ought to live it is not then this kind of Faith that our Text so highly praiseth as to say It is the victory that overcometh the World it must be a generous and warlike Faith and not a base cowardly dejected Faith which hath no courage neither to undertake nor to maintain any thing Scripture and Divinity tell us of another kind of Faith quite opposite they call it a lively Faith perfect or formed which besides that it at first convinceth the understanding by the Authorities of revealed Truths perswades the will to approve them by Sentiments conformable to such holy motions it is what JESUS CHRIST said of St. John Baptist A burning and a shining Lamp shining because it brings light and knowledge to the mind burning because it brings fire and piety to the heart Of that the Prophet Habakkuk saith The just shall live by Faith that is by reason of his Faith as St. Paul expounds it Rom. 1.17 and the same Apostle speaks again of it in the Chapters following and particularly in Chap 3. ver 28. where he saith It is the sense of all Christians that man is justified by Faith without the works of Moses his Law He sayes as much of it almost in the same words in the beginning of the fifth Chapter and in divers other places of the same Epistle and in all his other Epistles St. Peter sayes no less of it when he assures the Gentiles Acts 19. that God had purified their hearts by Faith And in his 1 Epist 1.8 You are preserved saith he by the means of Faith to be heirs of Salvation which is the reward of Faith as he sayes presently after ver 9. and certainly it is that which the Apostle St. Jude in his Catholique Epistle ver 20. calls most holy not only because it is the formal holiness of the Soul but because that as Divines expound it it fulfilleth all duties of holiness by an entire obedience to the Ordinances and Commands of God which gives occasion to Divines to call it sometimes an obedient Faith and certainly it is of this Faith that our Text speaketh when it saith that the victory that overcometh the World is Faith It is not therefore enough Christians to shew you that all that is born of God overcometh the World and that it is by Faith it overcometh it is needful that I tell you moreover by what Faith for we are not without enemies that accuse us of giving to Faith alone without joining it with other vertues this victorious power And indeed there are too many souls among us either libertine enough or ill enough instructed to perswade themselves that there needs nothing but believing to overcome all and to be saved if they had not such thoughts assuredly we should see them live better for it is impossible to lead so ill a life if they did believe that they must lead a better if they will be saved Let our Enemies and our Libertines and our Ignorants learn then this day what we think and what we ought to think of Faith which justifies or as our Text speaks which overcometh the World The true Sentiment of all Reformed Churches is that this Faith is not only a naked and barren belief which acknowledgeth and confesseth only the truth of our mysteries without troubling ones self to practise that piety which these mysteries require but they all teach us that this Faith is accompanied with all the holiness which the Gospel enjoyns us so that Faith according to our Doctrine is uncapable to justifie us and to overcome the World if Charity be not with it and it is in vain that I believe in JESUS CHRIST if I love him not and if I do not that which his Gospel ordaineth me to do Thus when we say with the Scripture That Faith justifies that it cleanseth the hearts that it overcometh the World we speak not but of a Faith that is loving patient humble and holy in all respects it is after this manner that all the Fathers speak of it and St. John himself in the Text as it is evident in the verses that go before and that follow For though he saith absolutely That those who believe that JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God overcome the World yet he speaks before and after of Charity and of keeping Gods Commandments as things inseparably linked with this victorious Faith You see then Christians what that Faith is which overcometh the World in the just it is that impenetrable Buckler that St. Paul speaketh of that beats back all the blows which the Enemy aims at us A man armed with this Faith may say with the Apostle That what temptation soever he shall endure no assaults shall separate him from the love of JESUS CHRIST Nothing shall debauch him from his duty nothing shall make him the slave of sin let the World come with all its Forces with all the sweets of Pleasure with all the corruptions of Interest with all the pomâ—s of Ambition it will make but vain Enterprises unsuccessful Assaults upon a man armed with this warlike and generous Faith for what can pleasure say to him able to corrupt him if she promiseth to his body all she hath of tender and sweet what will the Just do in this rough assault where he hath all pleasures to fight against He will oppose his Faith I believe in that God will he say who would not live but in pennance while he lived amongst us alwayes severe to his flesh alwayes mortified in his mind never in pleasure and almost continually in grief who found in the bitterness of his death nothing but Gall and Vinegar to sweeten it What! shall I believe these things and in the mean time abandon my self to those guilty pleasures No I will not The assaults of Interest need no less resolution and resistance they sollicit the faithful Soul with all the perswasions that Gold and Silver are able to make in this World being pressed by this assault what doth he He takes his ordinary shield he opposeth his Faith O! saith he I believe that God made himself poor to make me rich that he would not possess any thing on earth that at his birth he had nothing but straw to lie upon that during his life he had nothing whereon to lay his head that at his death he was naked And shall I to make my self rich do this injustice shall I suffer my self to be corrupted by my Interest No I will not Neither shall Ambition have any more advantage over the faithful Soul how violently soever it assaults him Methinks I see Ambition with her glistering and her pomps tempting the heart of the Just flattering him with all her splendor and grandeur which use to dazle others what will he do in this assault that which he did in the former He will take Faith and oppose it against this Enemy that presseth him What! saith he that God in whom I believe who abased himself so far as to become man did humble himself to the meanest things ev'n to death to the most shameful and infamous death And shall I advance my self by the diminution of his glory shall I drive on my fortune as far as vanity will entice me No I will not it shall never be said that my life hath bely'd my Faith I believe there are eternal Rewards to crown all my fidelity if I sink not under these Temptations that the World leads me in o I believe there are everlasting pains to punish my baseness if I do sink under them What then should I be so far out of my wits and besides my senses as to resolve to do it No the World must stay till I believe these things no more Thus it is Brethren that Faith speaks thus it is that she fights thus it is that she triumphs when she is right when Faith is as it ought to be animated with the Spirit of all vertues and when we are satisfied by the effects that we have this Faith We have it not Christians when we yield so easily to the first sollicitations of Pleasure of Interest and of Ambition Alas how can your Faith be victorious over the World while you are still Slaves to Passion which is the World it self and whil'st you observe the Laws and Maxims of the World more religiously than those of God The Faith that is victorious over the World confesseth JESUS CHRIST on all occasions loves him at all times and serves and follows him through all things in good earnest Christians do you do so Alas how easily may it be seen with never so little reflection on our selves that we have not this Faith since within us all is full of Revolts Ingratitudes and Infidelities towards CHRIST whom we crucifie and defame daily as St. Paul reproacheth in the sixth of the Epistle to the Hebrews Is that believing in JESUS Christ with a victorious Faith when we believe in him to crucifie him and disgrace him by the disorders of our shameful lives Take my Brethren take other courses more worthy of him and of your selves live conformably to the belief of his Gospel let his love and his will reign in your hearts as well as his Truths in your minds in a word let your works and your life be sutable to the holiness of your Faith and then you will have a victorious Faith and you shall be in the number of the just ones of whom St. John saith in our Text That they are born of God that they triumph over the World and that they triumph by Faith God give you that Grace in this life that he may crown you in the next with GLORY Unto this Great GOD Immortal Invisible Adorable FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST who gives us these glorious Hopes be Honour Blessing and Eternal Magnificence AMEN THE END
alone that we will or can acquit our selves O Lord then look on thy Christ and seek in him all thou wilt have of us as we seek in him and by him all that we would have of thee it is in that frame of heart that we lie prostrate at thy feet and say unto thee what himself hath taught us to say Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name c. THE TEXT Is in the First Epistle of Saint JOHN Chap. V. Ver. IV. For whatsoever is born of GOD overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith PRovidence which is admirable in all things is so especially in the Oeconomy of the Scripture where that which is sometimes but occasional is nevertheless of infinite use and consequence which made St. John Chrysostome say so well in his Homily on Gen. 18. That the Scripture saith nothing save wise and holy Design Of this we have in the Text a very Authentick Instance since the whole verse seems to have been written only upon the occasion of that which went before where St. John having said that the Commandments of God are not grievous and foreseeing the objections of an infinite number of people to whom they are without doubt very difficult found himself insensibly engaged to render this reason That all which is born of God overcometh the World and that this is the victory which hath overcome the World even our faith Now you see Christians that there was nothing more necessary to be taught then that which at first sight seem'd to be taught us here by chance only In effect where can be found in one or the other Testament more instruction or more mysteries then in these few words must not one have leaned on the bosome of JESUS as this Apostle did must not one have drunk as St. Austin speaks in this source of wisdom to comprehend so many marvels in so few words I dare say that not only the Law and the Prophets but that all the Gospel it self all its spirit all its perfection is divinely inclosed in this Text for if they are born of God if they have overcome the world and if the triumph be obtained by faith which is wanting to the consummation of the vertue and the accomplishment of the design of Jesus Christ in the sanctification of men This divine Birth this illustrious triumph and this victorious faith being then as it is evident the last effort of grace and the most glorious work of the Spirit in the soul of a Christian shall I not this day competently fulfil the dispensation of my Ministery if in one verse of Scripture which I endeavor to expound I clear unto you these three great Mysteries that comprehend all holiness letting you see 1. Who are those which are born of God 2. What victory they obtain over the World 3. What this Faith is which makes them obtain this Victory Christians here is all that seems to me necessary for the explaining of my Text which says plainly that Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and that this is the victory which hath overcome the world even our Faith We will begin with clearing the first part My Brethren Give such attention as it deserves and Thou O my God give the blessing which I crave THE FIRST PART One of the greatest Questions that ever puzled the Philosophers before the knowledge of the Gospel was to finde whether any thing could be born of God by any sort of Generation the greatest number and the most subtil believed that it was impossible First said they because God is a Spirit and Spirits ingender not having no power proper or appointed for that use Secondly because he is God and in that quality he ought necessarily to be One which he should no more be if he were capable of generation because a God can beget none but a God for then he should introduce a multitude contrary to his Essence from whence they concluded in the end an impossibility that any thing should be born or begotten of God But the Gospel having better enlightned us by the obscurities of faith then the Philosophers had done by the light of Science we know infallibly that this birth or generation is not impossible and this text of S. John is enough to teach it since by saying All that is born of God overcometh the world it supposeth either divers persons or divers things to be born of him but the better to discern of what this Apostle speaks here we ought to take notice that generally the Scripture gives this illustrious praise to be born of God to all that he hath produced with some resemblance of himself and it is a doctrine conformable enough to Philosophy which teaches that all that is born of a principle receives from it not only being but resemblance besides Now as God doth diversly communicate the resemblance of himself to the things that he produceth from thence it comes that all possess not by the same title the honour to be born of him A great man and one of the most learned the world ever had in Philosophy or Divinity observes subtilly and solidly five different manners wherein the things that God hath produced have some resemblance with him Similitudo Naturaâ— Vesâ—igâ—â— Imaginis Gâ—ariâ— Gloriae for this resemblance saith he may be either of Nature or of Trace or of Image or of Grace or of Glory whence he concludeth that the advantage to be born of God that is to have God for Father belongeth 1. To the Word 2. To Creatures meerly material 3. To Creatures Intelligent and Reasonable 4. To the Just 5. To the Glorified To the Word by resemblance or rather by Identity of Nature To Creatures meerly material by some imperfect traces or by some obscure marks of the Excellency of God To Creatures intelligent and reasonable that is to Men and Angels by their understanding and reason which are the illustrious Images of God himself To the Just by communication of grace and holiness To the Glorified by the imitation of his Glory These resemblances that all things have with God being as you see so different make us easily conceive that God is diversly the Father of them and that the advantage to be born of him is more or less noble according as the resemblance is more or less persect That which is without comparison above all others is the resemblance of Nature which belongs only to the Verbe and which belongs not to him specifically as Philosophers and Divines speak but individually that is The Word is not only like his Father as we are to ours having the same nature with him for since it is impossible there should be more then one God it cannot be possible that his Nature should multiply so when the Father produceth his Essential Word he gives him not another Nature like his but the same as his own from whence it is that the Title
of the Son of God to speak strictly can belong to none but him and it is by a metaphor meerly and a kinde of usurpation that it is attributed to others The Scripture doth fully witness it when it says so often that he is the only Son or only begotten of God and when by Excellence it saith in Rom. 5.32 That He is God's own Son and when it says in Hebr. 1. That it is to him alone that God bare this witness in Psal 2. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And finally that in the 110. Psal it is of none but him that the Father speaks when he says according to the Latin Version I have begotten thee of my bosome Now we find nothing either in Divinity or in the Scripture it self of this great Priviledge and of this proper and particular Title of the Word but the perfection of resemblance that he hath with his Father and which other things have not The holy Spirit it self which proceedeth from the Father as the Gospel teacheth us and who hath the same nature with him yet is not called the Son and it is not said that he is born nor that he is begotten because he doth not proceed formally as Divines teach us by way of resemblance since at the least as they say very rationally the holy Spirit is the production of Love and not of Knowledge so that proceeding from the Will and not from the Understanding of God it cannot have a formal resemblance with its principle Philosophie it self teaching us that resemblance is not an effect of the Will but of the Understanding because it is proper to the Will to carry it self to its Object whereas the Understanding attracts his Object by imprinting on it his resemblance Whence it is that Aristotle says that the Understanding becomes all things not by changing it self into them but on the contrary by changing them into it self Moreover it is from thence that the Production or Term of the Will is called a Weight a Propension an Inclination which does not at all signifie resemblance but the production of the understanding is called Verb Image Representation Therefore Scripture never gives these Names to the Holy Spirit but to the Son only whose Name saith St. John Rev. 19. is The Word of God Now this word Verb signifies either the thought or the word and we know that the thought is the representation of the object that one thinks of and the Word is the Image of the thought it self so that both in the one and in the other sense the word Verb applied to the Son in the Gospel is a name of resemblance But St. Paul willing more clearly to expound himself saith to the Corinthians and to the Colossians That he is the Image of God and to the Hebrews That he is the splendor of his Glory and the figure of his Substance according to the Latin Version or of his Person according to the Greek Original Thus by all these reasons and so many authorities it is properly the second Divine Person that is born of God Yet it is not of that our Text speaks when St. John saith That all which is born of God overcometh the World by Faith for though Jesus Christ who is this Adorable Person hath overcome the World as himself doth witness by the same Evangelist in the 16th chapter of his History verse 33. and though it be also in some manner by means of faith that he hath triumphed yet it is not of him that the Text speaks because it is easie to comprehend by that which goeth before and that which cometh after that it is of them that have faith that these words should be understood and that they cannot belong to Jesus Christ who though he be the Author and Finisher of our Faith as St. Paul calls him in the XIII Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews yet he hath it not formally since he cannot have faith of that which he hath the knowledge the experience of the sight So when St. John speaks here of that which is born of God he speaks but of those which have onely an imperfect resemblance of him differing from that of Nature and yet he speaks not of all sorts for First it is clear that by that which is born of God he means not things meerly material which have only a Trace or Footstep of likeness to him it is true that God having produced them and they representing to us as they do all some of his perfections God may justly be called their Father Job in this sense calleth him the Father of the rain and saith It is be that hath begotten the dew he might say as much of all other creatures though destitute of intelligence and reason since besides that God made them they have moreover this advantage to represent him in some sort in the judgment of St. Paul who saith in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans the 20. verse that the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the Creation of the world being understood by the things that are made But the end of our Text shews evidently that he speaks not of that sort of creatures although in some respects it may be said they are born of God Secondly neither is it of Angels or Men in the quality of intelligent and reasonable creatures for though the Angels are the least imperfect images of God which gave occasion to a learned man to call them The bright Looking Glasses of the Godhead and though by the right of this resemblance there is nothing in Nature that more justly deserves the title of the children of God then they do and though himself by the mouth of Job calls them so often by this glorious Name yet it is manifest that it is not of them that St. John here makes mention when he speaks of those who are born of God since he speaks of such as are in the world and have sought with it and have triumphed over it by faith which you see cannot be applied to Angels Nor doth he speak of men considered only as reasonable for though reason hath made them fair Copies and illustrious Images of the Divinity to answer what St. Paul highly in their praise saith that they are the Image of the Glory of God and to deserve that the Prophet Malachy should call God their Father by the general right of their Creation yet it is not of them at least in the quality of reasonable creatures only that the text we expound speaks who overcome the world by their faith and not by all the strength of their reason and understanding Then they must needs be either the Just or the Glorified that are here spoken of Doubtless they are not the Glorified for though they have this noble resemblance of Glory with God who doth almost transform them into himself as St. John expounds it in the third of his first Epistle and that they are called in the
perswades us to the contrary but when we have triumphed over these three passions which are properly that which St Paul 1 Cor. 2.12 calleth The Spirit of the World and St. John in our Text the World it self then whatever God commands is so far from painful that we find pleasure in it and the reason of this relish and this easiness is no other but what we say as our Apostle doth so evidently justifie when after he had said The Commandments of God are easie he presently brings the proof For saith he all that is born of God overcometh the World letting us see manifestly that there is nothing but the World that is its Spirit and its Maxims that makes our obedience uneasie and the infallible mark of overcoming the World is the easiness we find in obeying the Commandments of God But alas how few then are there that have overcome the World since there are so few that do not find the Commandments of God grievous it seems to them an insupportable yoke even so much that sometimes they will say that Gods Commandments are of an impossible performance You have not then overcome the World you who yet complain of their difficulty who groan under the weight of the yoke and express so much grief to submit your selves to the orders and commands that he gives you No no you have not yet triumphed over the World you that are yet Slaves to your Pleasures to your Interest and your Pride since it is that which is properly call'd the World this illustrious Victory belongs to none but the children of God whom he hath as it were transformed into himself by a resemblance of holiness of spirit and life hope not then for the glory of this triumph without being first entred into this noble Alliance with God but as soon as you are become his children by a mending of your courses and by a new birth of piety and grace be you assured that you shall triumph over the World because the Oracle of Divine Truth hath said it that all which is born of God overcometh the World And since it is by Faith that we get this Victory as the Text tells us let us examine in the last Part of this Discourse what that Faith is The Third Part. IT is with the spiritual Combats much as with the temporal it doth not suffice in ordinary Combats to be strong and to be valiant to overcome all the World knows that besides that one must have Arms and make use of them Likewise to overcome the World it is not enough to be born of God Lib. 22. cap. 25. Victoria de hoc mundo non nostris viribus adscribetur we must take Arms to oppose the violence of this formidable Enemy for as St. Austin saith in his Book of the City of God The victory over the World is not attributed to our Forces it is not by them we gain it but what Arms must we make use of nothing can triumph over the World as a principal cause or as an instrument of victory which is not born of God since St. John doth not attribute this honour but to those that are so born Our Arms then ought to be some of those Vertues which they call Theological or Divine not only because God is the chief object of them but for that he is their immediate principle to distinguish them from other Vertues which they call Moral that may spring from elsewhere Yanta est charitas quae si adsit habentur omnia si desit frustra habentur caetera Aug. Then of necessity it must be either Faith or Hope or Charity that must serve us for Arms in this Combat but why rather Faith than the other two Is not Hope admirably well fitted for this great imployment since it doth promise us eternal rewards there are no temptations nor assaults that it enableth us not to overcome or at least why should it not be Charity which is the Queen and the most noble of all vertues as the Apostle assures us and whereof St. Austin sayes That having it alone one hath all and not having it it is useless to have the rest which he learned of St. Paul who saith That neither Martyrdom nor the most holy things nor even Faith it self is any thing without Charity Nevertheless we must believe our Text which saith plainly It is by Faith that we overcome the world And St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews agrees well with this sentiment when he saith That it is by Faith that so many just persons have done such wonders and that They have vanquished Kingdoms what Kingdoms but those of the World the Flesh and the Devil and that They have conquered Eternity Is it not of Faith that our Lord himself hath said That nothing shall be impossible to it and that there needs but little of it to work wonders even to remove Mountains But whereas there are Christians that have Faith and in the mean time are rather Slaves of the World than Masters and Conquerors of it what kind of Faith is that which may be the instrument of so glorious a victory It seems the Apostle in the Verse that follows the Text would spare us the pains of this search Who is he saith he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that JESUS is the Son of God Yet there being an infinite number of people that believe so much who notwithstanding are rather overcome by the World than Conquerors of it we are still to seek and have need to repair to Divinity and to other Texts of Scripture for the clearing of so great and so important a difficulty Divinity distinguisheth two sorts of Faith the one dead the other living The dead Faith which is otherwise called unperfect or unformed is no more than a conviction we have of a truth upon Divine testimony without any bettering of our will by that conviction of our understanding some call this Faith Speculative or Historical because it makes one believe only the fact of things without leading him to other Acts worthy of such a belief It was of this Faith that St. James spake Chap. 2.14 when he said What can it profit my Brethren though a man say I have Faith and hath not Works Can Faith save him In this sense St. Paul speaks of it 1 Cor. 13.2 If I have Faith enough to remove Mountains saith he and have not Charity I am nothing There are some also which call this Faith the Faith of Devils for an Apostle speaking to a man that had Faith without works Thou believest saith he that there is a God thou dost well to believe it but the Devils believe it too and therefore they tremble The Devils for that kind of believing are no less Devils and no less wicked This barren Faith is good for nothing unless it be to make us more guilty since having believed as we ought to believe we have no excuse why we have not lived as we
FAITH IN THE JUST Victorious over the WORLD A SERMON Preached at the SAVOY in the French Church on Sunday Octob. 10. 1669. By Dr. BREVALL heretofore Preacher to the the Queen-Mother Translated into English by Dr. Du-Moulin Canon of Canterbury LONDON Printed for Will. Nott and are to be sold at the Queens-Arms the Pell-mell 1670. TO THE READERS YOu are not obliged to me for the Sermon I give you because it is a Present which I give unwillingly There are so many Preached every day that are so much better and are not Printed as it would have seemed to me a Crime if any thing less then Necessity had made me do mine that Honour I had no other reason to excuse my self to many people that desired it of me and I had been firm in this refusal but for the occasion I am about to tell The Superiour of the Capuchins at Somerset-house meeting me in the Street the Sunday after my Sermon as I went to the French Church in the Savoy with one of the Elders stopped me most uncivilly and told me I might have been ashamed to have preached the last Sunday so many foul so many infamous things so many Crimes and Abominations which had so horribly scandalized all the World I confess this Language did surprize and move me because till then I had had nothing but Praises and Acclamations as well from the one Partie as the other yet I only told him he did more wrong to himself then to me by so unjust a reproach and that he did oblige me to make my Sermon publick that so I might have more Witnesses and Judges then I had Auditors though they were as many as the Church could hold But before I did it I asked counsel of the Wisest the most Vertuous and Illustrious Persons that I could reasonably consult with Their Advice was that I ought with speed to clear my self publickly from so wicked a Calumnie that so by the falshood of this which I should make apparent to all the Impostures of my Enemies in other ill stories that they make of me might be known I obeyed this Counsel or rather this Order that was given me without other design then to justifie my Doctrine It concerns me not much what they say or believe of me one thing excepted which I cannot suffer without complaining of my Persecutors who durst say that in the last Wars I offered my service to the King of England against the King of France I have a good Witness to the contrarie who knows that the passion I then expressed for this Kingdom was without prejudice to the Loyaltie I owe to that wherein I was born To shew you in few words the unsinceritie of those people that persecute me You must know that soon after my Conversion they would have it that I had been a Spie for England against France to draw upon me the Hatred of the French that are here I give God thanks who hath always kept me in the Duties I owe to both these Kingdoms I look on them both as my Countrie since I was born in the one and prepare my self to die in the other Doubtless this is more then enough to take away all credit from my Enemies in the rest of the Accusations which from time to time they frame against me they are so unlikely and the World is alreadie so far disabused that my Defence is needless Themselves begin not to dare to publish them so boldly and are almost reduced to reproach me with nothing but my Marriage and I am verie happie that people who hate me so much have nothing to say against me but that which is so innocent and so lawful would to God they could everie where be reproched with the same thing it might save them from other more heinous Accusations I am sure the libertie of one Sacrament as they call it would hinder the commerce of many Sacrileges I will take some more seasonable time to explain my self further when I shall come to answer for mine own Person and not for a Sermon Besides if my Behaviour were ill my Doctrine may be good for all that and I defie the precisest Critick so he be a Christian to find one word amiss in it or if it be true that I am deceived in any thing they will do me a pleasure to rectifie me for I am of Saint Augustines mind I may he in an Errour but I would not be THE PRAYER Before the SERMON LOrd whose MAJESTY covers the Heavens and whose Mercies the Earth we come with souls full of devotion and humble confidence to render our duties and implore thy favour we beg it generally for all men and particularly for Christians but more especially for those that worship and serve thee in the Purity of the Gospel comfort and assist their Churches where they are in oppression preserve and increase their splendor and tranquillity where they are flourishing principally in these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland O good God! Poure thy choicest Blessings on the KING whom thou hast given them to defend them against their enemies establish his Throne more and more and since thou hast established him to be immediately under thee and thy Christ universal Governor in all his Estates and Defender of the Faith Raise his vertue as high as thou hast raised his Glory Bless the Queen his Consort their Royal Highness's the Duke and Dutchess of York with all the Royal Family the Lords of the Council the Nobility with all the Orders of the Kingdom But O God pour thy double spirit upon their Pastors the Arch Bishops the Bishops and all other Ministers and Dispensers of thy Sacraments of thy Mysteries and of thy Word let them sustain the weight and dignity of their charge with such doctrine zeal and good life as is requisite Thou seest O Lord the need I have of this grace for my self and since thou hast made me by thy mercy one of the Preachers of thy Gospel by the same mercy make me worthily to answer the end and sublimity of thy Ministry Enlighten my spirit warm my heart purifie my lips and generally give me that which thou wilt I should dispense to thy people dispose their minds to profit by my instructions and that they and I may go from hence better then we came hither O Lord these are the mercies that we crave of thee this day and since the acknowledgement of thy benefits never fails to bring new mercies upon us we praise thee O God for the infinite excesses of thy bounties to us in general and in particular chiefly that thou hast redeemed us by thy Son and that thou dost daily instruct us by his Example and by that of all the Saints which have followed him O Lord the thanks we can give are too little we offer Christ himself unto thee for our duties as well as for our sins and as it is by him only that we owe thee all things so it is by him
themselves be overcome by this shameful passion reserving in despight of God's prohibition all that was precious in the spoyles of the defeated Army Was it not Interest that corrupted a Disciple in the very Family of Jesus Christ and transported him to that Sacriledge to sell and betray his good Master Hath not this passion daily the same power Is it not for Interest that so many in the World continually betray the Son of God Do not all men almost prefer their Interest before his Glory as St. Paul complain'd in his time They seek their own things not the things of Jesus Christ My Brethren examine what is done among Christians ev'n of the best Reformed Churches what fierce desires have we daily to become richer and how much coldness to become holier and better men let us consider what is done at Rome upon the Throne of splendid Holiness you will quickly find that the same passion that heretofore made Judas sell Jesus Christ makes the Pope's Officers sell the Holy Ghost every hour for they sell Archbishoplicks Pardons and Forgiveness of Sins with the entry into Paradise and many other like Graces whereof the Holy Ghost alone must be the Distributer as he is the Principle of the same It is not from the resentments of an altered man that I speak so within these two years there have been Experiments enough to make the World acknowledge that of all those that have been converted perhaps I am one of the most moderate but I speak that which is to the purpose and which all the World knows But though Pleasure and Interest had not strength enough to corrupt our Innocence Ambition alone would have more then needs for that it is not impossible to find some Souls neither voluptuous nor interessed but I know not where to find any whom Ambition hath not corrupted it is that properly which we may and ought to call the weak fide of man He was yet in his state of original Innocence above all the assaults of Interest and Pleasure yet at the first onset of Ambition he let himself be overcome without resistance the Devil who himself had proved the force of this temptation made use of no other bait to seduce the fair innocent souls of Adam and his Wife This Tempter was too crafty not to know that it was the only part whereby he might take hold of them and certainly if there had been a stronger temptation he would not have failed to have made use of it in such an occasion whereon depended the salvation or total fall of all Mankind Since that unlucky moment it hath been too much justified that nothing is so powerful as Ambition to make us undertake all things against the respect and obedience that we owe to God All Histories both holy and prophane are full of examples of this Was it not that enraged passion that made Absalom rebell against his father the best father of the World Was it not the same passion that made Athalia the Murderess of her own Children after the death of Ochosias her Husband the tenderness of a Mother being incapable to take away her ambition to be a Sovereign was not the ambition of another woman cruel when going to take possession of the Throne she made her Coach and Horses to go over the body of her father that was newly slain here is too much my Brethren to manifest the power of this inhumane passion since it choaks the tenderest and strongest sentiments of Nature it self insomuch as St. Basil calls it in one of his Letters The most wicked of all Devils Conclude then with me That the World which according to St. John and according to our daily Experiments is nothing but Pleasure Interest and Ambition is a very powerful and almost invincible Enemy and consequently if ever we get the Victory over it it is an infinitely glorious Victory we must fight before we can overcome such terrible Enemies as these and if it be true which a Philosopher sayes and Tertullian after him That a man fighting with the same fortune that Job had to wrestle with on his Dunghil was a spectacle worthy the eyes and attention of God Is it a less worthy sight when one man alone fights all the Forces of the World when he is assaulted on all sides by the most tender and charming delights and yet the sweetness of those pleasures doth not corrupt the integrity of his heart nor the innocence of his life Christians what a wonderful sight is this to see a man sollicited by the strongest temptations of Interest by all the splendor of gold and silver and all the delight of being rich and his soul not cast down by the violence of this assault In Conclusion what a Miracle is it what a Prodigie to see a man whom Ambition tempts with the hopes of greatness yet remaining firm in his humility and modesty not dazled with the glistering of Thrones Scepters and Crowns triumphing thus over the World and all its glory O how well may the Apostles and all the just who have thus triumphed say with St. Paul We are the spectacles of God of Angels and of men Spectacles of complaisance in respect of God of admiration in respect of Angels and of astonishment in respect of men O what a glorious Triumph is obtained by them that are born of God since they are Conquerors of a World so difficult to be overcome we must not doubt but that those who are born of God have in effect got this Victory since the World we speak of that is Pleasure Interest and Ambition can get no advantage with all his Forces over those that have the honour to resemble God as children resemble their father and this Adoption that he hath made of them being a spiritual generation we must not doubt but that he doth impart his Spirit unto them because it is according to the Spirit that they are his children and that being filled with his divine Spirit it is easie for them to triumph over all that is contrary to its Maxims and the purity of its Sentiments This is it which made our Apostle say immediately before the Text That the Commandments of God were not grievous to them that were born of him as he explains himself soon after for in truth what Commandment did God ever make whereunto the obedience is not easie to any that is become holy in some sort like him by this mystical Regeneration and by this communication of his Spirit what difficulty will they find to obey him when they are Masters and victorious of all that hinders their obedience to him our Pleasure our Interest and our Ambition being as they are the greatest obstacles of our fidelity to his commands no doubt but when we have overcome these three powerful Enemies of the Law of God all the obedience that lieth upon us proves easie to us for commonly all the pains we find in doing Gods Will is that Pleasure Interest or Ambition