smell so Christ which is the tree of life by tasting and by triall is understood I say by tasting in faith his lowlinesse and humility and patience and by eating of his fruit whereby consequently his soule might find rest and tranquillity and be made capable of divine grace and consolation Which two into a heart void of faith and unfenced with the humility and lowlinesse of Christ cannot enter to fructifie seeing that God giveth grace only to the humble Seeing then it is thus what doth Christ profit a man who hath no society with him Such are all those who living in the darknesse of sinne cannot be companions of light according to that of Saint John If we say we have society with him and walk in darknesse we are liers and want the truth But if we walk in the light as hee is in the light we have joynt fellowship with him Which in the second chapter hee addeth The darknessc is passed over and the true light now shineth hâ—e which saith hee is in the light and hateth his brother is in darknesse untill now He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no offence in him But he that hateth his brother is in darknesse and walketh in darknesse and knoweth not whither he goeth because darknesse hath blinded his eyes And how long a man remaineth in that terrible cloud of sinnes he cannot bee lightned of Christ which is the true Light and come to the knowledge of God For the true knowledge of God and Christ consisteth in that hee understands God to be meere The true knowledge of Christ Grace and Charity which who hath not and exerciseth this man knoweth it with the most ignorant So all knowledge consisteth ariseth out of the understanding experience and works of truth and so certain it is that hee which doth not exercise charity howsoever hee make many words of it yet he perceiveth not the perfect nature of it In like manner Christ is meere love humility meeknesse patience and vertue the which who hath not is ignorant of Christ although hee can prattle many things of him and usurp his name After the same manner the word of God is nothing but Spirit whereupon they which live not in the Spirit these consequently doe not know what the word of God is although they fable and dispute of it every where Therefore it belongeth not to him to judge of love who never exerciseth it For all knowledge as we said even now beginneth with feeling experieÌ„ce Knowledge ariseth out of experience Nor is it his part to speak of the light that never moved a foot out of his own darknesse to see the light and what is light in man but faith and charity according to the saying of Christ Matth. 5. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Now seeing that the most holy life of Christ is nothing but meer love if we endeavour to drink and draw from him true faith humility lowlinesse and patience as it is given in commandement to us by the severe Law of Learning then truly we are transformed into his image and we are beautified and adorned with his love no otherwise then if we were covered with Christ himselfe which is the eternal and true Light according to that of the Ephesians chap. 5. Arise thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ will inlighten thee Whereupon it followeth again that as many as doe not awake from the sleep of the world that is concupiseence of the eyes of the flesh and pride of life their soule cannot truly be illuminated by Christ Contrariwise they which assume the life of Christ and follow him in faith these truly are illuminated according to that of Saint John chap. 8. I am the light of the world he which followeth me in faith charity hope patience lowlinesse humility feare of Onely the martyrs of Christ illuminated God and prayer walketh not in darknesse but shall have the light of life As if he should say Onely those that imitate me have the light of life and the true illumination and knowledge of mee By reason of the same Faith and Life of Christ or Christian life blessed Paul Ephes 5. calleth the faithful the Light You were saith he sometimes darknesse but now light in the Lord. And 1 Thess 5. You are all the sonnes of light and the sonnes of God we are not of the night nor darknesse having put on the breast-plate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation To this belongeth that of the Book of Wisdome which faith That the holy Ghost doth flye wicked persons but comes into holy souls and of them makes Prophets and friends of God Which if it flye the wicked it is plain that they cannot be inlightened of it To which that is like that Christ denieth the world that is carnal minds not repenting them at all can they receive the holy Ghost But that there might be a perfect and absolute example amongst men and an Idea of vertue therefore the Son of God became Man and by his most holy life became the publick Light of the world that all men might follow him beleeve in him and be illuminated from him Now seeing the false Christians themselves know not Christ to be the most perfect and absolute righteousnesse or vertue therefore they did not care for following him it is manifest that the Ethnicks the most rigid observers lovers of vertue did goe far beyond them Of whom the wisest as Plato Aristotle Cicero and Seneca determined If the virtue of the body may be seen or could bee seen it would appeare more cleare then Lucifer or the day starre But those that shal behold Christ with the eye of faith he being the true Lucifer or Day-star doth far excel them and Faith in Christ illuminateth the heart those shall so see and contract the word of life 1 John 1. But if the Ethnicks did so esteeme virtue and desired to see it how much more ought Christians to esteem it above all things seeing Christ is meere virtue meere The love of Christ is to imitate Christ lowlinesse yea God himselfe Whereupon not without cause Saint Paul preferreth the love of Christ before all Sciences or knowledge for that he which loveth him it necessarily followeth that hee doe embrace his lowlinesse and humility out of his meere and most sincere love towards him whereby he is further illuminated and daily Light grace is given by humility transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. For God giveth grace to the humble saith Saint Peter 1 Epist chap. 5. And Saint Bernard The floods of grace doe flow downwards not upwards By all which it cometh to passe that the grace of the light and of knowledge divine is not communicated to a man that liveth not in Christ but walketh in the
which is life it selfe this Way is Truth this Truth is the Way O the blindnesse a worm of the earth will make himself great when the Lord of glory in the world did willingly give up his own life Blush therefore faithfull soule and doe not thou when thy heavenly spouse celestiall Isaac cometh Humility is the way to Christ on foot to meet thee fit aloft on thy Cammel but like to Rebecca who beholding her Husband for bashfulnesse covered her face and comming down from her Camel went on foot with him so thou from the toylsome beast of thy proud heart descend lowly upon the ground and meet thy Spouse and he wil infold thee in his armes and bring thee into his heart Goe from thine own land and from thine acquaintance and from thy fathers house and come into the Land I will shew unto thee so said God unto Abraham Gen. 12. Goe thou likewise out of the house of thy self-selfe love and proper will for selfe-love corrupteth true judgement blindeth the understanding The evil fruits of selfe love disturbeth the reason seduceth the will corrupteth the conscience shutteth the gates of life and knoweth neither God nor his neighbour expelleth vertue hunteth after honours lyeth in wait for riches longeth after pleasures and lastly preferreth earth before heaven who so doth so love his life loseth it John 12. but whosoever hateth his own life that is doth deny his selfe-love this man shall keep it to eternall life selfe-love is the root of impenitence and eternal damnation with the which whosoever are bewitched they are without humility and acknowledgement of their sinnes the remission whereof can be obtained with no teares For they were not teares for God offended but for their own proper losse Mat. 13. the kingdome of heaven is compared to a pretious stone or pearle of great value which to obtain the Jeweller went and sold all that he had This Pearle is God himselfe or eternal life which to obtain all other things are to be left of which thing wee have a most absolute example Jesus Christ who descended from heaven not for his owne but for thy cause not to serve or profit himselfe but thee and shall we then doubt to seek him alone who did forget himselfe and for us gave himselfe unto death It is the part of a faithful Spouse to seek to please none but her husband and thou being spoused to Christ desirest still to please the world See then thou remember What soule is the virgin and spouse of Christ that thy soule is espoused to Christ yet not without a sacrifice with this condition annexed that thou mayst not love any but Christ rather perswade thy selfe thus that thou oughtest to contemne and put all things out of thy mind that thy Spouse might deem thee worthy of his loving imbracements for if thou darest divide thy love so that thou beholdest not Christ alone in all things now thou art no virgin but an adulterer for it behoveth the charity of Christians to be a chaste virgin and without spot Therefore as in the Law of Moses it was lawfull for the Priests onely to marry with virgins so Christ our true high Priest doth desire a virgin soule and which is taken with nothing besides his love and so knoweth not her own self in respect of Christ that which he professeth in expresse words saying If any come unto me and hateth not his own sâ—ule he cannot be my Disciple What it is so to doe to hate himselfe Why a man must hate himself let us shew in a word We all doe carry about with us the old man and are so the old man himselfe whose nature and property is to doe nothing but sinne to love himselfe to follow his profits and honors to pamper his own will and the flesh for the flesh and bloud is at all times like unto it self studieth it selfe giveth honour to it selfe doth applaud it selfe doth serve it selfe doth respect it selfe in all things it is easily grieved envious bitter covetous of revenge All which thou dost and art for seeing they arise and flow from thy heart this is thy life thine I say of the old man Wherefore thou must hate thy selfe if thou desirest to be Christs Disciple And he that loveth himselfe he that loveth his proper pride covetousnesse wrath hatred envie lying perfidiousnesse unrighteousnesse and wicked concupiscence which without doubt are not to beloved of any they are not to be excused and covered but followed with professed and open hatred mortified and utterly denied by him that will be Christs Disciple CHAP. XV. In a true Christian it behoveth the old man should daily die and the new man be renewed Also what it is to deny himself and what is the true Crosse of Christ Luke 9. If any will follow me let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me THese are the words of St. Paul Ephes 4. of the old man Lay aside according to your former conversation the old man which is corrupted according to the desires of error but be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put you on the new man wich is created according to God in justice and holinesse of truth And he expresseth the cause 1 Cor. 6. For yee are bought with a great price therefore glorifie and beare about with you God in your hearts What the old man is we said even now as What the old man is pride covetousnesse lust unrighteousnesse wrath enmity hatred and envie all which must die in a true Christian that the new man might spring up and be daily renewed The old man therefore dying the new man quickneth in opposit to it that is pride wasting humility succeedeth by the grace of the holy Ghost wrath dying lowlinesse shineth in the room covetousnesse being extinguished trust in God is increased the love of the world being taken away the love of God waxeth warm And What the new man is this then is the new man with his members these are the fruits of the Spirit this is the living and powerfull faith this is Christ in us and his most noble life this is new obedience this is the new commandement this is the fruits of regeneration in us in which whoso live these verily are the onely sonnes of God and therefore it is said that a man ought to deny himselfe as proper honour selfe-will and his own judgement privat profits and his own estimation yea to forgoe his own right and not onely all other things but to think himselfe unworthy to live his owne life What it is to deny himselfe Wherfore a true Christian and one that is indued with the humility of Christ doth willingly acknowledge that the man cannot All things are to â—e used with feare by his own right challenge or require any of those things which God bestoweth on him seeing that all things that are are the free gifts of Gods divine munificence wherupon he useth
fire of revenge because they broke the commandement of the Lord which zeal of the most just God those likewise provoke against themselves which out of their own invention and singular devotion and presumption of religious sanctity doe invent a new and uncommanded kind of worship not of God commanded Into which indignation of the divine Godhead lest perhaps we The punishmeÌ„t of it should fall into it also it remaineth to see wherein the true worship of God consisteth for the punishment of the temporary fire which in the old Testament is remembred against feigned worship standeth as an argument that God will doe the like in the new Testament for false religions both with eternal fire and warres and devastations of the lawes then which I know not whether any fire can be more terrible if he so avenge it is most sharp And the nature The true worship of God of the true divine worship and the reason wil easily appeare to us by the comparison of both the covenants together that which God required in the old Testament it was externall and typicall full of figures and shadowes of the Messias and full of ceremonies which that nation was bound to observe strictly and according to the letter In which rites and images the faithfull of the Jewes did as it were behold the Messias by faith in him are saved through the compact and promise divine which God in the new Testament did fulfill This consisteth not in externall Figures Ceremonies Rites Statutes and Lawes but is altogether inward and drawn into Spirit and Truth consisting of faith in Christ beâ—ause by him the Temple the Altar Sacrifices the Ark and Priesthood with all the Morall and Ceremoniall Law are fulfilled whereby consequently we are graffed into Christian liberty free from the maledicti-of the Law Gal. 3. and Jewish ceremonies Gal. 5. So that with a free heart and holy spirit dwelling in us we might serve God Jer. 31. Rom. 8. And our faith and consciences are bound to no traditions of men The trueÌ„ worship of God consisteth in 3 things Moreover three chiefe things are requisite to a true spirituall internall and Christian worship that is to say The true knowledge of God Then of Sinne and Repentance Thirdly of Grace and remission of sinnes And these three are one no otherwise then God himselfe is one in Trinity for in the knowledge eternall of God is contained both repentance and remission of sinnes and that consisteth in faith which taketh hold of Christ and in him and through him acknowledgeth God his omnipotence love mercy righteousnesse verity wisdome of God all which is God himselfe and Christ and the holy Ghost And that not absolutely alone and by his What iâ— God own nature but respectively also and beholding of me by his gracious wil in Christ by which means he is God omnipotent to me mercifull to me eternall righteousnesse to me by grace and remission of sinnes and to me eternall truth and wisdome Nor there is no other way with Christ who is become unto me eternall omnipotency omnipotent Head and Prince of life my most mercifull Saviour perpetuall love justice and righteousnesse immoveable according The true knowledge of God to that 1 Cor. 1. Christ is become our wisdome from God and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption All which and every one of them also are spoken in like manner of the holy Ghost And this is the true knowledge of God which consisteth in faith and it is not a meer knowledge but a joyfull living and powerfull trust by which I sweetly feele in me the beams and infusion of the divine omnipotencie of God so as I am held and carried by it to live in it and perceive my selfe to be moved and to be so In a word that I may feele and apprehend the riches of his goodnesse and mercy in me for can can there be greater charity thought upon then that which God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost have shewed unto us all most abundantly What righteousnesse more perfect and ample then that whereby he draweth us from sinne death hell and the Devill Or what can bee added to that Faith is the vertue and power of God heavenly and infallible truth and wisdome of his This then is the true and solid faith consisting in lively and effectuall trust and not only in words or the noyse of words or externall sounds In which knowledg of God or faith it behoveth us all the sons of God daily more and more to profit be perfected Whereupon blessed Paul hath sufficient for us to wish for Ephes 3. That we may know the love of Christ exceeding all knowledge as who should say all the study of our whole life if it were imployed to know the love of Christ it would not be sufficient to learn the exceeding largenesse thereof Neither doth onely knowing define this knowledge be not deceived but thus much more he wil that we The lively knowledge of God participate tast and have triall of the sweetnesse well-pleasingnesse vertue and lively infusion in our hearts inword and in faith of his divine love so great and immense without expression For shall we say he knew the love of Christ which never tasted it never proved it according to that of the Hebrewes chap. 6. Who have tasted the heavenly gifts and the good word of God and the power of the world to come which in faith is obtained through the word Neither is any other the effusion of the love of God into our hearts by the holy Ghost Rom. 4. wherein consisteth the fruit and efficacie of the divine word And to shut up all this is the true knowledge of God arising from tast and experience and consisting in living and solid faith which therefore the Epistle to the Hebrewes calleth Hypostasin and most certain eviction Furthermore this knowledge of God which consisteth in living faith is a part of the eternall and spirituall divine worship What faith is as in like manner faith it selfe is a spirituall gift living and heavenly as also the light The true knowledge of God doth change the heart brings forth vertue and vertue of God Therefore when this knowledge goeth before by which God doth as it were drinke to our souls to tast and relish it according to Psalm 34. Tast and see how sweet the Lord is it cannot be but serious repentance will follow that is the renewing of the mind and amendment of life For from the perceiving solid knowledge of the omnipotency of God there followeth withall humility seeing that it is not possible under the powerfull hand of God not to be made crooked nor to make himselfe straight From the tast of the divine mercy proceedeth love towards his neighbour for no man is or can be childish or can deny his neighbour any thing who is experienced of the divine love and shall remember that God out of his meer mercy hath given him
blessed Spirits embrace an holy soule CHAP. XXIV Of the Charity or Love towards God and our Neighbour 1 Timoth. 1. The end of the Commandement is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained THis being delivered blessed Paul describing the most noble vertue that is to say Charity doth insist chiefly on foure things concerning it First of all that it is the end of the Law or a brief and short collection of all the commandements because by this or in this the law is fulfilled The reason is because in it all the commandements are fulfilled and lastly because without it all the gifts of vertues are unprofitable idle and fruitlesse And whereas he saith in the second place that Charity ought to proceed out of a pure heart that The sincerity of divine love pertaineth to charity towards God wherto it is requisite that the heart be void of all worldly love according to that of 1 Ioh. 2. Little children do not love the world nor the What a cleane heart is things that be in the world because every thing that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life The world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Therefore whosoever hath his heart free and at liberty from all love of the creatures so as he rest not in any fraile creature neither put his trust in them but onely from the bottome of his heart longeth and seeketh after God alone after the example of David who in the Psalmes saith My flesh faileth me and my heart it fainteth O God of my heart and my portion for ever O God For what is there in heaven that I regard or in earth that I preferre before thee This mans charity proceeded out of a pure heart Also if any take singular delight pleasure and joy in the love of God such a purity of heart as the holy Ghost sheweth in the Psalm 18. I will love thee O God my strength the God of my health and my refuge my rock my protection the horn of my salvation and my Redeemer The Charitie out of a good conscience third thing requisite to charity was a good conscience which respecteth our neighbour who is to be loved of us for no profit sake for this is the property of false love and that which proceedeth from an evill conscience neither in word nor deed proudly to offend him and diligently to beware neither openly nor closely to detract from him or hate him nor with envie wrath or disdain to maligne him lest our heart doe check us in our prayer 1 Joh. 3. The fourth thing requisite in Charity Love from fraile consciscience is faith unfained lest we determine any thing against the rule of Faith and Christian profession and lest we deny God openly or secretly in prosperity or adversity Goe to now let us consider apart the singular heads Paul saith Charity is the end of the Law For Charity or Love which proceedeth out of true faith is the most noble of all fruits and works of God then which a man can doe nothing better or more acceptable to God for God requireth God requireth not of us costly gifts and workes not of man any heavie things nor lofty nor great workes to his service and worship but rather he hath contracted the most rigid religion of the old Testament and a multitude of Commandments and the variety of them in Faith and Charity and hath added thereunto the gift of the holy Ghost according to that of Saint Paul Rom. 5. The love of God is infused into your hearts by the holy Ghost which is given unto us By which words he insinuateth unto us the originall of Charity Moreover Charity is not a heavie work but a pleasant and easie work to a good and faithfull man according to that of St. John 1 Epist chap. 5. His commandments The easines of charity are not heavy that is to say to illuminate Christians to whom the holy Ghost hath given a cheerfull heart and a free will moved and stirred up Furthermore God God requireth not much learning requireth not of us much learning or teaching but only charity which if it be sincere burning vehement is far dearer then arts and wisdom of the whole world so that all other things Arts Sciences works and gifts without it are unprofitable and thought of as dead works 1 Cor. 13. For without Charity every work is of no momēt learning is indifferent and common equally as well to Christians as to Ethnicks and the works of the faithfull and the Infidels in that are alike But charity onely is the sure Badge and Character of a Christian discerning the false from the truth For where charity is wanting there is no goodnesse whatsoever externall shew of greatnesse and excellency it commendeth it selfe by For God is Charity and he that abideth in Charity abideth in God and God in him 1 John 4. Whereupon it followeth where Charity is not God is not there Charity maketh all things easie is heavy to no man Charity is pleasant and acceptable with God and also the man that exerciseth it For where other Arts and Sciences and Wisdomes are gotten with great labour care and griefe and with the losse of their strength charity onely cheereth the body and mind doth adde vegetation and mendeth the soule neither is it losse to any but rather of it selfe bringeth ample fruits For love is the reward of the lover and vertue is a reward unto it selfe like as vice in like manner doth punish and torment it selfe And when other faculties of the body What is done out of charity hath God the Author pleaseth him and mind are weakened and tired and wearied only charity is never weary nor ever ceaseth howsoever Prophesie may passe away Tongues may cease and Sciences may be destroyed yea and faith it self shall fail 1 Cor. 13. What God will accept must necessarily proceed from God He that loveth God praieth wel and freely for he approveth of nothing which he doth not first work in us And seeing that God is love therfore that ought to proceed from faith which is pleasing to God and out of love without hope of any profit that it shall profit our neighbour And so should our prayers arise from love Oh then you mortals imagine what prayers those can poure out to God whose hearts are ful of wrath and rancor which if such should recite the whole Psalterie they can neverthelesse be nothing else but abomination before God when true adoration consisteth in Spirit in Faith and chiefly in Charity not in words Let Christ be in our memory who out of his abundant mercy prayed Father forgive them In a word he that loveth not God that man prayeth not in whom the love of God is that man preferreth nothing before God
is Christ doth as it were call back his merit from them that do not pardoÌ„ their neighbour not first reconciled to his neighbour For all mankind under the person of the wicked servant Matth. 18. is described who when hee had not wherewith to pay the King remitted him all his debts but when he afterwards behaved himselfe so cruelly towards his fellow servant the King revoked his pardon condemning the wicked servant by reason of his hard usage of his neighbour Which Parable Christ concludeth with this farewell So will my heavenly Father doe unto you Like unto that is the saying of Matth. 7. What measure you mete unto others the same shall hee meted unto you Christs mandate Whereby it appeareth that man was not onely created for himselfe alone but for his neighbours cause also And immediatly he passeth over the precepts of loving our neighbour to withdraw the love of God and to proceed with his justice by whose most rigid decree hee is immediatly condemned but if we should call such things to mind as this Parable we should never be angry long with our Neighbour neither should the Sun go down in our wrath for it A heart irreconcilcable is not capable of Christs merits is in truth a horrible thing to be thought that the merit of Christ whereby he satisfied for the whole world fully and after the example of that little King of meer grace hath remitted all our sins I say that this merit should be cut off and become of no effect if we do not pardon our brother and hate him But although this law seem hard yet so it is written and it so bindeth us that God without the love of our neighbour will not be loved of us and if wee become irreconcileable wee lose the love and favour of God Neither may we think The cause of charity it was for other cause that man was not created one better then another but that one should not insult over another but as twins of one mother and one father we should live lovingly peaceably together our consciences never accusing us Therfore whosoever hateth his brother and despiseth him let him know that God doth hate him and despise him because he hath most severely forbidden it and consequently that he is hatefull and abominable to him as also guilty of eternall condemnation and altogether excluded from the merit of Christ Neither can it by any means come to passe that a heart in enmity without mercy and inhumane should participate of the bloud of Christ which was shed out of meere love seeing out of the Parable Matth. 18. it is manifest that God was lesse moved or offended for the debt of ten thousand Talents then at the unmercifulnesse and cruelty of the fellow-servant Wherefore let us never forget but daily remember that saying of Christ So will my Heavenly Father doe unto you CHAP. XXVI Wherefore a mans Neighbour is to be loved Rom. 13. Owe nothing to any man but that you love one another for he that loveth his Neighbour fulfilleth the Law THese are the words of Micah chap. 6. What good things shall I offer unto the Lord Shall I offer unto him Meat-offerings and Calves of a yeare old Can the Lord bee pleased in thousands of Raâ—â—nes or in many thousands of fat be-goats Shall I give my first-born for my wickednesse and the fruits of my womb for the sinnes of my soule I will shew thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee Even to doe judgement and to love mercy and to walk carefully before thy God By which judgement he teacheth us Wherein consisteth the true worship of God wherein the true worship of God consisteth not in Ceremonies and Sacrifices which conferre nothing on God because all is his own nor in humane offerings which hee requireth not nay rather hee abhorreth because they contain the reproach of Jesus Christ the Propitiatory offering which God appointed to take away the sinnes of the world but in pure faith which the Prophet describeth in this form To doe judgement I say in the exercise of faith in charity in mercy better pleasing then all sacrifices in humility according to the Psalm 51. The sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit a contrite heart and humble O God thou wilt not despise To which divine worship consisting in the inwards of the heart and in faith charity and humility Saint Paul exhorteth us Rom. 13. whose admonition we have prefixed to this chapter which containeth the praise of Charity and the perpetuall debt to our neighbour For certainly there is no other way of serving God but this to whom we can approve of nothing but what wee our selves allow and he himselfe worketh in our hearts so that to worship God is nothing but to observe our neighbour and to doe him good To this love of our neighbour the Apostle inciting us useth an argument somthing plausible to those which Charity praised are desirous to lead a Christian life calling it a breviary of all vertues and a fulfilling of the Law not that we are able possibly by our charity to fulfill the divine Law or that consequently it followeth to gain eternall life thereby but it insinuateth unto us the noble bounty and majesty of this most excellent vertue and inflameth us to love it with all our desire For our justice and happinesse is founded on the merit of Jesus Christ which we apply to our selves by faith out of which also the love to our neighbour doth flow and all other vertues which therefore are called the fruits of justice to the praise and glory of God Seeing then the dignity of this vertue is so great it were worthy the labour to seeke more arguments to draw us unto the love of it but the strongest in my opinion is that which Saint John useth Epist 1. Chap. 4. The impâ—lsive cause of charity God is Love and he that remaineth in Love remaineth in God and God in him for who would not wish to be in God and remain in him and that God in like manner shall be and remain in him And who on the contrary would not abhorre to bee in Satan and Satan in him which is so often as charity is repulsed barbarisme and inhumane hostility doth dwell in our hearts For as it is the delight of God to be with the sonnes of men so contrariwise the Devill is a devourer of men To which belongeth that place of John who saith He that Charity is a token of the sons of God loveth is born of God and knoweth God In this is made manifest whether they be the sons of God or the Devil and can there be any thing more desirable then to be the sonnes of God to be begotten of God to know God truly and whosoever hath his heart void of charity nor by experience hath known the force of it life gifts goodnesse gentlenesse long-suffering and patience
him hee is transformed into his Image and is united by an everlasting conspiration The seventh fruit of love is Not to seek that which is his own nor to have nothing more acceptable or pleasing then gratis or without expectation to serve others and as much as he can to be helpfull to others that which onely God most abundantly performeth giving all things to us freely and commanding his worship and feare unto us not for his own sake but that we might receive the fruit of his divine love and carry away the blessing thereby So Christ had no recompence but onely the cause of our salvation neither did he come to be ministred unto but to minister unto us and like unto the tree which without envie or respect of persons doth give his fruits such as he hath received of God first to all men indifferently doth wholly spend himselfe unpon us yea God himselfe in Christ hath reacht himself with all his gifts to humane kind and delivered it by a right of property to have and possesse them in this thing openly making himself to be the chief good which needs must be most specially in communicating himselfe he who studieth to make himselfe like unto him he shall be a plantation of the Lord to his glory Esay 61. and Christ shall bud and flourish in him a living vine and a Palm alwayes flourishing or waxing green The eighth fruit of love is not to be provoked to anger not to be inflamed with anger nor that which maketh man no man to utter wrath conceived by cursing railing speeches but to imitate Christ Jesus which did not cry out or open his mouth witnesse Esay cha 42. nor any kind of bitternesse but spake meer benediction and life And although hee did denounce threats against Chorazin Capernaum and Bethsaida and against the Pharirisees themselves uttering many woes against them yet it came not from a cruell or vengeative mind it was a serious and severe exhortation to repentance Therefore let us be wary lest any root of bitternesse springing again doe hinder our charitie and many bee offended thereby Heb. 12. The ninth fruit of charity is Not to think any evill which is the property of Almighty God as hee testifieth Jeremy 39. I know the thoughts which I think of you or concerning you the thoughts of peace and not of affliction that I may give an end and have patience Seek me and you shall find me when you shall seeke me with your whole hearts Whereupon it followeth He that hath the thoughts of peace towards his neighbour hath the heart of God and the understanding of Christ and as a living member knit unto his head is inspired of him Tenthly It rejoyceth not in iniquity nor in the injury or oppression of injustice as wicked Shimei did when David fled from Absolom but it imitates Christ Jesus who with most tender compassion beholding Peters perjury did with his most benigne aspect rectifie him according to the Psalm 146. God doth raise them that â—â—e fallen who deplored the evill that was to befall the men of Judea and the destruction of the Jewes lastly who with all his heart desired to bring his wandring and lost sheep into their way and that which was in him with a sweet and most gentle voyce did allure them home Let us imitate this so great a Master of love and if any bee fallen from his love let us deplore him after this manner Let us instruct him in the spirit of love and lenity and help to beare his burden that we may fulfill the Law of Christ Gal. 6. His law I say that first did beare the burden of our sinnes and let him be in us as in true members of our head life sense and spirit The eleventh fruit Doth rejoyee together with the truth and where all things are done rightly and decently after the example of Christ who at the return of his seventie disciples at their well doing rejoyced very heartily and confessed himselfe to his heavenly Father and also the Angels in heaven doe rejoyce as Christ teacheth at the return of a sinner which if we do the like then truly we have the understanding of God and Angels The twelfth fruit of charity is to suffer all thiâ—gs as may appeare by this bond of peace after the example of blessed Paul I am made weak with the weak that I might profit the weak I am made all things with all men that I may save all men The same beleeveth all things suspecting no evill of his neighbour hopeth all things praying that nothing may fall amisse to his neighbour lastly It sustaineth all things that it may goe so much the better with his neighbour and more profitable All which our Saviour by a lively example of his life did teach us by bearing most heavie injuries and reproaches for our sins as also most inhumane scourgings and extream poverty and hunger that we in him and by him might obtain joy and honour The thirteenth fruit of love is Not Gods love is eternal to be weary nor to cease Like unto God whose mercy from eternity to eternity is upon those that feare him Psalm 103. who respecteth not that he may have mercy on us and rose up to spare us Esay 30. whose love is strong as death Cant. 4. which many waters cannot extinguish Cant. 8. Lastly from which nothing can separate us Rom. 8. who hath mercy on us with everlasting mercies Isa 54. And although Jer. 15. he denieth that henceforth he can have mercy to those onely it pertaineth who repell obstinately the divine mercies contemne his grace and abuse them with high contempt but not to those that feare him according to that of Esa 54. The mountaines shall be moved and the little hills shall tremble but my mercy shall not depart from thee and the covenant of my peace shall not be moved Thy mercifull Lord hath spoken it To which example also we must comply our love that it bee never weary no not towards our enemy but even as Christ praieth in us Christ did live and prayed let Christ in us say Father forgive them Last of all love is the Head and Queen of all vertues because God himselfe is love and because it is the end of the commandments and summe or collection of the Law and because it is eternall neither will it vanish with faith hope tongues and so forth our happinesse appearing which is the end of faith because it worketh all things and all vertues without it are as nothing and last of all because it will give us testimony through faith in Christ that we shall have eternall happinesse Whereupon it followeth that Christian charity must needs excell all Gifts and Arts whatsoever according to that of the Ephesians chap. 3. To know the supereminent love of the knowledge of Christ that you may bee filled in all fulnesse of Christ CHAP. XXXI Self-love and Arrogancie is as Ink upon white Ivory spotting and
sinne self-selfe-love arrogancy and ambition New-birth is found in Christ so from Christ by faith and the holy Ghost our nature is to be renewed and sanctified all self-selfe-love arrogancy and ambitition to die in it and it behoveth us to get a new heart and spirit from Christ as we have from Adam flesh subject to sin And of this new birth Christ is called Father eternall or of the future Age Isa chap. 9. The works of Christians ought to proceed from the new birth Whereupon it followeth consequently that all the works of Christians and gifts which shall be acceptable to God ought to proceed from the new creature that is from faith in Christ and the holy Ghost which if it be not so done whatsoever things although they be most excellent gifts and even miracles themselves before God they are void and to no purpose And towards our neighbour all things ought to be done in charity 1 Cor. 14. and without hope of proper gain or honour For example of which and a most excellent pattern God Almighty offered and gave us his Sonne in whom there was no selfe-love no arrogance lastly no desire of private profit or praise or glory and nothing but sincere and meere love and humility neither also as other Saints was hee proposed to us to imitate because their example was from without and so to behold or renew but that hee might by faith live and breath in us which when it cometh to passe even then all our works words and so our knowledge doe proceed from Christ as from a living foundation and originall if otherwise then all our works and gifts if they be Angelicall or of what kind soever they are neverthelesse nothing worth For where selfe-love is there the hatred of God is where arrogancy there the contempt of God where by no reason it can come to passe that works springing from thence should be acceptable to God Let us therefore doe this let us beseech Almighty God from the bottomes of our hearts to give us faith and sincere love contaminated with no desire of honour profit or glory but proceeding from a pure heart which being obtained not onely illustrious gifts and works but the least also even a cup of cold water will be most deare and acceptable to God For a small worke that proceedeth Charity maketh the least work great from sincere charity and humility is most excellent and better then all great ones that have their original from the desire of pride and glory CHAP. XXXII Not great gifts but faith that worketh by charity doth shew a man a Christian and acceptable to God 1 Cor. 4. The Kingdome of God is not in talke but in vertue BLessed Paul going about to describe a Christian man in briefe finishing the thing saith 1 Tim. 1. The end of the law is charity God doth not require great knowledge from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfained as if he should say That any man may bee made a Christian and â—cceptable to GOD are not required hard and lofty matters no worldly wisdome no humane learning no gifts no eloquence no knowledge of tongues lastly no miracles but that hee have faith in charity to doe all things resigned to God devout and well addicted and not carelesse of the motions and rule of the holy Ghost Wherefore let us not much regard that What it is to mortifie the flesh any one is expert in the tongues and how eloquent he is but how he shewes forth his faith by love and mortifying of the flesh For they that be Christs doe mortifie the flesh with the concupiscence thereof that is to say arrogancy selfe-love covetousnesse of glory proper gain hunting after praise whereupon blessed Paul denieth the Kingdome of God to consist in words or gifts and Arts but in vertue or living exercise of vertue in faith as charity lowlinesse and humility Therefore Before God nothing availeth but a new creature no man I say no man is in greater grace with God or blessed because he is indued with great gifts but because hee is found in Christ by faith and liveth in him as a new creature And if any man have Great gifts od not make a man happy attained unto so great and such gifts as no man else neglecting daily repentance he is not renewed in Christ and if he deny not the world although hee have never so many gifts if he despise not himselfe nor hate himselfe last of all doe depend upon the pure and sole grace of God no otherwise then an infant dependeth of the pap he with all his Arts and Gifts shall be damned it is a thing most manifest For neither are those given us of God that by them before God wee should bee great or blessed but for the edification of the To what end gifts are given of God Church Therefore when Luke 10. the seventy Disciples returned with joy saying Lord even the Devils are subject unto us in thy name Christ answereth Doe not rejoyce in this for neither miracles nor gifts shall save us but rejoyce that your names are written in the book of life that is because you beleeve and acknowledge me By faith Moses was saved not by hiâ— miracles and Miriam the sister of Moses being indued with â—he gift of prophesie and by whom the Spirit of the Lord did speak was punished with Leprosie Finally the Apostles not because of their miracles or tongues sake but for their faith were made Citizens of Heaven Let us remain I say let the least and the greatest remain in faith humility â—epentance in crucifying and mortifying of the flesh and in the new creature which as in Christ in faith and charity it liveth so in like manner Christ liveth in it So let us be found that Christ may acknowledge us for his Let Christian Charity remain to be that new life of the new man yea the life of Christ in the faithfull and that efficacious and working power of the holy Ghost by which Saint Paul Ephes 3. wisheth us to bee filled in all fulnesse of God Like unto that of Saint John God is Love and he that remaineth in love remaineth in God Whereupon it followeth that hee that feeleth love in his heart feeleth God himselfe Where as a certaine fore-runner or leading-starre it is present therefore Saint Paul as a tree from the root whereof with all the fruits thereof describeth it in 1 Corinth chap. 13. Charity saith hee is patient c. All which are the properties of Christians and consequently the life of the new man And to speak in a word God the Father is Love God the Sonne is Love God the holy Ghost is Love the whole mysticall body who is Christ or the Christian Church is bound together in the bond of Love So there is but one God one Christ one Spirit one Baptisme one Faith and lastly the happy and sempiternall life shall bee nothing but
meere love Wherefore he that liveth not in Charity this man is a dead member of Christ manifestly if hee bee in the body of Christ For even as a dead member is not warmed with naturall heat nor nourished and for that cause is altogether without life So hee that liveth not in charity hath not the spiritual life of Christ but is dead to God and Christ because he is without faith and is a dry tree without juice from the Vine which is Christ and to be cut off lastly He that hath no charity is dead without God Christ and the holy Ghost the Christian Church and life eternall where God face to face shall bee seen which is love it self CHAP. XXXIII God giveth no respect to the works of the persons he judgeth and esteemeth the worke according to the heart Prov. 21. Every way of a man seemeth right to himselfe but God trieth the heart WHen the Prophet Samuel by the commandement of God went to anoint David King he entred his Fathers house and would have anointed his first-born the Lord said Doe not thou respect his countenance nor the height of his stature being I have rejected him neither doe I judge according to the countenance of a man for a God iudgeth all things by the heart man seeth those things that are open and evident but the Lord beholdeth the heart By which example God teacheth us that he hath no regard to any person although never so great and illustrious when his heart is void of goodnesse love faith and humility but to esteem of the workes by the inward spirit and intention of the mind and to allow them according as it is in the 21. of the Prov. Moreover all gifts how great soever illustrious praise-worthy and excellent they are in the judgment of the world unlesse they proceed from a pure heart unlesse they respect the sole honour of God and the profit of our neighbour lastly unlesse they be free and altogether separated from pride arrogancy self-self-love desire of private praise and glory they cannot please God Therefore whosoever thou art O man be assured and certainly Arrogancie corrupteth all gifts perswaded that if God should bestow on thee alone all the gifts he hath bestowed on all men yet if thou shouldst not use them to the profit of thy neighbour and honour of God to which end God bestowed them upon men but shouldest use them as certain instruments of praise glory honour and lucre God would abhorre them no otherwise then the greatest sinnes This you may learn from the example of Luâ—ifer a fairer and more beautifull Angel heaven had not who when hee vilified the gifts of God with his own honour and selfe-love and did not purely respect the love and glory of God by his own act hee became a Devil and was cast from heaven Therefore those things which God will accept and account well of ought to proceed out of faith alone and most pure love of God and men and ought to be void of all selfe-love arrogancy and private gaine so much as may be by the grace of God in this infirmity whereof Saint Paul writeth If I speak with the tongues of Men and Angels and have not charity I am as a sounding brasse and a tinckling Cymball that is I am in vain and altogether unprofitable In truth God regardeth no faculty but in humble hearts not arts not much learning but whether our spirit doth seek the honour of God Miraculous faith saving faith differ edification of our neighbour not a miraculous faith to remove mountaines for glory sake but the pure and contrite in spirit trembling at his word as it is read in Isa 66. not lastly if any covetous of fame and renown doe distribute all he hath to feed the poore and give his body to be burned alive but the heart and the cause of them all That which is manifest by many examples to be brought Cain and Abel both of them brought Sacrifices Differing sacrifices to God one of them acceptable the other was execrable by reason of the disparity of minds The same reason was of David and Saul both which attended Gods service but with unlike event for the foresaid cause David Manasses Nebuch adnezzar and Peter by repentance obtained grace contrariwise Saul Pharaoh Vnequal repentaÌ„ce and Judas did misse the same by reason of the same variety of mind Pharaoh and Saul and Manasses used the same prayer Lord I have sinned they received unlike rewards Judith and Hester and the daughters of Israel Esay 3. they adorned themselves and combed themselves with praise and renown the one the other dispraise and reprehension In like manner the prayer of Hezekia Josua and Gideon by which they required a signe from heaven as approved is praised Contrariwise the Pharisees Mat. 12. doing the same are reproved of the Lord. The Publican and the Pharisee both of them pray in the Temple not approved The Ninivites and the Jewes and Pharisees doe fast alike but the one God heard the other he heard not wherefore Isai 58. they cry Wherefore have wee fasted and thou regardest us not The Widow which brought into the Treasury two small Mites is praised of Christ he that gave more was not Herod and Zacheus in the sight of Christ doe rejoyce but had most differing rewards The holy Martyrs for Christ suffered death Achab and Manasses offer unto the Lord their own children and God accepted the sacrifice of the one and the other was rejected Which variety proceedeth from no other cause then from the heart which God onely respecteth whereupon hee onely accepteth those works which come from a heart unfained and sincere charity and free humility Contrariwise whatsoever gifts they be if arrogancy self-self-love and the contagion of lucre doe infect them he rejecteth them CHAP. XXXIV That a man doth nothing at all to his salvation but God doth all things to us onely we admit of his grace as a sick man doth his Medicines to those without repentance the merit of Christ is not imputed 1 Corinth 1. Christ is made unto us the Wisdome of God and justice and sanctification and Redemption BY this Sentence Saint Paul teacheth us what things are necessray for our salvation by Christ all things are done for us For when we were ignorant of the way of life he was made wisedom unto us wheÌ„ we were sinners our justice when we were abominable our sanctification lastly when A man cannot help himself we were damned our redemption Whereupon it remaineth that the man doth not confer one jot to the beginning middle and end of his salvation with all his merits of works strength and free will But sinne he could of himselfe but he could not justifie himselfe again lose but not recover kill but not raise again to life be subdued to the Devill but not set free from him again For even as a dead carkasse cannot quicken it selfe again so neither
noble and by many yea infinite parts better then a whole Ocean of wordly pleasures Which truly are to bee slighted by him that desireth divine consolations Which if any that wil heare me wil lend me his eares if any wil understand me let him attend what I say finally if any wil see me it behoveth him to fix How God should bee perceived and tasted his eyes upon me Who doubteth that all our hearts and senses ought to be converted to God if we desire to see heare understand tast and prove him how good he is according to that of Jeremy chap. 29. When you shall seek me with your whole heart I will be found of you Many men at this day they term admirable O! a learned man a rich magnifical wiseman but no man regardeth how courteous humble patient and how devout any man is Of which perverse False praise judgement there is no other cause then that now men doe attend and admire outward things and in the mean time with blind eyes passe by inward things which are onely worthy to be esteemed Therefore he that praiseth one because he hath beautified many Cities and far situated regions let him see if it were not farre better to have seen God He therefore that suspecteth another because he hath not served one Monarch I would have him think whether it were not more excellent to have served God lawfully with all his heart Those that are fatuated with the meer love of the world doe preferre this our Age as the only learned and wise before all antiquitie these I say doe not know the Art of Arts that is the divine love more noble then all knowledge to be extinct wholly together with the faith Ephes 3. Luke 18. and few to remain divinely learned Isai 5. and that have learned of Christ a humble and lowly life Matthew 11. yea to speake the truth the most learned for the most part are void of divine love and therefore doe not know at all that the true life is in Christ Ephes 4. These therefore doe circumscribe knowledge in the circle of words when it is more true that solid learning is a thing and not words and to consist in eternall and true wisdome of which we have spoken more at large in the Treatise of ancient Philosophy But if any shall say that this our Age is wicked he truly shal say that which is agreeable to the truth and to the word of God Likewise those are ridiculous which praise any because hee liveth gorgeously and deliciously being unmindfull that the true dainties is the word of God and the Hidden Manna thereof and that it containeth in it the incorruptible bread of heaven and that lastly hee doth live delicately in whose presence the Lord The solid and only ioy is of God hath prepared his Table Psalm 23. to wit who savoureth the Lord God and his Word his palat nothing can displease but hee that doth loath it and is displeased with it hee cannot soundly and truly rejoyce for he is the joy exceeding all created joyes and the eternall light surpassing all temporal light who I would to God now at the last would fill our hearts with his hidden pleasure and purge our spirits illuminate inlighten clarifie and quicken them Would to God I say that the time would now come wherein Almighty God by his presence would fill us with all those things which hee is essentially Of which desires although we be not competent or fit nor doe joy true joy having in the mean time sufficient if wee may but enjoy the crums that fall from thy table O Lord till we be translated to the joyes of eternal life They are the words of our Saviour Apocalypse chap. 3. Behold I stand at the dore and I knock if any man heare my voyce and Christ is our banquet open to me I will enter unto him and I will sup with him and he with me What preposterousnesse is it O mortals to neglect this and so great a banqueter which hath prepared us a supper who after the manner of a Prince coming to his poor friends house bringeth all his dainty dishes and the whole supper with him I say the heavenly Bread and hidden Manna is not this a great oversight to let him stand waiting at the dore and not to open readily unto him I say what incivility is this not to receive a friend but not to entertain God himself with all diligence alacrity Shal I tell you the reason why we doe not open the dore because as in a house full of noyse and clamour musick although never worldly things ought to be expelled that divine things may enter so excellent cannot bee heard so neither can the voyce of the banquetter enter the eares of a worldly heart and consequently the Celestiall Manna cannot bee tasted by him I think so indeed If therefore the worldly tumults and noyse in man doe not tease and rest who wil not doubt that the Lord beating and crying shal goe away away unheard that they with Samuel may Why quietnesse is required to Gods speech answer Speak Lord thy servant heareth Moreover this internall voyce speaketh in a spirituall and heavenly Supper Heb. chap. 6. Those which have been once lightned and tasted the heavenly gifts and have been made The true spirit of illumination partakers of the holy Ghost and also have tasted the good word of God the virtues of the world to come By which wee are taught in what man the holy Ghost is neither is his mind hindered from daily feeding of that Manna hidden in the sweet and mellifluent divine Word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God and by which we live That which the Kingly Prophet David by the holy Ghost found in his heart and mind saying Psalm 16. Thou wilt fill me with joy of thy countenance and delight of thy right hand even unto the end And Psalm 34. Tast and see because the Lord is sweet blessed is the man that putteth his trust in him Psalm 23. The goodnes of God is Nectar and Ambrosia Thou hast prepared a table for me in my view against those that trouble me thou hast anointed my head with oyle and my cup being brim-full how beautiful is it Psa 63. Thy mercy is excellent farre exceeding above our lives my lips shall praise thee Psa 36. Even as thou hast multiplied thy mercies O God the sons of men shall trust in the shadow of thy wings they shall be made drunk with the plenty of thy house and thou shalt make them intoxicated with the torrent of thy pleasures because with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light wee shall see light Psa 70. They shall rejoyce and be glad all which seek thee and they shall say alwayes Let the Lord be magnified which love thy salvation But I am needy and poore help me O God thou art my helper and redeemer Lord make
who disputed vehemently against the Pharisees and Scribes after the example of John the Evangelist who wrote his Gospel against Ebion and Cerinth and the Apocalypse against the false Church of the Nicolaitans and others after the example of Saint Paul who defended most strongly the doctrine of justification by faith of good works of the resurrection of the dead of Christian liberty and such like against false Apostles after the example of the holy Bishops and Fathers of the Primitive Church which wrote most strongly against the Pagan superstitions and Heretickes and in the Oecumenical Councels gathered by the Christian Emperours did condemne the chiefe Heretickes and Patriarchs Arrians Macedonians Nestorians and Eutychians lastly by the example of the incomparable Heroe Martin Luther by whose excellent and grave writings the Papality and other Hereticks were much weakened it is as cleare as the noon-day Therefore it remaineth as a thing most fit and requisite to preach write and dispute that the purity of the doctrine and the verity of religion might bee manifest according to the Apostle who in the first chapter to Titus will have a Bishop to be powerfull to exhort in doctrine that is sound and to argue with those that contradict it The The abuse of Thenlogicall disputation which although it be a lawful and a laudable way it is so faln out by the abuse of it that amongst all their bitter Disputations and Sermons of controversies and the infinite heaps of writing and counterwriting the memory of Christian life of true repentance devotion and charity is almost abolished with their names no otherwise then if the summe of Christian Religion consisted in disputation and writing books of cōtroversies not in the practice of the Gospel and Christian learning For if we behold the examples of the holy Prophets and Apostles as also of the Sonne of God it is manifest that they did sharply dispute not onely against false Prophets and Apostles but also against the superstitions of the Gentiles but with no lesse fervency did exhort to repentance Christian life and moreover did shew in most grave Sermons that by their impenitency and wicked life the divine Worship and Religion did goe backwards and decay the Church was wasted that Kingdome and people were afflicted with hunger warre and plague all which came to passe as true as they said it Of this kind is that Sermon of Esay Impiery destroyeth the worship of God true religion chap. 5. where he denounceth to the people of the Jewes because the vineyard of the Lord did not bring forth clusters of grapes but wild grapes therefore Almighty God had decreed to lay it wast Whereby it plainly appeareth that impiety is the cause why God useth to take his word from us To the same sense is that which Christ said John 12. Walk in the light whilst you have it lest darknesse overtake you For what other thing is it to walk in the light then to imitate Christ Or what other thing is it to be overtaken with darknesse then to lose the purity of the Gospel Whereby it appeareth without true repentāce none is enlightned that none can without true repentance and a holy life enjoy the light the holy Ghost which is the true enlightner of our hearts flying the ungodly and chusing holy soules onely to make friends and Prophets of God as it is written Wisdom 7. whose beginning sith the fear of God is as it is in Psa 111. who likewise doubteth impiety to be the beginning of folly ignorance and blindnesse Moreover the true knowledge of Christ and pure doctrine and the profession thereof doth not consist in words onely but in deed and holy life according The knowledge of Christ consists not in words to that of Titus chap. 1. They confesse they know God but deny him in their deeds when they are abominable and unbeleevers and reprobates to every good work And Titus 3. They have the shew of godlinesse but deny the virtue thereof Whereby it is given to understand that Christ and his Word is denied by a wicked life as wel as words neither hath he the true knowledge of Christ which never putteth it into action Wherefore he that never feeleth or tasteth the humility lowlinesse It is lame without a holy life patience and the love of Christ inwardly in his heart hee knoweth not Christ and therefore where use and necessity requireth they cannot confesse him For to professe preach the doctrine of Christ onely is truly to divide Christ and to lame him if you do not professe and preach It is not words but life that makes a Christian his life And we have abundance of books of his doctrine of his life almost none every where bookes of controversies concerning doctrine but very little time spent about true repentance and a Christian life For what is doctrine without life but a tree without fruit Or how should he follow the doctrine of Christ who imitateth not his life For the head or chiefe of the doctrine of Christ is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfained faith But we live in that age wherein there is a great number of those whom if wee heare them disputing so acutely and well of the doctrine of Christian religion you would think them to be men of great worth but if you behold them narrowly and touch them neerly you shall then know them to bee inwardly and in their hearts full of pride envie and covetousnesse that no Basilisk can be more venemous Against whom therefore wee must beware observe what Paul saith 1 Tim. 1. he doth not rashly or suddenly joyn Love and Faith that hee may shew that these two do or would conspire and consent together And although wee cannot arrogate so much to our strength and piety that wee make it the price of our happinesse knowing also with Saint Peter Epist 1. chap. 1. that wee are kept in the virtue of God by faith to salvation yet we professe this that by an Antichristian life the Spirit of God will avoyd us with all The wicked are not enlightned his gifts amongst which faith knowledge understanding and wisdome are not the least Whereby it followeth again without a holy life the purity of doctrine cannot be preserved and the wicked which will not imitate Christ are not enlightned with the true light On the contrary those that walk in the light that is which doe insist and persevere in the footsteps of Christ are drenched and bathed in the true light which is Christ and divinely preserved from all errors Therefore it is true which that ancient Writer Taulerus saith So soon as a man dedicateth himselfe to God and suffereth him and denieth his own will and flesh then truly the Spirit of God doth begin to make beginning of illumination and endowing with true and solid knowledge because indeed this man doth celebrate the true Sabbath of the heart
some Patron of power to defend or protect them from injury oppression and detraction so I knowing nothing of worth in these evill times can escape detraction and oppression doe commend these works of Iohn Arndt concerning true Christianity to God the onely patron and defeâ—der of his own profession and no earthly protector assuring my selfe that as they have escaped the envie of his own countrey-men and have been protected by the heavenly power from the fire of persecution sword and injury so likewise I do assure my selfe these books shall here continue in our native tongue and be preserved to a long-lasting memory to Gods glory and his countries good which is the translators onely aim and desire O these doe hang out before the doore of the house an encomium or title of praise as it were an Ivy-bush to draw custome to the Wine-celler The name of this book is instead of an Ivybush to all good Christians and better wine then is within it cannot be had even that wine for which wee contend with so much losse of British bloud and we the laymen do stand up for with hazard of our lives and fortunes I say that heavenly pearle or hidden treasure in the field which by most if not all the Bishops since the dayes of Langfrank and Thomas hath been defaced or neglected even to this day wherein the Bishops still with their Prelatical faction doe labour after the â—â—â— example who fought for preheminence honour wealth and wine for the belly preferring it before the true vine and wine of John Arndt in this body comprised which undoubtedly is the best unlesse it may be impaired something in the Celler through the default of the Drawer yet seeing it retaineth the true taste spirit and in it self is found good and wholsome and by your good favours gentle Readers covered and conveyed in the cup of charity which maketh the good will more acceptable then the Simon Castrensis Machivelenum Auglicanum edidit gift it may easily draw from the Translator the remainder of the vessell in such expressions as Philopatiris is able So resteth your devoted servant to be commanded Radulphus Castrensis Antimachivalensis THE FIRST BOOKE of true Christianity CHAP. I. Of the Image of GOD. EPHES. 4. Be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new Man which is created after God in justice and in the sanctity of truth THE Image of God in Man is a conformity or similitude of the Man concerning thâ—e Soule Understanding Spirâ—t Mind Will and all the faculties both of Body and Mind with God or the holy Trinity and with all his divine Attributes vertues will and proprieties said Faciamus Let us make which are words as I may sâ—y of the Man the Image of the Trinity sacred Senate of the holy Trinity Gen. 1. man after our image and similitude and let him rule over the fishes of the sea and fowles of heaven and beasts of all the earth and every creeping thing that moveth on the earth Whereby evidently appeareth that the holy Trinity planted his Image in man so as meere divine holinesse justice and goodnesse might shine and send forth light in his soule understanding will and hearts desâ—â—e yea even in his life and all his actions nothing but divine love vertue and purity be found in him no otherwise then in the blessed Angels This Image God had made in man to take delight in and rejoyce as it wee in his soule Truly even as one becomming a father and beholding himselfe or an other selfe in his off-spring cannot but rejoyce with an inward joy hardly to be expressed So Gods delight and chiefe pleasure was to be with the sonnes of men or our first Parents Prov. 8. For although God rested in all his works yet he did take singular and chiefe delight in man because in him his divine Image did most perfectly and exactly appeare or shine forth by his innocency and excellency The Image of the Trinity in the soul or inward beauty For â—â—at cause God had planted three chiefe faculties as a most ample dowrie in the soule of man to wit Intellect Will and Memory and those the same holy Trinity doth produce preserve sanctifie and illuminate and lastly doth most beautifully adorne them with his graces gifts and works Certainly it is the property of every image whatsoever to set forth the like forme and figure neither can it be thought worthy the name of an image unlesse it be as like as it may be to that body that it ought to represent Let us take for example of what we say a looking-glasse in this an image cannot appeare unlesse it draw a similitude or like form from elsewhere and as I may so say conceive it then also by how much purer and clearer the glasse is so much the more evidently doth the image of God appear in it In like manner the more clearer and pure the mans soule is so much the clearer doth the divine Image shew forth it selfe And therefore to this end our great God created man altogether pure without blemish or spot indued with faculties of soul and body blamelesse unreproveable that the image of God might be seen in him and not so as in a glasse a vain and livelesse shadow appeareth but a true and a living Image and likenesse or similitude of the invisible God and of his inward hidden immense beauty I say an Image of the divine wisedome the understanding of man of long suffering goodnesse meeknesse and patience of God in the spirit of man of love and mercy in the affections of the heart of justice sanctity sincerity and purity in the will of lowlinesse gentlenesse humanity and vertue in all his actions and words of power in his Dominion and rule over the earth and fear of The true use of the image of God all living creatures granted unto him last of all of eternity in the immortalitie of the soule Moreover out of this Image man should or ought first of all know God and then himselfe I say God his Creator to be all things the chiefe and only being of whom all other created things have their being and all those essentially whose image should shine in man Therefore seeing that he should cary the image of God is all goodness essentially the divine Goodnesse it consequently followeth that God is the chiefe and universall goodnesse essentially and also the essentiall love life and holinesse wherefore to God alone all honour praise glory magnificence wherefore to God alone honor glory is due fortitude power and vertue is due because he is all these essentially but to any creature none of all these is due And thereupon it is Matth. 19. to a certain man thinking Christ to be onely man and therefore saying Good master what good shall I doe that I may have eternall life answer is made What doest thou call me good None is good but onely God
that is without God and charity changed from divine love to worldly love so that every where in all things he studies himselfe favours counsels applauds himselfe and setteth forth and provideth for his own honour and glory And this as I say is the effect of the fall of Adam whiles hee studieth to make himselfe God he involved all mankind in one and the selfe-same calamity And this corruption and depravation of human nature must be changed and amended by serious repentance that is to say by true and divine contrition by faith apprehending the remission of sins and by the mortification True penitence changeth the heart of carnall pleasures self-self-love and pride Neither doth true repentance consist that you put away the great and outward sins but that you descend into your selfe and look inward into the inward of thy heart and mind turn over the secrets and closets therof change and renew them and convert thy selfe from self-selfe-love to divine love from the world and all worldly cōcupiscences to a spiritual heavenly life and participating the merits of Christ by faith whereupon it followeth that a man must deny himself as it is Luk. 9. that is to The property of true repentance is to die to the world himself tame his will suffer himself to be carried wholly by the divine will not to love himselfe to account himselfe the unworthiest of all mortall creatures to renounce all things he hath Luke 14. that is to contemne the world with all the pomps and honours thereof to passe by his own wisdome and all endowments or gifts of nature To hate ones own life with closed eyes to trust in no creature but God alone even to hate his own life that is carnall will and pleasures concupiscence pride covetousnesse lust wrath envie to mortifie these to displease himself to set nought by all that is his own to boast To die to the world in nothing to attribute nothing to himself or his proper strength to die to the world that is to the concupiscence of the eyes and the flesh to the pride of life and to be crucified to the world Gal. 6. This this I say is true repentance and mortifying of the flesh without which no man can be the disciple of Christ this is the true conversion from the world from himselfe and the Devill to God without which no sinner can have remission of sins nor attain salvation Acts 26. This penitence and conversion is the deniall of himselfe and the true crosse and yoak of Christ of whom himself speaketh Matth. 11. Take up my yoak upon The yoak of Christ is easie to the spirit to the flesh a crosse you and learn of me for I am meeke and lowly in heart As if he should say by earnest and inward humility is thy self-selfe-love and ambition to be tamed and by curtesie wrath desire of revenge is to be kept under that which indeed to the new man is an easie yoak and light burthen howsoever to the flesh it seem a most heavie and bitter crosse And this is indeed to crucifie ones flesh The true crosse of Christ what it is with the vice and concupiscence thereof Gal. 5. Therefore they erre and doe greatly erre which know no other crosse then tribulations and worldly afflictions being ignorant of inward repentance and mortifying of the flesh to be that true crosse which we ought to carry after Christ daily in bearing our enemies with great patience and in overcomming the disdain and arrogancy of our slanderers and adversaries with mildnesse and humility after the pattern and example of Christ who was willing to die to the world and all worldlinesse most perfectly I say this What it is to die to the world yoak of Christ is our true crosse which we are bound to beare which when we doe then we die to the true world and not if we hide our selves in Monasteries and if wee make singular orders and rules of living being in the mean time inorderly in the heart full of the love of the world spirituall pride pharisaical contempt of others lust envy and secret hatred I say this is not to die to the world no it is not but to mortifie the flesh with all things which are pleasant to it and daily within and secretly to be sory and to turn himselfe from the world inwardly to God whereby it cannot but come to passe that the outward life and manners be renewed and changed what if now one should only doe outward repentance or penance abstaining from great and enormous offences for the feare of punishment and the inward man doe keep his old spots still and daily inwardly in heart to die to the world and to live to Christ by faith in sincere humility and lowlinesse and lastly to confide in the grace of God in Christ Jesus alwayes doing such and so great things To this repentance are we called by Christ I say that true and inward conversion from the Without true repentance Christ profits nothing world to God to whom also alone the imputation of his justice and righteousnesse and obedience through the efficacie of faith together with the remission of our sinnes is promised so that without this inward repentance Christ profiteth man nothing that is he shall not participate of his grace and favour and merit The reason The fruits of the death passion of Christ is because they are to be comprehended by a contrite heart faithfull humble penitent Truly this fruit of the passion of Christ is in us that we may die to sinne by true repentance and of his resurrection in that Christ in us and we in Christ might live And hereby commeth the new creature True repentāce inward in Christ and regeneration which onely is available with God Gal. 6. Vide infra Chapt. 33. Therefore let us learn the nature constitution of true repentance and let us not erre in the common errour but let all of us esteem and beleeve to bid adieu to externall idolatry blasphemy homicide adultery whore-hunting thefts with all such enormities and vices externall to be the true and onely repentance neither yet doe I deny that this externall repentance is forbidden by the Prophet as Esay 55. and Ezek. Chap. 18. and 33. who likewise with the Apostles most certainly doe command and give charge to levell at the inwards and heart it self even another repentance inward more noble then the outward even that whereby the man dieth to pride covetousnesse and lust denieth and hateth himselfe renounceth the world despoyleth himselfe of all his own committeth himselfe to God crucifieth the flesh offereth a daily contrite heart humbling and trembling as the best and well-pleasing sacrifice unto God And last of all doth live with a heart full of tears and groanes which Character of inward repentance the Psalmes of David doe every where set forth So it remaineth that this is the true repentance when inwardly
justification onely proceedeth from faith in Christ And faith is like But in Christ a new-born babe newly come into the world weake and naked set before the eyes of his Saviour from whom as from his parent hee receiveth justice honesty holinesse grace and the holy Ghost And after this manner is the naked child by the mercy of God cloathed and both his bracelets being taken away he receiveth of God grace health and holinesse This alone therefore this only receiving maketh him godly holy and happy and our true justification onely through faith and not What our justification is through works I say by faith which apprehending Christ be it what it may be with all his goodnesse he challengeth and maketh it his own properly then of necessity sinne death Devill and hell must Sin and death hell are subiect to faith give back and vanish away and so powerfully lively and effectually doth the merit of Christ through faith work and abound that even the sinnes of the whole world cannot hurt them Now seeing that Christ by faith liveth and dwelleth in thee let us never think or beleeve that this his habitation is a dead work but rather a certain living thing not idle powerfull working or as I may say in one word a renewing for faith performeth two things first it transplanteth thee into Christ and giveth him freely unto thee with all that he hath secondly it reneweth thee in Christ that thou mayst grow green and flourish and live in him neither is the graffe brought into the stock for other purpose but that it should flourish and bring forth fruit in it And even as by the Apostasie of Adam and by the deceit and seducing of the Devill the seed of the Serpent and the Diabolicall corruption of his nature is sown in man growing up into a tree bearing the fruits of death so by the word of God and the holy Ghost the faith is sown in our hearts as the seed of Faith is the seed of God God in which after a wonderfull manner are shut up all divine vertues and properties from whence in a like manner doth flow forth a most glorious and new Image of God and bringeth forth a new tree whose fruits are obedience and patience humility courtesie peace charity justice a new and another man and so the whole Kingdome of God for true and saving faith reneweth the whole man maketh clean the heart joyneth and uniteth it to God purged anew and set free from earthly things it hungreth and thirsteth after righteousnesse it worketh love it bringeth peace joy patience strength moderation in adversity it overcommeth the world it maketh us the sonnes of God and heirs of all celestiall goodnesse and co-heirs with Christ If it happen any to be without or to be ignorant of this joy which is by faith acknowledging himselfe to be of little faith let him beware he distrust not therefore but rather let him trust in grace Consolation of those that have little Faith promised by Christ which promise remaineth certain immoveable and everlasting And although we through humane infirmities doe often fall and goe backwards let us in the mean while alwayes account it sure and certain that the grace of God remaineth solid and firm whensoever by true and serious repentance we arise from our fall for Christ is and will be Christ and Saviour although you take hold of him by a firm or weak faith for he imbraceth both alike and Christ is alike to all Moreover the promise of grace is universall and perpetuall upon which it is necessary our faith be founded without difference firme or weak and in the mean time erect and fill thy heart with hope God will in his good time in his own season bring that sincere and sensible joy unto thee although he hide himselfe a while in the inwards of thy heart Psal 37. 77. Of which Argument I shall say more Lib. 2. CHAP. VI. How the word of God by faith in man ought to spread forth live Luke 17. For behold the kingdom of God is within you BEcause in Regeneration and Renovation of the man all things are in us therefore our great Gods will was that those things which by faith in man ought All the new man is set forth in the Scripture to be done spiritually fulfilled should be outwardly set forth in writing and the whole new man painted and fully set forth in his word for seeing that his word is the seed of God in us certainly it is necessary that it should bring forth fruit and out of that seed to grow by faith which the Scripture outwardly doth teach and beare witnesse of or certain it is that the seed and embryon is dead I say in faith and spirit I ought to tast prove and joyfully in the inward sense perceive heare see and touch even those things the Scripture doth dictate The word of God is to quicken in us and declare most truly neither did God the Father in his counsell manifest the Scripture that as a dead letter it should lie hid in paper ink but that it should receive life in faith and Spirit or as we vulgarly say be turned into our juyce and bloud spring up and grow young in us to another new and inward man because I say all things ought and it is meet so to be to be fulfilled and performed in faith and spirit through Christ whatsoever the Scripture doth outwardly teach Let us shew it in the example of Cain and Abel whose natures manners and actions if you call to mind you cannot but understand that History If you suppose in the place of Cain and Abel the names of the old and new Man to be in the like manner to be done and iterated for what is the displeasure of both what is that lying in wait that Cain laid against Abel What others are all those then the daily strife of the flesh and the spirit what other enmity then the seed of the new man and the seed of the Serpent Neither is there other reason in common sense for by the food from heaven the corruption of the flesh is to be drowned and washed but just and faithfull Noe is to be preserved in the Ark and a new Covenant is to be made between thee and thy great God Moreover the Tower of Babel or Confusion ought not to be built in thee Thou must with Abraham goe forth of thine own Countrey or knowledge and all things are to be left even thy life it selfe that thou mayst walk perfectly before God carry out the victory and goe into the land of promise and Kingdome of God And Christ meaneth no other thing Matth. 10. Luk. 14. If any come unto me and hateth not his father and mother his wife and children his brothers and sisters yea and further his own life he cannot be my Disciple that is to wit he must bid all these adieu The
most noble is that man in whom Christ is all and doth all whose noble thoughts mind words are the will of Christ the thoughts of Christ and the mind of Christ according to that of Paul * 1 Cor. 2. We have the mind of Christ Lastly whose words are Christs And so it needs to be indeed because the life of Christ is that new and another life in man neither is the new man any other thing then he who liveth in Christ according to the Spirit whose life I say courtesie patience and humility is no other then that of Christ And this the new creature and the life of Christ in us according to that of Paul to the Galatians Gâ—l 2. I live but not I but Christ in me liveth this also is to follow Christ truly and truly to repent for by this method the old man is destroyed and the carnall life declineth the new spirituall and heavenly life ariseth and breaketh out of the clouds This who ever doth he truly is a Christian not in title only but in work and truth a true son of God begotten of God and Christ renewed in Christ and quickened by faith and so long as the inward man dwelleth in flesh and blood we may wish so much perfection rather then attain unto it but it is as meet and necessary to indeavour and to aspire thereunto and study the same and to wish it from our inward minde and to strive that the life and kingdom The strife daily fighting with corrupt nature of Christ may be in us and not the life of Satan let all our counsels respect this all our cares and inward groans be sent this way and let this be our only strife and warfare that we may mortifie the old man by daily repentance For how much every one dieth to himself so much doth Christ live in him how much corruption How the man is daily renewed departeth from our nature by the Holy Ghost so much divine grace cometh in how much the flesh is crucified so much is the spirit quickened so much of the work of darknesse as is destroyed so much is the man illuminated by how much the exterior man is lessened and wasted so much the inward is renewed 2 Cor. 4. so much as you lose of your vaine affections and carnall life and are wasted as self-self-love ambition wrâ—th covetousnesse and voluptuousnesse so much Christ liveth in you the further a mans heart is set from the world from concupiscence of the eyes flesh and pride of life so much more of God Christ and the Holy Spirit doth flow into him Last of all the more nature flesh darknesse and the world do bear rule in man so much lesse grace spirit of light God and Christ is found in him Moreover this new kind of living is to the flesh The new life is the crosse of the flesh an enemy and bitter crosse because it is that by which it is subjugated and brought under and crucified with all the desires and concupiscences thereof but yet is that wherein the whole power and fruit of penitency consisteth This is the inward desire of the flesh and blood that it had rather lead a free life dissolute according to its own will and among pleasures and all kind of voluptuousnesse for it only knows this to be sweet and pleasant as contrariwise the life of Christ to the flesh and the old man is a heavie crosse but to the new man and him that is spirituall it is an easie yoak a light burden and a most quiet Sabbath truly the true rest is sought for in vain else were they in the faiâ—h of Christ and in his sweetness humility patience and love of Christ whereupon it is said Mat. 11. You shall find rest for your souls Truly he that loveth Christ will not think it bitter to suffer death it self for him This therefore is that sweet yoak of Christ which we are commanded to take upon us that our soules might be refreshed and come into his rest which command if we determine to obey and mean to put on Christ his life and yoak then we must shake off the yoak of the Devill our way of carnall life wicked and dissolute nor must we suffer the flesh as a Lady to insult and disquiet the spirit but all things are to be brought under the Law obedience and yoak of Christ will I say reason understanding and all carnall What the yoak of Christ is appetites which the concupiscence of Adam and this flesh of ours is well pleased to be honoured worshipped and to be praised of men to abound in riches and pleasures to bring all which on the other side under the yoak of Christ and his discipline nothing regarding his ignominy contempt and poverty to think himself unworthy all things that the world gapeth What the life of Christ is after and for which other men do contend that truth is the crosse of Christ wherewith the flesh is delighted I say that extreme humility of Christ and his most noble life which to the spirit is a most easie yoak and a most easie burden for what other was the whole life of Christ then holy poverty extreme contempt and vile persecution who came not into the world to be attended on but to serve us himself and spend his life and shed his dearest blood to redeem our offences It is the property of The naturall man the spirituall the naturall man to seek after honours and hunt after great things The spirituall on the other side loved the humility of Christ and desireth to become nothing And whereas most men do desire to go before or excell others scarce one coveteth to be reputed as nothing of whom the one belongeth to the square or rule of life of the old Adam the other to the rule of Christ The carnall man and he who hath not yet learned what Christ is that is to say meer humility courtesie and love accounteth it folly to live as Christ liveth and thinketh those onely wise that live after their owne The false true light will delicately and easily not knowing that then he chiefly liveth in the Devill when most foolishly he applaudeth himselfe and esteemeth his own life as the best and most pleasing which most miserable men being fast bound in the lust of their own carnall wisdome doe inforce others to follow the like errours contrariwise those whom the true and eternall light hath inlightned those are touched at the heart when they doe see the pomp and disdaine pride pleasure wrath revenge and such kind of fruit of the carnall life which causeth them to sigh from the bottome of their hearts saying How farre is this from Christ and his knowledge from true repentance from genuine Christianity and lastly from the fruits of the new birth of the sonnes of God for he liveth yet in Adam in the old creature and in the Devill himselfe for to offend
boldly and willingly to sinne is nothing else then to live in the Devill In whom therefore the life of Christ is not this man is without repentance neither is a true Christian nor the sonne of God nay Christ knoweth him not He who will rightly know him as a Saviour and example of life it is meet he know him to be meere love meere courtesie patience and humility which vertues of Christ it behoveth thee to have and love them from the bottome of thy heart and fasten them to thy self As a plant by its favour and smel that it sendeth forth bewrayes its own nature so thou oughtest to know Christ and by experience be certain that he is a certain most fragrant The true knowledge of Christ stock from whence thy soule doth draw and obtain admirable strength and new vitall spirits as also singular joy and solace And after this manner is tasted how sweet the Lord is so is the truth known so is the chiefe and eternall good perceived and then doth he know certainly that nothing is better then the life of Christ nothing more pleasant sweet pretious or more full of tranquillity And lastly nothing can be more likened or be compared to life eternall And do we doubt that because it is better then all it should be more desireable for in whom the life of Christ is not this man cannot know what the peace and tranquillity of eternall life is nor what the chiefe good is nor everlasting truth nor what is true peace and joy the true light and true charity seeing Christ is all these himselfe whereupon John Ep. 1. chap. 4. saith Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that loveth not knoweth not God because God is love Whereby the fruits of the new birth which is of God appeareth and also life and a new creature not to be words and an externall forme but a substance but the Queen of vertues and which is God himselfe that is to say Charity for of whomsoever any is born it is meet he should have the same properties and he that saith he is born of God let him shew that by charity because God is charity In like manner the knowledge of God resteth not in words and shadowed or vain knowledge but in lively amiable pleasant and most sincere pleasure which ought to flow into the bottome of our heart and mind and there to dwell when we taste by faith inwardly in our hearts the sweetnesse of God This I say this is the true lively and efficacious knowledge of God of which David in Psalm 84. speaketh saying My heart and my flesh rejoyceth in the living God and Psalm 63. How pleasant is thy mercies over our lives where it is presently manifested the joy and sweetnesse of the knowledge divine which is infused into the faithfull heart and so at length the man liveth in God and God in him so is truth known and so the same truth knoweth man CHAP. XII The being of a Christian man is to die to himselfe and the world and to live unto Christ 2 Corinth 5. Christ died for all men that those which live might not now live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again OVer and above this that this sentence is full of consolation whilst it is manifested that Christ died for all men as also it containeth a most wholsome doctrine concerning the way of a Christian life how we ought to live that is to say not to our He that wil live in Christ must dy to the world selves onely but to him who died for our cause but this by no means can be done unlesse first we die to our selves and the world Therefore if thou hast purposed to live in Christ necessarily thou must die to worldly concupiscence but if thou mind to live to thy selfe and the world it will profit nothing to be with Christ But there be 3. kinds of death one spirituall when the Death is three fold man daily dieth to himselfe that is to the concupiscence of his flesh covetousnesse pride voluptuousnesse wrath such like the second naturall the third everlasting of the second speaketh Paul to the Philippians châ—p 1. To live to my selfe it is Christ and to die it is gain as if he should say To a Christian desiring to die Christ is his life and death gaine for when he changeth this short and miserable life for a better life and this earthly and fraile goods for stable and eternal goods this is a most gainful exchange and he who shall be well pleased with this saying and fit himselfe to the first sort of death in my judgement he shall not erre For that soule is thrice and foure The life of Christ times happy to whom to live is Christ that is wherein Christ liveth or that hath the life of Christ that is followeth his humility and lowlinesse But alas most men The life of the Devill at this day have taken upon them the life of the Devill and their life is the Divell As for example covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath blasphemy for this is the life of the Devill But thou O man walk carefully and look about thee again and again and see who liveth in thee and thou What it is to die to themselves and the world shalt be most happy if thou canst truly say To me to live is Christ not in the other life only but also in this present life so truly it is needfull also in this present life now that for thee to live is Christ gain to die For is there any thing more profitable then to die in this condition to covetousnesse pride concupiscence wrath and hatred that Christ by that means may live in thee For how much every one dieth to the world so much Christ liveth in him Goe to them let Christ live in thee in time that thou in like manner maist live with him in From whence be the perturbations of the mind eternity But seeing that the mind distracted with divers worldly concupiscences is not capable of true tranquillity and peace it followeth that those that doe die before they begin to live in Christ that which our Sarah the type of the new birth great God hath taught us in divers figures in the old Testament for Sarah when by reason of her age she was unfit to bring children and dead to marriage bed did conceive in her womb and brought forth Isaac which word signifieth Laughter So then unlesse thou root out of thy mind worldly love thou shalt not be able to feel and receive the joy of the Spirit The promise was not made unto Abraham of Christ Abraham is a type of the abnegation of the world and the covenant of circumcision annexed before he left his proper habitation and his own inheritance it is no otherwise with man so long as he hath his mind fixed to the world it is
canst not live with him in this life It remaineth therefore whose life in this world is not in Christ he shall not have life in the other world Here I pray thee now examine thy life and see whether it be more like to Christs or the Vnion with Christ or the Devill Devils Certainly with one of them thou shalt be joyned eternally after death But who is dead to himselfe he is in love with no businesses yea is dead to the world what other thing is it to die unto the world then not to love the world and the things of this world according to that of John Epist 1. chap. 2. He who loveth the world is not of God For what should he doe in the world who inwardly and in his heart is dead to it Whom also whosover loveth he is no otherwise then Samson of Dalila overcome of it and condemned to all the torments and vexations which the He is overcom of the world that loveth it worldly life containeth or affordeth Moreover the love of the world belongeth to the old man not to the regeneration because the world hath nothing but honours The old man delighteth in the world the new man in Christ wealth concupiscence of the eyes and of tâ—e flesh with the pride of life in which the old Adam is conversant and delighteth it selfe And contrariwise to the new man he hath all things in Christ as joy honour wealth and pleasure for what can be more The Image of God the great est dignity of man honorable to a man or is more to be desired then the Image of God renewed by Christ Or if we seek pleasures what man in his wits can doubt that God doth give delight to his above all creatures and delight The man is made for greater things then this world them more as the words of Taulerus say Furthermore what think you of that which the Scripture teacheth Man was not made for the worlds sake but the world for mans sake nor to fill his belly with delicate meat pamper his own wit heap up riches spread his Empire abroad to get most ample possessions grounds and fruits of the earth to be gorgeously attired to abound in gold and silver to be Lord of the earth to put all his delight and joy therein as in his paradise to place it and know hope for nothing but what is before his eyes Or lastly for any terrene cause whatsoever or any thing that is fraile although of it selfe it be good pleasant and pretious No truly he must goe hence he is but a tenant and a life-renter of this great world into which we enter many at one instant as it were by heaps yet death calls for us also As it is not profitable for any of us to carry with us a grain of all the treasure we have heaped whereby it evidently appeareth that we were not created for this temporall life To what man was created neither this world to be the principall end of our creation seeing that we live therein as prilgrims and guests therefore another cause brought us into this world and for whom we were born which is God himselfe and the image of God which we bear in Christ and unto whom we are renewed In this we are convinced evidently to wit that we are especially created for the kingdome of God and life eternall which Christ hath recovered for us and to whom we are regenerate by the holy Ghost How preposterous then is it for one to fix his heart to the world and give his minde to earthly things when we know the other to be more noble then the whole word I say for a man to attend and spend his time on earthly things which is the most excellent of all creatures which carrieth about him the image of God in Christ and is renewed to this image Wherefore as I said before the man for the world was not created but the world was created for man and therefore carrleth about with him the image of God in Christ of which the excellency and nobility is so great that all men with all his workes and power could not repaire one soule or renew the Image of God But for this cause it was necessary that Christ should die that because the image of God was defaced and destroyed in man it should be renewed by the holy Ghost and he should become forthwith the habitation and house of God And this being known and called to mind if he be right minded he will never compare the riches of the world honours To preferre earthly things before heuvenly is great madnes and pleasures with the price of his soule which Christ hath redeemed at such a price for what is it to cast pearls in the mire and before swine if this should not be That which our Saviour saith Matth. 16. pertaineth to this place What profiteth it a man to get the whole world and lose his owne soule For seeing the world is mortall and the soul of man immortall the world with all his pomp cannot recover one soul CHAP. XIV A true Christian ought after the example of Christ to contemne the world and hate his life in this world John 12. He that loveth his soule loseth it and he that hateth his soule in this world doth preserve it to eternall life HE that will hate himselfe he must first not love himselfe so that he may daily die to sinne and therefore he must continually Selfe-love the chiefest enemy of the soul Idolatry wrastle with himselfe and his flesh for nothing is more hurtfull to a man that is desirous of his salvation and more hindereth him then selfe-love I say that carnall Philautia of which this following discourse in all this book is the subject I doe not say that care of preserving our selves but loving our selves is forbidden For seeing that God alone is to be loved it followeth that he who loveth himselfe is an Idolater and maketh himselfe God what every one loveth in that his heart is fixed neither can we be taken but with the love and servitude of something so as we become servants despoiling our selves of our proper liberties and consequently having so many Lords we are subject unto as we have objects to love but if thy love be sincerely and simply towards God then thou art subject to no object but it is manifest thou art at liberty wherefore thou must be very circumspect that thou follow nothing that may hinder the divine love in thee And if thou desirest to possesse God alone as much as thou art able so much in like The law of God brings forth tranquillity the world perturbation manner of thy all must thou consecrate to him But if thou love thy selfe and please thy selfe much pensivenesse sorrow feare and sadnesse will befall thee Contrariwise if thou love God and rejoycest in him onely and dost dedicate thy selfe onely to him then will he be thy
comfort never shalt thou be overcome with sorrow feare and sadnesse he who seeketh himselfe every where and in all things and followeth after his own profit onely praise and honour he never attaineth to tranquillity for alwayes something meeteth him that bringeth perturbation Therefore beware you beleeve not that the increase of wealth fame and honour is good and profitable but rather set before thee the best things contemne such things and extirpate the root of concupiscence which hindereth thee in pursuance of the love of God Now seeing the commodities of this True constant rest in God life praise honour and likewise the world it selfe are fraile and floating away but the love of God remaineth for ever that delight cannot be durable which thou takest in the love of thy selfe and earthly things because it may vary by very light occasion where contrariwise the mind firmly set upon divine love cannot but continually rejoyce vain frail and brickle is that which is not grounded upon God but doe thou forsake all things and thou shalt finde all things by faith For the lover of himselfe and the world findeth not God The love Who findeth not God of our selves is earthly and not of God and is chiefe enemy to heavenly wisdome Humility is the companion of heavenly wisdome for it careth nothing lesse then to be eminent in the world and to be accounted great for which cause and for their own profit and simplicity it cometh to passe as almost with one blot it is put out of the mind and memory of Man Therefore although many in Sermons doe boast and make a noyse thereof yet remaineth and will remain this pretious Pearle unknown and hidden as long as in life and manners we are farre from it and know little And the onely way to find it is to unlearn and forget humane wisdome proper applause selfe-love And for humane and earthly wisdome which the whole world boasteth to be such but indeed is ridiculous and vile you must change for celestistiall and divine It is impossible to love Wherein the love of God consisteth God unlesse you hate your selfe that is unlesse thou be displeased with thy selfe for thy sinnes crucifie thine own flesh and mortifie thy proper will that is by how much any man is attentive to the love of God so much more doth he study to mortifie and keep under the concupiscence of the flesh and his owne proper appetites Also the further thou departest from thy selfe and thy proper love by the power of divine love by so much the nearer art thou hidden in God and his love through faith For even as inward peace dependeth on vacancy and leasure from outward things so it must needs be that when the inwards are at leasure and the heart free from all creatures it cleaveth to God alone giving back from other things the soule must enter self-Selfe-love the love of God are two cōtrary things into God by consequence Moreover he that goeth about to deny himself therein it must needs follow that he doth not his own work but Christs I am saith John 14. the Way the Truth and the Life without the way no man goeth on without Christ the way the truth the life the truth nothing is known and without life no man liveth Therefore look upon me who am the Way which you ought to walk in the Truth which you ought to beleeve and lastly the Life which you ought to live and hope in I am the Way that endureth for all ages the infallible Truth and the Life everlasting and eternall The Kings way to immortall life through my merit the truth it selfe in my word and life through the power and efficacie of my death Therefore if you continue in this Way the Truth doth carry you to eternall Life If you will not erre follow me if you will know the Truth beleeve me and if you will possesse Life eternall put your trust in my death And what is that Kings Way that infallible Truth and that Life the best and most noble of all others Truly other life cannot be then the most holy and pretious merit of Christ nor other truth then the word of God lastly no other life then sempiternall happinesse Now then if you desire to be exalted into heaven it behooveth thee to beleeve in Christ and after his example to follow humility in this world which is the onely Kings way If thou wilt not be deceived of the world take hold of his word by faith and follow the footsteps of his life because this is the chiefest and the infallible truth If thou desirest to live with Christ with him in time and through him thou must die to sinne and become a new creature because this is life In brief Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life no lesse by example then merit Be you followers of God as most deare children saith S. Paul to the Ephes 5. Let us therefore with all our Our life ought to be conformed after the life of Christ might power endeavour this one thing that our life may as neere as possible it may be be most like unto Christs life so that if other things be wanting to confound false Christians even this onely example of Christ might be sufficient for we may be ashamed to lead our lives in pleasures when Christ Jesus led his life amongst sorrow and tribulation even to his death And if a Souldier doe forget his own proper recreation when he seeth his Captain by fighting valiantly receive his death and thou gettest honour before thy Captaines eyes used most contemptuously shall I not say that thou dost not fight under his Banner But alas we will be accounted Christians Many Christians but few followers of Christ but how few be there that imitate the life of Christ Truly if it were the part of Christians to be seekers after wealth perishing fame and honours Christ would never have commanded the losse of them for eternall good Behold with me his life and doctrine and thou shalt not deny that nothing is more unlike then the world and He that manger that stable those swadling cloathes are not those a spectacle or looking-glasse of the contempts of these worldly things Or let us perhaps say that thou wilt by these examples draw thy selfe from the true and right way nay rather it is meanes to bring thee into the right way when we shall compare his doctrine and way together with his example whereupon he saith and proclaimeth that he is the Way and the Truth Therefore when they by contempt misery and reproaches doe attempt to make the way to attain to heaven it followeth that thou that seekest after jollity and wealth and thirstest after promotion art in a ready way to hell returne thou and come out of that broad high-way and come again into this way that cannot stray and embrace the truth that cannot deceive And lastly live in him
present things and lastly to crucifie the flesh that the spirit may live in him Truly in this is both the foredeck and the poop of Christianity to imitate our Saviour or as Augustine saith The chiefest Christ is the rule of our life of religion is to imitate him whom thou lovest from which opinion differeth not much that saying of Plato drawn from the law of Nature The perfection of men consisteth in the imitation of God whereupon nothing else is left unto us then that Christ ought to be the example and square of our life and that all our counsels studies and cogitations should respect that one thing how we should come to him by him be saved and live with him eternally All things are to be done in faith expecting with joy the dissolution of our prison And that we shall attain if we direct all our labours actions businesse and vocations by faith and goe on with desire and hope of eternall life or to speak more significantly if we never lay aside the memory The love of the world is extinguished by faith of eternall happinesse in all our actions because through this feare of God is begotten in man a certain holy desire of eternal things and withall the desire coveting of earthly things insatiable in its own nature is restrained according to that saying of St Paul to the Coloss 3. Whatsoever you doe in word or deed doe all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ giving thankes to God the Father through him And the name of God is nothing but the honour praise and glory of God According to thy Name let it be O God and thy praise to the ends of the world saith David Psal 48. Which Whâ—â— the name of God iâ— scope if all our works and life doe chiefly respect then we think of eternity and our works are done in God and consequently our selves are in God Briefly God our chiefe good and the eternall life of all our thoughts works and words should be the first mover if we will not faile of eternall salvation That which Paul most elegantly expresseth to 1 Tim. chap. 6 But thou O man Who iâ— the man of God or the man of the world of God flie these things to wit covetousnes He calleth a Christian a man of God because borne of God and living in God hee is the sonne and heir of God Even as contrariwise a man of the world is he who liveth after a worldly life whose inheritance is the world and whose belly is filled with the goods of the earth as it is in Psalm 17. Which way the Christian is farre from seeking after faith and love and unsatiably covetous of eternall life to which he was created alone which if it come not to passe then the man linketh himselfe to enormous sins which our just God doth punish with eternall fire prefigured by the burning of the Tents sent from heaven and from an angry God to punish and revenge the excesses of the Israelites The wrath of God from whence Wherefore so often as such like plagues are sent upon the wicked as inundation fire warre hunger pestilence let us alwayes call to mind and remember that these are the most just punishments of a moved and angry God because the people of Israel unmindfull of heavenly things did follow after transitory things did prefer present things before future and had more care of the body then of the soule which things let us not erre in It is an extream point of ingratitude and contempt A great contempt ingratitude to God of God both here and hereafter to be punished to wit to contemne God for whom we beare about both body and soule and from whom we received them and instead thereof to worship Idols of the creatures the work of mens hands to esteem eternall things after transitory For these creatures Why creatures are given to us are given to us for necessity and not to set our hearts and minds after them that which God alone deservedly challengeth to himself and that they might be as prints and testimonies of God whereby we come neerer to the knowledge and love of God the author of them all which divine institution when the love of the world dare abrogate it then the same by the most just vengeance of God together with the proper Idolaters are turned into the fire The love of the world Is converted into the fire of Sodom and infernall flood of which Sodom and Gomorrah is a type and this burning of the Tents of which we speak Truly all creatures are of themselves good but when men set their hearts upon them and that not after a lawfull manner but doth worship them as Idols then they become abomination How the creature becometh abomination before God Almighty no otherwise then the detestable and execrable Images of gold and silver and therefore matters of eternall fire although gold and silver of themselves are good creatures In brief the love of Christians joy wealth and honour are circumscribed in eternity whereupon there followeth even life eternall for where thy treasure is there is thy heart Luke 1â— On the contrary from the concupiscence The fruit of worldly love and love of the world nothing can follow but eternall damnation for the world passeth away with all the pomp thereof but he that doth the will of God continueth for ever whereupon B. John 1. Epist chap. 2. beseecheth the faithfull saying Little sonnes doe not love the world nor those things that be in the world which being so manifestly shewed thee that God would not have us love any creature first Why the creatures are not loved because love is the heart of man and the most noble of all affections which therefore is due to God alone as to the chiefest and onely good Secondly because it is a great folly to love that which cannot love us again whereupon in vain are frail and transitory things beloved by good right is God alone to beloved above all creatures who out of his exceeding love created us to eternall life redeemed and sanctified us Thirdly because naturally like things are Why man was created after Gods Image loved therefore God made thee after his own image and likenesse that thou mightest love him and thy neighbour Fourthly although our soule be like to wax ready The soule is the lookingglasse of God to take any impression put upon it rather like a glasse representing all objects set before it whether of heaven or earth yet it is born onely to set God before it Fifthly as the Patriarch Jacob when he lived in Mesopotamia amongst strangers and after twenty yeares service demanded his two What our mind ought alwayes to respect wives and his wages and being provoked with the sweet memory of his country did think and desire to return to the same so our soule among worldly occupations and businesses of our
callings as the Loadstone it ought never to decline from the Pole of eternity our countrey Sixthly because men are good or evill by reason of that which they love therefore he that loveth The fruit of love God participateth of every kind of vertue and good thing on the other side he that loveth the world is defiled with all the sins and evils thereof Seventhly like as King Nebuchadnezzar when he loved the The love of the world maketh man a beast world more then was meet he lost the essentiall form of man he degenerated into a beast for when the Scripture speaketh expresly that he in the end recovered his former shape it followeth that he was in humane shape and kind So all men blotting out of their hearts the image of God become according to the interior man Wolves Dogges Lions and Beares even so are all those that addict themselves wholly to the love of the world Last of all what every one here savoureth in his The manifestation of hearts from the world heart it will be manifested in him and he will follow it God or the World to which of the two he turneth himselfe into it may be hell fire prefigured in this type CHAP. XIX That he who in his own judgement is most miserable to God is most deare and so by Christian knowledge of his own proper misery obtaineth grace with God Isaia 66. To whom should I shew respect but to the little and poore and a contrite heart or spirit trembling at my words THis sentence our most gentle God doth The contempt of our selves set forth to erect and lift up our minds oppressed and dejected with sorrow which propitiatory whosoever desireth to have it behoveth him to declare himself in his own judgement wretched and unworthy of divine or humane favour But whosoever yet seems somthing to himself is not yet wretched nor humbled in his own opinion nor capable of divine favour whereupon Saint Paul saith Gal. 6. If any man esteem himselfe something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself For God alone is all things which he that onely knoweth and doth not inwardly in his heart approve it and shew it in his example argueth the knowledge of God in him to be superficiall and slight Therefore if thou wilt give God the glory and teach it in thy deed that God is all things it must needs be so that thou use a most sharp judgement against thy self and beleeve most assuredly that thou art nothing after the example of David who dancing before the Ark of the Lord when Michol contemned him as an abject person he answered I will yet bee more vile then I have been He that wil be somthing he is the The matter of which God maketh fools matter of which God maketh nothing yea a fool And he that on the contrary loveth to be reputed as nothing and in his owne judgement is so this is the matter of which the great workman maketh somthing yea halfe Gods he who professeth himselfe before God to be more miserable and worse then all men he in his judgement is made the greatest and chiefest of all others and he that in his own judgement is the greatest sinner him doth God account among the Saints This is in truth that humility which God exalteth the misery which he respecteth Lastly this nothing is that of which God no otherwise then the old world is wont to produce the men of God and create them so of which things we have David for example whose basenesse our most gentle God beholding transformed him into a most noble instrument then Jacob whose saying this is I am lesse then all thy mercies And Christ dejected below the common sort of men who also for God maketh all things of nothing us was accursed and made a worm into how great majesty did his heavenly Father exalt him For as a workman shewing his skill upon some speciall peece of work to labour it more exactly taketh a new matter polluted with no mans hands so that man that God will make something he must be nothing And hee that will make himselfe great and beleeveth himselfe to be something this cannot be the matter for divine workes because that which is nothing and void is it of which he after a A man iudgeth himselfe worthy of nothing wonderful maner shapeth all things which the virgin Mary knew full well saying Luk. 1. He beholdeth the lowliness of his Handmaid behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed But he is indeed inwardly and in heart wretched which thinketh himselfe worthy of no divine benefit neither corporall nor spirituall for he that arrogateth any thing to himselfe this man indeed esteemeth himself something when in truth he is nothing and therefore is furthest from divine graces and most impatient of all arrogances who if he judge himselfe What is proper to man worthy any thing he taketh not all things gratis of God for grace is not merit what soever we wish to obtain for our selves from heaven Moreover nothing is proper to man except sin misery and infirmity all other things are Gods Behold the shadow of a tree with me which is no more something then a man and therefore as it followeth the motion of a tree from Man is a shadow whom it hath its being so this man carrieth his life and all hee hath received of God according to that of Paul Acts 17. In him we live move and have our being And although apples appeare in the shadow of the tree they doe not therefore belong to the shadow but to the tree Now think thou the like with me the good fruits that appeareth in thee and are apparent but are not thine own But as the apple groweth not out of the tree as the unskilfull vulgar think although it hang thereon no otherwise Man is a very tree then a child on the mothers paps So all men are fruitlesse trees and withered the Lord onely is their force and vegetable power according to Psalm 17. The Lord is the horn of my salvation And that of Luke 23. If they doe these things to a green tree what will they doe to a dry tree I saith the Lord Hos 14. will hear and direct him that he shal flourish of me shall thy fruit proceed And our Saviour John 15. If you remain in me you shall beare much fruit But when a man is truly in his understanding wretched and moved at all times and trusteth onely in the heavenly grace of Christ then doth God respect him which respect is not done or commeth to passe after a humane manner and without force and efficacie but is full of vertue life and consolation And as some contrite hearts are capable of this divine aspect onely so how much more cleare amiable and frequent it is so much the lesse doe they think themselves worthy thereof How much humility have we shadowed in The
truly humbled think themselves worthy of nothing Jacob Gen. 32. who pronounceth himself unworthy of all divine favour and temporall blessings Therefore to his example and pattern a heart truly humbled contrite acknowledging himselfe unworthy of the least heavenly visitation and consolation be it never so little crieth O Lord my soule thine handmaid is unworthy of thy great love and mercy which thou hast shewed it in Christ Jesus behold since thou gavest me thy Sonne I come with two troops with the blessings I say of grace and glory And indeed if a man would weep a sea of teares it were not sufficient price for the least heavenly favour or consolation Therefore the grace of God is meerly pure and free gift and the merit of man is nothing else but punishments and eternall damnation which every one knoweth What misera men God respects through faith and acknowledgeth freely man consequently is guilty of his own misery and is pardoned of God that which cannot befall man without this zealous acknowledgement and so to obtain the favour of God Wherupon S. Paul 2 Cor. 12. saith I would boast of the infirmities in me that the power of Christ might awell in me For such is the mercifulnes of God he will not see his workes suffer corruption but so much the weaker it is in it selfe so much more fortitude is divinely infused into it according to that the Lord said unto Paul My grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect in infirmity Wherefore by how much a true Christian in his own judgment is more wretched by so much doth God pardon more freely to the manifestation of the riches of his glory in a vessell of mercy Rom. 9. not looking to any merit of his by heavenly consolations more sincere then all human joyes Furthermore we call not him a miserable man not he that is poore Why a man is wretched and destitute of human succour and comfort but he that from the bottome of his heart acknowledgeth and is grieved for his sinnes for if sinne were not there would be no misery in the world and so much could not befall man but that he is worthy of much more Far be it from us to grieve because many heavenly benefits are not bestowed Man is worthy of no divine grace seeing we are not worthy of the least no not the life we carry about with us Which saying although our flesh think it a very unworthy and hard saying yet if we will obtain the grace of God the truth is to be spoken and every true repentant sinner most be a most bitter Judge and upbraider of himselfe for his sinnes Wherein then and wherefore should a man open his mouth Truly thus I think what ever man thou be it is better for thee to say thou canst say nothing in these two words Lord I have sinned Have mercy upon me a sinner certainly God himselfe requireth nothing else of a man but that he should deplore his sins and crave pardon which two whoso The best work of man neglecteth may be said that he hath omitted the best part Take heed therefore O man to powre forth teares for thy body because it is naked because it is afflicted with hunger and cold and because it suffereth persecutions because it is restrained in bands or because it is weak and sick but bewaile and send forth tears for thy soule which is constrained to dwell in flesh and bloud obnoxious to sinne and death Vnhappy man that I am cryeth blessed Paul Rom. 7. who shall deliver me from this body of sinne And this Christian acknowledgement and conscience of his proper and inward misery this grace-thirsting repentance Faith is the door of grace this faith fastened on Christ alone opening the doore of grace in Christ by which God cometh into the soule therefore repent and amend saith John chap. 3. Behold I stand at the doore and I beat or knock if any shall heare my voyce and shall open it to me I will enter therein and I will sup with him and he with me Which supper is nothing verily but the remission of sinnes consolation life and happinesse at this doore of faith our most loving God at his own time doth meet the wretched soule here the truth ariseth from the earth and justice looketh from heaven here Mercy and Truth meet one another Justice and Peace doe kisse each other Psalm 85. Here the offender Magdalene I say the soule of Mystical Magdalen man all confused and powring forth tears anointeth the feet of our Lord washeth them with teares wipeth them with the hairs of her head of most profound humility Here the spirituall and mysticall Bishop in the holy ornaments of faith offereth the true sacrifice the contrite heart and lowly and the frankincense of true repentance and contrition I say the teares for sins committed that true cleansing water The misticall Bishop and sacrifice of a Christian wherewith the mysticall Israel are washed and made clean by faith and efficacy of the bloud of Christ And thus much Christians it appeareth how by the acknowledgement of your proper misery and faith in Christ you may attain the grace of God so that by how much every one in their own judgement is more wretched so much the more dearly beloved of God and by him is adorned with great favours CHAP. XX. By Christian contrition our life is daily amended and made more and more fit for the Kingdome of Heaven and life eternall 2 Corinth 7. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to eternall salvation but worldly sorrow worketh death TRue Christianity consisteth in pure Faith true Charity and holy life which have their beginning out of serious Holiness from whence contrition repentance and a strict and severe knowledge of himselfe perceiving daily more and more his defects and amending them daily and participating the righteousnesse and holinesse of Christ by faith 1 Cor. 1. and cannot be obtained The fear of God by any other means in which if we walk in the continuall feare of God after the example of good children and subjects we doe not nourish any thing belonging to the flesh All things are lawfull for me saith Paul 1 Cor. 6. but are not all expedient in me making me better For even as a sonne in his fathers house doth not all things which many times the lust of the flesh prompteth him unto but warily observeth his father and as it were by the eye doth counsel with him before hee cometh to say or doe any thing So a true Christian and the Child of God will chastice his senses with Christian modesty neither will doe or speak any thing without the fear of God But for The ioy of the world doth extinguish the fear of God the most part all men are without the feare of God do addict themselves to worldly pleasures not knowing it is better continually to feare God then to wallow in
Himselfe From divine patience and long-suffering ariseth a wonderfull patience towards his neighbour and that so great that if it were possible for a Christian to die seven times yet he would forgive his enemy that cruelty being mindfull of the great mercies of God first shewed unto him From divine righteousnesse floweth the acknowledgement of his sinnes whereupon he prayeth with the Prophet To thee O Lord belongeth justice but to us confusion of our faces Dan. 9. Enter not into judgement with thy servant because no flesh is justified in thy sight Psal 130. Lord if thou regardest our iniquities who can stand before thee Psal 143. Out of the knowledgement of the divine truth doth flow faith and integrity towards our neighbour whereby frauds do cease falshood and lying and a true Christian with such thoughts fortifieth his heart doth not circumvent his neighbour for by this means thou shalt offend the verity of God which is God himselfe who when he dealeth so faithfully truly with me it were very unworthy for me to carry my self otherwise towards my neighbour Out of the knowledge of the eternall wisdome of God floweth forth the feare of God whom it is manifest to be the searcher of the hearts to see into the inward of man whereby deservedly we reverence the eyes of the divine Majesty He that planted the eare shall he not hear or he which made the eye shall he not see Psalm 94. Woe unto you that are of a deep heart that you might hide your counsell from the Lord whose works are in the dark and say Who seeth us and who doth know us Perverse is this your thought as if the clay should rise against the Potter and the work should say to the maker Thou didst not make me and the workmanship should say to his maker Thou understandest not And thus farre of the true knowledge of God wherein consisteth repentance and repentance in the renovation of the mind and these things concerning the amendment of life that which concerneth the other part of divine worship and is that holy fire appointed by God for offering the sacrifice lest he wax hot in his wrath and send revenge A type of this repentance was the forbidding-drinking The type of repentance of wine by divine commandement to the Priest when he entred the Tabernacle of the Testimony which spiritually belongeth to all Christians for if we will enter into the Tabernacle of eternall life it is necessary that we abstain from concupiscence of the world and of the flesh also from all things by which the flesh may subjugate the spirit for the love of the Pleasure is like unto wine world pride and other vices as sweet and strong wine doe cloud the soule and the spirit whereby they are brought under the power and servitude of the flesh For even as Noah and Lot being overtaken with wine left themselves uncloathed so honour pleasures and riches after the manner of strong wine doe invade try and disturb the soule and the spirit whereby a man may be prohibited entrance into the Tabernacle of the Lord that is from his knowledge and driven from his sanctification losing the difference of holy things and prophane clean and uncleane so that he understandeth nothing in divine things and therefore neither can instruct the people left in his charge with wholsome doctrine which is a just judgment of all those that mad themselves with the wine of concupiscence so that their own thoughts and intellect are not conversant in the true light and at the last doe rush into everlasting darknesse Moreover this repentance or sorrow and griefe for sinnes and also effectuall faith in Christ Jesus before remission of sinnes which as it doth consist onely in the sole merit of Christ so no man can challenge to himselfe this merit of Christ without repentance whereupon remember the Thiefe upon the Crosse who repented before his forgivenesse and Christ admitted him to Paradise and that was not a slight or superficiall repentance but a hearty and true as appeared by the chiding of his fellow Thiefe And dost not thou feare God For us we receive punishment due for our deeds but this man hath done none evill And moreover he praied unto Christ Lord have me in remembrance when thou comest into thy Kingdome which certainly were most sure arguments of a faithfull and contrite heart And that free pardon of his sinnes which a repentant heart in true faith apprehendeth and requesteth is Christ supplieth all things for us of such force as God excuseth all things which was impossible for us to expiate and that for the death and bloud of Christ wherewith he purgeth all things blotting out all our offences as if they never had been done and his abundance of satisfaction not now equalling but exceeding the heavinesse of our offences and sinnes Whereupon blessed David crieth out Psalm 51. I shall be made clean from my offences and I shall be whiter then the snow Now seeing the condition of our pardon is such and our payment so good as the Creditor can make no more demands nor the debter hath not any thing to pay Hereupon it is said that God forgetteth them and never Why God forgets sinnes more will call our sinnes to mind so that the sinner turns to him as witnesses Esa 18. chap. 1. This conversion or condition not without which he commending specially to the people under the person of God saith Wash you be you clean â—ease to doe perversly and after that come and argue with me If your sinnes were as red as Skâ—rlet they shall be made as white as snow As if he should say You which require your sinnes to be pardoned by compact and promise go to if you will and call me to account Truly I deny not that I promised you to pardon your sinnes but it was no otherwise but you must first repent which if you prove together with a true and lively faith you overcome and then there shall be no delay in mee but your sinnes how many and how great soever they shall be put out of my memory with one blot Repentance therefore repentance I say is true confession that contrition I say of the spirit in faith which whosoever findeth in his heart this man our Bishop Christ Jesus by his death and bloud doth absolve from all his sinnes I say with that bloud True absolution which crieth to God in heaven for us Deut. 4. we read that Moses set apart Cities Bezer Ramoth and Golon to which one might flie if hee had killed his neighbour Spirituall homicide by chance by which most beautifull type we are taught so often as we kill our neighbour by our tongue thoughts hatred envie anger revenge and unmercifulnesse we are to run by flight of faith and repentance to the throne of Grace and Mercie which is the Merit and Crosse of Christ which being taken hold on we are in safe keeping nor with
what measure we measure to our neighbour with the same measure shall it be meted unto us For those three Cities should effectually represent Christ who is the sole merit as Bezer soundeth that by interpretation is a Tower of Defence according to the Proverb 18. The Name of the Lord is a most strong Tower Jesus Christ to that runneth the just and shall be exalted the same is true Ramoth which Christ our refuge voyce signifieth Exalted to whose Name every knee shall bow in heaven in earth or in hell Phil. 2. Neither is there for us another Golan besides him which according to the etymology of the name is nothing but a heap of thankesgiving or graces and gifts celestiall as a certain overflowing vessell Whereupon Psal 29. we read With the Lord there is mercy and with him is abundance of redemption And Rom. 10. The Lord is rich to all those that call upon him And thus much of the third part of the internall spirituall and true divine worship flowing from the knowledge of God which is likewise the fountain of repentance as this is of remission of sinnes which three indeed are one and set forth and declare the solid knowledge of God And God did shadow unto us this third part by the Priest which was to eat of the oblation of God which what other thing did it imply then the application of the merits of Christ by faith in the holy place wherein is signified repentance For the faith by the vertue and merit of Christ and his bloud doth make the man before the just God as if he had never been defiled with any sinne according to that of Ezekiel 18. If the wicked shall repent him of all his iniquities that he hath committed I will not remember them And after this manner the Law of Moses is changed into the spirit Moses Lawes holy things are chāged into spirit or life internall holy and another life and his sacrifices into repentance by which we offer our bodies and souls a living sacrifice and give thanks unto him because hee hath manifested unto us what is the true conversion acceptable unto him which is the justification and remission of sinnes that God alone be all things his grace as it is meet should be acknowledged and with gratefull minds and tongues be praised for ever and ever This then as we have often said heretofore is the true divine worship of which Mich. chap. 6. speaketh I will shew thee O man what the Lord requireth of thee that thou execute judgement and love mercy and walk carefully before the Lord thy God Because therefore O mortals doe we repent to get remission of sinnes seeing but by this alone we cannot come to remission of sinnes for neither can those sins bee remitted whose sense and griefe the mind never yet found by grace divine and consequently never to grieve for them nor hee which never had it in his mind to change The true worship of God consisteth in the heart is not external his life and mend his manners Which true and safe-making conversion that God for his Christs sake would bestow it upon us I humbly pray whose favour also it is that now it appeareth that his true worship consisteth in the soule and mind in the knowledge of God in true repentance by which the flesh is mortified and the man renewed after the image of God whereby he is made the Temple of God wherein by the holy Ghost the true and divine worship of the holy Trinity is exercised I say Faith Love and Hope Humility Patience Prayer giving of thankes and praises to God And although this worship respecteth God himselfe and is performed to him alone let us not think or beleeve Why called the worship of God that God for his own cause and because it joyneth with his profit that he inviteth us unto him but rather let us be so assured that he is willing through his boundlesse mercy to bestow and communicate all himselfe to us with all his benefits and to live work and dwell in us if so be we be ready through his true Knowledge Faith and Repentance to receive him For no work is gracious and acceptable to God of which hee was not the authour of in us What kind of works are pleasing to God therefore he commandeth us to repent to beleeve to pray to fast not as to him but that the fruit thereof might be ours No man can give or take any thing from God nor hurt nor profit him for we sow and we mow to our selves if we be good but we create evill to our selves if we be evill And what dammage hath God if thou wilt not doe well therefore he commandeth thee to serve him not for his owne cause but for thine who seeing he is Charity it selfe therefore amongst things acceptable and deare and so fit accounteth it that there be many be who participate of his charity yea of himselfe that is to wit as a mother loveth her Infant cannot but rejoyce that it sucketh her milk from her so God is to be thought of out of his most loving communicating of himself after his manner to receive singular delight CHAP. XXII As we know a tree by the fruit so a true Christian by no other token is known then by love and amendment of life daily Psalm 92. The just man flourisheth as a Palm Tree as a Cedar of Lebanon he shall multiply being planted in the House of the Lord They shall flourish in the entrance of the House of God they shall flourish Moreover they shall be multiplied in a fruitfull old age and they shall be very patient that they may shew it forth because just is our Lord God and there is no iniquity in him IT is not the name but the life of a Christian that maketh a true Christian whose daily and onely study ought to be that in him Christ might be manifested and be made conspicuous by love humility and humanity In whom therefore Christ liveth not it followeth that this man cannot be a Christian Furthermore it behoveth this life to be from the bottome of the heart and spirit even as the Apple is derived and commeth from the naturall branch of the Tree faculties and vegetable power yea it is necessary that our life be informed by the Spirit of Christ and fashioned after his life according to that of Paul Rom. 8. Those which are carried by the Spirit of God those are the sonnes of God But if any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his or belongeth not to him to wit every life cometh of the Spirit which even as the All life is from the Spirit inward man moveth driveth and is carried so in like manner the outward man fareth or is carried whereby it is manifested how much it availeth to a Christian life to have the grace of the Holy Ghost which therefore Christ did command us to seek
nor esteemeth any thing so sweet He that loveth God serveth him from his heart he that loveth not God he serveth not him although he heap mountains upon mountains So then nothing can befall a man better or more profitable then that the love of God should wax warm in his heart Whatsoever faith worketh in man and all things ought to be done in faith Faith in charity should doe all things in man ought to be done in charity no otherwise then the soule through the body seeeth heareth tasteth smelleth speaketh and doth all things I say after that manner should charity doe all things in thee that All things ought to be done in charity towards our neighbour whether thou eat or drink hear or speak praise or dispraise all things should be done in charity after the example of Christ in whom most pure love wrought all things Wherefore if thou dost look upon thy neighbour let sincere charity fix thine eyes upon him if thou hearest him let charity erect thine eares if thou speakest unto him let most loving commiseration governe thy tongue Lastly have a care and study this one thing that charity through faith may be the root and beginning and cleave unto thee alwayes which can beget in thee nothing but what is good and wherewith thou beginnest the law of God whose love also is the fulfilling of the law or the true abridgement thereof Which majesty of the divine love all the old Saints of God with admiration exclaime O Charity The praise of Charity of God in the holy Ghost the sweetnesse of the soul and the divine life of man he who hath not thee is dead though alive he that hath thee never dieth before God where thou art not there the life of men is continuall death where thou art there the life of man is a fore-tast of the eternall life And thus much of Charity so farre as it is the end of the Law Let us God is mans soveraigne good come now to the other attribute the purity of the heart which consisteth in this That the mind being void of worldly love doth rest upon God as his chiefest good according to Psalm 16. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup thou art he that dost restore my inheritance to me Psal 37. The Lord knoweth the dayes of the unspotted and their inheritance shall be for ever And therefore the mind of man ought to take his chiefest delight and pleasure in God alone because he is the chiefest good and consequently good it selfe and vertue it selfe verily meer favour grace love lowlinesse patience faith truth consolation peace joy life and happinesse all which he bestowed upon Christ also so that he Why vertue is to be loved which hath him hath all things Wherefore he that loveth God ought to love also his truth mercies goodnesse and all vertues For the true lover of God loveth all things that are acceptable to God and contrariwise abhorreth and hateth all things that be against God Therefore justice is to be beloved truth mercy because God is all these meeknesse humility by reason of the example of our most humble and meek Saviour Contrariwise a true lover of God hates every vice as the adversary and enemy of God and the work of Why vice is to be hated the Devill therefore he hateth a lie because the Devill is a lier and consequently other sinnes because they are part of the Devill And whosoever loveth sinne as a lie and injustice this is a sonne of the Devill as it is in John 8. Even as he that loveth Christ our Redeemer and Saviour he also loveth the example of his most innocent life I say his meeknesse humility and patience he is the sonne of God But thou must remember that thou pray to God for this purity of love who certainly willingly and freely through the love of Christ doth kindle it in thee if so thou incessantly with daily prayers cease not to importune him and offer up thy heart unto him every houre and moment But if thy charity be could and weak so that sometimes thou faile and fall goe to rise again and goe to work and renew thy Charity be sure the eternall light of the divine love is not extinguished God our most gentle Saviour will enlighten thee again which albeit it be so yet thou shouldest The charity of God and our neighbour cannot be severed pray unto God daily lest at any time hereafter he suffer the most bright fire of divine love to be extinguished And thus much of the Charity from the heart purged from the love of the world and the creatures Let us see now the charity of our neighbour out of a pure conscience The charity of God and our neigbour is one and they cannot be severed neither is the love of God more manifest in any thing then by and in the love of our neighbour If any man say that he loveth God and hateth his neighbour he is a lier For hee that loveth not his brother whom he seeth how can he love God whom he seeth not And this is the commandement we have received from God That he that loveth God should love his brother also 1 John 4. For the love of God cannot dwell in the heart of a man-hater or hostile revengefull man Whereupon if thou hast no pitie on thy brother and knowest that he hath need of thy help how canst thou love God that hath no need of thy help As by faith we are united to God so by charity wee are to our neighbour joyned 1 John 4. He that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him As a man consisteth of body and soule so faith and charity of God and our neighbour doth make a true Christian And seeing that God is well affected towards all men who is so indeed it followeth that he is of one mind with God and so consents It is the property of Charity to bewaile a sinner to him he that doth contrary is adversary to God because he is an enemy to mankind Furthermore it is the property of this charity to bewaile humane errors because they represent as in a glasse our own proper defects and bring to our memory the most infirm condition of our humanity whereupon it followeth that we are to bear the infirmity of our neighbour with patience humility and meeknesse Truly such as sin through want of strength We are to bear with the weak more then of purpose and whereof they soon recollect themselves doe rebuke and punish themselves and doe of themselves acknowledge their sinne these truly are to be pitied and condoled and doe deserve pardon He that denieth this surely hath not the spirit of Christ For to punish the fallings and infirmities of our neighbour rashly and with severe judgement without mercy or commiseration onely is proper to him that is without the most mercifull law of God the Father Sonne
and holy Ghost and without God himselfe Contrariwise a true Christian and he which is anointed with the spirit of Christ doth beare with all men in condoling commiserating and loving him after the example of Christ And this is the Touch-stone whereby every one is to be tried whether Where charity is not there God is not he be of God or not But if he find he hath no love of his neighbour in him let him assuredly perswade himselfe he hath not the charity of God in him rather let him feare God himselfe hath forsaken him wherewith he ought to be afraid and be sory from his heart and seek to return into his neighbours favour Which being done God through his love will marry himselfe unto him and whatsoever thereafter he shall doe in faith and charity is and will be accounted for good holy and divine Moreover by reason of the inherent love of God of his free will he embraceth all with his mercy and love neither is any thing more acceptable then to doe good or as Jeremy speaketh He rejoyceth in them he will doe good unto them Without charity in man all things are altogether evil and Devillish neither is there Why all things that the devill doth are evill other cause why the Devil can do no good but because he is destitute of the love of God and his neighbour and thereupon what he doth is altogether evill neither doth his workes and counsels whatsoever tend to other end then the reproach of God and damage of mankind and that he may satisfie his malicious mind and rancor against God and man For which cause he useth such cruell and vengeable mindes to execute and bring to passe the counsels and contrivement of his wrath envy And this is the mark of the sonnes of Satan whereby they are discerned from the sonnes of God Charity proceedeth from faith not fained which cleaveth and adhereth to God equally in prosperity and adversity Whosoever loveth a man heartily he cannot be ungratefull because what God He that loveth God all his works he loveth all his punishments hath appointed against him he doth after the example of Christ who with a cheerfull mind tooke up his Crosse which he knew to be put upon him by his Fathers will whereupon Luke saith chap. 12. I have a baptisme to be baptized with and how grieved am I untill it be finished which all the Martyrs of the Church did imitate bearing his Crosse with joy And for a truth whosoever loveth God heartily he cannot but beare his Crosse easily which he knoweth to be the yoak of Christ And if a Load-stone can lift up a weight of Iron and draw it unto it selfe what cannot that celestiall Load-stone of love divine do Shal not it take up the worst weight of our Crosse and mitigate the feeling of it Also why doth Sugar rather correct the bitternesse of the hearb and medicine then the sweetnesse of love take away the ungratefull and inhumane savour of our crosse whose force is such as the holy Martyrs had no other where that strength of their incredible and cheerfull constancy but they did draw it out of this fountain of Love wherewith being most sweetly intoxicated they did not feele the paines of their torments CHAP. XXV Of love to our Neighbour in speciall 2 Peter 2. Of whom any man is overcome he is that mans servant AMongst all kinds of servitude none is The servitude of the affections is most heavie more hard and sharp then to be under the subjection of affections neither of these is any more cruell then hostility or inhumanity because that wearieth and bindeth all the powers and strength of the body and soul and so leaveth to a man not the least thought free but he that exerciseth or remaineth in charity he is free in his minde neither is he the servant or captive to wrath envie covetousnesse usury pride lying and slander from all which being free by charity he suffereth not himselfe to be brought into slavery by his evill concupiscences but remaineth a freeman of Christ through the spirit of liberty 2 Cor. 3. For where the spirit is there is liberty whosoever therefore walketh in the charity of Christ he ceaseth to be the slave of sinne and servant to affections and carnall lusts For by the spirit of divine charity we are purged and set free And The universality of divine Charity charity divine is equally reached and extended to all men so that not onely out of the word of God but by nature universall also it is made known for we are all equally and alike covered with the heavens and we have the use of the Sunne Aire Earth Water both high and low degree alike Moreover with what mind God Almighty is towards all mankind so ought our mind to be affected towards our neighbour seeing what things even now we shewed thou dost not say it happened for that cause God would have it so but that by his example he might teach us and make it manifest that he loveth all with like equall affection and that it is without reâ—pect of persons and prerogative of dignity or merit in Christ to love every one alike so that as hee sheweth himselfe towards us such ught we to be and to carry our selves toowards our neighbour whom after the same manner as wee shall deal with God will deale with us Which Law God writ in our hearts that evidently he might convince and teach us with what mind he was affected to us lest we should be mistaken and overtaken unawares we ought to carry the same mind towards our neighbour every one of us Wherefore he that would know what respect hee is in with God it is sufficient to ask his conscience for that thing will tell him presently as his mind is towards his neighbour whereby he The triall of divine love may gather how God is affected towards him For like as we have done to our neighbour so it is meet God should doe to us And in this sense the great God is good to the good and averse to the averse neither doth hee deserve to have God his friend that is an enemy to his neighbour Now seeing that God hath no need of our works as our neighbour hath it appeareth by this counsell that the charity towards our neighbour gives us in charge that it should be as a Load-stone a most certain argument of our charity towards God For if these things were otherwise he would not have directed these things to our neighbor so exactly as to a certain sope nor bound us to this as a law but that we might know his affection to us thereby and we should approve the same mind every houre and moment to our neighbour Wherefore though Christ Jesus by his death once sufficiently made satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world and all men therein for which all men are to give thanks no man can warrant him who
this man it is manifest doth not know God who is nothing but Charity or Love For the knowledge of God and Christ is known by experience and feeling and seeing that Christ is meer love and meeknesse it followeth that he that is without charity is without Christ according to that of By charity God is known Saint Peter Epist 2. chap. 1. If you had charity this would not leave you empty nor without fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ And Christ himselfe John 13. In this all men may know if you be my Disciples What a disciple of Christ should doe if you love one another But to be the Disciple of Christ is not sufficient to be a Christian in name and outward profession but it behoveth us to be more to beleeve in Christ to love him and follow him to live in him to counsell with him to listen to him to be inwardly loved of him and lastly to participate with him in all his goodnesse Which love of Christ who so hath not this man is not of Christ for how should Christ know him which is destitute of Christ For even as an Apple by his savour and a Flower by his smell is knowne so a Christian is known by his love Bouldly and without doubt blessed Paul affirmeth it 1 Corinth 13. All gifts without Charity is nothing And in truth the knowledge of divers Tongues nor Miracles nor knowledge of Mysteries or any such like good things doe shew a good Christian but faith which God requireth no hard thing worketh by charity Moreover God commandeth not hard things unto us as to work miracles but to exercise charity and humility neither in the day of judgmeÌ„t shal it be demanded of thee how thou hast been verst in the Arts Tongues Sciences but whether thou hast loved charity through faith I have been hungry saith our Saviour Matth. 25. and thou gavest mee to eate And blessed Paul to the Galatians chap. 5. witnesseth In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Charity Furthermore the words of Saint John Epist 1. Chap. 4. If any man say he loveth God and hateth his brother he is a lier For he that doth not love his brother whom hee seeth how can hee love God whom hee hath not seen And this commandement have we of God He that loveth God should also love his brother And this one thing they teach That the charity and love towards God cannot consist without the He must love his neighbour that wil love God love and charity towards our neighbour For he that hateth him cannot but hate God that is the chiefe lover of man Charity is the Law of Nature from which doe flow all good things to mankind and without it mankind would perish Al good is out of charity of necessity When any good thing happeneth to man it proceedeth from Love whereupon Saint Paul calleth charity the Bond of perfection to the Colossians chap. 3. and Rom. 12. doth declare in excellent words and magnificent oration the fruits thereof And our Saviour himselfe The whole law depends on charity Matthew 7. doth teach All things that you would that men should doe unto you doe you the same unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets I passe by that of the Ethnickes whose famous Adage or Sentence is out of the Law of Nature and taken from their Schoole That which you would not should be done to you doe not the same unto another Which most excellent admonition the Emperour Severus a Prince most praise-worthy daily had in his mouth and inserted it in his written lawes Charity is a Charity is the hope of eternall life certain figure of eternall life and a foretast or sweet drink of it wherein the elect doe mutually love each other sincerely do receive singular delight one from another and doe converse together in a wonderfull and ineffable concord sweetnesse affection cheerfulnesse and mildnesse and courtesie one with another Who so therefore doth desire as it were a certain fore supper of the eternall beatitude let him study Love wherewith he may Affinity with God by charity be delighted with singular pleasure and affection in the inward of his soul For how much purer more fervent and fruitful your charity is so much the neerer it approcheth to the divine nature when in God in Christ and the holy Ghost the charity is most pure most rare most fervent and noble Therefore that love will be pure when we love not for private profit but onely for the cause of God alone whom we may know in like manner he loved us and took in us delight most purely and for no good of his own Which he that doth not so but loveth his neighbour for his own profit his love is not pure and divine wherein The difference betwixt Ethnick and ChristiaÌ„ charity also consisteth the difference betweene Ethnick and Christian charity for they do all their vertues in seeking after their own private gain and honour do as it were cast ink upon Ivory but the Christian he loveth his neighbour in God and Christ gratis And the love is true and unfained when theâ—e is no hypocrisie nor dissimulation and love is born in the heart not in the lips and tongue wherewith many are deceived Lastly charity is ardent when it is accompanied with mercy and compassion and when the affairs of our neighbour goe as near to our heart as our own so that we should be ready to lay down our life if need It is the Christians property to love their enemies were for him John 3. after the example of Moses and Paul who wished to be accursed for their brethren Wherupon that also followeth that we ought even to love our enemies Matth. 5. Love your enemies do good unto those that hate you and pray for them that persecute you revile you that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for if you love them which love you what reward have you or shall you have Doe not the publicans the same In this therefore conâ—isteth the excellency prerogative nobility and dignity of Christians to subject nature unto it selfe to tame his flesh and bloud and to overcome the world with the evill that is therein with goodnesse to the Romanâ— chap. 12. It is the commandement of God in Exod. 23. If thou meetest with thine enemies Oxe or Asse going astray bring him home If thou seest the Asse of him that hateth thee falling under his burden thou shalt not passe by him but thou shalt succour him What care hath God about dumb creatures blessed Paul 1 Cor. 9. admiring writeth Hath God care of Oxen And doth hee not speak this concerning us much more And Rom. 12. he elegantly giveth in charge If thine enemy hunger give him meat Wherefore lest wee think it not sufficieÌ„t not to hurt our neighbour but moreover we
What extream impiety out of his great and meer favour did he pardon his enemies crying Father pardon them Truly to this end our Redeemer set his example before our eyes that it might The example of Christ our Panacea be an ever-living mark set before us in our whole life by which whatsoever was proud or lofty in us might be depressed and abated what was weak should be comforted what was unprofitable should bee made good lastly whatsoever was wicked or depraved should be corrected Or at the last what pride of man is so cruell and intolerable that cannot be made whole with the extream humility of the Sonne of God Or what covetousnesse is so great that cannot be sanctified with the poverty of Christ What wrath so vehement that his meeknesse cannot mollifie What desire of revenge so barbarous that his patience cannot asswage and reconcile What inhumanity so great which Christ with his charity and benefits so great and so many doe not expell Lastly what heart so hard that is not mollified with the teares of Christ Or who would not wish from the bottome of his heart to be like God the Father and his Sonne and the holy Ghost and to carry the excellent image of the holy The Image of God Trinity which chiefly consisteth in charity and pardoning injuries For it is the principall of all divine properties to have mercy to spare to pardon to be propitious The highest degree of vertue wherupon it can no way be doubted but that that is the most noble of all vertues by which we become most like unto God and all vertuous men most eminent in praise Last of all the highest degree of a vertuous man is to overcome himselfe and consequently to forget pardon and exercise clemency He is stronger that overcommeth himselfe then hee that overcommeth strong Walls and Vertue can goe no higher whose double Kinsman is that in the Proverbs Chap. 16. A patient man is better then a strong man and hee that ruleth over his own minde then one that overcommeth Cities And this as I said is the top and stem beyond which no man can goe because then he is in God resteth is sanctified and made perfect CHAP. XXVIII How and wherefore the love of the creator of all creatures should bee preferred in love Also wherefore our Neighbour is to be loved in God 1 John 2. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him IN the heart of man such is his nature and that property indued of God that it cannot cease to love and therefore one man loveth God and another the world another himselfe Whereby appeareth the necessity of love this most noble of all affections Charity is the most noble of all the affections therefore only due to God implanted by God and kindled by the holy Ghost is to be bestowed in the study of the chiefest good and given unto God by seeking daily of him that he would vouchsafe to kindle the divine love more and more For he loved us first which if it meet with love again the same doth more and more ardently imbrace us according to that of Saint John 14. He that loveth me is loved of my Father Now in whomsoever the love of God is hee ought to love and wish well unto all men which is the property of the love in God and consequently circumvent no man nor to Nothing bette then the love of God hurt any man in word or deed but for the most part all men are so fascinated with the love of the world that they never admit the love of God into their heart that which they doe openly in their hypocriticall love towards their neighbour covetous of their own gain or advantage not of him nor his But it were more meet so to love the world and whatsoever is in the world that no injury be done to the divine love nor the way or means thereof impeached especially seeing there is so great vanity and vilenesse of the world and The creatures unworthy of our love of God so great eminency majesty as no comparison can be betwixt them for even as God doth infinitely excell all his creatures so doth the love of him in holinesse nobility and dignity goe before all the love we have to any creature and leaveth it behind by a most exceeding distance not to bee computed by humane reason therefore no creature is worthy to be compared to divine love The words of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 9. Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Let us make something like to this and say Who is more worthy of our love then he that put it in our hearts and to whose love we owe our life And we all live by the love of God in Christ whose way of love is shewed unto us throughout all our life what condition soever we be of Even as Mariners when a storm commeth do cast anchor so wee so often as this great sea of the world doth tosse and shake the little ship of our heart hither and thither with the Floods and waves of sinne as wrath pride impatience covetousnesse and lust of the flesh we should remember to strengthen our selves by the Anchor of Divine love and love of Christ being ready rather to suffer the losse of all things then our selves The love of God cannot be taken away from us to be pull'd from him of which mind we ought to be so often as we fall into spirituall temptation and be tossed by sin death Devill hell and miseries no otherwise then when we are tossed by cruell raging floods and waves For the love of God is that hill which was shewed to Lot that he might flie unto it and eschew the fire of Sodom For what other thing is this world then spirituall Sodom Also what is the burning of it but the burnings and flames of worldly concupiscences which must needs burn those that doe not endeavour to keep in memory the divine love or willingly to depart with it I say of that love or divine fear which preserveth a man from the world as Joseph was preserved from the wife of Potiphar For no man can love the world but he that never tasted the divine Love no man can hate his neigbour but he that doth not love God from his heart For the sweetnesse and delight of divine love is so great that it mitigateth the sense of all miseries and death it selfe Such is the nature and instinct of Love as all cogitations omitted it is fixed upon that onely thing which it loveth and forgetteth and contemneth all other things by reason of the incredible desire by which The nature of divine love it is carried towards that which it loveth Therefore can you shew any cause O mortals which say you love God that for all things for which others are wont to contend you blot all out of your minds w th one
should shadow mine own honour under them and expect any thing besides the honour of God and the good of my neighbour therefore all are abomination accursed before Almighty God according to that of Matth. 7. Many Why God respecteth not the gifts shall say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and cast out Devils in thy Name and have done many miracles in thy Name And then I shall say unto them Because I know you not depart from me The alms of the ambitious is damnable you workers of iniquity and you have not respected me sincerely but your selves Of the like mind is Saint Paul If I should give all that I have unto the poore and have not charity it profiteth mee nothing Even that love which exerciseth or sheweth liberality for Gods cause alone and not for his own praise or profits sake Such as was the righteousnesse of the Pharisees who offered many sacrifices and drew on others that they might adorn their Temples with their gifts and offer costly offerings the slaverie of which ambition drew them to forget the offerings of the poore whose gifts ought rather to bee preferred out of pitie alone Which preposterous charity in them Christ upbraideth Matth. 23. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because under long prayers you devoure widowes houses In which perverse religion there be now followers which bequeath large legacies to Temples and Monasteries that their Clerks and Monkes may make long prayers for them which truly is false love seeking themselves and if you scan it well not respecting divine honour but themselves But we who know to live justly by faith let us rather be penitent aâ—d offer our selves to God by mortifying and crucifying our flesh then all our works of charity not out of selfe-love nor for the cause of praise or profit whatsoever but let us doe it for the love and sincere love of God being sure if we doe it otherwise they will not profit us a haire Therefore although thou give thy body to be burned and want love which is due to God alone and his praises and honour thou doest nothing saith Saint Paul Neither doe they profit any more which whip and burn their bodies by humbling and afflicting their souls as speaketh Isai 58. because indeed they are conceited in their singular sanctity and affect their own proper praises and their presumptuous religion in their private judgement doe not respect God but applause popular praise and estimation whereby many of them are so blinded God suffering them the work of error 2 Thess 2. that they make no doubt to suffer themselves to be burned for the defence of their False Martyrs conceived heresie and if God be pleased to become Martyrs of Christ when yet they doe not serve Christ but themselves neither doth the punishment but the cause make a Martyr Such Martyrs as these the Devill even amongst the Ethnickes hath many were so blinded in their understanding they were contented to die for their Altars and Idols And the same is done this day amongst Christians under the shew of the Christian faith seeing the Ethnicks themselves to gain an immortall name to perswade themselves they doe well in so doing To whom for self-love and glory or praise there were like unto them certain Monks devout persons in our age which are called Catholicks which for the cause of propagating Religion will perswade Princes and Monarchs that they are to doe the like unto them even die for the Catholicks cause Whose madnesse is so much the more manifest being they beleeve that they suffer for Christs cause and they become his Martrys when contrariwise they become the Martyrs of Roman Bishops and of their private renown and praise And thus much of coated or cloak charity powerfully seduced and carried on by a false light It remaineth therefore without the sincere love of God and our neighbour and a holy and Christian life all Arts Sciences Faculties profit nothing wisdome how great soever and if it be as great or greater then that which was in Solomon is nothing the knowledge of the whole Scripture and universall Theology is nothing lastly all works whatsoever and Martyrdome it selfe if you will so call it yea to know the will of God and his word and to live after the prescript rule thereof that onely augmenteth the guilt of eternall damnation according to that of Saint John 15. If I had not come and spoken unto them they had had no sin but now they have no excuse for their sin CHAP. XXXVI Of those that live not in Christ but have their heart fixed to the world although they possesse the outward letter of the Word and do not tast the inward force of it and the hidden Manna Apocalypse 1. To him that overcometh I will give the hidden Manna I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it BY this Sentence it appeareth wee are taught that no man doth taste the inward sweetnesse of the heavenly joy and solace hidden in the word of God which doth not overcome his own flesh and the Who be apt to tast heavenly sweetnesse world with all the pomps and concupiscences thereof and lastly the Devil himselfe that is to say they who crucifie their own flesh daily by their serious contrition and repentance with all the desires and concupiscence thereof who die to themselves and the world daily lastly to whom this life is a meer crosse I say these are divinely fed with heavenly Manna and drink the Nectar of Paradise Contrariwise those that follow none but worldly pleasure it is unprofitable for those to taste the hidden Contraries ioy not together Manna For like things are delighted in their like and seeing that the word of God is spirituall it is no marvell if worldly minds be not delighted therewith For even as the soul receiveth no strength of the food which the stomack hath not concocted so the soule of the divine Word or Manna receiveth no strength unlesse it bee converted into it selfe that is into life Yea as a man sick of a Fever distasteth all things and are bitter unto him so those that are sick of the worldly Ague that is of the love of the world covetousnesse pride and lust these I say doe loath the word of God and distast it as bitter Contrariwise With whom the word of God hath no savour those that have the Spirit of God these doe find in it the hidden Manna never to be tasted by them that are carried away with the world which is the cause that many by the daily hearing of the Gospel doe feele little desire and spirituall joy because they are not carried by the Spirit of God nor have any heavenly but earthly minds But he that will fully and soundly understand the word of God and eate Manna it behoveth him to study to
let us suppose some Usurer for many yeares hath been a servant to covetousnesse without amendment sins are not forgiven after the example of Zacheus or to lust as Mary Magdalen or lastly to wrath and revenge as Esau and this man so soon as he heard these offences were to be left or else the death and bloud of Christ would profit him nothing hee becommeth a suppliant to God and to him as old men did speak to give satisfaction in words and then to desist from his sinnes to crave pardon and grace of God and to beleeve in Christ then it is most certain that all his first offences are remitted him out of meere grace and no merit but for the death and bloud of Christ shed for them But these that have not determined as yet to detest covetousnesse wrath usury pride and lust they because they want faith purging their hearts may hope in vain for the remission of their sins but lament for them in eternall torments never to bee satisfied Whereupon blessed Paul doth earnestly admonish Galat. 5. Because they doe such things they shall not inherit or possesse the Kingdome of heaven Therefore either eternal damnation followeth or amendment of their lives to a better which where it is done by faith and true conversion unto God there is pardon and divine grace ready at hand yea Christ himselfe without whom there is no grace For Christ doth accompany his most pretious All thingâ— necessary to salvation do accompany faith taking hold of Christs merits merit and consequently satisfaction for our sinnes which being present there is righteousnesse with righteousnesse peace and a good conscience as Psalm 85. Righteousnesse and peace doe kisse each other with a cheerfull conscience the holy Ghost which because it is the spirit of joy thereupon also joy followeth and thereupon life eternal which is nothing but joy sempiternal And this is that light of eternal life w th which they are crowned so many as live in Christ and daily repentance whose beginning and foundation is the death of Christ On the contrary where there is no repentance there is grace wanting and grace wanting neither is Christ there present who being absent his merit is not participated and that which dependeth upon Impenitency hindereth the whole kingdom of God eternall salvatioÌ„ it the remission of sinnes Where that is not to be had or to be found there is no righteousnesse and consequently no peace or good conscience no consolation no holy Ghost no joy of heart and conscience lastly no life eternal but death but hell but condemnation and everlasting darknesse Whereby that is manifest wee affirmed in the beginning That those who by true repentance in Christ doe not intend to follow him in his life cannot bee freed from the blindnes of their hearts nor themselves freed from the eternall darknesse CHAP. XXXVIII That the Antichristian life is the cause of false doctrine hardnesse of heart and blindnesse where certain things are ingraffed in predestination John 12. Yet there is a little light in you walk while you have the light lest darknesse comprehend you SEing it is certain that Christ together with faith and a Christian life is denied renounced and wholly extirpated to what end serveth his doctrine to us which together with the Sacraments to that end is The end of the Word Sacraments given us onely that it may bee turned into juyce bloud and our life And as from noble seed doth arise or grow noble fruit so from the Word and Sacraments should arise a new man holy and spiritual and to speak in a word a Christian out of the Spirit Word and Sacrament no otherwise then a man regenerate out of Christ so beleeving in him and living in him For as an infant is born of his mother so a Christian is born of God and Christ by faith But when wee have not determined to change our life nay rather have so framed our manners as they are against him it is plain we are not begotten of God and therefore his doctrine and light doth profit us nothing when we are sure wee walke in darknesse Whereupon also the light being fled and taken away it must needs bee that darknesse and false doctrine of errors and seducing do incroach upon us Which to beware of our Saviour did admonish us saying Little children whilst yee have light walk in it lest darknesse doe comprehend you I say the darknesse of errors deceivers deluding of blindnesse and hardnesse of heart such darknesse as deceived Pharaoh the Jewes and Julian who in the end convicted by his own conscience in his own evill exclaimed openly and confessed that Christ did yet live and the true God saying Thou hast overcome O Galilean thou hast overcome when it had been better for him to have said Have mercy upon me but he could not so say because of his blindnes From whence hardnesse of heart and because hee refused and denied the mercy of Christ And this hardnesse of heart is that terrible darknesse which in the end overtaketh those that will not walk in the light and is the punishment of those that blaspheme the truth as Pharaoh did Exod. 5. Who is the Lord that I should heare Blindnes is a punishment his voyce and let Israel goe I know not the the Lord. Therefore it was convenient that God should manifest himselfe to him by his power making him an example before the whole world that it might bee manifest that man can do nothing against God In like manner when the Jews would not hearken unto God they were strucken with blindnesse and hardnesse of heart that which Moses had fore-told them would come to passe Deut. 28. 32. The Lord shall strike thee with madnesse and blindnesse and the fury of the mind and it came to passe witnesse Esay chap. 6. Whereby it is manifest that such â—lindnesse is the most just punishment of incredulity and contempt of God and heavenly truth according to that of Paul 2 Thess 2. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might bee saved therefore God shall send unto them or give them over to be deceived by the spirit of errour to beleeve lies that all may be judged that beleeved not the truth but consented to iniquity By which it is given us to understand why God is wont to permit such blindnesse and hardnesse of heart Moreover to whom he denieth and lastly taketh away his offered From whom God withdraweth his favour grace this man is wretched of himselfe neither can return into the way at any time after the example of Pharaoh and Julian and from whom the Lord taketh away his light hee liveth all his dayes in darknesse But Almighty God taketh it onely from those that will not walk in it neither taketh hee his favour away but from those that have refused it In which sense blessed Paul Rom. 9. recounteth that oracle of God out of
contempt persecution contumely and reproach the crosse death martyrdome and punishment whereupon Moses preferred the contumely of Christ before the treasure of Aegypt which is true illumination XV. The true name of Christians written The name of Christians in heaven is the true knowledge of Christ in faith by which we are transplanted into Christ and written in him as in the book of life from whom do flow living virtues which God in that day will beautifie with an honorable testimonie Mat. 25. bringing forth all those treasures which we have layed up in heaven 1 Tim. 6. and bringing to light every work which is wrought in God Joh. 3. None of the Saints hath made himselfe famous by any vertue which will be forgotten Psal 112. And this vertue of his as faith charity mercy patience and the like are that name written in heaven and the note and character of the Saints and the eternall names of heaven Of which more in the second Book CHAP. XLI In which is repeated the summe of the whole Book That the whole Christian Religion doth consist in the restauration of the divine Image in Man and extirpation of the Image of Satan 2 Corinth 3. We all beholding with a revealed face the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same Image from glory to glory as it were by the Spirit of the Lord. IN the true knowledge of Christ and of his person offices benefits and heavenly gifts doth consist the blessed life which the H. Ghost doth enlighten in us as a certain new light which in it selfe becometh more and more cleare as a certain metalline body Wherin consists eternall life or a glasse by making it cleane becommeth more neat and clearer or as an infant daily augmented in stature and growth For even as righteousnesse is given to a man by faith in Christ and then hee beginneth his conversion or regeneration or to bee begotten in his conversion and daily to be renewed after the Image of God neither is he by and by a man but is an infant whom afterwards the holy Ghost doth nourish and from day to day doth more and more conform him to Jesus Christ For the whole life of a Christian man upon this earth What Christianity is ought to be nothing else then a reformation of the image of God so that hee might live continually in the new birth and on the contrary mortifie the old man daily Which manner of life is onely begun in this world and perfected in the world to come Therefore he that before the day of the last judgement and so of his death hath not made his beginning in this man the Image of God shal never be erected to all eternity Wherefore I hold it very needfull forthwith to inculcate and inform what is the Image of God and also what the Image of Satan is seeing that in the knowledge of these the whole Christian religion consisteth and from this one head many other doctrines of originall sin of freewill and so of repentance of faith of justification of prayer of regeneration renovation sanctification and of the new life and obedience come to be explained Therefore the soul of man is an immortall spirit indued by God with excellent powers and faculties as understanding will memory and other motions and affections of the mind And this ought to be turned to God in him to be made the image of God so The soul of man is the glass of God that as the object in a glasse so in it God may be manifested and made conspicuous In which sense Saint Paul speaketh 1 Cor. 3. That the glory of God in the image of God renewed doth shine as in a glasse Moreover as God is good and holy himself so the substance and essence of the soule in the beginning The conformity of our soule with God in the state of inâ—ocency was originally good and holy And as in God there was no evill so the soul of man was without all evill from the beginning as in God nothing is but good Deut. 32. Psal 92. so in the soule there was nothing that was not good as God is all-knowing and wise the humane soule was full of divine knowledge and spiritualls celestiall and eternal wisdome as the divine wisdome disposed all things in number weight and measure and knew the strength of all creatures as wel celestial as terrestrial so the mind of man was enlightned by the same light Neither was the will inferiour to the understanding as equally holy and conformable to the divine wil in all things Therefore as God was so the soule of man was just benigne merciful long suffering patient meek courteous true and chast Which conformity of the humane wil with the divine all the affections appetites desires motions of the heart did participate emulating or following most perfectly the motions and affections of the divine wil even as God is charity so the affections of the man did breathe nothing but meer charity and as God Father Sonne and holy Ghost are joyned together and conspire in ineffable and eternal love so all the affections motions and desires of the humane soule by a meer most pure most perfect and most ardent love from the bottome of the heart did grow warm and Thâ— body of man is the temple of God prosper together so that the man loved God and his honour more dearly then himselfe Moreover even as in the soule so also in the body the image of God did shine most gloriously which therefore in all the faculties thereof was holy chast subject to no filthy concupiscences or motions beautiful comely of perfect health immortal and was without molestation tediousnesse passion griefe vexation and old age In brief the whole man both in mind and body was perfect holy just and acceptable to God every way For as the man was the image of God it followeth necessarily that the body it self be holy and conformable to God according to blessed Paul who commanded to sanctifie the body soule and spirit together For seeing that the man consisteth of soule and body and therefore bodily and spiritual functions going together it is necessary that a soule holy and just accomplishing its workes through the body and in the body should have an observant instrument and equally holy as it selfe Therefore as the soule did burn or was zealous in the most pure love of God so all the faculties of the body did imitate the same gesture in the love of God and his neighbour As the soule was all mercifull so the body with all the powers thereof did incline to clemency As in the divine soul chastity did shine so all the body with all internall and externall senses and powers did use perfect purity and chastity In brief the perfections of virtues were conspicuous no lesse in the body then in the mind or soul Wherefore it was easie What heart signifieth in Scripture for a man in the
created that being enlightned with spirituall light by the inward eyes of the soul he might contemplate the presence of God and his most sincere love towards him might live with Man was born to a spirituall life him and depend on his beck and call throughout all his life And of this spirituall light in the Kingdome of heaven the naturall man hath not the least spark and he must needs abide in this hereditary and in-bred blindnesse unlesse hee bee divinely Naturall blindnesse enlightned To which I would to God that naturall blindnesse did not adjoyn it selfe nor that the perversity of man were Man is nothing without Christ so great as to put out that small light of nature whereby morall vertues and externall honesty of life is governed There is great infirmity in the sons of God Which when it cometh to passe then truly all the soul is blind and cannot be set free from such great blindnesse unlesse it be enlightned by Christ regenerated by his spirit renewed after the Image of God and be made a new creature or to speak more truly in this fraile life it onely beginne to be For if every one of us that are in the new creature by the holy Ghost doe consider it will appeare in truth that the Image of God is lightly ingraven in us or rather shadowed onely faith hope charity and the feare of God these are onely in the beginning little humility but on the contrary diffidency pride and impatience much greater prayer weak and faint and cold and love to our neighbour as weak Moreover very small sparkes of spirirituall chastity on the contrary flames of carnall pleasures as also self-selfe-love the desire of private profit and honour and the heat of concupiscence will bee found in our hearts Whereupon it followeth that to Inward strife the last gasp of our life we are to fight and wrastle with old Adam and the image of the Devil by the spirit of God neither ought we to have a greater care and to lay it to heart then to pray mourn sigh to ask to seek and knock that the holy Ghost may be given us who as our Captain may daily abolish in us the image of the Devil and also renew us after the Image of God Whereby we are to understand that we are not to trust to our selves but to the divine grace and that is it which doth all things in us all things are to bee sought desired and intreated for of Christ by faith Divine knowledge and wisdome against our blindnesse the righteousnesse of Christ against all our sins Christ his sanctification against our impurity Christ his redemption virtue victory and fortitude against The use of this chapter Death Hell and the Devill pardon of all sins against the kingdom of sin Satan eternal blessednesse against all spirituall and corporall miseries and last of all in Christ alone to obtain life eternall Of which I shall say more in the second Book CHAP. XLII Wherein the reason of the order of the first Book is set down and therewith is taught that spiritual pride is to be eschewed and herewithal that no true and celestiall gifts can be obtained without prayer 1 Corinth 4. What hast thou that thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why dost thou boast as if thou hadst not received it BEfore I put an end to this Book I thought good to understand and foresee that the Reader be admonished of two â—hings rather two Chapters The first is that through all this book is by penitence with all his fruits as by renovation in Christ by mortification of the flesh deniall of our selves contempt of the world and exercise of charity so copiously and diveâ—sly described that was not without cause nor rashly done by me For first of all repentance is the beginning and foundation Repentance is the beginning of Christianity of Christianity of a holy life and our blessednesse through faith secondly true and solid consolation in the mind of man cannot be felt to effect by him that doth not not exactly understand the nature of originall sinne never to bee sufficiently deplored fruits and what kind of horrible pestilent deadly and diabolicall poyson and seed it is when we have studied what we can which unlesse it be done and a man before all things doe well know his owne miseries and so the terrible corruption of our originall sin in vain and of no account are all the books of spirituall and Evangelicall consolation whereby it is given to understand how preposterous and choyce our nature is and how it rejoyceth in flatteries because most men about this foundation and the fore-cited things of our sins of our in-bred corruption and inborn wickednesse wee onely please our selves Which way of reasoning the holy Scripture is just contrary whose saying is that a medicine is to bee prepared for the sick and not for the sound and healthy seeing that Christ is the true Physitian altogether unseasonable consolation of our souls yet the crown of his merit with all vulgar consolations is of no worth nor use where the knowledgement of the disease went not before so the whole Christian life is nothing else but a continuall A Christian life and daily crucifying and mortifying of the flesh Neither can any man this to be said again and again belong to Christ who composeth himselfe and his life otherwise but those that are so those are never Orphans and without sincere joy nor lastly without celestial comfort and consolation Seeing this which wee speak of our proper misery the knowledge of our corruption and infirmity by the holy Ghost and meditation of the holy Scripture and Gospel doth bring forth most true consolation of it selfe and the own nature bringeth us to Christ which seeing it is so to bee advised by mee Let no man of corrupt judgement deceive thee and perswade thee that these bookes are of little regard Perswade thy self these are a blind Foolish iudgement of this book kind of men and that with the most ignorant of men they take knowledge of the misery of their nature both what Adam and Christ is how Adam is to die in us and how Christ ought to live in us let not this be held for a dream understand it not so And whosoever disdaineth this notice it is certaine that he hath his mind stuffed with the darknesse of ignorance neither doth he understand what repentance what faith what new birth what regeneration is and in what chapters the whole course of living Christianty is contained And this is the first I desire thee my Reader And the second that thou be mindfull of spirituall pride After that Almighty God Three sorts of spiritual pride shal begin by his grace to work in thee spirituall gifts new virtues and new knowledge in thee ascribe none of these to thine own strength but wholly to divine grace even the beginning of a
circumference of his heart In the tents of the Lord our God the plants of the Lord doe flourish as the Cedar in Labanon These tents are the meeting-place or inward and spirituall Sabbath of our heart and the flourishing Lebanon is in the desart and solitarinesse of the spirit which solitarinesse thou oughtest to follow diligently that thou mightest search thy selfe and contemplate the benefits and wonders of God Neither are those to be followed or imitated who are delighted in the reading of Whatsoever doth not make us better is to be avoided subtile and quaint things whereby the heart is more provoked then amended whatsoever doth not further or disturb the quietnesse of the heart or is not a furthering to amendment of life let it be farre from thine eares thy mouth eyes and thought for the trees of the Lord doe attend nothing but to grow and profit in Christ such as was Paul who desired to know nothing but Christ crucified so did all the Saints of God who strived with all diligence to live in silence and by inward devotion after a divine manner to emulate the heavenly and holy Intelligences and to hide themselves in God alone which is the onely rest of our souls of which number I have heard one say so often as he conversed with men he was made lesse in some part or other For seeing humanity consisteth in the similitude of God and therefore The definition of man God defined man to be an Image like to him it follows by how much the liker he is to God he hath put off so much the more of his humanity and the neerer he is joyned to God by so much he shall become liker unto him But no man can be joyned to God who first doth not forsake the world The same reason is of all seeds that The seed of God bringeth divine fruit they bring forth fruit like themselves therefore if the seed of God be in thee as the holy Spirit and Word divine it followeth that thou become a tree of righteousnesse and plant of the Lord to glorifie him Esay 61. Nothing is more frequent Scandalous words offend the soul then that a word may fall from thee or another whereby the heart afterwards is pricked and the soul abhorreth it wherefore no man is more secure safer and more at tranquillity then he that keepeth himself at home so containeth his thoughts words and his senses within the threshold of his heart When Diogenes the Philosopher was met by a certain man who being impertinently acute accosted him after this manner Man or no man What I am thou art not But I am a man therefore thou art none He merrily taxing his foolish acutenesse answered It will be truer if thou begin with me He who will speake laudably let him first learn to hold his peace for to speak many things is no eloquence it is garrulity or pratling He that will rule his heart Vertue ariseth froÌ„ contraries well let him learn first to keep it well seeing it is an impossible thing rightly to excell others unlesse he learn to serve obey God He that loveth peace and tranquillity of the minde let him keep his tongue and study to preserve a good conscience True rest for that which is evill foameth as the sea unlesse it return to its rest which is Christ by contrition and repentance The Dove which Noah sent out of the Ark when it found no rest returned to the Ark. This Ark is Christ and the Church having only one Doore or Window that is repentance by which we must goe to Christ for aid As the Dove having made her flight returned to the Ark of God so doe thou remember so often as thou fliest into the sea of the worldly businesses that thou return by and by to Christ and thy rest yea whilst thou art conversant amongst men and attendest worldly affairs The fear of God let it be done with feare and humility yet let it be without secure and precipitate rashnesse but be thou like the Shrub bound to the pearch of distrust and the feare of God lest perhaps the wind of perturbation doe break thee then which nothing is more frequent amongst men little conversant with the inward man and using the world more freely Wherefore perswade thy selfe there is no more trust to be given to the world then to the sea and that the externall calm of the world doth easily turn it selfe into a whirl-wind and an evill conscience doth obey the delight thereof True peace and rest But if men would seek no pleasure in ftail things if they were not intangled with the world lastly if they would trust lesse to their worldly goods then they would by experience find more peace and tranquillity in their consciences and divine consolations and visitations would be oftner manifest but seeing that they will not beleeve these things it cometh to passe that they lose that conversion amendment and devotion amongst men which they might find in themselves For what things within and in the heart are found by resting they are by seeking here and there unwarily and hastily lost and this followeth upon course As a tree no where profiteth better then in his naturall soile so the inward man in no place groweth in goodnesse sooner then in the profound inwards of the heart where Christ is Joy and heavinesse is in the hand of the conscience which if thou usest and imploy it in inward and The nature of the conscience divine things it will return thee again sweet and delightfull pleasures but if in outward and worldly things thou dost rest it will return thee vexation and torment As often as a faithfull soul grieveth and is sorrowfull for his sinnes so often Wholâ—some sorrow he mourneth secretly and in the fountain of teares many nights washeth himself therein and cleanseth himself in the Spirit and Faith in Christ that he may become holy and worthy to enter into the Temple and most holy place where the Lord may have most secret speech with him And because God is an unknown God it behoveth the soul to be most familiar with him if he will have him to communicate his divine mind unto it Psalm 85. I will bear what Divine communication the Lord will speak in me Psal 34. I sought the Lord and he heard me and took me out of my trouble he being poore he cried and the Lord heard him and he delivered him out of all his troubles Psalm 5. But I will pray unto thee and thou wilt heare my voyce right early I will meet thee early and I shall see thee By how much more our soul departeth from the world so much more familiar it becometh with God so did the Patriarch Jacob when he estranged himself from his countrey and kindred he had conference with Angels and with God Neither can it be sufficiently expressed by any words with how much love God and the
state of innocencie to love God with all his heart with all his soule and all his strength and his neighbour as himselfe Hereupon it is that when Almighty God requireth the heart of man the whole man as concerning body soule and all his strength is to be understood In which sense the name of heart in Scripture is understood every where so that with it doe come all the strength of the soul and â—â— it were the nerves the understanding memory affections and desires Neither is it for other reasons when God requireth the soule understanding by that denomination the whole man so much as in him is which indeed is to bee conformed to Iustice righteousnesse and ioy cleave together him to bee renewed in Christ and that he ought to walk in spirit or in a new and spirituall life But the perfection of most sincere joy doth accompany the perfection of holinesse righteousnesse and love in the man wherewith he was most sincerely affected God so disposing it that where divine holinesse is there also should be divine joy which two as they cannot be separated so they make the Image of God But we who in this life doe attain to onely an unperfect and begun righteousnesse of God and his holinesse for these beginnings of the righteousnesse of Christ living in all the faithfull if we be devout if we be exercised in the Kingdome of God we shal do participate thereof in this world and have the fruits thereof even the first fruits of that heavenly joy Therefore how much every Christian profiteth in love so much divine pleasure and joy hee doth find in himselfe Which holy and divine love because in that day it shal receive the last hand and its perfection therefore also our joy shall be then perfect Christ bearing witnesse John 16. For charity or love is life and joy as contrariwise where love is not there is neither life nor joy but death it The greatest ioy for the love of God selfe wherein the Devil and wicked impenitent men shall remain to all eternity This love maketh the father of the son the bridegroome of the bride draw an incredible delight yet it is a far greater love that is perceived from the love of the Creator which most lovingly kisseth us with the kisses of his mouth that is in Christ and in him by the charity or love of the holy Ghost cometh upon us and taketh up his dwelling with us And of this image of God the Image of God differ God which consisteth in similitude with God when wee make mention of it we doe not mean that a man should be every way like God in justice righteousnesse and holinesse and become like God himselfe for God is incomprehensible and he is immense as concerning his essence virtue and properties but onely to carry about the image of God as is declared in divers places of this book Where what wee have commented of the Image of God those are no conjectures but things indeed neither can it be denied of the most perverse that Almighty God created man that he might be his most cleare looking-glasse so that if one were desirous to know the nature of God he might look back to himselfe and counsell with himselfe contemplate God in himselfe as in a glasse might see his Image within and in his heart as his life and happinesse But the Devil beholding this Image The acts of the Devil to abolish the Image of God of God in man with wicked envious eyes laid in wait with many deceits and machinations until at last through disobedience and an hostile mind conceived against God hee overthrew that Image and destroyed it which he hath attained unto with such craft as never any thing was attained unto or shall be Neither was it an obscure thing unto him if the man had remained in that state he had been his Pride the original of all sin Lord but so soon as he fell from him hee became a tyrant to him Therefore when all his forces of malice and craft displayed hee found nothing more fit to perfect his cogitations then that sinne by which hee was bewitched and pulled from God hee began to insinuate into our mother the affectation of the divine Majesty by sweet and flattering speeches with the help of the Serpent that old and deceitful Parasite and the atchiever of so great The fall of Adam a wickednesse which proud thought once entied into the heart and admitted there followed Apostasie disobedience and transgression of the precept concerning the Tree of knowledge not to bee touched Hereby came the image of God to be overthrown the holy Ghost to fly away and the image of the Devil to bee set up in the place of the divine Majesty and both of them to become the bondslaves of the Devil and he their Lord to handle their souls most cruelly and as a Giant handleth a child to blind the understanding to turn the will from God to accompany all the powers of the whole heart against God and intoxicate them with Satanicall malice to overthrow all the image of God in man to plant his own in the roome to infect them with the contagion of his own nature to beget after his own image children not now of God but his own to fulfill all kind of sinne and enmity against God and lastly to slay them with eternal death For even as in the image of God life eternall and the happinesse of man was contained so death and condemnation did follow its losse This death those doe best understand which fall and are cast into most grievous spirituall temptations being exposed to the tyranny of the Devill by infesting the miserable soule of them most cruelly with the custome of sinning Spiritual death and eternall by the fall of Adam under which crosse being depressed and troden down only unlesse the holy Ghost doe under-prop him and comfort him then the Devil doth fasten his death upon them and tormenteth their soules with pains grief infernal whereupon it must needs be that all the powers of the body doe faile the heart waxeth dry and the marrow to be consumed Psal 6. and the Spirituall temptation 38. and the word of God if any go about to be without life with juice and with all devotion and spirituall life Into which Spiritual death state when the businesse is to bee brought then the man is converted in the agonie of a true spirituall death esteeming nothing of the holinesse of all men righteousnesse dignity strength power glory honour arts and wisdome of all men without doubt this man shall perish unlesse the grace of God doe prevent him Therefore learn of me O man that Originall sin is the most terrible of terrible sinnes that is the losse of the hereditary righteousnesse of God and contrariwise the hereditary unrighteousnesse What our originall sin is of the Devil and man planted in the place for which the