to sinne as well as he could make him of nothing But because it is no praise for man not to yeild to sinne when they have none to tempt them thereunto nor to be obedient to Gods will when they have none to perswade them to rebellion as in the beginning the Serpent did therefore he thought good that the Devil should still be their enemy as he was at the first for the promise of reward is made to them that strive and overcome To him that overcommeth will I give Apocalyps 12. and they must not only fight but fight lawfully or else they cannot be crowned the second epistle to Timothy the second chapter As for this cause God thought it good that this warre and hostility should continue so because he knew men doe make warre in vain where there is no hope of victory therefore he proclaims that the womans seed shall not only be at continual warre with the Serpent but shall overcome him and grince his head in pieces the more to encourage them in this spiritual battel There shall be hurt done on both parts but not like hurt they shall both bruise but the same thing shall not be bruised the head which is the chief part is bruised by the Woman and therefore she hath the greater victory the heel or tail which is the lowest part is only bruised by the Serpent and consequenly doing lesse hurt he is put to the worse The seed of the Woman doth so fight with the Devil that they break his head but the Devil fights so as he doth no great hurt Wherein two things are to be considered First What this Victory is namely the bruising and grinding in pieces of the Serpents head Secondly The condition of this Victory to wit that it shall not be with ease for it shall cost both sweat of brows and shedding of blood for we must resist sinne unto blood Hebrews the twelfth chapter And the holy Ghost saith here that howsoever the womans seed doe bruise the head of the Serpent yet the Serpent shall bruise his heel In the Victory we are to observe First the person that shall overcome that is the womans seed Secondly the manner how and that is by bruising his head The person receiveth two considerations for by the seed of the Woman we must understand not only Christ but the whole Church which is his body This Scripture concerns Christ as he is the wheat corn which being caft into the ground and dying bringeth forth much fruit John the twelfth chapter and twenty fourth verse It respects the faithfull as they are the ear of corne or the crop that commeth of that grain of wheat And as he was the seed of the Woman so are the faithfull to the end of the world Therefore of the Church the Propher saith That when he shall offer up his soul as an offering for sinne he shall see a long seed Isaiah the fifty third chapter And where the holy Ghost reporteth that the Dragon makes warre with the rest of the Womans seed Apocalyps the twelfth chapter and the seventeenth verse by that is meant the congregation of the faithfull to the worlds end who for that they are a body politick as Christ is a body natural are therefore called Christ the first epistle to the Corinthians the thirteenth chapter and the twelfth verse And this victory is verified in them no lesse than in Christ. So that in this promise we see not a Fiat lux that is Let there be light as in the Creation but Fiat Christus Let there be a Christ that is a deliverer to restore mankinde being now fallen from the estate wherein they were created For where God promiseth That there shall be warre between the Serpent and the Womans seed and that the one shall conquer the other As if Adam should object How shall our seed be able to strive with Sathan seeing they themselves being in state of perfection could not tread upon his head but were tempted and overcome God answers That he will raise them up a Captain As of the Judges whom God appointed to 〈◊〉 the People of Israel it is said The Lord raised them up a Captain Judges the eleventh chapter so here God promiseth to Adam and Eve that he will raise up the Captain or Prince Messiah Daniel the ninth chapter and the twenty fift verse that shall fight and get the conquest for them and that he shall come of their seed Secondly If God will raise up this Captain of the Womans seed then he shall not be an Angel or Archangel that shall deliver us for as the Apostle saith He in no sort took the nature of Angels Hebrews 12. 15. but he took the seed of Abraham that is he shall be man compassed with the same flesh that we carry about with us he shall be bone of our bones and as the Prophet speaks The Captain shall be of themselves and the Prince shall spring out from among them Jeremiah the thirtieth chapter so Christ who is appointed by God his Father to be the Saviour of the world is of your selves and took our flesh upon him Thirdly God saith not your seed but the Womans seed which is a plain manifestation of the ordinary work of God As if God should say to the Devil Thou beginnest with the Woman which is the weaker vessel the first epistle of Peter the third chapter thinking to prevail the sooner But how weak soever she be thou shalt finde that out of her will I bring a seed that shall bruise thy head and thou shalt thereby see that my power is made perfect in weaknesse the second epistle to the 〈◊〉 the twelfth chapter for God in his councel doth make the weak things of the world to counfound the strong the first epistle to the Corinthians the first chapter Secondly This shall be performed by the seed of the Woman because as she was the cause of 〈◊〉 For Adam was not deceived but the Woman the first epistle to Timothy the second chapter and the fourteenth verse so God would have the cause of remedy to come from her to shew That he doth bring light out of darknesse the second epistle to the Corinthians the fourth chapter Thirdly For that Eve knowing that her credulity in hearkning to the Serpents voyce was the cause of all his misery might as that sex is most inclined thereunto conceive great grief of heart to comfort her the promise of victory is by God himself in great mercy appropriated to her whereas Christ came of Adam no lesse than of the Woman Fourthly That it might be the gate to all Prophecies For as one saith of Christ He is so the Womans seed as he is not the Mans therefore Isaiah saith Behold a Virgin shall conceive Isaiah the seventh chapter and in the Prophet Jeremiah God speaks thus Behold I create a new thing in earth a Woman shall compasse a Man Jeremiah the thirty first chapter and the twenty second verse Which seed
John 9. 6. The rock of 〈◊〉 which is set in repugnance to water Numbers 20. 11. yet out of it he caused streams to gush And this power of God appeared most in the beginning of the Gospel in setting abroad Christian Religion for as he in the beginning out of darknesse brought light 2 Cor. 4. 6. So by men of no learning no authority or countenance strength or wealth did cause the Gospell to be planted in all the World that we may know this Caveat to be worth the noting that he is the cause of things natural now in the state of generation as he was of things supernaturall in the beginning of Creation And that we may know that he is able to doe things above besides and without yea and sometimes contrarie to these ordinarie means that so we may be taught neither in the want of them to dispair nor when we have plenty to be proud and presuming in them but ever look back to God which is above all means and of himself as able to doe all in all To whom be all honour glorie power wisdome and dominion for ever and ever Amen Aut vapor ascendens è Terra qui errigaret universam superficiem Terrae c. Gen. 2. 6,7 18 May 1591. TOgether with the conclusion of the works of Creation in the fourth verse I told you that 〈◊〉 in the 5. verse adjoyned a necessary Caveat touching second causes lest now we should ascribe the proceeding and doing of things either to ordinary means or second causes either naturall as to rain or artificiall as to mens labour and industrie which two doe include all other means whatsoever To this end he declared that God is the Author of second causes and therefore as he did all things before them so now they are he is likewise able to doe and bring any thing to passe as well without them yea with means and by causes contrary to such an effect as well as with all the means that are in the course of nature or may be invented by the industry of men Moses then now passeth from the Creation of other things unto the narration of the History of Man by the 6. verse which sheweth the generation of rain spoken of in part before that so there might be an ordinary proceeding from one thing to another Now then to speak of them both apart First Touching the Creation of the Rain we must lay this ground That God either without vapours or clouds can if he please bring store of rain to the Earth 2 Kings 3. 17. which plenty by Gods power was without winde rain or clouds But for the naturall generation of Rain we must note that there are two issues proceeding from the Earth which here are set down as the causes of it 1. The first is a moist or foggie steem or vapour 2. The second a dry smoke fume or exhalation It is not wonderfull that the Earth should yeild a dry fume because it is naturally inclined to drynesse but it is strange that the Earth should give out a moist fume for that is contrary to her nature and qualities There are three estates and degrees in the generation of Rain out of the words 1. The beginning and originall of it is vapor expirans a moist steem loosned from the Earth 2. The proceeding of it is vapor ascendens lifting it self into a cloud above 3. The perfecting of it is vapor descendens which is the dissolving of the cloud and so dropping down these are three proceedings of this generation God is able to rostrain this course of the rain Job 36. 27. and might have caused 〈◊〉 not to be loosed from the Earth 〈◊〉 ascend up but to sweat out to moisten the dry clodds as it is in our bodies But God caused it to lift it self thither that he might water the Earth from his Chamber Psal. 104. 13. But being loosned from the Earth the nature of such a cloud is vanishing and dissipating it self in the Aire to nothing James 4. 14. therefore God bindeth it together in a cloud and maketh it a compact and condense matter Job 26. 8. And for the dissolving of the clouds he is said Cribrare aquas 2 Sam. 22. 12. And these are the three proceedings of rain and the three degrees ingendring it Finxit verò Jehova Deus hominem de pulvere terrae sufflavitque in nares ipsius halitum vitae sic factus est homo anima vivens Verse 7. NOw touching the 7. verse at which I said 〈◊〉 the repetition of the Historie of Man and his generation That we may not trust in him nor his help we read Gen. 1. 26. that Man was created but not whence nor how nor after what sort these circumstances are not there set down there we read that man was made Male and Female but the order how is not set down Therefore that which briefly he touched omitting some things there now here he supplyeth shewing that God first made the Man and out of his side took the Woman Concerning which having shewed that Man is made the chief Creature of all the rest both in regard of his superior part of the soul as also of the inferior part of his body and also in the end of this verse he expresseth more fully the other part of his soul and in handling both he observeth the very order which he used before First to speak of the lesse perfect and more base part of the body and then of the soul. Touching the body in the first part of the verse there is two things expressed to be considered of 1. First the Matter 2. Secondly the Mould in which he was made and framed in his bodily shape The dust is the origine and beginning of Man which though it be often repeated yet God is fain in the 3. of Gen. 19. 〈◊〉 tell it to Adam again to humble him that he may know how absurd a thing it was for him once in pride to imagine that he should be as God for he must needs see by this that he should be but an earthen God if he were any which is as bad as to be of stone or wood The Saints of God have ever confessed this to humble them As Abraham Gen. 18. 27. Job 10. 9. Psal. 104. 29. 1 Cor. 15. 47. 2 Cor. 5. 5. which doth shew that we must take notice and regard of this point to humble us that the clouds and rain were made before us and of a purer more fine and better matter than our bodies were for they were of the vapour of the Earth but we of the base and grosse clod and dust of the Earth but 〈◊〉 comfort us in this thought he telleth us that that which is wanting in the matter is supplyed in the form and shape of our bodies God by saying that he framed Man speaketh after the manner of men Rom. 9. 20 21. In which phrase of speech he is 〈◊〉
may be resolved two wayes as the School-men say Quando actio cadit super materiam indebitam that is either when an action is forbidden from lighting on it which should not or when it is invested with all his due circumstances In speaking of this we will take this course first to entreat of the subject and action here expressed and then of the application of it to us The subject is a Tree and that but one tree of knowledge which tree with the fruits of it were without question no more evill than the other trees for all alike God saw to be good as we have seen and therefore it was such as might have been eaten as well as the other if this restraint had not been And again if this restraint had fallen on any other tree in the Garden as it did on this it had been as unlawfull to eat as this So that it is not the nature of the tree but of Gods word which made it evill to eat for there was no difference between them but in respect of Gods word and charge which said Thou shalt not eat thereof In which respect it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill We must understand that this tree hath not his name of every quality in it but of the event and effect which should come by it Exod. 15. 25. The Wise man calleth it lignum dolorum Eccles. 38. 5. of the effect and event it had of these waters So in Gen. 35. 8. there is a tree called Arbor lamentationis not that the fruits thereof would make a man sorrowfull but for the casualty and event which happened and befell Israel there not that it was the cause of any lamentation So we must know that whereas Adam before knew good both wayes both by contemplation and experience now having broken the Law he knew evill both wayes also we had the knowledge of good and evill morall by naturall contemplation Gen. 4. 7. so long as thou doest good to thy self men will speak well of thee So that to know good is bene pati while he did bene agere Dicite justè quia bene Esay 3. 10. 11. The just shall eat the fruit of their righteousnesse and the wicked the fruit and reward of their sinne and this is the other knowledge of good and evill Numb 11. 18. there was knowledge of good and evill by sight sense and experience Psal. 133. 1. this is shewed that malum culpae was the cause of malum poenae and by feeling the bitternesse of the punishment he knew how bitter a thing it was to forsake God and not to fear him So he knew the good of obedience by the good of reward which was the sweetnesse of pleasures before his fall and after his fall he knew the evill of sinne by the evill of his punishment The one knowledge is Gen. 18. 19. the other kinde of knowledge is Gen. 22. 12. If we follow St. Augustine and Tertullian we may say truly that it is called the tree of knowledge of good and evill both wayes both in respect of the effect and also of the 〈◊〉 Tertullian conceiveth that it was called so of the effect and duty which was to arise and be taught out of it in which respect he calleth it Adam's little Bible and the fountain of all divinity for as the Bible is the perfect rule of knowledge to us So was that to him and should have been 〈◊〉 if he had not fallen for by this dicendo it should have plainly 〈◊〉 Gods will and so it should exactly teach that to be good which was according to it in obedience and that to be evill which is contrary to it by transgression for the knowledge could not be more 〈◊〉 set down then by this object and action Thou shalt eate of these and shalt not eat of this God then by forbidding them to eat of the tree of knowledge did not envy or grudge that they should have knowledge but rather made this rule the root of all knowledge to them that the science of good and evill is taken only from Gods dicendo that is things are therefore good because God by his word alloweth them and are evill because he forbiddeth them Now touching St. Augustine He saith this is called the tree of knowledge in respect of the event in regard of the exeperimentall knowledge which man had by it both because by it he had felt the reward of obedience so long as he stood upright and also by it he found and felt by experience the reward and penalty of disobedience for when he had contrary to Gods word reached his hand to the tree and eaten of it he had experimentall knowledge by and by both how birter a thing it was to sinne and forsake God Jer. 2. 19. and also how good and sweet a thing it was to stick fast to God by obedience Psal. 73. 28. He found that in the action of obedience was life and happinesse and in the act of sinne was death and wretchednesse 〈◊〉 before Adam had eaten of the tree he had knowledge of good by contemplation and experience and so for ever should have had and then he had argumentall knowledge by presumption and contemplation also of evill for he by the argument of privatives must presume this conclusion that if he doe that which is forbidden he should be deprived of the tree of life and that happy estate and so consequently must needs come to death and all misery which he found to be most true by wofull experience so soon as he had put it in triall And thus much of the object and of the name given to it Touching the Action which is the second part in which I mean thus to proceed by way of certain positions and grounds the one necessarily arising out of the other We lay then for the first ground that it was not lawfull for God nor behoofull for us that God should make triall of Adam who he had made for it is equally expedient and right in the practice and behaviour of men first to make proof and triall of 〈◊〉 before they will make any reckoning or commendation of them as good laborers so God tried Abraham Gen. 22. 12. that he might have experimentall knowledge of his obedience and say nunc scio c. Now I know that thou fearest God seeing for my sake thou hast not spared thine only sonne So he proved Israell at the waters of striffe and Job by an other triall So God had knowledge of man whom he made that then he was good but he would by triall see whether he would continue so or not 2. Second it was meet that seeing a triall must be made that it should be by some externall thing in which this outward obedience and practice might appear as masters doe make triall of their servants obedience in some such work Doe this Goe thither So seeing Gods will was that Adam should be a spectacle in obedience
is in the state of man described in the second Chapter All that shall we see in this Chapter to be overthrown by the work and malice of the Devill At the sight and consideration of which Tragedy as St. Augustine saith all the Creatures especially mankinde ought with sighs and groanes to dissolve themselves into teares to think of our and their utter and irrecoverable confusion were it not for this which is annexed unto it namely the hope of the seed of the woman promised to come at the fulness of time to restore all things which were lost in Paradise and to bring us a more excellent Paradise than that ever was The cause of all these evills which we see in us and in the world Moses here relleth us in the beginning of this Chapter to be the verifying of that Prophesie which God 〈◊〉 Adam Gen. 2. 17. that is what time soever he should sinne and break the Commandement of God he should die that is have all the Messengers and Ministers of death ferzing upon him untill death it self the reward of sinne should take hold on him which first part of the Chapter we shall divide as St. Paul doth teach us Rom. 6. 1. into two parts the first he calleth peccatum the other peccati obsonium that is into the cause and nature of sinne and into the effect and punishment which followeth it Concerning the transgression he setteth down first the temptation of sin in the first 5. verses then the preparation which is the sinne it self in the 6. verse then followeth the stipend and hier of sinne from that verse unto the 15. verse In which verse then the prophet sheweth that God in justice remembred mercie and as St. James saith caused his mercy to triumph over justice in the promised seed without which remedy Adams sinne had been incurable and his case and our condition had been most desperate whereas by this means as St. Augustine saith the Devills envy is foelix invidia and Adams sinne is foelix culpa that is falleth out to the greater glorie of all the elect sonnes of God Now more particularly we are led to consider two things in the temptation first of all the persons both agent and patient and then the allurements and inticements thereof The chief in this temptation was the Devill and the Woman and then in regard of consent Adam himself grew accessory and guilty thereof so that there were three causes of sinne The chiefest Author of it was the Devill the next is Eve the yeelder to him the third was Adam the consenter to them both Serpents we know speak not for they were not made to reason and dispute therefore we must needs understand another high person besides he Serpent which spake in him and used him as his Instrument and means to effect this evil devise And in this respect the Devill is called Rev. 12. 9. the old Serpent as his name appellative by which he was once called and Satanas Revel 〈◊〉 2. as his proper name by which his 〈◊〉 and malicious nature is made known As therefore the Devill craftily and closely did put into Judas head and heart by his suggestion how to seek Christs fall and death John 13. 2. so doth he as sly lie put into the Serpents mouth this temptation by which he might betray the first Adam and bring him to death and therefore as Christ truly though not properly called Judas Satan because he saw the Devill used him as his Instrument So by the same right and reason may we call the Serpent the Devill because it was he in this Serpent who did bring this thing to pass If any doe aske why Moses did not make mention of the Devil in all this Chapter we may say that it was Moses purpose to perform the office and duty of a Historiographer which is only to make a plain and true report of the outward accident and thing which was sensibly done leaving the hidden and secret meaning and true understanding of those things which are mysticall unto his Interpreters and Expositors For to this end Moses had some alwaies in Gods Church which did not only read the letter and words of his writings but also expound the true meaning thereof and what Expositor is there but by the consequence of this story and by conference of the Scriptures can otherwise understand this then of the Devill Our Saviour Christ telleth us that the Devill was a lyer and murtherer from the beginning John 8. 44. that is he is the primitive and principall Author of all untruth and evill therefore is he called that evill Matth. 13. 19. and the deceiver of mankinde Revel 12. 9. and therefore Moses doth first deal with this evill one and setteth him down as the chief author of this evill under the form and name of a Serpent Touching him therefore we must know as I told you Chap. 2. 1. that when God is said to make the hoast of heavenly Creatures that then also he made the Angells as David saith Psalme 148. 2. which Angells God made 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to be his ministring spirits Psalme 104. 4. but some of them kept not their first estate Jude 6. but fell away from their holy and blessed estate in which they mere made and so there they became evill Angels reserved in chains to everlasting fur Of this fall of Angells Job seemeth to have knowledge Job 4. 18. God saith he found folly even in his Angels Christ maketh mention of their fall Luke 10. 18. and the cause of their fall is said to be sinne 2. Pet. 2. 4. and the particular sinne may seem to be pride Isaiah 14. 13. 14. ero similis altissimo for which cause that sinne is called morbus Satanicus and as the wiseman saith initium peccati est superbia But we will not curiously inquire what speciall sinne it was which caused his fall because indeed it is sufficient for us to know in generall that sinne was the cause thereof that we may the more beware of it He then being fallen became not only an adversary to God which cast him off for ever but also an envious enemie to mankinde for not being able to wreack his mal ceagainst God he maliciously invented and attempted all the mischief and evill he could against man which was the Image of God and the only Creature on whom God had set his heart and delight to doe him good For as they which love the Father cannot but love and shew kindness to his Children which are deerest to him as we see in Davids example So è contra hatred and malice make evill mindes to doe their enemies hurt 〈◊〉 despite even in the things which are most deer and precious unto them so is the Devill said to doe Rev. 12. 13. when he was not able to hurt the Woman he pursued with hatred and rage her Child which she brought forth and because he could not reach to him being ascended therefore he still persecuteth his
bringeth one grief upon another his Oxen were taken away his Servants slain then another came and told him his Sheep were burnt another his Camels were taken another his Sonnes and Daughters were slain c. Sathan in his temptation of Eve begins at the eare and from the eare to the eyes from the eyes to the fingers from the fingers to the mouth his proceeding was from hearing to seeing from seeing to touching from touching to tasting Sathan first made a question Eve she made a doubt per adventure we shall die which doubt Sathan resolved you shall not die at all these are the three parts of Eves inward temptation Vidit tulit comedit she saw the forbidden fruit she took it and she did eat thereof these be the three parts of Eves outward temptation seeing taking and eating As before the hearing of the eare was the temptation to incredulity so here the seeing of the eye is the temptation to sensuality as before esca intellect ûs was the bait of the understanding to know both good and evill so here esca sensûs is the bait of the sense that so Eves reason inwardly and her sense outwardly might be deceived which temptation of the sense is treble here of the eye that seeth of the fingers that touch of the mouth that tasteth The Serpent full of subtilty will make noe visible temptation untill he hath throughly infected the heart when neither for love nor for feare he seeth Eve regardeth the commandement then he knoweth that she will be allured easily by the sence and therefore he brings her where she may see the Tree But did not Adam and Eve see the tree that was forbidden in the middest of the garden in the time of innocency Well saith one Non dedit Deus iis legem ae arbore quam non v derunt God gave them not a law of restraint from a tree which they saw not for they did see this tree before their fall in love and in feare their love then to God and his Word was such that much water could not quench it neither could that love be bought with all the substance of the world Cantic 8. 7. and then their feare where with they feared the Lord was to them His method in his Temptation a well-spring of life to avoid the snares of death Prov. 14. 27. but when the mist of incredulitie did arise in their heart then sathan had hope of prevayling in his temptation then he begins with corrupt speeches You shall not die at all you shall be as Gods knowing good and evill and evill speakings as you know corrupts good manners 1 Cor. 15. 33. The end of his Temptation and then with vaine shewes of pleasure he tempteth the sence this is the subtlety of the devills method in tempting Eve Now the subtlety of his end in his temptation is partly to withdraw the minde partly that of a sparke there may become a flame that from seeing the fruit she may be brought to the eating of the same and so doe that God hath forbidden albeit that his speech eritis sicut Dei scientes bonum malum tickled her minde but that was not the very end yet it is plaine that every lie runneth lamely yet every liar covereth the imperfection that then there might be no delay nor no stay the serpent presently bringeth her to the tree and sheweth her the fruit that her sense might verifie so much as he had said Non vidit tulit lignum quia prohibitum sed quia bonum shee looked on the tree shee tooke of the fruit because she was perswaded that thereby would come to her all excellency all knowledg and that by the eating of it she should not die at all They probably thought they should not die at all in the 17 of the 2. chap. it is called the Tree of knowledg of good and evill wherein they thought to be the virtue of all knowledg and the tree of life they had still which perswaded them they should live for ever they were perswaded that they should have still the sacrament of immortality and of universall knowledg and indeede plus posse plus noscere is that wherewith sathan hath infected us all for he perswades us we can doe more then we can doe that we shall live still and know all things Sathan thought that delay would be dangerous and that if he had given her any leisure the sifting of the Commandement would have beene prejudiciall unto his temptation and therefore presently he brought her to see the Tree the fruit whereof he had so highlie magnified that so shee might breake the Lawe of God The Fathers doe say well It was not the force of the devils words but Gods punishment that made her beleeve the devill and fall from God qui dubius est infidelis erit he that doubteth Gods word shall become an Infidell and beleeve the devills words this is Gods punishment of incredulitie to beleeve a lyar even the father and founder of Lyes for if men will not beleeve Gods writings nor his words John 5. 47. God therefore shall send them strong delusions that they should beleeve Lyes 2 Thes. 2. 11. so that the beleeving the Serpent rather than God is not the force of the devils words but Gods punishment of their incredulity poenalis est necessitas God as it is Zepha 1. 17. saith tribulabo homines ambulabunt ut caeci quia domino peccavêrunt I will bring distresse upon men that they shall walke like blinde men because they have sinned against the Lord so did God deale here say they with Eve and Adam Here Sathan after his dixit comes with vides so soone as he had tooke her though she did eate she should not dy but enjoy all happiness he shewed her the forbidden tree that she beholding it might busie herselfe with the pleasure of seeing that which was so pleasant and so much to be desired that so then when she had most cause to fear and tremble the pain which she should incurre by her eating thereof should not so much as be thought upon this is Sathans subtlety to proceede from saying to seeing from debasing their state present wherein they knew nothing but good to extoll their faln state wherein they should know good and evill As Chrysostome saith from hodie to cras from this day to to morrow from things before our eyes to see what hereafter we shall enjoy as much as if he should say I will shew you what I tell you you shall see that I say truely let your sense judge of my speech beleeve your sense not mee you see the fruit is pleasant to behold when you taste it you shall finde no poyson in it the shew is correspondent to my words and when you eate of it you shall finde the virtue I have said to be in it you doe see it is pleasant you shall taste it is wholsome in a word the Tree will speake
ninth verse he is brought forth of his Goal and arraigned having his indictment and accusation laid against him and he is permitted to speak for himself in the tenth verse he pleadeth not guilty alledging reasons why in the eleventh verse God traverseth the cause by joyning issue with him and in the twelfth verse we have seen his confession and his allegation why sentence should not proceed against him Now in this the other party guilty which was accused before is brought to her triall in which for the Judicials and manner of proceeding the generall intent of God is not only to convent before him a Malefactor but not to give over untill he hath found out the principall that is to finde who hath been chief in the trespass and as some say to make diligent search whose hand was deepest and most 〈◊〉 in this offence In Physick we are taught to search to the bottom and goe to the Core In Logick we are taught to bring and reduce every thing that is said or reasoned upon unto the principall action or rule by which it is scanned In Divinitie it is a point especially materiall as our Saviour Christ saith to goe to the beginning and first institution of things to see how it was then And this is Gods course in judgment to find out the principall and chiefe cause of evill things which are committed The way and manner of finding this out is by inquirie and by way of interrogations ministring interrogations unto him for all crimes and sinnes being works of darkness and therefore as much as may be hid and concealed from apearing in the light and sight of men therefore the praise and labor of a Judge is to finde and search it out that being brought to light ill works may be reproved the third of John and the twenty first verse For this cause this duty is enjoyned by God to all Judges after two waies the thirteenth of Deuteronomie and the fourteenth verse ut perscrutarentur interrogarent that by search and diligent inquirie the truth might be boulted out It is the course to be taken in the case of murder the twenty first of Deuteronomie and the fourth verse In the case of adultry the fisth of Numbers and the fourteenth verse In the matter of theft the twenty second chapter of Exodus and the eighth verse 1 Reg. 8. 31. And it is the course which may be holden in any Crime or Cause whatsoever that upon good and sufficient presumptions and detections they may proceed to inquire diligently and the party called in question is bound to make answer to purge and cleanse himself which is suspected or accused for this is the ground and foundation on which God frameth his action against Eve Adam saith that thou his wife diddest intice perswade him to eate thereof The question therefore which I demande of thee is why hast thou done this And this is that to which she is bound to answer Now if we looke to her answer which she maketh unto the interrogatorie propounded to her we shall see it very frivolous for God asketh quare and she answereth to quis Some think that it was for fear or shame or else as others say for the defect of a right and a true cause For well may one alledge the tempter and occasion which moved or sollicited us to sin but otherwise no right or proper cause of sin can be assigned But howsoever it is we must take her answer as it is First we see that she is not mute or silent but knoweth how to shape an ill answer and to make an excuse as well as her husband God saith in the fiftieth Psalme and the one and twentieth verse because I held my tongue and envyed no more against mens sin therefore the Devill hare Eve in hand that Adams excuse went for good payment and put God to silence as if it had been so full an answer to God as that he could say no more against him and therefore seeing that held so well he perswadeth the woman to take the same course for we shall perceive that both her and her answer are so like as if they had been framed in one forge for the like pride we see in both which will not seem so ill as they are but doe lay the fault upon another to excuse themselves Secondly the method and form of answering is alike and even the same in both their answers but the substance and matter of the excuse is not one and the same for Adams excuse was his wife Eve but her excuse is the Serpent so that if we compare Adams answer and Eves together we shall see in what they agree and wherein they differ both of their confessions are extort and indirect both are maimed and unperfect and neither of them can plainly say peccavi c. Usus Out of which we learn that both these came from one Schoolmaster Sathan the Author Accuser and Procter of all sinne and he doth mankind more hurt when he is an Advocate and Proctor giving us counsel how to defend and excuse our sinne than when he is an accuser accusing us of sin to God the Judge of all because when the Devill is only an accuser against us Christ will be our Advocate to plead our cause for us and an Intercessor and Mediator for us to his Father and he being on our side we need not fear though he Devill be against us But if we entertain the Devill for our Proctor Christ will be a 〈◊〉 Judge against us to condemne us and oppose himself to the Devill Therefore the Devill careth not what excuse we alledge though they lay the blame of their sinne upon him he is content to beare it rather than they should confesse their sin plainly and make Christ their Advocate To cover and conceale sinne is a double sinne and not to confesse it plainly is partly pride and presumption or else servile fear and dispaire fearing lest they should confesse all to God as though he had not goodnesse or mercy enough to forgive them or else they conceale it of pride presuming that God cannot see and finde out that which they dissemble and hide from the eyes of men So we see that it is a compound sinne though the woman be in impari sexu yet she is pari superbiâ as proud as he and as farre dead in hiding and dissembling sinne as he and as well able to say for herself as he A difference of Confessing finnes thus pride maketh men ashamed to confesse or else so to confesse that one may see a plain difference between the confession of a proud and a poor humble sinner between the confession of the good and faithfull and the evill Infidells Between Sauls confession and Davids Sauls confession smelleth of pride in the first booke of Samuell fifteenth and the thirtieth verse Peccavi saith he sed honora me That is he would so confesse his sin that he might keepe
the Corinthians the thirteenth chapter would that we should attribute it to sorrow for sin that it was because his sacrifice pleased not God but it is not that godly sorrow but the worldly sorrow that bringeth destruction of body and soul. The carefulnesse of Cains sorrow must be considered by the cause and effect of it Sense of evill the object of sorrow If God be the cause of his sorrow it is not to be commended for although the sense of evill be the natural object of sorrow yet God may be the matter of sorrow As if some good befall our enemie then we have just cause of sorrow but if good befall our brother the law of Nature and Gods law will not suffer us to be sorry for that But to be sorry for the good of our brother that commeth without any detriment or hurt to us that is intollerable and can be no just cause of sorrow and therefore Cain in that he conceiveth sorrow for the good that came to his Brother without his hurt is guilty of a worldly sorrow that is to be condemned The effect of his sorrow may be of two sorts First If he were sory to the end he might punish and be 〈◊〉 of himself for his carelesness in Gods service Godly sorrow then it was a godly sorrow and worthy commendation but if insteed of working revenge upon himself for doing ill it makes him persecute his brother for doing good then it is no good sorrow Secondly If it were such a sorrow as did provoke him to emulation as Gods purpose in receiving the Gentils that 〈◊〉 was to provoke the Jewes to follow their faith the eleventh chapter of the Romans and the eleventh verse then it was a godly sorrow but if it be such a sorrow as makes him worse then it is no good sorrow If we examine Cains sorrow we shall finde first it was 〈◊〉 and therefore evill for if God know not the cause as appeares in that he asks why art thou sorry then no doubt he had no cause to be sorry If we come to the supposed cause of his sorrow it was not any evill that happened on his part for then he would have sought to remove it but the cause of his sorrow was good not the good of an enemie for then it were tollerable but 〈…〉 bonum innoxium such as was not hurtfull to him therefore it was an 〈◊〉 sorrow For the effect of Cains sorrow godly sorrow doth vindicare malum in se the second to the Corinthians the seventh chapter verse the eleventh it hath two effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not only a grief of heart for sinne committed but a taking of revenge for the same as it makes a man sorry for the sin past so it makes him carefull and zealous of himself for the time to come and this makes the sorrow of repentance acceptable to God Sorrow of envy but the sorrow of envy is no such sorrow Cain was not grieved for that he had not served God as he ought neither took he envy of himself but he doth the more hurt for through envy he slew his brother the first epistle of John and the first chapter so farre was he from being provoked by his example to good Secondly where the effect of godly sorrow is to doe lesse evill and more grod he did not chasten his body and bring it under the first to the Corinthians and the ninth chapter but he proceeded de malo in pejus the first to Timothy and the third chapter The goodnsse of Abels sacrifice did not provoke him to doe good but to doe hurt Why slaies he his brother because his brothers works were good and his own evill the first of John the third chapter and the twelfth verse The Wise man sa th anger is cruel and wrath is raging but who can stand before envy the twenty seventh of the Proverbs and the fourth verse Envy and 〈◊〉 is joyned with murther where anger and envy take place there is nothing but murther therefore they are joyned together the first of the Romans and the twenty ninth verse the fifth of the Galatians and the twenty first verse Examples and this is plain in Esau who so soon as he maligned Jacob for the birthright and blessing vowed to kill him Genesis the twenty seventh This was the effect of the envy of the Sonnes of Jacob against their brother Joseph Genesis the thirty seventh so because David was respected of the people more than Saul of whom they sang David hath slain his ten thousand and Saul but a thousand Saul was moved to envy and sought to make him away the first of Samuel the eighteenth chapter and the seventh and eighth verses And the cause why the Jewes put Christ to death was propter invidiam the twenty sixth of Matthew the eighteenth verse Envy stayeth not it self till it bringeth forth murther and therefore is to be condemned and avoided Envy the daughter of Pride and self-love Touching the originall of envy which as we see is accompanied with such effects it is the daughter of pride and self-love a drop of that poyson where with the Serpent at the first infected Eve and which Adam received from her and was derived from them both to their posterity by means whereof there are as the Apostle saith certain blinde and absurd men the second to the Thessalonians and the third chapter indeed beasts in shape of men so blinded with the love of themselves that they think no man should be respected more tham they they think themselves the only men in the world the twenty first of Job and the first and take to themselves that which God only challengefh to himself Isaiah the fourty ninth ego sum non est praeter me The absurdity of Cain thorough envy and self love was so much that he perswaded himself God ought to respect him though he did never so ill and that he 〈◊〉 not to respect Abel how well soever he did he thought Abel ought not to be better nor offer to God a better facrifice than he But if any man may lawfully strive to please God he is not rightly offended with Abel because he laboured to doe God the best service he could Cains displeasure against Abel was in respect of his good service wherein we see that verified which the Wise-man saith that there are some which fret against the Lord the ninteenth of the Proverbs and the third verse as Jonas to whom the Lord said doest thou well to be angry the fourth of Jonas and the fourth verse but the absurdity of this passion against God is more absurd for as the Rebells spake of Moses in the sixt chapter of Numbers will he put out this peoples eyes so he seeks to take away Gods justice in that he thinks much that God doth regard the good service of Abel We cannot take away his justice no
take the sword and revenge his own quarrel but in case of necessity when there is none to defend it is lawfull to use the Sword for his defence It is not lawfull originally for Cain to make his 〈◊〉 his Wife as the Fathers prove Genesis the 2. chapter and the 4. verse so where God saith therefore shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife his meaning is he will not have friendship kept within one Familie but will have men so to marry that 〈◊〉 Families may be linked together in love Again where both in Genesis the second chapter and Matthew the ninteenth chapter it is said they two shall be one flesh that is not true where Brother and Sister are joyned together for they are one flesh already in as much as they are born of the 〈…〉 Therefore where there is unity of blood between such 〈◊〉 is no lawfull marrying but necessity is without law and therefore Cain is dispensed withall because necessity caused him Touching the mixture of Brother and Sister it is 〈◊〉 to the Lord and his soul abhorrs it Leviticus the 〈◊〉 chapter and the twenty third verse but if this kinde of copulation were originally lawfull it would not be so abhominable that he would punish it in such sort Besides we see this is a thing so unlawfull that John Baptist chooseth rather to hazard his life than he will suffer this sinne unreproved which he would not have done but that it was originally unlawfull for Herod to have his Brothers Wife Matthew the fourteenth chapter For the knowledge Cain had with his wife we see that as Adam when he was cast out of Paradise knew his Wife so Cain being departed from Gods presence to a Land of trouble and disquietness having lost spirituall comforts seeks for rest in carnall delights For the procreation of Children as Sarah speaks Genesis the eighteenth chapter is an act of pleasure which albeit it be lawfull for Adam a repentant sinner yet not for Cain being in that state that he was for in the time of repentance the Bridegroom must come forth of his Camber and the Bride out of her Bedchamber Joel the second chapter and the sixteenth verse and they that are married may not so give themselves over to the flesh but that upon speciall cause sometime they give themselves to prayer and fasting in the first to the Corinthians the seventh chapter and the fifth verse but Cain standing as he did at this time transgresseth the Command of God And yet touching the third point Gods goodness appeareth herein that for all that he so blesseth 〈◊〉 which was unlawfull that she conceiveth It was in Gods hand and his sinne deserved it that she should have been barren for Jeremiah the twenty second chapter in the second of Samuel the sixteenth chapter the sinne of Jeconiah and Michal is the cause of their barrenness Therefore in Gods justice it is a due punishment to all sorts not to have Children but yet as he brings light out of darkness so to shew he can of evill Parents bring forth good Children he gives Cain issue as he brought good Ezekiah out of Achan and Josia out of Ammon For this cause he gives the wicked Children as also in this regard to shew that he is able to break the Serpents head not one way only by killing sinne in men but by making them examples of his justice as in Pharaoh Romans the ninth chapter For this cause have I stirred them up even as we see the bodies of Malefactors are given to Chyrurgeons for Anatomies that in them men may see the state of our bodies and so it may be for the good of others For as it were inconvenient that evill Parents should only have evill Children because by this means evill would be infinite so it is as inconvenient that good Parents should have none but good Children for so that which is of grace would be ascribed to nature And so we see that albeit the act be unlawfull and the seed stolne yet being cast into the ground we see God so blesseth it that it is fruitfull The fourth point is that Cain called his Sons name Enoch the meaning whereof is a dedication or consecration and this gives hope as if there were some goodness remaining in Cain for those things that are built to be dedicated are Altars and Churches things for Gods use as Noah built an Altar and offered burnt offerings Genesis the eighth chapter but that which Cain built is no Altar but a City and we know Cities and Towns are dedicated to the world and the consecration that he makes is to no God except he make the world his God Philippians the third chapter his position is that gain is godliness in the first to Timothy the fourth chapter and therein he bestowes his service But after we have another Enoch so truly called Genesis the fift chapter the Son of Seth who did not depart from Gods presence as this Enoch did but consecrated himself to God and became a Preacher of righteousness who as well by his preaching as by uttering the censure of excommunication behold the Lord commeth with a thousand of Angels as Jude speaks dedicated himself to the Church but the first work that Cains Enoch sets himself about is the world This is the difference between Cains Henoch and Seths Henoch the one builds a City on earth the other seeks for a City from above whose builder is God So that there is no hope of Cains return he consecrates his Sonne and City but it is to the wrong God if to any Secondly Touching the building of the City which is a matter respecting the world before wee come to that we must know there was now a great distance of yeeres betweene the time that Cain knew his wife and the time that hee built the City for hee built not the City only for himselfe his wife and childe but was now grown to bee so great a number that hee must have a City to place his posterity in for God respecting mankinde rather then the sinne of man made the seede sowne plentifull They that came of Abraham Isaac and Jacob came but to twelve and in few yeeres of those twelve came seventy five and for the increase of mankinde Hee makes the barren families like a flock of sheepe as it is in the hundred and seventh Psalme Therefore when Cain was grown to so great a multitude he built him a City It is true of Cain which the Apostle affirmeth Hebrews the third chapter No man departs from God but by an evil heart of unbelief So Cain thinks that albeit God hath cursed that part of the earth where Adam was yet it may be the Land toward the Sun rising may be better and therefore he makes triall like the Isrealites which being forbidden to keep any of the Manna till morning for all that would trie whether it would be full of worms and being forbidden to
glory And this was the first sinne that came into the soul of the woman and as the Philosopher saith that the heart is primum vivens ultimum moriens so vain glory as it first took possession in the heart of man so it is last and with most difficulty dispossessed So that when a man hath mortified all his lusts and subdued all sinnes yet pride and the desire of glory revives again And whereas the sinnes of the world are three The lust of the 〈◊〉 The lust of the eyes and pride of life the first Epistle of John the 〈…〉 chapter and the sixteenth verse The sinne of pride is such a one as doth not only corrupt all virtues but 〈◊〉 all other sinnes and prevails against them for gluttony or the lust of the 〈◊〉 is come under the power of pride So as men take a pride in excesse of meat whereas gluttony would be contented with a sittle for the belly is sooner filled than the eye satisfied Secondly For Covetousnesse What makes men to exceed in the cares of getting riches but only pride and desire of glorie For knowing that the borrower is a servant to the lender Proverbs the tenth chapter and all things obey money Preacher the tenth chapter In respect of the excellencie of wealth they are so covetous that albeit they have more than enough yet they still gather together that they may have all men in subjection to them so hard it is to suppresse the desire of vain glory And the harder because where other sinnes be resting upon a man this sinne comes creeping upon him and flattereth him as a thing most agreeable to his nature Howbeit it is to be avoided with all heedfulness for it comes from good things as the root Secondly A man is proud oftentimes even of humilitie not only when they outwardly humble themselves with fasting but also when they are inwardly humbled Joel the second chapter Secondly it is the harder because it comes with a colour and shew of reason for it is Gods will that we should not only doe good works but that it should be done openly as Christ saith to shine and to be seen of men sic splendeat lux Matthew the fifth chapter and the sixteenth verse both that God may be glorified by us and that we may give good example to others But not withstanding we must beware that we doe them not to purchase praise to our selves How to avoid vain glory pride c. and other fins by meditation and prayer Secondly The question of ignorance is How we should avoid this desire of glorie which is so bred in us The answer to this doubt is By medition and prayer For as God hath laid this Curse upon the earth That it should bring forth thorns and thistles of it self but if we will have any good of it we must bestow labour upon it So this curse is laid upon our soules that good things will not come into our mindes without diligent meditation but pride and such sinnes will take place of themselves without any further trouble Wherefore as to avoid all temptations we must occupie our selves in godly meditation as Augustine saith Semper te Diabolus inveniat occupatum so there are speciall meditations for the avoiding of pride and the desire of vain glory First To think of the uncertainty of worldly glorie that Christ that to day should have been crowned King by the Jews was the next day crucified by them Secondly Of the emptinesse and vacuity of it as that all the glory that Haman had did not content him when he had received but one little disgrace by Mordechai Esther the fifth chapter Thirdly of the punishment of this sinne for whereas he spares other sinnes if he see withall some token of goodnesse so as he will quench the smoaking flax Isaiah the fourty second chapter he will not defer his judgements from the Hypocrites and ambitious but will withdraw his graces from them here and punish them eternally in the world to come Fourthly We should think of our own hearts if we doe good without regard of mens praise Fiftly Of our own inability how little we are able to doe of our selves except God move our hearts and work in us both to will and to doe Philippians the second chapter and the thirteenth verse that so we may ascribe the praise of all our good deeds to him as the only author of them These meditations will kindle a sire in us that we shall have a desire to speak as Psalm the thirty ninth as the Prophet having considered that God did command us to keep his testimonies saith presently O that my wayes were so directed that I might keep them 〈◊〉 the hundred and nineteenth But as by those 〈…〉 desire to avoid that which we are forbidden so unto our desire we must add resolution 〈◊〉 the nine and 〈◊〉 I said I 〈…〉 to my 〈◊〉 Dixi 〈…〉 The other means is 〈◊〉 For when we have done all we can to avoid this 〈◊〉 by our 〈◊〉 meditations yet that will not serve till we cry for Gods 〈…〉 strengthen us and help us for vain is the help of 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 and eighth So though the Apostle doe will the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put on the 〈◊〉 of God yet he saith the chief 〈…〉 fight with the Devil is prayer Ephesians the sixt chapter For except the 〈◊〉 keep the City the watch-men watch in vain Psalme the hundred twenty seventh We must not only say the general prayer which 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 Lead us not into temptation 〈◊〉 particularly against this 〈◊〉 say with David Psalme the thirty sixt 〈◊〉 not the 〈◊〉 of pride come 〈◊〉 me And Psalme the hundred and fourteenth Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy name give the praise The 〈◊〉 is For then 〈◊〉 shall 〈◊〉 your 〈◊〉 As before to doe good was the good corn that is to be sown but to doe 〈◊〉 〈…〉 seen is the tares that must be plucked up So the perswasion is thus to be taken Doe good works sincerely and ye shall have a reward though not in this world but if ye doe them in 〈◊〉 to 〈…〉 ye shall lose your reward When the holy Ghost implyeth that our good works shall have a reward and so perswadeth us to the 〈◊〉 of them He 〈◊〉 to our infirmity for there are 〈…〉 causes to move us to doe good As the shedding of Christs blood whereby he redeemed us to himself to be 〈◊〉 of good works Titus the second chapter and the fourteenth verse But because he knows whereof we be made and that we are weak he 〈◊〉 us with hope of reward and herein he hath regard Non ad gloriam operis sed ad zelum operantis of the reward of works done in sincerity heretofore Of these that are done in hypocrisie note two things First How true it is that they lose their reward Concerning which howsoever Hypocrites have a reward in this world yet they have not 〈◊〉
For these two being coupled doe fall under in one part of the division In which are offered unto us four principall matters of great regard 1. First That this World and the things wee see were not so ever but had a beginning at a certain time 2. Secondly At the beginning these things had not their being of themselves but of another 3. Thirdly That the Creation and working of them was only of God and of that God which is in unity of essence and trinity of persons 4. Fourthly That Heaven and Earth are God's and that they were made and preserved by him Touching the first in principio hath admitted a three fold sence according to the diverse conceits of divers men all which have beene received and may bee without error or danger First Origen and Ambrose doe take and interpret it as the Cause which was the beginning of all and that is Gods Wisdome which as the Cause began all And they may seeme to bee led to understand it thus by these two places the one in the 4 Prov. 7. Wisedome is the beginning c. the other 104 Psal. 24. In Wisedome hast thou made them all Therefore they thought that in the beginning is meant In Wisedome God created c. Secondly it is taken for the order of time as who should say First of all and before any thing else was done God made Heaven and Earth in the very first beginning of time that is in a moment or as it were in the twinckling of an eye 1 Cor. 15. 52. So had all things their beginning and motion in the beginning of time as they shall leave and lose it at the end and last period of time which is the Worlds end It is no danger of error thus to understand In principio Thirdly It is said 11 Heb. 3. that it is a Mystery and matter of Faith to beleeve this of the Creation in the beginning and so it is yet God hath not made our reason so repugnant from Faith even in naturall men but that even by the sense and sight of things mans reason cannot deny but must needs gather and confesse this to be true That all things were made and had a beginning And this all Heathenith Philosphers as may appeare by all books of the Gentiles in all ages since the study of learning and learned men hath beene doe plainly shew that they had in remembrance themselves and did commend to others by their writings the knowledge and acknowledgment of this universal Creation This hee proveth by those Philosophers which were as ancient as the Prophet Esdras untill late times and that they had a remembrance of Noah naming him Janus and painting him with two faces one looking into the old world before the Flood and the other beholding the world after Besides such writers of naturall men very reason doth consent hereunto That the world was made by some wonderfull Power and so had a beginning for Reason is ever naturally led to look and consider the beginning and cause of any thing it seeth as when it seeth a great Tree though it see not the roote yet it conceiveth for certain that it hath a roote which conveyeth sapp to the Tree by which it groweth and encreaseth So when it seeth a great River it by and by concludeth there is a great Fountain and head where it hath his originall and beginning Again Reason cannot abide infinite Causes as 1 Cor. 11. 3. to say the woman came of man the man of Christ and Christ of God Because divers Causes have divers times and motions but Reason will bring things to their particular head and chief causes which by one motion and at one time did it Also in that we say things are done successively by order of times neerer and farther off it argueth necessarily a beginning and therfore faith David Psal. 119 91. All things continue alike from the begining through thy Ordinance All things since in the world have beene yb Gods appointment and Decree Psal. 65.9 Paul telleth this to the wise and learned of Athens as a thing which they knew and taught in their Schools to bee true 17 Acts 24. And Plato faith it was a saying of great antiquity and credit in his time and long before That God made all things and man at a certain time which was their beginning Plutarch sheweth that some deemed the world to bee conceived and brought forth and to grow to perfection as a man and others that it was the stamp which God set on it and so all learned men in all ages and all men endowed with natural sence and right reason have beene resolved in this That the world was the workmanship of God and had his beginning The partie adverse to this truth was the first of the sect of the Peripateticks which contrary to his master Plato and all that were hefore him and contrary to his Scholar Theophrastus and the most that followed him after held that Mundus erat aeternus and so had no beginning nor maker at all yet notwithstanding this new conceit and opinion hee confesseth this twice or thrice that hee giveth credit to those ancient men which were before him which by long grounded experience and by evident demonstration and credible testimonies held and taught otherwise then hee thought and in his book de Coelo hee saith that there was a Chaos a darknesse and light which had a beginning therefore as hee seemeth to differ and leave his ancients of singularity only on a conceit and devise of his own so his Scholers and followers after him forsook him in that opinion and therefore this point standeth undoubted as ratified both by evidence of reason and by the judgement of the learned in all ages The second Point is the Creation in which wee are to note first that the things which wee see were not of themselves when they had their being and beginning because they are an effect and worke of some efficient cause for it is very absurd in reason that one and the same thing should bee both a Cause and an Effect of it selfe for so it must bee granted that a thing both was and was not at one time for as it is the Cause it must needes bee before it was and as it is an Effect it could not bee at the first so it should bee and yet not bee at one time Therefore David teacheth us to say It is hee that made us and not wee our selves wee are the Sheepe of his pasture for preservation and the works of his hands for Creation so that Job faith we must resolve That it was another that made all things and that one is God These two points that not the World but another made the World and all in it doth overthrow two errors of the Philosophers Opinio Stoicorum the one was of the Stoicks which taught quod omnia fiunt fato as if by the revolution of things and times at such
sound of voyce Psal. 14. 1. So there is a double word speaking the one is verbum vocis the other cordu But to speak truly and properly there is but one word which is in our hearts as our word is first cloathed with aire and so becommeth audible to mens eares so faith one Christ the word of his Father being cloathed with 〈◊〉 was visible and manifest to all men So to conclude the word is that he conceived first in the Closer as I may say of his 〈◊〉 and then doth make it plain here by Creation and after by redemption And here we may learn the difference between us and God In us there is one thing by which we are and another thing by which we understand and conceive things but in God both his being and understanding are of one and the same substance And this substantial Word of God is that where with St. John beginneth his Gospell God created that which was not but the word was in the begining Therefore it is verbum increatum it made all things at the beginning Coll. 1. 15. 16. Therefore it was before the beginning John 17. 5. Thus we see as Christ saith how Moses scripsit de me John 5. 46. this word of God is proceeding from God John 8. 42. as the holy Ghost doth also John 15. 26. The proceeding of the Sonne is four folde But Christs manner of proceeding is determined after four sorts First as a sonne proceeding from a Father Secondly as an Image from a Picture Thirdly as the light from the Sunne Fourthly as a word from the speaker as a Sonne from the Father Psal. 2. 7. this day I begot thee this day that is from all eternity for to God all times is as one day also he begot him in respect of the connaturality and identity of nature and substance that he hath with God the Father As an Image from a pattern that is in likeness and resemblance to the Father Coll. 1. 15. for he is like God in property and similitude of quality and therefore is called the lively and express character and graven Image form and stamp of his Father Heb. 1. 3. Thirdly in respect of Coeternity For as the light proceeded from the Sunne so soon as ever the Sunne was so did Christ the word from eternity Heb. 1. 3. and therefore he is called the brightness of his Fathers glorie So at what time God was at that time the brightness of his Sonne appeared and shone from him Last of all in regard of the immateriality 1. John 1. For as a word conceived in us is no matter or substance so this was Coemateriall but an incorporeall generation Thus we see that his proceeding is foure fold Christ distinct in person one in substance Now this word is distinct from the Father in person and one with him in substance That he is distinct from him it appeareth Gen. 19. 24. Psal. 110. 1. the Lord said to my Lord 30. Prov. 4. what is his name and what is his sonnes names Esay 36. 9. the father brought forth a sonne ergo divers from himself Touching the Godhead of Christ Job saith surely my Redeemer liveth and I shall see God with these eyes Job 19. 25 26. Psal. 45. 7. God even thy God shall annoynt thee There is God annoynting God for he is called thy God also whom wee must worship Esay 9. 6. Jer. 63. 6. his name is the righteous God In the new Testament Rom. 9. 5. even as he was verbum incarnatum 〈◊〉 Tim. 3. 16. and John 17. 2. this is eternall life to know God and him whom he sent Jesus Christ. I have made it plain before that the Heathen had notice of his second person As the Persian called him the second Understanding The Caldeans called him the Fathers Understanding or Wisdome Macrobius a Counsell or Wisdome proceeding from him so may we say likewise of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is attributed to Christ for they seem not to be ignorant of that name Some called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is verbum Hermes calleth him the Naturall Word of God Orpheus the Word of the Father And Plato most plainly in his Epistle to Hormias But most strange is that which 〈◊〉 writeth inlib de preparatione Evangelii scited out of AEmilius and Heraclitus and let this suffice for the distinction of the duty and notice of Christ which is Verbum Dei Now this word hath a relation to him that speaketh it and also to the things Created therefore it is called verbum expressivum in respect of God and verbum factivum in regard of his works for his Precept did in respect of himself express his Will but in respect of us it had a power to Create and make things that were not Therefore 1. John 3. he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the 15. verse he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that both in regard of his Father and us he is a word Little divinity and much danger is in those late Divines which say that this was but a temperarie word which God used in Creating all things for we see this is verhum increatum and the very root of which all that is said after are but as branches derived therefrom And thus much for the authority of this Word Fiat lux Now to the Creation of light Moses maketh plain mention That the first several thing which God perfectly made was Light Wherefore we will first speak of the Order then of the Nature God is Pater Luminum Jam. 1. 17. Therefore first he brought forth light as his sunne But some having little Philosophie in them doe reason against this work of God very impiously as if it were not to be said that light was made three dayes before the Sunne which is the cause thereof But if we respect God the Father of lights or the Sunne which is the light of the World or the necessity of light for Lux est vox verum because that which things cannot express by voyce and words they doe plainly shew by the comming of light which manifesteth all things Again God being about the work of distinguishing it was necessary first to make the great distiuguisher of all things which is light for in nocte est color omnibus idem tenebrae rerum discrimina tollunt but the light distinguisheth one thing from another Again of the three beginnings we shew that the first beginning was of time but we could not have a morning to make a first day without light of it was first made for the naturall common Clock of the world to distinguish times is the course of light and darkness which is the essence of day and night Furthermore we have seen that the Heavens were the first and most excellent therefore the light being the first quality and affection of the the Heavens the first body made must by right order be made first Last of all we
the Sunne as some say Touching the first that is Whether God called them by their names and imposed titles to them after a sensible manner with a distinct audible voyce I finde a double contrariety in Writers But to resolve upon it To whom should he speak audibly seeing there was none to hear and understand And therefore to no end and purpose should we think he should speak so but as the Hebrew say appellavit id est fecit appellari the same phrase as we say Princes doe build houses that is doe cause them to be builded wherefore the manner of giving names is this that as God gave before the naturall use of things so now he took order that we might have a use of them by names to know and talke of them so 2. God is the cause and author of the names of things by which we know and call them for though we say that when God created man he made him capable of speech of language in which language we see God had speech and conference with him being made Gen. 2.16 17,18 Yet Adam imposed not the names to the Creatures Gen. 2. 19. but according to that gift of knowledge and utterance he calleth things by such names and titles as he had received from God for as God did largiri linguam so he did nominibus praeire linguae for here we see before ever man was made in all the six dayes works God gave names to the things as he made them and to Adam himself and in these seven things named are contained all other particular things made in and with them 3. The end to which God gave imposed sundry names was that we should doe as he hath done that is when things have a true being then to give names to them accordingly and not to our fancies and things which indeed are not at all as the custome of the World is for things that have no esse as the Hebr. said must have no name For God gave names to things that were created and had a being ☜ We must not then doe as the Apothecaries that is set on their Boxes a name and title of a precious thing when within it there is no such matter we must not affect the name of Learning Godlinesse and Light nor give it to others when we know our selves and they to be darkned and evill Secondly when things have a true being we have a care to give names and titles agreeable to the nature and quality of them that the act and nature of the thing may be made manifest in the name of it as written in the forehead for as a man draweth good Liquor out of the Cask so out of the meaning and signification of the Word and denominations given by God we may draw out the hidden nature and knowledge of the thing for nomen est symbolum rei and this is seen even in these names of day and night given to light and darknesse for concerning the name of the day Jom it is very significant and pregnantand discloseth the nature of the day and the Hebrew word which signifieth night is the negative The day what it signifieth to the meaning of the day the day importeth as much as Ens being shewing us that our being and life must be imployed altogether in the day time in some honest exercise and work of our calling of God or the Country and that we are not any longer to reckon or accompt our selves to live or have any being then when we walke as in the day in the course and actions of our life and work of our calling for being idle ill imployed or sleeping sloathfully spending and consuming our time in vanity we are dead and have not the being of men also there is a good signification given of those which take the name of Jom from striving and moving teaching that the day is a time of walking stirring speaking and labouring and the night e contra a time of silence rest and ease and sleep or rather a time thereby to restore and recover the strength of body which in the day was spent by carefull and painfull travell in which sense I shewed the day to be the work-house and the night to be our Cabin or Couch of rest Psal. 104. 23. 4. Lastly touching this division we see that the reason of man is offended with God in this place for naming a day saying there was a day so long before there was any Sunne which seemeth absurde to them because they think the day dependeth on the Sunne as on his cause therein most fasly and grossely drawing their reason from that which is now to that which was then at the beginning in which they argue their ignorance and error even in learning and Phylosophy Note the Sunne Wherefore touching this question whether be the cause of the day we say and prove according to this that before there was any Sunne there was a day two or three for the course and order of things are otherwise in the proceeding of nature then of the first beginning as we have shewed Again touching this particular we say that the day is broken and draweth long before we see the Sunne only because of the approaching of the light also when the Sunne is in his Eclipse and when it is all day long hid and covered with the Clouds yet we say call it the day time so the contrary we see and say that the day dependeth on the light not on the Sunne and his participation of communication Again the Sunne is not light but vehiculum hujus lucis ex qua fit dies and therefore is called the Lamp which containeth light tanquam lycbnus as Basill well faith which is not light and shining of it self untill the accessary light be put to it aliundè as this light by which the day was afterward was put to the Sunne and so now since it causeth our day Again there are many things which can and doe conceive and bring forth light besides the Sunne as a Flint Gun-powder Fire by which we may perceive a great difference between this light and the Sunne after that whether we take the light to be defluum or a stream of brightnesse issuing from God for Nebora in Hebrew signifieth as well a stream of water as a beam of light Job 3. 4. we shall see that light doth not stream from the body of the Sunne only but from many other things created as we see as the fire De fluvium ignis fulgor Ezech. 1. 4. Also there is De fluvium firmamenti splendor Dan. 12. 3. The streams of * Brightnesse righteousnesse shining from the Firmament Meteors as streaming and issuing from the impressions and meteors of the Aire or whether we say that it streamed from the Heavens and from Gods glorious Majesty as light did to the Israelites out of the Pillar any of these or altogether will give them their answer
store for profit and 〈◊〉 for nothing is good in respect of God which is only speciosum videnti nisi sit commodum utenti therefore God would make it as well profitable as pleasant both for man and beast Psal. 104. 14. and prepare and make all things ready and fit for life before he made living things Which course we see usuall and agreeable to nature for God provideth still breasts full of milk before the Child be born And it is the manner and course of men in the world before they will come to dwell in and possesse a house they will first lay in their provision and necessaries for houshold A good Pater Familias So doth God deale in this place He first taketh order for our diet and fare the Flower of Meale for Bread and the Grape for the Winepresse out of the Herbe and the Plant Ose 9. 2. which Moses calleth Deut. 32. 14. the fat of the Wheat and the blood of the Grape thus he provideth for men in the Herbs and the Plants and for beasts he took order in that he left for Hay and for Pasture and Grasse of the fields Psal. 104. 14. and clean and good Provender for them Esay 30. 24. All which he did that we might be kindled with the love of God which hath been so carefull and provident for us The Decree Touching the Decree it containeth three parts First the Decree it self Secondly the Complement of it and it was so Thirdly the Censure of God in his liking and approbation that it is good Of the first of these at this time Wherein first of his speaking again When we shall consider the virtue and force of Gods dixit whereby he made and furnished all things It must teach us not despicere terras not to look downward and depend on the Earth for food nor yet suspicere stellas that is not gaze on the starres to trust in them for fruitfull increase but it teacheth us to passe beyond all these and know that all these blessings of the Earth come from God and his word which saith Let the Earth bear forth and it was so non produxit terra antequam dixit Deus producat terra for the nature of the Earth was at first empty in the second degree dry and cold which are mortiferae qualitates and will rather kill than quicken and keep any seed herb or plant But notwithstanding all this if God call for a plenty and say Let the Earth bear though there be no man to till the ground no seed in the ground no starres to give influence no means now ordeined to cause it yet it will bring forth fruit in aboundance For at this time Adhuc Adam fuit Adama that is Agricola fuit adhuc ager man was earth and yet in the dust heap therefore man was not the cause that the Earth did bear fruit neither were the Heavens and Starres any cause for they were not as yet made for the Sunne Moon and all the Stars are Juniors to the Herbs and Plants and the very Grasse and Flower of the field Ancients to them all quid ergo aspiras astra saith one to starre-gazers These plants and herbs are the influence and starres and beams shooting out of the earth as the Heavens hereafter have starres in them It is strange that Theophrastus which never knew Moses writing doth yet acknowledge this That the earth brought forth all fruits meet for man and beast before any living Creatures were on the earth If then the fruits of the earth are not from any earthly cause not from the earth it self nor from man nor from the starres we must needs conclude that they come from this dixit Deus by the blessing of his word willing it to be done the truth of which God hath sealed and signed up to us by two reasons the first St. Paul pleadeth 1 Cor. 15. 36. The second part is the Censure of approbation saying that it was good In the Preach 5. 8. the wise man being a King doth confesse that the fruitfullness of the earth is so necessarily good that no man no not the King himself can live or continue but must miserably pine and perish without his fruit and therefore St. James 5. 7. the Apostle calleth them the precious fruits of the Earth for which we wait as the hope of our life There are three goods as I told you before honestum utile jucundum each of which contain in them a double goodnesse All which three pair of several goodnesses we shall see in the earth Bonum honestum as a virtue morall which respecteth true justice equity and faithfulnesse and on the other side benignity goodnesse mercy and liberality which we shall see in the earth Bonum jucundum In that good which is called jucundum there is one speciall prerogative to delight and please the senses as to be fair and sightly to the eye sweet to the smell pleasant to the taste delightfull to the eare So there is multiplicity of delight Bonum utile For Bonum utile there is utile ferrum which we cannot be without which is durum telum and will break through walls Bonum honestum The other that is Bonum honestum is such a profit which we may be without but yet not conveniently For the first moral goodnesse though properly it pertaineth to men yet here it may be applyed to the earth and a pattern of it may be seen there For touching truth and fidelity Commit any seed into the earth it is more sure and trusty to keep it than man therefore the Husbandman having sowed his seed sleepeth securely without doubt or distrust Mark 4. 26. knowing that he dealeth with a most true just and faithfull Creature which will safely depositum servare and in due time repay and deliver his charge and that not barely in the same measure that it received it but that which is the second point it will repay besides the principall great increase very bountifully with great liberallity Psal. 72. 16. A handfull of Corn shall be sown on the hills and it shall bring forth a croppe Esay Every Corn saith Christ Matth. 13. 8. commeth up and bringeth his advantage some thirty some sixty some an hundred folde every one will be manifold Gen. 26. 12. So had Abraham and Jacob an hundred folde increase and this increase and gain it speedily returneth for it is not dealt withall as Usurers custome is that is we take in bonds and obligations but without constraint or exaction of its own goodnesse and liberality it giveth more though it be fructum indebitum that is more than it oweth us to repay any but Userers will not stand to mens gratefull return of recompence but will binde men before they lend that they may be sure of their harvest before hand but we need not deal so cruelly with the Earth for it will liberally give us if we shall thankfully praise God the maker of
Some make this question Why the lights were not brought forth before the fourth day the three first dayes were without Sunne God commandeth the Sunne and it riseth not he closeth up the starres as under a signet Job 9. 7. Resp. The question is thus answered First he brings forth the things themselves then the ordinary means the Plant is first then the seed the means of the Plant the Earth is first then is it furnished with herbs the Heavens must be before the Starres there was light the first day but the Sunne was not before the fourth day The Heathen saith that Sol est cor mundi and the Physitions say the heart is not first framed in the body but the liver and after the heart God without any means brought forth the second cause and by his power he brought forth the effects of the second cause Ambrose saith Sol est mater non author lucis The Heathen saith that deus est Plantarum the Sunne is the god of Plants but Rubus est senior Sole the Sunne is not the god of the silly Bramble The Persians seeing nothing more glorious did worship the visible Sunne The AEgyptians under Orus the Romans under Bacchus did worship the Sunne The very Jews did erect Temples and doe sacrifice to the Sunne and Moon and the whole host of Heaven neglecting the service and worship due to God who is the cause of the Sunne and of the light They be not only his everlasting lamps but even as the Heathen say they are his hammers to rarifie the Heavens their influence is for the generation of Plants and Mankinde they joyn Homo Sol Sol Planta The Sunne concurreth to generation this Philosophie teacheth and Divinity confesseth Before God said Let there be and Let there appear to be He causeth being He causeth the morning to keep his place Job 38. 13. The Sunne makes not only things to appear but even as it were to be Spiritus incubans the spirit hatched the waters and dixit Deus the word of God brings forth the light The Sunne of righteousnesse doth arise and health shall be under his wings Malachi 4. 2. He causeth the visible Sunne to shine upon the earth Christ is the spirituall light whereby the Heavens and all therein have their light Christ is the Bridegrome in his marriage chamber Matth. 9. 15. by whose permission the Sunne commeth forth as a Bridegrome also out of his chamber Psal. 19. 4. These lights though they have no tongue to speak unto us yet by their beauty they poynt to our eyes by their light they sing the glory and praise of God in our ears Now of the tenor Wherein we will consider three points First the things themselves Secondly the place Thirdly the uses of them 1. The Lights For the first There was light before these are not lumina but luminaria they are not lights but lightners Basil upon the 1 Ezech. 4. saith That the fire which was wrapped in the cloud and the brightness that was about it was the light of the Sunne And Miscen upon the 14. Exodus 20. That the piller of the cloud which gave light by night was as the Moon Light distinguished from Sunne and Moon I wish as Chrysostome that you would rather use things manifest than to be curious in things secret although the schoolmen doe say that the generation of these Creatures is a corruption of the former Creation which cannot be for corruption is a defect and this is no corruption but rather a perfection of the former Creation and these latter lights are derived from the former Light and day is not all one thing and the Sunne is distinct from them both the difference of them all Paul sheweth in one verse At mid-day he saw a light passing the brightnesse of the Sunne shining round about him Acts 26. 13. This light was lux vitae there is lux diei splendor solis The day and the Sunne are not one so saith Christ the day is the durance of the light luminare a lumine is there distinguished for the Sunne is but the carriage of the light the light and the Moon are distinct the Moon every moneth leaveth her old light and puteth on a new after the conjunction Neither the Sunne nor the Moon are light of themselves but the Sunne is the Chariot of light Paul in the 2. Philippians 15. wisheth them to be pure and blamelesse that among the wicked Nation they would shine as lights of the World John saith He was not that light but he came to bear witnesse of the light John 1. 8. It behoveth that in them which witnesse this light there should be light though they are not the light it self for otherwise they be the blinde leaders of the blinde Matth. 15. 14. The Fathers doe call the Apostles Apostoli lucis Or is one thing in Hebrew Maor is another lumen is one thing and luminare is another light is one thing and that which giveth light is another Things not durable shall be corrupt and shall be brought forth But when he purposeth a father matter and a continuance as long as the world shall continue as when he made the Heaven and the Earth the Sunne and Starres God saith sit let therebe he saith in the singular sit luminaria in the plurall let there be lights The Moon and the Starres are but as glasses having no light in themselves but borrowing it from the Sunne 2 The placing of the Sun and the Starrs The second point of consideration is the place which is most convenient in three regards The first is in regard of God and his Wisdome who is the cause of them and is above Where is the way wherein light dwelleth Job 38. 19. It is sursum it is above 2. Secondly Their place is most convenient in regard of their ministring of light to so large and spacious an house as to the whole world they doe hang in the Heavens as on a beam 3. Thirdly By this means they are in safety from the tyrannie and malice of man for if they were in mens reach they would pull the starres from their place and God from his throne Adam did eato the fruit though he were forbidden Gilead is a City of them that work iniquity and is polluted with blood Priests are murtherers in the high-way by consent there is villany in the house of Israel there is whoredome of Ephraim Osee 6. 8. But man cannot practise any of his envie against the starres which are placed on high in the Heavens So that the placing of them above in the Heavens doth signifie unto us that the cause of them is above the Heavens and the effect of their ministrating and the providence God had of their safetie 3 Their use The third point to be considered is their use which is manifold The first is to separate the day and the night which is orderly to divide the course
made which here God performeth For as it is a fault in working to labour and not to perfect so it is a fault also not to leave off when the work is well and perfect because by being over curious we make the work worse is we marre it not altogether and so make it imperfect again Yet there are some of so curious minde and withall of so restlesse a spirit Heb. 10. 25. as cannot be content with perfection it self but will depart from the fellowship of the Church They are such as Salomon speaketh of Prov. 30. 33. who will not be content when all is clean but will still be blowing the nose untill the blood follow These may be called fellows of the preterpluperfect tense whom nothing can please be it never so perfect unlesse it feed their giddy and brain-sick humors But Moses telleth us that as God is not defective in his works so he is not excessive sed manum detorquet when all was perfect he stayed his hand gave over his work and betook himself to rest And thus much of the dependance of this verse Touching the parts they are two in number 1. The one is the perfection of the works in respect of God 2. The other is his rest when he had made an end For the first we have to consider three things 1. First the action of finishing 2. Secondly the time in which he did finish 3. And the third is touching the rest it self Touching the first There was a beginning when nothing was made after he made all things he commeth to an end and there finisheth all If he be Alpha i. the beginning of a thing he will be Omega that is bring it to a happie and perfect end Revel 1. 8. Man beginneth but cannot bring to an end for these causes But with man it is otherwise he beginneth many things which he finisheth not If he purposeth good things oftentimes his courage doth quail before it come in act as Peter did Or else if they be 〈◊〉 in their purpose their strength faileth them before they can effect it Psal. 21. 11. They imagine such a devise which they are not able to bring to passe because their arme is too weak and short to doe it Or if we have strength yet oftentimes the cost and charge is too great which the work requireth Luke 14. 30. So some men take in hand to build houses which for lack of sufficient store are not able to finish Last of all Man himself very often before he can finish and come to an end of his work hath his dayes finished and his years come to an end Wherefore fear not what man can doe unto thee seeing his breath is in his nostrills for there are many wayes to prevent and alter or hinder their purpose for God can take away his breath before he can bring it to passe But God is not as man he cannot repent or alter his minde Numb 23. 19. If God saith he will doe any thing Quis impediet he would know Who can let or hinder it Esay 43. 13. Therefore this is our comfort which Moses saith Deut. 32. 4. Omne opus Dei perfectum And therfore if he hath begun any good work in us he will throughly finish it in the end Phil. 1. 6. Wherefore let us also when we have well begun never give over any good thing untill we have finished it and having well done one thing we must not then and there leave off and start aside like a broken bow from doing any more Psal. 78. 57. for God ceaseth not he never giveth over dixit fecit untill the return came fuit sic perfecit We must persevere then the Philosophers said that Perseverantia est virtus virtutum And Gregorie saith Of all Virtues only Perseverance is crowned The goodnesse and good works of the wicked are as shooting starres falling and vanishing suddenly and as a Land-flood or plash of water Ose 6. 4. which continue not but are soon dried up They are as a fire of thornes Psal. 118. 12. Therefore let us not frame our selves to their manner of doing well For Pharao ten times began well but still declined from amending the faults which he knew and confessed Exod 8. 8. c. This is their behaviour But the estate of the Godly is the state and manner of the Nazarites as St. Augustine saith that is be holy and clean all their dayes for if they touch any unclean thing the last day then all their dayes are reckoned unclean Now as we draw this from Gods perfection so for the time when he rested namely the seventh day we learn to avoid protraction and delayes For God doth not only end but he endeth also in a short time even within seven dayes which is not the manner of men who in good things are as a Snayle Psal. 58. 8. Seeing God then within seven dayes finished omnia opera sua his great works of Creation what a shame it is that we cannot finish our opuscula a few small good things in many yeers Now we are come to opus suum quod fecerat of which I will only shew you some notes which St. Augustine hath gathered out of it First saith he We may see that all that which was created before so infinite Hosts of Creatures in number and so diverse in kinde on every side and part of the World all that innumerable plurality is here by God in one rolled up and is called opus suum Though Heaven and Earth be so farre asunder and so contrarie in nature yet here they are brought to an unity and attonement the means whereof as he saith is man who being both of Heaven and Earth became vinculum perfectionis joyning both together in Man as they both together were for man and under his government Now in that he saith Opus suum quod fecerat Agustine noteth it because there are some men which doe brag of opus suum but they cannot boast of quod fecerant because there are some which doe not only build upon another mans foundation which St. Paul would not doe but also upon another mans Timber and Stones too as one having gotten St. Pauls Parchments or Epistles should say and set them out as his own but these cannot say as God here doth opus suum quod fecerat Object Now touching the third point I ask first Whether God was weary of working because he rested Resp. To which the School-men answer That rest is here not opposed to wearinesse but to work for he could not be weary of his work because all that he did was done without labour for he made all by saying only let it be But happily a man with long and much speaking may be weary But we see that God spake but even one word at least few and short words and therefore could not be weary so Also a man is not weary of that which he doth with faculty and facility
too But God doth all things not only with faculty but with the greatest facility that may be for nothing is hard to him or beyond the compasse of his power therefore we cut off all wearinesse from God and say That his resting was only a ceasing or leaving off to make any more new things for his rest is only negatio operis non affirmatio laboris Object The other question is Doth God then cease and rest from all manner of work hath he ever since done nothing more Resp. That is impossible for seeing he is Actum primum therefore he cannot be idle and rest from all things as we may imagine as he bath quietem activam so hath he motum stabilem a quiet motion without any labor and this we may learn out of Moses words for he saith not simply that then God rested but he rested from his works and not absolutely from every work but only from the works which he had created that is A novis condendis sed non a veteribus conservandis from creating any more things from the works of creation he rested a novis condendis sed non a veteribus conservandis for this was the Sabbath dayes work which then he began So saith Christ pater meus adhuc operatur ego operor John 5. 17. That is both in the propagation and bringing forth the things which he made also in preserving of them We say in the Schools that there is a double cause of things the one is causa sieri the other is causa esse The first is the cause of making As a Carpenter having made a house perfect forsaketh it and careth no more for it till it fall down or as the fire is of heat or as the clock keeper is of the going of the clock who when he hath set it to his minde leaveth it untill the plumets fall down causa esse is as the candle is of light which being taken away the light is gone So is God the cause of our life being as a candle whose being is of light And in that respect David saith Lift up the light of thy countenance as if God were our candle who being taken away our life and light is clean put out and become darknesse Psal. 104. 29. If he take away his breath from us we dye We say then that he rested not from preserving and governing though he did rest from making Hermes by the light of reason could say That it were very absurd to think that God should leave and neglect the things he had made and God imputeth it as a fault to the Ostrich Job 39. 18 19 to leave her eggs without care and regard in the sands therefore God himself will be free of that blame and blemish which he condemneth in others As we say of the Father so we say of the Sonne which is the word of God Psal. 33. 9. He commanded and they were made there is creation He said the word and they stood fast which is the second work of preservation and guiding Also Psal. 148. 5 6. He first made them with his word which is the first work of creation long sithence ended and he gave them a Law which they should not break which is the other work of establishing and governing things made So Coll. 1. 17. Paul speaking of Christ saith By him all things have their being or existence and Heb. 1. 3. By him all things have their supportance and are held up He resteth not also from the ruling and governing of the World A Sparrow is one of the basest and meanest Birds Matth. 10. 29 30. Yet their motion is directed by his providence and will yea the hairs of our head are numbred and none of them fall without his providence how much more then is he provident in disposing and governing mans motions He hath a stroke in all that we doe Prov. 16. 1. The answer of our tongue is guided by God and in the 9. verse the direction of our wayes and the end and issue of their purposes and thoughts yea he ordereth and governeth our hands and feet Psal. 33. 10. Psal. 56. 13. He I say fashioneth all our thoughts and knoweth them long before so that we have no power in our heart to think in the tongue to speak or hand to doe ought but as we are directed by God yea for things most casuall as Lots and Chances which are attributed to fortune Prov. 16. 33. Even that is ruled by the Lord God Act. 1. 26. The Lot of Matthias and Joseph called Barsabas is cast into the Lap but the Lord doth dispose it and causeth it to fall unto Matthias That also which we call Chance-medley as when many men walking in the street one of them is killed with a stone falling on him of such a chance God saith Ego Dominus extuli illum hominem Exod. 21. 13. So that God hath his stroke even in ordering such things If this be so then let us not say as they did Job 22. 13. Tush God walketh above and regardeth not the things on earth or with them God seeth us not For he both seeth governeth and preserveth all on earth For though the Lord be in heaven yet he humbleth himself to look down and behold the sonnes of men and considereth that there is none of them good Psal. 14. 2. And God hath not only Librum rerum creatarum Psal. 139. 16. But he hath a register verborum factorum of words and deeds also Mal. 3 16. And that we may know not our being only but our preserving and guiding is of the Lord and his work he will at the last bring all these things to Judgment Preach 12. 14. As for Gods rest after That he had made all things for himself Prov. 16. 4. Then did he introire in regnum suum Heb. 4. 10. So that he went out of his rest for our sakes and having made all for us he is said not to rest in his work nor after his work but from his work for he had no need of these things for he had most perfect rest in his own glory which he had before the World was made John 17. 5. into that rest then he now returned Secondly we see that in Gods rest his works goe before it for the word is not quievit but requievit which sheweth that if we be first imployed about the works of God and then rest it may well be called Gods rest but that rest which is without work is Issachars rest Gen. 49. 15. that is idlenesse and such as give themselves to that are called Cretians idle and slow bellies as St. Paul calleth them and those shall never enter into Gods rest for it is pigra vocatio and not a return to rest If God had his work six dayes before he rested in creation and if Adam had his work in the state of innocency then it is much more meet now That man should goe forth to
and all that might be attained unto by bodily labor and work and not to seek for blessednesse in the six dayes work but only in the blessing of the seventh day given by his word which is above and beyond all that is in the Creatures But the other reason is more sensible which is because every one of the six dayes brought his reall blessing with it Of which Jobs wife had skill Benedictus Deus in donis suis Job 3. 9. Which is Oses blessednesse Benedictus dominus quo ditati sumus But the world hath no feeling of St. Pauls blessings which are spirituall who saith blessed be God which made us rich in all spirituall riches in Christ. Wherefore that we may know that we have more cause to blesse God for his spirituall blessings given unto us on the Sabbath day by his word then for his temporall blessings which we receive at other times by his Creatures therefore did he specially blesse this seventh day for God knoweth we are easily brought to say blessed be God and blessed be this day in which we receive temporall blessings and that place we will call the valley of blessing 2 Cro. 20. 26. And on the other side we think that day a cursed day as Job did in which we receive evills Job 3. 8. But seeing all true and eternall blessings doe follow and shine from the blessing of this day it is indeed to be esteemed a blessed day Object But I will ask Whether the other dayes were not also blessed Resp. Yes every one of them as we may see Gen. 1. chap. had his Benedixit which though they were temporall yet they have a very good Analogy and fit proportion with the spirituall blessings of this day of this day for as we have a natural good use of the goodnesse of the Creatures on the six dayes by their blessings given them So here on the Sabath we have a spiritual use of the Creatures For as the temporal and corporal use of the six dayes is ad cultum corporis so this spiritual use of the seventh day is ad cultum animae that so having blessings provided both for body and soul we may by both kindes of blessings come unto God in whose presence is the fullnesse of joy and blessednesse for ever Psal. 70. 4. Touching the blessing of the Sabath We say that thing is blessed of God to which God vouchsafeth some peculiar or special favour So Isaac is called Benedictus Domini Gen. 26. 12. because God shewed him such special favours It was the strife between Esau and Jacob because of the blessing that is the superiority Gen. 27. 37. What maketh the Sabath the chief day in the week Therefore this day having the special blessing is by it made the head and chief day of the week The honor which is given to this day is holinesse which is expressed by sanctifying or hallowing which consisteth in two things The first is Levit. 20. 26. which is separation or setting it apart from common and prophane uses to the which they were or might be applyed before before which they were called things common and prophane So was this day first a common and an ordinary day like to all the other ordinary dayes yea it might be thought to us before a waste emptie day bringing no good with it to us but now being set apart the day which the builders would refuse by this is made the head and chief day of building for as a man being set a a part to be a Magistrate is thereby made above ordinarie men so is this day now among other dayes being set a part by Gods word As the separation of it from prophane uses is the first part so consequently ensueth for the sanctifying of any thing the appropriation of it to Gods holy uses to the which he hath appointed it Levit. 27. 28. as the sanctified Instruments of the Temple must not serve to any other uses but to that holy use and purpose in the Temple for which they were made If we then so use this day and separate it from prophane things to holy exercises it will be a blessed day to us for Gods blessing given to this day is a real blessing and will cause us to grow in holinesse here and by it to blessedness in the life to come For this must needs be granted that he which 〈◊〉 it blessed it for some body if for some body then for himself or for some other but he made it not for himself for he is God for ever and ever blessed And as St. Paul saith Omnia munda mundis Titus 1. 15. so we may say Omnia sunt sancta sanctis and therefore all things being holy to him which is holiest of all it is sure that he sanctified it not for himself Then it followeth that it must needs be either for Man or for some other Creature but not for any other Creature because they themselves were all blessed and sanctified for us and our sakes so saith Christ Sabatum erat propter hominem non homo propter 〈◊〉 Now we come to the counsell of God in the institution of the Sabath the Psalmist saith 111. 2 3 4. That the works of God are great and to be sought out of all them which have pleasure in them And again That God hath so wrought his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance It is Gods will and counsel therefore in these works first that we should have a remembrance of them and not to forget his benefits in them for he made them that we should not only have a corporal use of them but a spiritual use also as David had Psal. 143. 5. Recogitavi or recordatus sum omnia opera tua that is it should be our delight and pleasure to call to minde again and again his bounty and magnificence in his works that blessing him for these benefits we may be blessed of him for ever in the world to come Thus we see the dependence of this work and the counsel of God therein to the end that this counsell of God may prosper and succeed well that we may have fit occasion to call to minde his works to blesse him for it and to be blessed of him It was requisite and necessarie that God should take order to appoint a time in which setting aside all other worldly duties of our calling we should only and wholly as much as our weak nature can suffer apply our selves to this Christian duty of meditation and serving God which here is set down to be the seventh day in which circumstance of time we have four things to consider 1. First That some day or time must be appointed to that end 2. Secondly That it should be a day or time certain 3. Thirdly That the certain time should be in a certain number of dayes which the Fathers call taxatio temporis 4. Fourthly That it should be the seventh day
it is spiritus Dei which he breathed into our bodies Now to consider of the words somewhat more seriously we see that the soul is a breath but so that it is Neshema a spirituall and celestiall breath which properly is understood of the winde and ayre by which we see that is next of kynne to the Spirits which have no body as our bodyes are next of kynne to the wormes that are in the earth which soul for that cause is invisible but not unperceiveable As we cannot see the winde and the pulse yet we perceive them by divers effects So is our Soul and the excellency of it made known and discerned And that it might not be imagined or thought to be only a bare blast of breath or as a puffe of winde he therefore addeth a spirit of lives And least we should deem the soul and the life to be but one thing and to end and vanish away together Job telleth us 27. 3. that the spirit or soul of a man is one thing and 〈◊〉 life is another distinct Though there be a spirit of life in beasts and not only in earthly creatures but also in celestiall spirits yet only the spirit of man is spiritus vitarum that is of more lives than one which our Saviour Christ telleth us in Matth. 10. 28. Men may take away the one life of our body but they cannot the other life of the soul that is only in Gods power This then is the difference between the soul of a man and all other things which confuteth the Epicures 1. which held that the Soul was but a hot salt humor to keep the body from rottennesse and corruption Moses maketh choice to compare the Soul to breath First because it hath a piercing and a searching quality being Totus in toto totus in qualibet parte Pro. 27. 2. This candle of the Soul diffuseth his light and heat and life in every member searching and piercing all Secondly the Soul is compared to breath to humble us and not make us presume on this life seeing the soul and body is but knit and conjoyned together vinculo aëreo by an airie thred Esay 2. 22. Mans breath is in his nostrills which being stopped his life is gone Psal. 103. 14. 15. which causeth our life sodainly oftentimes to be taken away and our soul and our body in an instant or moment to depart a sunder Psal. 78. 39. Even because the union that holdeth soul and dody together is but a little blast of aire and winde easily broken and smitten asunder so sodainly doe we passe away and are gone This may teach us the shortnesse and sodainnesse of this life and death The use of which is that seeing we received our life from God therefore we must now live the life of all godlynesse seeing we live by the spirit of God naturally we must seek for the spirit of God and the graces of it that we may live holily seeing our Soul is the light of God let not this light become darknesse in us for then great is that darknesse Seeing our Soul is the Image of God we must not deface it with the ugly form of Sathan The holy man Job 26. 4. hearing his friends speak foolish and vain words asketh 〈◊〉 spirit cometh out of them As who should say seeing you have the spirit of God speak not such words as if an evill or vain spirit were in them So must we say to those men that doe evill works Whose spirit or what spirit hast thou in thee These deeds are the works of evill Spirits but thou had'st in thee the good spirit of God 2. Now we are come to the second estate of our soul which is set down in this So man became a living Soul which is added to shew that God not only gave that spirit inspired into him a power of life by which it could live but also another power unto the body which before was a dead peece of Earth wherefore the soul being in every part of the body so made by and by it was lively in every part and stood up and performed the actions of life which now it doth in us This is a good and profitable sense of these words as some doe understand But the best Divines weighing these words more deeply doe finde out another state of the soul which sheweth another priviledge of the soul of man For besides that it is as we have seen a spiritual essence occupied in spiritual actions being immortall and pertaining and leading to another life Besides this speciall priviledge it hath here also another common prerogative namely to enforme the body that is in a word besides being a spirituall essence it is also a natural essence it had hath and shall have a power to live without the body and also it hath a power in the body to quicken and give life to it and every part thereof that is it can animare informare corpus which we know the Angels and celestial spirits cannot for when they appeare in a body their souls of life though they live yet they doe not informe that body but they are in it as in a Case which they take to them and leave off again But our soul is not only a spiritual essence and consistence as the Angels but also a natural consistence in the body to inform and animate it which the Angels have not And this is the other prerogative There is none that doe doubt but they have naturalem animam and thereof they are called naturales homines 1 Cor. 15. 46. But by their actions one would think that their souls were only fleshie souls because they never give them selves to spiritual and heavenly actions as a Celestiall spirit shall move them But only they are given to actions of this bodily life which is temporall yea to earthly fleshie and sinfull actions as if the soul that were in them were but after that fort a natural soul of life for a time They see by their natural studies senses motions and actions that they have a natural soul of life quickning the body which else could not live But they think not that it is a spiritual soul and heavenly essence which shall have an eternall being after this life and therefore they never care to 〈◊〉 for such heavenly and spiritual actions of Godlinesse wherefore we will briefly prove and shew that the state of the soul is celestial and 〈◊〉 that we may be moved to think of such actions as that estate doth require And first that the soul and the life and estate thereof doth not depend upon the body but hath his being and life without the body after the body is dead and turned to the Earth because it hath his dependence on God which is immortall and eternal which appeareth to reason in the judgement of the Heathen because the soul hath in the will a power and faculty and ability to effect and perfect an action
without any help of the body or power thereof separately of himself yea it causeth a man to believe and know many things of it self even against the bodily senses and contrarie to them as that the bignesse of the Sunne and Moon is of a huge greatnesse though it seem to our sense but two foot yea the same power of the soul causeth us to desire many things contrarie to the outward sense as that it is healthfull sometimes to fast eat nothing c. Now of this they conclude that of these things there must needs be principium agendi where there is potest as agendi therefore a separate essence and being of the Agent Cause Thus by this separate action the Heathen rose up to this notice of the separate essence of the soul. Again the moving of this question Whether there be a God and eternity and a Heaven and spirits This we know that there is no outward thing which giveth occasion to our senses to move this question therefore the principium movendi is the power of the soul in reason who alone by his own light according to the state of his own nature moveth these things for a blinde man that never saw nor heard of colors can never in reason make question of colors So for as much as there is nothing without to tell or move him to this they conclude that the soul only was the cause and beginning of it within Touching the coupling of soul and body together into one living Man we know that Gods purpose and meaning in it was that the soul should rule the body and be a means to lift it up to Heaven and to God that it might so be made of the same excellent nature and estate which the soul had But now it is perverted and by sinne the course of nature and ordinance of God is changed and naturally our body doth labour to pull down the soul and make it earthly base and miserable But by grace we must endevor the contrarie it is Gods will it should be so and no reason to the contrarie But men seem by the care and cost they bestow on the body that the soul is worthy no care or cost at all But we must remember that many things and much time must be bestowed in seeking to garnish our souls Matth. 6. 20. We must lay up treasure in Heaven Matth. 19. 21. We must make friends of this Mammon put out our money to the Exchangers Luke 16. 9. for it is to lend to the Lord and if there be any truth in him he will repay it to their soul Prov. 19. 17. If we sow in the flesh the fruit of all that is but corruption but that which we sow in the soul and spirit hath his fruit to be glory and immortalitie and this is the point which we are to cleave unto and hold You know how little we bestow on spirituall uses for the soul and how much daily we spend on our bodies therefore I am an Intercessor to you for poor men made de eodem luto de 〈◊〉 imagine beseeching you that it may please you both in regard of the honour of God who made us and them to this end that we which have should doe good to them which have not and in regard of Gods Image in them of whom we should have a care and also in regard of our own duty of imploying our goods of which God hath made us Stewards and of the reward and gain which God will repay for it That therefore you would extend your liberalitie to their relief Our Doctrine is rain Deut. 32. 2. If you as barren ground drink in the rain and yeild no fruit you may fear a curse Heb. 6. 7 8. But if you yield the fruit of righteousnesse then Gods blessing in this life is still to minister food and all other things to you and at the last the end of it is everlasting life Wherefore to the end we may shew our selves not altogether earthly and carnally minded minding only earthly and bodily things and things which make only for this short life let us in the fear of God and love of our Brethren put on the tender bowels of compassion for their relief Ornaverat autem plantis Jehova Deus hortum in Hedene ab Oriente ubi collocavit hominem illum quem finxerat Gen. 2. 8. June 5. 1591. FRom the 7. verse of this Chapter unto the 18. thereof Moses as I have said before doth deliver and add a supplement unto the historie of man for having first Gen. 27. briefly dispatched the Creation of Man under these short terms Marem Foeminam creavit eum he lightly passed it over there purposing here in this place to handle it more at large and therefore he divideth the treatie here into two parts First prosecuting the Historie of Man from the 7. verse to the 18. verse and then of the Woman from thence to the end of the Chapter he left out many things there which he expresseth here As in the 7. verse he sheweth the matter of his body and the pattern after which he was made and the separate substance of his soul The manner of making of his body was as the Potters frame the vessels and the manner of making the soul was by inspiration breathing it into him Now in this verse unto the 15. verse he describeth and setteth down the place in which he was setled and from thence to the 18. verse delivereth the end to which he was made And thus are these verses touching the glosse or Commentarie of the historie of Man reserved Touching this 8. verse it consisteth of two parts 1. The first respecteth the place 2. The second the placing or bestowing man in it The place containeth three parts 1. First The kinde of place a Garden 2. Secondly The dignity of the place as I may tearm it in that it is said God planted it 3. Thirdly The scituation of the place which is also described in the 6. verses following Concerning the first of these three we see the place wherein this Creature of excellencie is to be seated we must needs conceive it to be some place of excellency meet for him and that either to be some place of pleasure within dore or else some place of pleasure without but there was no need for him to have any place of covert or defence within because there was no such distemperature of aire then but that they might well enough yea best of all endure naked therefore God resolveth to appoint and prepare a meet place without Certain it is that all the Earth at that time was in comparison of this as it is now vallis lachrimarum a paradise of pleasure yet God made this paradise and speciall place of the Earth a more excellent place of pleasure than any other in so much that it farre exceeded any other place wheresoever in Earth both in pleasure and
to be understood as the Scriptures well teach us Augustine saith that the tree of life served not only ad alimenta sed etiam ad sacramenta for doubtlesse as Adam in his estate of innocency had a bodily Sabbath so therein he had a spirituall use of these trees in the mid'st of the Garden and that in this sort First for the tree of life it was not so called as if it gave life to him for God breathed that into him at the first But besides that the tree of life was a means to preserve it It was also a Symbolum and memoriall also to put him in minde to know that it was not 〈…〉 virtute arboris but vi virtute divina by which he had life at first and by which his life and length of dayes shall be continued hereafter In the middest of the Garden was the Pulpit and this is the Sermon which was preached unto him by these things which the trees did represent namely That God was his life and length of dayes 〈◊〉 30. 20. And that this gratious visitation did preserve his life Job 10. 12. As he breathed out his life into him at the first Again it did put him in minde that seeing he had received a spirituall life of immutability in esse so also he received a spirituall life of eternity in posse Therefore he had matter and just occasion of thankfulnesse for the one and of obedience for the other Adam had two things injoyned him the one was praeesse Creaturis the other subesse Creatori he had no need of a Caveat for the one for he was ready enough to govern and bear soveraignty but for his duty to God he had great need to be put in minde and for the try all and practise thereof he caused this tree of knowledge to be planted there with an inhibition not to eat of it upon pain of death which now and ever hath offended many Some wish it had not been in the Garden Others wish Adam had never tasted it But Saint Augustine saith if it were good and pleasant why should it not be there Gods purpose therefore in planting the forbidden tree was that it might be a triall of his obedience and practise of his duty that if he should continue as he might and had ability given him then he should have the greater reward afterward 〈◊〉 saith Rev. 2. 7. Vincenti dabo edere de ligno vitae in medio Paradisi Well saith St. Paul But no man can overcome except he strive first and fight the good fight 2 Tim. 2. 5. And no man that will or can strive well but he abstaineth from something 1 Cor. 9. 25. For which cause therefore that we might be rewarded it was necessary that there should be a commandement and forbidding for his abstinence that when there should be a tryall of the Tempter saying Eat of this he should strive and say I may not and so get the victory and be crowned that is eate of the tree of everlasting life and live for ever with God in Heaven On the contrary side 17. verse if in triall he should wilfully fall then for transgression the tree of life should be a tree of death Mortem morieris And the reason of this choice why God should prescribe him a law and form of obedience is because this should be primor dialis lex as one saith ut nostrum obsequi sit nostrum sapere Deut. 30. 20. This is our wisdome to know and doe that which God will have us to doe if God give a Law at large every one will consent to it As if God had said No man shall disobey or transgresse my will none will deny it But let it come to positive law and bring the triall and practise of that generall to a particular as to say I forbid and restrain this tree none shall break my will nor eat of it then is the triall of obedience indeed Object But some may say What hurt is it to know good and evill For we read Esay 7. 15. that Christ shall doe that And therefore it is no sinne Resp. I answer that God forbiddeth not to eat the fruit nor that he would have us ignorant of that knowledge quam quis quaerit a Deo sed quam quis quaerit a seipso And no doubt Adam had the knowledge both of good and evill per intelligentiam si non per experientiam And he knew how to choose the one and to refuse the other to pursue the one and to fly from the other he understood it then but when he would know both by experience Gen. 3. 6. He could not see why God should forbid him and therefore the Tempter taking occasion by it made him make an experiment of it This is the cause then why at last Adam came to know evill by sense and experience and saw to his shame what evill was for to take he knew and confessed by experience that bonum erat adhaerere Deo as the Prophet saith Jer. 2. 19. And now he knew by tast how bitter a thing it was to forsake the Lord And that he knew it appeareth Gen. 3. 8. by hiding himself for fear he shewed that he knew it when he did feel ante-ambulatores mortis which is sorrow and sicknesse and when he saw the Statute of death that now it must necessarily come to him and all his posterity to dye the death then he knew evill by wofull experience You see the cause of the Law and of his sinne of good and evill it remaineth that we believe Adam in his knowledge and in his experience both of good and evill For by his good lost we come to the knowledge of the means by which our good may be lost that is if we seek to satisfie our lusts and curiously not contented with the open knowledge of his revealed will shall try conclusions with God and say what if we should break the Law Wherefore abandoning these faults which by experience we see were the cause of evill in him it behoveth us to receive more thankfully of God the good things we have and live obediently resting on the Sonne of God for good things to come And so at last Christ will be unto us the tree of eternal life hereafter as we have made him the tree of knowledge wisdome and sanctification to us in this life Fluvius autem procedit ex Hedene ad irrigandum hunc hortum inde sese dividit ferturque in quatuor capita Primi nomen est Pischon hic est qui alluit totam Regionem Chavilae ubi est aurum Et aurum illius Regionis praestans ibidem est Bdellium lapis Sardonyx Gen. 2. 10,11,12 June 10. 1591. THe verse going before containeth as we have seen the planting of the Garden and the devise of God framed and set in the middest of Paradise which is a plain resemblance of all Divinity both touching our duty in knowledge and
6. 〈◊〉 fides patientia integritas For if we so fear that we have faith and hope in Gods mercy and patiently endure as Christ did not digressing from righteousnesse for all the troubles of this life As these things in our hearts move well or stand still on earth so doe these four Beasts and streams in heaven move and flow to us or stand still from yeelding us any comfort Thus doth Augustine and Ambrose make a profitable resemblance and comparison between these things on earth and that which is in heaven that it may be a course to lead us to Paradise above Accipiens itaque Jehovah Deus hominem collocavit ipsum in horto Hedenis ad colendum eum ad custodiendum eum Gen. 2. 15. June 15. 1591. AT the eight verse before as ye remember we said that Moses did first deliver the Treatie of the place of Paradise which now he hath ended And now he intendeth to set down the manner of his placing and imploying him in that place His placing is set down here in two points 1. First By shewing us the place from whence God took him Secondly the place to which he brought him 2. Then he sheweth us that the things in which he was imployed were double 1. First in regard of his body He was enjoyned the duty of labour as is shewed in this 15. verse 2. Secondly In regard of his soul the duty of Obedience In the two next verses the Fathers term them Cultura horti Cultus Dei. We must begin with his placing Touching which first he telleth us that God took him from another place before he brought him to this If we ask from whence God took him We are to understand that he was taken out of the common of the World as when he had transgressed the commandement he was cast out into the wide world again Gen. 3. 23. The Prophet Esay seemeth to tell us that it is a very profitable meditation to look back into the former place and estate from whence we were taken Esay 51. 1. So did Anna in the old Testament I Sam. 2. 8. and Mary in the new Testament Luke 1. 52. in their several songs God doth raise the base from the dunghill and set them with the Princes of his People Psal. 113. 7. Joseph was taken from the Dungeon and prison Psal. 105. 17. and brought from thence to be chief Ruler in Egypt Moses was a mighty man and of great personage yet if we consider from whence he came we shall see he was taken out of the water Exod. 2. 5. c to his great honour and renown Gideon was taken from the flayle Judg. 6. 11. Saul with a naile in his purse and from seeking his Fathers 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 9. 1 2 c. David from the 〈◊〉 Psal. 78. 70 71. with divers others in the like sort the particulars would be over-tedious to recite This then being Gods course in Adam at the first from basenesse to honour from the wilde field to Paradise So ever after he used the same order in his posterity and therefore will have men consider and confesse their unde from whence they come So the old Church were bound to acknowledge their unde and to say Deut. 26. 5. My Father was a poor Syrian ready to perish with bunger and was after in cruel bondage in Egypt c. and from that poor and miserable estate the Lord brought us into Canaan c. This then kindly worketh in us the conceit of humility to consider and remember that first Man was a companion to Beasts both in the same common matter and place untill Good took and brought him into a more excellent place As we have spoken of the place from whence so now of the place to which he was brought That was Paradise wherein we must note that God brought him not thither only to shew it him that he might see it 1 King 8. 9. but that he might inhabite it enjoy it possesse and exercise himself in it to which he seemeth to have relation in the 10. Psal. 14. which proveth that Adam was not there natus sed positus nor thereof Dominus sed Colonus and he had it not by inheritance but by Deed of Gift not naturâ sed gratiâ he was not a Citizen but a Denizen he was a Proselite brought in thither from some other place 2. The second word was posuit as who would say Man was not able to put in himself he could not come thither alone but it was a thing supernatural even a speciall grace of God who put him in this place not mans natural wit or industry Wherefore this being a shadow and resemblance of Heaven it is sure that whatever we say it is not our merit or worthinesse our wit or any thing else which can bring us thither but only the free grace of God which as it teacheth us humblenesse in regard of our unde so it teacheth us thankfulnesse in regard of our quo whither that is Paradise a place full of all pleasant and profitable things and our thankfullnesse must be with trembling and fear Psal. 2. 11. Quoniam qui potuit poni potuit deponi qui potuit ferre potuit etiam auferre as he did indeed 3. The third point is his ut that is the cause and end for which God took him from the World and put him into Paradise which was to 〈◊〉 him some service both in dressing and keeping the Garden as also in doing homage unto him that he might know that he was but a servant in Paradise and had a Lord and Master Paramount farre above him and therefore that it was his duty to be carefull and thankfull to God for his benefits Also this labor was imposed him that he might understand that this Paradise was not an estate and place of his rest and all happinesse to be looked for but rather a place of strife Rev. 2. 7. which when he had performed at last he should be crowned with this end which is double and containeth the two vocations of every man The one respecting the Common-wealth The other God in his holy Church Touching the first which is set down in this verse concerning bodily labour there are two questions to be inquired of the one of Adam the other of Paradise Object The question concerning Adam is Why God should 〈◊〉 him to such labour seeing God purposed to place him in a most happy estate for it might seem a thing very inconvenient to impose labour to him which might marre and hinder all the felicitie and happinesse spoken of before Resp. For answer to that It is true which St. Augustine saith that indeed if we mean Laboriosum laborem it would have been a prejudice and let to his happinesse But if by this is understood only such a pleasant labor and exercise of body in which a man taketh more delight and comfort than by sitting still then we
he did now For as the Angells which though they were unmarried yet notwithstanding did fall and not keep their first estate So no doubt the Divell would have been as strong in his delusions to have made him to fall as he was in deceiving his wife we may therefore lay the fault of this finne upon Eve or the Divell for as St. James saith Jam. 1. 14. It was not so much any outward occasion as his inward and corrupt concupifcence which made him to sinne But be it that she was the cause of fall yet from whence then came that occasion of evill to him Non'e e latere viri why then out of himself came all this cause of sinne But if any shall complain yet further of the womans hurt and fault let us know that this woman was made by the counsell of God the means and occasion by which amends was made and that with advantage for the evill for all the evill which she had first done for as she brought forth sinne and death so she was a means to bring forth a holy seed which should bring eternall righteousnesse and life unto all for as the Serpent should deceive the woman So it was Gods purpose that the seed of the 〈◊〉 should destroy the Serpent and his works wherefore we must not so much with grief marvail that the womans sinne was made the occasion of all our misery as with joy and comfort to wonder that God made the seed of the woman to save us from sinne and to bring us to 〈◊〉 And thus much for the resolution of these two doubts Now for the second part we see that after deliberation God cometh to this determination and saith Faciam adjutricem where we may mark that God saith not fiat as when he made other Creatures but faciam which is a word of advisement and wise deliberation whereas fiat is a word of haste and expedition to be presently done without delay which almighty God doth to put us in minde that when we goe about to get our selves wives or to give our children in marriage that we must not 〈◊〉 about it rashly or suddenly to post up such matters on the sudden but with great discretion wise advice and consultation to attempt so weighty a matter that is first by considering whether it be good or no for us that a match should be made Again seeing it is plain that God only is the giver of good and meet marriages and wives we learn that therefore it is our duty when we lack this help to pray earnestly unto God that it would please him to say unto us as he said unto Adam I will make a meet help for 〈◊〉 For want of observing which rules in 〈◊〉 it often cometh to passe that very unmeet matches and marriages hath been in the world and foul corruptions and abhominable abuses have crep into this holy ordinance to the slander and disgrace thereof for this is set down as the chiefest cause of all the monstrous sinnes of the first age of the world Gen 6. 2. Because the sonnes of God looking upon the daughters of men took them wives according to their own fancies that is rashly and headily without advice and deliberation and they took them at the first sight as pleased themselves and did not crave of God to give them such as might please him Micholl Davids wife is said to be a wife of Saules making and giving and therefore because God made not the match and marriage between them she was not a meet help but a snare to intangle him And so God doth threaten Joshua 23. 12 13. verses that if the Israelites doe after their own wills take unto them heathenish woman to be their wives which he had forbid they should be no helps to them but hurts namely They should be thorns to their eyes whips to their sides and snares to their feet because they doe not take wives at Gods hands that is such as he alloweth and willeth them to take Nam quum formavisset Jehova Deus è terrâ omnes bestias agri omnesque volucres coeli adduxisset ad Adamum ut videret quî vocaret singulas etenim quocunque nomine vocavit illas Adam animantem quamque id nomen ejus est Gen. 2. 19. Octob. 16 1591. THese words contain the occasion of the former deliberation for that there might be an orderly proceeding it was necessary that man being alone and wanting a meet help which was good for him therefore that first a generall view and survey might be taken of all the Creatures which God had made to see whether amongst so many millions of goodly creatures some one might be found for Adam to be a meet mate for him and then if the man should not finde any one fit for him God might proceed in his former purpose in making one woman meet for his company In these words therefore we have first to consider Gods commission and warrant for the ministring and bringing together all the creatures before the man Secondly Adams answer returned non est inventus for after his diligent search it is said he found no meet help for the first because it is Gods royall prerogative to cause all the creatures to make their appearance at a certain place and time which man of himself might not presume to take upon him therefore God giveth over his right by a letter of Attourny and dedimus potestatem to Adam by which he might lawfully both take a streight survey of them all and also impose names to every one of them as he pleaseth which see that this writ and warrant is given out to all the living creatures here below saving unto fishes the reason whereof is because that if there were any likelyhood at all that man might finde a meet companion and mate for himself any where then it must needs be amongst one of these two kinds of creatures either amongst beasts of the field or fowls of the aire for there be some agreement and conformity between man and beasts and birds naturally but none at all between the fish and us the beasts as we have seen are made of the same mould and matter which we are made of and the fishes were made of the slyme of the waters and not of slyme of the earth Secondly because they have naturally divers notes and voices as well as man but the fish are mute and dumb and therefore unmeet for our company Thirdly beasts and birds doe feed on earthly things as we and breathe and live in the same aire and place which we doe and doe delight naturally in the sight and company of man and easily will be made tame sociable and serviceable for man whereas è contra the fish neither feed nor breathe as we doe they cannot live in the same place and element which we doe but are as it were inhabitants of another world below us and besides this they will by no means be made tame and
womans creation before and shewed Gods bringing them together and joyning them in marriage Now in these words he goeth forward and sheweth what liking he had of her and also what name and title he gave unto her for so in his speech we are to consider his affection and her name which is here expressed before in the 19. and 20. verses We have seen that Adam seeking and searching among all the Creatures of God could finde no meet help or Companion for him for he saw only muta bruta versuta that is brutish things without reason speech or any other resemblance or likeness to him But now he awaking suddenly out of sleep and but one only creature being brought to him he at the first sight perceiving her both in nature body and minde to be most like unto him seemeth with the joy of a Bridegroom to say why this is mine own self one even after my heart and desires even another new Adam saving for the sex This may seem to be his confession at the first sight when he had found her In which confession is expressed his joy and affection towards her as it may appear in the emphasis of this word jam nunc for so we shall see it often in the Scriptures for a note of some joy or gladness conceived within So it is Gen. 29. 32. Now my husband will love me likewise 35. verse Now I will praise the Lord c. In which words Leah sheweth her joyfull affection at the birth of Juda and Levi besides the utterance of the words doe argue her rejoysing for we may observe in the former verse that whereas not his placing and pleasu in Paradise not the presence or enjoying of the Tree of life nor any else which he saw there could make him open his lipps to talk of it as not being much moved or delighted with them yet now as soon as ever he seeth and enjoyeth her presence and person he could not contein but breaketh out into this triumph of joy and love as who should say I doe not esteem and take any such love or comfort in the pleasures or treasures of Paradise nor in the Lordship of the Creatures nor in the possession of the whole earth nor all that is therein as now I doe in the presence and possession of this Woman which God in singular love and of his speciall grace hath given to me In which he teacheth us nothing else but that which Salomon saith of a good and virtuous wife Pro. 19. 14. riches lands and possessions may men give us or may fall to us by inheritance sed mulier intelligens est denum dei q.d. she is farre more precious than all things and most worthy to be esteemed which we see is most plainly found in Adam in this place who could not be drawn to such a joyfull speech untill now Because all the things in Paradise were small joy or comfort to him so long as he was in solitariness and wanted the companion of his life If we look into the nature of these words 〈◊〉 and bone we shall see that by them are fitly expressed the two ends for which woman was made for by this phrase he signifieth that if she was of him of the substance of his flesh and bone so was she made for him to be as helpfull and as necessarie for his good as his flesh and bone The bones of men as we know are the strength and props to uphold the body so should there be an ability and strength in the woman to help and sustain the man and his 〈◊〉 And as this is the help of society so as she is flesh she is as good a help and means to beare children to the man which is said to arise out of the nature of the flesh John 1. 13. for all Adams sonnes are born after the will of the flesh and to this end God hath placed delight and pleasure in the flesh which is called the 〈◊〉 of the flesh John 1. 16. So that the end of the womans creation 〈…〉 ad problem And thus much of the speech as it 〈◊〉 her denomination in which we may see that God doth not give him the honor only to give names to other Creatures which were made to be his servants but also he giveth him leave to impose a name to his wife which is after a sort equal to himself In which denomination he doth communicate and impart his own name unto her and would have her to wear a part of his own name by which she may be known to be his own which custome we see is yet 〈◊〉 and continued amongst the children of Adam yea even amongst the heathen whose saying was to them whom they vowed to make their wife ubi ega sum Caius tu eris Caia that is thou shalt be intituled and endowed first with mine owne name So we see that after the Wedding in which the wife is brought and given to the man her name is for ever eclipsed as our Law saith and she must shine by her husbands name and the giving this name to her doth not only argue a propriety and right in her but also a sovereignty and power over her as her head which also is manifested in this that she was not only made ex eo sed propter eum she was not only brought ad eum but also had her name de eo which four prepositions propter ad ex de are four strong arguments to prove her subjection Again we see that Adam giveth her not every name by which he was called But his speciall and chiefest names is Ish out of which the name Ishah which is woman This his name Ish is a name of dignitie and honour which as some say is taken for the word Jashah which signifieth he is the Monarch and only Ruler of all Gods Creatures wherefore if Adam was preferred to this title of honour to be a King then he will impart it to his wife and make her as Queen and Empress with him We may read in the Scripture this note of difference touching his names being diversly applied for Ben Ish which is filius hominis is spoken in honor of those that are the best and excellent men But Ben Adam which is fillius Adam implieth the common and basest for Adam is a name of humility to put him in minde of the matter he was made of but Ish is a name of nobility to shew him Gods mercy in exalting him on earth But we shall best conceive what Adam meant in naming her thus by the reason which he rendred by calling her so Quia sumpta erat ex viro which is as if he had said this is the cause why I would have her called so because in this name all may see the wonderfull work of God in making her so and that all may know I love thee as my self therefore this shall be thy name To conclude concerning this name we must note that
speech in the 5. verse is rugitus Leonis in which he bewraieth himself at the full of which two the first is but introduction to the other mischief insuing For this is not the least policy of the Devill not to set upon her bluntly But like a Serpent slily and slowly to creep in her by little and little untill he hath espied some vantage Therefore his order is to bring her from questioning in talk to a doubt in opinion and from that to an error in judgement and so at last to a corrupt action in practise and to corrupt her minde within first he useth this order to tickle her eares with curiosity and by that to cause her to have a giddyness and swimming in the brain by fantasticall imaginations and surmizes and then to make her secure and careless of the truth and so at last maketh her somewhat inclineable to error and falsehood Now let us come to the particular word of God which the Devill in his dialogisme doth mean to intreat of which we see is that which is set down Gen. 2. 16. 17. In propounding of which we may consider how craftily and corruptly he dealeth with the sacred word of God to make it the better serve his turn in the temptation for he pareth off all that might make against him and instead of that putteth in by addition more than ever God spake that so it may be the fitter for his purpose he leaveth out first both all that went before and that which is after the Commandement that is he keepeth from her the consideration of Gods love and liberality which is in the 16. verse which was set to urge and induce them to willing obedience and also he 〈◊〉 off the consideration of Gods severe judgements which was set after to keep them by fear from disobedience If we shall compare this also with that originall in the 16. and 17. verses before we shall see how he depraveth and corrupteth the text for whereas it is said precipit Jehova the Devill doth extenuate it and saith dixit Deus q.d. If he did say it he did but speak it by way of talk as if he would not urge it for any matter of weight and importance Thus we see the Devills subtilty and sophistrie in disputing and the Devills Rhetorick in propounding this question the end of all which is either to make them doubt or at least to set light by the commandement of God Though he seemeth to give her good counsell and to advise her as a friend to consider of this thing more seriously for the bettering her estate yet his intent is at least to leave a scruple in her minde The chiefest poison that is hid in this dialogisme is in the interrogation cur or quare or as some will have it ne by which he demandeth whether it be so indeed said so It is scarce credible that God which maketh shew of favouring you should so hardly deal with you as to impose so hard a Law as this is and withall this his speech is so cunningly devised that it enforceth by way of insinuation a doubt and diffidence 〈◊〉 her thus q.d. Surely I for my part can hardly be induced to beleeve that God would enjoyn you such a Law I see no reason why it should be so By all which we see how he teacherh and bringeth her on to doubt and waver Last of all it is a flattering and cogging kinde of speech q.d. Though I may erre and be deceived being your poorest and simplest Servant yet you my Ruler whom God hath made wise as an Angell to judge uprightly of all things may happily conceive more of this matter than I can And withall it is a kinde of cunning to curry and keep in favour with her whatsoever effect the temptation should take for if she should have misliked of his speech he could have excused himself thus alas I made but a bare motion I neither affirmed it nor durst deny it but according to my simplicity asked the question and therefore I trust you will have me excused Tum dixit mulier Serpenti illi c. Gen. 3. 2. Novemb. 〈◊〉 1591. WE have seen before what the Devils Rhetorick and Sophistry is in his deceivable Dialogues both to bring a wavering doubt into her minde and at last to bring Gods holy word in discredit and contempt all which vile and blasphemous things if the Devill had said to Adam no doubt he would have dealt wisely as a Serpent with this wyly and wicked Serpent for he would have either stopped his eares and abhorred to hear the deceitfull words of this inchanting charm or else he would have shaked him off with apage as Christ did Matth. 4. 10. and said avant Satan get thee hence c. And so it may be thought to have been the greatest wisedome either to give him no eare or no answer or else a sharp check or reproof for these wicked tempting words This we may conjecture that the Man would or might have done but let us see what the Woman answered unto him in this verse In which we have two things to consider before we come to the effect of her answer First we gather that in this estate of Innocency the Woman was not afraid of the Serpent but without fear durst see a Serpent approach to her and speak unto him for as all things were subject to mankind as their Lord and Sovereign so Adam as we have heard Genesis 2. 23. made Eve Mistriss and Lady to rule with him and therefore all Creatures as yet stood in a reverend awe of them and they were without any fear of them at all for fear came into our nature with sinne but as yet there was no sinne and therefore no fear Again as yet there was no war proclaimed between the seed of the woman and the Serpent and therefore no cause why they should fear one another The other thing is that as she was not moved at the sight of the Serpent so no more was she astonished to hear the Serpent speak she knew no doubt that it was not naturall to Serpents so to speak but she knew not or at least considered not well who it was that spoke in him What then was there ignorance in Eve in the state of Innocency I answer that no doubt there was both in Adam and Eve the ignorance which is called Nescientia but not that which is properly termed Ignorantia The difference between Ignorance and Nescience for this is the difference between these two Ignorantia is a not knowing of such things which we are bound and ought necessarily to know and this kinde we say was not in them for it is an evill imperfection in whomsoever it is because as Salomon saith in 19. Prov. 2. without this knowledge which is absolutely necessary the soule of man is not good therefore we hold that they had given them a full and perfect measure of knowledg of Gods will so
holy laws that seeing their sinne against God they might confesse it so have pardon and forgiveness For it is not in Gods Court as it is in the Courts of men where the way to confess the fault and fact is the way to be condemned but with God the only way to be absolved and acquitted from sin is truly and unfainedly to confess our sins unto him this is the end why God in mercy doth send to them the opening of their eyes that they might see their sin it began to prevail that we may see the effect it had of them for though as yet the nobleness of their nature was such that they feared nor for there was yet no fear to them yet we see they were ashamed by it were driven to seek a covering to hide that shame with all but that effect of their seeing and shame was not good for whereas it should have made them return penitently to God from sin which was so shamefull they instead of turning to their own hearts and to God doe run to the figge tree leaves to make them coverings withall and so this Counsell of God in sending their signe was disanulled and perverted from turning to God to stepping to the figge tree And so whereas God appointed and sent the opening of their eyes for their good and conversion the Devill doth cause it by this means to turn to their greater destruction By which we see how the Devill and sin doth infatuate men and make them foolish and ignorant how to doe that which should be for their good and salvation but as the Prophet saith Jer. 4. 22. The Devill and sin whetteth their wits making them very sharpe wise to doe evill to hinder their salvation and to make them coverings and excuses to conceale cloak and colour their sin withall at this we are very good and have a present invention to coynelyes and excuses but we are dull and blockish to prevent the danger which sin doth bring This practise of the Serpent we see in this in that Adam goeth not to a tree of small or narrow leaves which were not fit for his purpose but to the figge tree which in that country as Pliny reporteth have leaves instar peltae Amazonum as broad as a Target and therefore most meete to make a covering withall Then besides their present sharpness in choosing the fittest matter to make this covering we 〈◊〉 in the next place their ingenious art and invention in that on such a suddain without study they are able to sowe and peice them together so that they did serve insteed of breeches to hide that nakednesse withall this we are able to doe of our own natural inclination sine Magistro which disposition of our corrupt nature we see by experience in all men even untill this day for doe we not see wicked men given over to all evill which in any good matters are very dull blockish and in Religion very senselesse and rude yet in this to be very ingenious and witty to invent divers excuses to hide and colour their sinnes withall herein their wit and art never faileth them but ever serveth them well wherefore of us may the Prophet also say Jer. 4. 22. they are wise to doe evill but to doe well they have no understanding The second default that Adam and Eve made in this was that the devill taketh up the whole roome of their hearts with the care and consideration of their bodily defects not regarding the spiritual nakedness and shame of their faults The third is in that they seeing their nakedness doe not seeke to take away the cause of the shame of their sinne but the effect which is their nakednesse and shame which is as if a man seeing and knowing himselfe to be sick should not seeke to remove the cause of his disease but the Symptomata and outward accidents thereof as if a man should only be carefull to take away the pimples of his face which are but outward accidents of his disease and never regard to remove the heat of the Liver which is the inward cause thereof and this is the third offence quia dolebat cur abat dedecus peccati non peccatum his care was only to be rid and acquitted of the shame of sinne and not of sinne it self Fourthly if this nakednesse which they see be so evill and so odious then this also is another fault of theirs quia nolunt tollere sed tegunt eam for indeed their desire should not be so much to cover as to care it but their care è contra is non curare sed velare and this is the nature of men now a daies in their distresses to seeke involucra non remedia that is maskes to cover and hide not meanes to care and remedy their soul offences The last and sift is that vanity of this covering of the fig tree leaf for as Saint Ambrose saith Wilt thou needes have a covering of thine owne seeking and making to hide thy sinfull nakednesse then thou art foolish and mad to goe to the fig-tree for leaves thou shouldest rather have gone to the Rocks and Mountains and cryed to them Cover us Ose 10. 8. for they are thicker and more able to cover or if thou wilt needes have it of leaves why wentst thou not to the Tree of Life whose leaves are said Revel 22. 2. to serve for medicine to cure and heale withall ☜ This then was another fault in that they rather went not to the Tree of mercy Christ Jesus but to their own Tree of hypocrisie or why went they not to the Olive Tree because that seemeth to be a tree of mercy Gen. 8. 11. for the Dove bringing a branch of that shewed that Gods anger was appeased and was a signe of mercy or else why did they not make a covering of that of which the mercy fear was made One of the Fathers saith I have heard indeede Esay 38. 21. that a cluster of figges had a virtue to cover heale but as for the leaves of that tree they quickly fade and fall away to nothing Esay 34. 4. or though the substance of the leaf could endure yet the thread wherewith they are sewed together would not hold but be broken when God doth teare them off the 13. of Ezekiel the 20. and the 21. and then where will be their covering which they have made But of all the rest the greatest fault of all was in that they rested quietly and securely in this vain covering which they had made saying pax pax tush all is well enough we are safe and neede not feare and in this secure carelesnesse they continued untill the evening This made St. Augustine say I suspect this garment and covering for it seemeth to be a fit reward for their eating the forbidden fruit that after they had eaten that fruit they should have for their labor a handfull of fig-leaves What fruit had you of your sin whereof
naked and you cannot deny but that you informed your selfe with that knowledge of evill and it is plaine that there is none in all the world which hath taught or told you so therefore I conclude against you that there was no way for you to know this but only by eating of the forbidden Tree of knowledge whereof I therefore challenge and charge you These then are the two points of proceeding That there be a state of the question in controversy made drawing it to an issue and then that there be proofes and arguments brought to convince the falshood and to shew the truth that so controversies may be justly determined as wee may see in this Case which is brought in tryall here Adam saiththat hee did flie and hide himself indeed but the motives and causes which induced him to doe it and the reasons why he did it were because Gods voice was so fearfull and because God had made him naked Now God joyneth with him in the point and will prove that it was not Gods workmanship nor his voyce but Adams own sinne which was the true cause of his flight and hiding So in Acts 24. 14. S. Paul being arraigned and indicted before Foelix hee doth not absolutely deny the matter which they layed against him but confesseth how farre hee is guilty and in what respect he is not saying I confesse that I worship God after that manner which they lay against me and call Heresie but it is not Heresie let them prove that and I will yeeld for it is according to the Scriptures Thus he shewed how far he did that they accuse him of and how far he will 〈◊〉 and shew good reason that he did not so as they charged him falsly that so the matter in Controversie before the Judge might grow to an issue and point agreed upon between them and that the state of the question might bee known truly unto all There be two things therefore to be performed on both parties in strife which the Judge must take order for that the matter may be decided The one is called Citatio realis The other is probatio realis and both of them are most necessarily required adcognitionem rei for they must not only be caused to appeare before the Judge but also when they have made their appearance they must not stand dumb and speechlesse before the Judge but both speak and declare for themselves And we may see it warrantable by Gods word and the practise of the Church that not only a party may be caused to witness a truth before the Judge for or against his neighbour in a matter doubtfull and that upon his oath as we may see Leviticus the fifth chapter and the fourth verse and the first of Kings the eighteenth chapter and the tenth verse but also in the clearing of himself being suspected as we see Jeremiah the thirty sixt chapter and the seventeenth verse Acts the twenty third chapter and the twentieth verse yet there are exceptions to be taken in this matter as we see Jeremiah the thirty eighth chapter and the fourteenth verse when the King would bring Jeremie to examination in a matter that concerned himself Jeremie made his exception If I confess and tell all wilt thou not kill me for if the matter be capitall and concern mans life he will not to indanger his own life answer no to the King and the reason why a man in that case should not be bound to be a witness against himself is because the Devill saith Job the second chapter and the fourth verse A skin for a skin a man will doe or say any thing to save his life and therefore no reason to urge a man so hardly in so high and capitall a point But in other cases which only concern the loss of goods or a matter of some punishment and mulct a man must not refuse to answer and that upon his oath and this we see also warranted even by this judgment of God And so consequently all these actions in our course of judgment being laid to this rule of Gods first judgment and the proceeding of justice being weighed in this balance in the twenty eighth chapter of Isaiah and the seventeenth verse that is all things being done uprightly agreeable to this pattern of Gods proceeding we may be sure that it is good lawfull and just Cui dixit Adam Mulier ista quam posuisti mecum ipsa dedit mihi de fructu illius arboris comedi Gen. 3. 12. February 10. 1591. ALmighty God having in the former out of Adams own mouth and confession in his answer joyned issue with him upon the discoverie of his nakedness and upon it so effectually concluding his sinne and transgression which he could by no means avoid or dissemble any longer therefore here we shall see how he is inforced to confess it which confession of his as St. Gregarie saith whereas it should have been such as might have made an end of all and procured a pardon but saith he I would it were not such as maketh him more culpable and his sinne more hainous for we shall see and finde that this his confession needeth a pardon as well as his transgression for it is a confession extorted and wrung out of him whereas if it had been done willingly and of his own accord it had been far better and more acceptable In the tenth verse before Adam did offend as we saw in his Apologie defending his sinne now being beaten from that hold he fleeth to his Castle of excuses and as his defence stood in two points quia nudus qui aaudivi vocem so his excuse also consisteth of two points God and the Woman for saith he the Woman which thou gavest me gave me of the apple and I did eat that is as it is not simple so it is not sincere For Pride as we said hath two twins the first is before the act of sinne before the fall namely to desire to be better than they are and to be in higher estate than God hath placed them The other after the fall namely a desire not to seem so ill as they are indeed Arrogantiae est tumor in tremore Humilitas tumor in timore The first is Arrogancy This is Hypocrisie both the whelps of pride and vain glory which at last turneth to shame But the last is so much worse than pride because it is tumor in timore it is as much as to be proud when one is at the lowest and so to life up himself which is most unseemly That reall Hypocrisie in action of which we have spoken before consisted in two points In volucro in latibulo So here now we may see a double verball hypocrisie in tongue and speech That is if there be any good thing praise worthy that we must have ascribed wholly to us but if any evill thing be apparant that must be put as farre from us as may be Before his
recoverie and amendment But for him that was so indurate in malice that to his power exalting himself to be like God added this malicious and envious seeking of the fall of others there was no hope either of pardon from God or of amendment in him for when Christ came into the world he said to Christ Quid nobis tibi there was no hope of him being in the state of a Rebell and so the seeking of the examination and tryall of him as of the other would not avail Now to the first part that is the Reason In which we are to consider this Why God begins not absolutely Maledictus es but Maledictus quia and so renders a reason why he is accursed so executes the sentence though not judicially according to course of Law yet justly that the mouth of all the world might be stopped and that the infernall spirits themselves might be enforced to acknowledge that the Lord is righteous and his judgements just Psal. 119. 137. That the judgement is just though the tryall hold not the reason is quia fecisti hoc he was the doer of that and was the contriver of the platform of that act and therefore God begins with him wherein as the ancient Fathers note God would have us to observe two senses first the sense of the emphasis and the second of difference For the emphasis Gods meaning is because thou hast done this quia fecisti hoc that is that thou hast overthrown Man for whom all things were created and consequently so much as in thee lay hast sought to overthrow my determinate Councell and to bring to naught all that I have made therefore thou art cursed for doing this Then for as much as we see this emphasis of Heaven and Earth it should make us consider the greatnesse of sinne which moved the son of God not only to take our flesh but to shed his blood also even for this hoc That men would remember when they sin that they are about a hoc that brought all the curses which followed after that therefore they should not make a light accompt of it reckoning it a small matter but to reckon of sinne as God quare 〈◊〉 hoc And as it serves by way of vehemencie to aggravate the offence of the offence so it serveth for distinction As if God should say another thing Thou hast done but because thou hast done this therefore the sentence is come upon thee Thou thoughtest in thy self to make thy self equall with God Isay 14. and because thou hast done that that is come upon thee which Christ saith Matth. 25. Ever lasting fire is prepared for thee But now because thou wast not content with that but hast mingled poyson whereby thou hast venomed and poysoned others because thou hast been an homicide for that is his second fault John 8. 44. there is thy punishment for doing this Now we see the ground of Gods proceeding with him The sentence in it self consists of four parts which we reduce to these two one concerns himself the other us That which respects him is in this verse that which concerns us is in the next The first is threefold First That he is cursed above all Cattel and above all the Beasts of the field Secondly That he shall goe and creep upon his belly Thirdly He shall eat the dust of the Earth Wherein as in the beginning generally so here in special you are to consider the Analogie of every part of his punishment First then he is maledictus and the reason is quia maledixerat maledictio doth in justice befall him quia loquutus est malè as you may see in the five verses before not that God had done it but it came of himself for he had defamed God speaking evill of God great reason it is then that evill speech should befall him So there is an equality between the Devils sinne and his punishment Now in regard of the second which is in the 15. verse That he should goe upon his bellie for as much as he doth take upon him to exalt himself Isay 14. And for that he tells Eve If yee eat of it eritis sicut Dii therefore he is cast down the proportion to him that will flie is by the contrary to creep not to goe on his leggs but on his bellie So the Serpent because he would flie up into the highest place is made to creep on his bellie So the second part of the Sentence stands with equity As also the third for his temptation was that they should eat of the forbidden fruit now cibi prohibita poena is that he that lusts after that he should not eat shall be forced to eat that he would not as Augustine saith In Psal. 106. they that long for meat which they ought not to desire shall be punished with eating that which their soul most abhorreth that is for the equity kept in the three branches of this Sentence Concerning the Serpent himself In the first branch which is thou art cursed are two points very necessary to be considered First That God saith Maledictus es and not Maledictus sis for thereby God plainly sheweth that it comes not from him but from the Serpent for then he would have said Maledictus sis but it is Maledictus es shewing that the Serpents curse comes from himself So all the curses miseries and calamities of this world and torments of the world to come proceed not from him but from himself as Job calls them sparks Job 5. 7. So they are the very sparks of the fire of concupiscence of sinne that is kindled in us as also the Prophet saith the fruit and crop of that seed of sinne is calamitie and miserie Hos. 10. 13. which was is and ever shall be the fruit of it therefore called the Revenues of sinne Prov. 12. 16. and the wages of sinne Rom. 6. that is there was an evill in him first to speak evill of that partie in whom was noe evill and so malum ad se malum trahit one evil brings another the Serpents evil speaking is the cause that evill is spoken of him for that is it that makes the difference as Pro. 26. 2. there is a curse that is causlesse and that shall return upon himself as Shemeis curse against David 2 Sam. 16. So should the curse of Balaam if he had cursed the People of God but he was wiser and said How shall I cursewhere the Lord blesseth but it is otherwise when Noah a just man 〈◊〉 Canaan Gen. 9. And when Elisha cursed the Children that called him baldhead 2 Reg. 24. they were cursed indeed for when it is a just curse and hath root in 〈◊〉 es then it takes place for we see there was a maledictio in those persons whom Noah and Elisha cursed they had spoken evill before and therefore evill is spoken of them for one evill is a loadstone or jet stone to draw another evill It is that which Jerome notes upon 1
of the one Psalm 104 15. So long as Adam was obedient unto God the earth yeelded all aboundance without travell of it self for thorns there grew firre trees for nettles the myrrhe tree as it is Isaiah 55. 13. then was the earth a kinde and fruitfull Mother but by this course of mans disobedience the earth is become a Step-mother and without labour she yeeldeth 〈◊〉 sustenance yet for all mans labour it may yeeld barrenness according to Jeremie 12. 13. they have sowed wheat and reaped thorns they have no profit of their labour because of Gods anger Upon the Malediction of the earth followeth a necessary consequence of mans labour for if the earth that was blessed before the 12. of the 1. Chapter is here cursed for mans sinne the fruitfulness must be recovered by mans labour so that labour is a consequence of the earths Curse Three things in the Curse And in this Curse we observe these three things First the earth cursed First the earth it self is cursed In the 1. Chapter God said that the earth should yeeld hearbs with seed and trees with fruit of it self it was so there was fertility and fecundity by Gods breathing that in the Scriptures is called a blessed field wherein is plenty If man had stood upright there should have been plenty without pain taking yet man should not have been idle there should have been labour with pleasure but sinne hath made it with pain The staffe of bread should have indured but God will break the staffe of their bread Leviticus 26. 26. There shall be no more plenty but penurie and of it self germinabit spinas tribulos it shall bring forth weeds thorns and thistles and in aboundance Secondly the Cause The second thing is the Cause of the Curse for thy sake In the 3. of Habakkuk 8. The question is whether God were angrie against the Rivers the Floods and the Sea as much to say they have not offended Here the earth hath done no offence it was not cursed for it self non in se sed propter te in quantum maledicta fuit propter te It is all one to the earth in regard of it self whether it be barren or fruitfull for when it doth fructifie it is not for it self it is insensible of punishment but it is all for mans sake Man is as the great Sphear the primum mobile to the other Creatures his obedience to God drawes the obedience of Plants Trees Beasts and all the Elements unto him 〈◊〉 during his obedience all Creatures are serviceable unto him but afterwards the earth was unkinde and as he moves all Creatures move with him if he move against God all move against him The originall world of mans integrity was a Mirrour for the ancient Fathers are of minde that the Sun was more clear the waters more pleasant the earth more fruitfull all things more perfect then all the trees of the field did clap their hands as it is the fifty fifth of Esay the twefth verse But man changing all was turned upside downe all things were changed the Sunne was 〈◊〉 the waters overflowed the ayre with cold pierced the earth was barren and herbs poysonsome and the one and thirtith of Job verse the fourtith requiteth that of the fifty fifth of Esay afore mentioned Thistles grew instead of wheat and cockle in stead of barley and as it is in the hundred and seventh Psalme and the thirty fourth verse God hath turned a fruitfull land into barrennesse the cause is given because of the wickednesse of the 〈◊〉 In the twenty sixth of Leviticus the eighteenth twenty fourth and twenty eighth verses God saith If they will not obey for love nor for feare hee will punish them seven times more according to their sinnes and yet seven times more then that and if for all this they will not obey him but walke stubbornly God will chastize them from seven to seven times more and still increase their punishment seven times The causes must bee distinguished the earth of it selfe before was fruitfull now of it self it is infertile because the Creature Man is subject to vanity in the eighth of the Romans and the twentieth verse and as it is in the twenty fouth of the Prov. and the thirtieth verse the field of the Sluggard is grown over with thorns and with nettles If man be sluggish the earth must be fruitless so that the earth must be laboured and that labour must be qualified the labour must be great else it brings forth the cockle for corn this is the perfection of punishment for according to the sixth of the Hebrews and the eighth verse The field that beareth thorns and thistles is neer unto cursing whose end is to be burned Thirdly Labor continued and this labour must be continued which is the third thing the continuance of it which is of three forts First It is not simple labour for a day or two but cunctis diebus vitae in youth and in age even to death as it is in the nineteenth verse In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread till thou return to earth St. Austin saith there is perpetu◠corruptio and perpetuus labor sloth is punished with continuance of labour in the second of Samuell the eleventh chapter and second verse thy idleneness fell to lust and as it is in the first to Timothie the fifth and the thirteenth idleness leadeth to all sinnes Secondly It is continued with patience what if thou labour and it bringeth forth spinas tribulos thorns and thistles yet must thou bear it and labour still in the sweat of thy face like him that planted a Vineyard with much pain and great cost and he looked it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wilde grapes and as it is in Psalm 127. the labour is in vain unless God blesse it Plenty commeth not by mans labour but by Gods mercy Vain therefore were they the first of Habakkuk the fifteenth That took fish with the angle and the net and gathered it in their yarn and when they had done did sacrifice to their net and burned incense to their yarn because by them they thought their portion was fat and their meat plentious Their labour is even nothing without Gods blessing lest as in that place of Habakkuk they should deifie their own labour though the earth be unkinde labour thou still and boast not of thy labour lest it be vain Thirdly as it is in the 10. of the Preacher the 10. If the Iron be blunt it must be whet to have an edge and if need be of a better edge then it must be whet with more strength And here if great labour will not serve greater must be added harder labour must be used it must be labor sudoris if thou wilt have hearbs for thy meat only smaler labour will serve but if thou wilt feed upon bread thou must use much labor thou must labour and sweat thy nutriment
of his sinne is dispatched in a word My sinne is greater but he takes his punishment in pieces and thinks of it particularly whereupon one saith of Cain and the wicked that the repetition which they make is eorum quae ferunt non quae fecerunt they are generall in their sinne but particular in their punishment For as of the abundanee of the heart the mouth speaketh Matthew the twelfth chapter so we may gather by Cains words that he thinks more of his punishment than of his fault that which offends him stood more in his sight and grieved him more than that which offended God but the godly are of another minde for they will be content to have the punishment remain upon them so that the guilt may be taken away But there is a third point in this repetition which is a perverting of the order which God set down in giving the Sentence God began with the curse ended with casting out of the earth but Cain beginneth with his casting out of the earth wherein he sheweth what is his greatest grief for if a man suffer many pains he will speak of that first which doth most pinch him and complain first of the losse of that thing which he doth most of all affect in that he first complaineth he is cast out from the face of the earth he sheweth he took more care for the face of the earth than the face and presence of God and it grieved him more to be deprived of the good will of men than of the favour of God It is otherwise with the Saints of God for they crie Psalm the seventy third and the twenty fift verse Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth whom I desire besides thee Psalm the 〈◊〉 third Thy kindness is better than life it self and when they come to make composition between heavenly things and earthly we see what David saith in the second of Samuel the fifteenth chapter and the twenty fift verse If I finde favour in Gods sight I will see the Ark again that is the presence of God and makes choice of that as his greatest felicity not to enjoy his Scepter or to be restored to his Wives and Children which earthly men would make most account of so the Apostle Philippians the third chapter and the eighth verse Esteeming all things as dung in respect of Christ. Whereby we see that as Cains punishment grieved him more than his sinne so the earthly part of his punishment offends him more than the heavenly One thing more is to be added that is Cains Commentary or interpretation of Maledictus for he saith that to be cursed is to be cast out from Gods presence The presence or face of God hath reference to the power of God or to his favour from the presence of Gods power knowledge or spirit there is no escaping Psalm the one hundred and thirty ninth If I climb up to heaven 〈◊〉 art there if I goe down to hell thou art there also of which the Prophet saith Jeremiah the twenty third chapter and the twenty fourth verse coelum terram ego 〈◊〉 but that is not his meaning but that he is cast out from the presence of Gods favour so are 〈◊〉 words to be taken to Moses Exodus the tenth chapter and the twenty eighth verse Get thee from me and look thou see my face no more Rsalm the thirty first and the twenty second verse I said in my half I am cast out from thy presence and Psalm the eightieth Turn again O Lord cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved so that we must know that albeit God be present every where with his power yet he is not present with his favour and not only that but it signifieth the place where the favour and grace of God is intailed that is his House and Church of which the Prophet saith Psalm the ninty fift Let us come before his presence or face with thanksgiving When shall I come and appear in the presence of God Psalm the fourty second of which presence Christ saith Matthew the eighteenth chapter When two or three be gathered together I am amongst them and the Apostle in the second to the Corinthians the second chapter In the presence of Jesus Christ forgive I them that is in the Church where God speaketh to us in his word and we again speak to him by prayer so Cains punishment is both spirituall and ecclesiasticall for that he is not only shut out of Gods favour but cast out of the place where the presence of his favour and grace is shewed and the punishment was justly inflicted upon Cain that durst commit so great an offence in the presence and sight of God and when it was committed feared not Gods presence but denyed it as if God knew not of it The second point is Cains admonition wherein the first thing to be observed is how in this repetition it comes to pass that Cain saith whosoever shall finde him will kill him seeing in the sentence there is no mention of death the reason comes from the guiltiness of his conscience severiorum seipso Judicem habet 〈◊〉 whereupon it falleth out that though the Judge absolve yet the party guilty addeth a sentence of condemnation upon himself so doth Cain condemn himself as worthy of death God indeed afterward saith He 〈◊〉 shedeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed Genesis the ninth chapter but seeing Cain 〈◊〉 God hath uttered his opinion of murther that it is a sinne mortall it may be said to him ex ore 〈◊〉 te 〈◊〉 Luke he 〈◊〉 chapter that men may know that wisedome is justified of 〈◊〉 children 〈◊〉 the eleventh chapter so 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 of her children Secondly Where he saith he shall be killed with a 〈◊〉 and bloody death this is secundum dictamen rationis ut 〈…〉 fecit expectes Cain is told by his own conscience that 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 murthered Abel so himself must look to be murthered This is that Lex 〈◊〉 written naturally in the hearts of all men which made the bretheren of Joseph to say Genesis the fourty second chapter and the twenty first verse We have sinned against our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear him therefore is all this come upon us By that Law it was just that as Hammon had made Gods people afraid so he himself should fear and be dealt with as he had purposed to deal Esther the seventh chapter and the sixt verse therefore the Prophet saith Isaiah the thirty fift chapter and the first verse Woe be to them that spoile for they shall be spoiled and our Saviour Christ saith agreeably Matthew the seventh chapter With what measure ye meat the same shall be measured to you again Thirdly He saith Omnis qui inveniret there could but one kill him and yet his 〈◊〉 tells him he deserveth to die at the hands
fair day after a storm For in the eight former verses there hath not been any mention made of God or godliness but marriage upon marriage murther upon murther vaunting of finne past and to come deriding of God and his holy word as if he were a person that favoured wicked men and not contenting himself with the punishment which God inflicted but a devising a new kinde of revenge as we see in Lamech who not contented with the punishment which God appointed for murtherers that is seven times would challenge to himself seventy times seven times Now at last we come to a verse that hath the mention and name of God and of a good man of whom a succession of good men should be raised And it was fit that the Man of God Moses should keep this order because the faith of Adam and Eve might quail and they might think God not true of his promise in regard of that which they saw For as for the threatning which God denounced against Cain wee see it is not performed but Cain and his posteritie in stead of being plagued for his wickednesse grow to be great men rich Grasyers such as have all things that tend either to delight or defense As for Adams promise which was That the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head it fell out clean contrary for we see to what a great number the spawne of the Serpent was grown when as there was none of the Womans seed And whereas God promised the Womans seed should bruise the head of the Serpent wee see the spawne of the Serpent 〈◊〉 the head of the Womans seed For Abel who was the Womans seed is slain by Cain who was of the Serpents seed which falls out many times in the world The promise made to Noah was That Cham should be a servant Genesis the ninth chapter and yet we see it fell out clean contrary for Genesis the tenth chapter 〈◊〉 who was of Chams race was the first Emperour upon earth And in the new Testament the people of God when Christ was born were in that state that Herod an Edomite was become their King Matthew the seoond chapter That wee may see that as the Prophet speakes in the one hundred and ninteenth Rsalm and the hundred twenty sixt verse Then it is time for God to lay to his hand when mankinde looking into his word and seeing that it is not fulfilled which God hath spoken doe decay in faith that he may shew himself a true God and able to accomplish that which he doth either promise or threaten that so the faith that was yet left upon earth might revive and take breath again The verse it self consisteth of two parts First Adams knowledge of his Wife Secondly The nativity of Seth. For the first Not to say any thing of the term which Moses useth which is Adams knowledge for that we have handled it heretofore we will consider the word iterum which gives us plainly to know that for a great while Adam gave over that Act being stricken and amazed with this consideration that one brother should kill another that is in bewailing Abel that was 〈◊〉 and Cain that was cut off from the Church Adam and Eve were in this state of minde that they were as it were dead seeing their first Ofspring sped so unhappily that the one was slain bodily the other was under the sentence of death both of body and soul when I say they considered that they should either beget children to be murthered which was Abels case or else to be cast into hell in respect of Cain it made them say with Rebecca Genesis the twenty fift chapter and the twenty second verse si mihi sic futurum est quia necesse est parere for these considerations they had clean given over Out of which example of Adam and Eve we learn to conform ourselves to crosses and heavy accidents as God layeth upon us that is to forbear and give over matters of pleasure when God calls us to mourning for it is a thing agreeable to Gods will If when the Lord God of hosts shall call to weeping and mourning there be nothing but joy and 〈◊〉 slaying of Oxen c. the Lord himself sayeth that is a sinne which shall not be pardoned or purged with any sacrifice till they die Isaiah the twenty second chapter and the twelfth verse It is that which Christ teacheth Matthew the ninth chapter and the fifteenth verse When the Bridegrome shall be taken away then shall they mourn and fast that is when either he shall be taken from us or when men shall drive him from them by their sinnes then there is cause of mourning and sorrow Therefore we see albeit it was Gods will that Aaron and his Children should eat the offerings of the Children of Israel yet he refused to eat them in regard of the Judgments of God upon Nadab and Abihu his Sonnes saying Thou knowest such and such things have come to me this day and if I had eaten the sin-offering 〈◊〉 it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 chapter and the ninteenth verse Therefore David mourned so for the death of Abner that he said God doe so to me and more if I eat bread or 〈◊〉 else till the Sun be down in the second of Samuel the third chapter and the thirty fift verse But hence there appears another thing unto us which is that 〈◊〉 and earthly sorrow in a naturall man is a thing stronger than any worldly pleasure that in regard of the naturall man there is more strength in grief than in pleasure or joy for if a man have 〈◊〉 in never so much pleasure all 〈◊〉 life yet if he come to a little sickness it takes away all remembrance of his former pleasure And this is a means to make a man think of such an estate Wherein he may have that pleasure and joy which shall not be taken from him as Christ speaketh John the sixteenth chapter and the twenty second verse Now when Adam had relieved himself with this cogitation that as the Prophet speaks Psalm the eighty ninth God hath not made all men for nought it made him to return whereupon there followed by Gods blessing not only a seed but a chosen and holy seed that is Seth. Concerning whom first we will speak of his birth wherein we have this to observe that those Children whom God gives to Parents upon a plentifull contrition and repentance doe usually prove men excellent in all spirituall graces The first example hereof is Seth who is not only the foundation of the Church but of mankinde for since the flood all the Sons of men are called the Children of Seth. It is also shewed in Joseph whom God gave to Rachel having opened her wombe which before was shut up so as she was barren Genesis the thirtieth chapter and the twenty second verse It also appeared in Hannah who having bewailed her own
the furnace and cast them up in the 〈◊〉 and they caused a stink And David in his sicknesse saith Psalm the thirty second His moisture was like the draught in Summer Therefore in the plague of Leprosie Leviticus the thirteenth chapter and the fourty fift verse the Leper was to have his mouth shut up David in that great 〈◊〉 spoken of in the first book of Chronicles the twenty first chapter and the thirtieth verse would have gone to 〈◊〉 but be found he should not feared with the Angel Therefore the servant of God saith Proverbs the fourteenth chapter A wise man 〈◊〉 the plague and shunneth it but the foolish goeth on still But these are not the only causes For besides 〈◊〉 there is some divine thing to be considered for there is no 〈◊〉 but a spirit belongs to it as Luke the thirteenth chapter and the eleventh verse a spirit of infirmity So are we to conceive that besides natural causes there is some spiritual of the sicknesse as 〈…〉 twelfth chapter a destroying Angel So in Davids plague in the second book of Samuel the twenty fourth chapter And 〈◊〉 the thirty seventh chapter and the thirty sixt verse the Angel went forth and slue And Apocalyps the sixteenth chapter and the 〈◊〉 verse The Angels poured out the Vials of the wrath of God and there fell a noysome sore So it is Gods hand that brings in these plagues The cause stands on two parts First Gods wrath 〈◊〉 which all evil things proceed For affliction commeth not from the earth Job the fift chapter and the sixt verse They are sparks of his anger And he is not angry with the waters that they should drown 〈◊〉 the third chapter nor with the aire that it should corrupt but for these things commeth the wrath of God that is for our sinnes 〈◊〉 the fift chapter He doth but make a way to his wrath and then the earth 〈◊〉 up the 〈…〉 Psalm the seventy eighth The sinnes of the people are the cause of Gods wrath Peccata morum goe before peccata humorum There is first corruption of the soul Michah 〈◊〉 first chapter and the third verse All flesh had corrupted their 〈◊〉 Genesis the sixt chapter So there is infection in mens wayes before the streets be infected There is plaga animae the plague in the soul before it appear in the body It is sinne that bringeth sicknesse and death Romans the sixt chapter So they are both joyned Psalm the thirty eighth and the third verse There is no rest in my bones because of my sinne Therefore it is our sinne and infection of the soul that must be looked into If it were some outward cause only it could not be but the plague should stay 〈◊〉 there is so great store of means Jeremiah the eighth chapter Is there no balme in Gilead But he saith Jeremiah the fourty sixt chapter and the eleventh verse Frustra multiplicas medicanda sinne being not taken away physick will doe 〈◊〉 good First the corruption of manners must be holpen and then bodily help will follow Psalm the fourty first Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee And that course our Saviour keeps Matthew the ninth chapter first he saith Thy sinne is forgiven and then Take up thy bed and walk These sinnes he calls inventions Inventions please us greatly and all new things our new omnia better than old Manna Numbers the eleventh chapter But if it be our own inventions then we goe a whoring after it Such is the delight we take in it verse the thirty ninth Our first Parents were of this minde so proud they would not take a rule of life from God but would sicut Dii Genesis the third chapter They set up to themselves graven Images Exodus the 〈◊〉 chapter They have Dii alieni such as their Fathers had Not when men living otherwise then God 〈…〉 I shall have peace Deuteromie the twenty ninth chapter and the 〈◊〉 verse These webbs that we weave our selves and these eggs that we hatch Isaiah the fifty ninth chapter are our confusion and 〈◊〉 God and great reason For Exodus the fifteenth chapter and the twenty sixt verse he saith If thou 〈…〉 to my 〈◊〉 I will lay no disease Ego Dominus 〈◊〉 But if we follow our own inventions we can look for nothing but diseases quid tibi praecipio haec 〈…〉 Deuteronomie the twelfth chapter 〈◊〉 men will be 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 that was Sauls rebellion he would not destroy all as God commanded he was wiser than so But what were these inventions It is said verse the twenty eighth They joyned themselves to Baal 〈◊〉 Numbers the twenty fift chapter that is the sinne of whoring and fornication and that impudently before the congregation committed by Zimry and Cosby It was the adoring of an abhominable Idoll a sinne so grievous as it is said many years after 〈◊〉 not enough of the sinne of Peor Joshuah the twenty second chapter it is a sinne that will not be cleansed at the first And we see daily the sinne of uncleannesse ends with a plague that is infectious For the Cure It is certain As there are natural causes so natural cures of this Diseise 〈◊〉 as some Writers doe hold had this Disease and used not only prayer but a plaister by the Prophets direction Isaiah the fifty eighth chapter But as the cause of the plague is not only natural so here is used a spiritual remedy that is in as much as contrary curantur contrariis viis If the provoking of Gods anger be the Cause of the plague the appeasing of it by prayer must be the Remedy The two remedies are out of the double sense of the word which signifieth prayer and punishing Prayer is an appeaser of Gods wrath not only in other points but in this Numbers the twenty fift chapter They all wept and prayed And David in the second book of Samuel the twenty fourth chapter and the seventeenth verse fled to this remedy I have sinned but these sheep what have they done And Hezekiah being infected with the plague turned himself to the wall Isaiah the thirty eighth chapter And in Salomons prayer the first of the Kings and the eighth chapter where plagues or corrupt agues shall hop here then in heaven And there is a good proportion between this remedy and the disease For if there be a corrupt smell the way to take it away is by the good smell of incense or perfume So as our sinne doth give an evil savour and stink in Gods nostrils so the spiritual incense will remove it and that incense is prayer Psalm the fourty first Therefore the prayers of the Saints are called odours Apocalyps the fift chapter But it must be prayer qualified in two sorts First Phinehas prayer that is the prayer of the Priest So David had Gad to pray for him Hezekiah had Isaiah Lift thou up thy prayer Isaiah the thirty eighth chapter The Corinthians had Gad to pray for them the