any subject a falling for for our bodies we say a man is falne sick And for his state falne poore And for his mind falne mad And for his conscience falne desperate we are borne low and yet we fall every way lower so universall is our falling sicknesse Sin it selfe is but a falling The irremediable sin of the Angels The undeterminable sinne of Adam is called but so The fall of Adam The fall of Angels And therefore the effectuall visitation of the holy Ghost to man is called a falling too we are fallen so low as that when the holy Ghost is pleased to fetch us againe and to infuse his grace he is still said to fall upon us But the fall which we consider in the Text is not a figurative falling not into a decay of estate nor decay of health nor a spirituall falling into sin a decay of grace but it is a medicinall falling a falling under Gods hand but such a falling under his hand as that he takes not off his hand from him that is falne but throwes him downe therefore that he may raise him To this posture he brings Paul now when he was to re-inanimate him with his spirit rather to pre-inanimate him for indeed no man hath a soule till he have grace Christ who in his humane nature hath received from the Father all Judgement and power and dominion over this world hath received all this upon that condition that he shall governe in this manner Psal 2.8 Aske of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance sayes the Father How is he to use them when he hath them Thus Thou shalt breake them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessell Now God meant well to the Nations in this bruising and breaking of them God intended not an annihilation of the Nations but a reformarion for Christ askes the Nations for an Inheritance not for a triumph therefore it is intended of his way of governing them and his way is to bruise and beat them that is first to cast them downe before he can raise them up first to breake them before he can make them in his fashion August Novit Dominus vulnerare ad amorem The Lord and onely the Lord knowes how to wound us out of love more then that how to wound us into love more then all that to wound us into love not onely with him that wounds us but into love with the wound it selfe with the very affliction that he inflicts upon us The Lord knowes how to strike us so as that we shall lay hold upon that hand that strikes us and kisse that hand that wounds us Ad vitam interficit ad exaltationem prosternit sayes the same Father No man kills his enemy therefore that his enemy might have a better life in heaven that is not his end in killing him It is Gods end Therefore he brings us to death that by that gate he might lead us into life everlasting And he hath not discovered but made that Northerne passage to passe by the frozen Sea of calamity and tribulation to Paradise to the heavenly Jerusalem There are fruits that ripen not but by frost There are natures there are scarce any other that dispose not themselves to God but by affliction And as Nature lookes for the season for ripening and does not all before so Grace lookes for the assent of the soule and does not perfect the whole worke till that come It is Nature that brings the season and it is Grace that brings the assent but till the season for the fruit till the assent of the soule come all is not done Therefore God begun in this way with Saul and in this way he led him all his life Tot pertulit mortes quot vixit dies He dyed as many deaths as he lived dayes Chrysost for so himselfe sayes Quotidie morior I die daily God gave him sucke in blood and his owne blood was his daily drink He catechized him with calamities at first and calamities were his daily Sermons and meditations after and to authorize the hands of others upon him and to accustome him to submit himself to the hands of others without murmuring Christ himself strikes the first blow and with that Cecidit he fell which was our first consideration in his humiliation and then Cecidit in terram He fell to the ground which is our next I take no farther occasion from this Circumstance but to arme you with consolation In terram how low soever God be pleased to cast you Though it be to the earth yet he does not so much cast you downe in doing that as bring you home Death is not a banishing of you out of this world but it is a visitation of your kindred that lie in the earth neither are any nearer of kin to you then the earth it selfe and the wormes of the earth You heap earth upon your soules and encumber them with more and more flesh by a superfluous and luxuriant diet You adde earth to earth in new purchases and measure not by Acres but by Manors nor by Manors but by Shires And there is a little Quillet a little Close worth all these A quiet Grave And therefore when thou readest That God makes thy bed in thy sicknesse rejoyce in this not onely that he makes that bed where thou dost lie but that bed where thou shalt lie That that God that made the whole earth is now making thy bed in the earth a quiet grave where thou shalt sleep in peace till the Angels Trumpet wake thee at the Resurrection to that Judgement where thy peace shall be made before thou commest and writ and sealed in the blood of the Lamb. Saul falls to the earth So farre But he falls no lower God brings his servants to a great lownesse here but he brings upon no man a perverse sense or a distrustfull suspition of falling lower hereafter His hand strikes us to the earth by way of humiliation But it is not his hand that strikes us into hell by way of desperation Will you tell me that you have observed and studied Gods way upon you all your life and out of that can conclude what God meanes to doe with you after this life That God took away your Parents in your infancy and left you Orphanes then That he hath crossed you in all your labours in your calling ever since That he hath opened you to dishonours and calumnies and mis-interpretations in things well intended by you That he hath multiplied ficknesses upon you and given you thereby an assurance of a miserable and a short life of few and evill dayes nay That he hath suffered you to fall into sins that you your selves have hated To continue in sins that you your selves have been weary of To relapse into sins that you your selves have repented And will you conclude out of this that God had no good purpose upon you that if ever
if we consider those who are in heaven and have been so from the first minute of their creation Angels why have they or how have they any reconciliation How needed they any and then how is this of Christ applyed unto them They needed a confirmation for the Angels were created in blessednesse but not in perfect blessednesse They might fall they did fall To those that fell can appertaine no reconciliation no more then to those that die in their sins for Quod homini mors Angelis casus August The fall of the Angels wrought upon them as the death of a man does upon him They are both equally incapable of change to better But to those Angels that stood their standing being of grace and their confirmation being not one transient act in God done at once but a continuall succession and emanation of daily grace belongs this reconciliation by Christ because all matter of grace and where any deficiency is to be supplyed whether by way of reparation as in man or by way of confirmation as in Angels proceeds from the Crosse from the Merits of Christ They are so reconciled then as that they are extra lapsus periculum out of the danger of falling but yet this stability this infallibility is not yet indelibly imprinted in their natures yet the Angels might fall if this reconciler did not sustain them for if those words reperit in Angelis iniquitatem that God found folly Job 4.18 weaknesse infirmity in his Angels be to be understood of the good Angels that stand confirmed as procul dubio de diabolo intelligi non potest Calvin without all doubt they cannot be understood of the ill Angels the best service of the best Angels devested of that successive grace that supports them if God should exacta rigorous account of it could not be acceptable in the sight of God So the Angels have a pacification and a reconciliation lest they should fall Thus things in heaven are reconciled to God by Christ and things on earth too In terra First the creature as S. Paul speakes that is other creatures then men For at the generall resurrection which is rooted in the resurrection of Christ and so hath relation to him the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption Rom. 8.21 into the glorious liberty of the children of God for which the whole creation groanes and travailes in paine yet This deliverance then from this bondage the whole creature hath by Christ and that is their reconciliation And then are we reconciled by the blood of his Crosse when having crucified our selves by a true repentance we receive the seale of reconciliation in his blood in the Sacrament But the most proper and most litterall sense of these words is that all things in heaven and earth be reconciled to God that is to his glory to a fitter disposition to glorifie him by being reconciled to another in Christ that in him as head of the Church they in heaven and we upon earth be united together as one body in the Communion of Saints For this text hath a conformity and a harmony with that to the Ephesians and in sense as well as in words is the same Ephes 1.10 That God might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him where the word which we translate to gather doth properly signifie recapitulare to bring all things to their first head to Gods first purpose which was that Angels and men united in Christ Jesus might glorifie him eternally in the Kingdome of heaven Then are things in heaven restored and reconciled sayes S. Augustine Cum quod ex Angelis lapsum est ex hominibus redditur when good men have repaired the ruine of the bad Angels and filled their places And then are things on earth restored and reconciled Cum praedestinati à corruptionis vetustate renovantur when Gods elect children are delivered from the corruptions of this world to which even they are subject here Gregor Cum humiliati homines redeunt unde Apostatae superbiendo ceciderunt when men by humility are exalted to those places from which Angels fell by pride then are all things in heaven and earth reconciled in Christ The blood of the sacrifices was brought by the high priest Tostat in Levit 16. in sanctum sanctorum into the place of greatest holinesse but it was brought but once in festo expiationis in the feast of expiation but in the other parts of the Temple it was sprinkled every day The blood of the Crosse of Christ Jesus hath had his effect in sancto sanctorum even in the highest heavens in supplying their places that fell in confirming them that stood and in uniting us and them in himselfe as Head of all In the other parts of the Temple it is to be sprinkled daily Here in the militant Church upon earth there is still a reconciliation to be made not only toward one another in the band of charity but in our selves In our selves we may finde things in heaven and things on earth to reconcile There is a heavenly zeale but if it be not reconciled to discretion there is a heavenly purity but if it be not reconciled to the bearing of one anothers infirmities there is a heavenly liberty but if it be not reconciled to a care for the prevention of scandall All things in our heaven and our earth are not reconciled in Christ In a word till the flesh and the spirit be reconciled this reconciliation is not accomplished For neither spirit nor flesh must be destroyed in us a spirituall man is not all spirit he is a man still But then is flesh and spirit reconciled in Christ when in all the faculties of the soule and all the organs of the body we glorifie him in this world for then in the next world wee shall be glorified by him and with him in soule and in body too where we shall bee thoroughly reconciled to one another no suits no controversies and thoroughly to the Angels Mat. 22.30 Luc. 20.36 when we shall not only be sieut Angeli as the Angels in some one property but aequales Angelis equall to the Angels in all for Non erunt duae societates Angelorum hominum Men and Angels shall not make two companies sed omnium beatitudo erit uni adhaerere Deo August this shall be the blessednesse of them both to be united in one head Christ Jesus And these reconcilings are reconcilings enow for these are all that are in heaven and earth If you will reconcile things in heaven and earth with things in hell that is a reconciling out of this Text. If you will mingle the service of God and the service of this world there is no reconciling of God and Mammon in this Text. If you will mingle a true religion and a false religion there is no reconciling of God and
from sin Inter abjectos abjectissimus peccator Grego No man falls lower then he that falls into a course of sin Sin is a fall It is not onely a deviation a turning out of the way upon the right or the left hand but it is a sinking a falling In the other case of going out of the way a man may stand upon the way and inquire and then proceed in the way if he be right or to the way if he be wrong But when he is fallen and lies still he proceeds no farther inquires no farther To be too apt to conceive scruples in matters of religion stops and retards a man in the way to mistake some points in the truth of religion puts a man for that time in a wrong way But to fall into a course of sin this makes him unsensible of any end that he hath to goe to of any way that he hath to goe by God hath not removed man not with-drawne man from this Earth he hath not given him the Aire to flie in as to Birds nor Spheares to move in as to Sun and Moone he hath left him upon the Earth and not onely to tread upon it as in contempt or in meere Dominion but to walk upon it in the discharge of the duties of his calling and so to be conversant with the Earth is not a falling But as when man was nothing but earth nothing but a body he lay flat upon the earth his mouth kissed the earth his hands embraced the earth his eyes respected the earth And then God breathed the breath of life into him and that raised him so farre from the earth as that onely one part of his body the soles of his feet touches it And yet man so raised by God by sin fell lower to the earth againe then before from the face of the earth to the womb to the bowels to the grave So God finding the whole man as low as he found Adams body then fallen in Originall sin yet erects us by a new breath of life in the Sacrament of Baptisme and yet we fall lower then before we were raised from Originall into Actuall into Habituall sins So low as that we think not that we need know not that there is a resurrection and that is the wonderfull that is the fearfull fall Though those words Quomodo cecidisti de Coelo Lucifer Esay 14.12 How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer the Son of the morning be ordinarily applied to the fall of the Angels yet it is evident that they are literally spoken of the fall of a man It deserves wonder more then pity that man whom God had raised to so Noble a heighth in him should fall so low from him Man was borne to love he was made in the love of God but then man falls in love when he growes in love with the creature he falls in love As we are bid to honour the Physitian and to use the Physitian but yet it is said in the same Chapter Ecclus. 38.1 V. 15. He that sinneth before his Maker let him fall into the hands of the Physitian It is a blessing to use him it is a curse to rely upon him so it is a blessing to glorifie God in the right use of his creatures but to grow in love with them is a fall For we love nothing that is so good as our selves Beauty Riches Honour is not so good as man Man capable of grace here of glory hereafter Nay as those things which we love in their nature are worse then we which love them so in our loving them we endeavour to make them worse then they in their own nature are by over-loving the beauty of the body we corrupt the soule by overloving honour and riches we deflect and detort these things which are not in their nature ill to ill uses and make them serve our ill purposes Man falls as a fall of waters that throwes downe and corrupts all that it embraces Nay beloved when a man hath used those wings which God hath given him and raised himselfe to some heighth in religious knowledge and religious practise Acts 29.9 as Eutichus out of a desire to hear Paul preach was got up into a Chamber and up into a window of that Chamber and yet falling asleep fell downe dead so we may fall into a security of our present state into a pride of our knowledge or of our purity and so fall lower then they who never came to our heighth So much need have we of a resurrection So sin is a fall and every man is affraid of falling even from his temporall station Mâ—rs Clem. Alex. more affraid of falling then of not beeing raised And Qui peccat quatenus peccat fit seipso deterior In every sin a man falls from that degree which himselfe had before In every sin he is dishonoured he is not so good a man as he was impoverished he hath not so great a portion of grace as hee had Infatuated hee hath not so much of the true wisedome of the feare of God as he had disarmed he hath not that interest and confidence in the love of God that he had and deformed he hath not so lively a representation of the Image of God as before In every sin we become prodigals but in the habit of sin we become bankrupts affraid to come to an account A fall is a fearfull thing that needs a raising a help but sin is a death and that needs a resurrection and a resurrection is as great a work as the very Creation it selfe It is death in semine in the roote it produces it brings forth death It is death in arbore in the body in it selfe death is a divorce and so is sin and it is death in fructu in the fruit thereof sin plants spirituall death and this death produces more sin Obduration Impenitence and the like Be pleased to returne and cast one halfe thought upon each of these Sin is the roote of death Death by sin entred and death passed upon all men for all men have sinned Rom. 5.12 It is death because we shall dye for it But it is death in it selfe We are dead already dead in it Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead was spoken to a whole Church Apoc. 3.1 It is not evidence enough to prove that thou art alive to say I saw thee at a Sermon that spirit that knowes thy spirit he that knowes whether thou wert moved by a Sermon melted by a Sermon mended by a Sermon he knows whether thou be alive or no. That which had wont to be said That dead men walked in Churches is too true Men walk out a Sermon or walk out after a Sermon as ill as they walked in they have a name that they live Iohn 5.25 and are dead But the houre is come and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Son of God That is at
Ephemerides his journals he writes them downe under that Title sins and he reads them every day in that booke as such and they grow greater and greater in his sight till our repentance have washed them out of his sight Casuists will say that though a dead man raised to life againe be not bound to his former marriage yet he is bound to that Religion that he had invested in Baptisme and bound to his former religious vowes and the same obedience to Superiours as before We were all dead in Adam and he that is raised againe even by Election though he be not so married to the world as others are not so in love with sin not so under the dominion of sin yet he is as much bound to an obedience to the Will of God declared in his Law and may no more presume of a liberty of sinning before nor of an impunity of sin after then he that pretends no such Election to confide in Prospeâ— For this is excellently said to be the working of our election by Prosper the Disciple of S. Augustines Doctrines and the Eccho of his words Vt fiat permanendi voluntaria foelixque necessitas That our assurance of salvation by perseverance is necessary and yet voluntary Consider it in Gods purpose easily it cannot consider it in our selves it might be resisted For we are no better then those Angels and In those servants he put no trust and those Angels he charged with folly But such as they are Numerus â—â—â— 130.7 we shall be And since with the Lord there is Copiosa Redemptio Plenteous Redemption that overflowing mercy of our God those super-superlative Merits of our Saviour that plenteous Redemption may hold even in this particular blessednesse in our assimilation to them That as though there fell great numbers of Angels yet great and greater then they that fell stood So though The way to Heaven be narrow and the gate strait which is said by Christ to excite our industry and are rather an expression arising out of his mercy lest we should slacken our holy endeavours then any intimidation or commination for though the way be narrow and the gate strait yet the roome is spacious enough within why by this plenteous redemption may we not hope 〈◊〉 12. â— that many more then are excluded shall enter there Those words The dragons taile drew the third part of the stars from Heaven the Fathers generally interprete of the fall of Angels with Lucifer and it was but a third part And by Gods grace whose mercy is overflowing whose merits are super-abundant with whom there is plenteous redemption the serpent gets no farther upon us I know some say that this third part of the stars is meant of eminent persons illustrated and assisted with the best meanes of salvation and if a third of them how many meanlier furnished fall But those that we can consider to be best provided of meanes of salvation nextto these are Christians in generall and so may this plenteous Redemption be well hoped to worke that but a third part of them of Christians shall perish and then the God of this plenteous Redemption having promised us that the Christian Religion shall be carried over all the world still the number of those that shall be saved is enlarged Apply to thy selfe that which S. Cyril saies of the Angels Tristaris quia aliqui vitam amiserunt Does it grieve thee that any are fallen At plures meliorem statum apud Deum obtinent Let this comfort thee even in the application thereof to thy selfe that more stood then fell As Elisha said to his servant in a danger of surprisall Feare not 2 King 6.16 for they that be with us are more then they that are with them so if a suspition of the paucity of them that shall be saved make thee afraid looke up upon this overflowing mercy of thy God this super-abundant merit of thy Saviour this plenteous Redemption and thou maist finde finde in a faire credulity and in a well regulated hope more with thee then with them that perish Live so in such a warfare with tentations in such a colluctation with thy concupiscences in such a jealousie and suspition of thine indifferent nay of thy best actions as though there were but one man to be saved and thou wouldst be that one But live and die in such a sense of this plenteous Redemption of thy God as though neither thou nor any could lose salvation except he doubted of it I doubt not of mine own salvation and in whom can I have so much occasion of doubt as in my self When I come to heaven shall I be able to say to any there Lord how got you hither Was any man lesse likely to come thither then I There is not only an Onely God in heaven But a Father a Son a Holy Ghost in that God which are names of a plurality and sociable relations conversable notions There is not only one Angel a Gabriel But to thee all Angels cry alond and Cherubim and Seraphim are plurall terminations many Cherubs many Seraphs in heaven There is not only one Monarchall Apostle a Peter but The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee There is not onely a Proto-Martyr a Stephen but The noble army of Martyrs praise thee Who ever amongst our Fathers thought of any other way to the Moluccaes or to China then by the Promontory of Good hope Yet another way opened it self to Magellan a Straite it is true but yet a way thither and who knows yet whether there may not be a North-East and a North-West way thither besides Go thou to heaven in an humble thankfulnesse to God and holy cheerfulnesse in that way that God hath manifested to thee and do not pronounce too bitterly too desperately that every man is in an errour that thinkes not just as thou thinkest or in no way that is not in thy way God found folly weaknesse in his Angels yet more stood then fell God findes weaknesse wickednesse in us yet hee came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance and who that comes in that capacity a Repentant sinner can be shut out or denied his part in this Resurrection The key of David opens and no man shuts The Son of David is the key of David Christ Jesus He hath opened heaven for us all let no man shut out himself by diffidence in Gods mercy nor shut out any other man by overvaluing his own purity in respect of others But forbearing all lacerations and tearings and woundings of one another with bitter invectives all exasperations by odious names of subdivision let us all study first the redintegration of that body of which Christ Jesus hath declared himselfe to be the head the whole Christian Church and pray that he would and hope that he will enlarge the means of salvation to those who have not yet been made partakers of it That so he that called the gates of heaven
to seale to them that Patent that Commission Quorum remiseritis That others might receive remission of sins by their power So the Holy Ghost fell upon these men here for the benefit of others that thereby a great doubt might be removed a great scruple devested a great disputation extinguished whether it were lawfull to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles Ver. 2. or no for as we see in the next Chapter Peter himselfe was reproved of the Jews for this that he had done and therefore God ratified and gave testimony to this service of his by this miraculous falling of the Holy Ghost as S. Augustine makes the reason of this falling very justly to have been so then this falling of the Holy Ghost was not properly or not meerly an infusing of justifying grace but an infusing of such gifts as might edifie others for S. Peter speaking of this very action in the next Chapter Ver. 15. fayes The Holy Ghost fell on them as on us in the beginning Which was when he fell upon them as this day This doth not imply Graduum aequalitatem an equall measure of the same gifts as the Apostles had who were to passe over the whole world and work upon all men But it implies Doni identitatem it was the same miraculous expressing of the presence and working of the Holy Ghost for the confirmation of Peter that the Gentiles might be preached unto and for the consolation of the Gentiles that they might be enabled to preach to one another for so it is expresly said in this Chapter Ver. 46. That they heard these men speake with divers tongues they that heard the Preacher were made partakers of the same gifts that the Preacher had A good hearer becomes a good Preacher that is able to edifie others It it true that these men were not to be literally Preachers as the Apostles upon whom the Holy Ghost fell as upon them were and therefore the gift of tongues may seeme not to have beene so necessary to them But it is not onely the Preacher that hath use of the tongue for the edification of Gods people but in all our discourses and conferences with one another we snould preach his glory his goodnesse his power that every man might speake one anothers language and preach to one anothers conscience that when I accuse my selfe and confesse mine infirmities to another man that man may understand that there is in that confession of mine a Sermon and a rebuke and a reprehension to him if he be guilty of the same sin Nay if he be guilty of a sin contrary to mine For as in that language in which God spoke the Hebrew the same roote will take in words of a contrary signification as the word of Iobs wife signifies blessing and cursing too so the covetous man that heares me confesse my prodigality should argue to himself If prodigality which howsoever it hurt a particular person yet spreads mony abroad which is the right and naturall use of money be so heavy a sin how heavy is my covetousnesse which besides that it keepes me all the way in as much penuriousnesse as the prodigall man brings himselfe to at last is also a publique sin because it emprisons that money which should be at liberty and employed in a free course abroad And so also when I declare to another the spirituall and temporall blessings which God hath bestowed upon me he may be raised to a thankfull remembrance that he hath received all that from God also This is not the use of having learnt divers tongues to be able to talke of the wars with Durch Captains or of trade with a French Merchant or of State with a Spanish Agent or of pleasure with an Italian Epicure It is not to entertaine discourse with strangers but to bring strangers to a better knowledge of God in that way wherein we by his Ordinance do worship and ferve him Now this place is ill detorted by the Roman Church for the confirmation of their Sacrament of Confirmation That because the Holy Ghost fell upon men at another time then at Baptisme therefore there is a lesse perfect giving of the Holy Ghost in Baptisme It is too forward a triumph in him who sayes of this place Pamclius Annot in Cypr. Epist 72. Locus insignis ad assertionem Sacramenti manus impositionis That is an evident place for Confirmation of the Sacrament of Confirmation It is true that S. Cyprian sayes there That a man is not truly sanctified Nisi utroque Sacramento nascatur Except he be regenerate by both Sacraments And he tels us what those two Sacraments are Aqua Spiritus Water and the Spirit That except a man have both these seales inward and outward he is not safe And S. Cyprian requires and usefully truly an outward declaration of this inward seale of this giving of the Holy Ghost For he instances expresly in this which was done in this Text That there was both Baptisme and a giving of the Holy Ghost Neither would S. Cyprian forbeare the use of Confirmation because it was also in use amongst some Heretiques Quia Novatianus facere audet non putabimus nos esse faciendum Cypr. Epist 72. Shall we give over a good custome because the Novatians doe the like Quia Novatianus extra Ecclesiam vendicat sibi veritatis imaginem relinquemus Ecclesiae veritatem Shall the Church forbeare any of those customes which were induced to good purposes because some Heretiques in a false Church have counterfaited them or corrupted them And therefore sayes that Father It was so in the Apostles time Et nunc quoque apud nos geritur We continue it so in our time That they who are Baptized Signaculo Dominico consummentur That they may have a ratification a consummation in this seale of the Holy Ghost Which was not in the Primitive Church as in the later Roman Church a confirmation of Baptisme so as that that Sacrament should be but a halfe-Sacrament but it was a Confirmation of Christians with an encrease of grace when they came to such yeares as they were naturally exposed to some tentations Our Church acknowledges the trueuse of this Confirmation for in the first Collect in the office of Confirmation it confesses that that child is already regenerated by water and the holy Ghost and prayes onely for farther strength And having like a good mother taught us the right use of it then our Church like a supreme Commander too enjoyns expresly that none be admitted to the Communion till they have received their Confirmation And though this injunction be not in rigour and exactnesse pursued and executed yet it is very necessary that the purpose thereof should be maintained That is that none should be received to the Communion till they had given an account of their faith and proficiencie For he is but an interpretative but a presumptive Christian who because he is so old ventures upon the Sacrament A
B. C Expostulation with God how without sin 44. B. We may not excuse the inordinatenesse of all Expostulations of good men in the Scripture 132. C Nor come neere that excesse which we finde in some of them 155. C Of that in the widdow of Zareptha 218. A Against Extortion 94. A Against Extremities in matters of opinion 42. A. B. c. In Religion 326. D F FAith against implicite Faith 178. C. 411. C Faith and Reason how contiguous they are 178. B Faith how it is assisted by Reason 429. A. 612. A Of the imperfection that is in our Faith 818. D Faith and Works 78. E. 368. A. 567. D. E Our Workes more ours than our Faith 79. C. D. E. c. The Faith of others how profitable to us 105. D And how not 106. E Men not to deceive themselves with thinking that if they have Faith once they shall have it ever or have enough 819. B. C Fall sinne is a fall and how 186. D. 187. B. C. 462. D Against impossibility of falling from grace received 240. B. C Of Fame and getting a good name the necessity of it 680. A Fathers of the power of life and death which they had over their owne children 388. A How Jesuites slight the authority of the Fathers of the Church 489. C How they are to be followed 490. C Feare of the Feare of God 386. B The difference between fearefullnesse and Feare 387. B Servile and Filial Feare both good 386. D The Feare of God a blessed disease 466. B It constitutes the best assurance 694. C Not only a Feare but even a terror of God may fall upon the best men 70. A Festivalls the reason of their Institution in the Church 298. B Of applying particular Scriptures to particular Festivalls 423. D Filiation the markes of our spirituall Filiation lesse subject to errour than of our Temporall 338. E Fasting but thrice mentioned by David and he thrice derided for it 535. C The commendation and use of it ibid. D. E Finding of God the severall times of it 597. A Of Finding that which was lost 711. E The passage of the Usher in S. Augustine that found a bag of money and would not take so much as the tithe of it 712. A Fishers of men the Apostles why so called 734. E Flatterers how men may flatter the best men the very Angels yea and God himselfe 332. B Foliantes an Order in the Roman Church who only feed on roots and leaves 731. C Following Christ how we are to Follow in beleeving and in doing 731. E Against Forespeaking the Counsels or Actions of the State 535. E Foretelling of death the passage of the Monks of S. sidorus Monastery about it 473. C Forme of publike Prayer used amongst the very Gentiles 89. A And they had a particular Officer who made Prayers and Collects for them upon emergent occasions ibid. Which were received every five years ibid. Fortune and God how they consist together 711. C Freewill the obliquities of it from whence 283. D The power of it in our conversion 309. A. B Funerals of the duties belonging to them 196. A. 198. B Of the severall manner of them among severall nations 198. D Christian Funerals an evidence of Gods presence 826. B Fulnesse how in Christ and how in others of the Saints 3. C Three Fulnesses in Christ above others 4. A How Full all of us are of originall sin 2. E How Full God is of mercy 12. C Of Fulnesse without satisfaction and of satisfaction without Fulnesse 807. A Abraham why Full of yeares and yet not so old as Methusalem ibid. D Severall Fulnesses ibid. E G GEntiles and their salvation how prone the Fathers were in beleeving of it 261. D. 763. C Of the power of naturall reason in them and what many of the Fathers thought of it 314. C Of their multiplicity of Gods 378. B. 484. D. 502. E They durst not call their Tutelar Gods by their names 608. A Gentlenesse meeknesse and mildenesse the power of it both upon man and God 409. E. 410. A. B Glad God whether he be Glad that he is God 812. B Glorified bodies their Endowments applyed to the soule after her first resurrection 189. A. B. C Gloria Patri after every Psalme how ancient 88. C Glory against our feare of giving God too much Glory 58. E No Glory to God in destroying man only for his pleasure 85. B Glory what it is 88. A The light of Glory in heaven what 231. A All things we doe must be to the Glory of God 636. E Of the disparity and degrees of Glory in the Kingdome of heaven 742. D. 743. A. B. C Gluttony the effects and miseries of it 579. D God not to be loved in consideration of the Temporall Blessings he bestoweth upon us but for himselfe 750. C. D Foure wayes of knowing him 229. B God how present even in hell 226. D. E Seeing of God before us in our actions how necessary 169. E How we see him in a glasse 226. B How we are enemies to God 65. B All his wayes are goodnesse 66. E Severall positions motions and transitions ascribed to him 67. C How omnipresent with the Ubiquetary and the Stancarist 67. E Why he makes some poor others rich 84. E Glories not in destroying man till he finde cause 85. B Proposeth his glory to himselfe as the end of all his works 87. C. D. E All our wealth and honour to be ascribed to him 95. B Whether his Essence shall be seene in heaven 120. D. 230. D No evill from him 168. C Not the Author of sinne 368. E To be reverenced as a Father 388. C Of the reason of many Gods amongst the Gentiles 484. D God hates not any man but as a finner 628. C. D His mercy to all men 679. A. B The numberlesse number of Gods Benefits unto man 765. A Our Goods what care to be taken they be well gotten 83. A. 95. E They are abusively called Goods 168. D Goodnesse speciall in God 167. E. 168. A. B Golden Crowns of the Saints how forged in the Roman Church 743. D Gospell whether yet preached over all the world 363. D Why it is called in Scripture the Kingdome of God 472. A How compared to a net 736. C Grace against irresistible Grace 456. B Grace and Nature how they cooperate 649. D No consummative Grace in this life 735. B Graduall Psalmes which and why they are so called 653. E Great men not alwayes good and why 166. A But when good the more acceptable and their ill the more pardonable ibid. B. C The true end of Greatnesse 321. B. C. D Great men how dangerously obnoxious to their own servants 551 A Gretzer the Jesuite how injurious to the power of Kings in matters of Religion 698. D H AGainst making too much Haste either in Temporall or Spirituall Riches 520. D Hatred how it may consist with Charity 100 A Health Spirituall Health to
postulationes Sanae When thou art established in favour thou maist make any suit when thou art possest of God by one prayer thou mayst offer more This is an encouragement which that Father S. Bernard gives in observing the diverse degrees of praying That though servandae humilitatis gratia divina pietas ordinavit To make his humility the more profitable to him God imprints in an humble and penitent sinner this apprehension Vt quanto plus profecit eo minus se reputet profecisse That the more he is in Gods favour the more he feares he is not so or the more he fears to lose that favour because it is a part and a symptome of the working of the grace of God to make him see his owne unworthinesse the more manifestly the more sensibly yet it is a religious insinuation and a circumvention that God loves when a sinner husbands his graces so well as to grow rich under him and to make his thanks for one blessing a reason and an occasion of another so to gather upon God by a rolling Trench and by a winding staire as Abraham gained upon God in the behalfe of Sodome for this is an act of the wisedome of the Serpent which our Saviour recommends unto us in such a Serpentine line as the Artists call it to get up to God and get into God by such degrees as David does here from his Miserere to a Sana from a gracious looke to a perfect recovery Luke 10. from the act of the Levite that looked upon the wounded man to the act of the Samaritane that undertooke his cure from desiring God to visit him as a friend as Abraham was called the friend of God to study him as a Physitian Iames 2.23 Esay 55.1 Esay 53.4 Because the Prophet Esay makes a Proclamation in Christs name Ho every one that thirsteth c. And because the same Prophet sayes of him Verè portavit He hath truly born upon himselfe and therefore taken away from us all our diseases Tertullian sayes elegantly that Esay presents Christ Praedicatorem Medicatorem as a Preacher and as a Physitian Indeed he is a Physitian both wayes in his Word and in his Power and therefore in that notion onely as a Physitian David presents him here Now Physitians say That man hath in his Constitution in his Complexion a naturall vertue which they call Balsamum suum his owne Balsamum by which any wound which a man could receive in his body would cure it selfe if it could be kept cleane from the anoiances of the aire and all extrinsique encumbrances Something that hath some proportion and analogy to this Balsamum of the body there is in the soule of man too The soule hath Nardum suam Cant. 1.12 her Spikenard as the Spouse sayes Nardus meadedit odorem suum Basil she had a spikenard a perfume a fragrancy a sweet savour in her selfe For Virtutes germaniùs attingunt animam quà m corpus sanitas Vertuous inclinations and a disposition to morall goodnesse is more naturall to the soule of man and nearer of kin to the soule of man then health is to the body And then if we consider bodily health Nulla oratio nulla doctrinae formula nos docet morbum odiisse sayes that Father There needs no Art there needs no outward Eloquence to perswade a man to be loath to be sick Ita in anima inest naturalis citra doctrinam mali evitatio sayes he So the soule hath a naturall and untaught hatred and detestation of that which is evill The Church at thy Baptisme doth not require Sureties at thy hands for this Thy Sureties undertake to the Church in thy behalfe That thou shalt forsake the flesh the world and the devill That thou shalt beleeve all the Articles of our Religion That thou shalt keepe all the Commandements of God But for this knowledge and detestation of evill they are not put to undertake them then neither doth the Church Catechize thee in that after for the summe of all those duties which concerne the detestation of evill consists in that unwritten law of thy conscience which thou knowest naturally Scis quod boni proximo faciendum sayes that Father Naturally thou knowest what good thou art bound to doe to another man Idem enim est quod ab aliis tute tibi fieri velis for it is but asking thy selfe What thou wouldest that that other man should do unto thee Non ignoras quid sit ipsum malum Thou canst not be ignorant what evill thou shouldest abstaine from offering to another Est enim quod ab alio fieri nolis It is but the same which thou thinkest another should not put upon thee So that the soule of man hath in it Balsamum suum Nardum suam A medicinall Balsamum a fragrant Spikenard in her selfe a naturall disposition to Morall goodnesse as the body hath to health But therein lyes the souls disadvantage that whereas the causes that hinder the cure of a bodily wound are extrinsique offences of the Ayre and putrefaction from thence the causes in the wounds of the soule are intrinsique so as no other man can apply physick to them Nay they are hereditary and there was no time early inough for our selves to apply any thing by way of prevention for the wounds were as soone as we were and sooner Here was a new soule but an old sore a yong childe but an inveterate disease As S. Augustin cannot conceive any interim any distance between the creating of the soule and the infusing of the soule into the body but eases himselfe upon that Creando infundit and infundendo creat The Creation is the Infusion and the Infusion is the Creation so we cannot conceive any Interim any distance betweene the infusing and the sickning betweene the comming and the sinning of the soule So that there was no meanes of prevention I could not so much as wish that I might be no sinner for I could not wish that I might be no Child Neither is there any meanes of separation now our concupiscencies dwell in us and prescribe in us and will gnaw upon us as wormes till they deliver our bodies to the wormes of the grave and our consciences to the worme that never dyes From the dangerous effects then of this sicknesse David desires to be healed and by God himselfe Sana me Domine O Lord heale me for that physick that Man gives is all but drugs of the earth Morall and Civill counsailes rather to cover then recover rather to disguise then to avoid They put a clove in the mouth but they do not mend the lungs To cover his nakednesse Adam tooke but fig-leaves Esay 38.11 but to recover Ezechias God tooke figs themselves Man deales upon leaves that cover and shadow God upon fruitfull and effectuall meanes 2 King 20.7 that cure and nourish And then God tooke a lumpe of figs God is liberall of his graces and gives not over a
cure at one dressing And they were dry figs too sayes that story you must not looke for figs from the Tree for immediate Revelations for private inspirations from God but the medicinall preaching of the Word medicinall Sacraments medicinall Absolution are such dry figs as God hath preserved in his Church for all our diseases S. Paul had a strong desire and he expressed it in often prayer to God to have this peccant humour this malignity cleane purged out to have that Stimulus carnis that concupiscence absolutely taken away God would not do so but yet he applied his effectuall physick sufficient Grace This then is the soules Panacaea The Pharmacum Catholicum the Medicina omnimorbia The physick that cures all the sufficient Grace the seasonable mercy of God in the merits of Christ Jesus and in the love of the Holy Ghost This is the physick but then there are ever Vehicula medicinae certaine syrups and liquors to convey the physick water and wine in the Sacraments And certaine Physitians to ordaine and prescribe The Ministers of the Word and Sacraments The Father sends The Son makes The Holy Ghost brings The Minister laies on the plaister For Medicinae ars à Deo data Basil ut inde rationem animae curandae disceremus Gods purpose in giving us the science of bodily health was not determined in the body but his large and gracious purpose was by that restitution of the body to raise us to the consideration of spirituall health When Christ had said to him who was brought sick of the palsie Thy sins are forgiven thee Marke 2. and that the Scribes and Pharisees were scandalized with that as though he being but man had usurped upon the power of God Christ proves to them by an actuall restoring of his bodily health that he could restore his soule too in the forgivenesse of sins He asks them there Whether is it easier to say Thy sins are forgiven thee or to say Arise take up thy bed and walke Christus facit sanitatem corporalem argumentum spiritualis Bernar. Christ did not determine his doctrine in the declaration of a miraculous power exercised upon his body but by that established their beliefe of his spirituall power in doing that which in their opinion was the greater worke Pursue therefore his method of Curing And if God have restored thee in any sicknesse by such meanes as he of his goodnesse hath imprinted in naturall herbs and Simples thinke not that that was done onely or simply for thy bodies sake but that as it is as easie for God to say Thy sins are forgiven thee as Take up thy bed and walke so it is as easie for thee to have spirituall physick as bodily because as God hath planted all those medicinall Simples in the open fields for all though some do tread them under their feet so hath God deposited and prepared spirituall helps for all though all do not make benefit of those helps which are offered It is true that God sayes of his Church Hortus conclusus soror mea My sister Cant. 4.12 my Spouse is a Garden enclosed as a spring shut in and a fountaine sealęd up But therein is our advantage who by being enwrapped in the Covenant as the seed of the faithfull as the children of Christian Parents are borne if not within this walled Garden yet with a key in our hand to open the doore that is with a right and title to the Sacrament of Baptisme The Church is a Garden walled in for their better defence and security that are in it but not walled in to keepe any out who either by being borne within the Covenant inherit a right to it or by accepting the grace which is offered them acquire and professe a desire to enter thereinto For as it is a Garden full of Spikenard and of Incense and of all spices as the Text sayes there so that they who are in this Garden in the Church are in possession of all these blessed meanes of spirituall health So are these spices and Incense and Spikenard of a diffusive and spreading nature and breath even over the wals of the Garden Oleum effusum nomen ejus The name of Christ is unction Oyntment Cant. 1.3 4.16 but it is an Oyntment powred out an Oyntment that communicates the fragrancy thereof to persons at a good distance And as it is said there Christ cals up the North and the South to blow upon his Garden he raises up men to transport and propagate these meanes of salvation to all Nations so that in every Nation they that feare him are acceptable to him not that that feare of God in generall as one universall power is sufficient in it selfe to bring any man to God immediately but that God directs the Spikenard and Incense of this Garden upon that man and seconds his former feare of God with a love of God and brings him to a knowledg and to a desire and to a possession and fruition of our more assured meanes of salvation When he does so this is his method as in restoring bodily health he said Surge Tolle Ambula Arise Take up thy bed and Walke So to every sick soule whose cure he undertakes he sayes so too Surge Tolle Ambula Our beds are our naturall affections These he does not bid us cast away nor burne nor destroy since Christ vouchsafed Induere hominem wee must not Exuere hominem Since Christ invested the nature of man and became man we must not pretend to devest it and become Angels or flatter our selves in the merit of Mortifications not enjoyned or of a retirednesse and departing out of the world in the world by the withdrawing of our selves from the offices of mutuall society or an extinguishing of naturall affections But Surge sayes our Saviour Arise from this bed sleepe not lazily in an over-indulgency to these affections but Ambula walke sincerely in thy Calling and thou shalt heare thy Saviour say Non est infirmitas haec ad mortem These affections nay these concupiscencies shall not destroy thee David then doth not pray for such an exact and exquisite state of health as that he should have no infirmity Physitians for our bodies tell us that there is no such state The best degree of health is but Neutralitas He is well that is as well as Man can be that is not dangerously sick for absolutely well no man can be Spirituall Physitians will tell you so too He that sayes you have no sinne or that God sees not your sinne if you be of the Elect deceives you It is not for an Innocency that David prayes but it is against deadly diseases and against violent accidents of those diseases He doth not beg he cannot hope for an absolute peace Nature hath put awarre upon us True happinesse and apparant happinesse fight against one another sin hath put a war upon us The flesh and the Spirit fight against one another Christ Jesus himselfe