meaning is His absolute will is that they should die And let them shift as they please and wind and turn themselves to slip out of reach after all defalcations and subtractions they can make it will arise near to this sum which I am almost afraid to give you That God is willing we should die For to this purpose they bring in also Gods Providence To this purpose I should have said to none at all For though God rule the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by this law of Providence as Nazianzene calleth it though he disposeth and ordereth all things and all actions of men yet he layeth not any law of Necessity upon all things Some effects he hath fitted with necessary causes Prima part q. 22. art 4. that they may infallibly fall out saith Aquinas and to other effects which in their own nature are contingent he hath applyed contingent causes so that that shall fall out necessarily which his Providence hath so disposed of and that contingently which he hath left in a contingency And both these in the nature of things necessary and contingent are within the verge and rule of his Providence and he altereth them not but extra ordinem when he would do some extraordinary work Psal 104.19 when he would work a miracle The Sun knoweth his seasons and the Moon its going down and this in a constant and unchangeable course but yet he commanded the Sun to stand still in Gibeon and the Moon in the valley of Ajalon Josh 10.12 But then I think all events are not as necessary as the change of the Moon or the setting of the Sun for all have not so necessary causes Unless you will say to walk or stand to be rich or poor to fall in battel or to conquer are as necessary effects as Darkness when the Sun setteth or Light when it riseth in our Horizon And this indeed may bring in a new kind of Predestination to walk or to stand to Riches and Poverty to Victory and Captivity as well as to everlasting Life and everlasting Perdition But posito sed non concesso Let us suppose it though we grant it not that the Providence of God hath laid a necessity upon such events as these yet it doth not certainly upon those actions which concern our everlasting welfare which either raise us up to heaven or cast us down to destruction It were not much material at least a good Christian might think so whether we sit or walk whether God predetermin that we be rich or poor that we conquer or be overcome What is it to me though the Sun stand still if my feet be at liberty to run the wayes of Gods commandments What is it to me if the Moon should start out of her sphere if I lose not the sight of that brightness which should direct me in my way to bliss What were it to me if I were necessitated to beggery so I be not a predestinate bankrupt in the city of the Lord Let him do what he will in heaven and in earth let the Sun go back let the Stars lose their light let the wheel of Nature move in a contrary way let the pillars of the world be shaken Let him do what he will it concerneth us not further then that we say Amen so be it For we must give him leave who made the world to govern it If all other events and actions were necessary we might well sit down and lay our hands upon our mouth But here lis est de tota possessione We speak not of riches and poverty or fair weather and tempests but of everlasting life and everlasting damnation And to entitle God either directly or indirectly to the sins and death of wicked men so to lay the Scene that it shall appear though masked and vailed with limitations and distinctions and though they be not positive yet leave such premisses out of which this conclusion may easily be drawn is a high reproch to Gods infinite Goodness a blasphemy however men wipe their mouthes after it of the greatest magnitude Not to speak the worst it is to stand up and contradict God to his face and when he sweareth he would not have us die to proclaim it to all the world that there be thousands whom he hath killed already and destroyed before they were and so decreed to do that from all eternity which in time he swore he would not do I speak not this to rake the ashes of any of those who are dead that either maintained or favoured this opinion nor to stir the choler of any man living who may love this child for the fathers sake but for the honour of God and his everlasting Goodness which I conceive to be strangely violated by this doctrine of efficacious Permission or by that shift and evasion of a positive Efficiency joyned as it is said inseparably with this Permission of sin which is so far from colouring it over or giving any loveliness to it that it rendreth it more horrid and deformed and is the louder blasphemy of the two which clotheth as it were a Devil with Light who yet breaketh through it and rageth as much as if he had been in his own shape Permission is a fair word and bodeth no harm but yet it breatheth forth that poysonous exhalation which killeth us For but to be permitted to sin is to be a child appointed to death The antients especially the Athenians did account some words ominous and therefore they never used to speak them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Prison they called the House Helladius apud Photium the Hangman the Common Officer and the like And the Romanes would not once mention Death or say their friend was dead but Humanitus illi accidit We may render it in the Scripture-phrase He is gone the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 1 Kings 2.2 What their phansie led them to Religion should perswade us to think that some words there be which we should be afraid to mention when we speak of God Excitation to sin Inclination Induration Reprobration as they are used are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ill-boding words But yet we must not with the Heathen onely change the language and mean the same thing and call it Permission when our whole discourse driveth this way to bring it forward and set it up for a flat and absolute Compulsion For this is but to plough the wind to make a way which closeth of it self as soon as it is made This is not to teach men but to amaze them Sermo per deflexus anfractus veritatem potiùs quaerit quà m ostendit saith Hilary When men broach these contradictions to known and common principles when they make these Meanders these windings and turnings in their discourses they make it also apparent that they are still in their search and have not yet found out the
another mightily and doth sweetly order all things For which way can frail Man come to see his God but by being like him What can draw him near to his pure Essence but Simplicity and Purity of spirit What can carry us to the God of Love but Charity What can lead us into the courts of Righteousness but Justice What can move a God of tender mercies but Compassion Certainly God will never look down from his Mercy-seat on them that have no bowels In a word what can make us wise but that which is good those virtues Temperance Justice and Liberality which are called the labours of Wisdome Wisd 8.7 Hebr. 6.5 What can bring us into Heaven but this full tast of the powers of the world to come So that there is some truth in that of Gerson Gloria est gratia consummata Glory is nothing else but Grace made perfect and consummate For though we cannot thus draw Grace and Glory together as to make them one and the same thing but must put a difference between the Means and the End yet Wisdome it self hath written it down in an indeleble character and in the leaves of Eternity That there is no other key but this Good in the Text to open the gates of the kingdom of Heaven and he that bringeth this along with him shall certainly enter Heaven and Glory is a thing of another world but yet it beginneth here in this and Grace is made perfect in Glory And therefore in the last place God's absolute Will is not only attended with Power and Wisdome but also with Love And these are the glories of his Will He can do what he will and he will do it by the most proper and fittest means and whatsoever he requireth is the dictate of his Love When he sent his Son the best Master and Wisest Lawgiver that ever was on whose shoulders the government was laid Isa 9.6 he was ushered in with a SIC DILEXIT So God loved the world John 3.16 God's Love seemeth to have the preeminence and to do more then his Power This can but annihilate us but his Love if we embrace it will change our souls and angelifie them change our bodies and spiritualize them endow us with the will and so with the power of God make us differ as much from our selves as if we were not annihilated which his Power can do but which is more made something else something better something nearer to God This is that mighty thing which his Love bringeth to pass We may imagin that a Law is a mere indication of Power that it proceedeth from Rigour and Severity that there is nothing commanded nothing required but there is smoke and thunder and lightning but indeed every Law of God is the natural and proper effect and issue of his Love from his Power it is true but his Power managed and shewn in Wisdome and Love For he made us to this end and to this end he requireth something of us not out of any indigency as if he wanted our company and service for he was as happy before the creation as after but to have some object for his Love and Goodness to work upon to have an exceptory and vessel for the dew of Heaven to fall into As the Jews were wont to say propter Messiam mundum fuisse conditum that the world and all mankind were made for the Messias Psal 2.7 whose business was to preach the Law which his Father said unto him and to declare his will And in this consisteth the perfection and beauty of Man For the perfection of every thing is its drawing near to its first principle and original The nearer and liker a thing is to the first cause that produced it the more perfect it is as that Heat is most perfect which is most intense and hath most of the Fire in it So Man the more he partaketh of that which is truly Good of the Divine nature of which his Soul is as it were a sparkle the more perfect he is because this was the only end for which God made him This was the end of all Gods Laws That he might find just cause to do Man good That Man might draw near to him here by obedience and conformity to his Will and in the world to come reign with him for ever in glory And as this is the perfection so is it the beauty of Man For as there is the beauty of the Lord Psal 27.4 so is there the beauty of the Subject The beauty of the Lord is to have Will and Power and Jurisdiction to have Power and Wisdome to command and to command in Love So is it the beauty of Man to bow and submit and conform to the will of the Lord for what a deformed spectacle is a Man without God in this world Eph. 2.12 which hath Power and Wisdome and Love to beautifie Beauty is nothing else but a result from Perfection The beauty of the Body proceedeth from the symmetrie and due proportion of parts and the beauty of the Soul from the consonancy of the will and affections to the will and law of God Oh how beautiful are those feet which walk in the wayes of life How beautiful and glorious shall he be who walketh in love as God loved him Eph. 5.2 who resteth on his Power walketh by his Wisdome and placeth himself under the shadow of his Love And thus much the substance of these words affords us What doth the Lord require Let us now cast an eye upon them in the form and habit in which they are presented and consider the manner of proposing them Now the Prophet proposeth them by way of interrogation And as he asked the question Wherewith shall I come before the Lord so doth he here ask what doth the Lord require He doth not speak in positive terms as the Prophet Jeremiah doth Ask for the old paths Jer 6.16 where is the good way and walk therein Isa 30.21 or as the Prophet Isaiah This is the way walk in it but shapeth and formeth his speach to the temper and disposition of the people who sought out many wayes but missed of the right And so we find Interrogations to be fitted and sharpned like darts and then sent towards them who could not be awaked with less noyse nor less smart And we find them of diverse shapes and fashions Sometimes they come as Complaints Psal 2.1 Why do the heathen rage sometimes as Upbraidings How camest thou in hither Matth. 22.12 2 Sam. 2 22. Matth. 22.18 sometimes as Admonitions Why should I now kill thee sometimes as Reproofs Why tempt ye me you Hypocrites And whithersoever they fly they are feathered and pointed with Reason For there is no reason why that should be done of which Christ asketh a reason why it is done The question here hath divers aspects It looketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forward and backward It looketh back upon the
of us And first we may lay it as a ground That nothing properly provoketh it self as Fire doth not provoke it self to burn nor the Sun to shine For the next and necessary causes of things are rather Efficients then Provocations which are alwayes external either to the person or principal or part which is the principal and special agent And so the Will of man doth consummate and finish sin but provoketh it not but is enticed to that evil or frighted from that which is good by some outward object which first presenteth it self unto the Sense which carrieth it to the Phansie which conveyeth it to the Understanding whence ariseth that fight and contention between the inferiour part of the Soul and the superiour the Sensual appetite and the Reason not to be decided or determined but by the Will And then the Will like Moses Exod. 17.11 holdeth up his hands as it were and is steady and strong the Reason prevaileth and when it letteth them down the Sense The Senses then are as Hierome calleth them fenestrae animae the windows of the Soul through which tentations enter to flatter and woo the Phansie and Affections to joyn with the principal faculties of the Soul to beget that Sin which begetteth Death And if you will observe how they work by the Senses upon the Soul you will soon find that they do it not by force and battery but by allurement and speaking it fair or else by frowns and terrours that there is no such force in their arguments which spiritual wisdome and vigilancy may not assoil that there is no such beauty on them which may not be loathed no such horrour which we may not slight and contemn First they work us occasions of sin And all the power that Occasion hath is but to shew it self If it kill it is as the Basilisk by the eye by looking towards us or indeed rather by our looking towards it Occasion is a creature of our own making we give it being or it would not be and it is in our power as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 11 12. to cut it off When we see the Golden wedge we know it is but a clod of earth Wee see beauty and can call it the colour and symmetry of flesh and bloud of dust and ashes and unless we make it so it is no more Indeed we commonly say Occasio facit furem that Occasion maketh a thief but the truth is it is the Thief that maketh the occasion For the Object being let in by the Senses calleth out the Soul which frameth and fashioneth it and bringeth it to what form it please maketh Beauty a net and Riches a snare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 1 Hieron And therefore bonum est non tangere it is not safe to see or touch There is danger in a very touch in a cast of the eye Upon a look or touch the Soul may fly out to meet the Object and be entangled unawares Vtinam nec videre possimus quod facere nobis nefas est We may sometimes make it our wish not to see that which we may not do not to touch that which may be made an occasion of sin not to look upon wine when it is red Prov. 23.31 nor the strange woman when she smileth For in the second place Objects are not onely made occasions of sin but are drest up and trimmed by the Father of lies who taketh up a chamber in our Phansie in that shape and form in those fair appearances which may deceive us There is a kind of Rhetorick and eloquence in them but not that of the Oratours of Greece which was solid and rational but that of the later Sophisters which consisted in elegancies and figures and Rhetorical colours that which Plato calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flattery and popular eloquence For as they who deliver up themselves to Fortune and tread the wayes to honour and the highest place do commonly begin there with smiles where they mean to shake a whip and cringe and bow and flatter the common people whom they intend to enslave stroke and clap them and so get up and ride the Beast to their journeys end so do these tentations insinuate and win upon the weaker part of man whilst the stronger is left to watch work upon that part first which is easier to be seduced then the Reason or Will which must needs deny them admittance if they came and presented themselves in their own shape and were not first let in by the Senses and Phansie and there coloured over and beautified and in this dress sent up unto them Indeed the Senses are merely passive receive the object and no more The Eye doth see and the Ear hear and the Hands feel and their work and office is transacted And thus if I be watchful I may see Vanity and detest it I may hear Blasphemy and abhorre it I may touch and not be defiled But as the Prophet speaketh Death cometh in at the windows Jer. 9.21 and so by degrees entreth into the palace of our Mind The Civilians tell us Possessio acquiritur etiamsi in angulo tantùm ingrediamur We take possession of a house though we come but into a corner of it So through our negligence and unwariness many times nay most times it falleth out that when the temptation hath gained an entrance at the eye or ear it presseth forward to the more retired and more active faculties and at last gaineth dominion over the whole man from the Senses it is transmitted to the Phansy which hath a creating faculty to make what she pleaseth of what she list to put new forms and shapes upon objects to make Gods of clay to make that delightful which in it self is grievous that desirable which is lothsome that fair and beautiful which is full of horrour to set up a golden calf and say it as a God August lib. Music c. 11. Et habentur phantasmata pro cognitis These shews and apparitions are taken for substances these airy phantasmes for well-grounded conclusions And the Mind of man doth so apply it self unto them ut dum in his est cogitatio ea intellectu cerni arbitramur that what is but in the Phansy and wrapped up in a thought is supposed to be seen by the eye of the Understanding in the same shape What we think is so and with us in these our distempers Opinion and Knowledge are one and the same thing And this inflameth and maddeth the Affections that they forget their objects and look and run wild another way Our Hatred is placed on that which we should love and our Love on that which we should detest we fear that which we should embrace and we hope for that which we should fear we are angry with a friend and well pleased with an enemy Now profaneness soundeth better then a hymn or a Psalm of thanksgiving Hilar in Psal
him who perswaded him who was his counsellour He was all-sufficient and stood in need of nothing l. 4. c. 28. Non quasi indigens plasmavit Adam saith Irenaeus It was not out of any indigencie or defect in himself that he made Adam after his image He was all to himself before he made any thing nor could million of worlds have added to him What was it to him that there were Angels made Athenag Legat pro Christianis or Seraphim or Cherubim He gained not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle For there could be no accession nothing to heighten his perfection Did he make the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athenagoras calleth it as an instrument to make him musick Did he clothe the lilies and dress up Nature in various colours to delight himself Or could he not reign without Man saith Mirandula God hath a most free and powerful and immutable will and therefore it was not necessary for him to work or to begin to work but when he would For he might both will and not will the creation of all things without any change of his will But it pleased him out of his goodness thus to break forth into action Sext. Emperic adv Mathemat pag. 327. Will you know the cause saith the Sceptick why he made world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was good Nihil ineptius saith one quà m cogitare Deum nihil agentem There is nothing more vain then to conceive that God could be idle or doing of nothing And were it not for his Goodness we could hardly conceive him ad extrà agentem working any thing out of himself who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all-sufficient and blessed for evermore infinitely happy though he had never created the heaven and the earth though there had neither been Angel nor Man to worship him But he did all these things because he was good Bonitas saith Tertullian Adv. Marcion l. 2. otium sui non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is an active and restless quality and it is not when it is idle It cannot contain it self in it self And by his Goodness God made Man made him for his glory and so to be partaker of his happiness placed him here on earth to raise him up to heaven made him a living soul ut in vita hac compararet vitam that in this short and transitory life he might fit himself for an abiding City Heb. 13.14 and in this moment work out Aeternity Thus of himself God is good nor can any evil proceed from him If he frown we first move him if he be angry we have provoked him if he come in a tempest we have raised it if he be a consuming fire we have kindled it Heb. 12.29 We force him to be what he would not be we make him Thunder who is all Light Tert. advers Marc. l. 2. c. 11. Bonitas ingenita severitas accidens Alteram sibi alteram rei Deus praestitit saith the Father God's Goodness is natural his Severity in respect of its act accidental For God may be severe and yet not punish For he striketh not till we provoke him His Justice and Severity are the same as everlasting as Himself though he never speak in his wrath nor draw his sword If there were no Hell yet were he just and if there were no Abrahams bosome yet were he good Luk. 16. If there were neither Angel nor Man he were still the Lord blessed for evermore In a word he had been just though he had never been angry he had been merciful though Man had not been miserable he had been the same God just and good and merciful Rom. 5.12 though Sin had not entred in by Adam and Death by Sin God is active in good and not in evil He cannot do what he doth detest and hate he cannot decree ordain or further that which is most contrary to him He doth not kill me before all time and then in time ask me why I will die He doth not condemn me first and then make a Law that I may break it He doth not blow out my candle and then punish me for being in the dark That the conviction of a sinner should be the onely end of his exhortations and expostulations cannot consist with that Goodness which God is who when he cometh to punish facit opus non suum saith the Prophet Isa 28.21 doth not his own work doth a strange work a strange act an act that is forced from him a work which he would not do And as God doth not will our Death so doth he not desire to mani-his glory in it which as our Death proceedeth from his secondary and occasioned will For God saith Aquinas Aqui 1. 2 2. q 132. art 1. ◠seeketh not the manifestation of his glory for his own but for our sakes His glory as his Wisdome and Justice and Power is with him alwayes as eternal as himself No quire of Angels can improve no raging Devil can diminish his glory which in the midst of all the Hallelujahs of Seraphim and Cherubim in the midst of all the blasphemies of Men and Devils is still the same And his first will is to see it in his Image in the conformity of our wills to his where it shineth in the perfection of beauty rather then where it is decayed and defaced in a damned Spirit rather in that Saint he would have made then in that Reprobate and cursed soul which he was forced to throw into the lowest pit And so to receive his glory is that which he would not have which he was willing to begin on earth and then have made it perfect and compleat in the highest heavens Tert. ibid. Exinde ad mortem sed antè ad vitam The sentence of death was pronounced against Man almost as soon as he was Man but he was first created to life We are punished for being evil but we were first commanded to be good God's first will is that we glorifie him in our bodies and in our souls 1 Cor. 6.20 But if we frustrate his loving expectation here then he rowseth himself up as a mighty man and will be avenged of us and work his glory out of that which dishonoured him Prov. 14.28 and write it with our blood In the multitude of the people is the glory of a king saith the wisest of Kings and more glory if they be obedient to his laws then if they rebel and rise up against him That Common-wealth is more glorious where every man filleth his place then where the prisons are filled with thieves and traytours and men of Belial And though the justice and wisdome of the King may be seen in these yet it is more resplendent in those on whom the Law hath more power then the Sword In heaven is the glory of God best seen and his delight is to see it in the Church of the first
To be willing to permit sin and To be willing that sin should be committed are as different in sense as in sound unless we will say that he who permitteth me to be wounded when I would not look to my self and hold up my buckler did cast that dart at me which sticketh in my sides We have been told indeed Qui volens permittit peccata certè vult voluntate permissivâ ab aliis fieri That he that is willing to permit sin by that permissive will is willing also to have that sin committed But it is so unsavoury so thin and empty a speach that the least cast of the eye pierceth through it It is a rotten stick whitled by unskilful hands to make a pillar to uphold that fabrick of the phansie the absolute decree of Reprobation Take away this supporter That God will have that to be done which he permitteth that is That he will have that to be done which he forbiddeth and down falleth th◠Babel of Confusion to the ground And now what is God's Will This is his will even your sanctification 1 Thess 4.3 Luke 7.30 Acts 20.27 S. Luke calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the counsel of God and so doth S. Paul His counsel is his wish his desire his will his natural sincere and constant will And it savoureth of much vanity and weakness to talk and dispute of Gods decree which in respect of particulars must needs be to us most uncertain when we certainly know his will when he crieth To day if you will hear his voice when his precepts and his laws are promulged HODIE To day to enquire what he did before all eternity We may rest on the Goodness of God who would not have created us if he had not loved us I have made thee I have formed thee Isa 43.7 I have created thee saith God for my glory On the Mercy of God with which it could not consist to precondemn so many to misery before they were On the Justice of God which cannot punish without desert and that could not be in the Creature before he was Psal 89.47 On the Wisdome of God which doth nothing much less doth make Man for nought doth not stamp his image upon him to deface it nor useth to make and unmake to build and pull down to plant and dig up On the Grace of God which hath appeared unto all men Tit. 2.11 John 17.3 that they may know him to be the onely true God and him whom he hath sent Christ Jesus But now we are told that some places of Scripture there are which seem to give God a greater hand in sin then a bare and feeble and uneffective permission For God biddeth the Prophet Go tell the people Isa 6.9 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and be converted Now to make their heart fat and their ears heavy and to shut up their eyes is more then a bare permission it is in a manner to destine appoint them to death Most true if it can be proved out of this place that God did either But it is one thing to prophesy a thing shall be done another to do it Hector in Homer foretelleth Achilles death Orodes the fall of Mezentius in Virgil and our Saviour the destruction of Hierusalem but neither was Hector's prophesy the cause of Achilles death nor Orodes's of Mezentius nor our Saviour's of the destruction of Hierusalem Go and tell them maketh it a plain prediction what manner of men they would be to whom Christ was to speak stubborn and refractory and such as would harden their faces against the truth If you will not take this interpretation our Saviour is an Interpreter one of a thousand Job 33.23 Matth. 13.14 15. nay one for all the world He telleth his disciples that in the multitude was fulfilled the prophesy of Esay which saith By hearing you shall hear and not understand c. For this peoples heart is waxen fat and their eyes have they closed that they might not see And here if there eyes were shut it were fit one would think they should be opened True saith Chrysostom if they had been born blind or if this had been the immediate act of God but because they wilfully shut their eyes he doth not say simply They do not see but Seeing they do not see to shew what was the cause of their blindness even a perverse and froward heart Matth. 12.24 They saw the miracles they said he did them by Beelzebub He telleth them that he is come to shew them the will of God they are peremptory and resolute that he is not of God and being corrupt Judges against their own sight and understanding they were justly punisht with the loss of both For it is just that he should be blind that putteth out his own eyes Yet was not this incrassation or blinding through any malevolent influence from God but this action is therefore attributed to God because whatsoever light he had afforded them whatsoever means he had offered them whatsoever he did for them was through their own fault and stubbornness of no more use to them then colours to a blind man or as the Wise-man speaketh then a mess of pottage on a dead mans grave Eccl. 30.18 We might here sylvam ingentem commovere meet with many other places of Scripture like to this but we will touch but one more and it is that which is so common in mens mouthes and at the first hearing conveyeth to our understanding a shew and appearance of some positive act in God which is more then a bare permission Exod. ◠3 God telleth Moses in plain terms I will harden Pharaoh's heart And here I will not say with Gerson Aliud est littera aliud est literalis sensus That the letter is one thing and the litteral sense another but rather with Hilary De Trin. l. 8. Optimus est lector qui dictorum intelligentiam ex dictis potiùs exspectet quà m imponat retulerit magìs quà m attulerit He is the best reader of Scripture who doth rather wait and expect what sense the words will bear then on the sudden rashly fasten what sense he please and carry away the meaning not bring one nor cry This must be the sense of the Scripture which his presumption formerly had set down Sure I am none of the Fathers which I have seen make this induration and hardning of Pharaoh's heart a positive act of God Nor S. Augustine himself who was more likely to look this way then any of the rest although he interpreteth this place of Scripture in divers places Feria 4. post 3. Dominic in Quadrages Pharaoh non potentiâ sed patientiâ Dei indurabatur Idem Ser. 88. I will but mention one and it is in one of his Lent-Sermons Quoties auditur cor
faction What press on to make thy self better and make thy self worse go up to the Temple to pray and profane it What go to Church and there learn to pull it down Why Oh why will ye thus die O house of Israel Oh then let us look about us with a thousand eyes let us be wise and consider what we are and where we are that we are a House and so ought every man to fill and make good his place and mutually support each other that we are a Family and must be active in those offices which are proper to us and so with united forces keep Death from entring in that we are the Israel of God his chosen people chosen therefore that we may not cast away our selves 1 Tim. 3.15 that we are his Church which is the pillar and ground of truth a pillar to lean on that we fall not and holding out and urging the truth which is able to save us that we may not die We have God's Word to quicken us his Sacraments to strengthen and confirm us his Grace to prevent and follow us We have many helps and huge advantages And if we look up upon them and lay hold on them if we hearken to his Word resist not his Grace neither idolize nor profane his Sacraments but receive them with reverence as they were instituted in love if we hear the Church if we hear one another if we confirm one another Rom. 6.9 Gal. 7.16 if we watch over our selves and one another Death shall have can have no more dominion over us we shall not we cannot die at all but as many as thus walk in the common light of the house of Israel peace shall be upon them and mercy and upon the Israel of God And now we must draw towards a conclusion and we must conclude and shut up all in nobis ipsis in our selves If we die it is quia volumus because we will die For look above us and there is God the living God the God of life saying to us Live Look before us and there is Death breathing terrour to drive us from it shewing us his dart that we may hold up our buckler Look about us and there are armouries of weapons treasuries of wisdome shops of physick balm and ointments helps and advantages pillars and supporters to uphold us that we may stand and not fall into the pit which openeth its mouth but will shut it again if we flie from it which is not cannot be is nothing if we do not dig it our selves The Church exhorteth instructeth correcteth God calleth inviteth expostulateth Death it self threatneth us that we may not come near Thus are we compassed about auxiliorum nube with a cloud of helps and advantages The Church is loud Death is terrible God's Nolo is loud I will not the death of a sinner Ezek. 33.11 and confirmed with an oath As he liveth He would not have us die And it is plain enough in his lightning and in his thunder in his expostulations and wishes in his anger in his grief in his spreading out his hands in his administration of all means sufficient to protect and guard us from it And it excludeth all Stoical Fate all necessity of sinning or dying There is nothing above us nothing before us nothing about us which can necessitate or bind us over to Death so that if we die it is in our volo in our Will we die for no other reason but that which is not reason Quia volumus Because we will die We have now brought you to the very cell and den of Death where this monster was framed and fashioned where it was first conceived brought forth and nursed up I have discovered to you the original and beginnings of Sin whose natural issue is Death and shut it up in one word the Will That which hath so troubled and amused men in all the ages of the Church to find out that which some have sought in heaven in the bosome of God as if his Providence had a hand in it and others have raked hell and made the Devil the authour of who is but a perswader and a soliciter to promote it that which others have tied to the chain of Destiny whose links are filed by the phansie alone and made up of air and so not strong enough to bind men much less the Gods themselves as it is said that which many have busied themselves in a painful and unnecessary search to find out openiâ—g the windows of Heaven to find it there running to and fro about the Universe to find it there and searching Hell it self to discover it we may discover in our own breasts in our own heart The Will is the womb that conceiveth this monster this viper which eateth through it and destroyeth the mother in the birth For that which is the beginning of action is the beginning of Sin and that which is the beginning of Sin is the cause of Death In homine quicquid est sibi proficit saith Hilary In Psal 118 There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make use of to avoid and prevent Death And in homine quicquid est sibi nocet There is nothing in Man nothing in the world which he may not make an occasion and instrument of sin That which hurteth him may help him That which circumspection and diligence may make an antidote neglect and carelesness may turn into poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Basil As Goodness so Sin is the work of our Will not of Necessity If they were wrought in us against our will there could be neither good nor evil I call heaven and earth to witness Deut. 30.19 said GOD by his servant Moses I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing And what is it to set it before them but to put it to themselves to put it into their own hands to put it to their choice Chuse then which you will The Devil may tempt the Law occasion sin Rom. 7.11 the Flesh may be weak Temptations may shew themselves but not any of these not all of these can bring in a necessity of dying For the Question or Expostulation doth not run thus Why are you under a Law Why are you weak or Why are you dead for reasons may be given for all these and the Justice and Wisdome of God will stand up to defend them But the Question is Why will ye die for which there can be no other reason given but our Will And here we must make a stand and take our rise from this one word this one syllable our Will For upon no larger foundation then this we either build our selves up into a temple of the Lord or into that tower of Babel and Confusion which God will destroy We see here all is laid upon the Will But such is our folly and madness so full of contradictions is a wilfull sinner Wisd 1.16 that
though he call Death unto him both with words and works though he be found guilty and sentence of death past upon him yet he cannot be wrought into such a perswasion That he was ever willing to die Tert. Apol c. 1. Nolumus nostrum quia malum agnoscimus We will not call sin ours because we know it evil and so are bold to exonerate and unload our selves upon God himself It is true there is light but we are blind and cannot see it There is comfort soundeth every where but we are deaf and cannot hear it There is supply at hand but we are bound and fettered Jer. 8.22 and can make no use of it There is balm in Gilead but we are lame and have no hand to apply it We complain of our natural weakness of our want of grace and assistance When we might know the danger we are in we plead ignorance When we willingly yield our members servants unto sin Rom. 6.13 19. we have learnt to say We did not do it plenâ voluntate with full consent and will and what God hath clothed with Death we cloath with the fair gloss of a good intention and meaning We complain of our bodies and of our souls as if the Wisdome of God had failed in our creation We would be made after another fashion that we might be good and yet when we may be good we will be evil And these webs a sick and unsanctified phansie will soon spin out These are receipts and antidotes of our own tempering devised and made use of against the gnawings of conscience These we study and are ready and expert in and when Conscience beginneth to open and chide these are at hand to quiet it and put it to silence We carry them about for ease and comfort but to as little purpose as the women in Chrysostom's time bound the coins of Alexander the Great or some part of S. John's Gospel to ease them of the head-ach For by these receipts and spells we more envenom our souls and draw nearer to Death by thinking to fly from it and are tenfold more the servants of Satan because we are willing to do him service but not willing to wear his livery And thus excusando exprobramus our apologies defame us our false comforts destroy us and we condemn our selves with an excuse To draw then the lines by which we are to pass we will first take off the Moriemini the cause of our Death from our Natural weakness and from the Deficiency of Grace For neither can our natural weakness betray nor can there be such a want of grace as to enfeeble nor hath Satan so much power as to force the Will and so there will be no necessity of dying either in respect of our natural weakness or in regard of Gods strengthning hand and withholding his grace And then in the next place we will shew that neither Ignorance of our duty nor Regret or Reluctancy of Conscience nor any Pretense or good Intention can make Sin less sinfull or our death less voluntary And so we will bring Death to their doors who have sought it out who have called it to them vvho are confederate vvith it and are vvorthy to be partakers thereof And First Why will ye die O house of Israel Why will ye die vve may perhaps ansvver vve are dead already Haeret lateri lethalis arundo The poysoned and deadly dart is in our sides Adam sinned and vve die Omnes eramus in illo uno cum ille unus nos omnes perdidit We vvere all the loins of that one man Adam vvhen that one man slevv us all And this we are too ready to confess that we are born in sin Nay we fall so low as to damn our selves before we were born This some may do in humility but most are well content it should be so well pleased in their pedegree well pleased to be brought into the world in that filth and uncleanness which God doth hate and make the unhappiness of their birth an advocate to plead for those pollutions for those wilfull and beloved sins which they fall into in the remaining part of their life as being the proper and natural issues of that Weakness and Impotency with which we were sent into the world But this is not true in every part That vveakness vvhatsoever it is can dravv no such necessity upon us nor can be vvrought into an apology for sin or an excuse for dying For to include and vvrap up all our actual sin in the folds of original vveakness is nothing else but to cancel our own debts and obligations Licentiam usurpare praetexto necessitatis Tert. De cult Faemin and to put all upon our first parents score and so make Adam guilty of the sins of the whole world Our natural and original weakness I will not now call into question since it hath had such Grandees in our Church men of great learning and piety for its nursing Fathers and that for many centuries of years but yet I cannot see why it should be made a cloak to cover our other transgressions or why we should miscarry so often with an eye cast back upon our first fall which is made ours but in another man nor any reason though it be a plant watered by the best hands why men should be so delighted in it why they should lie down and repose themselves under its shadow why they should be so willing to be weak and so unwilling to hear the contrary why men should take so much pains to make the way to happiness narrower and the way to death broader then it is in a word why we should thus magnifie a temptation and desparage our selves why we should make each importunate object as powerful and irresistible as God himself and our selves as idoles even nothing in this world Petrarch 1.3 R. S. c. 1. Magna pars humanarum que relarum non injusta modò materiâ sed stulta est The world is full of complaints and excuses but the complaints which the world putteth forth are for the most part most unjust and void of that reason which should present and commend them For when our souls are pressed down and overcharged with sin when we feel the gripes and gnawings of our conscience we commonly lay hold on those remedies which are worse then the disease and suborn an unseasonable and ill-applied conceit of our own natural weakness which is more dangerous then the temptation as an excuse and comfort of our overthrow We fall and plead we were weak and fall more then seven times a day and hold up the same plea still till we fall into that place where we shall be muzled and speachless not able to say a word where our complaints will end in curses in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Hieron Amando Omnes nostris vitiis favemus quod propriâ facimus voluntate ad naturae referimus necessitatem We are
Arts themselves are not liberal but when they make men so free and ingenuous Arithmetick and Geometry are but a kind of Legerdemain if they teach men onely metiri latifundia accommodare digitos avaritiae to measure Lordships and to tell money What need we instance in these The Word of God which bringeth salvation may bring death if it be not received with the meekness of a babe that we may grow thereby The Sacrament the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which hath been magnified too much and yet cannot be magnified enough was ordained as Physick to renew and revive and quicken our souls but if it be not received to that end for which it was first instituted it is not Physick but damnation Non QUID sed QUEMADMODUM vers 29. It is not the bare Doing of a thing but the Manner of doing it the driving it on to its right end which giveth it its full beauty and perfection A sincere Heart and the Glory of God set the true image of Liberality on the gift of a mite Attention and Obedience make the Word the savour of life Humility and Repentance sanctifie a fast and Shewing of the death of the Lord maketh us truly partakers of his body and bloud Our Saviour Christ hath fully decided this controversie in a word and with one breath as it were hath said enough to still the tumults of the disputers which have been as the raging of the sea and to settle all the vain and needless controversies of this age John 6.63 even in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The flesh profiteth nothing it is the Spirit that quickeneth For to say his flesh profiteth nothing is a plain declaration that he meant not to give it us to eat That which is nourishment to the body is not proportioned to the soul nor will that which reneweth a soul restore the body to a healthful temper Who would go about to recover a sick man with an Oration of Tully's or set a joynt with an axiom of Philosophy Who can restore a sick soul with bread and wine with flesh or bloud Although these two parts the Soul and the Body are knit and united rogether and do sympathize so as that which refresheth the body doth affect and please the mind and that which cheareth the mind doth strengthen the body yet both the parts receive that which is proper to them the body that which is of a corporeal nature and the soul that which is spiritual and both mutually communicate to each other the fruit and benefit of both without the least confusion of their operations and proprieties Although we see the actions of the body as Hunger and Thirst many times attributed to the soul and the functions of the soul as to Will and the like to the body Therefore we must distinguish between the Meritorious cause and the Efficiency and Application of it which are both joyntly necessary but their manner of operation is diverse It was necessary that the flesh and bloud of Christ should be separated from each other in his violent death on the cross that his most precious bloud should be poured out for remission of sins but to make it a physical potion to make it nourishment to our souls it was not necessary that his bodily substance should be taken into ours For if it should our Saviout telleth us it would profit nothing And the reason is plain Because the merit and virtue of his death which is without us is made ours not by any fleshly conjunction or union with him who merited for us by offering himself but 1. by his Will by which he in a manner maketh it over unto us and 2. by our due receiving of it which is made complete by our Consent and Faith and Giving of thanks which is the work alone of that Spirit which quickeneth and giveth life The blessed Virgin did no doubt partake of the merit of Christ but not because she conceived and bore him nine moneths in her womb but in that she conceived him by faith in her heart Luke 11.27 28. The womb was blessed that bare him and the paps that gave him suck but they rather were blessed who heard his word and kept it The Flesh and Bloud of Christ doth truly quicken us as it was offered up for us a sacrifice on the cross as a meritorious cause and as he gave it for the salvation of the world But it doth not quicken by being received into our bodies but by being received into our souls His merit was enough to save the whole world and yet his merit were nothing if not applied and that application is not wrought without but within us not by the Spirit of life but by the force and power of his death and passion the meritorious cause Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death What need we hear stir this Water of life and turn it into gall and bitterness Why should this Bread be gravel between our teeth Why should Christ's love be made the matter of war and contention It is called the Body and Bloud of Christ and it is called Bread and Cup in my Text And it is a miserable servitude saith Augustine signa pro rebus accipere to take the signs of things for the things themselves and not to be able to lift up the eye of our mind a-above the corporeal creature to take in eternal light That we may lift up ours let us fix it upon the end for which Christ offered his body and bloud and upon the end for which we are to receive the Sacrament and signs of it And let one end be the measure and rule of the other Let Christ lifted upon the cross draw us after him to follow as he leadeth His body was bruised and his bloud shed to purge us from all iniquity and to make us a peculiar people unto himself That was Christ's end And our end must be proportioned to it So to receive the Sacrament of his body and bloud that it may be instrumental to that end Which cannot be by eating his flesh and bloud that flesh which was crucified and that bloud which was shed One would think it impossible that any should think our Saviour should command us that which is impossible or shew us a way which cannot lead to the end Flesh and Bloud taken down into the stomach can no more feed and quicken a Soul then it can enter into the Kingdom of heaven But his Obedience his Humility his Cross and Passion his meritorious Suffering and Satisfaction these have power and influence on the Soul These are here presented to us as Manna and better then Manna and if we take them down and digest them they will turn into good bloud and feed us to eternal life His Body and Bloud were thus given and thus we must receive them Our Saviour calleth it his
then evident that it is one thing to say that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us another that faith is imputed for righteousness or which is the very same our sins are not imputed unto us Which two Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not-imputation of sin make up that which we call the Justification of a sinner For therefore are our sins blotted out by the hand of God because we believe in Christ and Christ in God 1 Cor. 1.30 That place where we are told that Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification is not such a pillar of Christ's Imputed righteousness in that sense which they take it as they phansied when they first set it up For the sense of the Apostle is plain and can be no more then this That Christ by the will of God was the onely cause of our righteousness and justification and that for his sake God will justifie and absolve us from all our sins and will reckon or account us holy and just and wise not that he who hath loved the error of his life is wise or he that hath been unjust is righteous in that wherein he was unjust or he that was impure in that he was impure is holy because Christ was so but because God will for Christ's sake accept receive and embrace us as if we were so Unless we shall say that as we are wise with Christ and holy and righteous so with Christ also we do redeem our selves For he who is said to be our righteousness is said also to be our redemption in the next words I would not once have thought this worth so much as a salute by the way but because I see many understand not what they speak so confidently and many more and those the worst are too ready to misapply it are will be every thing in Christ when they are not in him and well content he should fight it out in his own gore then they though they fall under the enemy in him may be styled conquerours Why should not we content our selves with the language of the Holy Ghost That certainly is enough to quiet any troubled conscience unless you will say it is not enough for a sinner to be forgiven not enough to be justified not enough to be made heir of the kingdom of heaven But yet I am not so out of love with the phrase as utterly to cast it out but wish rather that it might either be laid aside or not so grosly misapplied as it is many times by those presumptuous sinners who die in their sins If any eye can pierce further into the letter and find more then Imputation of faith for righteousness and Not imputation of sins for Christ's righteousness sake let him follow it as he please to the glory but not to the dishonour of Christ let him attribute what he will unto Christ so that by his unseasonable piety he lose not his Saviour so that he neglect not his own soul because Christ was innocent nor take no care to bring so much as a mite into the Treasury because Christ hath flung in that talent which at the great day of accounts shall be reckoned as his So that men be wary of those dangerous consequences which may issue from such a conceit quisque abundet sensu suo let every man think and speak as he please and add this Imputation of Christ's righteousness to this which I am sure is enough and which is all we find in Scripture Forgiveness and Not-imputation of sins and the Imputation of faith for righteousness I pass then to this Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith which indeed is properly called Evangelical Righteousness because Christ who was the publisher of the Gospel was also authour and finisher of our Faith And here we may sit down and not move any further and call all eyes to behold it and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is it Nec curiositate opus est post Jesum Christum When Christ hath spoken and told us what it is our curiosity need not make any further search The Righteousness of faith is that which justifieth a sinner Rom. 1.17 For the just shall live by faith or as some render it the just by faith shall live Mar. 9.23 If thou canst believe saith our Saviour and Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 16.31 and thou shalt be saved and thy houshould saith S. Paul to the Gaoler Isa 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to these waters yea come buy wine and milk without money or money-worth I doubt not but every man is ready to come every man is ready to say I believe Lord help my unbelief But here it fareth with many men as it doth with those who first hear of some great place fallen unto them but afterwards find it is as painful as great The later part of the news sowreth and deadeth the joy of the former and the trouble taketh off the glory and dignity Believe and be saved is a messuage of joy but Believe and repent or Repent and believe is a bitter pill But we must joyn them together nor is it possible to separate them they both must meet and kiss each other in that Righteousness which is the way to the Kingdom of God It is true Faith is imputed for righteousness but it is imputed to those who forsake all unrighteousness Faith justifieth a sinner but a repentant sinner It must be vera fides quae hoc quod verbis dicit moribus non contradicit a faith which leaveth not our manners and actions as so many contradictions to that which we profess Faith is the cause and original of good actions and naturally will produce them and if we hinder not its casuality in this respect it will have its proper effect which is to Justifie a sinner This effect I say is proper to Faith alone and it hath this royal prerogative by the ordinance of God but it hath not this operation but in subjecto capaci in a subject which is capable of it In a word it is the Righteousness of a sinner but not of a sinner who continueth in his sin It is a soveraign medicine but will not cure his wounds who resolveth to bleed to death For to conceive otherwise were to entitle God to all the uncleanness and sins of our life past to make him a lover of iniquity and the justifier not of the sinner but of our sins Christ was the Lamb of God which took away our sins John 1.29 And he took them away not onely by a plaister but also by a purge not onely by forgiveness but also by restraint of sin He suffered those unknown pains that we should be forgiven and sin no more not that we should sin again and be forgiven He fulfilled the Law but not to the end that we should take the more heart break it at pleasure and adde rebâ—â—lion to rebellion because
there been no Sin there had been no Hell at all And therefore as it resembles it so it tends to it as naturally as a Stone doth to the centre Against the righteous the gates of Hell will not open but they are never shut to the wicked ever ready to receive him and take him in as his due and portion For again is it not fit that they who have made an agreement with it that with their words and works have called it to them that have studied and laboured for it all their life long that have made it their business that have broke their sleep for it that have had it in their will and desire should at last be thrown into that place which they have chosen and which they have made such hast to all the daies of their life Is it not fit that what they sow that they should also reap You will say This is impossible impossible that any man should will it should desire it should be ambitious of that place of horrour and count it a preferment But beloved as much as it may be this is the case and condition of every obstinate and unrepenting sinner For he that counts Sin a preferment must count Punishment a preferment too which can no more be separated from Sin then Poyson from a Serpent When thou first sinnest thou bowest towards Hell when thou goest on in thy sin thou runnest to destruction and to die and to be in Hell are the same period and term of thy motion Prov. 8.36 When thou lovest Sin thou lovest Death When thou drawest in Sin as the Oxe doth water thou drawest in the flames of Hell When thou thinkest thy self in Paradise thou art falling into the pit of Hell The Philosopher gives the reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning is from thy self if therefore the end is from thy self the cause is from thy self and therefore the effect is from thy self For will any man say that the Glutton is sick the Wanton rotten the Sluggard poor against his will when they greedily do those things which naturally bring along with them Sickness Rottenness and Poverty Will you say he had a mischance that wilfully leapt into the Sea We will Death we love Death nay further yet exsultamus rebus pessimis we rejoyce to do evil Prov. 2.14 We are in an exstasie transported beyond our selves in our third heaven as S. Paul was in his we talk of it we dream of it we sweat for it we fight for it we travell for it we embrace it we have a kind of exsultation and jubilee in Sin And what is this but to hoyse up our sails and make forward towards the gulf of Destruction and the bottomless pit So that to conclude this by the Justice of God by the Providence of God by our own Wills as by so many winds by the tempest of our Passions as well as that of Gods Wrath we are driven to our end to the place prepared and fitted for the Devil and his Angels and for all those who have loved their tentations and embraced them with more affection then they have the oracles of God For if we thus deceive our selves and mock God God will mock us to our own place Still it is What a man soweth that shall he also reap We will but look back and so hasten to our journeys end adde one word of application and so conclude And 1. that we be not deceived let us as S. Augustine exhorts operam dare rationi let us therefore diligently observe the dictates of Reason and be attentive to the Spirit speaking in the Scripture not neglect the light of the one nor quench the heat of the other The Scripture cannot deceive us but when we are willing to deceive our selves When we are averse from that it bids us love and place our love where it commands our hatred then we are not interpreters but fathers of the Word as he spake of Origine and put what shape and sense we please upon it Nor can we urge the obscurity of the Text especially in agendis in matters of practice for I never thought it a matter of wit and subtilty to become a Christian And if we weigh the plainness and easiness of Scripture and the time and leisure which most have but mispend upon their lusts and the world I might bespeak them as Chrysostome bespake his auditory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What need have you of a preacher For why should our Wit serve us rather to make us rich then good Why may we not try out as many conclusions for saving Knowledge as we do for Riches and Honour and the things of this world 2. Let us not seek death in the errour of our lives Let us not plunge our selves in errour and then study to believe that which we cannot believe without fear and trembling Let us not present God unto us in a strange and aliene shape in that monstrosity which we affect and so make him like unto our selves Quid tibi cum Deo si tuis legibus What hast thou do with God if thou wilt be thy own Lawgiver and wilt live and be judged by no other Laws but those which thy self makest This is indeed to take the place of God whilst we give him but the name Oh beloved it is ill trying conclusions with him who tryeth both the heart and the reins From him no cloud can shadow us no deep can cover us no secret grot or cave can hide us And if we act by our own laws yet we shall be judged by his And what paint soever we put upon our sins he that numbreth the stars will number them all and call them by their right names What we call Religion shall be with him Profaneness What we call Faith with him shall be but Phansie What we call the Cause of God shall be the cause of our Damnation Quantas cuncque tenebras superfuderis Deus lumen est Cast what mists you will build what labyrinths you please God is Light and will find out thy Sin that monster that Minotaur Be not deceived God is not mocked but is rather more jealous of his Wisdome then of his Power At the very sight of Sin his Anger waxeth hot but when vve vvould hide our sin from his sight his Jealousie burneth like fire For he that sinâ—eth dallieth with God's Power but he that palliateth his sin playeth with his Wisdome and tryeth whether he can fraudulently circumvent and abuse him He who sinneth would be stronger then God but he who shifteth a sin into the habit of Holiness by a pretense would be wiser then God potior Jupiter quà m ipse Jupiter Then vvhich no impiety can be greater 3. And last of all let us remember the end When vve sow look forward toward the Harvest Say vve vvithin our selves What may this vvhich I now sow bring forth Will Light grow up here and Joy or shall I reap nothing but Darkness and Corruption
hath ears to hear it If we preach the word at midnight Acts 20. as S. Paul did if with David we rise up early before the morning watch if we pray seven times a day if in our secret chamber if in publick before the congregation if before princes yet still is it seasonable Now as all other parts of religious exercise so our Regeneration and first Conversion unto God which is here called rising wheresoever it comes can never be intempestive Though it come in our old age as it did to S. Peter yet God is able to strengthen the weakness and imperfections of age Though it come in our youth as it did to S. John yet God is able to rule and guide the most corrupt wayes and passions of youth Though it come in our childhood as the word of God came unto Samuel yet God is able to give understanding to childhood yea God is able to open the mouths of babes and sucklings Yet may you not take this as spoken to patronize any man in deferring and putting off his conversion from day to day or that we may presume to make choice of what time we list as if God would attend our leisure but rather to commend to you quickness of dispatch and to shew that you can never chuse a time too soon S. Paul here speaks not in the present If you do arise for this would argue that there were sometime when we were not risen Nor in the future If you would arise for this were to give us some respite Yet a little slumber yet a little sleep I may stay yet a little while in the grave and yet rise soon enough But he speaketh in the time past If you are already risen thus to anticipate and forestall all times for God Our Saviour speaking in the Gospel of some parts of religious exercise saith These things ought you to do and not to leave the other undone Indeed those actions of religion the occasions of which come oft in our way and which are often to be done of these it is sufficient to say These we must do But this act of godliness of which we now speak our Regeneration and new Birth is of another nature It is done but once by us in all our lives and we may not say of it HAEC OPORTET FACERE This we must do FECISSE OPORTET NON FACERE This ought to have been done long since it must not be now to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato on another occasion It is not now a time to take advise but to use advise long since taken Before our conversion to God whatsoever time was spent was lost siquidem hominis Dei facta non debent aliunde numerari nisi ex quo à Deo natus est Christians must begin to account their lives not from their natural birth but from the day of their return unto God Fui quidem annos sexaginta vixi vero tantum septem was the speach of an ancient Roman Gentleman I have been indeed saith he threescore years but I have lived but seven Even from this heathen may we learn to distinguish betwixt to Be and to Live Be it that we have spent our lives in studies and deep speculations or in honourable imployments or in some gainful trade and vocation yet all this is nothing quia non ad utilitatem nisi saeculi partim because before this first Resurrection the profit of these redoundeth onely to the world All the time thus spent we may account our selves to have been but not to have lived Our Saviour according to the prophesies which went before of him was to lie three daies and three nights in his grave And most true it is that he did so For the Scripture is plain Yet many Divines have had much ado to shew how it was so Such haste made he out of his grave that we can scarcely account his three dayes and three nights He was buried on Friday about the ninth hour and on the first day he rose about the dawning of the day thus purposing as it were to give Death no more time then needs he must for the fulfilling of the Scriptures And this is not done without a kind of mystery For as Christs Resurrection is a type and figure of our Rising from sin so his lying in the grave resembles the state of our Regeneration in which we are but as dead men Betimes in the morning whilst it is yet dark in the first dawning of our reason ought we to arise to newness of life For as soon as there is any possibility of becoming a Christian every moment after that is too late and too much time is taken from God Indeed advise and consultation commend other actions and out of good discretion and Judgment many times it is that it is long before we set upon them and our delay is accounted our wisdome But in this action counsel is unseasonable neither can there be any reason why we should delay it It is not in the building up our selves in our most holy faith as it is in other buildings The wise man in the Gospel intending to build a towr first sits down and considers his means whether he be able to compass it But in this we need not advise with our purse Though it be a high tower yea higher then that of Babel and reacheth up to heaven it self yet none so poor but is of sufficient ability to finish it When our Saviour Christ called his Disciples we read not of any that made scruple but forthwith as soon as they were called without casting any doubt or scruple at all they immediately arose and followed him No need of deliberation in that action wherein all the danger is not to do it When S. Cyprian was before the Magistrate and now ready to be condemned to the fire for Christ and his cause the Magistrate began to counsel him to advise better and take him to deliberate but the blessed Martyr replies Fac quod tibi praeceptum est in retam justâ nulla consultatio Do you saith he what you have commission to do In so just an action as this there is no need of consultation Again as it is with new vessels they savour long of the liquor with which at the first they were seasoned and the longer the liquor lies in them the stronger will they relish of it Even so it is with us Whilst yet we are but new vessels even as soon as we come from the wheel from the hand of our Maker by the envy of the Devil we become vessels of dishonour seasoned with sin as it were with unsavoury liquor and of this more or less we savour all the daies of our life The best way then if not quite to wash out yet to abate at least this teint and evil favour is betimes to change the liquor and not to suffer the infection to grow stronger by longer standing Thirdly when question was sometime made At what
then our Conscience and seeth more of us then we do when we are most impartial to our selves and see most if we thus dally and trifle with Wisdome it self Mercy which tryumpheth over Justice will yield to Wisdome and if we cover our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 and not lay them open by Confession we shall find God just and faithful but not to forgive us our sins not to cleanse us from all unrighteousness We might here inlarge But we pass from the danger in respect of God to that in respect of our selves There is no one sin to which our Nature more strongly inclineth us then this of covering and excusing our sin So pleasing is excuse to our disposition so inseperable from Sin that cum ipso scelere nascitur soror filia it is both the daughter and sister of Sin We travel with Sin and Excuse as Thamar did with twins Excuse is not the first for Sin first maketh the breach and then calleth for Excuse but though it be not the first yet it followeth close at the Heels Now to give a reason for this First it is the very nature of Sin not onely to infect the soul but to bewitch it that it shall either not feel it or not be willing to evaporate and expel it It is compared to a Serpent and the poyson thereof is much like unto that of the Aspick which Cleopatra put to her arm It casteth us into a kind of sweet and pleasant slumber and killeth us without pain We are smitten and we feel it not we are stricken Prov. 23 35. and are not sick we are in the very mouth of Hell and yet secure It is called a burden and yet we feel it not nor doth it burden or lye heavy upon us But as it is with those who lye under the water they feel no weight though whole seas run over them fo is it with those who are overwhelmed and drowned in sin they feel no weight or if they do they soon relieve and ease themselves I say a burden it is and we are careful to cast it from us but not that way which God prescribeth but after a method forged and beaten out by our own irregular fancy we do not cast it away by loathing it and loathing our selves for it by resolving against it by fearing the return of it as we would the fall of a mountain upon our heads but we cast it upon our own Weakness and Infirmity which will not bear it upon God's Long-suffering and Mercy and presume to continue in it upon Christ Jesus and crucifie him again upon Excuse which is but sand and cannot bear that which pressed the Son of God himself to death Soli filii irae iram Dei non sentiunt They onely are insensible of the Anger of God who are the children of Wrath. Secondly though God hath set up a tribunal in our hearts and made every man a judge of his own actions yet there is no tribunal on earth so much corrupted and swayed from its power and jurisdiction as this No man is so partial a judge in another mans cause as in his own No man is so well pleased with any cheat as that which he putteth upon himself Though God hath placed a Conscience in us Exod. 28.30 as he put the Urim and the Thummim in the breast-plate of judgment by which he might give answer unto us what we are to do and what not to do what we have done well and what amiss as the High-priest by viewing his breast-plate saw whether the people might go up to War or not go up yet when we have once defiled our Conscience we care not much for looking upon it or if we do it giveth no certain answer but we lose the use of it in our slavery under sin as the Jews lost the use of their Urim and Thummim at the Captivity of Babylon as appeareth Ezr. 2.63 Neh. 7 65. The use of it I say which is to (a) Rom. 2.15 accuse to (b) 1 John 3.20 condemn to (c) Wisd 17.10 torment to make us have (d) Deut. 28.65 a trembling heart and (e) Levit. 26.36 a faint heart For it doth none of these offices neither accuse nor convince nor condemn nor afflict nor strike with fear At best it doth but shew the whip and then put it up again It changeth and altereth its complexion as our sins and hath as many names as there be evil dispositions in men Our conscience checketh us and we silence it Sin appeareth and we cover it Our conscience would speak more plainly if we did not teach it that broken and imperfect language to pronounce Sibboleth for Shibboleth to leave out some letter some aspiration some circumstance in sin Or rather to speak truth the Conscience cannot but speak out to the offender and tell him he hath broken the Law but as we will not hearken to Reason when she would restrain us from sin so we slight her when she checketh us for committing it We will neither give ear to her counsel and not sin nor yet hearken to her reproof when we have finned neither observe her as a Counseller nor as a Judge neither obey her as a friend nor as an enemy Hence it cometh to pass that at last in a manner it forgetteth its office and is negligent in its very property is a Conscience and yet knoweth nothing a Register yet recordeth nothing or if it do in so dark and obscure a character as is not legible a Glass and reflecteth nothing but a Saint for a man of Belial a Book of remembrance but containeth not our deceit and oppression and sacrilege but the number of Sermons we have heard the Fasts we have kept though for bloud the many good words we have spoke though from a hollow and unsanctified hart from our indignation against the world which hath nothing worse init then ourselves And this is the most miserable condition a sinner can fall into Rom. 1.18 This is saith St. Paul to hold the truth in unrighteousness by an habitual course of sin to depress and keep under the very principles of Goodness and Honesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hold and have full possession of the Truth Luk. 19. but make no use of it to hide and bury it as the bad servant did his pound in a Napkin bury it in the loathsome sepulchre of a rotten and corrupt soul as if having a medicine about me I should chuse to take down poison having plenty starve my self to death having Honey and Manna lay it by till it stink and feed on Husks having a Conscience not keep it suborn my Counsellour to be my Parasite be endued with Reason and use it only to make me more unreasonable neglect and slight it when it bids me not do this and when I have done it paint and disguise it that I may not know the work of mine own hands nor see that sin which