place is full of snares full of dangers but as Palladius speaks of the Husbandman Villicus si nolit peccare non facit the spiritual husbandman doth nothing disorderly unless he will No man sinneth or can sin against his will If Sin were not permitted why have we a Will Cur permiserat si intercedat cur intercedat si permiserit saith Tertullian And if there were no tentations to sin how weak would our Obedience be how easie to obey where there is nothing to hinder or retard us The things which are in this world are the good creatures of God and by their first institution served to shew the bounty of God and to provoke Man to thankfulness and to the contemplation and exspectations of those better things which shall never perish Nae Mundus schola magna patet saith the Poet The World is a great School in which we may spend our time with profit and by visible things grow up to the knowledge of those things which are invisible The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his mighty Power Day unto day teacheth knowledge And by these Heavens I may be brought to a view of those new heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness By this temporary Light which when time comes I shall see no more I may learn how to value that light which is everlasting by the Riches of this world what to think of the riches and glory of the Gospel by a span of Time to conceive more rightly of Eternity But then it is as true that this world as it is a School to teach us so is it officina tentationum a Shop full of tentations And we may make it so We may turn these good creatures of God and make the Beauty of the world a snare the Riches and Glory of the world as prickles and thorns and that which is very good a provocation to induce and intice to that which is very evil One said of Rome Talis est qualem quisque velit It is such a place as we will make it And as it is the commendation of our Obedience to stand out against those assaults against the Wine when it is red against Beauty when it smiles against the Pomp of the world when it glitters in our eyes so doth it aggravate our Disobedience if we entertain that as an occasion of sin which indeed in it self is an inducement to virtue if we chuse Gold before the Maker of it a Pearl before the Kingdom it represents and had rather have villam quà m coelum a farm here than a mansion in Heaven There is nothing in the world nothing in our selves which we may not make either good or bad use of a means to avoid and prevent sin or an occasion to commit it That by which we dishonour God by the very same we may glorifie him The Understanding may be as the Sun in the firmament to lead us in our way that we hurt not our foot against a stone and it may be as a Meteor to lead us into by-paths and dangerous precipices till we fall headlong into hell it self The Will may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shop and workhouse of virtuous actions and it may be a forge of all iniquity The Memory may be a book fairly written with all the characters of goodness and it may be a roul blotted and blurred with lust and uncleanness So then if we seek the true immediate and proper cause of Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must not turn our eyes outward to look abroad either on the Will of God for it is against his will nor on the Devils malice for he can but occasion and promote it nor on those many Tentations which daily assault us for to a resolved Christian they are but as so many atoms and cannot hurt him unless he drink them down But let us search the closet of our hearts and look upon our own Will This is the very womb which conceives that viper that eats it out and destroies it God hath no interest in our sins All he doth is that he permits them And as he permits us to commit them so he permits nay he commands us not to do them Et quid velit Deus non quid permitmittat considerandum saith Cyprian The rule of our Obedience must be this in all the course of our life To consider not what God doth suffer to be done but what he would have us do For as Augustine saith Deus bonitatem suam aliâ voluntate non praevaricatur God doth not prevaricate nor doth he bring in one will to destroy another his will to permit Sin doth not cross that will of his which doth forbid it Let us give God no further interest in our sins than this That as a just and wise Lawgiver he doth barely permit us to fall into those tentations to which when we yield we break that Law and become obnoxious to punishment who by a constant resisistance and withstanding of it Nay he may suffer us to be led into tentations though he call to us to avoid them And this leads me to that which I proposed in the next place That this Permission is not efficacious That it is not necessary for any man to be taken in the snare and to fall into tentation If it were not possible he might fall he could not merit he could do no good and if it were necessary he should fall he could do no evil And yet such an ungrounded position there is and it passeth current amongst many That upon the Permission of Sin it must necessarily follow that sin must be committed For indeed I find they make great use of this word Permission If we read their tractates we shall find that under this one word they cunningly wrap-up Excitation Compulsion and what not Nay they speak it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Sun and the people Deus vult fieri quod facere vetat Deus non semper vult quod se velle significat And again Ab aeterno reprobantur ut indurarentur Some they say there are who are reprobated and cast-away from all eternity that they may be led and shutup into temptation and be hardened And this with them is nothing but Permission We cannot be too wary in our approaches to God and his Majesty nor in our discourses of him De Deo vel seriò loqui periculosum It is dangerous after mature deliberation to speak of him saith the Philosopher But either directly or by way of deduction or consequence to entitle him to our Sins is blasphemy against his infinite Goodness To think that he leads any into tentation is to fashion him out to be like to our own Lusts and to our Adversary who though he be not alone in the work yet alone hath the name of Tempter But now some places of Scripture there are brought-forth which seem to favour this efficacious Permission and to speak no less than that God doth not only permit
The Gods themselves have not strength enough to strive against Necessity but he is weaker than a man who yieldeth where there is no necessity The VVoman gave it me then is but a weak apology Further yet What was the gift was it of so rich a value as to countervail the loss of Paradise No it was DE FRUCTU ARBORIS the fruit of the tree We call it an Apple Some would have it to be an Indian Fig. The Holy Ghost vouchsafeth not once to name it or to tell us what it was Whatsoever it was it was but fruit and of that tree of which Man was forbidden to eat upon penalty of death Quasi vero rationis aliquid Gen. 2. 17. haberet haec defensio saith a Father As if this defense had any shew of reason in it when he confesseth that he preferred this apple this slight gift of the Woman before the command of God The Woman gave me of the tree and I did eat Here are two God and the Woman the Gift and the Command the Apple and Obedience To hearken to the Woman and to be deaf to God to forsake the command for the gift to fling off obedience at the sight of an apple is that which sheweth Adam's sin in its full magnitude and yet is taken-in here for an apologie But perhaps this fruit may be of high price this apple may be an apple of God with this glorious inscription upon it ERITIS SICUT DII if ye eat it ye shall be as Gods Who would not venture then to touch upon such hopes who would not eat an Apple to become a God It is true if this had not been the Devil's inscription whose every letter is a lie and whose greatest gift is not worth an apple whose kingdoms of the world and glorie of Mat. 4. 8. them are overbought with a thought Mala emtio saith the Oratour semper ingrata est quia semper exprobrare videtur domino stultitiam An evil bargain is an ey-sore because it alwayes upbraideth him with folly who made it And such a bargain here had our first father made He had bought gravel for bread wind for treasure spem pretio hope for a certainty a lie for truth an apple for paradise The Woman the Gift the gift of an Apple these are brought-in for an excuse but are indeed a libel Further still to aggrandize Adam's fault consider how the reason of his excuse doth render it most unreasonable Why doth he make so buisy a defense why doth he shift all the blame from himself upon the woman Here was no just detestation of the offence but only fear of punishment The fruit of the tree had been pleasant to the eyes and tast but MORTE MORIERIS Thou shalt surely die was bitter as gall He would offend Gen. 3. 6. Gen. 2. 17. with the woman but with the woman he would not be punished For love of her he did eat but now he hath eaten see how he loveth her Behold the Lord cometh with a fiery sword to take vengeance for his sin Doth he oppose himself to the danger doth he stand between the sword and his wife doth he urge her weakness doth he plead for her doth he call for the blow on himself No She gave and let the blow light upon her Pernitiosè misericors pernitiosiùs crudelis saith Bernard He had been too pliant and kind to sin with his wife but now most cruel when he should be merciful It was too much mercy to joyn with her in the sin but cruelty without mercy to leave her in the Punishment And here is a sign that Adam is fallen indeed even fallen from the high degree of a Lord to the low condition of a Servant who feareth not to offend but to be punished would break the command at pleasure but that Death is the best reward that followeth To a good man Punishment appeareth not in so horrid a shape as sin for punishment is but the evil of passion inflicted for the evil of action and of the two the evil of action is far the worse The lips of an harlot are far worse then the biting of a cockatrice Theft is far worse then the whip Yea to sin as Anselm saith is far worse then to be damned For there is a kind of justice in punishment which is not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither God nor Man will deny but that it is most just that he who sinneth should suffer for his sin Omnis pana si justa est peccati paena est saith Augustine But for sin punishment were not just We may bespeak Adam in the stile of the imperial Law ipse te subdedisti paenae thou hast brought thy self under punishment and deservest to have it doubled for shifting it off to thy wife He had taken possession of Paradise upon condition and had made a contract with God And the Scholiast on the fifth of Aristotle's Ethicks will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is in punishment a kind of giving and receiving in which the nature of all contracts doth consist He who receiveth by theft 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine phrase is dabit paenas he must give punishment Adam receiveth an apple and he must give paradise yea his life for it We have said enough to shew that Adam did but pavementare peccatum as St. Augustin speaketh parget and plaister ever his sin and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alleage that for a cause of his transgression which in truth was none But In the last place that which maketh his apologie worse than a lie and rendreth his excuse inexcusable is that he removeth the fault from the Woman on God himself Not the Woman alone is brought in but MULIER QUAM TU DEDISTI The Woman whom thou gavest me she gave me of the tree and I did eat Which indeed is a plain sophism non causae pro causa That is made a cause which is not a cause but an occasion only It is a common axiome Causa causae est causa causati That which produceth the cause produceth also the effect of that cause And it is true in Causes and effects essentially coordinate But here it is not so God indeed gave Adam the Woman but he gave him not the Woman to give him the Apple Dedit sociam non tentatricem He gave her for a companion not for a tempter He gave her not to do that which he had so plainly forbidden The true cause of Adam's sin was in himself and in his own will It was not the Woman which God gave him but the Woman which he gave himself who gave him the fruit God gave him a Woman to be obedient to him not to command him God gave him a Will to incline to his command but not to break it Whatsoever God gave him was good The Woman was good the Fruit was good his Will was good the Command was good but he gave himself a Woman who was
Prince Thus in all our actions the Will is all in all in those which we perfect and in those which take no effect in good and in evil in virtue and in sin For as in our diary and register of Gods deeds we may reckon not onely those which we have done but those which we would have done and put in not only those alms which our hands did distribute but those which we were willing to give and could not Plus enim metit conscientia quà m gesta saith Hilary for our Conscience may reap the fruit of more than it actually sows and applaud us for actions which were not in the compass of our power to perform So in the catalogue of our Sins we must place not only evil Actions but evil Resolutions not only Adultery but Lust not Murder alone but the Thirst of revenge not only that sin which I have committed but those which I would but could not For potest aliquis nocens esse quamvis non nocuerit Though I hurt no body yet am I not hereby justified And though the Will be frustrate yet it is a Will still ipsa sibi imputatur saith Tertullian nec excusari potest per illam perficiendi infoelicitatem operata quod suum est and having determined its act it is not excused by any intervening impediment which comes in between the outward act and the Will And being Mistress of all our actions of all our faculties she it is alone when we sin which denominates us evil In a word Though Sin gather strength from Custome yet it hath its beginning and being from the Will which doth most unhappily appropriate Sins unto us and makes them our sins And so I leave this enquiry How Sins are ours and pass to our second consideration That all sins are ours It is a frequent saying in St. Augustine and most commonly taken up by all that came after him Adeò voluntarium est peccatum ut si non sit voluntarium non sit peccatum Sin is a thing so voluntary that if it be not voluntary it is not Sin And it is true not in this or that but in all sins of what degree or size soever in sins of Malice and sins of Infirmity in sins of Ignorance and those of Subreption which steal upon us and surprize us unawares For first in sins of Malice which have neither Ignorance nor Infirmity to mitigate or allay them but are done out of knowledge and custome and proceed from a Will depraved with Hatred and Envy and Pride or some such malignant and vitious habit we may seem to have made a whole surrendry of our Will to study and contrive sin to call it unto us as the Wiseman speaks with our words and works bellum legibus Wisd 1. 16. inferre to wage war with the Law and God himself For at the first entrance of Sin we may seem to yield as some besieged Towns which are well victualled and stored upon tearms and composition Some wedge of gold some smiling pleasure some flattering honor some hopes or other we entertain before we let the enemy enter But in a while we make captivity a sport servitutem nostram quotidiè emimus quotidiè pascimus and buy our slavery at a price We become devils to our selves and fall when no enemy pursues We count liberty as bondage and like those who live in perpetual night think there is no day at all We sin and multiply our sin And what Pliny spake of Regulus is most true here Quicquid à Regulo fit necesse est fieri sicut non oportet Whatsoever we do will be done amiss because we do it Now in these sins of Malice we cannot once doubt that the Will is wanting In hac passivitate vitae in hac diligentia delictorum in this pascivity and licentiousness of life in this study and affectation of sins when we have incorporated and as it were consubstantiated them with us we may well call them ours For we have risen up early and lain down late to purchase and accomplish them And yet the Will may seem to be more strongly besieged here than when we fall by infirmity For there it was but a proffer a shew that made her yield but now she is held under by custome there the enemy put up conditions here it is Vae victis and the Will is led captive in chains Notwithstanding the sins which we now commit are most voluntary And the Philosopher gives the reason in his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Seneca renders it Principia habuimus in nostra potestate pòst ablati impetu Indeed now we are hurried about with a kind of violence but the beginning of all was in our power and we might at first have kept off that habit which now lyes so heavy upon us and in a manner necessitateth us to evil He that flings a stone hath no power to recall it but he needed not to have flung it at all He who hath contracted a disease by intemperance though he groan in his sickness yet may truly be said to be wilfully sick because his Will did embrace that which he knew was the mother of diseases And he who pretends he would leave his sin and cannot doth at once deceive and accuse himself For neither is he willing to leave his sin who continues in it and if it were true that he could not yet he must find the cause in himself which brought him under these hard terms of necessity Besides even his continuance in sin is voluntary For though it be hard to redeem himself yet it is not impossible For I cannot see how the resistance of any habit can be stronger then the Will especially when it meeteth with Gods favour and assistance to succour it Non est fortior nequitia virtute saith Seneca No habit of Vice is stronger than Virtue Quod quasi naturaliter inolevit poni potest si annitaris That which is made a kind of second nature in us may be cast off if we seriously strive So that not only these sins of Malice but even our continuance in them is free and voluntary and plainly ours If we commit them if we do not leave them because of some difficulty we cannot impute it to any but our selves The same may be said of our sins of Infirmity when not Habit or Custome not the Love of sin but Fear or Anger or some tentation of the Flesh prevails against us For the Will hath power over all these There is no Anger which it may not quench no Fear which it cannot dispel no Tentation which it may not tread under foot And to him that shall ask how he may withstand these we will give no other answer than Aquinas gave his sister when she askt him how she might be saved SI VELIT He may if he will And therefore though I call these sins of Infirmity yet I do it not upon those reasons and grounds which the Schools
plainly named The Disciples came unto Jesus saying 3. The Question it self Who is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven Where we shall take some pains to discover the true nature of this Kingdome that so we may plainly see the Disciples error and mistake and carefully avoid it These are the parts we shall speak of and out of these draw such inferences as may be useful for our instruction that as if by the Disciples doctrine when they were inspired by the holy Ghost so by their error when they were yet novices in the School of Christ we may learn to guide our steps and walk more circumspectly in the wayes of truth that by their ill putting up the Question We may learn to state it right Of these in their order We are first to speak of the Occasion of this Question And to discover this we must look back upon the passage immediately going before Chapt. 17. and as it were ushering in my Text. There the Occasion privily lurks as the Devil did in the Occasion And there we find how our Saviour in a wonderful manner both paid and received tribute received it of the Sea and paid it unto Caesar in the one professing himself to be Caesars Subject in the other proving himself to be Caesars Lord. You see Caesar commands him to pay tribute and Christ readily obeys but withal he commands the Sea and behold the Fishes hasten to him with tribute in their mouths Chapt. 17. 27. Now why our Saviour did so strangely mix together his Humility and his Power in part the reason is given by himself Lest we should offend them For having proved himself free and therefore not subject to tribute for if the Sons of Kings be free then the Son of the King of Heaven must needs be so yet saith he unto Peter That we give no offence cast thy angle into the Sea He is content to do himself wrong and to loose his profit to gain his peace And as he did express his Humility that be might not offend Caesar so we may be easily perswaded that he did manifest his Glory that he might not offend his Disciples For lest his Disciples peradventure should begin to doubt whether he was as he pretended Lord of heaven and earth who did so willingly acknowledge a superior look how much he seem'd to impair his credit by so humbly paying of tribute so much and more he repaired it by so gloriously receiving it Now saith the Text At the same time when this wonderful thing was acting then was this Question proposed But now in all this action let us see what occasion was here given to this Question what spark to kindle such a thought in the Disciples hearts what one circumstance which might raise such an ambitious conceit They might indeed have learnt from hence Humility and Obedience to Princes though Tyrants and as Tyrants exacting that which is not due and a Willingness to part with their right rather then to offend That Christ is not offended when thus parting with our goods we offend our selves to please our Superiours But a corrupt Heart poysons the most wholsome the most didactical the most exemplary actions and then sucks from them that venome which it self first cast A sick ill-affected stomach makes food it self the cause of a disease and makes an Antidote poyson Prejudice and a prepossessed mind by a strong kind of Alchymie turns every thing into it self makes Christs Humility an occasion of pride his Submission a foot-stool to rise up upon and upon Subjection it self lays the foundation of a Kingdome Some of the Fathers as Chrysostome and Hierome and others were of opinion that the Disciples when they saw Peter joyned with Christ in this action and from those words of our Saviours Take and give them for me and thee did nourish a conceit that Peter in this was preferred before the rest and that there was some peculiar honor done to him above his fellows and that this raised in them a disdain against Peter and that their disdain moved them to propose this Question not particularly Whether Peter should be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in general terms Who should be the greatest And this the Church of Rome lays hold on and founding her pretended Supremacy on Peter wheresoever she finds but the name of Peter nay but the shadow of Peter she seeks a mystery and if she cannot find one she will make one The Cardinal is fond of this interpretation and brings it in as a strong proof of that claim the Bishop of Rome makes of being Prince of all the world But what is this but interpretationibus ludere de scripturis when the Text turns countenance to put a face and a fair gloss upon it and make it smile upon that monstrous Error which nothing but their Ambition could give birth and life unto For to speak truth what honor could this be to Peter To pay tribute is a sign of subjection not of honor And if we will judge righteous judgment nay if we will judge but according to the appearance the greatest honor which could here have accrewed to Peter had been to have been exempted when all the rest had paid To speak truth then or at least that which is most probably true not any honor done to Peter but the dishonor which was done to Christ himself may seem to be the true Occasion of this Question I shall give you my reason for it We see it a common thing in the world that men who dream of Honors as the Disciples here did grow more ambitious by the sense of some disgrace As in Winter we see the fountains and hollow caverns of the earth are hottest and as the Philosophers will tell us that a quality grows stronger and more intense by reason of its contrary Humility may sometimes blow the bladder of Pride Disgrace may be as a wind to whet up our ambitious thoughts to a higher pitch Or it may be as Water some drops of it by a kind of moral Antiperistasis may kindle this fire within us and enrage it and that which was applyed as a remedy to allay the tumour may by our indisposition and infirmity be made an occasion to encrease it We trusted that this had been he who should have redeemed Israel say they Luke 24. 21. Is this he who should come with the Sword and with Power and with Abundance unto them that should root up the Nations before them and re-instate them in the Land of Canaan Is this that Messias which after many years victoriously past on earth should at last resign up his life and establish his Kingdome upon his Successors for ever A conceit not newly crept in but which they may seem to have had by a kind of tradition as appeareth by that of our Saviour Luke 14. 15. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdome of God and by the mother of Zebedee's children who requested that her two sons might sit one
was her shame more laid open to the world by many amongst us who for their great pains have no better reward then to be called his Shavelings This they saw and their heart waxt hot within them and at last this fire kindled which is now ready to consume us Before they whisper'd in secret now they speak it on the house-top before they husht up their malice in silence now they noise it out by the drum Enemies to the Ark enemies to the Church enemies to Government and Order enemies to Peace which particulars make up this entire sum INIMICI DEI enemies to God But now what if we see RELIGIONIS ERGO written upon their designs and that this Rebellion was raised and is upheld for the cause of God and Religion shall we then call them Gods enemies who fight his battels who venture their lives for the common cause for Christs Vicar for Religion for the Church for God himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All they intend is good Nihil malè sed rem sacram facio So said Cillicon I do no evil I do but sacrifice when he betrayed a City Let us rise up in arms let us cut the heretiques throats let us destroy them that they be no more a Nation It is no harm at all but an acceptable sacrifice to God Sed quid verba audio cùm facta videam what are words when we feel the smart of their blows All this will not change their title nor blot their names out of the Devils Kalender out of the number of those that hate God For a man may be an enemy to God and yet do some things for Gods sake And it is too common a thing in the world sub religionis titulo evertere religionem to cry up Religion when we beat it down The Father well said Many good intentions are burning in Hell Multa non illicita vitiat animus It is true indeed The mind and intention may make a lawfull action evil but it cannot make an evil action good Propose what end you please set up Religion the Church and God himself yet Treason and Rebellion are sins which strike at his Majesty No enemies to those who stroke us with one hand and strike us with the other who dig down the foundation and then paint the walls We may observe when Reason and Scripture fail them they bring in the Church at a dead lift and when they are put to silence by the evidence of the Truth then they urge the Authority of the Church and make this word to be like Anaxagoras his Mâ—ne in Aristotle to answer all Arguments The Church is their scarre-sun by which they fright poor silly souls from their faith The Church must make good Purgatory Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints c. And indeed this is the best and worst Argument they have And as they make it an Argument for their grossest errors so they have learnt to make it an excuse for Treason for Rebellion for Murder And to the Church they are enemies because they love the Church Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Such heart and life and bloud doth the fair pretence of the Church and Religion put into wicked men so desperately do they fight against God under his own colours No sin I will not say venial but meritorious drawn on for the advantage of the Catholick cause But for all these glorious pretences enemies they are and Haters of God and to bring in the third appellation wicked persons not sinners of an ordinary rank but gyant-like sinners who fight against God with a high hand Now there is a great difference saith Hilary inter impium peccatorem betwen a Sinner and a Wicked man For every wicked man is a sinner but every sinner is not a wicked man Et carent impietate qui non carent crimine and they may be guilty of sin who are not guilty of Impiety The justest man alive falls seven times a day but this fall is not a rising against God not contumelious to his Majesty But the wicked make sin their trade nay their Religion Deum non ex Dei ipsius professione sed ex arbitrij sui voluntate metiuntur saith the same Father They measure God not by those lines by which he is pleased to manifest himself but by their own perverse will They entitle his Wisdom to their fraud his Justice to their rebellion his Truth to their treason He could not have given us a better mark and character of these men What pretend they the Holy cause the Honour of God the Liberty of Conscience the promoting of Religion and these pretences make the fact fouler and their rebellion more abominable because they thwart the plain definitions and the evident commands of God and break his Law under colour of doing his will Nec minoris est impietatis Deum fingere quam negare It is as great impiety and wickedness to frame a God unto our selves as to deny him to feign a God who will applaud sin countenance murder reward rebellion and crown treason So that to conclude this these men may well bear all these titles of Enemies of Haters of God of wicked persons If there were ever any such in the world these are they But to drive it yet a little more home There is not the like danger of enemies when they are sever'd and asunder as when they are collected as it were into one mass and body not so much danger in a rout as in a well-drawn army Vis unita fortior Let them keep at distance one from another and their malice will not reach to the hurt of any but themselves but being gathered and knit together in one band their malice is strong to do mischief to others The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against Psal â— his anointed Paquine renders it fundati sunt were founded Before they were but as pieces scatter'd here and there but being gather'd gather'd together they have a foundation to build on While the vapours are here and there dispersed upon the earth they present no appearance of evil but when they are drawn up into the ayr and are compact they become a Comet and are ominous and portend shipwracks and seditions and the ruine of Kings and Common-wealths And such a Comet hangs over us at this day in which we see many thousands are drawn together not by virtue of the stars or any kindly heat from heaven but by an irregular zeal and a false perswasion that they can do God no better service than to destroy us Before they were gathered together in mind and resolution but that was but as the gathering together of a heap of stones in a field now they are knit together as in a building And now we may cry out with the Prophet Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion for the time to have Psal 102. 13. mercy upon her yea the appointed time is come When God's enemies when they