Images de page
PDF
ePub

sins: be sure these paths shall lead you down to the chambers of everlasting death. If this be the hanging up of your corruptions, fear to hang in hell. Away with this hateful simulation: God is not mocked. Ye must either kill, or die. Kill your sins, or else they will be sure to kill your souls: apprehend, arraign, condemn them; fasten them to the tree of shame; and, if they be not dead already, break their legs and arms, disable them to all offensive actions as was done to the thieves in the Gospel; so shall you say, with our blessed Apostle, I am crucified.

Neither is it thus, only in matter of notorious crime and gross wickedness; but thus it must be, in the universal carriage of our lives, and the whole hab.tual frame of our dispositions: in both these we are, we must be, crucified.

Be not deceived, my Brethren: it is a sad and austere thing to be a Christian. This work is not frolic, jovial, plausible: there is a certain thing, called true Mortification, required to this business; and whoever heard, but there was pain in death? but, among all deaths, in crucifying? What a torture must there needs be, in this act of violence! what a distention of the body; whose weight is rack enough to itself! what straining of the joints! what nailing of hands and feet! Never make account to be Christians, without the hard tasks of Penitence. It will cost you tears, sighs, watchings, seif-restraints, self-strugglings, self-denials.

This word is not more harsh than true. Ye Delicate Hypocrites, what do you talk of Christian profession, when ye will not abate a dish from your belly; nor spare an hour's sleep from your eyes; nor cast off an offensive rag from your backs, for your God? In vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God.

Were it, that the kingdom of God did consist in eating aud drinking, in pampering and surfeits, in chambering and wantonness, in pranking and vanity, in talk and ostentation; O God, how rich shouldst thou be of subjects, of Saints! But, if it require abstinence, humiliation, contrition of heart, subjugation of our flesh, renunciation of our wills, serious impositions of laboursome devotions; O Lord, what is become of true Christianity? where shall we seek for a crucified man? Look to our tables: there ye shall find excess and riot. Look to our backs: there ye shall find proud disguises. Look to our conversations; there ye shall find scurril and obscene jollity.

This liberty, yea this licentiousness, is that, which opens the mouths of our adversaries to the censure of our real impiety. That slander, which Julian could cast upon Constantine, that gun led him to dowría," delicacy" to " intemperance," the very same do they cast upon us. They tell us of their strict Lents, frequent fastings, canonical hours, sharp penances, their bashful shrifts, their painful scourgings, their solitary cells, their woolward and barefoot walks, their hard and tedious pilgrimages; while we, they say, deny nothing to back or belly, fare full, lie soft, sit warm, and make a wanton of the flesh, while we profess to tend the spirit.

Brethren, hear a little the words of exhortation. The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us. All this is blown àway, with a Quis requisivit? Baal's priests did more than they; yet were never the holier. But, for ourselves, in the fear of God see that we do not justify their crimination. While they are in one extreme, placing all religion in the outside, in Touch not, taste not, handle not; let us not be in the other, not regarding the external acts of due humiliation.

It is true, that it is more easy to afflict the body, than to humble the soul: a dram of remorse is more than an ounce of pain. O God, if whippings and hair-cloths and watchings would satisfy thy displeasure, who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassal (his body), to expiate the sin of his soul? who would not scrub his skin, to ease his conscience? who would not freeze upon a hurdle, that he might not fry in hell? who would not hold his eyes open, to avoid an eternal unrest and torment? But such sacrifices and oblations, O God, thou desirest not. The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Yet, it is as true, that it it more easy to counterfeit mortification of spirit, than humiliation of body: there is pain in the one; none, in the other, He, that cares not therefore to pull down his body, will much less care to humble his soul; and he, that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the flesh, gives more colour of the soul's humiliation.

Dear Christians, it is not for us, to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker: he will have both: he, that made both, will have us crucified in both. The old man doth not lie in a limb or faculty; but is diffused through the whole extent of body and soul, and must be crucified in all that it is. Trwriάw, saith the Chosen Vessel, I beat down my body; my body, as well as my spirit.

Give me leave, ye Courtiers and Citizens. Lent is wont to be a penitential time: if ye have soundly and effectually shriven yourselves to your God, let me enjoin you a wholesome and saving penance for the whole year, for your whole life. Ye must curb your appetites; ye must fast; ye must stint yourselves to your painful devotions; ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills; ye must put your knife to your throat, in Solomon's sense. Think not, that ye can climb up to heaven with full paunches; reeking ever of Indian smoke, and the surfeits of your gluttonous crammings and quaffings.

O easy and pleasant way to glory! from our bed to our glass, from our glass to our board, from our dinner to our pipe, from our pipe to a visit, from a visit to a supper, from a supper to a play, from a play to a banquet, from a banquet to our bed! Oh, remember the quarrel against damned Dives: He fared sumptuously every day: he made neither Lents nor Embers: aiev dopry, as he said, "every day was gaudy and festival;" in rich suits, in dainty morsels and full draughts; Intus mulso, foris oleo, " Wine within, oil without," as he said: now, all the world for a drop, and it is too little. Væ saturis, Woe to the full, saith our Saviour: but even

nature itself could abominate bis de die saturum,

twice a day."

one that is full

One of the sins of our Sodom is fulness of bread. What is the remedy? It is an old word, that" Hunger cures the diseases of gluttony." Oh, that my words could prevail so far with you, Honourable and Beloved Christians, as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion. The Court and City have led the way to excess: your example shall prescribe, yea administer the remedy. The heathen man could say, " He is not worthy of the name of a man, that would be a whole day in pleasure;" (Cic. de Fin.) what, and we always? In fasting often, saith St. Paul; what, and we never? I fast twice a week, saith the Pharisee; and we Christians, when? I speak not of Popish mock-fasts; in change, not in forbearance; in change of coarser cates of the land for the curious dainties of the water, of the flesh of beasts for the flesh of fish, of untoothsome morsels for sorbitiuncula delicata, as Jerome calls them. Let me never feast, if this be fasting. I speak of a true and serious maceration of our bodies, by an absolute and total refraining from sustenance: which, howsoever in itself it be not an act pleasing unto God, (for well may I invert St. Paul, neither if we eat not are we the better, neither if we eat are we the worse; 1 Cor. yiii. 8.) yet in the effect it is: singulare Sanctitatis aratrum; as that Father terms it. The plough bears no corn, but it makes way for it: it opens the soil; it tears up the briars; and turns up the furrows. Thus doth holy abstinence: it chastises the flesh; it lightens the spirit; it disheartens our vicious dispositions; it quickens our devotion.

Away with all factious combinations. Every man is master of his own maw. Fast at home, and spare not: leave public exercises of this kind to the command of sovereign powers. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, saith Joel, ii. 15. Surely this trumpet is for none but royal breath.

And now, that what I meant for a suit may be turned to a just gratulation, how do we bless the God of Heaven, that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this sacred trumpet to his lips! Never was it, never can it be, more seasonable than now: now, that we are fallen into a war of religion; now, that our friends and allies groan either under miscarriage or danger; now, that our distressed neighbours implore our help in tears and blood; now, that our God hath humbled us with manifold losses; now, that we are threatened with so potent enemies; now, that all Christendom is embroiled with so miserable and perilous distempers; oh, now it hath seasonably pleased your Majesty, to blow the trumpet in Zion, to sanctify a fast, to call a solemn assembly. The miraculous success, that God gave to your Majesty and your Kingdom in this holy exercise, may well encourage a happy iteration. How did the public breath of our fasting-prayers cleanse the air before them! How did that noisome pestilence vanish suddenly away, as that which could not stand before our powerful humiliations! If we be not straitened in our own bowels, the hand of our God is not shortened,

O daughter of Zion, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes, make thee mourning and most bitter lamentation; Jer. vi. 26. Fast, and pray, and prosper.

And, in the mean time, for us, let us not think it enough to forbear a meal, or to hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day: but let us break the bands of wickedness; and, in a true contrition of soul, vow and perform better obedience, Oh, then, as we care to avert the heavy judgments of God from ourselves and our land, as we desire to traduce the Gospel with peace to our posterity, let each man humble one: let each man rend his heart, with sorrow for his own sins and the sins of his people: shortly, let every man ransack his own soul and life; and offer a holy violence to all those sinful corruptions, which have stirred up the God of Heaven against us; and never leave, till, in truth of heart, he can say, with our blessed Apostle, I am crucified.

III. Ye have seen Christ crucified, St. Paul crucified: see now BOTH CRUCIFIED TOGETHER; I am crucified with Christ. It is but a cold word this, I am crucified. It is the company that quickens it, He, that is the Life, gives it life; and makes both the word and act glorious; I am crucified with Christ.

Alas, there is many a one crucified, but not with Christ!

The Covetous, the Ambitious man, is self-crucified. He plaits a crown of thorny cares, for his own head: he pierces his hands and feet, with toilsome and painful undertakings: he drencheth himself, with the vinegar and gall of discontentments: he gores his side and wounds his heart, with inward vexations, Thus, the man is crucified; but with the world, not with Christ.

The Envious man is crucified by his own thoughts, He needs no other gibbet, than another man's prosperity: because another's person or counsel is preferred to his, he leaps to hell in his own halter. This man is crucified; but it is Ahithophel's cross, not Christ's.

The Desperate man is crucified, with his own distrust. He pierceth his own heart, with a deep, irremediable, unmitigable, killing sorrow; he pays his wrong to God's justice with a greater wrong to his mercy; and leaps out of an inward hell of remorse, to the bottomless pit of damnation. This man is crucified; but this is Judas's cross, not Christ's,

The Superstitious man is professedly mortified. The answer of that Eremite in the story is famous; "Why dost thou destroy thy body?" "Because it would destroy me." He useth his body therefore, not as a servant, but a slave; not as a slave, but an enemy. He lies upon thorns, with the Pharisee: little ease is his lodg ing, with Simeon the anachoret: the stone is his pillow, with Jacob: the tears his food, with exiled David: he lanceth his flesh, with the Baalites: he digs his grave with his nails: his meals are hunger; his breathings, sighs; his linen hair-cloth, lined and laced with cords and wires: lastly, he is his own willing tormentor, and hopes to merit heaven by self-murder. This man is crucified; but not with Christ.

The Felon, the Traitor, is justly crucified: the vengeance of the law will not let him live. The Jesuitical Incendiary, that cares only to warm himself by the fires of states and kingdoms, cries out of his suffering. The world is too little for the noise of our cruelty, their patience; while it judgeth of our proceedings by our laws, not by our executions. But, if they did suffer what they falsely pretend, (as they now complain of ease,) they might be crucified; but not with Christ: they should bleed for sedition; not conscience; they may steal the Name of Jesus; they shall not have his Society, This is not Christ's cross: it is the cross of Barabbas, or the two malefactors; Tv σuçarias@v; Mark xv. 7.

All these, and many more, are crucified; but not, as St. Paul was here, with Christ. How with Christ? In Partnership; in Per

son.

1. IN PARTNERSHIP of the suffering. Every particularity of Christ's crucifixion is re-acted in us, Christ is the model; we, the metal: the metal takes such form, as the model gives it; so are we spread upon the Cross of Christ in an answerable extension of all parts, to die with him; as the prophet was upon the dead child, to revive him.

Superstitious men talk of the impression of our Saviour's wounds in their idol St. Francis. This is no news. St. Paul, and every believing Christian, hath both the lashes and wounds and transfixions of his Jesus wrought upon him. The crown of thorns pierces his head, when his sinful conceits are mortified: his lips are drenched with gall and vinegar, when sharp and severe restraints are given to his tongue: his hands and feet are nailed, when he is, by the power of God's Spirit, disabled to the wonted courses of sin: his body is stripped, when all colour and pretences are taken away from him: shortly, his heart is pierced, when the life-blood of his formerly-reigning corruptions is let out. He is no true Christian, that is not thus crucified with Christ.

Woe is me! how many fashionable ones are not so much as pained with their sins! It is no trouble to them, to blaspheme, oppress, debauch: yea, rather it is a death to them, to think of parting with their dear corruptions. The world hath bewitched their love. That, which Erasmus saith of Paris, That after a man hath acquainted himself with the odious scent of it, (hospitibus magis ac magis adlu bescit "it grows into his liking more and more;" is too true of the world and sensual minds. Alas, they rather crucify Christ again, than are crucified with Christ! Woe to them, that ever they were: for, being not dead with Christ, they are not dead in Christ; and, being not dead in Christ, they cannot but die eternally in themselves: for the wages of sin is death; death in their person, if not in their surety.

Honourable and Beloved, let us not think it safe for us to rest in this miserable and deadly condition. As ye love your souls, give no sleep to your eyes nor peace to your hearts, till ye find the sensible effects of the Death and Passion of Christ your Saviour within

« PrécédentContinuer »