finde great glorie ascribed unto it and set at the Right-hand of the very chiefest For what is more commended or extolled by the Holy Fathers of old than Virginitie And yet by Saint Austine Humilitie is preferred before it And Humilitie is but one branch of the main bodie of Repentance which therefore must much more excell the other And the same have many devout Hermites said as Palladius relates 11. Lastly How soure and severe soever acts of Repentance may at a distance doe appear to a naturall eye in the midst of its clouds and darknesse light doth spring out and when the greatest agonies for sin and the wounds of a Conscience stung with it smart most sorely there may arise this true ground of consolation that even this repentance as bitter as it may seem is a notable instance of Gods favour for God doth not give such singular gifts but to his beloved and chosen ones and that under his apparent frowns against a Sinner repenting are hidden reall smiles of love to such penitents ' to whome if he had not a speciall favour he would have suffered him with the throng of the world to passe without any remorse or means of readoption holinesse and happinesse but repentance proves the contrarie Which may both support the wearied minde in the midst of crushing sorrowes and excite the secure to undergoe this easie Yoke of Christ all things considered and reduce the fugitive Shulamite the straying Sheep unto the Chief Shepheard of our Soules Christ Jesus SECT VI. That this Purgative Repentance must be generall of all sins and perpetuall 1. AS God looks upon sin and as sin looks against God so must every one that is borne of God in this as other things resemble his heavenly Father There is no fin but God hateth there is no Sinner but hateth and opposeth God there is no sin but fighteth against our Soules woundeth defaceth and defileth the same there is therefore no Christian but ought to hate all sin as David may be understood when Psalm 139. he saith Doe not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved O Lord with them that rise up against thee I hate them with a perfect hatred even as though they were mine enemies So that he not only submitteth to but afterward demandeth a search to be made in his heart whether any kinde of iniquity lurketh there perhaps unbeknown to him which ought to be expelled 3. Learned Masters of Christian doctrine tell us that God cannot forgive absolutely one sin and leave another unpardoned and much lesse can a man denie one sin and embrace another no more than a Fornicatour can cease to be such in disliking one whorish Woman and choosing another Nor may he be said to repent that he hath abused his bodie by such unrighteous practices but that haply he had to doe with such a person so is it with the Sinner that forsaketh not wholly but changes his sin As if he hath in his young and wanton dayes lived luxuriously and prodigally and in his declining strength and yeers should begin as the Prodigall to be in want or ayme at the raising of a Family and leaving an ample Patrimonie to his Posterity and so take up basely now sparing as he spent basely formerly he may flatter himselfe and sometimes like a notable Convert and mortified person condemn his youthfull follies and mad exorbitancies and moreover speciously blesse God that he sees his errour past and securely blesse himselfe in his late wisdome and abstinences but all in vain yea more perniciously than before if he turnes pinchingly abstemious denying himselfe many things after the manner of true Asceticks and renouncers of the world and all this out of a new espoused vice Covetousnesse which infatuates his judgement so far as that he flattereth himselfe in his own eyes as it is Psalm 36. till his iniquity be found to be hatefull or Till his abominable sin be found out 3. For God who abhorreth commutations of Vertue for Vice much more abhorreth commutation of one Vice for another Whence it is that Saint James so expresly affirmeth Cap. 2. v. 10 11. Whosoever keepeth the whole Law and yet offends in one point is guilty of all For he that said Doe not committ Adultery said allso Doe not kill Disobedience Rebellion or but contempt of Gods commands is seen in one sin as well as in another And though all stains or spots upon the Face or Clothes be not of the same colour yet as they are stains and defilements are they to be equally cleansed And it is all a case whether a man be wounded with a Knife or a Sword or bruised with a blunter Weapon to his no lesse danger All Vertues are linked together in prudence faith the morall Philosopher for as much as without prudence men must needs offend even in doing good things And all sins are founded and grounded upon folly even those which carrie along with them a pretense and shew of witt and cunning all sin being errour and all errour proceeding from ignorance affected or involuntarie And all sins being managed by disobedience against God a man cannot heartily and sincerely apply himselfe to obey God in any one point unlesse he beareth about him a disposition to fulfill the will of God in all things commanded by God. 4. And this Rule extendeth it selfe likewise to our dutie towards our Neighbour whome having seen and not having seen God if we love not we deceive our selves as St. John teacheth us 1 Epist 4. 20. He that useth despitefully the Image of his Prince sheweth his malice against his Prince himselfe And no cheating or violence doth a man out of covetousnesse and desire of revenge offer to his Brother but for shame or fear or inability he would use to his Father allso yea to God himselfe This doth appear by profane blasphemous and outragious speeches often used against his God as the malice of a bitter spirit and tongue when the hands cannot reach him For I cannot but think that a man covetously bent to any great degree would if it were possible couzen God of what he hath as well as his Neighbour and tear from him by violence what may serve his turne as he sticketh not to doe from his poor and weak Brother when he is in the power of his hands But no man is made innocent from impotencie of offending And no man acquiescing in any one fault or Vice unrepented of can pronounce himselfe clean from any or hope to obtain pardon for any one 5. Again as Repentance cleansing us must extend to all manner of sins so that no man can deserve the name of a true penitent who is angerly inclined and not covetously or lustfully given and not a Drunkard or Proud and not unjust or a zealous censurer of profanenesse and deboistnesse and yet worldly or contumacious against Just Autority so must the same repentance be generall as to time allso that is
perpetuall A man must never have any kinde thought of that sin whereof he pretends to have repented He must have a perpetuall displeasure against himselfe for having so offended he must have an immortall enmitie against it And though perhaps he be not actually warring against it by open violence used against himselfe for it and against it for his own sake he must never hang up his Armes so as never more to pursue it as occasion shall require We are to imitate upon our selves Gods Justice against sin which never ceases where pardon doth not prevent it God punishes the impenitent Sinner with everlasting torments and therefore man should so judge himselfe that he be not condemned of the Lord And therefore though a man ought not allwayes to be in teares penances and lamentations for sins passed yet allwayes must he bear an habituall grudge against it an ill will and enmifie which intermitted by sutable actions for seasons extraordinary upon fresh returnes of the same into his minde and memorie he must exercise fresh acts of detestation and humiliation for such his failings and miscarriages Some men have ceased from the sin they have been formerly overtaken with but upon occasion can with some degree of content relate the same amongst them who will make merrie with it Such we may be sure are not cleansed throughly from that sin though they have laid it aside and that so that they never committ it over again For were their soules but so much estranged from it as they ought as they never committed such a sin but with pleasure such as it may be so they should never think of it but with displeasure and detestation and with an hidden smiting of the brest with the Publican say Lord be mercifull to me a sinner 6. This I say ought to be done in some degree occasionally though not in the intensest as when at the time of illumination and conversion the soule repenting travaileth under the weight and sense of sin especially by them who are not by office occupation profession wholly sequestred from the world For Monasticall and Heremeticall lives are described to be nothing else but a state of repentance Repentance being so called from that which is most eminent in that state Fastings hardships watchings solitarinesse but when the worship of God requires communion with others 7. But the degree required of all is not inconsistent with the due Alternations and vicissitudes of Consolations and spirituall Cheerfulnesse before God and others For upon repentance prescribed and sincerely perfourmed it pleaseth God in Scripture to declare himselfe reconciled to the broken spirit so that when God is said to repent of the evill suffered by others for their offences the offender may be sure to his great satisfaction that his repentance is accepted As when upon Moses his intercession in behalfe of the Idolatrizing Israelites it is said Exod. 32. 14. The Lord repented of the evill which he thought to doe unto his people And Judges 2. It repented the Lord because of the groanings of his people Therefore in the like cases he saith Isaiah 40. 1. Comfort ye Comfort ye my people speake comfortably unto Jerusalem Which God saith unto particular persons upon their sharp sufferings and deep humiliations upon the reason rendered for the mitigation of the punishment of the incestuous Corinthian 2 Corin. 2. 7. Lest such an one should be swallowed up of too much sorrow 8. And besides this Cheerfulnesse and Gratitude towards God may be esteemed a part of true Repentance taken in its latitude for such a generall change of heart and minde which giveth that affection to God which before was bestowed on the world Too much lightnesse and jollity and vanity having transported a man into evill before transportation towards God well becometh the true Convert David may be an instance and a Rule to us in this kinde Who had fallen more fowly than he And who repented more thorowly than he So that he saith My sins are ever before me Psalm 51. The act of sin was over the repentance was not so but frequent representations thereof were made to him which abashed and confounded him Yet found he such Lucid intervalls and seasons of recreation and joy in God that he took to him his Harp and celebrated the praises of Gods mercies to him And no doubt but he administer'd the Nation under him with proportionable sweetnesse of behaviour and severity of Justice Which should be the care and prudence of all true penitents least instead of humbling themselves under their sins they mortifie others by their froward and sowr behaviour towards them who are about them For unlesse some custodie in such cases be had over a mans passions spirituall against himselfe for his sins those which should wholly terminate in himselfe and against himselfe will steal out and be troublesome to others allso which is a great errour and scandalous as it is often seen that a man being vehemently set against his Enemie doth strike them allso that are next to him and would part them 9. But now let us see wherein consisteth this conflict between the flesh and the Spirit and by what meanes the Soule is sanctified and secured from such relapses as are incident to our infirme nature allwayes remembring this that no good Christian can indulge to himselfe any such sins as are commonly called Failings of our corrupt flesh or sins of infirmitie For no sin connived at and willingly suffered to abide with us can be properly called a sin of Infirmitie but comes under the notion and nature of presumptuous sin For as much as God the all seeing Judge doth principally look upon the temper and disposition of the will and heart according to whose alienation from him or opposition to him or affectation of an evill committed against him is an estimate set upon that sin though very tolerable and minute yea perhaps having somewhat of gracefulnesse in the eye of the world This will therefore comes here to be considered SECT VII Of Selfe-deniall required to true Reformation and that both of Vnderstanding and Will. 1 NO doubt but all things that God made as he made them were at first good and so continue but all things continue not in that first and perfect state wherein they were as well depending on God in their doing as in their being God gave man the most excellent gift of Reason and under that Appetites and affections which are the inward motions of the Soule either to or from God. So long as we walk by his light we cannot erre in knowledge so long as we desire by his Will we cannot erre in desiring Subordination to the Supream is no bondage and confinement to him that is infinite is no losse of libertie or freedome 'T is ignorance therefore which impells men no illimited knowledge and servitude to study and endeavour to be absolute and commanders of our selves without exception 'T is not to know that God prohibits but to know
us that those Christians so reprehended by St. Paul turned the Holy Eucharist into costly junketting taking occasion from that to eat and drink to excesse 4. And that this was the opinion of the Primitive Christians before Chrysostome's days that the formidablenesse of the Eucharist was not such but it might be approached unto upon lower and easier termes than are taught by some Persons appeareth from the dayly Communion in use amongst them which could not consist with that dayly solemn and exact preparation judged now a days indispensably necessary All which I here speak to make good what I said of a two-fold worthiness and unworthiness in receiving the Lords Supper the one which indeed brings damnation with it by contrarie Qualities in a Receiver to that Ordinance such as the Corinthians were guiltie of so reproved by Saint Paul And another of negative unworthinesse which may be direct infidelity which makes men wholly uncapable of that Sacrament which supposes Baptisme and Faith answerable or a disproportionable Faith and knowledge and repentance and other qualifications very well becoming that which yet doth not make any man absolutely uncapable of it or the thing damnable to him provided that he comes with some sound and good degree of preparation though small and weak having a pure intention such as these may run the hazard of their Soules in affected abstaining as well as in scandalous receiving that Holy Supper For were it so that we were so pure and clear of sin about us and so perfect as some require to a due preparation we need not come to the Lords Supper at all 5. Fourthly It is a common Allegation against Communicating that there is a difference between them and their Neighbours and thereupon they hold themselves sufficiently exempted from that Holy Sacrament But this declining the Eucharist may no lesse tend to our condemnation than so coming For men ought to use all fair and ordinarie meanes for reconciliation which willfully neglected makes them unfit to pray as well as to communicate But if they have us'd their Christian endeavours to live in peace and Charitie and actually doe what is just and reasonable to all men and their endeavours are frustrated by the peevishnesse obstinacie and ill minde of others men are not thereby uncapable of those Mysteries another man having no power over my Soule to render it unworthy of them nor to prejudice another in his Rights towards God. SECT XI Other Impediments and scruples observed against Communicating especially frequently with proper Remedies 1. MY Son saith the wise Man Ecclesiasticus 2. 1. if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soule for temptation So that they who out of a good conscience draw nigh unto God doe not come to a state of tranquillity or securitie from troubles and disquietings either outward or inward spirituall or worldly but to protection and preservation under such conflicts as happen to them For he that is not taken into the militarie Service of his Prince lives more at ease than he that serves under him in his Wars The Church of Christ it selfe is Militant and therefore if we be sound and true members of that Bodie so must we allso be excercised with the like wars and make it our businesse to fullfill the Office we bear according to the counsell and exhortation of Saint Paul 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. Thou therefore endure hardnesse as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ No man that warreth entangleth himselfe with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier And it was the observation of that Auncient and holy Woman Syncletica that by how much a Christian Souldier profited in holinesse by so much stronger were his Adversaries which opposed him Apophtheg Syncletic And how much greater care a true Christian taketh in keeping a good conscience void of offence towards God and towards man as did Saint Paul by so much are multiplied his fears and scruples and sense of offence within himselfe as in the ordering of the outward man none take cold oftener than they who are more carefull than ordinarie to keep themselves warme Upon which Subject of temptations in its latitude because I cannot speak here I confine my selfe to those proper to our Subject of due communicating which are not few but yet but few I shall here consider and those the most common 2. One generall Remedie against this may be that of Luther who upon due esteem had of the holinesse of the Lords Supper and the danger of unworthie communicating was so infested with temptations of the Devill that he could never rest in quiet for them untill he abruptly and boldly brake through them all by bidding defiance in a blunt and slovenly manner to him which was no new thing with him and so shaking off such scruples went about the work without presumption still or unprofitable delaies For unlesse a man with humble courage sometimes applies himselfe to that work he shall like such Children who at the least crosse put their Fingers in their Eyes spend his time in lamenting and bewailing himselfe without that confidence in God becoming him and dutie towards him and himselfe For as I remember the comparison of an Auncient Ascetique or Secluse to be that as in Onions taking off one Coat sphericall there will presently appear another so in temptations one being withstood overcome and removed another arises to be taken off allso so that temptations become a disease in some and therefore rather to be opposed than humour'd Which is not to be applied to them whose scruples are weighty or very molesting and ought to be made known to the Physician of the Soule whose Office it is to applie Remedies thereunto And especially in the case of the Holy Communion as by the practice of the holy Catholique Church we are directed and particularly by our own in the Exhortation appointed at the giving warning to the People of a Communion at hand 3. More particularly Cares of the world and Crosses in the world are commonly alledged as justifiable impediments of coming to the Holy Table which sometimes is quite otherwise and should be an argument inducing us to flee to those powerfull meanes of lightening our burden and mastering those temptations which threaten our greater disquiet and mischief For if coming to Christ in the ordinarie way of Faith and trust in God be of that efficacie which Christ promises inviting to come unto him all that are wearie and heavie laden and he will give rest unto the Soule as is there intimated what may we not ' expect from Christ when he so cometh unto us as in the Eucharist with greater plenitude of Graces And therefore surely they that deal uprightly with God and prudently with their own Soules may from hence be stirred up to a more ardent desire of communicating rather than shun or avoid it 4. But in other cases there may be a difference made For some sollicitudes and
THE Method and Means TO A TRUE Spiritual Life Consisting of Three Parts agreeable to the Auncient Way By the late Reverend Matthew Scrivener Vicar of Haselingfield in Cambridge-shire Cleared from Modern Abuses and render'd more easie and practicall Feb. 1. 1688. Imprimatur Jo. Battely LONDON Printed for James Knapton at the Queens head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1688. TO THE READER COnsidering with my selfe and lamenting the many polemicall or contentious Discourses about Religion and that Christian this unhappie Age hath produced it might be feared that through the subtiltie of the Old Serpent such strifes may have the mortall event upon too many of liking no Religion at all To prevent or obviate so great an evill I found my selfe inclined very much to treat of such a Subject as might by Gods blessing conduce much as well to the obliging of mens mindes to the Faith and fear of God in generall as to reconcile Christians one to another rather than divide them farther or encrease Animosities between them But I must confesse a more speciall reason hereunto exciting me how insufficient soever I found my selfe to the worthy perfourmance of so good work was the consideration of some Persons of our Communion I mean the established Religion in this Isle who though shining with Pietie and devotion towards God to the ecclipsing of phantastick lights lately appearing do keep up that temper of Spirit to which our Saviour Christ hath affixed this Beatitude Matth. 5. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be satisfied For as Gregorie the Great hath it in an Homilie on the Gospells Herein differ the delights of the bodie and the Soule that bodily pleasures while we have them not enkindle in us a sore desire of them but so soon as we devour them greedily they turn to loathing through satietie but on the contrarie spirituall pleasures are onely loathed when we have them not and are so much the more thirsted after by how much more they are received by the hungring Soule And this kinde of hunger observing to increase in them by conversing with spirituall Books wrote by others I conceived my generall Office and particular Obligations to such Persons in a manner demanded of me an endeavour to gratifie such religious Appetites And hereupon I chose rather to publish mine own inabilitie than to frustrate the expectations of such Christian Spirits intending hereby to divert them with a mean view and sense of heavenly things which as Saint Paul speaks Ephes 1. 4. are the earnest of our inheritance untill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glorie But it will appear by the Methode I have here chosen and the manner of my proceeding in this Discourse that it was not my principall much lesse onely designe to be usefull to greater Persons or sublimer Christians but to the lowest and meanest of both Orders I having laid my foundation so low as the weakest may rest on and improve by and so raise themselves by orderly gradations to a more considerable height Which course I have taken not out of affectation of singularitie as some may conjecture who are either wholly ignorant that this is of very long standing in the Catholick Church or doe know that books of Devotion in our Mother-Tongue have very rarely if at all insisted on this Subject or trodden the same path with me and they of the Unreformed Church who have often treated of this matter have very seldome handled all these parts of Piety together but passing over lightly the Illuminative and Purgative parts of Religion have ambitiously to my apprehension strived to abound and excell in the Unitive-Way and their Mysticall Theologie soaring very high if not exorbitantly towards Heaven and gaining to themselves and Church no small estimation for divine Contemplations strange Notions and Language as if they had themselves been wrapt up into the Third Heaven as was Saint Paul and were priviledged to doe what was denied him viz. to utter those unspeakable words which he tells us 2 Corinth 12. It is not lawfull for any man to utter and exalting Contemplations to the undervaluing of operations and active life under pretence that Marie who sate still not attending Christ being present chose the better part and Martha the inferiour in serving of Christ which notwithstanding it be so generally received and applauded by Scholasticall as well as Mysticall Doctours auntienter and later seems to me to be no otherwise true than as Mary represented the state of blisse hereafter consisting alltogether of Contemplation and Affection and Martha the state of a Christian in this Life in which unactive Contemplation and barren in the work of the Lord is scarce laudable and as the Quietists are said to magnifie it not tolerable they amongst other notorious Errours charged upon them excluding divine Meditation from their contemplation by too great nicenesse though we our selves have in this Treatise distinguished them as degrees consistent one with another so far as they are Acts of the spirituall life we now live For according to our present Subject we first not without good advice consider simple Intelligence or knowledge of God acquired by Illumination of the naturall Man whereby a Christian comes to a right belief of God and a knowledge of himselfe and a discerner in good measure of Spirits and fallacious Visions and Revelations This being competently attained unto disposes the Soule to right Reformation of it selfe from the inveterate evills of sin corrupting and afflicting it which is the Purgative way every true Christian should exercise himselfe in untill he hath purged out the Old Leaven and cast out the Old Man of which Saint Paul speakes with the affections and Lusts And because it suffices not to denye and even to dye unto worldly lusts if this may be supposed unlesse we allso live the life of Christ and be truely united unto God through him and that by those proper helps and ascents prescribed by him and in some manner by us described here therefore doe we proceed to the third State of a Christian commonly called the Unitive wherein is to be found that true rest of the Soule promised by Christ not so as to cease from a possibility of sinning or suffering perturbations as late Quietists are allso reported wickedly to maintain but so as to prefer God and Godlinesse above all things in the World and by love of and delight in them to persevere immutably to perfect consummation in blisse hereafter And having thus given thee Christian Reader a brief account and Prospect of my present Designe I committ my selfe to thy favourable acceptance and commend thee to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build thee up and to give thee an inheritance among all such as are Sanctified The Summe of what is contained in the first Part. SECT I. Previous advice concerning the necessity reasonablenesse and usefullnesse of being truely Religious Page 1 SECT
II. A brief description of the Illuminative Purgative and Vnitive way of Religion p. 9 SECT III. Of the necessity of Illumination and of Faith with its subordinate Graces especially conducing thereunto p. 12 SECT IV. That Faith and naturall Reason improved is the onely proper cause of Illumination being taken for the things revealed whereof some principall heads are here given p. 20 SECT V. Of the Grace and act of Faith leading to Illumination and of the difficulties and meanes of believing p. 40 SECT VI. Of the gift and guidance of Gods Spirit towards true Illumination the abuse and true uses of it noted And of the necessitie of believing p 51 SECT VII Of Illumination Reflexive whereby the Christian Soule comes to the knowledge of its selfe in its Spirituall State. p. 63 SECT VIII Of Revelations or Illuminations extraordinarie by Spirits and the discerning of them with the use of such Revelations p. 76 The Second Part. Of the Purgative part of Religion SECT I. THAT Action and good Works must be added to true knowledge and Believing And of the distinction of sins to be purged Page 99 SECT II. Of the Office of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements p. 105 SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall regard is to be had to the puritie of Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities p. 114 SECT IV. Of the proper meanes and methode of cleansing the Soule And first of Baptisme p. 124 SECT V. Of the Grace and power of Repentance in cleansing the Soule p. 129 SECT VI. That this purgative Repentance must be generall of all sins and perpetuall p. 147 SECT VII Of Selfe deniall required to true Reformation and that both of Vnderstanding and Will. p. 156 SECT VIII Of the custodie and discipline to be had over the outward man especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue p. 174 SECT IX Of outward moderation and modestie to be used in abstinences and Apparell p. 189 SECT X. The connexion of what hath passed with what followes concerning the Seven Capitall Sins p. 201 SECT XI Of Pride the first deadly or Capitall Sin. p. 203 SECT XII Of Anger a Second Capitall Sin its Concomitants and Remedies p. 219 SECT XIII Of the deadly sin of Envy its nature and Remedies p. 233 SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse p. 244 SECT XV. Of Luxurie and Vncleannesse p. 254 SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. p. 265 SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. p. 277 SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein p. 288 The Third Part. Treating of the Unitive Way of the devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and of Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof p. 297 SECT II. That this Vnion consisteth chiefly in the true knowledge of God and Love experimentall and reciprocall p. 304 SECT III. Of the excesse of Vnitive Love of God in Extasies and Raptures with their abuses and uses noted p. 309 SECT IV. Of the Vnion of the Soule with God by Divine Contemplation and Meditation with some instances of particular Subjects for this latter p. 317 SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe p. 328 SECT VI. Of the defects incident to the Act of Praying and their Remedies p. 334 SECT VII Of the due use of Publique and Private Prayer p. 342 SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed or fixed as allso of Singing of Psalmes p. 350 SECT IX Of Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain instructions are premised p. 359 SECT X. Of the difficulties and dangers in receiving the Holy Communion here discussed p. 367 SECT XI Other impediments and scruples observed against Communicating especially with their proper Remedies p. 378 SECT XII A brief recapitulation of what hath been treated of before with advices and directions concerning the interruption and recoverie of actuall Communion with God and of Consolations p. 387 THE Methode and Means TO TRUE SPIRITUALL LIFE The First Part Treating of Spirituall Illumination SECT 1. Previous advice concerning the Necessity Reasonablenesse and Vsefulnesse of being truly Religious 1. THERE being three principall Stages as I may so speak which every true Christian is to passe over in his travail towards that Sabbath of Blessednesse hoped for hereafter and aspired to it may seem both very methodicall and profitable to that great end to prepare the way thither by cleering up the defaced Characters written by Gods own finger on the tables of Mans heart concerning the sense of God and Religion towards him in generall that such a fundamentall perswasion being well received the edification in our most holy faith may be more firme absolute and better advanced 2. For what may we call Religion speaking here more practically than artificially but a thorow conviction of a Supream Being and Power able to save and destroy everlastingly inferring a strong and just obligation upon all creatures especially Man to pay the debt of veneration and obedience to that God from whom he received his present being and to whom he owes his subsistence and upon whom depends his future state of happinesse or misery 3. But may it not here allso be said Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the Arme of the Lord been revealed too many obstinately refusing any better guidance or conduct of their Lives but such as may favour their degenerous and dangerous humour of gratifying their sensuall appetites hurrying them to a liberty inconsistent with that whereby we are made free to God by Christ Jesus For his service being perfect freedome ' when we are dedicated to him in Baptisme we renounce the servitude and turpitude of the world and enter our selves Apprentices to learne and doe the will of God by Religion the Art of all Arts God at the same time Indenting and Covenanting with Believers so faithfully serving him when their times come out by death in this world to give them a more noble and desireable freedome by making them Citizens in Hierusalem which is above the Mother of us all than which the heart of man can desire no greater or better event of all his labours and services in the world nor so good nor great remuneration 4. Who would not then sometimes retire into the chamber of his heart and seriously consider these things And who considering these things would not apply himselfe to this so necessary so divine and beneficiall a work shall we see so many Artists of this world strive to excell one another not only for lucre sake but esteem of men in their severall professions and trades and shall we be cold indifferent and carelesse in this of Religion the glory of all How many have become poor infamous
men we will not understand untill a Light from heaven as it happened to St. Paul though not in that outward and miraculous manner but by a certain tacite splendour and illumination all the recesses and dark corners of the soule are discovered and the foulnesse of them manifested in particular 5. For as it happens to the poor Cottager or simple carelesse Tenant while the Houswife is alone with her own plain companie only she sees little or nothing amisse in her House it is clean enough as it seems to her selfe and all things are set in order and place convenient enough to her liking but it chancing that she is surprised by some Great and delicate Person coming into her habitation or that her rich and fine Landlord comes into her House then presently she lookes about her every way then she sees nothing is clean enough handsome enough or in place and order good enough but complains how she is taken like a Slut So falls it out in Divine matters and with the carelesse and secure soule while she looks only on her selfe and compares her selfe with her selfe as St. Paul speaks or perhaps with other of the same rank with her selfe she discerns very little amisse within her selfe but Christ our Lord and the Holy Spirit the light of the minde and searcher of the heart coming into it then she begins to apprehend her own uncleanlinesse and defects then is she sensible of her disorders foulnesse and even Sluts corners and begins to lament her state and confesse her errours and beg pardon for her unfitnesse and unsutablenesse to the Divine presence A lively instance whereof holy Job may be in the Old Testament and Peter in the New both eminent Saints Job had discoursed freely and confidently of God and his wayes and justified himselfe to a high degree before him He asserted his own innocencie and cleannesse before him and men Yea God himselfe vindicated him from the calumnies of Satan saying Job 1. 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man and one that feareth God and escheweth evill But notwithstanding all this God drawing yet nearer to him in a discoverie of himselfe and Job to himselfe we finde Jobs note changed to this saying Job 42. 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye sees thee therefore I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes And in like manner St. Peter Christ manifesting himselfe at the miraculous draught of Fish cryed out suddenly at the apprehension of his own vilenesse and imperfections Luke 5. 8. Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinfull man not sustaining the presence of so holy a Master under the sense of his own unholinesse then chiefly appearing to him 5. And thus particularly informed and affected the soule not only judges sin in others to be sin but in it selfe exceeding sinfull not only believes that Anger and Malice and censuring and slandering others that unclean acts that light wanton and carnall thoughts are evill in others but in it selfe that immodest words and gestures unkinde sowr froward behaviour and looks doe ill become others professing the Gospell which sweetens sowr blood and carriage naturally so far as may consist with sobriety and gravitie but in its selfe too and disposes to a change of temper knowing what St. Paul saith Galat. 5. 22. That the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-sufferance gentlenesse faith meeknesse temperance And that the Rule of Justice given by Christ Matth. 7. 12. Whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe yee even so unto them extendeth to the regulating of outward looks and behaviour which should be no other towards others distance of Relations being observed as becometh than we expect from others towards us And so in all other vices flesh and blood is subject to even lesse observable the good man first condemns himselfe being more quick-sighted in perceiving and severe in censuring himselfe than others 6. And upon and together with the sight and sense of a mans imperfections and pravities doth the Day-star arising in the heart direct to the exercise of the contrary Vertues both Morall and Evangelicall and such a transformation by the renewing of the minde whereby as the Apostle speaks we may prove what is the will of God and that the will of God is our Sanctification as it is said 1 Thessal 4. 3. And that Sanctification consisteth in a conformity to the Image of his Son wherein the illuminated minde may perceive all the lines or Lineaments of the new man and the forme of true Godlinesse So that as he that copieth out an exquisite Picture or he that draweth to the life must have a clear eye and that eye must be constantly fixed on the Patern before it which is to be followed in like manner in the spirituall Fashioning of the Soul to the Grand Example Christ a perpetuall and strict eye must be had and fixed on him whereby it will appear what of the naturall stone is to be knocked or pared off by mortification what is to be done towards conformablenesse to the Image of Christ 7. And to this also conduceth much what is mentioned farther concerning our future state of happinesse or misery hereafter and the vanity and fallacies of present enjoyments and possessions which latter seem to an unenlightened eye great and corpulent being in truth but shadowes as the former to the eye of the understanding opened solid and weighty and to be considered above all things For we dye but once naturally and are not like the hearb or flower or plant which flourisheth in its season and in his season fades and dies with an aptnesse to return again to its former perfection even to many such vicissitudes the tall Cedar or fine Flower in his own estimation Man necessarily and naturally tending to decay and ruine Dies once and where is he saith Job Chap. 14. and by no sent of waters buddeth again or riseth from his cold bed of earth till the heavens be no more and ariseth by an Allmighty power but no more to return to his place and condition to amend what he before had done amisse or so much as to repent fruitfully of what he formerly offended in How then doth it concern every true Believer to be serious with himselfe and standing assured there is no Sabbath of pleasure here suddenly all our vaine imaginations of sensible delights here are surprised by the shadowes of our approaching death overtaking and extinguishing them and that being come there is no redemption of our mispent dayes no recovery of our voluntarie losses of the treasures of temperance sobrietie chastity modesty meeknesse charity good works and devotion towards God. Can any that hath his senses I say not that wit which such inconsiderate worldlings too often but vainly vaunt of run such a notorious hazard as this in pursuit as Children of Butter flies of
and deformities and finde the smart of our sores there is little probabilitie we should be sollicitous so far about our selves as to seek for redresse and remedie for the same but having attained this that which followes in the mentioned words of the Apostle viz. perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord may happily succeed And this advantage by the same words is put into our hands towards so great and good work as to learne the generall division of our sins and impurities to be removed and that some sins have the resemblance of a spirituall nature and others of a fleshly For according to the diverse constitution of Man consisting of Soule and Bodie whereby he partaketh both of the nature of Spirits and Beast so are his inclinations sometimes transporting him to the excesses of Evill Spirits and sometimes sinking him down towards brutish lusts but which are insinuated unto us by St. James Chap. 3. 15. thus writing This wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensuall and devillish Whereby we understand that some sins and especially they of the minde of man are really devillish as having the Devill as well for their Authour as Actour viz. Envyings Gloryings Strife Lying instanced in by St. James a little before and some others of the like nature And on the other side Hatred Murthers Violences offered to others Intemperance Incontinence and slothfulnesse and such like are such which senfuall appetites dispose us unto and we have in common with beasts prone to them Yet to the shame of Man may it be spoken beasts many times governed by their senses being not so great offenders thereby as men directed to higher and better things both by Reason and Religion or Faith. For in trueth there is a fourfold restraint appointed by God for the keeping us within due compasse of living First our very Senses not made by evill customes more brutish than naturally they are doe certifie by a naturall reluctancie when we exced due measure in the use of sensible pleasures And a greater light and check to such exorbitances does our Reason give us not bribed by corruption to give false reports and dictates But the Light and Rules of Faith are yet more clear full and perfect to direction and sanctification but the life and Crown of all is the Grace of God bringing the will of man into subjection and obedience Most of which we shall here speak briefly to SECT II. Of the Office and Power of Faith in purging the Soule from sinfull defilements 1. FAith as we have shewed is by descent of heavenly extraction It is the gift of God and not owing originally to the will or election of man And it is given as an Instrument to work the work of God And this it doth well applyed and improved by the Illumination alreadie spoken of and discoveries of Gods Will and our Dutie in a clearer and fuller manner than otherwise we could attain to But this is not all this is not the greatest or chiefest part of its Power and vertue but that which impells and enables us too to doe the Will of God For as Christ our Lord and Master saies He sent me into the world to bear witnesse unto the trueth and that not by affirmation only but by exemplarie holinesse consummated in dying for the trueth so should every good Christian by doing and dying if need be testifie to the trueth 2. And surely great is the influence true and strong Faith hath to that end according to St. John 1 Ep. 5. 4. telling us This is our victory even our faith so termed because it is the principall meanes whereby we become Conquerors of Gods and our own Enemies which St. Paul 2 Cor. 10. 4. calls the pulling down of strong holds and of every thing that exalteth it selfe against God as all sinfull lusts doe and bringing it into the subjection of Christ For here is verified what Christ foretold in the Gospell A mans enemies shall be they of his own house A militant Christian never being free from intestine jars and warrings of the Law of his members against the Law of his minde and faith So that if we listen to any suggestions or lean on any other aid but what our Faith furnishes us withall we are lyable to fail and fall in our contentions For as Christ said to the Father of the Demoniacall Son. Mark 9. All things are possible to him that believeth So shall we see on the contrary all things are impossible to him that disbelieveth it being said of Christ himselfe Mark 16. 5. He could doe there viz. in his own Country no mighty works because of their unbelief as if unbelief in man had tied Gods hands and disabled him who is ever omnipotent to act accordingly though we must understand the words of Scripture not absolutely but according to the ordinary course of Gods proceeding towards man who must not expect that God will obtrude his blessings upon him contemning him as did these his Countrymen who astonished at the Wisdome and Doctrine of Christ carped at his Relations and Education and meannesse of his Person and Parentage believing with prejudice reproveable by their senses that Christ could not doe that they saw him doe and therefore refused to bring forth to him their sick and impotent so that he could not doe many mighty workes there And the case is the same in spirituall mortifications and cures of the distempered soule To him that believeth all things are possible but unbelief makes possible things impossible and easie things most difficult For Faith not doing its office of declaring to the ignorant minde the nature of God an implacable Enemie to sin and the nature of sin an intolerable Enemie to God man must needs be carried away by that false naturall light that he hath after those pleasing objects that seem rather than are good to him And again He whose faith is firme is also operative as well as intuitive and so far influenced and excited by it that he cannot choose but he must act according to his judgement perswasion and principle of life 3. For what was that which moved Moses to forsake Egypt and bid adieu to the Courtly pleasures of it and to suffer affliction with the people of God and to esteem the very reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt but that as the Scripture tells us He by his faith saw him that was invisible and by his faith had respect unto the recompence of the reward He by faith both believed aright in God and by the same loved what appeared to him most noble and desireable Which held not good then only but is of perpetuall truth as is that of our Saviour Christ also According to thy faith so be it unto thee So it is and so it ever will be unto Christian Soules If a man believes truely but does not fully his faith is impotent in its hands and feet and can profit very little to the main
lost their understanding but like to that Great Example set by Christ for imitation here and salvation hereafter SECT III. That in purifying our selves principall care is to be taken of the puritie of our Faith and of the affections of the Inward Man not neglecting outward severities 1. FAith is not only by the Reformed very often but sometimes by the Unreformed also of great note compared to and call'd an Hand But if this hand of Faith be all on the taking side and little on the giving both which are properties equally of the spirituall hand then is it verie defective For the Philosopher termed the hand of the Bodie the Organ of Organs or Instrument of all other Instruments usefull to us and such is Faith to our spirituall life and actions given us to work the work of God with If therefore it be only extended to receive Christ and justification by him to the quietation of the sollicitous and troubled Conscience and not to prepare the way by diligent and dutifull actions our faith being first unfaithfull to God will in the end also prove treacherous to our own Souls And that Instrument which is blunt or ill framed in it selfe is very apt to marr the work intended Without a good Pen a man how expert soever cannot make a good letter and much lesse write a fair hand And not only an hereticall Faith subverting the true Faith but an Orthodox and sound yet barren credulous presumptuous unactive impatient of both good and evill fond contumacious turbulent or unnecessary querulous and quarrelsome being entertained and rested on drawes neerer to perdition than salvation how flattering soever it may appear to the owner of it 2. And on the other side blinde zeal and violence rather than zeal going about to reforme the Soule with an unreformed or unsanctified Faith doe oftentimes expose the Bodie and Soule to unprofitable and dangerous injuries perhaps upon a mistake of perfection commended to us in the Holy Gospell For instance If a man should put out his own Eyes lest they should or because they had misled him or to the end he might become a better Philosopher as they write of some Philosophers and it is said of Didymus the Alexandrian otherwise an holy Christian given to contemplation or if a man should mutilate himselfe because he would not be chosen a Bishop of which Antiquitie gives us instances or to prevent or to revenge acts of unlawfull Lusts should destroy what Nature hath ordained or in fine should having fallen into any great and shamefull sin think to make propitiation for the same by laying violent hands upon himselfe all this must be imputed rather to want than abundance of Faith and to impenitence accumulating sin unto sin till the Soule sinks under the weight which by true Faith might have been removed or lightened 2. The inordinate passions therefore of the minde are to be the task of every good Christian and the purging or chastizing of the irregular appetites and casting out of doors and so purging the Temple of God as Nehemiah did the profane Stuffe of Tobiah the Samaritan out of the Chambers of the House of the Lord polluted thereby Severall Inmates there are which either creep in for entertainment or perhaps plead prescription which must be dislodged or there will in a short time be found no room for the Master of the House himselfe to reside in or rule over the Soule To wash the outside of the Bouls Platters and Cups is not amisse for it is required of every man not only to be religious but to appear so lest he comes under the condemnation of those who are ashamed of Christ his Doctrine and holie Discipline but to content our selves with that pittance of performance is to rank our selves with the Pharisees and Hypocrites condemned by Christ Oh that there were such an heart in them was the wish of God himselfe to his peculiar people the Israelites Deuteron 5. 19. when they promised fair and spake well concerning obedience which God requires But not the obedience of the tongue which without the heart ends only in aery Complements absurdly used towards men and ridiculously towards God when the heart is far from him And far is that heart and must needs be so from God which is unclean and unclean it must needs be which entertains such a Rabble of lusts which like drunken Companions in Taverns or Alehouses quarrel notoriously one with another but agree to foul the Room with their Pipes Pots Glasses Liquor and perhaps with their own vomit and other evacuations The sober man seeing this disorder and hearing such noise and havock sayes I would not be bound to dwell there if I might have never so much And can we think that Gods pure and piercing Eye beholding such distempers of the Spirit and disorders which the lusts of the flesh make in the Soule and the uncleannesse contracted thereby can or will condescend to take up his habitation there Into a malicious Soule wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the bodie which is subject to sin Wisdome 1. 4. For all sin consisteth of two things contrary to Wisdome and to God the Fountaine of Wisdome Folly and Foulnesse which cannot consist with the Spirit of Holinesse and the true Wisdome which cometh from above and is first pure and then peaceable c. 3. If it were therefore only because God so frequently so earnestly so pressingly requires inward Puritie Puritie of intention and understanding which qualifie exceedingly actions otherwise irregular and faulty Puritie of affections freed from smuttie delectations and cleer and sincere and fixed and fervent towards the best Objects and that upon the best Grounds and Motives Gods service and honour who well advised would not apply himselfe to so noble and necessary a task as the searching and trying his heart and casting out thence whatever may corâ—upt the rest of his exteriour services and offend the eyes of his heavenly Father though not scandalous to man. 4. And this may be another Motive to interiour holinesse the powerfull influence the inward temper and disposition of the minde hath upon all exteriour actions whether good or evill For according to the Regencie of the minde is the obedience of the outward man as our most wife and holie Master Christ informes us saying Mark 7. 21. From within out of the heart of men proceed evill thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousnesse wickednesse deceit lasciviousnesse an evill eye blasphemie pride foolishnesse All these evill things come from within and defile the man. All sin defiles but principally and in the first place the inward man and thence as from a bitter or corrupt Fountain-head unsound and impure actions doe flow Or as we see in Clocks and Watches the Hand outward pointing to the hour goes true or false according to the Spring and inward frame of them so our externall practices are right just and holy or on the contrarie false and depraved according to the
corrupt or sound principles of Reason and Faith and the sober affections of the heart purified by Faith. For untill the Spirit of Sanctification and mortification and renovation hath wrought our corrupt nature to a blessed and thorow change little may be expected from us outwardly either acceptable to God who looks more upon the manner and forme of the Deed than the Deed it selfe or profitable to our selves For to continue a little farther our similitude as we see men having bad Watches will with their Finger or Thumb place the Hand aright to give some credit to them which presently according to their ill frame returne to their wonted errour So Hypocrites to appear fair and good to men push themselves on sometimes to regular and laudable acts and sometimes restrain and set back their rank course of sin for some imperfect if not evill end but soon relapse to their accustomed excesses for want of the principle of holinesse and a constitution heavenly inclined the only true Spring of good and laudable actions 5. Again The inward man may well be compared to the Market-place of a strong Citie The Enemie may surprise or by some suddain violence may possesse himselfe of the out-workes and yet be repelled again and the Citie stand firme and safe and faithfull to its Soveraign but if the Enemie once possesses himselfe of the Market-place there is no hopes of standing true to the Owner or withstanding the Adversarie So is it with them who have suffered the Legions of foul Spirits to enter into their hearts and there to nestle and triumph All attempts are but feeble and insufficient to exhibit just and reasonable service to God. For no sooner doe some good inclinations arise no sooner doe we offer at good but a partie of vain thoughts dishonest motions are sent forth to suppresse all good but weak purposes of returning to our allegiance to God and the doing of his Will. Great circumspection therefore must be used strong resolutions must be taken and many difficulties of hunger thirst and hot service must first be passed through before our Redemption draweth nigh and we be restored to the Masterie of our selves and the ministrie we owe to God. 6. But adde hereunto fourthly a more intrinsick argument to the stirring us up to the cleansing our hearts the great benefit redounding to a mans selfe who shall so acquitt himselfe For however this conflict with the powers of flesh and blood and this Conquest is very difficult and tedious and therefore is called in Scripture Mortification and crucifying the Old man with the affections and lusts yet the work once done and the victory obtained brings wonderfull ease quiet satisfaction and cheerfulnesse unto the Spirit rendering it much more expedite and lightsome than it was before strugling against a contrarie Principle which evermore clogged it obstructed and either wholly impeded or grievously retarded the performance of Divine Services For men being scarce able to extinguish the cleer notice of a Deity in them and little lesse able to deny wholly such a service as is due to God doe with an unwilling will divers times submit to Religious acts but wearisome and tedious are they to them through the prevalencie of unsubdued lusts which by this necessary Discipline being master'd and expelled a great change is made in the Soule and then with lightnesse and readinesse is that done which before was irksome and grievous As David himselfe found it in himselfe when he said Psal 119. 32. I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou hast set my heart at liberty And then are our hearts at liberty when the Bond-servant Hagar with her off-spring which would domineer are cast out Then are we free indeed when the Son shall make us free then doth the Son make us free when he delivers us fo far as St. Peter speaks 2 Epist 1. 4. as by a Divine nature given unto us we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust Then shall we not fear the Law of the Land constraining us to Gods service more than God then shall we not shrinke and murmure at Fasting-dayes nor repine when on dayes of publique Thanksgiving to him that is glorious in all his Saints it is expected we should suspend and intermitt our lawfull labours and wholly cut off and denie our unlawfull pleasures We shall not need then as Beasts under the Leviticall Law one or more to drive us to the House of God nor drag us with violence to the Altar of God to offer an holy living and acceptable sacrifice to him which is our reasonable service But with Davids Spirit we shall say I was glad when they said unto me Let us goe up unto the House of the Lord. And how much better is it we should doe a thing with Alacritie and great content than with constraint But this we may doe if we can but free our selves from that load of corruption we are apt to lye under And what effect in this kinde and progresse a man hath made in himselfe may be competently discerned from the sense a man hath in himselfe of the fear of God and love to his service and worship which though the most pure and perfect in this life is not without some tepiditie of spirit sometimes yet the seed of God sown in the heart will generally spring up with gladnesse 7. This therefore should be our great and chiefe endeavour which is the Counsell of Solomon Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life And if as Solomon saith Prov. Chap. 18. 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue much more true is it that both of them are in the power of the Heart as it stands affected or disaffected to God seeing the Poison or Balsome which distilleth from the Tongue is originally owing to the Heart as the Heart doth comprehensively signifie the entire bodie of affections which must be dedicated to God. But given to God it cannot be without a mock or derision but as it is whole and sound clear and clean according to the ballance of the Sanctuarie of the Gospell which consists much of Christian Equitie We never heard of any that liv'd a life of nature with halfe an heart only neither of any that was sick on one side of his heart and well on the other no more is it possible to please God with one part of our heart and to please the world with the other or at the same time to live the life of this sinfull world and of Christ My son saith God give me thy heart and not a piece of it for that must needs be dead flesh odious to man and much more to God. SECT IV. Of the proper Means and Methode of cleansing the Soule and first of Baptisme 1. SUCH is the contagion of sin naturally infecting the very Soule as inheriting our Forefathers corruption that being in love with it as all men love
that which is naturall to them there is but small hopes a man should be able or so much as willing to help himselfe out of that evill state The wisest Physicians admit of Counsell and assistance from others when they are in any languishing condition And some Sores or Wounds there may be of the Bodie which a mans one hand cannot come at to dresse or cleanse and therefore needeth the applications of others And this is the case of the corrupted Soule by Nature This is thy wickednesse saith the Prophet Jeremie Cap. 4. 18. because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart It is every mans case Thou hast destroyed thy selfe but of me is thine help God must and doth prepare us to a new life and salvation by his own Counsell and Hand and a Laver of Regeneration a Sacrament of Baptisme hath he ordained to the cleansing of our originall defilement and purging our inward man which no outward ministry not ennobled with Divine Vertue can reach or remedie This was prophesied and promised by God in Ezekiel Chap. 13. 1. In that day there shall be a Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Hierusalem for sin and uncleannesse And this we to our wonderfull satisfaction and comfort finde accomplished in the pure water of Baptisme the force and effect whereof we are well taught by our English Catechisme which sayes Being by nature borne in sin and the Children of wrath we are hereby made the Children of Grace And Children of Grace we are not made but by such purification which proceedeth from the blood of Christ shed for the expiation of our filthinesse and offences And the Blood of Christ is no otherwise effectuall to our cleansing than as applyed by that which represents it Baptisme So that the Apostle 1 Corinth 6. 10 11. having described the lamentable and foule state of the naturall man in Fornication Idolatrie Adulterie Effeminatenesse abusings of Mankinde Thefts Covetousnesse Drunkenesse Extortions whereof whoever is guilty shall not enter that spot and guilt remaining into the Kingdome of Heaven addes to our humiliation and comfort at the same time And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified by the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God which plainly directs us to Baptisme Washing and Sanctifying from all uncleannesse of Nature And therefore none were ever admitted into the number of Christs flock or holy Fold the Church but such as were so sanctified contrarie to the frequent errours of the Moderne Divinity which denies the power of spirituall mundification to Baptisme and of pardoning sins restraining its vertue to significations only of remission of sins by Christ and the Incorporation of us into the Church which is the Body of Christ Which Doctrine as very new and contrary to the faith of the Ancient Church and so many clear and expresse places of Scripture ascribing a power of cleansing and pardoning unto that Sacrament I wonder how men of Learning and Conscience could readily maintain And that is all I shall at present say against that Dogme avoiding here all contentions and pursuing the plain trueths usefull for our edification 2. And this leads us to another effect of Baptisme upon the Soule which concernes actuall transgressions as well as originall sin removed thereby For not only is that sin actuall and originall which we bear about us purged away at the time of Baptisme but by vertue of the Covenant God makes with us then we are in a capacitie to purge our selves Gods grace alwayes supposed as concurring with us and to obtain remission of sins and reconciliation to Allmighty God by repentance whose efficacie to that purpose depends absolutely on preceding Baptisme so that Repentance inward attended by change of heart and life can ordinarily be of no power to reconcile us to God but as we are before baptized into Christ whatever God may doe by his extraordinary and unrevealed Will not to be relied upon without adding sin unto sin and that of presumption tending to a new provocation 3. And the manner of so expiating sin committed after Baptisme is yet farther improved from the Sinners serious reflection upon the solemne Vow made in Baptisme between God and himselfe of forsaking the World Flesh and Devill and all sinfulnesse occasioned by them For what ingenuous Christian calling to minde what God hath in that Holy Sacrament done for him or what he hath vowed to God but will farther bethink himselfe how to demean himselfe agreeable to such Covenants and consequently apply himselfe to those Duties incumbent upon him And to this St. Paul would argue us Galat. 3. from the established Custome among men saying Brethren I speak after the manner of men though it be but a mans Covenant yet if it be confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto According to the generall Law of Nations it is base and dishonest and very dangerous to break the Agreement made or to invent and forge new termes never condescended to by the other Party And how can we thinke but God should make good what he threatens his own people viz. Avenge the quarrell of his Covenant Levit. 26. 25. So that God having thus freely premised his pardon of our sins and washed us with pure water and moreover furnished us with such a Fund of Grace then given us and following us with actuall Graces superadded to the generall what should more prevaile upon us than to improve them all as well to the clearing us from our former evills as resisting the manifold temptations occurring in our Christian warfare For by Baptisme and the Vow made therein hath God put a word into our Mouthes of trueth and holinesse whereby we may confound sin and Satan he hath put a Sword into our hands wherewith we may strike through the Loins of the Old Man he hath made us more than Conquerours and more than clean in that Naaman-like a Miracle is wrought upon us by the true Jordan-streams in renewing our leprous and foule flesh to its pristine puritie and granting unto us that we may so preserve our selves when we happen to fall into the mire of sin by vertue of an efficacious Repentance made so by Baptisme of which in the next place we are briefly to speak SECT V. Of the Grace and Power of Repentance in Cleansing the Soule 1. O Divine O Blessed Repentance How like our Blessed Saviour art thou despised indeed and rejected of men a Ladie of sorrowes and acquainted with griefs How doe we despise thee as one of no beautie that we should desire thee Isaiah 53. How beautifull art thou in the Eyes of God How powerfull in the presence of God For as God seeth not as man seeth so loveth he not as man loveth With vain man that person is lovely and enamourring which hath a well featur'd face a fresh look a ruddie Complexion bright and sprightly Eyes and such like
ornaments of Nature which if they be not accurate enough recourse is had commonly to Artifices imitating and excelling Nature But with God lovely are the Eyes swelled with weeping the moistened and blurred Face the drooping Head neglected Attire pale Countenance and dejected not daring so much as to lift it selfe up to Heaven sackclothes on the Body instead of Silks and gorgeous Apparell and ashes on the Head and halfe-formed language directed to God through confusion of minde and oppression of spirits under the sense of sin and offences committed against God. This is the thing God is most in love with this is the Image methinks I could worship above any other representation and by mediation of which I should hope to have greater acceptance with God than by the intercession of the most eminent and renowned Saint in Heaven For if Saints can help and befriend us seeking to them they cannot prevail for us before God but as we repent but certainly Repentance may prevail with God without them Though thou wash thee with nitre Jerem. 2. 22 23. and takest much sope yet thine iniquitie is marked before me saith the Lord. How canst thou say I am not polluted But Take to you words of Repentance and turne to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously c. and you shall be saved from your sins Offer to God all the Beasts of the Field and the Sheep upon a thousand Hills yea take the fruit of thy Bodie and offer it and them all as a sacrifice of expiation to Almighty God for the sin of your Soule and it shall not be received but the sacrifice of a broken spirit and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise And what should I mention in this case the treasures of Princes of no account with God in comparison of Repentance to finde favour before him or to cleanse us 2. Who is there then that should be affraid of Repentance which removes all consternations and fears Who is there that should be ashamed of the deformities of Repentance so beautifull in the eyes of God or the basenesse of it so exalted and honoured by God 'T is true At first she will walke with him by crooked wayes Ecclesiasticus 4. and bring fear and dread upon him and torment him with her discipline untill she may trust his soule and trye him by her lawes then will she return the strait way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets For what can be more easie or equall or comfortable than what St. John saith 1 Ep. 1. 8 9. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the trueth is not in us But if we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 3. But all this while though the danger be not so common or great as the contrary undervaluing and neglecting Repentance caution is here to be used while we thus applaud and magnifie Repentance and the power of it lest we ascribe too much unto it For here may Repentance curing the distempers and purifying the pollutions of the Soule say with the Apostle Saint Peter Acts 3. healing the impotent man Not by our own power or holinesse have we made this man to walk But by the power and institvtion of God is the great cure wrought by it upon the Soules of the penitent For what is Repentance of it selfe Even as vile and contemptible a thing as it appears to be as course and uncomely as unhappie and unfortunate and unprofitable to such great ends as it seems What can a melanchollie look contribute to the cleering Gods countenance towards a Sinner Or what can a wounded heart conduce to the healing of the diseases of the Soule What satisfaction for the wrong done to God can wringing of hands beating the Brest sackcloth and ashes severe Penances liberall Almes very commendable in such cases avail to recompence the injuries done to God our Neigbbour or our own Soules How is it possible these things should restore innocency to the Person or integrity and puritie No surely But God seeing man plunged into debt with him in ten thousand Talents and having nothing to pay so condescendeth to the necessities and extremities of his miserable and forlorne Creatures as to raise up one Mighty to save poor in Spirit and rich in Mercies and Merits which he extended to the relief of us lying under guilt and Gods heavie displeasure but yet not so absolutely and inconditionately but we should concurre by our endeavours to put efficacie actually into the generall meanes ordained by God to our restauration and reconciliation amongst which none is more prevalent with the Father of Free Grace and Mercies than Repentance and that quicken'd and enlivened by such adjuncts and fruits mentioned For who shall except against God if he pleases that so many Cyphers of our penitent actions and humiliations shall stand for round Numbers tending towards the payment of our debts Baptisme by naturall water is but a poor and beggerly Element of it selfe to wash away originall Sin but God may and hath elevated it to a noble and Divine Effect So the baptisme of Repentance is altogether insufficient to such high Ends as washing the Soule but by Gods Institution it becomes thereunto effectuall to a miracle 4. Whatever therefore may be pretended of free Grace on Gods part and feared of superstition on mans part in disciplining the Soule by outward austerities such as afflicting the body to bring iâ— under subjection to the minde and rebating fleshly concupiscences and motions towards Sin Watchings Fastings Confessions to God and man Prayers forgiving others that have offended us Almes and such like Christian acts and exercises as inconsistent with Christs full satisfaction upon the Crosse it is more inconsistent with the Goodnesse and Grace of God to oppose these and may in like manner tend to the abolition of that small pretence to Repentance and Prayers yea Faith it selfe remaining with such selfe-securing Scruplers The power indeed of Faith and Repentance is in a manner infinite through Gods Power and Grace influencing them but God workes rather by his own prescription than according to our imagination and fond Faith naked of such a proper retinue as is mentioned It is abundantly sufficient to all ingenuous mindes and throughly repenting that God will admitt them to the benefit of Repentance upon the use of it in deepest manner and with all its circumstances and therefore for men to speak evill of that way and to studie for excuses from severer practices and to declaim against them as derogatorie to Christs merits may provoke God to denie that grace of acceptance which in many cases he granteth unto Penitents For God hath wisely and justly hid from every mans Eyes the precise and particular termes of our reconciliation with him neither hath he declared precisely all the qualities and circumstances of that humiliation upon which
he will acquitt and absolve us But God undoubtedly doth remitt offences to some mens repentance which he will not doe to anothers by reason of the varietie of the circumstances of the persons As for instance If a man heinously offending God and having knowledge opportunity means and speciall motives to exercise and demonstrate the same shall speak lightly of that way and with presumption rather than Faith securely lay all the dutie on some inward trouble of minde I may justly fear such a mans repentance will fail him and frustrate his expectation though in some cases and of some persons it may be accepted No greater evill surely to Gods grace and mans well-grounded faith is there than to have recourse to what God can doe and what Christ hath done and so therein to rest as wilfully to forbear what they themselves ought to doe And men ought to doe what in them ordinarily lies to the recovery of their fall and standing right in the Court and favour of God neither attributing too much to such outward workes wrought nor too confidently laying claim to the freenesse and amplitude of Gods favour unqualified wholly for the same 5. Two eminent Examples Ancient stories afford us for the better regulating our belief and actions in this Case The one is of Father Paemen in the Apothegmes of the Fathers To whom one coming and confessing a great sin whereinto he had lately fallen humbled himselfe before him assuring him that for so doing he would doe Penance for three yeers No said the old Father it is too much A yeer then said the other It is too much said he Fourtie dayes said the offender It is too much I tell you said Paemen three dayes Penance not committing the same sin again the sin was Fornication may suffice No doubt but this resolution was sound and good because of a fervent and strong determination of taking upon himselfe a more difficult task and heavie burden through deep sense of his wickednesse which God principally regards But should any man set such like sin at so low a rate as to contemne much outward trouble and say within himselfe that true Repentance is to be sorrie at large and not to committ the same sin again I doubt whether such selfe-absolution upon such easie termes would be accepted by God. For those who probably have not fallen into such scandalous sins but devoted themselves more entirely and intimately to the service of God have judged their whole lives not too much to win Gods favour by Repentance and that of the severer sort For Gregory Nyssen in the Life of St. Ephrem the Syrian writeth of him That as it was naturall for all other men to use respiration and motion so became it customarie to him to weep so that there was scarce any day or any night or any considerable part of day or night or very short time in which he did not shed teares teaching us that we ought never to resolve against weeping for our sins or having confidence in Gods mercy where the grace of true Repentance is found and true fruits though not so high and heroicall as I may so speake are not wanting Nothing is more contrarie to the free Grace of God or our Dutie than limiting him or it where he hath not circumscribed himselfe To say within a mans selfe God will not have mercie upon me unlesse I truely repent is the Doctrine God himselfe put into a mans mouth and must be held immutably and inviolably because he hath so often said it and hath limited his pardon to that condition But to say To doe thus much in Repentance or to goe thus far only is sufficient without farther troubling flesh and blood or on the contrary to say positively God will not pardon my offences unlesse my true repentance be attended with and demonstrated by such or such outward exercises is to determine what God hath not determined and to lay the stresse of obtaining mercie upon uncommanded services as we are taught by some of late dayes to speake It is left therefore by God obscure as to the visible part of Repentance what God will accept and what he will not for reconciliation But to condemn outward severities as too many doe upon a possibilitie that God may save us without them may for ought we know turne Gods face from approving our presumed-on Repentance inward For there are so many instances of Great Sinners greatly humbled outwardly as well as inwardly upon the sight of their sins in Holy Scripture as well as monuments of the Church that it is a wonder to me to observe the confidence the moderne divinity of some hath put into the hearts of men by a prodigall faith to make up a short and easie reckoning between God and them adding taunts and reproaches to them who surpasse them in sensible exercises and concomitants of inward sorrow He therefore is in the safest way to have his soule cleansed from his sins and the scores wiped out between God and himselfe who shall bear such a venerable opinion towards Repentance such a hatred and detestation of sin such an equall opinion between the Justice and goodnesse of God as that by abundance of penances imposed on himselfe or by others whose judgement he may follow better than his own in such cases he cannot merit properly Gods favour nor keeping up a faithfull and humble spirit towards God in sincere Repentance not so fairly qualified must despair of remission For undoubtedly the contrition of the heart shall much preponderate the bodily exercises weighed together in Gods ballance but 't is no reason at all because that is principally to be done that we should leave the latter undone and that upon severall accounts not so well consisting with our present designe 6. But yet in generall to reconcile men to the complexe dutie of Repentance thus asserted I shall offer to the devouter mindes these few Considerations of the excellencie of Repentance As first that Repentance is the greatest Good God could bestow upon the lapsed Sinner so that it may be doubted whether his singular love to mankinde had appeared more conspicuously in preventing his fall by a powerfull hand than by giving him Repentance to lift him up again It was much easier for man to have persever'd in the state of Grace at first received of God and seems more easie to God if any thing may be said to be difficult to him to have preserved man so than to have restored him So that of that great evill of man Apostacie from God this great good ensued the manifestation of the greatnesse of his power and mercie in giving repentance unto man and by such an abject thing in the eyes of the world to produce so glorious effect as the conversion of a Sinner the very joy and applause of the blessed Saints and Angells in heaven Nay though Christ as a Mediatour and Redeemer was the pure gift of God to man yet the influence and effect
of Christs mediation God would have to depend wholly on Repentance as is implyed in these words Acts 5. 31. Him Christ hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sin So that as there is no forgivenesse without repentance and there is no saving repentance without Christ so is there no saving Christ without repentance For this was one end of Christs coming into the world Repentance as we read Acts 17. 20. The times of former ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men to repent every where And hence it is that the Apostles having heard what successe St. Peter's preaching had amongst the Gentiles make it matter of astonishment and glorification of Allmighty God as it is written Acts 11. 18. When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life 7. But farther let us see more particularly the dignitie of Repentance in the managing of which all the principall Attributes of Allmighty God are engaged as first of all that which is most formidable to a guilty and conscious Soule his Justice For when by foregoing Illumination the minde of man is brought to the knowledge of the nature of sin dwelling in it and the strong opposition which is made against it and enmity and the fearfull reward due to it who can but tremble to finde himselfe brought under the plagues due to it But withall considering the wonderfull condescension of Allmighty God entring into a Covenant of Grace and favour with Sinners upon the termes of true repentance and that he will infallibly be as good as his promises declare him the bitternesse of his Justice is changed into the sweet waters of Life to the desponding Sinner For if God had only said as he doth Exodus 34. 6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and trueth Keeping mercie for thousands forgiving iniquities transgression and sin and that will by no means cleer the guilty c. the matter had not been so wonderfull For it is imprinted in the mindes of all Believers that God is mercifull and Good to all even to Sinners that repent Allmost every Chapter in Mahomets Alchoran proclaims that aloud and this is most pleasant to the ear of a Sinner dejected for his errours but much more is that refreshing the languishing Soule to hear that Justice it selfe is turned to be a Friend to a Sinner by vertue of repentance as St. John assures us 1 Epist 1. 9. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse However therefore Scholasticall doubts and disputations may be raised about the manner how God out of his justice may be said to save a man yet it cannot be doubted after such expresse words of Scripture that so it is And that this comes thus to passe that God hath so great regard and esteem for his own gift Repentance that where ever he finds that he hath obliged his honour his trueth or faithfulnesse to his word and Justice it selfe to acquitt that Sinner and cleanse him from his pollutions Not unlike to the gift of some great Prince or Person to some inferiour one who in token of his fidelitie to him and firmenesse in all great calamities and distresses endangering his life delivereth to him a Ring or other privie token well known to him advising that if ever he be call'd in question for his life or like to be oppressed by his Enemies he would send him that or show it him and it shall suffice to oblige him to come speedily to his deliverance and safety so pleaseth it Allmighty God to grant to his friends in Christ this excellent gift of Repentance which he beholding is so much affected with the dangerous condition of the miserable Sinner that in honour and justice he holdeth himselfe bound to secure him from the malice and mischiefs which his Enemies long and strain hard to bring upon him 8. And so may we say of the Omnipotencie of God concerned very much in the deliverie of the penitent Sinner For as there is guilt danger and damnation in sin so is there likewise shame and confusion of minde and face at the apprehension of so foul errours and odious spots as accompanie the commission of sins so that the same pierces into the verie soule by its stain and infests the Conscience with intolerable pain at the apprehension of such a shamefull condition What would an ingenuous Penitent give yea rather What would he not give that he had never offended so Great a God and so Good a Father With what shame the eyes of his minde being illuminate doth he reflect upon himselfe so that it is questionable in some truely repenting and generous soules whether the abhorrence of that foul state it findes it selfe in by sin be not altogether as intolerable as the foreseen punishments of Hell it selfe In such cases as this when all other hopes of being restored to its pristine integrity and purity so infinitely desireable to a true Convert faileth relief and remedie is discovered in the Allmighty power of God which and none but which could cause the Leprous and filthy parts of Naaman to returne to the soundnesse and sweetnesse of the flesh of an Infant and can as easily renew the defaced and defiled Soule so that when one day it shall appear naked at the Tribunall of Christ before the sharp-sighted Angells and men they shall not be able to discerne the least blott or blemish in the same And why because as by a second regeneration after Baptisme Repentance renews the soule by Gods powerfull Grace to a new habit and is therefore called a Second Baptisme 9. Furthermore what can be more worthy of every good Christians practice than Repentance which God honoureth above many splendid Graces in the sight of the world yea which men more thorowly seen into the divine study and art of conversing with God judge to be inferiour to none in dignitie and above all in necessitie How doe we read of Davids Repentance and Peters restoring them entirely to Gods favour so that former sins which were great obstructed not their ascent to the highest pitch of Gods favour and of Rule and Authority in the Church of God. For doth not the incomparable Parable of our Saviour Christ in the Gospell Luke the 15th of the lost Sheep of the lost Groat of the lost Son prove the certainty to us all which declare unto us this miserable state of Sinners fled from God and unreduced and the happinesse and glory upon their returne by Repentance and the joy in heaven and earth upon their conversion unto God and goodnesse as upon a Victory wun over the Devill and a soule wun to God. 10. And if we compare Repentance with other Christian vertues adorning the Soule we shall
humane Will as he had of Davids Will when Saul was in the power of his hands when Shemei railed to purpose and when at the word given his head might have been taken off and the King revenged of a Petulant slanderer yet he committed his cause to God and seeing at some distance his Hand and Will humbly acquiesced 8. Fifthly Nature it selfe teaches us and upon that Abimelech bowed the men of Sichems heart to make him King to be subject to one rather than to many there being no personall disparity which may alter the Case how much more elegible then must it needs be for a man well advised to submitt to the Monarchie of God than to the Anarchie or tyrannicall Democracie of innumerable lusts whereof some vote one thing and some another One tugges us this way and another draggs us that way commanding many times inconsistencies and contradictions and worreying and wearing out the simple Soule by unreasonable sollicitations and vexations For most truely said Saint Paul 1 Corinth 6. 16. Know ye not that to whome ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whome ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse Every irregular Affection every inordinate Lust is a Tyrant and would needs subject us to it so miserable is that Soule which listens or leans to them being divided from God and it selfe For prodigality and covetousnesse Anger and desire of Revenge Envie and Malice Superstition and profanenesse Pusillanimitie and rashnesse Slothfulnesse and indefatigable drudgeing for the world Loving strange Faces and embraces Lothing lawfull and laudable excessive exaltation and exultation when matters proceed prosper and succeed according to our loose phansies and fondnesse and dejection of minde and spirit when we are worsted in our designes and crossed and frustrated of our hopes and expectations All these and more than these never cease molesting and disquieting a man untill they see him secured under the protection and in the service of Allmighty God resolving to obey him against all temptations and to look on all occurrences as sent chiefly to make proof of his obedience and patience And that this free and full submission doe not only bring admirable quiet and tranquillity to the minde but sanctitie and puritie the thing we at present pursue appeares by the Discourse of the Apostle to the Hebrewes Chap. 10. 9 10. where having propounded for an Example and our imitation the readie obedience of Christ of whome it was said Lo I come to doe thy will O God it followeth By which will we are sanctified That is by that readie conformation of our wills to the Will of God. SECT VIII Of the Custodie and Discipline to be had over the outward Man and especially the Eyes Eares and Tongue 1. BUT now let us passe to the other part of a true Christinas care and labour consisting in the Purging of the Outward man and regiment ought to be had of our Senses from whence lust having conceived inwardly proceeds outwardly deadly sins and through which outward temptations pressing in defile the Soule For our Senses are as Gates to a Cittie through which there is continuall passing to and fro and that of Good and Bad and are the weakest and easiliest surprised unlesse very strictly guarded I will but look I will not like nor love I will but taste I will not eat the forbidden fruit I will but touch I will not embrace saith the naturall and warie wisdome of this world But the wisdome of the Word of God teaches us otherwise when it saith Touch not tast not handle not which all shall perish with the flesh Coloss 2. 1. especially when such touches and light Essaies are of things unlawfull dangerous or wholly unprofitable Doe we not read how Death entreth in at the windowes that is deadly sins at the Eye Doe we not read in St. Peter 2 Epist 2. 14. of such Persons who have eyes full of Adulterie and cannot cease from sin Not that the visive facultie good in it selfe and a great gift of God can of it selfe be subject to such a crime but that through the communication and combination between the inward and outward Man such lustings are either bred or stirred up by such Aspects The Jacks or Keis in the Virginall Harpsicon or Organ being touched with the Finger doe not sound themselves but they strike the inward strings which render the sound So when the outward Senses themselves are struck by their particular objects they soon communicate that passion scarce felt by them to the inward Senses which make all the noise Saint Augustine delivers this as a trueth experimented in himselfe Confess Lib. 7. 1. when he said After what outward formes my minde wandered the same Images did my heart run after allso So that even the subtiller Heathens could not but see the coherence between Phansie and Senses and between the Appetites of the Soule and them both when they tell us By our Eyes we are Luxurious by our Eyes we are hurried into all manner of Vices by our Eyes we are wanton by our Eyes we look on the Wine when it shewes it selfe in the Glasse our eyes are cast upon the Riches of the world as Achan's upon the wedge of Gold and the Babylonish Garment and by orderly unhappie but allmost necessarie gradations and consequences we as he are led to see to covet to take them That subtile Serpent the Devill knew too well what power the temptations had entring into a man through the eye when by his artifice he presented to Christ all the glories of the world and with such a suddain surprise that scarce any but Christ could have withstood or rejected them Job therefore would not so much as cast a vain and idle glance upon a beautie which might delude him Job 31. having no occasion justly so to doe knowing assuredly that the conjunction of the minde with an unlawfull object without that bodilie conjunction adulterates the Soule And imagination with resolution and strong intention does that before God which men cannot censure and so according to the diversitie of the object is the pollution diversifyed allso So that if there be as naturall Philosophers tell us Coel. Rhodigin an hundered Diseases of the naturall Eye the morall distempers by ill use of them may be accounted many more 2. And if I should give some instances of the many waies of corrupting the sight the rest may more readily be made up by mens own observations Poring upon Faces prepared to catch fonder Spectatours Taking pleasure in beholding wanton Pictures under pretence it may be that it is but a dead object or that fowl things are finely drawn Viewing wanton postures and gestures by either Sex or of either Sex. Yea casting an eye upon the mutuall and naturall actions of Animalls doing according to their kinde a man would think it should put one to the blush but too often the contrarie is found by a sympathie to be abhorred
which the Masters of Jewish morality noted and wisely disswaded all to turne their Faces from Amorous Romances and Lascivious Poetrye are to be reduced to this caution And that eye cannot be accounted innocent which coming into a Shop of Rarities and great varieties looketh not so much nor demandeth what it doth want but seeketh for somewhat which when it beginneth first to see it beginneth allso to want and desire and to want it because it desireth it and not desire it because it wanteth it Excellent therefore is that counsell of Ecclesiasticus Chap. 9. v. 5. 7. against both these and their fellowes and that when there were no Monks nor Friers in the world upon whome we would cast such severe counsells as their prosession leads them to Gaze not on a Maid that thou fall not by those things that are precious in her Look not round about thee in the streets of the City neither wander thou in the solitarie places thereof But our Saviours Evangelicall counsell exceeds this Matth. 5. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out It is better for thee to c. Nature as Lactantius observes to preserve the eye a very tender and precious part hath fenced it with hairs on the lids as so many Speares which at the approach of the least Enemy to it being but lightly touched give notice to shut it presently for its securitye But it hath not provided such meanes to defend the eye from morall objects which are ever in readinesse to offend it but that is the speciall gift of God and should be the Christian prudence of every true Believer 3. And the like circumspection is necessary to be had about the Ear another most profitable yea necessarie Sense and no lesse passionate than the other 'T is incredible even to them that are overcome and captivated by dishonest Speeches lewd Books obscene Poetry what a change and that for the worst aptly tempered sounds and melodious Voices have upon a man. They deject him and make him moody and heavie they inflame and lighten him make him brisk and wanton make him full of talk and ridiculous motions and finally insnare and draw him to humour the notes in his actions good or bad Cease my Son therefore saith Solomon to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge whether Poeticall or Prosaicall For when the forme of words the eloquence of the Tongue and gracefulnesse of speaking are the gift of God the matter clothed and adorned and adapted to the eare by them may be of the Devills devising and sent before him to fowl the room of the Soule for him and his unclean Spirits to dwell there For as the Good Spirit of Wisdome will not enter into a body given to sin no more will or can the evill Spirit enter into a Soule or bodie not fitted for his turne by impure cogitations and devices Turne therefore saith Solomon Proverbs 14. 7. from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge Which knowledge is there used for wise and profitable talke opposed commonly to foolishnesse which in Scripture signifies as much as Sin. And in so advising he doth implye the next and right way to avoid not only certain single acts of corrupt communication but even the inclination and desire of impure matter imbibed by word or writing For it is true in morall things as well as naturall that the understanding is made all things according to the impression made by the object as Philosophers teach being formable into any shape So according to divinity is it true that according to the pure and chast subject we choose to meditate on and converse with or the light obscene and frothy is the inward Sense affected not only actually or transiently but habitually and permanently So that in accustoming a mans selfe to immodest and immorall acts or businesses the minde is so tainted that all Diviner things become unsavourie and irksome In like manner to the palate of the Soule accustomed to spirituall pure and chast Discourses and reading the pleasureablenesse of vain idle and foolish Subjects and especially obscene becomes alltogether extinguished an irksomenesse succeeding in its place 4. And there being such neer relation as we have partly seen between the Ear and the Tongue as there is between a Fiddle-stick and Fiddle to strike it as it pleaseth the same doctrine of Sanctitie reacheth unto the due regiment of the one as well as of the other but more especiall care and custodie seem to be due to this than that For as much as the Tongue is an active part and Organ to evill but the Ear passive chiefly And sometimes it so falls out that a man must whether he will or no hear what is leud vain riotous wanton unclean and prophane but no man is constrained to use his Tongue so indiscreetly and wickedly he hath it more in his power than he hath his Eares and therefore he is the more obliged to make a good use of the one than he can of the other And as some have observed Nature by fencing it double with Teeth and Lips least it should trespasse upon God and our Neighbours teaches us with what good advice and moderation we are to use it For in trueth generally it so demeaneth it selfe that few can give that a good word which is the great instrument of Speech And seldome is it better employed than when it accuses it selfe and commends taciturnity and silence What can be said of it or any thing else more bitterly or truely than what St. James writeth of it Chap. 3. The Tongue is an unruly evill full of deadly Poison Therewith blesse we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the Image of God. And Solomon saith Prov. 21. Death and Life are in the power of the Tongue meaning that by a Lying slandering perjurious profane and unclean Tongue we hasten Death to others so that our own damnation at the same time lingreth not thereby Christ telling us Matth. 12. 36 38. that For every evill word that men speak they shall give an account at the day of judgement For By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned So that the Tongue or sting of the Adder is not so poisonous and pernicious as the evill tongue of Man. For that doth not sting or hurt the user but this doth verifying what is said of wicked men Pssalm 6. 4 8. They shall make their own tongues to fall on themselves All that see them shall flee away viz. as from the face and sting of a Viper And if we would judge of the ill Tongue as we doe of Persons of worth from their Extraction we shall find how low and base an originall it hath from St. James Chap. 3. The Tongue is a little member boasting great things the Tongue is a fire a world of iniquity it defileth the whole body
of the Ministery that I remember to have made use of artificiall Hair I will not determine But this I may say that they found not long after followers in this way who differed in other things from them but hereupon began to be better reconciled to that injudicious crude and dangerous Doctrine of worshipping God so with the heart and Spirit as no Censure should remain for any outward indecencies in the Ministers or Worship of God but what are common to all men 8. But with me that is more wisely and authentickly deliver'd which I finde Ecclesiasticus 19. 29 30. A man may be known by his look and one that hath understanding by his countenance when thou meetest him A mans attire and excessive laughter and gate shew what he is And if they only shewed and declared what a man is inwardly either for ingenuity or Pietie the errour of affecting gentilenesse and prettinesse were more tolerable but the pride of the heart and vanity of minde doth not only give being to such outward affectations but receive back again great increase from them Whereupon the wisest of Christians have ever preached up and prescribed plainnesse with cleanlinesse of outward habits of all sorts as a notable correcter of inward vanity and lightnesse as the Philosopher writes of Mares in their Venereall furie are tamed by shaving their Manes Plinius And if Men or Women should shave off all that Art adds to them in the like kinde I am of opinion they would loose a great part of their confidence and wantonnesse and gain a neerer step to humiliation and Gods acceptance thereupon as the Scripture plainly teaches us in the case of the Children of Israel offending God highly with whome God refused to treat of a reconciliation untill they layd by their gaudinesse Exod. 33. 5. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to doe to thee And according to the Leviticall Law there were severall uncleannesses in Garments properly so called and so certainly are there in a sense spirituall when abused in such sort 9. And this I speak not so absolutely but with allowance for degrees ranks and orders of Men and Women distinguishing them but rather 't is such affectation of Habits Fashions and Gallantrie I look on and condemn as is inconsistent with Sobriety Wisdome and true Pietie which bring in a confusion of these and a scandall to Godlinesse and many times prove an introduction to grosse impieties SECT X. The Connexion of what hath passed with what ensues concerning the Seven Capitall Sins 1. BUT having thus spoken generally of the Dutie of Sanctification and Purgation of the whole Man it will be requisite for greater plainnesse and easier progresse herein to descend to some particular Sins which every good Christian is obliged to quitt himselfe of not only for their own sakes but for the tail or train of sins they draw after them For we finde a common distinction of sins into Mortall and Veniall against which or for which I shall enter into no Disputation at present only I shall presume this as granted on all sides That all sins are not equally sinfull and that some sins are more prolificall and fruitfull than others and that these however in shew they appear not foul and scandalous are indeed more dangerous and deadly than others more detested in their consequences Such for instance are Pride Covetousnesse and Slothfullnesse and some others 2. Neither shall I here contend about the number of these Capitall Sins in which I finde some difference among Authours as allso in the very kinds but shall pitch upon these Seven which I may first rank according to that distinction before given of Sins proper to Evill Spirits and of Sins more proper to Beasts Of both which miserable and frail Man too much partakes For Pride Envie and Anger may seem to have the Devill for their proper Sire And Covetousnesse Gluttonie Luxurie and Slothfullnesse are more brutish than the other And both sorts are so bad that if a man were to choose he could not tell which to be most ashamed of neither being at all desireable or cligible Sometimes the Scripture teaches us that Pride is the Originall of all sin and sometimes that Covetousnesse is the Root of all evill which are both true if we consider them thus ranged For of all mentall sins wherein man draweth neerest unto the Devill who is a Spirit Pride may be said to be the Mother And of all bodily sins viz. such as proceed properly from corrupt Flesh and Blood Covetousnesse may be said to be the root taking it especially as Saint Paul doth for a concupiscence tending to the satiating the Sences ever least satisfied where they are most cocker'd and indulged But omitting curiosity and prolixitie we shall consider them in their order mentioned giving a brief description of these distempers of the Soule and then of their Cures SECT XI Of Pride the first Deadly Sin or Capitall 1. PRIDE we know was the first Sin committed and the first spot that blemished the fair Works of the great Creatour of all things and that one of the fairest and noblest made by him For as Angells were the top and Crown of Gods Creation so was Lucifer the Head as is generally believed of Angells of his order especially And his sin was Pride and his Pride an emulation of God himselfe saying within himselfe I will ascend and be like unto God. He thought himselfe such a free-borne Subject that he ought to cast all Soveraignty off him and bring the rest of the world to be governed by Aristocracie in which he hoped for a principall place and to have a negative Voice at least But that Pride which infatuated his understanding to aspire so high weighed down his person to a base and monstrous condition both of uglinesse and torment And this his Leader the proud man followes and with the same event likewise His great designe and aym is to be high honoured and applauded and of all men is the most odious to God and man. It being said of God that he resisteth the proud James 4. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 5. and this agreeing with what we read Job 40. 11. as a property of God viz. to cast abroad the rage of his wrath and to behold every one that is proud and abase him and as if the sin of Pride were greater than the punishment of the guilty person could any waies answer God declares he will destroy the house of the proud Proverbs 15. 25. Infinite other Texts of holy Scripture testifying the like vengeance ready to fall not only on the person but familie of the proud and that where the pride of the heart aspireth to an high and perpetuall name For what can they expect from God more justly than that they should follow Lucifer in his fall whome they have imitated in his selfe-exaltation 2. And what a piece of short-wittednesse is that for men not to be able to
the fomenter of it and the necessity pretended when men say I cannot endure this I am not able to bear that What flesh can suffer this all is to be imputed to choice and not constraint of nature As if his nature were one thing and he another or the furious habit and stock of Passion treasured up against a day or occasion of raging by frequent lesser acts as they say proverbially Light gains make heavie Purses were not the effect of his own will and so consequently the effects of such evill habits imputable to his will allso 4. It is disputed amongst the curious and Learned how Fire can afflict or torment evill Spirits that being materiall and these incorporeall And what place of torment there is wherein Fire rules and so rages To which some have replyed that the Fire wherewith the Devill and his Angells are tormented they carry about them it being by the just Judgement of God so inseparably fixed to them that every one carries about him his particular Hell. I have often likened the angry Mans evill temper and state to this sort of torment For he carries this fierinesse allwayes about him and is allwayes plagued with it himselfe and lessens as it were his own torment by scattering sparkes whereby as Saint James saith the course of Nature is set on fire being a right bred Son of the Leviathan of whome Job thus writerh Chap. 41. 19. Out of his mouth goe burning lamps and sparks of fire leap out Out of his nostrills goeth smoak as out of a seething Pot or Caldron His breath kindleth coals and a flame goeth out of his mouth For so allso the Angry man fumes and fomes and flames setting all into a combustion where he hath to doe and acteth his part and which is most strange and Lamentable this rage spareth not the authour or subject of it but oftentimes hastens Death by Apoplexies as that famous instance given us by Munster in his Geographie of Matthias King of Hungarie who having on a Palme-sunday received a Message from the King of France that pleased him much being at Dinner called for his Figgs to be brought and understanding that his Servant had eaten them became so enraged as to fall into an Apoplexie which bereaved him of his speech grunting only like a Beast for that Day and dying the next 4. When therefore men are angry as they say for nothing as angry Soules wanting matter of quarrelling will create it When men are out of measure offended for a reall but light cause as the too hard clapping to of a Door or a Servants letting fall of a Trencher while he waits upon his daintyear'd Lady at the Table or offends others in some such frivolous wayes who would have it an argument of their greatnesse to have no command of their Appetites any more than of their Passions When men shall be too frequent in their cholerick humour imagining that nothing can doe well without that Engine which mars all then may they well be assured they are much out of the way themselves having lost the command of themselves and in no likelihood to govern others as behoveth them For Saint James tells us The wrath of man worketh not the Will of God meaning that God seldome prospereth that with a good successe which Choler principally setteth on foot For this were for God to blesse Vices Yea where it is the Will of God that a thing should be done as Vice in its severall kindes reproved by such especially whose place and office it is so to doe yet if zeal be transported into Anger so that it appeares to be the effect of Choler rather than Conscience or it seems to be an enmity against the Person rather than his offence men arme themselves with obstinacie against such attempts of reducing or correcting them And daily Anger is no better than daily Physick to move drye and slow bodies seldome used it may doe good but constantly hath no power over them For it will then too justly be suspected what is commonly too apparent that men greedily catch at occasions to be offended not out of ill will to the Vice or faults committed nor out of good will to the offender to be amended but to satiate their humour and please themselves in their proper and dear Vice many divers times being really lesse displeased at the crime committed than they are pleased with the opportunity offered of exercising their angrie facultie 5. Be instructed then and perswaded true Christian Soule in what becomes thee in this Case Wilt thou entertain such a Guest within thee which will turne thee I mean the best part of thee thy Reason and Religion out of doors Or wilt thou torment thy selfe most dangerously to afflict others Seest thou not from whence wrath proceeds Seest thou not whither it tends namely to put thee beside thy selfe as a temporarie madnesse or drye Drunkennesse to prey upon the very Vitalls to precipitate thy latter end to have no content but what is found in Hell by tormenting and being tormented to open a door to divers mischiefs publick and private personall and sociall For if that be true which upon experience the Auncient Hermite delivers for such That a man cannot live Chastly as he ought that is given to Anger nor subdue Lust till he be master of this how many sins doth this one expose him unto seeing that the unnaturall heat which lurketh in the Angrie man is indifferent to the forming of other sins as well as that 6. Consider with thy selfe how frail thou art thy selfe and apt to offend and that sometimes unfortunately and unwillingly and doe not allwayes interpret the errours or failings of others as purposed much lesse anticipate by rash conjecture that to be done which perhaps was not done nor intended to the end thou mayest indulge to thy selfe the wonted pleasure of fretting and storming without cause and so with shame thou beest constrain'd to muster up thy Forces and glory what thou wouldst have done upon occasion but art fain to withdraw as upon a false Alarm yet least thou shouldst be up for nothing shouldst fall fowl one way or other before Choler will be quiet upon the undeserving 7. It is no good ground of wrath against another that thou being wiser than another shouldst either deride or rage against the folly of him but a true Christian should consider that he whoe suffers men to be borne and live with crooked limbes or bodily parts doth permitt some crooked Soules to abide in bodies and therefore should rather pittie and endeavour to rectifye them than to expose them to shame or insult over them thereby contracting the like perversenesse to that condemned by them We that are strong saith the Apostle Rom. 15. ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves especially by displeasing others and God especially 8. And the better to crush the Viper of Anger in us stinging all that come nere us we must note
suffereth long and is kinde Charitie envieth not Chartie vaunteth not it selfe is not puffed up Doth not behave it selfe unseemly Rejoyceth not in iniquitie but rejoyceth in the trueth Beareth all things endureth all things Which whosoever so doeth cannot envie nor seek nor desire the evill of another nor rejoice at any evill befalling any other as if thereby some good had befallen him which is the guise of Envie Wherefore O Lord who knowest that all our doings without Charitie are nothing worth pour into my heart that most excellent gift of Charitie the proper Antidote against this Poison of Envie hatred and malice and the very soule of all Christian Graces and the Earnest of and key to Glorie and that fire of unquenchable blessednesse contrarie to that unquenchable fire of Hell where the Devill and his Angells are tormented that fo for his fake and through his Spirit who loved us and gave himselfe for us I may with faithfull servent and never failing Charitie love thee who hast first loved me and in thee and for thee all as they belong to Thee through Jesus Christ Amen SECT XIV Of the Capitall Sin Covetousnesse 1. I Have sometimes doubted and wondered how the excessive Declamations found in humane Authours and the sharpest Censures found in Holy Writ can be true of severall Vices as if more than one were worst of all For sometimes Pride is the originall of all Evill and sometimes Covetousnesse is said to be the Root of all Evill as 1 Tim. 6. 10. And than which nothing can be said more severely against any Sin the Apostle adviseth concerning Covetousnesse Ephes 5. 3. Let it not be once named amongst you as becometh Saints For what indeed can worse become Saints whose conversation is in Heaven than to fall flat upon the earth and like Moles to work in it And There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man saith Ecclesiasticus 10. 2. But comparing the Diseases of the Soule with the distempers of the Body some satisfaction may be given of such exaggerating formes of Speech For as the Maladies of naturall Bodies cannot so well be estimated from their kindes as from the degree of affecting and the danger from the part so affected so is it with the evills of the Soule For a Pin thrust into one part may be more mortall than a Sword run through another And oft-times the pain of the Tooth is lesse tolerable than the Gout in Feet or Joints and a lighter distemper at the Heart more dangerous than a Cancer in the outward parts And thus may Pride be the chief and worst of sinnes of a spirituall nature and Covetousnesse may be the root of all Evill tending to bodily and brutish pleasure though it taketh the least sensible pleasure of any but only treasures up materialls for all other Vices and impells to monstrous desires and actions For gaping and hungry as the unsatiable Grave and dilating its stomach as Hell it fetches from thence allso hellish appetites contriveth plotts to catch its unjust prey or most unjustly hoardeth up and detaineth what perhaps not unjustly was acquired Or if at any time it letteth goe abroad part of its Magazine it is as Garrisons send out Parties to bring in more spoil by pilling and robbing the Country that is by Usurie and extortion or Money lent most disadvantageously to the borrower 3. Certain old Stories doe commonly passe of some Caves Hills or holes of the Earth wherein are great Treasures of Gold and Silver and precious Stones but so that they are kept by Dragons or evill Spirits from being carried out and become usefull to men Very true is this of Wealth in the possession of Covetous Persons There it is to be found but thence it may not be taken by any meanes For 't is kept by Evill Spirits so close that the pretended owner himselfe scarce durst touch it For as Solomon saith What good is there to the owner of them saving the beholding of them with the eyes Ecclesiast 5. v. 11. And yet this is not all but ver 13. There is a sore evill which I have seen under the Sun Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt A double damage generally happening to the Amassers of Wealth One to the wicked treasurer of it while the more he hath the more he wants and the more he possesseth the lesse he enjoyeth And therefore very aptly in our English Tongue we call a Covetous Person a Miserable Person as most unhappie of all men And it proveth a sore evill to him for whome it is so gathered the Posterity of the Covetous Person scattering with like though contrary pleasure as the Father gathered and by prodigious Prodigality hasting to the Grave and so to Hell for spending as his Predecessour for sparing And the Evill Spirit that stopt the course of due spending now on a suddain drawes up the Sluce and drowns the Country with Vice and Vanity managed for a short season by Money But to begin the torment of the Covetous in this life he is told by trueth it selfe Prov. 28. 8. He that by Vsury and unjust gain encreaseth his substance he shall gather for him that will pitty the poor a thing which he dreadeth most of all who so hoardeth 4. But another Reason may be given why St. Paul calleth Covetousnesse the root of all Evill taking here Evill for Punishment and future Torments For I am of opinion that Covetousnesse sends more grist to the Devills Mill and finds more Fewell for to maintain Hell-fire than any other Sin infidelity perhaps excepted For very many great Sinners in the dayes of their youth and Vanity drawing towards the end of their lives have seriously and savingly repented changed their mindes and manners finding thereupon the effect of Gods bountifull Promises and Goodnesse But Covetousnesse like an inveterate Cancer in the Flesh the older it is the more it proceeds and consumes the Bodie and Soule Seldome doe men repent of their parsimonie and basenesse in their youth but often of their profusenesse and licentiousnesse And not so seldome as it were to be wished so rashly retreat from their former Errours that they run into the contrary Vice of Covetousnesse from which very few returne But the old Sinner thinks he makes God some recompence for his former Vices and doubts not but he repents notably if he declaims against young mens and his own expences in foolish Fashions in riotous Companie in costly Dames of the worst rank and such like miscarriages of youth and sees not that another Sin is to be repented of and his base sparing shall but adde to his punishment for base spending Here comes in a Mock-gravity Sobrietie Temperance Continence zeal against all sins but that he is lately wedded to and embraces as fondly as any he did formerly to the apparent hazard of his Soule mistaking change of sins for Repentance and Reformation of Life Whereas the Rule and Power of true Repentance for
our former sins is to act contrarie unto them and in this case especially when we have in youth ill squander'd the temporarie goods God hath lent to us for a season not to be tenacious of them in age but to employ them as freely in the service of God and promoting Pietie exiled by costly Lusts And not be like that unjust old Usurer and Oppressour of whome Henry of Huntington speakes who being exhorted towards his Death to give Almes plentifully towards the expiation of his wicked Covetousnesse refused saying No I will leave my Son all I have got and let him if he pleases give Almes out of it for the good of my Soule 5. It is therefore the advice of our Lord and Master Christ Luke 12. ver 15. Take heed and beware as if one word sufficed not to obviate such a pestilent Disease of Covetousnesse For a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Take we heed of it for the intrinsick evill in it selfe and beware of it for the viperous brood of sins which it bringeth forth and nourisheth some of which may be these Obduration of heart against God and Man being unsensible of the Dutie of Worship Thankfullnesse and fruitfullnesse in all good works the end of his bountie to man in that kinde And a hard heart and barren womb towards the necessities of his Brother craving some little of his abundance Yea cruell is the covetous to his own flesh denying what may be convenient for the same and no better to his minde tormenting it with restlesse and endlesse cares to adde to the unprofitable heap and bring about that designe which never comes to passe For he tells others first he desires but an honest livelihood but having attained to that he proceeds and tells us He would willingly leave a competent subsistence to his Wife and Children and having gained that Point allso then he is no lesse sollicitous about that competencie never knowing when he hath it though he hath it but would make his Posterities rich too and Gentlemen and Esquires and Knights and Nobles if it were possible and what not Then should he sleep sweetly in his Grave and for his Soule it is the least part of his sollicitude But if doing no good or doing no evill but to himselfe were the evill in which the Covetous man was only guilty it were a laudable sin if any may be said so to be in comparison of the wicked Pranks it plaies upon other What Choler and wrath rages not at a triviall losse which a liberall Soule would not be moved at or stirred Break but an earthen Vessell of two pence you allmost break his heart and if he breakes your Head it is lesse than can be expected from him Violences Frauds Cheatings treacheries to God and his Country for lucre Perverting Justice by Bribery subverting the Faith and confounding Religion by Simonie and Sacriledge which he laughs out of countenance when he cannot stand the tryall of such iniquitie or boldly asking What is Sacriledge What is Simonie baffles all received Knowledge and perswasion thereof by his acute and singular Scepticism trampling on Reason and Justice and Religion all at once Adde hereunto Lying Perjuries Stealings Rapines and a benefit raised to himselfe by depopulations of Parishes reducing the well-inhabited Place to one or two great Farmes taking up a strange Paradox for his Defence that there are notwithstanding never the fewer People because Nature will work in an unknown Manner and Land. How manifestly hath experience taught us what the Prophet Habakkuk denounceth against such Engrossers Chap. 2. 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to himselfe that he may set his nest on high c. For in trueth I have by me many Instances of curses upon Persons and Families who by such ill wayes of advancing themselves have in a short time been utterly ruin'd But I will not trouble this Discourse with them So as that is happened to them which the Psalmist hath Psalm 75. 5. according to the auncienter Translation The proud are robbed they have slept their sleep and all the men whose hands are mighty have found nothing Great matters they grasped at in their projectings but in the conclusion they were forced to let goe what before they held and nothing remained But above all this men should seriously consider there is more guilt in this sin than is obvious to every eye especially having in it the Pearl of Covetousnesse and that is no lesse if St. Paul may be believed than Idolatrie Coloss 3. 5. Mammon being erected in the heart the Temple of God and preferred before God and all that are called Gods which is the Character of Antichrist 6. And the consideration of these Evills may more than sufficiently disswade the pursuit of these earthly Riches which make us poor towards God But does not Christ the Oracle of God tell us as we have it Acts 20. It is better to give than to receive And the reason hereof is not obscure because it maketh us like unto God who giveth unto all men liberally yea Psal 145. Openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousnesse And believe we Solomon the wisest of Men rather than relye on our own witts naturall he telleth us that The Liberall soule shall be made fat Not unlike to those Breasts which abound by being drawn but are dried up and emptie by denying what they have to afford to others by Gods and Natures appointment 7. And there is but one or two main Objections which the Covetous is wont to alledge for his tenaciousnesse and against Bountie and Charitie especially towards Publick Good. Charitie of that nature is much perverted and abused to evill ends Which if the trueth were plainly known is not the reall reason of such Persons illiberality but the love of Money But be it so Charitable deeds are perverted to ill uses such benefactions made with pious intentions shall never be wrested by any abuses out of the hands of the giver but his reward shall be with the Lord and that an hundred fold Besides to whome can the subtillest Worldling give or leave his Estate so securely as it shall not or may not be abused He himselfe abused it and himselfe many times in getting it and keeping it which as dung ought to be spread abroad to make the Soil fruitfull And doth not Riches left to the dear Heirs of our Bodies suffer and doe more mischief to them than Good Doe they not abuse them in rioting Luxurie and Whoredome and Drunkennesse Who would have thought that the Covetous Person should be a man of so much mercie as to bring the abuse and mischief of Wealth home to his own Familie rather than the Church or State should be the worse for his freenesse But so experience often teaches us to fall out Whereas by sparing somewhat out of that we enjoy to Gods Service the remainder is sanctified and by Gods blessing becomes
than of uncleannesse contracted which they ought to be and therefore seldome repent of it as they ought to doe But when Nature shall have weather'd that Rock yet open violence is too often offer'd to the tender Innocent in barbarous manner And when it comes not to this yet how doe noble and great Persons many times offending in this manner become so vile as to stand in awe of their Foot-boyes and Chamber-maids privie to their wickednesse that they may keep their counsell So that the fact is dishonest and dishonourable the pleasure momentarie and fugitive the punishment instant and durable even in this life and in the world to come unquenchable by any thing but timely and plentifull teares here poured out to prevent the same SECT XVI Of Gluttonie its sinfullnesse and Cure. 1. IT is observed by Saint Hierome that the Seats of Incontinence and Intemperance are by nature placed nere together intimating the nere relation they bear one to another and the mutuall aid they give to advance one another For extravagant Lust must have excessive Diet to maintain it and excessive pampering of the Bellie by Drinks and Meats doe naturally tend to concupiscence It is the opinion of the Greek Church as we read in the Councill of Florence that the Evill and Apostate Spirits cast down from their Dignity missed but a little to assume Bodies so did they degenerate upon it and therefore still covet to possesse Bodies to this day and to enter into Swine rather than to want materiall Habitations Yet we never read that they delight in the bodily pleasures that men doe offend in No not when the Devill tempted Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit doe we read that he so much as tasted of it himselfe though it might have been a notable allurement to Man so to doe allso This Sin of Gluttonie therefore is that which soils the Soule of Man rather than the Devill And though we call this a beastly sin yet Beasts exceed not so much therein as doth Man. But it is an unruly and unreasonable appetite in man of eating and drinking little considering the true use and ends of such necessarie acts ordained by God and Nature which are the maintenance of Being and daylie repairing or recruiting the losses the frail and mouldering body suffereth But first Men being prompted by Nature to eat and drink and a pleasure being conjoyned with them least men should omitt what is so necessarie blinde and servile Man devotes himselfe too often to that which was appointed to serve his turne But he that made Fountains and Rivers of waters for the relief of our thirst never intended we should throw our selves into them and be drown'd And he who gave man the understanding to invent Wines never intended he should drown himselfe in a Butt And he allso that indulged to man about the same time the use of Flesh as of the hearb of the Fields and roots of the Earth and fruits of Trees never meant we should never give over inventing new Dishes and Dainties or be too ravenous of simpler Diet but that we should measure both quantitie and quality of what we eat and drink by the rules of Nature his holy Word and certain other circumstances prudent Persons cannot be ignorant of unlesse they choose so to be 3. For notwithstanding it cannot be precisely determined what is the proper proportion of every mans Bodie no more than what proportion belongs to every mans Family which are greater or lesser nor how many or what manner of Dishes are fit for all mens Tables yet must Judgment and Reason direct in this case The common saying is That Nature is content with a little and Religion with lesse yet may that Rule be questioned if taken so loosely as generally For when it is said Nature is content with a little we understand thereby that Nature may subsist and be preserved with a little but what and how little that is Nature hath not taught us and I think Religion does not require we should too anxiously inquire after much lesse doth it require that we should eat or drink lesse than Nature requires For then it should require us to destroy Nature and so to murther our selves leisurely and slily which is most of all forbidden by Religion 4. But neither here ought any man to deceive himselfe so as by inconsiderate indulging himselfe Meats and Drinks in a preternaturall quantity kinde or quality contract an habit of so doing which to break off is next to destroying of Nature For this acquired necessity being neither of Gods or Natures contrivance or cause is more culpable than an accidentall detriment arising to the body by endeavouring to reduce it to its true and pristine State. So that the violence is not offer'd to it as corrupted or debauched but the violence was to corrupt it so as to bring it into a necessity of persisting in excesse by all meanes to be redressed former wrie steps and wrenchings affected and wilfull making the following lamenesse sinfull though not wilfull 5. But if we judge of Natures contentednesse from the common custome of eating and drinking to the quieting of naturall appetites so indeed Religion may be said to allow lesse than Nature For as much as it is an act of selfe-deniall to give over eating or drinking before Nature gives over craving So that it is a strange plea used by too many softened natures They cannot Fast nor indeed comply with the gentler and lighter Abstinences scarce deserving the names of Fastings because they finde their stomachs call for supplies accustomed They pretend presently they shall be sick and perhaps glorie in their infirmitie not considering what a great disparagement it is to any Christian to have so brought up his stomach that in wonted manner fed it must be And perhaps in justification of this unrulie appetite to alledge God hath made all things clean and all Meats are lawfull being taken with thanksgiving and such like mentioned before But such as these should doe very well to consider what Saint Paul writeth to the Corinthians 1 Ep. 6. 12. All things are lawfull to me but all things are not expedient All things are lawfull for me but I will not be brought under the power of any Meats for the belly and the belly for meats but God shall destroy both it and them Surely he that must eat in an uninterrupted course hath brought himselfe under the power or tyrannie of his belly a very lamentable servitude and not Christian liberty 6. This Sin of Intemperance therefore is incurred severall waies all which are not observed by some and by others I know not regarded But the principall may be these which I shall here rather touch than handle having elsewhere treated on this Subject One way of offending herein is the Quantity we eat or drink Another is the Qualitie when we are studious of Delicacies and Dainties A third way is in the manner when with too much intention of
shall begin to beat the Men-servants and Maidens and to eat and to drink and to be drunken the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with Vnbelievers And the wise Servant will not say within himselfe My Lord deferreth his coming understanding this to be spoken only of the coming of Christ at the last and generall Judgement but of his particular Domes-day when his life shall be called for by God and his own beloved sin of excesse shall snatch his Soule from his wretched bodie for indulging it How many Tragicall Instances doth our Age afford of such who have been confounded in their own sin and perished in this pleasure I shall need to name none of yesterday or of this Nation I would it were not notorious But two most eminent and mighty Potentates I may mention I hope without offence and not without sense or some effect Alexander the Great his Friends and Flatterers write that he died of Poison given him at Babylon but others more severe tellers of Trueth write that Wine was that Poison excessively taken and that Drunkennesse kill'd him as may be seen in Seneca Epist 58. And who so great a Man in his dayes and so victorious as Attilas who after his many Conquests not being able to overcome his Appetite of Wine was overcome by it to that degree one day that he was taken so ill the next night that he voided blood at his Mouth and so died choaked with it As Munster tells us in his Cosmographie Let these things then sink into our hearts and have such influence upon our lives and manners as to prevent such disorders and miscarriages And let all they whose faith is dim-sighted or weak as to have no power over them in declaring to them and convincing them of the defilements of their Soules contracted by these excesses and shamefull spewings on their own glorie as the Prophet Habakkuk aptly expresses it Chap. 2. 16. be taught at length and convinced by their senses and common experience what a stain to their Name what a wound to their Bodie they bring from which they can never be purged or of which cured but by Tears of timely Repentance and the happie change of due Renovation both which will be so much the more difficult by how much they are more deferred SECT XVII Of Slothfullnesse the last Capitall Sin. 1. SLothfulnesse and affected dulnesse of Minde and lazinesse of Bodie is not denied to be a Sin by any but to many seems so modest innocent and harmlesse that they wonder why it should be ranked amongst the most dangerous and deadly But as we before observed Sins are not to be estimated from their intrinsick or absolute evill only but allso from the tayle they draw after them and the brood issuing from them And thus Slothfullnesse may be inferiour in consequentiall mischiefs to none For this numnesse of minde and indisposition of bodie to act extendeth it selfe equally to both capacities viz. Naturall and Divine or Religious it being seldome known that he whose minde is dull'd by indulging to ease is active any wayes in Religion And in trueth so notorious is it that Divines treat of it onely or chiefly as to Religion which it corrupteth if not totally destroyeth 2. For as Labour and honest industry seems to be the first Vertue insinuated in Scripture and appointed to Man so may the Vice of Sloth be the very first of practicall Errours supposing that Pride was the first of Mentall Vices For we read Genesis Chap. 2. that there was at first no man to till the ground v. 5. and we read v. 8. That God made man so soon as he had made Eden and put him therein surely not to be idle lest the Earth should be idle too so that Action was a Vertue of Paradise And so it was afterward when man turned out from thence was to make a Vertue of necessity and work to keep him from adding sin unto sin and calamitie unto calamitie For as Chrysostome well observes it was an act of Goodnesse in God to turne fallen man out of Paradise to the wide world and a blessing to him to curse the Land so that without hard labour he could not well subsist For if when Man was master of so much Reason and owner of so much Grace given him of God he fell into temptations and from thence into sin who can imagine but destitute in great measure of such aids and abilities he should riot unmeasurably living in ease plenty spontaneous and unactive rest odious and dangerous 3. And therefore though my purpose be to oppose Sloth as it relates to Religion the Connexion being so neer and strait between diligence in humane and divine Affairs it is necessarie to declare the sinfullnesse and odiousnesse and to correct the pravitie of the first before we can expect any good event in the latter For a soft heavie temper is the originall of both and a sicklenesse and wearinesse in doing any thing long or of difficultie but a certain spiritlesse loying and lying still or as the saying is Wandering up and down to see who does nothing and help them untill all meanes used to gratifie flesh and blood and none sufficing idlenesse proves more tedious and tiresome than labour to others And none groan under the burden and heat and length of the day by labouring so much as the slothfull and idle person doth under void time and emptie hours And none brings more distempers upon his bodie by working nor so many as the Sluggard by doing nothing 4. But doe I say or suppose that a man awake and well in his witts and limbes can rest in the Negative doing nothing it is hard to be believed The Devill will not suffer his Soule to be as Aristotles Understanding of Infants Rasa Tabula a smooth and eaven Table or as white Paper in which nothing is writ but is capable of any stamp or impression it pleases the stander by to make in it but he will write his minde in it speedily This is saith Cassian Collat. 10. the judgement of the Monastique Fathers of old in Egypt that the industrious Monk is tempted with one Devill but the idle with innumerable So that as the same Author there allso tells it was the custome of Abbot Paul to avoid idlenesse to burne those effects of his labours which were more than sufficient to bring in a bare livelihood that he might never want work or become idle 5. And this he might learn of Saint Paul Rom. 12. 11. who teaches us the dependence secular labour in an honest way hath upon Religion and on the contrary saying Not slothfull in businesse fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Diligence here in businesse is set before Fervour in Spirit and in the service of God intimating the usefulnesse of bodily labour in disposing to
reject his maimed and lame sacrifice For as it is usually said A cold Praise tends to a disparagement so a cold Prayer tends much to a deniall It is the effectuall fervent prayer of the Righteous that availeth much as Saint James teaches us And so by the Rule of contraries It is the slothfull and cold Prayer that prevaileth nothing or very little 13. And therefore fifthly to quit our selves of this stupidnesse of spirit it will be necessary to take that contrary and most commendable Vertue of Christian fortitude unto us so rare and yet so usefull against the many temptations offered to us in this world and to be cloathed with zeal as with a cloak as the Prophet speaks Es 59. 17. For were not it for the carnall bashfullnesse that many men show in the cause of Religion and serving of God shrinking for fear of the Enemies to it and that without cause Enemies to godly life would not be so audacious as they are but by the cowardise of the well-principled and inclined a Conquest seems to have been made by the adverse partie over the Religious which consent and courage may easily undoe And not only the openly irreligious have brought under too much the profession of the truely religious but the audaciousnesse of men of erroneous Religion hath gain'd them respect when their opinions and practice deserved nothing lesse Yea it is to be lamented to consider that Fanaticall Persons having with wonderfull confidence usurped to themselves the advantages of sober and precise behaviour and many excellent Phrases of Holy Scripture and communication becoming the mouths of better Christians divers have been so scandalized at the ill use of them by such which in trueth hath been notorious that they can hardly finde in their heart or frame their mouths to such wholesome formes of words which are an Ornament to the mouth of a good Christian so perverted by others It was the comparison indeed of a religious Person living an Age or two since Whoe would not loth to eat an Apple before knawn by a Swine so who will not shrink to take that Phrase into his mouth which has been abused by polluted mouths and to scandalous ends But as they who shoot at God hurt not him but wound themselves so they who are vulgarly said to corrupt and abuse the Scriptures and its holy Dialect to their own purposes doe not in very deed defile and abuse that which like God the Authour changes not but remains the same but they pollute and wrong themselves For as the Apostle to Titus speaketh Chap. 1. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled is nothing pure but even their minde and conscience is defiled Wherefore laying aside that vain and fearfull modestie which is so near a-kin to the sin of Acedia as the Greek word is and more comprehensively which we may render Incuriousnesse or Oscitancie or indisposednesse to Good Let us Brethren as Saint Pauls words are Ephes 6. be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and then impious and vitious men their own Conscience bearing witnesse against them will become timorous and ashamed For as Solomon tells us Prov. 22. 13. It is the slothfull man that saith There is a Lion in the way that is great dangers and many difficulties in the stricter and more faithfull service of God but the more resolute and diligent finde it not so but that the Yoke of Christ is easie and his burden light and that there is rest for the Soule as himselfe hath said SECT XVIII The Conclusion of this Second Part with some short advices relating to what hath been said therein 1. HAving thus treated of the necessity and manner of supernaturall Illumination and Purgation tending to supernaturall Union with God we hold it fit to close this Part with the offering of some brief Rules for the better directing of such who shall be inclined to improve farther what hath been said before concerning the purification and preparation of the Soule for a nerer conjunction with God by subduing that Seven-headed Dragon in the seven Capitall Sins or those seven Devills like to them which possed Mary Magdalene and which are as the seven Hills upon which the Antichrist every one carries about him sitteth and tyrannizeth over the Soule 2. First That because we are all borne in sin and even after we are regenerate in Baptisme doe through the infirmitie of the flesh fall commonly into sin that no man therefore allowe in himselfe any known sin whether light or heavie for hereby what was but a sin of infirmity becomes a presumptuous sin and so is accounted by God. 3. Secondly Some sins of both ranks are with more speciall care to be attended to and opposed by us And such I am wont to instance in which our Parents from whome we are immediately descended were subject to more than others or they who are immediately before them For undoubted experience teacheth us that not onely what we call Originall Sin but such actuall sin as hath strongly possessed them is often communicated to Children together with the temper of their bodies And allso those sins or failings in Parents and others which have been Examples to us in our minority and Education are to be suspected and feared by us Constant Examples of evill even disapproved in others too often having a great power over us when especially we are brought into the like circumstances and the same occasions are offered us of offending as was to them 4. Thirdly Great inspection and examination is to be had by every man of his own constitution or naturall complexion For as that Great Physician said Mens manners doe generally follow their humours abounding in them and therefore we commonly call the frequenter and constanter extravagancies of men their humours so that some are inclined naturally to Choler or Anger others to Jocundnesse and Levitie others to Melancholy and dullnesse c. Which a wise man and good Christian reflecting upon and discerning in himselfe ought to apply a proper Remedie unto and more watchfully to prevent the evill events of them 5. Fourthly A strong hand is to be carried against the powerfull and violent temptation of Fashion when it becomes Noble Gallant or Great as vain persons sometimes speak against Modesty Sobriety Temperance or Continence For such many are as must be acknowledged more especially in diversitie of Sexes which Nature hath made and diversitie of Politicall and Ecclesiasticall Orders which God hath made And therefore are wisely and justly distinguished by best Autoritie So that by no better arguments can any man defend indifferencie of Habits and outward deportment of the Laiety and Clergie than will equally serve for the indifferencie of the same to both Sexes For what is said against it by Moses his Law may easily be eluded by reducing it to a ceremoniall or judiciall Law. 6. Fifthly To rebuke represse or expell sinfull inclinations in our selves it
is requisite that we should not rest in the opinion we have of our selves which is commonly biassed by selfe-conceit selfe-love selfe-interest all quite contrary to that great Dutie of Selfe-deniall but that we should be so true and just to our own Soules as like righteous Judges to keep one Ear for what others judge of us and impartially to give a sentence upon our selves accordingly and not slie to that base and bold subterfuge of nonplus'd and shamelesse persons I care not I care not For though Malice and ill-will may instigate some one or two and upon speciall occasion to false accusations and slanders yet if the opinion be of more and those not so prejudiced and constant and lasting in vain doe men proclaim their integrity and innocencie for such judgement of others is much more to be trusted than our own 7. Sixthly Appearance of Evill and Hypocrisie reverst as I may so speak when men seem by outward carriage to be worse than in trueth they are is allso carefully to be avoided not onely because of the sin of scandalizing our Brethren and causing an erroneous judgement and uncharitable to be entertained but because it very often happens that men fall really into that sin which they at first onely seemed to committ Therefore it is St. Pauls Rule Philip. 2. 4. Look not every man on his own things but every man allso on the things of others not by curiositie and censoriousnesse but Charitie and conscienti ous walking without offence to others and if possible to prevent sin in others as well as our selves 8. Lastly Every man should have Charitie towards his Brother but no man is to demean himselfe so as to stand in need of the charitable judgement of others For he that doth so is certainly uncharitable in the first place and being really guiltie within himselfe is most wickedly unjust in demanding that another should be so charitable as not to think so of him though there be use of Charitie even where Crimes are past defence or excuses but for men to live conscious to themselves of unrighteousness towards God and justice towards men and then because there may want notorious convictions to demand of Censurers to judge charitably is in effect to require that others should be religious and they may be wicked under the protection of others Pietie and Charitie A Prayer for Puritie of Spirit O Lord God who is like unto thee amongst the Gods Who is like unto thee glorious in holinesse fearfull in praises doing wonders And what greater wonder is there than of sons of Men we should be called the Sons of God and of Children of wrath heirs of the Kingdome of God of lost sheep be brought back to the great Shepheard of our Soules of prodigall and fugitive Sons be brought home and embraced by thee our heavenly Father making us as well as requiring us to be holy as thou art holy raising us from the death of sin to the life of Righteousnesse given us by the Spirit of Grace which worketh in us by the meanes of Grace ordained by thee to that great end Let that Spirit be never wanting in me let that Grace never be received by me in vain whereby I may be sensible of my unworthinesse and insufficiencie to any thing that is good and at least to have an hunger and thirst after righteousnesse that I may in thy due time be satisfied and in the mean time grow and increase in this desire and this desire proceed to action and this action to such perfection as to overcome and mortifie all worldly lusts and Carnall affections purifying my selfe as he is pure and taking greater content and pleasure in casting off than ever I did in taking on me the burden of sin and in purging away all my old sin than ever I did in contracting those spots and blemishes which have too much and too long defiled that pure Spirit thou once gavest me and defaced that beautifull Image thou once stampedst on me And let the pleasure of Repenting be greater to me than that of offending ever was to me though alas it was too great Lord nothing is impossible to thee who canst bring light out of darknesse and strength out of weaknesse and out of stones raise up Children unto Abraham and to thy selfe and out of the ruines of Religion in me raise up a Temple fit for thy holy Spirit to dwell in Descend into possesse and dwell in my heart by faith and love of thee which may purge out the old leaven and make me a new lump and quench all fleshly Concupiscences which have or may raign over me or rage in me For this corruptible bodie presseth down my minde musing on high and heavenly things and the weight of sin so easily besetteth me that I cannot run the Race which is set before me and the stain of sin pollutes my best actions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this bodie of death from this bondage of corruption Thy grace I know O Lord is sufficient for me and thy Son mighty to save and that his Office is to save his people from their sins from their sins I say as well as from the punishment of sin Let that Day-star at length arise in my heart and enlighten and warm my minde with love of thee and let that breath of new life be inspired into me enliven my dead bodie and re unite and animate my drie bones and excite me with new vigour to the perfourming thy holy will that so the life I now live may be by the faith of the Son of God and being poor in spirit as he was I may be pure in spirit as he allso was for theirs is the Kingdome of God even the Kingdome of Grace here and the Kingdome of Glory hereafter whither O mercifull God and Father in thy due time bring me for thy blessed Sons sake Jesus Christ my Saviour Amen The Third Part. Treating of the UNITIVE WAY OF THE Devout Soule with God. SECT I. Of the Nature of true Vnion with God and Mysticall Theologie and of the Abuses and due Vse thereof 1. SUCH due preparation being made towards Spirituall Life in laying aside every sin so easily besetting us the remainder of our Christian Race towards God and our Union with him are more easily attained which Union is by Saint John called our fellowship with the Father and the Son 1 John 1. 3. And this is it which vulgarly is called allso Perfection Perfection being here used for Justification by faith in Christ and Christ dwelling in us and such a measure of assurance of Gods grace and favour which are competible to our Militant state in this life and incline God to the acceptation of us to a future inheritance of Immortalitie and Glorie And to this it is not absolutely necessarie that no blemish imperfection or infirmity should be incident but that none such should be found which either of it selfe should tend to corruption
the Earth the motions of the Air and temper differing from ours and the unusuall formes of Beasts and such like Rarities doe beget an inclination in the minde to be present on the place Likewise Relations of Battles wise Stratagems Valiant and bold Actions in others inflame the spirit to an imitation In like manner he who converses much with Religion its strange and preternaturall Notions the sublime Speeches and heroicall Actions of Saints and Martyrs and especially the admirable designe and Providence of God in Lost mans Redemption and Restitution perfourmed by Christ cannot choose but finde and feel a disposition in himselfe answering the impressions made in his minde of them where it is not notoriously pester'd with earthly and vitious Habits prepossessing it which by the foresaid prescriptions of the Purgative Exercise must be first discharged before any such transformation as we speake of can be hoped for For no man can attain to any savourinesse or complacencie in any faculty whatever untill by frequent practice he becomes a competent Master of such Science or Art. So that Saint Paul exceeding in these Exercises himselfe and thereupon experimenting the admirable effects of them in the vehement zeal for Gods glorie ending in Raptures and Visions Celestiall commends the same Methode to his Son Timothy 1 Epist 4. 8. in these words Till I come give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine which are easily applicable to such an attendance whereupon Christ with his blessed Spirit may enter into the Soule to its Illumination Purgation and Conjunction with him 5. And though all the Scriptures being given of God are profitable for Instruction and Edification yet as the glorie of the Celestiall Bodies differ in degrees so some Lights in Gods Word produce both greater light and heat in men than others doe Whereupon it is expedient that choice be there made allso of such as may be more effectuall upon a man not excluding inferiour points as uselesse but insisting upon such as are more honourable and weighty and fruitfull to be meditated on 6. And to give some assistance here to the weaker in directions and instances of subjects proper for Meditation not intending to limit any strictly to what I here offer What if we should distribute the Great Work of God in restoring and renewing or recreating the world brought into ruine and confusion by the fall of Man into as many dayes as it pleased him to take for creating and forming of the naturall and Visible world at the first And thus beginning on Munday to consider and meditate on the miserable Chaos of confusion into which all the world was reduced by Mans Apostacie from and the severall branches of the sinne committed thereby against God with the aggravations of guilt pertaining thereunto And how God entertained within himselfe thoughts of reconciliation with Man so undone and to determine or decree the same by his Sons becoming Man and undertaking the great Work of Mediation If on Tuesday a man should observe seriously and contemplate of the execution of this Decree by Covenanting a second time with Adam in behalfe of himselfe and Posteritie this true and proper Covenant of Grace and the foundation thereof in promising the Messias as a Mediatour and Redeemer and the exceeding love of God in giving his Onely Son to be Incarnate to that end Thirdly If on Wednesday we should meditate how upon this Day God created light out of darknesse and the light sprang up to the Righteous a Light of Hope and Life and of help by which we perfourme all spirituall Offices and workes as we doe our naturall workes by the light of the Sun dayly And if the observation be true and the reason of the Jew given to the Gentile Philosopher Why the Sun fails not to shine little or much every Wednesday viz. because it was made on that Day and so shining celebrates its own Nativitie much greater reason is there that we should celebrate the praise of Gods mercy shining in the face of Jesus Christ to us If on Thursday we should more particularly observe the severall Raies of the glorious Body of Grace falling upon us here on earth and how that he who hath given his Son thus to us will and doth with him give us all things so that the fat and the sweet and the plentie of the creatures ordained to mans use are derived to him by Christ through whome as he made the Worlds he administers and governs and disposes all things in an admirable order and Harmonie filling even the naturall mans heart with food and gladnesse which ought to appear and utter it selfe in outward acts of gratitude and service rising up from thence to the valuation more serious and high of the spirituall Blessings whereby he satisfieth the hungrie and thirstie Soule after Righteousnesse and the graces of the Gospell conducting to the glorie of God. And on Friday how ample noble and patheticall Meditations may be had on the sufferings and death of Christ for the sins of the whole world and the satisfying of Gods wrath due to man in extremitie by the tearing of his Flesh and the shedding his Blood even to the death of the Crosse for us so fullfilling all Righteousnesse And how reasonable just and righteous a thing it is for all true Christians to suffer for him and themselves all such hardships of Abstinences Continences Selfe-denialls and bodily punishments to be made like unto Christ and more capable of the fruits and effects of his Intercession and Redemption Sixthly On Saturday to consider the Rest of Christ in the Grave having finished the severall workes of our Redemption as God did that Day the workes of Creation resting from them And that we allso should rest from such workes of Nature corrupt which may be called properly Ours and so fit our selves to live and die as that the next Day which we call Sunday we may be fitted for a blessed and joyfull Resurrection And being then raised from the death of sin unto the life of Righteousnesse we may keep a perpetuall Jubilee of Holinesse and Happinesse elevating our mindes in the contemplation of the Power of God the glorie of Christ raised from the dead ascended up into Heaven ever to make intercession for us labouring here under severall conflicts untill we allso reign together with him Which future state may well deserve the best and highest of our thoughts as that where the imperfecter union of faith and love we can attain here shall receive its absolute and most perfect consummation hereafter 7. But untill that fullnesse of time or time of fullnesse shall come the minde of man is wonderfully helped and exalted by the exercise of the contemplation of God in his beautie and goodnesse which is oftentimes very effectuall upon men for the quietation and fixing of the unsetled minde in great peace and tranquillitie from the molestations of this world though at the same time there be found no small sollicitude how to
that he might doe them good at the latter end not feasting them so by the way that they should not desire to enter into any other rest For as we see it is with the Day-labourer that his Meals are very short in comparison of his toyl so is it allso with the faithfullest Servants of God in this life their spirituall refreshments are not comparable to their labour in working out their salvation with fear and trembling so that as Bernard observeth the Dayes are rare and the stayes are short of Consolations 6. And a fourth reason hereof may be Gods great designe to keep the Soule in Humility which might be endanger'd by such exaltations and upon which inferiour and harder services might be slighted and neglected as more proper for Persons not so highly priviledged Or it may be vainly presumed that such priviledges are granted to the Soule for its extraordinary diligence in Gods service which must not be allowed but looked upon as an overplus of his favour 7. Fifthly The withholding or withdrawing of such delectations in Gods service may be to instruct us in the absolute Will of God to keep times and seasons in his own Power which it is not for us to know as Christ tells his Disciples Acts 1. And that the Kingdome of God cometh not by observation or according to our expectations 8. But because it is very acceptable to God that we should in all our services give a cheerfull Sacrifice to him which cheerfullnesse is much advanced by the sense of Gods good will towards us such a lightnesse of spirit is not to be wholly slighted as it is not too importunately to be sought after The meanes therefore to obtain the same may be First The due observation of the foregoing Rules now mentioned Secondly A free submission of our selves and services to the disposition of the will of God and contentednesse to persist unalterably in our station under such Aridities of which we know not our selves to be direct occasions a great motive to incline God to manifest his favour unto us more fully Which calls to my minde what I have been told to have happened in the Court of Charles the First For why may we not illustrate things as well by Moderne as Auncient Examples and Domestick as well as Forein in which rare and noble divertisements being prepared for the delight of such as he favoured an inferiour person demanded entrance into the place of such Splendour but being repulsed by a Noble Person to whome the power of admission was given He said Well if I must not be admitted I know what I will doe Doe said the Noble Man Why What will you doe I will goe home said the other and goe to Bed. Nay then if you be so indifferent and well content without it come in replied that Lord. So doth it usually happen unto such who cannot but desire to be admitted into the Presence of God in this way of sensible delectations and yet with patience and submission absolute to Gods Will readily and quietly rest in their ordinarie Dutie ordained of God to walk in here in fullfilling his Will so on Earth as it is in Heaven according to humane abilitie where alone is the consummation of that Union we have but in part here never to be dissolved or interrupted Last of all Retirement for some time into our private Chambers and then into our own selves by stillnesse and composednesse of spirit and minde from not onely worldly cogitations but forcible as I may so speak devotions towards God becomeing as it were Blanks before him that so he may write his own will and in his own way upon the Soule and having so done not to intermitt the wonted Worship of God whether private or publique fullfilling what is said Lamentations 3. 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him He putteth his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope For it often happens that a great mistake is committed through the speciousnesse of the condition of serving God and having him in our Eye as if we intended nothing more than a more cheerfull and acceptable service when love of our selves bears the greatest share in the pursuit of such serenities of minde and consolations For the Soule finding an heavinesse and wearinesse upon it naturally desires ease and relief which Religion it selfe does not denie or disallow provided it be pure from Selfe-love often concerned herein And an humble apprehension of our vilenesse unworthinesse and unfitnesse to entertain Christ in such singular manner moving one to cry out in the words and Spirit of Saint Peter Luke 5. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinfull man O Lord may be as great an argument of the profitable and saving Presence of Christ as the possession of him in Consolations and a more readie way to attain what is really good for us though not directly craved in this kinde A Prayer for true Union with God. MOST High and Holy Lord God whome the Heaven of heavens cannot contain who dwellest on high and yet humblest thy selfe to behold the things done in heaven and earth yea to dwell with them that are of an humble spirit and broken heart and takest the simple out of the dust and liftest the poor out of the mire to set him with Princes even with the Princes of his People even with thine holy Angells and the Spirits of just men made perfect And to this end vouchsafest to begin that glorious state here by that state of Grace whereby thou enterest into the Soules of thy Servants and dwellest with them and art united to them O most Gracious Father in thy Son Jesus Christ and through thy Holy Spirit be pleased to descend into my heart and make thy abode with me as by thy Son thou hast promised Vnite my heart to fear thy Name Open the eyes of my understanding that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law and with cleer and pure Contemplation of thee and things spirituall and Heavenly may be so far inflamed with the love of thee and thy Worship that all earthly and sensuall contents and pleasures may be strange and unsavourie to me and that such a spirituall gust may so affect my Soule that I may refuse all delights and glories not placed in thee and derived from thee and tending to thee which may more firmely oblige and endear me to thee so that Nuptiall Bond whereby thou hast espoused me to thee and thy Son Jesus Christ may never be dissolved but amidst the many cares troubles and temptations which may befall me in this life I may constantly and faithfully persevere to serve thee without distraction and much more alienation from thee Thou knowest O Lord that this corruptible bodie presseth down the Soule musing on heavenly things thou knowest that though our spirit be willing our flesh is weak and yet hast taught us that thy Grace is sufficient for us and thy strength is made known in our weaknesse as thy mercy is in our wickednesse wherefore Righteous Father take possession of this thine House which thou hast chosen to dwell in vindicate me from the usurpations of sin the flesh the Devill and all worldly vanities apt to deceive me or draw me from thee that so like thy servant Stephen by a strong eye of Faith evermore stedfastly beholding thee and the glorie with thee I may joy in thee here and everlastingly enjoy thee hereafter through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen FINIS