meet this ugly guest in any corner of the house but the heart riseth against it this hatred of evill Psal 97.10 is more then of hell it s a killing look that the soul doth cast upon every corruption He that hateth his brother is a man-slayer he that hateth his lust is a sin-slayer not he that hateth the sins or practices of his brother but the person of his brother so not he that hateth the effects and fruits of sin but the nature of sin not he that hateth sin for hell but as hell Every evill by how much the nearer 't is by so much the more it s hated An evill as it is so to our estate names children wife life soul as impendent adjacent incumbent inherent admits of severall degrees of hatred Sin is an inward a soul-foe Love turned into hatred becoms most bitter brethrens divisions are hardest to reconcile the souls old love is turned into new hatred the very ground sin treads upon is hated There 's a kinde of hatred of ones self for sin every act that sin hath a hand in is hated our very duties for sins intermixing with them and we are angry with our selves that we can hate it no more 3. This hatred puts forth it self in labouring the destruction of sin Love cannot be hid neither can this hatred The soul seeks the death of sin by these ways and helps 1. By lamentation to the Lord when going to him for strength with the Apostle Oh wretched man that I am was there ever a soul so sin-pestred Ah woe is me Lord that I am compell'd to be chain'd to this block Never did a slave in Egypt or Turkey so sigh under bondage as a mortifying soul doth under corruption The sorrows of others are outward shallow in the eye the look but these are in the bottom of the soul deep sorrows It s true a man may give a louder cry at the drawing of a tooth then ever he did pining under the deepest consumption but yet the consumption that is the harbinger of death doth afflict him much more and though outward worldly grief as for the death of a child c. may be more intense and expressive yet grief for sin is more deep close sticking oppressive to the soul then all other sorrows the soul of a saint like a sword may be melted when the outward man the scabbard is whole 2. The soul of a sin-subduer fights against sin with the Crosse of Christ and makes the death of Christ the death of sin Ephes 5.25 1. By depending on his death as the meritorious cause of sins subduing of sanctification and cleansing Christs purifying us being upon the condition of his suffering 1 Cor. 6.20 and so it urgeth God thus Lord hath not Christ laid down the price of the purchase why then is Satan in possession Is Satan bought out Lord let him be cast out 2. By taking a pattern from the death of Christ for the killing of sin we being planted into the similitude of his death Rom. 8.5 sin it self hanging upon the crosse as it were when Christ died Oh saith a gracious heart that my corruptions may drink Vinegar that they may be pierced and naild and never come down alive but though they die lingeringly yet certainly Oh that I might see their hands feet side and every limb of the body of death bored the head bowing and the whole laid in the grave the darknesse error and vanity of the understanding the sinfull quietnesse and unquietnesse of my conscience the rebellion of my will the disorder of my affections 3. And especially the soul makes use of the death of Christ as a motive or inducement to put it upon sin-killing Ah my sin is the knife saith the soul that is redded over in my Redeemer's blood Ah it pointed every thorn on his head and nail in his hands and feet Lord Art thou a friend to Christ and shall sin that kill'd him live Thus a sin-mortifying heart brings sin neer to a dead Christ whom faith seeth to fall a bleeding afresh upon the approach of sin and therfore it layes the death of Christ to the charge of sin The crosse of Christ is sins terror the souls armour The bloud of Christ is old sures-be as holy Bradford was wont to say to kill sin As he died for sin so must we to it as his flesh was dead so must ours be Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 It s not a Pope's hallowing a Crosse that can do it Mr. D. Rogers Pr. Cat. but the power of Christ by a promise which blesseth this Crosse to mortification 3. The soul labours to kill sin by fruitfull enjoyment of Ordinances It never goeth to pray but it desires sin may have some wound and points by prayer like the sick child to the place where its most pained How doth it bemoan it self with Ephraim and pour-forth the bloud of sin at the eys It thus also improves Baptism it looks upon it as a seal to Gods promise that sin shall die We being buried with Christ in baptism that the Egyptians shall be drowned in the sea It never heareth a Sermon but as Joab dealt with Vrijah it labours to set its strongest corruption in the fore-front of the battell that when Christ shoots his arrows and draws his sword in the preaching of the Word sin may be hit An unsanctified person is angry with such preaching and cannot endure the winde of a sermon should blow upon a lust 4. By a right improving all administrations of providence If God send any affliction the sanctified soul concludes that some corruption must go to the lions If there arise any storms presently it enquires for Jonah and labours to cast him over-board If God snatcheth away comforts as Joseph fled from his Mistris presently a sin-mortifying heart saith Lord thou art righteous my unclean heart was prone to be in love with them more then with Christ my true Husband If God at any time hedg up her way with thorns she reflects upon her own gadding after her impure Lovers If her two eys Profits Pleasures be put out and removed a sin-mortifier will desire to pull down the house upon the Philistims and beareth every chastisement cheerfully even death it self that sin may but die too 5. By consideration of the sweetnesse of spirituall life Life is sweet and therfore what cost are men at to be rid of diseases to drive an Enemy out of the Country The soul thinks how happy it should be could it walk with God and be upright and enjoy Christ be rid of a Tyrant and be governed by the laws of a Liege the Lord Jesus How heavie is Satans yoke to him who sees the beutie and tasts the liberty of holy obedience A sick man confined to bed how happy doth he think them that can walk abroad about their imployments Oh saith a gracious heart how sweetly doth such a Christian pray how strictly doth
Ministers whom he hath appointed to be Stewards therof to the end of the world partly by qualifying them with gifts and Ministeriall Abilities and partly by appointing and setting them apart for the Ministry by those whom he hath authorized thereunto 2. To his people by the Ministry of his fore-mentioned servants who have instructed the faithfull sometime by preaching with a lively voice and afterward by committing the doctrine of faith to writing And Ministers shall to the end of the world be continued to deliver this doctrine of faith to the Church for their edification in holinesse And among those people to whom Ministers deliver this faith externally some there are to whom it is delivered also effectually by the internall revelation of the Spirit which so delivers this doctrine of faith to all the Elect that they themselves are delivered into it Rom. 6.17 their understandings being savingly enlightned to see that excellency in it which by the bare Ministry of it cannot be perceived and their wils perswaded to imbrace it as that rule of life according to which they will constantly walk 2. What need there was of the delivery of this faith 1. In regard of the Insufficiency of all other doctrines or prescriptions in the world to lead to life Only this doctrine delivered is the rule of faith and manners Peace internall and eternall is only afforded to them who walk according to this rule Gal. 6.11 God brings to glory only by guiding by these counsels All other lights are false are fools fires which lead to precipices and perdition This is the light which shines in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.20 to which who ever gives not heed can never find the way to heaven Learned Ethnicks never wrote of eternall happinesse in their Ethicks 1 Cor. 1.21 The world by wisdome knew not God 2. In regard of the totall insufficiency of man to find out this doctrine of himself The things delivered in this doctrine are mysteries supernaturall and depending on the meer will and dispensation of God The incarnation of the Son of God Col. 1.26 expiation of sin by his death justification by faith could never have entred into the mind of man unlesse God had revealed them They depend not upon any connexion of naturall causes Though there be a kind of naturall Theologie yet there 's no naturall Christianity Also the und erstanding of man is so obscured by the darknesse of sin that in spirituals it is purely blind The naturall man perceives not the things which are of God 1 Cor. 2.14 2. This delivering of faith comprehends the keeping and holding it by those to whom it was delivered This is done therefore 1. by Ministers 2. by every Christian 1. This duty is incumbent on Ministers who must keep the truth hold fast the faithfull word and be tenacious Tit. 1.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holding it as the word signifieth against a contrary hold with both their hands with all their strength Jer. 10.27 Amos 7.14 holding it in their understanding in their affections in their preaching and delivery in their life and practice not parting with it for fear or favour either to Sectaries or Politicians rather parting with their lives than their sword 2. The faith is kept by every Christian by persevering in the knowledge love and practice of it Every Saint must keep it in his head in his heart in his hand this he must do though for keeping the truth he lose his life 'T is not the having but the holding the truth Rev. 2.13 which is a Christians crown He who lets it go never had it truely and effectually in the love of it nor shall ever enjoy it in the recompence of it Of this more afterward 1. God was the Authour of the doctrine of life Observ 1. though by men yet from him hath it alwayes been delivered it 's his word and revelation The word of the Lord and thus saith the Lord is the Scripture stamp and superscription When the Patriarchs and Prophets preach'd it it was from him when holy men of old time wrote it it was from him though he hath spoken in divers manners yet 't was he that spake When the doctrine of life was committed to writing he commanded it He moved and inspired holy men to write 2 Pet. 1.21 2 Tim. 3.16 Exod. 17.14 chap. 34.27 Isai 8.1 chap. 30.8 Jer. 36.2 They were his Organs and Instruments of conveying his mind to the world The Spirit of the Lord saith David 2 Sam. 23.2 spake by me and his word was in my tongue And Acts 28.25 The Holy Ghost spake by Isaiah Quicquid Chri. stus de suis dictis ac factis nos scire voluit ipsis scribendum tanquam suis manibus imperavit Aug. l. 1. de cons Evang. c. 35. And 1 Pet. 1.11 The Spirit of Christ in the Prophets fore-told his sufferings These and the other holy men were the Scribes the Pens the Hands the Notaries of the Spirit They wrote not as men but as men of God when any book is called the Book of Moses the Psalms of David the Epistle of Paul it 's in respect of Ministry not of the principall cause 2. Great is the necessity of Scripture The doctrine of life could never without a scripturall delivery have been found out without it indeed this doctrine was between two and three thousand years preserved by the delivery of a lively voice but afterwards when their lives who were to deliver the word grew short men numerous memory frail the bounds of the Church inlarged corruptions frequent and therefore tradition an unfaithfull keeper of the purity of doctrine as appears by Tharah's Jos 24.3 Gen. 35.2 Apostoli quod primum praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradi derunt fundamentum columnam fidei uostrae futurae Iren. lib. 3. adv haeres c. 1. and Abram's worshipping of other gods the idolatry in Jacob's family c. God appointed that the doctrine of life should be committed to writing and upon supposition of the will and pleasure of God whose wisdome hath now thought fit to give us no other rule and foundation of faith the written word is now necessary as the means of delivering faith to us Had not the faith therefore been delivered in Scriptures whence should it have been found how retained The written word is the cabbinet wherein lies the jewell of faith the starre which shews where the Babe lodgeth the light which discovers the beauty of salvation A Book of Apocalyps or Revelation of Christ 3. Strong is the engagement upon us to be thankfull for Gods discovering to us the doctrine of faith It was above the compasse of Reason and Nature ever to have found it out by their own inquiry Rom. 16.25 Ephes 1.9 Ephes 3.9 neither men nor Angels could have known it without divine revelation It was a mystery a great an hidden mystery which was
consumed by fire Let us love the world as alway about to leave it and delight in the best of earthly enjoyments only as refreshments in our journey not as in the comforts of our country only as things without which we cannot live not as things for which we do live not making them fetters but only using them as furtherances to our place of setlement Wicked Cain was the first that ever built a city and yet even then the Holy Ghost brands him with the name of a Vagabond The godly of old dwelt in tabernacles Heb. 11.9 and the reason was because they looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God To conclude Let the sin of these angels in leaving this habitation make us fear lest we should fall short of it let us be throughly sensible of our misery by nature in being born without a right to it and interest in it Let us speedily get into and constantly keep in the way that leads unto it Christ is that way let us by faith procure him as one who hath purchased it for us by the merit of his obedience and in him let us continue that he may prepare us for it by his spirit of holinesse Let us profitably improve those ordinances which are the gates of heaven let us content our selves with no degree of proficiency by them but proceed from strength to strength till at last we appear before God in this habitation The third branch of this first part of the text containing the sin of these angels is this Wherein this defection of the angels was seen and did consist This is expressed two ways 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gerh. in 2 Pet. 1. Negatively They kept not c. 2. Affirmatively They left their c. EXPLICATION The nature of the subject and indeed the very expressions of the Apostle of not keeping and leaving puts us upon explaining three particulars 1. What was the original cause that these angels made a defection or that they kept not their first estate 2 What was that first sin whereby this defection was made or their first estate not kept 3. In what degree and measure it was made it being here said they kept not their c. but left their own c. 1. For the first 1. God who is infinitely and perfectly good and holy the fountain of all goodnesse and goodnesse it self was not the cause of the sinfull defection of these angels nor had it been justice in God to have condemned them for that which himselfe had caused or to make them fall and then to punish them for falling And whereas it is objected that God might have hindred them from falling therefore he was the cause thereof I answer 1. Not every one who can hinder an evill is accessary to it unlesse he be bound to hinder it but God was not here so bound Angeli homines ex officio debeut Deo Deus nihil debet nisi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quum se ipse obstring it ultro ex promissionibus gratiae Illi ex natur â debent Deo natura debetur ipsa Junius in loc Asserunt malam esse naturā quae immutari nullo modo potest Aug. con 2. ep Pet. Nor oweth he any thing to any of his creatures further then he bindeth himselfe Angels and men are bound to God Ex officio by duty nothing from God is due to them but of his own good will and pleasure when freely and of his own accord he binds himself to them by his promise of grace Angels and men owe to God all they are all they have all they have lost they are debtors to God by nature and even nature it selfe is owing to God 2. Nor secondly Were the angels made to sin as the Manichees fondly and falsly imagined by some first evill cause which as they held was the original and fountain of all sin and whereby a necessity of sinning lay upon creatures from the very being of nature which therefore could not be changed from being evill but was so unavoidably unalterably 3. Nor thirdly Do I conceive that this sin of the angels proceeded from any error or ignorance in their understanding before their sin as if their understanding first judged that to be good which was not and therefore they afterwards sinn'd in willing and embracing that good for this were to make them erroneous before they were unholy miserable before they were sinfull whereas the ignorance of that which ought to be known is a part of sin and all misery is a fruit of sin * Illa ignorantia five error secundùm quem omnis peccans ignorat et errat propriè non est causa peccati sed potius aliquid peccati Peccat enim homo eo ipso quòd ratio pravè judicat Peccat inchoativè sicut consummativè peccat in eo quod voluntas malè eligit Nam omne peccatum quasi duabusillis partibus constat c. Error judicii non est separandus à peccato sed in plena ejus ratione includitur Estius in l. 2. sent dist 22. That ignorance or error saith Estius whereby he who sins is ignorant and erroneous properly is not a cause of sin but something of sin for a man who judgeth amisse sins inchoatively as he whose will chuseth wickedly sins consummatively and compleatly for all sin he saith doth as it were consist and is made up of two parts false judgement and evill election and the error of judgement is not to be separated from sin but to be included in and * Involvitur ignorantia malae electionis sub ipso malae electionis peccato tanquam aliquid ei intrinsecum propriè dicimus omnem qui peccat eo ipso quo peccat errare impropriè autem omnem peccantem ex errore peccare Id. ib. involved under the sin it selfe of evil election as something intrinsecall to it and that every one who sins properly is said to err in that he sins and improperly said to sin by or from error And thus the soundest among the Schoolmen answer the Objection against the possibility of the fal of the angels taken from this ground that every sin proceeds from ignorance which cannot say they be true of the sin of the angels 4. Fourthly I conceive that sin being a defect a privation of good and a want of due rectitude hath not properly any cause whereby it may be said to be effected or made Sin is not a nature or a being for then it should be a creature and appetible every creature desiring it's being and by consequence good Nor yet is it a meer negation of good for then the bare absence of any good belonging to another creature would be a mans sin But sin is a privation of that good which hath been and should be in one Now in regard sin is a privation and defect Let none they are the words of Augustine enquire after the
though their sins were as red as scarlet yet he saith that he would make them as white as snow ver 18. The Apostle tels the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.9.11 that some of them had wallowed in this sin of Sodomy but saith he you are washed and sanctified The Gospel refuseth to pardon no sin for which the soul can be humbled Free grace can bring those to heaven whose sin equalized theirs who were thrown into hell The least sinner hath cause of humility nay in himself of despair the greatest hath by closing with Christ ground of hope If it be the glory of God to pardon great sins Multo plura quam debeamus Christus pro nobis solvit tantoque plura quanto guttulam exiguam pelagus excellit immensum Chrys in 5 Rom. Hom. 11. Observ 7. it is his greatest glory to pardon the greatest sinners There is no spot so deep which the blood of God cannot wash away The Argument which David used for the pardoning of his sin could only be prevalent with a God Pardon my sin saith he Psal 25.11 for it is great There is infinitely a greater disproportion between the blood of Christ and the greatest number of greatest sins then between the smallest pibble and the vastest ocean 7. The toleration of some places of uncleannesse is no means to prevent the spreading of this sin Sodom had liberty enough of sinning but their lust increased with their liberty The cause of Sodoms sin against nature was not the penury but the ordinarinesse of the other way of sinning with the Female Lust is insatiable and excessive nor will any liberty seem enough to it indulgence makes it insolent It will not be perswaded by fair means Insania Sodomitica non à penuria muliebris commercii sed à nauseâ Musc in 19. Gen. In rebus humanis non peccat magistratus si meretricibus certum locum urbis incolendâ—m attribuat quamvis certo sciat eo loco ipsas non bene usuras Potest enim permittere minus malum ut majora impediantur Bel. l. 2. de amis gr stat pec c. 18. nor must this nettle be gently touch'd but roughly handled and nipt if we would not have it sting If the Flood-gate of restraint be pull'd up lust keeps no measure in its powring forth The more we grant to it the more it will desire from us To prevent sin by permitting it is to quench fire with oyl to make the plaister of poyson and to throw out Satan by Satan Improvident and impure is that remedy used in the Papacy for the preserving of people chast I mean the toleration of Places of uncleanness Romana scorta in singulas bebdomadas Juli um pendent pontificii qui census annuus nonnunquam viginti millia ducatos excedit adeoque Ecclesiae procerum id munus est ut una cum Ecclesiarum proventibus etiam lenociniorum numerent mercedem Agrip. de van scient c. 64. But so the Romane Pander may fill his own coffers with the tribute he can be indulgent to the sin of whoredome 8. Observ 8. Corrupt nature delights in that which is strange to Gods ordination In the room of accompanying of Male and Female which was appointed by God Sodomites go after strange flesh Marriage was ordained by God Gen. 2.22 but nature being depraved forsakes that way and imbraceth the forbidden bosome of a stranger Prov. 5.20 a strange woman not standing in the former relation The marriage of one man and one woman was the ordination of God but instead thereof mans corruption hath brought in PolygaÌ„my Nor is the depravation of mans nature lesse opposite to religious ordinations God appointed that he alone should be worship'd but corrupt nature puts man upon serving strange Gods Jer. 5.19 called also Jer. 8.19 strange vanities The true God hath appointed the manner of his worship and strictly doth he forbid the offring of strange incense Exod. 30.9 but the same corruption which put the Sodomites upon following strange flesh puts Nadab and Abihu upon offering strange fire Man hath found out many Numb 3.4 and goeth a whoring after his own inventions and delights only in deviating from Gods way The wicked go astray from the womb How justly may our crooked natures be charged with what was unjustly imputed to the Apostles namely the turning of the world upside down All the breaches of ranks all the confusions and disorders upon earth proceed from our distempered hearts How comely an order would there be upon the face of the whole world if sin did not meddle 9. Little do they who allow themselves in sin Observ 7. know where they shall make a stop Once over the shoos in this puddle rarely will Satan leave till he have by degrees got them over head and ears The modest beginnings of sin make way for the immodest and irrecoverable proceedings The sin of the Sodomites which began at the unclean motions of the heart at length ariseth to a prodigious tallnesse of impudency and obstinacy The smallest spark may be blown up to a flame the flame upon the hearth may if not quenched fire the chimney None provide so wisely for themselves as they who kill sin in the cradle how easily do we proceed from one degree of sin to another and how ordinarily doth God punish one degree of sin with another He who allowes himselfe in speculative filthinesse may at length arrive at Sodomy He who now gives way to sin may shortly be given over to sin 10. Observ 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinners prosecute their lusts most laboriously The Sodomites weary and spend themselves in uncleannesse and painfully pull down a showr of fire and brimstone upon their heads Incomparably sorer is the labour of sinners in damning then of Saints in saving themselves The sinner is the only true drudge sin the only true slavery and therefore much greater then any other because they who are in it delight to be so and are angry with the offer of a release Lusts are many and opposite and yet one sinner must be servant to them all and they all agree in rending and tearing the soul They are cruel insteed of wages giving only wounds and scourges and that to the tendrest part the conscience Nor doth the body escape the tyranny of lust Envy intemperance wrath luxury have had more martyrs than ever had holinesse Such is the goodnesse of God and the sweetnesse of his service that it 's beneficiall even to the body but through how many troubles and woes do wicked men passe to greater Wofull and the life of a Sodomite been though the fire and brimstone had never fallen Great should be the grief of Gods servants that Satans slaves should do more for him that will shed their blood than they can do for him who shed his blood for them that the former should give themselvs over to uncleanness and the later not more willingly yeeld themselves to the Lord. 11.