The treachery and stratagems of the Lusts against the Soul are usually these First A pretence of enlarging our Knowledge and Experience in things that it is fit to know the World and by real Proof to judge of the estimate of things and not to be cooped up within such narrow bounds and thereby remain simple and ignorant This was a Stratagem of the Old Serpent whereby he deceived Eve Ye shall not surely dye but God knows that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods and know good and evil Gen. 3. But the Soul must take heed of such false and mischievous insinuations as these and remember that experimentally to know evil is to become evil and miserable and that the adequate object of our Wills or Desires is that which is Good and that therefore Knowledge it self is not desireable but upon this account so far forth as it makes us good and happy Who would have the experimental knowledge of the Rack or of the Stone and Gout or of a draught of Poyson though he may have his Antidote None but condemned Persons and the Slaves of Mountebanks nor they neither but that they are forced to it To undergo therefore such base Experiments in which there is so much loathsomness and danger is to submit our selves to be Slaves and is unworthy the Nobleness of an Humane Soul But if we will be experimenting let us not experiment downwards by plunging our selves into several sorts and degrees of Lusts of the Fleshly or Animal Life but rather try how much we can emerge upwards into the various pleasures and perfections of the Divine Let us taste and see how good the Lord is and what variety of joys and delights there is in him All things come to an end but thy Commandments are exceeding large saith the Prophet David Here 's a field therefore wide enough to exercise our selves in and to try variety of experiments in the progress of Holiness adding to our faith vertue to our vertue knowledge to our knowledge temperance to our temperance patience to our patience godliness to our godliness brotherly kindness and to our brotherly kindness charity Whereby we become of one Spirit with the very Godhead it self in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore and so great that we cannot desire to experiment any thing greater Secondly Well but if this Stratagem will not take the next is a fair insinuation of kindred and friendship betwixt the Fleshly Lusts and the Soul of man Homo es humani nihil à te alienum puta or that Proverbial Phrase amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Soul here is to remember that the True man is the Intellectual man made in the Image of God according to Righteousness and true Holiness not the Sensual part common to us with the Brutes and that though she may admit of natural ordinate desires yet Fleshly Lusts have no pretence to lay any claim to her they belonging either to the worst of Brutes or not being to be owned at all as any part of the Creation Wherefore it is a pittiful Sophisme men put upon themselves while they plead an indulgence to their sinful Lusts upon the priviledge of their Nature as if they were Beasts and not Men or as if it were a priviledge to be a Beast or Man were not to rule the Beast in this case and admit of no desires but such as are ordinate and allowable Thirdly and lastly These Fleshly Lusts will plead for themselves from custom and the guize of the World and tell the Soul it is but a piece of Humanity and Discretion and due Civility to the rest of Mankind to do as they do that it is more creditable and plausible and how a Man had better be out of the World than out of the Fashion But to stop this vain plea of the Flesh the Soul may oppose that of the Blessed Apostle S. Peter Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Iesus Christ as obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy And to be holy is not to be mingled with the World or conformable thereto but separate and distinct from it What therefore have we to do to conform our selves to the rest of the World that lies in wickedness as S. Iohn saith when as we are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people who are to shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Why then should we fashion our selves according to the sinful guize of the World when as Christ hath redeemed us from the earth and from all our vain conversation And therefore we being the peculiar people of God we are Strangers and Pilgrims as to the World and the guizes thereof and it would be as ill beseeming for us to conform our selves to the fashions of the World as it would be for a Civil European to put on the Shells and Feathers of a Barbarous American 2. But the Lusts of the Flesh being thus worsted and defeated in Parley they will attempt to do that by violence which they could not do by treachery and circumvention By the force and vigour of their impress they will endeavour to carry us away captive But against this the Soul is to listen to that Advice of our Saviour Watch and pray that ye be not led into temptation and that of the Apostle S. Peter Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lyon walketh about seeking whom he may devour And he entred into Iudas you know upon the eating of the Sop which seems to intimate that Fasting and Temperance is a good safeguard against him We must with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep the Body under lest this domestick Thief as Trismegist calls it be so strong and stubborn that he fly in our faces and over-master us We must put on the whole Armour of God as the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians that we may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand to keep the field against our fiercest and stoutest Enemies We must have our loins girt with Truth that is with saving Truth with the knowledge of the best and most useful things For this Truth lies in a little room and therefore will keep in and gird up our Affections more close and not suffer any diffluency of our minds into folly and vanity And we must put on the Breast-plate of Righteousness that is of resolved Uprightness and Sincerity of Heart Above all we must take the
Obedience Surely Understanding is meant there the holy obedient Wisdom which alone preserveth from death as we may see out of the Prophet Baruch They that had their pastime with the fowls of Heaven high and lofty Contemplations they that played with the soaring Eagle and delighted themselves in her strong acute sight These are come to nought and gone down to Hell and other men are come up in their stead When they were young they saw the light but they understood not the way of knowledge neither perceived the paths thereof neither have their children received it but they were far off from the way It hath not been heard of in the land Canaan neither hath it been seen in Theman Nor the Agarens that sought after wisdom upon earth and the merchants of Nerran and of Theman nor the expounders of fables nor the searchers out of wisdom have known the way of wisdom neither do they think of the paths thereof See what a great deal of Understanding is purchased by Disobedience Though our outward and inward ears be enlarged and plentifully drink down many rivers of outward instructions or inward imaginations and high and learned Theories yet if we be void of that true Wisdom that hath its root in hearty obedience to the Holy Word we are without understanding and become as the beasts that perish Wherefore let us not hug our selves in a false conceit of unhappy Knowledge since not the hearers of the word but the doers are justified before God Let us not say within our selves we have Christ for the Head of our Religion we have read his Words we have heard his Embassadors speak to us we have fetch'd out many a notable notion in the Christian Theology we are well instructed in all points of the Holy Faith we have heard much within we have received more from without we are the Holy Church and true Disciples of Christ. Let us not prize our selves too high for these empty respects and think that if we be excluded God will want Guests to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Christ. No. God is able even out of stones and dust to raise up Disciples unto Christ. But if we be the Disciples of Christ let us give more heed to the voice of our Master Matth. 7. Whosoever heareth my words and doth the same I will liken him to a wise man which hath built his house upon a rock And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded on a rock The doing of the Word is the sure Foundation a Foundation no less strong than a Rock But he that hears and doth not is like him that founds his house upon the sand or builds Castles in the Air He shall not abide the Judgment of God that comes like a Whirlwind nor the fierce tempest of his destroying Wrath but he shall be confounded in his thoughts and all his imaginations shall vanish into smoke BUT to handle this present Proposition more distinctly That we should be Doers of the Word there are many Reasons 1. One Argument is taken from the End of the Word heard which is Practice and Purification It is Aristo's saying in Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bath that purgeth not and speech that reformeth not be both alike unprofitable But how can any admonition purge or reform unless the Hearer doth his endeavour to practise The Word of God is no Magical Charm that the meer hearing of it should be sufficient for this or that disease of the Soul It may indeed beget a desire or propension to that which is good for which cause the Old Serpent stops his ears as close as he may from the receiving of this spell but if we go no further that motion is lost and we recoyl further back into evil So that we see what small profit we reap if we rest in a bare Hearing of the Word And it is as little for our credits if we will believe the Stoick If any man brag that he hath the faculty of expounding Chrysippus saith Epictetus say thou to thy self Unless Chrysippus wrote obscurely this man hath no such great cause to boast Well I come to Chrysippus I understand not his Writings I seek an Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hitherto saith he there 's no great matter done But when I have got an Expositor to instruct it remains that I put in practice those Precepts and this is the only magnificent thing the other are nothing Methinks the old lame man speaks perfect good sense to him that is not more sensless and blind than he was lame Three necessary points there be in Philosophy saith the same Stoick The first consists in the use of Precepts as That we should be modest in our Behaviour true in our Speech The other is the argument or demonstration that we ought to be so The third and last is a clear dilucid Logical proof that this argumentation proceeded right The last is necessary for the second the second for the first But the most necessary and where we ought to rest is the first But we quite contrary bestow all our time in the latter and utterly neglect the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Therefore saith he we lye nevertheless but how to demonstrate that we ought not to lye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have it at our fingers ends The case is plain there wants no Application If so be we were as faithful and industrious to perform the Christian Life as we are sedulous to be instructed in the Christian Truth surely the reputed Church of God would send a more acceptable savour into the Nostrils both of god and Man But whiles Religion is to whet our angry tusks in Controversie of Points to scandal one another contemn one another and hate one another contending more for the setting up of Opinion than for the purchasing of the precious Life of Christ it 's no wonder that the Holy Church which should be as the fragrant Paradise of God be turned into the sink of Satan and a stinking sty of Swine-like Epicures The Gnosticks a most wicked Sect of Christians in Plotinus time When they could get one to be of their Heresie and had instructed him well in their Principles which was all they aimed at then they out of self-favour crown him with the magnificent Title of the Child of God though their Life as abominable as the Devil could wish or Man imagine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thou art now become the Son of God but others whom thou admiredst before they are no Children of God they are no body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou art greater than Heaven without labour or pain A goodly Religion indeed that consists in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they themselves are but in the jaws of Hell and in the arms of the Destroyer What saith Plotinus can a man see God
in the Law of God even the written Word that no Heathen durst venture to intersert any pieces of it into their Writings So Holy it was accounted that they durst not contaminate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their profane mouths as Iosephus writes from the testimony of Hecataeus Demetrius in the same Historian reports that one Theopompus grew distracted by being too bold and busie with these Writings And that Theodectes the Tragaedian lost his sight And no wonder for by Iosephus's relation these men sought rather for Flowers to adorn their Works than for wholesome Instructions to reform their Lives Theodectes it's likely spyed somewhat there that would grande sonare that would sound gravely and make a majestick noise fitting his Tragick buskin but the man had little mind to set his feet in those Lawes of God to do them And hence so much distraction phrensie and blindness possesseth us this very day Yet like bold impudent Flies we sieze confidently upon those precious Oyntment-pots of the Apothecary and in this plenty of wholesome refreshment have Wings and Feet clung together and lose our Life even in the very Book of Life Prov. 25. If thou hast found honey eat so much as is sufficient for thee That is as much as thou canst well digest into practice For so it is with the Word as it is with Meat Not taken it doth no good Taken in and not digested it brings but Diseases But taken in and perfectly digested by honest labour and exercise preserveth Life and Health 4. But these Considerations are more proper to the Fourth and last Reason why we should be Doers of the Word Which hath reference to us and is the Reward of keeping his Commandments By them is thy servant taught and in keeping of them there is great reward Psal. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Threefold great Reward A reward in Estate a reward in Body and a reward in Soul 1. A reward in Estate Blessed shalt thou be in thy basket and in thy dough Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle and the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep Deut. 28. But if we think Moses word not sufficient Christ himself will put in security for supply of all necessaries if we take but the condition of Obedience Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Matth. 6. So the Psalmist The lyons rore and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good There are manifold Testimonies in Scripture to this purpose and so obvious that quotation is needless 2. The second reward is in a mans Body for Strength Health and Beauty Fear the Lord and depart from evil so health shall be to thy navel and marrow unto thy bones Prov. 3. Envy Anger Hatred and discontented Melancholly which reign in either proud or pusillanimous Souls weaken Nature and destroy the Body but Life and Vigour is in the perfect Law of Charity A chearful Conscience purifies and refines the Blood but disobeying the inward Light is the choaking of the Vital Spirits A sound heart is the life of the flesh saith Solomon but envy is the rottenness of the bones This for Health and Strength Now for Beauty The wisdom of a man doth make his face to shine Ecclesiastes 8. and Ecclesiasticus 25. The wickedness of a woman changeth her face and maketh her countenance black as a sack The heart of a man changeth his countenance saith the Wise Man whether it be in good or evil So if there be a continual vigorous habit in the heart of shining Vertue and lovely Charity it will issue even into the face of a man in all friendly amiableness Moses was so fill'd with this Heavenly Beauty that the Children of Israel could not look upon him for his glorious splendour But the works of darkness make the spirit of a man to set in gloomy obscurity and deadness 3. But now we come to the third reward which is in the Soul Psal. 19. 7. The law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint the word which the Platonists use For the clear understanding of the dignity of this Conversion we are to take notice of the nature thereof Conversion therefore includes two things a leaving and a making toward somewhat And here in this Christian Conversion that which is to be left is the Creature and that which is to be turned unto is God The leaving of the Creature is the forsaking of whatsoever is not God but especially the renouncing of our own selves For while we cleave unto the Creature we most of all cleave unto our own selves for we adhere unto it for our own sake Self-love is the hinge or centre upon which we turn from God to the Creature and upon which we begin to circle from the Creature to God again But the accomplishment of Conversion breaks this thing abolisheth this centre and then we have our fixation in God and all our motion and operation of will and affection is upon him and from him That AEgyptian King as Herodotus reports in his Second Book when he had prohibited his Subjects sacrificing to God and had shut up all the Temple doors in AEgypt he presently employes all his people in his own Service and sets them to leed Stones to build Pyramids for his own Honour and the lasting Memorial of himself No man would be so mad as to forsake the Service of God to be a drudge to an inferiour Master But without question the plot is to be his own God and his own Master and to employ all his strength for himself But how the Law of God doth convert the Soul from this Idolatry and that which we falsely seek after how it brings us truly more near unto will be seen from the manner of this Conversion of the Soul to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Proclus in Plato's Theology The conversion of things to their causes or principles is to receive assimilating influence from them or to rise up and ascend nearer and nearer unto them and to become more and more like them To return therefore unto God is to become like to him by the recovery of the lost Image of Adam who was made according to the similitude of God Now the Image of God what it is seems not to be unknown even to the very Heathens The ancient Greek Poet brings in Vlysses musing with himself amongst his travels what a kind of People he had fallen among after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What a kind of People be the Inhabitants of the Land into which I come Are they injurious barbarous and unjust Or are they of a loving disposition courteous unto strangers and of a Godlike mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
that Tyrannick Prince that rules in the Sons of Disobedience he shall be excluded from the everlasting light of God and his Holy Truth And thus briefly under one we have seen how we are said to deceive our selves and the way to escape this self-deceit God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness shine in our hearts and give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ that we may walk before him in the truth of Life To Him with the Father and the Blessed Spirit c. DISCOURSE VII PROV xv 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil but a good conscience is a continual feast THE Text is a description of the estate of the wicked man and the righteous man Which will be more evident if we consult with the Septuagints Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The eyes of the wicked continually expect evil but the Godly or good men are alwayes at rest Here do the LXX Interpreters express plainly that opposition of those persons and of their conditions Vngodly and good or godly unquietness of mind and perpetual rest As I pronounced concerning this Text at first that it is a description of the opposite conditions of those ever opposite off-springs of God and the Devil the Sons of Christ and the Sons of Belial the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness This Sense have the LXX put upon this portion of Scripture though the words themselves answer not so fitly to the Hebrew Text. To devise the occasion of their variation would be more easie though curious than profitable I intend not to mispend time or abuse your attention with the husks of words or fruitless discourse of Translations I will follow Symmachus in the first part of the Verse exactly answering to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the dayes of the poor are evil in the second part the Hebrew it self But a good heart is a continual feast or as the words will bear He that hath a good heart feasts continually Now therefore that this Poverty is not to be understood of outward poverty is plain out of the Text. Continual feasting and constant poverty or affliction are contrary So that we must either exclude the poor man from having a good Heart and Conscience whereby all sorrow is dispell'd and continual joy and chearfulness obtained or else if he hath these joyes make him rich in outward wealth But sith the poor upright honest man through the continual comfort of his own good Conscience Dives like fares deliciously every day though poor in estate then surely none of his dayes are evil though he poor outwardly in them all So that this present Text is to be understood of an inward kind of poverty that makes a mans life full of evil and misery This evil poverty and miserable want is described in the Revelation of S. Iohn Ch. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not how thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I counsel thee to buy of me gold tryed in the fire that thou mayst be made rich and white rayment that thou mayst be clothed and that thy filthy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayst see Here 's good store of penury a wardrobe of want want of Money want of Clothes to cover their shame want of Eye-sight to be able to do that which is but a misery to go from door to door to beg But hear what 's said Verse 21. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his Throne See what a change From a Begger to a King from a Dunghil to a Throne from a blind Wretch to a Judge upon a Throne that shall discern the right that shall judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel He that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man We have by this time plainly seen what this poor man is whose dayes are said all to be full of evil That he is one that wants those white Robes which is the Righteousness of the Saints wants that old precious coin whose image and superscription is Righteousness and true Holiness the figure of Christ the Son of God the express Portraiture of his Father He wants his Eye-sight the true Spiritual Wisdom holy Discretion the sense of Spirits and discovery of the mysterious working of that Prince of Darkness and Deceit He 's plainly destitute though not of the necessaries of this Life yet of that main one and only necessary thing as our Saviour calls it that better part that Mary chose and could not be taken from her Virtus nec eripi nec surripi◠potest Nor force nor fraud can deprive a man of that inward good And now I have described this poor man I think it is not hard to prove that all his dayes are evil By how much better the Soul is than the Body by so much worse are the Defects of the Soul than those of the Body 1. Is an Vlcer or Wound grievous in the Body Much more grievous is it then in the Soul or Spirit The Spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. 2. Is Blindness or Darkness an horrid thing to the Body then is Ignorance much more to the Soul As may appear from that excellent description of this AEgyptian darkness in the Book of Wisdom Chap. 17. When the unrighteous people thought to have thy holy people in subjection they were bound with the bands of darkness and long night and being shut up under the roof did lye there to escape the eternal providence But now that we think not only of outward darkness in the Air see what followes And while they thought to be hid in their dark sins they were scattered abroad in the dark covering of forgetfulness fearing horribly and troubled with visions For the den that hid them kept them not from fear But the sounds that were about them troubled them and terrible visions and horrible sights did appear No power of the fire might give light neither might the clear flames of the stars lighten the dreadful night And a few Verses after For it is a fearful thing when malice is condemned by her own testimony and a conscience that is touched doth ever forecast cruel things Thus having their eyes closed in misty sleep it doth not secure them from the trouble of fear For they that endure this intolerable night breath'd out of the dungeon of Hell as they sleep the same sleep so are they in like manner tortured with the same monstrous visions sounding for fear and perplexity of Spirit as is largely described in that Chapter But that this evil condition may appear more evil I will set the contrary by it God is light and in him
there is no darkness I am the light of the world saith our Saviour And the Apostle rouzing us out of this sleep of Sin saith Awake thou that sleepest that Christ may give thee light To walk therefore in the Light is to walk in the Life of Christ as in the Presence of the Father and he that thus walketh knoweth both whither he and others go But he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness blindeth his eyes 1 Ioh. 2. And no wonder then that fear attends his footing that ever and anon he is afraid that the next step he stumbles into the pit of destruction The wicked fear where no fear is but God is in the generation of the righteous saith the Psalmist It fares so with them as with those that travel in Arabia who if they chance to set their foot upon Iron Stone or any cold thing by night they are even ready to dye with fear suspecting they have trodden upon a Serpent So ungodly men whose stay and trust is not on God are subject out of the suggestions of an ill Conscience in every harsh thing they meet with to think that God hath forsaken them and that they now have stumbled upon that Old Serpent the Devil The rising of the morning may restore the other to peace and security but what will chace away the terrour of this inward darkness Nor the glorious light of the Sun nor the beautiful aspect of the Moon nor the chearful collustration of the sparkling Stars can yield them light or refresh their troubled Spirit Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est Non radii Solis nec lucida tela diei Discutiant sed naturae species ratioque As the Poet speaks and may be understood in a better sense than his earthly mind could ever reach to Till that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or idea or Truth of all things free us from this misery we shall not be truly freed from it But if not freed from it how evil do we think his dayes are whom the clearness of the day and common light cannot deliver from the tormenting fears of that continual night Vide qualis affectus sit timor saith Cardan qui crepitare cogit dentes c. See what a kind of passion Fear is that makes a mans teeth chatter in his head which symptom saith that Physitian is proper to those that labour with some deadly Disease But sure the Horrour of that Eternal Darkness is worse where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which is the Fear of the ungodly here and their Portion hereafter 3. Deformity in Body doth a little diminish ones Happiness But the Vgliness of Sin in a mans Soul if it could be seen with outward eyes it would even fright a man out of his wits to behold it For it is the very Impression or Character of that evil Fiend the ill shap'd Devil himself as Righteousness is the Image of God 4. Feebleness also of Body is a miserable thing But Weakness of Soul is worse when that every blast of vain Doctrine is able to blow us down when every Temptation makes us yield to our Enemy and to become a wretched Vassal of the Devils cruelty 5. But that I run not too much upon one point That which is most terrible is Death But the Death of the Body is but to be hid in the Grave but the Death of the Soul is to be excluded the Presence of God and not that only but to be vexed and tormented with those Spirits of torture which in their fury lay on sure strokes Thus it is manifest that every Evil of the Soul is worse than that of the Body that answers to it And so that Poverty which consists in the want of good things and the presence of evils that ensue from this want is a great deal worse in the Soul than in outward things concerning the Body Now when I say Poverty I know not what to add either for misery of Body or Soul it including all in both Hunger Thirst Nakedness Filthiness Sickness Heaviness Disconsolateness these and all manner of mischiefs accompany Poverty But be it what it will in the Body it is unspeakably worse in the Soul and a certain cause of making that poor mans life miserable so long as he continueth in that sense poor I but will some say how can this thing be When as dayly experience shows that men that are as destitute of all Spiritual and Heavenly Riches as they abound in Earthly live in all Jollity and Pleasure in all Mirth and Merriment But this is no good Argument if we believe the Wise Man Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughing the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness So Eccles. 7. As the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool The flame and the noise go away together and at last is nothing left but scorching coals or dead ashes Would a man count a man in good plight because the poyson he takes makes him dye laughing as it is said of that Herb in Sardo and of the biting of the Tarantula We commonly count the case of a sick man more miserable when upon his bed he sings merry songs and finds out fond toyes from the weakness and distemper of his troubled Brain These men are miserable enough though they think not nor perceive themselves to be so And so it fares with all them that be ungodly and yet seem to flow in all joyes pleasures and contentments It 's but the phansie of a sick Brain Wise men are sorry to see them in such Distemper to have such an ill Symptom upon them And surely that that is miserable in their judgments is miserable and not in theirs whom misery hath made mad false pleasure hath infatuated So we see now plain enough That the poor man that is he that is destitute of Grace and Vertue all his dayes are sufficiently evil sometime in the judgment both of himself and others other sometime or rather ever in the judgment of others that is of wise and holy men Or that this Truth may be the stronglyer established in the judgment of God himself who is the measure of all Truth Thou sayest that I am rich and increased with wealth but thou knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and blind and naked c. Rev. 3. But of poverty wretchedness and misery enough It would seem more desirable to point out some way to be enriched The same Spirit that tells the Church of Laodicea of her miserable poverty shews her a way how to become rich Vincenti dabitur To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his throne Here 's no ordinary Riches Here 's the fulness of a Kingdom But take the condition I pray you Vincenti dabitur He that overcomes he shall be endued with large
Adam Surely every such man walketh like a vain image or shadow or like a winking Noctambulo that sees not whither he goes nor in what plight he is nor whom he may meet nor what Eyes are upon his nakedness nor what sad events may attend his fortuitous motions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every wicked man or unregenerate not yet awak'd into the Image of God has the eye of his mind closed as these Noctambuli those of the body and do not walk by sight but by fortuitous phansie their whole Life being but a series of dreams and all the transactions thereof the execution of the dictates of their imagination impertinently busie in this profound Sleep For these Phantasms under whose conduct they are in this condition and which is their first mover in all their actions creep upon them by meer chance as dreams in the Night suggested by the temper of the external Air or of their own Blood or from some other casualty and so one Phantasm or commotion occasions another and the man like a Ship at Sea whose Pilate is asleep may be driven one while one way another while another in a right tract or out of it as it happens there being neither judge nor guide to stear to any end that due examination or mature deliberation has made choice of And therefore all the passages of such a Life whether thoughts or actions are so as it fares in dreams either fatal or fortuitous And although there be a great confidence that things are true and real and such as they appear and that we have concluded sure yet in all this we do but imitate those that dream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking those things they see to be clear Realities while they are but Dreams as Plotinus speaks and few but do experience it Nor can we give judgment what is right or wrong what false or what true whether we have dreamt luckily and divinatorily or all be falshood and delusion till that Mystical Resurrection the Resuscitation of the Image of God in our Souls And this briefly may suffice for the First Particular That the immersion of the Soul into the Life of the Body and love of this World is as it were the Death or Sleep of the Soul 2. The Second is That there is no true Satisfaction in this condition And indeed how can any true Satisfaction be there expected where we suppose nothing but Delusions and Dreams nor any one in a case to profess himself satisfied as being utterly unable to compute right or make a due estimate of things No man thinks him that is grosly cheated truly satisfied no not though he give it under his own hand he is so And is not this state of Sleep and Dreams a meer cheat and delusion There only is true Satisfaction where that which satisfies is truly that which it would appear to be and will be found so by a man when he can judge aright For that which every man means in all his pursuits is Happiness nor would he put forth his hand towards any thing that did not bear upon it that Inscription Which if it be false he must needs at last find himself in a wrong box and what profit is there in those things whereof he then must be ashamed And as in the sequels of Reason some one latitant falshood being admitted it will discover it self by the inference of some more gross and palpable absurdity to be false it self So some practical mistake in adhering to some false good though pleasing and alluring for the present will in the conclusion prove it self a real evil by the calamitous Consequence that will necessarily issue from it For the end of such things is Death as the Apostle speaks Thus plain it is that though we should dream pleasingly and prosperously it is no true Satisfaction because at the long run we shall find our selves disappointed and deceived But the truth is that those that dream most successfully are not happy no not so much as in this Dream but have an unquiet Night of it there being so many interruptions and disturbances from the fortuitous clashings of flying Phantasms that rise by chance and bring in scenes of Discontent as well as Pleasure Insomuch that those that have cast up the compute most accurately have concluded it best never to be born but next to that quickly to dye as the Epigrammatist inferrs upon his Synopsis of all the wayes and conditions of Humane Life And Solomon who was a King whose Reign also was Peaceable Splendid and Prosperous yet when he had laid all things together and compleated his account the whole summe was Vanity and vexation of Spirit Nay the scene of things in this present World seem'd to him so sad and Tragical that he praises the Dead which are already dead more than the Living which are yet alive and accounts him better than them both which hath not yet been because he hath not seen the toil that is done under the Sun So far is this Worldly or Terrestrial Life from affording any true Satisfaction to them that are immerse into it But this is a Theme so trite that it had been enough only to have named it and therefore we will pass to the Third Particular 3. That the true Evigilation and real Life of the Soul is the recuperation of the Divine Image The truth of which assertion we shall easily understand if we but consider what Life is and wherein its fulness does consist as also what is the Image of God For we know that Death is a privation of Life and Sleep a partial Death as being a partial privation of the Vital Functions And therefore the recovery of the Soul into more full and ample Functions of Life must needs be her expergefaction if not resuscitation from the dead Now I conceive the fulness of Life to be compleated in these three things in self-motion or self-activity in sense or speculative perception and in pleasure love or joy And that the heightning or enlargement of these in several degrees is the enlargement of Life and a releasement from such a measure of Sleep or Death These Principles are so plain and manifest that scarce any one can be so dull and sleepy but that he will acknowledge them at the first sight What the Image of God consists in we shall easily understand if we have recourse to the Attributes of his Nature by which only he is cognoscible to us Which Nature of God consists in Omnipotency Omnisciency and Infinite Goodness Whence the Image or Face of God as it is called in the Text so far forth as it is visible to us is nothing else but our perception approbation or rather devotional admiration of these Divine Excellencies and the being effectually impressed upon by them to the transfiguration of our Souls into this similitude so far forth as Humane Nature is capable to be assimilated unto God For we cannot be absolutely Omnipotent nor Omniscient nor Infinitely
to the Second requisite in our Beneficency which is the Vniversality thereof Gal. 6. 10. While we have time let us do good to all men especially to them of the houshold of faith Here 's no evasion out of this injunction If so be the Apostle had said Do good to all some cavilling Sophister would have said I to all Christians or to all true Professours As every Sect will be found to stile themselves so Thus this All is to be restricted But the Apostles command or rather the manner of it prevents all such self-seeking Sophistry Do good to all men whatsoever so far as they are capable though in the first place I could wish you to have a special tender care of them of the Holy Faith and upright Godly Life I but will Flesh and Blood reply to our Enemy Yes to our Enemy If a man find his enemy will he let him go This was that that amased Saul so mightily That David a Type of the Divine Love a Symbol of the very Life and Spirit of Christ that David whom he had sought to kill should let him escape when he was in his power It wrought so upon Sauls Spirit that it forced tears from his eyes and made his heart in his body like melting wax When David had made an end of expostulating with Saul about his unjust pursuit of him and had shewed how dear his Masters Life was in his sight Saul said Is this the voice of my son David And Saul lift up his voice and wept And said to David thou art more righteous than I For thou hast rendered me good and I have rendered thee evil 1 Sam. 24. I will only add the Apostles Exhortation Rom. 12. 26. If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink 3. And so I go on to the Third requisite which is the Qualification of the mind of the giver which consists chiefly in these two things 1. In chearfulness and willingness of mind 2. In an honest and humble simplicity of heart without any reference to the applause and approbation of men but in an unfeigned obedience unto God and tender heartedness toward his Neighbour 1. That Chearfulness S. Paul speaks of 2 Cor. 9. As every man wisheth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a chearful giver And Rom. 12. 8. He that sheweth mercy let him do it with chearfulness It should seem that in time past the Holy Saints of God distributed their Alms to men with such a loving and kind Spirit that they out of the abundance of their good affection added sweet and comfortable words to their Christian Bounty whence in the New Testament in the original Beneficency is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good-speaking blessing or well-wishing to the party to whom they do communicate And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same notion which signifies both benediction and a gift 2. The Second qualification of mind is the Sincereness of communicating without respect to popular applause but merely out of love to God and our Neighbour Take heed that you give not your almes before men to be seen of men or else you shall have no reward of your father which is in heaven Not that it is unlavvful to give Alms in the sight of men but unlawful it is to give Alms in the sight of men of a purpose to be seen of them A man among other Gifts and Graces of God may let this light of Mercy shine also before men that they seeing his good works may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven I say with this proviso we may do our works in publick that it be not for our own proper ostentation but for the Glory of God HITHERTO I have declared To what persons we are to give what we are to give to these persons and after what manner we are to give I will now set down some Motives to stir us up to give our Beneficence to due Objects of our Beneficence 1. The First Motive may be drawn from the things themselves that we communicate For such is the nature of them that no man can assure himself the possession of them no not an hour Wilt thou cast thine eyes upon that which is nothing For riches taketh her to her wings as an eagle and flyeth into heaven Prov. 23. Here 's a double Argument to unty our hearts from that which Flesh and Blood so easily cleaveth to The most envious and nigardly man that is will be very well content to give nothing or to part with that which he conceives to be worth little or nothing And such is Riches in themselves unless made good use of for further happiness instead of being of our substance they are nothing if Solomons judgment be better than ours But grant they be something I and some great thing too and very desirable Yet it being so uncertain how long we shall enjoy them being they are so suddenly stone as an Eagle that in a moment gets upon her wing surely we would do wisely to follow our Saviours counsel Make you friends with the mammon of unrighteousness that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16. The Covetous man holds his Wealth so fast as if he was perswaded whensoever his Riches take their flight as an Eagle and mount to Heaven they will draw him up with them I but if he hold so fast how shall they fly Or if they get from him he holds not fast then and so is disappointed of his post But to let this pass and fall more seriously upon Instruction There 's no way of making Riches serviceable for our journey to Heaven but willingly to let them fly thither before us And that is by giving them to poor honest necessitous people to them that are as poor in Spirit as in Purse Thus may your Liberality happily arrive at Heaven For Heaven is where God is and God is there if any where In so much as you did it to any of these little ones you did it unto me as you heard before out of the 25th of S. Matthews Gospel He that gives unto these doth rather purchase than part with his Means He doth but remove his goods to another house whither he himself shall follow after a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2. And this is the Second Motive viz. The profit which doth accrue to us from our liberal distributions But if we be so sharp set that we cannot wait till that great payment That we have no excuse to hold our hands from doing good God hath promised even a Temporal Reward too Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poor shall not lack And elsewhere in the Proverbs He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord. And the borrower you know returns the same kind to the lender So we lending Temporal things to God God will return to us Temporal things here and
Pet. 2. 5. And ye as living stones be made a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. Ver. 9. You are a chosen generation a royal priesthood And if we consider the qualification of the righteous man the unfeigned Christian we shall find him fit for this employment Who more gracious with God than he Who more loving to men than he Who therefore more fit to make Prayers and Supplications for the People than he That Life which is in him even the Spirit of Christ doth adopt him into an higher Order than the Order of Aaron Or rather Christ whose Spirit of Life is in him is that High-Priest higher than the Order of Aaron A Priest after the Order of Melchizedek A Kingly Priest who officiates in Everlasting Righteousness Here 's a Priest without exception above all commendation worthy all honour and admiration worthy to be heard of God worthy to be obeyed by Men worthy to be attended by Angels worthy to whom all power should be given in Heaven and Earth worthy of that Glorious Throne even the Right-hand of God the Father in the height of Heaven where he makes intercession for us his poor members wandering and toyling in the mire and mud of this wicked earth That vve being redeemed vvith his most precious Blood may be made Kings and Priests to his Father to offer Spiritual Sacrifices and first of all our selves in a sensible apprehension that vve are vvholly from him nothing at all of our selves and then an open and free-hearted love to our Neighbour in acknovvledgment that our fulness is not of our selves but of God And this contains the last and best requisite in that description of a Sacrifice the acknowledgment of our Humane infirmity and the praise and profession of the Divine Majesty HITHERTO we have compared this Christian Sacrifice with the general notion of a Sacrifice We will now see how it fits with the kinds of Sacrifice Which according to the Schoolmens Division are three 1. Sacrificing or slaying of living Creatures which is most properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is the word in my Text. 2. Immolation which is a Sacrifice of inanimate things as of Meal Bread Salt Frankincense and such like Or 3. Libamentum a Drink-offering as of Wine or other liquid things How well some kinds of doing good will agree with that first kind of Sacrifice we should easily understand if we did but rightly apprehend how that the sundry lives of beasts lurk in the bodies of men as in some the Fox in others the Lyon in others the Bull in some one in some other in others many Our Saviour calls Herod Fox S. Paul his Persecutors Lyons So Eccles. 6. Be not proud in the device of thine own mind lest thy soul rend thee as a bull Where there is the living property of a Beast in a man no wonder that the Spirit of Truth that pierceth through the surface of things into the depth of Life calls them by that which they are within not by that which they seem without He therefore that can kill the Oxe the Bull the Goat in any mans Soul that is a stupid laborious toyl in the dirt an high raving unquietness of mind or that goatish nature that brutish sensual lust He that can exhibit these animalities dead before God who is Judge of the Quick and the Dead he offers of the first kind of Sacrifice which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mortification of some Life that God was displeased with He that doth this either in himself or others doth sacrifice in this kind He that gives his Bread to the hungry sacrificeth an Immolation He that gives his Drink to the thirsty offers a Drink-offering As much as you did it to one of these little ones you did it unto me He that goes about doing good as our Saviour Christ that is He that lives not to himself but according to the Command of God and Example of his Son spends all his time power and ability in diffusing of that good which God hath bestowed on him offers Frankincense Or rather that precious composition of sweet odours which is mentioned Exod. 30. 34 35. And the Lord said unto Moses Take unto thee sweet spices Stacte and Onicha and Galbanum sweet spices with pure Frankincense of each like weight And thou shalt make of it a perfume c. Philo Iudaeus will have these four ingredients to be Emblems of the four general Principles or Elements of which this World consists and the evaporation of this fume to be that acceptable re-ascending of the Creature to God in holy thankfulness and evacuation of it self into that great ocean His words are very significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a Life saith he well befitting the World to give uncessant thanks to its Father and Maker even quite exhausting it self in a continual ascent and grateful fume and simplifying it self into its Elements that all may see that it hoards up nothing for it self but consecrates it self wholly unto God that made it Such a Sacrifice doth every Microcosm or little World every particular man offer dayly unto God when he spends all his dayes and employes all the strength and faculties of his Soul and Body It is a thankful acknowledgment of what he hath received resunding that goodness that he is partaker of back again to God through those sure conduits or conveiances the poor necessitous Brethren But there is yet another Division of Sacrifices into three kinds as before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Philo Which our Modern Writers call thus Holocausta Hostias pacificas Hostias pro peccato The reason of this Division Philo thus unfolds The two main and general causes of Sacrificing be these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The latter consists in two things The participation of good and the removing or preventing of evil Hence that Sacrifice that respects the profit of the Sacrificer is twofold A Sin-offering for the preventing the just punishment thereof and a Peace-offering which was either pro beneficio accepto or accipiendo for a benefit received or at least hoped for 1. That the doing or communicating good appertains to the first sort which Philo calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Holocaust which respects merely the Glory of God and not the Profit of the Sacrificer will appear out of places of Scripture concerning this Duty of communicating Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorifie your Father which is in heaven Matth. 5. 16. There 's the Honour of God Now that we are not to participate our selves in this but that it be wholly to God and for God a true Holocaust Our Saviour shews Matth. 6. 3. When thou doest thine almes let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth That is We must not have any sinister respect but do it simply in obedience to God and for his Glory Consult
we will take in a more full narration of it And Israel abode in Shittim and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and they called the people unto the sacrifice of their Gods and Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor Ver. 1 2 3. of that Chapter That which is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia Deorum is in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrificia mortuorum Which makes further for that I drove at before viz. That the Gods of the Heathen are mostwhat the Souls of dead men THUS I have dispatched the two former Parts of my task viz. the Explication and Confirmation of the truth of this Text so far as was needful III. The Inferences following are these First From those words They joined themselves to Baal-Peor we may observe That it is long of a mans self when he sins Thus Ecclesiasticus 15. 11 12. Say not thou that it is through the Lord that I fell away For thou oughtest not to do the thing that he hateth Say not thou that he hath caused me to err For he hath no need of the sinful man So Iam. 1. 13 14. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God For God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed To say therefore that it is the all-swaying Providence of God that bore men to this or that evil action is to blaspheme the Sacred Name of God and contradict Reason and Scripture Or which seems more plausible to say the Devil ought us a spight is but to be gull'd by the Devil and to add a new errour to our former misdeed The Devil may suggest but not compel But to exalt the strength of the evil Spirit above the dominion and power of him that is the Prince of Spirits as tho' they were stronger than he is to cast God out of his Throne and to place Satan in his stead Surely God who hateth Sin with a perfect hatred will not let the Devil prevail against that Will in us that is conformable to his If we be against Sin God will aid us If we fall into Wickedness it is long of our selves Yea though the greatest of Wickednesses For they joined themselves to Baal-Peor c. Not forced or necessitated by the Devil against a good Will and sincere aversation of Sin for this is the Will of God and he will help his own Will Nor led on by God for God will not beget to life that which he hates to see But the truth is God who is the God of Love and Freedom would have us to serve him out of a free Principle and so neither constrains us to good nor over-sways us to evil Secondly They joined themselves also to Baal-Peor The Calf in Horeb their envying and murmuring against Moses and Aaron their lusting after the flesh-pots of Egypt all these did not satisfie but as if these were a light matter they add Whoredom and Idolatry in this business of Baal-Peor Hence we may observe That the wickedness of a mans heart knows no bounds but his evil desires are enlarged like Hell Thirdly If we compare the greatness of this transgression with the great experience they had of the Power and Love of God to them who had done great things for them in Egypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and fearful things by the Red Sea who had given them from Mount Sinai an express Law against Idolatry in Thunder and Lightning Clouds and Vapours of Smoke to the utter dismaying of them from Sin who had given them Manna in the Wilderness and fed them with Angels food who had guided them by two mighty Pillars a Cloudy Pillar by day and a Pillar of Fire to give light by night who had made them eye-witnesses of so many Miracles of his Almighty Arm That these People should so fouly Apostatize argues plainly an excessive weakness in the Children of Adam And the best Use we can make of it is this To be vigilant over our own wayes and merciful to our Brother when he slides Fourthly and Lastly We may gather also a kind of disability in all outward stays and props of our Souls in goodness all visible helps for Piety if something stronger within do not sustain us and keep us What more forcible outward means could have been used than Israel had experience of But all the terrour upon Mount Sinai and all that tempest and dread in giving of the Law all the Miracles that were wrought by the hand of Moses and the visible presence of God or his Angel all those passed out of their minds like a dream and vanished as a vision of the night all those failed them when the present object possessed their Eyes when the beauty of the Daughters of Moab had ensnared their Hearts and captivated their Souls to the commiting of folly The Young man in Macarius who in an high Rapture beheld glorious sights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faces of Light and the shining Lustre of Heaven after fell into the filth of the Flesh and deplorable deformity of Life The best use we can make of this is Not to satisfie our selves with any outward or momentany Worships or Ceremonies as to rest in them but to seek an inward Principle of never failing Life Else so soon as we are departed the Church and that honour we do there to God we may be easily carried into the service of the Devil the committing any wickedness Whereas if we had the living Spring of Truth and Righteousness in us we should also have a perpetual sense of what is good or evil And as our Natural Life is tender of it self and perceives the least touch of harm that approacheth it so would that Spirit of Life and Truth be exceeding sensible of whatsoever is contrary to it or the Will of God which would always be very fresh and vivid in our Minds and Will But to attain to this Spirit of Life and Righteousness there is no way but Mortification a death to Sin and our own selves that the Life of God may alone rule in us Then shall not the Daughters of Moab inveigle us that is as Philo the Iew interpreteth it the false allurements of the bewitching Senses Nor shall we then worship Baal-Peor or partake of his Sacrifices that is according to the same Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We shall not dilate all the openings of our Bodies for receiving the influx or strong impressions the unwholesome vapours of this intoxicating World and the pleasures thereof and so drown our Souls in the bottom of Corruption For so he interpreteth the name of this Idol as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimating his power to lye in all the openings of the Body or rather outward Skin through which the influences of this sensible World if they be not kept out by due vigilancy stream