good Divines But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godliness When we have thrown off all affections to sin when we have stripp'd our selves from all fond adherences to the things of the world and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions then we may say with David Ecce paratum est Cor meum Deus My heart is ready O God my heart is ready then we may say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth But we are not yet instructed It remains therefore that we inquire what is that immediate Principle or Means by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all Truth and be taught the Mind of God and understand all his Secrets and this is worth our knowledge I cannot say that this will end your Labours and put a period to your Studies and make your Learning easie it may possibly increase your Labour but it will make it profitable it will not end your Studies but it will direct them it will not make Humane Learning easie but it will make it wise unto Salvation and conduct it into true notices and ways of Wisdom I am now to describe to you the right way of Knowledg Qui facit Voluntatem Patris mei saith Christ that 's the way do God's Will and you shall understand God's Word And it was an excellent saying of S. Peter Add to your Faith Virtue c. If these things be in you and abound ye shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this case 't is not enough that all our hindrances of Knowledge are removed for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God but when it is opened it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read Though the windows of the East be open yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plotinus the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun the eye must be fitted to the splendor and it is not the wit of the man but the spirit of the man not so much his head as his heart that learns the Divine Philosophy 1. Now in this Inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum that every good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is taught of God and indeed unless he teach us we shall make but ill Scholars our selves and worse Guides to others Nemo potest Deum scire nisi à Deo doceatur said St. Irenaeus lib. 6. cap. 13. If God teaches us then all is well but if we do not learn Wisdom at his feet from whence should we have it it can come from no other Spring And therefore it naturally follows that by how much nearer we are to God by so much better we are like to be instructed But this being supposed as being most evident we can easily proceed by wonderful degrees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy For 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital Principle the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Wisdom and teaches us by secret Inspirations by proper Arguments by actual Perswasions by personal Applications by Effects and Energies and as the Soul of a man is the cause of all his vital Operations so is the Spirit of God the Life of that Life and the cause of all Actions and Productions Spiritual And the consequence of this is what St. John tells us of Ye have received the Vnction from above and that annointing teacheth you all things All things of some one kind that is certainly all things that pertain to life and godliness all that by which a man is wise and happy We see this by common experience Unless the Soul have a new Life put into it unless there be a vital Principle within unless the Spirit of Life be the Informer of the Spirit of the Man the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the Body in its powers and possibilities Sol Homo generant hominem saith our Philosophy A Man alone does not beget a Man but a Man and the Sun for without the influence of the Celestial Bodies all natural Actions are ineffective and so it is in the operations of the Soul Which Principle divers Phanaticks both among us and in the Church of Rome misunderstanding look for new Revelations and expect to be conducted by Ecstasie and will not pray but in a transfiguration and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations by new measures and singularities and destroy Order and despise Government and live upon illiterate Phantasms and ignorant Discourses These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they belie the Holy Ghost For the Spirit of God makes men wise it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation it does not spend its holy Influences in disguises and convulsions of the Understanding Gods Spirit does not destroy Reason but heightens it he never disorders the Beauties of Government but is a God of Order it is the Spirit of Humility and teaches no Pride he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits upon Altars and in the Doctors Chairs not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a House he goes in company with his own Ordinances and makes progressions by the measures of life his infusions are just as our acquisitions and his Graces pursue the methods of Nature that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection and that which was weak he makes strong he opens the heart not to receive murmurs or to attend to secret whispers but to hear the word of God and then he opens the heart and creates a new one and without this new creation this new principle of life we may hear the word of God but we can never understand it we hear the sound but are never the better unless there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the Spirit of God the Gospel it self is a dead Letter and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God Do not we see this by daily experience Even those things which a good man and an evil man know they do not know them both alike A wicked man does know that Good is lovely and Sin is of an evil and destructive nature and when he is reproved he is convinced and when he is observed he is ashamed and when he has done he is unsatisfied and when he pursues his sin he does it in the dark Tell him he shall die and he sighs deeply but he knows it as well as you Proceed and say that after death comes Judgment and the poor man believes and trembles he knows that God is angry with him and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow he knows that it is an intolerable truth but it is also undeniable And yet after all this
than all the Riches and all the Pleasures and all the Vanities and all the Kingdoms of this world I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the abode of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings and yet possibly that might be easier than to tell what or how the Soul is and works in this world where it is in the Body tanquam in alienâ domo as in a prison in fetters and restraints for here the Soul is discomposed and hindred it is not as it shall be as it ought to be as it was intended to be it is not permitted to its own freedom and proper operation so that all that we can understand of it here is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line in just and equal propositions or if it could yet because we are to understand the Soul by the Soul it becomes not only a troubled and abused object but a crooked instrument and we here can consider it just as a weak eye can behold a staff thrust into the waters of a troubled River the very water makes a refraction and the storm doubles the refraction and the water of the eye doubles the species and there is nothing right in the thing the object is out of its just place and the medium is troubled and the organ is impotent At cum exierit in liberum coelum quasi in dontum suam venerit when the Soul is entred into her own house into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly Joys then its operations are more spiritual proper and proportion'd to its being and though we cannot see at such a distance yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable Understanding it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition Certain it is that the Body does hinder many actions of the Soul It is an imperfect Body and a diseased Brain or a violent passion that makes Fools No man hath a foolish Soul and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the Bodies constitution Among Beasts which have no Reason there is a greater likeness than between Men who have And as by Faces it is easier to know a Man from a Man than a Sparrow from a Sparrow or a Squirrel from a Squirrel so the difference is very great in our Souls which difference because it is not originally in the Soul and indeed cannot be in simple or spiritual substances of the same species or kind it must needs derive wholly from the Body from its accidents and circumstances from whence it follows that because the Body casts fetters and restraints hinderances and impediments upon the Soul that the Soul is much freer in the state of separation and if it hath any act of life it is much more noble and expedite That the Soul is alive after our death St. Paul affirms Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Now it were strange that we should be alive and live with Christ and yet do no act of life The Body when it is asleep does many and if the Soul does none the Principle is less active than the Instrument but if it does any act at all in separation it must necessarily be an act or effect of Understanding there is nothing else it can do but this it can For it is but a weak and an unlearned Proposition to say That the Soul can do nothing of it self nothing without the phantasms and provisions of the Body For 1. In this life the Soul hath one principle clearly separate abstracted and immaterial I mean the Spirit of Grace which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter as in the infusion superinduction and creation of spiritual Graces 2. As nutrition generation eating and drinking are actions proper to the Body and its state so extasies visions raptures intuitive knowledg and consideration of its self acts of volition and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the Soul 3. And therefore it is observable that St. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body for by that we see his judgment of the thing that one was as likely as the other neither of them impossible or unreasonable and therefore that the Soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction 4. If in the state of Blessedness there are some actions of the Soul which do not pass through the Body such as contemplation of God and conversing with Spirits and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and Mysterious Trinity make up the Crown of Glory it follows that the necessity of the Bodies ministery is but during the state of this life and as long as it converses with fire and water and lives with corn and flesh and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetites which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases it can be no longer necessary for the Soul to be served by phantasms and material representations 5. And therefore when the Body shall be re-united it shall be so ordered that then the Body shall confess it gives not any thing but receives all its being and operation its manner and abode from the Soul and that then it comes not to serve a necessity but to partake a Glory For as the operations of the Soul in this life begin in the Body and by it the object is transmitted to the Soul so then they shall begin in the Soul and pass to the Body And as the operations of the Soul by reason of its dependence on the Body are animal natural and material so in the resurrection the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence influence and prime operation of the Soul Now between these two states stands the state of separation in which the operations of the Soul are of a middle nature that is not so spiritual as in the resurrection and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction To all which I add this consideration That our Souls have the same condition that Christs Soul had in the state of separation because he took on him all our Nature and all our Condition and it is certain Christs Soul in the three days of his separation did exercise acts of life of joy and triumph and did not sleep but visited the Souls of the Fathers trampled upon the pride of Devils and satisfied those longing Souls which were Prisoners of hope And from all this we may conclude That the Souls of all the Servants of Christ are alive and therefore do the actions of life and proper to their state and therefore it is highly probable that the Soul works clearer and understands brighter and discourses wiser and rejoyces louder and
testâque lutoque 〈…〉 quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivit being â—â—â—ording to the Jewish proverbial reproof as so many Mephibosheths discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum their Master teaches them to go uprightly but they still show their lame leg and shame their Master as if a man might be a Christian and yet be the vilest person in the world doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an insufferable and never ending damnation Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the Righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be Religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and sayes Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisâ— qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and 〈◊〉 the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain 〈◊〉 meat and drink even when they are commanded which is 〈◊〉 if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart shouâ—◠〈◊〉 to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect 〈◊〉 Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore 〈◊〉 fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our inquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical Righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is always the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him
believing his Word praying for his Spirit supported with his Hope refreshed by his Promises recreated by his Comforts and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life that is the true Communion The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent they are the food of our Souls but our Souls must be alive unto God or else they cannot eat It is good to confess our sins as St. James sayes and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion but they absolve none but such as are are truly penitent Solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies of the Faithful and fasting days and acts of external worship are the solemnities and rites of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus defined the Righteousness of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts and faculties that make up a man must make up our Religion but the heart is Domus principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues with a humble and a good mind with a bountiful heart and a willing Soul and these will command the eye and give laws to the hand and make the shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque a mans soul is the man and so is his Religion and so you are bound to understand it True it is God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must work together with God and the body works together with the soul But no external action can purifie the soul because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats or a a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations The sum is this No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart And although it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification Leges non ex verbis sed ex mente intelligendas sayes the Law There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning we must secure his service we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure And therefore our Righteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery unless our Eyes and Hands be chast and the desires be clean A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her He must hate Sin in all dimensions and in all distances and in every angle of its reception A Christian must not sin and he must not be willing to sin if he durst He must not be lustful and therefore he must not feed high nor drink deep for these make provisions for lust and amongst Christians great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance and whatever ministers to sin and is the way of it partakes of its nature and its curse For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different Mortification e. g is a duty of Christianity but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns as St. Benedict did or to burn our flesh like St. Martinian or to tumble in Snows with St. Francis or in pools of water with St. Bernard A man may chew Aloes or ly upon the ground or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love and so the thing be done no special Instrument is under a command * But although the Instruments of vertue are free yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not Not only the sin is forbidden but all the wayes that lead to it The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent that is not naturally but good only for their relation sake and in order to their end But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious they are part of the sin they have a share in the phantastick pleasure and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God and are directly in the prohibition For we are commanded to fly from temptation to pray against it to abstain from all appearances of evil to make a covenant with our eyes to pluck them out if there be need And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification they will be innocent only by the measures of humane Laws but not by the righteousness of God 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty not only to what is named and what is not named of the same nature and design but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins * Of this nature there are many All violences of Passion Irregularities in Gaming Prodigality of our time Undecency of action doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession aptness to go to Law Ambitus or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother easiness to believe evil of others willingness to report the evil which we hear curiosity of Dyet peevishness toward servants indiscreet and importune standing for place and all excess in ornaments for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and Royal Law of Charity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul the word is a word hard to be understood we render it well enough Charity vaunteth not it self and upon this S. Basil says that an Ecclesiastick person and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a vaunting which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure * These things are like to sins they are of a suspicious nature and not easily to be reconcil'd to the Righteousness Evangelical It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends
Resurrection that is from sin to grace from the death of vitious habits to the vigour life and efficacy of an habitual righteousness For as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned to them I say in the literal sense Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection upon them the second death shall have no power meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again were holy and blessed souls and such who were written in the book of God and that this grace hapned to no wicked and vitious person so it is most true in the spiritual and intended sense You only that serve God in a holy life you who are not dead in trespasses and sins you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry and a holy Religion you and you only shall come to life eternal you only shall be called from death to life the rest of mankind shall never live again but pass from death to death from one â—eath to another to a worse from the death of the body to the eterâ—al death of body and soul and therefore in the Apostles Creed there â—s no mention made of the Resurrection of wicked persons but of the Resurrection of the body to everlasting life The wicked indeed shall be haâ—eâ— forth from their graves from their everlasting prisons where in chains â—f â—arkness they are kept unto the judgment of the great day but this â—â—â—â—efore cannot be called in sensu favoris a Resurrection but the soâ—â—â—â—ities of the eternal death It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again such a dying as cannot signifie rest but where death means nothing but an intollerable and never ceasing calamity and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked otherwise of the godly The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again no not in the gatherings of eternity They shall be put into Vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell but that is not a gathering but a scattering from the face and presence of God But the godly also come under the sense of these words They descend into their Graves and shall no more be reckoned among the living they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks Armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned than had the Hippocentaur who never had a being and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendom than we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines Conspiracy What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us These things that now happen concern the living and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively and when our Wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion It is true they envy not and they lie in a bosom where there can be no murmur and they that are consigned to Kingdoms and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb the glorious and eternal Bridegroom of holy Souls they cannot think our Marriages here our lighter laughings and vain rejoicings considerable as to them And yet there is a relation continued still Aristotle said that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind And the Church hath taught in general that they pray for us they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us and S. Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus that he should do for him in the other world he gave it him I say when he was dying not when he was dead And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions yet it is not less but much more than ever it was it is greater in degree and of another kind But then we should do well also to remember that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations but preserve the affections we bore to our dead when they were alive We must not so live as if they were perished but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints And we also have some ways to express this relation and to bear a part in this communion by actions of intercourse with them aud yet proper to our state such as are strictly performing the will of the dead providing for and tenderly and wisely educating their children paying their debts imitating their good example preserving their memories privately and publickly keeping their memorials and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyful Resurrection and a merciful Judgment for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus that God would shew them mercy in that day that fearful and yet much to be desired day in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity and shall find it Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations yet I do not find they have liberty to cast off the old as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls Remember that we shall converse together again let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered and that we shall meet again in the presence of God In the mean time God watcheth concerning all their interest and he will in his time both discover and recompense For though as to us they are like water spilt yet to God they are as water fallen in the Sea safe and united in his comprehension and inclosures But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence This descending to the grave is the lot of all men neither doth God respect the person of any man The rich is not protected for favour nor the poor for pity the old man is not reverenced for his age nor the Infant regarded for his tenderness youth and beauty learning and prudence wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the Grave All men and all natures and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death and strive to preserve a miserable and unpleasant life and yet they all sink down and die For so have
loves noblier and desires purer and hopes stronger than it can do here But if these arguments should fail yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail For suppose the Body to be a necessary Instrument but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger by accident and chance by defect and imperfections yet that it is better than none at all and that if the Soul works imperfectly with an imperfect Body that then she works not at all when she hath none And suppose also that the Soul should be as much without sense or perception in death as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him For 2. God will restore the Soul to the Body and raise the Body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon it shall be made spiritual to minister to the Soul when the Soul is turned into a Spirit then the Soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed from her rest in Christs holy Bosom and be made perfect in her being and in all her operations And this shall first appear by that perfection which the Soul shall receive as instrumental to the last Judgment for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this World all the Register of her own Memory For all that we did in this life is laid up in our Memories and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them yet when God shall lift us from our dust then shall appear clearly all that we have done written in the Tables of our Conscience which is the Souls Memory We see many times and in many instances that a great Memory is hindred and put out and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a Curtain we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction or proper consequence And all those famous Memories of Simonides and Theodactes of Hortensius and Seneca of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus are only the Records better kept and less disturbed by accident and disease For even the Memory of Herods son of Athens of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great and by God made so sure a Record of all that ever he did that as soon as ever God shall but tune our Instrument and draw the Curtains and but light up the Candle of Immortality there we shall find it all there we shall see all and the whole world shall see all then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits we shall be like to Angels In the mean time although upon the perswasion of the former Discourse it be highly probable that the Souls of Gods Servants do live in a state of present blessedness and in the exceeding joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living and leave the event to God that as St. Paul said whether present or absent whether sleeping or waking whether perceiving or perceiving not we may be accepted of him that when we are banished this World and from the light of the Sun we may not be expelled from God and from the light of his countenance but that from our beds of sorrows our Souls may pass into the Bosom of Christ and from thence to his right hand in the day of Sentence For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and then if we have done well in the Body we shall never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God but be Domesticks of his Family and Heirs of his Kingdom and Partakers of his Glory Amen I Have now done with my Text but yet am to make you another Sermon I have told you the necessity and the state of death it may be too largely for such a sad story I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain Narative of a Life which if you imitate and write after the Copy it will make that death shall not be an evil but a thing to be desired and to be reckoned among the purchases and advantages of your Fortune When Martha and Mary went to weep over the Grave of their Brother Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon discoursing of the Resurrection and applying to the purposes of Faith and confession of Christ and glorification of God We have no other we can have no better precedent to follow and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister this rare Personage we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn many to imitate and some to exercise I chuse not to declare her Extraction and Genealogy it was indeed fair and honourable but having the blessing to be descended from Worthy and Honour'd Ancestors and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble Family yet she felt such outward Appendages to be none of hers because not of her choice but the purchase of the Virtues of others which although they did engage her to do noble things yet they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable Lives than were those which began and encreased the honour of the Families She did not love her Fortune for making her noble but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Nobleness and Excellency of Virtue fit to be owned by Persons relating to such Ancestors It is fit for us all to honour the Nobleness of a Family but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their Honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things and suffering in good causes and despising dishonourable actions and in communicating good things to others For this is the rule in Nature Those Creatures are most honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good And accordingly my self have been witness of it how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair Appendage and exteriour Honour which decked her Person and her Fortune and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the Honour of a Christian and a wise Person 2. She had a strict and severe education and it was one of Gods Graces and Favours to her For being the Heiress of a great Fortune and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations that is in that part of the Kingdom where Greatness is too often express'd in great follies and great vices God had provided a severe and angry Education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young Spirit and a fair Fortune that she might for ever be so far distant from
and design of their persons God sent them to bring the people from sin and not to be like so many Jeroboams the Sons of Nebat to set forward the Devils Kingdom to make the people to transgress the Covenant of their God For they who live more by example than by precept will more easily follow the works of their Minister than the words of God and few men will aspire to be more righteous than their guide they think it well if they be as he is and hence it is no wonder that we see iniquity so popular Oppida tota canem venerantur nemo Dianam every man runs after his lusts and after his money because they see too many of the Clergy little looking after the ways of godliness But then consider let all such persons consider 5. That the accounts which an ungodly and an irreligious Minister of Religion shall make must needs be intolerable when besides the damnation which shall certainly be inflicted upon them for the sins of their own lives they shall also reckon for all the dishonours they do to God and to Religion and for all the sins of the people which they did not in all just ways endeavour to hinder and all the sins which their Flocks have committed by their evil example and undisciplin'd lives 6. I have but two words more to say in this affair 1. Every Minister that lives an evil life is that person whom our Blessed Saviour means under the odious appellative of a Hireling For he is not the hireling that receives wages or that lives of the Altar sine farinâ non est lex said the DD. of the Jews without bread-corn no man can preach the Law and S. Paul though he spared the Corinthians yet he took wages of other Churches of all but in the Regions of Achaia and the Law of Nature and the Law of the Gospel have taken care that he that serves at the Altar should live of the Altar and he is no hireling for all that but he is a hireling that does not do his duty he that flies when the Wolf comes says Christ he that is not present with them in dangers that helps them not to resist the Devil to master their temptations to invite them on to piety to gain souls to Christ to him it may be said as the Apostle did of the Gnosticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gain to them is godliness and Theology is but artificium venale a trade of life to fill the belly and keep the body warm An cuiquam licere putas quod cuivis non licet Is any thing lawful for thee that is not lawful for every man and if thou dost not mind in thy own case whether it be lawful or no then thou dost but sell Sermons and give Counsel at a price and like a flye in the Temple taste of every Sacrifice but do nothing but trouble the religious Rites for certain it is no man takes on him this Office but he either seeks those things which are his own or those things which are Jesus Christs and if he does this he is a Minister of Jesus Christ if he does the other he is the hireling and intends nothing but his belly and God shall destroy both it and him 7. Lastly These things I have said unto you that ye sin not but this is not the great thing here intended you may be innocent and yet not zealous of good works but if you be not this you are not Good Ministers of Jesus Christ But that this is infinitely your duty and indispensably incumbent on you all besides the express words of my Text and all the precepts of Christ and his Apostles we have the concurrent sence of the whole Church the Laws and expectations of all the world requiring of the Clergy a great and an examplar sanctity for g. it is that upon this necessity is founded the Doctrine of all Divines in their Discourses of the states and orders of Religion of which you may largely inform your selves in Gerson's Treatise De perfectione Religionis in Aquinas 22. q. 184. and in all his Scholars upon that Question the sum of which is this That all those institutions of Religions which S. Anselm calls factitias Religiones that is the Schools of Discipline in which men forsaking the world give themselves up wholly to a pious life they are indeed very excellent if rightly performed they are status perfectionis acquirendae they are excellent institutions for the acquiring perfection but the state of the superior Clergy is status perfectionis exercendae they are states which suppose perfection to be already in great measures acquired and then to be exercised not only in their own lives but in the whole Oeconomy of their Office and g. as none are to be chosen but those who have given themselves up to the strictness of a holy life so far as can be known so none do their duty so much as tolerably but those who by an exemplar sanctity become patterns to their Flocks of all good works Herod's Doves could never have invited so many strangers to their Dove-cotes if they had not been besmeared with Opobalsamum But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Didymus make your Pigeons smell sweet and they will allure whole Flocks and if your life be excellent if your virtues be like a precious oyntment you will soon invite your Charges to run in odorem unguentorum after your precious odours But you must be excellent not tanquam unus de populo but tanquam homo Dei you must be a man of God not after the common manner of men but after Gods own heart and men will strive to be like you if you be like to God but when you only stand at the door of virtue for nothing but to keep sin out you will draw into the folds of Christ none but such as fear drives in Ad majorem Dei gloriam to do what will most glorifie God that 's the line you must walk by for to do no more than all men needs must is servility not so much as the affection of Sons much less can you be Fathers to the people when you go not so far as the Sons of God for a dark Lanthorn though there be a weak brightness on one side will scarce inlighten one much less will it conduct a multitude or allure many followers by the brightness of its flame And indeed the Duty appears in this that many things are lawful for the people which are scandalous in the Clergy you are tied to more abstinences to more severities to more renunciations and self-denials you may not with that freedom receive secular contentments that others may you must spend more time in Prayers your Alms must be more bountiful your hands more open your hearts enlarged others must relieve the poor you must take care of them others must shew themselves their brethren but you must be their Fathers they must pray frequently and fervently but you
to present his Church to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without spot or wrinkle or any such thing N. B. or any such thing If there be any irregularity that is less than a wrinkle the Evangelical Righteousness does not allow it * These are such things which if men will stand to defend possibly a modest Reprover be more ashamed than an impudent Offender * If I see a person apt to quarrel to take every thing in an ill sence to resent an error deeply to reprove it bitterly to remember it tenaciously to repeat it frequently to upbraid it unhandsomly I think I have great reason to say that this person does not do what becomes the sweetness of a Christian Spirit If it be replied It is no where forbidden to chide an offending person and that it cannot be a fault to understand when a thing is said or done amiss I cannot return an answer but by saying That suppose nothing of it were a sin yet that every thing of it is so like a sin that it is the worse for it and that it were better not to do so at least I think so and so ought you too if you be curious of your eternal interest a little more tenderness here would do well I cannot say that this dress or this garment or this standing for place is the direct sin of pride but I am sure it looks like it in some persons at least the letting it alone is much better and is very like humility And certain it is that he is dull of hearing who understands not the voice of God unless it be clamorous in an express and a loud Commandment proclaimed with Trumpets and Clarions upon mount Sinai but a willing and an obedient ear understands the still voice of Christ and is ready to obey his meaning at half a word and that is the Righteousness Evangelical It not only abstains from sins named and sins implied but from the beginnings and instruments of sin and from whatsoever is like it The Jews were so great haters of Swine upon pretensions of the Mosacik rites that they would not so much as name a Swine but called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daber Acher another thing And thus the Romans in their Auguries us'd alterum for non bonum The simile of this St. Paul translates to a Christian duty Let not fornication be so much as named amongst you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is comely amongst Christians that is come not neer a foul thing speak not of it let it be wholly banished from all your conversation for this niceness and curiosity of duty becometh Saints and is an instance of the Righteousness Evangelical I have now done with the first sort of measures of the Christian Righteousness these which are the matter of our negative duty these are the measures of our caution and our first innocence But there are greater things behind which although I must croud up into a narrow room yet I must not wholly omit them therefore 4. The fourth thing I shall note to you is that whereas the righteousness of the Pharisees was but a fragment of the broken Tables of Moses the pursuance of some one Grace laoinia sanctitatis a piece of the robe of Righteousness the Righteousness Evangelical must be like Christs seamless Coat all of a piece from the top to the bottom it must invest the whole Soul Misma Dumah Massah said the Proverb of the Rabbins It is this and it is the other and it must be all it must be an Universal Righteousness not a little knot of holy actions scattered in our lives and drawn into a sum at the day of Judgment but it must be a state of holiness It was said of the Paphlagonian Pigeons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one of them had two hearts but that in our mystical Theology signifies a wicked man So said Solomon The perverse or wicked man derachaim he is a man of two wayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. James expresses an unbeliever a man that will and will not something he does for God and something for the world he hath two minds and in a good fit in his well dayes he is full of Repentance and overflows in piety but the Paroxism will return in the day of temptation and then he is gone infallibly But know this that in the Righteousness Evangelical one duty cannot be exchanged for another and three vertues will not make amends for one remaining vice He that oppresses the poor cannot make amends by giving good Counsel and if a Priest be Simonaical he cannot be esteemed righteous before God by preaching well and taking care of his Charge To be zealous for God and for Religion is good but that will not legitimate cruelty to our Brother It is not enough for a man to be a good Citizen unless he be also a good man but some men build their houses with half a dozen cross sticks and turfe is the foundation and straw is the covering and they think they dwell securely their Religion is made up of two or three vertues and they think to commute with God some good for some bad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one deadly wound were not enough to destroy the most healthful constitution in the world Deceive not your selves It is all one on which hand we fall Vnum operantur Et calor frigus sic hoc sic illud adurit Sic tenebrae visum sic sol contrarius aufert The Moon may burn us by night as well as the Sun by day and a man may be made blind by the light of the Sun as well as by the darkness of the evening and any one great mischief is enough to destroy one man Some men are very meek and gentle naturally and that they serve God withal they pursue the vertue of their nature that is they tye a stone at the bottom of the well and that 's more than needs the stone will stay there without that trouble and this good inclination will of it self easily proceed to issue and therefore our care and caution should be more carefully employed in mortification of our natures and acquist of such vertues to which we are more refractory and then cherish the other too even as much as we please but at the same time we are busie in this it may be we are secret Adulterers and that will spoil our confidences in the goodness of the other instance others are greatly bountiful to the poor and love all mankind and hurt no body but themselves but it is a thousand pities to see such loving good natured persons to perish infinitely by one crime and to see such excellent good things thrown away to please an uncontrolled and a stubborn lust but so do some escape out of a pit and are taken in a trap at their going forth and stepping aside to avoid the hoar Frost fall into a Valley full of Snow The Righteousness Evangelical is another kind of
appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul when he does evil he must suffer evil but if he does not repent besides a worse thing will happen to him for we are not tyed to obey only for wrath but also for Conscience Passive Obedience is only the correspondent of wrath but it is the active Obedience that is required by Conscience and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault it matters nothing as to his Duty but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority I have now told you the sum of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government and it will be to little purpose to make Laws in matter of Religion or in any thing else if the end of it be that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no and if it be questioned whether you be deceived or no though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your Authority yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right than that the disobedient Subject is because you are conducted with a publick spirit you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of Gods assistance you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation you have the Scriptures and the Laws you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your Consultations you are the most concerned for Peace and to please God also is your biggest interest and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis the presumption of truth ought to be on your side and since this is the most likely way for Truth and the most certain way for Peace you are to insist in this and it is not possible to find a better I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle but because I have no more time of mine own and I will not take any of yours I shall only do it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory and so conclude God hath put a Royal Mantle and fastned it with a Golden Clasp upon the shoulder of the KING and he hath given you the Judges Robe the King holds the Scepter and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball and to take it a while into your handling and make Obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the rest you cannot reasonably expect that the Subjects should obey you unless you obey God I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty though in that also it would be considered that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons and what we are to do in the matters of Doctrine you are also to do in the matters of Laws what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion is also the best Method for the advantages of Government we must preach by our good example and you must govern by it and your good example in observing the Laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of Union and of Government for as now you have a new Power so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty 1. Take care that all your Power and your Consels be employed in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness Then you obey God in your publick capacity when by holy Laws and wise Administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious people For then you are Princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alienae said Ammianus Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life see that God be obeyed take care that the breach of the Laws of God may not be unpunished The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good Servants of God Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity let Lust find a publick shame let the Sons of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God than the meanest of the people shall let baseness be basely esteemed that is put such Characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes that it be esteemed more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk than to be kicked more shame to fornicate than to be caned and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin unless he be a person of quality Optimus est reipublicae status ubi nihil deest nisi licentia pereundi In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things where every thing can be had but a leave to sin a licence to be undone 2. As God is thus to be obeyed and you are to take care that he be so God also must be honoured by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings and the ministeries of your Religion For certain it is this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted be not discouraged For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak and so long as you make Religion your care and Holiness your measure you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities unless they be Ecclesiastical but that they may be reviled and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief yet Sacrilege is no dishonour and indeed to be an Oppressor is a
ages past and troubled themselves with tying untying knots like Hypocondriacks in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocal and unnatural Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and careful and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy Spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeal in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist than to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the Body of Religion not so much for the Garment of the Body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things in which the Soul and Spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Natural medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may relye The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recital of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to do and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jews revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more Learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the Knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new Lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29. 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightness of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this Spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the Spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye
the great Syrian that stirred up the sluggish and awakened the sleepers and comforted the afflicted and brought the young men to discipline the Looking-glass of the Religious the Captain of the Penitents the destruction of Heresies the receptacle of Graces the habitation of the Holy Ghost These were the men that prevailed against Errour because they lived according to Truth and whoever shall oppose you and the Truth you walk by may better be confuted by your Lives than by your Disputations Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you and then you will best silence them For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow it deceived none but Beasts and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent them that love a Lie and live according to it But if ye become burning and shining lights if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrines will be true and that Truth will prevail But if ye live wickedly and scandalously every little Schismatick shall put you to shame and draw Disciples after him and abuse your Flocks and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the Chairs appointed for your Religion I pray God give you all Grace to follow this Wisdom to study this Learning to labour for the understanding of Godliness so your Time and your Studies your Persons and your Labours will be holy and useful sanctified and blessed beneficial to men and pleasing to God through him who is the Wisdom of the Father who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption To whom with the Father c. FINIS A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A Succinct Narrative of His whole Life The fourth Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1666. A Funeral Sermon SERM. VII 1 Cor. XV. 23. But every Man in his own Order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THE Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of man It is indeed the Resurrection of of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity only because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's Curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoices because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories and though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the salvation of his Soul in the Resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we dye daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the Body to the life of the Soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He dyed for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead of Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushroom or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the Regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the Daughters of Rapine and Ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if men shall dye like Dogs and Sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the
of his perfect obedience and purest holiness and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience and the same perfect holiness prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection But upon no other terms So said our blessed Lord himself Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon Thrones judging the Tribes of Israel For as it was with Christ the first Fruits so it shall be with all Christians in their own order as with the Head so it shall be with the Members He was the Son of God by love and obedience and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal and so shall we but we cannot be so in any other way To them that are Christ's and to none else shall this be given For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life As God brought Christ to glory so he will bring us but by no other method He first obeyed the will of God and patiently suffered the will of God he dyed and rose again and entred into glory and so must we Thus Christ is made Via Veritas Vita the Way the Truth and the Life that is the true way to Eternal life He first trode this Wine-press and we must insist in the same steps or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner and we by him by his merit and by his grace and by his example but other than this there is no way of Salvation for us That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order 4. But there is one thing more in it yet Every man in his own order First Christ and then they that are Christ's But what shall become of them that are not Christs why there is an order for them too First they that are Christs and then they that are not his * Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life The dead in Christ shall rise first Now blessed are they that have their portion here for upon these the second death shall have no power As for the recalling the wicked from their Graves it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection than taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of Liberty When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile but when the fire began to approach and the heat to warm the body he revived and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames called out aloud to his friends to rescue not the dead but the living Aviola from that horrid burning But it could not be he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment Just so shall the wicked live again they shall receive their Souls that they may be a portion for Devils they shall receive their bodies that they may feel the everlasting burning they shall see Christ that they may look on him whom they have pierced and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence they shall come from their Graves that they may go into Hell and live again that they may die for ever So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep till he hath forgotten his groans and laid aside his deep sighings but on a sudden comes the Messenger of death and unbinds the Poppy Garland scatters the heavy Cloud that incircled his miserable head and makes him return to acts of life that he may quickly descend into death and be no more So is every Sinner that lies down in shame and makes his grave with the wicked he shall indeed rise again and be call'd upon by the voice of the Archangel but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnom These indeed are sad stories but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the Holy Jesus They are Gods Words and Gods Decrees and I wish that all who profess the belief of these would consider sadly what they mean If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body whether it be good or bad It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed for if we glorifie God in our bodies God shall make our bodies glorious It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure or eat nothing but bitter herbs the body that lies in dust and ashes that goes stooping and feeble that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline shall be feasted at the eternal Supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this That beastly pleasures and lying lips and a deceitful tongue and a heart that sendeth forth proud things are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of dissolution for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of Glory which God designs the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light and shall become like unto God They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death let us not be dead in trespasses and sins for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believed and harder to be effected But if any of you have lost the life of Grace and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory betake your selves to an early and an entire Piety that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves For if it be possible that the Spirit when it is dead in sin can arise to a life of Righteousness much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again And this is a consequent of St. Paul's Argument Rom. 5. 10. If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life plainly declaring that it
hand he therefore espying this put his house in order and had lately visited his Diocese and done what he then could to put his Charge in order for he had a good while since received the sentence of death within himself and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death which God sent him the last January made his Will in which besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate and provisions for his Descendants at midnight and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England confessed his Faith to be the same as ever gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion and prayed to God and hoped he should die in the Communion of this Church which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole World He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ and with a singular sweetness resigned up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer But God who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death was not pleased then to draw the Curtains there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken He returned to actions and life and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church complained of some disorders which he purposed to redress girt himself to the work but though his spirit was willing yet his flesh was weak and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion so he in the eye of his own Dissolution was heavy not to sleep but heavy unto death and looked for the last warning which seized on him in the midst of business and though it was sudden yet it could not be unexpected or unprovided by surprize and therefore could be no other than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus used to wish unto himself a civil and well-natured death without the amazement of troublesome circumstances or the great cracks of a falling house or the convulsions of impatience Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu si tamen esset habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii He hoped that the pains of the last Dissolution were little or none or if they were it was full of comfort that they could be but short It happened so to this excellent man his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before and therefore there was the less need of it now his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did and therefore his last scene was not so laborious but God called him away something after the manner of Moses which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei the Kiss of Gods mouth that is a death indeed fore-signified but gentle and serene and without temptation To sum up all He was a wise Prelate a learned Doctor a just Man a true Friend a great Benefactor to others a thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself He was a faithful Servant to his Masters a Loyal Subject to the King a zealous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side and Fanaticism on the other The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church as it was in doing good for others He was like Myson whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he governed his Family well he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty he did great benefit to mankind he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul he passed through evil report and good report as a deceiver and yet true He was a man of great business and great resort Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo as the Corinthians said There was always somebody in Cydons house He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he divided his life into labour and his book he took care of his Churches when he was alive and even after his death having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda He was an excellent Scholar and rarely well accomplished first instructed to great excellency by natural parts and then consummated by study and experience Melanchthon was used to say that himself was a Logician Pomeranus a Grammarian Justus Jonas an Orator but that Luther was all these It was greatly true of him that the single perfections which make many men eminent were united in this Primate and made him illustrious At at Quintilium perpetuus sopor Vrget cui pudor justitiae soror Incorrupta fides nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem It will be hard to find his Equal in all things Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur that I may use the words of Seneca nec est mirum ex intervallo magna generari mediocria in turbam nascentia saepe fortuna producit eximia vero ipsa raritate commendat For in him was visible the great lines of Hooker's Judiciousness of Jewel's Learning of the acuteness of Bishop Andrews He was skilled in more great things than one and as one said of Phidias he could not only make excellent Statues of Ivory but he could work in Stone and Brass He shewed his Equanimity in Poverty and his Justice in Riches he was useful in his Country and profitable in his Banishment for as Paraeus was at Anvilla Luther at Wittenburg S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom in their Banishment S. Hierom in his retirement at Bethlehem they were Oracles to them that needed it so was he in Holland and France where he was abroad and beside the particular endearments which his friends received from him for he did do relief to his brethren that wanted and supplied the Souldiers out of his store in Yorkshire when himself could but ill spare it but he received publick thanks from the Convocation of which he was President and publick Justification from the Parliament where he was Speaker so that although as one said Miraculi instar vitae iter si longum sine offensione percurrere yet no man had greater Enemies and no man had greater justifications But God hath taken our Elijah from our heads this day I pray God that at least his Mantle may be left behind and that his Spirit may be doubled upon his Successor and that we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb where every man shall receive according
and it is a long time before Nature makes them capable of help for there are many deaths and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed but they have but very few capacities of Physick to shew that infancy is as liable to death as old age and equally exposed to danger and equally uncapable of a remedy with this only difference that old age hath diseases incurable by nature and the diseases of childhood are incurable by art and both the states are the next heirs of death 3. But all the middle way the case is altered Nature is strong and Art is apt to give ease and remedy but still there is no security and there the case is not altered 1. For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood 2. So many new ones every year 3. The old ones are so changed in circumstances and intermingled with so many collateral complications 4. The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike 5. Sometimes so hidden and fallacious 6. Sometimes none at all as in the most sudden and most dangerous Imposthumations 7. And then the diseases in the inward parts of the body are oftentimes such to which no application can be made 8. They are so far off that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them than the effect and juices of all meats that is not till after two or three alterations and decoctions which change the very species of the medicament 9. And after all this very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain that after they have been believed seven or eight Ages and that upon them much of the practice hath been established they come to be considered by a witty man and others established in their stead by which men must practise and by which three or four generations of men more as happens must live or die 10. And all this while the men are sick and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present and very uncertainly restore health for the future that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity when Gods providence hath not only made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency but even from the remedies which are appointed our dangers and our troubles are certainly encreased so that we may well be likened to water our nature is no stronger our abode no more certain if the sluces be opened it falls away and runneth apace if its current be stopped it swells and grows troublesome and spills over with a greater diffusion if it be made to stand still it putrifies and all this we do For 4. In all the process of our health we are running to our grave we open our own sluces by viciousness and unworthy actions we pour in drink and let out life we increase diseases and know not how to bear them we strangle our selves with our own intemperance we suffer the fevers and the inflammations of lust and we quench our souls with drunkenness we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets and then we lie down upon our beds and roar with pain and disquietness of our souls Nay we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly with the effects of pride and uncharitableness we live and die like fools and bring a new mortality upon our selves wars and vexatious cares and private duells and publick disorders and every thing that is unreasonable and every thing that is violent so that now we may add this fourth gate to the Grave Besides Nature and Chance and the mistakes of Art men die with their own Sins and then enter into the Grave in haste and passion and pull the heavy stone of the Monument upon their own heads And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable and indeed most men make them so we let our years slip through our fingers like water and nothing is to be seen but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground there is a Grave digged and a solemn mourning and a great talk in the Neighbourhood and when the daies are finished they shall be and they shall be remembred no more And that 's like water too when it is spilt it cannot be gathered up again There is no redemption from the Grave inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitäi lampada tradunt Men live in their course and by turns their light burns a while and then it burns blew and faint and men go to converse with Spirits and then they reach the taper to another and as the hours of yesterday can never return again so neither can the man whose hours they were and who lived them over once he shall never come to live them again and live them better When Lazarus and the widows Son of Naim and Tebitha and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the Resurrection of our blessed Lord arose they came into this world some as strangers only to make a visit and all of them to manifest a glory but none came upon the stock of a new life or entred upon the stage as at first or to perform the course of a new nature and therefore it is observable that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house but neither he nor any from him could be sent but all the rest in the new Testament one only excepted were expressed to have been holy persons or else by their age were declared innocent Lazarus was beloved of Christ those souls that appeared at the Resurrection were the souls of Saints Tabitha raised by S. Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian and the maiden of twelve years old raised by our blessed Saviour had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulness and the only exception of the widows son is indeed none at all for in it the Scripture is wholly silent and therefore it is very probable that the same process was used God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit and in spiritual capacities So that although the Lord of Nature did not break the bands of Nature in some instances to manifest his glory to succeeding great and never failing purposes yet besides that this shall be no more it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent and within the verge and comprehensions of the Eternal mercy We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle or was raised from the Grave to try the second time for a Crown but where he fell there he lay down dead and saw the light no more This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor and an advice of carefulness that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first
it ought not only to be good not only to be holy but to be so up to the degrees of an excellent example Ye must be a pattern 2. Ye must be patterns not only of Knowledg and Wisdom not of contemplation and skill in Mysteries not of unprofitable Notions and ineffective Wit and Eloquence but of something that is more profitable of something that may do good something by which mankind shall be better of something that shall contribute to the felicity and comfort of the world a pattern of good works 3. It must not be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a type or pattern to be hidden or laid in Tabernacles like those Images of Molech and Remphan which the Spirit of God in the Old Testament calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Succoth Benoth little Repositories or Boots to hide their Images and patterns of their gods but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you must be exhibited and shewn forth brought forth into action and visibility and notorious observation 4. There is also another mystery and duty in this word for Molech and Remphan they were patterns and figures but they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patterns which the people made but to Titus St. Paul commanded that he himself should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should give a pattern to the people that is the Ministers of Christ must not be framed according to the peoples humour they must not give him rules nor describe his measures but he should be a rule to them he is neither to live with them so as to please their humours or to preach Doctrines populo ut placerent quas fecissent fabulas but the people are to require the Doctrine at his mouth and he is to become exemplar to them according to the pattern seen in the Mount according to the Laws of the Religion and the example of Christ. 5. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must be a pattern in all things It is not enough that the Minister be a loving person a good neighbourly man that he be hospitable that he be not litigious that he be harmless and that he be diligent but in every Grace he must praeferre facem hold a torch and shew himself a light in all the Commands of God These are the measures of his Holiness the pattern in his Life and Conversation Secondly Integrity of Doctrine The matter of the Doctrine you are to preach hath in it four qualifications 1. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorrupt that is it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be according to the analogy of Faith no Heretical mixtures pure Truths of God 2. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grave and clean and chast that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no vain and empty notions little contentions and pitiful disputes but becoming the wisdom of the Guide of Souls and the Ministers of Christ. And 3. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sound speech so we read it the word properly signifies salutary and wholesome that is such as is apt for edification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the building men up in a most holy faith and a more excellent charity not feeding the people with husks and droffe with Colocynths and Gourds with gay Tulips and useless Daffodils but with the bread of life and medicinal Plants springing from the margin of the Fountains of Salvation This is the matter of their Doctrine and this also hath some heightnings and excellencies and extraordinaries For 4. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so evidently demonstrated that no man shall be able to reprove it so certainly holy that no man shall be willing to condemn it And 5. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere not polluted with foul intentions and little devices of secular interests complying with the lusts of the potent or the humours of the time not byass'd by partiality or bending in the flexures of humane policy it must be so conducted that your very Enemies Schismaticks and Hereticks and all sorts of gainsayers may see that you intend Gods glory and the good of Souls and g. that as they can say nothing against the Doctrine deliver'd so neither shall they find fault with him that delivers it and he that observes all this will indeed be a pattern both of Life and Doctrine both of good words and good works But I shall not be so minute in my discourse as in the division the duties and the manner or degrees of the duties I shall handle together and give you the best measures I can both for institution of Life and excellency of Doctrine It is required of every one of you that in all things you shew your selves a pattern of good works That 's the first thing requir'd in a Minister And this is upon infinite accounts necessary 1. In general 2. In particular 1. In general The very first words of the whole Psalter are an argument of this necessity Blessed is the man that walketh not in the Councel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the chair of the mockers the seat of the scornful The Doctors Chair or Pulpit must have nothing to do with the irrisores that mock God and mock the people he must neither walk with them nor stand with them nor sit with them that is he must have no fellowship with the unfruitful workers of darkness but rather reprove them for they that do preach one thing and do another are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mockers they destroy the benefit of the people and diminish the blessings of God and binding burdens on the peoples shoulders which they will not touch with the top of their finger they secretly laugh and mock at the people as at the Asses of Issachar fit to be cousened into unnecessary burdens These words are greatly to be regarded The Primitive Church would admit no man to the superiour Orders of the Clergy unless among other praerequir'd dispositions they could say all Davids Psalter by heart and it was very well besides many other reasons that they might in the front read their own duty so wisely and so mysteriously by the Spirit of God made praeliminary to the whole Office To the same purpose is that observation of S. Hierome made concerning the vesting of the Priests in the Levitical ministrations the Priest put on the Humeral beset with precious stones before he took the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the rationale upon his breast to signifie that first the Priest must be a shining light resplendent with good works before he fed them with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rational Milk of the Word concerning which symbolical precept you may please to read many excellent things to this purpose in S. Hierom's Epistle to Fabiola It will be more useful for us to consider those severe words of David in the 50. Psalm But unto the wicked God saith what hast thou to do to declare my statutes or
and be very zealous for nothing but for Gods glory and the salvation of the World and particularly of your Charges Ever remembring that you are by God appointed as the Ministers of Prayer and the Ministers of good things to pray for all the World and to heal all the World as far as you are able rule XVI Every Minister must learn and practise Patience that by bearing all adversity meekly and humbly and cheerfully and by doing all his Duty with unwearied industry with great courage constancy and Christian magnanimity he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses and overcoming their difficulties rule XVII He that is holy let him be holy still and still more holy and never think he hath done his work till all be finished by perseverance and the measures of perfection in a holy Life and a holy Death but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others or despising them that are not so holy II. Of Prudence required in Ministers rule XVIII REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles and without this all Graces perish to a mans self and without that all Gracâ—â— are useless unto others rule XIX Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People and destroy his Duty by unreasonable compliance with their humours lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude which they neither can retain with Prudence nor shake off with Safety rule XX Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God but in the matter of Souls being well advis'd be bold and confident but abate nothing of the honour of God or the just measures of your Duty to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever and God will bear you out rule XXI When you teach your people any part of their duty as in paying their debts their tithes and offerings in giving due reverence and religious regards diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars and the like though they object That you speak for your selves and in your own cases For counsel is not the worse but the better if it be profitable both to him that gives and to him that takes it Only do it in simplicity and principally intend the good of their souls rule XXII In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others take your measures by the express words of Scripture and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures with the Laws of the Nation Ecclesiastical and Civil and by the Rules of Fame of publick Honesty and good Report and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion rule XXIII Be not satisfied when you have done a good work unless you have also done it well and when you have then be careful that vain-glory partiality self-conceit or any other folly or indiscretion snatch it not out of your hand and cheat you of the reward rule XXIV Be careful so to order your self that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings and sudden and violent expressions Never be a party in clamours and scoldings lest your Calling become useless and your Person contemptible Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministry III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures rule XXV USe no violence to any man to bring him to your opinion but by the word of your proper Ministry by Demonstrations of the Spirit by rational Discourses by excellent Examples constrain them to come in and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty to the measures of the Laws and the conduct of their Governours rule XXVI Suffer no quarrel in your Parish and speedily suppress it when it is begun and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs and especially in matters of Interest which men love too well yet it is your Duty here to interpose by perswading them to friendships reconcilements moderate prosecutions of their pretences and by all means you prudently can to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness rule XXVII Suffer no houses of Debauchery of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety and as for places of publick Entertainment take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety and the allowed measures of Laws rule XXVIII If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them But stir up no violences against them but leave them if they be incurable to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws rule XXIX Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you to the disturbance of the publick Peace and private Charity and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion but by their Faith in Christ their Obedience to God and the Laws and their Love to all Christian people even though they be deceived rule XXX Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience unless he live a good life and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both toward God and Man but if he be an humble Person modest and inquiring apt to learn and desirous of information if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious and is obedient to Laws then take care of him use him tenderly perswade him meekly reprove him gently and deal mercifully with him till God shall reveal that also unto him in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies rule XXXI Mark them that cause Divisions among you and avoid them for such Persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract they are Offenders and Offences too But if any man have an Opinion let him have it to himself till he can be cur'd of his disease by time and counsel and gentle usages But if he separates from the Church or gathers a Congregation he is proud and is fallen from the Communion of Saints and the Unity of the Catholick Church rule XXXII He that observes any of his people to be zealous let him be careful to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniency let him employ it in something that is good let it be press'd to fight
every Minister in his charge be frequent and severe against slanderers detractors and backbiters for the Crime of backbiting is the poyson of Charity and yet so common that it is pass'd into a Proverb After a good dinner let us sit down and backbite our neighbours rule L Let every Minister be careful to observe and vehement in reproving those faults of his Parishioners of which the Laws cannot or do not take cognizance such as are many degrees of intemperate drinkings gluttony riotous living expences above their ability pride bragging lying in ordinary conversation covetousness peevishness and hasty anger and such like For the Word of God searches deeper then the Laws of men and many things will be hard to prove by the measures of Courts which are easie enough to be observed by the watchful and diligent eye and ear of the Guide of Souls rule LI In your Sermons to the people often speak of the four last things of Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ of Gods Mercy to repenting sinners and his Severity against the impenitent of the formidable Examples of Gods anger pour'd forth upon Rebels Sacrilegious Oppressors of Widows and Orphans and all persons guilty of crying Sins These are useful safe and profitable but never run into Extravagancies and Curiosities nor trouble your selves or them with mysterious Secrets for there is more laid before you than you can understand and the whole duty of man is To fear God and keep his Commandments Speak but very little of the secret and high things of God but as much as you can of the lowness and humility of Christ. rule LII Be not hasty in pronouncing damnation against any man or party in a matter of disputation It is enough that you reprove an Errour but what shall be the sentence against it at the day of Judgment thou knowest not and therefore pray for the erring person and reprove him but leave the sentence to his judge rule LIII Let your Sermons teach the duty of all states of men to whom you speak and particularly take care of Servants and Hirelings Merchants and Tradesmen that they be not unskilful nor unadmonished in their respective duties and in all things speak usefully and affectionately for by this means you will provide for all mens needs both for them that sin by reason of their little understanding and them that sin because they have evil dull or depraved affections rule LIV In your Sermons and Discourses of Religion use primitive known and accustomed words and affect not new Phantastical or Schismatical terms Let the Sunday Festival be called the Lords day and pretend no fears from the common use of words amongst Christians For they that make a business of the words of common use and reform Religion by introducing a new word intend to make a change but no amendment they spend themselves in trifles like the barren turf that sends forth no medicinable herbs but store of Mushromes and they give a demonstration that they are either impertinent people or else of a querulous nature and that they are ready to disturb the Church if they could find occasion rule LV Let every Minister in his charge as much as he can endeavour to destroy all popular errors and evil principles taken up by his people or others with whom they converse especially those that directly oppose the indispensable necessity of a holy life let him endeavour to understand in what true and useful sense Christs active obedience is imputed to us let him make his people fear the deferring of their Repentance and putting it off to their death-bed let him explicate the nature of Faith so that it be an active and quickning principle of Charity let him as much as he may take from them all confidences that slacken their obedience and diligence let him teach them to impute all their sins to their own follies and evil choice and so build them up in a most holy faith to a holy life ever remembring that in all ages it hath been the greatest artifice of Satan to hinder the increase of Christs Kingdom by destroying those things in which it does consist viz. Peace and Righteousness Holiness and Mortification rule LVI Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick contrary to the known sense of the Catholick Church and particularly of the Churches of England and Ireland nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils for these as they are measures of truth so also of necessity that is as they are safe so they are sufficient and besides what is taught by these no matter of belief is necessary to salvation rule LVII Let no Preacher bring before the people in his Sermons or Discourses the Arguments of great and dangerous Heresies though with a purpose to confute them for they will much easier retain the Objection than understand the Answer rule LVIII Let not the Preacher make an Article of Faith to be a matter of dispute but teach it with plainness and simplicity and confirm it with easie arguments and plain words of Scripture but without objection let them be taught to believe but not to argue lest if the arguments meet with a scrupulous person it rather shake the foundation by curious inquiry than establish it by arguments too hard rule LIX Let the Preacher be careful that in his Sermons he use no light immodest or ridiculous expressions but what is wise grave useful and for edification that when the Preacher brings truth and gravity the people may attend with fear and reverence rule LX Let no Preacher envy any man that hath a greater audience or more same in Preaching than himself let him not detract from him or lessen his reputation directly or indirectly for he that cannot be even with his brother but by pulling him down is but a dwarf still and no man is the better for making his brother worse In all things desire that Christ's Kingdom may be advanc'd and rejoice that he is served whoever be the Minister that if you cannot have the fame of a great Preacher yet you may have the reward of being a good man but it is hard to miss both rule LXI Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals as of Christmas Easter Ascension-day Whitsunday Trinity Sunday the Annuntiation of the blessed Virgin Mary because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people and fix them in their memories by the solemnity and circumstances of the day rule LXII In all your Sermons and Discourses speak nothing of God but what is honourable and glorious and impute not to him such things the consequents of which a wise and good man will not owne never suppose him to be author of sin or the procurer of our damnation For God cannot be tempted