before him and the world 6. Now from this foundation laid this principle granted this fountain of all spirituall wisdome and understanding opened doe issue all particular branches of our faith illuminating us some few of which articles reduced into the three eminent Creeds of all Christian Churches viz. The Apostolicall the Nicene and Athanasian which may yet be more plainly and vulgarly thus ordered to easie capacities 1. First that there is a God and this God but one in nature and substance of an infinite eternal immutable Being and there is or can possibly be no more number herein destroying all perfection proper to the divine Being which article though some of the wise Naturalists did give their cold assent unto yet scarce ever so but they tolerated such opinions and religions of others as maintained the contrary feeling rather as the Apostles phrase is after God than finding him or holding him fast by such a strong faith as Christians are and must be indued with knowing assuredly that Religion and our Salvation receive by no one superstition so deadly a blow and destructive to all sound Christianity as to erre about this first principle by acknowledging directly or indirectly more than one God that is either in the Proposition professing more than one which totally subverts Christianity or in Practice worshipping that for God which is not God though under a strong perswasion that what we worship is that one true God and though in mind and intention we design to worship only the true God. For such a fact upon involuntarie errour and all errour is said by wise men to be involuntarie may mitigate the offence before God and man but it cannot at all change the thing it selfe making that to be no idolatrie which is Idolatrie or that no heresie which is heresie in it selfe but only by certain circumstance may alleviate and yet we know not how little or much the crime of the offender which crime is in it selfe directly damnable and so by the doctrine of our Christian faith to be reputed and even with the losse of our lives to be avoided 2. And the same faith likewise teacheth us as necessary to salvation to believe aright of the severall and distinct wayes of the subsistence of the Deitie in the Trinity of the persons which we commonly call Father Son and Holy Ghost which as we must believe to be three and not one Person so must we believe to be one in nature and substance and not three so that the Father begetteth the Son and is not begotten of any and the Son is begotten of the Father by an Eternall and incorrupt generation not to be parallel'd in any other productions though dimly represented unto us And the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son by such a divine emanation as is not imitable by any created procession And in this article of our Faith Christians being wholly destitute of all naturall assistance to believe the whole must redound to the power and pleasure of God revealing these things and rendering them credible our faith upon that ground receiving them 3. And a third point of our Faith proceedeth to reunite as it were in our mindes and perswasions those persons we acknowledge to stand so distinguished by their intrinsecall Relations mentioned in their outward operations such as are acts of Creation Preservation and Governing by a most wise and just providence all things which are in this visible world and in that or those worlds which are to us invisible called Celestiall 4. And hence it is that by the same faith we are taught more expressely and particularly that the One God Father Son and Holy Ghost gave a being to all the world and out of nothing produced what we see and what we understand and more than we can behold and apprehend determining that knottie controversie which the Philosophers could make no work with concerning the Creation of the world which some would have never to have been but subsisting from eternitie of it selfe and not only so but we understand by divine Revelation and Illumination how the world was made and that not by the contriving of the brain or a modell laid before the eyes or by the labour of the hand the sweat of the face and tedious but necessarie toyl of many dayes years or ages but by the lightest and easiest way we could possibly understand any thing to be wrought For thus we read Heb. 11. 2. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear And so we read Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth And yet not so by the word or mouth of God as that any such part is to be admitted in God or that properly God so spake vocally For to what or whom should God speak so when there was no bodie yea nothing to hear but it was a mere simple pure velleity or willing of him so effectuall as to produce the Universe without the labour of his hands or of any other Agent or Instrument under him as some have vainlie imagined contrary to our divine Faith. For by the same power that God could create a worme he could create an Elephant and with the same ease that he could create a Mite he might create the hugest Monster that ever the earth bare yea the earth it selfe and that without delaies or distances of times though to shew his libertie and not necessity of working and to teach us advisednesse in all our Actions of importance he vouchsafed to distribute his acts into severall orders and spaces of duration called Dayes For as 't is said in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and all that is therein c. 5. And from this generall working or acting of God we are lead to an higher degree more nearly concerning our selves For it must necessarily follow from hence that as the Psalmist affirmeth He hath made us and not we our selves Psalm 95. And that as he made all things very good so the more noble in rank such things were the more perfect and unblameable they must needs be as they came out of Gods hands For God doth not work or proceed after the manner of nature from imperfect to perfect as all naturall productions are ill formed and defective at first and in tract of time arise to their ordained perfection but God made all things and especially Man at once most perfect both as to inward endowments and outward forme stature and parts so that nothing was wanting either to the ornament of his minde or the perfection of his bodie Crowning both with holinesse and happinesse immortal wherein his own Image and likenesse principally consisted adding unto them here in this life power and dominion under him over all earthly things 6 Furhermore the same faith teacheth us the Original
is requisite that we should not rest in the opinion we have of our selves which is commonly biassed by selfe-conceit selfe-love selfe-interest all quite contrary to that great Dutie of Selfe-deniall but that we should be so true and just to our own Soules as like righteous Judges to keep one Ear for what others judge of us and impartially to give a sentence upon our selves accordingly and not slie to that base and bold subterfuge of nonplus'd and shamelesse persons I care not I care not For though Malice and ill-will may instigate some one or two and upon speciall occasion to false accusations and slanders yet if the opinion be of more and those not so prejudiced and constant and lasting in vain doe men proclaim their integrity and innocencie for such judgement of others is much more to be trusted than our own 7. Sixthly Appearance of Evill and Hypocrisie reverst as I may so speak when men seem by outward carriage to be worse than in trueth they are is allso carefully to be avoided not onely because of the sin of scandalizing our Brethren and causing an erroneous judgement and uncharitable to be entertained but because it very often happens that men fall really into that sin which they at first onely seemed to committ Therefore it is St. Pauls Rule Philip. 2. 4. Look not every man on his own things but every man allso on the things of others not by curiositie and censoriousnesse but Charitie and conscienti ous walking without offence to others and if possible to prevent sin in others as well as our selves 8. Lastly Every man should have Charitie towards his Brother but no man is to demean himselfe so as to stand in need of the charitable judgement of others For he that doth so is certainly uncharitable in the first place and being really guiltie within himselfe is most wickedly unjust in demanding that another should be so charitable as not to think so of him though there be use of Charitie even where Crimes are past defence or excuses but for men to live conscious to themselves of unrighteousness towards God and justice towards men and then because there may want notorious convictions to demand of Censurers to judge charitably is in effect to require that others should be religious and they may be wicked under the protection of others Pietie and Charitie A Prayer for Puritie of Spirit O Lord God who is like unto thee amongst the Gods Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders And what greater wonder is there than of sons of Men we should be called the Sons of God and of Children of wrath heirs of the Kingdome of God of lost sheep be brought back to the great Shepheard of our Soules of prodigall and fugitive Sons be brought home and embraced by thee our heavenly Father making us as well as requiring us to be holy as thou art holy raising us from the death of sin to the life of Righteousnesse given us by the Spirit of Grace which worketh in us by the meanes of Grace ordained by thee to that great end Let that Spirit be never wanting in me let that Grace never be received by me in vain whereby I may be sensible of my unworthinesse and insufficiencie to any thing that is good and at least to have an hunger and thirst after righteousnesse that I may in thy due time be satisfied and in the mean time grow and increase in this desire and this desire proceed to action and this action to such perfection as to overcome and mortifie all worldly lusts and Carnall affections purifying my selfe as he is pure and taking greater content and pleasure in casting off than ever I did in taking on me the burden of sin and in purging away all my old sin than ever I did in contracting those spots and blemishes which have too much and too long defiled that pure Spirit thou once gavest me and defaced that beautifull Image thou once stampedst on me And let the pleasure of Repenting be greater to me than that of offending ever was to me though alas it was too great Lord nothing is impossible to thee who canst bring light out of darknesse and strength out of weaknesse and out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham and to thy selfe and out of the ruines of Religion in me raise up a Temple fit for thy holy Spirit to dwell in Descend into possesse and dwell in my heart by faith and love of thee which may purge out the old leaven and make me a new lump and quench all fleshly Concupiscences which have or may raign over me or rage in me For this corruptible bodie presseth down my minde musing on high and heavenly things and the weight of sin so easily besetteth me that I cannot run the Race which is set before me and the stain of sin pollutes my best actions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death from this bondage of corruption Thy grace I know O Lord is sufficient for me and thy Son mighty to save and that his Office is to save his people from their sins from their sins I say as well as from the punishment of sin Let that Day-star at length arise in my heart and enlighten and warm my minde with love of thee and let that breath of new life be inspired into me enliven my dead bodie and re unite and animate my drie bones and excite me with new vigour to the perfourming thy holy will that so the life I now live may be by the faith of the Son of God and being poor in spirit as he was I may be pure in spirit as he allso was for theirs is the Kingdome of God even the Kingdome of Grace here and the Kingdome of Glory hereafter whither O mercifull God and Father in thy due time bring me for thy blessed Sons sake Jesus Christ my Saviour Amen The Third Part. Treating of the UNITIVE WAY OF THE Devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof 1. SUCH due preparation being made towards Spirituall Life in laying aside every sin so easily besetting us the remainder of our Christian Race towards God and our Union with him are more easily attained which Union is by Saint John called our fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 John 1. 3. And this is it which vulgarly is called allso Perfection Perfection being here used for Justification by faith in Christ and Christ dwelling in us and such a measure of assurance of Gods grace and favour which are competible to our Militant state in this life and incline God to the acceptation of us to a future inheritance of Immortalitie and Glorie And to this it is not absolutely necessarie that no blemish imperfection or infirmity should be incident but that none such should be found which either of it selfe should tend to corruption
comes to their share 6. For this reason God sends such tempestuous and dark weather at Sea to the skilfull Navigatour that he shall not be able readily to know or say where he is till the restored calme Light better informes him And sends Shipwracks sometimes to the subtill Merchant that he may understand better who it is that gives skill and strength to get Riches And diappointeth the hopes of the understanding and painfull Husbandman And as the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 44. maketh diviners mad and turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish teaching them all and us too and that in all senses more perfectly that necessary lesson of humility Deuteronomy 8. 18. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God. For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth c. And as it is with the riches of this world it is with the riches of the world to come or being rich towards God as the Scripture speaks Luke 12. 21. For undoubtedly God may and doth apparently denie the ordinary meanes of Salvation sound knowledge and holy faith in him and of divine mysteries to some To others he grants to be initiated and to have some knowledge of the saving trueth who there stop and proceed no farther as tender plants rising out of the earth wither and perish for want of the blessings of heaven falling on them without which they can proceed no farther towards perfection and some proceed farther and promise fair and for the same reason attain not to the intended end 7. But nothing of this nature can reasonably be taken into an Apologie or defence of the unprofitable servant whom God hath delivered such talents and meanes unto that in themselves tend unto such progressions and consummations as are saving and beatificall But admit thou art becalmed and canst make no way through want of divine aspirations and influence How canst thou how darest thou impute this cessation and oscitancie of thine in not doing the known Will of God unto an unknown cause or rather a not cause of doing which whether it is so as thou imaginest or givest out at least that thou imaginest when thy heart contradicteth thy tongue thou knowest not For who can say that God denies him the inward power and meanes of Salvation that is of effectuall Grace to whom he giveth the outward meanes of Illumination Faith and Salvation Whatsoever may be wanting in the abstruse counsell and dispensations internall of God and known to him cannot be so known to a man without divine Revelations It is an uncharitable and rash act in any man directly to charge his Neighbour with denying him his due or taking away his goods from him when he can prove nothing against him and much more injust it is and impious for a man to say directly that God denies him grace or doth harden his heart so that Rules and exhortations and sufficient reasons of becoming faithfull righteous and holy before God and man are of no effect upon him 8. It is not so much pardonable as commendable in all Good Christians to be sensible of their naturall insufficiencie and infirmity to doe any good act St. Paul having taught us 2 Corinth 3. v. 5. That we are not able to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiencie is of God. But doe not the very next words as well as the latter part of that argument plainly tell us that God hath a sufficiencie for us and God doth make us able Ministers of his Will And doth not St. James tell us that every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights James 1. 17. And doth not our Saviour Christ direct us how we should fill our selves from that Fountain when he saith Matth. 7. 11. If ye being evill know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more should your Father which is in heaven give you good things that ask him And this good thing is the best and fullest of all good things being interpreted in St. Lukes Gospell Chap. 11. 13. to be the Holy Spirit it selfe the fountain of all Grace which he giveth to them that ask him The Querie then must needs be made to our selves whether upon sense of our infirmities and defects we ever did and that as we ought invoke Almighty God implore the gift of his Spirit and its concurrence and whether we ever submitted to its Dictates and directions to that power God hath given us For to doe this as well as believe that we have an excellent president from the wise Man Wisdome 8. v. 21. Neverthelesse I perceived I could no otherwise obtain her i. e. True Wisedome comprehending all intellectuall graces except God gave her me and that was a point of Wisedome also to know whose gift she was I prayed unto the Lord and besought him and with my whole heart I said O God of my Fathers and Lord of mercie c. Which prayer for that illuminating gift and Grace so necessarie might not very unfitly be transcribed hither and used by all true lovers of light rather than darknesse at least untill the Day-star shall arise in their hearts according to which true Believers may shape their course more steadily towards Heaven but I shun prolixnesse SECT VI. Of the Gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination The abuse and true use of the same and necessity of Believing 1. BUT the use or act of the grace of Faith resteth not here but is wonderfully assistant to the naturall understanding in discerning the minde of God revealed unto us in his Word For as the discreet and diligent Master doth not only set his Schollar whom he teacheth to write an exact and fair Copie to imitate and follow but also guides his hand in the making the Letters and joyning them together according to their true shape and order in like manner doth he whose Chair is in heaven teaching the hearts as his Instruments and Officers doe the eares and eyes of men below to understand receive believe and act according to the Rule and scope prescribed For man naturally is apt to believe those things only which his Reason assures him of but his reason how acute soever cannot demonstrate the Scriptures to be the Word of God which we believe and must believe to be so if we would be accounted good Christians And having the Scriptures in that esteem we cannot out of our promptitude and acutenesse of wit discerne clearly and readily many usefull things therein contained without the direction of that great Authour the Blessed Spirit principall in the composing them For 't is truly said The Scriptures must be understood by the Spirit that indited them According therefore to the gifts and grace given unto Mee doe they understand the mysteries of Faith Rom. 12. 6. And to every man is given grace according to the measure of Christ Ephes 4. 7. whereby that light revealed shineth unto the true Believer as out of a dark place So that
understanding to the Wisdome of God. Oh how naturall how sweet and allmost how necessarie it is for man to have his own will And yet in truth how monstrous is this unruly appetite It ariseth from a root worse than ordinarie Idolatrie as much as to make ones selfe a God is a much more heinous sin than to worship any other false God. And what is that whether we mean it or not mean it that impells men so passionately to desire and so violently to contend for their will and as much of it as is possible but that they would be great thereby they would be supreame they would rule and govern not so much themselves for they are the worst at that of all men but others and because they would be admired and worshipped and that more and in an higher degree than they dare openly own When men have given themselves up to this misleading and mischievous temper they would have no bounds prefixed them God himselfe shall not escape their murmures if open accusation and expostulations Every thing is uneasie to them that is not projected by their own witts and managed by their wills And whereas according to St. Paul 1 Corinth 13. Charitie that Divine grace made up of meeknesse humilitie love of God and that which in any manner resembles God beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things the Idolizer of his own will on the contrary can bear nothing believe nothing hope nothing endure nothing contradicting this his humour Reason he will by no means professedly affront or oppose but then he counts it all the reason in the world that matters should be carried as he judges and willeth otherwise the power and effects of his impatience shall be his remedie Whereas there is nothing more unworthy of a wise man and nothing more inconsistent with a good Christian than to desire to have more wills under him than his own for in trueth he never is master of his own will who would tyrannize over others For this may be but one sin in forme and appearance but it is the parent of many if not of all to strive to have our wills 4. For what is Pride but an appetite of our unmortified wills pushing us forward to be great Ruling admired followed not to be led by any What is Anger but a desire of satiating our lust of revenge What is Avarice but to have all and part with nothing but what Justice and Necessity extorts And what is Lust properly so called but a furious will of carnall pleasure He therefore that will ever obtain any command of himselfe in any of these things or the like must lay the Ax of Reformation to the root of all these trees the generall lusting after a mans own will and the satisfaction thereof naturally inclined For though there may seem such a distance outwardly between one sin and another as that there should be no consanguinitie between them yet in the practice they like persons at domestick difference or civill dissensions will joyn against a common and forrein Enemie and help one another according to the observation of that mortified Father mentioned in Ecclesiasticall History who deliver'd it for a trueth That a man can never observe the rule of Chastitie unlesse he subdues the Lust of Anger For surely if we shall give leave to our corrupt wills to take their swing in one thing they will take leave to excurre into other evills against our more advised judgements and wills Therefore let us a little insist upon the reasonablenesse of such affectation of our carnall wills 5. But first it is to be observed that Religion it selfe is not of that morosity or indeed tyrannie under colour of mortification that it should denie us the libertie wholly of that naturall facultie of desiring and loving for that God himselfe hath placed in us For then we could not love God himselfe nor choose the good or refuse the evill as himselfe commandeth It is not the rooting up of that Vine which Gods own hand hath planted in the heart of man but the pruning and dressing it to bear generous branches and bunches It is to cut off those Suckers to destroy that Nature which is become such and not made so by God. It is according to the ancient Philosophie for our earthie Spheare and inferiour and smaller Orb to be ordered by the first mover of all and to say and to pray as Christ hath taught Thy will he done in earth as it is in heaven to live in this world as Christ came into it and lived and died in it As appeares by the historie of his holy and humble Life which tells us John 18. 37. To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnesse unto the trueth every one that is of the trueth heareth my voice And this was the holy Gospell he taught and left us And his bearing witness was to make himselfe of no reputation as great and as good as he was to be obedient unto the death even the death of the Crosse and to appear as it were without a will of his own or which is a greater victory and glory to have a will allwayes obsequiously included in the Will of his heavenly Father as it was when in great Agonies and conflicts of Soule he prayed to God Luke 22. 42. Neverthelesse not my will but thy will be done demonstrating what he before affirmed for a trueth John 5. 30. I can of my selfe doe nothing as I hear I judge and my judgement is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which is in heaven And as the Disciples said most loth to hazard so precious a Vessell of honour and service as St. Paul amongst Jewish Barbarity Acts 21. 14. The Will of the Lord be done And what better or wiser resolution can any good Christian take than what he saw Christ to practice before him and the most Heroicall Christians did to have no will stirring but the Will of God and Christ For this is to be what St. Paul exhorteth to Rom. Chap. 6. 11. Likewise reckon ye allso your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord that is content to be directed by the Wisdome and acted by the pleasure of God alone So that we may say as that good old Father in his Cell having relinquished the world who when one came to him and brought him the tidings that a â—…ere Kinsman of his was at the point of death and therefore he should doe well to repair to him and take possession of what descended legally to him made answere And would you have me inherit his Estate who have been dead a long time before him And this I intended for one distinct argument to denie our own wills either wholly impeding the Will of God to be done in us or the perfecter conformity to that and the Example
Christ hath set us 6. Secondly The speciall care that God taketh of him who careth least for his own will but committeth the management of it into the hands of his most Wise and Gracious Father 'T is true To have ones own will and to doe as we are impelled by it is the preciousest Pearle in the world to the naturall man nothing so deare to him as that and that when it is really evill in it selfe and hurtfull though pleasing to himselfe But man having so little skill how to use such a dangerous instrument were it not much better to resigne it into the hands of him that careth for us more than we doe for our selves and is wiser for us than we for our selves As we see it in Children When a thing of great value is bestowed upon them by some Friend the Parents have the keeping of it least it should be lost spoiled imbezel'd or hurt the young owner till he comes to yeers of discretion So our Godfather properly so called God himselfe bestoweth upon us that great Jewell of Freewill and Choice which he denies to inferiour Creatures but with this tacit condition that we should committe it to his custodie and by his wisdome and direction only use and exercise the same till we come to yeers of true discretion which is only in Heaven and not in this life Then shall we have the full and absolute use of it because then there is no feare that we should use it amisse as here we doe And this is that which holy David adviseth Psalm 55. 22. saying Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved This is it which St. Peter allso exhorteth unto 1 Ep. 5. 6 7. Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you And more expressely and particularly Christ himselfe counselleth thus his Disciples Matth. 6. Take no thought for your life c. For Which of you by taking care can adde on cubit to his stature The trueth is no man exalts himselfe so highly as he who secluding or not considering God followes the will of himselfe and the greatest of all humiliation is by the subjecting of our wills to Gods and the next and readiest way to true preferrement or exaltation And take no thought saith Christ not commending supinenesse sloth or lazinesse in any but none without God none not directed and regulated by his Will and Prescripts none without consulting him and submitting the event with all confidence aed calmenesse to his all-disposing most wise most just most gracious Providence and in suffering as well as doing his Will For it is a Maxime or Rule berter becoming a Heathens mouth than a Christians Every man is master or maker of his own fortune not but that every man hath a hand in and contributes towards Good or evill events befalling him but that the Architectonicall or Over-ruling Power of all is in God whoe doth not allwayes give the Battle to the strong nor the Race to the swist nor bread to the wise to teach us that he is Lord paramount of all according to the Divine acknowledgement of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 26. 12. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou allso hast wrought all our works in us And therefore it seems to me a thing as very memorable so more worthy the mouth and practice of a Christian what is written of Muhamed Olbarsalanus the Great Prince of Bagdet or Babylon a Saracen who being wounded to death in a Battle which he fought as he died said I never before this once fought but first I desired Gods blessing I would all Christians would doe so and have so much confidence in God in all matters especially of importance that they would first implore Gods aid and then depend on him for the successe which if it be favourable he must be humbly thankfull if improsperous in like manner patient as the effect of Gods Divine and wise Providence requires 7. Thirdly The Scripture both by Example and Precepts directs us to this reasonable as well as religious resignation of our wills unto Gods Will when it sets before our eyes the practice of earthly Parents and Children as Hebr. 12. 9. We have had Fathers of our Flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live For they verily for a few dayes chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be patakers of his holinesse Fathers of our flesh may take a cruell pleasure rather than intend any reall profit or benefit unto Children in chastising them but 't is not to be imagined that God can transgresse the mean or erre in the end of any Dispensation severe or unpleasant to us therefore much rather should we be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live a more easie safe and comfortable life here than otherwise can be expected and a most happie life hereafter where all things be perfectly subject to the Father as Saint Paul speaks 1 Corinth 15. that he may be here allso as well as hereafter All in All. 6. Fourthly This Selfe-deniall is the true Holocaust or absolute Sacrifice we can give to God and most acceptable imposed upon us as true Believers according to Saint Paul Rom. 12. 1. saying I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of the spirit of your minde that ye may prove what is that good and perfect Will of God. Sacrifices came alive to Gods House and Altar but were not accepted till they were slain so it is with the spirituall or reasonable Sacrifice of our selves especially our naturall wills so long as they live cannot please God but they must be crucified as Christ was crucified for us And as the same Apostle advises Rom. 6. we must reckon our selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. He that is dead ceaseth from willing and so from sinning He that denieth himselfe and his will is dead indeed unto sin and liveth by the life of the Son of Man and is acted by the Will of God. And surely if it be our Dutie our Wisdome our Righteousnesse to committ our very Soules and life into Gods hands and disposall shall we stick to render that one faculty of our Soule our Wills into his hands That doth Saint Peter exhort us unto 1 Epist 4. 19. Wherefore let them who suffer according to the will of God committ the keeping of their soules to him in well doing as unto a faithfull Creatour Let God then have the keeping of our Wills as he hath of our Lives as he had of Christs
discerne that by that very meanes whereby they hope to be overvalued in the world they are undervalued hated scorned and cursed by men so far as the greatnesse power and tyrannie of the proud doe not crush them into more conformity to their humour than they are disposed to of themselves Whereas to the humble and lowly love and ingenuity impell men to ascribe more than they claim 3. And here it is well to be observed that Pride casts it selfe into more formes and acts more parts than one so that it many times passeth undiscovered For there is a Mentall pride when the outward deportment may seem to be lowly and orderly and there is a Corporall pride consisting in outward ostentations of words and phrases affectedly lofty and gloriousnesse of Apparell strange phantastick and above the Purse parts and rank of the wearer This is in truth set on foot by the high minde but the high minde is augmented in its vanitie by the lifted up Neck which the Scripture censureth so often and by other gestures and habits invented to make men admire the user and for which the user most of all admires himselfe And so are we influenced from without that a costly furnished House and new fashion'd shall have a great power to corrupt the minde with this vanitie yea and a proud carriag'd Horse shall communicate of his vertue to his Rider producing this Vice in him 4. But this low sort of Pride though very troublesome frivolous and oftentimes ridiculous hath more of the Child than the Man in it For 't is much the same with that Children manifest when they have new Coats or Shooes given them But there is another sort of Pride which is properly mentall and spirituall much more dangerous and pernicious to the affected with it and still so much the more fowl and damnable as it seems to have somewhat of Religion for its foundation and fomenter As when men are conceited of their naturall parts Witt Memorie or Reason or when they reflect upon some accomplishment and faculties acquired which lift up the Head and cast the Eye this way and that way to see whose eyes are upon them and may seem to admire them and who shall say That that 's he which observed or overheard sowes the seed of the Serpent in the heart which wonderfully delights the minde so that scarcely or not at all it can contain it selfe from uttering its vanity to others 5. But no Pride comparable to that of the Spirit or spirituall Pride properly so called noted in the auncient Canons of the Church when men shall presume themselves so spiritualiz'd in gifts and religious abilities that impatient they are of any rules of moderation but what proceed from their own dictates and inventions And to passe better undiscover'd and unsuspected in such a Maladie they discover themselves very unluckily and insensibly by crying down pride in others Much noise they make and much pains they take to beat down pride in others For not only Fashions as Ribbands Patches Dresses Gesticulations and such like come under their severest Censure but some they will needs have accounted proud by their very office and order be their personall carriage never so inculpable in that kinde otherwise They are proud because they will not suffer others to be so They are proud and must be humbled otherwise they cannot be exalted So that I may make this the Character of a really proud person that he is too studious carefull and very active that others should not be proud For though some Sinners agree very lovingly and side together as the Drunkard the Covetous person the Thief and open Robber they blesse one another and love one anothers humours and companie the proud man is alltogether unsociable and unsufferable and cares for none so much as Sycophants and Flatterers of him None so intolerable to him as he who is likest himselfe and carries on the same trafficking for esteem and vain-glory Unlesse we except such who vainly puff'd up of their fleshly minde would have the sober deliberate and best composed gifts of their Superiours subject to their imaginary rash petulant sudden flashes magnified for purely Divine Which to a discerning eye is the worst pride of all which because it relates to spirituall matters may be called Spirituall more odious to God and more pernicious to the Soule than that about worldly advantages presumed on as may appear from the fearfull judgement of God sinking them down to Hell alive who denying any singular gifts to Moses and Aaron assumed the same to themselves and thereupon exalted themselves above their ranks and order and established Ordinance of God. Which was much the case allso of all the proud men resisting the Word of the Lord in the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah contrarie to their opinion and humour Jerem 43. 2. And so subtile and busie is the Spirit sometimes that it disposes men to be conceited of their humilitie forsooth it selfe so contradicting Levitie that they fall into morositie and would confute superfluities and vanities in others by affecting indecencies and slovennesse in themselves hoping thereby to have as many admirers of them as gayer and finer Persons And with as great ostentation in the eyes of God covet a name for Enemies to ostentation And we finde in the writings of the auncient and holy Fathers a speciall caveat given to them who have denyed the world in outward appearance not to be proud of it And specially against the conceit of the excellencie of Virginitie And Fastings abstinences and multiplied and produced Prayers have given too great occasion many times to appearing Saints to become conceited Which that good man mantioned by Gerson in a Tractate Of the Tryall of Spirits perceiving and fearing in himselfe prayed to God earnestly that he might be possessed with the Devill three moneths together to prevent such an evill choosing rather to be infested with the Spirit of Pride than infected with the Pride of Spirit and was accordingly answered by God. And Saint Hierome writes in the life of Saint Hilarion that having the gift of Miracles which he shewed by acts of mercie on indigent impotent and sick persons that becoming noted and admired for such workes so soon as he perceived it fled from that place lest he should possibly be tainted with the corrupt breath of Fame and applause The like to which we read in Aeneas Gazaeus his Dialogue called Theophrastus or the Resurrection of an Auncient holy Man who being perswaded by the importunities of a dear Friend having lately lost his Child to restore him to life again he did so in a miraculous manner and to avoid the glorie and admiration of the people for so great a work chose to goe into voluntarie banishment For as a wise and Holy Father observes Omnia vitia in malefact is timenda sunt superbia in benefact is plus timenda est Augustin in Psalm 58. the case of Pride is quite contrary to that of
suffereth long and is kinde Charitie envieth not Chartie vaunteth not it selfe is not puffed up Doth not behave it selfe unseemly Rejoyceth not in iniquitie but rejoyceth in the trueth Beareth all things endureth all things Which whosoever so doeth cannot envie nor seek nor desire the evill of another nor rejoice at any evill befalling any other as if thereby some good had befallen him which is the guise of Envie Wherefore O Lord who knowest that all our doings without Charitie are nothing worth pour into my heart that most excellent gift of Charitie the proper Antidote against this Poison of Envie hatred and malice and the very soule of all Christian Graces and the Earnest of and key to Glorie and that fire of unquenchable blessednesse contrarie to that unquenchable fire of Hell where the Devill and his Angells are tormented that fo for his fake and through his Spirit who loved us and gave himselfe for us I may with faithfull servent and never failing Charitie love thee who hast first loved me and in thee and for thee all as they belong to Thee through Jesus Christ Amen SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse 1. I Have sometimes doubted and wondered how the excessive Declamations found in humane Authours and the sharpest Censures found in Holy Writ can be true of severall Vices as if more than one were worst of all For sometimes Pride is the originall of all Evill and sometimes Covetousnesse is said to be the Root of all Evill as 1 Tim. 6. 10. And than which nothing can be said more severely against any Sin the Apostle adviseth concerning Covetousnesse Ephes 5. 3. Let it not be once named amongst you as becometh Saints For what indeed can worse become Saints whose conversation is in Heaven than to fall flat upon the earth and like Moles to work in it And There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man saith Ecclesiasticus 10. 2. But comparing the Diseases of the Soule with the distempers of the Body some satisfaction may be given of such exaggerating formes of Speech For as the Maladies of naturall Bodies cannot so well be estimated from their kindes as from the degree of affecting and the danger from the part so affected so is it with the evills of the Soule For a Pin thrust into one part may be more mortall than a Sword run through another And oft-times the pain of the Tooth is lesse tolerable than the Gout in Feet or Joints and a lighter distemper at the Heart more dangerous than a Cancer in the outward parts And thus may Pride be the chief and worst of sinnes of a spirituall nature and Covetousnesse may be the root of all Evill tending to bodily and brutish pleasure though it taketh the least sensible pleasure of any but only treasures up materialls for all other Vices and impells to monstrous desires and actions For gaping and hungry as the unsatiable Grave and dilating its stomach as Hell it fetches from thence allso hellish appetites contriveth plotts to catch its unjust prey or most unjustly hoardeth up and detaineth what perhaps not unjustly was acquired Or if at any time it letteth goe abroad part of its Magazine it is as Garrisons send out Parties to bring in more spoil by pilling and robbing the Country that is by Usurie and extortion or Money lent most disadvantageously to the borrower 3. Certain old Stories doe commonly passe of some Caves Hills or holes of the Earth wherein are great Treasures of Gold and Silver and precious Stones but so that they are kept by Dragons or evill Spirits from being carried out and become usefull to men Very true is this of Wealth in the possession of Covetous Persons There it is to be found but thence it may not be taken by any meanes For 't is kept by Evill Spirits so close that the pretended owner himselfe scarce durst touch it For as Solomon saith What good is there to the owner of them saving the beholding of them with the eyes Ecclesiast 5. v. 11. And yet this is not all but ver 13. There is a sore evill which I have seen under the Sun Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt A double damage generally happening to the Amassers of Wealth One to the wicked treasurer of it while the more he hath the more he wants and the more he possesseth the lesse he enjoyeth And therefore very aptly in our English Tongue we call a Covetous Person a Miserable Person as most unhappie of all men And it proveth a sore evill to him for whome it is so gathered the Posterity of the Covetous Person scattering with like though contrary pleasure as the Father gathered and by prodigious Prodigality hasting to the Grave and so to Hell for spending as his Predecessour for sparing And the Evill Spirit that stopt the course of due spending now on a suddain drawes up the Sluce and drowns the Country with Vice and Vanity managed for a short season by Money But to begin the torment of the Covetous in this life he is told by trueth it selfe Prov. 28. 8. He that by Vsury and unjust gain encreaseth his substance he shall gather for him that will pitty the poor a thing which he dreadeth most of all who so hoardeth 4. But another Reason may be given why St. Paul calleth Covetousnesse the root of all Evill taking here Evill for Punishment and future Torments For I am of opinion that Covetousnesse sends more grist to the Devills Mill and finds more Fewell for to maintain Hell-fire than any other Sin infidelity perhaps excepted For very many great Sinners in the dayes of their youth and Vanity drawing towards the end of their lives have seriously and savingly repented changed their mindes and manners finding thereupon the effect of Gods bountifull Promises and Goodnesse But Covetousnesse like an inveterate Cancer in the Flesh the older it is the more it proceeds and consumes the Bodie and Soule Seldome doe men repent of their parsimonie and basenesse in their youth but often of their profusenesse and licentiousnesse And not so seldome as it were to be wished so rashly retreat from their former Errours that they run into the contrary Vice of Covetousnesse from which very few returne But the old Sinner thinks he makes God some recompence for his former Vices and doubts not but he repents notably if he declaims against young mens and his own expences in foolish Fashions in riotous Companie in costly Dames of the worst rank and such like miscarriages of youth and sees not that another Sin is to be repented of and his base sparing shall but adde to his punishment for base spending Here comes in a Mock-gravity Sobrietie Temperance Continence zeal against all sins but that he is lately wedded to and embraces as fondly as any he did formerly to the apparent hazard of his Soule mistaking change of sins for Repentance and Reformation of Life Whereas the Rule and Power of true Repentance for
preserve that comfortable state unshaken and the purity thereof undefiled being with Peter at the glorie of Christs Transfiguration loth to goe down the Mountain where such manifestations are made 8. And the Mystery of Godlinesse in this case is truely wonderfull if a man considers that not onely the way to this conjunction with God is purification of the Bodie and Soule from earthly uncleannesses but such Union and Converse with God doth change the Faces at least that is the outward formes of men not truely fitted or sanctified to such an end Hence is a resolution in some measure made of a doubt seeming difficult to me Who perceiving hereticall and schismaticall and men of unjust lives to make a fair appearance of good outward and retrenching the more scandalous Vices contrary to sound Piety could not but wonder how an erroneous faith and unrighteous and uncharitable demeanours in a Christian course should attain to so much as a commendable formalitie of Godlinesse For surely the very appearance of holinesse though there should be nothing more in the case is in it selfe laudable The reason of all this I take to be the strange forwardnesse many such abound with in pressing though indirectly into Gods Presence affecting mountainous phrases and phansying themselves intimate with God himselfe For as Conspiratours and Traitours frequenting the Kings Court and Presence and observing what is perfourmed of such as doe him immediate service and attend him can and doe easily and more artificially comport themselves as prime Subjects Or to use Saint Chrysostome's comparison As he that shall come into a Drugsters shop where Aromaticall Spices are pounded shall whether he will or not carrie away upon his Clothes some of the fragrancies which are there stirring Or lastly as the Censers of Corah Dathan and Abiram with their Complices became holy by being brought though in a wicked manner into Gods Presence and devoted to his service so ill-grounded and ill-advised Devotion to God doth make some alteration very laudable in men resembling God himselfe and his holinesse So that as sinceritie of Intention purity of Affection and Actions innocent and righteous doe conduce much to spirituall mindednesse and contemplation of and union with God so doe even that preposterous way of conversing with God and pressing unduly into Gods Presence divers times worke some good effect outwardly at least upon men And were it not that where Divine Contemplations are orderly performed and faithfully a reall and sound improvement of Christian Graces and Vertues was allso made and the Soule became not more like unto God so viewed and enjoyed it must needs have been an errour in Scholasticall Divines to preferre the Contemplative Life or the Life of Mary before the Practicall or the Life of Martha serving Christ restraining Contemplation to that way had in this world which beginning on such low and sensible Subjects as are before recited may rise to greater perfection in the more immediate intuition of God himselfe and the glorie to be revealed SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe 1. FROM the two-fold Union with God spoken of Contemplation or Knowledge and Love proceeds as a necessarie consequence of both Adoration which consists in an actuall Devotion and Consecration of the whole man unto God and an inanition or emptying of a mans Soule into the fullnesse of God as the smaller as well as greater Rivers fall into the Ocean and loose themselves the Channell through which they run remaining the same and allwayes in those streames moving Or when as two intimate Friends of the same judgement and equally affectionate one to another meeting together after mutuall embraces fall into Discourses most kinde and pleasing one with another So the foresaid meeting of the Soule with God begets conference and holy Talk with God in Prayer It was not therefore thought sufficient by John the Baptist to have procured followers of his Doctrine nor attenders of his Person nor by Christ to have chosen his Apostles who should be allwayes neer him by profession unlesse he taught them to pray Our Father which art in Heaven c. For Filiation or Adoption whereby we have God for our Father sufficeth not without he be our heavenly Father and under that notion use Invocation of him and holy Communication with him by the Ascent of the heart to him in Prayer 2. And Prayer being of a very comprehensive nature may be considered in its Habit which is a generall and constant disposition of the minde to God of which sort we may understand Saint Paul to speake 1 Thessalonians 5. 17. Ephes 6. 18. Pray allwayes and Pray without ceasing by alienating the Affections from earthly things and raising and continuing the same to and with God. That so when ever God by any tacite suggestion shall say to the Soule Seek ye my face an Answer and Act may allwayes be in readinesse saying Thy face Lord will I seek For actuall Prayer is the exercise of that generall disposition men have toward God and differs no more from that than the Fire covered and the Fire kindled which latter when it ceases leaves new Coals apt to a repetition of the like flames And thus ascending unto God and for the time abiding with him we are estranged from terrestriall businesses and cogitations From which consideration a tolerable reason may be given why divers praying together in the conclusion are wont to salute one another as newly met For this we are wont to doe after a far Journey taken and a returne so having been as far as Heaven it selfe in Prayer and wholly as we ought at least estranged from things below we returning take Acquaintance with our Friends and Brethren Or perhaps having been so united to God as in such cases becomes us the Center of all Christian Charitie whereby we meet alltogether we testifie our Christian Affection thereby encreased with affectionate Salutations outward 3. But this is perfourmed as well that is as really though not so edifyingly in single addresses as in Society when a man makes known unto God that which would not be so proper to have published to others of which we may speake by and by For though for dayly and common Sacrifice Gods House and Altar is the most convenient place yet we may observe that those extraordinarie Revelations and Visions reported in Auncient and inferiour Histories to be made to the eminent Servants of God have been obtained chiefly in private retirements from the Noise and Dust of the World. Elias was so visited by God in the cleft of a Rock and Moses in the wide Wildernesse alone when God gave him the signall of his Presence by the Fire in the Bush And David counsells to enter into a mans own heart and commune with that in his Chamber as an excellent expedient to draw God to a friendly conference with him an appearance to him answerable to his exigence Exceeding
eares so that if Christ should tell us that it was his Bodie we may as reasonably denie that he doth say what in trueth he doth say For the Eye is a lesse fallible sense than the Ear as Philosophers agree And whereas it is said We cannot see substances themselves but onely Accidents it matters not whether that Opinion be true or false being we see as much of those bodies and their substances as of any substance in the world and no more is needfull 8. Seventhly The sacred Symboles are called the Bodie and Blood of Christ because we should understand the dignity and efficacie and strait conjunction between them and Christ and Christ and us who thereby receive him as our Food 9. Lastly The meanes whereby we so receive Christ in this Blessed Sacrament is Faith as is truely and generally said but not alltogether as some may understand and conceive For Faith as in our Sanctification so in our Justification doth work and no otherwise doth it make us worthie and happie Communicants For it layes the foundation of all our Religion and becoming lively by love and Charitie gives life to all our spirituall performances and consequently renders them effectuall to us So that we must believe first according to the true Catholique Faith in generall then specially the nature ends and uses of this Sacrament Lastly we must have a comfortable perswasion of the goodnesse of God in accepting us in the Sacrament and his dispensations towards us but there must allso be joyned herewith 1. Discerning the Lords Body and that not to be it properly which we see but that which is invisible and spiritually taken 2. That we judge our selves by examination and humiliation of our selves that by rashnesse of approach we be not condemned of the Lord. 3. Invocation of Gods mercie for past sins and of his assisting Grace for preventing the like future failings and falls as we have been formerly subject to 4. To have no malice nor notorious hatred in our hearts but Charitie to all men especially towards them with whome we communicate 5. That we be void of all purpose or designe of committing over again any of those sinnes which we finde in our selves upon due enquity and examination but rather have a sincere how weak soever it may be desire and purpose of living more agreeably to Gods holy Will in all things 6. That we have a good hope through Gods Grace which some miscall Faith that we shall live according to our Vow in Baptisme of old made and there renewed and ratified and that this hope begets a care and conscience of our wayes hereafter lest we by relapsing into former errours dissolve that happie Union and conjunction obtained in this Blessed Sacrament with the Father and the Son. SECT X. Of the Difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holie Communion which are here discussed 1. WE are told in the Office of our Church for the celebration of the Communion That as the benefits are great if with a true penitent heart and a lively Faith we receive that Holy Sacrament so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily for then are we guiltie of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ we eat and drink our own damnation not considering the Lords Body we kindle Gods wrath against us we provoke him to plague us with divers Diseases and sundry kindes of Death All which seems to be drawn from the words of Saint Paul 1 Corin. 11. ver 27. Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And ver 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe not discerning the Lords Bodie which Speeches it behoveth straitly to understand aright lest by violence used in wresting them to too favourable a sense we occasion the profanation of those Holy Mysteries by rudenesse and presumption of unbelieving and impenitent comers unto it or we so straiten the way to Gods holy Table that Believers and they none of the worst rank should be disheartened and discouraged from approaching to it The genuine sense therefore and importance of those Sayings are faithfully to be unfolded for the better informing of the Judgement and directing and satisfying the Conscience of the cordiall Christian and sincere For it is most certain upon too frequent experience that an horrible abuse is made of the opinion of the Holinesse of the Sacrament and Doctrine of Saint Paul and allso of the Church even now recited and that by worldly and loose men who believing in grosse the sacrednesse of the Communion alledge that for a sufficient cause to excuse themselves from receiving of it when God knowes they have little apprehension either of the Holinesse of that or their unholinesse or unfitnesse pretending more scrupulousnesse and warinesse than others and than the Word of God requires absolutely at their hands though it is granted that divers finde themselves so entangled between the consciousnesse of their own unworthinesse and perswasion of the worthinesse of that that they are unwillingly obstructed in drawing nigh thus unto Christ so mercifully offered to them For whose sake I have prepared these following instructions leaving others to be condemned for their falsenesse and hypocrisie in sacred things by their own consciences and that very judgement which is pretended to be feared in so abstaining 2. First then It is to be granted and supposed by all ingenuous as well as pious Christians that it is in it selfe incredible and a great injurie done to the wisdome and goodnesse of Christ instituting this holy Sacrament to imagine that he should so mock the greatest number of true though weak Believers as to ordain such a Sacrament and to such great ends and propound so great benefits and leave so many gracious and kinde invitations and exhortations to come to him there present and in readinesse to satisfie the hungrie Soule with goodnesse and to feast him with the fat and sweet of his own Table and yet withall cloth that precious Ordinance with so many severe circumstances and clogge it with so many dangerous difficult and heavie Conditions as very few should dare to come at it or be the better for it 3. Secondly There is to be observed a very great difference between Worthy Communicating and due or Fit communicating and that both these are vulgarly and Fallaciously contained in that one word Worthie which hath a double sense For he properly is said to be worthy who is equall in qualifications of Vertue and Graces to the worth and merits of that holy Sacrament and in this acceptation no man may be said to be worthy no not the best prepared and holiest man. Another sense of Worthinesse is that we call'd Fitnesse whereby how unworthy soever a Soule may be of that Sacrament he may be reputed worthy and come acceptably and fruitfully and so that willfully in such cases to absent himselfe may turne to his own