were a bucket into the bottome of our hearts to taste the waters whether or no they bee still sweet and cleere and so to preserve us from relapsing or reciduation I will put my feare into their hearts that they shall not depart from me saith the Lord Ier. 32. The third thing which partakes this contrition or breaking is the will and affections O Lord create in me a cleane heart vers 10. which is as if hee had said O Lord inable me to breake my will and affections from frowardnesse and perversenesse against thy will to which I am bound by the cords of thy word will and affections these are the horse and mule that must bee hold in or broken by the bit and bridle as David speaketh yea the horse may cast his rider and himselfe stand upright still but affections indanger not the soule but by ruining themselves as Pharaohs horse and the riders also were drowned in the red sea affections these are the intestine foes the Jebusites which fight still within our borders yea which rush in upon us oft times amidst our best devotions S. Hierom in the wildernesse among all his mortifications had enough to doe to breake them and S. Basil complaines that when hee had forsaken the societie of men he could not forsake his owne affections his owne heart haunted him and pursued him still But Ismael the sonne of Agar the bond-woman when he would be oppressing the sonne of the free he was thrust out of Abrahams house The Father of the faithfull gives us even in this a patterne namely that we breake with those affections which hinder our holy purposes that wee banish them and binde them to their obedience and good behaviour and this it is to sacrifice our affections or to separate them to the Lord when wee set them apart from their old excesses and this is Sacrificium vivum as the Apostle cals it the living sacrifice of a broken heart or affection a sacrifice that liveth the better after it is offered Beloved as in a common fire when the flames take hold of our houses we instantly run to the rivers to the water to quench it so our hearts within our affections naturally being set on fire with hell as S. Iames speaketh what should we doe but flye to the river of contrition and repentance This Red sea of remorsefull sorrow our spirituall Pharaoh drownes in it with all his armies of vicious lusts here they perish together And as in a common siege when the enemies reares up workes or edifices to the wals of a Citie and from thence shoots and hurles fire into it a chiefe remedy is to dig secret wayes and passages for water under the earth unto those fabricks that so their foundation may weaken fall so a tower of Babel of inordinate affections being set up against our soule and therein the Archers of Satan Pride Lust Avarice and the like shooting the fire of sin into our hearts let us with the Magdalene derive thither even thorow the secret veines of our hearts flouds of contrition and repentance for this shakes the verie ground-worke of Satans holds the gates of the rivers shall be opened and the palace shall be dissolved that I may speake in the words of the Prophet Nahum 2.6 O poenitentiae lachryma rutulantior auro splendidior Sole saith Anselme O Contrition more radiant than gold more shining than the Sun respicis avaritiam horres luxuriam and so forth thou hatest covetousnesse thou abhorrest luxurie thou breakest the power and yoke of evill affections Thou art the axe laid to the root of the heart thou art the Catholicon the universall medicine that workes upon everie peccant humour thou makest us ready to part with all bad desires in obedience to the Lords command for this godly contrition is a distaste of sin as sin and so it is impartiall against whatsoever comes as a transgression against God I have refrained my feet from everie evill way that I may keepe thy word Psal 119.101 Worldly sorrow hideth our ill affections restraineth open breakings out and that 's all Like the cold aire it doth but drive the disease of sin inward Abscondit vitia non abscindit But godly sorrow or contrition enters and searches it cancels and sacrifices the evill that is in our most covert and retired inclining and withall it cals out repentance it is not content to sigh in secret it cals the heart the affection into the eye to weepe for sinne with S. Peter and into the mouth to confesse it with King David yea and into the hands to break it off by good workes the offices of pietie and pitie Poros aperit cordis saith S. Gregorie And the contrite affection is of all the openest the easiest to commiserate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so well it is acquainted with its owne evill that who is ill affected with sinne and miserie that melts not And so respective is it to Gods ire and displeasure which it hath weighed and tasted that the least symptome or signe of it upon it selfe or others dissolves it into feare and trembling and this is the circumcision of the heart the breaking or contrition of the will and affections Fourthly to summe up all together the heart meaneth no lesse here than the soule complete or quite thorow Contriti cordis holocaustum saith S. Cyprian The perfect heart Psal 101. Not perfection in everie part but perfection of all the parts Integritas animi Create in me a cleane heart saith David before as in the first creation God made man perfect in all members and parts so in the second in regeneration it is a new birth or breaking of all the powers of the soule in some good measure and say not thou art contrite or renued in the eye of the soule in thy understanding and conscience unlesse it goe also to thy bowels to thy will and affections the good heart is a broken but not a divided heart their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty Hos 10.2 the Lord liketh not to have his right parted with the naturall mother he will part with his right rather reason must become a captive and conscience an accuser will and affections flexible and laid downe at the feet of the Lord the heart contrite is the soule affected throughly the word signifieth a grinding to powder as of the corne betweene the milstones And great reason and ground is there for this the Lord besides his law delivered on the mount made us in Eden a new and everlasting covenant even that his holy sonne the essentiall image of his person should come in our nature by the price of redemption paid in his bloud to reconcile us to God so did the mighty God make a holy and speciall league with his mortall foe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle meerely for the good pleasure of his grace and bound himselfe by as free promise to make the faithfull his Church a joynture of all
is not that which delights the Lord or profits us yea if there be no heart no soule in it it is a shining sinne it is abominable as if we blest an Idoll as if a Jew had offered swines bloud The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord Pro. 21.27 But a cup of cold water saith our Saviour and the least sparke of zeale out of a true heart though mixt with much infirmity yet goeth not away unregarded this when the widow good soule came in with her mite the Lord calls his disciples to see as in admiration of her bounty and David here upon Nathans rebuke a contrite sinner presents the Lord with his offering even such he had a broken heart and goeth away well perswaded or satisfied concerning Gods acceptance O God thou wilt not despise You may see there is a double use of that I am to say First Preparatory like the Lords Epistle to the Church of Laodicea that the luke-warme indifferent Christian who sayes he is rich and needs nothing may see he is poore indeed and so become poore in spirit Secondly Principall like the other Epistle of comfort to the Church of Smyrna a Church of a broken heart we see and much humbled but very rich therefore according to the grace of Gods acceptation Now two things were of great regard in the legall sacrifices or oblations the subject and the manner a lambe or a dove there is the thing and both without blemish not the refuse not the reversion there is the quality The burden of the word of the Lord came downe against Iudah because the table was come into contempt and if you offer the blinde saith he for sacrifice is it not evill and if you offer the lame and sicke is it not evill carry these to your Prince and can he be pleased with you and can he accept your persons saith the Lord of hosts Malac. 1. The greatest man alive let him come to the Table of the Lord to receive of his visible and invisible word with an unwasht irreverent and dead heart and the very Sacrament and word he taketh are his judgements for not discerning and because of his contempt wherefore King David offereth like himselfe that is according to Gods owne heart First for the materialls his heart Secondly for the forme and qualification his heart broken and contrite That very Caruncula that little flesh or part of the body the heart some from the triangular figure of that observe a seat and receptacle not of the round world but of the blessed Trinity yea and some gather this same doctrine from the letters of the word Cor. But the heart it meaneth more spiritually and first the understanding in which Saint Paul saith Cor excaecatum a blinded heart Rom. 1. And David sayes The foole hath said in his heart in corde suo that is in his unhallowed unbroken understanding Secondly the heart is the conscience so Davids heart smote him Thirdly it is the desiring part of the soule Quid est cor tuum nisi voluntas tua saith Saint Bernard Love the Lord with all thy heart and out of the abundance of the heart c. Vbi thesaurus ibi cor our affections our wills live with our treasure Vbi ancant non ubi animant Fourthly the heart is the complete soule quite through With the heart we beleeve Rom. 1. with the act of the understanding conceiving and with the armes of the will and affiance consenting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 15. God which searcheth the heart that is the thoughts the conscience the affections the whole depth of the soule a thing which neither the sight of man can reach nor the law of man can censure This is the subject of Davids sacrifice the matter but without forme and void as it was in the beginning the manner or information the due trimming to the Lords Altar followes in these words Broken and conâ—rite and to take them and apply them to the subject in order First the understanding yea Nathan uses this method with David by the parable of the Ewe lambe 2 Sam. 12. First of all he convinces the judgement breaketh that maketh David plyable to understand himselfe for the judgement unbroken approves of sinne thus David makes no matter of numbring the people so did pride hood-winke reason upon his confession he confesses he did very foolishly or without any true understanding S. Paul so understood as if he did well to persecute the saith of Christ but upon his repentance his judgement altered I did it ignorantly saith he and I am the least of the Apostles not worthy to be so called yea an abortive or one borne out of time because I did persecute the Church of God Surely the reason why wee so rarely repent in truth is because we allow sinne in our judgement our minde dislikes it not and we have no apprehension of the danger of it that it is so deadly and therefore we refuse the Physicke of contrition because we conceive that as a thing more than needs we consider not that God is as well just as mercifull and cannot possibly be served without repentance and therefore this holy informing it deales first at the understanding as in the case of comfort namely against the feares of death faith cheeres up the heart by meditation or minding it of the blessed promises that the judgement rectified and made to understand death inwardly as it is without the larvae the shapes it appeareth in to ignorants and Infidels we may be so resolved and setled and not to be amazed for death even so in the case of renovation the Lord alters and breaks the imaginations of the heart first of all layeth open to our eye the heinousnesse of our sinfull estate in generall and then commeth home to us that we relent in particular Yea contrition giveth the minde the understanding a right reflection that it sees it selfe rightly without the vaile and scales of superficiall proud blinde Science The contrite heart feeleth how heavy the wings of depraved reason are and how it hovers like Noahs Raven Super profundum sine fundo and like the earth receives the light onely in superficie in the surface of it and in things divine how it builds rather upon negation to know what the truth is not than what it is how uncapable yea averse it is since the fall from the right scanning of truth that the very Philosophers the best or wisest heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh They became vaine in their imaginations of God Rom. 1. and indeed the naturall man judgeth of divine truths but according to his owne senses receives no more in religion than he can shew reason for not reason of the word or divine authority but reason of nature or demonstration So the things of God which are spiritually discerned or with a contrite eye carry a kinde of contrariety to him and the undoubted knowledge or perswasion of Gods
God it is a certaine secret feeling or knowledge of our deeds which leaveth behinde it or imprints the motions of joy or sorrow hope or feare confidence or shame it is an inward key which unlocketh and openeth the doores and barres of our hearts that the grieved spirit commeth forth like good Lot out of the house of sinne and sayes to the man of Sodome O deale not so wickedly Now as the great Turke permits every one to live in his owne religion so they pay him in his tribute so the conscience hardned or seared permits the appetites to their pleasure so it may partake it neglects the soule to please the sense it prevaricates and willfully suppresses the true verdict or testimonie and is idle and doth not its office but luls us asleepe in our sinne and layes the raines on the necks of our wilde and untamed lusts Cor dilatatum a spacious loose heart a Chiverell conscience and indeed when the minde is in meere darknesse as in the state of unregeneration or when it is overflowed or dimmed with the dampe of some temptation or wasting sinne as it may befall the godly no marvell then if this particular knowledge bee darkenesse too and our inward thoughts cease from their accusing for a season for the soule it hath not now an actuall or exercised sense and light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh to discerne the proportions of good and evill being possessed with a spirit of slumber in any measure so farre it is no rightfull Judge no more than the blinde man is of colours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conscience without science a heart like Nabals benum'd and senslesse And the manner or growth of it is thus Originall sinne sends out actuall and they leave a straine a disposition to sinne so againe and sinning so againe slight impressions of evill become radicate and habituall till the callum the crust deadnesse or security in sinne comes over the soule the buds of infirmity steale to the twigs of negligence and they to the tyranny of custome and then audacious and grand sinnes plead prescription and like a stout tenant take no warning and this is nervus ferreus the iron sinew the heart of adamant When Camels grosse sinnes passe and digest without remorse and this our Church in her Letany deprecates most Christianly From hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy word and commandements good Lord deliver us Now the contrite conscience is the very contrary and that it may have its beginning thus as Ioab would not be moved to come to Absalom till his fields were set on fire so we oft-times we have no heart no perceiving of our estate towards God till affliction like fire ceaseth upon us till with Manasses our chaine or with Hezekiah our bed of sicknesse or with Mauritius death of wife and children rouze and startle us and wring forth a holy confession Iustus est Deus justa sunt judicia ejus For thus the good Shepherd oft-times sends after his sheepe poverty persecution sicknesse and the like to hurry them backe when they goe astray from him and the heart indeed the conscience is in a very ill case which ffliction cannot mollifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the Apostle Heb. 5.8 the sonnes of God learne obedience by the things they suffer and for this wee may learne to take well the Lords castigations kisse the rod as often as it betides us Againe we must not thinke much to wait at the posts of Gods house continually to listen as David did to his word in the mouth of Nathan his word in the ministery of it God useth to blesse it and to put forth his spirit with it that with David our heart smiteth us we tremble with Foelix we melt with Iosiah we are pierced to the quicke like those thousands at S. Peters Sermon and we are rifled and convinced in our consciences like those in the 1 Cor. 14. Without the Law sin is dead Rom. 7. It is not acknowledged the word is Gladius Domini the sword of the Lord Heb. 4. It opens our sinnes to our eyes and Malleus Domini the Lords hammer to breake our stony heart Ierem. 23. Wherefore Moses and Aaron being called by the Lord in the wildernesse before the burning mount he commanded them his word and Law not to be supprest in secrecie but to be pitched up in the eye of all the world even that the presumptuous heart might looke on it as Christ did on Hierusalem with weeping eyes to see how short he comes of that hee should and that the dissembling heart might have his paintings and colours his faces of sanctitie thawed all by the fire of Gods justice The Word of the Lord is spirit and life a sacred perspective it is wee may behold in it our sins of thought desire and deed and thereupon see how the host of heaven with chariots of fire march in array ready prest to charge the curse of God how ready it is to light on us A sight for which Davids heart becommeth so intenerate that hee a King commits a Psalme to bee sung here in the Church wherein his owne capitall sins should be blazed to all posteritie by his owne confession a sight for which S. Austen needs would that this verie Psalme should bee set over his bed night and day that with teares hee might read over his transgressions a roll wherof he hath left in his owne Confessions which is admirable to the Reader And Conscience indeed is a sleeping Lion it will awaken in the evill houre we shall finde it our owne heart then seeks occasions against us as Iob speakes and let not him thinke who hath not yet the sting of his sinne that he hath not offended it watches the conscience till the time of most advantage but the Lord by this conscience of sinne awakens those to life that are his by this sensiblenesse or accusing of the heart he doth much in our calling to grace and in our continuing in it for the contrite or wounded conscience dealeth not with our evill motions as Darius did with Alexander suffer them to passe or come over the heart as he did the Hellespont till they beare all before them but like Pharaoh that killed the infants of Israel lest they should overgrow his Countrey So the truly broken and tender heart growes daily verie conscientious of everie the least sin and taketh care therefore of the serpents in the shell Allidere parvulos ad petram to crush the verie occasions of sin and with S. Paul it shaketh of the vipers from the fingers ends at the first motion of evill lest suggestion beget delight and that multiply from action into custome like the fish that swim downe the streames of Jordan in mare mortuum into the dead sea Yea and in the midst of all our prosperities pleasures it is the qualitie of a contrite conscience ever and anon to send us downe an holy feare as it