way to a second So every step we make makes the way more easie every conquest we gain over Satan enables us to chase him again If we overcome him in our Creed and believe against all temptations to Infidelity we may overcome him also in our Decalogue and bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life against all temptations to Profaneness He that names Christ may believe in him and he that believes in him may dye for him He that gives a peny to the poor may in time sell all that he hath and at last lay down his life for the Gospel And therefore in the last place timet nè virtus convalescat the Devil is unwilling to suffer Goodness to gather any strength lest when it is grown up and settled and establisht in the heart it may prove too hard a matter for him to remove it lest what he might at first have stoln away as a Serpent he shall not be able to take from us though he come like a Lyon For as it is in Sin so is it also in Goodness It grows up by degrees Our first onset is with some difficulty we are almost perswaded to be Christians After some bruises and some recoveries some slips and some risings some struglings and some victories the way is more pleasant and at last we run the way of Gods commandments and make haste to Happiness as to our center That Fasting which was my melancholy is now my joy that Reproof which was a whip is now as oyl that Prophet whom I persecuted is now an Angel What doth God exact at our hand saith Salvian but Faith and Chastity and Humility and Mercy and Holiness quae utique omnia non onerant nos sed ornant all which are not as burdens to oppress us but as rich jewels to adorn us What doth Christ require but those things which are convenient and agreeable with our nature the love of God and the Love of men And certainly the custom of doing good if it be equal to the custom in evil is far more pleasant Far more content is to be found in virtue then in vice more pleasure in temperance then in surfetting more complacencie in justice then in Partiality more delight in piety then in lust When I have raised my self so high as to delight in the dictates of Nature and in the precepts of the God of Nature then I may look into my heart reflect upon my self with joy and say I am a man and I perswade my self that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now I can labor in his hard work and my labor is my joy Those virtues which seem to run from me are my familiars my friends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil my possessions which none can take from me Non videtur perfectè cujusquam id esse quod casu auferri potest say the Civilians We cannot be said to have sure possession of that which may be taken away by some chance What we are surely possessed of we can hardly lose And such a possession such an inheritance is true Piety when we are once rooted and built up and establisht in it It is a treasure which no chance can rob us of no thief take from us A habit well confirmed is an object the Devil is afraid of O the power of an uninterrupted obedience of a continued course in the duties of holiness it is able to puzzle the great Sophister the great God of this world Deorum virtus naturâ excellit saith Tully hominum industriâ Nature confirms virtue to the Gods but Industry to Men. The Gods cannot possibly be otherwise then good and
Civis non est suus sed civitatis A Citizen is not to consider himself a citizen only in that capacity as able to do well for himself and to fill his own coffers but in the latitude to be useful to the whole Body politick and to every part and member of it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou seest another thou seest thy self Shall not the light of the Gospel then shew us that Christianus non est suus sed Ecclesiae that a Christians Charity in respect of its diffusive operation must be as Catholick as the Church For it is in the Church as in Pythagoras his family which he shaped and framed out to his Lute There is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the integrity of the parts as it were a set number of strings 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an apt composition and joyning them together For the members of the Church are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned and coupled together by every joynt saith the Apostle even by that bond of Charity which is copulatrix virtus as the Father calls it that virtue which couples all together And then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and every string being toucht in its right place and order begets a harmony And this word NOSTER our Bread comprehends all these For thus not only that bread which we buy with our labor but all the bread in the world is ours all the riches of the world are ours and withal all the miseries all the afflictions all the necessities of our brethren are ours Oh how heavenly an harmony is heard from that charity which joyneth high and low rich and poor in a sweet concord and concent This must needs delight the ears of the holy Angels and of God himself Caesarius in one of his Homilies giveth this reason why God made one rich and another poor That the poor might prove the rich mans faith and charity and the rich be enriched by the poor mans poverty and that when to prove the rich by the poor all the wealth in the world cannot purchase him that hath it one quiet thought his compassion and bounty to the poor might entitle him to the joyes of heaven Care and Industry without this Fellow-feeling bring in the things of the world upon us but the true profit of them is in enjoying using and bestowing them Those may be as servants to bring them in but Charity is as an instructer to teach us how to lay them out and makes them profitable It is a greater part of wisdom wisely to dispend them when we have them than to get them at first Many there are in the world like Lollius in Paterculus pecuniae quà m benefaciendi cupidiones many that know how to gather but few that know how to use many that make no end of heaping up wealth but never bethink themselves how to employ it As one told Annibal that he knew how to conquer but not how to use the victory Gold and silver by lying idly by us gather rust as St. James tells us chap. 5. 3. which rust eats out our soul But Charity abditae terris inimica lamnae washes off the rust of it and rubbeth it bright by using it The world I know makes it profit enough to have wealth but that other profit which comes by expense and laying out it can hardly be brought to learn Ours it is if we have it and like the Grave or the barren Womb we never say It is enough but when we have it we know no other language than this saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have it not I will not give it We can be content to hear that Christianity shall be profitable to us but that Christianity should make us profitable to others that it should cost us any thing to this we are as deaf as the Adder It was the same Fathers observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know many saith he that can with some ease be brought to fast to pray to lament and mourn for their sins to perform all parts of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that piety which will cost them nothing but hardly shall you draw them to that part of piety which doth require but the cost of a half-peny And this is a◠epidemical disease at this day We who have the oversight of you in Christ are witnesses of your labour of frequenting of prayers of hearing nay of thirsting after Sermons All this is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are very free of it because it costs you nothing But how would you be our glory and joy and crown of rejoycing if we might a little more understand that part of piety which holds all in capite and makes it yours by anointing the Head in his Members I know not how we keep our accounts but it is easie to observe that the Scripture seldom speaks of laying up For this is a thing which of our selves we are too ready to practise Dimittas licet paedagogum There needs no pains to teach where Scholars are so willing to learn But Scripture oft-times and earnestly deals with us concerning the laying our riches out as being a hard lesson and long we are a learning it Did I call it a hard lesson Nay it seems a Paradox to the most a meer speculation The Philosopher where he shews us the wayes of Alienation brings in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving as well as selling Not only when we make sale of our goods but traditione dominium rerum amittimus saith the Lawyer when we give them we lose all right and title to them As that which we sell so that which we give is not ours But Christs Law teacheth us that not Keeping so much as Giving maketh our goods ours And not only To take away but Not to give is furtum interpretativum saith Alexander of Hales When God comes to be the Interpreter it will be plain theft For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every covetous person is a thief because he lays up that which was given him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dispense and scatter abroad This is the end why Bread why Riches are given us that we may give to them that are in need And this is the way to make most of them For as Tertullian saith Christian Charity minuendo res auget recondit erogando dum amittit acquirit it lays up by laying out and gaineth by loosing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who ever became poor by giving saith the Apostate St. Ambrose Offic. Lib. 2. parallels that of Julian Scio plerosque sacerdotes quò plus obtulerunt plus abundasse I have known many Bishops who the more they did offer the more they did abound And if we read their Books who have written the Lives of the Fathers they will furnish us with many particulars and some perhaps which will not easily gain our belief No doubt God often rewardeth Charity with temporal blessings but what are these
though it be not necessary yet is it very probable For these two To be covetous or luxurious or wanton and To be ready to forgive Cannot lodge in the same breast For we see Prodigality as well as Covetousness is the whetstone to our Anger and makes it keen and sharp The wisdom which is from above is first pure then peacable gentle easie to be entreated full of good fruits saith St. James And the Charity which forgiveth trespasses beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and doth nothing unseemly For the mind of the compassionate is like the Heavens Semper illic serenum est There is continual serenity and a perpetual day there He is as Wax fit to receive any character or impression of Goodness and retain it He is a fit object for Gods benefits to work upon He is melted at the light of Gods countenance and yields at the very sight of his hammer And if the beams of that light his sweet insinuations and instructions fall upon him they fall not as upon a wave of the Sea tost with the wind and carried about where the impression must needs be flitting and vanishing and the reflexion wavering and unequal but as upon a still and quiet cloud the reflexion is equal and glorious And this reflexion is nothing else but the image of God according to which we are renewed In our Compassion and Long-suffering in our Forgiveness of our brethren we present unto God his own image monetam ipsius inscriptam nomine hominem misericordem a merciful man a piece of mony taken out of his own mint stampt with his own mark and character with his own image and superscription And when he makes-up his jewels his special treasure as the Prophet Malachy speaks he will acknowledge them for his own and will spare them as a man spareth his own son which serveth him Then Mercy shall rejoice and triumph against Justice and open the gates of heaven to those who opened the bowels of Compassion to their brethren Then for that Charity which covered our brothers trespasses we shall have a robe of righteousness to cover ours for curses we shall have blessing for a prison heaven and for disgrace a crown Then we shall feel the power of this virtue and how prevalent it is with God Then as we have manifested our selves to be his children by performance of this Condition so will he manifest himself a Father in removing our transgressions from us as far as the East is from the West And as a father pitieth his children So will the Lord pity those who have been pitiful and merciful to their brethren Now to this Father of mercies the God of all comfort be all honour and glory for ever The One and Fourtieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 13. And lead us not into tentation but deliver us from evil BEfore we make a full discovery or enter upon a just exposition of this Petition we shall first observe the order and connexion which is between these two between REMITTE Forgive us our trespasses and NE INDUCAS Lead us not into tentation as Travellers which hasten to their journeys end yet take notice of every remarkable object in their way After we have deprecated the greatest evil that evil of Sin which entitleth us to an everlasting curse we here deprecate the least evil even the occasion of evil which may lead unto it And being unfettered by a plenary indulgence from a merciful Father we are afraid of those shackles with which we were formerly bound FORGIVE US OUR SINS Hoc omnia optanda complectitur This comprehends all the happiness of a Christian This is the centre wherein all our hopes and desires are at rest What can a Christian desire more Yes unum adhuc superest there is one thing more Not to sin any more to abstein from all appearance of sin and as good Captains use not to be so confident of a truce of that peace of conscience which is sealed unto us by Remission of sins as not to prepare our selves for war quod etiamsi non geritur indictum est which though battle be not offered is denounced against us And this is the condition of every Christian He must leave off sin before he can be forgiven and when he is forgiven he must fly from it as from a Serpent which hath stung him startle at the very sight and thought of it prepare and arm himself against those tentations which may engage him and make him stand in need of a second Forgiveness which may wheel and circle him about from the love of Sin to the desire of Pardon and from Pardon to Sin again till he can neither ask pardon nor sin any more In this order these two Petitions stand Remission of sins goes before but is not alone It is first REMITTE Forgive us and then NE INDUCAS Lead us not into tentation REMITTE is not all all is not Forgiveness We must pray also to be strengthned against tentations plead at the barr for this consequent Mercy that takes away sin and co-operate with preventing Mercy which may quite abolish it And with these we shall exercise your Devotion at this time First before Remission before we are reconciled to God we are no better then the Devils mark at which he shoots his fiery darts We are a prey for this Fox and this Lion who will first deceive and then devour us Though we avoid divers tentations though we yield not when he flatters in some pleasing allurement though we tremble not when he roars in the terrours of some biting affliction though we stand strong against all his assaults yet those sins which we have already committed will sink us Not that I think that all the actions of a person not justified are sins or that in this state he can do nothing which can please God or be accepted with him or that his best works are venial sins as Luther or an abomination unto God as Calvin hath taught that his Prayers his Alms his Patience his Meekness his moral Honesty are mortal sins as the Schools too boldly have determined that whilst he remains unreconciled he offends God not only by his sins but by his virtues by Temperance as well as by Riot by Hearing the Word as well as by Contemning it by doing Good as well as by doing Evil. For he who hath publisht the rule and as it were imprinted his will in his Law cannot be offended with that action which is answerable to that rule He who hath endued us with Reason cannot be displeased with his creature when he doth operam dare rationi as Augustine speaks make use of that talent which he hath given and walk by that light which he hath kindled in his soul For what is our Reason but a portion from Gods Divine Wisdom a beam from his infinite Light which he hath given us not only to procure those things which are necessary for the uses of this life but