of Sheba to draw near unto it and prove it in your selves And when you shall have practiced it in your selves you will say it was true indeed that you heard but you will feel more then you have heard or could hear by report We will therefore yet awhile longer detain you You have beheld the face of Meekness in her proper Subject which is every private man and in her proper Object which is as large as the whole world and takes in not only the Israel of God but the Amorite the Hittite the Amalekite not only the Christian but the Turk the Jew and the Pagan any man that is subject to the same passions any man that can suffer any man that can do an injury For Meekness runs round the whole circle and compass of mankind and binds every evil spirit conjures down every Devil she meets with Lastly we presented unto your view the Fitness and the Applicableness of this virtue to the Gospel and Church of Christ and told you that it is as it were the very breath of the Gospel the echo of that good news the best gloss and comment on a silent weeping crucified Saviour the best explanation of his last Prayer Father forgive them For the notes and characters of a Christian as they are described in the Gospel are Patience are easie putting up and digesting of injuries Humility a preferring of all before our selves And St. James tells us that the wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated where he giveth the first place unto Purity It would be a sin almost to compare Christian virtues together and make them strive for precedency and place yet he that shall mark how every where the Scripture strives to commend unto us Gentleness and Meekness and that Peace is it quam nobis Apostoli totis viribus Spiritûs Sancti commendant as Tertullian speaks which the Apostles endeavour with all the strength and force of the Holy Ghost to plant amongst us might be bold a little to invert the words of St. James and read them thus The wisdom which is from above is first peaceable gentle easie to be intreated then pure For the Son of God who is the Wisdom of the Father and who for us men came down from above first and above all other virtues commended this unto the world At his birth the Song of the Angels was Peace on earth and Good-will towards men All his Doctrine was Peace his whole life was Peace and no man heard his voice in the streets And as Christ so Christians For as in the building of Solomons Temple there was no noise of any hammer or other instrument of iron so in the spiritual building and frame of a Christian there is no sound of any iron no noise of weapons nothing but Peace and Gentleness and Meekness Ex praecepto fidei non minùs rea est Ira sine ratione suscepta quà m in operibus legis Homicidium saith Augustine Unadvised Anger by the law of Faith and the Gospel is as great a sin as Murder was in the Law of Moses Thus you have seen how proper Meekness is to the Gospel and Church of Christ Now in the last place we shall draw this Virtue forth to you as most necessary to the well-being not only of a Church but of every particular member of it necessary to lift us up to the Reward the inheritance of the earth Which whither you take for that Earth which is but earth or that Earth which by interpretation is Heaven ad omnia occurrit mansuetudo Meekness reacheth both both the Footstool and the Throne of God it gives us title to the things below and it makes us heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven Without this we can have no mansion in Heaven nor any quiet and peaceable possession of the earth And thus with our last hand we shall set you up that copy which you may draw out in your selves For Meekness in character in leaves of paper in our books is rather a shadow than a picture and soon vanisheth away but being drawn out in the soul and practice of a Christian it is a fair and lasting piece even the image of Christ himself which the Angels and God himself desire to look upon And with these we shall exercise your Christian Devotion at this time And first Meekness may seem most necessary to Christians if we consider the nature of Christianity it self which stands in opposition to all other Professions in the world confutes the Philosopher silenceth the Scribe strikes Oracles dumb cryes to every man in the world to go out of it Behold saith our Saviour to his Disciples I send you forth as sheep in the Matth. 10 16. midst of wolves which will tear you to pieces for no other reason but because you are sheep It is a disease very incident to men to be jealous of every breath which blows in opposition to that which they have already received to swell against that which is contrary to them and though it be true to suspect it to wonder what it should mean to be troubled and affraid of it as Herode and all Jerusalem were when the new Star appear'd and though it be as visible to any wise man as the Star was in the East yet to seek to put it out or if they cannot to destroy those over whom it stands And therefore Tertullian tells us Cum odio sui coepit that Christianity was hated as soon as known and did no sooner shew it self in the world but it found enemies who were ready to suppress and cast it out men that could hate it for no other reason but because it taught to love that could be angry with the Christian because he was meek and destroy him because he made it his profession to forgive men who counted Revenge no sin as the ancient Grecians did sometimes Theevery because it was so commonly practis'd amongst them Again as it was planted in rerum colluvie in the corruption of men and manners so it doth in a manner bid defiance to the whole world It tells the Jew his Ceremonies are beggerly the wise man of this world that his Philosophy is but deceit and his wisdom madness It plucks the Wanton from the harlots lips tumbles down the Ambitious from his pinacle disarms the Revenger strips the Rich. It writes over the Rich mans Gates Blessed are the poor over the Doctor 's Chair Where is the disputer of this world over the Temple NON LAPIS SUPER LAPIDEM That not a stone shall be left upon a stone which shall not be thrown down For a NON OCCIDES it brought down a NE IRASCARIS and made Anger Murder for a NON MAECHABERIS a NON CONCUPISCES and made Desire adultery It brought down sin to a look to a thought and therefore no marvell if there arose against Christians tot hostes quot extranei as many enemies as there were Heathen or Jews
at Christs Matth. 20. 21 right hand the other at his left in his kingdome And can Christ do this and thus submit himself Can he be a King that thus pays tribute Some fit and pang of this distemper did no doubt trouble the Disciples minds at this time They had been often troubled with it and had sundry times discust amongst themselves as we have observed who should be the greatest And now upon this occasion seeing Christ bowing to Autority and submitting to them whom they thought he came to destroy the fire burned and they spake with their tongue Seeing the Lord of heaven and earth thus challeng'd for tribute and thus gently yielding to pay it they lost the sight of his Power in his Humility they forgot the miracle of the Money in the fishes mouth because it was tribute And being struck with Admiration they began to enquire what Honors and what degrees of Greatness were in his Kingdome which is his Church and observing the King of Heaven himself thus subject to command instead of learning Humility they foment their Pride they awake their Ambition and rowse it up to seek the glory of this world they are bold to ask him who was the Master and patern of Humility Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven This I take to be the Occasion of this Question And so I pass from it to the Persons who moved it The Disciples came unto Jesus And the Disciples we doubt not had been well and often instructed that the Kingdome of Christ was not of this world but spiritual yet the prejudicate conceit they had of the Messias did shut up their understanding against this truth the shape they had drawn in their minds of Christ made Christ less visible in his own shape So hard it is homini hominem exuere for a man to put off himself for a man that looks for a Pearl to interpret it Grace for a man that is ambitious of Honor on earth to look for it in heaven Such a damp and darkness doth Prejudice cast upon the minds and understandings even of the best men even of Disciples of Christ For the Devil fits himself to the nature and disposition of every man What he said of the Jesuite JESUITA EST OMNIS HOMO a Jesuite is every man to every man can apply himself to all humors all dispositions is most true of our common enemy Satan He is in a manner made all things to all men If he cannot cast us down into the mire of carnal and bruitish sin he is very active and cunning to lift us up on the wings of the wind and to whiff us about with the desire of honor and priority Etiam in sin◠discipulorum ambitio dormit saith Cyprian Ambition finds a pillow to sleep on even in the bosome of Disciples themselves There she lyes as in a shade lurks as in a bed-chamber and at last she comes forth and you may behold her raising of palaces and measuring out kingdomes and you may hear her asking of questions Who shall be the greatest Multimoda Satanae ingenia saith Hierome the craft of Satan is various and his wiles and devises manifold He knows in what breast to kindle Lust into which to breathe Ambition He knows whom to cast down with Sorrow whom to deceive with Joy whom to shake with Fear and whom to mislead with Admiration He searcheth our affections he fans and winnows our hearts and makes that a bait to catch us withal which we most love and most look upon He fights as the Father speaks with our selves against our selves he makes snares of our own desires and binds and fetters us up with our own love If he overcome us with his more gross tentations he insults but if he fail there he then comes towards us with those tentations which are better clothed and better spoken He maketh curious nets entangles our phansie and we strait dream of Kingdomes If our weakness overthrow us not tropheis triumphisque succumbemus saith the Father our own tropheys and triumphs shall destroy us Like a wise Captain he plants all his force and artillery at that place which is weakest and most attemptable We see the Disciples hearts were here weakest and here lay most open hither therefore the Devil directs his darts here he placeth his engines to make a breach So dangerous a vice is Ambition and so hard a thing it is even for good men for mortified persons for the Disciples of Christ to avoid it Who shall be the greatest they are not alwaies the worst men that put up that question Tully observes of the Philosophers that though they wrote books of the Contempt of Glory yet they would set their names to those books and so seek for Glory by oppugning it and even woo it in the way of a bold defiance And Plutarch speaking of the Philosopher whose Dictor it was LATENTER VIVENDUM That a concealed life was best yet adds withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he would not have it concealed that this Dictor or speech was his What speak we of the Heathen Philosophers The Philosophers of God the Prophets of God have been much infested herewith Look upon Baruch When he thrived not in the King of Judah's Court he fell into discontent and repining so that the Prophet Jeremy is sent unto him with express message Seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not For I will bring evil upon the whole earth saith the Lord. Behold Jonah under his gourd What Jer. 45. 5. a pett and chafe is he in How irreverent to his God How doth he tell God even to his face that he did well to be angry even unto death And all this Anger from what fire was it kindled Certainly from no other then an overweaning conceit of his own reputation lest the sparing of Niniveh against which he had denounced ruin and destruction should disparage him with the people and lose him the name of a true Prophet And this we need not much marvail at if we consider the nature of this vice For first of all it is a choice vice preserved on purpose by the Divel to abuse the best nor will it grow in every soil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great and Noble natures the best capacities the most able wits these are the fat soil in which this weed grows Base and sordid natures seldom bear it What cares the Covetous person for Honor who will bow to durt What cares he for rising in repute who hath buried himself alive in the earth What cares he for a name that had rather see other mens names in his parchments then his own in the Book of Life What cares the Wanton for renown who had rather be crowned with roses then with a Diademe or will he desire to rise higher whose highest step is up to the bed of Lust and the embraces of a Strumpet These Swine love not such water as this nor such an oyntment as
and Preferments in the Kingdome of Christ Let us not fit Religion to our carnal desires but lay them down at the foot of Religion Make not Christianity to lacquey it after the World but let Christianity swallow up the World in victory Let us clip the wing of our Ambition and the more beware of it because it carries with it the shape and shew of Virtue For as we are told in Philosophy In habentibus symbolum facilior transmutatio amongst the Elements those two which have a quality common to both are easiliest changed one into the other so above all Vices we are most apt to fall into those which have some symbolizing quality some face and countenance of Goodness which are better drest and better clothed and bespeak us in the name of Virtue it self like a strumpet in a matrons stool Let us shun this as a most dangerous rock against which many a vessel of burden after a prosperous voyage hath dasht and sunk By Desire of honor and vain glory it comes to pass that many goodly and specious monuments which were dedicated rather to Honor then to God have destroyed and ruined their Founders who like unfortunate mothers have brought forth beautiful issues but themselves have dyed in the birth of them They have proved but like the ropes of silk and daggers of gold which Heliogabalus prepared to stab and strangle himself withall adding pretiosiorem mortem suam esse debere that his death ought to be more costly then other mens and they have served to no other end but this ut cariùs pereant that the workers of them might dye with greater state then other men and might fall to the lowest pit as the sword-players did in the Theater with noyse and applause I have spoken of the Occasion of the Question and of the Persons who put it Come we now in the last place to the Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven The Disciples here were mistaken in terminis in the very terms of their Question For neither is Greatness that which they supposed nor the Kingdome of heaven of that nature as to admit of that Greatness which their phansie had set up For by the Kingdome of heaven is meant in Scripture not the Kingdome of Glory but the Kingdome of Grace by which Christ sits and rules in the hearts of his Saints When John the Baptist preacht Repentance he told the Jews that the Kingdome of heaven is at hand When our Saviour tells us that it is like seed sowen in good ground like a net cast into the sea like a pearl like a treasure hid in the field what else can he mean but his Kingdome of Grace on earth not his Kingdome of Glory in heaven So that for the Disciples to ask Who is greatest in this kingdome was to shape out the Church of God by the World Much like to that which we read in Lucian of Priams young son who being taken up into heaven is brought-in calling for milk and cheese and such country cates as were his wonted food on earth For in the Kingdome of Grace that is in the Congregation of Gods Saints and the elect Members of Christ there is no such difference of degrees as Ambition taught the Disciples to imagine Not that we deny Order and Government in the Church of God No without these his Church could not subsist but would be like Aristotles army without discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unprofitable rout To this end Christ gave Apostles and Teachers and Pastors for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ His Teachers call us his Governors direct us to this Kingdome But the Disciples being brought up in the world thought of that Greatness which they saw did bear the sway amongst men Much like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who thought that God bare the shape of a Man because they read in Scripture of his Feet and Hands and Eyes and the like But that it was not so in Christs Kingdome may appear by our Saviour's Answer to the Question For he takes a Child and tells them that if they will be of his Kingdome they must be like unto it By which he choaks and kills in them all conceit of Ambition and Greatness For as Plato most truly said that those that dye do find a state of things beyond all expectation diverse from that which they left behind so when we are dead to the World and true Citizens of the Kingdome of Christ we shall find there is neither Jew nor Greek neither bond nor free neither male nor female but all are one in Christ Gal. 3. 28. Jesus God looks not what bloud runs in thy veins he observes not thy Heraldry If Greatness could have purchased heaven Lazarus had been in hell and Dives in Abrahams bosome Earl and Knight and Peasant are tearms of distinction on earth in the Kingdome of heaven there is no such distinction Faith makes us all one in Christ and the Crown of glory shall be set upon the head of him that grindeth at the mill as well as upon his that sitteth on the throne Christ requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nobility of the Soul and he is the greatest in his Kingdome who hath the true and inward worth of Honesty and Sanctity of life though in this world he lye buried in obscurity and silence Here Lazarus may be richer then Dives the beggar higher then the King and a Child the least is greatest in this Kingdome A main difference we may see between this Kingdome and the Kingdomes of the world if we compare them First the Subjects of this Kingdome are unknown to any but to God himself The foundation of the Lord standeth sure saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 19. having this seal The Lord knowes who are his And if they be unknown who then can range them into orders and degrees Secondly of this Kingdome there is no end Thirdly the seat of this Kingdome is the hearts of the faithful Cathedram habet in Coelo qui domat corda His chair is in heaven that rules the hearts of the sons of men here on earth This earth that is this body of clay hath God given to the sons of men to the Princes of the earth under whose government we live But our Heaven our better part our inward and spiritual man he reserves to himself Kings and Princes can restrain the outward man and moderate our outward actions by their laws and edicts Illa se jactat in aulâ Aeolus Thus far can they go They can tye our Hands and Tongues and they can go no further For to set up an imperial throne in our Understandings and our Wills belongs to Christ alone He teacheth the lame to go and the blind to see and recovers the dry hand He makes us active in this Kingdome of Grace Lastly as their Subjects and Seat are different so are
sense which men use to take it As the Poet tells us when he speaks of Rivers and Mountains that men called them thus or thus but the Gods had other names for them The Gold of this Kingdome is the Religiousness and Obedience of the Saints the precious Stones are Truth and Sanctity In mundo tantò quisque melior quantò pecuniosior In the world every man is esteemed so good as he is rich Like a fruitless tree tanti est in pretio quantum lignum ejus in trunco he is valued only by his bulk and trunk But in this Kingdome the only Riches is Obedience Men may have the riches of the world and yet be poor But this Kingdome makes Poverty it self riches Disgrace honor Death life Here we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation here we are begotten to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away but is reserved in the heavens for us till that time that we shall receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls Having now made the comparison the choice is easie And a great folly it were to prefer the World to the Church In the world the Laws are mutable here everlasting In the world they have tongues many times to speak but not hands to strike here they both thunder and lighten there Power beats the ear here it pierceth the very heart The Kingdoms of the world are bounded by place and time this is unconfinable More scope in the Church than in the world The Riches of the one are fading and transitory of the other everlasting And of this just and mighty and large and rich and everlasting Kingdome we cannot but say ADVENIAT Let it come I need make no further discovery of this Kingdome For who knows not what that Kingdome is where the King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both God and Man Where the Subjects are of the earth earthy and yet born to an Angelical estate and having their conversation in heaven perigrini deorsum cives sursum strangers where they live and fellow-citizens with the Saints Phil. 3. 10. Where the King speaks to the eye by his wonders and to the ear by his word and yet leads and guides his people like sheep by a powerful but invisible hand A Kingdome which is not of this world but yet in this world raised up and built upon flesh and bloud upon frail and mortal men begun John 18. 36. here but to be made perfect and consummate in the world to come In a word where the King shall deliver up his kingdome and yet remain 1 Cor. 15. 34. still a King Take the Mapp of the whole world and if you find no such Kingdome no such parts no such subjects no such government then look up and lift up your heads let not your contemplations grovel on the earth for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand This is the sum of that we formerly delivered concerning the Object of this Petition We pass now to the Petition it self to the Verb ADVENIAT Let it come Which breaths it self forth in an earnest desire to draw this Kingdome nearer Whether you take it for the Gospel which is the manifestation of Gods will or for the receiving of the Gospel which is the performing of his will Whether you take it for the Kingdome of Grace here or for the Kingdome of Glory hereafter ADVENIAT Let it come That is the language of every true Christian Where it is not yet come let it come it cannot come soon enough And when it is come let it come nearer When it is within us let it be establisht there and when it is establisht let it be eternized there Remove all obstacles supply all helps ut adveniat that it may come that thy Kingdome of Grace may entitle us to thy Kingdome of Glory A Petition fitted indeed to the times wherein it was first prescribed but most necessary for all Christians to the worlds end when time shall be no more Though the Angels had sounded forth their GLORIA IN EXCELSIS Glory to God in the highest good will towards men though Christ were come in the flesh yet this Kingdome of the Gospel was not yet come but was rather in voto than in ministerio rather desired than known by its several offices and ministeries The Law and the Prophets saith our Saviour were until John since that time the Kingdome of Luke 16. 16. God is preached and every man presseth unto it By this preaching cannot be meant the kingdome present first because when Christ sends his Disciples Matth. 10. forth he commands them to preach The kingdome of heaven is at hand Secondly he tells us that From the time of John the Baptist the kingdome Matth. 11. of heaven suffereth violence not that the Kingdome of heaven was then invaded and taken but because from that time men did burn with ardent affection and desires to have it come not able to bear the burthen of expectation beholding it at hand yet thinking it not near enough As in those good things we desire omnia solemus faciliùs perpeti quà m moram we can endure any thing better than delay And that this is the true meaning of those words may appear by our Saviours elogie of John the Baptist That among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John Matth. 11. 11. the Baptist notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdome of heaven is greater than he MINOR the least not Angel in heaven as St. Augustine nor LEAST that is of fewer years to wit Christ himself as Rupertus nor LEAST that is he that is most humble as others will have it but the least in the Church of Christ the least and meanest subject in the Kingdome of the Gospel is greater than John Where Christ puts a manifest Antithesis and opposition between the Law and the Gospel and between those persons which are under the Law and those which obey the Gospel which had it been then in force our Saviour had made John Baptist greater than himself Most plain it is the Law was yet in force the Ceremonies not disannulled Christ himself observed them The old Tabernacle was yet standing because our high Priest was not yet entered into the true Sanctuary And therefore in crepusculo Evangelii in this dawning of the Gospel when the Sun of righteousness had not yet climb'd up to the proper Horizon of the Church in this interstitium this interposition of Jesus preaching who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzene calls him placed in the middle between the Law and the Gospel this Petition was most fit and opportune fitting the time and opportune for the persons who would be disciples of this Kingdome ADVENIAT REGNUM TUUM Thy Kingdome is at hand and let it come And as it fits the time so is it necessary in respect of the Gospel it self which though it be commentum
Piety and that then they reign as Saints when they wash their feet in the bloud of their brethren that call every opinion that is not theirs Blasphemy and that are not so hot against a foul pollution in the heart as against an error in the understanding nor so angry with a crying sin as with a supposed mistake If these be Saints then certainly our Saviour is not so meek as he hath told us or we must believe what is past understanding that our meek Saviour as he once had Judas so may now have these men of Belial for his Disciples If these men be Saints why may not Lucifer recover his place What a Saint with fire and sword with axes and hammers with fire devouring before him and a tempest round about him like the bottomless Pit sending forth smoke as out of a fornace smoke out of which come Locusts to devoure the earth a covetous malicious deceitful treacherous adulterous murderous Saint Such Saints peradventure may walk on earth or under that name but sure they will never follow the Lamb nor appear in those new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness Let us I say not be like these For they say and do not they say and do the contrary What profit what honour will it be to be such an Angel as appears here in light and is reserv'd to be kept in chains of darkness for ever such a Saint as shall be turned into a Feind Let us rather take upon us the yoke of Christ who was meek and bear the burdens of these contentious men as St. Paul exhorts Let us not assault one another with lyes in the defense of Truth nor break the bonds of Charity in the behalf of Faith nor fly asunder in defense of the Corner-stone nor be shaken in pieces to secure the Rock If they separate themselves let not us withdraw our affection from them Si velint fratres si nolint fratres If they will let them be our brethren and if they will not yet let them be our brethren And in these times of hurry and noise in the midst of so many divisions and sects let us look upon every man with an eye of Charity and Meekness or as Erasmus speaks with an Evangelical eye and leaving all bitterness and rancor behind us let us walk on in a constant course of piety and holy contention with our selves not answering reviling with reviling but beating down every imagination which is contrary to Meekness doing that upon Sin in our selves which we cannot do upon Errour in others When they spurn at our Meekness and defie our silence and rebuke our innocence let us be meek and silent and innocent still When they will kill us be as silent as they who have been dead long ago that so we may possess our souls when they are ready to take them from us and be like the people of Nazianzum who by their peaceable behaviour in times of great dissention gained a name and title and were called The Ark of Noah because by this part of spiritual Wisdom they escaped that deluge and inundation of fury which had wel-near overflowed and swallowed up all the Christian world In the last place let us level our Wrath and Indignation against Sin but spare the Sinner since our selves so often do call upon God to spare us And if he did not spare us where should the righteous where should the best Saints appear It is one mark of Antichrist that he sits as God in the 2 Thess 3. 4. Temple of God shewing himself that he is God thundring out his excommunications canonizing damning absolving condemning whom he please Thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overlook our brother thus to look down upon our brethren and dart a heavy censure at them for that which we should shed a tear is so far to follow Antichrist as to take the seat and place of God nay to put him out of his seat and to do his office nay to do that which he will not do to sentence him to death whom God for ought we know hath chosen to eternal life Nay though it doth not make a man the Antichrist yet it makes him so much Antichrist as to place him in a flat opposition to Christ himself For he is not such an angry Bishop such a proud High Priest as cannot be touched with the feeling of our sins but one who being meek and tempted himself is able and willing to compassionate those that are tempted Did we feel the burden of our brethrens sins as he did Did we apprehend the wrath of God as he did we should rather offer up prayers and supplications with Psal 69. 26. strong cryings and tears for them then tell of the misery of these wounded ones that is speak vauntingly and preach thereof as the word signifieth then let our Anger loose against them and beat upon them with all our storms I confess prudent and discreet Reprehension is as a gracious and seasonable rain but rash and inconsiderate Anger as a tempest a hurricane to waste a soul and carry all before it and dig up Piety by the root As it is truly said that most men speak against Riches not out of hatred but love unto them so do many against Sin not out of hatred to sin but love of themselves which may be as great a sin as that which they are so loud against Signum putant bonae conscientiae aliis maledicere They count it a sign of a good conscience in themselves to be angry with and speak evil of others They think themselves good if they can say others are evil Whereas true Righteousness speaks alwaies in meekness and compassion but that which is false and counterfeit breaths forth nothing but wrath reviling and indignation O beloved what soloecismes what contradictions may we observe in the School and Church of Christ men raging against Sin and yet raising a Kingdom from it in themselves loathing it as poyson and yet drinking it down as water angry with it and loving it whipping it with scorpions and yet binding it about them as a garment Jacob's sons declaiming against Uncleanness with the instruments of cruelty in their hands Absalom bewailing the Injustice of the times when himself was a Traytor Judas angry with Mary's ointment when he would have it sold and put into his bag What a pageant is it to see Sacriledge beating down Idolatry Covetousness whipping of Idleness Prophaneness pleading for the Sabbath Gluttony belching out its fumes against Drunkenness Perjury loud against Swearing and Hypocrisie riding in triumph and casting out its fire and brimstone on all And what is a groan or a sigh from a Murderer What is a Satyre from a Sodomite or a Libel from a man of Belial If Hell hath any musick this is it and the Devil danceth after it after the groans and sighs and prayers and zeal of a Pharisee And do they then well to be angry Yes they say
Isa 11. 6. the Kid and the Calf with the young Lyon but it is when they are so cicurated and tame that a little Child shall lead them It is true the visible Church is made up of both For not only without as St. John speaketh but within are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters Rev. 22. 15. as there were in the Ark of Noah both clean and unclean beasts In this Church is Cain as well as Abel Esau as well as Jacob Judas as well as Peter but they are no parts of that general Assembly no parts of the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven nor to be numbred amongst the spirits of just men made perfect That part of the Church which is thus militant in Earth shall never be triumphant in heaven Cruel Dives shall never be seen in Abraham's bosom nor the bloud-thirstie man in his armes who shed no bloud but his own and that for the sins of the world The Church which shall be saved was not planted in bloud or if it were it was in the bloud of a Lamb. It was built upon the Faith of Peter not upon his Sword When he used his sword he was commanded to put it up but his Faith was to be published to the whole World And if he had any grant or title to be the Head of the Church it was not for cutting off Malchas's ear but for laying down his own life for the Faith Many Notes have been given of the true Church by those who acknowledge none but their own notes which shew her not Multitude of true believers Why the number is but small Infallibility It is an error to think so Antiquity The Church that is now ancient was once new and by this note when it was so it was no Church Continuance to the end of the world We believe it but it is no note for we cannot see it Temporal felicity This is oftner seen in the Tents of Kedar than at Jerusalem in a band of Souldiers than in the Church which winneth more conquests in adversity than in prosperity and worketh out her way to glory in her own bloud These are Notes quae nihil indicant which shew nothing Trumpets that give an uncertain sound But if I should name Meekness as a note of the true Church I should have a fairer probability to speak for me than they For meek men if they be not of the Church yet are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven But a meek Christian is entitled not only to the earth but to heaven also The Church is a Church though her Professours be but of yesterday and though they fall into error And though it be in tribulation yet still it is a Church yea it is never more glorious then in persecution But without meekness it cannot be a Christian Church no more then a man can be a man without a soul For Meekness if it be not the essence of the Church yet is a property which floweth from its very essence For that Faith is vain which leaveth malice or rancour in the heart A Christian and a Revenger if they meet together in the same person the one is a Box of poyson the other but a title Again in the second place our Reason will tell us that Meekness is most proper to Christianity and the Church because humane Reason was too weak to discover the benefit the pleasure the glory of it Nor was it seen in its full beauty till that Light came into the world which did improve and sublime and perfect our Reason To humane Reason nothing can seem more unreasonable more unjust then To love an enemy To surrender our coat to him that hath stript us of our cloak To return a blessing for a reproach and anoint his head with oyl who hath stricken us to the ground This is a new Philosophy not heard of on earth till she was sent down from heaven On earth it was A blow for a blow and a curse for a curse Dixerit insanum qui me totidem audiet If injuries be meted out unto us we mete them back again in full measure pressed down and running over Revenge is counted an act of Justice the Pythagoreans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reciprocation of injuries And what need any other law then our Grief or our Anger or where should Justice dwell but on the point of our Sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the law of Rhadamanthus It is equity that he that doth should suffer what he doth and he that suffereth should return it in the same kind When those brethren in evil having slain Hamor and Shechem and spoiled their City were rebuked by their Father Jacob they were ready with this plea Should he deal with our Sister as with a Harlot No sooner is the blow given Gen. 34. 31. but the first thought is to second and return it and Nature looks upon it as upon an act of Justice In the world it goeth thus All Power and Dominion and Justice is tyed to the hilts of our Sword which if we can wield and manage dextrously with skill and success that which otherwise had been an injury is made a law The Turk to settle and establish his Religion as he first built it in bloud so giveth way to every thing that best sorteth with humane corruption to make it easie that men may not start back for fear of difficulties and as he wrought it out with his Sword so his best argument for it as it is most times in a bad cause is his Sword The Philosophers cryed down Revenge yet gave way to it chid their Anger yet gave it line thus far And both Tully and Aristotle approve it But Munit nos Christus adversus Diaboli latitudines saith Tertullian Christian discipline is a fense to keep us from these latitudes and exspatiations and pointeth out to the danger of those sins which the Heathen commended for virtues Many indeed have dealt with these precepts of our Saviour as skilful cooks do by some kind of meats which of themselves are but harsh and unpleasant cooked and sawced them to make them savoury dishes For when we see our journey long and full of rubs and difficulties we phansie something that may both shorten and level it and make it more plain and easie then indeed it is Christ our Master is so great an enemy to Murder and would have us so far detest it that he hath not suffered us to be angry Now the interpretation is We must not be angry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a cause And this emboldneth us to plead for our Wrath as Jacob's sons did when it is cruel and upon this very colour that there is good reason we should be angry For be the storm never so high be our anger never so raging yet we can pretend a cause and that cause we pretend as just otherwise we would not pretend it For who would pretend
be thrown against them so communicate as it were with God and are assimilated to him may also by the grace and favour of God participate with him of the same lasting and unchangeable glory And now we should descend to shew the title the Meek have to the Earth as it is in the letter and signifies temporal happiness and the quiet possession of the things of this world but the time is well-near spent now therefore we will add but a word or two by way of Application of what hath been already spoken and so conclude And did I say that Meekness was a necessary virtue to the Church of Christ and that without it we cannot receive the Gospel nor be our selves received into the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly I mistook at least the greatest part of Christendom will rise up against me and arraign me as guilty of a dangerous heresie For in their practice they confute it every day It was indeed a necessary virtue for the infant baby Church when she could not move her arms nor her tongue but in prayers and blessings when Christians were ready to suffer but knew not what it was to strike when they were expeditum morti genus readier to breath forth their souls in the fire then to kindle one readier to receive the sword into their bowels then to draw it But now the Church is aged and forgetful and men have learnt to dispute and distinguish themselves out of their duty have found out a new light by the guidance of which they may walk on securely and follow their brutish passions and covetous desires to the mark they have set up and by this light wade on and wash their feet in the bloud of their brethren It was a virtue it is now the mark of a lukewarm Reprobate It was the beauty and glory of the Church but later times have looked upon it as a fowl dishonour It was the only buckler the former Christian had but those of after-times have thrown it away and for it took up the sword which they brandish with terror as that weapon which Christ himself hath put into their hands It was the proper virtue of Christians and most necessary for them it is now an Anathema Now not to curse deserves a curse The Church was a flock a little flock of sheep it is now become as terrible as an army with banners and Christ is already brought into the world in that posture in which the Jews expect their Messias with Drum and Colours Shall I tell you what is counted necessary now It is necessary to contend for the Faith to stand up against Error to be zealous for the glory of God And what man of Belial dare be so bold as to stand up and say this is not necessary God forbid that Faith should fail that Error should take the chair that the Glory of God should be trod under foot It is true but then though this be necessary it is necessary to do it in that way and order which Christ himself hath prescribed and not in that which our Malice and Covetousness and Ambition draws out in bloud And the Sword of the Lord the Word of God managed with the Spirit of Meekness is more apt and fit to enter the soul and the spirit then the Sword of Gideon Religionis non est cogere religionem saith Tertullian Religion cannot be forced which if it be not voluntary is not at all For there cannot be a grosser soloecism in Divinity then to say a man is good against his will And sad experience hath taught us that they who thus contend for the Faith with noyse and fury do name Christ indeed but mean themselves We may instance in the Church of Rome They who defend the Truth non syllogismis sed fustibus as St. Hierome speaks not with Reason and Scripture but with clubs and swords do but glance upon the Truth but press forward to some other mark And THE GLORY OF GOD is but written in their foreheads that whilst men look stedfastly upon that they may with more ease and less discerned lay hold on the prey and so be Villains with applause Yee suffer fools gladly 2 Cor. 11. 19 20. saith St. Paul such as boast and count themselves the Sages of the Age because you your selves are wise in your own conceit though as very fools as they Yee suffer if a man bring you into bondage what do not the Romish Proselites endure if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself if a man smite you on the face For how willing have men been to be deceived and to canonize them for Saints who wrought the cheat to think them the best Pastors who devour them and them the humblest men who exalt themselves and them the most gentle friends who smite them on the face Such a Deity such an Idole such a Nothing is Religion and Christianity made in this world cried up with noyse and beat down with violence pretended in every thing and denied in every thing magnified in those actions which destroy her forced to draw that sword which she commanded her disciples to put up made a sanguinary and shedder of bloud of which could she prevail and have that power which God hath given her there would not one drop fall to the ground But the World is the World still and would make the Church like unto it And though it be Ambition or Covetousness or Malice yet we call it Religion and when that word is once spoken then down goes all Morality all Humanity all Meekness and Religion it self Is it not for her cruelty that we make the Church of Rome the seat of Antichrist and call her the BEAST And let it be the mark and character of the Beast still Let not that which a Turk or Jew would run from with disdain be fastned as an ornament of glory on the Christian who is better drawn and expressed in chains and fetters then with his feet on the neck of his enemies For where should a Christian be seen but under the Cross When he flings it upon others he may call himself by what name he please but he is not a Christian Do we not make this our plea against the Church of Rome That sentence of death was never past upon any of them for Religion and therefore let not our words anathematize and our actions justifie them Let us not do that which in a Papist we call an abomination Let us not name the Lord Jesus and then fall down and worship the Prince of this world when he lures us to him with the glory of it and those things which he will give us A strumpet is not a whit the less a strumpet because she calls her neighbour so and the name of Antichrist will belong to us as well as to that Church if we partake with her in those sins for which we call her so And it will little avail us to call
plainly named The Disciples came unto Jesus saying 3. The Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven Where we shall take some pains to discover the true nature of this Kingdome that so we may plainly see the Disciples error and mistake and carefully avoid it These are the parts we shall speak of and out of these draw such inferences as may be useful for our instruction that as if by the Disciples doctrine when they were inspired by the holy Ghost so by their error when they were yet novices in the School of Christ we may learn to guide our steps and walk more circumspectly in the wayes of truth that by their ill putting up the Question We may learn to state it right Of these in their order We are first to speak of the Occasion of this Question And to discover this we must look back upon the passage immediately going before Chapt. 17. and as it were ushering in my Text. There the Occasion privily lurks as the Devil did in the Occasion And there we find how our Saviour in a wonderful manner both paid and received tribute received it of the Sea and paid it unto Caesar in the one professing himself to be Caesars Subject in the other proving himself to be Caesars Lord. You see Caesar commands him to pay tribute and Christ readily obeys but withal he commands the Sea and behold the Fishes hasten to him with tribute in their mouths Chapt. 17. 27. Now why our Saviour did so strangely mix together his Humility and his Power in part the reason is given by himself Lest we should offend them For having proved himself free and therefore not subject to tribute for if the Sons of Kings be free then the Son of the King of Heaven must needs be so yet saith he unto Peter That we give no offence cast thy angle into the Sea He is content to do himself wrong and to loose his profit to gain his peace And as he did express his Humility that be might not offend Caesar so we may be easily perswaded that he did manifest his Glory that he might not offend his Disciples For lest his Disciples peradventure should begin to doubt whether he was as he pretended Lord of heaven and earth who did so willingly acknowledge a superior look how much he seem'd to impair his credit by so humbly paying of tribute so much and more he repaired it by so gloriously receiving it Now saith the Text At the same time when this wonderful thing was acting then was this Question proposed But now in all this action let us see what occasion was here given to this Question what spark to kindle such a thought in the Disciples hearts what one circumstance which might raise such an ambitious conceit They might indeed have learnt from hence Humility and Obedience to Princes though Tyrants and as Tyrants exacting that which is not due and a Willingness to part with their right rather then to offend That Christ is not offended when thus parting with our goods we offend our selves to please our Superiours But a corrupt Heart poysons the most wholsome the most didactical the most exemplary actions and then sucks from them that venome which it self first cast A sick ill-affected stomach makes food it self the cause of a disease and makes an Antidote poyson Prejudice and a prepossessed mind by a strong kind of Alchymie turns every thing into it self makes Christs Humility an occasion of pride his Submission a foot-stool to rise up upon and upon Subjection it self lays the foundation of a Kingdome Some of the Fathers as Chrysostome and Hierome and others were of opinion that the Disciples when they saw Peter joyned with Christ in this action and from those words of our Saviours Take and give them for me and thee did nourish a conceit that Peter in this was preferred before the rest and that there was some peculiar honor done to him above his fellows and that this raised in them a disdain against Peter and that their disdain moved them to propose this Question not particularly Whether Peter should be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general terms Who should be the greatest And this the Church of Rome lays hold on and founding her pretended Supremacy on Peter wheresoever she finds but the name of Peter nay but the shadow of Peter she seeks a mystery and if she cannot find one she will make one The Cardinal is fond of this interpretation and brings it in as a strong proof of that claim the Bishop of Rome makes of being Prince of all the world But what is this but interpretationibus ludere de scripturis when the Text turns countenance to put a face and a fair gloss upon it and make it smile upon that monstrous Error which nothing but their Ambition could give birth and life unto For to speak truth what honor could this be to Peter To pay tribute is a sign of subjection not of honor And if we will judge righteous judgment nay if we will judge but according to the appearance the greatest honor which could here have accrewed to Peter had been to have been exempted when all the rest had paid To speak truth then or at least that which is most probably true not any honor done to Peter but the dishonor which was done to Christ himself may seem to be the true Occasion of this Question I shall give you my reason for it We see it a common thing in the world that men who dream of Honors as the Disciples here did grow more ambitious by the sense of some disgrace As in Winter we see the fountains and hollow caverns of the earth are hottest and as the Philosophers will tell us that a quality grows stronger and more intense by reason of its contrary Humility may sometimes blow the bladder of Pride Disgrace may be as a wind to whet up our ambitious thoughts to a higher pitch Or it may be as Water some drops of it by a kind of moral Antiperistasis may kindle this fire within us and enrage it and that which was applyed as a remedy to allay the tumour may by our indisposition and infirmity be made an occasion to encrease it We trusted that this had been he who should have redeemed Israel say they Luke 24. 21. Is this he who should come with the Sword and with Power and with Abundance unto them that should root up the Nations before them and re-instate them in the Land of Canaan Is this that Messias which after many years victoriously past on earth should at last resign up his life and establish his Kingdome upon his Successors for ever A conceit not newly crept in but which they may seem to have had by a kind of tradition as appeareth by that of our Saviour Luke 14. 15. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdome of God and by the mother of Zebedee's children who requested that her two sons might sit one
Charity takes the bill and sets down quickly and writes Fifty And if thy vessels be quite empty she cancels the bill and teareth the Indenture But it is as true too that Charity begins at home and he that provides not for his own family is worse than an Infidel These precepts of our Saviour non consistunt in puncto are not to be read in that narrow compass they lye but have their certain latitude Let my Charity shine forth like the Day but not to darken the lustre of Justice Let her stretch out her hand to the furthest but not to reach at the Sword of the Magistrate And as they mistake our Saviour so would they take upon them to teach him A trick the world hath long since got To be angry with Gods Providence To teach his Wisdom To guide his Hand and as he in Photius To put their own shape upon the Deity and to confine and limit God to their own phansie If that be thwarted the most blessed Peace is but tumult the most gracious Government tyranny and Order it self disorderly Why should Christ become man say some He might have satisfied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his bare naked Divinity If he will take flesh and redeem he may do that and not satisfie say others And saith the Cardinal God had not dealt discreetly if he had not establish'd a visible and infallible a universal Catholick and yet particular Church And if God be Judge of all men and Deus ultionum what need then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these counsel-tables and seats of judgment and the dread and horror of an earthly tribunal What use of a Sword in the hand of a Magistrate I have grappled you see with a mean adversary but I found him in my way and could not well balk him I leave him to that censure of the Philosophers on those who should deny either Worship to God or Love to Parents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He should smart under the Authority he denies and be confuted with the edge of that Sword he questions But we shall meet with Gyants indeed Not a Sword you see but they snatch at If they meet with two at once Ecce duo gladij both theirs And they take them and put them into the hand of that Man of pride and he fights against Authority Sword and Bearer King and Caesar Christ and all They read these words as we do And this Sword is secular Power with them too But then this Power is a subordinate and dependent Power this Sword is a sword at will as we say a sword which like Josephs brethrens sheaves to his sheaf must bow and make obeysance to the high Priests Sword And the Magistrate is left palsy-strucken and the Sword tottering in his hand a breath a frown of the supreme Head disarms him But oh the artifice and slight of Satan The Conclusion is He must be disarmed but the first Proposition is He beareth his sword For by these degrees and approaches they reach at it The First step is He beareth the sword and therefore he must be able to wield it and therefore he must have some Master of defence the Pope forsooth to instruct him and therefore he must guide his arme by his direction and strike as he prescribes If he misplace his blow he must be corrected if he be incorrigible he must be disarmed There is the last Syllogismus verè destructivus a bloudy destructive Syllogisme Inauguration is the Medium Deposition inferred This is a Chain to bind Kings in and the first link is Power Here is a Building ruin'd by the Foundation which should sustain it and the Magistrate disabled by his Commission Thus hath the yielding Devotion and forward Piety of some Christian Emperours warmed and animated the Bishops of Rome and made them active to question that Power which once did shelter them and then the Sword became their port and argument which was before their terror For look back and behold them temporibus malis when persecution raged they were no Sword-men then You might see them in another posture a borer in their eyes a whip on their backs no Sword but what was drencht in their own bloud and their Crown was Martyrdom Or look and behold S. Paul here pleading the right of this Magistrate upholding that Sword which he was to feel adoring that Power he sunk under and bowing to Majesty when the throne was Nero's It is the gloss of a Jesuite upon the Apostle but he glosseth too upon that Gloss Ecclesia non subvertit Regna The Ephod and the Robe suit well The Church thwarts not secular Power nor is one sword drawn to break another but both together glitter in the face of Disobedience to strengthen the pillars of a Kingdom Let then both swords be drawn together the one to pierce through the heart the other to drink the Luke 35. 2. bloud of the wicked the one to cut out those causarias partes animae those Deut. 32. maims and bruises of the soul the other to cut off the ungodly from the earth the one to hang over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that laboratory and work-house of the soul that no Babel be erected there no curious piece of guile shap'd there no refuse silver come there no works of iniquity set up there but then Vengeance lying at the door and the other sword ready if they come forth and appear to abolish them to pull down that Babel to break those carved pieces to dash those plots to demolish these works The one to guide us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in things pertaining to God the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in matters of this present life We have now put the Sword into the Magistrates hand It is now time to proceed and place the NON FRUSTRA upon the sword Having setled Authority in its proper subject our next task must make good that it is not there in vain Our second part Those actions which are irregular and swarve from the rule the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odious frivolous actions to no purpose Nec quid nec quare No reason can be given why they should be done Adultery to night is pleasure to morrow my disease Murder is now my thirst anon my melancholy Here is a Frustrà indeed I am more vain than Vanity it self But the Quare the Wherefore to me and you have silenced me But those things which are laid and driven to a right end will admit a Quare Wherefore the sword Wherefore Authority The Apostle is ready and meets you with an answer That we may lead a quiet and 1 Tim. 2. 2. peaceable life in all godliness and honesty That every man may sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree that the poor man may keep his lamb and the jawbone of the oppressor be broken that Peace may shadow the Common-wealth and Plenty crown it There is scarce
sings of peace to the Common-wealth and the Common-wealth echoeth it back again to the Church This is Musick which both Men and Angels are delighted with Angels I say who being now made one with us make it part of their joy to see us at unity amongst our selves Happy thrice Happy times when the Poets could sing of the Spiders making their webs in the Souldiers Helmets and coats of armour These then are not excluded but wrapt up in this Salutation For all peace is carried along in this in the Peace of the Gospel When the world is out of frame this establisheth the pillars of it brings every part to its own place the Sensual parts under the Rational the Flesh under the Spirit the Will under the command of the Understanding which is the Peace of the Soul It brings the obedience of Faith under the eternal Law of Christ which is our Peace with God It draws with it the Servant under the Master the Child under the Parent the subject under the Magistrate which is the Peace of a House of a Common-wealth of the World It makes every part dwell together in unity it observes a parity in disparity an equality in an inequality it keeps every wheel in its own motion every man in his right place the Master on Horseback and the Servant on the ground and where Impudence incroacheth it checketh it with a Friend sit down lower It keepeth the hands of the ungodly from the gray hairs of the aged and the teeth of the oppressor from the face of the widow Like an Intelligence it moves the lesser Sphere of a Family and the greater Orbe of the Common-wealth composedly and orderly Peace is the right order and the harmony of things A Father calls it an Harp and it is never well set or tuned but by the hand of Charity For all the Peace that is in the world is derived from this Salutation from the Peace of the Gospel which slacketh and lets down the String of our Self-love even to a Hatred of our selves and windeth the string of our Love to our brother to an equal proportion with the Love of our selves We must hate our life in this world and we must John 12. 25. Math. 22. 39. love our brother as our selves Nay it lets it down lower yet to our very enemies the sound must reach even unto them Talk what we will of peace If it be not touched and tuned by Charity it will be but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal or rather if it take not its rise and spring from this Peace here from the Peace of the Gospel it will be but a dreadful sound as Job 15. 21. Eliphaz speaketh either in the Soul or in the Family or in the Church or in the Common-wealth I am the bolder thus to interpret the Disciples Salutation because I find it part of their Commission to say The Kingdome of God is at hand which was indeed to give notice of the Gospel of Peace This as it commends unto us all Peace but that which is in evil which indeed is not Peace but a conspiracy so especially it inculcates this by which Christ hath made both Eph. 2. 14. one and broken down the partition-wall which was between the Jew and the Gentile and that partition-wall also which Covetousness and Ambition Envy and Malice sets up between man and man that we may be one in him as He and the Father are one It was the prime care of the primitive Joh. 1◠Christians to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace And to this Eph 4. 3. end they bound themselves by oath sayth Pliny a heathen witer nè furta committerent nè fidem fallerent not to steal or lye or deceive or break their word This course had the world upheld to this day we should perhaps have no reason to complain that Peace hath left the earth or that the Prince of Peace hath not a hole to hide his head in If men were truly Christians and had not made a sad divorce between Honesty and Religion the Disciples Salutation would not turn to them again but rest on every House and on every Common-wealth For Christian Religion is the greatest preserver of Peace that ever was and hath layd a greater horror and a fowler blemish upon Discord and Dissention then Philosophy ever did when she was most rigid and severe She commands us to pray for peace She enjoyns us to study to be quiet and to follow Peace with all men She enjoyns us to loose 1 Tim. 2. 2. 1 Thes 4. 11. our right for Peace and to part with coat and cloak and all rather then with Peace quale regnum talis pax Look upon the Kingdom the Disciples Heb. 12. 14. M◠4729. speak of and you shall soon discern what Peace they wish Peace with God Peace of Conscience there is no doubt of that But Peace a so with men For this is truly Evangelical motus aliena naturae pace nostra cohibere as Hilary speaketh to place a peacable disposition as a bank or bulwark against the violence of anothers rage by doing nothing to conquer him who is up in arms and spends himself and laboureth in the mine to ruine me This is the work of the Gospel to beat down noyse with silence and injury with patience To overcome evil with good To keep peace between the rich and the poor by prescribing mercy to that one and meekness to the other between the high and the low by prescribing justice to the one and submission to the other between the evil and the good by threatning the one and upholding the other Thus it levelleth the hills and raiseth the valleys and casteth an aspect and influence upon all conditions all qualities all affections of men that as it was prophesyed of the Times of the Gospel The VVolf may dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard ly down with the Kid a little Child lead Isa 11. 6. the Lion that there may be abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth O beloved did this Salutation take place did the Peace of the Gospel rest upon us our conversation would be more smooth and even and Salutations not so rugged and churlish as they commonly are They would not be so supercilious the dictates of our Pride Stand thou there or sit thou Jam. 2. 3. here under my footstool They would not be so surly the expressions of our Scorn VVho made thee a Judg over us They would not be so treacherous This is he hold him fast They would not be so cruel the messengers of Death Smite him till he dyeth They would not be so querulous the breathings of our Envy VVhy is he made rich VVhy is he in honour VVhy hath he who came in but now as much as I that have born the heat and burden of the day But every Family and every Common-wealth would be fitly joyned and compacted
him under his foot in his own house The Prison hath darkness but he is light the Prison hath chains but he is free in fetters Nihil interest ubi sit in soeculo qui extra soeculum est In this world it matters not where he is confined who is already out of the world We commonly distinguish the ages of the Church into times of Persecution and times of Peace and indeed in respect of the visible state of the Church such times there are But the Saints of God the Kingdom of Christ on earth never had peace nor possibly can have But by the wisdom of God it comes to pass that that which we call Persecution is indeed the peace of the Church Fire and Sword and Imprisonment these build up the Church of God Perversitas quam putas ratio est quod saevitiam existimas gratia est saith Tertullian That is good Order which we take to be Confusion and that which we call Persecution is Favour and Mercy Cum Ecclesia in attonito est Then the Church enjoys her peace when she is astonisht with terrors We cannot think that St. Peter lost his peace with his liberty or that he was a Saint less glorious because he was in prison The Church of Rome hath given us no less then fifteen Notes of the true Church and one we find to be temporal Felicity but most of them are but doctae ineptiae laborious vanities and learned impertinencies Had she soberly consulted with this book of Acts or but with this Text of mine she would not have found the least appearance of temporal happiness to make up a Note with unless we shall call it a temporal happiness to be beaten to be stoned to be imprisoned St. Peter here in prison would be a stronger argument to beat down her State then the Prayers of the Church to build up St. Peter a regal Throne Would ever any man once dream that my Text would yield any materials for a chair of Supremacy for St. Peter and his Successor but the Jesuit by his cunning hath framed one and St. Peter must needs be setled in it because the Church here prays for St. Peter and not for St. James O qualis artifex What a skilful artificer hath Ignatius Loyola begot that would perswade the world the Church prayed not for St. James or that her prayers to help St. Peter out of prison did lift him up into the Chair But what rubbage will not these men make use of who lay hold on a monosyllable on the little particle ET ET PETRUM he took Peter also That also hath an Emphasis and makes Peter higher then the rest of the Apostles by the head and shoulders Nay his very Shadow hath some substance in it and overshadows not only the sick but all the world Thus when TU ES PETRUS will not serve ET PETRUM is brought in to help a particle a shadow nothing And when they cannot hew him a Chair out of the rock they build one up of sand where they find no Cedar they are content with straws Indeed they are so busie in raising Peter to height of State that they quite forget that he was ever kept in prison and therefore they phansy to themselves such a flourishing state as may become a universal Monarch and receive him with both his Swords of temporal and spiritual jurisdiction And now we need not wonder that she brings forth the Church of Christ like Agrippa and Bernice in the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with great pomp and train because we see she makes profession of Religion to gain the world Infelicity and Supremacy will not blend together and therefore to hold up her Supremacy she maintains State and wheresoever she finds the name of Peter she seeks a mystery and if she cannot find one she will make one Thus is Christianity constrained to lacquey it to the World and become the means of the greatest secular Pomp that the world hath seen St. Peter as Erasmus tells us was lodged in the house of one Simon a Tanner at nunc tria regum palatia non sufficiunt but now saith he three Kings palaces are not able to entertain the pomp and state of Peters Successor When the triple Crown is on his head what think you can he dream of else then outward pomp and temporal felicity Tully tells us of a Musician that being askt what the Soul was answered it was Harmony Et i◠saith he difficulter à principiis artis suae recessit he knew not how to leave the principles of his own art Plato's Scholars had been altogether bred up in Arithmetick and the knowledge of Numbers whence deverting their studies to Natural and Moral Philosophy wheresoever they walkt they still phansied to themselves something like unto Number Just so it fares with these men who fashioned out the Church by the World Difficulter à principiis artis suae recedunt They cannot leave their old principles In the World they are bred the World they study and this follows then in the pursuit of the knowledge of Christ and the Church They still phansie something like unto the World Riches and Honour and a universal Monarchy What shall we now think of the Church butchered in Abel floating in the Ark a pilgrim in the Patriarchs captive in Aegypt hiding her self in the time of idolatrous persecutors after of Christ vexed by the Jews persecuted by Heathen and no less by those who professed themselves Christians by Arian and haeretical Emperors What shall we think of St. Peter in prison here We shall not see this mark upon him no more then upon Abraham Moses David Hezekiah and Josiah whom notwithstanding the Cardinal brings in to make temporal happiness a token and note of true professors Abraham afflicted with famine in Aegypt forced to forego his wife and deny her Moses exposed by his parents put in an ark of bull-rushes into the river after many difficulties when he came to the very borders of Canaan forbid to enter in David begging his bread and persecuted by his own son Hezekiah mourning like a Dove and chattering like a Crane Josiah slain at Megiddo and St. Peter fast in chains This Note was not de fide then No it was de fide seriptum est it is written and we must make it an article of our belief Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you Poverty and Affliction Matth. 5. 11. and Imprisonment and Persecution are not only bona but beatitudines not only good but Beatitudes and Blessings Rubus ardens est sigura ecclesiae saith St. Hierom The Church is like the bush which was all on fire but consumed not To conclude we may say of temporal Felicity in respect of the Church as Tertullian speaketh of the unveiling of Virgins in the Church Id negat quod ostendit It denyes the Church by shewing it And thus much may be spoken by occasion of Peters Imprisonment In the next place
their charge the Murder of Infants Incest and those crimes which were not only false but incredible accusare vocabulae to accuse the very name of Christian And which is most to be lamented he hath taught Christians to perform this vile office one against another For no sooner had God freed them from the terror of Persecution but they raised a worse amongst themselves one Christian placing a great part of his Religion in laying some foul imputation upon another and finding Heresie in the roll of carnal sins Gal. 5. 20. calling them Hereticks whom they could not otherwise defame pronouncing Anathema's one against another as if all who would be Christs Disciples were not to be sons of Consolation but of Thunder I may be bold to say Scarce any Father or holy man which past without his mark Augustine was defamed by the Donatists and Manichees Hierome called a Magician a Seducer as himself complaineth Chrisostome had no less then nine and twenty accusations tenderd against him as we find it recorded in Photius Cyprianus was turned into Coprianus as one who in his tracts of Christianity had applyed his elagant wit to womens tales And this before Superstition had gained much footing in the Church But when the Pope did once rerum potiri when he had gained a Kingdom in the Church and was acknowledged the Primate of the Christian world then not to receive his determinations as Oracles not to fall down and worship him not to obey him in all things was to be an Heretick In the year 713. Philippicus the Emperor was branded with the name of Heretick because he had removed Images out of the Church Leo the third was condemned of the same crime and had a nick-name and was called Iconomachus Henry the Fourth Emperor was no less because he would not grant the Pope the investure of Bishopricks Frederick the Second was a Heretick for that he held the Popes stirrop on the wrong side and withstood the tyranny of that See Philip the Fourth King of France was condemned to the same crime because he would not go to war when Pope Boniface did beat up his Drumm Charles the Sixth had the same doom because he would not suffer the Churches of France to pay tribute to Martin the Fifth Lewis the Twelfth who was called Pater populi the Father of his people was stiled a Heretick because he would not yield to Julius the Second that Sword-man who flung St. Peters Keys into the River of Tiber and took up St. Pauls Sword Heresie is a sin and indeed in their account there was no other sin but Heresie no sin of so foul an aspect And therefore whatsoever was the offense that was the sin And though a man were no-whit guilty yet was it in the Popes power to make him so As it is haereticare propositiones to make those propositions false which are true Nor is the Devil a Devil at Rome only or in the streets of Babylon but he hath shewed himself in Jerusalem even in the Reformed Churches For what have the Writings of the Lutherans and the Calvinists been but bitter satyres of one side against the other where like Aeschines and Demosthenes they reciprocally lay open each others filthiness to the eyes and scorn of the world where they fight not with the tongue of Men and Angels but of Devils The Calvinist says to the Lutheran that he is Diabolificatus Diabolified and the Lutheran replys to the Calvinist that he is Superdiabolificatus more then diabolified And thus their contention was not so much for the truth as who should be most diabolified For sure the Devil cannot have worse language though he speak by the whore This in these latter dayes hath been the method of finding out the Truth to accuse one another of error And hence finding out a strange Beast in the Apocalypse we are ready if any offend us or will not be of our opinion to say he is that Beast What mutual stabbings what digladiations amongst Christians not who shall be best but who shall be loudest Par pari refertur invicem nobis videmur insanire We give scorn for scorn and reproach for reproach and each side and faction seems mad to the other and to a discreet good Christian indeed they are both so For in this eager pursuit and inquiry after the Truth Christianity is quite lost and we leave the cause and fall upon the person like cholerick men who in the fierce and hot persecution of a quarrel at last forget the beginnings and ground from whence it arose So that as Petrarch once spoke of Rome Nusquam magìs Roma ignoratur quà m Romae That Rome was no where less known then at Rome so may we of Christianity That it is no where less preached then amongst Christians who have a name that they live but are dead are but statues and representations of Christians so that what was written by Cato of Brutus may be fasten'd upon many Christians CHRISTIANE MORTUUS ES O Christian thou art dead All the members he hath are the members of a carnal man Lips invenomed with the poyson of Asps his Tongue a sharp Sword his Mouth an open Sepulchre Such a creature is many a Christian to another ridente Turcâ nec dolente Judaeo Which makes the Turk laugh and prefer his Mahomet before Christ and the Jew to pluck the vail closer to his face Ac nunc miseram licet aetatis nostrae laborem praesentium temporum stultas opiniones congemiscere And here give me leave to lament the business of this our age and so bewail the ungrounded opinions of the men of these present times as Hilarius once spake in a case somewhat like What wantonness in Religion what religion in rayling what disgrace flung on Learning what honor to Ignorance what hardness of heart and contempt of Gods word and commandments How many scurrilous witless unsavory unchristian Libels more I believe within the compass of one year then have been publisht before in three times the age of a man So that we may say of the common people of this our Nation as Seneca speaks of Aegypt when it was a Province under the dominion of the Romans Loquax ingeniosa ad contumelias provincia in qua qui vitaverunt culpam non effugerunt calumniam They are become talkative and witty in telling of lyes and filling one another with reproach and he that lives amongst them may peradventure keep himself free from fault but he can hardly be exempt from infamy Hoc Ithacus velit This is it which the Devil would have If he were to be incarnate and live amongst them he would know his own dialect and speak as they do Amongst the rest the Ministers of the Church who might well challenge their prayers have felt the lash of their tongues and for a Lord bless them have heard Down with them Down with them even to the ground Some there are who complain that their souls are
argument by transferring the QUOMODO from the person of the King to the Guest QUOMODO TU how camest Thou in hither Thou my liege-servant and sworn subject For we know though Gods kingdome be as large as the whole Universe though God be King of all the Earth yet his name is great in Israel His throne is in the Church In our PATER NOSTER we begin as Sons and call God Father but we end as Subjects and acknowledge the kingdome to be His. Again QUOMODO TU How camest Thou in hither Thou who hast given thy name to Christ and wast a Christian when thou couldst not name Christ Thou who shouldst shed thy bloud for him yet trampled on his and as much as in thee lyeth crucifie him afresh This is circumstantia aggravans a circumstance that hath weight in it talent-weight For the Grammarian will tell us Plus est prodere quà m oppugnare to Betray is more than to defie and a Traytor worse than an open Enemy That Malice which whispers in a corner or worketh in a vault is more dangerous than that which is proclaimed by the drum Judas was worse than the Jews his Kiss more piercing than the Spear and this Guest here more bloudy than those Murderers It was v. 7. a charitable wariness and a wary charity in that holy Father St. Augustine to suspend his censure and not suddenly to give sentence against a Heretick whose conversation was pious Whether were more damnable a bad Catholick or a just Heretick he would not by any means determine But Aquinas layeth it down for a positive truth Graviùs peccat fidelis quà m infidelis propter Sacramenta fidei quibus contumeliam facit The same sin makes a deeper dye in a Christian then in an Infidel and leaves a stain not only on the person but also on his Profession and flings contumely on the very Sacraments of Faith whereas in an Infidel it hath not so deadly an effect but is veiled and shadowed by Ignorance and borrows an excuse from Infidelity it self For Ignorance is circumstantia allevians a lessning circumstance and doth abate and take off from the sinfulness of Sin Which maketh our Saviour give sentence against Capernaum even for Matth. 11. 23. Sodom it self Though Sin be Sin in all yet the person doth aggravate and extend and multiply it Oh the paradox of our misery Our Christianity shall accuse us and our Happiness undo us At the day of judgment it shall be easier for a miscreant Turk than for a bad Christian and the King be more terrible to this Guest here than to a stranger The Person ye see is a main circumstance a King to be slighted and his Guest to slight him his Subject to contemn him A high contempt But in the next place the Invitation will heighten it Tantus tanti tantillum That a King should invite a Beggar send his servants to intreat him to a feast and that at the marriage of his son makes the benefit a wonder and the neglect as strange and that all should be thought but a parable no history no history ever yielding the like example For what is this Man that he should thus be honor'd or what is this King that he should invite him Was he bound by any prae-contract or prae-obligation Did his justice or his honor lye upon it or could he not feast without him We cannot conceive thus of the King No He might have left this man in the streets and high-wayes amongst the poor the blind and the maimed naked to every storm and tempest open to the violence and shock of every temptation amongst men as impotent as himself not able to succour him not able to succour themselves But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. James of his own will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 James 1. 18. according to the good pleasure of his will he sends for Ephes 1. 5. him messengers are dispatcht and they bespeak him in the same form they do the rest Come unto the marriage But this may be but a complement and no more And there are that make little more of it What say we then to Go compell them to come in This I hope is in earnest And this Luke 14. 23. he did His invitation was so hearty his beseechings so vehement his request so serious that it might seem to be violence and did bear the shew of a compulsion Not that God compels any or necessitates them to that end he intends as some conceive Who because all power is his will needs have him shew it all in every purpose so irresistibly as if that of the Baptist were true in the letter that God out of stones did raise up children unto Abraham For as he is powerful and can do all things so he is wise too and sweetly disposeth all things accomplishing his will by those means he in his eternal wisdom knows best using indeed his power but not violence working effectually upon our souls that we do not actually resist per suaviductionem say the Schools leading us powerfully but sweetly to that end his prae-determinate will hath set down When he invites us to his Church militant mittit servos he sends his servants and when he establisheth and buildeth us up for his Church triumphant mittit servos he useth that means also He instructs he corrects he exhorts he commands he threatens and he promiseth He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens various and manifold in his operation There is lightning with his thunder counsel in his threats light with his fire discipline in his tryals hony with his gall and his most bitter prescripts are not only sweet but cordials Now all these will make it an invitation at least and if we rightly weigh them lay them in the ballance and they will put it out of all doubt that this Invitation was serious that the King sent for the man ad convivium non ad notam not to commit him as some phansie but to entertain him not to a censure but to a banquet to have made him a guest not a spectacle We cannot then to press this argument but lay the blame on the Guest and implead him of perverse obstinacy His neck was stiff no perswasions could bow him his heart was adamant no love no fear could soften it And withal we must acknowledge that Faith and Charity are a useful wear without which Gods purpose to us is frustrate and his love lost without which we come to his table and are not fed without which his earnest beseechings his bowels his compassion his promises his threatnings all are in vain And further we carry not this consideration The Invitation leads us to the Feast And that is our next point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father calls it a splendid and magnificent feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a delicious banquet COENA MAGNA that great Supper with an emphasis in which the bread is Manna and the Manna everlasting
then it doth adorn and beautifie us indeed and God looks upon it as a glorious ornament and upon us as guest whose praise is not of men but of God Without this though we enlarge our phylacteries never so much though we have HOLINESS written in our foreheads all will be but like Bellerophon's letters We may take them for a pass-port or letters of commendation but in them our doom and our condemnation is written We are condemned by our wilfull neglect and contempt of the marriage-feast as by our own confession so condemned as that nothing remaineth but sentence and execution If it had been mine enemy saith David Psal 55. 12 â—3 I could have born it But it was thou my familiar friend If it were one who never had heard of the Feast one of the Heathen who knew not the name of the King the neglect would not have been so foul The times of their Acts 17. 30. ignorance God wincked at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saw as if he saw not he did not threaten eternal death as he doth now under the Gospel but now he commandeth every man every where to repent to fit and prepare himself for this great Feast And if we do not so we are the worse Christians by being so much Christians more guilty for our profession in more danger then Infidels in that we are not so and more unpardonable for our belief Irascitur Deus contumeliis misericordiae suae God is never more angry then when his Mercy is abused and his Grace turned into wantonness Let us then look-up to the Author Heb. 12. 2. and Finisher of our faith Hear his voice follow his direction I counsel Rev. 3. 18. thee saith he to buy of me white rayment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear And we may buy of him without Isa 55. 1. Heb. 2. 11. money or money-worth The Apostle saith Both he who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Now Christ sanctifieth us by his doctrine and example And as he was conceived by the holy Ghost so are we made new creatures and clothed with the wedding garment by the vertue and power of the same Spirit And then Christ will not be ashamed of us not ashamed to call us Brethren when as brethren we wear the same apparel When he seeth our garment entire the same in every part universal uniform like it self throughout the whole of the same thread not here a piece of silk and there a menstruous rag not obedience to this command because it fitteth our humour and disobedience to another because it sitteth too close and is troublesome to flesh and bloud When he seeth us not bow in the house of Rimmon because our master doth so not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beat and wound our conscience for fear of those higher Powers who else will beat us with many stripes When he seeth not our Faith enfeebled by our Trust in uncertain Riches nor our Charity cooled by those tentations that blow from that treasury nor our Hope swallowed-up in victory by our Ambition When he seeth our Garment made by that patern which himself shewed shining not like the Pharisees fringed garments but like the pure fine linnen of the Saints well woven with spiritual wisdom and well worn with care and diligence When he seeth us according to the Greek proverb yea according to his own charge Quem mater amictum dedit solicitè custodire to Rev. 16. 15. keep that garment with which God our Father and the Church our Mother hath clothed us in the day of our mariage that garment for the making whereof He himself afforded materials and that è visceribus suis out of his own bowels When he seeth this I say he will change our wedding-garment into a robe of glory Coming thus apparalled like guests we may have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confidence and boldness towards God Then shall our mouths be filled with laughter and our tongues with joy Then shall we not as he here be speachless but speak unto the King and the King will speak unto us We shall speak to him as Children Abba Father as Subjects Let thy Kingdom come as Servants Master it is good for us to be here And the King's Son shall speak for us Behold I and the children which thou hast given me The Feast shall speak for us even the Bloud of Jesus shall speak good things for us And Hebr. 2. 13. the Garment shall speak for us our plea of Faith shall be more eloquent and powerful then the tongues of Men and of Angels And our plea shall be answered not with a QUOMODO but with an EUGE Well done my good and faithful guests Your wedding-garment is on Sit-down at my table sit-down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob with all the Patriarchs and with all the Apostles and with the whole Church in the kingdom of heaven Which happiness God grant unto us through Christ Jesus our Lord. The Nine and Twentieth SERMON PART I. MATTH VI. 9. After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven c. A Preface concerning Catechizing and Prayer BEfore I come to the plain and familiar explication of these words which I intend it may be expected perhaps that I should speak somthing by way of Preface For we live in that age wherein every man almost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Sophister speaks malevolous and jealous making his surmise a formal endictment and sufficient testimony against Superiors whilst himself alone stands guilty and there can be no crime found but this that he is suspicious Nihil tam sacrum quod non inveniat sacrilegum What good order can there be I will not say establisht but revived which is not straight markt out as a novelty No sooner can it receive influence from Authority to grow up and shew it self in the Church but Malice layes its axe at the very root of it And where Power is wanting to digg it up by the roots there Ignorance and Clamor shall shake it as a plant that will not grow in any Christian ground because they suppose it was brought from Rome We cannot be so blind we cannot be so charitable as not to observe this in those things which the wisest in the Church have thought to be of great importance And it were to be wisht that it would rest there and rather spend it self upon some one particular then multiply it self by degrees and gather strength to quarrel and endanger all But as fire seizeth on all matters that are combustible without respect whither it be a palace or a cottage a stately oak or a neglected straw so this Jealousie which not Conscience but Self-will and wilfull Disobedience hath kindled in the Church feeds it self not only with mountains with matters of greater moment but atomos numerat takes-in even atomes themselves things which can have no shew of offense
and death at once which are seldom entertained but when they please and when they please do as seldom profit I speak not this to disparage Preaching I know Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God I confess with the Fathers Principale munus est aedificare ecclesiam docere populum That it is the greatest office upon earth to edifie the Church of Christ and teach the people an office which the Angels themselves do reverence But all that is spoken is to no other intent but to root-out opinionem tam insitam tam inveteratam so setled so inveterate an opinion which hath gained place and power in mens hearts That Preaching is nothing else but ad clepsydram perorare to speak an hour out of the Pulpit Look into the primitive times and there you shall see a particular office and calling in the Church of Catechizers And these were then the two solemn wayes of teaching the people per catechesin conciones by Catechism and Preaching Of the which that of Catechizing seemeth to be the more ancient Not children and infants but men of ripe understanding and perfect use of reason together with grave and ancient matrons were brought unto the sacred Lavatory to be baptized into that Faith which they had already entertained but were not yet perfectly instructed in Who being yet but strangers in religion and not well skil'd in those sacred mysteries which Christianity is enriched with were sent in cryptas solitudinem into the wilderness unto caves and dens to those whose office it was to instruct them whom the fear of cruel and bloudy tyrants and of the sword of persecution had confined to those grots But when this tempest was over and peace did shine upon the Church when Religion began to spread it self through the Kingdomes of the world then every Church almost had one allotted for this office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by chawing as it were and breaking to pieces by exposition to give light to the tenents and doctrine of the Church A laborious and troublesome calling in those times being performed every day and the same or like things being to be inculcated and urg'd so often in that variety of men and manners whereof some were rude some perverse some proud in their opinion to teach whom many times was but to loose labor and all the fruit the doing of it Which did weaken and infeeble that glorious contention and ambition of teaching which before was strong amongst them A Deacon of Carthage put up his complaint to St. Augustine That in those large and cold expressions in which he was forced to instruct the Catechumeni he many times grew not only tedious to others who thought themselves ripe for more accurate discourses but to himself And this occasioned that tract of his De Catechizandis rudibus Of the manner of instructing the simple and ignorant where he tells him that there is not so great difference between a weak expression and a quick and lively apprehension as there is between a mortal Man and God and yet Christ who was equal to God took upon him the form of a servant that he might become weak to them who are weak and so gain the weak Why then should men of deeper reach think it tedious to descend to low expressions quum charitas quantò officiosiùs descendit in infima tantò robustiùs recurrit ad intima whenas true Charity the more officious it is to condescend to the lowest the more strongly it reflects with comfort upon the inward man through a good conscience which seeketh nothing from them to whom it doth descend but their salvation Nor did this office confine it self within their Temples but was brought into their Schools Amongst which that of Alexandria was most famous where Origen at eighteen years of age took upon him that office Who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eunapius speaks of Socrates a living and a walking statue of spiritual wisdome Where Pantaenas Heractas Dionysius and Clemens Alexandrinus were glorious in this respect And indeed what else is Clemens his Paedagogus but a Catechisme For we must not think that it is only to Catechise when we instruct by way of question and answer because our common Catechisins are shaped out unto us in the form of Dialogues No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be catechized no more than to be instructed In which acception we find the word used in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof thou hast been instructed saith St. Luke to Theophilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 1. 4. Gal. 6. 6. Let him that is taught in the word make him that hath taught him partaker in all his goods When St. Augustine took the Epistle and Gospel and Psalm for the day for his subject for one Sermon he did then Catechize When Athanasius made one Sermon and that a very short one contra omnes haereses against all heresies he did then Catechize St. Chrysostome hath divers Orations catechistical When Chrysologus makes six or seven several Sermons upon the whole Creed and not one of them a quarter of an hour long what doth he then but Catechize What need I tell you of the several constitutions of Councels and provincial Synods decreed for the institution of the Catechumeni The state and face now of Christendom is altered nor have we Converts of the Jews and Gentiles on whom to bestow this necessary labour but yet I fear we have many as weak and ignorant as they and here is as much need of this kind of instruction as then I will no longer insist upon this argument nor did I think so much as once to have toucht upon it but to have begun without a preface Only I was willing to remove all jealousie out of such mens minds as are ready to believe that there is a snake under every leaf and who from the most happy conjunction can presage some dangerous effect and withall to take off all expectation of any curious discourse My discourse shall be like my subject Prayer which as Quintilian spake of Grammar Plus operis habet quà m ostentationis is a painful work indeed but is then most truly performed when it hath nothing of ostentation It hath alwayes been my aim and labor that what I delivered from the Pulpit should be catechetical but I will now affect it Nor will I strive to help my speech by art or phansie but there where it may perhaps be needful Abundè dixit bene quisquis rei satisfecit In these kind of discourses the language must be equally proportioned to the matter in hand and he hath spoken well that hath fully spoken all And to this end I have chosen the Lord's Prayer for my subject which conteins whatsoever we should request and desire as the Creed doth whatsoever we must believe and the Decalogue whatsoever we ought to do And yet in this short Prayer upon due observation
they go forth like the Dove and return to us again with an Olive-branch It is a nice observation of Quadrigarius in Gellius that darts and arrows which are shot upward do fly more level and more surely hit the mark then those which are shot downwards But it is most true in our Prayers which are called Ejaculations because they are darted from us as shafts out of a bow Those that fly upward to God and aim at his glory do more fix upon and take him than those other which fly downward upon our selves For God and Man are in respect of one another as the species of Quantity Continua and Discreta as a Body and Number Number admits of infinite additions Nullus est post quem non sit alter You can give no number to which you may not add another And a Corporeal substance may be diminished in unitate You cannot so divide a piece of wood but you may divide it again The more you diminish and cut from the wood the more you increase the number of parts So is it between God and our selves The more we take from our selves the more we add to God the more vile we think our selves the more glorious he appears The knowledge of Gods infinite Majesty may receive infinite additions and so may the knowledge of our own unworthiness When we are busie in the contemplation of our own vileness then do we most cleerly see the Glory of God for which we were made The tree that sends his root downwards sends his boughs upwards and the deeper his root the higher his boughs so the more we are deprest and cast-down in our selves the nearer are we raised to the throne of God The Glory of God was that for which we were created Now the Philosophers will tell us Unumquodque est propter suam operationem Every thing is and hath its being for the work it hath to do I do not warm my self with a Plainer nor smooth a table with Fire This were not only vain but would destroy any work All things even Arts and Sciences beyond or besides their end are unuseful Seneca tells his friend that the Arts were then liberal cùm homines liberos facerent when they made men free and ingenuous And censuring the vices of the time he saith that Arithmetick and Geometry were of no use if they taught only metiri latifundia digitos accommodare avaritiae to measure Lordships and tell money And certainly Man is the most unprofitable creature in the world if he dedicate not himself and his devotions to the glory of that God who made him for that end For the Love of God is an undefiled love and if it be perfect will admit of no mixture For to love God for any other respect than God himself whether it be for Health or Wealth or Honors be it for fear of hell or be it for hope of heaven it self is at the least an imperfection in us Now the reason of this is plain That for which any thing is loved is of it self more beloved When David dealt kindly with Mephibosheth for Jonathan his fathers sake it is a certain argument that he loved Jonathan better than Mephibosheth He that loves a man for mony or meat loves mony and meat more than the man because these are the causes and ends why he loves the man It will follow then that he that loves God for himself or for any other end than God loves that more then God But God is principally and solely to be loved all other things even our own salvation are to be loved for him but he for himself Should we now take the dimensions of our Devotion by this rule I fear it will not reach home Would we down on our knees but for a blessing Would we be so earnest to hallow Gods Name but that in his name we shall cast out devils some evil that may hurt us Would we advance his Kingdom but to crown ourselves Would we be desirous his Will should be done if his will were to damn us Is there an Anselme now alive that if Hell and Sin were proposed to his choice would be damned to torments for ever rather than once by sin dishonor God No Our PATER NOSTER for the most part begins at PANEM NOSTRUM Give us this day our daily bread And our Prayers are much like Jacobs Vow If God will give us bread to eat and raiment to put on then the Lord shall be our God Indeed it should Gen. 28. 20. not be thus If our Love were perfect our Devotion would be so also and kindle at no other fire than the Love of Gods Glory For perfect Love doth not only cast-out all fear but all other respects whatsoever And God would be loved by us as David loved Jonathan but the Creature as Mephibosheth but in a second place for Jonathans sake but we are Men not Angels and God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens speaks who studies wayes to save us and is even witty in inventing of means to bring us unto him doth so far condescend as to be content we have an eye to our own Good so we prefer his Glory to propose other ends so we make that the first and to pray for our selves so we begin with him Although we cannot begin with him but we pray for our selves Tolle luctatori praemium lentus jacebit in stadio Take away the garland and the Souldier will not strike a stroke Our Devotion would be frost-bound nor would we fill heaven with our prayers but that we hope they will bring down some blessing from thence Therefore God deals with us as a skilfull Artist doth that works upon an evil matter If he cannot make what he would yet makes that which the matter gives him leave And like the Husbandman in the Gospel he doth not pluck up the Tares these imperfections of ours for fear that the Wheat even the whole harvest of our Devotion should come up with them Hence it is that he proposes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reward and punishment and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his manifold benefits to incite us to call upon him And he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worker both of our Fight and Reward hath made it as a Law and promulged it to all his followers HE THAT ASKETH SHALL RECEIVE And this is the reason why in the primitive times they anointed Christians at their initiation and reception into the Church to remember them that they were brought into the banners and to encourage them with hope of reward if they overcame If we pray that Gods Name be hallowed we may pray also that he write our names in the book of life If we advance his Kingdom he will crown us Only his Glory in all things must have the praeeminence But you will say that it is a hard thing to keep this intention alive when we pray and that these two the Glory of God and
Christum facimus saith Petrarch in another case It is not enough for us to set our hearts upon riches unless we make Christ himself Covetous also It is not enough for us to pursue honors and dignities unless we make Christ ambitious and so set up a temporal Monarchy in the Church We crown Christ but it is not with the crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of his espousals when he made him the Head of the Church In the world we are born in the world we are bread and hence it comes to pass that when we divert our industry unto Christian study to the knowledge of Christ and his Kingdome we still phansie something like unto the World Riches and Honor and a universal Monarchy But suppose that Christ had the politick government of the world given him as man yet he never exercised his Regal power in this kind He built no castles raised no armies trod not upon the necks of Emperors Suppose he had exercised his Regal power yet all this would hardly fasten the triple Crown on the high Priests head But we see himself renounce all such claim He complains he hath not what the Foxes have a hole to hide his head Being desired to divide the inheritance between two brothers he answers sharply Man who made Luke 9. 56. me a judge or a divider over you When Pilate asketh him Art thou the King Luke 12. 14. of the Jews Christ answereth Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Dost thou object this crime or is it seigned to thy hands by others And at last he makes this plain confession before Pontius Pilate My kingdome is not of this world Which words like the Parthian horseman John 18. ride one way but look another are spoken to an Infidel to Pilate but are a lesson directed to the subjects of his spiritual Kingdome a Lesson teaching us not to dream of any honor in his kingdome but salvation nor any crown but the crown of life And therefore as Aristotle tells us of his moral Happiness that it is the chiefest good but not that which the Voluptuary phansieth the Epicures Good nor that which the Ambitious adoreth the Politicians Good nor that which the Contemplative man abstracteth a Universal notion and Idea of Good so may we say of this Kingdome that in respect of it all the Kingdoms of the earth are not worth a thought but it is not such a Kingdome as the Jews expect or the Chiliasts phansie or the Church of Rome dreams of And though commonly Negatives make nothing known yet we shall find that the nature of Christs Kingdome could not have been more lively and effectually exprest than by this plain negation My Kingdome is not of this world To come yet a little nearer to the light by which we may discover this Kingdome The School-men have raised up divers Kingdoms and built them all upon the same foundation the Word of God First his absolute Dominion over the creature in respect of which Christ is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords To this they have added Regnum Scripturae and Regnum Ecclesiae They call the Scripture and the Church Kingdoms Then they make Regnum Gratiae a Kingdom of Grace and Regnum Gloriae a Kingdome of Glory And by a figure they make the King Christ himself a Kingdome All these may be true and these appellations may have some warrant from Scripture it self and may have an ADVENIAT set to them When we rest upon that law of Providence by which in a wonderful manner God governeth the world we say ADVENIAT Let his absolute Kingdome come Let him dispose and order the actions of men and the events of things as he pleaseth When we make our selves Saints and strive to bring others into that fellowship and communion there is an ADVENIAT for we pray for the increase of the Church and the enlarging of her territories When we hunger and thirst after the water of life when we desire that wholsome doctrine may drop as the rain and saving truth distil as the dew there is an ADVENIAT a prayer which will open the windows of heaven Some are of opinion that by Kingdom come here Christ did mean the Gospel And this carries some probability in it For the Disciples and Apostles of Christ whose business it was to propagate the Gospel had this petition Thy Kingdom come so often in their mouths that they were accused affectati regni as Enemies to the State who did secretly undermine one Empire to set up another We cannot deny but that not only the manifestation of Gods will but the confirmation of it either by preaching or by miracle or by those gifts and effects which can proceed from no other cause but the power and efficacy of the Spirit are truly called the kingdome of Christ because they are instrumenta regni instruments and helps to advance his throne or Kingdome in our very hearts that as true Subjects we may obey his commands as true Souldiers fight under his banner that so we may suffer with him here and reign with him hereafter And in this sense we may call the Scripture a Kingdome and the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the outward Government of the Church whether Political by the Magistrate or Ecclesiastical by the Bishops and Priests a Kingdome because both Powers both Ecclesiastical and Civil are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great helps and furtherances to advance Gods Kingdome But Aquinas shall give you a full resolution 1 a 2 ae Qu. 104. Regnum Dei in interioribus consistit principaliter sed ex consequenti ad regnum Dei pertinent omnia illa sine quibus interiores actus esse non possunt The Kingdome of God is within us and principally consists in the subduing of the inward man in taking the citadel of the Heart but by a plain and easie consequence all those things without which these inward acts are not ordinarily performed may be taken in within its verge and compass And when we pray for the supply and continuance of these helps we truly say Thy Kingdome come For Christ is not truly and properly said to reign till we have surrendered up unto him our very souls and hearts and laid them at his feet For as Cassian saith of Fasting and Watching and Nakedness that they are not perfection it self but the instruments to work it So may we say of these outward helps the Preaching of the Word the Administration of the Sacraments and the Watchfulness of Kings and Prelates and the like They are not the Kingdome of God but helps and instruments to set us up And his reason will hold here also In ipsis enim non consistit disciplinae finis sed per illa pervenitur ad finem For these are not the end but by these we are brought to the end to the Kingdome of Grace which will bring us to the Kingdome
bound the Understanding also to regulate our Affections to set limits to our very Thoughts which flow from the heart to keep us from Error as well as from Sin For as the Will must turn it self from all evil ut non consentiat that it no way incline to consent unto it so is there a tye upon the Understanding to avoid error ut non assentiat that it yield not assent to it As the Will is bound to perform its act so is the Understanding also The Will is bound to will that which is good the Understanding to know and believe those things which are the objects of our Faith and Knowledge so that it is as well a sin to believe a lye in matters of Faith as to break a commandment If there were no law to the Understanding then were it lawful for every man to believe and think as he please and that opinion would pass for current That every man may be saved in that Religion and Sect which he believes to be good and true And then how hath the Church of Christ been mistaken in passing such heavy censures upon Hereticks and Infidels We have a saying indeed in St. Bernard Nihil ardet in inferno praeter propriam voluntatem That nothing of us makes fuel for the fire of hell but our Will and that men are punisht only for the stubbornness and disobedience of their Will and if we examine it we shall find it true enough though at the first appearance it beareth some shew of opposition to the truth For the Will receives the first wound and maim And it is most certain we could never erre dangerously if we were not willing to be deceived The complaint is put-up in Scripture They will not understand Not that the acts of the Understanding depend on the Will which are rather natural than arbitrary for it is not in our power not to apprehend things in those shapes in which they present themselves but because we wilfully refuse the means to clear doubts we will not see that which is most naked and visible we seek no guide we follow no direction nay perhaps against our own consciences we dissent from that which inwardly will we nill we we do acknowledge And as the errors of the Understanding so all the extravagancies of the Affections are originally from the Will It was the Stoicks error to disgrace the Affections as evil Christianity hath made the weapons of righteousness to fight the battels of this great King My Anger may be a sword my Love a banner my Hope a staff my Fear a buckler All the weaknesses of our Soul the errors of our Understanding and the rebellions of our Affections are from the Will From hence are wars and fightings Is the Understanding dark The cloud is from the Will That my Anger rageth my Love burneth my Fear despaireth my Grief is impatient my Joy mad is from the Will From this treasury blows the wind which makes the wicked like the Isa 57. 20. troubled sea which cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt And now you see that the Kingdom of Christ consists principally in subduing of the will When that yields the Understanding is straight as wax to receive the impressions of Truth and the Affections as so many gentle gales to carry us to the haven where we would be This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom calls it principale animae as St. Ambrose the commanding leading and principal part of the Heart If Christ hath taken possession of this he hath taken the whole heart and is Lord of all Fight saith the 1 King 22. 31 King of Syria neither with small nor great save only with the King of Israel If he faâ—l in battel the whole army is overthrown Will you have it plainly thus There be these three parts as it were in the Heart or Soul of man Reason Will and Appetite Reason necessarily inclines to things reasonable and the Sensitive appetite follows the conduct of Sense For it is an axiome in the Schools Unaquaeque virtus expeditior est ad proprium actum Every power of the soul tends naturally to its proper act and operation Our Reason is quick to discourse and our Sense carries us to sensual objects And these two are at a kind of war and variance in man and strive which shall have the supremacy They are as two extreams and the Will in the midst as it were to decide the controversie When Sense hath over whelmed Reason then Sin begins to reign and the Devil to triumph But when through Christ that strenghtheneth us our Will takes Reason's part and treads the Appetite under her feet then the adverse faction is swallowed up in victory Christ is all in all and VENIT REGNUM DEI the Kingdome of God is within us I now proceed further to unfold the nature of the Kingdome of God It is REGNUM TUUM thy Kingdome Which puts a difference betwixt this and other Kingdoms Christ rules and reigneth as a King in his Church But as his Kingdome is not of this world so is it of a divers form and complexion from the Kingdoms of the world We pray Let thy Kingdome come Which points out a peculiar Kingdome a Kingdome by it self And if we put it in the Scales with the Kingdoms of the earth and weigh them together they will be all found too light whether we respect the Laws by which this Kingdome is governed or the Virtue and Power it hath or its large Compass or the Riches it abounds with or its Duration the Laws unquestionable indispensable the Power universal the Circuit as large as the world the Riches everlasting and its Continuance for ever To speak something of these in their order First in the Kingdome of Christ and his Laws neither People nor Senate nor Wise-men nor Judges has any hand They were made in Senatu Soliloquio as Rupertus speaks in that Senate and Solitariness where there are divers yet but one Three Persons and but one God Secondly there is a difference in the Laws themselves These are pure and undefiled exact and perfect and such as tend to perfection and so were none that ever the heathen Legislatours enacted What speak we of the Laws of heathen men and strangers from the Commonwealth of Israel The Law of Moses though it had nothing unlawful or dishonest yet conteined many precepts concerning things which in themselves were neither good nor evil as Sacrificing of beasts Circumcision exact Rest on their Sabboath forbidding of divers meats But the Laws of the Gospel and of the Kingdome of Christ command those duties which had they not been tendred in that high commanding form yet in their own nature were most just and fit to be done Not to circumcise the flesh but the heart Not to cease from labor but from that which is unlawful Not to sacrifice the bloud and fat of beasts but our selves Not to abstein from certain meats but to
Divinitatis as Tertullian calls it the very work and invention of the Deity though it breathe nothing but peace and joy though it have not only authority but reason to plead for it yet the sound of it was no sooner heard but the world was in a tumult The heathen did rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the earth did set themselves against the Lord and against his Anointed Do the Angels proclaim it Men oppose it Doth Psalm 2. Christ preach it and confirm it by wonders Let him be crucified say the Jews Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula say the Gentiles after Away with Christ and his Legend Whilst it was yet in its swathing-bands it was brought to the barr the professors of it are punished and tortured non ut dicant quae faciunt sed ut negent quod sunt not to reveal what they do but to deny what they are For this the most chast wife is devorced from her husband the most obedient son disinherited by his father the most trusty and faithful servant shut out of doors by his master even for the Religion of the Gospel which made the Wife chast the Son obedient and Servant faithful Ex aemulatione Judaei ex natura domestici nostri The Jew is spurred on by his envy nay she finds enemies in her own house the Church of God and even Christians oppose her because of the truth it self whose nature it is to offend It is a just complaint that our Saviour came into the world and the world received him not would not receive him as a King but groaned under him as a cruel Tyrant His edicts his commands his proclamations his precepts were hard and harsh sayings none could bear them So it stands with Christian Religion Cum odio sui caepit It was hated as soon as it was Nor indeed can it be otherwise For it offends the whole world It stands between the Wanton and his lust the Ambitious and his pomp the Covetous and his mammon Christ is truth and his Kingdome is a Kingdome of righteousness and truth noâ— is there any thing in the world more scandalous and offensive than the Truth Old Simeon tells Mary of Christ This child is set for the falling and rising again Luke 2. 34. of many in Israel Not that Christ saith St. 〈◊〉 is contrary â—â— himself a Saviour and a Destroyer a Friend and an Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for the divers opinions and affections of men which abusing his love make him an enemy and the Saviour of the world a Destroyer I might name here many hinderances of the growth of â—he Gospel as Heresie which is a most poysonous viper biting not the heel but the very heart of it Infidelity which robs Christ of his subjects contracts his Kingdome into a narrow room and into a small number Disorder which rents it which works confusion there All these are impedimenta lets and hinderances to the propagation of the Gospel not like those impedimenta militiae the luggage and carriage of an army without which it cannot subsist but obicem ponentia fences and bulwarks and barricadoes against the King of Heaven if it were possible to stay him in his victorious march and to damm up that light which must shine from one end of the earth unto the other But this perhaps might fill up our discourse and make it swell beyond its bounds The greatest hinderance which we must pray against is an evil thought which flyes about the world That there is no Hinderance but these no opposition to the truth but Heresie no sin but Infidelity no breaking of order but in a Schism This it is to be feared not only hinders the propagation of the Gospel in credendis in respect of outward profession but blasts and shrinks it up in agendis in respect of outward practice and of that obedience without which we are meer aliens and strangers from this Kingdome This doth veritatem defendendo concutere this shakes that truth which should make us fruitful to every good work by being so loud in the defense of it It is a truth I think confest by all That the errors of our Understanding for the most part are not of so great alloy as those of the Will That it is not so dangerous to be ignorant of some truth as it is to be guilty of any evil yet all the heat of contention is spent here all our quarrels and digladiations are about these nay all our Religion is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnestly to contend not who shall be the truest subjects in Christs Kingdome but who shall be most loud to cry down Heresie and Schism And this phansie I take to be as great a viper as Heresie as poysonous as Infidelity and the first ground and original of all Schisms in the world Whose zeal is so hot against an Oath as against an Error Who says Anathema to the Wanton What curse upon the Oppressor but of the Orphan and the Widow And from whence come wars from whence come fightings amongst us but from this corrupt imagination That we do better service in the Church of Christ which is the Kingdome of God by the loud defence than by the serious practice of the truth And all this while we mistake this Kingdome and the Religion which we profess which is absoluta simplex a Religion of great perfection and simplicity non quaerens strophas verborum and needs not the help of wit and sophistry God leads us not unto his Kingdome by knotty and intricate Disputes In absoluto nobis facili aeternitas saith Hilary Our journey to it is most easie It will come unto us sine pompa apparatu without pomp or observation It was Erasmus his complaint in the dayes of our Fore-fathers Ecclesiam sustineri syllogismis That this Kingdome was upheld not by piety and obedience but by syllogistical disputes as the surest props I could be infinite in this argument but I am unwilling to loose my way whilst I pursue a thief The sum of all is That this ADVENIAT is not only an invitation to draw this Kingdome nearer but an antidote against Heresie Infidelity and Schism and also against this corrupt conceit That Religion doth in labris natare is most powerful when it floats upon the tongue And we must raise it up as an engine to bruise the head of these vipers to cast down imaginations and every thing that exalteth it self against the Kingdome of Christ Again as this ADVENIAT fits all ages of the Church and was the language which Christ taught his Disciples when the Church was yet an Embrio in semine principiis not yet brought forth in perfect shape so is it a most proper and significant word verbum rei accommodatum a word fitted to the matter in hand the Kingdome here mentioned which must come to us before we can come to it Nothing more free and voluntary more
Father Such as care for nothing but to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof cannot put on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle biddeth Rom. 13. 14. us They who will still go brave and drink deep and feed high and fare deliciously every day with the Glutton in the Gospel are likely not only Luke 16. to suffer Lazarus to starve at their doors but also to pine and begger their own souls to eternity It may seem somewhat strange that St. Paul calls Esau 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fornicator and a profane person since Moses no Hebr. 12. 16. where recordeth it And Thalassius the Monk moves the doubt to Isidore Pelusiote lib. 1. Epist who returneth a ready answer That it was no marvel at all that he should sell his chastity who first had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage For this Bread of Luxurie doth not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks corrupt our health but doth aggravare animam layeth a burden upon the soul that she can neither take the wing and raise her self in the contemplation of God and his goodness nor yet prompt the Eye or Hand or Tongue to do those offices for which they were created It makes her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weaker saith Clemens and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weak sensless stupid For quorum corpora saginata eorum animi in maciè When the body is too full streight leanness enters into the soul I may seem perhaps to have divided this Bread with too sparing a hand I will therefore give you the whole Loaf and more I cannot give you And by Bread here we will understand that provision that wealth those necessaries which every particular mans calling requires or which may fit that place which he bears either in Church or Common-wealth For I am not so strait-laced as to imagine that every Artificer should be furnisht as richly as a Noble-man or that every Nabal should make a feast like a King Not the same measure and proportion for Joab the Captain of the Hoast and for David the King for Shaphan the Chancellour and for Josiah for Gellio the Deputy and for Caesar the Emperour It is true in many respects there is no difference between man and man but all are equal We have all one Father who hath made of one bloud all nations of men And as we Matth. 2. 10. Acts 17. 26. are all made of one mold so are we all bought with the same price The soul of him that sitteth on the throne cost Christ no more then did the soul of him that grindeth at the mill All are one in Christ Jesus All true Gal. 3. 28. Christians have the same holy Spirit to sanctifie and guide them all have an army of holy Angels to pitch their tents about them all are spiritual Kings and Priests all are now vessels of grace and shall hereafter be vessels of glory And at the day of doom the great Judge will not look who lieth in a winding-sheet and who in a sheet of lead nor will he pardon this man because he was a King and condemn that other because he was a Begger Yet for all this he hath made up his Church here not of Angels but of Men who live in the world and therefore must live under Government Ecclesia non subvertit regna The Church and Secular powers stand not in opposition but so well sute and sort together that God hath left this as a blessing unto his Church and part of her dowry That Kings should be her nursing fathers and Queens her nursing mothers Now Kingdoms and Common-wealths Isa 49. 23. cannot be governed and maintained unless there be a disparity of persons and places It hath pleased God therefore to dispense his gifts in a wonderful variety amongst the children of men that so they might be fitted for several professions and callings men of ordinary fashion and parts for lower and meaner vocations to handle the Plough or the Spade or the Flail or the Sheep-hook to trade in the Shop or to traffick by Sea or to serve in the Wars but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calleth men of more then ordinary endowments choice active persons picked out of thousands these deserve to become famous in their generations to attend on Princes to bear office in Court or Camp or Church or Common-wealth Sic opus est mundo There is a necessity of disproportion between men and men Nihil enim aequalitate ipsâ inaequalius For there is no greater disproportion in the world then in a body politick to have all the parts equal Being so it cannot long subsist Indeed some fantastick persons have long talkt of a Parity and Community but it is to make themselves supream and the greatest Impropriators in the world For were the world so weak as to yield to their holy counsel and advice you should then see these ravenous Wolfes strip themselves of their lambs-skins and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 openly before the Sun and the People invest themselves with that power which they cry down for Antichristian Sint pares protinus erunt superiores Let them part stakes and they will have all Let them be your equals they will soon be your superiors and give them but leave to stand on even ground with you and they will before you can be aware of them lay you level with the ground Now a Hezekiah is no better than a Senacherib a Constantine than a Julian every King is a Tyrant every Bishop Antichrist no Guide but the Spirit no Court but Heaven no lash but that of Conscience Meum and Tuum are harsh words in the Church Almost of the mind of the Carpocratians in Clemens who because the Air was common would have their Wives so too Quid verba audio These words are most notoriously false and deceitful For did they once rerum potiri could they but shift the scene and return back cloath'd with that power and jurisdiction which they libel their own writings which most barbarously call for the bloud and lives of men for no other reason but because they cannot be fools enough to be of their opinion shew what meek and gentle spirits we should find them Now No King No Bishop No Government But then they will reign as Kings Their little fingers would be bigger then the most cruel Tyrants loyns and we who before did not feel so much as a scourge by these unhallowed Saints should be whipped with Scorpions But I must not stray too far out of my way to follow Thieves I leave them to the mercy and justice of God who in his due time will either work their conversion or confound their devilish practices and machinations To proceed then God doth give every man his portion of bread He did so in the beginning of the world before the Floud he did so in the restitution of the world after
in their hands in token of victory yet cryed with Rev. 7. a loud voice saying Salvation to our God who sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb. I have now passed through all the Petitions and brought you to the Conclusion of your PATER NOSTER For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen But here at present let us conclude and beseech God graciously to hear us that those evils which the craft and subtlety of the Devil or Man worketh against us be brought to nought and by the Providence of his goodness they may be dispersed that we his servants being hurt by no persecutions may evermore give thanks unto him in his holy Church through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Eight and Fourtieth SERMON MATTH VI. 13. For thine is the kingdome and the power and the glory for ever Amen THIS is the Conclusion of the whole matter even of these six Petitions In which we looked 1. upon the principal end of our life and actions the Glory of Gods great and glorious Name 2. upon the secondary and subordinate end which is our Salvation Which we have under God being our King to govern and our King to command and our King to crown us 3. upon those things which lead unto both these ends both to the Hallowing of Gods Name and the Saving of our Souls to wit first the procurement and use of these means as principally Piety by which we fulfill Gods Will and secondly our corporal Sustentation by which we are more chearful and active in the duties of piety and lastly the Removing of those lets and impediments which may keep us from these ends to wit our Sins Which are either past already or may be which we have already run into or to which we are obnoxious For the one we beg Forgiveness from the other Protection that God would remit the one and not lead us into tentation that we may be delivered from the other And these six make up this legitimate and ordinary and fundamental Prayer as Tertullian calls it Upon which we must build whatsoever we desire For whatsoever is not proportioned in reference to one of these is but the dross of our own invention but hay and stubble fit for the fire Now as we level our petitions to these ends so there must be some forcible motive to raise our hope and settle and establish such a confidence as may drive them home and may feather our Devotion that it wax not saint and feeble and fall to the ground Therefore to these Petitions this Clause or Conclusion is added For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen Amen As if we should say We therefore beg these blessings at thy hands because thou alone reignest and governest and dispensest all things according to thy will and dost what thou wilt in heaven and in earth and thou hast power to supply us and from hence all glory shall as it ought return unto thee This clause indeed is not in the Vulgar edition nor in St. Luke in any edition either Greek or Latine or Syriack And therefore those of the Church of Rome attributing more to the Vulgar edition than to the Greek copies themselves commonly count it as an addition and a Gloss crept into the Text because it was a custome especially with the Greeks to conclude their Prayers to God with some Doxologie as also thinking it very improbable that there should be such a remarkable difference between the two Evangelists Matthew and Luke But these probabilities cannot carry it because it is as probable that Christ did at two several times deliver this form of prayer and that Matthew wrote of one and Luke of another Nor doth there any absurdity follow that they vary in this when whatsoever is conteined in this clause comes not within the compass of the six Petitions nor pertains to the substance of this prayer And for ought we find the Greek Fathers might as well borrow it from the Text as thrust it in And if it were added here we may suspect it was added also in divers places of St. Paul and one of St. Peter Sure I am we find it in all the Greek copies and in the Syriack which otherwise agrees very often with the Vulgar even there where it differs from the Greek Only in the Greek it is IN SECULA for ever and in the Syriack IN SECULA SECULORUM for ever and ever and in the Syriack the word Amen is not which the Greek copies have We may add to this that the Hebrew edition of the Gospel of Matthew set out by Munster and revised by Quinquarboreus although it very much accords with the Vulgar as he tells us in his Preface yet retains this Clause And therefore we must not too rashly yield and subscribe to the conjecture of the Pontificians though perhaps it hath some probability to countenance it but read it as we find it in those Copies which with joynt consent we do allow For that of St. Hierom also is true Periculosae sunt multae quaestiones nihil tutius quà m tacere It is dangerous to multiply questions about that which is so generally received and it is safer to be silent then to frame scruples for the unlearned and unstable who if one Text be called into question will be soon induced to doubt of all Especially since we find it taken-up by the Apostles and so necessarily implyed in the very essence of Prayer that if we found it not in terminis in the very words yet we must understand it And we may truly say Nihil nobis magìs deest quà m de quo contendimus Nothing is more necessary for us when we put-up our petitions then that which we so much contend about whether it be or no. I called it the Conclusion And indeed as a Conclusion in an Oration it gathers together and presents all those motives and arguments why we should obtain what we desire Or indeed rather these Attributes of God are the Premisses or so many several Reasons and our Prayer the Conclusion The kingdom is the Lords and therefore shall all nations worship before him saith Psal 22. 28. David And Thou savest by thy right hand therefore shew thy wonderful Psal 17. 7. loving kindness Thou art our King O God The Conclusion follows Send help unto Jacob. And whatsoever we desire we desire for his own sake for his Dan 9. names sake for his glories sake Thus it is when we call upon God and thus it is when God calls upon us to call upon him Thus we conclude and thus God teacheth us to conclude Look unto me and be ye saved For Isa 45. 22. I am a Saviour and there is none besides me I am God and there is none else And this the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FOR doth intimate Which hath this force that it renders a reason why we put-up our petitions For although many
is most deceitful This makes Gods and sets up Idols in it self and then worships them And this is the reason why Christ is so much mistaken why the Gospel of Christ receives such different entertainment Every man layes hold on it wrests it to his own purpose works it on his own anvil and shapes it to his own phansie and affections as out of the same mass Phidias made a Goddess and Hysippus a Satyr Oh beloved how many lye buried under Prejudice corrupt and putrefied and even stinking in the nostrils of God and man not to be awak'd till the last Trump All exhortations all reproofs all admonitions all reason all truth is to them but as a mess of pottage set upon a dead mans grave the tongue of Men and Angels but as sounding brass How do they rejoyce in iniquity triumph in evil confirm themselves in wicked practises What a paradise to they plant in Tophet what a Heaven do they make in Hell it self How busie are they to sanctifie and glorifie their error What shift do they make to make themselves the Devils Children seven times more then they are How do they argue and dispute themselves into hell That which is a reason against them is made a reason for them that which strikes at their error is made to uphold it that which checketh them spurs them that which binds them sets them loose that which bids them Touch not Taste not is to them as the voice to Peter Acts 10. Rise kill and eat Where Prejudice bears rule every thing must bow every sheaf every occasion every occurrence must fall down before it If it be adversity it is an argument if good success it is an argument What shall I say In the next world it is Holiness but in this it is Prejudice it is Covetousness it is Ambition that makes Saints So dangerous was Prejudice and Prae-conceit to the Disciples that no words no miracles of Christ could root it out but it grew up in them and spread it self into Thoughts and Questions which are as the boughs of it till a sound from heaven till a mighty rushing wind till fiery tongues beat it down and consum'd it So dangerous was it to the Jews that it had been better for them to have been utterly ignorant of their Messias For this gross Praeconceit of their Messias was yet the main reason that they entertained him not when he came because he came in a posture so contrary to their expectation so unlike that Christ which they had set up already in their minds So dangerous a thing is a Prepossessed mind to it self And therefore it well concerns us as Chrysostome speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to quiet and slumber these imaginations these absurd reasonings and dialogues which we make within our selves For why should such thoughts arise in our hearts such thoughts as will shut out better such thoughts of a temporal as will deprive us of an eternal Kingdom such thoughts of goodness as will make us worse then the beasts that perish And it well concerns us to be jealous and suspicious of our selves For Jealousie and Suspicion though in other matters it be a disease that no Physician can cure yet in respect of our Souls is a seasonable medicine full of efficacy and virtue We cannot be too jealous of our own salvation My jealousie of my Honor may draw on destruction my jealousie of my Money may invite a thief my jealousie of my wife may provoke her to folly but my jealousie of my Soul doth enoble and enrich it and present it a pure Virgin unto Christ Let us then be afraid of our own thoughts and take heed of all prejudicate conceits In the second place since the Divel made use of this error of the Disciples and attempted them there where they were most open to him let us as wise Captains use to do double our watch and be careful to strengthen that part which is weakest and most assaylable as Galen counsels where the Affections are contrary first wrestle with that which is most prevalent and overcome it that we may find our work the easier and less trouble to bring the rest in subjection For Beloved as tentations work by the Sensitive part upon the Rational so they have a diverse operation according to mens several constitutions and complexions Every man is not equally prone to every sin This ravisheth the eye of one which another will not look on This man liketh that which another abhorreth He that made the Devil fly at the first encounter may embrace him at the next He that stood out with him in Lust may yield to him in Anger He that defied his Mammon may stoop at his Kingdomes He that would none of his Bread may feed himself with his Ayre He that feard not the roaring of the Lion may be overcome with the subtilty of the Serpent A man of a heavy and sluggish disposition is seldome ambitious a man of lively and nimble spirits is seldome idle As hard a matter it is for some men to commit some sin as it is for others to avoid it as hard for the Fool in the Gospel to have spent his estate as for the Prodigal to have kept it We see this man wondring at his brother that he should fall into such or such a sin and the other wondring as much at him how he should fall into the contrary Therefore the Devil who observes how we are elemented and composed hath his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Macarius his divers back-doors out of which he may slip and return at pleasure and if his first bait be distastful come again and present another which will fit our taste and palate If the Disciples leave all and follow Christ he will try them with Honor and teach them to dream of a Kingdome even in the School of their Master It will concern us then to take pains and go down and meet him at this door at that door which he is most likely to enter If it be the Eye shut it up by covenant If it be the Ear stop it and be those Addars which will not hear his charmes If it be our Taste deny it If it be our Appetite be harsh to it If it be our Phansie watch it and bind it up For if this was done to the green tree the Disciples of Christ if they were endangered where they were weakest what may not be done to the dry which is ready to catch and take fire at every spark of a tentation Let us then be ready and prepared and stand in our complete armour at that door which the Enemy is most like to attempt Let us put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against every wile of the Devil especially against that wile which may soonest Ephes 6. 11. ensnare us Let me give you one Use more and so conclude this point Let us not seek the World in the Church nor Honors