the barking of a dog may be to a bird though on the wing and out of reach I should not certainly have thus put my self upon my Country nor ventured my triall there where the judges may be of severall minds and diversely biassed and yet meet at the same mark and joyne in the same sentence of condemnation which I will not say envy for what matter can my low fortunes or these sorry papers yield for that humour to gnaw on but the disesteem of my person the low conceit of my abilities in some the dislike of the matter in others and of the method and manner of handling it in many and ignorance in not a few will soon make up and pronounce against me But I have past over my Rubicon and left it behind me and must now stand censure the shock of all that opposition which can be but breath and words but darts made up of aire pointed peradventure with wit and envenomed with some droppings of malice against which there need no other buckler then this thought that whatsoever I shall appeare yet I am still the same not higher not lower in all the demonstrations and fulnesse either of Praise or Detraction Or this That Censure for the most part is but Pride in its vvantonnesse self-pleasing and not much displeasing any that are wise who may be strong enough to hear without disgust what others are ready to vent with so much delight what Wit suggests to their Passion and what Passion utters by the Tongue And such Readers I may have and too many such some of the same faith and opinion who yet will mislike something others not alike principled who will condemn all To the first I have nothing to say and to these but this That I cannot be of their opinion nor move as they do till more weight of reason be hung on Yet I nothing doubt but to find many more candid and charitable and who will give fairer welcome and entertainment to these Sermons then peradventure they do deserve and peruse them with an eye no more severe and averse then their eare was when they first heard them from my mouth And for satisfaction to these I shall give up this account for my self that they are now publisht to the eye with the same mind and intention which first breathed them forth unto the eare and that was first to work men off from those errors which are so common in the world and have gained honour and kindnesse and reception because they are so secondly to draw up their love and industry to necessary truths that they may not spend and waste them there where they may perhaps satisfie their humour but not fill their soules but fix and tye them to that which is most essentiall which hath the favour of God and happinesse evermore annex unto it and ready to Crown it thirdly to draw up the meanes to the end the duty to the reward by that necessary relation which is betwixt them this being the way and there being no other unto it and this with that plainnesse and evidence laying it open as neer unto the eye as the matter being spirituall would permit and my weake abilities and diligence could bring it In which if I have failed or come short as I must needs do of those who have a more quick and searching eye and a greater art felicity in clothing and uttering their conceptions I must make use of that Apologie of an Apocryphall writer Concedendum est mihi Mach. 2. 15. If I have done slenderly and meanly it is that which I could attain to and I have no other argument but my good will and endeavour to speak for me And first how weakly soever I have carried it on yet I made it my aime and principall intendment to lay all levell before me to remove those practicall errours which are most common and regnant which men walk in as in the waies of righteousnesse and glory in as in the truth it self which grow up in the world like those weeds which run and spread themselves over the surface of the water but have no root even those errours which are the proper issues of lust and idlenesse with which men infect and in which they applaud one another and so move together with content and danger which are improved by custome and at last raised up to the power and dignity of a Law It was well observed by Seneca Cùm error singulorum fecerit publicum errorem singulorum facit publicus the beginning of errours is from private persons but the continuance and life of them is from the multitude who are first dazled with the authority and practice of some few and then take it from one another and hold it up as a ball from hand to hand and the publicknesse of it gaines authority and interchangeably prevailes with private men to receive and embrace it it first steals or begs an entrance and when it is common and publick it reigns From hence are those noxious yet beloved errours of which men are so tender and jealous that if you do but breath against them or but look towards them with an eye which betrayes but the least dislike they presently swell and rage as against an enemy and are never at ease but in his snare who is so Proficit semper contradictio stultorum ad stultitiae demonstrationem saith Hilary the perversnesse and contradiction of weak and wilfull men is violent and impetuous to gain ground and out-run that truth which should stay and moderate it but the greatest progresse it makes in these its easie and pleasant journeys is to make it self more open and manifest like Giges wife who was seen naked of all but herself From hence have those errours crept into the Church which have lessened her number and filled her up not with members but with names from hence it is that God is made more cruell then man and yet more mercifull then he is that men are Saints and yet the Law impossible that the beginnings of obedience are set down for perfection that men are made perfect and yet sin oftner then they obey that our endeavours are performances and our weakest and most feeble thoughts are endeavours that hearing is faith and faith fancy that imputed righteousnesse is all when we have none of our own that we may be reputed good when we are notoriously evil that our election may be sure though we do not make it so and that we must assure our selves when we have more reason to despaire that assurance is a duty and to work it out is none from hence it is that Christian liberty is let loose against Christ himself and the spirit brought in to contradict it self and God to do himself what he doth command that grace is miraculous and irresistible and the will is but a word which signifies nothing or if it do it is that which cannot will All these we find in the books and
Truth and sollidity of the things themselves which is in Christ These three are all Et haec tria unum sunt and these Three are One I may say these Three Cautions and directions are but one at least drawn up and collected in this one which I have read unto you Three severall lines but meeting in this Center sicut accepist is walk in Christ as you have received him which is as a light from Heaven to direct us in our way that we be not taken by the deceit of Philosophy That we stoop not to the glory of Angels That we catch not at the shadow when we should lay hold on the substance In a word This keeps us close to Christ and his Doctrine which must not be mixed or blended either with the Law or Philosophy or that voluntary Humility and worshipping of Angels which is Idolatry As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walke in him At the very hearing of which Exhortation I know every man will say That it is good and wholsome counsell well fitted and apply'd by Saint Paul to the errors and distempers of that Church to which he writ but not so proper nor applyable to ours For so farr are we from being ensnared with Philosophy that we see too many ready to renounce both their sense and reason to be lesse then men nay to be inferior to the beasts neither to discourse nor see not to see what they see nor to know what they cannot be ignorant of that they may be Christians as if Christ came to put out our eyes and abolish our Reason And for voluntary worship there is no feare of that in them who will scarce acknowledge any Obligation and can with ease turne a Law into a Promise will that profane person ever stoop to an Angel who is thus familiar with God himself And the Law it goes for a Letter a Title and no more for Ceremonies they were but shadows but are now monsters Christ in appearance left us two and but two and some have dealt with them as they used to do with monsters exposed them to scorne and flung them out so that this Counsell now in respect of us will not appeare as an Apple of Gold with Pictures of silver Prov. 25.31 but may seem to be quite out of its place and Season But yet let us view it once again and we shall find that it is a generall Prescript looking forward and applyable to every Age of the Church an Antidote against all Errors and deviations and if we take it as we should will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look round upon all and either prevent or purge out all error whatsoever For though our errors be not the same with theirs yet they may proceed from the same ground and be as dangerous or worse peradventure we may bee in no danger of Philosophy but we may be of our selves and our self-love may more ensnare us then their subtilties can doe wee may be too stiff to bow to an Angel but our eyes may dazle at the Power and excellency of men and wee may be carried about from Doctrine to Doctrine from error to error with every breath of theirs as with a mighty wind and though we stand out against the Glory of an Angel yet we may fall down and miscarry by the example of a mortall man in a word we may defy all Ceremonies and yet worship our own imaginations which may be lesse significant then they Let us then as the Apostle elsewhere speaks suffer this word of Exhortation let us view and handle this Word of Life and it will present us with these two things 1. A Christian mans Duty in these words Ambulate in Christo walk in Christ Secondly The Rule by which we must regulate our motion and be directed in our walk sicu◠accepistis we must so walk in Him as we have received him which two stand in flat opposition to two maine Errors of our life For either we receive Christ and not walke in him or walke in him but not with a Sicut not as we have received him Of these in their order As you have received c. In the handling of the first we shall point and levell our discourse at these two particulars 1. Shew you That Christianity is not a lazy idle Profession a sitting still or standing a speculation but a walke 2ly Wherein this walke or motion principally consists And first we find no word so expressive no word more commonly used in holy Writ then this To walke with God Gen. 16. To walk before God Gen. 24.40 to walke by Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 To walke in good Works Ephes 2. and in divers other places For indeed in this one word in this one syllable in contained the whole matter the end and summe of all All that can be brought in to make up the perfect man in Christ Jesus For first This brings forth a Christian like a Pilgrim a Traveller forgetting what is behind and weary of the place he stands in counting those few approaches he hath made as nothing ever panting and striving gaining ground and pressing forward to a higher degree to a better place As there is motus ad perfectionem a motion to persection so there is motus in perfectione a motion and progresse even in perfection it self the good Christian being ever perfect and never perfect till he come to his journeys end Secondly It takes within its compasse all those essentiall requisites to action 1. It supposeth faculty to discover the way 2ly A power to act and move in it 3ly Will which is nothing else but principium actionis as Tert. calls the beginning of all motion the Imperiall power which as Queen commands and gives act to the understanding senses Affections and those faculties which are subject to it And besides this to walke implies those outward and adventitious helps Knowledge in the understanding and love in the Will which are as this Pilgrims staffe to guide and uphold him in his way his knowledge is as the day to him to walke as in the Day and his Love makes his journey shorter though it be through the wildernesse of this world to a City not made with hands nor seen For faculty without knowledge Hebr. 11. is like Polyphemus a body with power to move but without eye-sight to direct and therefore cannot chuse but offend and move amisse and faculty and knowledge without love and desire are but like a Body which wanting nourishment hath no sense of hunger to make it call for it and therefore cannot but bring leanness into the soul For be our naturall faculty and ability what it will yet if we know not our way we shall no more walk in it then the Traveller sound of body and limbe can goe the way aright of which he is utterly ignorant Againe be our Abilities perfect and let our knowledge be absolute yet if we want a mind and have no love if
appearance but the Heart and may account us dead for all these glories this Pageantry for all this noise which to him is but noise as the sound of their Trumpet who will not fight his battels but fall off and runne to the Enemy but as a song of Sion in a strange Land even in the midst of Babylon We read in our Books that it was a custome amongst the Romans when the Emperor was dead in honor of him to frame his image of wax and to perform to it all Ceremonies of state as if the image were the living Emperour The Senate and Ladies attended the Physitians resorted to him to feel his pulse and Doctorally resolved that he grew worse and worse and could not escape A guard watcht him Nobles saluted him his Dinner and Supper at accustomed hours was served in with water with sewing and carving and taking away His Nobles and Gentlemen waited as if he had been alive there was no Ceremony forgot which state might require Thus hath been done to a dead carcase and if we take not heed our case may be the same All our outward shewes of Churches of Sermons of Sacraments our noyse and ostentation which should be arguments of life and Antidotes against death may be no more then as funeral rites performed to a carcase to a Christian to a City whose iniquities are loathsome of an ill smelling savour to God the great company of preachers whereof every one chuseth one according to his lusts may stand about it and do their duty but as to an image of wax or a dead carcase the bread of life may be served in and divided to it by art and skill as every man fancies it may be fitted and prepared for every palate when they have no tast nor relish of it and receive no more nourishment then they that have been dead long ago Be not deceived benefits and burdens thou hast laden me daily with thy benefits saith David and burdens which if we bare not well and as we should do will grinde us to pieces All prerogatives are with conditions if the condition be not kept they turn to scorpions they either heal or kill us they either lift us up to Blisse or throw us down to destruction there is Heaven in a priviledge and there is Hell in a priviledge and we make it either to us We may starve whilest we hang on the brests of the Church we may be poisoned with Antidotes those mouthes that taught us may be opened to accuse us the many Sermons we heard may be so many Bills against us the Sacraments may condemn us the blood of Christ cry loud against us and our profession our holy profession put us to shame Hast thou been so long with me and knowest thou not me Philip saith our Saviour John 14.9 Hadst thou so good a Master and art yet to learn hast thou been so long with me and deniest thou me Peter hast thou been so long with me and yet betrayest me Judas hath Christ wrought so many works amongs us and do we go about to kill and crucifie him hath he planted Religion true Religion amongst us and do we go about to digg it up by the roots hath the Gospel sounded so long in our Eares and begot nothing but words words that are deceitful upon the Ballance words which are lies so many Sermons and so many Atheists so much Preaching and so much defrauding so many breathings and Demonstrations of love and so much malice in the house of Israel so many Courts of Justice and so much oppression so many Churches and so few Temples of the Holy Ghost what professe Religion and shame it cry it up and smother it in the noise and for a member of Christ make thy self the head of a Faction what presse on to make thy self better and make thy self worse Go up to the Temple to pray and prophane it what go to Church and there learn to pull it down why Oh Why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes Let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are That we are a house and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and murually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep death from entring in That we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves That we are his Church which is the pillar 1 Tim. 3.15 and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have his word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us we have many helps and Huge advantages and if we look up upon them and lay hold of them If we harken to his word not resist his grace if we neither Idolize not prophane his Sacraments but receive them with Reverence as they were instituted in Love If we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can nave no more Dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel Peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The introductîon to the last part And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves for if we die it is quia volumus because we will die For Look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his Dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us there are armories of weapons treasuries of wisdom shops of Physick Balm and Ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which opens its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not digg it our selves The Church exhorts instructs corrects God calls invites expostulates death it self threatens us that we may not come neer Thus are we compast about auxiliorum nube with a Cloud of helps and Advantages the Church is loud death is terrible Gods Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner and confirmd with an Oath As he lives he would not have us die and it is plain enough in his Lightning and in his Thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it and
of man whilst the stronger is left to watch work upon that part first which is easier to be seduced then the reason or will which must needs denie them admittance if they came and presented themselves in their own shape and were not first let in by the senses and Fancy and there coloured over and beautified and in this dresse sent up unto them Indeed the senses are meerly passive receive the object and no more the eye doth see and the eare hear and the hands feel and their work and office is transacted and thus if I be watchful I may see vanity and detest it I may hear blasphemy and abhor it I may touch and not be defiled but as the Prophet Jeremy speaks Death comes in at the windowes Jer. 9.21 and so by degrees enters into the palace of our mind and as the Civilians tell us possessio acquiritur etiamsi in angulo tantum ingrediamur we take possession of a house though we come but into a corner of it so through our negligence and unwarinesse many times nay most times it falls out that when the temptation hath gained an entrance at the eye or eare it presseth forward to the more retired and more active faculties and at last gains dominion over the whole man for from the senses it is transmitted to the Fancy which hath a Creating faculty to make what she pleaseth of what she list to put new forms and shapes upon objects to make gods of clay to make that delightful which in it self is grievous that desirable which is loathsome that fair and beautiful which is full of horror To-set up a Golden calf and say it as a good habentur phantasmata pro cognitis these shews and apparitions are taken for substances August lib. music c. 11. these airy phantasmes for well-grounded conclusions and the minde of man doth so apply it self unto them ut dum in his est cogitatio ea intellectu cerni arbitramur that what is but in the fancy and wrapped up in a thought is supposed to be seen by the eye of the understanding in the same shape what we think is so and with us in these our distempers opinion and knowledge are one and the same thing and this inflames and mads the affections that they forget their objects and look and run wilde another way our hatred is placed on that which we should love and our love on that which we should detest we feare that which we should embrace and we hope for that which we should feare we are angry with a Friend and well pleased with an enemy Now prophaness sounds better Hilar. in Psal 118. then a Hymne or Psalme of Thanksgiving a Fable is more welcome then the Oracles of God et blandior auri species quam hominis aut coeli aut lucis and a piece of Gold is a more glorious sight then man the Image of his Maker or the Heaven wherein he dwells or the Light it self so true is that of the Orator Quintil l. 10. c. 3. aliud agere mentem cogunt oculi by this meanes the eye diverts the mind of man from its proper work that it cannot attend and busy it self to discerne betwixt Good and evill and so watch and stand upon its Guard I call'd Tentations not only Occasions but Arguments but such Arguments which as I told you conclude not beget not knowledge but opinion prevail not with wise men but with fools who commonly for want of Circumspection entertain swallow down uncertain things for those which are certain that which is doubtful for that which is true They who have wisedome for their guide judge of things Arist Sophist Elench c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according as they are in themselves according to the Truth attempt nothing doe nothing upon Opinion or a bare appearance but before they make Choice doe weigh and examine the Object but uncautelous and unadvised men do but see and presently imbrace that which was most deformed in it self and had nothing to commend it self to them but the fucus and paint which themselves laid on Good God how friendly and familiar are we with that which pleaseth the eye and fancy Magna ista quia parvi sumus credinus Sen. Praef. ad N.Q. before the reason hath lookt upon it Take all the sinnes which we commit what better ground or Foundation have they on which they rise to that visible height then False opinion Our Ambition soares and mounts aloft with this thought as with a wing That Honor will make us as Gods Our Covetousness diggs and sweats with this assurance That Riches are the best Friend Our revenge is furious and bloody because we think That to suffer is Cowardise we runne after evills and study for a Curse for some glimpse or shew it hath of some great blessing And we doat on the earth which is fading and whose fashion passeth away for some resemblance we think it hath to Heaven and Eternity Et inambus phant asmatibus tanquam pictis epulis reficimur Aug de verâ Religi c. 51. and these vain imaginations These Dreames of Happinesse are but as a painted Banquet for as Junckets in a Picture may delight the eye but not fill the stomach so doe these sudden and weak conceptions tickle and please the fancy perhaps but bring leanness into the soul and leave it empty and poore And no marvail For when the sense is thus pleased when the fancy hath sported and plaid with that which delighted the sense the Affections grow unruly and reason is swallowed up in Victory so that God seemeth to be the enemy and the Devill a Friend bringing good news unto us and speaking pleasing Things to us such as are Musick to our eares whereas God seems to come in Thunder with Terror and command to drive us to our watch providing a knife for our throat shutting up the eye cutting off the right hand muzling up the mouth that it speake no Guile writing sad Characters upon that which our sense and Fancy had painted and drest up as Touch not Tast not Handle not Now that Temptations work thus by the sense and Enter and make their passage into the inward man is evident not onely in those grosser sinnes which turne the very soul it self into flesh nam wist a anima libidine fit Caro saith the Father for when the soul is polluted with lust it loseth its spirituality and is transubstantiated as it were into Flesh but it is seen in those which are more retired and inward to the Soul not onely in the Practice of our Life but the Errors of our Doctrin and on this ground Saint Paul puts Heresies into his black Catalogue Gal. 5.20 and numbers them amongst the works of the Flesh For if we look upon those who are the Authors and Fomentors of Error we shall find that they wilfully shut their eyes and eares against the Truth which offers it self
mens unruly lust to pace it more delicately to its end they that magnifie Gods will that they may do their own these men these spirits cannot be from God By their fruits you shall know them For their hypocrisie as well and cunningly wrought as it is is but a poor cob-web-lawn and we may easily see through it even see these spirituall men sweating and toyling for the flesh these spirits digging in the mineralls and making haste to be rich for though Gloria Patri Glory be to God on High he the Prologue to the Play for what doth an hypocrite but play yet the whole drift the businesse of every Scene and Act is to draw and conclude all in this From hence we have our gain The Angel or the Spirit speaks first and is the Prologue and Mammon and the Flesh make up the Epilogue Date manus why should not every man clap his hands surely such Roscii such nimble cunning actors deserve a plaudite By their fruits you shall know them what spirit soever they have it is not of God for nothing more contrary to the flesh than this spirit and therefore he cannot lead this way nor can he teach any thing that may flatter or countenance it there is nothing more against his nature than this fire may descend and the earth may be removed out of its place nature may change her course at the word and beck of the God of nature but this is one thing which God cannot do he cannot change himself nor can his spirit breath any doctrine forth which savours of the world of the flesh or corruption and therefore we may nay we must suspect all those doctrines and actions which are said to be the effects and products of the blessed spirit when we observe them drawn out and levelled to carnall ends and temporall respects for sure the spirit can never beat a bargain for the world and the truth of God is the most unproportioned price that can be laid out on such a purchase When I see a man rowl his eys compose his countenance order and methodize his gesture as if he were now on his death-bed to take his leave of the world when I hear him loud in Prayer and as loud in reviling the iniquity of the times when I see him startle at a misplaced word as if it were a thunder-bolt when I heare him cry as loud for a reformation as the Idolatrous Priests did upon Baal I begin to think I see an Angel in his flight and mount going up into heaven but then after all this extaticall devotion after all this zeal and in the midst of all this noyse wherein I see him stoop like the vultur and flie like lightning to the prey I cannot but say within my self Oh Lucifer son of the morning how art thou fallen from heaven how art thou brought down to the ground nay to hell it self sure I am the spirit of truth looks upward moves upward directs upward to those things which are above and if we follow him neither our doctrine nor our actions will ever savour of this dung So then we see this inconvenience and mischief which sometimes is occasioned by this doctrine of the Spirits leading is not unavoidable it is not necessary though I mistake and take the Divel for an Angel of light that the holy Ghost should be put to silence though Corah and his complices perish in their gainsayings yet God forbid that all Israel should be swallowed up on the same gulph In the third of the first of Samuel Samuel runs to Eli when the voice was Gods but was taught at last to answer Speak Lord for thy servant heareth though there be many false Prophets yet Micaiah was a true one and though there be many false Teachers come into the world yet the spirit of God is a spirit of Truth ducet nos and he shall lead us into all truth And that we may follow as he leads we must observe the wayes in which he moves for as there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of peace Luk. 1.79 so there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wayes of truth and in those wayes the spirit will lead us I may be in viis iniquitatis in the wayes of wickednesse in the wayes of the Gentiles and prophane men in viis meis in my own wayes in those wayes which my fancy and lust hath chalked out on that pinacle and height where my ambition hath placed me in that mine and pit where my coverousnesse hath buried me alive and in these I walk with my face from Jerusalem from the truth and in these he leads us not How can he learn poverty of spirit who hath no God but Mammon and knows no sin but poverty How can he be brought down to obedience and humility who with diotrephes in S. John loves to have preheminence and thinks himself nothing till he is taller than his fellowes by the head and shoulders how can he hearken to the truth who studies lies and doe we now wonder why we are not taught the truth where the Spirit keeps open school there is no wonder at all the reason why we are not taught is because we will not learn Ambition soars to the highest seat and the Spirit directs us to the ground to the lowest place the love of the world doth fill our barns and the Spirit points to the bellies of the poore as the better and safer garners my private factious humour tramples under foot obedience to superiours because I my self would be the highest and challenge that as my peculiar which I deny to others but this spirit prescribes order Doth Montanus lead about silly women and prophesy doth he call his dreames revelations Eusebius tells us that the Spirit which led him about was nothing else but an inseparable desire of precedency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 21. Tert. coat Valent c. 4. Doth Valentinus number up his Aeones and as many crimes as gods Tertullian informes us that he hoped for a Bishoprick but fell from those hopes and was disappointed by one who was raised to that dignity by the prerogative of Martyrdome and his many sufferings for the truth Doth Arrius deny the divinity of the Son read Theodoret and he will shew you Alexander in the chaire before him Theod. l. 1. c. 2. Doth Aerius deny there is any difference between a Bishop and Presbyter the reason was he was denied himself and could not be one so that he fell from a Bishoprick as Lucifer did from Heaven whose first wish was to be God and whose next was that there were no God at all From hence these stirres and tumults in the Church of Christ from hence these storms and tempests which blow and beat in her face from hence these distractions and uncertainties in Christian Religion that it is a matter of some danger but to mention it which made Nazianzen in some passion as it may seem cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
is a greater penalty and vexation than that which we undertook for its sake How many rise up early to be rich and before their day shuts up are beggers how many climb to the highest place and when they are neer it and ready to fit down fall back into a prison But in this we never faile the Spirit working with us and blessing the work of our hands making our busie and carefull thoughts as his chariot and then filling us with light such is the priviledge and prerogative of Industry such is the nature of Truth that it will be wrought out by it nor did ever any rise up early and in good earnest travell towards it but this spirit took him by the hand and brought him to his journeys end If thou seekest her as silver Prov. 2.4,5 if thou search for her as for had treasure which because it is hid we remove many things turn up much earth and labour hard that we may come to it then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God in which work our industry and the Spirits help are as it were joyned and linked together You will say perhaps that the Spirit is an omnipotent Agent and can fall suddenly upon us as he did upon the Apostles this day that he can lead us in the way of truth though we sit still though our feet be chained though we have no feet at all but the Proverb will answer you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If God will you may sail over the sea in a sieve but we must remember the Spirit leads us according to his own will nad counsel not ours that as he is an Omnipotent so he is a free Agent also and worketh and dispenceth all things according to the pleasure of his will and certainly he will not lead thee if thou wilt not follow he will not teach thee if thou wilt not learn nor can we think that the truth which must make us happy is of so easie purchase that it will be sown in any ground and as the Divels tares grow up in us Nobis dormientibus whilest we sleep The third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 method or an orderly proceeding in the wayes of truth for as in all other Arts and Sciences so in our spirituall wisdome and in the school of Christ we may not hand over head huddle up matters as we please but must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep an order and set course in our studies and proceedings our Saviour Christ hath a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 6.33 seek first the kingdome of God and in that kingdome every thing in its order there is something first and something next to be observed and every thing is to be ranked in its proper place the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us of principles of Doctrine which must be learned before we can be led forward to perfection Heb. 5.13,14 of milk and of strong meat of plainer Lessons before we reach at higher Mysteries nor can we hope to make a good Christian veluti ex luto statuam as soon as we can make a picture or a statue out of clay Most Christians are perfect too soon which is the reason that they are never perfect they are spirituall in the twinkling of an eye they know not how nor no man else they leap over all their alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or rown they study heaven but not the way to it they study faith but not good works repentance without a change or restitution Religion without order they are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool study predestination but not sanctity of life study assurance but not that piety which should work it study heaven and not grace and grace but not their duty and now no marvel if they meet not with that saving truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this so great disorder and confusion no marvel when we have broke the rules and order not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leads us into the truth The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercitation and practice of the truths we learn which is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goes under that name and is called an exercise by Clem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. l. 4. Al. Nyssen Cyril of Ilierusalem and others and though they who lead a Monasticall life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirits Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leads which is to make the world it self his monastery A good Chritian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epictet Arrian l. 3. c. 5. and by this daily exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks speak drive the truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit for as Auaxagoras said well manus causa sapientiae 't is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge Talis quisque est qualibue delectater inter artisicem artificium mira cognatio est and worketh wisdome for true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consists not in being a good Critick or in rightly judging of the sense of the words or being a good Logician in drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour in setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the son of Syrach He that hath no experience knoweth little Ecclus. 34.10 Ex mandato mandatum cernimus by practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God he shall know the Doctrine Joh. 7.17 in Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them we learn devotion by prayer charity by giving of alms meeknesse by forgiving injuries humility and patience by suffering temperance by every day fighting against our lusts as we know meat by the taste so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover heaven it self in piety and this is that which S. Paul calls knowledge according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 we taste and see how gracious the Lord is we do as it were see with our
For as the Philosopher well tells us that we are not onely beholding to those who accurately handled the points and conclusions in Philosophy but to those also and even to Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who did light upon them by chance and but glaunce upon them by allusion so may we receive instruction even from these Hypocrites who did repent tanquam aliud agentes so slightly as if they had some other matter in hand We must fast and put on sackcloth with Ahab we must hear the word with Herod we must beg the prayers of the Church with Simon Magus but finding we are yet short of a true turn we must presse forward and exactly make up this divine science that our turn may be real and in good earnest that it may be finished after his form who calls so loud after us that it may be brought about and approved to him in all sincerity and truth Thus much of the second property of Repentance The third property of our Turn It must be total and Vniversal The third is it must be poenitentia plena a total and Universal conversion a turn from all our evil wayes For if it be not total and Universal it is not true A great errour there is in our lives and the greatest part of mankinde are taken pleased and lost in it to argue and conclude à parte ad totum to take the part for the whole and from the slight forbearance of some one unlawful act from the superficial performance of some particular duty to infer and vainly arrogate to themselves a hatred to all and an universal obedience as if what Tiberius the Emperor was wont to say of his Half-eaten-meats were true of our divided our parcel and curtail'd Repentance Suet. Tiber. Cas cap. 34. Omnia eadem habere quae totum every part of it every motion and inclination to newnesse of life had as much in it as the whole body and compasse of our Obedience and there were that mutual agreement and sympathy of duties in a Christian as Physitians say there are of the parts of a living Creature the same sapor and taste in a disposition to Goodness as in a Habit of goodness The same Heat and Heartiness in a Thought as in a constant and earnest perseverance in a velleity as much activity as in a will as much in a Pharisees pale countenance as in Saint Pauls severe discipline Hippocrat de locis in Homine and mortification and as Hippocrates speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the least performance all the parts of our obedience in a meer approbation a desire in a desire a will in a leaving one evil way a turning rom all and cutting off but one limb or part the utter destruction of the whole body of sinne And therefore as if God did look down from Heaven and from thence behold the children of men and then saw how we turn'd oen from luxury to covertousnesse another from superstition to prophanesse a third from Idols to sacriledge as if he beheld us turning from one sin to another or from some great sin not another from our scandalous and not from our more Domestick Retired and speculative sins he sends forth his voice and that a mighty voice turn ye turn ye not from one by-path to another not from one sin and not another but turn ye turn ye that you need turn no more turn ye from all your evil wayes Curt. l. 6. c. 3. In corporibus aequis nihil nociturum medici relinquunt Physitians purge out all noxious humours from sick and crazy bodies and so doth our great physitian of soules sanctifie and cleanse them that he may present them to himself not having spot or wrinckle Eph. 5.26,27 or any such thing that they may be Hely and without Blemish For to turn from one sin to another from prodigality to sorditude and love of the world from extreme to extreme is to flee from a Lion to meet a Bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremities are equalities Amos 5.19 though they are extremes and distant yet in this they agree that they are extreames and though our evil wayes be never so far asunder yet in this they meet that they are evil Superstition dotes prophanesse is mad covetousnesse gathers all prodigality scatters all rash anger destroyes the innocent soolish compassion spares the guilty We need not ask which is worst when both are evil for sin and destruction lie at the door of the one as well as of the other To despise prophesying and to hear a Sermon as I would a song not to hear and to do nothng else but hear to worship the walls and to beat down a Church to be superstituious and to be prophane are extremes which we must equally turn from down with superstition on the one side and down with prophanesse on the other down with it even to the ground Because some are bad let not us be worse and make their sin a motive and inducement to us to run upon a greater because some talk of merits be afraid of good works because they vow chastity pollute our selves because they vow poverty make hast to be rich because they vow obedience speak evil of Dignities It is good to shun one rock but there is as great danger if we dash upon another Superstition hath devoured many but prophanesse is a gulph which hath swallowed up more Phod cod 77 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Photius in his censure of Theodorus Antiochenus for that which is opposite to that which is worst is not good for one evil stands in opposition to another and both at their several distance are contrary to that which is good nor can I hope to expitate one sin with another to make amends for my Oppression with my wasteful expences to satisfie for bowing to an Idol by robbing a Church for contemning a Priest by hearing a Sermon for standing in the way of sinners by running into a conventicle for I am still in the seat of the scornful this were first to make our selves worthy of death and then to run to Rome or Geneva for sanctuary first to be villaines and men of Belial and at last turn Papists or Schismaticks in both we are what we should not be nor are our sins lost in a faction this were nothing else but to think to remove one disease with another and to cure the cramp with a Fever Turn ye turn ye whither should we turn but to God In hoc motu convertit se anime adunitatem et identitatem in this motion of turning Gerson the soul strives forward through the vanities of the world through all extreames through all that is evil though the branches of it look contrary wayes to unity and Identity to that good which is ever like it self the same in every part of it and is never contrary to it self strives forward to be one with God as God is one in us and as he