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
and he hath transgressed that The necessary precipitations into sudden executions to which States are forced in rebellious times we are faine to call by the name of Law Martial Law The Torrents and Inundations which invasive Armies pour upon Nations we are fain to call by the name of Law The Law of Armes No Judgement no Execution without the name the colour the pretence of Law for still men call for a Law for every Execution And shall not the Judge of all the earth doe right Shall God judge us condemn us execute us at the last day and not by a Law by something that we never saw never knew never notified never published and judge me by that and leave out the consideration of that Law which he bound me to keep 1 Cor. 1.20 I ask S. Pauls question Where is the disputer of the world Who will offer to dispute unnecessary things especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us to forbear such Disputations Blessed are the peace-makers that command and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey and accommodate themselves to peace in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies 1 Tim. 3.16 but without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness The Apostle invites us to search into no farther mysteries then such as may be without controversie the Mystery of Godlinesse is without controversie and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a Law and to live according to that Law This this godliness that is Knowledge and Obedience to the Law hath the promises of this life and the next too all referr'd to his Law for without this this godliness which is holiness no man shall see God All referr'd to a Law This is Christs Catechisme in S. John That we might know the onely true God 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he sent A God commanding and a Christ reconciling us if we have transgressed that Commandment And this is the Holy Ghosts Catechisme in S. Paul Deus remunerator Heb. 11.6 That we believe God to be and to be a just rewarder of mans actions still all referr'd to an obedience or disobedience of a Law The Mystery of godliness is great that is great enough for our salvation and yet without controversie for though controversies have been moved about Gods first act there can be none of his last act though men have disputed of the object of Election yet of the subject of Execution there is no controversie No man can doubt but that when God delivers over any soule actually and by way of execution to eternall condemnation that he delivers over that soule to that eternal condemnation for breaking his Law In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad the despairing soule and it becomes us all to lend our hand to his succour and to pour in our Wine and our Oyle into his Wounds that lies weltring and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soule That soule who though it can testifie to it self some endeavour in the wayes of holinesse yet upon some collateral doubts is still suspicious and jealous of God How often have we seen that a needlesse jealousie and suspition conceived without cause hath made a good body bad A needlesse jealousie and suspition of his purposes and intentions upon thee may make thy mercifull God angry too Nothing can alienate God more from thee then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him How wouldst thou have God mercifull to thee if thou wilt be unmercifull to God himself And Qui quid tyrannicum in Deo Basil He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice and unmercifull to the God of Mercy Therefore in the 17. of our Injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against Despaire by setting forth the Mercy and the Benefits and the Godliness of Almighty God as the word of the Injunction is the godliness of God for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soule were to impute ungodliness to God Therefore to that mistaking soule that discomposed that shiver'd and shrivel'd and ravel'd and ruin'd soule to that jealous and suspicious soule onely I say Let no man judge you Coloss 2.16 sayes the Apostle intruding into those things which he hath not seene Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God which they have not nor you have not seen for that by which you shall be judged is the Law that Law which was notified and published to you The Law alone were much too heavy if there were not a superabundant ease and alleviation in that hand that Christ Jesus reaches out to us Consider the weight and the ease and for pity to such distrustfull souls and for establishment of your owne stop your devotions a little upon this consideration There is Chyrographum a hand-writing of Ordinances against me 14. a Debt an Obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience and falne upon me And even that be it but Originall sin is shrewd evidence there 's my first charge But Deletum est sayes the Apostle there that 's blotted that 's defaced that cannot be sued against me after Baptisme Nay Sublatum cruci affixum it is cancel'd it is nailed to the Crosse of Christ Jesus it is no more sin in its self it is but to me to condemnation it is not here 's my charge and my discharge for that 28.15 But yet there is a heavier evidence Pactum cum inferno as the Prophet Esay speaks I have made a covenant with death and with Hell I am at an agreement that is says S. Greg. Audacter Indesinenter peccamus diligendo amicitiam profitemur We sin constantly we sin continually and we sin confidently and we finde so much pleasure and profit in sin as that we have made a league and sworn a friendship with sin and we keep that perverse and irreligious promise over-religiously and the sins of our youth flow into other sins when age disables us for them But yet there is a Deletum est in this case too our covenant with death is disanull'd sayes that Prophet when we are made partakers of the death of Christ in the blessed Sacrament Mine actuall sins lose their act and mine habituall sins fall from me as a habit as a garment put off when I come to that there 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is worse evidence against me then either this Chyrographum the first hand-writing of Adams hand or then this pactum this contract of mine own hand actuall and habituall sin for of these one is wash'd out in water and the other in blood in the two Sacraments But then there is Lex in Membris sayes the Apostle Rom. 7.21 I finde a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Sin assisted by me is now become a tyrant over me and hath established a government
a vehement Fever take hold of him he remembers where he sweat and when he took cold where he walked too fast where his Casement stood open and where he was too bold upon Fruit or meat of hard digestion but he never remembers the sinful and naked Wantonnesses the profuse and wastful Dilapidations of his own body that have made him thus obnoxious and open to all dangerous Distempers Thunder from heaven burns his Barns and he says What luck was this if it had fallen but ten foot short or over my barns had been safe whereas his former blasphemings of the Name of God drew down that Thunder upon that house as it was his and that Lightning could no more fall short or over then the Angel which was sent to Sodom could have burnt another Citie and have spar'd that or then the Plagues of Moses and of Aaron could have fallen upon Goshen and have spar'd Egypt His Gomers abound with Manna he overflows with all for necessities and with all delicacies in this life and yet he findes worms in his Manna a putrefaction and a mouldring away of this abundant state but he sees not that that is because his Manna was gathered upon the Sabbath that there were profanations of the Name and Ordinances of God mingled in his means of growing rich To end all This is the true Use that we are to make of the long-suffering and patience of God That when his patience ends ours may begin That if he forbear others rather then us 21.7 we do not expostulate as in Job Wherefore do the wicked live and become old and grow mighty in power but rather if he chastise us rather then others Psal 44.18 say with David Our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy ways though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death And that if sentence be executed upon us we may make use of his judgement and if not we may continue and enlarge his mercies towards us AMEN A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Serm. 7. Novemb. 2. 1617. SERMON VII PSAL. 55.19 Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God IN a Prison where men wither'd in a close and perpetual imprisonment In a Galley where men were chain'd to a laborious and perpetual slavery In places where any change that could come would put them in a better state then they were before this might seem a fitter Text then in a Court where every man having set his foot or plac'd his hopes upon the present happy state and blessed Government every man is rather to be presum'd to love God because there are no changes then to take occasion of murmuring at the constancie of Gods goodness towards us But because the first murmuring at their present condition the first Innovation that ever was was in Heaven The Angels kept not their first Estate Though as Princes are Gods so their well-govern'd Courts are Copies and representations of Heaven yet the Copy cannot be better then the Original And therefore as Heaven it self had so all Courts will ever have some persons that are under the Increpation of this Text That Because they have no changes therefore they fear not God At least if I shall meet with no conscience that finds in himself a guiltiness of this sin if I shall give him no occasion of repentance yet I shall give him occasion of praysing and magnifying that gracious God which hath preserv'd him from such sins as other men have fallen into though he have not For I shall let him see first The dangerous slipperiness the concurrence Divisio the co-incidence of sins that a habit and custom of sin slips easily into that dangerous degree of Obduration that men come to sin upon Reason they find a Quia a Cause a Reason why they should sin and then in a second place he shall see what perverse and frivolous reasons they assign for their sins when they are come to that even that which should avert them they make the cause of them Because they have no changes And then lastly by this perverse mistaking they come to that infatuation that dementation as that they loose the principles of all knowledge and all wisedom The fear of God is the beginning of wisedom and Because they have no changes they fear not God Part I. First then We enter into our first Part The slipperiness of habitual sin with that note of S. Gregorie Peccatum cum voce est culpa cum actione peccatum cum clamore est culpa cum libertate Sinful thougths produc'd into actions are speaking sins sinful actions continued into habits are crying sins There is a sin before these a speechless sin a whispering sin which no body hears but our own conscience which is when a sinful thought or purpose is born in our hearts first we rock it by tossing and tumbling it in our fancies and imaginations and by entertaining it with delight and consent with remembring with how much pleasure we did the like sin before and how much we should have if we could bring this to pass And as we rock it so we swathe it we cover it with some pretences some excuses some hopes of coveraling it and this is that which we call Morosam delectationem a delight to stand in the air and prospect of a sin and a loathness to let it go out of our sight Of this sin S. Gregory sayes nothing in this place but onely of actual sins which he calls speaking and of habitual which he calls crying sins And this is as far as the Schools or the Casuists do ordinarily trace sin To find out peccata Infantia speechless sins in the heart peccata vocatia speaking sins in our actions And peccata clamantia crying and importunate sins which will not suffer God to take his rest no nor to fulfil his own Oath and protestation He hath said As I live I would not the death of a sinner and they extort a death from him But besides these Here is a farther degree beyond speaking sins and crying sins beyond actual sins and habitual sins here are peccata cum ratione and cum disputatione we will reason we will debate we will dispute it out with God and we will conclude against all his Arguments that there is a Quia a Reason why we should proceed and go forward in our sin Et pudet non esse impudentes as S. Augustine heightens this sinful disposition Men grow asham'd of all holy shamefac'dness and tenderness toward sin they grow asham'd to be put off or frighted from their sinful pleasure with the ordinary terror of Gods imaginary judgements asham'd to be no wiser then S. Paul would have them to be mov'd or taken hold of by the foolishness of preaching or to be no stronger of themselves then so 1 Cor. 1.21 that we should trust to anothers taking of our infirmities Matth.
of Religion and the best Spirits to make all parts answerable and useful to one another Wisdom and Vigilancie in the Prince Gratitude and Chearfulness in the Subject And since God hath gone so far once in our time already in expressing his care of our Rest and Quiet as to give us a Change without Change an alteration of Persons and not of Things that we saw old things done away in the Secession of one and all things made new in the Succession of another Soveraign and all this newness done without Innovation so that Psal 76.9 as David says of the whole earth we might say again of this Land Terra tremuit quievit The earth shak'd and stood still at once it was all one act to have been afraid and to have been instantly secur'd again since nothing beyond that nothing equal to that Change can be imagin'd by us from God may it be ever his gracious pleasure to continue to us the enjoying of our present Rest without shewing us any more Changes As to end this Branch it were a strange enormity a strange perversness in any man to plant a Garden in any place therefore because he foresaw an Earthquake in that place that would disorder and discompose his Garden again or to build in any place therefore because the fire were likeliest to take hold of that street that is to make any thing the cause of an action which should naturally enforce the contrary so is it an irreligious distemper to be the bolder in sin because we have no Changes or to defer our conversion from sin till Changes till Afflictions come For Satan knew the air and complexion and disposition of the world well enough he argued not impertinently nor frivolously for the general though he were deceived in the particular in Job when he said to God 2.5 Stretch out thy hand and touch his bones and his flesh and see if he will not blaspheme thee to thy face Afflictions and Changes in this life do not always direct us upon God The displeasure of a Prince may make a harsh person more supple more appliable then before his graces receiv'd may make him more accessible more equal more obsequious then before and losses and forfeitures sustain'd or threatned may make him more apt to give to bleed out to redeem his dangers then before But these Changes do not always make him an honester man nor a better Christian then before 1 Thess 4.11 And therefore says the Apostle Study to be quiet Labour to finde a testimony of Gods love to you in your present estate and never put your self either for temporal or spiritual amendment upon Changes To proceed then This shutting up of themselves against the fear of God is not meerly quia non mutationes because there are no changes but quia non illis because They have no changes It is a dangerous preterition not to bring a mans self into Consideration but to consider no man but himself to make himself the measure of all is as dangerous a narrowness The Epigrammatist describes the Atheist so That he desires no better argument to prove that there is no God but that he sees himself Dum negat ista beatum prosper well enough though he do not believe this prosperity to proceed from God What miseries soever fall upon others affect not him He may have seen since he was born the greatest Kingdom in Christendom likely to have been broken in pieces and canton'd into petty Seigniories and so left no Kingdom he may have seen such a danger upon our next neighbours as that when the powerfullest Enemy in Christendom hung over their heads and lay upon their backs they bred a more dangerous enemy in their own bosomes and bowels by tearing themselves in pieces with Differences in Points of subdivided Religion and impertinent Scruples unjustly call'd Points of Religion in which men leave Peace and Unity and Charity the true ways of Salvation and will enquire nothing but how soon how early God damn'd them They must know sub quibus Consulibus in whose Reign in whose Mayoralty what hour of the day and what minute of that hour Gods eternal Decree of Election or Reprobation was made Many very many of these Changes he may have seen and heard but all these he hears as though he heard them out of Livie or out of Berosus or in Letters from China or Japan and not as though they concern'd his Time or his Place or his Observation To contract this We have all been either in Wars and seen men fall at our right hand and at our left by the Bullet or at Sea and seen our Consort sunk by Tempest or taken by Pyrates or in the Citie and seen the Pestilence devour our Parents above us our Children below us our Friends round about us or in the Court and seen Gods judgements overtake the most secure and confident we have all seen such Changes as these everywhere but quia non nobis because the Bullet the Shipwrack the Pyrate the Pestilence the Judgements have not reach'd us in our particular persons they have not imprinted the fear of God in us And the word of the Text carries it farther then so Non habent it is not because There are no Changes for they abound nor because They have had none for none escapes but it is Qui a non habent because they have no present nor imminent danger in their contemplation now because no affliction lies upon them now therefore they are secure It is not Quia non habuerunt every person every State every Church hath had Changes Because the Romane Church will needs be all the world we may consider all the world in her so far she hath had such a Change as hath awakened other Princes to re-assume and to restore to themselves and their Crowns their just Dignities so she hath had a Change in Honour and Estimation She hath had such a Change as hath contracted and brought her into a narrower chanel and call'd in her overflowings so she hath had a Change in Power and Jurisdiction She hath had such a Change as hath lessened her Temporal treasure everywhere and utterly abolished her imaginary Spiritual treasure in many places she hath had a change in Means and Profit and Revenue she hath had such a change as that they who by Gods commandment are come out from her have been equal even in number to them who have adhered to her such a change as hath made her Doctrine appear some to be the doctrines of men and some the doctrines of devils such a change in Reputation in Jurisdiction and in Revenue and in Power and in manifestation of her Disguises she hath had But quia non habet because she decays not every day the Reformation seems to her to be come to a period as high as it shall go Because she hath a mis-apprehension of some faintness some declinableness towards her again even in some
Judg be desposed towards us well or not well there is this comfort given us here that that Judgment shall be per legem by a law we shall be judged by a law of liberty which is our second branch in this second part Per legem The Jews that prosecuted the Judgment against Christ durst not do that without pretending a law habemus legem say they we have a law and he hath transgress'd that The necessary precipitations into sodain executions to which States are forc'd in rebellious time we are fain to call by the name of law martial law the torrents and inundations which invasive armies power upon nations we are fain to call by the name of law the law of arms No Judgment no execution without the name the color the pretence of law for still men call for a law for every execution And shall not the Judg of all the earth do right shall God Judg us condemn us execute us at the last day and not by law by something that we never saw never knew never notified never publish'd and Judg me by that and leave out the consideration of that law which he bound me to keep 1 Cor. 1.20 I ask St. Pauls question Where is the disputer of the world who will offer to dispute unnecessary things especially where Authority hath made it necessary to us to forbear such disputations Blessed are the peace-makers that command and blessed are the peace-keepers that obey and accommodate themselves to peace in forbearing unnecessary and uncharitable controversies But without controversie great is the mystery of godliness the Apostle invites us to search into on farther mysteries then such as may be without controversie 1 Tim. 3.16 the mystery of godliness is without controversy and godliness is to believe that God hath given us a law and to live according to that law This this godliness that is knowledg and obedience to the law hath the promises of this life and the next too all referr'd to his law for without this this godliness which is holiness no man shall see God all referr'd to a law This is Christs Catechism in St. John that we might know the only true God 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom he sent a God commanding and a Christ reconciling us if we have transgress'd that commandment and this is the holy Ghost's Catechism in St. Paul Deus remunerator Heb. 11.6 that we believe God to be and to be a just rewarder of mans actions still all referr'd to an obedience or disobedience of a law The mystery of godliness is great that is great enough for our salvation and yet without controversie For though controversies have been mov'd about Gods first act there can be none of his last act though men have disputed of the object of election yet of the subject of execution there is no controversie no man can doubt but that when God delivers over any soul actually and by way of execution to eternal condemnation that he delivers over that soul to that eternal condemnation for breaking this law In this we have no other adversary but the over-sad the despairing soul and it becomes us all to lend our hand to his succor and so pour in our wine and our oyl into his wounds that lies weltring and surrounded in the blood of his own pale and exhausted soul that soul who though it can testifie to it self some endeavour to the waies of holiness yet upon some collatteral doubts is still suspicious and jealous of God How often have we seen that a needless jealousie and suspicion conceiv'd without cause hath made a good body bad a needless jealousie and suspicion of his purposes and intentions upon thee may make thy merciful God angry too Nothing can alienate God more from thee then to think that any thing but sin can alienate him How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee if thou wilt be unmerciful to God himself And qui quid tyrannicum in Deo Basil He that conceives any tyrannical act in God is unjust to the God of Justice and unmerciful to the God of mercy Therefore in the 17th of our injunctions we are commanded to arm sad souls against despair by setting forth the mercy and the benefits and the godliness of Almighty God as the word of the injunction is the godliness of God for to leave God under a suspicion of dealing ill with any penitent soul were to impute ungodliness to God Therefore to that mistaking soul that discompos'd that shiver'd and shriveled and ravell'd and ruin'd soul to that jealous and suspicious soul only I say with the Apostle let no man Judg you intruding into those things which he hath not seen Colos 2.18 Let no man make you afraid of secret purposes in God which they have not nor you have not seen for that by which you shall be Judged is the law that law which was notified and published to you The law alone were much too heavy if there were not a suprabundant ease and alleviation in that hand that Christ Jesus reaches out to us O consider the weight and the ease and for pitty to such distrustful souls and for establishing of your own stop your devotions a little upon this consideration first there is Chirograpbum A hand writing of Ordinances against me v. 14. a debt an obligation contracted by our first Parents in their disobedience and faln upon me And even that be it but original sin is shrewd evidence ther 's my first charge But deletum est saies the Apostle there that 's blotted that 's defac'd that cannot be sued against me after baptism nay sublatum cruci affixum 28.15 It is cancell'd it is naild to the Cross of Christ Jesus it is no more sin in it self it is but to me to condemnation it is not ther 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is a heavier evidence Pactum cum inferno as the Prophet Isai speaks I have made a Covenant with death with hell I am at an agreement that is saies St. Gregory Audacter indesinentur peccamus et diligendo amicitiam profitemur We sin constantly and we sin continually and we sin confidently and we find so much pleasure and profit in sin as that we have made a league and sworn a friendship with sin we keep that perverse irreligious promise over-religiously the sins of our youth flow into other sins when age disables us for them But yet there is a delectum est in this case too our Covenant with death is disannull'd saies that Prophet when we are made partakers of the death of Christ in the blessed Sacrament mine actual sins lose their act and mine habitual sins fall from me as a habit as a garment put of when I come to that ther 's my charge and my discharge for that But yet there is worse evidence against me then either this Chirographum the first hand writing of Adams hand or
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