all shew and profession of it which if well obserued are the least and worst doers in a Conntry Which Satanicall Sophisme Saint Iames deepely preuents who though the chiefe aime of his Epistle was to vrge Hypocrites to bee Doers and vaine boasters of iustifying faith to iustifie their Faith by their workes yet forelaid this Caueat Be swift to heare Needfull euen in these hearing and knowing times wherein though knowledge couer the earth as waters the Sea yet may the Lord haue iustly a controuersie with the Land or a great number at least in it like dry Rocks in the middest of this Sea who haue not a dramme of sauing and well grounded knowledge But this is but a pre-requisite to the maine thing heere required which happinesse is intendedly fore-placed knowledge being but a step to this turret of Happinesse Happy are you if you doe them Here 's the labour here is the difficultie here is the happinesse in the coniunction of doing with knowing to practise that wee know to performe the duties prescribed in the Gospell to beleeue the things to bee beleeued and to doe the things to be done the summe of Faith and Loue sweetly coupled in this significant ablution of his Disciples feete Three noble ends Diuinitie propounds to her followers the first and greatest Gods Glory the second next to that man 's owne content heere and saluation hereafter the last like to the former the edification and conuersion of our neighbours In the attainment of these is a Christians perfection and happinesse none whereof bare Theorie shall euer more then come neere All three practice ioyned thereto fully apprehends Of these three that must needs be the noblest which God primarily intended in the Reuelation of his will to mankinde and Moses oft tels vs is that wee might obserue to doe them For if as Wolphius reasoneth by a distribution hee had giuen vs his Lawes to preserue onely he safelier might haue committed them to iron Coffers and Marble Pillars if onely to talke and prate of them better to Geese and Parrats if onely for Contemplation to Owles in Iuywoods or to Monks in Cloisters and not to all sorts of people His scope sure was not to make triall of the wits of men who could sharpeliest conceiue nor of their memories who could faithfulliest retaine of their eloquence who could roundliest discourse but of their wils who would most obediently doe them This being his chiefe honour to haue his Throne and command not in the Head and Braines but in the strong holds of their hearts and liues For what shall God reward thee O man but for that which men praise God for in thee Now for admirable gifts of Science and Learning men may admire thee but they giue God thankes onely for the good they receiue from thee The Sunne it selfe if it did not shine giue warmth vnto the creatures were the glorious hiew of it ten times more then it is none would halfe so much blesse God for it The men for whom our heauenly Father is glorified are such vvhose workes shine afore men who warme the loynes of the poore and with their knowledge are an eye to the blinde I can hardly beleeue that God euer made any creature only to behold neither Starre Pearle Flower or feathered fowle onely to shew their glorious outsides but to haue influence vertues and qualities beneficiall to mankinde much lesse a man to know onely or an Art onely to bee knowne but all to his glory and mans seruice which to effect is all the glory of men and Arts. Some Sciences I know in comparison of others more operatiue are tearmed speculatiue but not one of these whose speculation tends and ends not in some operation by which man is profited and God honoured specially Diuinitie vvhich makes vs his workmanship not to knowledge but to good workes to the praise of his grace Who commends a Schoolemaster vvhose Schollers can say and vnderstand their Rules but speake not and write not any good stiles by them A Captaine vvhose Souldiers can skill of Militarie termes and orders vnlesse their Acts and exploits of Warre be sutable Who praiseth an horse that feedes well but is not deedy for the race or trauell speed or length Little saies the Scripture of the learning of the Apostles but much of their Acts. These are the richest and vsuall stiles of commendation in Scripture Moses a man mighty in words and deeds Cornelius a man fearing God and giuing much almes the Centurion vvorthy of fauour for hee hath built vs a Synagogue Dorcas made thus many coats for the poore Gaius the Host of the Church c. such benefactors their workes shall follow them and praise them in the gates heere yea at the great Day obtaine that Come you blessed of my Father for I was naked and you cloathed mee For such men God is blessed of men and such men shall bee blessed of God in their deeds and as the more knowing vvithout doing shall procure the more stripes because God for them is the more blasphemed So the more doing with knowing shall haue double honour because God was doubly honoured in them Behold I come quickly and my reward is in mine hand to giue euery man according to his deedes Blessed are they that doe my commandements If you know them and doe not miserable are you but these things if you know and doe them you are the happiest men liuing The second branch of happinesse vvherein doing hath the aduantage of knowing is in the personall benefit consisting in the present sweetnesse and future gaine accrewing thereby some luscious delight yea a kinde of rauishing doucenesse there is in studying good Bookes ruminating on good notions not vnlike that which is in tasting and swallowing sweet meates vvhich made the Epicure in Aelian wish his throate as long as the Cranes but all the benefit is in the strength and nourishment it breedeth after cōcoction when thoughts breed workes and studies turne into manners vvhen the fatte pasture is seene in the flesh and fleece of the sheepe One Apple of the Tree of Life hath more sweet rellish then ten of the Tree of Knowledge of good and euill vvhich yet vve fondly preferre in our longing euer since our first Parents teeth vvere set on edge therewithall For instance thou findest thine eare tickled vvith an elaborate discourse of temperance but try the practice of it and tell mee if it bring thee not in sundry reall commodities to body and minde beyond a poore auricular transient titillation Were it not for the different energie and efficacie in the heart and life there might be well-neere as much pleasure in reading the witty commendations of folly or pride as in the sound Tractate of wisedome and humilitie I had almost said in the language of fooles in the reading of Sir Philip as Saint Peter All discourses of Faith and Hope are but dry things in comparison of the acts and practice of them which are
THE HAPPINESSE OF PRACTICE BY SAMVEL VVARD Bachelour in Diuinity and Preacher of Ipswich LONDON Printed for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismond and are to be sold at their Shops in Saint Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet and in Pauls Ally at the Signe of the Gunne 1621. Dedicatorie Scriptures I haue handled among you endeuoured to acquaint you with the whole Counsell of God and what is now the top of all my ambition but to make you Doers of what you haue beene Hearers Wherein consists the delight of Husbandman not in his plowing sowing or carting but to see the Furrowes crowned and Barnes filled with the fruit of his labours When we preach we sow the seed when we see good desires then the corne sprouts vp when people begin to doe well then it blades but when they are abundant in good workes then are the eares laden with corne when stedfast and perseuering to the end then are they ripe for Gods barne It was pride in Montanus to ouerweene his Pepuza and Tymium two pelting parishes in Phrygia and to call them Hierusalem as if they had been the onely Churches in the world But this is the commendable zeale of euery true Pastor to adorne his owne Lot and to wish his Garden as the Eden of God Such shall you be if GOD shall please to water the meanes you haue with the dew of his Spirit to continue and increase your loue to hearing and doing to the muzzling of the mouthes of all scoffers and scorners at profession to the ioy crowne and eternall happinesse of your owne soules and such as God hath made watchmen ouer them and of mee the vnworthiest of the rest Samuel Ward THE HAPPINESSE OF PRACTICE IOHN 13. 17. These things if you know happy are you if you doe them THE fastening Nayle of the chiefe Master of the Assemblies the great Shepheards Pegge driuing home and making sure all his former counsels chosen as as a farewell cloze making and leauing a deepe impression of all his deedes and sayings as the last strong and loud knole of a Bell that ends all the Peales going before A Text that puts life into all other Texts vrging the life of them which is the practice of them and is therefore aptly and duly pronounced by many at the end of their Sermons A Sermon vpon which Text the world hath as much neede of as of any one yet extant the multitude of them as Statutes and Proclamations wanting yet one to enforce the obseruation of the rest The necessity of doing was the scope of our Lords last solemne and vncouth action of girding himselfe with a Towell rising from his Magisteriall Seate washing and wiping his Disciples feete Hee had indeede two other by-ends one mysticall intimated in his Dialogue with Peter typifying the great end of his descent from heauen and begirting himselfe with our flesh viz. that hee might totally wash our soules in the Bath of Iustification once for all and partially in the Lauer of Regeneration so often as wee soile our feete in the mire of this world by dayly sinnes of infirmity The other Morall to set his Disciples a patterne of humility and loue stooping to the meanest Offices of mutuall seruice without emulation or affectation of priority which hee foresaw would else bee the bane of their sacred function But his third and most principall ayme was by this his both verball and reall strange kind of lesson to learne them not so much what they knew not as the vse of doing that they knew else would words onely haue serued the turne and not so much adoe haue needed but he first does the things and then expresses his intent These things if you doe c. In this conditionall benediction obserue first the obiect on which Happinesse is conferred and to which it is confined These things Secondly the 2. acts required hereto If you know If you do chiefely the chiefe of them is If you do to which happinesse is foreannexed specially Happy are you if you doe These things The knowledge and practice of these things onely blesseth these maine Arch-mysteries of Faith and these diuine cardinal vertues of loue and humility symbolized in their ablution and not the doing or knowing of all the naturall morall or manuall Sciences in the world besides If one knew all the Circle of learning and knew as was said of Beringarius all that was knowable all the rules of Policy secrets of State mysteries of trading could execute them all yet in his such knowing and doing he might not blesse himselfe were not happy nor so to bee reputed of Christians The right placing or misplacing of Happinesse is the Rudder of a mans life the Fountain of his well or ill doing according to which men take their markes and shoote right or wrong all the actions of their liues He that admireth in his heart and blesseth with his mouth any other Idol of Good in stead of this only true good must needs misse of his end be a miserable man grosly mistaking his markes as silly country people that oftentimes giue termes of Honours and Maiesties to meane persons So doe most people when they transferre this transcendent word and stately thing Happinesse vnto any shadow of skill saue of these things to which it is perpetually restrained in Scriptures Psalme 1. Luke 11. Iames the 1. Insomuch that Christ himselfe was displeased when they bestowed it on the Paps Wombe of his Mother in comparison of hearing and keeping his Fathers will Heere then and heere only is to bee found the lost Iewell of Happinesse which well may we likened to a Stake set vp in the middest of a Field which blinded men groape after to make the beholders sport at their wandrings Augustine tels of a Mountebank that vndertooke in a City of great trading to tell euery man his wish which was in his fallible coniecture to buy cheape and sell deare But here he who hath made and knoweth the hearts of all tels euery man the end of his desire and that which is more shewes him the way of attaining them Those things if you know and if you doe them happy are you This first If prouidently premixed and cautelously presupposed by Christ intimates that knowledge must be the Pilote Guide and Vsher of Practice else superstitious deedes done by roat and randome the blind Whelpes of ignorant deuotion God regards not Good workes the fruits of faith children of a Beleeuer that knowes what he does such are only pleasing in his sight Christ diuinely foresaw the diuelish policy of subtill worldlings that would cry vp practice to cry downe knowledge as cunning Papists wil extol S. Iames to disparage Saint Paul praise good meanings works with an euill eye to hearing Sermons and reading good bookes and carnall Protestants be euer commending reading to disgrace preaching and another sort euer talking of a good heart a good meaning and the power of Religion euer disliking
delicate aboue the Hony and the Hony-combe sweeter then the taste of any Nectar Some say the study of the Law is cragged that if the gaine of practice did not sweeten it few would plot vpon Ployden But I beleeue few would study Saint Paul and preach as Saint Paul did instantly in season out of season quaintly and rarely they might for credit and preferment but painfully and profitably I hardly beleeue they would feruently and feelingly they cannot except the sweetnesse of their practice driue and constraine them Of all men I hold them fooles that bend their studies to Diuinitie not intending to bee Doers as well as Students and Preachers not much vviser such as will be professors of Religion and not practicioners The Parables in the Talmud fits their folly well resembling them to such as plowe and sow all the yeere and neuer reape to the Grashopper that sings all the Summer and wants in the Winter to vvomen euer conceiuing and euer making abortion neuer comming to the birth and best of all to that of Christ distinguishing Hearers into foolish that build on the Sand of Hearing and professing blowne downe vvith euery puffe of Trouble and the wise that build on the Rocke of Doing vnshakeable Search all the Scripture and see if any Couenants or Grants vvere made to Knowing and not all to Doing Is not the ancient tenour of the Law Doe this and Liue and the Gospell Beleeue and liue which implies an act to be done and that act implying sundry cōsequents fruits of it Hee that doth my Fathers will hee is my Brother and Sister Not euery one that saith Lord Lord but hee that the doth my Fathers will To him that doth ill shall be tribulation and anguish to euery soule of Iew and Grecian to him that doth well shall bee honour and peace vpon all the Israel of God Vnto whom shall that Euge be giuen at that great Day but to the doer and in what forme but Well done thou good Seruant that hast not buried thy Talent in a Napkin Hee himselfe expresseth the manner Behold I come quickly my reward is in my hand to giue euery man according to his workes Blessed is euery one that doth my Commandements that hee may eate of the Tree of Life and enter thorow the gates into the City In all which happinesse in this life and that to come is conferred vpon the liuing acts and exercises not vpon the dead habits of any grace whatsoeuer In all labour there is aboundance but in the conceits of the braine and talke of the lippes nothing but emptinesse and misery If one could doe as much as Master Stoughton prints and many credible witnesses report of the young Gentlewoman of nine yeeres old that can say euery sillable of the new Testament by heart and vpon triall not faile in returning a line without the right Chapter verse yet practice neuer a iot nor tittle of it happy were such if they had neuer heard word of Gods Word If one should take paines to get together a great number of songs curiously set artificially composed yea and knew how to sing or play them and yet neuer heard them sung or plaid what pleasure had hee of them The practice and vse of all operatiue Arts is all in all in Diuinity the chiefe of all which else is as the Vine excellent only in the sweet iuice of it otherwise fit not so much as Pin or Pegge Next to Gods glory and a mans owne good a Christian placeth much happinesse in winning and edifying others to which purpose a speechlesse life hath more life in it then a liueles speech I rrisistable is the Suada of a good life aboue a faire profession Chrysostome calls good works vnanswerable Syllogismes inuincible Demonstrations to confute and conuert Pagans withall tells vs they haue a louder language then the Sunne and Moone whose sound yet goes ouer all the world publishing Gods glory not in Hebrew Greeke or Latine which many barbarous Nations vnderstand not but in an oratory they can better skill of An Archer puts not more force into an Arrow he shoots then the life of the speaker into his speech whence it comes that one and the same Sermon or counsell in seuerall mens mouthes differ as much as a shaft out of a Gyants or Childs shooting Miracles sayes hee are now ceased good conuersation comes in their place the Apostles might haue preached long enough without audience or acceptance had not their miracles as Bells towled to their Sermons and as Harbengers made way into mens hearts for their doctrine by such weapons they conquered the world as Gedeons souldiers the Midianites carrying in one hand the burning Lampe of a good life and in the other the loud shrill Trumpets of preaching otherwise plaine men will answere as Iouinian to the orthodox and Arrian Bishops contending about the faith Of your learning and subtill disputations I cannot so well iudge but I can well marke and obserue which of your behauiours is most peaceable and fruitfull and as one Moses renowned for piety to Lucius reputed an Arrian Bishop tendring the confession of his faith to cleere himselfe Tush sayes he What telst thou mee of the faith of the eares Let me haue the faith of the hands I will rather goe without my installment then take it of hands imbrued in bloud bribery and iniustice as all know and report thine to be Arguments are darke and perswasions dull things to liues and actions and most people are like Sheepe easilier following example then led or driuen by preceps and rules Let any man make proofe of both Let a Gentleman or Minister perswade Parishioners to contribute liberally to a Briefe and set a niggardly example and see how much lesse will come of it then if hee said lesse and gaue more What else mooued Christ and the Prophets so frequently to vse that potent figure which Rhetoricians from the speciall vsefulnesse of it call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is when the Orator seconds and enliues his speech with some action as Christ when heere in my Text hee girts himselfe with a Towell and elswhere when hee tooke the Child and set him in the middest of the Apostles the Prophet when hee tooke Pauls Girdle and the old Diuine in Dorotheus that bad his Auditor pluck at a great old Tree which hee could not stir and at a young Sprout easily pluckt vp to shew the difficulty of rooting out an old habit in comparison of the beginnings The reason is words are but wind and vanish into the winde leauing no print or impression more then a Ship in the Sea in comparison of actions which men take markes and notice of This same inartificial argumēt of examples though Schollers lesse regard it as hauing lesse art in it yet is it all the country-mans Logike as the Martyr that answered Bishop Bonner My Lord I cānot dispute but I can dye for the truth mooued the
skepticks because they vvould not bee practicks and that the commonest Religion of our times is Socrates his vncertainty Men know nothing now a dayes It is become a disputable probleme Whether the Pope be Antichrist Rome a good Church whether a man may worship God before pictures play vpon any part of the Sabbath as well as vpon the Weeke dayes whether election be of foreseene faith whether the True Beleeuer may Apostatize Shortly I thinke whether the Scripture be Scripture and vvhether there bee a God or no To conclude a good vnderstanding haue all they that doe thereafter and cursed are all such as know these things and doe the cleane contrarie Cursed I say are they because they lay a stumbling blocke before others both vveake ones within and bad ones vvithout such I say as know God and yet deny him in their liues and are reprobate to euery good word and worke such as buy by one ballance and sell by another haue a forme of knowledge which they prescribe to others and liue themselues by contrary Rules Of such I vvould I could speake with as much detestation as Paul writes of them friends in shew but enemies in truth to the crosse of Christ. Vncleane beasts for all their chewing of the cud repeating of Sermons because they diuide not the hoofe walke vvithout all differences and iudgement as if GOD had giuen them their lights to tread in puddles and gutters withall to vvalke and wallow in the myre of all filthinesse vvhich makes men mislike not onely their persons but the very Religion which they retaine too Some few wise grounded Christians vvill doe as they say and not as they doe heare them because they sit in the chaire of Moses but the greatest number will loath their sayings for their doings as men the good light of a Candle for the ill sauour the stinking tallow yeelds resoluing as the Indians of the Spaniards whateuer their Religion bee they vvill bee of the cleane contrary if such goe to Heauen they will goe to Hell I wonder vvith vvhat face such can call themselues Christians or vvith vvhat eares heare themselues of called Does any man looke to bee called a Carpenter that neuer squared Timber or erected frames What if neuer so skilfull I say of all such skill as Cato of superfluous vselesse trifles They are deare of a farthing that are good for nothing Oh rather let vs al lay claime to that honorable name doe the workes of Christians and thereby approoue our selues to God and man as the Angell to Manoah who being asked of his name made answere It was wonderfull and did wonderfully ascended in the flame and made good his name by his action Heere is the labour and heere lies all the difficulty the Maximes and Sanctions of things to be done and beleeued are but few conteyned in briefe Summaries but the incentiues motiues directions repoofes and such like appurtenances of practice these make volumes swell these lengthen Sermons and multiply bookes The art of doing is that which requires study strength and diuine assistance Do the sinnes that swarme in our times proceede from ignorance or incontinence rather and wilfulnesse It were happy if men had that Plea if the light were not so great the times and the Nation had not sinne May wee not vse the Apostles ordinary increpation and exprobation Know you not that Idolatry Swearing Sabbath-breaking Drinking and Whooring are sinnes Know you not that for these things comes the anger of God Is any so simple that he knowes not the tenne Commandements and the summe of the Gospell yet how desperatly do men rush vpon these Pikes carelesly wittingly and willingly seeing the Gulfe and yet leaping into it Many condemning themselues in Medeas termes see the better and yet follow the worse hauing no heart to leaue that they see to be euill as if men thought that ignorance only should condemne as if God should onely come in flaming fire to render vengeance vpon poore Pagans Sauages and Indians or Heretikes that know not the truth and not much more vpon his owne seruants that knew and refused to doe his will The Infidell disputes against the faith the impious liues against it the one denies it in termes the other in deedes and therefore both shall bee held as enemies to the faith and neuer attaine saluation of the two it is worst to kick against the prick one sees then to stumble in the darke at a block one sees not But heere is the chiefe cause of all impiety illuminatiō is easie sanctification is hard to flesh and bloud requires crossing and mastery yea crucifying of our lusts wils and affections which is not done without much prayer and trauell and therfore men neglect that content thēselues with the easier and cheaper worke Vpon this therefore do I wish Christians would set prices spend their studies euen about the art of doing But how shall we attaine this facility and faculty of doing I answere to wish it and heartily to desire it is halfe yea and the best halfe of the work as Socrates was wont to say Hee that would bee an honest man shall soone bee one and is past the hardest part of the worke To affect goodnesse aboue cunning is a good signe and a good helpe and step to be such an one especially when this desire breeds prayer for power to do knowing that without Christ wee can doe iust nothing but lye becalmed vnable to moue or promoue as a Ship on the Sea a Mill on the Land without the breath of his Spirit And this I commend as the best and first generall helpe of practice that euery morning and in the enterprize of all thy affaires thou acknowledge thine owne disability or rather deadnesse to euery good worke and commend thy selfe to the worke of his grace for the will and the deede for preuenting and subsequent operating and co-operating perseuering and perfecting grace intreating him not onely to regenerate thee and giue thee new Principles of motion but to renew his inspiration vpon euery new act of thine that by Christ or rather Christ by and in thee may doe all things pray as if thou hadst no will vow as if there were no grace that is seriously both Secondly in the vse of all meanes of practice when thou goest to heare reade or meditate pray and desire thou maist light vpon profitable and pertinent Themes Bookes and Sermons applicatory and leuelling at thy selfe and Orations as if made for thee rather then for any body else desire not to gather Flowers but Pot-herbes and Fruite Charmes are said to haue no effect vnlesse one goe with a beliefe vnto them I am sure no meanes ordinarily will doe thee any good vnlesse thou goe with a mind to bee bettered by them Thirdly in the vse of these attend to thy selfe as well as to the matter haue one eye and eare fixed on what is said and another on thy selfe lay