thing it is a holy Conversation a God-like life an Universal Obedience a keeping nothing back from God a Sanctification of the whole man and keeps not the Body only but the Soul and the Spirit unblamable to the coming of the Lord Jesus 5. And lastly The Pharisaical Righteousness was the product of fear and therefore what they must needs do that they would do but no more But the Righteousness Evangelical is produced by Love it is managed by Choice and cherished by Delight and fair Experiences Christians are a willing people homines bonae voluntatis men of good will arbores Domini So they are mystically represented in Scripture the Trees of the Lord are full of Sap among the Hebrews the Trees of the Lord did signifie such trees as grew of themselves and all that are of Gods planting are such as have a vital principal within and grow without constraint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one said it of Christians they obey the Laws and by the goodness of their lives exceed the Laws and certain it is no man hath the Righteousness Evangelical if he resolves alwayes to take all his liberty in every thing that is meerly lawful or if he purpose to do no more than he must needs that is no more than he is just commanded For the Reasons are plain 1. The Christian that resolves to do every thing that is Lawful will many times run into danger and inconvenience because the utmost extremity of Lawful is so near to that which is Unlawful that he will often pass into Unlawful undiscernably Vertues and Vices have not in all their instances a great Land-mark set between them like warlike Nations separate by prodigious Walls vast Seas and portentous Hills but they are oftentimes like the bounds of a Parish men are fain to cut a cross upon the turf and make little marks and annual perambulations for memorials so it is in Lawful and Unlawful by a little mistake a man may be greatly ruined He that drinks till his tongue is full as a spunge and his speech a little stammering and tripping hasty and disorderly though he be not gone as far as drunkenness yet he is gone beyond the severity of a Christian and when he is just past into Unlawful if he disputes too curiously he will certainly deceive himself for want of a wiser curiosity But 2. He that will do all that he thinks he may lawfully had need have an infallible guide always by him who should without error be able to answer all cases of Conscience which will happen every day in a life so careless and insecure for if he should be mistaken his error is his crime and not his excuse A man in this case had need be very sure of his Proposition which because he cannot be in charity to himself he will quickly find that he is bound to abstain from all things that are uncertainly good and from all disputable evils from things which although they may be in themselves lawful yet accidentally and that from a thousand causes may become unlawful Pavidus quippe formidolosus est Christianus saith Salvian atque in tantum peccare metuens ut interdum non timenda formidet A Christian is afraid of every little thing and he sometimes greatly fea◠that he hath sinned even then when he hath no other reason to be afraid but because he would not do so for all the world 3. He that resolves to use all his liberty cannot be innocent so long as there are in the world so many bold temptations and presumptuous actions so many scandals and so much ignorance in the things of God so many things that are suspicious and so many things that are of evil report so many ill customs and disguises in the world with which if we resolve to comply in all that is supposed lawful a man may be in the regions of death before he perceive his head to ake and instead of a staff in his hand may have a splinter in his Elbow 4. Besides all this he that thus stands on his terms with God and so carefully husbands his duty and thinks to make so good a market of obedience that he will quit nothing which he thinks he may lawfully keep shall never be exemplar in his life and shall never grow in grace and therefore shall never enter into glory He therefore that will be righteous by the measures Evangelical must consider not only what is lawful but what is expedient not only what is barely safe but what is worthy that which may secure and that which may do advantage to that concern that is the greatest in the world And 2. The case is very like with them that resolve to do no more good than is commanded them For 1. It is infinitely unprofitable as to our eternal interest because no man does do all that is commanded at all times and therefore he that will not sometimes do more besides that he hath no love no zeal of duty no holy fires in his soul besides this I say he can never make any amends towards the reparation of his Conscience Let him that stole steal no more that 's well but that 's not well enough for he must if he can make restitution of what he stole or he shall never be pardoned and so it is in all our entercourse with God To do what is commanded is the duty of the present we are tyed to this in every present in every period of our lives but therefore if we never do any more than just the present duty who shall supply the dificiencies and fill up the gaps and redeem what is past This is a material consideration in the Righteousness Evangelical But then 2. We must know that in keeping of Gods Commandments every degree of internal duty is under the Commandments and therefore whatever we do we must do it is as well as we can Now he that does his Duty with the biggest affection he can will also do all that he can and he can never know that he hath done what is commanded unless he does all that is in his power For God hath put no limit but love and possibility and therefore whoever says Hither will I go and no further This I will do and no more Thus much will I serve God but that shall be all he hath the affections of a Slave and the religion of a Pharisee the craft of a Merchant and the falseness of a Broker but he hath not the proper measures of the Righteousness Evangelical But so it happens in the mud and slime of the River Borborus when the eye of the Sun hath long dwelt upon it and produces Frogs and Mice which begin to move a little under a thin cover of its own parental matter and if they can get loose to live half a life that is all but the hinder parts which are not formed before the setting of the Sun stick fast in their beds of mud and the little
therefore if you do believe this go to your prayers and go to your guards and go to your labour and try what God will do for you For whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye shall receive them and ye shall have them Now consider Do not we every day pray in the Divine Hymn called Te Deum Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day without sin And in the Collect at morning prayer and grant that this day we fall into no sin neither run into any kind of danger but that all our doing may be ordered by thy governance to do alwayes that which is righteous in thy sight Have you any hope or any faith when you say that Prayer And if you do your duty as you can do you think the failure will be on Gods part Fear not that if you can trust in God and do accordingly though your sins were as scarlet yet they shall be as white as snow and pure as the feet of the holy Lamb. Only let us forsake all those weak propositions which cut the nerves of Faith and make it impossible for us to actuate all our good desires or to come out from the power of sin 2. He that would be free from the slavery of sin and the necessity of sinning must alwayes watch I that 's the point but who can watch alwayes Why every good man can watch alwayes and that we may not be deceived in this let us know that the running away from a temptation is a part of our watchfulness and every good employment is another great part of it and a laying in provisions of Reason and Religion before hand is yet a third part of this watchfulness and the conversation of a Christian is a perpetual watchfulness not a continual thinking of that one or those many things which may indanger us but it is a continual doing something directly or indirectly against sin He either prayes to God for his Spirit or relies upon the Promises or receives the Sacrament or goes to his Bishop for Counsel and a Blessing or to his Priest for Religious Offices or places himself at the feet of good Men to hear their wise sayings or calls for the Churches Prayers or does the duty of his calling or actually resists Temptation or frequently renews his holy Purposes or fortifies himself by Vows or searches into his danger by a daily examination so that in the whole he is for ever upon his guards * This duty and caution of a Christian is like watching lest a man cut his finger Wise men do not often cut their fingers and yet every day they use a knife and a mans eye is a tender thing and every thing can do it wrong and every thing can put it out yet because we love our eyes so well in the midst of so many dangers by Gods providence and a prudent natural care by winking when any thing comes against them and by turning aside when a blow is offered they are preserved so certainly that not one man in ten thousand does by a stroak lose one of his eyes in all his life time If we would transplant our natural care to a spiritual caution we might by Gods grace be kept from losing our souls as we are from losing our eyes and because a perpetual watchfulness is our great defence and the perpetual presence of Gods grace is our great security and that this Grace never leaves us unless we leave it and the precept of a dayly watchfulness is a thing not only so reasonable but so many easie wayes to be performed we see upon what terms we may be quit of our sins and more than Conquerors over all the Enemies and Impediments of Salvation 3. If you would be in the state of the Liberty of the Sons of God that is that you may not be servants of sin in any instance be sure in the mortifications of sin willingly or carelesly to leave no remains of it no nest-egg no principles of it no affections to it if any thing remains it will prove to us as Manna to the sons of Israel on the second day it will breed worms and stink Therefore labour against every part of it reject every proposition that gives it countenance pray to God against it all and what then Why then Ask and you shall have said Christ. Nay say some it is true you shall be heard but in part only for God will leave some remains of sin within us lest we should become proud by being innocent So vainly do men argue against Gods goodness and their own blessings and Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Basil sayes they contrive witty arts to undo themselves being intangled in the periods of ignorant disputations But as to the thing it self if by the remains of sin they mean the propensities and natural inclinations to forbidden objects there is no question but they will remain in us so long as we bear our flesh about us and surely that is a great argument to make us humble But these are not the sins which God charges on his people But if by remains we mean any part of the habit of sin any affection any malice or perverseness of the Will then it is a contradiction to say that God leaves in us such remains of Sin lest by innocence we become Proud for how should Pride spring in a mans heart if there be no remains of Sin left And is it not the best the surest way to cure the Pride of our hearts by taking out every root of bitterness even the root of Pride it self Will a Physitian purposely leave the Reliques of a disease and pretend he does it to prevent a relapse And is it not more likely he will relapse if the sickness be not wholly cured * But besides this If God leaves any remains of Sin in us what remains are they and of what sins Does he leave the remains of Pride If so that were a strange cure to leave the remains of Pride in us to keep us from being proud But if not so but that all the remains of Pride be taken away by the grace of God blessing our endeavours what danger is there of being proud the remains of which Sin are by the grace of God wholly taken away But then if the Pride of the heart be cured which is the hardest to be removed and commonly is done last of all who can distrust the power of the Spirit of God or his goodness or his promises and say that God does not intend to cleanse his Sons and Servants from all unrighteousness and according to S. Pauls prayer keep their bodies and souls and spirits unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus But however let God leave what remains he please all will be well enough on that side but let us be careful as far as we can that we leave none lest it be severely imputed to us and the fire break out and consume us 4. Let
c. Since it is intended that from the Bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people there is not in the world a greater indecency than a holy office ministred by an unholy person and no greater injury to the people than that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward And therefore it was an excellent Prayer which to this very purpose was by the Son of Sirach made in behalf of the High-Priests the Sons of Aaron God give you wisdom in you heart to judge his people in Righteousness that their good things be not abolished and that their glory may endure for ever 4. All the Offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal Order as is evident in the universal Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the 40th Canon of the Apostles Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop but that cafe is known The consequent of this consideration is no other than the admonition in my Text We are Stewards of the manifold grace of God and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful that we preach the word of God in season and out of season that we rebuke and exhort admonish and correct for these God calls Pastores Secundùm cor meum Pastors according to his own heart which feed the people with knowledge and understanding but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart minister the Sacraments with great diligence and righteous measures and abundant charity alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ of S. Peter If thou lovest me feed my sheep if thou hast any love to me feed my lambs And let us remember this also that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head as plants to their roots as rivers to their springs as Children to their Fathers as Disciples to their Masters These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency but they tell us the reason of the Duty The Head gives light and reason to conduct the Body the Roots give nourishment to the Plants and the Springs perpetual emanation of Waters to the Channels Fathers teach and feed their Children and Disciples receive wise Instructions from their Masters and if we be all this to the People they will be all that to us and Wisdom will compel them to submit and our Humility will teach them Obedience and our Charity will invite their compliance our good example will provoke them to good works and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility For all the Lords People are Populus voluntarius a free and willing people and we who cannot compel their bodies must thus constrain their Souls by inviting their Wills by convincing their Understandings by the beauty of fair example the efficacy and holiness and the demonstrations of the Spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake Remember them who have the rule over you whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation There lies the demonstration and those Prelates who teach good life whose Sermons are the measures of Christ and whose Life is a copy of their Sermons these must be followed and surely these will for these are burning and shining Lights but if we hold forth false fires and by the amusement of evil example call the Vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a Rock or an iron Shore instead of a safe Harbour we cause them to make shipwreck of their precious Faith and to perish in the deceitful and unstable water Vox operum fortiùs sonat quà m verborum A good Life is the strongest argument that your Faith is good and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained than a voice of thunder but the greatest eloquence in the world is meek spirit and a liberal hand these are the two Pastoral Staves the Prophet speaks of nognam hovelim beauty and bands he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness the ornament of fair example he hath also the staff of bands atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos in vinculis charitatis as the Prophet Hosea's expression is he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man by the bands of a holy charity But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractory we have instead of a Staff an Apostolical Rod which is the last and latest remedy and either brings to repentance or consigns to ruine and reprobation If there were any time remaining I could reckon that the Episcopal Order is the Principle of Unity in the Church and we see it is so by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted I could add how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the Sufferings the Prisons and Flames the Life and Death of Bishop as the principal Combatants that the Fathers of the Church whose Writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World were almost all of them Bishops I could add That the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the Disputings the Writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian and under their Conduct have for so many Ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel I could add also That Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought Experience I could therefore instead of it say That Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt so it is the greatest preservative of the Peoples Liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand the Gentry being little better than Servants while they live under the Presbytery and Anarchy and Licentiousness on the other That it endears Obedience and is subject to the Laws of Princes and is wholly ordained for the good of Mankind and the benefit of Souls But I cannot stay to number all the Blessings which have entered into the World at this door I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops Imployment which is to be busie in the service of Souls to do good in all capacities to serve every mans need to promote all publick benefits to
good Divines But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godliness When we have thrown off all affections to sin when we have stripp'd our selves from all fond adherences to the things of the world and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions then we may say with David Ecce paratum est Cor meum Deus My heart is ready O God my heart is ready then we may say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth But we are not yet instructed It remains therefore that we inquire what is that immediate Principle or Means by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all Truth and be taught the Mind of God and understand all his Secrets and this is worth our knowledge I cannot say that this will end your Labours and put a period to your Studies and make your Learning easie it may possibly increase your Labour but it will make it profitable it will not end your Studies but it will direct them it will not make Humane Learning easie but it will make it wise unto Salvation and conduct it into true notices and ways of Wisdom I am now to describe to you the right way of Knowledg Qui facit Voluntatem Patris mei saith Christ that 's the way do God's Will and you shall understand God's Word And it was an excellent saying of S. Peter Add to your Faith Virtue c. If these things be in you and abound ye shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this case 't is not enough that all our hindrances of Knowledge are removed for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God but when it is opened it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read Though the windows of the East be open yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plotinus the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun the eye must be fitted to the splendor and it is not the wit of the man but the spirit of the man not so much his head as his heart that learns the Divine Philosophy 1. Now in this Inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum that every good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is taught of God and indeed unless he teach us we shall make but ill Scholars our selves and worse Guides to others Nemo potest Deum scire nisi à Deo doceatur said St. Irenaeus lib. 6. cap. 13. If God teaches us then all is well but if we do not learn Wisdom at his feet from whence should we have it it can come from no other Spring And therefore it naturally follows that by how much nearer we are to God by so much better we are like to be instructed But this being supposed as being most evident we can easily proceed by wonderful degrees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy For 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital Principle the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Wisdom and teaches us by secret Inspirations by proper Arguments by actual Perswasions by personal Applications by Effects and Energies and as the Soul of a man is the cause of all his vital Operations so is the Spirit of God the Life of that Life and the cause of all Actions and Productions Spiritual And the consequence of this is what St. John tells us of Ye have received the Vnction from above and that annointing teacheth you all things All things of some one kind that is certainly all things that pertain to life and godliness all that by which a man is wise and happy We see this by common experience Unless the Soul have a new Life put into it unless there be a vital Principle within unless the Spirit of Life be the Informer of the Spirit of the Man the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the Body in its powers and possibilities Sol Homo generant hominem saith our Philosophy A Man alone does not beget a Man but a Man and the Sun for without the influence of the Celestial Bodies all natural Actions are ineffective and so it is in the operations of the Soul Which Principle divers Phanaticks both among us and in the Church of Rome misunderstanding look for new Revelations and expect to be conducted by Ecstasie and will not pray but in a transfiguration and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations by new measures and singularities and destroy Order and despise Government and live upon illiterate Phantasms and ignorant Discourses These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they belie the Holy Ghost For the Spirit of God makes men wise it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation it does not spend its holy Influences in disguises and convulsions of the Understanding Gods Spirit does not destroy Reason but heightens it he never disorders the Beauties of Government but is a God of Order it is the Spirit of Humility and teaches no Pride he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits upon Altars and in the Doctors Chairs not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a House he goes in company with his own Ordinances and makes progressions by the measures of life his infusions are just as our acquisitions and his Graces pursue the methods of Nature that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection and that which was weak he makes strong he opens the heart not to receive murmurs or to attend to secret whispers but to hear the word of God and then he opens the heart and creates a new one and without this new creation this new principle of life we may hear the word of God but we can never understand it we hear the sound but are never the better unless there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the Spirit of God the Gospel it self is a dead Letter and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God Do not we see this by daily experience Even those things which a good man and an evil man know they do not know them both alike A wicked man does know that Good is lovely and Sin is of an evil and destructive nature and when he is reproved he is convinced and when he is observed he is ashamed and when he has done he is unsatisfied and when he pursues his sin he does it in the dark Tell him he shall die and he sighs deeply but he knows it as well as you Proceed and say that after death comes Judgment and the poor man believes and trembles he knows that God is angry with him and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow he knows that it is an intolerable truth but it is also undeniable And yet after all this
ages past and troubled themselves with tying untying knots like Hypocondriacks in a fit of Melancholy thinking of nothing troubling themselves with nothing and falling out about nothings and being very wise very learned in things that are not and work not and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God Mens notions are too often like the Mules begotten by aequivocal and unnatural Generations but they make no species they are begotten but they can beget nothing they are the effects of long study but they can do no good when they are produced they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae the way of understanding If the Spirit of God be our Teacher we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good to be wise and to be holy to be profitable and careful and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences more skill in the Scriptures more satisfaction in their doubts than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world And if the holy Spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions to disturb the Church for interest or pride to resist Government in things indifferent to spend the peoples zeal in things unprofitable to make Religion to consist in outsides and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards No no the Man that is wise he that is conducted by the Spirit of God knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist than to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety for what for Religion no for the Body of Religion not so much for the Garment of the Body of Religion no not for so much but for the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren they are things or rather Circumstances and manners of things in which the Soul and Spirit is not at all concerned 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding not only as a Natural medium nor only as a prudent medium but as a means by way of Divine blessing He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him Here we have a promise for it and upon that we may relye The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recital of his Creed found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner and by a very plain instrument it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to do and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jews revealing them to Babes not because they had less learning but because they had more love they were children and Babes in Malice they loved Christ and so he became to them a light and a glory St. Paul had more Learning then they all and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth he was also the wisest and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings And St. Paul though he went very far to the Knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new Lesson in a new School at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel his learning grew much greater his notions brighter his skill deeper by the love of Christ and his desires his passionate desires after Jesus The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah 29. 11 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is seal'd And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I am not learned He that is no learned man who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets cannot read Gods Book for want of learning For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision not the only one indeed but the common gate But beyond this there must be another learning for he that is learned bring the Book to him and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it if the Book be sealed if his eyes be closed if his heart be not opened if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline Humane learning is an excellent Foundation but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God For we may further observe that blindnesse errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit was St. Austin's expression The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us by reason of our demerits our sins have hindred the brightness of the truth from shining upon us And St. Paul observes that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a Lie But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy said the wise Preacher But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things Well there 's our Teacher told of plainly But how shall we obtain this teacher and how shall we be taught v. 15 16 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this Spirit That 's well but shall all Christians have the Spirit Yes all that will live like Christians for so said Christ If ye love me keep my Commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him Mark these things The Spirit of God is our teacher he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher he will teach us all things but how if ye love Christ if ye keep his Commandments but not else if ye be of the World that is of worldly affections ye cannot see him ye
the great Syrian that stirred up the sluggish and awakened the sleepers and comforted the afflicted and brought the young men to discipline the Looking-glass of the Religious the Captain of the Penitents the destruction of Heresies the receptacle of Graces the habitation of the Holy Ghost These were the men that prevailed against Errour because they lived according to Truth and whoever shall oppose you and the Truth you walk by may better be confuted by your Lives than by your Disputations Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you and then you will best silence them For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow it deceived none but Beasts and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent them that love a Lie and live according to it But if ye become burning and shining lights if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit your Doctrines will be true and that Truth will prevail But if ye live wickedly and scandalously every little Schismatick shall put you to shame and draw Disciples after him and abuse your Flocks and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock and place Heresie in the Chairs appointed for your Religion I pray God give you all Grace to follow this Wisdom to study this Learning to labour for the understanding of Godliness so your Time and your Studies your Persons and your Labours will be holy and useful sanctified and blessed beneficial to men and pleasing to God through him who is the Wisdom of the Father who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption To whom with the Father c. FINIS A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Most Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland WITH A Succinct Narrative of His whole Life The fourth Edition enlarged By the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty 1666. A Funeral Sermon SERM. VII 1 Cor. XV. 23. But every Man in his own Order Christ the first fruits afterward they that are Christ's at his coming THE Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed so relative and imperfect that the best things he does he does weakly and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution I need not tell how little it is that we know the greatest indication of this is That we can never tell how many things we know not and we may soon span our own Knowledge but our Ignorance we can never fathom Our very Will in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial is a direct state of imperfection and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us not to make us proud but to make us humble for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God or if we had such love to God as he deserves and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services we could no more Deliberate For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point it wavers as long as it is free and is at rest when it can chuse no more And truly what is the hope of man It is indeed the Resurrection of of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures and like the Twilight to the Day and the Harbinger of joy but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities and proclaims our present calamity only because it is uneasie here it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground with her portion and share of Adam's Curse lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air and opens the junctures of her imperfect body and curles her little rings into knots and combinations drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature and dwell and sleep upon the dust So are the hopes of a mortal man he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance and shuts them again with weakness because they are too glorious to behold and the Man rejoices because he hopes fine things are staying for him but his heart akes because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories and though he hopes yet he enjoys not he longs but he possesses not and must be content with his portion of dust and being a worm and no man must lie down in this portion before he can receive the end of his hopes the salvation of his Soul in the Resurrection of the dead For as Death is the end of our lives so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes and as we dye daily so we daily hope but Death which is the end of our life is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty from uncertain fears to certain expectations from the death of the Body to the life of the Soul that is to partake of the light and life of Christ to rise to life as he did for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours He dyed for us alone not for himself but he rose again for himself and us too So that if he did rise so shall we the Resurrection shall be universal good and bad all shall rise but not altogether First Christ then we that are Christs and yet there is a third Resurrection though not spoken of here but thus it shall be The dead of Christ shall rise first that is next to Christ and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my Text Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushroom or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the Regions of the Earth the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no whether we are to live good lives or no or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the Daughters of Rapine and Ambition whether there be any such thing as sin any judicatory for Consciences any rewards of Piety any difference of Good and Bad any rewards after this life This is the design of these words by proper interpretation for if men shall dye like Dogs and Sheep they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes but he that believes the Article of the
Resurrection that is from sin to grace from the death of vitious habits to the vigour life and efficacy of an habitual righteousness For as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned to them I say in the literal sense Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection upon them the second death shall have no power meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again were holy and blessed souls and such who were written in the book of God and that this grace hapned to no wicked and vitious person so it is most true in the spiritual and intended sense You only that serve God in a holy life you who are not dead in trespasses and sins you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry and a holy Religion you and you only shall come to life eternal you only shall be called from death to life the rest of mankind shall never live again but pass from death to death from one â—eath to another to a worse from the death of the body to the eterâ—al death of body and soul and therefore in the Apostles Creed there â—s no mention made of the Resurrection of wicked persons but of the Resurrection of the body to everlasting life The wicked indeed shall be haâ—eâ— forth from their graves from their everlasting prisons where in chains â—f â—arkness they are kept unto the judgment of the great day but this â—â—â—â—efore cannot be called in sensu favoris a Resurrection but the soâ—â—â—â—ities of the eternal death It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again such a dying as cannot signifie rest but where death means nothing but an intollerable and never ceasing calamity and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked otherwise of the godly The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again no not in the gatherings of eternity They shall be put into Vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell but that is not a gathering but a scattering from the face and presence of God But the godly also come under the sense of these words They descend into their Graves and shall no more be reckoned among the living they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks Armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned than had the Hippocentaur who never had a being and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendom than we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines Conspiracy What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us These things that now happen concern the living and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively and when our Wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion It is true they envy not and they lie in a bosom where there can be no murmur and they that are consigned to Kingdoms and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb the glorious and eternal Bridegroom of holy Souls they cannot think our Marriages here our lighter laughings and vain rejoicings considerable as to them And yet there is a relation continued still Aristotle said that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind And the Church hath taught in general that they pray for us they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us and S. Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus that he should do for him in the other world he gave it him I say when he was dying not when he was dead And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions yet it is not less but much more than ever it was it is greater in degree and of another kind But then we should do well also to remember that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations but preserve the affections we bore to our dead when they were alive We must not so live as if they were perished but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints And we also have some ways to express this relation and to bear a part in this communion by actions of intercourse with them aud yet proper to our state such as are strictly performing the will of the dead providing for and tenderly and wisely educating their children paying their debts imitating their good example preserving their memories privately and publickly keeping their memorials and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyful Resurrection and a merciful Judgment for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus that God would shew them mercy in that day that fearful and yet much to be desired day in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity and shall find it Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations yet I do not find they have liberty to cast off the old as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls Remember that we shall converse together again let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered and that we shall meet again in the presence of God In the mean time God watcheth concerning all their interest and he will in his time both discover and recompense For though as to us they are like water spilt yet to God they are as water fallen in the Sea safe and united in his comprehension and inclosures But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence This descending to the grave is the lot of all men neither doth God respect the person of any man The rich is not protected for favour nor the poor for pity the old man is not reverenced for his age nor the Infant regarded for his tenderness youth and beauty learning and prudence wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the Grave All men and all natures and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death and strive to preserve a miserable and unpleasant life and yet they all sink down and die For so have
I seen the Pillars of a Building assisted with artificial props bending under the pressure of a roof and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium Till the determin'd day comes and then the burden sunk upon the pillars and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave so are the desires and weak arts of man with little aids and assistances of care and Physick we strive to support our decaying bodies and to put off the evil day but quickly that day will come and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave but the roof sinks down upon the walls and the walls descend to the foundation and the beauty of the face and the dishonours of the belly the discerning head and the servile feet the thinking heart and the working hand the eyes and the guts together shall be crushed into the confusion of a heap and dwell with Creatures of an equivocal production with worms and serpents the sons and daughters of our own bones in a house of dirt and darkness Let not us think to be excepted or deferred If beauty or wit or youth or nobleness or wealth or vertue could have been a defence and an excuse from the Grave we had not met here to day to mourn upon the Hearse of an Excellent Lady and God only knows for which of us next the Mourners shall go about the streets or weep in houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have lived so many years and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompass us round about and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune and therefore that it cannot last long Vain are the thoughts of Man who when he is young or healthful thinks he hath a long thread of life to run over and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die and natural and proper only for the aged It is as natural for a man to die by drowning as by a Fever And what greater violence or more unnatural thing is it that the Horse threw his Rider into the River than that a drunken meeting cast him into a Fever and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth and the stronger intemperance as the weakness of old age by a Cough or an Asthma or a continual Rheum Nay it is more natural for young Men and Women to die than for old because that is more natural which hath more natural causes and that is more natural which is most common but to die with age is an extreme rare thing and there are more persons carried forth to burial before the five and thirtieth year of their age than after it And therefore let no vain confidence make you hope for long life If you have lived but little and are still in youth remember that now you are in your biggest throng of dangers both of body and soul and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration are also the proper and immediate instruments of death But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully and the time of your escaping is out you must not for ever think to live upon wonders or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world Go home and think to die and what you would choose to be doing when you die that do daily for you will all come to that pass to rejoice that you did so or wish that you had that will be the condition of every one of us for God regardeth no mans person Well but all this you will think is but a sad story What we must die and go to darkness and dishonour and we must die quickly and we must quit all our delights and all our sins or do worse infinitely worse and this is the condition of us all from which none can be excepted every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground and be gathered up no more Is there no comfort after all this shall we go from hence and be no more seen and have no recompense Miser ô miser aiunt omnia ademit Vna die infansta mihi tot praemia vitae Shall we exchange our fair Dwellings for a Coffin our softer Beds for the moistned and weeping Turf and our pretty Children for Worms and is there no allay to this huge calamity yes there is There is a yet in the Text For all this yet doth God devise means that his banished be not expelled from him All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasm and receives its account and degrees from our present conceptions and the proportion to our relishes and gust When Pompey saw the Ghost of his first Lady Julia who vexed his rest and his conscience for superinducing Cornelia upon her bed within the ten months of mourning he presently fancied it either to be an illusion or else that death could be no very great evil Aut nihil est sensus animis in morte relictum Aut mors ipsa nihil Either my dead Wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage and forgetfulness of her or if she does then the dead live longae canitis si cognita vitae Mors media est Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives between this and another concerning which comfortable mystery the holy Scripture instructs our Faith and entertains our hope in these words God is still the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob for all do live to him and the Souls of Saints are with Christ I desire to be dissolved saith St. Paul and to be with Christ for that is much better and Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works follow them For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and this state of separation St. Paul calls a being absent from the Body and being present with the Lord This is one of Gods means which he hath devised that although our Dead are like persons banished from this world yet they are not expelled from God They are in the hands of Christ they are in his presence they are or shall be clothed with a house of Gods making they rest from all their labours all tears are wiped from their eyes and all discontents from their spirits and in the state of separation before the Soul be re-invested with her new house the Spirits of all persons are with God so secur'd and so blessed and so sealed up for glory that this state of interval and imperfection is in respect of its certain event and end infinitely more desirable
than all the Riches and all the Pleasures and all the Vanities and all the Kingdoms of this world I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the abode of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings and yet possibly that might be easier than to tell what or how the Soul is and works in this world where it is in the Body tanquam in alienâ domo as in a prison in fetters and restraints for here the Soul is discomposed and hindred it is not as it shall be as it ought to be as it was intended to be it is not permitted to its own freedom and proper operation so that all that we can understand of it here is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line in just and equal propositions or if it could yet because we are to understand the Soul by the Soul it becomes not only a troubled and abused object but a crooked instrument and we here can consider it just as a weak eye can behold a staff thrust into the waters of a troubled River the very water makes a refraction and the storm doubles the refraction and the water of the eye doubles the species and there is nothing right in the thing the object is out of its just place and the medium is troubled and the organ is impotent At cum exierit in liberum coelum quasi in dontum suam venerit when the Soul is entred into her own house into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly Joys then its operations are more spiritual proper and proportion'd to its being and though we cannot see at such a distance yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable Understanding it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition Certain it is that the Body does hinder many actions of the Soul It is an imperfect Body and a diseased Brain or a violent passion that makes Fools No man hath a foolish Soul and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the Bodies constitution Among Beasts which have no Reason there is a greater likeness than between Men who have And as by Faces it is easier to know a Man from a Man than a Sparrow from a Sparrow or a Squirrel from a Squirrel so the difference is very great in our Souls which difference because it is not originally in the Soul and indeed cannot be in simple or spiritual substances of the same species or kind it must needs derive wholly from the Body from its accidents and circumstances from whence it follows that because the Body casts fetters and restraints hinderances and impediments upon the Soul that the Soul is much freer in the state of separation and if it hath any act of life it is much more noble and expedite That the Soul is alive after our death St. Paul affirms Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him Now it were strange that we should be alive and live with Christ and yet do no act of life The Body when it is asleep does many and if the Soul does none the Principle is less active than the Instrument but if it does any act at all in separation it must necessarily be an act or effect of Understanding there is nothing else it can do but this it can For it is but a weak and an unlearned Proposition to say That the Soul can do nothing of it self nothing without the phantasms and provisions of the Body For 1. In this life the Soul hath one principle clearly separate abstracted and immaterial I mean the Spirit of Grace which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter as in the infusion superinduction and creation of spiritual Graces 2. As nutrition generation eating and drinking are actions proper to the Body and its state so extasies visions raptures intuitive knowledg and consideration of its self acts of volition and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the Soul 3. And therefore it is observable that St. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body for by that we see his judgment of the thing that one was as likely as the other neither of them impossible or unreasonable and therefore that the Soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction 4. If in the state of Blessedness there are some actions of the Soul which do not pass through the Body such as contemplation of God and conversing with Spirits and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and Mysterious Trinity make up the Crown of Glory it follows that the necessity of the Bodies ministery is but during the state of this life and as long as it converses with fire and water and lives with corn and flesh and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetites which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases it can be no longer necessary for the Soul to be served by phantasms and material representations 5. And therefore when the Body shall be re-united it shall be so ordered that then the Body shall confess it gives not any thing but receives all its being and operation its manner and abode from the Soul and that then it comes not to serve a necessity but to partake a Glory For as the operations of the Soul in this life begin in the Body and by it the object is transmitted to the Soul so then they shall begin in the Soul and pass to the Body And as the operations of the Soul by reason of its dependence on the Body are animal natural and material so in the resurrection the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence influence and prime operation of the Soul Now between these two states stands the state of separation in which the operations of the Soul are of a middle nature that is not so spiritual as in the resurrection and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction To all which I add this consideration That our Souls have the same condition that Christs Soul had in the state of separation because he took on him all our Nature and all our Condition and it is certain Christs Soul in the three days of his separation did exercise acts of life of joy and triumph and did not sleep but visited the Souls of the Fathers trampled upon the pride of Devils and satisfied those longing Souls which were Prisoners of hope And from all this we may conclude That the Souls of all the Servants of Christ are alive and therefore do the actions of life and proper to their state and therefore it is highly probable that the Soul works clearer and understands brighter and discourses wiser and rejoyces louder and
loves noblier and desires purer and hopes stronger than it can do here But if these arguments should fail yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail For suppose the Body to be a necessary Instrument but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger by accident and chance by defect and imperfections yet that it is better than none at all and that if the Soul works imperfectly with an imperfect Body that then she works not at all when she hath none And suppose also that the Soul should be as much without sense or perception in death as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him For 2. God will restore the Soul to the Body and raise the Body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon it shall be made spiritual to minister to the Soul when the Soul is turned into a Spirit then the Soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed from her rest in Christs holy Bosom and be made perfect in her being and in all her operations And this shall first appear by that perfection which the Soul shall receive as instrumental to the last Judgment for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this World all the Register of her own Memory For all that we did in this life is laid up in our Memories and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them yet when God shall lift us from our dust then shall appear clearly all that we have done written in the Tables of our Conscience which is the Souls Memory We see many times and in many instances that a great Memory is hindred and put out and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a Curtain we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction or proper consequence And all those famous Memories of Simonides and Theodactes of Hortensius and Seneca of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus are only the Records better kept and less disturbed by accident and disease For even the Memory of Herods son of Athens of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great and by God made so sure a Record of all that ever he did that as soon as ever God shall but tune our Instrument and draw the Curtains and but light up the Candle of Immortality there we shall find it all there we shall see all and the whole world shall see all then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits we shall be like to Angels In the mean time although upon the perswasion of the former Discourse it be highly probable that the Souls of Gods Servants do live in a state of present blessedness and in the exceeding joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living and leave the event to God that as St. Paul said whether present or absent whether sleeping or waking whether perceiving or perceiving not we may be accepted of him that when we are banished this World and from the light of the Sun we may not be expelled from God and from the light of his countenance but that from our beds of sorrows our Souls may pass into the Bosom of Christ and from thence to his right hand in the day of Sentence For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and then if we have done well in the Body we shall never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God but be Domesticks of his Family and Heirs of his Kingdom and Partakers of his Glory Amen I Have now done with my Text but yet am to make you another Sermon I have told you the necessity and the state of death it may be too largely for such a sad story I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain Narative of a Life which if you imitate and write after the Copy it will make that death shall not be an evil but a thing to be desired and to be reckoned among the purchases and advantages of your Fortune When Martha and Mary went to weep over the Grave of their Brother Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon discoursing of the Resurrection and applying to the purposes of Faith and confession of Christ and glorification of God We have no other we can have no better precedent to follow and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister this rare Personage we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn many to imitate and some to exercise I chuse not to declare her Extraction and Genealogy it was indeed fair and honourable but having the blessing to be descended from Worthy and Honour'd Ancestors and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble Family yet she felt such outward Appendages to be none of hers because not of her choice but the purchase of the Virtues of others which although they did engage her to do noble things yet they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable Lives than were those which began and encreased the honour of the Families She did not love her Fortune for making her noble but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Nobleness and Excellency of Virtue fit to be owned by Persons relating to such Ancestors It is fit for us all to honour the Nobleness of a Family but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their Honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things and suffering in good causes and despising dishonourable actions and in communicating good things to others For this is the rule in Nature Those Creatures are most honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good And accordingly my self have been witness of it how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair Appendage and exteriour Honour which decked her Person and her Fortune and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the Honour of a Christian and a wise Person 2. She had a strict and severe education and it was one of Gods Graces and Favours to her For being the Heiress of a great Fortune and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations that is in that part of the Kingdom where Greatness is too often express'd in great follies and great vices God had provided a severe and angry Education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young Spirit and a fair Fortune that she might for ever be so far distant from
eminency and singularity Church-men that 's your appellative all are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual men all have received the Spirit and all walk in the Spirit and ye are all sealed by the Spirit unto the day of Redemption and yet there is a spirituality peculiar to the Clergy If any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness you who are spiritual by office and designation of a spiritual calling and spiritual employment you who have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus and minister the Spirit of God you are more eminently spiritual you have the Spirit in graces and in powers in sanctification and abilities in Office and in Person the Vnction from above hath descended upon your heads and upon your hearts you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency and praelation spiritual men All the people of God were holy Corah and his company were in the right so far but yet Moses and Aaron were more holy and stood neerer to God All the people are Prophets It is now more than Moses wish for the Spirit of Christ hath made them so If any man prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered or if any woman prophesieth with her head uncovered they are dishonoured but either man or woman may do that work in time and place for in the latter days I will pour out of my Spirit and your daughters shall prophesie and yet God hath appointed in his Church Prophets above these to whose Spirit all the other Prophets are subject and as God said to Aaron and Miriam concerning Moses to you I am known in a dream or a vision but to Moses I speak face to face so it is in the Church God gives of his Spirit to all men but you he hath made the Ministers of his Spirit Nay the people have their portion of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so said S. Paul To whom ye forgive any thing to him I forgive also and to the whole Church of Corinth he gave a Commission in the Name of Christ and by his Spirit to deliver the incestuous person unto Satan and when the primitive Penitents stood in their penitential stations they did Chairs Dei adgeniculari toti populo legationem orationis suae commendare and yet the Keys were not only promised but given to the Apostles to be used then and transmitted to all Generations of the Church and we are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and to us is committed the word of reconciliation And thus in the Consecration of the mysterious Sacrament the people have their portion for the Bishop or the Priest blesses and the People by saying Amen to the mystick Prayer is partaker of the Power and the whole Church hath a share in the power of Spiritual Sacrifice Ye are a royal Priesthood Kings and Priests unto God that is so ye are Priests as ye are Kings but yet Kings and Priests have a glory conveyed to them of which the people partake but in minority and allegory and improper communication But you are and are to be respectively that considerable part of mankind by whom God intends to plant holiness in the World by you God means to reign in the hearts of men and g. you are to be the first in this kind and consequently the measure of all the rest To you g. I intend this and some following Discourses in order to this purpose I shall but now lay the first stone but it is the corner stone in this foundation But to you I say of the Clergy these things are spoken properly to you these Powers are conveyed really upon you God hath poured his Spirit plentifully you are the Choicest of his Choice the Elect of his Election a Church pick'd out of the Church Vessels of honour so your Masters use appointed to teach others authorised to bless in his Name you are the Ministers of Christ's Priesthood Under-labourers in the great Work of Mediation and Intercession Medii inter Deum Populum you are for the People towards God and convey Answers and Messages from God to the People These things I speak not only to magnifie your Office but to inforce and heighten your Duty you are holy by Office and Designation for your very Appointment is a Sanctification and a Consecration and g. whatever holiness God requires of the People who have some little portions in the Priesthood Evangelical he expects it of you and much greater to whom he hath conveyed so great Honours and admitted so neer unto himself and hath made to be the great Ministers of his Kingdom and his Spirit and now as Moses said to the Levitical Schismaticks Corah and his Company so I may say to you Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you to himself to do the Service of the Tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the Congregation to minister to them And he hath brought thee neer to him Certainly if of every one of the Christian Congregation God expects a holiness that mingles with no unclean thing if God will not suffer of them a luke-warm and an indifferent service but requires zeal of his Glory and that which St. Paul calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the labour of love if he will have them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing if he will not endure any pollution in their Flesh or Spirit if he requires that their Bodies and Souls and Spirits be kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus if he accepts of none of the people unless they have within them the conjugation of all Christian Graces if he calls on them to abound in every Grace and that in all the periods of their progression unto the ends of their lives and to the consummation and perfection of Grace if he hath made them Lights in the World and the Salt of the Earth to enlighten others by their good Example and to teach them and invite them by holy Discourses and wise Counsels and Speech seasoned with Salt what is it think ye or with what words is it possible to express what God requires of you They are to be Examples of Good life to one another but you are to be Examples even of the Examples themselves that 's your duty that 's the purpose of God and that 's the design of my Text That in all things ye shew your selves a pattern of good works in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness gravity sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you Here then is 1. Your Duty 2. The degrees and excellency of your Duty The Duty is double 1. Holiness of Life 2. Integrity of Doctrine Both these have their heightnings in several degrees 1. For your Life and Conversation
us things greater than all our explicite Desires bigger than the thoughts of our heart then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle then we draw neer to God and by these we are enabled to do all that God requires and then he requires all that we can do more Love and more Obedience than he did of those who for want of these Helps and these Revelations and these Promises which we have but they had not were but imperfect persons and could do but little more than humane Services Christ hath taught us more and given us more and promised to us more than ever was in the world known or believed before him and by the strengths and confidence of these thrusts us forward in a holy and wise Oeconomy and plainly declares that we must serve him by the measures of a new Love do him Honour by wise and material Glorifications be united to God by a new Nature and made alive by a new Birth and fulfil all Righteousness to be humble and meek as Christ to be merciful as our heavenly Father is to be pure as God is pure to be partakers of the Divine Nature to be wholly renewed in the frame and temper of our mind to become people of a new heart a direct new Creation new Principles and a new being to do better than all the world before us ever did to love God more perfectly to despise the World more generously to contend for the Faith more earnestly for all this is but a proper and a just consequent of the great Promises which our Blessed Law-giver came to publish and effect for all the world of Believers and Disciples The matter which is here requir'd is certainly very great for it is to be more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees more holy than the Doctors of the Law than the Leaders of the Synagogue than the wise Princes of the Sanhedrim more righteous than some that were Prophets and High Priests than some that kept the Ordinances of the Law without blame men that lay in Sackcloth and fasted much and prayed more and made Religion and the Study of the Law the work of their lives This was very much but Christians must do more Nuncte marmoreum pro tempore fecimus at tu Si foetura gregem suppleverit aureus esto They did well and we must do better their houses were Marble but our roofs must be gilded and fuller of Glory * But as the matter is very great so the necessity of it is the greatest in the world It must be so or it will be much worse unless it be thus we shall never see the glorious Face of God Here it concerns us to be wise and fearful for the matter is not a question of an Oaken Garland or a Circle of Bays and a Yellow Ribband it is not a question of Money or Land nor of the vainer rewards of popular noises and the undiscerning Suffrages of the people who are contingent Judges of good and evil but it is the great stake of Life Eternal We cannot be Christians unless we be righteous by the new measures the Righteousness of the Kingdom is now the only way to enter into it for the Sentence is fix'd and the Judgment is decretory and the Judge infallible and the Decree irreversible For I say unto you said Christ unless your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Here then we have two things to consider 1. What was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees 2. How far that is to be exceeded by the Righteousness of Christians 1. Concerning the first I will not be so nice in the Observation of these words as to take notice that Christ does not name the Sadduces but the Scribes and Pharisees though there may be something in it the Sadduces were called Caraim from Cara to read for they thought it Religion to spend one third part of their day in reading their Scriptures whose fulness they so admired they would admit of no suppletory Traditions But the Pharisees were called Thanaim that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they added to the Word of God words of their own as the Church of Rome does at this day they and these fell into an equal fate while they taught for Doctrines the Commandments of men they prevaricated the Righteousuess of God What the Church of Rome to evil purposes hath done in this particular may be demonstrated in due time and place but what false and corrupt glosses under the specious Title of the Tradition of their Fathers the Pharisees had introduc'd our Blessed Saviour reproves and are now to be represented as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may see that Righteousness beyond which all they must go that intend that Heaven should be their Journeys end 1. The Pharisees obeyed the Commandments in the Letter not in the Spirit They minded what God spake but not what he intended They were busie in the outward work of the hand but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Justin Martyr to Tryphon the Jew Ye understand all things carnally 3 that is they rested 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen calls it in the outward work of Piety which not only Justin Martyr but St. Paul calls Carnality not meaning a carnal Appetite but a carnal Service Their errour was plainly this they never distinguish'd Duties natural from Duties relative that is whether it were commanded for it self or in order to something that was better whether it were a principal Grace or an instrumental Action So God was served in the Letter they did not much inquire into his Purpose And therefore they were curious to wash their hands but cared not to purifie the hearts They would give Alms but hate him that received it They would go to the Temple but did not revere the Glory of God that dwelt there between the Cherubins They would fast but not mortifie their Lusts They would say good Prayers but not labour for the Grace they prayed for This was just as if a man should run on his Masters errand and do no business when he came there They might easily have thought that by the Soul only a man approaches to God and draws the Body after it but that no washing or corporal Services could unite them and the Shechina together no such thing could make them like to God who is the Prince of Spirits * They did as the Dunces in Pythagoras School who when their Master had said Fabis abstineto by which he intended they should not ambitiously seek for Magistracy they thought themselves good Pythagoreans if they did not eat Beans and they would be sure to put their Right foot first into the shooe and their Left foot into the water and supposed they had done enough though if they had not been Fools they would have understood their Masters meaning to have been
testâque lutoque 〈…〉 quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivit being â—â—â—ording to the Jewish proverbial reproof as so many Mephibosheths discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum their Master teaches them to go uprightly but they still show their lame leg and shame their Master as if a man might be a Christian and yet be the vilest person in the world doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an insufferable and never ending damnation Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better and as long as men live at the rate they do it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees but because it must be much better with us all or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the Righteousness Evangelical without which we can never be saved 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees let us first take notice by way of praecognition that it must at least be so much we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law we must do all that lies before us all that is in our hand and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to be Religious the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from reaching forth the hand the outward work must be done and it is not enough to say My heart is right but my hand went aside Prudentius saith that St. Peter wept so bitterly because he did not confess Christ openly whom he lov'd secretly Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum mens maneret innocens Animusque servârit fidem A right heart alone will not do it or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong If a man strikes his Neighbor and sayes Am not I in jest It is folly and shame to him said Solomon For once for all Let us remember this that Christianity is the most profitable the most useful and the most bountiful institution in the whole world and the best definition I can give of it is this It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees who did the outward work at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more But so it is upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning Iniquum perpol verbum est bene vult nisâ— qui bene facit And because we must serve God in the Spirit therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness they abominate all external works as mere forms and 〈◊〉 the true fast is to abstain from Sin therefore they will not abstain 〈◊〉 meat and drink even when they are commanded which is 〈◊〉 if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart shouâ—◠〈◊〉 to Circumcise his Flesh and as if a Christian being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion should wholly neglect 〈◊〉 Sacramental that is because the Soul is the life of man therefore 〈◊〉 fitting to die in a humour and lay aside the Body * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question for our inquiry is How we should keep the Commandments how we are to do the work that lyes before us by what Principles with what Intention in what Degrees after what manner ut bonum bene fiat that the good thing be done well This therefore must be presupposed we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services Our voice and tongue our hands and our Feet and our very bowels must be servants of God and do the work of the Commandments This being ever supposed our Question is how much more we must do and the first measure is this Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience and when we say our Prayers we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire Desire is the life of prayer and if you indeed desire what you pray for you will also labour for what you desire and if you find it otherwise with your selves your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray If your heart be not present neither will God and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present you must needs go home without a Blessing But this measure of Evangelical Righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion and intends to say this that Christian Religion is something that is not seen it is the hidden man of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that dwels within and true Christians are men who as the Chaldee Oracle said are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clothed with a great deal of mind And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea Et loquar ad cor ejus I will speak unto their heart is a proverbial expression signifying to speak spiritual comforts and in the mystical sence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach the Gospel where the Spirit is the Preacher and the Heart is the Disciple and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion it must be something by which we become like to God the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man nay even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem and mollify all our secret pride and ingenerate in us a true humility and a Christian meekness of Spirit and a Divine Charity For in the Gospel when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony the outward work is always the less principal For there is a bodily and a carnal part an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self When we are baptized the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clean all over And when we communicate the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ and should live on him
believing his Word praying for his Spirit supported with his Hope refreshed by his Promises recreated by his Comforts and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life that is the true Communion The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent they are the food of our Souls but our Souls must be alive unto God or else they cannot eat It is good to confess our sins as St. James sayes and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion but they absolve none but such as are are truly penitent Solemn Prayers and the Sacraments and the Assemblies of the Faithful and fasting days and acts of external worship are the solemnities and rites of Religion but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus defined the Righteousness of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the parts and faculties that make up a man must make up our Religion but the heart is Domus principalis it is the Court of the great King and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues with a humble and a good mind with a bountiful heart and a willing Soul and these will command the eye and give laws to the hand and make the shoulders stoop but anima cujusque est quisque a mans soul is the man and so is his Religion and so you are bound to understand it True it is God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must work together with God and the body works together with the soul But no external action can purifie the soul because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats or a a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations The sum is this No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart And although it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness even the external also yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification Leges non ex verbis sed ex mente intelligendas sayes the Law There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning we must secure his service we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure And therefore our Righteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery unless our Eyes and Hands be chast and the desires be clean A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her He must hate Sin in all dimensions and in all distances and in every angle of its reception A Christian must not sin and he must not be willing to sin if he durst He must not be lustful and therefore he must not feed high nor drink deep for these make provisions for lust and amongst Christians great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance and whatever ministers to sin and is the way of it partakes of its nature and its curse For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different Mortification e. g is a duty of Christianity but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns as St. Benedict did or to burn our flesh like St. Martinian or to tumble in Snows with St. Francis or in pools of water with St. Bernard A man may chew Aloes or ly upon the ground or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love and so the thing be done no special Instrument is under a command * But although the Instruments of vertue are free yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not Not only the sin is forbidden but all the wayes that lead to it The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent that is not naturally but good only for their relation sake and in order to their end But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious they are part of the sin they have a share in the phantastick pleasure and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God and are directly in the prohibition For we are commanded to fly from temptation to pray against it to abstain from all appearances of evil to make a covenant with our eyes to pluck them out if there be need And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification they will be innocent only by the measures of humane Laws but not by the righteousness of God 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty not only to what is named and what is not named of the same nature and design but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins * Of this nature there are many All violences of Passion Irregularities in Gaming Prodigality of our time Undecency of action doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession aptness to go to Law Ambitus or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother easiness to believe evil of others willingness to report the evil which we hear curiosity of Dyet peevishness toward servants indiscreet and importune standing for place and all excess in ornaments for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and Royal Law of Charity For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul the word is a word hard to be understood we render it well enough Charity vaunteth not it self and upon this S. Basil says that an Ecclesiastick person and so every Christian in his proportion ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian but ministers only to vanity is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a vaunting which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure * These things are like to sins they are of a suspicious nature and not easily to be reconcil'd to the Righteousness Evangelical It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul and Christ intends
appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul when he does evil he must suffer evil but if he does not repent besides a worse thing will happen to him for we are not tyed to obey only for wrath but also for Conscience Passive Obedience is only the correspondent of wrath but it is the active Obedience that is required by Conscience and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault it matters nothing as to his Duty but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority I have now told you the sum of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government and it will be to little purpose to make Laws in matter of Religion or in any thing else if the end of it be that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no and if it be questioned whether you be deceived or no though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your Authority yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right than that the disobedient Subject is because you are conducted with a publick spirit you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of Gods assistance you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation you have the Scriptures and the Laws you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your Consultations you are the most concerned for Peace and to please God also is your biggest interest and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis the presumption of truth ought to be on your side and since this is the most likely way for Truth and the most certain way for Peace you are to insist in this and it is not possible to find a better I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle but because I have no more time of mine own and I will not take any of yours I shall only do it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory and so conclude God hath put a Royal Mantle and fastned it with a Golden Clasp upon the shoulder of the KING and he hath given you the Judges Robe the King holds the Scepter and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball and to take it a while into your handling and make Obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the rest you cannot reasonably expect that the Subjects should obey you unless you obey God I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty though in that also it would be considered that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons and what we are to do in the matters of Doctrine you are also to do in the matters of Laws what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion is also the best Method for the advantages of Government we must preach by our good example and you must govern by it and your good example in observing the Laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of Union and of Government for as now you have a new Power so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty 1. Take care that all your Power and your Consels be employed in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness Then you obey God in your publick capacity when by holy Laws and wise Administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious people For then you are Princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alienae said Ammianus Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life see that God be obeyed take care that the breach of the Laws of God may not be unpunished The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good Servants of God Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity let Lust find a publick shame let the Sons of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God than the meanest of the people shall let baseness be basely esteemed that is put such Characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes that it be esteemed more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk than to be kicked more shame to fornicate than to be caned and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin unless he be a person of quality Optimus est reipublicae status ubi nihil deest nisi licentia pereundi In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things where every thing can be had but a leave to sin a licence to be undone 2. As God is thus to be obeyed and you are to take care that he be so God also must be honoured by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings and the ministeries of your Religion For certain it is this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted be not discouraged For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak and so long as you make Religion your care and Holiness your measure you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities unless they be Ecclesiastical but that they may be reviled and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief yet Sacrilege is no dishonour and indeed to be an Oppressor is a
Repentance Men know they must repent but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own Affairs what they will not part with that is not necessary to be parted with and they will repent but not restore they will say nollem factum they wish they had never done it but since it is done you must give them leave to rejoice in their purchase they will ask forgiveness of God but they sooner forgive themselves and suppose that God is of their mind If you tye them to hard terms your Doctrine is not to be understood or it is but one Doctors Opinion and therefore they will fairly take their leave and get them another Teacher What makes these evil these dangerous and desperate Doctrines not the obscurity of the thing but the cloud upon the heart for say you what you will He that hears must be the Expounder and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passionately loves And so it comes to pass that as Rabbi Moses observed that God for the greatest Sin imposed the least Oblation as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry for a woman accused of Adultery a Barly-Cake so do most men they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling with a pretended little insignificant repentance God indeed did so that the cheapness of the Oblation might teach them to hope for pardon not from the Ceremony but from a severe internal repentance But men take any argument to lessen their repentances that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates and that Repentance may be nothing but a word and Mortification signifie nothing against their pleasures but be a term of Art only fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit but nothing relative to Practice or the Extermination of their sin So that it is no wonder we understand so little of Religion it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him so neither does he believe it he cannot he will not understand it And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride the Church hath extremely suffered by it in many ages Ariâ—s missed a Bishoprick and therefore turned Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the story he disturbed and shaked the Church for he did not understand this Truth That the peace of the Church was better than the satisfaction of his person or the promoting his foolish Opinion And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors and they do not see what they can read every day that it is a sin to speak evil of Dignities A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth ehe Ordinance of God and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure that they thought it lawful to fight against their King A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gainsaying of Corah who rose up against the high Priest were in a very sad condition and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gainsaying of Corah and think they do very well that they are the Godly party and the good people of God Why what 's the matter In the world there can be nothing plainer than these words Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers it is as plainly said there is no power but of God all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation these are over you in the Lord and yet men will not understand these plain things they deny to do their notorious duty and yet believe they are in the right and if they sometimes obey for wrath they oftner disobey for Conscience sake Where is the fault The words are plain the duty is certain the Book lies open but alas it is Sealed within that is men have eyes and will not see ears and will not hear But the wonder is the less for we know when God said to Jonas doest thou well to be angry he answered God to his face I do well to be angry even unto the death Let God declare his mind never so plainly if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is within their open love to their secret sin they may kill an Apostle and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service they may disturb Kingdoms and break the peace of a well-ordered Church and rise up against their Fathers and be cruel to their Brethren and stir up the people to Sedition and all this with a cold stomach and a hot liver with a hard heart and a tender Conscience with humble carriage and a proud spirit For thus men hate Repentance because they scorn to confess an Error they will not return to Peace and Truth because they fear to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened they are afraid to be good lest they should confess they have formerly done amiss and he that observes how much evil is done and how many Heresies are risen and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride may easily conclude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God unless he first learn to be humble But Obedite intelligetis saith the Prophet obey and be humble leave the foolish affections of sin and then ye shall understand That 's the first particular All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God 2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world 2 Cor. 3. 14. S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veil upon the hearts of the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament they looked for a Temporal Prince to be their Messias and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages and so long as that veil was there they could not see and they would not accept the poor despised Jesus For the things of the world besides that they entangle one another and make much business and spend much time they also take up the attentions of a mans mind and spend his faculties and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a separation from the things of the body if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom Had not he lost his labour that would have discoursed wisely to Apicius and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World the abstractions of the Soul and its
he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no Argument against it These notices of things terrible and true pass through his Understanding as an Eagle through the Air as long as her flight lasted the air was shaken but there remains no path behind her Now since at the same time we see other persons not so learned it may be not so much versed in Scriptures yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it they believe glorious things of Heaven and they live accordingly as men that believe themselves half a word is enough to make them understand a nod is a sufficient reproof the crowing of a Cock the singing of a Lark the dawning of the day and the washing their hands are to them competent memorials of Religion and warnings of their duty What is the reason of this difference They both read the Scriptures they read and hear the same Sermons they have capable Understandings they both believe what they hear and what they read and yet the event is vastly different The reason is that which I am now speaking of the one understands by one Principle the other by another the one understands by Nature and the other by Grace the one by Humane Learning and the other by Divine the one reads the Scriptures without and the other within the one understands as a Son of Man the other as a Son of God the one perceives by the proportions of the world and the other by the measures of the Spirit the one understands by Reason and the other by Love and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit and perceives their meaning but he pierces deeper and knows the meaning of that meaning that is the secret of the Spirit that which is spiritually discerned that which gives life to the Proposition and activity to the Soul And the reason is because he hath a Divine Principle within him and a new Understanding that is plainly he hath Love and that 's more than Knowledge as was rarely well observed by S. Paul Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifieth that is Charity makes the best Scholars No Sermons can edifie you no Scriptures can build you up a holy Building to God unless the Love of God be in your hearts and purifie your Souls from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit But so it is in the regions of Stars where a vast body of Fire is so divided by excentrick motions that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbs and round shells of plain and purest materials But where the cause is simple and the matter without variety the motions must be uniform and in Heaven we should either espy no motion or no variety But God who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below hath placed his Angels in their houses of light and given to every one of his appointed Officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll and now the wonder ceases for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South they being both indifferent to either it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre and makes the same matter turn not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God And so it is in the Understandings of Men when they all receive the same Notions and are taught by the same Master and give full consent to all the Propositions and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events it is because God has sent his Divine Spirit and kindles a new fire and creates a braver capacity and applies the Actives to the Passives and blesses their operation For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea and an indisposition to holy flames like as in the cold Rivers in the North so as the fires will not burn them and the Sun it self will never warm them till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the New Jerusalem bring a holy flame and make it shine and burn The Natural man saith the holy Apostle cannot preceive the things of the Spirit they are foolishness unto him for they are spiritually discerned For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palate or pleases the brutish part of Man and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures they must needs seem as insipid as Cork or the uncondited Mushrom for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily so fill'd with the deliciousness of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge that they can never keep the scent of their Game 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Chrysostom The fire and water can never mingle so neither can sensuality and the watchfulness and wise discerning of the Spirit Pilato interroganti de veritate Christus non respondit When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning Truth Christ gave him no answer He was not fit to hear it He therefore who so understands the Words of God that he not only believes but loves the Proposition he who consents with all his heart and being convinc'd of the truth does also apprehend the necessity and obeys the precept and delights in the discovery and lays his hand upon his heart and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty he who dares trust his proposition and drives it on to the utmost issue resolving to go after it whithersoever it can invite him this Man walks in the Spirit at least thus far he is gone towards it his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind and whatever goes less than this is but Memory and not Understanding or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest his most elect and precious Servants a knowledge even of secret things which he communicates not to others We finde it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do Why not from Abraham God tells us ver 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment And though this be irregular and infrequent yet it is a reward of their piety and the proper increase also of the spiritual man We find this spoken by God to Daniel and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the days of the Messias Dan. 12. 10. Many shall be purified and made white and tryed but the wicked shall do wickedly and what then None of
Resurrection hath entertained the greatest Demonstration in the world That nothing can make us happy but the Knowledge of God and Conformity to the life and death of the Holy Jesus Here therefore are the great Hinges of all Religion 1. Christ is already risen from the dead 2. We also shall rise in Gods time and our order Christ is the first fruits But there shall be a full Harvest of the Resurrection and all shall rise My Text speaks only of the Resurrection of the just of them that belong to Christ explicitely I say of these and therefore directly of Resurrection to life Eternal But because he also says there shall be an order for every man and yet every man does not belong to Christ therefore indirectly also he implies the more universal Resurrection unto Judgment But this shall be the last thing that shall be done for according to the Proverb of the Jews Michael flies but with one wing and Gabriel with two God is quick in sending Angels of peace and they flie apace but the messengers of wrath come slowly God is more hasty to glorifie his Servants than to condemn the wicked And therefore in the story of Dives and Lazarus we find that the beggar dyed first the good man Lazarus was first taken away from his misery to his comfort and afterwards the rich man dyed and as the good many times die first so all of them rise first as if it were a matter of haste And as the mothers breasts swell and shoot and long to give food to her babe so Gods bowels did yearn over his banished Children and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his Kingdom And at last the wicked shall rise unto condemnation for that must be done too every man in his own order First Christ then Christs Servants and at last Christs Enemies The first of these is the great ground of our Faith the second is the consummation of all our hopes the first is the foundation of God that stands sure the second is that superstructure that shall never perish by the first we believe in God unto righteousness by the second we live in God unto salvation But the third for that also is true and must be considered is the great affrightment of all them that live ungodly But in the whole Christs Resurrection and ours is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Christian that as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and the same for ever so may we in Christ become the morrow of the Resurrection the same or better than yesterday in our natural life the same body and the same soul tyed together in the same essential union with this only difference that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetick seal give us a new signature whereby we shall no more be changed but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever Of these I shall discourse in order 1. That Christ who is the first fruits is the first in this order he is already risen from the dead 2. We shall all take our turns we shall die and as sure as death we shall all rise again And 3. This very order is effective of the thing it self That Christ is first risen is the demonstration and certainty of ours for because there is an order in this oeconomy the first in the kind is the measure of the rest If Christ be the first fruits we are the whole vintage and we shall all die in the order of Nature and shall rise again in the order of Christ They that are Christ's and are found so at his coming shall partake of his Resurrection But Christ first then they that are Christ's that 's the order 1. Christ is the first fruits he is already risen from the dead For he alone could not be held by death Free among the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death was Sins eldest Daughter and the Grave-cloaths were her first mantle but Christ was Conqueror over both and came to take that away and to disarm this This was a glory fit for the head of mankind but it was too great and too good to be easily believed by incredulous and weak-hearted Man It was at first doubted of by all that were concerned but they that saw it had no reason to doubt any longer But what 's that to us who saw it not Yes very much Valde dubitatum est ab illis ne dubitaretur à nobis saith S. Augustine They doubted very much that by their confirmation we might be established and doubt no more Mary Magdalene saw him first and she ran with joy and said she had seen the Lord and that he was risen from the dead but they believed her not After that divers women together saw him and they told it but had no thanks for their pains and obtained no credit among the Disciples The two Disciples that went to Emaus saw him talked with him eat with him and they ran and told it they told true but no body believed them Then S. Peter saw him but he was not yet got into the Chair of the Catholick Church they did not think him infallible and so they believed him not at all Five times in one day he appeared for after all this he appeared to the Eleven they were indeed transported with joy and wonder but they would scarce believe their own eyes and though they saw him they doubted Well all this was not enough he was seen also of James and suffered Thomas to thrust his hand into his side and appeared to S. Paul and was seen by five hundred brethren at once So that there is no capacity of mankind no time no place but had an ocular demonstration of his Resurrection He appeared to Men and Women to the Clergy and the Laity to sinners of both sexes to weak men and to criminals to doubters and denyers at home and abroad in publick and in private in their houses and their journeys unexpected and by appointment betimes in the morning and late at night to them in conjunction and to them in dispersion when they did look for him and when they did not he appeared upon earth to many and to S. Paul and S. Stephen from Heaven So that we can require no greater testimony than all these are able to give us and they saw for themselves and for us too that the Faith and certainty of the Resurrection of Jesus might be conveyed to all that shall die and follow Christ in their own order Now this being matter of fact cannot be supposed infinite but limited to time and place and therefore to be proved by them who at that time were upon the place good men and true simple and yet losers by the bargain many and united confident and constant preaching it all their life and stoutly maintaining it at their death Men that would not deceive others and Men
little to great from nakedness to ornament from emptiness to plenty from unity to multitude from death to life be a Sadducee no more shame not thy understanding and reproach not the weakness of thy Faith by thinking that Corn can be restored to life and Man cannot especially since in every Creature the obediential capacity is infinite and cannot admit degrees for every Creature can be any thing under the power of God which cannot be less than infinite But we find no obscure foot-steps of this mystery even amongst the Heathens Pliny reports that Appion the Grammarian by the use of the Plant Osiris called Homer from his Grave and in Valerius Maximus we find that Aelius Tubero returned to life when he was seated in his Funeral pile and in Plutarch that Soleus after three days burial did live and in Valerius that Aeris Pamphilius did so after ten days And it was so commonly believed that Glaucus who was choked in a Vessel of honey did rise again that it grew to a Proverb Glaucus poto melle surrexit Glaucus having tasted honey dyed and lived again I pretend not to believe these stories to be true but from these instances it may be concluded that they believed it possible that there should be a Resurrection from the dead and natural reason and their Philosophy did not wholly destroy their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this Article For God knowing that the great hopes of Man that the biggest endearment of Religion the sanction of private Justice the band of Piety and holy Courage does wholly derive from the Article of the Resurrection was pleased not only to make it credible but easie and familiar to us and we so converse every night with the Image of death that every morning we find an argument of the Resurrection Sleep and Death have but one mother and they have one name in common Soles occidere redire possunt Nobis cum semel occidit lux brevis Nox est perpetua una dormienda Catul. Charnel-houses are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coemeteries or sleeping-places and they that die are fallen asleep and the Resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep but in sleep our senses are as fast bound by Nature as our Joints are by the Grave-cloaths and unless an Angel of God waken us every morning we must confess our selves as unable to converse with men as we now are afraid to die to converse with Spirits But however Death it self is no more it is but darkness and a shadow a rest and a forgetfulness What is there more in death what is there less in sleep For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner than a mans voice especially if he be called by name and thus also it shall be in the Resurrection We shall be awakened by the voice of a man and he that called Lazarus by name from his Grave shall also call us for although S. Paul affirms that the trumpet shall sound and there shall be the voice of an Arch-Angel yet this is not a word of Nature but of Office and Ministry Christ himself is that Arch-Angel and he shall descend with a mighty shout saith the Apostle and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice saith S. John So that we shall be awakened by the voice of a Man because we are only fallen asleep by the decree of God and when the Cock and the Lark call us up to prayer and labour the first thing we see is an argument of our Resurrection from the dead And when we consider what the Greek Church reports That amongst them the bodies of those that die Excommunicate will not return to dust till the Censure be taken off we may with a little faith and reason believe that the same power that keeps them from their natural Dissolution can recall then to life and union I will not now insist upon the story of the Rising Bones seen every year in Egypt nor the pretences of the Chymists that they from the ashes of Flowers can re-produce from the same materials the same beauties in colour and figure for he that proves a certain Truth from an uncertain Argument is like him that wears a wooden leg when he hath two sound legs already it hinders his going but helps him not the Truth of God stands not in need of such supporters Nature alone is a sufficient Preacher Quae nunc herba fuit lignum jacet herba futura Aeriae nudantur aves cum penna vetusta Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres Night and Day the Sun returning to the same point of East every change of Species in the same matter Generation and Corruption the Eagle renewing her youth and the Snake her skin the Silk-worm and the Swallows the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name Winter and Summer the Fall and Spring the Old Testament and the New the words of Job and the Visions of the Prophets the Prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim and the return of Jonas from the Whales belly the Histories of the Jews and the Narratives of Christians the Faith of Believers and the Philosophy of the reasonable all join in the verification of this Mystery And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration that there was never any good man who having been taught this Article but if he served God he also relied upon this If he believed God he believed this and therefore S. Paul says that they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they who had no hope meaning of the Resurrection were also Atheists and without God in the world And it is remarkable what S. Augugustine observes That when the World saw the righteous Abel destroyed and that the murderer out-lived his crime and built up a numerous Family and grew mighty upon Earth they neglected the service of God upon that account till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to Heaven to recover them from their impieties by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an Eternal union But Christ the first fruits is gone before and himself did promise that when himself was lifted up he would draw all men after him Every man in his own order first Christ then they that are Christ's at his coming And so I have done with the second Particular not Christ only but we also shall rise in Gods time and our order But concerning this order I must speak a word or two not only for the fuller handling the Text but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the Article of the Resurrection 3. First Christ and then we And we therefore because Christ is already risen But you must remember that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward
then his fingers ends and makes no use of his reason but for ever will be a child he may be deceiv'd in the literal sense of Scripture but then he is not fit to teach others but he that knows words signifie Rhetorically as well as Grammatically and have various proper significations and which of these is the first is not always of it self easie to be told and remembers also that God hath given him reason and observation and experience and conversation with wise men and the proportion of things and the end of the Command and parallel places of Scripture in other words to the same purpose will conclude that since in plain places all the duty of man is contain'd and that the literal sense is always true and unless men be wilful or infortunate they may with a small proportion of Learning find out the literal sense of an easie Moral Proposition will I say conclude that if we be deceiv'd the fault is our own but the fault is so great the man so supine the negligence so inexcusable that the very consideration of humane infirmity is not sufficient to excuse such Teachers of others who hallucinate or praevaricate in this The Anthropomorphites fell foully in this matter and supposed God to have a face and arms and passions as we have but they prevail'd not And Origen was in one instance greatly mistaken and thinking there was no literal meaning but the prime signification of the word understood the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make an Eunuch to his own prejudice but that passed not into a doctrine But the Church of Rome hath err'd greatly in pertinacious adhering not to the Letter but to the Grammar nor to that but in one line or signification of it and Hoc est corpus meum must signifie nothing but Grammatically and though it be not by their own confessions to be understood without divers figures in the whole complexion yet peevishly and perversly they will take it by the wrong handle and this they have pass'd into a doctrine that is against sense and reason and experience and Scripture and Tradition and the common interpretation of things and publick peace and utility and every thing by which mankind ought to be govern'd and determin'd 4. I am to adde this one thing more That we admit in the interpretation of Scripture but one literal sense I say but one prime literal sense for the simplicity and purity of the Spirit and the philanthropy of God will not admit that there should in one single Proposition be many intricate meanings or that his sense should not certainly be understood or that the people be abus'd by aequivocal and doubtful senses this was the way of Jupiter in the sands and Apollo Pythius and the Devils oracles but be it far from the wisdom of the Spirit of God 5. But then take in this Caution to it That although there be but one principal literal sense yet others that are subordinate may be intended subordinately and others that are true by proportion or that first intention may be true for many reasons and every reason applicable to a special instance and all these may be intended as they signifie that is one only by prime design and the other by collateral consequence Thus when it is said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee the Psalmist means it of the eternal generation of Christ others seem to apply it to his birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary and S. Paul expounds it Hebr. 1. of the Resurrection of Christ This is all true and yet but one literal sense primely meant but by proportion to the first the others have their place and are meant by way of similitude Thus we are the Sons of God by adoption by creation by favour by participation of the Spirit by the laver of regeneration and every man for one or other of these reasons can say Our Father which art in heaven and these are all parts of the literal sense not different but subordinate and by participation but more than one prime literal sense must not be admitted 6. Lastly Sometimes the literal sense is lost by a plain change of the words which when it is discover'd it must be corrected by the fountain and till it be so long as it is pious and commonly receiv'd it may be us'd without scruple In the 41. Psalm the Hebrews read My soul hath longed after the strong the living God Deum fortem vivum In the vulgar Latine it is Deum fontem vivum the living fountain and it was very well but not the literal sense of Gods Spirit But when they have been so often warned of it that they were still in love with their own letter and leave the words of the Spirit I think was not justifiable at all And this was observ'd at last by Sixtus and Clement and corrected in their Editions of the Bible and then it came right again The sum is this he that with this moderation and these measures construes the plain meaning of the Spirit of God and expounds the Articles of Faith and the Precepts of Life according to the intention of God signified by his own words in their first or second signification cannot easily be cousen'd into any Heretical Doctrine but his Doctrine will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pure word and mind of God 2. There is another sense or interpretation of Scripture and that is mystical or spiritual which the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Midrash which Elias the Levite calls omne commentarium quod non est juxta simplicem literalem sensum every gloss that is not according to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peschat to the literal sense and this relates principally to the Old Testament Thus the waters of the Deluge did signifie the waters of Baptism Sarah and Agar the Law and the Gospel the brazen Serpent the Passion of Christ the conjunction of Adam and Eve the communion of Christ and his Church and this is called the spiritual sense S. Paul being our warrant Our Fathers eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of that same spiritual rock now that rock was not spiritual but of solid stone but it signified spiritually for that rock was Christ. This sense the Doctors divide into Tropological Allegorical and Anagogical for methods sake and either to distinguish the things or to amuse the persons for these relate but to the several spiritual things signified by divers places as matters of faith precepts of manners and celestial joys you may make more if you please and yet these are too many to trouble mens heads and to make Theology an art and craft to no purpose This spiritual sense is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the sense that lies under the cover of words Concerning this I shall give you these short Rules that your Doctrine be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure and without heretical mixtures and the leaven
blowing from one point but like light issuing from the body of the Sun it is light round about and in every word of God there is a treasure and something will be found somewhere to answer every doubt and to clear every obscurity and to teach every truth by which God intends to perfect our understandings But then take this rule with you Do not pass from plainess to obscurity nor from simple principles draw crafty conclusions nor from easiness pass into difficulty nor from wise notices draw intricate nothings nor from the wisdom of God lead your hearers into the follies of men your principles are easie and your way plain and the words of faith are open and what naturally flows from thence will be as open but if without violence and distortion it cannot be drawn forth the proposition is not of the family of faith Qui nimis emungit elicit sanguinem he that wrings too hard draws blood and nothing is fit to be offer'd to your charges and your flocks but what flows naturally and comes easily and descends readily and willingly from the fountains of salvation 4. Next to this analogy or proportion of faith let the consent of the Catholick Church be your measure so as by no means to prevaricate in any doctrine in which all Christians always have consented This will appear to be a necessary Rule by and by but in the mean time I shall observe to you that it will be the safer because it cannot go far it can be instanced but in three things in the Creed in Ecclesiastical Government and in external forms of worship and Liturgy The Catholick Church hath been too much and too soon divided it hath been us'd as the man upon a hill us'd his heap of heads in a Basket when he threw them down the hill every head run his own way quot capita tot sentèntiae and as soon as the Spirit of Truth was opposed by the Spirit of Error the Spirit of peace was disordered by the Spirit of division and the Spirit of God hath over-power'd us so far that we are only fallen out about that of which if we had been ignorant we had not been much the worse but in things simply necessary God hath preserved us still unbroken all Nations and all Ages recite the Creed and all pray the Lords Prayer and all pretend to walk by the Rule of the Commandments and all Churches have ever kept the day of Christs Resurrection or the Lords day holy and all Churches have been governed by Bishops and the Rites of Christianity have been for ever administred by separate Orders of men and those men have been always set apart by Prayer and the imposition of the Bishops hands and all Christians have been baptized and all baptized persons were or ought to be and were taught that they should be confirm'd by the Bishop and Presidents of Religion and for ever there were publick forms of Prayer more or less in all Churches and all Christians that were to enter into holy wedlock were ever joined or blessed by the Bishop or the Priest in these things all Christians ever have consented and he that shall prophecy or expound Scripture to the prejudice of any of these things hath no part in that Article of his Creed he does not believe the Holy Catholick Church he hath no fellowship no communion with the Saints and Servants of God It is not here intended that the doctrine of the Church should be the Rule of Faith distinctly from much less against the Scripture for that were a contradiction to suppose the Church of God and yet speaking and acting against the will of God but it means that where the question is concerning an obscure place of Scripture the practice of the Catholick Church is the best Commentary Intellectus qui cum praxi concurrit est spiritus vivificans said Cusanus Then we speak according to the Spirit of God when we understand Scripture in that sense in which the Church of God hath always practis'd it Quod pluribus quod sapientibus quod omnibus videtur that 's Aristotles Rule and it is a Rule of Nature every thing puts on a degree of probability as it is witnessed by wise men by many wise men by all wise men and it is Vincentius Lirinensis great Rule of truth Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus and he that goes against what is said always and every where and by all Christians had need have a new revelation or an infallible spirit or he hath an intolerable pride and foolishness of presumption Out of the Communion of the Universal Church no man can be saved they are the body of Christ and the whole Church cannot perish and Christ cannot be a head without a body and he will for ever be our Redeemer and for ever intercede for his Church and be glorious in his Saints and g. he that does not sow in these furrows but leaves the way of the whole Church hath no pretence for his errour no excuse for his pride and will find no alleviation of his punishment These are the best measures which God hath given us to lead us in the way of truth and to preserve us from false doctrines and whatsoever cannot be prov'd by these measures cannot be necessary There are many truths besides these but if your people may be safely ignorant of them you may quietly let them alone and not trouble their heads with what they have so little to do things that need not to be known at all need not to be taught for if they be taught they are not certain or are not very useful and g. there may be danger in them besides the trouble and since God hath not made them necessary they may be let alone without danger and it will be madness to tell stories to your flocks of things which may hinder salvation but cannot do them profit And now it is time that I have done with the first great remark of doctrine noted by the Apostle in my Text all the Guides of souls must take care that the doctrine they teach be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure and incorrupt the word of God the truth of the Spirit That which remains is easier 2. In the next place it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grave and reverend no vain notions no pitiful contentions and disputes about little things but becoming your great employment in the ministery of souls and in this the Rules are easie and ready 1. Do not trouble your people with controversies whatsoever does gender strife the Apostle commands us to avoid and g. much more the strife it self a controversie is a stone in the mouth of the hearer who should be fed with bread and it is a temptation to the Preacher it is a state of temptation it engages one side in lying and both in uncertainty and uncharitableness and after all it is not food for souls it is the food of contention it is
brisker Immortality that Saints and Angels eat not and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom and holiness and contemplation The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher and then have fallen asleep But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey a large Mullet or a Boar animal propter Convivia natum and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces he would have attended carefully and taken in your discourses greedily And so it is in the Questions and secrets of Christianity which made S. Paul when he intended to convert Foelix discourse first with him about Temperance Righteousness and Judgment to come He began in the right point he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person to an Usurper of other mens rights to one whose soul dwelt in the World and cared not for the sentence of the last day The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death and S. Paul his with the discourse of the day of Judgment to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it which dishonour and baffle the understanding and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry by the prettiness of a talking woman Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them dear If your Doctrine calls upon Men to part with any considerable part of their estates you must pardon them if they cannot believe you they understand it not I shall give you one great instance of it When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in the Popish Religion how against common sense their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility how against Scripture is the Doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies But then on the other side the wonder will cease if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away the Priests Income and make the the See Apostolick to be poor if you deny the Popes Infallibility you will despise his Authority and examine his Propositions and discover his Failings and put him to answer hard Arguments and lessen his Power and indeed when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations for we see they have been too long without effect and without prosperity the men must be cured of their affections to the World ut nudi nudum sequantur crucifixum that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus and then they would soon learn the truths of God which till then will be impossible to be apprehended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men as St. Basil says when they expound Scripture always bring in something of themselves but till there be as one said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rising out from their own seats until they go out from their dark dungeons they can never see the light of Heaven And how many men are there amongst us who are therefore enemies to the Religion because it seems to be against their profit The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable by this Craft they get their livings leave them in their Livings and they will let your Religion alone if not they think they have reason to speak against it When mens souls are possessed with the World their souls cannot be invested with holy Truths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Isidor said the Soul must be informed insoul'd or animated with the propositions that you put in or you shall never do any good or get Disciples to Christ. Now because a man cannot serve two Masters because he cannot vigorously attend two objects because there can be but one soul in any living Creature if the World have got possession talk no more of your Questions shut your Bibles and read no more of the Words of God to them for they cannot tell of the Doctrine whether it be of God or of the World That is the second particular Worldly affections hinder true understandings in Religion 3. No man how learned soever can understand the Word of God or be at peace in the Questions of Religion unless he be a Master over his Passions Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro Cernere verum Gaudia pelle Pelle Timorem Nubila mens est Vinctáque fraenis Haec ubi regnant said the wise Boethius A man must first learn himself before he can learn God Tua te fallit Imago nothing deceives a man so soon as a mans self when a man is that I may use Plato's expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mingled with his nature and his Congenial infirmities of anger and desire he can never have any thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a knowledge partly moral and partly natural his whole life is but Imagination his knowledge is Inclination and Opinion he judges of Heavenly things by the measures of his fears and his desires and his Reason is half of it sense and determinable by the principles of sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then a man learns well when he is a Philosopher in his Passions Passionate men are to be taught the first elements of Religion and let men pretend to as much learning as they please they must begin again at Christs Cross they must learn true mortification and crucifixion of their anger and desires before they can be good Scholars in Christs School or be admitted into the more secret enquiries of Religion or profit in spiritual understanding It was an excellent Proverb of the Jews In passionibus Spiritus Sanctus non habitat the Holy Ghost never dwells in the house of Passion Truth enters into the heart of man when it is empty and clean and still but when the mind is shaken with Passion as with a storm you can never hear the voyce of the Charmer though he charm very wisely and you will very hardly sheath a sword when it is held by a loose and a paralytick Arm. He that means to learn the secrets of Gods wisdom must be as Plato says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his soul must be Consubstantiated with Reason not invested with Passion to him that is otherwise things are but in the dark his notion is obscure and his sight troubled and therefore though we often meet with passionate Fools yet we seldom or never hear of a very passionate wise man I have now done with the first part of my undertaking and proved to you that our evil life is the cause of our Controversies and Ignorances in Religion and of the things of God You see what hinders us from becoming
God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached in which because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her I can give this certain testimony that she was a diligent watchful and attentive hearer and to this had so excellent a judgment that if ever I saw a woman whose judgment was to be revered it was hers alone and I have sometimes thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did reward a pious discourse and placed it in the regions of honour and usefulness and gathered it up from the ground where commonly such Homilies are spilt or scattered in neglect and inconsideration But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was useful to her soul she was also a constant Reader of Sermons and seldom missed to read one every day and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles she had lately designed to have a large Book in which she purposed to have a stock of Religion transcribed in such assistances as she would chuse that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work But God prevented that and hath filled her desires not out of Cisterns and little Aquaeducts but hath carried her to the Fountain where she drinks of the pleasures of the River and is full of God 9. She always lived a life of much innocence free from the violences of great sins her person her breeding her modesty her honour her Religion her early marriage the Guide of her soul and the Guide of her youth were as so many fountains of restraining grace to her to keep her from the dishonours of a crime Bonum est portare jugum ab adolescentiâ it is good to bear the yoke of the Lord from our youth and though she did so being guarded by a mighty providence and a great favour and grace of God from staining her fair soul with the spots of hell yet she had strange fears and early cares upon her but these were not only for her self but in order to others to her neerest Relatives For she was so great a lover of this Honourable Family of which now she was a Mother that she desired to become a channel of great blessings to it unto future ages and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done or lest any thing had been done though an Age or two since which should intail a curse upon the innocent posterity and therefore although I do not know that ever she was tempted with an offer of the crime yet she did infinitely remove all sacriledge from her thoughts and delighted to see her estate of a clear and dis-intangled interest she would have no mingled rights with it she would not receive any thing from the Church but Religion and a Blessing and she never thought a curse and a sin far enough off but would desire it to be infinitely distant and that as to this Family God had given much honour and a wise head to govern it so he would also for ever give many more blessings and because she knew the sins of Parents descend upon Children she endeavoured by justice and religion by charity and honour to secure that her channel should convey nothing but health and a fair example and a blessing 10. And though her accounts to God were made up of nothing but small parcels little passions and angry words and trifling discontents which are the allays of the piety of the most holy persons yet she was early at her repentance and toward the latter end of her days grew so fast in Religion as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time her discourses more full of religion her prayers more frequent her charity increasing her forgiveness more forward her friendships more communicative her passion more under discipline and so she trimmed her lamp not thinking her night was so neer but that it might shine also in the day time in the Temple and before the Altar of Incense But in this course of hers there were some circumstances and some appendages of substance which were highly remarkable 1. In all her Religion and in all her actions of relation towards God she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage sliding toward her Ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion So have I seen a River deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face and paying to the Fiscus the great Exchequer of the Sea the Prince of all the watry bodies a tribute large and full and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequal and neighbour bottom and after all its talking and bragged motion it payed to its common Audit no more than the Revenues of a little cloud or a contemptible vessel So have I sometimes compared the issues of her Religion to the solemnities and famed outsides of anothers piety It dwelt upon her spirit and was incorporated with the periodical work of every day she did not believe that Religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation but to pardon of sins to the pleasure of God and the salvation of souls For Religion is like the breath of Heaven if it goes abroad into the open air it scatters and dissolves like Camphyre but if it enters into a secret hollowness into a close conveyance it is strong and mighty and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end at the other side of this life in the days of death and judgment 2. The other appendage of her Religion which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life was a rare modesty and humility of spirit a confident despising and undervaluing of her self For though she had the greatest judgment and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth and sex and circumstances yet as if she knew nothing of it she had the meanest opinion of her self and like a fair taper when she shined to all the room yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud and she shined to every body but her self But the perfectness of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid and all her humility and arts of concealment made the vertues more amiable and illustrious For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil so humility is the greatest eminency and art of publication in the whole world and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things was but like one that hideth the wind and covers the oyntment of her right hand I know not by what instrument it happened but when death drew neer before it made any show upon her body or revealed it self by a natural signification it was conveyed to her spirit she had a strange secret perswasion that the
bringing this child should be her last scene of life and we have known that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment sometimes speaks rarely Magnifica verba mors propè admota excutit sometimes it is Prophetical sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments or accidents of his own serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul But so it was that the thought of death dwelt long with her and grew from the first steps of fancy and fear to a consent from thence to a strange credulity and expectation of it and without the violence of sickness she dyed as if she had done it voluntarily and by design and for fear her expectation should have been deceived or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable fear or apprehension or rather as one said of Cato sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet she dyed as if she had been glad of the opportunity And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire the wisdom and infinite mercies of God For having a tender and soft a delicate and fine constitution and breeding she was tender to pain and apprehensive of it as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden Grave est tenerae cervici jugum and in her often discourses of death which she wonld renew willingly and frequently she would tell that she feared not death but she feared the sharp pains of death Emori nolo me esse mortuam non curo The being dead and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world she hoped would be for her advantage and therefore that was no part of her fear But she believing the pangs of death were great and the use and aids of reason little had reason to fear lost they should do violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution But God that knew her fears and her jealousie concerning her self fitted her with a death so easie so harmless so painless that it did not put her patience to a severe trial It was not in all appearance of so much trouble as two fits of a common ague so careful was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance that this soul was dear to him and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it he that began would also finish her redemption by an act of a rare providence and a singular mercy Blessed be that goodness of God who does so careful actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprehension of death is worse than the pains of death and that God loves to reprove the unreasonableness of our fears by the mightiness and by the arts of his mercy She had in her sickness if I may so call it or rather in the solemnities and graver preparations towards death some curious and well-becoming fears concerning the final state of her soul But from thence she passed into a deliquium or a kind of trance and as soon as she came forth of it as if it had been a vision or that she had conversed with an Angel and from his hand had received a labell or scroll of the Book of Life and there seen her name enrolled she cryed out aloud Glory be to God on high Now I am sure I shall be saved Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholly ignorant what judgment can be made but certainly there are strange things in the other world and so there are in all the immediate preparations to it and a little glimpse of heaven a minutes conversing with an Angel any ray of God any communication extraordinary from the Spirit of comfort which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners are infinitely far from illusions and they shall then be understood by us when we feel them and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusual visitations But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God and to all her Relatives If we consider her Person she was in the flower of her age Jucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret of a temperate plain and natural diet without curiosity or an intemperate palate she spent less time in dressing than many servants her recreations were little and seldom her prayers often her reading much she was of a most noble and charitable soul a great lover of honourable actions and as great a despiser of base things hugely loving to oblige others and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality so free in all acts of favour that she would not stay to hear her self thanked as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needful or an obliged person should ever return to her again she was an excellent friend and hugely dear to very many especially to the best and most discerning persons to all that conversed with her and could understand her great worth and sweetness she was of an honourable a nice and tender reputation and of the pleasures of this world which were laid before her in heaps she took a very small and inconsiderable share as not loving to glut her self with vanity or take her portion of good things here below If we look on her as a Wife she was chast and loving fruitful and discreet humble and pleasant witty and complyant rich and fair and wanted nothing to the making her a principal and precedent to the best Wives of the World but a long life and a full age If we remember her as a Mother she was kind and severe careful and prudent very tender and not at all fond a greater Lover of her Childrens Souls than of their Bodies and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth than by their relation to her self Her Servants found her prudent and fit to govern and yet open-handed and apt to reward a just Exactor of their duty and a great Rewarder of their diligence She was in her house a Comfort to her dearest Lord a Guide to her Children a Rule to her Servants an Example to all But as she related to God in the offices of Religion she was even and constant silent and devout prudent and material she loved what she now enjoys and she feared what she never felt and God did for her what she never did expect her fears went beyond all her evil and yet the good which she hath received was and is and ever shall be beyond all her hopes She lived as we all should live and she died as I fain would die Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos I pray God I may feel those mercies on my Death-bed that she felt