Works Volume 4
Now there is no way to preserve ourselves from this Error, but to measure our Faith and Hopes by our Obedience ; that if we sincerely obey God, then are we true believers: And this cannot well be done by any that begins not till he is on his Death-bed; be his inclinations to good then never so strong, his faith in Christ never so lusty; yet how knows he, whether it is only fear of death, and a conviction, that in spite of his teeth, he must now sin no longer, that hath wrought these inclinations, produced this faith in him.
Many a sick man resolves strongly to take the Physicians dose, in hope that it will cure him; yet when he comes to taste its bitterness, will rather die than take it. If he that on his Death-bed hath made his solemnest, severest Vows, should but recover to a possibility of enjoying those delights which now have given him over, I much fear his fiercest resolutions would be soon out-dated. Such inclinations that either hover in the Brain only, or float on the Surface of the Heart, are but like those wavering, temporary thoughts, Jam. i.6. Like a wave of the Sea, driven by the wind and tost ; they have no firmness or stable consistence in the Soul ; it will be hard to build Heaven on so slight a foundation.
All this I have said, not to discourage any tender, languishing Soul, but by representing the horrors of death to you now in health, to instruct you in the doctrine of Mortality betimes, so to speed and hasten your Repentance, Now, as if tomorrow would be too late, as if there were but a small Isthmus or inch of ground between your present mirth and jollity, and your everlasting earnest.
To gather up all on the Clue: Christ is now offered to you as a Jesus: The times and sins of your Heathenism and unbelief, God winked at, Acts xvii.30. The Spirit proclaims all this by the Word to your hearts; and now ( God knows if ever again) commands all men everywhere to repent.
Oh that there were such a Spirit in our hearts, such a zeal to our eternal bliss, and indignation at Hell ; that we would give one heave and spring before we die; that we would but answer those invitations of mercy ; those desires of God, that we should live with an inclination, with a breath, with a sigh toward Heaven.
Briefly, If there be any strong, violent, boisterous Devil within us, that keeps possession of our hearts against God ; if the lower sensual part of our Soul ; if an habit of sin, i. e. a combination or legion of Devils, will not be over-topped by reason or grace in our hearts; if a major part of our carnal faculties be still canvasing for Hell ; if for all our endeavors and pains it may appear to us, that this kind of evil spirit will not be cast out, save only by Fasting and Prayer: Then have we yet that remedy left, First, To fast and pine, and keep him weak within, by denying him all foreign, fresh Provision, all new occasions of sin, and the like, and so to block, and in time, starve him up: And then secondly, To pray that God will second and fortify our endeavors; that he will force, and rend, and ravish this carnal Devil out of us; that he will subdue our wills to his will; that he will prepare and make ready life for us, and us for life; that he will prevent us by his grace here, and accomplish us with his glory hereafter.
Now to him, &c.
SERMON VII.
JER. V.2.
Though they say, the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely.
N OT to waste any time or breath, or (which men in this delicate and effeminate Age, are wont to be most sparing and thrifty of) any part of your precious patience unprofitably, but briefly to give you a guess whither our discourse is like to lead you; we will severally lay down, and sort to your view, every word of the Text single; and so we may gather them up again, and apply them to their natural proper purposes.
First, then the particle, Though ] in the front, and, surely ] in the body of the Text, are but bands and junctures to keep all together into one proposition.
Secondly, the Pronoun, They ] in each place, is in the letter, the Jews ; in application, present Christians ; and being indefinite, might seem to be of the same extent in both places, did not the matter alter it, and make it universal in the former, and particular in the latter : for Artists say, that an indefinite sign, where the matter is necessary, is equivalent to an universal ; where but contingent, to a particular. Now, to say the Lord liveth, was, and is necessary; though not by any Logical, yet by a Political necessity; the Government and human Laws, under which then the Jews, and now we Christians live, require this profession necessarily at our hands: but to swear falsely, not to perform what before they professed, is materia contingens, a matter of no necessity, but free will and choice, that no human Law can see into; and therefore we must not interpret by the rules of Art, or Charity, that all were perjured, but some only; though 'tis probable a major part; and as we may guess by the first verse of this Chapter, well nigh all of them.
Thirdly, to say ] is openly to make profession, and that very resolutely and boldly, that none may dare to distrust it; nay, with an Oath to confirm it to jealous opinions, as appears by the latter words, They swear falsely, while they do but say : and Jer. iv.2. Thou shalt swear, the Lord liveth, &c.
Fourthly, the Lord] i. e. both in Christianity, and Orthodox Judaism, the whole Trinity.
Fifthly, Liveth] i. e. by way of Excellency, hath a life of his own, independent and eternal, and in respect of us, is the Fountain of all Life and Being that we have; and not only of Life, but Motion, and Perfection, and Happiness, and Salvation, and all that belongs to it. In brief, to say, the Lord liveth, is to acknowledge him in his Essence, and all his Attributes, contained together under that one Principle; on that of life, to believe whatever Moses and the Prophets then, or now our Christian Faith, hath made known to us of him.
Sixthly, to falsify and swerve from Truth, becomes a farther aggravation, especially in the present instance; though they make mention of that God, who is Yea, and Amen, and loves a plain veracious speech, yet they swear ; though by loud and dreadful imprecations, they bespeak him a Witness and a Judge unto the Criminal; pray as devoutly for destruction for their Sin, as the most sober Penitent can do for its Pardon, yet are they perjured, they swear falsely.
More than all this, they openly renounce the Deity, when they call upon him; their hearts go not along with their words and professions ; though it be the surest truth in the World that they swear, when they assert that the Lord liveth, yet they are perjured in speaking of it; though they make a fair show of believing in the brain, and from the teeth outward, they never lay the truth that they are so violent for, at all to their hearts ; or as the Original hath it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in vanum, to no purpose 'tis, that they swear, no man that sees how they live, will give any heed to their words, will imagine that they believe any such matter.
So now having paced over, and as it were spell'd every word single, there will be no difficulty for the rawest understanding to put it together, and read it currently enough in this proposition; Amongst the multitude of Professors of Christianity, there is very little real piety, very little true belief.
In the verse next before my Text, there is an O Yes made, a Proclamation, nay, a Hue and Cry, and a hurrying about the streets, if it were possible, to find out but a man that were a sincere Believer; and here in my Text is brought in a Non est inventus, Though they say the Lord liveth ] a multitude of Professors indeed everywhere, yet surely they swear falsely, there is no credit to be given to their words; infidelity and hypocrisy is in their hearts; for all their fair believing professions, they had an unfaithful rebellious heart, V. 23. and the event manifested it, they are departed and gone, arrant Apostates in their lives, by which they were to be tried; Neither say they in their hearts, let us fear the Lord, V. 24. whatsoever they flourished with their tongues.
Now for a more distinct survey of this horrible wretched truth, this Heathenism of Christians, and Infidelity of Believers, (the true ground of all false swearing, and indeed of every other sin) we will first examine wherein it consists, secondly, whence it springs; the first will give you a view of its nature, the second its root and growth, that you may prevent it. The first will serve for an ocular or Mathematical demonstration, called by Artists 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that it is so; the second a rational or Physical 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , how it comes about: the first to convince of the truth of it, the second to instruct you in its causes.
And first of the first, wherein this Infidelity, and to speak more plainly, Perjury of formal Believers consists, Though they say, &c.
Since that rather fancy than Divinity of the Romanists, Schoolmen, and Casuists, generally defining Faith to be a bare assent to the truth of God's word seated only in the understanding, was by the Protestant Divines banished out of the Schools, as a faith for a Chamaeleon to be nourished with, which can feed on air; as a direct piece of Sorcery and Conjuring, which will help you to remove Mountains, only by thinking you are able; briefly, as a Chimaera or phantastical nothing, fit to be sent to Limbo for a Present: since, I say, this Magical Divinity which still possesses the Romanist, and also a sort of men, who would be thought most distant from them, hath been exorcised, and silenced, and cast out of our Schools (would I could say, out of our hearts ) by the Reformation ; the nature of Faith hath been most admirably explained; yet the seat or subject of it, never clearly set down, (some confining it to the understanding, others to the Will ) till at last it pitched upon the whole Soul, the intellective nature. For the Soul of man, should it be partitioned into faculties, (as the grounds of our ordinary Philosophy would persuade us) it would not be stately enough for so Royal a guest: either room would be too pent, and narrow to entertain at once so many graces as attend it. Faith therefore, that it may be received in state, that it may have more freedom to exercise its Sovereignty, hath required all partitions to be taken down; that sitting in the whole Soul, it may command and order the whole man; is not in the brain sometimes, as its gallery, to recreate and contemplate; at another in the heart, as its parlor to feed, or a closet to dispatch business; but if it be truly that Royal Personage which we take it for, it is repletive in the whole house at once, as in one room, and that a stately Palace, which would be much disgraced, and lose of its splendor, by being cut into offices: and accordingly, this Royal Grace is an entire absolute Prince of a whole Nation, (not as a Tetrarch of Galilee, a sharer of a Saxon Heptarchy ) and described to us as one single act, though of great command; and defined to be an assent and adherence to the goodness of the object; (which object is the whole Word of God, and specially the promises of the Gospel.) So then, to believe, is not to acknowledge the truth of the Scripture, and Articles of the Creed, (as vulgarly we use knowledge) but to be affected with the goodness and Excellency of them, as the most precious objects which the whole world could present to our choice; to embrace them as the only desirable thing upon the earth; and to be resolutely and uniformly inclined to express this affection of ours, in our practice, whensoever there shall be any competition betwixt them and our dearest delights. For the object of our Faith is not merely speculative, somewhat to be understood only, and assented to as true, but chiefly moral, a truth to be prosecuted with my desires through my whole Conversation, to be valued above my-life, and set up in my heart, as the only Shrines I worship.
So that he that is never so resolutely sworn to the Scriptures, believes all the Commands, Prohibitions, and Promises never so firmly, if he doth not adhere to them in his practice, and by particular application of them as a rule to guide him in all his actions, express that he sets a true value on them; if he do not this, he is yet an Infidel; all his Religion is but like the Beads-man's, who whines over his Creed and Commandments over a threshold so many times a Week, only as his task, to deserve his Quarterage, or to keep correspondence with his Patron. Unless I see his belief expressed by uniform obedience, I shall never imagine that he minded what he said. The sincerity of his faith, is always proportionable to the integrity of his life ; and so far is he to be accounted a Christian, as he performs the obligation of it, the promise of his Baptism. Will any man say that Eve believed God 's inhibition, when she eat the forbidden fruit? If she did, she was of a strange intrepid resolution, to run into the jaws of Hell, and never boggle. 'It is plain by the story, that she heard God, but believed the Serpent ; as may appear by her obedience, the only evidence and measure of her Faith. Yet can it not be thought, that she that was so lately a Work of God 's Omnipotence, should now so soon distrust it, and believe that he could not make good his threatenings. The truth is this; she saw clearly enough in her brain, but had not sunk it down into her heart ; or perhaps, she assented to it in the general, but not as appliable to her present case. This assent was like a Bird fluttering in the Chamber, not yet confined to a Cage, ready to escape at the first opening of the door or window; as soon as she opens either ears or eyes to hearken to the Serpent, or behold the Apple, her former assent to God is vanished, and all her faith bestowed upon the Devil. It will not be Pelagianism, to proceed and observe how the condition of every sin, since this time, hath been an imitation of that. The same method in sin, hath ever since been taken, first to revolt from God, and then to disobey; first to become Infidels, and then Sinners. Every murmuring of the Israelites, was a defection from the Faith of Israel, and turning back to Egypt, in their hearts.
Infidelity, as it is the fountain from whence all Rebellion springs, ( Faith being an adherence, and every departure from the living God, arising from an evil heart of unbelief, Heb. iii.12 ) so it is also the channel where it runs; not any beginning or progress in sin, without a concomitant degree of either weakness, or want of faith. So that Heathens or Heretics are not the main enemies of Christ (as the question de oppositis fidei is stated by the Romanists ) but the Hypocrite and Libertine, he is the Heathen in grain, an Heretic of Lucifer 's own sect; one that the Devil is better pleased with, than all the Catalogue in Epiphanius, or the Romish Calendar. For this is it that Satan drives at; an engine by which he hath framed us most like himself; not when we doubt of the Doctrine of Christ, (for himself believes it fully, no man can be more firmly resolved of it;) but when we heed it not in our lives, when we cleave not to it in our hearts ; when instead of living by Faith, Heb. x.38. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , we draw back, and cowardly subduce ourselves, and forsake our Colours, refusing to be martialled in his ranks, or fight under his Banner. Arian the Stoic Philosopher hath an excellent discourse, concerning the double Infidelity, of the brain, and heart, very appliable; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. There are two sorts of this senselessness and stupidity, whereby men are hardened into stones; the first of the Understanding part, the second of the Practical. He that will not assent to things manifest, his brain is frozen into a stone or mineral ; there is no more reasoning with him, than with a pillar. The Academics 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , never to believe or comprehend anything, was a stupid Philosophy, like to have no Disciples but Posts or Statues; and therefore long ago taught out of the Schools, as an art of being Brutes, or Metamorphosis, not to instruct, but transform them: he could not remain a man, that was thus incredulous. But the second Stupidity, that of the Practical, Not to abstain from things that art hurtful, to embrace that which would be their death ; (the vice; though not doctrine of the Epicures ) though this were an argument, both in his, and Scripture-phrase, of a stony heart ; yet was it such an one, as the lustiest, sprightfullest men in the World carried about with them. Nay, 'twas an evidence (saith he) of their strength and valor, of a heart of metal and proof, to have all modesty and fear of ill cold as a stone, frozen and dead within it. And thus holds it in Christianity, as it did then in reason : not to believe the truth of Scripture, to deny that the Lord liveth, would argue a brain as impenetrable as Marble, and eyes as Crystal: we sooner suspect that he is not a man, that he is out of his senses, than such an Infidel. Some affected Atheists I have heard of, that hope to be admired for eminent wits by it: but, I doubt, whether any ever thought of it in earnest, and (if I may so say) conscientiously denied a Deity. But to deny him in our lives, to have a heart of Marble or Adamant, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Arian, a dead stupefied Soul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is so frequent amongst us, that it is not worth observing. He is but a puny in the Devils camp, that hath not a privy coat within him, to secure his heart from any stroke, that God or Scripture can threaten him with.
Thus you see wherein this Christian infidelity consists, in the not rooting faith in the heart; in indulgence to those practices which directly contradict his doctrine. So that though every commission of sin be not incompatible with the habit of faith, so far as to denominate him an infidel ; yet is it from the not exercising of faith actually, that I ever sin; and every man in the same degree, that he is a sinner, so far is he an unbeliever. So that this conversible retrogradous Sorites may shut up all. He that truly believes, assents in his heart to the goodness, as well as the truth of Scripture : he that assents so in his heart, approves it according to its real excellency above all rivals in the World: he that thus approves, when occasion comes, makes an actual choice of God 's Word before all other most precious delights : he that actually makes the choice, performs uniform obedience, without any respect of sins or persons: he that performs this obedience, never indulges himself in sin; and then e converso, backward, thus: he that indulges himself in sin, doth not uniformly obey the Word : he that doth not so obey, doth not actually make choice of it before all competitors: he that makes not this choice, approves it not according to its real excellency above all things in the world: he that doth not so approve, assents not to the absolute goodness of it in his heart: he that so assents not, doth not truly believe; therefore every indulgent sinner is an infidel. And then, look about you, and within you: whosoever say, the Lord liveth, and yet remain in your ways of sin, be you never so stout or proud-hearted, my Prophet gives you the lie: if you are incensed, and swear that you are in the truth, and stand upon your reputation; his answer is mannerly, but tart, Surely, you swear falsely ; every indulgent sinner is an infidel. 1 John iii.6. Whosoever sins, hath not seen Christ, neither known him : but amongst Professors of the Gospel, there be a multitude of habitual sinners, ergo of infidels; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The thing, which in the first place, we undertook to demonstrate.
We now come to the next thing proposed, The root or fountain of this hypocritical faith ; where we are to inquire how it comes about, That they which are so forward to profess, are so far from true belief. And higher in our search we cannot go, than Adam 's fall; for the spring head of all this infidelity (as for God 's absolute decree, in rejecting men's persons, and then suffering and leading them to an acknowledgment of the truth of the Gospel, only that they may be inexcusable, I will not be so vain or unseasonable to examine.) Adam had once the Tree of life to have eaten, and have been immortal; to have confirmed him and his posterity into an irreversible estate of happiness : but since his disobedient heart preferred the Tree of Knowledge before that of Life, the Tree of Life hath never thrived currently with his progeny. All our care, and traffick, and merchandise, hath been for Knowledge, never prizing or cheapning so poor a commodity, as life. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. All sin is from the Tree of Knowledge ; and that hath rooted it so deep, and given it so fair a growth within us.
As for the Tree of Life, seeing then we would not feed on it, we were never since suffered to come within reach: the Cherubims and a flaming Sword, have fenced it round about, Gen. iii.34. and that makes men grow so unproportionably into such monstrous shapes, vast strong, swoln heads; and weak, thin, crazy bodies, like Pharaoh 's lean kine, lank, and very ill favored: men for the most part, having Brains to understand, and Eyes to see, and Tongues to profess; but neither Hearts to apply, nor Hands to practice, nor Feet to walk the ways of God 's Commandments : as one far spent in a Consumption, who hath his senses perfectly enough, when he is not able to go. It is only the effectual Grace of God (of which, that other Tree was but an emblem) which must give us life and strength to practice what we know. And this amongst us, is so little cared for, finds such disesteem and slight observance when it appears; meets with such resolute hardened, stubborn hearts, that it is a miracle, if it ever be brought to submit itself to such course entertainment.
And this is the first and main ground of this Hypocritical faith, our corrupt, immoderate desires of knowledge, and neglect of Grace. The second ground more evidently discernible in us, is, The secret consent and agreement betwixt our carnal desires, and divine knowledge; and the antipathy and incompatibleness of the same with true Faith.
The first pair dwell many times very friendly and peaceably together, do not quarrel in an Age, or pass an affront or cross word. Knowledge doth seldom justle or offer violences to the desires of the flesh ; a man may be very knowing, and very lewd; of a towering Brain, and a groveling Soul; rich in speculation, and poor in practice.
But for the other pair, they are like opposite signs in the Heaven, have but a vicissitude of presence or light in our Hemisphere ; never appear or shine together. Faith lusteth and struggleth against the flesh, and the flesh against Faith. The carnal part is as afraid of Faith, as the Devil was of Christ : for Faith being seated in the concurrence of the dictate of judgment, and (on the other side) the sway of the affections : the one must either couch, or be banished, at the others entrance; and then it cries out in the voice of the Devil, Mark i.24. What have I to do with thee ; or, as the words will bear, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; What communion can there be betwixt me and thee? thou precious Grace of God, Art thou come to torment and dispossess me before my time? O what a stir there is in the flesh, when faith comes to take its throne in the heart; as at the news of Christ 's Incarnation corporal, so at his spiritual, Herod the King is troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, Matth. ii.3. All the reigning Herod sins, and all the Jerusalem of habitual ruling lusts and affections are in great disorder, as knowing, that this new King abodes their instant destruction.
It was Aristotle's observation, that the Mathematics being an abstract knowledge, had nothing in them contrary to Passions ; and therefore young men and dissolute, might study and prove great proficience in them, if they had but a good apprehension; there was no more required: and that perhaps is the reason that such studies as these, History and Geometry, and the like, go down pleasantliest with those which have no design upon Books, but only to rid them of some hours, which would otherwise lie on their hands. The most studious of our Gentry, ordinarily deal in them, as inoffensive, tame, peaceable studies, which will never check them for any the most inordinate affections. But of Morality (saith he) and practical knowledge, a young man, or intemperate, is uncapable: you may make him con the precepts without Book, or say them by roat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He cannot be said to believe a word of them ; his heart is so possessed with green, fresh, boisterous lusts, that he cannot admit any sober precepts any further than his memory. If you are in earnest with him, to apply and practice what he reads, you exact of him beyond his years; he is not solemn enough for so sad severe employment; and therefore it is concluded, that he is fit for any intellectual virtue, rather than prudence : this consists in a peaceable temper of the mind: an Artist he may prove, and never live the better; suppose him one of youthful luxuriant desires, and never think he will be taught to live by rule; all the learning and study in Books, will never give him Aristotle's Moral prudence, much less our spiritual, which is by interpretation, Faith.
And this is the second ground of Infidelity amongst Christians, the competibility of knowledge, and incompetibility of true Faith, with carnal desires. The third is, The easiness of giving assent to generalities, and difficulty of particular Application.
A common truth delivered in general terms, is received without any opposition: should it be proposed, whether nothing be to be done, but that which is just ? whether drunkenness, were not a vice? whether only an outside of Religion, would ever save a man? No man would ever quarrel about it. When thus Nathan and David discoursed, they were both of one mind; the one could talk no more against unconscionable dealing, than the other would assent to. If you propose no other Problemes than these, the debauched'st man under Heaven, would not dispute against you. But all quarrelling, saith the Stoic, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , About the Application of general granted Rules, to personal, private Cases.
The Jews, and Assyrians, and Egyptians, and Romans, are all agreed, that holiness is to be preferred above all things; but whether it be not impious to eat swine's flesh, and the like, which of them observes the rules of holiness most exactly, there the strife begins.
Common general declamations against sin, are seldom ever offensive; and therefore the Master of Rhetoricks finds fault with them, as dull, lifeless, unprofitable Eloquence, that no man is affected with. The cowardliest Bird in the Air, is not afraid of the Faulcon, as long as she sees him soaring, and never stoop: but when the Axe that was carried about the Wood, threatening all indifferently, shall be laid to the Root of the Tree; when Nathan shall rejoinder with a Thou art the man, ] and St. Paul come home to his Corinthians after his declamation against Fornicators and Idolaters with, And such were some of you, ] 1 Cor. vi.11. then their hearts come to the touchstone; this is a trial of their belief: if they will forsake their sins, which before, their judgment condemned at a distance; if they will practice the holiness and integrity, which they were content to hear commended.
That famous War of the Trojans, and Iliads of Misery, following it in Homer, were all from this ground. The two great Captains at the Treaty, agree very friendly, that just dealing was very strictly to be observed by all men; and yet, neither would one of them restore the Pawn committed to his trust, nor the other divide the spoils: Each as resolute not to practice, as both before unanimous to approve.
There is not a thing more difficult in the World, than to persuade a carnal man, that that which concerns all men, should have anything to do with him; that those promises of Christ, which are confessed to be the most precious under Heaven, should be fitter for his turn, then this amiable, lovely sin, that now solicits him. That Scripture is inspired by God ; and therefore in all its dictates to be believed and obeyed, is a thing fully consented on amongst Christians : we are so resolved on it, that it is counted but a dull, barren question in the Schools, a man can invent nothing to say against by way of argument; and if a Preacher in a Sermon should make it his business to prove it to you, you would think he either suspected you for Turks, or had little else to say: but when a particular truth of Scripture comes in balance with a pleasing sin; when the general prohibition strikes at my private lust; all my former assent to Scripture is vanished: I am hurried into the embraces of my beloved delight. Thus when Paul reasoned of temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, Acts xxiv.25. His trembling shows, that he assented to Paul 's discourse; and as in the Devils, Jam. ii.29. it was an effect of a general belief: but this subject of temperance and judgment to come, agreed not with Felix his course of life. His wife Drusilla was held by usurpation ; he had to led her away from her husband, the King of the Emiseni, saith Josephus, and therefore he could hear no more of it: he shifts and complements it off till another time, and never means to come in such danger again to be converted, for fear of a divorce from his two treasures; his Heathenism, and his Whore.
Thus was Agrippa converted from the shoulders upward, which he calls Almost a Christian ; or as the phrase may be rendered, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a little way, Acts xxvi.28. convinced to the general truths in his brain; but the lower half, his heart and affections, remained as Heathenish as ever.
And this is the third ground of practical unbelief, that generalities can be cheaply believed, without parting from anything we prize: The Doctrine of the Trinity can be received, and thwart never a carnal affection, as being an inoffensive truth. Christ 's sufferings and satisfaction for sin, by the natural man may be heard with joy; but particular application is very difficult: That our obedience to every command of that Trinity, must be sincere; that we must forego all, and hate our own flesh, to adhere to so merciful a Savior, and express our love to the most contemptible Soul under Heaven, as he hath loved us; that we must, at last, expect him in majesty as a Judge, whom we are content to hug and embrace in his humility as a Savior ; This is a bloody word, as Moses his wife counted the Circumcision, too harsh and rough to be received into such pampered, tender, fleshy hearts.
The fourth ground is, a general humor that is gotten in the World, To take care of nothing, but our reputations: Nor God, nor life, nor soul, nor anything can weigh with it in the balance. Now it is a scandalous thing, a soul blot to ones name, to be counted an Atheist, an arrant Infidel, where all are Christians ; and therefore for fashions sake we will believe; and yet sometime the Devil hath turned this humor quite the contrary way, and made some men as ambitious of being counted Atheists, as others of being Christians. It will shortly grow into a gentile garb, and part of courtship, to disclaim all Religion in show, as well as deeds. Thus are a world of men in the World, either professed Atheists, or Atheistical Professors, upon the same grounds of vain-glory ; the one to get, the other to save their reputation in the World. Thus do many men stand up at the Creed, upon the same terms as Gallants go into the field; that have but small maw to be killed, only to keep their honor, that they might not be branded and mocked for cowards. And yet certainly in the truth, these are the veriest dastards under Heaven ; no worldly man so fearful of death, or pious man of hell, as these are of disgrace.
The last ground I shall mention, and indeed the main of all, is, The subtlety and wiliness of the Devil. He hath tried all his stratagems in the World, and hath found none like this, for the undermining and ruining of Souls, to suffer them to advance a pretty way in Religion, to get their heads full of knowledge, that so they may think they have faith enough, and walk to hell securely. The Devil 's first policies were by Heresies, to corrupt the Brain, to invade and surprise Christianity by force: but he soon saw, this would not hold out long; he was fain to come from batteries, to mines, and supplant those Forts that he could not vanquish. The Fathers (and amongst them chiefly Leo, in all his writings) within the first Five hundred years after Christ, observe him at this ward, Ut quos vincere ferro flammisque non poterat, cupiditatibus irretiret, & sub falsâ Christiani nominis profession corrumperet. He hoped to get more by lusts, than heresies, and to plunge men deepest in an high conceit of their holy Faith. He had learned by experience from himself, that all the bare knowledge in the World would never sanctify: it would perhaps give men content, and make them confident and bold of their estate; and by presuming on such grounds, and prescribing merit to Heaven by their Lord, Lord, even seal them up to the day of damnation ; and therefore it is ordinary with Satan, to give men the tether a great way, lest they should grumble at his tyranny, and prove Apostates from him upon hard usage. Knowledge is pleasant, and books are very good Company; and therefore if the Devil should bind men to ignorance, our Speculators and Brain-Epicures would never be his Disciples; they would go away sadly, as the young man from Christ, who was well affected with his service, but could not part with his riches, Mat. xix.22. So then you shall have his leave, to know, and believe in God, as much as you please, so you will not obey him; and be as great Scholars as Satan himself, so you will be as profane. The heart of Man is the Devils Palace, where he keeps his state; and as long as he can strengthen himself there by a guard and band of lusts, he can be content to afford the out-works to God, divine speculation, and never be disturbed or affrighted by any enemy at such a distance.
Thus have you the grounds also whereupon true Faith (which is best defined a spiritual prudence, an application of spiritual knowledge to holy practice) should be so often wanting in men which are very knowing, and the fairest Professors of Christianity.
Now lest this discourse also should reach no further than your ears, lest that which hath been said, should be only assented to in the general as true, not applied home to your particular practices, and so do you no more good, than these general professions did here to the Jews, only to prove you perjured Hypocrites, swearing falsely, whilst you say the Lord liveth ; we will endeavor to leave some impression upon your hearts, by closing all with Application.
And that shall be in brief, meekly to desire you; and if that will not serve the turn, by all the mercies of Heaven, and horrors of Hell, to adjure you to examine yourselves on these two interrogatories, which my Text will suggest to you, First, Whether you are as good as the Jews here? Secondly, Whether you are not, the best of you, altogether as bad.
For the first, the Jews here said, the Lord liveth, were very forward to profess; and 'twere some, though but a low measure of commendation for us to be no worse than Jews. Let there go a severe inquisition out from the Royal Majesty, over the whole Court, or at least from every particular man upon himself; and bring in an impartial Verdict, whether there be not some amongst you, that are not come thus far as to say, The Lord liveth. Some are so engaged in a trade of mis-shapen, horrid, monstrous Vices; have so framed and fashioned the whole fabric of their lives, without any blush, or lineament of God in them, that they are afraid ever to mention him in earnest, for fear of putting them out of their course; they dare not believe too much of God, lest it should be their undoing; a little sense of him, would take off many of their tricks of sinning, and consequently spoil their thriving in the world; like Diana 's Silversmith, Act. xix.24. for by this craft they have their wealth. The least glimpse of God in these men's hearts; nay, one solemn mention of him in their mouths, were enough to bring them into some compass, to upbraid their ways, and reprove their thoughts. Were these men taken to task according to the Canon Laws of our Kingdom, and not suffered to live any longer amongst Christians, till they understood clearly the promise of their Baptism ; till they durst come, and make the same Vow in their own persons, before all the Congregation, which in their infancy their Sureties made for them; were our Canon of Confirmation duly put in execution, and everyone, as soon as he were capable, either persuaded, or forced to fit himself for the receiving of it, (as it is severely required by our Rubric, though much neglected in the practice;) I doubt not, but there would be fewer sins amongst us, much more knowledge of God, and mentioning of his Name, without the help of Oaths, and Blasphemies, to which God now is in a kind beholding that ever he comes into our mouths. But now men having a great way to go in sin, and nothing in the world to stop them, begin their journey as soon as they are able to go, and make such haste (like the Sun, or Giant, in the Psalmist) to run their course, are so intent upon the task the Devil hath set them; that they can never stay to see or hear of God in their lives, which yet is legible and palpable in every syllable of the World. If they are so well brought up, as to have learned their Creed and Catechism, they have no other use for it, but to break jests, and swear by; and would soon forget God 's very Name or Attributes, did they not daily repeat them over, (as School-boys their Parts) and often comment on them by Oaths and Prophanations: and these are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Apostles phrase, Ephes. ii.12. without God in the world.
Others there are of a prouder, loftier strain, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that pitch Camp, and arm and fortify themselves against God, that would fain be a forging some other Religion, they are so weary and cloy'd with this. Thus have I heard of some that have sought earnestly for an Alcoran, and profess an opinion, that all true Divinity lies there, and expect to be esteemed great Wits, of a deep reach, for this supposal. Others that have not skill enough to understand Turcism, yet have lusts enough to admire it, and the brave carnal Paradise it promises; and if they cannot persuade themselves to believe in it, yet they fancy it notably; and because they cannot expect to have it in another life, they will be sure of it in this.
Hence do they advance to such a pitch of sensuality, as Heathenism was never guilty of; their whole life is a perpetual study of the arts of death, and their whole Souls an Holocaust, or burnt Sacrifice to their fleshly lusts. It were an horrid representation but to give you in a diagram, the several Arts that the god of this World hath now taught men to vilify and reproach the God of Heaven. Profest Atheism begins to set up; it comes in fashion, and then some Courtiers must needs be in it. Prophaning of Scripture, and making too cheap of it, was never so ordinary; that holy Volume was never so violently and coursly handled, even ravished and deflowered by unhallowed lips. 'It is grown the only stuff in request, and ordinariest garment to cloth a piece of scurrilous Wit in, and the best of us can scarce choose but give it some applause. Beloved, there is not a sin in the World that sticks closer to him that once entertained it; the least indulgence in it, is a desperate sign. 'It is called the chair of scorners, Psal. 1. a sin of ease and pleasure: a man that uses it, that is once a merry Atheist, seldom, if ever, proves a sad, sober Christian. Julian, and many others, have gone scoffing to Hell, (like men whose custom of mocking hath made wry mouthed) scarcely composing themselves to a solemn Countenance, till horror either of Hell, or Conscience, hath put smiling out of date. And if any of these sins are but crept in amongst you, it will be worthy our enquiry and examination; (and God grant your own impartial Consciences may return you Not guilty:) However this will but prove you no worse than Jews, for they here acknowledge God in their brain and tongues ; they said, The Lord liveth. ]
Your second Interrogatory must be, Whether whilst you thus profess, you do not also swear falsely ? And then 'tis to be feared, that every action of your lives will bring in an Evidence against you. 'Twere an accusation perhaps that you seldom hear of, to be challenged for Hypocrites, to be turned Puritans and pretenders to Holiness: yet this is it my Text must charge you with; professing of Religion, and never practicing it; assenting to the truth of Scripture in your brain, but not adhering to it in your hearts ; believing in Christ, and yet valuing him beneath the meanest sin you meet with. Look over your Creed, and observe whether your lives do not contradict every word in it; and is it not Hypocrisy, and Perjury, or, if you will have it, high Complementing with God, to be thus profuse and prodigal in our professions, which we never mean to perform? Then is it to be called belief, when it is sunk down into our hearts, when it hath taken root in a well-tempered soil, and begins to spring above ground, and hasten into an ear. That which grows like Moss on the tiles of an house, which is set no deeper than the fancy, will never prove either permanent, or solid nourishment to the soul. 'Twere a new hours work, to show every defect in our Faith, by our defections and desertions of God in our manners; yet if you will be in earnest with yourselves, and apply the grounds premised to your serious Examination, your meditations may thoroughly make up what here is likely to be omitted.
One thing take home with you for a Rule to eternity, That every indulgence in any sin, is a sure argument of an Infidel: be you never so proud and confident of your Faith, and Justification by it; be you never so resolute that the Lord liveth ; yet if your obedience be not uniform, if you embrace not what you assent to, surely you swear falsely. Your particular failings I am not knowing enough to represent to you; your own Consciences, if they be but called to, cannot choose but reflect them to your sight. Your outward profession and frequency in it, for the general is acknowledged; your Custom of the place requires it of you; and the example of Piety that rules in your Eyes, cannot but extort it. Only let your lives witness the sincerity of your professions; let not a dead Carcass walk under a living head, and a nimble active Christian brain be supported with bed-rid, mentionless Heathen • imbs. Let me see you move and walk, as well as breath, that I may hope to see you Saints, as well as Christians.
And this shall be the sum, not only of my advice to you, but for you, of my Prayers: That the Spirit would sanctify all our hearts, as well as brains ; that he will subdue, not only the pride and natural Atheism of our understandings, but the rebellions, and infidelity, and heathenism of our lusts; that being purged from any relics, or tincture, or suspicion of irreligion in either power of our Souls, we may live by Faith, and move by Love, and die in Hope ; and both in Life and Death, glorify God here, and be glorified with him hereafter.
SERMON VIII.
LUKE XVIII.11.
God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, &c. or even as this Publican.
T HAT we may set out at our best advantage, and yet not go too far back to take our rise, 'tis but retiring to the end of the 8. Verse of this Chapter, and there we shall meet with an abrupt speech, hanging like one of Solomon 's Proverbs, without any seeming dependence on anything before or after it: which yet upon enquiry, will appear 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fallen down from Heaven, in the posture it stands in. In the beginning of the Eight verse he concludes the former Parable, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily ; and then abruptly, Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith upon the earth ? And then immediately, Verse 9. he spake another parable to certain that trusted in themselves, where this speech in the midst, when the Son of man comes, &c. stands there by itself, like the Pharisee in my Text, seorsim, apart, as an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or intercalary day between two months, which neither of them will own, or more truly, like one of Democritus his atoms, the casual concurrence of which, he accounted the principle and cause of all things.
That we may not think so vulgarly of Scripture, as to dream that any title of it came by resultance or casually into the world, that any speech dropt from his mouth unobserved, that spake as man never spake, both in respect of the matter of his speeches, and the weight and secret energy of all accidents attending them, it will appear on consideration, that this speech of his which seems an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a supernumerary superfluous one, is indeed the head of the corner, and ground of the whole Parable, or at least a fair hint or occasion of delivering it at that time. Not to trouble you with its influence on the Parable going before, concerning perseverance in prayer (to which it is as an Isthmus or fibula, to join it to what follows) but to bring our eyes home to my present subject: After the consideration of the prodigious defect of faith in this decrepit last age of the world, in persons who made the greatest pretences to it, and had arrived unto assurance and security in themselves; he presently arraigns the Pharisee, the highest instance of this confidence, and brings his righteousness to the bar, sub hac formâ.
There is like to be, toward the second coming of Christ, his particular visitation of the Jews, and (then its parallel) his final coming to judgment, such a specious pompous show, and yet such a small pittance of true faith in the world, that as it is grown much less than a grain of mustard-seed, it shall not be found when it is sought; there will be such giantly shadows, and pigmy substances, so much and yet so little faith, that no Hieroglyphic can sufficiently express it, but an Egyptian temple gorgeously over-laid, inhabited within by Crocodiles, and Cats, and carcasses instead of gods; or an apple of Sodom, that shows well till it be handled; a painted Sepulcher, or a specious nothing; or which is the contraction and Tachygraphy of all these, a Pharisee at his prayers. And thereupon Christ spake the parable, verse 9. there were two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, &c. verse 10.
Concerning the true nature of faith, mistaken extremely nowadays by those which pretend most to it, expuls'd almost out of men's brains, as well as hearts, so that now it is scarce to be found upon earth, either in our lives, or almost in our books; there might be framed a seasonable complaint in this place, were I not already otherwise imbarked. By some prepossessions and prejudices infused into us, as soon as we can conn a Catechism of that making, it comes to pass that many men live and die resolved that faith is nothing but the assurance of the merits of Christ applied to every man particularly; and consequently of his salvation: that I must first be sure of Heaven, or else I am not capable of it; confident of my salvation, or else necessarily damned. Cornelius Agrippa being initiated in natural magic, Paracelsus in mineral extractions, Plato full of his Idea's, will let nothing be done without the Pythagoreans, brought up with numbers perpetually in their ears, and the Physicians poring daily upon the temperaments of the body; the one will define the soul an harmony, the other a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Philoponus. And so are many amongst us, that take up fancies upon trust for truths, never laying any contrary proposals to heart, come at last to account this assurance as a principle without which they can do nothing; the very soul that must animate all their obedience, which is otherwise but a carcass or heathen virtue; in a word, the only thing by which we are justified or saved. The confutation of this popular error, I leave to some grave learned tongue, that may enforce it on you with some authority; for I conceive not any greater hindrance of Christian obedience, and godly practice amongst us, than this: for as long as we are content with this assurance as sufficient stock to set up for Heaven, there is like to be but little faith upon the earth. Faith if it be truly so, is like Christ himself, when he was Emmanuel, God upon the earth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an incarnate faith, cut out and squared into limbs and lineaments; not only a spiritual invisible faith, but even flesh and blood, to be seen and felt, organized for action; 'tis to speak, and breath, and walk and run the ways of God's Commandments: An assent not only to the promises of the Gospel, but uniformly to the whole Word of God, commands and threats as well as promises. And this, not in the brain or surface of the soul, as the Romanist seats it, but in the heart, as regent of the hand and tongue in the concurrence of all the affections. Where it is not only a working faith, an obeying faith, but even a work, even obedience itself; not only a victorious faith, but even victory itself, 1 Jo. v. 4. This is our victory, even our faith: to part with this as a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which is our only business, is sure an unreasonable Thesis. Any faith but this, is a faith in the clouds, or in the air, the upper region of the soul, the brain; or at most, but a piece of the heart; a magical faith, a piece of sorcery and conjuring; that will teach men to remove Mountains, only by thinking they are able; but will never be taken by Christ for this faith upon the earth: if it do walk here, it is but as a Ghost; 'tis even pity but it were laid. Let me beseech you meekly, but if this would not prevail, I would conjure you all in this behalf; the silly weak Christian to fly from this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and call for some light of their lawful Pastors, to find out the deceit; and the more knowing illuminate Christian, to examine sincerely and impartially by feeling and handling it thoroughly, whether there be any true substance in it or no. The Pharisee looking upon himself superficially, thought he had gone on, on very good grounds, very unquestionable terms, that he was possessed of a very fair estate; he brought in an inventory of a many precious works; I fast, I tithe, &c. verse 12. hath no other Liturgies but thanksgivings, no other sacrifice to bring into the temple, but Eucharistical ; and yet how foully the man was mistaken?
God I thank, &c.
The first thing I shall observe in the words, is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the rational importance of them, as they are part of a rhetorical Syllogism, an example or parallel to show that in the last days, though men think that there is a great deal, yet there is indeed like to be but little Faith upon the Earth. And the issue from thence is, the Pharisees flattering favorable misconceit of his own estate, and the parallel line to that, our premature deceivable persuasions of ourselves, that is ordinary among Christians.
The second thing is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the natural literal importance of the words, and therein the concomitants or effects of those his misconceits,
1. Pride. 2. Censoriousness. Pride noted by his speech, I thank thee that I am not ; then his posture, pluming up himself, standing by himself he prayed ; as the Syriac set the words, and many Greek copies, some by making a comma after 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , others by reading 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , standing by himself ; as Beza renders it, seorsim, apart; not as our English, he stood and prayed thus with himself, but as the words will likewise bear it, he stood by himself thus; this posture signifying a proud contemptuous behavior, whilst the Publican stood crouching humbly, and tremblingly behind.
2. Censoriousness and insinuating accusations of other men's persons, even as this Publican. To which we may add the occasion of all this, seeing the Publican behind him, (i. e.) comparing himself with notorious sinners, he was thus proud and censorious.
And of these in their order, as powerfully and effectually to your hearts, as God shall enable me. And first of the first, the Pharisees favorable misconceits of himself, and parallel to these, our deceivable persuasions of ourselves, God I thank, &c.
The black sin that hath died the Pharisees soul so deep, as to become his characteristick inseparable property, a kind of agnomen, a perpetual accession to his name, is hypocrisy. The proper natural importance of which word, signifies the personating or acting of a part, putting on another habit than doth properly belong to him. But by the liberty we ordinarily allow to words, to enlarge themselves sometimes beyond their own territories, to thrive and gain somewhat from their Neighbors, it is come vulgarly to signify all that ambitious outside, or formality, the color and varnish of religion, by which any man deceives either others or himself; and accordingly there is a twofold hypocrisy, the first, deceiving others ; the second, himself. That by which he imposeth upon others, is the sin we commonly declaim against, under that name, most fiercely, sometime by just reason, as having been circumvented by such glozes, sometime in a natural zeal to truth, preferring plain downright impiety, before the same transfigured by a varnish. Reatus impii pium nomen, his being counted innocent, is an accession to his guilt. But then sometimes too, under this odious name we may wound sincere and pure devotion; as the primitive Christians were by the tyrants put in wild beasts skins, that they may be torn in pieces; men may be deter'd from all the least appearance of purity, for fear they should be counted hypocrites. However this first sort of hypocrisy may deserve its seasonable reprehension, this Parable in my Text doth not take it in; but insists mainly upon the other, that color of piety by which a man deceives himself, and cheats and glozes with his own soul. That first sort, were it not for some hurtful consequences, might for ought I can gain-say, pass for an innocent quality in a sinner. For what great injury doth that man do to any other, or himself? what grand sin against God or the World, by desiring to seem better than he is; by laboring to conceal those sins in himself, which could not be known without dishonor to God, and scandal to his neighbor? 'Twas a Lawyer's answer, being questioned whether it were lawful for a Woman to take money for prostituting herself, that indeed 'twas a sin to prostitute herself; but that being supposed, as in some kingdoms it is permitted, he thought 'twas no great fault to get her living by it.
Not to justify his opinion, but apply it by accommodation: In like manner arraign an hypocrite, and muster up all the sins he hath committed in secret, and all these I will acknowledge worthy of condemnation, because sins: Nay, if his end of concealing them, be to circumvent a well-believing Neighbor, that shall be set upon his score also; but for the desire itself of keeping his sin from the eyes of men, so that he do not from the eyes of God, and his Ministers upon occasion; for a cautiousness in any one, not to sin scandalously, or on the house top, take this by itself, abstracted from the sin it belongs to, and I cannot see why that should be either a part, or aggravation of a sin. There is nothing that deserves the tears, yea and holy indignation of a godly soul, more than the sight of an immodest boasting sinner, that makes his crimes his reputation, and his abominations his pride, and glory. 'It is that which we lay to the Devils charge in the times of Heathenism; that he strove to bring sin in credit by building Temples, and requiring Sacrifices to lust, under the name of Venus, Priapus, and the like; that incontinence might seem an act of Religion; and all the profaneness in the world, a piece of adoration. And it begins now to be revived in the world again, when bashfulness is the quality of all others most creditably parted with; and the only motive to the commission of some sins is, to be in the fashion, to be seen of men; when men put on affected errors, affected vanities, affected oaths, just as they do gay clothes, that they may be the better counted of: this indeed is a damnable hypocrisy, when men are fain to act parts in sin, that they are not naturally inclined to; and to force their constitutions, and even to offer violence to their own tender dispositions, that so they may not be scoffed at for punies, or precise persons, as Augustus his daughter, which being admonished of a sin that beasts would never have committed, answered that that was the reason they omitted the enjoyment of so precious a delight, because they were beasts; as if innocence were more bestial than lust, and ignorance of some sins, the only guilt. The horror and detestation that this sin strikes into me, makes me, I confess, willing almost to become an advocate of the first kind of hypocrisy, whereby men retain so much modesty in their sins (I hope of weakness) as to be willing to enjoy the charitable men's good opinion though undeserv'd.
But for the second kind of hypocrisy, this cozening of a man's own soul, this tiring and personating in the closet, this inventing of arts and stratagems to send himself comfortably and believingly to the Devil, this civil intestine treachery within, and against ones self; this is the grand imposture that here the Pharisee is noted for. An easiness and cheateableness that costs the bankrupting of many a jolly Christian soul. He, saith Plutarch, that wants health, let him go to the Physicians, but he that wants 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a good durable habit of body, let him go to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (the masters of exercise) otherwise he shall never be able to confirm himself into a solid firm constant health, called thereupon by Hippocrates 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the constitution of wrestlers; without which, health itself is but a degree of sickness, nourishment proves but swellings, and not growth, but a tympany. Both these, saith he, Philosophy will produce in the soul, not only teaching men 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (where by the way, he repeats almost the whole decalogue of Moses, though in an heathen dialect) to worship the God's, &c. which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the health of the soul, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that which is above all, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not to be overjoyed or immoderately affected in all this. This which he attributes to Philosophy in general, is, saith Aristotle, an act of intellectual prudence, or sobriety, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , not to vouchsafe higher titles to himself than he is worthy of ; not to think himself in better health than he is, which is not the dialect of a mere heathen, but the very language of Canaan, Rom. xii.3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the very word in Aristotle, which cannot be better expressed than by that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to have a moderate sober equal opinion of ones own gifts; not to overprize God's graces in ourselves, not to accept ones own person, or give flattering titles to ones self; in Jobs phrase. This Chrysostom calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a word near kin unto the former, the meekness or lowliness of heart, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. when a man having attained to a great measure of grace, and done great matters by it, and knoweth it too, yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 fancies no great matter of himself for all this. As the three Children in Daniel having received a miracle of graces, which affected even the enemies of God, yet were not affected with it themselves; enabled to be Martyrs, and yet live. Or as the Poet of Callimachus that stood after he was dead— 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; Which is Nebuchadnezzar's phrase, walking in the midst of the fire, and yet they have no hurt. Yet in their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 their Song of praise, all that they say of themselves is this, and now we cannot open our mouths, ver. 9. for this, saith Chrysostom, we open our mouths, that we may say this only, that it is not for us to open our mouths. By this low modest interpretation every Christian is to make of his own actions and gifts, you may guess, somewhat of the Pharisees misconceits.
For first, were he never so holy and pure, of never so spiritual Angelical composition, yet the very reflecting on these excellencies, were enough to make a Devil of him. The Angels, saith Gerson, as the Philosophers intelligences, have a double habitude, two sorts of employments natural to them; One upwards, in an admiration of God's greatness, love of his beauty, obedience to his wll, moving as it were a circular daily motion about God, their Center; (as Boethius of them Mentemque profundam circumeunt :) another downward, of regiment and power in respect of all below, which they govern, and move and manage. Now if it be questioned, saith he, which of these two be more honourabe, for the credit of the Angelical nature, I determine confidently, that of subjection, pulchriorem & perfectiorem esse, quam secunda regitivae dominationis, 'tis more renown to be under God, than over all the world besides. As the service to a King, is the greatest preferment that even a Peer of the Realm is capable of. And then if an Angel should make a Song of exultance to set himself out in the greatest pomp, he would begin it as Mary doth her Magnificat, For he hath regarded the low estate of his servant : So that the blessed Virgins mention of her own lowliness, was not a piece only of modest Devotion, but an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of expression, and high Metaphysical insinuation of the greatest dignity in the world. And then, let the Pharisee be as righteous as himself can fancy, come to that pitch indeed, which the contemptuous opinionative Philosophers feigned to themselves, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in Tatianus, which is in the Church of L •• dicaea 's phrase, I am rich and am increased in spiritual wealth, and have need of nothing ; or the fools in the Gospel, I have store laid up for many years ; nay to St. Paul's pitch, wrapped so high, that the schools do question whether he were viator or comprehensor, a traveler, or at his journeys end ; yet the very opinion of God's graces would argue him a Pharisee; this conceiving well of his estate, is the foulest misconceit. For if he be such a complete righteous person, so accomplishit in all holy graces, why should he thus betray his soul, by depriving it of this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which the very Heathens could observe so absolutely necessary; this humility and lowliness of mind, this useful and most ingenuous virtue, always to think vilely of himself; not to acknowledge any excellence in himself, though he were even put upon the rack. The Philosophers that wrote against pride, are censured to have spoiled all, by putting their names to their Books. Modesty, like Dinah, desiring never so little to be seen, is ravished. The sanctifying spirit that beautifies the soul, is an humbling spirit also, to make it unbeauteous in its own eyes. And this is the first misconceit, the first step of Pharisaical hypocrisy, thinking well of ones self on what ground soever; contrary to that virgin grace, humility, which is a virtue required not only of notorious infamous sinners (for what thanks or commendation is it for him to be on the ground, that hath fallen and bruised himself in his race? for him that is ready to starve, to go a begging?) but chiefly and mainly of him that is most righteous; when he that knows a great deal of good by himself, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a great deal of good success in the spirit, yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , is not advanced a whit at the fancy of all this.
The Pharisees second misconceit is a favorable overprizing of his own worth, expecting a higher reward, than it in proportion deserves. When looking in the glass, he sees all far more glorious in that reflect beam, than it is in the direct, all the deformities left in the glass, and nothing but fair returned to him, a rough harsh unpleasing voice, smoothed, and softened, and grown harmonious in the Echo : there is no such cheating in the world, as by reflections. A looking-glass by showing some handsome persons their good faces, and that truly, hath often ruined them by that truth, and betrayed that beauty to all the ugliness and rottenness in the world; which had it not been known by them, had been enjoyed. But then your false glasses, what mischief and ruin have they been authors of? how have they given authority to the deformed'st creatures, to come confidently on the stage, and befooled them to that shame, which a knowledge of their own wants had certainly prevented? What difference their may be betwixt the direct species of a thing, and the same reflected, the original and the transcript, the artificial famous Picture of Henry the Fourth of France, will teach you; where in a multitude of feigned devices, a heap of painted, phantastical Chimaera 's which being looked on right, resembled nothing, being ordered to cast their species upon a pillar of polishit metal reflected to the spectators eye, the most lively visage of that famous King. He that hath not seen this piece of Art, or hath not skill in Catoptricks enough to understand the demonstrable grounds and reasons of it, may yet discern as much in nature, by the appearance of a rainbow, where you may see those colors reflected by the cloud, which no Philosopher will assert to be existent there. And all this brings more evidence to the Pharisees indictment, and demonstrates his opinion of his own actions or me • its, to be commonly deceiveable and false.
He sees another man's actions radio recto, by a direct beam; and if there be no humor in his eye, if it be not glazed with contempt or envy, or prejudice, he may perhaps see them aright. But his own he cannot see but by reflection, as a man comes not to see his own eyes, but in the shadow, and at the rebound; whereupon Alcinous the Platonic calls this act of the soul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a dialogue of the soul with itself, and the knowledge that comes from thence, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a resemblance by shadowing. The soul understands, and wills its object; this act of it by its species is cast upon the fancy, and from thence, as even now from the column of brass, or Bell-metal, 'tis reflected to the understanding: and then you may guess, what a fair report he is likely to receive, when a Pharisees fancy hath the returning of it. He that with his own clearest eyes could take a gnat for a taller unwieldier creature than a Camel, and rhereupon strains at it, Mat. xxiii.24. what would he do if he should come to his multiplying glass? he that when he sees a mote, and that radio recto, in others eyes, can mistake it for a beam, how can he, think you, improve the least atom of good, when he is to look on it in himself? how will his fancy and he, the one a cheat from the beginning, the other full greedy of the bait, fatten and puff up a sacrifice, that he himself hath offered? O how fair shall it appear, and ready to devour all the seven fat ones, though it be the thinnest of Pharaoh 's lean kine, lank and very ill favored? how shall the reflection of his beggarliest rags return to his eye the picture of a King? and the ordinariest vapor, or cloud of his exhaling, be decked over with all the beauty and variety of the Rainbow? what Aristotle said of the Sophist • , that they did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , though it be a puzzling place for the Critics, this Censor or Aristarchus in my Text, will interpret by his practice; he blows up himself, as the • were used to do their meat, against a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Tribunes or a Sheriffs feast, that it may look the fairer, and not deceive others only, but himself; forgets what he has done, and now thinks 'tis his natural complexion: as the Carpenter in the thirteenth of Wisdom ; that piece of wood which himself had just now carved into an Idol, he presently prays to and worships as a God: or as liars, that by telling a tale often, at last begin to believe themselves; so hath he befooled himself into a credulity: the farthing Alms he hath given shall by a strange kind of usury (yet not stranger, perhaps, than what he deals in daily) be fancied into a mountain of gold; and the bare calves of their lips, become Hecatombs. If he have abstained from flesh, when the Market would yield none; or forborne to eat a supper, after a notorious feast, he will call this, fasting twice in the week, verse 12. and avouch himself an obedient abstemious subject and Christian, though good Friday be witness of his unchristian Epicurism. If he afford the Minister the tenth of his house-rent, and annual benevolence far below that that his dues would come to, which by taking of a jolly Fine at first, is forever after pared into but a larger sort of quit-rents (though his extortion bring in no revenue to any but the Devil and himself) he will yet be confident with the Pharisee, I pay tithes of all that I possess.
A pittance of virtue in a Pharisee, is like the Polypod 's head, to which Plutarch compares Poetry, hath some good, but as much or more ill in it also; sweet indeed and nutritive, saith he; and so is all virtue, though simply moral, good wholesome diet for the soul; but withal 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it sends up vapors into the brain, and ends in whimseys and strange and troublesome dreams: the man fancies, I know not what, presently of himself; like learning in an ill natured man, all about him are the worse for it; one moral virtue tires sometimes the whole vicinity of natural good disposed gifts: 'twere well perhaps for his ingenuity and modesty, that he were not so virtuous; that one drop of water being attenuated into Air, hath taken up all the room in the bladder: 'twere as good for the heart to be shrivel'd up, as thus distended, it must be squeez'd again, to make place for some more substantial guest, and be emptied quite, that it may be filled. In brief, 'tis the small measure, and this, only of aiery, empty piety, that hath puffed up the man. As they say a little critical learning makes one proud; if there were more, it would condensate and compact itself into less room.
And generally the more there is within, the less report they give of themselves; as St. Matthew mentioning himself before his Conversion, doth it distinctly, Matth. ix.9. by the name of Matthew, and his Trade sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew the Publican, by that odious re-naming of sin; (whereas all the other Evangelists call him Levi, or the son of Alpheus ) but leaves out the story of his own feasting of Christ, (only as Christ sat at meat in the house) which St. Luke sets down exactly, and Levi made him a great feast, Luke v.27. or as in the history of St. Peters fall and repentance, in the Gospel according to St. Mark, (which the Primitive Church agree that St. Peter had a hand in it) his denial is set down with all the aggravating circumstances, more than in all the rest put together, Mar. xiv.71. He began to curse, and swear, I know not this man of whom you speak : two Evangelists say only, he denied him the third time; to this St. Matthew adds, he cursed, and sware, saying, I know not the man. But he in his own witness, most exactly in aggravating the sin, I know not this, &c. But when he comes to the mention of his repentance, when the two other say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he himself, or St Mark from him, only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he wept ; always speaking as much bad, and as little good of themselves as can be.
A little windy opinionative goodness distempers the empty brain, 'tis Charity must ballast the heart; and that's the grace, according to holy Maximius his opinion, that all this while we have required, but not found in the Pharisee, and that's the reason that the brass sounds so shrill, and the cymbal tinkles so merrily. And this is the Pharisees second misconceit, his overprizing his own good deeds and graces. The third is,
His opinion of the consistence and immutability of his present estate, without any, either consideration of what he hath been, or fear what he may be again; he hath learned, or rather abused so much Scripture, as that the yesterday and the morrow must care for themselves; Prometheus or Epimetheus are profane heathen names to him; he is all in contemplation of present greatness; like the heathen gods, which are represented to have nothing to do, but admire their own excellencies. I thank God that I am not, &c. The Pharisee having a first-borns portion from the hand of God, will not be rude or importunate with him for new and fresh supplies; nor will he disparage himself so much as to suspect the perpetuity of his enjoyment. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Plutarch, a man that is honourably and freely born, hath a fair treasure of confidence, and so a natural advantage of other men; but bastards and men of a cracked race 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that have a great deal of copper or dross mixed with their Or and Argent, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , these men are born to be humble and shamefaced. But amongst these contemplations, he may do well to consider the Amorite his father, and his mother the Hittite, the pollutions and blood he was clothed with in the day that he was born, Ezek. xvi. the accursed inheritance as well of shame as sin derived unto him. For then certainly he would never so plume himself in his present sunshine. If he have not gotten in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , among the Adamites in Epiphanius, and there set up for one of Adams sect before his fall, or the Valentinians which called themselves the spirituals, and the seed of Abel, who indeed never had any natural seed we hear of: if he will but grant himself of the ordinary composition and race of men, come down from Adam either by Cain or Seth, I am sure he shall find sins past enough, either in his person or nature, to humble him, be he never so spiritual. And then for the time to come, Christ certainly was never so espoused to any soul, as to be bound to hold it for better for worse. That if he find ought in that spouse contrary to the vow of wedlock, he can 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (the word used in divorces amongst the Athenians on the husbands part) send the soul out of his house or temple; especially if she do 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (the phrase used on the woman's part) if she leave or forsake the husband; if she draw back or subduce herself out of his house, Heb. x.38, &c. by an evil heart of unbelief, openly depart from the living God, Heb. iii.12. It is observed by the Critics, as an absurd ridiculous phrase in some Authors, to call the Emperors Divi in their life time, which saith Rittershusius, when the propriety of the Roman Tongue was observed, capitale fuisset, had been a grand capital crime. And as absurd, no doubt, is many men's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their Canonizing, securing and befainting themselves in this life, upon every slight praemature persuasion that they are in Christ. That which Aphrodisius on the Topics, observes of the leaves of Trees, may perhaps be too true of the spiritual estate and condition of men, that the Vine and Fig and Plane tree, which have thin broad leaves, and make the fairest show, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , do thereupon shed them presently ; some few indeed, the Olive, Bay, and Myrtle, which have narrow solid leaves, are able to keep them all the Year long 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , always green and flourishing. And God grant, such laurels may forever abound in this Paradise, this garden of the land; that the children of this mother, may environ her like olive plants round about her table ; this perhaps you will count an high thing, to shed the leaf, but what think you of extirpation, and rooting up? even this you shall hear denounced, and executed on those that cast a fair shadow, either as on degenerous or unprofitable trees; either for bad fruit, or none at all, Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground?
But to our purpose; when St. Paul therefore resolves that nothing should ever separate him from the love of God, Rom. viii. sin is there left out of the catalogue; be he never so possessed of that inheritance, for ought he knows this very confidence may root him out again. His Brethren the Jews thought their estate as irreversible as the Pharisees here; and upon as good grounds as he can pretend; the very promise of God to Abraham's seed indefinitely; and yet by that time this Parable was spoken, they can bring him word of the repeal of that promise, within a while sealed and confirmed by their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 their instant utter destruction; a forerunner of which, (if not the cause) was this confidence of their immutable estate.
It was a fancy of the Stoics mentioned by Plutar. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that a wise man could do nothing amiss, that all that he did was wise and virtuous. And they that will have men saved and damned by a Stoical necessity, nowadays, may borrow this fancy of the Stoics also: but Homer, saith he, and Euripides long since exploded it. I am sure St. Paul will fairly give any man leave, that takes himself to be in a good estate now, to fear a bad before he die; to expect a tempest in a calm; or else he would not have been so earnest with him that thinks he stands, to take heed lest he fall, 1 Cor. x.12. It was the confidence of a Turk (i. e.) a Stoic revived, in Nicetas Chon. that said he knew they must overcome, on now forever, as having got 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an habit of conquering: and it was well if this assurance did not take the pains to lose it him again. It is the Rhetoric of discreet Captains to their Soldiers in Thucydides, and other Historians, to exhort them to fight on comfortably and courageously, as having overcome, in remembrance of their past victories as pawns, and pledges of the future: but 'tis always on condition and presumptions of the same diligence and valor, which formerly they shown; and the same military encouragements and munition, the Fathers frequently furnish us with against our spiritual warfare, but all rather to increase our diligence than security; to set us to work on hope of success, not to nourish us in idleness in hope of a victory. If we should suffer the Devil from this proposition, he will give his Angels charge that a child of his shall not dash his foot against a stone ; and then that assumption, thou art the child of God; to conclude, that thou canst not hurt thyself with a fall, he would straight back that with a Mitte te deorsum, Cast thyself down to show what thou canst do; and then if thou hast not another scriptum est to rejoinder, thou shalt not tempt, (then this confidence is tempting of God) I know not how thou wilt be able to escape a precipice, a bruise if not a breaking. The Valentinian having resolved himself to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , spiritual, confessed indeed that other men must get some store of faith, and works to help them to Heaven, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Iren. But they had no need of either, because of their natural spiritualness ; that which is spiritual cannot part with its spiritual hypostasis, what ever it do or suffer; no more than gold by a sink can lose its luster; or the Sun-beams be defam'd by the dunghill they shine on. They commit all manner of impurity, saith he, and yet they are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , seeds of the election ; the seeds indeed, deep set in the earth, that take root downward, but never bare fruit upward; they never spring at all, except it be towards Hell ; nor sprout out any branch or stalk of works, unless it be of darkness. These forsooth have grace 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as their proper possessions, all others but to use; and so it seemed, for they of all others made no use of it. There was another like fancy in the same Irenaeus, of Marcus and his followers, that by the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a form of baptizing, that they had, that they were become 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 invisible to the judge, then if ever they were apprehended 'twere but calling to the mother of Heaven, and she would send the helmet in Homer, that they should presently vanish out of their hands. Thus have men been befooled by the Devil to believe that their sacred persons could excuse the foulest acts, and, as it was said of Cato, even make crimes innocent ; thus have some gotten the art of sinning securely, nay religiously, as he that in our English History would put his Neighbors in a course to rebel legally. But I hope all these fancies have nothing to do, but fill up the Catalogues in Irenaeus and Epiphanius ; I trust they shall never be able to transplant themselves into our brains or hearts: but pray God there be no credence of them scattered here and there among hasty, ignorant overweening Christians. A man shall sometimes meet abroad some reason to suspect it, yet 'twere pity to fear so far as to set to confute them. There may be indeed a state and condition of Christians so well settled and riveted by Christ in grace, that their estate may be comfortably believed immutable, an election under oath, perhaps that mentioned by the Psalmist, I have sworn by my holiness, I will not fail David ; for spiritual blessings are frequently in Scripture conveyed along with temporal. But it is much to be doubted, that those men that have boldness to believe this of themselves, have not ballast enough of humility and fear, to make it good. Porphyry had so much Divinity in him, as to observe that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 were the only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that perpetual washings, and purgings and lustrations, were the only means to defend or deliver from evil, either to come or present; the only Amulets and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the world; 'tis the rainbow in the Heaven reflected thither from a cloud of tears below, that is, God's engagement never again to drown the earth. But then there must be also another bow in the heart, that must promise for that, that it shall not be like a deceitful bow, go back again to folly, never again be drowned with swinish, bestial, filthy lusts. In the seventeenth of Exodus, the Israelites prevailed against Amalek, and that miraculously without any sensible means; and verse 16. the promise is made for the future, that the Lord will fight with Amalek forever ; where, by the way, the LXX. put in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God will fight against Amalek as it were under hand, by secret hidden strength; which addition of theirs (if it were inspired into the Translators, as St. Augustine is of opinion, all their variations from the Hebrew are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and so Canon) then happily that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may signify some secret infusion of supernatural power into Moses his hands, that there is promised, answerable to that same effusion of grace, to enable all the People of God in our fight with sin, the spiritual Amalek, by which grace Moses and the Christians have assurance to prevail. And this may be ground enough for a Christian; Christ hath prayed, and God promised, that your faith shall not fail. But then all this while, the story of the day will tell us, on what terms this security of victory stood, if so be Moses continue to hold up his hands; noting 1. the power of prayer ; 2. of obedience ; 3. of perseverance ; and upon these terms even a Pharisee may be confident without presumption: but if his hands be once let down; if he remit of his Christian valor (for so manus demittere signifies in Agonisticks) Amalek prevails, Verse 11. Just as it fared with Samson ; he had an inconceivable portion of strength, even a ray of God's omnipotence bestowed on him, but this not upon term of life, but of his Nazarites vow (i. e.) as the LXXII. render it, Numb. vi.2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a prayer as well as a vow ; and that, of separating or hallowing purity and sanctity to the Lord ; and his vow being broken, not only that of his hair, but with it, that of his holy obedience; that piece of Divinity presently vanished, and the Philistines deprived him of his eyes and life. And thereupon it is observable, that Numb. xv.9. that which is in the Hebrew in performing a vow is rendered by the LXXII. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to magnify a vow ; then is the vow or resolution truly great, that will stand us instead, when it is performed. As for all others, they remain as brands and monuments of reproach to us; upbraiding us of our inconstancy first, then of disobedience; and withal, as signs to warn, that God's strength is departed from us. I doubt not but this strength being thus lost, may return again before our death, giving a plunge, as it did in Samson, when he plucked the House about their ears at last, Jud. xvi. But this must be by the growing out of the hair again, Verse 22. the renewing of his repentance and sanctity with his vow, and by prayer unto God, verse 28. Lord God, or as the LXXII. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me ; but for all this, it was said before in the 19. verse, his strength, and in the 20. verse, the Lord was departed from him. And so no doubt it may from us, if we have no better security for ourselves than the present possession, and a dream of perpetuity. For though no man can excommunicate himself by one rule, yet he may by another, in the Canon Law ; that there be some faults excommunicate a man ipso facto ; one who hath committed them, the Law excommunicates, though the Judge do not: you need not the application; there be perhaps some sins and Devils like the Carian Scorpions, which Apollonius and Antigonus mention out of Aristotle, which when they strike strangers, do them no great hurt, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , presently kill their own country-men ; some Devils perhaps that have power to hurt only their own subjects; as sins of weakness and ignorance, though they are enough to condemn an unregenerate man, yet we hope, through the merits of Christ into whom he is engrafted, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , shall do little hurt to the regenerate, unless it be only to keep him humble, to cost him more sighs and prayers. But then, saith the same Apollonius there, your Babylonian snakes that are quite contrary, do no great hurt to their own Country-men, but are present death to strangers; and of this number, it is to be feared, may presumption prove, and spiritual pride; sins that that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Devils natives, ordinary habitual sinners need not much to fear; but to the stranger, and him that is come from far, thinking himself, as St. Paul was, dropt out of the third Heaven, and therefore far enough from the infernal country, 'tis to be feared I say, they may do much mischief to them. And therefore as Porphyry says of Plotinus in his life, and that for his commendation; that he was not ashamed to suck when he was eight years old, but as he went to the Schools frequently diverted to his nurse ; so will it concern us for the getting of a consistent firm habit of soul, not to give over the nurse when we are come to age and years in the spirit, to account ourselves babes in our virility, and be perpetually a calling for the dug, the sincere milk of the word, of the Sacraments, of the Spirit, and that without any coyness or shame, be we in our own conceits, nay in the truth, never so perfect, full grown men in Christ Jesus.
And so much be spoken of the first point proposed, the Pharisees flattering misconceit of his own estate; and therein implicitly of the Christians premature deceivable persuasions of himself; 1. thinking well of ones self on what grounds soever; 2. overprizing of his own worth and graces; 3. his opinion of the consistency and immutability of his condition, without either thought of what's past, or fear of what's to come. Many other misconceits may be observed, if not in the Pharisee, yet in his parallel the ordinary confident Christian ; as 1. that God's decree of election is terminated in their particular and individual entities, without any respect to their qualifications and demeanors. 2. That all Christian faith is nothing but assurance, a thing which I touched 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Preface, and can scarce forbear now I meet with it again. 3. That the Gospel consists all of promises of what Christ will work in us, no whit of precepts or prohibitions. 4. That it is a state of ease altogether and liberty, no whit of labor and subjection; but the Pharisee would take it ill if we should digress thus far, and make him wait for us again at our return. We hasten therefore to the second part, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or natural importance of the words, and there we shall find him standing apart, and thanking God only perhaps in complement; his posture and language give notice of his pride, the next thing to be touched upon.
Pride is a vice either 1. in our natures, 2. in our educations, or 3. taken upon us for some ends: The first is a disease of the soul, which we are inclined to by nature; but actuated by a full diet, and inflation of the soul, through taking in of knowledge, virtue, or the like; which is intended indeed for nourishment for the soul, but through some vice in the digestive faculty, turns all into air and vapors, and windiness, whereby the soul is not fed but distended, and not filled but troubled, and even tortured out of itself. To this first kind of pride may be accommodate many of the old fancies of the Poets and Philosophers, the Giants fighting with God, (i. e.) the ambitious daring approaches of the soul toward the unapproachable light, which cost the Angels so dear, and all Mankind in Eve, when she ventured to taste of the Tree of Knowledge. Then, the fancy of the Heathens mentioned by Athenagoras, that the souls of those giants were Devils; that 'tis the Devil indeed that old Serpent, that did in Adam 's time, and doth since animate and actuate this proud soul, and set it a moving. And Philoponus saith, that winds and tumours (i. e.) lusts and passions, those troublesome impressions in the soul of man, are the acceptablest sacrifices, the highest feeding to the Devils; nay to the very damned in Hell, who rejoice as heartily to hear of the conversion of one virtuous, or learned man to the Devil, of such a brave proselyte, I had almost said, as the Angels in Heaven at the repentance and conversion of a sinner. This is enough I hope to make you keep down this boiling and tumultuousness of the soul, lest it make you either a prey, or else companions for Devils; and that's but a hard choice, nay a man had far better be their food than their associates, for then there might be some end hoped for, by being devoured; but that they have a villanous quality in their feeding, they bite perpetually but never swallow, all jaws and teeth, but neither throats nor stomachs; which is noted perhaps by that phrase in the Psalmist, Death gnaweth upon the wicked, is perpetually a gnawing, but never devours or puts over.
Pride in our education, is a kind of tenderness and chilness in the soul, that some people by perpetual softness are brought up to, that makes them uncapable and impatient of any corporal or spiritual hardness; a squeasiness and rising up of the heart against any mean, vulgar or mechanical condition of men; abhorring the foul clothes and rags of a beggar, as of some venomous beast: and consequently as supercilious and contemptuous of any piece of God's service, which may not stand with their ease and state, as a starchit Gallant is of anything that may disorder his dress. Thus are many brought up in this City to a loathing and detestation of many Christian duties, of alms-deeds, and instructing their Families in points of religion; of visiting and comforting the sick, nay even of the service of God, if they may not keep their state there; but specially of the public prayers of the Church, nothing so vulgar and contemptible in their eyes as that. But I spare you, and the Lord in mercy do so also.
The third kind of pride is a supercilious affected haughtiness, that men perhaps meekly enough disposed by nature, are fain to take upon them for some ends; a solemn censorious majestic garb, that may entitle them to be patriots of such or such a faction; to gain a good opinion with some, whose good opinion may be their gain. Thus was Mahomet fain to take upon him to be a Prophet, and pretend that 'twas discoursing with the Angel Gabriel made him in that case, that his new wife might not know that he was Epileptical, and so repent of her match with a beggar, and a diseased person. And upon these terms Turcism first came into the world, and Mahomet was cried up 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the greatest Prophet (to omit other witness) as the Saracen fragments tell us, that we have out of Euthymius. Thus are imperfections and wants, sometimes even diseases both of body and mind, assumed and affected by some men, to get authority to their persons, and an opinion of extraordinary religion; but rather perhaps more Oil to their Cruse, or custom to their trading. But not to flutter thus at large any longer, or pursue the common-place in its latitude, the Pharisees pride here expresseth itself in three things; 1. his posture, standing apart; 2. his manner of praying, altogether by way of thanksgiving: 3. his malicious contemptuous eye upon the Publican. The first of these may be aggravated against the schismatic that separates from the Church, or customs, but especially Service and Prayers of the Church. 'It is pride certainly that makes this man set himself thus apart, whereas the very first sight of that holy place strikes the humble Publican upon the knees of his heart afar off; as soon as he was crept within the gates of the Temple, he is more devout in the Porch, than the Pharisee before the Altar. The 2 d. against those that come to God in the pomp of their souls, commending themselves to God, as we ordinarily use the phrase, commending indeed not to his mercy, but acceptance; not as objects of his pity, but as rich spiritual Presents; not tears to be received into his bottle, but jewels for his treasure. Always upon terms of spiritual exultancy, what great things God hath done for their souls; how he hath fitted them for himself; never with humbled bended knees in acknowledgment of unworthiness with St. Paul, who cannot name that word, sinners, but must straight subsume in a parenthesis, of whom I am the chief, 1 Tim. i.15. and for the expression of the opinion he had of his own sanctity, is fain to coin a word for the purpose, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a word not to be met with in all Greek Authors again before he used it; less than the least of the Saints, Ephes. iii.8. And Jacob in a like phrase, I am less than all thy mercies, Gen. xxxii.10. The Litany that begins and ends with so many repetitions importuning for mercy, even conjuring God by all powerful names of rich mercy that can be taken out of his Exchequer, to have mercy upon us miserable sinners, this is set aside for the Publican, the sinners Liturgy; nay as some say, for the profane people only, not to pray but to swear by. But this only as in transitu, not to insist on. The 3 d. expression of his pride is his malicious sullen eye upon the Publican, and that brings me to the next thing proposed at first, the Pharisees censoriousness and insinuated accusations of all others, I am not as other men, extortioners, &c. or even as this Publican.
'Twere an ingenuous speculation, and that which would stand us in some stead in our spiritual warfare, to observe what hints and opportunities the Devil takes from men's natural inclinations, to insinuate and ingratiate his temptations to them; how he applies still the fuel to the fire, the nourishment to the craving stomach; and accommodates all his proposals most seasonably and suitably to our affections; not to enlarge this, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the gross, nor yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to each particular; you may have a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or taste of it in the Pharisee.
To an easy natured man whose soul is relaxit, and has its pores open to receive any infection or taint, the Devil presents a multitude of adulterers, drunkards, &c. Thereby to distill the poison softly into him; to sweeten the sin and secure him in the commission of it, by store of companions: But to a Pharisee, rugged, singular, supercilious person, he proposeth the same object under another color. The many adulterers, &c. that are in the world not to entice, but to incense him the more against the sin; not to his imitation, but to his spleen and hatred: that seeing he can hope to gain nothing upon him, by bringing him in love with their sin, he may yet inveigle him, by bringing him in hatred with their persons; and plunge him deeper through uncharitableness, than he could hope to do by lust. He knows well the Pharisees constitution's too austere to be caught with an ordinary bait, and therefore puts off his title of Beelzebub prince of flies, as seeing that they are not now for his game; but trowls and baits him with a nobler prey, and comes in the person of a Cato or Aristarchus, a severe disciplinarian, a grave Censor, or as his most Satanical name imports, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an accuser, and then the Pharisee bites presently. He could not expect to allure him forward, and therefore drives him as far back as he can; that so he may be the more sure of him at the rebound; as a skillful woods-man, that by wind-lassing presently gets a shoot, which without taking a compass and thereby a commodious stand, he could never have obtained. The bare open visage of sin is not lovely enough to catch the Pharisee, it must be varnish'd over with a show of piety; with a color of zeal, and tenderness in God's cause; and then, the very devilishest part of the Devil, his malice and uncharitableness, shall go down smoothly with him. And that this stratagem may not be thought proper to the Meridian only where the Pharisee lived; Leo within 500. years after Christ, and other of the Fathers, have observed the same frequently practiced by the Devil among the Primitive Christians; Ut quos vincere flammâ ferroque non poterat, ambitione inflaret, virus invidiae infunderet, & sub falsâ Christiani nominis profession corrumperet ; That they whom persecution could not affright, ambition may puff up, envy poison, and a false opinion of their own Christian purity, betray to all the malice in the World. Thus have Heretics and Sectaries in all ages, by appropriating to themselves those titles that are common to all the children of God, left none for any other, but of contumely and contempt: as soon as they fancy to themselves a part of the spirit of God, taken upon them the monopoly of it also. Thus could not the Valentinians be content to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 themselves; but all the world beside, must be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , animal and earthly. 'Twere long to reckon up to you the Idiomes and characters that Heretics have usurped to themselves, in opposition and reproach, and even defiance of all others; the Pharisees separati, Sadducees justi, Novatians 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , puri, Messalians precantes. As if these several virtues, separation from the world, love of justice, purity, daily exercise of prayer, were nowhere to be found but amongst them. Even that judicious, learned, eloquent, yea and godly Father Tertullian, is caught in this pit-fall; as soon as he began to relish Montanus his heresy, he strait changeth his style, Nos spirituales, and all other Orthodox Christians Psychici, animal, carnal men. The Devil could not be content that he had gained him to Montanism (an heresy which 'tis confessed, only a superlative care of Chastity, abstinence, and martyrdom, brought him to) but he must rob him of his charity too, as well as his religion. Not to keep any longer on the wing in pursuit of this censorious humor in the Pharisee, and Primitive heretics, the present temper and constitution of the Church of God, will afford us plenty of observation to this purpose: Amongst other crimes with which the reformation charge the Romanists, what is there that we so importunately require of them as their charity ? that seeing with the Apostolical seat, they have seized upon the Keys of Heaven also; they would not use this power of theirs so intemperately, as to admit none but their own proselytes into those gates, which Christ hath opened to all believers. For this cause, saith Eulogius in Photios, were the Keys given to Peter, not to John or any other, because Christ foresaw Peter would deny him, that so by the memory of his own failings, he might learn humanity to sinners, and be more free of opening the Gates of Heaven, because he himself (had it not been for special mercy) had been excluded; other Apostles, saith he, having never fallen so foully, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , might like enough have used sinners more sharply ; but 'twas not probable that Peter would be such a severe Cato ; and yet there is not a more unmerciful man under Heaven, than he that now tyrannizeth in his Chair. Spalatensis indeed, after his revolt from us, could ingeniously confess, that he could have expected comfortably, and perhaps have been better pleased to have been saved in the Church of England, with a 1000l. a year, as in the Roman with 500l. But do not all others of them count this no less than heresy in him thus to hope? Cudsemius the Jesuit denies the English Nation to be Heretics, because they remain under a continual succession of Bishops. But alas! how few be there of them, which have so much charity to afford us? What fulminations and clattering of Clouds is there to be heard in that Horizon? What Anathematizing of heretics (i. e.) Protestants? what excommunicating them without any mercy, first out of the Church, then out of the book of life; and lastly, where they have power, out of the Land of the living? And yet, would they be as liberal to us poor Protestants, as they are to their own Stews and Seminaries of all uncleanness, then should we be stored with indulgences. But 'twas Tertullian 's of old, that there is no mercy from them to be expected, who have no crime to lay against us, but that we are true Christians. If they would but allow one corner of Heaven to receive penitent humble Protestants, laboring for good works, but depending on Christ's merit; if they would not think us past hopes, or prayers, there might be possibly hoped some means of uniting us all in one fold. But this precious Christian grace of Charity being now so quite perishit from off the earth, what means have we left us, but our prayers to prepare, or mature this reconciliation? Shall we then take heart also, and bring in our action of trespass? Shall we sit and pen our railing accusation in the form that Christ uses against the Pharisees, Mat. xxiii.13. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites, for you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in? This we might do upon better grounds, were we so revengefully disposed; but we fear to incur our Savior's censure, Luke ix.55. And he turned, and rebukit them saying, Ye know not what manner of spirits ye are of. We should much mistake our Christian spirit, if we should not in return to their curses, intercede with God in prayer for them; First, that he will bestow on them the grace of meekness or charity; then, sincerity and uprightness, without willful blindness and partiality; and lastly, to intercede for the salvation of all our souls together. And this is the only way St. Paul hath left us, Rom. xii.20. by returning them good to melt them, hoping and praying in the words of Solomon, that by long forbearing, this great Prince of the West will be persuaded ; and that our soft tongues may in time break the bone. But whilst we preach charity to them, shall we not betray partiality in ourselves, by passing over that uncharitable fire that is breaking out in our own Chimnies? 'Twere to be wished that this Christian grace, which is liberal enough of itself, would be entertained as gratefully as it is preached; we should not then have so many 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sons of fire amongst us as we have; who being inflamed, some with faction, others with ignorant prejudice, others with doting on their own abilities, fall out into all manner of intemperate censures 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 words of the sword, all sharp contumelious invectives against all persons, or doctrines, or lives, that are not ordered or revised by them. For what Photios out of Josephus observes among others to have been one main cause or prognostic of the destruction of Jerusalem, the civil wars betwixt the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Zealots and the Cut-throats, pray God we find not the same success amongst us. Whilst the Zealots, saith he, fell on the Sicarii, the whole body of the City 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , was bitterly and unmercifully butcher'd betwixt them ; and under one of those two names all the People were brought to suffer their part in the massacre. I desire not to chill or damp you with unnecessary fears, or to suspect that our sins shall be so unlimited, as utterly to out-vie and over-reach God's mercies. But, beloved, this ill blood that is generally nourishit amongst us, if it be not a Prognostick of our fate, is yet an ill Symptom of our disease. These convulsions and distortions of one member of the body from another as far as it can possibly be distended, this burning heat, and from thence raving and disquietness of the soul, are certainly no very comfortable Symptoms. When the Church and Kingdom must be dichotomiz'd, precisely divided into two extreme parts, and all moderate persons by each extreme tossed to the other with furious prejudice, must brand all for Heretics or carnal persons, that will not undergo their razor: And then, the contrary extreme, censure and scoff at their preciseness, that will not bear them company to every kind of riot. These, beloved, are shrewd feverish distempers, pray God they break not forth into a flame. When the boat that goes calmly with the stream, in the midst of two impetuous rowers, shall be assaulted by each of them, for opposing or affronting each; when the moderate Christian shall be branded on the one hand for preciseness, on the other for intemperance, on the one side for a Puritan, on the other for a Papist, or a Remonstrant, when he that keeps himself from either extreme, shall yet be entitled to both; what shall we say is become of that ancient Primitive charity and moderation? The use, beloved, that I desire to make of all this, shall not be to declaim at either; but only by this compass to find out the true point that we must sail by. By this, saith Aristotle, you shall know the golden mediocrity, that it is complained on both sides, as if it were both extremes ; that may you define to be exact liberality, which the covetous man censures for prodigality, and the prodigal for covetousness. And this shall be the sum not only of my advice to you, but prayers for you; that in the Apostles phrase, your moderation may be known unto all men, by this livery and cognizance, that you are indicted by both extremes. And if there be any such Satanical art crept in amongst us, of authorizing errors or sins on one side, by pretending zeal and earnestness against their contraries; as Photios observes that it was a trick of propagating heresies, by writing books intitled to the confutation of some other heresy; the Lord grant that this evil spirit may be either laid or cast out; either fairly led, or violently hurried out of our coasts.
I have done with the Pharisees censoriousness, I come now in the last place to the ground, or rather occasion of it; his seeing the Publican, comparing himself with notorious sinners, I thank thee that, &c.
That verse 1 Cor. xv.33. which St. Paul cites out of Menanders Thais, that wicked communication corrupts good manners, is grounded on this moral essay, that nothing raiseth up so much to good and great designs as emulation; that he that casts himself upon such low company, that he hath nothing to imitate or aspire to in them, is easily persuaded to give over any farther pursuit of virtue, as believing that he hath enough already, because none of his acquaintance hath anymore: thus have many good wits been cast away, by falling unluckily into bad times, which could yield them no hints for invention, no examples of poetry, nor encouragement for anything that was extraordinary. And this is the Pharisees fate in my Text, that looking upon himself, either in the deceivable glass of the sinful world, or in comparison with notorious sinners, extortioners, adulterers, Publicans, sets himself off by these foils, finds nothing wanting in himself, so is solaced with a good comfortable opinion of his present estate, and a slothful negligence of improving it. And this, beloved, is the ordinary lenitive which the Devil administers to the sharp unquiet diseases of the conscience, if at any time they begin to rage, the only conserve that he folds his bitterest receipts in, that they may go down undiscerned; that we are not worse than other men; that we shall be sure to have companions to Hell; nay, that we need not neither at all fear that danger; for if Heaven gates be so strait as not to receive such sinners as we, the rooms within are like to be but poorly furnished with guests; the marriage feast will never be eaten, unless the lame, and cripples in the street or hospital be fetched in to fill the table. But, beloved, the comforts with which the Devil furnisheth these men, are, (if they were not merely feigned and phantastical) yet very beggarly and lamentable, such as Achilles in Homer would have scorned, only to be chief among the dead, or Princes and eminent persons in Hell. We must set our emulation higher than so, somewhat above the ordinary pitch or mark. Let our designs fly at the same white, that the skillfullest marks-men in the army of Saints and Martyrs have aimed at before us; that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Church, the religious exercisers and champions and trophe-bearers of this holy martial field have dealt in. 'It is a poor boast to have out-gone Heathens and Turks in virtue and good works; to be taller than the dwarfs, as it were, and Pygmies of the world; we must not be thus content, but outvy even the sons of Anak, those tall, giantly supererogatory undertakings of the proudest, nay humblest Romanists. O what a disgrace will it be for us Protestants at the dreadful day of doom! O what an accession not only to our torments, but our shame, and indignation at ourselves, to see the expectation of meriting in a Papist, nay the desire of being counted virtuous in a Heathen, attended with a more pompous train of charitable magnificent deeds, of constant magnanimous sayings, than all our faith can show, or vouch for us. Shall not the Romanist triumph and upbraid us in St. James his language, Chap. ii.18. Thou hast faith, and I have works ; and all that we can fetch out of St. Paul, not able to stop his mouth from going on, Shew me thy faith without thy works, as our English reads it out of the Syriac and vulgar Latin, and I will show thee my faith by my works ? 'Twill be but a nice distinction for thee then to say, that works are to be separated from the act of justification, when they are found separated à supposito, from the person also. But not to digress, the Pharisee seems here pretty well provided, No extortioner, no adulterer, guilty of no injustice. And how many be there among you, that cannot go thus far with the Pharisee? Some vice or other perhaps there is, that agrees not with your constitution or education; drunkenness is not for one man's turn, prodigality for another's, and I doubt not but that many of you are as forward as the Pharisee to thank God, or rather require God to thank them, that they are not given to such, or such a vice. But if you were to be required here, to what the Pharisee undertakes, if you were to be arraigned at that severe tribunal, I say not concerning your thoughts and evil communications, but even the gross actual, nay habitual sins; if a Jury or a rack were set to inquire into you thoroughly, how many of you durst pretend to the Pharisees innocence, and confidence, that you are not extortioners, unjust, adulterers? Nay, how many be there that have all the Pharisees pride and censoriousness, and all these other sins too into the vantage? Certainly there is not one place in the Christian world, that hath more reason to humble itself for two or all three of these vices, than this City wherein you live. I am sorry I have said this, and I wish it were uncharitably spoken of me; but though it will not become me to have thought it of you, yet 'twill concern you to suspect it of yourselves, that by acknowledging your guilts, you may have them cancel'd, and by judging yourselves, prevent being judged of the Lord. And here Saint Chrysostom 's caution will come in very seasonably toward a conclusion of all, that the Publicans sins be not prefer'd before the Pharisees works, but only before his pride. 'It is not his store of moral virtues that was like to prove the Pharisees undoing, but his over-valuing them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith the Stoic, appliable to this also. 'It is not his innocence that hath so encumbered him all this while, but his opinion of it. The fasting and the tithing must not be cast away, because the Pharisee was proud of them, this were a furious discipline which would down with all violently, that had ever been abused to idolatry or sin; or with him in Plutarch, that because Poetry had some ill consequences sometimes, would have the Muses and their favorites dispatched into Epicurus his boat. His counsel was more seasonable, that to prevent drunkenness, appointed them to mix water with their wine, that the mad god might be allayed with a tame sober one; and that is the caution that I told you of, that you abstract the Pharisees works from his pride; and then borrow the Publicans humility from his works; that you come to the Temple of God with all the provision a Pharisee can boast of, and then lay it down all at the Publicans feet, and take up his miserere, his sighs, his dejection, his indignation at himself instead of it, then shall you be fit to approach to that templum misericordiae which Gerson speaks of, sine simulacro, &c. that had not a picture or image of a Saint in it, no manner of ostentation or show of works, non sacrificiis sed gemitibus, &c. not to be visited with sacrifices but sighs, not to be filled with triumphant 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , songs of rejoicing and victories, but with the calm and yet ravishing Rhetoric of the Publican, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Lord be merciful to me a sinner. Even so, O Lord, deal thou with us, according to thy mercies, visit us with thy salvation, draw us with thy mercies, and enlighten us with thy spirit, thy humbling spirit to season us with a sense of our sins and unworthiness; thy sanctifying spirit to fill us here with all holy sincere requisite graces; and in the spirit of thy power to accomplish us hereafter with that immarcessible crown of glory.
Now to him, &c.
SERMON IX.
MATT. III.3.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
T HAT our Preface may afford some light to our proceeding, that it may prepare the way and stand us instead hereafter in our discourse of preparation, we will employ it to observe that natural progress and method of all things, which consists in steps and degrees: travelling on by those gifts which nature hath set them from one stage to another, from a lower degree of perfection to an higher, built upon this ground of nature, that the first things are always least perfect, yet absolutely necessary to the perfection of the last: and in sum, so much the more necessary, by how much less perfect. Thus is the foundation more necessary to an house, than the walls, and the first stone than the whole foundation, because the walls are necessary only to the setting on of the roof, not to the laying of the foundation; the foundation necessary both to the walls and roof, but not to the first stone; because that may be laid without the whole foundation: but the first stone necessary to all the rest, and therefore of greatest and most absolute necessity. The course of nature is delineated and expressed to us by the like proceedings and method of Arts and Sciences. So those general principles that are most familiar to us, are the poorest and yet most necessary rudiments required to any deeper speculation: the first stage of the understanding in its peregrination or travel into those foreign parts of more hidden knowledge, is usually very short; and 'tis most requisite it should be so; for beginning at home with some 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and taking its rise at its own threshold, thereby it advances the length, and secures the success of the future voyage. Thus in Politicks hath the body of Laws from some thin beginnings under Lycurgus, Sol • n, Phaleas, and the like, by daily accessions and farther growth at last increased into a fair bulk; every age perfecting somewhat, and by that degree of perfection, making the matter capable of a farther; so that the very Politicks themselves, as well as each Commonwealth, have been observed to have their infancy, youth, and manhood, the last of which is the only perfect state; which yet this body had never attained to, had it not been content to submit itself to the imperfection of the former. Thus also in practical Philosophy there be some praeambula operationis, some common precepts which must be instill'd into us, to work a consistency in our tempers, firm enough for the undertaking and performing all moral tasks. One excellent one Aristole learnt from Plato, in the second of the Ethics, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a skill of ordering those two passions aright, joy and sorrow, an habit never to rejoice or grieve but on just occasion: which lesson we must conn perfectly when we are young; and then with years an easy discipline will bring on virtue of its own accord. Lastly, in the transcendent knowledge of Metaphysics, which Aristotle would fain call wisdom; 'tis the Philosophers labor, which they were very sedulous in, to invent and set down rules to prepare us for that study: the best that Aristotle hath, is in the third of Metaph. to examine and inform ourselves, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which things are chiefly worth doubting of, and searching after: in which one thing if we would observe his counsel, if we would learn to doubt only of those things which are worth our knowledge, we should soon prove better Scholars than we are. Jamblichus, beyond all the rest, most to the purpose prescribes retiredness and contempt of the World, that so we might 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , even live and be nourished by the excursions of the mind towards God ; where indeed he speaks more like a Christian than a Pythagorean, as if he had learnt Christ, to deny himself and the world, and follow him, and intended to come to that pitch and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which St. Paul speaks of, Gal. ii.20. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith, &c. But to conclude this praecognoscendum, there be throughout all works of nature, and imitations of art, some imperfect grounds on which all perfection is built, some common expressions with which the understanding is first signed: some ground-colors without the laying on of which, no perfect effigies or pourtraicture can be drawn. Nay thus it is in some measure in spiritual matters also; we are men before we are Christians: there is a natural life, and there is a spiritual life. And as in the resurrection, 1 Cor. xv.46. so also in the spiritual 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the soul, first that which is natural, and after that which is spiritual: and in the spiritual life there be also its periods, the infancy, the youth, and virility of the spirit; the first being most imperfect, yet most necessary, and preparing the way to the last perfection. To bring all home to the business in hand: thus did it not befit the Savior of the World to come abruptly into it; to put on f • esh, as soon as flesh had put on sin: the business was to be done by degrees, and after it had been a long time in working, for the final production of it, the fullness of time was to be expected. The Law had its time of paedagogy to declare itself, and to be obeyed as his Usher for many years: and after all this, he appears not in the World, till his Baptist hath proclaimed him: he makes not toward his Court till his Harbinger hath taken up the rooms. He comes not to inhabit either in the greater or lesser Jewry, the World, or Man's heart, till the Precursor hath warned all to make ready for him, and this is the voice of the Precursor his Sermon and the words of my Text, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Instead of dividing the words I shall unite them, and after I have construed them to you, contrive that into one body which would not conveniently be dismembered. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies to sit, to prepare, to make ready. Ye ] are all those to whom Christ should ever come. The ways of the Lord ] are whatsoever is capable of receiving of Christ or his Gospel, peculiarly the hearts of the elect. The form of speech imperative, notes the whole complexum to be one single duty required of all the Baptists and my Auditors, sub hac formâ, that every man's heart must be prepared for the receiving of Christ, or punctually to imitate the order of the words in my Text, the preparation of the soul is required for Christ's birth in us. For there is in every elect vessel a spiritual 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or mystical incarnation of Christ, where the soul like Mary is first overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, then conceives, then carries in the womb, grows big, and at last falls into travail and brings forth Christ. My Text goes not thus far, to bring to the Birth, neither will I. My discourse shall be happy if it may be his Baptist, his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in your hearts, to prepare them for his birth, which I shall endeavor to do, first by handling preparation in general ; 2. The preparation here specified of the soul ; 3. In order to Christ's birth in us.
And first of preparation in general: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , prepare ye, or make ready : the necessity of this performance to any undertaking, may appear by those several precedaneous methods in common life, which have nothing in themselves to ingratiate them unto us, but cost much toil and trouble, yet notwithstanding are submitted to. If the Earth would answer the Farmer's expectation without any culture or husbandry, he would never be so prodigal towards it. But seeing it hath proposed its fruitfulness under condition of our drudgery; we plow and harrow and manure and drain and weed it, or else we are sure to fare the worse at harvest. The variety of preparations in these low affairs, was by Cato and Varro and Columella accounted a pretty piece of polite necessary learning. And a Christian, if he will apply their rules to his spiritual Georgicks, the culture of his soul, shall be able to husband it the better; and by their directions, have a further insight into those fallow-grounds of his own heart, which the Prophet speaks of. 'Twere a great, and perhaps unnecessary journey, to trace over the whole world of creatures, to perfect this observation: almost every passage of nature will furnish you with an example. Hence is it, that they that had nothing but natural reason to instruct them, were assiduous in this practice, and never ventured on any solemn business, without as solemn endeavors to fit themselves for the work they took in hand; those series of preparations before the ancient Athletica, as anointing, and bathing, and rubbing and dust, 'twere fit enough for a Sermon to insist on, the exercise which they prepared for, being reputed sacred and parts of their solemnest worship; and the moral of them, would prove of good use to discipline, and to bring us up to those spiritual Agones mentioned in Scripture, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Eph. iv.14. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Cor. ix.26. and in the same place, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and its preparative 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Wrestling, cuffing, and running, three of the five Olympian games adopted as it were into the Church, and spiritualized by the Apostle for our imitation. But to pass by these and the like as less apposite for our discourse, what shall we think? Was it superstition, or rather mannerliness, that made the Graecian Priests so rub and wash and scour themselves, before they would meddle with a sacrifice? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it was, and that we construe superstition ; but indeed it signifies an awe and reverence to the Deity they worship, and a fear and a care lest the unpreparedness of the Priest, should pollute their sacrifice; as 'tis much to be feared, that our holiest duties, for want of this care, are turned into sin; the vanities and faults of our very prayers, adding to the number of those guilts we pray against, and every sacrifice even of atonement itself needing some expiation. To look a while on the highest part, and as it were the Sacraments of their Religion, their Eleusinia sacra, resembling in one respect Christian Baptism, in another, holy Orders: What a multitude of rites and performances were required of everyone, before his admission to them? For their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 being divided into two classes, the less or lower sort were praeludia to the greater, or as the Scholiast on Aristophanes hath it more clearly to our purpose, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a praemundation or praesanctification of them that sued to be admitted higher: as Baptism, Confirmation, and a Christian education in the Church, fits us for the participations of those mysteries which the other Sacraments present to us; so that it punctually notes that preparation we here talk of: for before they were admitted to those grand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they were (saith Soudas ) to spend a year or two in a lower form, undergo a shop of purgations, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and many more; so that Tertullian could not without wonder and praise of their solemnities, observe tot suspiria epoptarum, & multam in adytis divinitatem. 'Twas no mean toil nor ordinary merit, that was required to make them capable of these 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Aristophanes calls them. The ground of all the ceremony we may observe to be the natural impurity which the Heathens themselves acknowledge to be in every man: as may appear most distinctly by Jamblichus, though they knew not clearly at what door it came in at: sure they were they found it there, and therefore their own reason suggested them, that things of an excellent purity, of an inherent or at least an adherent sanctity, were not to be adventured on by an impure nature, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Clement, till it had by some laborious prescribed means, somewhat rid itself of its pollutions; and this the Barbarian did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (saith he) thinking the bare washing of the outward parts sufficient: but the Grecians, whom learning had made more substantial in their Worship, required moreover an habituate temper of passions, longam castimoniam & sedatam mentem, that the inward calmness and serenity of the affections, might perform the promises of the outward purity. In sum, when they were thus qualified and had fulfilled the period, or circle of their purgation required to their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , they were at length admitted intra adyta ad epoptica sacra, where all the mysteries of their Theology were revealed to them. All which seems to me (as much as can be expected from their dim imperfect knowledge) to express the state of grace and saving knowledge in the world; and also the office of ministering in sacred things, into which no man was thought fit to be received or initiated, but he which had undergone a prentiship of purgations; for although those Eleusinia of theirs, at a Christian's examination, would prove nothing but religious delusions, containing some prodigies of their mythical divinity; in sum, but grave specious puppets and solemn serious nothing; yet hence it may appear, that the eye of nature, though cheated in the main, taking that for a sacred mystery, which was but a prodigious vanity, yet kept its self constant in its ceremonies; would not dare or hope to approach abruptly to anything which it could believe to be holy. Now shall we be more saucy in our devotions, and insolent in our approaches to either the throne of Majesty or grace of our true God, than they were to the unprofitable empty 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of their false ? Shall we call the mannerliness of the Heathen up in judgment against the Christian rudeness? 'Twill be an horrid exprobration at the day of Doom, when a neat, washed, respectful Gentile shall put a swinish, miry, negligent Christian to shame; such a one who never took so much care to trim himself to entertain the bridegroom, as the Heathen did to adore an empty gaud, a vain ridiculous bauble. Yet is not their example prescribed you as an accomplishit pattern, as the pitch to aim at and drive no higher; but rather as a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a sarcasm or contumely engrav'd in Marble, to upbraid you mightily if you have not gone so far. All that they practiced was but superficial and referring to the body, and therein, the washing of the out-sides; yours must be inward, and of the soul: which is the next word in the doctrine, the specification of it by the subject noted in the Text by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the way, and expressed in the latter part of the subject of my proposition, the Preparation of the soul.
This Preparation consists in removing those burdens, and wiping off those blots of the soul, which any way deface or oppress it; in scouring off that rust and filth which it contracted in the Womb, and driving it back again as near integrity as may be. And this was the aim and business of the wisest among the Ancients, who conceived it possible fully to repair what was lost, because the privation was not total: and finding some sparks of the primitive flame still warm within them, endeavor'd and hoped hard to enliven them. To this purpose a great company of them, saith St. Austin, puzzled themselves in a design of purging the soul per 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , & consecrationes theurgicas, but all in vain, as Porphyry himself confesses; No man, saith he, by this theurgick Magic could ever purge himself the nearer to God, or wipe his eyes clear enough for such a vision. They indeed went more probably to work, which used no other magic or exorcism to cast out these Devils, to clear and purge the soul, but only their reason, which the Moralist set up and maintained against 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the two ringleaders of sensuality. To this purpose did Socrates, the first and wisest Moralist, furnish and arm the reasonable faculty with all helps and defensations that Philosophy could afford it, that it might be able to shake off and disburthen itself of those encumbrances which naturally weighed and pressed it downward, ut exoneratus animus naturali vigore in aeterna se attollerer: where if that be true which some observe of Socrates, that his professing to know nothing, was because all was taught him by his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; I wonder not that by others his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and consecrated into a Deity: for certainly, never Devil bore so much charity to Mankind, and treachery to his own kingdom, as to instruct him in the cleansing of his soul; whereby those strong holds of Satan are undermined, which cannot subsist but on a stiff and deep Clay foundation. From these beginnings of Socrates, the Moralists ever since have toil'd hard at this task, to get the soul 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Jambl. phrases it, out of that corruption of its birth, that impurity born with it, which the soul contracts by its conversation with the body, and from which, they say, only Philosophy can purge it. For it is Philoponus his observation, that that Canon of the Physicians, That the inclinations of the soul necessarily follow the temper of the body, is by all men set down with that exception implied, unless the Man have studied Philosophy ; for that study can reform the other, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , make the soul contemn the commands, and arm it against the influences and poisons and infections of the body. In sum, the main of Philosophy was to this purpose, to take off the soul from those corporeal dependencies, and so in a manner restore it to its primitive self; that is, to some of that divine perfection with which it was infused, for then is the soul to be beheld in its native shape, when 'tis stripped of all its passions. At other times you do not see the soul, but some froth and weeds of it; as the gray part of the Sea, is not to be called Sea, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , some scurf and foam and weeds that lie on the top of it. So then to this spiritualizing of the soul, and recovering it to the simplicity of its essence, their main precepts were to quell and suppress 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Maximus Tyrius speaks, that turbulent, prachant common people of the soul, all the irrational affections, and reduce it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , into a Monarchy or regal government, where reason might rule Lord and King. For whensoever any lower affection is suffered to do anything, there, saith Philoponus, we do not work like men, but some other creatures. Whosoever suffers their lower nutritive faculties to act freely, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , these men are in danger to become trees ; that is, by these operations they differ nothing from mere plants. So those that suffer their sensitive appetites, lust and rage to exercise at freedom, are not to be reckoned men, but beasts; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. then only will our actions argue us men, when our reason is at the forge. This was the aim and business of Philosophy to keep us from unmanning ourselves, to restore reason to its scepter, to rescue it from the tyranny of that most atheistical usurper, as Jambl. calls the affections, and from hence, he which lived according to those precepts of Philosophy, was said both by them and Clement, and the Fathers, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and in Austin, Secundum intellectum vivere, to live according to the guidance of the reasonable soul. Which whosoever did, saith Plotinus, though by it in respect of divinity he was not perfect, yet at last should be sure to find a gracious providence, first to perfect, then to crown his natural moderate well tempered endeavor, as Austin cites it out of him, L. 10. de civit. Dei. This whole course and proceedings and assent of the soul, through these Philosophical preparations, to spiritual perfection, is summarily and clearly set down for us in Photios out of Isidorus, Philosophically observed to consist in three steps; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. The first business of the soul is to call in those parts of it which were engaged in any foreign fleshly employment, and retire and collect itself unto itself: and then secondly, it learns to quit itself, to put off the whole natural man, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , its own fashions and conceits; all the notions, all the pride of human reason, and set itself on those things which are nearest kin to the soul, that is spiritual affairs: and then thirdly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it falls into holy enthusiasms and spiritual elevations, which it continues, till it be changed and led into the calm and serenity above the state of man, agreeable to the tranquility and peace which the God's enjoy. And could the Philosophers be their own Scholars, could they exhibit that felicity which they describe and fancy, they might glory in their morality, and indeed be said to have prepared and purged the soul for the receipt of the most pure and spiritual guest. But certainly their speculation out-ran their practice; and their very morality was but Theorical, to be read in their books and wishes, far more legible, than in their lives and their enjoyments. Yet some degrees also of purity, or at least a less measure of impurity they attained to, only upon the expectation and desire of happiness proposed to them upon condition of performance of moral precepts; for all things being indifferently moved to the obtaining of their summum bonum ; all, I say, not only rational agents, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Andronicus saith on the Ethics, which have nothing but nature to incite them to it ; the natural man may, upon a sight and liking of an happiness proposed on severe conditions, call himself into some degrees of moral temper, as best suiting to the performance of the means, and obtaining of the end he looks for; and by this temper be said to be morally better than another, who hath not taken this course to subdue his passions. And this was evident enough among the Philosophers, who were as far beyond the ordinary sort, in severity of conversation, as depth of learning; and read them as profitable precepts in the example of their lives, as ever the Schools breathed forth in their Lectures. Their profession was incompatible with many vices, and would not suffer them to be so rich in variety of sins as the vulgar: and then whatsoever they thus did, an unregenerate Christian may surely perform in a far higher measure, as having more choice of ordinary restrainment from sin, than ever had any heathen; for it will be much to our purpose to take notice of those ordinary restraints by which unregenerate men may be, and are curbed, and kept back from sinning; and these, saith Austin, God affords to the very reprobates, Non continens in ira suas misericordias. Much to this same purpose hath holy Maximus in those admirable Sections, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , where most of the restraints he speaks of, are competible to the unregenerate, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. 1. Fear of men. 2. Denunciation of judgments from Heaven. 3. Temperance and moral virtues : nay sometimes other moral vices, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , vain glory or ostentation of integrity. 4. Natural impressions to do to others as we would be done to. 5. Clearness of judgment in discerning good from evil. 6. An expectation of a reward for anything well done. Lastly, some gripes and twinges of the conscience : to all, add a tender disposition, a good Christian education, common custom of the Country where one lives, where some vices are out of fashion: nay at last, the word of God daily preached ; not a love, but servile fear of it. These I say, and the like may outwardly restrain unregenerate men from riots; may curb and keep them in, and consequently preserve the soul from that weight of the multitude of sins which press down other men to a desperation of mercy. Thus is one unregenerate man less engaged in sin than another, and consequently his soul less polluted ; and so in all likelihood, more capable of the ordinary means of salvation, than the more stubborn habituate sinner; when every aversion, every commission of every sin doth more harden against grace, more alien and set at a greater distance from Heaven: and this briefly we call a moral preparation of the soul; and a purging of it, though not absolutely from sin, yet from some measure of reigning sin, and disposing of it to a spiritual estate: and this is no more than I learn from Bradwardine in his 16. de causa Dei. ch. 37. A servile fear, a sight of some inconvenience, and moral habit of virtue, and the like, Multum retrahunt à peccato, inclinant ad opera bona, & sic ad charitatem, & gratiam, & opera vere grata praeparant & disponunt. And so I come to my last part, to show of what use this preparation of the soul is, in order to Christ's birth in us, the ways of the Lord.
I take no great joy in presenting controversies to your ears out of this place; yet seeing I am already fallen upon a piece of one, I must now go through it; and to quit it as soon as I can, present the whole business unto you in some few propositions, of which some I shall only recite as conceiving them evident enough by their own light; the rest I shall a little insist on, and then apply and drive home the profit of all to your affections. And in this pardon me, for certainly I should never have meddled with it, had not I resolved it a Theory that most nearly concerned your practice, and a speculation that would instruct your wills as well as your understandings. The propositions which contain the sum of the business are these.
1. No preparation in the world can deserve or challenge God's sanctifying grace : the spirit bloweth where it listeth, and cannot by anything in us be predetermin'd to its object or its work.
2. The Spirit is of power to work the conversation of any the greatest sinner : at one minute to strike the most obdurate heart and soften it, and out of the unnatural womb of stones, infinitely more unfruitful than barrenness and age had made the womb of Sarah, to raise up children unto Abraham. According to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of Aristotle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , diseases are sometimes cured, when the patient is at the extremity or height of danger, in an ecstasy and almost quite gone.
3. 'It is an ill Consequence, that because God can and sometimes doth call unprepared sinners, therefore 'tis probable he will deal so with thee in particular, or with unprepared men in general. God doth not work in conversion as a physical agent, to the extent of his power, but according to the sweet disposition and counsel of his Will.
4. In unprepared hearts there be many professed enemies to grace, ill dispositions, ambition, Atheism, pride of spirit, and (in chief) an habit in a voluptuous settled course of sinning, an indefatigable resolute walking after their own lusts. And therefore there is very little hope that Christ will ever vouchsafe to be born in such polluted hardened souls. For 'tis Basil 's observation, that that speech of the fools heart, there is no God, was the cause that the Gentiles were given over to a reprobate sense, and fell headlong 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , into all manner of abominations. Hence it is, that Jobius in Photios, observes that in Scripture some are called Dogs, Mat. xv.26. some unworthy to receive the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, Mat. xiii.11. that some hated the light and came not to it, John iii.20. as if all those had taken a course to make themselves uncapable of mercy, and by a perfect hostility frighted Christ out of their coasts. In the liberal dispensation of miracles in the Gospel you would wonder to see Christ a niggard in his own Country; yet so, in respect of other places, he was, and did not many miracles there, because of their unbelief, Mat. xiii.58. not that their incredulity had manacled him, had shortened his hand, or straitened his power; but that miracles, which when they met with a passive willingness, a contentedness in the patient to receive and believe them, were then the ordinary instruments of faith and conversion, would have been but cast away upon obdurate hearts: so that for Christ to have numbered miracles among his unbelieving Country men no way prepared to receive them, had been an injurious liberality, and added only to their unexcusableness; which contradicts not the Axiom of St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv.22. That some signs are only for unbelievers : for even those unbelievers must have within them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a proneness or readiness to receive them with belief, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. in Jobius, to open to the spirit knocking by those miracles, and improve them to their best profit.
5. Though God needs not, yet he requires moral preparation of us, as an ordinary means to make us more capable of grace: for although according to Saint Austin, Ne ipsâ quidem justitiâ nostrâ indiget Deus : yet according to Salvian's limitation, Eget juxta praceptionem suam, licet non juxta potentiam; eget secundum legem suam, non eget secundum Majestatem. We are to think that God hath use of anything which he commands, and therefore must perform whatever he requires, and not dare to be confident of the end, without the observation of the means prescribed. 'It is too much boldness, if not presumption, to leave all to his omnipotent working, when he hath prescribed us means to do somewhat ourselves.
6. Integrity and Honesty of heart, a sober moral life, and chiefly humility and tenderness of spirit; in sum, whatever degree of Innocence, either study, or fear, or love, or natural disposition can work in us, some or all of which may in some measure be found in some men not yet regenerate, are good preparations for Christ's birth in us: so saith Clement of Philosophy that it doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. make ready and prepare the way against Christ's coming, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , cooperate with other helps that God hath given us; all with this caution, that it doth only prepare, not perfect; facilitate the pursuit of wisdom to us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which God may bestow on us without this means. To this purpose hath Basil a notable Homily, to exhort Scholars to the study of Foreign, human, especially Graecian Learning, and to this end saith he, that we prepare ourselves, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to the Heavenly spiritual Philosophy. In the like kind the Fathers prescribe good works of Charity, observing out of the xix. of St. Matthew, that the distribution of all their substance to the poor, was a praeludium in the Primitive believers to the following of Christ, Prius vendant omnia quàm sequantur : from whence he calls Alms-deeds, exordia quasi & incunabula conversionis nostrae. The like may be said, though not in the same degree of all other courses, quibus carnalium sarcinarum impedimenta projicimus : for if these forementioned preparations be mere works of nature in us, as some would have them, then do they naturally incline the subject for the receiving of grace when it comes, and by sitting, as it were, and organizing the subject, facilitate its entrance; or if they be works of God's restraining preventing grace, as 'tis most orthodoxly agreed on, then are they good harbingers for the sanctifying spirit; good comfortable symptoms, that God will perfect and crown the work which he hath begun in us.
7. God's ordinary course, as far as by events we can judge of it, is to call and save such as are thus prepared. Thus to instance in a few of the first and chiefest. 'Twas appointed by God that she only should be vouchsafed the blessed office of dignity, of being the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Christ 's Mother, who was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith he in Photios, fuller of virtues than any else of her sex could brag off. In like manner, that the rest of the family, Christ's Father and Brethren, in account on earth, should be such whose virtues had bestowed a more eminent opinion, though not place upon them amongst men: so was Joseph and his Sons 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , famous for very just men, James the brother of the Lord 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , holy from the womb (as Eusebius cites it) called by the Jews 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith he, out of Hegesippus, which he interprets 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the stay of the people and justice itself. In brief, if a Cornelius be to be called from Gentilism to Christianity, ye shall find him in the beginning of his character, Acts x.1. to be a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, gave much Alms to the people, and prayed to God always: one cut out as it were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to be the first-fruit of the Gentiles. Now though none of these virtues can be imputed to nature in the substance of them, but acknowledge a more supernatural spiritual agent in them, yet are they to be reckoned as preparations to Christ's birth in them, because they did precede it: for so in respect of his real Incarnation in the world, the type of his spiritual in the soul, Mary was a virtuous pure virgin, before the Holy Ghost over shadowed her, Joseph a just man, before the Holy Ghost appeared to him, Mat. i.19. James holy from the womb, and Cornelius capable of all that commendation for Devotion and Alms-deeds, Acts x.1. before either Christ was preached to him in the 37. or the Holy Ghost fell on him, in the 44. verse.
8. The Conversion of unprepared hardened blasphemous sinners, is to be accounted as a most rare and extraordinary work, of God's power and mercy, not an every days work, like to be be • towed on every habituate sinner: and therefore 'tis commonly accompanied with some evident note of difference, to point it out for a miracle. Thus was Paul called from the chief of sinners, 1 Tim. i.15. to the chief of Saints; but with this mark, that Christ Jesus might show forth all longsuffering, &c. which was in him first, and perhaps last in that degree: that others in his pitch of blasphemies, might not presume of the like miracle of mercy. And indeed, he that is thus called, must expect what Paul found, a mighty tempest throughout him, three days at least without sight o • nourishment, if not a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a swoon, a kind of ecstasy of the whole man, at this tumultuary driving out of this high, rank, insolent, habituate body of sin. 'It is observed, that when the news of Christ's birth was brought by the wise men, the City was straight in an uproar; Herod was much troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, Mat. ii.3. for it seems, they expected no such matter; and therefore so strange and sudden news produced nothing but astonishment and tumult: whilst Simeon, who waited for the consolation of Israel, makes no such strange business of it; takes him presently into his embraces, and familiarly hugs him in his arms, having been before acquainted with him by his Faith. Thus will it, at Christ's spiritual 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , be in an unprepared heart, his reigning Herod -sins, and all the Jerusalem and Democracy of affections, a strange tumult of repining old habituate passions, will struggle fiercely, and shake the whole house before they leave it. If a strong man be to be dispossessed of house or abode, without warning, a hundred to one he will do some mischief at his departure, and draw at least some Pillar after him: when as a prepared Simeon 's soul lays hold as soon as he hears of him, is already organized, as it were, for the purpose, holds out the arms and bosom of faith, and at the first minute of his appearance takes him into his spiritual embraces. This very preparation either had denied the strong man entrance, or else binds his hands, manacles that blind Sampson, and turns him out in peace, and then the spirit enters into that soul (which itself or its harbingers have prepared) in a soft still wind, in a still voice, and the soul shall feel its gale, shall hear its whispering, and shall scarce discern, perhaps not at all observe the moment of its entrance.
Lastly, by way of Corollary to all that hath been said, though God can, and sometimes doth, call blasphemous sinners ; though nothing in us can facilitate God's action to him, though none of our performances or his lower works in us, can merit or challenge his sanctifying grace; though in brief, all that we can do, is in some respect enmity to grace; yet certainly there is far more hope of the just careful moral man, which hath used all those restraints which are given him, that he shall be called and saved: of such a one we are to judge far more comfortably, and expect more confidently, than of another more habituate sinner, negligent of the commands of either God or nature. And this I conceive I have, in some measure proved through each part of the former discourse, and so I should dismiss it, and come to application, but that I am stayed and thwarted by a contrary proposition maintained by a sort of our popular Preachers, with more violence than discretion, which I conceive to be of dangerous consequence, and therefore worth opening to you. In setting down the pitch that an unregenerate man may attain to, and yet be damned, some of our preaching writers are wont duly to conclude with this peremptory Doctrine, That of a mere moral man, though never so severe a censor of his own ways, never so rigid an exactor of all the precepts of nature and morality in himself; yet of this man there is less hope, either that he shall be converted or saved, than the most debauched ruffian under Heaven. The charity and purity of this Doctrine you shall judge of, if you will accompany me a while, and first observe, that they go so far with the mere moral man, and drive him so high, that at his depression again, many a regenerate man falls with him under that title; and in issue, I fear, all will prove mere moralists in their doom, which do fall short of that degree of zeal, which their either faction or violent heats pretend to; and so as Tertullian objects to the Heathen, expostulating with them why they did not defy Themistocles and Cato, as well as Jove and Hercules, Quot potiores viros apud inferos reliquistis? they leave many an honester man in Hell, than some of those whom their favor or Faction hath befainted.
Secondly, observe to what end or use this Doctrine may serve, but as an allay to civil honesty in a Commonwealth, and fair, just dealing, which forsooth, of late is grown so luxuriant, the world is like to languish and sink, 'tis so overburthened with it; and on the other side, an encouragement to the sinner in his course, an engagement in the pursuit of vice to the height and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the pitch and cue which God expects and waits for, as they conclude on these grounds, because he looked upon Peter not till the third denial; and then called Paul, when he was most mad against the Christians: as if the nearest way to Heaven were by Hell-gates, and Devils most likely to become Saints; as if there were merit in abominations, and none in the right way to Christianity, but whom Atheism would be ashamed of; as if, because the natural man understands not, &c. all relics of natural purity were solemnly and pro formâ to be abandoned, to make us capable of spiritual. 'It is confessed, that some have been and are thus Converted, and by an ecstasy of the spirit, snatched and caught like firebrands out of the fire; and though some must needs find their spiritual joys infinitely increased, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , by that gall of bitterness, from which they were delivered, and are therefore more abundantly engaged to God, as being not the objects only, but the miracle of his mercy: but yet for all this, shall one or two variations from the ordinary course, from the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , be turned into a ruled case? shall the rarer examples of Mary Magdalene, or a Saul, prescribe and set up? shall we sin to the purpose, as if we meant to threaten God, that 'twere his best and safest course to call us? shall we abound in rebellions, that grace may superabound? God pardon and forbid.
Thirdly, consider the reason of their proposition, and you shall judge of the truth of it, and beside their own fancies and resolution to maintain them, they have none but this, The mere moral man trusts in his own righteousness, and this confidence in the arm of flesh, is the greatest enemy to sanctifying grace, which works by spiritual humility. To which we answer distinctly, that the foresaid pride, trust or confidence, is neither effect nor necessary adjunct of morality; but an absolute defection from the rules thereof; and therefore whatsoever proceeds either as an effect, or consequent from pride or confidence, cannot yet be imputed to morality at all, or to the moral men per se, no more than the Thundring or Lightning is to be imputed to my walking, because it thunders whilst I walk; or preaching to my standing still, because whilst I stand still I preach; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Aristotle in the first Post. c. 4. It doth not lighten because I walk, but that is an accident proceeding from some other cause. To strive against the motions of the spirit, and so to render Conversion more difficult, is an effect perhaps of pride or trust, but yet is not to be imputed to morality, though the moral man be proud or self-trusting, because this pride or self-trusting is not an effect, but an accident of morality; and therefore their judgment should be able to distinguish, and direct their zeal against the accidental vice, not the essential innocent virtue, against pride, not morality. Besides, this pride is also as incident to him who is morally evil; nay, either supposes or makes its subject so, being formerly a breach of morality. For that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 belonging to the understanding, which is, not to think more highly on ones own worth than he ought, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Rom. xii.3. Do we not find it commended and dilated on by Aristotle 4. Eth. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. not to overprize his own worth, or to expect an higher reward than it in proportion deserves? So that he that trusts in his morality for Heaven, doth eo nomine offend against morality, according to that of Salvian, Hoc ipsum genus maximae injustitiae est, si quis se justum praesumat ; and indeed Aristotle and Seneca could say as much: and so then the accusation is unjust and contumelious; for to a moral man if he be truly so, this pride or confidence is incompatible: for do we not find that treble humility, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the heart, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the tongue, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the actions, Ephes. iv.2. handled also and prescribed by the Philosophers? In sum, that which in all moral precepts comes nearest pride or high-mindedness, is that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Eth. 4.3. part of which is setting value on ones self. But if you observe, this goes no farther than 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , honor or worldly pomp : as for the immortal blessedness of the soul, 'twas a thing infinitely above the pitch of their hope or confidence: the most perfect among them never pretended any jus meriti to it, and if they did, they had by so much the less hopes to attain to it. Now if it be supposed, as I fear is too true, that our moral men fall far short of the ancient Philosophers, if they be nowadays confident and trust in their works for salvation, then they do not make good their name; they are only so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , abusively and notionally. And yet even these equivocal moral men seem to me in as good, if not better case, than the other term of comparison, the careless negligent debauchit men. For upon their grounds, is it not as easy for the Converting spirit to enter and subdue one Lucifer, one proud Devil in the heart, otherwise pretty well qualified, as to deal with a whole Legion of blasphemous, violent, riotous, railing, ignorant Devils?
I have done all with the confutation of this loose groundless opinion, which if 'twere true, would yet prove of dangerous consequence to be Preached, in abating and turning our edge, which is of itself blunt and dull enough toward goodness: nay, certainly it hath proved scandalous to those without; as may appear by that boast and exultancy of Campian in his Eighth Reason, where he upbraids us English-men of our abominable Lutheran, licentious Doctrine, (as he calls it) Quanto sceleratior es, tanto vicinior gratiae : and therefore I do not repent that I have been somewhat large in the refuting of it; as also, because it doth much import to the clearing of my discourse: for if the mere moral men be farthest from Heaven, then have I all this while busied myself, and tormented you with an unprofitable, nay, injurious preparation; whereas I should have prescribed you a shorter easier call, by being extremely sinful, according to these two Aphorisms of Hippocrates, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. the strongest bodies are in greatest danger, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and height of a disease is the fittest opportunity for a miraculous cure.
But beloved, let us more considerately bethink ourselves, let us study and learn and walk a more secure probable way to Heaven; and for those of us which are yet unregenerate, though we obtained no grace of God, but that of nature and reason, and our Christianity to govern us, yet let us not contemn those ordinary restraints which these will afford us: let us attend in patience, sobriety, and humility, and prayers, the good time and leisures of the spirit; let us not make our reasonable soul, our profession of men, of Christians, ashamed of us; let not the heathen and beasts have cause to blush at us; let us remain men, till it may please him to call us into Saints; lest being plunged in habitual confident sinning, that Hell and Tophet on Earth, the very omnipotent mercy of God be in a manner foiled to hale us out again: let us improve, rack, and stretch our natural abilities to the highest; that although, according to our thirteenth Article, we cannot please God, yet we may not mightily provoke him. Let every man be in some proportion to his gifts, Christ's Baptist and forerunner, and harbinger in himself, that whensoever he shall appear or knock, he may enter, lodge and dwell without resistance. Lastly, after all thy preparations, be not secure; if the Bridegroom will not vouchsafe to rest with you, all your provision is in vain; all the morality and learning, and gifts, and common graces, unless Christ at last be born in us, are but embryo 's, nay abortives, rude, imperfect, horrid, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that Philosopher dies in his nonage in whom Christ was never born: the highest reach of years and learning is but infancy without the virility and manhood of the spirit, by which we are made perfect men in Christ Jesus. Wherefore above all things in the world, let us labor for this perfection; let us melt and dissolve every faculty and spirit about us in pursuit of it, and at last seal, and bless, and crown our endeavors with our Prayers; and with all the Rhetoric, and means, and humility, and violence of our souls, importune and lay hold on the sanctifying spirit, and never leave till he hath blessed and breathed on us. O thou mighty, controlling, holy, hallowing Ghost, be pleased with thine effectual working to suppress in us all resistance of the pride of nature, and prepare us for thy Kingdom of Grace here, and Glory hereafter.
Now to him which hath elected us, hath Created and Redeemed us, &c.
SERMON X.
JOHN VII.48.
Have any of the Pharisees believed on him?
IT is observable from