obnoxious to the rage of troublesome times being looked upon aâ— a booty by such as are able and find advantage to seise upon them Only the Mean estate is most free from such perillous Extremities being as below Envy so above Contempt If then our good and gracious God hath given us a convenient measure of means to maintain our condition let us think our line hath fallen unto us in a pleasant place as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 16. 6. and that we have a goodly heritage He that hath once a Competency let him be assured he hath all the Contentment which is to be found in these temporary things and Experience will tell him Though Riches may encrease yet after a Sufficiency once attained Contentment will encrease no more though Riches encrease never so much THUS much of that which Agur requested Now follows The Reason of his Request Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord c. Out of which before we come to handle them particularly let us make this General Observation That the Rule of our desires and endeavours in the getting and enjoying of these outward things ought to be our Spiritual welfare and the bettering of us to God-ward This was Agur's Rule He desires such a measure of outward means as might neither through fulness make him forget God nor through want tempt him to sin both against him and his neighbour This is the Compass we ought to sail by if we would avoid shipwrack This is the Pole-star and Heavenly mark whereon our eyes in all our thriving courses should be fixed and by it our desires and aims measured That proportion of outward things and provisions for this life which may the besâ— stand with our improvement to God-ward which may the most further and enable us and the least endanger and hinder us in our religious devotions to God and charitable duties to our neighbours this should be the stint of all our worldly desires and endeavours under the Sun More than may stand with this is so far from being wished or sought for that we ought with Agur to pray against it and say Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil But alas we set the Cart before the Horse we make not the Worship of God and our Spiritual advantage the Rule of our aims in getting and enjoying of these Temporal things But on the contrary we use to serve God and keep his Commandments so far as may stand with our profit with our covâ—tous and ambitious desires and no farther And this was Ieroboam's sin who forsooth would serve the God of his Fathers so as he thought might stand with the safety of his kingdom but no farther But alas what would it profit a man to win the whole world and lose his own soul But Ieroboam lost his kingdom too which else God had promised to entail unto his posterity But let us be wiser and as S. Paul bids us whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do else let us do all to the glory of God Let this be the End of all our actions and then we shall be sure to thrive here and be blessed for ever in the world to come So much for the General Observation Now to the particular handling of the words Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord The words are plain and their meaning of Impiety and Irreligion Give me not Riches lest I become ungodly and irreligious For as to know God in Scripture is to worship and serve him with fear and reverence so to deny him is to be devoid of Religion toward him to live as if there were no God So it is said of the sons of Eli that they were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord that is they acknowledged him not by love fear and obedience but lived as if they had said Who is the Lord Now that men who abound in Wealth and Superfluity are much subject to this malady is so manifest by other places of Scripture that Agur's fear was not without a cause Deut. 6. 12. is a Caution given to Israel when God should bless them with Prosperity When thou shalt have eaten and be full them beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Again Deut. 8. 10 c. When thou shalt have eaten and be fullâ— Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments and Iudgments and his Statutes Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein And thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied Then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought c. Vers. 17. And thou say in thine heart My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth Whence it appears not only how dangerous Prosperity is to Piety but what it is to forget God which is in my Text to deny him and to ask Who he is namely to break his Commandments Statutes and Iudgments to be unthankful for his Blessings and to attribute all to our own power and wisdom Again in Deut. 32. 15. Moses prophetically sings of Israel Iesurun waxed fat and kicked Thou art saith he waxed fat thou art grown thick thou art covered with fatness Then he forsook God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation Vers. 16. They provoked him to jealousie with strange gods with abominations they provoked him to anger And Hosea 13. 6. the Lord complains of the event of this prediction According to their pasture saith he so were they filled and their hearts were lifted up therefore they have forgotten me Rarae fumant felicibus arae I think it is sufficiently proved and Experience doth every where make it good 1. The cause hereof is the weakness of our Nature through sin not able to wield the Blessings of God if they abound Even as the Physitians say that a Plethora or full state of body is dangerous in respect of health even though it be without impurity of bloud because Nature if weaker then it cannot wield it or if a while she be of equal strength yet is soon and sometimes suddenly overturned Even such is the case here with our life and health spiritual 2. Religious Devotion springs from Humility and Lowliness of mind but Abundance usually pusseth up with pride as the Lord even now complained in Hosea that the heart of his people was exalted and therefore they forgot him So in the quotation Deut. 8. 10 c. Lastly A full belly is unfittest for Devotion and Prayer and therefore in our devoutest Supplications we use Fasting Even as it is in plenteous feeding so is it in the very outward injoyment of plenty whence ye heard even now the Spirit of God to express this Abundance of outward things by Feeding
manage of so holy and glorious a work seeing the experience of all ages sufficiently witnesseth how prone the nature of man is in flying one extreme to run too far towards the other Why then should we think it unlikely or rather not think it very likely that we also may have miscarried in the same manner unless we will arrogate unto our selves that priviledge of infallibility and freedom from error which we condemn as intolerable presumption in our Adversaries Besides it is to be taken notice of because of the prejudicate misprision of many to the contrary That the measure of Truth and Falshood Best and Worst is not the greater or lesser distance from Popery forasmuch as Popery also containeth much of Christianity nor that which is most destructive of the Man of Sin always most warrantable and safe to be embraced If it were there be some in the world whose religion we would be loth to admit of that would be found more orthodox and better reformed Christians than any of us all Nay give me leave without offence for the better awakening of some out of their deafness to whatsoever else may be said to this purpose to propound such a Demand as this Who knoweth whether this transgression I speak of be not a main and principal ingredient of that guilt which the Divine Majesty admonisheth us to take notice of in this his so long and so severe visitation of our neighbours and brethren whether he doth not visibly or if some passages be considered almost vocally upbraid them Thou that hatest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge I know right well that rashly to assign the particular causes of God's judgments without rule or precedent of Scripture is a sin of presumption and a bold intrusion into God's secrets and therefore I affirm not but demand only whether there be not here some cause which may minister such a suspicion But whatsoever it be the compassion of their woful affliction calls upon me rather to pray for them than to follow this harsh and unpleasant passage any further Only thus much If that which the Apostle saith in particular of the things which befel the Israelites God's first people in the Wilderness These things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come if this be to be extended also unto those punishments and their analogy which besel them afterwards then may perhaps two things further not unseasonably be enquired into First For what other sins it is remembred in Scripture that God gave his people during that his first Covenant especially after they came to dwell in their own Land under the sword of an external enemy or his worship thereby at any time to be troden under foot besides these two Idolatry and Prophanation of that which was holy or Sacriledge Examples of the first who knows not Of the second see the Story of Achan Iosh. 7. of Eli'sons 1 Sam. 2. the punishment of the Sacriledge of the seventh or Sabbatical year 2 Chron. 36. and the parallel places for by the Law every seventh year not only the whole Land but all servants and debts were holy unto the Lord and therefore to be released Lev. 25. 2 4. Deut. 15. Exod. 21. Secondly What was that Transgression after the return from Babylon mentioned in that Prophesie of Antiochus Epiphanes Dan. 8. 12. for which it is there foretold that An host should be given him against the daily Sacrifice and that it should cast down the truth unto the ground and practise and prosper Perhaps the Story in the 2 3 and 4. Chap. of the second Book of Maccabees will tell us To that which is commonly alledged That such distinction and reverent regard of things Sacred as we contend for opens a way for Idolatry I answer No otherwise than the eschewing of Idolatry may also through the preverseness of men be made a bridge to prophaneness that is by accident not from its own towardness but our distemper Otherwise this Discrimination or Distinction if we would understand or heed the ground thereof prompts the clean contrary For we should reason thus If the things which are God's eo nomine in that name and because they are His are therefore to be held segregate in their use then surely God himself who is the Fountain of Holiness ought to have a prerogative of segregation in the most eminent and absolute manner namely such an one as that the worship due unto him must not be communicated with any thing else besides him And indeed unless both be done God's Name is neither fully nor rightly sanctified AND here I should now make an end but that there is one thing yet behind of principal consequence which I have deferred hitherto because I could not elsewhere bring it in conveniently without somewhat disturbing the coherence of my Discourse There is an eminent species or kind of Sanctification which I may seem all this while to have neglected forasmuch as it seemeth not to be comprehended under this notion of discretion and separation wherein I place the nature of Holiness and that is Sanctification or Holiness of life To which I answer That all notions of Sanctity and Sanctification in Scripture are derived from discretion and separation and that this now mentioned is likewise derived thence For it is to be reduced to the Sanctification of Persons Sacred and set apart unto God By which though in the strict and proper sense are intended only Priests and such as minister about Holy things yet in a larger sense and as it were by way of resemblance the whole body of the People of God are a Royal Priesthood and Holy Nation which the Almighty hath selected unto himself out of the rest of the world and set apart to serve him in a peculiar and different manner from the rest of men For you have heard it is a requisite of that which is Holy to be used in a peculiar and singular manner and not as things common Hence it is that the observation of that peculiar and different form of life which God hath commanded those whom he hath called and set apart from the world unto himself in Scripture carries the name of Holiness or Sanctity especially in the New Testament that is of such as becometh those that are Holy according to that Be ye Holy as I am Holy And here I might have a large field of discourse to shew how the Name of God is sanctified by the lives of his Children when they conform not themselves to the fashions of the world but as the Apostle speaks are crucified theretoâ— and keep themselves unspotted from the pollutions and vanities thereof But this I leave to be supplied by your meditations according to the general intimation given thereof DISCOURSE III. Acts 17. 4. There associated themselves to Paul and Silas of the worshipping Greeks a great multitude PAVL and Silas preaching in the Iewish Synagogue
money or price of the land being by Ananias devoted to God's service henceforth became sacred And therefore he that after he had voluntarily sold his estate with a purpose to have all the money distributed for the use of the Church durst yet notwithstanding purloin and take part thereof to his own private use was clearly guilty of Sacriledge Again in the same place You see that Ananias is most justly charged with Sacriledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he took back again part of that money which he had made sacred by devoting it unto God S. Ierome in his 8. Epistle Ananias Sapphira dispensateres timidi imò corde duplici ideo condemnati quia post votum obtulerunt quasi sua non ejus cui semel ea voverant partémque sibi alienae substantiae reservaverunt praesentem meruere vindictam non crudelitate sententiae sed correctionis exemplo Ananias and Sapphira were distrustfully covetous false and double-hearted in disposing the money they received for the sale of their estate and being therefore condemned because that after their Vow they presented the price of their estate as if it had been their own still and not God's to whom they had given it by vow and withal kept back and reserv'd to themselves part of that which was no more theirs but another's viz. God's upon these accounts they did most worthily deserve that punishment of Death Nor was this condemning of them to such a punishment an over-severe or cruel sentence but an useful exemplary severity that others might amend and fear to transgress in the like manner Caesarius brother to Gregory Nazianzen in his fourth Dialogue expresseth the sin of Ananias thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He alienated the money dedicated unto God being wounded with Sacriledge and when he was asked thereabout denied it Lastly Oecumenius in whom we have the currant interpretation of the Greek Fathers thus expounds the words of S. Peter to Ananias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We were far from compelling or forcing you in the least to sell your estate But whenas you were pleased of your own accord to offer it as a Sacrifice to God for you afterwards to withhold any part of what ye had given to God for the use of the Church and to keep it for your own use this without question is plain Sacriledge And then adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore they received the punishment due to Sacrilegious persons what 's that even Death it self Also Asterius Bishop of Amasea who lived near the time of Iulian in his Hom. against Covetousness calls Ananias and Sapphira 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons guilty of Sacriledge even in their own Offerings I quote these Fathers the more fully because many of our late Commentators omit the main Sin and dwell upon the circumstances only as Hypocrisie Vain-glory Covetousness and the like But we must distinguish between Ananias his Fact and the manner and circumstance thereof The Fact was Sacriledge In the manner of doing other sins attended as handmaids It will be plain if we ask but these two questions First What Ananias did The Text will make answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He purloined of the price the holy money This was his Fact Ask secondly How and in what manner he purloined The story will tell us dissemblingly and hypocritically making an appearance to the contrary This then was but the manner and circumstance of his Fact and so the species of the Fact not to be placed therein Now this Sacriledge or Sacrilegious act committed by Ananias is in the words of the Text partly expressed partly aggravated from the inexcusableness thereof In the expression is spent the third Verse the aggravation is in the fourth The Crime or Fact of Ananias is expressed two ways First by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purloining of the sacred price Secondly by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by lying unto or deceiving the Holy Ghost For both these I suppose to mean one and the same thing namely the same Fact of Ananias two ways expressed The first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I translate by stealing or purloining for so the word signifies Our English which turns it Keeping back of the price doth not sufficiently express the propriety thereof in this place In another place it doth Tit. 2. 10. where it turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purloining Exhort servants saith the Apostle to be obedient unto their Masters and to please them well in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not purloining but shewing all good fidelity The Vulgar in both places useth Fraudare defrauding In a word the true signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is surripere suffurari aut clam subduct a in commodum nostrum convertere to steal or take away privily or to convert to our own use and advantage what was so closely purloined Whence Beza turns it by Intervertere Intervertit ex pretio He purloined or closely and cunningly took unto himself part of the price and in Titus Intervertentes In the same sense it is used by the Septuagint in two several places both pointing at the sin of Sacriledge One is in Achan's story Iosh. 7. 1. where what we read Achan took of the accursed thing the Septuagint renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he purloined of the accursed thing that is the thing that was consecrated to God as all the silver and gold was Chap. 6. Ver. 19. For which cause when God relates to Ioshuah Israel's sin as the reason of their flying before their enemies he makes a distinction between Achan's Sacriledge and his theft and dissembling Ver. 11. of the 7. Chap. saying For they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stollen and dissembled also and they have put it even among their own stuff The other is in 2 Macc. 4. 32. where Menelaus his Sacriledge who stole the sacred Vessels is expressed by it Menelaus saith the Author supposing he had got a convenient time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stole certain vessels of gold out of the Temple and gave some to Andronicus and some he sold into Tyrus and the Cities round about The second expression of Ananias his Sacriledge is by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deceiving or lying to the Holy Ghost or as it is repeated immediately after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lying unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is fallo frustro mentior to deceive cozen lie as also the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which peculiarly signifies Sacrilegious transgression as Lev. 5. 15. and in the story of Achan is in all those places as elsewhere rendred in the Targum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lie and the substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lie and in Oaths and Promises Non servo frango not to keep or to break them So Ananias his sin was a lying unto or breaking of promise with God For having vowed or promised unto him in his heart the whole price
which God sends for any special sin but it hath one of these marks in it Come therefore to Adonibezek and let us learn of him by God's stamp in our punishment to find out what sin he aims at If we would once use to read this Hand-writing of God in our crosses and afflictions what a motive would it be to make us leave many a sin wherein the Devil nuzzles us the greatest part of our life without sense and feeling For if any thing would rouze us and scare us from sin sure this would to hear word from God himself what the sin is he plagues us for and so sharply warns us to amend Whensoever therefore any cross or calamity befals us or any of ours either in body goods or name or in the success of any thing we take in hand let us not rebel against God with an impatient heart or fret at the occasion or author of our misery but let us take a just account of our life past and thus reason with our selves This is surely none other but the very Finger of God I am punished therefore have I sinned I am punished thus and thus in this or that sort in this or that thing in this or that place or time therefore God is angry with me for something I have done the same with that I suffer or something like unto it or because I sinned in this thing or at this time or in this place when and where I now am punished As I have done so surely God hath requited me Therefore I will not look any longer upon any other cause or occasion of this misery of this cross or calamity but look unto my sin and give glory unto God who sent the hand which hath done all this unto me Thus did the sons of Iacob having no doubt learned of their good father to make this use of their crosses and afflictions For when they saw themselves so roughly entertained in Egypt being challenged for spies of the countrey when their brother Simeon was to lie in prison in a strange land and not only this brother but another brother so dearly beloved of his father must needs be taken from him and come into the like jeopardy when all this distress fell still upon the head of a brother and nothing but a brother they presently discovered the Hand-writing of God and cried out We are guilty and therefore is this evil come upon us Behold the Finger of God All this evil still lights upon one or other of our brethren for we are verily guilty concerning a brother our brother Ioseph in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Ah! said Reuben I told you I spake unto you that you should not sin against the child but you would not hear therefore behold his bloud is now required Yea this writing of God is yet more evident for we sinned in the dearly-beloved of our Father Ioseph and now are we distressed about our brother Benjamin the child whom our Father loveth As we have done so God hath requited us This is the last point I observed in these words and it contains the Use of all the former Verbum sapienti one word is enough to him that is wise and one Example is sufficient for him that is willing to follow it DISCOURSE XXXI S. MATTHEW 11. 28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls I SHALL not need trouble you with prefacing of the coherence The words I have read are an intire sense of themselves without dependence on what went before For the matter they are such as I might call them an Epitome or Brief summe of the whole Gospel containing in few words the compleat method of Salvation and as in a small map a full view of the way to the gates of Eternal life whither he is most unworthy to come who will not learn so small a Catechism as this They are propounded unto us by way of an Invitation consisting of Three parts 1. The Thing 2. The Persons 3. The Benefit 1. The Thing invited to which is double to wit Christ and his yoke Come unto me saith he and take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly 2. The Persons invited Those that labour and are heavy laden Come all ye that labour and are heavy laden 3. The Benefit to those who embrace the invitement Rest and Ease which you shall find in every corner of this Invitation I will give you rest or I will ease you again Ye shall find rest unto your souls and in conclusion My yoke is easie and my burthen is light A Benefit so transcendent as might allure any car that is not wholly stopped up with spiritual deafness to listen after the means whereby it is attained Let us therefore consider these Three points in order and first that which must first be known and learned The quality of the persons invited Those that labour and are heavy laden Which before I tell you what they mean I must first tell you how to construe them viz. by the Figure called Hendiadis understanding the conjunction and causally and so contriving the two things named into one in this manner labour and heavy laden into labouring of being heavy laden As if it had been said Come unto me all ye that labour of or by being heavy laden All you that are toiled with and weary of your heavy burthen come unto me and I will ease you For after this manner are many things in Scripture which are uttered conjunctionwise to be understood I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception saith God unto the woman Gen. 3. 16. that is I will multiply thy sorrows of conception or the sorrows which come of conception You shall find often in Scripture Do judgment and righteousness that is Do judgment according to righteousness Do such judgment as proceeds from justice and righteousness Psal. 116. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication that is the voice of my supplication Ier. 29. 11. The Lord promiseth his people to give them an end and expectation that is the end of their expectation or the end they look for In this Gospel saith S. Iohn Baptist chap. 3. verse 11. He that cometh after me shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the fire of the holy Ghost So in my Text weary and heavy laden is weary of being heavy laden such as labour such as are toiled and tired out by the weight of their loading And thus are the words to be construed Now to the meaning of them Those that labour of being heavy laden are such as grieve and groan under the burthen of
speeches and gesture and their outward seeming be so that in their hearts they condemn and abhor such sinful actions as outwardly they seem to approve This is the opinion of too-too many But let us hear what our Saviour Christ saith He that denieth me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven Would any man excuse his wife's adultery though she should say never so often she kept her heart and love only unto him No more will Christ excuse us when we yield our outward man to wickedness though we say we keep our hearts intire to him Christ suffered not only in Soul but also in Body that he might redeem us both Body and Soul from everlasting destruction and shall not we glorifie him with both Yes verily and since God hath given us both a Body and a Soul it becomes us as S. Paul saith 2 Cor. 7. 1. to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God THUS having spoken sufficiently of the first degree of Repentance I come unto the second which is contained in these words Forsaking of evil thoughts Whence first I observe That Concupiscence or the evil dispositions or motions of our hearts are sins before God though we never consent to put them in execution For this is the style of the holy Ghost in my Text not only to call the bad liver a wicked man but the owner too of evil motions unrighteous If we seek for a Law whereof they are a breach it is the last Commandment of the Decalogue which prohibits all irregularity of our desires and thoughts whatsoever Non concupisces Thou shalt not so much as covet any thing amiss if thou dost it will be sin The natural man could not know thus much S. Paul himself confessing that he had never known concupiscence to be sin had not the Law said Non concupisces Thou shalt not covet Concupiscence he calls not the Faculty or nature of the Act it self but the Anomaly of the Act not the desire only but every motion of the heart not agreeable to the will of God and that from the Style of this Commandment Non concupisces If any shall say that the inward motions of our Mind are involuntary and past the command of the Will and therefore not sinful I answer Ab initio non suit sic It was not so from the beginning we procured this evil unto our selves in the sin of our first parents and therefore the fault is our own Secondly It is not necessary that whatsoever is sin should be under the mastery of our Will for so original sin should be none But this is necessary that all should in some sort belong unto the Will and so do our desires affections and all other motions as we call them of the Mind If any shall further add that the Apostle Iames 1. 15. saith of Concupiscence that it bringeth forth sin and therefore it self not like to be sin the Cause being always diverse from the Effect I answer The Apostle saith not it is the cause of sin simply or all sin but only of outward sins or sins of fact and howsoever this reason is so far from proving Concupiscence not to be sin that it argueth the mere contrary for that so bad an off-spring as sin cannot find a more natural parent than sin it self The serious consideration hereof should be a cooling to the pride of our nature and a strong motive to Humility in the esteeming of our selves and our best actions Alas what are we that any good work we do should make us so highly conceit of our selves Let us examine our inward thoughts our hopes our fears our by-respects our vain-glory the whole Regiment of Concupiscence and it will make us even ashamed to think what we have done howsoever that which is seen outwardly be blameless and glorious in the eyes of men If the Peacocks-wings of a laudable work or the gay feathers of seeming worth do make thee swell do but cast thine eyes a little upon the legs whereon thou standest upon the rotten post whereon thou hast reared thy work so glorious without and then thou wilt cast down thy high looks and cry with S. Paul Rom. 7. 18. Lord whatsoever men see without me I know there dwelleth no good thing within me The second thing I observe from hence is The Priviledg the Law of God hath above the Laws of men It is true in the Laws of men that Thoughts are free but with God's Law it is not so Mens Laws are not broken though only the outward man observe and keep them but God's Laws are broken if the inward man alone transgress them be the outward man I mean man in outward conversation never so conformable And this is our meaning when we say That the Law of God only doth bind the Conscience meaning the inward actions of the soul and spirit those actions which only God and our Conscience are privy unto But the Laws of men do bind only the outward man that is to the performance of outward actions which men either do or may take notice of Which that we may the better understand we must know that Laws are said to bind in two regards 1. in commanding the doing of some actions which else were at our choice and 2. in making liable to an agreeable punishment if they be transgressed Now whosoever commandeth must be Lord of what he commandeth whosoever maketh liable to punishment must both be able to take notice of the fault and of power to inflict the punishment Seeing then God alone is Lord of the soul and spirit he alone can bind them by Commandment Seeing God alone can take notice of the sins of the heart and is only able to inflict the punishment namely everlasting death and damnation the proper punishment which the conscience feareth he alone may command upon pain of eternal damnation Man's Law therefore in this sense which I have spoken binds not the Conscience or inward man because no man is Lord of anothers conscience nor can take notice of the actions thereof nor yet hath in his power to inflict the punishment which it only feareth In one word conceive it thus The actions whereunto the Conscience alone is privie are not the object of the Laws of man but only such actions as fall within the notice of men And yet this is also true Though the Laws of men do not bind the Conscience yet a man is bound in Conscience to obey the Laws of men but this bond is from the Law of God which commands us to use sutable affections in obeying the Laws of men Obey every ordinance of men not for fear of punishment but for conscience sake If now we did truly acknowledge this Prerogative of the Laws of God we would witness the same by our extraordinary care in keeping them in an extraordinary fear of breaking them But what do we even
to commit it in God's Temple How impudently contumelious was this Sin therefore which was committed in God's very presence-chamber All these Aggravations are common to both our Parents which all laid together make their Sin as great as ever any was saving the sin against the Holy Ghost for so the best Divines do think But Eve adds one Aggravation more to her weight in that she was not content to sin her self alone but she allured and drew her husband also into the like horrible transgression with her whereby she was not only guilty of her own personal sin but of her husband 's also And this added so much unto her former sum that S. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 14. speaks of her as if she had been the only transgressour Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression So great and horrible a thing it is in the Eye of God to be cause or mover of another's sin Wo be unto them who by any means are the cause of another's fall And justly might God say to Eve for this respect though there had been no more What is this that thou hast done NOW I come to the Woman's excuse The Serpent beguiled me In which words are three things considerable The Author The Serpent The Action Guile The Object Me. Concerning the Author The Serpent two things are inquirable First What the Serpent was indeed Secondly What Eve supposed him to be For the first I think none so unreasonable as to believe it was the unreasonable and brute Serpent For whence should he learn or how should he understand God's commandment to our first Parents and how is it possible a Serpent should speak and not only so but speak the language which Eve understood For though some there be who think that Beasts and Birds have some speech-like utterings of themselves yet none that a Beast should speak the language of Men. It remains therefore that according unto the Scriptures it was that old deceiver the Devil and Satan who abused brute Serpent either by entring into him or taking his shape upon him The last of which I rather incline unto supposing it as you shall hear presently to be the Law of Spirits when they have intercourse and commerce with men to take some visible shape upon them as the Devil here the Serpent's whence he becomes styled in Scripture The old Serpent Now for the Second question What Eve took him to be whether the Serpent or Satan If we say she thought him to be the brute Serpent how will this stand with the perfection of Man's knowledg in his integrity to think a Serpent could speak like a reasonable creature Who would not judge her a silly woman now that should think so and yet the wisest of us all is far short of Eve in regard of her knowledg then Again If we say she knew him to be the Devil I will not ask why she would converse at all with a wicked spirit who she knew had fallen from his Maker but I would know how we should construe the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the beginning of this Chapter where he saith The Serpent was the subtillest of all the beasts of the field which God had made and so implies the woman's opinion of the Serpent's wisdom was the occasion why she was so beguiled otherwise to what end are those words spoken unless to shew that Satan chose the Serpent's shape that through the opinion and colour of his well-known wisdom and sagacity he might beguile the Woman For the assoiling of which difficulty I offer these Propositions following First I will suppose There is a Law in the commerce of Spirits and Men that a Spirit must present himself under the shape of some visible thing For as in natural and bodily things there is no entercourse of action and passion unless the things have some proportion each to other and unless they communicate in some Common Matter So it seems God hath ordained a Law that invisible things should converse with things visible in a shape as they are visible which is so true that the conversing presence of a Spirit is called a Vision or Apparition And Experience with the Scriptures will shew us that not only evil Angels but good yea God himself converseth in this manner with men And all this I suppose Eve knew Secondly I suppose further That as Spirits are to converse with men under some visible shape so is there a Law given them that it must be under the shape of some such thing as may less or more resemble their condition For as in nature we see every several thing hath a several and sutable Phisiognomy or figure as a badge of their inward nature whereby it is known as by a habit of distinction so it seems to be in the shapes and apparitions of Spirits And as in a well-governed Commonwealth every sort and condition of men is known by some differing habit agreeable to his quality so it seems it should be in God's great Commonwealth concerning the shapes which Spirits take upon them And he that gave the Law that a man should not wear the habit of a woman nor a woman the habit of a man because that as he had made them diverse so would he have them so known by their habits so it seems he will not suffer a good and a bad Spirit a noble and ignoble one to appear unto men after the same fashion And this also I suppose Eve knew Now from these grounds it will follow That good Angels can take upon them no other shape but the shape of Man because their glorious excellency is resembled only in the most excellent of all visible creatures the shape of an inferiour creature would be unsutable no other shape becoming those who are called the sons of God but his only who was created after God's own image And yet not his neither according as now he is but according as he was before his fall in his glorious beauty of his Integrity Age and deformity are the fruits of Sin and the Angel in the Gospel appears like a young man his countenance like lightning and his raiment white as snow as it were resembling the beauty of glorified bodies in immutability sublimity and purity Hence also it follows on the contrary That the Devil could not appear in humane shape whilest Man was in his integrity because he was a Spirit fallen from his first glorious perfection and therefore must appear in such shape which might argue his imperfection and abasement which was the shape of a Beast otherwise no reason can be given why he should not rather have appeared unto Eve in the shape of a Woman than of a Serpent for so he might have gained an opinion with her both of more excellency and knowledg But since the fall of man the case is altered now we know he can take upon him the shape of Man and no wonder since one falling star
prevail with him than his subtile motives were to overcome him and indeed the Event prov'd he was not much deceiv'd Hence we are to observe That the Devil taketh advantage of the vehemency of our Passions to work our overthrow if he once find these to fasten his hold by he then thinks he may lead us whither he lift To have gained our affections is as it were to have gotten a party within which is a dangerous advantage to further the invasion of an enemy especially when most of our Passions are our Favorites which we can deny nothing they ask and if they be once bribed will work us wholly to the dispose of our Arch-enemy That we may not therefore afford the Devil this advantage and as it were reach him a rope to hang us withal it behoves us so to govern and temper our Passions and Affections that they transport us not into the Devil's jurisdiction which that we may the better do it will not be unfit to set down some Rules for performance thereof First therefore It is best to resist our Passions at the beginning and to use the same policy which Pharaoh did with the Israelites that they might not over-run his Country in killing all their Infants as soon as they were born While the sore is green Chirurgeons seldom despair but festered once they hardly cure it So it is with the Passions of our Mind when they are first growing they are soon curbed but being a little entertained they will hardly be subdued The second means is To inure our selves to cross our Passions when there is no danger and to bridle our selves sometimes from ordinary and lawful desires that we may do it with more ease when we are in danger For how can he hope to be able to master his Passions when dangerous temptations assault him who never used them to it in the time of his security We know that men who would fit themselves for the Wars will practice in the time of Peace when there is no enemy near and will toil and labour when they might be at rest will lie hard when they may command a soft bed will watch when they might sleep and all to make them able to endure the like when they shall have need The like must we do that we may get an habit to cross and subdue our Passions when we shall have need The third means is To fly occasions which may incense the Passions whereunto we are inclined Occasiones faciunt latrones saith the Proverb Occasion makes him a thief which else might have been an honest man Wherefore he that commits himself to Sea in a boisterous tempest is worthy to suffer Shipwrack and he that willingly puts himself in the company of infected persons may blame himself if he fall into their diseases Lastly but chiefly When thy Passions are most vehement then seek for succour from Heaven Fly under the wings of Christ as the Chickens under the Hen when the Kite seeks to devour them Beat at the gates of mercy and crave grace to overcome thy misery He is thy Father and will not give thee a Serpent if thou ask him Fish Humble thy self before him open thy sores and wounds unto him and the good Samaritan will pour in both wine and oyl and thy Passions shall melt and fall away as clouds are dispelled and consumed by the Sun DISCOURSE XLI GENESIS 3. 14. And the Lord God said unto the Serpent Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattel and above every beast of the field upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life THESE words contain in them the Serpent's Doom and Destiny pronounced upon him by the great Lord of Heaven and Earth They contain in them two parts First The Reason of this Sentence in the words Because thou hast done this Secondly The Sentence it self in the words following Thou art cursed above all cattel c. The Reason of this Heavy doom is Because thou hast done this What This namely Because he had beguiled the Man and Woman which God had made and caused them to transgress his great Commandment He therefore that is the cause and occasion of anothers sin is as hateful to God as the doer and is liable to as great or rather a greater punishment than he For the Serpent here for causing hath this doom as well as the Man and Woman for doing Nay which is to be observed his doom is the first read unto him as if he were the Arch-offender and not to the Man or Woman till he was done with What should this mean but that his fault being the mover was more grievous in the eyes of God than theirs which is the reason also why the Woman comes in the next place to have her Sentence because she had been a sin-maker and was guilty not only of her own personal sin but of her husband 's also whence the Man who had sinn'd only himself and not caused others to sin had his judgment last of all I might also confirm the same from the quality of their several judgments in that the Serpent alone is doom'd to be accursed and no such word spoken either of the Man or the Woman But I shall not need to tarry here to prove How horrible and fearful a thing it is to be the Author of another's sin We know they are the words of our Saviour Matt. 18. 6 7. Wo unto the world because of scandals and wo unto the man by whom a scandal cometh it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea And S. Paul 1 Cor. 8. 13. would eat no meat as long as the world lasteth rather than make his brother to offend Would they would consider this who are not content alone to sin themselves but play the Devil in corrupting others It seems they long to be double damn'd I would also they would think of this who make no conscience at all by extremities and vexations and other grievances to drive a man to Perjury and other grievous sins and yet think themselves free when they should know that he that is the Author of another's sin makes another's guilt his own and shall share in the punishment every whit as deep as he But this shall suffice to have observed in the first part The Reason of the Serpent's doom Now I come to the second The doom it self wherein the words as you see have all relation to the Serpent For the Lord said unto the Serpent Thou art cursed c. Thou shalt go upon thy breast c. But because this Serpent was more than a brute Serpent the Devil himself being the chief Agent in this his Instrument it is a thing much controverted Vpon which of these this curse is here pronounced 1. Some would have it spoken only of the brute Serpent because here is a comparison made