we are risen up most ready to fall We might here enlarge our Discourse but I had rather tender you the reasons Why it is so And we draw the first from the Envy of the Devil who cannot behold God nor any thing that is like unto him but is troubled with his beauty and is troubled with the least reflexion of his beauty is troubled with his infinite goodness and is troubled with his created goodness is troubled with his nature and is troubled with his name Who if he could would rob God of his purchase and would overthrow the heavens and all that ever God made all the created substances in the world Pervicacissimus hostis nunquam otium sui patitur saith Tertullian His malice is so great that he is never at rest He watcheth every good thing in its bud to nip it in its blossom to blast it in its fruit to spoil it And then he rageth most when man is delivered from his rage Tunc accenditur cùm exstinguitur Then is he most enflamed when his darts are quencht And indeed this is the nature of Envy to be restless never to sleep The Hebrews express Envy by the Eye Why is thy eye evil that is Why art thou envious The Devil hath an eye which is alwayes open observing not only the fruits of Holiness but the very seeds The Poor that is envious looks with an evil eye upon the peny that another hath He that is illiterate is angry with a letter he that is weak wisheth all were cripples This torments the Devil as much as Hell it self Invidia primùm mordax suis Envy hath a venomous tooth but it is first fastned in it self It is the pain and death of our Enemy not only to be punished with his own sin but with our goodness not only to be grieved at his own overthrow but at our hope of victory and therefore he kindles and is on fire at the sight not only of the Sun but of a Star yea at the least scintillation and glimpse of Goodness A good thought is a look towards heaven and this he strives to divert A good profession is a profer and he abates our strength in the way An Abba Father is a call to Love and he strives to disinherit us Ever as we make forward he is ready to assault us placing horror in our way that we may fear to proceed And like a cunning enemy he sets upon us at our first onset lest we gather strength He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Cyril speaks fierce and violent in his opposition A wise-man being askt how a man might preserve himself from the evil eye of Envy well replyed Si nihil feliciter gesseris If thou delight not in the practice of that which is good and beest not happy in thy undertakings Extreme Misery hath this priviledge that it stands out of the ken and reach of Envy Therefore as St. Augustine tells us Non invident archangelis angeli the Angels do not envy the Arch-angels because they are both eminently good So we cannot think that the evil spirits do envy one another because they are eminently evil and equally miserable It is therefore the duty of a Christian to make himself an object from the envy of Satan to shew forth those good works which may provoke him to build up that resolution which may anger him to make that glorious profession which may torment him For from his envy we cannot be free till we are like him till we are Diaboli so his children are called in Scripture Devils as miserable as he Whilst we lye like dry bones at the graves Ezek. 37. mouth he is quiet and still he doth not admoenire nor legiones adducere he doth not besiege us nor draw forth his troops and legions against us nec vult artem consumi ubi non potest ostendi nor will he spend his art and cunning there where he cannot shew it But when these dry bones hear the word of the Lord when the spirit breatheth into them and they live when we stand up upon our feet and make an exceeding great army when we make our members the weapons of righteousness to fight against him when he hears our songs of praise when he sees our alms when our tears drop upon his fire to quench it then the Worm begins to knaw then he walks about us and observes in what part we are weakest then he is a Serpent a Lyon a Devil Timagenes was well content that Rome should be set on fire but it troubled him much that it should rise higher and be more glorious then before So it troubleth the Devil to see him who took a fall and a bruise to be built up stronger then he was to see him who was dead in sin become a new creature and a child of wrath become the son of God And therefore hither he brings his forces that if he cannot hinder those beginnings yet he may stay them there and stop them at the first that they may be no more then beginnings that a Jew may be circumcised and no more a Christian baptised and no more that Judas may be an Apostle and no more and a Christian have that name and no more Well you may bring out the corner-stone and cry Grace grace unto it Well you may please your selves with the profession of Christianity you may lay your foundation than which no other can be laid a JESUS CHRIST but you shall build upon it not gold and silver and precious stones but wood and hay and stubble Satan will suffer thee to contend for that faith which was once delivered to the Saints to be zealous for the Lord of hosts This man shall stand up for his Christ another shall bring him forth in another shape Thou shalt dispute for the Truth thou shalt fight for the Truth The world shall be on fire for the Truth For all this is but noyse and he is very well-pleased with any noyse but that of Good works for that comes up into the presence of God In all other contentions though the cry be for Religion he is commonly one In these out-cryes and exclamations Christ indeed is named but it so falls out that every man is for him and every man against him every man speaks for him and every man contradicteth him every man cryes Hosanna Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord and every man drives him out of their coasts Religion is the badge and Religion is the word and indeed it is but a badge and a word you see and hear all The rest is Fraud and Malice and Uncleanness a wandring Eye a wanton Ear a hollow Heart a rough Hand and the name of Christian is taken in by the by to countenance these to put a gloss upon our Fraud that it may be holy to colour our Malice with zeal to make our Uncleanness the infirmity of a Saint as if you drew out the picture of a Devil
all bowels of mercy He accuseth our Faith to our Charity and perswades us that for all our good works we are none of the faithful and our Charity to our Hope as if it were so cold it could kindle no such virtue within us From Religion he drives us on to Superstition and from the fear of Superstition into that gulf of Profaneness which will swallow us up And then when he hath us in his nets when he hath by accusing us unto our selves made us guilty indeed when by accusing our virtues he hath brought to sin he draws his bill of accusation and for one sin writes down an hundred He makes every sin of Infirmity a monster writes down sudden Anger in letters of bloud makes a Word in our haste a resolution in earnest Confidence Presumption and Doubting Infidelity He writes down evil for good but not good for evil for that is his work before not after our sins And these his accusations he tenders to the Judge of all the world and is more importunate with him then the Widdow with the Judge in the Gospel Luke 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 troubles and buffets him as it were with his loud cryes and will not give over interitûs nostri avarus exactor being a rigid and covetous exactor of our destruction This he doth thus he accuseth But the manner how he tenders his accusations is not easily exprest We may safely say that as he is a Spirit so the manner of his accusing us is spiritual We when we accuse one another must do it by voice or writing For when we condemn or censure others but in our heart we are but as men that stand behind a wall and must come forth per linguae januam as Gregory speaks through the gate of the Tongue and door of the Mouth and outwardly manifest what we are within But Spirits are of another nature not compounded as we are of two divers parts Body and Soul And as their Nature is such is their Speech Sublimes incogniti modi locutionis intimae Their speech is inward and within them and the manner of it sublime and unknown Animarum verba sunt desideria saith the Father The words of our souls are our Desires and by them we cry and call unto the Lord and he hears us And if we should say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those malicious desires of Satan to devour our Souls were his accusations we speak not much amiss For God sees what the Devil hath treasured up against us as plainly as he doth our thoughts and understands them more fully then we do a Bill which we hear read in any Court of Justice Dicere Diaboli est contra bonos intrà cogitationum suarum latibula conqueri The Devils speech is that inward grudging he hath against those which are good And of that nature is his accusation of the wicked Dicere Diaboli est omnipotenti majestati Dei posse nihil celare He watcheth our steps and ponders our goings He is with us when we sin and he registers our sins down in his malicious thought And his speech is Not to be able to hide it from the eyes of God which at one view seeth both our sins and his malice Howsoever he accuseth us the manner is unknown unto us and if it be more then that I have shewed I am sure it stands out of sight and amplius quaerere non licet quà m quod inveniri licet It is not lawful to seek after that which before we set forth we know we shall not find That which neerly concerns us is so to look to our wayes as that we help not the Devil to accuse us that he may come and find nothing in us no sin not washt away with the tears of repentance and the bloud of the Lamb. For as God bids us to thirst after the joyes of heaven but doth not tell us what they are but only by telling us they are unspeakable so he bids us take heed that this Jaylor take not hold of us and hale us and accuse us before the Judge but doth not set down the manner how he will tender his Bill that so we may lose no time in seeking the one and avoiding the other For who will not hasten to joyes unspeakable or who will not fear to have his name in that Bill which he is sure will be heard I will conclude all with that excellent consideration of Hilary Stultum est calumniam in eo inquisitionis intendere in quo comprehendi id unde quaeritur per naturam suam non potest It is but a piece of vanity to strive and contend about the searching of that which cannot be comprehended or to look after that which hath no light to discover it It is enough for us to know that the Devil is an Accuser and in his best shape in his Angelical habit but a Promooter to catch us and that all his tentations to sin though they be fair to the eye and pleasant to the taste and musick to the ear are nothing else but so many means to procure so many sins to fill up this Bill And so I descend to that which I proposed in the next place to lay before you the Causes or Motives which makes the Devil our accuser And first we cannot imagine that it proceeds from any delight or ease he can take in our bloud For this were to seek Joy in Hell where there can be none at all The number of the damned are so far from diminishing the Devils pain that they increase it but yet in the Devil though there be no true joy yet there is something like our joy in evil which is in him not in the nature of a passion but as an act of his will as Aquinas saith When we sin not he is grieved because it is against his will and when we yield to his tentations he is said to be delighted because his will is fulfilled For something he would have which is not and this is his grief and something he would have which is and this is his joy In him as in us Joy is nothing else but the perfection and complement of those actions which are natural unto him And because he is naturally a hater of God and Men he is said to take delight when God is blasphemed or Man made guilty of death Quantus Diabolo luctus inest saith the Father How is the Devil grieved when the Prodigal returns because his desire was to have had him choakt with his husks And quantum Diabolo gaudium What joy is it to him to see a child turn Prodigal for this is natural unto him even the work of his hands Such is his malice unto us that mavult perire quà m non perdere he had rather be destroyed himself then that we should not perish and had rather Hell were hotter then we not come there And this his obstinate Malice proceeded from his pain from the sad apprehension of
be lost it never was true Faith as St. Hierome speaketh of Charity Tell me not of Saul's annointing of Judas's Apostleship of Balaam's prophetick spirit Tell me not of those who are in the Church but not of the Church who like the Pharisees have the Law written on their freinges Religion on the outside when the Devil is in their heart For Judas was but a traytor lurking under the title of a Disciple Sub alterius habitu alteri militavit He wore Christs livery but was the Devils servant Saul was amongst the Prophets but never received a Prophets reward And Balaam blessed the people from God but he died not the death of the righteous There may be some gifts of the Spirit where the Spirit never truly was There may be a beam of grace a shew of godliness where the power thereof is denyed And Faith in him may seem to be dead where it never had true life or being So Nazianzene speaking of those who forsook the colours under which they had formerly fought says they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men which negligently and for fashions sake handled matters of Religion having an Hosanna in their mouth when a Crucifige was in their heart like Meteors which either being drawn up by the heat of the Sun or lifted up by some puff of wind into the air there for a while they remain and draw mens eyes to behold them till at last they go out and infect it But true Faith is like the Sun which is not therefore not at all because a cloud hath overcast it or like the Moon it waxeth and waneth but still receives some light from the Sun The Papists and Arminians in this point as Augustine spake of Hereticks of the same stamp should have rather our prayers then our dispute and will sooner be recalled by our devotion then yield to the strength of our reason But if there be any infant in religion which is not yet grown up to this truth whose earthly thoughts cannot reach to the height of this heavenly mystery if he will not believe God in the book of his Words he may see and read a resemblance of it in the book of his Works Come Christian look upon the Tree In the winter it is stripped of its fruit and leaves nipped by the frost covered with snow so that it seems to be withered and dead and fit only to be cast into the fire Say then May not Faith be where Sin and the filth of the Flesh hath oppressed it Can a winter of affliction dead it Or shall we think that man whose Works alwaies speak not his Faith whose light sometimes shines dimly before men to be in the shadow of death and only fit fuel for hell-fire No this were to wrong our Charity as well as our Faith to make the way to hell broader then it is to enlarge the kingdome of Satan to undervalue the gift of Grace to mistrust the promise of God and to make him a liar like unto our selves What if we be weak and feeble What if the arm of flesh cannot uphold us Yet God directeth us in our paths and is as tender-hearted to us as a nurse to her child when she teacheth it to go sometimes leading and guiding us by his mercy sometimes catching if we slip and if we fall hastily pulling us up again and snatching us to his embraces Hear this and leap for joy you who are members of Christs mystical body You may fall but you shall rise again Your names are written in the Book of Life and neither the malice nor the policy of Satan can blot them out God hath made a league with you and you may be sure he will be as good as his word He hath married himself to you for ever and then you need not fear a divorce He hath written his law in the midst of your heart and the Devil shall never rase it out He hath put his fear into you and such and so great a fear as St. Augustine speaks that you shall alwaies adhere unto him that shall make you fly Sin as a Serpent and if it chance to bite and sting you shall make you look up to that brasen Serpent lifted up and you shall be healed If you be tempted he will give the issue Only thou must so be confident that you presume not 1 Cor. 10. so fear that you despair not Faith and Fear together make a blessed mixture Fear being as the lungs and Faith as the heart which will get an heat and over-heat as one speaketh if by Fear as by cool air it be not tempered If then Faith uphold thy Fear and Fear temper thy Faith though thou take many a fall by the way yet at last thou shalt come to thy journeys end Though the Devil shake thy Faith yet God will protect it Though he for a while steal away this precious Jewel the joy of thy salvation yet God will restore it Which is my second part the Person whose act it is Restore thou It is not the tongue of an Angel can comfort David The Prophet might awake him but raise him up he could not Nathans Parable had been but as a Proverb of the dust and his Thou art the man had sooner forced a frown then a tear from a King had not Gods Spirit fitted his heart had not the holy Ghost been the Interpreter For it is not so with the Heart as it is with the Eye The Eye indeed cannot make light nor colours yet it can open it self and receive them but the Heart neither can produce this Joy neither can it open it self to receive it But God must pulsare aperire knock and open take away the bars and open the doors of it and purge and cleanse it He must write in it the forgiveness of sins and shine upon it with the light of his countenance or else the weight of Sin will still oppress it This Joy ariseth out of the forgiveness of our sins Now such is the nature of Sin that though actus transit yet reatus manet as Lombard speaks Sin no longer is then it is a committing but the guilt of Sin still remains like a blazing star which though it self be extinct yet leaves its infection behind it For to rise from sin is not only to cease from the act of sinning but to repair our former estate not only to be rid of the disease but to enjoy our former health Now in sin as Aquinas saith there are two things peccati macula and poenae reatus the Blot and Stain of sin which doth darken the lustre of Grace And we who made this stain can blot it out again It is lost labour to wash our selves Can we Leopards lick out our own spots Can we purge our selves with hyssope and be clean Can we wash our black and polluted souls and make them whiter than snow And for the Guilt and Punishment due to sin we all stand quaking at God's Tribunal
set forth we are at our journeys end All excellency and perfection in Christianity we can put off to others that have more time to learn it commorari in eo quod novimus quà m discere quod nondum scimus melius putamus and we had rather dwell upon little than trouble our selves in the obtaining of more The Jew is content with his Ceremonies and the Christian with his outward Profession but less significant than they And all this proceedeth from a carelessness and indifferency in the wayes of godliness This is certainly a great hindrance to our studies in Christianity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Opinion is a great retarder of proficiency Many had won more ground had they with Job feared their own works been jealous of their ways and circumspect in their walk had they had that holy Jealousy and Mistrustfulness which is inseparably joyned to this Fear of Covetousness and Circumspection But indeed this Fear is most requisite in respect of those enemies of our Souls which are ever in readiness to surprize us which being more subtile than strong could never overcome us but by our own weapons They are many indeed the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life John 2. 16. every passion every vain object but these could never prevail against us if this Fear did keep us awake For let us weigh it well and we shall find that it is not the strength of our adversaries nor their multitude nor yet our own weakness which strikes us to the ground but want of that cautelousness and circumspection which we should use Dyed Abner as a Fool dyeth saith David lamenting over Abner thy hands were not bound 1 Sam. 3. 33 34. nor thy feet put into fetters but as a man falleth before the wicked so fallest thou This is the case of many Christians Their hands are not bound nor their feet put into fetters no outward violence no strength of the enemy but only their own unwariness hath overthrown them I should be loth to make the Devil less devil than he is yet I may be bold to say that many men are cut off by themselves and their own folly when the Devil beareth the blame And St. Chrysostom gives the reason for me For if there were any inforcing necessity in the Devils temptations then in good reason all that are tempted must necessarily yield and miscarry And in one of his Epistles to Olimpias considering how careless Adam was and open to admit of counsel so weak and forceless he concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he would have fallen if the Devil had not been No marvail if he surprize us when he finds us asleep in our watch He doth no more than Iphicrates did to his Centinel whom he found fast asleep Tales relinquit quales invenit He striketh us through with his Spear and wounds us to death and leaves us but as he found us in a dead sleep to sleep for ever Satana nullae feriae The Devil is ever in arms But if we stood upon our guard and were ready to resist he could never hurt us So necessary a thing is this Fear of Cautelousness and Circumspection that if we had no other defence or buckler but this yet we could never be overthrown Mater timidi rarò flet A wary and fearful child seldom brings sorrow to his mother and a careful and fearful Christian can never be cut off And therefore to keep this Jealousy awake in us the Apostle awakes one Fear with another the Fear of Circumspection with the fear of Punishment He sets up a NE EXCID ARIS a fear of being cut off to bring on the other For naturally fear of evil works a Fear of Jealousy and Circumspection and this fear of Cautelousness ushers-in that fear by which we may call Abba Father For seeing evil before us ready to seize upon us we begin to advise with our selves how to avoid it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth Aristotle Fear brings us to Consultation Call the Steward Luk. 16. 3. to an account and he is straight at his QUID FACIAM What shall I do When a King goes to war and War is a bloudy and fearful trade Luk. 14. 31. Luk. 16. 4. the Text tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he first sits down and takes council Fear is the mother of Advise and Consultation dies with Fear When we presume Counsel is needless and when we despair it is too late Alexander was as bold a leader as we read of in any history yet the Historian observes That upon some great hazard his confidence was chang'd to pensiveness and solicitude Ipsam fortunam verebatur He began to mistrust that fortune which had formerly crown'd him with so many conquests It is even so with Christians For the most part we boldly venture on in the wayes of dangers but when the bitterness of Death shews it self or the fond face of a Nè excidaris is set before us our courage fayls and we begin to mistrust that security which thrust us forward in the wayes of evil and made us bold adventurers for Hell There be three things fayth St Basil which perfect and consummate every consultation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First we consult then we establish and settle our consultation and last of all we gain a constancy and perseverance in those actions which our consultations have engaged us in And all these three we have from this servile Fear Did we not fear we should not consult Did not Fear urge and prick us forward we should not determine And when this breath goeth forth our counsels fall and all our thoughts perish The best preservative of a Branch now grafted is a Nè excidaris the sight and fear of that knife which may cut him off For this servile Fear though it hath got an ill name in the world yet is of singular use and for want of it many branches have been cut off and cast away How many go to Hell in a pleasant dream How many have been cut off because they never feared it How many hath a feigned and momentany assurance destroy'd for ever Cheerful they are rejoyce in the Lord alwaies no Law concerns them no curse can reach them if it thunder they melt not and if the tempest rise they are asleep as for Fear it is not in all their wayes And this they make a mark and infallible note of a Child of God Timor Capitalis Diabolicus Fear is deadly and diabolical A pleasing errour this but very dangerous For alass this Joy may be but an abortive begot by the conquest of some few temptations this Cheerfulness may be an incantation This Assurance insensibility and this Security stupefaction For as the Historian observes of men in place and authority Cùm se fortunae committunt etiam naturam dediscunt When they rely only upon their greatness and authority they loose their very nature and turn savage and quite
spake of Philosophy is as true of Religion and Devotion Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes When men were truly devout there was no contention but this one Who should be most devour All the noise was in their Temples little in their Schools All men then did joyn together with one heart and mind in prayer and not as now fly asunder and stand at distance and then give laws to one another or which is worse in their hearts denounce a curse against those who will not follow their example that is set the countenance tune the voice roll the eye pray at adventure and in all things do as they do or which is equivalent to a curse esteem them at best but meer moral men would they were so good but unsanctified men and void of saving Grace and so nourish that venome and malice in their hearts against their Brethren which certainly cannot lodge in the same room with true Devotion and leave them only fit to act a prayer And then what a Roscius is a Pharisee Beloved Prayer was a Duty but is become a Probleme and men who cannot gain the reputation of Wise but by doing that for which they deserve another name and title have been bold to put it to the question When and How and In what manner we may pray as if this Form came short which our Saviour hath prescribed have lookt upon all other Forms and this of Christs by which they were made as upon a stone of offense and out of it have struck the fire of Contention Nihil tam sanctum quod non inveniat sacrilegum There is nothing so sacred so set apart which a profane hand dare not touch and violate no Manna which may not be loathed nothing so profitable to advance piety which may not be trod under foot If you cast a pearl to a Swine he will turn upon you and rent you if he can A set-Form That is a chain and binds the holy Ghost to an Ink-horn Meditation without which we will not speak to our fellow mortal That stints the blessed Spirit It is their own language They bring Sermons and Prayers of Gods own making because they themselves takes no pains in framing them Multa sunt sic digna revinci nè gravitate adorentur saith Tertullian Many exceptions may be taken which are not worth the excepting against and many are so ridiculous that to be serious and earnest in confuting of them were to honour them too much We cannot but pity the men because we are Christians otherwise we could not but make them the object of our laughter We have probability enough to induce us to believe that some of those who have so startled at a Form would for the very same reason have complained had there been none at all For he that looks for a fault will be sure to find one or if he do not find will make one They would have been as hot and angry had the Church been naked as they are now they see her glorious in all her embroydery Ceremony or no Ceremony Form or no Form all is one to him whose custome whose nature whose advantage it is to be contentious What no reverence in the Church of Christ as lyable to exceptions as What too much What turn the cock and let it run one would think more obnoxious to censure then by meditation to draw waters out of the fountain the Word of God What speak we know not what Such an accusation in all reason should sooner raise a tempest then to pray after that manner which our best Master hath taught us When it concerns us to be angry every shadow is a monster every thing is out of order every thing nothing is a fault I have not been so particular as I should because we live among fanatick spirits with men who as David speaketh are soon set on fire who can themselves at pleasure libel the whole world yet put on the malice of a Fiend and clothe themselves with vengeance at the sound of the most gentle reprehension Imbecilla loedi se putant si tangantur You must not lay a finger upon that which is weak If you but touch them they are inraged and will pursue you as a murderer Yet we may take leave to consider what degrees and approaches the Arch-Enemy of the Church and Religion hath made to overthrow all Devotion and to digg up Christianity by the roots First men are offended with Ceremony though as ancient as the Church it self and at last cry down Duty First no Kneeling at the Sacrament and then no Sacrament at all First no Witnesses at the Font and then no Baptism First no Ordination and then no Minister and he is the best Preacher who hath no calling though he be fitter to handle the Flayl then the Bible First no Adorning of Churches and presently they speak it plainly A Barn a Stable is as good as a Church And so it may be for such cattle as they First no set-Form of Prayer and within a while they will teach Christ himself how to pray Thus Error multiplyes it self and striking over-hastily at that which is deemed Superstition leaves that untoucht and wounds Religion it self and swallows up the Truth in victory in the unadvised and heedless pursuit of an error This is an evil humor and works upon every matter it meets with and when it hath laid all desolate before it it will at last gnaw upon it self as in the bag of Snakes in Epiphanius the greatest Snake eat up the lesser and at last half of himself For we commonly see that they that strike at whatsoever other men set up are at last as active to destroy the work of their own hands and they who quarrel with every thing do at last fall out with themselves Oh what pity is it that Religion and Piety should be thus toyed withal that men should play the wanton with those heavenly advantages which should be as staves to uphold them here on earth and as wings to carry them up to heaven that there should be so much noise and business about that Duty which requireth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quietness the tranquility the stillness of the soul that Praying should become begging indeed I mean as Begging is now-a-dayes an art and trade that all Devotion should be lost in shews that men should hate Ceremony and yet be so much Papists as they are that they should cry Down with Babylon even to the ground and yet build up a Babel in themselves But beloved we have not so learned Christ Therefore let us lay hold on better things and such as accompany Piety that Piety which brings with it salvation Let us not be afraid of a good duty because it hath fallen into evil hands Let us not leave off to pray in that Form which our Saviour hath taught us or in any other Form which is conformable to that because some men love to play the wantons and
infinite Goodness and one who shut-up the bowels of that Compassion which is open unto all The Fathers would have it once Novatus not once and for ought appears both upon the same ground and reason To teach men that after Remission once obtained their work is to subdue Tentations and to fight against the Devil whom they have so solemnly renounced It is true Novatus was in the error But against a wilfull offender his error is as useful as their truth and though it be no cordial for a broken and contrite heart yet is it a good antidote against Sin For how wary would men be in ordering their steps if they could perswade themselves that every fall were irrecoverable and that God is as jealous of his Mercy as of his Truth and will not afford too frequent a view and sight of her to those who every day prostitute her to their lusts I am sure the Fathers even where they oppose Novatus deliver the doctrine of Repentance with great wariness Invitè loquor saith Tertullian I am unwilling to publish this free mercy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil I speak in fear when I speak of Mercy For my desire is that after Baptism you would sin no more and my fear is that you will sin more and more upon presumption of mercy Upon presumption of Mercy it is that we do return with the dog to our vomit that we have alternas inter cupiditatem poenitentiam vices those courses and that interchange between our lusts and repentance that we are whirled about like the Spheres which reiterate their motion and return to the point which they passed Our whole life is a motion and circumvolution from Sin to Repentance and from Repentance to Sin again from Want to Mercy and from Mercy to the Need of it And thus we turn and return till at last we all burn in the common conflagration and our souls shall shrivel up as a scroul We woo sin and embrace it but upon some pang that we feel we begin to distast it When it flatters we are even sick with love but when it after chides us we are weary of it and would fain shake it off Our soul cleaveth to it and our soul loatheth it We send it a bill of divorce and after marry and joyn with it And all this ariseth from our Presumption of Mercy I should be loth to confine the Mercy and Goodness of God which is infinite I know Repentance is not as Baptism but once to be had and never reiterated that he who was overcome at first may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundo certamine superare recover the field and at a second onset gain the conquest over that enemy who before had foiled him But it concerns us Christians to be very wary that our best remedy turn not into a disease nè nobis subsidia poenitentiae blandiantur that these succors and supplies do not flatter us so long till we grow at last enamored with their very shadows and names Let us beg Remission upon our knees but then stand-up against Tentations Our first care should be nè peccemus that as far as is possible we do not sin at all but then si peccemus if we sin we have an Advocate unto whom we may lift-up our eyes till he have mercy upon us And if we obtain favour at his hands we must sin no more lest a worst thing fall unto us lest that sin which did but prick us to some sense of it at last sting us to death In a word we must watch and pray lest we enter into temptation and so bring a nullity on our Pardon And this we learn from the order and connexion of these two Petitions NE INDUCAS Lead us not into tentation immediately followeth after REMITTAS Forgive us our trespasses that we may learn not to pardon that sin which God hath pardoned We should now unfold the Petition it self But so much at this time The Two and Fourtieth SERMON PART II. MATTH VI. 13. And lead us not into tentation but deliver us from evil THIS is the sixth and last Petition And I make it but one although some there be who have divided it and made it two that so they might make up the full number of Seven and so compare them to the seven Stars to the seven golden Candlesticks and the like But for ought I know we may find as great a mystery in the number of Six as others have in that of Seven But this were exercere ingenium inter irrita nihil profuturis otium terere to catch at atoms or shadows and spend our time to no purpose I am sure the Petitions can borrow no virtue from the number nor do I see how the number should derive any mystery from the Petitions Be they six or seven it is not much material But most plain it is in the Vulgar Latine edition in St. Luke this latter particle SED LIBERA NOS A MALO but deliver us from evil is wanting Which at this day is extant in all the Greek copies and in the Syriack edition Although it is more than probable that in the time of the Old Interpreter there were some Greek copies which had it not And therefore the diverse reading and the defect of this part in St. Luke is a probable confirmation that there is nothing contained in this last part of the Petition which was not virtually in the former and that it is no distinct petition from it but rather an explication of it affording us light more exactly to discover what it is we desire when we pray NOT TO BE LED INTO TENTATION Eò respondet clausula interpretans quid sit NE NOS INDUCAS IN TENTATIONEM saith Tertullian For we then are victorious and overcome tentations when we are freed not only from them but from the power of that Evil one who multiplieth them and with them works upon the soul with an intent to ruine and overthrow it And here before we descend to particular enquiries concerning the Nature the Power the Variety and the Ends of Tentations and the Manner of their working together with the Remedies or Means by which we may overcome them we must stay a while upon the words here Tentation and to be led into temptation For the word Tentation in Scripture hath divers significations all drawn from one and the same Etymon of the word which is To assay or make tryal what another will do To attempt to work some new and unusual thing And so God is said to tempt and the Devil to tempt and God doth make tryal and the Devil makes tryal although God doth it only to make tryal of our obedience the Devil doth it with a further purpose to destroy us So God is said to tempt Abraham when Gen. 22. 1. he commanded him to sacrifice his Son which was rather a Probation than a Tentation ut per eum faceret exemplum praecepto suo saith
bids us tread him under foot He bids us who is Xystarchus the master of the race and Epistates the overseer of the combate His Grace is Bellonia that divine Power which shall drive-back our enemies And if the Devil inspire evil thoughts God is both able and willing to inspire good and in all our tryals in all time of our tribulation in all time of our wealth in the hour of death and in the day of judgment his Grace is sufficient for us that our rejoycing and boasting may be in the Lord that the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble army of Martyrs that all the victorious Saints of God may cast-down their crowns at his feet and confess that Salvation is from the Lord. And thus much be spoken of the Reasons why God doth exercise his servants with divers tentations The Four and Fourtieth SERMON PART IV. MATTH VI. 13. And lead us not into tentation but deliver us from evil THE Reasons why God permits Tentations and hath placed mankind as it were in open field to fight it out against spiritual enemies we laid before you the last day We proceed now to discover the Manner of their operation and working and to find-out when they become sins and how we may know they have prevailed and overcome us The Will of Man as his Desire is led with respect of somewhat that is good or at least seemeth so This provoketh and draweth both Sense and Will to perform her actions And though the Desire which is first and the Delight which follows be inward and inherent yet those things which we affect and would attain are then external when we pursue them and when we enjoy them they are but in a manner conjoyned with us in opinion or possession which contenteth both body and soul St. Augustine upon the 79 Psalm makes two roots of Sin Desire and Fear Omnia peccata duae res faciunt Desiderium Timor St. James tells us that every man is tempted by his own lust which is the nurse and mother of Sin Nor doth St. Augustine jarr with St. James who setteth down Lust for the first spring of every tentation to Sin For either that Tentation which St. James speaks of is a delightful provocation to sin resting within us or that Terror which St. Augustine addeth is nothing else but a violent and external inducement working from without Or else we may joyn the one as a consequent to the other since the natural Desire we have of our own ease breadeth in us the Dislike and Fear of evil which so strongly urgeth and forceth us From whence we may conclude that if Desire and Fear as St. Augustine speaks be the motives and inducements to all sins and the Desire and Fear on which depend the rest of the affections be passions of the Sensitive part of the Soul permixed in this life with corporal Spirits then all have their provocation and incitement from the bodily senses spirits or motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus All Desires and Fears and Sorrows have their original rising and motion from the Body For the Father will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Passion is nothing else but a sensible motion of the Desiring and Appetitive faculty upon the imagination of good or evil The passions of the soul as Desire Fear Joy Sorrow do not move in this life without the Body First in that they are sensible motions they must be perceived in the Body Secondly in that they rise from the Sensitive appetite they are conjoyned with the Body Thirdly in that they come from the Phansie or Imagination of good or evil whether truly so or but in appearance they are kindled from the Senses of the Body What the Eye sees beautiful awaketh my Desires what terrible provokes Hatred and Disdain What is good and atchievable lightens my Joy What is evil and unavoidable begets Sorrow According as things objected to Sense or remembred after seem good or evil to the powers of the soul so is Desire or Anger kindled by Pleasure on the one side or Dislike and Grief on the other which presently and with a kind of violence prevaileth with the Soul if we do not stand up strong to resist them Thus the Body hath its operation upon the Soul as the Soul hath upon the Body Adeò autem non sola anima transigit vitam ut nec cogitatus licèt solos licèt non ad effectum per carnem deductos auferamus à collegio carnis saith Tertullian So far is it that the Soul should be alone in the actions of our life that we cannot take those thoughts which are alone and not yet by the flesh brought into act from the society and fellowship of the body For in the flesh and with the flesh and by the flesh that is done by the soul which is done in the heart and inward man In all sins not only the Doers and Actors but the Leaders Directors and Advisers Consenters and Allowers are guilty with the Principal All the Instruments are justly detested where the Sin is worthily condemned The Creatures of God which in themselves are very good being made snares and pricks and thorns unto man are subjected Rom. 8. 20. to vanity and have no better ruler than Satan the God of this world because that by infecting Man with sin he hath altered and inverted the use and end of the whole world The Eye that wanderd after vanity shall be filled with horror the Ear that delighted in blasphemy shall be punished with weeping and gnashing of teeth the Touch which luxury and wantonness corrupted shall be tormented with fire and brimstone Men as well as Angels sin in their whole natures in their bodies and in their souls Otherwise one part must be placed in hell as peccant the other in heaven as innocent And this the Fathers made an argument and strong proof of the Resurrection of the dead Sic ad patiendum societatem carnis expostulat anima ut tam plenè per eam pati possit quà m sine ea plenè agere non potuit The Soul must have the society and company of the Body in the punishment as she made it a fellow and companion in sin that now she may as fully suffer by it and with it as before without it she could do nothing And they bring her in thus bespeaking the Flesh Thou didst let open the gates at which the enemy enterd that destroy'd us both Thou hadst Beauty for which I was more deformed Riches for which I was the poorer Thou wert clothed sumptuously for which I was the more naked Thou hadst Strength for which I was the weaker Thou hadst Eyes which let-in those colours which are now blackness and darkness Thou hadst Ears which suckt-in that musick which is turned into mourning In thee was the sin shaped and formed which begat death I have sinned in thee and with thee and now we
Manichees made some of the creatures which in themselves are very good evil by nature and therefore were forced to invent two causes and beginnings of things the one good the other evil With them it was a kind of murder to pluck up a Plant and sacriledge to taste of the Vine Therefore they called Wine fel potestatum tenebrarum the very Gall of the Devil and the powers of Darkness But the Father makes it plain prodesse singula per convenientiam that every creature is good and useful by a kind of conveniency and to that end to which Nature hath ordained it For if the Scorpion were in it self evil it would then certainly soonest kill and destroy it self We will not here engage our selves in a needless dispute What say we to Diseases and Calamities and Destruction of Cities and War and Pestilence and the like These indeed are Evils and we may pray against them For the Wise man will tell us Fortis est perpeti at non est prudentis optare periculum There may be Valour shown in induring of these evils but it is no Wisdome to wish for them For Virtue is opposed to these not because she chuseth them but because through the inevitable Laws of Necessity she cannot avoid them And therefore when the Christians professed a willingness to suffer persecution and the Heathen upbraided them Cur ergo querimini Why then do you complain of us for afflicting you Tertullian replyes Planè pati volumus verum eo modo quo bellum miles Truly we are willing to suffer but with the same mind with which the Souldier doth enter the battle in which he is glad to overcome though before he complained that he was forced to fight Thefe are evil saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our sense sensible evils And we may nay we must pray against them because we are uncertain to which hand they may incline us whether they may drive us to the right hand or to the left And indeed all those deliverances we pray for in our common Litany are but as so many branches from this root LIBER A NOS A MALO Deliver us from evil But those Evils which are truly so and in their own nature proceed as our Saviour speaks from within us not Thunder and Persecution and War and Pestilence but Injustice and Wantormess and Luxury and Envy and Malice and Deceit and the rest of those hellish Evils which do pollute the soul and deface the image of God in us Haec sunt verè mala quae faciunt malos Those evils are truly and really evil which make us evil Indeed when we speak of evil every man streight phansieth to himself that Evil which he is most afraid of the Covetous Poverty the Ambitious Disgrace the Voluptuous the bitter cup of Afflictions although these as they may be applied are rather remedies than evils For Poverty may teach the Covetous the uncertainty of Riches and Disgrace the Ambitious what a bubble Honor is and how soon turned into air and Misery the Voluptuous what a sad aspect Pleasure hath when it turns its back and goes from us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Father For those things which we suffer are not evil but those things which we do But we our selves create evils draw them out unto our selves in the form of evil things and then name them so So the superstitious Papist brings every rotten stick he meets with to kindle a fire and then trembles at it and to be freed from this cryes out Domine hîc ure hîc seca Lord let the fire be in this world let us feel the lash of temporal affliction let any evil fall upon us here so we fall not into the fire of Purgatory But the best of it is that this may be perhaps in the Trent but is neither in our Creed nor Pater Noster and the Cardinal tells us that if we believe it not we shall never feel it and we are willing to take the condition for we neither believe it nor can we fear or hope to come there But every man cryes out for deliverance at the sight of that evil which is a meer creature of the Phansie and hath no being and subsistence but in the mind which many times is more busie to make evils than to overcome them nullóque autore malorum Quae finxere timent and men fear where no fear is fear that to which themselves have given both a being and horror which themselves have made and made formidable But it is no supposed no feigned Evil which we here pray against It is a real and substantial Evil. And if we can find out the next and immediate cause of Evil whose work it is to make Prosperity a snare and Adversity a wind to drive us from the fountain of Goodness to the waters of bitterness by whose art and skill a tempest in the air shall beget another in the mind and the diseases of the body the plague of the heart by whose machinations and subtilty it many times comes to pass that plenty brings forth Wantonness and Luxury and Poverty Repining and Murmuring that can so work with these things which are not in their own nature Evil that they shall make us evil with these sensible Evils that they shall produce those Evils which are so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their own nature truly and properly Evils as Sin and everlasting Death then we need make no further search but conclude that this is it And indeed if we look nearer to the word in the Text and compare it with other places of Scripture and with the former part Lead us not into tentation we shall easily be induced to believe that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here which signifies evil is not of the neuter but the masculine gender and rather points out to some evil Person then some evil Thing For so we find it taken in the chapter before v. 37. Let your communication be Yea Yea Nay Nay for whatsoever is more then these is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of evil And chapter 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked One is twice mentioned And as our Saviour so the Apostles after use it St. Paul Ephes 6. 16. Take the shield of faith that you may be able to quench all the fiery darts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Wicked One. And 1 John 2. 13 14. I have written unto you yong men because ye have overcome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wicked one And chap. 5. he tells us of him who is born of God that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Wicked one toucheth him not Which is no other than the Devil who is MALUS per antonomasiam so evil that his name is so so that as Evil is placed for the Devil so is the Devil for evil The Evil one toucheth him not that is the Devil Est unus ex vobis Diabolus saith our Saviour to his Disciples One of you is a Devil
passage for those of the greatest magnitude This is a fallacy saith Aristotle in his Politicks to think that if the particulars be small the sum will be so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is not small because it consists of many littles The Philosopher tells us Small expenses if frequent overthrow a family And Demosthenes in his fourth Philippick saith that that neglect which endangers a Common-wealth is not seen in particular actions and miscarriages but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the conclusion and event at last Qui legem in minimis contemserit quomodo in magnis tenebit He that contemns the Law in matters of less how will he observe it in matters of greater moment and difficulty He that cannot check a thought how will he bridle his tongue He that will transgress for a morsel of bread what a villain would he be to purchase a Lordship It will be good wisdom therefore as we behold the finger of God and his Omnipotency not only in the heavens the Sun and the Moon and the Stars but in the lesser creatures in the Emmet and in the Plants of the earth so also to discover the Devils craft and policy not only in Murder and Adultery and the like but in an idle Word and a wandring Thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to punish the very beginnings of Sin and to be afraid of the cloud when it is no bigger than a mans hand These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devils machinations his treble false doors by which he may slip-out and return again unseen These are devises by which that great Architect of fraud and deceit doth ensnare our souls and lead us captive under Sin These we have made choice of and cull'd out of his quiver not but that he hath many more darts but because these are they which he casts every day against the professors of Christianity and which in these later times have wounded thousands of souls to death And if we can take the whole armor of God and be strong against these we need not fear his other artillery If these snares hold us not it will be easie to keep our feet out of the rest The Seven and Fourtieth SERMON PART VII MATTH VI. 13. But deliver us from evil EVIL our very nature startles at which is of its self inclinable to that which is good and tends to it as to its center and place of rest Therefore these two words Evil and Deliver look mutually one upon the other The glory of our Deliverance layes open to the view the terror of Evil and the smart of Evil makes Deliverance pleasant and delightful Malum nihil aliud est quà m Boni interpretatio saith Lactantius Evil is nothing else but a fair interpretation and a kind of commentary on that which is Good The very words speak as much For EVIL is a word quod cum ictu audimus which we hear with a kind of smart but DELIVERANCE we hear as good news The voice of joy and deliverance are Psal 118. joyned together and are the same This Petition then for Deliverance is legatio ad supernum Regem as the Father speaks a kind of embassage sent to the high and mighty King of heaven from weak and frail and impotent Man who is to live on the earth as in a strange land in the midst of many enemies which will be as pricks in his eyes and thorns in his sides who must converse as a companion with them and every day meet and cope with that which may every day overthrow him to desire aid and succour from Him that is mightier than they that he will send-in his auxiliary troops and forces his Angels to pitch their tents round about him and his Mercies to compass him in on every side that he will abate their forces and arm him with strength that he may stand up against them and not fall or if he fall he may rise again and so through many afflictions through many temptations pass to the Land of Promise and to that City whose maker and builder is God We have spoken at large of Evil which is the object of our Fear We pass now to shew you what is meant by Deliverance which is the object of our Faith For this Prayer or Deprecation is clamor mentis the cry of our Mind trembling at the apprehension of evil and clamor fidei the language of our Faith nothing wavering but confident of His power and wisdome to whom we pray for Deliverance We look-down upon the evil and are afraid we look-up upon God and are comforted The cup of Affliction is bitter but God can sweeten it and make it a cup of Salvation The Devil is strong but there is a stronger than he who can bind him And as it was sung to Maximinus the Tyrant ELEPHAS GRANDIS EST ET OCCIDITUR LEO FORTIS EST ET OCCIDITUR The Elephant is a great beast yet he is slain the Lion a stout beast yet he is slain too So be the Evil what it will God can and will deliver us And these two Fear of the Evil and Confidence in God do make it orationem alatam add wings to our prayer and by it we place our selves in the presence nay under the wing of God and fly from the evil to come Every prayer is so ascensus mentis ad Deum an ascent of the mind unto God to contemplate his Majesty and those glorious attributes which he is His Wisdom which runneth swiftly throughout the earth and sees things that are not as if they were beholds Evils present and in their approach sees not only in longum afar off but in finem to the very end of every action of every intent and at once considers not only the parts but the whole course of our life His Power to which nothing is difficult by which he doth what he will in heaven and in earth which can raise the poor out of the dust and make the dunghill better than a throne and His Mercy which is over all his works but especially over Man the Master-piece of his works ready at all times to shelter him when he complains In this Petition we make an acknowledgment of these three Divine Attributes especially We profess that we are assured God seeth all our paths such is his Wisdom that he ordereth all our goings such is his power and that he will deliver us from our cruel enemy such is his infinite Mercy We shall pass then by these steps and degrees We will shew 1. What it is to be delivered from evil 2. That it is the work of God alone and 3. That being delivered we must offer-up the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving JOVI LIBERATORI to God our Deliverer and give all the glory of the victory to him alone When we hear of Deliverance from evil we may conceive perhaps such a Deliverance as may set us at such a distance from it that it may not come near us And of such a
torpid and tender constitution many of us are that we wish it were so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We would neither have it rain upon us nor would we feel the heat of the Sun To struggle with Affliction and to stand the snock of a Temptation is a thing tedious and irksome to our nature NE NOCEAT That it may not hurt us is not enough NE TANGAT is our prayer we desire it shall not touch us What Antony imputed to Augustus may pass as a just censure upon us in this our warfare Rectis oculis nè aspicere potuisse rectam aciem We cannot look upon these armies of sorrows and temptations with a stedfast and settled eye When they appear before us in their full shew and march we are ready to hide our selves as it was said of him We only look up unto heaven vota solùm Diis fundentes pouring forth our fears and desires before God praying not for victory but for the removal of these sad spectacles not to be delivered in battel but not to fight The reason of this is from hence That we do judicium tradere affectibus submit our judgments to our Affections nay to our Sense so that the same horror which the Sense apprehends affects the Rational part and a stripe on the Body leaveth a mark on the Understanding We are ignorant of the nature and quality or rather of the operation and end of these things which we call evil we make not a true and just estimate of them but like bad artificers we look upon the matter so much that we quite forget what it may make To us a knotty piece of wood is so and no more a viper is a viper and the Devil a Serpent and a Lion and no more But a skilful artificer out of this piece of wood will make a God the Apothecary can find treacle in this viper And if we stand upon our guard the Devil saith Chrysostom would be evil to himself and not to us But this is not the true meaning To be delivered from evils is not so to be delivered as by a kind of priviledge to be quite exempt from the least touch of them This were too high a pitch for our mortal nature to reach unto This were not to be delivered but to be as God To be delivered here supposeth a possibility nay a necessity of sufferance For necesse est ut veniant it is necessary that some of these evils should befall us or else we cannot properly be said to be delivered from evil Huic nimis boni est cui nihil est mali He hath too much good who was never acquainted with evil Indeed Tertullian renders it EVEHE NOS A MALO Lift and carry us up out of the sight of evil But then he seems in the word evil to allude to a snare And then it is no more then this Lift us aloft above evil that it prove not a snare unto us If we be poor and miserable let not our poverty or misery ensnare us In Acts 2. 24. Christ is said to have loosed the sorrows of hell And St. Augustine gives this gloss Non illos quibus nexus est sed nè necteretur Not those sorrows wherewith he was bound but that he might not be bound at all with them But such a Deliverance as this from all kind of evil cannot be lookt for on earth For Man is born to labour and sorrow as the sparks fly upwards saith Eliphas And these may seem to proceed from his Job 5. 7. very nature as the Sparks do from Fire Now as soon as any Evils seize on us we are in chains and as willing to shake them off as any prisoner his gieves Here is the difference No prisoner can be said to be at liberty till his fetters be off but we may be delivered when these evils hang on us and these chains be made ornaments of Grace The Civilians will tell us Auxilium venit cùm cessat periculum that we may then be said to have received aid when the danger is past So may we be said to have deliverance when the noxious quality of the evil is spent when God hath placed us over it as he did Moses over Pharaoh to rule and govern it given us a divine power over it that though it rise up against us again and again and will not let us go yet we shall at last overthrow it So then we shall lie-down in sorrow and misery as Christ did in his grave and yet as he was free amongst the dead though dead yet to rise again and triumph over Death so shall we be free even in this our bondage as weak and yet strong as dying and behold we live as sorrowful yet alway rejoycing as chastized and yet not killed And as He by dying overcame Death so we by suffering evil shall gain a conquest over Evil that we may now rejoyce and sing Where is thy sting The sting of these sensible Evils is Sin But thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. And thus are we delivered from Evil NE NOCEAT that it do not hurt us But there is a further Deliverance UT PROSIT that it may help us that out of this Eater may come meat even sweeter than hony or the hony-comb Indeed these two are never asunder If it do not hurt us it will help us If it do not weary our Patience it confirms it If our Faith fal not it strengthens it There is no medium here but this operation or that it will have either it will make us better or it will make us worse In a word Every Evil that befalls us is either our physick or our poyson either the savour of life unto life or the savour of death unto death Now God is said to deliver us from evil when he drives it home to that end which he intends when he deads that operation which the Devil hath put in it and maketh it work-on in a contrary course For as it is the work of the Devil to raise evil out of good so is it the very nature and property of God to force good out of evil nay many times out of Sin it self The Devil thrusts hard against us that we may fall not a dart he throws but with a full intent to wound us unto death But God shortens his strength in the way that many times it falls short and reacheth not home or if it do reach home and stick in our sides our faith shall quench it and the wound he gives us shall cure us and make us more healthful He maketh Affliction more bitter than it is that we may murmure and complain and run from our station and he makes Riches and Pleasures far more sweet than they are that we may taste them often and surfet on them and for love of them loath the water of life But God changeth the complexion of Evil and though it be gall in
the mouth he makes it become a cordial in the stomach that so we may say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted And he puts gall and wormwood on Pleasure that we may seek it where it is in his Law and Testimonies that neither Sorrow dismay nor Pleasure deceive us We may truly say The very finger of God is here For it is the work of God to create Good out of Evil and Light out of Darkness which are heterogeneous and of a quite contrary nature For as the Apostle tells us that every creature of God is good being sanctified by the word of God so when God speaks the word even the worst Evil is Good and not to be refused because by this word it is sanctified and set apart and consecrated as a holy thing to holy uses The word of God is as the words of consecration And when he speaks the word then the things of this world receive another nature and new names and have their denomination not from what they appear but from what they do not from their smart but from their end Then that which I call Poverty shall make me rich and that which I esteem Disgrace shall stile me honourable Then the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt Then this Affliction this light and momentany affliction shall bring with it an eternal weight of glory And therefore we may behold the blessed Saints of God triumphing in their misery and counting those blows which the wicked roar under as favours and expressions of Gods love John and Peter esteemed it an honour and high preferment and rejoyced as they who are raised from the dunghil to the throne that they were thought worthy to suffer shame And so doth Paul For after he had Act. 5. 41. besought the Lord thrice to be freed from that buffeting of Satan and had 2 Cor. 12. recoverd that answer My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is perfected is made open and manifest in weakness he presently breaksforth into these high triumphant expressions Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me So rest upon me that no evil may rest upon me to hurt me that I may have a feeling and a comfortable experimental knowledge of it For this I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak then am I strong My opinion is alterd my thoughts are not the same my judgment is divers from what it was That which was terrible to my Sense is pleasing to my Reason That which was Persecution is a Blessing That which was a Serpent is a Rod to work wonders and forward my deliverance Nova rerum facies There appears a new face and shape of things as there doth to a man who is removed out of a dungeon into the light And as Plato tells us that when the Soul is delivered from the Body for we may call even Death it self a deliverance it doth find a strange alteration and things in the next world divers from what they were in this so when the Soul is delivered from Sin every thing appears to us in another shape Pleasure without its paint and Sorrow without its smart The Devil is not an Angel of light but a Devil a Lion a Serpent a Destroyer in what shape soever he puts-on Oppidum mihi carcer solitudo paradisus saith St. Hierom A City is a prison and the Wilderness a paradise The waters of Affliction break-in but the bloud of Christ is mingled with them Here is the gall of bitterness but the power of Christ works with it and it is sweeter than hony or the hony-comb For this cause I am wel pleased in infirmities I am saith St. Paul so far from desiring to be freed from them that I take Christs word as a kiss and think it best with me when it is worst Let him handle me how he will so he fling me not out of his hands For if I be in his hands though the World frown and the Devil rage yet his hand will be exalted and his mighty power will be eminent in my weakness If God be with us no Evil can be against us Therefore the Apostle calleth Affliction a gift To you saith he it is given not onely to believe on him but also to suffer for his Phil. 1. 29. sake not forced upon you as a punishment but vouchsafed you as a gift We mistake when we call it evil It is a donative and a largess from a royal Prince to his Souldiers who have stood it out manfully and quit themselves well in the day of battel When men have been careful in their waies and have been upright and sincere towards God in all their conversation then God doth grace and honour them by making them champions for his truth and putting them upon the brunt He doth not lend or sell them to calamities but appoints it to them as an office as a high place of dignity as a Captains place a Witnesses place a Helpers place And how great an honour is it to fight and die for the Truth How great an honour is it to be a Witness for God and to help the Lord First God crowneth us with his grace and favour and then by the Grace of God we are what we are holy and just and innocent before him and then he crowns our Innocency with another crown the crown of Martyrdom Quarta perennis erit And at last he crowns us with that everlasting crown of Glory This is truly to be delivered from all evil to be delivered that it may not hurt us and to be delivered that it may help us But we have run too long in generalities we must be more particular For I fear we do not thus understand it nor pray to be delivered in this manner or if we do quod voto volumus affectu nolumus our affections do not follow our prayers When we think of Smart and Sorrow we are all for Gods Preventing grace to step in between us and the Evil that it come not near us not for his Assisting grace by which we may change its nature and make it good unto us for his Effective providence which may remove it out of sight not for his Permissive by which he suffers it to approach near unto us to set upon us and fight against us and put us to the tryal of our strength But beloved we must joyn them both together or else we do not put up our petitions aright We must desire Health for it self but be content with Physick for Healths sake We must look upon Evil and present it before our eyes as our Saviour in that fearful hour did Gods Wrath towards mankind not yet appeased and Death in its full strength and Hell not yet mastered by any and then on the other side a World to be saved