God as it were He puts on Righteousness as a breast-plate and a helmet of Salvation on his head he puts on the garments of Vengeance as a garment and was clad with Zeal as a cloak Isa 59. 17. Nuditas notat Diabolum saith the Father Nakedness is a mark of the Devil We never read of his cloathing Stript he was of his Angels wings of his eminent Perfection And our first parents he stripped in Paradise of that rich robe of original Justice and left them so naked that they were even ashamed of themselves and sewed fig-leaves together to make them aprons And us he strippeth every day and leaves us nothing but fair pretences and false excuses to shelter u◠scarce so good a covert as their fig-leaves We read of Belshazzar that he was weighed in the balance and Dan. 5. 27. was found minus habens too light wanting something And in the next verse PERES his kingdom is divided from him At the entrance of the King here the guest that was found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having somthing that he should have was thrust out of doors and cast into utter darkness Christ gives not to wilfull bankrupts No HABENTI DADITUR To him Matth. 25 29. that hath it shall be given and he shall have abundance and vestitus supervestietur he that is clothed already shall be clothed-upon with a robe or immortality 2 Cor. 5. 4. But every garment fits not a Christian Every garment is not worth the keeping There is strange apparel and the Prophet tells us Zeph. 1. 8. who they were that wore it v. 5. even they that worshipt the host of heaven on the house-tops and swore by Malcham that leaped on the threshold and filled their masters houses with violence and deceit A garment fitter for Micah in his house of gods fitter for Judas or Barabbas at a plot of treason or an insurrection than for a true Disciple of Christ This is not the wedding-garment We must then take a true pattern to make it by or else fitted we shall not be And where can we take it better than from Christ himself Summa religionis est imitari quem colis saith the Father It is the sum of Religion all the piety we have to imitate him whom we worship to be Christiformes to keep our selves in a uniformity and conformity to Christ Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat Thus He lookt thus He did thus was He apparrelled Now what was Christs apparrel The Prophet will tell us that it was glorious that he was Isa 63. 1. formosus in stola very richly arrayed and St. Mark that he had a white garment Chap 9. 3. whiter than any Fuller could make it And St. John tells us of his retinue that they were clothed in white linnen white and clean Look into Rev. 19. 8. Christs wardrobe and you find no torn or ragged apparel No old things are done away The robe of Righteousness the garment of Innocency 2 Cor. 5. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spotless coat of Temperance and Chastity these Christ had and with these he went about doing good Out of this wardrobe must we make up our wedding-garment We must saith the Apostle put on the Lord Jesus Christ put him on all his Righteousness his Obedience Rom. 13. 14. his Love his Patience We must be conformable to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to proportion In the Rule of our Obedience we must not wear a garment of our own phansying an irregular unprescribed devotion In the Ends of it to glorifie God on the earth and in the Parts of it not John 17. 4. a parcel garment It must fit every part it must be universal The Schoolman must be speculum Christi a Looking-glass reflecting Christ's graces upon himself presenting to him his own image in all righteousness and holiness We will not say with Fastus Socinus that Christ was married to his Church only to this end that Christ came into the world non ad satisfactionem sed exemplum not to be the way to life but to cut one out not to pay down our accounts but to teach us an art of thrift to be able to pay them our selves not to be a sacrifice for sin but an ensample of godly life A most horrid blasphemy But this we may say That Christs fulfilling the Law was not to that end that we should break it That he satisfied not by death but for those who would be conformable to his death Phil. 3. 10. That he dyed not for Traytours and Rebels That he marryed not to the Church sealing it with his bloud to let in Ruffians and Fools and men of Belial to the wedding to let in those that will rip up his wounds and cast his bloud in the dust and trample it under their feet No he that cometh to him must know that he is and that he is a lover of righteousness He that cometh to him must come not with spotted garments his Soul defiled with luxury not with torn garments his Soul divided and pulled in pieces by Envy and Malice his Reason distracted and his Affections scattered and blown abroad his Love on the World his Hatred on Goodness his Anger on good Counsel and his Desires on Vanity but with a garment of the Bridegrooms spinning even Righteousness Obedience and Sanctity of conversation And thus the Fathers make it up Charitas est vestis nuptialis saith Gregory and so saith Augustine Hierome composeth it of Christ's Precepts Others bring in gratiam Spiritûs Sancti the gracious effects of the Spirit Basil on Psal 9. tells us it is Faith Vestiri in Christo est fidem habere In this variety there is no difference He that taketh in Charity leaves not out Faith as a ragg fit to be flung to the dung-hill and he that entertains Faith shuts not Charity out of doors Methinks the disputation held up this day in the world with that eagerness and heat is uncharitable Whether should have the precedency Faith or Good works Whether is the better piece to put into a Garment and as uncharitable so unnecessary Why should I question which is the best piece when the want of either spoils the garment When both reflect upon each other by a mutual dependance what talk we then of priority Heat furthers Motion and Motion encreaseth Heat Faith begins Good Works Good works elevate and quicken and exalt our Faith give it growth as it were promote and further it not in the act of Justification but in the Knowledge of God in the Contemplation of his Majesty and Goodness in the dilating and enlargement of our Love and Devotion Faith is the mother of Good works and Good works the nurse of Faith Can you separate Light from a burning Taper or Brightness from the Flame Then may you divide Faith and Charity A good Work without Faith is but a worthless action and Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without works is dead Non James 2.
will our heavenly Father forgive us ours Et qui ad tam magnum tonitruum non expergiscitur non dormit sed mortuus est saith St. Augustine He that awakes not out of his pleasant dream of Revenge at this thunder is not asleep but dead For He will not forgive you is the same with this He will damn you with those malicious Spirits the Devil and his Angels and He will forgive you is equivalent to this He will receive you into his Kingdom to his seat of mercy and glory We may say then that Meekness is necessary as a cause to this effect as a virtue destined to this end at least causa sine qua non a cause so far as that without it there is no remission of sins For though I have faith to remove mountains and have all Knowledge yet if I have not Meekness there is no hope of heaven Or it is causa removens prohibens a cause in as much as it removes those hindrances which stand between us and the Mercy of God For how can I appear before the Father of compassion with a heart spotted and stained with the gall of bitterness How can I stand before the Mercy-seat with my hands full of blood And thus Meekness is a cause of Forgiveness and may be said to produce this effect because though it have no positive causality yet without it mercy will not be obteined Blessedness is joyned to Meekness as in a chain which hath more links and If you shall forgive your enemies my Father will forgive you doth not shew what is sufficient but what is necessarily required to the expiation of sin and the inheritance of heaven Again by Meekness we resemble him who is a God that blotteth out transgressions When we are angry we are like unto the beasts that perish yea we are as the raging waves of the Sea foming out our own shame But when we yield to our brother's infirmity and forgive him we are as Gods Thirdly This virtue is seldom I may say never alone but it supposeth Faith which is sigillum bonorum operum the seal to every good work to make it current and authentick yea and all that fair retinue of Virtues which as Handmaids wait upon Faith and make her known to the world For he whose mind is so subact as to bear another mans burthen and to lift himself up upon the ruins of himself and create virtue out of injury and contempt cannot be far from the Kingdom of heaven nor destitute of those sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased And this I say though it be not necessary yet is very probable For these to be Covetous to be Luxurious to be Wanton and to be Meek cannot lodge in the same breast For we see Prodigality as well as Covetousness is a whetstone to our Anger and makes it keen and sharp And the Wanton will as soon quarrel for his Whore as the Miser for his Purse But Meekness believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things and doth nothing unseemly For the mind of the Meek is like the Heavens above Semper illîc serenum est there is continual serenity and a perpetual day there It is as Wax fit to receive any impression or character of goodness and retein it a fit object for Gods benefits to work upon ready to melt at the light of his countenance and to yield at the lifting up of his hammer And therefore In the last place this Meekness and Readiness to forgive maketh us more capable of the Gospel of Christ and those other Precepts which it doth contain and so fits and prepareth and qualifieth us for this Blessedness for this great benefit of Remission of sins For he that is ready to forgive all injuries will be as ready to be poor very forward to go to the house of mourning merciful a peace-maker one that may be reviled and persecuted and so rightly qualified for those Beatitudes And he who can suffer an injury will hardly do one whereas they commonly are most impatient of wrongs who make least conscience of offering them qui irascuntur quia irascuntur who play the wantons and are angry with their brother for no other reason but because they are pleased to be angry Now the Oratour will tell us that Nullus rationi magìs obstat affectus there is no affection which is so great an enemy to Reason as Anger For Sorrow and Fear and Hope and the rest make an assault and lay hard at us but anger as a whirlwind overwhelms us at once I may be stricken with Fear and yet hearken to that counsel which will dispel it I may hang down my head with Sorrow and yet be capable of those comforts which may lift it up again for every one is not as Rahel that would not be comforted but we deal with Angry men as we do with men overcome with drink never give them counsel till the fit be over For fairly to be speak a man thus transported is to as much purpose as to bid the Sea go back or to chide the Winds And as the Reason and Judgment are dimmed and obscured with that mist which sudden Anger casts so are they also by that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lasting or abiding Anger which is the forge or alembick of Revenge and works it by degrees And till this be dispelled and scattered there is no room for the Doctrine of the Gospel which breaths nothing but meekness and forgiveness Disce sed ira cadat naso To be angry and To learn are at as great a distance as To be in motion and To stand still He that fills his thoughts with Revenge can leave no room for the Precepts of that Master who was led to the slaughter as a sheep But the Meek man is like him is a Sheep his Sheep and will soon hear his voice draw nearer and nearer unto him and by Meekness learn Purity and those other virtues which will bring him into the arms of his Saviour and the Kingdom of Heaven And thus you see how necessary a virtue Meekness is for the Church and for every part of it for every Christian to entitle him to the inheritance of the earth as the earth is taken for that new earth Rev. 21. 1. the Earth not of living dying men but that Earth where we shall live for ever that state of happiness which like the Earth shall stand fast for ever For what is Meekness but a pregustation and fore-taste of that quiet and peaceable estate which is no where to be found but at the right hand and in the presence of God That as God who is slow to anger and full of goodness and mercy is properly and naturally in a constant and immoveable state of bliss so Christians who by divine grace and assistance raise themselves up to this height and pitch as to look down from a quiet mind as from heaven upon all the injuries and reproaches which shall
is sick yet every man is well Every man is empty yet every man is full We tread the paths that lead to destruction and yet we are in the way to happiness Where is the shaking and the trembling spirit where is the broken heart where are those prickings at the heart or who puts up the question What shall I do to be Acts. 2. 37. saved Every man is satisfied and if it were true we might conclude every man is good For whatsoever the promises be most men are bold to make this the conclusion and though they have raised a tempest conclude in peace And it is a great deal more common to infer what pleaseth us and what may serve for satisfaction though it be upon a gross mistake and oftener then upon a truth And thus we assure our selves of happiness upon no better evidence then that which flesh and bloud and the love of our selves are ready to bring in and satisfie our selves with false hope of life when we are full of malice envy and uncleanness of which we are told that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven Gal. 5 21. And what satisfaction is this a Satisfaction without a warrant a Satisfaction which we our selves only have subscribed to with hands full of bloud a Satisfaction which is but a cheat but a delusion presenting us nothing but a reward when we are condemned already filling us with hopes of bliss when we are in the mouth of destruction That which is Satisfaction indeed hath no other basis to stand on then Piety and conformity of our works words and thoughts to the will of God And then it is as mount Sion which cannot be removed it stands firm for it is built upon God himself If thou raise it upon Phansie thou buildest in the ayr If thou lay it upon Gods eternal Decree in thy election that will slide from thee and let the fall into hell for that concerns thee not unless thou be good but another decree contrary to that which thy neglect of piety hath drawn thee under belongs unto thee because thou wouldst not know what belongs to thy peace and what might bring Satisfaction Wilt thou lay it on the infinite Mercy of God that will cover a multitude of sins but not those sins which are thy only satisfaction that will distill as dew but not on the hairy scalp of him that goeth on in his sins And though she triumph over Justice yet here she yields and calls it in to double vengeance upon thee because thou wert an enemy to Mercy which first shewed thee the way to be satisfied and now turns from thee and will not hear when thou callest to her to satisfie thee being out of the way If thou wilt have Mercy crown thee thou must be merciful to thy self If thou wilt make thy election sure thou must do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is supplyed in some copies by piety that is by faith and good works For Goodness is that and that alone which satisfies us which fills us with joy and peace in the holy Ghost and for which God will satisfie us with his likeness and fill us with glory in the life to come And so we pass to that which we proposed in the second place and it was this 2. It is the prerogative of Goodness and Piety to be alone in this work Nothing can satisfie us but Piety and our transforming our selves by the Rom. 12. 2. renewing of our mind and shaping our thoughts words and actions to the will of God For first Satisfaction is but a name on earth as St. Paul speaks of Idols we know it is nothing in the world The earth and all that therein is cannot yield it the round world and they that dwell therein could never find it And as God spake to Moses Thou heardst a voice but sawest no shape so Satisfaction which flows from God alone in this resembles him The voice of it hath sounded in our ears but as for the shape and substance of the thing it self we have seen none But as the world having heard of God but not knowing him aright sought him in stocks and stones in birds and creeping things so men having heard of Satisfaction which can be found no where but in God by a kind of Idolatry against God have sought it in the creature in Beauty which fades whilst we look upon it in Riches which have wings and fly away in Honour which is but a blast and not in me but in him that gives it In these it can no more be found then the very nature of God himself These conceits and notions of Satisfaction do universally pass amongst men Now as that general consent and voice of all nations That there was a God though they erre not knowing where to seek him yet is a fair proof that there is a God and as the same general consent of men that God is to be worshipt though they mistook the manner of it yet proves certainly that there is some form of worship acceptable to Him so this oecumenical conceit of satisfaction to be had which hath thus overspread and possest the heads of all men cannot be in vain but is an evidence that there is some good that will satisfie that hath a contenting quality and in which we may set up our rest Only vain men who have their mind in their eyes and not in their hearts as Augustine speaketh have been willing to mistake to tread the waters and to walk upon the wind to trust to that and to make that their mount Sion which slides away from them and gives no rest to their souls Rest to our souls we never find till with the Dove we return to the Ark to the Church of Christ where our tongues are made God's glory and our hands the instruments of righteousness wherein that Piety and Goodness dwelleth which alone can satisfie For secondly such is the nature and quality of the soul that it is not fashioned nor proportioned to the things of this world What is a wedge of gold what is beauty what is a Crown to a soul This being an immortal and spiritual substance can be satisfied with nothing but what is wrought in it by the Spirit of God with Holiness and Piety which being as immortal and spiritual as the soul is most apt to assimilate and fill and satisfie it Will I eat saith God of himself the flesh of bulls or drink the bloud of goats Can God take any delight therein It is not the sacrifice but the heart which being offered up brings a sweet savor unto him without this sacrifice is an abomination And so what is a feast a banquet of wine the sound of a viol the whole world to a soul which must needs check it self when in condescention to the flesh it takes part in that delight they bring Will ye spend these upon it as the Babylonians did their sheep
but to speak an hour to be a Hearer but to come to Church to be a Bishop but to put on a mitre to be a King but to wear a crown And this is to disesteem and undervalew these duties This is to be officiperdae in this sense also to destroy our work before we begin it For what place can our work have amongst those thoughts which stifle it and where the birth is so sudden and immature how can it chuse but prove an abortive I cannot conceive but that our Saviour could have performed the work he came about without this preamble or preparation but yet in honor to this great work he would first step aside and not suddenly enter upon it but by degrees first retire and fast and pray and then work miracles To teach us that a Christian is not made up in haste that no good work will beget it self between our fingers nor come towards us unless we fit and prepare our selves to meet it And yet some there be who are willing to think that this is more then needs that it is in the greatest profession that is as it was in the Cirque-shews amongst the Romans Odiosa circensibus pompa that as there so in this all pomp and shew and preparation is in vain that the sooner they enter upon it the more dextrous they shall be in the performance Divines as Nazianzene terms them of a day old made up ut è luto statua assoon as you can make a statue of clay No desart that they will go to no cell that they will retire to no secession that they will make but presently upon the work they enter leap into the Pulpit and there they stir and make a noyse semper agentibus similes like unto those who are alwaies busie or indeed rather like unto those spirits in minerals that Cornelius Agrippa speaks of which digg and cleanse and sever the metals but when men come to view their work they find nothing is done With these men there are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no prefaces no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing to be learnt first All with them is the Work no study or preparations All is working of miracles And indeed one great miracle they work Docent antequam discunt They teach that which they never learnt and their skill and art is so teach men that they shall be more ignorant then before Our Saviour here is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to prepare him for his work but these will not prepare themselves because they pretend they are led by the Spirit Nor is this evil of yesterday or which befalls the weakest only but the Devil hath used it in all ages as an engine to undermine this good work What men are not able to manage for want of due consideration to bring in the Spirit as a supply Tertullian was as wise a man as the Church had any but being not able to prove the corporeity of the Soul he flyeth to Revelation in his book De Anima Non per â—stimationem sed revelationem We cannot make this good by judgment but by revelation Post Joannem quoque prophetiam meruimus consequi We have our Revelations as well as St. John Our sister Priscilla hath plenty of them she hath her traunces in the Church and converseth with Angels and with God himself and can discern the hearts and inward thoughts of man St. Hierom speaking of a Monk in his time thus describes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is start up a man who hath exactly learnt all knowledge without a teacher full of the spirit his own master who like a Carneades can dispute both for and against the truth who needs no preparation but can do what he will and when he will But this is not the Spirits manner of Leading for he leads us by degrees and by a certain method For even so he led our Saviour first into the wilderness and then to his work And though his leading of the Apostles were extraordinary yet even them he commands to stay at Jerusalem and to expect his coming And although their determinations were subscribed to with a VISUM EST SPIRITUI SANCTO It seemeth Good to the holy Ghost yet they conferred one with another met together in councel and did deliberate before they did determine Nor did they once imagine that they had the Spirit in a string or could command him when they pleased or call him down to help them in their work sedendo votis by sitting still and doing nothing that he would fly down unto them and sit upon them though they slept Much less can we imagine that he will wait upon our spirit and humor and when we have cripled and disenabled our selves for any service of his in a moment anoint and supple our joynts and make us active for the highest calling when we have put our selves into prison even thrown our selves into the dark and loathsome dungeon of Ignorance that he will come to us as the Angel did to Peter Acts 12. and smite us on the side and raise us up and bid us arise up quickly and go on an ambassage which we do not know go set our hands to his plough which are a great deal fitter for another Certainly to be a Disciple of Christ is a greater work then to cast our garment about us to take up the habit of a Minister No we must be led into some secret and solitary place there to fast and pray to fit and prepare our selves for the work which we have to do there to taste how sweet the word of God is to ruminate and chaw upon it as it were and digest it to fasten it to our very soul and make it a part of us and by daily meditation so to profit that all the mysteries of Faith and precepts of Holiness may be as vessels are in a well-ordered family ready at hand to be used upon any occasion Now this we may imagine to be the work of the Spirit alone and so it is but of the Spirit leading us into the desart placing us on the mount of Contemplation there by long study and industry to learn confusa disterminare hiantia cogere sparsu colligere to separare those things which are confused and mixt together to separate Fear from Despair and Confidence from Presumption to draw and unite those things together which are severed as Faith and good Works Knowledge and Practice and to joyn together those Texts which bid us rejoyce with them which bid us mourn those which command our Zeal with those which exact our Meekness Et diligentia pietas adhibenda est saith St. Augustine alterâ fiat ut quaerentes inveniamus alterâ ut scire mereamur We must make use both of our Diligence and Piety by the one we find when we seek by the other we are filled both to seek and find Unless we follow the Spirit in this his Leading we have no reason to
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
negant poenitentiam bona opera saith Bellarmine The Protestants deny not Repentance and Good works And our Charity will say Non negat fidem The Papists do not casheer Faith Let us take them both and make them up like Christs garment in tunicam inconsutilem into a seamless coat and the question is stated the controversie at an end But may we not seem here to spin a thred of our own to make an intertexture and weave-in between our own inherent Righteousness and then the Apostle comes in with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having the righteousness by the Law Phil. 3. 9. And he will not be found in that apparrel Put in our Passions to our Actions our Afflictions to our Alms our Martyrdom to our Prayers and it will not be worth the while to put them on Our best Righteousness is but of a course rotten thread Stillamus in patinam bonorum operum saniem concupiscentiae Our natural Corruption drops upon the webb of our Good works and that rots them Our Chastity a wanton thought defloureth it our Prayers a wandring imagination scatters them our Liberality a grudging mind vain-glory and the noise of a trumpet drowns it Our best Righteousness is but pannus menstruatus It is the holy Ghost's phrase but as menstruous rags ill materials to make up a wedding garment Isa 64. 6. They that talk so much of JUSTITIA PROPRIA of their own Righteousness when they see how ill it becomes them put it off and are ashamed of it In the day time they wear it for fashion but at night when they are about to ly down in the grave then JUSTITIA NOSTRA EST INJUSTITIA then away with it it is not worth the wearing Before it was the more honorable wear but now propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae because there is no sure harbour under the covert of our Good works Christs Righteousness is called-in with a TUTISSIMUM EST as the far safer ware And here they will abide till the storm be overpast All this is true Yet we must remember that Christs Righteousness though it be a large cloak as St. Bernard calls it yet it covereth no unrighteous person His Feast is not for every rude unmannerly guest malè cinctis malè Sanctis for men that little set-by what habit what garments they come in Imputative Justice our Elder Brothers robe is our own shelter but inherent Righteousness is a decent wear Christs Righteousness without a lively Faith like a garment in the press neither covers nor adorns us It is like a Pardon about the neck of an executed traitor He is condemned already saith Christ He is under the power of darkness and the brightness John 3. 18. of Christs Righteousness cannot shadow him St. Jude tells us he is twice dead and it is to small purpose to cloath a dead man He receives neither warmth nor life but rot he will and stinck in the richest vestment in cloth of wrought gold But then our Righteousness without Christs is but a thin wear mox perpluet it will keep out neither wind God-wot nor weather not irae stillicidia not the droppings of Gods wrath What say we then to his hail stones and coals of fire It is a moth-eaten garment nay it is but a moth levi tactu teritur a â—ight touch dashes it to nothing Or if it be a garment it is a garment rent and torn to pieces with the riots of our youth with the frowardness of our age with the intemperance of our first age and the covetousness of our last and the least breath of Gods displeasure blows it asunder and scatters it before the wind and leaves us naked to the great day of wrath and retribution Men and brethren what shall we do Why surely seeing we cannot be as the Sun in the firmament and shine with our own light let us strive to be stars and be resplendent with a borrowed one and in Christs â—ight see light Let his Day complete our twilight his absolute Perfection our weak endeavours his Fasting our feeble abstinence his earnest Supplications our faint devotion his Death our mortification And seeing the sheep of a thousand mountains cannot cloth us seeing nothing we can do nothing we can suffer can shelter us let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ and offer up himself to himself that our Faith may be enricht with his merits our Hope dilated by his promises and our Charity resplendent in his excessive love and that so we may make up this glorious vestiment this wedding garment and with boldness inter into the Kings Court and sit down at his table And now we may freely speak that Faith and Good works or Faith working by Love make up this wedding-garment These are traduces capessendae aeternitatis derive and deliver to us a capability of eternity yea eternity it self They present Christ to us comfortable in his Sacraments faithful in his Promises bountiful in his Rewards and they present us back again to Christ reverent at his Table waiting on his Word filled with his abundance and running-over and diffusing our selves by an overflowing gratitude O vestem auro contra non charam O garment inestimable above pearl and precious stones I am sure David would not have left it for the richest robe in Sauls wardrobe It was better to him than Psal 119. 72. thousands of gold and sylver St. Paul speaking to Women who as Hierome saith are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus much affect trimness in apparrel and are glad of a Holiday to be seen in their best cloaths tells them plainly that broydered hair and gold and pearls and costly array are not so becoming a 1 Tim. 2. 9 10. wear as good works These we are bidden to be very charie of to keep Rev. 16. 15. them as our best apparrel lest Christ steal in upon us at unawares and find us naked and discover our shame Garments then these are But we shall better understand the Metaphor if we stay a while and take notice of the ends and uses of Apparrel And first Clothes are for covert Vestis quasi domus corporis saith Tertullian A garment is as a house the body dwells in it So are Faith and Sanctity of life unto us The rain descends the winds blow and beat upon the house but we are safe safe from those winds which blow out of the Devils treasury from all his insinuations suggestions and strong temptations But alass when we are without this house we are tectum jugiter perstillans a house with the roof open dropping thorough wherein we can neither eat nor sleep quietly but are driven from one corner to another Every step is a snare every drop a tempest every assault an overthrow But put this garment on and we have shelter And as Clothes are for covert so are they also for warmth And so is
so far from doing any thing against the Law that he doth that which the Law especially intends The very Heathen could tell us aliqua esse quae non oportet fieri etiamsi licet that there be some things which indeed may lawfully be done but it is far better and more praise-worthy not to do them And therefore God often chargeth the Jews with the hardness of their hearts calls them a stubborn and stiffnecked people and by many tokens made it evident that he did not approve of that which he did permit He forbids them to hate their brother in their heart He commands them to do many common offices to their enemy Lev. 19. 17. to bring back his oxe that went astray to help him whose asselyeth under his burden and the like He permits Revenge but of lighter injuries and of greater only by the hand of the Magistrate And had they been capable he would have yet shewed them a more excellent way I leave this point and come to speak of our third and last reason why our Saviour annexed this Condition to this Petition and enforced it afterwards It is indeed the nature of Flesh and Bloud to be exasperated and enraged by injuries and to thirst after revenge But Christians have learnt a quite contrary lesson in the School of their Master To put-up injuries with patience and to requite them with courtesies To love their greatest enemies and to pray for them who make it their business to seek and to work their destruction This our Saviour hath taught his followers both by his precept and example this we oblige our selves to perform as oft as in this Prayer we beg forgiveness of our sins This lesson the primitive Christians had well learnt and still observed And nothing was of greater avail both to themselves and to their profession than this Hereby they overcame their enemies and possessed their own souls in prison they found liberty in the greatest storms a clam in torments and death hope and joy Meekness and Patience made them in all their trials and sufferings more than conquerers Neither was the observation of this rule advantageous to Christians alone but also to Christianity it self which got ground by this means took root and spread exceedingly Crudelitas vestra illecebra est magis saith a Father your cruelty whereby you seek to destroy us is a kind of invitation to draw-on more company and to make us more numerous The more you cut us down we grow-up the faster and the more you lop-off our branches the more they multiply and by driving us out of the world you plant new colonies of Christians For our Bloud is as seed which will bring-forth an hundred-fold The blessed Martyrs knowing this when they were led to death did not onely forgive their enemies but pray for them not onely pray for them but give them thanks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Justine Martyr Lucius replied not but thanked them And thus those torments which were invented to restore Paganisme did much weaken it and strengthen Christianity every martyr like Samson killing more Idolaters at his death than he did in his life VIDE UT SE INVICEM DILIGUNT See how they love one another was a strong motive but See how they forgive their enemies and pray for their persecutors was a stronger a plain convincement which prevailed with the wisest men with great men and sometimes with the executioners themselves Non omnia potest potentia potentior est patientia What Power cannot do that Patience absolves And this is the onely strength and power that a Christian hath with which he subdues his enemies and makes a way to victory by death it self and gains a crown against all opposition We might expect perhaps that God should break the jaws of the ungodly and rise-up against those who rise-up against us that he should send divers sorts of flies to devour them and frogs to destroy them that he should knock-off their chariot-wheels that they might drive but heavily after us and at last put them to utter confusion But there needs no miracle where our Saviour hath let down this Ancile this buckler from heaven nor extraordinary help where the ordinary means will suffice For Patience if we will take it up and use it will be our Angelus custos our Angel to protect us and lead us through the enemies land to that city which we would come to If we observe the condition here there be more with us than against us And by yielding we may overcome by forgiving an enemy not only conquer him but make him ours that he may praise God in the day of visitation I have in another place spoken at large upon these three Questions 1. What Debts we must forgive our brother 2. How we must forgive them 3. What dependance there is between Gods Forgiving of us and our Forgiving one another I shall forbear to repeat but will only add a word or two and conclude You will say perhaps This is durus sermo a very hard Condition That no Forgiveness of sins is to be expected unless we forgive all debts It is true it is so but to such only who so dote on the world that they grow vile to themselves not to them whose conversation is not in earth but in heaven Totum durum est quicquid imperatur invitis saith Salvian Every thing is hard and difficult to an unwilling mind Covetous and Ambitious men had rather mend the Law than their lives and hate the precepts rather than their sins But what if the Condition were in it self hard and did not onely appear so to flesh and bloud What though I did loose by it my good name my peace my possessions Yet minora incommoda praemiis the Condition is not so hard as the reward is great These incommodations are nothing in respect of that peace and plenty which they purchase Durum grande difficile sed magna sunt praemia It is hard to forgive all debts but without this no cancelling of our own It is a sad and heavy Condition laid upon sinful man but without this without shedding of our bloud without emptying our selves of all rancour and desire of revenge there is no Remission of sins To stir us up to the performance of this Condition let us consider that this virtue of Forgiving others is never alone It supposeth Faith which is sigillum bonorum operum as Chrysologus calls it the seal to every good work to make it current and authentick He whose mind is thus subact as to bear another mans burden to raise up virtue out of the ruines of himself and create out of injury and contempt cannot be far from the kingdom of heaven nor destitute of those sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased Not that we affirm or absolutely determine that there is nothing more required than a mind thus tender soft and equally poysed But we rather suppose that all other virtues are joyned with it Which
which are uncertain are with great curiosity searcht into and those which are dark and obscure for any light we have past finding out are the subject of every discourse and have set mens pens and tongues a working Although even this Curiosity is from the Evil one which is alwayes as far from Knowledge as it is eager to enquire and seeks for that which cannot be sound and so passeth by those certa in paucis as Tertullian saith that which lyes naked and open in our way seeks for many things and so neglects those few which are necessary For the Devil in this is like the Lapwing which flutters and is most busie and hovers over that place which is most remote from its nest He cryes Here is Christ and there is Christ Here the truth is to be found and There it is to be found where no sign of footstep not the least shadow of it appears I will not mention these That which hath made Error a God to reign and rule amongst men by the Devils chymistry hath been attracted and wrought out of the Truth it self That worship is due unto God is not only a fundamental truth in Divinity but a principle in Nature and here it should rest But by the policie of Satan it hath been drawn to his Saints to Pictures to Statues to the Cross of Christ nay to the very Representation of it And men have learnt sub nomine religionis famulari errori as the Fathers in the third Councel of Toledo speak of the people of Spain to submit and wait upon Error under the habit of Religion and the name of Catholick and Orthodox Again if we look into the world we shall find that nothing deceives men more nothing doth more mischief amongst men then the thought that those things must needs please God which we do with a good mind and with an ardent affection and zeal and love to Religion This guilds over Murder and Covertousness and Idolatry and Sedition and all those evils which rent and wound the Church of Christ and many times pull Common-wealths in pieces Murder hath no voice Covetousness is no sin Faction is zeal for the Lord of Hosts If we can comfort our selues that we mean well and have set up the glory of God in our phansie only as a mark and when we cast an eye upon that with Jehu we drive on furiously We steal an ox to make a sacrifice we grind the face of the poor that we may afterwards build an Hospital and are very wicked all the dayes of our life that we may leave some sign of our good meaning when we are dead And this is but a sophisme a cheat put upon us by the Deceiver For though an evil intention will make an action evil yet a good one will not make an evil action good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bonum ex causâ integra There must be a concurrence of all requisites to render an action or a person good but the absence of any one serveth to denominate them evil A bad action then and a good intention cannot well be joyned together And as ill will the Profession of Christ and a profane life the Christian and the Knave sort together the one commanding as a Law and prohibition against the other and the Christian being as a judge to condemn the Knave And yet the Devils art it is to make them friends and bring them together Though we do those things which strike at the very life and soul of Christianity yet we perswade our selves we are good Christians Though we thirst after bloud and suck-in the world though we cheat our neighbour as cunningly as the Devil doth us though we breath nothing but revenge and speak nothing but swords though we know no language but that of the Horsleach Give Give though as Tertullian spake of the heathen Gods there be many honester men in hell than our selves yet we are Saints and we alone We have made Grace not the helper but the abolisher of Nature and placed it not above Reason but against it we are so full of Grace that we have lost our Honesty our tongues are set on fire by hell and yet Anathema to that Angel who shall speak against us And this is our composition and medley as if you should bind a Sermon and a Play-book together There is another fallacie of Satan yet fallacia Divisionis by which we divide and separate those things which should be joyned together as Faith and Good works Hearing and Doing Knowledge and Practice And these two though they seem to stand at distance and be opposite one to the other yet they alwayes meet For he that is ready to joyn those things which he should separate and keep asunder will be as active to separate those things which God hath put together We are hearers of the word but hearers only the only that makes a division We have faith that we have by which we are able to remove mountains even all our sins out of our way but where is that Meekness that Humility that Piety which should demonstrate our Faith and conclude that we are Christians Certainty of salvation we all challenge but we give little diligence to make our election sure Faith may seem to be as easie a duty as Hearing which begets it and to apply the merits of our Saviour and the promises of the Gospel as easie as a Thought the work of the brain and phansie for who may not conceive and say to himself that Christ is his God and his Lord Even this is one of Satans tentations to bring in the Application of Christs merits before Repentance from dead works By this craft and subtilty it is that we thus hover aloft on the wing of contemplation that we so lose our selves in one duty that we do not appear in the other not descend to work-out our salvation and busie our selves in those actions upon the performance of which the Promises will apply themselves and Christ present himself unto us in his full beauty that we may taste how gracious he is and with comfort feel him to be our Lord and our God And therefore to resolve this fallacy we must be solicitous to preserve these duties in integritaâ—e totâ solida solid and entire For he that hath one without the other hath in effect neither Valde singula virtus destituitur si non una alii virtus virtuti suffragetur Every virtue is naked and desolate if it have not the company and aid of all What is my Hearing if I be dead to Good works What is my Faith if Malice make me worse then an Infidel What is my Assurance if Unrepentance cancel it Therefore those things which God hath joyned together let no man put asunder I will but mention one Stratagem more and so conclude It is the Devils policy when he cannot throw us into Hell at once to bring us on by degrees and by lesser sins to make way and
Rome is well acquainted with and therefore she breaks down the bounds pulls down the limits hides the lines dammeth up the Kings high-way She pulls out thy eyes and there she leads thee in a way indeed but not of Truth in a by-path in a way leading out of the way The way of Truth it cannot be For veritas nihil erubescit nisi solummodò abscondi Truth blusheth at nothing but to be hid But I must walk their way and not know whether it be a way or no. Though I doubt yet I must not dare to question it but must still walk on and put it to the adventure If Idolatry and Superstition and blind Obedience will saint a man then I am sure to be a Saint in heaven That Church reacheth forth unto thee a cup and sayes it is of the water of life when indeed it is but poison She hath an open breast and a motherly affection she shews thee a milky way but which neither Christ nor his Apostles ever trod in No tracking of them but by bloud She shews thee an easie way a sensual way made passable by Indulgences and Pardons and private Masses and Supererogation only thou must walk in it without offense to the Church of Rome Thus like those Physicians Sidonius speaks of officiosè occidit she will kill thee with good words like some kind of Serpents she will sting thee and thou shalt dance when thou art stung she will flatter thee to thy destruction and thou shalt perish as it were in a dream Beloved what shall we do then We will pray to God with Paul to guide our journey with David to make our way upright We will say as Israel said to Sihon King of the Amorites We will neither turn aside into the fields nor into the vinyards Numb 21. 22. neither drink of the waters of the wells We will neither walk in those specious pleasing wayes nor taste of the Wine which that Harlot hath mingled nor draw water out of those Wells which they have digged unto themselves but we will go in the Kings high-way even in that way wherein the Apostles the Prophets the blessed Martyrs the holy Saints all our Forefathers by the light of Scripture have gone before us The second Rule of our Christian Imitation is That we strive to imitate the best Stultissimum est non optimum quemque proponere saith Pliny It is great folly not to propose alwaies the best patern And Elige Catonem saith Seneca Chuse a Cato a prime eminent man by whose autority thy secret thoughts may be more holy the very memory of whom may compose thy manners whom not only to see but to think of will be a help to the reformation of thy life Dost thou live with any in whom the good gifts and graces of God are shining and resplendent who are strict and exact and so retein the precepts of God in memory that they forget them not in their works Then as St. James saith Take the Prophets for example so I say Take these for an ensample lodge them in the closet of thy heart confer with their virtuous actions and study them And if at any time the Devil and the World put thee upon those actions which might make thee to forget thy copy then take it into thy hands and look it over again and as St. Cyprian would often call for Tertullians works with a Da magistrum Give me my master so do thou Da praeceptores Give me the instructing examples of these good men let them alwaies be before my eyes let them be a second rule by which I may correct my life and manners Let me not loose this help which God hath granted me of Imitation But Beloved here beware we must that we mistake not the Goats for the Sheep the left hand for the right that we weigh not Goodness by the number of Professors For it is the Devils policie to make us think that the most are the best and so he shuts us out of the little flock and thrusts us into the folds of Goats and thus we deceive our selves Plerique ducimur non ad rationem sed ad similitudinem We are not guided by Reason but let her slip and so are carried away as it were in a throng non quà eundum sed quà itur not indeed whither we should go but whither the many-headed multitude lead us Therefore thou must take this as a Rule Multitudo argumentum mali No surer argument that men are evil then that they are many The City of the Lord is not so peopled as the City of the World which the Devil hath erected neither is Heaven so full as Hell nor are there so many Saints as there are Devils not so many chosen as there are past-by not somany good examples as there be bad ones We undervalue true professors we make their Paucitie a blemish whereas our Saviour tells us his flock is little a lily amongst the thorns and when God commands us Exod. 23. as in this so in all actions not to follow a multitude in evil And this in our Christian Imitation we must observe in respect of our selves We must be careful too in respect of others And since God hath made Imitation such a help to our Salvation we must strive to be guides and lights unto our weaker brethren not an ignis fatuus or lambens a fat and foggy meteor to lead them out of the way but stellae micantes bright and glistering stars to lead them to Christ And this in the first place concerneth the Ministers and Messengers of God It is St. Paul's charge to Timothy even before the holy Angels that he should keep himself unblamable before all men Valentinian's to his Bishops that they should vitâ verbo gubernare govern the Church both with their life and with their doctrine and as Nazianzene spake of Basil they should have thunder in their words and lightning in their deeds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking and doing Not like Lucian's Apothecary who sold Medicines for the Cough when he and all his houshold were infected with it nor like those Physicians Nazianzene speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying their hands to cure the wounds of others whilst themselves were full of sores But striving to come forth glorious and wholsome examples that they humble not those with their life whom they have raised up with their doctrine Considering that sin doth not only shew but teach it self And what a heavy doom will reach them if they beat down those with a bad whom they should raise up and set a walking with a good example But Beloved I here mistake my Auditory and speak to this Congregation as if I were amongst an assembly of Levites And yet I know too and I need not fear to speak it that it is an argument of a wicked and profane heart of a sensual love of the world that no doctrine now-adayes is more acceptable then that by
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
impatient of Godliness of Sobriety of common Honesty of the Gospel of Christ of Heaven it self upon those terms it is profer'd us And all that bread which should nourish us up to everlasting life we turn into stones Blow what wind will we are still in finibus Tyri Sidonis at home in our own coasts But next for Humility who vouchsafeth once to put on her mantle Humility it is well we can hear her name with patience But humi serpere to creep on the ground is not our posture You will say Christ doth not call us Doggs Yes he doth For though he be in heaven yet he speaketh still and in his Scripture calleth every sinner a Dogg a Swine yea a Devil He upbraids us to our faces as oft as we offend But we will not own these titles but call our selves Priests when we sacrifice to Baal and Kings too when we are the greatest slaves in the world If Humility still live in the world sure it is not the same Humility which breathed here in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon Lastly For our Perseverance and Fervor in devotion we must not dare once to compare them with this Womans For Lord how loath are we to begin our prayers and how willing to make an end When God is silent we think he will not speak when he answers we think he is silent But when we are told that our sins do hinder our prayers and that Christ cannot help us because we are Doggs then we desist and will pray no more because we will sin more and rather suffer the Devil to vex our souls then dipossess him with noyse Yea which is ridiculous and monstrous Quod affectu volumus actu nolumus we pray for that we would not have and desire help which we would not enjoy Every day we pray for Grace and every day we quench and stifle it Every day we desire Christs help and every day we refuse it So that we may well with a little alteration use our Saviours words The woman of Canaan shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from Tyre and Sidon and would not be denyed we live in the Church and are afraid that Christ should grant our requests Her devotion was on fire ours is congealed and bound up with a frost We talk much of Faith but where are its fruits Where is our Patience our Humility our Perseverance in devotion which gave the just proportion to this Womans faith and commend the greatness of it to all posterity For these are glorious virtues and shew the full growth of her Faith These answer St. James his OSTENDE MIHI Shew me thy faith by thy works But yet to come up close to our Text our Saviour mentions not these but passeth them by in silence and commends her Faith Not but that her patience was great her Humility great and her Devotion great But because all these were seasoned with Faith and sprung from Faith and because Faith was it which caused the miracle he mentions Faith alone that Faith may have indeed the pre-eminence in all things First Faith was the virtue which Christ came to plant in his Church Non omnium est credere quod Christianum est saith Tertullian This vertue belongs not to all but is peculiar to Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the first inclination to health and the ground-work of our salvation Let the Heathen accuse the very title and name of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theodoret calls it let them object that our Religion brings in meram credulitatem a meer and foolish credulity and that we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but play the fools in taking up things upon trust yet this Perswasion this Belief this Faith is it which draws us from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon takes us from the number of Doggs and makes us citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem When we could not do what we should not fulfil the Law God taught us to believe and it was the riches and glory of his Mercy to find out this way and save us by so weak an instrument as Faith Besides Faith was the fountain from whence these rivulets were cut from whence those virtues did flow For had she not believed she had not come she had not cryed she had not been patient she had not humbled herself to obtain her desire she had not persevered But having a firm perswasion that Christ was able to work the miracle no silence no denyal no reproach no wind could drive her away A sign that our Faith now-adayes is not so strong it falls off so soon at the least opposition and fails and falls to the ground with a very breath a sign that we have paralyticas cogitationes as one speaks paralytical thoughts which cannot reach a hand to our Will nor guide and govern our desires to the end Lastly Faith is that virtue which seasons all the rest maketh them useful and profitable which commends our Patience and Humility and Perseverance and without which our Patience were but like the Heathens imaginary and paper-Patience begotten by some premeditation by habit of suffering by opinion of fatal necessity or by a Stoical abandoning of all affections Without Faith our Humility were pride and our Prayers babling For whereas in natural men there be many excellent things yet without Faith they are all nothing worth and are to them as the Rainbow was before the Flood the same perhaps in shew but of no use It is strange to see what gifts of wisdome and temperance of moral and natural conscience of justice and uprightness did remain not only in the books but in the lives of many Heathen men but this could not further them one foot for the purchase of eternal good because they wanted the Faith which they derived which gives the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a loveliness and beauty and is alone of force to attract and draw the love and favour of God unto us These graces otherwise are but as the matter and body of a Christian man a thing of it self dead without life but the soul which seems to quicken this body is Faith They are indeed of the same brotherhood and kindred and God is the common Father unto them all but without Faith they find no entertainment at his hands As Joseph said unto his brethren You shall not see my face except your brother be with you So nor shall Patience and Humility and Prayer bring us to the blessed vision of God unless they take Faith in their company You see our Saviour passeth by them all but at the sight of Faith he cryes out in a kind of astonishment O woman great is thy faith And for this faith he grants her her request Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Which is my next part and which I will touch but in a word FIAT TIBI is a grant and it follows close at the heels of the
Faith not only like Fire purifying the heart but like Clothes warming Acts 15. 9. the affections to a temperate and active heat An unbeliever Lord what a frost there is at his heart how cold and chill and denumn'd he stands not able to pull his hand out of his bosom as Solomon speaketh Lay the whip upon the fools back yet he moves not in better case to suffer than to be up and doing But Faith strikes a heat through us It is active in the Hand vocal in the Tongue compassionate in the Heart It sets the brain a working seeking and pursuing opportunities of doing good It makes our Feet like hinds feet and enlargeth the soul that we may run the way of Gods commandments Again Garments as they are indumenta for covert and warmth so are ornamenta too for decencie and ornament And sure Faith and Holiness of life are a comely wear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzene Goodness is equally venerable to all men It is not so much that good men hold her in esteem Her very enemies praise her in the gate Qui tot argumentis scripserunt They who by their black deeds have prescribed her and sent her a bill of divorce will be ready enough to tell you that she is the horn of beauty fairer than the children of men Judge of her by her contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin is shy of the light and keeps least in sight She hath a foul face and her best friends fling durt at her Hoc habet sibi displicet saith Seneca They that put her on are ashamed to walk abroad with her but fling her off in the streets as ready to disgrace Sin as to commit it The Profane gallant thunders out an oath and the next breath is a prayer that God would forgive the villanie The Superstitious wanton watche◠her sins as she doth her beads but drops them faster Her first care is an opportunity to commit sin and then to deliver up the full tale to her ghostly Father The Adulterer and the Priest like the Sun and the Moon have their seasons in the night Uncleanness and when the Sun is up Confession Ashamed she is of this loose garment but unwilling to put it off nay put it off she does but not to fling it away An argument of some dislike she so often changes Tertullian saith well Omne malum aut timore aut pudore natura perfudit Nature hath either struck Vice pale or dyed it in a blush When we sin we either fear or are ashamed But Righteousness and Charity are of a good complexion and like a healthful body inde colorem sumunt unde vires from thence have their beauty from whence their strength Righteousness is amiable in her going The young men see her and hide themselves and the aged arise and stand up Job 29. 8. 11. The ear that hears her blesseth her and the eye that sees her gives witness to her If the whole world were a Sun and all the men in it one eye yet she dares come forth at noon-day before the sun and the people Ad medium properat lucémque nitescere poscit We see then this is not only a Garment to cover us but also an Ornament to deck us not for necessity alone but for decency also St. Paul goes further and tells us it is an Armour to defend us a complete armour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6. 11. Take the whole armour of God And he furnisheth the spiritual Souldier with Shooes Girdle Breast-plate Helmets and all necessary accoutrements from top to toe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take it non ad pompam sed ad pugnam not to make a glittering shew like Darius but to fight like Alexander to demolish strong holds to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against us in our way non ad resistendum sed ad proficiendum saith Augustine not only to beat back the enemies darts but to gain ground of him to take-in those places those corners of our souls which he hath beleaguerd to enlarge in us the kingdom of grace that so our passage may be free to the kingdom of Glory To these we may add a fourth Garments are not only for Necessity Decency and Security but also for Distinction So saith St. Augustine Charitas dividit inter filios regni filios perditionis Charity puts a distinction between true heirs and sons of perdition The character and mark of a Christian saith Nazianzene is the letter Tau in his forehead by which God doth know his and is known of his Bellarmine hath no less than fifteen marks of the true Church but this one here is worth them all We talk much of the book of life but we never read it and whose names are written therein we cannot tell All the light we have is from this fire of Charity He that hath her hath if not written his name in that book yet subscribed to it he that casts her off hath drawn out to himself those black lines of reprobation All the mark we know good Christians by here all the marks we shall know Saints by hereafter is Charity Rank and order Gods Decrees how we will and tell them at our fingers ends all the light our Saviour gives us is this They that have done well that have this mark shall enter into everlasting life and they that have done evil that have it not John 5. 29. into everlasting fire So then this is a Garment and doth cover us and not only cover but adorn not only adorn but defend not only defend but distinguish Take them together they are an antidote against Fear which doth so often stagger the best of us They wipe-out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the phansie and conceit of some evil drawing near whether it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a destructive evil or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a troublesome evil Fear what should we fear A storm Here is a Covert Shame and contempt which David so feared and would Psal 119. 22. have removed Here is a rich Robe to adorn us The chill cold of Temptations This is the endromis the Winter-garment The violence of the Enemy Here is Armor of proof to defend us To be numbred with the transgressours Here is a Mantle with a badge upon it to distinguish us No Fear not saith the Angel when he delivered the Gospel And Faith makes it Gospel unto us We need not fear in the evil day in our worst dayes not let go our hold-fast not cast away our confidence Here is that Hebr. 10. 35. that confirms and radicates and establishes us and sets us not only upon but as the Wiseman speaketh makes us an everlasting foundation Or Prov. 10. 25. to keep us to the Metaphor a Garment it is for all uses If we have this on neither storm nor cold nor disgrace nor the enemy nor ill company shall hurt us But in the next place
stand upright at the great day of tryal Neither did these monsters only blemish this doctrine but it received some stain also from their hands who were its stoutest champions Not to mention Clemens Alexandrinus Theophilus Cyprian Hilary and others St. Augustine that great pillar of the truth and whose memory will be ever pretious in the Church though he often interpret the word Justification for Remission of sins yet being deceived by the likeness of sound in these two words JUSTIFICARE and SANCTIFICARE doth in many places confound them both and make Justification to be nothing else but the making of a man just So in his Book De Spiritu Litera c. 26. interpreting that of the Apostle Being justified freely by his grace he makes this discant Non ait PER LEGEM sed PER GRATIAM He doth not say by the Law but by Grace And he gives his reason Ut sanet gratia voluntatem ut sanata voluntas impleat legem That Grace might cure the Will and the Will being freed might fulfill the Law And in his Book De Spiritu Gratia he saith Spiritus Sanctus diffundit charitatem quâ unâ justi sunt quicunque justi sunt The holy Spirit powers out his love into our hearts by which Love alone they are just whosoever are just And whosoever is but little conversant in that Father shall soon observe that where he deals with the Pelagian he makes the grace of Justification and of Sanctification all one Now that which the Father says is true but ill placed For in every Christian there is required Newness of life and Sanctity of conversation but what is this to Justification and Remission of sins which is no quality inherent in us but the act of God alone As therefore Tully speaks of Romulus who kill'd his brother Peccavit pace vel Quirini vel Romuli dixerim By Romulus his good leave though he were the founder of our Common-wealth he did amiss So with reverence to so worthy and so pious a Saint we may be bold to say of great St. Augustine that if he did not erre yet he hath left those ill weighed speeches behind him which give countenance to those foul mishapen errours which blur and deface that mercy which wipes away our sins For Aquinas in his 1 a 2 ae q. 113. though he grant what he cannot deny because it is a plain Text That Remission of sins is the Not-imputation of sins yet he adds That Gods wrath will not be appeased till Sin be purged out and a new habit of Grace infused into the soul which God doth look upon and respect when he forgives our sins Hence those unsavory tenets of the Romish Church That Justification is not a pronouncing but a making one righteous That inherent holiness is the formal cause of Justification That we may redeem our sins and puchase forgiveness by Fasting Almes-deeds and other good works All which if she do not expose to the world in this very garb and shape yet she so presents them that they seem to speak no less so that her followers are very apt and prompt to come towards them and embrace them even in this shape And although Bellarmine by confounding the term of Justification and distinguishing of a Faith informed with Charity and a Faith which is not and by putting a difference between the works of the Law and those which are done by the power and virtue of the holy Spirit and by allotting no reward but that which is freely promised and promised to those who are in the state of grace and adoption though by granting that the Reward doth far exceed the dignity of our Works he striveth to bring the Church of Rome as near to St. Paul as he can and lays all the colours he hath to make her opinion resemble his yet when he tells us that the Good works of the Saints may truly satisfie the Law of God and merit eternal life when he makes our Satisfaction go hand in hand with Christs and that Fasting and Prayer and Alms are satisfactory not only for punishment but for all punishment and which is more for the guilt it self he hath in effect unsaid what formerly he had laid down concerning the free Remission of our sins and made so wide a breach between St. Paul and their Church as neither St. Peter nor all the Saints they invocate are able to close In a word he speaks as good sense as Theodorus Antiochenus doth in Photius his Bibliotheca who makes a twofold Forgiveness of sins the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those things which we have done the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Impeccancie or Leaving off to Sin So that we may say with Photius What this Forgiveness is or from whence it is is impossible to find out No doubt God taketh notice of the graces he hath bestowed on his children and registreth every good work they do and will give an eternal reward not only to the Faith of Abraham the Chastity of Joseph the Patience of Job the Meekness of Moses the Zeal of Phinehas the Devotion of David but even to the Widows two mites cast into the treasury to a cup of cold water given to a thirsty Disciple Yet most true it is that all the righteousness of all the Saints cannot merit forgiveness And we will take no other reason or proof for this position but that of Bellarmins Non acceptat Deus in veram satisfactionem pro peccato nisi justitiam infinitam God must have an infinite satisfaction because the sin is infinite Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Shall I bring the merits of one Saint and the supererogations of another and add to these the treasury of the Church All these are but as an atome to the infinite mass of our Sin Shall I yet add my Fasting my Alms my Tears my Devotion All these will vanish at the guilt of Sin and melt before it as wax before the Sun We must therefore disclaim all hope of help from our selves or any or all creatures in earth or in heaven It is only the Lamb of God who taketh John 1. 29. away the sins of the world the Man Christ Jesus is the only Mediatour between 1 Tim. 2. 5. God and Man He alone is our Advocate with the Father and the 1 John 2. 1 2. propitiation for our sins His bloud cleanseth us from all sin In him we have 1 John 1. 7. Eph. 1. 7. Eph. 3. 12. redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of sins In him we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him In his name therefore who taught us thus to pray let us put up this Petition Forgive us our debts and our prayer will be graciously heard and we shall be accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. all our Debt will be remitted through the merits of our Surety who hath
eye in colour Quà m alter alteri est periculo How dangerous are we one to another It is a friend factus est gladius and he is become a sword to me to wound me to death It will therefore concern us to be shy and wary even of the least occasion for what know we what great evil may lurk in the least And be it never so little it is too great if the matter near it be catching To the Eye of man a Star seems no bigger than it self but Reason corrects the error of our Eye and teacheth us that it may be greater than the Globe of the Earth So that which at first we do not discern to be so much as an occasion of sin at last proveth so and hath the more leisure to work upon our nature because we perceive not when it entred is more operative because we neglected it nay perhaps overprized it and esteemed that as a duty of our life and a point of civility which is made an occasion of sin Who would think there were any danger in conversing with a friend yet it may so fall out that we may loose by a friend when we benefit by an enemy For his sake we may begin to excuse and pardon that sin which before we did loath to make glosses and fair interpretations and by degrees love it and make much of it and at last swallow it down Before it was a great and heavy sin within a while not so great paulò pòst leve senties paulò pòst nec senties paulò pòst delectabit Presently thou shalt feel it light anon thou shalt not feel it at all not long after it shall be thy delight and thou shalt take pleasure in it as in a friend We must not then upon confidence of our own strength be so bold as to walk amongst snares or be too familiar with any thing that may prove a tentation Much less may we desire or pray for tentations You see we are here commanded to pray against them against that Beauty which may deceive us against that Poverty which may make us steal against those Riches which may make us so full that we shall deny God against that Affliction which may swallow us up For though Tentations occasion that which is good yet naturally they tend to that which is evil and though without them we cannot be victorious yet by them we are too often overthrown Brethren saith St. James count it all joy when you fall into divers Jam. 1. 2. tentations But this upon this supposition in the next verse that the tryal of our faith worketh patience and patience when it perfecteth its work maketh us perfect and entire Otherwise all this joy were none at all For the victory proceeds not from the Tentation as from the efficient but from the wisdom of him that is tempted And if it be desirable because it may be an occasion of good then Sin may be desired also which occasions that Sorrow which brings forth repentance not to be repented of and where it abounds makes Grace abound much more It is indeed the glory of a Christian to wrestle against principalities and powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this world to be near to danger and avoid it to parley with a Tentation and silence it to dispute Afflictions out of their smart and carnal Pleasures out of their allurement to touch pitch and not be defiled nay it is his portion all the daies of his life Agnosco haereditatem meam in cruce Christi saith Bernard I acknowledge my inheritance is in the cross of Christ But when we see so many shipwrackt before our eyes him that was constant in torment overthrown by pleasure him that defied the World overcome by the Flesh as Macarius tells us of one that after torment and imprisonment for the truth in the very prison defiled a virgin it will concern us not to be too bold to put forth Nihil in bello oportet contemni It is here as in war nothing must be esteemed slight and not worth the regarding nor must we offer our selves to those tentations which may be too hard for us Malo cautior esse quà m fortior Fortis saepe captus est cautus rarissimè It is better a great deal be timorous and wary than presumptuously bold and fool-hardy The strong man hath oft been led into captivity but the wary man seldom but overcomes the enemy by withdrawing himself from the danger of the fight But in the third place though we be never so wary never so abstemious yet tentations will offer themselves and come so neer unto us that we shall be forct to cope with them We must here learn some wisdom from our adversary the Serpent and as he makes use of our members to make them instruments of sin so must we of his Tentations and turn them from that end they are driven to and make them occasions of virtue And this is contundere viperam in theriacam to beat and bring these vipers into an antidote into precious treacle like a subtle Logician to draw the answer out of the very argument like a skilful Chymist to extract gold out of baser mettals or like a wise and experienced Captain to turn the enemies ordinance upon the face of the enemy For as it is one part of wisdome futura ex praeteritis providere to see future things in things that are past so is it no less to know how to manage things present and to make an advantage for good out of that which was placed before us and intended for evil to force light out of darkness and virtue out of that tentation which was a strong invitation to vice And therefore since the Tempter doth suggest vice by the shew and appearance of some desirable good by counterfeit pleasure and false riches and imaginary content by something which even Reason it self may perswade us is convenient to our nature let us not presently abhor all Riches all Pleasure all Content because he miscalls his tentations by that name but turn our thoughts and enquire where these are to be had Doth he tempt us by Pleasure Let us seek that which is constant and everlasting Doth he tempt us by Riches Let us seek them where no rust can corrupt them Doth he propose Content Let us expect it there where we may be satisfied Nay we may make use not only of his tentations but of those sins they would bring in Et quid est unde homo commoveri non potest ad virtutes capescendas quando de ipsis vitiis potest saith St. Augustine What is there that may not be a motive to Virtue if Vice it self may be one Curiosity affects knowledge and the certainest knowledge is of eternal things which never alter but alwaies keep at the same stay Pride seeks for power and the soul which is perfect and subject to God hath a kind of omnipotency and may do all things