that they faile of their ends if they be any other where terminated It was a word well becomming the profound judgement and quintessentiall notions of that rare memorable Peere And certainly so it is if the cogitations and affections of our hearts be not directed to the glory of that infinite God both they are lost and we in them SECT V. REligious adoration begins in the heart but rests not there diffusing it selfe through the whole man and commanding all the powers of the soule and all the parts of the body to comply in a reverent devotion so that as we feare the Lord whom wee serve so wee serve the Lord with feare Where the heart stoopes it cannot be but the knees must bend the eyes and hands must be lift up and the whole body will strive to testifie the inward veneration as upon all occasions so especially when wee have to deale with the sacred affaires of God and offer to present our selves to any of his immediate services Our feare cannot bee smothered in our bosomes Every thing that pertâ—ines to that infinite Majesty must carry from us due testifications of our awe his Name his Word his Services his House his Messengers I cannot allow the superstitious niceties of the Iewes in the matters of God yet I find in their practise many things worthily imitable such as favour of the feare of their father Isaac and such as justly shame our prophane carelesnesse There is no wise man but must needs mislike their curious scruples concerning that ineffable name the letters and syllables wherof they held in such dreadfull respect that they deemed it worthy of death for any but sacred lips and that but in set times and places to expresse it as if the mention of it pierced the side of God together with their owne heart And if the name of God were written upon their flesh that part might not bee touched either with water or oyntment But well may wee learne this point of wit and grace from this first and then the only people of God not rashly sleightly regardlesly to take the awfull name of God into our mouths but to heare and speak it when occasion is given with all holinesse and due veneration There are those that stumble at their adoration at the blessed name of Iesus prescribed and practised by our Church as unjustly conceiving that wee put a superstitious holinesse in the very sound and syllabicall enunciation of the word wheras it is the person of that blessed Saviour to whom upon this occasion our knees are bended A gesture so far out of the just reach of blame that if it seemed good to the wisedome of the Church to allot this reverent respect to all whatsoever the names wherby the Majesty of God in the whole sacred Trinity is signified and expressed to men it were most meet to be accordingly exhibited unto them And now since it hath without inhibition of the like regard to the rest pitched upon that name which intimating and comprising in it the whole gratious work and immediate author of our deare redemption hath beene exposed to the reproach and opposition of the gain-saying world We cannot if we be not wanting to our filiall obedience detrect our observance of so antient and pious an institution Never any contempt was dared to bee cast upon the glorious name of the Almighty and absolute Deity only the state of exinanition subjected the Sonne of God to the scorne and under-valuation of the world Iustly therefore hath our holy and gracious Mother thought fit and ordained upon that person and name which seemed lesse honourable and lay more open to affront to bestow the more abundant honour In the meane time as shee is a professed incourager and an indulgent lover of all true devotion shee cannot but be well pleased with what soever expressions of reverence we give to the divine Majesty under whatsoever termes uttered by our well advised and well instructed tongues I have knowne and honored as most worthy a constant imitation some devout persons that never durst mention the name of God in their ordinary communication without uncovering of their heads or elevation of their hands or some such other testimony of reverence And certainly if the heart be so throughly possessed with a sad awe of that infinite Majesty as it ought the tongue dares not presume in a sudden unmannerlinesse to blurt out the dreadfull name of God but shall both make way for it by a premised deliberation and attend it with a reverent elocution I am ashamed to think how farre we are surpassed by heathenish piety The ancient Grecians and amongst the rest Plato as Suidas well observes when they would sweare by their Iupiter out of the meere dread and reverence of his name forbare to mention him breaking off their oath with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those that onely dare to owe the rest to their thoughts And Climas the Pythagorean out of this regard would rather undergoe a mulct of three talents than sweare Whiles the prophane mouthes of many Christians make no difference in their appellation betweene their God and their servant SECT VI. AS the name so the word of our maker challengeth an awfull regard from us as a reflection of that feare wee owe to the omnipotent author of it What worlds of nice caution have the masters of the Synagogue prescribed to their disciples for their demeanour towards the book of the Law of their God No letter of it might be writ without a copy no line of it without a rule and the rule must be upon the back of the parchment no parchment might bee imployed to this service but that which is made of the skinne of a cleane beast no word might be written in a different colour insomuch as when in the Pentateuch of Alexander the Great the name of Iehovah was in pretence of honour written in golden Characters their great Rabbins coÌ„demned the whole volume to be obliterated and defaced No man might touch it but with the right hand and without a kisse of reverence No man might sit in the presence of it No man might so much as spit before it No man might carry it behind him but lay it next to his heart in his travell No man might offer to read it but in a cleane place no man might sell it though the copy were moth-eat and himselfe halfe famished And is the word of the everlasting God of lesse worth and authority now than it hath beene Or is there lesse cause of our reverence of those divine Oracles than theirs Certainly if they were superstitiously scrupulous it is not for us to be carelesly slovenly and neglective of that sacred Book out of which wee shall once bee judged Even that impure Alcoran of the Turkes is forbidden to bee touched by any but pure hands It was not the least praise of Carlo Boromeo the late Saint of Millaine that hee would never read the
exercised about them The eye of sense for this outward and materiall world of reason for the intelligible of faith for the spirituall Moses had all these By the eye of sense he saw Pharaohs Court and Israels servitude By the eye of reason he saw the mysteries of Egyptian learning By the eye of faith hee saw him that is invisible In the eye of sense even brute creatures partake with him In the eye of reason men In the faculty of discerning spirituall and divine things only Saints and Angels Doubtlesse Moses was herein priviledged above other men Two wayes therefore did he see the Invisible First By viewing the visible signes and sensible representations of Gods presence as in the Bush of Horeb the hill of visions in the Fire and Cloud in the Mount of Sinai Secondly By his owne spirituall apprehension That first was proper to Moses as an eminent favourite of God This other must be common to us with him That we may then attaine to the true feare and fruition of God we must see him that is invisible as travellers here as comprehensors hereafter How we shall see him in his and our glorious home we cannot yet hope to comprehend When we come there â—o see him we shall see and know how and how much we see him and not till then In the meane time it must bee our maine care to blesse our eyes with Moses object and even upon earth to aspire to the sight of the Invisible This is an act wherein indeed our cheife felicity consists It is a curiously witty disquisition of the Schooles since all beatitude consists in the fruition of God Whether we more essentially primarily and directly injoy God in the act of understanding which is by seeing him than in the act of will which is by loving him and the greatest Masters for ought I see pitch upon the understanding in the full sight of God as whose act is more noble and absolute and the union wrought by it more perfect If any man desire to spend thoughts upon this divine curiosity I referre him to the ten reasons which the Doctor Solennis gives and rests in for the decision of this point Surely these two go so close together in the separated soule that it is hard even in thought to distinguish them If I may not rather say that as there is no imaginable composition in that spirituall essence so its fruition of God is made up of one simple act alone which here results out of two distinct faculties It is enough for us to know that if all perfection of happinesse and full union with God consist in the seeing of him in his glory then it is and must be our begun happinesse to see him as we may here below hee can never be other than he is our apprehension of him varies Here we can only see him darkly as in a glasse there cleerely and as hee is Even here below there are degrees as of bodily so of spirituall sight The newly recovered blind man saw men like trees the eyes of true sense see men like men The illuminated eyes of Elisha and his servant saw Angels invironing them Saint Stephens eyes saw heaven opened and Iesus standing at the right hand of God The cleere eyes of Moses see the God of Angels Saint Pauls eyes saw the unutterable glories of the third heaven still the better eyes the brighter vision But what a contradiction is here in seeing the Invisible If invisible how seene and if seene how invisible Surely God is a most purely and simply spirituall essence Here is no place for that not so much heresie as stupid conceit of Anthropomorphisme A bodily eie can only see bodies like it selfe the eye must answer the object A spirituall object therefore as God is must be seene by a spirituall eye Moses his soule was a spirit and that saw the God of spirits so he that is in himselfe invisible was seene by an invisible eye and so must be If we have no eyes but those that are seene we are as very beasts as those that we see but if we have invisible and spirituall eyes we must improve them to the sight of him that is invisible SECT III. LEt us then to the unspeakable comfort of our soules inquire and learne how wee may here upon earth see the invisible God And surely as it was wisely said of him of old that it is more easie to know what God is not than what he is so it may be justly said also of the vision of God it is more obvious to say how God is not seene than how he is Let us if you please begin with the negative we may not therefore think to see God by any fancied representation hee will admit of no image of himselfe no not in thought All possibly conceiveable Ideas and similitudes as they are infinitely too low so they are cleane contrary to his spirituall nature and his expresse charge and the very entertainment of any of them is no other than a mentall idolatry In the very holy of holyes where he would most manifest his presence there was nothing to be seene but a cloud of smoake as the Poet scoffingly and as that great King professed to see there to teach his people that he would not be conceived any way but in an absolute immunity from all formes Secondly we may not hope to see God by the working of our improved reason for as intelligible things are above the apprehension of sense so divine matters are no lesse above the capacity of understanding Iustly is Durand exploded here who held that a created understanding was of it selfe sufficient for the vision of God without supernaturall aid for what ever our soule understands here it doth it by the way of those phantasmes which are represented unto it by which it is not possible there should be any comprehension of this infinite essence every power works within the compasse of his owne sphere even from the lowest of sense to the highest of faith If the eye should encroach upon the eare in affecting to discerne the delicate ayre of pleasant sounds and the eare should usurp upon the eye in professing to judge of a curious picture or pleasant prospect it were an absurd ambition of both It is all one for a beast to take upon him to judge of matter of discourse and for a Philosopher to determine of matters of faith Reason was not given to man for nought even that can impart unto us something concerning God but not enough I remember Gerson a great Master of Contemplation professes that he knew one which is in Saint Pauls phrase himselfe who after many temptations of doubt concerning a maine article of faith was suddenly brought into so cleere a light of truth and certitude that there remained no reliques at all of dubitation nothing but confidence and serenity which saith hee was wrought by an hearty humiliation and captivation of the
understanding to the obedience of faith neither could any reason bee given of that quiet and firme peace in beleeving but his owne feeling and experience And surely so it is in this great businesse of seeing God the lesse wee search and the more wee beleeve the cleerer vision do we attain of him that is invisible Neither thirdly may wee hope here to aspire to a perfect sight or a full comprehension of this blessed object the best of all earthly eyes doth but look through a scarfe at this glorious Sight and complaines of it's owne weaknesse and obscurity and what hope can we have to compasse this infinite prospect The cleerest eye cannot at once see any round body if it be but of a small bullet or ring And when we say wee see a man we meane that we see but his outside for surely his heart or lungs or braine are out of our sight much lesse can we see his soule by which he is What speak I of the poore narrow conceit of us mortals I need not feare to say that the glorified Saints and glorious Angels of Heaven being but of a finite though spirituall nature hold it no disparagement to disclaime the capacity of this infinite object much lesse may we think to draine this Ocean with our egge shell Lastly we may not make account here to see the face of God in his divine essence or in the height of the resplendence of his glory This even Moses himselfe did not he desired it indeed but it might not be yeelded Exodus 33 and God tels him this was no object for mortall eyes A man must die to see it as Austen well Indeed it is said Moses spake to God face to face the word in the originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faces to faces but ye never read that he saw God face to face he still conferred with that Oracle which was ever invisible It is a poore conceit of Cornelius à Lapide that Moses longed so much to see the face of God in some assumed forme for then that face should not have been his And if God should have been pleased to assume such a forme it had beene no lesse easie for him to have made the face aspectable as the back In this sense old Jacob calls his Altar Penu-el the face of God and professes to have seene God face to face his face saw that face which God had for the present assumed without a present death Doubtlesse Moses having seene divers vayles of Gods presence that is sensible testimonies of his being there desires now to see that glorious Majesty of God open-faced without those maskes of outward representation so hee interprets himselfe whiles he expresses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 19. the desire was zealously ambitious too high even for him that had beene twice blessed with forty dayes cōference with the God whom he longed to see much lesse may we think of aspiring to this Sight who must know our distance even from the foot of the Mount It is abundantly enough for us if out of some small loop hole of the rock we may be allowed in his passage to see some after-glimpses of that incomprehensible Majesty to see him both as we can be capable and as he will be visible that is as he hath revealed himselfe to us in his word in his works in his wonderfull attributes In his word as a most glorious spirituall substance in three equally glorious subsistences In his works as the most mighty Creator and munificent Preserver as the most mercifull Redeemer of the world as the most gracious Comforter and Sanctifier of the world of his Elect. In his attributes as the God of spirits whose infinite power wisedome mercy justice truth goodnesse is essentiall so as he is all these abstractedly uncompoundedly really infinitely Shortly therefore we may not look here to see him by the eye of fancy or by the eye of reason or in a full view or in the height of his glory Let us then in the next place see how we may and must see him SECT IIII. WOuld we therefore see him that is invisible In the first place we must have our eyes cleered from the naturall indisposition to which they are subject we have all in nature many both inward and ambient hinderances of this sight there is a kind of earthlinesse in the best eye whereby it is gouled up that it cannot so much as open it selfe to see spirituall things these are our carnall affections There is a dimnesse and duskinesse in the body of the eye when it is opened which is our naturall ignorance of heavenly things There is besides these a filme which is apt to grow over our eye of naturall infidelity which makes it incapable of this divine vision and after all these when it is at the clearest the moats and dust of worldly thoughts are apt to trouble our sight Lastly every known sinne wherein a man willingly continues is a beame in the eye that bars all sight of God Jn malevolam animam c. Wisdome enters not into an ill-doing soule and Malitia occaecat intellectum as the wise man of old There must bee a removall and remedy of all these ere we can attaine to a comfortable vision of the Invisible The goule of our eyes must bee washt off and if we cannot by our utmost endeavours lift up our eye-lids as we ought we must sue to him that can do it Aperioculos Open thou mine eyes that I may see the wonderfull things of thy Law The dimnesse and duskinesse of our eyes must be cleared by that eye-salve of the Spirit Revel 3. The filme of our infidelity must be scoured off by the clensing waters of Siloam the fountaine of divine truth welling out of the holy Scriptures The moates and dust of worldly cares must be wipt out by a contemptuous and holy resolution The beame of sinne lastly must be pulled out by a serious repentance So then if there be any of us that makes account to see God whiles he is taken up with sensuall affections whiles he is blinded with his naturall ignorance and infidelity whiles he is seized upon by worldly cares and distractions whiles he harbours any knowne sinne in his bosome he doth but deceive his own soule away with all these impediments that wee may be capable of the vision of God In the second place wee must set this blessed object before our eyes resolving of the certainty of his presence with us Or rather we must set our selves before him who is ever unremovably before us with us in us acknowledging him with no lesse assurance of our faith than we acknowledge the presence of our owne bodies by the assurance of sense For how shall we suppose wee can see him that is absent from us No man will say he sees the Sun when it is out of our Hemisphere That infinite God therefore who cannot but be
liquid body and how tamed and confined by thine Almightinesse How justly didst thou expostulate with thy people of old by thy Prophet Ieremy Feare yee not mee saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof tosse themselves yet they cannot prevaile though they roare yet can they not passe over it And what a stupendious work of omnipotence is it that thou O God hast hanged up this huge globe of water and earth in the midst of a yeelding aire without any stay or foundation save thine owne eternall decree How wonderfull art thou in thy mighty winds which whence they come and whither they go thou only knowest in thy dreadfull thunders and lightnings in thy threatning Comets and other fiery exhalations With what marvellous variety of creatures hast thou peopled all these thy roomy elements all of severall kinds fashions natures dispositions uses and yet all their innumerable motions actions events are predetermined and over-ruled by thine all-wise and almighty providence What man can but open his eyes and see round about him these demonstrations of thy divine power and wisedome and not inwardly praise thee in thine excellent greatnesse For my owne practise I cannot find a better notion wherby to work my heart to an inward adoration of God than this Thou that hast made all this great world and guidest and governest it and fillest and comprehendest it being thy selfe infinite and incomprehensible And I am sure there can be no higher representation of the divine greatnesse unto our selves Although withall we may find enough at home for what man that lookes no further than himselfe and sees the goodly frame of his body erected and imployed for the harbour of a spirituall and immortall soule can choose but say I will praise thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made SECT III. SVrely could we forget all the rest of the world it is enough to fetch us upon our knees and to strike an holy awe into us to think that in him we live and move and have our being For in these our particular obligations there is a mixed sense both of the greatnesse and goodnesse of our God which as it manifestly showes it selfe in the wondrous work of our excellent creation so most of all magnifies it selfe in the exceedingly gratious work of our redemption Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared saith the sweet Singer of Israel Lo power doth not more command this holy feare than mercy doth though both here meet together for as there was infinite mercy mixed with power in thus creating us so also there is a no lesse mighty power mixed with infinite mercy in our redemption What heart can but awfully adore thy soveraigne mercy O blessed God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ in sending thine only and coequall Sonne the Sonne of thy love the Sonne of thine eternall essence out of thy bosome downe from the height of celestiall glory into this vale of teares and death to abase himselfe in the susception of our nature to clothe himselfe with the ragges of our humanity to indure temptation shame death for us O blessed Iesu the redeemer of mankind what soule can be capable of a sufficient adoration of thine inconceive able mercy in thy meane and despicable incarnation in thy miserable and toilsome life in thy bloudy agony in thine ignominious and tormenting passion in thy wofull sense of thy fathers wrath in our stead and lastly in thy bitter and painfull death thou that knewest no sinne wert made sinne for us thou that art omnipotent would'st die and by thy death hast victoriously triumphed over death and hell It is enough O Saviour it is more than enough to ravish our hearts with love and to bruise them with a loving feare O blessed Spirit the God of comfort who but thou only can make our soules sensible of thy unspeakable mercy in applying to us the wonderfull benefit of this our deare redemption in the great work of our inchoate regeneration in the mortifying of our evill and corrupt affections in raising us to the life of grace and preparing us for the life of glory O God if mercy be proper to attract feare how must our hearts in all these respects needs be filled with all awfull regard unto thy divine bounty Oh how great is the goodnesse that thou hast laid up for those that feare thee even before the sonnes of men SECT IV. NOw we may not think this inward adoration of the greatnesse goodnes of God to be one simple act but that which is sweetly compounded of the improvement of many holy affections for there cannot but be love mixed with this feare The feare of the Lord is the beginning of love and this feare must be mixed with joy Rejoyce in him with trembling and this feare and joy is still mixed with hope For in the feare of the Lord is strong confidence and the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy As therefore we are wont to say that our bodies are not neither can bee nourished with any simple ingredient so may we truly say of our soules that they neither receive any comfort or establishment nor execute any powers of theirs by any sole single affection but require a gracious mixture for both As that father said of obedience we may truly say of grace that it is all copulative Neither may wee think that one only impression of this holy feare and inward adoration will serve the turne to season all our following disposition and carriage but there must be a virtuall continuation thereof in all the progresse of our lives Our Schooles do here seasonably distinguish of perpetuity of whether the second act when all our severall motions and actions are so held on as that there is no cessation or intermission of their performance which wee cannot here expect Or of the first act when there is an habit of this inward adoration settled upon the heart so constantly that it is never put off by what ever occurrences so as whatsoever we do whatsoever we indeavour hath a secret relation hereunto And this second way we must attaine unto if ever we will aspire to any comfort in the fruition of Gods presence here upon earth and our meet disposition towards him I have often thought of that deep and serious question of the late judicious and honourable Sir Fulke Grevil Lord Brook a man worthy of a fairer death and everlasting memory moved to a learned kinsman of mine much interessed in that Noble man who when he was discoursing of an incident matter very considerable was taken off with this quick interrogation of that wise and noble person What is that to the Infinite as secretly implying that all our thoughts and discourse must be reduced thither and
divine Scripture but upon his knees and if we professe to beare no lesse inward honour to that sacred volume why should we how can wee think it free for us to entertaine it with an unmannerly neglect SECT VII AS to the name and word so to the services of God must the efficacy of our holy feare bee diffused and these whether private or publick If we pray our awe will call us either to a standing on our feet as servants or a bowing of our knees as suppliants or a prostration on our faces as dejected penitents Neither when the heart is a Camell can the body be an Elephant What Prince would not scorne the rudenesse of a sitting petitioner It was a just distinction of Socrates of old that to sacrifice is to give to God to pray is to beg of God And who is so liberall as to cast away his almes upon a stout and unreverent beggar If we attend Gods message in the mouth of his holy servants whether read or preached our feare will frame us to a reverent carriage of our bodies so as our very outward deportment may really seeme to speak the words of the good Centurion Now we are all here present before God to heare all things that are commanded thee of God we shall need no law to vaile our bonnets save that in our owne breast It was a great word that Simeon the sonne of Satach said to the Iewish Prince and Priest convented before their Sanhedrin Thou standest not before us but before him that said Let the world be made and it was made did we think so how durst wee sit in a bold saucinesse whiles that great Embassie is delivered with our hats on our heads as if we acknowledged no presence but of our inferiours yea that which is a shame to say those very apprentices who dare not cover their heads at home where their Master is alone yet in Gods house where they see him in a throng of his betters waiting upon the ordinances of the God of heaven think it free for them equally to put on and to bee no lesse fellowes with their Master than he is with his Maker as if the place and service gave a publick priviledge to all commers of a prophane lawlesnesse Surely the same ground whereon the Apostle built his charge for the covering of the heads of the women serves equally for the uncovering the heads of the men Because of the Angels yea more because of the God of the Angels who by these visible Angels of his Church speakes to us and solicites our salvation If we addresse our selves to the dreadfull mysteries of the blessed Sacrament of the body and bloud of our Lord Iesus our feare will bend our knees in a meet reverence to that great and gracious Saviour who is there lively represented offered given sealed up to our soules who at that heavenly Table is as Saint Jerome truly both the guest and the banquet Neither can the heart that is seasoned with true piety be afraid of too lowly a participation of the Lord of glory but rather resolves that he is not worthy of knees who will not here bow them for who should command them if not their Maker if not their Redeemer Away with the monsters of opinion and practise concerning this Sacrament Christ Iesus is here really tendred unto us and who can who dares take him but on his knees What posture can we use with our fellowes if we sit with our God and Saviour At our best well may we say with the humble Centurion Lord we are not worthy thou shouldest come under our roofe but if we prepare not both soules and bodies to receive him reverently our sinfull rudenesse shall make us utterly uncapable of so blessed a presence SECT VIII NEither doth our awfull regard reach onely to the actions of Gods service but extends it selfe even to the very house which is called by his name the place where his honour dwelleth For as the presence of God gives an holinesse to what place soever he is pleased to shew himselfe in as the Sunne carries an inseparable light wheresoever it goes so that holinesse calls for a meet veneration from us It was a fit word for that good Patriarch who sware by his fathers feare which he spake of his Bethel How dreadfull is this place this is none other but the house of God this is the gate of Heaven The severall distances and distinctions that were observed in the Temple of God at Hierusalem are famously knowne None might sit within the verge thereof but the King all others either stood or kneeld I have read of some sects of men so curiously scrupulous that their Priests were not allowed to breathe in their Temple but were commanded whiles they went in to sweep the floore to hold their winde like those that dive for sponges at Samos to the utmost length of time and when they would vent their suppressed aire and change it for new to goe forth of the doores and returne with a fresh supply But we are sure the Ethiopian Christians are so holily mannerly that they doe not allow any man so much as to spit in their Churches and if such a defilement happen they cause it to be speedily clensed What shall we then say of the common prophanenesse of those carelesse Christians that make no distinction betwixt their Church and their barne that care not to looke unto their foule feet when they come under this sacred roofe that with equall irreverence stumble into Gods house and their tavern that can find no fitter place for their ambulatory their burse their counting house their sepulcher It is recorded of Saint Swithine the no lesse famous than humble Bishop of Winchester that when he died he gave charge that his body should not in any case be buryed within the Church but be layd where his grave might be wet with raine and open to weather passengers I suppose as conceiving that sacred place too good for the repository of the best carcasses Surely we cannot easily entertaine too venerable an opinion of the habitation of the Almighty If our hearts have the honour to be the spirituall Temples of God we shall gladly give all due honour to his materiall Temples and doubtlesse in all experience we shall so respect the house as we are affected to the owner It was the discipline and practise of the Hetruscians from whom old Rome learned much of her skill in Auguries and many mysteries of religion that those deities whom they desired to harbour in their owne breasts as Vertue Peace Modesty should have Temples erected within their walls but those which were the Presidents of warres and combustions or pleasures and sensualitie as Mars Venus Vulcan should take up with Temples without their walls And even so it is and will be ever with us if we have an holy regard to the God of heaven and adore him
as inhabiting our bosomes we cannot but give all faire and venerable respects to those houses which he hath taken up for his own worship and presence SECT IX NEither lastly can Gods very Messengers though partners of our owne infirmities escape some sensible reflections of our feare It was the rule of the Iewes that the very Prince of the people if hee would consult Gods Oracle out of reverence to that divine pectorall must reverently stand before that Priest who at other times was bound to give lowly obedience to his Soveraigne Lord. What Great Alexander did to the Iewish high Priest who knowes not Neither hath the practises of the godly Emperours in the Christian Church through all successions of Ages savored of lesse regard Even the late Caesar Ferdinand in the sight of our English not long before his end together with his Empresse received an Episcopall benediction publickly upon their knees Away with that insolent pompe of kissing of toes which Iustus Lipsius justly called once foule and servile fit for a Caligula or Maximinus the younger or a Dioclesian Away with the proud horsing on shoulders or treading on necks or the lackeying of Princes It was a moderate word of Cardinall Zabarell concerning his great Master So is he to be honoured that he be not adored Surely when religion was at the best great Peeres thought it no scorne to kisse the venerable hands of their spirituall fathers and did not grudge them eminent titles of honour It was but a simple port that Elijah carryed in the world who after that astonishing wonder of fetching downe fire and water from heaven thought it no abasement to be Ahabs lackey from Carmel to Iezreel yet Obadiah who was high Steward to the King of Israel even that day could fall on his face to him and say Art thou that my Lord Elijah Not much greater was the state of those Christian Bishops who began now to breathe from the bloudy persecutions of the heathen Emperours yet with what dearenesse did that gracious Constantine in whom this Iland is proud to challenge no small share kisse those scarres which they had received for the name of Christ with what titles did he dignifie them as one that saw Christ in their faces and meant in their persons to honour his Saviour And indeed there is so close and indissoluble a relation betwixt Christ and his Messengers that their mutuall interest can never be severed What Prince doth not hold himselfe concerned in the honors or affronts that are done to his Ambassadors Those keyes which God hath committed to our hands lock us so fast to him that no power in earth or hell can separate us but still that word must stand fast in heaven He that despiseth you despiseth me In vaine shall they therefore pretend to feare God that contemne and disgrace their spirituall governours There is a certain plant which our Herbalists call herbam impiam or wicked Cudweed whose younger branches still yeeld flowers to over-top the elder Such weeds grow too rife abroad It is an ill soyle that produceth them I am sure that where the heart is manured and seasoned with a true feare of the Almighty there cannot be but an awfull regard to our spirituall Pastors well are those two charges conjoyned Feare God and honour his Preists SECT X. HItherto having considered that part of holy Feare which consisting in an inward adoration of God expresseth it selfe in the awfull respects to his Name Word Services House Messengers we descend to that other part which consists in our humble subjection and selfe-resignatito his good pleasure in all things whether to order or correct The suffering part is the harder It was a gracious resolution of old Eli Jt is the Lord let him doe whatsoever hee will Surely that man though he were but an ill Father to his worse sonnes yet he was a good sonne to his Father in heaven for nothing but a true filiall awe could make the heart thus pliant that represents our selves to us as the clay and our God to us as the potter and therefore showes us how unjustly we should repine at any forme or use that is by his hand put upon us I could envy that word which is said to have falne from the mouth of Francis of Assisse in his great extremity I thank thee O Lord God for all my paine and I beseech thee if thou think good to adde unto it an hundred fold more Neither was it much different from that which I have read as reported of Pope Adrian but I am sure was spoken by a worthy divine within my time and knowledge of the Vniversity of Cambridge whose labours are of much note and use in the Church of God Master Perkins who when he lay in his last and killing torment of the stone hearing the by-standers to pray for a mitigation of his paine willed them not to pray for an ease of his complaint but for an increase of his patience These speeches cannot proceed but from subdued and meek and mortified soules more intentive upon the glory of their Maker than their owne peace and relaxation And certainly the heart thus seasoned cannot but bee equally tempered to all conditions as humbly acknowledging the same hand both in good evill And therfore even frying in Phalaris his Bull as the Philosopher said of a wise man will be able to say Quà m suave Was it true of that heathen Martyr Socrates that as in his lifetime he was not wont to change his countenance upon any alteration of events so when hee should come to drink his Hemlock as Plato reports it no difference could be descryed either in his hand or face no palenesse in his face no trembling in his hand but a stedfast and fearlesse taking of that fatall cup as if it differed not from the wine of his meals Even this resolution was no other than an effect of the acknowledgment of that one God for which he suffered If so I cannot lesse magnifie that man for his temper than the Oracle did for his wisdome but I can doe no lesse than blesse and admire the known courage and patience of those Christian Martyrs who out of a loving feare of him that only can save and cast both bodies and soules in hell despised shame paine death and manfully insulted upon their persecutors Blessed Ignatius could professe to challenge and provoke the furious Lyons to his dilaniation Blessed Cyprian could pray that the Tyrant would not repent of the purpose of dooming him to death and that other holy Bishop when his hand was threatned to be cut off could say Seca ambas Cut of both It is not for me to transcribe volumes of Martyrologies All that holy army of conquering Saints began their victories in an humble awe of him whose they were and cheerfully triumphed over irons and racks and gibbets and wheeles and fires out of a meek and
refraine from no wickednesse because the feare of God was not in that place so we may no lesse irrefragably inferre where we see a trade of prevalent wickednesse there can be no feare of God Wo is me what shall I say of this last age but the same that I must say of mine owne As this decrepit body therefore by reason of the unequall temper of humors and the defect of radicall moysture and heat cannot but be a sewer of all diseases So it is so it will be with the decayed old age of this great body of the world through want of the feare of the ever-living God Rivers of waters O God shall run downe mine eyes because men keep not thy law But what do I suggest to the obdured hearts of wilfull sinners the sweet and gracious remedies of a loving feare This preservative is for children sturdy rebells must expect other receits A frown is an heavy punishment to a dutifull sonne scourges and scorpions are but enough for a rebellious vassall I must lay before such an hell of vengeance and show them the horrible Topheth prepared of old even that bottomlesse pit of perdition and tell them of rivers of brimstone of a worm ever gnawing of everlasting burnings of weeping wailing and gnashing when the terrible Iudge of the world shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance to them that know not God and obey him not And certainly if the sinner had not an Infidell in his bosome the expectation of so direfull a condition to be inflicted and continued upon him unto all eternity without possibility of any intermission or of any remission were enough to make him run made with feare only unbeleefe keeps him from a frantick despaire and a sudden leap into his hell And if the custome and deceit of sinne have wrought an utter senselesnesse in those brawny hearts I must leave them over to the wofull sense of what they will not feare yea to the too late feare of what they shall not bee able either to beare or avoid Certainly the time will come when they shall be swallowed up with a dreadfull confusion and shall no more be able not to feare than not to bee Oftentimes even in the midst of all their secure jollity God writes bitter things against them such as make their knees to knock together their lips to tremble their teeth to chatter their hands to shake their hearts to faile within them for the anguish of their soules Were they as insensate as the earth it selfe Touch the mountaines and they shall smoke saith the Psalmist The mountaines saw thee and they trembled saith Habbacuc But if their feare be respited it is little for their ease it doth but forbeare a little that it may overwhelme them at once for ever Woe is mee for them In how heavy and deplorable case are they and feele it not They lie under the fierce wrath of the Almighty and complaine of nothing but ease The mountains quake at him and the hils melt and the earth is burnt at his presence Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rockes are thrown downe by him saith the Prophet Nahum Yet oh what a griefe it is to see that so dreadfull a power should carry away no more feare from us wretched men yea even from those that are ready to feare where no feare is Paines of body frownes of the great restraint of liberty losse of goods who is it that feares not But alas to avoid these men feare not to venture upon the displeasure of him whose anger is death and who is able to cast body and soule into hell fire So wee have seene fond children that to avoid a bug-beare have runne into fire or water So we have seen a starting jade that suddenly flying from a shadow hath cast himselfe into a ditch We can but mourne in secret for those that have no teares to spend upon themselves and tremble for them that will needs gnash If those that are filthy will be filthy still If secure men will set up a trade of sinning every good heart will take up Nehemiahs resolution But so did not J because of the feare of the Lord and the practice of holy Habacuc I trembled in my selfe that I might rest in the day of trouble It is wise Solomons good experiment which hee loved to repeat By the feare of the Lord men depart from evill for they say one to another as the Tremelian version hath it in Malachy The Lord hearkeneth and heareth and how dare they how can they doe amisse in that presence For as the Saints say after the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lambe Great and marvellous are thy workes Lord God Almighty Iust and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints who shall not feare thee and glorifie thy Name for thou onely art holy SECT XII SHortly then that wee may put these two together which are not willing to be severed Whosoever is duely affected with a true filiall feare of the Almighty cannot by allurements be drawne to doe that which may offend so sweet a mercy cannot by any difficulties bee discouraged from doing that which may bee pleasing to so gracious a majesty The Magistrate that feares God dares not cannot be partiall to any wickednesse dares not cannot bee harsh to innocence managing that sword wherewith hee is intrusted so as God himselfe if he were upon earth would doe it for the glory of his owne just mercie The Messenger of God that feares him on whose errand hee goes dares not cannot either smother his message or exceed it he will he must lift up his voice like a trumpet and tell Israel of her sinnes and Iudah of her transgressions not fearing faces not sparing offences The ordinary Christian that feares God dares not cannot but make conscience of all his wayes he dares not defraud or lie for an advantage he dares not sweare falsely for a world hee dares not prostitute his body to whatsoever filthinesse he dares not oppresse his inferiours he dares not turn away his owne face from the poore much lesse dares hee grind theirs in one word he dares rather dy than sinne And contrarily what blockes soever nature layes in his way since his God calls him forth to this combat he cannot but bid battell to his owne rebellious corruptions and offer a deadly violence to his evill and corrupt affections and enter the lists with all the powers of darknesse resisting unto bloud and willingly bleeding that he may overcome Who now would not be in love with this feare O feare the Lord yee his Saints hee that feares him shall lacke nothing The Sunne of righteousnesse shall arise unto him with healing in his wings In the meane time the secret of the Lord is with him The Angells of the Lord are ever
have wee heard to boast of those graces whereto they beene perfect strangers How have wee knowne some that have pretended to no lesse illumination than Pisanus reports of Iohn of Alverne who in a rapture was elavated above every creature and his soule swallowed up in the abisse of the divinity when it hath beene indeed nothing but a fanaticall illusion How ordinarily do wee find men challenging no meane share in a lively faith spirituall joy fervent zeale true sanctity when in the meane while they have embraced nothing but the clouds of their owne fancies instead of these heavenly graces and by this meanes have stript themselves of the possibility of those holy vertues which they falsly soothed in themselves for who can care to seeke for that which he thinks he hath already Men do not so much covet as arrogate spirituall gifts Every Zidkijah can say which way went the spirit of God from mee to speake unto thee and like a spirituall Epicure can clap himselfe on the breast with Soule take thy ease thou hast grace enough layd up for many yeares from this opinion of satiety arises a necessary carelesnesse of better indeavors and a contemptuous undervaluation of the poore stock of grace in others It being commonly incident into these presuming soules that was of old wont to be said of the Tartars that they are better invaders of other mens possessions than keepers of their owne those censures then which they should spend upon their owne secret corruptions they are ready to cast upon the seeming enormities of their neighbours And as if they would go contrary to the Apostles charge Be not high minded but feare these men are high-minded and feare not The way leades to the end the presumption of the way to the presumption of the end over-weening and misprision of grace to an over-reckoning of an undue salvation Good God with what confidence have I heard some not over-conscionable men talke of the assurance of their heaven as if the way thither were so short and so plaine that they could not misse it as if that passage had neither danger nor difficulty as if it were but a remove from the Lobby to the great Chamber wherein they can neither erre nor fall Here need no harsh exercises of mortification here are no misdoubts of Gods desertions no selfe-conflicts no flashes of troubled consciences but all faire and smooth Have they sinned the score is crossed by their surety have they forfeited their soules their ransome is payd is justice offended mercy hath satisfied Shortly they have by Acesius his ladder climbed up into heaven and stollen the sight of the Book of life and found their name there and who can obliterate it I cannot forget a bold word which many yeeres ago I heard fall from a man whom I conceived not to have had any extraordinary reason of confidence If I should heare God say there shall but one man be saved I would strait say That is I Lord. Surely the man was in good favour with himselfe in what termes soever hee stood with the Almighty Not that I condemne an holy and well-grounded resolution of our spirituall estate I know who hath charged us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure Had it not been at all feisible our wise and good God had not tasked our diligence with it and had it been easie and obvious it might even without diligence of study and endeavour have beene effected Now as one said of Evangelicall Councels I must say of this high pitch of Christianity It is not for every man to mount up this steep hill of assurance every soule must breathe and pant towards it as he may even as wee would and must to perfection hee is as rare as happy that attaines it Give mee a man that hath worne out himselfe with a strict austerity who by many secret bickerings hath mastered his sturdy and rebellious corruptions who in a trembling awfulnesse walks constantly with his God keeping a severe watch over all his wayes assiduous and fervent in his devotions Shorly who hath spent his time in heaven before-hand why should I not beleeve that God hath sealed up to such a soule an assecurance of his future glory Some transient acts of interposed doubting may and will glance into the holiest heart but a formed habit of doubt falles not into such an eminence of grace This is not a lesson for every novice to take out whose maine care must ever bee to work out his salvation with feare and trembling As for spirituall security let him labour towards it as that which hee would most gladly compasse but not brag of it too soone as that which he hath already compassed SECT XVI AS there is no disease incident into the body for which nature hath not provided a remedy so neither is there any spirituall complaint incident into the soule for which grace affords not a redresse The way of the generall cure of presumption is to take a just estimate of our priviledges and abilities and to work the heart to a true selfe-dejection and humiliation under the mighty hand of God Particularly he can never presume upon those outward commodities that seriously considers how they are valued by the owner and giver of them Where are the most curious and rich Pearles layd up but in the mud of the sea And what is the earth but marsupium Domini as Saint Malacby termd it of old Gods purse wherein he puts his most precious jewells and mettalles And what baser peece hath the world than this repository And if it please him to lay them out how doth hee think them worthy to be bestowed He fills the belly of the ungodly with his hidden treasure saith the Psalmist and The earth is given into the hands of the wicked saith holy Iob in his answer to Bildad neither is it other that he observes in his reply to Zophar The Tabernacles of the robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hands God bringeth abundantly How then can we esteeme those things as pledges of favour which God makes choyce to cast upon enemies which mere naturall men have contemned as not worthy their affectation or regard with what scorne did those naked Brachmanni the relation is fatherd upon Saint Ambrose repell the profered gold And if at any time it hath pleased him whose the earth is and the fullnesse thereof to lade his deere ones with this thick clay as himselfe stiles it and to store them with abundance he doth it not without a further blessing of sanctification Some kinds of fishes there are that passe for delicate with our great masters of the palate which yet must have the dangerous string in their backs puld out ere they can bee safely fed upon Such is worldly wealth and prosperity The wise and holy God plucks out their venome when he will have them serv'd up for dainties to his childrens table Or if