obedient submission to the will and call of their ever-blessed God and most deare Redeemer In so much as Saint Chrysostome professes to find patterns and parallels for himselfe in all varieties of tormenrs and whatsoever severall formes of execution And the blessed Apostle hath left us a red Calender of these constant witnesses of God whose memory is still on earth their Crowne in heaven Neither is it thus only in the undaunted sufferings for the causes of God but our awe subjects us also to the good will of God in all whatsoever changes of estate Do I smart with afflictions I will beare the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him I held my peace because thou Lord hast done it Doe I abound in blessings Who am I O Lord God and what is my fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto In both J have learned in what condition soever I am to bee there with content SECT XI THus do we bow the kneeâ— of our hearts to God in our adoration of his Majesty both in duely magnifying his greatnesse and goodnesse and in our humble submission to his holy and gratious pleasure there remaines that other signature of our awfull disposition which consists in a tender and child-like care both of his secret approbation of us and of our avoydance of his displeasure and our offence towards him these two part not asunder for he that desires to be approved would be loath to displease The heart that is rightly affected to God is ambitious above all things under heaven of the secret allowance of the Almighty and therefore is carefull to passe a continuall and exact inquisition upon all his thoughts much more upon his actions what acceptation or censure they find above like as some timorous child upon every stitch that she takes in her first Sampler lookes tremblingly in the face of her Mistresse to see how she likes it as well knowing that the Law of God was not given us as some have said of Benedicts rule only to professe but to peforme and that accordingly the conscience shall find either peace or tumult As we are wont therefore to say of the Dove that at the picking up of every graine she casts her eyes up to heaven so will our godly feare teach us to do after all our speeches and actions For which cause it will be necessary to exercise our hearts with very frequent if not continuall ejaculations I remember the story tells us of that famous Irish Saint of whom there are many monuments in these westerne parts that hee was wont to signe himselfe no lesse than an hundred times in an houre Away with all superstition although Cardinall Bellarmine tells us not improbably that in the practise of those ancient Christians their crossing was no other than a silent kind of invocation of that Saviour who was crucified for us Surely I should envy any man that hath the leisure and grace to lift up his heart thus often to his God let the glance bee never so short neither can such a one choose but be full of religious feare I like not the fashion of the Euchites that were all prayer and no practise but the mixture of these holy elevations of the soule with all out actions with all recreations is so good and laudable thaâ— whosoever is most frequent iâ— it shall passe with me for mosâ— devout and most conversant it heaven But the most proper anâ— pregnant proofe of this Fearâ— of God is the feare of offending God in which regard iâ— is perfectly filiall The gooâ— child is afraid of displeasinâ— his father though he were suâ—â— not to be beaten whereas thâ— slave is only afraid of stripes not of displeasure Out of this deare awe to his father in heaven the truly regenerate trembles to be but tempted and yet resolves not to yeild to any assault whether proffers of favour or violence of battery all is one The obfirmed soule will hold out and scornes so much as to looke of what colour the flagge is as having learned to bee no lesse affraid of sin than of hell and if the option were given him whether hee would rather sinne without punishment or bee punished without sinne the choyce would not be difficult any torment were more easie than the conscience of a divine displeasure It was good Iosephs just question How shall I do this great wickednesse and sinne against God Lo it is the sinne that he sticks at not the judgement as one that would have feared the offence if there had beene no hell But if it fall out that the renewed person as it is incident to the most dutifull children of God bee through a violent tentation and his owne infirmity miscarryed into a knowne sinne how much warme water doth it cost him ere hee can recover his wonted state what anxiety what strife what torture what selfe-revenge what ejaculations and complaints what unrepining subjection to the rod I have sinned what shall I do to thee O thou preserver of men So I have seene a good natur'd child that even after a sharp whipping could not be quieted till hee had obtained the pardon and evened the browes of a frowning parent And now as it is with little ones that have taken a knock with a late fall the good man walkes hereafter with so much the more wary foot and is the more fearefully jealous of his owne infirmity and finding in himselfe but the very inclinations towards the first motions of evill he is carefull according to that wholsome rule of a strict Votary Cogitationes malas mox ad Christum allidere instantly to dash his new borne evill thoughts against the rocke Christ And henceforth out of a suspition of the danger of excesse he dares not go to the further end of his tether but in a wise and safe rigour abridges himself of some part of that scope which he might be allowed to take and will stint himselfe rather than lash out indeed right reason teacheth us to keep aloofe from offending that power which wee adore The ancient Almaines holding their rivers for gods durst not wash their faces with those waters lest they should violate those deities And the Iewes were taught not to dare to come neere an Idolatrous grove though the way were never so direct and commodious No wise man however hee might have firme footing upon the edge of some high rocky promontory will venture to walk within some paces of that downfall but much more will his sense and judgement teach him to refraine from casting himselfe headlong like that desperate Barbarian in Xenophon from that steep precipice The feare of God therefore is a strong retentive from sinne neither can possibly consist in what-soever soule with a resolution to offend As then the father of the faithfull when he came into Gerar a Philistim City could strongly argue that those heathens would
as inhabiting our bosomes we cannot but give all faire and venerable respects to those houses which he hath taken up for his own worship and presence SECT IX NEither lastly can Gods very Messengers though partners of our owne infirmities escape some sensible reflections of our feare It was the rule of the Iewes that the very Prince of the people if hee would consult Gods Oracle out of reverence to that divine pectorall must reverently stand before that Priest who at other times was bound to give lowly obedience to his Soveraigne Lord. What Great Alexander did to the Iewish high Priest who knowes not Neither hath the practises of the godly Emperours in the Christian Church through all successions of Ages savored of lesse regard Even the late Caesar Ferdinand in the sight of our English not long before his end together with his Empresse received an Episcopall benediction publickly upon their knees Away with that insolent pompe of kissing of toes which Iustus Lipsius justly called once foule and servile fit for a Caligula or Maximinus the younger or a Dioclesian Away with the proud horsing on shoulders or treading on necks or the lackeying of Princes It was a moderate word of Cardinall Zabarell concerning his great Master So is he to be honoured that he be not adored Surely when religion was at the best great Peeres thought it no scorne to kisse the venerable hands of their spirituall fathers and did not grudge them eminent titles of honour It was but a simple port that Elijah carryed in the world who after that astonishing wonder of fetching downe fire and water from heaven thought it no abasement to be Ahabs lackey from Carmel to Iezreel yet Obadiah who was high Steward to the King of Israel even that day could fall on his face to him and say Art thou that my Lord Elijah Not much greater was the state of those Christian Bishops who began now to breathe from the bloudy persecutions of the heathen Emperours yet with what dearenesse did that gracious Constantine in whom this Iland is proud to challenge no small share kisse those scarres which they had received for the name of Christ with what titles did he dignifie them as one that saw Christ in their faces and meant in their persons to honour his Saviour And indeed there is so close and indissoluble a relation betwixt Christ and his Messengers that their mutuall interest can never be severed What Prince doth not hold himselfe concerned in the honors or affronts that are done to his Ambassadors Those keyes which God hath committed to our hands lock us so fast to him that no power in earth or hell can separate us but still that word must stand fast in heaven He that despiseth you despiseth me In vaine shall they therefore pretend to feare God that contemne and disgrace their spirituall governours There is a certain plant which our Herbalists call herbam impiam or wicked Cudweed whose younger branches still yeeld flowers to over-top the elder Such weeds grow too rife abroad It is an ill soyle that produceth them I am sure that where the heart is manured and seasoned with a true feare of the Almighty there cannot be but an awfull regard to our spirituall Pastors well are those two charges conjoyned Feare God and honour his Preists SECT X. HItherto having considered that part of holy Feare which consisting in an inward adoration of God expresseth it selfe in the awfull respects to his Name Word Services House Messengers we descend to that other part which consists in our humble subjection and selfe-resignatito his good pleasure in all things whether to order or correct The suffering part is the harder It was a gracious resolution of old Eli Jt is the Lord let him doe whatsoever hee will Surely that man though he were but an ill Father to his worse sonnes yet he was a good sonne to his Father in heaven for nothing but a true filiall awe could make the heart thus pliant that represents our selves to us as the clay and our God to us as the potter and therefore showes us how unjustly we should repine at any forme or use that is by his hand put upon us I could envy that word which is said to have falne from the mouth of Francis of Assisse in his great extremity I thank thee O Lord God for all my paine and I beseech thee if thou think good to adde unto it an hundred fold more Neither was it much different from that which I have read as reported of Pope Adrian but I am sure was spoken by a worthy divine within my time and knowledge of the Vniversity of Cambridge whose labours are of much note and use in the Church of God Master Perkins who when he lay in his last and killing torment of the stone hearing the by-standers to pray for a mitigation of his paine willed them not to pray for an ease of his complaint but for an increase of his patience These speeches cannot proceed but from subdued and meek and mortified soules more intentive upon the glory of their Maker than their owne peace and relaxation And certainly the heart thus seasoned cannot but bee equally tempered to all conditions as humbly acknowledging the same hand both in good evill And therfore even frying in Phalaris his Bull as the Philosopher said of a wise man will be able to say Quà m suave Was it true of that heathen Martyr Socrates that as in his lifetime he was not wont to change his countenance upon any alteration of events so when hee should come to drink his Hemlock as Plato reports it no difference could be descryed either in his hand or face no palenesse in his face no trembling in his hand but a stedfast and fearlesse taking of that fatall cup as if it differed not from the wine of his meals Even this resolution was no other than an effect of the acknowledgment of that one God for which he suffered If so I cannot lesse magnifie that man for his temper than the Oracle did for his wisdome but I can doe no lesse than blesse and admire the known courage and patience of those Christian Martyrs who out of a loving feare of him that only can save and cast both bodies and soules in hell despised shame paine death and manfully insulted upon their persecutors Blessed Ignatius could professe to challenge and provoke the furious Lyons to his dilaniation Blessed Cyprian could pray that the Tyrant would not repent of the purpose of dooming him to death and that other holy Bishop when his hand was threatned to be cut off could say Seca ambas Cut of both It is not for me to transcribe volumes of Martyrologies All that holy army of conquering Saints began their victories in an humble awe of him whose they were and cheerfully triumphed over irons and racks and gibbets and wheeles and fires out of a meek and
he find that the deceitfulnesse of riches will be apt to beguile good soules he deales with them as carefull gardiners are wont to do by those trees from which they expect fayre fruit abate the number of their blossomes as more caring they should be good than full Lastly then How can we account those arguments of favour which the best have had least Even the great Lord of all the world for whom heaven it selfe was too strait when he would come down and converse with men could say The Foxes have holes and the fowles of heaven have nests but the son of man hath not where to rest his head And when the tribute mony was demanded is faine to send for it to the next fish Shortly wore out his few dayes upon earth in so penall a way that his sorrowes were read in his face in so much as when he was but two and thirty yeares of age the by-standers could say Thou art not yet fifty What proofes of divine favour then are these to presume upon which the worst have which the best want which God oft-times gives in judgement denyes in mercy SECT XVII THere cannot bee a more sure remedy for presumtion of abilities than to take an exact survay of our graces both of their truth and degrees Satan is a great imposter hee that was once an Angell of light knowes how to seeme so still when hee left to bee an Angell hee began to bee a Serpent and his continuall experience cannot but have added to his Art so as he knowes how to counterfeit graces both in himselfe and his in so exquisite a fashion that it is not for every eye to discerne them from true We see to what perfection Mechanicall imitation hath attayned what precious stone hath Nature yeelded which is not so artificially counterfeited both in the colour and lustre that only the skilfull Lapidary can descry it Pearles so resembled that for whitenesse cleernesse smoothnesse they dare contend with the true Gold so cunningly multiplyed and tinctured that neither the eye can distinguish it nor the touch scarce the crucible So as Art would seeme to bee an Havilah whose Gold is good whiles Nature is an Ophir whose Gold is exceeding good What marvell is it then if crafty Spirits can make so faire representations of spirituall excellencies as may well deceive ordinary judgements The Pythonesse's Samuel was so like the true that Saul adored him for such And Iannes and Iambres made their wooden Serpent to crawle so nimbly and hisse so fiercely that till Moses his Serpent devoured theirs the beholders knew not whether were more formidable Some false things seeme more probable than many truths there must be therefore much serious and accurate disquisition ere we can passe a true judgement betwixt apparent and reall graces Neither would it aske lesse than a volume to state the differences whereby we may discriminate counterfeit vertues from true in all their severall specialties they are faced alike they are clad alike the markes are inward and scarce discernable by any but the owners eyes In a generality we shall thus descry them in our owne hearts True grace is right-bred of a divine originall and comes down from above even from the father of lights Gods spirit working with and by his own ordinances produceth it in the soule and feeds it by the same holy meanes it is wrought The counterfeit is earth-bred arising from mere nature out of the grounds of sensualialitie True grace drives at no other end than the glory of the giver and scornes to look lower than heaven The counterfeit aimes at nothing but vaine applause or carnall advantage not caring to reach an inch above his own head True grace is apt to crosse the plausiblest inclinations of corrupt nature and chears up the heart to a delihgtfull performance of all good duties as the best pastime The counterfeit is a meere parasite of fleshly appetite and findes no harshnesse but in holy devotions True grace is undantedly constant in all opposition and like a well wrought vault is so much the stronger by how much more weight it undergoes This metall is purer for the fire this Eagle can look upon the hottest Sunne The counterfeit showes most gloriously in prosperity but when the evill day commeth it looks like the skinne of a dead Camelion nasty and deformed Lastly true grace is best alone the counterfeit is all for witnesses In briefe if in a holy jealousie of our own deceitfulnesse wee shall put dayly interrogatories to our hearts and passe them under severe examinations we shall not bee in danger to presume upon our mistaken graces but the more we search the more cause we shall find of our humiliation and of an awfull recognition of Gods mercy and our own unworthinesse SECT XVIII THe way not to presume upon salvation is in an humble modesty to content our selves with the clearely revealed will of our Maker not prying into his counsells but attending his commands It is a grave word wherein the vulgar translation expresses that place of Salomon Scrutator majestatis opprimetur à gloria hee that searcheth into majesty shall bee overwhelmed with glory Amongst those sixteene places of the Bible which in the Hebrew are marked with a speciall note of regard that is one The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that wee may do all the words of this Law Wherein our maine care must bee both not to sever in our conceit the end from the meanes and withall to take the meanes along with us in our way to the end It is for the heavenly Angels to climbe downe the ladder from heaven to earth It is for us onely to climbe up from earth to heaven Bold men what do we begin at Gods eternall decree of our election and thence descend to the effects of it in our effectuall calling in our lively and stedfast faith in our sad and serious repentance in our holy and unblameable obedience in our unfaileable perseverance This course is saucily preposterous What have wee to do to be rifling the hidden counsells of the Highest Let us look to our owne wayes Wee have his word for this that if wee do truly beleeve repent obey persevere wee shall bee saved that if wee do heartily desire and effectually indeavour in the carefull use of his appointed meanes to attaine unto these saving dispositions of the soule wee shall bee sure not to faile of the successe What need wee to look any further than conscionably and cheerefully to do what we are enjoyned and faithfully and comfortably to expect what hee hath promised Let it be our care not to be wanting in the parts of our duty to God we are sure hee cannot be wanting in his gracious performances unto us But if wee in a groundlesse conceit of an election shall let loose the reines to our sinfull desires and vicious
practises thereupon growing idle or unprofitable wee make divine mercy a Pander to our uncleannesse and justly perish in our wicked presumption SECT XIX THe other extreame followes It may seeme a harsh word but it is a true one that there may bee an evill feare of a good God A feare of horror and a feare of distrust That God who is love it selfe is terrible to a wicked heart Even in the beginning our first progenitor ran from the face of his late maker and hid him in the thickets For it is a true observation of Tertullian no wickednesse can bee done without feare because not without the conscience of doing it Neither can any man flee from himselfe as Bernard wittily and this conscience reads the terrible things that God writes against the sinner and holds the glasse wherein guilty eyes may see the killing frownes of the Almighty Now offensive objects cause the spirits to retire as Philosophy and experience teacheth us whereupon followes a necessary trepidation in the whole frame of the body And now the wicked heart could wish there were no God or which is all one that this God had not power to avenge himselfe and finding that after all his impotent volitions the Almighty will bee still and ever himselfe he is unspeakably affrighted with the expectation of that just hand which hee cannot avoid This terror if through the improvement of Gods mercy at the last it drive the sinner to a true penitence makes an happy amends for its owne anguish otherwise it is but the first flash of that unquenchable fire which is prepared for damned soules In this case men do not so much feare God as are afraid of him and such a torturing feare is never but joyned with heart-burning and hatred wherin sinners demeane themselves to God as they say the Lampray doth to the fisher by whose first blow that fish is said to bee dulled and astonished but inraged with the next and following Wretched men it is not Gods fault that hee is terribly just no it is his glory that hee is mercifully terrible It is not for me to say as Spalatensis cites from Cyrill that those who would not bee saved are no lesse beholden to the bounty of the good God than those that are brought home to glory I know and blesse God for the difference But certainely God is wonderfully gracious as hee is also infinitely just even to those that will needs incurre damnation having tendered unto them many powerfull helps to their repentance which hee hath with much patience and longanimity expected That God therefore is just it is his owne praise that hee is terrible wee may thank our selves for were it not for our wickednesse there were nothing in God not infinitely amiable Seest thou then O sinnefull man nothing at all in Gods face but frownes and fury doth every beame of his angry eye dart vengeance into thy soule so as thou would'st faine runne away from his presence and wooest the rocks and mountaines to fall upon thee and hide thee from the sight of that dreadfull countenance cleanse thy hands purge thine heart cleare thine eyes with the teares of true contrition and then look up and tell me whether thou dost not see an happy change of aspect whether thou canst now discerne ought in that face but a glorious lovelinesse fatherly indulgence unconceivable mercy such as shall ravish thy soule with a divine love with a joy unspeakable and glorious SECT XX. SEldome ever is the feare of horror separated from a feare of distrust which in the height of it is that which we call despaire for when the soule apprehends a deep feare of Gods dereliction it cannot but be filled with horrour Now as the holy and well moderated feare gives glory to God in all his attributes so this extremity of it affronts and dishonours him in them all but especially in his mercy and truth In his truth suggesting that God will not make good his promises in his mercy suggesting that he either cannot or will not forgive and save It was a true observation of Saint Hilary that it is not the least office and effect of faith to feare for that it is said by the Prophet Esay He shall fill them with the spirit of the feare of the Lord and againe we are charged to worke out our salvation with feare But there cannot be an act more opposite to faith then to feare distrustfully to despaire in fearing none more injurious either to God or our owne soules For surely as Cyrill well the wickednesse of our offences to God cannot exceed his goodnesse toward us the praise whereof from his creature he affects and esteems so highly as if he cared not in any other notion to bee apprehended by us proclaiming himselfe no otherwise in the mount then The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sinne adding onely one word to prevent our too much presumption That will by no meanes cleare the guilty which to doe were a meere contradiction to his justice Of all other therefore GOD hates most to be robbed of this part of his glory Neither is the wrong done to God more palpable then that which is done herein unto our selves in barring the gates of heaven upon our soules in breaking open the gates of hell to take them in and in the meane time striving to make our selves miserable whether God will or no. And surely as our experience tels us concerning the estate of our bodily indispositions that there is more frequent sicknesse in summer but more deadly in winter so we finde it here other sinnes and spirituall distempers are more common but this distrustfull feare and despaire of mercy which chils the soule with a cold horror is more mortall For the remedy wherof it is requisite that the heart should be throughly convinced of the super-abundant and ever ready mercy of the Almighty of the infallible and unfaileable truth of all his gracious ingagements And in respect of both be made to confesse that heaven can never be but open to the penitent It is a sweet word and a true one of Saint Bernard In thy Booke O Lord are written all that doe what they can though they cannot doe what they ought Neither doth God onely admit but he invites but he intreates but he importunes men to be saved what could he doe more unlesse he would offer violence to the Will which were no other then to destroy it and so to undoe the best piece of his owne workmanship It is the way of his decree and proceedings to dispose of all things sweetly Neither is it more against our nature then his to force his owne ends and when he sees that fayre meanes will not prevayle to win us from death he is pleased feelingly to bemone it as his owne losse Why will ye dye O house