Christ and resolution in his quarrel he gave an evident testimony when he protested himself ready to lay down his life for him Greater love then this in the Apostles judgment no man hath then to lay down his life for his freind This St. Peter had if we may beleive himself yea he began to express some acts of it when in defence of his Master he manfully drew his sword and wounded the servant of the high Preist But see how soon the scene is changed This good Champion of our Saviour as a Lion that is reported to be daunted with the crowing of a Cock is stricken out of countenance and quite amazed with the voice of a silly Damsel yea so far is he possess'd with a spirit of fear that he not onely denies but abjures his Master and perjures himself committing a sin not far behind the sin of Iudas yea treading it hard upon the heels But the mercy of God that leaves not the honour of his servant in the dust of death but is evermore careful to raise us up from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness suffers not this Rock this great Pillar of his Church to be overthrown He first admonishes him by the crowing of a Cock when that would not serve himself full of careful love and goodness though in the midst of his enemies forgets his own danger and remembers the danger of his servant Himself was now as a sheep before the shearer dumb and not opening his mouth yet forgets he not that he is that great Shepherd of the flock but David like rescues one of his fold from the mouth of the Lion and from the paw of the Bear He turns about and looks upon him saith the Text he cries louder unto him with his look then the Cock could with his voice Of all the members in the body the Eye is the most moving part that oft-times is spoken in a look which by no force of speech could have been uttered this look of Christ did so warm St. Peter almost frozen-dead with fear that it made him well-near melt into tears As if he had cried out with the Spouse Cant. vi O turn away thine eyes for they have overcome me he grows impatient of his looks and seeks for a place to weep what a look was this think you St. Ierom discoursing with himself what might be the cause that many of the Disciples when they were called by our Saviour presently without further consultation arose and followed him thinks it not improbable that there did appear some Glory and Majesty in his Countenance which made them beleive he was more then a man that thus bespake them whatsoever then appear'd in his looks doubtless in this look of his was seen some Sovereign power of his Deity that could so speedily recover a man thus almost desperately gone A man that had one foot in hell whom one step more had irrecoverably cast away It was this look of Christ that restored St. Peter Quos respicit Iesus plorant delictum saith St. Ambrose They weep for their sins whom Iesus looks upon Negavit primo Petrus non flevit quia non respexerat Dominus Negavit secundo non flevit quia adhuc non respexerat Dominus Negavit tertio respexit Iesus ille amarissime flevit St. Peter denies him once and repents not for Iesus look'd not back upon him he denies him the second time and yet he weeps not for yet the Lord look'd not back He denies him the third time and Iesus looks upon him and then he weeps bitterly Before I come to make use of this it shall not be altogether impertinent to say something unto some Queries that here arise concerning the condition of St. Peter and in him of all the Elect of God whilst they are in a state of sin unrepented of for as for St. Peter's faith which some make doubt of there can as I conceive no question be made It is not to be thought that St. Peter had revers'd with himself the confession that he had formerly made of Christ or that he thought doubtless I have err'd this is not the person whom I took him to be Indeed through fear and cowardize he durst not confess that with his mouth unto salvation which in his heart he beleived unto righteousness Any thing further then this that speech of our Saviour takes away wherein he tells him before-hand I have pray'd that thy faith might not fail But since our Age hath had experience of some who because the Election of God standeth sure and Christ's sheep none can take out of his hands conclude therefore that for the Elect of God there is no falling from grace that to David and Peter no ill could happen no though for so they have given it out that they had died in the very act of their sin To meet with such disputants I will breifly lay down what I conceive is to be thought in the point Wherefore parate fauces pani as St. Bernard speaks Hitherto I have given you milk provide your stomacks now for harder meat and such as befits strong men in Christ. Peter and Iudas for I will couple them both together in my discourse whilst they are both joyned together in sin Peter I say and Iudas in regard of their own persons were both more or less in the same case both fallen from grace both in a state of sin and damnation till the Repentance of St. Peter altered the case on his part But the Grace of God signified two things either the purpose of God's Election the Grace and Favour Inherent in the Person of God which he still casts upon those that are his notwithstanding their manifold backslidings or else it signifies the habit of sanctifying qualities Inherent in the Regenerate man those good Graces of God by which he walks holy and unblameable Again the state of Damnation signifies likewise two things either the purpose of Gods Reprobation or else the habit of damnable qualities in the sinful man From the state of Grace as it signifies the purpose of God to save the Elect can never fall In the state of Damnation as it signifies something inherent in us every man by nature is and the Elect of God even after their Calling many times fall into it that is they may and do many times fall into those sins yea for a time continue in them too David did so for a whole years space which except they be done away by repentance inevitably bring forth eternal death for the state of mortal sin unrepented of is truly and indeed the state of death yea the whole and sole reason of the condemnation of every one that perishes for Christ hath said it Except ye repent ye shall all perish So then you see that into the state of Damnation as it signifieth something inherent in us a man may fall and yet not fall from the state of grace as it signifies God's purpose of Election
fidelity and trustiness of Gods servants faithfully accomplishing the will of our Master is required as a part of our Christian Faith Now all those good things which moral men by the light of Nature do are a part of Gods will written in their hearts wherefore so far as they were conscientious in performing them if Salvianus his reason be good so far have they title and interest in our Faith And therefore Regulus that famous Roman when he endured infinite torments rather then he would break his Oath may thus far be counted a Martyr and witness for the truth For the Crown of Martyrdom sits not onely on the heads of those who have lost their lives rather then they would cease to profess the Name of Christ but on the head of every one that suffers for the testimony of a good conscience and for righteousness sake And here I cannot pass by one very general gross mistaking of our Age. For in our discourses concerning the Notes of a Christian man by what Signes we may know a man to be one of the visible company of Christ we have so tied our selves to this outward profession that if we know no other vertue in a man but that he hath Cond his Creed by heart let his life be never so profane we think it argument enough for us to account him within the Pale and Circuit of the Church on the contrary side let his life be never so upright if either he be little seen in or peradventure quite ignorant of the Mystery of Christ we esteem of him but as dead and those who conceive well of those moral good things as of some tokens giving hope of life we account but as a kind of Maâ—ichecs who thought the very Earth had life in it I must confess that I have not yet made that proficiency in the Schools of our Age as that I could see why the Second Table and the Acts of it are not as properly the parts of Religion and Christianity as the Acts and Observations of the first If I mistake then it is St. Iames that hath abus'd me for he describing Religion by its proper Acts tells us that True Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is To visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world So that the thing which in an especial refine Dialect of the new Christian Language signifies nothing but Morality and Civility that in the Language of the Holy Ghost imports true Religion Wherefore any difference that the holy Ghost makes notwithstanding the man of vertuous dispositions though ignorant of the Mystery of Christ be it Fabricius or Regulus or any ancient Heathen man famous for sincerity and uprightness of carriage hath as sure a claim and interest in the Church of Christ as the man deepest skill'd in most certainly believing and openly professing all that is written in the holy Books of God if he endeavour not to shew his faith by his works The Antients therefore where they found this kind of men gladly received them and converst familiarly with them as appears by the friendly entercourse of Epistles of S. Basil with Libanius of Nazianzen and Austin with sundry others and Antiquity hath either left us true or forged us false Epistles betwixt S. Paul himself and Seneca Now as for the admitting of any of these men to the discussing of the doubts in our Religioâ—s Mysteries who either know not or peradventure contemn them there needs not much be said by a Canon of one of the Councels of Carthage it appears it had sometimes been the erroneous practise of some Christians to Baptize the dead and to put the Sacrament of Christs Body into their mouths Since we have confest these men to be in a sort dead as having no supernatural quickening grace from above to put into their hands the handling of the word of life at all much more of discussing of the doubtful things in it were nothing else but to Baptize a carcase and put the Communion bread into the mouth of the dead Wherefore leaving this kind of weak person to your courteous acceptance Let us consider of another one quite contrary to the former a true Professor but a man of prophane and wicked life one more dangerously ill then the former have we any Recipe for this man May seem for him there is no Balm in Gilead he seems like unto the Leper in the Law unto whom no man might draw near And by so much the more dangerous is his case because the condition of conversing with Heathen men be they never so wicked is permitted unto Christians by our Apostle himself whereas with this man all commerce seems by the same Apostle to be quite cut off For in the 1 Cor. 6. St. Paul having forbidden them formerly all manner of conversing with Fornicators infamous persons and men subject to grievous crimes and considering at length how impossible this was because of the Gentiles with whom they lived and amongst whom necessarily they were to converse and trade he distinguishes between the fornicators of this world and the fornicators which were Brethren I meant not saith the blessed Apostle expounding himself that ye should not admit of the fornicators of this world that is such as were Gentiles for then must ye have sought a new world So great and general a liberty at that time had the world assumed for the practise of that sin of Fornication that strictly to have forbidden them the company of fornicatours had almost been to have excluded them the society of mankind But saith he If a brother be a fornicatour or a thief or a railer with such a one partake not no not so much as to eat Wherefore the case of this person seems to be desperate for he is not onely mortally sick but is bereft of all help of the Physician Yet notwithstanding all this we may not give him over for gone for when we have well search'd our boxes we shall find a Recipe even for him too Think we that our Apostles meaning was that we should acquaint our selves onely with the good and not the bad as Physicians in the time of Pestilence look onely to the sound and shun the diseas'd Our Saviour Christ familiarly converst eat and drank with Publicanes and sinners and gives the reason of it because he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Is Christ contrary to Paul This reason of our Saviour concerns every one on whom the duty of saving of Souls doth rest It is the main drift of his message and unavoidably he is to converse yea eat and drink with all sorts of sinners even because he is to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance Necessary it is that some means be left to reclaim notorious offenders let their disease be never so dangerous Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certe nihil tentare perditio est Who
death and hell you shall in these words find nothing pertinent But if you take this Resurrection for that act by which through the power of saving grace Christ the Sun of righteousness rises in our hearts and raises us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness here in these words you may perchance find a notable branch of it For to raise our thoughts from this earth and clay and from things beneath and such are those which here Abraham calls The good things of our life and to set them above where Christ sits at the right hand of God this is that practick Resurrection which above all concerns us that other of Christ in Person in regard of us is but a Resurrection in speculation for to him that is dead in sin and trespasses and who places his good in the things of this life Christ is as it were not risen at all to such a one he is still in the grave and under the bands of death But to him that is risen with Christ and seeks that good things that are above to him alone is Christ risen To know and beleive perfectly the whole story of Christ's Resurrection what were it if we did not practise this Resurrection of our own Cogita non exacturum à te Deum quantum cognovâ—ris sed quantum vixeris God will not reckon with thee how much thou knowest but how well thou hast lived Epictetus that great Philosopher makes this pretty Parable Should a Shepherd saith he call his sheep to account how they had profited would he like of that sheep which brought before him his hay his grass and fodder or rather that sheep which having well digested all these exprest himself in fat in flesh and wooll Beloved you are the flock of Christ and the sheep of his hands should the great Shepherd of the flock call you before him to see how you have profited would he content himself with this that you had well Con'd your Catechism that you had diligently read the Gospel and exactly knew the whole story of the Resurrection would it not give him better satisfaction to find Christ's Resurrection exprest in yours and as it were digested into flesh and wooll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have read Chrysippus his Book this is not virtue To have read the Gospel to have gathered all the circumstances of the Resurrection of Christ this is not Christianity to have risen as Christ hath done so to have digested the Resurrection of Christ as that we have made it our own this is rightly to understand the Doctrine of the Resurrection of Christ. For this cause have I refused to treat this day of that Resurrection in the Doctrine of which I know you are perfect and have reflected on that in the knowledge of which I fear you are imperfect which that I might the better do I have made choice to prosecute my former Meditations begun when I last spake unto you in this place For so doing I shall open unto you one of the hardest points of your Spiritual Resurrection even to raise your thoughts from the things of this life and seat them with Christ above To make my way more fair to this I will take leave to put you in mind in short how I proceeded in the opening of these words when I last spake unto you out of this place You may be pleased to remember that after some instruction drawn from the first word Son I proceeded to consider the ensuing words wherein having by an Alchimy which then I used changed the word Recordare Remember into Cave Beware and so read my Text thus Beware thou receive not thy good things in this life I shewed you that we had never greater cause to consult our best wits what we are to do and how we are to carry our selves then when the world and outward blessings come upon us Upon this I moved this Question Whether or no if the things of this world should by some providence of God knock and offer themselves to us we are bound to exclude them and refuse them or we might open and admit of them I divided my answer according to the divers abilities and strengths of men First Qui potest capere capiat he that hath strength and spiritual wisdom to manage them let him receive them But in the second place he that is weak let him let strong diet alone and feed on herbs let him not intangle himself with more then he can manage Let him try Quid ferre recusent Quid valeant humeri To the first the sum of what I spake was this Receive them we may and that without danger of a Recepisti first if we so received them as if we received them not secondly if we esteemed them not good thirdly if we did not esteem them ours And here the time cut me off and suffered me not to descend unto the second part upon which now I am about to fall Cave ne recipias Take heed thou receive not thy good things In this matter of Receiving and entertaining these outward and foreign good things there have been two ways commended to you the one the more glorious to receive them of this we have spoken The other the more safe not to receive them of this we are now to speak These ways are trodden by two kinds of persons the one is the strong man and more virtuous the other is weaker but more cautelous the one encounters temptation the other avoids it We may compare them to the two great Captains Hannibal and Fabius the one ever calling for the battel the other evermore declining it In one of these two ranks must every good man be found if we compare them together we shall find that the one is far more excellent the other far more in number For to be able to meet and check our enemy to encounter occasions to act our parts in common life upon the common stage and yet to keep our uprightness this indeed is truly to live truly to serve God and men and therefore God the more because men On the contrary to avoid occasions to follow that other vincendi genus non pugnare to overcome the world by contemning and avoiding it this argues a wise indeed but a weak and fainting spirit I have often wondred at Antiquity which doting extremely upon a sequestred a solitary retired and Monkish life sticks not to give out that all perfection is in it whereas indeed there is no greater argument of imperfection in good men quam non posse pati solem non multitudinem not to be able without offence to walk the publick ways to entertain the common occasions but to live onely to God and to themselves Vtilis ipse sibi fortassis inutilis orbi Men of no great publick use but excellent for themselves Saints indeed in private but being called forth into common life are like Batts in the Sun utterly ignorant of publick practise like Scheubelius a great
that by reason of their calling they debar themselves of many the thriving Arts of the world it must needs be that if riches do come upon them that God himself doth extraordinarily pour them on Wherefore good men must not consider how much or how little it is they have but the means by which it comes unto them All the Prophets and Apostles which were hungry had not that offer which St. Peter had all kind of flesh let down from heaven and free choice to eat of what they listed When Daniel was in Babylon in the Lions Den God sends his Angel into Iewry takes a Prophet by the hair of the head carries him into Babylon and all to carry but a mess of pottage for Daniel's dinner Daniel's fare is meaner then St. Peter's but the miracle is as great and the care of God is the same The righteous man that hath much is as St. Peter he that hath least is as Daniel the word and promise of God is alike made good unto them both And thus much of these two Errours of which the due avoiding shall keep us from mistaking of those promises and charging God foolishly Now because much of that which we have formerly spoken was spent in proving that God doth force the world many times even in a very eminent sort to serve the necessities and purposes of those that are his yet since ordinarily the case of good men in the things of this world is meaner then that of the world's children their riches are many times small if they be any at all and promotion looks little after them That we may a little the better content our selves and know in what case we stand give me leave to shew you how it comes about that the wicked though they have no promise yet have a larger portion in the world's blessings then the godly Where it shall appear that it cannot otherwise be except it should please God to alter the ordinary course of the world The first cause therefore that the sons of this world thus usually climb aloft above the sons of God and nest themselves in the tallest Cedars is their infinite and importunate Ambition From this root hath sprung forth both that infinite mass of wealth which private men and that boundless compass of Government which great princes have attain'd unto Nothing was ever more unjust then the raising of these great Kingdoms and if the Laws of equity and moderation might have taken place they had never been St. Austin saw no difference between the Roman Empire and Spartacus his conspiracy onely the one lasted a little longer and this makes no difference in the thing it self And hence it is that God gave limits and bounds unto the Kingdom which his people had and having poured out the vials of his wrath upon the usurping people that held the Land of promise from them to whom it was due he permitted not the Iews to grate too much upon the bordering Nations And this is the reason why the Iews that in all other respects went side by side or rather before the rest of the world onely in latitude of Kingdom yeilded to the Monarchs of the earth For the one made the will of God the other their own ambition the measure of their desires The most moderate and wisest kind of men are many times slowest in giving entertainment to these great thoughts of heart In Iotham's parable in the Book of Iudges where the Trees go forth to chuse a King the Olive would not leave his fatness nor the Vine his fruit nor the Fig-tree his sweetness no not for a Kingdom Onely the Brier the basest of all shrubs no sooner had the Trees made the motion to him but he is very apprehensive of it and thinks himself a goodly creature fit to make a King of Sober men who best understand the nature of business know well how great a charge extraordinary wealth◠and places of Authority bring with them There is none so poor but hath his time to make an account of were there nothing but this what a sum would this amount unto Add unto these our Words unto Words Actions unto all these Wealth and Ability and last of all Honour and Authority how do each of these successively like places in Arithmetick infinitely increase the sum of our accounts No marvel then if wise and considerate men are slow in tasking themselves so heavily and rather content themselves quietly at home Let the world go well or ill so it be not long of them The second thing that makes them come on in the world is their spacious wide and unlimited conscience which can enlarge it self to the swallowing of any means that bring gain and preferment with them he that once hath cauterized and seared his conscience and put on a resolution to gain by all occasions must needs quickly grow rich But good men are evermore shie and scrupulous what they do though there be no apparent occasion Evil is of a slie insinuating nature it will creep in at every little passage all the care and wariness we can possibly use to prevent it is too little When David had cut off the lap of Saul's garment the Scripture tells us that his heart smote him because he had done this thing I have often wondred with my self what it was that in an action so innocent and harmless done with so hohourable intent onely to bring a testimony of his innocency and righteousness might thus importunately trouble his conscience He intended no wrong unto Saul not so much as in his thought yet had he but a little advised himself through scruple and tenderness of conscience he would not have used so harmless a witness of his innocency Common reason told St. Paul that the labourer is worthy of his hire and by instinct of the holy Ghost himself learn'd and taught that it was but justice and equity that men that labour in the Gospel should live by the Gospel Who feeds a flock eats not the milk and clothes not himself with the wooll of it yet notwithstanding that he might take away all occasion of evil that lazie and idle drones who suck the sweet of other men's labours might not take example by him to live at other mens cost that he might make the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free without any charge that men that have no silver might come and buy and eat might come I say and buy the wine and milk of the Word without money that the Gospel might not be slandered as a means of gain he would not use that liberty that God and men gave him neither would he eat the milk or wear the wooll of his own flock but with his own hands and labours purchas'd himself his necessary maintenance What hope of these mens extraordinary thriving who are so nice and scrupulous of what they finger What then must we think of those that abuse godliness unto gain that refuse to do deeds of charity except
and tied to the Individuating properties of Hic and Nunc our Writings are unlimited Necessity therefore requires a multitude of Speakers a multitude of Writers not so G. Agricola writing de Animantibus subterraneis reports of a certain kind of Spirits that converse in Minerals and much infest those that work in them and the manner of them when they come is To seem to busie themselves according to all the custom of workmen they will dig and cleanse and melt and sever Metalls yet when they are gone the workmen do not find that there is any thing done So fares it with a great part of the multitude who thrust themselves into the Controversies of the Times they write Books move Questions frame Distinctions give Solutions and seem sedulously to do whatsoever the nature of the business requires yet if any skilful workman in the Lords Mines shall come and examine their work he shall find them to be but Spirits in Minerals and that with all this labour and stir there is nothing done I acknowledge it to be very true which S. Austin spake in his first Book de Trinitate Vtile est plures libros a pluribus fieri diverso stilo sed non diversa fide etiam de quaestionibus iisdem ut ad plurimos res ipsa perveniat ad alios sic ad alios vero sic It is a thing very profitable that divers Tracts be written by divers men after divers fashions but according to the same Analogy of Faith even of the same questions that some might come into the hands of all to some on this manner to another after that For this may we think to have been the counsel of the holy Ghost himself who may seem even for this purpose to have registred the self-same things of Christ by three of the Evangelists with little difference Yet notwithstanding if this speech of S. Austin admit of being qualified then was there no time which more then this Age required should be moderated which I note because of a noxious conceit spread in our Universities to the great hindering of true proficiency in Study springing out from this Root For many of the Learned themselves are fallen upon this preposterous conceit That Learning consisteth rather in variety of turning and quoting of sundry Authours then in soundly discovering and laying down the truth of things Out of which arises a greater charge unto the poor Student who now goes by number rather then weight and the Books of the Learned themselves by ambitiously heaping up the conceits and authorities of other men increase much in the bulk but do as much imbase in true value Wherefore as Gedeon's Army of two and thirty thousand by prescript from God was brought unto three hundred so this huge Army of Disputes might without any hazard of the Lords Battles be well contracted into a smaller number Iustinian the Emperour when he found that the study of the Civil Law was surcharged and much confused by reason of the great heaps of unnecessary writings he calls an Assembly of Learned men caus'd them to search the Books to cut off what was superfluous to gather into order and method the sum and substance of the whole Law Were it possible that some Religious Iustinian might after the same manner employ the wits of some of the best Learned in Examining the Controversies and selecting out of the best Writers what is necessary defaulting unnecessary and partial Discourses and so digest into order and method and leave for the direction of Posterity as it were Theological Pandects infinite store of our Books might well lie by and peaceably be buried and after Ages reap greater profit with smaller cost and pains But that which was possible in the World united under Iustinian in this great division of Kingdoms is peradventure impossible Wherefore having contented my self to shew what a great and irremediable inconvenience this free and uncontroulable venturing upon Theological Disputes hath brought upon us I will leave this Project as a Speculation and pass from this general Doctrine unto some particulars For this generality and heap of sick persons I must divide into their kinds and give every one his proper Recipe The first in this order of weak persons so to be received and cherish'd by us is one of whom question may be made whether he may be called weak or no he may seem to be rather dead for no pulse of infused grace beats in him I mean such a one who hath but small or peradventure no knowledge at all in the mystery of Christ yet is otherwise a man of upright life and conversation such a one as we usually name A moral man Account you of such a one as dead or how you please yet me-thinks I find a Recipe for him in my Text. For this man is even to be woed by us as sometimes one Heathen man wish'd of another Talis cum sis utinam noster esses This man may speak unto a Christian as Ruth does unto Boaz Spread the skirt of thy garment over me for thou art a near kinsman Two parts there are that do compleatly make up a Christian man A true Faith and an honest Conversation The first though it seem the worthier and therefore gives unto us the name of Christians yet the second in the end will prove the surer For true profession without honest conversation not onely saves not but increases our weight of punishment but a good life without true profession though it brings us not to Heaven yet it lessens the measure of our judgment so that A moral man so called is a Christian by the surer side As our Saviour saith of one in the Gospel that had wisely and discreetly answered him Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven so may we say of these men Suppose that as yet they be not of yet certainly far from the Kingdom of heaven they cannot be Yea this sincerity of life though sever'd from true profession did seem such a jewel in the eyes of some of the Ancient Fathers that their opinion was and so have they in their Writings erroneously doubtless testified it That God hath in store for such men not onely this mitigating mercy of which but now I spake but even saving grace so far forth as to make them possessors of his Kingdom Let it not trouble you that I intitle them to some part of our Christian Faith and therefore without scruple to be received as weak and not to be cast forth as dead Salvianus disputing what Faith is Quid est igitur credulitas vel sides saith he opinor fideliter hominum Christo credere id est fidelem Deo esse hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare What might this faith be saith he I suppose it is nothing else but faithfully to believe Christ and this is to be faithful unto God which is nothing else but faithfully to keep the commandments of God Not therefore onely a bare belief but the