Of the covenant of suf­ferings as men the Sons of Adam.

TO the first co­venant of suf­ferance you know we all give our voice, by a natural in­stinct, before we have [Page 2] scarce enjoyed so much as light for it; and our eys may be said to set their mark to it, before we are able to set our hands to this Article of eat­ing in the sweat of our brows: for our eys pay their sweat, which is their tears, for what we taste, even before we be able to receive bread for it; and as we grow into a state to set our hands to the co­venant of labour, we [Page 3] know there is scarce any thing we relish much, that doth not cost us sweat, and con­tention; nay we are of such a constitution, that we can have no kinde of delectation: the which some want and suffering must not precede to affect us with the gust of it, so as we are sentenced to pay a great fine of pain before hand for all those fleeting, and tran­sitory pleasures, which [Page 4] at best do but run o­ver our senses, and so pass away and leave them again in their drouth, and privation. And most commonly the advance of all our pain and passion ren­dreth us nothing of what they negotiate. So as a man when he looketh upon himself in the best reflexes his temporary wishes can make him, shall finde this brand and stigmate of Adam up­on [Page 5] on his forehead. Gen. 3. 19. Thou shalt eat in the sweat of thy brows.

And this is a mark which God stamped upon Adam of another kinde of signification than that he set upon Cain, for this directeth to all things that oc­cur to man in this life to strike him, and wound his temporal estate in some kinde or other; in so much as all the Creatures do in their [Page 6] several manners exe­cute this sentence upon the Sons of Adam not alowing themselves to be enjoyed by them without stinging them in some sort, either with the anxietie of their appetite to them, preceding fruition, or the distaste of satiety following it, or with vexation of a deprive­ment of them during the Order of their af­fections to them. So as we may well say [Page 7] that every thing we finde now assaults our felicity in this life in some sort to kill it, and to revive to us the memory of our co­venant of sufferance we entered into as soon as we entered in­to light. For which reason the wise man proclaimeth elegantly the tenour of it saying Eccles. 40. 1. Great travel is created for all men, and a heavie yoak upon the children of [Page 8] Adam, from the day of their coming forth of their mothers womb un­til the day of their bu­rying in the mother of all their cogitations, and fears of the heart, imaginations of things to come, and the day of their ending, from him that sitteth upon the glorious state un­to him that is humbled in earth and ashes. Neither need we look back upon the defaced images of all conditi­ons [Page 9] in the dead prints of History, we have such living figures of them before our eys, as must needs imprint upon our thoughts a lively character of the deplorable estate of all mortals, whereby out of the ruines of houses whereof you lament the demolish­ments, you may pick up some materials to build in your mindes this frame of the in­stable constructure of [Page 10] the greatest strength of humane happiness; and thus your friends may in their fall some way support your vir­tue, and your patience, when you consider how incident it is to the vicissitudes of the world to expose unto us that changeable scene whereof Solomon reporteth this to us. Eccles. 10 and 7. I have seen servants up­on horses, and Princes walking upon the [Page 11] ground as servants. And in such capital letters as these you may now reade the articles of the cove­nant of sufferance, which man is engaged in, whereof Job ma­keth a manifest, is signed even by all the Princes of the earth; for we finde this under their hands in all re­cords of them, in some part of their lives. Job 14 1. Man born of a woman and living [Page 12] a short time is reple­nished with many mi­series. In so much that after man by sin had made miserie for him­self in this life, it seem­eth a mercie of God to have joyned death with it, before which even the light of na­ture is sufficient to shew the Philosophers that none can be coun­ted happy. And in or­der to this proof, we mark that Cain he who first abused death by [Page 13] imploying it to make sin, was thought wor­thy of no less a punish­ment than the protra­ction of life, which he had made so afflicting by his fearing to die, and thus he was made his own torturer, by the ignorance of the evil of life, and of the good of death which he had so much de­merited the knowing of, for his brothers goodness was thought worthy to be quickly [Page 14] relieved by death, and his malice was adjudg­ed to the pain of ap­prehending it, and to the supplice of a long life. With good cause then may this be well reflected on, that the first virtuous and god­ly Abel, man was quickly removed out of this hedg of thorns his father had set, and reconveyed towards Paradise, and the first impious murtherer was sentenced to live [Page 15] in the pungencie, and asperity of these pricks and bryars of the earth. But such is Gods wisdom as he can ex­tract medicines out of all the Brambles, and Thistles our earth is over-run with, and mi­nister them to our in­firmity, for he appli­eth even those griefs, and sorrows which sin introduced to the ex­pulsion of sin in it self; so as this is an opera­tion worthy of Gods [Page 16] invention by the la­bour, and exercising of the bodie to enlarg the freedom of the soul, even by this un­fortifying of her pri­son in which she is kept, the closer, the stronger the delecta­tion of our senses groweth upon us. Therefore the distan­cing of the conveni­encie of the flesh dila­teth the commodities and freedoms of the spirits, so as it is a di­vine [Page 17] artifice which God useth by hanging weights of sufferings and pressures upon our senses, to winde up ra­ther than to clog our spirits, which are the motions, and resorts of the whole frame, and in probation of of this experiment. David saith. Psal. 4. 1 In tribulation thou hast enlarged me.

And it is most ob­serveable that God ministred this receipt [Page 18] (drawn out of thorns) to all those Sons of Adam whose mindes he meant to purge and clarifie; for all the holy Patriarks took this detersive potion of bitterness and affli­ction in this life; and it deserveth our atten­tion to note, how the nearer the time drew to the manifestation of the Son of God (who was designed the man of sorrow) the passions of gods chil­dren [Page 19] grew the bitterer and the sharper, for the Patriarks were ex­ercised by divers mor­tifications, which were not capital, they staid upon the distresses of their life: some of the Prophets as they ap­proached to this ful­ness of the time of passion tasted by an­ticipation, of the cup of death, in which they were all but figures of Christs cup-bearers, as Esay, Jeremy, Zachary, [Page 20] and others, and so those sufferings which in time were the least distant from Christ (as those we finde record­ed in the Maccabees) came also the nearest to the horror and acer­bity of the passions of Christ, and Christians for they went not straight to death, but turned about to take a compass of tortures, to make death bitter to those they could not make it terrible; as [Page 21] you may reade in the execution of the mo­ther, and her seven children, the very dawning of the day of passion which was coming on gave them this light of fortitude.

It seemeth this weight of sufferance and sorrow was always in so natural a motion upon the children of God, that it moved the faster the nearer it came to the centre (the man of sorrow) who [Page 22] being the Son of God by nature, was the cen­tre of all the Sons by grace, and adoption, and therefore all the bloudy sacrifices of the Law of nature, and ceremonial, tended and pointed to him as their last term, and directi­on; in order where­unto S. Paulinus stick­eth not to say that Christ from the begin­ing of all ages suffer­eth, and triumpheth in all the Churches [Page 23] persecutions: in Abel, he is killed by a bro­ther, in Noah, he is derided by a Son, in Abraham he is a Pil­grim, in Isaac a Vi­ctim, and in Jacob a Servant, in Joseph he is sold, in Moses left a Derelict, in the Pro­phets he is stoned, starved, and vilefied. So as all the lines of holy passions, drawn from the circumfe­rence of all ages tend, and resort to this cen­tre [Page 24] of the man of sor­row, the Lamb of God, slain from the begin­ning of the world.

These evidences may prove unto us clearly enough the first bond or covenant of sufferances we are en­tered into as men, (and even in that notion we seem to be implicit christians) since he who suffered sufficiently for us all, maketh all vir­tuous afflictions refer­raable to him) it had [Page 25] been very easie for me to have exhibited a more precise manifest of this our first desig­nation to sufferings un­der the notion of men, there are so many ex­cellent draughts of it stamped by the mora­lists, or naturalists of all ages; but I chose to deflect a little from the letter of the Text, that I might make the inferences rather stongly usefull, than critically uniform; and [Page 26] therefore as I have al­ready stepped beyond the out court of the Gentiles, into part of the temple, I will not call back to Philoso­phy to borrow any de­monstrations of this principle, wherein the proofs are so acumu­late as all Sects of Philosophers which differ so much con­cerning the point of the good mans life, concur in the confessi­on of the multiplicity [Page 27] of the ills thereof, but I shall not as I said walk aside into the gardens and flowry beds of the Gentiles, because I conceive it more proper for your state, to have some wholesome confection to take, than a nosegay of the flowers of Phi­losophy to smell to onely, in these un­healthful times; for the larg contemplations of of the miseries of hu­man nature is not a [Page 28] receipt direct, and ex­press enough for your present exigencies, for that is but as a good air of meditation, that may be sufficient for such as are but in light ordinary indispositions of fortune, but your distempers require some more forceable application of com­fort, by taking in­to your mindes the strongest obligations to patience and longa­nimity, I will there­fore [Page 29] pass on to the o­ther two assignments of suffering which are upon you as Christi­ans, and leave this our single humanity seal­ed with Jobs signa­ture. Job 14. 22. His flesh while he lives shall have sorrow and his soul shall mourn upon himself.

Of the covenant of suf­fering as Christians, the Sons of Christ.

WHat we have said of our first obligation may well extenuate all, we are bound to suffer by the second, for when we behold the infelicity of of our condition as we are men, we may well wonder more that we are preferred to be Christians, than that we are continued to [Page 31] be sufferers: for sure if God had consulted with Adam after he saw his own naked­ness, and the anexture of all the miseries thereunto whither he would have bowed the heavens & have come down, to repair this his ruinous condition, by his investing his miserable human na­ture, he would have an­swered with the hum­ble Centurion, Matth. 8. 8. Lord I am not [Page 32] worthy that thou should­est come under my roof, but onely say the word and I shall be healed. Seeing he who made all by one word, could have redintegrated A­dam with a word, re­maining in the simpli­city of his divine na­ture, without the Word being made flesh, and being as it were un­made himself (as the Apostle warrants us to say) by taking that flesh upon him, which [Page 33] was become as it were mans prison, so far was it from being worthy to be the receptacle of God.

When we consider then how God chose this way of commise­rating our nature, not to purg it by his pow­er but by the very in­firmity thereof, by taking the passibleness of it upon him, we can­not deny the suffering part to be the most be­neficial property of it, [Page 34] since God made use of that onely for the restauration of it, wherefore the feeling that portion of human nature upon us, which is the most ennobled by Gods election, and preference, cannot rightly be accounted a prejudiced condition, whereupon we may conclude that the bles­sing of being Christi­ans may easily recon­cile us to the Obliga­tion of being sufferers, [Page 35] for what can be the reason why Christ when by his pains he took away the sting of sin, could not also take off the points of suffering in this life; which are but thorns of that plant, but because his passions had infused such a quality into our pains, as might pro­duce this strange effect in our nature, to make our root the less ca­pable of bearing fruit by the excrescense, and [Page 36] growth of these sprigs out of it, for temporal afflictions spring out of sin; as out of the root thereof, and no­thing drieth up, and infecundateth so much the radicall fructify­ing vigor of this root, as the springing up of temporal miseries, and distresses; so as the fruit of sin, which is death is killed the soonest by the fertility of suffer­ings in this life.

Since Christ hath [Page 37] then by the virtue of his Crown of thorns imparted this faculty of the asperities of our life, of taking off the growth as his did the guilt of sin, we need not wonder why he hath left all these tem­poral bitternesses up­on our nature which he himself took ex­presly to taste in our nature: so as we may be said to become the more Christians, the more we are called to [Page 38] be patients. Which position we shall finde the more clearly de­monstrated to us, the farther we advance in­to the principles of Christianity.

Saint Paul when he wrot to the Romans in those times, when in a paralel of our cases the Christians were part­ly immured up in pri­sons, and partly expel­led to the adjoyning fields thought (it seem­eth) to sweeten their [Page 39] condition to them by representing that mor­tification, and suffer­ance was their calling and profession; for he asketh them as of a notorious thing, whi­ther they know not this to be the constitu­tion of christianity, say­ing Rom 6. 3. Are you ignorant that all we who are baptised in Christ Jesus, in his death we are baptised? Intimating that our first incorporation into [Page 40] the bodie of Christ, is in effect an expiration of this world, and a translation by the vir­tue of the death of Christ into such a sort of life as he hath pat­terned to us by the in­ception, progress, and consummation of his life. And the Apostle presseth thus the proof of this assertion Rom. 6. 4. For we are buri­ [...]d together with him in baptism into death: to evince this position [Page 41] that our mundanity is drowned, and buried in our Christning, and that the life of Christ which was a continued part of mortification is to be (as it were) our breath, and animation. And while we are in this spiritual manner buried in the life of Christ, that is covered, and inclosed with in­dignities and oppressi­ons, we are acting that part we took upon us in baptism, where we [Page 42] isted our selves into that militia which was erected by him, who killed death by dying, and hath left the same discipline to all his souldiers to destroy death by dying to the world: mortifications therefore must needs be the proper duties of that service a christian is upon, and his pay is conditioned rather up­on his suffering, than his acting as the Apo­stle proceedeth to te­stifie. [Page 43] For if we become complanted to the si­militude of his death, we shall be also of his resurrection. So in a Christians case the wa­ges of death is life, for if he die here by a pri­vatiō of the carnal life of this world, he per­formeth the condition of life everlasting. For which reason S. Paul who was the great com­mander of the Gentiles in this militancy (wher­by this kinde of dying [Page 44] death is swallowed up in Victory) hath left us his discipline in 1 Cor. 15. I die dayly; and he giveth us those orders. To be the followers of him as he was of Christ whom he began not to follow untill he was o­verthrown in the com­mand he had in this world, and was (as it were) resuscitated by the same hand that had killed him. We may remember he was re­vived by what is de­structive [Page 45] to this life, by being almost famish­ed, and illuminated by this worlds darkness, and restored to corpo­ral light, onely to see how much he vvas to suffer for that Name for which all the suf­ferings he had in his head were to be im­ployed, but in a man­ner far differing from this design; for they were assigned to be en­joyed by himself not to be dispensed to o­thers [Page 46] by his hand so as this seemeth the gra­tification of his Chri­stianity, the having of all that treasure of crosses he had prepa­red for other Christi­ans, appropriated to his own use; whereof he grew so sensible, as in gratitude to this his preference, he returned his. I do exceedingly abound in joy in all our tribulation.

But let us look up­on his master and ours [Page 47] Christ Jesus in his own time of tribulation, and we may represent him to our selves, in the first instant of his con­ception accepting this Order from his father, which he gave to his follower S. Paul, of Acts 9. 15. I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my Name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the children of Israel. In which commission he labour­ed three and thirty [Page 48] years, wherein, all we are acquainted with of his life is either labori­ous or incommodious, or in extremity dolo­rous, and painfull. It seems the holy Ghost did not think any thing worthy to stand upon record for Christ that was not eminently suffering, and therefore passed over in silence, those parts of his life which we may suppose to have been the least distressfull. If we look [Page 49] upon his way that is drawn out to us from his cradle to his Cross, we shall finde that he fore-saw in all ages, more than the persons themselves who are under them can do. He truly bore all our la­bours, and our griefs. All the anxieties, and contristations that now oppress you were in a sharper degree pressing upon his heart and since he was con­tent to aggravat all his [Page 50] sufferings by taking on him the sense of your grievances, may not you very easily alleviate all your hea­vinesses, by taking in­to your minde the re­sentment of sufferings, which were designed for your succor in your temptations, by the reflection upon his precedent? so that his example is not a sim­ple injunction on you to suffer, but a confer­ment of an abilitie to [Page 51] sustain it, and a means to improve, and ame­liorate your estate in your coinheritance with him: for the A­postle inforceth this Doctrine with this E­nergy of A fathfull saying 2 Tim. 2. 12. For if we be dead with him, we shall live also together, if we sustain we shall also reign to­gether.

This deserves well our contēplation, that the fulness of the divi­nity [Page 52] did inhabit in Christ, and the clear vision of God did al­ways illuminate him, notwithstanding this, it was miraculously disposed by God, that the affluence of joy springing from the dei­ty, should not over­flow his body, and pos­sess the inferior porti­ons of his soul, that there might be left room for pain and an­guish; the which was manifest in his passion, [Page 53] in so much as stupen­dious miracles were re­quisite for an admit­tance of so much sor­row into his most sa­cred minde: If God were pleased thus to multiply miracles, that affliction might have access to his beloved Son, in whom he was so well pleased; shall we with whom he hath so much cause to be displeased wonder at any calamity, or tribu­lation whereby he is [Page 54] pleased to correct us, especially when it is a mark of our filiation, and fraternity with Christ? We who can­not be exempt from sufferings without a miracle, as we are Sons of Adam, shall we be astonished at any im­position, under this notion of brothers, nay even Members of Christ? in which re­spect S. Bernard saith excellently, that Deli­cate and tender Mem­bers [Page 55] are not decent, and becoming a head stuck full of thorns. Therefore the pres­sures, and pungencies of this life make the Symmetry, and pro­portion of the body of Christianity, to the head Christ Jesus: who since he did not so much as speak one idle vvord, all his praises, and Beautifications of the poor, and the af­flicted must needs ve­rifie the good of ad­versity. [Page 56] And Surely Christ did much less do any idle deed, and if the exemplarie life of his labours, and one-rations had not been directed to our con­formity therein, there might seem some su­pervacuousness and re­dundancy in his conti­nual hardness, and as­peritie of life. Would God have afflicted his onely Son so, if it were indifferent to do, or not to do as he did? or [Page 57] that it did not concern those vvhom he had fore-knovvn, and pre­destinated to be con­formable to the image of his Son in this point that he might be the first born of many bre­thren? Our fraternity therefore is derived to us by this similitude. Our sins might have been effaced not onely by a drop of Christs bloud, but even by a drop of his svveat; vvherefore this seem­eth [Page 58] one of the chief reasons that did induce the atrocity of his pas­sion, and the austeritie of his life, the necessi­ty of such a patern for our imitation, since our nature vvas grown so degenerous, and ef­feminate, as no less than gods participa­tion of all the sorts of grievances, and in­juries thereof, would serve to form in us a chearfull disposition to the sufferings, and [Page 59] infelicities of this life God did not therefore intend to vex us, when he placed our salva­tion in difficulties, and in our natures aversi­ons, for to sweeten the bitterness of this strong necessity, which was to work upon our nature, to purg us from the love of this world he was so gratious, as to infuse the company of Christ into this re­ceipt, that the taste of his society might make [Page 60] more pleasant to us the ill savour, and a­cerbity of the remedy. Well therefore may we say. A greater than Elisha is here, who hath amended these waters by but tasting of them, and hath left neither death nor bit­terness in them; for they are become ra­ther waters springing up to life everlasting.

And we may ob­serve that in confor­mity to Gods method [Page 61] with his Son Christ continued the same stile to his Mother; for she whom all Ge­nerations were to call blessed was not allow­ed any of what this world calls Blessings; for she who had born the Redeemer of the whole world, was not able to go to the high­est rate of the Temple, for his Redemption; her poor estate did not reach to pay so much as a Lambe for the Son [Page 62] of God, and the Lamb who was to take away the sins of the world, had not so much as a Lamb for his Ransom. The lowest price that was set for any of the children of Israel was the rate her low con­dition was taxed at, none was set at less than a pair of Pidge­ons, or a pair of Tur­tles, and the Mother of God was in this in­feriour form of the Daughters of Men. [Page 63] This may serve to sweeten the bitterest water of poverty when we ponder this, that Christ would not allow his Mother to taste of any other spring; and though he would not let her taste of the sowreness of the forbidden fruit: yet he fed her more than any other with these bitter Leaves, which grew out of the same root, that is, though he was pleased [Page 64] to exempt her from sin, yet he would not dispense with her in sufferings, which we know are but the pro­ductions of sin; and so she whom we may suppose to have been excepted out of the rule of sinners, was exalted above any in the state of sufferers. And this seems to be very consonant, that as she was Mother to the man of sorrow, and of no sin, so she should [Page 65] be a bearer of all griefs without any guiltiness: but how­soever this point is ac­corded by all parties that being the purest of all creatures, Luke 2. 29, 35. she was ne­ver the less the great­est of all Patients: when she came to re­deem her own Re­deemer by the legal ransom, and was to enter into possession of her Son, we may note that the joys that we re­presaged [Page 66] her by Sime­on in him were very dark, and mystical, but her own sorrows very clear and mani­fest. For this mystery of her having a light to the revelation of the Gentiles in her arms, and the glory of thy people Israel was hard to be understood of one that was in the lowest rank of the people: but this part was easie to be con­ceived of his being a [Page 67] mark of contradicti­on, and that a sword should pierce through her own soul.

Nature it self evi­denceth the miseries which mothers are lia­ble to from children, and thus she had here her sorrows and her sufferings writ to her in the common Al­phabet of nature, and her joys and consola­tions cyphered out onely to her in the fi­gures and characters [Page 68] of grace, which are so hard to be decypher­ed, though it may be she had the key of them: but howsoever her faith was to be exercised by a tedious and very sudden triall in affliction. She quickly found the sword in her soul, for we may easily con­ceive what a wound her sudden flight into Egypt was, how many fears, distresses and anxieties, pierced her [Page 69] tender heart in that la­borious flight. And sure the sword of He­rod, that parted so ma­ny mothers and chil­dren, pierced her soul even while she posses­sed her childe: she may well be judged to have out-suffered any of them in their own losses, for she had the grief of being the oc­casion of all them up­on her heart, so as the sword that was drawn directly against her [Page 70] soul though the stroke did not light upon it, as it was aimed, yet it may be thought to have wounded her in a sharper manner than it did any it fell bloudily upon, for her exquisite charity must needs feel all their anguishes and passions who were thus afflicted as perso­nating her.

Thus we see how she began her possessi­on of her Son with the sorrows of a mul­titude [Page 71] of mothers in­flicted on her, and if we look upon her be­ing dispossest of her Son, there we shall see the sword piercing her soul in so horrid a manner, as the pains which all the daugh­ters of Jerusalem ever had in the birth, or death of their chil­dren were but shadows of her torture: where­upon S. Bernard saith, Neither tongue can express, nor heart can [Page 72] conceive the dolours wherewith the holy bowels of this Mother were excruciated.

Now blessed Virgin you pay with rigorous interest that pain which nature was not allowed to exact of you in your delivery: the pangs which you felt not in the birth of your Son, are infinite­ly replicated upon you at his death, when we consider the Mother of Christ standing by [Page 73] the Cross, and seeing her Son under those Nails, Thorns, and Scourges, and all the other Tortures.

With what hand can we hope to touch this dolefull figure of the blessed Virgin, to give it a lively resem­blance? I will there­fore leave it veiled with this reason upon it, No figure is like to sorrow, the not being pourtraictable being the nearest simi­litude [Page 74] can be made of this figure of disconso­lation. That which purporteth most to our purpose is, that by the not being able to comprehend the im­mensity of the suffer­ings of the Mother of God, we may be the less apt to apprehend any extremity in our own: when she who had at least no actual sin to expiate, had so much sorrow to exer­cise her virtue. How [Page 75] shall we (who have so much sin to satisfie for) wonder at any suf­ferings, whereof we have so much need to sanctifie us?

There is then no reason why we should fear to be mistaken, in taking crosses for com­modities, indignities for honours, poverty for treasures, since the eternal wisdom, and divine understanding hath counselled this acceptation of them, [Page 76] not onely by his advise but by his Mothers president, and his own personal investure of them. He who is both the supreme goodness, and the supreme pow­er, chose by those low humbled means to re­deem us, and by the same we must perfect our salvation; the work must be finished by the same instruments by which it was begun.

Christ told his Dis­ciples, there were ma­ny [Page 77] mansions in his Fa­thers house, but never gave them notice of any other way to any of them but this of the crosses, and miseries of this world; & surely as he said of the man­sions, so may we say of the marches to them, if there had been another passage he would have told it them. This nar­row way and straight­gate is all the directi­on we finde either by his life, his doctrine or [Page 78] his death. Mat. 11. 12. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. Is the word, or motto belonging to the Arms of the Gospel: and as Christ said, no body ascendeth into heaven but he that descended out of heaven; there­fore he vouchsafed to come down to live out this way, which he im­printed upon his sacred humanitie: So that now this way lyeth so [Page 79] fairly marked out by the prints of his steps, in his return to his eter­nal mansion, as no bo­die that looketh up to heaven can miss the seeing of it, though it be not the milkie way of the Poets, but the bloudy way of the Prophets, and Apo­stles. It is traced out more fairly in the fir­mament of a Christi­an, which is the Gos­pel, than the other in the material skie. The [Page 80] life of Christ is such a sequence, and connexi­on of bright, and shine­ing sufferings, as shew­eth our souls as intel­ligably the way to hea­ven, as those stars do our eys that sensible trace in the firmament. We may cast our eye upon this Galaxie or constellation of humi­lity, and depression in Christs life, we shall see it illustrious, and shinning in an humili­ation under all sorts of [Page 81] Creatures. He hum­bled himself to the Angels, he vouchsafed to receive comfort of an Angel; as if his ne­cessity, not humility, had required it. When he was hungry he was pleased to take food, as alms from the An­gels; when he could have turned stones into bread. He humbled himself to man, and woman, remaining o­bedient to his Mother, and Joseph. He sub­jected [Page 82] himself to im­pious Princes, to He­rod, Cesar, Caiphas, and Pilate, by understand­ing their burthens, and their judgments he submitted himself to vile, and infamous ser­vants, as to Malchus, and to his torturers, deriders, and others. He yielded himself e­ven to inanimate crea­tures, suffering heat, and cold, to strike up­on him, and by Iron, Wood, Thorns, and [Page 83] Reeds he indured to be violated, and offend­ed, nay he subjected himself to his greatest enemy the Devil him­self, when he suffered him to carry him up to the pinnacle of the Temple; So there is no creature from the sublimest to the mean­est, from the best to the worst to whom Christ did not humi­liate himself.

And thus you see this arch of humilia­tion [Page 84] set as it were on another bowe, in the clouds of his humani­ty for a sign of this co­venant of sufferances, wherein I have sug­gested to you your in­gagement, and this bowe of his covenant is so extended, as it makes a perfect circle, it reacheth from the sphere of angelical, to that of inanimate sub­stances, to both which we see Christ did sub­mit himself, and so his [Page 85] subjection toucheth the highest, and the lowest point of his own creatures, which consideration of his in­effable humility must needs assure us of the admirable effect it hath produced of convert­ing crosses into the nou­rishment of his body left upon earth, and so to bring that which seperated his soul, and his body, now to be the means of reunite­ing the body to the [Page 86] head, for the cross is left in his Church, to conjoyn, and consoci­ate the Members into their suffering head, Christ Jesus, and we may well add, that this divine sign of the cross set in the heaven of his person, so con­spicuously remains as a sensible mark of his promise to the Church of never being drown­ed in any inundation of crosses failing on her.

Looking up therefore [Page 87] to the heavenly object of Christs sufferings we may be comforted by our similitude, and we may rejoyce at our securitie, which this co­venant recapitulateth to us, as often as we contemplate it; in so much as there is none of you who groan un­der any pressure or tremble under any op­pression, Heb. 12. 2. But Looking up upon the author and finisher of out faith Christ Jesus, [Page 88] may not see him bear­ing the same cross with joy, despising the con­fusion of it. Whither you sweat under your burthens, or whither you bleed under the edg of these times, you shall finde your perse­cution both civil and sanguinary, patternd to you in the person even of God, & man, Christ Jesus, who hath not left so much as your fears, and terrours out of the exemplar of his [Page 89] passions, his Mark 14. 33. He began to be hea­vy and to fear. Was de­signed purposely as a cordial in your fits of fainting, and if there were any point in your afflictions which were not exemplified to you in Christs passions, that circumstance ought to prove to you a suffi­cient consolation, in that you had some suf­fering to offer to Christ of your own, be­sides the coppy and [Page 90] portraicture of his. But alas all that we can imagine in our own pains wherein there is no imitation of his, is that which we may better blush at, than boast of; for it is onely the guilt of deserving more than we can en­dure in this life, this is simply ours in our afflictions, wherein we finde no resemblance in the figure of Christs sufferings, which part of our cases may make [Page 91] us offer up to Christ a thankfull alacrity in all temporal penalties infflicted on us, for having taken off from us the burthen we could not remove by any sufferings, and ha­ving left us onely such pressures as may alevi­ate the weight of that intolerable gravation which is the guilt of sin: for our crosses in this life by the virtue of the cross of Christ (whereof our heaviest [Page 92] are but chips or shave­ings) do not onely keep our sins lower, but also weigh against the tem­poral penalty of those which are in the scale.

It may admit a que­stion whither it be a more precious Chri­stian exercise to do good, or to endure evils: that state is certainly the best in which both are conjoyned, when suf­fering many grie­vances, we act as much [Page 93] good as we are able.

Let them then who have nothing left to give to God by way of actions, rejoyce in the facultie of sor­rows: When King Da­vid extols the dignity of man he raiseth it upon this ground that God had made him a little lower Psal. 8. Then Angels, but in this respect we may say that God hath ad­vantaged him above them by furnishing [Page 94] him with more instru­ments of attaining heaven than they have by having coupled a body to this spirit in which he may suffer for Christ, when many other capacities of ex­pressing his gratitude are suspended; for man hath not onely all the several powers of his minde but also the sen­ses of his body given him as Organs of working out salvation by carrying the Cross [Page 95] upon them, with this corporeal furniture man is enriched above Angels; so as man may even out of the great­est infirmities of his constitution extract matter of glorificati­on. This virtue hath been imparted to the vility of flesh, & bloud, since God vouchsafed to be invested in it; Our flesh received this priviledg not onely of being admitted into heaven, but of contribu­ting [Page 96] to the souls de­grees of glory by the proportions of the bo­dies suffering; Rom 8. 13. S. Paul saith, It is no wonder that God having giving his own Son to humane nature, should have given all these other preroga­tives with him.

Out of this state of our mortality the Saints shall rise as high as they should have done from the state of innocence, and immor­tality, [Page 97] which shews that they are equally sanctified in the brevi­ty, and shortness of their life now, to what they should have at­tained in many ages, if they had remained immortal. The simili­tude of sorrows, and crosses by the grace of Christ, countervaileth, and compensateth the numerousness of the years of our service. Our redeemer hath left us this compendious [Page 98] way of approaching heaven by the necessi­ties and molestations of our flesh, the which he would not expunge in it that he might pre­sent his Father the children of his most pretious passions, as much purified in a lit­tle time, as they should have been in the ef­flux of many ages. He who raised above the highest heaven the heaviest of our earth upon this engine of the [Page 99] Cross, hath left it us, to winde up the easi­lyer our terrestrial qualities upon the same Machine. This was the means which S. Paul made use of in all his elevations up to the third heaven. Gal 2. 20. With Christ I am nailed to the Cross: carried him up to that sublimity; and he kept himself so close nailed to the Cross all his life, as when he was weak [Page 100] he was strongest and never esteemed his raptures so much as his revilings, and ig­nominies. He profes­seth to glory willingly in nothing but in his humiliations.

2 Cor. 12. Gladly will I glory in my in­firmities, in contume­lies, in necessities, in di­stresses for Christ, &c. because he found pow­er was perfected in infirmity, whereby we are convinced that [Page 101] those who are called to Christianity are assigned to all sorts of crucifyings.

All the iniquity of a Christian consists either in doing what Christ did not, or in refusing to do what he did, and none can excuse themselves by an in capacity of imi­tating Christ, in that wherein he hath been pleased to state Christi­an profession; for every one may be poor, and [Page 102] patient, and mortified, but every one is not qualified to attain to Riches, Honour, or Learning. This is the wisdom, and love of God, to have those things made the best contributions to our eternal felicity, which may not onely be reached by every one, but can even scarce be missed by any, which are the afflictions, and adversities, of this life, wherefore those who [Page 103] it may be would not have had the Zeal to affect a similitude to Christ in these hard touches of Gods hand, must not be so un­gratefull as to repugne this operation of God upon them, or be a­shamed and confused to see this figure of deformity in the worlds eye impressed upon them, in pover­ty, infamy, destitutinos of friends, reproach­es of enemies and [Page 104] all other assimillations to Christ; but rather acknowledg a mercy of God, who having cal­led them to these tri­alls as Christians, whereunto they have answered but ill in o­ther times, that now he vouchsafeth him­self to place them in the society of the pas­sions of Christ, re­membring what the great Doctor in this worlds miseries, and the others felicities, [Page 105] remonstrates to us, 2 Cor. 1. 7. That in the same measure you are partakers of the passions you shall be of the con­solation of Christ.

Perfect Patience defi­ned, imperfect conso­lated and directed

NOw I set up to your patience as a kinde of brazen Ser­pent to cure all the stings you are expo­sed unto; I must de­sire you to understand clearly the integral constitution of this virtue: for I ascribe so much efficacy to it, supposing the patience I handle to be an ha­bit, [Page 107] or disposition in­herent in our wills, which receiveth hum­bly, and beareth un­complainingly all sorts of temporal grievan­ces and passions in or­der to a conformity to the will of God, and our similitude to Je­sus Christ, or as S. Au­gustine saith, True pa­tience ordaineth us to endure all kindes of evils of pain, to avoid all manner of ills of guilt. These definiti­ons [Page 108] do not admit ei­ther a lame, or a pide patience to enter into this high form of efficacy, that is, if it be peccant, ei­ther in progress and continuation, or im­perfect in the integri­ty, that is required in it, of submitting to all sorts and degrees of sufferances, as coming all from one provi­dence. If we have any exception against any of this Jury of Gods [Page 109] chusing to try us by, it is a sign our patience is but spotted, and party­colour'd, or if it be in­termitting, and by fits onely, this betrayeth the unsoundness of it. Wherefore we must endeavour to certifie our nature in these two deficiences, to which it is very liable: The first is of having re­fractory intervals, in which we let in impatience, and mur­mur, to detract at [Page 110] least from the intire­ness of this virtue, and suffer our senses to speak too freely a­gainst that which of­fendeth them. The o­ther is of our aptness to make motions to God for some especial exceptions in our tri­bulations, resigning our selves but partial­ly to his design upon us, and likewise this deprecation is of the present crosses that are upon us, believing we [Page 111] could place any other to sit lighter upon us, if that were removed, with which we are a­ctually charged, and thus we are commonly tempted instead of su­ing for patience to God, to desire his pa­tience in our repugnan­cies, and that he would change his minde ra­ther than ours. This is a familiar irregulari­ty in our natures, in the point of our sins, as well as of our suf­ferings; [Page 112] there are but few that have not some bosome sorrow, that they would compound for the being exempt­ed from, and offer a resignation to all the rest: but this is that hesitation, or stam­mering (as I may say) in our patience, which is a great impediment to our conversation with God.

I do not censure the first motions or the propensions of our na­ture [Page 113] to such eases, and discharges for such a fault as should distract or scandalize any bo­dy with their own im­perfection in this kinde; for as S. James saith, Jam. 3. 2. In many things we offend all; if any offend not in word this is a perfect mar. These inclinations to ease are (as we may say) slips of the tongue not of the minde, but such trips and faltrings as are hardly fully to [Page 114] be redressed: therefore this animadversion is intended onely for ad­vice to every one that findes these knots, and stands in their patience to endeavour to work them out faithfully, by prayer, and not to stop, or hang willing­ly upon them. But the interruption or discon­tinuance of our pati­ence and breaking off into fits of intempe­rate complaints, is much more to be pre­cautioned, [Page 115] and mark­ed for reformation; for according to Saint Augustines similitude, this is not onely to strike out of tune, but even to break the in­strument; for he com­pareth patience to a Lute, and tribulation to the strings, which while they are well touched make musick; and so whilest patience praiseth God, and gives thanks in tribu­lation, it yieldeth a [Page 116] sweet melodie to the ears of God; but when we fall into que­rulousness and mur­mur, we break the Lute. When therefore we are so far advanced towards victory as the having our senses dis­armed by affliction, the pleasures of which are our enemies sharp­est instruments, we must watch that he forge not new arms out of our pains, which God hath given us as [Page 117] armour against his shafts; and when he hath scarce any art left to wound us by sensu­ality, through the hardness of our condi­tions, then he tempt­eth us by the weight of our armour, to bring us to throw it off by impatience, and repi­ning, which indeed is to cast off the defen­sive armour that God giveth the spirit a­gainst the devil, and the flesh. When the [Page 118] Tempter hath nothing left but pain whereby to provoke us to of­fences, one would think he were not to be feared, since all impa­tience is but a new pain, which is propo­sed to us, let us there­fore consider that con­sequence, when we are solicited to unquiet­ness and reluctation.

When we suffer by the violence and in­justice of our enemies, the devil would get [Page 119] nothing by this nego­tiation if we should bear it patiently, and virtuously; for he would lose so much on the one side as he had got on the other; what he had gained upon those he had made his Officers, and emissaries of iniquity and injustice he would lose as much by the sufferers improvement and sanctification, and so his malice would be unprofitable unto him, [Page 120] therefore when he hath prevailed with the one part to act his sugge­stions to the innocent, then he turneth to the other passive side, and labours to excite their murmur, fury, or im­patience, that his trade may render him profit on both sides; a great prize by the malice he imports into the hearts of his Factors, and may have some gain also exported to him out of the [Page 121] mindes of the Pati­ents. We know when Satan had set the Sa­beans & the Chaldeans a work against Job, he left no art unessayed to infuse the fire of murmur and impati­ence into his breast, and he took the sub­tilest way; for he got fully into that half of him that lay in his bo­som, and though he did not kindle any spark of rebellion in his own holy [Page 122] breast, yet we may say his heart was a little over-heated in the ar­dours of that fiery fornace he lay so long in; for his breath sa­voureth a little of some distemper which he found in it. By which we are not war­ranted to let our tongues loose when they press and strain to break from us, to run after some provo­cation to murmur and complaint, but rather [Page 123] warned to be exactly vigilant in all such motions, since he whom God chose for his champion, as ha­ving not his like upon the earth had such words shaken out of him in his storm, as we may believe he re­sented more their ha­ving escaped him, than he did all the violati­ons he had suffered from his adversary, for he never wished any thing recall'd but [Page 124] his words. Chap. 40. vers. 4. 5.

This then may just­ly be a forceable mo­tive to us, to set a watch over our lips, when God hath set such a guard over our heart, as affliction, especial­ly in a good cause. Let us not then, when there is no fault in the cause make one in the calamity, by our im­patience, since we ought rather to render double praises both [Page 125] for out affliction & for our innocence. When we are punished for crimes we ought to have patience, & when we suffer innocently we may well add glad­ness to it; and we finde a good cause produce­ing this effect in the Macedonians, when they were in your ca­ses whom the holy Ghost hath left upon record as a president for you. 2 Cor. 8. 2. In much experience of [Page 126] tribulation they had abundance of joy, and their very deep pover­ty abounded unto the riches of their sim­plicity: All this trea­sure of virtue issued out of the mine of pa­tience and longanimi­ty which maketh by the power of grace e­ven the duration of the pain an Antidote against impatience.

But by exhibiting unto you this high mi­stery of patience which [Page 127] is (as I may say) a sa­cred confirmation of all virtue, I do not intend to discourage those who are but yet initiated and Ca­techized in this miste­ry; for this ultimate perfection of rejoyce­ing in tribulation is not a precept that claimeth our perfor­mance, but a counsel that sheweth the ex­cellency we may aspire to; which the grace of Christ hath set with­in [Page 128] in our reach to exer­cise that virtue, which though it seem super­natural, is but suitable to the Members of such a head. Those therefore who finde not in their natures this finished disposi­tion need not perplex themselves with any scruple of faultiness, for if they are but in this temper of since­rely and humbly de­manding of God that grace which is requi­site [Page 129] for the discharge of their duties in these cases of temptations, though they finde for the present some aver­sion, and reintencie in their mindes against their miseries, they may safely conclude that God will mini­ster, and suppeditate grace sufficient for their support from fal­ling into any direct sedition, so long as they feel a sound and rectified desire to ad­vance [Page 130] in the state of perfect abnagation. Let them not disquiet themselves with their distances from the top of the mountains so long as they are faith­fully climbing, in this case the indulgence of Christ is very appli­cable when he saith: Mark. 9. 40. vers. Those that are not against him are with him. So long as we finde not our will joyned with our weakness against [Page 131] this self-denial we shall not be charged with disloyalty.

There was a great cloud of infirmity in that Fathers faith, when he began with Christ in Mark. 9. 22. If thou canst any thing help us; yet as soon as he was advanced to. I do believe Lord help my incredulity. His suit was granted, in like manner when we begin with much im­perfection we must not [Page 132] distract our selves in apprehensions of our faintness, but proceed sincerely to. I desire, O Lord, a perfect con­formity to all thy Or­ders, help my incon­formity. This prayer continually pursued will certainly obtain the expulsion of that spirit which casts us often into fire, and water, into several di­stempers in onr affli­ctions let us remember Christs lesson in this [Page 133] case. All things are possible to him that believeth.

If we aspire faithful­ly to this perfection we shall quickly finde we have dangerous e­nemies left; when we have once ingeniously undertaken our own reduction, we must not expect to taste sud­dainly the good relish of mortification. The first fruits of Canaan were held to be un­clean, to figure to us [Page 134] that there is always some impurity in our first thoughts, and designs of a spiritual conformity; we must expect such a progres­sion in this perfection of Christianity, as Isa­ac made the digging of his wells in the Land of Promise. The first water he called Con­tention, the second En­largment, and at the last he came to that he called Abundance, when all strife and dif­ficulty [Page 135] was ceased. So we shall in the begin­ning of our digging for this refreshing wa­ter of patience finde the inhabitants of our earth (our sensitive ap­petites) raise great op­position, and in our pursuance, and pro­gress we shall meet with less contradicti­on, and more enlarg­ment of our spirits, and at the last after a faithfull prosecution we come to that abun­danee [Page 136] of water which Christ promiseth.

John 7 38. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Which is not onely acqui­escence, but joy and exultation in all pres­sures, and distresses. This is the method of our advance in spiri­tual graces as the Psalmist designet to us. They shall go from virtue to virtue.

Wherefore we must not be dismayed and [Page 137] relaxed when at first we encounter difficul­ty, and contestation in our senses against patience, and confor­mity but remember how gratious and in­dulgent God is to a little tender virtue, that hath but the qua­lity of sincereness, as the holy spirit inti­mateth by the Angel in the Revelation say­ing, Apoc. 3. 8. Be­hold I have given be­fore thee a door opened [Page 138] which no man can shut, because thou hast a lit­tle power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denyed my Name. So that here we see God, to a little disposition openeth a large passage towards plenitude, and consummation.

When therefore we finde our hearts set to keep Gods word, and that in the first incoa­tion of our virtue we do but accept afflicti­ons in his Name. He [Page 139] that is the holy One, and the true One, will open that door of per­fection which the vio­lence of the whole world shall not be a­ble to shut any more against us. Wherefore in all our straights, and coactions, either of our spirits, or of our fortunes, let us re­member how the holy Spirit calls to us; Di­late thy mouth and I will fill it. As long as we do not contract [Page 140] and shrink our hearts in a perverse chagrin; we need not fear the finding them yield, and give a little at the first in the pressures of affliction, and though we never arrive at this last station of per­fect patience, of joy­ing in tentations, there are many mansions in heaven which answer the several promoti­ons upon earth.

Not all Apostles, not all Prophets, [Page 141] 1 Thess. 1. 14. The An­gel promiseth their re­ward, Apoc. 18. To them that fear thy Name, little and great. So long as we acknow­ledg our own minori­ty we may hope for our portion among the little ones. This I say onely by S. Pauls warrant of, Comfort the feeble hearted, support the weak: for I perswade every one to this holy ambition of ascending as high even [Page 142] as the steps of perse­cution can raise them; and there is no Ladder so good as this of the Cross to scale by: and in our invitation to the nuptial Supper of the Lamb, it is not humility, but rather pusilanimity, to aim to sit down but in the lowest place; they who point no higher, design to stay too near the door, and so may more easilier fall short of that than they who [Page 143] aspire to the place of those who have left all for Christ, which is the throne of judg­ing Nations.

With good cause then I humbly advise every ones aspiring to the supremest pitch of patience, and resigna­tion. And I have war­rant to discharge eve­ry one from dejection, and confusedness in this case of imperfe­ction when they do loyally and ingenuous­ly [Page 144] enterprise a profici­ency in this virtue. And for this reason the Apostle when he adviseth perfection, yet admitteth infirmi­ty to an expectance of Gods perfecting there­of, saying, Phil. 3. 15. Let us as many as are perfect be thus minded, and if you be any other­wise minded this also God will reveal to you. They who are not al­ready stated in the ac­complishment of this [Page 145] virtue may hope for a further improvement by the compassion of God to ingenious ad­dresses.

Gods indulgence to the compleatness of our patience must therefore be taken hold on, onely as they stay to keep us from falling into dejection, and is not to be used as a Rest whereon to lean the wriness and bent of our perverted nature; for so we may [Page 146] insensibly induce an habit of crookedness, and petulancy into our own dispositions.

Let us have there­fore this direction of S. James always in our design at least: Jam. 1. 3. Let patience have a perfect work, that you may be perfect and intire, failing in nothing. By this we may rest assured of the perfection which is contained in patience, since the Apostle as­scribeth [Page 147] this integrity, and indeficiency to it in all things. So as when we are possest of this compleatment of patience, then we are instated in a fortune which is so obnoxious to the distresses of any want, that all privati­ons administer to us the end of all pos­sessions, which is joy and satisfaction.

This hath always been the state of the Saints by whieh ha­ving [Page 148] nothing they were possessing all things, 2 Cor. 6. 10. For out of this [...]rea­sury they who lose pa­rents, children, hou­ses, and lands, for the Gospel have their as­signment for the hun­dred fold now in this time. And in confir­mation of this truth we finde by experience that there is no condi­tion so perfect in this world, that hath not often need of patience [Page 149] to make it tolerable: and they who have perfect patience never want any other pos­session, to make their conditions acceptable. All which duly pon­dered, I shall not need say more in recom­mendation of this ex­cellent virtue: but it is requisite to close up this point with the re­calling to your me­mory that our onely addresses to this pleni­potentiary consolati­on [Page 150] is a constant re­search of it by prayer. In that order therefore I shall leave it to you with this petition of S. Paul for the Thessa­lonians upon the same occasion. Our Lord direct your hearts in the charity of God, and patience of CHRIST.