8. and bearing of our sicknesses Or to be no richer or no more provident then so To sell all and give it away Luc. 12. and make a treasure in Heaven and all this for fear of Theeves and Rust and Canker and Moths here That which is not allowable in Courts of Justice in criminal Causes To hear Evidence against the King we will admit against God we will hear Evidence against God we will hear what mans reason can say in favor of the Delinquent why he should be condemned why God should punish the soul eternally for the momentany pleasures of the body Nay we suborn witnesses against God and we make Philosophy and Reason speak against Religion and against God though indeed Omne verum omni vero consentiens whatsoever is true in Philosophy is true in Divinity too howsoever we distort it and wrest it to the contrary We hear Witnesses and we suborn Witnesses against God and we do more we proceed by Recriminations and a cross Bill with a Quia Deus because God does as he does we may do as we do Because God does not punish Sinners we need not forbear sins whilst we sin strongly by oppressing others that are weaker or craftily by circumventing others that are simple This is but Leoninum and Vulpinum that tincture of the Lyon and of the Fox that brutal nature that is in us But when we come to sin upon reason and upon discourse upon Meditation and upon plot This is Humanum to become the Man of Sin to surrender that which is the Form and Essence of man Reason and understanding to the service of sin When we come to sin wisely and learnedly to sin logically by a Quia and an Ergo that Because God does thus we may do as we do we shall come to sin through all the Arts and all our knowledge To sin Grammatically to tie sins together in construction in a Syntaxis in a chaine and dependance and coherence upon one another And to sin Historically to sin over sins of other men again to sin by precedent and to practice that which we had read And we come to sin Rhetorically perswasively powerfully and as we have found examples for our sins in History so we become examples to others by our sins to lead and encourage them in theirs when we come to employ upon sin that which is the essence of man Reason and discourse we will also employ upon it those which are the properties of man onely which are To speak and to laugh we will come to speak and talk and to boast of our sins and at last to laugh and jest at our sins and as we have made sin a Recreation so we will make a jest of our condemnation And this is the dangerous slipperiness of sin to slide by Thoughts and Actions and Habits to contemptuous obduration Part II. Now amongst the manifold perversnesses and incongruities of this artificial sinning of sinning upon Reason upon a quia and an ergo of arguing a cause for our sin this is one That we never assigne the right cause we impute our sin to our Youth to our Constitution to our Complexion and so we make our sin our Nature we impute it to our Station to our Calling to our Course of life and so we make our sin our Occupation we impute it to Necessity to Perplexity that we must necessarily do that or a worse sin and so we make our sin our Direction We see the whole world is Ecclesia malignantium Psal 26.5 a Synagogue a Church of wicked men and we think it a Schismatical thing to separate our selves from that Church and we are loth to be excommunicated in that Church and so we apply our selves to that we do as they do with the wicked we are wicked and so we make our sin our Civility And though it be some degree of injustice to impute all our particular sins to the devil himself after a habit of sin hath made us spontaneos daemones Chrysost devils to our selves yet we do come too near an imputing our sins to God himself when we place such an impossibility in his Commandments as makes us lazie that because we cannot do all therefore we will do nothing or such a manifestation and infallibility in his Decree as makes us either secure or desperate and say The Decree hath sav'd me therefore I can take no harm or The Decree hath damn'd me therefore I can do no good No man can assigne a reason in the Sun why his body casts a shadow why all the place round about him is illumin'd by the Sun the reason is in the Sun but of his shadow there is no other reason but the grosness of his own body why there is any beam of light any spark of life in my soul he that is the Lord of light and life and would not have me die in darkness is the onely cause but of the shadow of death wherein I sit there is no cause but mine own corruption And this is the cause why I do sin but why I should sin there is none at all Yet in this Text the Sinner assignes a cause and it is Quia non mutationes Because they have no Changes God hath appointed that earth which he hath given to the sons of men to rest and stand still and that heaven which he reserves for those sons of men who are also the sons of God he hath appointed to stand still too All that is between heaven and earth is in perpetual motion and vicissitude but all that is appointed for man mans possession here mans reversion hereafter earth and heaven is appointed for rest and stands still and therefore God proceeds in his own way and declares his love most where there are fewest Changes This rest of heaven he hath expressed often by the name of a Kingdom as in that Petition Thy kingdom come And that rest which is to be derived upon us here in earth he expresses in the same phrase too when having presented to the children of Israel an Inventary and Catalogue of all his former blessings he concludes all includes all in this one Et prosperata es in regnum I have advanced thee to be a kingdom which form God hath not onely still preserv'd to us but hath also united Kingdoms together and to give us a stronger body and safer from all Changes whereas he hath made up other Kingdoms of Towns and Cities he hath made us a Kingdom of Kingdoms and given us as many Kingdoms to our Kingdom as he hath done Cities to some other Gods gracious purpose then to man being Rest and a contented Reposedness in the works of their several Callings and his purpose being declared upon us in the establishing and preserving of such a Kingdom as hath the best Body best united in it self and knit together and the best Legs to stand upon Peace and Plenty and the best Soul to inanimate and direct it Truth
by diversion when Saul pursued David with the most vehemence of all 1 Sam. 23.27 a messenger came and told him that the Philistines had invaded his Land and then he gave over the pursuit of David Really great admirably strange things did God in the behalf of his children for the destruction of his and their Idolatrous enemies But yet were they ever destroy'd totally destroy'd they were not The Lord left some Nations says the Text there without hastily driving them out neither did he deliver them into the hands of Joshuah Judg. 2.23 The Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day says that holy story and so did other Nations with the other Tribes in other places 1.21.28 They were able as we are told there to put the Canaanites to Tribute but not to drive them out to make Penal Laws against them but not to deliver the Land of them Now why did God do this We would not ask this question if God had not told us ut erudiret in iis Jerusalem 3.2 that the Enemy might be their Schoolmaster and War their Chatechism that they might never think that they stood in no more need of God The Lord was with Judah saith the Text so far with him 1.19 as that he drave out the Inhabitants of the Mountain but yet would not drive out the Inhabitants of the Valley Sometimes God does the greater work and yet leaves some lesser things undone God chooses his Matter and his Manner and his Measure and his Means and his Minutes But yet God is truly and justly said to have destroyed those Idolatrous Enemies in that he brought them so low as that they could not give Laws to the children of Israel nor force them to the Idolatrous Worship of their gods though some scattered Idolaters did still live amongst them God could destroy Nequitias in coelestibus he could evacuate all Powers and Principalities he could annihilate the Devil or he could put him out of Commission take from him the power of tempting or solliciting his servants Though God hath not done it yet he is properly said to have destroyed him because he hath destroyed his Kingdom Death is swallowed up in victory saith Saint Paul out of Ose O death where is thy sting says he Where is it Why 1 Cor. 15.5.4 Ose 13.14 it is in thy bosome It is at the heart of the greatest Princes of the earth Though they be gods they die like men O grave where is thy victory says he there Why above the Victories and Trophies and Triumphs of all the Conquerors in the world And yet the Apostle speaks and justly as if there were no death in man no sting in death no grave after death because to him who dies in the Lord all this is nothing not he by death but death in him is destroyed And as it is of the cause of Sin the Devil and of the effect of Sin Death so is it of Sin it self it is destroyed and yet we sin He that is born of God doth not commit sin so as that sin shall be imputed to him Sin and Satan and Death are destroyed in us because they can do no harm to us So the Idolatrous Nations were destroyed amongst the Israelites because they could not bring in an Inquisition amongst them and force them to their Religion And so Idolatry hath been destroyed amongst us destroyed so as that it hath been declared to be Idolatry towards God and declared to be complicated and wrapped up inseparably in Treason towards the King and the State Our Schools and Pulpits have destroyed it and our Parliaments have destroyed it Our Pulpits establish them that stay at home and our Laws are able to lay hold upon them that run from home and return ill affected to their home Let no man therefore murmur at Gods proceedings and say If God had a minde to destroy Idolatry he would have left no seed or he would not have admitted such arepullulation and such a growth of that seed as he hath done God hath his own ends and his own ways He destroyed the Nations from before the Israelites Christ hath destroyed Sin and Satan and Death and Hell and Idolaters amongst us for Gods greater glory do remain For such a destruction as should be absolute God never intended God never promised for that were to occasion and to induce a security and remove all diligence Which is our second Branch in this first part Cave tibi see take heed c. In the beginning of the world we presume all things to have been produced in their best state all was perfect and yet how soon a decay all was summer and yet how soon a fall of the leaf a fall in Paradise not of the leaf but of the Tree it self Adam fell A fall before that in heaven it self Angels fell Better security then Adam then Angels had there we cannot have we cannot look for here And therefore there is danger still still occasion of diligence Lev. 11.3 of consideration The chewing of the Cudd was a distinctive mark of cleanness in the Creature The holy rumination the daily consideration of his Christianity is a good character of a Christian 1 Cor. 12.31 Covet earnestly the best gifts says the Apostle those to whom he writ had good gifts already yet he exhorts them to a desire of better And what doth he promise them not the Gift it self but the way to it I will shew a more excellent way There is still something more excellent then we have yet attained to Non dicit charisma Chrysost sed viam The best step the best height in this world is but the way to a better and still we have way before us to walk further in Anathema pro fratribus Rom. 9.3 was but once said St. Paul once and in a vehement and inordinate zeal and religious distemper said so That he could be content to be separated from Christ Exi à me Domine was but once said once St. Peter said Luc. 5.8 Depart from me O Lord. The Anathema the exi but once but the Adveniat Regnum Let thy Kingdom come I hope is said more then once by every one of us every day every day we receive and yet every day we pray for that Kingdom more and more assurance of Glory by more and more increase of Grace For as there are bodily diseases and spiritual diseases too proper to certain ages a yong man and an old man are not ordinarily subject to the same distempers nor to the same vices so particular forms of Religion have their indispositions their ill inclinations too Thou art bred in a Reformed Church where the truth of Christ is sincerely Preached bless God for it but even there thou mayest contract a pride an opinion of purity and uncharitably despise those who labour yet under their ignorances or superstitions or thou mayest grow weary of thy Manna and smell
affected not to be entendred to wear those things which God hath made objects and subjects of affections that which St. Paul places in the bottome and lees Rom. 1.30 and dregs of all the sins of the Jews to be without natural affections this distemper this ill complexion this ill nature of the soul is under the first part of this curse if any man love not for he that loves not knows not God for God is love But this curse determins not upon that neither is it principally directed upon that not loving for as we say in the schools Amor est primus actus voluntatis the first thing that the will of man does is to affect to choose to love something and it is scarce possible to find any mans will so idle so barren as that it hath produced no act at all and therefore the first act being love scarce any man can be found that doth not love something But the curses extends yea is principally intended upon him that loves not Christ Jesus though he love the creature and orderly enough yea though he love God as a great and incomprehensible power yet if he love not Christ Jesus if he acknowledg not that all that passes between God and him is in and for Christ Jesus let him be accursed for all his love Now there are but two that can be loved God and the Creature and of the creatures that must necessarily be best loved which is neerest us which we understand best and reflect most upon and that 's our selves for for the love of other creatures it is but a secondary love if we lâ—â—e God we love them for his sake if we love our selves we love them for our sakes Now to love our selves is only allowable only proper to God himself for this love is a desire that all honor and praise and glory should be attributed to ones self and it can be only proper to God to desire that To love our selves then is the greatest treason we can commit against God and all love of the creatures determines in the love of our selves for though sometimes we may say that we love them better than our selves and though we give so good that is indeed so ill testimony that we do so that we neglect our selves both our religion and our discretion for their sakes whom we pretend to love yet all this is but a secondary love and with relation still to our selves and our own contentments for is this love which we bear to other creatures within that definition of love Velle bonum amato to wish that which we love happy doth any ambitious man love honor or office therefore because he thinks that title or that place should receive a dignity by his having it or an excellency by his executing it doth any covetous man love a house or horse therefore because he thinks that house or horse should be happy in such a Master or such Rider doth any licentious man covet or solicite a woman therefore because he thinks it a happiness to her to have such a servant No it is only himself that is within the difinition vult bonum sibi he wishes well as he mistakes it to himself and he is content that the slavery and dishonor and ruin of others should contribute to make up his imaginary happiness August O dementiam nescientem amare homines humaniter what a perverse madness is it to love a creature and not as a creature that is with all the adjuncts and circumstances and qualities of a creature of which the principal is that that love raise us to the contemplation of the Creator for if it be so we may love our selves as we are the Images of God and so we may love other men as they are the Images of us and our nature yea as they are members of the same body for omnes homines una humanitas all men make up but one mankind and so we love other creatures as we all meet in our Creator in whom Princes and Subjects Angels and men and wormes are fellow servants Si malè amaveris tunc odisti If thou hast lov'd thy self August or any body else principally or so that when thou dost any act of love thou canst not say to thine own conscience I do this for Gods sake and for his glory if thou hast loved so thou hast hated thy self and him whom thou hast loved and God whom thou shouldest love Si bonè oderis saies the same Father If thou hast hated as thou shouldst hate if thou hast hated thine own internal tentations and the outward solicitations of others Amasti then thou hast expressed a manifold act of love of love to thy God and love to his Image thy self and love to thine Image that man whom thy virtue and thy example hath declined and kept from offending his and thy God And as this affection love doth belong to God principally that is rather then to any thing else so doth it also principally another way that is rather then any affection else for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom but the love of God is the consummation that is the marriage and union of thy soul and thy Saviour But can we love God when we will do we not find that in the love of some other things or some courses of life of some waies in our actions and of some particular persons that we would fain love them cannot when we can object nothing against it when we can multiply arguments why we should love them yet we cannot but it is not so towards God every man may love him that will but can every man have this will this desire certainly we cannot begin this love except God love us first we cannot love him but God doth love us all so well from the beginning as that every man may see the fault was in the perversness of his own will that he did not love God better If we look for the root of this love it is in the Father for though the death of Christ be towards us as a root as a cause of our love and of the acceptableness of it yet Augst Meritum Christi est affectum amoris Dei erga nos the death of Christ was but an effect of the love of God towards us So God loved the world that he gave his Son if he had not lov'd us first we had never had his Son here is the root then the love of the Father and the tree the merit of the Son except there be fruit too love in us to them again both root and tree will wither in us howsoever they grew in God I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 saies God therfore with mercy I have drawn thee if therefore we do not perceive that we are drawn to lov again by this lov 't is not an everlasting lov that shines upon us All the sunshine all the glory of this life