desires it may be freed Bring my Soul c. First then it is well and rightly directed not to Saint or Angel or any creature else in Heaven or Earth but unto the Creator of Earth and Heaven and Angles and all to him that made them and is Lord over them He cried unto the Lord this cry Bring my Soul c. He well knew what Isâ—iaâ— wrote afterwards Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not And if they should know and understand him and his prayers yet he well understood they could not help him in his distress for which reason amongst an hundred and fifty Psalms which he wrote one hundred whereof at least are prayers you shall not find one directed to Cherub or Seraphim to Gabriel or Raphael Abraham or Moses or any other whatsoever but still his cry is unto the Lord He was sure he could hear his complaints and no less able than willing to relieve him when he complained It is he only that is Lord indeed of Death and Hell of sin and affliction too who alone hath the Keys of all these Prisons who opens and no Man shuts who shuts and none shall ever open that hath power and strenght in his holy arm to break the Gates of Brass and smite the bars of Iron asunder and so make way for the Captives that are fast bound in misery and iron either in the Iron chains of sin or the misery of distress and affliction To him therefore must this prayer come of all others Bring my soul out of prison that of all others can break it up at his pleasure And however in small and petty grievances we may cast about for humane succours and strain our wits for stratagems to relieve us neglecting the Lord in the mean time yet cùm dignus vindice nodus inciderit in great and overwhelming calamities especially if sudden too when neither head nor hand counsel or force can provide a remedy when it is once come to Davids case in this Psalm that we have no place to flee unto nor any Man that careth for our Souls tunc Deus intervenit then we run readily whether Papists or Protestants leave all they their Papois and Pictures we our projects and devices whatsoever and betake our selves only unto the Lord the Lord alone of deliverance and in Davids cafe approach with Davids petition deliver thou my soul out of prison So then the object was right and his prayer well directed And the manner was answerable devout and fervent he cried it out Deliver my soul out of prison And yet it is not likely he cried with his voice he now lay hid in a cave and it was not safe for him to make any loud cries saith Theodoret and Austin It was not therefore the outward sound of the lips but the inward affection of the heart that sent forth this the cry of this voice as those Authors observe for as St. Bernard hath it Desiderium vehemens clamor magnus a strong and earnest desire cries loud though the lips say nothing And this is the cry the cry of the heart that gives acceptance to our prayers and deliverance too from our Prisons The prayer of the Just availeth much if it be fervent saith St. James otherwise even the prayers of the Just if they be cold and of custom rather than Devotion and Piety may hurt but they profit nothing The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him faithfully saith David not formally if as those Jews we draw near only with our lips when our heart is far from him he may draw near unto us with plagues and miseries but his heart will be as far from our supplications and distresses when you stretch forth your hands I will hide mine eyes and though you make many prayers I will not hear you saith the Lord in Isa. i. The reason is there your hands are full of blood the reason to us may be your hearts bleed not Your Altar is without fire your prayer without heat how should I accept your sacrifices The very wooden Priests of Baal may be an instruction to us They called saith the Text on the name of their god from morning till noon and when they had no answer they cried loud nay they themselves with knives and lances till they prayed not only in tears but in blood that they might be heard and I would the children of light were as zealous in their generations though not so foolish But yet rather let us receive directions here at home from our own Prophet You saw how zealous he was in praise and he is as well affected in Prayer it was his darling this and delight of his Soul and it is hard for any Man ever to pray well that hath not learnt it of him No Man ever so frequent so fervent in this holy exercise I will pray saith he at Morning Noon and Night yea seven times a day will I pray and that instantly with the inwardst and deepest affections of his mind His bleeding heart may easily be discerned at his weeping eye which every night washt his Bed and watered his Couch with tears He mingled his bread with weeping nay made weeping his bread tears were his meat and drink Sure he had a strange fire within him that made him run over so fast or at least he was watered plentifully with the dew of Heaven that could minister such continual fountains to his eyes We why we go to prayers as if our Souls and tongues were strangers like the right hand and the left in the Gospel one seldom knows what the other doth as if we gave God an Alms and not prayed for our own necessity Our Bodies peradventure are in the Church but our affections abroad our lips utter prayers our hearts are on our penny and then no marvel if our eyes be dry when our devotions are so drousie But this is not it that can do it such faint and feeble prayers will break open no Prisons He must cry louder and deeper that will be heard in his distress when we can say with David è profundis out of the deep have I called on the Lord when the depth of our sins calls for the depth of our sorrow and both upon God for the depth of his mercies when Abyssus Abyssum shall call one upon another then with David we shall be sure to be heard and have our Souls brought out of Prison which is the matter of the Prayer our last point but hath many points in it Bring my Soul out of prison For it is not a Prayer only for one penn'd up in a Cave but whatsoever doth any way inclose and straiten the Soul as was said afore may not unfitly be termed the Souls Prison and for ought we know intended in this Scripture at least applyable to it And of these things that thus besiege and shut up the Soul though they are infinite almost in themselves yet they may be reducible to
reproof as being a sin that like a deluge hath overrun the whole World and covered the face of the whole Earth as a flood which is so much the more intolerable saith Calvin quod assuetudine ipsa pro delicto imput ari desiit That the frequent use and custom hath taken away the sense and apprehension of the sin and though there be little hope in this case of redress for as Seneca says well desinet esse remedio locus ubi quae fuerunt vitia mores sunt there is no place left for remedy when those things which were made to be vices are now become fashions and manners yet not despairing of Gods goodness and mercy unto any both for our own sakes and yours we are at least to shew you the peril and danger of so great a sin and leave the success unto him And sure there were danger enough in it though it were no sin and did we never transgress so long as we swear frequently for as St. Austin hath it Use runs into facility into custom and from the custom of swearing we easily fall into the detestable sin of Perjury and forswearing And indeed it is almost impossible that he which swears daily and hourly and almost perpetually should not sometimes swear deceitfully and falsly Neither do I think there is any if he impartially examine and observe himself that doth familiarly use the one but he will find that he hath often and easily slipt into the other for the Conscience that dares to play with the sacred name of God and continually to use it with irreverence and contempt it is likely will not stick now and then to abuse it by perjury And therefore the Counsel of the same Father is good Epist. 89 ad Hil. 2. Abstain from swearing as much as is possible melius quippe nec verum juratur quam jurandi consuetudine in perjurium saepe caditur semper perjurio propinquatur For it were better not to swear any truth than that by a custom of swearing we should often forswear our selves and ever endanger it Excellently therefore to the same purpose he concludes in another place Falsa juratio exitiosa est Vera juratio periculo sa at nulla juratio secura False swearing is damnable and exitious true swearing is dangerous but no swearing is secure which is the reason that under the name of swearing is included oftentimes perjury and forswearing the Scripture for this cause knitting and linking them both together as in the sin so in the punishment Since no Man can be subject unto that but he will be found also often guilty of this And therefore there were danger enough as I said in this unadvised custom if it were no sin but how much more then when it doth not only lead and conduce unto sin and the greatest almost of sins but also is little less sinful in self I am sure is more expresly forbidden in the Commandment which says not Thou shalt not swear falsly though that be included but thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain that is lightly and idly and David gives the reason for saith he holy and reverend is his name Now that which is holy if it be brought into common use it is prophaned And that which is reverend if it be irrespectfully handled is contemned So that it is not only a bare sin but a threefold a trebble sin and terrible compounded of irrâ—vâ—rence profanation and presumptuous contempt The least whereof were enough to plunge a rebellious Soul in the depth of eternal sorrow whereof he is now thrice worthy as being guilty of all three For what indignity must it needs be unto the Divine Majesty and how unsufferable with idle and empty supervacuous and unnecessary Oaths every moment and in causes of no moment irreligiously and contemptuously to toss and bandy if not tear in pieces that sacred name which should never be thought on but with trembling nor ever be uttered without religious adoration That Name vererable above all names so excellent and admirable in all the world how excellent is thy name in all the world saith David by way of question and none can answer it That Name which the Jews thought so sacred as they never durst utter it nor was lawful for any but the high Priest ever to carry it about him Exod xxviii so much as written who was commanded to wear it on his forehead in a leaf of Gold the very sight whereof made the greatest Monarch of the World even proud Alexander that would needs be a God himself yet to stoop and do his reverence Lastly that Name which the very Devils in Hell and spirits of darkness cannot hear without horror no nor Powers and Principalities Cherubin and Seraphin the blessed Angels of God ever mention without glory and great worship What dishonour must it needs receive to be at length thus shamefully contemned by dust and ashes thus hourly and idly to be belched out from the foul mouth of a sinful man without all esteem or respect yea or so much as ever thinking of it Rather consider those glorifyed Spirits and tremble I saw God saith the Prophet Isaiah Chap. vi sitting on his Throne high and exalted and the Cherubins and Seraphins standing round about it crying and calling unto one another and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Behold saith Chrysostom with what fear and horror with what redoubling of praise and glory they make mention of his holy name I may say thrice holy that is most sacred Name And shall the Sons of men presume contemptuously to violate that which the Angels themselves when they mention do with Reverence adore Why if we say saith the same Father of one of our selves if of extraordinary vertue and worth Os lava wash or wipe your mouth before you name him And if a servant will not mention his Lord nor a subject his Prince without Titles of Respect and Honour with what fear and reverence should the name of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings the God both of men and Angels be warily pronounced Our mouths here had more need of fire than water not to be washed but with Isaias Cole from the Altar inflamed with a religious zeal when we dare to mention it Judge therefore in your selves how great is his Sin that can assume boldness not only with unhallowed and polluted lips to mention but even with idle nay rhetorical and wanton Oaths fearfully to prophane and lacerate that Name which some mens Reverence never durst utter and no Angels without terms of praise and glory will ever pronounce Now if our light trival and customary Oaths are so derogatory unto the honour of God what then may we think of intemperate passionate and cholerick Oaths the Oaths of Gamesters and others wedded unto other sports who if a Die or Dog run not to their liking or a Kite fly where they
thing else the Devil may for some have been so shameless to repair even thither for the ending of controversies adjuring and conjuring by Spells and Exorcisms Satan himself to give answer out of possessed bodies as out of his Prophetick Charms unto the truth of his disputed Articles A strange remedy and desperate as their cause that would establish truth in Religion by the Spirit of Errour and Father of Lies Neither these nor any thing else can prevail Authority may restrain wise Men may mollifie and perswade but neither the power of the Magistrate nor skill of the Learned are both able to effect it whatsoever remedies the Wit and Confidence of either dare or any Catholick Moderator else yea of the great Cassander himself may invent or propound until every Man seek to remedy one will be found too weak for the purpose they are all either dangerous or not fully profitable Plaisters if not malignant and hurtful yet at best too narrow for the Sore and unable to pierce unto the root of the Malady It is only the removing of those inordinate Lusts the causes of War that is able to give us a true and durable Peace For the bitterness of the streams must be cured at the Fountain and the fire quenched by subduction of the fuel otherwise effects will ever issue from their causes And therefore the wisdom which is from above saith my St. James is first pure then peaceable And our Saviour observes the same method in his benedictions first blessed are the pure in heart and then immediately blessed are the peace-makers for until the heart which is the Fountain be purged there is no expectation of Peace We may therefore cast up our Eyes towards Heaven and profess outwardly as much purity as we please but so long as we are contentious and at opposition still with the Church and her peace it is a manifest sign our Wisdom is not from above nor yet our selves so pure in Heart as we should be For were the Heart once well purged and purified from these earthly and sensual desires that disturb the Soul and darken the mind what peaceable and peace-making affections would succeed what calmness and serenity able to clear the eye of the Soul in discerning evident truth and to temper the passions of the Soul in such truths as are not easily discernable And so end most controversies and at least moderate all teaching us as St. Paul speaks sapere ad sobrietatem to be wise but unto sobriety or as St. James to shew forth our works in the meckness of wisdom For soberness meekness patience gentleness brotherly-kindness love and the like these are the high and proper effects of the Wisdom which is desuper from above but may not descend into a Soul filled already with those Lusts that are desubter from flesh and earthly things beneath Virtues and endowments these that seem to restore the Soul to her native beauty render it sweet and amiable and of all other makes her most like unto her Saviour Vertues therefore so peculiar unto his Gospel as it breaths almost no other language And were that Gospel a while obeyed rather than disputed obeyed in necessary duties rather than disputed in speculative difficulties it would soon be unto us what it is in it self Evangelium pacis a Gospel of Peace which the God of Peace vouchsafe unto us all to study even through Jesus Christ our Peace-maker to whom with the Holy Ghost three persons c. Amen Laus Deo in aeternum Amen A DISCOURSE OF ELECTION AND REPROBATION SERMON V. Upon HOSE A xiii 9. Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in Me is thine help AS there is nothing more necessary so is there not any thing of greater difficulty than to draw man unto a true thankfulness for Gods Mercies or a just acknowledgment of his own Errours It will not be easie for his Ministers to prevail in that here which could not be done in Paradise no not by God himself where although it were not the first Sin for it doth of necessity suppose a former yet it was the second in time and I think in greatness before the first The Woman she transfers the fault on the Serpent and Adam on the Woman which thou gavest me she delivered me of the fruit and I did eat And such as was then such or worse is still the corrupt and stubborn disposition of a Sinner who though his own guilty Conscience make him hide his head in a bush for shame yet thinks any Fig-leaves of excuse will serve turn to cover his nakedness from those Eyes unto which all things are transparent A crime we have received from our fore-Fathers that first used it the Teats of Eve gave no other milk than this perversness unto all her Children In good and laudable actions every man can readily teach his mouth to kiss his hand as Job speaks to commend and applaud the work and be content to receive the honour unto himself But if the question be of our Errours and misdeeds how do we labour and sweat to convey the burthen from our own shoulders How ingenious presently is the froward nature of most men to knit the Stoical Chain of destiny and be the action never so detestable and vile to fasten the first Link not to the foot of Jupiters Chair the Stars and Constellations of Heaven but which is a degree beyond the Stoicks to the very arm of the Almighty In this case we are all grown acute Philosophers and can climb the physical Scale of Causes as if it were Jacobs Ladder until by it we ascend into Heaven yea into the very closet of God where they will search the Book of hidden Counsels and eternal Decrees and from thence draw dark and blind consequences of inevitable and fatal necessity rather than flesh and blood should want wherewith to plead with its Maker That as the men of the Man of sin have devised a compendious way by one position to answer all objections against their Doctrin namely That their Church cannot err So these men have found out as brief a Tenent to stop the mouth of all reproof in the Errours and Heresies of their life to wit that they cannot chuse but err As if they had no means to decline the punishment unless they drew in God to be a Party in the offence But it were good that Man would plead with Man that the Potsheard would contend with the Potsheards of the Earth as Isaiah speaks and not with his Creator whose Scepter is a rod of Iron wherewith he can at his pleasure bruise the vessel of the Potter for he hath power over his clay A power notwithstanding which how unwilling he is to use and how justly at length he doth use and how mercifully he forbears to use we are in these few words by God himself given to understand that so we might cease to wrangle with the Divine Justice that is so loth to strike O
hope I may have good leave so to order it setting the first last and the last first as in Nature and dignity they deserve And therefore reserving the second place and ending of this discourse unto the destruction of the wicked that shall never end we will begin through the help of God with that help and salvation which the Elect receive of God by a Decree that never had beginning but is as Eternal as he himself who for this respect here saies In me is thy help At the feet of whose Divine Majesty I now cast my self humbly beseeching and imploring his aid and assistance unto my Heart and Tongue in these high and secret Mysteries that I may speak nothing but what is agreeable unto his holy word and that with such reverence as becomes his Majesty and this Sacred Place Since this whole sentence as I said is appliable unto either sort of people it followeth that before we speak of this special help of the Elect we say something of that destruction whereunto this help doth relate wherein notwithstanding we shall not need to spend much time for that the Elect of God have destroyed themselves that is were and are in themselves worthy of destruction none I think do either doubt or deny Only concerning the order and precedence question hath been made some giving the priority unto Election affirming that they were first elected who afterwards through sin came to deserve destruction as thinking it impossible that the merit of destruction as being a temporal Act should preceed the free mercy of God established by an eternal Decree and thereby which is the cause of no few errours inverting and perverting both the order of my Text and the nature of the things strangely presupposing help or salvation without supposing any former destruction which such relative terms must of necessity respect As strange a contradiction as if they should say that punishing Justice did precede the fault which it doth punish or acts of mercy might be extended on those that never were in misery For since the decrees of Election and Reprobation are made and ordained by the same properties in God whereby men are punished or saved it follows that as Reprobation must needs be an act of punishing Justice so Election an effect of contrary Mercy And herein doth consist the special difference between the Predestination of Men and Angels For their Election was a mercy preserving them from falling into the pit of destruction But ours a mercy raising us up and drawing us out of that destruction whereinto we were faln Theirs may better be termed Goodness than Mercy because it is not opposite unto Justice as ours is and therefore is not goodness but strictly and properly the mercy of God now Misericordiae propria sedes miseria est the proper seat or object of Mercy is misery saith St. Bernard And therefore Qui non ponit primò miseriam in lapsâ— hominis ponere ill misericordiam in Electione non potest He that first grants not misery in the fall can never place mercy in the Election of man said a late worthy Bishop both agreeing with that of Esdras after his confession unto God But because of us senners thou shalt be called merciful To make this yet more manifest by the definition of Election It is saith St. Austin Praeparatio benoficiorum Dei quâ—bus certissimè liberantur quieunque liberantur A preparation of those benefits of God whereby they are certainly saved whosoever are saved And what are these benefits but a new heart and a new Spirit begotten through effectual grace and a powerful vocation unto sincere repentance and to lively faith in the death and blood of the Son of God Now what have any of these to do with Innocency To whom else may they belong but a sinner but to one subjected and devoted unto that destruction from whence he could not be delivered but by the mercy of such a Redeemer As for the reason drawn from the time of sin and the Decree of Salvation before all time the deceit and errour of that doth apparently consist in a wrong comparing of an external Act of mans with an internal Act of Gods when the comparison should have been if rightly made between two internal acts of God for mans work is here to be considered not as it was done by him but as it was foreseen by God and then if thus taken you shall easily find the temporary sin of man to be no less eternal in Gods prescience than the deliverance from it or punishment for it could be in his Decree For as Gods Electing doth in order of necessity presuppose the foresight of their being that are elected though they be elected before they be quia objectum prius est in se quà m objiciatur actus in ipsum tendenti So for the same reason that it doth presuppose this positive foresight of their being it must also the permissive of their being miserable because Election is from mercy and mercy as is said doth always presuppose its object which is misery It follows therefore to conclude this point that the very Elect of God acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion that when he in his secret determination set it down Those shall live and not die they lay as ugly spectacles before him as Lepers covered with dung and mire as Ulcers putrified in their Fathers Loins miserable and worthy of nothing but to be had in detestation In the proof whereof I have made the longer stay partly because it opens a passage for some things that must follow anon but especially that the truth of St. Austins opinion might more clearly appear affirming that in the search of Election and Reprobation no mans wit should presume to ascend above the miserable mass of corruption Mans Nature at first was by Creation Gold but Sin was the poysonous menstruum the aqua regis more than Chymical that dissolved it and drew off the purer parts leaving unto us nothing but this earth and these faeces of that Gold Thus was his fall a great fall indeed from the purity of Gold to the vility of Clay and this Clay is that impure lump meant by St. Austin over which he grants with the Apostle that the Potter hath power thereout to frame Vessels either to dishonour or honour as it pleaseth him best The one being their desert the other his own mercy Huic fit misericordia tibi nou fit injuria saith the same Father God chuseth one he refuseth another to him he sheweth mercy to thee he doth no injury since the one doth receive but what all do deserve But enough of the desert of destruction now of the undeserved help For Man might fall of himself but rise again he could not without the help of another nor of any other but him who here saith In me is thy help And that we have help from God and that we need so to
sensum Apostolo defuisse non miretur Who can chuse but wonder the Apostle should not see this subtilty saith St. Austin For had he known it to have been so eodem modo solveret istam quaestionem he would soon have answered the question immo nullam quam solvi opus esset faceret quaestionem Nay he had then never made any such question that should need an answer For there had not remained so much as any shew of injustice where Love or Hatred doth proceed according to good or evil deserts But now that there should be a different judgment where there is no difference in merit there cannot but seem a just occasion of making the demand Nunquid iniquitas Whereunto leaving this vain gloss as directly contrary unto his purpose he reduceth all unto the meer will of God I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion An answer sounding to this effect That since both were equally conceived in original sin deserved his Justice his Love unto one was an act of Mercy and in Mercy there is no cause of his will but his will nor of his Mercy but his Mercy I will have mercy c. And then quis nisi insipiens Deum iniquum putet sive judicium poenale ingerat digno sive misericordiam praestet indigno Because as before was noted though the one obtain free favour yet the other receives no injury By which answer he doth at once free God from all injustice towards the Reprobate and withal withdraws all merit from the Elect who have that Name and Grace for no other cause but only because he had a will to shew Mercy special Mercy unto them which he did not unto others to whom notwithstanding they were of themselves in all things equal and with whom they were in like sort obnoxious unto the revenge and power of Justice False therefore and vain and very derogatory unto the goodness of that God in whom is our help are their conceipts that build Election upon a foreseen good or evil use of a general and sufficient Grace to the prejudice of that which is special and particular For however we deny not but rather piously believe that his Providence doth sufficiently help all those whom his mercy doth vouchsase to call yet withal we acknowledge it to be such an help as whereâ— withal God when he looked down from Heaven saw there was none did good no not one A help therefore which in effect doth not give Salvation but takes away excuse and seems not so much to justify them as to make their Condemnation more just who notwithstanding that they might not all perish and that he might yet shew his Mercy of his infinite goodness freely elected some to such special Grace whereby they should not perish a Grace effectual receiving the rest unto endless punishment for abusing that which was sufficient So that God doth not only give such Grace whereby we may be able to do and then elect us for doing what we were able but contrarily foreseeing that we would not do what we were able with that sufficient Grace to do of his absolute Mercy did decree to give us such powerful and efficacious Grace whereby we certainly should do what otherwise without this special help he knew we should not For had not he by this means as the Scripture testifies reserved unto himself a Remnant notwithstanding the former Grace we had been all as Sodom and perished as Gomorrha And therefore Reliqui mihi saith God unto Elias It is not there are or there remains unto me but I have reserved unto my self seven thousand which never bowed the knee unto Baal And from this Reliqui they are termed Reliquiae secundùm electionem gratiae salvae factae sunt A Remnant only are saved according to the Election of Grace And if of Grace surely not of foreseen works yea so far is God from respecting the will or work of Man in the dispensation of his Grace as he sometimes denies that help unto those that would use it well which notwithstanding he offers and exhibits unto others that he knew before would reject it Had those great works saith our Saviour upbraiding the Jews been done in Tyre and Sidon they had repented in Sackcloth and Ashes Lo how God ploughs the Sand and scatters his good seed upon the dry and barren hearts of the Jews fitter for salt and in the mean time withholds it from another soil that would have fructified and brought forth the fruit of Repentance unto eternal life What shall we say unto this Two things occur which I only am willing to answer saith St. Austin in the like case and are very fit for this nunquid iniquitas apud Deum And O alâ—itudo divitiaerum An Interrogation and an exclamation the one out of the ninth and the other out of the eleventh to the Râ—m And both joined tend unto this That being assured there is no injustice with God we should not search the cause but admire the depth of his Wisdom whose judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out For he often treads on water that leaves no path or impression behind He walks upon the great deep saith Daâ—id and his footsteps are not known And whom this will not satisfy I must advise with the same Father Quaerat doctiorer seâ—b caveat nè inoeniat praesumptiores Let him seek those that are more learned but take heed he doth not meet with those that are too presumptuous Such surely as these conditional Electioners are who as if they were fore runners of the second coming of Christ endued with the Spirit of Elias have cast down every Hill and filled up every Valley made whatsoever seemed crooked streight and whatsoever was rough smooth and plain and by this means they though but lambs can easily wade where those Elephants the Fathers of the Primitive Church found such Pits and Pools as they were glad to swim For what is there in their Doctrine not easie and even obvious and open if God hath diversly determined of none but such as are of divers and different merits what room then is there left for O altitudo For they that give a cause of Election take away all cause of the Apostles exclamation because none do admire an effect but they that are ignorant of the cause as here all must needs be when of those that have one and same cause there is not one and the same regard but the one is justly exposed unto hatred the other vouchsafed love without all cause at least that we can search out and inquire The head of Nilus may be sooner found than the Spring and Fountain of Election the eye of the Eagle that looks on the Sun cannot discover it because it remains in his bosom that dwells in inaccessible light And yet notwithstanding we do not make the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irrational For
illustration of Gods Glory These and more quiddities they have invented the vanity whereof the time will not now permit me in particular to discourse sure I am they all fall short of effecting that for which they were devised they may peradventure quiet the Authors mind but shall never justify those imposed and cruel decrees There is a story or a Fable of a silly Man that lying down to sleep with his head against a brazen Pot and finding it but an hard Pillow claps a Cushion into the mouth of his Pot and lies down again and then thinking the matter well mended and himself at ease falls into a sound Nap. Methinks they that imagine they may rest themselves upon this iron Doctrine having stuft it with the Feathers of these distinctions do fitly make up the moral of this Fable for though they lie as hard as they did before yet this they have gained that though they receive not thereby any true ease in their doubts yet at least by thinking so they content and please their own conceipts and so are fallen into a profound sleep embracing dreams for truth out of which God of his mercy vouchsafe to wake them that so seeing and rejecting the weakness and lewdness of these trifling subtleties they may rather abandon and utterly forsake than with such poor shifts seek to defend a Doctrine so harsh in it self injurious unto God and dangerous unto Men and unto the rest of the truth they profess so extream scandalous Who can believe them in any thing else saith Bellarmine that shall see them only so gross and impious in this And it is marvellous to consider how all our Adversaries do generally raise their stiles and themselves how they insult and triumph when they come unto this point and what infinite absurdities they empty out and disgorge upon us and our Doctrine affirming that all those odious propositions falsly imposed on St. Austin do rightly and justly light upon us who teach that God did therefore only create that he might destroy the greatest part of mankind whereunto they are unavoidably subjected by the unalterable and energetical decrees of an eternal predestination more immutable than the Laws of the Medes and Persians that alter not and more reluctable than the destiny of the Stoicks binding Men with the iron chains of immutable necessity from whence they say it will follow as the natural fruit of that Tree of Fate that God is the Author of Sin that he doth properly sin that he only doth sin and so that sin is no sin Pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non pâ—tuisse refelli It both shames and grieves good minds that such ignominies should be objected and that they may not be refuted surely at least for ought I understand by the ordinary way they may not And therefore the only and soundest refutation as I imagine will consist not in labouring to decline and avoid such consequences by empty distinctions but by an utter detestation of those points and positions that is those absolute ordinations from whence such consequences flow and proceed This was St. Austins manner of answer and it may well be others in the same case he sought out no quirks and strains of Wit to salve the appearance of injustice but simply denies and confesseth the decree that was objected Nihil ergo talium negotiorum Deus praedestinauit ut fieret c. God hath not predestinated saith he any of these things speaking of sins that they should be neither is any Soul that lives wickedly and filthily prepared or ordained of God so to live sed talem futurum non ignoravit de tali se justè judicaturum esse praescivit but he was not ignorant how wicked such a Soul would be and knew he could justly Judge and Condemn him for being so So that St. Austin doth not acknowledge any decree unto sin but only a decree unto punishment for sin which he foresaw but decreed not A decree only that can clear all those doubts and heinous criminations and is afterwards no less clear in it self For if Election doth presuppose sin as 't is proved in the former part much more must Reprobation because it is not precedent but subsequent in order to Election And as Election because an act of Mercy requires a subject of Misery so Reprobation because administred by Justice can have no place but where there is a precedent offence and that only foreknown not preordained for then it would cease to be an offence And therefore mala tantùm praescit non praedestinat Deus sins are only foreseen and not predestinated saith the same St. Austin So that it was rightly observed and said by a worthy Bishop of our own even in his preface unto that book of Lectures and Sermons penned and published against Arminius That he must leave behind him the absolute decree of Reprobation whoever he be that comes to the studying and reading of St. Austin which he terms a sad and heavy opinion lately bred and ever to be abhorred so that though he refute Arminius conditional Election yet he will not maintain his Adversaries absolute Reprobation as being an opinion which the Church of England though it sometimes seek to mitigate and excuse yet it did never receive and embrace and therefore he afterwards adds in the same preface That if Arminius had only inveighed against that absolute and truculent decree contrary both to Scriptures and Fathers and their days commodè adhibuisset industriam suam Ecclesiam nostram Anglicanam habuisset consentientem secum As for some private Men that think and write otherwise they are not the Churches but their own private conceits saith the same Bishop in the same place By whose authority though great in it self yet I am the easier led because I see that this Church though it doth not fore some respects actually and publickly refute yet it doth purposely refuse to give grace or countenance to any such Doctrine whereof it doth in this regard forbear to determine For in the Articles of Religion whereunto she requires subscription the Article of Election is proposed and illustrated at large by many propositions but of Reprobation not an Article not a proposition no word no mention at all by which silence in that place the Church as I conceive seems not to approve the vulgar opinion at least to think it a Doctrine dangerous to mention And what it there forbears by writing to confirm it had formerly by fact disavowed as appears in the Case of Travers who was censured and silenced by the Authority of the Church for opposing the Doctrine of Learned and Judicious Hooker whereof this was a branch that God in his counsel and purpose rejects none without a foreseen worthiness of rejection going though not in time yet in order before This is it which hath made me the more bold to wade so far in this point wherein though I may offend some particular
Men yet I shall not our own present Church nor the learned Fathers of former whose voice unto their dissolute flocks hath ever been the same with this here of God O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self The inference and issue of all that which hath been already said in this point doth reach only to this That that Destruction which fell upon the world through the sin and fall of the Protoplast Adam ought to be ascribed unto his own free and voluntary fault and not unto any irresistable appointment and Decree of God's all whose Ordinations unto Destruction do not precede but of necessity foresee and suppose this offence Not that this or any other sin is the absolute cause why God doth but the desert and merit why he justly may reject and reprobate whom he please It now remains that we proceed and step one step farther and enquire whether God as he may so he actually doth reprobate immediately out of the Mass of corruption upon the foresight of this and no other sin Otherwise I shall fall short of giving full satisfaction unto my Text wherein God seems not so much to relate unto the original misery wherein they were conceived and born as unto their particular and actual sin and disobedience refusing his love and rejecting his mercy when he so passionately bursteth out O Israel And if this be rightly spoken in regard of their own Acts and Actions they must be such also as are willingly and wilfully done For surely they that are destroyed for sins which by natural Corruption they could not chuse but commit they may be pitied but cannot be blamed and then it will stand firm and good that it is not Israel that have destroyed themselves but their fore-Father only that hath destroyed Israel since necessary crimes are not to be imputed to the Doers but to him that contracted the necessity Unto these and many more difficulties as I conceive unanswerable must they be lyable who make the Decree and Reprobation peremptorily to proceed immediately upon foresight only of original sin without any other respect of disobedience and contempt of the Grace of God or Gospel of Christ neither of which they say was ever provided for them For first it will from hence follow that though they allow an especial favour of God unto some few particular men yet they bereave him of his philanthropie his grace and benevolent affection unto the kind which the scripture frequently mentions and so make him to exercise upon the far greater part of men meer severity without all mercy as he did upon the Devils whereby they clearly remove the main difference between the Reprobation of men and of Angels which the Fathers place in this that is afforded them means of recovery but the evil Spirits none because the Devil sinned of his own proper motion and instinct but man at the instigation of the Devil Nay farther that God deals in much more severity with these miserable men who only sinned in the Loyns of another than with those powers of darkness that wilfully transgressed for that all their life long he still presseth them with impossible commands for no other end but to heighten that damnation whereunto they were before unavoidably denoted Surely a heavy case and I verily believe unbefitting the great compassion and mercy of God which the Scriptures mention that he should be so far from pitying the Case of his own Creature in an involuntary misery as he should lay new loads on their backs and then whip and scourge them here and torment them in perpetual fire hereafter for sinking under those burthens which they were no way able to bear Besides how doth this make God seem to flout and delude poor Souls in the deep of their distress calling unto them who lie in anguish have all their bones and joints bruised and broken with a deadly fall to rise and come unto him and he will help them and in the mean time affording them not one jot of his help to rise who he knows notwithstanding are not able to stretch forth so much as a finger in their own help Nay how should our blessed Saviours words yea his Tears over Jerusalem seem to be false and counterfeit O Jerusalem Jerusalem c. if at the same instant notwithstanding he had no purpose either to die for them or to give them grace whereby they might believe in him So that his Commandment of Faith in his Blood should want both verity in him because he did not die for such and possibility to be performed by them for that he gives them no means to do it who have none in themselves From All this Conclusion will result besides that they either make God a hard man like the lazy fellow in the Gospel reaping where he doth not sow or a cruel man with Pharaoh withdrawing the Straw and yet still demanding the full tale of Brick requiring works and withholding the Grace whereby they should be done For if without giving a Saviour or providing any Grace there be a rejection and reprobation of all mankind immediately out of the Mass of Corruption Who sees not the necessity of all these strange consequences so reproachful unto God and so full of severity if not cruelty unto men who lying under more than fatal Necessity being not able to go any other way must needs run headlong in those paths that lead into Hell A Position so absurd as Zeno a Philosopher derided and confuted with blows rather than words His Servant being examined upon an error he had committed acknowledgeth the fault but lays the blame on his Fate desiring his Master to pardon him because it was his destiny and he could not avoid it Zeno falls on his Man and Cudgels him most severely when he had done tells him he had indeed beaten him something extremly but he must be content it was his destiny so to beat him and he could not help it And this by him was well and wittily done But had this Philosopher's Man served some Antient Divine that had been of this Modern opinion his excuse and Plea had been good and unreprovable because according to the Rules of his Masters Doctrine who therefore could have no cause to correct or beat him unless it were for anger that he hath nothing else to answer as you may see none of them have if we consider the replies which they make to the like impious and idle Dilemmas If I be Elected God will not fail to bring me to his Kingdom if Reprobated there is no means to shift his decree and therefore what need I take much care of Religion An objection often proposed by themselves but which never was nor possibly can be by their Doctrine justly refuted The answer of all that I have ever read or heard is but one and that briefly to this effect That Men may not imagine they may sit idlely and have the Kingdom of Heaven brought home unto them it is not at a lower
it hath not wanted manuring and culture sepsi elapidavi I enclosed hedged it in and threw the stones and weeds out after all I built a Tower and a Vine-press therein expecting Grapes fecit mibi labrùscas and it brought forth wild grapes now judge I pray you Quid amplius debui facere vineae meae what I ought more to have done unto my Vine This was enough to convince them but these times are more acute Had some Men of our Israel been made Judges they would quickly have stopt the mouth of this Plantiff Why you have withheld the first and the latter rain the dew of Grace and the influence of Heaven no marvel if your Plants thrive not if you would needs plainly know this you ought not to have done if you would have expected grapes Give but that blessing and your earth will bring forth its encrease As if in the enumeration of some few particulars those that these speak of and whatsoever else is simply necessary for this rational Vine were not virtually included Surely the Lords Vineyard was not planted upon those cursed Mountains of Gilboa on which there fell neither dew nor rain for certainly the influence of Heaven hath not been restrained the Sun of righteousness hath risen and shined upon this Vine but it hath loved darkness more than light the dew of Divine Grace was not wanting to the branches thereof but they have turned his grace into wantonness quenching and grieving his holy Spirit And therefore a little before the utter rooting up and casting out these degenerate Plants St. Stephen frames the Inditement unto their just destruction why ye are a stiff-necked people and a stubborn generation as your Fathers did so do ye ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost And this leads us unto the third and last point That God reprobates none but after the often abuse of his grace for as they were cut and cast off so are all other also rejected and reprobated for first rejecting and resisting the same Holy Ghost My people would not bearken unto my voice and Israel would none of me saith the Lord So I gave them up unto their own hearts lufts and they walked in their own counsels Psal. 81. 11. And this is the first external act of Reprobation when God gives Men up unto a Reprobate sense withdrawing his abused Grace and leaving them unto the counsels and lusts of their own hearts A Judgment never denounced in Scripture but for contempt of Mercy Now by the external act Man must judge of the internal and eternal decree for what God in time doth that before all time he did decree to do for they that imagine that difference between the decree and the execution of the decree that the one hath respect unto Sin but the other none must either make a decree that is never executed or an execution that varies from the decree as if God did ordain one thing and do another And therefore if he doth now give up and reject a people for their obstinate sins for the same cause in his Eternal Reprobation he did order so to reject them And as it is in rejection from Grace so it fares in exclusion from Glory from which no Man is irrecoverably abdicated but for long and wilful grieving of that God who would have brought them to it Forty years long was I grieved with this generation and then I sware they should not enter into my rest Than which I know no sentence that doth so clearly represent and express the true nature of Reprobation for what is it but Gods eternal oath of rejecting wicked Men from his Glory into that destruction they have deserved And this he doth not suddenly in a passion of choler upon every light occasion but in his wrath his wrath urged and provoked by a long Rebellion even forty years long was he grieved and then he sware in his wrath he resolutely determined they should not enter into his rest A decree that seems not to proceed but when by extremity of injury it is as it were violently extorted so loth and unwilling he is to be brought unto it as he doth not so much as think or speak of it without passionate interjections of sorrow O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self And upon these exhibitions of Gods mercies and goodness unto the Reprobate depends the verity and truth and justice of this complaint against them for they that never received any means of Salvation can by no means ever be termed the authors of their destruction But now since God and his favours have not been wanting unto them but they unto God since they have wilfully forsaken his mercy they can rightly blame none but themselves for their own misery for as the antient Father Irenaeus hath it Judicium justum recipient quoniam non sunt operati bonum cum possent operari illud The judgment of God is just which they shall receive because they did not do well when they might have done it Whereunto Clemens Alexandrinus doth agree All impenitents saith he shall be judged aliqui quidem quod cum possent noluerunt Deo credere alii vero quod cum vellent non elaboraverunt ut fierent fideles Some because when they might believe they would not others because when they would yet they did not labour truly to become what they desired And it were easie that no man might conceive the Doctrine to be new to shew the like out of the Fathers yea generally out of all both before the Pelagian heresy and after but left the time should fail me to those already mentioned I will only add the Judgment of the third Synod of Arles assemblged for the defining of these very questions wherein what you have now heard is not only affirmed but a Curse and an Anathema laid upon those that shall think the contrary Anathema illi qui dixerit quòd Christus non pro omnibus mortius sit Cursed be he that says that Christ died not for all And Anathema illi qui dixerit illum qui periit non accepisse ut salvus esse posset Cursed be he that says he that perished did not receive means whereby he might be saved But unto this and whatsoever else in this kind may be said that in the ix to the Romans of Jacob and Esau before ever they had done good or evil that the purpose of God might stand according to Election it was said The elder shall serve the younger according to that of the Prophet I have loved Jacob but Esau have I hated like Medusa's head is ever objected though seldome or never understood But that it may be besides theirs of absolute Reprobation I will first shew you the several interpretations of others The ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin before St. Austin yea and St. Austin for a while until the Pelagian heresy arose interpret these words of the Election of some unto salvation upon prevision of their future faith and
receive it we shall fall short for want of discerning the body of the Lord. And in this every Man ought to examine himself and many Men others too as well as themselves It is not the proper duty of the Minister of God only to Catechise every Father and Mother of a Family is or ought to be in this regard as a Minister within his own charge It is our part not to be still laying of the Foundations and Principles of the Doctrine of Christ but to lead you on towards perfection Heb. vi 1. As St. Peter the Apostle said of ministring at Tables nay as St. Paul of Baptism it self I was not sent to baptise but to preach So we may much more say of Catechizing We were not sent to Catechise but to preach the Gospel our office is to dispense the Word and Sacraments yours it is properly to prepare yours it is to teach and instruct your Children and Servants that they may be fit and capable to receive both though the sloth and ignorance of these times to your sin and shame hath cast this burden wholly upon our shoulders most Fathers for the want of willingness or knowledge deserving to be Catechised no less than the Children that are under them yea in my understanding much more having lost in their age that little which they learned in their youth The second qualification is Faith without it it is impossible to please God as in any other duties we can exhibite unto him so especially in this of the Sacrament It is the eye of the Soul by which we behold and look upon the hand by which we lay hold and apprehend the very mouth by which we eat and receive the Body and Blood of our Redeemer given and applied unto us in these mystical figures Non dentes sed fidem prepare not therefore thy teeth but thy Faith saith St. Aug. for crede manducasti believe and thou hast eaten And for this duty we suppose there needs little preparation or tryal every Man thinks he can readily assure and acquit himself in the performance but when we come to examination anon we shall find it a harder matter than we imagine to believe aright and as we ought The third of these preparatory qualifications is Repentance which though it be also generally required as precedaneous unto all sacrifices and services which we offer unto God according to that of the Apostle Let him depart front iniquity whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord yet the more holy and sacred the actions are the more especially ought we to cleanse our selves and purge our sins and corruptions before we go about them for I will be sanctified saith the Lord in those that draw near unto me And nearer well we cannot draw unto God or God unto us than in this Sacrament ordained of purpose to joyn and unite both in one But do we think his pure and precious body will vouchsafe to be received and dwell in an unclean and polluted Soul shall this bread panis de Coelo bread from Heaven the Childrens bread as it is in the Gospel and indeed the food of Angels shall it be given do we imagine unto whelps shall these precious Pearls of the Gospel shell'd up in Divine Mysteries be opened and cast unto Swine shall the cup of the Testament be given unto him that hath nothing to do with the Covenant surely no What hast thou to do saith God in the Psalms to take my Covenant in thy mouth so long as thou hatest to be reformed to take it in thy mouth so much as by naming of it how much less hast thou to do to take the blood of the Covenant in thy mouth by receiving it so long as thou refusest to reform thy self by true Repentance This therefore is the main and principal part of our qualification wherein we cannot be too diligent and careful and the other of Love is like unto it Of Love first unto God who hath shewn such marvellous Love unto us and from us should receive all Love and thankfulness again And then unto our brethren that as God hath loved us so should we also shew Love and Mercy unto one another In regard of the first this blessed Sacrament is well termed the Eucharist that is the Sacrament of thanksgiving wherein by the assistance of the blessed Spirit we do in all thankfulness and grateful return of our best affections solemnly commemorate the wonderful Love of the Son that suffered and the infinite goodness and mercy of the Father that gave him to death for the sins of the world In regard of the other the Love of our brethren it is as rightly stiled a Communion that is a common union for so it is doubly a common union of our selves amongst our selves and of all unto our Saviour But first we must be united unto one another before we be united unto him as we drink of one cup and eat of one bread so we must be knit into one body mystical by Love or we shall never be knit unto our head Christ Jesus by Faith What union canst thou expect with him so long as thou art at variance with those for whom he died His blood was shed for us all whilst we were yet enemies and shall we think we may drink it and in it remission of sins to our selves so long as we refuse to remit the sins of another can we hope or expect that mercy from God which we will not shew to our own flesh No no if without this thou thinkest to receive any favour from him or look he should receive or accept any sacrifice from thee thou deceivest thy self It is his rule in the Gospel If when thou comest to offer at his Altar thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave thy gift there go and first be reconciled to him then come and offer thine oblation Ecce honorem suum despicit dum in proximo charitatem requirit Behold saith Chrysost. how he preferreth thy Charity before his own honour who will not accept of any sacrifice to himself till thou hast shown love to thy neighbour And so here these four Knowledge Faith Repentance and Love are as you see the principal qualifications wherewith due preparation must of necessity adorn and beautifie the Soul they are the several parts whereof that Wedding-garment must be made up wherewith it is to be arrayed and wherein every one must appear that would be held and accepted of God for a worthy Receiver And thus much of the first points the preparation and the necessity of it drawn from the phrase and commanding force of the Text Let a man examine himself for this Let is not permissive let him do it if he will or if he will not let him chuse but mandatory and imperative let him see and be sure that he doth it and that under pain of damnation as it follows in the next verse Proceed we now in
in both and how short we have been of that due Reverence and regard those Sacred Mysteries require Shall I ask you then for so he must do that will examine what time you have taken from your earthly affairs to bestow on this holy imployment nay ask but your own hearts and they will quickly answer you for have you afforded your selves I say not a month or a week but a day or two or some hours of them to call your Souls to a strict account to strip your hearts of worldly cares and vanities and recal your wandering thoughts to those severe and serious cogitations as may become your own sanctification and the high and holy institution of your Saviour Consider well whether with David you have entred into the Chambers of your own bosoms and faithfully communed with your own Souls whether you have tryed out your hearts and reins and your spirit hath made diligent search as he both did and requires Observe heedfully whether casting off all masks and visors of Hypocrisy all Fig-leaves of diminution and excuse how thou hast exposed thy self and thy Soul naked unto the view of thy searching Conscience whether thy mortified heart beginning to thaw with remorse hath freely opened her pleits and folds wherein she hid her iniquity and presented thee with her sins in their true shape that thou mightest as truly detest and abhor them If it be so it is well if not take heed labour and strive weep cry pray do not cease be not satisfied till it be so for then it will never be right thy preparation will lack of his due and thy examination will be lame But I examine this examination no farther It is a secret act known only to their own reins and the searcher of them to whom therefore I remit it and pass on to the qualities and vertues wherewith you are to prepare and wherein I may more freely examine and evict your Souls as having outward and sensible effects whereby they may be judged And the first of these to omit knowledge whereof we have spoken sufficiently already is Faith but here examination thou thinkest altogether needless for thou art most sure and certain thou believest Yet what if one should tell thee thou didst not believe like enough thou wouldst tell him againâ— thou dost not believe him in that for thou wilt still say thou knowest nothing better than that thou believest why and I know it too and know more that the very Devils believe and tremble which is something farther and their Faith peradventure something better than thine who believest and dost not tremble which yet thou well mightest didst thou understand thy self or believe in God aright and as thou oughtest But the truth is most mens Faith as we shewed but now of the understanding follows their affections believing little more than what they desire Should a Man preach and maintain that the goods of this world ought not to be ingrossed into private and particular hands but that all things as it was in the primitive Church amongst Christians should be common who think you would believe this soonest the Rich or the Poor The Poor indeed would quickly embrace it because beneficient to them but the Rich that should be losers by it would hardly or never assent In like manner should we urge that precept under the Law that money should be lent freely to our brethren that want and not be put out to interest or inforce that Divine Precept of the Gospel to lend and look for nothing again Matth. vi the poor Creditor you may be sure will entertain this for his relief but the griping â—surer is deaf on that side and can easily find out shifts and distinctions to avoid his own inconvenience Search now and examine thy self narrowly and see if thy Faith doth not deal thus with God in the chief Articles of it scarce ever believing any thing but what it likes The object of Divine Faith is the word of God wherein besides Histories the chief things it proposeth to believe are but three Precepts Comminations and Promises Precepts of duty Comminations of punishments and Promises of reward to the observers or neglecters of them And all those equally to be assented unto because delivered by the word of the same God otherwise thy Faith is defective and maimed See then and consider truly whether thou dost adhere unto the one as to the other whether thy Faith doth not rest only upon the promises neglecting the duties and yet slighting the threatnings against those that neglect them The promises of Mercy indeed are sweet and comfortable who doth not willingly and gladly believe them but comminations and duties are terrible and troublesome and few will give them faithful entertainment That Christ suffered on the Cross and shed his blood for the sins of the whole world and every mans in particular is a pleasant and grateful Doctrine how doth our Faith hug and embrace it as if there were nothing else to be believed But should we once thunder out that of St. Paul That notwithstanding this blood no Lyer no Drunkard no Adulterer no covetous or unclean Person shall enter into the Kingdom of God here our Faith is at a stand and will be sure either not to believe it or never to acknowledge that themselves are such Again blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin saith David yea marry blessed be that tongue for ever I believe it with all my heart nay read a little farther and in whose spirit there is no guile how now why dost thou stagger pish 't is impossible this seems to have crept into the Text no body knows how St. Paul when he cited it left it out and weare not bound to believe it or any thing else we cannot away with There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus saith St. Paul a gracious promise and aâ—very cordial to the Soul every Man is ready to lay hold of it before it be out of his mouth but to whom doth it appertain To them as it follows which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit This is a severe duty on our part and a very corrosive to the flesh which will hardly be brought in subjection to the law of God and therefore will not easily believe it should or possibly may be Thus thy fruitless and preposterous Faith is ever strong to lay hold on the promises though weak and of no power to work obedience to the commands or believe the judgments denounced against disobeyers For didst thou so truly thy belief would teach thee to tremble for which cause I told thee thy Faith which in this case is only a carnal confidence falls short of that which the Scripture tells us is found in Devils that believe and tremble Nay if we search and examine a little farther we shall find thy Faith failing even in the very promises For though in spiritual promises that concern mercy and remission of
said in the loss of his friend is most true in her case Her bowels were pluckt from her and she could not but feel the wound and therefore if for nought else but her sorrow and afflictions sake she might well pray educ animam c. But other troubles she had besides and distractions in the world that often called her meditations from Heaven where they delighted wholly to converse especially in her later time wherein she so inured her Soul unto blessed contemplation as she had almost freed her self from this prison ere she was freed from the body that indeed was still in the world but her mind and affections were usually with her Maker So that those earthy cares which hang at the heels of other mens Souls like talents of lead hung at hers only but as a line that usually gave her leave to soar aloft only humane necessity that held the end of it had power now and then to draw her down to the grief and sorrow of her heart I am a witness of her complaint and of her tears too that any worldly occasions though never so necessary should trouble and interrupt her spiritual devotions and therefore I am sure in this regard it was her frequent prayer Bring my Soul out of prison And besides afflictions and cares sins she had too no question for what Soul is without them but yet so few and so far from habit as I think no man can easily tell what they were Infirmities and omissions it may be though for my part I know them not yet this I know that her goodness esteemed them as the greatest sins and bewailed them with sorrow enough to suffice one that had murdered his Father or betrayed his Country never ceasing to send forth her fervent supplications in this behalf unto the last gasp Her tongue her hands her heart all prayed this prayer her tongue as long as it could move and when that failed her hand spake and when both were gone yet questionless her heart cried this cry deliver my soul out of this prison the prison of sin But yet until the body be severed from the Soul the Soul can never utterly be severed either from sin or care or sorrow of affliction And a body she had it is now you see a carkase but sometimes was a goodly frame a well built and comeâ—y maniâ—on and even cut out of an antient Quarry but unto her whose thoughts were on another habitation above as it was in it self by reason of the corruption whereunto it was subject so she esteem'd it but a prison unto her Soul and that did at last trouble her peace with pains and delay her from those joys that are pure and know no mixture of sorrow No marvel therefore if in the desire of these she could make that her prayer which others tremble to think on deliverance from her Prison But yet there needed no earnest Prayer for this death comes fast enough on of it self without hastning it more concerns us to die well and with the comforts of God in our bosomes that may shield us from our spiritual enemies that are then busiest and guide and conduct us through the dark valley of death that is terrible in it self And therefore in this respect I rather conceive she that was so careful of her Soul could not but make it her humblest and heartiest prayer that when the time should come the Lord of his mercy would be pleased to lead it out of Prison So fit was it every way and in many regards so good a choice did she make of her prayer whilst she lived and the Lord from his holy habitation heard her cry and at last accomplisht and fulfilled it all in her death Though before he pleased to lay sorrows enough upon her yet now in the midst of them all his comforts did refresh her Soul Now he comes to it in his dearest loving kindness and leads it forth indeed with his choicest consolations and graces to make her a full recompence for all her former afflictions How doth it now rejoice others about her even in the depth of their sorrow to see her full of the Spirit and out of the abundance of it sometimes pouring down blessings on her children and childrens children and every one his several blessings like Jacob sometimes stirring up and exhorting to the fear and service of the Lord with holy Joshuâ— sometimes again solacing her self in the sweet peace of a good Conscience as blessed Samuel and lastly sometimes venting out her strong hope and stedfast confidence with St. Paul but in the words of Job I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall see him with these eyes as she often repeated But what may be said enough of her fervent praying she was ever pious and frequent in this holy exercise through the whole course of her life thrice a day at the least at morning at noon and at night besides her times of publick prayer so five times a day she prayed and I doubt not but instantly too But now when her prison began to ruine and death to appear within ken how assiduous is she now it is not Davids seven nor twice seven times a day that can suffice but she plies it as if she had meant to fulfil the Apostles precept pray continually I told you but now her heart tongue and hand prayed to the last gasp and I think that gasp was a prayer too when her understanding failed and she could neither hear nor see others yet others might see and perceive that she prayed So perfectly had she taught her tongue to pray that when her senses were locked up it could run of it self And if such a Soul as this be not whose shall ever be led forth with comfort and peace But yet before her leading forth being remembred of it she willingly made confession of her Faith acknowledging all the Articles of her Belief and adhering only unto the blood of Christ Jesus for her hope in these she had lived and in them she would die but die in charity too forgiving and desiring to be forgiven of the whole world as at other times she did not refuse to ask it even of her own Servants when she had but uttered a word with a little more earnestness than ordinary And this solemn profession made that she might farther yet fulfil all rights she gladly makes her Son her Father and receives his absolution And not long after the God of all mercies on whom she continually called answered her gently and opening the Prison eduxit animam led forth her blessed Soul full of gracious comforts unto everlasting glory for with this all the other prisons are utterly dissolved No more afflictions now nor sin nor death for ever all tears are wiped from her eyes and sorrow from her heart all pain from her Body and sin from her Soul which now in the highest Heavens compassed about with the righteous sings the songs of praise and honour and
sins now or the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter thou art more than faithful even foolishly presumptuous yet in the promises which pertain unto this life we are all for the most part though Christians in profession yet in truth and practice gross and palpable Infidels Thou beginnest thy Creed with I believe in God the Father Almighty wherein thou dost acknowledge him thy Father and therefore willing Almighty and therefore able to relieve and succour thee in all thy wants and distresses but from the teeth outwards for let want or distress approach though but afar off how art thou presently perplexed what anxious and heart-breaking care doth instantly vex and discâ—ciate thy very Soul how are thy thoughts lost and distracted this way and that and every way searching and bending thy will upon all humane helps and succours that may be imagined with such fear and distrust as if there were no God in Heaven or providence of his upon earth Tell him how of his Father Almighty that knows whereof he shall need and will not fail if he first seek his kingdom and the righteousness thereof to add and supply all other things that are necessary and you shall give him as much comfort as if you had cast water in his Shooes He is clear out of his belief now and Pater noster too when if you shew him the plain Text in Mat. Take no care that is no anxious and solicitous care what you shall eat or wherewith you shall be cloathed or in David do good and verily thou shalt be fed he will sooner laugh at their promises than believe them Nay which is strange a Man whom God hath well blest that hath 〈◊〉 want within ken nor likely to have any yet scrapes and scratches on every side as if poverty were coming on him like an armed Man as Solomon speaks who if urged to relieve the necessities of his poor Brother without a small piece of Silver though the King intreat and the King of Heaven command and his Ministers perswade yet it may not be wrâ—ng from him He can presently cast doubts who knows whether himself or his Children may not live to want Shew him the promises of God in the Scripture assuring the contrary that it shall be a means to prosper and multiply the rest tell him that of the Wiseman Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shalt find it or that of another be that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord yet nothing can move him which manifestly argues either he doth not believe God when he says it or at least not believe he is a good paymaster yet this Man thinks he hath Faith nay many of them are so far from relieving as they can find in their hearts to oppress and grind those that are poor enough already and as if they conceived that honest courses and Gods blessing on them were too weak means to provide sufficiently for themselves and Children they can shift and shark project and undermine screw themselves into testaments and deceive trusts buy over their Brothers head that imploys them for himself and use all their wits and fraudulent devices to compass an estate and root their possession in it for ever madly supposing to establish their Generations by those ways for which God never fails as he every where threatens to weed them or their posterity out of the Inheritance so purchased it being his glory ever to destroy the wisdom of the wise and to ruine the house built in fraud or on the ruines of others For the hope of the wicked saith Job is as the spiders web cunningly spun out with a great deal of labour all night and suddenly swept away in the morning What Faith then is there in this or indeed what is it else but a wild branch of meer Gentilism and infidelity if not absolute Atheism For did he truly believe God or his comminations it were not possible one that loves his Children so well could run so direct a course to destroy them But assuredly he doth not believe and whatsoever we pretend yet for the most part we secretly say in our hearts with that Fool in the Psalm if not there is no God yet at least there is no knowledge in the most high or else with those wicked ones in Job tush God careth not circa cardines coeli perambulat his walk is about the hinges of Heaven he doth not trouble himself to behold or regard the things upon Earth Do not suppose I wrong you search your own Consciences truly and I believe the best of you all will find even this infidelity lurking in them For wert thou absolutely assured in thy Soul of the omniscience and omnipresence of the Lord didst thou faithfully believe that he is every where and beholdeth every action and operation of thine though never so secret that he is about thy path and about thy bed and spyeth out all thy wayes and seeth thy thoughts more clearly than thou thy self how were it possible for thee in his presence and under those eyes so often and deeply to dissemble with thy Brother with thine own heart and with God himself Couldst thou imagine a window in thy bosome and thy Neighbour permitted now and then when thou dreamest not of it to look in upon thy impure and fraudulent thoughts and see how thy cogitations are busied how would thy Soul shame and blush to be taken tardy in such base and unworthy imployments which yet thou canst freely exercise and continue without any trouble or interruption at all though God himself and his pure eyes behold them whereunto thy breast is transparent as glass and more open than the air what doth this shew but that thou believest it not for to believe his presence truly and so much contemn it is meerly impossible It is beyond imagination to conceive were thy Faith firm in this point how it possibly can be that the sight of God and his holy Angels should not deter thee not only from thinking but from acting those secret works of darkness which the coming in but of a little child can utterly interrupt and hinder Of necessity thou must be driven to confess either that thy Faith is asleep and thou dost not believe it or thy reverence utterly dead that thou esteemest of a child more than thy Maker Assuredly could we fortify our perswasions but in this one Article of Faith and strongly apprehend the truth of it nothing could be of greater power to purge our hearts and our hands too from all evil and uncleanness Thus if thou carefully examine thy faith by the effects and judge of it as thou shouldst by thine actions for the tree is known by her fruit thou wilt easily find notwithstanding thy former conceipt of thy self how full of infidelity thy false heart is and how little thou believest either threats or precepts or promises or providence or any thing else sincerely and as thou shouldest Well therefore it would