superstitious admiration of some mens persons to the injurious usage of others God deliver them and this Church and from the effects of such distempers SECT IX Of the Vnion and Communion with God in the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper to which certain Instructions are premised 1. IT is the opinion of Learned Doctours that all Orders and degrees Ecclesiasticall are given with designe to Consecrate the Eucharist of the Bodie and Blood of Christ which may well be call'd in question but that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the summitie of the practicall Mysteries left us and ordained by Christ for our edification and straitest Union with him is not to be denied after such grounds given us thereof in Scripture and assurances thereof from the unisone consent of the Learned and holy Fathers of the Church in all Ages Our own Liturgie teaching us that if with a penitent heart and lively Faith we receive that holy Sacrament we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his Blood we dwell in Christ and Christ in us we are one with Christ and Christ with us And afterward that hereby we evermore dwell in him and he in us It must necessarily be therefore that an intimate Union is hereby wrought between Christ and the faithfull Soule highly to be valued earnestly to be sought after and diligently and zealously to be laboured for as that true Bread which came down from Heaven excelling infinitely the Mannah which came down from Heaven that Bread which perisheth not but lasteth and leadeth unto Eternall Life as Christ himselfe John 6. testifieth 2. But leaving to others the accurate explication of the Majestie of this Mysterie and not much employing our selves in the opening this Treasurie of Grace and Mercie we shall confine our selves to the more practicall consideration and that briefly of the right use of that which is so effectuall to the more strict full and perfect Union with God. And to this end we shall here first deliver certain fundamentall or at least very profitable Documents to be received and observed by fruitfull Communicants 2. First then it must be noted that the things themselves of which the Eucharist consisteth naturally tend no more to such sublime ends and effects than any other things howbeit severall Analogies are by the ingenious pietie of men alledged to declare the sutablenesse of the Elements to such ends not to be despised but this must in the mean time be acknowledged that it was both in the Liberty and Power of Christ to have chosen what other things he pleased to have annexed his Graces unto had it so pleased him 3. Secondly That the two Elements for so are they called not according to strict signification whereby there are said to be four Elements in Nature but onely as they concurre to make the Sacramentall Bodie as they doe constitute the naturall bodies are the Bread and Wine which were in most common use in the Country where Christ did celebrate his last Supper without any speciall and precise Obligation of Christians to the very same matter in all points and circumstances for we know not infallibly whether the Bread was purely of one kinde of Grain and that of Wheat or whether there were as there possibly might be some mixture in that bodie as it is held there was in the other the Wine For questionlesse Christ was not anxious himselfe about that Point neither ought we but onely to follow and imitate him as neer as we can by honest and ordinarie endeavours 4. Thirdly It is to be considered that whatever Treasure of Grace and Mercie is said and believed to be contained in the Eucharist by Gods dignifying and speciall replenishing of them with them are not said so necessarily to flow from thence that every one should partake of them who are partakers of the outward Formes Neither are they as Pipes or Conduits which run alike to all men that come to them and catch what they lett fall but as by Gods extraordinarie Power and Goodnesse they have this store of benefits given unto them and not of themselves so by the same Providence and Wisdome of God are they there dispensed as it seems good unto him And it seems good to him to proportion the benefits of them agreeable to the capacitie of the receiver I say Capacitie and not Merits which should demand in justice what is there contained but the Condition is there as the Psalmist hath Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it desire earnestly and prepare thy selfe dulie and plentie of Blessings will by vertue of Gods Promise redound to thee which Benefits we shall hereafter touch 5. Fourthly The manner of receiving Christ with the Blessings he necessarily brings with him in this Sacrament is somewhat differing in outward forme from that we receive him in by his Holy Word made known to us and by Baptisme wherein we are regenerate and incorporate into the Body of Christ and that by Faith too as in the Eucharist but agrees in the Inward For the visible Instruments of receiving Christ are much different the Bread and Wine representing Christ to the Eye as the Word of God to the Ear And the Word of God taught and believed initiates us by Illumination and Revelation of the Minde and Will of God not attainable in a saving manner but by that The Sacrament of Baptisme carries us on from thence to Purgation For hereby are we cleansed from all our sins The Sacrament of the Eucharist perfects and crowns all these For as much as all other gifts and graces upon which we are built and in which we stand before God are by this one revived quickened encreased and strengthened But we doe not receive a new doctrine of Faith nor another kinde of Grace of Faith nor another Spirit nor another Christ nor another spirituall life in Christ but the same in substance all with new advantages 6. Fifthly The outward Symboles or Elements of Bread and Wine called the Body and Blood of Christ because they both represent and exhibite them to the duly disposed Soule are not after Consecration Christ himselfe any more than they were before For it is one thing to say what those sensible Objects are which we call the Sacrament though the Sacrament properly so taken consisteth equally of the word Sanctifying and the Elements sanctified by it and another to say what we receive in the Sacrament which is really Christ And therefore they are idle words and calumnies which men give out that we receive not really Christ or that we believe not that Christ is in the Sacrament because we believe not that he is the very Sacrament it selfe or that Bread and Wine are not present in the Sacrament 7. Sixthly Whatever is visible tractable tasteable in the Eucharist is not Christ And if we must not believe our eyes and the eyes of all men assuring us that to be Bread and Wine which we behold to be so then may we not believe our
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
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
of the soule or spirit of man which was variously canvased by the wise men of this world without resolution satisfactorie and that he and not naturall generation was the true cause thereof and that Christ and his Father worketh hitherto and he worketh John 5. 17. 7. Seventhly we learne from holy Writ concerning the government of the World that God leadeth not such a sedentarie and carelesse life as some Philosophers imagined after the manner of many Great Men who build fair and stately Houses and furnish them richly but so leave them to fall to decay and the things therein to be lost and spoiled neither doth he trouble his head or vex his heart as some men doe about the management of their Houses and Lands but by a mean way of sufficient protection and providence disposes all things even Good and Evill so wisely and harmoniously that no molestation is given to himselfe nor any damage to the Universe it selfe though innumerable changes are constantly wrought to the detriment of some particulars there and the like advantage to other things not before noted So that what for its time lay hid and contemptible is raised as it were out of the dust and exalted to greatnesse and splendour and for a season having so continued by the same all-disposing hand relapses into its ancient obscurity and this by a perpetuall vicissitude which some times an Age or two declareth some times not many Centuries of years And by the same Faith we according to St. Peter's Doctrine 2 Ep. 3. 7. understand that as the heavens and earth were formed and stood out of the waters so the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement 8. By Faith likewise we know that the fine and admirable Masterpiece of God himselfe Man created in the foresaid perfection and being in great honour and happinesse through his own folly as did the Angels before him fell from his stedfastnesse into blindesse povertie and generall miserie of bodie and minde contracting thereby disorder of affections inward and diseases and death outward the seeds of all which he transmitted to his posterity and is that Originall sinne all are infected and infested with This the Learning of this world could hardly or not at all instruct us in but is the office of our faith to inform us From whence also we can only give account of the many and strange exorbitances of our minde and the severall infirmities distempers and pains of our bodie before our reason comes to that ripenesse as to entitle us to the guilt of erroneous actions or free election of Good and Evill 9. Neither could humane learning or books of the greatest Philosophers informe us how tied and bound in the chain of our sins and fallen into the depth of common destruction we should recover our losses and repair our breaches neither could we our selves devise any more than we could really desire to evade the evils we were surrounded with But that light from above which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world sheweth that God out of the Abysse of his Counsells and freenesse of his Grace and Love towards Mankinde first determined the redemption of him and when the fullnesse of time was come actually sent his Son into the world in the likenesse of sinfull flesh to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8. 3. Galat. 4. 4. 10. And this Salvation was ratified to man soon after his fall God entring then into a new Covenant with man to the re-enstating him into his favour and restoring him to the blessed hopes of salvation eternall upon Evangelicall faith and obedience answerable thereunto And that these termes of this Covenant may as well as ought be performed on mans part though not upon his own strength is a materiall point of our faith and a prime motive to our obedience For were it not that man bounden thus to God might come up to that degree of perfection as to be judged by God to have performed what is necessary to obtaining the promises made by God no wise man would trouble himselfe to begin such an impossible work and no faithfull man or true believer could be sure of his salvation as is often taught we may and ought to be but rather every man may be sure of his damnation knowing thar he can in no wayes doe that upon which his salvation depends 11. Furthermore It is necessary to salvation as the Athanasian Creed tells us that we believe rightly the Incarnation of out Lord Jesus Christ who by taking flesh of the Virgin Mary his Mother unto the divine nature became an apt and sufficient Mediatour between God and Man and Administratour of the New Covenant made between God and Man. 12. And this administration was wrought two wayes principally First by the divine doctrine and knowledge revealed unto the world delivered by himselfe and his elect servants to that end inspired extraordinarily and contained in the severall Books of the New Testament Secondly by his Passion and death upon the Crosse as a Lamb of God offered for the sins of the whole world in which God rested satisfied and became appeased and Believers had accesse to the throne of Grace and became accepted in the beloved 13. But to the effectuall application of so glorious a benifit as this is somewhat more required of all true Believers than a Faith passive it being necessarie that first we should use the meanes ordained by God to that great end before we can have any sound hope of attaining the same And supposing faith preceding the summe of what remains and to which other duties may be reduc'd may be three fold 1. The use of the Sacrament of Baptisme instituted as a laver of regeneration and a forme of initiation into the Covenant without which we are of the number of Infidells and aliens from the Common wealth of Israel and without hope of salvation and in our sins and naturall blindnesse which hereby was so cured that the newly baptised were said in Scripture to be illuminated or enlightened Heb. 6. 4. Hebr. 10. 32. 2. And unto this comes in as an Auxiliary improving and perfecting the low beginnings of those once initiated to an high degree of holinesse and comfort The Sacrament of the Lords Supper ordained by Christ to the ratification of our Covenant entered into with God and the memorie of Christs passion and death upon the Crosse for us and our being more strictly and intimately united to Christ as shall hereafter be more fullie declared 3. A third most necessary and effectuall meanes of applying Christs merits to us is that excellent gift of God as the Scripture termes it Acts 5. 31. Acts 11. 18. Repentance of which with the concomitants of it likewise we may speak farther hereafter 14. Of the Resurrection likewise of the bodie and the reuniting of the soule unto it and upon such restauration the receiving of the proper
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
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
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
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
more durable Therefore O Man of God flee these things saith Saint Paul of Covetousnesse And let the judgement of him who was made Wisdome and Sanctification to us be preferred before the short reasonings of a worldly wise head Luke 12. 15. Take heed and beware of Covetousnesse for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth nor indeed the life of his Familie or Posteritie but Gods Blessing SECT XV. Of the Sin of Luxurie or Vncleannesse 1. BUT flee not only Covetousnesse that civill Sin but flee youthfull Lusts allso that open daring and dangerous Sin to Body and Soule For as Covetousnesse reigneth in the aged and flourishes most when all things most decay So Luxurie rages in Youth most of all Luxurie is sometimes taken for generall indulgence to carnall Senses and the pleasures proceeding from them from whence that speciall Vice must needs become Rampant which wars against both Puritie of Minde and Chastitie of Body and may be said to be an inordinate lusting of the Flesh tending to prohibited pollution When the vain minde of man following the errour of Rehoboam consulting with the more youthfull and precipitant faculties and inclinations of a man we turne a deaff ear to the sober and grave Dictates of Reason and Religion interdicting our course letting all loose and giving the reins out of our hands permitting our selves to be hurried down-hill with an easie and suddain Passion we know not we care not we consider not whither till like the blinde Souldiers of Benhadad King of Syria our eyes being at length opened we finde our selves captivated in the Citie of our Deadly Enemie the Devill seducing us away 2. And if this Vice were peculiar to vain Worldlings it were lesse to be feared by sober Persons but we read of the complaints of such as have sequester'd themselves from the world that have enclosed themselves in bare walls and rude Cells as well as of them whose Tables are furnished with all manner of Dainties and their Parlours wainscoated with Cedar who are clothed ruggedly and fare hardly and live abstemiously yea Repentance it selfe for such fowl miscarriages while the minde dwells too long upon the subject renewing the subtile and sinfull Delectations Nay which is most wonderfull Fastings prescribed against the Lusts of the flesh shall end contrary to it The Spirit of Luxurie saith Saint Hierom boils by Night breathes forth by Day infests in Sleep molests in businesse stupifies Reason destroyes Advice disquiets the Minde urges to fall insnares the Chast burnes more by Use Pollutes the Temple of God wasteth the substance deliver'd to us by our heavenly Father turnes Man into a Beast and enslaves him with the worst of Servitudes to his Animall Part. 3. And if we consult auncient Histories we shall finde that the greatest and most lamentable subversions of Nations have been occasioned by immoderate and unjust lustings As for instance the Gauls invaded Italie took and sackt Rome it selfe being invited thither first by Aruns Clusimus in revenge against Leucemon offering such violence to his Wife And the exorbitant lusts of Vortiger the British King upon the body of Rowenna Daughter to Hengist the Saxon brought all the Brittains into perpetuall Servitude And the ravishing of the Wife of Beorn Bokard a Noble Person by Osbert King of the Northumbrians brought in the Danes into this Country who slew the King in a Battel And from the same occasion the Moors invaded Spain as might be shewed at large out of the Historie of that Countrie When King Roderick ravishing the Daughter of Count Julian he conspired against his King and Countrie in reverence of that injurie and brought in those barbarous Infidells to the enslaving and ruining that Country for many yeers And why should I tell you of the Plague brought upon the Israelites Or of Sampson and Solomon upon themselves by the same Vice and David too Or why should I speak of the mischiefs done to the very bodies of such Voluptuaries What infatuations of the minde What fears and agonies seize the Adulterer in the height of unlawfull pleasure least he should be discovered What distempers and Diseases of the Bodie arrest the Carrier of lusts Pains in the Head Gouts in the Limbs Dropsies in the whole Bodie Feavers in the Blood and rottennesse in the Bones and very Marrow so turning the Comedie of such love into Tragicall Notes and Lamentations running on this strain principally So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee Psal 73. 22. And How have I hated instruction 4. But lest we flatter our selves with an opinion of Innocencie when this Sin becomes not openly scandalous we must know what Solomon saith Prov. 24. 9. The thoughts of foolishnesse is sin And as Christ teacheth He that lusteth with his Eye and Heart after a Woman committeth Adultery with her in his Heart And wanton Talk especially lascivious Songs and Dalliances and uncivill though too common nakednesses in Women and severall other occasions of temptations are hereby blameable and are as Nits to Vermine bred out of them 5. But if this filthy Sin which fouls the Mouth that names it in its ordinarie course be so odious much more the transcendent crimes of Sodomie Bestiality Effeminatenesse in the sense the Apostle is generally understood 1 Cor. 6. 9. saying Be not deceived neither Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate that is abusers of their own bodies alone that way nor abusers of themselves with mankinde shall inherit the Kingdome of God or of Christ And this being said the sum of all is said 6. But it being said above that divers Men eminent for holinesse and austerities have not been free from this mortall evill but groaned under it no wonder we who professe not so great Mortification and Selfe-deniall should be subject to such infirmities so that it appears more veniall than mortall To which my answer is That though this Sin may have provoked the Holiest to complain of it yet never found it such favour with them as to be approved or patiently tolerated For naturall Principles in the Righteous are not extinguisht and the Law of the Flesh doth war strongly against the Law of the minde but still the godly and spirituall Man maintains the enmitie and keeps the Field as it were against the Armes of the Mighty and though many wounds may be received yet is he not overcome And if at any time unhappily overcone renews the Conflict and recovers his former station with advantage by double guards set about his Soule and diligence which re-ingratiates him into the favour of Allmighty God our heavenly Father who remembreth that we are but flesh while we contend to be spirituall But it is chiefly the captivating the will by such tryalls of our strength and constancie which God dislikes and a consent habituall and unrelenting and unrepenting yieldings which put us out of Gods favour and distinguishes from the Saints who perhaps have
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
or deserve amputation from the Body of Christ of which such perfection and conjunction make us members 2. Thus far onely if the phanaticall strains found in Mysticall Theologie of contrarie Extremes had proceeded not onely innocencie but honour allso had been due unto it But we finde the Moderne advancers of it to have scandalously corrupted it by affectation of excesses in Stile and big Language and facts agreeable to them whereas Bonaventure writing on that Subject thus simply describes it in his Prologue to it It is the extension of love towards God by the desire of love And a little after he saith It is such whereby the religious Soule leaving humane Wisdome the curiousnesse of unprofitable knowledge and the sophistry of argumentations and Opinions by the Ascent of love rises up to the Fountain of all by desiring in which onely she finds trueth insomuch that the simple Laick being in the School of God may receive this wisdome from God himselfe immediately by the affection of love which no naturall Philosopher nor secular Master nor humane Intelligence can attain to Neither is the description of this Unitive Way given by Gerson in his Mysticall Theologie to be rejected where more soberly than divers of late dayes affect to speak He saith Mysticall Divinitie is an experimentall Knowledge had of God by the conjunction with God by spirituall affection But we cannot allow of such great swelling words and ecstaticall practices answerable thereunto wrapping mens Soules in a Cloud of reall Ignorance in the midst of their pursuit of supreame Knowledge and suffering them to fall into direct profanenesse of words and deeds while they have a strong and vain emulation and affectation of sublimest Devotion and Pietie which to passe over the many exorbitancies in this kinde found amongst such as are known by the name of Phanatiques a great pretender to Devotion Horstius in a Latine Book which he calls The Paradise of the Soule hath fallen into there speaking in this manner pag. 59. Trulie Lord if what is not possible I were owner of any thing which thou wantedst I would willingly yield all to thee and give it thee Yea if I could be God I would not for this onely that thou mightest be God and have no Peer Which with us is no better than a piece of fond Devotion and implicite Blasphemie proceeding from an illimited affectation of strange and monstrous expressions familiar with such like Mysticall Divines carefully to be avoided and shunned as the bane of true and favourie Religion towards God whereby the Devill sets Christians as once he did Christ on the Pinacle as it were of the Temple that he may the more easily cast them down headlong But the heart of a true Believer being well-grounded in Faith and setled in love to God is capable of some singular and extraordinarie sense of Gods goodnesse and the wisdome which cometh from above with a true spirituall ardour towards God and desire of Union with him which may be said to consist in these three things First A Cleerenesse then Soundnesse lastly Acquiescence in the Will and Wayes of God. Whereby the Soule having in some competent manner escaped the pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. cleaveth so stedfastly to the Lord or is joyned to him as it is 1 Corin 6. 17. that it becomes one Spirit not by transmutation of nature or substance but by assimilation in Holinesse and plenarie subjection of the will of Man to the Will of God that so God may be all in all Which is more corporally expressed by Saint Paul Ephes 5. where he saith of true Believers We are members of his Bodie of his Flesh and of his Bones Not by transubstantiation of Natures but transformation and renewing of the minde as is said Rom. 12. 2. So that as Saint Paul speaks Galat. 2. 20. The life which a Christian so transformed out of himselfe and conformed unto Christ liveth he liveth not but Christ liveth in him by the faith and love of Christ a state of Grace bordering nere upon Glory it selfe In which Mysticall Language great care is to be used least a Believer be so far drawn away from the solid foundation and edifying knowledge that his Religion should end in aery speculations and notions and these in bold denominations given himselfe And lastly Spirituall life or walking with God as did Enoch untill a translation be made from hence nerer to the presence and fruition of God. 3. Therefore to prevent Delusions incident to high flyers in Divinitie in this kinde Our speculations must be measured by our love to God reciprocated upon the sense of Gods love wherewith he first loved us And lest even this love should prove a fondnesse the sincerity of it is to be proved by the practice of a mans life answering in Puritie and degree the fervour pretended of love Not denying that where such intimate conjunction there is between God and the Soule certain tacite and inward signatures thereof are made to it invisible to the world and sensible only to its selfe but not so as therein to acquiesce without all sollicitude as if such were allreadie in Heaven but with constant contentions about these two principall Points 4. First How they should continue in that good state to which they have allreadie attained which is no otherwise brought to passe than by the meanes whereby it was attained as naturall Bodies subsist by the same Elements of which they doe consist And secondly because to rest satisfied with what a man hath without designe held up of proceeding is the next way to lose what he hath and to fall backward and to decay It is necessary ever to be pressing forward that the Tide may allwayes be rising in grace least upon willfull remission and slacknesse the Soule be by degrees left emptie and dry For it is the Character of Heaven given by Saint John Revelat. 14. That they rest from their labours which belongs not to any not the highest in this life that they should cease to doe good untill that Sabbath above shall be enter'd into and celebrated And yet even of the blessed there we read Revelat. 4. 8. That they rest not day and night to act according to that state where there is Union with God indissoluble and Communion to satiety without surfeit on one hand or wearinesse on the other A resemblance whereof is to be obtained even in this life by those who by diligent attendance on spirituall Duties here and denying the world doe as Gregory saith Hom. 34. on the Gospells burne with the flames of lofty Contemplation breathing onely with desire of their Creatour and coveting nothing farther in this world are nourished with the sole love of Eternitie They contemne all earthly things and in their mindes transcend all temporary things They love and burne and in that heat they rest quiet they burne by loving and by their speech inflame others allso and whome by their words they touch they instantly
preserve that comfortable state unshaken and the purity thereof undefiled being with Peter at the glorie of Christs Transfiguration loth to goe down the Mountain where such manifestations are made 8. And the Mystery of Godlinesse in this case is truely wonderfull if a man considers that not onely the way to this conjunction with God is purification of the Bodie and Soule from earthly uncleannesses but such Union and Converse with God doth change the Faces at least that is the outward formes of men not truely fitted or sanctified to such an end Hence is a resolution in some measure made of a doubt seeming difficult to me Who perceiving hereticall and schismaticall and men of unjust lives to make a fair appearance of good outward and retrenching the more scandalous Vices contrary to sound Piety could not but wonder how an erroneous faith and unrighteous and uncharitable demeanours in a Christian course should attain to so much as a commendable formalitie of Godlinesse For surely the very appearance of holinesse though there should be nothing more in the case is in it selfe laudable The reason of all this I take to be the strange forwardnesse many such abound with in pressing though indirectly into Gods Presence affecting mountainous phrases and phansying themselves intimate with God himselfe For as Conspiratours and Traitours frequenting the Kings Court and Presence and observing what is perfourmed of such as doe him immediate service and attend him can and doe easily and more artificially comport themselves as prime Subjects Or to use Saint Chrysostome's comparison As he that shall come into a Drugsters shop where Aromaticall Spices are pounded shall whether he will or not carrie away upon his Clothes some of the fragrancies which are there stirring Or lastly as the Censers of Corah Dathan and Abiram with their Complices became holy by being brought though in a wicked manner into Gods Presence and devoted to his service so ill-grounded and ill-advised Devotion to God doth make some alteration very laudable in men resembling God himselfe and his holinesse So that as sinceritie of Intention purity of Affection and Actions innocent and righteous doe conduce much to spirituall mindednesse and contemplation of and union with God so doe even that preposterous way of conversing with God and pressing unduly into Gods Presence divers times worke some good effect outwardly at least upon men And were it not that where Divine Contemplations are orderly performed and faithfully a reall and sound improvement of Christian Graces and Vertues was allso made and the Soule became not more like unto God so viewed and enjoyed it must needs have been an errour in Scholasticall Divines to preferre the Contemplative Life or the Life of Mary before the Practicall or the Life of Martha serving Christ restraining Contemplation to that way had in this world which beginning on such low and sensible Subjects as are before recited may rise to greater perfection in the more immediate intuition of God himselfe and the glorie to be revealed SECT V. Of the Vnion we have with God in Prayer habituall and actuall as the proper matter of Worshippe 1. FROM the two-fold Union with God spoken of Contemplation or Knowledge and Love proceeds as a necessarie consequence of both Adoration which consists in an actuall Devotion and Consecration of the whole man unto God and an inanition or emptying of a mans Soule into the fullnesse of God as the smaller as well as greater Rivers fall into the Ocean and loose themselves the Channell through which they run remaining the same and allwayes in those streames moving Or when as two intimate Friends of the same judgement and equally affectionate one to another meeting together after mutuall embraces fall into Discourses most kinde and pleasing one with another So the foresaid meeting of the Soule with God begets conference and holy Talk with God in Prayer It was not therefore thought sufficient by John the Baptist to have procured followers of his Doctrine nor attenders of his Person nor by Christ to have chosen his Apostles who should be allwayes neer him by profession unlesse he taught them to pray Our Father which art in Heaven c. For Filiation or Adoption whereby we have God for our Father sufficeth not without he be our heavenly Father and under that notion use Invocation of him and holy Communication with him by the Ascent of the heart to him in Prayer 2. And Prayer being of a very comprehensive nature may be considered in its Habit which is a generall and constant disposition of the minde to God of which sort we may understand Saint Paul to speake 1 Thessalonians 5. 17. Ephes 6. 18. Pray allwayes and Pray without ceasing by alienating the Affections from earthly things and raising and continuing the same to and with God. That so when ever God by any tacite suggestion shall say to the Soule Seek ye my face an Answer and Act may allwayes be in readinesse saying Thy face Lord will I seek For actuall Prayer is the exercise of that generall disposition men have toward God and differs no more from that than the Fire covered and the Fire kindled which latter when it ceases leaves new Coals apt to a repetition of the like flames And thus ascending unto God and for the time abiding with him we are estranged from terrestriall businesses and cogitations From which consideration a tolerable reason may be given why divers praying together in the conclusion are wont to salute one another as newly met For this we are wont to doe after a far Journey taken and a returne so having been as far as Heaven it selfe in Prayer and wholly as we ought at least estranged from things below we returning take Acquaintance with our Friends and Brethren Or perhaps having been so united to God as in such cases becomes us the Center of all Christian Charitie whereby we meet alltogether we testifie our Christian Affection thereby encreased with affectionate Salutations outward 3. But this is perfourmed as well that is as really though not so edifyingly in single addresses as in Society when a man makes known unto God that which would not be so proper to have published to others of which we may speake by and by For though for dayly and common Sacrifice Gods House and Altar is the most convenient place yet we may observe that those extraordinarie Revelations and Visions reported in Auncient and inferiour Histories to be made to the eminent Servants of God have been obtained chiefly in private retirements from the Noise and Dust of the World. Elias was so visited by God in the cleft of a Rock and Moses in the wide Wildernesse alone when God gave him the signall of his Presence by the Fire in the Bush And David counsells to enter into a mans own heart and commune with that in his Chamber as an excellent expedient to draw God to a friendly conference with him an appearance to him answerable to his exigence Exceeding
him the exception lying onely good where there can be no accesse to the publique Place 4. But I know not what vitious and very blameable modesty hath possessed so many of late dayes as to be affraid to be seen or taken praying and sundry devout Persons are startled and shrink to be seen unawares at their Prayers in Gods House it selfe which is the House of Prayer unlesse when the Bells publish the dutie at hand and an Assembly is made professedly and so likewise at their domestick and separate Devotion as if they were taken in a fault or some Crime whereof a man should be ashamed and affraid some men being more abashed seen to doe well than others are taken in an evill Action This cannot be well thought of by God whose service a man is then engaged in and cannot but be an infirmitie in men praying For though a man is not hypocritically and with no better designe than to be noted and praised by men to expose studiously himselfe to the view of others while he prayes he is no lesse obliged not to forbear what place and time and just occasion require at his hands or otherwise may be expedient because people see him For God sayes Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven and the manifestation of our Adoration and service is likewise a manifestation of his honour and glorie And if at length we could recover and bring into Reputation such lost good Actions as publique Prayer in private Persons Religion would be more renowned and many more than now doe would allso fall down and say God is in you of a trueth and so be excited to the same good work or worship in use 5. But a known time of Gods Worship being assigned a sound entire tryed approved Sacrifice and reasonable service of God being appointed for Confession Humiliation Supplications Petitions Deprecations Intercessions Thanksgivings and Benedictions as Saint Paul directeth 1 Tim. 2. 1. with sobrietie or good Conscience to contemne these either ignorantly or presumptuously and to foist in private Inventions scarce so good as humane all things considered what amounts this to but a despising of Christ himselfe and a provocation of God to cast the officious zeal of such as dung upon their own faces For how can it be supposed that God should be pleased with that Oblation obtruded upon him and others without Autoritie which is often put up without Faith and never with Charitie or Humilitie convenient But if our Prayers themselves offend how should we hope for pardon of our offences by them That therefore they should have favourable accesse to God is necessarie they should be dulie qualified themselves and that such as these Conditions here onely to be named be found in them 1. That we pray in Faith that God is and that he is a rewarder of all that call upon him 2. That we pray in trueth without any hereticall or erroneous Dogmes or corrupt Opinions of God of his Word or holy Worship 3. Praying in puritie of intention seeking even when our Prayers consist of spirituall or temporall benefits to our selvles primarily the glorie and good will of God. 4. In Puritie or holinesse of hands that is innocencie of life as David when he said I will wash my hands in innocencie and so will I goe to thine Altar or at least a dislike of our guilt and contaminations making them part of our humiliation and supplications to God. 5. In Charitie towards others so far as Justice and Pietie will permitt And lastly In zeal to Gods service and to our own Soules in so praying which is that lifting up the Soule we so much speak of here and leaving it with him to preserve to his greater service and glorie and our immortall happinesse SECT VIII Of the severall sorts of Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall Supramentall Extemporarie Formed and fixed as allso Singing of Psalmes 1. NOw because there are usually distinguished severall kinds of Prayer to God as well according to the matter as manner of putting up our requests to him all concurring in this one thing that the minde and heart should be thereby united to God and fixed it will not be amisse to glance at the principall in this second order having touched the former from the Apostles words 1 Tim. 2. 1. All which relate to the matter of Prayer and may be perfourmed in any one of those which great Artists have cast into this threefold Prayer viz. Sensible Mentall and Supramentall Sensible they make that which is common to all Christians praying to God in a vocall sensible manner to themselves and others Mentall they would have that called which is contemplative and whereby the minde is throughly directed to God not without affection For if the Understanding onely be erected and directed to God it can scarce deserve the name of Prayer to God as Philosophizing about him therefore it is necessarie that affectionatenesse and adherence to God by love which are acts of the will allso should be found in all due Prayer yea in all Treaters of the nature and use of Prayer otherwise acute and learned men may prescribe better than teach or affect A manifest Example we have in the two great Chieftains amongst Schoolmen Thomas the Angelicall and Bonaventure the Seraphicall Doctour as they call them Both which have in their Opuscula written Treatises of the Love of God. In which the former keeping closer than in such a Subject is expedient to Scholasticall Methods and termes of writing hath left but a dry Monument and insipide to a spirituall Palate of his gift in that kinde whereas Bonaventure speaking out of the abundance of the heart and affection as the Subject required rather than by the rule of humane disquisitions hath much more divinely commendably and profitably as to practice treated thereof And spirituall Doctrine and devotion towards God seem much to resemble the Notion we generally have of the nature of Spirits in themselves which they say consisteth in not being circumscribed by limits as our Bodies are but indefinite and diffusive very much like to the bodie of the Air in which we are inclosed which is capable of any figure but determined to none In like manner Spirituall Prayer and the gifts God bestoweth upon the Soule are not to be limited by the lineaments and parts of humane Methods which as it were fetters the Spirit from expatiating according to its pleasure which like the Winde bloweth and breatheth and leadeth as it listeth and is in very deed as Phanatiques terme it stinted and obstructed by the Arts of Men modelling their Devotion and not subject rather to it and following rather than going before its dictates and impulses For however I finde many Commentatours ingeniously enough and acutely methodizing holy Scripture and Analyzing it so as if it had been the very intent and designe of the Holy Spirit therein to speak Logically and
perdition more than his coming For excepting some monstrous and notorious evills into which a man may fall and that when the Communion is instant so that no competent time nor meanes remain to discharge his part in due preparation though sudden accidents of that nature may admitt of sudden remorse and intense Repentance when time is denied of more full and thorow humiliation then perhaps such excuses may be tolerable as unpreparednesse but when men have timely advice of such ensuing Solemnitie and have no unavoidable impediments but wilfully and necessarily involve themselves in matters inconsistent with it and so absent themselves neglecting that competent preparation required then doe they shun the Curse of communicating unworthily and fall into the condemnation of not preparing themselves and contempt of such meanes of Salvation as he under the Law that refused to purge his House of Leaven and purifie himselfe to eat the Passe-over 4. For in this one Evill many more are contained such as are frustrating Gods invitation to Grace and Mercy a great provocation of men who are of the same nature with our selves though greater in Power and Honour A bereaving our selves of the benefits there tendered and an hazarding of the losse of the fruits of all other meanes ordained by God to our Salvation For God requires that we should put on the whole Armour of God Ephes 6. 11 13. And Saint Paul likewise Coloss 4. 12. exhorteth to stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God. And Saint James assures us Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he shall be guilty of all James 2. 10. insinuating sufficiently unto us that the willfull neglect of one such materiall Dutie and violating one so soveraign Ordinance as this doth injury to all and provokes God to withdraw his Blessing upon those other Ordinances we are content to admitt of For he that contemns him in one contemns the Authour of all and so cannot reasosonably expect any benefit from Sermons or from Publique or private service of God. For no man must trust to his making compensation to God one way having wronged him in another where both may be perfourmed And experience teacheth this to be true that none are generally more rare and remisse in the other parts of Gods Worship than they who are carelesse in this 3. A manifold Scandall is offered to Fellow Christians who upon observing the neglect of some in this point entertain suppositions of the little use of it and consequently that the offence in omitting the same is very inconsiderable and light passing it over accordingly or perhaps that receiving that Sacrament belongs chiefly to the Greater or better sort and such as are more at leisure than are they and not to poor obscure and busie persons as they are Furthermore a Scandall is hereby given to the Brethren of the same Faith and profession as if a Member of the Church were fallen away from them and found some evill in the Actions sacred For God doth not onely require at our hands that we should truely believe and become lively Members of Christs mysticall Body and invisible but allso Visible and not onely so but that so far as lies in us we should be visible members allso of that Body Visible and that we should declare the same and doe nothing to give ground or occasion to believe otherwise of us which must necessarily be if we forbear such necessary and solemn proofs and indications as this is even the Greatest of all and that which as it is Unitive of us to Christ so is it very effectuall to produce and preserve that bond of Charitie which Christ commands to be kept up amongst Brethren in Christ 3. Thirdly The main pretence and Apologie of abstaining from the Communion taken from its Sacrednesse and formidablenesse are grounded upon the foresaid words of Saint Paul which therefore to give a faithfull and proper sense of will be very expedient which we may attain to two wayes chiefly First by rightly understanding the occasion given him to write so severely above others For we finde nothing of the like charge given by Christ to his Disciples at the first Institution of it all which came with no other preparation to it than was Legall or Leviticall Neither have we in holy Writ any thing afterward except the words of Saint Paul about it who upon grosse corruptions and scandalous invading openly that holy Sacrament opportunely bestirs himselfe for the vindication of it from such abuses brings them back to the first institution of Christ which was that they should understand that to eat this as their own Supper was to profane it For Christ at that time had two Suppers One Mosaicall which though it had sacred Rites belonging to it did serve to the use of the naturall Body and was to imprint in their memories a sense of their deliverance from slaughter with the First-born in Egypt and from bondage there allso The other was Evangelicall not given in such quantitie as the other to nourish the Bodie but ceremoniously rather in such sort as might give the receiver certain information and proportionable affection of the Passion and death of Christ whose Bodie was broken and Blood shed for the sinnes of the whole World much more of true Believers Which if they who received those Elements did not consider of so as in them to discern the Lords Bodie thereby signified and his Passion thereby called to remembrance and received by the faithfull to their edification in faith and love and comfort but prophanely ventured to take it as common bread yea to come to it first stuffed full with their own riotous Suppers and drunk with excesse of Wine before all the world would judge and condemne them for so doing and more especially would God be avenged of them for such affront put upon him and those divine Mysteries of his ordaining and that by sudden Deaths or grievous Sicknesses and weaknesses upon their bodies besides the evill upon their Soules Others forbearing to eat and drink at home in their Houses kept their stomachs for the good Cheer they were wont to make and plentifully to take in Gods House or the place and at the time they should have soberly modestly and devoutly partaken of these great Mysteries which worthily so incensed the Apostle as to demand if they had not Houses of their own to eat and to drink in but must come into the publique place of Worship the House of God and there gluttonize and revell not considering nor discerning the Lords Body to the shame of themselves and Religion And that this is the most plain and naturall sense of that whole passage of the Apostle will clearly appear to every attentive and judicious Reader taking in the Context And this St. Chrysostome than whome none of his time magnifies more the Mysteries of the Eucharist doth agree to in a second Homilie he hath upon the Passeover Tom. 5. pag. 921. telling
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
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
before him and the world 6. Now from this foundation laid this principle granted this fountain of all spirituall wisdome and understanding opened doe issue all particular branches of our faith illuminating us some few of which articles reduced into the three eminent Creeds of all Christian Churches viz. The Apostolicall the Nicene and Athanasian which may yet be more plainly and vulgarly thus ordered to easie capacities 1. First that there is a God and this God but one in nature and substance of an infinite eternal immutable Being and there is or can possibly be no more number herein destroying all perfection proper to the divine Being which article though some of the wise Naturalists did give their cold assent unto yet scarce ever so but they tolerated such opinions and religions of others as maintained the contrary feeling rather as the Apostles phrase is after God than finding him or holding him fast by such a strong faith as Christians are and must be indued with knowing assuredly that Religion and our Salvation receive by no one superstition so deadly a blow and destructive to all sound Christianity as to erre about this first principle by acknowledging directly or indirectly more than one God that is either in the Proposition professing more than one which totally subverts Christianity or in Practice worshipping that for God which is not God though under a strong perswasion that what we worship is that one true God and though in mind and intention we design to worship only the true God. For such a fact upon involuntarie errour and all errour is said by wise men to be involuntarie may mitigate the offence before God and man but it cannot at all change the thing it selfe making that to be no idolatrie which is Idolatrie or that no heresie which is heresie in it selfe but only by certain circumstance may alleviate and yet we know not how little or much the crime of the offender which crime is in it selfe directly damnable and so by the doctrine of our Christian faith to be reputed and even with the losse of our lives to be avoided 2. And the same faith likewise teacheth us as necessary to salvation to believe aright of the severall and distinct wayes of the subsistence of the Deitie in the Trinity of the persons which we commonly call Father Son and Holy Ghost which as we must believe to be three and not one Person so must we believe to be one in nature and substance and not three so that the Father begetteth the Son and is not begotten of any and the Son is begotten of the Father by an Eternall and incorrupt generation not to be parallel'd in any other productions though dimly represented unto us And the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son by such a divine emanation as is not imitable by any created procession And in this article of our Faith Christians being wholly destitute of all naturall assistance to believe the whole must redound to the power and pleasure of God revealing these things and rendering them credible our faith upon that ground receiving them 3. And a third point of our Faith proceedeth to reunite as it were in our mindes and perswasions those persons we acknowledge to stand so distinguished by their intrinsecall Relations mentioned in their outward operations such as are acts of Creation Preservation and Governing by a most wise and just providence all things which are in this visible world and in that or those worlds which are to us invisible called Celestiall 4. And hence it is that by the same faith we are taught more expressely and particularly that the One God Father Son and Holy Ghost gave a being to all the world and out of nothing produced what we see and what we understand and more than we can behold and apprehend determining that knottie controversie which the Philosophers could make no work with concerning the Creation of the world which some would have never to have been but subsisting from eternitie of it selfe and not only so but we understand by divine Revelation and Illumination how the world was made and that not by the contriving of the brain or a modell laid before the eyes or by the labour of the hand the sweat of the face and tedious but necessarie toyl of many dayes years or ages but by the lightest and easiest way we could possibly understand any thing to be wrought For thus we read Heb. 11. 2. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear And so we read Psalm 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth And yet not so by the word or mouth of God as that any such part is to be admitted in God or that properly God so spake vocally For to what or whom should God speak so when there was no bodie yea nothing to hear but it was a mere simple pure velleity or willing of him so effectuall as to produce the Universe without the labour of his hands or of any other Agent or Instrument under him as some have vainlie imagined contrary to our divine Faith. For by the same power that God could create a worme he could create an Elephant and with the same ease that he could create a Mite he might create the hugest Monster that ever the earth bare yea the earth it selfe and that without delaies or distances of times though to shew his libertie and not necessity of working and to teach us advisednesse in all our Actions of importance he vouchsafed to distribute his acts into severall orders and spaces of duration called Dayes For as 't is said in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and all that is therein c. 5. And from this generall working or acting of God we are lead to an higher degree more nearly concerning our selves For it must necessarily follow from hence that as the Psalmist affirmeth He hath made us and not we our selves Psalm 95. And that as he made all things very good so the more noble in rank such things were the more perfect and unblameable they must needs be as they came out of Gods hands For God doth not work or proceed after the manner of nature from imperfect to perfect as all naturall productions are ill formed and defective at first and in tract of time arise to their ordained perfection but God made all things and especially Man at once most perfect both as to inward endowments and outward forme stature and parts so that nothing was wanting either to the ornament of his minde or the perfection of his bodie Crowning both with holinesse and happinesse immortal wherein his own Image and likenesse principally consisted adding unto them here in this life power and dominion under him over all earthly things 6 Furhermore the same faith teacheth us the Original