to relinquish the paths of darkness this is the way of the Kingdom and the purpose of the Gospel and the proper work of Faith 6. And if we consider upon what stock Faith it self is instrumental and operative of Salvation we shall find it is in it self acceptable because it is a Duty and commanded and therefore it is an act of Obedience a work of the Gospel a submitting the Understanding a denying the Affections a laying aside all interests and a bringing our thoughts under the obedience of Christ. This the Apostle calls the Obedience of Faith And it is of the same condition and constitution with other Graces all which equally relate to Christ and are as firm instruments of union and are washed by the bloud of Christ and are sanctified by his Death and apprehend him in their capacity and degrees some higher and some not so high but Hope and Charity apprehend Christ in a measure and proportion greater than Faith when it distinguishes from them So that if Faith does the work of Justification as it is a mere relation to Christ 〈◊〉 so also does Hope and Charity or if these are Duties and good works so also is Faith and they all being alike commanded in order to the same end and encouraged by the same reward are also accepted upon the same stock which is that they are acts of Obedience and relation too they obey Christ and lay hold upon Christ's merits and are but several instances of the great duty of a Christian but the actions of several faculties of the 〈◊〉 Creature But 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning Grace and hath insluence and causality in the production of the other 〈◊〉 all the other as they are united in Duty are also united in their Title and appellative they are all called by the name of Faith because they are parts of Faith as Faith is taken in the larger sence and when it is taken in the strictest and distinguishing sence they are 〈◊〉 and proper products by way of natural emanation 7. That a good life is the genuine and true-born issue of Faith no man questions that knows himself the Disciple of the Holy Jesus but that Obedience is the same thing with Faith and that all Christian Graces are parts of its bulk and constitution is also the doctrine of the Holy Ghost and the Grammar of Scripture making Faith and Obedience to be terms coincident and expressive of each other For Faith is not a single Star but a Constellation a chain of Graces called by S. Paul the power of God unto salvation to every believer that is Faith is all that great instrument by which God intends to bring us to Heaven and he gives this reason In the Gospel the 〈◊〉 cousness of God is revealed from faith to faith for it is written The 〈◊〉 shall live by Faith Which discourse makes Faith to be a course of Sanctity and holy 〈◊〉 a continuation of a Christian's duty such a duty as not only gives the first breath but by which a man lives the life of Grace The just shall live by Faith that is such a Faith as grows from step to step till the whole righteousness of God be fulfilled in it From faith to faith saith the Apostle which S. 〈◊〉 expounds From Faith believing to Faith obeying from imperfect Faith to Faith made perfect by the animation of Charity that he who is justified may be justified still For as there are several degrees and parts of Justification so there are several degrees of Faith answerable to it that in all sences it may be true that by Faith we are justified and by Faith we live and by Faith we are saved For if we proceed from Faith to Faith from believing to obeying from Faith in the Understanding to Faith in the Will from Faith barely assenting to the revelations of God to Faith obeying the Commandments of God from the body of Faith to the soul of Faith that is to Faith sormed and made alive by Charity then we shall proceed from Justification to Justification that is from Remission of Sins to become the Sons of God and at last to an actual possession of those glories to which we were here consigned by the fruits of the Holy Ghost 8. And in this sence the Holy Jesus is called by the Apostle the Author and 〈◊〉 of our Faith he is the principle and he is the promoter he begins our Faith in Revelations and perfects it in Commandments he leads us by the assent of our Understanding and finishes the work of his grace by a holy life which S. Paul there expresses by its several constituent parts as laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and running with patience the race that is set before us resisting unto bloud striving against sin for in these things Jesus is therefore made our example because he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith without these Faith is imperfect But the thing is something plainer yet for S. James says that Faith lives not but by Charity and the life or essence of a thing is certainly the better part of its constitution as the Soul is to a Man And if we mark the manner of his probation it will come home to the main point For he proves that Abraham's saith was therefore imputed to him for Righteousness because he was justified by Works Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he offered up his son And the Scripture was fulfilled saying Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness For Faith wrought with his Works and made his Faith perfect It was a dead and an imperfect Faith unless Obedience gave it being and all its integral or essential parts So that Faith and Charity in the sence of a Christian are but one duty as the Understanding and the Will are but one reasonable Soul only they produce several actions in order to one another which are but divers 〈◊〉 and the same spirit 9. Thus S. Paul describing the Faith of the Thessalonians calls it that whereby they turned from Idols and whereby they served the living God and the Faith of the Patriarchs believed the world's Creation received the Promises did Miracles wrought Rightcousness and did and suffered so many things as make up the integrity of a holy life And therefore disobedience and unrighteousness is called want of Faith and Heresie which is opposed to Faith is a work of the flesh because Faith it self is a work of Righteousness And that I may enumerate no more particulars the thing is so known that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in propriety of language signifies 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 is rendred disobedience and the not providing for our families is an act of 〈◊〉 by the same reason and analogy that 〈◊〉 or Charity and a holy life are the duties of a Christian of a justifying
justified upon terms of perfect and intire obedience there is now no other way but this That the promise by the Faith of Christ be given to all them that believe i. e. this Evangelical method of justifying sincere believers Besides the Jewish Oeconomy was deficient in pardoning sin and procuring the grace and favour of God it could only awaken the knowledge of sin not remove the guilt of it It was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin all the 〈◊〉 of the Mosaick Law were no further available for the pardon of sin than merely as they were founded in and had respect to that great sacrifice and expiation which was to be made for the sins of mankind by the death of the Son of God The Priests though they daily ministred and oftentimes offered the same sacrifices yet could they never take away sins No that was reserved for a better and a higher sacrifice even that of our Lord himself who after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God having completed that which the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never effect So that all men being under guilt and no justification where there was no remission the Jewish Oeconomy being in it self unable to pardon was incapable to justifie This S. Paul elsewhere declared in an open Assembly before Jews and Gentiles Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this man Christ Jesus is preached unto you forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses 13. FOURTHLY He proves that Justification by the Mosaick Law could not stand with the death of Christ the necessity of whose death and sufferings it did plainly evacuate and take away For if righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain If the Mosaical performances be still necessary to our Justification then certainly it was to very little purpose and altogether unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God to send his own Son into the World to do so much for us and to suffer such exquisite pains and tortures Nay he tells them that while they persisted in this fond obstinate opinion all that Christ had done and suffered could be of no advantage to them Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage the bondage and servitude of the Mosaick rites Behold 〈◊〉 Paul solemnly say unto you That if you be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing For I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law Christ is become of none effect to you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace The summ of which argument is That whoever lay the stress of their Justification upon Circumcision and the observances of the Law do thereby declare themselves to be under an obligation of perfect obedience to all that the Law requires of them and accordingly supersede the vertue and efficacy of Christ's death and disclaim all right and title to the grace and favour of the Gospel For since Christ's death is abundantly sufficient to attain its ends whoever takes in another plainly renounces that and rests upon that of his own chusing By these ways of reasoning 't is evident what the Apostle drives at in all his discourses about this matter More might have been observed had I not thought that these are sufficient to render his design especially to the unprejudiced and impartial obvious and plain enough 14. LASTLY That S. Paul's discourses about Justification and Salvation do immediately refer to the controversie between the Orthodox and Judaizing Christians appears hence that there was no other controversie then on foot but concerning the way of Justification whether it was by the observation of the Law of Moses or only of the Gospel and the Law of Christ. For we must needs suppose that the Apostle wrote with a primary respect to the present state of things and so as they whom he had to deal with might and could not but understand him Which yet would have been impossible for them to have done had he intended them for the controversies which have since been bandied with so much zeal and fierceness and to give countenance to those many nice and subtil propositions those curious and elaborate schemes which some men in these later Ages have drawn of these matters 15. FROM the whole discourse two Consectaries especially plainly follow I. Consect That works of Evangelical obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification By works of Evangelical obedience I mean such Christian duties as are the fruits not of our own power and strength but God's Spirit done by the assistance of his grace And that these are not opposed to Faith is undeniably evident in that as we observed before Faith as including the new nature and the keeping God's commands is made the usual condition of Justification Nor can it be otherwise when other graces and vertues of the Christian life are made the terms of pardon and acceptance with Heaven and of our title to the merits of Christ's death and the great promise of eternal life Thus Repentance which is not so much a single Act as a complex body of Christian duties Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out So Charity and forgiveness of others Forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father also will forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive yours Sometimes Evangelical obedience in general God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him If we walk in the light as God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin What priviledge then has Faith above other graces in this matter are we justified by Faith We are pardoned and accepted with God upon our repentance charity and other acts of Evangelical obedience Is Faith opposed to the works of the Mosaick Law in Justification so are works of Evangelical obedience Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Does Faith give glory to God and set the crown upon his head Works of Evangelical obedience are equally the effects of Divine grace both preventing and assisting of us and indeed are not so much our works as his So that the glory of all must needs be intirely resolved into the grace of God nor can any
powers to reject any proposition and to believe well is an effect of a singular predestination and is a Gift in order to a Grace as that Grace is in order to Salvation But the insufficiency of an argument or disability to prove our Religion is so far from disabling the goodness of an ignorant man's Faith that as it may be as strong as the Faith of the greatest Scholar so it hath full as much excellency not of nature but in order to Divine acceptance For as he who believes upon the only stock of Education made no election of his Faith so he who believes what is demonstrably proved is forced by the demonstration to his choice Neither of them did 〈◊〉 and both of them may equally love the Article 3. So that since a 〈◊〉 Argument in a weak understanding does the same work that a strong Argument in a more 〈◊〉 and learned that is it convinces and makes Faith and yet neither of them is matter of choice if the thing believed be good and matter of 〈◊〉 or necessity the Faith is not rejected by God upon the weakness of the first nor accepted upon the strength of the latter principles when we are once in it will not be enquired by what entrance we passed thither whether God leads us or drives us in whether we come by Discourse or by Inspiration by the guide of an Angel or the conduct of Moses whether we be born or made Christians it is indifferent so we be there where we should be for this is but the gate of Duty and the entrance to Felicity For thus far Faith is but an act of the Understanding which is a natural Faculty serving indeed as an instrument to Godliness but of it self no part of it and it is just like fire producing its act inevitably and burning as long as it can without power to interrupt or suspend its action and therefore we cannot be more pleasing to God for understanding rightly than the fire is for burning clearly which puts us evidently upon this consideration that Christian Faith that glorious Duty which gives to Christians a great degree of approximation to God by Jesus Christ must have a great proportion of that ingredient which makes actions good or bad that is of choice and effect 4. For the Faith of a Christian hath more in it of the Will than of the Understanding Faith is that great mark of distinction which separates and gives formality to the Covenant of the Gospel which is a Law of Faith The Faith of a Christian is his Religion that is it is that whole conformity to the Institution or Discipline of Jesus Christ which distinguishes him from the believers of false Religions And to be one of the faithful signifies the same with being a Disciple and that contains Obedience as well as believing For to the same sense are all those appellatives in Scripture the Faithful Brethren Believers the Saints Disciples all representing the duty of a Christian A Believer and a Saint or a holy person is the same thing Brethren signifies Charity and Believers Faith in the intellectual sence the Faithful and Disciples signifie both for besides the consent to the Proposition the first of them is also used for Perseverance and Sanctity and the greatest of Charity mixt with a confident Faith up to the height of Martyrdom Be faithful unto the death said the Holy Spirit and I will give thee the Crown of life And when the Apostles by way of abbreviation express all the body of Christian Religion they call it Faith working by Love which also S. Paul in a parallel place calls a New Creature it is a keeping of the Commandments of God that is the Faith of a Christian into whose desinition Charity is ingredient whose sence is the same with keeping of God's Commandments so that if we desine Faith we must first distinguish it The faith of a natural person or the saith of Devils is a 〈◊〉 believing a certain number of Propositions upon conviction of the Understanding But the Faith of a Christian the Faith that justifies and saves him is Faith working by Charity or Faith keeping the Commandments of God They are distinct Faiths in order to different ends and therefore of different constitution and the instrument of distinction is Charity or Obedience 5. And this great Truth is clear in the perpetual testimony of Holy Scripture For Abraham is called the Father of the Faithful and yet our Blessed Saviour told the Jews that if they had been the sons of Abraham they would have done the works of Abraham and therefore Good works are by the Apostle called the sootsteps of the Faith of our Father Abraham For Faith in every of its stages at its first beginning at its increment at its greatest perfection is a Duty made up of the concurrence of the Will and the Understanding when it pretends to the Divine acceptance Faith and Repentance begin the Christian course Repent and believe the Gospel was the summ of the Apostles Sermons and all the way after it is Faith working by Love Repentance puts the first spirit and life into Faith and Charity preserves it and gives it nourishment and increase it self also growing by a mutual supply of spirits and nutriment from Faith Whoever does heartily believe a Resurrection and Life eternal upon certain Conditions will certainly endeavour to acquire the Promises by the Purchase of Obedience and observation of the Conditions For it is not in the nature or power of man directly to despise and reject so 〈◊〉 a good So that Faith supplies Charity with argument and maintenance and Charity supplies Faith with life and motion Faith makes Charity reasonable and Charity makes Faith living and effectual And therefore the old Greeks called Faith and Charity a miraculous Chariot or Yoke they bear the burthen of the Lord with an equal consederation these are like 〈◊〉 twins they live and die together Indeed Faith is the first-born of the twins but they must come both at a birth or else they die being strangled at the gates of the womb But if Charity like Jacob lays hold upon his elder brother's heel it makes a timely and a prosperous birth and gives certain title to the eternal Promises For let us give the right of primogeniture to Faith yet the Blessing yea and the Inheritance too will at last fall to Charity Not that Faith is disinherited but that Charity only enters into the possession The nature of Faith passes into the excellency of Charity before they can be rewarded and that both may have their estimate that which justifies and saves us keeps the name of Faith but doth not do the deed till it hath the nature of Charity For to think well or to have a good opinion or an excellent or a fortunate understanding entitles us not to the love of God and the consequent inheritance but to chuse the ways of the Spirit and
him to bring us to drink of the fountain of living water For thus God declared it to be a delight to him to see us live as if he were refreshed by those felicities which he gives to us as communications of his grace and instances of mercy and consignations to Heaven Upon which we can look with no eye but such as sees and admires the excellency of the Divine Charity which being an emanation from the mercies and essential compassion of Eternity God cannot chuse but 〈◊〉 in it and love the works of his Mercy who was so well pleased in the works of his Power He that was delighted in the Creation was highly pleased in the nearer conveyances of himself when he sent the Holy Jesus to bear his image and his mercies and his glories and offer them to the use and benefit of Man For this was the chief of the works of God and therefore the Blessed Master could not but be highliest pleased with it in imitation of his heavenly Father 2. The woman observing our Saviour to have come with his face from 〈◊〉 was angry at him upon the quarrel of the old Schism The Jews and the Samaritans had differing Rites and the zealous persons upon each side did commonly dispute themselves into Uncharitableness and so have Christians upon the same confidence and zeal and mistake For although righteousness hath no fellowship with unrighteousness nor Christ with Belial yet the consideration of the crime of Heresie which is a spiritual wickedness is to be separate from the person who is material That is no spiritual communion is to be endured with Heretical persons when it is certain they are such when they are convinced by competent authority and sufficient argument But the persons of the men are to be pitied to be reproved to be redargued and convinced to be wrought upon by fair compliances and the offices of civility and invited to the family of Faith by the best arguments of Charity and the instances of a holy life having your conversation honest among them that they may beholding your good works glorifie God in the day when he shall visit them Indeed if there be danger that is a weak understanding may not safely converse in civil society with a subtile Heretick in such cases they are to be avoided not saluted But as this is only when the danger is by reason of the unequal capacities and strengths of the person so it must be only when the article is certainly Heresie and the person criminal and interest is the ingredient in the perswasion and a certain and a necessary Truth destroyed by the opinion We read that S. John spying Cerinthus in a Bath refused to wash there where the enemy of God and his Holy Son had been This is a good precedent for us when the case is equal S. John could discern the spirit of Cerinthus and his Heresie was notorious fundamental and highly criminal and the Apostle a person assisted up to infallibility And possibly it was done by the whisper of a Prophetick spirit and upon a miraculous design for immediately upon his retreat the Bath fell down and crushed Cerinthus in the ruines But such acts of aversation as these are not easily by us to be drawn into example unless in the same or the parallel concourse of equally-concluding accidents We must not quickly nor upon slight grounds nor unworthy instances call Heretick there had need be a long process and a high conviction and a competent Judge and a necessary Article that must be ingredients into so sad and decretory definitions and condemnation of a person or opinion But if such instances occur come not near the danger nor the scandal And this advice S. Cyprian gave to the Lay-people of his Diocese Let them decline their discourses whose Sermons creep and corrode like a Cancer let there be no colloquies no banquets no commerce with such who are excommunicate and justly driven from the Communion of the Church For such persons as S. Leo descants upon the Apostle's expression of heretical discourses creep in humbly and with small and modest beginnings they catch with flattery they bind gently and kill privily Let therefore all persons who are in danger secure their persons and Perswasions by removing far from the infection And for the scandal S. Herminigilda gave an heroick example which in her perswasion and the circumstances of the Age and action deserved the highest testimony of zeal religious passion and confident perswasion For she rather chose to die by the mandate of her tyrant-Father Leonigildus the Goth than she would at the Paschal solemnity receive the blessed Sacrament at the hand of an Arrian Bishop 3. But excepting these cases which are not to be judged with forwardness nor rashly taken measure of we find that conversing charitably with persons of differing Perswasions hath been instrumental to their Conversion and God's glory The believing wife may sanctifie the unbelieving husband and we find it verified in Church-story S. Cecily converted her husband Valerianus S. Theodora converted Sisinius S. Monica converted Patricius and Theodelinda Agilulphus S. Clotilda perswaded King Clodoveus to be a Christian and S. Natolia perswaded Adrianus to be a Martyr For they having their conversation honest and holy amongst the unbelievers shined like virgin Tapers in the midst of an impure prison and amused the eyes of the sons of darkness with the brightness of the flame For the excellency of a holy life is the best argument of the inhabitation of God within the Soul and who will not offer up his understanding upon that Altar where a Deity is placed as the President and author of Religion And this very entercourse of the Holy Jesus with the Woman is abundant argument that it were well we were not so forward to refuse Communion with dissenting persons upon the easie and confident mistakes of a too-forward zeal They that call Heretick may themselves be the mistaken persons and by refusing to communicate the civilities of hospitable entertainment may shut their doors upon Truth and their windows against Light and refuse to let Salvation in For sometimes Ignorance is the only parent of our Perswasions and many times 〈◊〉 hath made an impure commixture with it and so produced the issue 4. The Holy Jesus gently insinuates his discourses If thou hadst known who it is that asks thee water thou wouldest have asked water of him Oftentimes we know not the person that speaks and we usually chuse our Doctrine by our affections to the man but then if we are uncivil upon the stock of prejudice we do not know that it is Christ that calls our understandings to obedience and our affections to duty and compliances The Woman little thought of the glories which stood right against her He that sate upon the Well had a Throne placed above the heads of Cherubims In his arms who there rested himself was the Sanctuary of rest
man in such circumstances with the least pretence of reason lay claim to merit or boast of his own archievements Hence the Apostle magnifies the Evangelical method of Justification above that of 〈◊〉 Law that it wholly excludes all proud 〈◊〉 upon our selves Where is 〈◊〉 then it is excluded By what Law of works Nay but by the Law of Faith The Mosaical Oeconomy fostered men up in proud and high thoughts of themselves they looked upon themselves as a peculiar people honoured above all other Nations of the World the seed of Abraham invested with mighty priviledges c. whereas the Gospel proceeding upon other principles takes away all foundations of pride by acknowledging our acceptance with God and the power whereby we are enabled to make good the terms and conditions of it to be the mere result of the Divine grace and mercy and that the whole scheme of our Salvation as it was the contrivance of the Divine wisdom so is the purchase of the merit and satisfaction of our crucified Saviour Nor is Faith it self less than other graces an act of Evangelical obedience and if separated from them is of no moment or value in the accounts of Heaven Though I have all Faith and have no Charity I am nothing All Faith be it of what kind soever To this may be added that no tolerable account can be given why that which is on all hands granted to be the condition of our Salvation such is Evangelical obedience should not be the condition of our Justification And at the great day Christians shall be acquitted or condemned according as in this World they have fulfilled or neglected the conditions of the Gospel The decretory sentence of absolution that shall then be passed upon good men shall be nothing but a publick and solemn declaration of that private sentence of Justification that was passed upon them in this World so that upon the same terms that they are justified now they shall be justified and acquitted then and upon the same terms that they shall then be judged and acquitted they are justified now viz. an hearty belief and a sincere obedience to the Gospel From all which I hope 't is evident that when S. Paul denies men to be justified by the works of the Law by works he either means works done before conversion and by the strength of mens natural powers such as enabled them to pride and boast themselves or which mostwhat includes the other the works of the Mosaick Law And indeed though the controversies on foot in those times did not plainly determine his reasonings that way yet the considerations which we have now suggested sufficiently shew that they could not be meant in any other sence 16. CONSECT II. That the doctrines of S. Paul and S. James about Justification are fairly consistent with each other For seeing S. Paul's design in excluding works from Justification was only to deny the works of the Jewish Law or those that were wrought by our own strength and in asserting that in opposition to such works we are justified by Faith he meant no more than that either we are justified in an Evangelical way or more particularly by Faith intended a practical belief including Evangelical obedience And seeing on the other hand S. James in affirming that we are justified by works and not by Faith only by works means no more than Evangelical obedience in opposition to a naked and an empty Faith these two are so far from quarrelling that they mutually embrace each other and both in the main pursue the same design And indeed if any disagreement seem between them 't is most reasonable that S. Paul should be expounded by S. James not only because his propositions are so express and positive and not justly liable to ambiguity but because he wrote some competent time after the other and consequently as he perfectly understood his meaning so he was capable to countermine those ill principles which some men had built upon S. Paul's assertions For 't is evident from several passages in S. Paul's Epistles that even then many began to mistake his doctrine and from his assertions about Justification by Faith and not by works to infer propositions that might serve the purposes of a bad life They slanderously reported him to say that we might do evil that good might come that we might continue in sin that the grace of the Gospel might the more abound They thought that so long as they did but believe the Gospel in the naked notion and speculation of it it was enough to recommend them to the favour of God and to serve all the purposes of Justification and Salvation however they shaped and steered their lives Against these men 't is beyond all question plain that S. James levels his Epistle to batter down the growing doctrines of Libertinism and Prophaneness to shew the insufficiency of a naked Faith and an empty profession of Religion that 't is not enough to recommend us to the Divine acceptance and to justifie us in the sight of Heaven barely to believe the Gospel unless we really obey and practise it that a Faith destitute of this Evangelical obedience is fruitless and unprofitable to Salvation that 't is by these works that Faith must appear to be vital and sincere that not only Rahab but Abraham the Father of the faithful was justified not by a bare belief of God's promise but an 〈◊〉 obedience to God's command in the ready offer of his Son whereby it appears that his Faith and Obedience did cooperate and conspire together to render him capable of God's favour and approbation and that herein the Scripture was fulfilled which saith That Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness whence by the way nothing can be clearer than that both these Apostles intend the same thing by Faith in the case of Abraham's Justification and its being imputed to him for 〈◊〉 viz. a practical belief and obedience to the commands of God that it follows hence that Faith is not of it self sufficient to justifie and make us acceptable to God unless a proportionable Obedience be joyned with it without which Faith serves no more to these ends and purposes than a Body destitute of the Soul to animate and enliven it is capable to exercise the functions and offices of the natural life His meaning in short being nothing else than that good works or Evangelical obedience is according to the Divine appointment the condition of the Gospel-Covenant without which 't is in vain for any to hope for that pardon which Christ hath purchased and the favour of God which is necessary to Eternal Life The End of S. Paul's Life THE LIFE OF S. ANDREW St. ANDREW He was fastened to a Cross since distinguished by his name by y e Proconsul at Patrae a City of Achaia from which he preached severall dayes to y e Spectators S. Hierom. Baron Nov 29. St. Andrew's Crucifixion Matth. 23.
look upon my miseries thy holy Hands be stretched out to my relief and succour let some of those precious distilling Tears which nature and thy compassion and thy Sufferings did cause to distill and drop from those sacred fontinels water my stony heart and make it soft apt for the impressions of a melting obedient and corresponding love and moisten mine eyes that I may upon thy stock of pity and weeping mourn for my sins that so my tears and sorrows being drops of water coming from that holy Rock may indeed be united unto thine and made precious by such holy mixtures Amen 3. BLessed Jesus now that thou hast sanctified and exalted Humane nature and made even my Body precious by a personal uniting it to the Divinity teach me so reverently to account of it that I may not dare to prophane it with impure lusts or caitive affections and unhallow that ground where thy holy feet have troden Give to me ardent desires and efficacious prosecutions of these holy effects which thou didst design for us in thy Nativity and other parts of our Redemption give me great confidence in thee which thou hast encouraged by the exhibition of so glorious favours great sorrow and confusion of face at the sight of mine own imperfections and estrangements and great distances from thee and the perfections of thy Soul and bring me to thee by the strictnesses of a Zealous and affectionate imitation of those Sanctities which next to the hypostatical Union added lustre and excellency to thy Humanity that I may live here with thee in the expresses of a holy life and die with thee by mortification and an unwearied patience and reign with thee in immortal glories world without end Amen DISCOURSE I. Of Nursing Children in imitation of the Blessed Virgin-Mother 1. THese later Ages of the world have declined into a Softness above the effeminacy of Asian Princes and have contracted customes which those innocent and healthful days of our Ancestors knew not whose Piety was natural whose Charity was operative whose Policy was just and valiant and whose Oeconomy was sincere and proportionable to the dispositions and requisites of Nature And in this particular the good women of old gave one of their instances the greatest personages nurst their own Children did the work of Mothers and thought it was unlikely women should become vertuous by ornaments and superadditions of Morality who did decline the laws and prescriptions of Nature whose principles supply us with the first and most common rules of Manners and more perfect actions In imitation of whom and especially of the Virgin Mary who was Mother and Nurse to the Holy Jesus I shall endeavour to correct those softnesses and unnatural rejections of Children which are popular up to a custom and fashion even where no necessities of Nature or just Reason can make excuse 2. And I cannot think the Question despicable and the Duty of meanest consideration although it be specified in an office of small esteem and suggested to us by the principles of Reason and not by express sanctions of Divinity For although other actions are more perfect and spiritual yet this is more natural and humane other things being superadded to a full Duty rise higher but this builds stronger and is like a part of the foundation having no lustre but much strength and however the others are full of ornament yet this hath in it some degrees of necessity and possibly is with more danger and irregularity omitted than actions which spread their leaves fairer and look more gloriously 3. First here I consider that there are many sins in the scene of the Body and the matter of Sobriety which are highly criminal and yet the Laws of God expressed in Scripture name them not but men are taught to distinguish them by that Reason which is given us by nature and is imprinted in our understanding in order to the conservation of humane kind For since every creature hath something in it sufficient to propagate the kind and to conserve the individuals from perishing in confusions and general disorders which in Beasts we call Instinct that is an habitual or prime disposition to do certain things which are proportionable to the End whither it is designed Man also if he be not more imperfect must have the like and because he knows and makes reflexions upon his own acts and understands the reason of it that which in them is Instinct in him is natural Reason which is a desire to preserve himself and his own kind and differs from Instinct because he understands his Instinct and the reasonableness of it and they do not But Man being a higher thing even in the order of creation and designed to a more noble End in his animal capacity his Argumentative Instinct is larger than the Natural Instinct of Beasts for he hath Instincts in him in order to the conservation of Society and therefore hath Principles that is he hath natural desires to it for his own good and because he understands them they are called Principles and Laws of Nature but are no other than what I have now declared for Beasts do the same things we do and have many the same inclinations which in us are the Laws of Nature even all which we have in order to our common End But that which in Beasts is Nature and an impulsive force in us must be duty and an inviting power we must do the same things with an actual or habitual designation of that End to which God designs Beasts supplying by his wisdom their want of understanding and then what is mere Nature in them in us is Natural reason And therefore Marriage in men is made sacred when the mixtures of other creatures are so merely natural that they are not capable of being vertuous because men are bound to intend that End which God made And this with the superaddition of other Ends of which Marriage is representative in part and in part effective does consecrate Marriage and makes it holy and mysterious But then there are in marriage many duties which we are taught by Instinct that is by that Reason whereby we understand what are the best means to promote the End which we have assigned us And by these Laws all unnatural mixtures are made unlawful and the decencies which are to be observed in Marriage are prescribed us by this 4. Secondly Upon the supposition of this Discourse I consider again that although to observe this Instinct or these Laws of Nature in which I now have instanced be no great vertue in any eminency of degree as no man is much commended for not killing himself or for not degenerating into beastly Lusts yet to prevaricate some of these Laws may become almost the greatest sin in the world And therefore although to live according to Nature be a testimony fit to give to a sober and a temperate man and rises no higher yet to do an action against Nature is the greatest
them not to retain them or invite them but as objects of displeasure to avert them from us 2. To resist all lustful desires and extinguish them by their proper correctories and remedies 3. To resuse all occasions opportunities and temptations to Impurity denying to please a wanton 〈◊〉 or to use a 〈◊〉 gesture or to go into a danger or to converse with an improper unsafe object hating the garment spotted with the flesh so S. Jude calls it and not to look upon a maid so Job not to sit with a woman that is a singer so the son of Sirach 4. To be of a liberal soul not mingling with affections of mony and inclinations of covetousness not doing any act of violence rapine or injustice 5. To be ingenuous in our thoughts purposes and professions speaking nothing contrary to our intentions but being really what we 〈◊〉 6. To give all our faculties and affections to God without dividing interests between God and his enemies without entertaining of any one crime in society with our pretences for God 7. Not to lie in sin but instantly to repent of it and return purifying our Conscience from dead works 8. Not to dissemble our faith or belief when we are required to its confession pretending a perswasion complying with those from whom 〈◊〉 we differ Lust Covetousness and Hypocrisie are the three great enemies of this Grace they are the motes of our eyes and the spots of our Souls The reward of Purity is the vision beatifical If we are pure as God is pure we shall also see him as he is When we awake up after his likeness we shall 〈◊〉 hold his presence To which in this world we are consigned by freedom from the cares of Covetousness the shame of Lust the fear of discovery and the stings of an evil Conscience which are the portion of the several Impurities here forbidden 17. Seventhly Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God The wisdome of God is first pure and then peaceable that 's the order of the Beatitudes As soon as Jesus was born the Angels sang a Hymn Glory be to God on high and on earth peace good will towards men signifying the two great 〈◊〉 upon which Christ was dispatched in his Legation from Heaven to earth He is the Prince of Peace Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man ever shall see God The acts of this Grace are 1. To mortisie our Anger 〈◊〉 and fiery dispositions apt to enkindle upon every slight accident inadvertency or misfortune of a friend or servant 2. Not to be hasty rash provocative or upbraiding in our language 3. To live quietly and serenely in our families and neighbourhoods 4. Not to backbite slander misreport or undervalue any man carrying tales or sowing dissention between brethren 5. Not to interest our selves in the quarrels of others by abetting either part except where Charity calls us to rescue the oppressed and then also to do a work of charity without mixtures of uncharitableness 6. To avoid all suits of Law as much as is possible without intrenching upon any other collateral obligation towards a third interest or a necessary support for our selves or great conveniency for our families or if we be engaged in Law to pursue our just interests with just means and charitable maintenance 7. To endeavour by all means to reconcile disagreeing persons 8. To endeavour by affability and fair deportment to win the love of our neighbours 9. To offer satisfaction to all whom we have wronged or slandered and to remit the offences of others and in trials of right to find out the most charitable expedient to determine it as by indifferent arbitration or something like it 10. To be open free and ingenuous in reprehensions and fair expostulations with persons whom we conceive to have wronged us that no seed of malice or rancor may be latent in us and upon the breath of a new displeasure break out into a flame 11. To be modest in our arguings disputings and demands not laying great interest upon trifles 12. To moderate balance and temper our zeal by the rules of Prudence and the allay of Charity that we quarrel not for opinions nor intitle God in our impotent and mistaken fancies nor lose Charity for a pretence of an article of Faith 13. To pray heartily for our enemies real or imaginary always loving and being apt to benefit their persons and to cure their faults by charitable remedies 14. To abstain from doing all affronts disgraces slightings and 〈◊〉 jearings and mockings of our neighbour not giving him appellatives of scorn or irrision 15. To submit to all our Superiours in all things either doing what they command or suffering what they impose at no hand lifting our 〈◊〉 against those upon whom the characters of God and the marks of Jesus are imprinted in signal and eminent authority such as are principally the King and then the Bishops whom God hath set to watch over our Souls 16. Not to invade the possessions of our Neighbours or commence War but when we are bound by justice and legal trust to defend the rights of others or our own in order to our duty 17. Not to speak evil of dignities or undervalue their persons or publish their faults or upbraid the levities of our Governours knowing that they also are designed by God to be converted to us for castigation and amendment of us 18. Not to be busie in other mens affairs And then the peace of God will rest upon us The reward is no less than the adoption and inheritance of sons for he hath given unto us power to be called the sons of God for he is the Father of Peace and the Sons of Peace are the Sons of God and theresore have a title to the inheritance of Sons to be heirs with God and coheirs with Christ in the kingdom of Peace and essential and never-failing charity 18. Eightly Blessed are they which are Persecuted sor righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven This being the hardest command in the whole Discipline of Jesus is fortified with a double Blessedness for it follows immediately Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you meaning that all Persecution for a cause of Righteousness though the affliction be instanced only in reproachful language shall be a title to the Blessedness Any suffering for any good or harmless action is a degree of Martyrdom It being the greatest testimony in the world of the greatest love to quit that for God which hath possessed our most natural regular and orderly affections It is a preferring God's cause before our own interest it is a loving of Vertue without secular ends it is the noblest the most resigned ingenuous valiant act in the world to die for 〈◊〉 whom we never have seen it is the crown of Faith the confidence of Hope and our greatest Charity The Primitive
partakers of thy Purities give unto us tender bowels that we may suffer together with our calamitous and necessitous Brethren that we having a fellow-feeling of their miseries may use all our powers to help them and ease our selves of our common sufferings But do thou O Holy Jesu take from us also all our great calamities the Carnality of our affections our Sensualities and Impurities that we may first be pure then peaceable living in peace with all men and preserving the peace which thou hast made for us with our God that we may never commit a sin which may interrupt so blessed an atonement Let neither hope nor fear tribulation nor anguish pleasure nor pain make us to relinquish our interest in thee and our portion of the everlasting Covenant But give us hearts constant bold and valiant to confess thee before all the world in the midst of all disadvantages and contradictory circumstances chusing rather to beg or to be disgraced or 〈◊〉 or to die than quit a holy Conscience or renounce an Article of Christianity that we either in act when thou shalt call us or always in preparation of mind suffering with thee may also reign with thee in the Church Triumphant O Holy and most merciful Saviour Jesu Amen DISCOURSE X. A Discourse upon that part of the Decalogue which the Holy JESVS adopted into the Institution and obligation of Christianity 1. WHen the Holy Jesus had described the Characterisms of Christianity in these Eight Graces and Beatitudes he adds his Injunctions that in these Vertues they should be eminent and exemplar that they might adorn the Doctrine of God for he intended that the Gospel should be as Leven in a lump of dough to season the whole mass and that Christians should be the instruments of communicating the excellency and reputation of this holy Institution to all the world Therefore Christ calls them Salt and Light and the societies of Christians a City set upon a hill and a 〈◊〉 set in a candlestick whose office and energy is to illuminate all the vicinage which is also expressed in these preceptive words Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven which I consider not only as a Circumstance of other parts but as a precise Duty it self and one of the Sanctions of Christianity which hath so confederated the Souls of the Disciples of the Institution that it hath in some proportion obliged every man to take care of his Brother's Soul And since Reverence to God and Charity to our Brother are the two 〈◊〉 Ends which the best Laws can have this precept of exemplary living is enjoyned in order to them both We must shine as lights in the world that God may be glorified and our Brother edified that the excellency of the act may 〈◊〉 the reputation of the Religion and invite men to confess God according to the sanctions of so holy an Institution And if we be curious that vanity do not mingle in the intention and that the intention do not spoil the action and that we suffer not our lights to shine that men may magnifie us and not glorifie God this duty is soon performed by way of adherence to our other actions and hath no other difficulty in it but that it will require our prudence and care to preserve the simplicity of our purposes and humility of our spirit in the midst of that excellent reputation which will certainly be consequent to a holy and exemplary life 2. But since the Holy Jesus had set us up to be lights in the world he took care we should not be stars of the least magnitude but eminent and such as might by their great emissions of light give evidence of their being immediately derivative from the Sun of Righteousness He was now giving his Law and meant to retain so much of Moses as Moses had of natural and essential Justice and Charity and superadd many degrees of his own that as far as Moses was exceeded by Christ in the capacity of a Law-giver so far Christianity might be more excellent and holy than the Mosaical Sanctions And therefore as a Preface to the Christian Law the Holy Jesus declares that unless our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees that is of the stricter sects of the Mosaical Institution we shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven Which not only relates to the prevaricating Practices of the Pharisees but even to their Doctrines and Commentaries upon the Law of Moses as appears evidently in the following instances For if all the excellency of Christianity had consisted in the mere command of Sincerity and prohibition of Hypocrisie it had nothing in it proportionable to those excellent promises and clearest revelations of Eternity there expressed nor of a fit imployment for the designation of a special and a new Law-giver whose Laws were to last forever and were established upon foundations stronger than the pillars of Heaven and Earth 3. But S. Paul calling the Law of Moses a Law of Works did well insinuate what the Doctrine of the Jews was concerning the degrees and obligations of Justice for besides that it was a Law of Works in opposition to the Law of Faith and so the sence of it is formerly explicated it is also a Law of Works in opposition to the Law of the Spirit and it is understood to be such a Law which required the exteriour Obedience such a Law according to which S. Paul so lived that no man could reprove him that is the Judges could not tax him with prevarication such a Law which being in very many degrees carnal and material did not with much severity exact the intention and purposes spiritual But the Gospel is the Law of the spirit If they failed in the exteriour work it was accounted to them for sin but to Christians nothing becomes a sin but a failing and prevaricating spirit For the outward act is such an emanation of the interiour that it enters into the account for the relation sake and for its parent When God hath put a duty into our hands if our spirits be right the work will certainly follow but the following work receives its acceptation not from the value the Christian Law hath precisely put upon it but because the spirit from whence it came hath observed its rule the Law of Charity is acted and expressed in works but hath its estimate from the spirit Which discourse is to be understood in a limited and qualified signification For then also God required the Heart and interdicted the very concupiscences of our irregular passions at least in some instances but because much of their Law consisted in the exteriour and the Law appointed not nor yet intimated any penalty to evil thoughts and because the expiation of such interiour irregularities was easie implicite and involved in their daily Sacrifices without special trouble therefore the old Law
pro sua rererentâ—â— 1. THE Soul of a Christian is the house of God Ye are God's building saith S. Paul but the house of God is the house of Prayer and therefore Prayer is the work of the Soul whose organs are intended for instruments of the Divine praises and when every stop and pause of those instruments is but the conclusion of a Collect and every breathing is a Prayer then the Body becomes a Temple and the Soul is the Sanctuary and more private recess and place of entercourse Prayer is the great duty and the greatest priviledge of a Christian it is his entercourse with God his Sanctuary in troubles his remedy for sins his cure of griefs and as S. Gregory calls it it is the principal instrument whereby we minister to God in execution of the decrees of eternal Predestination and those things which God intends for us we bring to our selves by the mediation of holy Prayers Prayer is the ascent of the mind to God and a petitioning for such things as we need for our support and duty It is an abstract and summary of Christian Religion Prayer is an act of Religion and Dinine Worship confessing his power and his mercy it celebrates his Attributes and confesses his glories and reveres his person and implores his aid and gives thanks for his blessings it is an act of Humility condescension and dependence expressed in the prostration of our bodies and humiliation of our spirits it is an act of Charity when we pray for others it is an act of Repentance when it confesses and begs pardon for our sins and exercises every Grace according to the design of the man and the matter of the Prayer So that there will be less need to amass arguments to invite us to this Duty every part is an excellence and every end of it is a blessing and every design is a motive and every need is an impulsive to this holy office Let us but remember how many needs we have at how cheap a rate we may obtain their remedies and yet how honourable the imployment is to go to God with confidence and to fetch our supplies with easiness and joy and then without farther preface we may address our selves to the understanding of that Duty by which we imitate the imployment of Angels and beatified spirits by which we ascènd to God in spirit while we remain on earth and God descends on earth while he yet resides in Heaven sitting there on the Throne of his Kingdom 2. Our first enquiry must be concerning the Matter of our Prayers for our Desires are not to be the rule of our Prayers unless Reason and Religion be the rule of our Desires The old Heathens prayed to their Gods for such things which they were ashamed to name publickly before men and these were their private prayers which they durst not for their undecency or iniquity make publick And indeed sometimes the best men ask of God Things not unlawful in themselves yet very hurtful to them and therefore as by the Spirit of God and right Reason we are taught in general what is lawful to be asked so it is still to be submitted to God when we have asked lawful things to grant to us in kindness or to deny us in mercy after all the rules that can be given us we not being able in many instances to judge for our selves unless also we could certainly pronounce concerning future contingencies But the Holy Ghost being now sent upon the Church and the rule of Christ being left to his Church together with his form of Prayer taught and prescribed to his Disciples we have sufficient instruction for the matter of our Prayers so far as concerns the lawfulness or unlawfulness And the rule is easie and of no variety 1. For we are bound to pray for all things that concern our duty all that we are bound to labour for such as are Glory and Grace necessary assistances of the Spirit and rewards spiritual Heaven and Heavenly things 2. Concerning those things which we may with safety hope for but are not matter of duty to us we may lawfully testifie our hope and express our desires by petition but if in their particulars they are under no express promise but only conveniencies of our life and person it is only lawful to pray for them under condition that they may conform to God's will and our duty as they are good and placed in the best order of eternity Therefore 1 for spiritual blessings let our Prayers be particularly importunate perpetual and persevering 2 For temporal blessings let them be generally short conditional and modest 3 And whatsoever things are of mixt nature more spiritual than Riches and less necessary than Graces such as are gifts and exteriour aids we may for them as we may desire them and as we may expect them that is with more confidence and less restraint than in the matter of temporal requests but with more reservedness and less boldness of petition than when we pray for the graces of Sanctification In the first case we are bound to pray in the second it is only lawful under certain conditions in the third it becomes to us an act of zeal nobleness and Christian prudence But the matter of our Prayers is best taught us in the form our Lord taught his Disciples which because it is short mysterious and like the treasures of the Spirit full of wisdom and latent sences it is not improper to draw forth those excellencies which are intended and signified by every Petition that by so excellent an authority we may know what it is lawful to beg of God 3. Our Father which art in Heaven The address reminds us of many parts of our duty If God be our Father where is his fear and reverence and obedience If ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham and Ye are of your father the Devil for his works ye do Let us not dare to call him Father if we be rebels and enemies but if we be obedient then we know he is our Father and will give us a Child's portion and the inheritance of Sons But it is observable that Christ here speaking concerning private Prayer does describe it in a form of plural signification to tell us that we are to draw into the communication of our prayers all those who are confederated in the common relation of Sons to the same Father Which art in Heaven tells us where our hopes and our hearts must be fixed whither our desires and our prayers must tend Sursum corda Where our treasure is there must our hearts be also 4. Hallowed be thy Name That is Let thy Name thy Essence and glorious Attributes be honoured and adored in all the world believed by Faith loved by Charity celebrated with praises thanked with Eucharist and let thy Name be hallowed in us as it is in it self
honour of the present Festival and as a donative to the people But the spirit of Malice was here the more prevalent and they desired that Barabbas a Murtherer a Thief and a seditious person should be exchanged for him Then Pilate casting about all ways to acquit Jesus of punishment and himself of guilt offered to scourge him and let him go hoping that a lesser draught of bloud might stop the furies and rabidness of their passion without their bursting with a river of his best and vital liquor But these leeches would not so let go they cry out Crucifie him and to engage him finally they told him if he did let this man go he was no friend to Caesar. 28. But Pilate called for water and washed his hands to demonstrate his own unwillingness and to reject and transmit the guilt upon them who took it on them as greedily as they sucked the bloud they cried out His bloud be on us and our children As Pilate was going to give sentence his Wife being troubled in her dreams sent with the earnestness and passion of a woman that he should have nothing to do with that just Person but he was engaged Caesar and Jesus God and the King did seem to have different interests or at least he was threatned into that opinion and Pilate though he was satisfied it was but Calumny and Malice yet he was loth to venture upon his answer at Rome in case the High Priest should have accused him For no man knows whether the interest or the mistake of his Judge may cast the sentence and who-ever is accused strongly is never thought intirely innocent And therefore not only against the Divine Laws but against the Roman too he condemned an innocent person upon objections notoriously malicious he adjudged him to a death which was only due to publick Thieves and Homicides crimes with which he was not charg'd upon a pretence of Blasphemy of which he stood accused but not convicted and for which by the Jewish Law he should have been stoned if found guilty And this he did put into present execution against the Tiberian Law which about twelve years before decreed in favour of condemned persons that after sentence execution should be deferred ten days 29. And now was the Holy Lamb to bleed First therefore Pilate's souldiers array him in a kingly robe put a reed in his hand for a Sceptre plait a Crown of thorns and put it on his head they bow the knee and mock him they smite him with his phantastick Sceptre and in stead of tribute pay him with blows and spittings upon his holy head and when they had emptied the whole stock of poisonous contempt they devest him of the robes of mockery and put him on his own they lead him to a pillar and bind him fast and scourage him with whips a punishment that Slaves only did use to suffer free persons being in certain cases beaten with rods and clubs that they might add a new scorn to his afflictions and make his sorrows like their own guilt vast and mountainous After which Barabbas being set free Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified 30. The Souldiers therefore having framed a Cross sad and heavy laid it upon Jesus's shoulders who like Isaac bore the wood with which he was to be sacrificed himself and they drive him out to Crucifixion who was scarce able to stand under that load It is generally supposed that Jesus bore the whole Tree that is both the parts of his Cross but to him that considers it it will seem impossible and therefore it is more likely and agreeable to the old manner of crucifying malefactors that Jesus only carried the cross part the body of it being upon the place either already fixed or prepared for its station Even that lesser part was grievous and intolerable to his tender virginal and weakned body and when he fainted they compel Simon a Cyrenian to help him A great and a mixt multitude followed Jesus to Golgotha the 〈◊〉 house of the City and the place of Execution But the Women wept with bitter exclamations and their sadness was increased by the sad predictions Jesus then made of their future misery saying Ye daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children For the time shall come that men shall say Blessed are the barren that never bare and the paps that never gave 〈◊〉 for they shall call on the hills to cover them and on the mountains to fall upon them that by a sudden ruine they may escape the lingring calamities of famine and fear and the horror of a thousand deaths 31. When Jesus was come to Golgotha a place in the mount of Calvary where according to the tradition of the Ancients Adam was buried and where Abraham made an Altar for the sacrifice of his Son by the piety of his Disciples and it is probable of those good women which did use to minister to him there was provided wine mingled with myrrh which among the Levantines is an excellent and pleasant mixture and such as the piety and indulgence of the nations used to administer to condemned persons But Jesus who by voluntary susception did chuse to suffer our pains refused that refreshment which the piety of the women presented to him The souldiers having stripp'd him nail'd him to the Cross with four nails and divided his Mantle into four parts giving to each souldier a part but for his Coat because it would be spoiled if parted it being weaved without seam they cast lots for it 32. Now Pilate had caused a title containing the cause of his death to be superscribed on a Table in Latine Greek and Hebrew the Hebrew being first the Greek next and the Latine nearest to the holy body but all written after the Jewish manner from the right hand to the left for so the Title is shewn in the Church of Santa Croce in Rome the Latin letters being to be read as if it were Hebrew the reason of which I could never find sufficiently discovered unless it were to make it more legible to the Jews who by conversing with the Romans began to understand a little Latine The title was JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS But the Pharisees would have it altered and that he said he was King of the Jews But Pilate out of wilfulness or to do despight to the Nation or in honour to Jesus whom he knew to be a just person or being over-ruled by Divine providence refused to alter it And there were crucified with Jesus two Thieves Jesus being in the midst according to the Prophecy He was reckoned with the transgressors Then Jesus prayed for his Persecutors Father forgive them for they know not what they do But while Jesus was full of pain and charity and was praying and dying for his Enemies the Rulers of the Jews mocked him upbraiding him with the good works
of the West now use being indicative and declaratory of a present Pardon is for the very form sake not to be used to Death bed Penitents after a vicious life because if any thing more be intended in the form than a Prayer the truth of the affirmation may be questioned and an Ecclesiastical person hath no authority to say to such a man I absolve thee but if no more be intended but a Prayer it is better to use a mere Prayer and common form of address than such words which may countenance unsecure confidences evil purposes and worse lives 14. Thirdly If the Devil tempts a sick person who hath lived well to Presumption and that he seems full of Confidence and without trouble the care that is then to be taken is to consider the Disease and to state the Question right For at some instants and periods God visits the spirit of a man and sends the immission of a bright ray into him and some good men have been so used to apprehensions of the Divine mercy that they have an habitual chearfulness of spirit and hopes of Salvation Saint Hierome reports that Hilarion in a Death-bed agony felt some tremblings of heart till reflecting upon his course of life he found comforts springing from thence by a proper emanation and departed chearfully and Hezekiah represented to God in Prayer the integrity of his life and made it the instrument of his hope And nothing of this is to be calied Presumption provided it be in persons of eminent Sanctity and great experience old Disciples and the more perfect Christians But because such persons are but seldome and rare if the same Confidence be observed in persons of common imperfection and an ordinary life it is to be corrected and allayed with consideration of the Divine Severity and Justice and with the strict requisites of a holy life with the deceit of a man 's own heart with consideration and general remembrances of secret sins and that the most perfect state of life hath very great needs of mercy and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear And the spirit of the man is to be promoted and helped in the encrease of Contrition as being the proper deletery to cure the extravagancies of a forward and intemperate spirit 15. But there is a Presumption commenced upon opinion relying either upon a perswasion of single Predestination or else which is worse upon imaginary securities that Heaven is to be purchased upon conditions easier than a Day 's labour and that an evil life may be reconciled to Heaven by the intervening of little or single acts of Piety or Repentance If either of them both have actually produced ill life to which they are apt or apt to be abused the persons are miserable in their condition and cannot be absolutely remedied by going about to cure the Presumption that was the cause of all but now it is the least thing to be considered his whole state is corrupted and men will not by any discourses or spiritual arts used on their Death-beds be put into a state of Grace because then is no time to change the state and there is no mutation then but by single actions from good to better a dying man may proceed but not from the state of Reprobation to the life of Grace And yet it is good charity to unloose the bonds of Satan whereby the man is bound and led captive at his will to take off the Presumption by destroying the cause and then let the work of Grace be set as forward as it can and leave the event to God for nothing else is left possible to be done But if the sick man be of a good life and yet have a degree of Confidence beyond his Vertue upon the phancie of Predestination it is not then a time to rescind his opinion by a direct opposition but let him be drawn off from the consideration of it by such discourses as are apt to make him humble and penitent for they are the most apt instruments to secure the condition of the man and attemper his spirit These are the great Temptations incident to the last scene of our lives and are therefore more particularly suggested by the Tempter because they have in them something contrary to the universal effect of a holy life and are designs to interpose between the end of the journey and the reception of the crown and therefore it concerns every man who is in a capacity of receiving the end of his Faith the Salvation of his Soul to lay up in the course of his life something against this great day of expence that he may be better fortified with the armour of the Spirit against these last assaults of the Devil that he may not shipwreck in the haven 16. Eschewing evil is but the one half of our work we must also do good And now in the few remanent days or hours of our life there are certain exercises of Religion which have a special relation to this state and are therefore of great concernment to be done that we may make our condition as certain as we can and our portion of Glory greater and our Pardon surer and our Love to increase and that our former omissions and breaches be repaired with a condition in some measure proportionable to those great hopes which we then are going to possess And first Let the sick person in the beginning of his sickness and in every change and great accident of it make acts of Resignation to God and intirely submit himself to the Divine will remembring that Sickness may to men properly disposed do the work of God and produce the effect of the Spirit and promote the interest of his Soul as well as Health and oftentimes better as being in it self and by the grace of God apt to make us confess our own impotency and dependencies and to understand our needs of mercy and the continual influences and supports of Heaven to withdraw our appetites from things below to correct the vanities and insolencies of an impertinent spirit to abate the extravagancies of the flesh to put our carnal lusts into fetters and disability to remember us of our state of pilgrimage that this is our way and our stage of trouble and banishment and that Heaven is our Countrey for so Sickness is the trial of our Patience a fire to purge us an instructer to teach us a bridle to restrain us and a state inferring great necessities of union and adhesions unto God And as upon these grounds we have the same reason to accept sickness at the hands of God as to receive Physick from a Physician so it is argument of excellent Grace to give God hearty thanks in our Disease and to accept it chearfully and with spiritual joy 17. Some persons create to themselves excuses of discontent and quarrel not with the pain but the ill consequents of Sickness It makes them troublesome to
their friends and consider not that their friends are bound to accept the trouble as themselves to accept the sickness that to tend the sick is at that time allotted for the portion of their work and that Charity receives it as a duty and makes that duty to be a pleasure And however if our friends account us a burthen let us also accept that circumstance of affliction to our selves with the same resignation and indifferency as we entertain its occasion the Sickness it self and pray to God to enkindle a flame of Charity in their breasts and to make them compensation for the charge and trouble we put them to and then the care is at an end But others excuse their discontent with a more religious colour and call the disease their trouble and affliction because it impedes their other parts of Duty they cannot preach or study or do exteriour assistences of Charity and Alms or acts of Repentance and Mortification But it were well if we could let God proportion out our work and set our task let him chuse what vertues we shall specially exercise and when the will of God determines us it is more excellent to endure afflictions with patience equanimity and thankfulness than to do actions of the most pompous Religion and laborious or expensive Charity not only because there is a deliciousness in actions of Religion and choice which is more agreeable to our spirit than the toleration of sickness can be which hath great reward but no present pleasure but also because our suffering and our imployment is consecrated to us when God chuses it and there is then no mixture of imperfection or secular interest as there may be in other actions even of an excellent Religion when our selves are the chusers And let us also remember that God hath not so much need of thy works as thou hast of Patience Humility and Resignation S. Paul was far a more considerable person than thou canst be and yet it pleased God to shut him in prison for two years and in that intervall God secured and promoted the work of the Gospel and although 〈◊〉 was an excellent Minister yet God laid a sickness upon him and even in his disease gave him work enough to do though not of his own chusing And therefore fear it not but the ends of Religion or Duty will well enough proceed without thy health and thy own eternal interest when God so pleases shall better be served by Sickness and the Vertues which it occasions than by the opportunities of Health and an ambulatory active Charity 18. When thou art resigned to God use fair and appointed means for thy Recovery trust not in thy spirit upon any instrument of health as thou art willing to be disposed by God so look 〈◊〉 for any event upon the stock of any other cause or principle be ruled by the Physician and the people appointed to tend thee that thou neither become troublesome to them nor give any sign of impatience or a peevish spirit But this advice only means that thou do not disobey them out of any evil principle and yet if Reason be thy guide to chuse any other aid or sollow any other counsel use it temperately prudently and charitably It is not intended for a Duty that thou shouldst drink Oil in stead of Wine if thy Minister reach it to thee as did Saint Bernard nor that thou shouldst accept a Cake tempered with Linseed-oil in stead of Oil of Olives as did F. Stephen mentioned by 〈◊〉 but that thou tolerate the defects of thy servants and accept the evil accidents of thy disease or the unsuccessfulness of thy Physician 's care as descending on thee from the hands of God Asa was noted in Scripture that in his sickness he sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians Lewis the XI of France was then the miserablest person in his Kingdom when he made himself their servant courting them with great pensions and rewards attending to their Rules as Oracles and from their mouths waited for the sentence of life or death We are in these great accidents especially to look upon God as the disposer of the events which he very often disposes contrary to the expectation we may have of probable causes and sometimes without Physick we recover and with Physick and excellent applications we grow worse and worse and God it is that makes the remedies unprosperous In all these and all other accidents if we take care that the sickness of the Body derive not it self into the Soul nor the pains of one procure impatience of the other we shall alleviate the burthen and make it supportable and profitable And certain it is if men knew well to bear their sicknesses humbly towards God charitably towards our Ministers and chearfully in themselves there were no greater advantage in the world to be received than upon a sick bed and that alone hath in it the benefits of a Church of a religious Assembly of the works of Charity and labour And since our Soul 's eternal well-being depends upon the Charities and Providence and Veracity of God and we have nothing to show for it but his word and Goodness and that is infinitely enough it is but reason we be not more nice and scrupulous about the usage and accommodation of our Body if we accept at God's hand sadness and driness of affection and spiritual desertion patiently and with indifferency it is unhandsome to express our selves less satisfied in the accidents about our body 19. But if the Sickness proceed to Death it is a new charge upon our spirits and God calls for a final and intire Resignation into his hands And to a person who was of humble affections and in his life-time of a mortified spirit accustomed to bear the yoke of the Lord this is easie because he looks upon Death not only as the certain condition of Nature but as a necessary transition to a state of Blessedness as the determination of his sickness the period of humane inselicities the last change of condition the beginning of a new strange and excellent life a security against sin a freedom from the importunities of a Tempter from the tyranny of an imperious Lust from the rebellion of Concupiscence from the disturbances and tempests of the Irascible faculty and from the fondness and childishness of the Concupiscible and S. Ambrose says well the trouble of this life and the dangers are so many that in respect of them Death is a remedy and a fair proper object of desires And we finde that many Saints have prayed for death that they might not see the Persecutions and great miseries incumbent upon the Church and if the desire be not out of Impatience but of Charity and with resignation there is no reason to reprove it Elias prayed that God would take his life that he might not see the evils of Ahab and Jezebel and their vexatious intendments against the
in that to the Ephesians at this Day This Epistle is still extant forged no doubt 〈◊〉 S. Hierem's time who tells us that it was read by some but yet exploded and rejected by all Besides these there was his Revelation call'd also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or his Ascension grounded on his ecstasie or rapture into Heaven first forged by the Cainian Hereticks and in great use and estimation among the Gnosticks Sozomen tells us that this Apocalypse was owned by none of the Ancients though much commended by some Monks in his time and he further adds that in the time of the Emperour Theodosius it was said to have been found in an under-ground Chest of Marble in S. Paul's house at Tarsus and that by a particular revelation A story which upon enquiry he found to be as false as the Book it self was forged and spurious The Acts of S. Paul are mentioned both by Origen and Eusebius but not as Writings of approved and unquestionable credit and authority The Epistles that are said to have passed between S. Paul and Seneca how early soever they started in the Church yet the falshood and fabulousness of them is now too notoriously known to need any further account or description of them SECT IX The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his time Simon Magus the Father of Hereticks The wretched principles and practices of him and his followers Their asserting Angel-worship and how countermin'd by S. Paul Their holding it lawful to sacrifice to Idols and abjure the Faith in times of persecution discovered and opposed by S. Paul Their maintaining an universal licence to sin Their manners and opinions herein described by S. Paul in his Epistles The great controversie of those times about the obligation of the Law of Mofes upon the Gentile Converts The Original of it whence The mighty veneration which the Jews had for the Law of Moses The true state of the Controversie what The Determination made in it by the Apostolick Synod at Jerusalem Meats offered to Idols what Abstinence from Bloud why enjoyned of old Things strangled why forbidden Fornication commonly practised and accounted lawful among the Gentiles The hire of the Harlot what How dedicated to their Deities among the Heathens The main passages in S. Paul's Epistles concerning Justification and Salvation shewed to have respect to this Controversie What meant by Law and what by Faith in S. Paul's Epistles The Persons whom he has to deal with in this Controversie who The Jew's strange doting upon Circumcision The way and manner of the Apostles Reasoning in this Controversie considered His chief Arguments shewed immediately to respect the case of the Jewish and Gentile Converts No other controversie in those times which his discourses could refer to Two Consectaries 〈◊〉 this Discourse I. That works of Evangelical Obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification What meant by works of Evangelical Obedience This method of Justification excludes boasting and intirely gives the glory to God II. That the doctrines of S. Paul and S. James about Justification are fairly consistent with each other These two Apostles shewed to pursue the same design S. James his excellent Reasonings to that purpose 1. THOUGH our Lord and his Apostles delivered the Christian Religion especially as to the main and essential parts of it in words as plain as words could express it yet were there men of perverse and corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the Faith who from different causes some ignorantly or wilfully mistaking the doctrines of Christianity others to serve ill purposes and designs began to introduce errors and unsound opinions into the Church and to debauch the minds of men from the simplicity of the Gospel hereby disquieting the thoughts and alienating the affections of men and disturbing the peace and order of the Church The first Ring-leader of this Heretical crue was Simon Magus who not being able to attain his ends of the Apostles by getting a power to confer miraculous gifts whereby he designed to greaten and enrich himself resolved to be revenged of them scattering the most poisonous tares among the good wheat that they had sown bringing in the most pernicious principles and as the natural consequent of that patronizing the most debauched villainous practises and this under a pretence of still being Christians To enumerate the several Dogmata and damnable Heresies first broached by Simon and then vented and propagated by his disciples and followers who though passing under different Titles yet all centred at last in the name of Gnosticks a term which we shall sometimes use for conveniency though it took not place till after S. Paul's time were as endless as 't is alien to my purpose I shall only take notice of a few of more signal remark and such as S. Paul in his Epistles does eminently reflect upon 2. AMONGST the opinions and principles of Simon and his followers this was one That God did not create the World that it was made by Angels that Divine honours were due to them and they to be adored as subordinate mediators between God and us This our Apostle saw growing up apace and struck betimes at the root in that early caution he gave to the Colossians to let no man beguile them in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind and not holding the head i. e. hereby disclaiming Christ the head of the Church But notwithstanding this warning this error still continued and spread it self in those parts for several Ages till expresly condemned by the 〈◊〉 Council Nay Theodoret tells us that in his time there were still Oratories erected to the Archangel Michael in those places wherein they were wont to meet and pray to Angels Another Gnostick principle was that men might freely and indifferently eat what had been offered in sacrifice to Idols yea sacrifice to the Idol it self it being lawful confidently to abjure the Faith in time of persecution The first part whereof S. Paul does largely and frequently discuss up and down his Epistles the latter wherein the sting and poison was more immediately couched was craftily adapted to those times of suffering and greedily swallowed by many hereby drawn into Apostasie Against this our Apostle antidotes the Christians especially the Jewish Converts among whom the Gnosticks had mixed themselves that they would not suffer themselves to be drawn aside by an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God That notwithstanding sufferings and persecutions they would hold fast the profession of the Faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is the Gnostick Hereticks remembring how severely God has threatned Apostates that if any man draw back his Soul shall have no pleasure in him and what a fearful thing it is thus to fall into the hands of the living God 3. BUT
Thy Name being called upon us let us walk worthy of that calling that our light may shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven In order also to the sanctification of thy Name grant that all our praises hymns Eucharistical remembrances and representments of thy glories may be useful blessed and esfectual for the dispersing thy fame and advancing thy honour over all the world This is a direct and formal act of worshipping and adoration The Name of God is representative of God himself and it signifies Be thou worshipped and adored be thou thanked and celebrated with honour and Eucharist 5. Thy Kingdom come That is As thou hast caused to be preached and published the coming of thy Kingdom the peace and truth the revelation and glories of the Gospel so let it come verily and esfectually to us and all the world that thou mayest truly reign in our spirits exercising absolute dominion subduing all thine Enemies ruling in our Faculties in the Understanding by Faith in the Will by Charity in the Passions by Mortification in the Members by a chaste and right use of the parts And as it was more particularly and in the letter proper at the beginning of Christ's Preaching when he also taught the Prayer that God would hasten the coming of the Gospel to all the world so 〈◊〉 also and ever it will be in its proportion necessary and pious to pray that it may come still making greater progress in the world extending it self where yet it is not and intending it where it is already that the Kingdom of Christ may not only be in us in name and form and honourable appellatives but in effect and power This Petition in the first Ages of Christianity was not expounded to signifie a prayer for Christ's second coming because the Gospel not being preached to all the world they prayed for the delay of the day of Judgment that Christ's Kingdom upon earth might have its proper increment but since then every Age as it is more forward in time so it is more earnest in desire to accomplish the intermedial Prophecies that the Kingdom of God the Father might come in glories infinite And indeed the Kingdom of Grace being in order to the Kingdom of Glory this as it is principally to be desired so may possibly be intended chiefly which also is the more probable because the address of this Prayer being to God the Father it is proper to observe that the Kingdom of Grace or of the Gospel is called the Kingdom of the Son and that of Glory in the style of the Scripture is the Kingdom of the Father S. German Patriarch of Constantinople expounds it with some little difference but not ill Thy Kingdom come that is Let thy Holy Spirit come into us for the Kingdom of Heaven is within us saith the Holy Scripture and so it intimates our desires that the promise of the Father and the Prophecies of old and the Holy Ghost the Comforter may come upon us Let that anointing from above descend upon us whereby we may be anointed Kings and Priests in a spiritual Kingdom and Priesthood by a holy Chrism 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That is The whole Oeconomy and dispensation of thy Providence be the guide of the world and the measure of our desire that we be patient in all accidents conformable to God's will both in doing and in suffering submitting to changes and even to persecutions and doing all God's will which because without God's aid we cannot do therefore we beg it of him by prayer but by his aid we are 〈◊〉 we may do it in the manner of Angelical obedience that is promptly readily chearfully and with all our faculties Or thus As the Angels in Heaven serve thee with harmony concord and peace so let us all joyn in the service of thy Majesty with peace and purity and love unfeigned that as all the Angels are in peace and amongst them there is no persecutor and none persecuted there is none afflicting or afflicted none assaulting or assaulted but all in sweetness and peaceable serenity glorifying thee so let thy will be done on earth by all the world in peace and unity in charity and tranquillity that with one heart and one voice we may glorifie thee our universal Father having in us nothing that may displease thee having quitted all our own desires and pretensions living in Angelick conformity our Souls subject to thee and our Passions to our Souls that in earth also thy will may be done as in the spirit and Soul which is a portion of the heavenly substance These three Petitions are addressed to God by way of adoration In the first the Soul puts on the affections of a Child and devests it self of its own interest offering it self up wholly to the designs and glorifications of God In the second it puts on the relation and duty of a Subject to her legitimate Prince seeking the promotion of his Regal Interest In the third she puts on the affection of a Spouse loving the same love and chusing the same object and delighting in unions and conformities The next part descends lower and makes addresses to God in relation to our own necessities 7. Give us this day our daily bread That is Give unto us all that is necessary for the support of our lives the bread of our necessity so the Syriack Interpreter reads it This day give us the portion of bread which is day by day necessary Give us the bread or support which we shall need all our lives only this day minister our present part For we pray for the necessary bread or maintenance which God knows we shall need all our days but that we be not careful for to morrow we are taught to pray not that it be all at once represented or deposited but that God would minister it as we need it how he pleases but our needs are to be the measure of our desires our desires must not make our needs that we may be consident of the Divine Providence and not at all covetous for therefore God feeds his people with extemporary provisions that by needing always they may learn to pray to him and by being still supplied may learn to trust him for the future and thank him for that is past and rejoyce in the present So God rained down Manna giving them their daily portion and so all Fathers and Masters minister to their children and servants giving them their proportion as they eat it not the meat of a year at once and yet no child or servant fears want if his Parent or Lord were good and wise and rich And it is necessary for all to pray this Prayer the Poor because they want the bread and have it not deposited but in the hands of God mercy ploughing the 〈◊〉 of Heaven as Job's expression is brings them corn