it is not easily apprehended to be the portion of her care to give it spiritual milk and therefore it intrenches very much upon Impiety and positive relinquishing the education of their Children when Mothers expose the spirit of the Child either to its own weaker inclinations or the wicked principles of an ungodly Nurse or the carelesness of any less-obliged person 12. And then let me add That a Child sucks the Nurse's milk and digests her conditions if they be never so bad seldom gets any good For Vertue being superaddition to Nature and Perfections not radical in the body but contradictions to and meliorations of natural indispositions does not easily convey it self by ministrations of food as Vice does which in most instances is nothing but mere Nature grown to Custom and not mended by Grace so that it is probable enough such natural distemperatures may pass in the rivulets of milk like evil spirits in a white garment when Vertues are of harder purchase and dwell so low in the heart that they but rarely pass through the fountains of generation And therefore let no Mother venture her child upon a stranger whose heart she less knows than her own And because few of those nicer women think better of others than themselves since out of self-love they neglect their own bowels it is but an act of improvidence to let my Child derive imperfections from one of whom I have not so good an opinion as of my self 13. And if those many blessings and holy prayers which the Child needs or his askings or sicknesses or the Mother's fears or joyes respectively do occasion should not be cast into this account yet those principles which in all cases wherein the neglect is vicious are the causes of the exposing the Child are extremely against the Piety and Charity of Christian Religion which prescribes severity and austere deportment and the labours of love and exemplar tenderness of affections and piety to children which are the most natural and nearest relations the Parents have That Religion which commands us to visit and to tend sick strangers and wash the feet of the poor and dress their ulcers and sends us upon charitable embassies into unclean prisons and bids us lay down our lives for one another is not pleased with a niceness and sensual curiosity that I may not name the wantonnesses of lusts which denies suck to our own children What is more humane and affectionate than Christianity and what is less natural and charitable than to deny the expresses of a Mother's affection which certainly to good women is the greatest trouble in the world and the greatest violence to their desires if they should not express and minister 14. And it would be considered whether those Mothers who have neglected their first Duties of Piety and Charity can expect so prompt and easie returns of Duty and Piety from their Children whose best foundation is Love and that love strongest which is most natural and that most natural which is conveyed by the first ministeries and impresses of Nourishment and Education And if Love descends more strongly than it ascends and commonly falls from the Parents upon the Children in Cataracts and returns back again up to the Parents but in gentle Dews if the Child's affection keeps the same proportions towards such unkind Mothers it will be as little as atoms in the Sun and never express it self but when the Mother needs it not that is in the Sun-shine of a clear fortune 15. This then is amongst those Instincts which are natural heightned first by Reason and then exalted by Grace into the obligation of a Law and being amongst the Sanctions of Nature its prevarication is a crime very near those sins which Divines in detestation of their malignity call Sins against Nature and is never to be excused but in cases of Necessity or greater Charity as when the Mother cannot be a Nurse by reason of natural disability or is afflicted with a disease which might be 〈◊〉 in the milk or in case of the publick necessities of a Kingdom for the securing of Succession in the Royal Family And yet concerning this last Lycurgus made a Law that the Noblest amongst the Spartan women though their Kings Wives should at least nurse their Eldest son and the Plebeians should nurse all theirs and Plutarch reports that the second son of King Themistes inherited the Kingdom in Sparta only because he was nursed with his Mother's milk and the eldest was therefore rejected because a stranger was his Nurse And that Queens have suckled and nursed their own children is no very unusual kindness in the simplicity and hearty affections of elder Ages as is to be seen in Herodotus and other Historians I shall only remark one instance out of the Spanish Chronicles which Henry Stephens in his Apology for Herodotus reports to have heard from thence related by a noble personage Monsieur Marillac That a Spanish Lady married into France nursed her child with so great a tenderness and jealousie that having understood the little Prince once to have suck'd a stranger she was unquiet till she had forced him to vomit it up again In other cases the crime lies at their door who inforce neglect upon the other and is heightned in proportion to the motive of the omission as if Wantonness or Pride be the parent of the crime the Issue besides its natural deformity hath the excrescencies of Pride or Lust to make it more ugly 16. To such Mothers I propound the example of the Holy Virgin who had the honour to be visited by an Angel yet after the example of the Saints in the Old Testament she gave to the Holy Jesus drink from those bottles which himself had filled for his own drinking and her Paps were as surely blessed for giving him suck as her Womb for bearing him and reads a Lecture of Piety and Charity which if we deny to our children there is then in the world left no argument or relation great enough to kindle it from a cinder to a flame God gives dry breasts for a curse to some for an affliction to others but those that invite it to them by voluntary arts love not blessing therefore shall it be far from them And I remember that it was said concerning Annius Minutius the Censor that he thought it a prodigy and extremely ominous to Rome that a Roman Lady refused to nurse her Child and yet gave suck to a Puppy that her milk might with more safety be dried up with artificial applications Let none therefore divide the interests of their own Children for she that appeared before Solomon and would have the Child divided was not the true Mother and was the more culpable of the two The PRAYER O Holy and Eternal God Father of the Creatures and King of all the World who hast imprinted in all the sons of thy Creation principles and abilities to serve the end of their own preservation and to Men
dedicated I have accepted what you have consecrated I have hallowed I have taken it to the same purpose to which your desires and designation pretended it in your first purposes and expence So that since the purpose of man in separating places of Worship is that thither by order and with convenience and in communities of men God may be worshipped and prayed unto God having declared that he accepts of such separate places to the same purposes says that there he will be called upon that such places shall be places of advantage to our Devotions in respect of humane order and Divine acceptance and benediction 3. Now these are therefore God's Houses because they were given by men and accepted by God for the service of God and the offices of Religion And this is not the effect or result of any distinct Covenant God hath made with man in any period of the world but it is merely a favour of God either hearing the Prayer of Dedication or complying with humane order or necessities For there is nothing in the Covenant of Moses's Law that by virtue of special stipulation makes the assignment of a house for the service of God to be proper to Moses's rite Not only because God had memorials and determinations of this manner of his Presence before Moses's Law as at 〈◊〉 where Jacob laid the first stone of the Church nothing but a Stone was God's memorial and the beginning and first rudiments of a Temple but also because after Moses's Law was given as long as the Nation was ambulatory so were their places and instruments of Religion and although the Ark was not confined to a place till Solomon's time yet God was pleased in this manner to confine himself to the Ark and in all places where-ever his Name was put even in Synagogues and Oratories and Threshing-floors when they were hallowed with an Altar and Religion thither God came that is there he heard them pray and answered and blessed accordingly still in proportion to that degree of Religion which was put upon them And those places when they had once entertained Religion grew separate and sacred for ever For therefore David bought the Threshing-floor of Araunah that it might never return to common use any more for it had been no trouble or inconvenience to Araunah to have used his floor for one solemnity but he offered to give it and David resolved to buy it because it must of necessity be aliened from common uses to which it could never return any more when once it had been the instrument of a religious solemnity and yet this was no part of Moses's Law that every place of a temporary Sacrifice should be holy for ever David had no guide in this but right Reason and the Religion of all the world For such things which were great instruments of publick ends and thing of highest use were also in all societies of men of greatest honour and immured by reverence and the security of Laws For honour and reputation is not a thing inherent in any creature but depends upon the estimate of God or men who either in diffusion or representation become fountains of a derivative honour Thus some Men are hohourable that is those who are fountains of Honour in civil account have commanded that they shall be honoured And so Places and Things are made honourable that as honourable Persons are to be distinguished from others by honourable usages and circumstances proper to them so also should Places and Things upon special reason separate have an usage proper to them when by a publick Instrument or Minister they are so separated No common usage then something proper to tell what they are and to what purposes they are designed and to signifie their separation and extraordinariness Such are the Person of the Prince the Archives and Records of a Kingdom the Walls and great Defences of the Imperial City the Eagles and Ensigns of war amongst the 〈◊〉 and above all things though not above all persons the Temples and Altars and all the instruments of Religion And there is much reason in it For thus a servant of a King though his employment be naturally mean yet is more honourable because he relates to the most excellent person and therefore much more those things which relate to God And though this be the reason why it should be so yet for this and other reasons they that have power that is they who are acknowledged to be the fountains and the chanels of Honour I mean the Supreme power and publick fame have made it actually to be so For whatsoever all wise men and all good men and all publick societies and all supreme Authority hath commanded to be honoured or rever'd that is honourable and reverend and this Honour and Reverence is to be expressed according to the Customs of the Nation and instruments of honour proper to the nature of the thing or person respectively Whatsoever is 〈◊〉 so is so because Honour and Noble separations are relative actions and terms creatures and productions of Fame and the voice of Princes and the sense of people and they who will not honour those things or those persons which are thus decreed to be honourable have no communications with the civilities of humanity or the guises of wise Nations they do not give honour to whom honour belongs Now that which in civil account we call honourable the same in religious account we call sacred for by both these words we mean things or persons made separate and retired from common opinion and vulgar usages by reason of some excellency really inherent in them such as are excellent men or for their relation to excellent persons or great ends publick or religious and so servants of Princes and Ministers of Religion and its Instruments and Utensils are made honourable or sacred and the expressions of their honour are all those actions and usages which are contrary to despite and above the usage of vulgar Things or Places Whatsoever is sacred that is honourable for its religious relation and whatsoever is honourable that also is sacred that is separate from the vulgar usages and account for its civil excellency or relation The result is this That when publick Authority or the consent of a Nation hath made any Place sacred for the uses of Religion we must esteem it sacred just as we esteem Persons honourable who are so honoured And thus are Judges and the very places of Judicature the King's Presence-chamber the Chair of State the Senate-house the royal Ensigns of a Prince whose Gold and Purple in its natural capacity hath in it no more dignity than the Money of the bank or the Cloth of the Mart but it hath much more for its signification and relative use And it is certain these things whose excellency depends upon their relation must receive the degree of their Honour in that proportion they have to their term and foundation and therefore what belongs to
and as to his posterity That therefore which seems most probable in the case is that he was one of the Reguli or petty Kings whereof there were many in the land of Canaan but a pious and devout man and a worshipper of the true God as there were many others in those days among the Idolatrous Nations he being extraordinarily raised up by God from among the Canaanites and brought in without mention of Parents original or end without any Predecessor or Successor in his office that he might be a fitter type of the Royal and Eternal Priesthood of Christ. And for any more particular account concerning his person it were folly and rashness over-curiously to enquire after what God seems industriously to have concealed from us The great character under which the Scripture takes notice of him is his relation to our blessed Saviour who is more than once said to be a Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the order in the same way and manner that Melchisedeck was or as the Apostle explains himself after the similitude of Melchisedeck Our Lord was such a Priest as Melchisedeck was there being a nearer similitude and conformity between them than ever was between any other Priests whatsoever A subject which S. Paul largely and particularly treats of Passing by the minuter instances of the parallel taken from the name of his person Melchisedeck that is King of righteousness and his title to his Kingdom King of Salem that is of Peace we shall observe three things especially wherein he was a type of Christ. First in the peculiar qualification of his person something being recorded of him uncommon to the rest of men and that is that he was without Father without Mother and without descent Not that Melchisedeck like Adam was immediately created or in an instant dropt down from Heaven but that he hath no kindred recorded in the story which brings him in without any mention of Father or Mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom glosses we know not what Father or Mother he had He was says S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without genealogie without having any pedigree extant upon record whence the ancient Syriack Version truly expresses the sence of the whole passage thus Whos 's neither Father nor Mother are written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the generations that is the genealogies of the ancient Patriarchs And thus he eminently typified Christ of whom this is really true He is without Father in respect of his humane nature begotten only of a pure Virgin without Mother in respect of his Divinity being begotten of his Father before all Worlds by an eternal and ineffable generation Secondly Melchisedeck typified our Saviour in the duration and continuance of his office for so 't is said of him that he was without descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God abideth a Priest continually By which we are not to understand that Melchisedeck never died for being a man he was subject to the same common Law of mortality with other men But the meaning is that as he is said to be without Father and Mother because the Scripture speaking of him makes no mention of his Parents his Genealogy and descent So he is said to abide a Priest for ever without any beginning of days or end of life because we have no account of any that either preceded or succeeded him in his office no mention of the time either when he took it up or laid it down And herein how lively and eminent a type of Christ the true Melchisedeck who as to his Divine nature was without beginning of days from Eternal Ages and who either in the execution or vertue of his office abides for ever There is no abolition no translation of his office no expectation of any to arise that shall succeed him in it He was made a Priest not after the Law of a carnal Commandment a transient and mutable dispensation but after the power of an endless life Thirdly Melchisedeck was a type of Christ in his excellency above all other Priests S. Paul's great design is to evince the preheminence and precedency of Melchisedeck above all the Priests of the Mosaick ministration yea above Abraham himself the Founder and Father of the Jewish Nation from whom they reckoned it so great an honour to derive themselves And this the Apostle proves by a double instance First that Abraham in whose loins the Levitical Priests then were paid tithes to Melchisedeck when he gave him the tenth of all his spoils as due to God and his Ministers thereby confessing himself and his posterity inferiour to him Now consider how great this man was unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils Secondly that Melchisedeck conferred upon Abraham a solemn benediction it being a standing part of the Priests office to bless the people And this was an undeniable argument of his superiority He whose descent is not counted from them the legal Priests received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better Whereby it evidently appears that Melchisedeck was greater than Abraham and consequently than all the Levitical Priests that descended from him Now herein he admirably prefigured and shadowed out our blessed Saviour a person peculiarly chosen out by God sent into the World upon a nobler and a more important errand owned by more solemn and mighty attestations from Heaven than ever was any other person his office incomparably beyond that of the legal Oeconomy his person greater his undertaking weightier his design more sublime and excellent his oblation more valuable and meritorious his prayers more prevalent and successful his office more durable and lasting than ever any whose business it was to intercede and mediate between God and man 20. THE other extraordinary person under this 〈◊〉 is Job concerning whom two things are to be enquired into Who he was and when he lived For the first we find him described by his Name his Country his Kindred his Quality his Religion and his Sufferings though in many of them we are left under great uncertainties and to the satisfaction only of probable conjectures For his name among many conjectures two are especially considerable though founded upon very different reasons one that it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying one that grieves or groans mystically presaging those grievous miseries and sufferings that afterwards came upon him the other more probably from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love or to desire noting him the desire and delight of his Parents earnestly prayed for and affectionately embraced with the tenderest endearments His Country was the land of 〈◊〉 though where that was is almost as much disputed as about the source of Nilus Some will have it Armenia others Palestine or the land of Canaan and some of the Jewish Masters assure us that
Their Oral and unwritten Law It s original and succession according to the mind of the Jews Their unreasonable and blasphemous preferring it above the written Law Their religious observing the Traditions of the Elders The Vow of Corban what The superseding Moral Duties by it The Sects in the Jewish Church The Pharisees their denomination rise temper and principles Sadducees their impious Principles and evil lives The Essenes their original opinions and way of life The Herodians who The Samaritans Karraeans The Sect of the Zealots The Roman Tyranny over the Jewes 1. THE Church which had hitherto lyen dispersed in private Families and had often been reduced to an inconsiderable number being now multiplied into a great and a populous Nation God was pleased to enter into Covenant not any longer with particular Persons but with the Body of the People and to govern the Church by more certain and regular ways and methods than it had hitherto been This Dispensation began with the delivery of the Law and continued till the final period of the Jewish state consisting only of meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation In the survey whereof we shall chiefly consider what Laws were given for the Government of the Church by what Methods of revelation God communicated his mind and will to them and what was the state of the Church especially towards the conclusion of this Oeconomy 2. THE great Minister of this Dispensation was Moses the Son of Amram of the House of Levi a Person whose signal preservation when but an Infant presaged him to be born for great and generous undertakings Pharaoh King of Egypt desirous to suppress the growing numbers of the Jewish Nation had afflicted and kept them under with all the rigorous severities of tyranny and oppression But this not taking its effect he made a Law that all Hebrew Male-children should be drowned as soon as born knowing well enough how to kill the root if he could keep any more Branches from springing up But the wisdom of Heaven defeated his crafty and barbarous 〈◊〉 Among others that were born at that time was Moses a goodly Child and whom his Mother was infinitely desirous to preserve but having concealed him till the saving of his might endanger the losing her own life her affection suggested to her this little stratagem she prepared an Ark made of Paper-reeds and pitched within and so putting him a-board this little Vessel threw him into the River Nilus committing him to the mercy of the waves and the conduct of the Divine Providence God who wisely orders all events had so disposed things that Pharaohs daughter whose name say the Jews was Bithia Thermuth says Josephus say the Arabians Sihhoun being troubled with a distemper that would not endure the hot Bathes was come down at this time to wash in the Nile where the cries of the tender Babe soon reached her ears She commanded the Ark to be brought a-shore which was no sooner opened but the silent oratory of the weeping Infant sensibly struck her with compassionate resentments And the Jews add that she no sooner touched the Babe but she was immediately healed and cried out that he was a holy Child and that she would save his life for which say they she obtained the favour to be brought under the wings of the Divine Majesty and to be called the daughter of God His Sister Miriam who had all this while beheld the scene afar off officiously proffered her service to the Princess to call an Hebrew Nurse and accordingly went and brought his Mother To her care he was committed with a charge to look tenderly to him and the promise of a reward But the hopes of that could add but little where nature was so much concerned Home goes the Mother joyful and proud of her own pledge and the royal charge carefully providing for his tender years His infant state being pass'd he was restored to the Princess who adopted him for her own son bred him up at Court where he was polished with all the arts of a noble and ingenuous education instructed in the modes of civility and behaviour in the methods of policy and government Learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians whose renown for wisdom is not only once and again taken notice of in holy Writ but their admirable skill in all liberal Sciences Natural Moral and Divine beyond the rate and proportion of other Nations is sufficiently celebrated by foreign Writers To these accomplishments God was pleased to add a Divine temper of mind a great zeal for God not able to endure any thing that seemed to clash with the interests of the Divine honour and glory a mighty courage and resolution in God's service whose edge was not to be taken off either by threats or charms He was not afraid of the Kings commandment nor feared the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible His contempt of the World was great and admirable sleighting the honours of Pharoah's Court and the fair probabilities of the Crown the treasures and pleasures of that rich soft and luxurious Country out of a firm belief of the invisible rewards of another World He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter chusing rather to suffer 〈◊〉 with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward Josephus relates that when but a child he was presented by the Princess to her Father as one whom she had adopted for her son and designed for his successor in the Kingdom the King taking him up into his arms put his Crown upon his head which the child immediately pull'd off again and throwing it upon the ground trampled it under his feet An action which however looked upon by some Courtiers then present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portending a fatal Omen to the Kingdom did however evidently presage his generous contempt of the grandeur and honours of the Court and those plausible advantages of Soveraignty that were offered to him His patience was insuperable not tired out with the abuses and disappointments of the King of Egypt with the hardships and troubles of the Wilderness and which was beyond all with the cross and vexatious humors of a stubborn and unquiet generation He was of a most calm and treatable disposition his spirit not easily ruffled with passion he who in the cause of God and Religion could be bold and fierce as a Lion was in his own patient as a Lamb God himself having given this character of him That he was the meekest man upon the Earth 3. THIS great personage thus excellently qualified God made choice of him to be the Commander and conducter of the Jewish Nation and his Embassador to the King of Egypt to demand the enfranchisement of
the doctrine which these men taught that though they were to love their neighbours that is Jewes yet might they hate their enemies In these and such like instances they had notoriously abused and evacuated the Law and in a manner rendred it of no effect And therefore when our Lord as the great Prophet sent from God came into the World the first thing he did after the entrance upon his publick Ministry was to cleanse and purifie the Law and to remove that rubbish which the Jewish Doctors had cast upon it He rescued it out of the hands of their poysonous and pernicious expositions restored it to its just authority and to its own primitive sence and meaning he taught them that the Law did not only bind the external act but prescribe to the most inward motions of the mind and that whoever transgresses here is no less obnoxious to the Divine Justice and the penalties of the Law than he that is guilty of the most gross and palpable violations of it he shewed them how infinitely more pure and strict the command was than these Impostors had represented it and plainly told them that if ever they expected to be happy they must look upon the Law with an other-guise eye and follow it after another rate than their blind and deceitful Guides did For I say unto you Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you can in no case enter into the Kingdome of God 20. THE other way by which they corrupted and dishonoured the Law and weakned the power and reputation of it was by preferring before it their Oral and unwritten Law For besides the Law consigned to Writing they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Law delivered by word of mouth whose pedigree they thus deduce They tell us that when Moses waited upon God Fourty Days in the Mount he gave him a double Law one in Writing the other Traditionary containing the sence and explication of the former being come down into his Tent he repeated it first to Aaron then to Ithamar and Eleazar his Sons then to the Seventy Elders and lastly to all the People the same Persons being all this while present Aaron who had now heard it four times recited Moses being gone out again repeated it before them after his departure out of the Tent his two Sons who by this had heard it as oft as their Father made another repetition of it by which means the Seventy Elders came to hear it four times and then they also repeated it to the Congregation who had now also heard it repeated four times together once from Moses then from Aaron then from his Sons and lastly from the Seventy Elders after which the Congregation broke up and every one went home and taught it his Neighbour This Oral Law Moses upon his Death-bed repeated to 〈◊〉 he delivered it to the Elders they to the Prophets the Prophets to the men of the great Synagogue the last of whom was Symeon the Just who delivered it to Antigonus Sochaeus and he to his Successors the wise Men whose business it was to recite it and so it was handed through several Generations the names of the Persons who delivered it in the several Ages from its first rise under Moses till above an Hundred Years after Christ being particularly enumerated by Maimonides At last it came to R. Jehuda commonly stiled by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our holy Master the Son of Rabban Symeon who flourished a little before the time of the Emperour Antoninus who considering the unsetled and tottering condition of his own Nation and how apt these traditionary Precepts would be to be forgotten or mistaken by the weakness of Mens memories or the perversness of their wits or the dispersion of the Jews in other Countries collected all these Laws and Expositions and committed them to Writing stiling his Book Mishnaioth or the Repetition This was asterwards illustrated and explained by the Rabbines dwelling about Babylon with infinite cases and controversies concerning their Law whose resolutions were at last compiled into another Volume which they called Gemara or Doctrin and both together constitute the intire Body of the Babylonish Talmud the one being the Text the other the Comment The folly and vanity of this account though it be sufficiently evident to need no confutation with any wise and discerning Man yet have the Jewes in all Ages made great advantage of it magnifying and extolling it above the written Law with Titles and Elogies that hyperbolize into blasphemy They tell us that this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the Law for whose sake it was that God entred into Covenant with the Israelites that without this the whole Law would lye in the dark yea be meer obscurity and darkness it self as being contrary and repugnant to it self and defective in things necessary to be known that it is joy to the heart and health to the bones that the words of it are more lovely and desirable than the words of the Law and a greater sin to violate the one than thé other that it 's little or no commendation for a Man to read the Bible but to study the Mishna is that for which a Man shall receive the reward of the other World and that no Man can have a peaceable and quiet conscience who leaves the study of the Talmud to go to that of the Bible that the Bible is like Water the Mishna like Wine the Talmud like spiced Wine that all the words of the Rabbins are the very words of the living God from which a Man might not depart though they should tell him his right hand were his left and his left his right nay they blush not nor tremble to assert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that to study in the holy Bible is nothing else but to lose our time I will mention but one bold and blasphemous sentence more that we may see how far these desperate wretches are given over to a spirit of impiety and infatuation they tell us that he that dissents from his Rabbin or Teacher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissents from the Divine Majesty but he that believes the words of the wise men believes God himself 21. STRANGE that Men should so far offer violence to their reason so far conquer and subdue their conscience as to be able to talk at this wild and prodigious rate and stranger it would seem but that we know a Generation of Men great Patrons of Tradition too in another Church who mainly endeavour to debase and suppress the Scriptures and value their unwritten Traditions at little less rate than this But I let them pass This is no novel and upstart humour of the Jews they were notoriously guilty of it in our 〈◊〉 days whom we find frequently charging them with their superstitious observances of many little rites and usages derived from the Traditions of the Elders wherein they placed the main of
Churches living under Persecution commenced many pretty opinions concerning the state and special dignity of Martyrs apportioning to them one of the three Coronets which themselves did knit and supposed as pendants to the great Crown of righteousness They made it suppletory of Baptism expiatory of sin satisfactory of publick 〈◊〉 they placed them in bliss immediately declared them to need no after-Prayer such as the Devotion of those times used to pour upon the graves of the faithful with great prudence they did endeavour to alleviate this burthen and sweeten the bitter chalice and they did it by such doctrines which did only remonstrate this great truth That since no love was greater than to lay down our lives nothing could be so great but God would indulge to them And indeed whatsoever they said in this had no inconvenience nor would it now unless men should think mere suffering to be sufficient to excuse a wicked life or that they be invited to dishonour an excellent patience with the mixture of an impure action There are many who would die for Christ if they were put to it and yet will not quit a Lust for him those are hardly to be esteemed Christ's Martyrs unless they be dead unto sin their dying for an Article or a good action will not pass the great scrutiny And it may be boldness of spirit or sullenness or an honourable gallantry of mind or something that is excellent in civil and political estimate moves the person and endears the suffering but that love only which keeps the Commandments will teach us to 〈◊〉 for love and from love to pass to blessedness through the red Sea of bloud And indeed it is more easie to die for Chastity than to live with it and many women have been found who suffered death under the violence of Tyrants for defence of their holy vows and purity who had they long continued amongst pleasures courtships curiosities and importunities of men might perchance have yielded that to a Lover which they denied to an Executioner S. Cyprian observes that our Blessed Lord in admitting the innocent Babes of Bethlehem first to die for him did to all generations of Christendom consign this Lesson That only persons holy and innocent were fit to be Christ's Martyrs And I remember that the Prince of the Latine Poets over against the region and seats of Infants places in the Shades below persons that suffered death wrongfully but adds that this their death was not enough to place them in such blessed mansions but the Judge first made inquiry into their lives and accordingly designed their station It is certain that such dyings or great sufferings are Heroical actions and of power to make great compensations and redemptions of time and of omissions and imperfections but if the Man be unholy so also are his Sufferings for Hereticks have died and vicious persons have suffered in a good cause and a dog's neck may be cut off in sacrifice and Swine's bloud may 〈◊〉 the trench about the Altar but God only accepts the Sacrifice which is pure and spotless first seasoned with salt then seasoned with fire The true Martyr must have all the preceding Graces and then he shall receive all the Beatitudes 19. The acts of this Duty are 1. Boldly to confess the Faith nobly to exercise publick vertues not to be ashamed of any thing that is honest and rather to quit our goods our liberty our health and life it self than to deny what we are bound to affirm or to omit what we are bound to do or to pretend contrary to our present perswasion 2. To rejoyce in Afflictions counting it honourable to be conformable to Christ and to wear the cognizance of Christianity whose certain lot it is to suffer the hostility and violence of enemies visible and invisible 3. Not to revile our Persecutors but to bear the Cross with evenness tranquillity patience and charity 4. To offer our sufferings to the glory of God and to joyn them with the Passions of Christ by doing it in love to God and obedience to his Sanctions and testimony of some part of his Religion and designing it as a part of duty The reward is the Kingdom of Heaven which can be no other but eternal Salvation in case the Martyrdom be consummate and they also shall be made perfect so the words of the reward were read in Clement's time If it be less it keeps its proportion all suffering persons are the combination of Saints they make the Church they are the people of the Kingdom and heirs of the Covenant For if they be but Confessors and confess Christ in prison though they never preach upon the rack or under the axe yet Christ will confess them before his heavenly Father and they shall have a portion where they shall never be persecuted any more The PRAYER O Blessed Jesus who art become to us the Fountain of Peace and Sanctity of Righteousness and Charity of Life and perpetual Benediction imprint in our spirits these glorious characterisms of Christianity that we by such excellent dispositions may be consigned to the infinity of Blessedness which thou camest to reveal and minister and exhibit to mankind Give us great Humility of spirit and deny us not when we beg Sorrow of thee the mourning and sadness of true Penitents that we may imitate thy excellencies and conform to thy sufferings Make us Meek patient indifferent and resigned in all accidents changes and issues of Divine Providence Mortifie all inordinate Anger in us all Wrath Strife Contention Murmurings Malice and Envy and interrupt and then blot out all peevish dispositions and morosities all disturbances and unevenness of spirit 〈◊〉 of habit that may hinder us in our duty Oh teach me so to hunger and thirst after the ways of Righteousness that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy Father's will Raise my affections to Heaven and heavenly things fix my heart there and prepare a treasure for me which I may receive in the great diffusions and communications of thy glory And in this sad interval of infirmity and temptations strengthen my hopes and 〈◊〉 my Faith by such emissions of light and grace from thy Spirit that I may relish those Blessings which thou preparest for thy Saints with so great appetite that I may despise the world and all its gilded vanities and may desire nothing but the crown of righteousness and the paths that lead thither 〈◊〉 graces of thy Kingdom and the glories of it that when I have served thee in holiness and strict obedience I may reign with thee in the glories of Eternity for thou O Holy Jesus art our hope and our life and glory our 〈◊〉 great reward Amen II. 〈◊〉 Jesu who art infinitely pleased in demonstrations of thy Mercy and didst descend into a state of misery suffering persecution and 〈◊〉 that thou mightest give us thy mercy and reconcile us to thy Father and make us
reason why the Greeks forbad children who were about to swear by Hercules to swear within doors was that by this delay and preparation they might be taught not to be hasty or quick in swearing but all such invocations should be restrained and retarded by ceremony and Hercules himself was observed never to have sworn in all his life-time but once 2. Not only customary Swearing is forbidden but all Swearing upon a slight cause S. Basil upbraids some Christians his contemporaries with the example of Clinias the Pythagorean who rather than he would swear suffered a mulct of three talents And all the followers of Pythagoras admitted no Oath unless the matter were grave necessary and charitable and the wisest and gravest persons among the Heathens were very severe in their Counsels concerning Oaths 3. But there are some cases in which the interests of Kingdoms and 〈◊〉 politick Peace and Confederacies require the sanction of promissory Oaths and they whom we are bound to obey and who may kill us if we do not require that their interests be secured by an Oath and that in this case and all that are equal our Blessed Saviour did not forbid Oaths is certain not only by the example of Christians but of all the world before and since this prohibition understanding it to be of the nature of such natural bands and securities without which Commonwealths in some cases are not easily combined and therefore to be a thing necessary and therefore not to be forbidden Now what is by Christians to be esteemed a slight cause we may determine by the account we take of other things The Glory of God is certainly no light matter and therefore when that is evidently and certainly concerned not phantastically and by vain and imaginary consequences but by prudent and true estimation then we may lawfully swear We have S. Paul's example who well understood the precept of his Master and is not to be supposed easily to have done any violence to it but yet we find religious affirmations and God invoked for witness as a record upon his soul in his Epistles to the Romans Galatians and Corinthians But these Oaths were only assertory Tertullian affirmeth that Christians refused to swear by the Genius of their Prince because it was a Daemon but they sware by his Health and their solemn Oath was by God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Majesty of the Emperor The Fathers of the Ephesine Council made Nestorius and Victor swear and the Bishops at Chalcedon sware by the health of their Princes But as S. Paul did it extrajudicially when the glory of God was concerned in it and the interest of Souls so the Christians used to swear in a cause of Piety and Religion in obedience and upon publick command or for the ends of Charity and Justice both with Oaths promissory and assertory as the matter required with this only difference that they never did swear in the causes of Justice or Charity but when they were before a Magistrate but if it were in a cause of Religion and in matters of promise they did indeed swear among themselves but always to or in communities and societies obliging themselves by Oath not to commit wickedness Robberies Sacriledge not to deceive their trust not to detain the pledge which rather was an act of direct entercourse with God than a solemn or religious obligation to man Which very thing Pliny also reports of the Christians 20. The summ is this Since the whole subject matter of this Precept is Oaths promissory or Vows all Promises with Oaths are regularly forbidden to Christians unless they be made to God or God's 〈◊〉 in a matter not trisling For in the first case a Promise made to God and a swearing by God to perform the Promise to him is all one For the Name of God being the instrument and determination of all 〈◊〉 addresses we cannot be supposed to speak to God without using of his Name 〈◊〉 or by implication and therefore he that promises to God makes a Promise and uses God's Name in the Promise the Promise it self being in the nature of a Prayer or solemn Invocation of God In the second case when the publick necessity requires it of which we are not judges but are under authority we find the lawfulness by being bound to believe or not to contradict the pretence of its necessity only care is to be taken that the matter be grave or religious that is it is to be esteemed and presumed so by us if the Oath be imposed by our lawful Superiours and to be cared for by them or else it is so to be provided for by our selves when our entercourse is with God as in Vows and Promises passed to God being careful that we do not offer to God Goats-hair or the 〈◊〉 of Mushromes or the bloud of Swine that is things either impious or vain But in our communication that is in our ordinary entercourse with men we must promise by simple testimony not by religious adjurations though a creature be the instrument of the Oath 21. But this forbids not assertory Oaths at all or deposing in Judgment for of this Christ speaks not here it being the proper matter of another Commandment and since as S. Paul affirms an Oath is the end of all controversie and that the necessity of Commonwealths requires that a period should be fixed to questions and a rule for the nearest certainty for Judgment whatsoever is necessary is not unlawful and Christ who came to knit the bonds of Government faster by the stricture of more religious ties cannot be understood to have given precepts to dissolve the instruments of Judicature and prudent Government But concerning assertory Oaths although they are not forbidden but supposed in the Ninth Commandment to be done before our Judges in the cause of our Neighbour yet because they are only so supposed and no way else mentioned by permission or intimation therefore they are to be estimated by the proportions of this Precept concerning promissory Oaths they may be taken in Judgment and righteousness but never lightly never extrajudicially only a less cause so it be judicial may authorize an assertory than a promissory Oath because many cases occur in which Peace and Justice may be concerned which without an Oath are indeterminable but there are but few necessities to confirm a Promise by an Oath And therefore the reverence of the Name of God ought not to be intrenched upon in accidents of little or no necessity God not having made many necessities in this case would not in the matter of Promise give leave to use his Name but when an extraordinary case happens An Oath in Promises is of no use for ending questions and giving judicial sentences and the faith of a Christian and the word of a just person will do most of the work of Promises and it is very much to the disreputation of our Religion or ourselves if we
Thy Name being called upon us let us walk worthy of that calling that our light may shine before men that they seeing our good works may glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven In order also to the sanctification of thy Name grant that all our praises hymns Eucharistical remembrances and representments of thy glories may be useful blessed and esfectual for the dispersing thy fame and advancing thy honour over all the world This is a direct and formal act of worshipping and adoration The Name of God is representative of God himself and it signifies Be thou worshipped and adored be thou thanked and celebrated with honour and Eucharist 5. Thy Kingdom come That is As thou hast caused to be preached and published the coming of thy Kingdom the peace and truth the revelation and glories of the Gospel so let it come verily and esfectually to us and all the world that thou mayest truly reign in our spirits exercising absolute dominion subduing all thine Enemies ruling in our Faculties in the Understanding by Faith in the Will by Charity in the Passions by Mortification in the Members by a chaste and right use of the parts And as it was more particularly and in the letter proper at the beginning of Christ's Preaching when he also taught the Prayer that God would hasten the coming of the Gospel to all the world so 〈◊〉 also and ever it will be in its proportion necessary and pious to pray that it may come still making greater progress in the world extending it self where yet it is not and intending it where it is already that the Kingdom of Christ may not only be in us in name and form and honourable appellatives but in effect and power This Petition in the first Ages of Christianity was not expounded to signifie a prayer for Christ's second coming because the Gospel not being preached to all the world they prayed for the delay of the day of Judgment that Christ's Kingdom upon earth might have its proper increment but since then every Age as it is more forward in time so it is more earnest in desire to accomplish the intermedial Prophecies that the Kingdom of God the Father might come in glories infinite And indeed the Kingdom of Grace being in order to the Kingdom of Glory this as it is principally to be desired so may possibly be intended chiefly which also is the more probable because the address of this Prayer being to God the Father it is proper to observe that the Kingdom of Grace or of the Gospel is called the Kingdom of the Son and that of Glory in the style of the Scripture is the Kingdom of the Father S. German Patriarch of Constantinople expounds it with some little difference but not ill Thy Kingdom come that is Let thy Holy Spirit come into us for the Kingdom of Heaven is within us saith the Holy Scripture and so it intimates our desires that the promise of the Father and the Prophecies of old and the Holy Ghost the Comforter may come upon us Let that anointing from above descend upon us whereby we may be anointed Kings and Priests in a spiritual Kingdom and Priesthood by a holy Chrism 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That is The whole Oeconomy and dispensation of thy Providence be the guide of the world and the measure of our desire that we be patient in all accidents conformable to God's will both in doing and in suffering submitting to changes and even to persecutions and doing all God's will which because without God's aid we cannot do therefore we beg it of him by prayer but by his aid we are 〈◊〉 we may do it in the manner of Angelical obedience that is promptly readily chearfully and with all our faculties Or thus As the Angels in Heaven serve thee with harmony concord and peace so let us all joyn in the service of thy Majesty with peace and purity and love unfeigned that as all the Angels are in peace and amongst them there is no persecutor and none persecuted there is none afflicting or afflicted none assaulting or assaulted but all in sweetness and peaceable serenity glorifying thee so let thy will be done on earth by all the world in peace and unity in charity and tranquillity that with one heart and one voice we may glorifie thee our universal Father having in us nothing that may displease thee having quitted all our own desires and pretensions living in Angelick conformity our Souls subject to thee and our Passions to our Souls that in earth also thy will may be done as in the spirit and Soul which is a portion of the heavenly substance These three Petitions are addressed to God by way of adoration In the first the Soul puts on the affections of a Child and devests it self of its own interest offering it self up wholly to the designs and glorifications of God In the second it puts on the relation and duty of a Subject to her legitimate Prince seeking the promotion of his Regal Interest In the third she puts on the affection of a Spouse loving the same love and chusing the same object and delighting in unions and conformities The next part descends lower and makes addresses to God in relation to our own necessities 7. Give us this day our daily bread That is Give unto us all that is necessary for the support of our lives the bread of our necessity so the Syriack Interpreter reads it This day give us the portion of bread which is day by day necessary Give us the bread or support which we shall need all our lives only this day minister our present part For we pray for the necessary bread or maintenance which God knows we shall need all our days but that we be not careful for to morrow we are taught to pray not that it be all at once represented or deposited but that God would minister it as we need it how he pleases but our needs are to be the measure of our desires our desires must not make our needs that we may be consident of the Divine Providence and not at all covetous for therefore God feeds his people with extemporary provisions that by needing always they may learn to pray to him and by being still supplied may learn to trust him for the future and thank him for that is past and rejoyce in the present So God rained down Manna giving them their daily portion and so all Fathers and Masters minister to their children and servants giving them their proportion as they eat it not the meat of a year at once and yet no child or servant fears want if his Parent or Lord were good and wise and rich And it is necessary for all to pray this Prayer the Poor because they want the bread and have it not deposited but in the hands of God mercy ploughing the 〈◊〉 of Heaven as Job's expression is brings them corn
Holy Jesus condemned in the Gentiles who in their Hymns would say a name over a hundred times But in this we have no rule to determine us in numbers and proportion but right Reason God loves not any words the more for being said often and those repetitions which are unreasonable in prudent estimation cannot in any account be esteemed pious But where a reasonable cause allows the repetition the same cause that makes it reasonable makes it also proper for Devotion He that speaks his needs and expresses nothing but his fervour and greatness of desire cannot be vain or long in his Prayers he that speaks impertinently that is unreasonably and without desires is long though he speak but two syllables he that thinks for speaking much to be heard the sooner thinks God is delighted in the labour of the lips but when Reason is the guide and Piety is the rule and Necessity is the measure and Desire gives the proportion let the Prayer be very long he that shall blame it for its length must proclaim his disrelish both of Reason and Religion his despite of Necessity and contempt of Zeal 20. As a part and instance of our importunity in Prayer it is usually reckoned and advised that in cases of great sudden and violent need we corroborate our Prayers with a Vow of doing something holy and religious in an uncommanded instance something to which God had not formerly bound our duty though fairly invited our will or else if we chuse a Duty in which we were obliged then to vow the doing of it in a more excellent manner with a greater inclination of the Will with a more fervent repetition of the act with some more noble circumstance with a fuller assent of the Understanding or else adding a new Promise to our old Duty to make it become more necessary to us and to secure our duty In this case as it requires great prudence and caution in the susception lest what we piously intend obtain a present blessing and lay a lasting snare so if it be prudent in the manner holy in the matter useful in the consequence and safe in all the circumstances of the person it is an endearing us and our Prayer to God by the increase of duty and charity and therefore a more probable way of making our Prayers gracious and acceptable And the religion of Vows was not only hallowed by the example of Jacob at Bethel of Hannah praying for a child and God hearing her of David vowing a Temple to God and made regular and safe by the rules and cautions in Moses's Law but left by our Blessed Saviour in the same constitution he found it he having innovated nothing in the matter of Vows and it was practised accordingly in the instance of S. Paul at Cenchrea of Ananias and Sapphira who vowed their possessions to the use of the Church and of the Widows in the Apostolical age who therefore vowed to remain in the state of widowhood because concerning them who married after the entry into Religion S. Paul says they have broken their first faith and such were they of whom our Blessed Saviour affirms that some make themselves 〈◊〉 for the kingdom of Heaven that is such who promise to God a life of Chastity And concerning the success of Prayer so seconded with a prudent and religious Vow besides the instances of Scripture we have the perpetual experience and witness of all Christendom and in particular our Saxon Kings have been remarked for this part of importunity in their own Chronicles Oswy got a great victory with unlikely forces against Penda the 〈◊〉 after his earnest Prayer and an appendent Vow and Ceadwalla obtained of God power to recover the Isle of Wight from the hands of Infidels after he had prayed and promised to return the fourth part of it to be imployed in the proper services of God and of Religion This can have no objection or suspicion in it among wise and disabused persons for it can be nothing but an encreasing and a renewed act of Duty or Devotion or Zeal or Charity and the importunity of Prayer acted in a more vital and real expression 21. First All else that is to be considered concerning Prayer is extrinsecal and accidental to it Prayer is publick or private in the communion or society of Saints or in our Closets these Prayers have less temptation to vanity the other have more advantages of Charity example fervour and energy In publick offices we avoid singularity in the private we avoid hypocrisie those are of more 〈◊〉 these of greater retiredness and silence of spirit those serve the needs of all the world in the first intention and our own by consequence these serve our own needs first and the publick only by a secondary intention these have more pleasure they more duty these are the best instruments of Repentance where our Confessions may be more particular and our shame less scandalous the other are better for Eucharist and instruction for edification of the Church and glorification of God 22. Secondly The posture of our bodies in Prayer had as great variety as the Ceremonies and civilities of several Nations came to The Jews most commonly prayed standing so did the Pharisee and the Publican in the Temple So did the Primitive Christians in all their greater Festivals and intervals of Jubilee in their Penances they kneeled The Monks in 〈◊〉 sate when they sang the Psalter And in every Country whatsoever by the custom of the Nation was a symbol of reverence and humility of silence and attention of gravity and modesty that posture they translated to their Prayers But in all Nations bowing the head that is a laying down our glory at the feet of God was the manner of Worshippers and this was always the more humble and the lower as their Devotion was higher and was very often expressed by prostration or lying flat upon the ground and this all Nations did and all Religions Our deportment ought to be grave decent humble apt for adoration apt to edisie and when we address our selves to Prayer not instantly to leap into the office as the Judges of the Areopage into their sentence without preface or preparatory affections but considering in what presence we speak and to what purposes let us balance our servour with reverential fear and when we have done not rise from the ground as if we vaulted or were glad we had done but as we begin with desires of assistance so end with desires of pardon and acceptance concluding our longer offices with a shorter mental Prayer of more private reflexion and reverence designing to mend what we have done amiss or to give thanks and proceed if we did well and according to our powers 23. Thirdly In private Prayers it is permitted to every man to speak his Prayers or only to think them which is a speaking to God Vocal
Breach of publick faith desending Pirates and the like When a publick Judgment comes upon a Nation these things are to be thought upon that we may not think our selves acquitted by crying out against Swearing and Drunkenness and Cheating in manufactures which unless they be of universal dissemination and made national by diffusion are paid for upon a personal score and the private infelicities of our lives will either expiate or punish them severely But while the People mourns for those sins of which their low condition is capable sins that may produce a popular Fever or perhaps the Plague where the misery dwells in Cottages and the Princes often have indemnity as it was in the case of David yet we may not hope to appease a War to master a Rebellion to cure the publick Distemperatures of a Kingdom which threaten not the People only or the Governours also but even the Government it self unless the sins of a more publick capacity be cut off by publick declarations or other acts of national Justice and Religion But the duty which concerns us all in such cases is that every man in every capacity should enquire into himself and for his own portion of the Calamity put in his own symbol of Emendation for his particular and his Prayers for the publick interest in which it is not safe that any private persons should descend to particular censures of the crimes of Princes and States no not towards God unless the matter be notorious and past a question but it is a sufficient assoilment of this part of his duty if when he hath set his own house in order he would pray with indefinite significations of his charity and care of the publick that God would put it into the hearts of all whom it concerns to endeavour the removal of the sin that hath brought the exterminating Angel upon the Nation But yet there are sometimes great lines drawn by God in the expresses of his anger in some Judgments upon a Nation and when the Judgment is of that danger as to invade the very Constitution of a Kingdom the proportions that Judgments many times keep to their sins intimate that there is some National sin in which either by diffusion or representation or in the direct matter of sins as false Oaths unjust Wars wicked Confederacies or ungodly Laws the Nation in the publick capacity is delinquent 12. For as the Nation hath in Sins a capacity distinct from the sins of all the People inasmuch as the Nation is united in one Head guarded by a distinct and a higher Angel as Persia by Saint Michael transacts affairs in a publick right transmits insluence to all particulars from a common fountain and hath entercourse with other collective Bodies who also distinguish from their own particulars so likewise it hath Punishments distinct from those infelicities which vex particulars Punishments proportionable to it self and to its own Sins such as are Change of Governments of better into worse of Monarchy into Aristocracy and so to the lowest ebb of Democracy Death of Princes Infant Kings Forein Invasions Civil Wars a disputable Title to the Crown making a Nation tributary Conquest by a Foreiner and which is worst of all removing the Candlestick from a People by extinction of the Church or that which is necessary to its conservation the several Orders and Ministeries of Religion and the last hath also proper sins of its own analogy such as are false Articles in the publick Confessions of a Church Schism from the Catholick publick Scandals a general Viciousness of the Clergy an Indifferency in Religion without warmth and holy fires of Zeal and diligent pursuance of all its just and holy interests Now in these and all parallel cases when God by Punishments hath probably marked and distinguished the Crime it concerns publick persons to be the more forward and importunate in consideration of publick Irregularities and for the private also not to neglect their own particulars for by that means although not certainly yet probably they may secure themselves from falling in the publick calamity It is not infallibly sure that holy persons shall not be smitten by the destroying Angel for God in such deaths hath many ends of mercy and some of Providence to serve but such private and personal emendations and Devotions are the greatest securities of the men against the Judgment or the evil of it preserving them in this life or wasting them over to a better Thus many of the Lord's champions did fall in battel and the armies of the 〈◊〉 did twice prevail upon the juster People of all Israel and the Greek Empire hath declined and shrunk under the fortune and power of the Ottoman Family and the Holy Land which was twice possessed by Christian Princes is now in the dominion of unchristened Saracens and in the production of these alterations many a gallant and pious person suffered the evils of war and the change of an untimely death 13. But the way for the whole Nation to proceed in cases of epidemical Diseases Wars great Judgments and popular Calamities is to do in the publick proportion the same that every man is to do for his private by publick acts of Justice Repentance Fastings pious Laws and execution of just and religious Edicts making peace quitting of unjust interests declaring publickly against a Crime protesting in behalf of the contrary Vertue or Religion and to this also every man as he is a member of the body politick must co-operate that by a Repentance in diffusion help may come as well as by a Sin of universal dissemination the Plague was hastened and invited the rather But in these cases all the work of discerning and pronouncing concerning the cause of the Judgment as it must be without asperity and only for designs of correction and emendation so it must be done by Kings and Prophets and the assistence of other publick persons to whom the publick is committed Josua cast lots upon Achan and discovered the publick trouble in a private instance and of old the Prophets had it in commission to reprove the popular iniquity of Nations and the consederate sins of Kingdomes and in this Christianity altered nothing And when this is done modestly prudently humbly and penitently oftentimes the tables turn immediately but always in due time and a great Alteration in a Kingdome becomes the greatest Blessing in the world and fastens the Church or the Crown or the publick Peace in bands of great continuance and security and it may be the next Age shall feel the benefits of our Sufferance and Repentance And therefore as we must endeavour to secure it so we must not be too decretory in the case of others or disconsolate or diffident in our own when it may so happen that all succeeding generations shall see that God pardoned us and loved us even when he smote us Let us all learn to fear and walk humbly The Churches of Laodicea and the Colossians suffered
dead Husband was dissolved into ashes and disappeared in the form of a body And it were well that so long as the consecrated Symbols remain within us according to common estimate we should keep the flame bright and the perfume of an actual Devotion burning that our Communion be not a transient act but a permanent and lasting intercourse with our Lord. But in this every man best knows his own opportunities and necessities of diversion I only commend earnestly to practice that every Receiver should make a recollection of himself and the actions of the day that he improve it to the best advantage that he shew unto our Lord all the defects of his house all his poverty and weaknesses and this let every man do by such actions and Devotions which he can best attend and himself by the advice of a Spiritual man finds of best advantage I would not make the practice of Religion especially in such irregular instances to be an art or a burthen or a snare to scrupulous persons What S. Paul said in the 〈◊〉 of Charity I say also in this He that sows plentifully shall reap plentifully and he that 〈◊〉 sparingly shall gather at the same rate let every man do as himself purposeth in his heart Only it were well in this Sacrament of Love we had some correspondency and proportionable returns of Charity and religious affections 18. Some religious persons have moved a Question Whether it were better to communicate often or seldom some thinking it more reverence to those holy Mysteries to come but seldom while others say it is greater Religion or Charity to come frequently But I suppose this Question does not differ much from a dispute Whether is better to pray often or to pray seldom For whatsoever is commonly pretended against a frequent Communion may in its proportion object against a solemn Prayer 〈◊〉 affection to a sin enmity with neighbours secular avocations to the height of care and trouble for these either are great undecencies in order to a holy Prayer or else are direct irregularities and unhallow the Prayer And the celebration of the holy Sacrament is in it self and its own formality a sacred solemn and ritual Prayer in which we invocate God by the Merits of Christ expressing that adjuration not only in words but in actual representment and commemoration of his Passion And if the necessities of the Church were well considered we should find that a daily Sacrifice of Prayer and a daily Prayer of Sacrifice were no more but what her condition requires and I would to God the Governours of Churches would take care that the necessities of Kings and Kingdoms of Churches and States were represented to God by the most solemn and 〈◊〉 intercessions and Christ hath taught us none greater than the praying in the virtue and 〈◊〉 of his Sacrifice And this is the counsel that the Church received from Ignatius Haslen frequently to approach the 〈◊〉 the glory of God For when this is daily celebrated we break the powers of Satan who turns all his actions into 〈◊〉 and darts of fire But this concerns the Ministers of Religion who living in Communities and Colledges must make Religion the business of their lives and support Kingdoms and serve the interest of Kings by the prayer of a daily sacrifice And yet in this ministery the Clergy may serve their own necessary affairs if the ministration be divided into courses as it was by the oeconomy and wisdom of Solomon for the Temple 19. But concerning the Communion of Secular and lay persons the consideration is something different S. Austin gave this answer to it To receive the Sacrament every day I neither praise nor reprove at least let them receive it every Lord's day And this he spake to Husbandmen and Merchants At the first commencement of Christianity while the fervors Apostolical and the calentures of infant Christendom did last the whole assembly of faithsul people communicated every day and this lasted in Rome and Spain until the time of S. Jerome concerning which diligence he gives the same 〈◊〉 which I now recited from S. Austin for it suffered inconvenience by reason of a declining Piety and the intervening of secular interests But then it came to once a week and yet that was not every-where strictly observed But that it be received once every fortnight S. 〈◊〉 counsels very strongly to Eustochium a holy Virgin Let the 〈◊〉 confess their sins twice every month or 〈◊〉 and being fortified with the communion of the Lord's Body let them manfully fight against the Devil's forces and attempts A while 〈◊〉 it came to once a month then once a year then it fell from that too till all the Christians in the West were commanded to communicate every Easter by the Decree of a great Council above 500 years since But the Church of England finding that too little hath commanded all her Children to receive thrice every year at least intending that they should come oftner but of this she demands an account For it hath fared with this Sacrament as with other actions of Religion which have descended 〈◊〉 flames to still fires from fires to sparks from sparks to embers from embers to smoke from smoke to nothing And although the publick 〈◊〉 of Piety is such that in this present conjuncture of things it is impossible men should be reduced to a daily Communion yet that they are to communicate frequently is so a Duty that as no excuse but impossibility can make the omission innocent so the loss and consequent want is infinite and invaluable 20. For the holy Communion being a remembrance and sacramental repetition of Christ's Passion and the application of his Sacrifice to us and the whole Catholick Church as they who seldom communicate delight not to remember the Passion of our Lord and sin against his very purpose and one of the designs of institution so he cares not to receive the benefits of the Sacrifice who so neglects their application and reducing them to actual profit and 〈◊〉 Whence came the sanctimony of the primitive Christians whence came their strict observation of the Divine Commandments whence was it that they persevered in holy actions with hope and an unweary diligence from whence did their despising worldly things come and living with common possession and the distributions of an universal Charity Whence came these and many other excellencies but from a constant Prayer and a daily Eucharist They who every day represented the death of Christ every day were ready to die for Christ. It was the discourse of an ancient and excellent person And if we consider this Sacrament is intended to unite the spirits and affections of the world and that it is diffusive and powerful to this purpose for we are one body saith S. Paul because we partake of one bread possibly we may have reason to say that the wars of Kingdoms the animosity of Families the infinite
though less perfectly it ought not to be denied and they less ought to neglect it 25. But as every man must put himself so also he must put his house in order make his Will if he have an Estate to dispose of and in that he must be careful to do Justice to every man and Charity to the poor according as God hath enabled him and though Charity is then very late if it begins not earlier yet if this be but an act of an ancient habit it is still more perfect as it succeeds in time and superadds to the former stock And among other acts of Duty let it be remembred that it is excellent Charity to leave our Will and desires clear plain and determinate that contention and Law-suits may be prevented by the explicate declaration of the Legacies At last and in all instances and periods of our following days let the former good acts be renewed let God be praised for all his Graces and Blessings of our life let him be intreated for Pardon of our sins let acts of Love and Contrition of Hope of Joy of Humility be the work of every day which God still permits us always remembring to ask remission for those sins we remember not And if the condition of our sickness permits it let our last breath expire with an act of Love that it may begin the Charities of Eternity and like a Taper burnt to its lowest base it may go out with a great emission of light leaving a sweet smell behind us to perfume our Coffin and that these lights newly made brighter or trimmed up in our sickness may shine about our Herse that they may become arguments of a pious sadness to our friends as the charitable Coats which Dorcas made were to the widows and exemplar to all those who observed or shall hear of our holy life and religious death But if it shall happen that the disease be productive of evil accidents as a disturbed phancy a weakned understanding wild discoursings or any deprivation of the use of Reason it concerns the sick persons in the happy intervalls of a quiet untroubled spirit to pray earnestly to God that nothing may pass from him in the rages of a Fever or worse distemper which may less become his duty or give scandal or cause trouble to the persons in attendance and if he shall also renounce and disclaim all such evil words which his disease may speak not himself he shall do the duty of a Christian and a prudent person And after these 〈◊〉 he may with Piety and confidence resign his Soul into the hands of God to be deposited in holy receptacles till the day of restitution of all things and in the mean time with a quiet spirit descend into that state which is the lot of Caesars and where all Kings and Conquerours have laid aside their glories The PRAYER O Eternal and Holy Jesus who by Death hast overcome Death and by thy Passion hast taken out its sting and made it to become one of the gates of Heaven and an entrance to Felicity have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death let thy Grace accompany me all the days of my life that I may by a holy Conversation and an habitual performance of my Duty wait for the coming of our Lord and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come Lord let not my death be in any sence unprovided nor untimely nor hasty but after the common manner of men having in it nothing extraordinary but an extraordinary Piety and the manifestation of a great and miraculous Mercy Let my Senses and Understanding be preserved intire till the last of my days and grant that I may die the death of the righteous having first discharged all my obligations of justice leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives and let thy blessing descend upon their heads and abide there till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church and bless my Death bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide with the assistence and guard of Angels with the perception of the holy Sacrament with Patience and dereliction of my own 〈◊〉 with a strong Faith and a firm and humble Hope with just measures of Repentance and great treasures of Charity to thee my God and to all the world that my Soul in the arms of the Holy Jesus may be deposited with safety and joy there to expect the revelation of thy Day and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdom O Eternal and Holy Jesus Amen Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS He beareth his Cross Ioh 19. 16. 17. And they took Iesus and lead him away 17. And he bearing his Cross went forth into a place called the place of a Scult which is called in y e Hebrew Golgotha They Erect the Crucifixe Ioh 3. 14. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in y e wilderness even so must y e Son of man be lifted up 15. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but haue eternall life 1. WHen the Sentence of Death pronounced against the Lord was to be put in execution the Souldiers pulled off the Robe of mockery the scarlet Mantle which in jest they put upon him and put on his own garments But as Origen observes the Evangelist mentioned not that they took off the Crown of thorns what might serve their interest they pursue but nothing of remission or mercy to the afflicted Son of man but so it became the King of Sufferings not to lay aside his Imperial thorns till they were changed into Diadems of Glory But now Abel is led forth by his brother to be slain A gay spectacle to satisfie impious eyes who would not stay behind but attended and waited upon the hangman to see the Catastrophe of this bloudy Tragedy But when Piety looks on she beholds a glorious mystery Sin laughed to see the King of Heaven and Earth and the great lover of Souls in stead of the Scepter of his Kingdom to bear a Tree of 〈◊〉 and shame But Plety wept tears of pity and knew they would melt into joy when she should behold that Cross which loaded the shoulders of her Lord afterward sit upon the Scepters and be engraved and signed upon the Foreheads of Kings 2. It cannot be thought but the Ministers of Jewish malice used all the circumstances of affliction which in any case were accustomed towards malefactors and persons to be crucified and therefore it was that in some old Figures we see our Blessed Lord described with a Table appendent to the fringe of his garment set full of nails and pointed iron for so sometimes they afflicted persons condemned to that kind of Death and S. Cyprian affirms that Christ did stick to the wood that he carried being
of Visions 61. 23. Sins of Infirmity explicated 105. 10. seq Intentions though good excuse not evil Actions 107. 13. Incontinence destroys the Spirit of Government 189. 5. Instruments weak and unlikely used by GOD to great purposes 197. Incarnation of Jesus instrumental to God's Glory and our Peace 31. Inevitable Infirmities consistent with a state of Grace 207. Injuries great and little to be forgiven 252. Intention of Spirit how necessary in our Prayers 267. 17. Images their Lawfulness or unlawfulness considered 237. 16. Admitted into the Church with difficulty and by degrees 237. 16. Images of Jupiter and Diana Cyndias did ridiculous and weak Miracles 279. 7. Imprisonment sanctified by the binding of Jesus 387. Ingratitude of Judas 360. 9. John the Baptist his Life and Death 66. 5. 77. 78. and 79. 93. 292. 18. His Baptism 93. Whether the form of it were in the Name of Christ to come ibid. Joyes spiritual increase by communication 156. 3. Joyes of Eternity recompense all our Sorrowes in every instant of their fruition 426. Joyes sudden and violent are to be allayed by reflexion on the vilest of our Sins 196. 7. John Patriarch of Alexandria appeased the anger of Patricius 245. 30. Innocence is security against evil Actions 10. Justice of GOD in punishing Jesus cleared 415. 7 8. Several degrees of Justification answerable to several degrees of Faith 162. 7. Judgment of Life and Death is to be only by the supreme Power or his Deputy 253. A Jew condemned of Idolatry for throwing stones though in detestation at the Idol of Mercury 354. 32. Judging our Brother how far prohibited 260. 5. Judas's name written in Heaven and blotted 〈◊〉 again 313. 1. His manner of death 352. 25. Ingrateful 360. 8. He valued the Ointment at the same rate he sold his Lord 361. 11. He enjoyed his Money not Ten Hours 386. 7. Julian desired but could not be a Magician 361. 10. Judgment of GOD upon Sinners their causes and manner 336. 1. seq Judgments National 340. 8. Not easily understood by Men 339. 5. Joseph of Arimath embalmed the Body of Jesus 356. 38. Whether Judas received the Holy Sacrament 375. 13. K. KIng and Church have the same Friends and Enemies 336. Kingdom of Christ not of this World 352. What it is 392. 8. Kingdom of God what 263. 5. Kingdom of Grace and Glory ibid. A King came to Jesus in behalf of his Son 182. 6. Kings specially to be prayed for 365. 13. King's Enemies how to be prayed against ibid. To Kill the assaulting Person in what cases lawful 253. 3. L. LAws evil make a National Sin 341. 10. Law of Nature Vide Pref. per tot 20. 7. Laws of Man to be obeyed but not always to be thought most reasonable 42. 7. 48. 21. Laws of God and Man in respect of the greatness of the subject matter compared 46. 49. Laws of Men bind not to Death or an insufferable Calamity rather than not to break them 48. 21. Laws of Superiours not to be too freely disputed by Subjects 49. 23. Laws of order to be observed even when the first reason ceases 52. 1. It is not safe to do all that is lawful 45. 15 16. Law and Gospel how differ 194. 3. 232. 3. 295. S. Paul often by a Fiction of Person speaks of himself not as in the state of Regeneration under the Gospel but as under the imperfections of the Law 104. 8. Law of Nature perfected by Christianity Pref. Law of Moses a Law of Works how 232. Law of Jesus a Law of the Spirit and not of Works in what sence ibid. Law-Suits to be managed charitably 256. When lawful to be undertaken ibid. Lazarus restored to Life 345. 2. Leonigildus kill'd his Daughter for not communicating with the Arians 188. 2. Leven of Herod what 321. 8. Lepers cured 324. 18. Sent to the Priest ibid. Unthankful ibid. The Levantine Churches afflicted the cause uncertain 338. 4. S. Laurence his Gridiron less hot than his Love 358. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 17. Life of Man cut off for Sin 303. 305. It hath several periods ibid. 274. Good life necessary to make our Prayers acceptable 266. 13. A comparison between a Life in Solitude and in Society 80. 5. Lord's Supper the greatest of Christian Rites 369. It manifests God's Power 371. 4. His Wisdome and his Charity 371. 5 6. It is a Sacrament of Union 371. 5 6. A Sacrament and a Sacrifice in what sence 372. 7. As it is an act of the Ecclesiastical Officer of what efficacy 373. 8. It is expressed in mysterious words when the value is recited 373. Not to be administred to vicious persons 374. 12. Whether persons vicious under suspicion only are to be deprived of it 376. 13. How to be received 377. 15. What deportment to be used after it 378. 17. To be received by dying Persons 407. 23. Of what benefit it is to them ibid. Love and Obedience Duties of the first Commandment 234. 8. Love and Obedience reconciled 427. 9. Love of God its extension 234. 9. It s intension ibid. n. 11. Love the fulfilling of the Law explicated 233. 5. It consists in latitude 236. 13. It must exclude all affection to sin ibid. 14. Signs of true love to God 236. 14. Love to God with all our hearts possible and in what sence ibid. Love of God and love of money compared 361. 11. Lord's Day by what authority to be observed 244. 24. And how ibid. Lucian's Cynick an Hypocrite 366. 7. Likeness to God being desired at first ruined us now restores us 364. 3. Lying in that degree is criminal as it is injurious 250. 40. M. MArriage honoured by Christ's presence and the first Miracle 154. Hallowed to a Mystery 158. 8. Marriage-breakers are more criminal now than under Moses's Law 158. The smaller undecencies must be prevented or deprecated Of Martyrdom 229. 18. Magi at the sight of Christ's Poverty renounce the World and retire into Philosophy 28. 13. Mary a Virgin alwayes 14. 2. An excellent Personage 2 3. 8. She conceived Jesus without Sin and brought him forth without Pain 13. Her joy at the Prophecies concerning her Son attempered with Predictions of his Passion 30. 4. Full of Fears when she lost Jesus 73. 1. She went to the Temple to pray and there found him ibid. Full of Piety in Her countenance and deportment 113. 32. She converted many to thoughts of Chastity by her countenance and aspect ibid. Mary Magdalen's Story 377. 9. 360. 5. 391. 9. 346. 5. 349. 13. Mary's Choice preferred 326. 26. Mark for sook Jesus upon a Scandal taken but was reduced by S. Peter 320. 3. Malchus an Idumaean Slave smote Jesus on the Face 389. 1. Meditation described 54. It turns the understanding into spirit 55. Its Parts Actions manner of Exercise Fruits and Effects Disc. 3. per tot 54. Men ought not to run into the Ministery till they are called 99. 3.
the injurious if I be not Judge my self is also within the moderation of an unblameable defence unless some accidents or circumstances vary the case but forgiving injuries is a separating the malice from the wrong the transient act from the permanent effect and it is certain the act which is passed cannot be rescinded the effect may and if it cannot it does no way alleviate the evil of the accident that I draw him that caused it into as great a misery since every evil happening in the world is the proper object of pity which is in some sense afflictive and therefore unless we become unnatural and without bowels it is most unreasonable that we should encrease our own afflictions by introducing a new misery and making a new object of pity All the ends of humane Felicity are secured without Revenge for without it we are permitted to restore our selves and therefore it is against natural Reason to do an evil that no way cooperates towards the proper and perfective End of humane nature And he is a miserable person whose good is the evil of his neighbour and he that revenges in many cases does worse than he that did the injury in all cases as bad For if the first injury was an injustice to serve an end of an advantage and real benefit then my revenge which is abstracted and of a consideration separate and distinct from the reparation is worse for I do him evil without doing my self any real good which he did not for he received advantage by it But if the first injury was matter of mere malice without advantage yet it is no worse than Revenge for that is just so and there is as much phantastick pleasure in doing a spight as in doing revenge They are both but like the pleasures of eating coals and toads and vipers And certain it is if a man upon his private stock could be permitted to revenge the evil would be immortal And it is rarely well discoursed by Tyndarus in Euripides If the angry Wife shall kill her Husband the Son shall revenge his Father's death and kill his Mother and then the Brother shall kill his Mother's murtherer and he also will meet with an avenger for killing his Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What end shall there be to such inhumane and sad accidents If in this there be injustice it is against natural Reason and If it be evil and disorders the felicity and security of Society it is also against natural Reason But if it be just it is a strange Justice that is made up of so many inhumanities 41. And now if any man pretends specially to Reason to the ordinate desires and perfections of Nature and the sober discourses of Philosophy here is in Christianity and no-where else enough to satisfie and inform his Reason to perfect his Nature and to reduce to act all the Propositions of an intelligent and wise spirit And the Holy Ghost is promised and given in our Religion to be an eternal band to keep our Reason from returning to the darknesses of the old creation and to promote the ends of our natural and proper Felicity For it is not a vain thing that S. Paul reckons helps and governments and healings to be fruits of the Spirit For since the two greatest Blessings of the world personal and political consist that in Health this in Government and the ends of humane Felicity are served in nothing greater for the present interval than in these two Christ did not only enjoyn rare prescriptions of Health such as are Fasting Temperance Chastity and Sobriety and all the great endearments of Government and unless they be sacredly observed man is infinitely miserable but also hath given his Spirit that is extraordinary aids to the promoting these two and facilitating the work of Nature that as S. Paul says at the end of a discourse to this very purpose the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us 42. I shall add nothing but this single consideration God said to the children of Israel Ye are a royal Priesthood a Kingdom of Priests Which was therefore true because God reigned by the Priests and the Priests lips did then preserve knowledge and the people were to receive the Law from their mouths for God having by Laws of his own established Religion and the Republick did govern by the rule of the Law and the ministery of the Priests The Priests said Thus saith the LORD and the people obeyed And these very words are spoken to the Christian Church Ye are a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light That is God reigns over all Christendom just as he did over the Jews He hath now so given to them and restored respectively all those reasonable Laws which are in order to all good ends personal oeconomical and political that if men will suffer Christian Religion to do its last intention if men will live according to it there needs no other coercion of Laws or power of the Sword The Laws of God revealed by Christ are sufficient to make all societies of men happy and over all good men God reigns by his Ministers by the preaching of the Word And this was most evident in the three first Ages of the Church in which all Christian Societies were for all their proper entercourses perfectly guided not by the authority and compulsion but by the Sermons of their Spiritual Guides insomuch that S. Paul sharply reprehends the Corinthians that Brother goeth to law with Brother and that before the unbelievers as if he had said Ye will not suffer Christ to be your Judge and his Law to be your Rule which indeed was a great fault among them not only because they had so excellent a Law so clearly described or where they might doubt they had infallible Interpreters so reasonable and profitable so evidently concurring to their mutual felicity but also because God did design Jesus to be their King to reign over them by spiritual regiment as himself did over the Jews till they chose a King And when the Emperors became Christian the case was no otherwise altered but that the Princes themselves submitting to Christ's yoke were as all other Christians are for their proportion to be governed by the Royal Priesthood that is by the Word preached by Apostolical persons the political Interest remaining as before save that by being submitted to the Laws of Christ it received this advantage that all Justice was turned to be Religion and became necessary and bound upon the Conscience by Divinity And when it happens that a Kingdom is converted to Christianity the Common-wealth is made a Church and Gentile Priests are Christian Bishops and the Subjects of the Kingdom are Servants of Christ the Religion of the Nation is turned Christian and the Law of the Nation made a part
of the Religion there is no change of Government but that Christ is made King and the Temporal Power is his substitute and is to promote the interest of Obedience to him as before he did to Christ's enemy Christ having left his Ministers as Lieger Embassadors to signifie and publish the Laws of Jesus to pray all in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God so that over the obedient Christ wholly reigns by his Ministers publishing his Laws over the disobedient by the Prince also putting those Laws in execution And in this sense it is that S. Paul says Bonis Lex non est posita To such who live after the Spirit there is no Law that is there needs no coercion But now if we reject God from reigning over us and say like the people in the Gospel Nolumus hunc regnare We will not have him to reign over us by the ministery of his Word by the Empire of the Royal Priesthood then we return to the condition of Heathens and persons sitting in darkness then God hath armed the Temporal Power with a Sword to cut us off If we obey not God speaking by his Ministers that is if we live not according to the excellent Laws of Christianity that is holily soberly and justly in all our relations he hath placed three Swords against us the Sword of the Spirit against the unholy and irreligious the Sword of natural and supervening Infelicities upon the intemperate and unsober and the Sword of Kings against the unjust to remonstrate the excellency of Christianity and how certainly it leads to all the Felicity of man because every transgression of this Law according to its proportion makes men unhappy and unfortunate 43. What effect this Discourse may have I know not I intended it to do honour to Christianity and to represent it to be the best Religion in the World and the conjugation of all excellent things that were in any Religion or in any Philosophy or in any Discourses For whatsoever was honest whatsoever was noble whatsoever was wise whatsoever was of good report if there be any praise if there be any vertue it is in Christianity For even to follow all these instances of excellency is a Precept of Christianity And 〈◊〉 they that pretend to Reason cannot more reasonably endear themselves to the reputation of Reason than by endearing their Reason to Christianity the conclusions and belief of which is the most reasonable and perfect the most excellent design and complying with the noblest and most proper Ends of Man And if this Gate may suffice to invite such persons into the Recesses of the 〈◊〉 then I shall tell them that I have dressed it in the ensuing Books with some variety and as the nature of the Religion is some parts whereof are apt to satisfie our discourse some to move our affections and yet all of this to relate to practice so is the design of the following pages For some men are wholly made up of Passion and their very Religion is but Passion put into the family and society of holy purposes and sor those I have prepared Considerations upon the special Parts of the Life of the Holy Jesus and yet there also are some things mingled in the least severe and most affectionate parts which may help to answer a Question and appease a Scruple and may give Rule for Determination of many cases of Conscience For I have so ordered the Considerations that they spend not themselves in mere affections and ineffective passions but they are made Doctrinal and little repositories of Duty But because of the variety of mens spirits and of mens necessities it was necessary I should interpose some practical Discourses more severe For it is but a sad thought to consider that Piety and Books of Devotion are counted but entertainment for little understandings and softer spirits and although there is much sault in such imperious minds that they will not distinguish the weakness of the Writers from the reasonableness and wisdom of the Religion yet I cannot but think the Books themselves are in a large degree the occasion of so great indevotion because they are some few excepted represented naked in the conclusions of spiritual life without or art or learning and made apt for persons who can do nothing but believe and love not for them that can consider and love And it is not well that since nothing is more reasonable and excellent in all perfections spiritual than the Doctrines of the Spirit or holy life yet nothing is offered to us so unlearnedly as this is so miserable and empty of all its own intellectual perfections If I could I would have had it otherwise in the present Books for since the Understanding is not an idle Faculty in a spiritual life but hugely operative to all excellent and reasonable choices it were very fit that this Faculty were also entertained by such discourses which God intended as instruments of hallowing it as he intended it towards the sanctification of the whole man For want of it busie and active men entertain themselves with notions infinitely unsatisfying and unprofitable But in the mean time they are not so wise For concerning those that study unprofitable Notions and neglect not only that which is wisest but that also which is of most real advantage I cannot but think as Aristotle did of Thales and Anaxagoras that they may be learned but they are not wise or wise but not prudent when they are ignorant of such things as are profitable to them For suppose they know the wonders of Nature and the subtilties of Metaphysicks and operations Mathematical yet they cannot be prudent who spend themselves wholly upon unprofitable and ineffective contemplations He is truly wise that knows best to promote the best End that which he is bound to desire and is happy if he obtains and miserable if he misses and that is the End of a happy Eternity which is obtained by the only means of living according to the purposes of God and the prime intentions of Nature natural and prime Reason being now all one with the Christian Religion But then I shall only observe that this part of Wisdom and the excellency of its secret and deep Reason is not to be discerned but by Experience the Propositions of this Philosophy being as in many other Empirical and best found out by observation of real and material events So that I may say of Spiritual learning as Quintilian said of some of Plato's Books Nam Plato cum in aliis quibusdam tum praecipue in Timaeo ne intelligi quidem nisi abiis qui hanc quoque partem disciplinae Musicae diligenter perceperint potest The secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven are not understood truly and throughly but by the sons of the Kingdom and by them too in several degrees and to various purposes but to evil persons the whole systeme of this Wisdom is insipid and flat dull as the foot of a rock